Episode 129 – Helaina Jeannot

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Richard Matthews 0:00
So I will say I was born a hero, but my superpowers were dormant. I will say that I was bitten by a radioactive spider, my mentor, someone came into my life turned the light on, and got me really excited about how life can be different. And then I did start with the job because I didn’t know any better. So what happens is we do what the masses does, you know, we, we think that that’s going to propel us to success, but we’re still building somebody else’s business there well, and, you know, we get kind of scraps for it. I hate to say it that way.

Heroes are an inspiring group of people, every one of them from the larger than life comic book heroes you see on the big silver screen, but everyday heroes that let us live the privileged lives we do every hero has a story to tell them the doctor saving lives your local hospital, the war veteran down the street, who risked his life for our freedoms to the police officers and firefighters who risked their safety to ensure ours every hero is special and every story worth telling. But there was one class of heroes that I think is often ignored the entrepreneur, the creator, the producer, the ones who look at the problems in this world and think to themselves, you know what I can fix that I can help people I can make a difference and they go out and do exactly that by creating a new product or introducing a new service. Some go on to change the world, others make a world of difference to their customers. Welcome to the hero show. Join us as we pull back the masks on the world’s finest hero preneurs and learn the secrets to their powers their success and their influence. So you can use those secrets to attract more sales, make more money and experience more freedom in your business. I’m your host Richard Matthews and we are on in 3…2…1…

Welcome back to the hero show. My name is Richard Matthews and today I am live on the line with Heliana. Are you there?

Helaina Jeannot 1:49
Yes. And Helaina.

Richard Matthews 1:52
Helaina. Sorry. I mispronounced that, Helaina. Yeah. So So I we were talking before we got on the show, you’re up in New Jersey, and it’s starting to get cold there a little bit. For for those of you who are following along with our travels on a podcast, we are finally not stuck for the COVID crisis, we got to move down to the Florida Keys got our reservations that took us six months to get before we got them back again. Finally. So anyways, we’re on the move again. And Helaina, thank you so much for coming on the show today. What I wanted to start with real quick is just go through a quick introduction. So you are the the CEO of Middle Class to Wealthy, which is an online movement focused on helping communities build wealth through education, relationships, goal setting and achievement. Is that right? Yes. So why don’t you start off telling me a little bit about what that is? What is it that you do? Who do you serve? And what like what’s the primary like, way that you earn revenue through that business?

Helaina Jeannot 2:55
Okay, perfect. Um, so it’s actually a movement and how I build revenue through the business is actually building up partners. So if you look at what life looks like, everybody is looking for the experts to help them figure out life, right? So financially, America is not only Well, the massive 70% of people are living paycheck to paycheck. A bunch of people don’t have savings in the bank, we have a theft crisis, an affordability crisis, a savings crisis on retirement crisis. Absolutely yeah. So and we face we face recession every six to 10 years on average, right? So Something is definitely not going right. And we own a part in that. And what I mean is, if you let those who are moving and shaking, make all of the decisions that affect us financially, well, when they choose to choose themselves, and then make a misstep. Well, you can’t stand up for yourself, like, you can’t leave the decision making to everybody else. And then and then cry about what happens. So what middle class loyalty is, is to help us change our mindset. Help us change our habits, our behavior, but it’s also about digging deep, like figuring out what your individual issues are. I think one of the biggest problems we face is that we’re trying to mass produce everything. We are individuals, we all have individual problems we have individual perspectives, and so you can’t apply one bandaid to all it’s not gonna work. And so it is looking at you and seeing where your gaps are, where your strengths are. What are your weaknesses? Let’s focus on those weaknesses help you build up those muscles. And then you know, what are your habits that are contributing to you not reaching the level of success that you want. And so the education part is free. Why? Because like I said, with this shaky economy, we need more people making more decisions. So it comes off better if I can build up a strong partner. And we can make money together passively, then if I just kind of give you some tools, and then send your mind away, because you’re not guaranteed to get success that way.

Richard Matthews 5:44
So. Yeah, awesome. So there’s certainly a lot of a lot of problems we have financially just as, like, a base of people in America, and I know, just personally learning things, you know, in my business, like, how to budget properly and how to, you know, a new term I’ve learned recently in the accounting space is aging your money, right, where instead of spending money that you earned this week, on bills next week, you’re spending money you earned three months ago on bills for this week, right? And learning how to aid your money through proper, you know, budgeting and forecasting and stuff. And like that, those are all skills that we’re not taught, right, we’re not taught how to do any of that. So you have to, you have to go out and figure that stuff out yourself. And if I’m understanding correctly, that’s where you come in?

Helaina Jeannot 6:28
Yes, absolutely. I think a lot of the stuff that’s vague, is vague on purpose. Because everyone has their angle. So the government has their angle, they are a self sustaining entity that digs into our pockets, every move we make, you know, they incen, they incentivize businesses. And so business and government kind of work hand in hand, because like, one hand washes the other, and businesses recycle their money through our communities, and then we pay taxes. So like, everybody is getting what they need from us, but what are we getting? What are we getting in return?

Richard Matthews 7:10
Absolutely. And I know that, you know, almost any, I was, I was reading some stuff about even like the payroll tax, that, you know, the, the companies contribute a portion to the payroll tax. And what really happens is they contribute a portion to the payroll tax, but it reduces your tax liability, but it also reduces their, the amount of money they pay to employees, so it reduces earnings for employees. So really, it’s the employees who are are shouldering the whole cost of something like a payroll tax. And, you know, you know, anytime that there’s government red tape that stuck up in front of a business for that increases cost of doing business, they pass that on to the customers in terms of increased prices, or other things like that. So it’s really, it’s really up to the individual to learn how to manage their finances, and, you know, deal with the world we live in?

Helaina Jeannot 8:02
Well, I want to take it a step further than that, because I think that we play a huge role in business. Without consumers, there is no business. I mean, you can have products all day, every day, you can have a way to get it there. But if you can’t sell it to anybody, there’s no business, you just you’re just stuck with a bunch of products. And so, look at COVID as a prime example, right? So you have all of these heavy hitters filing for bankruptcy, some of them going out of business, why? Because the masses is who, who does all of the work and pays all of the bills. So I would frame it this way. I’m so big business, or let’s say deeper pockets, will front the money. So they decided, let me come up with some kind of income generating vehicle, and they will put the money up front. But the money that they put up front is just a resource, then they hire people, those people just a resource, and all of that stuff that they’re paying for is an investment. They expect major returns on that, right. But ultimately, the consumer pays for everything, everything. And so we do all of the work and then we pay for everything. But we don’t get we don’t get paid for what we’re worth you know, we get paid what we we may negotiate a little bit but we get paid for what the what the role allows for.

Richard Matthews 9:47
Yeah, so when it comes to what it is that you’re doing, how are you helping people sort of navigate that reality?

Helaina Jeannot 9:55
Um, first of all, letting them know how valuable they are to this whole infrastructure, you know, you play a major role here. So you need to change how you think about what’s actually happening, where you fit into all of this, and what you can get in return for it. And like, so, we don’t do a partnership because like if there’s value in consumption, and so there are companies that will allow you to partner with them as their Salesforce, but focus on consumer goods, replenishable consumer goods, right, because that’s the stuff you’re going to use anyway. They don’t care who it’s sold to. So if you do everything, aboveboard, with integrity with character, you know, find your place where you are getting paid to consume. But it’s not just about money, because like I said, if it was just about money, so many of us would not be failing. So use the time that you can, like you’re buying yourself back, use that time to educate yourself to, to gather in association, stick with people who make you stand on your tippy toes, like people that will stretch you ask you questions, you know, the hard questions, people that will help you develop your your skill set, your personal, your professional, your financial, but get around people who, who want more out of life.

Richard Matthews 11:38
Absolutely, I know, just in speaking of the skill set things, one of the things that’s really been sticking in my mind, my last couple of months is a self concept of skill stacking, where, you know, you learn to get, you know, you get fairly decent in a couple of different categories. And where those categories intersect, you can become world class really quickly. And as you become world class, your value to the economy goes up significantly, you start getting paid in accordance to that. And a lot of that comes from hanging around the right people and you know, getting into the right masterminds, or whatever you want to call it, right? Where your, your the people, the people that you’re around, are pulling you down, but they’re pulling you up. Right,

Helaina Jeannot 12:18
right. I mean, because like, you know, all of that is contagious. You know, you get around negative people that’s contagious. You get around positive people that’s contagious. You get around people who are focused on being strategic around life, how they live it their money, you know, having experiences that is contagious.

