Tomorrow is Not Today

Daniel Harcombe
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Kingsley: [00:00:00] Welcome to The Tomorrow Is Not Today podcast. You've already started to create the life you want just by being here, designed for you as a business professional so you can be physically, mentally, and emotionally healthy, more productive, less stressed, and living a life you truly love. My name's Kingsley and thank you for coming on another journey with one of our uniquely qualified professionals.

Welcome to the Tomorrow's Not Today podcast. Daniel's. Glad to have you here. Um, Daniel Harken from Razorback Accounting. Uh, Daniel, thanks for coming. Yeah, thanks so much for having me here. I've been looking forward to being, uh, doing this. I, I am very intrigued by our conversation today because you're an accountant, but you approach things from a very different perspective to what anybody else seems to do in the accounting field.

Uh, so I can't wait to dive into that. But as we always do on the Tomorrow's Not Today podcast, ask a big question for you to answer to get us going. [00:01:00] So, what would you say your definition of success is? So, big question. Simple answer. Happiness. Happiness, strive for happiness, and life will be great. Okay, let's break that down, because happiness could mean different things to different people.

So what do you mean by happiness? So just like that saying, if you're healthy, you're wealthy. So I focus on two things, having people physically healthy and mentally healthy. So everything I do in accounting is to get that goal of to be happy. So if you are happy, you're gonna be mentally healthy. If you're physically healthy, you're also gonna be mentally healthy there as well.

That's not an accounting answer. It's not because too many people focus on money. But they don't have a purpose for their money. So they say, I want, I want a million dollars. I want $10 million. So one thing I often say to people is, you have a business. What's your out? When are you gonna sell? Why do you do this?

If someone came to offer you $50 million for this business today, would you sell it? [00:02:00] And they say, yes, definitely. I said, okay, let's get to $50 million. And then the next question is, why do you need $50 million? If you had $50 million, what would you do with it? And what's the outcome of that? Is that gonna make you happy?

So then the next thing is, could you do that with $20 million? So potentially we could sell the business a lot earlier and you can go on your path to doing exactly what makes you happy. But I also have some clients and they say, I don't wanna sell this business. 'cause that business is their passion and they want to do it for the rest of their life.

That's what makes 'em happy. I say, fine. I love that. Absolutely love that. Because a lot of people that I talk to and work with, they're in business, but they're just there to make money. But like you said, they're not sure why they're making the money. That's just what you're supposed to do. Or they're making money so they can tell people how much money they have.

And I often say to people is one of the biggest things is, uh, why are you doing it? [00:03:00] Are you doing it for them or are you doing it for you? If you make $10 million, you'll tell someone that's got a million dollars, that you have $10 million, and they'll think you're a hero. But you'll tell someone with a hundred million dollars that you have $10 million.

How are you gonna feel then? So really pick your audience. Pick your goal. What's your real outcome that you want to do? And it becomes the big part. The journey's more important than the destination. Making your way up to that $50 million business needs to be fun. It has to be fun to get through there Every day.

There's gonna be challenges, but challenges are fun. There's gonna be new opportunities. Those opportunities are going to create other opportunities. Enjoy the process, enjoy the journey. You break things down in a way that I've never heard anybody do from an accounting perspective. It's pretty interesting.

Most people when they say to me, oh, what do you do for work? I'm gonna say I'm an accountant. I go, wow, you don't look like an accountant. You don't talk like an accountant. I think that was my answer. Yeah, [00:04:00] definitely. And I said, that's great because I want to be different. There's so many accountants out there, I need to be different and I know what people really want and I need to focus on what they want and what they need.

So let me ask then, as an accountant, and you are starting with the person, what makes them happy? How does your accounting. Actually help make them happy, obviously to find a little bit about working out what they really want in life, because a lot of people actually haven't thought about that to any degree.

So how do you, um, I guess relate your accounting with making them happy in this way and it actually making sense for their business? So what I often say to them is, firstly, let's focus on your goals. Then from your goals, we'll create a pathway based on that pathway. We'll then create habits. We need to ensure that we have good financial habits that make staying on that pathway easy and enjoyable.

'cause when that's easy and [00:05:00] enjoyable, you're gonna stay on that pathway. You're gonna achieve your goal sooner. So that's what I talk big about. Financial habits, financial foundations, and financial habits. Let's focus on those, stay on the path and we'll get to the goal. So those financial habits, what would you see over your years of experience in accounting?

I. What would you say would be the, say the three of the biggest issues that business owners have that way? Uh, the biggest issue, they turn up, so they just turn up every day. 'cause that's their habit. They just do what they do every day over and over and over again. And they're not focused on what is the path they wanna be on, what's their end goal?

They just do what they only know. So I often say to them, what is your goal? Why are you coming here today? Do you enjoy being here? If you could choose anything, is this the place you'd want to be? And often they say no. Where would you wanna be? Oh, I wanna be in Bali. I wanna be in Paris. Great. Why don't you do that?[00:06:00]

Oh, I don't, you know. Then they come up with all the excuses, which is great. 'cause then I say, okay, these are our challenges. Let's work on that. So the first thing is they say, oh, I don't have staff. They can do it. I said, do you not have staff or you don't have a good manager? To train those staff. So then we work on those things.

