A Canadian Entrepreneur Took A 6 Week Sabbatical And Learned THIS

I'm happy I did it. You know, I hope that it serves as inspiration for other entrepreneurs or anyone really who just wants to take some time to replace their batteries, not recharge them and spend your time thinking and doing different things that are not work related. There's so much more room to grow individually and I recognize that and I'm going to work on it. And.

It'S exciting and scary all at the same time. So get clear on what your customers that you have now value and what the customers you want value and then make sure it aligns with what you value and then provide it again and again and again.

Today we'll go through bit of that. Go to sabbatical. We went through an exercise yesterday about 10x in your business and went to, you know, dive into what that exercise is like from your side and kind of what your expectations are and the outputs you get from that sounds great. All right, awesome. Sabbatical. So you're back. So you tell us about it. How long were you gone? What did you do? What, what, what did you take away from it? And was it all you expected you were going into was did you get out of it?

Well, I'll tell you was a six week sabbatical. And it was inspired by a few of my mentors, one of which being Joe Polish who founded the Genius Network, but he is most of the way through a one year sabbatical and Dan Sullivan who co founded the Strategic Coach. And so both of these mentors were my inspiration for taking it. And I thought, you know what, I think I can realistically manage a six week sabbatical. I certainly didn't want to dive into a full year. And for the first few days I thought, okay, I can do this, this is going to be great. And then I experienced.

A few different feelings throughout that six week window, one of which was fear. And so that came up for me because that's the longest period of time that I've been away from my labor of love in business since I became an entrepreneur. And so I was fearful of it. And then that emotion shifted into feeling expendable, you know, because all of my passwords were changed so I had no access to email, I had no access to any tools to connect with the team or with any of the businesses. The alarm code to the building was changed so I couldn't even get in if I wanted to. But honoring this sabbatical, knowing that things were going well, I don't know, I almost felt expendable. It was a very strange feeling. And Then by about week four, I started to really settle in. I felt comfortable being in sabbatical. I did a ton of reading, a ton of journaling, and a lot of connection with mentors, with people who I just wanted to have deeper conversations with in terms of what I was experiencing, what things would be like when I get back, having a whole laundry list of ideas. So Dan Sullivan was right. He said, you're going to come back with just a whole mountain of new ideas, which is absolutely true. But when I came back, my first day back, I almost felt like I was wandering the halls of a company that I didn't own. You know, just. It felt strange, you know, like, what's going on, what's happening today? And I'm about a week back into my rhythm and I'm happy I did it. You know, I. I hope that it serves as inspiration for other entrepreneurs or anyone really, who just wants to take some time to replace their batteries, not recharge them, and spend your time thinking and doing different things that are not work related.

Yeah. Were there any revelations your way?

Yeah. Yeah.

One of the big ones for me is that trust really does matter. You know, I. I trust my teammates, and it really does matter because everyone, including yourself, you know, everyone took care of things and, and grew as a result. And there's no better measure of growth or, or strength test in your team than when you make it clear that they can't. They can't talk to you, they can't connect with you. So if there's any problems that come up, any opportunities that track us down, that our teammates are fully empowered to take the necessary action. And even when they may not know exactly what to do, but it represents a really good opportunity to grow. And so that was a big, big revelation for me that trust really, truly does matter. And I'm proud of everybody. I can't say that enough that our businesses grew rapidly during my sabbatical. And it only fueled my feeling of, not only gratitude, but it fueled my feeling of, wow, maybe I am expendable. Maybe my teammates don't need me. But people were reaching out and saying, hey, we miss you to come back, and we can't wait for you to be back. And it's not the same around here without you. And so that was really heartfelt, meant a lot to me because a few days prior to my return, I was chomping at the bit. I was ready to come back.

I've noticed myself in terms of leaving a gap, others right in that space to fill in this truly was a six week gap of time, space for people to, to learn and you to enable them so, so powerful. And then yourself I guess one is you get, you build trust with relationships with the people who you know, surround yourself daily. But then also I guess the next step for you is are there things that maybe now have you freed yourself up to do other things within the business?

Yeah, it's really I think prepared me for our next what we refer to as our painted picture vision as you know, and looking ahead to the period of 2022 through 2025. And it's freed me up to really think about how can I bring my very best unique ability to the business in support of achieving that vision. And so my role, my contribution is going to, it's going to change and I'm excited by it, I'm afraid of it, I'm anticipating it. It's a whole mix of feelings because there's so much more room to grow individually and I recognize that and I'm going to work on it. And.

It'S exciting and scary all at the same time.

I heard a quote just recently talking about, talking about betting on himself. In a way you're kind of doing that. But he said I will bet on myself all day long because I bet on my ability to learn. Understand, you don't just arrive, there's, there's a gap you have to fill too. Right. You've got expectations for what you want to do but there's lots of ways to get to where you want to be. Let's dive into that next piece. So that next painted picture vision, you know, we went through this day long exercise with the extended team to talk about 10x your business. Can you dive into kind of what was covered in that and what your expectations and outcomes of that were?

