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.
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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 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. Welcome back, everyone, to Dig the Well. Hello.
John:Hola.
Vikki:We are here, and we're matchy matchy. Look at us.
John:We're almost we're the same color.
Vikki:Yeah. And we noticed it, but we said, we don't care. And I'm sure you don't care either. Yeah.
John:Right. Who cares?
Vikki:Right. Especially if you're listening on Spotify or one or the other where you don't see us. You really don't care.
John:Yeah.
Vikki:So we are excited again, always for this episode where we're gonna talk about what sacrifices in business to have business success or not sacrifices in business, but sacrifices.
John:So it was some of the sacrifices that you're gonna need to make if you wanna have a successful business.
Vikki:Yeah. Right.
John:Yeah. And it's true true with everything. Right? You have to if you wanna be great at a sport, you have to make a lot of sacrifices. You have to dedicate your basically your whole life to if you wanna be an elite athlete, those guys dedicate their entire I mean, all their free time, and and they're just focused on one thing, and they become great.
Vikki:So yeah. So in business, it's it's the same, you know, and I think that's where a lot of people can falter. I don't wanna say fail, but falter. Right? Because they think it's they can have their normal life, see friends all the time, go out drinking.
John:And there's a time for that, but it's not why you're trying to build that business.
Vikki:Right. Exactly. Yeah. That's one
John:that's something that we I know we've talked about before. We've we've seen it happen so many times that people get started in a business. They get started in their own business, and maybe they're not used to owning their own business and making that sacrifice and really having that that, focused, you know, that really just that focused effort. And and they're not willing to do that, and they kinda treat their business like a hobby. Yes.
John:And then they're surprised when they get hobby level results.
Vikki:Right. And hobby level pay, which I'm sure that's what you need to do.
John:What I meant.
Vikki:Remember the result. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. So they they're complaining because their business is not making money at all, but, yeah, they're not devoting the time, sacrificing some some of their, discretionary time, I guess I would say, like TV watching, going to bars, going out, you know, all the time seeing family and friends.
Vikki:Some of that has to be sacrificed for a short period of time, not forever.
John:Not forever.
Vikki:Yeah. Yeah. So that's what we're gonna talk about today because I think some people you could be stuck in your business and that's might be what you hadn't even thought of. You hadn't even thought that that is the issue, but it could be. So yeah.
Vikki:So let's talk about a couple things. Let's go back to our Prestige Motoring Accessory days. Yeah. I
John:was just thinking of that.
Vikki:Yeah. So our brick and mortar, those of you that are brand new to the podcast, we had a brick and mortar in the city of Brea, California for, like, ten years pretty much.
John:Oh, yeah.
Vikki:And we went in six days a week. We took one day off. That was it.
John:Yeah. Then we moved. We we ended up having two.
Vikki:Oh, I didn't remember
John:that. Sunday and Monday.
Vikki:I'll I always remember six days a week. So that was the beginning. That was the sacrifice period. I betcha.
John:Yeah. For sure.
Vikki:Ourselves. Yeah. And then I
John:think we're just starting to feel like we were getting burned out because it was a lot Right. Year after year of doing that. It just was starting to start it was weighing on us. And then, of course, we had the kids.
Vikki:Brought them to work with us.
John:Yeah. So I think we decided then to pair that Sunday off with a Monday. So we had two days off Sunday and Monday.
Vikki:I don't remember that. Do we have some of the employees open on Monday? I don't remember. No. We just No.
John:Because just like any other brick and mortar business, right, a conventional business, it's like, even if you have some even if you're not physically there, you're mentally there. Right. And so you just might as well go there.
Vikki:That's right. Jesus.
John:I know if you're a little busy. I think. Yeah.
Vikki:Yeah. So but but those first years of establishing the business, we were there six days a week, and, we had some employees. Right?
John:Mhmm.
Vikki:But, at the same time, we would come home. We'd be beat. We would be exhausted. And, we didn't see family as much, but they understood where I think there's sometimes a difference when you have a brick and mortar business compared to an online business.
John:Well, I know that's true.
Vikki:Family tends to somewhat understand. Sometimes they give you a hard time for not showing up to family events or being late, but they should be they should be more understanding. They're just not they they've never walked in the shoes of an entrepreneur, so they just don't get it. But so we had to miss a lot of family events, family, and friends.
