The Secret to Creating Real Freedom Through Digital Entrepreneurship with Jason Stapleton: An EOFire Classic from 2021

0:01Boom! Shake the room, Fire Nation. JLD here and welcome to Entrepreneurs on Fire. Brought to you by the HubSpot. Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals with great shows like Billion Dollar Moves. Today, we're pulling a classic episode from the archives, and we'll be breaking down the secret to creating real freedom through digital entrepreneurship. To drop these value bombs, I brought Jason Stapleton into EO Fire Studios. Jason is the author of The Nomadic Wealth Formula, host of Wealth, Power, and Influence Podcast, and founder of the Nomad Network, a community for entrepreneurs building digital businesses.

0:39In today, Fire Nation, we'll talk about mindset stuff. It kills most early-stage business owners, how to make sure your mindset is on point, how nobody can recreate you and using that to your advantage. And Fire Nation, you need to focus on the acquisition of those rare and specialized skills and so much more. And a big thank you for sponsoring today's episode goes to Jason and our sponsors. Hustle and Flowchart, hosted by Joe Feer, is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals. Join Joe as he discusses systems, mindset tweaks, reframes, and strategies to help you build a business that gives you freedom and fuel for your life.

1:15A recent episode on using AI for effortless content creation is a must listen. Listen to Hustle and Flowchart 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. In 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. Jason, say what's up to Fire Nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with.

1:53Well, first, I thank you so much for having me on. And, uh, that's a great question. I, for me, I guess I'll answer for me. For me, I think it was a healthy dose of ego and delusion. Um, I think that, I think that as when you got big dreams and you got someplace like goals you want to achieve, there are going to be a lot of people who just would prefer you stay in that kind of world of mediocrity. And I think if you want to be really successful at anything, you've got to, you've got to believe that that dream is possible, that you can create and manifest that. And then you have to live in the beautiful delusion of that dream until you achieve it.

2:31If you can do that, I think the odds of success go up. The beautiful delusion, Fire Nation. I love how other entrepreneurs talk about how ignorance is bliss, because in a way it is. It's just nice to be ignorant about the pain, the strife, the struggles that a lot of entrepreneurs go through before finding that success. So guess what? You know, sometimes ignorance is bliss. Delusion is not the worst thing in the world. And today, as I mentioned in the introduction, Fire Nation, we're talking about the secret to creating real freedom through digital entrepreneurship. So let's just dive into it because I want to know, Jason, what makes entrepreneurship more important today than it's ever been before?

3:09I have a background in finance and kind of economics, and I think that we are part, we are at the very early stages of a massive cultural and economic shift. One that is similar to what we saw during the Industrial Revolution, and the easiest way I can explain it is prior to the Industrial Revolution, most people were entrepreneurs. They lived on farms, they were blacksmiths or apprentices, and that was the way we lived our lives. And we've gotten away from that. But I think what's happening right now, and it's the very beginning of it, we are seeing a shift into automation, into artificial intelligence, augmented reality, all these really amazing things that are going to happen for us in our culture.

3:50but it's going to cause a massive shift in the way we work and the way we collaborate and the way we interact with each other. And I think we're going to see a shift back towards a lot more entrepreneurship where people are creating the life that they want rather than going to work for somebody else and just trying to pay their bills. And so it's an exciting time to be alive. And I think all of the upside moving forward over the next 10, 20, 30 years is going to be through entrepreneurship. Fire Nation, you heard it here first, second, and third, you know, multiple times now over the past decade.

4:25I've been telling you that this is the future. And then now here we have Jason, who's about to share his three pillars of nomadic wealth to really hammer home the power and freedom that we can all achieve through digital entrepreneurship. So Jason, you have these three pillars of quote unquote nomadic wealth. Can you break those down for us? I've been talking with my audience and throwing this idea around for a long time that there are in order to create freedom. I don't know your audience. My I'm come from a very conservative, very kind of libertarian background. And so we talk a lot about freedom and all this and liberty.

