Today Charlie talks to Candian Mikkel who currently lives and runs his business out in Panama. Together they talk about everything from dropping out of high school…to what it means to be a libertarian.
Mikkel shares how he uses global outsourcers to grow his empire, the power of getting rid of shitty customers.... and not being in a service mentality in order to really value yourself and your business in this game.
Discover more about One Man Empire here:
https://www.theonemanempire.com/
Okay, gentlemen, in today's episode, I've got for you McKell wildly famous
Speaker:podcast, hosts an expert on setting up and running a business overseas.
Speaker:Now me and McKell well, we go way back.
Speaker:And today we're going to get into dropping out of school at 12 dyslexia, being a
Speaker:libertarian male in the game today, and how he currently operates his business
Speaker:out of Panama with a team that's fully remote and basically the work while
Speaker:he fucking sleeps, which is amazing.
Speaker:So have you ever thought about the best way to run a business
Speaker:from anywhere in the world?
Speaker:You are going to love this That said what he says about
Speaker:outsourced work from overseas.
Speaker:It might fucking shock.
Speaker:You let's get to
Speaker:Fuck me I'm so excited.
Speaker:You've got a really, really interesting backstory So I'll
Speaker:let you take over and jump in.
Speaker:Sure brother.
Speaker:So basically what happened was when I was a child, I was diagnosed
Speaker:with a learning disability.
Speaker:They took me outta class and they sat me down in a room and they
Speaker:said, Macel something doesn't work quite right in your brain.
Speaker:We wanna send you to a special school.
Speaker:So that's what they did every day.
Speaker:For three years, I got on a little white bus across town and I went to
Speaker:this quote unquote, special school.
Speaker:Now the only problem Charlie was, it actually was not a special school.
Speaker:It was a regular school with a special class.
Speaker:So you can probably imagine what.
Speaker:I got in heaps of fights.
Speaker:I got picked on, I got bullied.
Speaker:Now this is no, I'm a victim, you know, delicate flower, poor me.
Speaker:To be honest with you, I got hit.
Speaker:I hit back twice as hard every time I could, like I would
Speaker:never, ever claim otherwise.
Speaker:And side note it's dyslexia, which we now know in this day
Speaker:and age is really not a big deal.
Speaker:Certainly not one to yank the kid outta school and, and
Speaker:have that type of experience.
Speaker:Anyways after three years of going to this special school and having not a
Speaker:lot of fun at school, I got to go back to my neighborhood one and I thought,
Speaker:wow, this is gonna be so amazing.
Speaker:All my friends will have missed me.
Speaker:And then you can kind of imagine day one, I go back to school and
Speaker:all the kids start gossiping and whispering and, oh, I know Mackel.
Speaker:He went to some retard.
Speaker:And I decided to stop going.
Speaker:And then of course, when I stopped going, I start failing and they'd put me in
Speaker:summer school and I would fail that.
Speaker:And um, long story short, I stopped going to school when I was 12 years old.
Speaker:But I officially dropped out when I was 15.
Speaker:And I started traveling internationally as a teenager.
Speaker:Not shortly after that.
Speaker:And that's what I've done.
Speaker:For 22, almost 23 years straight.
Speaker:Now I have been traveling I've been exploring the globe and I don't mean I did
Speaker:a w you know, a one week holiday here.
Speaker:And then I went down to Terry reef and I spent some time on the beach, no, like,
Speaker:I've lived in nine different countries.
Speaker:I've visited 110 countries.
Speaker:And built my business around this my personal life.
Speaker:It's my hobby.
Speaker:And yeah, man, that's a little bit about me and, how I got into this
Speaker:Michaelle.
Speaker:That's crazy.
Speaker:I had no idea about the background in school and what sort of response
Speaker:did you get from friends and family, when you're like, fuck it, I'm off.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I mean, it was kind of a two step process.
Speaker:Now it's very easy to look back and be like, I had everything figured out
Speaker:and I really knew what I was doing, but that would be a complete lie.
Speaker:I was a stupid, dumb angry kid, you know, who was pissed off because he was
Speaker:told that his brain doesn't work, right.
Speaker:And My father had always told me when I was growing up, that traveling was the
Speaker:best thing he ever did with his life.
Speaker:, he had backpack when he was 20 something around Europe and just
Speaker:had a great time and would always show me pictures every year.
Speaker:And told me it was the best thing he ever did with his life.
Speaker:And I always thought to myself, like, if it's the best thing, how
Speaker:come he only did one trip and you never did any more of it, you know?
