12. Unlocking Entrepreneurial Freedom with Ian Johnston

Episode Transcript
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Crystal (00:09):
Nearly half of people are considering a new business.
Are you one of them and have ablock preventing you from
pursuing it? In this episode, wemeet with Ian Johnston, where we
talk about the different aspectsof entrepreneurial freedom that
can liberate you from the fearand to help you start and
succeed with your business.

Eric (00:32):
Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Business Boost Hour
podcast. My name is Eric Beals,and I'm the vice president of
BNI Escondido.

Crystal (00:41):
And my name is Crystal, the president of BNI Escondido,
the single CEU podcast.

Eric (00:47):
And so today, we have Ian, Ian Johnston.

Ian Johnston (00:51):
Yep.

Eric (00:52):
And so, Ian, why don't you just tell the audience, like,
who you are? Just kind ofexplain a little bit just, who
you are and what you do to justgive people a feel on on on
where you're coming from.

Yeah. Absolutely. So, I'm Ian Johnston, and I I
started a company, a bookkeepingcompany 10 years ago, and so we
work with businesses and I kindof found over that time just
just kind of a passion forhelping people that wanna own a
business and just, you know,finding out that a lot of people
don't understand the finances,and that's something that I feel
like a strength for me. So, Istarted a bookkeeping business

(01:25):
and we just try to help as manybook many businesses as we can
understand their finances.

Eric (01:30):
Yeah.

I'm also native of San Diego. Grew up in Poway.
It's probably the part that Iprobably should have gone with.
But, grew up in San Diego, grewup in Poway, actually, and, have
my wife and 3 kids live in LemonGrove with them. And we, we've
been stayed in San Diego formost of my life.
So

Eric (01:46):
Yeah. I was born in La Jolla, but but grew up in
Escondido. I was born there andthen just brought me right over
to Escondido. So I don't knowwhy I was born in born in
Loyola. So I'm a San Diegonative as well.
And and,

Crystal (01:57):
there's a couple of you guys. Yep.

Eric (01:59):
Yep. Yep. Yep. So today, we, wanted to talk about,
entrepreneurial freedom is ourour topic today. Yep.
And, this is something that'sit's actually kind of, it's
actually close to my heart. Andit's actually, I would say, kind
of like a core thing on wherekind of why I kind of got to

(02:24):
kind of doing my own my ownbusinesses, my own my own my own
thing. I mean, I I very muchstarted in just doing, like,
freelance work, freelancevideographer work, and and which
is, you know, great for greatfor the time, but then, you
know, it's like one it's likekind of baby step 1. And,

Crystal (02:42):
That's way better than my first baby step. What was
your first

Eric (02:45):
baby step?

Crystal (02:46):
I shoveled dog poop at a very young age. I grew grew up
in Colorado, and I had a farm,neighbor friend, and I shoveled
their dog poop, for them. Forthat was my first business.

Yep. That's a good business.

Crystal (03:00):
Yeah. Someone's

Eric (03:01):
gotta do it. Right?

Crystal (03:02):
Yeah. Exactly. Talking about entrepreneurial freedom.

Eric (03:05):
Totally. Totally. So so what is this what what does that
mean to you? You know,entrepreneurial freedom, what
does that what what does thatmean to you?

Yeah. It's a great question. So I I think about
things like people are notswimming across the ocean to get
out of America, and there'ssomething about the country we
live in that that is unique and,and part of it is the freedom.
But I think when we talk aboutit, people oftentimes don't come
to America to get a job. Theycome here and they start a
business because that's themajor freedom that we have.

(03:37):
The ability to own businesses,the ability to to start a
business and to to enterprise.You know, when we talk about a
free enterprise system. And sobeing able to own a business is
is a key part of of our society,of our back like, of of our
nation. And so to me, it's it's,really about being able to take
your life and your future intoyour own hands and to control

(03:58):
your destiny so that you are notjust stuck, you know, just stuck
in in a in a in a rut thatpeople oftentimes are trying to
escape from. So I think it's Ithink it's a lot of what we are
fighting for when we talk aboutthings that are important to us,
but we just don't realize whereto guide that energy.
Mhmm. So Mhmm. Yeah.

Crystal (04:19):
That's a great point.

Eric (04:20):
Yeah. And, you know, it's America is is really kind of
built for that. I mean, that wasI mean, that's kind of we're
kind of founded off of them.Right? When and our founding
fathers kind of initiallyinitially came here was kind of
for

Crystal (04:35):
That was their hope.

Eric (04:36):
Yeah. Exactly. That was, like, the whole whole whole
reason they wanted to to Breakfree.

Crystal (04:41):
Break free.

Eric (04:42):
Yeah. That that that that tyranny. Right. And, you know,
that that is one of our reallygreat advantages where you you
you can kinda get started with abusiness here without with with
with not as much of a a hurdle.I mean, I don't have a lot of
experience in other countries,like, in terms of, like,

(05:03):
business ownership and what thatactually looks like.
I think in our in our heads,when you kind of grow up here
like myself, it's easy to kindof feel like, you know, oh,
well, you know, you could starta business in Canada or or or
wherever. And and people do, butI I just I am not sure what it's
actually like, and I'm verygrateful to actually be here

(05:23):
where you do have, like, themost, support, I guess, to to
have your own business and startyour own business.

Crystal (05:31):
Well and as a woman, there's countries that I
probably couldn't own a businessin. So there is a difference,
and there's probably differencein regulations. And then there's
3rd world countries where youmight not even have the
resources where America, if youhave the wherewithal and and the
fortitude, like myself, whetherit's shoveling poop, you can go

(05:53):
out and do something with yourlife. Hopefully, like myself, it
elevates to more and moreadvanced Yeah. And, higher
level, jobs.
But that's also part of theprocess, I believe, is, like,
working yourself up through thatchain.

Eric (06:07):
Right. Mhmm. Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, b and I was you
know, we were we, was formed inwhen was it formed?
Like, 19 years ago? 80 yearsago. Yeah. Something like that.
Yeah.
And, you know, it was foundedhere. Right? Mhmm. Right in in
did you guys know it? BNI wasactually called BNI before it
was international?

Oh, really?

Eric (06:28):
Yeah. And this, the the Ivan Meissner book talks about
that. He he he he he he he talksabout it because it was it was a
reflection of where they wantedto go. Like, it was more like
like, they're stating it. Right.
So they

Crystal (06:42):
They're growing into it.

Eric (06:43):
Right. I think it might have had a name before BNI.
Like, it was some it might havebeen something I said.

Referral Institute or something.

Eric (06:49):
I don't remember what it was what what it was called, but
when it was name when theysettle on the name of BNI, it
wasn't actually internationalyet. It was just still in
America. Yeah. Now it's global.But, at the time and I I you
know, that was a very I thoughtthat was a very interesting, and
very I honestly have a very boldthing to do.

You

Eric (07:08):
know? Like, I don't know if I have the confidence to to
to go diff mix productionsinternational for my company. I
don't know if I have thatconfidence to to do that.

It really takes

Crystal (07:19):
But that's part of that taking steps.

Yeah.

Crystal (07:21):
I'm sure Ivan took a lot of steps before he got there
and knew that what he wasbuilding, and and that's part of
manifestation too. If you can'tthink it or see it, then you
won't be able to achieve it. Buthe was able to see it and keep
walking towards it. And look athim now. I mean, they're in the
middle of having a huge globalconvention in Hawaii and seeing
all the countries with all theflags and seeing the ripples of

(07:43):
impact.
That's so cool and so powerfulto see all these businesses
working together.Entrepreneurship sometimes can
feel like a solo gig, which iswhy BNI is so cool because you
can still be a solopreneur, butyou have all these resources and
all these people that you don'teven have to hire, but they're
at your fingertips.

Eric (08:02):
That's a really good point. Like, because the thing
yeah. There there's so many,like, moving that's what the
it's been kind of a I've had myso many ups and downs because
because, you know, my journeydid not start in in BNI by any
means well before that, but Ikinda wish it did though
because, one, you learn so muchjust about just just business

(08:26):
ownership in general through band I. Yep. I think in multiple
ways actually too, and I've kindof talked about this in previous
episodes, but, like, the rolesthat you take in b and I
actually equips you for, Ithink, healthy business
ownership in your own business.

Crystal (08:43):
Absolutely.

Eric (08:43):
So, like, the volunteer positions.

Crystal (08:45):
Mhmm.

Eric (08:45):
And I didn't really kind of really realize that until I
started volunteering onmembership committee. And then
once I kind of started to kindof realize that I started to
see, like, you know, more morestructure. I'm a structured guy,
but I sometimes feel the mostunstructured person, and it
drives me crazy at times.

Crystal (09:01):
Yeah.

Eric (09:02):
But those things, it helps you learn those those skill
sets. But then what youmentioned too, it also like, you
you kinda have a natural team, Iguess, like, around you because
everyone's you know, we're we'reall here to support each other.
And some people have been doingit longer longer than others,
and you can learn from them. Butthen they kind of act as, like,

(09:25):
your your your businesspartners.

