In this episode of The Tactical Empire podcast, host Jeff Smith shares personal experiences and strategies for embracing life's opportunities and maximizing time with family. Reflecting on a year spent traveling full-time in an RV with his family, Jeff discusses the importance of living in the moment, focusing on meaningful experiences, and not letting societal norms hinder personal happiness and growth. He encourages listeners to audit their lives at year's end, prioritize their passions, and make necessary changes for the upcoming year. Emphasizing the value of family time and personal fulfillment, Jeff underscores the idea of integrating work and life strategically to achieve a balanced, joyful existence.
In this episode of The Tactical Empire, host Jeff Smith reflects on his family's decision to sell their house and live full-time in an RV, traveling with their four children. Jeff emphasizes the importance of prioritizing meaningful experiences over conventional success plans as they wrap up 2024 and look ahead to 2025. He encourages listeners to rethink traditional notions of balance, seize the moment, and live life to the fullest by making bold decisions that align with their true values—be it in fitness, family, finances, or freedom. Jeff shares personal insights on how this lifestyle shift has enriched his family relationships and personal growth, urging listeners to take leaps that may seem daunting but ultimately lead to a life without regrets.
00:00 Introduction to The Tactical Empire
00:38 Reflecting on a Year of Change
01:50 Prioritizing Life's Moments
05:08 Embracing Unconventional Lifestyles
06:02 The Power of Reinvention
07:28 Maximizing Family Time
11:41 Planning for 2025
13:37 Integrating Work and Life
15:43 Final Thoughts and Encouragement
EPISODE 187
Jeff Smith: [00:00:00] How do you find the will to fight back against a world that wants to keep you sedated, averaging, stuck in place? Join us for the tools and strategies you need to create a life of abundance, discipline, and high achievement. This is The Tactical Empire, with Jeff Smith.
Welcome to another episode of The Tactical Empire. Today, it is just me, just Jeff Smith, and I'm here to talk to you guys about some interesting topics. Thanks With regards to the end of the year, um, as we wrap up 2024, um, one thing that we do often within our group is, is kind of a retrospective, but I wanted to talk about something that's near and dear to me as far as, you know, Heading into the year this year, we had some pretty significant changes [00:01:00] within my family.
Right? Like, so we sold our house and decided to full time RV with our family, um, four kids on the road full time, um, which. Turned out to be a huge commitment. I knew it would be, but we had talked about it with something we had talked about frequently. Um, but ultimately it was something that we were willing to go all in on and, uh, it took us about 10 months to plan for it.
And, um, that's, Really something that was truly important to us. We were already homeschooling. We already worked from the house. We had a couple of business loopholes that we needed to loose ends. I should say not loopholes, uh, loose ends that we needed to tie up, um, in order to take it on the road and make everything fully functional.
But, um, ultimately what I wanted to talk to you about is as you plan. Uh, 2025. And as you forecast what you're going to do next year with regards to your personal life, your, your four Fs, right, your fitness, your family, [00:02:00] your finances and your freedom, um, one of the things that I think you should really think about and try to prioritize is figuring out, um, Truly seizing the moment and not letting time pass by so that you can, I mean, this is something we preach constantly within the inner circle and something that I'm passionate about as far as, um, making sure that you're living every day to its fullest and not trying to seek balance or, um, trying to, like, accumulate now or, or build now in spite of.
Like waiting for other things like, okay, like I'm going to build this business right now. And then in 10 years, I'm going to go ahead and enjoy it, kick back and enjoy time with my family. Um, if you've been around for a minute, you know, that I'm huge on mortality and, uh, the fact that, Tomorrow is not promised to any of us.[00:03:00]
And so one of the largest impetuses of us taking life on the road and spending time with our family was that I wanted to enjoy this period of time in our children's lives. Our kids are 5, 7, 10, and 12 right now. And I wanted to experience all of it with them as far as like taking them to all 50 states Experiencing all the different national parks with them, uh, living a kind of a free life of full of experiences and experiential opportunities for them so that not only are we teaching them history and all the in school, we're also experiencing those and living them as we go out and do these things.
