How to raise your child to be an entrepreneur with Jeff and Laura Sandefer

Founders of Acton Academy – Jeff and Laura Sandefer

Jeff and Laura Sandefer are husband and wife who founded Acton Academy, a school whose learner-driven model is spreading like wildfire across the globe. Their children were the inspiration in founding Acton Academy.

Laura is an entrepreneur and author. She is the author of “Courage to Grow: How Acton Academy Turns Learning Upside-Down.” Her greatest hero is her mother, a master science teacher and poet. Her wisest mentor is her father, a philosophical pastor, who sent her off to college with two words of advice: “Be curious.” Jeff is an entrepreneur and a Socratic teacher. As an entrepreneur, he founded his first company at age 16 and went on to found or co-found seven successful businesses.

Things you will learn from Jeff & Laura:

• How Acton’s model is rethinking education for the 21st century
• What sets Acton Academy apart from other schools and how it parallels what leading entrepreneurs do to make their organizations succeed.
• Learn how to inspire, equip and connect children
• How acton can rapidly accelerate learning (even in subjects kids once thought they were ‘bad’ at).

Jeff and Laura’s Website:

ActonAcademy.org

Transcript: Download

Video Transcription provided by GMR Transcription Services.

Jaime Masters:	Welcome to Eventual Millionaire. I'm Jaime Masters, and today on the show, I've been waiting for these guys. I moved for Austin for one reason just about, for Acton Academy, which Laura and Jeff Sandefer actually created. So, thank you so much for coming on the show today. 

Laura: 	Thank you for having us. We're so excited to be with you. 

Jeff:	Absolutely. 

Jaime Masters:	I think my audience has heard me talk about Acton Academy, I don't know how many times. So, it's wonderful to actually see your faces. And you have a new book that came out. Can you just tell us a little bit about the book? 

Laura:	Sure, here it is. It's called, Courage to Grow: How Acton Academy Turns Learning Upside-Down. And it's been almost 10 years since we started Acton Academy, and we got to the point where we thought, we need to write this story down to give parents like us, who feel like they need some inspiration around children and learning and entrepreneurship to hear our personal story. 

	So, it's now a how-to book. It's not how to start a school. It's really how to live life with purpose as a family and to unleash your child's potential and even deliver entrepreneurial skills at home. 

Jaime Masters:	That was the thing that was so amazing to me. When I heard about the school when I was in the middle of nowhere in Maine, right, and I was gonna hire a tutor and try and teach the entrepreneurial side of things because school did not do that at all, and what was tough is I couldn't find what to do. 

	And so, when I found you guys, it was like no homework. You have guides. You went through all the stuff. I said something to my kids, and they're like, "I want to go there," right, because they get super excited about loving learning again, too, because school kind of doesn't make that as easy as it should be. So, can you tell us a little bit about the philosophy of the school? 

Laura: 	Sure. I'll turn it to Jeff for that.

Jeff:	On me? Well, our mission and our belief, our core belief is that every person who enters our door deserves to find a calling that will change the world. That's what entrepreneurs do, right? We find what we have gifts to do, what we enjoy doing, serving a deep, burning need in the world, and we go out and do it. So, the school's not all about entrepreneurship, but it is all about callings, and that's our mission. 

	And I think our biggest discovery has been when you ignite young people with that mission, it's extraordinary what they can do. Children can do far more than you can possibly imagine. And so, even in our elementary studios and our middle-school studios, young people run everything. And when you put them in charge with guardrails, right? it's not Lord of the Flies; they have kind of rules of the game - but then when you turn learning over to them, they love to learn. 

	And I think one of my biggest kinds of surprises has been teaching and learning are not the same thing. You can learn a lot without having a teacher, nothing wrong with having a teacher, but they're not - I can teach you a lot, and you don't learn anything. So, I think our biggest surprise is young people can do far more than you can ever imagine. 

Jaime Masters:	See, and that's the thing that I thought was so important, especially for my kids. They'd come home and they wouldn't wanna learn anything, or they would learn crazy, amazing like, my son made a gas mask, like, weirdo stuff where I don't wanna temper that, but he has to do homework and all this other stuff for all the stuff he doesn't like. He ended up hating learning from that. So, the distinction that you just made is huge. And, Laura, you were gonna say something? 