Speaker:It didn't make sense to me, if you love it so much, and it's so amazing.
Speaker:Why don't you go out there and do more of it?
Speaker:Anyways, I I did my first trip as a teenager.
Speaker:I did Ireland, England and Wales, and for three weeks and
Speaker:I was like, this is amazing.
Speaker:My dad was completely right.
Speaker:And then my next trip, I think I was 19 years old and I went through Western
Speaker:Europe and for about four, four months.
Speaker:And then I went to north Africa and I spent two months in Morocco . So I
Speaker:was pretty fearless as a teenager and and didn't kind of let anybody tell
Speaker:me what I could and could not do.
Speaker:And
Speaker:yeah.
Speaker:It was fun.
Speaker:It still is fun.
Speaker:What I really like about that story Mackel is there's there's a thousand
Speaker:other people that might have been in that same situation and the
Speaker:amount of people that might sit there and be like, you know what?
Speaker:Yeah, it will be cool to go and travel and they come up with a hundred, one
Speaker:different reasons to why that's not possible, why they can't do that.
Speaker:And not only have you then been like, fuck.
Speaker:I can do it, but then you continue to do it , and keep going which is brilliant.
Speaker:So how old are you when you're like, this is something that
Speaker:I need to be doing full time
Speaker:When do you think that pivot point was for you?
Speaker:Yeah, so.
Speaker:pretty,
Speaker:It's pretty close to the beginning of the traveling.
Speaker:Probably by about 19, I knew I was gonna dedicate my life to this.
Speaker:And, you know, I was telling people I will go to every country on planet earth.
Speaker:And people laughed at me.
Speaker:Like they thought this.
Speaker:Completely crazy idea.
Speaker:But you know, 20, some odd years in now in 110 countries, I'm going strong.
Speaker:That's really cool.
Speaker:And what's really cool about that is that you're doing that way.
Speaker:You're operating, running the business as well.
Speaker:I know from a remote work standpoint, it's something you've been a
Speaker:huge advocate off for a long time.
Speaker:And I guess you were doing remote work before everyone was like, oh, this remote
Speaker:work thing, kind of fucking cool this.
Speaker:So talk, me through Macel, when did that entrepreneurial journey start for you?
Speaker:Yeah, when I first started traveling, I was doing whatever
Speaker:random, odd job I could get.
Speaker:I was working in hospitality and just gathering money.
Speaker:At some point I started reading about finance the stock market and investing
Speaker:and things like this equities.
Speaker:And I found derivatives options trading, and I just thought
Speaker:this is the coolest thing ever.
Speaker:And I totally went down the rabbit hole and got really into options,
Speaker:for well over seven years and did well in it, like made a lot of
Speaker:money and lost a lot of money.
Speaker:I mean, it's just kind of part of, part of the name of the game.
Speaker:At some point , I decided I wanted to try entrepreneurship and I had a
Speaker:couple of shitty failed businesses
Speaker:I was big into fitness, so I tried a bunch of fitness stuff the whole thing blew
Speaker:up, but it was a good learning experience.
Speaker:But you know, just starting to build a little bit of those skills
Speaker:but probably about seven years ago.
Speaker:I sat down and I was like, okay, I wanna try something else.
Speaker:I have this love for finance . And I have built my life around being an
Speaker:expat and traveling around the world.
Speaker:So I mashed the two together and I called it expat money.
Speaker:I know super, super creative, but that's what I did.
Speaker:I I started a podcast it's called the expat money show.
Speaker:We've been going six years now, 200 some odd episodes.
Speaker:Jim Rogers has been on grant Cardone lots of big names and lots of other
Speaker:names you probably wouldn't hear, and I built an entire business around
Speaker:this to help people to move overseas.
Speaker:So as I had been traveling around the world and very outspoken,
Speaker:libertarian . You know, I learned legal ways that I could reduce my taxation.
Speaker:So I like to say that I work in the practical side of libertarianism.
Speaker:So, you know, if you
Speaker:that
Speaker:let, just stop with there Michaelle.
Speaker:That word libertarianism, I think there's a load of
Speaker:misunderstanding around that term.
Speaker:And as you were explaining to me the first time, I'm like, fuck
Speaker:man, I'm right on board with this.
Speaker:So , talk me through what your definition of that libertarian is in ISEL
Speaker:. Sure.
Speaker:I think that, I mean, if you really wanna get into libertarianism,
Speaker:there's a thousand of one books and podcasts and everything like that.
Speaker:But in a nutshell, there's a few things that libertarians agree on.
