[00:00:00] Speaker A: Some people on your 2024, 2025, or 2026 team will not be a part of your 2027 team.
Don't be scared about firing certain people. I know that some of you might think, oh, but it's the holidays. I don't want to ruin it for their family, let me tell you. Hashtag realtor. If they really cared about their job, they would have acted like it, right? If they really cared about their family, they would have delivered well on their job.
[00:00:29] Speaker B: You weren't born to sit in traffic, work for approval, or wait for Fridays. You were built to be free.
Welcome to Rich and Remote, the show for the ones who dare to do life differently. Here we talk about building businesses that give you choices where you work, how you live, and what you create.
This is for the entrepreneurs who crave freedom, financial freedom, location freedom, and freedom from everyone else's expectations. If you're ready to design a life on your own terms, you're in the right place. Rich and Remote, hosted by Alex and Carla Booth.
[00:01:13] Speaker A: Good morning and welcome to today's episode of Rich and Remote. It's just me, Carla Singson Booth, and I am recording this from the Philippines. I just finished Mastermind and a conference actually from one of the masterminds. I'm a part of Dynamite Circle, one of my favorite communities ever, ever, ever. If you want to join this community, if you are a serious business owner making about at least $100 million in revenue, this is a great place to be in a great room, and I've made a lot of lifelong friendships in this room. I actually joined Dynamite Circle four years ago and it was really, really awesome to be part of that community. So quick, shout out to Dynamite Circle. And if you want to join Dynamite Circle, I'm not an affiliate. I don'.
For this introduction. I just really want you to experience the community. Send me a DM and I would love for you to check out this community. We have two events every year. There's one big one in Mexico City and another one in Bangkok. So the other one in Bangkok is the one that I just attended. And because I'm already in this side of the world, of course I had to visit my family in the Philippines. So right now I'm recording this in Davao City, Philippines. While I am taking care of one of our real estate investments, we recently got a two bedroom in my hometown and I'm preparing it for our living situation.
I'm excited to stay here with my husband when we visit my hometown and of course, when we're not around to rent it out. So as I was doing a lot of this airport time, a lot of layovers, I've had a lot of thinking and I was kind of reflecting on how we are approaching the last 60 days until 2020. And oh my gosh, I feel like the year just passed by. I feel like it just passed swiftly and a lot of things have happened. And so I reflected on it and I realized that there are so many things that I need highlighted in my life and in my business.
And I wanted to share my thoughts with you. And today this episode is going to be called 60 days to lock in for 2027. Now, you've probably seen or heard all of those talks or concerns about New Year's resolutions and how most people actually don't end up pushing through with it or fulfilling it. And according to studies, actually, I think February 17th, if I'm not mistaken, is the day when most people actually give up on their New Year's resolutions. I know that some people also treat their birthday as a way to rekindle some promises that people made to themselves or as a milestone for a big change that should be happening. But I feel like if you're the kind of person that treats the New Year as some sort of a fresh start, I do believe that the best way to start thinking about it seriously is Maybe now, maybe 60 days before the New Year's so that you can take your time and. And you're not cramming a resolution as the fireworks light up in New Year's Eve. And of course, if you're the kind that celebrates New Year's Eve and goes all out, I'm that kind of person. Me and my family are those types of people. Fireworks, parties, lots of food, drinks, laughing, kissing, and spending time with family, making amazing memories that last for a lifetime. If you're my type of people, then I want you to enjoy the New Year's and I want you to enjoy Christmas. And I want you to start thinking about these serious things right now.
So let me share my thoughts with you.
So first, I think that a lot of positive changes come with an honest autopsy, kind of a postmortem report of what happened. What was 2026 actually? Like what had been the past 10 months actually, like, not the story you tell yourself about it. So look at your numbers, number of clients, your revenue, your profit.