Laura:	Well, I was just gonna describe the pieces that we pulled as we created this model. We kind of ripped up the paper on what school should be, and we said, let's dream up our dream school, a school we would love to go to. 

	So, we pulled from the very old, the Socratic method where we only asked questions, we deliver no answers, and the one-room schoolhouse. So, it's mixed ages, working together. Like you said, the teacher is a guide, rather than an adult in authority in front of the classroom. 

	And then we injected that with the latest in technology, and this is where it starts to get really cool because you no longer depend on an authority, an expert in the room, because children are connected to experts all around the world. They can work at their own pace in the core skills, and then they collaborate together on big, hands-on projects. 

	And I love the story of your son making a gas mask. It reminds me of the project that really started our school was a children's business fair. And we found that children love to make things and show them to the world. And to interact with the real world was the other piece of our puzzle. We wanted it to feel important and real and engaging for their own lives. So, the children's business fair now is spreading all around the country. How many were launched this year? 

Jeff:	Well, I think we're looking at 250 this year, so 250 around the country and around the world where young people can come in for a day, have their business, sell something they made with their own hands safely to someone, and most importantly for us entrepreneurs, have some cash left over at the end. 

Laura:	Yeah, and they learned such basic but really significant entrepreneurial skills and thoughts and mindsets. And so, this is where it starts to really change things around the house because children learn that failing is good because you learn something. 

	So, parents learn to take failure and struggle and ordeals and talk about it with their children. They're not graded by a teacher. They learn through experience, and that's another really important difference. So, you don't have to go to an Acton Academy to gain this experience that we've discovered. You can really create it in your own home and even start a children's business fair in your own hometown. 

	We just started with a I think it was 11 tables we put out on our front yard, and children came, you know, 11 mini businesses. And over the years, that has just increased exponentially. This past year, we had 2,000 people walking through 112 children's booths. And it's just the most wonderful way to learn, and sometimes it really becomes a lifelong passion. 

	We have one story of a young girl who was stung by bees, and her parents said, "Why don't you, instead of being mad at the bees, do some research on bees?" And she ended up really having a passion for bees, making lemonade with honey, and now she's sold in Whole Foods all around the country. 

Jeff:	She raised money at a $12 million valuation, and so she's CEO. She raised money on Shark Tank, and she  Mikaila's her name - and Mikaila now, at age 12, has a real business. In fact, I loved it. One of the Shark Tank guys said, "If you really believe this, you'd quit school and do it fulltime." And her response was very politely, "I've been CEO of my business for half my life. How many of your CEOs can say the same thing?" 

	And so, anyway, so it's amazing, again, back to the theme, it's amazing what young people can do. Here's a girl that started, four and a half, at our business fair, and by 12 - has a business that is worth $12 million. 

Laura:	Yeah, and it's called Me and the Bees. 

	And then another element of Acton Academy for our children who go there, starting in middle school, we have apprenticeships. They go out and seek a job in the real world and something they're interested in, and they go through a process learning how to write an email that will get opened, how to do a phone interview, how to write a contract to show what they will do during their apprenticeship, and then concluding with gratitude, so letters of gratitude afterward. 

	And it's funny because this apprenticeship program is probably my favorite part of Acton Academy because more than anything, besides learning how to communicate and be courageous in front of adults and be yourself, they also learn what they don't wanna do in life. So, they become, from being kind of all over the place, they come down to very specifically, "I think I wanna pursue industrial engineering, not car mechanics." 

Jaime Masters:	Well, I also wanna say, they also learn the most important thing of entrepreneurship, show up early, do what you say you're gonna do, work late, and deliver. So, if you just do that, you're in the top one percent. Just show up and do what you're supposed to do [inaudible] [00:07:33]. 

Laura:	Yes. 

Jaime Masters:	Well, it's so insane. When I work with clients I remember going to Acton and learning about the way that you guys teach, and I was like, this is what I'm teaching six-figure, but the exact same thing. And all the people that are listening right now are probably like; I wish I learned it when I was 12 because you don't understand. I was a medical illustration major before I switched to computers, and now I'm a business gal. 

	So, you don't know what you don't know, and if you don't have that testing, and when you're a kid, that's the point. You're supposed to be testing. And I don't feel like we, especially school, does anything having to do with that. 

