When Success Becomes a Cage

The most dangerous thing about success is how easily it can become a cage. Does it ever feel that way to you? I'm Susan Drumm, and this is The Enlightened Executive, where your personal evolution sparks your leadership evolution. Each week, we spotlight cutting-edge strategies to help executives and entrepreneurs grow in leadership and in life. And my guest today is JP Newman, who helps high achievers stop building prisons out of their success and start designing lives lives where money fuels their freedom, not their fear. JP is an investor, an entrepreneur, and founder of ThriveFP, a real estate investment firm focused on multi-family housing. He's also the creator of Fuffillionaire, a professional coaching service that helps high net worth individuals redefine wealth beyond their net worth by achieving clarity and alignment across 4 dimensions: purpose, people, presence, and play. Through his writing and speaking, JP blends practical financial strategies with personalized inner work. Okay, JP, welcome to the show. I'm so excited to have you here.

Thank you. I'm just very excited to be here. I already know this is going to be a great show from the first 15 minutes we started brainstorming together.

Yes, and in that brainstorming session, some of the things we were talking about is this concept of— well, we talk about it for this podcast— your personal evolution sparks your leadership evolution. So we look at this contrast between what's going on internally for us and what's going on externally for us. And I'd love to hear a little bit how you would comment on that.

Sure. Well, I'll tell you one thing, which is kind of fun. I just became an empty nester. I call it open nesting. 6 months ago, I got both kids off to college, and I really realized that— what I did is, after I dropped my kid off at college— he's actually at University of Miami— the day after I went to Burning Man. And it was the first time I'd been to Burning Man. It's what any responsible father would do. You'd go to Burning Man, right?

Right.

And the last time I'd been to Burning Man was 23 years ago. And I went with my wife, who was my girlfriend at the time. And when I got there, I wasn't really expecting much, but I realized as I was watching the sunrise that the dream that the kid had at 31 years old, when I went to Burning Man with my girlfriend that became my wife, I was actually able to far exceed the dream. And what was really cool about it was it wasn't just exceeding the dream financially, which financially things that worked out great. And I'll tell you about my background, but I never could have imagined that I could have actually found so much fulfillment and joy. And I cried. I just cried as the sun rose. And it was a— the crying was a cry of gratitude that the dream that the kid had actually turned out better than he could have ever dreamed of. And my movement Fulfilliner is a lot about that. I mean, we just kind of cut down to it's like, see, I see so many people, and maybe because it's— I'm a bit older now, I've had my company for 20 years, I've done a lot of life. But what I've seen is just so many people, as a, as a person who works with a lot of wealthy, high, high net worth and accredited people who haven't quite found that fulfillment yet. So Burning Man for me, in that moment of being an empty nester now, has really been a moment of really just wanting to spread The Filionaire, and how do you really, how do you alchemize a good strategy, whether you're in a corporation or if you're an entrepreneur, how do you get to your strategy? But ultimately, after you get to your strategy and achieve your goals, whether your goals are a leadership goal or a financial goal, as you know, that always doesn't just lead to happiness. In fact, for me, it did just the opposite. I, I mean, and so I think I've seen so many people that they assume that when they make that goal they'll find happiness. But if you don't go through the other structures of wealth, which I call the 5 dimensions of wealth, if you don't have your money or your strategy aligned with the other core dimensions, there's a good chance you're not going to find that joy and fulfillment. You're going to find money. And I'm sure you've interviewed a lot of people. I'm sure you've coached a lot of people where they need your help because like you just assume that when you hit it, you're going to find— I can tell you for me in my 20s, I'll give you a little bit of my background. I mean, I was a Tony Robbins. I went to UCLA. And I was really trying to find myself when a lot of my friends were doing corporate jobs in their 20s, becoming lawyers and doctors. I was just a free spirit, kind of just trying to figure things out. I probably had 20 jobs in my early 20s, but I was a really big fan of Tony Robbins. I gotta tell you, I would sit around and I'd put on my Sony Walkman and I would listen to Tony Robbins every day.

So you've been, uh, a junkie for personal growth for a long time too.

Oh my God, since I was 18 years old. Right, right. And I had a dream, and my dream was I figured if I do Tony Robbins every day and I do vision and I have these goals that everything is going to work out just great. And so my goal was by 30 years old was to have $1 million in the bank, have my wife, have everything picked out in my life. My story was supposed to be really good, and that was what I set out at 20.

