The Freedom Fund: Building a Business That Creates More Than Revenue

[00:00:01] Welcome to Business, Finance and Soul. My name is Shaun Enders and I'm a Curious Entrepreneur. I love exploring business, personal finance and consciousness. I'll jump around topics, offer my opinions and occasionally interview interesting people. Looking forward to going on this journey. Let's be curious together.

[00:00:21] Are you an owner who wants more than just revenue? Would you rather have things like personal freedom and impact that's bigger than you? If so, this episode is for you.

[00:00:48] Welcome to the show. This is Cannon Carr. I've got Claudia Benninger, our producer with me here in the studio. Before we get started, Claudia, why don't you go ahead and introduce our guest? Yeah, absolutely. Today we have Shaun Enders on the podcast and he's the CEO of Transition Staffing Group, a recruiting firm focused on finance, accounting and tech roles. He spent over 20 years building a business rooted in mentorship, culture and growth. He also hosts the Business, Finance and Soul podcast and created the Freedom Fund mindset for financial independence.

[00:01:17] It's a great background. It's great prep for the conversation we're going to have today. Shaun's story is not about revenue and profits. Those are metrics. Those are milestones. He tracks them, of course. But it's more about fulfillment. And it's brought about by things like clarity of purpose, by a great matching of business risk and personal risk, about letting go for scale, about intentional financial planning along the way. It's energizing for me because it aligns very well with what we preach anyway.

[00:01:47] As you listen to the show, keep these three questions in mind. First, what does your Freedom Fund look like? What is it and do you even have one? Second, following that idea, is your wealth strategy dependent on a successful future sale? Third, are you scaling for growth with a clear definition of what enough means for you? Shaun does an awesome job of answering each of those questions for you.

[00:02:13] So follow along, compare it to yourself and see what you think. Enjoy this episode with Shaun Enders. Shaun, excited to have you on the program. I thought where we'd start is going way back to the beginning. For you, you know, I know you started in the corporate recruiting world, but then after a few years, went out on your own, started what's your firm now, you know, Transition Staffing Group. Did you always think of yourself as an entrepreneur? Yeah, that's a good question, Ken.

[00:02:39] And I think, you know, when I look back, I always had this affinity, even being younger, when I would look at people in charge. Even though I would be very low on the totem pole, I would look at them and I would go, that's where I want to be. I didn't even know what that meant at the time, but I knew that I really liked watching people mentor.

[00:03:02] I liked others that seemed to have collected wisdom and knowledge and then impart that upon, you know, more junior staff like myself. So I always saw myself in a position of leadership. I didn't know if that meant that I'd be working for myself or if I would be kind of growing up within an organization and then I'd be able to do that. But ultimately, entrepreneurship was the right move for me as a creative outlet in addition to mentoring.

[00:03:29] And I think that what I love about running an organization is the fact that I do have a creative outlet. When I have an idea, I have a platform where I can implement it. And additionally, I can mentor and grow other staff members. And then I'm conscientious of the fact that I have staff members that probably are on the same trajectory that I was years ago.

[00:03:53] And instead of having them leave, I now am in a position of where I say, well, I'm building a platform where they can succeed. They can have a creative outlet. They can financially reap the benefits of, you know, having an opportunity to feel like they're working for themselves, have a voice at the table. So super rewarding. Wasn't sure it would exactly work out this way. But I think when I look at it, stitching it all together, the answer is yes. Absolutely. Well, so take us back.

[00:04:22] Was there a moment, though, where that awareness was, you know, I am going to start a business here, you know, for this and this reason? So my wife and I, we used to on the weekends, we would grab like a coffee and go to Barnes and Noble and look at different types of businesses that were out there. We were initially kind of thinking like franchise type businesses. I was in the recruitment space. I hadn't even really considered this is what's so ironic about how life turns out.

