AD ‘VENTURE’ TO CREATE CHOICE

A side venture is not just for people who want to quit their jobs, it also can be career insurance in case a job quits you.

It was nearly ten years ago that we made the decision to embark on building a business of our own, a side venture to our careers. This was new territory for us, but the adventure we saw in it was something we could not resist. Ali was drawn to the community of like-minded, optimistic people that she could be a part of, while Mason saw an opportunity to develop financial growth and stability. Both of us were ready to dive into a second wave of learning and growth apart from our academic education. Much of the knowledge we gained and changes we endured opened up a new way of thinking, decision-making, and perspective on living for us. We’d like to share some of these learnings with you… this isn’t an exhaustive list but rather a handful of things we embraced over the last decade that we feel have been a major contributor to our progress.

How do you delay gratification in a world where you can have merely anything you want in the click of a button, whether you have the means or not? 

No. 1 - The intention to live below our means. We are given opportunities to finance everything today, from a new vehicle to a clothing purchase. Just because the option is there doesn’t mean we take it. Here’s why that is for us - we decided we wanted to live life debt free, where we didn’t have the weight of financial dues resting on our shoulders. Where we purchased necessary things that we could afford and were intentional with purchases that we wanted. A financial budget (that we review and follow each month) has done wonders for bringing clarity to where our money is allocated and whether we are on track with that plan. This was foundational to accelerating our debt payoff, 6-figures of loans that we tackled in three years. 

A trusted leader in our life shared with us the principle of spending less on our personal entertainment than we do on giving our money to causes with a mission that we believe in. This has been a practice we’ve enjoyed doing. It reminds us that the resources we have are not our own and can be used to serve in greater ways than accumulating more for ourselves. 

It’s important to acknowledge that these decisions are a countering movement against mainstream culture today. The message to satisfy your greatest desires now screams at us from every direction. As we’ve observed this from the media and extensions of our family and friend groups, we’ve had to realize that the world we live in and the people we love aren’t perfect. They may have different goals than we do... and that’s okay. This has been a freeing realization. Some of you may be asking…

Why am I struggling to live below my means? Or why don’t more people do so? 

No. 2 - The benefit of value-driven decision-making. Remember the MasterCard commercials that went something like this?  

“Most popular toy for toddler: $200 

Most popular stuffed animal for toddler: $100

Most popular book for toddler: $50 

Watching your toddler play with an empty cardboard box instead: Priceless

There are some things money can’t buy, for everything else there’s MasterCard” 

We identified that what we value most is time with our loved ones, being spiritually, emotionally, physically and financially healthy and sharing our energy and resources to make a positive impact by serving others. 

We continue to realize that our relationships hold much more value than the material items that we have in our life. Nothing is more priceless than the quality time, attention, love and service that we share with people around us. If your purpose is based on how much money and material things you can obtain for yourself, you will sell your life to the highest bidder. Learning to align our decisions with what we value most versus what we desire now, has required discipline and brought clarity to our daily choices. 

Take a look at the material things around you (that we recognize you most likely have worked hard for) and ask yourself, what will be the value of this in ten years? 

No. 3 - Understanding the impact our inner circle has on us. Learning to put controls on what we allow to be our primary influencers has made a significant impact on our overall mindset and health. The company we keep is vital and I’m not just speaking to the communities of people we are a part of. Consider what you consume on a daily basis. What your eyes see, what your ears hear, what your mind processes. All of these things have a deeper impact on our thought life, words and actions.

When it comes to relationships, people seek out connection with others in many environments. At their workplace. The gym. Bars. Church groups. Fantasy football leagues. And so on. We all have a desire to belong to a community. We’ve learned to evaluate whether the character and lifestyle of the closest people in our life aligns with who we want to be and where we want to go. Take a moment to reflect on the five closest relationships in your life, how many areas of your lives do you recognize as being similar? As humans, we are incredibly influenceable. Our association is powerful. 

When we recognized that we would have to unlearn bad habits and relearn a healthier relationship with money, we accepted the need to have people in our life who have already been on this path.

No. 4 - Defining wealth by our standards. When we consider the definition of financial independence, we don’t see it solely as a certain dollar amount in our bank and investment accounts. We determine wealth by the amount of time freedom we have, to spend our days pursuing what’s most important to us. As we learned about the different ways money is made, it became clear that the lifestyle we desired would need to be fueled by multiple streams of passive income. A way of creating money that eventually would not require our time investment in order for the income to continuously flow. 

We got serious about discovering what our realistic options were for creating this outcome. After ruling out possibilities our initial venture that required significant capital investment, we decided to break into the entrepreneurial world through the launch of a business in the e-commerce industry. That route surely wasn’t glamorous or something we had a burning passion for. But we saw the results it yielded in the lives of others and minimal capital investment it required to scale and automate over time. That spark of potential and the guidance from people in the industry was what we needed to hit the ground running. 

There was a moment when we were finally able to see beyond ourselves and began to define our dream by how we could impact others in a positive way. 

No. 5 - The value of having a pay-it-forward work ethic. We wouldn’t be where we are today without a tribe of people who have sown into us over the years. Providing guidance, support, tough love and diverse perspective that we needed. The experience we gained over multiple years of learning to find order in our life (with our time, relationships and finances) propelled us to start our second venture, an e-learning entity. With the intention of helping others discover how to improve and reach their goals through customized coaching, releasing content, maintaining a podcast, and sharing through speaking engagements. 

Our drive to continue working hard has not been to solely creative this ultimate lifestyle for ourselves. We desire to give back so much of what we’ve learned so far by teaching others. Coming alongside them and having a personal relationship, building trust, and fostering accountability. The floodgates lifted when we finally burst the bubble of focusing so heavily on ourselves and allowed opportunity to visualize how our dreams can evolve beyond us and into the lives of other people. Our dreams continue to grow and evolve...

In the end, we only regret the chances we did not take, the decisions we delayed, and the relationships we were afraid to pursue. 

It was nearly ten years ago that we made the decision to embark on a path to start building a life that would yield us choice and fulfillment, where we could define our work in life versus being defined by our jobs. While the journey has not been easy, it has absolutely been adventurous. 

The decision to live below our means allowed us to pay off over $100,000 of student loan and consumer debt within the first three years of our marriage. And as our passive income has increased we haven’t chosen to elevate our lifestyle by spending more, instead we focused on being able to create the option for Ali to step away from her 9-5 job in Human Resources. Which became a reality for her in early 2021 at the age of 27. We continue to see stable growth in our e-commerce venture, yielding a professional passive income. Our greatest return thus far in growing a side venture has not been what we’ve accumulated from it, but who we’ve become through the process. And our biggest accomplishment has been the community we’ve developed and culture we embody. Individuals who are growth-minded and desire to develop as servant leaders. We look forward to continuing to create a ripple effect, one family at a time. 

We share the progress we’ve experienced with the hope that it will positively challenge your mindset and inspire you to identify what you value most, and to seek out solutions, relationships, and guidance to assist you in living more in alignment with that vision. Life is meant to be lived celebrating the wins and embracing the challenges as each of those moments offer opportunity to grow in perseverance, character and faith.