And I think, by the way, there's this belief, and I even see it now for some in their 20s, that if I just have that money, then everything will be better in my life.

Which is exactly what I thought. I had the car, I had everything kind of planned out. I was supposed to have like— and all my friends were like having these great corporate lives and I was spinning with lots of jobs exploring. And when I hit 30, I was broke, I was single, living in a cheap apartment with a crappy piece of shit car. And it was very humbling because I didn't understand that how could someone work so hard on their personal growth and not get there? And what I realized, I think you talk about it a lot in your playlist, is that I was going head forth with goals, but I had no meaning behind the goals, and I had no strategy or roadmap to really— like, I had mapped like every day what I was gonna do. But what I call in the Four Dimensions of Wealth, I call it the why that makes you cry, like the things that are absolutely non-negotiable in your life that you must have. And then how do you tie your money and your goals to those non-negotiables? I thought I had non-negotiables when I said I wanted a Ferrari or I wanted a cute wife. Like, I was naming the things, but I had never gone deep enough as to why those were actually important to me. So a little fast forward ahead is, you know, as I started in my mid-30s, I was a late bloomer starting to make money through my real estate company called Thrive FP. I was shocked because the day they delivered my car, I actually got the car on my vision board. It was a BMW 645 convertible. And when they delivered it to me, this— and I had this on my board forever— I sat in this car and within 3 minutes I went from excitement to panic. I actually have like an anxiety attack because I had no idea like what this car even meant. I spent so many years chasing the vision that when I actually got the vision, it was like stressful. And I had no idea why it was stressful. I expected to be happy. Why am I in panic? Why am I anxious? Like, what was that about?

Yeah, well, and just, just to that point, just before you came on, we had a conversation, and it's in a podcast as well, with Laura Gossner. Oetting, who wrote this book Wonder Hell. And so what you're— it's sort of like when you succeed and everything is supposed to be wonderful and it is, but there's like a dark side to it that's hell too. How do you avoid that? What does that look like? And so it sounds like you were in your own sort of wonder hell.

I— it was wonder hell. It was bright on the outside but absolutely not great on the inside. And what I, what I discovered was, and it really took a bunch of years for me to figure this out because I had no framework. And that's where Fulfilliner came from. So what I didn't realize is I had so many limiting beliefs that were my money stories. And my playlist was not a very good playlist, if we put it in your terms. Yeah, my playlist came from my grandfather who said money doesn't grow on trees. Like, you know, like eat all the food. I literally to this day have to remind myself that I don't have to eat all the food on my plate. Like It was drilled into me as a kid. Money doesn't grow on trees. The other one that really— this is the one that really took me down, and I had no idea it existed. You can't have it all. You just can't have it all. You can't have your health. You can't have— you can't be in a happy marriage, and you can't expect to have money and happy kids. Like, you can't have it all. Like, a will's got to fall. Like, you can't have it all. And so all of a sudden, when money started coming in at a pretty quick, rapid pace, it was actually— and I'll tell you more about it— but through my real estate company, we own apartments. I can tell you a little bit about it. It's called Thrive FPE, which is for-purpose for-profit. We are a real estate syndication firm that buys apartments in the South and Southwest. We've done about $2 billion of transactions, about 20,000 apartment units, but it didn't start that way. I got a little lucky because I moved to Austin from Los Angeles 22 years ago, and it was just when Austin was like starting to become Austin. The first— now Austin, everybody wants to be here, but it wasn't always like this. I had a hunch that Austin was going to be special. I got here early. The wave crested. I was able to, like, I had enough skill at that point and enough moxie in me to raise money and start buying these apartments. And I caught a beautiful wave, but the money came fast. But the problem was my belief system was not where my success was going.

So the money was also, by the way, built from your upbringing. Like, I really think a lot of people don't explore, like, what are those mindsets that you've— mindsets and patterns that you've adopted from your parents around the beliefs around earning money and spending money. That's one of the things I see on both sides of the coin. Like, we don't— you just don't do that, or, you know, money doesn't grow on trees. Like, so what does that belief produce in your life? And you can't have it all. Oh, so what does that belief produce in your life, right?