Richard Matthews 12:39
Yeah, I’ve definitely noticed that myself in my life, as we’ve been traveling and getting around bigger and bigger business owners and realizing that like the kind of stuff that was a huge stretch for me to even wrap my mind around other people are just make they make decisions like that every day, right? You know, where they’re, they’re making huge decisions in their business or huge investments, and it’s not a big thing to them. And what it does is it changes the way you think about the world, right? It changes your risk tolerance, when you see someone else who’s just like you doing the same things with either bigger numbers or more people or, you know, whatever it is that’s going on in their life or their business. They’re there, they’re playing at the next level. And when you hang around them, you get you get to sort of experience that and then you can start stepping into that level as well. Yup. So also, what I want to find out then, is your origin story, right? We talked about every every good comic book hero has an origin story. It’s the thing that made them into the hero they are today and we want to hear that way. You know, were you born a hero? Are you bit by a radioactive spider that made you really want to get into teaching people about wealth and growth? Or did you start a job and move into becoming an entrepreneur? So basically, you know, we want to know where you came from.

Helaina Jeannot 13:47
Okay, so what I cuz I love that question, by the way, but how I framed it was all free. So I will say I was born a hero, but my superpowers were dormant. I will say that I was bitten by a radioactive spider, my mentor, someone came into my life turned the light on, and got me really excited about how life can be different. And then I did start with the job because I didn’t know any better. So what happens is we do what the masses does, you know, we, we think that that’s going to propel us to success, but we’re still building somebody else’s business, their wealth, and, you know, we get kind of scraps for it. I hate to say it that way. But so, but that’s what built me up. But it took me a little while to kind of figure all of that out. So I will say that. Um, I’ve always had really bright ideas, but I didn’t really know how to put Math together. So my money, like, how can I get the resources, I need to bring my ideas to fruition? I’ve always worked super hard, super smart. So I’ve never had a problem with hard work. But for me, I guess my breaking point was having to choose between caring for my mom, or my obligations. You know, my mom, I follow in her footsteps, she was a hard worker. And, essentially, she worked herself to death, but, but when it came time, to have to step up and be there for them for her, because that is just one of the facts of life, not if your parents are going to need you, but when your parents are going to need you. Then, like I had money in the bank, I went on vacation pretty regularly, you know, I had some nice things. So I thought, you know, this is what life is supposed to look like, until we realized that we’re sitting duck, and, you know, when life is going to happen to you? Do you have enough to sustain yourself? Can you manage all of your responsibilities without the nine to five, or, you know, trading your time for money? So that’s kind of that’s the origin story, that’s what build me up.

Richard Matthews 16:22
It was some situational things that forced you to really look at how you were, how you were living life. So So how was that that transition for you? Where you where you started as an employee and became an entrepreneur? How did that sort of happen? And was it? Was it a difficult transition to make? Or did you feel like you were you were, you were born for that?

Okay, so, um, I always considered myself an entrepreneur. So before the term entrepreneur, came up, I was an entrepreneur, because I worked the job, but I just wanted to make myself so valuable that if they were laying off, I wasn’t going anywhere. Um, so I thought this was not going to be, this wasn’t going to be hard, like I’ve been an entrepreneur, my entire work career, right. So I’m just going to get out there and step out on faith. But what I learned was, I was an operations person, so I am good at making things happen. I am good at structure, organization, discipline, I am good at following up. I had no sales training, and I had no marketing training. So again, if you have no customers, you have no business. So okay, it was not a very easy journey. And I’ll tell you, I am grateful for that journey, because I learned a lot of things. First of all, as an employee, your mindset is completely different. So, um, you’re not really careful who you allow into your space. Because when you went like as an employee, my contract was negotiated when I was hired, so I don’t have to negotiate every move I make, and I don’t have to watch every move you make, because it’s already written. If I show up to work, I’m gonna get paid. But as a, as somebody that’s self employed, it’s very different. So you have takers and givers. And for me, I’m a giver. And so I went into entrepreneurship with my head in the cloud, everybody thinks like, I think everybody is just as generous as I am. And so I was easy prey. And so, um, so that was, I had to learn that lesson. Actually, twice, not once, but twice, but I got it.

Lesson repeated until lesson learned. It took you years.

Helaina Jeannot 18:56
And so, um, so that was one and then I’m building that skill set, you know, um, relationships are very important. And so, I felt like I’ve always done pretty well with building relationships, but without any real intention. So like, I’m a friendly person, I talk to any and everybody. But there’s a difference between being intentional in your relationships when it comes to business, right? Because you have to make the ask, like, those are things that like, I never want to be a burden on anybody. So I’ve never asked for anything. Well, in business, you have to ask, otherwise, you don’t get that.

Richard Matthews 19:39
You have to you have to have the the give and take portion of the relationship and you have to be forthright about it. And it’s one of those interesting things. I actually learned that in the corporate world when I took a job as a sea level director of marketing that one of the the CEO who was or I guess, the Board of Directors guy, whatever his name was, he was on the board of directors like 12 different companies and all sorts of things. And he mentored me a little bit. And one of the things that really fascinated me is like, every single time, they sat down with any other organization, they were like, here’s what we’re looking to give, and here’s what we’re looking to get in return for that gift. Right. And, and like, it was very clear on both sides, it’s not just like, here’s what we’re giving. Right? It was also here’s what we need in return for that. And it was very, very spelled out on both sides. And it’s it stuck with me. And I was like, I was like, in business, it’s not, it’s not nearly as emotional of a purchase, as it is with, with consumer stuff. So when you’re doing when you’re talking to other businesses, or when you’re a business making transactions, you’re like, you sort of have to remove the emotion and be like, Hey, this is what I’m gonna provide for you, this is what I need in return for it. Otherwise, the transactions just not gonna work.

Helaina Jeannot 20:51
But I’ll say this, we don’t learn that. And people are very emotional when it comes to their business, because it’s their baby. And so all of these things that, like, those were very, very valuable lesson. And like you said, like, it’s, it’s clear cut. So it’s not emotional. You know, it’s an exchange, and it needs to be beneficial for both of us. But we don’t learn it. And so if you don’t learn it, we’re close to it. And we’re making all kinds of mistakes.

Richard Matthews 21:21
You you learn how to make. And it’s kind of confusing, too, because you you learn how to make, how to craft Win Win deals, right? We’re both parties, or all parties involved when, and that feels good emotionally when you do that. Mm hmm. But that’s not why you do it. Right. You feel like you have to? That’s, that’s the result, not the the drive, if that makes sense.

Helaina Jeannot 21:43
Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.

Richard Matthews 21:46
So yeah, it’s, it’s an interesting lesson that you have to learn as a business owner to and part of it is I call it self care. But you have to learn how you have to learn how to take care of yourself in your business. Otherwise, you let other people walk all over you, you know, to your point being the being the prey, right. And so you have to, you have to stand up and you know, realize that, hey, I’ve got value, here’s what the value is. And here’s what it takes to work with me those kind of things. And more than that, you also have to, you have to like legitimately Take care of yourself.

Helaina Jeannot 22:17
Absolutely.

Richard Matthews 22:19
So you have to be healthy, and you have to get enough sleep, and you have to not work yourself till you bleed kind of thing. Because there’s no one who’s going to step in and do it if you’re if you’re not healthy. Right? If you’re sick or something.

Helaina Jeannot 22:31
You’re absolutely right about that. But, you know, how many of us burn the candle at both ends? Mm hmm. I mean we’re fightjing so hard. Yeah. Yeah.

