Walking Away From an Eight-Figure Business: Identity, Enough, and Letting Go

Speaker 1 – 00:00
So many business owners that we talk to talk about selling their business or retiring or letting go, and then it
becomes so much of our identity that it’s nearly impossible to do it. You actually did it.
Speaker 2 – 00:09
It’s not a decision that’s easy to make. Part of it is identity, part of it is financial. Part of it is looking at the company
and will it be okay without you? I probably spent about 14 months actively thinking and working about that
decision to kind of step away.
Speaker 1 – 00:21
Studies have shown average Americans retire at 65. Especially high achievers. They end up having a huge health
condition, like, two years later.
Speaker 2 – 00:27
You don’t want to undervalue your health, your free time. As Americans, we tend to kind of push this off.
Speaker 1 – 00:31
Then 20,000 meetings with clients over the last 15 years. We have these conversations every day with business
owners that struggle with, what’s my identity with that work, what am I going to do with all this free time?
Speaker 2 – 00:42
A lot of people, if they’re really honest with themselves, don’t necessarily trust themselves with, like, a ton of free
time and resources. And if you don’t create some space to kind of zoom out and think, like, what do I actually
want? Who am I? What is important to me? You’ll just end up checking off tasks for the rest of your life. It’s hard to
say this for everyone, but at least for me, a lot more happiness, a lot more stillness, peace, deep connection, and
less of, like, a surface level moving from one thing to the next and getting lost in that for a long period of time.
Speaker 1 – 01:08
Welcome, everybody. Excited to be joined by Bryce Conway. This is the second time Bryce has been on the EWA
podcast. The first time was teaching us all the tricks and tips about how to travel the world for free. It’s what his
former life was dedicated to doing for many years. But now excited to do this podcast. There’s a lot of, you know,
paradoxes that we see exist in. In the financial planning world, and Bryce has navigated a lot of those very
successfully. And I feel like his perspective is going to be very valuable. As recently, he actually is retired and his
company’s still running. He’s got a great team, you know, that’s continuing the 10x travel legacy, but really excited
to talk about the transition. What went into that.
Speaker 1 – 01:52
I know it was a decision that took you know, a long time, and it was very. You were very thoughtful about it. So
welcome, Bryce.
Speaker 2 – 02:00
Yeah, thanks for having me. Excited to be back. Very different approach or, I guess, topic today, but one I’m equally
excited about. You Know, your help got me there. And, and I hope that our chat today can help others think through
similar situations.
Speaker 1 – 02:15
Absolutely. Well, I feel like so many business owners that we talk to talk about selling their business or retiring or
letting go, and then it’s, it becomes so much of our identity that it’s nearly impossible to do it. You actually did it. So
I’m excited to extract the process that you went through to get, to actually get there. So we did do a podcast
before, and people can reference that, but I think it would be helpful for new listeners. You know, just give us a
quick story of your identity. How did you start, what was before 10x travel, and what’s your origin story that got you
to where you are today?
Speaker 2 – 02:51
Yeah, yeah, happy to. So 10x travel all started when I was trying to pay for spring break in college. You know, I went
to Ohio State. It’s, it’s pretty cold during the spring in Ohio. It was senior year. All my friends are trying to go on a
spring break in Florida, and I, I just did not have enough money to do that. So I, I started like, Googling, like, how do
I save money on travel? Or, like, how do I get free flights? Or, you know, like a variety of different searches, trying to
look for some sort of, I guess I don’t even know what necessarily I was looking for. Just like, is there something out
there? At the time, there’s not. And that was a little defeating.
Speaker 2 – 03:24
But at that point forward, I noticed that all the ads I saw everywhere on the Internet were for credit cards. Like,
travel credit cards, you know, sign up for this, get a free flight or get 50,000 points or whatever. So, you know, I’m
sitting there, I’m like 22 years old, seeing these headlines, and I’m like, okay, like, why not? Like, what’s the worst
that could happen? Like, I, I, I’m almost certain there’s some sort of trap here or bad thing I don’t know about, but
I’m young. I, I can be dumb. I, I can kind of make up for whatever it is that goes poorly. And I want to go on spring
break. So I, I signed up for one of these cards. It’s offering two free flights at the time.
Speaker 2 – 03:55
And, you know, I, I only half expected to get, like, anything by signing up. Did it, got approved, which was pretty
shocking on, like, a college tour guide salary. Actually got the two free flights and went to redeem them. And it was
actually two free flights. So, you know, it’s kind of amazing this day and age that’s, that’s the expectation. But, but it
did actually work. So I cashed us in. We were able to do Florida and then we added on Vegas because why not? I
got two free flights, not one, you know, went to spring break, had a lot of fun, came home and then kind of waited.
Like, what’s the bad thing that’s going to happen? And, and nothing bad happened. Like, my credit score went up. I
got more offers for better credit cards.
Speaker 2 – 04:31
You know, the bank seemed to love me. Cops never showed up, you know, to, you can’t do that. So it kind of just
had that realization of, like, wait, why wouldn’t I just do that again? Like, there’s more than one credit card out there.
Like, what’s stopping you from just, you know, opening cards, earning points, kind of doing this strategically? And it
turns out the answer is nothing. There’s a bunch of other people who are doing this. So I kind of went down that
rabbit hole. Fell into the whole kind of points a miles hobby pretty early. I started doing that, you know, for my wife
and I post college.
Speaker 2 – 04:57
Didn’t have a lot of money, but we’re still going to like, Europe three or four times a year, sometimes just for the
weekend and just kind of looking around like, why isn’t everyone doing this? Posting about it on Facebook and I get
like the, you know, the social interactions where we’re at a wedding or a happy hour, and every time I find myself in
the corner with people that are like, okay, but what’s the real story? Like, you know, what’s the. What are you not
saying? This can’t possibly be this easy. And I’m just saying over and over it is. Like, it’s really not that difficult. It
seems like a scam or like there’s some sort of really bad thing that’s waiting for you or there wasn’t.
Speaker 2 – 05:29
So it’s the classic, like, when all your friends are asking you for, you know, something or help with something, that’s
when you should probably start a business. So I did start a website. It was called Get Free Flights at the time
became 10x travel. Started kind of writing about, like, how I. How I do this and how others can do the same.
Created an ebook and a course to help guide people through it. Eventually, like, the banks found me and loved me
again. There’s kind of many recurring themes throughout this business of, oh man, these folks are not going to be
pleased with this. And actually it’s the opposite they love it. So that ended up being like a major source of revenue
for us. And then that just kind of snowballed over the course of 10 years.
Speaker 2 – 06:05
Grew and grew and eventually got up to 16 full time employees. You know, I think we peaked at like 17 million in
annual revenue. And it was just like this beautiful little side quest that just kept ballooning into a business and ran
that for 10 years. I did have a job for some of that. I actually worked at a bank after college and launched a lot of
this while I was there. And that might be a different story for a different day, but yeah, kind of like a happy accident.
