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The Everyday Millionaire and Mindset Matters Podcast
TEDM – Chelsey and Stephen Diaz – The Rainmaker Family, Creating a Thriving Family Legacy (Episode 222)
01:14:07
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- [00:00]
Chelsea Diaz
Foreign.
- [00:04]
Patrick Francie
Hi there and welcome to the Everyday Millionaire podcast. My name is Patrick Francie and I am your host and I want to begin by saying thank you for listening. On this show I am having conversations with seemingly ordinary individuals who have achieved some amazing and extraordinary results in both their life and business. My intention is to inspire and help you learn and grow by having my guests share their journey from of how they face and overcome their challenges, but also how they celebrate their many wins. And now let's get on with this show and have a conversation with today's guest. My guests today, Chelsea and Steven Diaz are the dynamic founders of the Rainmaker family. They are dedicated to guiding families towards financial abundance and the time freedom so they can leave a thriving family legacy. Taking a bold step in 2017 they shifted from a service based wedding photography business where they were trading dollars for hours to go all in online passive income opportunity. Now they focus on empowering moms to use the same method they developed to become rainmakers for their own families. They specialize in e commerce and building brands. And the Diaz duo champions the idea of buying back time which is an enabling moms in their community to run successful six and seven figure businesses. While cherishing moments with loved ones. Of course ranks number 148 on the Inc 5000 list and number two in the category of education. These two are reshaping online learning, proving that success in business can coexist harmoniously with family first approach. This was an absolutely amazing conversation. So many insights and learning that they shared. Listen in. Enjoy. Stephen and Chelsea, welcome to the Everyday Millionaire podcast. I'm so looking forward to this conversation.
- [02:17]
Steven Diaz
Awesome. Thank you so much for having us. We're so excited to share and just help serve your audience in any way we can.
- [02:24]
Patrick Francie
Well, you know, the way to serve my audience is to discuss how the heck we can make some money in business. And you know, that's one of the many conversations. You know, the premise of the show is seemingly ordinary, achieving extraordinary and you both qualify in that context. So tell me a little bit about what you do, how you do it, how did you even get on the journey? So let's break those three questions into one. Let's start. First off, when somebody walks up and says to one of you or both of you, what do you guys do? What's your answer to that question?
- [02:58]
Chelsea Diaz
Yeah, we help moms launch online businesses, specifically e commerce businesses. Now if you're listening, you're not a mom. That's totally okay. If you have any interest in online business, that's really Our journey. And so we just personally believe moms are a huge driver of impact in the world. When you, like, ask a mom, hey, what would you do if I gave you a million dollars? She immediately is like, I would give it away. Like, she'll do some stuff for her, but, like, her first answer is always someone else. And I just think that's incredible. We love serving moms because they really do make the world an amazing place. So, yeah, we help them launch e commerce brands. 99% of people that come to us have no product ideas. Like, they're not product inventors. They really are just looking to bring income to their family in some sort of alternative way. They're probably working a 9 to 5 job. They're probably like, okay, I need something else on the side. And so, yeah, that's what we help them do. And I mean, Chelsea is really good at telling our origin story. We can tell you how we got into it because it totally caught us off guard. It was very unpredictable. We were not like, you know, looking to be e commerce experts. It really kind of fell in our lap.
- [04:04]
Steven Diaz
Yeah, definitely.
- [04:05]
Patrick Francie
But that's the entrepreneur's way, isn't it? And I got to say that, you know, I'm always impressed with moms because they look at what their family needs and then they do their best to crack the code of how to deliver it without busting up the family and how they can operate. So I love it. So, Chelsea, why don't you share with us what it was that got you started on this whole adventure that's turned out to be quite a business opportunity for you and what you've created for others.
- [04:33]
Steven Diaz
Yeah, well, it's definitely been a huge adventure and a wild ride. Something that neither one of us could have predicted. But for us, it really started in this tiny one bedroom, one bath apartment. And there we worked. Our very first office together was upstairs in this loft. And you can't really tell, but Steven's super tall and he would hit us head going up in this spiral staircase.
- [04:55]
Chelsea Diaz
But you just like duck to get to your desk, you know, like, it was. It was our. Our humble beginnings for sure.
- [05:01]
Steven Diaz
Definitely. And we were actually in the wedding industry. So that little loft upstairs, we had our two computers working side by side, editing, editing away. We were in the wedding industry. And I feel like, like many businesses, there's really high seasons where, you know, cash flow is coming in and you're. You're traveling a lot and working really hard, and there's really slow seasons, or at least in the wedding Industry during the winter months, people aren't getting mar married as often. And I remember like working on different projects in those winter months and just almost feeling like the weight of the world on my shoulders, like wanting to start a family one day, wanting to be entrepreneurs, but just looking at the type of business model that we were running, this specific service based business and just being like, this is not going to be sustainable when we decide to have a family. And it was really in some of those hard moments and hard conversations, looking ahead and just saying like, well, what can we do to create extra revenue for our family so that we can be more picky and raise our prices and travel less. And it was really in those years that we lovingly now refer to as the spaghetti years. And it was like we were boiling water with spaghetti, throwing it up against the wall and seeing what sticks. And I would say mostly Steven was trying a lot of different Internet things.
- [06:16]
Chelsea Diaz
Chelsea was keeping the actual business running. I'm just goofing off on the Internet basically. Trying every webinar, buying every course, like every side hustle you could think of. I was just like on the journey to figure it out, you know.
- [06:30]
Steven Diaz
Yeah. And definitely in those years, you know, the thing about online businesses and starting new things and investing and whatever you do is they all work, they all can totally work. But for us, there was one thing out of those businesses that we started that really we could, we could tell and see that it was going to move the needle in the direction that we wanted to. And so for us it was actually E commerce and we kind of landed into wanting to launch a product ourselves and figure that process out. And Stephen had learned more about different platforms to put it on. And we were really looking for something what is going to be the most passive for our family where we don't have a bunch of boxes in our backyard or in the garage and we're not packing and shipping because we had done that a little bit. And so we really stumbled upon this program that Amazon does called Amazon FBA Fulfilled by Amazon. And we had been doing it for a while and honestly it was mostly Steven who kind of started saw, like, this is going to work, this is going to work. And again, I was very skeptical. But I'll never forget Patrick, when we were in the middle of our wedding season, we were totally burnt out, overworked, overextended, and we were working like 100 degree weather weather or wedding outside. And as a wedding professional, you get like a 10 minute break to go stuff your face full of food before you have to pick up your camera again. And I'll never forget the moment where we just looked at each other and we're like, let's just check and see how much money our Amazon business made us today, which we would do from time to time. And I'll never forget looking at each other, pulling up the app, and seeing that we had actually made more money in our Amazon business that day than we had photographing that wedding. And that every single winter season that I had felt the weight of the world on my shoulders, I, for the first time, felt it began to lift. And it was like, wow, like, we are actually onto something. Like, this is the kind of impact and income that we want to be able to have and share. And so while Steven, I would say, was already what we call an Amazon evangelist, that was like my. That was my turning point where I was just like, this is going to be the thing. Like, I can see us working this job or phasing out of this job eventually, and this being the thing that allows us to be home on Saturdays with our babies and choosing what we get to do and having that choice. And so since then, it kind of launched us into sharing with anybody that would listen about the method that we had discovered and now what we teach to this day.
- [09:05]
Patrick Francie
Okay, so you've given me a lot to unpack here. And kind of thinking from my listener's point of view, and they're going, okay, yeah, but how long did that take you? Because everybody these days ultimately wants to do it quicker. So I know you've been at it a long time. You were on your learning curve, and there was a lot to unpack. Now what you're doing in your own. The book that you collectively wrote, and whatever teachings you are doing, you're shortening that learning curve. But how long have you been doing this? How long did you kind of start to. How long did it start to take you to get some initial action going?
