Gabe Nelson

Check out more of Gabe

Websites: 

solopreneurmoney.com/

https://www.gabenelsonfinancial.com/

Show Notes

Robert Peterson 0:13
Welcome to the add value to entrepreneurs podcast, the place where we help entrepreneurs to not hate their boss. Our mission is to end entrepreneurial unhappiness. If you dream of changing the world, but you're not sure where to start, the Add valued entrepreneurs podcast will help you transform your life in business. This podcast is for entrepreneurs who want more freedom and fulfillment from their work so they can live the life that they desire. You deserve it, and it is possible. My name is Robert Peterson, Farmer passer turned CEO and the smiling coach. I believe that success without happiness is failing. But there is hope. Join us each week as we bring you an inspiring leader or message to help you. Thanks for investing time with us today. This week's guest is an experienced financial advisor who has focused his life and business to serving independent small business owners the solopreneur he knows exactly what it takes to find financial security when transitioning from employee to business owner or contractor without regular consistent income. He thrives on the unique challenges small business owners face financially.

Noelle Peterson 1:22
Gabe Nelson is the best selling author of the solopreneurs money manifesto. How to master your finances and create the life you want. And host the popular podcast solopreneur. Money

Robert Peterson 1:34
gave Nelson shares Robert knew well the importance of investing in the community. He's an owner for a pre professional women's soccer team. Their goal is to empower women through soccer

Noelle Peterson 1:44
game shares a challenge many business owners face and getting caught up in activities they shouldn't like email, social media, and other distractions from doing the thing that you do.

Robert Peterson 1:54
If you're an entrepreneur who started their business with a purpose and a passion that has been lost in the busyness of the daily grind, we get it. That is why we've opened up our free strategy calls. A lot of entrepreneurs probably including you just want a sense of clarity on the barriers holding them back that you need to overcome in order to accelerate your growth and achieve your dreams. These short 30 Minute Calls give you a chance to work with one of our coaches without any commitment or pressure. Scheduling is easy, just go to smiling cole.com. Let's jump on a call and get you the help and clarity you need. Select a time and let's build your business. It's time for you to add value. For joining us to jump in on the show today. We're excited to have this conversation together and just know that you're gonna add a ton of value for our entrepreneur listeners just based on your purpose and and who you're serving in your own podcast.

Unknown Speaker 2:57
Well, thanks, I'm excited to be here.

Robert Peterson 3:00
So So typically, we just start each episode with our guests being able to share their own entrepreneurial journey and we use that as a jumping off point for the rest of the conversation.

Unknown Speaker 3:10
Okay. Well, my current entrepreneurial world is I am a financial advisor, a podcaster, a pre professional women's soccer team, co founder and owner. And that is what's currently going on in my what I would say my entrepreneurial world. I will say this, I mean, I've had that entrepreneurial spirit ever since I was a kid. The jobs that we had when we were kids and my family, we were all paper boys. And so we'd go out and do you know, deliver newspapers in the mornings. And, and the interesting funny story about that is we didn't realize as 1011 1213 year old kids that were actually supposed to go back and collect for the newspapers that we delivered. And so we kept going like Where's our money? Why do we why are we doing this, but we don't have any money? Well come to find out we didn't realize we're supposed to go out and collect money. And I learned really quickly when we walked into that first house and had to ask people to pay us for the last two or three months. When one of my brothers just elbowed me in the side. He's like, No, you're talking like okay, I guess I'm gonna learn right now, how to handle this. And so the entrepreneurial journey kind of started then I realized I could talk to people and I could actually get them to part with their money. And that morphed into different things throughout time and helped me land into this you know, financial advisory career. Not too far right out of college. So

Robert Peterson 4:47
nice. All right. I want to I want to dig into this sports team ownership. I'm intrigued a little bit. Yeah. So pre professional or what how did you do It's hard to determine that.

