Scaling with Systems: Sustainable Business Growth and Legacy Building with Ral West

0:01 Welcome to The Coaching Equation, brought to you by Empire Partners and hosted by Ryan Lang and Brooke Bishop. Our mission is to help you build a profitable and impactful coaching business by cutting through the noise and all the expert advice to deliver tried and true, actionable insights that you can deploy in your business today. Each week, we bring on expert guests, unveil cutting-edge tactics and strategies, and share the secrets and stories that we've gathered from working with the most successful coaching companies on earth. Welcome back to the Coaching Equation Podcast.

0:41 I'm your host, Ryan Lang, alongside my good buddy, co-host and co-founder, Brooke Bishop. And we've got a special guest in the house today. Raul West is with us. Raul, great to see you. Hello. Good to see you. Now, I kind of feel like the first question, I think I know the answer to this just based on your background because I've seen it before. And I mean like the background I'm visually looking at right now. But I feel like an appropriate question is kind of where in the world are you? And I think in Alaska today, maybe. Our friends ask me that all the time, too. I bet. I'm in our Sitka, Alaska home at the moment.

1:23 Excellent. Excellent. Well, Raoul, we are so excited to dig in with you on so many different topics. And you are such a wealth of knowledge when it comes to business and entrepreneurship and lifestyle. I really want to kind of start at the beginning a little bit, if we can. Tell us a little bit about how you got your entry into being a business owner. How did that begin? I think it began with my birth. I was born into an entrepreneurial family. My mother's parents were entrepreneurs and my father was an entrepreneur.

2:04 He started a business in Alaska in the 1940s, a long time before I was born. And he became known as the father of Alaska tourism. In fact, they call him Mr. Alaska. And he wrote a book about himself, you know, no small ego. Yeah. And so I grew up in a family that was all about being in business for yourself. And the first 10 years or so of my career, I worked for other people, including my family business. And then I struck out on my own and ended up in Anchorage, Alaska, opening a small marketing consulting business. And in the beginning, it was just me. That was over 40 years ago.

2:46 I was very, very young. Wow. When you made that, because obviously in business in general, in the 40 plus years that you've been in business, there are multiple leaps that we have to make. And I know right now there are people listening to this episode, regardless of their age, that haven't yet made their first leap and they want to be able to do that. What helped you make that first leap? Ooh, the first leap takes guts. It helps to have a little savings account that you can fall back on because, of course, the initial question that comes to mind is, how am I going to live? How am I going to pay the rent, mortgage, or whatever it is that, you know, to have a place to stay and food and cars and, you know, whatever else you need?

3:29 So where's the money going to come from? I was fortunate that I did have some savings and I actually had a job in Ketchikan, Alaska. I grew up in Seattle, by the way. My father moved the family and the business to Seattle before I was born. So I grew up in the city and got a job offer in Ketchikan, Alaska, which is the furthest south city in Alaska. And in about 1980, I moved to Ketchikan to become director of marketing for a tour company. And after a little over a year there, I said, this is not for me. I kept wanting to tell the owner how to run the business and thinking, yeah, maybe I just need to strike out on my own.

4:12 So that's one of the first signs is that, you know, when you get really impatient online, with the people around you and you think you know how to do everything better than they do, maybe you should be your own boss. So that and having a little bit of a nest egg helps. I packed up and moved to Anchorage, bought a condo and started working in my home. Now, the other major challenge is that when you're working for yourself, and you don't have a boss, you have to make sure that you've got some self-discipline. And I can tell you those first few months, I had the best watered plants. I had no piles of laundry. You know, I was getting everything done except working on my business.

4:55 And a really good friend of mine who also happened to have been my boss in Ketchikan said, well, get off your butt and get to work, you know? So I did. And eventually I found a small office that I could rent just an office in like inside a larger office. And that helped me discipline wise because it made me get out of the house and go to work. And when I was there, you know, I would work. So that was a major hurdle for me. And then it was the next little small office that I moved to where across the hall from me was this guy who had his own business. And he ended up being my husband. So no way.

