Financial Freedom and Balance with Derick Gant

Hey everybody, welcome to the Freedom Nation podcast. And on today's episode, I get to interview Derick Gant. Dereck is another financial advisor. He's been doing it about as long as I have. And on this episode, you'll find out that he and I are more alike than anybody I think I've ever met in my life, we could be brothers, and we actually really truly loved spending the time together, getting to know each other. So you get to enjoy that as part of this interview, Derick really focuses his efforts on helping the minority community understand finance, of starting from just the basics of budgeting and paying bills correctly, really helping them get to the point where they can get their lives under control, and they can begin to invest and grow their money. He has got a amazing strategy for doing this. So join us for the show. I know you're gonna love it. He is such an amazing guy and I had one of the greatest 40 minutes of my life interviewing him today.

Welcome to the Freedom Nation podcast with Jeff Kikel. On this show, Jeff shares his expertise in financial and retirement planning from a different perspective. Planning for Your Freedom Day, which is the first day that you wake up and have enough income or assets and do not have to go to work that day. Learn how to calculate what you need, how to generate income sources, and listen to interviews from others who've done it themselves. Get ready to experience your own Freedom Day.

Hello, Freedom Nation. It's Jeff here once again, and we are kicking off an episode to talk with somebody actually in my business, it'll will, it'll be a lot of fun. We get to talk a little bit the shop. Today I'm gonna have Derick Gant on the show. Derick is a registered investment advisor. He's really focused his life on helping people get the get their finances in order and get out of debt. So Dr. Derick, welcome to the show, my friend,

hey, I'm excited to be part of freedom nation and talk to you today. And we can talk some shop and really give people some inside scoop on what we really think about this market.

All right, my brother, I'm good, man. Let's get this thing kicked off. Tell us your story. How'd you get here today?

Yeah, you know, it's really interesting. When I grew up, I went to private high school, private grade school. And I used to overhear my parents talking about how they were going to pay for my tuition. And, you know, listening to the struggle, and I know, they were sacrificing to make sure I got a great education. And actually, one day I was in, in school, and getting ready for school and my locker mate, the guy right next door to me, he was talking about something he wanted, and I can't remember what it was. But I can remember him saying, you know, I'm just gonna sell my XYZ stock so I can buy this thing. And I'm looking at him, you know, you're 1516 years old, you're like, you're, you're gonna sell what to do what? And so it was the beginning of my, between that message and my parents, you know, struggling financially, those two messages kind of merged. And I said, Man, I need to know more about money. And I was just fascinated with it. That's how I saw I got launched off and I've been doing this for 30 years.

Love it. Yeah, that's the same time in the business together. So. So tell me a little bit about how you, you know, how you got into the, into the business, you know, what was your pathway? And then how did you get to where you're at today?

Yeah, you know, I actually tripped into it. Majored in college in, in interpersonal communications, and Mark business marketing. And so I took a job at a retail store, a huge retail chain, and I was working my hind parts off for about a year. And you know, in retail, you know, you might work 12 to 12. And during the holidays, Michael, just put a cot in the store. And so and, and they have me managing things like China and children's clothes. And I mean, I'm 22 years old, right?

I know what none of this, none of this, I just got done

Playing college football and over women's dresses. And so, you know, and I'm working my hind parts off, you're doing inventory. And I accidentally saw the store managers paycheck, went to go get our car because it was a bad snowstorm. And I'm a nice guy. So let me get your car, I'll clean it off. We'll warm it up, bring up to the door. She had all of her pay stubs. It was her car was a wreck. So I actually I took a peek, then that when I went in the next day, I said, Hey, I just don't remember how long have you been doing this? And she told me was like, there is no way and I'm staying in this place to make that kind of money for that long. And I begin to start looking at opportunities and in my, in my geographical location. There's a company there was a company that was just filled with EX athletes there. was a financial service firm and they were predominantly selling life insurance 65 guys of the 65 I think four of them were securities license. And the rest of them were selling insurance. And so, you know, I was attracted to the snappy white collar and Chris tie and the Mercedes in the parking lot. So I said, Oh, man, I can do this job. And I want 100% Commission, and fought hard. I did what I was supposed to do. I didn't particularly care for the insurance side. So I got my securities license, it became number five. Actually, number two with an actual series seven, most of the guys had a series six or something like that. So that's how I got him. And it was an accident. I was like, I gotta get out of this store. Yeah, no kidding.

