Going Long Podcast_4 Year Anni... Episode 435_with Jerome Myers

Thu, Jul 04, 2024 9:43AM • 48:20

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

podcast, people, happened, episodes, continue, billy, investing, realize, man, today, optional, give, exit, helping, listen, friends, guest, corporate, resilient, feel

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Today's conversation is sponsored by the Billy keels advisory program. If you want to learn more about how to make your nine to five optional, just go to Billy keels.com, forward slash advising once again, that's Billy keels.com, forward slash advising.

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00:12

It's really hard to envision what's possible until you start.

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00:17

And it took, I guess, four years to really go from thinking about the podcast, to publishing the very first five episodes all in one day.

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00:27

That happened back in June 2020. When I finally decided to launch the going long podcast with yours truly, Billy keels. Now, it's been four years.

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00:38

But you can probably already feel like things are a little bit different in this episode. Well, I can promise you that because today we're keeping a very real, going to be very transparent. And even some moments where yours truly gets a little bit vulnerable.

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00:53

But if I think back to June 2020, in this four year anniversary, in this fourth year anniversary episode, I can tell you that there was absolutely no goal to be ranked in the top 1.5% of podcasts globally. There was definitely no goal to publish 435 episodes today. And there was no goal to be listened to in over 60 countries. Now, each one of these is very accept each one of these with with lots of humility. And at the same time, one of the things I recognize is that anytime you have success, success comes with challenges. And guess what those challenges also come with opportunities.

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01:36

One of the things I want to do is address a couple of the questions that come up a lot, or have come up recently, and also talk to you about how 2023 specifically, not only presented me with some challenges, also gave me some opportunities to change, but most importantly, provided the chance to rise above adversity.

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02:00

Before we get into today's episode, because it's this one's a little bit different, actually, you're going to see me as well, I'll tell you just after this, you're gonna see me as a as a guest.

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02:12

But before we get into the episode, there are a couple of people that I absolutely want to say thank you to first and foremost, I want to thank my sons, you are my motivation, you are my inspiration, you are the loves of my life. And

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02:27

without the two of you, this would have been so much more complicated to get through 2023 I'm referring to Big shout out and massive thank you to mom for being there, round the clock all day all night. And also making sure that I was doing the things that I was supposed to be doing. Dad big, big shouts out lots of love. Thank you for spending so many hours or actually investing so much time with me on the phone and video and getting through 2023 stepmom for continuing to have confidence in me supporting me and also to my brother and sister without the two of you that I don't know, like I said 1000s of hours want to say thank you big love to you also want to thank other friends who have become family members, like brothers and sisters dedicating time carving out time in your schedule just to be there with me to sit in the mud to, to laugh to cry, we couldn't have done any of this without your gotten to this point without you. And also to I want to say a big thank you to my team. Because without you, we wouldn't have continued to publish, we wouldn't have continued to be able to address the things that we needed to address or want to send a big thank out thanks to you.

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03:41

And so let me get in move towards today's episode because it's a it's a little bit different. And I know you're gonna like it, because it's going to answer a lot of questions. Specifically, some of the questions you've had around what happened in 2023? What was going on? And so you got specifically asked about really what are these highlight episodes? What is it? What's this all about? Why are they happening? Or why did they happen? And also to now you've recognized there's some changes, and I'm doing a lot more solo episodes, and what's the reason behind doing more of the solo episodes. So

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04:10

let me address those two things. First 2023, and you'll hear more about this in the episode was was a very challenging time. For me. Lots of things happen for me in 2023. And one of the things that I decided to not do was continue to publish or be in front of the camera for a period of time. And so that's why we wanted to make sure that we continuously delivered on our promise to give you two episodes per week. And so that is what we did we continue to come up with those episodes. And these are really rich episodes with content, actionable advice, and we've trusted and based on the things we've seen on from our stats, you did appreciate that. And then the second part is really understanding the solo episodes those goes back to actually 2022 and 2022 started doing some solo episodes and based on the data that we have you