5:35 He was the boy across the hall. Rouse a closer. Yeah, no kidding. I love that. Oh, my goodness. He kind of started off being a client, sort of, but he wanted to pay me by taking me out to dinner. And I said, well, you know, okay. And then I picked the most expensive restaurant that I could think of. Yes. I love this. Oh, it's so good. That's so good. And I hope you haven't stopped that. I hope you're still making and pay you by taking you to the best restaurants. Oh, absolutely. You know, we can talk about our world travels when you're ready. Yes, I know we will. I know we will. In those early days of business, what were kind of the things that you feel like Started to tell you, I think one of the things that you... And you kind of talked about this.

6:24 When you become a business owner, you got to kind of learn self-discipline. I think also one of the things that I know feels really nebulous to a lot of people at the beginning is how do we kind of judge whether or not we're actually succeeding slash moving in the right direction beyond like there's the obvious, which is like, I can't pay my phone bill in my office. You're right. Right. But beyond that, I think there are so many different metrics that fly around and different people have different vantage points on what you should and shouldn't pay attention to. Circling back to your early times and maybe with what you've learned now, if you were advising somebody who is starting a business now, what would you tell them in the first six months to 12 months to pay attention to?

7:12 Well, this year actually pointing us to one of my major lessons in business. And it came about several years into my business entrepreneurial career. And that was that I felt like I wasn't making enough money. You know, it was like you said, paying the bills and so forth. It's like, where am I going to, how am I going to pay the bills? Yeah. And I hired a consultant and we sat down with all of my financials and I said, I just don't know how to make money. And she looked at them and she says, no, that's not your problem. It's clear that you know how to make money. Look at your gross revenue line. We're looking at the P&L, profit loss statement. And she said, what you're not doing is making a profit.

7:55 Wow. And that was the bottom line. And I went, oh, I mean, it seems like, duh, you know, that should have been a very obvious thing. But I was not focused on that bottom line. And believe you me, from then on, I have been focused on the bottom line because it's the bottom line that's going to pay your bills. And I still see businesses... Businesses that have been around for many years, big businesses, small businesses who tout their gross revenue. Like, really? Well, that's great. But what's your net? What's the net profit? And that's what counts. That's what's going to pay the bills or make payroll for employees if you have employees, et cetera.

8:36 So you do need to set yourself up with an excellent way of keeping track of the money. Have QuickBooks or something that's going to give you a profit and loss statement. Balance sheet is nice too, but really when you're starting out, you just need to know your profit and loss and you need to know that there's black ink on the bottom of that page and not red. So good. So, so good. I have a little side question to this within that, that scope, right? Obviously figuring out the numbers and figuring out the profits and getting the math dialed in there. At what point did you really feel like I am my own boss and this is going to be forever the direction that I want to go? Like, was it in the same space of truly seeing the math was there or was there some other experience or moment in time where you went, yep, I'm the boss.

9:23 Like I've got this. I think because of my background being in an entrepreneurial family, I never doubted that I could be my own boss. And my father, who I had quit working for the family company and he was sad, but he was very supportive of me and going out and doing my own thing. And so I had that kind of encouragement and foundation underneath me. It wasn't a financial foundation necessarily, but I knew I had somebody that I could turn to for advice and that helped a lot. So I think one of the questions that needs to be answered is, you know, what do I do about mentors? And if you don't have a father like mine, find yourself some mentors.

10:07 You have to have somebody else to help you along on this journey. You don't know everything, even though I thought I did, you know, I was in my training. I may have had that syndrome. Yes. So believe it or not, yeah, we need to learn from others. And so I didn't doubt that, yeah, this was who I am. And this is what I'm going to be the rest of my life. And I just, I really never have worked for anyone else since. And so that was 1980. I was 81, actually, when I started the business. So there have been times when I was involved in a bigger corporation and it kind of looked like I was an employee and I may have had a paycheck, but I was also one of the owners.

10:55 So that's different. Yeah, I would say. I'm trying to put myself in your shoes, but just thinking early 80s as a woman in Alaska, launching a business, the landscape of then versus today just seems so much radically different. Just thinking of some of the obstacles that you had probably overcome being in that, share a little bit about that because that just seems crazy to me. Well, this is going to paint me as being really old, but we didn't have cell phones. We didn't even have fax machines. I had one of those IBM correcting Selectric typewriters that I rented to begin with.

11:35 ratcheting up. And when I got my first computer, it was one of those Osborne computers. You probably have never even heard of them, but you carried it around in a little suitcase type thing. And I think its RAM was maybe 20 megabytes or something. So yeah, I mean, technology, that's speaking about technology, but I never really had a problem with being a woman. Yes, there were You know, issues around being treated maybe, you know, like, oh, you know, she's just a little girl, you know, that sort of thing. But I didn't let that stop me. I haven't let very much stop me.

