In this episode of The Tactical Empire, Jeff Smith and Shawn Rider dive into the realities of balancing business and family while living an intentional, high-growth lifestyle. Jeff shares insights from managing an RV life with his family, building businesses remotely, and staying disciplined while writing a book. They discuss how to identify high-impact activities, maintain momentum, and prioritize what truly matters. Whether you're on the road or at home, this episode offers practical strategies to align your family life and business goals—and build long-term success without sacrificing either.
In this episode of The Tactical Empire, Jeff Smith and Shawn Rider discuss the challenges and rewards of living a disciplined, high-achievement lifestyle while traveling in an RV. They share personal insights on managing family life, maintaining business momentum, and setting effective goals. Jeff reflects on his journey of structuring work-life balance, the continuous improvement of The Tactical Empire, and the importance of building habits aligned with long-term objectives. Sean adds his perspective on the transition from traditional employment to running a business with his wife, emphasizing the significance of focusing on productive activities and leveraging time effectively. This episode offers practical strategies for those striving to achieve both personal fulfillment and professional success.
00:00 Introduction and Welcome
00:29 Meet Sean Rider
01:46 RV Adventures and Summer Plans
04:22 Personal and Professional Hurdles
13:20 Balancing Family and Business
27:04 Final Thoughts and Takeaways
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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 am joined by Sean Rider. How are you, sir? Twinsies.
Shawn Rider: We're twining it up with our new tactile empire gear. That's fine.
Jeff Smith: Yep. That's, yep.
Shawn Rider: My camera's backwards 'cause I know yours is on the left. It's, it's showing differently. Uh, but anyways, we look good. The black and white and red.
Come through
Jeff Smith: for us. Yeah. Yeah. The people of Jacksonville were curious [00:01:00] about what we were, who we were. Bunch of, bunch of jacked up dudes walking around as a group and they were like, what are you guys in town for?
Shawn Rider: Yeah. And then we walk in the top golf and, uh, someone behind the counter. Almost doesn't let us play 'cause we don't have a reservation.
Hey, we, we, we can be humbled very quickly. Here's the plan for the day, guys. Oh, nope. Nevermind. Maybe not.
Jeff Smith: No, we, we'll keep that story to ourselves.
Shawn Rider: Hey, it worked out well. Nothing, nothing happened. It was all good. It was all good.
Jeff Smith: They had all the bays for us.
Shawn Rider: Alright. We, we had plenty of time, plenty of space.
And we spent, uh, plenty of money to make it worth. It was good while so. What have you been up to since, uh, since the last week? Since this week has started?
Jeff Smith: Man, I don't know if I can talk about some of it, but I'm, I'm hanging in Orlando, uh, for, for two more days and then we are, we are off on summer journey.
Um, so the way, the way, [00:02:00] uh, I think I may have told you this on an episode, but the way our RVing kind of works is you kind of stay in the south for the winter, right? And so. We are about to embark on summer travel and for us that's, uh, like East Coast up to dc we're gonna come visit you. Um, we're doing Virginia, West Virginia, and then Pennsylvania and over.
Uh, but we're gonna spend part of the summer in the upper peninsula and, uh, up in northern Michigan and Wisconsin and stuff. So I'm excited. I'm excited to get on the road again. Um, and start moving around. We bought some paddleboards. So we are, uh, we are paddleboard ready. Actually, we had paddleboards given to us by a company that sent them to my wife, um, to produce content.
So, um, you'll be seeing some paddleboard reels, so I'm sure let's go. Okay.
Shawn Rider: Okay. We're getting, we're getting some rewards from this lifestyle. Very nice.
Jeff Smith: Yes. Yes. Um, so. I'm very [00:03:00] excited to get on the road again. Um, we have kind of a relaxed summer planned that's gonna be fun. Um, and it, it's, it's gonna be good to start experiencing some new stuff again.
I think we've done 22 states in the first year, and I think we're probably on track to get 11 or 13, maybe, maybe number this year. Yeah. So.
Shawn Rider: We're knocking down year. You guys have had your RV, bursary, RVers, however you wanna pronounce it.
Jeff Smith: Yes, it's, it is this, this week is one year on the road.
