Interviewing the Incredible Author of Time, Money, Freedom, Ray Higdon: An EOFire Classic from 2021

0:02Who's ready to rock today, Fire Nation? JLD here and welcome to Entrepreneurs on fire brought Brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals with great shows like Content is Profit. Today, we're pulling a classic episode from the archives and we'll be breaking down the author of Time, Money, and Freedom, Ray Higdon. Ray and Jessica are former number one earners and bestselling authors who've helped social sellers enroll over 300 ,000 customers and recruit 71 ,000 new reps in just the past three years. In today's value bombs, Fire Nation, are the fact that if you've been through trauma, Look at it as your responsibility to share that story and impact others who aren't as strong as you.

0:41And with more money, Fire Nation, you can do more good and so much more. And a big thank you for sponsoring today's episode goes to Ray and our sponsors. Imperfect Action, hosted by Steph Taylor, is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals. Imperfect Action is a bite-sized online marketing podcast for business owners who want to get straight to the point. Join Steph Taylor as she answers all your business marketing questions. Recent episodes include five must-knows to sell your online course, program, or membership, and four steps to grow your email list for your next launch.

1:12Listen to Imperfect Action wherever you get your podcasts. Ever thought about giving a TEDx talk? It's one of the most powerful ways to share your message with the world. And four-time TEDx speaker Taylor Conroy from Thought Leader can help you get there. Visit thought-leader.com slash fire to join Taylor's free training where he teaches you how to land a TEDx talk and spread your message to millions. Ray, say what's up to Fire Nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with. What's up, Fire Nation? I would say something that I believe is that the more successful you become, the more important it becomes, the more important it is for you to identify with what is driving you.

2:04When you don't have much, it's actually fairly easy for most people to get motivated to do something about it. It's when you have much that it's so important for you to keep working on what is driving you. What drives you? Impact. What drives me is impact. That's what gives me significance. That's what makes me feel good. It gives me a voice when I grew up in a world where I wasn't allowed to have a voice. And so me knowing that I'm making a positive impact is the thing that drives me. Ray and myself have hung out a number of times over the years, and every time it's very enjoyable. We've also both recently launched books, Mind the Common Path on Common Success, his time, money, freedom.

2:53Three things that I know a lot of people put a lot of value on. So talk to us about this book, Ray. And just from a fellow author, I'm curious, how did the title come into being? And then of course, expound into more details about the book. Yeah, for sure. And we wrote this with Hay House. Hay House has been an amazing business partner and an amazing publisher. And we really went back and forth. We had a lot of different working titles. But it came down to time, money, freedom of what if people were indoctrinated to possibility, that's really what we all want. We want time, money, freedom. We want the ability to do what we want, when we want, with who we want.

3:43We want to feel like we're producing and we want to have control of our time. And all of those reasons are what led me to start a business, to leave the corporate world. And so, yeah, that's kind of the origination of the title. As far as the book, it's my wife and I, because we both wrote it together. It's 10 Simple Rules to Redefine What's Possible and Radically Reshape Your Life. So Fire Nation, we're actually going to go through some of these 10 rules to transform your life. I also want to start, Ray, with your top three takeaways from this book. I know that there's a lot of value in every one of these 10 rules.

4:29Let's talk about the top three takeaways. Like when Fire Nation goes through and reads this book about time, money, and freedom, what do you want them to be taken away? For sure. The three would be, number one, that you can create a great life despite a bad past. And I'm an example of that. I was in a very abusive home as a kid. My parents had split. My stepmom was very physically abusive. Up until the age of 12, I was beaten in some way, shape, or form every day. and and and I also share a lot of different stories in the book of people who've overcome hardship trauma everything from you know physical abuse sexual abuse even trafficking and so there's there's some pretty amazing stories that really backs that concept up number two is if you've had a if you have a tough past if you've gone through some tough times you can really create inspiration.

5:29You can create hope. And I think that that's so important for us to feel significant as humans, for us to feel like we're making a difference. You know, I mentioned that impact is what drives me. And so I look for what are the, you know, the small hinges that move the big doors of impact. And for me, you know, our main target audience and who we mainly coach and train as network marketers. And the reason that resonates with me so much is that, you know, it is kind of a gateway drug, right? For entrepreneurs, a lot of people get started in network marketing that would never launch a restaurant that would never, you know, buy a franchise that would never do a typical business, but it got them in.

