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Feeling overwhelmed by your family's daily grind and looking for a way out? Welcome to "Dig the Well," the podcast that empowers you to build the life you deserve. Your hosts Vikki and John are top earners at Neora. Vikki is a # 1 best-selling author and John is a retired Los Angeles Police Officer. Together they’ve navigated family challenges, raised successful kids, and achieved financial freedom.
In each episode of "Dig the Well," they dive deep into the strategies and mindsets that can help you break free from the constraints of the traditional 9-5 lifestyle. They understand the unique challenges faced by stay-at-home moms and families who are juggling multiple responsibilities and struggling to find balance. Their mission is to provide you with the tools and inspiration you need to create additional income, gain more family time, and ultimately, transform your life.
Throughout their journey, they’ve had the privilege of working with renowned figures like Jack Canfield and Jeff Olson, whose wisdom and insights have greatly influenced their path to success. They’ve also celebrated significant milestones, such as raising two valedictorian children and supporting their son, an Olympic weightlifter on Team USA. These experiences have equipped them with valuable knowledge and practical tips that they’re eager to share with you.
"Dig the Well" is more than just a podcast; it's a community of like-minded individuals who are committed to personal growth and financial independence. Whether you're worried about your family's financial security, longing for more quality time with your spouse, or simply seeking a way to reignite your passions, this podcast offers actionable insights and real-life stories that can help you achieve your goals.
Our mission is to inspire you with the belief that if we can do it, so can you. We want you to feel empowered, educated, and ready to take control of your future. By tuning in to "Dig the Well," you'll gain the confidence and knowledge needed to break free from the daily grind and create a life full of possibilities.
So, if you're ready to transform your family's future and discover the greatness within you, join us on this journey. Subscribe to "Dig the Well" and start building the life you deserve today!
This is the EWN Podcast Network.
John:Ever wondered how you could turn your side hustle into a full time gig and spend more time together?
Vikki:Hi. I'm Vikki, a number one best selling author.
John:And I'm John, a retired Los Angeles police officer. Welcome to dig the well, where we help couples navigate the world of business.
Vikki:We've been married for thirty five years, and because we built a successful side business, John retired nine years earlier than he originally planned from the Los Angeles Police Department after twenty five years on the job. Now we spend more time together, and we want to help couples like you do the same.
John:Join us as we help you overcome common obstacles, and we show you how to make extra income without sacrificing family time.
Vikki:Ready to dig deep and build your well? Let's get started. Welcome back. Welcome back to dig the well. And we're I'm super excited because I've done a couple episodes interviewing, some other guests, and I've got John back.
Vikki:Yay. Yay. John's with me, and this episode is different. It's really different. It's the title you might have seen already, but if you haven't, baby's business and building a legacy.
Vikki:The three b's that are so important, I think, in so many people's lives. And we're happy. We're excited.
John:Yeah. We are. And, you know, we made us think too, like, back in when we first started our businesses, and and we didn't do it just for us, even though we didn't have kids yet, but we were doing we knew we would. Right? And we were doing it for them.
John:It wasn't, you know, it wasn't selfish. We wanted to build a business for us, but we thought, how cool would this be to build something that's gonna be a legacy, you know, that our kids can either take over or they can build businesses of their own with, you know, with some of our help in coaching and whatnot.
Vikki:Yeah. Absolutely. And I even think we use that word legacy. Yeah. We use that word legacy now.
John:Did.
Vikki:Yeah. People talk about that all the time, but we definitely said we wanted to create a legacy for our children. Yeah.
John:Yeah. And then now they're having babies of their own. Mhmm. This is really crazy.
Vikki:They are. They are. And so our son some of you have heard episode. It was one of the original episodes, the first 10 or so, where our son was on. So he, he and his wife, Allison, just had, six months ago, baby girl.
Vikki:And so she had her six month birthday yesterday. Birthday
John:of it. Allison sent the cutest pictures of her. She she was there with her little, hat, and it said half on it. I know.
Vikki:I've never seen anything like that. Just yeah. The one slash two. I know that was really, really cute. And she was eating watermelon, and that was the big joke in our text thread.
Vikki:Right?
John:Yeah.
Vikki:Oh, wow. Because we instead of a cake, it was a watermelon, ball with a candle on top. And so we asked, is that watermelon? That's what it looked like. And with no skin, so it's just red.
Vikki:And, and then what did you say in the text back to them? I said
John:I said, yeah. I I forget. They said that she didn't really care for it. Oh. They said, wow.
John:Who doesn't like watermelon?
Vikki:Yeah. Exactly.
John:Evidently, her son, John.
Vikki:Yeah. And I thought she did care for it, but he didn't. Yeah. And then they're like, your son doesn't like it. And then we got an avocados and all kinds of things.
Vikki:Yeah. But hey. Anyway, so adorable. And our daughter is due any day now. She's had a couple due dates.
Vikki:Like, Sunday was what she her doctors or her midwife thinks is her due date, and then the hospital's due date was yesterday. So she's ready. And, yeah, it got us really thinking. And that's why we thought we'd do this episode on building a legacy for your family. And it goes perfect with dig the well.