And then for me, what I realized, the things that were going through my subconscious, which I wasn't even aware of, which was creating the anxiety, was, am I going to get divorced? Are my friends going to think differently of me? Am I going to become an asshole? And the big one actually was, am I trustworthy? Am I trustworthy with money? How did I know? I didn't have no reason. I had no experience. So when money started coming in, was I even going to be a good steward of money or not? And when people ask me, JP, How did you break the cycle of anxiety? How did you actually find fulfillment? It started when— and this took a long time for me. It took a lot of therapy and work and consulting and coaching and journaling and doing all kinds of things, meditation. But when I finally realized that I was trustworthy and could be a good steward of money, and I built a relationship with money that was trustworthy, everything changed. And to this day, if you ask me, I love making money. And the reason why I love making money is not because I'm just a good steward of it. I know what to do with it. I know how much I need. But what I've really learned is that giving money, once you know how to receive it, to give it to people and, like, brighten people's lives, all kinds of people, it brings me so much joy that I'm at a point as a fulfillianer, and I talk about this as currency. We're giving. I love receiving, don't get me wrong, but I love giving.. And so I'm at a place right now where it becomes like currency is just like a river, right? It's just a flow. But most people are not in flow with currency. They're stuck. Like, I'll give once I make X, when I'm older, when this happens, I can be a better giver. And they wait. The secret to currency, it's not like giving it all away, but it's like the more you start to give and let that flywheel of currency fly between giving and receiving, my experience of it is It creates great joy. And for a simple reason, as humans, we are very social creatures. And what really gives us the biggest dopamine hits is not how many more cars we can have or planes we can have, or third or fourth homes we can have. It's actually how can we impact others? So Fulfilling Your Takes You on a Journey. How do I get you in the Fulfilling Your Journey to go from feeling safe around your money, safety, Clarity, good stewardship, clarity, which means you have to have a good roadmap. You have to have a plan. Without a map, you can't go anywhere. We couldn't find each other if we didn't have GPS or maps. You got to have a map for your money, a plan. Once you actually start to achieve your plan, you need to have a place to stop, which is like, oh, I had a number. This is what I'm burning per year. This is my dream number in the next 36 months. If it's realistic, it's not It's not an Instagram dream. I don't need to become a Lamborghini brother. I don't think— I don't need to have a helicopter on a yacht. I don't believe— I think I want to stay married. So I'm good. But once you actually have your dream of the why that makes you cry, and that's why it's called fulfilling, or it's not a financial status, it's your definition and your autonomy around wealth. And once you actually know in your heart, soul, and brain what wealth means to you, We're going to birth a number for you, and that's called your freedom number in 36 months. And then through the wealth pyramid, we're going to track your freedom number, and it becomes a really fun game. And then you actually get to know what winning feels like. Now, who— which financial planners tell you you've won, right?

Right.

What number is winning? And how do you win?

When I've worked with billionaires, there's still this fear. You would think, oh, well, they've won, right? No. Unless you deal with that mindset piece, that piece that is like, what are you really after? Because they would say it's actually not the money or the title or the cars. We're after a set of emotional experiences that we think the money is going to give us.

100%.

But the money doesn't give you those emotional experiences. You've got to find those emotional experiences absent that, right? And the money comes as a result of, not a pursuit of, right?

You and I always say stop chasing the pile and start finding the feeling. What's the feeling you're trying to find? We're all trying to solve for— we want to feel peace, we want to feel presence, we want to feel safe, right? Those are the basics. You can go with— there's lots of other positive emotions, but we're actually not trying to solve for collecting paper and metal. Is the currency. We're actually here to solve— we think that the paper and the metal will create the feelings, and they certainly help. I mean, if you can't pay your rent, it's very hard to feel safe, right?

Yeah.

But once you align what the money's there to do within the 4 dimensions of wealth, which I'm about to get to, like what they are, then you have this great roadmap. And by the way, I think the biggest frustrating thing sometimes is that people— because I mentor a lot of people— when I say, what's your definition of wealth? I find that most people give me their cocktail story. I call it what's wealthy to you? And then it's a story. I'm going to 2x my company. I'm going to quadruple my sales.

Exit IPO.

