Ep. 241: How this struggling side hustler went all in on remote real estate and create a freedom lifestyle with Chris Bello
In this episode I speak with Chris Bello is a college graduate that quit his corporate job 3 years in.
He wanted to be in charge of his own life and write his own story.
And after struggling with one side-hustle after another, he went all-in on residential real estate, where he has quickly caught momentum.
Chris is also the host of the top-rated business podcast, the Entrepreneur Motivation Podcast (1M+ downloads), where he documents his journey and interviews incredible guests.
Listen on to find out how Chris has helped others do “Less dreaming, and more doing.”
Listen Below:
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Transcription:
Debbie:
Hey everyone. Thank you so much for being here. I am really excited to speak with my guests today. I’m here with Chris. Hey Chris, how are you?
Chris:
Doing Great. How are you, Debbie?
Debbie:
I am wonderful. Thank you so much for being here. Can you tell us about you and why you live an offbeat life?
Chris:
Absolutely. So a little bit about me. I mean, I went the traditional route, like many people do. I got a college degree, studied business, got a job that was my dream job only to find out, three and a half years in, I’m like, “Okay…”
After you make a certain amount of money, you don’t care that much about the money if your quality of life isn’t amazing. And so I ended up quitting that job kind of cold Turkey and prematurely before I really had a backup plan. Maybe many of your listeners can relate, you’re like, “Screw this! I listen to podcasts about entrepreneurship and I’m going to go start my own business.”
And so I did that in 2017, fell on my face, tried a couple of things out. And then I ended up falling into real estate where I ended up getting committed and focusing and stop jumping around and trying to do 15 things at once. And it’s actually developed into this cool virtual real estate business model, where, like we talked about before we hit record.
My fiance and I recently moved from Houston, Texas to Denver, Colorado back in March of 2021. And here we are recording this in November and I’m still closing deals remotely. My clients aren’t upset that I’m not actually in town and it’s kind of cool because I can just hop around the world and live this laptop lifestyle that I’ve been craving for so long, and I can turn it into reality.
So that’s a little bit about me and my background and how I’m living this offbeat life.
Debbie:
And you’re definitely the type of person that I can see. You’re impulsive and you’re fun. And I can see that as your personality. So I’m like, “I’m not surprised.” I mean, even though I’ve only met you like a few minutes ago, but you know, I know.
Chris:
You’re right. I’m very impulsive.
I’m the one who talks with friends at the bar. This is a true story. It’s like eight or nine of us before all the craziest and locked downs and stuff, we were at a bar, and like nine of us were like, “Hey, we should go skydiving this weekend.” I was like, “Let’s do it!” Weekend comes around. Only one other person came with me and we went and I actually ended up going on and getting my skydive certification. I jumped like 30 times by myself.
So you’re right. Impulsive is a great word. Sometimes it’s bad but I feel like it’s better than being too reserved, right? In entrepreneurship, at least.
Debbie:
Yeah. That’s definitely something for people that you either have it, or you don’t, or you learn to do it, right? You push yourself into it, but it’s good because when you take those risks as an entrepreneur if you don’t take them, nothing will happen. And action takers are the ones that get things done. So that’s definitely you, Chris.
Chris:
Thank you. And I just heard this, this was like something that I needed to hear, I saw this on an Instagram story of someone I follow, it said scared money don’t make money. And I’m like, “Dang! That is so true because I have all this money just sitting in savings that I’m like afraid to deploy on.”
Shiba Inu or, like, some random crypto or something and I’m like, “Should I buy dogecoin?” Or, like, I don’t even know. I don’t understand all that stuff but I know that scared money doesn’t make money and you have to take risks. If you want to really see the rewards, right?
Everything you want is on the other side of fear. Whereas if you live this safe, reserved, life inside your little bubble, you don’t really live that full life. A lot of people are looking at my life like, “Man, I wish I could do what you do,” but you can, you just have to start taking some action that may be a little uncomfortable.
Debbie:
Yeah. And I think that’s where it goes. It comes down to being uncomfortable and a lot of people hate the feeling of being uncomfortable because it’s nice to be safe. Like, we talked about this, like you said, before we hit record, I like being a hermit now.
It’s kinda nice. Yeah.
Debbie:
It’s nice. But also, it’s when you have that comfort, it’s great for now, but then there’s also no growth happening. And at the end of the day, if you’re still stuck in the same place, unless that’s really where you want to be, and don’t get me wrong, there are some people that just love where they are, there’s really nothing happening in your life.