So then again, you've gotta focus on the end goal to break it down to your day-to-day habits. I, I just love your thinking, like, and I think that's why we connected straight away as soon as we started chatting, I. Um, because the, the way that you think and, and it's not about my business, it's not about my ego, it's not about what can I build?

It's about what do I really want. Like our tagline with Tomorrow is, not Today, is Create the Life you want. That's exactly what you try and help people to do every day. Yeah. And I think about big thing is everything you do needs to have a positive impact. Positive impact on yourself, on your family, on others, on the world.

If you are having a positive impact, everything's gonna fall [00:07:00] into place. And one of the biggest things I talk about is, you know, happiness and through reading you focus on who are the happiest people in life. And they're not the rich and famous, but too often in our commercial world, we see in the media rich and famous people, people driven so much by ego, but they're not happy.

But we're still try striving to be like them. Where those that are happy are just people that have got simple lives. Those that are giving, those that are having positive impact on, on people. The, um, you know, the volunteers that I talk to, a lot of rich people, every single successful person has an outside habit that they're passionate about.

And I often say to them, why would you prefer doing on Monday, doing that or doing this? And you focus on every person that's very successful and happy and see what they do outside life. So for those people. It's almost, if I can be, take a crude guess here. [00:08:00] Business is almost like a bit of a game to them.

It's to make money to do all that sort of thing, but they know what their passion is and they're still involved with their passion, whether that is the business or it could be something else. 'cause for some people, business is their passion. For some people it's a great way to make money and it's almost a bit of a game that they enjoy playing, but they enjoy doing this other thing as well.

Yeah, it's a gateway to their passion. So therefore, I need to earn this money. So if you're a surfer, I need to earn this money to organize, to buy surfboards. I need to organize this money so I can go on trips and do surfing, and so that becomes the gateway. Then you have others that are passionate in their business and they turn up every day.

This is exactly what I wanna do. I don't wanna do anything else. This is what makes me happy every day, and that's it. What percentage of people would you think are happy in their business? They love their business. They just want to do it 5%. 5%. 5% if you're lucky. Okay. If you're lucky, because too often people go into business [00:09:00] because that's what they think they want and that's what they're told what they want, or they're told you go into business, you can work for yourself.

You can have the freedom, you can have, uh, there's big financial goals there. But it's not like, is this what you really enjoy doing to go through? So, and that's where I really help people. I love people going into business. 'cause I say to 'em, this is what you're going to need to do. Are you prepared to do this?

If you're not, then let's focus on something else. And so it's always one of those things, oh, I want flexibility with my time. And say a tradesman, tradesman says, oh wow, I can earn so much more. I said, okay, but you're gonna work five days a week, probably Saturdays. Running a business, you also need a day a week to do your admin.

When are you going to do that? So now your flexibility is actually reduced. So you're prepared to work four days a week and then one day admin. Do you enjoy doing the admin? No. Well, do you wanna be a tradesman or do you want to be a business owner? I. I love it. I [00:10:00] think it's awesome because everything you're asking, most people don't go there.

I think I've said that already in this podcast, but its so crucial and I love your approach to it, and you just ask very simple, very basic questions. There's nothing complex about it, but it really makes you think. Everyone already knows the answers, but the problem is no one's talking about it often enough for it to be top priority.

So everyone just, we associate with people that are like us. So therefore, if we're a tradesman, we're associating mostly with other tradesmen and we're working five days a week. Where if we said, oh, we don't work Fridays, how would people respond? Is people are, are you game enough? Are you confident enough to do that?

Or people go into business and the last thing they wanna tell people is, no, I can't go out Friday night. I can't go out Saturday 'cause I'm doing my admin stuff. How are you gonna be looked at? Oh, your business isn't successful? Because such and such, they only work five days a week. But no one's [00:11:00] telling the truth.

And that's a great thing with accounting. It's non-emotional. It's just numbers. It's just numbers. Yeah. You know what's going on. It's just facts. And I see it all the time. It's, I say to 'em, look, forget the ego. Forget everything. Just tell me the truth. I'm here to help you. It's okay. It's okay if you're struggling.

Tell me. Tell me. And I think in that as well, what you were just talking about there is the. There's people who don't understand, I've gotta take Friday or Saturday or whatever to do the admin or do whatever it's called because it's not because there's a short term thing. We've got a long term plan, a long term goal, something that we really want.

So I'm gonna put in the time, the hours, the effort now to actually reach that. Exactly. And their focus when they're in business is during revenue, which is great. And so therefore they can't give up Friday because that's then goes 20% of their revenue. So they've focused on, if the work's there, I've gotta go get it.

But one thing I always say to clients is, the job's not done until cash is in the bank. So why bother turning up on Friday if you're not gonna be paid? Your Friday might [00:12:00] be better off chasing up to make sure you've been paid from Monday to Thursday. It's an interesting thought. Yes, and you see it all the time.

So that's step one, is the job's not done until the cash is in the bank. It's so easy to go out there and get work. It's hard to get people to pay. So focus on making sure that payment's easy. Mm-hmm. Then the next thing is turning clients into regular clients is a big thing. So ensuring you're exceeding their expectations, they're getting more value out of it than you, and then they feel good about paying.

