In this edition of the Tactical Empire podcast, Jeff Smith and Shawn Rider discuss tools and strategies for overcoming challenges in life and business. The conversation begins with a discussion on the benefits of fasting, including mental strength and cellular regeneration. The hosts then address a listener's question on managing paralysis by analysis and imposter syndrome, emphasizing the importance of taking action and building confidence through small wins. The dialogue shifts to when to sell a business or push to the next level, stressing the need for strategic planning and understanding personal motivations. Jeff and Sean share personal anecdotes and insights on evaluating business decisions and the importance of annual planning. They conclude by encouraging listeners to assess their lives holistically, balancing professional and personal growth.
In this episode of Tactical Empire with Jeff Smith, co-hosts Jeff and Shawn discuss various strategies to combat the struggle against complacency and mediocrity. They begin with a conversation on the benefits and challenges of fasting and the importance of mental fortitude. They address listener questions about overcoming paralysis by analysis and imposter syndrome, emphasizing action and progress over perfection. They also delve into the nuanced topic of knowing when to sell a business or asset and when to push for growth, highlighting the importance of context, personal satisfaction, and having a next step planned. The episode concludes with insights on annual planning and maintaining a balanced approach to business and life.
00:00 Introduction to Tactical Empire
00:40 Fasting and Health Benefits
04:09 Ask Me Anything: Overcoming Productivity Challenges
12:28 Ask Me Anything: When to Sell or Push to a New Level
24:52 Conclusion and Final Thoughts
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 edition of the Tactical Empire. Uh, we're here with Sean again today. Uh, what's up, Sean? How are you, man? Yeah. Great weekend, man. I'm ready to roll. I always look forward to these. Same. Same. I'm fasting. I decided today that I was going to start fasting.
Did you see my comment I posted 30 minutes ago?
I said, I wish we had forgot about fasting. I haven't seen it on my feed in months. And then you have to go and blow up Facebook and say, I woke up and felt like I just needed to fast. And I didn't. I wasn't ready for it. I wasn't ready for it.
Hey dude, you'll get old someday. It'll be important to you too.
You're doing it.
I was, I was intermittent fasting too. Um, and then I knocked out like a 20, my first 24 hour fast last, uh, in the middle, it was a cold, cold day at a, my wife signed up for a fitness competition. I was like, well, any, any days good as today, I'm just standing around, not, not moving my body. And I just, I drank so much black coffee that day.
Obviously, certainly more mental for me. And, uh, so thank you for posting it to Facebook. Now it's gonna be top of mind here in the next couple days. I'll force myself to, to get back to it.
Well, when we, when we studied it, uh, at the beginning of the year, uh, kind of in depth, I had done it, I had done seven day supported fasts before.
Um, which is like fucking super weird. Like I did it with this, uh, Real nerdy dude that I'm super good friends with who likes to health hack everything But it was a weird deal where they kind of like it was calorie restricted to where you were eating like these soups But had vitamins and shit in them But like they they restricted you down to like 400 calories in a day at one point over the seven days That was not the same as these water fast that we've been doing Um, but man, the, the benefits are fucking awesome.
Like it's hard to argue with the science. Like if you can shrink like growths and tumors and, and, and wipe out some of those dirty and, uh, the, the cellular regeneration is incredible. And, um, the more I dug into it, the more I was like, man, I'm a fucking idiot for not just doing this, like every month. Like, why not?
And, uh, And then you get into the Peter Atiyah stuff and, and outlive and get into that book and holy shit, man, your brain starts to explode. Uh, so I had committed to doing one a quarter this year. Um, that was over 24 hours or something. I've been intermittent fasting for probably five years though. I just don't eat breakfast.
And so like for me going from like seven o'clock at night. to like one o'clock in the afternoon is like my daily routine. So when I just decided to flip the switch and do it, I'm like, Oh, all I've got to do is just like make it through dinner and go to bed and it's done. So it's not that difficult for me.
Um, But it is crazy how addicted to food we are. Yeah. It's like Yeah, I'm
I mean, just so people know that we're human, like, I I feel like I have a pretty good habit stack and daily routine, and I'm I'm pretty disciplined when it comes to those. When it when it comes to just committing to the fasting, it Like, like I said, intermittent fa Like, I can do 12 and 16 fairly easy, but Man, I just haven't, that, that switch hasn't flipped for me.
