173. How Our Lives Have Changed in 2024, A Mid-Year Personal Goals Check-In

Last year we wrote this and we just went like huge left turn.

Every year we do a look back of the year, we set our goals and we have what's called a fantasy story. That fantasy story is we put ourselves in a position of where we are at 31st December. We look ahead and go what does our life like look like at that point in time?

I found it's very different like the one we did a year and a bit ago that was more focused on the business. The podcast, numbers achievement. Yeah, it was focusing on that. I wasn't as happy as as this year and focusing on these things that actually fill my cup more than I reach this subscriber amount or we hit this revenue amount or I delivered this thing in the business.

Welcome back to another episode of the Ben and Bergs Podcast. I'm Ben, your favorite high school dropout and founder of collective shift alongside Ms. Burgs, your favorite MBA and CEO of Collective Shift. Join us as we bring you world class crypto research and strategies to help you dominate this crypto bull market as well as behind the scenes view of us scanning a fully remote support subscription research business here in Australia. And if you like the podcast, we'd love for you to leave a subscribe on YouTube or if you're on your podcasting app, leave us a follow. It's how we grow the podcast each and every week. We've been doing this for nearly two or more than two years now. Bergs, we've been at this years and.

I don't think you've ever got through an intro without stuffing up one or two of the words you can't say like coo.

Slow it down to coo. That seems even worse. And the other one is subscription research, but that's kind of hard to say.

You're the one that wrote it, mate.

Make it easier.

Two years maybe. Next episode, mate.

175Th episode. We'll get it right.

Perfect.

But mate, we're in person. We're here in Perth new studio and I thought it'd be an awesome time for us to do a little look back. We're a little bit beyond the six month mark of the year but I was doing some reflection over the weekend down to Maga river, mate. It was a beautiful place in the world.

Sensational.

Had a meeting with one of our platinum members down at Busselton and made the landing in the Busselton airport. That was, that was an experience. I thought we're landing on the highway because we come in on this, on this, on this flight, we're in the middle of nowhere, there's cattle on the side of the Runway and I'll come off the plane. Honestly, didn't know where I was. Looked there was no terminal. And turns out the terminal is this garden shed. Like, literally, you'd fit a tractor in there. And the front of it said Busleton. And there's just a bunch of people in the panic waving so good. It's just like, where am I? Anyway? So, yeah, met up with him.

It was a disaster from the start, mate. You sent us a photo where you got on the plane and your knees are hitting the scene.

The only. The only flooding is Jetstar, right? So, I mean, you know, row 408, you know, CD in the. Just awful.

Anyway, and then Ben publicly shame you, mate. You got off the plane, you went to go get a car and what happened, mate?

So this is.

This is Ben Simpson, everyone. This is what we have to put up with away.

So I'm sitting on the plane and we're about to take off and I'm like, I don't have my wallet.

I.

Don'T have my license.

And. Hang on, hang on. Tell everyone.

Yeah, I'd lost my wallet a week or two ago.

You lost your wallet two weeks ago?

Yeah.

You're flying away?

Flying away. I didn't think about it. And we're in Busterton, right? We're in the middle of nowhere. I'm renting a car. I'm like, how am I supposed to get this car? I've got no license. So then panic station sets in. I'm like, nah, it'd be all right. So good. I'm like, yeah, surely you can get it without a license. I've got a photo of it. No clear, you know, asterisk. You must have your physical license at the car. So I'm like, I'm stressing out. So on this flight, we. We land. I'm like, I don't know what I'm going to do over at Thrifty. I'll make Jason up there roll it up. Jason. Jason, I'm in a bit of trouble. I don't have a wallet, I don't have a license. He's like, have you got the digital version? Like, no, I'm from Tassie, mate. You know, we don't have phones down here. Like, the digital version. License. He's like, sorry, you need the physical. I'm like, no, you're kidding. Like, what, what I'm supposed to do, it's like, not my problem. So I basically didn't have, didn't have any options. I was like, can you sort me out? Can you talk to your manager or something like right, let me call to my manager. Anyway, calls his manager, they're talking. Anyway, for whatever reason got it across the line, had to pay like top tier insurance like mate, whatever, just give me a car.

I'll see you drive.

Just give me a car. Anyway I got the car and got out of there but mate, if I didn't get that car I would have been a boost drive.