There wasn’t that big moment of like, oh, I’m gonna go all in on this, or like, oh, that’s definitely gonna be a
business. It was kind of just a series of like these little like, ahas with like a lot of like fortunate breaks. Helpful
people, you know, support my wife along the way.
Speaker 2 – 06:44
And that’s. Yeah, that’s kind of the tennis travel story for at least my tenure, you know. And it’s still going, of course,
as you mentioned, handed off to a wonderful team. They’re doing a great job in my absence. But it was. Yeah, I
guess if you find yourself at cocktail parties, always in the corner with friends being like, how do you do this thing?
Or like, you know, how does that thing work? Just listen for those little signals because sometimes they produce
happy accidents. As Bob Ross would say.
Speaker 1 – 07:10
That’s awesome. So obviously tremendous growth starting from like a side, you know, you getting a free flight,
maybe saving a thousand dollars to building up the $17 billion of revenue. And you said 16 employees.
Speaker 2 – 07:22
That’s right, 16 full time. The end we had a bunch of contractors and part time folks, but yeah, so the.
Speaker 1 – 07:30
Okay, so just give us an idea of how, like how did 10x travel, how does 10x travel make their money? Because I
remember every interaction I’ve had with your team. I’ve never had to pay anything directly, but I’ve saved and I
counted up over $250,000 of free wow plates over the time of like First Class International. You guys have showed
me all these tips. I’m like, what do I owe you? And I’ve never actually had to pay. Pay you anything. So. Yeah, how
does, how did that revenue work?
Speaker 2 – 07:58
Yeah, the vast majority of our revenue comes from credit card affiliate advertising, which is kind of a fancy way of
saying refer. It’s like refer a friend for a credit card. But when you get To a certain level, instead of like getting
points, you know, doing it through your app or whatever, banks can actually approach you and say, you know, we’ll
pay you, you know, a certain amount of cash for each approval that you drive. So that was like surprising to us.
That was a world I did not know existed when I kind of got into this. So yeah, the vast majority of our, I guess
customers, that was always a. Readers like are they customers that they don’t actually pay you? But the vast
majority of them never actually hand any dollars to us.
Speaker 2 – 08:35
We just kind of show them, here’s how to use credit cards. Here are some of the best ones that we like. They’d sign
up for them through the links on our site and then we would get paid with banks. And I think that’s one of the
reasons why it works so well. You know, it already sounds incredibly like scammy or skeptical on the surface.
Right? Hey, I’m going to teach you how to kind of save a bunch of money on travel. It uses mostly like credit cards
and these methods that have like scary words like, you know, if you know who Dave Ramsey is, you’re probably
already afraid just looking me and oh, and at the end of it, by the way, we’re going to give you all this help and you
don’t have to pay us right there.
Speaker 2 – 09:05
There’s so many red flags that go off for the average person. But we found that by actually explaining how it all
worked, that helped tremendously, but helped us succeed. It, it was great to find like an avenue to revenue that I did
not even see when I started out. It worked out really well for really for everyone and the banks kind of loved us
through the whole thing too. I think a lot of folks kind of assume like, oh like you know, you guys are the card
counters in a casino, right? They’re looking for you, they’re gonna like find you and boot you. But it’s really kind of
the opposite. Banks have a hard time selling credit cards for all the same reasons. Like people have stigmas about
them, red flags.
Speaker 2 – 09:38
And when you show em like here’s how to use these products and do it incredibly well, that’s a valuable marketing
engine and it ended up working out for us. And really, you know, we’re not the only ones to do this. Of course it’s a
huge industry, but that’s kind of how it ended up becoming a business and not just a hobby or side hustle or
something. We had to try to charge 20 bucks for.
Speaker 1 – 09:56
Yeah, win for your followers and obviously for. For 10x. That’s awesome. So what were some of the. I call them,
like, S curve moments. Like, when you’re growing a company from 0 to 17 million, like, what were some of the
catalysts that, like, really boosted the growth? Because you didn’t go there overnight, obviously, you know, you.
More and more followers and people you’re able to educate. So how, if you could pick, like, the three biggest
moments, if there were any, or was it just, you know, steady growth, what were the. A lot of people aspiring to start
a business, and, you know, you go through a lot of rough times. We’ll talk about those next. But what were the big
catalysts that led from the 0 to 17?
Speaker 2 – 10:40
Yeah, there. There were certainly a few inflection points that changed the trajectory of growth. I think the first one
was getting into that kind of bank and credit card affiliate world. You know, when I. When we first launched this and
started out, it was an ebook that I tried to sell for, like, 49 bucks. Here’s how I do it. You know, I promise it definitely
works. And if you pay me 49, you know, you can have this ebook and it’ll show you the same. And, you know, that
didn’t go nearly as well as I’d hoped. And in hindsight, it’s, like, almost laughable to think that it would.
Speaker 2 – 11:07
But there was a point in which, like, the website and the traffic on the website got big enough that the banks kind of
approached us and said, like, hey, we’d love to pay you as an affiliate to do this. And I remember I was on the call,
and they’re like, oh, is that something you’re interested in? I had to Google, like, what. What is an affiliate? Like, I
thought that was like, a radio station affiliate or something, you know, you hear about. And. And because they did
that, were able to make the. The book free and kind of show folks like, all right, look, this is how it works. And that
really increased traction because it’s one thing to hit a landing page and see 49 bucks. And I can teach you this, but
it’s another one to be like, it’s completely free.
Speaker 2 – 11:39
And really on the heels of that, too, the first chapter of that course is, here’s kind of why this is free and why, like,
you’re probably very skeptical of that. And that helped tremendously. Growth just kind of took off from there. So
that would be the first one. The second one was I got pretty good at Facebook Advertising. You know, if you’re kind
of the first person onto like a new platform from an advertising standpoint, you often get this beautiful period in
which like it’s a wide open opportunity everywhere. So we use that to really scale A lot of that growth that came
from the course being free. And then after that, really a lot of it was data. We were, were pretty early on kind of
tracking like how people interact and move throughout our entire ecosystem.
Speaker 2 – 12:16
That was something that a lot of people ignored until recently. But, but it was particularly important for us because
the journey of someone kind of going from hey, I’m afraid of credit cards. I, you know, I, I see them as debt. I think
credit score is going to be awful and like kind of getting past that stigma to like, okay, what card is that person
gonna get first? How can we kind of set it up for success? We were watching all of that to fine tune every single
step in the process and that I think our revenue almost doubled over the course of a two month period in being
able to kind of weave that into the ads and weave that into the messaging and just kind of create this very
cohesive experience that wasn’t just like, here’s what you need to know.
Speaker 2 – 12:55
Fact, fact.
Speaker 1 – 12:56
You’re meeting people where they are on their specific.