12:16 So that brings up another thing that you have to have in order to be successful. And that is the right mindset. You do have to know that you can do it. Mm-hmm. And I'm not going to paint myself as never having had doubts. Of course I have. Of course, there have been times that I've been overwhelmed and depressed and I don't know which way to turn. But then you dig deep, you know, and then you just, you know, you really get in touch with your heart and like, am I really doing what I am meant to do? There was a time later on, because I later joined my husband's business that he started as a result of the consulting that I did with him. And we started working together. And we hit a really huge hurdle in about 1990.

13:01 And the question was, should we just shut the doors? I mean, we were taking cash advances on our credit cards to make payroll. Wow. Yeah, it was tough. And we went out to lunch to talk this over. And... We just did that digging deep that I was talking about and went, no, the product that we're offering, which is we were chartering jets to take people to Hawaii from Alaska. Well, actually, at that point, we hadn't actually started chartering them ourselves. We were selling tickets on airlines and took Alaskans to Hawaii. And the thing that came up for us in that lunch conversation was, this is a service that's needed.

13:46 People in Alaska need to get to Hawaii, especially in the winter. You know, it's cold and dark here and they need this. It's like a public service, you know, almost like a nonprofit, but we were nonprofit at the time, but we didn't want to be. And so, you know, it's the, finding out what your calling is, what you're passionate about. And we were passionate about taking Alaskans to Hawaii. And it was after that, that my husband figured out a way to find a jet that we could charter. And people thought we were crazy. And what are you doing? In fact, my husband, they wanted us to sign a letter of credit and we didn't have the net worth to put to put up her teacher's retirement account as collateral for this letter of credit.

14:42 And that was like, oh, wow. Okay. No, we do not want to lose mom's retirement money. So he was highly motivated to make sure that every seat on that charter jet was full. And yeah, that's what we did. Talk about burning the boats. Good Lord. Yeah, no kidding. Yeah. Yes. And that's the other part about being in business for yourself is that there are risks. Sometimes there are huge risks. We happen to have chosen one of the industries that has the most risks. It's very capital intensive and labor intensive. And Warren Buffett even says, don't go into business with airplanes. And we did. Take that, Warren.

15:27 Oh, man. And that's where we started really, pardon the pun, taking off. Yeah. Aha. Look at that. Love it. There's so much to dig in on here. One of the things as it relates to mindset, because I think this is a key component. I think most often people typically kind of find themselves in one camp or another. You're either, you know, like me, where like by nature and also by nurture, by the way, I have almost no aversion to risk at all. Like my tolerance for risk is through the roof. Yeah. And then you have people who are super play it safe, like, oh, my gosh, you know, if there's any risk at all, we have a problem here.

16:07 And I feel like one of the things that I've learned, you know, in business over the years that I didn't understand when I was young, when I was young, I thought, oh, this is great. I've just got this crazy risk tolerance. I can do whatever the hell I want. And everything's going to work out wonderfully. Well, obviously, I found out the hard way. That's not how that works. Yeah. But I feel like on either end of the spectrum, I don't know a lot of people who are just naturally gifted to be in that kind of unicorn middle space between those two extremes. What would you say is kind of... The key in your mind to finding that middle ground between understanding, listen, if I'm going to be an entrepreneur and a business owner, I have to be willing to take risks.

16:51 But there's some point where I'm going to say, yeah, probably not going to do that right now. That's too much to leverage. Okay. I think that what mitigates risk is doing your homework and making the risk a calculated risk. Like, for example, when we set out to charter that first jet, it was a charter for the summertime in Alaska. And we were told, people don't go to Hawaii from Alaska in the summer. You know, you're not only crazy, you're like super crazy. And yet... I had the numbers and I did a spreadsheet.

17:32 By that time we had computers and spreadsheets. And I figured out how many passengers we had actually sold tickets to in previous summers. So you just look at the data. And I said, yes, we can do this because we've done it before. We haven't done it on our own plane, but we know that the market is there. So taking a risk with Some calculation and getting your data straight is sort of like putting a safety net underneath you if you're going to walk across a tightrope. You're not going to walk across a tightrope across the Grand Canyon or something for the first time unless you have some kind of tightrope or some kind of thing around your waist to hold you.