- [09:43]
Chelsea Diaz
This is probably. That story is probably 2017. I think by 2018, we had matched our wedding income, which was like a low six figures at that point. And so now it was like, I mean, as a young married couple, we didn't have kids. I was like, making 200, 300,000 in a year. Like, that was incredible, you know, so half of that was weddings, half of that was. Was Amazon. And then we just kept kind of going from there and really, at that point, launched the education business. And kind of like now we have three streams of income going. And this really led, I feel like 2019. We really started to see things ramp up on the Rainmaker side of things. So the business called the Rainmaker Family and I just felt like, it felt like too good to be true. Miraculous timing. You know, we're faith filled and we were like, okay, this, it just is too good of timing because 2020 happens and all of our weddings get canceled, right? All of our friends in the wedding industry, their business goes away overnight, right? Like all these people are canceling weddings, postponing weddings.
- [10:43]
Patrick Francie
Your Amazon business goes through the world.
- [10:46]
Chelsea Diaz
And guess what people are doing? They're at home shopping. Like, they are like buying on Amazon at all time highs. So we really saw just E Commerce take off as well as people had big shifts in, oh wait, my job, I thought was super secure is not as secure in 2020. And so both those businesses just took off in 2020. We ended up hitting the Inc. 5000 list, the number 148 fastest growing privately held business in America in 2023. And so we just had like a hockey stick growth. But it really felt like it was kind of like years in the making of, of really grinding it out. And to like, kind of answer your question for people who are like, I want to do E commerce or I've never thought about this, I would say, you know, again, I'm big into like, you know, go ahead, chase the passive income. But I don't like to use that word because it can attract people that don't want to do the work. And so it does take serious work to build this type of business. Of course, getting mentorship training, like, it's going to really help accelerate you. But I would commit nine months to two years to this thing to really get it off the ground to a place where you can substantially see money coming out of the business. E commerce just takes long, you know, like, it just takes time. I mean, relatively long. I'm like doing air quotes for people listening. Nine months is not that long in business to get something off the ground. But in this day and age where people are like, well, I just wanted to take a pill and have $10,000 a month coming in.
- [12:10]
Unknown
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- [13:13]
Steven Diaz
And Country Farm and Garden A key miso in Yakima and La Venida, Washington Des de los mimientos mas picantes del mundo hasta las flores mas hermosas lot tenemos todo caratisado jalapeno Roma y super chile en existencia todo los dias un paquete de cuatro vegetales cuestas solo tres dolores conventinueves and tabos bena country farm and garden para todo tus vegetales tomates seboyas, pimientos y pepinos siempre en existencia and country farm and garden and Avenida Watson and Yakima.
- [13:40]
Chelsea Diaz
It's not that, you know.
- [13:42]
Patrick Francie
Yeah. Well, like you, you know, I don't like the term passive income because there's very few things that are passive. E commerce, not being passive for sure. You got to work it. You know, there is a phrase that I often use which is anything will work when you work it, but you have to. I mean, you have to work it to get it going. So let me ask you this question in terms of, you know, the business model that you've created for supporting others, you've got some education that you're providing, which is really shortening the learning curve for people. Is there a big investment up front for this kind of thing? And we don't need exact numbers, but is there an investment of capital in terms of the education or product? Where does the capital outlay come from?
- [14:23]
Chelsea Diaz
Yeah, yeah. Similar to real estate, Right. It's like there's so many ways to do things, right? You can put all your own money into a deal. You can also leverage other people's money. Like maybe you want to do the work, but you have a friend who wants to front the money for the inventory. Right. But E Commerce does take money to buy inventory. Of course there's ways to step into it kind of gently. But I recommend, you know, if you're going to go down this pathway mentally, 15 to $25,000 is a really great starting place as far as having money for some sort of mentorship, whether it's our program or another one. Amazon, just complex, just like real estate. You should get some sort of education or get it in a community of other people doing it. And then also having some money for inventory. 15 to 25k is a good like benchmark. Of course we have people come in with, you know, we had this couple come in, they're like, we were about to start a franchise. We saved up a hundred thousand dollars and they were making inventory decisions. That was scaring me. I'm like, are you sure? Like they, they dropped I think 70,000 on their first inventory order. So you get extreme cases like that. But I mean they were our fastest million dollar case study. Like they hit a million dollars within I think two years in their business. Yeah, insane. But that's like this is another level of risk. Then we have people coming in, bootstrapping it, using credit cards, like using their uncle's money, who wants to invest. There's the whole gamut. And so it's really kind of personal risk tolerance and. Yeah.
- [15:42]
Patrick Francie
So give me a high level overview of the business model. So I need capital. I'm buying inventory, but I'm not taking inventory, I'm not carrying inventory. So I'm drop shipping direct from Amazon. Is that the concept?
- [15:55]
Chelsea Diaz
There's this thing called drop shipping and it's not exactly that, but it's close to that. So we are actually creating, there's a lot of ways to make money on Amazon. I guess we should start there. So you can make money selling books on Amazon. You can make money as a wholesaler where you buy Clorox bleach and you buy a name brand. What we really specialize in is private label, which is helping people launch their own brand. So they own the brand. It's their own label of the brand. We believe this gives you a lot more equity in the business. If you do go to sell the business at some point, you kind of like have built a brand. So I guess the, the best analogy of like kind of our method because I guess to backtrack how we figured this out is we launched a bunch of random products, kind of like followed some courses, some things, and we're like, okay, let's just like launch these random products and one of them. If you're watching on YouTube, I know you got a lot of audio listeners, but if you want to look on YouTube, we have one on the shelves up here. It's a little wooden Japanese toy. It's like a yo yo, it's called a kendama. And it's like you try to catch the ball on the cups. Okay? So we launched this is like one of our second products on Amazon. And it was right around the time that fidget spinners took off. I know you have kids and you have grandkids, so I don't know if they were into the fidget spinner thing, but that thing was like hot. In 2017, 2018, it took over the Internet. Everyone wanted fidget spinners and our toy was not a fidget spinner, but it was like fidget toy. It was kind of like a thing you keep on your desk, fidget around with it. And so we just started getting that overflow traffic of people searching for this popular thing. And ours started selling $500 a day, $1,000 a day on Amazon. And that's where we really were like, okay, we could reverse engineer this. How do we get in front of demand like that? And so to give you analogy of how the whole kind of method works is imagine Amazon like a giant grocery store, okay. And, and in a grocery store, you walk in, hopefully with intention, you know what you want, and you go down the aisles of the things you're looking for, right? You need milk, you go down the milk aisle. Same thing on Amazon. You go to Amazon and you search for things that you're looking for. We call those like digital aisles. And so what we do is now we look at, there's actually software that'll show you how much people are searching certain keywords. So we kind of imagine them like walking down these digital aisles and we basically look for high demand keywords, right? Where there's a lot of traffic, but there's not great products on the shelf. So imagine you have 10,000 people walking down, you know, the baby helmet aisle, right? Like Amazon searches are so specific, right? White baby helmet, right? So they're walking down this aisle, but there's not great products on the shelf. There's a bunch of three star products, a bunch of four star products. We just look for the traffic and then we put five star products on those shelves. And so how we train our families that come through our program is find the opportunities and then we connect them with a manufacturer who can make those five star products. Listening to the reviews of all the other products, right, the three star products, they'll tell you exactly what they didn't like, fix all those things and put that product on the shelf. That's a recipe for success. So that's kind of like the analogy of what we're doing. You don't have to invent something new. You're basically just looking for existing demand, using data to back it, improving the product and then letting Amazon handle all the shipping. So that's the drop shipping part, where it is your own brand. But we're using Amazon's warehouses to handle all the shipping and handling to the customers. So that way the only product you're really touching is maybe a sample. When you're about to order your bulk order, you want to order a sample first to make sure it's good quality, make sure it's going to be a five star product. And then after that you ship all your inventory to Amazon and then they handle all the shipping from there.
