Episode 151 – Billy Keels
Welcome to another episode of The HERO Show. I am your host Richard Matthews, (@AKATheAlchemist) and you are listening to Episode 151 with Billy Keels – Educating High-Paid Professionals to Truly Own Their Lives.
Billy Keels is the Founder of Keepon Cashflow. He is known as a Long Distance Investor who works with real assets and helps 6-figure corporate employees have more control over their financial lives through investing.
Aside from being an entrepreneur, Billy works as a Happy Corporate Executive for the world’s leading enterprise application software, SAP. He is responsible for leading the day-to-day teams that manage these relationships with a selected number of Spain’s largest IBEX 35 Hospitality and Media Companies.
Billy is also an international real estate entrepreneur, problem-solver, author, speaker, coach, and mentor. He sees opportunities where others often don’t in real estate.
Here’s just a taste of what we talked about today:
- Billy Keels talked a little bit about his current location—Barcelona, Spain. It is definitely one of the most beautiful places to travel.
- Billy shared what he was known for in the business space and the things he did that helped drive revenue.
- We talked a little bit about how Billy pays taxes, as someone based in Barcelona, while having some investments in the US.
- Then, we covered Billy’s origin story and his realization to do be in control of his life during his son’s 3rd birthday.
- Also, Billy pointed out a few things about his road to becoming a “Hero” through his ability to create a win-win situation for every family he serves in the real estate industry is already making him a hero.
- Next, we talked about Billy’s superpower which is most often tagged as something bad — Curiosity. This superpower allowed him to connect with different types of people across the world.
- Then, we discussed the fatal flaws in his business. Billy has been a recovering perfectionist, and he continues to overcome this by having processes and systems in place.
- Fighting against the scarcity mindset is Billy’s common enemy in his business. It devours any chance of building a long-term relationship.
- Billy discussed a little bit about how ATM investing works from a revenue standpoint.
- And then, we talked about Billy’s personal heroes—his parents. These are two people who are so dear to him and his source of inspiration and mentorship.
Recommended Tools:
Recommended Media:
Billy mentioned the following books on the show.
- Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert T. Kiyosaki
- Prosper! by Chris Martenson and Adam Taggart
- The Go-Giver by Bob Burg
How To Stay Connected with Billy Keels
Want to stay connected with Billy? Please check out their social profiles below.
- Website: KeepOnCashFlow.com
- LinkedIn: Linkedin.com/in/billykeels
With that… let’s go and listen to the full episode…
Automated Transcription
Billy Keels 0:00
Having that perfectionist fatal flaw, it’s something that I continue to struggle against. And one of the ways that I’ve overcome that is making sure that I do have processes designed, I mean, I even have someone on my team, her responsibility is to design processes. Because one, if I ever see a process, and Billy is the point in every single step, then that process is one that’s never going to work. It’s never going to be optimized. So as we now look at different processes in our enterprise, it’s about understanding, okay, where do I need to be a part of this. And if I don’t absolutely need to be a part of this meeting, I’m having an interaction with an investor, or I’m actually out doing something similar to what we’re doing now we’re talking then, I have to get out of the way I cannot let my desire to have things perfectly done by me. stand in the way now it’s about how do I continue to focus on the process, and make sure that the process is optimized, and we have the right people on the bus so that we can go out and affect as many lives as we want to and as we can.
Richard Matthews 1:07
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, the everyday heroes that let us live the privileged lives we do. Every hero has a story to tell, the doctor saving lives at your local hospital, the war veteran down the street, who risked his life for our freedom to the police officers, and the 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…
Richard Matthews 2:03
Hello, and welcome back to The Hero Show. My name is Richard Matthews. And today I have the pleasure of having on Billy Keels. Billy, are you there?
Billy Keels 2:10
Yeah, Richard. I’m here and really looking forward to the conversation today, man.
Richard Matthews 2:14
Awesome. So glad to have you here. And we were just talking before we got on the line. You were coming in from Barcelona, Spain. Is that right?
Billy Keels 2:19
Barcelona, Spain? Yes, that’s exactly where I’m coming from today.
Richard Matthews 2:24
Been there for like 20 years, even though you’re from Eastern Ohio, right?
Billy Keels 2:27
Yeah. Originally from Columbus, Ohio. And I’ve been in Europe for the last 20 years. I was in France between Paris and a town called Montpellier. Down in the south of Montpellier. And I also lived in Sardinia, in Italy. For those two kinds of about three and a half, four years. And then I’ve been in Spain since 2015. So about 15 years.
Richard Matthews 2:49
Nice. So have you been enjoying all the lockdowns over in Spain?
Billy Keels 2:53
Oh well, let’s just say it Not really. But I mean, it’s been really different, right? Because all my parents and brother and sister they’re back in the states and my nieces and nephews and uncles and aunts and stuff like that. And so we’ve really lived two very different kinds of lockdowns. Because here, in the middle of March through the end of April, we literally didn’t leave our home unless we were going to the grocery store or going to the drugstore, or the pharmacy, as I say here, or going to the hospital and to go to the hospital like you needed to have a doctor’s permission to be able to go so that you didn’t really even have that. So we really literally we’re in the house most of the time for about eight or nine weeks.
Richard Matthews 3:44
That’s insane. It has not been that bad in the couple of places that we’ve been in during our travels. So we’ve been in Florida and then a couple of the southern states were in South Carolina right now for our audiences following on our travels. Love that. But so far, at least this part of the country has been pretty open. It hasn’t been having too much issues with it, which I consider ourselves lucky for that. But what I want to do real quick, is just talk a little bit about what you’re known for, so we can get in and start talking about your story. So Billy is a long distance investor, which is cool. You work with real assets, which is interesting because most of the investors we’ve had are just in real estate, but you actually invest in a few different things, which I’m sure we’ll talk about. problem solvers, Speaker mentors, and you help others get into this investing career, but you’re also an IT salesperson, so you have a corporate job. And then you have your business on the side, which is this real asset investing. Is that right? Yep, exactly. So just to start us off? What is it that you’re known for in the business space and what is it that you actually do to drive revenue in your business?
Billy Keels 4:52
Yeah, sure. So during the day, once my kids go to school and I’m not playing dad anymore. I am a Happy corporate executive, I’m one of the people that actually enjoy going into the job that I have a couple of reasons for that, number one, we are typically solving very big, large enterprise wide problems that are pretty complex. And I enjoy that. Being able to navigate through different organizations understand really what the different pain points are, what is the result that organizations are looking for, and trying to have or having software play a part of the solution that these very large multibillion euro and dollar companies are looking to solve. So that’s really what I’m doing during the day. And I’m known for a person who’s a happy corporate employee, most people even when they see me on LinkedIn, they’re like, Okay, well, this guy is actually happy. And I genuinely like going to my job, right. And part of the reason that I like going to my job is because I have much more control over my financial life. And what I’ve been doing over the last seven years, which is really spending a lot of time as a long distance, as you mentioned before, asset investor and I used to say, real estate investor, but then I’ve been influenced by a number of people that I consider mentors, to me that I’ve realized that I don’t just invest in real estate, I invest in lots of different real assets. So from multifamily buildings to ATM machines, to energy equipment, and things like that. So those are during the day, I generate revenue when I am able to help customers solve their issues, and that is by being able to sell them software and software as a part of their solution. And then when I’m doing put on my entrepreneurial hat, the revenue is generated in two different ways. Number one is investing what I have been doing on my own over the last seven years, which is investing in these real assets, and these real assets, generate cash flow, and tax benefits, which is something that I’m a big fan of because of where I’ve been in terms of a high wage earner. And then also, there is being able to help other people to solve their financial issues and having them be part of the different projects that I am now, syndicating or aggregating capital, I’m also helping those investors solve their issues. And that also is a way to generate revenue. So hopefully, that’s clear.