Unknown Speaker 5:01
It's called a, we own a team. The team is called Sioux Falls City Football Club. And it is a women's pre professional soccer team. And there is there is a tremendous need in our community Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and also the state of South Dakota, to really elevate the game of soccer for women, but also even for men as well as young kids to dream. And I'll tell you the story of how it got started. And this kind of help will help you paint the picture. So I have three daughters. My middle daughter is a very good soccer player, she's now playing Division Two, college soccer, she just finished her freshman year. And here two years ago, she came home from practice, and said, hey, it sounds like we're going to get a women's semi professional soccer team to Sioux Falls. And I'm like, great, that's, that sounds like a fantastic thing. I think it'd be great for you for your career for the community, for everybody in this area, to really have an opportunity to get better. And it would be great for you to just continuously have an opportunity to play in the summertime. And then you can head back to college and and you know, keep doing better throughout your career. And so I'm excited, she's excited. And months go by. And so it was probably February that she told me about this. And come June, the middle of June, nothing came up. And it just so happens to be that the head coach of her club team was the one who told her about it. So we're in St. Louis, Missouri at a big national tournament. And I as, as happens amongst soccer families, and it happens in softball families in baseball families in hockey, fan hockey families. Well, at the end of the day, what do we do we all go sit in the lobby, we all open up a cooler of some kind. And we sit around and we chat and solve the world's problems. And sure enough, the coach comes walking by and I said, Hey, come here help me understand what's going on with his soccer team. And he said nothing. Nobody will do it. And he said, they've been talking about it and say to South Dakota for years, but nobody will do it. I said, well help me understand. So he explained the basics of the soccer team gave me a little bit of an idea of the business plan. And I just kind of sat there and I went, Well, I could do that. Why wouldn't I start it. And so this was June of 22 to 21 is when this was and I put in the back of my head and just kind of let it marinate for about three months. And to give you a little backstory, my wife and I are just about to become empty nesters. Our youngest daughter's a junior in high school. Yes, exactly. We got two years to go that if anybody's counting, which we are counting. So we'll be empty nesters in a couple of years. And we were starting to talk about like what are we going to do when our when our girls are out of the house? Like what? Because anybody that has kids, especially kids that are in activities, you're gone. Every night, you're gone. Most weekends, you're doing stuff. And so what are we going to do with all of our time when that time happens when that time comes? So we've been talking about this for months. And so I'll fast forward from June to 21 to September 21. We're out for a walk. And we're going along and I looked at Melissa and I said hey, I got this idea. I'm kind of thinking about starting a soccer team. I swear on everything holy. I thought for sure. Melissa was gonna say no, you're crazy. We're not going to do this. I mean, I fully expected her to say no, you're crazy. We're not going to do this. And I would have moved on just like alright, whatever she looks at me. She goes, Yeah, I think she'd look into it now like, what did you just say? Yes. And I mean, my wife is not a no person, but I just really thought she was gonna be like, No, you're crazy. We're not going to do that. We'll let somebody else do it. Sure enough. She's like, Well, why don't you look into it. And so to take this very long story and shorten it, I looked into it. We decided we were going to move forward. We put a list of families together that we thought it would be really fun to do this with, reached out to another family took them out to dinner literally about a year ago right now as we're doing this recording, and ambushed him at dinner and said we're going to start this soccer team. And here we are. It's a year later. We got approved in December of 2021. To get into the league. We created the team from December 21. And by May 21. We had May of 22. We had a team on the field and ended up having an amazing first season ended up winning franchise of the year for our conference. And here we are in the planning stages for the 2023 year as we speak. And so it was amazing. Absolutely amazing. It's fun

Robert Peterson 10:00
So does pre professional mean They're volunteers?

Unknown Speaker 10:04
Kind of Yes, kind of pre professional means we don't pay them. They're they're all either NCAA athletes in AIA athletes, and they're all amateurs, meaning they're on, they're on scholarship, or we can't violate their NCAA amateur eligibility. And then we also have a few people, few players that are like just recent college grads, they're trying to work on their game so they can get better so they can pick up a pro contract. Instead of going back to college in the fall, they might pick up a pro contract overseas or something like that. That we have so many, the average player is 21 years of age in the league, we joined a league called the The Women's premier soccer league. It is headquartered out of Oklahoma City, it's the largest 140 teams, oldest running women's premier women's soccer league in the world. It's it's pretty cool. Yeah.

Robert Peterson 11:00
Nice. Well, our, we spent 10 years living in, in Colombia. And so we understand the value of soccer outside of the United States. And, and we also understand that the development necessary, right, because the reason it's taken so long for soccer to get to this level, where now our men's team is competing in the World Cup, and our women's team is competing on the world stage is because of all the the need for development from the four year olds on up. And, and so when you say, you know, there's a neat need across the country for more development and more opportunities for, for women to participate for men to participate, definitely understand that it starts at the youngest level, and it's got to have all the pieces in place for development all the way up until they have the chance to become pro. So way to go for taking care of, obviously, you know, a little selfish intent for your own daughters, but taking care of the whole community at the same time. And so that's that's pretty exciting.

Unknown Speaker 12:07
Yeah. It's been amazing. Go ahead. I'm

Noelle Peterson 12:10
sorry. Well, yeah. And as Melissa helped you in the, in that process and the development and is something you guys get together to do together?