John:It sucked because Yeah. You know, friends would go to the movies, go do this, go do that, and it was always like, no, we can't.
Vikki:Yeah. We have to work. Yeah. I remember that. And we knew it was gonna get better, and I think, as time went on now, we joke around.
Vikki:We we travel so much. We're, like, live in our twenties now because that was we were in our twenties, early twenties, when we went through that. So there's some sacrifice, but it paid off. We, established ourselves as the premier window tint car accessory shop in the area. We were known.
Vikki:We did TV commercials. So that was that was some big money. Right? Remember that? So the sacrifices do pay off, you know, by by you doing that, but you've gotta do it.
Vikki:You just you've gotta hunker down and, and successfully use clues. If we had treated it like a hobby, I bet the business we would have gone out of business
John:if we
Vikki:just right?
John:For sure.
Vikki:If we just lackadaisically went in when we wanted to close the shop when we, you know, when we wanted to leave instead of keeping the operating hours always the same so the public knew. Right? That made a
John:big
Vikki:difference, made sure we made it it into every appointment and all of that. Yeah. It was successful because of it. So yeah. So so for a short period of time, that might be you where you feel like you're devoting so many hours to your business and, just know you're on the right path.
Vikki:Right? Wouldn't that you say that? Yeah.
John:Yeah.
Vikki:Yeah. Now if it's been ten, fifteen, twenty years and you're still sacrificing so much, I would seek counsel on that. I would seek out a business coach and find out what can you do.
John:Sounds like a job.
Vikki:I know. Right? They say that about entrepreneurship that sometimes you buy yourself a job that
John:you I don't want that.
Vikki:Didn't even realize they were buying themselves a job. You know, I feel like restaurants and things like that are jobs. You know, you can correct us, you know, write to us. We'd love to hear if if we're wrong, but we've had a lot of friends buy, franchises of fast food places or, you know, restaurant, and they say that. They say, you know what?
Vikki:I I realized I bought myself a job.
John:Yeah. Because they're really they're really they're there all the time. Right. And just working they're the hardest working people, the the ones that we've known that have have either franchise you know, bought into a franchise or bought into just a just a restaurant, opened a restaurant. Right.
John:And how much money they've had to put out, whether it's the franchise or whether they had to, lease all the equipment at that restaurant. So it's huge every month, the bills they have to pay, their overhead. It's just a typical conventional business, but it's just good grief. It just seems like a whole bunch of nightmares. It can be great when it's great, but more often than not, it's not great
Vikki:with the
John:ones that we've talked to.
Vikki:You need to really eventually be able to almost replace yourself. Wouldn't you agree? Yeah. Because a lot of people think I wanna be irreplaceable, and actually you don't. You don't wanna be irreplaceable because then you're gonna have no time freedom.
Vikki:So eventually you wanna make it so you've set up a system for your business.
John:There it is. Right. That's what I was gonna mention. That's the keys. You have to have systems in order to to be somewhat replaceable.
John:You have to have those systems. That's one of the things that we love in what we're doing now. If if we had that back when when the kids were young, oh my gosh. We would have be able to spend so much more time with friends and family because we can run this business anywhere Right. As long as we have Internet Right.
John:Which is pretty much everywhere. Exactly.
Vikki:I know.
John:So Yeah. It it it's such a game changer having this kind of business. And then this business, the they they're loaded with systems
Vikki:Right.
John:With easy systems that we just have we just follow Yeah. And we just train others to follow the system. Right. And it's just such a breeze.
Vikki:And you can be then replaceable. Of course, you're there for your team, but you can go on a vacation and someone else can take over because there's a system. Right?
John:Yeah. Well, we just
Vikki:I know. We didn't have that. So so yeah. So definitely seek out counsel on, you know, maybe what you're doing wrong, how you could systematize your business that you can have some more time freedom because, definitely, it shouldn't be forever. It should not be forever that you're having to, say no to to events and things and miss family functions and kids kids events for sure.
Vikki:That is what that's a nonnegotiable for us. The big events that our kids had, I always John, you were working at that time. That was after we closed the doors of Prestige, and we John became a police officer. I taught school for a while, and then I even had a different business where I was able to then stay home with the kids. But there were times when I would do parties.
