“Happy Wife, Happy Life” is BS…Time for this Independent Film Maker to Think Differently...

Outlaws, we're not gonna have business whisper this week. I had a prior engagement and I cannot bring the safe house and all our technology with me. So we can go live. But next Tuesday we'll be live at 2 o' clock Pacific, 5 o' clock Eastern. But the good news is you can call the number the 8337 whisper at any time. Leave your business question and we'll make sure that you make it on the show next week. I'm here actually in Cincinnati at the Wyler Museum. Look at these beautiful cars. Great group here, great company, very fun, having a great day. I'm sorry we're going to miss you today. But there'll be plenty next Tuesday and you can kind of follow along on some of the past calls you might have missed and see how I answer some of the business questions. Remember, business is war and you need to keep your eyes peeled. The best defense is offense. Attack, attack, attack. So I'll see you next week.

2 o' clock Pacific, 5 o' clock Eastern on Tuesday, Facebook Live and YouTube Live. Until then, have a great week and a great weekend.

Danny, how are you?

Life is good, how are you? Thanks for taking my call.

I'm amazing, thank you. So tell me your business and then what your, what your big problem is.

Well, I started my business about five years back at the bigger production house. I, documentary filmmaker, make ads, corporate videos or basically anything. Not non profit stuff. But in this last year I also started another company in a similar field. I got it, I took control of a big building, brought in some other video production houses and I also have a TV station, we're doing a real podcast studio and anyway the one was very successful by itself. I was kind of running it out of my home. I had a third floor that I was using. It was fine, I was making money. And now this other venture is bigger, will pay more dividends, but it's costing me a lot as well. Like I'm working 20 hours a week and I'm having problems balancing my work and my home life. I say happy wife, happy life, but my wife isn't very happy usually lately. And I have a three and a half year old daughter that I feel like I'm missing out on. And so you know, it's just like, it's just trying to find that balance. And so right now I'm kind of, I just got killed in taxes yesterday because it was on the deadline. And so I'm just wondering like, is this all worth it and when does this end? How long do I Have to put in this much time.

Good. Great. Great question. So let me start by finding out a little more information before I kind of tell you my, my opinion. So at what age did you realize that you wanted to be an entrepreneur? How old were you? And let me ask that, maybe a different way. At what age did you realize you were different?

Probably like, you know, around eight or nine years old.

Okay, and so at eight or nine you realize that you weren't like everybody else and you probably didn't like authority too much. You didn't like being told what to do?

Nope, not at all. I can't. Not very good with bosses.

Okay, so is, is in this conversation that we're gonna have today, is it an option that you go work a 9 to 5 job?

Absolutely not. It's not even, not even an option.

Then please take me back to the famous entrepreneur billionaire that said, happy wife, happy life. Who's the famous billionaire entrepreneur that said that?

I mean, I don't know actually, I don't know who said it, but I'm guessing who it might be.

It was a brain, barely 10,000 air that said that. You've never heard Steve Jobs or Jeff Bezos or Mark Cuban. Who, who, who says that? Have you ever heard anybody on Shark Tank say happy wife, happy life?

No, I have not heard anybody say that.

Do you hear Michael Jordan say that? Have you ever heard a high performing individual in business or sports or art or anything that said, happy wife, happy life?

I have not.

You know why?

Good point.

Because they all have good divorce attorneys. They've all been married a bunch of times. Michael Jordan's been married. Who, like, it just doesn't, it doesn't, those two just don't line up. It doesn't work that way.

I know.