6:22So I I believe that, you know, us focusing on people who are just starting a home business or, you know, just dipping their toe in the entrepreneurial water, we can really move a lot of levers because I think business owners and entrepreneurs are the backbone of society. They raise the most money for charity. They do the most good. They, you know, invent things and do cool stuff. The third thing is that with more money, you can do more good. and this may sound obvious to some but for a lot of people that's not the case so you can only donate so much of your time you can only serve at the soup kitchen so many days a week at the end of the day we got bills to pay right we we have to make make ends meet and so but with more money you can do more good now in society it is very popular to demonize the millionaires or the billionaires or whoever's making money.

7:15And you can lose sight of, hey, the person that generates money, the person that makes money is able to give more. They're able to provide jobs. They're able to invest in research and development. And so with more money, you can do more good. And that's a message I think most people need to hear because it's quite contrary to Hollywood. It's quite contrary to the media and, you know, nowadays social media. And so those would be the three biggest takeaways from the book. Fire Nation, number one, a bad past does not mean a troubled future. Just because you've had a tough past, it does not mean you're going to have a tough future.

7:54And in fact, I love how he flowed this into the next one, which is turn those tough times into impact. Turn those tough times into inspiration, into motivation for others. Because guess what? if you've had a really challenging, struggling past, but you've got over it, other people can as well. And with more money, you can do more good. And I do love the phrase that money can't buy happiness, but the lack of money does cause struggle to create a happy scenario because you're always having to focus, Fire Nation, on what am I doing right now to put food in my mouth, to put shelter over my head, to protect my loved ones.

8:29And when you're always in that stress, fight, or flight, is that really a scenario that you can be truly happy in and you know whatever they say also that you know hey money can't buy happiness i always say well listen people who say that have probably never been able to hand a blank check to a cause that they believe so deeply in because i can tell you that's brought me a lot of happiness to build you know now six schools in developing countries and to be able to support the causes that i love and i know that you support the causes that you believe in too, Ray. And that's such a huge thing, Fire Nation, that you can, you know, in some ways, I like to say, feel obligated to find success, feel obligated to make a lot of money.

9:10Because when you do that, then you can keep doing what you're doing because you're causing impact and you can afford the lifestyle that you're creating as a result. You can keep spreading that inspiration and joy. And then, hey, philanthropy can be that next game for you. And I'm seeing a lot of people really double down into that kind of stuff. So before we move on, Ray, like what exactly was the thought process of time, money, freedom for the title? I mean, I know that we've kind of discussed those three words, but how'd you settle on that for the title? I mean, again, it's just thinking of what, what, what is it that people really want?

9:48And, and I'll tell you why I tuned into that. It's probably a title that, you know, I wouldn't have come up with a few years ago. But for example, I went to, I do some work with foster care and actually here as of this recording couple of weeks, I'm emceeing a big gala where we were building a crisis house to help, you know, kids in that situation. And when I went to one of the foster homes, one of the group foster homes, and me and my friend, a doctor who is a counselor for foster care, we asked the kids, Hey, what would make your life better? Like what, what would be cool to have here at the foster home?

10:33You know, what is it that you want? No one could answer that. Like the kids could not, they literally, you know, like if I asked my daughter any minute of the day, she wants ice cream, she wants Pokemon, she wants Pikachu. She went, you know, like she will rattle off. In fact, is the minute I see her, when she wakes up, she's issuing orders of what she wants to, she comes home from school, she's telling me what she wants. She literally tells me what she wants 24 hours a day. And, but these kids that, you know, have been in tough situations, many of, most of them, I would say, have been in horrifying situations, many of them, unfortunately, you know, if they have food and they're not getting beaten and they're not seeing mommy all bruised up and cut up, then to them, hey, we're doing good.