IPO. I'm going to be worth $10 million. And then I'll go to the second question. Great. So you want to be worth $10 million in IPO at your company. And why do you want to do that? And then there's the second cocktail story. It's like, It's a bunch of thoughts. It's like we all have these internal narratives, just like I had with my Tony Robbins. I wanted to be 30 with a Ferrari. Like, that was my story. We all create these stories. Men create really even more creative stories, I've found, because I've mentored a lot of men. Men are amazing storytellers with all the dreams and things they think they want, but it's not really connected to anything super deep. Ultimately, when you get to the part of why do you really want this? It's usually actually an emotion. It's a why, right? You get to a why. Well, actually, for me, I'm at the point now in my journey when I think about what is wealth to me. Wealth is service and leadership. Every time somebody comes to me after my workshop or a podcast and says, JP, I can now sleep at night. I wasn't sleeping. I was so worried about my money, and now I can sleep. And I'm sure you get a lot of the same things with the coaching work that you do. Outside of my family and my health and all the things, it's like that service to other people and ultimately watching them become givers because they feel safe. That's my why. Why do I do that emotionally? Because I love human beings. I just absolutely love human beings. It feels like in my body, it feels like deep love and deep joy. And so I'm trying to get people to actually— what is the emotion that we're solving for? What's your version of it? Your God-given skill. The fun surprise is Well, a lot of people talk about your net worth. I'm a guy who's— I've lent out $800 million of money on real estate loans. I've done it. I've seen so many people's financial statements. Net worth is a joke. People make this up and they're making up things that, like, it's—

they use it as a scorecard. Sometimes it's a scorecard to justify why they don't feel good today.

Mm-hmm. And so, so the idea— and by the way, I'm going to show— so the idea of that is let's not focus so much on your net worth and let's focus actually on your dream. Let's birth the number to your dream, which is how much you need to make a year to live this dreamy life. And then let's create a financial plan of what you need to make a year in your active income and your passive income. Your active income being what are you making at work or what are you making in your business. Your passive income is what are you invested in that just you get mailbox money in. And can those two numbers equal that freedom number for you, because when it does, ta-da, like, relax.

You've noticed each one of those things, what you're creating is safety. So, right, I'm a big believer in is you got to create the feeling of safety now, not when that occurs, because you're forever chasing that. How do you help people create the feeling of safety now so that they can let that wealth in and receive it?

This is where I start usually with people, and it takes— and listen, like I said, if you're not— if you're still having a hard time paying your rent, it's very hard to create safety. The first question I ask people, because I get the most interesting questions and the most interesting scenarios, probably like you do, is how much do you spend a year? What's your burn rate? I call it— what's your burn rate? And most people don't even actually know what they're spending. And then also, how much you make in a year in your investments? Or, you know, you might know your salary. What's your take-home? And what are you making in your investments? A lot of people don't really— oh, my financial planner knows, or I get these statements, or I think I'm making $150,000 a year, but they don't really know. And it's really hard to create safety if you don't have clarity. And so the first thing I would say to somebody, if they want to find basic safety, forget about their freedom number. We'll get to the freedom number, but just today, if you want to feel safe, number one, are you paying your bills today? Is your food on the table? Are you, are you feeling pressure at night, or do you feel like the basics are covered? And in America, somewhere between $75,000 and $100,000, or $60,000 to $100,000, you can cover your basics, whether you're living in an apartment or something. And then everything else becomes upside to there. But I would really encourage people in the audience, if they're listening, if they're not feeling exactly safe yet, is just to know what you're spending and what you're making, because that will create safety. If you know, like, no matter what, like, hey, with what I'm making now, I'm still— I can just cover my net. I can still pay rent if it's a bad market, or if I got laid off from my job, I'm good for the next 6 to 12 months. Like, I've saved this much, I have this much investments. That is really empowering. And I would say start there as a really like step one.

Right. And so if there's that opportunity to build awareness of someone, a mutual friend that we have, it's like getting related to reality. Like, what is your reality of what your spend is, what you currently have, and where you actually have freedom to make some different choices? That's kind of the first piece. Now let's take the other side.

I always say most in my workshops, when I ask one of the first questions I ask is how many Do you know those two numbers? And they're supposed to know when they come in. And I would say these are savvy, these are financially savvy people. I would say 25% actually know when I dig in with them. And so I find most people are living on the strategy of hope and pray strategy, like money under the mattress, hope and pray it kind of works out. I think my financial planner's got me, I think, but I don't exactly know what I'm making in my investments. There's a lot of that where you think you know, but you don't exactly know.