Speaker:So one of the main things is called the non-aggression principle.
Speaker:Do not encroach on others.
Speaker:Don't hurt people, don't steal their stuff and do all that you will say you will do.
Speaker:So do not encroach on other people or their property and do
Speaker:all that you say you will do.
Speaker:So don't lie, steal, cheat, murder, rape.
Speaker:Heart hurt people, drop bombs on people or something like this.
Speaker:So libertarians believe this law, the non-aggression principle applies
Speaker:to everybody, applies to individuals.
Speaker:It applies to companies and corporations, and it applies to governments.
Speaker:. Governments seem to think that they are above natural law
Speaker:because that's what this is.
Speaker:And if you want to test this hypothesis, go out there one day and break it.
Speaker:As many times as you possibly can.
Speaker:So lie, steal, cheat, hurt people, and then see what happens to
Speaker:yourself at the end of the day.
Speaker:Is your life better or is it worse?
Speaker:Now the sister to the non-aggression principle is personal responsibility.
Speaker:And this is something that I believe in through and through.
Speaker:And I think as an entrepreneur, you have to believe this, or
Speaker:you will never go anywhere.
Speaker:If something happens, it's your fucking fault.
Speaker:Don't push it off on someone else.
Speaker:You know, oh my dog ate my homework or I'm late because of this.
Speaker:You're in control of your own , destiny, as long as you follow
Speaker:the non-aggression principle.
Speaker:You can do whatever you want and should be able to do whatever you want, but you
Speaker:have to take responsibility for yourself.
Speaker:Now, libertarianism for me, I say libertarian with a small L and I say
Speaker:this because there is the libertarian party capital L in the United States
Speaker:and that is a political organization.
Speaker:What I am talking about is not political whatsoever.
Speaker:This is ethics.
Speaker:This is morals.
Speaker:This is my north star.
Speaker:This is how I build my business, my life, how I treat my wife how I raise
Speaker:my children, how I interact with people.
Speaker:No, the policy is don't hurt people.
Speaker:Don't take their stuff and do what do what you say you were gonna do.
Speaker:If you make a promise, then keep it.
Speaker:You make a contract, then follow through and take responsibility for yourself.
Speaker:And it really, really, really is Charlie that simple.
Speaker:That's fucking awesome, man.
Speaker:And when you hear it like that, you're like, fuck me, like shortly that's
Speaker:to me, it seems like why wouldn't everyone operate by those principles?
Speaker:You know what I mean?
Speaker:There's so many people.
Speaker:I believe that go through life or go through this game or go through business
Speaker:and they don't have that guiding star and they fucking flip from one thing to
Speaker:another thing and then they wonder why shit hasn't gone the way that they want.
Speaker:And it's like, if you've got that direction, if you've got a core moral
Speaker:code that you stand by, everyone sees that your decisions, the way that you
Speaker:interact with people, they're like, okay, this, this guy's gotta stunt.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:A
Speaker:Cong.
Speaker:Well, because, okay, so there's a couple of things there.
Speaker:So most people are raised in public education.
Speaker:I told my story about being raised in public education.
Speaker:Public education has nothing to do with morals or ethics.
Speaker:Public education is to train you to work at a factory and to be complacent And
Speaker:do, as you're told to follow orders
Speaker:now, as entrepreneurs, we're outside of that box, like, I mean, most entrepreneurs
Speaker:are entrepreneurs because they're completely unemployable anywhere else.
Speaker:You know, we're a bunch of nut cases running around
Speaker:trying to do different things.
Speaker:And we got shiny object syndrome and we can't sit still
Speaker:so public education is not gonna teach you morals and ethics.
Speaker:I'm not very religious, but traditionally the church was supposed
Speaker:to be there for teaching these types of things, but we've seen.
Speaker:Massive decline in the church and things like that.
Speaker:So, and then if your parents don't know about it, then, like
Speaker:where are you gonna get it from?
Speaker:You're not getting it from mainstream media.
Speaker:You're not getting it from Hollywood.
Speaker:Forget about that.
Speaker:Talk about, about a bunch of corrupt, you know, like, like government
Speaker:Hollywood, mainstream media, I mean, there's just, there's nowhere.
Speaker:So if you don't actively go out there and research these things, then
Speaker:There's not a lot of options for you.
Speaker:So you gotta, take responsibility and start learning about
Speaker:these things yourself.
Speaker:And and I started learning about this really when I was about 16 years
Speaker:old and did very deep study on it.
Speaker:And really the last 10 years have.