Vikki:I would be going into people's homes. And in the busy times, I could I might have five, six parties a week. And so I would look at the family calendar and make sure to talk to the kids. What's important to you? What you know, do you want me to this assembly, you know, for you're gonna get an award for such and such.
Vikki:Do you want me there? Do you not care? You know? But almost always when they're in elementary school, they want you there. So I didn't miss any of those.
Vikki:But evening things, you know, I just made sure to check with your kids, and I think that's a huge, piece of advice Yeah. To give, especially a mom, but I know dads too. Dads are in the same boat these days. Lots more moms and dads are switching roles, and one can stay home when the other one works and vice versa. So it's for dads too that, you know, check that out.
Vikki:I know I have a friend, Sandra Yancey, who's the CEO of eWomen Network, and I recently heard her share about that, that she busted her butt to may do the best scholastic book fair, and women know what I'm talking about, for her son at his elementary school. You know, she's on the PTA. She worked her butt off to be there and, make it successful. Her son, she asked him later, he didn't even remember the book fair. He could have cared less.
Vikki:So she learned a big, lesson that she should find out what his what he wants her to be there for or dad to be there for. So talk to your kids. Have great communication with them. I know it's funny. I know and I did plenty of those too.
Vikki:When she shared that I thought I did so many book fairs and the kids didn't even know that I was at school that day. Yeah. Yeah. So, alright. What else?
Vikki:What's another thing that you think entrepreneurs are should sacrifice and they may not be recognizing
John:the sacrifice?
Vikki:I was thinking I was thinking TV because yeah. With the especially with the boom of Netflix and Hulu and I mean, I'm losing track of all the
John:But what's great about TV. What's great about all the streaming services, you can watch them on your time schedule. Right? So it's not like we don't ever watch TV. We're not like one of those.
John:I've heard people, like, they they get they they start a business or they do something like this, and they almost get into, like, this like, it's almost like a cult thing Yeah.
Vikki:Yeah.
John:Where they they've completely they boycott all TV, just no TV whatsoever and no movies and things like that. And it just seems to me that's kinda weird. Yeah. And maybe it works for them, and I'm not putting them down by any means. If it works if it works for them, then, you know, all the more power go run run with it.
John:That doesn't work for us, and it doesn't work for anyone that I actually know. So what we do is we still watch TV. We just watch TV during times of the day that we're not gonna we're really not doing anything to build our business. So, like, like, we we tend to get up pretty early in the morning, so we kinda get a head start on our day.
Vikki:Miracle morning. Yeah.
John:Yeah. It's just it's a great quiet time to really get a head start on your day, which we can talk about later. But, you know, in the evenings, when it gets kinda late, we don't really wanna talk to other people anyhow because we know that we're kind of encroaching on their family time. Right. Whether it's dinner time or some people call it supper.
Vikki:Eight o'clock.
John:What do you call it? Dinner or supper?
Vikki:Dinner. I've never said supper, but I definitely heard shit.
John:Put a poll and ask
Vikki:what what Tell us. Supper or dinner. Yeah.
John:So maybe it's dinner or supper time, and we don't wanna we don't wanna interrupt people during that time. Maybe they're that's the chance when mom and dad are home from work, kids are home from school, and they're getting caught up on each other's day.
Vikki:Right.
John:Those are great times. Right? The you you talk about or you've talked about this before, but we've talked about, like, having quality time with your family. Right? That's true quality time with your family.
John:When you sit down and have a conversation with your kids and your spouse and you talk about each other's day, and
Vikki:you Right.
John:You're interested in what everyone's doing. So for that reason, we you know, later in night, we we're not really doing a whole lot to Yeah.
Vikki:Like, after eight,
John:so to speak. I feel like
Vikki:don't make phone calls after eight.
John:Yeah. That's our time then to to put whatever we want, whether whatever streaming service we want, either it's it's on demand or we've recorded it, whatever, but then we watch it at that time.
Vikki:Yeah. That's our kind of our time together. Yeah. Yeah. Because we're both doing different parts of our business throughout the day, and then we come together then.
Vikki:Yeah. I agree %. So it's not that you're cutting out all TV time. That's for sure. I would definitely cut out what we call constant negative news.
