More Than A Side Hustle
The Vacation CEO: Tips for Running a Successful Business Remotely
Ever wondered how entrepreneurs thrive while on vacation? On this episode of More Than A Side Hustle, we share our experience running a cleaning business during our anniversary trip. Learn remote management tips and balancing work with personal life.
We also explore what sets icons like Beyoncé and Jay-Z apart, and how their business ventures fuel their lasting impact. Lastly, discover how to balance ambition with relaxation, featuring insights from Kim Kardashian and MySpace’s Tom. Tune in to redefine your work-life balance!
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Leave us A Review
---Resources----
Learn how to start and scale a cleaning business without cleaning ANY Houses
Cleaning Business University Course
Follow us on Social Media:
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Podcast Sponsor:
If you are interested in a spot shoot us an email at info@thehartrimony.com
Ever wondered how entrepreneurs thrive while on vacation? On this episode of More Than A Side Hustle, we share our experience running a cleaning business during our anniversary trip. Learn remote management tips and balancing work with personal life.
We also explore what sets icons like Beyoncé and Jay-Z apart, and how their business ventures fuel their lasting impact. Lastly, discover how to balance ambition with relaxation, featuring insights from Kim Kardashian and MySpace’s Tom. Tune in to redefine your work-life balance!
🌟 Don't forget to drop us a review to support us!
Leave us A Review
---Resources----
Learn how to start and scale a cleaning business without cleaning ANY Houses
Cleaning Business University Course
Follow us on Social Media:
Instagram | Youtube | Facebook | Twitter
Podcast Sponsor:
If you are interested in a spot shoot us an email at info@thehartrimony.com
Welcome to another episode of the More Than A Side Hustle podcast, where we help 9 to 5ers create more impact, income and influence. And apologies, I am extremely congested so I'll pass it up to my co-hosts.
Speaker 2:Yes, thank you. Thank you for coming back to hear us another week. If you're watching us on YouTube, make sure you're subscribing. Thank you for listening in and go ahead and write us a review. Now I thought about okay, so what we're going to be talking about today is how we went on our anniversary trip, or really any trip, while the business still ran. Basically, I know that's a question that people have how do you step apart from that without being worried about the business? So we want to talk about the real, the tea of that. Then I just thought that generally, we have a topic that we discussed before and we didn't think about one.
Speaker 1:There's always going to be a topic that we can discuss before.
Speaker 2:You can go back to the iced tea conversation.
Speaker 1:Ice cube, not iced tea so we were talking about before we get to the business this is actually a business conversation. We were talking about the what is a generational talent versus an icon, and are they the same things?
Speaker 2:well, it became a conversation of how it's difficult for some of these. We understand how it could be difficult for celebrities, actors, anyone really that are in that space to make it through 20 years. And those that have made it through 20 years, more than likely it has been because of business. That they're still standing strong or we still talk about them in some capacity is because of business, and I made the example of Beyonce. Well, she still has music out, but Beyonce, jay-z, rihanna and Diddy is because of business. And I made the example of Beyonce. Well, she still has music out, but Beyonce, jay-z, uh, rihanna and Diddy before the mess with what's happening. Diddy now, like these, are people that's made it through the years and Rihanna hasn't put out an album in a bit, but you know she has her Fenty and everything. Diddy, his liquor, all these other things. And Jay-Z may get a pass because he's married to Beyonce, but he has business things as well, as opposed to someone like, let's say, bow Wow.
Speaker 2:Bow Wow was I may still call him an icon, if you will he was the biggest thing out. There's many people that was the biggest thing out, but they just haven't transcended. Oh, another person like Mary J Blige. She was the biggest thing out. We still know who she is, but it's not necessarily new music coming out. I know she drops albums, things like that. So it was very hard, we were saying, to just make it through the years without at least having the business side of it. So the conversation came up about Ice Cube, because one of his songs was on this morning. What song was playing?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so Ice Cube was was. Uh, today's a good day. That song came out early, what 90s or something right, and I was just like, wow, it's like it's crazy to listen to someone who is who's been around for so long talk about I don't have to use my. You know, I didn't have to use my gun. Today was a good day and I'm like he's been around for so long, you don't even think about him in that aspect.
Speaker 2:Right, and that's how this conversation started to come up and I had said I was like well, he's not really relevant today. And you were like what do you mean? He's not relevant today?
Speaker 1:Well, you were talking about in terms of age, demographics.
Speaker 2:So what makes?
Speaker 1:someone culturally relevant? Is it based on your mom knowing them and talking to you about it?
