April 7, 2025 • 30 mins
Welcome to the Young Entrepreneur Syndicate—the podcast where innovation meets inspiration, and every episode feels like a fun, engaging chat with friends.
Your hosts, Jim Riley and Rod Kuntz, are not just seasoned entrepreneurs; they’re expert storytellers with real-world experience in coaching, consulting, start-ups, fundraising, and crafting vibrant workplace cultures. Jim and Rod keep it real, sharing lessons learned from the trenches with humility, humor, and a focus on paying success forward. Every episode is packed with relatable stories, actionable advice, and a good dose of fun that’ll make you feel like you’re right there in the room. Whether you’re scaling your business, optimizing for profitability, or navigating failure, Jim and Rod have your back. So, if you’re ready to learn, laugh, and level up, you’ve found your tribe. Welcome to Young Entrepreneur Syndicate with Jim Riley and Rod Kuntz—where you’re not just listening, you’re part of the conversation!
Find out more at: https://www.youngentrepreneursyndicate.com/
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-answer-is-yes--2903418/support.
Your hosts, Jim Riley and Rod Kuntz, are not just seasoned entrepreneurs; they’re expert storytellers with real-world experience in coaching, consulting, start-ups, fundraising, and crafting vibrant workplace cultures. Jim and Rod keep it real, sharing lessons learned from the trenches with humility, humor, and a focus on paying success forward. Every episode is packed with relatable stories, actionable advice, and a good dose of fun that’ll make you feel like you’re right there in the room. Whether you’re scaling your business, optimizing for profitability, or navigating failure, Jim and Rod have your back. So, if you’re ready to learn, laugh, and level up, you’ve found your tribe. Welcome to Young Entrepreneur Syndicate with Jim Riley and Rod Kuntz—where you’re not just listening, you’re part of the conversation!
Find out more at: https://www.youngentrepreneursyndicate.com/
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-answer-is-yes--2903418/support.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Welcome to the Answers Yes Podcast, where we interview some
of the most interesting people that have said yes to
opportunities in their life. We hope that through these stories
you can learn to create your own destiny by saying yes.
Along the way, join us as we explored the new series,
governing topics such as passion, integrity, and art work. I'm
your host, Jim Riley, and I hope you enjoyed these
(00:32):
interviews as.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Much as I do.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
I believe that everyone has an important message work here.
Hello and welcome to the Young Entrepreneur Syndicate. Jim Riley
here with Rod Koontz. Good morning, Rod, Good morning Jim Riley.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
It's nice to see you as well.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
So, you know, in real estate you have to do
these continuing education classes, yes, and so in Montana it's
twelve hours.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
For the year, so extra twelve hours.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
Anyways, I've learned a lot. I think I've got eight
or nine extra hours in. They're pretty easy to do
because most of the topics are very interesting, you know, like, well,
I talk to you a couple weeks about VA.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Loans, right, VA loans.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
I learned, you know, two hours learning about VA loans,
which I had no idea which could come in hand.
I don't care if you're in real estate or not,
but learning about mortgages and you know the process of
real estate could really help either save you money or
make you money in the process if you buy and
sell any type of real estate as a normal person,
whether you're an agent or not. So anyways, that's been fun.
(01:36):
But what's going to tell you is today I'm getting
three continuing education credits for taking basically a self defense class.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
No way, yeah, yeah, well.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
Okay, somebody gets you at an open house or something.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
What, Well, there is I don't know what the statistics were.
Somebody said it yesterday and I wasn't completely paying tension.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
But there is a lot of.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
Ordeals in real estate between agents and clients, not just
men against women, but against men as well, and so
they are providing some of these classes that are voluntarily
you know, you take them for your CE. But yeah,
I'm excited to take it because I'm a big proponent
of self defense and you know it's a perishing skill. Yes,
(02:25):
you have to practice, right, and so here's a perfect
way to get some credits and practice today. So I'm
doing that from one to four excited.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
Oh that should be fun.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Excellent.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
Yeah, So you know it's interesting, you know when we
expand our world of things that we do. Like you know,
for example, your your daily workout is that ups, yes,
and you're always coming home with stories, but you're learning
about supply chain and you know that side of the
business and you have a better understanding, and it means
it's neat to just expand your knowledge, you know.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
Absolutely, Yeah, there's there's never a downside to learning more information,
especially when it comes to how things work right and
even the body, you know, like you're talking about with
self defense, you know, yeah, you know jiu jitsu and
judo and you know, it's just an amazing set of
skills to have.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
Well, so my wife and I've been having this discussion.
She wants to so she before I met her, she
was in criminal justice classes. She wanted to become a sheriff.
And when we got together, I was a hard know
on that for a variety of reasons. But anyways, and
she got pregnant and it's like, okay, well I don't
want to be a sheriff and be pregnant all those things.
(03:39):
So she moved on. But recently now granted. For the record,
She's got a successful marketing business. She builds websites, logos,
brand identities, and a little bit of social media.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
In the last couple of years, she is thriving.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
I'm she's about ready to take over the household, right
and I'm going to just be the stay at home dad.
But she says, Jim, I want to go back to
college and get a nursing degree. I'm like, really, she says, yeah.
She goes, what if marketing goes away because of AI
and technologies and you know, there's less and less opportunities.
(04:11):
She says, I would have something else to do. And besides,
I you know, have a heart for caring for people.
And I've got several friends that are you know there
there nurses one or two days a week.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
They make a good living.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
You know, if anything were to happen to you, we'd
have a fallback, you know, income and all these things.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
I thought, I think the.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
First reaction is no, you shouldn't do that, you know,
like we need you around here, you know, why go
through all that? But you know that wasn't my action.
I'm like, wow, what a great idea, you know. So
she's she's looking into it, and she's got a meeting
at the college and she's all about it.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
You know.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
I just thought how awesome that. You know, she's thirty seven,
so she's looking at ways she can expand her mind
and do more.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
Right.
Speaker 3 (04:51):
I think my wife started her midwif re education formal
midwifery education when she was thirty six. And at the
same time, she, yeah, and we were homeschooling our kids,
and she had a part time job homeschooling the kids,
taking care of me because you know, I had I
had another thing going on. I was working full time.
(05:13):
I had another thing on the side. And I mean
she was busy, and she still managed to get her degree,
and and she has a thriving practice, right, Yeah, I
mean she's turning people away. Yesterday I was I was
home with her for a couple hours and she literally
had to, you know, tell two people, I'm sorry, I'm full.
This is December, yeah for December. Yeah. So, and it's hard,
(05:38):
you know, because she doesn't have a whole lot of
other resources to send them to, you know. So yeah,
and yeah, it is. It's very tough. It it breaks
her heart every time. But good for Samantha. For you
know looking ahead, well, well.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
That things go wrong, nothing seriously think about it.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
She's like, look, even if I never come a nurse,
but I have all this knowledge. You know, I can
help take care of us if we were ill or
injured or whatever.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
Right.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
So this all leads into unintentionally, by the way, because
I have dual thoughts going on today's topic and what
I want to talk about today, and again I'm gonna
wrap in one of my stories to make the point.