Crystal (09:26):
So Yeah. And it's a sounding board to see where our
gaps are. I know for me, like,accounting isn't my favorite
thing to do. So that might be agap that I might wanna bring
someone in to support because Ican only be the best me if I
have all of my weaknessesaddressed as well.

Eric (09:42):
Right. Mhmm.

They they talk about like, you guys talked
about visions. Like,visionaries, not visions, but
visionaries. People that can seethe future even well before,
like like, BNI being callingthemselves international when
they were in Southern Californiaonly. Right. You know?
That that takes a lot of visionand foresight, and that's what
some people have built intothem. And other people have to
basically instill that inthemselves or they just don't

(10:05):
need it because they're whatthey can see themselves creating
is far enough for what theirgoals and dreams and hopes are.
But that's the the beauty ofthis is that so, like, we talk
about maybe why did I have this,like, desire to own a business
even though I'm structured likeEric, because usually those
things are a little bitopposite. You want something to
know you need to be here at 8o'clock, and you take lunch at

(10:26):
this time, and that'sstructured, that is a beautiful
thing that people like. But Igrowing up in Poway, I saw
people that work jobs, and I sawpeople that owned companies, and
I saw that there was could be agreat distance, a difference
between the lifestyle, the thefamily life, all those things of
those different people.
I met some people that were verysuccessful, and great parents,

(10:48):
and great people, and lived outtheir values. I'll say it like
that. And and that inspired meto just not be, like, jaded like
a lot of people are. Hey. If,you know, you see someone
driving a nice car and a lot ofpeople, they think, he must sell
drugs or he must do somethingillegal, which is not always the
case.
Right? Which is law. Oftentimes,it's not the case. They don't
think, hey, that person added alot of value to the marketplace

(11:10):
and that's why they'recompensated in a significant
way. And then I when I was 19and 20, got to go live in
Southern Africa.
I lived in Zimbabwe and Zambia.And I saw a lot of entrepreneurs
there, but their entrepreneurwas they sold the same 4 kind of
fruits and vegetables on theside of the road, and there
would be 25 tables with all theexact same thing, no
differentiation. And I rememberwalking down that thinking, man,

(11:31):
if I were here with the thingsthat I've learned just growing
up in San Diego in America, Ifeel like I could kill it. You
know? I not that I wanna go backand, like, maybe interrupt what
they're doing there in theircountries, but but I just
realized, you know, these peopleare just doing whatever they can
to take care of the family and,and they were limited.
There was 1 TV channel there.You talk about, you know, the,

(11:54):
the media and the, the rights wehave to make even a podcast like
this. They had one TV channelthere, and and I'm sure it's
different now because times havechanged. But but just they
didn't have those freedoms. AndI came back and I just felt so
grateful to be living in acountry where we could start
something.
And then, again, our country,you go back a 100 years, people
were journeymen, you know. Mhmm.They were they were apprentices.

(12:18):
They did that for a couple yearstill they learned a skill, a
craft, and then they startedtheir own business. They they
were blacksmiths and farmers,and and we have expanded those
markets greatly, but we as an asour society have just been built
upon, you do do something, youlearn something, and then you do
it for money, and you supportyour family, and that that's

(12:39):
just it's such a wonderful thingthat we have available to us.
And so it's really is thebackbone of what we're built on
and I think for a lot of people,they they've stopped it. We
just, we're talking about thisand and we found out that, you
know, there's 40, 42 percent ofpeople are thinking about owning
the business. I think it's partof our DNA. We just don't know
how to, you know, break the sealon that. How do you get started?

(13:01):
How do you quit your job andand, you know, that you're
already struggling to pay foryour mortgage and your car and
your gas and all these thingsand everything's so expensive
and you wanna quit your job andjust kind of, you know, figure
out how to start something.

Crystal (13:13):
It's And the mindset to push past that, like, limiting
belief that I have to like yousaid, when you have the
corporate job, that's a greattemporary solution, but
corporate isn't a good fit foreveryone.

Right.

Crystal (13:25):
So to be able to push past those limiting beliefs and
say, I am going to gointernational. I am going to
create something so big thatit's going to attract more
people. That's amazing to seewhat Ivan has created, but also
to see what we can createbecause, ultimately, we we are
here to create. We're all yousaid it's in our DNA because
we're all cocreators. We're herecreating something, and that's

(13:49):
essentially our true essence.
So I feel like we can thrive alittle bit more and, like,
there's an expression. And Iknow it might look different
from job to job, but, thecreativity that we get to have
is actually really fun part ofbeing an entrepreneur.

Absolutely. Yeah.

Eric (14:04):
I actually just looked up a stat. I just asked Grok just
to kinda see, like, what, whatthe what the numbers, and it
came back with 33,200,000businesses in the United States.
And so what is there? About 300what is 380,000,000 people in in
the United States, but 40% orso. Yeah.
Right? So this is only this is,like, like, 10% of those of the

(14:25):
businesses, about about so about1 in every per 1 in 1 in every
10 people, there's 1 business,basically Right. Approximately
there. But 40%. Right.
So I mean, most of the peopleare not really they're kind of
dreaming about it, but they'renot really, really fulfilling.
And I think a lot of that, youknow, the unfortunate thing is I
think there's a lot of a lot oftoxic work culture and Right. At

(14:50):
a lot of a lot of businesses.That's a really unfortunate
thing. I think that's probablywhy a lot of those people are
are I would imagine that asignificant portion of those are
thinking about a businessbecause they're like, I gotta
get out of my job.
I gotta get out of out ofwhatever I'm currently doing.

Crystal (15:05):
Well, and a lot of times when you have the that
type of a situation, you end upspending your money on things
that are a little more frivolousso that you can just feel good
about yourself. Yep. So you'renot really quite as focused and
driven because it's differencein mindset.

Eric (15:20):
Well, a follow-up on this. You've mentioned, like, you
know, business out of thebackbone. 9099.9 percent of the
of of that 33.2000000 is smallbusinesses.

Crystal (15:30):
Right. Wow.

Eric (15:31):
Yeah. It's a you know, small businesses really is the
backbone of of everythingbecause they you know, everyone
if if you if someone has a job,well, then there's a business
owner behind that. There'ssomebody there's some somebody
behind that. And, you know, 9 if99 99.9 percent of these are
small businesses, that's that'sus. Right?

Crystal (15:51):
Yes.

Eric (15:52):
And

Crystal (15:52):
And it's so important to support those small
businesses. Those box, companiesaren't going to be going out of
business, but that smallbusiness could use your support.
It could be, you know,everything to them.

Yeah. And to and to also be clear on what a small
business is, the the governmentor from the stats I've seen,
they generally refer to a smallbusiness as a company doing
$10,000,000 a year in sales, orless. And so it's still a pretty
wide number of sales. I thinkfor a a lot of the people
listening, they're like, wow, Ican't wait to hit 1,000,000 or
3,000,000 in sales, 5,000,000and realize they're not even

(16:26):
halfway there to being a a bigbusiness or a medium sized
business. And, but there's also,for the people that are
visionaries like that, they havethat, those markets where they
get know the the opportunity tohit those kinds of revenue goals
and then also create systems,procedures, processes so that
they can then move on to otherthings.
An interesting stat within myown company is that 2 thirds of

(16:48):
the business or of all thebusinesses we work on only, you
know, a third of them are ownedby multi, like, there are
multiple companies of the sameowner. And so if we have, you
know, if there's 10 companies wework with, 6 there'd be only 6
individual owners because a lotof businesses are owned by
somebody that owns multiplebusinesses. And so

Crystal (17:10):
So like a co owner?

Yeah. Well, well, it's like it's like if you own 3
businesses and my companyhandled the accounting for all 3
of those businesses, then onceI've narrowed that down and you
said you see a number, but thenyou realize, oh, this is
actually a much smaller number.2 thirds of that is actually
individual, unique people, Ishould say. So when we're
talking about BNI, 10 years ago,I got into BNI about 10, 10 and

(17:32):
a half years ago. And and Ithink back then when we did
Education Moments, they werevery much more BNI Centric.
At least that's the way I sawit. And that's the thing is, is
that over time or either BNIchanged or I changed. And I
never looked back to see what fifigure out what it is. But the
education we do now does helpyou in BNI, but the other
beautiful part about it is ithelps you in business. Is that

(17:55):
people can get in the businessand they're gonna learn things
that they need to know in orderto run and own their own
business or be an employee,because not everyone in BNI is
is owners.
Mhmm. We have sales people. Wehave employees. We have people
that are technicians and andthat they're representing their
company. They're in VNI, butthey're gonna learn things.
And they might even get inspiredto start their own business and
kind of gain tools that they'veseen.