Um, so as we travel to different areas, we learn about different things with regards to culture and history and, um, all kinds of different [00:04:00] information. And so for us, that was that that was a priority to us. It was something that was very important to us. And, um, I think that We've been having a lot of conversations within the inner circle with the men in there, um, uh, along the same lines, like how, and this comes up during annual planning with your spouse, a couple's annual planning.
We've got other episodes on that and how that shakes out. But, but what you're really looking at doing is how are you spending your time and are, how are you maximizing those experiences in the years you have with your loved ones? And. Are you doing things that you're happy with, or are you, are you doing things based on the desires of other people, or are you trying to make other people happy?
Um, there's a lot of people pleasing going on with everyone out there. And, uh, and, and then there's, there's a level of uncertainty of like, how will you make money, [00:05:00] um, if it's not, you know, like clear to you, um, you can also, how will people judge you? How will people look at you? Whatever, because you're living an unconventional lifestyle, right?
So you're like willing to step outside the norm and, uh, kind of take life by the balls and, and do what you want to do with it. And, and I encourage you, um, to kind of think that way, think, think outside the box with regards to what you want to do with this life. Um, How do you want to live? How do you want to operate?
Are you living to a higher standard for yourself personally, or are you settling with regards to your job, with regards to your family, with regards to how you carry yourself, um, with integrity, um, or how is your health, all those things. Um, and, and the end of the year is always a great time to audit all those areas.
But for, for the, the specific thing that I wanted to talk about is like, [00:06:00] I, and I've mentioned it on these. this podcast before that like you literally can do anything you want to do at any given time. If you have the, the bravery and the wherewithal and the mental capabilities to make that change personally, um, like you can reinvent yourself and then limited amount of times.
in this life. So just because you did something in 2024 doesn't mean that that has to be the version of you in 2025. Um, a lot of us get stuck in these jobs in, in different areas. You live in a certain area, a certain geographic location, and you think that that's what you're meant to do. You think that that's what you're Everything that there is to offer or whatever, or, or you, you don't want to seize the opportunity because the risk seems too high.
Uh, the, the, what ifs, the, what could go wrongs, um, come up [00:07:00] and, and they paralyze people and. And I just wanted to spend some time talking to you guys about the fact that you have the opportunity to be, do, and have anything you want to be. Any one thing you want to do, anything you want to have, you can, you can create it all.
And especially when it comes to your family, especially when it comes to your loved ones, don't let that time pass by. Don't Miss an opportunity to seize a moment to experience something with them. Um, this is not always something that I've done. I've talked extensively in this podcast about, um, 10 years ago, 15 years ago, when I was more focused on building businesses and, and more focused on trying to figure my own shit out than I was focused on, um, my family and my loved ones, and, and then having children and, My oldest children, um, how I raised them versus [00:08:00] like how I'm present now.
Um, because of the finite amount of time that you have to experience those things with your children. And, um, there's always opportunity to restart. There's always opportunity to rebuild, um, with regards to finances and businesses and things like that. Uh, I always say that's the easiest part, right? Uh, but I, I think that there's no higher value that you can offer to this world than ensuring that you're spending quality time with the, the people that you have the biggest impact on.
And, and in my case, that was the, the six. Five, five other people that live in my house, um, with me. And so I, I chose to really push on the gasoline with regards to the experiences that we were generating. And, and for us, that has been very, very fruitful. [00:09:00] And, um, I've had a lot of conversations over the last week that have just like, Really driven that point home as far as like how grateful I am Um for the decisions that we've made this year and and the decisions that we've made for our family the things that we're executing on as far as How close we've become as a unit And uh, and and just the relationships that I have with my children now are exponentially better Than when we were living in a world Just in a regular house in Houston and not spending all of our time together.