Vikki:Right? Totally perfect with our philosophy behind dig the well of digging in a maybe a total dry ground where you're not seeing any water, but preparing for the next for water for you to find water and for the next generation. So I was all excited that
John:it
Vikki:totally fits with everything that's going on in our lives right now.
John:Yeah.
Vikki:So, yeah, we're kind of we're expecting you know, we're looking at text. So if you see us kinda looking at our phones right now, honestly, it could be any second. Yeah.
John:I was thinking today. I was thinking she was gonna
Vikki:Oh, that's right.
John:Take take him out of the oven today. Yeah. Or God was gonna take him out of the oven today, but I don't know.
Vikki:Yeah. And he she they're expecting a boy. Did we say that? I don't think so.
John:I don't know.
Vikki:So yeah. So we already have a six month old granddaughter, and now we're gonna have a grandson. Yay. So, you know, thinking back, we're getting kind of, melancholy, or I was. John doesn't usually get melancholy unless you've had a few drinks and you're listening to Zach Brown or something.
John:Yeah. Okay.
Vikki:That's probably the only time guys do when they've had a few drinks and they're listening to some great music. But I get melancholy all the time. Right? Wouldn't you say?
John:Yeah. And,
Vikki:and I was thinking about our why always and, like, what you just said about when we started the business, we didn't have kids yet, but we were already thinking. We knew we would. We had those discussions, yeah, like a lot of couples do. Some don't plan to have kids and then later change their mind. Right?
John:Mhmm.
Vikki:And some can't have kids. So that's a whole thing, of course. But yeah. So, you know, really, our why is our kids. And, and now to see them now having kids.
Vikki:And so all our thoughts on building a legacy now is being passed on in a sense. It's just a cool, cool feeling.
John:Yeah. And then thinking back on it, when we first started with our own business, it was like we were saying it was before kids, but it was a brick and mortar business. We've we've talked about it in the past. It was an automotive based brick and mortar business. And we had employees.
John:We had a a location that we operated from. And at that time, that was that was kind of the way you do business. And there wasn't a lot to do with online, almost almost nothing. Right? There was some hey.
John:There was mail order. People did mail order, and we
Vikki:we we were gonna do that.
John:Yeah. We actually explored that, but that was a massive upfront cost to do mail order. Right. So we actually had, a lot of products photographed, and we started putting together the actual catalogs. And then the just the publication and then the distribution of that of that catalog was just so expensive.
John:It just it became kind of we decided not to do it.
Vikki:Right. And the Internet was coming around then. Yeah. Because that was was ninety, ninety one, ninety two.
John:Yeah. Right. But what kind of what kind of moved us out of that brick and mortar business and really made, at least for me I know I can't speak for Vicky, but for me, what what was kind of like an moment was when after we had our kids. And we're like and I remember it was it got to the point where, like, this is taking we're married to this business. You know, when you think about owning a business, people oftentimes think that business owners have, like, banker's hours.
John:You know, that they that they just do whatever they wanna do when they wanna do it. And and if they knew the real truth, especially with brick and mortar businesses, it's a nightmare. You're there, like, seven days a week. You're there ten, twelve, sixteen hours a day, maybe even more than that. I remember there were times where, you know, we slept at the shop.
John:Yeah. Worked till late at night, slept for a few hours, got up in the morning, opened up, and went back to back to work. And so it got to the point where we weren't spending much we were spending time with the kids because we're dragging them to work with us.
Vikki:Yeah. Right? If it wasn't
John:for that, we wouldn't see our kids, but maybe for a couple hours when we got home. Yeah. And, like, maybe an hour if we got up early enough before we left for work. Then I thought, this this isn't the life I want. Right.
John:Right. And then we got into a massive car accident. Some dork who just got his learner's permit decided he didn't need to stop at a stop sign and ended up t boning us as we were going down Imperial Highway. And that that that back then, there wasn't
Vikki:City Of Brea. Right?
John:Yeah. And then ended up rolling our car over a couple times. And I remember thinking, gosh, we could we and both kids were in the car. Like, John was three weeks old.
Vikki:Yeah. And Misa was Like a year and
John:four weeks. Over a year. Yeah. And I remember, I thought, why are we putting our kids through this, you know, commuting to work every day? They're why should they be stuck commuting to work?
John:Don't have plenty of time to do that when they get older. But anyways, it was kind of a deal where I thought, you know, we need to move into something different, and that's when we started thinking, well, let's look at we need to look for that perfect business.
Vikki:Right.
John:A business that just makes sense. You can work from home. You can work from anywhere. Because even a home based business, you're still locked down to a location oftentimes. But with what we do, we can do it anywhere in the world Yeah.
John:Which is really cool. So I think that's what, at least for me, was when we had the kids that it was it was time then to look let's look into a better business model, and that's what we found.
Vikki:Yeah. Definitely. Definitely. Yeah. And I but I love the fact, and I kinda want to stress this point.
Vikki:I love what we did. I love that we had a plan to start a business and start creating something, whether we change businesses or not. You're learning constantly. Right? And so I love that that even before the kids came, we're building.