But I want to talk about change and people's fear
of change and how you can overcome that and have
(06:28):
security and knowing that change is okay, Right, because a
lot of times you can't control the change, and then
sometimes you can control the change, right, but both there's
some uncertainties in that.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
Right.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
So it's snowing today. It's April third in Montana and
it's snowing.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
That's a change.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
That's a dramatic change in the weather from what we
had two weeks ago. Right, we can't control this r
So what can we do? Right, We can adapt to it,
we can work around it. There's a lot of things
that we can do. If we choose to complain about it.
We're not going to get anywhere, we're just going to
be miserable.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
Right.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
So what I want to talk about is change on
a larger scale. And the example I want to leave
is if you've listened to my story or read my book,
I talk about in my mid twenties leaving a career
at inter and out Burger, very successful sixth figure income
because I learned the importance of my own personal values
and giving back instead of just making money. And the
(07:24):
change I decided to do was leave that career, move
to Lake Tahoe and basically take any job that was
minimum wage that I would qualify for, just to force
a change mentally, physically, logistically, to kind of reset, right.
And what I think happens to us is that we
(07:46):
rise to our own tide, you know. Having said that,
I moved dramatic change, didn't know anybody at all, took
what I had and created a life for ourselves and thrived.
In a short period of time, I was promoted at
(08:06):
two different jobs, and ultimately within a year, I became
the food and beverage director for a major ski resort
in Lake Tahoe. And so what I learned in that
is that change could be good if you embrace it,
and sometimes force change is uncomfortable, as it might seem
before you do it right. Leading up to that really
(08:27):
could get uncomfortable. But you'll rise to your own tide.
And you know, if you have success in what you're doing,
and you're confident in your abilities, and you have happiness
and values and all these other things, and you do
things with a plan, you can create changing your life
for the better and make something out of it. Now.
I stayed up there five years, moved back to Newport Beach,
(08:48):
was there for about twelve, had a lot of personal changes, divorced, remarried,
and started a family. And then my next big change
was moving from an area that I knew most of
my life to Montana.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
Oh that's that's not a big change.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
And again I knew one I knew two people here,
knew two people right that live thirty minutes away. Massive
massive change. And in the six years that I've been here,
have risen to my own tide, have found success, happiness,
best years of my life, and am thrilled that I
did that. I would never regret that decision to come
(09:29):
here and do what I've done right.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
And I want.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
People to hear this because I think there's a lot
of people out there that want some change in their life,
but they don't know how to go about it. They
don't have the you know. I think we're always looking
for assurance. It's like, well, if I do that, will
everything be okay? Yes, you'll be okay. I remember when
I left in and Out way back when, I remember
getting a lot of calls within the first year, Hey
(09:55):
are you okay?
Speaker 2 (09:57):
Like literally, they meant like, are you okay?
Speaker 3 (09:58):
Man?
Speaker 2 (09:59):
Is there you need anything? I'm like, dude, I'm happy
right life? Yes, so right?
Speaker 1 (10:06):
Any any major changes that you made in your life
that you you feel like, hey, on the other side
of them, glad I did it and overcame it.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
All of them, all of them.
Speaker 3 (10:16):
I want to back up on your story for a second.
Let's let's go back to your recent big change when
you move to Montana. Yeah, and I'm going to ask you.
I mean, you made the decision, and it's always nice
to go through change with somebody alongside. I'm going to
tell you that. So you had your wife on board,
and so that makes a difference. So if you're going
through change alone, I think it changes things a little bit.
(10:37):
I mean when you're just relying on yourself. But you
had your wife and you came up here. So go
back to that when you got here. And I mean,
because my wife always says, and she's absolutely right, the
thinking about it is the worst part. Yep, thinking about
it's the worst part. But once you just get in
the car and you go it's packed up. You're unpacking
now in Montana. Now you're here, tell me what that
(11:00):
was like. That's that because you're over you know, you
made that hard decision, you made the move. Now you're
here and now you're in the middle of change, right,
So it's the contemplating change that's the hard part. When
you're in the middle of change, you have to, like
you said, your ride to rise to your own tide.
But tell me about that moment when you're both here
(11:21):
now and now it's brand new territory.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
Well, I have a really funny story about that.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
It'll answer it perfectly.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
But what I would do want to say about like
the leading up to it. You know, we came up
here for a Spartan race and we intentionally competed in
the Big Fork Race. We were running the national circuit
and we came up we did the race, but we
also had a realtor drive us around and we looked
at fifteen properties and like, oh, I could live here.
And there was a little trepidation on my wife's part, like, hey,
(11:49):
it snows here like it is today, you know, and
I don't like the cold.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
But you know, you learn about.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
The summers and the seasons and all those other things,
and you know you can travel and get a break
and there is some great winter activities. So there was that, right,
And then we came back and you know, and coming back,
I said to Samantha, I said, hey.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
We're going to go back. We're going to take our trailer.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
We're going to stay for I don't know ten days,
but we're going to find a house, you know, and
make a decision. She goes, oh, you mean like look
around and then go back home and think about it
some more. I said no, we're literally going to buy
a house. And that got really scary for her, right
She's like, okay, like you're serious, and I was. And
that's what we did. We found a house on day
(12:30):
ten and put an offer in, went back home and
sold our house in seven days and we were here
within thirty.
Speaker 3 (12:38):
That's a fast move.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
That's a fast move, and it's kind of like, hey,
you made the decision. Now it kind of snowballs. So
to answer your question, once we got here, what was
that like, Yes, it was like being on spring break
for a year. I and literally I literally said that
like six months into it. And I said, guys, because
(12:59):
our neighbor had just moved here within a few months
and they were feeling the same. I said, guys, we
got to stop treating this place like we're on spring break.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
We're running around.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
The concerts and rodeos and backpacking and waterfalls and lakes
and you know, and running around the house with the
horses and you know, just going crazy like we were kids.
We were having so much fun in our new environment.
I literally felt probably more like two years we were
on spring break, you know. And then and then the
desk starts to settle a little bits, like okay, well
(13:29):
let's get serious about our lives here.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
And you know, and I was fortunate.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
I'm not gonna pass it off as you know, everybody's
going to have the same opportunities because we came here,
we were blessed. I had some good business investments and
you know, there wasn't a ton of pressure to make money.
But I will say we did have to make money,
you know. We we did want to have some type
of revenue coming in so that we just didn't dry
up everything we'd worked our whole lives for, right, So
(13:53):
you know, it was like, okay, well, what are we
going to do for work?
Speaker 2 (13:55):
What does that look like? You know?
Speaker 1 (13:56):
And so I was consulting from home, you know, and
had some discipline there, but to really answer your questions,
like spring break for two years, you know, and you
know what, there's periods of time, you know, this ride,
there's periods of time during the summer that you feel
like you're in a three month spring break in mind Town,
because there is nothing like summers in the Big Sky.