So maybe in a couple of years, or if you continue to post about it, maybe I'll pull it off, but, uh, it's just, it's one, I understand I've listened to the podcast, I've read the book, so, uh, that's probably the next maybe endeavor that I need to chop some wood on, so to speak, but, uh, looking forward to seeing your experience as you dive back into it.
Right on, man. Right on. Well, we were going to do an ask me anything today. And so let's get into it. I think we've talked about fasting enough and there we
go. All right. We have a question from Shane Ryder. Actually. Uh, I'm obviously Sean Ryder, but this is Shane Ryder. It's a good buddy of ours. Um, he said, uh, the two things that cripple me on productivity is paralysis by analysis.
and imposter syndrome. How do you manage those thoughts and work through them?
Oh man, this is a complicated yet simple answer. Um, it, it's just about taking action. Um, you, you just have to complete your critical tasks every single day. And then you start stacking wins at which builds your confidence, which then kind of helps you overcome the imposter syndrome.
Um, it, The reality of it is everybody at every level suffers from that, right? And so we have a tendency to overthink. things, but that tendency to kind of lean into perfectionism is simply avoidance. And, and all we're trying to do is avoid the actual work through, it's a, it's a cloak, if you will. Um, when people say they're perfectionists, it's kind of bullshit.
Um, I mean, I could understand them having a high degree of attention, um, attention to detail, but like ultimately, What you're doing in most cases is really avoiding what you need to be doing and, and, and exposing yourself and putting yourself out there for the world to kind of judge you. And, uh, Simon Sinek does a really good job with this as far as like shipping the work.
And so, um, I think you and I have discussed this kind of in the past, Sean. Um, I, I, it's just more important to get something out there. with regards to everything. So if you're overthinking it, you're never taking action. You're going to be in the same place you were the year before the week before the day before.
And so it's just about doing it. And that does build confidence, which in turn, you'll look back and you'll have years of track record to look back on and say, well, I've done this shit. And so like, I have nothing to be. Nervous about or anxious about.
Yeah. And the context in which most people use paralysis by analysis for me, it's usually them doing the next thing, finding something that they've never done before, or getting to the next level of the current thing that they're doing.
So the way that I frame it, which is, you know, how you think as well is, uh, I'm a former high school teacher. And so I can speak to this as like the school system got two things wrong in my opinion. And it's, you don't have to be an A plus student. You don't, you don't have to be an A plus student to take the test.
Uh, you, you say all the time, you need to get 60 to 70 percent of the way there before you take action. And in the real world, the D and C students. Take action faster and when you take action, there are more lessons to be had. So too many people have the school system mindset and philosophy that I need to get all the information.
I've been there, done that. I've talked about it on other podcasts with different topics, but now I've really switched my brain to let me get enough information so I can take the next smallest or logical or correct step in the right direction that I want to go or in the direction that I want to go. And I will learn.
The rest along the way, and so it's not to say that, you know, quote a plus students in real life don't succeed. They certainly succeed. Um, but like I want to move faster. I don't want to wait 30 years to get what I want. So in order to make up the deficit that I have in my knowledge and the intellect, I actually need to move quicker with a D or C grade in life.
And then the second thing that the school system got wrong is one plus one doesn't equal two. Sometimes one plus one equals three because you, you, you solve the equation faster. You move faster. You took that second singular step quicker than someone else. And then sometimes one plus one plus one plus one doesn't equal four or five.
It equals negative one because one of those. Steps that was masquerading as positive wasn't the right step. And so like, again, it's, it's your, it goes back to perfectionism. You can't have a perfect score in real life. You can't have all the knowledge in real life before you make a move. And sometimes the equations look like they're right and they're wrong.
And sometimes they look wrong and they're right. You just need to take the next step and learn the lessons as they come. I knew. Almost, almost nothing about commercial real estate and almost next to nothing about short term rentals. I learned the basics on analyzing the properties. I had some interviews with people on and got some suggestions on what they would do if they took down the deals that I took down.
