How to Find Your Passion and Make It Pay: A Conversation with Jon Weberg

What if you could be the most successful version of yourself?

Jon Weberg is an American entrepreneur, top 1% consultant, & business master. By the age of 24, he is a 2X self-published author & has worked with clients in 18 industries. He is widely considered a business growth, personal development, and financial expert. He spends his time helping businesses scale profitably without outside capital.

In this podcast, we will discuss with Jon how to create a life that you love by combining your passion and purpose with your skillset to create a business that will allow you to have freedom and flexibility while still earning an income.

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Podcast Transcript

How to Find Your Passion and Make It Pay

[00:00:00] Ryan: Hey guys, Ryan DeMent from Chasing Happiness Podcast. I hope you guys are having a great day this week on the podcast. We have John Weiberg and John is a business growth consultant. His story is very dynamic and it’s something that we can all relate to. He’s a second-generation digital marketer and he escaped poverty.

[00:00:24] Ryan: So he’s had. Toxic relationship with money that we all had. And he’s gonna share our story, share his story with us this week. John, welcome into the show.

[00:00:35] Jon: Thank you so much for having me. I can’t wait to drop some good values. Good storytelling with your

[00:00:40] Ryan: good peeps. You got looking forward to it.

[00:00:41] Ryan: So could you tell the listeners a little bit about yourself before we get into your journey?

[00:00:46] Jon: For sure. So right now what I’m doing is doing a lot of different things. It’s three or four businesses at. I do consulting obviously as should introduce me as I also do affiliate marketing, heavily love affiliate marketing.

[00:00:58] Jon: I’m dabbling in the [00:01:00] SEO game and I’m getting into the freelance slash kind of content creation game. So doing a lot at once, love business, as you said, I’m second generation. So my entire journey, I have had one job only. I worked at Walmart. Thank you Walmart for six months. And other than that business, Is all I know, and it’s all I’ve ever known and I absolutely

[00:01:22] Ryan: love it.

[00:01:22] Ryan: So I gotta ask the question. Why only six months at Walmart what made you, did you have to, was it necessity or was it something that just happened because you were younger?

[00:01:31] Jon: It was a necessity. So when I was around 15 years old, I was trying to fuel my first business launch. Because again, I came from a very.

[00:01:43] Jon: Or background. And also my dad raised his right and my dad made sure, Hey, if you wanna do something, you need to raise money for it. You need to find the money for it. I’m not gonna give you money to take your business. I can help you cuz he had his own business. He was running, but you gotta do it on your own merit.

[00:01:57] Jon: So I went to Walmart, I worked there [00:02:00] for six months, seven months all the money I’ve made I put into my initial first business and it failed to miss her but it was a learning,

[00:02:08] Ryan: it was a learning curve. So I’ve gotta ask the question cuz we all had it. or have had it, excuse me. How many businesses have you had failed you?

[00:02:18] Jon: Okay, , it’s a great question. The first one when I was 15, technically a second one when I was around 16, 17. So that’s the second time kind of my father, my family, or myself was in a very poverty, like really broke situation, broke as a joke. Because after when I was 15 launched that first business, just negative, absolutely negative in the books launched the second one.

[00:02:46] Jon: It did. Okay. But a couple hundred bucks at the age of 16 at the age of 16, it’s not bad, but for a business, like where I’m at now, that’s like horrible. So to there. and I would actually consider my book

[00:03:00] launches. I’ve also, self-published often I self-published two books. I put my heart into ’em and I didn’t actually launch ’em out very well because I was more just concerned with, okay.

[00:03:08] Jon: It’s a really good book. I wanna make the best book possible. So I think I didn’t, the only promotion I did for them was on like social media a couple times. So yeah, those launches went horrible. And that’s a part of that’s part of the craft. Some things you do amazing. Some things you do go absolutely horrible.

[00:03:25] Jon: And you just learn from the bad experiences and learn how to do better next night.

[00:03:28] Ryan: I’m with you. I’m I’m a two time failure and entrepreneurship is been the best learning experience of my life. Unlike you. I spent 25 years in corporate America and corporate America did not teach me how to fish.

[00:03:42] Ryan: It taught me how to, it taught me how to be fed every other week. So I’ve had a little bit different of a journey in life. In that sense, would I give up the, would I give up the experience from corporate America? No. I got to learn a lot of different financial products that I, a lot of people don’t have experience

[00:04:00] with, which has helped me.

[00:04:01] Ryan: But the one thing I wish I could have learned during that time is to fish and. Having two failed businesses, learn it. One taught me how to fish also learned that corporate America wasn’t for me. So I was doing a lot of Johnny side hustle with both of those until I got my third business.

[00:04:17] Jon: Right.

[00:04:17] Jon: I think you learned as well, at least I learned one. You learned what you did wrong, obviously, but two, you learned what you’re gonna do better next time. But also three. I think what I learned the most is I did not know as much as I thought I knew every two or three years. Whether it’s through going to events or a couple events, or just researching heavily on a topic or just working on more and more projects.

[00:04:43] Jon: I realize, wow, what an idiot. I was two years ago or three years ago. And then I’m, I’m realizing now. I do think you get to a certain point of where you’re like, okay, I’ve learned almost everything you can, you get to a certain point where it’s just now maybe you’ll learn a golden nugget or a certain [00:05:00] thing here, there.

