The Creative Aspects of Entrepreneurship Embracing Entrepreneurship as an Architect | Lance Cayko

Sometimes right when we open the hole, it's like, well, that sucks. Now we gotta tell the owner like $20,000 change order, and it's not even our fault. It's like we can't totally predict what's underground in that kind of way. So yeah, for me, it's sort of, uh, embracing being comfortable with the uncomfortable, you know. I think that's one big phrase that I try to remind myself about too.

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Welcome to another edition of The Profitable Creative. I'm your host, Christian Brim. The only place on the internet where you will learn to turn your passion into a profit. I am joined today by Lance Cyco of F9 Productions. So welcome, Lance. Sorry, I'm rambling.

All good. Yeah, thanks for having me. The Cyco part must have threw you off too, a little bit. I don't blame you. Some people have a lot of trouble just going— it makes them uncomfortable. They're like, "Do I have to say it?" Well, I mean, yeah.

I don't want to call you that.

Yeah.

I'm totally fine with it. I would be called— I am called psycho, so no relation, however. So tell me in your own words how you arrived here. What's the brief synopsis of your entrepreneurial journey?

Okay, I'll try to be as brief as possible then. 13 years old, I quit farming with Dad and went and decided to be a carpenter from 13 to 21. Then I explored about every trade in the construction field besides mechanical, electrical, plumbing. Went to trade school to become a general contractor. Actually loved school for the first time after doing that, because I think, I think because I got to, I got to choose what I wanted to do. And I'm very much a Type A, first child, first grandchild, you know, leader, got to just my way or the highway for me anyway. And then went to apply to— I was like, well, I know how to build, this is cool, but it seems like the architect gets the client first. What if I, what if I went to architecture school? So I applied to North Dakota State, 7 miles— no, or 70 miles north, got accepted there. Again, excelled at school, graduated top of the class. Got an internship in Boulder, laid off 9 months later, and that's what started the trajectory of me doing this, going the serial entrepreneur route, starting my own firm. And then we, you know, we started in 2010, 2017, we kind of hit that 7-year mark. And, you know, that 7-year mark is significant if you're an entrepreneur and you're a business person. You know, most businesses fail within that 7 years. So we got to year 7. It was like my business partner and I go, We should like record this somehow. I mean, we've established ourselves in the worst time possible during the great, great recession. Yeah. Very, very difficult to do. And amidst sort of also all the media and sociocultural kind of dogma at that time, especially, and still kind of now about being, you know, anti-capitalist, anti-entrepreneur. And it was like, and a lot of it was coming from my generation, millennial. Sort of thing. And we were like, we should— this could inspire people to do what we're doing, you know. I want more entrepreneurs. I want more people taking responsibility. Yeah, yeah, you do too. I mean, and so then we started the podcast, Inside the Firm Podcast, told the whole story from episode 0. We still do 2 weekly shows, one kind of like this and then one where it's just me and my business partner on. And, uh, then I started guesting on podcasts. To try to get the word out there about, about that and everything else we do, and then just network with people. So that's what brought me all the way here.

I love it. Okay, so I'm going to ask you a question that you may or may not have considered. So the, the name of the podcast is The Profitable Creative. I have a certain thing in mind when I say a creative entrepreneur. Do you identify as a creative entrepreneur?

I mean, it's obvious. I think entrepreneurship by itself actually is a creative endeavor. I've really tried to stress that to folks who, you know, look at me as an architect and they obviously go, oh yeah, you're like an artist of buildings. You must be super creative. You must be able to like sketch like crazy and you just draw things out of your head. And we can. I mean, we're award-winning architects and all that other stuff. But as I've put on the other business hats, being a general contractor and starting and forming a general contracting business, starting a real estate business, starting a nonprofit community garden. All of those endeavors have just proved to me that actually it's a creative pro— being a creative, a profitable creative is not just about being a creative first. I think it's about an entrepreneur. You have to be creative at every, at every moment. I mean, some people also ask me all the time, you know, I get this question a lot who want to maybe listen, they listen to our show or just network with me in some certain way and they want to start a business. So I get a lot of people that come to me for advice like that and have coffee and like, when's "Best time to start a business?" And I go, "During a Great Recession or a Great Depression." And it freaks them out because they, you know, it's a— I mean, you wouldn't think that's the answer, but— and they go, "Why?" And I go, "Thank you, that's a— I was hoping you would say that." Because I just reflected on myself and Alex, and it was like every day we woke up broke, hungry, scared, in a corner, and going, we have to be Every day we had to be creative because of that. It's kind of like taking a piece of coal and putting a lot of pressure on it, and then we all know what happens after that, and then it becomes a diamond. So that's sort of my answer for the creative part of it.