[00:04:50] I didn't even look at it and go, I'm going to stay in the same field and grow my own firm. I was more interested in kind of saying, OK, well, what else is out there? What other type of company might offer a lot of the same opportunities to be able to mentor people, invest, have great residual income and still would offer that creative outlet?

[00:05:17] And and for me, we look back probably over a year of where we would go and trade different ideas, pencil them out, build out kind of small business plans in terms of capital that we would have. What would be the runway? What was the upside? How would we feel? I didn't know it at the time, but I'm I'm big now in visualization at that time, though I didn't really have a name for it.

[00:05:46] I would speak it, see how it sounded back to me as far as that's my career path and that's the business that we ran. And and then if I was attracted to it, I would take a little step closer. But it wasn't until I had a partnership with someone that I respected, that I reported to. And I said, you know, I feel like I could run a company with him. And and that just happened organically.

[00:06:15] And it made me made me really want to stay in this industry. Well, listen, you describe that. I mean, I knew you always wanted to thought you'd always want to be an entrepreneur. But now I'm more convinced. Right. I mean, you definitely were thinking, how do I get out and and develop the leadership style and create the impact? Yours is mission driven. Right. And create the mission that for yourself and others that you wanted to do. So I think that's great. You know, and we'll get a little bit more into the journey. But, you know, when you and I talked in the past, you talked about how your grandparents experience

[00:06:43] shaped your view of running a business and creating wealth. Tell us a little bit about how that shaped your view. I think our families are so instrumental in how we see the world, how we feel about the world. Some of us just pick up subconscious behaviors and then we deploy those. We're not really always sure where we get these habits. Some of them are really good habits, you know.

[00:07:14] Parents, grandparents that talk about finances and now you're comfortable talking about it. Or the the the other the other side of that of where people don't talk about it. Your parents never spoke about it. And now you have that same behavior and you're subconsciously doing that now in your relationships. I was very conscious of the fact that my grandparents retired early without a plan.

[00:07:36] So my my grandfather had worked for the city and up in Washington State in a place called Gig Harbor. And and so he had a pension. He did not plan that well. He did not plan that well. And he should have maximized not withdrawn from it so so quickly. He should have similar to, you know, 62 or 70.

[00:08:03] When you take Social Security, you should be doing a financial calculation of what that means and then a probability of how long you might draw upon that. But he retired in his mid 50s and and my grandmother raised four kids and worked part time here and there. Well, ultimately, I watched them retire. They were so they're such beautiful people. So happy all the time. But I watched them become dependent upon their own kids.

[00:08:31] So my aunt and uncle, my mom, they ran out of money. And so when they were in their late 60s into their 70s, I watched them struggle for basic things like, you know, prescriptions as their health continued to to struggle. They they they needed kind of a consistent, helpful hand from someone in the family.

[00:08:58] And I just felt like, man, look at their lack of independence right now. This is their years of where they probably want the most independence because, you know, their kids are grown. They have grandkids. And I interviewed them to talk about, you know, their journeys. And I was just really, really fascinated to find out, like, their mindset. My grandfather was just what made him such a great man was he lived in the moment every day of his life.

[00:09:26] Yeah. And we talk a lot about that in life. Live in the moment. Live in the moment. But you have to balance that out with the possibility that tomorrow might come and your future self might be you might be mortgaging, you know, your future self today by living too much in the moment. So there's this there's this balance. But my grandparents really taught me the fact that. It's great to live for today. It's beautiful to show up and appreciate what you have.

[00:09:55] And then additionally, you have to put together a plan that that creates security and creates independence and joyfulness as you age. And especially when you're in a position where you can't go out and earn money anymore. That happens absolutely with failing health. And that happens with age. And that's what I witnessed. Well, so they taught you then two things. Well, the first thing is you want to be an entrepreneur. And the second thing and the only thing they taught you was have a financial plan when you even started.