Shawn Rider: Okay. It does blow my mind, which will be one
Jeff Smith: week from seven.
Shawn Rider: It does blow my mind how many of the guys, uh, repeatedly say it's mind blowing what you guys are doing. So it's not just me on the podcast. Anytime we talk about the rv, like, oh, I can't do it. It's the other guys in the group. They're like, you guys are insane. So I, I think it's amazing we're all living vicariously through you guys and, and not, uh.
Not gonna be testing. Some of the guys are testing the waters with homeschooling and wives leaving their jobs. But the RV is a whole new step, uh, especially [00:04:00] since you, you talked about, uh, how, how often things break on an rv. Uh, you did see my Instagram post yesterday about charging my own lawnmower battery.
I am. Hell yeah. I
Jeff Smith: did.
Shawn Rider: I leveled up yesterday as a man.
Jeff Smith: Yeah. Yeah. I noticed that you. You've got a big bucket list this year of man, man jobs.
Shawn Rider: Yes. Awesome. So here we go. We talked on the last episode. We did a little a, you know, after action review of the meetup. Uh, but sometimes I think people like to hear, uh, a little bit more in detail on.
On what we're doing, why we're doing it. So if you took a dose of your own medicine and, and you did the exercise that we did on Friday, which was what is your biggest, uh, you know, personal hurdle and or professional hurdle problem struggle that you need help with? Uh, we did that exercise while working out at the gym in our pods and guys kind of floated around and, and told as many guys pods was a really good way for them to connect to find someone that may have a potential [00:05:00] solution for them.
What is. What's Jeff Smith going to be? What hurdles is he getting over here in Q2 of 2025? Personally or professionally?
Jeff Smith: Well, mine, mine is easy. If I was to talk back to myself, I would understand that, like right now, what I want to do is I wanna go into a season of growth. We're working very hard on the back end of the technical empire to really build out everything that we want from a, a, um, like a, a courses and marketing standpoint.
And to really structure that so it delivers the highest value and the biggest results for people, right? Um, and, and just to have it bolted alongside of us as like the additional value for them. Um, so education that compliments the coaching that goes along with what we're doing, right? Um, and so I have been writing a book for like a fucking year, and I cannot push myself over the finish line with it, but I, I am committed to doing it.
This quarter and [00:06:00] getting it finished. I have it. I have it started. It's, it's, it's written completely. It just, I don't like it, so I've gotta go back to it and go all the way through it again. And, uh, so, so I am, I'm doing that. I'm working at building out our store and our product page so that people have a lot more learning opportunities than I'm working at building in micro level challenges for our, our group that can service like some different clients than the guys that are just in the inner circle.
So we're building a little bit more robust offerings and um, for me. I know what that's gonna take. Um, but I also have the, the way I started this podcast was I have all the shit I wanna do with my family, right? So I know for me, what, what I need is, like my, my introspection on the three year backwards retro retrospective look was.
Understanding the level of organization and focus, I'm [00:07:00] gonna need to not miss the moments that I'm going to experience over the next six months. And so for me, I didn't go out on the road to just like live out on the road in my RV and work all the time, right? But I also have a level of production that I have expected myself, but.
Some people think is crazy. They think I should just chill and hang out and enjoy the experiences, which is fine. I agree with that, but I, I also disagree with the fact that I can't have it all, um, because I'm the only impediment to all those things happening. And so my letter retrospectively was simply about.
The guardrails that I need in place, the habits that I'm just not gonna be able to participate in to in order to optimize my time and be organized enough to make everything happen that I want to happen, which is like this level of production in my business, this level of clients served at this level, and [00:08:00] then also this level of presence with my kids and my wife.
And so like I am reaching peak like. Chaos. And so in order to operate at that level, I've gotta have levels of structure that are better than what I'm doing now and the level of discipline that understands that this is more important. The ultimate goal is more important than the next four months of like whatever I want to be doing, sitting by a campfire, drinking beers.
Right.
Shawn Rider: Yeah. You made an interesting comment there about, um, sacrificing habits. Which ones are you in particular? Um, going to be giving up. I'm assuming these are non-productive or I hate to label 'em negative. What, what are it,
Jeff Smith: it's not necessarily that like I, I I'm not gonna drink during the week is one thing.
