In this episode of 'The Tactical Empire,' Jeff Smith and Shawn Rider discuss tools and strategies for leading a life of abundance, discipline, and high achievement. They highlight the importance of accountability, vision, and consistency. Jeff emphasizes the challenges members face, including losing clarity on their vision and becoming too comfortable with their current success, which hinders greater achievements. They also discuss the benefits of regular check-ins, personal growth through discomfort, and the importance of consistent efforts in key areas such as family, fitness, finances, and freedom. Tips include setting clear goals, regular self-assessment, and creating habits that contribute to long-term success.
In this episode of The Tactical Empire, Jeff Smith and Shawn Rider discuss strategies for achieving a life of abundance, discipline, and high achievement. They emphasize the importance of accountability, maintaining focus on key life pillars, and the necessity for crystal-clear vision in pursuing personal and professional goals. Through insights from recent one-on-one calls and mentorship sessions, they identify common challenges faced by members, including drifting due to lack of accountability and the comfort of a 'good enough' life hindering greater potential. They encourage listeners to take consistent daily actions towards their goals and offer practical advice such as disconnecting from distractions to gain clarity. The episode also highlights the benefits of in-person meetups and ongoing mentorship programs.
00:00 Introduction: Finding the Will to Fight Back
00:26 Welcome to The Tactical Empire
00:55 New Members and Mentorship Program
01:50 Accountability and Progress
03:00 Economic Climate and Personal Growth
05:25 Consistency and Daily Habits
10:02 Vision and Clarity
15:57 Taking Action and Disconnecting
17:55 Conclusion and Call to Action
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[00:00:00] How do you find the will to fight back against the world that wants to keep you sedated? S stuck plates? Join us for the tools and strategies you need to create a life of abundance, discipline, and high achievement. This, this is the tactical implied with Jeff Smith.
Jeff Smith: Welcome to another episode of The Tactical Empire. I'm joined by Sean Rider. How are you, sir?
Shawn Rider: I'm good. It's been a good start to the week. I've had good workouts. The weather has turned around and I'm hydrated and had a big breakfast. Ready to rock. Good day today. Gymnastics tonight, I mean, just, just hitting all the F's today.
Uh, family, fitness, finances, and freedom. Jeff, how are you? Fantastic,
Jeff Smith: fantastic. We got a couple of new guys in the tactical empire, which always makes me happy. [00:01:00] So yes, things are, things are growing and going well there, so. We're looking good.
Shawn Rider: Yeah, it, it, it's pretty awesome. Um, what, two months ago we released basically two on one mentorship where you and I actually get on calls with a, a new type of empire, uh, member to put them through the, the coursework and figure out where their greatest opportunities are.
Um, the gentleman that we, we put. Through that first. I mean, he's what, 60, 65 days in and the progress that he's making is huge, and it's not without its ups and downs, right? Like we made really fast progress in four weeks, then we had about a 10 to 14 day span there where it was a bit of a pullback because, uh, quote, life happens.
Um, but. We were able to get him refocused after, uh, some of those, uh, life hiccups and he's back on growth trajectory. So that's been awesome. And then one thing that you did that I thought was really cool was you offered, um, one-on-one calls with all the men in the inner circle, which I know you've been [00:02:00] knocking those out over the past two weeks.
So, uh, one thing that I wanna know from you is what are some recurring themes? What are some takeaways that you've had? Uh, that are, that you're seeing over the course of 10, 15, 20, 25, one-on-one calls with men in a two week span.
Jeff Smith: Just that I, I think that we have a tendency to drift, um, without some level of accountability. Um, when you set up a program that's one to many. Uh, you're, you're setting yourself up to not really have a, a ton of accountability. And so what that does is it puts the onus on the individual to hold themselves accountable or at least speak up when they need accountability, which are both challenging.
