I had someone tell me that they didn’t believe that having Total Life Freedom was possible. Now, in the five years of this being our business name, I had never thought of it in a literal sense. I always saw Total Life Freedom as something that was aspirational. It was created to inspire and pull others towards it, rather than be a tracked assessment that was judged. That one comment made me introspective. Is Total Life Freedom something that can be tangibly reached? How do you define it? For us, the name came from a friend who blurted it out during a phone call while we were on a three-month cross-country road trip as a family. “Man, you have total life freedom!” he said. We bought the domain minutes later and changed the business name within a month. Now do we actually have Total Life Freedom throughout every aspect of our lives? Of course not. There are obligations. There are demands. There are hurdles, roadblocks and tantrums to deal with (here’s looking at you, kids). But when we changed the name to Total Life Freedom, something changed within us. It’s almost like we have raised the level of our standards, and the standards of those we work with. The name has even changed how potential and current clients respond to us. When we use those words, people go out of their way to respect our time. They even say it in their language. “I know you value your time,” someone said to me yesterday, “ so I will make this quick.” I’m pretty sure that would be different if our name was The Budget Business Brand. Even our approach changed. Decisions went from wondering if something was a good choice to asking if it brought us closer to Total Life Freedom. Instead of just accepting something because “that’s the way we’ve always done it,” we now had a higher level to reach for. Do you know what else is interesting? Our freedom has increased tremendously since that Tuesday afternoon in Oceanside, California, when we renamed the business to something more audacious. Why? Because when you brand yourself as something- and you have integrity to uphold it- you have no choice but to do the work to enhance that. We had a funny moment on one of our Total Life Freedom Mastermind calls. Someone who wasn’t putting in the effort to get where they were hoping to get to came out and owned it. He fessed up. He acknowledged that he had taken his eyes off of the prize. “I guess I’m doing Partial Life Freedom,” he joked. We all laughed. But it really made me think. The words we use matter. I remember during my years of working for the WWF/WWE, Stone Cold Steve Austin was the champion and the top draw. And that industry was way more competitive than my world. Austin believed he was the best and wanted to stay on top. So whenever I photographed him signing autographs, he would sign “Stone Cold Steve Austin, #1”. I noticed that he would sign that on every autograph. It wasn’t until years later that I heard him speak about it. During that era, Austin was in a bitter rivalry for the top spot in the business with The Rock- Dwayne Johnson, who is now one of the biggest movie stars in the world. The Rock was vying for that top spot and Austin signed #1 on those autographs- including ones that he gave to The Rock- because he had the audacity to believe it. And by believing it, Austin set standards for himself to remain there. Not only did it keep him working to his own standards, but it inspired The Rock to strive for that top spot. Because of that, they created one of the most memorable matchups in wrestling history. They made each other better. As much as the idea of Total Life Freedom inspires people to get to their version of it, there are people who just don’t believe it’s possible. For me, that is even more fuel and inspiration to make it even greater for myself and for those we are leading. Because words are just that- words. They are empty and meaningless without the substance behind them. Because if I can do something that others think isn’t possible- and I can open up this world for those that believe it as well- it can hopefully open the eyes of the non-believers that don’t think it’s possible. My conclusion, I realized, is that the message of Total Life Freedom is absolutely aspirational. I thought that saying that would be a bad thing. But what we learned is that being aspirational allows people to aspire. And it allowed us to as well. Because by branding our business that way, we stretched for things that we never would have imagined without it. When we thought of moving to Florida a few years ago, it is unlikely that we would have been as bold without that name. It’s about Total Life Freedom, right? If we mean it, why wouldn’t we do it? That one decision now allows us to live like we are on vacation nearly every single day. But we never would have known it without the audacity of being bold with our name. So, is Total Life Freedom really possible? I guess that really comes down to what you believe you can do. Have an AMAZING week! Vincent | 
