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Welcome to the Impact Podcast. I'm Eddie Wilson, here to help you visualize what others cannot see, create opportunities where others have failed, and push you to build empires where once there was empty space. Let's embark on this journey together and make a difference in this world. Welcome to the Impact Podcast with Eddie Wilson. I'm Eddie Wilson. Thanks so much for joining me today. This is my favorite time of the week. I hope it's your favorite time as well. This is a time where I get to have, instruct, teach, coach you and your business and life. For me, one of the greatest joys is to be able to pour into other people to educate and to help people make advancement on the purpose and impacts of their life. Today we're going to talk about an all important topic. It's one that I get asked to probably speak on more than anything. I get asked to speak a lot on business, a lot on investment. But the one thing that I get asked to speak on more than anything over my career has been time, time and time management. As a matter of fact, the very first book I wrote was called Time, wealth and Purpose. It was my thesis on, on life and thesis on success. And today I'm going to talk to you about this concept of time. And I want you to think about it a little bit more abstractly than normal and remind you that, you know, we have midterm elections coming up and you know, this isn't a political podcast by any means. However, we do have that all important midterm election coming up. And we often say, we often say no matter what side of the aisle you sit on, your blue or red, you, you essentially say that, you know, show up and you, your vote counts, right, like, and you vote with that ballot box, right, like with your, you know, like, you actually get to instill in America what you believe based on what you vote. I don't take it one step further is that I believe that every minute that you invest is actually a vote throughout your day. And this is the way that I think about it and I've talked a lot about, about this on the podcast. We talked about how I grew up and how there's an emphasis on time and how time, you know, is our greatest asset and all the, you know, the things that are consistently said. But I want you to think just a little bit differently today. So the core thesis is this. You don't become what you say you value. You become what you give your time to. So therefore you're voting what you want your life to be by the decisions you make by the hour. Every hour is a decision about who you are becoming. Every hour is a decision about who you're becoming today. I'll talk to you a little bit about maybe some of the things that I have voted for that are good and voted for that are bad. And I want you to think the same way, because time is your real vote, not your intentions, not your goals, not your words. It's your calendar. Your calendar is the ballot. And so, as an intro, I want to say, your life is a series of votes. Most people think, I want to be disciplined. I want to build something meaningful. I want to grow. You know, like we. We have all these thoughts, these aspirations, but then we scroll for two hours on social media. We avoid hard conversations. We delay our decisions, right? Like, we consistently go opposite of what our intentions are. And so while you may say, I want to be disciplined, your life is a series of votes to determine if you are and if you will be. Every hour you spend, and I want you to think this through, and if you write anything down on the podcast today, I want you to write, write this down. Every hour you spend is a vote for the person you're becoming. This next hour, you're sitting here listening to the podcast. It's probably another 20, 25 minutes long. And every time that you give your time to something, it's a vote for what you're becoming. So when you listen to my podcast, essentially you're saying, I'm voting that I believe in these. The morals, the identity, the. The tactics, the practical solutions, the stories. I'm voting that I want that in my life, and I'm going to become that. Right? If you went to the gym this morning, you voted to become more disciplined, more fit, more healthy, right? You are voting every single hour of the day for the person that you want to become. So your stated values don't actually matter. You know, I teach the Empire operating system, and we oftentimes speak our values. But the thing is, is our values are not what we're actually saying. Our values are what we're doing. Our core values in life are often tied to how we grew up. You know, as we interview people, I teach people to interview properly. I always say that there's really three interviews that you have to do in order to get a good candidate in your business. Number one, you have to have what we call the head interview. That's the drives. What drives the human. If you can get ahead of their drives and put them in line with it, then you never have to motivate Them. The next thing is we say the heart interviews that, head interviews, drives. That's interview number one. Hard interviews number two. That's your core values, right? Like that. Those are the things that matter to you. Those are the things that. That you're oftentimes, your subconscious, your feelings all tie into. And then lastly, your experience interview. And we say that the least important interview out of all of your interviews is the experience interview. It doesn't matter what somebody's done in the past. What matters is what they're driven to do and the values by which they will do it. That matters so much more than any experience they've had in the past. And so, you know, with that