Eric (18:15):
We've seen that happen. Had a had a few people, that
happened something similar inour chat, but I've seen it the
other way around to actually towhere it's if someone actually,
you know, maybe they they end uplearning that, you know, they
just don't necessarily feel cutout for for business ownership,
which is totally fine. And thensomeone in the chapter be like,
I will hire you because you area, you know, smoking employee or

(18:38):
whoever whatever it is. And itstill ends up, you know, paying
them in a in a very differentway than than that person
initially thought of. Yeah.

Crystal (18:49):
And then we've also seen it where someone has
switched career paths and endedup in a better career path based
on someone that was in ourchapter.

Yeah.

Eric (18:56):
So funny thing about that, we're the reason we're doing
this podcast be because of that.Because I I because I did not do
podcasting until, until someonein my chapter asked me if I
could help them with theirpodcast. I my my background's in
video production for a longtime, but I never thought about
doing podcasting. And so itwasn't until somebody approached

(19:18):
me, like, hey. Can you help youcan you've done you do me this
stuff.
You know? I was, like, sure. Ican figure it out. Like and so
that's kinda how I got started.So, like, you know, even us
sitting here right now, wewouldn't we wouldn't be doing
this if I didn't if that didn'thappen.
So if I didn't join the BNIchapter, you know what I mean?

Crystal (19:33):
So So cool.

Eric (19:34):
Yeah. So so I didn't do podcasting before BNI. Like, so
I, you know, accredit allpodcasting stuff that I do to
BNI because that's literallykind of how I even got the idea
was another from another member.Yeah. So there's some really
interesting, like, it'sinteresting because it's so it's
so hard to predict exactly whatkind of value or benefit you're

(19:57):
gonna get out of BNI.
Right. Because there's no way Icould have ever, like, guessed
any of this No. Any of that.Right. And

Crystal (20:05):
But I but if you don't try something like BNI, I can
guarantee you there's thingsthat you won't learn about
yourself. There's things thatyou could be suffering from
because there's gaps. There'sthings that we've we have people
in our group that will be like,have you filled this paperwork
out because it's essential thatI would have might not have
known about? There's so manythings, like, even the solar

(20:26):
deadline, like, things that Iwould have never been able to
wrap my head around all thosedifferent things happening at
one time. But because so manyprofessionals are telling us
every week what's going on, wecan get a pulse on the the
climate and of the economy andand entrepreneurial spirit
that's going on here in SanDiego.

Eric (20:45):
Especially people, like, in those kind of industries
where there, like, there arehave a lot of kind of changes
happening that are can be, like,major changes that we might not
be aware of, like, like, in the,like, solar stuff and

Crystal (20:55):
all that.

Eric (20:56):
Yep. Yep. When when

we take a step back and kind of think about
where, like, all of our journeysthrough through business
ownership, through BNI andthrough life, we kind of go back
to this program and that we allgot, we, you know, I think for
most people, they were told tofind something you love and to
do it for the rest of your life.And and I love that you talked
at the beginning aboutshoveling, dog poop.

Eric (21:20):
That's a great way

to start this out. Because it's it's such a
glorious thing to talk about.But the the the fact of the
matter is I've heard somebodysay, like, if you could shovel
horse maneuver horse manure intoa wet paper bag for 5 hours a
day and make 5 times the moneythat you're making right now,
you would do that because it'snot about loving horse manure or
horses or shovels or bags oranything like that. It's really

(21:42):
is about the results that we'recreating. And that's kind of
ends up.
We shift from a business ownerto being as from being an
employee to a business owner.There's just a different
mindset. And when we talk aboutmindset, but a lot of the things
that that you're doing whenyou're on an entrepreneurial
journey, your employee friendswill just not understand. They
won't know the journey you'reon. You're like Bilbo Baggins.
It would be easy to just be atiny person in a hole given a

(22:06):
ring, but here you're given theopportunity to do a fantastic
journey. And when you come back,they will not understand what
you did and what youaccomplished and who you are and
who you became to it. So we, asAmericans, really have a couple
of different paths and we'reshoved down the schooling, the
education path, which is not abad path, which sometimes is
needed as part of ourentrepreneurial journey. But

(22:27):
sometimes it's really just adetour. It's, it's a detour.
It's a, you know, it's a, and, II heard this recently. I thought
it was so funny. We talk aboutwisdom and sometimes we don't
realize that to get the wiz, youhave to go through the dumb, you
know, and you and so sobasically, yeah, we we were like
the almost like one of those,the more you learn, the more

(22:48):
they realize you don't know. Andand so wisdom is kind of
realizing how dumb you areactually and then what you don't
know. And so, I actually heardCrystal on a recent podcast, and
she said something that my brainwanted to fight against, but I
realized was actually a goodthing.
She talked about how we need tolearn our weaknesses. We need to
know. She talked about it incommunication. We talked about
it in in accounting or whateverour weaknesses are. But there's

(23:11):
but it's also understandingwhere did where the dividing
line is at.
There's areas which we need tolearn our weaknesses so that we
know to hire someone else to dothose things. And there's areas
where we need to learn ourweaknesses because, like, if
you're a jerk, if you can'tcommunicate effectively, there's
things where we actually need toimprove that in ourselves. And
so finding finding thosedivisions there, we have an
opportunity to actually explorethose areas when when you're a

(23:33):
business owner, becauseoftentimes, when you're an
employee, they just put yousomewhere where you can be who
you are, like, as you are rightnow and not need to grow and and
just be valuable to the companyin that regard, or they just let
you go depending on the companyyou're with. But here we grow,
we learn skills, we learn peopleskills, we learn business
skills, we learn how to sell, welisten to podcasts like this.

(23:54):
The other people that you havehad on the podcast, I've learned
from all of them.
And, and so it's just been sofantastic to learn these things
and to share with the wisdomwe've all learned over time. And
now we get to hear these thingsand grow through all these. And
we only care because it's gonnaadd value to our clients. It's
gonna add value to the peoplethat we want to help. And so

(24:14):
that that is one of the areasthat we get to grow through, and
that's why this podcast is agreat thing for people to listen
to.

Eric (24:22):
Yeah. I so on, I had watched long time ago, this
really kind of stuck with me.And when you mentioned about
kind of, like, doing somethingyou love, it it crossed my mind.
I always thought it was such apowerful video. I watched this.
It's, like, I don't know, it'sprobably at least a 10 year old
video, I think, maybe 8. And itwas of, Mike Rowe from from

(24:42):
Dirty Jobs. And he he put out avideo, on, PragerU called, don't
follow your passion.

Right.

Eric (24:52):
I think it's what it's called. And, you know, it's such
an intriguing title. It's like,wait. What? You know?
And and it's like a 5:5 minutevideo, And, he summarizes it as,
don't follow your passion, butbring your passion with you in
whatever in whatever you do,because it helps you, you know,

(25:15):
1, just be, you know, be be youdon't have, like, like, picking
up dog poop or whatever. You canstill be passionate about just
that you have a job, forexample. There's there's always,
like, light. There's always,like, silver linings on on
whatever you're you're you'redoing. And I think, you know, a
big part of kind of that thatvideo was, like, you know,

(25:38):
snagging kind of opportunities.

Crystal (25:40):
And,

Eric (25:40):
like, you know, don't don't get not getting so focused
in, like, oh, I do this thing.This is what I do, and that's
the way things are.

Crystal (25:47):
Because if you're so close minded, you're not really
open to growth. And like yousaid, you you got to this per
place you're at because you wereopen to something that someone
in the chapter asked you about.So you you actually would have
been in a whole differentscenario if you had not been
been in BNI. Your job would havebeen probably completely
different.

Eric (26:05):
Yeah. I mean, to be fair, like, this is it was in already
in in my realm Mhmm. In that inthat aspect. But But

Crystal (26:10):
it probably would have come out different. And even if
you had done it, it would havebeen different people. It would
have, you know, just, but Iloved what Ian said too about,
listening to the podcast and howpeople taught him something. And
even he reached out to me afterthe Julie's episode about the
phone, update Oh. We talkedabout Yes.
On the iPhone. And, actually,that was really valuable to me

(26:31):
because I I found out that now Ican schedule my messages, with a
new update.

Eric (26:36):
So, Julie, if if you're listening, we can we can
schedule we can schedulemessages.

Crystal (26:41):
She already knows. I I I messaged her after Ian told
me.

We'll we'll do we'll do interlude with a with a
the training on how to do thatin in the middle of one of these
podcasts. So

Eric (26:52):
I'll schedule messages.

Crystal (26:54):
We'll have a tech tip later.

Yeah. Tech tip. There you go. That'll be one of
the tech tips. That'd beawesome.

Crystal (26:58):
Yeah. But it is it is, something to be said about
learning from other people, andthis journey is so wonderful.
And, yes, I did start with,picking up dog poop, but,
actually, I started even beforethat because my parents own a
small business and it was aNarborough service. And this was
before the times of caller IDwhere you would know. So I was
actually had I had to answer myphone every dime even if it was

(27:21):
my friends were calling becauseI didn't know.
It was American ArboristService. This is Crystal. How
can I help you? As a littlechild.

