Are You Ready For A Change?

     Some people fear change. 

     I love change. The adventure of trying something new, knowing that it might not work. That, to me, is exciting. I think it’s in the DNA of most thriving entrepreneurs to love the idea of change. And if not a complete change, then a shift from what is currently being done. 

     If you look above, you might notice a small change. Gone is the logo that we’ve had for Total Life Freedom for a few years now. It’s a new year, so we might as well start it off with some changes right off the bat. 

     To be honest, I’ve never been much of a “logo” guy. I never really cared. So there wasn’t much thought into the production of the logo. We had some ideas, shared them with a designer, and it wasn’t long before it was done. Easy peasy lemon breezy. And it stayed that way for years. Nobody ever hired us for our logo, from what I know, and nobody didn’t hire us for our logo either. 

     But over the past few months, Elizabeth and I started getting a  visual for Total Life Freedom that we thought could be represented well. But let me take you back a bit before we go forward. 

     It was December of 2015, and our family had taken our first month-long trip. At the time, our kids were 10, 8 and 4 and our dream of freedom was upon us. We had built a life and business that afforded us this time and financial freedom. We had built a photography business that did this for us and as great as it felt, I was looking for something different career wise.             Many friends said I was crazy. I had a vision for the work that I wanted to do, and photography wasn’t it any longer. For two years, I talked about writing a book. One afternoon while we were getting ready to go to the beach on South Padre Island, Elizabeth told me not to go with them. 

     “I want you to stay back and start writing this book,” she said. “I’m tired of hearing you talk about it!”

     She knew me too well to allow me to procrastinate any longer. So I went to a coffee shop to go write a book. As if it’s that easy. I’ll always remember that place- it was called Island Joe’s Coffee and Gallery in South Padre Island, Texas. I just looked it up- it’s still there. I remember the artwork on the walls. I remember the games to play on all of the tables. I remember the fabulous latte they served me as I sat on the comfortable couch and placed my laptop on the giant coffee table. 

     “I’m going to write a book,” I said to myself, trying not to feel intimidated and overwhelmed. This was to be the inauspicious start to a brand new life with no idea of where it would wind up. Less than an hour later, after having only written a few paragraphs, I heard a knock on the window. I looked up to see Elizabeth and our three sons waving at me. They came inside to wish me luck before they went to the beach. 

     I didn’t know it, but even though Freelance to Freedom wouldn’t be published until January of 2018, that career shift had begun. I joined two entrepreneurial masterminds to not only learn how to publish a book, but also how to network and collaborate with entrepreneurs doing the work I wanted to be doing. 

     What I didn’t know was how closely our kids were watching me. Nolan, who was eight at the time, must have taken a mental picture of me writing through that window. And when we got home from the trip, he gave me a picture that he drew of me at the coffee shop. (The picture is at the bottom of the newsletter.) I told him, but he didn’t understand how much that drawing meant to me. He quite literally captured me at the birth of an entirely new phase of my career and life. I don’t know if he could have given me anything more special to look back on. The palm trees, sunset and beach included always felt like freedom to me.

     That picture has been framed since then. And that frame was beside us during the time that it took to write the book, all of the struggles and successes of it, the launching of new offers, new client breakthroughs, successes and their freedom, and the next levels of freedom that we unlocked for ourselves as well. 

     When the book launched, we took a three-month, cross-country family trip which we called the Thank You Tour. Along the way, we gave a copy to financial guru Dave Ramsey. In front of our family, he took the book, slapped the top and said to all of us, “this is a big deal. A really big deal. This is how all of this started for me,” he said while pointing to the building and the studio. I saw the pride in our kids’ faces as we walked out. 

     At that point, we had already created a new income stream, leading entrepreneurial masterminds. It was still in the newer phase but the vision for what could come was becoming clearer. Somehow, we managed to leave our photography business behind, start something completely new and actually increase the freedom in our lives. 

     During the second month of the trip, we were staying at the beach in Oceanside, California. I had just finished up our mastermind call, and had nothing scheduled the rest of the week. We went outside to collect crabs and shells with the kids for the rest of the afternoon. I called my friend Andrew Buckwalter to catch up, and he was asking about the trip. As I walked to the kids in the sand, he blurted something out. 

     “Man,” he said. “You have Total Life Freedom!” 

     That’s a really cool name, I thought. It was ironic because he said that while I was looking at palm trees and the beach, just like in Nolan’s picture. Elizabeth was going inside to make lunch and I asked her to check the domain to see if it was available. She called to tell me it was available. We bought it right there, and that’s how Total Life Freedom started. 

     Fast forward to this October, I had my chair in the sand, my umbrella set up and I was writing a piece for this blog on Anna Maria Island, my go to spot for outside work near our home in Bradenton, Florida. I realized then that easily 80% of my work can be done from this spot. A spot that has palm trees, a beach, and again, one that looked like Nolan’s drawing. At the same time, so many of our clients and followers dream to be able to do much of their work the same way.

     That was too many coincidences for one timeline. So, after hearing many people tell me they would love to build a business that they can do while being at the beach, under swaying palm trees and watching the sunset, we said, that should be the logo. 

     So that’s the story of how the business started, how the name Total Life Freedom happened, and how we came up with the concept of the new logo. 

I think back to that day at Island Joe’s. What would have happened if Elizabeth didn’t challenge me to make a change? What if I was too scared, or insecure, or fearing failure, to actually take the chance? What if I would have settled for the success of sameness? We would have made enough money the old way. But I would never have known if I had this in me. 

     Change does not have to be big. It does not have to be monumental at that moment. Small but intentional, on a consistent basis, beats trying something big out of desperation. Even with the change of our logo and brand, it was built small, intentionally and consistently. Like most of our decisions. By reading the tea leaves and putting those pieces together, over time, the decisions seem to make more and more sense. 

     So as you enter a new year, are you fearing change, or embracing it? Are you going to take that chance, or settle? It’s rather cliche to say, but if I can do this, you can do this.

     Small steps. 

     Intentionally. 

     And consistently. 

     Go make change happen. 

Have an AMAZING day!

Vincent

P.S. Speaking of changes…future emails will be coming from

vincent@mymembershipfreedom.com, so please add this to your safe senders/whitelist/contacts to make sure you still receive our emails!