[00:10:25] So and I think you were ahead of the curve on versus many entrepreneurs I've talked to who kind of figure that out later. Right. The financial plan. Hey, let's get the business going. And we're all excited about that. So what did when you started transition staffing group? What was the definition of success for the business and financially? And how did that evolve over time? Yeah.

[00:10:46] You know, one of the great things about scarcity is it creates a sense of resiliency and motivation for the right person. You can either be a victim or the victor. But for me, I saw, you know, in the early days, just really fear is what pushed me forward. And success was just making sure that, you know, we had enough money to survive as an organization for 60 days.

[00:11:16] So we were like, hey, as long as we can meet payroll and we had a two month runway, that'd be enough for us to continue to keep going and pushing forward. And it was really all about survival and financial success for myself. As the company continued to evolve and grow and we reinvested back into the organization and stayed really tight with, you know, how we wanted to develop this company. Then it became about the success of others.

[00:11:44] And that is kind of the beautiful evolution of life. You know, whether or not you run a company or you're a parent, you know, it starts out all about you. And you're taking those actions. You're securing yourself. You're experiencing the highs and, you know, the dopamine hits of success. And then you see, oh, I'm responsible for other people. And you find joy in watching them succeed even more than yourself succeed.

[00:12:13] And so the definition of success really grew from survival and personal success to abundance and other people's, other employees' success. And that's been a really exciting journey to watch it evolve. Yeah, that's awesome. So in the earliest days, did you always say we are going to be profitable? I mean, was that kind of the key rule, profit first?

[00:12:42] You know, everyone in life, you hit your wagon to different people, right? And then we get into co-creation environments. It's like, hey, the person you marry, you hope you're on the same page, both with, you know, either religion or your finances, how you want to raise children. You hope that that's where you're at.

[00:13:05] My partner that I started a transition staffing group with, and there was three of us, but my business partner that was my former boss I alluded to earlier. Well, he was 15 years my senior and, excuse me, 17 years my senior and super conservative. Did not like debt. Very, very conservative in terms of putting himself out there and extending himself even with growing the business.

[00:13:32] So it was both great to have him as my partner for 15 years until we bought him out later. And then it was also very frustrating. So he was always about profit, no debt, not overextending ourselves, making sure we're making decisions that we could pencil out a direct path towards profitability on that decision. And so, yeah, in the beginning, it really was all about profitability.

[00:13:59] And I say that where the hindrance was is there's that fine line between how much you push chips back into the table versus how much profit you feel like you need to secure for yourself. Sure.

[00:14:12] You know, for us, fortunately, that profit and his smaller appetite for risk enabled me to utilize the profits that we were making to create, you know, a freedom fund instead of escalating my lifestyle. So instead of taking the profits and going, hey, you know, I need more things, I need more stuff.

[00:14:37] We were looking at it, my wife and I, and going, hey, how do we set this money up to work for us? And how do we make sure that we can secure our future selves? So, you know, if we want to retire early, whatever that meant, if we didn't want to have to earn, when could we pull that ripcord? What age? And what was the formula for it? Hey there, it's Claudia, producer of business owner tales from the trenches.

[00:15:04] Just a quick break to say, if today's conversation is striking a chord, don't forget to visit canon-car.com. You'll find key takeaways from this episode, deeper resources, and you can download Canon's 3Rs framework, a powerful tool for navigating the toughest moments in business. Again, that's canon-car.com. Now back to the conversation. Yeah, so you've used a word I love and I've heard you use it in the past. It's the Freedom Fund, right? In my own work, it's very similar.

[00:15:34] I call it something a little different. We call it the third R, the repurpose R. Tell us what you mean by Freedom Fund. Yeah. So the Freedom Fund for me was always initially an equation. It was looking at what we needed to spend or what we wanted to spend, which evolves over time. But initially, you're saying, okay, what's a great life? Meaning you could travel freely. You could pay bills. You could have a house that you want.

