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Episode 82: Ways to Accelerate Your Uncommon Path with Phillip Ramsey and Bryan Dewhurst
160 Plays4 years ago
With the hope that it might inspire you to make the most of your own uncommon path, we thought today we’d discuss ways to start or accelerate that journey. We tasked each other with coming up with three suggestions that we would reveal for the first time to each other in this podcast. Interestingly enough, while we didn’t have any suggestions that were exactly the same, as a whole the list of six concepts create a very solid foundation on which to build your entrepreneurial goals.
The conversation is far reaching and touches on everything from Leonardo Dicaprio to water skiing. Throughout, we also share solid advice and examples for creating consistency in your business, making sure your life partner is on board with your business goals, what it means to match your timeline to your risk tolerance, how to properly invest in your company’s growth, and when to focus instead of diversify. We want you to share more of your uncommon brilliance with the world and hopefully some of these tips will help.
what you will learn in this episode:- The power of consistency
- Why spousal support is integral to long-term success
- The importance of systemizing and documenting your process
- What it means to match your timeline to your risk tolerance
- The need to double down and invest in the main thing you do
- How diversification can destabilize you
- Why you should start every goal with the end in mind
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Uncommon Life Project
00:00:02
Speaker
Everyone dreams about living an uncommon life, but how we define that dream is very different for each of us. And for most, it's a lifelong pursuit. Welcome to the Uncommon Life Project podcast. We're going to introduce you to people who are living that life or enjoying the journey to get there. We're going to also give you some tools, tricks, and tips for starting or accelerating your own efforts to live an uncommon life.
00:00:27
Speaker
a life worth celebrating and savoring.
Meet the Hosts: Brian Dewhurst and Philip Ramsey
00:00:30
Speaker
Please welcome your hosts, Brian Dewhurst and Philip Ramsey. Hello and welcome everybody to another episode of The Uncommon Life Project, where I'm your host, Philip Ramsey. And I am Brian Dewhurst. Thanks for tuning in. We are grateful that you're here. And we hope that this encourages you to do your own uncommon path
00:00:49
Speaker
and start heading down this
The Role of Financial Advisors in Uncommon Life
00:00:51
Speaker
direction. If you're already on your path, hopefully this encourages you. If you're not, hope this helps you jump off the bridge, as we say. So, we are financial advisors. We love what we do. We get to meet people every day and help encourage them that they are their best asset. So, what we thought we would do in this episode
00:01:10
Speaker
is it's a duo cast with yours truly and the Brian Dewhurst.
Three Ways to Accelerate Your Uncommon Path
00:01:15
Speaker
We got this idea from Craig Landis, a good friend of ours and helps us do a lot of things in the business. He gave us an idea of how would we talk about three ways that we can, somebody or everybody can accelerate their uncommon path. What are those three things? To try to put a little spin on it, Brian and I don't know what the other person is gonna say. We have no idea.
00:01:40
Speaker
So we thought Brian's going to have his three, I'm going to have my three, and then we're just going to talk through those. Hopefully, this is going to let you either accelerate your uncommon path or start it. Brian, what are your thoughts? I can't wait to get into it. I think it's a great topic. We cover some of this in our book a little bit, but I think it'll be great to have, you know, the concentrated version on the podcast. Right. OK, so let's start it out. Brian Dewhurst, your number one
00:02:08
Speaker
way you can accelerate your in common path is what I have five because in just in case you take a couple of mine so
00:02:19
Speaker
I'm going to start with the one that I think is the most important. And I think I would give this one, I would attribute this one to you and our business because I'm definitely not that way. So, I have it just written down as stay in it. I'm definitely the, there's, oh, silver shiny thing, squirrel.
00:02:40
Speaker
We could do this and I think it's just been the power of what we've created together over almost the last 10 years is just staying in it and not doing all those shiny things and just doing the bread and butter, just doing the main thing, keep the main thing the main thing.
00:02:59
Speaker
And that's my number one. I just think so many people and we meet with a lot of entrepreneurs, business owners and like new entrepreneurs, business owners that are one, two, three years into their business and they're like hard pivot.