So you built up your career there? When did you? When did you kind of launch off on your own and create jobs?

I spent 11 years with them. And I became the first fee based consultant. And so we kind of fell out over what bonuses should look like. And that's when I put my flagpole up in 2000. You know, if you recall, in 2000, the market took a

Boy when the best timing there.

Unfortunately, I did it before, I wouldn't have done it if it crashed before. But I was already out the door before it took a dump. And, and it but I never looked back. You know that ex athlete in me said you can do it, you can do it. So. So it's been great run.

Awesome. That's awesome. So let's talk a little bit about your practice. I mean, you've really developed a strategy for helping people get their kind of finances in order. So share me a bit about that.

Yeah, you know, I spent the first, let's say 20 years, we'll all 20 years as a registered investment advisor. And most of our clients are retired or they're like really close to retiring. And we manage their their portfolio so that they don't lose any money, you know, those people don't want to lose any money. So we're relatively conservative investor, advisor, Investment Advisors. But what I realized as more minorities would come to me and said, in my practice is probably 7030 to, you know, to the majority and minority. But, you know, minorities didn't have anywhere to go for advice, but they also didn't have any money. I had, I had no desire to be broke. So. So I basically said, you know, for the last, that is the sad, but the for last 20 years, you know, people have been coming to me, and I can't help them because they don't have any money. And I would honestly give them I don't know your background. Business. But you remember IDs? Oh, yeah, remember? Yeah, so IDs would do these financial plans and charge people five 600 bucks. Yeah. So I started doing plants for free for these minorities, you know, my constituents, you know, my natural market, and just to help them, and I would say, Okay, here's your plan. And when you get to this particular part, come back, and then we'll take it to the next step. And honestly, over 10 years, so I did 10 years in the next 10 years over that second 10 years in the business, to women came back and said, Hey, did everything that you said, Yeah. Now, now what? And when they came back, it just struck this lightning bolt in my head, like, Well, what happened, all the

Other words, the other 98% is,

you know, for other people that I've been helping over, you know, or whatever, you know, and so I started looking at it, and I realized that life happened, gave him a plan that didn't include, you know, having kids or this oopsie, you didn't fire to getting displaced and all these things. Yeah. And so we recreated this solution. And the solution was to create a totally separate company. That helped, because you know, you know, that you can't have two companies doing two hands, we can't budget for people, and then tell them to invest with us. Yeah. So that's, that's not that's not allowed. So we created this completely separate company, that did budgeting and debt relief and credit repair, that really helped people figure out how to stop living check to check and improve their financial life. And so we have these two companies. And it's been, you know, for the people that follow our lead, it's been amazing for them.

Well, I think you're just taking it that next step from a Dave Ramsey or Suze Orman or whatever, that tells you these things. You're actually helping them do it. You're sitting there side by side with them doing it. Yeah, absolutely. You know, I think that's that is the admirable piece of what you do. Because the problem is, you know, I mean, I've been involved with the Dave Ramsey organization for years. And there's, there's a certain subset of people that go through that and they're like, boom, I'm ready to go, you know, I'm gonna be disciplined to do this. But you know, how many countless 1000s of people never make it? Yeah. And what

Would you think is the percent of people that could really grab that content by the horns and move forward with it? I have an idea but I'm gonna ask you.