Richard Matthews 22:43
Yeah, it was a it was, it was an interesting lesson that I remember I remember very vividly, when I was seven, maybe about seven years ago, now. I was working 12 to 18 hours a day, right? Like, and it was like, work all day, take breaks to eat and, and you know, and then sleep and then wake up and do it again. Because I was like, I’m gonna, you know, I’m gonna work myself into success. And which is, I don’t know, it’s, it’s like the lesson you’re taught in school kind of thing, like, you just work harder, and you’ll get further. And it it never worked. It was like you were spinning your wheels kind of thing. And it wasn’t until I made the decision that I needed to restrict how much time I spent working, that my business started growing. Right. And what I found is that I call it I say, now that creativity, creativity thrives with restrictions. Okay yeah, I love that. Yeah. So you know, if you can, you can see that how that applies in a lot of different ways, right? If you’re, if you’re a photographer, like the photographer’s job is to basically, you know, to cut out the world, right? This is the portion of the world we’re looking at, it’s restrictive. Same thing with the, you know, painters, they’re painting, you know, you’re only seeing what they put on the canvas, not everything that’s in front of them. Asolutely, so it’s restrictions. And you know, they’ve shown that children for instance, in what they call it in, in playgrounds, if they don’t put a fence around the grassy area of the playground, the kids will only stay on the paved area. But as soon as you fence, the fence, the grassy area out, they’ll extend all the way out to the fence and play into all those kind of things, because restrictions make creativity thrive. So when I learned how to, yeah, when I learned how to apply that in my own life, it was like, Okay, I’m only going to work eight hours a day, right? And now all of a sudden, you’re like, Okay, if I’m not going to work 18 hours a day, I’m only going to work eight hours a day, I have to make sure I’m doing the important things. And I, I started I started getting more creative with that. I was like, Well, what if I only work, you know, four days a week, right? And I take Friday off for my families. And now you’ve only got four, eight hour days to work. And then I was like, Well, my business started growing because I’m really focusing on getting important things done every time. And then you know, I’ve gotten to the point now where I generally is like, you know what happens if I only do four hours a day, and I do four hours a day, four days a week now in my business. And my business is probably four to six times larger than it was when I was working 18 hours a day, and I’ve got staff and everything is growing, right? Because you thrive when you learn how to restrict what you’re doing. So anyways, it’s an interesting lesson to learn how to do that.

Helaina Jeannot 25:15
Mm hmm. No, absolutely, it reminds me of boundaries, you know, because like, when you create the boundaries, now, the expectations are clear. And so I think that’s what you did.

Richard Matthews 25:27
Yeah, and it’s the same thing for any projects that you put together, or when you’re putting together a deal with someone like learning how to, to scope out the work be like, Hey, this is what we’re gonna be working on. And like, these are the boundaries we’re working within. And, you know, I remember my first couple of projects not having a defined scope. You just get locked over forever.

Helaina Jeannot 25:47
But you know, what, think of life like that. Because I think I think that that’s part of our issue, right? Because, like, without intention, you know, we’re kind of like, aimless and so we don’t really know where to start. We don’t know how to focus, what do we focus on, there’s so much, there’s all this stuff happening. So if we narrow down and create boundaries, okay, I want this part of my life to look like this. And this is the kind of time we’ll put in, and it’s the kind of money but if we’re clear about what it is that we want, now we can work towards it.

Richard Matthews 26:23
Yeah, it’s about it’s a lot easier to create those boundaries. And you know, and set up your things like one of mine was I wanted to be at home for lunch, my kids every day, and I have been for 10 years, which is really cool. And, you know, it’s, it’s a, you have to sort of, you have to start with the end in mind. Yes, right. And that’s not a it’s not a skill that we’re taught, but it’s but it’s a skill you can learn easily. And then the hardest part of it is just sticking to your guns on it. Right? Even when you’re not there yet, and realizing Nope, this is what I’m going to do. And you know, I know initially when I was making some of those transitions, where I was like, you know, I’m gonna take Friday off, for instance, it, it feels really weird. You’re like, I don’t feel like I’ve earned it yet. I’m not there, whatever there is. But you know, you have to, you have to just just sort of stick to your boundaries. But if you set up and and just sort of watch how it changes the way you think and the way that you work. Absolutely. Yep. Oh, cool. So what I want to do is transition a little bit and start talking about your superpower. Right? So every iconic hero has a superpower, whether that’s a fancy flying suit made by genius intellect, or the ability to call down Thunder from the sky. And the real world heroes have what I call a zone of genius, which is like either a skill or a set of skills that either you were born with, or you developed over time, and a superpower is what sets you apart, right? It’s what allows you to help other people slay their villains in their life and come out on top in their journeys. So with that sort of framing, what do you think your superpower is? Uh, how do you use it to help people?

Helaina Jeannot 28:02
Okay, I have a few superpowers, like, you know, but I will say the first one is, I see things differently. So I don’t see things as they are, but I see them as they can be. So that includes people life like, whatever it is. So like you said, seen in mind, right? And a can do attitude. So if I don’t know something, I don’t just say, Well, I don’t know this. Nope. I don’t know. But I’m gonna find out. Right. And then, um, I would say being self aware. So I know, I know what my limitations are. And, like, I feel like, I am unlimited. So I work around me. You know, I know that. This kind of cuts into your next question, but Well, one of the other questions, but I know that I’m a procrastinator. I know that certain things scare me. You know what I mean? So I’m a bit self aware. And so, okay, so how do I work around that? Yeah, and then I help other people, same thing.

Richard Matthews 29:12
That’s awesome. Yeah, my, my, the one that sort of sticks out there for me is the is the seeing things the way they can be. Right, and seeing the potential. And that’s it. That’s an interesting, interesting superpower that I’ve noticed, not a lot of people have. Right. And I know, I know that specifically because of the work that I do. Right. And a lot of the work that we do is like we build, we build brands for people, right? We were talking on this show about building heroic brand, and how you do those things. And a lot of that involves, you know, simple basic things with design and getting things together. And so like, design is broken down into things like your framework, and then the actual like colors and typography and photography and stuff like that. And it’s interesting because like, if you show someone, you know, the structure before the design has been put on it. It’s like showing Someone a house without any, you know, with, you know, just the sticks up right in the floors and the door door stuff, all the stuff that’s gonna be there. They’re like, I don’t see it, right? They don’t they don’t they can’t see what’s going to be there. And, and I’ve had to get really good at the whole like, nope, you can’t see it yet because you don’t have, you don’t have that ability to see the potential. So if I show it to you, you’re gonna be mad. We’re at the stick building frame portion right now, though, right? That’s just a really practical example. But I see that in a lot of places where people not it’s very rare to find someone who can see something that’s not there yet.

Helaina Jeannot 30:39
Yes. And you know, that’s what I want to do like that. For me. That is my goal. That is my job.

Richard Matthews 30:47
Yeah, it’s, and it’s an interesting thing, especially if you you’ve mentioned the last one is help other people do the same, right? is, it’s how you can help people see the potential? And I’m just curious how, cuz I know how I tried to do it. But it’s not something that it’s not my superpower is to help other people see the potential? So what are how do you sort of help people see the potential either in their lives or in their business? Or in you know, what could be when they’re looking at what is?

Helaina Jeannot 31:16
Um, so first, I work on mindset, you know, what’s limiting you like, what’s keeping you from and, and the are real things that are keeping you from that. So definitely, you won’t know the answer. But I start putting some I start putting some what’s really happening in this world and how we’ve been conditioned in front of you. So you can see that, you know, what, this is an invisible fence. Like, it’s been create, like, you’ve been this like, how life is happening has is by design. And we’re really just being managed and herded. And so they’re putting in these invisible fences to limit our beliefs. So first, it’s mindset. So like, kind of peeling back all of those layers, and then start then with vision, because like, and I don’t want to start with vision, because like, I feel like, because of those limiting beliefs, we’re afraid to dream big, you get what I’m saying to you. So like, Yeah, all of those, all the things that we’re going to talk about seem unachievable. And so you know what, this isn’t realistic? I don’t want to waste my time.

Richard Matthews 32:30
Yeah, so what’s what’s interesting to me about that whole, the whole concept is that I sort of have a firmly held belief that our world or the powers that be in our world, they, they try to install in us, our belief systems, and the things that we you know, your points of view and your whatever. And it’s interesting when you when you realize that you don’t have to believe the things that you were told you have to believe. Right. And we’re seeing a lot of this play out right now in our, in our national landscape, which is, it’s really interesting. But it’s also it’s, it’s also a little disheartening to see how many people have, you know, have bought the story that’s been sold to them?

