Billy Keels  0:01  How to start a life full of options. Today's episode is sponsored by Billy Keels advisory services. If you want to learn more about how to make your 99 optional, just go to make it optional.com. Once again, that's makeitoptional.com. How to start a life full of options is for you, if you have had this desire to start a business on the side while performing in your day job, and you just don't really know where to start, like, this is the very brief episode that's for you. It's going to give you, really, like, two key things that you can do to unlock this and how you can start to create a life full of options and have a lot less stress doing it. And this, this, this comes from basically one of the kind of conversations that I'm consistently having with people, actually was the start of it, which is usually the start of most of this stuff, having conversations with people on LinkedIn, especially in the in the DMS. A lot of people like to have conversations over there because they don't want to see comments going back and forth. I get it. I've been there. I've done that, but what I started recognizing is through these conversations and having asking the question like, where do I start? What should I do? It makes me reflect a lot on my own journey. And when I do that, I reflect on my journey. And one of the main reasons that I do it here is because I want you to get to your goal faster than it took me to get to mine. And I didn't even know what I didn't know in the very beginning, because I wasn't crystal clear. You know, I don't know, just talking about some of that in a recent episode 545 but anyway, let's stick with me on this one, because as I start to reflect, the idea is to help you to be able to not take as much time. The one asset that we, none of us, get any more of 24 hours in a day, 168 days, hours in a week, right? How are you leveraging them effectively? And I was at this point in time, and throughout my entire 26 corporate career, I always wanted to perform well. My definition of what was performing well changed over time, right? It evolved. We all evolved, and because at a certain point, I really wanted to have much more control over my time, as well as the income that came as a result of me investing my time, what I felt was the most effective way to do that, because, and this is just a reality. Anytime you are a high achiever, and we've talked about so many times, like this whole thing of balance, it just doesn't exist. I'm sorry. I hate to be the one to break it to you. It doesn't exist. And you are torn up and suffer because, uh, you're trying to find it. But anyway, let me not digress too much. I got to a point where I was working day night, and, you know, I was constantly, I was constantly working all the time. And I have to admit, I like to work, but this was, like that work that's kind of disorganized. It doesn't feel like you're building momentum. You don't feel like you're actually progressing. You're just staying busy with a why? Very, very busy? I guess it's with a Y, unless I'm talking about busyness right then it's also still with the Y. And because I was going through the same motions every day, all day, I was talking to other very few people, but most of the people that I would talk to that were in my social circle or in my corporate circle, they didn't understand what it was that I was trying to do. It doesn't make them bad people. It doesn't make me right, it doesn't make them wrong, it doesn't make them right, it doesn't make me wrong, it just was what it was. And so what I realized is that I wanted to have a life that was much full, that was fuller with of more options. And I mean, outside of just continuing to go up the corporate ladder, because at this point in time, like that, whole thing that I wanted to become CEO like that started to wane. I mean, it started to go away. And so I knew that I had to take an action that was different than the actions that I had been taking for before, for instance, to change my circle of influence, to change the people that I was hanging out with on a day to day basis, I had to change my circle so that I could gain a new perspective, which would push me closer to having a life full of options that I was actually in in control of because I had options. Don't get me wrong. Don't get me wrong. This is not a complaint. This is a first world problem that we're talking about. But I wanted to be able to have more control of my time and control of the income that it came as a result of me investing my time effectively. So I started joining master. I went online, I started, you know, watching, and then I started, you know, I started pulling my, my, my credit card out. I was time for me to pay. I needed to pay to play. I was paying to play because I wanted to up my game, because I knew once I started putting my, my, my, my, I almost called it money, but when I started putting my currency down in the in the form of a credit card, guess where my attention went? Where. I put my money, don't put your money somewhere. Guess where your attention is going to go? It's going to go all over the place. It's not going to go anywhere. Put your money somewhere, and that's exactly where your attention, your focus in you, and you will begin to get a more of a result. Ask me how I know. And the thing is, so