Dan Sullivan of Strategic Coach, I mean he taught me quite early on in the 10x ambition program that I'm entering my fourth year here in October and he said something very, very remarkable to me a long time ago and that it's much easier to 10x than it is to 2x. So if you think of something as simple as okay in business or maybe personally, I want to take my income from 1 million to 2 million versus I want to take my income from a million to 10 million. It's much easier to get to the 10 million than it is to the 2 million because in order to 2x all you've got to do is work harder but you're going to hit the ceiling. You only have so much capacity whereas to 10x. You've got to think differently, you've got to do differently. You've got to bring new capabilities into your world, whether it's at an individual level or at a business level. And you've got to get rid of stuff that drains you, that is.

Really not fascinating you or bringing you energy. So you get rid of stuff and you add energy and then you do it again and then you do it again and again and again. But you need to be surrounded by people who find those things that are energy draining for you. Those people find those things to be fascinating and energizing for them. And so we went through a great exercise on our team in preparation for planning Q4, planning our next painted picture vision, which is a three year period and got everyone calibrated on thinking in a 10x mindset because we doubled our business this year. And we've got a lot of stuff that we gotta, you know, we gotta get rid of and bring more energy and that's what we're gonna do. And so the 10x. And again, you can define whatever your X is. You know, Dan Sullivan does a great job of outlining that. There's actually a really good, you know, talk that Dan Sullivan did at the Genius Network. It's available on the YouTubes. There's no costs associated with viewing it. And I think it's titled something to the effect of.

Yeah, there you go. Yeah. So if you want to share it with, with your viewers and your community, it's a great talk. Would encourage everybody to listen to it and you'll get a glimpse into just how incredible Dan Sullivan is a gentleman who's been coaching entrepreneurs for the past. When that video was captured, he just celebrated his 40th anniversary of coaching. But now fast forward to today and he's entering his 45th year of coaching. And so the best entrepreneurial coach on the planet, bar none.

That's great. Yeah, it's funny, I, I don't know if you done the same, but I mean you have so much this integrated into your, into your life, your family life as well. Too. Infinite banking and how that's integrated into the family bank. That Dan Sullivan video I sold my wife, that's what we're watching Saturday night. We're not watching a movie, we're gonna watch this. And how can we integrate it into our family is so powerful. Post this on in the link below this interview. It was, it's definitely, there's lots you can take away from it, I guess when you run a business, you built so much automation you know, the people, the processes make so much easier for people, but stuff still ends up showing up in the business, right? Yeah, it's the longer you're in business, the more stuff there is.

You know, there's a very predictable.

Cycle that a business goes through at varying stages of growth. And so when you move from just being a rugged individualist, a one person army, if you will, and then you move into a stage where maybe you have a couple of people, then you move into a stage where maybe you have 10 or more people, then you move into a stage where you have to start to construct a leadership team and you have to start to build processes and.

Systems and the culture shifts. Your culture at 30 people is going to be much different than your culture when you have 150 people in your organization. And so you just have to recognize that it's a constant, constant review of, okay, what's working, what needs to be optimized and what, what needs to be stopped, what do we need to stop doing inside of the organization? And it all comes back to making sure that you understand with clarity what do your customers that you have now value and the customers that you want value. And so if you truly understand that it's going to make the decisions of what stays, what goes, what gets optimized, what gets delegated, what doesn't inside of an organization, very simple. But if you don't have clarity on what your current customers value and the customers you want value, then how do you know that you're providing it? You can build the best systems and the best processes and have the best people. But until you truly understand that.

The exercise in optimization, or whatever you want to call it, it's not going to be business effective. So get clear on what your customers that you have now value and what the customers you want value, and then make sure it aligns with what you value and then provide it again and again and again. And the way your business is organized and the way that it operates and the way that it markets is going to be structured around that because you have clarity. And you'll start to hear things in the marketplace much like we will. You start to hear those things where people are saying very clearly, wow, when I saw your videos, or I consumed your content or I was marketed to, I felt like you were talking to me. I really felt like you understood what I value. And so that's my 2 cents on all that.

Yeah, no, that's good. I, I really enjoyed the process overall myself. It was a great learning experience. I, you know, these Conversations are great because these are ones we would have in private anyways and be able to learn and share with others. Is. Is. Is so good. Strategic Coaches is woven right into the business all the way through.

Oh, yeah.

Just running things day to day. So, you know, I. I mean, I haven't taken any dance, all my coaching, but I feel like I know him so well based on how much it's integrated into Ascendant.

