How long have you waited?

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NASDAQ Boardroom Talk – Rick Jordan

Episode Topics:

• Time wasted as you wait
• Starting anything, literally anything – is going to cost you money
• Look the part, to feel the part
• Why branding is investing

What’s shakin’? Hey, we’re here on a lovely morning. Today is gonna be an awesome day. I want you to share this out with three people at least, because as much as you’re gonna be fired up about this just like I am, you’re gonna wanna share this with other people because you are so fired up. So, here we go. Today we’re talking about, just fucking start, all right? I usually save my FBOs for like the middle, you know, for like a climactic moment. But I want you to hear this right away. Whatever you’re thinking about, whatever you wanna do, whatever you’re, you’re thinking about going after whatever you want to accomplish in life. How long have you waited to begin that? How long have you said, You know what? I need this in place. I need that in place. I need this other thing to happen. I wanna see this first. You know what, I’m scared. 

How long have you waited? Are you waiting for things to be perfect? Are you waiting for things to be just like this? You know what? Because perfectionism is fricking procrastination in disguise, not procrastination in disguise, it’s actually procrastination as a choice. I’m gonna tell you a story about this podcast, right? Because this one here is almost 300 episodes. Who knows? That’s actually might be the one. I don’t know. The last time I looked, you know, it was like 270 something and I, I’ve talked with so many people because there’s so many things that are hitting right now. I’m talking about me doing amazing global media. I’m talking about a public company. I’m talking about major media agencies that are watching all of my content online right now and all these people that are surrounding. And I think back to years ago when I first said yes, when I first said yes to doing just one thing, and that was actually speaking in a NASDAQ board room. 

I had my very first thing of putting out my personal brand was my face on a jumbotron in the middle of Times Square. I know. Talk about going bigger, going home, right? But at the same time, leading up to that, because guys, that kind of stuff costs money. Investing in anything, starting anything is going to cost money. Even when people say, Oh, I started with nothing, right? Which was literally me when I started my cybersecurity company 12 years ago. Yes, you could say that I started literally with nothing because there wasn’t any quote unquote like infusion of cash to begin this thing. However, there were a lot of trickles of a lot of things. There was time away from my kids there. There were just dollars that had to be spent on something. I remember buying the very first iPad when it was released. 

I couldn’t even freaking afford it. It was like 700 bucks, right? And you think, Oh, that’s not a lot of money. But you know what? $700 was actually like my mortgage payment at that time. And during that time I got to be like 90 days behind and foreclosure almost booted out of the house. And I spent money on an iPad, which was investing into the business. There was a reason I invested in that iPad and that reason was to give me the most high tech possible appearance that I could possibly have. It’s the same reason still to this day, why I get the new iPhone every single freaking year. Because it’s branding, because it’s investing. And because I said I’m going to start, I’m not going to wait until I think that I can afford to do these things until I think I have all these things in place in order for me to do this.

You’ve heard the term like build a plane as you fly it, right? It’s even worse than that, okay? You don’t even have fricking parts yet. And that’s when you should be starting whatever it is that you have in your head. What are you going after? I had somebody ask me the other day, it’s a new attorney that I brought on to the public company, right? That I’m, I’m grateful to be the CEO of. I had a new attorney come on and he’s like, Hey Rick, what’s your number? And I think back to, to 12 years ago when I started this, because I didn’t wanna start ReachOut to be a generational business. Cuz there, there’s a lot of pe and this is maybe different. One of the big differences between me and other people in my industry is that I didn’t start ReacOut to be a generational business. I actually started it because it was out of a need at the moment, understanding that where I wanted to be in life actually even had nothing to do with this company. 

But I knew that if I continued, if I, because I was laid off, if I started to go and, and actually work another job, we work a W two role, which is okay if that’s what you wanna go after, right? Because it’s amazing to actually, there’s the entrepreneurs, right? But then there’s also entrepreneurs. That’s okay. But that wasn’t for me. I keep saying that my only single regret out of becoming an entrepreneur is that I didn’t do it five years sooner because I thought that I needed a whole bunch of shit in place in order to be able to do that until I was shoved into a moment to where I had no choice but to provide for my family and actually do it with just thrust into this thing. I actually hope that you get a big kick in the ass just as I did, whatever that is, to finally make the choice that you’ve been wanting to make for such a long time to go after your dream. 

Because the dream only stops when the dreamer stops dreaming. If you’re shoving that aside, if you’re saying, I need this, I need that first, I need all these other things, it’s bullshit. You’re feeding yourself, you’re procrastinating, you’re allowing yourself to die a slow, painful death inside. I’m so fired up today because I look back at these things that are hitting me right now, and some of them I can’t even talk about because they’re not completely inked yet, but it’s just incredible to me because I sit back and I’m hitting you hard today. But I want you to also hear today that I am so grateful for every single thing. 