Speaker 3 (14:16):
You know. Well it goes, I don't know, you're six
years in, you know now that it's not just summer
in the Big Sky but fall, which is my favorite
time in mind too. And so I guess and I'm
glad you shared that story and the insights from that,
because to me, that's what change is.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:36):
In fact, I did a post four years ago that
I reposted recently, and it went something like this. It said,
don't be deceived. Work is the reward. Work is the reward.
And so if you just embrace change and say this
(14:56):
is life, this is what we get to do, it
changes everything because you know, I really do feel like
you think you know you've been blessed. I feel like
every single day, even though I work, even though I
have in fact I've got I'm supposed to be retired
for the last eight years, and I've got more going
(15:18):
on it seems like than I ever have. And I
love every minute of it. Yeah, I mean, I'm just
I'm learning new things. I'm pressing in I'm embracing change.
Yesterday Tuesday, we had a call with Young Entrepreneur Syndicate,
and Rachel challenged us to look at some of the
(15:38):
new technology and see how we could put that into
our businesses in our life. And I created an avatar. Nice,
I went online, I created an avatar, and I literally
have the I always said I wish I had three clones,
you know, one to go to work, one to go
do political things, you know, when to go to meetings,
(16:00):
want to you know, play, Yeah, that's the one I'd
say for myself, you know, to go out and do
the stuff. Well, here's the way to do that. We
have the technology, and so I'm at that point where
it's like, well, how can I use this? And it's changed?
Speaker 2 (16:14):
Right, Yeah, it's absolutely.
Speaker 3 (16:17):
In fact, I my avatar was talking on the computer
when I was finished, and my wife said, that's just
scary because she's listening to my voice and it's looking
like I'm talking and it's not right. It is a
computer generator and you can't tell. I mean, it's it's
it's wild. But that's change. And and so if you
(16:37):
embrace change and aren't afraid of it, if you stop
thinking about it and oh what if? You know, that's
the problem with change. It's the what ifs.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
Well, that's a lack of confidence, and that's that's a
scarcity mentality, right, the what if?
Speaker 2 (16:51):
How about?
Speaker 1 (16:53):
What what if I succeed at this, you know, having
an abundant mentality? Here's what I want to transition into. Right,
I'll give you a humans think about this too. Is
what are some of the steps that people can take
if they want to make change.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
Whatever that looks like?
Speaker 1 (17:08):
Right, So, what are the steps to get yourself into
a change mentality or to go through a change? And
I want to start my side of this conversation with
Justin Metcha, who was on our show a few weeks
ago talking about Montana Camp. By the way, great speaking
opportunity for entrepreneurs.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
Real estate, mortgage, etc.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
Mainly entrepreneurs, going on May twenty first through the twenty
third here in Montana. So if you're looking for an
excuse to come here, come to Montana Camp. You can
get a ticket at Montanacamp dot org. And Rod and
I will both be speaking, along with Rachel and several
other great people. On Tuesday, I was talking to Justin.
We were in a company meeting, and he gave this
(17:47):
beautiful example of what business looks like or what it
could look like. But I relate it to change, he says.
And I'll use his example because it's kind funny. He's like,
is there any Justin Bieber in the room? And nobody
raised their head. He's like, good, we're in good company here, right,
But he says, you know, when Justin Bieber is on
stage and he's singing to a you know, an audience
(18:09):
of fifty thousand people, what is he doing?
Speaker 2 (18:14):
What is he doing?
Speaker 1 (18:16):
And he's like, well, he's working, you know, that's his job.
He's a musician, and he says, no, he's playing. He's
having fun. He says, the work is all the practices
leading up to the show, and he's having fun right
on stage. And I think if we look at change
(18:37):
in that respect, right, everything that we've done in our
life is the work that prepares us to do things
like change the way that whether where we live, what
we do for a living. You know, our willingness to
learn something new, like create an avatar or going to
school for your nurse's degree. Right, we've done the work.
(19:02):
Now have some fun with that. I don't care how
old you are. Either, if you're eighteen years old, you've
done some work. You know, more than likely you've either homeschooled,
I pray, or you've gone through the public education system
and you've got something behind your belt, maybe some work,
maybe some personal.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
Experience at home.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
Nobody has an excuse that they can't lean into and say,
you know.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
What, I've done some work. I want to make a change.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
And that change doesn't have to be major. It doesn't
have to be on moving eighteen hours away to Montana
from the beach, right.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
It could be something small.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
But as you build habits of changing, they'll become bigger
and bigger and bigger, and you'll build the confidence and say,
you know what, I can move from this beach life
to Montana and be okay with it. I'm going to
spend the first two years there like I'm on spring break,
and so here's a few steps that.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
I'm going to give.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
And then I want to hear your thoughts on what
people could do.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
Right.
Speaker 1 (19:59):
So what we did as a family is we wrote down, Okay,
what are our financial needs in the future if we
were to move, based on what we have and our
own abilities, what does our lifestyle look like? And now,
by the way, this is just my formulas for making
a move. You're gonna have to apply your own formulas
(20:21):
to whatever change you want to make, whether it's a
job or learn something.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
Never but this is what we went through.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
It's like, okay, so what do our monthly expenses look like?
And so in my mind I thought, well, we've got
a pretty nice place here where we live. I like
to downsize our monthly expenses. So whatever we do when
we get to Montana, let's downsize.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
So we're not house poor, are strapped our.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
Living So we downsized our home by our people buy
on payments. Okay, I've learned that statement. You know you
buy in, you buy in the monthly payment, you know
what you can afford.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
Right.
Speaker 1 (20:56):
So basically, we downsized our house by thirty five percent. Okay,
So I knew, no matter what, I'm going to take
a thirty five percent reduction in our cost of living
in our home. We knew that the cost of living
in Montana at the time, not anymore, folks, was about
thirty percent less than it was where we lived before
(21:17):
in Orange County, right. And then we started making a plan, Well,
what does that look like for us? While we want
to have animals, we want to be able to do
these hobbies, we want to have this type of vehicle
to support those activities. We want to you know, be
in this type of neighborhood, right, And so we built
a plan, and then we built a timeline around that,
and then we had the confidence to come up here,
find a place, and be able to move in those
(21:38):
thirty days without hesitation because we knew when we got
here we already had the formula figured out, right.
Speaker 2 (21:44):
And so I think that if you can build a formula.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
Around your change and get buy off on whoever's going
to be affected by that change.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
You can work that change.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
With confidence, wind up on the other side and enjoy
spring break for two years, okay, by the rest of
your life are the rest of Yeah, are the rest
of your life?
Speaker 2 (22:03):
Right?
Speaker 1 (22:03):
And so so those are my principles. So when if
you look at I'm going to change a job, I'm
going to change, you know, where I live. I'm going
to get an education, like, build a plan around that,
and enjoy the ride. So that's that's my two cents.
I don't want people to be afraid to change.
Speaker 3 (22:21):
I think that's a great topic. And you're you're almost
taking part of my My talk at Montana Camp Good
is about some of these things. Uh and and I'm
not going to give it all away right now, but
I will say that you have to make the decision first.