So payment becomes easy. Yeah. Yeah. And is that something you find business owners. For the most part are able to get their head around? Or is it just that continual chase, chase. Chase. It's continual chase. And the other biggest thing is everyone wants to be a good person. Like it's just natural human nature.

We all want to be good people. So when clients are working for their clients, [00:13:00] they don't want to be the bad cop and saying, Hey, you haven't paid me. Where's the money? They wanna maintain the relationship. But I, as I say to clients, is understand why that client hasn't paid you. Are they doing it because they're just not a good person and they're trying to hold you money?

Or are they really doing it tough? And they mean they mean well and they will pay you? Or is it just one of those things, admin's not their thing? Yeah. And they're out doing their best as well, and paying you is just another task that they're avoiding. Yeah. So understand the motivations of people. Before you start chasing it too hard.

That's really cool. I like that. Understanding the motivations of people, because for the, I think like, like you just said, most people want to do the right thing. They want to be good people. Yes. But just for whatever, for like, for a couple of reasons you just gave, then maybe the payment isn't coming through.

Maybe they haven't even seen the invoice come in if they're not admin type people or whatever it is. Uh, it can happen exactly like you think your one invoice, say a tradesman [00:14:00] as well. Your invoice for the week, say it's $5,000 and you are working on a big construction site, that $5,000 is one small part of their hundreds of thousands of dollars there, and it's so far removed from the person you're dealing with that's actually going through.

So if you understand people's processes, people's intentions, you can start to work along with them a lot easier as well. But don't get taken advantage of as well.

Daniel: Yeah.

Kingsley: If people want your work, you need to say, this is my time. Why should I turn up here on Friday when I can go do something else that I enjoy?

So that's I, I like that. 'cause one of the things I talk about a lot is we either live in love or fear. Yes. Or leave out of love or fear. And you just gave a perfect example. Of how to live out of love and not fear. Not scared. I'm not gonna pay get paid, or they don't like me or something I didn't do right or whatever it is.

But it's learning to understand them, who they are, where they're coming from. Why has that happened [00:15:00] in the first place? Yes, yes. And it's so important. 'cause sometimes you will get that person that it just being nasty and not paying you. So the relationship's gone. You don't want them as a friend, you don't want them as a client.

Stop working for 'em. But then you have that other client that they really wanna pay you, but you're just not their priority. That's okay. Just work with them. Find out how you can make it easy for them to pay. And that's one big thing I talk about in systems and processes within accounting, how do you make things easy for people?

So a client the other day, I said, in your business you should have people pay a set monthly amount and have an automatic payment. And I said, oh, people wouldn't want that. I said, people, or you. And then about 30 minutes into the conversation she said, I've just gotta take this phone call. Uh, this person's just chasing me for money.

And then when they got off, I said, would that be easy if they just, if you paid them automatically each month? They said, oh yeah, it just takes me so much time entering the invoice, paying the [00:16:00] invoice, blah, blah, blah. I said, well, now you see the benefit of it. So you're actually doing people a favor by offering numerous payment methods, and especially automating their payments so they can save time and they can go do things that they prefer.

Rather than you chasing 'em for money, them having to pay them the amounts and go through all the process. One of the big things that comes up, obviously in business, in any, any aspect of life, in work, I think, but in business as a business owner or uh, you know, if you're leading a big team or whatever is the mental health side of things, and just listening to your talk there.

It sounds like what you're going, what you're doing there is people are actually, or what you're talking about is people actually putting pressure on themselves. It creates all these mindset, mental health issues. There's stress getting stressed, anxiety over payments coming, not coming. Have I done this?

Have I not done that? But it sounds like what you're talking about is some very simple practical ways to be able to alleviate a [00:17:00] lot of that. Totally. So, you know, time is our greatest asset. So if we can reduce our, uh, our time wastage and increase our time value, life is gonna be better. So it's so important.

Like, you know, again, it's those financial finance foundations, those financial habits to save time and make things enjoyable so we can focus on exactly doing what we want and things that are of great value. Okay. So, and is that basically putting in some of those systems you talked about that can save all that.

What, what are some ways people can actually help themselves in this way? So here's a perfect example. So straight away talking to a client yesterday, his daughter's just turned 18. And so she's just started working and I said, look, the first thing I want her to do is set up an automatic debit from her bank account into her super fund of $20 a week.

She's not gonna notice it, but the aim is to put a thousand dollars into Super to be eligible for the government co-contribution of $500. He's an investor. [00:18:00] I said she's gonna earn a better return on that thousand dollars than you could ever dream of. So she'll put in a thousand dollars a a year. If she's under the threshold, the government pays a 500, it's 50% return, easy money.

But what I'm really doing is saving her time and setting up a good financial habit of making an automatic payment into an investment plan straight away. So I said, that's step one. Can you do that for me? And he said, yep, definitely, definitely. He said, okay, next week she wants to save for a home. So I said, now we're gonna do the same thing, but we're gonna set up for the first home.

Uh, first time buyer, super saver scheme as well. So again, setting up automatic payments that go direct from your bank account, straight into these so you're not thinking each week to do it. And it becomes automated. Goes through, saves your time, saves frustration, and you see the results of the increased investments.