And it’s no easier now than what it was when I first started. In fact, it’s harder now. It’s more difficult now. There’s more emotional load, load to shoulder. There’s more things to keep in balance. There’s more to actually mentally process. There’s just so much more that’s going on, and at the same time, it’s still stretching. It is way harder now than what it was when I first started, but I can’t freaking stop. And if you wanna get to that point to where you can’t freaking stop, think about this. If you’ve ever worked out, right, if you’ve ever gotten into the, you know, it’s so freaking hard to, to get going and to get into things and to get into this rhythm, it’s so difficult to where it’s like every single time. And I’ve been there, right? The last time that I was there was actually when I had surgery this past year and I was off for eight weeks. 

I couldn’t work out. And then finally at the end of the eight weeks, I’m like, uh, every single morning that I got up to work out, I’m like, I don’t want to do this. I don’t want to do this. I don’t want to do this. Like, I’ll do it next week. You know what, maybe, and I’m coming up with all these things in my head about maybe I’ll just give myself an extra week to recover because I think that would be good for me. And I’m making up this bullshit in my head every single time to not start to not do what I know I want to do, to not go after what I know I wanna get after. And even though I’m fitting right now, I still have fitness goals that I want to achieve that I wanna see come to pass in my life. 

When you’re first starting to work out, you don’t wanna get up, you don’t wanna do it, but then it flips over to where you’re in this rhythm. And I’ve been there before too to where it’s like, Man, you know what? I, I did some, I remember this time to where my shoulder, my left shoulder was really hurting me. I don’t know what happened, you know? But every time I would lift my left shoulder, I’d pop, I’d be proven before I’d work out to try to get through the pain. And then I, I kept pressing forward, I kept doing it, I kept doing it. And now at that point in time, it’s like I almost have to stop myself because it reverses itself. When you get into this rhythm, that’s where you wanna get to is where you can’t stop because you started. Now you can’t stop. 

That’s where I wanna see each and every one of you, because you finally made the fucking choice to begin. Now you can’t stop and you actually have to try to coerce yourself to be smart in the moment. Like it is when you continue to, to, to press forward in a workout because you’ve been doing it for so long consistently. It was like five years for me before I had this eight week period. And this, anybody who’s ever gotten into rhythm, even like a semi-pro, an amateur, whatever, you get into these rhythms and then it’s like you’re pushing, It’s like, Oh, my shoulder hurts. You know what? But I can’t stop, I can’t do it. And then you gotta start to try to talk yourself out of that rhythm to be smart. Just as you had to try to talk yourself into getting into that rhythm to begin with. It’s like, you know what, dude, it’s okay <laugh>. It’s okay to take a day or two to let your shoulder heal. 

You’re never going to get that woman in your life to where you can’t stop unless you actually start, unless you actually throw everything aside and say, You know what? It’s not gonna be perfect. I know that. But if you look back and it’s like me, right? When I finally started things, it’s like, Man, I should have done this five years ago. I’ve said that. That’s what I regretted. But you know what? Now I don’t say that anymore because that was me trying to hold myself in the past. Any sort of regret is actually another reason for you not to press forward. I want you to hear that any regret that you hold onto is actually a reason and excuse you’re giving yourself to not move forward. 

Let it all go. Let the baggage go. Let your excuses go. Let everything that you want start to fall into place because you know it’s not gonna be perfect. This show, as I started now, has 300 episodes just about, I’ve had, this was what I wanted to get into today about just continuing, right? And even when I decided to start, I was like, fine, that’s great. And it was even hard to maintain this rhythm to begin with because we didn’t have this amazing studio. I had to fly out to Vegas or Seattle where the branding company was. It became kind of a pain.

But I didn’t quit. And here we are sitting at about 300 episodes or so, and now a lot of people are taking notice. I did this search the other day, and you can look it up. I can’t even remember the website search, but I saw a friend of mine last week who I met a couple years ago, finally met him face to face, which was really cool. Steve Sims and, and he, he posted on Facebook, he’s like, I searched my podcast. He’s like, I wasn’t doing this thing to actually, you know, gain followers or anything like that. I looked it up and I’m like, top 1% in the world. So I’m like, I’ll punch up all in with Rick Jordan. Let’s see, we’re at, I’m like, Hey, top 2% in the world. So then we’re joking with each other. And now it’s like a little friendly competition, right? 

Because it’s like 2% versus 1%, whatever, you know? But I’m thinking it’s like, wow. Imagine when I first started, if I would’ve actually stopped because I wouldn’t have even called it a start, because most podcasts stop after seven episodes. It’s stupid. They start, they stop and there’s 850,000 at least. I said there’s probably more like 900,000 podcasts that exist in the whole world right now. The majority of ’em pods fade after seven episodes. I don’t even call that starting, I don’t even call that beginning because people are just throwing their crap out there. The way you actually begin is being like, I’m starting now. I know it’s gonna be tough. I’m putting all my baggage aside. That’s the only way to get going on whatever it is that I want to get going on. I want to go after this thing. I wanna start this business. I want to date this girl. I wanna, I wanna create this in my life. I want to go after my dreams, and I’m starting today with the intention of continuing it until I see it happen in my life. 

Who cares about the regrets? Because they’re just holding me back. Who cares about everything else that I’ve got going on? Because I know that if I start today and look at the past five years and say, I should have done that five years ago. I know five years from now, that’s not gonna happen because I’m gonna look back and say, thank God I started and I went ALL IN.