Monday, March 13, 2023
11 MUST DOs Before 2023 (Number 7 is HUGE!)
December 27, 2022 Newsletter.
This is the last newsletter of 2022! It feels appropriate to share where my head is going into the new year and the things I’m focused on as I go into my third year outside of my W2. It’s been exciting! Let’s dive in!
REFLECTION
2022 has been an incredible year! Looking back on the year, here are some milestones:
- Spent the month of January in the Dominican Republic with family
- Traveled to Park City, Boston, Denver, Los Angeles, Austin, Miami, Peoria, Orlando, San Francisco, the UP of Michigan and more!
- Spoke in front of crowds up to 600 people
- Interviewed Xzibit, Ryan Serhant, Jesse Itzler and more live and/or on stage
- Attended Seth McFarlane’s birthday party
- Moved the family to the Dominican Republic in August
- Grossed nearly $700,000 in income
- Purchased 10 buildings in Denver and LA
- Had 500 people go through Emerge and 200 join Ascend (Now Emerge Supercharged)
- Hit top 1% for the Tribe of Millionaires podcast
With that comes growing pains, marital stress, lack of presence with my kids, the ego getting out of control, illness, failure, screw-ups, and so much more. It’s never easy but it’s my journey.
VISION SUMMIT
Every year, my accountability pod and I do a 4 hour zoom known as our annual ‘Vision Summit’. We have established visions that expire in 2023 and each year we meet and discuss the following:
1. Where have we already achieved our vision?
2. Where are we on track to achieve our vision?
3. Where are we behind - or - what parts of the vision are no longer aligned?
4. What are my top 3 priorities and 1 key focus for 2023?
This leads to discussion and advice from the others and my pod. My focus, as I stated, was to grow the brand and reach by focusing energy on YouTube. The pod didn’t disagree but they said something I needed to hear. ‘Your genius is being live. You need to be on more stages speaking or interviewing others’.
THE REALIZATION
Interestingly, when I returned from San Fran, LA, Denver, Miami, Orlando - anywhere I was able to be on stage in some capacity - I was the best father and husband to my family when I returned. I was present. I wasn’t checking my phone.
They’re right. Getting live fills my cup. And when our cup is filled it overflows into those around us. While this doesn’t mean I want to travel every week, it does give me a sense of where I need to spend my time and energy going into 2023.
GETTING ‘LIGHT’
Jesse Itzler is a billionaire and he gave this advice to the room when I interviewed him in Austin. After that pod call, I sat down and wrote down the 5 activities that align with my focus area - get live! Then, I took a look at all that I do and how I could clean that up in 2022 to ‘get light’. After that, I start thinking about how to delegate and re-assign those things to those that would enjoy those tasks. Things that would be ‘light’ to others. I came up with 11 items:
THAT INBOX
As a W2 employee, email was everything. I likely spent over 70% of my time in email - including the after hours emails I’d fire off or catch up on. As an entrepreneur, I’ve noticed I’m slipping back to that behavior and it detracts from my ability to spend time in my ‘zone of genius’. My employer had a structure that wouldn’t allow me to outsource my inbox. But I can create that process as an entrepreneur.
To have someone else managing my inbox frees up a ton of time. I’ve already mostly done this and it’s INCREDIBLY freeing. My job paid me no matter how much time I was or wasn’t in email. While I earn some money by responding to emails, the bigger picture requires I’m not in that minutia.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
#1: Don’t Just Look Forward
As high achievers, we tend to sit down this time of year and think about what is to be accomplished in 2023. Go to your iphone photo app, tap on ‘library’ and ‘months’ and go back to January to start. Take a minute to reflect on what you HAVE accomplished. Who were you at the start of 2022 and who are you now? I was a Michigan based lifestyle entrepreneur growing an online business and starting to raise capital. Now I’m an expat hosting mastermind events with 10 deals under my belt and a speaking career about to launch.
#2: Who’s Holding You Accountable?
As employees, we unknowingly conform with the 99%. This instagram reel was INCREDIBLY jarring for me (no pun intended). Even if you’re a leader in your company, corporate life is all about how much you do. How visibly productive you are. Salaried or hourly, it’s about how busy you are. Stay busy, stay employed. As an entrepreneur, you’ll need to shift to working ‘on’ your business vs. ‘in’ it. A way to do that is to join a mastermind community like Emerge Supercharged or Gobundance to get around like-minded people. But most employees won’t. Even those unfulfilled by their jobs - which is way over 80% of us. And yet at the suggestion that you pay thousands of dollars to join a community - like MOST entrepreneurs do regularly - the employee mind won’t do it. They’ll align with the 99%. They will default to ‘Im-a’. I’m a do this, I’m a do that. It DOESN’T WORK. Your network dictates your outcomes. If you want to leave your job for real - you’re not bullshitting me or yourself - then find a community that serves you.
#3: About The Idea of Getting ‘Light’...
Go through the same exercise I did. Where should you be spending your time and what’s preventing you from doing that? This is MORE essential with a day job. Your ‘time’ is your side-hustle. Your 5-9 instead of your 9-5. For me, things like mowing the lawn, doing laundry, meal prep, cleaning the house, doing the dishes - all of these were things that were in the way and I leveraged my W2 salary to outsource (see #2 as to why you may not want to). With that stuff freed up, I could work on my side hustle. I could build my portfolio. I got out of a job paying $400,000 inside of 2 years.
CALL TO ACTION: Screenshot the key takeaway that landed for you and tag me in a story on Instagram so I can see what’s working for you.
QUICK HITS
Tribe of Millionaires Podcast Episode
✯ Whatever people are asking you about can be a business. Recently I had the pleasure of hosting Ryan Pineda on the show and he made this point very clear. He’s a real estate investor who makes content. When everyone asked him how he creates content at volume he created a business called Content Empire. When others asked him how he is able to flip so many houses, he created Future Flipper. I try to communicate the point to employees that there is way more money than you realize outside of your W2. This is probably the best way I can do that. Listen to this episode!
A Podcast/Book I Love
✯ Heather Monahan is a top 50 speaker who has become an acquaintance. Her story is very similar to mine. She was fired from a C-Suite position and forced to be a mid-life entrepreneur. Her book Overcome Your Villains is awesome and on point. It’s essentially the book I would write one day, so if you’re waiting for that to happen - just read this book instead!
Lesson from Living Abroad
✯ We had a family get together recently. It’s always fun and I try to keep up with the conversation the best I can! I’m reminded of my upbringing a bit with these outings. People come by, they bring others, it’s not overly planned - it’s just ‘company’. In the 80’s and 90’s, I feel like people would stop by. There wasn’t a huge deal made of it. That’s the culture here. In fact, my wife gets shit from her uncles that she’s not stopping by. When she says ‘you haven’t invited us over’ she gets a blank stare. The expectation is that you’ll just show up. Totally inefficient from the US person’s perspective. What if they’re not home? I’m going to waste time driving over. But it’s culture here - and it’s kind of cool!
Shit I Find Funny
✯ On the topic above - this Sebastian Maniscalco captures it PERFECTLY in this bit!
If you’re not already in Emerge and Ascend and want to be part of our Emerge Supercharged relaunch in 2023, join the waitlist here!! The objective is to get you unstuck, clear on vision and goals, and provide a concierge level experience to introduce you to your future self!
Until next week
-Jamie
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