00:03:15
Speaker
strong pivot like i want to try this and it's like you just started and so i think to me like that is the single most important issue because most of your potential customers are watching they're not gonna say yes when you just start something they're watching you and so i you know i can't even think about how many people we've met with
00:03:35
Speaker
that didn't become clients initially, but are like, oh wow, you guys are still doing the same thing. I mean, that's literally what they ask us. Like, is the guy still doing the same thing? Yeah, we're still doing the same thing. And then it's like, okay, I'm in. And it's like, oh, okay, great. And so to me, that's number one. Yeah, there's something safe about consistency.
00:03:53
Speaker
And when you're walking down this path, you want somebody that has been consistent definitely in it. And I think that's entrepreneur's best asset and also worst asset is just their ability to dream, think, and understand how to make something happen. It becomes the worst asset when it keeps changing directions and you're not getting anywhere. So I think that's a great way to start accelerating your path is stay focused.
00:04:22
Speaker
What is the main thing? Keep the main thing, the main thing, Sprites. That is right. All right. What is your first one?
Aligning with Your Spouse on Your Journey
00:04:31
Speaker
I'm glad we're doing yours and then mine because mine are like more ethereal, like, you know how they are, fluffy and what's really going on. But my first one is make sure your spouse and you are on the same page.
00:04:46
Speaker
Yeah. Make sure they're excited about it. Make sure they're encouraging. The last thing you want to do is get down this path and not have your spouse support you. That is one of my biggest things. And one question I'll always ask somebody is like, I got the greatest idea. Usually my first question is, what does your spouse think about that? Here's why I asked that.
00:05:07
Speaker
One, they know you probably the best, like they've seen you in your best, they've seen you in your worst, and they'll be able to pretty much
00:05:18
Speaker
give me a good temperature if this is a good idea or not. If they're excited, or even better yet, if they're somehow integrated in this plan, that gets me excited. So that's my number one thing. Are you and your spouse unified on this? And if it isn't, I'd say then we need to think about a different idea. It's just too challenging, and I've said this many times on this. I've said it many times to all my friends. If my wife's with me, it doesn't matter if the whole world's against me,
00:05:46
Speaker
I'll tackle it. Like, I'll go against them. If my wife's against me and the whole world's with me, my whole world's upside down. So, that's my first suggestion. Make sure you and your spouse are on the same page and use them as a sounding board to see if this is a good idea or not. So, there it is. Number one. Yeah, I heard this from a mentor early on in my career and he tells this story of
00:06:12
Speaker
Basically, a really rich family in Texas, you know, gets propositioned by this entrepreneur to put in a large sum of money to, you know, help start a business. And the guy, the husband says, you know, I think we should do this. So, the last step is he goes, you know what, out of respect for my wife, I just want to have dinner. And, you know, let us sleep on it after dinner. And if we're in, we'll sign everything. And if not, you know, we'll let you know.
00:06:41
Speaker
So, they go to dinner and he brings his wife and they meet, you know, they have drinks and food and the food is great and conversation and everything, you know, the guy thinks everything is going great. And so, they get home or they get back in the car, you know, however the story goes and he goes, okay, honey, you know, like what did you honestly think? And she gave like really insightful feedback of like why I don't think we should do this.
00:07:04
Speaker
So the guy calls, you know, the husband calls the guy, the entrepreneur the next day and says, hey, you know, I'm sorry, you know, thanks for last night and everything, but we just we can't proceed with this investment. And, you know, basically six months later, that investment and that entrepreneur is, you know, found to basically be bankrupt, fraudulent. The whole thing was a Ponzi scheme. So honoring your wife in that way and heeding, you know, their wisdom can prevent you from a lot of
00:07:34
Speaker
You know, potholes, slip-ups, stupid taxes. So I think it's a really cool story to cap your point. Right. Listening to your wife or your husband. If the wife's going down this uncommon path, same thing. Okay. Yep. Good. Okay. Are we each doing three or we're just doing three total? No, we're each doing three. Okay. I feel like- I feel better. Okay. I feel better. All right. I feel like, and we're probably going to do like five each.