Unknown Speaker 12:17
Yeah, yeah, we actually, that was why we decided to do it is we wanted to have something that we could work on together. And then the other couple that we brought in, you know, Melissa actually quit her job, she did not have the other the other wife, the other spouse or news and his name is Emily. And the other owner, his name is Eric. And Emily does not work outside of the home. He's a he's a retina surgeon. And so long story short, we're all in all the time. I mean, we've gotten multiple meetings on a weekly basis, Melissa quit her job, my wife, Melissa has been a school nurse. And she quit her job to focus on being able to spend more time helping to run the soccer team, which is just, it's been amazing. Our whole mission is to empower women through soccer. And so anything that has podcasts or, or media, anything, Melissa and Emily are the face of the organization. And it's exactly how I would like it, is have them be the face of the organization.

Noelle Peterson 13:26
And I think that's really amazing and can be really beneficial for Melissa and Emily to have that purpose and focus that they can transition from being a mom all these years to still having something to do.

Unknown Speaker 13:40
Oh, yeah, yeah. And it's allowing them to, it's allowing them to use skills that you use as a mom as a parent, but then turn them into, you know, empowering women and turning into meeting with people to get sponsorship dollars, and just everything. It's just been such an amazing experience.

Robert Peterson 13:59
Well, obviously, you mentioned that there is a business plan, there is a business model. And and, and I'm assuming that you've invested in this, not just for the sake of playing soccer with it, but because it's a viable business. And it's a possibility for even a minor revenue stream to support your plans and your dreams.

Unknown Speaker 14:20
Someday, yes, right now, it is a passion project. So we want to talk about entrepreneurialism, that then has a revenue component and a profit component. Well, we better talk about my financial advisory business, not the soccer.

Robert Peterson 14:37
I don't want to let go the soccer just yet because I think I think there is value in in business as a whole as a family and your commitment to the community, the value of contribution. And so let's talk about the contribution part of that as it as a passion project.

Unknown Speaker 14:56
Oh yeah. You know, the best way I couldn't put it is when we started this thing. You know, we went out and we talked to different sponsors and partners and and really the the story was we want to give young girls an opportunity to dream, really want it want them to look at us, watch our players and go Mom, I can do that Dad, I can do that. And that, and the mission of empowering women through soccer. And then the responsibility that we have as a result of, of owners of this team, and what I would say stewards of this community is really, it got way bigger than we thought. I mean, that contribution to the community is huge. When when we as owners go out into the community, and we see kids and adults wearing the stuff we designed, the the shirts, the hats, the scarves, the sweatshirts. It's just absolutely amazing. I mean, I'm getting goosebumps thinking about it. Because here a few weeks ago, we went to a school function. And I look over and here's a freshman in high school, a girl I've never seen before in my entire life, and I know quite a few people in the soccer community. She's got our sweatshirt on. And I looked at her and I said, that is an awesome sweatshirt, she has no idea who I am. She doesn't know it was my idea. But it was just so neat to see. So that contribution to the community, the giving of the dreams to those young girls is just, it's worth every penny of it. I could care less if I ever make a penny with this team. If it if we see young girls getting the chance to dream, we see the game get better. We see our players get better. And we see the community get behind it. It's every bit worth it.

Noelle Peterson 16:44
Yeah, it makes it it's a different purpose. I mean, you've talked a little bit about all the connections in the community that you are, you know, what is that value? And how valuable is that connection to to everybody?

Unknown Speaker 17:00
Oh, well. The value the value of of just seeing the community get behind. The team has been just outrageous. Like I said, it's just heartwarming. To give you an example, we had 652 people show up to our first game. And the average attendance that we had was about 466 people throughout our throughout our home games. To give you a little understanding what that really means, though, as we traveled, you know, we had four home games, four away games, and we traveled to four away games. And in those stadiums in those stands, there was maybe 50 people in the stands of which we made up 25 to 30 of them. So we traveled well. So I mean, we really got some, some great community support, and so much that one of the games, there's a player who played for the university, Wisconsin, we're talking big time college soccer. She's a great player, and the dad just happens to pull me aside in the breezeway of our stadium in the middle of the game. And he goes, How do you do this? How do you get this many people here? I said, we are a great community that really supports soccer. So what I'd say no well is the connections that we're creating. And the connection to the community is being seen by the people that are coming to the coming to the to the games and coming to the stadium to watch. Where did those connections come from? Well, then I gotta go back to my financial advisory business of being in this community for the last 27 years. And I mean, I came right out of college went right into the insurance industry knew nobody in this town had no money whatsoever. So I went to the insurance side first, because I like least I could sell some insurance. And over the course of the last 27 years, I morphed from the insurance side into the financial advisory side, I've now had my own practice for the last 14 years. And I it's just weird. I mean, over time, being involved in all kinds of activities, from soccer to community events, you start to build relationships. And the amount of relationships that we were able to rely on in that first year is what supported the program the first year. And now we're going back to them and asking them, hey, we'd like your help again. And by the way, we're getting a phone call from the league above. They want us to move up. I mean, that's gonna need I mean, our budget needs to be higher Kenya, can you help really support us? And so, to go all the way back to that Noel, really, it's all those connections. It's the connections that have been made for the last 27 years, that are really coming together to go back and say, Hey, would you be willing to help us out? Would you be willing to sponsor us? What can we do to help you you know, market your business, through our platform through our team through what we're doing,