But you just mentioned it too. You have to have
a plan, and whether it's a business plan or a
(22:45):
life plan, you need to have a plan. You need
to write those things down what are important to you.
My wife and I both came from prior marriages, and
I didn't know in my head. I knew what I
wanted for my next wife. I knew I didn't want
to walk through life, a life. I didn't want to
be a bachelor forever. You know, I knew I wanted
you know, love, romantic love and uh real love right
(23:09):
family love, And so I knew what I was what
I wanted. I knew what that ideal was. My wife
had a list of what the next her next spouse
would be and she made she made it to a
point where she didn't think anyone would be able to
get on that list. Right, she won, I I did
(23:31):
you know she found out some other things she should
have put on the list later, but uh yeah, she
had she had a plan. She wrote it down. What
what is it that I want? If there's going to
be major change in my life? What is it you want?
So that's that vision board mentality, right And I'm not
talking about just manifesting it. But you have to have
a plan. You have to have a dream of goal
(23:53):
to shoot for. And if you I'll even go into
the faith mode here, you need to pray specifically for
what you want. We're told to you know, ask for
what you want. You know, I don't want just a
newer car. I want a Chevy Malibu Classic car. You know,
I want it brand new or used with three thousand miles.
(24:14):
You know, pray specifically, make your goal specific so that
you have something to attain. And you know, that's that's
where it starts, is really putting it on paper, because
that makes it real. Otherwise it's just thoughts going around
in your head. And man, they can spin around there
like in a washing cycle, perpetually sure to get it
out and into the next cycle. There's like a washing machine,
(24:37):
it has to be programmed. You have to program into
it what you want the end result to be. So
I would say, start with a plan. And if you
don't know what that looks like, maybe you're comfortable. And
to me, comfort's a dangerous place. Oh yeah, if you know,
I meet too many people who are comfortable and and
they've stopped growing. You know, a flat line. If you
(24:58):
think about a flat line, right, flat line's dead. Well,
look at the country you talk about nursing. Yeah, look
it's a little line. It's dead.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
Look at the country. We've been comfortable for fifty to
sixty five, seventy five years, we flatlined and now we're
in trouble.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
Right.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
Comfort is comfort is dangerous, And I don't think any
of us desires to be one hundred percent comfortable all
the time. We just don't know how to get out
of that to create that excitement again. And that's that's
really what this show's about, is not being afraid to
change and encouraging the change, whatever that might look like
for you, right, I mean, yes, it will be uncomfortable
(25:33):
for my wife to go back to school maybe, Right.
You've got to study and show up to class and
be ready to listen, and you might not like the
instructor or the student sitting next to you. I mean,
who knows, right, So there's some discomfort in that, But
on the other side of that, you're going to find
such a greater reward that those little sacrifices to get
there are completely worth it. Or you just might realize, like, hey,
(25:57):
I'm actually enjoying this.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
You know.
Speaker 1 (25:59):
I was up at Flat Had Community College with Sean Gallagher,
who's in charge of the entrepreneurial division up there, and
it was pretty refreshing to sit there and listen to
and talk about what they're going to be doing, and
you know, sitting I'm sitting in the library and they
got a coffee shop and it's hustling and bustling like
all people are here to learn, and there's excitement in that.
Speaker 2 (26:16):
You know.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
It's like I was craving an excuse to be there.
You know, I totally got comfortable him and we're just talking.
I'm like, gosh, I guess you'd probably have to go somewhere.
He's like, yeah, I probably should wrap it up. I
mean I had, there was no hurry in my step. Yeah,
So embrace that change. And you know what, if you're stuck,
if you're feeling look around, and if you're feeling complacent,
(26:37):
look at ways that you can make change in your life,
to make a difference for one thing or another.
Speaker 2 (26:44):
And I think that you'll find reward in that.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
So that's that's really the message I want to send today,
because change is fun and exciting.
Speaker 3 (26:51):
Yes, and embrace it now for anyone who's out there
who is if you're feeling comfortable, if you're feeling convicted
just a little bit by what you've heard, here are
a couple of things you can do change your environment.
You just mentioned it. Go to a college campus, go
to a museum, go someplace out of your normal walk
and see it with fresh eyes and get inspired. Go
(27:15):
to an art gallery, right, but go somewhere outside of
your normal walk. Go to change your environment number one.
Number two, I would say, watch some teed X videos.
Go on go onto YouTube and look at some TEDx
talks and just see what other people are passionate and
excited about and say, wow, could I be excited about that?
(27:37):
Could I get that excited about anything?
Speaker 2 (27:40):
Right?
Speaker 3 (27:40):
So look at look to others, even if it's not
your area, and just tap into other people's passion and
excitement and zest for life. That's my second point, and
my third one would be this, Go into the want
ads in your local your local area, see who's hiring
for Just keep your finger on the pulse of who's
(28:01):
looking for what out there, and just for the heck
of it, go interview for a job you don't want, need,
or desire. Just go talk to somebody about what they're
doing in that industry. I'll tell you what. There's absolutely
no pressure for a job interview that you don't need,
want or desire. And I used to challenge my high
(28:22):
school students to do this, Go out and interview for jobs.
Just get that practice in, get that step in. But
I'm telling you what, you never know what it could
lead to. It could be someone saying, man, you've got
all the skills we need for this position. What are
you doing now? Maybe maybe we could bring you on,
Maybe we could make space in this division. You know,
we're hiring in Hawaii. If you want to get into
(28:44):
a warmer climate. You know we've got someone who needs
what you have. You don't even know what doors could
open in front of you until you open that first door.
So why not crack some doors open, take a look around.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
You don't have to.
Speaker 3 (28:58):
Make a decision. Yeah, you might pack a U haul,
but you know, knowing that you don't need to or
have to, just open your mind to new opportunities. I
guess that's the lung and the short of it.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
Well, here's what I'll offer. By the way, I just
flipped over a business card. I met some of the
senior level executives at first form about fifteen years ago
when they were just getting started. But on the back
of their business card it was just fiddling while we
were talking. It says, never settle there you go, ever settle, right,
And so that's what we're talking about.
Speaker 2 (29:27):
Change.
Speaker 1 (29:28):
It's okay, never settle for less. So here's what I'll
offer if you DM me or email me or however
you want to get a hold of me. My Instagram
is Jim Riley, Montana. Or through the show, I'll send
you over from the Young Entrepreneur Syndicate of values spreadsheet
so you can start with your values, a goal spreadsheet
so you can list out your goals based on that.
(29:50):
And then I'm sure I'll throw right out there under
this too, Rod or I would be happy to jump
on a phone call with you and help work you
through a change that you want to your life. So
hit us up, Let's do some work together, Let's make
some change. Let's get excited about it. You never know
what's next, you never know. So and if you want
to be a member of the Young Entrepreneur Syndicate, we
(30:11):
meet every week on a zoom call for an hour
thirty minutes of a soft skill topic and then we
open it up to the floor.