I'm gonna say it's an ad toy. You know, it's the typical Pareto principle of 8020. You know, I agree, yeah, 20% of the people are going to generate 80% of the results, right? You know, they're gonna, they're gonna be those people that go, Okay, I've got it, you know, I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna be disciplined, and they just follow the game. You know, I think way too many people always love the old days. And you and you and I have been in the business about the same amount of time. I mean, you came into the business when, when I did when he had the old buy term and invest the rest and in America, probably Erica, yeah, by by term. But most people would then buy a TV. There was no investment invest in a TV instead of buy. Yeah. So I just, I think there's just a large amount of people that are still kind of ambling through life. And you and I are along the same lines, we're trying to help those people get there. And I just realized that there's going to be a whole bunch of people, I'm going to put it out there. But my people, my audience, my, you know, my tribe are that 20% of people that are actually going to take action,

Ya know, and I agree wholeheartedly, you know, and I took a lot, I don't take much anymore, but I took a lot of heat from, like banking institutions and those kind of groups, because they say, Oh, you're enabling people? Like, absolutely, because they couldn't do it. Yes, I'm helping them, you know, but they need the help. They need somebody to need an accountability partner. And how many of us don't at some area in our life, like if illustrators have the unique,

I Mean, I'm sure during your career, you've hired coaches, you know, to help coach you along and say, hey, you know, you, you've got to do this, this, this and this, and it's the same way, you're being a coach for them to say, Hey, this is how you do this. And let's make sure that you don't fall off the wagon.

Exactly. And I was fine with the first first couple of arguments with some bankers, you know, they got my blood pressure. But after that, I said, you know, it is what it is, these people need help. We need coaching at some point, some people just need more than others, and I just happen to be that guy.

So how do you do charge, like a monthly fee for that service? Or how do you do it?

So what we did in the beginning, was we charged a percent of their income. Okay. And so, you know, we said, hey, in on average, if you know, this, be honest, these people were probably making 1500 bucks a month. And so we charged you know, make 5%, so $75 a month. Now, it's not that inexpensive today, because, you know, inflation and everything else. But even today, we've kind of moved away from from doing the percentage of income, and we just do a flat fee. And we and we also offer, so I have a whole digital library. So everything I took me forever. Everything that we walk people through in person is in a digital library that they can get for 25 bucks a month. Nice, but but the Pareto Principle falls into place. And you know, they're not going to do the work. But that's not that's not my fault. The people that know they're not going to do the work. On average, they pay a couple 100, maybe 250 bucks a month for coaching. We meet with them two to three times a month. They can email us, they can text us, they can call us. And I have a team of account managers that that have clients that they walk them through it, I promise you when people sign up, they don't have bounced check fees. They don't have they're not living check to check. They never want to leave. Yeah, just just you guys just do it.

Yeah, well, but I mean, I think the reality of that is, wow, I'm actually seeing some success, you know, and success breeds success breeds success. And, you know, I think that first step of, geez, you know, every month I had 75 to $100 worth of just bounced check fees, and I don't have those anymore. Wow. Okay, my life is, you know, I see the value already and then you start getting them into Alright, let's see. So let's look at all your I'm assuming you go through and look at what they're spending on certain things. And why are you spending this? Yeah,

What we what we try to do is we try not to micromanage adults if we can't help it. So what we do is we you know, I what I tell people is this this really cool when you look at your finances, what changes does your mortgage change? Not really does your car payment, not really what your spending is what changes so we have them to separate church and state so they're spending money goes into an account and their bills go into a different account and then we help them figure out hey, if you want to buy a house, we have a different strategy if you want to go on vacation we have so we account for all these dollars that you know Grant Cardone always says every dollar has a duty, and I've kind of used that with my clients. Every dollar has a duty. So what's this dollars responsibility? Is it to get you away from being check to check is it to pay the water bill? So so we have a strategy that we use and then we obviously not only give them strategy, we walk them through it on a regular

part. Perfect, perfect. Yeah. So you create a spending plan instead of a budget? Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. And try and account for those little things that pop up, you know, like life happens moments. Yeah.

Well, yeah, you know, I can't begin to tell you how many phone calls we we got, we get phone calls from some Christian people who want it to pay their ties, but they were never able to really pay their ties. And at the end of the year, when they went to the church mailed them their little statement showing what they paid for their tax write offs, they were crying, like, I can't believe I actually did what I was supposed to do. Yeah. Or, or, you know, or we get calls from people that are crying because they have, you know, $800 in their savings account, that it's not going anywhere. Yeah, literally, you know, just they're used to if they have some money, it's going somewhere really fast. So it's rewarding work. It's challenging. Don't get me wrong. Oh, yeah. But it's also rewarding.