- [19:34]
Patrick Francie
So when we look at the model overall, you know, Chelsea, and you looked at it, you were looking at it through a different set of eyes because you were working backwards from an outcome called one day we're going to have a family and you know, I want to be able to, what, stay at home, I want to hang out with the kids, whatever that might be. We'll get to that in a minute. But when I'm hearing you, I'm, I don't know if I'm hearing this as a part time thing. It feels like heavy lifting up front. Get the wheel moving, you know, get that flywheel going and then it's a little bit less time and effort to keep the flywheel happening. Is that, am I hearing that the right way or how is it?
- [20:13]
Steven Diaz
Yeah, no, I would totally agree. It's like, you know, I think some people jump right in and understand, you know, we, we use data to back everything as far as what products we're going after. Even, you know, we're always making innovations to the product, making, bringing something better to the market, listening to customer reviews, looking at customer reviews. What do they love, what do they don't love? So there, you know, some people, it's like anything when you are, I always say it's, it can be like learning a new language whether you have started a business before or not. So there's always, yes, going to be hurdles and things that maybe might come really easy to you. Like Stephen understands the numbers and the data so well. And I can come in and look at a product and be like, oh, we need to Create it and make it.
- [20:58]
Chelsea Diaz
Somehow Chelsea knows if it's going to sell or not. I'm like, hey, the numbers look great. And then she's like, that's not going to sell. You need to make it like this color. It needs to be trendier. So we kind of combined our superpowers there.
- [21:09]
Steven Diaz
Yeah, no, I think so. It is definitely more of that heavy lifting. Understanding the data is going to work well. And then of course, once you're probably product is up and running, I mean, there is less maintenance to it. And it kind of depends on, like, what type of business are you wanting to create. A lot of our rainmakers, when we first started, it was definitely a lot of our rainmakers and us as well. Just wanted, like to have extra money to pay their mortgage or have groceries or whatever that is. And now a lot of students that are coming in are very ambitious, have usually some kind of business experience in the past or have always dreamed of starting a brand. And so they're in it for the long haul. They really want to create multiple products under one suite, sometimes taking even off Amazon strategies or having like a social media presence that goes along with when they're launching something. Not only do we have Amazon's traffic, which is just there constantly, but also an audience that's ready to buy right away, too. So I think now more than ever, people are building that brand and reinvesting back in the business to build something really great and almost have like an X at the end or selling the brand. So that's what a lot of our students are doing now. But you can totally go either direction.
- [22:23]
Patrick Francie
So you carry multiple products or do you focus on a small group of products, like even one or two products? Or do you. Are you kind of opening up to the world?
- [22:33]
Chelsea Diaz
Yeah, most of our, like, students will launch, you know, a suite of products. So you think about, like that hobby you're into or you get into, what are all the things you buy? Like, I know I got a mountain bike, so we don't sell the mountain bike, but we'll sell all the accessories. Right. All the smaller stuff that's easier to ship. And so a lot of our students honestly do that. Like, they kind of like a hobby they're into, or, you know, a season of life they're in. They'll kind of sell the accessory products around that and create it. Just it's smart business. Instead of having a random shop, you just have three to five products that all go together. And then when someone buys one product, they find your other one. And Then sales just increase that way. So, yeah, we tend to see more people building brands and when we first got started, it was just kind of like free game on Amazon, it's just launch anything. And now you definitely need to be a little more strategic. And so again, people don't know what they're going to sell usually coming into our world, but once they start seeing the data, eventually something is going to kind of jump out at them. We're like, oh, I could see myself selling that. And it is helpful if it's something you know about. Like if you're into that hobby or, or niche, you just know how to serve that audience a little higher level.
- [23:43]
Steven Diaz
And that first product too is the first barrier. It's like once you get over understanding the data, understanding how Amazon works, the ins and outs, it's so much easier to launch that second and that third, fourth product. So we have students now who, even if they're still on product number one, they can pull up and do product research so much faster and easier. And they might have a list going of what that product suite is going to be. They're just waiting either for more capital or selling out of a product or just, you know, the timing of it all.
- [24:15]
Patrick Francie
So give me a little bit of, you know, insight into, for example, what are the qualities of an individual or what are the talents? I mean, you guys are young, good looking, are you shooting video, you're doing content, are you business savvy? Or, you know, like, give me a little bit of background. If somebody was saying, well, this kind of sounds interesting, I want to dig into it more. What's some of the, I guess the skill sets that somebody might need for a business endeavor like this?
- [24:43]
Chelsea Diaz
Yeah, that's a great question. A lot of people come to us because they don't want to be on camera. So Amazon's nice because, I mean, most people actually don't know this, but 60% of the products you buy on Amazon are from small business owners. And so a lot of people think Amazon big corporate thing, but they're really just businesses who are leveraging the system. Of course we pay Amazon a fee, right, to get access to their traffic and their customers. But a lot of people like it because you could be totally faceless, you could be completely anonymous if you want to be. And so you don't need to be a social media star or anything like that. I would say just a little bit of data analysis. Kind of like you like to look at the numbers. But we have seen people come in who totally hate that and they just are like, all right, I'll just either get through this, or we also have a service where we can find their first product for them and be like, hey, here's two products that meet the metrics. Choose one and just run with it. So people find their strengths in there. But really, it's. It's pretty wild when you look back. I was kind of doing a post in our community. I was just showing people the jobs on, like, indeed, that they could literally go get based on what they learned from the program and how much those job paid. I'm like, hey, you probably don't want one of these jobs because you can make more as an entrepreneur. But it's like, you learn product development, you learn manufacturing, you learn how to manage a photographer who's going to take those photos, how to do SEO. Like, it's just like, very online, good skill sets to learn. And so, yeah, we really have all different skills come in. I would say the one, like, probably the one metric we see through the most successful case studies is just they're driven. They're driven individuals. They get into something, they're kind of like, I'm gonna do this. Like, they just have that another level of mindset. I know you guys are huge mindset believers. Like, it just. You see this when you see success, there's something behind it. And as we interview more and more of the students that are really those, like, you know, breakout stories, it's like, this isn't their first rodeo. Like, they, they have driven history, whether it might not be entrepreneurship, but it's like, I was this in way in school and I. I overcame this in my life. And, you know, they're just. There's just that edge.
- [26:54]
Steven Diaz
I think entrepreneurship is playing that long game and knowing that, you know, you're going to have really high highs and it's going to be like, wow, that launch, like, totally. Like, we did such an amazing job, or. And then you're gonna have moments where you're like, man, what is happening? I need. I need to change something. I need to do some more research. And it's looking. It's like those opportunities present themselves as an upgrade for you and your business, both in the way that you think, but also in. In your business and the potential revenue, like, for you and your family. I was chatting with a friend who has a really incredible, like, coaching business, and she was just saying, you know, as we close out Q4 in our business, you know, we found things of my team just wasn't running efficiently, and we saw we really had to up level how we run our team. And, and that's always, she said, very like humbling and kind of discouraging because you realize, wow, we haven't been as efficient. But how also exciting is it that now we found an area of growth that we're going to get to grow in? And that mindset right there that she described is so important for whatever business venture that you jump into because, you know, you jump into it and you're excited, it's going good and maybe you start to hit a few walls. But it's really like that long game of like, there is nothing that is a quick fix overnight. There is no magic pill, no matter how shiny or how whatever promise somebody is saying on the Internet, like, here's the fastest way that I grew it. And of course there always are those breakout stories where that, that appears to seem like it happened overnight, but it's work and it's dedication and it is putting in time when you don't feel like it or sacrificing and that. So I think having that mindset throughout is so important.