11:19And they don't have time to think about once. And so I think a lot of society is like that. I think a lot of society is, you know, punch the clock, not think about possibility, not think about, you know, what could my life be? But, you know, I'm just going to keep doing my routine. I'm going to keep showing up even if I'm not happy with it. And so for me, I wanted to spread the possibility of time, money, freedom, of being able to do what you want when you want. And so that's how we came to it. Fire Nation, I mean, what an impactful story. I mean, I love the reality of how Ray came to those three words.

11:56And when we get back from the break, we're going to be talking about 10 rules that will transform your life. We may not get to all 10. That's what the book's for, obviously, but we're going to be getting to a couple of those when we get back from thinking our sponsors. If you're a startup with big goals, then it's important to find a CRM that can keep up. But I get it. When you're in startup mode, it can be tough to know which platform is right for you and your business. Here's the good news. From marketing and sales to supporting content and everything in between, HubSpot's all on one customer platform has startups covered.

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13:05Do you have a message inside that you know is meant to be shared with the world. Giving a TEDx talk is one of the most powerful ways to share your message with the world and Thought Leader can help you get there. Thought Leader is a speaker coaching company that has helped over 550 and counting coaches, speakers, entrepreneurs, authors, and experts land TEDx talks. Thought Leader is not affiliated with TED or TEDx, but they're able to get these results because their founder, Taylor Conroy, is a four-time TEDx speaker himself and past EO Fire guest. You might be thinking a TEDx talk sounds great, but where do you start?

13:37Taylor has put together a free training that's going to teach you how to land a TEDx talk in as little as 90 days. Join Taylor to learn exactly what TEDx organizers are looking for in their speakers, how to write a talk that goes viral once it goes online, and more. Visit thought-leader.com slash fire. Join Taylor for this free training and get your message out of your head, out of your heart, and out into the world where it belongs. That's thought-leader.com slash fire. So Ray, we're back and you wrote about 10 rules to transform your life. I'm a big fan of rules. I'm a big fan of systems. I'm a big fan of automations.

14:16I mean, I created the 17-step roadmap to financial freedom and fulfillment. So we are really on the same page here. Let's go through a couple of these rules. Take it away. One of the biggest rules that we've gotten feedback from since we launched this book is rule number two, which is called pluck your weeds. Now, I think some people in the self development space, they hear that and think, oh, get rid of the negative people in my life, which, you know, hey, that could be part of it. But it's bigger than that. Pluck your weeds means that you identify who is it that you want to be? And how do you want to show up in life, in your family, in your relationships, in your business or whatever.

15:03And, um, you decide what areas are not congruent with who I want to be. And so I'll share a personal example. Um, my wife and I were on a couple of different boards for different charities. Um, usually, well, they're all around kids. Um, so whether we're raising money for the Golisano Children's hospital or the March of Dimes and the NICU or with our foster care endeavors. But we're on this charity board and we're at a charity auction. And one of our neighbors, our ex-neighbors, I should say, came up to us and said, hey, did you see the Belize trip? And all of these trips are being auctioned for charity, right?

15:47So it's a good cause. And we're like, no, you know, what's the Belize trip? And she says, oh man, it's amazing. It's a, you know, it's five couples only. It's a private jet, uh, on a private Island, a private chef, you board a private yacht, like everything's like, you know, private, private. And my wife is like, Oh my God, Whoa. Like she's blown away. She's super excited. Me, I'm terrified. And I think this sounds like the worst idea ever. And I, I don't, I, you know, I don't, I don't voice it cause I don't want to be that guy, but inside I like get anxiety. I like get stressed out and I'm like, what the hell's going on here?

16:25And so driving home, I figure, you know, part of my brain is, eh, you know what? We probably won't win that auction. So no big deal. But the bigger part is what's wrong with me? Why did I react that way? And that is not congruent with who I want to be. I want to be the most amazing husband ever. I want to be, you know, someone who recognizes something cool because I know that I should be excited about it. but I, I, I was, I didn't like it. It just caused me stress. And so I decided to pluck that weed. Now this is, you know, a little different, but I, uh, worked with one of my performance coaches, a gentleman named Elliot Rowe, um, who is amazing.