[00:16:02] And you could live in the neighborhood that excites you and puts you around other people that are like-minded and energize you. And so people in the fire community or bobbleheads would know this 4% rule. And for me, it would be saying, okay, well, if you had $5 million of investable assets and you had 4% of that that you could draw down,

[00:16:32] the Monte Carlo testing on that says it should be resilient for upwards of 30 years. Ultimately, that would spit off $200,000 a year. And it sounded like a great number to be able to aim toward and say, $200,000? I could live on that. And then ultimately, everything became centered around that number. If it was going to go down, if our lifestyle went down, great.

[00:16:58] Every $40,000 that it went up or down was a million dollars that you either had to save more of or you could save less of. So I don't think that there's a number that is universal for everyone. Some people may say $80,000 is an amazing life to me because my mortgage is paid off. I have no debt. And I like the cars that I drive. Well, okay, well, that's $2 million for you. How are you going to get there? And I think it sounds daunting.

[00:17:27] It definitely sounded daunting for me in my 20s. But now in my 40s, you realize the magic of compounded interest and monthly behavior. And you see that that money can grow. Well, and you've created – the Freedom Fund means your independence from the business. You're not banking on or betting on a successful exit in and of itself.

[00:17:52] You're actually pre-funding that so that – so you don't have to have ultimately that successful exit, I guess, right? I mean, that's kind of what you're saying. Yeah, I was just – I always felt like the business will be a complete unknown. You know, I have no control over whether or not this industry stayed relevant over the years, got displaced. I mean, nobody was talking about AI 20 years ago when we started it.

[00:18:21] It was more like, was Monster.com going to, you know, disrupt us? Or was – when LinkedIn came on the scene, was that going to displace the entire recruiting industry? It turns out we became their biggest customers as the industry. And our industry is, you know, almost $400 billion industry. It's grown over time using those technologies. Same thing we're seeing with AI.

[00:18:44] But I always had that thought process that I don't think you should have your entire net worth just like I don't feel like you should have your entire identity wrapped up into one career or one vehicle of wealth. Yeah. And unless you are in it for the game of build and flip, meaning, you know, Cannon, you and I are going to raise capital.

[00:19:12] We're going to grow this company and we're going to send it – we're going to sell it and send it off to somebody else in three to five years. Like that's our mission. That was not my mission. And so we had to have another plan just in case this didn't go to plan. And it just turned out that, you know, step by step, this business has its own value. Have you already hit that number? You don't have to get into specifics. Have you already hit that Freedom Fund number? And if you have, now what are you starting to think about as you create wealth through the business? Yeah, so that's great.

[00:19:41] We did achieve that number. And I think, you know, you and I talked a little bit about, you know, how long did my journey take? Well, for me, it was 20 years. I mean, it was 20 years of making – well, and a heck of a bull market the last decade, you know. So you get some momentum there. But being super consistent and diversified with what we're going after, we're able to hit that.

[00:20:09] And ultimately, it really becomes about – we launched a scholarship fund last year. It's an Enders Foundation. We gave up four scholarships. It was our first year. We had over 600 applicants. And that focused on kids that have lost a parent to gun violence or drugs and alcohol.

[00:20:36] And the mission started shifting for us to really look at what our future selves are going to be okay. And I think we had to start working on the mindset of going, we're good. We're okay. But we're not rich, right? You know, whatever that means. I mean, yeah, relatively, you know, when you look at the globe, you know, anybody born in the United States is considered, you know, you hit the jackpot.

[00:21:04] But we're not flying private and, you know, we're not – our lifestyles is very similar to our neighbors. But I think it's switched for us of where we say, well, we can give and we can look for opportunities to be able to share and lift others up in meaningful ways that create much greater joy than, again, just whatever we could purchase for ourselves. Well, and so you've just done a beautiful way of talking about answering the question early, how much is enough, knowing what that is.