- [28:43]
Patrick Francie
Well, I like what you've also indicated in the back is that you have a community so that when somebody's going down and through this whole journey and on this, down this path, there's some support in the background. You know, I, I celebrated my 40th in 2024, I celebrated my 40th year in business.
- [29:01]
Steven Diaz
Congratulations.
- [29:03]
Patrick Francie
Multiple businesses, one of them celebrated its 40 anniversary. So, you know, as we, as we head into this now new year, you know, we continue. But to your point is that, you know, often I use the phrase, and whether I'm coaching or working with real estate investors or business owners is that, you know, ultimately it's all simple. It's just easy. And that's a very common phrase, but it's just the truth. I'd like to go back a little bit. You know, I don't know which is better of you to answer the question. But, but something that sparked me is that why do we do what we do? And ultimately what you had arrived at was you looked into the future and you said, given what our goals are, what our lifestyle vision is and what we want, and that might be family or living conditions or where you live geographically, ultimately you had a vision that you were working backwards from and you said, well, how are we going to achieve that? What we're doing doesn't really align with, with. We love what we do. We're great at photography. Weddings are kind of fun. But at some Point it becomes, this isn't going to support what we're doing. I'm sure you arrived at that outcome. So often we say, well, what is your why? So for you it sounds like your why was we want family, we want lifestyle, and we want to be able to generate more income to support all of that. Then you started your entrepreneurial journey, or so that's part one of the question. But the other part of that was, you know, did you come out of the shoot entrepreneurial or was your family entrepreneurial? Like how did you get those entrepreneurial chops?
- [30:38]
Steven Diaz
That's so good. I think it was very different. We'll answer that last question first because I think it was different for both of us. So Stephen and I actually started dating pretty young in high school and I, Stephen knew that he was going to become a film major in college and kind of go more of the freelancing route while I was in school with a very stable career. I was actually going to school to become a speech therapist. And there's kind of a little bit of a joking thing that would go on between our families, like haha, Chelsea's, you know, essentially going to be the sugar mama and Stephen will just go like experiment and do whatever he wanted. And Stephen had a lot of fun in college and got to do all these like video production. And I felt like I was slaving away at like learning science to understand how your throat and ears work to speech. And so I definitely was so afraid to go like to risk anything. Essentially. I wanted the stable income. I'd seen my dad try and start his own business and way undercharge and undervalue his services. And so he couldn't sustain that, you know, past a certain point. And so I hadn't seen any successful entrepreneurs. I just thought you had to be a starving artist. That's truly what I believed. And so it wasn't until meeting Steven and following a couple other photographers at the time that were further along in business than we were seeing that, wow, they could actually do it together and they weren't starving. So I think that opened my eyes. But from the beginning and even now, like stability and those things, I'm, I'm much more, I don't jump out at risk as quickly as, as Steven does. And I've gained that muscle. I've, I've worked it enough where I can see something and be like, let's go for it. Like moving to where we just moved to, that was a big, it is a big risk, you know, but we both made that together. But I've worked that muscle over time. Whereas I think Stephen had a little bit more of that entrepreneur bent, risk taking from the very beginning, wouldn't you say?
- [32:41]
Chelsea Diaz
Yeah, yeah, for sure. I would say. The one area that I. I let fear get in the way was actually getting married. And we got engaged and, like, everything's going. We had dated for five years, and I just. I got freaked out, you know, and, like, usually I'm the risk taker. I'm like the hey, jump off the cliff, learn to fly guy. And. But something about it. We had a counselor at the time. She was kind of like, fear based and kind of like, what is this? What that. Yeah, I just got freaked out. Set a date. We sent out save the dates, and I was. I called off the wedding. Like, this is, like, I don't know, two months before the wedding. Bad move from Stephen. Bad move. But what this really did and why I'm telling the story is because we just. Like an entrepreneur, you have these moments of, like, everything's gonna fail, right? Like, this is not gonna work out. You know, we worked five years on this relationship, and you're just throwing in the trash, right? But we really decided to go through it together. And we went to a different counselor. We started going through a marriage course, like, on. On just like. Like, it was called Defining the Relationship. And it was like, at the beginning, they're like, just, you're either going to stay together forever or we're going to break you up, you know? And they did this exercise where you looked into the future and you were like, where do we want to go with our. Where do I want to go with my life? And we both did this exercise separate and kind of came up with, like, a mission statement of, like, this is where I see myself in the rocking chair. And looking back, here's the impact I made. And we did this separately, and then we brought our statements together, and they were just eerily similar, you know? And that's how we knew, like, we could make it, you know? And so with Rainmakers and even the wedding business, you know, anything we've done together, it's still pointing towards that thing. It's not exactly that thing, but it's like, it's pointing towards that. It's serving other people, it's creating transformation, it's making impact in the world. It's storytelling, you know, being creative. These are all core things that have always been part of our businesses. And so when we started the Rainmaker family, we really didn't know it would Be what it is, you know, and when we started to see the impact that it was having in people's lives and getting Christmas cards in the mail, like, we were able to buy our dream home. We were able to retire my husband. We were able to travel the world because of you guys. It was like that. That piece we loved about weddings, the legacy piece of, like, this is cool. We get to take a picture that lives on for a long time, impacts his family. It was such a bigger impact we saw we could make through rainmakers. And that gave us, I think, the faith to, like, step fully into it and go, let's. Let's really build this thing.
- [35:14]
Patrick Francie
You know, there's. It's interesting that, you know, within our, you know, my wife Stephanie is a world and Olympic class mental performance coach, but she really coaches a lot of couples. And in the nature of the sport that she's in right now, it's figure skating and it's dance. She actually works with the US Olympic dance team, amongst many. I think she's got 14 countries that she works with. The point is, is that they're couples and that. And they're not. They're couples that skate together. Some of them are in relationship, as in a romantic relationship, even the occasional marriage, but they're couples that are. They're two people working together. But one of the things that empowers is that are they sharing common values? And what you just described is that. That you and Chelsea have come to is that you share common values. That really is what the foundation of any great relationship is built on. Do we align with what it is that we're trying to, you know, our purpose, our mission, if you will, is one of those things. And you both are really. When I'm listening to your speaking, you. What lights you up is being a contribution, making a difference in other people's lives and feeling the impact that you can have on others by, you know, coaching and teaching and. And having them learn how to build their own businesses and grow within their family dynamic, achieve their why. I think that's awesome. And so no surprise that you guys are still hanging out together. How is it? Let's go back and kind of go a little bit deeper in. What have you learned working together as a couple now? Stephanie and I have literally worked together for almost 40 years now as partners. She owns business, I own businesses. We collectively own. We're very entrepreneurial in spirit. It, you know, you're sharing stories about, you know, some days is, you know, feast, other days it's famine. But you know, even years later, whereas, you know, we're still seeing the challenges that any business faces on an ongoing basis. But one of the things that, you know, we've had to learn to do and discussed a lot is how do we work together, you know, without overlap, getting in each other's ways, you know, what are some of the things that.