I love that because I think you're right in general that things going easy or predictably maybe doesn't present challenges. And therefore doesn't really produce any change. I think that you shouldn't be in a constant state of hair on fire. That would mean that you've got problems, but there's got to be some balance of like you're successful, but you're still pushing the envelope. You're trying new things, you're starting new businesses, you're branching out possibly into verticals, which it sounds like you did. But I don't think, and my experience really does say this from myself and my colleagues that have reached a certain level of success in business, there's not any satisfaction in that, right? I mean, there's satisfaction in having built a business, but that fire of being an entrepreneur doesn't go away. I remember a conversation with my wife where she was asking, I think the question was, "How much is enough? When are you going to stop?" And I said, "Well, did Rembrandt stop painting? Did Mozart stop composing? No. I mean, it's just what we do." And so you have to balance that with maybe it is a nonprofit where there's not any commercial intent, you're not trying to make money off of it, but it still feeds that entrepreneurial fire of yours.

Yeah, you're right. We don't stop. I mean, look at Elon, right? He can't. He's just, he's just addicted to it. It's just, it gets so addicting. It's like the best addiction, I think, you know, besides maybe something healthy like fishing or hiking or, you know, sport hunting or something like that. But like, yeah, I know, I know. And as you were, as you were pontificating there, Christian, I was just, I was kind of reminiscing how exciting it is to start a business, you know, you come up with the logos, you're coming up with the hooks. It's, it's not— it's scary like crossing a log on a creek. It's kind of like that, right? Where you're just, you're going teetering back and forth, but you, you can see the end goal and you know how to get there. It's incredible. And I get a lot of— I work with, you know, like my nonprofit, for example, I have, uh, it's mostly retired folks that are on my board, which makes sense, you know. They have extra time and stuff like that. And, and one gal was a planner and from in a city, right? And so just very analytical, very by the book, has never stepped out of the comfort zone of— because I even asked her because— and I asked her what I'm about to say. I asked her because she had so much pushback when I just instantly jumped on the opportunity to turn the garden into, into my own nonprofit. And I was just— there was no fear about how I knew how the legal process has worked and everything. And I go, Prue, have you ever, you ever, you ever had a business? She goes, no. I go, you're a planner, right? She's, yep, I spent my whole life in government. And I went, oh, okay, I get it. Yeah. Like, how much— like, how much is what we do? We're born with it. I think there's actually a lot of it. Because I, like, my dad who raised me, um, but is not my biological dad, I found, I found, and I didn't find that out until I was 33. When I found my biological dad when I was 33, I'm 41 now, my dad who I really had a good Rich Dad Poor Dad environment.

One of my favorite books.