Like at all. I, I probably, that'll probably lead into not drinking during the weekends, whatever, but like I don't really care about that. I'm not super focused on it as long as like, I, I think that takes away from my time. 'cause I either [00:09:00] stay up too late or wake up a little later. I'm gonna have to be more diligent about establishing my workspace the night before so that I can get up and get things done.
My daughter is getting up my, our five year old's getting up very early now, and so she is like interfering with what used to be my, uh. Like peak production, production time. Um, so it's, it's just the season that we're in right now. So I've, I've gotta work around that. I've gotta be conscious of it and figure out other ways to, like, I'm probably gonna have to work from three to five now, or something like that, or find times in the afternoon where usually I was done.
Shawn Rider: Right, right. Interesting. That is, that's a, I wouldn't say a 180, but you were definitely like a come one or two o'clock in the afternoon. You were done working for the few. Oh.
Jeff Smith: Shit for 5, 6, 10 years, like that has been my schedule forever. I will get up as early as it takes to be done by lunch.
Shawn Rider: That's interesting.
That'll be that. To see how that plays [00:10:00] out. I'm assuming like. I mean, in the RV community, if you're, if you're locked down in a spot with other families, I mean, I'm sure the kids are running around crazy all day long, but, um, you know, peak weather is in the afternoon usually. So I don't know. I mean, maybe you'll have more time 'cause they'll be playing with their friends.
I have no idea. So, um, I'm kind of surprised that that's something that you're gonna need to Well, the,
Jeff Smith: the thing that is different too, is that like there's so much community. In the RV community, like people want to hang out like every single night. It's, it's very social and like I am, I am new to that, uh, like, I like to stay focused on my stuff and my family.
Um, but I mean, that said, I, I truly have made really good friends in the last year. That is something that I could not tell you in the last 15 years since I really got deep into business and like how many good friends I've made are. Limited. Right, right. And uh, and so, [00:11:00] I mean, for me, admittedly, selfishly, like the tactical empire, like scratches, that itch for me.
So like, I'm like, well, I don't need any more friends. So I could call any of you guys and be like, Hey, I'm dealing with this and I'm looking into this, and like, what do you think? And so, and, and then I've got like two other mentors that. Kind of serve that purpose for me. So I've never really been like a let's sit by the campfire and shoot the shit kind of guy.
Um, yeah. But I have found a little bit of a tribe of like high achieving people. 'cause I mean that also share the same values because these people gotta be a little wild to like be 35, 40 years old on and have uprooted their lives and they just travel around, uh, full time. So it's. They're, they're interesting people nonetheless.
And the way that they make life work and like live it on their terms is something that I can definitely respect no matter what. Um, [00:12:00] it, it's, it's just interesting to hear people's stories and stuff. So go back to the original thing now that I've totally taken a left turn and got us off track. Um. Like most of the conversations were about how structured I need to be for how long, and then how long I need to sustain it, because I need to set these targets that are bigger so that the work is not done before then.
Right. Because I think, I think we all have a, a tendency to be able to push really hard for a period of time, um, and, and stay focused for a period of time, but. Then, then we've got distractions or we let off the gas for too long and we lose the momentum. And so like my focus is really on that momentum and maintaining it.
So like if I want to get off track and do stuff with my family, like I. The cool thing about it is you don't really spend like two weeks on vacation in this environment. You just like, I'm gonna get done doing podcasts and we may go paddle boarding for all afternoon, like, and that's [00:13:00] the excursion that we're doing, and then I'll be back at it tomorrow type thing.
So you can, you can really do everything, but it's a matter of focus and maintaining that momentum for as long as it takes to get the results that I'm looking for. Mm-hmm. And so like that was, that was most of the conversation, uh, between myself and my future self. If
Shawn Rider: you,
Jeff Smith: that's
Shawn Rider: interesting. Um. Well, I appreciate you sharing all that.
Um, I look forward to seeing all that play out for, for me, uh, it, it really comes down to moving forward, you know, personal, professional, uh, even though we're not RVing, right, we've created a life where there's flow in between these two things. Our kids understand that we own businesses and that mommy left a job to be in our business and be home a little bit more, pick them up from school instead of just being daddy every day.
