“This is impossible! We're never going to get this done!"
My dad is a builder. For as long as I can remember, I had to help him with building things. When I was 8 or 9 years old, we built a garage. When I was 14, we built a new house. He's 86 years young today and he's still building things. Just this year, he built a brand new garage to hold more of his stuff because he hates throwing things away. He's one of those guys that will always find a use for something.
One day I remember when this huge load of cinder blocks arrived at our house. It seemed to be never-ending. At 9 years old, I knew that somehow I would be sucked into helping him build the walls that would become this new "shop."
On a sweltering day in July, he grabbed me, watching Scooby Doo, to mix mortar in an old wheelbarrow while he was getting the foundation ready to hold this massive amount of weight.
The sweat dripped down my face as I picked up these giant blocks one at a time and plopped them in his lap. This ordeal seemed to last for days, but I'm sure it was just a few hours. We had laid around three of the 10 billion slabs of concrete it would take to build this thing when I yelled something out - “This is impossible! We're never going to get this done!"
He stops, looks down at my skinny little arms, and says, "It is impossible…” and just for a second my eyes widened and I thought, OMG, HE AGREES WITH ME. Then he finished his sentence “…to fail if we keep going one brick at a time."
And for a second, he almost got me with one of those double negatives, but I repeated that phrase in my head the rest of the afternoon.
“It’s impossible to fail if we keep going one brick at a time.”
Luckily, that 9-year-old version of me finally got it.
I’m the sixth of seven children and I’m a builder. My two older brothers are builders, my four sisters are builders. My entire family are builders.
But I don't look at myself as a builder in the traditional sense. Even though I love real estate and we tackle some pretty crazy projects (we’re in the middle of building a new winery - case study to follow), we build something even more important.
We build people. We build men and women, and it's the same approach. You build one brick at a time.
I build up my wife and three sons, and they do the same for me. I build up my friends, and they build me. I build and design and create as much as I can. I love to build experiences, relationships, memories, and especially bridges from where you’re at to where you want to go.
I'm a pretty excitable guy, so whenever I learn something new and test it out and it works, I usually tell everyone I know about it. And so as I've built different businesses in software and technology, in real estate, in agritourism, and even as we start building our new nonprofit, I'm reminded that I'm the type of person that loves to turn around and grab the hand behind me.
I love helping people build and design their life.
For me, this purpose came to life when I was in my mid 20s. I had this beautiful vision of our future. When we would have enough money to do whatever we wanted to do, whenever we wanted to do it, with whomever we wanted. Financial freedom was the goal, thinking that it alone would bring more happiness, more joy, and quite frankly, more peace to my life.
But, somewhere along the line, I realized something, AND it was this major “lightbulb” moment. There is a science to financial freedom, to building a business or growing your income and assets. There is a science behind better physical and mental health, and even building incredible relationships. But there is an art to putting it all together, and that's what everyone seems to get wrong. And that's what I'm excited to share with you, this ART, because it’ll end up being the real secret!
Twelve or thirteen years ago, I bought a domain name on a whim called Freedomology.com and then hired a small team of researchers to study life. Even back then, I had a sneaking suspicion that most people climbing the ladder of success were trying to find a place that doesn't exist. They were spending years, some were even spending decades, trying to reach a point in their life, a destination that would bring them lasting happiness. But it wasn't there.
This illusion of money as the foundation of success was like a ghost - it wasn’t real. I've spent the last almost twenty years coaching and building other human beings, and trying to help them achieve financial freedom. But what I've realized over this time is that this isn't what they were after.
This isn't what you’re after.
Freedom to me today is not just having a lot of money. It is building yourself and others up to the point where you have this incredible and beautiful balance of resources, both time and money, great physical and mental health, and incredible relationships with everyone that's important to you. The best part about life is experiencing the world with people you love. And at the core is a deep and purposeful relationship with our God.
We have some real breakthroughs for you here! There’s also this crazy relationship that you've probably never even thought of, but it all starts there... the relationship with yourself.
When you start building freedom in these three areas (finances, health, relationships), your life really starts to open up. Your environments give you more joy. Your work gives you more purpose. Your self-image makes you more attractive. You have more happiness and energy in everything.
The only way to enter the free life is to be a builder. The only way to create an asset or a new income stream is to be a builder. The only way to deepen your relationships is to be a builder. You take action. Builders follow blueprints, and they follow frameworks.
I’m excited to go deep with you on all these subjects, including a framework that we’ve developed that will help you grow in all three areas.
This is a building project, and we’re going to do it one brick at a time.
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