being said, our core values are the things that we have actually done, not what we aspire to do. Your core values are like magnets that snap you together with other people who have similar core values. My core values are honesty, integrity, passion. Right? Those things are core. They're not up for negotiation. They're something that I will do naturally and I'll do automatically. You know, honesty. I want radical honesty. I want a truth at the basis for everything I do, whether it's good or bad, whether it's positive or negative. I just want truth. Because every good decision in life is. Has come after I've been faced with truth. The truth may hurt, but you still make good decisions. The doctor comes in and says, hey, you, you. If you keep going down this path of health, you only have five years to live. Well, now you get to make a good decision, right? If you didn't know that that was the case, then you may be prone to making bad decisions. And so truth is everything to me. Number two, integrity. Doing the right thing when no one's looking. You know, we all make mistakes in life. Every one of us will make a mistake, some of them more catastrophic than others. But the thing is, is your life should be a series of intentional decisions to avoid mistakes, not to make them, hide them, cover them up. Right? Integrity is doing the right thing when no one is looking. And oftentimes, when you make a mistake, integrity is owning up to it and just facing it, going back to the truth and then passion. I really struggle with people, people who need motivation to do anything in life. Find what you love and go do it. Don't fall into the trap of doing what you hate and then needing to be motivated every day so your stated values don't matter. Your scheduled values matter because what you actually do on a daily, consistent basis oftentimes are your values. You say, for instance, Your family matters, but you give them the leftovers, right? That's the trap I fell into for so many years is, you know, oftentimes I've used the podcast as therapy to talk some of this stuff out because it's like, I love my family, love them unconditionally, and I say that they matter. But if you look back over the time that I've given them, I've oftentimes prioritized work or I've prioritized the problems in my life, or I've prioritized chasing success or money or business success over time spent with them. So what really matters, I voted for with my time. And guess what? I still have tomorrow that I can vote with. I just got back from an amazing trip with two of my sons up to the northeast, and that was a vote to show what mattered in my life. Now, I loved it, I enjoyed it, but I have a choice right now. I can look back at my life and I can say they mattered. But the fact of the matter is, I didn't vote with my time. Today I get to vote with my time. Tomorrow I get to vote with my time and. And prove that my values are that my family matters. We say health matters, but we don't train, we don't. We don't give ourselves to healthy eating or healthy. A healthy lifestyle. So you say health is more important, the most important thing in your life. But it's like. But then you give zero time to it. You're not informed on the latest issues, the latest things. You know, it's like you don't give yourself the ability to actually improve your health. You say business matters. This is an interesting one, because I hear oftentimes my business matters so much. Like, I'm all in. And then I watch business owners avoid all the hard work. You know, if you're kind of like, activity, daily activity is to put the hard work last, I would say that your business doesn't matter, and you've shown me by your vote. If your business matters, then roll up your sleeves and do the hard work first. You don't drift into success. You vote into it and you vote with your time. So where's your time contradicting your identity today? Where is your time? Where if you looked at your time and how you spent it over the last 30, 60, 90 days and you say, I want to be healthy. Where are you contradicting I love my business. Where are you contradicting I. My family matters. Where are you contradicting it? My relationships are important to me. Where Are they contradicting? Where is your time contradicting your identity? I oftentimes give you a historical figure, and today's figure is one of my favorites. I would say that if I had to pick two of my favorite historical figures. And I've got the book the Titan Doctrine, so I outlined eight figures. This one did not make it in the book. And I still, and I, I, the reason I didn't put him in the book is because I believe that someday I'll write a book just on him. So fascinated with this character. And, you know, you, you, you guys might, you know, jump into, if you're a frequent podcast listener and think it's Marcus Aurelius or it's one of the, you know, it's one of the people in, in Roman history. But my two favorite historical characters, one's Winston Churchill. He's in my book. He's so unique. He's such a weird, eccentric man, but yet he, even through his eccentricity, he shapes the future through World War II and he fights Hitler when no one else is willing. You know, it's just, it's. I love Winston Churchill. He's such a unique, weird character. The second person, though, is Benjamin Franklin. I love Benjamin Franklin. He's the one that someday I most likely will write a book on because I'm so fascinated. I've been to his grave in Philadelphia. I was just in Boston. We went to the grave site of his parents. You know, Benjamin Franklin is such a unique, unique character because, you know, Benjamin Franklin, he's a Quaker, so very much wanted to exhibit love