Robert Peterson 19:57
man? I think in My mind, it sounds to me like that vision that you guys have created is a community vision. And it allows you to get community buy in. So share a little bit about the, the motivation for that vision and, and how that's empowered you to, to attract the community.

Unknown Speaker 20:21
Like I said, it got bigger than a cup bigger than we thought it was gonna get. We came together as a group, as an ownership group with the idea that we're going to put a soccer team on the field. And then we started digging into like values and mission. And you know, our values are authenticity, integrity and purpose. And then the mission is to empower women through soccer. And the whole idea of empowering women through soccer, everything goes through that lens. And then when you put a good team on the field, like ours, our city of Sioux Falls, is amazing. They really get behind teams. And the thing that Sioux Falls doesn't have is they don't have a major women's team. There's, there's, there's a men's baseball team, there's a men's hockey team, there's a men's indoor football team, there is a men's basketball team. And they're all at that level, that there's great community support, but nothing was for women. And so we told the story of this is what we need to do to really help our community and help that grow. But we didn't think it was going to get as big as it did as fast as it did. I mean, we have grand visions to actually have a professional team in the city of Sioux Falls. But the community really got behind us. And so it's just it all of a sudden turn to this. Wow, this would be really fun to Oh, boy, there's a responsibility here, we have got to make sure we really do this to help bring this to the community.

Noelle Peterson 21:54
And tell them that story. People can get behind a story and get behind the passion. So how has running a business with your wife impacted your relationship?

Unknown Speaker 22:07
99 times out of 100 it makes it better. Because we're, we're just I mean, we are. We're always on the same page. It's just weird. We've been together, it'll be 30 years, here this winter, I think it is that we've been together, we've been married 27 of those years, we met in college, and I 30 days in I looked at my roommates, I'm like I'm done. They're like what, like, I'm done, I'm gonna marry this girl, I'm done. And we've just always been on the same page. And so us working together. Like I said, 90 times 99 times out of 100 makes our relationship stronger. It's great, because we're on the same page, every now and then. You know, we kind of disagree on things. Or if you're listening to me at all, you can hear there's a little bit of passion in me. And sometimes I get kind of excited, and I get a little ahead of myself. And I get a little ahead of everybody else sometimes. And so I have to kind of, okay, hold on. Wait, let's get back on the same page together. And so for the most part, it just keeps making our relationship stronger. It's we're on the same page. I can tell you this. We aren't really worried about what we're going to do when the kids are out of the house because we already know I mean, this takes a ton of time. Yeah.

Robert Peterson 23:24
Nice. We will be right back after this short break. This episode is sponsored by perfect publishing a different approach to publishing a book. Perfect publishing carefully chooses heroes of Hope, who exemplify living life they created through faith, hope, patience, and persistence. No matter what page you open to in this mini cube of hope you will find a leader with a big heart, you will see you are not alone. The authors may share similar challenges that only hope and action could resolve. Get your free ebook at get a dose of hope.com Welcome back. Let's get back to more greatness. All right. So you mentioned obviously 27 years ago, you started out selling insurance. And, and and there's a slow grind element to that building relationships. But what what helped you the most to, to attract clients to create leads to create opportunities? And if someone if someone were to start the same place you were today, what would you recommend for them?

Unknown Speaker 24:30
Get a different job. No, I'm joking. I'm joking. Starting out the insurance and financial services industry is hard. It 23 years of age, it is hard.

Robert Peterson 24:44
But they need they need more and more because they're aging out at an incredible rate. And so this is a challenge for that industry.