Yeah, well, I mean, but the thing is, it's somebody's got to help, you know, and I mean, it's a you've at least created a solution for that. So absolutely. You know, what's the future look like for the 24k life? And, you know,

Yeah, so what we've done is the the coaching that I was telling you about, that's a couple 100 250 bucks a month, we created the Digital Library for that. And so we move that into the 24k Live community so that people can, number one not feel that they're all alone. We use a mobile a mobile app for that they subscribe to, you know, obviously, they get our emails, they get our youtubes. And I do a Sunday night, you know, sermon, it's not really a sermon, because where but I do a Sunday night call where we go through, you know, what should you be looking at this week, and just for life, you know, 24k Life is about, you know, making sure that you're fit and making sure that you have your mind, your mindset, you know, put head on, right, it's your finances, right, your relationships are good. So, you know, we address these things. So the future for us is to try to build this community of people that don't want to be miserable, that decided that they don't have to be miserable, they don't have to be overweight, they don't have to be broke, they don't have to be spiritually bankrupt. Now, and we don't preach to him, we just talk about things like meditation and, and you know, quiet time you

Can you can be spiritual and not go to church.

Exactly. So So you know, the so I would love for our future to be that we have 1000s and 1000s and 1000s of people inside this community that are supporting each other, and also having us support them. And to be able to do that at a large scale so that more people and our kids and our you know, our futures is not as stressful because we all know that stress causes a lot of ailments. And financial stress has got to be number one or two.

Well, and it hurts relationships and everything else. So the more you can fix, and you know what I've seen in my own practice, when you help you help somebody get their finances in order, it's amazing that all of a sudden, they'll get physically better in shape. Yeah, and they're happier. And, you know, they start going to church again, or, you know, they start really working on themselves from a from that mindset. So you start getting things back in balance, your life starts to improve pretty significantly. And it's and it's not just financial coaching that you know, get your finances right. Yeah, well, I'm right. Yeah, you're dying of being, you know, eight pounds overweight.

Exactly, exactly. So we try to tell people that, you know, because everybody thinks, Well, you know, 24k, you're preaching money, you preach and get rich, and we're not what we're preaching is that, in order for gold to be gold, it has to go through a fiery process that eliminates the lead, it eliminates the nickel eliminates the iron. And just like that, you have to eliminate being lazy, being ignorant, being you know, all the things that are holding you back your limiting beliefs. So that's the 24k, can you become your best version? Because we all know you and I know as financial advisors, people who are at the best of their game. Yep, get paid the most money.

Yeah, absolutely. Right. Well, and that athletes, yep. And I mean, the business people, you know, I work with a local incubator program. And, you know, it's so cool to see the kids come through that, you know, and a lot of them come into it, like, Okay, I'm just going to take this class and learn a little bit about business, but you know, I'm gonna go be a biologist, or I'm gonna go be a doctor. And the amazing thing is to watch them come through and understand how business works, how money works, how all this fits together. And all of a sudden, they're like, I want to be a business person. This is, you know, this is what I love, you know, and more and more, that we can get people thinking that way. I mean, that's a core tenant of our strategy is trying to get people to start to look at life, not as a paycheck but as an income source. And not think of life as I can't afford that. At or I'm going to put it on credit and go, Okay, how can I afford this? What can I do to be able to afford this? And pay

the price? Right? You might not be able to get it today? No, we might have to get it in three weeks or three months. But you know, you can make it a plan. There's nothing you can't do if you if you strategize.

Yeah. Well, I mean, I did. Yeah, I do that with my bucket list. I created an income source that created 500 bucks a month that now pays for me to go play and go drive race cars, and oh, my gosh, stuff like that. Yeah. It's my plane trains and automobiles planned for this year. So you know, but that was I had the money. I mean, obviously, I had the money, I sold a business. But I was like, I'm not going to do that. I'm going to follow my own advice. income source that we allowed me to go play, and then I don't feel bad about spending money.

There you go. I love that idea. So amazing idea. Awesome.