and care and compassion for humanity. He often times was on the opposite side of John Adams at the same time, where John was a little bit more aggressive and felt like there was some action that needs to be taken. You know, Benjamin Franklin during the Continental Congress was kind of the one that was a little more passive. Let's, let's talk to England. Let's reason with them. But one of the things that I love about Benjamin Franklin is how he spent his time. And I think that, you know, in, in the making Someday will be a book that I write specific to the time that he gave himself too, because he was a Renaissance man, in that he knew so many things. He was great at so many things, from being an inventor to a scientist to a poet to a writer to a philosopher to a politician. Like, the guy was just like, he's a Renaissance man. Which I love because I feel like to deprive yourself of things that create a well roundedness oftentimes Creates a short sighted or shallow experience for us in life. And you know, it's like one of the things that I love is I feel like every young boy should be taught how to fight. I think that they should know how to defend themselves, have the ability to defend others they love. I feel like every young man or young boy should learn music. I think that there should be some creativity stoked in every, in every man. I think that, I think that every young man should, should read. I feel like they should be growing in their knowledge. I feel like every young man should have to explore their faith. They should be pushed into at least exploring their faith. And, and it's like I, I feel like that is what Benjamin Franklin was, is. He was an example of all of these things, right? Maybe minus the fighting thing, right. Like he was a Quaker. But what I loved about him was how he appropriated his time. And then he looked back on his life and you would say, how did you do so many things in a lifetime? And that's, that's one of the greatest compliments somebody could give me is they could say, how have you done so many things? I'm in my 40s and sold lots of businesses and built lots of businesses. And I love that because what that shows is I've been intentional with my time to the point where people feel like I've accomplished more than what the average person accomplishes. Well, that should be our pursuit. We should be pursuing accomplishing more than the average person in this lifetime. So Benjamin Franklin, one of the most productive men in history. And I think that if I were to write a book about Benjamin Franklin, it would be about his productivity. He was a founder, he was an inventor, he was a diplomat. I mean, he spent time in France as a diplomat. But what made him different was he tracked his days with two very simple questions. He started his day with intent. And he said to himself, and he wrote them down on the morning as he sat by his bedside. And he'd ask himself the question, what good shall I do this day? And he would say, today I'm going to not only do the things that are prudent, you know, I've got to, I have to accomplish certain things in the day. But he asked himself, what good shall I do this day? I think in your life today, you're voting to be a better business person to making more money, maybe spending more time with family. But what about increasing the value of humanity by doing something good or sowing something good into humanity today? Do you do something of good, of benefit to Humanity every single day. And that's what Benjamin Franklin did. That's what set him apart. And then at the end of the day, as he laid his head to rest, he would ask himself this question. This was his consistent habitual patterns. What good have I done this day? What good shall I do this day? What good have I done this day? He structured his day throughout the day. Number one, he focused on times for deep work. He focused on times for deep work. He had four categories that he broke his day down into. One was deep work. And this is where he would do his research, this is where he would do his writing, this is where he would do his thinking, and he would build philosophy. Number two, he would give his day to learning. There was a period of time that he gave to every single day where he would learn something or he would absorb some new information, typically through books and information. Number three, he would reflect. He would think back on past successes, he would analyze those successes, and he would put them into practice for tomorrow. So reflection. And then number four, which I think is one that we constantly miss, is intentional rest. Intentional rest. There is a modern pandemic that's happening in American business culture, and that is this. We work, we work, we work, we fail. And instead of reflection or time off, we then move from failure into creation again. I will tell you that the distance between failure and new creation, that distance, that gap, will ultimately and almost always determine the level of success you have in your new creation. One thing that Benjamin Franklin did was he consistently and intentionally rested. He gave himself rest time every single day. Why? Because the resetting of the human brain and the human body allows us to create with new vigor and new passion, new fervor. And that's what he did. And we have fallen into that trap. I have personally fallen into this trap. I right now have been and coming out of a season where I've been struggling with health, and I'll say that that health issue is directly related to the drive and the push that I've put into the last four or five years. Most people don't know that I went from building companies and you know, I was building companies, building my nonprofit and then moved into, you know, sold and exited a company and moved right into 2013 building more companies. 