Welcome back to The Daily Mastermind, George Wright III with your daily dose of inspiration, motivation, and education. I'm really excited today because we've got a guest, George Rivera, that I am excited to have on because we definitely think the same way. It's good to have you on the podcast today. Thank you, George. Excited to be here. Yeah, this is going to be a good conversation. So for those of you that are first-time listeners, you know, the goal of The Daily Mastermind, the reason I do this is to help you to find clarity, focus, and discipline in your business life, your personal life, so you can really create that life you're meant to live. That's why this topic today is going to be so amazing. So let me give you a little bit of an introduction on George. He's got 31 years as a serial entrepreneur. He's the CEO of 18 Summers Advisory, and he's just got an extensive experience in direct response marketing. He's built multi-million dollar businesses. He's transitioned from different things, including his book, Buy Back Time Formula, which is a framework to some amazing stuff we're going to talk about today. But he's actively building his advisory practice, and he's a founder that I think can bring you some clarity as well in your business. So, George, it's so great to have you here. I would love for you to just give us a real quick pivot point from your diverse background as to what took you down the path. and maybe you could even start out by explaining to us what is 18 summers awesome yeah i'll start out the reason why or the pivot moment so in 2015 my father he was diagnosed with cancer early on in the year given a few months to live and he actually made it about 10 months and a couple of weeks before he passed away he said don't miss leo's games i missed too many of yours and the second And he said that it was as if I was a kid in a high school gym again, playing basketball. And he went to only say one of about 40 games. And I remember I'd score a basket and there's no dad in the stands to cheer me on. But my teammates would score a basket and their dads were there cheering them on like they won the championship. And I was like, I wish that was my dad looking at another dad. And I would have crushed my dad because he was a good man. But that was nice closure to whatever that was as a child. But then fast forward to current day at that time, I was like, oh my gosh, I am my father all over again. I'm repeating the mistakes that my dad made. I'm already missing out on my son taking his first steps, attempting to speak, and a lot of the first firsts that a child go through. So I remember when he made that statement, I was like, after processing that, I was like, this ends here. This generational thing ends here. But it has to start tomorrow because I'm working 16 hours today. And of course, like most founders, when they say tomorrow, it doesn't really mean tomorrow. It means a long time from now and sometimes never. And in my case, it took three years and I finally made something happen in three years. But yeah, 2015 was that first moment when I realized I can't keep going this way. It just took me a while to get to it. Yeah, it is the age old question and struggle for a lot of entrepreneurs, especially founders and business owners. They think having a business is going to get them that freedom and flexibility. And then they start creating revenue and they may be, you know, cash flow rich, but time poor. And they, and they, number one, they lose track of it, but I think they also get trapped in it. So I'm curious because you've used that phrase before, cash-rich, time-poor. What does that mean? Help us to relate to what people are feeling right now if they're listening to this show or people that you work with, your advisory. Yeah, cash-rich, time-poor means you're successful on paper, but time-poor because your business gets all your time and the family gets the leftovers. They get the burned-out, frustrated, stressed-out version of dad or of husband, and that plays a huge toll on the family. you know, they start planning a life without you. You know, the average woman thinks for about two years before they actually say that they want a divorce. And so oftentimes in a lot of the founders that I work with, there are problems brewing at home that they might not even be paying attention to because they're so stuck in the business. And they're thinking, well, this is what pays the bills. It gives them that nice home, nice car that they like. So I have to be stuck over here to, in order to keep that going. And that's just the big lie that we tell ourselves, but we don't really know it because we're like kind of in this fog of war. you can't even see three, four, five steps ahead. And it isn't until you get the reason why, and then you get a clear plan on how to do that. You get your time back, you get yourself out of the business so that your business can grow and scale without you. And that's the key. Yeah. And you're right. I think a lot of people don't realize it at first. And then they, when they do become aware of it, they don't know what to do about it. But regardless, both of those things lead to regret and you don't want to get down the road and find that you have regrets. So, So, you know, your book, Buy Back Time Formula, talks a little bit about trying to find a way to create a freedom audit. And so if let's just say someone, whether they listen to this episode or not, is starting to say, you know what, I feel that. I don't want to miss these opportunities. I might be