Relaunch Your Life and Business with Joel and Pei

Personal Growth for Business Success – ReLaunch

Pei immigrated from China and had to take a huge business loan to acquire her first business – but after her and her entrepreneur husband Joel decided they did everything they could to become debt free. Years later- they sold the practice and havean online presence where they show the power of Relaunching. Starting anew no matter where you are currently! 🙂

Resources Mentioned on this Podcast:

• A Course In Miracles
• StrengthsFinder 2.0 by Tom Rath
• Kolbe
• Thou Shall Prosper by Rabbi Daniel Lapin
• Eat, Drink and Succeed by Laura Schwartz
• Never Eat Alone by Keith Ferrazzi and Tahl Raz

Check out RelaunchShow.com for more info!

Thanks so much for listening!

Transcript: Download

Announcer: Welcome to the Eventual Millionaire podcast - with your host, Jaime Tardy. Real talk and real advice from real millionaires, with a sharp focus on you - the Eventual Millionaire.

Jaime: Welcome to Eventual Millionaire. I'm Jaime Tardy and I am really excited to have my friends Joel and Pei Boggess on the show. They've had a dental practice and sold it, they also have a podcast called ReLaunch - I've been on that podcast, make sure you check it out - they've done a bunch of other things online and entrepreneurship-wise and I'm really excited to have a couple on the show today. Thanks so much for coming on today, guys.

Pei: Well we're excited, thank you.

Joel: This is going to be a blast, Jaime. Thanks for having us on.

Pei: Glad to be qualified.

Jaime: That's the thing - you guys are my friends and you were like "Actually we could be on your show," and I was like "You have to have a net worth of $1 million," and you were like "I know." I'm like "Oh, okay, sorry!" I didn't realize.

Joel: We listen.

Jaime: I didn't realize but you totally qualify so of course I'm going to have you on the show. I have no idea, because we've worked together in the past before but I had no idea what you had done before so tell us about the dental practice and how that came about.

Pei: I originally came from China when I was 25 and I studied for a PHD at first, in biology, and after about two or three years I realized that, as much as it was rewarding and challenging, giving presentations, writing papers, publishing them, I didn't feel like I wanted to spend the rest of my life looking through a microscope, studying little molecules I could never see.

Jaime: Sitting on a chair, looking at a screen. That's funny, that's what we do nowadays. So how did you decide to be a dentist?

Pei: I had a dental degree when I was back in China so I went for additional residency to specialize in root canals, so that was three extra years after my PHD, and then I worked for a couple of years for somebody and just learned a little bit more about the business side of dentistry and then bought my own business. It's been a very rewarding journey, absolutely.

Jaime: Did you ever think you were going to buy your own business? People go to school for this and I've interviewed a lot of people who are doctors or lawyers or friends with them and they go to school and they think they're going to be a dentist for their whole life or they're like "Now the only other option I have is to buy a practice or start a practice for myself." Were you really into the business side of it or were you in love with the job aspect?

Pei: That's a very interesting question. I thought that was just what I was expected to do. You walk through the path of working for somebody else and every dentist expects to have their own. When I was two years into the practice a broker approached me because he knew me before as a friend and he said "You know what? This could be your opportunity." I was frightened - he was talking about a near half a million dollar investment when I was trying to swim out of this debt we had to pay off, plus the guy whose practice I was trying to take over was ex-military, he was Caucasian, he was in the community for thirty-plus years. I didn't know if I would fit in there and be able to keep his business. So it took me four months to even make the decision and he almost decided not to sell to me because he was like "This girl can't make up her mind."

Jaime: What was that like, Joel, when she came home and she was like "We could buy a business and it's going to cost $500,000 and maybe we should do this,?"

Joel: Boy, that's a great question. Our personalities are completely different. When we were going through some of our coaching, which we continue to do off and on, we took the DISC profile - you know what that is?

Jaime: Yes, I do.

Joel: It comes with those really handy little colored bar charts and if you turn Pei's bar chart on its side and you turn mine on its opposite side, well basically they fit together like pieces of a puzzle.