Well, let's transition into the Fast Five questions now. Okay, okay. I'm ready. I'm ready. Alright, so first question, you wake up in the morning, business is gone, you have 500 bucks in your pocket, laptop, computer, place to live and food? What do you do first?

Well, the first thing that I'm going to do is I am going to assess what my absolute needs are. If anything, if I have that laptop, I am going to go out and create a funnel, if you will, or at least some content to get out there. I'm going to tap into my expertise. Now for Derek specifically, it's financial. So it's how can we create opportunities for people to improve their finances, we'll probably create some really inexpensive, digital piece of content that can can help people because we all know when we give you receive. And so I'm going to hold on to that $500 as tightly as I can go to work and use that to sustain me and, and projecting out, you know, maybe paying for that Wi Fi or whatever it's going to take for me to stay in business as long as possible. So that's the first thing I'm going to do.

Give back, give back and then you'll get back. Exactly what Okay, second one, what is the biggest business mistake you've ever made? I mean,

I think I told you I left the comforts. And it wasn't really comfortable because I was 100% Commission where I was, yeah, but there was some, there was some safety in that, you know, sticking with what you have been doing for 11 years or 1011 years up to that point, I would have, I would have made a strategic move versus making a move, you know, I decided that I didn't like I didn't like the way that they looked at my fee based business. And then they were not going to bonus me the way I knew I should have been bonus. So I'm out and I got I left. I mean, it was literally less than less than 90 days I was gone. So probably I would have been more strategic on that.

Yeah, it's you and I have a very, very similar background. The last job I had I had a very bad review. And I was like, Screw you. I'm out of here. I'm done. Yeah. 90 days later, I went off and launch my own business and the rest is history. So it was it was rip the band aid off and burn the ships to shore on top of it.

Exactly, exactly.

What is a good book that you would recommend for our audience?

Well, I honestly believe that. And I hate to say this, because it's probably not politically correct. But I believe that most people are just too soft. Yes, things are too soft. I would read a David Goggins. You can't hurt me. Yeah. Are can't hurt me. And I think that when people read other people's stories about how they had to overcome and triumph, I recently watched a documentary about two swimmers, two young female swimmers that were refugees, and they were swimming in the ocean. And it was just a crate, it's on Netflix. I can't think of a name of it. But when we when we recognize what other people's specifically immigrants have to do, to come here and survive, and we can go all the way back in history, United States history, and and people coming into Ellis Island and just listened to they came here with nothing. Yes.

I think people who didn't speak the language didn't Yeah, I didn't want to mess with anything. Yeah. Yeah.

That was, that would be my, my book choice. That would be my choice for most

Mine as well. I absolutely love that book. I was just off subject. I was watching a YouTube thing the other day and I caught a short and it was Goggins sitting there next to this guy. He was getting interviewed on some kind of show. And I could tell you, you can just look at his face, because he's a horrible poker player. So I'm sitting there and he's he's listening this guy and the guy asked him some stupid question. He just looks over at him and I'm like, he just took his soul right there.

Let's not get it twisted. God is this guy. crazy I mean, oh, he's

He's absolutely nuts

But his story his story is amazing. I I'm even though I'm saying people are soft. Yeah, I was a division one college football player, you got to be pretty hard to go through all that. But even I'm not, you know, baby guy. That guy's nuts. Well,

I put my favorite thing I was I was a ranger in the military. And you know, he talks about Ranger School and he's like, Oh my God, it was like the hardest thing ever. I'm like, Dude, I'm sorry. You know, I did that. Yeah, it was it sucked. But I did not run 100 freakin miles, you know, through the jungle of Hawaii and everything else. I'm like, Dude are through the desert. Tell me about hard yawn. Yeah, don't tell me it was hard. Yeah, it's it's crazy. Yeah, it's absolutely nuts. But But yeah, great book, I'd highly recommend it. And the one living with a seal that Jesse what his name is that I thought it gave me a better picture of who Goggins was because he is completely insane.

He's not, that's the guy that was married. That's married to the Spanx lady.