having a hard time figuring it out. What is a freedom audit? What do you tell people to do as sort of like a first place to start to get control of their life? Exactly. The first step you got to do, yeah, like you said, at the Freedom Audit, that's shining a light on the activities that you do. And there is a process on how to do that so that you make sure you don't miss anything. But we need to identify that. And then you put it through what I call the 10K per hour filter. That's the second step. For me, my zone of genius, I'm worth $10,000 an hour when I'm like just locked in. But when I'm doing a gazillion other things, my value's diluted. And so I need to put everything through that filter. and anything that doesn't add up to that $10,000 per hour. And you give yourself a range. Like in my case, I could go as low as a thousand. And for the listener, maybe you're $100,000 an hour, or maybe you're $500 an hour. Just figure out where that falls. And then you run all of the activities that you identified in the freedom audit through that filter. And if you're anything like me, you'll realize that a huge percentage of the time that you're spending working could be easily done by somebody else, probably way more qualified than you at those certain tasks, like better than you, more efficient, more, even more trained. But us as founders and business owners, we think, oh, this is our baby. I can handle this. When in reality, it's like, we're being so inefficient on the, on our zone of genius activities. We're really robbing from revenue generating activities to support, you know, support the business important, but it shouldn't be the same founder doing both things. Yeah, you're right. Because I think that there are a lot, you know, most founders are like, I could do it better than anybody else, but they don't look through that filter. I really like the idea that if you look through the filter of your true value and you made a comment, your zone of genius, and maybe you could help us get an idea of what that is because I think that when people identify that, which most people have not identified what that is, then they can say, yes, my value's there because it's easy for people to say, hey, I can get a $10, $6 an hour VA, somebody to do things you're right, but it might not be done as good as me. But when you start to realize that your value is so high, it's actually costing you more. So how do you identify that zone of genius I just curious from your perspective Yeah And every business will have their specifics but most founders zone of genius should be around revenue generating activity For example strategic networking strategic connections getting more exposure And in my case, I was in direct response marketing, different products. Let's launch new products, new marketplaces, new opportunities, new media channels. That's my zone of genius. And that's when I'm making the most amount of money I'm capable of. And that's when the business is thriving. if I'm stuck doing techie stuff, customer support, overseeing the team, important, but it shouldn't be me doing it, taking me away from these other activities. That's $50 an hour or less tasks. And that could be outsourced to somebody who just loves doing it. They wake up wanting to do operational tasks and things like that shouldn't be on the founder's shoulders. Yeah. I think that it is easier said than done, right? Where do you find you struggle most with trying to get founders you're working with to make that move? Because you talk about either delegating that or automating it or whatever. But how do you get them to take that leap? Because I do think a lot of founders feel like it'll break. It's not that I can't pay somebody to do it, but number one, I can't find the time to help somebody learn how to do it, or there's a fear, maybe, that it will break. Yeah. And I had that fear, and I found out that was an irrational fear, but you almost have to take a bit of a leap of faith, but an educated leap of faith and see that it's going to be fine. And once you get a little bit of your time back, you get addicted to doing, oh my gosh, what else can I do? But the first step in doing that, or once you've got your 10K per hour filter and you've got the kind of the bucket of tasks that you need to just completely get off your plate, you implement what I call the time liberation trifecta, which are the only three things you could do with any tasks that you're not actually going to do yourself, which is eliminate anything that doesn't move the needle. That could be like useless meetings. You know, with AI note takers these days, you know, if you've got somebody else on your team that can represent you, you have your note taker, your AI can just tell you what's important, what you miss. Automate anything that repeat. Don't have to go too deep into that. AI is changing every day soon. We'll have robots doing stuff for us. Like we're good there. And then delegate. But instead of just delegating tasks, you delegate outcomes. You show them what does the finished product look like so that you eliminate those constant pings and that context switching that totally kills productivity. So that would be the first step in really implementing this whole process of getting your time back. Wow, I love it. I love it. Identify that zone of genius because that filter itself is going to make a difference. And then you said, correct me if I'm wrong, it's the time liberation trifecta where you eliminate, automate, or delegate these things that are not in your zone of