And that's an 18-year-old person I would be recommending. Doesn't matter what age you do, you are, [00:19:00] just set that up easy. Done.

Daniel: Mm.

Kingsley: And people are already doing it. People are a member of a gym. People have

Daniel: yes, true subscriptions. Yep.

Kingsley: They're already doing all these automated payments, but they're doing for others, not for themselves.

So now we just need to change the focus. How are you investing? How are you paying yourself? How, what habits are, are you doing that are good financial habits? So, and that's another thing that I say to people is straight away, open up your phone if you wanna save money. Have a look at all your subscriptions.

Mm. Work out really how much do you really use them? Are they really of value? Are they really making you happy or are they distracting you? That's, that's actually, uh, and in business, like, especially when you're run a small business, like I don't know how many subscriptions, like I know what they all are, but I couldn't tell you how many they're off the top of my head.

But about every two or three, about every three months, I go through all my subscriptions and go. Do I need this? Am I using [00:20:00] this? Is it covered by something else? Because the thing is with software companies, they're all trying to outdo each other all the time. Yes. Um, and some will be able to do one aspect of something and then they'll incorporate something else.

So you can eliminate a subscription straight away like that. Or do you really need that level of subscription? And it may only seem like a small amount of money. But you might, you know, over time, like you can eliminate things like that and you might pull a hundred, 200 bucks a month out of your expenses, um, just by playing with your subscriptions a little bit.

And it doesn't take too long to do that. But it's a hundred, 200 a month. Say it's 200 a month over a year, that's $2,400. Yeah. What could you do with that month? Money?

Daniel: Yeah.

Kingsley: So for less than 2,400 of water return flight to go to America. What would, or rather that's subscription or a holiday. So it's all, it's swapping.

Yeah. Where would you prefer your money to be?

Daniel: Yeah.

Kingsley: The problem with subscriptions, everyone has good intentions and they go, oh yeah, but I may use it in the future. Yes. So I say to 'em, great. These [00:21:00] subscription companies are great at making it easy to resign so quickly. Cancel it now and when you're gonna use it, resign up.

Because it's easier to resign than it is to get out of it. So do that decision now. Get out of it now, and when you really need it, then sign up. Then when you come to really needing it, ask yourself, do I really need this or do I want this?

Daniel: Yeah. Yeah.

Kingsley: And then the next thing is, especially in business and in life, only spend a dollar if it's gonna make you $10 or roundabouts.

So everything needs to be an investment. Your time needs to be an investment. Think. Am I using my time now? Do I need to do this or can I do something else? Is this gonna result in achieving the goal I want? Is it gonna save me time? Is it gonna make me more money? Is it gonna make me happy? So think about that and everything you do.

'cause everyone's busy. But some people are busy doing nothing and some people are busy running multiple companies. It's, [00:22:00] you know, what you focus on. And some people just want to be busy 'cause then they feel. Important.

Daniel: Yeah,

Kingsley: it's okay. It's okay to be doing nothing. That's okay. And that's what we need in life.

Going back to what you said about what is success, it's happiness. Yes. And you're talking then about some people wanting to run multiple businesses. Some people want to earn some money so they can go surfing. Some people are just passionate about that particular business or what they're doing. And I think it's so important that we work out which one of those that we are, and it could be a combination of those as well.

Uh, but to focus on that and like you said right at the beginning, what do you really want? What really makes you happy? Exactly. And the other thing too, that changes. So what makes you happy today may not make you happy next month in a year's time and so on. But I say to people, grab that opportunity. Give it your best effort and be smart with it.

Then in a year's time, two years time. Then you can [00:23:00] decide, did that achieve the goals you wanted? Sometimes you'll achieve things that you didn't even think of, and sometimes it's just not for you. So then that's okay. 'cause you're always gonna learn. Look at, again, like most big businesses, our business owners have failed at times.

But what they've done is that failure has been a, an opportunity and a learning to be successful in the future again and again and again. Yeah. Yeah. And anyone who's done anything has failed numerous times and made dumb mistakes quite often, honestly. Yeah. And even when you think of it, you go back to school when you're doing mass, you fail all the time.

Yeah. And that's okay. So same as in business, you know, like I've had clients, I, I, I had a client, they went bankrupt and they said to me, you know, I feel like a failure. I feel like this. And then I named numerous big business owners that have gone bankrupt. I said, mate, you're one of them. You're one of them.

I said, you've got a choice here. You [00:24:00] can be a failure for the rest of your life and do nothing. Or you can use this as an amazing opportunity to go again and give it again. And it was great. He decided this is what's gonna happen. And I'm a big believer in was the seven stages of grief. I said, you know, I showed people that picture.

I said, take your time and go through this. Don't start a new business straight away. Take your time, learn from your mistakes, and then reset and refocus and go again. Yeah. Yep. And it's very common that like a lot of big business people have done that. Oh, totally. Totally. And it's okay because sometimes it's your fault.

Sometimes it's the market, sometimes it's others. But you need to be honest with yourself too. And it all comes down to, at the end of the day, it was your fault.

Daniel: Yeah.

Kingsley: It was your fault. That's okay because you chose to be in that business. You chose to employ those people, you chose those clients. All these were all your decisions.