Speaker 2 – 12:58
Exactly. Yeah. Just understanding what they’re still concerned about and really seeing that there’s a very typical
journey that folks go through. If you try to go too fast, they’re going to kind of burn out or be very skeptical of
everything. Of course, if you try to go too slow, they get kind of bored or think, oh, maybe there’s a better resource
out there. But fine tuning it to like, all right, next thing is this. Let’s capture that. Don’t worry about all this other stuff
that you hear about just yet. You’ll get there. But do this one thing next and then do this next thing next and then do
this. And that created just this cohesive journey. A great sense of community among our readers.
Speaker 2 – 13:28
Lots of loyalty and buy in because we’d often hear, I feel like you just kind of get me like I, the thoughts I have or
like the concerns I have that arise, like you just address them immediately right away. And that just comes from
tons of repetition and understanding of I, I, I,.
Speaker 1 – 13:40
I remember specifically because there was like probably, I don’t know how, what percentage of your readers that
couldn’t get approved for cards because their credit score was broke. Right. So I remember At a certain point, you
pivoted. You’re like, well, we’re missing one. Those are the people that could benefit the most because if
someone’s credit scores broke, they’re probably lower income and they can’t enjoy vacations because they can’t
afford it. So, you know, those kind of people are super interested. I remember you not only figured out a way that
you wrote, I believe, a book about how to repair your credit score so you could capture, not only help those people,
but then capture and show those people that probably needed to help the most how to travel the world for free. So
was that a big. Is that not to speak for you?
Speaker 1 – 14:24
But I just remember how. Mind what that was because we had to send that to, you know, doctors who had missed
one school that their credit. They couldn’t get a house because their credit score dropped below 600, and send
them your book. And then it’s like, within six months, they were right back up.
Speaker 2 – 14:38
Yeah, that was certainly very helpful. I would push back on the claim of, you know, most people who have trouble
with credit scores get generally low income. At least in my experience, that is not the case. It’s much more toward
that anecdotal data point you provided. It’s folks who don’t understand kind of how finicky credit scores can be and
the fact that they don’t work how most people think they work. Most people kind of view a credit score as, like, this
is like, a grade of my overall, like, financial discipline or something. It’s really not. There’s, like, little tiny tweaks you
can make that make a big difference. And we noticed that too. We have folks come in like, all right, I. I see how this
will work. I totally buy in. But I missed that one payment on a student loan.
Speaker 2 – 15:13
It’s usually because, like, I. I moved and I didn’t see the letter, and it was in default, and I had no idea. And like,
helping those folks get back on track with just, like, little simple fixes to their credit was. Was very helpful. And also
kind of built trust from the jump because it’s like, you know, we. We didn’t charge for that. That was free. A lot of
times I would help people, like, individually when they would reach out, because every situation is a little bit
different. They’d always be shocked. Like, I didn’t think you’d even reply to my email, much less, like, help me go
through this entire thing, but kind of like, leaning into that, like, that lifetime value, like, you know, this isn’t like, you
know, come to my site, get a card, leave. This is like, hey, Matt, welcome.
Speaker 2 – 15:46
You’re one of us now. Like, let’s, you know, come on into the fold. I’m gonna help you. And knowing that would kind
of like build that loyalty over time, that helped tremendously as well. So, you know, if you’d have told me when I
graduate college, like, hey, within five years, you’re gonna be like, deeply helping a lot of people with their credit
scores. I’d be like, what? I don’t even know how credit scores work. But, you know, I kind of learned them as a. As a
side product of. Of the 10x stuff. Because of course, the first question is, like, you open like, you know, two credit
cards, three credit cards a year. Doesn’t that, like, wreck your credit score? You have to be ready to answer that. So
I, I learned it, went through it like, here’s why it doesn’t.
Speaker 2 – 16:16
Here’s how it actually works. And then kind of. That was a. That was another happy accident.
Speaker 1 – 16:20
Well, I’m gonna put a pin on the fact that like in. In the early, like, let’s say the hustle stages of 10x travel, you saw a
problem, you solved it. You saw a problem, you solved it. You saw a problem, you solved it. And there’s. I can think
knowing you know, we’ve been close friends for a while and like, that was so incrementally important to just the
growth of 10x travel and the outreach you had to all of your, you know, your clientele. I want to put on pin on that
because I think that fact of the identity of a lot of business owners for problem solvers made the next stage, which
we’re going to get to in a little bit, so much harder to step away from. So I want to pin that. We’ll come back to that.
Speaker 1 – 17:01
But any other S curve moments that got you where you were from there, was it just, you know, steady growth, Word
of mouth?
Speaker 2 – 17:07
Yes, Sagoth word of mouth were definitely the biggest things. We had a couple of very favorable media mentions.
You know, I was on Good morning America and ABC World News and Money magazine piece and like their final
ever physical copy that they ever did. So those certainly helped and actually led to some chaos. There’s some
stories behind that too, for another day. But the guiding principle being, like, help people be genuine, Think about
how you can help them over a long period of time and kind of, you know, in. In hindsight, like the confidence in
knowing that if you find a way to help people with a pretty Material thing in their life. Money will find you. You know,
I, I set out to write an ebook and sell for 49 bucks. As a side hustle.
Speaker 2 – 17:45
I discovered entirely like new industry help people in ways I never thought and that ended up growing. So you know,
people sitting there looking at starting businesses, it often doesn’t end how you thought it would or even close. But
if you just do the thing you said to help them solve the next problem. So it will often work out pretty well in the long
term.
Speaker 1 – 18:04
That’s awesome. So I remember Covid. Oh yeah, Covid happened and we had several emergency meetings. I
believe banks took away the refer or the affiliate fee. So you’re the. And right before that you had, I believe, two
offers that you’re competing to sell a company for. You know, we won’t say the amount, but obviously life changing
money, Covid happens and things take away basically all your revenue. Right?
Speaker 2 – 18:39
Yeah, yeah, that was a wild period for the company, those offers.
Speaker 1 – 18:44
Yeah. How talks us through that. How did you survive and how did you go through that adversity?
Speaker 2 – 18:49
Yeah, I’ll try to kind of move quickly on this because there’s a lot to say about it. But yeah, I guess the headline
there is. In the period of about four months, I went from a signed letter of intent to sell my company for, you know,
enough millions of dollars that never going to work again. Life changing money. And was almost completely broke
like four months later because of COVID So yeah, we had, we got a couple of companies that approached us. They
were, you know, pretty impressed with how were doing things, negotiated offers, like got to a point, we’re like cool,
we pick you. And I think we signed a letter of intent on like October 20th of 2019.
Speaker 2 – 19:21
And I remember this is when you’re first hearing like the, you know, there’s the Wuhan strain and like, you know, the
kind of first stories that are coming out about this. I was like, that’s a little concerning, but we’ll see. Well, you know,
as Covid kind of came on in, you know, January, February, as we’re kind of going through like really final due
diligence, like we’d agreed on major terms and were kind of talking about like, you know, which checking account is
going to be the one that we actually keep after the transition, like just really minor stuff. And then, you know, Covid
kind of explodes onto the scene and it got to a point where they kind of just pull the offer and you know that I
would have done the same thing in those shoes.