Vikki:We were learning. And then when they came, then it was kinda ready made. And then we, yeah, we morphed into a smarter business plan. That's for sure a business model. But we didn't wait to for the water to show up.
Vikki:Right? We started digging way even before they came. So I'm kinda, like, really wanna make the point with any young entrepreneurs that might be listening. And you're thinking, you know, if anything, now is the time to build before the kids come. Really get your foundation set.
Vikki:I mean, you could build at any time, but that's so, so, so important.
John:Yeah. I don't know why I don't know why anyone would wait. Yeah. Right? If you what are you waiting for?
John:It's not gonna get any better or any easier the more you wait. Right.
Vikki:It's so true. But I think people think that.
John:Yeah. I'm not really sure. Because and the other thing too is I don't care when you start, you're always gonna wish you had started sooner.
Vikki:Yeah. Yeah. And your dad gave you that advice too. You're young. Started.
Vikki:You know, get started with a business. Remember you told me that he said that? And it's so very true because if the kids are here and now you wanna start a business,
John:that Good luck.
Vikki:You might get pushed back, yeah, from the spouse if they're not right on board with you. And maybe some of you maybe put in the chat if you're watching on YouTube or Rumble if that's happening to you where you're getting pushback, you wanna start a business, and they don't really want you to. It would have been smarter to start way before the kids. And I get it because the spouse wants help with the kids and wants to see you and all those things, but super smart to do it before. And that's kind of what our daughter has done.
Vikki:She has a traditional job, although now she's on leave, but she also has an ecommerce business. And so she makes money at that and wants to build it, you know, even while on maternity leave to grow even more. Right? And then when she goes back to her traditional type job, sales job, she'll have both really going. Yeah.
Vikki:And I think that's brilliant too. That's the kind of legacy we're leaving Mhmm. Teaching for our kids too and all kids.
John:Yeah. For sure. Because if you're if you're thinking you're gonna start a family and then you're gonna start your business at the same time, that's gonna be kinda tough, I think.
Vikki:Right? Because
John:the new baby, especially if it's your first baby, it is literally life changing. Yeah. Without a doubt, it changes so much, and it's so it can be so stressful. And then trying to trying to build start and build a business on top of that, I think that's a lot of Yeah. Unnecessary stress at the same time.
Vikki:Right. Where if you already have the business and you're just laying the baby on top, you don't know any better. You know? That's so true.
John:Yeah. If you have the business, then you have the right kind of business. Because, like, what we do well, we're not gonna have any babies, but right now but let let's roll the let's roll the the time clock back. Or let's say if if we were in, like, our twenties and even our early thirties or whatever, and we were gonna have a baby now, it would have been it would be perfect because we've built a business, built an organization that will that will it that will sustain through the time we need to take off to kinda get acclimated to a baby. Right.
Vikki:The money keeps coming in, and we're not there holding their hand.
John:We don't have to work it every day. And the other great thing about what we do is we have such a strong network and community of people who will who will help us Right. To keep our business thriving through it, then we would do the same for them.
Vikki:And we do do the same. Right.
John:Yeah. We do it. We do it through different things. It may not be a baby, maybe they're having some sort of health health crisis, some some sort of stress on their lives where they need to kind of pull back a little bit and deal with family with because after all, that's the most important thing anyhow. So we just tell them, hey.
John:You deal with what you gotta deal with with your family, we got your business.
Vikki:Yeah. Totally. Yeah. Yeah. And, yeah.
Vikki:So, you know, if you want information on what we do, we set people up in their own independent franchise. That's what we do. And but it doesn't have the normal trappings of a traditional franchise, all of the franchise fees and that go along with all of that. So, you know, reach out to us in the comments. Send us an email.
Vikki:You you can find us anywhere, or I'm on all the social media platforms. The Vicki Downey, with two k's. And, but yeah. So let's jump into raising kids as you are an entrepreneur. Like, some of you might be thinking that, well, I have my own business, but my kids seem to have no interest in, what I do or having having their own business.
Vikki:I find that hard to believe because I feel like this next generation, gen z in particular, and a lot of millennials don't wanna work for somebody else. But say you're a new brand new parent. Keep doing what you're and you are an entrepreneur. Keep doing what you're doing. Keep setting the example.
Vikki:Keep showing the wins and showing the fails too. Keep showing that you keep going after goals in your business even when you don't hit them. I mean, I think that's powerful when you're teaching by example. You know, that that saying, is it Gandhi? Be the change you wanna see in the world.
Vikki:I actually changed it. I say, be the example you want to see in the world. I really do believe that. Don't you know? I don't know.
Vikki:I just I like that better personally, because I feel like my parents raised me to be to set an example, to be proactive, not reactive. We were talking about that this morning, but two. And so do that with your kids. Have them help you with their business even if they're two, three, four years old. Remember one of our businesses, I we found cute little things that where they drew, daddy.
Vikki:And at that time, we had, kind of an online business with the call in and pickup and all of that. But, you had to there was a way that you shared with people how to to join the business and do their business, and and we called it show the plan because it had a plan also. And so I found a picture that John wrote, and he's like, go get them, daddy. Show the plan. Mhmm.