And you’re going to end up being miserable and just wishing that you were someone like Chris when you could actually do it yourself, right?
Chris:
Right.
And I’d love to set that example because I’ve just become this person. Maybe like you said, impulsive, that might’ve been my nature a bit where I do stuff like go skydive the next day and just be like, “Whatever, once we’re up in the plane, we’re going to jump out. It’ll be fine,” where someone else has to build up and they take three months to analyze and look up the statistics of like, “How likely is it that the parachutes not going to open? What about the backup?”
I’m just more like, “Hey, jump off the cliff and build the plane on the way down. A lot of entrepreneurs are.” But I think if someone’s not and they want to be more like that, just start practicing. This is my advice because I know a lot of people who get stuck with analysis paralysis my fiance included.
Sometimes if she has too many options, she’s like freezes and she’s like, “I dunno, what do I want?” And I’m like, “Just ask the waiter what his favorite thing is and get that.” So that’s a quick way, like, start practicing with the menu at the restaurant when they’re like cheesecake factory menu is very overwhelming. Just ask the waiter or waitress, “What’s your top three dishes that you like and your top favorite drink?” “Something like chicken.” “Okay, cool. Chicken Parmesan. Let’s get that and the Manhattan,” or whatever the drink is, right?
Start getting used to making quick decisions and be quick to make decisions and slow to change them. That’s another tip. ‘Cause some people are like, “Okay, I’m going to do it,” and then they change their mind. And that does not work well when you’re trying to see success.
Debbie:
That is really good. I’ve never really thought of it that way where people do make really quick decisions. Like, people who are very, very impulsive, but then they also make quick decisions to do something else. And that’s why there’s really nothing there that’s happening because you didn’t do enough work.
And there has to be a balance between both, right? And I totally agree with you on this ’cause I’m the same way. Like, my husband is very analytical. He likes to think about things and I’m the type of person that like, “All right, I’m just going to start this. I don’t even know what’s happening. I don’t know how I’m going to do this, but it’s just going to happen.”
And then it happens. He’s like, “How did you do that?” I’m like, “I don’t know anything. I’m not book smart but I just do things.” And then I learned along the way,
Chris:
I love that. And you honestly learn so much more by doing.I was kind of calling someone out who’s a real estate agent at the office that I’m based out of in Houston. And she’s always on these calls about compliance and risk and how to protect yourself and make sure you don’t get sued. And don’t let a client fall through the attic and break a leg. Those types of things.
And she’s on all of these calls that are like three hours long. And I look at her production for the whole year, she’s only done one deal. She might’ve made $5,000 the whole year and she was on this call. She’s constantly listening and learning.
I didn’t call her out by name on my story or anything, but I just told this example and I’m like, “This lady is on all these calls. I’m never on them. I just went to this one ’cause it was like mandatory. They wanted it to make sure we’re all caught up on stuff.”
And she needs to flip flops. She’s doing 98% studying 2% action where you really learn is taking action. You got to do 98% action and 2% like, “Let me read that book. Let me go to that conference. Let me hire that mentor.” And then really take 98% action, right?”
So many people are stuck studying, but there comes a time where you got to close the book and actually start learning street smarts, right? “That didn’t work, I scraped my knee, let me fix this and get better,” versus the person who’s still reading book number four and hasn’t done a single thing, right?
Debbie:
Well, you’re actually doing the actions, but you know what I find too that works are while you’re studying, you should also do the actions, right?
Chris:
Yes.
While you’re doing it. And that for me, I feel like, at least for myself, that’s always worked the best because at least you’re learning, but then you’re also taking action at the same time. ‘Cause I’m also really impatient. I don’t want to spend hours and hours and weeks just learning. I’m like, “Okay, when does this get to the point where I actually do stuff?”
Chris:
Let’s go. Yeah. I’m the same way. And I love that.
I do like a whole morning routine if you’ve ever heard of The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod. So part of that’s reading 20 or 25 minutes every morning. And it may be Tools of Titans, it may be rereading The 4-hour Workweek or Rich Dad, Poor Dad. And literally, you get a nugget every time.