Yeah. And then there's this middle piece, right? So there's, okay, I feel safe enough. The first stage is, do I feel safe enough to cover, as you said, sort of my basic needs?

Yeah.

Right. And then there's this next piece that says where you put the number out there and it sort of, it seems to always change, right? Well, then I get that number and no, it's not quite— look, everyone around me is now making this and the number keeps moving. So it's the carrot. It that keeps pulling you along. There's that phase, and I'd love to hear what do you have to say for people going through that stage. And then there's the wonder hell stage, that like, oh my gosh, I have more than I could have dreamed, yet I still don't feel fulfilled. What do you say for that third stage? So let's focus on— sure, focused a little bit on the first. Let's talk about this.

Yeah, so there's, there's, there, there's the first number I call the safety number. Yeah, your second number is your current number.. And it's just taking a realistic of where you're at now. And then actually what I do with people is I have a 2-day workshop here in Austin. And one of the first exercises we actually do, because I find a lot of people can't get to that why they're a little stuck, that they kind of know their purpose, but they don't really know what really drives them or why they're doing what they're doing.

They're too anchored on the number, which keeps moving, and not anchored enough on What's behind that number? What do you think that that's going to give you?

So the next thing we do is that we actually start to birth— I'm using some wonderful Claude wizardry with fulfilling. I've had some amazing architects here create some, some beautiful things. So I actually birth what I call your, your 5 dimensions of wealth. And let me explain, this might be a great moment to tell you what the dimensions are. And so, because then you kind of know what you're solving for. So I call it, I call it the 5 Ps. Your money is your prosperity, right? So that's the first piece, prosperity. Prosperity is actually embodied health with embodied wealth. Because if you don't have your health, wealth doesn't matter. We've all heard the expression, if a person has 1,000 problems, as soon as they have a health crisis, they've only got one problem, right?

Yeah.

So, so how do you anchor your prosperity? And it's amongst the other 4 Ps, and that is your purpose wealth. And your purpose wealth is your connection to your meaning. It's your connection to your legacy. It's the connection to— it's really like your true north, the connection to everything that actually really matters to you. Like I said, I think we both— I have a feeling you and I both just love uplifting people. I think we both anchored to that. The second one is people wealth, and people wealth is really your connection to other humans, but ultimately it's your connection to love. Because generally, as social creatures, most of us are hardwired that we get our joy from connecting to others. So when I talk about people wealth, the primary relationship is your relationship with yourself. Are you good with yourself? And that took me a bunch of years to figure that out. And then there's how you're good with your spouse and your kids, and then your closest friends, your church, whatever you do.. And that's really where people wealth comes from. It's like connection to your ultimate inner and outer community. And then I go into presence wealth. And presence wealth, you notice a lot of people talk about time wealth. I don't talk about time wealth because all of us have the same amount of time. I don't care if you're a billionaire or you're a pauper, we all have the same amount of time. I'm not a big fan of time wealth. Presence wealth is really what is your connection to time and your relationship with time. And what I mean by that is, as we speak here right now, I'm talking to you. The only thing on my mind is talking to you. I am very present in the moment of just like nothing's pulling me. And I'm also very clear in my 5 dimensions of wealth and my purpose that talking to you on this podcast is right up the alley of my 4 Ps. And I'll take you to the last P. So you are hitting right now all of my 4 Ps. So it's like my priorities are in place. I meditated this morning, did yoga, and I'm really comfortable in my body between this combination. I think you're the same way as me. I can feel you like I'm an energetic, but I'm also very grounded at the same time. And that feels super good. And that's what presence wealth is. It's like that more and more time in that. And then ultimately, I love that.

Thanks. Yeah.

And then the last thing people don't talk about, and so crazy. Is play wealth.

People think I love play too, right?