And then I just decided to pull the trigger. So that's where I'm at. With the paralysis by analysis and with imposter syndrome, um, you know, I just have to recognize that if I try and get in a room where everyone in the room is smarter than me, okay, I have to acknowledge that they weren't always in that room and at the level that they're at.
So it just humanizes everyone else first. And secondly, I have to make sure that I'm telling myself, I don't need to do everything that everyone in that room is doing. I need to find what's relevant to me right now in this moment and take action on that step. And then I will come back to the group on the next step or the next lesson that I need to learn.
So again, goes back to my whole, uh, urgency versus patience. Um, I'm going to be patient in getting the lesson that I need right now. And once I have it, I will be urgent in taking action on it.
Yeah. I think part of that though, is like you have to know yourself, right? And so it, an interesting test. I mean, you've heard of the Colby.
Uh, the Colby test. Um, it just, it teaches you how you, how you take action on things innately. And, uh, it's, it's super interesting. My wife and I have done it and she is a level like 10 fact finder. So we always joke about that because she is the type of person that researches till the ends of the earth, but can't make a decision to save her life.
And, and one of the interesting things that came back in mine is I am a level six back finder. And a 10 when it comes to quick start. And so for me, I need enough information to know, but not the details. Like I can't get in the weeds with the actual details because that will just bog me down. And then I can immediately take action.
This is one of the biggest things that I tell people with real estate all the time. It's super important just to get started. Like you can educate yourself till the ends of the earth and you will die with knowledge in your head. But like what happens when you actually get involved in that property is like you start learning and, and the lessons start coming.
And like, so. I mean, so if we were going to frame this as an investor conversation or a question, I would say like, you need to assess your risk tolerance and then move. Uh, essentially that's all you need to do. Like, am I willing to spend 20, 000 on this education? Then you should go buy a single family home.
Buy it and learn the lessons and go. And if you're willing to spend hundreds of thousands, maybe you go into commercial real estate or something like that, or a different asset class, like not to get totally off topic, but these are huge questions that are totally, everyone asks the same exact questions.
And so it's a great topic.
Yeah, general principles there again, and then everyone's individual situations different. So if we had context of where I'm paralyzed, then we can come and get super granular. But I think those principles hold true for a broad range of topics. Anything you want to add there?
We'll move on. No, man, that's good. Love it. Love it. Great question, Shane. Thanks. Chance beam. This guy's awesome. I'll let Jeff maybe give you guys some insight on what chance is doing, but he's a, he's a high achiever, done some big things with his baseball academies. But chance asked when is it time to sell or push to a new level?
Man, context is important in these things because he, he owns a, uh, a very successful baseball academy. And so he may be talking about selling his business, but he also owns rental properties and has Airbnb, uh, mountain homes. Um, so. With regards to taking, let's just say it's your business, right? And we'll, we'll speculate that it it's his business.
He's talking about when is it time to sell, man? I, that is such a tough question we deal with all the time. Right. And it really is like, you need to have your next thing planned. I think a lot of people say that they've got a number in mind. Um, when you're a business owner, like, Hey, if someone offers me this amount of money, I'm out.
And I have seen that go both ways. Um, I've seen people get the number that they wanted and take the check and then be absolutely miserable and kind of lost. Um, really your business is very defining of who you are foundationally, um, as an entrepreneur. And so I think the time to sell is when you know what you're doing next more so than like, what number are you trying to hit?
What do you think?
Yeah, I mean, obviously there, there's uh, context to, to, we'd need context to that question, but for me, let's just say sell my business or sell my properties. Okay. Um, there's frustrations with both, right? I still own a very high touch service based fitness coaching business, and I own less.
Active, less touch, uh, real estate, both commercial and short term rentals. I have the thought in my head that my plan is to hold onto my assets for as long as possible. We talk about the importance of uninterrupted compound interests, and that's a huge rule that I try and stand by obviously for as long as possible.
But I also have the understanding that if something in my portfolio is taking away from the value of my life. And let's just say the utility that I get from it. Um, and that could be a few different things, right? Uh, financial utility, lifestyle utility, right? Airbnb is they should be financially rewarding to me, but if they're nice properties and I want to take my family there, like we are in blowing rock, North Carolina for a week before Christmas, that has utility to me.