Um, and when I get off the podcast here, me and my wife are gonna have about an hour and a half to ourselves, have a conversation and maybe walk the dogs and then we'll go get the kids together. And then we have two separate sports tonight, so we'll split off, uh, with each of our kid and, and go do our thing.
So we, we definitely, we definitely have that type of life as [00:14:00] well, where it's a Yep. And, and interplay and interchange between family and. Progress professionally. I also don't like to be anywhere else besides my house and the gym and my kids' sporting events. Um, I don't really, I don't really have an itch to go hang out at someone else's house and sit on their couch.
Uh, we've become very close with our neighbors. They're fantastic. I'll go, uh, sit on their couch and watch a movie with my, well, my kids are usually there and we're ordering pizza and shit on a Friday night. I will do that, but I'm not driving across town to hang out. So I can definitely relate to a lot of what you're saying.
Um, for me, I mean, the most pressing stuff is like. Again, we're in this transition through Q1. First time, first time, me and my wife are building a business together. First time we don't have W2 income. So like it's pertinent that we start increasing our active income. We still have more passive income coming in from real estate, but in terms of complete money flow, it's, it's not as high as what we're accustomed to, which is fine, which is why, why we [00:15:00] made the this decision now while we have other things that can supplement and offset that, uh, part of.
You know, we talked about liquidating the real estate, and I won't, I won't berate that topic anymore, but it does feel good to pull capital back into our ecosystem. So even when you own real estate and, and, and the money's in the property and the money's getting cashflow, like sometimes you gotta take your profits.
And like I was telling, telling one of the guys, they're like, they're like, oh, why would you sell? I'm like, yeah, like. I bought it to get cash flow. That's why I went short-term rentals instead of long-term rentals. And the cash flow is great, but then when you actually look at what I can sell it for, um, when we sell this one property in particular, we're going to double our money in three years.
So like at, at some point you gotta strip your profit off the table. Uh, correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm gonna strip it, bring it back, quote in-house, and then we're gonna deploy it again in the next real estate strategy, which is different than what we're currently doing. If I could sell my commercial building now [00:16:00] I'm looking at like a, a five to to eight x return on investment.
Um, if we get a number we're looking for, it could be a 10 x return on investment in three to four years. So, yep. Uh, you know, I like that thought right now for us. But the most pressing matter, uh, it's easy to say like, oh yeah, get more active income coming in. But the most pre pressing matter is. We actually have to just keep doing what we're doing in both businesses, the, the brick and mortar and the tactical empire, because the data is showing that the, the strategies in both of those are working.
We just have to be particular and identify, again, the 20% that's yielding 80% of the results, which I think we're doing in both. And then we just need to do those things better. And if you can identify the 20%, make it the 80%, do those things better, and then allow time. To do its job. Uh, which is why it's interesting to write the three year letter, which we referenced on the last podcast.
Um, three years from now, we will all be in better positions. So, uh, those are [00:17:00] the basically personal, professional, personal. It's real interesting. Like, I feel like, um, you know, my daughter's seven and a half, my son turns five. And you know, of course all siblings and all family members butt heads at at times, and they have their moments, but they've been, they've been, uh.
Commingling very, very well. Their relationship recently has been very, very good. My daughter, who used to be super impatient with our son, has become more patient, and I won't say motherly, but, uh, she, she likes to act like a mom and a teacher, and she's kind of come into that with, uh, our son. Um, our kids have always slept in their own room, but for some reason, like the past month.
And it starts when me or my wife are gone. 'cause when one of us gone, the kids normally sleep in our room and we'll just bring in mattresses or like sleeping bags. But like a month and a half ago, one of us was gone, the kids infiltrated the room and they just haven't left. So like we [00:18:00] never had our kids sleep in our bedroom and now they're seven and 5, 5, 7 and a half, and five and like.
My son, my son's got a Spider-Man bed on one side and my daughter's got a little mattress on the other. And then me and my wife are in the, they're not in the bed with us, which is really nice. I would not put up with that. But they're on the floor and it's not bothering anyone. We all, it actually helps 'cause now we all go to bed at the same.