Look at stuff about your health. How many times did you feel like you were jet lag, maybe you traveled too much? How many times did you feel like you had to take a Pill to fall asleep, right? How many times did you order McDonald's because you fell for it instead of choosing the healthy meal? So whatever is the most important thing for you in terms of your life and your business, your lifestyle, health. Then write those down, Write those down. Have an honest autopsy of what happened in the past 10 months and how do you feel about it. So for me, I would usually delineate my life into three things. Health, wealth, and relationships. Those are the three things that I really, really care about and a lot. Under health, there's mental health, there's physical health, right? So under mental health there be my spirituality and my stress levels and things about, you know, things like that. So under wealth, there's my investments, my business, my passive income sources, my side hustles. This year I started to accept UGC deals and brand partnerships and it has made me a considerable amount of money, enough to buy a car. I was really probably the most surprised person about how this has turned out. And so I'm really grateful for that. I plan to continue doing that in 2027 and beefing up my brand partnership portfolio and really working on my brand. So shout out to my team at Proximity Outsourcing for making sure my brand looks good in all platforms. And I have a lot of mentions and PR that come out regularly. So they've been a huge part of me landing these opportunities. And for relationships, of course, there's my marriage, there's my relationship with my sister, some friendships. How do I feel about this friendship? How do I feel about that friendship? Does this friendship feel like I am over investing in it? Right. And so there is a lot of things, my relationship with God, I think that can also fall there. So do a lot of introspection, do a lot of reflection and then come up with numbers. Come up with things that really matter to you, that maybe you can measure and things that are true to you. So tell the truth. This is just for your eyes only, so you don't need to be conscious about it. I mean, obviously, unless you want to open this up to a coach, maybe a life coach or executive coach, performance coach, it's up to you. So my next question for reflection would be if I explain this year's situation without using the words market, AI or timing or any business stuff, what is left? How do you really feel?
Give me three words, gun to your head about how you really felt about this year. What are the emotions that come up and what does your intuition say about the next step? What do you think is the next step? Don't be concerned about it being the right step. Don't be concerned about you needing more advice. Just right now what feels true to you.
So I'm going to have a vulnerable share here and something that comes up for me is demanding more quality and standards from the people around me. I feel like oftentimes I am alone in a particular realm of standards and quality and I felt that I repeated myself so many times.
And so entering 2027, I'm going to give myself the gift of high standards and high quality and I'm going to really take it seriously. So whatever that looks like in my life and in my business, it's going to happen.
And I've made actually the first steps of approaching this non negotiable situation with my quality and standards this year. I've taken some baby steps, but I think I'm just gonna really, really take it further.
So one thing that I can share is that I have moved a couple of our investments from Airbnb to long term rentals because for me, my peace of mind just realize that I don't want to be in the hospitality business. I would rather be in the landlord business. I don't want to be checking in and checking out a guest all the time. Yes, I do have a property management team that takes care of it, but there's still some decisions that I have to take care on my own and I just want less and less of that. So I have successfully shifted three properties to long term rentals and I'm continuing to work on the other properties and I'll also probably sell some properties. I'm going to make some adjustments on our real estate portfolio. I handle this part of the investments in my marriage and so like this is like my job. So my husband handles other parts. He has most of our stocks and of course both of us have active income from our separate businesses. So that's what I wanted to share and, and I'm going to demand more quality and standards for from the people around me. I'm going to make adjustments. I blame myself for not getting the results that I really wanted. Maybe it's because I just wasn't able to clarify the stand standards that I really needed and maybe I just need to do better on that.
So the next question that I want to reflect on is for me, after 17 years of running businesses, which habits actually move the needle and which we're just planning theater.
So for this one it's gonna, it's going to be a lot of introspection and honesty again. Right.
So some Things that I can share with you is we had a huge jump in income, like a positive jump in income since May started. And so I want to look into what happened that month.
May to July was like, really amazing. And more or less we were able to maintain this growth. We were able to cross a significant milestone in my business in terms of income. And so I want to see what caused that. What did we do good? What what happened at that time, and what issues have I been brushing under the rug because I felt that I could just cover it up with money. So I'm going to write the honest version of my year in terms of my business before I write my goals moving forward.
And so I think that part was mostly honesty, introspection, reflection, postmortem. Right? So this part that I'm going to discuss right now is all about protection. So I want you to think about protecting the money that you already have. I'm talking about money because after all, this podcast is called Rich and Remote.
