"What is a freedom business? It's a business that enables you, allows you, to provide your unique and fulfilling impact to the clients you actually want to work with. The clients you actually want to serve while empowering, while allowing you to live your life of freedom and fulfillment, your life of freedom and fulfillment as you define it." — Curt Mercadante
In today's Freedom Friday episode, Curt discusses the definition of a freedom business, and how entrepreneurs and wannapreneurs can create the blueprint to build that business.
He also discusses our upcoming Freedom Business Blueprint Bootcamp, which launches February 28, 2022.
"It's not just about having a big, hairy, audacious goal and saying, 'Go out and get motivated to do it,'" he said. "It's about setting that long-term vision for where you want to go, put a pin in that map, and then reverse engineer it to define your outcome. So, when you wake up tomorrow, you may only have to do one or two things that move you toward that business you want to build, the life you want to live. Maybe it's a year, maybe it's two, maybe it's three, but you're building that blueprint, reverse engineering it so you don't have to stress."
FULL, UNEDITED TRANSCRIPT OF THIS EPISODE:
Curt Mercadante:
What the hell is a freedom business? When I post this on social media, some people say... Well, they just assume I'm talking about automations or some sort of passive income, quote unquote, passive income business. My answer is, "Well, maybe, perhaps those are part of a freedom business." But I know a lot of people who have automations, I know a lot of people who have quote unquote, passive income who are miserable, they don't have the freedom and fulfillment they deserve.
Curt Mercadante:
So, hey, freedom lovers. My name is Curt Mercadante. This is the Freedom Media Network's Freedom Friday episode. First, some business I want to get out of the way. Today's episode is brought to you by Cultivate Elevate. Now, if you've been listening to our program over the week, you've heard my interview with Matt, the founder of Cultivate Elevate, incredible products. You know that Cultivate Elevate is a staple of my day.
Curt Mercadante:
Every morning, I take their shilajit. I take their 6mix mushroom powder in my coffee and every afternoon I use their ginkgo biloba powder to have a nice cup of tea that lights my brain up in a good way. Go back and listen to those episodes if you haven't yet. If you go to cultivateelevate.com today, pick up their trios, their shilajit and use the code CURT15. That's C-U-R-T-1-5, you get a big discount on those trios and shilajit, and I use those supplements each and every day to cultivate my health. Hope you will do the same. Cultivateelevate.com, and by the way, importantly, if you're not subscribed to the Freedom Media Network, go to freedommedianetwork.com right now, subscribe, go back and listen to my interview with Matt. There's some golden nuggets of wisdom on how you can start cultivating your health today.
Curt Mercadante:
Today's episode is also brought to you by my very own Freedom Business Blueprint Bootcamp. That bootcamp is about helping entrepreneurs and wantrepreneurs design, create, and grow the business that gives them the freedom and fulfillment they deserve. If you go to curtmercadante.com, that's my website, you can find all the info, but guess what? If you listen on, if you watch on, we're going to talk about, what the hell is a freedom business and what's a freedom business blueprint? That's what today's episode is all about. So, thank you to our sponsors, cultivateelevate.com and thank you to me for my Freedom Business Blueprint Bootcamp. So, let's get into this.
Curt Mercadante:
What the hell is a freedom business? When I post this on social media, some people say... Well, they just assume I'm talking about automations or some sort of passive income, quote unquote, passive income business. My answer is, "Well, maybe, perhaps those are part of a freedom business," but I know a lot of people who have automations. I know a lot of people who have quote unquote, passive income who are miserable. They don't have the freedom and fulfillment they deserve and so, what is a freedom business as I define it? I define it like this.
Curt Mercadante:
It's a business that enables you, allows you to provide your unique and fulfilling impact to the clients you actually want to work with. The clients you actually want to serve while empowering, while allowing you to live your life of freedom and fulfillment, your life of freedom and fulfillment as you define it.