[00:05:01] Jon: And that’s where you. Which I think I’m getting close to, but yeah, I think I, I completely learned cuz I, being young too. I think it’s part of it. You’re young, you think, oh I’m great. I’m the best I watch what I can do. And every two years, of launching this business, doing this, the, that you go, there’s so much more still.

[00:05:17] Jon: And I move it along much better now that I learned to learn.

[00:05:22] Ryan: And, that’s just life and progressing and getting yourself in a better place. But it’s a lot of, I don’t know how to describe it. A lot of things happen today, we’re afraid of failure, but it’s not the fear of failure.

[00:05:37] Ryan: It’s the fear of success. And when we get comfortable in. We tend to look at that and say, okay, is it the fear or the success? And it’s really more success than the fear because you’re going into a whole nother world. If I, the best way I know to describe it is if I’m comfortable, I know I’m not doing enough and I’ve gotta push myself out of that comfort zone.[00:06:00]

[00:06:00] Ryan: And when I do. I know I’m gonna fail. It’s just how I react to the failure and get myself back up. Yep. And I had a guest on a couple weeks ago and I looked at his quote today cause I’m working on his episode. He said failure is your tuition. And it just resonated. It just resonated so many, so much with me.

[00:06:15] Ryan: It’s like my gosh, it makes so much sense in life. That failure is your tuition and it’s. Yeah. And,

[00:06:22] Jon: and some that I’ve brought on more is actually along that kind of the same mindset. I welcome it now. Like I want genuinely, you want as much struggle as many hurdles as much bad crap to happen to you as possible.

[00:06:37] Jon: And it may sound counterintuitive, but one, obviously you’re learning from failure, but two you’re also better off the next time around when something happens, you know how to deal with it. You’ve been through it before. So yeah, all the adversity just stack it on me, not too heavy but a decent load.

[00:06:54] Jon: And along with that too, I think as well the reason why when I was younger, I was pretty good at what

[00:07:00] I do. And I’m pretty good at what I do now that I didn’t move forward even faster is because I was so comfortable where I was at like, oh, now I’m like financially free fin. I can do whatever I want to go ever.

[00:07:11] Jon: I want anything. Now that I’m at this level, I never had this before because of my background. I am really comfortable. I just stay right there. And I think being comfortable is horrible. Now I hate being comfortable. You have to constant, constantly challenge yourself in every area of your life. You can cause that’s what will drive you, help you make progress, and keep you from just living.

[00:07:35] Jon: You don’t wanna just live. Yeah.

[00:07:38] Ryan: And we struggle with that in life. A lot of people struggle and the pandemic is really amplified it but the other thing that we struggle with is Instagram in social media. I say Instagram, you should just say social media, in general, is just. The whole fact that everyone is living for, oh my God, look at their lifestyle.

[00:07:56] Ryan: Look how well they’re doing, but no one understands what’s underneath all that. There’s

[00:08:00] a lot of trials and tribulations and a lot of struggles and that’s entrepreneurship in itself. And the way I best describe it is somebody will reach out to me and say, Hey, I wanna do what you’re doing. And I’m like, great.

[00:08:13] Ryan: Are you willing to give up your life for five years that no one else will do, they always say, And I, and they say, look, how great everything you’re doing is, and I said, guess what? I don’t share my struggles publicly. My inner circle knows my struggles. My, my mentors know my circle know my struggles, but at the end of the day, what I put out there is inspirational.

[00:08:31] Ryan: I don’t wanna be a Debbie downer, but I will also share the truth, but I’m not gonna share my personal life with people on social media, just not me.

[00:08:39] Jon: And no I think that’s the biggest thing I’ve gotten from other people. Like even friends that won start businesses or close family members or close family, friends, they’re always like, yeah.

[00:08:48] Jon: I really wanna start a new business, but the question like you’re saying is always, is, are you willing for this to be all you do for the next five, 10 years? Yep. No. Okay. There’s no point. And

[00:09:00] for me I think Gary V mentioned it. I think it’s generally true. Having a business is almost like having a kit.

[00:09:06] Jon: It’s at least for me. And I think, especially if you’re actually like good at business and you focus on it, it’s always on your mind. If I see someone somewhere, we’re talking about something, there’s an advertisement here. Cuz I’m in marketing and sales. Anything reminds me of my business. And if it’s not reminding me of a business, I’m thinking of it while I’m talking to someone.

[00:09:26] Jon: Oh, you own a, as I live in Minnesota. There are a lot of resorts up here on the lakes. So if someone tells me, oh, I have a resort. I’m thinking about how much do you charge? For staying there. Have you tried increasing your prices? And I start going through all the business models in my head and that’s what it’s like being a business owner it’s constantly on your mind.

[00:09:43] Jon: And if it’s not your business, probably ain’t doing so hot. Yeah, cause it’s not. So

[00:09:48] Ryan: focusing very true. And being able to adapt and overcome is one of the biggest pieces. And it’s a struggle for me personally. And I say that is I’ve always run for-profit businesses whether I was

[00:10:00] in corporate America or not.

