6 Key Points to Taking Back Your Life with Guest Jefferson Santos MakingBank S1E41

Click here to get Free Podcast on iTunes

SUBSCRIBE for weekly episodes and bonuses: bit.ly/JoshFSubscribe

MAKING BANK is now a weekly YouTube TV show and iTunes Podcast full of #Success and #Business with Josh.

Subscribe to the Podcast MP3: bit.ly/TumblrSubscribe

Subscribe to iTunes: bit.ly/JoshF_Itunes

Summary

Have you become a slave to the workweek? Unable to break from the bonds of the office?

Then this episode of Making Bank is definitely for you!

Like most entrepreneurs, you got into the game because you wanted to build a flexible, yet affluent lifestyle.

But something happened, didn’t it?

You may be successful. You may be affluent. But, if you’re like most entrepreneurs, you’re not flexible—you’ve fallen victim to The Hustle.

All your time, money, and energy have gone into your business. Flexibility has become an afterthought, as has the notion of a healthy work-life balance.

So to help you get your life back on track, please welcome Jefferson Santos onto Making Bank.

Jefferson Santos has invested more than a decade of his life to breaking the bonds of business and in doing so, has made himself a master of business—he and his wife travel to a new location every month while he runs a successful, money-making enterprise.

It is the lifestyle most entrepreneurs can only dream of.

Jefferson will offer ideas and guidance to help you flip your work-work-work mindset and rediscover what it means to have balance. He’ll show you how you can start redesigning your business around the life you want to live, rather than designing your life around the business you want to build.

We’ll also discuss Santos new book, Higher Life Design, and some of the life-altering practices he presents in the text.

We’ll also talk about…

• How Santos made it in the business world
• Building your entrepreneurial foundation
• Changing your story and developing a new perspective
• What it means to grow your hunger and follow your wants
• Designing your lifestyle and gaining control of your business

SUBSCRIBE for weekly episodes and bonuses: bit.ly/JoshFSubscribe

Transcription

I am Josh Felber. You’re watching Making Bank. One of the things that happens today as Entrepreneurs, we start a business, we have all of these great ideas, and dreams, and thoughts of how our lifestyle is going to be, what’s going to happen, all the vacations, and free time, and everything that we’re going to have, but it doesn’t happen. Reality sets in, and we become a slave to our business, and one of the things that we want to talk about is how we can start to design our own lifestyle around our business. How we can start to determine what process and where we’re going to go, and actually stop becoming that slave, and having that business, working in that business. Where we can actually step out of that business, work on that business, and control the business to move forward to support our lifestyle, and to support our vision, and what we want to do.

One of the things that when we become a slave to our business that we miss out on is family time. Friends, growing, education, the parts that encompass who we are, and we lose the fun. We lose that excitement that we had when we first were starting it, and by designing the lifestyle we want, we can then take those vacations, spend the time with the family, and help us move forward. For me, one of the companies I did start when I was 19 years old is in the Merchant Services business, and I was in Dallas, Texas, and for me, I was full-force going at it, I had a business partner, and the company grew so quickly, before you know it, I was working over 80 hours a week, and I thought, “Man, this is just the way you got to do it, and this is how things have to be,” and putting in those 80 hours every single week, day in and day out, you lose your whole lifestyle piece of it.

Being able to travel, being able to go out, be able to spend that time with those friends, and for me, I was single, and I was in Dallas, and I just did not have that. I was in my early 20s, and it was a big piece that I missed out on because I was so focused in the company. Now, for me, I was fortunate I was able to sell that company when I was 25, and do really well with that, but I lost out on a piece of my life that I’m never going to have back.

Then down the road, I invested that money, and ended up losing it all anyways in the dot.com crash, so what was it all for, since it did not support my lifestyle? One of the things moving forward that I did for myself, future businesses and things that I’ve started I wanted to make sure, “Hey, how can this support my lifestyle? How can this be able to give me that freedom and that time freedom to spend now with my kids, and my wife?” My wife is an Entrepreneur, as well, and so between both of us, it becomes we have to make sure we schedule those times in.