Yeah, the Spanx lady. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. How he tortured him for six weeks. Yeah. And that was a good one to listen up to listen to you get up. He's in his bedroom and like a oxygen tent thing. I mean, he's just completely insane. So yeah, it was just it was a great story. So it's one to listen to and read.

Okay, I haven't read that one. But I'll have to do that.

Yeah, I actually know the Goggins one, get the audiobook. If you if you really want the book is good. The audio book, he actually tells what's behind all the stories, which is really kind of fun, because he really explains, okay, yeah, so I said this in the book. But here's really what happened. And here's what happened afterwards. And you're like, yeah, that's way worse.

Isn't it so funny is that I, my son got the audio? Yeah. Because I gave him the book. And he read the book. And he listened to it. And he said that the book is, I mean, the audio is better, because it tells you

what off the charts. Yeah, off the charts. It's so much different. What's a tool that you use in your business every day that you might recommend to everybody?

You know, I use a personal planner, like pack pay pen and paper. And I'm going to tell you why. When I have my man see, we are so brothers. We're so brothers. So I, I wake up in the morning and part of my morning routine, like right before I start working, I actually write down even though I have my calendar on my my computer and my phone, I write it down on paper, because I believe that the best thing that you can do, the most productive thing that you can do is manage the whitespace. So what are you doing in between those meetings? Or if you have a cancellation? What are you doing in between those those meetings? And do you have something that you can do, that's not wasting time, because most people are going to Twitter or tic tac or Instagram and they're surfing and they're wasting time. The other thing I do is in my planner, I set I have a daily goal, I have a master goal, which really doesn't change too. You hit it. And so I lay all this out. And inside the planner, I have these boxes, it says did you exercise check? Did you sleep? Well check, you know, as your nutrition on point check, you know, did you network or net worth? Did you increase your network or net worth? Now some of these you can't finish until the next morning for the prior day. But what I tried to the concept is that I want to command my day, I want to control my day. I don't want my day to control me. So I lay it out in paper so I can see it. I can also make some notes. I can say man, Jeff was talking about how he created this income stream just for his his NASCAR racing habits. And our dads a great idea. How can I do that? And I'll write it down. Because you know, I'm a little older. I'll forget. I'm like, yeah, what did he say?

Or? Or you're out there just going, Hey, I've got a I've got another idea over here. Another idea over here. And you forget about that good idea you already had. Yeah,

Exactly. So that's the number one tool that I use. And I'm all for digital, I just have to be written so that I can control it on the go.

Yeah, no, I'm with you. Because you know, for me, it doesn't become real. Until it's on paper to you. Right? Yeah, it's just until I write it down. And I mean, I I have that same kind of same kind of thing I do. The only thing I do differently is I have a whole process that I follow. Basically, I would do what I call my battle board, which is this ginormous paif poster board that sits in my office at my where my office is. And on that poster board. I have, you know different overall goals or different business units of the businesses that I own and then I could have sticky notes for things that need to get done and it's by week That's 13 weeks. And what I get to do is, you know, each week, it allows me to go in, put this on to I created a sheet that all this goes on to where it's like, okay, there, here's the things up on that big board that need to be accomplished this week, then I can take those and I assigned myself three of those tasks each week, excellent. You know, or each day, excuse me, and those are my three, you know, I have to get it done today runs, you know, and then I've got the all the other stuff and that's either gets delegated off, or it gets eliminated, because I look down and go, Why the hell am I doing this? eliminate it, I don't need it. Right, um, you know, and all that type of stuff. And then, you know, then that goes into my planner every day. But yeah, very similar process. So yeah, I knew we get along well, because we basically kind of think the same way. Yeah, we do. What its final question, what is your definition of freedom?

Wow, you know, I actually, you know, when I, when I prepare for the interview, I saw that that was one of the questions that you've asked other guests. And honestly, it's the same as yours, Mike, I preach, being being in a position, I don't care if you're nine to five, if you're an entrepreneur doesn't matter to me to be able to do what you want, when you want how you want, as often as you want with whom you want, if you want. So to me, to me, my I don't know about you, I have a sneaky suspicion, you're gonna like this. But you know, the movie with John Goodman, where he says, you know, the fu money? Yes, you need. So that that is, you know, because people I remember, you know, my wife, early, early, early in our marriage, she was getting just abused by her boss, verbally. Yeah. And you know, you're 2324. And, you know, if you had fu money, then you would have just said, you know, quit. But luckily, luckily, I'm six, three, and I'm black. And I'm kind of empowering. So I just went in there and looked down to do like,

I do not do this ever again. Yeah. Thank you.