[00:10:01] Ryan: And last year, someone one of my business partners threw me a curve ball and said, okay, we need a non. Oh, really. Let me just add that to my plate and let me just figure it out. And it’s not as easy as you think. It, you operate in a whole different world. And the whole process of going through a 5 0 1 C three process with the IRS and understanding what they want and what you can and can’t do is just a nightmare.

[00:10:22] Ryan: And they’re so far behind on those applications and getting the data together is like they wanted to know what time I went to the restroom in the fifth grade literal. But what does that have to do with me being a nonprofit or not? And it’s just, it’s crazy. And it’s people telling me I can’t run a nonprofit, like a for-profit I’m like, why can’t I?

[00:10:42] Ryan: Because at the end of the, at the end of the fiscal year, whenever that is, guess what I get to do. I get to distribute those monies that are above and beyond our break point to whatever class we want to use, whether we wanna do financial education home buyers, down payment assistance, whatever, as long as it doesn’t show at the end of the year.

[00:10:59] Ryan: We’re good. They’re like, oh no, you can’t do that. You gotta run in the red all year. And I’m like, no, I don’t. And it’s just crazy.

[00:11:07] Jon: Yeah. And I think too long, that kind of what you’re talking about, there’s a lot of misconceptions in business. And one of ’em is two. I think many people have is that different businesses don’t you can’t run them the same way.

[00:11:19] Jon: Some people think that like in the corporate world, there are factors about being in corporate or being in a solo or like saying running a profit or non. But the process is still the same. I had a stint where I did some kind of like basically freelance workout. I was a sales consultant with Frank Kern.

[00:11:36] Jon: I out Frank Kern. You’re pretty dope. I like it. And when I was we had people who I talked to as a kind of a sales consultant, I’d be like, I’m not sure if and I’ve had this for my own consulting clients. I’m not sure if Facebook’s, my customers are gonna be at Facebook and I’m. There’s, whatever free billing users, you don’t think there’s a way to find your customers on Facebook or are places.

[00:11:56] Jon: My business model doesn’t work like that in

[00:12:00] my mind, at least from I found all business is in, in foundational standards relatively the same. The practices are relatively the same. Now, of course, there are different things and legal stuff and ways to operate in different kinds of business. But it’s all generally the same.

[00:12:16] Jon: And what’s important about. The things that optimize a business that makes it more scalable allow it to do better. And all these different factors are also all the same and apply to all these different kinds of businesses.

[00:12:27] Ryan: Yeah. And the other thing is you get into that whole piece of Facebook and Facebook ads, and there’s just so much data out there.

[00:12:34] Ryan: But the one biggest thing that I look at. Are you speaking their language? Are you speaking your customer’s language and understanding that language? I don’t know if you’re familiar with it about story brand, Donald Miller. I grew up on that and that’s how I learned SEO and I learned H how to write a bunch of different things in how we market today.

[00:12:51] Ryan: It’s just, I’m just the person along, for the journey. I’m not the client, so I can’t speak my words. I gotta speak for their words.

[00:13:00] Getting involved in Facebook was huge for me because I got into these groups and learned to hear and listen and understand what these people are saying, like in the personal finance space or self-improvement or whatever space SEO, everybody’s got language in vernacular that you have to go after.

[00:13:17] Ryan: And if you don’t speak their language, you can’t market.

[00:13:21] Jon: Yeah. You have to apply that to any communication, any business rate just from your personal life too, even for like relationships. If you’re not speaking the language of your spouse, there are love languages, like touch feel. There’s another one.

[00:13:32] Jon: I forgot what it was touch feel and hear it auditory. You 100%, I think most businesses they’re trying to use two. I think this is common across even corporate stuff too. Sometimes. too professional of vernacular and not, they’re not speaking in their copywriting and their advertising and their emails and their marketing and their.

[00:13:49] Jon: Any of you’re saying the same language and it doesn’t match up. And that’s why a lot of businesses and a lot of people in any area of communication with spouses or friends or family, whatever, why they have so

[00:14:00] many different problems and why things don’t work out like they want to is because they’re not matching with the audience, what the audience needs to hear.

[00:14:05] Jon: Not saying that you need to necessarily do exactly what your say, for example, what your spouse wants, but at least if you speak and communicate. In the same tone in the same messaging in the same way, things go a lot smoother across all communication. I want, I wanna say this importantly too, in my mind, communication and business relationships, anything communication is the number one skill that should be taught much more.

[00:14:32] Jon: And it’s the number one skill that has at least in my own life. Every business partnership, every obvious relationship every. A friend I’ve made or kept or have lost everything revolves around me, communication. And again, obviously had way business, but every part of life is just how you speak, the tone you use, the intent you use.

[00:14:54] Jon: Every part of it impacts people who are listening and it’s ridiculously under.

[00:15:01] Ryan: it is. And it’s something that we’ve lost as a society because of the instant gratification of the internet, and social media. You’re much younger than I am. I grew up with, I can remember the first original ma Macintosh computer, cuz I was on one.

[00:15:17] Ryan: Nice. So I’m a little older. So I used to remember all my telephone numbers up. I can only probably I could only really think about it half a dozen, maybe 10, that I can think off the top of my head that is key people in my circle that I know outside of that Scottish. I don’t have it. And it’s gone.