Speaker:Dedicated my life to really living this way.
Speaker:And my income has gone up.
Speaker:My business has increased.
Speaker:My family life is fantastic.
Speaker:I am very blessed.
Speaker:I have a beautiful wife and two gorgeous children and, you know, and I'm teaching
Speaker:them, all about these types of things
Speaker:That's really cool.
Speaker:And there's probably a lot of people listening to this operating their
Speaker:own business that sat there fuck.
Speaker:You know what for me to be able to run business overseas or to start
Speaker:exploring the possibilities around that
Speaker:what's your thoughts on that?
Speaker:What do you believe the benefits are?
Speaker:Give the listeners an overview of what is possible and what
Speaker:can be done from your experience.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I mean, just very quickly on the tax side.
Speaker:Most Western countries function in a very similar manner.
Speaker:So if you leave the country and you break your your ties and you
Speaker:create a new tax home somewhere else
Speaker:most places, outside of the United States You will not have any filing requirements
Speaker:or tax requirements to your home country.
Speaker:There's about 42 or 43 countries in the world, which either follow a territorial
Speaker:tax system or have zero taxation, or we call them a nearshore jurisdiction.
Speaker:So it's drastically reduced taxation.
Speaker:So whatever you were paying in the UK right now, if you could
Speaker:take that and you know, reduce.
Speaker:By all of it and take yourself to 0% tax.
Speaker:That's usually pretty attractive as a business owner.
Speaker:And what this allows you to do is plow a ridiculous amount of money back into your
Speaker:business and grow it really, really fast.
Speaker:And, you know, I'd rather do it on the beach than in London . Like I
Speaker:live down here in central America, so I'm in Panama city Panama,
Speaker:and, you know, It's sunshine.
Speaker:Most days of the year, even in the rainy season, it's still sunny and
Speaker:you get lots of nice natural vitamin D and we eat organic food every day
Speaker:um, higher standard of living lower cost of living getting back to nature.
Speaker:um in In terms of workforce you've got a lot of remote workers.
Speaker:You're a big believer in, in outsourcing and all that sort of stuff.
Speaker:And I'm a huge believer in keeping things, lean, minimizing employees,
Speaker:maximizing systems and, and putting that stuff, um, in place.
Speaker:So it'd be cool to get your thoughts on that.
Speaker:Yeah, well, you and I have a mutual friend , and I think we discussed it when we were
Speaker:in person in Italy together not long ago for me automation is really anything
Speaker:that you don't have to do yourself.
Speaker:So if you have systems and software to do it amazing, but also if you
Speaker:have a virtual assistant who does it for you and you don't have to
Speaker:do it, then that's also automation.
Speaker:So I've got 17 staff.
Speaker:Like I figured out very.
Speaker:Early that my my core competencies are writing and speaking.
Speaker:These are the things that I'm very good at that I can be paid
Speaker:the most amount of money for.
Speaker:So I kind of focus just on those two things.
Speaker:You know, I write emails, I write blog posts and I talk on
Speaker:zoom and I do interviews like your awesome new show, you know?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And that's it, you know, like I have managers, I've got an office manager.
Speaker:I've got a project manager, I got a podcast manager, I
Speaker:got a social media manager.
Speaker:They manage their own teams.
Speaker:I do a Monday morning meeting every well, every Monday.
Speaker:For 60 minutes, I get the breakdown.
Speaker:I get , my weekly reports on Friday.
Speaker:I go through that on the weekend, . And then Monday morning meeting, we go through
Speaker:everything who needs help what's going on this week, et cetera, et cetera.
Speaker:And then I'm six hours a day on zoom, either talking to clients
Speaker:or doing calls or interviews or that's it like that's my business.
Speaker:That's really Interestings, fucking golden shower, really of insight.
Speaker:In terms of, I suppose, figuring out what you're good at and when
Speaker:you know what you're good at, why the fuck would you bother wasting
Speaker:your time doing anything else?
Speaker:I can get someone else to do the other stuff that I can't do.
Speaker:And I can focus on doing the things that I do really, really well.
Speaker:So, in, in terms of the 17 stuff there , how have you put that together?
Speaker:Pretty much everyone is remote.
Speaker:You know, in four or five different countries.
Speaker:And I do like asymmetrical work type of plan.
Speaker:So besides Couple of my managers.
Speaker:Everybody works on their own time zone, whatever they wanna work.
Speaker:If they get inspired at two o'clock in the morning and they wanna work great.
Speaker:I just do task based , this is what needs to be done.
Speaker:This is the projects for the week.