Um, I have to recognize and understand when it's taking away from the life that I want to live and the finances that I want now that that has to be reconciled with, I will. Have to deal with issues like this weekend, I was dealing with a little issue that we couldn't quite pinpoint at one of the short term rentals.
You know, after about a couple hours, I've found the answer out. Now that's a lesson that I know for the future. And so when I come into that issue again, it'll be handled a lot faster, but it's very easy for me to, during that time, get frustrated and say. Man, if I just didn't have it, I wouldn't have to deal with this on a Sunday afternoon.
Uh, but for me, I reconcile that with, uh, the payoff, the financial side of that is way above. It supersedes any of the smaller frustrations that I have over time as an entrepreneur. My, let's talk about my fitness business for a second. The purpose of that in my life has evolved. I've owned it for 12 years.
It's evolved over 12 years and very recently this year, earlier this year, I was at a crossroads mentally with it. Um, financially it was fine, right? Whether it was breaking even or putting a little money in my pockets, like irrelevant because I was just dealing with some other junk from it. And, um, I was, I was at a crossroads in my opinion, and I had to have conversations with mentors in my fitness space.
Uh, you, one of them, um, my psychologist. On how to work through it and my wife, because those, those are the three people who I believe have skin in the game, um, the most in that realm. And at the end of the day, it was one thing that my psychologist said, it was like, I don't know where I said, I don't know where this fits in my life and in my portfolio right now.
And she told me, she said, Sean, it's okay to change the purpose of it. In your portfolio. And it's okay if you just acknowledge that it's just something in your portfolio that you're a shareholder of, it doesn't have to, and again, there was context in the, in the conversation I had with her, she goes, it doesn't have to serve a purpose outside of that.
And right around that time, I had a conversation with my wife and I directly asked her, do you want to continue to own this or not? Again, she's not involved in the day to day of the business, but she goes there and works out. And my wife looked at me in the eyes and said. Yes, I want you to continue to own it.
And for me, the utility of her answer far outweighed the frustrations that I had mentally. And so at that point, I had enough information to work myself through it and not be paralyzed to reference the previous question. And I reconciled in my head, I'm gonna continue to own it. For now. And when I come to crossroads, sometimes the answers change, but the situation always changed.
The context always changed. So sorry to get a little long winded there, but I wanted to bring in a little bit of my personal story. Um, again, to say, I'm going to try and hold assets for as long as possible when to push to the next level. Jeff, you can chime in here when to push the next level. I know when I make a change.
Depending on the type of change, I need to let it marinate for 30 to 90 days. So when I buy a new property, I'm not trying to buy two properties at once. I know you do plenty of that. So chime in, be my guest there for me, the, I get worn out by setting up the utilities, by getting the banks connected, by making sure I have the list of people that I need to work on the property.
If something goes wrong and, and getting the new system in place and the team in place that wears me out for 30 to 90 days. So. I know to push the next level when that system and the processes are solidified there. And then I will look for the next opportunity, um, to pounce on, but I'm going to turn it back to you on the, when to push to the next level.
I man, I think it's personality based. Honestly, I. I find myself when I am too comfortable, I do dumb shit and like, I, I just don't stay on track. And like, for me, I have to keep my edge. Like, I have to be pseudo uncomfortable. I have to be stressed about something. It's fucking retarded to even like, I mean, it makes no sense.
Like, I am really uncomfortable when everything is going right. It is, is like the best way to probably put it. Um, now I'm better now that I'm more mature and like I'm older, but like when I was younger, hell, I was, I was hell on wheels when like I, everything was good, holy shit, like it was not a good situation, so I have to find challenges to tweak and.
And take the, the risk to the next level. And for me, um, I think it's just, and, and Chance probably deals with this too. I think there's seasons of life that you go through. Like when I opened my gym 10 years later, 12 years later, I, I thought differently about it because now I've been married for 12 years.
I have four kids. My priorities are completely different. Then like, Hey, I want to bang some weights and train some people. And I know a lot about exercise science and came up through college football and special operations and had all these coaches and all this information. Um, that was just a natural by product of like getting into that business.