So for those that don't really know wa bus's probably two and a half, three hours away from Perth. Ben was meeting people down there. You've got to drive around everywhere. Then he's got to come to Perth to see us do some strategy work would have been an absolute Nightmare disaster. Like $10,000 Ubers to get here.

Ridiculous. Four hours from Margaret river to Perth like on a Sunday.

Anyway, cracking weather mate. We don't do winter here.

No winter here. Wine was beautiful. Company was great. You know on my own which is fantastic but you took the piss out of it. Wine 11 out of 10 company soft 4 always mate, that was good. But anyway I did some reflection over the weekend and for those of you that the new to Bennebergs every, every year we do a, a look back of the year. We, we set our goals and we have what's called a fantasy story. That fantasy story is we put ourselves in a position of where we are at 31st December. We look back and go what does our. Sorry. We look ahead and go what does our life like look like at that point in time? And we've done this for a couple of years now and always like doing a check and I haven't looked at this since we did it back in January. So yeah and Bergs and I have read over this. So basically we wrote this in January or December last year, January this year and then yeah, this is where we want to be at the end of the year. So it's fascinating to see and read where we want to be and then where we are on the journey. How have you found yours? Are you pretty good?

I'm on track.

Okay.

This is good because last year we wrote this and we just went like huge left turn like did all this crazy stuff, things unrelated, too much work, didn't really follow what our fantasy stories were. So this time we're going to build in checkpoints to see how we're going.

And if we need to modify anything, make some changes or maybe make some Bigger goals. Yeah.

Yeah, I agree. Even. Even looking at my 20, 23 highlights, like looking at what I did last year was just fascinating.

To see. Like, I wasn't. I didn't even have a house last year. I wasn't. I was living out of my suitcase.

Yeah. You're homeless.

I was homeless, yeah. I was like vagabonding.

Yeah.

Yeah. But. But like I was traveling.

Spending most of my time like in Bali, you know, it was. I remember just being a nightmare in terms of operationally trying to figure out what hotel I'm in, where am I staying.

I remember in Slack getting messages from you having a Whinge at like 3am because you're walking around the Melbourne CBD and it's cold and you're trying to find my hotel. B and B. You can't get the keys from anyone. He's walking around with your suitcase.

You don't know what to do. I was going to pull up and sleep in the McDonald's on Flinders street at like four in the morning because I could get a motel.

Beautiful.

That unbelievable.

Read out your story, man. Let's go through your story. Let's go part by part and let's see how you're doing.

Okay. So we are doing approximately X amount of revenue per month and clearing Y profit per month. That went. We're nearly there. We're probably about 80% of the way there. And considering that goal is up like 200% from last year. We're already up. We're already double. Sorry. Up 300. It's already doubled where we were last year. So my goal is to triple where we were. So we've doubled.

And that's an end of year goal as well.

Yeah. So we're nearly there. We haven't added to our core team much, but our staff and ourselves, you know, are paid pretty well. We have added to the core a little bit. Like we've added what, three or four or five people in the last few weeks?

Two full timers. Two part timers.

Yeah. The last couple months, I'm working primarily on content and our platinum service, we're growing at a good rate. We've done a great job retaining our existing members. We tick that box, we're up to 65 Platinum members. I counted this morning.

Nice.

Which we only launched that late last year and their feedback's been phenomenal, so that's awesome. I have my own place in Victoria, preparing to buy a property for Mum and Dad. I've got a Tesla and a great home office and recording studio, mate.

All Those.

Ticked all those boxes. So I got the Tesla. That's amazing. Love it. Got the great home office. Got that sorted now. Got the studio in my, in my, in my room. And yeah, living, living in Melbourne, which is epic. Earning above a target sort of salary and dividends, which is nearly there. Yeah. The wealth is starting to multiply, which, which it is. We've had some positive conversations about acquisitions at the business, but we haven't met the right deal yet as not on our terms. We've had some early conversations, but I think we're probably at this point just looking at, focusing on ourselves in the business right now. Acquisition might come down the line.

Yeah, that's the thing. Because we were kind of in two minds about it and now the business is going so well.

Yeah. Keep growing and we're joining it.

Yeah.

Our media brand focus has brought us most of our sort of revenue and, you know, we're really showcasing out the value we deliver at local crypto events and the lives we're changing. Which is, which is true. Like the media side of the business is growing. I think I'm up to 50,000 social media followers, which is just nuts to think I wasn't even creating content two years ago. The podcast is awesome. Up to 170 episodes. Yeah.

