"It was almost like, you know, like in Harry Potter where the Dementor comes out and he's sucking all the hope out of people and they just feel themselves becoming so incredibly unhappy. That was me. I had a Dementor right in front of me, it felt like... it kind of felt like life was literally being sucked out of me."

Oh my gosh, my friend, welcome to episode one. I'm super pumped you're here. I'm super excited about this direction we're going in because for the last eight months now, I've been retired back to a nine to five job. Like, wait a minute. What did he say? He retired back to a nine to five. What do you even mean, Eric?

Let me explain. So not long after my business partner and I sold our agency to this company, I had this, this cool moment of feeling total freedom. And it was just beautiful. So we sold the company. She went on to be the president of the company with the one who bought it. And I was in this spot where I had this influx of cash.

I didn't have any client projects. And I just had this space where I could just be. And it felt beautiful. It felt so great. And now even though I would still work on stuff from time to time with them, ultimately it still felt very, very free to me. I got to be more with my kids. I had to focus more time on doing two a day exercises and doing 75 hard and losing my spare tire.

And it just felt so good to dive into stuff I was passionate about and to just be not having to be anywhere per se with any deadlines. It just felt so good. And then not long after, that couldn't keep up though, right? Eventually the influx of cash, if I waited long enough, I'd have to pay a good chunk of it to Uncle Sam.

If I didn't do the right things with it. And so, I started thinking about this. Like, what's the next thing I should dive into? And I started thinking like of all my massive failures, my big failures, some of my successes. Where's the thing that I want to dive into with this? And I thought about it. I said, you know, like I built an agency over here with her.

What if I build another agency? Maybe that'll be really cool. So I built up this new agency and it was going to be for funnel design. I was going to design sales funnels for people. You know, like it was cool in terms of like, I was building this thing again and we were getting clients that were paying 5, 000 to 10, 000, 15, 000 and it was awesome, but I could slowly feel my life slipping away.

It was almost like, you know, like in Harry Potter where the Dementor comes out and he's sucking all the hope out of people and they just feel themselves becoming so incredibly unhappy. That was me. I had a Dementor right in front of me, it felt like, it kind of felt like life was literally being sucked out of me...

...to the point where I was back to 80 hour work weeks, which I hated. I was back, it was like this like pair of golden handcuffs where I was making good money, but I couldn't even enjoy the money with it either. You know what I mean? And so, apart from like wearing all these hats, I was becoming a mad hatter wearing all these different things everywhere.

I was trying to hire a sales funnel designer, trying to hire a sales copywriter, but they weren't quite getting things right. But I had to fulfill on these projects and help them. And more than that, I wanted to over deliver for these people and get them amazing results. But more than that, even though I wanted to get them amazing results, they wouldn't often do the things I was asking them to do or, or finish things.

So it was really, really frustrating and maddening. And so it got to this point where this 80 hour work weeks just became too much. And it got to this point where I started to back away between client projects and say, you know, like what's the point of this exactly. I started diving into some other books.

I started reading Rich Dad Poor Dad again. Remember the story of the pipeline? So, if you haven't read it, there's a story in there where this village needs water The river is miles away. And so they bring these two guys in and say, you know, we're going to give you guys contracts.

You guys can go get water to the village. You can get paid for it. Kind of build a business around this thing. So one guy, Got to work right away. He got his pails. He started running to the river every day and went back and forth and back and forth and back and forth, charging a certain amount per pail of water for families, and he was making bank, and he was doing awesome, and he was the only one there because the other guy was using his head, was going, and he Connecting with smarter people than him to figure out how can I get as much water over here as cheaply as possible for people.

And he was looking for a system, right? the pail guy was making loads of cash because he was the only one doing it. But eventually, the pipeline guy came in. He found a team that could build a pipeline that got super clean water for a fraction of the cost that this other guy with pails was charging.

And it was getting an amazing result for people. Now, if you haven't read the story, like, definitely go read Rich Dad Poor Dad. It's such a good book. But, as I was reading it that time, I had this realization, like, oh my gosh, that's me. I'm not the guy with the pipeline. I'm the guy with the pails. I'm the guy that's running back and forth like a madman.

I'm the guy that, I'm the guy that's wearing all these hats that are absolutely sucking me dry and probably taking years off of my life. Oh my gosh. And it was, I felt sick. Why am I building this thing? What's the point of this? I had this like, this moment of like, tasting real freedom and excitement and passion and like, diving into lots of things I was really excited about to this being stuck again 80 hours a week.

And so I did the unthinkable. I decided that it, you know, I got to figure out a new business. But around that time, what was crazy is the perfect storm happened. Right when I was filling all this stuff. All of a sudden, my lead source dried up. I couldn't get any more leads. I couldn't get any more clients coming through.

And that was scary. And it was, it was not only that, but my ex turned best friend. She fell on rough times. So I invited her to come live with me and my kids stayed with me as well. And because I wasn't getting enough leads, all of a sudden, the bank account was dropping and dropping. I couldn't get any more sales.

That's when it hit me. This is the perfect time to move on. Time to transition to something new. I decided that I needed to go back to the beginning. I had to start again from ground zero. I was already basically getting to ground zero. I needed to unlearn what I had learned. There were certain mistakes that I'd made along the way that I had to, I had to kind of unlearn those things.

and do something new. And ultimately, to build a new business from the ashes. And this time, avoid all the mistakes of the last businesses that I'd built in the last several years. And so, in that moment, I figured, you know, what if I just got a job again? It'll be 40 hours a week and I could have kind of unlearned some things, but what if I could get a job with someone who I really want to learn from?

And so it was this really crazy thing where I thought I could be a funnel builder. I could do that kind of stuff. Another company. So I was looking around all of a sudden click funnels popped up in my radar. They actually had a job opening. I was like, well, what click funnels? That's like my dream company.