Yeah, he's a remarkable man. And we're incredibly, incredibly grateful, you know, for the impact that Dan and Babs and the entire strategic coach team, frankly, have had on our business. It's been absolutely outstanding.

Let's shift gears a little bit to another remarkable man. You know, maybe we can spend more of a deeper dive on a full obsession, but I want to talk about what we do every day, how we actually serve folks across the country at Ascendant Financial and really who's kind of at the basis of it and who's kind of the. I don't know, maybe talk a little bit Nelson too.

Absolutely.

Yeah. The gentleman that you're referring to is the late R. Nelson Nash, who developed and pioneered the process of becoming your own banker and authored the books titled Becoming youg Own Banker, Building youg Warehouse of wealth and co authored the Case for ibc Now Becoming youg Own Banker. That book has sold over 470,000 copies. There's a reason for it. The process, it works. And we explain, as Nelson did, that the essence really of this process is to recapture the interest, to recapture that money that you're presently paying to banks, to credit card companies, finance companies, for all those things that you need to finance throughout your lifetime and have that money coming back to you versus flowing away. And we've been practicing this process and educating Canadians coast to coast for the past 13 years and have transformed countless numbers of lives. And it's really a direct result of being connected to Nelson and being blessed, really beyond the definition of good fortune, of being mentored by him for so many years. And there's a great link that you may share with your viewers as well, A Day of Nelson. If you want to post that link, that would be great. And we've, you know, we've got a ton of resources available, of course, for people to become familiar with the concept and how it can be an advantage for. For their family, for their business and so much more. But I'm eternally grateful to Nelson and think about him and miss him every day. And it's so important for viewers and listeners to never forget the significance of mentorship. A mentor can really change your life if you develop and always recognize that you can continue to develop one of the most important skills, which is being coachable.

Regardless of what you're doing in your life. If you're an entrepreneur, if you're an athlete, if you're a professional, whatever that may be, you'll become better if you continue to develop the skill of being coachable. And that's not a destination. There's no certificate of completion. Hey, you've learned everything there is to know. Here's your certificate. Nice going. There's always something new to learn and there's no such thing as having arrived in knowledge. Something that Nelson used to share with us often. And I remind myself of that all the time because it inspires me and it maintains that inspiration to learn new things. And so thank you for asking about them.

Yeah, I would say, you know, say strategic coach and Dan Sullivan is woven in the business. You know, I would think Nelson is really kind of the basis of why we even have the business in the first place.

Oh yeah, yeah. Without Nelson, this wouldn't exist. You know, this, this rapidly growing team of people who are really, really great, genuinely great people who want to build something much bigger than they could have ever built on their own and who care about each other and care about the clients that we work with. And.

It'S an amazing group, you know, to be a part of, honest to goodness, really, truly is amazing.

And I, I, I really like, you know, to your point of learning, it's, it's from top down, bottom up, or you want to say it side to side. Everybody is, when everybody's invested, you have this vision, this goal. No one is, no one's like in one position or you know, like you've arrived. This is what I do. There's such a, you know, such a journey of learning continued always. Right. I think that sometimes can get lost in the day to day of running a business. But I think you've done a good job of building team of people who are hungry to learn more and you know, whether.

During their job or something, they can take home as well too.

And hungry to contribute more.

Right.

You know, people who are financially invested in a business want a return.

Right.

People who are emotionally invested in the business want to contribute. And I'm sure you would agree. I mean, our team are packed full of contributors.

Absolutely.

All day long as evidenced by.

The result and the hundreds of five star Google reviews and the affirmation of people saying, hey, I see and hear ascendant financial everywhere. Right. That's not a result of somebody standing at the pulpit going this is a top down organization. This is what I need you to do. Go and do it. It's a result of bringing out the unique ability of people on our team and letting them shine and giving them an opportunity to do the things that fascinate them and bring them energy, not the things that drain their energy. Tank isn't that good?

It's great. And I have a session with yourself. I have other, other people on as well. Just my continued journey of learning. So appreciate you spending your time. I know that you're off to your next interview. This is your media day. So I'll let you. Before you go, I want to just. If you can just tell people how, where you said people are here in the everywhere.

Where can they find like how, how they can get in touch?

Yeah. How they can in touch where, you know, where are you online? Where are your social media presence?

Oh yeah, for sure. Yeah. Feel free to connect. I would love to hear from from people as I always do. You can find me on the Facebooks. My name J A Y S O N L O W E. You can find me on LinkedIn. You can find me on the YouTubes at two different channels. One is Wealth Without Bay street, which is our podcast. The second is the Bankers Vault, which is a treasure trove of resources on the process of becoming your own banker. The infinite banking concept. And so I believe I'm on the Instagram and the tweeters as well. But Moses on our team looks after all that for me. So I don't, I don't know what my Twitter handle is. I probably should, but we're heavily engaged on social media so I'm not difficult to find.