	How do they decide, especially for the apprenticeship, what to do because I'm sure there's people that have kids that are about that age, like, 13, 14, going like, what are they gonna do with their lives? How do you figure that out? 

Jeff: 	Well, so, one of the important things when you think about how Acton works, this idea of you wanna inspire, equip, and connect. So, to inspire, you think about what are your gifts in life, and you go and ask people, what am I great at doing? Where do I find joy? When am I in flow? So, you kind of go basically through, what do I do well? 

	Then you go and get a list of what possible jobs could I do? And it's pretty simple, right? It's A, B, C, just go down the list and start prioritizing. But as adults, we think that's a natural skill. It's

	So, there?s a whole system and way they go through from start to finishing and writing a gratitude letter. There's a process', and that's what I mean by equip. You inspire, you give a goal at the end, and then you say, okay, here are three different recipes or algorithms or processes. Now I can turn you loose, and you can choose your own recipe. 

	But there's a set of ways you do something, whether it's raising money or launching a business or creating a production system, and we give them those algorithms or those processes and let them choose. We have ? 

Jaime Masters:	So, how do you keep their ? oh, go ahead. 

Jeff:	No, no, go ahead, sure. 

Jaime Masters:	No, how do you keep their attention because I know even for my daughter, they've been business kids since they were little, right, which I adore, and when we did ? we had rosemary, and we went door to door, first time. We didn't make it to one house the first time, right? And then she was scarred for a very long period of time before she ever wanted to go out again, right? 

	And don't get me wrong. It has a happy ending. We went again recently and she made some money, which was a wonderful, amazing thing. But she left that for a while because that belief of, "That sucked so bad, I'm not going there." 

	How do you really scoop that up, so that way, they keep their attention because business, especially knocking on doors, is tough, and they're gonna get knocked down a lot? 

Laura:	It's so hard. 

Jeff:	Right. We also - I run and teach in the Acton B.A. program, and one of the things we do, you pay $50,000.00 to come, your first challenge is you have to sell a certain number of children's books door to door, or you're out of the program. So, this idea, like you've got to learn to you know, the idea of sales, part of it is you get knocked down, you get back up and sell again, even if you don't feel like it. 

	But you asked how we keep their attention. We think of this as a tribe, so you've got 36 elementary tribe members, 36 middle-schoolers, and 36 launch-padders or high-schoolers. They're always interacting, right, but it's a tribe, and that tribe goes through rituals. 

	They go through - it's almost like a story. They'll go through a story of how they do something, so the story's important. You're Thomas Edison in Edison's lab, and everyone has on lab coats, so there's a story element. 

	And then, most importantly, since you've been in software and computers, it's like a software sprint. It's a six-week sprint and story that you're in the story playing, you're part of the game, you're trying to create electricity experiments. 

	And then, most importantly, at the end, at the end of the six weeks at Acton Academy, there's a public exhibition. You're on stage performing. Real customers are coming, and you have to deliver something, an art show, a medical diagnosis. And so, then you get a week to rest. So, just like a software sprint, you work hard, you ship, you rest up, you charge forward. And there's a story connecting all of that. 

Laura:	But there's also an ultimate story that is wrapped around this entire model, and it's the Hero's Journey. And I don't know if you know much about the Hero's Journey. But Joseph Campbell pulled this all together from all ancient storytelling time up until today. 

	There's one mono myth which haunts the human soul. And the idea is that ordinary people, when they accept a challenge, they enter this extraordinary world and become a hero, fighting monsters and get the holy grail and return home a transformed person in order to solve a problem or save the world. And you'll see this in Disney, Pixar. All the great stories have this Hero's Journey myth wrapped into it. 

	And at Acton Academy, before they even enter our doors, we have them make a choice. Are you willing to be a hero on a journey? So, the entire time, the identity of a hero is part of who each individual at Acton Academy is, and our definition of hero is different than someone having super powers, who naturally just changes the world. It's someone who makes a choice to face an ordeal and get up after they fall down, and it's the opposite of a victim. A victim is someone who blames others, who seeks out complaining and problems and criticizing, rather than solving them. And a hero rises to responsibility and gets back up every single time. 