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05:00

Really we're enjoying them and also had some, some of your honest written reviews and you let us know that you'd like that. And so we continue to now do as I continue to have new curiosities and new ideas, I want to share them with you directly in the same way that I was doing it before in much shorter episodes, and also being able to give you much more actionable advice, stories, et cetera, et cetera. So those are the two reasons that Well, I want to do those, make sure that we address those right now. But most importantly, as I continue to have new interests, new areas where I know that I want to be able to make an impact, and also the topics that are going to be relevant for you, you're going to start to understand and feel just like today that the podcast is going to continue to evolve, going to now focus on a lot of the new interests that I have. A lot of the focus areas that I will share with you are areas of passion that I have really, very similar to before really helping those that are mid six figure and seven figure salary,

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06:02

corporate employees, and helping you to be able to recognize and to make the path to help to make your nine to five optional, we're going to talk about specific topics that are related to money to your mindset, and also to the mission that you're on, being able to do it in a way that was much more effective, being able to do it in a shorter timeframe that I was being able to do. And who knows, we may even get back to inviting some guests every once in a while to also bring in their insight. But it's one of these things we know where we want to go. And we will adjust along the way and also see what it is that you want, and how we can build on that promise. So with that, we're going to do something a little bit different today. As I said, You were already feeling that. But today, I'm going to be the guest, we have a massively superstar host today, somebody who's actually tasting to be more on the podcast more than my son's. We'll see if he gets there.

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07:00

But what I want to also say is, as you continue to be with us along this journey, you will be listening to and watching for those of you like to watch on video, the things that are on my heart that are on my mind. And my goal is that, that you continue to stay with me with the podcast. And all at the same time, I'll understand if this means that this is a point in time where it's not really what you want to do anymore. And what I can say is I have appreciated every single second that you have invested with me to be here to listen to watch. And what I can wish for you now is continued peace, love, and light. And so with that, I want to share with you today's four year anniversary episode, episode number 435, where I am your guest

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07:48

of the going long podcast, with Billy keels today, hosted by Jerome Myers.

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07:58

Hey, everybody, and welcome to the going long podcast. I am your host, Jerome, and I am not in Barcelona. I am not Billy keels. But Billy keels is here today. And he is in Barcelona. Billy, how are you, man? So good to be with you today? Hey, well, thank you very much drum it is. It's kind of weird to be on the side of the on the side of the on the side of the microphone or the camera or whatever. But yeah, it's nice to be here. And you're a wonderful gracious host man.

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08:28

Well, it's an honor to be here. Shout out to the boys. Because I'm in rare air right now I'm back on the show, guys, I'm coming for the top spot. I want to be the most repeated guests on this podcast. And with that said, Billy, you've been in a cave. I call it figuring out how to make fire.

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08:54

And you've been doing some reflection, you've been doing some thinking. And I think you've come up with some new hypotheses on what things are really about and how you are going to make an impact on the world. And that's part of the reason why I'm over here today because I get to ask him questions about the journey that you've been on over the I don't know if we call it the past year, the past 18 months. But it's been a while. And so whenever time passes like that, and really smart people go away and go in.

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09:30

Some amazing things start to happen and people benefit on the backside. So what's been going on, man? What sent you into the caves doing doing all this deep work? Yeah, so I love the question. And so this is a Yeah, it's one of these things where it's been quite a while to actually have a host because you're the host and I have a guest here because everybody's gotten used to just having me monologue here recently.

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09:56

But one of the things you talked about is is is really important.

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10:00

Is when life gives you the opportunity to make changes, some times whatnot, not sometimes, but you want to make sure that you make the most of each one of those opportunities that you have to change and to elevate the things that have presented themselves in your life. And so 2023 was a very impactful year for me. So I had two major, major decisions, or major things that happened in my life, aside of being able to spend a lot of time with the guys are investing my time, it's the best way to say it, investing my time with the with my two young men, the guests who's no one has ever seen their face, their faces, you have seen their faces a couple of times, actually, guys.