The money conversation is always going to be on the table. So question for you. If your top five clients contracts ended today, how many would renew? And if you're not sure, what does that say? Right. This question used to hit me before because I wouldn't have known what to do. I would probably just panic and start selling jewelry like I've what I've done in the past. But I feel like over the years I've been better at reducing my involvement in the getting clients part of business.
And another thing that we've also gotten better is retaining our clients. Shout out to my husband, Alex Booth, for helping us really take good care of retention. It has given me so much peace of mind to know that I'm not going to go broke anytime.
So if you want help on improving your retention, improving your lifetime value, improving the reviews, referrals that you get from the clients that you already have, if you want to make more money from the clients that you already have, definitely hit up my husband, Alex Booth. You can find him on LinkedIn Alexander Booth, or find him on Facebook. He's married to me.
He owns Huckleberry Consulting, which helps businesses take care of all customer success processes. And the most important part is the making money part. So hit him up for that.
So that has definitely helped improving retention and removing myself from a lot of the getting clients part of business.
Another question for reflection is usually Q4 is when clients decide whether you're in next year's budget and usually they decide this without you. So ask yourself this question. What do you do in the next 60 days. So you're part of that conversation, right? So consider some concrete moves, like maybe doing a renewal call, maybe like a here's what we did for you this year. Recap. A 2027 roadmap conversation. You can hit up your client success managers for this or your account managers or, or if you have that relationship with a client, I would encourage you to have that conversation. And lastly, always remember that customer delight and customer service, customer satisfaction is a job that you need to do throughout the year, not just in the last 60 days.
So my advice for you would be, what are the things that you can do to improve customer success, to improve retention and customer happiness? It is not too late. Don't ever think that, oh, I fucked up. I'm just thinking about this now, right? So you can still make changes. The next 60 days will be a very solid time to start planning that.
Some other things to consider is what are the risks in your business? Do you have a concentration risk in terms of how big the clients are or are they coming from just one industry?
And what about raising prices? So for me, I think that this season is not a good time to raise prices, but it is a good time to maybe ask for referrals so you don't raise your prices. Emphasize on the fact that you want to provide your clients the same amount of service and commitment or maybe even more, and you want to exceed their expectation. And there are necessary investments for you to be able to do that. So instead of giving them an increase or a price increase or asking for more money, why don't you ask for referrals so that they can help you build your business and grow your business financially. Right? So I mean, it's not really rocket science. I think it's a very, very fair ask. So that's my advice and you know along those issues and try to get as many conversations with your clients as much as possible right now, because I feel like December might be too late. Especially when Thanksgiving comes. People are mentally on vacation mode or on holiday mode.
And next, let's talk about the things that you should have subtracted in your life. So I remember someone saying that life or business success is all is like a sculpture. It improves the more you take out from it, the more unnecessary things you take off. And it's not a painting where the more you add, the better it becomes. Right? So I really love that quote because it's so easy to remember. So ask yourself this question.
What did I kill this year that should have died sooner? And what did Keeping it alive cost me.
So this is not a very easy question to answer. And to be completely honest with you, I had a little bit of shame in terms of approaching this question, but my answer would be standards. I feel like low standards. I feel like I still had low standards in some parts of my life and I should have killed that sooner.
So I'm going to make a change.
And I would say that if you have people or clients that you need to let go, then you can definitely take steps towards doing that. And the sooner you do that, the better you feel, right? So maybe there's some things that you need to subtract in your life. Maybe some people, some relationships, some clients, some employees, some AI tools that you never used, right? So think about this section of your life and think about what you need to subtract what you don't feel positively about already.
That, that isn't. That is still in your life. That is somehow still in your life. But, you know, it's really not bringing the value that you want it to bring. So don't rush on answering this question. You can definitely take your time. That's why we have 60 days to do it. Right? And now let's talk about your team. So I know that this exercise may be about you, but you also need to think about your team. So personally, I love hiring in November and December.
It gives me a lot of better candidates and then I can have a fully onboarded person when the year starts. So don't delay on hiring better people.
Don't wait for January.