	So, we ask our parents also be on a Hero's Journey because the hardest thing as a mom - and I'm probably the worst is to send your child back in the game after they've tried to sell rosemary door to door and it didn't work. It's painful. It's even excruciating as a parent. But that's what we ask our parents to do is to let the children fail, love them, support them, and get them right back in the game. So, that's the engagement. It's like, hey, you're a hero, and what to heroes do? Oh, that's right. I get back up, I admit my mistakes, and I take another step forward. 

Jaime Masters:	I love the Hero's Journey, and I think everybody needs everybody that's older business owners need to hear it, too, right, because i's an ebb and flow. And no matter how much money you make, you're like, huh, another obstacle, what a surprise. That didn't go away, right? 

Laura:	Yes. 

Jaime Masters:	And you still have to build that muscle, no matter what. So, how do you instill that? How do you help them get back up when they have fallen? 

Jeff:	Well, I mean, you talk about it a lot, and you talk about it, I mean, failure's not a good thing, right? I can't stand failure. If it really hurts, failure's bad. It's just necessary. And so, they have role models. You talk about historical role models. You talk about current role models. You tell the stories of heroes. You put them in the shoes actually doing hard things. 

	And like your daughter learned, it hurts the first time somebody slams a door in your face when you're selling door to door, but the hundredth time doesn't hurt as much. And then you just keep instilling, like Laura said, heroes are not celebrities. Heroes don't always win. Heroes do always get back up. And so, you talk about it, you tell stories, you have launches. 

	And we really think, as guides, we're game-makers. Our job is to make games, invite you to play. Games have rules and rewards. They have roles. We invite you in to play. And then our ultimate goal is for you to become a game-maker in your own life. So, you create these games as entrepreneurs. 

	And, like you say, the most important thing as an entrepreneur to me is not that you get the holy grail. It's how you're changed in the process, and then you start over again. And there's always gonna be something about yourself, you haven't quite gotten to the place you need to be, and these young people realize that. They realize it's about the change in themselves. That's why you play the game. 

Laura:	And also, I think an important element is the community. So, you're not just a solo individual out by yourself. Part of the Hero's Journey is knowing how to find a mentor, who's your running partner, who's gonna hold you accountable, and to have a tightknit group of people supporting you. As an individual entrepreneur, I think that's really important. 

	I know, in Jeff's work with master entrepreneurs all around the world, they seek mentors, and they have running partners to encourage. I think encouragement from someone who cares about you is really, really important. 

	So, we have these young people. They get together three times a day for group discussions, and these discussions are largely built around inspiring each other to get back in the game. So, they hear those stories a lot, and they have people literally supporting them. They have a squad leader for a small group. They have a one-on-one running partner, and they have a guide there to hold boundaries and to acknowledge, hey, you're special; you've got those gifts inside; now, do this. 

Jeff:	Now, one thing that's important though, this is not a panacea. There is no utopia. The whole tribe will fall apart from time to time. And that's when a guide has to step back and let it get worse and then step back and let it get worse again. 

	And so, you ask how we keep the young people engaged. They're engaged about a third of the time, and when they're engaged, they learn at 10X the rate of a normal. So, they learn at about a three times normal rate, but they're not engaged all the time. Sometimes, they rest. Sometimes, they're distracted, just like in the real world, just like a real company. 

	I mean, I've run a lot of companies, and I tell people, you know, every company is full of middle-schoolers, and including me, right? I'm not even a reformed middle-schooler. So, if you can learn how to lead middle-schoolers as a middle-schooler, you can build Google because that's what all human beings look like. 

Jaime Masters:	I think that's so important to say, too, because we just especially as entrepreneurs, we think we're just crazy, right? It's like no, everybod's like this. Give yourself a gosh-darn break. But that's also why you - 

Jeff:	It's really hard. 

Jaime Masters:	It is, and that's why you guys talk about flow. I want you to talk about that because I talk about that with my clients, and I think it's very underrated for a lot of people because we've all heard hustle, you have to hustle, you have to do it anyway, it doesn't matter how you're feeling. And, like you said, it can be 10X when they're engaged, and sometimes it's not, and do they just keep going. But you said there's rests. So, give me your philosophy on all of that. 

Jeff:	Well, you know, we could have a long discussion about whether intrinsic rewards are more important or extrinsic, or should you reward the squad, or should you reward the whole company? And the same thing we have as entrepreneurs, right, who's controlling? And the answer is yes, you've got to try all those. 