That's okay. We make bad decisions all the time. How many people have married the first person they met? None. We've made bad choices. We've [00:25:00] had bad girlfriends. We've had bad boyfriends. It's okay. It didn't stop us. We went through and got a better one. Got a better one, got a better one. It's great. Like, and they're, they're all different.

They're all good in their own ways. Same with business, same with investments. You know, like look at the share market. One bank may be up this week, the other bank's gonna be up next week. How do you know? You just gotta have a go. Just give it a go. So Daniel, it sounds like what you're talking about there is mindset and taking personal responsibility for stuff.

How important is that in business success? But not only that, because you do a lot of, uh, help people with their investments and how to invest and all that sort of thing as well. So how important is that whole. Aspect of investing? Yeah, definitely. Because you've gotta look after your future. And again, saying to people, what makes you happy?

What do you want in 5, 10, 20 years from now? In order to get those things, you're gonna have to make sacrifices now. [00:26:00] So again, those financial habits, those financial foundations starts with the 18-year-old kid putting, or anybody putting $20 a week into their super. Starts with grabbing a hundred dollars a week and start saving for something, start saving for something.

'cause a bit of pain now will lead to a reward in the future there as well. So. Again, that mindset, you need to be focused on things. Two, people can be sitting at the beach, one's going, oh, this is a terrible day. I'm getting sunburnt. The other one goes, what a beautiful day. How, how warm is it? It's all about what you focus on, and it's the same.

It's when you turn up to work every day. When you turn up, you'll have great days. Other days you'll have bad days, and it's okay to have bad days. That's fine. It's just, just admit it. I'm having a bad day. I'm having a bad day, but tomorrow I'm gonna try and make it better. And tomorrow might be another bad day.

That's okay. That's okay. But just acknowledge it and go, okay, why is it bad? What do I need to do to make it better? And again, just that focus, [00:27:00] just that mindset and going, okay, I need to do this. So you could sit there and complain, I haven't been paid this week. I've got no money in my bank. And you can, uh, could, you know, make it the worst thing in the world, but what are you gonna do to get out of it?

I say to clients is just focus on the basics. Have you spoke to that client? Have you spoke to that client about paying? What is their reasoning for not paying you and what's their real reason for not paying you? What are you going to do next? Are you gonna take on more work and then chase that money? Or are you gonna take on more work to make sure you get paid?

Who are you gonna get priority to focus on what you can control? What you can't control. Yes. Anybody who's read the book, shoe Dog, um, Jeff Knight, who started Nike. Oh, yes, yes. Um, that's, the book is full of that because, and, and I'm amazed how far he goes even to, I mean, at one sec stage, he had an $11 million wages bill he had to pay [00:28:00] and he didn't have the money.

Crazy. Yeah, but he had to find the money. He had to work out how he's gonna do it. So a lot of people are like, oh, it's just because my business is small, or, um, you know, I've just got these certain clients that aren't paying or whatever. Once I get through this stage, and I'm sure as an accountant you would've seen, there's plenty of times then everything's gonna be fine.

But when you get through that stage, then you want to go to another stage, uh, and then you wanna go to another stage. So that never ever goes. And Phil Knight, he actually, um. I looked at some of the decisions they made and he said, you know, that was a bad decision. We shouldn't have done that. So they canned a lot of stuff they were doing and pulled back and regrouped and did other things as well.

So just saying that to say that it doesn't matter what stage you are in, I. If you are in business and you really want to do anything, the pressures aren't gonna go away. The decisions aren't gonna change, and you're gonna have to take responsibility and do what you just said and make some adjustments, work out what can I do to make this better?

Exactly. And there's nothing better than pressure to force [00:29:00] you to do something.

Daniel: Mm-hmm.

Kingsley: But it's also the biggest pressure, but also the biggest sense of achievement is a business owner is responsible. For not only their themselves and their clients and their family, but also their staff, their staff, their staff's family and everything else.

So when Phil Knight's got an $11 million wages bill, he needs to do something to make sure he's, he's having a positive impact on those people. So people are too often focus on themselves, but if you start focusing on others and then be feel proud and go. I'm giving this. When you see your new staff member tell you about, uh, they've just bought a new house, that's because of you.

Be proud of that. Yeah, true. Be super proud of that. Yeah. Like that is an amazing thing. When you go out and you pay someone every week you are, you are contributing to their life. Be proud. Be proud of those things. And I think that's a massive thing. Too many people just go, oh, wages bill, this cost me a fortune.

No, you're adding so much to those people's lives. Mm-hmm. They're relying on you. [00:30:00] You're doing amazing. You're doing amazing. And you think your kids, your friends are seeing you as well. When you're going home, are you telling, oh, my staff did this today. My staff did this. I've gotta pay them this. Or you are going home and say, my staff just bought a new house.

My staff member's going on an overseas holiday. My staff members's doing this. And then your kids are starting to be proud of you because you're having such a positive impact on other people's lives that's gonna affect your kids more than, oh, my dad made $10 million. Yeah, that's awesome. I. That's awesome because it's a completely different mindset shift, isn't it?