Jaime: Like Tetris!

Joel: Yeah, so really what that means is we are completely different and we see things differently. When I have an idea, I'm a ready, fire, aim kind of guy so that's against my nature - you want to research? You want to look into things? You want to get more information? You want to understand more? These were all foreign concepts to me.

Jaime: Does not compute! So when she came home and said it was going to be $500,000 you were like "Yes, let's do this!" and she was the hesitant one or were you not sure?

Joel: I think when it came time to pull the trigger I was ready. I knew the opportunity, I obviously had a lot of faith and confidence in Pei, I've seen her in her past experiences doing dentistry and working for someone and I knew that it was time for us to take the next step so I was being as supportive as i could as she continued to research. One thing I do know about my wife, though, is that when she makes a decision, regardless of the amount of time it takes for her to get to the decision, once she makes the decision, it's the right decision, and thank God for that because I've gone to her with several business and personal challenges and while I am stuck, oftentimes, in ready, fire, aim, I've got that balancing part of the ReLaunch show equation to save me from myself sometimes.

Jaime: Save me! I love that. I definitely want to get into the coupleness that you guys have, for sure, but before I get into that, Pei, tell me where you found $500,000, because you said you were in debt already. Some people are presented with opportunities and they're like "It's too much, I can't do that," and they'll
 cut it off and not know how to surmount that obstacle. But really, finding money is just an obstacle too, so where did you find that, how did you figure that out?

Pei: That's a very interesting question. I'm very proud of what we did which was, about a year after we both got out of school - he had his master's degree and I had my dental degree -? my father-in-law gave us this Dave Ramsey package and I didn?t touch it and, honestly, as much debt as we had, I would rather see positive savings that pay off the debt and see hardly anything in the bank account. I think it took us quite a few months to make the decision "You know what? Let's just knock it out." So we had some debt but we really worked hard to live on very little, a very simple lifestyle, regardless of what our income was and so our debt was really very low. Here's the good thing and the bad thing if you're in the dental or medical field - the bank loves you.

Jaime: Really, why?

Pei: Here's the thing - usually, the success rate is relatively high and they feel like dentists and doctors have the obligation, the responsibility, to want to pay it back no matter what.

Joel: Here's the bad news with that, Jaime, and I think a lot of the Eventual Millionaire listeners will be able to relate to this - physicians and dentists and chiropractors, banks love them so unfortunately they make a lot of purchases that, while they're qualified to make them, it may not be in their best interests, so a lot of those working professionals have a mountain of debt that they're servicing.

Pei: Absolutely. They actually gave me $50,000 extra and I held out for a few months until I felt like I wasn't going to need it and they didn't want to take it back but I said "You know what? You take it back." It was a seven year loan and I paid it off in about four years because every month I paid extra and in the last few months I made a decision to pay it off early.

Jaime: I love hearing that; that's awesome. So you really did pay attention to the Dave Ramsey principles even after, and on a $50,000 loan, that's a lot of money.

Pei: I met Dave in person at his EntreLeadership event. I sat by the table, there was this VIP thing, and I said "Here's the thing, Dave - we're debt free, personally, except for the mortgage, but I do have business debt," and he said "Get rid of it," and I said "Wait, wait, wait. The CPA said?" and he said "Find another CPA." I didn't say this but I was like "This guy's blunt! This is his advice?" but we did it anyway and it's amazing the freedom you can experience and the runway it gives you when you're debt free to try something different. It sets you up for the next stage of your life so you have less fear.

Jaime: That's huge. So you think it was the best decision? You listened to what he said, you did it and you're really happy with the decision that you made?

Pei: Right, and in the beginning, when I had the practice, the carpet was old, the couch was so old and soft that people would sit down and couldn't get out, but I did not replace things, the floor or painting, until I had cash for it.

Jaime: That's awesome. It's an amazing thing - even though you'd just spent $500,000 and what is a couch? That's the mindset you can have - what's a couch? What's paint? Paying a painter is a couple hundred bucks or whatever and so being able to go "Okay, but I'm going to wait because I have my priorities," were you ever, or Joel, the person who pulls the trigger like this, ever tempted to just say "Let's buy a couch, this place needs to be upgraded," or anything like that?