Speaker 2 (30:17):
Anybody that's dealing with some.
Speaker 1 (30:19):
Issues, we love to talk about that and help them
through a group. And we have tons of resources on
the other side. And then once again Montana Camp May
twenty first through the twenty third here in Kallispell, Montana.
Speaker 2 (30:30):
What a great time to be here. By the way,
huh oh, gosh.
Speaker 3 (30:33):
Yeah, it's a kickoff to summer.
Speaker 2 (30:35):
Yeah yeah. So all right, Rod, good to see you, buddy.
Speaker 3 (30:39):
Nice to see you. And I'll throw this out there
as well. Anyone who's coming from out of state to
Montana Camp, if you're going to go hiking on the weekend,
you won't have to buy your own bear spray Alonia
one of mine. I've got a couple of extra canisters
bears will be out.
Speaker 2 (30:51):
That's a nice offer. Yeah, all right, everybody, talk to
you soon.
Welcome to the Answers Yes Podcast, where we interview some
of the most interesting people that have said yes to
opportunities in their life. We hope that through these stories
you can learn to create your own destiny by saying yes.
Along the way, join us as we explored the new series,
governing topics such as passion, integrity, and art work. I'm
your host, Jim Riley, and I hope you enjoyed these
(00:32):
interviews as.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Much as I do.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
I believe that everyone has an important message work here.
Hello and welcome to the Young Entrepreneur Syndicate. Jim Riley
here with Rod Koontz. Good morning, Rod, Good morning Jim Riley.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
It's nice to see you as well.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
So, you know, in real estate you have to do
these continuing education classes, yes, and so in Montana it's
twelve hours.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
For the year, so extra twelve hours.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
Anyways, I've learned a lot. I think I've got eight
or nine extra hours in. They're pretty easy to do
because most of the topics are very interesting, you know, like, well,
I talk to you a couple weeks about VA.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Loans, right, VA loans.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
I learned, you know, two hours learning about VA loans,
which I had no idea which could come in hand.
I don't care if you're in real estate or not,
but learning about mortgages and you know the process of
real estate could really help either save you money or
make you money in the process if you buy and
sell any type of real estate as a normal person,
whether you're an agent or not. So anyways, that's been fun.
(01:36):
But what's going to tell you is today I'm getting
three continuing education credits for taking basically a self defense class.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
No way, yeah, yeah, well.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
Okay, somebody gets you at an open house or something.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
What, Well, there is I don't know what the statistics were.
Somebody said it yesterday and I wasn't completely paying tension.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
But there is a lot of.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
Ordeals in real estate between agents and clients, not just
men against women, but against men as well, and so
they are providing some of these classes that are voluntarily
you know, you take them for your CE. But yeah,
I'm excited to take it because I'm a big proponent
of self defense and you know it's a perishing skill. Yes,
(02:25):
you have to practice, right, and so here's a perfect
way to get some credits and practice today. So I'm
doing that from one to four excited.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
Oh that should be fun.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Excellent.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
Yeah, So you know it's interesting, you know when we
expand our world of things that we do. Like you know,
for example, your your daily workout is that ups, yes,
and you're always coming home with stories, but you're learning
about supply chain and you know that side of the
business and you have a better understanding, and it means
it's neat to just expand your knowledge, you know.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
Absolutely, Yeah, there's there's never a downside to learning more information,
especially when it comes to how things work right and
even the body, you know, like you're talking about with
self defense, you know, yeah, you know jiu jitsu and
judo and you know, it's just an amazing set of
skills to have.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
Well, so my wife and I've been having this discussion.
She wants to so she before I met her, she
was in criminal justice classes. She wanted to become a sheriff.
And when we got together, I was a hard know
on that for a variety of reasons. But anyways, and
she got pregnant and it's like, okay, well I don't
want to be a sheriff and be pregnant all those things.
(03:39):
So she moved on. But recently now granted. For the record,
She's got a successful marketing business. She builds websites, logos,
brand identities, and a little bit of social media.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
In the last couple of years, she is thriving.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
I'm she's about ready to take over the household, right
and I'm going to just be the stay at home dad.
But she says, Jim, I want to go back to
college and get a nursing degree. I'm like, really, she says, yeah.
She goes, what if marketing goes away because of AI
and technologies and you know, there's less and less opportunities.
(04:11):
She says, I would have something else to do. And besides,
I you know, have a heart for caring for people.
And I've got several friends that are you know there
there nurses one or two days a week.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
They make a good living.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
You know, if anything were to happen to you, we'd
have a fallback, you know, income and all these things.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
I thought, I think the.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
First reaction is no, you shouldn't do that, you know,
like we need you around here, you know, why go
through all that? But you know that wasn't my action.
I'm like, wow, what a great idea, you know. So
she's she's looking into it, and she's got a meeting
at the college and she's all about it.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
You know.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
I just thought how awesome that. You know, she's thirty seven,
so she's looking at ways she can expand her mind
and do more.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
Right.
Speaker 3 (04:51):
I think my wife started her midwif re education formal
midwifery education when she was thirty six. And at the
same time, she, yeah, and we were homeschooling our kids,
and she had a part time job homeschooling the kids,
taking care of me because you know, I had I
had another thing going on. I was working full time.
(05:13):
I had another thing on the side. And I mean
she was busy, and she still managed to get her degree,
and and she has a thriving practice, right, Yeah, I
mean she's turning people away. Yesterday I was I was
home with her for a couple hours and she literally
had to, you know, tell two people, I'm sorry, I'm full.
This is December, yeah for December. Yeah. So, and it's hard,
(05:38):
you know, because she doesn't have a whole lot of
other resources to send them to, you know. So yeah,
and yeah, it is. It's very tough. It it breaks
her heart every time. But good for Samantha. For you
know looking ahead, well, well.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
That things go wrong, nothing seriously think about it.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
She's like, look, even if I never come a nurse,
but I have all this knowledge. You know, I can
help take care of us if we were ill or
injured or whatever.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
Right.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
So this all leads into unintentionally, by the way, because
I have dual thoughts going on today's topic and what
I want to talk about today, and again I'm gonna
wrap in one of my stories to make the point.
But I want to talk about change and people's fear
of change and how you can overcome that and have
(06:28):
security and knowing that change is okay, Right, because a
lot of times you can't control the change, and then
sometimes you can control the change, right, but both there's
some uncertainties in that.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
Right.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
So it's snowing today. It's April third in Montana and
it's snowing.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
That's a change.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
That's a dramatic change in the weather from what we
had two weeks ago. Right, we can't control this r
So what can we do? Right, We can adapt to it,
we can work around it. There's a lot of things
that we can do. If we choose to complain about it.
We're not going to get anywhere, we're just going to
be miserable.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
Right.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
So what I want to talk about is change on
a larger scale. And the example I want to leave
is if you've listened to my story or read my book,
I talk about in my mid twenties leaving a career
at inter and out Burger, very successful sixth figure income
because I learned the importance of my own personal values
and giving back instead of just making money. And the
(07:24):
change I decided to do was leave that career, move
to Lake Tahoe and basically take any job that was
minimum wage that I would qualify for, just to force
a change mentally, physically, logistically, to kind of reset, right.