Anytime is a good time. The time that you know that you already need someone to deliver high quality work for you. That's the time that you hire that person or you start hiring for that person. Because that also takes time, right? You're not just going to make a job description and announce it and then the perfect candidate will land in your lap. It doesn't happen that way. At the same breath. Don't be scared about firing certain people. I know that some of you might think, oh, but it's the holidays. I don't want to ruin it for their family. Let me tell you. Hashtag real talk. If they really cared about their job, they would have acted like it, right? If they really care about their family, they would have delivered well on their job.
Otherwise, it just, you know, just doesn't make sense. The actions always speak louder than words. So remember that some people on your 2024, 2025 or 2026 team will not be a part of your 2027 team.
And it's always good to have that conversation before the holidays, to be honest, or as soon as you absolutely know that it is the truth, so that you can focus on growth and then you can put proper people in their seats. Also, please remember that if you have a big team or even if you have like a team of 10, everyone is watching you making these moves. And if you tolerate bad or low standards, other people will see it and other people will feel like this is normal. Right? So I don't want you to. I don't want you to feel that you have to wait for anything, and I don't want you to do your team a disservice by letting someone just operate on low standards.
And the other thing is that I know that the holidays is a delicate time for a lot of cultures.
So the kindest way that you can do this, then do that, right? Whatever you can afford as a severance, as a heads up. If you need a little bit of transition, maybe you can pay them properly for that. If it's just a bad fit, then maybe you can help them get another job. So be kind, but also be firm. All right? The capacity of your year in 2027 and how your Q1 starts gets decided in Q4 right? Now, it doesn't follow that you plan for Q1 during Q1, so you plan for 2027 right now while it's still in 2026. Okay? And then now let's talk about you, the business owner. So here are some questions that I want you to ask yourself. What's one job that I swore I'd hand off this year? That's still mine, right? So I think for me, it would be a lot of quality assurance and it would be content creation. I still have a little bit of ego around my content creation, but I experimented by doing LinkedIn. I completely passed off LinkedIn to my team, and I was actually pleasantly surprised that my LinkedIn brought in some leads, some positive partnerships, and it still makes my brand look really, really good. So I'm going to experiment by doing more and more stuff outsourced, completely hands free, and then I will just retain content creation on the platforms that I personally love doing, like Facebook and YouTube and this podcast.
This is still me. This is not an AI avatar or an 11 labs voice. Right?
And you can hear it because I'm still making mistakes.
Next question for you, the business owner. Which decisions should I make in the next 60 days that I can't undo, and which reversible ones am I overthinking? So sometimes we are faced by a couple of decisions and we are too scared to just make the move right? So think about the worst case scenario and think about the decisions that you can undo and ones that you can't undo. So the, the way to slow the way of sorting these decisions already help you gain that courage to take the next step. And then last question is, does my 2027 travel calendar support the business or is the business bending around my calendar? So this is a huge question for you guys who are living the rich and remote life.
By the way, I also want to shout out our previous episode that I recorded with my husband. How many flights is too many flights where we made an assessment on working while traveling, all the travels that we've done for this year, and some of our reflections from the time that we traveled or we took 50 flights in one year, that was a little bit insane. And I think that you're gonna love that episode. So next year, this is something huge that my husband and I have definitely realized. We are going to focus on our business and our life in our lifestyle.
And we have also determined our travel style.
We have determined that two weeks is a great time for us to fully have a vacation.
And because on the third week, we realized, when we were in Europe, we realized that we have started to want to work and we felt a little bit anxious. So I guess we could just take shorter vacations, but more frequent and then we can still do our weekend, you know, getaways, especially because as of now, we live in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, which is a very, very touristy area.
So we also realize a lot of our travel styles in terms of picking airports, picking airlines, choosing our favorite business class deals, being smart with our points, our credit card perks, things like that. So some of these things we have definitely started working towards determining and having these conversations because, you know, living the rich and remote life is not easy, but it's definitely worth it. My husband and I have families in different parts of the world. We have businesses and investments in different parts of the world, and we run a fully location, independent business. And so there's a lot of considerations that need to, need to happen around that, around that realm. And as a closing thought, I want you to take a few big bets on 2027. I feel like in general, a lot of people just don't succeed because they don't have the courage to take big bets. So ask yourself this question. If I could only make one big bet, one big investment in 2027, what is it and what am I doing to make it happen. So whether that's funding it or you may be just mustering up the courage to do it, then let's do it right. Take that big bet. Gamble on yourself. It's always worth it. For me, I will not reveal exactly what it is, but I'm investing a lot in our operations, so I want to raise our quality of operations. And that's going to be my big bet, my big gamble in 2027.