00:08:00
Speaker
because I'm probably going to think of one or two. All right, go ahead. Number two.
Systems and Focus for Business Success
00:08:06
Speaker
My next one, because we're living this right now in our business, is systematize it.
00:08:14
Speaker
Not only don't go chase the silver shiny new thing, but systematize the main thing. My favorite story of this is just the McDonald's story because I think it's just so tangible to everybody because there's one on every corner, you know, but that Ray Kroc story and taking that because they had a system and that guy saw like he was basically a traveling milkshake equipment salesman and he saw like, oh my gosh, I could put one of these all over.
00:08:40
Speaker
But they systematize that the brothers who originally founded McDonald's had a system and they've kept that system even as they had new products as they had coffee or they had ice cream or whatever it is they're adding or subtracting, there's a system to it and a methodology and I think especially as small business owners, you know,
00:09:00
Speaker
We can get into doing custom things for people or one-offs or you want to do everything to get everybody's business and that actually just creates chaos and it doesn't allow you to hire or it makes it a lot harder to hire to your business because there's so many different things going on. When you start to hire people, they need more of a consistent day-to-day
00:09:23
Speaker
You know, to operate in and be successful and to train chaos is very hard and it's very stressful. So, I think just systematizing the main thing in the McDonald's recipe or the book, you know, we've talked about I think several times that Emeth is a great book about a lady who likes to bake cakes and pies and she starts baking cakes and pies and opens a business and then
00:09:46
Speaker
hates baking cakes and pies because that's all she she not only has to bake the cakes and pies but she has to do everything else and so it's like her journey in systematizing that business but that's my number two good i think to complement that i would say document so no matter where just document where you're at document what you've gone through
00:10:05
Speaker
Mainly if it's just for you,
Managing Expectations with Realistic Timelines
00:10:07
Speaker
that's kind of fun anyway. But also so you can go back and realize what you did or to help somebody go through that and see what stupid tax, as one of my friends calls it, what stupid tax you did pay and then helping not only other people but yourself not make that again. So documenting the process I think is really good to complement what you said. So good job.
00:10:29
Speaker
Okay, number two for me, make sure your timeline is realistic to your risk tolerance.
00:10:38
Speaker
Normally, I think all entrepreneurs want things to be done quickly. And that's great. And I think that's, hopefully that's what happens. But what we see is somebody is usually trying to change, turn a corner in their life or change direction a little bit. And what I would say is make sure you have a timeline that's realistic.
00:11:00
Speaker
but to your risk tolerance. And a lot of times people talk about risk tolerance as like an account. How do you want this account to be? Is it going to be super risky? Is it going to be super conservative? But Brian and I like to talk about this as your life. And when you're thinking about making a change or an adjustment, what's your risk tolerance here? Here's what I say. If you have a job, great paying job pays the bills.
00:11:25
Speaker
and you want to start down this uncommon path, you can be super risky and quit your job and then go full throttle at this uncommon path. That is a high risk tolerance, I would say. You can have a very low risk tolerance and say, hey, I want to do this maybe an hour on the weekends every weekend.
00:11:46
Speaker
But make sure your timeline is realistic to your, I would say, risk tolerance in that you don't have unmet expectations. Because as you start going down this path, it can get daunting pretty quick if you're laying out a timeline and you're not achieving those. So realistic timelines, I think, are helpful. And also encouraging if you can start hitting those. You can start seeing that you're making traction and getting closer to what you want to do. But hopefully,
00:12:16
Speaker
what you're working on is exciting for you. And that's something that we really talk about the uncommon path is everyone gets excited about different things. You don't have to be necessarily excited about rental properties if that doesn't excite you. A lot of times people will go to that because it's a great investment for the people who they see are in it. And that's true or could be true. But if you don't enjoy it,
00:12:40
Speaker
When you hit a roadblock or an obstacle, you might get really frustrated because you just don't really like it anyway. So, make sure you like what you're doing and pursuing and hopefully that will help you want to get back into working really hard to achieve your goals, whatever it is. So, that's mine. Be realistic in your timeline.
