#564 ESCAPE THE FOUNDER PRISON: How to Double Your Revenue While Working Less with George Rivera

Speaker A: And of course, like most founders, most entrepreneurs say tomorrow, it's never tomorrow. Once I got an idea of everything that I was doing, I run it through what I call the 10K per hour filter. Uh, that's just my value per hour in my zone of Genius is $10,000 an hour, I believe. Just connections, you know, networking, um, you know, being a problem solver for your friends and peers. You can always make more money, but you can never redo a childhood. Welcome to the Rise up for you podcast where thought leaders, entrepreneurs and executives from around world share their practical tips, strategies and stories to help you unleash your potential and achieve your goals. Your journey of growth to become your best starts now. Awesome.

Speaker B: Uh, uh, well, George, thank you so much for joining the Rise of your podcast. It's such an honor to have you on the show today.

Speaker A: Thank you, Netta, for having me.

Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. So I always like to start off the show by letting the audience get to know our guests. So today, tell us a little bit about yourself in your own words. And who was George in high school? I want to know.

Speaker A: Absolutely. Yeah. So I'm a 31 year entrepreneur, been around for a long time. But you asked who was I in high school? So I started my business when I was in high school. I was uh, 17 years old and always entrepreneurial, you know, growing up. And yeah, always, uh, had this, this, these grand vision of success and being my own boss. Even as a, as a teenager I see these commercials on TV talking about, you know, you can control your own destiny and people driving nice cars, as they say it. And I was like, I kind of want that life instead of the life that I thought I was going to grow into. And uh, yeah, so that's who I was. I also was, uh, was a son who, who didn't get to experience as much of my dad as I wanted to. You know, in, in high school, I'd say middle school, high school, I played in about 40 basketball games. But of all those games, my dad only went to one of the games. And I remember, you know, I'd score a basket and I'd, uh, scan the stands to see if maybe this is the second game my dad goes to and had no dad. But my teammates, you know, they would score and their dads would be at all the games and they'd cheer like they won the championship after scoring a basket. And I remember looking at another dad and I was like, I wish that was my dad. Yeah, so interesting, interesting times there, uh, the high school version of me.

Speaker B: Yeah, so Tell me, like, did you always go into entrepreneurship? So when you were in high school, you said you started your business. Was that your trajectory from then on out? Or did you work for corporate work for people? Like, what happened there?

Speaker A: Yeah, no, I've always been an entrepreneur, um, my entire adult life, essentially. So as, um, you know, finishing high school, I went to college. I was going to follow in my father's footsteps and become a medical doctor. That's what my dad did for his career. So I went into pre med. And at the same time I'm building this business and my junior year I started making more money than some doctors do already having graduated, you know, 10 years later, that would have been my path. And I remember thinking, okay, medicines, this path is, uh, having your own business. Is this path. Completely different paths. And I'm like, doesn't make sense to like, go in both directions. So I made the decision. I don't think I really thought this super deep in my head, but it just made sense. Like I'm just going to go the path that sort of goes along with the path I've already established versus bucking against this, the current, on this other path. So. So yeah, that's what, that's what made the change. And then I transitioned to a marketing, uh, major and I got my degree in marketing a couple years later.

Speaker B: What was your first business in?

Speaker A: Yeah, selling supplements, um, through direct response strategies, uh, through classified ads in newspapers and, uh, through direct mail. So this is old school postal mail. And. Yeah, and then I went online three years later in. In, uh, 98, 99.

Speaker B: Wow. Incredible. And so tell us a little bit more about your journey from an entrepreneur standpoint. Because I know that one of the things that you do, which is why I'm so fascinated to talk with you, is that, ah, you teach people how to, you know, build businesses, optimize what they're doing as a founder without sacrificing, like being a dad or being a parent or having a life. Right. Which. Which sounds like something that's very personal to you because you expressed earlier in the podcast that you did have a parent that was working hard, doing their thing, but they had to sacrifice, like, their time with you. So talk with us a little bit about, like, how you got to this epiphany or this journey, like what happened in your entrepreneurial journey.