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10:43

So being able to invest a lot of time and energy with with my boys, has been absolutely fantastic. And at the same time, gone through divorce in my life. And so that is something that was, you know, I think most of the people that have ever listened to me and been here, know that family is such an important thing for me, being together was such an important aspect or fundamental part of who I believed I was. And that had a change in my in my life. And then also at the same time. Well, you as you leave the corporate world, there's so many positive things that can happen. And also following after your own dream or chasing your own goal, building your own dream, you also learn that not every single person that you come into contact with is as let's say, and say that what's the best way to put it, it has the same intentions as you do. So this kind of a topic, second thing that happened to me, I can't really go too much into it right now. But let's just say some business dealings didn't move in the direction that we're supposed to. And because there's still a course of action that's in progress, I can't really go into that second part too terribly much. But the most important thing is both of those actions that happened for me, in 2023 2023, really gave me the opportunity to sit down to reflect, reflect on myself as a as an individual, as a person, as a leader, as a father, and figure out really what do I want to be able to do in the next chapter of my life in this current chapter of my life, to be able to continue to grow and also to be able to give, give back to others and to help others. And it's already started happening in quite a nice way. To answer your question, oh, yeah, yeah, it does at the highest levels. And we'll only go as deep as you're comfortable going deep on any of these topics. I know a lot of people are impacted by family changes. And I know a lot of people go into business, and they find people who don't have the same level of integrity as they do. And that can impact them and force them to make adjustments or changes to their approach to business so that they not only protect the others who may be participating in the business with them, but also so that they protect themselves. When you have a servant's heart, I think it's easy to believe that others are interested in serving instead of getting gain, even if it's ill gotten. But that is not who you are. And so I appreciate you sharing that, because I think it's a warning sign for folks out there, that if you're not careful, there are people who will take advantage of somebody who is trustworthy. So with that said, there's been some little signals out there, man, I looked at your LinkedIn tagline not too long ago, and it says something about nine to five and optional. And, you know, I don't know the exact words, but I'm sure you do. And I mean, you don't do things kind of happenstance. So how do you make your nine to five optional? Yeah, so Well, it's actually pretty simple process to be able to do that. But I guess the most important thing is come back to what you what you mentioned before. And as you go through life, and I spent so much of my

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early years being that

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the student who was a really, really great student, studied hard, worked hard, got the really good grades, then went out, got a great job. In wasn't my dream job, but ended up being an amazing job with traveled around the world. Got a chance to see almost 60 countries in five years, which is absolutely amazing set me on a trajectory to start to go out, see the world explore new things moved up the corporate ranks, I think it talked about it many times, managing businesses as large as $100 million across Europe, Middle East and Africa, closing transactions in other languages and other cultures, almost $30 million. And so there's a certain point, you start to think, Wow, this is going to continue to move in this way. And I'm going to continue to be in the corporate game and I'm going to continue to have electric cars and I'm going to continue to to fill up the bank account and continue to spend time on airplanes on trains and do all of these different things. And then

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14:56

one of the things we talked about these two little guys that show up in your life and

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15:00

You start to realize that hang on a second, is it really worth staying overnight so many times is it really worth being on so many calls is it really worth having this constant feeling of insecurity that my bank account is going to start to crash. And I was really fortunate to realize that, hey, there's a lot of different skill sets that I've learned in corporate that I can actually do that I'm helping other people build their dreams during the day. And I was very, very happy doing that. And at the same time, realize, Wow, if I could start to have my own time and keep my own time,

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15:28

and be able to, to invest it with those that I love in the moments that I that I want, then that's what I wanted to do. And so I went on a track for about a decade to be able to not only enjoy and give a lot to corporate, but also to build my own business and be able to do that on on the side, almost about a decade. And so I realized that there were some pretty key principles that you needed to be able to do not making the same mistakes that I made, because even though I was able to leave corporate at the age of 48, I could have done it even faster, more efficiently, with a lot less heartache, and probably a lot less drama. And so making your nine to five, five optional is really about being able to say, Hey, listen, I enjoy my corporate role. I like what I'm doing, it's giving a lot to me to my family. And I don't want to have to go through thinking that I 100% have to depend on a corporate salary for the rest of my life. Because a lot of times if you want to design your own life, it doesn't mean working 12 to 16 hours a day, in an office and Planes, Trains and Automobiles, unless you want to do that. So the whole point around nine to five optional is really about saying, Hey, you like your corporate role, you like being able to get big six, and sometimes seven figure bonus checks? And yes, they do exist.

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16:39

It's about how do you do that? And figure out where does that fit in your overall life plan? And how can you enjoy that get the experience the network, the context, and then at the same time, be able to feel confident in exiting stage left, meaning leaving corporate life if and when it's the right time for you. So that's about the nine to five option on being able to do it so that you're also understanding how you have a clear mindset, you have the money and the capacity to do it, and also how you're building the right momentum. So that when it's time to exit, you can exit.