Fucking time, like eight 30 rolls around. So we're all going into the bedroom. We actually have a little bit of a conversation. I'm reading a book about God. My daughter brought in a Jesus calling book. She'll read like one page. My son's goofing off with my wife. And then it's like, all right, bedtime. We all hit our beds.
We all say I love you to everybody. So like that's a long-winded story to basically say like from a personal side of things, like four family members and two dogs are sleeping in one bedroom right now, which has never happened. Yeah. Our alarm will go off in the morning. The kids won't even budge. So, like I said, it's not bothering anyone.
It's just really interesting to see that. [00:19:00] Um, same thing though. That's the shit
Jeff Smith: that, that's, that's what leads you to living in an rv, man. You spend all your time in the same 25 square feet with your whole family, and it's just like, let's just get in a truck.
Shawn Rider: I get it. I, I, you know, I, I'm, I've lived long enough and to know that I've said things that I'll never do and I'm now doing them.
So, uh, even though the Harvey thing's not mine, maybe, maybe someday, I don't know if I'd buy one and be on the hook for, on the hook for all the issues. Maybe I'll rent one for a summer. Uh, I'm, I'm down for that, but, uh. It's interesting. Life. Life is good, but we're progressing forward I think. I think this last quarter proved that the things that we've implemented are working.
And so we just have to, we have to not get distracted from those things and just double down, get better at them, and then let time do its job. And I hope that's a message. The reason why I bring up, Hey Jeff, what are you actually doing? Hey Sean, what are you actually doing? Instead of just talking sometimes in the clouds, like we're mentoring someone [00:20:00] is.
That's the lesson that some of the listeners need to pull out is look back at the last 90 days. What things did you do that yielded the results? Double down on them this quarter, do them better and more consistently, and then let time do its job. I think those three ingredients for some of you listening are what you needed to hear.
And if you need help implementing that, Jeff and I are really good at identifying those things, which is why having a third party look at your situation is really, really important, which is why going to the meetups and like. Hey, we talked about this topic. Hey, this guy in the group asked us about that topic.
Hey, we ask about his in particular situation, and then we tell them how we would tweak what we taught to fit his. Positions. Some of the guys in the group should be in LTRs. One guy in the group we recommended looking at st. Another guy in the group might be going into, you know, the, the, um, the investment realm with, with, uh, Brandon Rooks who gave a presentation on, uh, basically lending on [00:21:00] land and just getting a consistent return.
Like, all that's investing, but which fits into you. So Jeff, I just got long-winded. Hit us. No, that's
Jeff Smith: good.
Yeah, I mean for me it was just a simple realization that like, I've got these goals that I want to obtain, but like from a business standpoint, an investment standpoint, I need more time. First of all, I need to cut some things loose and limit some drag like we talked about before, but like I also need to make sure that I can figure out from an organized manner and a structured manner on how to get more project time in my week.
Because I, I'm super flexible, but like, as you know, like when, when a five-year-old asks you for breakfast at five 30 in the morning, like they're not taking no for an answer. And so like certain things have been thrown off, but I have to figure out how to eek out more actual, like valuable critical task project work.
And I need to [00:22:00] do it on a regular basis, like five days a week so that I can keep that level of momentum that I want, right. So if I let, if I allow my schedule to get too far thrown off and like I'm handling busy work four days a week, but only getting 90 minutes of project work done, I realize I can't take things where I want to take them without that level of momentum.
Even if it's 30 minutes a day for five days a week, when can I get that time? Because over time, that accumulates in to add up to more right. Than the 90 minutes once a week. So that's, that's kind of the journey I'm on. I'm, I'm trying to identify opportunities there. And, uh, that's, that's it, man. Real quick.
That's it real quick.
Shawn Rider: How are you going to combat. Task switching. And maybe that's not the right phrase, because if you do a little work in the afternoon, then come back to it way later, you're not really like getting distracted in the moment, but you are doing a hard stop and a restart. Mm-hmm. So how are you gonna combat getting back into flow state quickly?[00:23:00]
Jeff Smith: That, that's what I've gotta figure out. I don't know. I mean the, there's studies out there that takes 21, 27 minutes to get back on task when you've dealt with a distraction. Um, that's why I think I was so successful over the last 10 years. Is because I prioritized my, my project work at the front end of my day.