And what I think happens to us is that we
(07:46):
rise to our own tide, you know. Having said that,
I moved dramatic change, didn't know anybody at all, took
what I had and created a life for ourselves and thrived.
In a short period of time, I was promoted at
(08:06):
two different jobs, and ultimately within a year, I became
the food and beverage director for a major ski resort
in Lake Tahoe. And so what I learned in that
is that change could be good if you embrace it,
and sometimes force change is uncomfortable, as it might seem
before you do it right. Leading up to that really
(08:27):
could get uncomfortable. But you'll rise to your own tide.
And you know, if you have success in what you're doing,
and you're confident in your abilities, and you have happiness
and values and all these other things, and you do
things with a plan, you can create changing your life
for the better and make something out of it. Now.
I stayed up there five years, moved back to Newport Beach,
(08:48):
was there for about twelve, had a lot of personal changes, divorced, remarried,
and started a family. And then my next big change
was moving from an area that I knew most of
my life to Montana.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
Oh that's that's not a big change.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
And again I knew one I knew two people here,
knew two people right that live thirty minutes away. Massive
massive change. And in the six years that I've been here,
have risen to my own tide, have found success, happiness,
best years of my life, and am thrilled that I
did that. I would never regret that decision to come
(09:29):
here and do what I've done right.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
And I want.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
People to hear this because I think there's a lot
of people out there that want some change in their life,
but they don't know how to go about it. They
don't have the you know. I think we're always looking
for assurance. It's like, well, if I do that, will
everything be okay? Yes, you'll be okay. I remember when
I left in and Out way back when, I remember
getting a lot of calls within the first year, Hey
(09:55):
are you okay?
Speaker 2 (09:57):
Like literally, they meant like, are you okay?
Speaker 3 (09:58):
Man?
Speaker 2 (09:59):
Is there you need anything? I'm like, dude, I'm happy
right life? Yes, so right?
Speaker 1 (10:06):
Any any major changes that you made in your life
that you you feel like, hey, on the other side
of them, glad I did it and overcame it.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
All of them, all of them.
Speaker 3 (10:16):
I want to back up on your story for a second.
Let's let's go back to your recent big change when
you move to Montana. Yeah, and I'm going to ask you.
I mean, you made the decision, and it's always nice
to go through change with somebody alongside. I'm going to
tell you that. So you had your wife on board,
and so that makes a difference. So if you're going
through change alone, I think it changes things a little bit.
(10:37):
I mean when you're just relying on yourself. But you
had your wife and you came up here. So go
back to that when you got here. And I mean,
because my wife always says, and she's absolutely right, the
thinking about it is the worst part. Yep, thinking about
it's the worst part. But once you just get in
the car and you go it's packed up. You're unpacking
now in Montana. Now you're here, tell me what that
(11:00):
was like. That's that because you're over you know, you
made that hard decision, you made the move. Now you're
here and now you're in the middle of change, right,
So it's the contemplating change that's the hard part. When
you're in the middle of change, you have to, like
you said, your ride to rise to your own tide.
But tell me about that moment when you're both here
(11:21):
now and now it's brand new territory.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
Well, I have a really funny story about that.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
It'll answer it perfectly.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
But what I would do want to say about like
the leading up to it. You know, we came up
here for a Spartan race and we intentionally competed in
the Big Fork Race. We were running the national circuit
and we came up we did the race, but we
also had a realtor drive us around and we looked
at fifteen properties and like, oh, I could live here.
And there was a little trepidation on my wife's part, like, hey,
(11:49):
it snows here like it is today, you know, and
I don't like the cold.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
But you know, you learn about.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
The summers and the seasons and all those other things,
and you know you can travel and get a break
and there is some great winter activities. So there was that, right,
And then we came back and you know, and coming back,
I said to Samantha, I said, hey.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
We're going to go back. We're going to take our trailer.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
We're going to stay for I don't know ten days,
but we're going to find a house, you know, and
make a decision. She goes, oh, you mean like look
around and then go back home and think about it
some more. I said no, we're literally going to buy
a house. And that got really scary for her, right
She's like, okay, like you're serious, and I was. And
that's what we did. We found a house on day
(12:30):
ten and put an offer in, went back home and
sold our house in seven days and we were here
within thirty.
Speaker 3 (12:38):
That's a fast move.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
That's a fast move, and it's kind of like, hey,
you made the decision. Now it kind of snowballs. So
to answer your question, once we got here, what was
that like, Yes, it was like being on spring break
for a year. I and literally I literally said that
like six months into it. And I said, guys, because
(12:59):
our neighbor had just moved here within a few months
and they were feeling the same. I said, guys, we
got to stop treating this place like we're on spring break.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
We're running around.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
The concerts and rodeos and backpacking and waterfalls and lakes
and you know, and running around the house with the
horses and you know, just going crazy like we were kids.
We were having so much fun in our new environment.
I literally felt probably more like two years we were
on spring break, you know. And then and then the
desk starts to settle a little bits, like okay, well
(13:29):
let's get serious about our lives here.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
And you know, and I was fortunate.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
I'm not gonna pass it off as you know, everybody's
going to have the same opportunities because we came here,
we were blessed. I had some good business investments and
you know, there wasn't a ton of pressure to make money.
But I will say we did have to make money,
you know. We we did want to have some type
of revenue coming in so that we just didn't dry
up everything we'd worked our whole lives for, right, So
(13:53):
you know, it was like, okay, well, what are we
going to do for work?
Speaker 2 (13:55):
What does that look like? You know?
Speaker 1 (13:56):
And so I was consulting from home, you know, and
had some discipline there, but to really answer your questions,
like spring break for two years, you know, and you
know what, there's periods of time, you know, this ride,
there's periods of time during the summer that you feel
like you're in a three month spring break in mind Town,
because there is nothing like summers in the Big Sky.
Speaker 3 (14:16):
You know. Well it goes, I don't know, you're six
years in, you know now that it's not just summer
in the Big Sky but fall, which is my favorite
time in mind too. And so I guess and I'm
glad you shared that story and the insights from that,
because to me, that's what change is.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:36):
In fact, I did a post four years ago that
I reposted recently, and it went something like this. It said,
don't be deceived. Work is the reward. Work is the reward.
And so if you just embrace change and say this
(14:56):
is life, this is what we get to do, it
changes everything because you know, I really do feel like
you think you know you've been blessed. I feel like
every single day, even though I work, even though I
have in fact I've got I'm supposed to be retired
for the last eight years, and I've got more going
(15:18):
on it seems like than I ever have. And I
love every minute of it. Yeah, I mean, I'm just
I'm learning new things. I'm pressing in I'm embracing change.