Pei: Amazingly, he's actually extremely simple.

Jaime: He's like "This couch is good!"

Joel: Let me back up a little bit - before we were educated, I remember when we first got married.

Pei: Oh no, you are not sharing that story, are you?

Joel: I might as well, since I'm here and everything. I think we went to Rooms to Go or something like that and they make it so easy and I remember buying a couch.

Pei: On credit for $635.

Joel: And you know what, our dogs are sleeping on that couch right now.

Jaime: How many years ago was that?

Joel: This was, I don't know.

Pei: 13.

Joel: Yeah, something like that.

Jaime: You still have the couch! That's so awesome, though - you didn't know then, we're dumb when we're younger.

Joel: For sure, for sure. But, boy, we were proud of that couch, until the monthly payment had to be made.

Jaime: See, that's a huge shift for you guys in general. I went through Dave Ramsey too and it was a huge shift - being debt free is a huge weight off your shoulder that I don't think a whole lot of people really understand. So when you paid that off and you were debt free and you could scream on the Dave Ramsey show "I'm debt free!" - I remember wanting to scream that and for some reason I didn't call in the week I did it and he says it has to be that week so I didn't have a chance to ever call in. Horrible!

Pei: That's not fair.

Jaime: I know, I should do it now, even though it was seven years ago. But what was that feeling? You owned the dental practice completely when you paid that off - what did that feel like?

Pei: It's a great feeling because now the extra cash comes to me. It's obvious, right? But over the years I've found that, as much as it's rewarding financially, spiritually, I'm now in the community as this dentist that does great work, my work has got less and less challenging and I feel like I want to be around more inspirational people, people who are going to take me to the next level, even though I didn't know what that actually looks like. That freedom allowed me to explore. At the time, Joel was a life and career coach and as he was helping other people to find their next place - out of corporate, out of things they'd been doing for 20-something years - I was like "Okay, dentist," I had that identity because, for years, I'd been proud of it. When I first came to the United States I knew nobody, I did not know my future. I did not know I could even make it in this world. But once I got that dental degree I thought "My life is set," and when I paid off that debt I could explore what else is out there in life.

Joel: Her life was set until I showed up!

Jaime: Threw her for a crazy loop! I want to ask both of you this, because I think this is a really interesting thing - I've interviewed almost 200 millionaires for this show, I've surveyed them and found out that most of them either don't use their college degree or don't have a college degree. You guys both have a masters, you have a doctorate, you have dental - you guys have a ton of college and educational background in general and you've also, Joel, worked with people on career work and gone "Was the degree really worth it?", so give me your stance on college and education right now and where you think that's going, because you guys invested a lot and got into a lot of debt for it too. What do you think?

Joel: Who first? Pei or me?

Pei: You can go first.

Joel: Hindsight is 20/20. When I look back, I see past experiences as learning opportunities and, for me, a lot of that happened in the classroom but it didn't have to. When I was making the decision, "Do I need to go back to school?", I said yes but, frankly, it was probably the safer answer to give at that time. Am I glad I did and saw it through? Yes, absolutely, now that I'm looking back at it, but I probably didn't need to and that probably stalled a lot of other things, frankly.

Jaime: I love that. I hear so many people going "Well I want to go back and get my masters before I-," or "I want to get an MBA before I-," and I'm like, "Well what is that you want to do and can you do it without that?

Pei: One time one of Joel's friends decided to go back to school and study for a masters and his thought at the time was that it's kind of a way to postpone making a decision.

Joel: Oh yeah.

Pei: We see the availability of these seminars these days and, honestly, when you attend school, even if it's an MBA, to study for business, there are going to be classes that could be outdated. Ask your professors how much they make - if they work full time in an institution, how can they teach you entrepreneurship? There's this guy, I've forgotten his name, he was on our show and he said the majority of people who study MBAs still end up working for a corporation because they're looking for that safety.

Joel: Robert Kiyosaki said that A students work for B students and C students work for the government.