Speaker A: Absolutely. Well, the best place to start from there is go back to 2015. My dad was diagnosed early on in the year with a fatal form of cancer and given only a few months to live. But he Ended up making about 10, 11 months. And a couple of weeks before he passed away, he said, don't miss Leo's games. I miss too many of yours. And, and uh, as you can imagine, hit me like a ton of bricks. I was instantly transported back into that high school gym that I just told you about. And that was beautiful closure for whatever that was. You know, I'm not a therapist. I don't know how to put language on that. I'm sure there's something. But then fast forward to that time when he's telling me this again. Two weeks before he passes away. Like a deathbed confession, you know, deathbed statement. And uh, you know, I'm realizing that I'm becoming version two of my dad. Like I'm missing. He said, my son Leo is that I'm missing the moments when he started to learn how to talk and walk. A lot of the first, first that a child makes hit. My son was just about 10 months old when he made that statement. And so I remember feeling this, the sense of like, okay, this ends here, this, this generational thing, it's done, but it has to start tomorrow because I'm working 16 hours today. And of course, like most founders, most entrepreneurs say tomorrow, it's never tomorrow. Sometimes it's never. But in my case it was three years. And you know, I'm working, grinding to the. Fast forward to 2018 was my first multiple eight figure year and printing money, like more money than I know what to do with personally, but hating life and it's. I, uh, know hate's a strong word, but I have no other way to explain it because it was like my business was ripping my family away from me or me from my family. But either way it's the same result. So I had two options that I came to the conclusion. I either wanted to sell the business, but you can't snap your fingers and sell a business overnight. You know, that's a multi year process. You know, you gotta hit, hit the market, get your, your uh, evaluation and then Lois fail at an 80% rate. So that's a multi year process. But, um, you can unplug the servers and burn the thing down. That's an option. And I really considered it. I was well financed. That would get me my sanity back, my family back, and I can rebuild a business that supported the lifestyle that I, that I claimed, that I wanted, that I was doing this whole thing for. Not a great idea. I had a coach and a mentor that lovingly walked me back off the ledge of doing that. And he basically said, stop doing what you don't like doing and keep doing what you're good at. And I'm just like, okay, 23 years in business and that finally clicks, I guess. Okay, let's do it. I'm a late bloomer, finally coming around to it. And so I started doing the work that I now do with other founder dads, but at the time I had to do it for myself. I didn't know what a framework was or a bottleneck is. I'm just doing the work. And the, uh, pinnacle of the transformation occurred a little less than two years later when I more than doubled the business to just shy of $50 million for, uh, the year. I went from working 90 hour weeks to sometimes off the grid for weeks at a time, but never working more hours. And the more impressive part than even the time or the money was like my dad said, don't miss Leo's games. So I never missed any of his games. In fact, I taught him how to negotiate real estate at 8 years old. You know, we do Airbnbs and I buy land and other things, investing with the, as a byproduct of the cash flow of the main business. And you know, the old me would have said, son, here's an iPad. There's, there's a couch over there, knock yourself out. And I don't think too many people would have judged me for it, but I'm like, oh, this is the new present, me son, you're going to make the offer to the realtor. And so we're looking at this lake house that, that's on the lake, that we already own another home on it. Yeah, Realtor gives you a little bit of time to discuss as a family, like, you know, what kind of offer do you want to put together? And I told my son, I was like, hey, tell him we're going to close in 30 days. Here's the price we're going to pay. Leave the furniture, leave the dock, because this is an Airbnb lake house. It'll save us like 100,000. Now go tell the realtor. And he looks at me like, uh, why am I doing this? And I'm like, just go, we'll be later. And then he goes, he tells the realtor, super tall guy is looking down at this little boy, half smirk on his face, you know, my son saying, closing date and leave the dock. And Stu up. Then the realtor looks at me with his eyes, doesn't say a word, but his eyes are just asking me, is that the offer? And I'm like, whippersnapper spoke. That's the offer. And we got the house. And I love thinking about that from a legacy perspective, because one day he's going to be with his kids and be like, grandpa used to take me to make the offer. So you kids are going to make the offer. And, and just the, the legacy impact and the ripple effects of that, you know, that's just because I made the decision to change the trajectory of my family's path, in effect, my son's path. And I was there present for him. And even fast forward to current day. He's 11 years old, he has a podcast, he's interviewed over a hundred people. We, ah, actually got our first billionaire to commit to coming on the show. And these are millionaires now, billionaires, successful founders, um, people with stories, cancer survivors, people who've climbed the peaks of the world coming on his show, pouring wisdom into him. And that's only because I was able to be present for him. And so, yeah, awesome.