Richard Matthews 7:13
You do a bunch of stuff on both sides, right? So in your corporate world, and with your real estate investing, or your real asset investing. So real curious question right off the top of my head, because you mentioned taxes, and I know you live in Barcelona, and then you invest in the US. How do you get taxed? Do you get taxed both in the US and in Spain? Or? Like I don’t know how that works? Because all the investing, all the people I know, just invest in the US and they live in the US.
Billy Keels 7:37
Yeah. And I guess this is one of the things that’s really unique, right? Because there are so many people that love traveling outside of the borders of the US. And this is a great question that you’re asking Richard because many people kind of want to know, and one of the advantages, I say that a little bit tongue in cheek because of carrying the blue passport around the globe is that we’re taxing our worldwide income. Although I reside in Spain, I’m a US citizen, and I’m taxed on my overall worldwide income. So you kind of you pay your taxes here and you declare your taxes here, and you declare your taxes back stateside. And then depending on how things work out, you pay here and you pay here or you pay here and you don’t pay there just depends on kind of what your structure looks like. That’s why having a really, really good team is super super important.
Richard Matthews 8:25
I’ll be really fascinated to learn about that. Because I’ve mentioned a few times on the show, my wife and I are looking to travel internationally here in the next couple of years, get a yacht and start moving around. And I think that changes our tax game at least a little bit because we’ll be earning income in other places. So it’ll be an interesting thing to learn.
Billy Keels 8:44
Yeah, there’s a lot of complexities to it. And there’s some simplification to it as well, depending on kind of how things are set up. And I’m sure you’ll have the tax team that will be able to help you navigate and I do kind of no pun intended, navigate through that whole process.
Richard Matthews 9:00
Yeah, it’s not something I want to learn really a lot about. But I know there are people who love to.
Billy Keels 9:04
That’s strange. right? I don’t blame you, man.
Richard Matthews 9:10
So my next question for you is about your origin story. We say on the show, every good comic book hero has an origin story, it’s the thing that made them into the hero they are today we want to hear that story. Were you born a hero? Or are you bit by a radioactive spider that made you want to get into real asset investing? And did you? Or we already know you started a new job, what sort of kicked you off to want to get into the entrepreneurship game on top of your corporate career?
Billy Keels 9:38
Yeah, so there’s a lot to unpack there. I love that question, right. And it’s kind of the origin of this entire conversation. And I don’t necessarily know if I knew that I was a hero. I don’t necessarily know if I am a hero today. I think I’m on a path to becoming as most would say. And but really early on, I’ve I realized that when my parents were moving around, and we were doing different things and living in different cities, and always was the new kid in class with my brother and sister, that’s kind of a unique experience. I guess where I am now in my life, it was more a matter of what kind of has put me on this path to entrepreneurship, right. And the biggest thing that’s put me on that path was a couple of things. Number one, back in 2000, I’m the classic A student, did all the right things, got good grades, got a good job, and was really focused on moving up the corporate ladder, that was what was written down on the paper. And so that’s what I wanted to do. And I was on that path and was even fortunate, I left Ohio, I started moving internationally that changed the whole scope, and I was doing new things and things that I never even dreamt about, Richard. And so there was a certain point where you get into your life, and you think, Okay, well, wow, okay, this is kind of where you’re going, you’re doing the right things. And then in 2000, with the.com, bubble, I lost some money in my 401k. And I had an IRA as well, and I didn’t really understand it, and I got this whole thing of all just hanging out, we’re gonna do $1 cost averaging, and just weigh it out, and things will work and blah blah blah. And so I did that because that’s what the teacher said. And so that’s exactly what I did. And I did that for a couple of years. And, and then this time, I was living in Europe, and I was doing something different. And I was working on climbing up the ladder and then 2008 came in and I lost 33% of my portfolio. And I was like, this doesn’t make any sense. Like, I don’t understand it. I was frustrated. And I heard the same thing again. Well, just hang on, just wait, you’re gonna do dollar cost averaging, and eventually, it’ll come back. And I remember what my parents always told me, and they still told me, they told me, if something happens once it’s shame on them, if something happens twice it Shame on you, meaning me. And it was at that point that I realized that I had to do something different to gain control over that aspect of my financial life. And so that is when I really came across this purple book that I know that you also came across, which was Rich Dad, Poor Dad, in that, Richard that completely just, I mean, it just rattled my mind, because I didn’t grow up around people that were in real estate investing or any of that kind of stuff, right. And so just the whole concept of real estate investing, that was the first time and I was 27, 28, 29 years old, something like that, it was just a completely foreign concept to me. And so when I saw that I started reading and I wanted to know and I wanted to learn more about it. And that combination with something happened when my oldest child was three years old. And I still hadn’t gotten involved in real estate investing, but I started learning about it and things like that. And I was really looking to climb the corporate ladder. And I remember on his third birthday, I had to get on a flight. My wife was at home, my oldest child was three, and my youngest child was one and it was his birthday. And I was flying from Barcelona to Frankfurt, Germany on a flight, and I was thinking something’s wrong here, something, it just doesn’t really make sense. Because all the things that I was doing is really about being a great father and a great husband. And I was leaving on one of the most important days of my young child’s life. And I thought you know what this can’t be the way. When I was on my way to the airport, something changed in me that thought, I need to do something differently. And I have to be at a point in my life where I can at least feel more in control of the things that are happening for myself, for my family. And that was really the day that things started changing. And then afterward, I procrastinated for a while and I’m sure we’ll talk about that. But that was kind of the genesis of okay, now I need to do something to be in control of my own life, I cannot let that financial part of my life really is the responsibility of somebody else or someone who is merely selling their product. With all due respect to most people that are in the financial planning world. Most of them are selling products and not necessarily looking at them from a holistic point of view. So maybe a long winded part of the story, but that is really the origin of what is igniting me today to continue on that entrepreneurial path at the same time that I like, doing what I do in my corporate role because there’s a lot of transferable skills, which is something else that’s just I think a lot of people forget about when you’re part of a really large organization, is that you get a chance every single day to have access to amazing training, amazing people and things like that. But let me let you ask your other questions. Or if there’s something you want me to go a little deeper on.
Richard Matthews 14:54
First off, it’s amazing to me how impactful becoming a dad is, and I know we share that a little bit, right? Because I was into business a lot as a child. But it wasn’t until I had my son where I was like, the need is to get real. And I made my commitment, which if you’ve listened to some of the shows before I mentioned, I wanted to be at home for lunch every day with my kids. And I knew I couldn’t do that with a lot of different options. And that’s been one of the candidates I measure all of my decisions by, is this going to equal more or less lunch time with my kids. Having kids changes you, and it gives you a bit of motivation and perspective that you just didn’t have beforehand. So it’s interesting that you have a similar catalyst for getting into investing into growing your, your asset column, as rich dad would call it. Yeah,
Billy Keels 15:53
Exactly. Exactly.
Richard Matthews 15:54
The other thing, I want to just bring up as you said, you’re on the road to becoming a hero, and you may not be one yet. And I just wanted to point out a couple of things I mentioned before, we got on the call that I’ve worked with several real estate trainers in the past. And one of the things that always struck me was, specifically with real estate, I’m not sure about the other asset classes you mentioned, because I don’t know anything about them. But with real estate, specifically, there’s always a bare minimum, there’s like three parties involved. So you have yourself and you have the other buyer, and you have the people that are utilizing the property. And in order for the deals to actually happen, you have to create Win-Win situations for all the parties involved. And whether it’s, you mentioned, you have 310 doors in your properties right now. And that’s 310 families that you’re providing services for. I don’t know how many properties that is, but every property you picked up is, you know, with generally the person who was selling it for a reason. And you actually came in and help solve that and create, create solutions for them. So my contention is that you are already a hero, and you’re continuing that journey.
Billy Keels 17:02
I appreciate that. And I guess maybe that’s part of the always wanting to continue to move towards something and I never, I still don’t feel like I’m there yet, but I’m on the path. So I’ll take that, as I’m here on the
Richard Matthews 17:16
The whole purpose of this show is to help show people how entrepreneurship is actually, it’s entrepreneurs aren’t the villains, right? I know, all of our cultures tell us that entrepreneurs are really the ones that help push the world forward. So just personally, thank you for the work that you already doing.