Pei: No, A work for C, B work for the government.

Joel: Oh yeah, A students work for C students and B students work for the government.

Jaime: Wait a minute, I was an A student! What does that mean? But I used to work for a company that was started by a crazy entrepreneur that was probably a C student. That's the funny and interesting thing - the education system that we have now, like you said, is delayed. I've had people e-mail me and say that just listening to my show is better than the $100,000 they spent on their MBA and I'm like "Sorry!" The people getting MBAs that want promotions in a corporate job, that will help them, but for entrepreneurship it's kind of difficult. Pei, what do you think? Because you spent a lot of money getting your dental degree, which you've used and it was really beneficial for you. Would you do it again in a second or would you change focus? What would you do?

Pei: Well, for some time I almost regretted that, in a way. Looking back, if I followed my true path I would choose business, I would choose coaching and speaking because that feels so natural for me. When I was a teenager people just came to me, even if they hadn't talked to me for a few months, out of the blue, and ask me questions and I was like "Okay?" However, recently, I've started to show gratitude towards my experience because I understand the struggles, I understand what a dentist goes through in their business and their personal lives so my next step is I'm actually going to start to help more dentists and small business owners because of this understanding, this journey I've walked through. That's why I think if anybody doesn't like where they are, instead of thinking "How can I get out of here? Because I hate it," and, in the meantime, not really seeing where they want to go yet, to take inventory of what they can get from their current experience. Even thinking back a few years ago I wasn't proud of my background - I wished I wasn't born here, without an accent, I wished I had parents who instilled an abundant mentality in me - I was wishing and that's, in a way, almost like I was complaining because as long as I wished for those opportunities I was admitting to myself that it's not possible because of that. So I've turned that around now and I'm still working on that.

Jaime: I think that's huge. Like you're saying, you're now embodying gratitude more for all situations, so no matter where you've come from, what you've done, whatever not so smart choices or even if you wish you'd done something differently, having gratitude for that either way, because it's all a journey, we're all going through the same thing, we're all trying to figure it out as we go and nobody has all the right answers.

Joel: Very well said. When people embrace that word that you just said - journey - that takes all of the pressure off. I know you see it with your clients and I see it with mine too - once people realize that, "Oh my gosh, you mean I don't have to know everything today? I can learn as I go, I can tweak and mold and shape things as I start to understand myself and my business model more?" and the answer is yes. When people understand that, that is a game changer.

Jaime: I think that's really cool. Like you said, it's understanding yourself. I'm going to bring in the coupledom now. How long have you guys been married, again?

Joel: 13 years.

Jaime: 13 years. A long time. Going through, I'm sure, ups and downs - getting $500,000 worth of debt and getting out of it - you've been through a lot in your journey and i know you have both been entrepreneurs for a long time. What is that like? Because I get e-mails from people going "My significant other doesn't support me," or maybe they're an entrepreneur and it can be a little bit crazy. I talk to husbands and wives, I've worked with couples, including you guys, but other couples that have been married for 30 years. It's such an amazing dynamic - how do you make it work?

Pei: You are so right. We actually recently interviewed some experts and they said it's not uncommon for some entrepreneur families to have family problems because it's almost like one grows and the other stays where they are. I think, for us, when we married he was a banker and I was a student.

Jaime: That's a huge difference.

Pei: So he went to his school, I went to mine, and over the years I think a common thread is that we always try to support each other. So when he was building his coaching business back then, I was working four days a week very comfortably in my practice and on my nights and weekends I tried to do some technical work for him. I'm a quick learner, I was able to build us some websites, some landing pages for him, and here's what's awesome about Joel - when he realized that there's something in me I wasn't able to express he said "You know what? I love that you're helping me but I can hire other people to do some of the work and I'd rather you spent some time exploring your gifts."

Jaime: That's so cute!

Pei: I went through a stage that they call a play stage. All of those years I'd always done what was expected - I worked hard, got my degree, got my business - so I went through this stage, after going through some coaching, and this was before we signed up for your business coaching, just to learn about myself. I became a yoga instructor, I got to learn ballet for the first time - I was in my 30s and the rest of the students were teenagers! It's a journey to find out who I am, what I love and what is really true for me and he gave me that space.