Helaina Jeannot 33:16
Well, you’re Not? I mean, like, yes, some people have escaped the rat race, and some people have escaped, you know, the conditioning, but think about how they did how they’ve done that. They’ve done it through people who have accidents, have resources, and saw something within them, and decided to invest time with them.

Richard Matthews 33:41
Yeah, and it’s interesting, because like you, you can see it play out in a lot of different ways, right. So like, one of the reasons we run this show, or I put the show together is specifically because some of that conditioning, that social conditioning that you see, that says entrepreneurs are villains. And you know, you pay, I guarantee you pick up any child TV show and flip on one of their episodes, and the bad guy, nine times out of 10 in some entrepreneur who’s pouring oil in the water and killing the ducks. Right. And all you know, it’s been that way since my childhood. And we we teach people, we teach our whole culture, that entrepreneurship is bad, and prophets are evil. Right? And neither of those things are true, they are neutral.

Helaina Jeannot 34:24
It’s scary. Like, yes, all these negative things to go with it. Yes.

Richard Matthews 34:29
Yeah. And you know, entrepreneurship, and profits are just like any other tool like, you know, persuasion or hammer. They’re, they’re neutral tools. Yes. Right. And you can use them for good or you can use them for evil, but they aren’t inherently bad and they’re not inherently good. You have to learn how to use them. Right. And you see the same thing happening with social stuff too you know, if you go back and look at every sitcom for the last 20 years at the father character, he’s a douche, right and he can’t handle raising his children and I can’t do anything right And, and you’re like, this is the message we’re sending to dads all over the world is that you’re irrelevant? Yes. Right. And you wonder why we have a problem with fatherhood in our culture.

Helaina Jeannot 35:10
Yeah, so yeah, we might, but all of it is by design, because if I can keep father out, and out working, you know that, that, that Um operating my machine, you know what I’m saying to you? So, like, there’s a reason for all of these, you know, I call it misdirection. There’s a reason for it.

Richard Matthews 35:34
Yeah. And, you know, it sounds like, we’re both sort of in the job in the world of changing some of those feelings for people and some of that social conditioning, hopefully.

Helaina Jeannot 35:44
So, you know, I’m, so I wrote a couple of things down, because I loved the whole framework of your show. That’s the first thing, so I just have to say that, but, um, when you talk about the entrepreneur being the villain, like, it’s funny, because the entrepreneur is the secret. And I’ll tell you what I mean. So like, they’re the ones that are innovative, right, they’re the ones that come up with concepts. And they’re the ones that come up with tools outside of the norm, that’s going to make life different, better, you know, serve the a need, right? And then deep pockets come along. And now we’ll entice that entrepreneur, so that they can buy them out. And they now can take that concept that innovation, and use it for mass production. So, you know, if, like, one of the things that you wrote was, everything that you touch in your daily life has been handled by an entrepreneur. Well it’s true, so like, no, like entrepreneurship is definitely not a bad thing. Um, I think that the reason why it’s so you know, how I’m doing great today, Oh, my gosh, do I really do this I like it gets to be so scary. And like, so an erratic ride, is because no one is really cultivating the framework and mindset around entrepreneurship, and how it works. And so we’re all kind of feeling around in the dark until we find that level of success. Yeah,

Richard Matthews 37:45
it’s, it’s a hard, it’s a hard thing to teach, right. And just like not everyone’s cut out to be a professional soccer player, not everyone’s cut out to be a be an entrepreneur. And so it’s, it’s very difficult to learn entrepreneurship from someone who’s not an entrepreneur, so you don’t end up with our school system teaching a lot of those skills. Right? You don’t you don’t learn a lot of like, how do you manage chaos? Right? Because entrepreneurship is is, is managed chaos. Right?

Helaina Jeannot 38:13
I have a little I have a whole perspective, on school systems education, so we really shouldn’t go there cuz this show will go so long. But well, absolutely. But what I but what I will say is, like I I kind of did a lot of research around education. And I’m, I think we’re stuck really, in that 18 I think 1805 I have the year written down somewhere, but the land kasnian model. And so that’s where education really is because, like, so education initially was two tracks, it was going to be for the learned and then for those that labor, and then the Lancastrian model is really around, getting the factory owner what they need. And so basically what they need is submission and obedience. So, you know,

Richard Matthews 39:12
I, I call it the, the it’s a Persian model, where, where you take a farmer and you turn them into a soldier, right, in our case, you take you take a child and you turn them into a worker. Yeah. And and our school system is it’s half turn kids into workers and the other half is childcare for the worker parents. Yeah, there’s a reason it’s an eight hour school day, right? And it’s not because education takes eight hours, right? We homeschool our kids, I can tell you it does not take eight hours for them to learn the thing, right so

Helaina Jeannot 39:48
I mean, cuz like if you look at what life looks like, like we’re not being prepared for life, and I don’t mean financials, because we already know it. That’s a given. We are not being prepared for the financial piece, but we’re not Not being prepared for life either, because like we’ve done on this planet for a very long time, and, you know, things are going to happen. And it may not happen, every single individual, but it will hit every family. So, you know, we pay insurance on our homes, just in case something happens. We pay for insurance on our cars, just in case something happens, why aren’t we learning all of the things that are going to happen? Just in case so that we’re prepared? So yeah,

Richard Matthews 40:33
and like learning how to deal with things, you know, emotions, this kind of stuff is like, and like learning how to, you know, when your toilet breaks, how do you fix it, right, and all those kind of stuff. Like, there’s just so much that’s not taught? Anyways, that’s it. Like, that could be a whole podcast all in and of itself.

Helaina Jeannot 40:52
And I feel I feel very strongly about it, because I feel like, you know, we’re being cheated out of our lives. Yeah,

Richard Matthews 40:59
I actually, I personally think education is probably the biggest linchpin in in minority communities to help change their future. And if we could, if we could improve the education system, I’m not sure what that looks like, I don’t know, what all the problems are, what all the solutions are. But I think that that’s probably the key is somewhere in the education world.

Helaina Jeannot 41:20
I think what you just said is the solution, the problems and the issues, because that’s what you focus on. And that’s what you reverse.

Richard Matthews 41:30
Yeah, yeah. And education is really what changes the next. The next generation, right? And I’m, I don’t remember what I, what I was watching, I can’t remember. But it was someone that said, you know, there’s, there’s no, no greater work than raising the next generation. Right? And whether that’s from a parent’s perspective, or teachers perspective, or whatever, it’s, it’s the raising of the children is what improves the world. Right? And so there’s, you know, that it has generational impact.

Helaina Jeannot 42:05
So I’ll say a good a good source for that. For me anyway, like, I think it’s my, Iwant to call it my Bible, but outwitting the devil by Napoleon Hill. Because, you know, the thing is, we do want to focus on the next generation. And why is generation after generation we’re repeating the same cycles, and we’re living so reactively not proactively. And so, outwitting the devil talks about all of these things to teach your kids, one of which is ideas are the beginning of all human achievement. You know, that’s the framework.

Richard Matthews 42:45
Yeah, absolutely. So my, my next question for you, then, is your fatal flaw. And you know, just like every Superman has his kryptonite, and wonder woman can’t remove her bracelets of victory without going mad, you probably have a flaw that’s held you back in your business, something you struggled with, maybe like, for me, things like perfectionism, keep me from shipping products, right? We’re shipping services, where I’m like, I could just tweak it a little bit more before I go and actually ask the market for any money for it. And you never get there, right? You never make any revenue or something like, you know, we mentioned this already self care, we let your clients walk all over you. Or this is probably the opposite of what you said. But like being a visionary, but not being a detail oriented person. That’s the thing I struggled with. So I could never get the operations and stuff down. You know, but I think more important than the flaw is how have you worked to either rectify it or move around it so that other people who might struggle with the same thing can learn a little bit more experience.

Helaina Jeannot 43:43
So the two are fear and progressive procrastination, procrastination being number one, actually. But, um, how to work around it is being aware, you know, knowing that that’s your limitation. And, you know, working in like, for me, what I personally do is I kind of frame out all the things that I want to get to that. And I’m, I’m, I am in here a lot of the time. And so because I know that I’m in here, that gives me a time, okay, well break it out into smaller tasks, so that the lift isn’t so heavy. And then fear. You know what? You are bigger than your problems. And like, I was a little nervous when, right before we started, it happens to me every single time it does, it does not matter. It just it just does. But I’m like, What are you afraid of? Like? What are you afraid of? Like, what’s the worst that’s gonna happen? You’re about to have a conversation. So like, really getting in perspective, what it is that you’re afraid of, and moving forward anyway.