Vikki:And he was, like, three or four years old. Mhmm. But guess what? We know he was learning the whole time that daddy's helping other people have their own business. Wow.
Vikki:He's really cool. He's my superhero. And he would draw, like, a cape, like a Batman, and it was you. So I I think I love those kind of stories of young parents that are raising kids and building their business because I don't want you to shield the stresses and the frustrations. They need to know it's not it's not a straight shot.
Vikki:Right? It's the role entrepreneur roller coaster. There's ups and downs, and they need to see you push through. Right? Don't you agree?
John:Absolutely. Because if they only see all the successes and never any of the struggles, they're gonna go into life with with an odd odd perspective. Right? They're gonna think everything's gonna go right for me. It's gonna be like a soccer game.
John:Everybody gets a trophy. Everybody gets a participation trophy, and life isn't like that. Right. Right? There's winners and losers, and and they've gotta see you fight through the losses, fight through the, you know, the setbacks, and Right.
John:Not let it affect you. Like, hey, we got it. We'll just move we'll push forward. And I think that's that's teaches them so much about life to not give up when something goes wrong. How many and I see that so many times when something goes the slightest bit wrong, people just shut down.
Vikki:Yeah. They do. They quit. They're quitters.
John:And then you see, the other ones that just that step up when things are starting to go sideways, they just step up and figure out a way to get through it. Right? They they Yeah. Improvise, adapt, and overcome. They figure it out.
John:Right. And I have so much respect for people who can do that. Yeah. And then they don't whine about the the part that went wrong. Exactly.
John:It was like, okay. Great. I learned. Yeah. But you don't learn anything from a win.
John:Winning all the learn from defeats. Yeah. You learn from losing.
Vikki:So true.
John:You learn how to be better. Yeah.
Vikki:In fact, you get kinda arrogant a lot of times. Some people do. Not everybody. But, hopefully, most people are gracious winners. But sometimes people can get very arrogant at winning, and then it topples them off the mountain the minute they have a loss.
Vikki:Right? And they can't get back up again. Yeah. So I'd rather, you know, have a decent amount of setbacks. I know that sounds crazy to say because when you're in the moment and you're you have a setback, you're like, I don't wanna go through this.
Vikki:And there's times, right, then you wanna quit. I feel like the I have that, like, five seconds of, this is so frustrating. Why am I even doing this? But then I snap out of it, like, right away also and get right back to it.
John:I think that that would be the work one of the worst things ever if if your kids, if your children see you quit. Yeah. Because you can't you can't walk that back. You're a quitter. Yeah.
John:And in their eyes, you'll always be a quitter.
Vikki:Yeah. Totally. Yeah. Right. And it goes to sports, and then that carries over to sports.
Vikki:But sports, we've talked about are such a great, character builder, team builder for businesses, for entrepreneurs. Because you can't do it alone. You have to have a team helping you whether now it's like with VAs, you might be a solo entrepreneur. Right? But you still need really help.
Vikki:You need to delegate and get some help, and VAs don't cost very much. Yeah. But
John:yeah. I was I was watching a a cooking show. Right? And it was, MasterChef. It was one of the earlier seasons of MasterChef.
John:And I enjoy watching those things because you see all these these people competing. Right? And some should be, some shouldn't be. And it's headed up by the the host of the show is Gordon Ramsay. So I think everyone knows who Gordon Ramsay is.
John:Probably arguably the best the best chef in the world. Then there's two other guys that are that are also judges with him. And it was weird because it it relates to what we were just talking about. One of the contestants, she just completely fell apart. She had something go wrong while during her you know, she had sixty minutes to prepare an entree or whatever the heck it was.
John:And something went wrong early on in her cook, and the wheels completely fell off. Mhmm. And she didn't know what to do. She was just like a deer in headlights. Gosh.
John:And even Ramsay comes over and tells her, like, get it together. What are you doing? Do you want to go home? Because if you want to go home, just go home. Otherwise, you know, basically, get your shit together, think is what he told her in in that those words.
John:Right? And said, get it together and and get back in this thing and keep fighting. And then at the end of the the that particular episode, he talked about he talked a little bit about not giving up, about having that fortitude and and fighting your way through. And he made a comment. He said, I've made he said, because you're how do you put it?
John:He said something like, you you're gonna make mistakes. He said, I've made thousands of them.
Vikki:Oh, yeah.
John:And then I think he even said, I've made more mistakes than all of you in this room put together, and yet he's the best chef in the world. As Shoshiya, he learned from those mistakes, and he even said, you'll learn from your mistakes. So make those mistakes, learn from them, and move on. Right. Definitely.
John:I just wanted to
Vikki:get Yeah.
John:I just saw that yesterday. That's why can still remember it.
Vikki:Entrepreneurship is failing, failing, failing. Yeah. I recently did a training for our company on Monday. And, and one of the quotes was from B Smith. She's a restaurateur.
Vikki:It's funny. And an actress and an author. And, hers was, I've I stand on a mountain of no's for one yes. And it's so true. That's what I also think of failing.