Speaker 2:Or do you have to be a five-year-old kid to know that Ice Cube even exists? Well, there's two things you said culturally relevant versus just relevant. I was measuring relevancy amongst demographics and age groups, so not just us as black people knowing who they are in this day and age. So I was saying, yes, people 30-plus know who Ice Cube is. And the only way if you're younger than that, and let's say 27-plus, sure If you're younger than that, and let's say 27 plus, sure if you're younger than that, you may know who he is because on tbs they just showed one of those comedy movies he was just that he was in. Are we there yet those type of movies that he played in? You know, whatever, but you may not really have the understanding of this song he's singing to who he is. Now I feel that falls on us as people that are maybe 34, 30 plus and no one is. So I was saying relevancy and anthony was like well, he just sold this basketball team, his uh company. It's not a team.
Speaker 1:He sold one of the. He sold one of his teams in the big three tournament, which is his basketball tournament for like $10 million and I'm like you're making $10 million and making the news doesn't make you relevant and I said I didn't even know he did that.
Speaker 2:That was one point and one. You don't know a lot of things about, okay yeah, a lot of things, but. I am in the cultural space.
Speaker 1:Am I not?
Speaker 2:Are we talking about, did that, and you know about it because you, because it was a business decision. That's the thing. So he did that right. And then I said have you watched the big three game? He said yes. How long ago was that? Maybe three years ago. I haven't heard anything about the big three in a really long time, and probably because the big three are for retired people as well. Back to age, back to knowing more about this big three because of so, if you google, ice if you google.
Speaker 1:But who's googling him if you don't know him? You google ice cube and type and go to news section. It tells you the last relevant article was five days ago. You know why?
Speaker 2:because no, because he's going on a las vegas tour concert who knows that and who was going to that 30 plus year old. That's all I'm saying. I'm not saying he's not relevant to someone. Everyone's relevant to someone. But when you think about really making an impact, transcending. And I'm not saying he doesn't do stuff in the back end. He could do stuff on the back end, but more than likely it's measured by things.
Speaker 1:We know that these celebrities or other people are doing Jack in the Box, gave him his own munchie meal, so they feel that he's relevant. Yeah, so I'd say he's relevant.
Speaker 2:Well, that was the conversation and I still stand on. I'm not saying we don't know who he is, which I think certain people probably will not, but I'm sure those four people I mentioned at the beginning, a lot more people would know.
Speaker 1:okay, yeah based on their age alone, they're 10 years younger than him.
Speaker 2:Is Jay-Z and Diddy, 10 years younger than him.
Speaker 1:I have no idea. Stop saying the other guy's name on my podcast.
Speaker 2:Okay, well, as I mentioned, I mentioned him in the business space, not in that space, whatever, but I think the story was really around just transcending the business.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so no one's going to be able to exist in music, for unless you're, unless you're someone like michael jackson, right where we only know michael jackson for his business, his, his music moves right.
Speaker 1:Because he died too young to yes we never even got to see michael jackson on a business side if there was any business things that were going on. But these people who are younger, especially, they learned they were like, all right, we see what these other musicians are doing. And who was talking about, um, kid rock? You know, of course, they know who kid rock is. We talk about kids rock on the music side, but kid rock on the business side. Go look them up. Right, I'm not even gonna get into that whole, but we're talking about transcending generations. Our culture is seeing what these other demographics of people are doing and they're like how do I last for 20, 30 years and it's not gonna be making?
Speaker 2:new songs.
Speaker 1:Generally, it's not just music, especially now we got so many ways to make the money that we wanna make. We're not going to be able to last 20 years by just making new songs. It's only so long that people actually want to hear about your music, because you're not even relevant to the people who are Ice Cube. He comes out with a song today and it's about killing people. Well, we're off that. We're not talking about killing people anymore.
Speaker 2:Even if he came out with something today that wasn't about killing people. How far do you think it's going on the radio?
Speaker 1:I mean, even if you think about Jay thing, about jay-z and nas, they don't go as far as they used to, because now, like that's true, people like, oh, jay-z's not relevant to the culture anymore in terms of his music, because he's not talking about big pimp, he's about now, I'm a billionaire, here's what I'm able to do. Yeah, it just. It's just different layers of conversation when it comes to how do you stay relevant for so long doing something?
Speaker 2:which I think is difficult. I think it's difficult to do the same thing and stay relevant, like just only music. I don't, it's really hard to just do that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, even if you just think about our journey, we were, like you know, talking about the family stuff and then talking about the debt freedom stuff and then talking about the cleaning business stuff, and eventually we won't even be talking about that anymore. It'll be, oh, now it's just like alright, now we got just the education business. Maybe it's not even the education business, maybe we're talking about something else we're doing.
Speaker 1:Maybe we're talking about the family more than the business stuff yeah how do you transition over the course of those, those years, to stay relevant?
Speaker 2:and not to say you're not allowed to, you absolutely, you absolutely are allowed to. But I guess, whatever you do, you try to do it in any capacity. So all right. Well, ice Cube, we're not haters here of him at all.
Speaker 1:I said he was relevant. You said he wasn't. I said he's not. I said he's an icon. You said he wasn't.
Speaker 2:No, I didn't say he wasn't an icon. You can be an icon and not relevant. That's the issue too. Okay, that's a different conversation For another day, so let us.