Speaker 2 – 19:56
But then it got worse, even a couple weeks later, because, you know, banks are looking around during this time, and
they’re seeing a bunch of people who are out of work temporarily or kind of furloughed, and they’re like, hey, we
don’t want more credit applications right now. We’re not confident that folks opening credit cards aren’t just using
this to buoy themselves. So they just totally turned off the affiliate space, which, you know, that’s our only, like,
supplier. Like, you can’t sell this stuff anymore. So our revenue declined. 9. It was 92% in a day, like, just boom. So
were sitting there kind of looking around like, all right, what, you know, what do we do now? We had. We’d save
enough money for some. Some buffer, like a rainy day fund of sorts. And I was totally honest with our staff the
entire time.
Speaker 2 – 20:33
I was like, hey, we have about seven months left. And then, you know, hey, we’re down to like five months left. I felt
like a captain kind of like over 22 minutes from the airport, you know. And the thing that ultimately saved us is we
actually just went to our readers and we’re like, hey, like, we need money. You know, we. We told them the truth
that, you know, we. We found many times throughout business, like, if we just come out and tell our readers the
truth and kind of what we need, they’ll do that for us. So, you know, I think our affiliate links have been off for two or
three months at the time. And. And we came out and we just said, hey, we, we need your help to keep the lights on.
Please, like, just donate money to us.
Speaker 2 – 21:06
We basically sold a subscription product that didn’t come with anything. Like, please just sign up to give us, like,
either 50 or 200 bucks every year. And our readers responded in a big way. I think they gave us like $50,000 in the
first day, and that bought us like, another, you know, five or six weeks. I don’t remember all the exact numbers here,
but that was just enough time for, like, affiliate links to be turned back on, things to start to normalize a bit. So, you
know, our readers really saved us there, and many of them continue to participate in that to this day.
Speaker 2 – 21:36
But that was a beautiful moment for the company to realize, like, the trust we had with the community, the buy in
that we have from them, be able to continue to serve them, because, you know, they also needed us more than
ever. It’s Covid flights are being canceled. There’s Testing requirements that are jumping up and down each day
depending on what region of the world you’re in. We’re still trying to help people as much as possible. And that
really got us through that and that really re energized me to get back into the business too, because I’m sitting
there like, all right, I’m. I got a few more months of due diligence, maybe like an earn out period, and then I’m out.
Speaker 2 – 22:05
And it just felt like, you know, it felt like you show up to your college graduation and someone taps in the shoulder
like, hey, you got like another two years left. You didn’t actually meet the requirements. They’re like, oh, come on
man, like, I’m already like checking out. So got re. Re energized from that energy from our community and, and
dove back into things for, you know, I guess, you know, another five or six years after that point.
Speaker 2 – 22:24
But yeah, Covid was a real trial period for us for, you know, many listening to this, probably went through other
similar situations, but ultimately kept me around the company for quite a while, did a lot more great things and I
really enjoyed that post Covid run and really things boomed because coming out of COVID is like the idea of like
revenge travel or like, you know, I’ve been locked up for six months on lockdown. Like, maybe I will go to Europe a
couple times this year. How do I do that? Everyone’s online looking for new hobbies and they found us and we just
grew tremendously in 2021 and 2022.
Speaker 1 – 22:55
So I was like, based on a complete drop off and then you got bigger than where you were prior to Covid.
Speaker 2 – 23:01
Exactly. Yeah. The series of ups and downs over the course of those like 9 to 12 months was just wild.
Speaker 1 – 23:06
That’s a lot. Knowing your skillset, growing it from 0 to 1 and then handling adversity problem solving is one of the
greatest strengths obviously that a founder has to have and you know, the results show. So what ultimately, what
perspective would you offer for a business owner that’s newer? What’s the skill set and enjoyment for you
specifically to go from zero to one or go through? I’d say that the adversity back of that intense problem solving
versus now a stable business just running the day to day.
Speaker 2 – 23:36
Yeah, I think to the intense kind of problem solving. I would come back to kind of what were talking about earlier
where like if you just kind of lean into the idea that if you’re able to solve problems for people kind of one Step at a
time. And these are impactful to their lives and they love you for it. Money’s gonna find you. You don’t always have
to see the clean path of like we’re gonna sell it for X amount of dollars and we’re gonna get X number of
customers. And if you multiply these together that’s, you know, I think that’s too much of a prescriptive or like kind
of close minded approach to business that will often shut off other opportunities. If you focus on help people do
right by them, ensure that they tell others about what you do.
Speaker 2 – 24:10
Be proud of your work all the time, that will help things kind of work out for you. I always used to kind of like
chuckle at the folks who kind of lean into like the, you know, the karma or like the whole like mystic type of like
good things will find you if you do good things. But that’s exactly what happened to us. So thinking long term,
helping people, not just looking for a quick buck and knowing that you can’t really see the path too far in the future
and that’s okay, keep going. That, that helped us tremendously and really have done that from day one until my last
day there at 10x.
Speaker 2 – 24:44
And you have to kind of just have faith in yourself and why you’re doing it because there will be plenty of times for
anyone who’s in business where it’s not going as well as you hoped or you kind of thought it would go in a different
direction than it did. But if you are committed to what you’re doing because it helps people and like, you know,
maybe you’ve been doing it for free or as a favorite of friends for a while. That, that is the energy that ultimately
leads to long term success in business.
Speaker 1 – 25:07
Awesome. Well, fast forward to within the past 12 months. When was the official retirement day?
Speaker 2 – 25:14
Yeah, official, I guess official Last day was December 31, like end of year. But really it felt like, I think it was early
November when we announced it to kind of the world and everything after that was kind of like an off boarding
process.
Speaker 1 – 25:27
But so you built this incredible company and. Yeah, end of last year.
Speaker 2 – 25:34
End of last year, yeah. But, but really like that’s what people saw on the outside and you know, you had a more
inside look at this too. For, for me that process took about a year. Something I’ve been thinking about for a while.
There’s, there’s a lot of things you got to think through and, and really it’s not a Decision that’s easy to make
because it’s not one that, where math would tell you, like, well, if you calculate this and it’s over this number, that
means do it or not. It’s part of its identity, part of it is financial, part of it is looking at the company and will it be
okay without you? I’d say I probably spent about 14 months actively thinking and working about that decision to
kind of step away. And that’s after that.
Speaker 2 – 26:09
That had been kind of like one of those like thoughts that float around the mind every now and then late at night
for, you know, maybe six or 12 months even prior to that. So I, yeah, I’m. I’m even as I say this out loud, I’m almost
surprised that I’m here because everyone talks about it, as you mentioned at the start of the show, very few do it.
I’d always thought, you know, it’s something I always want to do, but it just felt like one of those, like I always want
to climb Mount Everest, but like, realistically if I think about it, I’m to ever do that. But this one actually did
materialize and it was kind of a series of realizations, decisions, perspective, like looking around and asking myself
questions that led to ultimately me leaving.