- [37:22]
Steven Diaz
You'Ve learned that's so good? I think a couple things come to mind right away is from the beginning, I focused so heavily when we were newly married, first business right at the gate, I focused so much on our differences and how much you're so different than me. If only you would come to the dark side and be just like me. And I quickly realized there's so much beauty in being so different and having different skills and so really focusing on those, especially if you're in business as a couple or you have a business partner, whatever, just finding out or team members finding out what your strengths are and what you're really good at that only you can do. Stephen is brilliant at marketing, at strategy. I come in with more of heart and leadership, and I have a really good pulse on our team and our company culture. And so we really try and stay in those type of. In our lanes of genius and then outsource the things that were not good or have mentorship and people speaking into the areas that we need to grow in. So I think focusing on that, for sure. I also think understanding what season you're in as well. I think even in this last six months, we just made a huge life transition. We moved to a completely different area. And so for me, as a wife and a mom, our home and setting that up and establishing rhythms with our boys and school and checking in on them, I have almost taken a little bit of a backseat with our business and let Steven have more of the reins and certain things, because we're in the this season of transition. So I think understanding the season that you're in and the capacity that you had, I didn't have as much capacity to run alongside Stephen in the business in the last six months than I have, you know, six months prior. And at first I was really ashamed of that and was like, oh, no, is the team expecting this of me? And so we just had an honest conversation with our leadership team and letting them know what was happening, but also giving myself the grace of, like, this is really important, especially if we're a family first business business, if that our kids are young, that's so important to us right now. And then, of course, you know, I'M sure six months a year, like when we're more settled in and have those routines down, I'll step back in. But just knowing that season two that you're in and giving yourself grace for whatever that's supposed to look like, I love that.
- [39:53]
Patrick Francie
You know, it is interesting, right, Is to honor our pace and to be able to kind of go with ebb and flow. And, you know, you. You stated a kind of a classic mom attitude, right? That feeling of guilt. You know, first it's feeling guilty because you're not spending enough time with the kids, and then you're feeling guilty because you've got this business going on that you're not, you know, and then that. That is always. That's kind of a classic mom view of the world, because that is part of your. You know, I think it's part of mom's hardwiring. It's a genetic pre. Predisposition. That's, you know, that's my story around it. But, you know, you said something that I. I think is really interesting to not step over and in business, because I think it's one of the. One of the most important parts of business when you have a team is creating the right culture and then taking a stand for that culture, because that's what allows the right people to show up. You know, I lead with all my businesses. I try and lead with the conversation of culture so that when my general manager or my managers are interviewing somebody, they really do have a strong context for within that interview process. This is our culture. Does that person fit within the culture? Do we share common values or are we going to be, you know, bumping up against beliefs or a different set of values? And that doesn't work. So in your case, you know, I'm sure that there wasn't a lot of pushback from your team team. And I'm gonna. You can totally say no, not the case at all. But here's my own journey over years working with staff that we've created the right culture, the right environment. Is that some. Somebody on your team or many are waiting for you to get the hell out of the way, and opportunities show up. All of a sudden, that person that you empowered just hits it out of the park. Oh, gosh, why didn't we do this sooner? They're awesome. You get to relax. So I don't know if any of that rings true for you, but every.
- [41:56]
Chelsea Diaz
Time we have a baby, like, the business levels up because we take a month or two months off from the business, and everyone just. They Just tear up. And they're like, wow, okay, we didn't know you could do that, but that was awesome. You just keep doing that when we come back. And then we have to level up too. So that's our strategy for growing the business. Keep having babies and then we take time off and then everyone levels up.
- [42:18]
Patrick Francie
Chelsea's going, okay, at some point we're stopping. Okay, so I, I love all that. But how did you come to the name Rainmaker? Like, what is that name meaning for you and, and your business model?
- [42:30]
Chelsea Diaz
Yeah, we honestly, I feel like I just pulled this name out of a hat. But the, the deeper we've kind of gone with it, the more it's just really made sense. And we used a lot of gardening analogies with our moms because, you know, you only have so much time and time, you know, it's almost like nutrients going to a garden. And really our story was doing a million different side hustles. We were sending our nutrients to so many different, you know, let's call it pumpkins. There's this analogy from the pumpkin plan, this book I talked about. You just try to grow a hundred pumpkins, they're all going to grow one size. But if you want to grow that award winning pumpkin, you really need to cut off vines, right. And send all your nutrients in that one thing. And so really that was our story of, of we call it trimming the vine, right? You cut back, you, you cut some things out, you focus. And that's really what allowed us to grow this award winning pumpkin. Right. Rainmaker family. And so we do a lot of using nature like that to, to give analogies to our moms. Like, hey, let's take care of your schedule. Let's, let's create a dream week for you. Let's, let's help you achieve balance. Even when that looks like being with us family five days and working a couple days. Right. Like, that might be balance for you right in the season. So, so yeah, rainmakers is really like. I think it came from the phrase make it rain, right? It's just like, hey, let's make it rain. But it's really like we're not waiting around for the rain to come. We're going to make it. We're going to do the things that not everyone's doing to create results that not anyone's seeing.
- [44:00]
Patrick Francie
I'm always reminded that. And I love that story, by the way, because it really is. There's a foundational quote that I use often, which is if more knowledge was the answer, we'd all be billionaires with six packs. And what your analogy does is that. And the metaphor. The context is. It provides context for what it is that you're providing in terms of education, in terms of the business model, in terms of what can be achieved. And when you frame things and give it context. And so you chose rainmaker, and I love that, by the way. Think it doesn't matter so much what it is. It's just that there is something that you can kind of wrap your narrative around, give people something to step into and get behind. And that's really. That is, again, the context is so much. Or it's as important, I'll say, as the education or the information. And if you don't have a context for it, which you do, that's really what supports others in their success. And am I in line with what your thoughts are on that? That.
- [45:08]
Chelsea Diaz
Yeah. 100. I feel like such a huge piece of what we do is help people take on a new identity, you know, or. Or re. Reignite an old identity. A lot of our moms, you know, they kind of lost themselves in motherhood. You know, they love. Loved being a mom, love raising their kids, and now their kids go off to college, and they're like, who am I? I was in this corporate career as this creative artist, and I kind of lost that part of myself. And so giving them a word to step into, like, I'm a Rainmaker, it kind of helps them make that identity shift.
- [45:37]
Patrick Francie
Gift.
- [45:37]
Chelsea Diaz
And we. We sent them. We sent them capes, we call it, which is just a T shirt, but it's just like, you put this cape on, you just. You become a rain maker. And it helps them really, I think, start to act like it. Right? Like, this isn't just a side hustle. I'm gonna actually block time. My calendar, I'm gonna get the nanny. I'm gonna. Whatever it takes to, like, build this thing. I think having that identity to step into is. Is really helpful, whether it's you're an entrepreneur, you're an investor, you're a rainmaker, whatever that is. It's just a helpful thing for the mindset.
- [46:08]
Patrick Francie
Yeah, I think it's. Like I said, I think it's brilliant. I think. But it goes back to even the fact that your primary avatar is moms. And I think it's a great market because moms go through all the things that moms go through, and you've kind of focused on that, which then plays into even the context that you've set up for what you Called your pumpkin story or the that. I think it's important that you have that level of focus that is really kind of. I love the concept of it, but. And to your point, I'm sure that you've got dads that are part of it, but it's ultimately. Is it considered or is it a side hustle for people? Or is this really. If you're going to make this work, you got to put a couple of years in real hard.
- [46:54]
Chelsea Diaz
Yeah. There still is sometimes that people come in with the side hustle mindset, but I think if you have that, you treat it like a side hustle. But it really is, I mean, part. Like I would say most people are investing 10 to 20 hours a week in it as they're learning. I would. I would probably treat it more like going to school on the side of your job. You know, like, if you're gonna go to college and get a couple extra credits on the side of working, is that a side hustle or is it kind of like you're just devoting some time to it? So I think sometimes people come in thinking it's gonna be a side hustle, and then they like, really catch the fire too, because it can be. You can launch a couple products. You could keep the inventory in stock. You could be like, I'm not scaling this. I just want to maintain it. And it can really be that side hustle. But a lot of people that come into our world, I'd say 80% are more the aspirational. They taste that first Internet money and they're like, let's scale this thing. Put it all back in. I'm going to the moon. I want to sell the business in three years. So we see more of that, where they end up investing more time because they love it.