Um, and so, I mean, what I'm seeing from a lot of people is, I mean, it. [00:03:00] It kind of mimics the, the overall climate of the, the macroeconomic like framework or like scenery that we're seeing in the country right now. I think people are more bullish right now. Um, the, the ability to move when no one wants to move is the great separator in business investing life.
All of it. And, uh, and, and we have been in one of those periods of what I refer to as like general malaise since mid-October leading up to the election. And then until now, like you're not, I mean, I'm, I'm starting to see things pick up interest rates lowered gas prices went down, th or egg prices went down, gas prices went down.
Um, you're, you're seeing an overall uptick in. Energy, emotion, optimism. Uh, but for six months it's [00:04:00] been, not that it's been wait and see, sit on your hands. No one wants to do anything. Is this real? What the fuck? Theater are we watching? This whole fucking world that we live in is weird. Um, which I get all of that.
Um, but I mean, ultimately there was, there was a segment of the people who. In, in the group who are continuing to make moves and continuing to make progress and like just knocking things down. Um, not at what you would refer to as an exponential level, but they're just moving forward in spite of less than ideal conditions and without the certainty of what's gonna come.
Like. And, and so, and, and that is what's necessary. That's the great differentiator. Those 25% of people will outpace the, the other 75% of people in the group by five x. And, uh, and then there's a group of people that [00:05:00] were struggling with their habits, their, their lifestyles kind of gotten outta hand as far as like travel and stuff like that.
They're busy. The holidays crept in and then the holidays never stopped. And, uh, like. I mean, we are, we're inundated with excuses as, as humans, and so it, it's very easy to kind of lose track of what you're doing. Like when you just talked about like hitting your four Fs today, like I, you need to hit your four Fs every single day.
And if you touch those every single day in, in some form or fashion, you really can't lose over time from a compounding effect. Um, and, and then you never lose your way either. So the, the, the guys that were off track or needed like a, a little bump or accountability, like they were generally the ones that had lost one of the pillars for a long [00:06:00] period of time, whether it's fitness or, or their nutrition type thing or just.
Maybe, I mean, I talked to guys that were having issues with their marriage and stuff like that out of communication and so mm-hmm. Like if, if, if you're, if you're not like watering those crops all the time, you're not gonna get the results that you're looking for. And, uh. And I think that's what people don't understand.
They, they try to, and, and I'm guilty of this, I'm as guilty of this as anybody 'cause I like working. And so for me, I'm like, okay, we're going chips in on this for a period of time and then it's all gonna be worth it. And, uh, like don't worry, you won't see me for the next three to six months and then I'm gonna come back and it's gonna be, everybody's gonna be happy.
And uh, what I learned a long time ago was like, that was not the recipe for happiness. And it wasn't the recipe for like. Keeping my marriage good and my kids good, and my overall finances good, if you [00:07:00] will. And it was like feast or famine at every level. And, uh, and that's not the way to do it. I mean, that's why we've developed the systems that we've developed, that we execute on in the tactical empires.
Because if you get, if you make those deposits daily, they don't have to be these huge flashy deposits. It doesn't have to be Disney World. It can be like just simple stuff on a regular basis that builds. Relationship capital for you within your family. It builds actual capital for you within your bank accounts.
It builds business capital for you within your business. Like it just the, the constant. Touching of those things on a regular basis and, and I think that's what people need reminded of. 'cause running a program like we're trying to run it, like people are busy with their own shit all the time. So the messaging that you're getting is not consistent messaging across what you're trying [00:08:00] to say.
So I may put out a communication to people and it may be picked up by. 50% of the guys, and it may be interpreted by 30% of those guys differently than 70% of those guys. And so you, you're. It, it's, it's a challenge for sure, and, and it's a challenge for them to understand the messaging of what we're trying to do and the consistency of what we're trying to reinforce and, and what it takes.
Like, that's why the in-person meetups is such a, a great refresher for everybody. 'cause it's kind of like, it's, it's really hard to confuse that when you're sitting right there in the room with the person face to face and like, so, so you go home with a new. A new mission on who you're gonna be and what you're gonna do and what habits you're gonna adhere to.