And yeah, continuing to live in Melbourne but also traveling and spending more time outside of Australia when I can. Which is true. You know, I went to Europe recently in Bali and Korea and go New Zealand soon, Singapore. So still doing all the travel, which I love. So, mate, pretty much like everything's there. The revenue target, we're not quite there yet, but everything else is pretty much there.

Mate, you have to set some bigger goals.

I know, I know.

You might have to do like a half year, like goal setting.

We probably will. Like, I even looking at my personal goals, I'm like, most of this is, is nearly hit.

So you've managed to stay single as well. Well done.

Yeah, that's. That's great. Loving, loving the single life. There was my ex that was in here, but she got sort of just crossed out on some of these goals.

And so, so Ben was in a long term relationship. This is before the, the last one. And he's like, no, I'm taking like four years off, not doing anything. It's like, like a week and a half later. Bang.

That's been six months, like. Yeah, I'm enjoying this.

Okay.

What about you, man?

All right. So mine is my fancy story. I wake up early, complete my morning routine and feel unstoppable. I'VE had a hard workout. The little things don't bother me. I'm willing to take on the world. I have a lot of energy. I'm ready to give to others. A day is already one. So all that's pretty much true apart from doing a hard workout in the morning. So I don't do it first thing in the morning. Generally it'll be just before lunch or just after lunch. But yeah, I've been working out consistently six days a week since May and it's been awesome. That's been life changing.

And I will say that I saw yesterday. Without blowing your head up too much, you do look fitter.

Yeah, I bloody hope so for everybody.

Could you imagine whistle's gonna roll up and go, jeez, mate, if you put on a few kgs, you're not looking good.

You would do that, mate, just to.

Stitch me up, have. Lay off the skewers, mate.

But that's been really good because I now have no back pain at all, no real pain in my body and I'm sleeping like an absolute log.

It is just awesome.

So easy. Things just don't bother me anymore.

Yeah, easy.

I don't care about money and I don't measure myself on it. That's pretty much true. So while I've still got those goals, I don't think about it as much as. As I once did and it doesn't have its importance and hold over me that it did.

You know what? I've started reading the Daily Stoic after I saw Ryan Holiday the other day. I'm reading that every morning and this idea of just being a, like just being okay with what you've got and how money and that constant chase of success and things that you don't have is the things that affects your over overall. Like happiness.

Yeah.

And I heard this equation the other day of like, you know, happiness isn't an end state. It's. It's a, it's a, it's like a journey of trying to be happier.

Yeah.

And the equation of like happiness is like your, your haves divided by your wants. So like the less that you want and the more you focus on what you have, the happier you will be.

Yeah.

The more you focus on what you don't have and what you want, the, the harder it is for you to feel better. So like basically. And it's a really hard position to be when you're running a business because you need to grow and you're always striving for more. But then the opposite is true in trying to be happy in. In happy with what you've got, not what you don't have.

Yeah, it is. And it's one of those things where desiring opens a new line of desiring and it's just this infinite loop that you're in.

Yeah.

And why is it that, like, 99 things can go right in your life, but the one that doesn't is the one that we focus on when you can just be like, no, overall, it's great, and I'm focusing on the things that I have, being grateful for them. And your life will just be so much happier rather than chasing the thing. And even when you get the thing you defeated, if you don't get it, you're still defeated.

Like, it's just.

When you put it in those terms, you're like, God, I'm an idiot. You never get swept up in it.

Yeah.

Crazy. My relationship with my family is better than ever. It is. I mean, spending heaps of time with them and I'm less cranky, so they love it. Working out. We have a dog. He lights up our lives. We do have a dog. Little Archie, little Cavoodle. He's a prick, but I love him now. He's a good lad. I'm the board chair of my daughter's school and I elevate what a board chair can be. Absolutely done that. So I've led four sessions so far and put them to work, mate. Getting into hardcore strategy and putting the board to work, which is really, really awesome. Having those.

Really challenging conversations about how we can contribute and how we can elevate what the school is. Been enjoying that a lot.

Is it? It's not a director position on a. Right. No, no, because I'm doing my ARCD course. I'm like, man, here we go.

So Ben's doing a course, everyone. What are you. Tell everyone about the course, Ben.

So one of. One of my goals for this year was to. To do more education and, like, grow myself.

An enforced goal by me. I'm like, do this course.

Yes. So this is. This is what I didn't want to do. Burgers have been up my ass to do it. So it's the Australian Institute of Directors finance course and I've got my. The sessions on Friday, actually. So I've been studying for it.