I started joining masterminds with people that were back in the US, that were involved in, in in very much focused on the things that I was focused on outside of the nine to five. So let's talk about this is the five to nine kind of time, and creating the life of full of options. And so once I was part of these mastermind groups, I got to a certain point where it's like, okay, I'm taking in these new perspectives. I'm meeting these new people. I've got to sit down and get crystal clear on what it is that I want to do, because I got money going in, I got money coming out. Money was coming in, because the the investments I was was involved in, were working really well. And then in my attention was going out towards that direction. And I said, You know what? I got to figure this out, because I was just doing, doing, doing without a real strategic plan. So I stopped. I got clear. You all know how I feel about clarity, and some of it was by design. I remember doing, you know, putting out an ideal day. And the the be, do have kind of exercise before. I've talked about that before, but then I had to start making like when I wanted to build a life full of options. And this goes into and this is why I'm sharing this with you, because, in case you don't know where to start, but you have two options. You you get to a certain point where you say, Hey, listen, I've been working in this especially because you're here, you're listening, you're watching the IT space, the enterprise software space, usually you got some cash to the side. It's just, it's just how we play, like this is what we do, right? We we have the money that's in the bank, and if you grew up like me, maybe that's what makes you feel good. But you're also in a point where you're like, look, I can make this work, so that I can create a life Fuller of options. Can I say that Fuller of options? I think so. I just did. I guess. Well, we'll go with it. So it's a matter of being able to say, Hey, do you want to move that somewhere, or do you want to be able to build something like that's the first question when you try to figure out, how do you create a life full of options? Which way do you want to go? Do you want to build those options? Do you want to invest to get to those options? No, right or wrong is just figuring out what is right for you, that's the thing. And when you have a day job like I did, it can be really darn intimidating, yes, extremely, because you don't want to make the boss mad. You don't want to have your co workers think you're not committed. I get it. Been there, done that, yes, I have been there, done that, and I can tell you, but once you do and you figure that out, and you get clear, just like I did, you start to you will understand, what is the vehicle that's going to help to create the life of options for you? And I mean, what is the way that you're going to do it? Are you going to invest that way? Are you going to build that way? And then if you do one or the other, like, what, specifically, what product, what service, is going to help you get to optionality, where your job is optional, meaning you go there because you want to, not because you feel obliged or you have to. You go in the day. You contribute. You are a productive employee, and you're not afraid of what happens when the synergies, or if the company has to lay people off, you are going there because you want to, not because you have to. That is what I talk about, optionality. That's what it means to me. And so you I picked my vehicle, took my first step and kept moving. Wasn't perfect, highs, lows, but guess what? I'm still here, standing, still here, standing. Yeah, I am, and that's the thing. What I realized is a life with options means you can be an A a productive employee, you can be a productive parent and spouse, and then whatever happens around you when you are in control and you are creating those options. You're in control of your time, and you're in control of your income. There is nothing like it. That is when you get to a point where you are, yes, in a life full of options, and if you've been struggling to get there, hopefully this has given you a path to get there and get there faster than I did. Remember, this is about helping you to get there faster. If this isn't you, and you know somebody who is suffering through this is trying to figure out how they create this life full of options that just kind of stuck, don't know where to go next. Share this episode with them. Help it. Make it easy for them. Give them a simple two steps, get clear, after you get clear, then figure out which direction you want to go, and then go. And if you need help, I ain't hard to find. As I say, you can find me. And the thing is, that is exactly what we do and how we help people with the executive edge advisory program. That's why we started this thing. You.Billy Keels  10:00  Is to help you get to where you want to go faster. I may not die. Let me not digress. When, if it's not you, and you know somebody shared today's episode, be the person that makes the contact me. There's the change agent. And while you go from theory to practice and you have the conversations, guess where I'm going to be gonna be? Right here. Yes, right here, preparing for the next episode. So until then, go out and make it a great day. And thank you very, very much.