5:00But I think those words get tossed around a lot. And oftentimes there's not a lot of meat. And so what I decided to do, I'd been talking with my audience about the importance of entrepreneurship, controlling the source of your income. And then after March 2020, when we had the big COVID outbreak, I sat down and wrote a book called The Nomadic Wealth Formula. And in it, I kind of lay out these ideas of creating what I think is real freedom in your life. And it involves three things. Nomadic wealth is, first and foremost, you need to constantly be improving yourself by acquiring rare and specialized skills.

5:36The bigger the problems you can solve, the more money you'll make. Secondly is you need to control the source of your income. All of the rules, all of the benefits, all of the upside is for people who own their own companies, who run their own businesses. And then finally, and this is I think where I deviate a lot from other people who talk about this stuff is I think you need to, as best you can, make that income mobile by focusing all of your time and attention on business activities that can be done from anywhere on earth. and I think those things create the greatest amount of autonomy, the greatest amount of freedom in our lives and the most amount of wealth and prosperity.

6:15So that's kind of what I outlined in the book and it's taken off. Like a lot of people seem to really enjoy it, so I'm glad. Well, I love it. I love these three pillars for so many obvious reasons. I mean, I'm taking down some crazy notes here. I want to focus on number one and number three and number one, Fire Nation, which I love this focus is the bigger the problem you solve, the more money you make. So why are we all spending our time trying to solve these little tiny little problems, you know, these little gnat problems? Like, listen, the bigger the problem you solve, the more money you make.

6:45And I even want to add something to this because I really believe in my history, in my experience, the bigger and more painful problem you solve, the more money you will make because listen, people will beat a path down to your door for the best solution to a real problem that is painful in their life. They will beat a path to your door. People will find you. That is the amazing thing about solving big, painful problems and make your income mobile. I mean, anywhere, Fire Nation. I love that. Puerto Rico, anyone? I mean, I've been down here now for five years. Kate and I just celebrated our fifth year anniversary in Puerto Rico because our income is mobile.

7:25So we were able to leave the 50 % plus taxes in California, move to the 4 % taxes of Puerto Rico five years ago and build real wealth. We've taken 90 day vacations for four years in a row now, because guess what? We do work an hour in the morning. We do work an hour in the evening, but we're doing it from Paris, France. We're doing it from Bratislava. We're doing it from Prague and it's allowing us to travel the world because we are mobile with our income. And what I want to move into next, Jason, is something that I've definitely been doing here in Puerto Rico. So I'll add to whatever you're about to talk about, which is total autonomy.

8:03Talk to us about what that means. Oh yeah. Thank you very much. So in the book, I talk about total autonomy and it really is a way for me to define for myself what's important. You see a lot of people worry about money and getting more money And I think if you don't have any money or you have a very limited supply of it That that is kind of a focus for you for everybody But once you have enough that you're comfortable Life kind of becomes about more and something greater and and for me Once the money started to come in I realized very quickly money is replaceable I can have more of it. I can generate more of it.

8:39I can spend it and make it back but what I never get more of is time. And so when I talk about autonomy, what I'm really talking about is being able to do what you want with who you want, when you want, where you want on your terms without a consideration for the cost. That to me is what real freedom is. And it's more than just money. It's about what sort of work you choose to do and where you choose to do it. Like you said, you live in Puerto Rico. My fiance and I are getting ready to move to Nicaragua and to escape these LA, these California taxes, just like you did. These are things that anybody can do if you build the business correctly.

9:15And as you said, as you correctly said, if you solve a bigger pain problem that people are willing to beat a path to your door to solve. Fire Nation, total autonomy. Why would you not want to create that for your life if you have the option? And in 2021 and beyond, you have that option. We have so much value coming your way as soon as we get back from thanking our sponsors. Every entrepreneur knows that growing a business is hard. Trying to figure out which software to use, when, and for what purpose can be frustrating. You've got your email marketing system, your payment software, your CRM, your content tools, your email tools, your tools to retool your tools.

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11:36That's thought-leader.com. So Jason, you talk a lot about personal branding. Why do you and have you over the years put such a high value on personal brands? So we were just talking about the size of the problem and the size of the pain that you can solve for somebody. That's one side of really the marketing part of any business. The other side is the trust factor is like when, when we start, I studied behavioral science for years. And one of the things that you find out very quickly is that people aren't always looking for the very best value for the money. We like to believe we are, but we really aren't.