Speaker 2 – 26:45
And you know, here I am, it’s been what, five, almost six months. And I’m so glad that I did on the almost on a daily
basis I have, like, something will happen. I’ll be like, this would have been different if I didn’t retire. And like, I’m glad
that I’m here now.
Speaker 1 – 27:00
So.
Speaker 2 – 27:00
Yeah, that was a, it was tough. I’m not gonna lie about that. I’m certainly not sitting here kind of like entirely through
the weeds yet. I’m still going through identity shifts and kind of finding new purpose and meaning and really like,
and even more tactically like feeling out, basic day to day stuff. But it’s been like a fun journey, a fun transition. It’s. I
hope that my story can kind of empower others who are on that fence, as you mentioned, to consider doing the
same.
Speaker 1 – 27:23
Let’s go, let’s get some depth into this conversation. Not saying we haven’t had that already, Bryce, but so, yeah, I
think, you know, in my perspective, I, at this point, I’ve been in 20,000 meetings with clients over the last 15 years.
So with the high achiever entrepreneurial business owners, you know, common thread when we get really deep is
the identity. It can’t, you know, it’s the doctor that’s working, still doing procedures at 75. It’s the business owner
that can’t let go of the reins. Maybe their kids are involved or they, you know, they want to sell, but they can’t. It’s a
lot of identity of that. You know, your worth is tied into the good you do for others. Your worth is tied into the value
create the, and so your impact you make on the world.
Speaker 1 – 28:13
So, and just the intensity of problem solving and you know, playing that rescuer role. So you said it was a 14 month
process. What, give us an inside scoop of what that looked like. What were there any catalyst? What were the
biggest things telling you I gotta do this? What were the biggest things that were preventing you?
Speaker 2 – 28:40
Yeah, yeah. I, I, I think it kind of started when I noticed that kind of the things I need to do as part of my role did not
like, kind of excite me or like, did not kind of jump off of the laptop, if you will, in the morning. And in the same way
that they used to, you know, a lot of folks who start a business and something that they’re passionate about, you
know, you’re just incredibly into it all the time. Like I, you work all the time, you kind of start solving problems, you’re
thinking about your idle time because it’s something you’re incredibly passionate about.
Speaker 2 – 29:09
And I did notice kind of late in the year and prior, the year prior to when I kind of told my staff and then started that
entire process, I’m like, I’m just a lot of this, I’m kind of, I’m doing this, I know I have to do this, but I’m like, it feels
like more of a chore than it used to, but I, I almost didn’t let myself admit that. It’s like maybe I’m a little tired today
or maybe like I could kind of find someone else to do that. You kind of go down the path of outsourcing all the
things and thinking like, I’ll just get my time back to what I want to do.
Speaker 2 – 29:37
But it just kind of kept on growing and I found myself in so many like meetings and situations where I’m like, I, I just
don’t want to be doing this right now. Like my daughters are at like a dance camp that I’m missing or some recital
or something and I’m talking to lawyers about how we can update our privacy policy. Like this is why am I doing
this? And, and that’s a hard thing for a lot of people to realize because that identity piece you mentioned. But I, I
kind of kept on going with that and honestly, AI was incredibly helpful to me. I had like a project and many lengthy
threads where I’m kind of talking about, like, what should I be thinking about, what questions I need to be asking.
And it was kind of a snowball decision from there.
Speaker 2 – 30:14
My wife made a huge contribution in reassuring me, like, yes, that would be awesome for us. Fully supportive. Like,
she was wonderful through the entire thing. But yeah, the hard part was the identity. I think the question that a lot
of people would struggle with is who am I if I am not X? Right? The doctor, the CEO, the founder. Because if you do
something for long enough that becomes like your thing, whether you want it to or not, like, people would look at
me like, that’s the points. And Miles guy, like, he’s the travel guy. And, and you know, there’s lots of upside to that.
Speaker 2 – 30:45
It’s great to feel that way, like, but you can start to deviate from what you actually want to be or who you really are if
you don’t zoom out every now and then and kind of take some perspective on why you’re doing what you’re doing.
And do you even have to be doing this? And it was fun. Kind of in this, you know, age of like digital receipts for
everything of after everything. I actually went back through and I tried to reestablish the timeline on like, you know,
when did I first decide what you. What were the kind of the key decisions, points? One of the. One of them was an
email I sent to you. I think it was in February of 2025. And it’s just like, hey, this whole, like, I’m going to step away
thing is looking much more material.
Speaker 2 – 31:22
Can we talk about what that looks like financially? So it’s cool to kind of piece that together. But yeah, there wasn’t
like a aha moment where I got some health scare or like, you know, missed a big family event. And it’s like, that’s.
That tipped it. It was just a slow series of I don’t want to be doing the thing I’m doing right now. I don’t have to be
doing the thing I want to be doing right now. And, and really another big component is I have a team around me
who loves doing all this stuff is often better than me at it. I think a hard thing a lot of, like, business owners have is.
Is kind of like letting go of something because you.
Speaker 2 – 31:54
You assume like, oh, nobody else can, you know, do the podcast like me, or no one else can write the Sunday
emails like me, but then someone else does, and they can, and sometimes they’re even better. So, you know, I was
blessed to have that kind of asset in my pocket to. To know that I could step away and things would be fine. But,
yeah, just like, realizing that this isn’t what I want. I don’t have to be this person anymore. That’s still a process I’m
kind of going through right now and kind of just seeing what’s next. And, you know, another thing I thought about
through the process, I think a lot of people don’t. Don’t particularly think about is that there’s kind of windows in life
in which things can be more impactful or more valuable than others.
Speaker 2 – 32:31
I think a lot of folks who start businesses and retire, they often do it a little bit too late. You have kids or you want
to travel, you want to pursue some passion, but you Retire when you’re 50 or 55, your kids are out of the house. The
desire to do the travel or get into some art or hobby is maybe diminishing a bit, or not as easy as it was earlier. And
I’m sitting there looking like the most valuable years of my life are right now. Got young kids at home. You know,
my wife doesn’t work. Like, we would have potentially lots of time together. And if I defer this, even if I make twice
as much money and wait 10 years longer, that’s not worth it. So I thought now is the opportune time to do it.
Speaker 2 – 33:11
And I’ve always had kind of a bit of a streak of everyone does it some way, and I’m gonna try this other way, some
of that in there too. But really just kind of putting all this piece together and just. It eventually snapped into place
where it’s like, there’s no reason why you are still working. Other people can do it better. You don’t want to be here.
You have a lot to. To be doing elsewise, and let’s do it.
Speaker 1 – 33:32
Yeah, so we always talked about, like, 80% of your time is spent with your kids before they’re 18, when they’re under
your roof, and then after they leave, it’s like only 20% of your time. So that’s, you know, super cool. I think in
America, you kind of arrive at death safely, you know, work, work. Justify the hard work. Cause I need to take care
of my kids in. Paradoxically, you end up enabling your kids when you open too much and you don’t have quality
time with them to, you know, to. To pass. So, yeah, super cool. You’re doing it this in. In reverse. And just so we’re
clear, this isn’t like a mini retirement. Knowing Bryce is, you know, your mind has many genius ideas that this is a
full, you know, full retirement. So what’s been the biggest surpr.