Billy Keels 17:35
Thank you appreciate that. Appreciate that. And I’m gonna keep doing more of it gonna keep doing more because I really, really, really enjoying it.
Richard Matthews 17:42
So my next question for you then is about your superpowers. Every iconic hero has a superpower, whether that’s a fancy flying suit made by the genius intellect, or the ability to call down Thunder from the sky, or maybe even super strength like Superman. But in the real world, heroes have what I call a zone of genius, which is either a set of skills that you were born with, or you developed over time that really helps you do what you do, helps you slay the villains in your own life, so to speak. And the way that I sort of frame this for people is you probably have a bunch of skills that are things that you’re like, Hey, I’m good at this area, I’m good at this and go the other thing, but if you really think about it, you probably have one skill. That’s the common thread that ties all those things together. And that’s probably where your superpower comes in your zone of genius. And with that sort of framing, what do you think your superpower is?
Billy Keels 18:29
I guess if I have to think of it, the first thing that comes into my mind is my curiosity. And that curiosity has really allowed me number one because sometimes it’s difficult. I’m just going back like on your question or thinking about earlier, like, when you’re the new kid in class, and you’re moving all the time, you have a choice, you can either crumble and sit in the back of the room, or you can be curious about other people and ask them to want to connect to them. And that happened when my parents were moving around when we were young, me and my brother and sister. It was always a difficult thing for me because you’re always the new kid. But that curiosity I wanted to find out about other people. And then, as I had an amazing job or role right out of college, it allowed me to work and travel throughout some 58 different countries in five years. And so the same thing, like I could have either, not really done anything and stayed in my bubble, or I could be curious, learn about the local people that I was in the country. And I was there for two weeks or three weeks or sometimes a month. And so I had the opportunity to go out, learn more about people see what their lives were about, ask questions, that curiosity again, and then even so much to the point that a one year sabbatical that I took back in 2001, I really had a chance to go deep and learn more about different cultures in France learning the language, the same thing in Italy. And now in Spain. If I think about it, a guy from Columbus, Ohio, I feel very fortunate that curiosity is also helped to inspire and drive a lot of work for me to speak five different languages. And in now that same curiosity when I go out and I get a chance to meet someone new, whether I’m in my corporate role during the day and helping my curiosity is asking them the right questions, understanding what their real issue is not just going beyond the surface level, really getting into that sometimes people you will call them the five why’s and really understanding that, that curious mind, and even being able to have that same curious mind and wanting to understand my investors and my clients today in my entrepreneurial ventures, so that Curiosity has helped me not only to adapt to the new situations, it’s been a catalyst for me to want to go out and learn to want to get to know people, and then be able to connect people. So having a number of those different skills as you talked about around if I look at what is the focus the superpower, I guess it’s my curiosity is the thing that I hadn’t thought about it that way before. But it’s that curiosity.
Richard Matthews 21:00
That’s really fascinating. And I think, you’re probably the first person on our show that’s mentioned curiosity as a superpower. Most people think of curiosity as a, you know, curiosity killed the cat, like, it’s a bad thing. And it’s definitely not it’s what drives innovation is curiosity. And I love your story about traveling and being the new kid all the time. Because we travel all the time, and my son who’s 11 years old, he’s one of the coolest people I know. But we get to new places. And like, you know, whether it’s an RV park or a new park that we’re going to, or a museum, we’re at the beach, the kid is always like, as soon as we get there, he’s like, Bye, Dad, I’m gonna go find friends. And he’ll go and he’ll gather up the other children that are around his age and like, get them all playing and doing things together. Because as far as he’s concerned, he’s not the new kid.
Billy Keels 21:48
He’s the guy that’s connecting everybody. He’s there doing the thing and getting everybody.
Richard Matthews 21:54
I know, I don’t know if he would put it in these words himself. But he looks at himself. He’s like, at this point, he’s been traveling for four years. He’s an experienced traveler. And he’s experienced with, putting people together. And he’s like, I’ve watched him do this, where he’ll go into place. And there’s, there are other kids who are like, either new to traveling or who are, they don’t travel a lot. So they’re just there for the weekend. So they’re not used to meeting all these new people. My son’s like, he’s on top of that. And he is like, I can help you connect, let’s introduce names, let’s pick a game together and go do things because he’s got that curiosity, that insatiable sort of desire to move things forward. And I sort of love that thought that curiosity can be a superpower, because I’ve never thought of that, either. But just hearing you talk about it. I see that in my son.
Billy Keels 22:40
So definitely, definitely.
Richard Matthews 22:43
Awesome. So the flip side of a superpower then is your fatal flaw. And just like every Superman has their kryptonite, and every Wonder Woman can’t remove her bracelets of victory without going mad, you probably have a flaw that has held you back in your business, something that you’ve struggled with. For me, it was a couple of things. Perfectionism, that keeps me from shipping products, lack of self care, which led me letting my clients walk all over me, instead of actually having good boundaries. I think more important than what the flaw is, is how have you worked to rectify it so that you could continue to grow in your business career? And hopefully, the people who are listening might learn a little bit from your experience there?
Billy Keels 23:23
Yeah, so I guess, probably here, and you may be for those that are watching us, actually, you saw the smile on my face, because one of the things that I recognize is that I am a recovering perfectionist. And so I say that a bit tongue in cheek. The thing is, and I’ve realized it’s taken me a really long time, at the same time, I love to be able to have control, that’s fine when you’re just doing something on your own. And you just kind of you’re studying for the test for yourself. And you want to be able to get an A and you want to get the next promotion and you’ve got to talk to a couple of people, but you just need to make sure that every all the I’s are dotted and T’s are crossed, right. And so that works really well, up until a certain point in the corporate role. At the same time, I learned and have lots and lots of transferable skills. If I’m trying to do everything, there are only 24 hours in a day, Richard, as you more than know, and everyone else who’s listening to us knows. And so because of that, I have not allowed my business to go out in this positively affect as many lives as we could. Because for such a long time. I was trying to do everything. And then the things that I wasn’t trying to do. I was working with my wife and she was doing them and then I realized, okay, well maybe that’s probably not the best way to do it. And so it really took this whole thing of saying all right, well, yeah, Billy, everything doesn’t need to be done in exactly this way. You need to make sure that your enterprise is set up in the right way and you need to make sure that you have the right people on the bus right I think Jim Collins talks about that making sure that you have the right people on the bus and things like that. And so having that perfectionist fatal flaw, it’s something that I continue to struggle against. And one of the ways that I’ve overcome that is making sure that I do have processes designed, I mean, I even have someone on my team her responsibility is to design processes. Because, if I ever see a process, and Billy is the point in every single step, then that process is one that’s never going to work, it’s never going to be optimized. So as we now look at different processes in our enterprise, it’s about understanding, okay, where do I need to be a part of this. And if I don’t absolutely need to be a part of this, meaning I’m having an interaction with an investor, or I’m actually out doing something similar to what we’re doing now we’re talking, then I have to get out of the way, I cannot let my desire to have things perfectly done by me stand in the way now it’s about how do I continue to focus on the process and make sure that the process is optimized, and we have the right people on the bus so that we can go out and affect as many lives as as as we want to. And as we can.
Richard Matthews 26:13
Absolutely, and I completely agree with you. I know, my own self, the trigger for me for getting over my perfectionism was a mentor and close friend of mine, who mentioned to me that perfectionism is the lowest standard you can hold yourself to because it doesn’t exist. There’s no such thing as perfect. So you can’t actually hold yourself to that standard. So you might as well be holding yourself to no standard.
Billy Keels 26:39
Can I use that, by the way?
Richard Matthews 26:40
You can absolutely
Billy Keels 26:41
Thank you, Richard. Appreciate that.