genius, right? Exactly. Yeah, get them off your plate. Like in my case, when I implemented this, I went from working 80 hours a week to never more than 30 hours a week. On average, I'd average around 20 hours a week. And I realized that for $2,000 a week, I could get half of my time back. And so 40 hours off my plate. So I had another 40 hours, but that 40, the remaining 40 really compressed down to 20 because now I'm more efficient. I'm more excited. I'm less stressed. I have a clear list of things to do. No more context switching that again, kills productivity. So you'll see how your time gets even more efficient once you get the stuff off your plate you shouldn't be doing. Yeah, I love it. And I think eliminating and automating, those are things that are pretty self-explanatory. But I think sometimes the detail around delegating can be tough. And I think when people delegate, I feel like there's sort of a little bit of a science to it or a more productive way maybe to delegate. Where do you find, because Genius Zone is helping people to do these things, where do you find founders or business owners that are trying to delegate and kind of get their time freed up? Where are they making the biggest mistakes? weeks. What is there sort of a process that you say is an effective way to delegate or how long do you keep tabs on it? What are your thoughts there? Absolutely. Yeah, there is a way to do it. For so long, I did it the wrong way. I should have, instead of calling it delegating, I should have just called it delayed involvement. You know, I quote delegate it and then it's only a matter of time before I'm pulled in, taken away from my zone of genius to fix a little fire and then go back to my zone. And I don't know, I'm out of the zone, the day's over, who knows if it ever gets done. So that's the wrong way of doing it because you'll get pulled in. But the right way to do it is where you delegate with ownership. You give them the ability to see what does the outcome look like so that they know exactly what the successful result looks like. You also install guardrails. So you let them, for example, if it has to do with like budgets, for example, I tell my team, I don't want to know anything about any purchase that's under $500. But if it's over $500, we can talk about it. And that eliminated a lot of the, hey, can we try this? Can we try that? Now, you don't want to just say that and never check in on it because then you'll have a bunch of $400 transactions that can add up pretty quickly. So what I do is a weekly cadence. It could be monthly. Every business will have their own cadence, but I suggest a weekly one, especially to start. It's 15 minutes. We're jumping on. We're not talking about the weather or the weekend. We're basically saying, what issues do you have? And what have you tried to solve it? Do you have any suggestions? and that trains your team to think and come up with solutions on their own. And that's all part of reducing the context switching, the random pings, and it empowers them to make decisions on their own. At a high level, that's the best way to delegate. Essentially delegating tasks the proper way. Yeah, I think that's a great point to make. And you said weekly, which I thought was also a great point because I think a lot of times we say, look, I've done this too. I'm gonna delegate this, but daily I'm checking on it. And daily I'm looking at it. And if anything goes wrong, I'm gonna pick at it real quick. So I think taking a step away from it and then just having those guide rails be, you know, cyclical or periodical. But I'm also curious for your feedback, because I've had this happen with VAs and others. How do you, what are some ways that you've really created ownership? Because it's, you know, financially, it's kind of not difficult. You could say, look, anything under this, you own it, just do it. But how do you create ownership on tasks? Is it, when you say that, do you mean just really get them clear on the outputs? How do you create ownership? Yeah, basically showing them what the outcome looks like, give them your pathway to get there, but you also empower them to find a better, more efficient way to do it. So long that they get to that result, it's almost like you don't really care so long it doesn't drain any other resources. But at a high level, generally, if they can get to it on their own, that's all that really matters. And you're essentially empowering them to own the task and take it over. And my favorite way of doing you know, that kind of the handing it over would be like, say a loom video, for example, or any screen recorder that you can grab the transcript from, I will document the process on video. I take the transcript, I pop it in a chat GPT or your favorite AI, and you ask it to make you this beautiful SOP outlining the steps. AI will get you 95% there. Since you just did it, review it real quick to make sure that there's not a missing something that chat forgot to put in there. Take that copy. Once it's tweaked, you pop it into a Google Doc. You put that Loom link in there as well. And then I tell the person I'm outsourcing it to, Hey, I've got 15 minutes or 30 minutes, however long it takes to review it. Please watch this review it. Let me know if anything is confusing to you. And they might say oh can you clarify this or that And then you clarify it All right How about now Okay I get it Okay Great You own this thing This should never come out to me You know unless we change a vendor or a strategic strategy but a strategic part of our