I mean, we still kind of spent a lot of time together. Um, but now there's, there's just so much more to do. We spend our time, um, much greater amount of time on meaningful things. I feel like meaningful experiences with each other. And, uh, rather than just, like, going through our day to day mundane routine of where [00:10:00] I escape to my office, I do my work, I have my routine, and then everyone else has their routines, um, going on somewhere else, and, and we just don't, and then we reconvene, whatever, for dinner, and, Um, I think the biggest thing that we took out of this year, uh, especially the last eight months has been that we just did so much stuff in the last eight months.
Um, we, we hit so many national parks. We hiked so many places with, there was just no wasted time. And now I, I don't say that, that. We didn't waste any time. We didn't have any downtime because we did, but I mean, like the amount, if you look at what we would have done, had we lived in our house in the middle of Houston, or if we traveled for the last eight months and did what we did, like the eight months would have went by in our home doing the same thing, groundhog day type behavior.
And I [00:11:00] don't think we would have valued the time with our children, the way that we have. Living on the road because it has just tremendous, tremendously increased our communication, our ability to spend time with our kids like one on one, like as small groups, breaking out, doing things we spent the majority of our time outside.
Um, it's just been really, really great for our family. And so I say all that to say, um, most of you probably aren't going to decide to hop in an RV full time with your family. And that is perfectly fine. It's definitely not for everybody, but I say that to say, as you go through and plan 2025, I want you to think about those things that you want to be prioritizing.
And that you want to be really focused on and if it's your kids, it's your kids, [00:12:00] great. If it's your spouse, improving your relationship, your marriage, whatever. Um, I, I want you to really give yourself permission to go all in on that particular thing, because I promise you the other things will fall into place.
If you're focused on an area that brings you a ton of joy and a ton in that you have a lot of passion for. Um, I mean, since we've moved, I've done a storage project. I've done, I've got another property under contract where, or excuse me, I bought another rental property. We're doing a rehab on it right now.
Um, this is all happening in Texas while we travel around, right? And then we've got another. Ground up build that we're pipelining that we're going to be doing as well. So, I mean, for me and, and the tactical empire has been growing exponentially as we prepare to, um, roll out a book in the beginning of [00:13:00] next year.
So I, I mean, the work hasn't really slowed down. It's just really the strategic. Like, uh, I mean, the, the way that I look at work now is, is different. And, and the things that it's forced me to do as far as leveling up and becoming a different kind of leader, a different kind of worker, a different kind of investor, um, it's really just drawn out the next level of, of my skillset that's necessary in order to operate.
And in function in all these different things that we want to be doing. And so we talk about there, there being no such thing as balance, right? So like, this is the, the epitome of like integration. And so in order for us to have the freedom and flexibility to travel full time, what did I have to do in order to make all that work?
And, and for me, it's just continuing to raise my [00:14:00] awareness. on areas of friction. Like, what do I have to be doing? Who do we need? We need to bring on more team members to help me with certain areas. And in, in certain areas we've done that and, and it's, it's worked out well. And then other areas we tried things that haven't necessarily helped or worked.
And so we're still tweaking all that, but that's to say, that's not to say that you shouldn't be taking those moves. Shouldn't be making those moves. Cause for me, like As that time ticks on with my 12 year old, I've got, whatever, six more years with her, right, as far as living under our roof. I will never regret the next six years having made sure that I was tweaking and Making the changes with regards to what I deem work or how we earn income Um and and playing with that side of things while I spend time and have those experiences with her Um, because that time i'm never [00:15:00] getting back the time in business.
I can make up And so, like, I, I think that for, based on the seasons of life you're in, I want you to think about what you're prioritizing going forward. Um, because when you integrate everything together and you're on a, solid foundation with regards to your family and your relationships that you have. It helps you become a better leader.
It helps you make more money, quite frankly, for, I mean, there's no way around it. You show up differently. You show up better in the situations that you need to be showing up for. As you head into 25, think about what you want to be prioritizing, uh, make the moves necessary to do it. And, uh, take a leap, man, lean in, lean in, do, do those things that frighten you.
Make sure that you're living life full out so that you [00:16:00] can have zero regrets at the end of the day. Like go get every bit of this life you've meant for. Have a great week, kick ass. And uh, we'll talk to you in a couple of days on the next episode. Have a great day.