Richard Matthews 26:44
So for me, that was like a kick in the can kind of thing. You’re like, Oh, you’re right. I think I’m holding myself to this high standard. And really, I’m holding myself to nothing. Right? So there’s got to be a better standard. And for me, it was shipping, right? It’s actually getting the thing done, And that’s the whole that mantra, done is better than perfect. And having consistently getting stuff out in almost any industry doesn’t matter what it is, is better than having the perfect thing get out. Yeah. So that was like one of the big wins for me was learning that. And then the second part, actually, it’s really surprising when you talk about processes. So for me, it was learning how to get the processes off of my plate into someone else’s. Actually, just yesterday, I spent most of yesterday afternoon, I’m currently doing a 72 hour fast. And yesterday, I was like, I didn’t have a lot of energy to do other things. So I just sat down. And I wrote, and I’m in the process of writing a course called push button process. So I wrote 7000 words on building processes because that’s one of the things that I’m really good at is helping businesses build processes, which if you want, I’ll send you all of that if you want to go through it. It’s really good stuff, the Language foundation for how to build processes. The whole idea of learning how to grow your business and get out of that perfectionist mindset is learning how to build solid processes in your business, solid systems, and workflows that actually help things get done without you being the one to do it.
Billy Keels 28:13
So yeah, and you know, the kind of the irony here is the company that I work for during the day is the market leading enterprise application software company, with a focus on automating? Thank you very much. See, there’s sometimes five languages that get kind of stuck, get stuck automating business processes. And so that’s what I do during the day on an enterprise wide scale, right, and having over, you know, 400,000 clients around the world and things like that. And then it was making that same switch and saying, Okay, well, actually, you know what, when I’m doing this on an enterprise wide level, how do I make sure that we do this, here, and it’s not like the same thing when I’m talking to the C level executives of the companies that I’m working with? Like, I have to apply that to my own enterprise and make sure that I’m not the one who’s in every single place. And also too because that’s not my best skill set for my enterprise. I have to make sure once again, who is the right person to be on the bus, I can talk about what is the result that I want this process to be able to achieve? And then we kind of say, okay, that’s the state of the process, or that’s the future state of the process? How do we work? How do we work backward and reverse engineer it? So it’s the most optimized process? Or if we already know that there’s a best practice out there? How do we implement that best practice and then tweak it to what our specific needs are? But once again, because that’s not my best skill set, I have to make sure that that person is here to help me so that we design their property.
Richard Matthews 29:42
Yeah, I know, like I watched people build processes all the time, and people who don’t have that skill set, just look at the end result, and then the process that gets them from A to Z is very chaotic. And a lot of times there is, you get forward and they have to go back to get something they go for a little bit more. before they gonna go forward. And I’m like, anytime your process doesn’t continually move forward, you’ve introduced chaos into the system. And so one of the things that I teach is I teach people how to front load decision making and how to silo creativity so that your processes can always move forward to get to your result, but anyway, it’s really fascinating. It’s such an interesting skill set that I wish more and more entrepreneurs learn at least the basic concepts so they kind of do it themselves, or bring the right person on their team and be able to communicate effectively about how to build processes.
Billy Keels 30:32
So absolutely key and it’s one of those things where you think to yourself because I’m recognizing myself on what you just said because I remember one of the first times that I sat down with the person who does designs, the processes, I mean, we talked them out, right, and I said, Yeah, but we want to get to here and she said, Okay, well, how do you do it today? I said, Well, you do this, and you do that. She’s like, okay, but after you do this, isn’t theirs? Don’t you do? Oh, yeah, yeah, actually, you don’t just go from here to there. You have to do this thing. And then Oh, yeah. And then there’s another thing. So in my mind was thinking was three steps. Really were nine. Right? And but because I didn’t have the training to do that. That’s when it made a lot of sense for me and my enterprise. I said, Okay, that is exactly why you are here and on the team because you know how to actually design this and think about it and say, What is the as is and how do we get to the to B and all that kind of stuff?
Richard Matthews 31:22
And I find the biggest reason that entrepreneurs struggle with processes because they don’t have the language foundation to actually speak about it well, right. And so when you have a process. The process involves steps. And we think in terms of what I call macro steps. And macro steps are the stuff that you might put on a checklist, right? If you were a pilot, and you have your pre flight checklist, you have like all these things, you got to make sure you check off that you done those things. Otherwise, you crash your plane and die, right, we don’t do the procedures. Yeah, you do the procedures. But then you have your micro steps. That’s the minutia in between the steps. So like you have something we’re just like, hey, step one is upload the video to YouTube. Right, from a checklist standpoint, that’s all you need. But then you have the minutia, which actually needs to be in the process of like, you have to open your browser and you have to click the button, then you have to locate the video, and you have to upload the video and you have to put the title in the thing and right and you have all the minutia that someone who’s done the process more than once, it’s become second nature. And so when you’re thinking about how you design processes, and if you were going to take someone brand new, your processes need to be built in such a way that you could take someone off the street who’s never seen the process before dropping them into it, and they could accomplish it, which doesn’t happen if you don’t actually know how to look at the processes from both a macro and a micro level, and then teach other people how to do them that way. So anyways, such interesting discussion,
Billy Keels 32:40
Definitely.
Richard Matthews 32:42
And I hope that more people will pick up that skill particularly either because it’s what helps you grow your business is learning how to build processes, and it also helps you get out of that perfectionist trap that comes from wanting to do everything yourself. Because the reason why most people do that, and I know it was, for me at least is the reason I’m thinking of perfectionist is that the process was all in here. And I’m like, I don’t know how to get what’s in here to someone else. And so, therefore, I can’t have them do it, because it won’t get the same result. But if you learn how to build processes, well, then you can have someone else do what you would do in the same situation.
Billy Keels 33:15
Correct. Which is another reason that technology is really helped me because it’s so nice when you can just make a really quick video and go, this is what I’m doing and you send it off into okay. This is what needs to happen.
Richard Matthews 33:29
So, the funny thing about that it’s actually how I teach people to build processes is you record things and you have someone trained to take those things and turn them into SOP’s.
Billy Keels 33:38
So I’m sure you’re either Looming it or you’re doing a zoom video, and you record it and all that kind of stuff in the synopsis.
Richard Matthews 33:47
So my next question for you then is about your common enemy. Every superhero has an arch nemesis is the thing that they fight against in their world. But in the world of business, it takes a lot of forms. But generally speaking, we put it in the context of the people you’re working with. So probably this is going to be either the people who you are renting doors to or the people you’re buying properties from. And it’s a mindset that you constantly have to fight against, fight to overcome so that you can actually put together that win win-win deal. So you can get them a higher degree of results. With that sort of framing what do you think your common enemy is in your real asset business?
Billy Keels 34:30
Well, I guess it’s part of my, I guess is just that comes to my brain and then it’s stopping and stopping, and then it goes down to my gut. And so I think I’m going to share what’s on my gut because I normally would not do this. So I think the arch nemesis is always fighting against many years has a scarcity mindset. And what do I mean by that? So when you grow up and you don’t have access to things right, you start thinking that those things, ie currency, or some people would call it money is really what is the do all wear all end all be all to things. And so you do a lot of things to make sure that you have the money, then you have the currency. And when you take that scarcity mindset approach, you really are limiting yourself to the number of people’s lives that you can contact, the number of people’s lives that you can positively affect because you’re thinking inward. And very similar to it was Bob Berg, the go giver when you start thinking about how you can really transform and think about others, how can you serve other people, but genuinely not like you’re trying to do that? Because it sounds good, but genuinely, you’re looking to how can I help that person? And as long as you can, and it’s a part of your mindset, your framework, your service, your product, then you really should be thinking about how can you best serve the person, not how can you serve yourself, and also say that too, because working in a sales capacity, in my corporate role, and then that’s what I’m doing in now, at the end of the day, I mean, I’m the chief everything officer of my business, as I would say, as a smaller enterprise. But I have different people there. But the arch nemesis is really fighting against the scarcity mindset. Because once you let that scarcity mindset enter your world, it will automatically devour any chance of long term relationship building. And so I don’t mean that you can’t think short term and be able to do things. But it’s not building a long lasting relationship. So what I’ve seen, and what I’ve understood that works, the best is when you really can take in the fight against a scarcity mindset really focus on having an abundant mindset. And I don’t mean, doing things that you’re going to get taken advantage of. I don’t mean that at all. But I mean, genuinely thinking about and fighting against the scarcity mindset so that you can create situations where there is something in it for everyone, it may not be exactly what they want, it may not be exactly what you want, it may not be exactly what the third party wants. But between the three of you, or four of you, or however many people, right, because even sometimes in the day job, there are so many different people with their own interests and things like that. You’ve got to fight against everybody wanting with just what’s best for yourself and myself included. Right? So that’s the biggest thing I would say is fighting against that scarcity mindset, because it just will ultimately ruin any chance of mid to long term relationship building, which is really where you can find the platinum, I like to say not just the gold, but the platinum, you can find it there.