[00:15:37] Ryan: And a lot of things that we used to do. I’m not saying they’re right, but they actually have some merit and today they still follow through and flow through the sales process in the life process. Yep. But we’re, we’ve lost it. And I think there’s too much distraction. Oh yeah totally. It’s way too much noise going on.

[00:15:55] Ryan: You can’t tune it out. And it’s one of those things that I was trying to figure out why I couldn’t get ahead in certain aspects of my life. And I always, it always came back to one thing. You said it’s distraction, but to me it’s noise. I don’t ever calm my mind down and say, What’s going on. Let’s clear out the mine.

[00:16:13] Ryan: Let’s, the cobwebs and everything and understand what’s, you know what you need to do every morning. Now it’s a ritual. I wake up. I have my dog’s name is moose. And we chill. He’s a chocolate lab. he’s nice. He’s a handful. I just adopted him. So we’re going through some doggy school training, but anyhow, yeah, I know him.

[00:16:32] Ryan: I know him. So, um, I do that, but I just sit there and I just think about the day and being thankful for being able to start out. But then I clear my mind out and I just start fresh and that just helps so much, in life because otherwise, I feel like I’m spinning my wheels all day.

[00:16:46] Jon: Yep. And also I think a part of that too, is who you listen to, like from my own upbringing, obviously listening to my parents a lot.

[00:16:54] Jon: But as I got older in order older there were a lot of people trying to influence me, like going through school. [00:17:00] I’m very self-thinking. I think usually differently for most people, especially my age. Oh my God. Especially. Oh,

[00:17:06] Ryan: You’re a rarity for your age.

[00:17:08] Jon: right. Entirely.

[00:17:09] Jon: And I would have teachers bring me outta class and say, Jon, you can’t start. Businesses go to college. You’re a smart kid. You have to do this. And I had friends who were constantly telling me it’s never gonna work out. It’s gonna be a failure. Then families start. A lot of families started pitching in the same thing.

[00:17:26] Jon: It was a revolving door of there’s so much messaging constantly pulling you in so many different directions. I think you have to identify the path you want to go on. And if that path is a good path, cuz often people go I wanna do what I wanna do. And then they go down the wrong path. That’s bad.

[00:17:44] Jon: Which sometimes happens. You can’t help it, but sometimes yeah, you can help it because you gotta decide, okay, this path I’m going on. For example, for me, it was, I know I’m a smart kid. I know that I can go to college. I could probably get any job in corporate. I probably wanted, I could go down that path.

[00:17:59] Jon: I’m like, [00:18:00] or I see the freedom lifestyle that can be achieved in like the online world. I saw a lot of the Gary B and Tony S was just a lot of lifestyle trapping. I want that I’ve never had that. I’ve never been on vacation before. I’ve been like once when I was like 10 with my grandparents I haven’t had a lot of luxury in my life.

[00:18:17] Jon: So I was like, I can go that route or I can do this thing. And I know I’m a hard worker. I know I have what it takes. I know I’m ethical. I know all these different factors. So I also know this is gonna be a good journey for me. Ignore everyone who was telling you, you can’t do it. And again, what also is when you’re listening to other people, you have to listen within reason cuz.

[00:18:36] Jon: You don’t wanna get into the habit of, I don’t wanna listen to anyone you wanna get into the habit of who I’m listening to, what they’re saying, making me logical non-emotional logical sense with what I’m thinking to be. They are both somewhat correlated in some way. And I was luckily able to navigate and go, teachers could goodbye to some friends, goodbye, or I’m gonna be friends to you, but I’m not gonna listen to you.

[00:18:57] Jon: Some family I’m not gonna listen [00:19:00] to. And just focus on that’s one thing I want to do. How do I become amazing at this? How do we become the best at it? Eliminate distractions and just keep on the same solid half. And don’t deviate from it too much. Cuz the distractions are often very nice and good distractions and they can keep you from getting shit done.

[00:19:21] Ryan: Yeah, that’s just life in general, but it’s. The I, we could go on and on about this, we haven’t even stopped. We haven’t started talking about your journey. We’re already 22, 22 minutes into this. I know. I know. I know. So let’s talk about your journey a little bit. Let where you started and what you’re doing.

[00:19:36] Ryan: And then we will go back and see what we can touch on.

[00:19:40] Jon: Sounds good. So I’ll give you how I got started, as you say, I’m a second-generation digital marketer. I got sty rounds around 13 years old, also a variable in that very different than most people. So my family around that time, it’s within two or years span, I say around 13.

[00:19:57] Jon: My dad just clan bankruptcy. We lost all our cars and were taken away by the repo man. We had to sell our TV. We were living in someone else’s basement in welfare apartments. We had next to. and slowly, of course, my dad and mom were working and they started getting our family out of that situation.

[00:20:13] Jon: Thank God. And also at that time, my dad also turned to digital marketing, my golden grail. So I slowly said, started getting into it, started getting into it and, I saw the lifestyle for me. And even now I always thought that I would be able to accomplish and do great things, but I didn’t know that the experiences you can have were so like, beyond what I was used to because when, for example, there’s a story that my older brother said that like when we were really broke like three of us used to share one bag of ramen.

[00:20:44] Jon: Like we, we didn’t have much going to, I think what really opened my eyes and I. These experiences help open a lot of people’s eyes. And the more you can try to get out of what you’re in, even if it’s momentary you’ll make the mental leap that will help you take the physical leap [00:21:00] with money or with anything around the age of 18.