Vikki:Even though you're not failing when you get a no, you're it's just a no not right now on whatever your ask is, but you feel like it's a failure. Right? So, just think about how many no's Gordon Ramsey got or failures he had to have that best cheesecake souffle. He probably doesn't even do something like that. But to have the creme de la creme, meal, Right?
Vikki:He failed on a bunch of meals. Yeah. And that's with your business too. It's it's how you grow and get better and better and better.
John:Yeah. And I've I've brought this up before, and it's worth bringing up again. It was a it was a reporter interviewing Elon Musk during the time he was developing the reusable Falcon nine rocket for SpaceX, and which is basically, if you don't know, it's a reusable rocket, which is kind of odd because all of the rockets beforehand and what we've been using in The United States have been Saturn rockets. They launch those into space, whether it delivers a satellite or whatever its mission is. Once it's finished, it's left in space.
John:It's just space junk. So it would be akin to flying a seven forty seven from Los Angeles to New York, and then when you get to New York, they destroy the plane. It's one use only, and they destroy it. How expensive would a ticket be? So Musk came up with this idea of reusing rockets to save money, and this rocket returns to Earth and lands like a pencil.
John:It lands on a landing pad.
Vikki:It's still mind blowing.
John:It's it's awesome. If you haven't seen it, Google it and and watch some videos of that rocket landing back on Earth. But anyways, he was doing the testing, and it was set to try and land on a barge out in the ocean because they knew it was gonna crash. So they didn't want it to crash anywhere near population. So it's out in the ocean, on a barge, it's all videoed, and a reporter was asking him, what do you think your chances are of this thing basically landing?
John:And he said zero. Absolutely zero. It's gonna crash. It's gonna crash and burn. It's gonna be an, you know, exciting fiery crash.
John:Then they were shocked. The reporters were shocked. Like, you gotta be kidding me. You know it's gonna fail. He said, absolutely.
John:He said, because that's how we're gonna learn. He said, we know this one's gonna fail, but we're gonna learn from that failure how to build a better one next time. And then it's gonna fail, and we're gonna learn from that failure and how to build a better one the next time. Now they land routinely. In fact, they land them in in in pairs, in tandem, and it's really cool to see that video of the two coming back to Earth and then straightening up like a pencil, and then they fire the rockets, and then the landing gear folds out and it lands.
Vikki:It is mind blowing. Yeah. I'm mesmerized every single time. And to think that they didn't use to do that, like you said, they would send them up and expect them to explode. They never get to reuse them again.
Vikki:It costs them millions, billions of dollars each time.
John:There were so many so called experts that said that that couldn't be done.
Vikki:Oh, yeah.
John:That he couldn't do that. He couldn't figure and he figured it out. It didn't take that long to figure it out. Just like when they're saying about us going to Mars. Right.
John:They're actually sending sending manned spacecraft to Mars. They said that that's impossible, that we can't do that. And I
Vikki:I know we can. Happen. I'm sure it will. You know, it might take so many years, many, many Yeah. A hundred years.
Vikki:Elon won't be, but his team will be or maybe his kids. Maybe
John:I think maybe
Vikki:the son will take over.
John:The worst thing that these people can say to people like Elon Musk, whether you like him or not, he's he's a genius, and he's he's he's, like, such a pioneer for, like, Walt Disney or or anyone like that. Tell me that they can't.
Vikki:Yeah. Yeah. It's funny. I was texting quietly with my daughter-in-law, Allison. You don't even know this.
Vikki:And we were texting about something, and she said, I know you felt like, you know, people were challenging your idea or what have you in this conversation we were having. But she said, I just quietly sit back and don't say a word and think to myself, watch me. So it's the same kind of thing. Watch me do it. Yeah.
Vikki:Absolutely. So okay. So raising entrepreneurial kids, we actually have a whole episode on that. So if you wanna listen to that, I thought it was a pretty good one too. Mhmm.
Vikki:But I just kinda wanted to touch base on a couple of the key points with that. For one, you know, also, you're teaching your kids to how to deal with money, how they shouldn't expect to just be given money. Like, we've talked about that. We didn't ever had an allowance with our kids. We, decided early on they were gonna get earned money.
Vikki:Earned money. And so if they did their chores that helped the family household, they would get their earned money allowance. Right? And if they didn't, they didn't. And I put a we put a dollar amount for everything that they could earn money on.
Vikki:So if they needed extra money, oh, I'll clean the toilets, I'll the kitchen counter, I will wash the car, you know, whatever it is. And, you know, they needed $10, for example, to go somewhere. And that's what we did. And we even made them tithe. Now you may or may not believe believe in tithing, but we do.
Vikki:So we even made them tithe and save. So we had these little buckets also. So when we paid them, the 10% went to tithing. I think we put 20% into savings and the rest they could spend. So, you know, things like that.
Vikki:Do you have a strategy in place for your kids? Are you teaching them about money, or are you just handing money hand over fist? Because you're gonna you're gonna grow a bunch of entitled kids if you do if you're just handing it over. And they're definitely probably gonna be on no. They're definitely gonna be employees, which nothing bad about employees.
Vikki:But if you want entrepreneurial based kids, I say dangle the carrot of earning their own money.