[00:21:34] And knowing what your values are, right? So those are two things we try to spend very early on with business owners to understand and define early because you're right. Then you start hitting your targets and your values clearly are more than just answering the question, how much is enough for me? So now you and your wife are really creating a legacy that goes beyond you. I just think it's awesome. Let me just ask one final question here, then we'll pivot.

[00:21:57] Over that 20 years, was there ever just that painful conflict between wanting to fund the Freedom Fund and having to fund the business, particularly if there was a down year in the business? Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.

[00:22:11] We've had those just a few years of where you're looking at the gut-wrenching decisions of having invested in additional staff, investing in new technologies, creating commitments that are long-term, and at the same time not hitting numbers in a quarter, two quarters. Even last year, we struggled.

[00:22:41] The whole industry as a whole was down 15%, and we had a lot of headwinds. Even though we're very bullish about what we're doing, you have those ebbs and flows. I think that what the Freedom Fund mindset creates is this ability to ride out that storm. I think it's very much like retiring where they say, hey, don't just have some cash to the side.

[00:23:11] So if you're coming into a bear market, that you're not selling your equities when things are down, that you're able to ride out that storm until you can get to more calm waters. And that's what we've done within the business where we've said, hey, maybe we don't pay ourselves as much right now.

[00:23:32] Let's come down a little bit because we want to make sure that we're recapitalizing and still hiring and looking for opportunities when they exist. And in our 3R framework, we would call that, yes, you're going to reward yourself less this year. Maybe you're not adding something to the repurpose bucket or the Freedom Fund because you are reinvesting in the business. And so do you ever, in that kind of situation, do you fund the Freedom Fund later when there's a better year then and try to catch up?

[00:24:02] Or did you fall behind and just have to just say, well, it's going to take me five years longer than I thought? Yeah, I think that's a great question because it's really, it's so fluid, right? You know, I think that I always think of the catch up when you're in that scenario where you say, all right, yeah, what's that math look like? And it just really does become clear when you do the math of how long you're going to spend something and what does that mean for your catch up?

[00:24:31] And is it plausible based on, you know, your history of being able to earn and contribute? And that way you can at least get a realistic target out in front of you. You can actually look at something and go, yeah, I can achieve that. And it motivates you and it fuels you because there's nothing more depressing than when you have a plan. You know, I see this often in the employment industry. People are on a path. They've been contributing to their 401k. They are thinking about their financial future and they get laid off.

[00:24:59] And, you know, there's nothing more heartbreaking than feeling like I'm having to dip into my savings. I'm dipping into my emergency fund. It took me so long to build this up. So it's a real human experience to go through these ebbs and flows. But I think knowing that, I think the big part of just knowing it and recognizing that that's normal, you're going to have times where you feel really flushed and you're going to have other times where you're laying. But it doesn't change the behavior. It doesn't change the self-talk. You're not worth less.

[00:25:28] You know, you just work a plan and know that there's going to be seasons in life. And this makes it even more exciting when I'm putting away things for this. I mean, I'm not inventing anything new here. Rainy day funds, you know, things that, you know, it means that there's a storm that comes through. You've got to be prepared for that. And so to answer your question, yeah, I try to play catch up in those scenarios. Yeah, definitely. Well, let's pivot a little bit.

[00:25:57] I know you're, you know, in the staffing business and you going out and starting your own staffing business. I mean, it's a service, right? It's not a product in and of itself or a manufactured thing. And a lot of the staffing work you do is in finance, accounting, a couple of others which you can highlight. But for those professional services people who leave a corporation and go start their own business because you've got a unique seat to sit there and view it,

[00:26:24] what advice would you give them based on what your own journey about how to get into business when you're kind of the intellectual firepower and you want to scale it up and grow it and create a freedom fund? What advice do you give those people? I think that one of the greatest things about the service industry is that you can take your skill set and apply it into the marketplace.