Oh yeah, of course. Yeah, I made my children read it last summer and then they had to write a report and I paid them to do it. It's like so critical, you know. So The dad who raised me was not my biological father, was the poor dad. Never took any risks, just worked on the farm. And God bless him for doing it. I'm— I wouldn't be here. I would not be the person I am. I probably wouldn't be talking about the garden so much. I wouldn't be that trying to do urban, urban farming if I didn't grow up on that place. Love the man. But then when I found my, my dad, who's my biological dad, and this was after I had several companies in place and going in that direction. I was like, he, uh, it was, it was like, oh, did I just get the DNA, the entrepreneurial DNA? He was, he's a multimillionaire. He has all these companies in Brazil. It was like astounding to me how similar we were in the professional world without having any of that sort of contact in that kind of way and influence. So I really saw like, but at the same time, it's interesting. I'm like, but I'm also very happy about growing up in the environment that I did with the poor dad. And not, and then being pushed in that direction of like, I hated that we had anxiety about money. And so now I carry that through and like, it really points to like one of my favorite quotes of all time. It's from a rapper, one of my favorite rappers, Kanye West. My mom and dad used to say growing up, they would tell me all the time, and it was a cope, having money isn't everything. And I was like, oh, that, yeah, sure. Having money isn't everything. Right? Like having these conversations is part of, part of actually having everything, having, having a meal with my daughter. At the end of a long day, kind of have everything, waking up and breathing. I get it. I get it, guys. But then Kanye finished it for me about 10 years ago and he said, having money isn't everything, but not having it is. And I went, oh, that's right in my soul. Like that, that just, that's why I'm also an entrepreneur. Because for me, it's a reaction of growing up with the anxiety of not having money. And like, I want to be comfortable with what I make such that I don't have anxiety. That's freedom. Like I'm buying myself freedom from the anxiety.

Yes. And I've mentioned on this podcast, I don't recall the book, but it was on— it was a book on investment advice written for the layperson. And there was only one sentence that was bolded in the whole book. And I'm paraphrasing, but it basically said, "You're wealthy when you don't worry about money." And that is very dependent on the individual because someone could have $500,000 or $5,000 and not worry about money, or they could have $50 million in the bank and still worry about money. And I, I think it, part of it is being satisfied with what you have because If you're not satisfied with what you have, it doesn't really matter how much you have. You're never going to be satisfied. But it's also about seeing the potential and not making an excuse for not pursuing what you want. Like, if you want a private jet, then you can have a private jet. Are you willing to make the the sacrifices to do it, but are you going to be satisfied when you get the jet? Because you can get on that hamster wheel where you're just making more money or growing just to grow and you don't have any satisfaction.

Christian Brim: Yeah. There's a baseline of happiness. And I think I used to listen to NPR a long time ago. I don't anymore. I kind of shut off all media, left, right, up, down, inside, out, all the different facets. But I, but I distinctly remember this report that NPR was talking about at one point, and this is like a 10, 15-year-old article or something like that. There was a white paper and a study that was done at some university where they, where they showed people's happiness after, at that time, like $75,000, making $75,000 a year. Once they, once they kept going past that, it never really got, it never really increased that much. Right. And it kind of pointed towards the baseline. Of what you're talking about, for sure, for sure.

Well, and that's interesting that you say that because to a person, people that I've spoken with that have gone on mission trips or traveled to poor countries and encountered their people that, who are destitute poverty compared to us in the United States across the board, do tend to be happier, right? And I understand what that article is saying is like, once you have your base needs, your housing, your food, all of those things covered, it does remove a lot of anxiety for sure. But in the same line of thought, I think it also has to be tied to your expectations, right? Because if you're living in a a shack that has dirt floors, no plumbing, like a lot of people in the world do, they can be content in that. I don't know if it's comparing yourself to the people that you're around or what, but there's something around that expectation. None of us expect to live in a dirt hut with no running water or electricity. We would think ourselves poverty, right? But other people do. So how do you explain that? Comparison is the thief of joy, Right.

And that's the, that's the tricky part about climbing the ladder as an entrepreneur is you, if you're successful, obviously then you make more money. You have more, you have more fame, you have more friends, you have it, you have everything. If you're a successful entrepreneur, I mean, it's just like an incredible vehicle to put yourself on. But as, as I climb in that way, you know, we're attracting more and more higher-end clients, more and more people where like they're coming out of places like California, for instance, uh, one of Elon Musk's, one of his mentees. Ended up hiring us and we designed his $6 million home in Boulder. It's one of the most modern, chic, cool fricking houses in Boulder. But you start comparing yourself just by proxy and you don't— like, I'm not seeking to compare myself to that man. He's great, you know, but at the end of the day, then you see like, wow, they're driving around two Cybertrucks and they get this awesome house. And then you go, you know, so even with me who right across the way, I've designed and built two houses for my family, They're like, as a percentage of the population, that's a very rare thing to do. And I'm going, so it's sort of this checking yourself, right? And you're going like, wait a minute, come on, I've designed to build 2 houses for my family. How many people even get to do that? Like, so you have to sort of check your, your thankfulness and gratitude and sort of backwards in that way. But you can't help it. You can't help but compare.