[00:21:03] Jon: So I was running my businesses after 1313, I started dabbling 14, 15, 16. I started doing more and more into it deciding no, I really wanna master this. And I’m only gonna do this around 17, or 18. Now the guy who gave me this award and this watch actually thank you, Joel Terry. We were at the top, I think we were the second-best affiliate in this company.

[00:21:25] Jon: We were we’re great marketers. And he flew all the top, I think 10 or 20 fleets to a private. This was my it’s still, my it’s still, it was such an amazing experience. It was the best week of my life still. We were flown to a private mansion in Kyle San Lucas. Completely paid for all food, all drinks, anything you want.

[00:21:45] Jon: And we were served as I’ve never been served in my life like actually served like so I had that experience and it was like, is this mentions amazing, beautiful mansion, overlooking to sea on a mountain side that had an infinity pool going into, or if any [00:22:00] hot tub going into the infinity pool, going over the ocean, like it was just, it felt fake.

[00:22:05] Jon: And I, I think. It’s a little side thing that I think that at any point, anyone wants to make a change in their life. They need to try to get some outside experience to get them to actually go, okay. Wow. It’s shocking and numbing like this is actually possible. I can do this. There’s something else out there that I can actually experience that I’ve never had before.

[00:22:24] Jon: So after that experience, everything went up, I’ve been doing very successfully since then. I run my affiliate marketing business with SEO. Started moving to consult. And then as I’ve gotten more close, I’m 24. Now I’m getting old. I like, I love to say that, cuz I’m always so young.

[00:22:39] Jon: Everyone you’re always so young and I love it, which is good. I’m gonna keep onto it until I get older. Around 22, 23, and 24, I’m like I’ve been in the affiliate marketing slash network marketing world. I wanna transition into what I would call more serious business. Getting into SEO, getting a consult.

[00:22:54] Jon: And as I’ve, the years have gone by, I’ve taken it more seriously. Now it’s absolutely consumed my everyday 24 7. And I absolutely love it. Real quickly. I’ll go back to it, I don’t mean to keep talking. No worries. There’s the second phase that again was almost, I was very broke to or 18 around the same time I went that vacation.

[00:23:17] Jon: I went. To that vacation obviously spent money. And I had a girlfriend at the time too. And I was spending money on her and I was paying all the deals and stuff. I moved out on my own and I was like oh, looked at my bank one day. I think I was sending like 50 to a hundred bucks. Like I’m like, oh I am back to number UNO square one.

[00:23:36] Jon: Something’s gotta change, which then as you’re saying, I was because I was comfortable. I was still obviously having more expenses I manage, but I was just comfortable where I was at. I’m doing business stuff. I decided I need to do more. So I took up every freelancing slash any kind of online work I could take.

[00:23:53] Jon: I don’t care how well or how poorly it paid I had to get myself outta that situation, cuz in my mind I’m like I’m [00:24:00] going right back to what my family got. and I ain’t ever going back to that again. So that was just another kind of the second instance where I was like, this is not enjoyable.

[00:24:09] Jon: I’ve run the experiment of having money and not having money, then not having one it’s not as enjoyable. So

[00:24:16] Ryan: what, how long did you have to do that before you got yourself back into a better financial situation?

[00:24:22] Jon: It was probably for actually like a year or two. Because again, especially with. The girlfriend and everything else going on.

[00:24:28] Jon: I was so distracted. I need to, oh, I need to focus on my woman at the time. I need to focus on this. I need, I’m focusing on all these different things. I was so still not honed down on what I needed to do that I, wasn’t doing the things in the business to actually generate money, to actually generate, rather than lead customers that wasn’t optimizing anything either.

[00:24:48] Jon: So probably a year or two, I finally buckled down, stopped going out as much stopped spending, much time doing. Even just going out to eat. Like I need to actually, instead of going out to eat every single day and spending two or three hours doing that and hanging out with friends, I need to just work on my business.

[00:25:06] Jon: So that was a stressful but necessary learning curve as

[00:25:09] Ryan: well. I’m with you because I get in my coaching side on my for-profit side I get doctors, attorneys pilots that are broke. They don’t understand. Oh yeah. They don’t understand why it’s oh God. All-day. Twice on Sundays. It’s just, that it never stops.

[00:25:26] Ryan: They don’t understand why they’re broke. I’m making a half-million dollars while I’m broke. And the first question I ask is, have you put a budget together? And they talk to me like, I’m, I’ve got six heads and I’m like, Okay. I said, I know I’m with you because I’m the type of person that would not wanna budget.

[00:25:42] Ryan: But when I had my second business fail, I was strapped with a lot of debt and I wasn’t gonna file banks. Cause I was in the financial world and I couldn’t file. Otherwise, I’d be unemployed. So I had to find a way to make it. So during that whole process out of that issues and man, just a lot of sleepless nights I learned how one to budget better and two how to better negotiate my debt down which I already did already.

[00:26:10] Ryan: Cause I was in collections. I was running call centers and collections, but I found other ways to do it. But the biggest thing was when I first started going through a budget, I was spending almost $400 a week just on food and going out. That’s 16. Yeah. $1,600. That’s a killer. Yeah.