Speaker B: So I'm going to ask you the golden question, which is how do we start to build the frameworks to be able to have that? I mean, and by the way, I know, I know one of your focuses is fathers, but moms, you know, also go through it. I know for myself, and I'm being very transparent, I am currently a bottleneck in our company. You know, if I take off, you know, last year I got married. I also became a mom of three kids at the same time, if I take a week off or I'm doing certain things, the revenue suffers because I'm the main, uh, salesperson. Right. Or the main business development person. So, like, I know I'm the bottleneck, and I'm kind of in that phase as well, where, okay, I'm building this company and scaling it, and we're doing amazing mission work. We're like, we're doing amazing stuff in the world. But I can see that when I do certain things away from it, that it struggles. And obviously I want to bridge that gap. So what does that look like?

Speaker A: Yeah, well, first, congratulations on the family changes over the last year. But, yeah, so I'll tell you what I did, uh, to go from 90 hours a week to like semi retired practically is I had to shine a spotlight on everything that I was doing. And once I got an idea of everything that I was doing, I run it through what I call the 10K per hour filter. That's, uh, just my value per hour in my zone of Genius is $10,000 an hour. Like your listeners might be worth 20,000, a hundred thousand, or somebody starting out $100, $500. And so just figure that out. And I usually say just double whatever you have in your head because we always undervalue our uh, our, our personal worth. And so get that figure and run all of the activities that you do through that filter. And so you keep anything that would hit your number or more and then get everything else off of your plate. So after doing this, you're going to have a nice batch, uh, of things that you should not be doing anymore. And there's only three things you can do with those things that you aren't going to do anymore. And I call that the time liberation trifecta. And that's eliminating anything that doesn't move the needle sometimes like recurring meetings and things. You know, we got note takers that can handle some of that. So there's a number of things and every business is different. And then the second thing is automate anything that repeats. And with AI, that's easier than ever today. And then the third thing is delegate outcomes versus delegating tasks. And so there's a proper structure and a way to delegate to actually get things done versus just, oh, here, uh, do this. And I call that delayed involvement. It's just a matter of time before you get roped in. And so that's the first step. And the outcome for me was when I ran myself, I went from 90 hours to uh, 40 hours. So 50 of those hours were on $50 an hour or less tasks. So for a company doing multiple eight figures a year in revenue, a $2,500 a week person could give me more than half of my time back. Uh, it's just, was a great investment, uh, for my business. And those 40 hours that I had left over, that's still a full time job, but that compressed to around 20 hours because now I'm working with less stress, no context switching. I'm in my zone of genius. I'm happier and I'm actually doing things that move revenue for the business versus all this other stuff, important stuff. But it shouldn't be the founder, the owner, who's, who's drowning in those activities. So yeah, and then the outcome is like what I explained, that's how you, in my case, that's how I doubled my business while working less. On the surface it's like that doesn't make sense. But um, it's not that we abandon those activities, it's that we, we delegate those, you know, we put it through the time liberation Trifecta. Um, and then we stick with the zone of genius activities that bring in revenue for the business.