18:15 Yep, yep. So, you know, risk taking is great. Crazy, stupid risk taking. No, not so good. So, you know, be calculated about it. I'm going to agree with that 100%. How do you make a let's go back for a second to that person who's sort of at the beginning of the journey right now? And let's say that right now they find themselves in a position where they're in the JLB at the moment and they've cultivated some skill set and they've got something they want to go do. How do you make a calculated risk when you're starting the business in the first place? That goes back to two points.

18:55 One is that safety net can be like a savings account or some other source of income. And the other thing can be getting your data about what is your product that you're selling and is there a market for it? You know, do some research, do some casting about and research. find out if there is somebody out there who will buy this product from you, because that's what it's all about. You can have the greatest widget in the world, but if nobody wants it, you know, you're nowhere. So, you know, one of the things, you know, and again, depending on the risk tolerance of the person, they can start a side hustle. And, and take this product and do some testing and do it on the side without giving up their J-O-B and that nice W-2 income.

19:44 You know, a lot also depends on who are your dependents. Are you the sole breadwinner for your family? And is this going to be the make it or break it for your family? So in that case, you're going to be a little more careful about what kind of risks you want to take. But if you have a couple of bread earners in the family, you know, maybe you've got some cushion there. So it all depends. But there are ways to go about it in a scientific and strategic way so that it doesn't have to be, you know, jumping out of an airplane without a parachute. I love that you mentioned that because I think there's so much and most of it comes from the right place.

20:26 And I think a lot of it is well-founded, but I think that there's so much rhetoric out there about, you know, you should spend your life doing what you love and life's too short to waste it, you know, in a job that you don't care about and blah, blah, blah. And yes, you know, running on that passion and those feelings is a great thing. And for those of us that didn't have the understanding or wherewithal to make, you know, smart decisions like Raul is encouraging you to make right now in the early part of the game. Missed that. Missed that lesson. But it's kind of like if you could take that passion and that feeling and marry that with, you know, some strategy and some sense and some research and recon ahead of time.

21:12 outcome is significantly more favorable at the end of the day. I think so. Yeah. I want to touch. So you started, am I right? You started the business with your husband and what is your husband's name again? John Hardwick is my husband. So you and John start the business and that was, was it 1982 when you guys started that business? Yes. Right? It was in October. And one of the things I know that you really credit to your success, which I really want to dig in on because I feel like there's... You've got so much expertise here and it's going to be a real value add to the people that are listening. You really credit so much of your success to the systems that you guys were able to build in that business.

21:59 Tell us a little bit about kind of how that came to fruition, what systems you ended up sort of building out and how that really, you know, changed your trajectory in business. Great question. I love it. Thank you. Really came about... In the early 90s, John and I had been studying with Robert Kiyosaki, who is now very famous for his Rich Dad Poor Dad book. But in those days, he was just doing seminars and he had come to Anchorage and done a seminar in 1987. And we took that one and then we kept taking more and more and more.

22:40 And one day, Robert Kiyosaki was on the big island of Hawaii, and John and I joined him for lunch one day. And the three of us were sitting by the pool. And Robert, as usual, gave us advice. He always had lots of good business advice for us. And he said, you've got to get this book. It's written by Michael Gerber. It's called The E-Myth. And it's what you need to read. So we flew to Honolulu that afternoon. We went to the bookstore. We picked up the book on our way to the hotel. We started reading it. And before we ever got back to Anchorage, we had finished the book and knew that this is what we needed to do. We needed to take the advice that was offered in that book, and we needed to start implementing the systems that Michael Gerber talked about.

23:25 And this meant... figuring out how to duplicate the mom and the pop, how to teach others how to do what it was that we did every day. This meant memorializing every procedure, every process, making sure everybody had a written job description. And these written procedures and processes would become like the manual for running the business and, And if we were hiring a new person, we could just hand them their job description, their manual, and that would teach them how to do that job. It made the hiring and training process so much easier.

24:06 And it just... smooth everything out. And as we proceeded, the difficult part was the decision-making. Like, how do you teach somebody else the thought processes that you go through to make a decision? My favorite example is the one where my marketing department said, how do you know that we need to spend more money on advertising? Great question. Yeah. I just know, you know, I just know. So it actually took me maybe two or three weeks of asking myself, what is it that I'm thinking about? What is it that I'm looking at that prompts me to make that decision?