[00:26:48] And so it's a wonderful outlet to be able to say, hey, I've got intellectual property. That's me. My own unique way of doing things that resonates and companies want to pay me for this. And so it's a great place to start. I think one of the traps is not really having a plan in terms of whether or not you want to continue to keep this as a solopreneur business or if you're going to hire employees.

[00:27:18] What does that mean? What does management mean? What does that mean for you and your forward-facing aspect of the business because you're the technician? You know, you're the person that probably, presumably, generates business. Clients come through you. And ultimately, my advice is to get very clear about what kind of business that you want to run and what kind of size of organization you want to run early on.

[00:27:47] So you know whether or not right from the get-go, am I hiring? Am I taking any profit that I have or the capital that I have set aside? Am I reinvesting that into someone else? Am I going to try to replace my own efforts? Love the E-Myth. And then more recently, the E-Myth Revisited.

[00:28:11] I think that it creates that acceptance and framework that if you are going to stay as the technician in your business and that is something that you enjoy, don't be frustrated. You know, don't look at yourself as someone who's not achieving what you want to achieve or feeling trapped in your business. Some people love their business. That's what they want to do.

[00:28:40] They reap a lot of rewards and profit. I have friends that are real estate agents that run super lean, very, very small team, and they make a lot of money. But they're super busy because they don't have the team to delegate to. But they're okay with that because they love making a bigger portion. And then I have other friends in the same industry that have bigger teams, more overhead, more coaching, you know, more headaches, quote, unquote.

[00:29:08] But they're trying to scale to remove themselves and build wealth that's greater, but it's going to take longer. So you have to kind of understand that runway, replacing yourself, especially in a service business, especially if you're growing through profit. The runway is probably going to take two times, three times longer than you anticipate. There's going to be setbacks.

[00:29:31] It will be a bit frustrating if you think that you're going to just replace yourself because you read a book in, you know, one year, two years, or even three years. But keep at it because if you have the vision that I am absolutely going to replace myself, I'm going to get someone else to bring in business. Which I think is your vision, right? You are working to replace yourself, right? Have you replaced yourself yet? Yeah. So my job completely evolved.

[00:29:59] Back in 2019, so much of what I did was working with clients, working with candidates, looking for opportunities. And it really consumed a lot of my time. And I made that commitment back then to say, hey, the only way that I can grow others effectively and the only way that I can continue to scale the business was to make sure that I worked myself out of that job and focused more. So I was always managing my staff and also right in the seat next to them.

[00:30:28] And that was extremely challenging. It's not something I recommend. And that's why I'm speaking, do this because I didn't do it. And I was side by side with my staff for so many years working with them. And when I was able to focus on working more on the company and removing myself from that intensity of the schedule that I previously held, we were able to grow even further.

[00:30:57] Was it hard to delegate or not? And trust? Yeah, because people make mistakes, just like I made mistakes. I think that's the hardest part is just watching like, you know, your kids. The only way that they're going to learn is like that's the human condition. Like we literally have to make mistakes in order to understand, you know, how to do something. No one has ever perfected anything flawlessly forever.

[00:31:24] And so, yeah, watching people make mistakes with clients that you've built is just, oh my God. But that's the only way they learn. Yeah. It's the only way that they learn. Well, so pivoting into the last question, which, you know, I do want you to tell us a little bit more about the Transition Staffing Group. But in that, let's start with this question. Where do you see the next generation now that you've quasi-replaced yourself or fully? Where do you see them taking the company and what can it be for people?

[00:31:53] Yeah, I think what's really neat is we look at really being able to build a platform where individuals that have an entrepreneurial mindset, which a lot do when they're in a business model that offers not only a very competitive base salary, but commissions.

[00:32:14] If you love being in a space where you actually have upside on the work that you do, chances are you probably have some entrepreneurial aspirations. You're either self-motivated. You have big goals and plans. You want to create, you know, oversized wealth for you or your family.