Oh, yeah.

Crystal (27:28):
So I had, like How

Eric (27:30):
old were you doing that?

Crystal (27:33):
Like, as as young as I can remember. Like, maybe 8, 9
years old. Like, yeah.

Eric (27:38):
Hey. I bet that would work in work in your favor. I mean,
how how are you gonna say no toto to an 8 year old at that
point? Like, you know what Imean?

Crystal (27:45):
Well, and their business was their livelihood.
So, I mean and technology hasobviously, advanced, so we don't
have to do that anymore. But, mykids are, I guess, blessed that
they don't have to answer thephone, with my my opener.

Yeah.

Crystal (28:01):
But it was something to be said about it. I mean, as a
young kid, I learnedcommunication skills. And what
Ian said is it, your mindset isoften framed around what you've
seen in life. And he got to seedifferent businesses in America.
He even got to see differentbusinesses in another country.
So he got to have some culturalexperience with business. And,

(28:22):
ultimately, what ultimately,what he found was there's still
a creative aspect where when hewent to the other country, he
saw an area where it's like, oh,that could be changed and it
could be enhanced based on theother stuff that he had seen.

Eric (28:35):
Yep. So I

Crystal (28:36):
think that's really great, that you could kind of
take what you have learned, andI think most people do that.
Like, our journey isn't I'vedefinitely learned from that
first job. I did not want to dothat for the rest of my life. So
that was a period. It was onestep in this giant stepping
stone.
And one time, my niece wanted tostart a a job that was not very

(28:57):
high level. And she said, auntCrystal, I don't know if I wanna
do this job because it's notreally my dream job. And I told
her, there's something there'ssome skill in there that you
will need that later on in yourlife, that skill will help you
in some way. And that's okaythat that's not your long term
job, but, come back to,something and that will come

(29:18):
back to you later. And later on,she told me that was the best
advice I gave her.
And she did find another joblater, but there was something
to be said about just takingthat step.

Eric (29:27):
Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I think, you know, taking that
step to just take any job andand I mean, I think it's, Mark
Gleason in our chat. He's done aton of, like, different Yeah.
Different jobs. You kind oflearn something different from
every single thing that that youdo. Mhmm. You kind of, because
there's gonna be certain there'sgonna be some skills that you

(29:48):
learn that can be transferable.

Crystal (29:50):
Yeah. Real life experience.

Eric (29:51):
Right. Yeah. In some way, either at the very least, maybe
it's work work ethic. Like,that's something I can apply to,
you know, healthy good workethic in in anything. Yeah.
And, you know, I think it'sespecially in ones that's
that's, like, you know, pickingup dog poop or whatever.

Crystal (30:07):
You know, having

Eric (30:08):
a good work ethic is gonna be exceptionally important in
something like that. Right?

Crystal (30:11):
But that

Eric (30:11):
could very easily be super bitter and frustrated. And then,
oh, I don't wanna I don't wannahire Chris. I like, because, you
know, it could be with that isit could be you know, I was
thinking of hiring Chris, buther attitude is not very good.
Right.

You know

Eric (30:21):
what I mean? If if if that was the case. And so that that's
why it's it's it it is importantto just, you know, bring that
passion with you as Mike Rowesaid.

Crystal (30:33):
Now you know why I love what I do so much. No. Yeah.
Yeah. I mean, that's the wholepart of entrepreneurial freedom.

Yes. Yeah. There there probably needs to be more
doing. You know, we we as, weusually go to school for
something that we think that welike, and then we get into the
work field after we've spent 100of 1,000 of dollars in education
and years of our life learningabout it to just find out that
we actually like the idea of itway more than we like the doing
of it. Mhmm.
And so I think there's a lotmore like like living,

(31:00):
experiencing, and kind offiguring out a path. And it
comes to us, like, you know, asparents. So we got parents and
you have kids too, Eric.

Eric (31:08):
So I have one on the way.

One on the oh, that's right. Oh, this is oh,
this is is this the bigannouncement? Eric,
congratulations. So

Eric (31:15):
Yeah. I meant, I I I mentioned that our on our
chapter last Wednesday.

Okay.

Eric (31:21):
And, yeah. So it's

Crystal (31:23):
Congratulations, Amber and Eric.

We're so excited. That's so exciting. So so I I
don't know how to how to keep ongoing after that big
announcement. Let's let's partynow. So just kidding.
But, but I think as as parents,we've been continuing to
perpetuate this these ideas thatthat we've been taught that we
that seem to have worked wellfor us, which is, you know, just
just go to school and you'llfigure it out along the way. And

(31:46):
it's just like, you know, youcould figure out a I I tell
people, even though I have anaccounting business and I got an
accounting degree, I would havelearned so much more had I
skipped the skip the, the schoolpart of it. If I would have just
gone into it now, the reality isI probably would have actually
started encountering the Greeks.I probably would have felt
underqualified and not knowingwhat I was doing. But if I would
have skipped a lot of that, Icould have been 4 years ahead

(32:08):
and I could have learned a lotmore.
The school doesn't prepare youfor business Not at all. Like,
they learned you, they teach youthe technical side of it, but
there's so many fields wherethey they just don't prepare
you. I even took anentrepreneurial classes and
groups and things like that whenI was at school and that helped
to a degree. But it's but doingit is gonna be where you're
going to learn so much more. Andso we we as our children are,

(32:32):
you know, and, you know, ourgeneration and the and the next
generation, they have thesepressures.
And the pressures are our parentgrandparents and our and our
parents teaching us you have tobuy a house and you have to,
get, an education, and then youthrow in there, when are you
gonna get married, and all thesepressures that that kind of make
our next generation really notwanna talk to their parents and
their grandparents because theykeep on getting asked, hey, when

(32:54):
are you gonna mature and grow upor or whatever it is, which
we're asking inadvertently, andthey just run away.

Crystal (33:01):
And we don't have even attainable for them to buy
houses these days. Right.Exactly. There's it's a lot more
pressure than any other cultureor any other, generation I feel
has had.

Exactly. And so it it maybe is it seems like it's
off of our topic, but, but theidea is like, is having the
conversation of really, how doyou want to live? You know, what
are the goals you want toaccomplish and, and helping them
to explore ways to get therethat, that are outside, even the
way we typically think. Causemost of the time, you you'll
say, well, what do you wanna do?And, and they we ask them what

(33:32):
they wanna do, which which is acareer, which we even stop when
we talk about dreams.
Oftentimes, the word job justgets slammed onto the back
there, like, without eventhinking of it. What's your
dream? Like, well, I wanna work.Is it like that is is a job your
dream? Is that really whatyou're saying?
Or or is it the results youwanna create? And then you
figure out how you get there. Ifyou're saying, hey, I wanna
travel the world and and do, andbe able to go places. You have

(33:56):
to you have to find a way tomake money, which is a
necessity, so that you have themoney and the time in order to
create the life that youactually wanna live.

Eric (34:02):
So I

Crystal (34:02):
love that, and it's unique to each person. I had a
girlfriend that her daughter allall she really wanted to do was
be a mom. She when it all camedown to it, she didn't really
want to have a career, and, shewas slightly on the spectrum
too. So that kind of played intowhat she could, potentially do.
And she actually did the math onhow many years of college it
would cost, what it would take,how many years it would take her

(34:25):
to recoup that investment.
And she actually decided to buya small apartment complex out of
state instead of going tocollege. So they use that
apartment complex as her way toray raise money and to to stay
afloat. And instead of going tocollege, now she had money

(34:46):
coming in immediately. Yep. Itwas really interesting because
because that was her goal.
She she didn't really want to goout and have a business, nor did
she maybe have the capacity. Itdoes take a lot of capacity to
be an entrepreneur. But, she hada lot of talent in this area,
and I know she will be great atmanaging properties. But I
thought it was interesting whento have a mom actually sit down

(35:06):
and do the math and then, likelike, set out their goals, and
it was like, okay. Your goalisn't, like everyone else's.
Yep. So some people do do havedifferent goals too.

Eric (35:17):
Well, what is what about, like so it sounds like, you
know, she had some kind ofcapital, like, to kind of do
something on that. But I mean, alot of people won't have that
kind of capital to, to to investin in a place like that. So what
about, like, someone who who whowho doesn't, like, have much,

(35:40):
much, much capital and and, youknow, maybe they're, you know,
just kind of scraping by thatsort of thing. What what do you
guys think for for people in inthose positions?

Well well, we kind of started out by talking about
how corporation corporate jobsand jobs in general can be seen
as a temporary thing. And sothere's a gap that needs to be
filled from from, like, the partwhere they're buying an
apartment complex. What whichyou didn't mention is out of
state, so that probably wouldlower the cost and and, but also
you think about people don'thave capital to go to college.