Speaker 1:Let us know, that was our little band. Literally, we have a conversation and it's about the business, and it's about culture, and it's all infused.
Speaker 2:It all mixed together.
Speaker 1:This is really what our podcast is about. We're talking about Ice Cube, the family man, Ice Cube the AK-47 today we're talking about Ice Cube. Oh, we got a son that looks like him $10 million.
Speaker 2:I do know that $10 million on the basketball them out. How do we go on our trip, vacation and enjoy ourselves without being worried about the business? So now that's a trick question, because where do we go? Let's start there. We went to mexico, uh, for our eight year wedding anniversary and to also celebrate our baby moon. You're gonna say what's a baby moon? Um, it's to celebrate, or one last hurrah before the baby comes. So last time we went to Aruba, this time we went to Mexico. Mexico is one of Tony's favorite places, so we did that with Alani.
Speaker 1:It's like my Disney World Wow. That's a high bar Mexico is right there.
Speaker 2:It's a two and a half hour flight.
Speaker 1:We don't got any water in Texas and you know you have a good time you got sun, don't any water in Texas and you know you have a good time.
Speaker 2:You got something. Say that for the Texans.
Speaker 1:They're gonna be like yes, we do, we just gotta drive six hours. I'm not driving a gavel, that is absolutely not happening. Um yeah.
Speaker 2:So we had a good time and that's why we went. We spent a week in Mexico, and anytime we go on vacation, it is a question of I know for some people of how do you manage it. Prior to this last time we went vacation, we were in Africa in December for two weeks. So when you talk about time difference or you talk about not being connected, how do we manage that? How are we able to do that? And that's what we wanted to discuss. So what the question was, without being worried about the business. I think that's a tricky question because oh yo, what's going on, guys?
Speaker 1:Did you know we own a seven figure cleaning business? I think that's a tricky question because, oh yo, what's going on, guys? Did you know? We own a seven-figure cleaning business and we use that business in order to pay off $114,000 of debt. We use that business to help us travel more, save more money and eventually become financially free. If any of that sounds good to you, check out Cleaning Business University, where we teach you how to launch and scale a six now seven-figure cleaning business, and the best part about it is that you do not have to clean homes yourself. I know that sounds crazy, but check out Cleaning Business University. We give you more in-depth information about that. Check it out and we will see you on the other side.
Speaker 2:We may not be worried, but you do think about it. I don't. I can't imagine that you don't think about anything at all once you leave the country. Right, it's part of who you are, especially if you're a full-time entrepreneur. Entrepreneur, you're doing it all the time, so I can't say you forget about it. Do you want to check in on numbers? Absolutely do you have to, maybe not.
Speaker 1:It just depends on who you are but, and even if you think about your job, it will be the same thing. If you are a typical like, let's say, you clock out, your job is done. You're not an upper management. You could turn your job.
Speaker 2:You're not thinking about your job at five o'clock yes, but if you have, I didn't bring my work cell phone.
Speaker 1:Exactly right you're. I mean, you even know you have a team, but your job is different. So if you're an upper manager meaning you like you manage multiple people who manage multiple teams even if you go on vacation, you're gonna be thinking about do you need me? What's happening?
Speaker 2:you'll be thinking about some aspect of your job.
Speaker 1:At some point so it's the same thing with your business. You become upper management at your job. You think about it on vacation becomes part of your dna at that point.
Speaker 2:So that's that's one way I like to to think about it as well and so the first thing is like I think part of it is like how we vacation may be different. Um, like, what you like to do versus what I like to do when it comes to vacation is a little different. Like I am, I don't really like the beach, but just put me in the pool. Food, drinks all day, and I like excursions as well. And you like the sun. I don't like the sun. I absolutely don't like the sun. Okay, but you have to be in the sun in the pool.
Speaker 1:We spend a lot of time in the sun. No, you don't. How are you gonna enjoy the pool without the sun? My feet is in the water.
Speaker 2:I got an umbrella over my head okay, um, him on the other side, if he's like on the computer. Are you want to describe your version of vacationing?
Speaker 1:because yeah, so my version of vacation means that, let's say when in a normal work week, let's say, you work five, ten hours. Let me just say that vacation for me means that you may not be working five, 10 hours a day, but you might just clock in for hour or 30 minutes, maybe two hours. Right, because I think when you own a business, especially if you own a business, you can if you have a remote business like we do you're able to run and manage your business from anywhere in the world. So you don't have to unplug completely, but it may be you just clocking in for an hour. So my version of vacation is I can run my business from anywhere in the world, but then also I'm not running my business all day, every day. So I did do some work on vacation and my thought is how is that a vacation?