Curt Mercadante:
I don't care what business it is, you deserve to have that life of freedom and fulfillment. Guess what? You can create it. Believe it or not, you can create whatever business you want because you are a creator. Every single human is a creator. I know some of you may comment, "What if you're not creative?" Well, if you're not creative, then you're dead. If you're not creative, you're not a human being. Each and every one of us is a creator. I'm not talking about painting, writing, singing, all that. We can create whatever the hell we want. It starts up here with our beliefs, which fuel our thoughts, which when we attach emotions to that, we start fueling our actions and get results. But if you have crappy beliefs, guess what? You're going to get the results you don't want. Perhaps you've already done that. Perhaps you're an entrepreneur who's built a business that doesn't feel free and allow you to feel free and fulfilled. Perhaps you feel like you built more of a prison than a business. Guess what? I've been there.
Curt Mercadante:
For those of you who don't know about me, little over four and a half years ago, I woke up on a Tuesday morning after scaling a seven-figure PR and ad agency. I woke up and fired one and a half million dollars worth of clients on that day, because I was done. I was done with the anxiety attacks, I was done with the poor health, I was done with the cocktail of prescription drugs, I was done not being an epic dad, an epic husband. I was done with at all and I said goodbye, because no amount of money was worth my life and my family and my relationships and my self-care. I shut it down and I started it over and I built a freedom business and I help others do the same.
Curt Mercadante:
Now, perhaps you're someone who wants to build a freedom business, perhaps you're what I like to call a wantrepreneur. Maybe you're in corporate America and you've been wanting to build this business, escape to build your business for years, but you just don't know how, because you don't have that blueprint. Maybe there's some fear there. Maybe you're limiting and bogus beliefs are holding you back. So, that's why I say, entrepreneurs or wantrepreneurs in the Freedom Business Blueprint Bootcamp is about helping you design or redesign it, create it and grow it. So, how do we do that?
Curt Mercadante:
Now, the next iteration, the next cohort if you will, of the bootcamp starts February 28th. If you're watching the livestream of this as I record it, please comment below. If you're listening to the podcast, reach out to me. I'm going to give you my personal cell phone, 928-275-1511, 928-275-1511. We still have spots available in that bootcamp. So, if you're an entrepreneur or a wantrepreneur who wants to design or redesign your business so it gives you the freedom and fulfillment you want, send me a message today. Go to my website, it's up there. Message me on LinkedIn, Twitter, wherever you're watching this video right now or listening to this podcast.
Curt Mercadante:
By the way, if you're listening to this podcast and saying, "Why is Curt talking to people on video?" It's because I actually record my Freedom Fridays live and so, you can join me on LinkedIn, on Twitter. You can join YouTube as well to watch this, you can go to FreedomMediaNow Twitter account as well, the Freedom Media Network Twitter account, which is maybe where you found me in the first place.
Curt Mercadante:
So, what's the bootcamp all about? Well, first, we try to help you get to zero. Perhaps you listened to my recent interview with Dr. Joe Vitale and I asked him about zero. He wrote a book called Zero Limits and he said, "Zero is the place where anything is possible. It's that area of divinity." I love his definition of what zero is but for me, it's that place where you get rid of all the crap.
Curt Mercadante:
We all pick up programming from age one through, well, until we die, until we leave this earth. But every day we pick up new programming, which is, I always say, try to eliminate all the crappy programming from your day. Turn off the news, people who are in your ear, scarcity pimps I like to call them, but we pick it up naturally. So, every day I try to get to zero. Every single morning, I wake up and I meditate and I try to get to mindlessness before I get to mindfulness.
Curt Mercadante:
We work on that in the bootcamp, getting you to zero because all of us, by the time we're age 35, 40, 95% of our cognition is our subconscious. We're like robots. It's that computer programming we've picked up. Now, it's not all good and it's not all bad, right? So it's breathing. I'm not telling myself to breathe right now, that's part of that programming. But also, if I'm sitting there and thinking, "I'd like to start my own business but I'm not good enough. I'm not worthy enough," guess what? That's part of that programming that you've picked up throughout your life and it becomes part of your beliefs.