00:12:59
Speaker
Okay. I think that's great. I'm trying to synthesize my last one. Have I overlapped yours at all? No. Okay. I feel like I just have like three more I want to say. Yeah, you can totally do that. I think we can go quick. All right. I think the third one to me is, and this is a big part of the book.
Reinvestment vs. Diversification
00:13:20
Speaker
We also are doing an ebook on this. It's called Corporate Treasury. This is what I think may be one of our best
00:13:27
Speaker
competitive advantages is if you've focused your business and you stayed in it and you've automated it and built processes and hired to those processes to get help, you're now running a business. You should have more profit.
00:13:42
Speaker
If you're pivoting a lot, it's typically because you don't have enough cash flow. Like the main thing is not driving enough revenue. So you're feeling that need of like, oh, I got to do something different because I need more money. As opposed to what you probably should do is like, no, you probably need to go more all in.
00:13:59
Speaker
and really refine the main thing. But this third one is predicated on the fact that you've done those first two steps and some of your steps and there's profit, like there's excess cash and it's working. And to me then it's about kind of this corporate treasury thing. We actually have like nine different things you could do to invest and build wealth. A lot of the first, the main ones in that kind of corporate treasury function
00:14:23
Speaker
is just pulling cash and investing and doubling down, if you will, in the main thing. And that can be in several different ways. That could be hiring more people. That could be expanding to different cities. That could be franchising your idea. That could be
00:14:42
Speaker
opening up your equity structure of your business so your employees can co-invest with you. We just heard a really neat story of a business who did that and has been wildly successful. It's doubling down on the core business and your core competitive advantage, but pouring gasoline on it with capital.
00:15:02
Speaker
and using your excess cash to build it bigger, better, faster, stronger. As opposed to you take that profit and you go invest in something you don't know through the lens of diversification. What that actually does is it destabilizes you because now your focus is in two different places and your understanding is in two different places. You're trying to understand something totally new as opposed to maximizing and leveraging your understanding that's producing a profit.
00:15:32
Speaker
So I think to me, that's the third thing is investing in yourself or investing in this main thing and increasing your availability to capital, whether that's through cash or a line of credit or small business loan, and you're reinforcing
00:15:48
Speaker
the brand and the competitive advantage that got you to where you're at. I think the last thing I'd say is that everybody wants to stick their toe in the ocean and feel like you swam. It just doesn't work like that. If you want to swim in the ocean, you actually have to jump all in.
00:16:06
Speaker
In business, it's the same way. You can't dip a toe in and make a ton of money. I think it's important at this point because this is the week of this whole GameStop thing going on with Wall Street and the stock and the retail investor versus the hedge funds. It's kind of a David and Goliath story. You could trade GameStop and you could have made really great money, but it's fleeting. It's a one-trick pony.
00:16:31
Speaker
To get that right was pretty difficult because the exchanges kind of changed the rules mid-game. That's called speculating. You can do that once or twice, but eventually, you're probably going to lose your money. It's hard to keep being right speculating. It's really easy to keep being right when you're doing the main thing that you're the best at.
00:16:53
Speaker
And so, that's kind of my third one is investing in yourself, staying in your lane and doubling down on what got you there. Okay. So, here's, I like
Reflecting on Experiences and End Goals
00:17:03
Speaker
that. You mentioned something that's kind of like my third. And for me, it's looking in the past to figure out what your experiences helped you figure out, looking in the past.
00:17:16
Speaker
and like what have you gone through? What are you good at? What gets you excited? What is your past experience produced here now and how does that move forward? So basically knowing what you want to invest in. You can't invest in something
00:17:34
Speaker
that you don't know or you shouldn't. That's called speculating, kind of what Brian's saying. But if you do figure out your history and do a good job of really processing through what you're good at, what you're not good at, it'll help you figure out what you want to do for the uncommon path. Here's what I'd say at the end. Keep the end in mind. So almost bookend this thing. What has your past experience helped you achieve and what is the end goal? Don't start something unless you know that end goal.
00:18:04
Speaker
So if your end goal is to fully go all in on something and generate X amount of money a month, that's great, but how are you even gonna get out of the business that you're now creating? And thinking through that and what obstacles are you gonna have to overcome, but basically flash forwarding your life and thinking at the end. Keep the end in mind. What is the end? What is it ultimately gonna do?