Richard Matthews 37:52
So I have a thought that I’ve been noodling around for the last couple of months that I’m curious about, your sort of thoughts on this when it comes to that scarcity mindset. And you mentioned like when you have a scarcity mindset, your desire is to gather the currency, right? I want to have all the currency in my pocket. And you start looking at life in terms of how can I earn more money here? How can I create money here? How can I get money to me? And you
just covered a lot of the problems with that. And I’ve been thinking to myself, one of the things that I think actually makes more sense. Because that desire to gather and put things together in our life and grow our life isn’t going to go away. We like to talk about the mindset to say instead of trying to get things to come to me, how do I instead look to give to other people. And that’s a hard jump to make. Because we don’t know how to connect the I need money with the I need to help other people. And I think this is an unformed thought. But I think one of the things that can help people is instead of focusing on gathering money, we instead focus on gathering skills. Because skills are the bridge that allows us to go from focusing on myself to focusing on other people. And I know I’m at a point in my life where I could lose everything today and rebuild it tomorrow because of the skills that I’ve built over the last 10 years. And it sounds like you have the same kind of skill set now is like even if you lost everything today, you could rebuild what you had, because of the skills that you have. And so my unformed thought is that maybe our focus should be instead of trying to get the money is how do we get the skills because the skills are what allow us to help other people.
Billy Keels 39:37
And I like that as a thought. You’re also making me think about the there is a book by a guy, two guys, Dr. Chris Martenson and Adam Taggart called to prosper and in prosper they talk about the eight forms of capital, and there is the financial capital, but also talk about things like your health and talking about things like your social network and your spiritual foundation. And so I think it ties in very close to what you’re talking about in terms of developing a skill. And I used to think this way. And this is why I fight against this arch nemesis, which goes back to the origin of your question is when you think it’s about money, as soon as you realize that you don’t have anybody that can help you out of a situation, that’s difficult. Even if you have all the amount of money in the world, then you realize money is not really the most important thing. Or if you are physically ill, doesn’t matter how many millions or billions you have in the bank. I mean, we think about situations, like Steve Jobs, for instance, in those kinds of lives are the people that are sorry,
Richard Matthews 40:44
That he died of pancreatic cancer,
Billy Keels 40:46
Pancreatic cancer, exactly. So like having the most money in the world doesn’t really help. So it’s really about how can you be focused on the skills? or How can you be focused also on the other types of capital, helping your community, that usually takes time. And so we all have a certain amount of time, even if it’s just being able to help somebody else an hour a week if you have that, or being able to make sure that you’re spending time on yourself on your physical capital and things like that. So I would agree with that thought processes, going beyond just capital or currency, what else can you be doing to build your community to build your mental capacity to build your knowledge base, because there’s value in all of those things? their value is not just in currency, far, far, far beyond that. And I think when you’re not focused in that scarcity mindset is typically just focused on how can I get as much money me for myself and show it to the rest of the world and all that other kind of stuff? So But yeah, I like your unformulated thought, well, as it relates to, to skills, and it really ties in well, to the whole concept of the eight forms of capital.
Richard Matthews 41:52
The more I think about it, realize that like my business, when really started to grow, when I stopped focusing on doing business all the time, that makes sense, where I was like, I’m trying to do the things that lead to revenue. And I remember, a time not that long ago, where I was spending 12-18 hours a day, on my business, trying to drive revenue. And my business now is at a point where I spend maybe four to five hours a day, four days a week on my business. The rest of the time, like I mentioned earlier, I’m doing a 72 hour fast I have in the last six months, I’ve put on 15 pounds of muscle with some exercise I’ve been doing with a good friend of mine. And so like working on the health capital. And I know over the last like five or six years, building my network of people that I can actually be helpful to, has grown my business significantly. And so I really liked that thought of like, hey, it’s the focus on not just the one financial capital, but how can you build some of those other things, because that’s what really lets you grow your life.
Billy Keels 42:54
Completely agree. One of my mentors, a guy named Kyle Wilson, worked many years with Jim Rohn. And Jim Rohn. I think Kyle said, how can you become valuable to valuable people? And however you say, people are valuable, right? Everybody looks at that differently. But how can you once again, going back, it’s not about currency, it’s about what value can you add to those individuals that you perceive or believe to be valuable? And it’s focusing your energy elsewhere? Absolutely.
Richard Matthews 43:28
So my next question for you then is about your driving force. So the flip side of your common enemy is your driving force. And just like Spider Man fights to save New York or Batman fights to save Gotham, or Google fights to index and categorize all the world’s information? What is it that you fight for in your business? And you have a mission, so to speak, what is it?
Billy Keels 43:50
Yeah if we just think about the business side of things, I mean, I also fight to make sure that my children that they see and perceive their father is someone who’s adding value to their lives, it’s helping them grow and helping them be better will help them to be better people as they grow up because we want them to be independent young men, right. At the same time, when I think about, for instance, my business mission is really to go out and to help people that are high wage earners. Right, be able to have better control over their lives so that they are able to use and spend the time in their lives the way that they want to be able to spend it. Because I think there can be a misperception that people that are earning high wages are, once again, because this goes back to being focused on just money, just capital is saying, you know, these people have it made. And a lot of times, people that are high wage earners that are working in big corporate jobs are you know, if you look at it on an hourly basis, they’re probably earning less than anybody else under the sun because they’re working from the moment they wake up in the morning, they’re checking their phone, seeing what mails are happening, they’re flying all day, they’re flying all night, they’re at their kids, soccer matches or ballet recitals, and they’re checking their phone, they’re not even paying attention. And they’re going to bed at night, and they’re doing the exact same thing. And so they’re there on 16 hours a day and paying attention to the people that are around them, not very often. And so it would be really nice for us. And some of that is just because they’re consistently consuming things, or they don’t recognize that they can actually have more control over their financial part of their lives, which will allow them to then spend more time with the people that they really love will allow them to focus on their own health, their own energy, focus on their own mental well being, and all of the other things that we talked about. So I have a lot of energy around going out to help people that I see every single day, these high wage earners, that they can have more control over the aspects of their life that are really, really important to them. And part of that foundation is looking at how they can gain more control over the financial aspect of their life so that they feel really, really comfortable knowing that they have that covered and they can spend their time doing what they really, really want to be doing.
Richard Matthews 46:13
So just a curious question, because I have not been in that space before and that high wage earner space where you’re talking to those people, but I know people that are like that, who they work constantly. Because that’s what their job requires of them. And just a thought do you think it has to do with the idea that all of their income is tied up in that position. And so because their income is tied up in that position, they feel like they have to always perform there. And when you can move some of that income, right, like you’ve done and you have your like I have my entire income is going to be matched on the other side here. So if I need to take the afternoon off, it’s not like if the world goes down, and they’re like, Hey, you took the afternoon off, you’re fired. Your life’s not over. Right? Yeah. And even if that’s not a reality, like that wouldn’t happen. They think it’s gonna happen, even if it’s subconscious. So they always are on all the time.