John:Boom. And
Vikki:you could add those, you know, letters together. You know what I'm talking about? But and and we're not gonna get political, but just honestly, most, news programs are not the best interest of your mindset. They're just not. They're you know, news programs sensationalize.
Vikki:They John knows for a fact they don't tell the truth, because that's a whole another con we should do an episode on that. Seriously. Because those of you don't that don't believe that, we I can give you story after story, and John actually, John will give the story. Let's do that. Let's make make sure we do that.
Vikki:That he would be in Downtown LA at, at an arrest of somebody. Something an incident has happened, and he would he'll call he would have called me and told me about it. So I'm watching it on TV. The reporter tell says something, and I am on the phone live with him saying it back to John. And he said, that is not what happened at all.
Vikki:And, anyway, so that's kind of an interesting topic. But so stop watching the news because they get it wrong most of the time. They, it's all negative. It's all low as me. It's very rare that there's an uplifting, you know, life affirming, something that has happened that they're reporting on.
Vikki:It's all bad stuff because they know the the brain wants that.
John:Even when they do get it right in those rare instances when they get the the reporting correct, it's all negative. I mean, that's I I I don't know whether they think maybe they think people, that's all they wanna hear and that's all they wanna see or all the negative things that happen during the day. Right. If you think about it, if there's anything positive, if there's anything good, like, a feature story, something that's uplifting, it's at the very end. If they have time
Vikki:That's so true. If they have time And most people are saying
John:they just cut that one out, and then they just end the end the program.
Vikki:Yeah. Exactly. I remember there used to be one on Sunday mornings, and I I remember that the what it was, but it was positive things. But I noticed hardly anybody watched. It's very sad because people love gore and
John:When have you ever seen the lead story, you know, on the on, like, I don't know. Was it 10:00 news now?
Vikki:Right. I don't even know because we've Right.
John:When is that lead story ever something good? You know, like, a little boy saves three puppies from drowning, and I'm gonna film, you know, film an eleven. They they will not show that. They'll show, you know, a police pursuit.
Vikki:Right.
John:Or I don't know. Just Something some yeah. Somebody's house burned down. Right?
Vikki:Yeah. Exactly. It's like we're
John:us knowing about that isn't gonna change anything. We're not gonna save that person's house. Somebody gets gunned down, you know, in the in Downtown Los Angeles
Vikki:I know.
John:Film at eleven, you know, caught on tape.
Vikki:I know. Oh, yeah. Caught on tape. All of those.
John:How good is that? It just I don't know. It just it it just it it takes its toll on you. If you just feed yourself with all this negative, these negative stories, all this negativity, you will honestly it changes I I don't know why I get weird, but everybody operates at at different frequencies. Right?
John:It will change your frequency. It'll make you a negative person whether you believe it or not. If you're constantly just bombarding yourself with all this negativity, it's gonna affect you. It's gonna affect the people around you. You just I don't know.
John:You just Definitely. You know, we're I've talked about this before, like, at work. There are certain groups of at work that I can't deal with, I can't hang out with because they're just negative. And I think they're a product of their environment. I think they watch a lot of negative news.
John:They're policemen for goodness sake, so they see a lot of negative things. They don't just in their identity life, but they don't compartmentalize. They don't get away from it.
Vikki:Right.
John:And then they just become really skeptical and negative. And then I find myself when I'm hanging out with them, I can see that I'm a different person.
Vikki:Wow. Yeah.
John:And they're good guys.
Vikki:Right.
John:But it's just the negativity is just, it has its effect.
Vikki:Well, so that's a great segue because one of the things we were gonna mention was toxic people in your life. Actually, cut them out. Cut out the toxic people and never add them back. Never add them back because they're not giving anything to you energy wise, like, frequency wise for sure. And mindset and all all the things, yeah, definitely.
Vikki:If they're family, it's hard.
John:Yeah. It's
Vikki:hard, but needs to be done.
John:And everyone that I know that's a toxic person, none of them are successful themselves.
Vikki:True. And then
John:not a single one of them that I know that's in that in that group, is really cheering us on Right. Or cheers me on Right. To be successful. In fact, I think it's I think it's a converse. I think they would rather see me fail.