Speaker 1 – 34:13
Now that you’ve freed up your time, there’s more family time. And what is. Yeah. How do you fill your time
currently?
Speaker 2 – 34:19
Yeah, I think the biggest surprise for me was that there, it’s difficult to kind of shake off that feeling of, like, wake
up, be productive. Like, you do that for, you know, 10 years of running a company and of course, many years prior
to that, going through the schooling system in college and all that kind of stuff, you just kind of. There’s this innate
sense of like, I’m awake, there’s free time. I need to find something to chase. And I think you can almost become
kind of addicted to that. Like, to just sit still. Like, to sit still and do nothing for an entire day would probably be very
hard for a lot of people to do. And. And many of them might not even realize it.
Speaker 2 – 34:51
So I found myself, like, in those really, like, in the last few weeks in which I’m kind of like that. The lame duck,
outgoing, you know, guy with not much to do. And then, particularly in those first couple of months of retirement, I
would. I’d be like, setting alarm, getting up, like, go. I would. Actually. I still have my office here for a couple more
weeks. I’m sitting in the, you know, the office I ran the company from. I. I’m in the office, like, learning stuff, like
creating like, a guideline, like, all right, by the end of this week, I’m going to complete these few courses. I’m going
to learn this other hobby. And then, you know, sitting there like, what are you doing? Like, you. You create a life of
freedom, and you have just created an entirely new thing to chase.
Speaker 2 – 35:24
And, and this one doesn’t even provide money or impact or anything like. And I think it’s just truly like shaking off
that kind of sense of, like, I don’t want to call it like an addiction, but just like a, A lifestyle which you don’t see any
other way of doing, of just comfort, doing nothing. So that’s been an ongoing thing, and I’m still kind of working
through that. But my time day to day now is mostly spent with kids kind of being at every Activity I can be at, but
more importantly, kind of being present when I’m actually there. I think if you just look at judging it based on time,
as if you have a stopwatch and you’re measuring time with and time without, that doesn’t particularly capture it
because for myself, and I know for a lot of business owners, you’re there.
Speaker 2 – 36:03
I’m holding up air quotes for anyone on audio only. But you’re thinking through the next problem that you have in
business or how you have to address an employee issue.
Speaker 1 – 36:09
Right?
Speaker 2 – 36:10
Yeah. You can’t take that off. So I feel like when I’m there, I’m actually there now. But, you know, it’s not as if I just
jumped into, like, you know, dad role all the time. Like, my kids go to school, right. So I have most of the day free.
You know, I’ve golfed more. I’ve started reading a lot more. I think, like, a big turning point for me is I actually
started reading fiction again. I was. I was one of those business owners that. I’ve read every productivity book. I
can talk about it up and down. I thought fiction was silly. Yeah. Started reading fiction again.
Speaker 2 – 36:37
Kind of getting into new topics and kind of learning things and really trying to carve out intentional time to have
stillness around myself to reflect on the decision where I want to be going next, because all those defaults are no
longer there. I don’t have anywhere I have to be. I don’t have anyone kind of depending on me outside of my home.
And sometimes I’ll just take an afternoon and go walk in a park or go to a forest or something. And, And. And
getting okay with that and understanding, like, that’s actually nice. And when, once you get there, it’s. It’s lovely, but
it’s not as easy as flipping a switch. And, you know, I think a lot of people glamorize retirement.
Speaker 2 – 37:10
Like, you know, the very first day I retire, I’m going to play 36 holes of golf, and then I’m going to go have dinner with
my wife, and then the next day I’m going to watch the entire, you know, Sopranos without anything. That’s often not
how it looks. It can be difficult to kind of transition, but, you know, when you do it, I think, you know, it’s hard to say
this for everyone, but at least for me, a lot more happiness, a lot more stillness, peace, deep connection, and less
of, like, a surface level moving from one thing to the next and. And kind of, you know, getting lost in that for a long
period. Of time.
Speaker 1 – 37:39
That’s incredible. So much there. What. Do you have any still old habits of am I enough? Am I lovable? Because I’m
not, you know, I’m not fixing something every hour. There’s no fires to put out. How does that, how is your mind
calibrated in the stillness? I’m sure there’s been scary moments. I’ve tried to have stillness and it doesn’t stay still
for long.
Speaker 2 – 38:05
Yeah, there’s been plenty of that. I, I have like, you know, a few practices I do to kind of remind myself of that.
Because I do think that if you kind of just let yourself go to wherever the biggest problem is, especially as like a
business owner or like a, a very like ambitious or busy person, if you will, there’s always something that’s going to
kind of jump into that void. And if you don’t create some space to kind of zoom out and think, like, what do I
actually want? Who am I? What is important to me? You’ll just end up kind of checking off tasks and, you know, for
the rest of your life, really. You know, one of the biggest ones is I have a reminder. I use like a, the email, like send it
back to myself at some point.
Speaker 2 – 38:37
I’ll, I’ll do it every couple months. It says, you could be more, but you are enough. I think that’s like a hard thing for
people to internalize, like to walk away from potential. Like, man, I really want to retire. Like, I’m ahead of where I
thought I’d be, but there’s this opportunity ahead of me and they never pause to think, like, there will always be
more opportunity ahead of you. Right. Even if you wait until you’re 65. I’m sure most companies are like, hey, how
about six, four months? How about a year? Like at some point you have to walk away from that and be okay with it.
And that requires you to truly like deeply internalize the idea. Like what you are right now is enough.
What is most important is not necessarily things that jump out right now or not necessarily things that society or
your friend group or others on the outside would look in and say, yeah, that makes sense. And just being okay with
that’s, that’s a lot harder than it sounds. I’m still discovering that on a daily basis. But the little practices of kind of
creating those stillness moments, reminding yourself of why you do it is ultimately helped me to get there decision
wise and help me kind of stay on track now. And something I think a lot More people would benefit from doing.
Speaker 1 – 39:38
You could be more, but you are enough. That’s. That’s more powerful than anything that’s been said on this, Our
time together so far. That’s awesome. Thanks for sharing that. Well, so what would you describe now if you went
from being the Points and miles guy, helping people, and someone ask you know, who are you? How you answer
that?
Speaker 2 – 40:01
Yeah, that. Great question. That, that’s what I’m still kind of working on, but I’m finding myself kind of resisting the
urge to go to, like, titles or like, even like specific things. Like, I’m Bryce. I’m a guy who. I did points and miles for a
while. Don’t do it anymore. I think one reason why I’ve been able to be, I guess at least what I would call successful
so far in the transition, I made it a clean cut. Like when I left on the last day, I was like, please delete all my access
to everything because I’m a tinkerer, right? I hop in there two weeks later, check on some numbers, see how things
are going. I have completely exited Points and Miles. I don’t even do it personally for myself. Not like it’s tempting. I
love it. I love traveling.