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This is exciting. You know, I'm the exit guy like, exits. I'm gonna just plug you real quick, the exit paradox check him out. Yeah.

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Yeah, so you know that you talked about the exit. So what's really been cool about watching your journey over, I don't know, maybe the past five years or so is you've never begrudged having a job, right? The W two treated you well, it created all kinds of opportunities. Well, only time that I've heard you not be super positive about it was the fact that you were getting on the plane on a day that your child was having a birthday. And that had an impact on you. And it was a move where you decided that you wanted to be in more control. And that more control meant either you decided if you came in when or when you came and went in, there are other things that you decided you wanted to control. And maybe control isn't the right word, maybe I will say you decided not to give up your agency. I really liked the word agency. And I think that is relevant with some of the things that we talked about early on where you were discussing, hey, I had a family change, hey, I had some business stuff that I didn't really love. And you get to decide how you're going to engage or interact with those things. For a lot of people who have those things happen at the same time, they would just crumble, they would break they would give up, they would just, you know, turn around and say it just wasn't meant to be and put the dreams in a bottle and throw it out to see. But when going on that journey with you, I got to see what resilience really looks like. And I don't believe that resilience is a word that's talked about a lot. I've got a book recently called anti fragile.

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19:02

And they talked about building the anti fragile and they like that's a specialist different. I think they were just trying to be cute from a marketing standpoint. But the fact of the matter is, resilience is the thing that makes us able to deal with the stresses and the challenges that come up in life. And I found entrepreneurship to be one of the most stressful and at times traumatic things that you can go into.

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19:33

What do you credit your resiliency to? Where did you build that? Because I know that it's some it's a muscle, it's something that can be built. But you know, as we're talking about mindset, resiliency is kind of intertwine with that.

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19:49

So one of the things that you mentioned being on that journey, part of that journey with me, good part of that journey.

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19:58

I like to think about what is the actual

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20:00

meaning how someone defined resilience, right? And resilience, as defined by Merriam Webster, is an ability to recover from or just easily to misfortune or change.

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20:13

Now I read that and I almost get, I get a little bit emotional actually.

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20:18

Because it was,

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it was a,

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it was a moment to be able to go through that, right. And so you start to realize, you don't really understand how resilient you are, until you're given situations that are extremely difficult, extremely challenging.

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20:35

And I think going into

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especially the two things that really impacted me on a, I would say, on a not positive note,

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I didn't realize how resilient I was.

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And also being a recovering perfectionist, actually, the perfectionist really started coming out because it was like, I can do all this by myself, I can handle this all by myself, and you start to realize that life gives you at times, opportunities to show

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who's actually in charge, or who's not in charge, and have you done the things in the way that are, or in an Integris way or in a way that helps you to continue to stand and face any type of adversity.

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And I realized that

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the ability to be resilient, is not just about having a plan, it's not just being able to recover

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from or easily adjust to misfortune and change. It also has a lot about who do you have around you, when life gives you your most difficult challenges? And

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what interests do those individuals have, in terms of being able to sometimes just listen, sometimes just sit in the mud, right? Not do anything, just listen to you get things off of your heart, other times to be able to pick you up other times to be able to challenge you, so that you can adjust to whatever misfortune or whatever change you perceive to have happened, right. And so a lot of it, I guess, was probably just watching. Two parents grow up early on in life that were constantly faced with challenges that were financial, sometimes based on relationship. And seeing that and recognizing that they were able to continue to move forward, they were able to continue to do the best for me for my brother and my sister putting what they wanted to be able to do my parents, their own individual, but maybe goals and objectives to bring out the best for us.

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And then having the humility, right was one of the things that you and I talked about to be able to say, hey, look, I need help. I need somebody that can talk to you. I need somebody that can listen to me. Because I know that no matter how difficult this may seem, eventually, we'll be able to move forward and move forward and be even better, faster, stronger. You know, just on a side note, I was I was not talking to talking to my mom not too long ago, just a couple days ago. And in this conversation, we were just laughing, laughing, laughing, laughing.

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And in the conversation, my mom literally stopped me. So mom, if you're listening, I'm gonna tell a little bit about our conversation. And she stopped in the conversation and she said, Son, do you realize how blessed you are? And I said, Oh, you mean, she said a year ago, you wouldn't have been able to be laughing like you are laughing right now.

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Or you wouldn't have left the way you're laughing right now. And that helps me to always remember that.