John:Yeah. They would rather see us not do well. Like, you know, there's that that saying where they say, how do you keep what is it? Crabs. Right?
John:Or is it crabs or crabs?
Vikki:In a bucket.
John:How do you keep crab you notice when they when, I guess, crab fishermen? What are they? Fishermen?
Vikki:I think they are. Yeah. I think they are.
John:Anyways, guys that eat crabs out of crab traps and whatnot. So crab pots. Right? Is that what they call a crab?
Vikki:I don't know.
John:Anyways, I guess I should look that up before I start talking about it. Anyways, if if you've ever seen it, they're just in an open bucket. Right. Like a big big giant plastic bucket. They just put them in there.
John:And, like, what keeps them from climbing out of the bucket? Yeah. They're great. Yeah. It's not because the crabs aren't able to climb claw their way up and and climb out of the bucket.
John:It's just when one's about to succeed and make get out to freedom, the other ones in the bucket pull them back down.
Vikki:Yep. It's just like humans.
John:Everybody has toxic friends and family that I think that are kind of those crabs pulling you back down in the bucket because they I think secretly, they don't wanna see you succeed, which is kinda sad. It is very sad. But it's that whole thing that misery likes company. Right? They don't want us they may not want us and they may not even realize realize it.
Vikki:They don't. I don't think they do.
John:Yeah. I don't think
Vikki:They're not bad people.
John:Yeah. I I agree.
Vikki:Yeah. I I think don't realize it.
John:That somehow subconsciously, they see your freedom as their failure, And it's kind of a shame.
Vikki:It's sad. I and it's I I bet it's the environment they grew up in because I had very supportive parents. They always cheered their friends on. They modeled that for me in conversation. They would ask about other people's accomplishments, you know, knowing they might have had, you know, a book come out or something successful happen.
Vikki:And they would ask and and be so happy for them. So for me, that was modeled. So I'm always happy for other people, but I don't think other people are raised that way, all of them.
John:Yeah. So So So so I guess the the the moral of the story here is if you know and just get better at recognizing those toxic individuals in your life Right. And see them for who they are, not just that they're they're good people. They just have a weird, you know, kind of a negative impact on you. And if that's the case, we're not saying unfriend them and and, you know, erase them completely from your lives.
John:Just don't hang out so much with them. Yeah. Limit the time you hang out. Yeah. And and don't get sucked into all that negativity because it's easy to do when you're hanging out with people that tend to be negative and Right.
John:Really fight that and be be that bright light in the room. Right? And and maybe, again, it's something that doesn't need to be said, but maybe you'll help turn them to where they're gonna start being a little more positive because you will have an effect on other people too. If you're positive, the same way that a negative person kinda drags you down a little bit, but if you're a very positive person then you have that that energy about you, that that plays out. I mean, other people draw on that, and it makes them better.
John:Right. Definitely.
Vikki:And yeah. And so definitely cut cut those people out at the time.
John:So this is the last time you'll see Vicky and I on a podcast.
Vikki:I'm cutting her out. That's funny. So something else to sacrifice, I I kinda wanted to touch on I was thinking as you were talking, we were in Amway years ago, and I think we've talked about that. That was right, at the time we were closing the doors of our shop at Prestige. And a friend shared it with me, and I was originally a hell no.
Vikki:Excuse my language. Like, what is this weird business model? But the more I investigated, the more John and I said, holy cow. The why isn't every business run this way, with the systems they have in place where people are encouraged to help others and maybe benefited a little bit. The person you were helping made the lion's share of the income and you made a tiny little percentage.
Vikki:But, I mean, all businesses should kinda have something like that in there. But we were like we were introduced to personal development in that and started reading a lot of great books. So not only did we get better at our business because of the books we were reading, but our marriage became better. But also within that kind of woven in is the term delayed gratification. And so we're telling you to cut some things out, but some of your favorite things you might need to cut out, you know, and cut back how much you're spending on things.
Vikki:When you have a new business, that's the case for us. It was definitely. We had to cut out how much we were spending. So I was getting my nails done. I started getting my nails done when I was, like, 19 years old.
Vikki:And I realized that's kinda just a money waster in a sense that that whatever it was back then, like, $20 could be put towards our business or to pay bills. Right? So I cut out doing my nails even though I loved it. Loved having it done. And in Amway in our Amway days, I learned that why not set it as a goal?