Yesterday Tuesday, we had a call with Young Entrepreneur Syndicate,
and Rachel challenged us to look at some of the
(15:38):
new technology and see how we could put that into
our businesses in our life. And I created an avatar. Nice,
I went online, I created an avatar, and I literally
have the I always said I wish I had three clones,
you know, one to go to work, one to go
do political things, you know, when to go to meetings,
(16:00):
want to you know, play, Yeah, that's the one I'd
say for myself, you know, to go out and do
the stuff. Well, here's the way to do that. We
have the technology, and so I'm at that point where
it's like, well, how can I use this? And it's changed?
Speaker 2 (16:14):
Right, Yeah, it's absolutely.
Speaker 3 (16:17):
In fact, I my avatar was talking on the computer
when I was finished, and my wife said, that's just
scary because she's listening to my voice and it's looking
like I'm talking and it's not right. It is a
computer generator and you can't tell. I mean, it's it's
it's wild. But that's change. And and so if you
(16:37):
embrace change and aren't afraid of it, if you stop
thinking about it and oh what if? You know, that's
the problem with change. It's the what ifs.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
Well, that's a lack of confidence, and that's that's a
scarcity mentality, right, the what if?
Speaker 2 (16:51):
How about?
Speaker 1 (16:53):
What what if I succeed at this, you know, having
an abundant mentality? Here's what I want to transition into. Right,
I'll give you a humans think about this too. Is
what are some of the steps that people can take
if they want to make change.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
Whatever that looks like?
Speaker 1 (17:08):
Right, So, what are the steps to get yourself into
a change mentality or to go through a change? And
I want to start my side of this conversation with
Justin Metcha, who was on our show a few weeks
ago talking about Montana Camp. By the way, great speaking
opportunity for entrepreneurs.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
Real estate, mortgage, etc.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
Mainly entrepreneurs, going on May twenty first through the twenty
third here in Montana. So if you're looking for an
excuse to come here, come to Montana Camp. You can
get a ticket at Montanacamp dot org. And Rod and
I will both be speaking, along with Rachel and several
other great people. On Tuesday, I was talking to Justin.
We were in a company meeting, and he gave this
(17:47):
beautiful example of what business looks like or what it
could look like. But I relate it to change, he says.
And I'll use his example because it's kind funny. He's like,
is there any Justin Bieber in the room? And nobody
raised their head. He's like, good, we're in good company here, right,
But he says, you know, when Justin Bieber is on
stage and he's singing to a you know, an audience
(18:09):
of fifty thousand people, what is he doing?
Speaker 2 (18:14):
What is he doing?
Speaker 1 (18:16):
And he's like, well, he's working, you know, that's his job.
He's a musician, and he says, no, he's playing. He's
having fun. He says, the work is all the practices
leading up to the show, and he's having fun right
on stage. And I think if we look at change
(18:37):
in that respect, right, everything that we've done in our
life is the work that prepares us to do things
like change the way that whether where we live, what
we do for a living. You know, our willingness to
learn something new, like create an avatar or going to
school for your nurse's degree. Right, we've done the work.
(19:02):
Now have some fun with that. I don't care how
old you are. Either, if you're eighteen years old, you've
done some work. You know, more than likely you've either homeschooled,
I pray, or you've gone through the public education system
and you've got something behind your belt, maybe some work,
maybe some personal.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
Experience at home.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
Nobody has an excuse that they can't lean into and say,
you know.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
What, I've done some work. I want to make a change.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
And that change doesn't have to be major. It doesn't
have to be on moving eighteen hours away to Montana
from the beach, right.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
It could be something small.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
But as you build habits of changing, they'll become bigger
and bigger and bigger, and you'll build the confidence and say,
you know what, I can move from this beach life
to Montana and be okay with it. I'm going to
spend the first two years there like I'm on spring break,
and so here's a few steps that.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
I'm going to give.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
And then I want to hear your thoughts on what
people could do.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
Right.
Speaker 1 (19:59):
So what we did as a family is we wrote down, Okay,
what are our financial needs in the future if we
were to move, based on what we have and our
own abilities, what does our lifestyle look like? And now,
by the way, this is just my formulas for making
a move. You're gonna have to apply your own formulas
(20:21):
to whatever change you want to make, whether it's a
job or learn something.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
Never but this is what we went through.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
It's like, okay, so what do our monthly expenses look like?
And so in my mind I thought, well, we've got
a pretty nice place here where we live. I like
to downsize our monthly expenses. So whatever we do when
we get to Montana, let's downsize.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
So we're not house poor, are strapped our.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
Living So we downsized our home by our people buy
on payments. Okay, I've learned that statement. You know you
buy in, you buy in the monthly payment, you know
what you can afford.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
Right.
Speaker 1 (20:56):
So basically, we downsized our house by thirty five percent. Okay,
So I knew, no matter what, I'm going to take
a thirty five percent reduction in our cost of living
in our home. We knew that the cost of living
in Montana at the time, not anymore, folks, was about
thirty percent less than it was where we lived before
(21:17):
in Orange County, right. And then we started making a plan, Well,
what does that look like for us? While we want
to have animals, we want to be able to do
these hobbies, we want to have this type of vehicle
to support those activities. We want to you know, be
in this type of neighborhood, right, And so we built
a plan, and then we built a timeline around that,
and then we had the confidence to come up here,
find a place, and be able to move in those
(21:38):
thirty days without hesitation because we knew when we got
here we already had the formula figured out, right.
Speaker 2 (21:44):
And so I think that if you can build a formula.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
Around your change and get buy off on whoever's going
to be affected by that change.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
You can work that change.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
With confidence, wind up on the other side and enjoy
spring break for two years, okay, by the rest of
your life are the rest of Yeah, are the rest
of your life?
Speaker 2 (22:03):
Right?
Speaker 1 (22:03):
And so so those are my principles. So when if
you look at I'm going to change a job, I'm
going to change, you know, where I live. I'm going
to get an education, like, build a plan around that,
and enjoy the ride. So that's that's my two cents.
I don't want people to be afraid to change.
Speaker 3 (22:21):
I think that's a great topic. And you're you're almost
taking part of my My talk at Montana Camp Good
is about some of these things. Uh and and I'm
not going to give it all away right now, but
I will say that you have to make the decision first.
But you just mentioned it too. You have to have
a plan, and whether it's a business plan or a
(22:45):
life plan, you need to have a plan. You need
to write those things down what are important to you.
My wife and I both came from prior marriages, and
I didn't know in my head. I knew what I
wanted for my next wife. I knew I didn't want
to walk through life, a life. I didn't want to
be a bachelor forever. You know, I knew I wanted
you know, love, romantic love and uh real love right
(23:09):
family love, And so I knew what I was what
I wanted. I knew what that ideal was. My wife
had a list of what the next her next spouse
would be and she made she made it to a
point where she didn't think anyone would be able to
get on that list. Right, she won, I I did
(23:31):
you know she found out some other things she should
have put on the list later, but uh yeah, she
had she had a plan. She wrote it down. What
what is it that I want? If there's going to
be major change in my life? What is it you want?