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I am a resilient individual. And I am here to not only learn and grow but also give to others. And if there's anything that I've learned about resiliency is that it really is about having a plan but also having the right relationships of people that you can go to when not if but when things don't go according to plan and that they are thinking about you and your your interest to be able to help move you forward. So

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24:09

So Mama Yeah, I did tell a little bit of our conversation song, I hope you still love me.

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24:15

Now, one of the things that I see coming up more and more is the mental health of men. And a lot of times, you know, we just lift more weights or we'll run or we'll talk to our friends. But I think there are times in our lives where we might need some more help. And so, I know there's in some cultures, the stigma around getting support from professionals. You know, those are therapists counselors.

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24:51

I know you grew up in the Midwest, you know, and you know, it's kind of pull yourself up by your bootstraps country. What would you say to somebody

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25:00

The out there who is struggling with change are struggling with whatever the stresses of their life. And they're trying to get it from people who aren't actually trained to support them through it, even if they may have similar life experiences.

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So that's.

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So the thing that comes to mind is you don't know what you don't know, right.

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And many times you, you do go to maybe someone who doesn't, they don't intentionally not have your best,

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25:37

your best interests at heart, but they're maybe trying to protect you, they think they're protecting you by responding sometimes to things that can happen.

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25:45

We live in a day and age. Now where you know, somebody may be listening to this podcast, and they just randomly got it because a friend of their family said, Hey, listen, you should, you should go and check out this podcast is a similar story, et cetera, et cetera.

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25:58

The access to information, the access to thoughts that are different than ours, I think, is just everybody has a phone, right? And can access that whether it's audible listening, or we're going to watch a video, to be able to go outside of your, quote unquote, comfort zone to be able to take in other points of view, professional points of view, and there's a lot of different podcasts, there's videos, there's, there's, there's different things, and I would just I would suggest that someone, at least go out and look at two or three different

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points of view. If nothing else, because you know, just going to talk to your friends that you've talked to your whole life lived down the street from you're doing the exact same stuff that you're doing is not necessarily the best way to help to change the paradigm that you're looking to change. So I would start there, first and foremost. And I would also say, Yeah, I mean, I mean, the way that I grew up, you didn't really talk a lot about your stuff outside of the house. Not right or wrong. It's just the way that way that me and a lot of other I was talking to some really good friends of mine not too long ago. And it's just, it's how we raised. What I can tell you my experience now is that it's really great when you can go talk to a trained professional, that has a very objective viewpoint and are listening with trained ears, that can give you perspective on really what is happening, what's happening on a conscious level, what's happening on a subconscious level, on an emotional level.

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So I'm a I'm a big fan of that. And I think with technology, or I know with technology, it's easier than it ever has been.

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27:35

Wow, wow. So there's access to the help. And in concept that help could help you move through whatever your challenges are more quickly because of their training. That's correct.

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27:52

Got it? Yeah. All right.

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I trust you're enjoying today's conversation. If you want to find out more about how to make your nine to five optional, just go to Billy keels.com, forward slash advising. Once again, that's Billy keels.com, forward slash advising. Now back to the conversation.

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28:09

I would say that you in the cave, you might have found the really dark spot, the rock bottom.

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28:17

What pulled you out?

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28:20

Where was the light.

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28:22

Um, so there's a lot of lights. But I think the biggest light was talking about my mom earlier.

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28:32

Just being there. And knowing that the brightest light was my mom, because she just spent so much time with me. She didn't she didn't spend that she invested time with me, she made sure that I was doing the things that I needed to be doing. When I needed to do them, even if I didn't want to IE, eat and eat and eat meat,

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which was fantastic.

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28:53

But being able to find your mom lives Liam I lift

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29:01

No,

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29:03

let me go down the street.

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29:07

Now, so, you know, just having her there and present was was massive. But also you start to realize it and this is one of the mistakes that I was making is I wasn't giving people close friends.