Speaker B: So I have two questions for you. When you're going through that process, how much of that, though, do you have to put time into actually training these people and making sure that they work right, like, as employees, because. Or contractors, whatever it is. Because. And I'm just speaking, like, candidly, as a business owner, and I'm sure some of our listeners can resonate with as well, is that, you know, whenever you're delegating outcomes, well, then somebody has to, like, have accountability with those individuals and making sure they're in the right seat and they're the right fit and so on and so forth. So did you also delegate that? Like, did you have somebody that was like, what did that look like for you? Out of curiosity?

Speaker A: Yeah, so. So kind of going back to my 2018 era structure, I had the world's worst org chart. It's me. And then I had 40 people beneath me. So had you told me, hey, George, just go delegate. I'd be like, I'm delegating, you know, but. But I kept getting roped back in. And that's where I, uh, referenced. It's really was delayed involvement what I was doing. And so what I had to do was get everything out of my head and put it into SOPs, standard operating procedures. And now it's easier than ever with AI. You know, take ChatGPT or Claude, your favorite, uh, AI tool, talk into it, explain the process, even also use loom videos in an effort to capture what it is that you're doing. You put that into your favorite AI and ask it to make a beautiful SOP out of that. And, you know, AI will get it 95% there. So, like, it's fresh in your mind. Review it, make sure that it's accurate. And then what I tell the person that I'm delegating it to, I say, Look, I got 10 minutes or 30 minutes, however long it is. I need you to watch this. Now. Let me know if you have any questions. They'll watch it. Maybe a clarification question. Okay, let me tweak it so you understand it. And now, now tell me what you think. And they're like, okay, I got it. And I'm like, great. Uh, I say this in a, in a nicer way, but something along the lines of, I should never see this again. Like, completely on this. You know, there. There are structured times and moments, like a weekly cadence, or it could be, you know, once a month. Or uh, every business is different but where you know, your people can bring to you any questions, concerns in a structured format because that eliminates context switching, which is a killer of productivity. You know, you're, you're working in your zone of genius thing, somebody interrupts you on something else and it takes, there's a study, I, I'd have to look it up to reference it properly, but it's about 23 minutes to get back to what it is you were doing and people are getting interrupted 5, 10 times per day or more. So that's hours of lost productivity. So when I go back to like compressing my 40 hours down to 20, that's, that's how it happened. Less context switching.

Speaker B: Did you know that 95% of leaders think they're self aware, but only 10% actually are? So let me ask you, do you know where your two strengths and gaps are when it comes to the skills that matter most? Well, at rise of free.com, we have built a number of free tools and resources to give you instant answers. Free tools around self confidence, emotional intelligence, multiple quizzes that you can take right now to figure out where you stand today and how to get to where you want to go tomorrow. These aren't just quick checklists. These are actual tools that we've used around the world with our clients, both big organizations from Fortune 5 to entrepreneurs or individuals just like yourself. So head over to Rise of free. Com. Don't waste any more time. Click on the free tab resources button up on the top and grab a hold of all of the free resources you can today. Quiz your self confidence, quiz your emotional intelligence and find out how you can be the best version because the world needs you now more than ever. Yeah, I totally agree with that. And that is something that I do like. So for example, occasionally I'll coach somebody, right? I'll have like an executive leader that I coach. All my coaching is on this one day, right? I'm not like one coach cheer one like I, I can't do that. The context behind it. So I m kind of podcasting for example. I do all my podcasting on one day. You know, I put my outfit on for the day and that's all I focused on is the recording. So I totally agree with that. I have another question for you that's more of a selfish question geared around the service industry. So you know, I love the $10,000 an hour framework or whatever it is, that number that you believe your value is, right As a, as a founder, owner, you know, One of the things that I run up against, and I also see other service businesses run up against things that we believe that we need to do that add value. But we're not. We're not necessarily sure that it's directed towards, like, revenue or scaling. So, for example, in today's world, in the service industry, content is king, right? So if you are the service. Right. So I have a team of trainers and coaches. We are the product. Like, we are the ones delivering and engaging. And so for us, creating content like videos and podcasting is a big part of educating on what we do, but it's not necessarily tied to, like, you know, making a ton of revenue. So I'm curious on your thought around that kind of stuff around, like, should the founder be that brand and, like, representing from that aspect? Because I'll tell you now, like, for myself, recording content is a lot of time, but it's not directly related to me getting out there and doing business development with clients, if that makes sense.