Like, you know, yeah, you're 100% right. And I think as you travel in circles of entrepreneurs, I mean, I know this has been my experience that you have success and then you see others that have had, like your success compared to theirs, strictly financially speaking, is inconsequential. And you're like, wow. And you can approach it with envy or comparison, But to me, I've kind of dealt with it by like, okay, let that be inspirational. Like, you know, don't, don't limit yourself on what you're capable of doing because look at what others have done. And that turns it into a positive motivation. Like you said, or like I said, it really depends on are you willing to make the sacrifices to do that? You know, and as I've, as I've gotten older, And I've seen opportunities. I'm like, yeah, I don't want to work that hard. Like, I know what's involved now. I mean, when I was younger and I didn't know any better, then I probably would have jumped on it. But now I'm like, you kind of count the cost before you start building. Hey listeners, are you ready to turn your passion into profit? Then grab a copy of Profit First for Creatives. Click the link in the show notes to purchase a copy. And if you're not ready to make that full commitment, you can download a free copy of the first chapter. Check it out right now.

Yeah, I know. I was even, you know, even at a micro level. So that's sort of like the macro part of it is as a business owner, CEO, somebody, a leader, somebody forging and being a leader in that kind of way. Like those sacrifices are pretty huge, right? I mean, there was one point like on our development, our real estate development, where I worked 80 days in a row. I barely saw my children and I'm talking seriously, 80 days in a row. And I— my health suffered a little bit for it. I missed a family vacation, stuff like that, you know. But then on the backside, in the end of it, it was like, oh, then that's what actually bloomed our construction company, which is now even more profitable than our architecture company. Because I didn't— but, and it was partly because of that sacrifice I made. I was like, I, like, I couldn't actually get comfortable with me that the fact that I did that and not get something super positive out of the end of it. Like, there's— I've been on this Law of Polarity kick for the last 2 years, and, uh, I said so, like, about a year ago I was having dinner with my, with my children. I have a son and a daughter. And son is like 19, daughter's 15. And so we can have these a little bit more intellectual conversations with them. And they, they asked, uh, they go— I go, do you guys know, do you guys know what— they're like, what makes you sad? What makes you, what makes you glad? And I go, well, you know what gets me really excited actually? And I go, what? And I'm like, when something negative happens to me, like when something bad happens. And they're like, what? And I was like, Well, if something bad happens to me, the universe works with positivity and negativity. It's like, it's called the law of polarity, like it's, it's physics. I know something good is going to happen. And I go, when do you think I get most like anxious or sad, you know, worried? And they go, I don't know. And I go, when it's just good, good, good, good, good. Like when it's just everything's going too well, especially on a job, a construction site. We've, we talk about this, I swear, every single project that we start to build And let's say they, you know, if they— the 3 in a row go really well and we go, is it like something's going to fall, right? Like something's going to be pulled out here. And then there'll be these— then there'll be some that we start and like right when we dig the hole in Colorado, the soils are just awful. Like, like they're very expansive. We have to do all kinds of stuff for the foundations sometimes. Right when we open the hole, it's like, well, that sucks. Now we got to tell the owner like $20,000 change order and it's not even our fault. It's like we can't totally predict what's underground. In that kind of way. So yeah, for me, it's sort of, uh, embracing being comfortable with the uncomfortable, you know. I think that's one big phrase that I try to remind myself about too.

Yeah. Today's episode of The Profitable Creative is brought to you by Core Group. Are you tired of doing it all yourself? Do you feel like you have no plan? Let Core Group guide you to build the business of your dreams. Core Group, your go-to accountant for creatives.

There isn't a lot of comfort in being an entrepreneur, although my experience is that we sometimes intentionally and unintentionally create discomfort that's unnecessary. Your, your statement about soil just reminded me, I have a, a dear friend that's an architect and he spent, uh, over a decade working in London and, uh, he moved back here to Oklahoma City and I was asking him, you know, what's the difference between building here and there. And he was like, well, I had a job site that was shut down for a year because they— we reached a plague pit. And I'm like, a what? He said, well, it was a burial site for plague victims, and so they had to shut the whole thing down to come in and, you know, sterilize it. Guys in hazmat suits and all this. And I'm like, oh, okay, well, you don't get that here. Uh, you might get red clay, but you know, you're not going to get Plegpits.