Unknown Speaker 24:52
Oh yeah. Especially the financial advisory industry. The advisory industry is aging is aging out now. There are some great Young people that are coming into the business, but there's not enough great young people coming into the business. The thing that I learned, and I heard somebody say it when I first got going in the industry is if you can make friends fast, and you're not afraid to talk to people, you're going to be okay. You'll figure it out. I have the ability to make friends fast. I have the ability to build trust really fast. I don't know where it comes from. I just know, I have the ability, excuse me, to make friends fast. And so I think it comes all the way down to that paper route. We walked up to those houses. And here I am now. Now I come from a melting pot family. I was an only child, my dad married into a family with four boys get this two of them are twins. They're one month and one week older than me. So at one time, there was three of us the same age in the house. Then there's another brother two years older and other brother three years older. And the funny thing I tell people, is at one time when the twins and I were freshmen, second oldest brother was a junior oldest brother was a senior, we made up half of the starting varsity soccer team. And my stepmother, Linda was the greatest stepmother in the world. I mean, she made sure she had meals prepared every single night. I mean, we ate that house out every night. Never anything left over the next day, because we ate it all the night before she would get three gallons of milk on Saturday, she'd have to go back for two more gallons of milk on Wednesday to make it to Saturday. But so here I come from this big melting pot family. And then my dad and my stepmother, Linda decided they wanted to have another child they hoped and prayed for a girl, they ended up having a girl she's 12 years younger than me. And so to go back to the paper route is I was the one that they would make talk to people. And so we literally one of the twins and I had a route together twin and another brother had a route together. And then the the oldest had his own. And I can still remember walking up to the very first house when we had to go collect that we hadn't collected for like two or three months. And he looks at me and just elbows, me right in the ribs because you're talking. All right, here we go. And so I just I learned how to talk to people all the way back then. And with some sales, training and some understanding of how to really do things in the business world. I frankly, survived and morphed into the financial advisory side over the course of the next. Let's see, I think started in 95. And I was in the financial advisory site in 2000. You know, over the course of five years, moved moved my way over to the other side.

Robert Peterson 27:52
So I mean, you kind of mentioned some help along the way, how have mentors served you in in your growth journey in that transition of growing your business?

Unknown Speaker 28:03
Oh, mentors have been fantastic. As I think about mentors, I mean, the first couple that come through my mind is is one I just was on a zoom call this morning with a buddy of mine. That's a another financial advisor. He's in Atlanta. And I'll get to the point here, but I'm just having fun telling stories. This has been such a great fun place to tell stories. And I wrote a book, I authored a book, and he's like, Hey, tell me how that book went. How did that book go? And the first words out of my mouth were one it was an amazing experience. And to my book mentor explained kind of the things as we went through the steps and, and just kind of helped me think through things as I was, as I was going through the book journey. And he looked at me about five minutes later, he goes, will you be my book mentor, I said, Of course, I'll be your book, mentor, I gotta pass that on. And so that that is the most recent like great mentoring piece that's just recent. When I started my own firm back in 2008. Over the course of a couple years, I kind of figured figured my way into into some different little groups and some some areas where there were some other advisors and I met an advisor by the name of Rick Becker back in 2010. And he was one of the very first ever registered investment advisors in the state of South Dakota. And I met him and he over the course of multiple years just kind of mentored and coached and like I have a problem with a problem with a client or a problem with something business wise. How did you handle that? How did you do this? It just shaped my ability to continue to persevere with with clients and and and the business all the way back to my old days in the insurance and history. I was always just building friends with other experienced agents and then advisors, and constantly asking them, like, how do you do this? How do you do that? And it's just been ingrained in me to go to those mentors, but like, helped me understand you've already done this helped me understand how to how to do this better. And consequently, anytime anybody asks me for help, anytime they're like, Hey, how do you do this? How do you? Yep? How much time do you want, let's let's go, I turn and pay that forward as many times as I can, because mentors, they've already done it, it might not be the same. But it's a shoulder to cry on if you need to. And it's a it's a coach when you need them to say, hey, go try this. And then it's a cheerleader to like, Hey, man, you got this, I've already done this. I've already gotten my face ripped off before. Trust me, my face went back on and your face will go back onto you're going to be just fine. Nice.

Noelle Peterson 30:59
What has been the impact of your podcast?

Unknown Speaker 31:01
Impact on my podcast? One, I get to meet really cool people around the world. And I get to hear their stories. And that that is the greatest impact right there. I mean, I have built friends all over the country, and all over the world, just by the podcast and meeting, cool people hearing their stories. And I picked something up and I learned something every single time. So that's that's the first impact. The second impact of which, unfortunately, or fortunately, was the reason I did it is I wanted to create a a stream of qualified prospects coming into my business. I mean, why wouldn't you want to have, you know, a business benefit from it. And so I started this thing, in March of 2020, it's actually probably February, I started it, my first episode went April 15, to 2020. And everybody in the industry, every financial advisor, buddy of mine, they're like three years, man, give it three years, give it three years, you'll start to actually see, like business return from it. And sure enough, I'm sitting here at about two and a half years. And it's interesting, we're starting to see qualified prospects come in, that are turning into clients, I've on boarded three, just in the last few months. It's just weird how it works. But people start to really understand you because they've been listening to you even in their ears for one week, one month, one year, and it's just really, really fun to hear people's stories, learn about their journey, and then figure out a way to then go help those people that are listening in some way shape or form with your with your message. And with your guests. I mean, like you guys are on my podcast, you're going to share with me your wisdom, and help my listeners. And frankly, if they don't people listen to me, don't call me but they call you and they use your your services and and they want you to help them even better, because that's going to give the opportunity for me to then share that audience and share the abundance out there in the world to help you.