Speaker:You've agreed to work 40 hours a week, get it done.
Speaker:I don't care.
Speaker:Also side note, I only hire other libertarians.
Speaker:I made this decision a few years ago, so I hire people who are
Speaker:morally and ethically aligned
Speaker:You know what?
Speaker:Life's too short to spend time with people you don't agree with or don't wanna
Speaker:work with.
Speaker:So everybody who works with me is a libertarian and it makes things
Speaker:really smooth because they all understand personal responsibility.
Speaker:So when I give 'em the responsibility, they're like, holy crap.
Speaker:I've never had this before in my life.
Speaker:And if they can't hack it, if they can't make their own schedule or get the
Speaker:stuff done, then they're outta there.
Speaker:You
Speaker:I feel we're gonna have a problem on the back of this interview, Michaelle,
Speaker:and here's gonna be the big problem.
Speaker:Everyone's gonna listen to that and be like, fucking hell.
Speaker:I need libertarians as members of staff, because they take responsibility for
Speaker:their shit and they understand when stuff doesn't go the way it needs to go.
Speaker:It's their responsibility,
Speaker:yeah.
Speaker:the price of libertarian
Speaker:staff is gonna raise, you know, with one interview.
Speaker:The amount of conversations we have inside of our groups,
Speaker:which is like, fucking hell.
Speaker:What's gone on with the general public or employees.
Speaker:Can't take responsibility for that shit.
Speaker:I think people are gonna be listening to this and being like, I think
Speaker:Miguel's, he's cracked the code.
Speaker:What I thought was brilliant actually, that you said.
Speaker:Was the, concept of, of people in different time zones as well.
Speaker:I used to have an agency business.
Speaker:This that was going back maybe 10, 12 years ago.
Speaker:We, at the time we had a lot of outsource stuff that was based , in India . And
Speaker:for me, the ability to be having conversations in the UK about projects.
Speaker:And then when we go to bed here, have a team that's still working on
Speaker:those projects through the night.
Speaker:So that could be delivered to the client.
Speaker:The next day was phenomenal.
Speaker:And it it's sort of like an age in a time where there wasn't.
Speaker:Let's call it international workforces.
Speaker:We were so far ahead of everywhere else.
Speaker:And I think that gets forgotten a lot of the time.
Speaker:People forget that , by having people in different time zones, you can go
Speaker:to bed and wake up the next morning and shit's magically fucking done.
Speaker:There's no delay.
Speaker:There's no one coming in the office at nine o'clock the next morning.
Speaker:And then starting on the task.
Speaker:It's literally it's happening right now and immediately.
Speaker:Well, okay.
Speaker:Let me add to that because that is a very good point.
Speaker:. I don't have 500 emails back and forth with my staff, because if they're
Speaker:on a different time zone, , they know that there's not gonna be a
Speaker:response for eight or 10 hours.
Speaker:So they have to solve their own problems.
Speaker:So it's like, instead of like nitpicking, like, oh, well, what about this?
Speaker:Well, what about this?
Speaker:What about this?
Speaker:It's like, they have to make a decision and if it's the wrong
Speaker:decision, then we deal with it.
Speaker:But most times they figure it out.
Speaker:It might be, not be exactly how you would've done it yourself.
Speaker:But the amount of time you save and interrupting
Speaker:even that's that, that's huge, isn't it?
Speaker:And I think especially now with, the way that communication works,
Speaker:and , from conversations that we have behind the closed doors here
Speaker:with our groups of people going.
Speaker:Fucking hell.
Speaker:Employees seem to have forgotten how to do shit for themselves , to think for
Speaker:themselves, we, this will make you smile.
Speaker:, we had one of the guys reporting inside of the group that they turned
Speaker:up for work on Monday morning, expecting a full team in there.
Speaker:The phone rings at five past nine.
Speaker:And it's a woman on the end of the phone and she's like her.
Speaker:She's like Alex I'm the mum of, let's say Jeremy, and Jeremy's not
Speaker:gonna be coming into work today.
Speaker:Cause he doesn't feel too well.
Speaker:He's a little bit poorly and I'm like, fuck.
Speaker:Now we are in a state now where people are getting their
Speaker:mums to ring in sick for them.
Speaker:Like that's, that's about
Speaker:education.
Speaker:it's fucked up fucked up
Speaker:our Friend someone that both you and I respect a lot, Dan Kennedy
Speaker:, they're looking for somewhere else to plug in their umbilical cord.
