In this episode, Shawn Riderreflects on the best worst year of his life—2020—and shares valuable lessons learned along the way. From financial security and personal responsibility to decision-making and enjoying life’s journey, Jeff highlights the importance of autonomy, resilience, and perspective in achieving both personal and professional goals. Tune in for practical insights on how to approach life's challenges with a mindset of growth.
In this episode, Shawn Rider reflects on the best worst year of his life—2020—and shares valuable lessons learned along the way. From financial security and personal responsibility to decision-making and enjoying life’s journey, Jeff highlights the importance of autonomy, resilience, and perspective in achieving both personal and professional goals. Tune in for practical insights on how to approach life's challenges with a mindset of growth.
00:00 Introduction to the Best Worst Year
01:53 Lessons from 2020: Financial Security and Autonomy
04:08 You Are the Asset: Personal Responsibility
05:35 A Players and Decision Making
06:57The Power of E + R = O
08:54 Moving On: Embracing Choices
09:47 The Millionaire's Club Card
10:46 The Road to Hana: Enjoying the Journey
14:11 Tearing It All Down: Preparedness and Change
15:11 Life Perspective: Accomplish Goals or Not
Jeff Smith (00:01.55)
What's up everyone? It is Sean Ryder from the Tactical Empire. I am riding solo again today. So I'm going to take advantage of this and I'm going to very quickly go over the 10 lessons from the best worst year of my life. This is actually a shortened version of the presentation that I gave to the men of the Inner Circle at our meetup in April, early April of 2025 in Jacksonville, Florida.
So I talked to the men about the lessons from the best worst year of my life. So 2020 was a really weird year for everyone around the world. But for me, it was the best worst year of my life. And without going through the entire year, which I did for the men, all you really need to know is that 2020 started with my first brick and mortar gym business, absolutely crushing it, hitting PR revenue months.
excuse me, PR profit months, net owner benefit months as well in early 2020, January, February, March. That was after building the business for eight years. We were hitting a good stride, team was great. It ended throughout the year, COVID lockdown 72 days, we lost five years worth of growth. We had to fire a team member for something that they did. And it ended with the year with my mom passing away, a week before Christmas of 2020.
So this was the best worst year of my life. My son was born in the middle of 2020, so that was a big high. We sold our house for more than what we thought we could sell it for, and we built our dream home on a nice hill with mountain views. So it was a really, really good year from a lifestyle and family perspective, nuclear family perspective, but again, we lost my mom at the end of the year, so the 2020 ended up ending pretty rough. But 10 lessons that...
Learned throughout that year in no particular order Lesson number one. There are three levels of attainment level one is financial security. This is a fluid Range depending on who you are and how you live your life. So basically being financially secure to me means how long can you live if Everything went to shit, right? Most people in the United States don't have a thousand dollars in the savings account. So they are not financially secure
Jeff Smith (02:21.25)
But even if you only have $25,000 and everything went to shit, you might have a few months. But if you have access to capital liquidity, which is what we teach in the seven levels of financial freedom, you are a bit more financially secure. Then again, the easy answer is you build financial freedom. I don't like that term. But once you are financially secure, you should be making choices that allow you more time control.
in your life and having time control does require money. are people who have a ton of time control but they have no money. So I think that's out of order. You need to be financially secure before you think about adding in more time to do things outside of work in your schedule. But time control, this control of your schedule, when, how often and for how long do you work and what you do on a regular basis. Okay.
Then once you have control of your schedule and you have financial security, then it becomes ultimately about building wealth. But the point of that wealth is to have autonomy. Autonomy is self-governance. So you have the ability to make your own choices and own decisions. You're not at the whim of anyone else. There is a nice clip from, I don't know if it's the movie Ramblers or whatever, but the guy talks about F you money. He's like, at any point you can walk away from anything because you have.
Self-governance you have enough money you have control your time you have skills that you can multiply and go somewhere else with Lesson number two from 2020 is you are the asset even though my business was going backwards over over a 72-day span We lost five years of growth And then my mom got sick and she went into hospital for 30 days and ultimately she died at no point that I stopped working out So it it wasn't that I had
Problem with this lesson basically this lesson was reinforced because I was able to sleep well at night Because I was taking care of myself. I didn't gain weight. I didn't start eating like shit I didn't stop working out move often eat well sleep enough get outside orgasm more What can you do to help facilitate this lesson for those closest to you? So you are the asset, but how does those roots grow into the trees of those closest to you? lesson number three a players make f
Jeff Smith (04:36.716)
decisions, okay? So for the business builders out there, you guys are trying to hire A players. But what you have to understand is A players make F decisions. They make F decisions inside of your business, and they can make F decisions outside of your business that ultimately may impact your business. So what is your plan of action for each of these? For me, a team member made a really bad personal decision outside of the business, and it ultimately did impact the people inside of my business, which is why I had to make tough decisions.