[00:32:32] And so our mission is to attract more individuals that have that mindset, create the platform where they don't feel like they have to just go out and leave and compete against us, that they can do that internally, that they have a voice, that they can earn what they want to earn and do it within our organization rather than outside of our organization. And so I never had that opportunity. I've never had anybody speak to me about that.

[00:33:02] Maybe I would have never even started this firm had I had, you know, an organization tell me, hey, if you have entrepreneurial aspirations, we want you here. I probably would have stayed and rode that wave because they would have fulfilled a lot of the areas of excitement for me. And that's what we're trying to build. So how many staffing recruiters do you have now? Yeah, so there's 15 in our team.

[00:33:30] And I think for us, we would probably like to be somewhere around 25, 30 people. Really, I like that number. I like the aspect of my opportunity to manage, lead, still be very hands-on, have my fingerprints in a lot of the areas of growth for each person.

[00:33:54] And I think that there's a lot of upside over the course of the next five years for us to double the size of the company, keep the integrity, keep the very client-focused, very candidate-centric approach that we've been able to do and not let the reputation erode along the way. So I'm excited about that. That's awesome. That's awesome. Well, so final question, how can people learn more about Transition Staffing Group or you yourself? Yeah, so I'm big on LinkedIn.

[00:34:23] You know, it's probably the best business platform for me and Shaun Enders or Transition Staffing Group. If you just search it, we're going to come up and call TSG is our website. But, yeah, if you look for Shaun Enders, Google us. You'll find me. I run a podcast called Business Finance and Soul. That's where you and I were able to meet, which I loved. Yeah, I was on one of your episodes. I loved it. It was great. Yeah, it's fantastic.

[00:34:52] It's a great creative outlet for me. You know, really, really enables me to meet other fantastic professionals like yourself. It started as a passion project, and, you know, we're over 90 episodes right now, and it allows me to really voice ideas and thoughts and put it out in the world and then also meet interesting people along the way. So you can find me through Business Finance and Soul or Transition Staffing Group. Yeah, that's awesome. No, I agree with you.

[00:35:21] I get more out of the podcast than anybody else does, so I know what you mean. It's awesome. Well, Sean, this has been great. You just, in your own words, live a lot of the principles that I believe in that business owners often either take for granted or don't understand, and creating that freedom fund that you talk about and being intentional about it, but yet at the same time clearly reinvesting in a business that creates value for the employees and for yourself. I mean, it's just textbooks. So, and it's not always a smooth ride, right?

[00:35:50] You've talked about the bumps along the way. So really appreciate you taking time to highlight this for us, and we look forward to following you along on the journey. Yeah, I can, and you're building an impressive network and great business. I always enjoy, you know, speaking with you, and your mindset is on par, but then I really, really think we're kindred spirits, so I appreciate you. Yeah, cheers. All right, we'll stay in touch. We'll talk soon. Kanekar and Claudia Bettinger are back with you.

[00:36:18] Just a great episode, energizing, validating for us in many respects. You know, in a basic sense, it's a reminder that successful business ownership is not about shortcuts or flashy exits, right? It's about something much more intentional.

[00:36:32] In fact, powerful lessons in three areas kind of aligned with what we, kind of our practice teaches just naturally, and wonderful to see it that way, you know, around developing your narrative, your story about the concept of risk and how to scale your business, balancing your personal risk and business risk. And third, how to, in our words, repurpose your wealth along the way. We'll get into some of that, but Claudia, what were your thoughts? Yeah, I mean, I loved this episode.

[00:36:58] And honestly, one of my favorite parts is when he talks about his grandparents and they're watching them not be able to secure themselves in retirement and learning from that at such a young age. You know, as kids, we absorb so much and so much of our future financial philosophy can come from what you observe. And so seeing how that kind of propelled him to build this business and to really become the person that he became, I think it was really interesting. And I love that he's so vulnerable in sharing that story. Yeah, he was very vulnerable, right? And it's so interesting and we see it, right?

