SNM040: The Value of Freedom

speaker 0: 0:00 discover the value of freedom on today's episode. Today's episode is brought to you by a Weber. Email is perfect for connecting your brand to your audience. Whether they make a purchase, read your block or meet you in person. Email. Automation begins with a conversation left off to see how a Weber can help your business and get your first month free. Go to serve. No master dot com Backslash a Weber Are you tired of dealing with your boss? Do you feel underpaid and underappreciated?

If you want to make it online, fire your boss and start living your retirement dreams now then you've come to the right place. Welcome to serve no master podcast where you learn how to open new revenue streams and make money while you sleep. Presented live from a tropical island in the South Pacific by best selling author Jonathan Green. Now here's your host. I'm really excited about today's episode for couple of reasons. First of all, it's the 40th episode, which is a nice little milestone.

I initially planned on getting to 40 episodes by doing five episodes a week and then switching to weekly episodes. But for right now, I think I'm gonna continue for a while, giving you an episode every day, Monday through Friday. I'm also very excited about how the sound of yesterday's episode came out. I'm back sitting out on the dock, right on the beach.

This time it's low tide, so there is a little bit of wave noise in the background, but I think it sounds really peaceful and nice. I'm enjoying a beautiful sunrise, and I want to share that with you because today's episode is all about the power of freedom in the value of freedom. If you're dying tomorrow, if you may 1 day left to live, would you go back into the office? Would you ask for more money, or would you ask for more time?

Every single one of us would ask for more time, but we don't act like it, do we? We act like money is so much more valuable. 100 years ago, we were a society in a culture in America where everyone had savings. Everyone had really strong make account savings accounts, and people only purchase things once they had enough money to cover it. So large banks got together and they put together the Federal Reserve, which didn't exist. We had a national bank develop.

Before that, there was no national bank, and this National Bank decided to create a culture and create a nation of debt so that the rich get richer credit cards and the entire process was completely invented not for consumer convenience, which is a total lie, but as a way to increase the profits of the super rich to help those billionaires become super billionaires to turn their mega yachts into super yachts. Understanding the foundations of the financial structures and institutions we actually use, well, that's important.

We have these assumptions that are often the result of advertising campaigns, and they're totally false. The Federal Reserve, even though it was created by the government, it's not controlled by the government. They just gave it that name to mislead you into thinking it's part of the government, so they would put more trust in it. We need to really re evaluate what's important to us. We're constantly shown images and messages to press on to us.

The idea We need more stuff when you knew stuff, we knew better stuff. Every year, a new iPhone comes out and I have certain friends that are always obsessed with getting the new iPhone. I had my last phone for almost 64 years. My iPhone lasted a very, very long time. It lasted through two batteries in several repairs. I only switched after more than five years when I wanted to start taking better pictures of my kids to send in my family.

That's one of the main reasons I switched. And one of the buttons have been broken for a year, and the other one was starting to fade. So the whole machine, after five or six years, is really falling apart. But I can tell you right now. I recently went on a trip on the medical trip I told you about where I went to the hospital Thailand. I also went to a little shop in the mall there and got the phone completely replaced.

They fixed everything, repaired everything, reset the OS, the whole shebang, like brand new. And it cost, I think, like seven or $10 and iPhone works like new. Now my girlfriend uses it. Things really can last a long time. We're so used to replacing things and wanted something better, better better. Better? No. Yes, my new phone. Well, not that new. I got it around six or seven months ago is much better than the old one, but I don't use it that much. We already have a camera.

The only thing I really do with my phone is listen to. Some podcasts occasionally sent a text to my girlfriend. I probably send less than 10 texts a week, and then I make one or two phone calls a month when my Skype is acting up. When Skype is acting up, I could make a direct phone call to America for a project, and sometimes I do that for Webinars or other things. But it's very rare. We constantly want to get that new, incremental upgrade.

You know, they offer us all these great promotions. At the end of the day, all these new consumer items, all these amazing things that we really want, want, want, want, they don't make us. That happy study after study shows that no matter how big the purchases, after about two weeks, that feeling of euphoria, that good feeling disappears. That's why people become shopaholics.

It's not the possessing that makes us feel good it's the acquiring, and once you've done something for about two weeks, you almost want to return it because the feeling's gone in our culture. Right now. We're obsessed with entertainment where and we have all these expenses that we could shift away if we really reassess what's important to us. The average American spends around $2600 a year on entertainment. That's about 6% of that average budget. You spend around 6% of what you make on pure entertainment.