Jaime: Before Joel goes into that, I just think that is completely awesome and amazing. Everybody goes through these ups and downs - "I know exactly what I want to do!", "Oh, shoot, I don't know what I want to do!", "I know exactly what I want to do!" I went through the same thing - I had a provisional patent, I had an iPhone app, I had all of these things, I was dabbling and sometimes that's not good because you're spreading yourself too thin but sometimes it's exploring - like you said, playing. It's so cool that you were willing to take the risk of learning ballet in front of a whole bunch of teenagers because that takes guts to do, I think it's amazing. I'll open it up to you in a second, Joel, but it sounds like the common thread is personal growth. You're totally cool with moving forward and growing and that's what I know about you guys in generally anyway - you want to grow together, which is amazing. A lot of people that are married don't and that's tough. Joel, what do you think?

Joel: Well, personal growth and development is just key to who I am. I'm in my mid-40s, I'm getting ready to have a birthday here, I'll be 46, and if you trace back over my life it has always been about personal growth and development and the way I've been helping people. Let me break that down for you - when I was a teenager I was a karate instructor and I would teach kids from age four to about age 13-14 the mechanics of karate - kicking, punching, spinning and all of that. That's what I was teaching them, to the casual observer, but really what I was teaching them was self-confidence, perseverance, how to believe and have faith in themselves. When I got out of high school and went into college I was a swimming instructor and I would work with kids from age five to about age 15 and, while the mechanics were different - I was now teaching people how to paddle and blow bubbles and kick against the side of the pool - while I was teaching them how to do that, I was still teaching them the same thing - believing in yourself, having confidence, keep moving forward no matter what. Then, when I got out of college, as a graduate student, I put myself through as a personal training. Again, the mechanics of the stuff I was teaching changed but it was still about moving forward anyway, being courageous and believing in yourself. When I finished my graduate school I was a therapist, in a former life. Again, the mechanics changed, but it was all about teaching people how to grow and develop and really understand what it is that makes them come to life.

Pei: Can I add something? I think that's one of the things we try to teach people who don't have that clarity on what's next is to look back, especially if you have some life experience already, to find out those one or two things that you cannot not do. No matter what you do, what occupation, what label you have, there is that common thread.

Joel: To see my wife grow right in front of my eyes was absolutely amazing.

Jaime: That's so awesome. You guys are so cute anyway but, man. The fact that that is so important to both of you, to see your wife grow or to see your husband grow, and have that be a huge piece, I think is it. There must be obstacles too, though?

Joel: Sure.

Jaime: So I want to bring to light some obstacles and how you guys work through them because unfortunately it's not always sunshine and roses and I've worked with enough married couples and I've recommended counselling more than I would like to admit. Some people have hard communication issues. What have you guys come up against as obstacles and how did you work through them? Because you guys are super cute still.

Joel: You can go ahead.

Pei: Oh, boy. Well, honestly, personal struggle, yes; business struggle, maybe; but as for marriage struggle, I wouldn't recall that there has been any struggle between us but I did go through a period of time when I felt in my heart that I needed to make this transition. When I knew I needed to take a big step and actually sell the practice instead of trying to open more, because I just wasn't excited about it, I felt extreme pressure and felt a fear, the end certainty in front of me. So instead of taking a step to just say "Let's do it," I went to very much a complaining mode. I would get up in the morning, go to the mirror, get my stuff ready for work and I would be a complainer. Joel didn't say much, he would just sit next to me and watch me complain and that was it, "I don't like this and I don't know what's going to happen and your business needs to make a quarter of a million more this year just to replace my income. I don't know how much you make now in your business but it has to skyrocket." I was making unrealistic expectations and complained that his business did not grow that fast. He had a great coaching business but where he was compared to where I wanted him to be, it would have been impossible to happen within a couple of months. So one morning, when I was ready to complain again, I caught myself. I was reading "A Course in Miracles? and I just had this awakening and I said "You know what? This is not about a consensus. It's about me, the fear I have, it didn't even exist and I can make it happen and there are opportunities out there."