- [47:54]
Patrick Francie
So, I mean, when you look at the industry overall, when we look at E commerce and do you spend a lot of time as well? I mean, there's the doingness of operating your business. But as leaders within your rainmaker community, are you always on the lookout for where E commerce is going? Are you yourself getting guidance from coaches? Do you kind of look into the E commerce world? And I don't know, you're watching Gary Vee or listening to Gary Vee talk about where he sees things going. He's one of those guys that kind of plays in that space too. So how do you. How do you kind of make sure that you stay ahead of all of this so that you can, you know, within your community, lead that community?
- [48:37]
Chelsea Diaz
That's a Great question. Yeah, definitely. I'm definitely the. The dreamer and the, like. I love geeking out on the latest thing. So you'll catch me during Saturday. Saturday morning cartoons. Like, building some AI, no code, like software. Like, I'm just. I want to learn, you know, so I'm just a. Ever learner. So that keeps me, I think, a little bit around the corner. What's coming down the pipeline is just always going to learn something new. I'm always going through a course. We also do a lot of masterminds ourselves. Like, we don't tell people to invest in our program without investing in programs ourselves. So at least $150,000 a year we're putting into continuing our education, being in rooms where, you know, we're having these bigger conversations, what's going down? And I think that's huge. In entrepreneurship, you see a lot of businesses that don't keep looking at the future, they end up dying, right? Like, you know, Sears and Roebuck is that. That's how it was said. They, they, you know, they. They had the. They were super innovative. They started shipping the catalogs, right? They were. They were shipping the catalogs to people's homes, Right. But they. And so that was really innovative. Wow. Put a catalog in every home. People can shop from home. But then when online came on the scene, like Amazon and some of these things, they. They didn't keep looking forward. They were like, I don't know. We got the catalog, right? And then. Then they got a business because of it. So I think you always in entrepreneurship need to be looking ahead, not out of fear, but just out of, like, okay, we got to be willing to pivot if something's happening. And right now, I think that's like, AI. So we're just learning a lot about AI and how's this going to affect things? We don't know. I think it's going to make things easier, but I think if we're not learning it, we might get left behind.
- [50:12]
Patrick Francie
Oh, 100%, you know, that it's just. It is. What is. It's now the thing. And it's going to be, you know, not unlike the Internet when it fired up. It's just in early stages, and it'll just become a. It already is an integrated part of my own operations, even what my team is using. And it's just early days. I mean, really, it's just coming out of the gate now, you know, as a dynamic couple. The dynamic duo of Chelsea and Steven. You know, is there one of you that is more operationally minded because it's interesting that you like the data, Stephen, and you kind of like the analysis of things, but you're also got this whole creative side of you. So who takes the lead operationally, for example, and make sure that your accounting is in place and the reporting structure is in place and the HR is in place or whatever you got going on. Who's kind of the brains behind the ops?
- [51:10]
Chelsea Diaz
It's funny, we were on another business podcast and he was really drilling into this question. He's like, how did you really do it? And we were like, like, I don't know. We just, we're very like. I feel like it's totally a miracle, honestly, that we're here, Patrick, because I am very much like, oh, it'll work out. Like, I don't need to look at the numbers. I was like that for so many years. We finally hired a director of finance this year and you know, multiple eight figure business. And so I feel like just, there's been a lot of just miraculous grace in our journey because I am very creative. I'm really good at systems and creating a system that'll last a long time and thinking big about how to, how to set up a system. But I feel like even the people in our organization, I feel like it's just miraculous the type of people that have come to us to really take things and take it beyond where I could. So I'm very much the visionary, but I, I love to geek out on systems and operations. I'm not as great at like follow through and like holding people accountable. So that's why I have a really great, great executive assistant. I have, you know, a chief revenue officer that really, you know, cracked the whip, you know. And then Chelsea is like, I feel like our, she's like our secret weapon on like just like company culture. She just got the intuition. She's like, hey, you should check in with that person. And I check in with them and sure enough, there's something crazy happening that like, if I had just left that like, and didn't have a conversation around it, like, she brings, I think the human, the mother to the organization, which we really need. And then she also brings a lot of the creativity as well of like, oh, that's, that's not going to work. Don't say this, say this. Like she's really the avatar, right, that we're trying to serve. And so yeah, it's, it's a good combo. But I'm, I'm definitely the more in the weeds of the business right now. And then Chelsea, she's. She's like really the. She's the face. I'm kind of like the operations behind the scenes. So she's in all the ads, she'll be on the website, she's talking with me on podcasts and things like that. But I'm definitely the nerd behind the scenes. Pulling some of the levers back to those.
- [53:13]
Steven Diaz
Understanding this season, like we have two young kids and just understanding that. That for us, like this season is only going to be here for so long and I'm super ambitious and on the. Sometimes it's hard for me to take a step back from work or want to be doing more, but just also realizing this is this short little window and I have all these skills that could be contributed in this way. But we are also very intentional in choosing what. I mean, what I'm doing in the days that I'm working and the tasks that I'm doing. So I could see in the future coming alongside and being more operational. But from the beginning, again specifically with Rainmaker, Stephen was always kind of like running the operational side of things and then stepping in when needed. And that's just how it's been able to continue.
- [54:00]
Patrick Francie
So, yeah, I love it now when you. I mean, we're talking E commerce, but do you have a sticks and mortar kind of building? Do you have an office? How do you kind of. What does your team all exist in one place? What do you do?
- [54:13]
Chelsea Diaz
Yeah, like all online. We work from home. You know, I finally got a door on my office for a while. The boy. We have a five year old and a two year old. They just run in all the time. But yeah, everyone's virtual. We are all over the world. We have a team in the Philippines, you know, people in Africa, a lot of us based, you know, but it's pretty wild. Like you never had an office and we. It just kind of like it was kind of like in the early days it just made sense because like, oh, this is a way we can save money. And then with COVID it was kind of like everyone's used to working online, so we just always done it remote like that and there's nuances to that, but it's. It's worked.
- [54:50]
Patrick Francie
So if you kind of reflect on your journey, you know, is there one or two kind of of, I'll call it fork in the road moments for the business or for where you guys took it to one of those coincidental things perhaps or something that shifted and you go and that you can identify that fork in the road moment where it took a decision, it took a shift of thinking. Anything that stands out for you in.
- [55:15]
Chelsea Diaz
That regard, this is, like, getting a little, like, you know, theoretical. Okay, so I have science to back this up.
- [55:22]
Patrick Francie
Up.
- [55:23]
Chelsea Diaz
But I feel like whatever impact you're making in the world or trying to really go after whatever that mission is, I do feel like you're tested on those things. Almost like, it's like you have to almost, I think of, like, a video game. If you're going to win the video game, you got to conquer bosses. And if the video game, let's say I'm just making this up, like we're playing a game, let's say, and we're trying to conquer poverty in people's lives. Oftentimes the thing that we've had to overcome is like, being willing to put all our money on the line. Line. And it. I believe that gives you authority to really impart that to other people because you've actually been through it. Right. And so in our. In our business, there's been so many moments where we've had to put it all on the line almost and go like, all right, there's 200. 200k in the bank account, you know, which I know it might sound a lot for some people, but when you have a 400, 000 overhead every month, it's not a lot. And you're like, like. And we. We have a credit card that has a $200,000 limit. Let's put $400,000 on advertising for this next launch. And, like, basically risk it all. And, like, that didn't start at that level. That started with $2,000. Like, our first launch, we did when we really felt like, okay, let's get this to the world. It was $2,000. And at the time, that felt like putting it all on the line. And then you just work that muscle. And now it's $10,000, and now it's 25,000, and then it's $250,000. And it just feels like constantly where you're having to almost, like, say, no, we. We still believe in this so much that we're willing to risk it all for. For the name of the mission. And anytime we've done that, I would say not every time, but almost every time it has worked out in the end, there's been a couple flops where it's really hurt, where we risked it all, and it really felt like, man, this was. It didn't work. But I feel like that's the thing that we've had to continually do is. Is kind of put it all on the line and kind of push all the chips in again. And I think when you see a lot of entrepreneurs that are making big impact in the world, they've often had. They've also had a moment like that where they were tested. And the thing that, like, they really said they believed, and it was like, were you willing to push it all in? You know, yeah. So it's not prescribing that to everyone. Just like, go, risk it all.