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29:25

Family members the opportunity to to help me release some of the burden that I was carrying to allow them to love me, allow them to pour into me. And so

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29:37

it's one of those things that I recognize, yeah, there was definitely a dark place. But a year later, I realized that I am so much stronger. I am so much more powerful thanks to the Friends, yourself included, that were there for me in the moments that even I didn't recognize I just needed to talk to somebody. It was just because I had things that were going on in my mind. And so

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30:00

Oh, that was

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30:03

probably the greatest source of light. And then realizing, I mean, the obvious thing, and this is bad, but I'm going to verbalize it because that's just what I am doing is being able to be the best version of a father, for my sons like that is just an amazing, like, they serve as inspiration for me all the time, even when they don't even realize it. And then having this bright light of my mother there, and then having friends that continue to pour into me that were there for me. And that continued to be here for me. It just gives me the recognition to say, Hey, listen, man, there's so much more like this is a moment in time. Because one of the things that I did take away as well, from the experiences is, everything is a moment in time, no matter how. And this is like conceptually like you hear it, but until you actually live it. And so now I've gone from sympathy to empathy, because now I've lived it. Now I understand what it's all about. And it's saying, this moment, is a moment, and it's a really low moment, but it's going to go away. And then you're going to get to a moment where you think everything is just on you're on top of the world, nothing can stop you. But that's the moment that you also have to realize, like this is just a moment too. And so now having this perspective, is one of the things that really helps me now want to shine my light brighter to other people, and help other people be able to move forward and move forward faster. You talk about time, it's just one of those things. It's that's the thing, we don't get back, no matter how much you try to bring in more money. The thing that's the most important is the time and how are you investing it? And how are? How are you? Yeah, how are you investing your time? Because you don't get any of it back? So bright lights mill? Yeah. How fortunate are you

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to have the people in your life, but then how fortunate are they to have you. And so there's this mutual benefit going on. And the thing that I've learned is more valuable than anything is having a mutually I say, hopefully, you have multiple mutually beneficial relationships where you're able to lean on each other in times of need.

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And you want to spend time with each other when you don't actually need anything. It's just the opportunity. I remember, we were sitting on a boat in St. Lucia, not too long ago, and it wasn't a little boat, it was a big boat. In fact, whenever we pull it up, I would look to the left and right to make sure we had the big it's

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not that I'm competitive or anything. But I still remember sitting there and talking about freedom, talking about what is available to us if we dare to dream, and we dare to explore and pursue. And to me, it looks like you're in a way that I haven't seen in the past because you're extremely private person and you protect your time like the Secret Service protects the president, it looks like you're opening up your calendar a little bit more and giving a very select group of people access to you.

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And your experiences and your network.

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33:15

And so who who's that designed for? Because, you know, we talked about nine to five and it was super high level. But I think you actually got this thing dialed in. I think you're helping people with like,

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33:28

in efficiency.

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33:31

And like, helped me. Yeah, so in this was probably more around the world. What are we doing now in terms of working and helping and serving others from from business perspective, I guess is probably one of the the Yeah, okay. So

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33:47

yeah, one of the things that happens when you are a kid from a lower middle class family and you you watch your family members work hard, and then you work hard, and then you start to get the recognition. And then after the recognition, you start to get the financial reward you you believe that the only thing that you can do is continue to work harder and get more financial reward and get more recognition. And you get into this loop this similar thing that I was talking about earlier? Well, when you start to realize that it's not just about finances, and about money, it's also about time, how you invest your time. It's the struggle that I had for the 10 years that I was living two lives, right? It was, I constantly felt like I couldn't do enough, even though I was doing a lot and I was making a lot of money. But I also wanted to be at home with the family. I also wanted to be in front of the CEOs of the major multibillion euro companies that we were talking to I wanted to lead the team that I was going for, and I also wanted to make sure that I was getting my sleep at night. And at a certain point you start to realize that

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34:49

you have so many options. You have financial resources, you have relationships, and at the same time, you're you're working on doing everything

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35:00

thing yourself, because that's just the way that you've always done it. And when you start to realize that there are only 24 hours in a day that your dream is so big that you want to be able to have the option of continuing to work at a big company or have the option of exiting Stage Left with no hard feelings.

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35:18

Along the line, there are so many different areas of you, you're choosing the wrong priorities, you're on that corporate phone call, when this is actually a call that nothing is going to happen. There's no decisions that are going to be made. And you could have been investing that time with your child, or you could have invested that early morning time to be able to move the agenda for your, your your small company forward. And is to be able to help those individuals who are

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35:45

working in big companies are probably some of most of our clients are, are in the area of from a financial resource perspective, or in the mid six figure salary type of range.