12:15What we're really after is how good do I think this solution will be? And how badly do I think I can get hurt. And what you do, the greatest price elasticity in any business is in the people who are front facing of that business. So how much do I trust the person who's selling this to me? How much do I trust the solution provider? The only way that we do that and we create that kind of price elasticity is through personal brand. And for most of your listeners, I would imagine being in the podcasting space, that's everything for you guys. Creating that human connection, Really getting a feel for, I know, like, and trust this person.

12:53And that's why one stylist can make$20 a haircut and somebody else can make$400. It's why one guy selling product can't sell his for more than$97 and some other guy out there selling the same thing for$20 ,000. The problem you solve gets you so far. What really creates the greatest amount of price elasticity is that personal brand. And here's the best thing. This is the last thing I'll say about it. The best thing about it is nobody can recreate you. It is the one unique selling proposition, the one unique promise of value that nobody else on the planet has. And all you have to do is show it to people.

13:30And what I say is, you know, this is something that we create. It's not something that we allow to have happen. We let people know what we want to be known about us. And that creates, as I said, the greatest amount of upside in any business. So many value bombs here at Fire Nation. I mean, talking about personal branding, I mean, if you did any research or read anything about Beeple who sold his everydays for$69 million, that guy for 10 or 15 years had been building up a personal brand by just releasing one beautiful piece of art every day on Instagram. He built up over 2 million Instagram followers doing that.

14:03He built a personal brand doing that, which then allowed him to be in the right situation at the right time. And of course, there's a lot of luck involved. He admits that, but the right place at the right time for 69, million dollar single sale on his every days, the 5 ,000 all combined. So please, Fire Nation, remember the importance of building a personal brand and identify how you can start going down that path or continue down that path if you're already on it. And no one can recreate you. You are a snowflake, Fire Nation. Remember that, own that, revel in that. So I want to talk about my favorite topic, Jason, which is podcasting.

14:39What role does podcasting play in your business and your personal brands. It's huge. And this is why I think there's probably a connection with your audience because I imagine almost everybody has a podcast. Now, it is by far and away the number one way that I build trust and value for people for free. I can tie back literally tens of thousands of subscribers and millions of dollars in revenue to my podcast. And it is a way for me every single week to get in front of my audience, talk about the things that are important to all of us and build the brand because the brand just isn't about you demonstrating your competency or displaying your superpower, as I call it.

15:22It's about the connection of all the things that shouldn't matter that do. Like, what are your thoughts on marriage? What are your thoughts on business, on success, on wealth and money? What are your thoughts on health and spirituality? Right. We don't these things shouldn't matter to us when we're making buying decisions or when we're choosing who to do business with. But they matter immensely. And this is a podcast is a way for you to share who you are, every bit of it with people so that they can find those pieces that they cling to that really build that trust and relationship. Fire Nation, if you've been listening to my podcast for any period of time, you know the value of the spoken word, the intimacy of creating real value for people and being in their ear balls specifically on a day-to-day, week-to-week, month-to-month basis.

16:13So this can be a great part of building your personal brand, especially when you go back to the early parts about what Jason and I were talking about, when you're creating a real solution for a painful and big problem. If you can do that with your podcast, you are going to win. So Jason, I like giving my audience, Fire Nation, one big task to focus on that can really move the needle in their life. So what would you say is the number one thing that Fire Nation can do right now to start moving toward a life of total autonomy? Let's go back to those three pillars. It depends on where the listener's at right now.

16:50So if you're at a point where you really have a lot of ambition, but not a heavy skill set, then you need to focus on the acquisition of those rare and specialized skills. And I would tell you to focus on things that you really enjoy doing. Find those weird little peccadillos and things about your personality and your interests that other people look at you kind of cockeyed for and pursue those because those are where you're going to find the greatest amount, the greatest joy in that knowledge discovery. If you're already there, but you work for somebody else, man, focus on starting that side hustle, start that part-time business, start putting some extra money in your pocket.