But most of the things that you want are only a few hard conversations away. So you have to be able to understand how you're going to handle F decisions from A players. Lesson number four, heck V equals goat. So H-E-C-V equals G-O-A-T. That means high early cash value life insurance is the greatest of all time. And what I mean by that is it is the greatest financial tool ever created. High early cash value life insurance policies
are the foundation to your cash flow system. It is the foundation to your family banking system. The short-term benefit is protection with liquidity and leverage ability. Medium-term benefit is they are stable, they're non-volatile, so you don't get distracted when the stock market goes down. You can focus on the things that are in your control and they're tax advantaged growth over the long-term. Long-term benefit is tax-free retirement, uninterrupted compound interest.
while you acquire assets. as I get older and hopefully live to be 80, 90, 100 plus years old, I not only have had uninterrupted compound interest, I have a high death benefit, and I've used those policies to acquire real estate along the way that I can send off to my family members after my passing. Lesson number five, E plus R equals O. The event plus your response equals the outcome. What you have to understand is most, most,
things are out of your control. That is the E part of the equation. Yes, events happen. They are a part of our lives. But what is in your control? Your response to those events. Now you want to have a response instead of a reaction. You will have a gut reaction. You will have an emotional reaction. We are all human. But you need to shorten the time that you react to the time that you respond appropriately and that will directly impact the outcome. Now,
Jeff Smith (06:57.75)
Want to change that equation to be e divided by 2 plus r squared equals I want you mentally to decrease the impact and value of the event in your life But I want you to exponentially increase the impact of the response of your life then the outcome will be working in your favor So how can you exponentially impact what's in your control? Okay, that is the difference between a thermometer
and a thermostat. A thermostat controls the environment, dictates what's happening around them. A thermostat reads the environment but does not have direct control over it. So I want you to be a thermostat. I want you to think about the things that you can do to impact your life. Don't just react to the environment around you. Don't just read the environment like a thermometer. Lesson number six. This equation,
Great for everyone, but it's been very very good for me as a service-based business owner SW squared plus WC equals MO What that means is some will some won't who cares move on? Every single human always has 365 degrees of choices some people will understand who you are and what you're trying to do
Some people will totally disagree and be against you, who you are and what you're trying to do. Who cares? Move on. Build the life of your dreams, regardless of the some won't. Who cares? Move on. You need to care about your expectations, the things that you're assuming. Correct them, your labels, get rid of them. How can you directly impact your life to increase the value?
during the time that you're here. Lesson number seven, the millionaire's club card never arrives, right? I'm not the biggest fan of net worth, particularly if your net worth is based off of home equity and business valuation, because those really aren't real things until you sell your house or sell your business, right? This is why we focus on cash flow at the tactical.
Jeff Smith (09:20.916)
Empire, but even if your network statement read 1 million dollars Nothing in your life will change even if you are are a one millionaire You are still gonna have to work for the rest of your life because living off three to four percent of that is barely Making it in today's world, right three to four percent of million is thirty to forty thousand dollars Okay, so the big question is how much of that?
Net worth is liquid. How much of that can you have access to and how are you leveraging it to increase your cash flow, increase your income? Okay, now no doubt if your net worth is five million, 10 million, 15 million dollars and that is real net worth backed by real things, real assets, now you have a lot more say and that does make an impact in your life. I do not want to downplay that. Lesson number eight is the road to Hana.
So I told this long story at the meetup about being in Hawaii with my wife and meeting another couple and they were gonna do the road to Hana. It's like a three hour road that leads you to the town of Hana on the other side of Maui. Okay, it was a rainy day, supposedly it's always raining on that side of the island. And the couple that we went with, they were driving a Ford Mustang GT. We sat in the back, bucket seats, super tight, super small. It was chilly, it was rainy.
and they wanted to see all these waterfalls on the drive out. The very first waterfall we stopped at within 15, 20 minutes of the drive, it downpoured and we had to walk a mile to see it. So we started this three hour drive, which is a full day. That's one direction, by the way. We started this three hour drive soaking wet. It was terrible. I did not enjoy any point of the road to Tahauna. We stopped at like the one pseudo restaurant on the way, which was basically picnic tables outside of someone's house.
with tarps over top of the picnic tables and there were cats walking around. Like I said, it was someone's home and they just cooked for people on the road to Hana, to the town of Hana. And then you come around this turn after three hours and there is the town of Hana. And you're thinking it's gonna be some amazing place with black sand beaches. It does have a black sand beach, but it's small and it's dirty. The water looks dirty. It was cloudy and rainy that day. And the town of Hana is basically just a small, shitty town.
Jeff Smith (11:44.686)
There was really nothing there. There was a gift shop with maybe one restaurant. We didn't eat there, even though I was really, really hungry. So basically it was just a really shitty day and we had to turn around and drive back. We did stop at the Red Sand Beach on the way back. We had to walk this muddy ass trail through the woods. That was beautiful, but now my feet are muddy for another three hour drive back. That was a full day of basically driving and I did not enjoy any point of it.