And then let's talk about KPIs, what KPI or maybe what leading indicator tells me by February 28th. So this is about 60 days after the first 60 days of 2027, whether my year is on track.
So right now, get on your phone, put this in your calendar February 28th, make a review on the things that you started working on today and talk about your big bet. Check it. What are some of the leading indicators? Check your numbers. How do you feel? Check about how you feel. But basically put that on your calendar as a day that you're going to do a check in with yourself.
I'm going to do the same and I'll definitely give you an update by then. So stay tuned on this podcast. Please give this podcast a follow and make sure you follow me on social media as well, because I'll give you the update for sure. And then lastly, do your 60 day lock in list. So let's make it easy for you. Three actions and each with a specific deadline. So what are the three things that you need to work on?
Make the hard decisions. Don't delay it. I know that you're going to be taking some risks. Take it. There's no better time to make a bet on yourself. Get a lot of silence and introspection. Don't distract yourself from the goal. And lastly, as a closing thought, I want you to celebrate yourself and your courage. Because having these conversations, even with yourself, having that introspection, having that difficult conversations with your team, maybe with your partner, with your family member, maybe a friend that you don't want to be friends with, having, doing these things are not easy. So I want you to give yourself a pat on your back and celebrate yourself and celebrate the courage that you have right now. This is something that a lot of people don't get to do or don't even get to think about. A lot of people just live their lives on autopilot. And if you're here on rich and remote, I don't want you to be one of those people. So here's the deal. You can definitely rest in December and you should. But rest is different from drifting. So pick your number, pick your KPIs, lock in your three things, make those big bets and you won't start 2027 on January 1st. Promise that you'll start planning for it today. All right, so if you like this episode, I would love if you give us a shout out. Share this with a friend that you think will really, really benefit from it and I'll see you next Monday for another wonderful episode of Rich and Ramon. I'll be back in Mexico, so I'm excited. The Future to shoot or record the future episodes with my husband Alex, who's now still recovering from jet lag. Okay, I'll see you guys. And thank you so much for being here, being a part of our community.
We love doing this with you. And cheers to the rich at room life.
[00:27:47] Speaker C: Hey, quick one for anyone still doing $15 an hour work when you should be doing $10,000 an hour thinking if you've ever tried hiring a virtual assistant and ended up with someone you had to train from scratch, I want you to check out the Hire an AIVA Playbook which you can
[email protected] It's a $17 toolkit that shows you exactly how to find, vet and hire an AI savvy virtual assistant. Someone who already knows how to use ChatGPT and Claude properly so they can actually take work off your plate in as early as three hours and not in three months. It has betting checklists, masterclasses, job post templates, prompts and even done for you AI Skills Test will even guide you through the interview process so you'll truly have everything you need to land a proper AI enabled virtual assistant who can finally take these tedious everyday tasks off your plate. Link is in the show notes so go grab it and do yourself a favor. Once again, it's hire an aiva.com you deserve high quality support and you deserve an AI savvy virtual assistant. Go check out hireanaiva.com.
Thanks for listening to Rich and Remote where freedom isn't a dream, it's a decision.
This is Carla,
[00:29:19] Speaker D: this is Alex Booth,
[00:29:20] Speaker C: and this is our journey to our dream rich and remote life.
[00:29:25] Speaker D: If this episode inspired inspired, you, share with a friend who's ready to live life differently too. This is perfect for entrepreneurs who crave financial freedom, location freedom and freedom from the opinions of others.
[00:29:37] Speaker C: And don't forget to leave a quick review. It helps more freedom seekers find this show. Big thanks to our sponsors, Huckleberry Consulting, getcsm and proximity outsourcing.
[00:29:50] Speaker D: See you in the next episode. And check out our online hangout spot, richandremote. Com.