Richard Matthews 44:55
Yeah, absolutely. And I love the idea of breaking things into smaller tasks, too. So the lift, I like that phrase, so the lift isn’t so heavy. And the reason is, for me at least is a, we we pack up and move every couple of weeks Right, we travel. And one of the things I’ve learned is that if you have big boxes of things, your life sucks, it’s heavy. Right. So particularly with things like toolboxes, I have a lot of tools because our house goes around with us. And we have to fix stuff all the time. Right. And I have learned that, you know, they sell those big toolboxes, and those big toolboxes are great, you can store a lot of crap in them. But then you also can’t move them or lift them or do anything with them. So I’ve found it’s a lot nicer to have a bunch of smaller toolboxes that are sort of like stacked together. And we did same thing when we moved houses, right. And we went to I can’t remember where we got a bunch of tiny boxes, right? Little, little boxes, and then we pack everything in little boxes. And it was so nice to move. Because there was the only big things we had were furniture, everything else was small little boxes right, even the kids could help pick them up and move them. And you know, you take more trips to move smaller things. But the reality is that you can progress faster. Yes if you consistently take smaller steps than if you struggle to take big ones.

Helaina Jeannot 46:12
Right? Especially because those big steps tend to scare you, which is what makes you procrastinate.

Richard Matthews 46:20
Yeah, yeah. You know, it’s easier to, you know, and like, I find it really interesting for myself how much you can get done. When you’re like, hey, today, what I’m gonna do, like on my to do list is I’m going to write the headline for the article. Right? And then that’s it. That’s the only thing that if I’ve done that, today, I’ve checked off the thing I need to accomplish today. And tomorrow, I’m going to write the intro paragraph. And like how little you can do it, because it’s not about finishing the whole thing. It’s about consistently making forward progress.

Helaina Jeannot 46:51
Absolutely. And a book about that is the compound effect.

Richard Matthews 46:57
Absolutely. And it’s, it’s fascinating to right, because you, that’s an again, going back to that, like, you know, setting boundaries for yourself is is it goes right into, like making those checklists. And, like, don’t put more than a couple of things on your checklist today. And, you know, just focus on getting those things done first. And if you want to do other things, you know, you’re more power to you kind of thing, but it gets you gets you into the habit of like, Hey, I’m gonna into an accomplishment habit, or like, Hey, I’m doing these three things every single day. And it gives you that dopamine hit of accomplishing those things, and it makes it something that you want to do again, and you don’t want to break stride.

Helaina Jeannot 47:37
And if you if you account, if you’re 1% better today than you were yesterday, in a year, you’ll be 365% better than you were last year. So it’s just a small thing. So you get what I mean like this. Yeah, consistent about it,

Richard Matthews 47:53
including your compounding either.

Helaina Jeannot 47:55
Absolutely. Absolutely.

Richard Matthews 47:59
Cuz, you know, percentages compound, which is fun. And it’s the other thing that’s, that’s fascinating about that, too, is I think that we as just as human beings, we tend to vastly overestimate how much we can accomplish in a small amount of time, and vastly underestimate how much we can accomplish in a large amount of time. Mm hmm. So we like to look at things and like, hey, I want to be here in a year. And, you know, we put some big fancy, either number or goal or accomplishment on a year long thing. And then, you know, we struggled to hit those big things. And you realize, it’s like,

I like the year I like the year but Okay, so what can we do every day to get you a step closer, as opposed to, you know, overnight, because you know what, it’s not the goal is too big. It’s, you didn’t put enough like you didn’t do the game plan well enough to do tiny steps to get you there over time, as opposed to you know, what my due date is tomorrow. And this is not realistic.

So so if I if I could one of the things that really helped me with that whole concept of like learning how to achieve goals, like long term goals has been our traveling right and like all one of our goals in traveling has been to see all 50 states right and we’re three years in we’ve only seen 26 of them right?

Unknown Speaker 49:24
That means you’re enjoying your ride the journey

Richard Matthews 49:27
or enjoying our journey right and what’s what’s fascinating about that is the first like six months of our trip, we tried to move really really fast and plan every detail of the of our of our things like and we found out that was really really difficult to plan all of your details because well, to put it mildly shit happens right? And you know if if you have everything planned out even for three months into the future, like all your details planned out, you know in a trip, I guarantee you that last month and a half, you’re going to have to reschedule and redo because life is going to happened along the way, and it’s gonna mess it all up.

Helaina Jeannot 50:02
All I have to say about 2020.

Richard Matthews 50:05
Absolutely right? 2020 is the is the quintessential, like everyone understands now. But the point is, is that like, what what I found is like you generally you can have your destination in mind, right, and you should have your destination, this is where I want to get to. But you don’t need to plan every step on the journey to get to the destination, right? You just want to make sure that you’re still pointed in the right direction every day, and making making a little bit of progress. And so when it comes to like setting goals or doing things, it’s like, daily and weekly goals that are going in the right direction, right, yeah, maybe you have bigger, like 90 day goals or something. But anyways, your destination, you don’t have to plan every step on the journey all the way out there. Once you don’t know what’s going to happen.

Helaina Jeannot 50:45
Also assess and measure because you go off course a little bit you can, you can always course correct. And if the plan isn’t working, like you thought you can always pivot. So like, I get what you’re saying not so set in stone, but at least be clear about what it is you want.

Richard Matthews 51:03
Yeah, and when you when you find things like, you know, hey, there’s a mountain here that we can’t get over, you go around it right, you can play on your trip to go around the mountain. Or maybe you want to go up and climb it or you find things like, Hey, you know what we really like this spot. We’re gonna stay here for a couple of months. Yeah. And same kind of thing. You’re like, Hey, you know what I really like working with this client. I know, it’s not like, I just want to see this project through to the completion even though it’s not all the way in my my wheelhouse. But you know, you just, it gives you the feel good. So you want to finish it right? Even though it’s not directly on your thing. And that’s okay, right? You’re allowed to have those kind of, you know, that whole entrepreneurial journey, it’s all over the place. And you know, it, you have to give yourself permission to let your journey be fluid, if that makes sense.

Helaina Jeannot 51:44
Yes, absolutely. Especially because because we’re human, and this is life, and we can’t plan for everything like, emergencies are going to happen.

Richard Matthews 51:54
Yeah, absolutely. So my next question for you then is your common enemy, right? So every superhero, I say, has an arch nemesis, I think that they constantly have to fight against in their world, right. And the world of business, it takes a lot of forms. But generally, we put in the context of your clients, right, the people that you work with on a regular basis, are your students in your case, or viewers? What is a mindset or a flaw that you’re constantly having to fight to overcome? Right, so that you can help them get better results? Right. And so it’s, you know, I always like to say, if if you had a magic wand, and every person who came to you and started consuming your content going through things, you bought them on the head with a magic wand and get rid of that mindset? or change it? What would that thing be that you’re constantly have to fight against

Helaina Jeannot 52:37
Misdirection, back to our education, its misdirection, and you know what it’s like? It’s, it’s, it’s all around them. And it’s been ingrained to our parents. And so, you know, they ingrain it into us. And so we trust the people that we care about, you know, you get what I mean, and we trust that they care about us. But, you know, you may not necessarily, they may not necessarily have the results that you’re looking for, you know, you’re looking to live life a little bit different than them, and be able to give back to them for all of the sacrifices that they’ve made for you. So with all of you know, that the conditioning that’s been happening year after year after year of generation after generation, it’s it’s it’s misdirection. And, you know, people tend to be really skeptical, like, afraid to move in a different direction. I feel like it’s something you said earlier about having the fence that, you know, if they didn’t have the fence, they’d stay on, on a pavement. But if, if they had the fence, and they, you know, spread out your yard. Yeah. Yes. And I think that as a society, where on the pavement, like, we are so afraid, and it’s just peeling back all those layers, but misdirection is the