And everybody wants to tell you that it does. And everybody loves to tell the little dog whistle that you can have it all, but nobody understands the price you have to pay as an entrepreneur. So I'll tell you a story. So there was this billionaire from Texas and he actually used to own the Houston Rockets and he owns a bunch of car dealerships and he's a little Ross Perot guy. So if I go into a Ross Perot voice and this, you'll understand why. He's a little guy, he's like 4ft 5 or something. Little tiny guy. But he hires me because he, he bought a dealership in Las Vegas and he, he'd owned a dealership in California, Lexus dealership. And he lost money on it. He lost like, and he was Going into the Las Vegas market, and somebody had said, hey, you should get this Chris Collins guy. He can kind of tell you the lay of the land. And so I fly out and I spend the day with him. And he's a billionaire. So, you know, I'm, I probably would have done it for free just to pick his brain because he's a billionaire and he owned a basketball team, and I, I don't own a basketball team. So I'm, I'm sitting there with him and I'm asking him those questions in downtime, in between phone calls and, and business stuff. And I, I said, so you're married? And he was, oh, yeah. Yeah, I'm married. And I said, how many, how many hours do you work? And he goes, I work about six days. Sundays, I'll work a, a half day. So it's six and a half days. And I go, how many days a month are you on the road? Are you traveling? And he said, oh, probably about half. About 14, 15 days a month I'm on the road. I goes, your wife go with you? And he goes, no. And then I said, oh. I go, well, does your wife, like, give you a hard time about that? And just like, Ross, bro. He sits up, he goes, no, I trained her. And I go, what do you mean you trained her? And he goes, I trained her from day one. That's who I am. That's what I am. I work.

And so the hardest part is going into changing midstream in a relationship, getting married and thinking you're going to have work, life balance, and not having a common goal with your wife. And not what he means by training her in his Texas way. Isn't that. It was take it or leave it. It's like, I am who I am. That's me. I was. That's who I was when you started dating me. That's who I am. And now you got to understand that our goals need to, you know, need to be the same. You need to sit down with your wife and you need to get clear what your goals are. But at the end of that conversation, you need to end it with what price we're going to pay to get those goals. How bad do we want those goals? How bad do we want our kids to go to a, a big college? How bad do we want that house? Because if we, you know, the, your significant other needs to understand that there's a price to pay for those things. You don't. There isn't just a tree we go out to and pick off our kids. Going to Harvard, you got to pay. Somebody's got to pay for that. Right? And so.

Sure. Right. I don't vote.

The mistake that we make is that we're not on the same page as our spouse. Not that we're going to have work life balance. We need to be on the same pages. Honey, I have some goals and I really want to do this and this and accomplish this, but this is going to be the price that I'm going to have to pay to do that. And let's just write in some contingencies that shit's going to go wrong no matter what we draw out today as our goals times whatever problems we think we're going to have by two. Because right when we think we got it figured out, we're going to run out of money. Right when we figure that things are going good, somebody's going to quit on us or we're going to get something stolen or, you know, everything's going to get stolen. I we just did a podcast on Business Outlaws with, with a friend of ours, Eric, and he was talking about how he, he had everything stolen at one point out of his car, like he had just got back from a six month trip. All of his hard drives, everything in his car stolen, and he lost six months worth of work. That's what's going to happen. That's the life of an entrepreneur. There's no guarantees. And so what I would say in my advice about work life balance is sit down with your, with your wife and say, honey, this is who I am and this is where I want to go, but I can only do that with you. And we're a power couple and we're stronger together than we are apart. But I can't go into work every day feeling guilty that I'm paying a price and I'm neglecting you. And what we need to do is as a team, as a power couple, we need to get on the same page. And I need you to, to endorse that. I'm going to pay a price here because things are hard and I maybe stepped out a little bit more than I should have. And I'm in some things, I'm going to have to dig in. And then even when I think that I'm done digging in, I'm probably going to have to double down again because that's just how life is when you're an entrepreneur, is when you think it's going right, boom, something slaps you and you got to double down again. But I love the game, honey. I love the fight, that's what I live for. But I. I need. I need us to be on the same page, and I need you to either support me in that, and if you tell me I got to go get a 9 to 5 job, I'm going to go date that hot chick from the gym. No, I'm joking with that part, but do you understand what I'm saying? You gotta get.

No, I understand. Yeah. Yeah. Amen, my brother. Man, you are on fire. I mean, thank you. Thank you. You mean, like the first time I feel. I feel normal for a few moments here, so I appreciate that.

No, I know if you're calling into this show that you were like me. You felt different. You. You were different. You didn't like authority. You wanted to create things. You wanted to make a difference. You know, you. You woke up, you wanted things that got you excited to get up. You didn't want to have to get up because of an alarm clock and a boss. Right?

Yep.

And so.

Exactly.

That's. So how is your wife going to take that conversation?