00:18:31
Speaker
and maybe even how to even process how to pass it on to the next generation. What is it? Keep the end in mind before you even start. So, look in the past, what is your good experiences, bad experiences and then look in the future and what is the end in mind. So, that would be how I would help people walk through how to accelerate their uncommon path as fast as they can. Okay, let's just go to the bonus round.
00:18:57
Speaker
the bonus round. All right, go ahead.
Synergistic Growth Strategies
00:19:00
Speaker
I think to me the bonus round is the, I have it listed on my little note sheet here, is the synergistic and complementary things that reinforce your value proposition.
00:19:14
Speaker
There's probably several businesses I could choose to highlight. One of the businesses that I think is easy to go back to is just our podcast with Jesse Cole that we just had, the Savannah Bananas.
00:19:29
Speaker
And I call this kind of the onion effect. We've had clients that were doing really successful in a business and then they launched like a completely, totally different business, like 180 degrees different. And it just, both end up failing. There's very few people in the world that can do that. And they can typically do it after they've perfected the one business.
00:19:52
Speaker
install someone to manage that business that's perfected and then they go watch a new business you're not doing that like in your three of your first business you know it's very difficult to do peeling back the onion like jesse call just like what else can we add what else can we do within our you know core competency and competitive advantage how do we peel back.
00:20:13
Speaker
That onion, you know, how do we add to our value ladder? We've had kind of another podcast thing on our value ladder, and we've highlighted that in some of our ebooks. But yeah, I think Jesse Cole just does a great job of like, layering in of like, oh, and then we added this, and then we added that. And then and then our team came up with this.
00:20:30
Speaker
And all of that just reinforces the brand it reinforces the experience it reinforces the value proposition and it just takes takes everything deeper like the emotional connection to your customers is deeper the emotional connection to your employees is deeper and peeling back that onion as opposed to like maybe jesse call and they say we're gonna go do you know whatever golf and like we're just gonna totally pay and go do something else even though we're only a three to four year old company.
00:20:56
Speaker
probably could go and do golf maybe five to ten years from now. But just being very careful about how you pivot in that or if you bring on complimentary services that it's really within your sphere of competency and ability to execute at the level your clients are used to.
00:21:15
Speaker
Right. Good.
High Return Investments and Pop Culture Examples
00:21:16
Speaker
Okay. Mine, because we're doing bonus round, we're just going back and forth. I have other comments, but we're just going to keep going, is try to focus on the things that give you the biggest bang for your buck, especially at the beginning. Or if you're in the middle of this, who knows where your uncommon path is lying.
00:21:35
Speaker
Do the things that are going to give you the biggest bang for your buck. The best example I can give of this is the movie Titanic or the movie Napoleon Dynamite. Oh, yeah. Which one would you rather invest in and think about the profit of each movie, Titanic or Napoleon Dynamite? I'm a big Leonardo DiCaprio fan, I got to say it. But I think I know where you're going with this.
00:22:03
Speaker
There was a lot of money spent to make Titanic. I think at the time it was the most expensive movie ever made, you know, the cinematography and the technology and the sets and all that stuff. So the Titanic movie was, you know, the most upfront to produce. Made a ton of money, though, too. Right. But on the flip side. Yeah. Napoleon Dynamite. Dynamite. I mean, it was like, it was like less than a million bucks, I think.
00:22:31
Speaker
I think it was like 700 grand or something like that to make that move. It was like 1.7 million. It was very low. Right. So as an investor, you would rather invest in Napoleon Dynamite versus Titanic. But I think that's very uncommon thought because I think everybody would just go to straight, well, Titanic. Think about how much money it made. But percentage wise, Napoleon Dynamite, it was a far better investment.
00:22:58
Speaker
Right. For you. And so focus on things that'll give you the biggest bang for your buck and I'm saying like invest like Napoleon Dynamite where this we invested in this and got a huge rate of return. That is huge when you start down this path. So that'll help you accelerate it. Very good. All right. I really have just kind of a send off which is kind of like just encouragement for anything.