Speaker 2:You're saying that the amount of hours I'm spending is lower, so that makes it a vacation. My thing is step away, completely, like when we go on vacation, you and Axel, you're not doing nothing. I'm like I am on vacation, okay, I am nothing within nine to five and almost nothing with the nine to five and almost nothing with the business, to be quite frank, and we'll go deeper into what that looks like and why but that's the difference that we have and that becomes a tug of war, because even that hour, um, or whatever the case may be, I feel shouldn't be part of the equation, shouldn't be part of the discussion, okay. But and then that's what comes where you asking does vacation equal no work? For me yes, for you no.
Speaker 1:It can, but it doesn't have to. I don't think. I don't think vacation means that you're completely vacating away from your current life. I think vacation means that you're. Is that not the meaning?
Speaker 2:What's the meaning that sounds like, that's what it is.
Speaker 1:I mean look up the true definition of vacation.
Speaker 2:Is that not the meaning? All my responsibilities are out the door.
Speaker 1:The word vacation. I might have an Ice Cube movie pop up here. Here we go.
Speaker 2:From what 10, 15 years ago? What?
Speaker 1:is the definition? A period spent away from home or business in travel or recreation, or a scheduled period of activity where you are resting?
Speaker 2:Okay, so so for me, if you're going to be doing any type of business work, then you're not resting. But I understand, right, we understand one. Am I just starting a business? Then that may be a different capacity. How big is my business? That may be a different capacity. Do you work in a business? Do you have a business that can make money without you being around?
Speaker 2:So, for Cleaning Business University I mean sorry, for our cleaning business itself we have put things in place that it can run without us around. At this point, we're having conversations about that business specifically about an hour a week. Having conversations about that business specifically about an hour a week. So we have VAs, operations managers and then people above that to make sure that all is well. Now, it took time to get there, right, if you're just starting the business, I can't expect that you're going to do that because, to be frank with you, when we went to Maldives and Dubai in 2018, you were the one still getting the calls we had. We was on WhatsApp, you know, and there's a eight or nine hour difference, so did that occupy the entire day? No, so it speaks to Anthony, point like but that energy is not something that I want. Like, I don't even want to have to think about a client not being satisfied, because that can be a different energy versus you maybe. Oh, just making sure.
Speaker 2:I don't know something else in the business that doesn't require much energy, essentially. So I think there's differences to that, but I do understand if there's a need for it. However, certain times with us, that's where we're different, that's where we kind of butt heads. I don't feel like there's a need for it. However, certain times with us, that's where we different, make you know, that's where we kind of butt heads. I don't feel like there's a need for it.
Speaker 1:Um, as much as anthony does, right when we went to, when we went to dubai and we were I remember that distinctly that day you were, I guess I got a picture of you you laying in bed with a it was like nine o'clock in the morning. You had a mimosa in your hand. You was like I'm stressed out and that's. You don't want to be at that point. But there is going to be a season where, if you're like, listen, I want to travel and I want to enjoy my life and I want to have a business and I'm at the point where I don't have the right teams in place.
Speaker 1:You gotta be able to. You're not going to have to run that business right. But I think when you come back you have a renewed sense of I need to get these things in order so that when I do go on vacation I get to pick and choose what I'm able to do and what I don't have to do, right.
Speaker 1:So, let's kind of talk about what are some things that you have to you come back from a vacation, like that Dubai vacation, where that one day just we talked about even with some of our students recently I went on vacation and there was this one day that pissed me off and I came back and we know the energy was different because they came back and said I got to do this, this, this, this and this. Sometimes we take that stuff for granted because we are like, oh, I'm right here or I'm near a phone or I'm near a laptop. But what happens when you're on an excursion and you get a phone call In the middle of the sea, yeah, and you're trying to talk in the water to it, like there's this me with this guy on a laptop in the water. He's like it's going to be me on vacation. I'm like that's me everywhere. Not funny.
Speaker 1:But when you come back what are some things that you have to do so that to help you know that things are in the right place?
Speaker 2:So I'm really speaking on the place we're at now, because where we were then a year, a year and a half in the business, you know, I know you're thinking about finances and that type of stuff, but could we have afforded it? Probably you just don't see that at the time. So definitely for us, or having some type of assistance to delegate the work to before it kind of gets to you right, like having someone to buffer, is it an automation that is in place? Is it a person that's in place? You know, when it's a service-based business, I think you have to have a person available to answer those calls, answer those issues that come in. Um, that can be in place.
Speaker 2:Now, if you're running essentially I don't know a e-com, a clothing business, maybe don't require a person for four days, maybe it is automated email or texts or something like that. So I think it depends, but specifically for the service-based business, having someone in place and delegating and providing information to them to some capacity. So I know that. I don't know if that was the vacation, but there was a point that we told our contractors like listen, or we maybe gave them the client's numbers, I can't remember exactly.
Speaker 1:We did.
Speaker 2:This is the client number. You only reach out to us if there's an issue. You know what I mean. Call them, leave a voicemail, text them. If you can't get into the house, don't come to us, where we go to them, which is generally what we do. But I think we were at that point now. At that point then, like you can just call them. You don't need to, you don't need to call us for us to cause that takes up more time, we're not getting them, we're going back and forth. So so I would say, having someone in place to handle those issues for you.