And, and what it turned into later after 12 years was that it no longer served me the same way. And kind of like to your point. I think this is something everybody should be evaluating around this time of year. Like my wife and I talk about all this stuff during annual planning, which is something that we're going to do next month.
Um, After Thanksgiving, but we evaluate all of our stuff it during that period of time and like what is serving us, what is not serving us to the point where, like, what kind of return on investments are we getting with these things, what do we need to sell? Um, how are these businesses? serving us at this point.
Um, same type of thing. And I, I think you should be really evaluating that stuff so that you can make a strategic move rather than just like a move out of necessity. Because most of us do get sick of our shit, whatever you're doing at some point, but like the ultimate answer is like what I started with, which is like, what are you doing next?
Cause you've got to have something to do. And if you're really good at what you currently do, maybe the. The couple of things that pissed you off this week, aren't worth throwing in the towel over your entire operation that you built over multiple decades, right?
Yeah, that was so good. And there was a lot there where my mind goes as you're talking about that is from an entrepreneur's perspective.
And I've seen it as a, as a business mentor to other business owners, when things are going well. They feel like they need to be working on something. And so like, I, maybe this is me trying to chime in on the pace side of things. I've seen too many entrepreneurs go in and break their businesses. And nothing, nothing needed to be changed.
Nothing needed to be broke. And that's why I really like our framework because it's not just about your business. It's like, man, why'd you go in and break your business? You worked really hard to get to that point and you could have went and improved. You earn the right to go focus on your health and your fitness and the next level of mentorship that you needed in your relationship.
Your, your house life sucks and you went in and ruined your business. And now it's compounding back into your house life and making it worse. Like, that's why I really like our framework. It's not just about your business, man. If it's in a really good space. Yes, we're trying to optimize and make it more efficient, but that's not just going in and changing the model all the time.
Every six to 12 months. I've seen that happen. I've seen people with really good businesses, half a million dollars or more. And then you blink and two years later, they're shutting down because they made a change that. In hindsight, probably didn't need to be changed. So I just, you know, I want to go out there and say, man, we can get fixated on one, one area of our life.
And that's why I really do like the annual planning and the vision exercise at this time of year, like you said, because we're going to be able to take that 30, 000 square foot view and really ask yourself. Is there anything here that actually needs to be updated, changed or improved upon, um, from a macro or micro level, or is this the time where I can go and improve another aspect of my life in this quote season or a quarter?
And there's always other ways. I mean, that's the thing. That's why evaluating where you're at on things and how you feel about what you've got, uh, is, is so important because like for chance to ask this question, like maybe, maybe you say, Hey, like, I'm not, I'm not jazzed about this business this year, blah, blah, blah.
I want to go seek these other opportunities. And, and like sometimes when you have established businesses that are doing multiple seven figures, like you can, I mean, I, it sounds crazy for most owners and founders, but like you can hire a CEO and step out. Like you don't have to throw the whole fucking thing away.
Like you may not even have to sell it at all, or you don't have to sell it. Certainly hire a CEO, come back in three years, see how it's operating. And maybe you've got the, you've got the energy to go bad at back at it, or maybe you like what you're doing and everybody is. Better off,
that's a detailed answer to what I meant when I was like, when I deal with things, especially with the real estate, cause it's kind of newer to me.
I've, you know, I've started owning properties a year and a half ago. If something gets to me and I didn't enjoy dealing with it, am I, my brain goes to, I should just sell it. No, no, no, there's plenty of steps I could take before that. It's like, I shouldn't be the person that had to deal with it in the first place.
So I either need to train the person that was in place to deal with it. Or if I found out the answer, give them the answer and then empower them to make that change, um, in, in, in the business next time that that comes around or make that decision. So I think we got some really good responses here. Was there anything else you want to add to that?
No,
man.
No, I like that. Um, Chance, if you want to put context behind it, hit me up.
I did ask him a question. I said, are you asking these as two separate questions and in what area of your life? So, uh, but I think, I think we took, took a really good stab at it and then we hope that that adds value to the listeners lives this week.
All good, man.