John:Yeah. For
Vikki:sure. How do you feel?
John:You No. I agree. Because otherwise, you're raising like you said, you're raising employees and not entrepreneurs. Yeah. And you're raising, young people who are basically welfare recipients.
John:Yeah. And not saying that welfare is bad because there are people who need a hand, temporarily. There's I guess the the emphasis would be on the word temporarily. Right? They need a hand, and that's fine.
John:But if if people feel that they're entitled to it and they feel that that's that's how they should just be given money, You gotta be kidding me.
Vikki:Yeah. You're gonna have kid you're gonna have adults that are your children, but now they're adults asking for a handout all the time. It's very true. It's so true. So And and, you know, part
John:of that too is it it comes back to we discussed those things with our kids at dinner. Right? We were big on eating together Mhmm. And having dinner together. And, course, I was working nights, so that didn't work out later.
John:But when they were when they're young, especially on weekends and all, we would have dinner together, and we would have these discussions.
Vikki:We did.
John:Right?
Vikki:Yeah. We talked everything over with our kids. We were definitely the parents, but there was that camaraderie of the team spirit, I think. And then now we have the relationship, in my opinion. We're best friends Mhmm.
Vikki:As adults. But, but we had those conversations. And, you know, this is funny. Were you gonna say something else? I was listening to a parenting webinar, on Mel Robbins.
Vikki:I was listening to the Mel Robbins podcast yesterday, and it was all about parenting. And I thought, oh, this is apropos. We're have we're gonna be grandparents. It'd be kinda cool to hear what her expert has to say about parenting. And there was one many takeaways, but one was parents it's should apologize if they know they've made a parenting mistake, and they realize it.
Vikki:And even as an adult, there's nothing wrong with going back now. You have an adult children. You're the adult parent. You are still the parent. You will always be the parent.
Vikki:They will always be your child. Right? So the child should not be apologizing to you for what you did. It's up to you to say, you know what? I've been thinking back on how I handled the situation.
Vikki:I should have told you then, but I'm I I just wanna get this off my chest. I need to tell you now. I was completely in the wrong, and but I've learned. And you know what? That can totally connect you again.
Vikki:If any of you are on here thinking you don't have a great relationship with your kids, I thought I would just leave that little tidbit that goes such a long way. It's not for the child to mend the relationship. It's for the parent. So yeah. Go watch that podcast.
Vikki:It was so, so good.
John:Yeah. Yeah. And then, you know, I I was thinking earlier too, about raising our kids, and and like you were saying, we were we were the parents. We'll always be the parents and whatnot. And it goes back to how we chose to raise our kids.
John:I guess, when they were young, we were pretty strict with them. Like, when we go to a restaurant, that's not the time to run around and and jump up and down on the seats and
Vikki:Or lay down on
John:the lay down. Right? Like, when we would go to a restaurant, they were to sit quietly at the table. Yeah. Like, if we were on an airplane, they don't stand in the seat and stare at the person sitting behind you.
John:Yeah. They're not kicking the they're not kicking the back of the seat in front of them.
Vikki:But it's cute to some people, but some people that's not cute.
John:Yeah. No. I I I It's rude. Yeah. It's ridiculously rude.
John:But anyways, and you it's just kids need need to act properly. Right? So we were really strict with them. And then it worked out well, I think. Because I've had so many people ask me, how did you because they know our kids.
John:Right? And they're like, how did you raise such great kids? Now they've known them when they became, like, in in their teens and Twenties. Even in their twenties when they're off to college and whatnot. And when they graduated college, like, god, your kids are awesome.
John:How did you how did you do that? And I'm and I it's like, it's so easy because we were parents when the kids were little. We were strict with them. We weren't mean. We didn't slap them around and lock them in lock them in the closet, do those not silly things.
Vikki:But we did a
John:lot of time outs. Right. And we let them know what was right, what was wrong. You know, it's it's clear. You know, this is right, that's wrong.
John:You're gonna you can do this all you want, you're not doing any of that. Yeah. And we would be a parent when they were young, so when they got into their adolescent years, which most parents struggle with. Right? Because they're just fighting with their kids.
John:Their kids hate them. Right. They can't figure their kids out. Their their kids want nothing to do with them. Yet our kids were our best friends, like you said earlier.
John:Still are. And they still are. But I think that's the time when you can be your your your child's friend is when they're older and they know the difference between right and wrong, they behave properly, and they're good good citizens. Right. Not when they're little kids, not when they're when they're still learning and they need the direction, that's not the time to be their friend.
John:That's the time to be a parent.
Vikki:Right.
John:And I think that had a lot to do with it.
Vikki:A lot. And I remember and I it was modeled for me, so I can't take credit. So my mom did a really good job, I'm sure, because I did this to our kids. I don't know if you said this to them when you were disciplining, but I'd say, know,
John:you Bleeding will stop soon. I would
Vikki:say, you could be mad at me all you want, you know, because they were clearly mad. They're trying to get their way. They didn't like my punishment, whatever it is. You could be mad at me all you want. I'm the parent.
Vikki:This is the rule. You broke the rule. So when you're you're fine, you've gotten through your frustrations, come back out and talk to me. Right? But I didn't worry about them my kids.