Richard Matthews 54:00
is the nemesis. Yeah, and I, I love that whole concept too, because I remember I was really, really lucky because of a book my dad put in my hand as a young child, which, you know, to his own chagrin, perhaps it made me a very difficult child to raise. But he he put he put the Rich Dad Poor Dad series of books in my hands because one of his friends gave it to him and he was like, Oh, this looks cool. My son probably like and he gave it to me. And Robert Kiyosaki in that book said, you have to pick the people you listen to pick your mentors based on the results they have in specific areas. Right and he was like, you may not look at your, you know, your, your parents for their results in finances, if they don’t have the finances you want or you may not look to, you know, someone for relationships or for raising their children or other things like that. It’s like you look, you can take someone and you don’t have to follow everything that they’re doing. Right. So like, if if they have really good relationships, you might listen to them for the relationship advice, but if their finances are terrible, you don’t also take their financial advice just because a relationship advice is good, right? And I remember, I remember very vividly as a child, realizing that like, my, my dad has really great results in a few areas. And, you know, I admire him a lot because of that. But there’s a couple of things that like, I just knew, like, he doesn’t think like a business owner, right? He thinks like, like, like a, an entrepreneur, employee, which is fine. There’s nothing wrong with that. He’s fantastic. He’s one of the best in the world at what he does. Yeah. And which is cool. But I was like, I’m just, I can’t listen to him about those things, because he doesn’t have the results that I want. And I remember, I remember, like, how vulnerable that made me feel as a kid, because I was like, 15 when I realized that

Helaina Jeannot 55:53
Wow, you have been, oh, well, you had Rich Dad, Poor Dad. okay gotcha.

Richard Matthews 55:57
I read the Rich Dad Poor Dad books, and I was like, I was like, Oh, dang, like, Oh, snap, there’s like, like, there’s people and and I started being very intentional about like, hey, these are the people I’m gonna listen to, for business, and finance and entrepreneurship. And these are the people I’m gonna listen to, for, you know, raising my kids. And these are the people that I’m going to listen to for, you know, like, my spiritual life and other things like that. And realizing that you can, you can, you know, pick your mentors, so to speak, absolutely having specific areas. And that’s a hard lesson to learn. I was lucky enough to learn at a young age, but it’s one of those things like you have to, you have to make that jump at some point where you are, you know, to your point, the misdirection, it comes from people who are giving advice in areas that they don’t have the results you want. Mm hmm. So you have to learn to, you have to learn to listen to the people that have the results and areas you want, right now we’ve got, I got business mentors, stuff like that, that are are doing the types of business I want to do and going the directions I want to go that are years ahead of me. And I can ask them questions and get feedback and those kind of things. And that’s so different than just listening to everyone who’s telling you, hey, you’re crazy for doing this. And you know, whatever.

Helaina Jeannot 57:07
You know, I’ll share this because you’re absolutely right. But I will say that, even when those experts give us advice, sometimes we’re a little reluctant. And we know they have results, we’re still a little reluctant. And so, and the reason why I share that is because and I’m very transparent about my life, like, I’m very open. So I say that to say that. You asked me about my entrepreneurial journey, like I hit some roadblocks, and it caused me financial problems, right. And so I fixed my credit once before, and I was like, I don’t know how to do this. And you know, I’m just, I just got to get back on track. And this, and I had the plane. And so they were like, so I’m in a wealth building network. And so they’re like, you know, talk to the credit guy, I think he can give you some advice, at least before you do anything. He gave it to me, you wanna throw good money after bad money. I was like, okay, so I go talk to the credit guy. And he says, um, yeah, you need to do over. He was like, I never tell people to file for bankruptcy, but like, like, they’ve already sold your debt, you’d like, you’re gonna be throwing good money after bad. You need to file for bankruptcy. I was so dead set against it, I would play it because all of the things that I’ve heard through the years, like, that just was not an option for me. But then when I tried to negotiate with my creditors, I went back to the credit guy, and I filed for bankruptcy, I will tell you, it was the best decision I could have made. And I will say this. First of all, I was shocked to death. But I would have still been struggling to pay all of that stuff. Now this man has been working in the credit realm for I don’t even know how many years you get what I mean, he’s helped people. Right, way longer than you. Like, I don’t work in that field. I just did it once you get what I mean. And I just was I just was a, I was stubborn, and I wasn’t going to do it. But like, you may not know, you may not know how it’s gonna get results, but they’ve gotten results with it. So be open and listen, is my point.

Richard Matthews 59:18
Yeah, I my my similar story to that it wasn’t bankruptcy. It was hiring employees. Right. And I had one of my mentors who, you know, has a whole team and has a couple of things. And he sets me down at one of my masterminds and he was like, You are the biggest roadblock in your business that what you need to do next is you need to hire this person in your business. And I remember and I was like, I can’t afford to hire that person. He was like, you can’t afford not to not to Yeah, yeah. And and I was like, and I remember sitting there for like, two months afterwards going, like, he says, I need to do this. And I’m like, I can’t do this. Like I legitimately do not have the money in the bank to hire this person. And he was in my head. He was like, I don’t care that you don’t have the money. You You need to do it, because everything else happen. And I was like, it’s like I struggled so hard because I was like, it sounds so dumb, right? So, so dumb from someone on the other side, and I’m just like, I can’t do it, I’m not gonna do it, I have to do it because I was like struggling in that hole. Like he has the results I want. He’s where I want to be. And he’s telling me, this is the next step I need to take. And I fought against it mentally for months. Yeah. And then I finally I bit the bullet. And I hired someone and immediately realized where he was coming from, because now suddenly, it wasn’t just me, right? We doubled our work output and therefore was able to double our revenue. Yes, yeah, money came, like, Oh, right. And I see it almost, I almost feel dumb saying that. But you know, we all have to go through a lesson.

Helaina Jeannot 1:00:51
that. That’s this. That’s why this kind of conversation is so important. Because you’re not the only person that’s had that feeling we get what I mean, and if we like, I think that we’re a lot embarrassed to share, like some of our roadblocks and some of our failures, but other people are facing those same road blocks and failures. So sharing it, you know, now you’ve, you’ve helped someone else.

Richard Matthews 1:01:16
Yeah, absolutely. That’s why we, that’s why we share and have these conversations. But it’s, it’s fascinating to me, like, because even when you’re like someone you’re like, I know, they have the results that I want. And I know that they’re giving me advice that I should trust, and we still will fight against it. And it’s like, it’s that psychology to me is interesting, right? Because it’s all in here. Yeah, to figure out how to still take actions even when you’re you don’t want to, or you think that they’re not right. Because you know, someone else has perspective you don’t have? I am, you know, I tell my kids all the time, you know, one of our rules we had posted on the wall is obey the first time and I tell my kids, you, you have to obey, you have to obey me immediately. And you have to be right now, because I have perspective, you don’t have I say, Stop, I expect you to stop right now. Because we don’t you’ll get run over by the car you can’t see.

Helaina Jeannot 1:02:06
Yes. Right. And what I like about you sharing that is you gave them your mindset, you didn’t just give them the like the what to do. Because I think that that hinders us to you know, if you if I just tell you this, this, this, this and this, it doesn’t help. But if I understand your mindset and the concept behind it, like, okay, like, even if I do this, and it doesn’t go exactly as planned, I can pivot it because I understand why we’re doing it this way.

Richard Matthews 1:02:34
Yeah, why we’re doing it. And so like, I always tell my kids, you can always question my authority, after you obey.

Helaina Jeannot 1:02:40
Absolutely.

Richard Matthews 1:02:42
It’s like you obey first, then you can question my authority, right? Because then, you know, we can go over time like that, but right now, I don’t have and my my job is to make sure that you make it through this world alive, right, as a child, and eventually you’ll have the kind of perspective I have, right. And then we can discuss them on a level playing field. You’re not there yet. Yeah. And that’s okay. And it’s interesting having to take that same mentality to your mentors the other way around, like, I just have to do what they’re telling me to do. Because I know they have a perspective that I don’t have, because they’re in a place that I’m not in.

Helaina Jeannot 1:03:13
So what you just said, wraps up middle class, the wealthy, you get what I’m saying to you, because like, the whole point is to strategically create the conditions to build wealth. And like right now, we’re not in a place to do that.