[00:37:28] How your lessons from your parents or your grandparents shape your values and how you think about the business. And clearly, it elevated his thinking. Right. And it was very cool to see. I love that, too. And that does weave into our first point about building your narrative, right? Building your story. It's so key. Some people call it a manifesto. Some people call it a kayak moment, as one of our, as Justin Rutherland-Schauffer did in a recent episode that will be airing. And some people call it a North Star. We often call it a North Star.

[00:37:57] But all of it are things that articulate in a documented form your why. Why are you doing what you're doing? But it defines success before growth. It defines success before disruption and distraction. So it becomes your North Star. Yeah. Very powerful there. And his story really showed a lot of that. Yeah. I mean, I love that he didn't just stumble into entrepreneurship and that it was really intentional that he had thought about this so many different times and what it could potentially be with his wife.

[00:38:26] And then realizing that he did want to actually stay in staffing after the conversation with his boss, you know, and having that kayak moment, that lightning strike moment of, oh, this is what I meant to do, you know? Yeah. Yeah. And him discovering that and then being able to put it in a format that he could live it out with, it was awesome. And what's important, too, it sets the stage, that narrative for how you reinvest in the business and how you repurpose money away from the business. Yeah.

[00:38:56] Where you create diversification. And that's a lot of the things we work on. The second thing I thought we'd highlight is how Sean let go to scale up. Mm-hmm. And that's such an important step for entrepreneurs to understand and do deliberately, right? Right. You literally heard him talk about how he went from technician to builder to someone who was really building, maybe being a legacy creator, right?

[00:39:23] So not just building a business, but really building a legacy for his employees, for his clients, making the world a better place, and having the resources to do that even beyond his business. An incredible example of that. Yeah, absolutely. You know, he talks about in 2019 really beginning this journey of letting go and starting to teach others what he was doing and letting them make their own mistakes.

[00:39:44] I think as a founder and, you know, this business is your baby, it can be so difficult to sit there and watch others maybe make mistakes that you know you could prevent and that you couldn't do. But in the long run, it's going to be so much better for you and so much better for your business and being able to scale the business outside of yourself. And so listening to his story and how he talks about that, I think a lot of business owners probably can relate and hopefully embark on that journey. Totally, totally. Third thing I thought we'd highlight is that concept of the freedom fund.

[00:40:13] What we call repurpose in action. Diversifying wealth away from the business before your miraculous sale, right, where everything has to go right. But it's really about intentionally building, you know, your financial independence alongside the business value you're creating. Right. And, you know, being able to direct that financial freedom and those resources toward building a legacy of some kind. Yeah. And you heard Sean talk about that. Yeah. And the legacy that he's building is so inspiring.

[00:40:42] He said that he started the Enders Foundation that provides scholarships to students who've lost parents to addiction or gun violence and that they've really started shifting using their wealth to help benefit others. He talks about not needing to fly private and instead using that money to secure his legacy and to help others. And I just think that that's so inspiring, being so generous. Yeah. Amazing choices, right?

[00:41:05] His narrative and his purpose and his independence allowed him to make the right choices and make the world a better place. So just such a great example. You know, so wrapping up, you know, and please, if you want a little bit more as we wrap up, you know, check out canon-car.com, which talks a lot about your narrative, talks a lot about helping, how do you scale up, right, and be able to let go. But really give some details about what Sean calls the Freedom Fund. We call repurpose.

[00:41:35] But it's such an important, powerful tool for creating options. But as we wrap up, Sean, thank you for sharing with us. I mean, basically you showed that, yeah, business is more than revenue and profit. It is about aligning purpose, mission, values, and with an intentional scaling where you're letting go and letting your employees shine. Take those chances. Take those risks. They learn and they build it larger than you. Their lives get better and you make the world a better place.

[00:42:03] And underneath it, as you build that Freedom Fund, you build your security and the confidence to move the world. So thanks for joining us and we hope we can see you on the next one.