This is like movies, drinks in the bar, all of these expenses. On top of that, we spend another 17% Justin having a car for gas and maintenance. We spend around $5000 a year. How brutal is that? Huge massive expenses in our lives come from decisions that we make passively. I don't own a car right now. Getting rid of my car was one of Happy systems is no. I love my car.

I drove my last car for five years, was very special, was the first car I ever bought completely on my own, without any help from my parents without any external help. As far as doing the paperwork or getting a loan, all of that stuff I did completely on my own, and I know other people they do that much younger in life.

But because I travel around the world so often, Oh, May 29 for the first time was I in a position to actually buy a car for myself and I had that car from five years, was a wonderful car, and even during that time, as I became more, more financially successful, people were always complained about the quality of my car. If you're so successful, lives in a car more expensive, there's a pressure in our society to buy more expensive things to prove that you have money.

When you see your money in a savings account, other people don't respect that. They don't care because they can't see it. And it's unfortunate that we don't value being frugal, are being intelligent with money, really respect people that have a lot of flashy money. You know, those $30,000 millionaires, people that are living totally on debt, but it looks like they have money for some reason.

Our society, our society, gives them a lot more credit and a lot more respect than people that are careful, their money, cautious with their money and take care of things. Another 33% of what you make goes into housing. 11% goes into insurance. All of these fees when you move abroad, or when you actively make decisions about the value of freedom versus money, they change and you could take control of them.

My cost of living right now, the cost of the house I live in, its huge My house is huge. It's so big. There's plenty of room for me and all the kids and everyone else to hang out all day. And it's less than the apartment I shared. When I used to live in Florida, living in America and one of the cheaper cities, I still was paying more for less. And now I have way more people than me by myself.

Now there's four of us living in this house and a dog when you move abroad. When you take control of what you spend as well as control of what you make, you can increase your leverage massively right now, if you're spending $5000 a month on your cost of living, imagine the freedom you'd have if you cut it down to two or one. That's what can happen when you approach freedom as the asset that it iss. I have a lot of freedom.

I'm sitting here right now watching the sunrise. I'm looking around. I can't see another human in any direction, mostly because it's too early. People don't wake up quite this Sterling. If they're awake, they're surfing around the corner around the point. But all I could see you is a couple of boats with no one in them. They're docked in the water and then I can hear a few birds. I'm pretty sure you can hear those birds in the water, too. This is what's possible.

This is the life I want to give you, and it begins with understanding the value of money versus time. Freedom is so valuable in freedom is so wonderful if you begin to treat it that way. Most of us kind of think of freedom is a byproduct of having a lot of money, but we buy things we don't need. We spend money on things that we don't really need, and we get caught up in the cycle of credit cards and debt and all of these things.

We spend so much money of having a car where I live. Right now, I have a scooter. The scooter. I bought it a year and 1/2 ago, almost two years ago. Now it costs around 12 or $1300 with the exchange rate I've probably spent since then. About another $100 on gas and maintenance. Imagine cutting down your transportation bills from $5000 a year to 100. That's a big difference.

You could have all of that money to spend on freedom or the difference between what you making online and what you're making at home in your office. You can leave your primary job sooner when you cut down your life expenses. Real wealth doesn't come from how much money you make. It comes from how much money you spend. The more you understand in control your spending, the more freedom you can create in generating your life. And it really comes down to this key thought.

I mean, would you rather have things or freedom? When I was younger, when I started making a lot of money, I just began collecting all of these things. And when I finally left the country, I finally traveled, which I knew was my dream. I shoved it all in a storage unit that I paid for for two years before. I just told my bookkeeper I said, You know what? Just empty it, sell everything you can and keep the money.

I just want this cursed out of my life. All that stuff that was so important became worthless to me, it really doesn't mean anything. The cost of entertainment where I live, it's pennies. I own a surfboard so I can entertain myself for free. Every single day I go out, get great experts have a blast. It costs nothing. Same thing if you want a bicycle, there's amazing ways to entertain yourself that don't cost anything. We can really slash all of these budgets and increase our lifespan.

Our quality of life are levels of joy, with the simple little actions that are so valuable now, a lot of what I teach that serve no master. A lot of what I believe in it is about putting in the effort now in order to create freedom later. This is a different philosophy than buying what you want now and paying for it later. Which is how most of us live. Most of us want to join now in the sacrifice later.

But if you stick with me if you follow one of my systems for six months or 12 months, you quit your job. You live anywhere you want in the world. You could have a ton of freedom. This business doesn't require you to sacrifice for five years. 10 years, 20 years. Like most other industries Dio if you want to become a successful lawyer, you gotta spend 8 to 14 years working. You went to make it to partner. You wanna be a doctor? Same thing Dr.

