The Freedom Formula Podcast: Achieving Financial, Location and Time Freedom

In this episode Neel and Johnny chat with Sergio, Johnny's business partner in Orange Window Cleaning, about their recent sale of the business. While Sergio and Johnny had always had a goal of growing a business to $10M, they realized over time that the vehicle they had built was not going to get them there without a much higher commitment of money and time. By contrast, another business they had built did have that potential, and they realized over time that they couldn't succeed in that business, an e-learning platform, without selling the business they had already built to maturity. Other points covered: the danger of "shiny object syndrome" for entrepreneurs the terms of the deal Johnny and Sergio struck with the employee they sold the business to why youth makes failure not seem so scary Enjoy the episode!

In this episode Neel sits down with Dan Andrews of the Tropical MBA podcast. Neel reveals that Dan is the one who first used the phrase "remote local business" to describe what Neel was doing at MaidThis. Alas, there will be no royalty payouts if the podcast ever sells for a billion dollars :-) Neel and Dan discussed: how to disconnect your location from your earnings to live remotely why remote-first businesses should really spend time on their first few job postings how Dynamite Jobs (one of Dan's companies) is different from other remote job boards Neel and Dan also talk about what the funnel looks like (from both the job poster and the job board platform's perspectives) from job posting to offering someone a job.

In this solo episode, Neel offers 8 Pillars he uses to audit and improve his personal life. A couple years ago Neel was happy with how systematized his business was, but was shocked as to how not-systematized his personal life was. Inspired by Gary Keller's The One Thing, he created a monthly and weekly system to help him level up in: Health and Vitality Friends and Family Productivity and Performance Lifestyle and Wealth If you want the other four, and how you too can consistently level up in these areas using a simple system, tune in to this short episode!

In this episode Neel interview Mike Grigery of ClickCallSell.com to get the scoop on how to market your local services business. Mike has helped hundreds of companies execute thousands of marketing campaigns and he's been Neel's business coach for sometime. He definitely knows what he's talking about when it comes to home services and how to properly market them. Tune in to learn: The importance of LTV The relationship of brand awareness and online reviews to conversion rates The power of social proof in getting your early customers You'll also hear Mike share his thoughts on platforms like Yelp and Angie's List, as well as the value of social media and marketing through services like Groupon. Enjoy the episode!

In this episode Neel and Johnny talk about the impact of sharing what you've learned in business. After five years of grinding and building a window cleaning business, Johnny packaged what he learned to create Home Service Academy, which is an e-learning platform that helps people build their own home services business. Neel packaged what he learned after years of building MaidThis in a single location to go the franchisor route. It's important to share the information you learn, because You can end up building a second business, which might be even more profitable than the first one You might find you're a better fit for courses/teaching/mentoring You can build a personal brand You're more likely to remember what you've shared Both Neel and Johnny also reflect on how game-changing sharing information publicly can be, as it can lead to all kinds of unexpected opportunities.

In this leisurely spitball episode, Neel and Mitko Karvoshki talk all things remote work and digital nomad as it applies to different spots around the world: who's winning, who's losing, and who's underrated. If you don't know Mitko, you're missing out! He runs Parable, which produces HBR-style case studies on online bootstrapped businesses and has a weekly newsletter called Remote Insider (subscribe here).  You'll hear Neel and Mitko rap about: Who's winning lately (Bankso, Portugal, and Mexico) Who's losing (unpopular opinion: Bali, Chiang Mai) Who's underrated (Medellin, Tbilisi, Madeira) Why some places never take off in reputation, but are still worthy trying anyway You'll have to listen to the episode to get both Neel and Mitt's personal favorite remote working locations, but here are hints, they are in Guatemala and Bulgaria (no, not Bansko), respectively. If you enjoyed Mitko's perspectives you'll also enjoy him on his own podcast, That Remote Life. Catch up with him on Twitter @mitkoka.

In this episode Neel and Johnny discuss various pieces of software that they use to run their businesses. There was clear agreement on some of the big hitters today, like Slack (can't live without it), G-Suite (tons of tools), and Loom (great for training). But there were also some different companies and use-cases discussed: Neel shared his love for Launch27 as his CRM with ActiveCampaign as the email outreach arm of that CRM Johnny loves BookingKoala and uses integrations from NiceJob to get lots of reviews VOIP broke down into Dialpad (Neel) and 3CX (Johnny) Johnny closed by reminding listeners about the importance of a growth mindset and not to sweat the price of software: it's usually going to help you grow the business. It's not worth agonizing over.

In this episode Neel and new co-host Johnny Robinson offer a blueprint for earning your first $10k from scratch without reference to cleaning companies, a sector both of them have had a lot of success in. Neel and Johnny outline: where to find subcontractors and how to pay them the importance of the "money milestone," earning that first dollar on the Internet why there really is no such thing as "market saturation" They both also recommend $100M Offers by Alex Hormozi to give you outlines and ideas for making compelling offers to subcontractors and companies. Enjoy the episode!

In this episode Neel and David discuss David's three-month meditation teacher training course and what his future looks like.  His last appearance featured his explaining what he had to do in order to be gone that long from his businesses. This podcast originally began as a co-hosted effort between Neel and David but this is the final episode of that era, as David moves on to what's next in his life (which does not include running a podcast). David shares what his teacher training was like (which included 14 hours of meditation per day for almost a month) how Vedic meditation changed his life and why he decided to pursue it as a mission why entrepreneurs shouldn't get attached to that role as an identity If you want to follow David's journey you can find him on Instagram or see what he has going on at his new meditation website. Enjoy the episode!

In this episode Neel offers thoughts on how to make your Remote Local business better prepared for recessions. Neel takes a two-pronged approach to preparing for recessions.   First, he focuses on insulating the business, which can include estimating a percentage dip (25% at MaidThis) and adjusting accordingly, which can include cutting expenses, speeding up receivables, and getting promos ready for email and phone reach out to existing customers. Once that's secure, you can look at opportunities, which can include grabbing up some higher quality labor which may now be available in the workforce as a result of layoffs and possible distressed acquisitions which may be offered at a lower multiple. Neel also discusses the difference between "need to have" and "nice to have" in business models and why he always prefers having the former. Enjoy!