I know you may be feeling overwhelmed, tired, burned out, and you just do not have that direction anymore. You’ve either been in your business so long, that it’s just become natural to you, or you’re just starting your business. You’re like, “Oh, that’s not going to happen to me. That’s not going to happen to me.” Well, I want you, if you’re just starting your business, start to design your business around your lifestyle today. If you’re in the business, and you’ve been doing it for a while, and you’re that slave to the business, take those steps today to start taking back your life, your time, your freedom. Some of the key points, I have six key points that you can utilize to start making that happen. First one is, find your vision. You probably either when you first started your business, you had a vision, or you’re just starting your business. Get your vision dialed in. Find what your massive purpose is. Why are you here? Why are you doing this?

Number two is set lifestyle habits and goals. Many of us, we set goals for our business, where we want to financially be, but we never set our lifestyles and goals in those success habits for that. What we want to do is make habits. Where do we want to go on vacation? What fun things that we want to do on the side? Where do we want to spend time with our kids? Make those activities, and schedule them hard into your calendar. Do not let those [waive 00:05:17], and you have to enjoy life. You have to get out and have fun. As Entrepreneurs, we get so busy, we lose that fun play perspective of what we have in business, so get out, play, have fun in what you’re doing. As well as travel. Set whether you go two hours away, four hours away, jump on a plane, go to another city. Travel, get out of your current environment. Meet some people. Go to conferences. Go to different events and things, or just go to a beach somewhere and relax. Spend that quiet time by yourself or with your family, and really connect with those people.

Strive to find balance. You got to really find balance I your life. Like I had mentioned earlier, I was working those 80 hours. The balance was way over to the one side. It’s never going to be perfect 50/50, but strive to find balance in your life, so you have that personal time, so you have that fun time, as well as moving toward your lifestyle goals. As well as give back. It’s not just a monetary thing like, “Oh, how can I support this charity?” How can you give back? For me, it’s we’re creating a foundation where we can help kids and mentor them as Entrepreneurs. For me, that’s more of a time commitment, and making sure, and helping other kids that’s close to me, with my family, and raising them as Entrepreneurs. Work on giving back. Next up, we’re going to talk with Jefferson Santos, and we’re excited to have him on. He’s going to talk to you a little bit about designing lifestyle around your business. We’ll be back.

Hi, I’m Josh Felber. You’re watching Making Bank. I’m excited today. We actually have Jefferson Santos on the phone with me, and we were talking a little earlier about creating that lifestyle you want around your business, an Jefferson is the epitome of creating that lifestyle. He’s come from nothing and created this massive business, and success with himself, and his family around. He grew up in Richardson, Texas, with his mom and sister. Attended the Naval Academy in Texas Christian University, and played football. He has possessed great entrepreneurial ambition for new startup businesses. By the age of 25, though, life had him in a choke hold. He was in the red. He was negative in his bank account. He had loads and loads of debt, to the tune of over $70,000.

Jefferson realized at that moment, he needed a change, and with a new found commitment, he turned that decision into a reality, by discovering Higher Life Design, and over this time, has helped him earn over several million dollars, and build a team of more than 300,000 leaders in over 30 different countries in his business. More importantly, Jefferson has been able to build schools in Guatemala, lead other projects to help those [in 00:08:57] [despite 00:08:55] of need and resources, and through his volunteerism, he has invested his time, and talent, and treasurers to those who need a hand up, not a hand down. Jefferson, I’m excited to have you on today, and welcome to Making Bank.

Jefferson: Thanks, Josh. I’m excited, as well. It’s always fun to be able to help people design the life that they want.

Josh: Definitely, Jefferson, and ever since I met you, you are happy, you’re traveling, you have kids, and a beautiful, caring wife, and you guys just have that ultimate lifestyle, and I know it wasn’t always like that, and maybe you can explain to our audience a little bit more detail maybe on your background, and what was going through your head? What made that shift for you? Then we’ll kind of get into later on that path that you went down to start creating that lifestyle, and what those pieces were that our listeners, our audience can actually take and utilize to design their own lifestyle?

Jefferson: Sure. First of all, thank you for having me on the show here, and just grateful and honored that you invited me on. I grew up in the Dallas, Texas, area. Richardson, to be exact, with my mother and my sister. She was raising us, and she had three jobs, and I always heard her verbally profess that, “Making money was hard.” I mean, my mother worked really, really, really hard-

Josh: Sure.