[00:26:26] Jon: Yeah. Yeah.

[00:26:27] Jon: Let’s just say budgeting is just life and in business. Both are, that’s not, I’ve also gotten much, much better at, and it’s much more freeing and it’s weird because budgeting almost gets like a, oh, you’re budgeting or you’re watching what you, which I don’t know why it’s a negative word.

[00:26:43] Ryan: It’s a four-letter word.

[00:26:45] Jon: I think also too, like when I was growing up like I said I never experienced like a finer life or even just like a decent like living. So I always grew up thinking I also needed all of this other stuff. Like I want the largest mansion possible. I want all this different stuff.

[00:27:02] Jon: And then I realize one through getting some more of it. that it’s not as fulfilling as you think it is. And I think that’s what people are. People are chasing either money or through things, what they want and experience. And that’s what they actually should be spending their money on is getting experience with their family, with their friends, with the things that actually are much more meaningful.

[00:27:28] Jon: And that’s what I’ve discovered.

[00:27:29] Ryan: They’re chasing the Joneses is what they’re doing. So they’re chasing the Joneses that are broke, that are living to pay their lenders on a monthly basis. Man, you’re light years ahead for your age group, because I know there are struggles there because they’re all looking out for that instant gratification.

[00:27:45] Ryan: And at the end of the month, they understand, they don’t understand why they’re broke as a. I live in pay paycheck to paycheck making $250,000 a year. I just read a study today from Lending Club, which is not my favorite place, cuz they’re astronomical. They’re fricking got problems, but anyhow, one-third.

[00:28:03] Ryan: So over 30% of households making $250,000 or more are living paycheck to paycheck right now, a third.

[00:28:11] Jon: It’s like how. Is that because

[00:28:14] Ryan: they’re strapped with debt. You’ve got credit card debt. You’ve got personal loans. You’ve got student loans, you’ve got car payments. You’ve got you got a boat payment.

[00:28:22] Ryan: Oh payment. You’ve got every payment under the sun to deal with. And you don’t realize that dude, if you’re financially free and you let go of all those payments and just pay ’em off and live to pay by cash, you can buy those things. It’s just not gonna be tomorrow. You gotta wait a while. And it’ll work out well, you

[00:28:41] Jon: actually you’ll enjoy them more because you’re not constantly worrying about the debt and constantly worrying about interest stuff.

[00:28:48] Jon: And that’s actually very similar to, we have mins in Minnesota. We’re one of the biggest steel in iron or capital of the world, basically, one of them and the miners when I was growing up, you’re always like the minors always had [00:29:00] money, but they were always working 40, 60, 80 hours. Another thing two about minors is they always had five toys.

[00:29:06] Jon: They had a boat, they had an RV, they had a Wheeler, you name it and they’re like why do they work so much? And again, minors were also, oh, usually always of pissed off, always grumpy. You never really like they had money, but they weren’t ever really happy because they were so consumed with that type of stuff.

[00:29:22] Jon: And then the people who were watching that were also so consumed with that type of. They did the same exact thing just on a lower scale that they could afford, but not afford, but they thought they could afford. Yeah. It’s a revolving door, and I’ve tried telling this to ’em a quick story. My mother bless her heart when I was starting to make more money and stuff.

[00:29:42] Jon: People are concerned about it. Cause at the time I had a really junky. I even at one time picked ax my brake line for my car. Cause I was trying to get it out of the snow, but I’m yeah, so I have this car really junky car. It was like 2003. This was only like three years ago. I had a 2003, Chevy Malibu that drove me to Texas and back.

[00:29:59] Jon: So it wasn’t that bad. It was pretty nice. It was just junky, but people were like John you’re making money. Why don’t you get a new car? And I was. Why they’re like look at it. I’m like, yeah, but it drove me to Texas, and back it gets me where I need to go. I’m not doing all this traveling. I barely leave home because I work from home.

[00:30:18] Jon: And if I’m flying somewhere, I’m not driving. Yeah, it’s just, it’s unfortunate to me now that I’m where I’m at mentally, but I see people are like looking at, oh, you, this person has this car. This person has this vehicle. Cool. Good for them. That’s

[00:30:33] Ryan: great. And they’ve got an $800 car payment.

[00:30:36] Jon: Yeah, they have hundred dollars or even more car payments and they can’t afford to pay or won’t because they have so many different vehicles and things they have.

[00:30:44] Jon: And it’s just, I think it’s fortunately for me, I think one with my upbringing, with my parents I immaculate parents I could have asked for better parents. Thank God. Like really? Thank God.

[00:30:54] Ryan: That’s a good thing. Cause a lot of people don’t have great parents you right.

[00:30:59] Jon: [00:31:00] That’s huge.

[00:31:01] Jon: Right at a, at had a rough background, but really amazing parents. And I also think, fortunately, my mind is just wired since I’ve been very small to entirely think for myself. Like a lot of times, I didn’t even listen to my parents because I was so thinking of my own ID or a way to do things. I realized this very early on when I try to replicate this when I talk to other people.

[00:31:21] Jon: And when I ORM on a podcast or speaking to anyone in any format. I was lucky that I had the mental break to think for myself too, I should learn how to develop myself. That’s so never done by anyone. It’s why self-development is a thing while people hang on to self-development. It’s why it’s a thing because no one does it.