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35:56

And most people think that they're doing really, really well on the outside and inside Well, they've got the same struggles that I was going through, especially early on in those days when I was really building the business and things like that. And so it's to be able to give them a really work in a very high touch manner, one on one, and being able to identify the areas of the extreme inefficiencies that they are suffering from, and a lot of that you're suffering from, because if you grew up like me, you never wanted to release any of the money that you had, you just want to keep it in your bank account. And you think that that's how you win the game. And drum you and I've talked about this multiple times, it's the financial resources are one thing, but if they just sit there, they become stagnant, they're not actually able to really help you create new options for your life. So it's being able to understand how to how to best use the resources, and that that's financial resources, but also the most important resources your time, how are you effectively utilizing the time so that ultimately you can invest it with the people that you love the most, when you want to invest it with them the most. And where you want to invest in with them the most you talk about St. Lucia or wherever, wherever we're gonna see one another next. So So hopefully, it's been unclear.

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37:10

Yeah, man. Yeah. So, you know, we could go on there. And I think there will be more unpacking your journey. But I think this is a lot for the listeners consume. I think this is probably one of the more vulnerable episodes of The gone long podcast. I don't know. Are you at 400? Now is there something like that episodes in? Yeah, so this is we've gone well over 430 is one thing I do want to just say, because there's

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37:44

the time that I was going through what I was going through, I do want to recognize and know my team is going to be listening. But just such an amazing team to be able to step up and move forward and make sure that we'd never skipped a beat on being able to be here with the podcast and so many other different facets of of our business in the way that we serve others. And I just want to thank each and every one of them from the bottom of my heart for continued to stand up. And I know we've talked about this before, this is kind of like the first public platform been able to do that on just absolutely fantastic. I don't want to say names because they're, they're very private people. But you know who you are. And I appreciate everything that you did, and also the team specifically on the podcast, to continue to make sure no matter how Billy was feeling, or how Billy was looking, that you made sure that the podcast went out every Tuesday every Thursday on time. And just yeah, it's been fantastic. It's over 430 It's crazy to think four years.

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38:43

It by the way drum. This is something that most people don't know, this podcast almost never happened. And so I am so blessed and very fortunate that continue to move forward and think about making sure that this podcast got started. But in mine, Tyler chef long time ago, I said Yeah, he'd be the first guest. And he was the first guest. And there were moments when I was going to shut the podcast down. And I am so glad that I decided to continue to move forward with the podcast, because it's been a way to continue to go out and meet amazing people be intentional about the relationships that we're building. And also thanks to the extensive network of people around the globe, Mabel to help other people now in this new phase of of my journey, because there's so many different people around the globe and companies around the globe that you know, after 430 Some episodes are are connected to so. So that's been awesome as well.

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39:40

Now, I know this is your shareability but I feel like there's some new websites out there. There's some new products I don't know if you want to send them anywhere but after bonding with you in this way. I imagine people want to find out more they're curious. Some people just nosy other people are curious now

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40:00

What should they where should they go? To get more? Yeah, I mean, if anyone is interested in understanding more about specifically what we do in helping that high wage earner be able to make your nine to five optional, the best way to do that is to go to Billy keels.com, forward slash advising, there's a little application there and can find out a little bit more about you make sure it's the right fit, continue to go there. But also to growing up as I did, like, one of the ways that I want to make sure that I'm able to give back anyway is through the podcast would be fantastic. If you're listening to something today, and you know, that a family member or friend or someone who's struggling in corporate, they want to they want to listen to it, just, you know, forward this over share this with with a family member, it's a it's a free way to be able to do that. All of the information that we're doing anything that's updated, anything that's changing, everything you can find at Billy keels.com. But if you are specifically interested in knowing more about our advisory program, just go to Billy keels.com, forward slash advising

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41:02

Ely killed.com, forward slash advising. And is the podcasts going to stay named going long? Yeah, great question. So this is one of the things and so for those of you that as you continue to listen and appreciate you being here, until now, we are the podcast will stay the same. And with so many different things that have happened in life, that there are so many experiences that I have, and they're always going to be a part of me. At the same time, in Jerome, you're asking about that light, one of the things that I've realized is with that light that I'm seeing at this point in my life, it's I want to do other things, I want to also focus on other areas. So moving forward, will take the experience of of understanding long distance investing in these types of things, and also now really want to focus more on my curiosity, the things that I know are also going to help someone else be resilient and focusing on things like your mindset, focusing on areas that I'm really really love, which is areas of money, and also to the areas of being able to build momentum. Right. These are the these are the areas of interest that I have. And I know that as you continue to listen to the going long podcast with Billy keels, we're going to talk about these things. And you're going to continue to get more information, the insight from me, and I'd really love to see everybody join us. I mean, we continue to be a top 1.5% podcast. Thanks to thanks to you. And I'm assuming that we're just going to continue to move and to the top 1%. So

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42:33

Wow. Well, I'm a little bit biased, Billy, but I think this is one of the best episodes of the podcast. We've got a new host man.