Speaker 1:So if you can't put someone in place, I'll talk about from an aspect of a couple years ago.
Speaker 2:So you said you can, then we just say you don't have a person in place.
Speaker 1:So I would think one of the things that we've seen, even from some service businesses, is like oh, I'm out of the office. I didn't know that you were out of the office number one. So maybe having some sort of sure. So planning ahead means communicating with the people who need to know that you're going to be on vacation, and you telling them you're on vacation doesn't necessarily mean that I'm out, I'm not going to be available. Yeah.
Speaker 2:I'm out of office.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm out of the office means I might. It might take me a little bit longer to respond. So now your teams you got a team or you got contractors or workers or W-2s letting them know that I won't be as readily available as I normally am, now that what that does is give you a buffer where it's like it might not alleviate the expectation, but at least they are aware of it. So it's not like I didn't tell you.
Speaker 2:We get people that say oh, I was of it, so it's not like I didn't tell you we get people as oh, I was out for this week.
Speaker 1:It's like we didn't know that you were out just because it's a holiday. I don't know what you do and how you run your business, so letting the right people know that you will not be 100 available is a decent buffer where it might help you buy some time back at least beginning.
Speaker 2:You know, at the beginning, I think over time, you probably established some type of like vacation protocol or like if I'm not available, this is what you do, yeah, and which goes back to like SOPs and stuff like that. But you may not have that in place now. It doesn't mean it still can't run without you, but maybe in this capacity, if you're usually in it 95% on vacation, I'm in it 30%, you know, but the person, whoever you work with, or people, even contractors or whatever they are aware, and that makes it easier. And then you're able to figure out what are the things I need in place when I'm away, which I think that's the biggest thing If you answer all your calls. Think about that.
Speaker 2:If I'm on the plane or if I'm in another country and I don't plan to use any minutes, or I don't plan to use WhatsApp, or I don't have Wi-Fi, whatever, who's picking up the phones Is your business just stopping? So those are things you have to pre um, I think, pre expect or pre plan for at least Um, and for us right now, the way that we plan for that is making sure that our teams are aware and making sure that they're clear on what to do. If there is something that is you have absolutely no idea what to do, you do have our contact. You can reach out to us and we will respond. I don't think we've been to anywhere so desolate that we can't respond at this point.
Speaker 1:Well, on the planes, that's another one. So you mentioned like planning your travel around the times that you're. So instead of, like, you could fly into Dubai I don't remember how long that flight was, but maybe you don't take that flight during your business hours Like, hey, I might have to take this flight overnight. That might be an option for you so that you don't have to miss your entire business day. Or you're on a phone I mean not on a phone, but you're on an airplane so that might be an option for you to planning your actual trip where you know you're going to be unavailable. Maybe that happens overnight or a weekend or off hours or something like that. So that might be an option.
Speaker 2:So, letting your team know, delegating information, preparing your team right. So that may be a conversation that you're having like, all right, I'm going to need you to do this. They may not know what this is. They've never done it before, so make sure you prepare them as to what your expectations are, for what you want from them while while you're away. Now I think about it, because we have two different. We have multiple businesses, but the main ones that we always really speak about is our cleaning business specifically, and then cleaning business. University is another thing, right? So, yeah, we got a little sticky over here, um allergies is killing me actually cleaning business, where we have multiple people in place.
Speaker 2:cleaning business university, we do have some people in place, but it's not as much. And the difference between the two is which is a question for you can your business run or make money without you? And I know that's how people kind of measure um, a business being efficient and kind of running correctly, if you will. For us to be frank, our cleaning business, yes, it can run without us. Cleaning business university, not so much. It can't really run without us because there's multiple ways that we show up for it, ie the podcast. No one else is doing it. No one else can replace us. We can have guests, but no one else can replace us.
Speaker 2:Content, even if you're like, well, it's just pictures, yeah, but then you're thinking about how can I make it make sense for the people that are watching me or following me, like how can I put business in it or how do I put it back to family? That can be a capacity of it. Then we have coaches, then we have other people that we work with for emails, for ads, so all those things are, you know, ceo or our operations manager can help us to a capacity, but they can't necessarily run it for us. So for Clean and Business University, it is a business that does require us.
Speaker 2:It is a business that if we're not so involved in some capacity, maybe finances will slow down. So I think that that's part of the thing, for Anthony is why he's like, well, I'm not going to just not work at all, because then income may slow down tremendously. And I have a mindset of I think it ties into the way we think about money as to why we operate so differently. In that regard, I feel like four days away, five days away isn't going to completely change our whole trajectory of our lifestyle and livelihood. Right, there may be some seasons where it would, though that it might do so, so you're more hesitant about that. But even in general, even if we're in a season that it's not, I feel like you'll still be on the computer in some way.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I, I, I'm always going to be on the computer. That's not something that that's. That's not something that you're going to have to pry out of my hands. Yes, it is. One of the things that we were able to do was we moved a lot of our meetings to from different days, different times, like, all right, we're unavailable different weeks. But there were some meetings that we did take, like I took, um, you took a meeting that I wasn't happy with yeah, I took one of our coaching calls right.
