Episode 003 - Edward Collins - Part 2

(Part 2 of 2) 

Get ready for an engaging interview with Edward Collins, a highly successful entrepreneur who has built and scaled multiple businesses to six and seven figures over the past 25 years.

On Model the Master podcast, Christin delves into Edward's remarkable journey from being an absolute failure in business to becoming a multimillionaire with a flourishing family and personal life. As a JD, CFP, AAMS, and RFC, Edward has a wealth of knowledge and experience to share on what it takes to achieve entrepreneurial success.

Discover Edward's secrets to building and scaling businesses, and get motivated to take your own entrepreneurial journey to new heights! Don't miss out on this inspiring interview about overcoming failure and achieving lasting success.

Link to Part 1: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2122903/12456244

Transcript

Edward Collins:

But if you know the number, whatever that is, now you can reverse engineer. So if you know your daily needs and wants cost you $10,000 a month or $20,000 a month, $5,000, whatever that number is, now all you have to do is reverse engineer. How many assets do I need in order to generate that income? 

Christin Gutierrez:

Super. So Edward, what would you say to the listener right now that's saying, "yeah, that sounds great, Edward, but I'm just starting my business. I have everything wrapped up in it. I'm not really making a lot of money right now. I'm spending way more money to get this thing going. What can I do to have this financial freedom?"

Edward Collins:

Well, again, I think it comes down to reorienting yourself with the truth. Because at the end of the day, you're spending money right now and you're likely paying taxes because the vast majority of business owners are. If I can teach you how to simply just keep more of every dollar you're making, that means you have more money. But most people will fall into the trap of upgrading their lifestyle or spending. I'd say if you are trading your time for a dollar in whatever you're doing, whether you're actually a business owner, but this also applies to anyone who's a standard W2 employee as well. If you're trading your time to get a dollar or a collection of dollars, at the end of the day, then those dollars - this is my personal opinion - now those dollars have a job, only one job. Those dollars should be aimed at finding a way to acquire an asset.

You should never use dollars that you've earned through the process of trading your time to collect them. You should never use those dollars to acquire liabilities. But I know people need liabilities in life. I mean, not necessarily need, maybe that's a little bit of a strong word, but definitely want, a lot of people want liabilities in their life because they're usually attached to things that are all pretty and shiny. And I'm not saying you don't go get liabilities. I'm just saying you never use dollars that you've had to trade your time to get those. So just reorient to yourself. If your dollars that you trade time to get are only focused on asset acquisition, well, if you acquire an asset that now goes and goes ahead and generates dollars, I'm perfectly fine with you using those dollars to acquire a liability. So if you want a car - X dollars car - I'm going to say: well, first you have to figure out how to get a house that I can rent out that will generate the monthly cash flow necessary to pay that car payment. So me trading my time in my business or trading my time as an employee for another person, instead of doing that to pay for the car, I'm going to get all that money and I'm going to focus a hundred percent of my energy in acquiring the asset that will buy my car for me, because that change, will absolutely change your life.

Christin Gutierrez:

It's a mindset shift that needs to happen.

Edward Collins:

It really is. And again, we sit back and we constantly put these self-imposed limitations and limiting beliefs on ourselves. But by the way - this is my own perspective - I just think that all limitations regardless of what they are, are self-imposed. You can choose not to impose those limitations on yourself because real wealth is abundant. There is no limit. Because I'm an unapologetic capitalist, I believe that in capitalism there is no loser in a transaction that's voluntary -

Christin Gutierrez:
 
That’s true, yeah.

Edward Collins:
 
because the exchange of value is wealth creation. That's abundant. So the way I look at creating money through business activity, through asset acquisition, et cetera, is that it's almost like if you go to the gym and you exercise, that process is not stealing muscle from anyone else.

Christin Gutierrez:
 
<laugh>

Edward Collins:
 
True wealth is abundant because it comes through value creation. In fact, all money, all money follows value creation. If you go out and create more value, that's not taking money from anyone else because it's an exchange. If you think about an iPhone - a lot of individuals love the iPhone. I'm a fan, so I do. But this item costs a lot of money. Let's assume for a moment it's a thousand dollars, as an example. If I personally am willing to give $1,000 to get this iPhone from Apple, how much would you say it is worth to me. Take a guess.

Christin Gutierrez:

A thousand dollars, at least a thousand dollars

Edward Collins:

If not probably more than that, right?

Christin Gutierrez:

Yeah, probably.