17:24I always say everybody's an entrepreneur. You just don't know it because all of us are in the business of us. You are in the business of you. So that makes you an entrepreneur, whether you believe it or not. And so focus on creating that extra income. And then if you're already there and you got that business, well then let's figure out how we make that mobile. How do we create digital products or services that we can begin to create a little bit more autonomy, a little bit more mobility in our business so they can live a life that, you know, but frankly, that John gets to live where he gets to go and do, and he lives life on his own terms.

17:57I think you're kind of the embodiment, John, of, of what we're talking about when we say total autonomy. And, uh, and that's great. I feel that way. I really do. And I will add to that, that I feel like one of the main reasons why I do embody that is because I have gotten to a point where I've discovered what enough is. Like I don't keep adding to my team to grow it. I don't keep adding to my ad spend. I don't keep adding to my overall bandwidth to just keep trying to go for more and more and more. I've just found my sweet spot. And I've been in that sweet spot now for years and years and years.

18:28I've been able to build significant wealth as a result, significant financial freedom as a result, live where I want to live, do what I want to do with whom I want to do it with. Something that Jason was talking about earlier. So Jason, you've dropped so many value bombs over this interview. I'd love for you to give us what you consider is the one big takeaway that of all the great things you said, you really want to make sure Fire Nation gets from our conversation today. I know you have a great call to action and potentially even a little gift and some goodies for Fire Nation. So share that now and then we'll say goodbye.

19:01I would love to give your audience a free copy of my book. And I've also got a little bonus in there on advertised bonus that I'll share with you guys. When you go over, it's Jason stapleton.com forward slash fire, Jason stapleton.com forward slash fire. And for me, I work with a lot of early stage entrepreneurs on a variety of things. But what I've determined after working with thousands of these folks is that most people get in their own way. It's, it's the mindset stuff that tends to kill most early stage business owners. Now, after that, once you have, after you're bigger, then there's different problems.

19:36But mindset is such a critical thing. And so I want to go all the way back to the beginning of the show and just say, listen, live in that delusion. Don't, don't let people tell you what's possible and what isn't. Don't, don't allow someone else to force you into a life of mediocrity, somewhere between total failure and your true potential. You are capable of more than you possibly know. Um, don't let anybody kill that vision for you. Uh, and you know, worst case scenario is you end up halfway there, which is a lot further than you would have gotten if you lived outside of the delusion. So do that, go and be great.

20:10Fire Nation, you're the average. Of the five people you spend the most time with, you've been hanging out with JS and JLD today. So please, please, please, please keep up that heat. Head over to eofire.com. Just type Jason in the search bar. The show notes page will pop up with everything that we've talked about today. Best show notes in the biz, timestamps, links, you name name it. Your specific call to action is jasonstapleton.com slash fire. The free book, other bonuses there, jasonstapleton.com slash fire. Jason, thank you for sharing your truth, your knowledge, your value with Fire Nation today.

20:46For that, we salute you and we'll catch you on the flip side. Thank you, brother, for all you do. Hey, Fire Nation, today's value bomb content was brought to you by Jason and Fire Nation. Over the last decade, I've interviewed more than 3 ,000 of the world's most successful entrepreneurs, and I've created a revolutionary 17-step roadmap to your financial freedom and your fulfillment. I put it all into my first traditionally published book, The Common Path to Uncommon Success, personally endorsed by Seth Godin and Gary Vaynerchuk. The Common Path to Uncommon Success is the step-by-step guidance that you need to achieve the lifestyle of your dreams.

21:21Visit uncommonsuccessbook.com. and learn more and order your copy today and I'll catch you there or I'll catch you on the flippity flip side. Hustle and Flowchart, hosted by Joe Feer, is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals. Join Joe as he discusses systems, mindset tweaks, reframes and strategies to help you build a business that gives you freedom and fuel for your life. A recent episode on using AI for effortless content creation is a must listen. Listen to Hustle and Flowchart wherever you get your podcasts. Ever thought about giving a TEDx talk?

21:55It'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.