Yeah.

And just learning about the. All the, you know, financial documents, statements, how it all sort of works, the numbers and then looking at how you analyze them, but more importantly, like, your duties and responsibilities of a director.

Oh, yeah, mate.

It's completely.

Oh, man. How bad?

Especially like a public company.

Oh, yeah.

Your director's responsibilities, the auditing, the reporting, like, oh my goodness, it's true and fair.

He's still going concerned.

Oh my goodness. Even on a charity, I'm like, oh my goodness, this is ridiculous.

And this is thinking like, never be a director, never jump in for a director, never be a shadow director. Do it at all. So the one on an independent public school, you're a director but you're not really liable for anything. If you incorporate the board, then you are on the hook. And you would incorporate a school board if you want to go out and seek and raise funds and then have more control over contracts.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

You don't interfere with operations or anything like that.

Yeah.

So it's like, it's one of the good board positions. Otherwise you better make sure you're structured correctly before you jump on one and.

You know all the stuff inside the business because you're, you're, you're going to be held accountable if it's wrong.

Yeah. And it's like the school's like a. Average school is about a 6 to 10 million dollar business. So, you know, for anything there. I hang out with my friends at least twice a week for dinner or coffee and I meet at least one new person per week. Definitely seeing my friends. Don't meet a new person every week. So that's something I can work on.

I'm more focused and calm at work. Collective Shift is in a bull market and we're helping all of our customers navigate the market conditions. Perfect. Been doing that. Supported my wife all year and she's achieved her study goals. So she's studying a master's at the moment and yeah, definitely been supporting her, forcing her to study, taking over more parenting duties. It's good, man. We've been on a trip to Japan or Singapore and I finally used my 1 million city points for fun. I always have something booked in my calendar, something to look forward to. So. Haven't been on a trip yet. I've tried multiple times. It's very challenging with a wife in uni and a kid in school. So you can only go on school holidays. Haven't used my city points yet, but I'll go home and cash those in. That'd be great to spend on something crazy. And I do have lots of stuff booked in my calendar, which is very unlike me. So I've got things to look forward to and social events. This year is like the year of 40th, so it is like a birthday every single Weekend. So all in all, probably about 80 as well, man.

Nice, man. Yeah, it's fascinating not even reading that and going back to it, but subconsciously you're sort of working towards those goals anyway. That's why I like it.

Yeah.

And then what's even crazy is you go back and look at, like, previous, like, years, and you really, like, man, I read. I read, like, the highlight of 2021, like, my 2022 reflection. So of 2021, then I want the hiring bergs.

There should be a lot. Should be in a low light.

But how did that turn out for you?

You want a refund?

I want to use my life back.

Oh, man, I would love those two years back as well. Hey, we should just do a deal, you know?

You know, the worst thing is both of my exes are in now. The moved out of my life fact, that was, like, much better.

Jesus Christ.

Yeah, you're the common denominator there.

Yeah, but that's awesome, man. I think it was sort of tracking towards the right direction and, yeah, I.

Found it's very different. Like the one we did a year and a bit ago that was more focused on the business, the podcast, numbers, achievement.

Yeah, it was all this sort of.

Stuff that doesn't really matter throughout your life.

Yeah, yeah.

Like, it's just something you do and if you practice your craft, you'll achieve anyway. But focusing on that, I wasn't as happy as this year. And focusing on these things that actually fill my cup more than I reach this subscriber amount or hit this revenue amount or I delivered this thing in the business.

I think our quality of work's been better because we've been focused on the things that we like to do. Like, even on the. Whether it be the podcast or my YouTube channel that I launched, like, this year, like, just doing content that I like doing rather than just doing stuff, because you have to like that feeling.

Like, just the business sucks, you're losing money, you've got no customers, and you have to do all this stuff. And you're like, this.

Is this really my life that's not producing any results? You're like, what the. Remember this conversation we used to have? Like, what the. We actually doing? This is so. This is so hard.

I remember just, like, my eyes and, like, back just, like, stinging because I'm just, like, looking at the computer all the time, working so much, not looking after myself. And now we still have problems in the business. Like, there's always something to solve, but at least we're a lot calmer about it.

Afford to keep the lights on.

Oh, yeah, that's it.

That's when we come into meetings, being like, we are busting our balls here and the number is just down, only it's like we're getting worse.

How good is it having money, mate?

Oh, my God.

Solves all your money problems.