Richard Matthews 1:03:29
Yeah. And so sometimes you have to get perspective from someone who’s where you want to be.

Helaina Jeannot 1:03:35
Absolutely, love it.

Richard Matthews 1:03:36
So So then I think that gives me a really good jumping point for the next question, which is your driving force, right? It’s the flip side of your common enemy, which you fight against your driving force is what you fight for. Right? So just like Spider Man fights to save New York or Batman fights save Gotham, or Google fights to index and categorize all the world’s information. What is it that you fight for that middle class to wealthy?

Helaina Jeannot 1:03:58
I wanted to save everybody out. But I want to save them not just from because, like, it’s not okay to just blame outside backers. Right. We have to save them from themselves as well. You know, just like you were saying, like, you got the advice that was helpful to you, but you couldn’t see it. So, you know, you were fighting against it. And the thing is, like, if we if we can see it, we wouldn’t be where we are. And so I’m trying to save people. I mean, that’s my driving force.

Richard Matthews 1:04:38
Yeah, save them and help them get to a new place.

Helaina Jeannot 1:04:40
But I’ll also say one other thing. Remember I said every on average, every six to 10 years we have a recession. I’d like to be able to stabilize that. Yeah.

Richard Matthews 1:04:54
And I think I think the other thing that happens too, is that the more people who are Who are stable when a recession hits, the less impact the recession has? Right? And it? It’s interesting, right? Because you have this whole idea of like, your personal economy, like you have the big economy, what’s going on. And what’s interesting to me is I’ve spent a lot of time over the last couple of years really getting my business solid. And then the COVID crisis hit. And because of the work that I’ve been doing over the last couple of years, it it is still impacted my business, but it was not nearly as bad as it could have been. Mm hmm. Because Because I was prepared. And so you know, recessions still hit right, the COVID crisis still happened. But my business didn’t die because of it. Right? We’re actually now at the end, you know, coming up, I don’t know where the end is, but you know, feels like we’re getting to the other side. That’s actually stronger now than it was at the beginning. Which is, right, that’s because of, you know, what you’re talking about being prepared to handle those kind of things?

Helaina Jeannot 1:06:01
Absolutely. So, I mean, like, that’s, that’s, that’s just it, you know, we want to move to getting people to be more proactive, to be more strategic, to take ownership to teach them how to fish instead of, you know, giving them a fish, you got me and so, so now we’re stronger in our personal economies, which ultimately strengthens the ultimate, the overall economy.

Richard Matthews 1:06:27
That concept of teaching a man to fish instead of giving a man a fish. I think, like, I love that, that a metaphor, but I’ve always in like, my personal life, the way that I’ve always looked at it was the, the idea of being a in my own life as an entrepreneur versus being an employee. Right. So if you go back to Rich Dad stuff, he has the whole quadrants like the s and the BI quadrants. And the E quadrant is, you know, your paycheck is like, here’s your fish every every two weeks, absolutely work for the fish, but you get your fish every couple of weeks. And I realized that like the people who I know who are, who are employees that have the employee mindset, when they see the things that I do, they’re like, That’s crazy. Why would you do that? Right things like, you know, like, one of the things I do all the time when my wife and I do is we do something like, you know, called dream building. We’ll do you know, it looks it looks different for different people. But like one of the things we know when my wife and I were poor and younger, and lived in a, you know, a, you know, nice community back home in California, we would go to the ritzy community on the weekends and go walk through the mansions. And my dad would always be like, Why are you looking at houses you can’t afford? And I was like, your mindset, right? It’s why my response to him has always been because I want to be the kind of person who can afford those not that I’m looking to buy a mansion for any reason, right? I’m quite enjoying traveling will probably do that for a long, long time. But I wanted to be the kind of person who asks myself the question, How can I afford this? Yes. Stops myself that I can’t afford this.

Helaina Jeannot 1:08:07
Absolutely. Yes. And that’s what we need, like that, that dream building? Everyone needs to be able to have it, that. Not I can’t afford it. But how can I afford it? That’s what everybody needs to move to.

Richard Matthews 1:08:22
Yeah, it just a different question. Right, you ask yourself similar questions.

Helaina Jeannot 1:08:28
Yes. Remove the limiting beliefs. Because I mean, like, you’re not limited by, like, you’re limited by what you think. Nothing else.

Richard Matthews 1:08:38
Yeah. And what’s fascinating to me is, you know, like, we’re, you know, 10, 15 years beyond where we’re, you know, had those conversations with my dad. But now we could afford a lot of those houses, which is crazy, right? Because we’re looking at expanding our means, right? So you live within your means, and you learn how to expand your means. Right? And that’s a that’s a hard concept to learn. But anyways, a lot of people never look at the How to expand your means they only look at living within their means. Yes.

Helaina Jeannot 1:09:07
And like for me, when I The reason why I say give them teach them in the fish is because like one of my personal goals is to and this was pretty cool, but but my parents are Haitian and my mom worked herself to death. And I was married by a Haitian. Oh, okay.

Richard Matthews 1:09:27
Solanine that’s his name. He’s actually a preacher from Haiti. That’s my wife’s a good friends with.

Helaina Jeannot 1:09:32
Yeah. So yeah, so they’re like, I just see some very sad stories come out of there. And like, you know, food insecurity and all this stuff. And so I was thinking, like, how can I help? That’s my, that’s one of my goals, right? And the thing is, if I throw money at that problem, it doesn’t really helps as long as I’m around. Now, what happens when I go away, that money goes away, but if I help them, build infrastructure to now create jobs to so that they become self sufficient, you get what I’m saying. And so if you think about it, it’s the same concept here just working with this not so because we have the infrastructure, we just need to be able to leverage it.

Richard Matthews 1:10:16
Absolutely. And I know there’s there’s couple of organizations that are doing really cool things like that. I’m not sure if it’s particularly in Haiti, but things like teaching communities how to build sustainable, you know, aquaponic systems to grow food and fish and things like that, so that they’re, you know, they’ve got, you know, you’re teaching them how to feed themselves instead of feeding them. Uh huh. Yes. And it’s, it’s a much better I think, use right and same kind of thing. Learn how to build business systems and business structures and things like that. So that there, you can you can raise people out of poverty by doing that. That’s what thousands does. Hmm. So, super fascinating. The heroes show we’ll be right back. Hey there fellow podcaster. Having a weekly audio and video show on all the major online networks that builds your brand creates fame and drive sales for your business. Doesn’t have to be hard. I know it feels that way. Because you’ve tried managing your show internally and realize how resource intensive it can be. You felt the pain of pouring eight to 10 hours of work into just getting one hour of content published and promoted all over the place. You see the drain on your resources, but you do it anyways. Because you know how powerful it is hack, you’ve probably even tried some of those automated solutions and ended up with stuff that makes your brand look cheesy and cheap. That’s not helping grow your business. Don’t give up though, the struggle ends now. Introducing Push Button Podcasts a done for you service that will help you get your show out every single week without you lifting a finger. After you’ve pushed that stop record button. We handle everything else uploading, editing, transcribing, writing, research graphics, publication and promotion, all done by real humans who know understand and care about your brand, almost as much as you do. And powered by our own proprietary technology, our team will let you get back to doing what you love. While we handle the rest. Check us out at push button podcast com forward slash hero for 10% off the lifetime of your service with us and see the power of having an audio and video podcast growing and driving micro celebrity status and business in your niche without you having to lift more than a finger to push that stop record button. Again, that’s push button podcast.com forward slash hero. See you there. Now back to the heroes show.

My next question for you then is about your own personal heroes. Right? So every hero has their mentors. Just like Frodo had Gandalf or Luke had Obi Wan or Robert Kiyosaki had his rich dad, or Spider Man has Uncle Ben. Right? Who were some of your heroes for the real life mentors, speakers or authors, peers who are a couple of years ahead of you? And how important were they what you’ve accomplished so far in your business?