Speaker:And I mean, that's, they walk around the streets and that's what they're
Speaker:trying to figure out, you know?
Speaker:And it's just unbelievable.
Speaker:it's crazy.
Speaker:Quickly, on the remote working side of things, and especially on , email
Speaker:communication back and forth.
Speaker:With 17 in people dotted over different time zones, how do you
Speaker:manage that internal communication?
Speaker:How do you manage projects?
Speaker:How do you have that set up how do you make sure that stuff does get done?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So we have three different systems.
Speaker:We use.
Speaker:Traditional email for larger things, especially if I just want to get
Speaker:something out, but I don't want someone to respond to me very quickly or like,
Speaker:I don't wanna hear back from them.
Speaker:Then we have telegram.
Speaker:So we've got a secure channel on telegram and you know, it's not too active people.
Speaker:Like if they start bantering back and forth and telling jokes or sending memes,
Speaker:one of the managers will get in there and be like, okay, enough of this, we
Speaker:don't know it need MACLE to go through.
Speaker:63 messages when he wakes up in the morning or something like that.
Speaker:And then we use Trello , for a project board.
Speaker:And I just, I just.
Speaker:My project manager, all of my crazy ideas via whatever is easiest for me,
Speaker:so, I'll email him or telegram him at one o'clock in the morning
Speaker:when I have some crazy idea.
Speaker:And then he has the fun job.
Speaker:Figuring out how to make it a reality and put it in Trello
Speaker:and then write manuals for it.
Speaker:He writes all the business manuals for the team, for the organization.
Speaker:. And that system has worked very well for me.
Speaker:That's cool.
Speaker:What I really liked about what you said there, Mackel the word , that I've got
Speaker:printed across my chest here, , that phrase one man empire, I think a lot
Speaker:of people see that term as meaning a business with just one person in.
Speaker:And I think a lot of the time that is true.
Speaker:The flip side of that, . It's actually, it's about doing
Speaker:what you talked about there.
Speaker:And it's being like, actually, I'm the man at the helm of the business
Speaker:and I am operating that empire.
Speaker:Now that doesn't mean I'm doing everything.
Speaker:I'm making the entrepreneurial decisions.
Speaker:I've got the vision, I've got the drive.
Speaker:And that also gives me the power then to have other people to deploy.
Speaker:Or to deliver on what that vision and what that drive is.
Speaker:And that's where that real scale and that real growth gets into.
Speaker:And I imagine that's probably how you've done the, growth that you've
Speaker:done over the last seven years, which has been fucking phenomenal
Speaker:it's really cool.
Speaker:Really
Speaker:Yeah, definitely.
Speaker:I would agree with that.
Speaker:Definitely because yeah, you have to take responsibility for these
Speaker:types of things and take ownership of it . I mean, I manage my managers,
Speaker:but I trust them to do their own job.
Speaker:If there's a big problem, then I will step in.
Speaker:I mean, I sign all the checks.
Speaker:There's some excellent software out there for watching what people are doing.
Speaker:So I mostly do hourly wages and then I'll go in once a week and
Speaker:I'll see their mouse clicks.
Speaker:The typing and screenshots of their screen.
Speaker:So if they're screwing around or they're on Twitter or something like
Speaker:that, you know, I'll catch 'em and , in most cases, it's like a one warning,
Speaker:. And I tell them, right, from first day of hiring, like I'm an
Speaker:asshole and I will check everything
Speaker:I will be watching everything you do.
Speaker:There's gonna be eyes on you.
Speaker:And maybe I shouldn't reveal all my secrets in case any of my employees are
Speaker:watching here, but I probably don't watch as much as I let on that I watch, but I do
Speaker:wanna put a bit of fear of God into them.
Speaker:I love that honesty.
Speaker:And I think in a, in an age where everyone is being told that they
Speaker:need to bend over backwards, though, the customer was always right.
Speaker:Employees were always right.
Speaker:is always
Speaker:fuck that that never has a stupid, a phrase being muttered.
Speaker:It's it's you've
Speaker:well that end give value, value is like, have to understand that people
Speaker:only respect things that they pay for.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:I do a lot of free stuff out there.
Speaker:I have a very popular podcast and a blog and a newsletter.
Speaker:So you might look at this and go, you know, what is he talking about?
Speaker:But to talk to me one on one to have any type of consultations with me, , I
Speaker:charge five figures to get on the phone to discuss any of these things.
Speaker:. So.
Speaker:I don't think that you need to do things like give everything away for
Speaker:free or give away your time or let you know, let people push you around.