Edward Collins:

Else would I give my thousand to get it? Must be worth more than the thousand I'm willing to get. Now the same question. How much is it worth to Apple, this piece of equipment, how much do you think it's worth? T

Christin Gutierrez:

It's worth the thousand dollars that they can sell it for, minus how much it cost to create.

Edward Collins:

So it's got to be worth it to them from their perspective, less than a thousand dollars. Otherwise, they wouldn't give it to me for the thousand dollars I'm giving to them. So the concept of just engaging in voluntary activity in a capitalistic society is that both parties in the transaction win, because, for example, I got something I believed to be more valuable than the thousand dollars I gave for it. And the business got something they believed to be more valuable than the thing they gave for it. So the exchange of value and the creation of value is where money is created. So in business, even if you're getting started, you have two things that should be happening at the same time. One, you should be focused on how you can keep more of every dollar you make, And then while you're doing that, you have to figure out how I can generate more revenue. And revenue generation means, well, creating more value. If you are offering more value to the marketplace, you are going to make more money. 

But now there's a lot of tools and techniques. As a business owner, you need to either learn yourself or have someone else help you, with regard to making everything you do known to the public. Because that's the whole concept - 

Christin Gutierrez:

and I would recommend having other people help you because it goes back to what you were saying before, as to if you have to be there, or are you able to take that vacation because there were systems in place that could handle your absence? I remember in the past, I had a terrible tragedy happen. My daughters and their best friend were hit while they were walking in a crosswalk. And I had three businesses at the time. And unfortunately back then I was required for the day to day, day-to-day operations. I couldn't be gone for even a day. And I wound up having to shut down my businesses while my youngest daughter recovered from her massive brain damage. And I learned a valuable lesson at that time that you absolutely have to put systems in place and delegate to other people. You cannot do everything. You cannot hold everything so close to you and believe that you're the only one that can do a good job or that you're the only one that can handle this. Because if an emergency happens or a tragedy happens, and it often does, you will lose everything if you cannot be replaced. 

Edward Collins:

There’s this relationship between two and seven - let me explain. As business owners, there are two words that typically hold back most business owners from any significant milestones of success. And those words are THE HOW - we focus so much on THE HOW. We have to be the ones to do the how. But there's seven words that if you can learn and adopt as a business owner drastically will change your financial situation tomorrow, and it's “find The Who to implement The How”. Absolutely you find the who to implement your how, whatever the how is in business, whether it's marketing, whether it's fulfillment, whether it's sales, whatever it is, find The Who to do that. Now, you are one step closer to true financial freedom because -

Christin Gutierrez:

Exactly! And that's powerful, because it is so true. It's so simple, but it’s not that easy to let go of control for some people. But once you can get to the point where you realize that, even if somebody else that I delegate to could only do 70% the job that I could, so much more is going to be done overall. I'm limited to how much time I have and how much I can get done in that amount of time. But when you start having other people help you, when you start letting go of the reins just a little bit and allowing other people to step in and shine in their area of genius, and you focus on the truly important things - man, that's when exponential growth happens.

Edward Collins:

I was just having a conversation with the business owner yesterday. We were talking about the concepts of scale. She's interested in taking her business to the next level and scaling it up. And there are only four aspects of scale that happen and they happen with different qualities of leverage. There's only four. So you can leverage labor, which is other people's hands and feet. And ultimately most business owners, usually, if they're going to do any type of leverage, that's the first one they engage in. They hire someone: “yes, come and help”. The second aspect of leverage is code, which is technology. Taking advantage of the software that exists, whether it's ai, whether it's application -

Christin Gutierrez:

AI is amazing, <laugh>, right?

Edward Collins:

Just take advantage of it. Leverage that capability. And the third, which I love is other people's money. Understanding capital, how capital works, and how money works, and just being able to leverage that can take your business to the next level. And finally, this is one that I think gets overlooked because it tends to be more simplistic: It's the audience. Yes, you leverage your audience, allow the people within your community to become part of your marketing team, share your - 

Christin Gutierrez:

Absolutely.

Edward Collins:

content, create raving fans by over-delivering value, and you will not have to worry because they will become your marketing force. And yes, as business owners, we get so stuck on that though, so stuck on the how. We don't allow ourselves to get to the point of saying, “Hey, listen, I just have to find who to implement the how. I don't have to be the one who does it.” 

Christin Gutierrez:

Exactly. I look back at those days where I was so focused on the how, and it's all a learning process. I've learned so much from that. If I knew then what I know now…

Edward Collins:

and it seems almost like common sense. But unfortunately common sense isn't that common.