Vikki:Oh, no. They're mad at me. No. I'm the parent. I'm the parent.
Vikki:They're the child. Yeah. How are they gonna learn if you're trying to be their friend when they're too young? So that's exactly what the point you're making.
John:Yeah. Later, you can be their friend, and they'll they'll be your friend. Yeah. It's gonna be just such a great relationship you'll have. It's really cool.
Vikki:It's kinda like this is funny, but it I equate it to being a substitute teacher when a sub because I did a lot of subbing. When a substitute teacher goes in, they can't you can't be friends with this new classroom. They don't know who you are. They don't know what your ground what you stand for, what you're gonna put up with. They'll run amok.
Vikki:They'll push every button. They'll it's chaos. I learned very quickly that you gotta be super strict. Like, you don't put up with s h you know what? You don't put up with anything.
Vikki:Then as long as you come back a second day, the second day, you can start to I remember talking to you about that because you were a police officer at the time, and I kinda needed help because I struggled when I went in and didn't have these rules. But it's the same with kids. I feel like that structure kids love structure. We know that. They need it.
Vikki:They wreak havoc when they don't have structure, so they need structure. So provide that, and you can ease up later.
John:You can
Vikki:totally ease up later. So, and, honestly, that goes on to the next point that I wanted to get into is you aren't just raising kids. You're raising up leaders. And leaders has been a huge word for you our whole lives.
John:Mhmm.
Vikki:I know. I don't know if you wanna touch on that, but you're not just raising babies. You're raising your future leaders of the world, truly. Not just your family, but
John:Boy, and that's things. That seems like what we're lacking. Right? Yeah. Seems like we're we lack having leaders today.
Vikki:Yeah. Yeah. It's very true. Maybe that's all we need to say. And then talk about the joy of watching your kids step into their own power.
Vikki:I I jotted that down. Yeah. So now watching our son and daughter-in-law with their baby girl, Noel, oh my gosh. It's such a joy, and it's so empowering. And then to also see John have his business on the side.
Vikki:You might know, we've talked about this on that podcast we did with him that he's an Audible narrator. So, boy, has that changed? We were chatting about that. He can't narrate his books when he's watching the baby. Right?
Vikki:That's impossible. And so he waits till she goes to bed at night, not just one of her naps because there's just not enough time to edit or whatever he needs to do. So his schedule has changed. But like you were saying at the beginning, how cool is that to to be able to work whenever you wanna work?
John:Yeah.
Vikki:And so he's set himself up now, and it's cool to watch him, like, flourish in this new dad the daddy space.
John:Mhmm. Yeah. It's really cool. The the two of them are well, knew Allison would be a good mom. Yeah.
John:Because she that's what she works with babies at work. So she's around babies all the time. She's really good with them. Right? Yeah.
John:And so we already knew that. And I knew John would be a great gonna be a great dad too.
Vikki:Yeah. We both did. Yep. Right?
John:And it's really cool to see it all come to fruition to see the two of them and how how in six months, how they're raising their little baby girl. It's really cool.
Vikki:She's precious. Those of you that are grandparents know the feeling. I've been we've been waiting. No guilt to our kids, but we've been waiting for, like, ten years. I expected to be a grandparent ten years ago.
John:Yeah. I'm I'm I've been I've been forgiving them for that. Yeah. Yeah. Making us wait for ten years.
Vikki:So believe me, we've been we couldn't we couldn't wait to feel the experience of it all because people have said it's like nothing else. It's so different than having your own kids. It's very true. It's it's really I just get the joy. I love Noelle.
Vikki:I'm getting so much joy from our granddaughter, but there's, like, that layer of seeing your children thrive as parents that even impresses me just as much. Let's put it that way. It's spectacular, actually.
John:Yeah. It is pretty cool, mean, being their their grandparents because, you know, we're holding holding little Noel and just, oh, I think she needs to be changed. And then just hand her off. Here you go.
Vikki:I've actually changed her diaper many times. You haven't yet. Yeah. But yeah. So, so yeah.
Vikki:How did you wanna end the episode today?
John:I don't know. Do you
Vikki:have any, like, parting words on baby's business and building that legacy?
John:I would say that now is the time to invest some extra effort into whatever it is you're doing. Like, you know, one of the things too is you just make a decision. If you're thinking about starting something, then just get off the fence and start it. No matter where you are in life, just start it. Because like we said earlier, the the longer you wait, it's not gonna get any easier or any better for you.
John:And no matter when it is you start, you'll always look back and think, gosh, I wish I'd started this the year before. I wish I'd started this five years ago or ten years ago. It's never gonna be like, ugh, I wish I hadn't started this yet. I wish I just waited five years.
Vikki:Yes. Never. It's never that. Yeah.
John:Just start it. Be and even if you think, gosh. I don't have the time. I'm so busy. You can make time.
John:Right? We all have the same twenty four hours in a day. It's just how much time do you make for the things you really need or really want? And I would think you would want this. Yeah.
John:Because it's gonna free up so much time for you later. Totally. Like, the whole the whole idea of this this podcast is dig the well. So dig the well. It doesn't mean dig the well when you have some spare time or Exactly.