24:50 And finally, I determined that I was watching the sales statistics, the data. Hmm. So we started, and we always were, tracking. But then I would look at, okay, what is the data saying to me? And we decided that if the data showed that three days in a row, the stats were dropping, you know, the number of reservations calls or the number of bookings taken or so forth, if that was dropping three days in a row, we needed to hit it with more advertising dollars. Yeah. So then the marketing department said, great. Well, now we can make this decision without you. So I just got freed up and that's how we did it.

25:30 And it took a few years to go through all of these steps. Now, if I were to do it over again, knowing what I know now, it would not take me a few years. Yeah. And I can teach other people how to do it much faster. If I was in Alaska right now, I'd be giving you big high fives. You're like, you're speaking my language. I'm like, I love the systems and the automations and the predictability of it and the decision making variables and all. Yeah. What you just said, I'm like, yes, please, please. There's one interesting piece that was in there that just, it stuck out to me just thinking in terms of our audience and just what tends to happen in our industry. is traditionally, if people don't have a lot of business coming in for three days, they tend to turn down their spending on their marketing, right?

26:12 Because they're like, oh, I'm not getting enough business to justify continuing to spend money on marketing. So even that one little golden nugget right there, it's like, if you're not getting the results, you crank it up. Big mistake. That was one of the early lessons we got from Robert Kiyosaki. You know, when things are getting rough, you promote, promote, promote. Mm hmm. That's kind of the equivalent. I mean, the analogy I think about what that is, is the old driving analogy, right? When you're coming into a curve, you don't decelerate, you accelerate when you're coming up that curve. Right. I love that. That is sage advice. Yeah. I want to ask something, two things, Brooke, you know, speaking of our audience, and certainly we're not the only ones who have an audience of people like this, but there's some people right now that are listening to this and they literally just turned stark white, their blood ran cold and they went, systems, the structure.

27:03 But... But Raul, you don't understand. I can't do it because I just have to free flow through and I have to just take things as they come. And I stop all my creativity the very moment that I start creating and implementing systems. What do you say to that? You know, we all use systems in our lives. I mean, think about brushing your teeth. Isn't that a system? You know, you take out the toothbrush, you take out the toothpaste, you open up the toothpaste. You know, that's a system, for God's sakes. Yeah. If you didn't have that system, every time would be like, how am I supposed to do this?

27:45 So really, a system is not that complicated at all. It's just a series of steps. Now, you can create some incredibly complicated systems, and the more... big and complex your business is, that's true. The system becomes incredibly complex. You know, get technology involved and it's even more complex. But to start off with, the system is just as simple as... writing down or recording what it is you do. How do you do what you do? How do you deliver your product? You know, what is your product comprised of? And interestingly, as I've been putting together this course, which is my latest entrepreneurial endeavor, I've been working with other solopreneurs And it's fascinating to me the systems that they are using to be able to track their productivity.

28:39 And I'm just taking notes right and left because each of them has their own software thing that works for them. And I'm working with an artist and he's got this thing where he records all of the rough drafts and you put your sticky notes on your computer onto his drafts and give him your comments. And He's in Columbia and I'm in Alaska. And yet we're able to collaborate beautifully because of this system that he's using. You know, and that's just one example. I mean, there are so many ways to systematize what you do. And it doesn't have to be, you know, rocket science. Yeah. I just find it so fascinating because for those of us like Raoul and myself, and I know you too, Ryan, we love systems.

29:23 And it's so interesting because I see so many entrepreneurs or people who become entrepreneurs because they want the freedom. It's like, I don't want to answer to the man anymore. I don't want to work for somebody else. I don't want to have a boss. They get into business for themselves. And then it's like, oh crap. Now I have to... to be the person who not only is running a system of some sort, I got to create the system. And it's just interesting to me. I love hearing your belief and your story around it, because that for me, the system was always my pathway to freedom. Yes. Great way to say it. The more systems I had or the more dialed in systems I had would actually give me freedom or would allow me to sleep better at night or would allow me to trust my team better because I knew there was a process that was in play.