Speaker 2 – 40:40
But I know that if I dabble a little bit, that’ll just kind of pull me right back in that space. Space. So making a nice
clean transition from one to the other was helpful. And find something you’re running toward. You know, I think a
lot of folks who retire, one of the things they struggle with is they don’t think about what’s next. Like, I’m going to
quit work and just quitting work is going to be fine. It’s like, okay, you know, you have like your one or two week
period in which, like, maybe you go on a vacation, you know, make some margaritas, and I, like, this is cool. But
then what do you do after that? And most people truly have never thought about that.
Speaker 2 – 41:09
They’ll, they’ll tell themselves that they’ll pick up pottery or golf or finally get into shape or, you know, I’ll read books.
But, you know, if you can’t do that for a single day now, you’re not going to be able to do that in two weeks when
you don’t have a job. So you get a lot of that kind of identity crisis and questions and stuff that come up. But, you
know, I created a bit of a plan for myself, things I wanted to kind of do post retirement, but. But I’ve been kind of
oscillating. And finding like really the most successful thing. And the happiest thing I find is no plans. Like limited
structure approach every day like a child waking up on a Saturday with no plans. You’ll find something fun to do, it’ll
be okay.
Speaker 2 – 41:41
But if you just create this kind of regimented process for yourself, you’re not really that much off the hamster
wheel. You just picked a new thing to chase.
Speaker 1 – 41:50
Yeah, it’s funny how really successful people that it, you know, life gets harder and harder. Money solves a certain
level of problems, right? Food on the table, security, et cetera. But the studies have shown after that there’s not
really an increased happiness factor. In fact, you know, sometimes that can even slide down because money can
introduce different dynamics that can make relationships suffer or make power dynamics come into play. So what
were your going into this decision and maybe even still present today, what were your deepest fears? There’s
financial fears, there’s identity fears, there’s how are you going to spend your time? Like what were your deepest
fears and how have you overcome those?
Speaker 2 – 42:34
Yeah, great questions. Yeah, biggest fears were kind of the who am I if I am not X was one and kind of being
worried that like if this thing is kind of taken out of my life, am I just going to devolve into like basically a hedonistic
day to day type lifestyle that I can’t recover from because I don’t have to? That’s a concern. Yeah. I think a lot of
people, if they’re really honest with themselves, don’t necessarily trust themselves with like a ton of free time and
resources. So I was concerned about that and so far that’s gone. You know, I think I’ve been doing a good job, but
it’s hard to ever know.
Speaker 2 – 43:08
I think a big one people overlook that I’m still working through is how does that dynamic kind of change within your
household and your family and with your spouse? It’s, you know, for a lot of folks when you retire, if you have a
spouse who doesn’t work, you’re going into their world like there’s a whole system that’s working right now
perfectly. And, and you have to remember that person also has an identity in that I’m the one who kind of makes
the house work and how it makes the house run. And now there’s this new person that’s there much more
frequently.
Speaker 2 – 43:32
And like how do we kind of divide that up and if you don’t address it and talk about it closely, like things can Kind of
start to go sideways and things like again, my wife super supportive, this whole thing and we had a plan and you
know, we, of course there’s like day to day things where it’s like, I thought that was me. I thought that was you. You
did it differently than I did. But just kind of having open conversations. There are a big one. I, I worried that I would
always kind of look back and like double, you know, question myself or you know, rethink things or kind of be
tempted to go back in. And honestly I have not at all.
Speaker 2 – 44:04
In fact, like the limited things I still have to do post retirement, like kind of board rolls or like updates and stuff. I
don’t, I don’t find myself like kind of getting that whole like, ooh, I haven’t been, I haven’t ridden a bike in a long time,
but once I hop on, like, I, oh, I, I miss it. I’m just like, I really don’t like I, I’m happy to do this, but so that’s been good.
I think part of that comes from that you know, I could be more, but I’m enough. And, and the long process of the
decision and kind of thinking through it on identity level has helped a lot there. And I’m happy to say that a lot of
these big fears have not materialized in the way that I thought they would. So it’s been, yeah, it’s been pleasant.
Speaker 2 – 44:39
I, I, you know, if people take no other message away from this, it’s just, you can do this. And, and I think you’ll be
happy. I think you’ll be happier. Most people if you have your life set up right and you think it through and you take
the steps needed for self introspection and kind of thinking about what you want to be, there’s, it’s, it sounds
almost weird to say like there’s a future after being a successful business person. Like, and, and that’s one that is
worth considering and worth chasing. And, and I would caution folks against the idea of, you know, that’s
something I’m gonna do in five years. You know, I’ve heard that from a lot of folks.
Speaker 2 – 45:12
I’ve had a lot of conversations like this since I stepped away from, and thing I always hear is like, yes, I, I want to
sell my business and step away in like five to seven years. And when I hear that sounds like I, I, I know that they’re
diluting themselves at least that’s my opinion now. That’s, that’s the. Yeah, I really want to get in shape, but I’m
gonna start like after the vacation I have in two months. Big you. But you probably don’t want that. You’re, you’re
just deferring it and kind of using that as like a. Oh, I fight. That’s what keeps me getting up in the morning. But you
know, ask yourself what that would look like in one year, two years. Of course, you know, get the financials down.
Speaker 2 – 45:44
You know, you and your team can help with that part as well. But if it’s something that you’re telling yourself you’re
gonna do, like in a near, in a future that’s near, but not near enough to have to tactically plan for. Just be careful
that you’re not diluting yourself into five years from now telling you it’s gonna be five to seven more years.
Speaker 1 – 45:59
Well, it’s good, it’s really good to hear and obviously I knew this moving fit. I’m just saying this for the audience. The
14 months introspection, the deep thoughtfulness is super important. I mean, studies have shown you average
American retire at 65 and so many especially high achievers, they end up having a huge health condition like two
years later. Like two years. Because if you haven’t given the thought process, if you’re retiring away from something
and not into something, it’s a completely different. So, you know, the 14 month lead up I think is so crucial of
questioning my identity could be questioned. I’m not sure how I’m going to spend my time answering all those
questions. Thinking about those, sitting those stillness is so important.
Speaker 1 – 46:41
Just coming from my perspective, seeing people so stressed out at their job, you know, potentially they could have
done a lot of things to fix or calibrate their environment a little bit better. Retiring is not necessarily going to do
anything, even if the money is perfect.
Speaker 2 – 46:55
So in some cases it might make it worse. Like you said, like, you know, health concerns might come up because
dramatic change in life or like a shift like that could actually trigger those. And also some thought into like, you
know, what is like kind of the relative value of like time and money at age 65 versus 55 versus 45 versus 35. Like
there’s certainly a point in which like it just does not make sense to continue going because you don’t want to
undervalue your health, your free time, the phase of life you’re in with kids, family, spouse, hobbies, like there’s
something to be said for that. And I think as Americans, we tend to kind of push this off.
