A Plan to Achieve Wealth and Freedom

One common type of business owner we work with, I like to call the “builder.”

Understanding the Builder's Mindset

Builders are individuals driven by a desire to create and solve problems. They are the entrepreneurs, the innovators, and the visionaries. They graduated from school with a dream and hit the ground running to build the life they wanted. This often includes a business/practice, upgrading their skill sets, and starting a family.

Most of the time, their spouse is their counterpart—more of a supporter, nurturer, and protector of the family unit and environment. The spouse gives essential balance to the builder's ambition, but both roles require cohesion to function.

Builders also like to be hands-on, especially with their money. Running a business and controlling its output and success is in their DNA. That’s also why they often try actively directing their capital into investments. Like me, I found that managing your own money and learning to invest provides much better results than abdicating to a financial advisor or the financial markets.

Their issue in building and preserving their wealth isn’t self-direction; rather, it’s in knowing where to go, where to start, and how to get there. A plan and proven model are missing.

Dentistry provided the structure and pathway for success as a clinician. There are similar coaches and models for achieving success as a practice/business owner. But what about when it comes to taking oversight of making your money work for you?  

The Challenge: Randomized Investments

When builders come to Freedom Founders, they frequently have a portfolio of “randomized investments.” These investments, spread across various asset classes, lack organization and cohesion. They may include real estate, stocks, Airbnbs, a syndication or two, and even crypto. No judgment, but they fail to generate predictable, sustainable, recurring income that can replace their active income. 

Diversification is generally a good idea, but a haphazard approach leads to suboptimal results. This is why it is necessary to create your own Freedom Blueprint to build true wealth.

True wealth is not limited by how much money you have saved but is defined by the freedom and control of your time – the ability to do what you want. This means not having to go to work if you don’t want to. It’s having more options and more personal sovereignty.

For builders, this can still mean running their business but doing it on their own terms. 

You do not have to be subjected to PPO insurance plans. You don’t need a big practice with 12 operatories or a secondary practice. Beware of letting others define “success” for you. What would it look like for you to actually enjoy the ride? Your longevity in practice may last longer than you think when you are having fun.. 

The Wakeup Call We Need

If you don't turn your capital assets into replacement income, you will work much longer than otherwise necessary.

It’s the wives of the doctors we work with who recognize and admire how hard they’ve worked to provide for the family and usually voice that their time may be running out. As everyone gets older, health becomes more of an issue. The spouse asks, “Why are we still doing it this way?” The builder responds with what he knows, “It’s who I am.”

The builder doesn't realize that he's missing the point. The builder has been so focused on building and amassing money that he has no other interests. The relationships he or she has or could have had are lacking because they were so dedicated to their work.

I say this from experience. I am this archetype. For the first 20 years of my career, I was a heavy-duty builder. I practiced dentistry until I had my wake-up call: My daughter became extremely sick. I almost lost her nearly three times.

I had to stop and ask myself, “What am I doing?” I had to find a way to provide for my family while expanding my freedom to spend more time with my daughter.

Fortunately, I did not have randomized investments. I had focused on real estate and had amassed a lot of equity. I realized I could take that equity, invest it strategically, and turn it into cash flow to replace my active income and give me back my time.

That's what I love about real estate and alternative investments. You can build equity for a time (usually when you're younger) while learning how to turn that equity into cash flow and protect against inflation, market volatility, and all of the other issues we find today.

The key is that the sooner you begin learning how to create and implement your own freedom blueprint with the right assets, the sooner you can achieve the freedom you want.

The Solution: Crafting a Freedom Blueprint

The key to achieving true wealth and freedom comes back to creating a well-structured plan with measurable milestones along the way. This involves:

Consolidating Equity: Business owners often have significant equity tied up in various assets. By consolidating this equity, they can create a more focused and efficient investment strategy.

Generating Cash Flow: The ultimate goal is to generate predictable cash flow that replaces the need for active income. This can be achieved through strategic investments in real estate, businesses, and other income-generating assets.

Maintaining Control: Builders value control and tangible assets.  A Freedom Blueprint allows them to maintain a level of control over their investments while still generating passive income.

Builders often see the value of tangible assets and know that their money is best managed in their own hands. But they seem to jump from opportunity to opportunity, always building or amassing something. Most builders don’t know how to turn what they already have (sometimes a significant net worth) into cash flow.

They don't even want to because it scares them. They think that building more and more is what will set them free, but it’s the opposite. So, how can you turn what you have into cash flow?

The Freedom Founders Difference

At Freedom Founders, we help professional practice owners transform their randomized investments into a cohesive Freedom Blueprint based on guiding principles relevant to all. Here are a few:

A Personalized Assessment: A thorough assessment of your financial situation, goals, and risk tolerance is necessary to determine where it is that you are and where you want to go. 

I love hosting our Blueprint Weekends, where we help our members see the light. We display all their assets on a whiteboard and show them how to rearrange the pieces of their puzzle in different ways to achieve the exact results they want.

Strategic Planning and Measurable Milestones: Developing a customized plan that aligns with your unique needs and aspirations is essential. You may not know how to get off the treadmill right now, but once you see how the pieces of your puzzle can get you there, you can start freeing up time immediately. For the right people, they can exit practice within five years or less.

First, you must determine the bare minimum lifestyle you want and how much it costs per month to live it. Once you have an end goal of replacement income, we can reverse engineer milestones to achieve it. Keeping track of these steps along the way is the key to progressing towards your end replacement number.

Ongoing Support: Ongoing support and guidance ensures your plan stays on track.

The clarity received at the beginning provides the momentum to radically change direction and begin turning your equity into cash flow. But it’s just as important to maintain that momentum throughout your journey to financial freedom.

If you are not a part of some kind of community (of your own design or otherwise) that can keep you accountable, encourage you, provide feedback, and help you in your endeavors, you are missing an extreme leverage opportunity.

The question we hear in our minds is, “Can I do this myself?” It’s a common question. One rooted in the wrong priority. Perhaps you could do this yourself. But how long would it take?

How much experience would you need to gather (mistakes made, trial and error, and eventual success) before landing on the right assets at the right time and building your own plan from scratch without any guidance from those who’ve done it before?

A better question to ask: “Who can help me get there faster?” 

Achieving True Freedom

No matter how much of a builder you are, you will tire of the grind one day. It is unfulfilling to work with no exit in sight. We teach about the five freedoms: Financial freedom, Time Freedom, Relationship freedom, Health freedom, and legacy/purpose/impact/significance. These are all part and parcel of a well-construed life. The “grind” will not grant you these freedoms.

You know how to make money, but making money work for you is the key to achieving true freedom. This is not taught in most places, let alone a plan customized to your life and aspirations.

Our proven model has helped countless individuals and couples achieve financial independence and fulfillment, providing clarity and confidence in a plan that will set them free way sooner than they ever thought.

I invite you to schedule a call with my team to see for yourself. No matter what, start building your Freedom Blueprint today. Don't live your life with regrets.