(36:12):
They don't have $200,000 tospend on 4 years of school of
not working, of of financingtheir housing, their food, and
all the education aspect of it.They don't have that capital
capital, but it's been madeavailable, to kind of, to pretty
simple ways.
And so the capital is out therefor people that, that have to
drive in the passion enough,people will back that. It's it's

(36:32):
just bridging that gap. It's notas obvious. It's not as easy.
Mhmm.
But the work, obviously isprobably paying off already for
Yeah.

Crystal (36:40):
And I've seen people make 1,000,000 of dollars off of
doing crafting.

Right.

Crystal (36:45):
So, I mean, it really is kind of like BNI. You put
what you put into it is what youget out of it. Yeah. I mean,
I've seen some people who havebeen laser focused and

Yep.

Crystal (36:56):
Their careers have skyrocketed. And then there's
also the people that kinda havetheir hands in a bunch of
baskets and aren't quite reallydriven. That's part of that
freedom too is that we candecide what pace we wanna go. We
can decide what we're trying tocreate, which is so cool because
everyone has a differentexpression, and that's that's
where the beauty of all thedifferent, essences of all the

(37:18):
different people. That's why BNIonly allows 1 person in each
category so we can all have,like, a different flavor of all
these different careers.
It's so cool.

Oh, focus is a beautiful thing. You think
about, like, a light. Like, a abig light can light up a whole
stadium, or it can burn a holeinto a little tiny point. And so
it just it's the same samelight. It's just how where is it
focused?
Is it focused wide so it'stouching everything? And so an
idea of of, you know, countingof business of finances, kind of
like we, we understand the ideaof health. You understand what

(37:48):
you intake and what you eat andthe energy you, you put out and
you, will not, maybe not putout, but the energy you expend
to, to run around, to exercise.If, if you're taking in more
than your, than the energyusing, if you eat a bunch of
food and then you sit on thecouch all day with the results
are that it's going to retainand that's not the kind of thing

(38:08):
you necessarily want to retain.But if you don't eat enough and
then you expend, then then youprobably are gonna start
fainting and have other healthproblems.
There's a, there's a correctflow, of of those kinds of
things. We understand that froma, from a health and fitness
standpoint. But from a financialstandpoint, you either are going
to regulate the income, oryou're gonna and you also need

(38:29):
to regulate your expenses. Andyou've understand you understand
those things usuallyindividually, but where they
come together is usually wheremost people have the problem.
They start making more money,but they don't have any focus.
So then their money gets startspending on things that just
probably usually to makethemselves look and feel better
and buy things that theyactually can afford or they can
afford, but it's not reallytoward their purpose. What we

(38:51):
have, in in our society is, isprobably a lot of people that
are being given advice by peoplethat aren't on the same path as
them and they don't have thesame purpose. And so they're
making decisions, financialdecisions based off of other
people's advice. I don't knowabout the 2 of you and I I've, I
love saying this in front ofentrepreneurs and that is when I
started a business, one of theancillary benefits that I cannot

(39:13):
quantify is that I just feltless depressed, even making less
money and making, you know, justthe fact that I had started
something on my own and I was incontrol, it it it it helped with
that. Now, if, you know, there'speople that obviously need
additional help outside of maybestarting a business and things
like that.
But I think a lot of people livewith some amount of occasional

(39:34):
just feeling down. And, and ifyou aren't depressed when you're
on a vacation, it's notdepression. It's just lack of
purpose and lack of focus. Andso

Eric (39:42):
Well, for yeah. For for for me, for me, it's always been
about like, okay. Like, I usedto work at a a news station. And
for me, it was like, okay,what's do I want, for initially,
when I I took that job, I waslike, I know I'm not gonna be
here for longer than a year.Because for me, it's like about

(40:03):
vision.
Like, okay. What where do I kindof, like, see myself kind of
going with this? And then I madethe the the, you know, so I was
like, should I do it? And then Iwas thinking, okay. Well, I'll
learn about news.
I'll learn these things. This isin the general realm that I I
wanna go down anyways in inproduction industry. So I was
like, okay. I could see thatbeing valuable. So I was like,

(40:26):
you know, I'll take this.
And this is well this is beforeI actually had my own business.
I was still just a freelancer atthe time since I don't know what
it's like. It's like 12 yearsago at this point.

And, when he was 18 years old.

Eric (40:40):
So Yeah. Yeah. And it's it it but I knew from, like, I got
I I literally told myself, like,I'm not gonna be here for longer
than a year. Like, I I alreadyknew, and I was there for 6
months.

Yep.

Eric (40:54):
And, just ended up being being 6 months. Nothing bad. I
was just like, nope. It's timetime to leave now at this point.
And, you know, it was it was, Ithink I guess where I'm kinda
going with that is, like, Ithink it's so important to kinda
have, like, what's your what'syour what's your vision?

(41:15):
And, like, I mean, for for forme, I really want to have, like,
impact on the world. And and forme, it's it's a matter of, like,
I, I am a big advocate for,like, free speech and truth.
Like, I really don't like when,when people kind of, like, spout

(41:36):
intentional, like, just flat outlies. Like, it it it really is
just totally degrading. That'swhy I actually one of the
reasons I fell in love withpodcast production is podcasting
is kind of like one of those fewmediums that somebody, like,
anybody can start and you canyou can even self host if you

(41:57):
have if you had to.
So it kind of like, yeah, it'sgood to put your content on,
like, YouTube and in thoseplaces, but you shouldn't, like,
invest everything into the intointo YouTube. You should you
need to have and a lot ofYouTubes are doing this now.
Like, you see a lot of if youwatch some users, they'll be,
like, hey. You know, subscribeon our on our websites. On our

(42:18):
we we made our own website now.
And so too because they're,like, realizing, like, we've
invested too much into YouTube.We need to get we need to pull
people away because if we getblocked or whatever, something
happens, then we're we're we'rein trouble. Especially when you
put that investment in, ofbuilding that that brand.

Crystal (42:36):
Diversifying. Yeah.

Eric (42:37):
Yeah. And so, so, you know, that's kind of why I got
one of the reasons I got so intopodcasting is, just because it
kind of I feel like it reallyencompasses, encompasses that.
And but I mean, everyone's, youknow, everyone's different. What
they're what they're their grandvision really is.

Crystal (43:00):
That kinda reminds me of what Gus said about the
prisoner of wars that would sitthere and each year were the
ones that would wait forChristmas to come. And then when
the when it didn't come, like, apart of them were would die. So
when you're not when you feelthat intuition and you you felt
it and you followed it and itended up taking you to where you

(43:20):
wanted to go. So that's a reallypart big part about listening to
our inner voice is our innervoice is telling us what to do.
We know all of the answers.
They're inside of us. Like Iansaid, someone else's perspective
of what your vision is going tobe isn't gonna get you to where
your vision is going to be.Yeah. You need to take your own
vision to get to your owndestination because even if

(43:43):
someone thinks that theyunderstand your goal, the way
you see it, no one else is goingto see it until it comes to
fruition. Right.
And then they'll be like, oh, Isee what you're saying now. I
get it. But, really, you have todo what you said. If you felt
that calling to leave, there wasa reason why. And I feel like
people may not know it now, butthey may end up having that same

(44:05):
calling to join BNI.

Eric (44:07):
I think a lot of people I've seen this before where a
lot of people are kind of reallyafraid to take that step out.
Like, oh, you know, how am Igonna pay my bills or whatever
it it might be? And, you know,sometimes I'm like I'm like,
it'll work out. Like, just doit. It'll be fine.
Like, you you you won't be in myhand, it makes sense. Like, you
know, stop working there ordon't do this or whatever it

(44:28):
might be. Stop doing that thing,whatever that thing is. And I
for me, I I've kind of been Ithink I've been kind of in tune
with that because I know there'sthere's been so many times in my
career over the years where I'llkinda get a sense on something
with either it's like a personor it's a certain job or
whatever it is. And I'll just belike and I've literally told

(44:50):
Amber I'd be like, hey.
I don't think we should do this.And then and then, I I was like,
I don't know why. I'm justgetting a strong sense that,
like, something just doesn't sitright with this. And then
literally every single time,like, a few months later,
something happens. I'm like, oh,I'm glad we're not associated
with that now.

Yep.

Eric (45:08):
And so I think there's there's real value and truth in,
like, kind of, like, followingthat that intuition on, on, you
know, I don't know if morepeople are if some people are
more or less in

Crystal (45:22):
some way that are not a muscle. The more that you listen
to it and follow it, thestronger it does become, but
there's actually more to itscientifically. So in our brain,
there's something that, we havelike a little antenna. It's
called the thalamic gate.

Eric (45:36):
Oh, yeah.

Crystal (45:36):
And this antenna acts as, it can detect frequency,
vibration, and oscillation. Sothat means, like, each person
has a different energysignature. So a good person, you
kind of stand next to himwithout knowing why. You just
feel comfortable and confident.But maybe a another person that
you stand next to and you'relike, oh, I feel something,
like, something's off here.