A hundred percent. A hundred percent. But everything you spend needs to be an investment. You are investing in your staff and they're investing in you. So work together, work together to achieve what your big outcome is that you want to achieve and take. Take them along the pride, let them see the outcome.

Let them, you know, feel pride in themselves as well. But it's also gonna be genuine pride as well. Yeah, a hundred percent. You need to control it. You need to control it. So [00:31:00] they need to understand that you are doing work for them to succeed, but you've gotta all work in. To this together. Yeah, absolutely.

It's so important. That is such an important thing. Oh, and I think if you view it that way, it's much easier to take a, a better look at your staff and your team as well, rather than what did they did wrong. But you're looking at them more like, okay, how can I help them do their job better? How can I help them succeed more?

Yeah. Business owners and managers need to invest in themselves. When they invest in themselves, like again, through management skills, that's when they'll get their staff member out. So, so many times you see people go, oh, you know, oh, I have an accountant in my thing and he's messing the numbers up. Okay, but what are you doing to help him or her get it right?

Oh, but they should just know it. Fine. Where's the problem now? Where's the problem? Did you employ them? Or, so you, you gotta take that responsibility and it's okay. You hit your ego. That's hard, man. But that's okay to do that sometimes. But when they succeed, [00:32:00] your ego's amazing. Yeah. Yeah. How proud of you.

You go, I did that. I did that, I had that impact on them as well. Um, I'm gonna take change tact a little bit, um, 'cause I know you are very big as well on 'cause it's obviously mental health, physical health, that side of things. Exercise is a big, big aspect of your life and what you do. Um, tell us a little bit about how that impacts you as a businessman.

How that impacts some of your clients in how they operate it as well. So I talk about investing. So first thing you do every day, you need to invest in yourself. It's a bit of a selfish mindset, but when you are happy, when you are healthy, that's when you can have a positive impact on everybody else. So the first thing is invest in yourself.

What are you doing first thing in the morning? So are you jumping straight into work? If that's your passion, fine. Or you're going out there and going for a run, going for a swim, going for a walk, going to the gym, invest in your [00:33:00] own health and happiness and you'll feel so much better for the day. I love training in the morning.

I hate waking up, but I do love waking up. It's, it's wake up. Yeah. I love waking up. Like I hate getting outta bed and it's dark, but I love when I see the sunrise. I love being out there and I go, I'm so glad I made that decision to do it. Then for the rest of the day. No, it's funny, I just, I'm just gonna interlude there.

When it comes to, when it gets to, to winter and it gets darker and that sort of thing, like, it's hard to say that it's cold on the Gold Coast, but relatively speaking, uh, and it is dark when it, when it comes outta that time, I actually sort of miss the dark when you do get up in the dark and go out and exercise and things.

I love it. And the best quality people are out there in the morning.

Daniel: Yeah,

Kingsley: that's what I find. Yeah. It's just everybody's out there investing in themselves and they've all gone through that challenge of going to bed that bit earlier, waking up that bit earlier, but they're out there investing in themselves.

Mm-hmm. They're all generally [00:34:00] happy, healthy people get out there and experience it, and then there's all the health benefits. Like a good friend of mine's an optometrist and was telling me about all the different lights. It was going over my head. It was too much. Basically you're saying the first two hours of the day.

Is the best time to be out there in the light. So I'm thinking, wow. But seeing that sunset, seeing those sunrise come through, and then you're out thinking going, what do I need to do today? And then you've, you've got time to yourself. So I think huge. The other thing is, um, a good example, they've set me up on this.

Years ago I was talking to a professional golfer and I used to work at a gym and I said, mate, why do you come to the gym? Because in golf it's not a very physical thing. And he goes, the first thing that goes when I'm tired is my mind. He goes, so I need to be physically fit so I make good decisions and I need to be physically fit so I can handle the stress.

And you think of a golf, like I think it's an amazing sport where you miss one shot [00:35:00] that could cost you a million dollars to $10 million. And the problem is you've got to then go do another shot. Not just play those 18 holes, but play it day after day after day and you're not gonna play perfect. So I thought, wow, that's amazing.

And that really changed my mindset on being fit not just for fitness per work, but being fit for work. I. For the mind a hundred percent thinking. Yeah. Because they're big decisions and that's why I don't play golf very often, because I would just be losing a lot of money. Yes. Um, but yeah, but it, it is, it's the exercise, how that affects the mind and the thinking and all of that is so people don't, people don't capture that.

Yes. The ability for the mind to think better and more strategically through exercise. Uh, is is incredible. So true. And you're putting yourself through those natural stresses. Yes. And then you're coming out and going, I did that. That was okay. And work is stressful.

Daniel: Yeah.

Kingsley: But it's [00:36:00] okay. You're gonna be okay if you get through, invest in yourself, get your physical exercise done.

And especially you get it done in the morning. Some people are morning people, some people are afternoon. Some people like to do in the afternoon. 'cause then they've got a goal. I need to finish this job so I can get off and exercise. And that's great. Work out what works for you. Yes. Some days will, some days don't.

Don't be too fixated on it. Give it a go chat to some friends. Some friends might be morning people. Give it a go for a month. Mourning. See what happens. You know, try different things. Do a lot of your clients you find, uh, exercise size, uh, trying to think is. Majority do the success. We'll put it easy this way.