Robert Peterson 33:26
Oh, absolutely. i You see, you mentioned your book and mentor helping you create it and but what's the title of your book and who's, who's the audience for it and kind of what was your intent or purpose in writing.

Unknown Speaker 33:41
The title of the book is called The solopreneurs money manifesto. And it is how to master your finances and create the life you want. It is written for literally in the book, it's written for an executive coach that says, I really want to figure out how to master my finances, I want to create the life that I want. And I want to I want to reduce my taxes. I want to build up the assets to be able to pay for my kids to go to college or take my family on a dream vacation or buy a Beach Condo or whatever. And so it's this journey of the process that I use to help clients literally master their finances and create the life that they want. So the book is called The solopreneurs money manifesto. And why did I write the book? I started I started doing podcast episodes. And I was outlining podcast episodes. And over the course of a few months of podcast episodes, I looked down at my notes and I went holy buckets. I got a book here. I might as well just create a book to it. So that's what that was kind of the catalyst. And then the timing. We were in the middle of COVID We weren't we weren't traveling all over the country for soccer. We weren't traveling all The country for cheer and dance. We were home. And we had time. And so I was like, well, if I'm going to do a book, it's time. It's time to do the book right now. So I started the process of the book. I, and I will tell anybody that asks is the greatest experience that I went through with the book I heard a company called scribe. Scribe is a company that from soup to nuts starts you off with your book concept all the way to the end of marketing. And I actually had a ghostwriter, the ghostwriter wrote my book, but I spoke the book out, I spoke the book out every two hours, two hours every other Friday for eight months to my ghostwriter. And he literally took transcribed it, in my words, wrote the book, in my words, it literally sounds like me, like when you get to know who I am, and you read the book, like, oh, that sounds just like, hey, it was a great experience. Now, that experience is not cheap. But that experience was fantastic for me. And it worked for me in my life, with with how we're doing things, and I tell anybody that if they don't really want to write the book, and they know that they might start it, but they won't finish it. Don't mess around, just go hire somebody and have them take care of it. And that was what my mentor told me. Because I was like, Hey, I kind of thinking about a book you did that. Tell me about yours. He says, stop right there. Do not waste any more time. Just call scribe. Seriously, don't mess around, just go call scribe. And I did and it was a great decision.

Noelle Peterson 36:31
Nice. So what does it look like to design your business around your family?

Unknown Speaker 36:38
You're looking at it. I mean, this is it's beautiful. to design my business around my family in 2010. We built a new house, I set up in the basement, my business operations, my my office is operating out of my house. Up until early 2022, I had a small little executive suite that I would run client meetings at. But the way my day is is built around my family. The way my life runs is built around my family, the way my business runs is built around my family. So what I'll do is, I'll explain a little more operate out of my house. My morning routine is this 5am Wake up call workout meditation. I got like four books sitting on my desk that I read every morning. There's a devotional, there's a philosophy book. And then there's two books that I read 10 minutes in each each day, so that I keep reading books and filling my brain. There's a journaling aspect. And then by about seven o'clock, I'm in the kitchen making breakfast, for whoever wants breakfast in the morning. And so my kids, my wife, whoever make breakfast, everybody heads out the door, I take a shower, I'm in my office by between eight and 830 and get to work. Four o'clock, most days I'm done. I walk upstairs, I start picking up the kitchen and I make supper, I cook supper, I'm the cook in the house, I make supper almost every single night for the family. And so that's the daily, when we travel. My kids up until just the last couple of years, my my kids basically would just know that I would be up early in the morning, we travel, I work for a little bit, take care of some emails, take care of some client things, and then shut it off. And then we go play wherever we're going, whether it's snowboarding in Colorado or beach in Costa Rica, wherever we're going. That's always been the deal. So I've built everything around my family purposefully. So that's what it looks like. Nice,

Noelle Peterson 38:48
so valuable.

Robert Peterson 38:49
Yeah. All right. We're gonna talk about playing fun, because you mentioned that but first, I want to ask you, with all the business success that you've had, what what is what is your biggest challenge? Or what's been your biggest challenge?