(45:58):
Like that feeling that you had.Your brain was picking up the
frequency and vibration of thatperson and inputting it into
your system on a subconsciouslevel that you don't even
realize. So we pick up subtleclues, subtle hints, like micro
facial expressions. Our body ispicking this up and inputting it
all the time. I think I've toldyou this before.

(46:21):
40,000,000 bits of informationevery second. No. So our brain
is constantly processing this.So, you know, you knew on a
deeper level what was gonnaserve you. Not everyone is as
tuned into that inner feeling,but the more that you'd follow
it, the more that it will getyou to where you're supposed to
go.

(46:41):
I I call it like, like littlebreadcrumbs from your highest
self. You can feel it whenyou're in the zone. You can feel
like, oh, everything's fallinginto place. This is all working
out. Or when you're walking downthe other path and it's like,
oh, this is not working.
No matter how hard I try, it'snot, like, all coming together.
Those are signs too. Like, we'resupposed to be in that state of
flow.

Yeah. I've I've heard you talk about that before
and it and it's interesting howover time when, like, I used to
hear stuff like that and belike, oh my gosh, what a load of
you can fill in the blank. Butbut it it's interesting how as
you live and you actuallyexperience these things and
you're like, yeah. Why did Ijust like, feel like, hey, we're
we're best friends. Like andthen you were like, oh, I should
probably say hi and introduce,like, get to know that person,

(47:24):
beforehand.
And you just kinda you can feelthat kind of connection. It's
it's interesting because, youknow, I know know what I wanted
to talk a little bit aboutcoaching because coaching is a
really interesting thing when itcomes to business and ownership
and b and I and just kind of ourgrowth, our growth journey. I
don't do coaching, but I thinkthat often has we we
underestimate the value ofgetting external help. That that

(47:46):
when you're in a job, you don'treally need coaching. They the
people there at the job aregonna kind of tell you what you
need to do and things like that.
But when you start anentrepreneurial journey, you
really do need an external voiceto really help you out and and
show you. I even had thisyesterday with my own self and
the and the coach I had, my meand my business partner were
meeting with him, and I was justfeeling something were off about

(48:07):
our own numbers. Now I I shouldbe the one that understands my
numbers better than anyone. Butbut my external coach said,
okay. Let's take a step back andhe just really brought it back
to the basics.
And I said, okay. I see what I'mdoing that's causing my own
confusion. And it just thatexternal perspective gave you
that. And as you talk aboutthese things with, the antenna
thing, what is it called?

Crystal (48:28):
The thalamic gate.

Eric (48:29):
Yes. Thelamic. Thelamic. Yeah. Okay.

Not thoralamic. Like, there's like a orlamic.
There's like a there's

Eric (48:34):
like a fit, like a

a glove and things like that.

Crystal (48:37):
That's that's, you

know, so so I'm at my gate. So so and it's and it's
interesting because you startpicking up on these things. You
hear about, like, reticularactivating.

Eric (48:45):
And, you

know, when you start, like, seeing cars
everywhere that you'reinterested in in the buying and
the buying and things like that.And you're, like, they didn't
just magically appear. Why am Inow seeing them all all the
time? It's opportunities arelike that when when, kind of
back where we, you know, kind ofstarted. You have to have
vision, but your vision doesn'thave to be big.
It just has to be enough to getyou started. My vision, I

(49:07):
remember driving in Benita. Iremember this so vividly. I
thought, if I could have 30companies that paid me a $100 a
month, I can make $3,000 amonth, and I would that that
sounds amazing to me. I don'tknow why, like, that sounded
amazing at the time because butit it it did.
And and now we have Well,

Eric (49:23):
it sounds achievable, I think. It sounds achievable.
Right? That's part of it too. Ithink a lot of times it's it it
like, if you're like, oh, thatsounds amazing.
It's like, you know, a 100people pay me a $100,000,000 a
month. It's like, well, that'sthat's so far fetched.

It's, you know,

Eric (49:37):
so I think I mean that that like what you said sounds
more exciting to me than thanthan the 100 than, you know,
$100,000,000 or whatever justcause that's more achievable
than that. Right?

Sounds like something you can actually hit.
And you're like, as a smallbusiness owner with very little
expenses, you're like, oh,actually get to keep that money
too.

Eric (49:53):
And that

and that that's that's just awesome. And so, so,
you know, but the the what we'veactually accomplished is is
actually well beyond that. Ihave 10 employees that work with
us. And and I I don't mean totalk about myself, but it's just
like, I didn't necessarily havea big vision, but I had a vision
big enough to get started. Andas we talk about people that
some will do it and some won't,some have a huge vision.

(50:14):
They wanna change the world andthey wanna do all these things,
but yet they never take thefirst step. And and I think that
whatever your vision is, if itdoesn't move you, if it doesn't
cause you to get up and and dosomething, then it's just not
strong enough. Then it's notjust, you know, we talk about
your why and your, you know,your vision, your goals, and,
you know, the things that youwant to accomplish. And and
we're sitting here because wehad something inside of us that

(50:37):
caused us to take that firststep and to move into. And it
just it just spoke to us.
And you can hear the passionwhen you talk about free speech,
and you're in the world ofmaking sure that the people's
voices can be heard. Whether ornot maybe you agree with them,
as long as it's truth. Right?And and Crystal talks about, you
know, just this mindset and kindof unlocking the things that are
inside of your brain that arejust holding you back. And and

(50:59):
obviously, you can talk moreabout about yours, but it's just
there's these passions and it'slife experience and all these
things that that are our story.
But the fact of the matter is,as we get down to the bottom of
it, if we didn't have theability to actually take that
passion and the things that aredriving us in our in our major
definite purpose and run withit, then we would just be so

(51:20):
hopeless. And I think that's youknow, the word hope is just such
a big thing to me is that thatthere's opportunity. There's
yes. Sometimes it sounds likewe're just talking about money,
the money we can make. Butoftentimes, money is like a
remodel we did in our own houselast year, it wasn't the the
money and and for to make ourkitchen look better, it was to

(51:41):
make this space a place wherepeople could come and we can
share Yeah.
What we've been blessed with.And that's and that that to me
is, like, yeah, that hits on itfor me. That may even gives me
the chills right now as I thinkabout it to see all the all the
youth and my kids that bring 10or so friends over basically
every Sunday after church, andand our house is just filled
with noise and laughter and andand people just a safe place for

(52:02):
them to come to. Now, what doesit have to do with business
ownership? It's just the vehiclethat allowed for that little
piece of of what our hopes andgoals and dreams are.
And if we can expand that andmake that bigger and just, you
know, help more people and justcreate that for more people, you
just have to understand whatthat is inside of yourself.
Because in the moment, thatclient that calls you and yells

(52:23):
at you and you're like, why am Idoing this? I'm such a failure.
Whatever moments that happenwhen you think I am not cut out
for this. When you come back towhy you're doing it, those
little things will just be like,oh, yeah.
That happened. I forgot aboutthat. It it it's

Crystal (52:36):
not priceless memories that come from the hard work.

Yes. Exactly.

Eric (52:41):
Well, I think a lot of it too is is kinda surrounding
yourself with people that aregonna be, champions. Champions
for you when you have kind ofthose moments. I've had a lot of
those moments where it's like,oh, should I do this, you know,
or whatever. But then, and butyou have to have those those
those those champions around youthat will I mean, what you know,

(53:04):
they they also, you know, maybeyou are going down a path. Maybe
you shouldn't be or whatever.
And then so they have to alsokinda give you the hard truth on
things as well too, I think. SoI think but but they I think
there needs to be some semblanceof them, like, having, you know,
compassion towards for you in inwhat where where your passion is

(53:26):
at or where you're where you'restruggling with. And then also,
you know, the the the realfriends will tell you the truth
on

Crystal (53:35):
it.

Eric (53:35):
Right? And they'll they'll they'll help you through stuff
and versus, just either, youknow, nope. Keep going. You
know, the random person, youknow, random person yes. Random
person on the street.
They're gonna go, yeah. Keepgoing. You know? They're gonna
tell you to keep going with itor whatever. Right.

Crystal (53:48):
Well, then the financial aspects are so
tangible because you can see it.You can record it. You can see
the growth. But there's also,like, Ian said, these other
intangible things. Like, I'mworking with a veteran
foundation, Warrior gamerfoundation.
They've saved a 135 lives.

Yeah.

Crystal (54:03):
I haven't made a penny.

Right.