Curt Mercadante:
We talked about your beliefs fueling your thoughts. You attach emotions to those, they fuel your actions. So, if you're not getting the results you want, it's likely because you have crappy, bogus limiting beliefs so we work to zero. We work to get you to zero, to zero those out. I shared this on social media and shared it with Robert Peterson on his Add Value 2 Life podcast.
Curt Mercadante:
But imagine you're sitting on your couch and you really want a nice, refreshing glass of water. You go into the kitchen, you look in your glass, oh my gosh, someone was doing gardening. There's a whole bunch of soil and dirt in your glass. Well, you wouldn't take the nice, fresh glass of water and pour it right on that dirt. You'd create mud. You don't want to drink mud. You'd have to go and empty it out and clean out the glass before you pour in the water. That's what getting to zero is like.
Curt Mercadante:
Positivity is overrated for people who just want to think positive thoughts, but you're pouring those positive thoughts on top of the negative thoughts and you're getting mud so we got to get to zero. Then, we work at filling in that empty vessel with your abundant thoughts, your abundant thoughts of deliberate, intentional creation, defining, giving yourself permission. By the way, once you zero out, it's easier to give yourself permission, because you don't have those crappy thoughts, those crappy beliefs holding you back. Abundance is in flow.
Curt Mercadante:
We're very good at building dams to stop the flow, but getting to zero breaks apart that dam so we can get in the flow and start moving forward with our creative thoughts. Then, we start pouring that in the empty vessel, defining what you want. What is that business you've wanted to create? A lot of people come to me and they say, "I need clarity." They actually have clarity. They don't have coherence. They have clarity. They know what they want to build, but they don't give themselves permission to even admit it, to even think about it. So, when we zero out, then, "Wow, I can see it more clearly where I want to go."
Curt Mercadante:
We can define that vision for where they want to go, where you want to go. Right? Then, we can reverse engineer it to start building those outcomes to build whatever the hell you want. Some people think when they join the bootcamp I'm going to push them to quit their job right away, to stop what they're doing and push them into jumping out the airplane without a parachute. It's not that way at all. It's just about building and crafting the blueprint to get there. Whether you want to do it in five months, five years, 10 years, whatever it is. When it's time for you to start flying yeah, speaking of flying, you hear the plane behind me right now. I'm recording this in Sedona, Arizona and we have a lot of tourist planes that fly over the Red Rock, et cetera.
Curt Mercadante:
But when you're ready to fly, wouldn't you rather have that runway built? Because I know a lot of people who get backed into a corner. By the way, on that Tuesday when I shut down my business, I jumped, I was ready to fly, but I hadn't built that runway so it was scary, but I had to do it. I don't want you to get to that point. There are some people who are so scared because of those beliefs of even jumping in the blueprint or jumping in the bootcamp, because even building that blueprint is scary for them. But when they get to the point where they want to fly and that runway isn't even built, then they feel like they have no options, no choices.
Curt Mercadante:
The bootcamp is about building that bootcamp. Sorry, I'm getting tongue-tied. It's about building that runway, creating that blueprint so that when you are ready to go, you have those options. You have it there. Wouldn't you rather have the map forward instead of just going through life, not feeling free and fulfilled, but feeling you don't have any options? Well, guess what? The blue blueprint bootcamp is about creating those options. It's about creating the blueprint. You don't have to build the house today, but at least you have that blueprint so that when you are ready to go, you are ready to go.
Curt Mercadante:
We zero out, we help you zero out those limiting and bogus beliefs so you can start filling them in with beliefs of abundance. Your thoughts will stem from that. Once you start defining what you want to create, you will attach positive emotion to that, which will lead to those actions. Now, we're going to reverse engineer all of it so you can create the blueprint so that you know those outcomes.