2013, I intentionally and personally build close to 80 some companies, both passively and actively, and exit that in 2019, 2019, you know, during that time period, the exiting's happening. So I'm moving away from some companies, starting some new companies. Covid happens in 2020 and most people think that that was a period of rest for me. I took about a two week time period off in March and April during COVID and realized that so many people still needed help. My businesses, the things that I had left still needed help and the nonprofits I had globally needed help. So I immediately engaged and got involved. And there was rarely a week during COVID that I didn't travel. I typically was on planes with four or five people, but I was traveling consistently and pushing. And I probably pushed just as hard during COVID as I ever had coming out of COVID That's the famous story of Andrew Cordle walking in and pitching me on this idea. But during COVID I'm building the coffee brands. I'm building a studio brand called ProSpace Studios Think Realty, the American association of Private Lenders. Go Media Impact others. I also have an international Christian broadcasting brand. And, and so, you know, I'm building all these things during COVID Andrew walks to my office and pitches me on this idea. And we end up then now building the Aspire Tour. We built Collective influence. We built, you know, Checkmate, Tax Services. We've built all these things, 20 plus businesses during this time period. I've had exits of Think Realty. We, we bought and exited from fitcon, a large fitness convention. We have literally done a ton of stuff. And while doing that, I also have been expanding and building my nonprofit Impact others. We've added, we've added, I think seven new countries in the last two years. We've built five more orphanages in the last two years. We'Ve dug 72 wells in the last two years. You just, you. It's like I have been pushing and pushing and pushing, but I've been pushing. What most people don't understand is I've been pushing for close to 14 years straight. 80, 90 hours a week traveling, non stop pushing. And it finally caught up to me this year. I got malaria in Africa a few years ago and it finally caught back up with me. And that's my fault because I did not intentionally rest. The reality of it is, and the lesson I'm learning is that if I had intentional periods of rest, I may have gone faster and I may have gone farther. I sacrificed all the things I wanted because I didn't intentionally rest. So Benjamin Franklin, deep work, learning, reflection, intentional rest. Those are his four things. Daily asking himself in the morning, what good shall I do this day? At the end of the day, what good have I done? Franklin didn't just manage time. He directed his life through it he directed and voted what was important in his life through how he spent his time. He didn't hope to become great. He was on a pathway of greatness. And his time dictated and mandated greatness. He voted for greatness daily. Greatness isn't built in years. It's built in days that are used correctly. I want you to hear that so clearly today. That greatness isn't built in years, it's built in days that are used correctly. So what are you facing today? Right, so how do you go from Benjamin Franklin in the 1700s who maybe doesn't have as many distractions as we did? We do today? He didn't have a computer, he didn't have a phone, he didn't have. He didn't have as much. But he did have a lot going on, right? I mean, he is one of the pens of the, of the Declaration of Independence. He is a diplomat, he is an inventor. He had a lot going on. But today, most people are voting against their future for a few different reasons. Number one, they're voting against it because they've been told a lie. That immediate comfort wins easy over meaningful is always detrimental now, over later always plays against you. Your comfort today always oftentimes is in exact opposition of the direction of the desire you have for tomorrow. Fighting through the discomfort of today will oftentimes provide comfort for tomorrow. Choosing comfort for today will give discomfort tomorrow. Number two, a lack of clarity. If you don't know what matters, then everything feels equal. You know, today you are going to vote with your time and the way that you've given your time to people. For instance, the people that are running into your office with a fire, the God a minute meetings, the frustrations that you're dealing with, the gossip that's at your work, the stuff that you allow and you put up with. You know, all of the things, right, Is that you are essentially voting to continue down that path. If you choose to not give time to it, to avoid it, to push away from it, to set a wall against it, then it provides clarity for what you actually want in life. And number three, emotional avoidance. Hard tasks get delayed, growth gets postponed. We avoid things because the emotional task or the emotional taxing that is there based on whatever hardship we're facing. Here's the one discovery that I've had is that oftentimes we look at unsuccessful people and we say, well, maybe they're just lazy, they didn't do the hard thing. But the fact of the matter is, is I don't think most people are Actually lazy. I think they're undirected. Look at the people in your business and ask the question, do they want success? Okay, well, a majority of the people in your business, whether they're employees or leaders, they want success. They have a desire for success. The question is, is have