I didn't let anything interfere with it because when I lived in a house, it was up to me. I could go huddle in a room and go do all my shit before anyone else found me or whatever interrupted me at all. And so, um, but, but what I did was I set it up, I set my schedule up for my energy flow, which allowed me to only react to fires.
In the afternoon. And so like you can be very distracted when people are texting you, Hey, your insurance bill's due. Hey, we need to switch this rider on this homeowner's insurance policy on one of your rental properties. Like none of that shit take took big bandwidth, right? Or was something I needed to go [00:24:00] heads down into to develop a marketing plan or like structure something for our business.
Um, and. Having the ability to work two or three hours uninterrupted every single morning for 10 years is what produced everything I have. And since we've been on the road, I haven't had that ability. And so what? But I knew that was coming. So instead of just becoming a fucking tyrant and an asshole, that was like totally being suffocated by anxiety.
I, I kind of level set myself on like, this is the way it's gonna be. I'm gonna allow it to flow for a little bit as far as like, we're gonna see what this life is like and how I can figure out structure. And we're still admittedly working on it, but I'm getting better as we go. And so, like this quarter, I really feel determined.
And also the changes that we've made in the tactical Empire this year have been tremendous. They're, they're the exact changes we needed to make. [00:25:00] Um. I think some of the clarity from being on the road has helped me fix some of that stuff. And so the product is a hundred times better than it was. It makes a lot more sense longevity wise.
It makes a lot of sense for people to be here 10 years and, uh, so like the whole thing is just coming together and now I'm at the top of mind of, okay, I'm ready to push this thing and now it, now it's entirely up to me. Like, what do I have to do to, to figure out? I mean, it's not up to me, it's up to you and me and, and our team.
But like, uh, but, but now it's, it's up to me to get that clear headed time to focus on like next steps of what we're doing, because we haven't had a week this year that I, I would say that we probably haven't driven the business forward. In some manner, not necessarily a significant manner, but we have kept that momentum every week of this year and done something
Shawn Rider: consistent.
For sure. We've been more consistent [00:26:00] because we relayed the foundation and, uh, put some systems in place and we actually are working on, uh, a project that we know is going to take us to next level. So I think that. Um, I think that all that combined, which goes back to what I said, I mean, we identified, identify what we feel is gonna work, we're doubling down on it, and then we let time do its job.
Jeff Smith: Yep. Period. A hundred percent. And the other, the other thing that you mentioned that's beautiful is that like I, I'm also trying to get leaner on the things that take my energy. And so like I am, I'm getting more narrowly focused on the tactical empire. Solely and like trying to wrap up some of these other projects that took my bandwidth, um, or other things we're doing.
Restructuring portfolio, trying to make things optimize so that we're producing the most amount of money with the least amount of outlay of energy and time and so and so that we can focus on this, um, and, and continue building it, continue bringing in the, the resources and things that they need to [00:27:00] add value.
So it's awesome. I'm excited.
Shawn Rider: All right. My final takeaway is that those you in the RV community, be careful you're gonna start seeing the light on the Smith RV turn on at like two 30 in the morning. 'cause Jeff is not gonna like working in the afternoon potentially.
Jeff Smith: That that could happen. For sure. That could happen.
Um,
Shawn Rider: I, my, I like my sleep. Get your sleep and get your work done.
Jeff Smith: Jeff. Send, I love that the. Yeah, man. Um, guys, you can follow us, uh, at the Tactical Empire on all platforms. Give us a like, and a subscribe and a follow. We have a ton of content out there for you guys to absorb for free. Uh, YouTube has five or 600 videos on it at this point.
Uh, we've put 250 maybe plus podcasts out there. Uh, there's just a ton of content for you guys to consume, uh, on any topic. Uh, let us know if you have any questions. Hit us up. Instagram's the best place to [00:28:00] DM us. We'll respond to you there, um, and join our free Facebook community. We provide a lot of content there as well, and it's all free.
You could ask questions, you can engage there, and have a wonderful week kick ass, and I hope Q2 is the best quarter of the year for you or the best quarter yet. Have a great week.