The successful ones do definitely do. And so there definitely is a correlation there. Those that don't, I say, why not? And two things, they just don't like it. Or they say they don't have the time. But what I find is [00:37:00] when you exercise, you're expending energy, but you actually get more energy. Mm-hmm. You do.

Totally. It's, it's amazing. As you get fitter, you've got more energy, so you can do more things during the day so you're not so tired. So when you do a task, you recover faster and you're straight back into it. Where I find those clients that aren't doing it are always saying they're busy and doing things.

So I said, but are you busy or are you productive? So could you really save that one hour and just go for a walk? Yeah, just go out there in nature. Just do it. There's actually been studies to show that, uh, I think it was back in 1980 something, so it's a, it's a fairly old study now where, uh, they actually did a study with a group of people and worked out that those, when they exercise every day, when they didn't exercise in a day, their productivity, um, could actually go down by 70% by not exercising in a day.

When, when you look at that, that's insane. That's a massive [00:38:00] difference. So true. So true. And all we're talking is 30 minutes to an hour. Yeah. So think about it. What do you do at the end of the day before you go to bed? Are you wasting that 30 minutes on social media? What are you doing? The first thing you wake up?

Are you wasting that 30 minutes doing something else? Can you, do you really need that extra 30 minutes of sleep? And it just becomes one of those things just. Set your alarm 30 minutes earlier, get up and do something. Even if it's just walking down to the end of the street. Just start to create that habit.

Or the other thing that I love doing is I do walk and talk meetings. Okay? So I'll say at a certain time during the day, I've gotta call these people. I. I'm gonna do it, walk and talk. It's when I don't need to sit there in front of a computer and write. So I'm just calling clients, how are you going? How's things going?

Is there anything you need? Blah, blah, blah. Just simple. Yep. If you need something, hey, I'm just out walking at the moment. Can you gimme a call? And it comes back to another big thing is sort of digressing. Years ago when I was managing a finance team, I [00:39:00] said to him, all. I want you to plan your days Monday to Thursday or your work and have nothing in your diary for Friday.

And I said two reasons is if you finish all your work in four days, don't come to work on Friday. So that's your motivation. The other thing is you'll plan your day for four days. There'll always be ad hoc that you're gonna need to Friday, but if you've got a plan for five days when you're gonna do those ad hoc tasks, then you're gonna finish work on Friday knowing, oh, I haven't finished those.

You're not gonna enjoy your weekend. Again, be time efficient. Plan for four days, have one day off. And same with business owners. When's your day to yourself to do the things you enjoy as well. 'cause in business, there's always a new thing they want to do. But if you're working five days a week, when you've got time to plan that, imagine if you had one day a week for goal setting, for productivity, for doing things you really enjoy.

So, and it's also I say to people is, what do you want to do? [00:40:00] What? Like, what's on your bucket list? What's your top five? Okay, can you do that now? Can you do that this year? Like people say, oh, I wanna go to Paris. Well, you know, you've got enough money in the bank, you can fly there today. You don't have to worry about waiting for the cheap flights.

Why aren't you doing it? Oh, because I've got this, this, and this. I said, what are you choosing priority on? You know, do you really, you're really gonna notice that extra 10 in the bank. You know, when you die, are you gonna have no money? But again, you've gotta be sensible for things as well. Yeah, absolutely.

You've gotta be in a position. So again, I talk to people is, uh, credit cards. If you can't afford to pay it, buy it now, don't buy it. So I say to people is, you have two bank accounts. Basically you have your operational bank account and the other one is like you offset to your credit card. So if you've got $5,000 in there.

Then your credit card can only ever be $5,000. So you can always make sure you pay it off. If you've got a thousand in your credit card can only be a thousand. Never go over your limits, never buy anything that you don't [00:41:00] need. I hate people buying cars on finance, and often I say to clients is, you know, you could be paying off a house for as much, maybe even less, maybe a little bit more.

In 10 years time that car's gonna be worth nothing. In 10 years time, that house may be worth double. What are you prepared to do? To go through with these things. It's from what you're saying all around looking you, and this is, this is what I love about your approach to it. It's a, it's a very holistic approach to everything.

We are looking at investing, we are looking at our business, we are looking at our mindset. We are looking about how to make things simple. We are looking about our physical health. And not going, okay, I can't have that coffee because I've gotta save up for the house or whatever. But it's like, okay, what choices have I got?

You are putting things into options and choices. If I do this and I don't do that, or if I do this and I don't do that, or can I do this and do that at the same time? Uh, and you are looking at the [00:42:00] whole picture. You're not narrowly looking at one little aspect. Yes. And you've gotta make it a habit. So then you take away the thinking.

So. An unhealthy person goes to McDonald's whenever they're hungry, and that's a habit they're in. But if they changed it and said, I'll just go to the fruit shop, like, okay, I'm hungry. Are you really hungry? Okay, eat an apple. If you don't feel like an apple, are you really hungry? Eat the apple and then see, are you really hungry?

Yeah, it's, yeah, just swapping things going. And then the next thing is to think about. How will I feel in 10 minutes time? How will I feel in 30 minutes in one or two days? So when I go to McDonald's or others, that's gonna make me feel happy straight away. But in 10 minutes time, how am I gonna feel in 30 minutes time?