Jaime: That's awesome. "A Course in Miracles" is awesome and I want to highlight the fact that you were still learning and growing through that, even though you were complaining. Everyone goes through stuff and complains and that's just the way it goes and it's an interesting thing to be able to go "Oh, I was putting it all on him," or "I was putting it on me and complaining like I can't move out of this," and yet you kept pushing through and reading and researching, like you do, apparently - says Joel -and figured it out. How did you feel, Joel, when that came abut" "Finally! Good, we have movement!" You love movement.

Joel: I really do. Our differences can be boiled down to this - our blueprints were simply different and they still are. When you're working with couples, that's two different blueprints coming together and it's not just two different blueprints but it's the blueprints that they learned from their parents and their peers and their leaders as they were growing up and then it's the accumulation of many blueprints on the other side too - peers, parents, church leaders, instructors, teachers, things like that. So our blueprints were different and it took a while for us to quit trying to force one blueprint onto the other person - or, in other words, try to change them, like "You need to be more this way. It says right here in my blueprint you need to do it this way." That just came over time with a little bit of patience on my wife's part and maturity on both of our parts.

Jaime: Do you have any tips for implementation for somebody, especially if it's one person listening to this and they're like "My wife or husband or significant other is kind of supportive, maybe they're even an entrepreneur, maybe they understand what you're saying but don't know what to do now.?"

Pei: what do you think their struggle is? The other party is not supportive enough?

Jaime: The communication thing - so sometimes they can be supportive but it doesn't sound like it. You know how sometimes somebody says something and you're like "I don't believe that. You sound supportive but underneath it all?" Do you know what I mean? Our communication can be really messed up.


Joel: I think I know where you're going here. I would encourage people to immediately, starting today, get in touch with your enduring qualities and your best features. We mentioned DISC - go to a website and take the DISC test - that will give you an understanding of your own best features and your enduring qualities. Strength Finder is one of my favorite tools - it's huge. Then, when you get that kind of foundational knowledge about how you're wired and how you're geared, then you can have a conversation with the most important - the second most important, I should say - person in your life.

Jaime: That's the thing - the first step is awareness and sometimes we're not even aware of what we did. I took the Kolbe assessment and it said "You're a quick start," and I thought "That's true!" but I never paid attention to the fact that I'm ready to go and then my follow through isn't as good as it probably should be. So whenever anyone brings it up you're like "Yeah, that's me."

Joel: One of the things I encourage my one-on-one clients to do and couples and stadiums full of people - okay, maybe not stadiums yet, maybe meeting rooms - is to harness their best features and their strengths, what they're really strong at. When I was a little kid, growing up in central Texas, just south of where you live now, as a matter of fact, I lived on a farm and we had three horses and every once in a while, as a little kid, six or seven years old, I would want to go horseback riding and I don't know how much you know about horseback riding or if you've ever seen "The Horse Whisperer" but when they want to go horseback riding they lead the hose into this outdoor fenced-in area, it's called a pen, and then they lead that horse through this outdoor looking hallway, it's called a shoot. They take that horse through the shoot and right at the end of the shoot there's a little bit of extra room for a cowboy to get in and what that cowboy does is he throws a harness over that horse's head and straps it securely to the main parts of the horse's body. Why do they harness the horse? For three reasons - they want to channel the explosive power of that horse, they want to guide the horse in which direction to go and they want to ensure that the horse is going to be able to go from point A to point B. I use that word a lot - harness. Harness your possibilities, your value, your skills and abilities and your personality style and use it like a Clydesdale to pull you to where you're trying to go. People usually get that analogy and they are excited that there are things that they haven't discovered about themselves and also that they can actually harness that stuff about themselves to get to their point B. People are excited about that, that's one of the things that we learned as we grew in our marriage - not only what we were capable of, but what we were just innately gifted in.