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42:45

Well, I think we just need to bring this guest back over and over again. Maybe

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42:52

I got to talk to the boys about that.

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42:56

No, listen, Jerome, I do appreciate everything that that you do. And you know, you have been such a such a great friend. And also just, we talked about intentional relationships, and continue to grow and love the opportunity to continue to share with you and I feel very blessed, fortunate that you are on the journey with me on the journey with you. And I appreciate the fact that you have invested time with me today in the entire going along. Family, as I like to say, and would you do me a favor? Will you talk more about? I know, I can't plug the exit paradox that come earlier. But just before we leave, how are you helping people as well drummer, we had I think the fastest way to describe this where I like to have a long conversation about it because I think it's deep and complicated. But Billy always pulls me off and just like what is it man. So when people transition, they experience fillings, fillings that they may not have experienced in the past, and many people don't know what to do with them. Some people think they have a diagnosis. But here's the thing. If you sold a business for a lot of money, and you lost your identity, lost your friends, and you'd lost your routine, we should talk because that is a very challenging experience. There is no diagnosis for it. And you can spend anywhere from three to five years trying to figure your way out of it. And we've created a four step process that will help you move through that rather quickly and get back to the place where you're feeling like your old self and contributing to the world in a big way.

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44:37

Go to the exit paradox.com to get forward slash assessment, the exit paradise.com forward slash assessment and find out your post exit personnel personality. Avatar is phenomenal. Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Well, I guess I'll let you wrap things up as the host but

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45:00

long as you continue to be here with us to the very end, thank you very much for continuing to be part of a member of the go along family. I appreciate it. And you're gonna get amazing, amazing, amazing

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45:15

conversations episodes moving forward. And like I said, I'm really looking forward to continuing to be a part of, of the journey. And thank you very much the wrong way you don't get off that easy, man. What's your what's your favorite country in Europe?

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45:39

What is it? Boy?

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45:43

Why you put me on the spot? Man, y'all anybody else on the show? Without answer that question? All right, my favorite Europeans? Well, can I say my favorite European city? I'm gonna say, but I'll say I'll say my favorite European city that I've visited so far. And, and before I tell you why one of the things that I recognize

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46:03

in this is part of finding the light. And it is

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46:07

when you understand more about yourself,

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46:11

continue to be yourself, continue to grow into and evolve as the person that you are.

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46:19

One of the things that I love is being able to have this beginner's mindset. And the reason for that is because it sparks my curiosity, it gives me the desire to want to learn something new. And that is the thing that gives me energy, which is one of the other reasons that I love being able to serve our clients because I learned things and sharing the things. It's just part of my DNA. It's, it's who I am. It's a part of who I am. And I'm accepting it and claiming that and walking into it. And one of the things that I did last year was after having been at 86 countries that I was, I've been very fortunate enough to visit for probably over a decade,

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46:59

I decided that it was time to get back on the visiting new countries visiting new cities, inspiring my mind to think and see new new streetlights and new smells and new things like that. And so the 87 country that I've been fortunate enough to visit was Croatia, and I spent three days in Dubrovnik. So the city that I'm going to talk about is Dubrovnik because it meant so much to me just as a reminder to get back in and start to do new things.

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47:31

And there's going to be a new country coming up very, very soon as well. So, but yeah, I will I will go with Dubrovnik, Croatia.

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47:39

All right. Go along family. We're out of here. Signing off drone buyers Billy kills. Hey, man, let's make your nine to five options. That's it. Thanks, sir.

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47:53

Today's conversation was sponsored by the Billy keels advisory program. If you're looking to make your nine to five optional and need some help, just go to Billy keels.com forward slash advising once again that's Billy keels.com forward slash advising

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