Doesn't it? It sort of has like a strangely nice ring to it.

Yeah, doesn't it? Well, that's the English. That's the English for you, you know.

They—

yeah, I always put a nice spin on things. It has to be, uh, prim. So tell me, what is the most— the, the thing that you've accomplished that you're most proud of? Business, personal, whatever.

Oh man, I haven't— I've stuck to my word of not laying anybody off. And I, and I was just telling my girlfriend this, who's not an entrepreneur, and she actually venerates— she's an architect too, but she's not an entrepreneur. You know, she's actually very happy being a, a driver of the cogs, right? She's a project architect and all of that. Now she's kind of— she's a professor too, actually. We were talking about this. I was like, well, that where that comes from about not laying anybody off too comes from that negative. So like when I moved here and I got that first internship, I lasted 9 months and then I got laid off. And it was because of bad entrepreneurs. And they weren't— I mean, they were architects, but they were definitely not entrepreneurs. They were just architects. And they— but they had a business, right? I mean, there's— it's like, you know, that's part of the podcast too, is we're really trying to encourage the architect community, like, you need to embrace being an entrepreneur. Like, come on, you're already a creative individual. So when they laid me off, I never forgot that sting and how awful it felt and how helpless I felt. And then I called my grandma sobbing, and my— I went home to my wife, who had— we had just had a newborn. I'm like, just after graduating at the top of our class and being— thinking the whole world was set up for me to just— like, all the dominoes are there to knock it down and everything. So that has been, like, honestly my number one goal that I've been proud of to be able to uphold for now 15 years, is I've never laid anybody off because we don't have enough work. And it ties into the sacrifice, actually. It's me and Al making— when we first started up the business, not overpaying ourselves sacrificing even some, some, some salary here and there and just paying ourselves the lowest amount and then doing, you know, and then after that, trying to get enough profit at the end, then we kind of make it up for ourselves and, you know, pull dividends and all of that. So that's probably my proudest part of it actually, is really creating jobs for people out of nowhere because we had no contacts either when we moved here. I mean, it really was a true architectural startup. Like a lot of architects are very well networked and that's how they do it. There's glad-handing at museum events at the AIA or whatever. We had nothing like that. We had to just forge the path. It was like pushing a boulder up a mountain every single day, but it made us so strong and so lean and so mean. Now that we're kind of primed in that, in that way, and we have a network and things are flowing a little bit better. And then, you know, the other way we've been doing it recently is through the serial entrepreneurism. And that is like we have a construction company and our architects can bill against the construction company to do extra construction administration. It offsets how much I have to pay myself from F9. So I can like, if I need to at certain points, if I need to shrink that down a little bit just to help cash flow, I know I'll make it up in the construction. Like we have an ecosystem and, you know, that's—

you're the Rockefeller of construction. You've got the vertical integration down. I love it. You do the development, the construction, the architecture. I guess next you need a real estate agency.

Yeah, right. I go after that license for sure.

I love what you said, one, about not laying people off, because I, I think, you know, one of the things that, that made me more cautious as an entrepreneur is realizing that it's not just my family that I affect, but, you know, the 20 or so people that I employ and their families. And like, that, that's a weighty thing, and, and it should weigh into your, your risk-making decisions because I feel a certain responsibility. Like, I don't want them to go without because I was stupid, right? The other thing I, I liked about what you said is these architects that, that aren't businesses, and, and I think this can apply to any entrepreneur because It seems that entrepreneurs start a business because they have a skill. Not always, but a big chunk of the time. And they identify with that skill. It may be a profession, it may be architecture, it may be accounting and law or engineer or a coder or whatever, or a videographer or a cinematographer. You could identify with that first, I cannot remember who, I think it may have been Perry Marshall that said this. He said, "You have to think of yourself as an entrepreneur first with a certain set of skills." So Lance, you're an entrepreneur with architectural skills, which is completely different than saying you're an architect.