Speaker 1:That was already scheduled with our community that was fine that was a coaching call, that was literally our. And then I took another meeting that you were like I'm not taking a meeting, and I took it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, now well, the whole thing was, anthony had asked me should you know, can I take this meeting at this time, because he won't really be knowing the schedule, the itinerary of what we're doing, whatever. And I'm like, oh well, no, we're not technically doing anything, but no, you shouldn't take it. Then he's like, well, why shouldn't I take it? I said, well, because we're on vacation. We said yes to the coaching call, but this one can wait till Monday, tuesday, whatever, it can wait till next week. We don't have this call now, we don't have to have this call now. And then it was a back and forth and I'm like, well, why did you ask me? You asked me a question, I gave you my answer and now you're trying to have me change my answer. That is my answer.
Speaker 1:If you're deciding to take the call, don't ask ahead.
Speaker 2:I'm with you.
Speaker 1:You can't make a reaction while I'm talking, Because I know what you're about to say. So the thing is, you weren't even on a call, so you don't know the importance of it. I do know the importance of it. No, you don't oh.
Speaker 1:God so if I give you the trickle-down effect of me not taking that call and waiting until Monday, you would go Two. I took it on Friday, saturday, sunday. We take the call. We don't get started until Tuesday, wednesday Things needed to be in place for Thursday of that week, so I took it on Friday. They had to be ready to go.
Speaker 2:You took it on Thursday. Actually, I took it on Thursday.
Speaker 1:They had to be ready to go by that Thursday.
Speaker 2:You wanted it to be ready to go. It didn't have to be ready to go, right, okay?
Speaker 1:You got to be able to make sacrifices right, and I sat on that meeting, I did the hour and I was done, ready to go for the rest of the day, and there was something that you got to be listen. If you want to do some extra credit, take a screenshot of your phone. Or if you're driving in the car, take a screenshot of your your dashboard tag us, tag us on instagram. Let us know you are tapping in so that we can repost you and show you some love too.
Speaker 2:You can tag us at more than a side hustle podcast or at the heart. We have two ways that you can tap in with us.
Speaker 1:We appreciate it.
Speaker 2:Thank you.
Speaker 1:You got to make decisions in your life. You got to put your foot down. You got to put your foot down. Sometimes you got to take these meetings. Others like and that's also to do this guy literally on the phone and every time I saw him he was on the phone. I literally fall into his head like this the whole time and I'm like I don't want to be become. I don't want to become one of those people on vacation but every time you see me I'm on. I was only on the laptop in the room. So I don't want to be. I don't want to become one of those people where I can't enjoy an entire vacation because I'm on the phone making business deals or I'm closing sales or stuff like that. Work is going to look different for people, that's I don't know if he had a family, maybe he did, I have no idea.
Speaker 1:But every time I saw this guy he had his phone to his head walking around, he had earphones in and I'm like, damn, that's the whole vacation. Every time I saw him I saw him like at least four or five times. We was in the pool. He walked through the pool kicking the water with his phone in his hand. Now, if you're that type of business owner, you're that type of CEO or you're that type of employee, more power to you.
Speaker 1:But you got to be able to make a decision on what you want your life to be or you go into the like. Another example was Don Peebles and his wife. His wife said if you don't know who Don Peebles is huge business mogul, billionaire or close to being a billionaire. He has a billion dollars of at least assets, right. And his wife said when we go out to eat, every single version of our life is work. And she said I knew that coming in and I signed up for this life. She said we go out to eat, we're on our phones, we try to have some family time, but that's what I signed up for and it was like I watched his interview.
Speaker 1:I know I never said you did, I'm just putting it out there. But you have to be mindful of sometimes those are the super ambitious people that if you try to pry that away from them, they would rather you go away than their business go away.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 2:Is that what you're saying? No, it is a balance of and I. What also makes it difficult is the fact that we have these okay, good and bad that I could work from anywhere in the world. But also, how do you turn things off with this Cause? That's a, I think, a bigger thing for you as well. Just turning it off because you could be like, well, I'm just scrolling on Instagram, but you're scrolling on every business thing, and then you want to bring it up to me, so then it becomes work, like, oh, I just saw this, and then it becomes work.
Speaker 2:Right, me, I'm scrolling Instagram about nothing of importance, nothing business wise, and if I send it, I'm like we could talk about it another time. I don't need to talk about it in that moment. So I think you need to be cognizant as well as to what you want your life really to look like when vacation and when not on vacation, because even at home, we have to find that balance of yeah, you know we're done here, we're moving on from this conversation or whatever the case may be, and so it's the same thing on vacation of having to nip it. Now we can. I can be frank with you that having to even nip it on vacation can be annoying, it can be frustrating, like why do I have to tell you that we on vacation and this can rest?