Vikki:Why not make it so you cut something out that you might love and is saving you money that you can appropriate the funds towards your business. And then when you hit a goal that you go get them done. Right? Why not? Maybe it's you maybe you love to get massages once a week.
Vikki:Maybe that's your, you know, whatever you wanna call it, favorite thing to do. And you cut that out and make it a goal for yourself. So that delayed gratification. I know we were talking to our daughter about that too. I think she had cut she'd kind of done that for herself.
Vikki:She had a goal in her business, and she said, you know, I'm gonna stop doing my nails for a while. And then when I hit this level, I'm gonna do my nails again. And I thought that was brilliant. Yeah. Yeah.
John:Yeah. It's a great way to it's a great way to but it to to, Reward yourself? Or Yeah. To actually build to if if you have a business. Right?
John:So you have different goals that you wanna reach, but to hold back on rewarding yourself until you reach those goals. But it takes a lot of discipline, doesn't it?
Vikki:It does. I wanted to get I see all my friends having them done and my nails look terrible and I was having to do it myself. But I was so glad I did it because, the joy, right, that I felt when I went in to have them done again was amazing. And would
John:you say that it's it would be it it would actually be advantageous to cut out something that is really meaningful, something that you really like or that requires a lot of work. If if you like, for you, doing your own nails probably requires a lot of time and a lot of work, obviously. Right?
Vikki:I don't know. Like, an hour half hour to an hour to do it myself and the the fact that they chip and the polish flips off after three days. So you're spending an hour every three days if you want them to look nice instead of once every two, three weeks.
John:Yeah. So choose something that actually is meaningful to you, that you're you're choosing to, delay the gratification of having. Right? It's gonna and and by not having it, not only do you not have it, but it's requiring a lot of extra effort on your part, right, to Right. Do it yourself kind of a thing.
John:It's like like, Wednesday, I'm gonna delay eating a hot dog. Right? Eating a
Vikki:hot dog
John:or whatever as much as it's probably better that you don't eat hot dogs, but, that's not really a big deal. Right? It's like, I don't know whether I meet my day or not, and I get to eat that hot dog. It doesn't really make a difference. Right?
Vikki:It just made me realize
John:cheeseburger. That might
Vikki:Yeah. With by saying that, it reminded me of what we one of the goal one of the delayed gratifications was a watch. We, we were running for a goal with our current business Neora, and we were and where were we? The Bahamas? Yeah.
John:We're in Nassau.
Vikki:We were in Nassau. Yeah. On a trip, and we found John a Breitling watch.
John:Yeah. It's a watch I've wanted for a long time, but we didn't wanna get it until we reached a certain certain level. And we reached it, mostly well, Vicky, I should say, not us. But
Vikki:No. You weren't.
John:And then, we're just happened to be on the incentive trip. So it's a free trip that they put on for us. And so we were in Nassau, The Bahamas, and we were going through the shopping area. And our daughter was with us. And so was with us because she she earned the trip.
John:And then she brought her friend, and then the two of us. And we just they were actually shopping for other jewelry. Right? It's kind of like
Vikki:Oh, now I get more gamer. Yeah. Shocking. So Girls liking jewelry.
John:I'm not looking at jewelry. I go over to the watches. So I'm looking at watches, and I get and and the stores there, they have them in different, sections. Like, they'll have all tags in one section and omegas and Rolex and whatnot. And so is that, this one it's a it's a major retailer.
John:They're all around the world, and they're authorized all the all the luxury watch brands, they're an authorized retailer of. And so, I I get to the Breitling sec section, and at the very top in the center actually, it was in the very center is the watch that I've been looking for, and I couldn't find it in The US. It's a rather rare kind of a a watch the way it the way it looks and whatnot.
Vikki:Right.
John:So I saw that and I'm like, oh my gosh. That's the watch. And so they of course, they come over, take it out of the case, and put it on. You know, it's like that go go to the car dealership and they hand you the keys, and they don't want you to give back the keys because if you if you give them back, you're not gonna buy it. But, anyways, long story short, we ended up buying that thing.