John:Or when it's convenient or when the weather is is perfect. It's just dig the well no matter what it is you're already doing, dig the well, because you will be so happy that you did. Five years from now, you're gonna think, thank God, I dug the well five years ago when I really probably didn't need it, but I need it today. Yeah. Because now I want now I have the the option, the freedom to spend time with my family, to spend time with the kids that I wouldn't have had if I hadn't dug this well and started this.
Vikki:Totally. Just like you. We couldn't have retired you when we did.
John:It's all about options. Yeah. Right? It's it's gonna it's gonna provide so many options for you later in life that you don't even know about, that you can't even imagine. But isn't it nice to have the options?
John:You can do whatever you want now. You can choose the path you wanna take.
Vikki:Yeah. Right?
John:Yeah. Absolutely. For me, when the option came up to retire, oh, great. I'm gonna retire. My buddies are still working.
John:The guys I used to work with are still working.
Vikki:One's a captain now, or do you think lieutenant?
John:Oh, he's he I think he made captain finally.
Vikki:Yeah. So there's still some good guys over there, but they but he's still working.
John:Promote them.
Vikki:And he never had kids. So maybe that's just his whole life. I'm not sure.
John:Yeah. He's yeah. His his career career if if you know know the guy, I'm not gonna say who it is, but if you knew him, you'd say, wow. That is a really odd career path that he's taking, the things that he's done, how he got to where he's going. And and out of all the group of guys that that I know really well that we're, like, close
Vikki:The click.
John:He was the least likely to promote. We all we all still can't believe that he actually promoted.
Vikki:And he laughs about it too for all of you with a soft heart listening, all the women listening.
John:Oh, yeah.
Vikki:He thinks it's funny too. He didn't see himself promoting
John:it. He's the first one to admit it. He'll send, like, a tech a text to us. He when he when he made I remember when he made lieutenant, he sent a group text to us because you guys will not believe this. I think there's a mistake, but I'm not gonna say anything because I'm on the transfer as lieutenant.
John:Woah. And we're like, yeah, that's gotta be a typo.
Vikki:And we went to the promotion party that he had at his house.
John:And they all joked about it there.
Vikki:Yeah. That was Everybody
John:everybody who spoke at his party joked about it. But anyways, well, but but I'm just saying that it just gives you all these options, and I thank God that I had the option gosh, what was it? Six and a half years ago?
Vikki:Six now. Barely. A little over six.
John:Well, guess
Vikki:it is coming up in a half.
John:It was January 2019.
Vikki:Yeah.
John:So if you carry the one yeah. So if I didn't if if we hadn't done this, if we hadn't dug the well, and mostly Vicky, if she hadn't dug this well back when she started digging the thing Mhmm. Which she didn't really have the time or didn't you didn't enjoy you mean you didn't really enjoy it all the time. Right?
Vikki:Yeah. Not always. Definitely not always. Yeah.
John:I wouldn't have had the option. Yeah. I would have still I'd I'd who knows? I'd probably still be working.
Vikki:Yeah. And I'd never be seeing him. Our kids wouldn't be seeing him, you know, because there was always so much overtime, not even not necessarily, on purpose. Right? You're required.
Vikki:So, anyway well, that's awesome. And, you know, I I love that, John, and I want to also say, if you're if you're thinking about your why, why you build your business in the first place or why you're thinking about changing your business, maybe you wanna switch businesses, and it's been bothering you. You know, write down your why, and I would love it as a community. We really want to get to know all of you better. I would love it.
Vikki:We would love it if you would on YouTube or Rumble. Even if you're listening right now on Spotify or one of the other podcast platforms, go over jump over to YouTube and comment. Tell us what your why is. Tell us why you want to build a business at all because it all goes back to your why. It really it that is what's gonna drive you.
Vikki:And plus, we'd like to get to know you better and get to know what your whys are, and we'd love to hear from you.
John:So And you know what? If if you have trouble doing that, because it's not something that I don't know that everyone, you know, it's not something that people do all the time. So if you need help with that, just reach out to us. Uh-huh. We'd be happy to to help you and and try and help figure out, you know, what it is that would that would get you out of bed early and and keep you up late at night working on something else, working on digging your well.
John:Right? Yeah. And we'll help you with that, and we can even help you find maybe the best fit for a a side gig for you.
Vikki:Yeah. We'd be happy to do a discovery call too. No charge. You know?
John:Just yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We're not trying to make money. We're just
Vikki:We were willing to get to know you. We wanna help you. Alright. Well, have a fantastic day, weekend, wherever you are listening, and we will see you on the next one. Alright.
Vikki:Bye for now. Thanks for joining us on dig the well.
John:We hope you feel empowered and ready to take on new challenges.
Vikki:Remember, if we can do it, so can you. Keep learning, keep believing, and going after your dreams.
John:And if you enjoyed this episode, share it with someone who needs a little inspiration or maybe a nudge in the right direction.
Vikki:Help us grow this community of go getters. Together, we can achieve greatness and get back to family.
John:Thanks for listening, and let's keep digging the way.