Billy Keels 47:05
Yeah. So, man, that’s a great question. There’s a book into probably unpack that one for a couple of days. And I know, we don’t have a couple of days. But if we go down to the end, we’re going to generalize here, right. But when you have a single point of failure, which is your one income. And the other point of failure is potential because you were the A student, like the one I was talking about, in the very beginning, this guys me I’m pointing to myself, if you’re listening to us, when you’ve done all of the things and you’ve put all of your eggs in that basket for your financial life, then you’re not really you’re so worried and busy about what’s happening at your day job that you haven’t even taken enough time to understand what’s happening with your own life. Because you’re so busy, that you’ve got that next meeting, you’ve got this next call, you’ve got to get this promotion, you’ve got to get that in as I’ve been there. So I’m talking from experience. But there is a lot of that says, if I don’t have this, and I’ve gotten used to this salary, I’m not talking about people that overspend I’m talking about people that have their role, their job, and they’re not overspending. But beyond that, there’s not a financial education, there is not an understanding of what else could I be doing to make sure that I’m mentally well, but back to your question is, if you don’t have this job, then typically what have I seen, when one person leaves one big multinational organization, within the next month, they’ve got to find another job at another one, because they need that income, to be able to continue to survive and sustain themselves. So yes, I mean, that is a large part of it, and seeing that there’s a single point of failure with that one salary that one income.
Richard Matthews 48:57
Yeah, and then learning how to take that. But what you teach people then is how to take that salary, and then diversify, so you don’t have a single point of failure for your income.
Billy Keels 49:09
Exactly. So it’s being able to look and say, What are the other options that exist out there? Right? And in what are you comfortable with? as well, right? I mean, some people are really happy and comfortable turning all their money and just having X amount come out of their paycheck and it goes right into 401k. They never think about it or their IRA or their X amount that are going to buy certain stocks. And they are constantly looking at their phone all day. Oh, how’s this stock going? Is it up? Is it down? Am I making money? Am I losing money? And, and it’s like, well, until you actually execute the order, and you’re not nothing. You’re just wasting a bunch of your time and energy in focus. You know?
Richard Matthews 49:45
So I don’t actually know if this fits into the interview. Well, here but I’m just curious because you mentioned before we got on that you invest in real assets in a lot of different categories. One of the mentioned was the ATMs. You invest in ATMs. And I’m just curious, and I’m sure our audience might be curious as to how does invest in ATMs work from a revenue standpoint? Do you actually like to buy an ATM machine and you just make the percent, that $3 fee that they tell you about every time you go to pull something out of the ATM?
Billy Keels 50:15
Wow, Richard, you just nailed it. All right. Next question. No so here’s the thing. And this, once again, I’m a big believer that your money, your currency should always be on the treadmill, like it always needs to be working out. And I’m telling you this because you asked the question earlier. And sometimes when you have a scarcity mindset, you feel really good, because you just want to see your money increasing like money sitting in the bank account and just going up, when your money is going up in a bank account, that is earning. And if you’re having money in a savings account that is earning, if you’re really, really lucky, it’s earning half a percent. And inflation is at 2%. And the Federal Reserve said that we’re gonna probably go above 2%, let’s just imagine that it’s two and a half percent your money is at 5%. Even though that money feels really good, because it’s going up, you’re losing 2% of your purchasing power every single year. So this is part of, having a conversation with people and helping them to understand things like that. But back to your question. So the ATM, it is really having my capital moving all the time, there are some things that I do directly. And then there are some things that I do passively. And so this is one of the investments that’s done passively. It’s a real asset, it’s a tangible asset. And it’s real estate because you’re looking at a machine that’s, two by two, and it sits on a plot of land. And so that plot of land is you’re paying whether you’re at a truck stop or you’re at a shopping center, or you’re at a Daigo or gas station, whatever the case may be, or one of your favorite restaurants, when you can go there, you’re paying the fee, and then that in that transaction fee that you then as an investor, if you are part of that, then a part of that goes to the investor, part of it goes to the operator and a part of it goes to the person that you’re renting the space from. So you just split that transaction fee. In a way that makes sense. And you do it across a blended number of ATMs. So yeah, it’s as simple as that.
Richard Matthews 52:06
That’s really interesting. So just you don’t actually own the own machines, and you’re just an investor in them.
Billy Keels 52:12
Correct. So I own the lease on the machines for a period of time. Yep. So for seven years
Richard Matthews 52:17
It’s really fascinating.
Billy Keels 52:19
Yeah.
Richard Matthews 52:19
I’ve never even heard of that as an investment thing. It never even entered my mind. And thinking about it, it totally makes sense. I’ve heard of everything from investing in billboards to investing in real estate to investing in various different things. I’ve even seen, like the investing in the vending machines and whatnot. But it never dawned on me that you could invest in an ATM machine.
Billy Keels 52:42
Yeah, I mean, so that one’s been really interesting. I’ll tell you one that I’ve just recently been involved and recently, we just finished a $1.5 million raise on pieces of equipment for energy, and this is something I would have never ever, ever thought about since we’re talking about entrepreneurship. And sometimes you just have to keep your mind open to new possibilities, right. And so I never thought about this. But you know, everybody’s talking so much about what’s happening with the environment, and you can do things that are socially responsible. And so you’re like, Okay, well, you can invest in equipment, that actually minimizes the emissions of CO2, you can go out and you can help to create double digit returns, and at the same time able to help these high wage earners, with their tax in terms of ordinary income, which is one of the things that a lot of times, and this is why I like to spend a lot of time with individuals is sometimes when you are investing, imagine you’ve got a high wage, and you’re earning, multiple six figure salaries or seven figure salaries. And you are investing in real estate unless you’re a real estate professional. They’re kind of two different buckets. There’s one bucket, which is passive income. So we talked about passive income, but this is actually IRS passive income. And then you have your ordinary or earned income in a lot of the difference when you’re working a job, you have ordinary or active income. And so this new investment opportunity can really help people not just to create returns, but also helps them with their ordinary income in terms of being able to have a high wage. Exactly. Yep. And so this is really, really great for people. Because a lot of time, you’re like, yeah, I’m doing all the right things, and I’m earning all this money. And while I’m earning all this money, and you get all these great reductions on the passive income side, but it’s not really helping your active income. And of course, people everybody’s situation is different, like we were saying before, so I mean, everybody always should speak to their tax team and things like that. But this is one of the real new areas that I didn’t even know existed. And so I’m able to help high wage earners solve this problem that most people think, people that are earning lots of currency, they don’t have problems. Well, yeah, they actually do because they’re working really, really hard. And they would like to be able to use as much of the capital as possible so that they can spend their time with their family or doing whatever the case may be. Rather than, paying a lot of it to whatever into in terms of taxes that they’re not going to get. So yeah, so you get all kinds of different things in real assets. And once again, I call it a real asset and doing it long distance, you can live wherever you want to live, and be able to invest in these types of things, because you can actually physically touch them, they are tangible things. So,
Richard Matthews 55:16
Absolutely. So I’m gonna move on a little bit and talk about what I call the hero’s toolbelt. And this is the practical portion of our show. Just like every superhero has a tool belt with awesome gadgets like batarangs, or web slingers, or laser eyes, I’m going to talk about the top one or two tools you use every day to do what you do, right? Could be anything from your notepad, your calendar, to marketing tools, to something you use for actually delivering your services with the people you work with, something you think is essential to getting your job done.