I mean, we have these conversations and, you know, it's my second wife.

But, yeah, it's going to be hard. I mean, it's hard. You know, some days it's okay, and she. And she's there like, you know, she's that. She's that teammate with me, and she's in it to win it with me. But then other days, it's not that, you know, I mean, it's. It's the opposite. You know, I can't do this anymore. You know, it's. You know, the divorce is threatened and those kinds of things. I think about, you know, not seeing my daughter. You know, I love getting up and seeing her and, you know, getting her up, going, and then, you know, and then come home for dinner every night. And even if I go back, you know, sometimes, you know, I'm on two hours of sleep for the last six days. You know, I mean, so it's, you know, in a row almost. So it's. They're trying to build this thing. I know that it's going to pay dividends. And, you know, once it's. Once it. Once it's going, then you know, we'll see what happens. But I think that you can't have both all the time. You can't have me, and you can't have all the things that you want.

No. And it's. It's very narcissistic. And we. We just did an episode of Business Outlaws about this, and I've had More guys write me about how much that episode touched them. But it's very narcissistic of a wife, or a husband for that matter, to, to marry somebody and accept them as an entrepreneur and then gaslamp them and change once they're, once they're married. Down the road, you have to accept who somebody is and what price they're going to pay. And you can't change them. You have to accept them for who they are. That, you know, a good relationship is one where you accept the other person unconditionally in your Ride or Die, but for who they are. And you're trying, you're trying to make them better and you have to do your part in that too, right? You can't be out cheating, you can't be out doing things with other girls. You can't get caught texting hot chicks and sexting and all that. You have to do your part. But on the other end, if you're loyal and true blue, we need Ride or Die. Being an entrepreneur is really hard and you need, you need your partner in crime. And I have found when I, when I do marriage counseling like this, that when I explain it like that and I explain the narcissism and they kind of like, it's kind of a, a little bit of a wake up call. And they're like, yeah, you know what, I am doing that to him. And it kind of gets, it gets things to an even playing field. But you have to do your part too. But that would be my suggestion. Then the, the second question. I wrote a note. You said taxes. What did you.

Yeah.

Have you figured out how we can get around taxes? Because. I'm listening.

No, no, they just got murdered in California extension.

I don't care what you think about Trump. I'm mad at him just for that.

I mean, yeah, I mean, at least I could have got the discount on my taxes. I mean, I thought, I guess not, not unless you have, you know, 500 million or more. But yeah, you know, I just, I had a really rough week and then I was icing on the cake. It was way worse than I thought. And, you know, you know, learning lessons. This is a little bit. I skipped maybe a step or two as I, I jumped ahead into this venture. But, you know, there's so many positives. I'm not even, I'm not even shook about it that much. You know, it's like, it takes a lot to freaking out, at least this point in time. Like, I mean, every day it's a. I need a miracle Excuse my language.

Well, that's all of us. I. You're not alone in that. I would. I have a couple of people I can recommend for taxes. I know that in my grand strategy for taxes. Taxes. We just opened up a company in Canada, and we don't get double taxed. But the. The taxation rate is cheaper in Canada than it is here in California. I know we're looking at opening up in a different state also, but you have to, you know, have to go live in that state half of the time, which, you know, isn't that appealing to me.

What about. I heard good things about Rhode Island, y'. All.

Well, it's Florida, Texas, Vegas, and Washington are the ones on the list that I was given, so.

Okay.

Vegas isn't zero income tax. I think that's more.

Yeah, Vegas is zero.

I think Rhode island, the taxes are fair, but it's like Florida, where there's more corporate protections. Like, you can't pierce the corporate veil in Florida or Rhode Island, I think.

Right on, right on. I'm not that busy yet, but, man, I want to thank you so much for your time that really, really lovelifted me. This is a great, great service, a great show. I really appreciate it, and I'll keep listening.

Thanks, Damian. Thank you so much. And call me back and let me know how that goes. You know, I hope that I will. You can figure out a way to have that conversation in a way that she, you know, she pulls in tighter and becomes your partner in crime. Because you need a partner in crime.

Yep. And I'm just gonna try and empower you to do that.

Okay. Thanks, bro.

Take care. See.