30:03 So I love hearing you speak to it just from your perspective of it and in a different industry and how that's played in as well. So just freaking awesome. You are absolutely correct, Brooke. And it was because of the systems that we implemented at our business, which was called Hawaiian Vacations, that we were able to grow the company to the point where mom and pop stepped out of the company altogether. We hired a chief operating officer and a chief financial officer, and they came in. We taught them our systems. We taught them our culture. We taught them everything that we knew, but it didn't take that long because we had organized it so well and they grew the company even more and it led to us selling the company to Alaska Airlines.

30:50 That's awesome. Might have heard of that one. Yeah. So if you want to start talking about lifestyle, we were able to create the lifestyle that we wanted almost 10 years before we sold the company because we had trained other people on our systems. And we knew how the company was doing because we had the metrics that we could dial into from wherever we were in the world. Yeah. And we could know exactly how things were going. And we had our meetings. We had an outside board of directors and we had quarterly meetings with them. And we went over all the data and we had everything that we needed to be able to guide this ship from afar.

31:31 There's some incredibly powerful pieces within that. Again, I'm thinking in terms of our audience, in terms of their business. So many people are thinking of like, oh, how do I go get more clients or how do I make money? To your point, right? How do I get more top line revenue? But what a business really is, is it's a brand. And then there's another word that was in there that you dropped to, which is your culture that you taught them. And then your systems. Like you'll notice, I love the fact you shared it in the sequencing of how you just laid this out. Because it's like you built the business up. And the more you got the systems dialed in, you then had a sellable asset. Like the business was able to be. Yeah. Yes. Yes. If mom and pop are running the show, you can't sell it. Not without selling mom and pop too, which is not the goal.

32:15 We figured that out early on that we had to extricate ourselves from the day-to-day operation in order to add value to the business. Obviously, you were very successful at finding the right who's to put in the right seats, right? So what were some of the things that you learned about hiring the right people that really served you well over time that allowed you to make that leap out of the business eventually? Yes. It starts with knowing what you're hiring them for. So I go back to having that very clear job description. So in the hiring process, I would be crystal clear about what I expected and what a good job would look like.

33:01 And I also used this little phrase, you fire them before you hire them. So you lay out very precisely, this is not going to cut it. If you do this, you'll be out. This is what we expect. And if you do well, this is your path to upward mobility in the company. Here's your reward if you do well. And you have to have some gut sense of people, I think, in order to be good at hiring. But there are also systems that can be used for hiring. We would actually give people tests and we would sometimes use like one of those personality tests, whether it's DISC or whatever, and also just see if they knew like basic geography and how to write and...

33:52 Do you know where Hawaii is? Good. Yeah, you're hired. And how do you spell it? Yeah. So for the most part, we're extremely successful with our hiring. I'm not going to say it was 100%. Of course, we made mistakes. But you learn as you go along, you know, and you sort of note the mistakes and try to figure out what it was that could have clued you into that being a mistake so that you don't repeat that one again. So it's a trial and error process, though. But the more you can be very strategic and clear about it, you can make hiring, you know, a much more scientific process.

34:35 I love that. I think what you just said in the last minute encapsulates business in general. We did it well, never 100%, but we learned every time. And every time that it didn't go right, we look backwards, we assess, we figure out what went wrong, how could we have done it differently, all of those things. What I love about what you're saying too, Raoul, is that that process... because I do believe it's just applicable to business in general. The way I hear you talk about it is very black and white matter of fact. There's not a significant amount of emotion in that, which I love because, you know, we're consistently talking to our clients about, um, The difference between assessment and judgment and how in business, if we have the superpower to be able to assess without getting real emotional about what we're seeing and finding and literally to kind of lay things out and just go, okay, here's what I found out.

35:33 Cool. Won't do that again. Or yes, that worked. Let's double down. as opposed to judgment and getting super emotional about it, I think literally is a superpower and something you cultivate over time, but clearly something that you've become very adept at. You can hear it in your voice. Yes, I think it comes back to mindset. Yeah. And it doesn't do you any good to beat yourself up over the mistakes that you made. That's totally counterproductive. You need to be able to learn from it, chalk it off as a learning experience and move forward. And I think sometimes some people will get paralyzed by their fear of making a mistake or their fear of, you know, doing something wrong.