	And so, as a guide, and even you're transferring this to the eagles, what's the reward system? What's the payoff? Is it being on the Hero's Journey? Is it being part of the tribe? What are you going? what lever are you going to pull to bring the group together and point them to a common vision? So, that just never ends, and that's how you just keep picking up the group. 

Laura:	But to get into flow, I think, which is an extreme case of concentration where you literally are blocking out the world, and you lose track of time, we talk about with our young people that there's monsters on this journey. And the monsters are resistance, you know, being afraid to start; distraction, which is huge when you're in a room where there's no walls. It's just a bunch of people working. 

Jeff:	When at home, no videogames. 

Laura:	And at home, yeah, videogames there's so many distractions, and then victimhood. Those are the three monsters. So, from age six is when we start. They start learning how to capture distraction, push through resistance, and get out of victimhood. 

	And when you can start blocking out distractions, man, that opens you up to the ability for flow. Once you've tasted flow, you want it again. It's like just an awesome feeling when you - we have kids walking around with books. They literally bump into walls because they're so lost in their book. I mean, what an awesome experience. 

	The other thing is we give them big blocks of time, and I think blocks of time are really important when you're thinking of working hard and learning. We don't ring bells and say, "Math's over. Now, it's time to read." They get to work until they want to stop. 

	Now, we do have some sacred pieces in the day that they have to stop, even if they're in flow. And one of them, oddly enough, is studio maintenance, which is when they have to clean up together. They're responsible for their own space. They literally clean the toilets at Acton Academy. And the idea is, yes, we can get into flow, but at the same time, we're here to take care of this sacred space together, and there is a time to do that. 

	So, it's a combination of being solo, being bound by community, and learning how to battle those monsters. If you can battle distraction, you're kind of golden. 

Jaime Masters:	Yeah, and everybody listening is going, yeah, still haven't figured that one out, yeah, right? 

Laura:	Yeah, yeah. 

Jaime Masters:	We live in a world of constant distraction, and I remember my mentor always used to say opportunity or distraction. But the fact that you labeled them, huge, because we forget. We just get in our normal day, and I love that you call them monsters. This makes it easy for everybody, anyone that's listening, no matter how old you are, right, to be able to do the same thing. Sometimes, we need it at a six-year-old level to let it actually sink in, instead of - 

Laura:	Yeah, when you think of - oh, sorry, I interrupted. 

Jaime Masters:	No, go ahead. 

Laura:	I was gonna say, when you think of all those wonderful myths, there's always a dragon who's sitting on the treasure. Well, there's the monster, and you have to face that monster to get at your treasure, and maybe your treasure is flow; maybe it's finding that workspace, but you've got to enter that cave. 

	I love Joseph Campbell says the cave you fear to enter is where your treasure lies. And I think we have to remember that as parents especially, but as entrepreneurs for sure and young people. You know, learning is hard, and there's frightening moments where you feel like you just can't do this. 

Jaime Masters:	Well, especially in expanding your comfort zone, right? You're like, oh, I know the treasure's there, but that monster's really scary, so I'm gonna stay on the outside edges and never actually do the things that I know will actually create the fruits of my labor. And that's what's interesting as an entrepreneur. They're like [inaudible] [00:21:01]. They feel like i's all over the place. 

	But I love putting it as a monster because if it's outside of yourself, it's not you. What a lot of people that I work with have a tendency to do is spin in their own head, and they just think it's them, right? And when you separate it, and you're like, it's a monster and I have to battle it, they're like, oh, oh, I can do that, right? It makes a huge difference. We are all little children inside that need a monster to battle, and we can do it. 

Laura:	Yes. 

Jaime Masters:	I love that. 

Jeff:	You talked about entrepreneur spaciness. I think one of the most important things about turning learning upside-down in Laura's book, she covers the story of how we learned this  but you have to treat each child as a genius. You have to really believe they're gonna change the world. And you have to treat them as if they were a trusted colleague at Google, or if they were your partner in an entrepreneurial venture. 

	When you treat them that way with respect, it's amazing what it unleashes in them. And so, we really try to wipe away the idea, we can call our own children a kid, but you wouldn't call a colleague at Google a kid, right? You'd get in trouble for that. 