Speaker A: Yeah, totally understand. I, uh, do believe the short answer is yes. I believe the founder should be building a personal brand, especially these days, because AI is sort of like, neutralizing everybody. So we have to, like, find ways to stand out. Because AI is now making people who are, like, mediocre. They're making them good. And then the people that are great and they're using AI, they're like, downgrading to good. And so now you're like. Or, uh, not you, but people in general are at the same level. And, uh, there's no more typos anymore. And so, like, how do you stand out from the crowd? I think is the personal brand and, and, you know, uh, sharing your own personal content that you create. And of course, we all use AI to come up with that, but as long as it's, uh, reflecting and amplifying who we are, um, so there is a bit of a time investment we have to do in that because that amplifies everything else that we're doing. It helps our credibility. And people that are looking to work with us, they'll see all the breadcrumbs of podcasts and shorts and clips and guest appearances and media that we've been part of. That it all just amplifies and aids to the, you know, brings in revenue by closing deals and stuff. So, um, I definitely think it's important now there's ways to do that in an, in an efficient, effective way. Like you said, you know, you'll kind of do the podcast and batch them together so you're not just Jumping around, you know, kind of randomly there. So it sounds like you're doing at least the podcasting part. It sounds like you're doing very efficient.

Speaker B: Okay, good. I love that answer. And thank you for that, Matt. That makes sense. So I want to jump into the rapid fire section of the interview, George, but is there any question that I didn't ask you that you. That you want to talk about or anything that I. That I didn't bring up that you want to address?

Speaker A: No, I mean, I. I feel like. Yeah, I feel like you cover everything. I mean, I. I, uh, know, you know, this could be a much deeper conversation, but, you know, reasons why we stay, like, in the position of what I call the founder prison. You know, like, in my case, like, I would complain about it, but something still kept me tied to it, even while my family was, like, slowly drifting out of my reach, it felt like. But I'm still, like, getting some kind of dopamine hit by being the. The firefighter and the savior to my company. And that could be from childhood wounds. In my case, seeking approval from my dad. I know that's a much deeper topic, but just something to be aware about that, you know, there's a lot of, like, you know, strategies and tactics we can. We can discuss, and they're great, but sometimes there's deeper issues that keep us, like, plugged in. So as long as we're aware about that, we'll. We'll at least have, uh, you know, something to. To look towards to, uh, to finding a potential solution.

Speaker B: Well, I think you bring up a really good point, and this is something that we see with our clients and leaders as well, is unfortunately, we have created, like, a society where our identity is highly attached to our work in our career, whether we're the founder, business owner, CEO, whatever it is, and not necessarily attached to being a mom or a dad or whatever other roles we have. Right. And so we've created this system where we, as individuals, when we talk about, like, who we are, usually the first thing was like, oh, I do this. This is my job. This is who I am. And the thought, even from a leadership perspective, of shifting that or changing that or changing how you do it can make somebody feel like they're losing a piece of themselves, because that has been their identity their entire life. Now, similar to you, that can go back in a lot of ways. Like, why is that your identity? Where did that come from? I mean, there's a bunch of beliefs that we can break down. But I do think it is quite interesting that Even today, right in today's time, that only about 30% of the workforce is actually truly happy and fulfilled in what they're doing every day. Right. That doesn't mean they're not successful. That just means that they're, you know, not engaged, not really loving what they're doing. And so they've created this identity around their work without like the fulfillment and the joy of the rest of their life.