Every time I do one of these interviews, you know, a podcast like this and I guest on a show, I feel like I pull out one good phrase and that, like one new phrase. There's been a lot of good phrases. One new good phrase, and I'm going to use that from now on. I'm an entrepreneur with architectural, carpentry, general contracting, real estate development skills. Like, that's fantastic. Yeah, it's, it's right. Yeah, well, well, I'm going to look it up. Who— yeah, I think you mentioned the name. Who?

Perry Marshall. He's the author of 80/20 Marketing and Sales. His is an interesting story. He's my age, maybe a little older, but He was educated as an electrical engineer and went into sales of product in the electronics space and then just became a full-time marketer. So he's not your typical marketer. He's very analytical and he does deep dives on fractals and mathematics and yeah, it's, it's Interesting guy. I think you kind of hinted at this, but I wanted to dive a little deeper into it. What did you learn about money growing up?

Yeah, the hint, right? The having money isn't everything, but not having it is. Yeah. What I was taught about money is that— and then I was raised very Catholic. I'm still very Catholic. But one of the things that they, you know, that is literally, you know, money is the root of all evil. So that's kind of true. That's kind of true. Like, it's tied to it, I guess. I mean, I always try to like think of like, can I twist that phrase to suit my brain a little a little bit better. And the way I think about it is, is like, it's tied to it, but it's, it's just money. Like, we have to have some kind of means exchange. We can't just barter all day long. I can't trade a building for a car or stuff like that in that kind of way. So it was a— there was a neg— there's a big negative aura around money when I was growing up.

So, so like having money was somehow immoral or evil?

No, it wasn't actually just having, having capital. It was, it was the pursuit of capital.

I see. Okay.

To get to the point where then you could have the things that you wanted without having anxiety around having the things, like overleveraging yourself. So they had some good lessons in there and something like that. It's like, we were talking about credit scores the other day in the office, and, uh, my dad— it brought up the memory of my dad and his credit score, which was very good. But then as I started to have my own credit score and use it and leverage it to become a real estate developer and a real estate investor. It takes a lot of capital. It takes a lot of risk. I mean, you're just putting your butt on the line for like a million, like $3 million. Our loan is like $3 million. It's crazy. It's a large amount of money before they printed all the money in the pandemic, by the way. So now it's probably like $6 million. And he would brag to me all the time about his growing up, you know, like, "Oh, I have this 820 credit score or something." And finally, maybe like 4 or 5 years ago, it came up again at Thanksgiving or something like that. And we're like, everybody's kind of just me and my brother and my dad, like, are talking about somehow credit scores. And I go, yeah, mine's like, I don't know, upper 700s or something like that. And they're like, oh, what? Ours is like 820, blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, that's because you don't use it. You're not leveraging it. It's like, isn't— and isn't that kind of indicative of like life? And just in general is like, somewhere in the goopy gray middle is really the answer. And like the magic, it's not this left, right, up, down, black, white. Extreme in any other way. It's picking from those extremes and then forming this goopy gray ball that really makes sense and helps the world grow.

I think that the reason why most people have this anxiety around money is fear-driven, right? And it's fear of doing without. I think that Anytime you're motivated by fear, I mean, it's not that that's a bad motivator because it can motivate you to do good things, but to me, fear is more closing. You know, like it shuts down options. It keeps you from looking at possibles. Like I said, the people that I know that are uber successful, the money hasn't changed who they are. I think it amplifies who they are because you see all the stories about lottery winners and they're broke again, you know, a year or two later because why? Because they didn't change, right? They remained who they were. And I think that when it comes to being profitable as an entrepreneur, as a creative, it's really about getting comfortable with your relationship with money and being intentional about it. So many people are reactive with money because they're not being intentional about it. They're working from some deep emotional space that they don't really even understand what it is, right?

Right. Yeah, the fear. I mean, the fear just kind of drives, especially now too with the hyper-politics and weird environment we're in just globally and all that kind of stuff about how it— I think you're right. That it's a fear. It's like misplaced intentions because of the fear sort of idea.