[00:31:43] Jon: Correct. And it’s freaking crazy, like making yourself better. Is that CR is it cringy to make yourself a better person

[00:31:50] Ryan: is crazy and thinks differently than everyone else, cuz God forbid you to do.

[00:31:55] Jon: God forbid people. That’s another thing too. For example, it’s so crazy. Again I am a proponent and that’s why I try to be the best person I can be and help others do that because I wanna replicate this throughout the.

[00:32:07] Jon: But it was so weird thinking too. Another quick story. When I was in high school like I would actually talk to teachers like act, I don’t know if you did it back then, but I would actually conversate like I was friends with the teachers and my friends and different people would be like, why are you talking to the teacher?

[00:32:22] Jon: That’s so strange. And they’re human beings and they act interesting if you actually get to know ’em they’re not just a teacher, they’re like a, they’re like a person. Yeah. People. So it’s just crazy how. People are crazy. One thing I am 100% certain about open life is people are crazy and you just have to do your best when you’re at a place where you can, you have to do your best to see some of the cracks that people have to try to influence them the better, or just open up an opportunity for them to think to, like you’re saying, just to think a little bit about this for yourself.

[00:32:52] Jon: Just think

[00:32:54] Ryan: And that’s, and we could go down a whole nother rabbit hole and we can go there, but school. The school doesn’t teach you to think what the school thinks it. It teaches you to show up. You go to recess, you go to lunch, you go to break and you go home. And maybe in between, we’ll teach you a little bit of English.

[00:33:10] Ryan: We’ll teach you some spelling. We’ll teach you some history, maybe some math, but we won’t teach anything about real-life math like taxes. Yeah. And then you wonder why we have such a struggle. People today making their budgets and being able to survive on what they’re making. There’s $250,000. And I thought about that $250,000.

[00:33:33] Ryan: So you’re making over 20,000 gross a month and you can’t live on that. But yes, I was

[00:33:41] Jon: making, when I was still broke, what I thought was broke making 30,000 years, I was 30,000 or 30. Yeah. $30,000 a year at the very beginning of a. I was still traveling and somewhat enjoying life and not that broke, which is

[00:33:55] Ryan: mind-boggling.

[00:33:56] Ryan: So you, you weren’t out spending, trying to keep up with the Joneses and that’s one of the biggest messages that I try to get out there when I do any type of financial coaching or if I can get out and speak, in front of people is. if you want something, go get it, but do it right. Don’t put it on credit because ultimately it’s gonna weigh you down.

[00:34:15] Ryan: It’s gonna kill your life. And then you are not gonna enjoy the experiences of life and we don’t get, we’re not guaranteed tomorrow. We’re guaranteed for right now. And two minutes from today, or too sorry, two minutes from now, we might not be, so why not live for the now and figure out how to get there and enjoy the ride and not have to live it.

[00:34:34] Ryan: And. that person that is focused on the money all the time, because if it’s all about money, it’s never gonna work. And I, I’m gonna wrap this part up. You’re good. I gotta ask you the question. What’s more valuable money or time

[00:34:49] Jon: time. Cause time,

[00:34:50] Ryan: time. Hallelujah. You’re even rarer from your generation because most individuals that come on in your generation say money, and then I tell ’em, Hey guess.

[00:35:00] Ryan: I can go file bankruptcy. I can go broke and I can always earn the money back, but I can never get the time back. That’s gone. I’m only guaranteed right now. And that’s it. So how can time not be the most valuable asset in your life?

[00:35:12] Jon: And that’s why everyone ever who’s above the age of 40, what’s the number one thing they wish to had more time to go back to make different decisions.

[00:35:23] Jon: Correct. And more time just to experience life and that’s so that I always advocate too. We can, we. This section or whatever. I also advocate more heavily if you’re gonna spend money on something, spend it on it. Sure. Some small things that you enjoy. I don’t know why I love jewelry. As I love, I got my blank.

[00:35:38] Jon: I got my blank. I got my blank. Don’t know why I like it. So I spend a little bit, not too much, but I have stuff I like, but mostly spend your money on experiences because those are the things you remember, like when I’m going to bed. And I think about, I don’t think about anything I’ve ever bought ever. I only think about times.

[00:35:55] Jon: I have my friend’s times I have my family’s bad times. Good. That’s all I think about is the experiences I had. And that’s as you age, which thankfully again thanks, God. I think like I do so early is down the line. That all you are going to care about is the times and experiences you’ve had no, take a look at also at the richest people.

[00:36:16] Jon: This is commonly said too, but take a look at the richest people in the world. A lot of them also don’t like, how does Elon Musk. how does

[00:36:24] Ryan: it’s basic? He doesn’t trace his dress. Nothing crazy.

[00:36:28] Jon: Nothing. How does Warren buffet dress? What did they do? I saw a thing where Elon, I think it was like a couple of years ago was still sleeping on the floor at the factory.

[00:36:34] Jon: Like he doesn’t care. Yeah. Because he doesn’t care. And also because those things you care about those items and the things you’re going for those will quickly lose any value they have to do. Like now that I have money, what I would consider at least decent. Money means literally nothing other than it gets me the freedom to get those experiences I want.