Billy Keels 55:48
So this isn’t going to be anything major. But I love long distance, right? The whole thing about being able to live wherever you want to live in the world is something that’s really important for me, at the same time, I’ve always been someone who likes face-to-face interactions. And typically, when you’re working with accredited investors, they want to be able to see you. And if you are living on another continent, they want to be able to see you. So using technology like a Zoom that I’ve been using for six years or something like that, without a doubt is something that helps me to be able to make a connection, while I’m in Europe. And people are wherever they are in the world. They could be in maybe France, or they’re in the United States are there in Switzerland they’re in Chile there are in Australia. For me, this is one of the greatest tools, because it’s a tool that I use, I use Google to meet and all that other kind of stuff. But I enjoy using Zoom. Because it’s a great way to connect with people, especially when they want to have geographic freedom, they just get on their phone, and they’re traveling and we’ll get on a quick call. And we’re able to talk about things, we can use the screen share if we need to draw some things or have a presentation and they’re able to ask their questions, we get clarification, we get to make eye contact. And without a doubt, I would say that that is the go-to tool that helps me help people in my entrepreneurial business. Without a doubt.
Richard Matthews 57:15
I know it’s one of the things that fascinates me, not just Zoom, but any sort of video communication tools have really would be allowed my family to travel, right, because I can work with my clients all over the country are all over the world. And just because it’s like tools like Zoom and Google meet and FaceTime that we can stay in contact, like we’re in the same room, which is super cool. And it’s like an integrated part of our lives. But I remember like if you go back to our childhood, we used to look at things on sci-fi movies and whatnot, and be like, Oh, man, this video chat thing. That’d be so cool. Nowadays, like the other day, we called Grandma, instead of facetiming. Grandma, we normally FaceTime Grandma, and she’s like my daughter is all upset. She’s like two years old. She’s like, How come I can’t see you’re like, Where is she? And she’s like, she wants to camera at her face, even though we were on a phone call because grandma wasn’t at a place where she could FaceTime. And she didn’t get it. She was like, can they hear me? Like what’s going on? Like our kids, the whole conversation thing is amazing.
Billy Keels 58:24
Pretty amazing. It’s pretty amazing. So yeah, and without a doubt. So you’ve had the same thing. And once again, because as a long-distance investor, and someone who loves real assets, this is just yeah, without a doubt, it’s something that is great on the business side, and then you’ve just given a perfect example of even using that for family. So
Richard Matthews 58:43
Definitely. It’s definitely been world-changing. I think it’s only gonna get better as the years go on. And like I know, one of the technologies I know, Apple, I don’t know if it released it yet, or if it was in this last version of their phone, but like the face time thing actually uses the face map that they create from the FaceTime camera. Really? Yeah. So what it does is it takes the face map of your picture, and you know how the cameras above the picture, actually rotate your face. So you’re looking at each other eye to eye. Wow. That’s just the beginning of technology like that. And I would imagine we’re going to see a lot of cool things and some of the sci-fi stuff that we still dream of it’s on the horizon for us. All it does is it serves to shrink our world in terms of, it doesn’t matter where you live or what you do or what you want to invest in what you want to build your business around. You no longer have to be chained to a specific location to get that done.
Billy Keels 1:00:46
Agree, completely agree.
Richard Matthews 1:00:59
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Richard Matthews 1:01:18
So only a couple more questions for you here. Nest one is about your own personal heroes. So every hero has their mentors. Frodo had Gandalf, Luke had Obi Wan, Robert Kiyosaki had his rich dad, Spider Man even had his Uncle Ben. So who were some of your heroes, were they real life mentors, maybe peers who were a couple of years ahead of you, speakers, authors, and how important were they to what you’ve accomplished so far in your life and in your business?
Billy Keels 1:01:44
I mean, there are lots of mentors and people that I’ve never met, but lot’s of books that I’ve read. But when I think about, really what I want to be for my children, and I think about the different sacrifices, the work ethic, and the things that I saw from my mother and my father growing up, without a doubt, for me, they’re the people that I different aspects of each one of them, that are the people like the inspiration for me, on a day to day basis, because even at this point in my life, they are people that I look up to both of them. And they inspire me to want to continue to do the right thing. I mean, I was talking to Well, I think she wouldn’t mind if I shared this. But she was mentioning my mom had mentioned the other day that she also gains inspiration from her children. And so to be able to hear her say that and share that is kind of like, you know what, this is for me, this is what inspiration is even at this point in my life and being able to talk to both of them and get their advice. And they allow me to challenge even their way of thinking today. So it almost helps me to recognize where we are in our journey together. Right. And I’m very fortunate that I still have both of my parents, and my dad’s wife, and in my life today, so they’re definitely the source of inspiration and mentorship for me.
Richard Matthews 1:03:20
Yeah, I remember really vividly when I made that transition into adulthood. And just watching the relationship change from that parent child relationship to still parent child relationship. And it changes when you become an adult where there’s a lot more even keeled friendship that goes along with that. And I remember seeing that and how thankful I was that my parents allowed me to grow up, but then also started to treat me and be a part of my life, as fellow adults, so to speak. And how much that’s been an inspiration for me in terms of actually wanting to live a life that their product, but also as an example for my children. And I remember, my early business mentors said something to me, that’s actually the inspiration for the name of this show. And he was speaking on stage as I’ve never met the guy he was just speaking on stage, I was in the audience, and he was looking at the audience. And he said, someday, your kids are gonna have a hero. And he’s like, and if you’re not worthy, it’s not going to be you. Right? So, it would be one of those things that like, I know, I’ve always looked at, how can I be the kind of person that like my parents were for me. Because I still to this day, look up to them and look at what they’ve done and the work that they put into, for me, I got to I get to do all the things I do because I stood on their shoulders, right because of all the things that they made happen for me. And I want to do the same thing for my kids, right like we’re my son’s gonna start off in such a better place than even I started off because of the work I’m doing so anyway, I completely, I feel you on the being. Yeah,
Billy Keels 1:05:06
Without a doubt my heroes, man.
Richard Matthews 1:05:10
Awesome. So my last question for you is about your guiding principles. One of the things that make heroes heroic is that they live by a code, right. So for instance, Batman never kills his enemies, he only ever brings them to Arkham Asylum. So as we wrap up this interview, let’s talk about the top one, maybe two principles that you use regularly in your life, maybe something you wish you’d known when you first started out on your own hero’s journey.
Billy Keels 1:05:34
I was talking to a couple of friends, with mastermind every once a week, we mastermind and we were talking today. And I thought, Well, you know what? There’s this whole concept of and people talk about spirituality, religion, things like that. And I said because we’re getting ready to do a book study together. And we picked the book, and I didn’t realize that the book is really faith based and things like that. I said, you know, guys, I don’t really, mind, I’m not either for or against, because growing up, I always thought, there’s a basic principle in life. And it’s one that I carry out even today and with the curiosity and wanting to understand more about people and getting more people and it’s really treating others as you would hope that they would treat you right Do unto others as they would do unto yourself, or something like that, but treat people the way that you want them to treat you, right. And so that is something that served me across six of the seven continents 86 countries, many times, I didn’t speak the language of local people, but they get a feeling they get an understanding, it’s helped me in the corporate world. And it’s helped me also on, in my entrepreneurial journeys now, and it’s making sure that I just treat people the way that I would want them to treat me like that. That number one is a basic foundation. It may be there’s empathy, that is tied to that as well. And then the other part of that is, is being able to that would be the first thing and if you allow me a second one, it’s to never over-promise things. So be able to probably take the opposite approach and saying, Hey, listen, I want to be able to over promise and under deliver. Because I think that that can help for a sorry under-promise and over-deliver. Teah thanks. And be able to do that under promise and over-deliver. Because it just allows, you know, a lot of times people are like, yeah, you’re going to do this, you’re going to do that. And so you have these expectations that are so high and unless you’re able to overcome those high high high expectations, you’re really setting yourself in potentially a relationship up for disaster. Right. And so that’s just I guess the way that I see it, always push yourself. But don’t be so over the top that you can endanger what could potentially be a wonderful relationship.