But the metaphor there is that for those of building the life that you want, building businesses, building your careers, building your families, what they say about kids is the days are long but the years are short. And they say enjoy the journey. And what I realized the older I get and the more I build businesses and enjoy time with my wife and kids is it's called the road to Hana for a reason. It is not called the town of Hana.
The town of Hana is different than the road to Hana. I was anticipating that we would get to the town of Hana and it would be beautiful beaches and sunny and amazing restaurants and all this cool stuff. And there wasn't any of that. It was the exact opposite. But the point of it wasn't to get to the town of Hana. The point of it was to drive the road to Hana, see the waterfalls along the way, look at the landscape, the geography.
You're driving on the side of cliffs and seeing the Pacific Ocean push waves into rocky cliffs. Something that you may never see for the rest of your life. And I was miserable in the back of a Ford GT soaking wet in a bucket seat. I did not enjoy the Rotana. And that's a metaphor for life because people go through building businesses and they don't enjoy the process. They just focus on, there will be stress, there will be hurdles, there will be obstacles, but you need to enjoy.
the road because the town, the end of the journey, there's nothing after that. Lesson number nine, tearing it all to the ground, dot dot dot dot dot, can work, dot dot dot dot, if, dot dot dot dot dot, you're prepared physically and mentally and you've protected your family financially and your personal circle supports you. I closed a brick and mortar business in 36 hours.
Jeff Smith (14:11.15)
It took a lot for me to get to that point. That is not what we wanted to do. We took six months trying alternative strategies and then we got to a point where it just wasn't working. And so we closed the business and we essentially tore it to the ground. A lot of people were pissed off. That was a year and a half ago. A lot of people are still pissed off at us. But again, some will, some won't. Who cares? Move on. I don't care what their opinions are. They all have to make decisions for their lives just as I've made decisions for ours. And sometimes you guys have to tear
what you've built down. Now, we don't suggest doing that if you don't have a backup plan. Okay, if you are in the brink of mental breakdown, tear it all to the ground, I don't give a shit, okay? It's not worth it at that point. But if you prepare yourself physically, mentally, and financially, you can decide to tear things down to the ground well before a breaking point. That is one lesson that I learned in 2020. It took me until 2024 to actually do it. Lesson number 10 is accomplish your goals or not.
Die and the only thing I had written on this slide for the men was the number 74 point eight That is the average lifespan of an American man 74 point eight years it is guaranteed 100 % that we will die Hopefully the men in the group are healthy and they don't come across life
illnesses, diseases, cancers, regardless of their health, and hopefully they won't get in an accident. So hopefully they do live past 74.8 years old, but that is the average. So I would be remiss to think that all the men in the group are gonna live past that. So we have to take it seriously. I'm 36, so I have 40, less than 40 years left according to that average. Could be sooner, hopefully it's later, but the things that I'm worried about.
aren't gonna fucking matter. Maybe not a month from now. Or maybe they will. But maybe not a year from now. Or maybe they will. Probably not 10 years from now. Or maybe they will. But they certainly won't matter when I'm 70 years old. I will not be thinking about what I did on Tuesday, May 13th at 12 52 p.m. when I'm 70 years old and I'm potentially five years away from death. So work hard, accomplish your goals,
Jeff Smith (16:39.54)
or not, then die. That is just perspective. That is putting things in perspective that your problems probably aren't as big as what you're magnifying them to be. And I bet you, if you're listening to this podcast on a phone while you're taking a walk or sitting in a sauna or driving a $50,000 car on your way to a job or your business, you have it pretty good. You have it pretty good. And you probably, if you had the choice,
you probably wouldn't change and trade your problems for somebody else's. Okay? And not only would you have to trade your problems, you'd have to trade your entire life, right? You might want all the money that Elon Musk has, but I doubt you would want his life. I doubt you would want to run three companies, get less than six hours of sleep a night, be under the thumb of the media.
And like he said in an interview, he told people, you probably don't want inside of my head. Like people like him cannot turn it off. I can't imagine the dialogue that goes on in his head. No wonder he doesn't sleep much. Okay. I don't want his, I don't want his money because to have his money, I need to have his life. I don't want, you know, 15 kids with four different women. That's not the life I want. I don't want to be on a plane every single day.
going across the country, being in front of crowds, worried about whether I'm gonna get shot or not, right? Like I don't want that life. So build your life. If you need help, guidance and coaching, that is what the Tech Web Bar Inner Circle is for. We do have a 90 day accelerator program required of all men before they get in the group, because we wanna work closely with you two on one. Jeff and I working with you for 90 days, see if you're the right fit, see if you're coachable, see if you take action. We believe in our plan. We have plenty of men in the group that have.
increase their lifestyles and their portfolios and wealth because of the plan that we help them implement. Ultimately, is on you. Reach out to us, go to our website, follow us on Instagram, Facebook, get in the TechGo Empire community. If you want to get in the group, you know how to find us. We got to stop telling you. If you listen to podcast, you probably follow us. So just reach out, pull the trigger. We'll see you guys later.