36:20 And you're not going to get ahead if you give in to that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Amen. Well, Raul, I want to take a minute now. I'd be remiss if we didn't chat a little bit about... We've kind of come full circle with your journey. And I'd love for you to share a little bit from, okay, 1980, you opened up a business in the little office. And today, what does normal life look like for Raul and John today, for mom and pop? It's not very normal at all. I have a friend who says, my, you're peripatetic. And I had to immediately look it up and say, what? What'd you just call me?

37:01 And the dictionary definition of it is that I flit around from place to place. And that is my life. That might be your new word. That's my new word. I'm stealing that. Flitting. Don't ask me to spell it. Our life right now is divided between our home in Sitka, Alaska, which we just built a brand new home and moved in about a year ago, our home on Maui, which we bought in 1999, and our yacht, which is sitting out in front of our house here in Sitka, and traveling around the world. Less than two weeks from now, I'll be in Australia with our daughter and her family there.

37:42 She has three children. Yeah. And I'll be spending a couple of weeks with them. We just got back from a mastermind in Dallas last week. In, let's see, August, I'll be going to Florida to attend a Tony Robbins, you know, business mastery program. In September, we're leaving for Europe for six weeks. Then we get back, you know, do you get the idea? Yeah. Okay. You're peripatetic. Yes. That's right. Our European adventure is going to include two cruises. I'm kind of addicted to cruising on small luxury cruise ships. Yes. And more adventure-oriented type cruising where last summer we took three weeks to...

38:23 and cruised from Nome, Alaska to Greenland on a Northwest Passage cruise. Yeah. We were out there in the skiffs looking for polar bears. And it was fabulous. John needs a friend. And so I'm just throwing my name in the hat. John needs a friend. Actually, he does need a friend to go fishing with him. I'm in. Yeah. There you go. So awesome. Yeah, that's life. We have multiple businesses still. I kind of refuse to retire. Love that. And we've got our hands in a few things. Now, after we sold the main business to Wine Vacation's sold it to Alaska Airlines.

39:08 That was in 2008. And after that, we started buying small cruise ships and leased them out to a cruise operator. And then after that, COVID kind of put the death knoll on that enterprise. And now we're investing in multifamily real estate through syndications across the United States. So, you know, we keep going. I feel like that's kind of the gene of the true entrepreneur. You know, so many people will listen to this and go, oh, I can't even imagine. If you can't, you probably can't truly, because I sort of feel like it's one of those things where when you love it and you've got the systems, you know, you can create a life around it. You kind of just keep doing the thing.

39:49 I want to ask one final question about journey. And then I really want you to talk about this course that you're creating. This is so special. And I think such a gift to so many people is what it's going to become, Raoul. But can you identify a moment in your life where you sort of experienced a bit of that turning point where... You're working, working, working, working, working, you know, building the systems, building the team. The business is growing. And then maybe there's a moment where you look around and you're actually able to start enjoying it. And you're like, oh, holy crap. It can be like this.

40:30 Yes. I'm not sure that I can pin the exact moment, but it certainly occurred during the 2000s when we were able to spend time at our Maui house. We didn't have to be in the office in Anchorage at all. These two guys, the COO and the CFO were running the show beautifully. And there was a how is it that they're able to do so much better than we did? And I thought we were doing okay. And then one of them very charmingly said, well, if you hadn't laid the foundation for us, we wouldn't have been able to build it.

41:10 So thank you for that. But yes, as we're sitting there enjoying the sunset from our Lanai and our beautiful home in Maui, We're looking at each other going, wow, this is amazing. We've done it. We've achieved our dream because this is what we talked about and dreamed about all through the years is having this lifestyle where we could be wherever we wanted and still running the business and that we would have the financial freedom and the freedom of time. That is so important. And we were able to pull our daughters out of school. In fact, our youngest daughter would go to school part-time. And we actually moved to Bellevue, Washington for a few years because my parents were elderly and we wanted to be closer to them.

41:53 And so we moved there and we weren't living in Anchorage at all anymore. And yet the business just rolled along. And our daughter would attend part of the school year in Bellevue and then part of the school year in Maui. And we're like, you know, we just have to create this. We just have to orchestrate whatever life we want and we can be in the driver's seat. And I think that it's very important to memorialize your dream. You know, write it down. What is it that you really hope your life will become? What do you see yourself doing 10, 20, 30 years from now? And how are you going to get there? What's it going to look like? What's it going to feel like? And that's really what led me to creating this course.

