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

In this episode Neel welcomes Keith Levenson of Angela Coté Inc. to talk about franchising. Keith got his start in franchising by actually helping a family entertainment center go through the process themselves.  He then took an opportunity to become a franchise advisor, helping dozens of brands grow by focusing on franchisee growth. Neel and Keith also discuss: Who should franchise (and who shouldn't) the differences between an emerging franchise business and an established one (and who should get involved in either) What a franchisee should look for in a franchise system Enjoy the episode!

In this episode Neel is joined by Johnny Robinson to whiteboard some Remote Local business ideas. Johnny has been on the pod before but we kick off the episode with a brief bio to catch up listeners who may not have heard him before. Neel and Johnny then go back and forth, trading possible ideas with their pros and cons, including: mobile car detailing (both Neel and Johnny love this idea, but the low average ticket amount is a concern painting (there are some challenges in making this remote, particularly around in-person biddings, but this can be developed) smart home setup (Johnny points out that this is a niche subset of A/V contractors and since it's so new, you can "make" the market) the role of "nice to have" vs "need to have" in the services/products you're offering Enjoy the episode, including Neel and Johnny's "disagreement" on the future of drone window washing. :-)

In the second of an ongoing series on EOS, Neil shares his adaptation of Gino Wickman's Entrepreneurial Operating System, and how he's used it to great success at MaidThis. In this episode Neel gives strategic tips for how to deal with specific aspects of "EOS Lite," including: creating vision (dump the fluff, focus on what's real) developing KPIs via scorecards (lagging, not leading metrics that matter) and rocks (measurable quarterly goals that are reported on each week) running Level 10 Meetings (a highly structured meeting that doesn't waste time and makes sure everyone is getting what he/she needs consistently) If you want to read more of Neel's thoughts on these issues, check out this Twitter Thread on performance evaluation and/or this one on vision.

In the first of an ongoing series on EOS, Neil shares his adaptation of Gino Wickman's Entrepreneurial Operating System, and how he's used it to great success at MaidThis. Things Neel learned in the process of creating an "EOS Lite" include: how to have quarterly meetings that ran like clockwork and had clear and measurable KPIs how an org chart can help you figure out which roles really matter how clarity on core values in concert with the org chart led him to clear out some poor fits the GWC ("get it, want it, capacity") rubric he now uses to make sure the right people are doing the right work If you want to read more of Neel's thoughts on this, check out this Twitter thread.

In this episode Neel shares what he learned catching up with dozens of digital nomads (past, present, and future) at a Dynamite Circle conference in Playa del Carmen, Mexico. He found out that: Travel is definitely back (except for parts of Asia, which remain closed) The Western Hemisphere, particularly Mexico and Latin America, have profited from Asia being closed Many used the last two years to create permanent home bases where they travel from There are still plenty of new nomads entering the scene. Enjoy the episode!

In this episode Neel sits down with Donald Spann to look over the pros and cons of the various remote local business models he has tried. Like Neel, Donald was part of the Launch27 crew, aka the "cleaning company mafia," which came out of a subreddit thread back in 2013.  While Neel has continued to grow his cleaning business, Donald has exited his and iterated around remote local concepts. Neel and Donald chat about How Donald started Vicki Virtual, a fully remote call center service, from observing a pain point that cleaning companies had The challenges of running multiple companies at the same time The reality that just because competition already exists doesn't mean they are competent (that's opportunity for you!) Why Donald would never do Y-Combinator again (despite a successful exit from a business incubated there) Enjoy the episode, and if you want to learn about the $3B call center industry, which is growing 7% a year, with businesses in the space averaging $2M annually in revenue, check out Donald's course, Call Center Cash, his YouTube channel, or find him on Twitter.

In this episode Neel shares different ways to think about exiting your business, including his own current plans for MaidThis. While some might say that you need to know what your exit plan is before you even start your business, Neel very much advocates for starting first and thinking more short-term, in terms of one year. He goes on to share four frames to use when thinking about exiting a business: No strategy (buying a job) Scale and sell to private equity Legacy (pass on to family) Automated asset (this is Neel's current choice for MaidThis) You'll also hear Neel explain why you want your business to be a cow, not a pig and why he would rather make less money and work less, than the opposite (and why that also makes sense when it comes to business valuations). Enjoy the episode!

In this episode Neel chats with Amar Ghose, Founder and CEO of ZenMaid. Neel and Amar have managed not to meet, despite being the only two in their digital entrepreneur group in the cleaning space over the past few years.  One time Amar left Chiang Mai for a few weeks and Neel happened to show up during the same time (everyone said it was just a swap out! :-) ). Neel and Amar discuss: the importance of "owning" the career ladder instead of climbing it choosing between lifestyle design and high growth why the four day work week doesn't work for startups Amar also shares when it might be time to listen to Gary Vee to hustle for your biz vs listening to Tim Ferriss to design your life.

Neel recently came back from a ten-day desert island survival experience.  As he switched back into work mode, he saw so many connections between what he had just experienced and how a daily business grind works. He has five lessons he learned, including: Getting your key work done when you have the most energy: stack your tasks to take advantage of when you're at your most energetic Play to your strengths to survive: lean into what you're good at You can't do it by yourself: the power of one other person provides exponential growth Cut the weakest link in the tribe: sometimes you have to be ruthless And the last one...well you'll have to listen to the episode to hear it!  

In this episode Neel and David discuss the classic question of how to deal with angry customers. As with so many great business (and life) tactics, this starts with having the right mindset.  In this case, learning how to deal with irate customers can help you develop a superpower, something that can help you walk into any confrontational situation with confidence, helping you get what you want, and defusing the problem in the process. Neel and David also discuss: Not taking the criticism personally How to de-escalate situations The importance of validating the customer's feelings and deploying empathy You'll also hear Neel's hack for how he issues refunds without feeling the pain of "losing money" in the process.  Enjoy!