Speaker 2:But I think, like you said, it depends on the person, like you know, the person that you're with, and how they operate and maybe what they're trying to work through, work towards and I think a point that you brought up with the guy just now is almost a billionaire is sometimes I see other people, other entrepreneurs, that they like I'm like wow, always on live, they're always doing this, they're always doing that, and I'm like I, they make the money they, they do because of how hard their work. I can see how hard their work and I don't want to do that. You know, I don't want to work that hard.
Speaker 1:I'm not saying I don't want money, but maybe I don't want that much money because I'm not willing to put in that much work, so I think also having that understanding as well. How much money do you want to make and how much do you really want to work so, him being a?
Speaker 2:so if you're a billionaire, we are people's being a billionaire is like obviously you know there is no what I'm doing there is no turning off.
Speaker 1:So yeah, that was. That was actually a question that somebody was asking do you really want to be a billionaire? And it was like what does being a billionaire entail? Yeah, how many teams, how many managers, how many meeting businesses. How many like you have to really recognize when you talk about these numbers that people have and it's like we got these. You're not wearing your shirt today, but it was like my shirt.
Speaker 1:The shirt was a black billionaire in the making do you really want to be a black billionaire in the making? Black billionaire in the making. Do you really want to be a black billionaire in the making? I think about which I want to. Do you want to have all that responsibility? Probably not.
Speaker 2:And does that mean when you go on vacation?
Speaker 1:your responsibilities turn off. So we were talking about just your responsibilities change probably, responsibilities change, and we're talking about things like you do If you want to take a vacation and when you're owning a business and you've been managed, so planning ahead taking vacation during slower periods, if you know, listen, my business is.
Speaker 2:I don't know how I feel about that one, but what do you mean? Taking vacation during slower periods, like when I. I think that constricts the whole freedom side of it for me of being able to pick up and go, because a vacation may be mexico but a vacation may be a weekend in new york with family yeah, so um taking vacation during slower periods can be something you put in place. I am just not a fan of it and it's not something that we follow, I should say.
Speaker 1:Establishing vacation protocols. So we spoke about telling our operation manager, telling our teams like we're going to be unavailable during these times mostly, but if you do need us in an emergency. That's another thing too. You don't want to make your team so afraid to reach out to you. But then also we find that people are they baby? They're not baby. They micromanage their team so much that they have to come to you for everything. So if you say hey, um, if I micromanage you and I tell you you don't come to me now, I'm definitely not coming to you for nothing because I don't have the ability to make a decision now, I'm afraid to make the wrong decision. So you don't want to micromanage your team where they don't feel comfortable. But then also you want to put them in position to be ready before you need the vacation too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and before you move on to that, while you were listing stuff, when you were speaking about um, billionaires and how hard do you really want to work? I am. I watch the kardashians. I know some of you.
Speaker 2:I don't let me go back to that because I was wanted to say a point before he was on to that and I just thought about how the amount of things that I know kim kardashian does to her siblings like complain about about how hard she works and all the things that she does and I'm like, well, that's probably why she is close to I don't know if she's at billionaire status at this point or close to it, whatever the case may be because of how hard she works. Now her sisters are like I just rather be home with my kids, like I don't want to be doing all that. It just shows that difference. She's like I thrive with, just keep working, to keep working. I thrive with the challenge.
Speaker 2:So it's just different people, different strokes of like what do you really want out of life? And really having that understanding of what it takes to get there is important. I think that also plays into vacation. Are you taking a vacation If you feel like if I leave, I have to shut everything down? Maybe not, maybe not, or maybe you are, maybe like it is what it, is what it is.
Speaker 1:I think it is determined by your level of ambition too, yeah, so I think we're ambitious people, and I don't. You're more ambitious than I am. I'm definitely more so if we talk about like the kardashians as an example, and you could say whatever you want about them. Kim Kardashian is very ambitious, right? She has a family. She's going for a law degree.
Speaker 1:She does acting now. She has her product line now and you're like, how much more can a person really do or need? And it's like not about the need, no-transcript. That's the level of ambition that some people strive to be Now. For them, vacation is not the same as for most people. Your vacation means that I might be working. Instead of me working 12 hours, 10 hours a day, I might be working five, six. So you have to determine how successful you want to be. But then also, can you ever turn off that level of ambition?
Speaker 2:That's really hard for a lot of people.
Speaker 1:That's hard for you, would you say. I think it's hard for me. I don't think I'm the type of person that I became a billionaire. I just stopped doing you have to stay there, right.
Speaker 2:Let we have to stay there, right. Let's say I can stay a billionaire.