Curt Mercadante:
It's not just about having a big, hairy, audacious goal and saying, "Go out and get motivated to do it." It's about setting that long-term vision for where you want to go, put a pin in that map, and then reverse engineer it to define your outcome. So, when you wake up tomorrow, you may only have to do one or two things that move you toward that business you want to build, the life you want to live. Maybe it's a year, maybe it's two, maybe it's three, but you're building that blueprint, reverse engineering it so you don't have to stress and you're not going to get to December.
Curt Mercadante:
You set the big New Year's resolution then you get to December 15th and say, "Well, wait till next year. We just set a big goal I couldn't do it on every day." No, no, no. We define it, reverse engineer it so when you wake up tomorrow, it's like, "I know exactly what I need to do to move me in one, two, or three steps today toward that life I want to live and that business I want to build." So, that's what the Freedom Business Blueprint Bootcamp is all about.
Curt Mercadante:
Again, I define a freedom business as one that enables you to provide your unique and fulfilling impact to the clients you actually want to serve while empowering your freedom lifestyle, your life of freedom and fulfillment, whatever it means to you and that's key. It's not what it means to your parents, your bosses, your peers, society, people on LinkedIn, people on Twitter, people on Facebook, YouTube, whatever it is. You have to define and decide what it means to you.
Curt Mercadante:
My wife and I in 2020, we sold our home, sold and donated almost everything we owned that didn't fit into our minivan or a five foot storage facility and we traveled around the country. Now, you may be saying, "Oh my gosh, that's so scary in the middle of a pandemic." Well, guess what? We decided that's what it meant to us, freedom and fulfillment meant to us. That's what we decided we wanted to do. You don't have to like it. You don't have to accept it. You don't have to love it and that's what freedom is.
Curt Mercadante:
We create our own reality. We create the reality we want to live. The first step is realizing that you can do that, that you can do that. I don't have to live your reality and you don't have to live my reality, but we know that we can each create it. Some people look at what I did and they say, "I wish I could do that. I wish I could do that, but I just can't." Well, if you keep saying you can't and you keep saying wish and hope, which are weasel terms, then you'll never get there.
Curt Mercadante:
If instead you say, "I am, I am doing this. I am living my life of freedom and fulfillment. I am building the business I want to live. I am living the relationships I want to live. I am building the self-care I want to build," then you will do it instead of saying, "I wish I could, I hope, I can't do that, I could never do that." If those are your beliefs, then guess what? I guarantee... Some people say, "What's the guarantee it's going to work?" Well, I guarantee if you wake up every day and say, "Wish, hope, could, I can't," you're not going to get there because that's where your thoughts are going and where your thoughts go, your energy flows. But it starts with your beliefs, which is why we start with zeroing out.
Curt Mercadante:
Now, some people join the bootcamp, they say, "When are we going to get to action? When are we going to get to action?" No, we start with zeroing out and the reason is because you're trying to take action, you're grinding yourself into the ground because you don't even know where you want to go. You're not taking deliberate action that are aligned with your creative thoughts because your beliefs suck. Your beliefs are keeping you back. That's why we start by helping you go to zero.
Curt Mercadante:
So, that's what a freedom business is as we define it and that's what the Freedom Business Blueprint Bootcamp is all about. If you want to learn more, drop in the comments, more. Write more in the comments right now if you're watching the livestream. If you're listening to the podcast, text me, 928-275-1511, 928-275-1511. Find me on social media, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, all of the above, message me.
Curt Mercadante:
February 28th is when the next one launches. The one after that will be in the fall. The Freedom Business Blueprint Bootcamp. My name is Curt Mercadante. This is the Freedom Media Network. I want to thank you for joining me for another Freedom Friday episode and I wish you a weekend, a week of life whenever you're listening to this of freedom, abundance, and prosperity. Thank you.