Helaina Jeannot 1:12:51
I’ve had a few different mentors, and it’s funny. So one of them I kind of came across when I did real estate investing education, right. And the thing is, he was younger. And so I feel like these superheroes in my life tend to be younger. But I think it’s because they don’t question as much they haven’t really gotten into the world yet. So they haven’t gotten like, you know, their keep their teeth kicked in. And so they’re more open and more receptive to outside of box thinking, right. And so, so one of them, he he actually was really large right now. But he, um, he’s an educator. And he spent the weekend and and when I looked at him when I first saw him, I was like, he’s like, 10 years old. What is he gonna teach me? And I’m telling you, he blew my mind. And then I’ll say, my mentors. And then like the guy who connected me to one of my mentors, it was the same age as my daughter, he at the time, he was 23. And so again, it was like, What is this guy gonna teach me? And then he started talking. And he was saying that, you know, he wants to retire his parents. And I’m like, Okay, what does he know that? I don’t know. Because apparently he knows something. If he’s like, if he is putting money to work for him, and actively, right and so, but I would say my superheroes are just the people that I’ve learned from it. Like it’s a I’ve just come across them in my journey, you get what I mean? Like, you know, you associate when you start associating with people and you just meet different people who, who speaks differently. And part of that journey. Like I said, I didn’t, I didn’t have sales training, or I’m sorry, I didn’t have sales, training or marketing training. And so I was tasked with it by another hero, I was tasked with going out in networking and like truly networking not, you know, I’m uncomfortable, I see somebody and like, stick with them the entire night. And that was my test, go out at least three times a week, go out, meet new people form relationships, don’t focus on the sales. And so

Richard Matthews 1:15:27
Yeah, yeah. learning, learning from people who are giving you good results. So the first stop, you don’t look old enough to have a 23 year old, just so you know, never would I’ve guess. But thank you. But the, the, the whole point of like learning from learning from people who have have the result that you want, right, like we talked about that before, it’s interesting to see how, how our perception of the person affects our willingness to listen to them. Mm hmm. And that’s it. That’s the thing that you have to you have to struggle to get over as well. Right. And I know, like, personally, you know, I’ve been young looking my whole life and probably will be forever because my mom is almost 60. And she still looks like she could be my girlfriend. Not that I’m complaining about that certainly is a cool thing to have genetic wise. But one of the struggles that comes with that is people like if I meet them over the phone, and we talk and things like that, they’ll listen to you and greet you. Meet you in person and meet you in person first, they’re like, who are you?

Helaina Jeannot 1:16:39
yes. Yeah. And that’s actually what happens to me. But like, you know, when when they know and you don’t, you have to put your ego aside and whatever those limitations are, and you have to listen, because, obviously, they know something you don’t know.

Richard Matthews 1:16:55
Yeah, yeah. And in the areas that if especially in the area, you want to learn sometimes you just have to bite your pride and do it.

Helaina Jeannot 1:17:03
I think pride is thekiller, pride is a killer.

Richard Matthews 1:17:06
Absolutely. So my next question for you then is your guiding principles, right. And one of the things that makes heroes heroic is that they live by a code. For instance, Batman never kills his enemies, he always brings them to Arkham Asylum. So as we wrap up the interview and talk about top one or two principles that you use regularly in your life, maybe your principal you wish you knew when you first started out on your own hero’s journey.

Helaina Jeannot 1:17:27
Um, I would say do everything. Do everything that you’re going to do with integrity and good character. And be beyond reproach. And then we’re really unlimited. And so don’t be afraid. Don’t be afraid to do you know, if you can think it, you can do it. You just have to figure out how. And so you’re, you’re you are limitless. Yeah, I am limitless.

Richard Matthews 1:18:04
That’s a, it’s a hard thing to wrap your mind around. Especially because our whole society teaches us that we’re limited. But you realize it like everything about our world is just so abundant. Right? We have the ability, because we have the ability to create is really what what that comes down to. And I call that ability to create the spark of divinity. Right? And because of that, because we have that spark infinity, you can create whatever you want in your life. And, you know, it’s just a matter of time and skill acquisition between you and where you want to be.

Helaina Jeannot 1:18:37
Yes. A good book for that is the is mindset by Carol Dweck.

Richard Matthews 1:18:45
We got a whole list of books that we can put in the show notes here.

Helaina Jeannot 1:18:49
But that’s about being fixed or growth mindset. And, you know, it’s part of what you’re talking about. Yeah.

Richard Matthews 1:18:55
Yeah. And the whole idea of being limitless. It’s, it’s crazy, right? Because you you find out that like, you know, we, my wife, and I picked an alternative lifestyle, right? Because we travel full time and we run our life and our business and our homeschool everything from a 40 foot RV, as we travel around the country, that’s not normal. No, that’s great. And we’ve, we’ve been told so by a lot of people, right? And you realize that like, you know, you can you can create the life you want, right? And you can build your business to support it. And that, like there and there’s, there’s no real Wrong answer to that, right. If you want to build the kind of business it’s going to be an apple or a Microsoft and change the world. That’s a different type of business. But you can build those kind of things, right. You know, because it’s already been done. Steve Jobs did it. And Bill Gates did it. Elon Musk is doing it right. So you can build those kind of things or you can build lifestyle businesses like my wife and I are working on building that allow us to have the freedom to travel and do what we want to do not have a huge organization and you know To your point, your limitless.

Helaina Jeannot 1:20:02
Yeah, I’m limitless.

Richard Matthews 1:20:04
Absolutely. So that is basically a wrap on our interview. But I do like to finish every interview with a simple challenge that I call the hero’s challenge. And I do this basically, it’s a selfish thing I do it hopefully give me access to new stories I might not other find otherwise find on my own. So the question is simple. If someone in your life or in your network that you think has a cool entrepreneurial story, who are they? first names are fine, and why should they come share their story in our show, first person that comes to mind.

Helaina Jeannot 1:20:34
Um, so I had three way but I’ll give you the women, the top one, her name is Cammy. And she runs a wellness center. And it’s 10 dimensions of wellness. But the reason why is like, she has just created a life for herself. She has been in Vegas, and I think she called herself the erotic chef, I forget what it is. But basically, she’s she’s a chef, she’s been a chef for over 20 years. But she it’s taken her all over the world. And she was very creative. You like to cook I don’t so much, but I’m working on it. But, but it’s taking her around the world. And she’s she she went back home to cuz she she Southern. And so she went back home to teach people that food is medicine. And that, you know, we need to focus on Being Well, in all the different areas of our lives. And so I think she has just created some really good results.

Richard Matthews 1:21:48
Awesome. Well, we’ll reach out afterwards, see if we can connect with her and get her on the show. But yeah, my I like cooking to the point where my wife doesn’t always let me cook, because I am the kind of person who will spend half of our budget on one meal, because that’s what I want to do. And I’ll spend four hours doing it. So

Helaina Jeannot 1:22:07
Yeah, yeah, no, put those boundaries in place, or she does anyway.

Richard Matthews 1:22:11
Those boundries in place and be like, No, you cannot spend $100 to make a 15 cheese. Yes, right. But, you know, that’s, that’s where it is. But it’s fun. So, in comic books, there’s always the crowd at the end of the story that is cheering on the hero for their act their their heroic acts. So as as we wrap this interview, what I want to do is find out where can people find you? If you know, they need your help in the future? Where can they light up the bat signal, so to speak, and say, Hey, well, you know, can you help me, and more importantly, who are the right types of people to reach out and actually ask for your help.

Helaina Jeannot 1:22:47
I think if you have if you if you want help, like if you if you think that you can have a whole lot more if life, if life can be a whole lot more than what it is today. Reach out to me. Um, but where you can reach me is on my on my, my website, all of my social media is there, My phone number is there, my email addresses there. You know, if you need help, you know, that’s what I’m here for. Like if I if I can point you in the right direction. If I can give you access, if I can, you know, help you with resources. I’m more than happy to do.

Richard Matthews 1:23:26
Awesome. And that’s a middleclasstowealthy.com. Yeah. Awesome. So we’ll make sure that’s in the show notes for anyone who’s listening. And thank you so much for coming on the show today. It has been a pleasure. So before I hit this little stop record button, you have any final words of wisdom for our audience?

Helaina Jeannot 1:23:42
Um, no, but I would like to thank you. I would like to thank you for having me on the show. This was an absolute pleasure. As always, I would say stop giving away your power and stop giving away your money. You are limitless and, you know, get rid of those limiting beliefs. Absolutely.

Richard Matthews 1:24:05
Thanks so much for coming on the show today.