Yeah. As Yoda said, fear leads to the dark. What is it right now in your business that is on your mind first thing when you wake up or on your mind when you're going to sleep? I call it a struggle, a problem that you're trying to solve. What's that focal point for you right now?

Well, I'll answer it in reverse. I actually go to bed without having to think about all the businesses and everything. I, I have successfully trained myself to shut it off at about 5 or 6 each day. Very important for anybody who wants to be that entrepreneur first with the skill, because I think that's where some of the people with the skill first and the entrepreneur second start to go down a really bad spiral, is they can't shut it off. And you got to figure out— because discipline equals freedom. So you have to have the dis— so in your disciplining yourself to have the freedom to not have to worry about that kind of stuff. And, you know, I work a lot, probably about an average of about 50 hours a week, but I do also shut it off on the weekends. You know, the last two weekends have been amazing. I went up to Minneapolis and Wisconsin and went up camping with my girlfriend. It was great. I— there was— meanwhile, running, you know, several 7-figure firms, 3 7-figure firms. And then we got— before that, one of my buddies from college came out, and like you said, the— should the money amplify— the money should amplify who you are. So we rented a side-by-side and went four-wheeling up and down the mountains. It was fantastic. So I don't, I don't worry about that part. The waking up part though is akin to my routine. I think that's where also I think it's important for people to have a really strict routine in the mornings if they're an entrepreneur. You have to really center yourself and ground yourself and get ahead of the world. So the first 2 hours of the morning, I call them the golden hours, and they're golden, like, literally, because, you know, the sunrise and everything like that. But they're golden because they're quiet, and if you— and if you can get ahead of everybody else, then you're controlling the day for you versus let— so my routine is that, you know, I wake up, wake up at about 5, go down to— go down the kitchen, big glass of water with electrolytes, put on coffee, sit down and stretch and, and meditate and pray the rosary. Then after that, coffee's done, and then I'm at my desk for 2 hours from, from 5:30 to 7:30 before I have to take my daughter to school. And those 2 hours are so absolutely critical for getting ahead with the emails and addressing maybe some that fell through the cracks between— between after the hours I didn't address them, you know, 5 to 7 and stuff like that. That way I'm ahead of everybody. And then I'm also trying to do my creative tasks in, in those hours, you know, with the help of caffeine, obviously. But like, that's where, like, some of the best marketing ideas, some of the best architectural designs we come up with, when it's just really still and quiet. That's how I start and usually end the day.

I absolutely love that. Perry Marshall calls that Renaissance time. He talks about having to have that space where you're not inundated with the, the tactical of, you know, running a business or, or life. He's actually doing a— and I, I was this close to going, but I decided not to— that he's doing a seminar with Richard Koch, one of the Koch brothers, uh, in Portugal. And he was talking about Richard Koch's routine. He spends the first 2 to 3 hours of his day working on his 2 or 3 largest problems, and then he goes for a walk or a hike or whatever. And that allows him to, one, put his energy into the most important things, right? The, the things that need him to solve as opposed to others to solve. But then having the space to let his brain work on those problems subconsciously, right? So you're not, you're not continuing to try and process it in your, your cerebral, but you kind of engage your whole brain. Yeah, that's why people get brilliant insights in the showers, because they're, they're in a happy place and their brain disconnects, right? But, but being intentional with your routine and time, I think is awesome advice. So you mentioned previous wives. How did being an entrepreneur affect your personal relationships, specifically your marriages?