Speaker 2 – 47:34
But you know, if you actually dive in closer and do the introspective work, to think about it’s like, hey, would you
rather have, you know, $500,000 at 65 or $275,000 at 45? Like, you have to start to think about that because most
people cross that threshold before they realize it.
Speaker 1 – 47:51
Do you have any regrets for not doing this earlier? Or what’s, what perspective can you offer looking back again? I,
we have these conversations every day with business owners that struggle with what’s my identity, with that work.
What am I going to do with all this free time? I don’t know how to downshift. I don’t know how to shut it off. I’m, you
know, I’m checking my emails and I, if I wake up at 12 o’, clock, I’m midnight. First thing I do, I’m still checking the
emails. What fires. So, yeah, any regrets, looking backwards and any advice you’d have for someone in that
struggle that’s considering this to get across the finish line?
Speaker 2 – 48:30
Yeah, I, I, this is something I’ve thought about, you know, for quite some time now since leaving. I really can’t think
of any major regrets yet. You know, that’s not to say something won’t come up, but I, I feel very at peace with it. I
think the timing was great. I think, you know, I’m very fortunate to be in the circumstance where, like, money was
pretty much taken care of and that helped a lot. It would be easier to say, like, I wish you had done this earlier, but I
don’t know that’s true. I, I’m not confident in that statement. I guess. I, I’m happy that I did it before. It felt like it was
obvious or comfortable because I don’t know that it ever would be.
Speaker 2 – 49:03
I think there’s people kind of hope or delude themselves into thinking that there’s, you know, there’s going to be a
day in which like that’s where I feel like, definitely financially secure, like, definitely have the pieces in place to do
this comfortably. And it reminds me of like, the conversation that, you know, folks have with, like, when do you
know that you want to have children? Or when do you know that you want to go back to school? These other big
things. And what you ultimately realize is there’s not a time in which it ever feels like an obvious decision. You just
kind of do it and that would be my advice. I was in this spot. Don’t wait for a time where you think it’s going to feel
perfect or right or safe.
Speaker 2 – 49:34
You know, I’m sure you can speak this better than me, but if you ask the average person like, how much money do
you think would make you feel financially comfortable, like across the board, at every level of income, it’s twice as
much as what you have right now. And then when you get to that number, it’ll be twice as much again.
Speaker 1 – 49:47
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 – 49:48
Like you can just fill that gap in the treadmill speeds up, you run a little faster and you don’t feel like you’re actually
making progress. So, you know, of course, nail the fundamentals. Make sure that you have enough money to kind
of live the lifestyle that you want. But don’t think that there’s going to be some magical moment where you’ve like, it
just seems so obvious or so clear. Like you hit a number and you actually won’t move the goalpost because the
vast majority of people will just keep on going.
Speaker 1 – 50:12
Yeah, it’s funny how the brain works with. It’s always a reason to delay it. There’s always a reason. And then
circumstances get forced on them. Health concerns, family changes, and then they don’t get a clause of shots
anymore. So congratulations. Being one of the. Probably one out of a thousand people at your made this decision
and have been so thoughtful about it and yeah, I’ve successfully made the transition, but excited to watch your
growth, you know, as human being. I know you’re very still introspective of, you know, evaluating some of these
deeper questions. So excited to see the journey continue to fold. This is a new chapter, but not just beginning
stage two.
Speaker 2 – 50:56
So thank you. Yeah, I’m excited to see it for myself. I feel like I’m kind of watching from a third person perspective
sometimes too. And yeah, the introspection is what does it. The still is what does it. And yeah, and I know you are
a testament to this in your own life too. These aren’t things you have to wait for retirement to start thinking about. I
think for folks who have no inkling or hope or even desire to try to retire early, that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t
kind of pause and occasionally get away from things and zoom out and be like, why am I doing what I’m doing?
Where do I want to go? Because not enough of that just leads you to just be dog chasing cars. You don’t even
know why you’re doing it at some point.
Speaker 2 – 51:33
So that’s been very powerful for my life, and I enjoyed talking about that with you and our calls as well. But it’s
something that everyone could benefit from. It’s what got me to where I am today. It’s what’s keeping me on track,
and I hope more people give that a shot.
Speaker 1 – 51:48
Well, this is a podcast about your story, Bryce, but this is still the, your path over the last 14 months. And we, Bryce
and I, you know, not only have a client relationship, he’s a close friend of mine, so we talk a lot offline. And it really
challenged me to think about, you know, ultimately I, I don’t plan on retiring, but a lot of the same questions of
where am I over functioning, where am I playing the rescuer role? Where is my identity tied? And it’s. I’ve calibrated
a lot of my personal life and professional life for that different results, but still highly introspect. Introspective. I
can’t pronounce that word. And no, it’s. Even, even if you’re not going to retire, going through the thought process
and the challenging and sit stillness, I think can make very meaningful impacts if you’re retiring or not.
Speaker 1 – 52:40
Just to live a more balanced life and to make sure you’re questioning yourself on why is it that I’m doing what I’m

doing, you know, at all times. Is this out of a bad habit, out of a, you know, something my identity needs because of
a. Something I haven’t processed yet? But no, it’s been an amazing journey and something that’s, you know, helped
me. Humans learn from humans. It’s deep reason why we do this podcast. And that perspective has definitely been
a catalyst in helping me, you know, make some major changes. And I think ultimately it’s going to make the
business much more valuable because a business is only, you know, is not valuable if it’s heavily dependent one
person putting out every fire delegate. Hello.
Speaker 2 – 53:21
That’s a whole nother episode for a different day. But I would almost push back on your framing of different
results. It’s different outcomes, but the result is that we both pause, we think about what do I want? And then we
do the thing that we want. In your case, it’s to continue what you’re doing, and that’s awesome. You have passion,
you’re helping people. You know, that makes you better at your job, that makes your company perform better. You
know, why you’re doing these things, and you’re excited to do them and if that ever changes, like, great, go chase
that thing. But we both stopped, paused, zoomed out, said what do I want? Found that thing, did it. It was different
things, but it was the same process.
Speaker 1 – 53:55
No question. I think you’re a little bit farther along with the, you got out of bad habits and stayed out of them. If I’m
being completely transparent, I still, you know, will have some slip ups of checking emails too much and you.
Speaker 2 – 54:09
Know, any business owner. Right.
Speaker 1 – 54:11
Yeah. So I don’t think. Yeah, but it’s, I’m a, it’s a work in progress, which has been really exciting.
Speaker 2 – 54:17
But yeah, no finish line. But it’s been fun to watch your journey on that too. And yeah, it’s as you said, humans learn
from humans and hopefully each of our situations and all of your podcasts, they see the real human behind it and
they can kind of take something from it. Mimicking someone else is never the right answer. Taking little snippets,
applying it to your life, that’s the way to go. And it’s exciting to see people do that. It’s exciting to you do that and
hopefully more of that from this episode and the many others that you do.

Speaker 1 – 54:44
Absolutely. Well, appreciate your time. Bryce, thanks for joining.
Speaker 2 – 54:47
Yeah, thanks for having me.