So that's that vision board mentality, right And I'm not
talking about just manifesting it. But you have to have
a plan. You have to have a dream of goal
(23:53):
to shoot for. And if you I'll even go into
the faith mode here, you need to pray specifically for
what you want. We're told to you know, ask for
what you want. You know, I don't want just a
newer car. I want a Chevy Malibu Classic car. You know,
I want it brand new or used with three thousand miles.
(24:14):
You know, pray specifically, make your goal specific so that
you have something to attain. And you know, that's that's
where it starts, is really putting it on paper, because
that makes it real. Otherwise it's just thoughts going around
in your head. And man, they can spin around there
like in a washing cycle, perpetually sure to get it
out and into the next cycle. There's like a washing machine,
(24:37):
it has to be programmed. You have to program into
it what you want the end result to be. So
I would say, start with a plan. And if you
don't know what that looks like, maybe you're comfortable. And
to me, comfort's a dangerous place. Oh yeah, if you know,
I meet too many people who are comfortable and and
they've stopped growing. You know, a flat line. If you
(24:58):
think about a flat line, right, flat line's dead. Well,
look at the country you talk about nursing. Yeah, look
it's a little line. It's dead.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
Look at the country. We've been comfortable for fifty to
sixty five, seventy five years, we flatlined and now we're
in trouble.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
Right.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
Comfort is comfort is dangerous, And I don't think any
of us desires to be one hundred percent comfortable all
the time. We just don't know how to get out
of that to create that excitement again. And that's that's
really what this show's about, is not being afraid to
change and encouraging the change, whatever that might look like
for you, right, I mean, yes, it will be uncomfortable
(25:33):
for my wife to go back to school maybe, Right.
You've got to study and show up to class and
be ready to listen, and you might not like the
instructor or the student sitting next to you. I mean,
who knows, right, So there's some discomfort in that, But
on the other side of that, you're going to find
such a greater reward that those little sacrifices to get
there are completely worth it. Or you just might realize, like, hey,
(25:57):
I'm actually enjoying this.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
You know.
Speaker 1 (25:59):
I was up at Flat Had Community College with Sean Gallagher,
who's in charge of the entrepreneurial division up there, and
it was pretty refreshing to sit there and listen to
and talk about what they're going to be doing, and
you know, sitting I'm sitting in the library and they
got a coffee shop and it's hustling and bustling like
all people are here to learn, and there's excitement in that.
Speaker 2 (26:16):
You know.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
It's like I was craving an excuse to be there.
You know, I totally got comfortable him and we're just talking.
I'm like, gosh, I guess you'd probably have to go somewhere.
He's like, yeah, I probably should wrap it up. I
mean I had, there was no hurry in my step. Yeah,
So embrace that change. And you know what, if you're stuck,
if you're feeling look around, and if you're feeling complacent,
(26:37):
look at ways that you can make change in your life,
to make a difference for one thing or another.
Speaker 2 (26:44):
And I think that you'll find reward in that.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
So that's that's really the message I want to send today,
because change is fun and exciting.
Speaker 3 (26:51):
Yes, and embrace it now for anyone who's out there
who is if you're feeling comfortable, if you're feeling convicted
just a little bit by what you've heard, here are
a couple of things you can do change your environment.
You just mentioned it. Go to a college campus, go
to a museum, go someplace out of your normal walk
and see it with fresh eyes and get inspired. Go
(27:15):
to an art gallery, right, but go somewhere outside of
your normal walk. Go to change your environment number one.
Number two, I would say, watch some teed X videos.
Go on go onto YouTube and look at some TEDx
talks and just see what other people are passionate and
excited about and say, wow, could I be excited about that?
(27:37):
Could I get that excited about anything?
Speaker 2 (27:40):
Right?
Speaker 3 (27:40):
So look at look to others, even if it's not
your area, and just tap into other people's passion and
excitement and zest for life. That's my second point, and
my third one would be this, Go into the want
ads in your local your local area, see who's hiring
for Just keep your finger on the pulse of who's
(28:01):
looking for what out there, and just for the heck
of it, go interview for a job you don't want, need,
or desire. Just go talk to somebody about what they're
doing in that industry. I'll tell you what. There's absolutely
no pressure for a job interview that you don't need,
want or desire. And I used to challenge my high
(28:22):
school students to do this, Go out and interview for jobs.
Just get that practice in, get that step in. But
I'm telling you what, you never know what it could
lead to. It could be someone saying, man, you've got
all the skills we need for this position. What are
you doing now? Maybe maybe we could bring you on,
Maybe we could make space in this division. You know,
we're hiring in Hawaii. If you want to get into
(28:44):
a warmer climate. You know we've got someone who needs
what you have. You don't even know what doors could
open in front of you until you open that first door.
So why not crack some doors open, take a look around.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
You don't have to.
Speaker 3 (28:58):
Make a decision. Yeah, you might pack a U haul,
but you know, knowing that you don't need to or
have to, just open your mind to new opportunities. I
guess that's the lung and the short of it.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
Well, here's what I'll offer. By the way, I just
flipped over a business card. I met some of the
senior level executives at first form about fifteen years ago
when they were just getting started. But on the back
of their business card it was just fiddling while we
were talking. It says, never settle there you go, ever settle, right,
And so that's what we're talking about.
Speaker 2 (29:27):
Change.
Speaker 1 (29:28):
It's okay, never settle for less. So here's what I'll
offer if you DM me or email me or however
you want to get a hold of me. My Instagram
is Jim Riley, Montana. Or through the show, I'll send
you over from the Young Entrepreneur Syndicate of values spreadsheet
so you can start with your values, a goal spreadsheet
so you can list out your goals based on that.
(29:50):
And then I'm sure I'll throw right out there under
this too, Rod or I would be happy to jump
on a phone call with you and help work you
through a change that you want to your life. So
hit us up, Let's do some work together, Let's make
some change. Let's get excited about it. You never know
what's next, you never know. So and if you want
to be a member of the Young Entrepreneur Syndicate, we
(30:11):
meet every week on a zoom call for an hour
thirty minutes of a soft skill topic and then we
open it up to the floor.
Speaker 2 (30:17):
Anybody that's dealing with some.
Speaker 1 (30:19):
Issues, we love to talk about that and help them
through a group. And we have tons of resources on
the other side. And then once again Montana Camp May
twenty first through the twenty third here in Kallispell, Montana.
Speaker 2 (30:30):
What a great time to be here. By the way,
huh oh, gosh.
Speaker 3 (30:33):
Yeah, it's a kickoff to summer.
Speaker 2 (30:35):
Yeah yeah. So all right, Rod, good to see you, buddy.
Speaker 3 (30:39):
Nice to see you. And I'll throw this out there
as well. Anyone who's coming from out of state to
Montana Camp, if you're going to go hiking on the weekend,
you won't have to buy your own bear spray Alonia
one of mine. I've got a couple of extra canisters
bears will be out.
Speaker 2 (30:51):
That's a nice offer. Yeah, all right, everybody, talk to
you soon.
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