Jaime: I love that, especially because that's one of the things that people come to me about a lot. I didn't know I would be an interviewer in my life, ever. I didn't know I would be a good networker, ever. I was an introvert when I was growing up - I used to read books and do art. I was voted most artistic.

Joel: You've told me that personally and I still don't believe that.

Jaime: I was a geek with my old drawing pad, looking at people and not wanting them to talk to me. I don't know what happened to me, I feel so at home networking with people and stuff like that, but at my first networking event I was like "Pease don't talk to me!" It's a huge difference now, this is great, I'm just so used to it because I've done it a lot and I never would have known this was a talent unless I pushed myself out of my comfort zone and figured it out and harnessed what I already had in me, I just had no idea it was in there.

Joel: She's going to use that word from now on - harness.

Jaime: I am, I'm totally stealing it from you, Joel.

Joel: Good!

Jaime: I'll credit you. I don't remember the whole story, though, so I'll botch it. But I think that's a huge, huge piece, both in the marriage and in business in general. Once you can figure out what those key strengths are, usually that's what you love doing anyway, that's what you enjoy, that's what you feel in flow with, and when you can do that both in your marriage and in your business and in your personal life, that's when everything starts to come together. It sounds like you guys hone in on that big time in your marriage and have for a long time.

Joel: Absolutely.

Pei: Thank you.

Jaime: You guys are awesome. We have to start wrapping up, unfortunately. It's been so awesome being able to talk to two people at once, especially going through the crazy roads of entrepreneurship. Before I ask my final question, give me one set of tips or something like that on going through the rock road that is entrepreneurship.

Pei: If you don't mind, I just really love what you said just a moment ago about overcoming that feeling of not wanting to meet other people. It is about connection, it's about building relationships. I think part of me being extremely successful in a city that I had never been to, taking over a practice, getting a doctorate - I had no clue that they would accept me and yet I retained 98% of the business and grew more.

Jaime: Wow, really?

Pei: I think it's all about connection. I was just listening to Rabbi Lapin - he's a personal friend of ours, the author of "Thou Shall Prosper" - and he said it's important to have EQ, emotional intelligence quotient, but more important is your connectivity quotient and this is trainable and you're a perfect example, that you can be a geek, you can be an introvert, but this doesn't have to be you from now on. So if there is one action you can take, honestly, it will be to start marking on your calendar, maybe at least for the next 21 days to form a habit, to connect with three people, not just online, not just through social media - come on, we've done that. It's a lost art, almost, to call somebody, to meet somebody for lunch, to get yourself out there. I trust Rabbi Lapin - he has written the Jewish secrets for prosperity, it's truly powerful to be a successful entrepreneur.

Jaime: I love that. Do you think that you're an introvert or an extrovert, both of you? I know Joel is an extrovert, I know that already, I don't need to ask you that, Joel.

Pei: Introvert.

Jaime: Really?

Pei: Big time.

Jaime: And you're the one saying to connect with people. That's really interesting. Give me an introvert tip on connecting.

Pei: I used to think to be a good connector you would be the one who just laughs and is popular and then I realized I'm a different kind of connector - I connect with people one-on-one, I listen well, so I embrace that and I think that's how I became successful with my patients and with my doctors. It's okay - don't put an expectation on how you should connect, just go out and connect authentically, just being you.

Jaime: I think that's awesome. You ooze caring, by the way. Even at the beginning, before we came on, you were like "I love your laugh." You're so sweet. You guys ooze it.

Joel: Ooze.

Jaime: You see? I'll take harness, you take ooze.

Joel: I'll take ooze. I'm all about the ooze from here on out.

Jaime: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, right? The ooze.

Joel: Yeah!

Jaime: I love this.

Joel: You know, when Pei was talking about how she's a different kind of connector and how she likes to connect one-on-on in her own way, basically that's the example of harnessing your features, strengths and talents and using them to enhance your life and enhance your business.

Jaime: I'm an introvert and that's okay. Let's just figure out how to actually use it instead of shying away from what it is and it sounds like you guys have done that a lot.

Joel: Yes.

Pei: Definitely.