Like, Oh my gosh, I use their software all the time. I learned from Russell Brunson all the time and Anyways, long story short, I applied for that job. I got the job and for the past eight months I've been working with Russell on all of his projects. And it's not, it's cool projects too. Like it's, it's the one funnel away challenge that they just relaunched.

The fill your funnel challenge is coming out really, really soon. How to get traffic to your funnels and stuff like this. I've been working on project with his inner circle, people who pay upwards of 50, 000 to 250, 000 a year to be part of his masterminds. I'm working with these groups. And so it's so cool.

I get this high level view of everything that they're doing. And I got to see all the places where I was so close to getting a category king business where I was so close to hitting 10 million plus a year with my past businesses. But there was things I was missing certain information I was missing that I just had no idea about.

As I look at all this stuff too, I'm watching Russell, I'm watching his companies, I'm working with him in Secrets of Success, And it's all so fun, it's all so fascinating to me. And I know I'm really spoiled in having a dream job that I actually really like.

There's a lot of hard things that come with it too. But what I love is that I'm learning a ton and I'm finally getting a vision forward for what my new thing's gonna be. And it's not going to be a thing that has to take a ton of time either. In fact, I wanted to build a business. That would allow me to eventually, when I stop working with ClickFunnels, eventually this is going to be something that I can have the lifestyle I want, I can be with the people I want to be with, and this thing's going to keep on working for me whether I'm there or not.

that's the long term goal anyway, so how do we get there? So, what's going to go down? And what it's coming down to, like this whole direction, is I don't want to just pursue a life of wealth. Like, money just for having money's sake, as I found out, is not fulfilling very much. Especially when your life is so sucked dry by a Dementor And so I didn't want that. So time and time again as I've looked around, looking around other people, I've seen them Who seem to have it all. They have the flashy cars, they have the epic beach house, the exotic trips. all that stuff. And only later, like, they come to feel like they're feeling just like me.

They feel this gaping black hole just sucking them dry. Ultimately, for me, especially, my life just became one dimensional. When I had a business that was basically all my life, I was giving it to. And it was, it was sickening. It's not something I want to do again. So ultimately one dimensional meaning that I've been so focused on living one aspect of my life successfully that all other areas suffered.

Like there was this amazing girl I was dating, but because my business was not performing where it needed to, I ended things with her prematurely. To this day, it's one of my biggest regrets because she, It's turning into like all of a sudden my life story, right? But, but really though, it was one of the best connections I've ever had.

Someone I was super authentic with and she fully accepted everything about me. And I gave up that connection because my business was out of alignment. And I had to focus on things and get things popping again. And so, What ends up happening when you're living one dimensionally, where you're only focusing on one aspect of your life successfully, it feels like all other areas suffer from it.

To the point where it almost feels like it sucks the joy out of that achievement you just made. You ever felt like that before, where you work so hard to make this thing happen and you make it happen but it kind of feels empty? And not only does it feel empty, but like you're getting, hearing all these people around you saying, yeah, that's it, and now you need this mountain to go chase, and that mountain, and like you're not fulfilled yet, because you have to go over here, this is the next thing.

There's always a next thing, and that seems kind of maddening to me. Why does there have to always be a next thing? You know what I mean? Now maybe I'll learn this principle later on with this, but ultimately, what I want to pursue in this business is a life of profit. Not profit money wise, but this new principle of profit that I think encompasses a real full lifestyle.

Here's what it means to me. So profit, everything stands for something, right? This is an acronym.

"P" is a life of Prosperity.

"R" is a life of Romance. I have enough time. My business allows me the time and space to actually pursue real romance and see it blossom.

"O" is Opportunities, seeing opportunities everywhere and not obstacles. And getting rid of obstacles even.

"F" is the life of Fitness, getting physically fit, getting my body back with that.

"I" being a life of Impact... and ultimately, by the end is...

"T" for Time Freedom. The business that I want to build is going to be giving me real profit, real prosperity.

Real chances of romance, real chances of opportunities and things like this, all this stuff to help me seize life, which if you've seen the free venture mission statement, that is the mantra that I'm selected going forward is carpe. Instead of carpe diem, I'm choosing "Carpe Omnia Vitam" — "Seize All Life" — meaning all aspects of life.

This is my purpose to figure out how to create a business that will allow me to seize all parts of life. so how am I going to do this? It starts with creating what I call a skip to profit business, a business that skips 99 percent of all the other steps that all of their business models have to follow before they start earning a dollar. But more than that, A business that gives you the prosperity, the time, the space to create.

To create what? Like to create the life of all that stuff. A life of prosperity, a life of romance, a life of time freedom, a life of fitness and impact and romance. Opportunities everywhere. Ultimately, this skip to profit business is skipping all of that junk of stuff that has to happen for most businesses.

And just simplifying the entire process. now that said, I'm no guru. I've made so many mistakes in the past. So with this business model, I don't know everything about it just yet. There's elements that I'm spotting of all the stuff that I've worked in my past businesses that I want to incorporate within it. But ultimately you're here with me on this journey because I'm figuring this out.

So I hope that you join me on this journey. I don't know all the answers just yet, but that's the whole point of the podcast is that I'm coming in, I'm building this business and I'm finding answers to these questions of how to build a business in your spare time that will allow you to have all this other stuff start popping up with it.

You know what? I'm excited to hear from you as well.

So if you have any comments, please drop them down below or you can head over to freevenger.com in the blog section where you can start dropping comments down there as well. The podcast will be posted there too. I'm super pumped for you and excited to meet you.

Let's go get out there and get them!

"Carpe Omnia Vitam" guys! Talk soon!