So I don't wanna go off on the meetup again, but
Shawn Rider: I mean, I would love to talk about the meetup. That was the last episode. Get, get more people. Am I muted? Am I muted? Nope. Get more people at the, at the meetup. [00:09:00] Um, all right. Uh, so I don't wanna put words in your mouth, but I, I kind of heard something early on there.
Like, would you say, let's say just. Talk about the men that haven't made the progress that they've wanted to make. Would you say it's very informal, lazy, or lost their way? Or would you say that some event happened and to a certain extent, they let that event distract them, derail them for an extended period of time, um, or become the excuse.
To keep pushing and pursue. Um, and it may not be a Oh yeah, 100% of the time that happened, but would you say like, if the men said, Hey, I'm not, I'm not making the progress, I thought this quarter, the last six months, do you think they all fell back to this, like one thing that happened? Would you say that's something that you heard or not?
Jeff Smith: Uh, I think two things are going on. [00:10:00] There's, there's one. Group of people that are not getting, they never ever have taken the time to get clear, like Crystal, crystal clear on their vision. That's most people's issue anyway. So like that, that's literally like a hundred percent of people I talk to that aren't in the group.
That's their problem. And, and, but, but there is a group of people that still didn't do this. You watched Chris do this in the group. He, he's been in the tactical empire for three years and then all of a sudden. He went home one weekend and did all the fucking work and then you saw his breakdown of like, this is exactly what I'm gonna do over the next two and a half years that is gonna like set me free.
I finally like relented to the process and I went through the process that I didn't want to go to and it. Go through and now it's never been clearer to me what exactly I have to do. And so there's a group of people that [00:11:00] just, they're, they're kind of right there, but they've never really taken the time.
And then it's a very similar group if you look at it. But the other group of people is, and, and this is the challenge about the people that we deal with, they are not. Financially downtrodden. They're not in a bad place. They're in a good enough place. That good enough is really hard to say like, fuck that.
I want to go to this version of my life when this version of my life pays all the bills, does all the things I need it to do. Like it's perfectly comfortable, and we could be doing this in 20 years and have. Whatever, 20% more than we have right now. And, and it'll be just fine. It like, there's no pressure to create that, that version of them that they deep down desire.[00:12:00]
And so what that does is it creates a level of like
passi, passivity. So they operate on a regular basis with like whatever, 65% of their effort and their creativity and everything else because like that's what's required of them to, to operate at that level. But what that's doing is ultimately it's stealing their soul because they can see that vision over their, and they know that there's more out there.
That they could be doing, but it feels risky because this is safe and it's what they know. Or what if they fail? What if they go for it and they fail? Like there, there's just a lot of different questions for, for those people. So like those are the two tribes I'm kind of dealing with the people that have never really got clear on what they truly want.
And, and they're, they're kind of two of the same because the people that never get clear on what they want, they're doing well enough, they're just out [00:13:00] there hustling around, like making some money, doing shit that they know works or whatever, like cobbling it all together. 'cause we're very resourceful people in the group.
And so, um. But then there's the other group of people that are, are just kind of comfortable with what they, they've got and, uh, that, that level of comfort can waste decades of your life, unfortunately.
Shawn Rider: Oh, well, I can relate, I can relate to some of the things that you, you just said there was, I mean, me and my wife.
We're super comfortable where we were over the past, uh, handful of years. She was comfortable in our job. And when we knew the, the long-term payoff of that, it's done well for us. Um, I was making investments at a nice easy clip and, and then, you know, that changed over Christmas when she decided to leave her job and it was like, Hey, yeah, we have this backstop.
Let's do it. But now in hindsight it's like, well, if I would've. Kept pushing 18 months ago, we'd be in an even better position to offset the lost income. Now that we lost [00:14:00] that. Um, and, and what we had to do was, you know, for people that feel stuck, like, what do I do? Like we have a vision exercise. If you're married, we have an annual planning exercise.