How am I gonna feel in one week, in two weeks? Is that a good investment in me? Am I doing the best thing for me? Yes, you'll feel great for a few minutes, but in 30 minutes time, are you gonna regret it [00:43:00] or the other way if you don't buy it? Walk away from it at 30 minutes time, how are you gonna feel? Are you gonna feel proud that you actually didn't do it this time?

You know? And again, it's just not changing everything too much, just changing what you need. Change it on the big things and be proud of those little changes you do. Like you have wins every day. Yes, I'm great. I did that. I did that. Like wake up that extra 30 minutes. Or the other thing I say to people is, and I do this myself, is at night, I wanna stay up.

Then I go in tomorrow morning, am I going to, am I going to appreciate staying up? Or do I wish I went to bed 30 minutes earlier? So again, you've gotta think about the future. We wanna live in the present, but we've also gotta think about what the future holds and make your decisions based on that. And what are I doing now?

Will that make me happy in 30 minutes, two hours, one day, three days, 10 weeks, 10 years? That is a very good [00:44:00] summary of the whole lot. I think of what we've talked about is in that very thought process. Um, I I, I think it's absolutely brilliant. Zig Ziglar used to say, um, if you're hard on yourself now, life will be easier later.

But if you're easy on yourself now, life will be hard later. So true. And it's so easy, people. Think they're making the easy choice. Okay. So going to McDonald's, you think it's an easy choice, but avoiding, it's also easy. Yeah. It's just we're not used to it.

Daniel: Yeah. You know,

Kingsley: and it's, it's so many times people go, oh, it's just easy to go down the car shop and get finance, but then paying it back is hard.

Yeah. Paying it back is hard. And especially when you know you're paying the same amount. Plus interest and everything else, and that car's going down, down, down, down. So Murphy, another good example client, uh, yesterday, so, uh, early this week said to me, their daughter, they wanna buy their [00:45:00] daughter a new car.

Okay? So they wanna spend, uh, $30,000 on a new car. I said, okay, great. These are your options. You can buy that new car in 10 years time. How much is it gonna be worth? Nothing. Or you can invest that 30,000 now. In 10 years time potentially is gonna be worth 60. Then she can buy that $30,000 car. Then she's still got 30,000, 10 more years, that's gonna be worth another 60.

Then she can buy another 10, uh, 30,000 car, and every 10 years she can get a brand new car for the rest of her life. So what do you want now? Do you want one brand new car now or do you want one brand new car every 10 years? That's an awesome way to look at it. I've never heard that one before. That's, that's really cool.

Yeah, and it's just simple. And again, it's talking to parents as well. Get your kids used to financial habits. Now even if you're putting in $5, $10, $50, whatever it is, into their bank accounts each week. So, and again, have it direct debited straight outta your, your bank account so you're not thinking about it.

And then when they're 15, say it's [00:46:00] a hundred dollars a week, there's gonna be $5,000 each year. When they're 15. What's that? That's $75,000. Wow. And it wasn't that much effort for them to do it. And then imagine if you've done that. Imagine if your parents did that for you and you bought a house. Mm, yeah.

You're pretty much set laughing. Yeah. Pretty much. Set. Absolutely. Or it's just those financial habits to say to someone we gave up each week, rather than go to McDonald's, we put that money here for you and this is what's happened to that money. So, and again, teaching your kids those little financial habits is an amazing investment.

Daniel, this has been fantastic. There's a lot, so much I. You, you've covered every aspect of life, which, which is what I love and that's what we work on here tomorrow is not today, is making sure every aspect life is working well. So, um, thank you so much for coming in. It's two questions I ask at the end of each podcast.

'cause we talk a lot about the Ultimate tomorrow, whatever that is for whoever. So I wanna ask you, [00:47:00] what is the ultimate tomorrow to you? Um, I love having a positive impact on myself and others, so. Uh, just helping people. I love it. I love people being better than what they ever thought they could be. Okay.

The second question, how do you create the ultimate tomorrow? Uh, having people be honest, that is the biggest challenge. Okay. Can you explain that a bit more? So when I, I say to people is, um, what's stopping you getting a $10 million business? What's stopping you buying the house of your dreams? And they'll say, often say, oh, I don't earn much.

I don't do this. You don't earn enough. Or you spend too much, or you're spending in the wrong areas. Mm-hmm. So again, it's just you've got a choice. You can spend your money on junk or you can spend your money on something, uh, that will provide, provide success. Your choice. It's still a choice which one you're gonna take.

Fantastic. Absolutely love it. Daniel, thank you so much for [00:48:00] coming on the Tomorrow's Not Today podcast. Really appreciate the input and I hope that everybody out there take so many gold nuggets to pick up in every area. Uh, and it's, you've simplified everything. It's really about choices. What do you really want, what makes you happen?

And just make the choices to get there. So true. Look, everything I've said. I think 99% of people go, but I already knew that. I already knew that. And that's the great thing. Everyone has knowledge. I'm not giving anything to anyone, but I'm just making people think. Yeah. And now it's your choice to decide what you're gonna do.

Fantastic. Love it. Remember, create the life that you want.