Unknown Speaker 39:06
I'd say the biggest challenge Up until a couple of years ago was getting caught doing stuff that I shouldn't do. And what I mean by that is is like, there's no reason whatsoever that an entrepreneur should spend more than, you know, 30 minutes max, maybe an hour in a day on email. I mean, you shouldn't do that. In so there's activities that as an entrepreneur, we know where we are best. We know where we frankly have the biggest return on the investment. And we also know that that stuff that fills our cup makes us happy and just gives us energy. And it took me a little while to figure that out that I need to get staff in place now I've hired two virtual assistant companies to support me Each one handles the front office, I call it. My executive assistant. There's a company called Athena executive services. They specialize in high end, executive assistants. And then there's another company called Total office. And total office is a niche executive assistant company or virtual assistant company that supports financial advisors. I've delegated and invested in those two companies and in their people to support me so that all that I do on a daily basis is I take about 30 minutes a day to deal with emails, I do tasks that only I can do. And I meet with clients and I talk to clients, and I do podcasts. That's it. And I'm trying to get to a point to get rid of a couple more of those things. So that all I do is just talk to people. That is the biggest thing is any entrepreneur that's listening. And they feel like they're working like crazy. And they feel like they are missing their kids stuff. And they feel like they're just hair on fire. At the end of the day, they can't settle down, they need to drink for drinks, so they can go to sleep, whatever your story is, you probably need to get delegate more stuff off of your plate so that you can actually do what you were designed to do. And if you can focus on the things you were designed to do. Your business is better your life is better. Your marriage is better, your skin is better. Everything's better. So, so good. Yeah,

Noelle Peterson 41:24
so going back to play and fun, how important is it to have play and fun in your business and in your life?

Unknown Speaker 41:32
Well, the beautiful thing about my business, and frankly most most entrepreneurs, when you're out having fun doing things, there's usually business being done around it at times, or you're you're you're looking to somebody who might be a prospect for you or your business like, hey, this person is able to relax and have fun and go do things. I think I might want to either learn from them, or I want my might want them to help me then maybe they figured out some things that I haven't figured out. So to me, play is is outrageously important. One because it usually helps your business but to it helps your brain it helps your body recover, and allows you to reset so that you can come back and be better for what you're doing. So to me play is outrageously important. One of my goals for 2023 is I'm going to play more golf, I'm going to play way more golf, and I'm going to invite clients, I'm gonna invite prospects, I'm gonna invite more people just like let's just go have fun, we're not gonna talk about business, we're just gonna go have fun. And I know that it will start to lead to more things. I've got this really cool idea. So if somebody has a really awesome ski in ski out Airbnb that they want to rent for not 40 grand for a month, have already looked into it once before. I want to get a place out in Colorado and rent for a month, ski in ski out and then just invite friends and clients and prospects to come out and spend two or three days at a time, just come out. We're gonna go snowboarding skiing, and just go have fun. And then when when we're done, you go home and I'll go back to work for a few more hours. And I'm going to go back and go snowboarding again, I just think that would be so much fun. And what you get with that is you get a cook because I cook all the meals, I cook breakfast, I cook supper, and we'll sit in the hot tub and have a drink or two and we'll get up do it again the next day.

Robert Peterson 43:22
All right, we know some people we're gonna, we might we might make that hook up.

Unknown Speaker 43:28
I'll take it, I will take it.

Robert Peterson 43:31
So all right, here's, we're gonna get to I want to plant the seed because these are the two hardest questions. So the dream questions coming. So you need to know what your big dream is. But because of your great relationship with your wife, I love to ask What's your most memorable date?

Unknown Speaker 43:48
Oh, Most Memorable Date. The one I'm thinking of right now is for my 40th birthday. She surprised me we drove up to Minneapolis and we're staying in this hotel and sitting at the bar having a drink for we're gonna go out for supper. And she She surprised me with my best man in my wedding. My best friend came and tapped me on the shoulder. And I had no idea no idea he was coming. And we went and the four of us his his fiancee at the time is now his wife. We all went out for just a fantastic night for my birthday and had a great time and so that that that is probably like one of the greatest because of all the planning and all the work and all the things she had to do to make that pull that off and make it happen. And that was just that was a lot of fun. So that to me that's that's my selfish one. Yeah.

Robert Peterson 44:47
Nice. I like that. That those are the perfect kind of memories that that are fun to share and, and and for people to aspire to like I hope people listening are thinking about man I want to be in a cabin for a month in Colorado. When I want my wife to bring my best friend to my 40th birthday, and have a great evening together, so I think that's exciting. Yeah. Back to them,

Noelle Peterson 45:12
what is your big dream?