- [57:35]
Patrick Francie
And I didn't hear it that way. By the, you know, by the way is that. That, you know, ultimately what you said is, you know, that you. You exercise that muscle and you started, you know, with a couple of grand, and that was a lot of money back then, but ultimately you kept using that muscle and it got stronger and grew stronger. You gained confidence, and that was. That's really ultimately what it's about. And, and of course, I often use the, you know, the phrase that, you know, confidence is rarely owned. It's almost often, most often boring, borrowed. And you can borrow that from your significant other. You know, that maybe, Chelsea, was that part of your. Collectively that you gave each other confidence, but having some wins along the way and, you know, even you as coaches and, you know, individuals who are teaching others to follow this journey back to. One of the things that you pointed out earlier is that you've been there, you've done it, and so people can borrow the confidence from you that they need to actually keep. Keep and moving forward and building their business. And with somebody who's been there, done that, you know, that is always the, you know, all these quotes and analogies and metaphors and memes, you know, we. We know that we can build business on the shoulders of those who have gone before us. And that really is a winning formula anytime. And you guys are doing that and have done that and continue to do that. But I just love that you guys have pointed out, again, is that. That you're not going all in up front, but you are, in fact pushing yourself to use that muscle to lift a little extra weight, thinking that you might not be able to lift it, but you do, and you pull it off, and then you can kind of breathe a sigh of relief and go, hey, worked. And what did I learn? And then you continue to move forward. So I love that. So, you know, we've kind of been. I don't want to. I'm not in a hurry to close this conversation out, but. But I would like to at this Point ask you, is there some ground that we haven't covered that you would like to share with the audience that you know something? I want to make sure that the audience hears this. Is there any of those kind of points that you want to make, Chelsea or Steven?
- [59:40]
Steven Diaz
I think I have been so grateful for entrepreneurship and who we have become in the process. And I think it's one of the best tools to bring transformation to, not only for you, but for your family as well. And I think entrepreneurship, whether it's real estate investing or E commerce or selling, you know, something, you know, a coaching program off of Instagram, whatever, it is like being willing to pivot and change and try something, something new and step out and not stay comfortable. I think there's so many people who just. And nothing against this. We were just listening or we were just doing a podcast with somebody who talked about the age of 50. She decided to make a change and start doing real estate investing. And I'm just like, that's so incredible to do something, like, to step out with faith and not let fear hold you back. And how many times do we let fear or even just like the negative, negative spiral of like, this is gonna go bad, and then this and this, and then you just go in this direction and it does nothing for you. It creates no fruit or gives you any result or even the peace of mind. And so I just think what a cool thing that entrepreneurship and this podcast can bring to so many, whether it's a mindset, little snippet from you and your wife, or just having a guest on. Just encourage somebody wherever they're at in the journey. That's why I love podcasting and hearing people, People's stories, because it's like, wow, I see myself in them or I see my business, you know, a few years ahead or a few years behind. And that's the beautiful thing about entrepreneurship is the way that it creates impact, not only in your finances, but in that overflow of who you are and how you show up for yourself, the ones that you love, your family.
- [61:34]
Patrick Francie
Fantastic. Stephen, did you have anything that you wanted to add to that?
- [61:38]
Chelsea Diaz
I think she said it super well, you know, so just an encouragement to your. Your audience. I think you're listening to the show. You're, you're. You're probably on the right track. And I think that as we look back on entrepreneurship, I see so much convergence that nothing was really wasted. You know, even the spaghetti years where I was throwing this against the wall, throwing that against the wall, you know, all those little Skill sets converged, you know, in the thing that now we're doing. And the thing we're doing now might not be the thing we're doing forever, but it's going to converge into that, you know. And so I think if you have that kind of abundant mindset of, I'm just playing a game here and I'm having fun with it and I'm learning as I go, those skill sets really do compound and converge, and nothing really is wasted.
- [62:20]
Patrick Francie
I got a question for you, and in your own observation, perhaps, is that, you know, there's a part of what you're saying, and this I think holds true, but what's your experience is that when you're working with clients that you're ultimately coaching, providing the guidance is that you have to believe in yourself. You know, at some level, there has to be belief in yourself that you can pull it off. And it's always helpful to have somebody behind you going, you know, you got this. You know, it's interesting. You got this. Those three words are so powerful, even though, you know somebody's just using it to kind of encourage you. You got this. They're powerful words, aren't they? So, you know, there's a lot about believing in yourself. And ultimately you came to the conclusion that you have to believe in yourself. And sometimes you question it, but you forge ahead anyways with that belief. And then there was another part, Chelsea, that I think is so important for listeners within the podcast. I always say, seemingly ordinary, you have achieved extraordinary, and you are certainly qualified in that world. The idea behind the Everyday Millionaire podcast is if they can do it, gosh, I can do it. Here's the this young couple with a couple of kids just trying to figure shit out. And they're figuring it out, and they keep going because they have the encouragement of each other, but at some level, they believe in themselves. But something that you said that I am. So it's part of my own kind of foundation in terms of who I am as a person, but my own coaching is that it's about the person you need to become to achieve the result. And as much as we look and say, well, that's the goal, that's what the outcome is, you have to step back from that always, I think, and ask yourself some fundamental question is, who do I need to become to achieve that? What are the qualities that I need to arrive at that outcome? And if you pre plan it, I think it's. I don't know. The story I tell myself, and I believe it is that if you pre plan that thought process, you then are asking yourself a different question. When you, when you're saying no, when you're getting out of bed in the morning and going, oh, and you don't want to do it, you know, maybe the conversation with your, you're having with yourself is, you know, does the person that is trying to achieve my goal, are they going to struggle to get out of bed? They may, but do they get out of bed anyways? Yes is the answer to that question. So these are all parts of our own dynamic of who we have to come become to achieve an outcome. So I don't know if you want to expand on that thought process. Have you got anything that you would add to that, that thought process?
- [64:58]
Chelsea Diaz
I've seen that so much and I, you know, you see the awards on the wall if you're watching on YouTube, like, I love a big, you know, let's get the award, let's hit the milestone, let's hit the seven figure, eight figure, like whatever that next thing is. But I think what I love more is what exactly you said. Because the shift that I had to make personally to go from a seven figure business to eight figure business, that was so much more valuable than actually the outcome, you know, like, like at scale, you know, you're not even making as much profit, you know, sometimes. And so really I loved the transformation of who I had to become as a leader, how we had to change the organization, you know, what we had to learn in that process. So I think you are spot on on that, of making it less about the goal but more about the process as a couple.
- [65:46]
Patrick Francie
Do you see those qualities within you? Like I look at Stephanie and of course, you know, we've been together over 30 years and I've watched her own her evolution and how she shows up as, you know, literally world class, Olympic class, smart, articulate, and I've really admired watching her grow and I know she would say the same of me. Do you guys see that within yourselves as well is supporting each other in your own growth, if you will? And even Chelsea, you as a mom, I mean that's like, how do you be an amazing mom? What does the amazing mom mean to you? It. How do you show up in that regard? And that's a different conversation. But do you see that in within yourselves that old development? Do you guys have those kinds of conversations?