Christin Gutierrez: 

Exactly.

Edward Collins:

We allow ourselves to misunderstand.

Christin Gutierrez: 

True. 

Edward Collins: 

And the reality is most things are truly simple, but, it's because it's so simple, that people just don't believe it. 

Christin Gutierrez:

It literally is. It doesn't even seem like it should be possible. Exactly.

Edward Collins:

And all you need to do is recognize that no matter what business you're in - now I'm biased - I think that real wealth creation happens through either business or real estate. And I think if you're investing in real estate for investment purposes, that in and of itself is a business. So again, I'm really biased to businesses and business ownership, but if you're engaged in business activity and you're struggling, it's likely that you're not creating value. That's it. Because if you create value for others and then you make it known, people understand that you create value. People will trade their dollars for the value you create. You just have to find the right audience to do that - 

Christin Gutierrez:
 
Hey, very true.

Edward Collins: 

You have to cultivate. You create an understanding of what your messaging is and just be authentically who you are and you will attract the right people to you. You don't have to be someone you’re not. I mean, I tried that early on in my career, and it just didn't work. 

Christin Gutierrez:

People can sense that.

Edward Collins:

Yeah, they can. And I think, again, the simple things are what are almost always the most impactful. And it doesn't have to be big things, like small hinges swing big doors. There can be little changes that you make within your life, and within your business that can dramatically change your financial tomorrow. Absolutely. If you still simply say, okay, I'm going to keep every dollar, at least as much of every dollar I make as possible, and I'm going to dedicate myself to either learning my own tax strategies to do that, or I'm going to find the who to implement the how for me to help me not only understand what to do, but how to do it, and then just do it - put it into action. But that's where most people stop. They don't do it. They don't put it into action. And - 

Christin Gutierrez:

They spend all day dreaming and planning.

Edward Collins:

This is a fundamental truth: all outcome, all, starts with action.

Edward Collins:

If you never act, you don't get an outcome. And if you have outcomes that you desire, you have to have the right actions to get there. But the beauty of it, it's - 

Christin Gutierrez:

scary sometimes. And most of the time, it's scary. You're stepping outside of your comfort zone. You're doing things that you haven't done before, because if you're not, probably your goals are not high enough. So you're pushing yourself. And it can be scary to do that - to take that next step, but it's so necessary because if you're not taking any steps at all, if you're not doing any action, you're not going anywhere, and you have no one blame, but your lack of action.

Edward Collins:

My question to the audience would be this, is it important to you? Because if it's not, then fine, don't do it. But if the life you want is truly important to you, you have to be willing to sacrifice the life you have.

Because you are where you are because of the habits and the things you've been doing up until now that have led you to this point. And if you continue to live the life you have up until now, you will have the life you have now. So the only way to get a different outcome is to change the actions that lead there. But the beauty of it is, again, it's all math. You can reverse engineer. If you are here right now within your life and within your finances and within your business, whatever here is, you get to define it. But if you're there and you want to be here, all you need to do is learn about the people who are currently here and model what they're doing that made them get here.

Christin Gutierrez:

Absolutely. You have to model the masters.

Edward Collins:

I mean Tony Robbins has an amazing phrase. “Success leaves clues”. It does. Literally just look at the people who are at where you want to be. If you were fortunate enough to be able to reach out to them directly, you do, and you say, “Hey, listen, what are your daily habits? What activity has caused you to experience the life that you have now?” Or if you learn vicariously, you say, okay, I'm going to reach out to mentors in a way that's vicarious. I'm going to continue watching podcasts like this one. I'm going to model the master. I'm going to go out and read books. I'm going to get involved in… whatever it may be. But you have to decide to do it because the reality is your life is in your hands. And the ultimate person that can truly change it for the long term doesn't mean that other people can't impact you and have an impact on the direction you're going. But yes, the ultimate destination is going to be dependent upon the pilot, which is you. You're the one who has to fly the ship so the sail of the ship, fly the play, whatever it is, you're the one who has to get yourself there. And you have to determine is the destination worth it to you? And sometimes it's not, and that's okay too, but just own it.

Christin Gutierrez:

Own it. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.

Christin Gutierrez:

And find something that is worth it to you. If it's not worth it to you, then find something that is

Edward Collins:

Absolutely 100%.

Christin Gutierrez:

So what's your greatest tip technique or strategy for achieving success?