Thank you didn't realize who you were talking to. And he stopped doing it. Because he was physically scared. It wouldn't be better. Yeah. Wouldn't it be better to just be like, she's out. We're buying the hotel. We're buying the hotel. She was a hotel manager. We're buying hotel and you're out? Yeah, but you're a liar. So yeah. So to me, freedom is honestly being able to have enough and I know you preach this and teach this enough passive income, that and streams of income, that that no one can Can, can diminish your value your worth, you know, I can't think of the proper word, but no one can put you down or treat you any kind of way because they think they own you. So to me, that's That's freedom, financial freedom, as well as freedom.

Yeah. Well, I and I, you know, basically I in as on my journey, to where I'm at today, which has been rocky, in some cases, wonderful. And others, you know, I discovered three freedoms. So you know, you have the you have financial freedom, as with the one everybody thinks of, of course, time freedom, so I can do what I want, when I want with who I want all that. And then you have freedom of intention. And that's, that's living life intentionally, instead of living it as a passenger, live it as the driver, you know, and go out there and do those things that, you know, you said, Okay, I wanted to do this, you know, for me, when I did my bucket list the first time it was, you know, I ended up putting 12 things on there that involve planes, trains, or automobiles, you know, so it was like, I wanted to fly in a world war two bomber I wanted to, you know, drive a Ferrari or drive a Lamborghini at the the f1 track here in Austin. Okay, well, I started doing the math, and I'm like, well, all those things cost about 500 bucks, right? All I need to do is create 500 bucks that's recurring. And I can do that. And then when I'm done, when I finish all that, I got 500 bucks is coming in that I can use either for other fun things, or I can use it to buy more passive income so that I can be even lazier and work less.

So exactly. Let me tell you a quick story about how I got to the second freedom, or from a realization standpoint, which was your time? Yeah. So early in my career, this this guy we were working out, we met at the gym, we're working out. And he's an older gentleman, not too much. I know my 11 years older than me. So now I shouldn't say older but he was older to me. And he we were good friends and start doing some investing for him. He owned his own company. And I started doing some investing for him and his family. And so one day he calls me up and he goes, Hey, man, do you want to go to Cavaliers game, I'm in Ohio and Toledo. Cleveland is an hour and a half away. And I said you know it's a client so you know If you're like,

Okay, I'll spend, I'll spend eight hours with you.

He's a Wealthy client. So you're like, Sure. So he says, Okay, I'll tell you what, I'm gonna pick you up. And I'm like, okay, great. So you know, I'm driving a Jeep Grand Cherokee. So it's a great vehicle. But he comes by picks me up in this S class Mercedes right now, and we get on the road. And we're not going on the interstate 8090, which is the only way to go to Cleveland. We're going to, you know, another direction. And I'm not asking any questions. I'm just along for the ride. Yeah, so we go to our local Toledo airport. And we get out of the car, we go to nothing real airport, the private airport, we didn't even know Toledo had a private airport. You know, I'm a little you know, I'm a poor kid from the inner city, right? So we go through this private, you know, Aviation Club, and hey, you know, Mr. So and So how are you? Great to see planes ready? We get in the plane. But listen, the story doesn't stop, we get on the plane. And I'm like, holy crap. Two or three of his other friends are there they get in the plane because they sit in the passenger seat or copilot seat. He sits in the pilot seat. Okay, we take off, he lets me fly. This plane tells me what I need to do keep this level keep it from Horizon, keep it level. I fly for, you know, 1520 minutes, and then he takes back over we land. We land. We go to a restaurant, grab a taxi. We go to a restaurant have the best steak I've ever had in my life. We go to the game, dude. I'm home in bed by 1030. This is amazing. By 1030. Right now, I've gone to Cavalier games before and I've been in bed by two. Yeah. And that was my realization that he's buying time. Yeah. Yeah, we had a great evening, and he didn't miss a beat. And we both got up in the morning. And were at the gym at six o'clock, like we normally were. I was like, wow, that is that is a whole different level.