17:11I don't know if you've had him on your show, but he's amazing. And he's a hypnotist. He, uh, coaches some of the top players in the MMA, some of the top players in the UFC and, um, and the world series of poker, believe it or not. And so I asked him i'm like hey, i'd like to dive into this why did that stress me the heck out? And he put me in a hypnosis session And he brought me to a part of my life that I actually didn't even remember Which was when I was in third grade when I was in the third grade I had a teacher that knew something wasn't right. You know, I was you know coming, you know coming to school with You know bruises and you know wearing a turtleneck because I had scratches on my neck and, you know, different things.

17:54And she knew that something was wrong. And one day she says, hey, I'd like you to meet with the guidance counselor. And I'm like, okay, I don't know what's going on. I'm like, okay, fine. And so that guidance counselor started asking me questions and, you know, we would meet every week and she would ask me different questions. And, you know, I really started to trust her and it felt good because I wasn't able to talk to anybody. You know, I didn't have many friends. I wasn't allowed to go over to people's houses. And so I shared with her, I shared with her some of the things that were going on at home.

18:25And, you know, most of them not very nice. You know, one time when I wasn't feeling good, I got sick in my oatmeal. And when I refused to eat it after my stepmom was trying to make me, she stabbed me in the chest. And so, you know, not the greatest, not the greatest times. Right. And so I share these things with the guidance counselor. And one day I show up to our weekly meeting and, you know, I always felt good after our meeting. So I'm looking forward to it. And I walk into the meeting, I open the door and there sits my dad and my step-mom and the guidance counselor. And she proceeds to tell them every single thing I've ever told her because she simply thought they were too outrageous to be true and thought that I was just needing more attention.

19:20Looking back, I know she meant well. I know, you know, that had to be the reason I have to think that way. But that was a really, really bad day. And that was the day in third grade that Ray Higdon stopped trusting anybody. And I mean, anybody. So, you know, John, like, you know, you and I, we might speak at an event, but you want to talk personally, I'm going to dip to my room. And it's not because I'm better than you. It's not because I have some big ego. It's actually because I, I had in my subconscious that if I get close to someone and I start to trust them, they're going to betray me. They're going to hurt me.

20:00And so my trepidation about this amazing Belize trip was I'm going to have to spend five days with people and I won't be able to escape and I'll have to let them in and trust them. And so that was the humongous weed that I plucked. And, and so I just don't, now that I understand the, the machine behind the habit, um, I no longer have that anxiety. I'm, I'm no longer the guy that goes to my wife, hey, are you ready to leave when we're at a party? I'm no longer the guy that tries to talk her out of going to parties. I've actually completely changed that part of my personality because I took the time to study it and pluck that weed.

20:42Pluck your weeds. What a story, Fire Nation. I know a lot of you are resonating with that in different ways. We all have different stories in our past, and you're resonating with that in a different way than I am and that somebody else may be listening as well. But at the same time, the message is coming through, pluck your weeds. And that's just one Fire Nation of 10 rules that will transform your life. So instead of going into another one, Ray, let's just really end with a bang right here. Talk to us about what you really want Fire Nation to know about everything that we've talked about here today, about why time, money freedom needs to be on their 2021 reading list.

21:24And then we'll say goodbye. You know, the final chapter, and I won't do an overview, but I just give the title here is make an impact. And I'll tell you a real quick story. We, you know, we ran a reality show called play to win and we did two seasons of it. CNBC looked at it, didn't pick it up. That's okay. Maybe in the future. Um, and, but there was several amazing things that came out of it. And one of them was a, a lady named Renee Adams and Renee Adams. She was in our season one of play to win. And she had, let's see, never done a video, never spoken in public, never shared her story. Renee opened up, you know, we created the environment for people to open up.

22:11She opened up and she shared that she had been a victim of physical abuse, sexual abuse, and even trafficking as a kid. She had been in and out of foster homes. She had had foster parents abandon her, which just sounds crazy. And literally, if you can think of a bad thing to happen to a kid, she had that. But she had never shared it. She was embarrassed. She was shameful. And she'd never shared it. And here she was, you know, I don't know her exact age, but maybe early, you know, late forties, early fifties. And so I told her after love and honor and giving her condolences and everything. And we talk about her in the book.