Because, yeah, I mean, yeah, I was all in, like.

Yeah.

But literally, like, all my money was in there. Tax, debt, like crypto, everything. I was all in, like, it had to work.

Yeah.

And that's one of the major reasons why we probably didn't throw in the towel. Because you can't throw other options.

Bankruptcy, you end up owing money. Jesus.

So it's nice to be on the other side of that.

Absolutely, yeah. I actually don't know what I would. Well, I think the meeting more people is something that I would focus on. But this is like, I'm still going to keep that routine. I'm still going to travel, still going to do all of those things. And this year has been absolutely cracking for me.

And it's. We're only in August, right. So. Yeah, yeah. I don't think anything I would change either. I think the.

Still potentially, like, for me, just my schedule, trying to get that right, like, that can be a bit of a drainer when it's just ridiculous. Like just packing way too much in.

Yeah.

I'm just so, such a bad.

You gotta say no, mate.

Yeah, I'm not. I'm not gonna say no. So. So I'm now like, so I'm doing the EO accelerator coaching. So I'm like coaching business owners in a monthly session. They're up to like from 100k to 1 million in rev. Now. I'm also the chair of the under 35s EO in Melbourne. Like, I'm organizing these events. Then I'm also like moderator elect for EO Forum. And then I'm like doing all this stuff. We're doing the podcast, YouTube, crypto business. Like trying to do a marathon, traveling.

It's like when you have a child and you tell them to stop doing something, they keep doing it, they keep getting hurt. This is like you were doing something in the business. I'm like, how did this happen? Like, you're like, I don't know, man. I'm just so busy. I just have to do it now. Like, you just keep saying yes.

That was so funny. Like, why are you doing this? I'm like, I don't know. So bad.

Like, I'm so busy. I have to do all this stuff I'm trapping here. I'm doing this, I'm doing that. I'm like, why are you doing that? And then there's just this pause for like 15 seconds and this look on his face, like.

Doesn'T even know how it happened yet. Now it's your routine and the thing that you do. Completely self imposed.

Oh, I love it, mate.

Amazing.

Welcome my world.

Brilliant.

Awesome, man. Okay, well, a good little check in. Yeah. And hopefully some of the listeners have been listening for a little while. I've done this and yeah, go and check it out. So you see how you're going with your, with your goals and your fantasy story and hopefully, hopefully crushing it.

So it's important to check in, see how you're going, what you thought six or so months ago. Yeah. How you were feeling then. Are these things still important to you? If they are and you've done them, how has it changed your life? If you haven't done them, why not and start doing them?

And that reflection as well was so important, mate. I was checking out some of my first reels that I ever recorded the other day. Oh my God. How hard to dispute is it's cringier than our first podcast. And that was bad.

I remember I was like, oh, and.

You had the, you had the beard, mate.

Oh, the beard and the big fat. I typed on the computer like this. I just. 15 seconds of silence while I'm like googling something. We don't even know what we're talking about. You got the hat that's covering your eyes and you look like you're 12 years old. It was brilliant. We should dig that up, mate. I'm gonna, I'm gonna get a screenshot from that, print it on a canvas, mate, and send it to you.

You know what, we should, we should highlight that in our, at our fourth birthday event in, in October.

Amazing. Gotta start somewhere, mate. We just cracked the shits. We had all the camera gear and everything for a year or two. Like, look, we just have to do this.

Yeah. Anyway, the first 20 episodes were dreadful. Anyway, we got there, we left them up there. They're still bad. But anyway, so.

Improving, mate.

It's a perfect.

How are we going to improve?

Look, it would improve. It was just a Ben show, not the Vandenberg show.

Mate. No one would listen. You wouldn't rock up on time. Half the. Wouldn't even work. All right, People have no idea. Like you've been doing this for so long, you still got no idea. Like the pre checks that I have to run through that. You keep forgetting you can't even do the intro, mate. You don't even have it at the top of the notion page. You would. Oh, mate.

I played the bag, I played the bear. Guys, this is what happens.

We'll just get in there and talk.

About how full class works, right, guys? Thanks so much for listening to the Ben Show.

Thanks so much for listening, guys. If you like the episode, we'd love for you to share.

Good luck to you, mate.

Long service. I'll just remove the birds.

Stress league, mate.

You won't Miss you. It's all right. Off you go.

Back sore from carrying the podcast.

Shut the door on the way out.

Guys. See you next episode.

See you, champions.