Jefferson: My parents are from Brazil, they divorced when I was four years old, and so as a little kid, I thought in my head, “Making money was hard.” After I was in the Naval Academy at TSU, I got started 19 years ago as an Entrepreneur in the business, because I really got excited about making money, because we didn’t have any. The first thing in my head was, “Making money is hard.” I had that internal GPS program pretty deep there, so I had to go to a lot of seminars and trainings, and listen to MP3s, and CDs, and actually tapes back then-

Josh: Sure, oh, yeah.

Jefferson: [Talk 00:11:03] [to 00:11:01] [tape 00:11:03].

Josh: I know.

Jefferson: Because I had to get that good stuff in my brain, and it took me literally almost ten years of pretty much doing everything wrong.

Josh: Wow.

Jefferson: For me, I always had this idea in my head, “The world and universe wants me to be successful. I just need to get with the program.” I know there’s other people successful. I know that other people are making it happen, it’s not just me yet, so I never-

Josh: Sure.

Jefferson: Had the victim mentality. I always let the future kind of pull me, and like my good Coach Dan [Toldenoid 00:11:41] says, “Figure out what from the past gets to come with you. What are the learning lessons from past that you can use in the present to propel you into that future that we create?” Anyways, but, yeah, I mean, ten years-

Josh: Wow.

Jefferson: I had never made more than $30,000 a year-

Josh: Sure.

Jefferson: Spent more than I made, but we always say, “Character is what you get when you don’t get what you want.”

Josh: Right.

Jefferson: That’s sort of like ten years of character-building years for me, right?

Josh: Yes, that happens to all of us.

Jefferson: That’s what it was, and I met a lot of great people. I learned a lot of great stuff, but if I may, I’ll talk about kind of the turning point.

Josh: Oh, yeah. For sure.

Jefferson: It was 2004, it was January 23. I was in a seminar in New York. It was like a blizzard outside, the Seminar Speaker was on stage, and they were holding their hands out, like two hands out in clenched fists, like you were holding the steering wheel really tight, and she was like, “Okay, everybody. Stand up and put your hands out like you’re gripping the steering wheel really, really, really hard.” She goes, “Everyone of you in here, you’re trying to grip your business. You’re trying to control so much, you’re losing it. You need to let go-”

Josh: Right.

Jefferson: She just like both of her hands, like vigorously, and that just hit me like a ton of bricks. Because, for me, I’m a Type A Personality, I wanted … I really didn’t have a lot of stuff while I was growing up, obviously, so I wanted to control my future, you know?

Josh: Sure. Oh, yeah.

Jefferson: Obviously, tell God your plans, and He’ll kind of laugh at you or whatever, or if that’s your thing, or the universe, whatever. That’s where I was at, and so I turned the corner there, because I realized that I was actually deep rooted in. I think I was actually afraid of success.

Josh: Wow.

Jefferson: Because I didn’t know what was going to happen. Okay, what if I start making all this money? What kind of person was I going to be?

Josh: Right.

Jefferson: Was I going to go to spend it on drugs, and strip clubs, and do stupid things, like some people out there do?

Josh: For sure.

Jefferson: Was I actually going to be a good person? One of the things in that seminar I learned is there’s a book out there called God At Work, and I’m not trying to push anything on anybody. It’s just a really good book, and it was talking about those people that are willing to be Priests and Kings, and Priests can go the stage, but there’s these business people, that in order to be King to the Marketplace, everything they touch turns to gold, and it’s like it’s just [crazy 00:14:16]. Maybe God has put this desire in my heart to go make a bunch of money, because I’m supposed to go do good things with it.

Josh: Right.

Jefferson: At the same time, I was so uneducated and ignorant about just all this personal development stuff. I was like, “What am I going to do with this?” That’s what was happening is I didn’t know how to, I guess, articulate why I wanted to be successful. I guess that’s why I wasn’t, because if you don’t have the target-

Josh: You want a sure. Right.

Jefferson: You could end up nowhere.