Edward Collins:

Find the right mentors. That's definitely the number one thing. Yeah, and again, I just touched on this a bit. A lot of people stumbled on that because they may be hesitant to reach out to someone in real time and say, “Hey, listen, I'd love to learn from you, et cetera”, but we don’t live 20 years ago. We live now. And you have access to resources literally at your fingertips. You can go onto Google pretty much anything you want to learn, literally anything you want to learn is at your fingertips. You can learn. It's up to you. And when I hear people say, oh, I don't have time, well, that's not true. You have the same 24 hours in a day that Jeff Bezos has.

Christin Gutierrez:

You make time for what's important for you.

Edward Collins:

 You make time for the things that are priorities in your life. Because my question to you, did you watch your favorite TV show this week? Right? Well, most people did. Did you enjoy an extra hour or two of sleep at some point during the week? Yeah. I mean, if it was important enough to you, you would do the things it takes. You would, it's called discipline. Discipline is the concept of doing the necessary things regardless of how you feel. But Michael Jordan did not become Michael Jordan by only shooting shots in the game. He had to practice a lot. In fact, he was horrible at basketball until later in his life as he was actually putting in the effort every single day being on the court before practice, being the last one off the court after practice. If it's important enough to you, you will do the things that are required. But the reality is, for most people, it's not important enough. Which again, yeah, that's your choice. But if you want, the simple answer is you have to do the necessary things regardless of how you feel.

Christin Gutierrez:

Exactly. You got to give up the show. You have to get up earlier. You have to do those things. And what it shows, it shows the people who are sleeping, the people who are spending time on social media all day or watching their shows or focusing on other things, you can see from their life, where it is, and the people who are like, you know what? I don't have time to hang out with my friends right now. At some point, there'll be time for that. But right now I'm really focused on growing my business. I'm focused on doing what's important to me. You can see the difference in the results.

Edward Collins:

Last year - this was in the late spring of last year - I was in Manhattan, and I can remember, it was very early in the morning. I think it was between 5:00 and 5:30 in the morning. I was outside and I looked to my left, and there was a building there that I knew was more of a rental building. It was individuals who were living there, who were renting the building, and there were one or two lights, it was a high-rise building. There were one or two lights that were on in the entirety of the building. Everything else was dark. And I looked over to my right, which was a building that I knew that people actually owned those apartments. So it was like that was an ownership building, and it was 5:00am or 5:30 in the morning, and I'd say maybe 60% of the lights were on. That's just the difference in lifestyle of the individual, and because I know that those units are like multimillion dollar homes. So it was like million dollar plus homes. The individuals who are accomplishing the things in life have a different lifestyle. They just do. 

Edward Collins:

But if you really want that? 

Christin Gutierrez:

You have to do what they do.

Edward Collins:

Exactly. And again, it's so simple, and most people will sit back. Unfortunately, most of the audience who listens - this is not a dig against the audience, but this is just statistics. Most people will hear what we're saying. They will think to themselves, well, that's too simple. It can't be true. And then - 

Christin Gutierrez:

Won't do it. 

Edward Collins:

They won’t do it. But, Audience, it is that simple! You just do it and you will have a different life.

Christin Gutierrez:

Really is. Well, thank you so much. I really appreciate you coming on the show today. But before you go, I just want to ask you one last question. Would you rather have more wealth or more time?

Edward Collins:

Oh gosh, that would definitely be time. <laugh> time is infinitely more valuable than money. Like infinitely. Yeah. Here, here's an example. So Christin, I'm going to give you some, I'm going to write you a check right now for a hundred million. Would that make you happy?

Christin Gutierrez: 

Sure. <laugh>. Yeah.

Edward Collins: 

Right, and let me say this, you'll be able to cash it. If I write you that check, you'll be pretty happy, right? So the only caveat is you can't wake up after tomorrow ever again.

Christin Gutierrez:

Then the answer's no. Whenever you put it in that context.

Edward Collins:

Exactly. Why? 

Christin Gutierrez:

Because time is infinitely more valuable than money.

Edward Collins:

Time is infinitely more valuable than money. It's a hundred million dollars in both scenarios, but your time is worth more. It just is. I've never heard of an individual who has lived life, gotten to the end and would not want more time.

Christin Gutierrez:

I 100% agree. Well, that's all for this episode of Model the Master, where you've been listening to Edward Collins. Remember to subscribe and leave us a review if you received value. And until next time, remember, I believe in you. You've been listening to Model the Master Podcast, brought to you by Increpreneur. If you found value, please remember to subscribe and leave us a review, and until next time. Remember: I believe in you!