42:38 And actually a nudge from our youngest daughter who said, mom, people are telling you all the time that you guys are living the dream. Why don't you just teach them how to do it? Because they want to be you. And I thought about it. And it was a scary thought. And I really don't need another business. What am I doing? Yeah. well past the age of retirement, why would you start all over? And then the thought was, well, why not? You know, and I do feel like I have something that I can share. And it's my utmost desire to help people achieve the life that they really want and deserve. So that was the genesis of the course.

43:20 The name of the course is Overcome Overwhelm, Create a Smooth Running Business with Less Stress. Hmm. And I feel I'm very qualified to teach it because I was there. I was overwhelmed. I was stressed. I mean, at one point, I was nursing my first daughter at my desk while I was having a meeting with my dad. I mean, this is the epitome of multitasking, right? So I can relate. And now we've already talked about the fact that technology was totally different back then. But the concepts that I'm teaching in the course are eternal. They are generalized principles.

44:00 The concepts do not change. I love that. And where I think there's so much value in that, Raoul, is that we constantly come across people who are focused on tactics and what's the hottest trend and what's the thing that they put in front of me on Facebook or Instagram most immediately. What's the next thing that I can sign up for? And what I love about everything that you've said, if I can kind of encapsulate this for the listener right now... You know, here's an amazing woman that has spent, you know, over 40 years in business, created multiple companies, has exited companies, lives the life of her dreams and has been for several years now.

44:47 And she didn't build it on a trend. She didn't build it on a tactic. Wow. She found and learned and built and incorporated the right systems and structures. And this is all available to you. And I think what the beauty of it is that I think today, Raul, where I think your message and what you're going to teach is going to be so valuable in today's landscape is that everybody is just looking for the pill. Just give me the pill that's going to make me a million-dollar business owner tomorrow. Give me the pill that's going to let me have my house in Alaska and Hawaii tomorrow.

45:28 And the truth is, there is no pill for that. And I love this because what you're teaching, it truly is timeless. And I want to say thank you. I mean, thank you, first of all, for taking the time to spend with us today. I just feel energized and enriched by just getting to spend some quality time with you. And I want to honor you for taking on the responsibility of sharing everything that you've built and learned and grown over the years with the people that are going to want it and need it. Because I'm going to be a part of this. The truth is there are really wonderful, good-hearted people in the world that would be amazing business owners. And they just haven't found that right mentor.

46:11 And you are without question an example of one of the mentors that that type of person needs in their life. So thank you. And we're very excited for this to come out. Tell us, I know you've got a little something that people can get now. Yeah. Where can we send people because you've got something that they can kind of download that maybe will wet their whistle on all of this a little bit. Tell us about that. Yes. And thank you so much, Brian, for your kind words. It really means a lot to me. What I've created is a document called the six essential secrets to business success. And it's a download that you can get from my website. The website is ralwest.com or you can even just type in ralwest.com slash secrets and it will take you to a page that you can give me your email address and you'll get an email with the link to download.

47:04 And the secrets are the pillars of the course. And so this will not give you all of the answers, but it will give you an idea as to what it is that I'm teaching. And we've already talked about most of these six secrets already in this conversation, and it's been most enjoyable. And I thank you for the opportunity to talk to you. So I hope that people will grab this document, the six secrets and, you know, dig into it a little bit and then maybe sign up for the course. Hmm. That's so awesome. Well, Raul, thank you again. And guys, just to reiterate, it's www.raulwest.com. That's R-A-L-W-E-S-T.com.

47:48 Go download the six secrets, wet your whistle, get yourself started, get on the email list because I'm sure that's where the notifications are going to come when you can start opting in for the course, which I know you're going to want to grab. I know we'll be grabbing it. There's absolutely no question about that. I just did. Nailed it. Mainly, he wants to know also if he can email John about fishing. I'm using you, Raul, to get to John. Absolutely. He needs a fishing buddy. Yes. Oh, man. Well, Raul, thank you again. And thank you for listening to this episode of the Coaching Equation Podcast. Until next time, be well.

48:29 Thank you. Thank you for listening to this episode of The Coaching Equation. Please hit subscribe wherever you listen to your podcasts. And if you got value out of this episode, we would be so grateful if you would share it out with a friend and leave us a review on iTunes or your favorite platform. To learn more about Empire Partners or to inquire about working with Ryan and Brooke, please visit www.empirepartners.io forward slash go.