Josh: Right. No, that’s just an eye opener, with what ten years of the character building, and just going through all those different pieces, that you really had to start to, before you would realize where you were and what was happening to take those next steps forward, so when we come back, we’ll get into a little bit more detail. I’m Josh Felber. You’re watching Making Bank. You’re watching Making Bank, and I’m Josh Felber. We were speaking with Jefferson Santos. He was giving us what he has gone through to come to the realization of what he really wanted in life, and a couple of the key points, Jefferson, I was really impressed with, that you took advantage of at such a young age, is coaching and mentorship. I mean, a huge piece. Many people just do not ever take that step of getting coaching and mentorship, as well as educating yourself. I mean, ten years worth of a really great education. Even though it was hard, and you weren’t making money yet, you were educating yourself, and preparing yourself for that next step of where things are going to take you, and that’s what I want to kind of get into next, where did we kind of go from leaving off, and then those steps to moving forward? What are those additional steps that you took in addition to the coaching, and mentorship, and education side of things, that took you to that next level?

Jefferson: Well, I think that to kind of jump off here with the education part, it’s like with anything, with any tall tree, it’s got to have deep roots. A big, tall skyscraper, it’s got to have a deep foundation in it.

Josh: Sure.

Jefferson: I didn’t know it at the time, but I was building that foundation, and so those of you that are listening right now, hey, you might be in this foundation building years right now. The longer you got to build that foundation, no matter how long it takes, you need it, because if your building or your tree is going to be tall, you got to have those deep roots, and so-

Josh: Right.

Jefferson: Now looking back, I see that. That’s what it was for me. The other thing, too, is if I would have quit any time along the way, I would not be where I’m at. I had to go through that. The only way through, is through, and so it was just crazy, but I had to really change my story. I mean, one of my chapters in my book that’s coming out, is I talk about Change Your Story. One of my short stories here is when I went to the Naval Academy, one of the biggest things for people in the United States, for young men when they play college football, is they want a bowl ring. Like when you win a championship, you want that big ole bowl ring on your finger.

Josh: Right.

Jefferson: Because it’s a sign of victory, right? I went to the Naval Academy. The year that I left the Naval Academy, they won a bowl game.

Josh: Oh.

Jefferson: I didn’t get the ring. Then the year … Not just for TCU, and that’s when I played football with LaDainian Tomlinson, who’s one of the top running backs in the NFL.

Josh: Right, yeah.

Jefferson: Now he’s on the NFL Network, or whatever, and so the year I left TCU, they won a bowl game.

Josh: It’s just avoiding you.

Jefferson: I didn’t get that one. I didn’t get that ring either.

Josh: Right.

Jefferson: My story in my head was, “Man, I’m a loser.” In junior high, I was part of losing football teams, in high school, elementary, junior high, and high school, and now college. I had nothing to show for it, but the other way I could have looked at it, and this is the way that I look at it now, because I changed my story is, “I’m a foundation builder.”

Josh: Sure.

Jefferson: I built the foundation, so the year that I left, guess what? They won a bowl game.

Josh: Right.

Jefferson: That’s a different way of looking at it, and so there’s things that happen in our life that we change our story, and-

Josh: That’s awesome.

Jefferson: Look at it from the other perspective, because it takes no talent to have a past. Everybody has a past.

Josh: Right.

Jefferson: You got a past, I got a past, we all have a past, but it takes talent, and diligence, and hard work to have a future. If we all want to have a bright future, we have to do like the name of the show, Whatever It Takes, right?

Josh: Yeah.

Jefferson: That’s what we have to do, and so this book that I put together was basically 19 years of experience, and mindsets, and prospectives. Over half a million dollars of personal development that I’ve invested in myself in skills, that I put in the book. Anyways, I’m exited about it, and I think that it’s going to shorten a lot of people’s learning curve.

Josh: That’s awesome, Jefferson, is just that changing your story. I mean, that’s excellent, and I think, so when people get hung up on where they are and, “Oh, this is what happened to me, and this is my past, and so that’s dictating my future.” You’re saying, “Hey, look. You can change your story. I did it. I know you can, too.” That’s a huge takeaway for our audience. I know you have a book coming out sometime in the next 45 days or so, and I’d love just to share some insights of that $500,000 in education that you’re putting into it. I know, I’ve spent that, as well. Just give our audience a little bit of that information, what they can take away, and what they’re looking forward to in Higher Life Design? I’d love to hear that from you.