But a lot of people are like, work, work, work. They're working 60 hours a week and they're trying to please their boss. Work, work, work, work, work. But the problem is, is that play wealth is not optional. Play wealth is your connection to your joy. It's the connection to your aliveness, and ultimately it's the connection to your creativity. And so if you're not finding things that are hitting your Play Wealth, you can't be that dynamic entrepreneur. You can't be as flowy at work. It's harder to connect your intuition if you're not using all your four dimensions of wealth. So, go back to your question. What I'm solving for in the current with my people who go through Fulfillionaire, and I'm happy actually to, if you want to, I can even offer your audience my first question, which is let's build out your 5 dimensions of wealth, of the why that makes you cry. And we birth in 36 months— we don't go 20 years out. It's too hard for the brain to go 20 years out. But what in the next 36 months, what would your 5-dimensional wealth look like? So once we kind of establish those emotional things that are not negotiable for you, part 2 of the exercise is now that I know what you want, I'm going to ask you another 20 questions and they're around material things. What material things do you need or want to help support the 5 dimensions of wealth? So, for instance, if for you, part of your purpose is to be the best dad ever and a really good husband, like, you know, for me, my kids are top of my priority. So then, like, I can tell you, when my kids were younger, taking one summer trip every year where I would spend a lot of money on my kids, and as they got older, it started out little, like, Started at Disneyland, but as I got older, I would take him to the Four Seasons in Japan, and everything was so curated. And that was such an important thing for me to be able to— if I was gonna use— I'd rather do that than buy a car, to have to be able to take my family and this deep cultural, incredible, wondrous experience together. And so I did that every year. So my point is, like, in my budget, when I'm trying to think of the things that are not negotiable, taking a family trip every year and something, a new part of the world in a way that is pretty adventurous and luxury. Like we do Backroads and all these great spots is a really important one to me. Backroads is the best, right?

They are.

So, so at the end of this, I'm actually going to birth with, with a little AI help and a little GPT and some beautiful friends here in Austin who help me create some incredible prompts that we're constantly doing. We've birthed you actually your 5 Dimensions of Wealth. And we birth your current number where you're at now, which is just figuring out the math. Then we figure out your freedom number. How do you have all these things that really are important to you? And then we actually look at the difference. Let's just say, for instance, let's say you, you bring in $200,000 a year today between your active income and your passive income. But really the life that you want to live is a $300,000 life over the next— and remember, it can always change. This is like the next 3 years. If I want to take my kid on that trip, I want to take my wife to the best restaurant at least once a month. We go out to the best restaurant and eat, like, whatever your version of this is. Then through this wealth pyramid, we're tracking your success. If you were at $200,000, but you really need to be at $300,000, then you know you're 66%. You're like, you now have a number to aim for. You have a freedom number, and you know you're 66% of the way there. Because you have $200,000, but you want to get to $300,000. So through this AI now, it feels like a— feels like you've gone to Vegas and won the casino. You get, you get all these, like, your progression. We map out specifically how much cash you have, how much cash you have available to put in new passive income investments to create more money for you so you can continue to progress. How much liquidity do you need? In your life between your business to sleep well at night? And the answer is there's no formula. It's typically 6 to 24 months, but the formula is what makes you sleep well at night. That's the right answer, right? And all of a sudden you now have a roadmap. You, you are literally on a map and you win gold coins as you continue to invest. You get awards from the AI with what you're doing well. And then also the AI is gonna help tell you through my fifth planer, wealth pyramid areas you can do better in. I can tell you for most people, can you guess the number one problem that most people are not doing so well in?

Passive income.

Correct. And you know why they're not doing well in passive income?

You're right on.

Generate one. They don't know how to generate. Correct. They either don't have access to the deals or they don't know how to generate. But what are they doing? If they've got money, how are they investing instead of passive income? What else are they doing?

Well, if they have money, or is it they're just not even—

let's say they have money. Let's say they save money.

Passive income. I mean, you look at the number of people living paycheck to paycheck and they're not actually saving money to have something to invest, right? You would say there's something there.