Crystal (54:05):
But I've gained so much value and it warms my heart and
knowing that you can supportcauses. It's not just about the
money, it's about the impactthat you can make as

well. We and and kind of and and to interject
also kind of what both you'retalking about here is that
oftentimes people start to giveus advice, but the higher you
raise up the mountain, then thenwhere they haven't been, your
friends that are wellintentioned, can't always help
you. They haven't ever beenthere. I, I've I've heard this
and it stuck with me. Don't takeconstructive criticism from

(54:37):
people who have neverconstructed anything.
Mhmm. And so it's it's really

Eric (54:41):
easy thing to very, very, very easy thing to do. Yeah. And
And you should be the dumbestone in

Crystal (54:47):
the room. You should have yourself surrounded by
people who are way more

Eric (54:51):
Well, yeah. Because a lot of people like what you said is
people who haven't kind of beenthere or done that and they're
kind of, no, you should do this.

Crystal (54:56):
Of course, they're gonna nay say what you're gonna
be doing too.

But if

Eric (54:59):
they're your friends too, then it's kind of like like you
you you're inclined

Crystal (55:02):
And family.

Eric (55:03):
Yeah. Family and to you're inclined to really take what
they're saying to heart whenmaybe that's not the best thing
to

Exactly. You you think about sports, and I don't
know, basketball. We got abasketball fan over here. So
when you first start out playingbasketball, anybody could tell
you something and make youbetter at basketball. But when
you're Michael Jordan or StephCurry, 99.9% of the population
giving you advice will actuallyhurt you.
Yeah. And it'll make you worse,you know, if you listen to those

(55:31):
people because, you know, andyou just go

Eric (55:33):
to I know

Crystal (55:34):
all the mentors.

Right. So it's getting advice from the right
people, and and that that's thatbecomes a huge part of it
because especially when peopledon't have an invested interest
in you. Like, sometimes peopleoftentimes can give advice, and
them giving you bad advicedoesn't hurt them and but it
hurts you. And so coaches, youknow, whether it's in sports or
whether it's in business, whenthey're when they're in business

(55:57):
with you, giving you bad advicethat hurts you, it should it
should potentially also hurtthem because that's their
potential future player. That'stheir, you know, future business
partner.

Crystal (56:08):
And they might not intend to be hurting. They
they're they're seeing it fromtheir eyes. They're trying to
help. Yes. But their vision ismuch smaller than yours, so they
can't really fully help.

Absolutely. Mhmm. Yeah. That's plays out this
plays out definitely over time.And then talking about how you
work with the veterans issometimes the the looking at it
in the 2 to 3 month, 2 day to 3month period in a vacuum doesn't
make sense.
My coach said this to meyesterday. Looking at something
in a small time period, butseeing how it plays out over a 3
year period of time, it it justseems like, yeah, of course,

(56:39):
that's what we did. That's inline with our values, and we
made the rest of it work, or orthat led to this other
connection or this thing overhere that really had skyrocketed
our business. So Yeah.

Crystal (56:48):
Or it just brings you joy. And sometimes part of, like
I feel like it's a little bit ofour, like, responsibility to
Exactly. To take what we'velearned and share it with other
people. And, especially, I mean,you're helping other businesses
that maybe you're either tryingto start to break out into
business and maybe you need alittle bit more information or
need a little structure so thatthey can grow into it or

(57:11):
businesses that maybe they'vegot one business, and now it
sounds like their average isabout 3 businesses. So, that's
the great thing about theentrepreneurial freedom is
maybe, Erica, there'll beanother whole business next
year.
You never know where this willtake us. And it's so cool
because, like you said, youdon't need to see the whole
every step of the journey. Justtake one step.

Yeah.

Crystal (57:33):
Just be brave. Do the one thing that your heart is
calling you and not listening tothe other people that are in
your life. Because sometimes Iknow when I started my journey,
people kept saying, oh, youcan't do that. Oh, that's not a
good idea. And I knew when myheart that I I was following the
right direction, so I stoppedtelling them.
Yeah. And then I just would showthem at the end, and I was like,
this is what I did Yep. Insteadof asking basically for

(57:56):
permission. So I would I would,tell our audience to not ask for
permission and to follow theirheart.

Mhmm. Mhmm. Absolutely.

Eric (58:03):
I I think there's also, you know, for for I think
there's an aspect too for otherpeople too. If, like, if, you
know, maybe there's somethingmaybe you disagree with someone
to, like, actually, like, askthat person, like, like, are you
willing to, like, listen to my,you know, to to some advice I
have or whatever, whatever itmight be, like, kind of asking
that, I think, too. So because Iguess Like, feet positive

(58:28):
feedback.

Crystal (58:28):
Yeah. Constructive feedback.

Eric (58:30):
Right. And it's a hard thing to kind of, like, you
know, I can't say, like, whethersomebody's on the right path or
not. You know?

Crystal (58:37):
That's up to them.

Eric (58:38):
Yeah. It's kind of up to them. It's a hard thing to kind
of, like, it's hard to justkinda say with with guarantee
that's like, oh, this is a baddecision. It's really hard to
kind of, like, like, solidifyinto that. You know, so I I
guess I I think if somebody is,like, really kind of telling
you, like, no.
That's a bad decision. Justwhite light up. They're they're

(59:00):
probably wrong. Maybe there'saspects. Maybe they can't do it.
That's probably true. They'realready they're saying, you
know, they're in their mind,they're probably thinking, well,
I can't do that. So definitelyyou can't. Yeah. That sort of
thing.
Right? So I was like, well,that's not that's not true. And
so, you know, I think peoplepeople telling you, like, no.
You can't do that, like, flatout and not actually giving you

(59:22):
reasons why or anything.

Crystal (59:23):
I always love that. That always fuels my fire. I'm
like, please tell me I can't dosomething because then it's like
Yeah. I get really motivated togo and show them that I can

do it. Natively motivated. I think that's what
they're called. We, and and somepeople, you know, that that
maybe are telling us about thestuff that we got going on with
their business or their life andthings like that. The, you know,
the John Maxwell used a term.
I know this is a PG show, sothey'll edit this out if you
need to, but he calls them anask hole. And so and they just
keep on asking and and it justlike and then they you hear them

(59:55):
going to the next person andthey ask that person not to say
anything. And you're like, whydid you ask me? I gave you my
heartfelt, like, I understoodthe situation. I gave you my
heartfelt feedback, and you justwanna talk to people about this
because it maybe it validatessomething for that person or
whatever.
And, and and or makes it makesit look like they've got
something going on in their lifewhen maybe they don't actually
have anything going on, so theyjust gotta keep rehashing the

(01:00:16):
same situation over and overwith everyone and, or or
whatever the situation is. Butit's just like some people just
wanna go talk to everyone abouttheir problem and not do
anything about it because, forwhatever reason. I don't know
why people do this, but but Ithink, you know, we're talking
about the people that wanna moveforward. They don't wanna stay
in the same place. It's likethat country song, if you're

(01:00:38):
going through hell, just keepgoing.
You know, we don't don't staythere. Don't set up a tent.
Don't buy a cabin, you know.Just just keep going. Like, you
know, we go through the valleysand the most successful people I
talk to say I'm going peak topeak.
Yes. Obviously, between eachpeak, there's a valley. But we
don't need to discuss thevalley. It's the next peak.
What's the next peak I'm goingto?

Crystal (01:00:59):
Focus on the positive. Yeah.

Ian Johnston (01:01:01):
Exactly. And so there's there's it's it's a
total different mindset, andthat's why the people you
surround yourself with arebecome so important. And and the
journey is not for the faint ofheart, you know. You're gonna
have bad days. You're gonnahave, you know, we talk about
all these terms that we love asa society imposter syndrome and
all these things, which arereal.
Absolutely. But they're but theydon't have to control us.

(01:01:23):
They're they don't define us.They don't make us who we are.
We decide where we're going, andwe just move forward to that
toward that.
And we can create the resultsthat we wanna create for
ourselves, for our family, forour society, for our community.
However big your vision, yourdreams are, you can do that. I
mean, to just put it inperspective, there are people on
the Earth right now that arebuilding rockets to go to Mars.

(01:01:45):
I mean I mean, you know, it'speople think they have all their
opinions about, but but thereason but the the point is is
that there's people that aredoing it. Yep.
So so, you know, again, I lovethese things, but but things
like we oftentimes, we spend somuch time, like, reading on
Reddit when you really should begetting around done it. People
that have done it, who havelived it, who have Mhmm.

Eric (01:02:06):
You know,

brought the shirts home or whatever.

Eric (01:02:08):
It's a new website right there. Yeah. I've done it. I've
read it.

Exactly. And so we, we just really need to
surround ourselves with theright people and give ourselves
the opportunity to uplift otherpeople, but recognize who's
where and where we're at. And sothat we're not getting advice
from people that are actuallybringing us down and we're not
and and we're getting advicefrom people that are headed
somewhere.

Crystal (01:02:28):
That's such good advice.

Eric (01:02:30):
And I think, BNI chapters is a pretty fantastic

Crystal (01:02:34):
place to to surround yourself with Positive breeding
ground for success. Yeah. Yeah.