Jefferson: Yeah, I mean, one of them that I just shared was changing your story. Another one is you got to know your hunger, show your hunger, and grow your hunger. That’s one thing I talk about, is you got to know, like a lot of people plateau-

Josh: Right.

Jefferson: Some of you listening right now might be plateauing, and number one, you got to know what you’re hunger is. Know what you’re why, what’s your purpose, why are you doing certain things? Then you got to be able to show that hunger in display, and get into action, but you got to be able to grow your hunger, too, because if you don’t grow your hunger, you’re going to be complacent. You’re not going to be able to break your plateau. I think that if you’re in a position, which I think all Entrepreneurs are, anybody that is … I mean, that’s what you have to be to be successful in today’s world-

Josh: Oh, yeah. For sure.

Jefferson: In this economy, you’ve got to be a leader, and I don’t care if it’s a leader of one, yourself. If you’re leading a team of 3 or 500,000, whatever, but in order for people to follow you, you have to move your feet.

Josh: Yeah.

Jefferson: If they got to follow in your footsteps, you have to meet your feet. In order to move your feet, you have to grow. You got to grow your hunger. Because, guess what? The world is moving, everything is moving forward, and if you’re not growing, you’re actually moving backwards.

Josh: Oh, yeah. Yep. No, that’s the truth. That’s awesome, man. Growing your hunger.

Jefferson: It’s huge, and there’s just so much more, obviously, had if we had more time. There’s so much more to it, and I want to be able to … When I look at the life that I did have, and now the life that I have now, I mean, me and my wife take an exotic vacation some where around the world once a month. Sometimes we bring our kids, sometimes we don’t. We have a one and a three year old, and we bring some help with us if we bring the kids, or whatever. We want it to be fun for everyone, but it always hasn’t been that way.

Josh: Right.

Jefferson: You heard the story earlier about the struggle that we went through, but we designed it because we wanted it. There’s things that we need, but there is things that we want, and it’s okay to what things. That’s what makes the world go around. Steve Jobs, his why wasn’t he wanted to go change the world. He wanted to get market share, he wanted to create the coolest products, but guess what? The byproduct is he did change the world. I mean-

Josh: For sure, yeah.

Jefferson: The way that we use cell phones and technology in the way that things go, but it’s okay to want what you want. Don’t feel guilty about it, because we’re part of whatever it takes. It’s the show. Don’t feel guilty about it. Keep on going after your passions, and getting after it.

Josh: That’s awesome. I mean, I think those are some great insights that you were able to share with our audience today, is changing your story, staying hungry, finding that passion of really what, that why of where you want to go with all of this, and then designing. Like you said, designing that lifestyle. People may be watching, and they’re like, “Oh, well, he’s just lucky. He just can go on vacations all the time based on what he does, and everything,” but the great thing about it is you designed your lifestyle that way. You’ve designed your future for your kids and your wife that way, and so with this is … Guys, I want you to look at what you’re doing today in your business.

Look at what you’re doing today in your personal life, and start designing your life around what you want, because so many of us become a slave to our business, and we’re never able to break free, and we want to give you the tools to start being able to break free in your business. Go out, grab Higher Life Design by Jefferson Santos. It’s chocked full, over a half a million dollars worth of insight in there from Jefferson. Jefferson, I was really excited and honored that you were able to be on the show today with us. I know you took some time out of your busy day, and I’m really fortunate to have you here today, and appreciate you with us.

Jefferson: Yeah, you bet. You bet. I look forward to adding value to everybody. Go to higherlifedesignbook.com, and I’m looking forward to serving each and every one of you on all the free stuff I have out there, as well as the book at jeffersonsantos.com, have a lot of free stuff for you, but I look forward to, in the future adding more value, and it’s been a pleasure, Josh. I mean, I’ve always enjoyed chatting with you, and I know we’re going to see each other here in a few weeks. It’s going to be great, and we’ll get to talk about the future more.

Josh: Awesome. Thanks, everyone, for watching. Making Bank. I am Josh Felber.