	So, same thing at Acton, adults treat young people as if they were budding geniuses who were gonna change the world, and when you treat them with that respect, they respond and rise to the challenge at age six, seven, eight. I mean, don't forget, in the Revolutionary War, people were commanding warships at 13 and 14. 

Jaime Masters:	Which is insane. 

Jeff:	Yeah, we've made adolescents this kind of comfortable thing, and then you end up being a six-year-old at age 30 living on your parents' couch because you got out of college and you didn't learn anything. 

Jaime Masters:	Thank you. 

Jeff:	So, we're trying to keep people from becoming 30-year-olds living on their parents' couch because it's a waste of human potential. 

Jaime Masters:	Yeah, my best friend, whose son goes to Acton Academy also, is Russian. And she was like, "We were on our own." And I'm like, we are very sheltering, as far as parents go. And we think it's this huge deal, whereas if you let them expand to what you think they're capable of, they will, instead of holding that ceiling. And then they won't grow, and they don't think that they're capable of growing, and that's the worst thing that can ever happen. 

Laura:	Yes, it's amazing when you set children free, if the adults could just get out of the way, which is the hard part, but what amazing things they can do. We've been just blown away by what these young people can do.

Jeff:	I mean, we had a young man who went from pre-algebra all the way through calculus in 11 months and then designed the newest calculus course on [inaudible] [00:23:19] at age 12. And so, he's actually good at math, but he's actually not a math genius. He worked six or seven hours a day for a year. If you do that, you too can go from pre-algebra to calculus. 

	So, it's incredible when you unleash them that you see the apprenticeships they can get and the skills they can learn, and then you start learning to get flow more and more often because you've got a talent or a skill that you're at. So, anyway, it's a lot of fun. But, again, it's not utopia. It falls apart. It's got to put itself back together. That's what makes it anti-fragile, and that's what entrepreneurs are. We break, but we come back stronger. 

Jaime Masters:	Nobody highlights that part though. Usually, that's when the entrepreneur's curled up in a corner going, "I don't wanna talk to anyone," right? 

Jeff:	Right, right. 

Jaime Masters:	And that's a skillset that we can learn, but we don't. My parents were not entrepreneurs.'s insane to see the younger ones, and I go, "Were your parents entrepreneurs?" And they were. I was like, oh, see, they taught them all this stuff younger, which makes them fail faster and know that it's not a big deal, and they actually succeed faster, based on 500-plus interviews, which is insane, which is why I care so much about my children, right? Start them young. Okay. 

Laura:	Yes. 

Jeff:	That's fascinating, yeah. I can't wait to have another conversation sometime with you. Like, we'll go through Top 10 lessons learned. 

Laura:	Right. 

Jaime Masters:	Yeah, so many. 

Jeff:	That's for another podcast. 

Jaime Masters:	Well, and that's one of the reasons why I started doing this because I wanted to know what people in the work  not just writing books, but in it were doing because I feel like people don't highlight some of the crappy stuff. We're like, oh, Facebook, we're amazing; all is well in the world. And then, like you said, it's not utopian. And why are we, as entrepreneurs, pretending that it is? We should actually be coming together over the stuff that sucks, too, because we can help each other out, instead of pretending that we're awesome and have everything together, right? 

Laura:	That's so true, yes. 

Jaime Masters:	Everybody needs to learn from children how it works in that way. 

Laura:	Yes, yes. Well, and it's interesting. It's a mindset shift that I'm so thrilled is happening, not just in Acton Academy, but I think in general in parent groups. The whole growth mindset versus fixed mindset thinking really makes a different where you don't believe that you're just not good at something. You have to work hard to be good at something, but you can learn anything and you can do anything. 

	But with that mindset that's what we used, only growth mindset language with Acton Academy  they begin to see obstacles as opportunities, and that's such a magical place to be. Instead of just freaking out when things get bad, it's like, hm, I need to pause, think about this, but this isn't the end of the world. How can this be an opportunity? 

Jeff:	Well, and I think one of the important things about this whole growth mindset is as parents. My father always told me, "Hey, you made a 97; next time, 100." Well, he meant that well, but it was then setting me up to be a perfectionist, right? 

Jaime Masters:	Yeah, me, too. 