Unknown Speaker 45:16
My big dream. My big dream is I really, I want to be able to be laying on my deathbed and realize that I was one great dad, one great, you know, brother, great son, and a great friend, if I can end my life going. I did that right, then to me, I think it was, it was all worth it. If you want to know, what's the material dream? Well, in a couple of years, when my kids are all out of the house, and my daughters are in college that are still not quote, unquote, off payroll. My plan is to travel the world still run my business, still run my podcast, still do everything. But do it location independent. I want to spend, I don't know why I want to spend a month in Portugal. I just want to go to Portugal for a month. And then somewhere else after that.

Noelle Peterson 46:09
That must be the place. We've heard a lot about Portugal lately.

Unknown Speaker 46:13
Yeah, yeah. And a month in Colorado, snowboarding in the wintertime in the best possible time when the snow is there. And then when we're sick of that go to the beach in Costa Rica, or the beach in air in Florida. But the idea is just to be able to go see the world travel the world while still running my business, and still taking care of you know, my family and everything else that comes along with it.

Robert Peterson 46:37
I think I almost heard you say the beach in Arizona. So you're already planning for California to fall off, I heard

Unknown Speaker 46:45
no, Arizona is in my head lately, because my parents have a place that we might actually buy. And so it just that's just like, that was a what would you call it a Freudian slip? It was a slip.

Robert Peterson 46:56
It's a very long beach from Arizona to California.

Unknown Speaker 47:00
Well, you could say it's all beach, you know, there's that with all the sand and the rock.

Robert Peterson 47:06
Alright, before we get to the last question, I want to talk about joy and gratitude. How's gratitude served you in your daily life as a man as a husband as a father? And then how does that impact your business?

Unknown Speaker 47:23
You know, as part of my journaling every single day, I write down three things I'm grateful for. And that has served me because it allows me to, it has to be something different every day. And it just keeps bringing gratitude up like okay, I'm, I'm just grateful that we had a great meeting last night with our soccer team. I'm grateful that that my daughter is feeling better. I mean, just getting just, it starts my day. Really well. And so the best way I can say it is I start my day grateful. And then it allows my my thoughts and my intentions to be where they should be on a daily basis. And when our thoughts or intentions. I mean, you guys are mindset experts. When when your thoughts and intentions are in the right place. You're just better business, you're better for business, you're better for your clients, you're better for everything that's going on.

Robert Peterson 48:19
So good. Yeah. All right.

Noelle Peterson 48:20
So you've spent about 45 minutes with us? What words of wisdom would you leave for our listeners?

Unknown Speaker 48:28
I think I have to repeat, since this is an entrepreneur podcast, I think the thing that I have to repeat is figure out what you're good at, do that figure out how to get rid of everything else so that you can operate in your genius on a daily basis. And if you do, your business will be great, your life will be great. I'm bald, your hair will be great. Your skin will be great. And I say that I mean, but you know, to some people Bald is beautiful. So to me, I just I wanted to get rid of the hair because I was getting an island. But to go back to focus on your genius entrepreneurs and when you focus on your genius and you get other people to do the things you don't like to do. You're operating what I would say above the line on a daily basis and you will see tremendous returns.

Robert Peterson 49:18
Gabe, thank you so much. What a wonderful conversation I learned so much more about you and your family and, and all the things that you're doing and appreciate you taking the time to share with our audience today.

Unknown Speaker 49:31
My pleasure. Thank you very much. I appreciate it.

Robert Peterson 49:33
This episode is brought to you by intentional decisions that lead to massive success. No, those aren't companies promoting our show their qualities that you need to build your business and take control of your life. So to help you out, I'm offering my most popular worksheets to help you plan the future you want and audit your calendar today. The best way to get what you want is to know what it is and start making sure that your calendar matches You can download them for free today at add value mindset.com. If you will take action by just completing these two activities, they will change your life in business. I promise you a new level of results in the coming year. The problem is that we make things so complicated and we lose focus on what is really important. These tools will help you refocus on what matters most. When you align your passion with your purpose in your work, you can be happier and start doing the things you wanted to in the first place, like spending more quality time with the kids. To get your free copy of the tools to start tackling your busy schedule. Go to add value mindset.com If you enjoy this show, please like subscribe, leave a review. But most importantly, if you enjoyed this episode, share it with someone who needs to hear it. Share, share share in our next episode, Angela Gentile and Robert Dwelle talk about what happens when like duct tapes you and shoves you in the trunk. What happens when you train for a career and you jump in excited and enthusiastic? But you hate it and are miserable.

Noelle Peterson 51:06
It took Angeles seven years to make the leap into her passion. But her pain was her message and she used her Zen rage heal process to help others who felt the same about their lives.