I am the son of two doctors, but didn’t want to be a doctor.I was blessed to be born to my parents. I had everything I needed growing up. I am the son of two doctors, but I knew that I didn’t want to be a doctor. They worked long hours and missed important events. My godmother, who is in her mid-80s, was my role model. She owns a BBQ restaurant and still works 6 days a week because she wants to, not because she has to. I saw her raise 3 kids and 8 grandkids as an entrepreneur and she never missed an important moment in their lives.
I graduated from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, but skipped recruiting.
I didn’t go to Stanford to become a banker, consultant, or general manager. I went there to learn how to think bigger. While there, I raised money to start a tech company, but due to my poor leadership at the time, we ran out of the money. The idea didn’t fail. I failed the idea. But thankfully I learned from that experience.
After Stanford, I took a “bridge job” at Management Leadership for Tomorrow.
I’ll teach you about bridge jobs during the program, but basically MLT became my main hustle while I looked for what would be next. Because of the relationship I established with my employer and boss, they helped me launch my speaking career as a side hustle and I am forever grateful for their appreciation of my entrepreneurial spirit. But that freedom came from me being a high performer first.
My side hustle became my main hustle on January 9, 2009 in a down economy.
3 months later, the stock market hit rock bottom. Despite that, I’m still here 4 and half years later, doing what I love, and my business is continuing to grow. That’s because when I left MLT, I had momentum. I wasn’t starting from zero. I was already speaking at colleges, leading private trainings, and coaching professionals.
Since then, I’ve spoke at 100s of companies + colleges + I’ve written 5 books.
I always wanted to be a teacher, but not in the traditional sense. I found my calling teaching people how to find their purpose and passion and integrate it with their professional path. Companies look to me for help engaging their employees and colleges call on me to help students rethink their life, education, and careers.
My side hustle has grown into 3 businesses that cracked $500,000 in revenue.
Whereas past generations earned an income from one source and then diversified it via stocks and other investments, The Incomes Generation will instead diversify the number of sources we earn our income from. By having multiple clients, I have been able to weather the ups and downs of our economy without feeling a dip or squeeze. If an employee just had one more stream of income, they would be a lot safer and feel more empowered.
I do all of this for my wife and daughter. Family first. Founder second.
We’ve been very intentional about our lifestyle design and our various streams of income from consulting, speaking, coaching, online programs, books, and AirBnB have allowed us to create the life we desire and we are finding ourselves experiencing our Perfect Average Days more often. We just bought a second income property in New Orleans to create another stream of income. We don’t ever want to feel like we have to trade off family for work like my parents felt they had to, especially given that we are expecting our first child in September.