Jeff:	And that's dangerous. So, growth mindset is, "Hey, I see you worked hard." You praise the process, getting back to equipping. You praise the process itself and the character, not the outcome because if you're not careful, it becomes all about outcome. And you're a successful entrepreneur worth $100 million, and then your life's ruined because it's all about the outcome. It's not about the growth. 

Jaime Masters:	Okay, yes. 

Laura:	And there's never enough money. So, if that's what you're seeking, there will not be a satisfying end point. And your personal story is so wonderful, and your transformation, I think is really inspiring to other people. And what you're doing now is really, really important for the world. 

Jaime Masters:	I so appreciate that. Over and over, it comes  we call it the millionaire myth. A bunch of my friends do, too. And it's like, oh, I go after the money, yay, all will be well, oh, crap. Now what? 

Laura:	Right, right. 

Jaime Masters:	And if we were instilled that stuff where it wasn't just about the outcome when we were kids, it would make all the difference. Now, we can't go back, unfortunately, you know, no time machine, unless one of the kids are gonna create one of those things. "But what is" because I know we have to start wrapping up in a second before I ask the last question, what's something that, if they have a  or a parent and they have kids at home, what's one or two things that they can actually do with their kids to help them feel a little bit more inspired? 

Jeff:	Well, a couple of things: One, Patrick Lencioni has a great book called The Frantic Family. Have a family plan. Talk about what your family means and then have a plan for what matters to the family. So, we've seen that around Acton Academies all over the world. We've seen that people will be two-thirds as busy and three times as happy because you start prioritizing. So, I would say that. A children's business fair, they're great fun. Those are a blast. And then the third one what would be a third one, [inaudible] [00:27:52]

Laura:	Well, what I would say "yes, Three Questions for a Frantic Family is the book, Patrick Lencioni, that he was talking about. But bring back family dinners, even if it's twice a week, but that you're sitting around a table. And get a question box" you know, those little and start using questions just to get to know your children. I know that starts really basic and we think as parents we know our children better than anybody else. 

	But what's been so fabulous for me is to be curious about my own children and to ask them questions, not with me having a hidden agenda that I'm gonna teach them something, but because I'm craving to know what they're thinking about something. 

	So, a couple times a week, we throw that question box at the dinner table. And maybe you don't have to cook a fancy meal. Just grab burgers in a bag, whatever. But sit together and talk as a family, and that can really inspire some new thinking as a parent, but as long as you come to it with that curious mind to get to know your children. 

	And soon, when a child understands that they're being respected and trusted and listened to, they come out of themselves, and home life becomes so much fun, so much more fun. It's crazy and busy, but it's really fun.

Jeff:	And I'd add one more thing. I mean, don't discount that you couldn't start an Acton Academy. I mean, we started with seven young people and a house. We had no idea where it would lead, could never imagine we'd have a middle school or a high school, but also couldn't imagine we'd have friends - we had a friend in Guatemala that wanted one for his - so, we sent him a bunch of PDFs and emails, and he started an Acton Academy. 

Jaime Masters:	Well, that's so insane. I was about to say Guatemala because I met that guy at a conference because he used to listen to my show, and he was like, "I started Acton Academy in Guatemala." And I was like, "What?" And you just brought him up. That's hilarious. 

Jeff:	Yes, it's Juan Bonifasi 

Laura:	He's awesome. 

Jeff:	 and he's an amazing entrepreneur. But, so, suddenly, we had another Acton. Then we had a second one with a family that moved out to California. And we said, gosh, maybe we should have 10 of these, so all entrepreneurs will learn from each other. Well, now, we have 90 Acton Academies around the world in 20 countries. So, maybe one of your listeners is in Maine. I mean, we're about to add one in Connecticut and New Hampshire. 

Jaime Masters:	Oh, New Hampshire, hey. 

Jeff:	[Inaudible] [00:29:58] have to provide a kid and to help someone grow one, and I promise you, if we can do it and figure it out through experiments, anybody can do it. 

Laura:	Yeah, it's just entrepreneurial parents networking together and collaborating, and it's powerful, and it doesn't take much. 

Jeff:	It's a lot of work. It's a lot of work, but it's a lot of fun, and you get to know your children in ways that you will never, ever know them if you don't have that kind of engagement. 