[00:36:56] Ryan: And it takes care of your four walls. People don’t realize how thankful you need to be is have a roof over your head. Be able to pay your bills, food on your table, and clothes on your back. You get those four, you get those four walls taken care of. Everything after that’s gravy and it is just amazing how many people throw in there?

[00:37:13] Ryan: Oh, I’ve gotta get my car note. I’ve gotta get my boat taken care of. I gotta get, I gotta go. My shopping spree. I can’t miss that. And I gotta go get my latte,

[00:37:21] Jon: had to throw on something quick. I had to argue with my friend, a really good friend of mine. We’re still absolutely good friends. But he was talking about, ’cause we sometimes in my friend group, he’ll talk about, even though they’re my age, we’ll talk about really serious stuff.

[00:37:31] Jon: Like all types of topics. And one of the things we were talking about was. , were a lot of my friends think that we, as the United States is like going on a downward trend, like right now, like the economy’s collecting sure thing that’s har and true. But even it, like before the pandemic and stuff, they’re like, the United States isn’t really that great.

[00:37:48] Jon: I’m like, what do you mean? He goes, my friends live paycheck. And I’m like what do you buy? Cause, he really loves comics. He goes I buy a lot of comics. I’m like, okay how much money more would you have a month? If you didn’t get it. X, Y, Z. I’m like what kind of phone do you have?

[00:38:00] Jon: I have the newest phone. Okay. I started stacking the different things that he was buying and spending money on. I’m like people, I think it’s another thing too, just in general is people don’t realize if you are in the United States or any normal country, like first world country, you are beyond blessed.

[00:38:18] Jon: Yes. Having a phone is a. it is now having a fridge there’s a country where they don’t have fridges. Having a fridge is a blessing. I think that’s, as the saying goes, I’m gonna butcher this really bad. I think that good times create easy men create hard times. And it’s like a cycle of where, because we’ve gotten so comfortable because we’re so full of distractions.

[00:38:41] Jon: We have no ness. We talked about, they all correlate in some way or another. people have become exceedingly soft, and they need to realize that even if you’re doing bad in your life if you don’t have a major health issue, you have money to feed yourself. You’re blessed [00:39:00] to do something with it.

[00:39:01] Ryan: Yes. And that’s what you do. And that’s what you do to grow and expand. Failure is your tuition. I’m gonna keep on saying this till the cows come home. I love the salmon. I was editing this video today and I had, and I listened to it like four times. I’m like, man, that is powerful. And it’s just it’s I’m gonna say this now.

[00:39:17] Ryan: I wanna really have you back on again, cuz we’ve talked about a lot of stuff. I know. I know. And it’s been a healthy conversation. But we gotta wrap it up, but it’s been great to have you on, it’s refreshing to hear that you are taking a different journey in life and you’re open to free thinking and making sure that you put yourself in the right position, but also learning from your mistakes and not saying, okay, I, I screwed up and that’s it.

[00:39:41] Ryan: You’re growing and that’s huge. And that’s thanks. The listeners of this podcast. That’s what they’re looking for. They’re looking to get out that change. They think change is the four-letter word they wanna get into that new world, but they don’t know-how. And your story is very powerful.

[00:39:56] Jon: Thank you.

[00:39:57] Jon: Can I leave it off with two quotes? Sure. Go for it. I have two, one of them’s famous, just Justin Timberlake’s wife tweeted it retweeted. She didn’t use my name. She’s put unknown, which is such bullshit. Anyways, a true story. There are two quotes I have that are really good. I like them.

[00:40:13] Jon: One aspires for progress, hunger for success, and strives for greatness, which obviously has its meaning of always moving forward.

[00:40:23] Ryan: Always moving forward. Don’t be a camper in life. Don’t be comfortable and that’s huge. And we can definitely have some more conversations. So I’d love to, circle back around and get you back on at a later date.

[00:40:34] Jon: Sounds amazing to me. Real quick, my second quote, I’ll go real quick. Your attitude is not defined by your life. Your life is defined by your attitude. Did you think about that for a while? Strong. Good. I appreciate you having me on so much all the listeners. I help to talk to you again very soon.

[00:40:51] Ryan: How can John, before you go, if anybody wants to talk to you about any of your services, what’s the best place to get ahold of you. I’ll also put in the show notes so they can link there too,

[00:41:02] Jon: for sure. Literally, if you wanna learn about business financial marketing sales, anything else?

[00:41:06] Jon: Personal development too. Follow me on YouTube. It’s the best thing you can do. Go. youtube.com. I think it’s slash C slash John Berg, or just look up John Lieber on YouTube. Subscribe, follow me, and hit the notification bell. I truly am someone who cares about giving to other people, helping other people, and being them for them.

[00:41:24] Jon: I just give nonstop value and actually actionable good stuff on there. And that’s the best way to work with me, or just go to John weaver.com and play around on that site and see what you can.

[00:41:35] Ryan: Cool. Thank you for coming on. It’s been a, it’s been a great conversation. Your journey’s great. Your story’s great.

[00:41:40] Ryan: And we definitely need to have you come back on.

[00:41:42] Jon: I will be back. Thank you so much for your time. You’re

[00:41:45] Ryan: welcome.

[00:41:47] Jon: Take care.