- [66:29]
Steven Diaz
Oh, yeah, definitely. I'm like, I'm not the same person when I, when I started out or every year or, I mean, I feel like there's Been so much growth and change for us in the last year, six months making big decisions, changing things, our organization changing, you know, having a business and the height of an election for us, like what that has brought up and how you pivot and change when Facebook ads are crazy expensive and how do you create culture in your company when you know the world is blasting this type of new stuff or how do you keep your cool? You know. So yeah, I feel like I'm constantly, I think it's driven individual too which are most entrepreneurs wanting to do something different. We almost forget of we. I, at least for me personally, like you forget all the, you forget how what you are doing is so, so sometimes not common and you almost like don't realize the full, I guess like impact or just what you, what you actually have accomplished. You know, you get around entrepreneurs and oftentimes I think it's about solving them next problem or how can we master and how can we continue to grow and evolve. And I love that growth mindset and not everybody has it for sure, so it is refreshing to be around. But at the same time with that growth mindset you often aren't looking back as often and being like, wow, like even just a week ago, like look how I transformed or a month ago or a year ago, like look what we've been able to do. And so I think there's beauty in looking back in the backseat and being like, wow, wow, look at what we did. Especially as driven entrepreneurs.
- [68:16]
Patrick Francie
I love it. I love it. You guys are definitely real shining lights and something that I hope will and I'm sure will inspire others to take a look at how they show up and what they're doing in business. So you've been very generous with your time. I appreciate it. I want to wind down. I always try to have a little bit of fun winding down with some rapid fire questions that are not so rapid fire happen. But we're going to take it on. And I, I have to say I've never done it with two people before, so I think it's going to be really fun.
- [68:45]
Steven Diaz
Awesome.
- [68:47]
Patrick Francie
So first and foremost, this is an easy one. I'd be interested, you know, are you Apple or Android?
- [68:54]
Chelsea Diaz
Apple.
- [68:55]
Steven Diaz
Yes, definitely Apple. And the longer story with that is when Stephen and I were dating, Steven's mom jokingly said like, basically we'll disown you unless you get Apple products. Because I was just whatever my parents had wasn't hardcore.
- [69:09]
Chelsea Diaz
My family is like hardcore Apple from like I grew up with Apple with the old, you know, like Original, you know, so they just got into it really early and I just was raised in that so well.
- [69:19]
Patrick Francie
And hopefully they bought a lot of Apple stock.
- [69:22]
Chelsea Diaz
Yeah, I wish they did. I don't know. They just bought the computers. I'm like, oh man, I've got a.
- [69:27]
Patrick Francie
Partner who's hardcore Apple. I. He actually converted me to Apple. I just wasn't making a big deal. That's a few years ago now. I'm totally in the app Apple ecosystem. I don't know if that's good or bad, but anyways, it's all technology and you know, I got too many phones over the years, so. Favorite movie? Do you have one?
- [69:46]
Steven Diaz
I don't know if I do. I. I wonder if Stephen does.
- [69:50]
Chelsea Diaz
I was a film major, so like, you know, I feel like I have to give you really like creative, you know, whatever Kubrick film or something. I, I like kind of the twists and the turn, you know, like, I like Inception or like, you know, Sixth.
- [70:06]
Patrick Francie
Sense would be a good twist.
- [70:07]
Chelsea Diaz
Yeah, yeah. Something that's kind of keeps you on the edge of your toes. Good cinematography. Arrival was another one that was recently I watched it was pretty good. Or Interstellar, I guess. Like I'm naming space movies, so I. That kind of gives you my flavor.
- [70:21]
Patrick Francie
One of the, one of the, one of the best answers that I've gotten a couple of times from somebody that asked that question and they go, whatever. The kids are watching.
- [70:33]
Chelsea Diaz
Film school. I had to write an essay to like apply what was my favorite movie. And I think I put Big Fish on there. And I didn't know this at the time, but one of the teachers like worked on that movie. So I think that got me some kudos, you know, like, I like got some brownie points and got in, so well played.
- [70:50]
Patrick Francie
Are you Music files? Do you have a favorite band? Favorite tune?
- [70:54]
Chelsea Diaz
Oh, man. I mean, you know, we have a five year old and a two year old. So right now it's like Rafi and like, you know, like I've been working on the railroad.
- [71:04]
Steven Diaz
I think when we listen to music we just like calming, classical, peaceful, not kids music.
- [71:10]
Chelsea Diaz
So we're listening. Yeah. Just like instrumental.
- [71:13]
Steven Diaz
Yeah.
- [71:13]
Chelsea Diaz
No words.
- [71:15]
Patrick Francie
Awesome. And if there is a God, what do you want to hear somebody say? What do you want to hear God say when you get to the gate states?
- [71:24]
Chelsea Diaz
That's good. Yeah, we believe there is a God. And I think, I think he wants to do good work through us. You know, I think a lot of people are like, oh, God do this, God do that. And I think he's like, wait, I put you here to do that? You know? And so I think something that I would hope to hear is, well done. You know, you took those ideas I gave you and actually stewarded them and multiplied them. Right. And. And helped other people have those ideas too. So I think that's what I'd love to hear.
- [71:54]
Patrick Francie
Yeah. Awesome. Is there a book that is your. Kind of stands out as one of the pivotal book or one that you like to share, aside from your own, which is a great book, by the way.
- [72:06]
Chelsea Diaz
Oh, man. I feel like I always go like the last year. I think the last year, most impactful book. Probably 10x is easier than 2x.
- [72:14]
Patrick Francie
Okay.
- [72:14]
Chelsea Diaz
Or buy back your time. Both of those. Benjamin Hardy. All those books. 10x is easier than 2x gap in the gain. That whole series is just so good. But 10x is easier than 2x really leveled us up in business. And then buy back your time. Very similar concept of hiring team and really leveling up in that way. Those have been huge in the business side of things.
- [72:38]
Steven Diaz
Yeah, definitely.
- [72:39]
Patrick Francie
Benjamin Hardy. I've followed his career for many years when he was just kind of starting out. He's gone on to do some great thing. I think his partnership with Daniel or Dan Sullivan was a great move. Gap in the gain. I've had my whole team read it. I think it's a great, great book. It was one of the big standouts. Price of Tomorrow was another one by Jeff Booth, which I thought was really great. So that's kind of cool. And then final question for you is what are you grateful for?
- [73:10]
Steven Diaz
Yeah, so many things. I think what comes to mind especially this season is family time, good connection with friends, health. I think are some top ones. And honestly, we're just so grateful for our team, the people running alongside of us. We had a big team retreat in December, December, November. Somewhere in there, I forget. And it was with our core leadership, and it was just like the things that our team, not just leadership, but everybody under them, coming together and doing. It's just so cool. It's just one of those areas of, like, you when you get out of the way, like we talked about, just look at all the ripple effect that is happening. So I think we're so grateful for so many things. Definitely family and those relationships and health. But, yeah, just super grateful for our team. And it's been one of those years where we're just like leaning heavily on our team and seeing them rise to the occasion and lead so well. So that's just really cool to be a part of.
- [74:11]
Patrick Francie
That's fantastic. I am so grateful to have had you join me as guest today. I am always inspired by my guests when I look at the world as it is today, which is very uncertain, crazy unfoldings that we don't know where it's all going. And you continue to be entrepreneurial in spirit. You have team, you pay staff, you are driving what's going on economically. You are part of a bigger picture in a crazy world that we're facing as we get it into 2025 and beyond. So congratulations on that. I've learned a lot, so I'm again grateful for you. I'm always grateful for my family and my health because of course, without health, nothing else matters. So thanks for joining me on the show today.
- [74:59]
Chelsea Diaz
Yeah, thanks Patrick. It was awesome being here.
- [75:00]
Steven Diaz
Thank you so much for having us.
- [75:04]
Patrick Francie
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you you for listening. If you found value in the podcast, please take the time to rate and review and share with others. Share with your friends as it is my goal to always improve and to provide the highest value for you, the listener. If you have any comments, suggestions or questions you'd like answered, please email me@ceoaincanada.com that's CEO E I N Canada.com I look forward to hearing from you. And until next time, Patrick O.