process but unless that happens and we'll discuss it in our weekly cadence, this should never come up to me. So if they have questions, concerns, they can batch it for the cadence if it's not urgent. And if it is urgent, then there are, you know, there's a protocol to, you know, instead of just coming, Hey boss, how do we do this? And without any context, you got to say, okay, you know, this is what's going on. This is what I've tried. These are some suggestions that I have so that you're at least, you know, get getting into figuring out a solution. And oftentimes when you let them go through the process of figuring it out and come on, coming up with, you know, potential solutions, they'll figure it out on their own. And you'll see those questions in those pings, you know, go down. And again, that's just part of getting your freedom back when you're able to stay in your zone and your team's doing what you've hired them to do. Yeah, you said something that I really liked. And it's because it's one of the things that I've fallen short on as well, because I'm a pretty detailed guy. So I like SEs and things, but I think a lot of times founders and business owners start with P's and things. And I think when you start with the objective you're looking to get, what you do is you realize that your process might not even be the best process. So you start with the objective, then you document how you do it, create an SOP, but then you pass it over. And so I really like that. And I think that'll be helpful for a lot of our listeners. And I know we've been kind of going down this rabbit hole of time, buying back your time, but I really want to shift gears for a minute and talk more about what your mission purpose driven real objective is, which is this idea behind the 18 summers advisory. What I think it's kind of like when I talk to founders, they have all these things they want, But truly what they want is an experiential, memory-building, legacy life. And to do that, of course, you got to buy back your time. But truly what they want is to experience life. So tell us a little bit about why you're so passionate about the 18 summers and what you do with your founders that you work with that helps them to kind of claim their life and get out of their business as part of it, right? But to really, truly create their best life. Yeah, no, that's a great question and great transition. 18 summers, the name is because at day zero, when our children are born, we have 18. Most founders, most listeners are going to be counting the number in their head of, well, I got six, I got five, or I'm out of summers. And so it's just to shine a light on the fact that we don't have an infinite amount of time with our children. We can never redo a childhood. We can always start a new business, make more money, but those moments, once they pass, they're gone forever. And all of us at the end of our days might have regrets here and there, but the goal is to minimize the regrets. And then when you became aware that there was another way, you can be proud that you took action and you made something happen. And yeah, at the end of the day, my heart breaks for the little boy or the little girl that's, you know, where the heck is my dad? And why is work more important than me? And maybe they're not wording it like that, but that's the sentiment. And I can only say that because I was the little boy that went through that. And so it's almost like I'm doing it for the little boy. Like I'm trying to get your dad's attention so we can bring him back home so he can have the influence to be the dad that he was born to be. and so that that's really the motivation behind it and and there's also frameworks to reconnecting with your family just like there's frameworks in business to free you up so that the business can grow and scale without you that's when you've had true freedom in your business then it's not hey good luck go have fun it's no let's reconnect with the family because we broke the bond through years of broken promises intentional or not but the net effect is the same that it takes a process to restore the bond as well. And so I help fellow foundermen walk through that. We had a conversation a little bit before this where you talked about engaging with your son in a podcast. And I don't know if that's a good segue into you giving us a little bit of, shine a little bit of light into what type of frameworks you feel are the most results generating for founders that are trying to reconnect and create an epic lifestyle or life. And if that, you know, also involves maybe talking to us a little bit about how you did that with your son, that'd be great too. But I'd love to hear some of what you do when you guide people through this. Cause I think people are thinking, yeah, I agree exactly with what you're saying. What do I do? Yeah, exactly. Well, first step is structuring your calendar to not work more than 30 hours a week so that there's plenty of time to give back to the family. So once you do that, then you have to begin to restore the bond with the family. And I call it a season pass, but this season pass never expires. and it's attending those games, prioritizing, just like you prioritize a Zoom. Most people, most founders will not miss a Zoom call for anything unless they get hit by a bus. So please don't cross any roads that we're crossing. But for family stuff, we'll blow it like it was never on the calendar when there's a business emergency. It's like that thing might as well not even been there. And so there's a mindset