People tell it people talk about that, you know, all these all these rich people. They've got, you know, their airplanes and all that. But it's exactly that. You know, do I yeah, yes. Could I fly on? You know, Coach on an airplane. Yeah. But if I have the money to have my own private plane, I can get there a lot faster. I go back home. I'm not gonna waste a ton of time driving on the freeway. You know, all that.

But why Nice? Yeah, you get to leave when you want. You get to come back when you want. Yeah, there's no standard in line. Nobody didn't

Have to go to the airport four hours early to get strip searched and everything else he just got on the plane and go yeah, that's, that's where it you know, I think everybody should aspire to, you know, don't don't beat up on the rich realize that they are a good, yeah, that anybody can do that in this country. If you work, you know, if you work smart, and you work hard. I always say work hard work smart, work smart.

Work smart. And that was my goal. It's like, okay, well, you know, back into this, okay, well, I can't do that. But what I can do is I can be in a position to go to go like JetBlue, or, you know, to rent to private. And you know, I can't do it all the time. But if you want to do it every once in a while, you can do that. And you get to take off when you want and come back when you want. But I

Get it down to that. Yeah, I get around. I mean, I get it down to the simple point. I mean, you know, when I go through that process that I told you about, you know, one of the things that I do is I have my little task list for the day. And I use an acronym idea. So I identify what needs to be done today. Then I go through that list, and I put a D next to it for delegate. So I delegate out you know, and I, you know, example I just this morning, I was like I've got five videos that I have to add a get edited, my virtual assistant is bogged down, she can't get them done. And I'm like, well, I could do them. Or I could just go out and find five people that can do those for me, that are all over the world. And I found five people this morning. I think probably three of the five have already responded back to me. I'm going to ship those videos off. They'll be done by tomorrow, I'll be able to upload them to YouTube. And it'll probably cost me less than 100 bucks. No, absolutely. You use fiber. Fiber I use up work this time fiberboard fiber the YouTube people were a little expensive. They were Yeah, they were. They're getting up there. It's not like what it used to be. It's gotten a lot more expensive. But I used up work and just found a bunch of people. I'm trying to find one or two that I can just ship all that stuff off to like keep my system from getting bogged down.

Okay, we'll see. Now I shouldn't ask you What tool do you use? Because now everybody knows you use baby. Look, I'm going to take a look at Upwork because I'm only known about Fiverr to this Yeah,

My Upwork Upwork if you need a virtual assistant Upwork is the place to go and I'll check it out and everything gets paid through there so I don't have to do payroll or anything like that. Excellent. Well, cool, man. Thank you so much for being on if somebody wants to get a hold Have you what's the best way?

The best way is to go to join Derek D R IC k.com. Join derek.com is easy, as simple as clean. And you know, there's a little little line there that allows you to tell me you know what you're interested in, and then we can figure out, you know, if I should call you back if my somebody on my team should call you back, but that's the best way to get a hold of me.

Love it. Love it. I think that's the easiest way to. So Derek, thanks for being on. I appreciate you, man. I'm just looking forward to staying in contact with you. Because to me, too, we, every time you said something, I'm like, Well, I like that too. Awesome.

Well, thank you so much for inviting me. And I want to thank you for letting me be part of freedom nation.

Awesome, man, folks, you know, once again, these are the type of folks that are part of freedom nation here that that are trying to build their own freedom stories. Make sure that if you liked this, share this with somebody else and give us comment, I'd love to hear from you. Make sure you're subscribed to our channel as well and get that little notification button because we put out a ton of content and we're putting out a ton more content leading up to the launch of the Freedom Day book, which is about four weeks out right now. So make sure that you have that and you can you're staying on track with this because we're gonna be sharing a ton of ideas out of the book. And we will see you back here the very next time.