Education doesn't finish until you're in your thirties. You've got to go through everything in an internship in this and that specializations of all of these things before you can finally start making money, There's no rich. Doctors in the twenties doesn't exist. They're still in school. What I want you to think about is your future and your present Time is a resource and it's an asset, and it's the most valuable thing you possess. Money is nothing compared to time, the way you spend your time.

Now I can give you more freedom in the future. Or you can spend money now and take away freedom from your future. Freedom is totally valuable. And I'd love for you to come home from work every day and have to do nothing. But that's just gonna leave you sitting right where you are. I want you sitting next to me on the doctor of a recording podcast episodes next year. Aren't you living your dreams?

I know not everyone who listens to this dream is to travel the world or to live in paradise. Many people who follow me and I totally understand that just wanna pay off their debt, stop going into work every day and spend more time doing the things they love, whether it's hobbies or spending time with their families and just have some breathing room between them and all of their bills. This path can give you the exact same thing.

We can push back that debt, increase your freedom, sacrifice a little bit now, and you can make amazing things happen. In the previous episode, we talked about how we're not special. As much as I'd love to think I'm most unique person in the world on a special person world. I'm not. There's tons of guys that look like me explain people the same sense of humors me. The same skill sets. It's me.

What separates me from all of the people who want this life is effort and the way to motivate you to use that effort as the fuel for your success is to remind you of the value of freedom. Effort is really just into the name for time, isn't it? We spend time, we spend energy on a project and eventually we want that return on investment. Was that payoff? Whether it's financial or time, you can get there.

I spend most of my time doing the things that make me happy, and I want the same thing for you. I think you deserve an amazing life. I appreciate you spending this time with me. I appreciate this connection that we have. I'm sitting here and I have my little mike pinned on my shirt. I'm sitting here on this dock, the water rushing past my feet. It's a little strange.

I'm kind of like I'm talking to know when you're talking to someone imaginary, but I know that these recordings come out well because I listen to yesterday's episode. I love the sound of water in the background. I think that's very pleasant. And hopefully you enjoyed as well the sounds of nature, real nature. You can achieve amazing things when you unlock your effort machine. There's this temptation to do nothing all the time. I lived in this mindset for a very long time.

My father is definitely a workaholic, is someone who worked himself so hard. Even after he retired, he took on a big project, and now he's suffering from it. Medically, he worked so hard on this project. The doctor thinks he'll take him another year to recover from the project. I come from that generation, and I was determined not to become a workaholic when I entered the workforce, and for 10 years I really focused on that. But something's changed.

I don't know how to take days off anywhere because I do something that I love. I could easily push this podcast to one so we can really kind of chill out and not have to put in much effort. But I love doing this. I'm doing what I love, and you could be doing what you love to. You want to take one simple step.

If there's one thing you learn from this episode, I want you to begin transitioning your entertainment time into productive time to begin using your time more valuably and the key to that which we'll talk about in not tomorrow's episode. But the next one will talk about finding your passion. But the key is to work on something that you're passionate, something that you love doing. Most people have jobs or careers that they fell into and don't really love what they dio.

Most of us go to work for the paycheck. As much as I enjoyed teaching for 10 years, if I would have gotten paid the same amount of money to do nothing out of chosen nothing would we have these opportunities. When you come home from work when we're sitting around the house and we choose how to fill our time, I very rarely watch movies tell you that right now. I used to watch movies all the time.

In any movie that's more than three years old, I can tell you all about it, but one of the transitions I've made, and I saw this in my father's well, and maybe I'm turning into my father. It happens to all of us. We all turn into our parents. I very rarely watch movies. I very rarely finished them. It's a transition that many people make when they get married, when they have a kid. Kind of make that little life change for me. Definitely.

Having two kids really changed how I approach life. I just don't have the patience to sit still for two or three hours and do nothing anymore. I do still watch some TV shows, not very many. I mostly do watch investing shows, which is why I'm always talking about them with you. My direction in life has changed what I enjoy doing. I don't work because I have to. I work because I enjoy it.

I 100% could minimize my entire business, streamline everything and work about two hours a day. I do like surfing, but I don't want to surf every day for eight hours. There's a lot of people here that love it that much. Maybe I'll get to that point. But for me, surfing is fun. But it's just one of many things I love doing. I love writing books. I love recording training videos. I love building my membership site.