Jaime Masters:	Well, and that?s the thing. People didn't feel like they or I should say I didn't feel like I had any options. I was gonna hire a tutor and then get all my entrepreneur friends to have one - because I was like, I wanna work. I don't wanna be the teacher. 

Laura:	Yes, exactly. 

Jaime Masters:	I would like somebody else to be, but then when I was trying to hire a tutor, they were all not so growth mindset, right? 

Jeff:	Right. 

Jaime Masters:	And so, I'm like, I don't know how to solve this problem, so I moved. But still, for everybody else, you don't have to move. You can bring it to you, and I've chatted with entrepreneur friends that have been super excited about bringing it or at least inspiring someone in your circle to start an Acton  

Laura:	That s right. 

Jaime Masters:	 because, you know, [inaudible] [00:30:53]. 

Jeff:	There's always seasons in life, right? I mean, after you've had a big sale, maybe it's time to start one and work on it for a year. Maybe you're between opportunities [inaudible] to do it. So, as entrepreneurs, one of the great things we have is often our time belongs to ourselves not in the middle of a deal, not in the middle of 90 hours a week of a startup, but you sell it, you continue and start over, and that's your new Hero's Journey. 

Jaime Masters:	Aw, I love this. I know we have to start wrapping up, and I'm gonna ask the question to each of you, so whoever wants to go first. But what's one action listeners can take this week to help move them forward towards their goal of a million? 

Laura:	What I have seen be so powerful for individuals, whether they're six-year-olds or 60-year-olds, is to think of one person who has impacted your life and thank them. Write them a letter, email them, and ask if you can get together. That's the beginning of being transformed because you're meeting people who are doing things that impact your life. And that gratitude really does transform and set you off on your own journey. And they'll give you advice that's awesome. 

Jeff:	Yeah, I love the gratitude letters, particularly you don't tell them the letter's coming. You just email them and ask for a meeting, and then you read them a letter in person about how they've changed your life, incredibly powerful. 

	Mine's a little more  I wouldn't say practical, but mercenary in a way. So, we always believe the customer's always right, as an entrepreneur. And I think that's true, and we treat our families - I mean, they are our customers - we do net promoter scores and customer satisfaction surveys every week, everywhere in the Acton network. Those are all open to the public. So, we trust that our parents and families are our customers. 

	Here's the thing entrepreneurs often forget though: You get to choose the customer. So, you define the kind of people you wanna serve and how you can serve them best. And if the person is not right - Acton Academy is not right for everybody - that's okay. There could be 50 flavors of schools. 

	So, I think, as entrepreneurs, we need to remember the customer's always right, but it's our gifts that we're serving with. We get to choose who to serve. If you do those two well, you'll tend to build a really incredible business. 

Jaime Masters:	I want a times-10 on both of those things that you guys just said. The gratitude letter got me my first mentor, by the way, so, yes -

Laura:	Oh, great. 

Jaime Masters:	when I was 24. And the ideal customer piece, we think we have to slog through with crappy people. I can only imagine you guys dealing with parents that weren't happy. That sounds ? 

Laura:	It's really miserable. 

Jeff:	Yeah, but young people are easy. Parents are hard 

Jaime Masters:	Right. 

Jeff:	including us, including us. 

Jaime Masters:	I know. At least I'll raise my hand on that one, too. You guys are amazing. Thank you so much for coming on. Where can they get the boo, because I'm sure now they want more information, and I know we already recommended one book, but your book is really important, too. Where do they get that? 

Laura:	It's really easy. Just go to ActonAcademy.org, and there's a button they can click that goes straight to Amazon, yeah. And thank you for what you're doing. You're very inspiring. 

Jeff:	Yeah. 

Jaime Masters:	You guys are amazing. Thank you so much, and have an amazing day. 

Laura:	You, too.

Tags: acton academy, Business Owner, entrepreneur podcast, eventual millionaire, jaime masters, Jeff Sandefer, Laura Sandefer, learner centered teaching method, millionaire entrepreneurs, podcast, start-ups / startups, startup entrepreneur, top entrepreneurs

Categories: All, Entrepreneurship, Featured Millionaire Interview, Mentoring, Millionaire Interviews

Hi I’m Jaime. Each and every week I bring you the top business advice from the people who know best.

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