My first wife, it actually got a little better once I became an entrepreneur after getting laid off. It became a little bit better because I was making more money. And then I would, I was trying, I would try to make her happy by like saying like, hey, yeah, if you find, go get the clothes. I don't care. Here's $500, you know, no big deal. So it made it a little bit better for a while. That relationship was just kind of doomed from the beginning. So it didn't matter if I had more money and, and, or I could be more flexible with the children or anything like that. It sort of actually exacerbated, um, some of the, some of the issues at the end of the day, kind of like what you're saying about how, you know, the money just, you know, should increase you as a person. Add on to it rather than sort of change you in that, in that, in that other way. For the second marriage, I, I like to— I think my, I think my last wife would agree if she ever hears this, that she— what I'm about to say, and that is like, I think I leveled her up. So, you know, you mentioned, uh, that we should— maybe one more vertical, vertical, uh, integration would be for us to be realtors. She's a realtor, so she got to sell our development all the units that we didn't sell and stuff like that. There was a— there's a lot of books that I have brought home that I— and when I do guesting or guests are on my show, they'll send me the free book and then I'll read it. And they're usually very good, you know, I'm pretty picky about who will be on the show and stuff like that, much like you. And they, you know, and then I give her that book and it changes her life in a really positive way. Or she just sees me and by proxy felt much more motivated because there was a certain point we had a blended family And that's what ended up bringing— that was what brought us together. And that's what tore us apart, frankly. It was just like the kids. I mean, they, once they, once they hit puberty and they weren't these cute little adorable kids anymore, then they didn't want to hang out with each other anymore. And before that, it was like Brady Bunch. I mean, we were just this 6-person family, which is kind of, kind of rare these days. We would go on these family trips and the people would just come up to our table, you know, they'd go like, your kids are so well behaved. Like, thank you. And we're like, oh, thank you. You know, stuff like that. So I think that's probably how I affected her in that way. It was mostly positive, honestly, at the end of the day. I think we leveled each other up. And then, I mean, without her, when I was 30— because I would have been 33, yeah, 34— I wouldn't— I didn't have the kind of capital I needed to, to buy the land that would enable us to build this design, to build this custom literal Brady House. And, uh, she enabled that. But then I did all the architecture and the engineering for free because it's my family, right? And she got to live in— she still lives in that house. And, and now that she has increased claustrophobia, just her own stuff, it's a house that's glass, obviously. I'm an architect who likes modernism, and, uh, the house is good for her health, you know. So I, I, you know, since the divorce and having dated a lot actually lately over the past year, is like, I like to think even though the girlfriends that I dated for a bit and then broke up or dated for a little bit longer and broke up, had a really good positive effect on them. You know, I'm just trying to like, my preferred pronouns on LinkedIn are positive reactionary, right? Which is kind of indicative of like this whole conversation of me saying like all the negative stuff. I want to positively react to that. So I think that's how, that's how it affected it.

I've often said my wife is not an entrepreneur. Uh, we did work together off and on over the time in the business, but we each fired each other multiple times. I think as an entrepreneur, and I've only really come to see this after lots of years, that we've got to be kind of difficult to live with. I mean, we're not your normal people. We're not as predictable. That's got to be a strain on someone that doesn't think like that. But I appreciate your sharing your experience. Any final words? How do we, how do we reach you? How do we find you?

Well, I mentioned LinkedIn there, and I will link in with anybody. And my, my name is spelled L-A-N-C-E, last name Cyko, C-A-Y-K-O. If you just— I'm the only one on LinkedIn. If you're listening to this, you want to link in with me, I'm— I will accept pretty much anybody. If you want to listen to the show, go to insidethefirmpodcast.com. You can find it on YouTube, all the usual places. And if you want to follow what we do architecture-wise or interested in ever engaging with us on professional level, then I go to F9Productions.com, sign up for our newsletter. We send out one per week or one per month and keep everybody abreast.

I forgot to ask this. How do you come up with F9 Production?

It was the— when we started the firm, because we were such baby architects, like we didn't— we weren't in firms long enough to get anything built. So all we had was like photorealistic renderings and the software we would use to produce those at that time the hotkey for that was F9. So you'd hit F9 and then it would execute the rendering. It was like, ah, we're F9 Productions.

I love that. I, when you, when I first heard it, I'm like, being from Oklahoma, I'm like, that's not a tornado rating because they only go up to F5. So I don't know what an F9 would look like, but that makes perfect sense. Lance, I very much appreciate your time. Thank you for joining us. If you, uh, like what you're listening to, follow the podcast, send us a comment, an email, we'd love to hear from you. For now, ta-ta.

And that's a wrap for today's episode of The Profitable Creative. Until next time, you money lovers. And don't forget, Profit First for Creatives is live via Amazon.

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