John:And it was that was our That
Vikki:was our two star hitting two not that you guys know what that means, but, anyway, two star national marketing director. We could have bought it at any time, but we were making great money, but that wasn't the point. Right? I hope you're catching all that that, you know, when you hit that goal, then you reward it.
John:And it means so much more. Yeah. Like like Vic said, we could have bought it before that. It wasn't it wasn't the money thing. Well, that was
Vikki:It was the delayed gratification. Of money for the
John:stupid thing.
Vikki:But Yeah. It was.
John:But it was delayed gratification because now every time I put it on, I think of that. I think Wow. We, you know, we actually hit a goal. We accomplished something other than just go over there and and write a check or or or Right. Swipe a credit card.
John:We actually accomplished something. And that was what so what's what so was what was so meaningful easy for me to say. What was so meaningful? Exactly.
Vikki:Yeah. So so true. So and for me, some of those have been clothing. I love beautiful women's clothing where I I feel like a million bucks when I put it on and I at different levels, different goals that we set, I would I reward myself with something like that. And I bet there's a lot of men out there too that might do the same with a nice suit if they want, if they wear suits.
Vikki:Shoes, for you. I know you like shoes. So many men so do I. Women I like shoes. That's why we get along so well.
Vikki:And but even tennis shoes. Right? Or I don't even know if they're called tennis shoes anymore. Sneakers. That's a whole another thing.
Vikki:Or kicks. Right? Kicks. But, you know, maybe if that's your, you know, favorite thing, put off buying yourself some of those things to eat.
John:Do a steer Jordans?
Vikki:Yeah. Hit a goal. Yeah. Exactly. And then I guess we could end on something that I think is very, for some people, the most precious thing on the planet and that is their sleep.
Vikki:We've been talking about tangible things, but sleep. So many people, oh, I can't do without my eight hours of sleep. There's no way. I'm, you know, I'm not gonna finish everything I need to do because I gotta get my sleep. And I get that because I'm the sleeper in the family, so I totally get that.
Vikki:But you have a total different perspective where you could go a long time with very little sleep. Can you share about that and, relating to business too or police work,
John:you know? Well, you know, it's it's difficult because for me, I don't I've never really needed a whole lot of sleep. Now I sleep like normal. Right? You're
Vikki:catching up now after all these years. Oh, yeah.
John:But it's I mean, it's it's healthy for you to get a a good night's rest. Right?
Vikki:It is.
John:So I wouldn't suggest depriving yourself of sleep for for a long period of time. Right. But also understand that there are times when you're building your business that I think what your point to your point was that there are gonna be times where you might have to sacrifice a little bit of sleep because something's happening and you need to be a part of it. There's there's, I don't whatever it is, you just you can't miss it. And you can't miss it just because you think you need another couple hours of sleep.
Vikki:Right.
John:You know, I know you've always said you can sleep all you want when you're dead.
Vikki:Yeah. I mean, that's my I think my mom said that. It sounds morbid, but it's true. I'll sleep when I'm dead. And isn't that true, though?
Vikki:Like, there's too much life to be lived.
John:Yeah. Like, I I remember we would work, and we would we would get from from the detectives, some information where they needed a a search warrant signed, served, and they wanted our unit to serve the warrant because we served a lot of warrants. And we had already worked, all we'd already come in and worked and did our thing, and then we had to have to do this warrant for you know, this this warrant advance. And we would do that. We would, surveil the location.
John:There's a lot that we have to have to do. So that's a full day. So I've worked the night before, then we come in early the next day, work all that day getting this warrant prepared. And a lot of them even includes us having, requesting the airship to go over and take photos for us so we can get aerial photos. Because oftentimes, Google Photos is isn't, updated.
Vikki:I know.
John:So we wanna see exactly what's going on at that location right just hours before we serve the war. Interesting. So we do all this, and we get it all put together. And then, we don't even so that's two shifts with very little sleep, maybe a couple hours of sleep. Then the next shift basically starts with no sleep because then I roll right we go right from getting that warrant ready to serving it in the middle of the night.
John:Then we serve the warrant, then we have to finish up all of our paperwork and whatnot. So it's basically three days of work, and it's there's been only sleep between the the first two, so to so to speak. Yeah. And I I survived that all okay. I mean, I felt a little tired, but there were guys that were just dying.