Speaker A: Absolutely. And yeah, uh, you know, yeah, you touched on a good point there about successful. You know, like my, the, the people that I work with and help the most find themselves cash rich, time poor. You know, that that's basically the me of 10 years ago. Cash rich means you're successful on paper, you've got a growing business and, and you're good there, but your time poor because your business gets all your time and the family gets the burned out, stressed out leftovers. If any of that at all. Sometimes it's like none of that. Yeah, I think you hit is like, yeah, we can be successful in our business but have this giant hole, this big void in our heart for something else on the other side. And oftentimes it's the family that sort of gets the leftovers.

Speaker B: Yeah, totally agree. This has been great. George. Thank you so much for joining us today. Couple rapid fire questions I want to ask you. As you know our organization, we, we truly believe that in order to elevate the human condition and to be optimal as a human, that means you're fulfilled. You love your life, you love, you know, the career that you've created, the relationships that you've built, that soft skills are really the backbone behind that. Right. How we build our relationships with people, our self confidence, the beliefs that are in our head, how important or not important are soft skills for you and your success. Like what are some of the things that you've realized from a soft skill perspective that you needed in order to truly get to where you are today?

Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, I believe just connections, you know, networking, um, you know, being a problem solver for, for your friends and peers, you know, like what, what is it that I can help them with? And, and oftentimes, you know, the, the world will bring it back to you. Whatever your needs are, you'll get, you'll get fulfilled. I mean, it's something that I'm teaching with my son. I'm teaching him the concept of networking and uh, you know, a whole nother topic. But like instead of being on devices, it's like we're, we're making real human connection and we're seeing what they need and, and, and, and helping there. So anyway, I know it's rapid fire, but that's my thing.

Speaker B: The next question I want to ask you is if you were to leave the world with one final nugget, we call it the golden nugget. What's the last piece that you would leave with them?

Speaker A: I'd say that you can always make more money, but you can never redo a childhood. That would be the thing.

Speaker B: Yeah. Good. We've never had that on our, on our show before. Awesome. Um, I love that answer. And finally, another question for you, but tell us a little bit about where we can find me before I ask you the final question. Where. Where can we look you up? How do we get ahold of you? I know you're on LinkedIn.

Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. Buybacktimeformula.com There you can check out my books and, um, you know, uh, enter my world from buybacktimeformula.com.

Speaker B: okay, awesome. We'll make you put that in the show notes as well. And final question, as you know, we're the company rise up for you. What comes to mind for you when you hear that phrase?

Speaker A: Yeah, just like the elevation, you know, just like improving. Maybe it's a birthing, but like a positive growth.

Speaker B: Growth.

Speaker A: Just expanding. Just, uh, movement. All good stuff.

Speaker B: All good stuff. I agree. Awesome. It's been an honor to have you on the show. Thank you so much for joining us today.

Speaker A: Thank you, Nana. It's been fun.

Speaker B: And thank you, everyone for joining the rise of your podcast again. This is your host, Netalina Nasserdine. Every single week, we are bringing you brand new episodes with amazing leaders, entrepreneurs from around the world that are here to just help you become your best through telling their stories, providing education. It's always an honor to be with you and hopefully I will see you on the next podcast. Thank you. Thank you again, George. Hey, thanks for joining us today on the rise of free podcast. You know, every episode is designed to give you practical tools and strategies on success, entrepreneurship, leadership, and so much more. You know, the skills that actually help you be seen, be heard, and be relevant. So if you haven't already, make sure you subscribe to, uh, our YouTube channel and find any podcast platform, your favorite, so that you can catch weekly episodes with the leaders, entrepreneurs, and executives from around the world. We're all coming together for one reason and one reason only, and that is to help you be the best that you can be. Click the subscribe button below and share this episode. I'll see you next time.