you actually directed them in the activities that will give them success? Do they have a clear path of success? In your business we call an empire. These wins, weekly important numbers, does your staff have a win? Do they know what the weekly important numbers are? Do they know if. If I do this activity in my business, in my life, I will be a success? If you consistently put those metrics and activities in front of them, hey, in order for you to be successful, you have to do this. In order for you to be successful, you have to do this. Beat that drum every single day. And the irony is, all of a sudden, the people that you thought were lazy will become successful. The problem is that it starts with you. You don't know what your weekly important number is. You don't know what you should be giving your time to. So therefore, you can't direct others. To be a good leader, you have to lead. Meaning you have to step out in front. If you want people to actually live a life of productivity, you yourself must live a life of productivity. This is hard talk, but the fact of the matter is this is true. And if the people around you are unproductive, and it is almost the greatest mirror I could put in front of you to say that is because you lack productivity. So here's the reframe. Start voting intentionally. You don't need a new life. You need new daily votes. Does this move me forward? You should be asking these questions. Does this move me forward? Does this align with who I say I am? And is this building something or is this distracting something? If you look at your activity on a daily basis and say, is this building or is this distracting? It becomes an easy decision. The problem is you're going through your business, your life, your relationships without intentionality. Audit your last seven days. I know that I get some feedback that a lot of times you guys don't like the homework I give you and you don't have to do it. But if you want the change, you have to do the work. Audit your last seven days. That's not your schedule. That's your identity in motion. When you think about it, I want you to go back. Sure. Your schedule is the place where you're going to look, where the audit's going to happen. But what I want you to do is see the schedule through the lens of this is my identity. If you spent all your time putting out fires, that's your identity. If you spent all your time daydreaming, that's your identity. If you spent all your time at the gym, it's your identity. You spent all your time with family, it's your identity, right? Like your identity, your vote was cast in the last seven days, and that is who you are. Not only is it who you are, it's who you're becoming. Because every day that you vote, it creates a habit. It creates a habitual process that then turns you into that Tomorrow. If you want to get in shape, vote today. Get out, go, go walk, go run, go work out, go do the things. Go eat healthy. Avoid the cheeseburger today, right? Like, avoid the things that are going to take away your health today. Vote if you care. If you want to be somebody who's building relationships, vote. Put some time in your calendar. Block it out. One of the activities that I have, that I have had for a long time is I have what's called my hot list. My hot list is a list of people I want to stay in connection with. In that list, I have scheduled times that I go and I send texts, I make phone calls, and I try to stay in contact with the people that I want to have a relationship with. You don't need more time. You need to vote better with the time you already have. Benjamin Franklin started the University of Pennsylvania. He built the very first volunteer fire department, which now gives us all of our volunteer fire departments around the nation. He built the very first public library. Built the very first public library. Benjamin Franklin invented the lightning rod. He wrote Poor Richard's Almanac, which was probably the most read piece of literature during his time. He was a diplomat. He was the writer of the Declaration. He was one of the writers of the Declaration of Independence. He represented our country in France, especially during tumultuous times. He sat on the Continental Congress. He gave time to his family. He gave time to rest. He gave time to writing and reading and creating. And in the end, what I love about Benjamin Franklin was he voted for greatness with every day of his life, with every moment of his life. You don't need more time. You need to vote better with the time you already have. Your future isn't decided in big moments. And this is something that I've had to learn. I look at those big moments, you know, the big, you know, I've exit, I'm exiting this company or the moment where you buy a company or the moment you start a company, or the moment that you have an accolade or the most amount of money you've ever made in a year or. Or the big stage that you finally are ushered onto to give a speech. The award that's given, right? We think that that is what our life is decided on. But the fact of the matter is your future isn't decided in these big moments. Those big moments reflect the little moments in how you voted before it's decided. Your future isn't decided in big moments. It's decided in small hours that no one sees. And by the way, the very next hour past the moment of listening. This is a vote. Start now and frequently audit your time. Have a great day, guys. Thanks so much for joining the Impact podcast today. Thanks so much for being a part of the podcast and for listening today. Love to connect with you further. And you can connect with me on social media Dywilson Official on any of the social media channels.