shift that needs to occur that, hey, this is on the calendar. I've committed to it. I'm gonna be there because my family expects me to be there. and that's how you begin to restore the bond. And then communication, just like we have a weekly cadence on the business and you wanna have some sort of weekly family meeting. It could be just a few minutes, but check in with your family. How am I doing? Because I tell you on the first day that you're gonna go home to your family and say, hey family, I'm gonna be doing better. We've heard that before or let's see how long it lasts. And that's fine. And you know, don't blame them, that might hurt, but hey, just show them that you mean business. And by doing a, say a weekly family meeting or it could be at a cadence where your family agrees on that's comfortable. Hey, how am I doing? Where did I fall short? Where can I improve? And that's the first step of getting the bond restored with your family. So when you say, because I really like how you put that, restore the bond and then communication. When you say that, is that a objective you're trying to do? Or do you mean that very tangibly in the sense that there are ways to restore the bond? Because I look at it like you started a podcast with your son. Is that one of the ways that you wanted to create the bond? Is that why you did that? And are there strategies for creating? Because even whether your kids are young or they're older, there's a lot of ways to restore a bond. Like I, you know, it could be like one of my, one of my sons is like epically in the gym, right? Like we share that commonality. So doing workouts together might be one. Tell me what you mean when you say restore the bond, because it does sound like a great objective, but is there strategy behind that? Yeah, it's basically just being present for them and being into what they're interested in. But just the presence, like, for example, proximity doesn't equal presence. So I could be at the dinner table, but my mind could be, you know, solving business problems. You know, you know, great role is pretty common, like no phones at the dinner table. That's kind of become a popular thing. But just things like that where, you know, you're able to not have your mind constantly turned on putting out fires and can take the founder a little bit of time to get into that. because we've been in firefighter mode for years. It's not going to flip off overnight, but you got to start, you know, progressively heading in that direction where you can, you know, reduce the noise in your head from all the business activity from years of just being so tied to the devices to be on call for everything. And so once you start implementing this and you start realizing okay I can safely step away from the business Especially if you in the middle of a work week and you like clocking out for the day or you know I done This is the time in my calendar that says I done You can turn your brain off Your business is not going to collapse You got systems in place. So that, that gives you the freedom to give that presence to your family. Again, not just proximity, but presence, being able to look them in the eye, converse with them, be interested in what they like. And, and again, it's just all about restoring the bond with the family and every family is going to have their different, you know, interest in hobbies and family outings and events and activities. But generally speaking, we need to reduce the noise from our work, starting with the structuring our calendar and doing some of the business frameworks we just confessed earlier so that you can be home knowing that all that's working for you and you can just fully engage at home. Yeah. Clarity and discipline on how you're going to do it is absolutely as important, but I do, you know, the real mission and purpose around your business is make it a priority first, you know, a recognize, because that's the thing, especially with entrepreneurs and founders, they're so busy chasing the goal, the dream, the lifestyle that they want, that they can't see the forest through the trees until it's too late. So your passion for trying to bring that awareness out there should help people to identify that as a priority. Then obviously you got to get the strategy of getting your time back and then find ways to connect. So I really like that. So what is your big, what's your next big focus? What are you working on? You said you had a book coming out. What are some things that you're personally, I'm talking now, you know, you as a, as an entrepreneur and founder, what's important to you and what do you have coming down the pipe? Yeah. You know, on the family stuff, it's continuing to just be present for my family, helping my son with his podcast. Currently we're at 67 interviews and counting. He does, he's doing six per week. I'm he old. So my wife handles like all of the homeschooling. And I'm like, I got the podcast. I got the business side of it. He's 11. So he started at 10. And so before he turned 11, so as a 10 year old, we were already like at 36, 37 guests and already into the billions of combined revenue from those guests. And it's just getting better and better. I have some household names that are on our radar that we've already established some contact with, which I will mention once we actually have them on the show, but it's really gaining some steam. And very soon it's going to be out of my control as far as, you know, the reach for this. I'm super excited for that. And it's just, it's just lifting them up because