Right now, I'm going through a big transition because, as you know, the membership site crash last week, some rebuilding everything I'm trying to rebuild the front website to. It's a lot of work to redo something you've already done on a different platform and try and make it look the same or a little bit better. It's a lot of copy and paste and point and click. And yeah, I could hire someone else to do it.

I tried doing that, but I want it to look a certain way. And there's certain parts of my business that I just want total control of its my mindset, and I enjoy doing it. The meantime I watch TV shows is actually when I'm doing website design, when I'm just copying a designer copying and pasting, that's the one time when I really do watch television. So I do get a little bit of entertainment.

But the more you shift from entertainment to enjoying your work to doing something you're passionate about, the more you shift to this passion time mindset, the more of your freedom and the more of your future you'll unlock. Think about all the time you spend doing things for entertainment. One of the things I hate the most in the world is television. I hate the presentation of television, like through the cable box, because there's no beginning and there's no end.

I've got through a couple of times my life where I tried to become more productive, and one of them was when I was graduating high school, I decided to stop watching television. I said, I won't watch anymore. Television only watch movies The thing about a movie is that it has a beginning and an end. With television, you can turn it on and 67 or eight hours just disappear.

How many times have you started watching TV at six o'clock to get home and suddenly you're watching The Late Show and all it is. It's a meaningless empty drivel with occasionally with a political message or some type of health. Warning snuck in. But it's very little educational value. You don't learn anything. You don't become a better person. You're just sitting there kind of burning time, and that's the wrong mindset.

Then we see time is something we're just trying to spend rather than something we're trying to enjoy. If you watch TV for two hours, you watch almost 30 minutes of commercials. That's one of the things that I hate. You waste 30 minutes, just paying with money and time for someone else to sell you stuff. You don't need to make you depressed if you watch TV.

Now, if you just switch to watching recordings of the shows, which is all I watch, I don't watch live television at all. I only watch recordings. You remove the commercials you change from open ended to fix time. Instead of watching TV for hours and hours, you watch a specific length of a show, everything I watch. As soon as I turn it on, I know how long it's gonna be. There's a little time in the corner tells me how much time I'm gonna invest.

I rarely watch the whole show in one sitting. Anyways, these little ships are not about me being pretentious. I'm trying to share with you how my life has shifted because I enjoy my work. I love what I do. I'm so excited, I can tell you right now. My next book is already written. It's already edited. It's in the getting reviews Face breaking orbit, which is my entire Kindle process. The book.

After that, I've already created the cover roughly the covers roughly sketched out, It's called 20 came Today. It's how to write super fast. After that, I'm gonna work on a speed reading book. Haven't named that yet, but that book is all about how I read a book a day, and the faster you read, the faster you can write. These abilities will help you too efficiently. Use your time, the faster you right the last time you have to spend riding planning out the future.

Planning out where I'm going is what I'm excited about. I'm so excited when I think about the next book and the one after that and kind of growing my business in its new direction. I'm really, really excited about where Amazon is taking me where this podcast is taking me because it's a new fun adventure that we're sharing together. All of the things I do are things I love. If I didn't love my work, If I kind of hated writing.

I could get away with writing probably too small ghost projects a month and then a little bit of maintenance on some of my side projects, and that's it. I have to work that hard. I love what I do, and I want you to love what you do. So if you take one thing from this lesson from this episode from today, my special 40th episode, I want you. And if you can hear that boat in the background, I apologize. It's the first boat driving by.

The guy has got to go fishing. That's his job. I'm not gonna stop someone from take care of their family. But today's single lesson is to think about the value of time to focus on unlocking more and more of your time and to realize that spending time now gives you a very strong return on your investment. Later. That's what we're focused on. So shift your mindset from spending time for entertainment. I just got totally splashed.

I don't know the wake from that boat just hit my legs. So focus on shifting to passion based time spending focus on seeing time as a resource an asset and spend it with the expectation of receiving more time in the future. That's the way to approach your life. That's the way to approach your business. And when you do that, the future becomes amazing. It becomes so bright and you can have all the freedom you ever desired.

Thank you for listening to this week's episode of Serve No Master. Make sure you subscribe, so you never miss another episode. We'll be back tomorrow with more tips and tactics on how to escape that rat race. Head over to serve no master dot com forward slash podcasts Now for your chance to win a free coffee of Jonathan's bestseller, Serve No master. All you have to do is leave a five star review of this podcast. See you tomorrow. Thank you for listening to the serve.

No master podcast. Email your questions to podcast at serve. No master dot com and your question with my answer might appear in the next episode.