Speaker 1:What does that mean for me? I'm probably going to try to figure it out. So here's what it is. Here's what it is. You can see people's level of ambition by what they do after they make money. So you see people who sell off their companies, right, let's say, like I was listening to this podcast about what was the guy's name from MySpace, tom Tom podcast about um, what?
Speaker 2:was the guy's name from myspace tom tom. Tom sells, not having a last name, but you know who he is.
Speaker 1:Tom spells of myspace and he doesn't do anything else but how much did he sell it for?
Speaker 2:I feel like I saw a number and I didn't feel like it was too much tom sold it to be good for the rest of his life. Let's go okay, how much did?
Speaker 1:I thought I saw like 18 million. I don't how much did tom sell myspace for. Tom sold MySpace for 580 million dollars. Oh, okay, that's a different number, so that's life-changing money where you don't have to do anything else. You know what he does.
Speaker 2:No, what, nothing else.
Speaker 1:I'm like I don't know, Does that mean that he does like photography and he does like a little bit of?
Speaker 2:this he does what he loves he travels.
Speaker 1:That's what he loves. He traveled People kind of spot him and they'll post all that.
Speaker 2:I mean to get $500 million in MySpace 20 years. I don't know when he sold it, how long, I don't know that was about 20 years ago, 20 years ago. That's a pretty great deal, because right now it'll probably be a billion.
Speaker 1:So does that mean that he's not ambitious? He retired. He's literally the definition of a person that stopped doing everything and just travel taking pictures. Taking his Instagram page is just like like you literally go to his Instagram page. That's exciting. Let's go to. Let's go to Tom's Instagram page If I type in Tom he is me I am him.
Speaker 2:I got the money I need. I'm done, and maybe he is doing things that we don't have any idea about. He's just not um my space, tom.
Speaker 1:MySpace Tom 668,000 followers. His last post was April 26th and he's just literally. Let me go to his page. Look Beautiful pictures.
Speaker 2:Beautiful pictures Traveling the way I would love to travel. So he's a photographer, literally a photographer like editing pictures.
Speaker 1:Did he take these pictures?
Speaker 2:This is him 2017, 2018. Okay, he's not that active.
Speaker 1:No, he's not active, but does that mean he's not ambitious? No, he's not acting, but does that mean he's not ambitious? Or there's different levels of it. Right, most people sell a company. They wait a couple of days, wait a couple of weeks, maybe wait a couple of years and start another company. I'm taking all that money going to roll it into another company. So you have to determine how successful you want to be, based on your level of ambition.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I would agree. All right, so you were listening.
Speaker 1:sorry, so we talked about established vacation protocol, letting your teams know delegating your work, if you can. We talked about preparing your team for vacation and letting clients know about your vacation too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's something that I find that people don't do. It's kind of like why wouldn't you just say that you're out? I don't know, it's something so basic. It reminds me of simply just picking up the phone. You'll make it further in life. When it comes to service-based business, it's something so simple, but people don't do it.
Speaker 1:Put an out-of-office on yeah. I don't know or just mass messaging all your clients via email hey, I'm going to be unavailable for the next 24, 48 hours, going on vacation, but give me I'll be, I'll have my team respond to you, or something like that.
Speaker 2:I'm choosing a second in command for urgent issues, if you're able to do so, if not just preparing the team in general, and you are the first, second and third in command. And then, lastly, it's like rest and relax. So I think what we've got out of this conversation is what is rest and relax. Look like to you. So obviously, for me it's literally bye, bye America.
Speaker 1:I am somewhere else. So Janoka sells a company for 580 million. She is not doing anything else. You're a Tom.
Speaker 2:I'm literally a Tom yeah let's be fair. I am definitely Tom, I'm not denying that and I'm fine with that. I don't think.
Speaker 1:I'm.
Speaker 2:Tom, I'm definitely not Tom. Your rest and relax is just working less. So working is working less and then doing some relaxing and not being in the sun, in the pool, whatever. So I think, defining that for yourself and maybe the person that you're with, so you have a better understanding when you do go on vacation.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, we we take many vacations. We'll see how it goes. Uh, as we have a second child coming, I don't know what the cadence will be at that time, but at when we had Alani, we took a lot of vacations and we had all of all of these businesses going and we were able to manage it and so on and so forth. We continue to do so. So we just wanted to kind of speak on how we do it. What is the real about? It's not like nothing is happening at all, but it is definitely lessened. Nothing is happening for me, but it's definitely lessened in how quickly we show up, how many meetings we have. Those types of things are moved and changed when it comes to that.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, don't wait for your next vacation to talk about to start planning what your business is going to look like. Try to plan what your business will look like before that vacation. So start getting some things in order beforehand and if you're like Janoka and Tom, make your money, go on vacation, close the laptop and just enjoy life. If you're like me, we're going to sell that company and start a new one, I guess.
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Speaker 1:Appreciate you guys watching us. See you next week, peace, peace.
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