Absolutely. And and beyond, and once you've been
in your chapter for a long timeand maybe your business has
grown and there's only a fewpeople, that's why, you know,
Crystal and I have becomedirectors. So we get around
other leaders in BNI. We getaround other members of and I
don't know if that's why foryou, but I I definitely wanted
to expand my circle and, andjust meet other people and get
around and see and just justexpand the horizons because BNI

(01:03:02):
has been such a fantastic tool.Again, we talk about structure.
When I love talking about how,like, people are like, oh, BNI
is so structured. And I'm like,that's because it works. Yeah.
You know? That's point.
That's the point. That's why itworks.

Eric (01:03:15):
I've been in in in unstructured groups, and I and
they I never got anything out ofthem. I never I don't know. They
they didn't work. They're tooyou know, like, a nice, fun,
paid get together essentially.And And

I definitely don't wanna talk bad about any other
groups because the fact of thematter is that someone else is
trying with the best of theknowledge they have. And but,
you know, there's definitelywhenever I was at Education
Moment last, last term, I thinkmost of the time I would start
out with, we've paid for asystem that has been proven to
work over a 30 now I think 40years is like 40. 40 year time
period. And so let's not try tochange it. Let's learn

(01:03:48):
everything we can about how tomaximize it.
Yep. And so, you know, if youbought a franchise, you wouldn't
say, hey. This franchise isgood, but instead of chicken,
let's try beef. You know, it'slike it's like, you know, we're
not gonna make those kinds ofchanges when

Eric (01:04:00):
you spend

Crystal (01:04:00):
invent the wheel.

Right. If you spend a $1,000,000 on it, you'd
be like, tell me everything Ineed to know and I'm gonna run
with that. But because we onlyspend, you know, less than
$1,000 on membership every yearand that, it I don't think we
value it as high.

Eric (01:04:14):
Well, I think that's why, well, you know, one of our core
values is traditions plusinnovations. I learned this
recently. It's not traditionsand innovations. It's traditions
plus innovations. And I think Iwould I would kind of be willing
to bet that those at one pointwere 2 separate things.

But

Eric (01:04:31):
then people might lock on to the innovations. Oh, we're
gonna innovate. We're gonnainnovate. We're gonna do all
that. But it's like, well, waita second.
You know, don't forget the otherthings. Don't drop Yeah.

Crystal (01:04:40):
There's a sense of balance.

Eric (01:04:41):
Why BNI works in the first place. Right? Don't don't don't
drop those those other thingsand be so innovative that you're
that you're forgetting the whatwhat is making kind of what's
making BNI work well.Absolutely.

Crystal (01:04:53):
You guys are both process guys, so you can see the
value of the processes that goon in BNI. And there is a slight
room for some creativity inthere. I mean

Eric (01:05:01):
Well, that's what the innovation portion is for.
Right? Exactly. Gonna leaveleave that open. If it's all
tradition, it's kind of rigidand Mhmm.

Crystal (01:05:07):
You know This podcast is our vision of, the
innovation. We're trying toexpand the VCP. I mean Right.
You know me. We're out there.

VCP, you know me. It sounds like a good song. So
you're you're the vice presidentright now. Right? That's
correct.
So so I don't know how long youguys have been in BNI, but just
even, like, 6, 7 years ago,there was paper slips that we
had. Mhmm. And and you wouldpass those around. There was a
great visual when you're, like,I have 2 referrals and you,
like, slam

Eric (01:05:31):
them down. Like, yeah, maybe

not slam. But but it was, like, a I have these
these things and and you had aphysical representation and and
and moving to being on BNIConnect has been a fantastic
thing. BNI Connect rolling outand becoming a better and better
system over time has beenamazing. But there's also been
an aspect of it that has beenlost of, like, we're saying I
have 2 referrals. I have onereferral.
But there's not, like, the stackof papers. Like, these are all

(01:05:54):
the referrals we're passing out.

Eric (01:05:55):
That they're missing that visual, like, element.

Yeah. So so it's it it's good. There's there's
there's pluses and negatives toeverything. The vice president's
role used to be the most heavyrole from

Eric (01:06:06):
a I've heard.

Yeah. There was there was a you had the stack of
paper, and you take it home, andyou're, like, putting all these
things in. And then we alsodidn't have the data on the back
end. So so, again, beyond thenumbers, it's like, on the back
end, the fact that you gavethank you for close business
wasn't attached to the persongiving it. It was only attached
to the person receiving it.
Now for the last so many years,we can actually look and see how

(01:06:27):
much you've given as well as howmuch you've received. And just
additional data that's, like,oh, that's really interesting.
Because a lot of times, a lot ofthings in BNI is we feel like
we're doing so much, but thenwhen we go look at our stats and
the numbers, traffic lights

Crystal (01:06:41):
Mhmm.

We actually see that we're doing a lot more in
our head than we are actuallydoing with our with our like,
with our mouth and withourselves. And so it's, we have
the data in order to to seethat. And it's so there's a
there's a really good aspect ofit too. And so and obviously,
junk in junk out. If peoplearen't reporting things, whether
it's on paper or whether it'sjust something they can do any
time on their phone, then, youknow, so it is.

(01:07:05):
Right? Mhmm.

Eric (01:07:05):
Well, this has been a really this has been a fantastic
conversation.

Crystal (01:07:09):
Yeah. Thank you for joining us. Yeah. This is so
good.

Eric (01:07:11):
Where this was kinda kinda get kinda gonna go, but I I this
is, you know, this is what'sbeen a, you know, core part for
me. Like, when I I kind of gotinto just freelance, just when
no one told me to do freelancestuff. And so I love this
conversation. So, Ian, if, ifsomebody wanted to get in
contact with you, how would theyhow would they do that?

Yeah. So our website,
johnstonaccountancy.com. That's,john j o h n s t o n a c c o u n
t a n c y, which you're gonnaneed for my email as well,
ian@johnstonaccountancy.com. Andalso, our phone number is
619-415-8600. We have an officehere in San Diego, and and we
are we're around.

(01:07:53):
So those are great ways to findus. You can also find us on
Instagram and Facebook andvarious places like that as
well.

Crystal (01:07:59):
B and I app?

And the b and I app. They do have phenomenal

Eric (01:08:02):
for searching for stuff like this. You just type in
somebody's name and they popright up.

Eric, you talked about that needing someone or
someone else somewhere else, andand I've done that for clients
that were moved to Florida andmoved to wherever and find them
people through BNI in theirlocal areas, and it's been so
great. I do have my BNI appfilled out, so all my
information is there. And, so

Eric (01:08:20):
if you

need to find me Yeah. So You

Eric (01:08:23):
know, there's aspects of mine actually that I'm I'm
ashamed to say I need to, fillit out a bit more.

Crystal (01:08:28):
I was checking someone in our chapters last week, and
theirs was from 2011. So yeah.Oh, yeah. Sometimes people need
to update. Need

Eric (01:08:34):
a refresher

Crystal (01:08:35):
on allheart. Need to let him know, but he's had,
like, 7 children since then. SoYeah. We'll give him a a whole
pass.

Well, okay. So I said that, and I feel like,
okay. I bet if I look at it,there's probably areas that need
to be filled out. But but enoughof it is filled out that y'all
get some information on us. II'm sure I could do a better job
as we all should.

Crystal (01:08:54):
It's like we could. So evolving. So yeah.

Which is a great opportunity. Every time
someone's presenting, theyshould be going in there and and
checking out if they're gonna beintroduced correctly

Crystal (01:09:01):
and so

Eric (01:09:02):
yes. That is busted. So yeah. Right. So, if you got
value out of this episode, like,if you, like, this touched you
in a certain way, maybe you knowsomebody who maybe they want to
kinda start theirentrepreneurial journey.
There you just know them thatI'm you I know you have that

(01:09:23):
name stuck in your head.Everyone kinda knows somebody
like this.

Crystal (01:09:26):
Send them this episode.

Eric (01:09:27):
That needs to, you know, start whatever it might be. They
you know, they're just not fallthey're just not following what
their calling is. Send thisepisode to them. I think even if
they're not in BNI, I think thatthey could get exceptional value
out of this, and maybe it's justenough encouragement to send
them, on that get them get thatfirst step going on that path.

(01:09:50):
This is also really one of thecore ways in how we grow this
show.
So, sharing it with with thatfriend, is one of the best ways
best things that you can do forus. So thank you so much for
for, watching, and we'll see youlater.

Crystal (01:10:04):
Thanks for joining us and don't forget to log your
CEU. Thank you for joining usfor the Business Boost Hour. My
name is Crystal Pravette andthis is Eric Buells. Thank you
for joining us and don't forgetto document your single CEU. See
you next time.

Eric (01:10:20):
See you in the next episode.

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Betrayal: Season 4

Crime Junkie

All Episodes

12. Unlocking Entrepreneurial Freedom with Ian Johnston

Amy Robach & T.J. Holmes present: Aubrey O’Day, Covering the Diddy Trial