But yeah, for sure. But for those who have it, what they're doing is they're, they're investing in too much speculation a lot of times. Oh, my friend knows Elon Musk, and Elon, Elon liked that deal. Or like, here's this one deal, here's the one deal, or the one thing. Or we don't realize when we invest in deals and there's no cash flow for 5, 6, or 7 years. And believe me, I've done so many of my own mistakes where I still have deals that are 9 years out. I've never seen a penny, but one day I'm supposed to get paid. And you don't realize how long 5, 6, 7, or 8 years is. And it really keeps you. And so within, within the wealth pyramid, we talk about sometimes you want to speculate, you want to, you want to support your best friend's shampoo company because it's your best friend, or you think something's good for the environment, or you want to make a new relationship. But ultimately, my biggest thing— I think I'm a cash flow real estate guy at the end of the day, and I'm a big proponent that most of your money, when you get money, should be in an area that you know something about. Don't just start— that's the other second mistake. People put money everywhere. Pick a topic or two that you absolutely are interested in, you have conviction in, and you believe it, and get to know it super well. And then once you know your formula of when you can go from liquidity, I've got enough liquidity here that you've got some money that you can now invest. I say wait for it to go on sale. Imagine you wanted to get the hottest dress. It needs like, you wanted to go to Nordstrom's and you knew you wanted this dress and the dress was $4,000 and you wanted the dress, but you just didn't want to spend the $4,000. What would you do? I know what I would do if it was a jacket. I would wait for it to go on sale. I used to do this, but I used to work for Macy's, at Macy's as a kid. So the idea is get to know it. Get to know a company if you're into stocks, get to know a couple of real estate things, and pick 5 or 10 things for most people as your thesis. Unless you're dealing with $100 million plus or $50 million plus, you need to be in a bunch of things. Find a couple of things, wait for them to go on sale, and then buy them and limit your exposure to speculation. And if you keep doing that, that 66% is going to get you— and I live this game. I'm investing in something I found Yesterday, it's actually a Walgreens. I'm already— it's like a game to me. It's like every time I know I throw money in and I know the return, in my head I already know what it means to my pyramid. And here's the fun part. So your real first win is your active income and your passive income gets you to that— your freedom, your freedom number in your life. Then the advanced game, as you get older and you save some money, is you get to your freedom number with just your passive income. So now your investments, your cash flow is just— yeah, and you don't need— so now guess what that means about work? Maybe I don't have to, right?

Well, JP, I love the idea, and I could talk to you forever, but we are like bumping up against our time. But here's the thing, that the perspective is about the game. That was a really important usage of the word. Right? It is a game. And when you can take the perspective of a game, it loses that idea of like that tightening that can happen.

100%.

And you want to win at a game too. You don't want to take unnecessary risk. But it's fascinating that you say it's like because people are speculating too much. Well, where can people learn more about your work? Yeah.

So if you want to know more about my work, you can go to Fulfilliner.com, which is F-U-L-I-N-E-R.com. F-I-L-L-I-O-N-A-R-E.com. So it's like millionaire but fulfillianaire. And if that's too complicated, the same site would be findthefeeling.com, because I know a lot of people can't spell fulfillianaire. And I do workshops. I have a podcast, just really trying to help people uplevel as much as they can. I think the world right now, without, you know, I just think more and more it's entrepreneurs who are givers that can have the biggest impact on people. And I almost feel like at this point we can't wait for government to catch up. It's really gonna be— it's on us. It's on each one of us to do what we can. It could be our time, it could be our money, big or small. It's the biggest formula for your own happiness, and it's the greatest way to help uplift humanity. And that's, that's my passion.

Well, I love the phrase fulfillianaire, and that is really what it's all about. It's actually not about the million. It's what are you doing to be fulfilled?

It's not status. And one last thing about the game that's really fun, which we talk about. It is a game, but nobody tells you the rules of the game. And the tax code is part of the game. Like, there's all these things that are the game, but no one teaches us the game. And so a lot of people say, well, I don't want to play that game. But if you say you don't want to play that game, you're still playing the game. You're just not winning in the game. You're— it's like playing Monopoly, no one tell you how to play, and you're just all over the place, but you're still in the game. The government doesn't let you out of the game, and society doesn't. So why not through good coaching, through great programs, education, podcasts. Why not get good at learning the rules of the game? Because I find that once you know the rules and you can play the game pretty well, then the game gets pretty fun.

Yeah. All right, JP, thank you so much for joining us today.

Of course. Of course.

If you love this episode, definitely also watch Laura Gasna-Odding's episode. As well, where we look at what happens when you reach the stage of wonder hell. Let's all lead the way. Hope you enjoyed today's episode, and I'd like to point you to the next important step. Hit the subscribe button and the bell to get notified when we release new content. I'll see you on the next episode of The Enlightened Executive.