If you guys need access to those, reach out to Jeff and I, um, we'll get you access to the, the, the podcast episodes, the coursework, the workbooks, whatever we need. And so we did our annual planning and that's when we got clear Now. Um, you know, we're not in a bad spot right now, but, um, it's, it's we're we let go of what felt comfortable to go after what we want more of now.
And, and then again, my, my real estate partner called me this morning and we went over a few things, uh, for him in regards to infinite banking and getting some banking stuff set up. And then we flipped the script and he's like, he is like, how's everything going with you? I was like, it's going great. I said, just be clear with you, like whatever money we need to put towards accelerating these investments, like.
We're gonna do it. Uh, we want to get more cash flow and we want to do it [00:15:00] this way. And we're willing to liquidate other assets to put towards this partnership because it allows us to have the time that we have tried to get via leaving corporate America and building our own businesses with our family.
And, uh, we have full faith in the portfolio that we're putting together with you. So, um. Let's, let's pour gasoline on this fire and, uh, just this episode. I recognize that shit. I should have done that 18 months ago, 24 months ago. Uh. We, we weren't partnered 18 months ago, so maybe 12 months ago. Uh, but, but I met him in person at a meetup pretty much exactly a year ago.
It was the first meetup. I've said that on other podcasts. So that goes back to our last episode. Why should you come to these meetups? Um, well that's cool to hear, man. I mean, I, I know that there are lessons to be learned across the board when we do these one-on-one calls, so, um, I appreciate you reaching out and giving us the feedback from the men in the group.
Is there anything you else you want to add? If not. Let's send the people out.
Jeff Smith: Yeah, man. I think it's just continue to take act [00:16:00] action and, and if you're not clear on what you should be doing, then just spend time getting clear on what you should be doing. Um, so we're not telling you to make moves that are like uneducated moves or that you feel uncomfortable about.
Um, but I, if you're unclear on things, then maybe it's time to let go to the woods and. Spend some time getting fucking clear on what you need. You need to disconnect and have like dopamine detox or whatever the fuck they're trending with right now. But like a lot of times, most of our impediments are just simply the fact that we don't spend enough time working through our own thoughts.
Um, because we're in, we're inundated with trash all the time. That can keep us busy. And, uh, ultimately you can't, you can't pursue the greatest version of yourself, um, when you're just constantly busy all the time. And so you, you've really gotta spend some time thinking about what you, what, what life means to you and, and what that looks like for [00:17:00] you and how you wanna be spending your time.
And, uh. That's, that's uniquely a personal journey that, uh, people have to spend some time. Getting like clear on. So
Shawn Rider: walk your dogs, ladies and gentlemen, walk 'em more than once a day if you can, and leave your phone at home. That is, that is where I work through my shit. So, um, that is my suggestion. That is a tactical thing that you can do to create space without going and hiding in the middle of the woods and getting lost, which I probably would.
Jeff, I appreciate your insights. I appreciate, and I know the men appreciate you taking the time to set aside. Hours and hours of time to do one-on-one calls with them over the last two weeks. Um, I know that you're gonna take some of the things that you've heard, create some presentations for the guys and so everyone can move forward.
So excited about that, excited about the meetup in less than a month. Hopefully we see some of you guys there. We appreciate, uh, the listeners of the podcast. Uh, [00:18:00] go to our website. And follow us on Instagram and maybe the next episode we're gonna tell you some details on our freedom audit. We haven't discussed that in detail, but we have one.
Some people are filling it out. That will be a call to action that we want you guys to take coming off the podcast. But I'm gonna save that for the next episode, Jeff, we'll
Jeff Smith: talk to you soon. All right. Have a kick ass week guys and we will talk to you later. DM us if you want a strategy call or anything like that and uh, have a great week.