John:I mean, they're just moping around like they're I'm like, come on. It's not that big a deal. You can you can catch up on that sleep later. But could you imagine if I went to, my lieutenant who's runs the gang unit. If I go to the lieutenant and say, you know what?
John:Sorry, man. I'm gonna need a couple hours of sleep. So if y'all wanna serve the I'm not gonna sleep in the car or I'll just, you know Yeah. Sleep in the cot room for a few hours. That'd be unacceptable.
John:Yeah. Right? So and if you're building and that's just a job. Right. If you're building your own business Yeah.
John:You have to be that lieutenant. It's gonna be like, no. That's unacceptable. I, you know, I've gotta I've gotta work that. I I can make up on that sleep another time.
Vikki:I was just gonna make that transition. I'm so glad you did. That it's so true. You need to be your own lieutenant in your business telling yourself, suck it up. It's not gonna last forever.
Vikki:You got this. Let's go.
John:Yeah. The good thing is I don't I maybe met a handful of lieutenants that I like. So if you're your only tenant, there's already gonna be a little bit of a little adversarial relationship there. So you're gonna have to, okay. I'm gonna do it.
John:Okay. Because you don't have a choice because the lieutenant, at least ours, are never never nice.
Vikki:Yeah. That's for sure. So and and, you know, that is I'm so glad we, you know, kind of talked about that because when you're running your own business, there is no one overseeing you. You know that. You're your own boss.
Vikki:No one's gonna tell you what to do. So have the alter ego lieutenant in your ear, making you step up. I mean, some people need that. It's it's really true. So
John:A lot of people do.
Vikki:They do. Yep. They do. So, but it's something you can learn. It gets it's something you can work on yourself.
Vikki:Don't think you have to get somebody to kick you you in the butt to do things because, honestly, that doesn't work. It has to actually come from you. It has to come from within.
John:You have to be so disciplined, and it has to come from within.
Vikki:Yeah. It
John:does. Otherwise, you're just gonna just get a job. Right. Have your boss tell you what to do and when to do it, how to do it, and then you you'll be happy.
Vikki:Yeah. Right. Exactly. Exactly. So that was about sleep, but it it makes total sense and, you could do for a little while without sleep and it might not even be for a month without sleep.
Vikki:We're not talking that. We're talking a couple days where you're working on something like a ninety day run that we've talked about. So go back and listen to that episode too, our ninety day run, because that's kinda where we're I'm kinda living that. We're living that right now. We're in, this massive run of this new product that's coming out that nobody else has anything like it.
Vikki:We're gonna 10 x our company with it. And so I'm all out activity, and I'm not sleeping as much. Or in the middle of the day, I might nap for an hour because I know I have a bad attitude
John:if I get on the
Vikki:phone with somebody. And so I do that, but you adjust and then couple days later I might sleep a lot longer and make up the difference, but just be willing to pay the price right now. You know, in in your business, wherever you are, whether you're in a ninety day run or not, just be willing to pay that price.
John:And be happy that there's a price to be paid because, you know, keep in mind, I it just this is something that I've I've seen is that anything that's worthwhile in life comes with a price. There has to be a price paid. Something has to be sacrificed for anything that's worthwhile.
Vikki:Yeah. Absolutely.
John:The bigger the sacrifice you make, the bigger that price is to pay, you know that it's gonna be a bigger, reward at the end. Right? It's gonna be something very meaningful.
Vikki:Yeah. Absolutely. Alright, guys. So I hope you're all willing to sacrifice and do a little more for your for you for you and your business. Yeah.
John:Right now, I am sacrificing. I'm smoking some chili to make this smoked chili. It's on the smoker for, like, ten hours. It's in the middle of it right now. I keeps looking at
Vikki:it all over the world.
John:Yes. On the camera. But you're gonna have to sacrifice because it's chili. You're gonna be sacrificed to Oh, no. Because I'm sorry that I made it.
Vikki:Dutch oven. For those of you who know, we won't explain it. Hopefully, you know what that is. That is no fun for the woman. Don't Dutch oven me.
John:Unless it's you. Unless unless it's you with the
Vikki:chili in it. Yeah. Hopefully not. Alright. Have an awesome, awesome day.
Vikki:We look forward to having you back on the podcast next time. Yeah. Alright. 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.