Jaime: You guys are so awesome. You sort of answered the last question, so in the next 21 days really try to connect with people. It's a huge thing for me, I love that, but it's also kind of hard to find the ROI in that - lots of people say that - but I think it's hugely important for long term business growth or personal growth in general and I think we put it aside. When I first started, my mentor said 'When you go to a networking event, you close sales," and I think that's cool because some people are scared of sales so they just think of it as networking but it's a very different thing to build your network with some amazing people. I met you guys at a conference years ago.

Pei: And check this out - yes, we know you, we like you, but after we met you at the conference, face to face, we hired you.

Jaime: Exactly.

Pei: Think about really getting business - people still love face to face. No matter how many webinars there are out there, people still fly on airplanes, going to events.

Jaime: Definitely. And it's the one way that we can actually connect. I think we were already friends on Facebook way before we even met but then I saw you again at the Podcast Movement and I was like "You guys!" It's one of those things where you build the connection up and then we work together and I was on your show and you were on my show - it really starts to build.

Joel: Absolutely. Can I give a tip now?

Jaime: Go ahead, do it. He's an introvert too, can you tell?

Joel: We had a delightful interview with a lady a couple of months ago who we'd be happy to introduce you too - Laura Schwartz. You may or may not know that name but her book is called "Eat, Drink and Succeed," and basically she went from being a 19 year old White House intern, unpaid, answering phones, to being Bill Clinton's right hand person when he was in office. She didn't travel before Bill, she travelled with Bill. So she was basically second to him and that started from her, as an introvert, eating, drinking, succeeding, getting together with people and realizing that any event is really a business mixer in disguise and that's her message - it's all business - and she understood that as a 19 year old and was able to leverage herself into Bill Clinton's administration in the White House and she's gone on to do even more phenomenal things. "Eat, Drink and Succeed."

Jaime: I love that. It reminds me of the book "Never Eat Alone" by Keith Ferrazzi. I remember going "Never Eat Alone" - is this a diet book? you just never eat alone?" but it's the same principle, that's really interesting - whenever you're eating, be eating with somebody that you can connect with because it's one of those things - the more we connect with people, the better our lives can be. I went through coaching school - we need connection, that's a huge piece that everybody needs and when you're an entrepreneur it can be kind of lonely out there, all by yourself, or even if you have a team you're the boss and you're supposed to not fraternize with the employees and stuff so finding those people that you can really, really connect with, I think is one of the reasons why we're here on the planet so I absolutely love that. Where can we find out more about you guys? I know you have a podcast and a bunch of stuff so tell me where we can find more about you online.

Pei: At ReLaunchShow.com. Now you guys have heard both of our stories and we're both ReLaunchers - we go through transition after transition and that's our life so that's what we want to hear from other people, how they go through their struggles and fears.

Jaime: It's so cool to hear from both of you - even you, Joel, going "Then I was a personal trainer, then I was this and then I was this," and you were going "Then I did this, then I was doing ballet, then I was doing this." That's a huge theme - I love the idea of relaunch in general and what you guys are doing with the show.

Joel: One of our guests, Tim Sanders, said it this way - we're always in a relaunch. I thought about that after he said it and I think that's not only spot on but I actually think that that's a sign of growth and that's a sign of being healthy, to constantly be in a state of "Okay, this is good, but let's make it better. Let's advance our business, let's better our marriage, our relationships, let's become better as people."

Jaime: That's what Eventual Millionaires believe in too so you're preaching to the choir, we love you! Thank you guys so much for coming on the show today. I really, really appreciate it and I hope we can hang out again in person soon.

Joel: I had fun.

Pei: Thank you so much, Jaime. Love your show.

Jaime: Bye.

Joel: Bye.

Announcer: Thanks for listening. You can find out more great information like this on EventualMillionaire.com.

Tags: Business Growth, Debt, Debt Free, debt freedom, Failure, Fear, Joel Boggess, millionaire interview, Pei Boggess, Personal Finance, Personal Growth, Relaunch, Wealth, Wealth Building

Categories: All, Business, Business Model, Debt Freedom, Entrepreneurship, Fear, Millionaire Interviews, Relationships

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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