Richard Matthews 1:08:16
Yeah, absolutely. I love both of those. I know the first one like learning to treat others, whether they want to retreat, one of the things that really helped me bake that into my life was changing it up just a little bit. And it was to treat others the way that they would want to be treated. And it’s a really minor shift. But it’s the whole idea of putting yourself in someone else’s shoes and looking at the world the way that they want to look at it. And it’s always been really helpful, especially in terms of persuasion and other things. And hat when you look at the world through their shoes, it helps you to understand how you’re assuming. Right? And so it’s the same kind of thing, right? Because if you really think about it, we probably want to be treated the same way. But for me, at least when I come at it from their perspective, it helps me to come up with the actions that are actually going to impact them.
Billy Keels 1:09:15
You know, Richard, actually, I’ve never heard that before. And hearing you say that, and it does put things it’s I mean, it is a very small minor change, but it’s a major change. Right? Because you are putting yourself in their shoes right in. Yeah, I like that. I’ve not heard that before. So I even wrote it down.
Richard Matthews 1:09:34
They call it the golden rule, right? treat others the way that you would be want to be treated. And I call my change the Platinum rule.
Billy Keels 1:09:40
The Platinum Rule. Okay, here we go. See, here we go.
Richard Matthews 1:09:43
It’s just a little bit better.
Billy Keels 1:09:46
There we go. Perfect. I love that.
Richard Matthews 1:09:49
That’s basically a wrap on our interview. But I do finish every interview with a simple challenge I call the hero’s challenge. And I do this basically as a selfish way to get access to stories. I might not find otherwise, write for people who aren’t actually like actively looking to get on the podcast, the rounds, or whatever and the questions are simple. Do you have someone in your life or in your network that has a cool entrepreneurial story? Who are they? first names are fine. And why do you think they should come to share their story with us on the show?
Billy Keels 1:10:19
You want one person, right?
Richard Matthews 1:10:20
is one person, the first person that comes to your mind?
Billy Keels 1:10:23
Can I over-deliver? Would you be okay with that,
Richard Matthews 1:10:25
I would be okay with that
Billy Keels 1:10:26
I have two people. There’s a guy named Maurice. And that I’ve only met via zoom, I was introduced by someone else. And he’s someone who’s on an entrepreneurial journey, someone that maximizes every single day he’s working in multiple roles. And he is someone that I believe is, I’ve not met him face to face yet, but he’s someone who’s inspirational. There’s also another person that I consider a friend of mine, a guy named Sepp, who is one of the people that really helped me to understand more about real estate. And he’s one of the people that while I was here, in Barcelona, he was in California, and he really took time to understand and he’s someone who really practices empathy and abundant mindset. And those two people are the first two that come to my brain as people that I know that you would gain you and in your entire audience would gain lots and lots of insight and value by having conversations with those two guys. There’s a bunch of others, but those two guys only want to keep it to us for one and give you two.
Richard Matthews 1:11:34
Thank you very much. We’ll reach out after the show and see if we can get contact details, maybe invite them onto the show, sometimes they’ll say yes. And we get really cool interviews out of it. So that is basically a wrap on our show. So in comic books, there’s always the crowd of people who are standing around cheering for the acts of heroism and thank them for their work. So as we close our analogous to that is, I want to know where people can find you if they want your help in learning how to invest in real assets, right? Where can they light up the bat signal, so to speak, and say, Billy, hey, I would like your help learning how to do this. And I think more importantly than where is who are the right types of people to raise their hands and reach out and say, Hey, Billy, we’d love to get help from you.
Billy Keels 1:12:13
Yeah, sure. So if you don’t mind, give a couple different because it’s in treat people as they want to be treated. So because of that the Platinum Rule, the Platinum rule, I’m going to try and apply that now. I’m gonna apply for that now. I always find that people like to do things or have different flavors. So I try to make it really easy for people to contact me. For those people that are like, Hey, listen, you know what you really talked about things that really resonate with me, I’d like to explore a little bit more, they can go-to bit.li forward slash speak with Billy and get on a phone call. And I’d love to have a conversation with them. Just remind me that Richard and I were speaking and would definitely get on a free conversation. That’s the first thing I also love LinkedIn. And so if someone just wants to ping a message and go to LinkedIn, Billy Keels B, I, L, L, Y, K, E, E, L, S the guy who’s in Spain. And also to just reach out and let me know that you heard Richard and me or you saw Richard, speaking here on the Hero Show, which would be fantastic. If anybody just wants to also listen to what we’re doing and go to the Going long podcast with Billy Keels, and not just on all the major platforms. And then lastly, if you just want to check things out, you can go to billykeels.com. And in so there are other ways as well. We want to know about the energy, we can do that, but we’ll leave those for the show notes. But I think also to Richard, you ask, Who is the person right and the person, it’s the person that I’m on the mission to help, it’s the person that I think a lot of people are not necessarily thinking about nowadays, and it’s that person that is a high wage earner, that person that is spending all of their time, in that one particular role. It’s that person who is an entrepreneur who is earning lots and lots and they’ve got lots of ordinary income, and they’re trying to figure out a way as, how can I make sure that I keep as much of this capital as possible so that I can spend more of my time with my family. Those are the people that I am really on a mission to go out and help so that they can go beyond just that financial capital and build the other parts of the capital in their life out. And so I know we’ve mentioned it before. So those are the people that are helping and I guess one last thing is if specifically if people are interested in understanding that the last thing I talked about with energy, they can just send me an email to energy@billykeels.com. And with that, I will be quiet. So I hopefully that’s been helpful.
Richard Matthews 1:14:41
Thank you so much Billy for coming on. And of course, if you’re listening to this, and you’re in that space, you’re one of those high income earners or you’re an entrepreneur who’s looking to get some of that business income that you have been creating in that B quadrant. You’ve been reading Robert Kiyosaki want to move somebody into the I quadrant definitely take the time to reach out to Billy, one of the first guys I’ve had On, it’s talking about investing in real assets outside of real estate. So you got lots of interesting information you can probably learn from him. Billy, again, thank you so much for coming on the show here today, I can tell just from our conversation that we’re probably going to have more conversations in the future, that doesn’t always happen with our guests. So again, thank you so much for coming on today. And you have any final words of wisdom for our audience before I hit this stop record button?
Billy Keels 1:15:21
Yeah, you know, more than words of wisdom. If you’re interested in taking action, and Richard, those that are already following you, and a part of your family, your tribe, and I know that they’re here because they’re listening to you, and they’re taking action. So one of the things that, as a recovering perfectionist, I would say, take action before you’re actually ready to do that, you will self correct. And you’ll be able to get to the goals that you want to be able to do continue listening to Richard and the guests that he brings on and they’re going to give you more ideas to help you move forward. You’re doing the right things already. So continue to do that. And Richard, I just would like to thank you from the bottom of my heart for giving me the opportunity to have this conversation with you and share it with your audience as well. And would love to come back and have another conversation with you.
Richard Matthews 1:16:03
That’s awesome. I know what you said reminded me of something that, we mentioned, you know, my dad is a hero to me. And one of the things he said to me, I remember he was 19 years old, we’re staying on the lake Creek bank, and I was asking him about, I think we were talking about getting married, and he looks at me and he goes, son, if you wait until you’re ready, you’ll never do anything. Right. And it’s always been it’s stuck with me forever. That if you wait till you’re ready, you’ll never do anything because the part of the process of getting ready is actually taking the action and doing things when you’re not ready. So agree that you very much Billy.
Billy Keels 1:16:34
Thank you, Richard.
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Richard Matthews
Would You Like To Have A Content Marketing Machine Like “The HERO Show” For Your Business?
The HERO Show is produced and managed by PushButtonPodcasts a done-for-you service that will help get your show out every single week without you lifting a finger after you’ve pushed that “stop record” button.
They handle everything else: uploading, editing, transcribing, writing, research, graphics, publication, & promotion.
All done by real humans who know, understand, and care about YOUR brand… almost as much as you do.
Empowered by our their proprietary technology their team will let you get back to doing what you love while we they handle the rest.
Check out PushButtonPodcasts.com/hero for 10% off the lifetime of your service with them and see the power of having an audio and video podcast growing and driving awareness, attention, & authority in your niche without you having to life more a finger to push that “stop record” button.

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