The Importance of Community Support
00:23:21
Speaker
So any other ones you have that you want to talk through?
00:23:23
Speaker
I think it's just what we do. We help people with these decisions. I think some of this stuff, you're not on an island and I've often said this to a lot of people and I'll say it again on the podcast, there's no way I would be in this business without you. You know what I mean? What I've gone through professionally and personally, there's just no way I would have gotten through all that by myself and I think most business owners are by themselves.
00:23:48
Speaker
And so, we're here to help you. Like, this is what we do every day is like dream with entrepreneurs and help them scale their business and help them scale their net worth and how all this stuff fits together. You know, like I said, our kind of offering our ebook and podcast on corporate treasury is probably a much deeper dive into this conversation, more so on the like investment. And once you have a profit side, this probably is a little bit more on the, you know, getting to a profit side.
00:24:16
Speaker
But just whether it's us or somebody else, just get around people who have what you want and are in a position to speak from experience and to ally you. Because a lot of times, too, your family is like, wow, you're crazy. You shouldn't do that. You should get a job and get benefits.
00:24:33
Speaker
That's the safe route. It's actually not that safe as we found out in the last two years and the stock market crash and the dot-com crash and the on and on. I think it's just a matter of being around people that can help you navigate bumpy roads and give you sound advice. We do that. We love it. It's one of our favorite things.
00:24:52
Speaker
and then integrating it into a personal financial plan and a business financial plan and having all that tied together with goals and objectives and accountability. I think you think it's really powerful. We're seeing a lot of that fruit from what we're doing with our clients.
00:25:10
Speaker
I ask for help and get around people that are in a position to help you. Right. That's great. I think that's even better send off than
Metaphors for the Uncommon Path Journey
00:25:17
Speaker
I have. But what I'll say is kind of like, I don't know if you've ever water skied or, but it was horrifying. So I'm so excited to hear what you're about to say. Okay. It's perfect. Perfect start. It's horrifying. You're in the back of the boat.
00:25:33
Speaker
and like you're like wondering what is going on what do i have to do here then you have to say hit it just you know scary thought it's exhausting it's exhausting right but here's the deal if you can hang on drink a little water once you're on top of the water it is magical it is so amazing but what you're gonna find out when you start going down this uncommon path is like you'll
00:25:58
Speaker
This is like the ultimate revealer of yourself, your, I say, strengths, your weaknesses. You're going to find out so much about yourself that just hang on, hang on because it's worth it once you get up and you're now on top of the water. But while you're in the back and before you get on top of the water, it's scary and you're going to find out things that you thought you were really excited about that you are not anymore.
00:26:24
Speaker
And you're going to find things that you cannot power through. And so lastly, I would just echo what Brian said, the community is a huge thing. So to surround yourself with people that you know, like and love that is there to encourage you there to step up when things start get hard is priceless.
00:26:42
Speaker
So, I don't know where you're at in your path, but what I would say, it is worth it. And the world needs more uncommon people who are going to step up and start impacting others by the way that they are truly gifted. So, I hope this podcast encourages you and maybe even one or two people start taking the plunge and going down this path because it is worth it. But at first it's scary and you might be drinking a little water.
00:27:09
Speaker
For sure. For sure. That's a great send off. I think we nailed it. I think we did too. Good job. Good job. Shameless plug-in. If you want to hear more on this, on the other side of the profit side, I would say our corporate treasury podcast and we have an ebook on our website, that would be like 2.0 for this conversation.
00:27:32
Speaker
Right. And if you're really bold, you can just give us a call, do that 15-minute consultation. We'd love to hear where you're at, where you're going, and if there's any way we can help you. But you've been listening to the Uncommon Life Project. I've been your host, Phillip Ramsey. And I'm Brian Dewhurst. Tune in next time. Until then, go be in common. Thanks, everybody. Goodbye.
00:27:50
Speaker
That's all for this episode of The Uncommon Life Project, brought to you by Uncommon Wealth Partners. Be sure to visit uncommonwealth.com to learn more about our services. Don't miss an episode as we introduce you to inspiring people who are actively pursuing an uncommon life.