Speaker:Actually, they don't respect you afterwards anyways, so you have to
Speaker:be a little bit strict with them and set the guidelines and the rules.
Speaker:This goes for employees, for clients, for customers, for everything like that.
Speaker:And I think that it's actually better for them.
Speaker:It's better for us.
Speaker:And.
Speaker:Yeah, it just after many years of doing this that's what I've.
Speaker:It is interesting.
Speaker:I show a video literally two days ago and it was going along the same thing.
Speaker:Fuck value.
Speaker:The value comes in the deliverable.
Speaker:, the value is , in what you deliver to the client to help them solve their problems.
Speaker:And Macel you talk about ruthlessly controlling employees
Speaker:and customers and clients.
Speaker:I'm a big believer in sacking customers if they Dick me around.
Speaker:If someone is taken the piss, you're gone.
Speaker:I don't care how long you've been here.
Speaker:I've gotta get rid.
Speaker:Where, when was the last time you SED a, a client or a customer?
Speaker:, cause I'm sure you've been just as ruthless over the years as I have
Speaker:yeah, I had to do it a couple of months ago again
Speaker:, I had a client who came to me and.
Speaker:, you know, one of these tax strategies and a whole bunch of different things.
Speaker:And I said, okay, we can work through all of that when you engage my services.
Speaker:Well, what about this?
Speaker:What about this?
Speaker:What is this like?
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:We can work through all of this when you engage my services.
Speaker:So finally engages me, pays me , my fee.
Speaker:We go through it, we spend about a month together, going back and forth
Speaker:a few calls and things like that.
Speaker:And him and his wife.
Speaker:Don't like the answers that they get.
Speaker:They wanna do something and it's literally not legal.
Speaker:And I'm like, I'm not like I.
Speaker:to help fraud.
Speaker:Like that's that's not on the cards.
Speaker:Like, I don't care how much money you pay me.
Speaker:And so then he wanted all of his money back because he didn't get
Speaker:the answers that he wanted and we ended up settling in the end.
Speaker:But.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Sometimes people are absolutely ridiculous.
Speaker:We parted ways on amicable terms, but yeah, I felt a giant relief
Speaker:of stress when I had gotten rid of this client, because it was just.
Speaker:just a, not a good situation to be in whatsoever.
Speaker:Isn't it amazing.
Speaker:You mentioned Dan Kennedy earlier he has the phrase which I've coined
Speaker:a couple of times that said , if I wake, up thinking about you three
Speaker:mornings in a row and I'm not sleeping with you, then, you've gotta go.
Speaker:Definitely.
Speaker:that hole opens up, there are other people to fill the
Speaker:hole like to fill The gap Like not like it's not like there is a finite
Speaker:amount of clients or customers or money or anything like that.
Speaker:I understand that by not having those types of people around, actually it's
Speaker:gonna help grow the entire business.
Speaker:Cuz now I'm not stressed.
Speaker:I'm an asshole.
Speaker:Like I make people jump through so many hoops to work with
Speaker:me and, you know, That's okay.
Speaker:Because the people that I normally get, they're amazing clients and
Speaker:they know what to expect and they know how things are going to work
Speaker:It doesn't help anybody in the end, bending over backwards and trying
Speaker:to work on everyone else's schedule and everything else, like we said
Speaker:earlier, they don't respect you for it.
Speaker:They abuse it and then they don't follow through with , what they want anyways.
Speaker:And I don't know if you've had this.
Speaker:But when my prices were much lower.
Speaker:And I would make recommendations for people.
Speaker:They would then go out there behind my back and like start shopping for other
Speaker:things on this and this and this.
Speaker:But when I started charging a lot more and saying like, okay,
Speaker:this is what needs to be done.
Speaker:This is the way it works.
Speaker:Then they just do it.
Speaker:Then they get the results, which is that, that's what this is all about.
Speaker:like, like they need to get the results.
Speaker:So it's like, all right, I'm gonna charge good amount of money now.
Speaker:Like it is just things fall into easier So
Speaker:. I think it's, it's that
Speaker:And I think what plays into that as well, Michaelle you, I know
Speaker:you've got a similar sort of process that we, we operate here is the.
Speaker:I will call it an application process, but the ability to become a client,
Speaker:the ability to become a customer, the ability to become a member that isn't
Speaker:given, just because you, you wanna do it just because you wanna give me money.
Speaker:That doesn't mean that I'm gonna accept that money.
Speaker:And that doesn't mean that we're gonna work together.
Speaker:And I think I.
Speaker:That goes against a lot of traditional thinking.