22:50Um, I said, listen, you know, you have the opportunity to inspire a lot of people. There's a lot of people out there that haven't gone through half the stuff you have that are depressed. Your story would inspire them to keep going. They would inspire them to play bigger. And I say that a lot. Some people take it. Some people don't. Well, the next week she was speaking at a center for abused women, sharing her story, had never shared her story publicly. And then just about eight months ago, she spoke at the 17th annual international conference against human trafficking for the university of Toledo and shared her story in front of 19 countries.

23:32And so I say that because, you know, if you've been through trauma, if you've been through some tough stuff, I really see it as your responsibility to go out there and share that story and impact other people that aren't as strong as you, that are contemplating suicide, that are depressed, that have let it ruin their entire life. And so, you know, that's one of the reasons I share some of my tough stuff. You know, we didn't really get into business much, but there is a lot of business in the actual book of making money and what we did to generate over$30 million online from losing it all in the real estate crash and being in foreclosure.

24:11So we do share that stuff. But the big message is, hey, just because at one point you were broken doesn't mean you have to stay that way. You can inspire a lot of people and I hope that you do. Fire Nation, I like that way of putting it, that you have a responsibility, that you have an obligation to share because you just don't know how it's going to positively impact other people. I mean, you know, thinking back in 2012 when, you know, this really, yes, clueless, immature, naive podcast host named Johnny Dumas launched a podcast, stuttering around, interviewing, you know, some unbelievably successful entrepreneurs.

24:49I'd then get emails literally later that year of people saying, this podcast saved my life. And it wasn't like, I was great. I was actually not great. I was bad. But it was because I was bringing people on that were telling stories and those stories were impacting the right people at the right time. I was just a conduit. I was just hosting the platform. And to get those emails and being like, what if I hadn't launched this podcast? And it was like, literally was a question of mine. And so you never know, Fire Nation, the impact you're going to have. And that was in year one. Now I'm in year 10, 3 ,000 episodes, 100 million listens.

25:24So you never, never know. So Ray, take us home. How can Fire Nation pick up this book? Where do you want them to go? Anything else before we say goodbye? Yeah, and we have it on Kindle and Audible in our voices. And of course, the physical copy on Amazon. The easiest is tmfbook.com. That stands obviously for time money freedom book.com. So tmf book.com and you know, sometimes, um, you know, a group leader or a, you know, someone who, you know, has a close circle of people wants to buy multiple copies. We do have bonuses and cool stuff on there. Um, if that's you and, uh, but it's at tmf book.com and, uh, John, thank you for inspiring me to start my podcast so many years ago and just appreciate all that you do.

26:15I love it. And it's that ripple effect fire nation it literally never ends when it starts tmfbook.com that's tmfbook.com fire nation you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with and hello you've been hanging out with rh and jld today so let's keep up that heat head over to eofire.com type ray in the search bar this is not the first episode of entrepreneurs on fire he's been on so listen to the other ones, they were all immensely valuable. And Ray, thank you brother for sharing your truth, your knowledge, your value bombs with Fire Nation today. For that, we salute you and we'll catch you on the flip side.

26:55Thanks so much. Hey, Fire Nation, today's value bomb content was brought to you by Ray. And if you're ready to rock your own podcast, check out my free podcasting course where I teach you how to create and launch your podcast for free. Freepodcastcourse.com. I will We'll catch you there or I'll catch you on the flip side. Imperfect Action, hosted by Steph Taylor, is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals. Imperfect Action is a bite-sized online marketing podcast for business owners who want to get straight to the point. Join Steph Taylor as she answers all your business marketing questions.

27:28Recent episodes include five must-knows to sell your online course, program, or membership, and four steps to grow your email list for your next launch. Listen to Imperfect Action wherever you get your podcasts. Ever thought about giving a TEDx talk? It's one of the most powerful ways to share your message with the world. And four-time TEDx speaker, Taylor Conroy from Thought Leader can help you get there. Visit thought-leader.com slash fire to join Taylor's free training where he teaches you how to land a TEDx talk and spread your message to millions.