like his friends and peers are, you know, addicted to devices, which is kind of a sad thing for kids these days. But my son is able to look people in the eye with confidence, shake hands, have conversations with founders, entrepreneurs, millionaires, people who've done things in their life and they're pouring into him. Talking about, you know, failure doesn't mean the end. Failure just means you get another opportunity to try again. he's learning this at 11. You know, I'm learning stuff from his guests still at this age. It's great to do that, by the way. So what's his name in his podcast? Yeah, it's Leo. His name's Leo. Like my dad said, don't miss Leo's games. That's the Leo. And it's leointerviews.com. Let's give him a shout out. That's awesome. leointerviews.com. I love that because you made a really good point. And that is when you're trying to reconnect, you've got to find similar interests, especially if it lines up with your talents and their talents. That's really good. But then you have this common thing that you can work towards, especially if it's something passionate. You don't want to try to force it. I really like that because what you've done is just created a great strategy to manufacture the lifestyle you want to have. But along the way, you're teaching, growing, advising. I think that's phenomenal. What do you think is the biggest lesson you've learned doing that with him? Yeah, it's man, so many lessons. I would just say that like the biggest lessons that I've picked up is almost like looking at it through his eyes. And I touched on it earlier about how like failure doesn't have to define you. It's just, you know, something you just overcome and it strengthens you. And of course, as an entrepreneur that's been around for 30 plus years, I could totally echo that in my own life. But watching him learn about that is almost like I'm learning about it again through his eyes. And I'm so thankful because had I learned that at 11, I just, I can't imagine where I could have gone. And, you know, I believe God has us in the right place at the right time. So I'm thankful for my journey, but I'm just excited for my son that he's in this place right now. he'll never have to worry about money ever in his life if he continues with this. And there's no signs that he's losing any interest at all. And so long that he wants to do it, I'm going to keep, you know, keep making sure that he's got plenty of guests to talk to. And this so far has been a lot of my friends and my peers, you know, from just being around business for a long time. But like I mentioned, it's starting to get out of my little warm circle and we're getting some pretty amazing interest out there. It's good because yeah, sometimes also it's hard to influence. is just a dad. Sometimes they don't listen to you as much as even some mentor that comes in. So I love it. Shout out to Leo. And I really appreciate you taking some time to share these thoughts and concepts with us. I think it will ring home and ring true to most people that are listening. So how can people connect with you? What's the best way for people that are listening to this, that are feeling some of these things that want to kind of go down a little bit more and follow you? Where can people find you? Yeah. If anything that I said resonates with you, The best way to get a taste of what I do is go to buybacktimeformula.com forward slash three steps. I have a free report that you can just go and download. And it's, you know, three steps to regain bedtimes, weekends, and dinners, which are some of the most common places where founders are missing with their family. So this is kind of like the low-hanging fruit of where to start to reconnect and re-engage. And yep, it's free. Just grab it. And that's kind of your first entry and taste to what I do and what I have. Yeah. And listen, if you're listening to this, I'll put those links in the show notes. I'll put some other of his social followings as well. George, I appreciate you being here, man. This has been really good. I love keeping these topics top of mind because the strategies and things come along. But if you don't have the right perspective, you're going to end up at a different place and you don't want to have regrets, right? We talked about that before. Let's eliminate regrets. Is there anything else you would like to say to our listeners before we say? Yeah, I'd say the last thing, like just kind of going off of the no regrets thing is, you know, I've never heard anybody at the end of their life say, I'm so glad I blew your game for that client meeting or for that business excuse. But we do that every day on autopilot. So now that you know, there's no more excuse to keep going down that path. And so by the end of your days, you could say when I learned that there was another way, I took action and I'm proud of how I lived from there on out. I agree. I love it. I love it. Well, listen, guys, I appreciate you joining us today on the podcast. do me a favor and share this episode. Share it because you never know who is out there that needs to remind themselves that it's never too late to start living the life that you are meant to live, but you've got to do something about it. And the first step is awareness. So thanks for joining us today. Share the episode, check out the show notes, and let me know what you're up to. I want to celebrate your wins, find out what I could do to help you go to the next level. Once again, this is George Wright III. This has been The Daily Mastermind. Talk to you soon. you