Speaker:Whether that comes out with school system, it's like, you should be
Speaker:grateful that if someone's willing to give you cash, you should accept it
Speaker:and you should bend over backwards.
Speaker:And again, I'm sure you've had the same thing.
Speaker:There is real power that comes from going, whoa, fucking hold on there, buddy.
Speaker:Before, before we can have this conversation, I need you to go
Speaker:and watch this three hour thing.
Speaker:I think you need to go and fill out these 64 questions and then
Speaker:I'm gonna decide whether or not we are going to continue this
Speaker:Yeah, Charlie, you are not a be.
Speaker:Neither I, not a, pan know, like, I mean, we can build our lives the way we want.
Speaker:And with that comes with choosing our and being very selective things.
Speaker:And once again, maybe I sound like complete asshole here, but
Speaker:you know, this is my life, man.
Speaker:This is the one life I have to live.
Speaker:I am absolutely gonna be protective over my time and gonna spend it
Speaker:with people that I genuinely.
Speaker:You know, want to be with, and that can help and that are
Speaker:motivated to get things done.
Speaker:I wanna work with people who get things done.
Speaker:taking ownership of that and knowing that as the business owner, you're the one
Speaker:who's providing the value and you don't have to be out there being a bagger or,
Speaker:or groveling, or like a boot liquor.
Speaker:Asking for please, sir, please, no, that's just, it's a terrible,
Speaker:terrible way to go about.
Speaker:And I think , the ironic thing is, I think as soon as that penny drops as
Speaker:soon as you realize, actually, that you can control who your clients and your
Speaker:customers are, whether you're a butcher baker, candlestick maker, and actually
Speaker:you start bringing those people on board and the people that start giving
Speaker:you money are people that you like or people that have shared interests
Speaker:all of a sudden, all the friction fucking vanishes because you're having
Speaker:conversations with customers that you like having conversations with.
Speaker:It's like, you're speaking to friends, you're having a good time.
Speaker:Everything becomes fucking fun.
Speaker:And all, all of a sudden this word work that gets, gets used, like
Speaker:going to work I'm I'm doing work.
Speaker:It ain't fucking work anymore.
Speaker:It's.
Speaker:It's fun.
Speaker:You're dealing with people you like dealing with, you're doing, like you
Speaker:said, I understand what I'm good at.
Speaker:I like talking.
Speaker:I like speaking and the whole game becomes so much simpler.
Speaker:Once the game becomes simpler, you wanna do it more and the more you
Speaker:wanna do it, the more money you can make and the more potential you have,
Speaker:it's like a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Speaker:Once that mental switch is made, in terms of you get to control the game,
Speaker:you get to determine who you work with.
Speaker:You get to determine what the fees are, and rather, than that being a barrier
Speaker:to what you can do and what you can be.
Speaker:It actually becomes the facilitator to making more, providing more,
Speaker:being more and everything that goes on with that whole thing.
Speaker:I think it's fucking amazing, man.
Speaker:I think it's great how you operate.
Speaker:And , right on track from one man empire principal standpoint,
Speaker:Very nice.
Speaker:Thanks so much having me, Charlie.
Speaker:And if you're people wanna find out more about what I do, you can
Speaker:send 'em over to expat money.com.
Speaker:We're also doing a summit it's.
Speaker:November 7th to 11th.
Speaker:It's an online summit.
Speaker:Tickets are free.
Speaker:Kel.
Speaker:That sounds amazing.
Speaker:So, What was the URL?
Speaker:Expat money, summit.com.
Speaker:The main website is expat money.com and on expat money.com.
Speaker:You'll see the blog and webinars and how to get ahold of me
Speaker:all of these types of things.
Speaker:And you can yeah.
Speaker:SOEL you're legend.
Speaker:My friend.
Speaker:Appreciate you.
Speaker:And look forward to catch.
Speaker:See.
Speaker:Holy fuck gentlemen.
Speaker:What an absolute.
Speaker:Shower of insight there from McKell I'll tell you what right now, what I'm going
Speaker:to be doing is I'm going straight online.
Speaker:I'm going to search for as many libertarian outsource
Speaker:workers that I can find.
Speaker:Cause they sound like the people that I need here and this sort of my businesses.
Speaker:Other than that, my friends It says, consider the special you
Speaker:want to avoid paying tax at, especially if you want to live in a
Speaker:place which has got some sunshine.
Speaker:While the business still fucking works, keeps producing money and does some
Speaker:really I've been charlie harden and you've been listening to mckell and