It may not be a hundred percent relevant to your business, but maybe it gives you an idea on like, “Ooh, that’s a really good gem. Let me write that on the whiteboard and see if I can make that happen to my business,” which my life now is a reflection of the things that I learned and implemented from books like The 4-hour Workweek. I read that a few years ago and I’m like, “That sounds cool. Virtual assistant. Oh, that sounds cool too.”
And like we talked about before we hit record, we just do these podcasts, the whole team that we’ve hired, they edit it, create thumbnails, promote it, email guests. It’s amazing what happens. But when I first read it, I was like, “I don’t know what to do.” I was still in a day job, I’m like, how do I do any of this?”
Debbie:
It does. It sounds really overwhelming. And yeah, The 4-hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss, if you guys haven’t read it, it’s pretty much like the digital nomad remote worker bible. So definitely check that out because it’s pretty amazing. Even now it’s super relevant.
Yeah. I mean, it’s just taking action, making sure you have these habits that you set for yourself. And that’s another thing that for me when I left my nine to five, I thought that complete freedom meant just doing whatever I wanted to. But then I actually realized that having and forming routines and habits, I needed to have them. Otherwise, I was just all over the place, right?
So I have the same thing. I do the same thing, Chris. I have like my routines in the morning before I even do my job because otherwise then my whole day is just like me on the couch watching Netflix and eating bonbons or something.
Chris:
Totally get it. You need the accountability because I was so against having the boss. I’m sure you could relate. I didn’t like being told what to do. Or if I was told to do something that I thought didn’t make sense, it was like, “Oh my God, I have a college degree and all this stuff and you’re making me do this menial thing that I could.”
I didn’t even know about outsourcing at that time. But at the same time, it was like, “I know I can do more than just this little manual Excel file that they want me to spend three hours on.” But whenever you quit and you don’t have the job, you’re so used to having a boss and now you’re like, “Well, no one’s here to tell me what to do. And I don’t really want to be told what to do. So how do you hold yourself accountable?”
I think that’s the biggest thing I currently struggle with is like, “Noone’s here to tell me to do it. Mom’s not here to tell me to do my homework. I’m not in high school anymore,” or whatever, or like middle school, right? So you really got to figure it out, like maybe get an accountability partner, write things down and be like, “I’m not going to go out or get dinner or take a break until I finished that thing.”
That’s kind of what I’ve found has worked best for me.
Debbie:
Yeah. And that’s hard. That’s really hard in the beginning when you’re not used to that. Like you said, we weren’t taught to have this type of lifestyle, right? We weren’t taught this in school. You’re always taught that you’re going to have a boss and they’re going to tell you what to do. And you’re just going to produce things and then that’s it. And then you get your paycheck and then you live life and then you retire.
But nobody tells you how to become like a remote entrepreneur and how to keep yourself accountable when there’s no one else there except for yourself. So it’s hard, but you know what? There is freedom to this. Once you figure out what really works for you. And obviously, you’ve figured that out, Chris,
Chris:
It is safer for all of us. Some people prefer to work out at noon or in the afternoon or evening, I used to work out in the evenings, and I kind of play with the schedule now that I have the flexibility. I’m like, “Let’s try working out at 7:00 AM. Gosh, that’s kind of early. I didn’t have time to do my morning routine and get enough sleep. Let me try like 9:00 AM.”
So you find the sweet spot and then whatever works, you kind of stick with it and you can move things around. Once you open up and you kind of break the matrix or whatever, you get out of that job, the nine to five just sucks so much time. 40 hours a week in a physical location or more plus commuting, you only have so many hours left in the day. But once you can break out of that, you get to be creative.
And it’s almost like creating a college schedule of classes. Like, “Okay, what am I going to do Monday, Wednesday, Friday? How about Tuesday, Thursday? I don’t want to do 8:00 AM class, let’s get that 10:00 AM class so I can work out in the morning.”
So how I look at it now is just building your ideal life and schedule. And it’s so cool ’cause you’re up optimally performing at everything ’cause you got your sleep, you’re eating healthy, you’re getting your workout in at your desire time. And now you’re ready to focus on your work for whatever amount of hours per day.
Debbie:
Yeah. And I think too, a lot of people may have this misconception that you have to follow. Like, the gurus, what they tell you like, “At 5:00 AM, 4:00 AM, you have to wake up and that’s when you’re at your peak productivity.” But for some people it’s actually at night that they’re at their peak, right?
Chris:
Yeah.
Debbie:
So I would say that take all of that with a grain of salt. And like you said, choose what works for you and experiment every time and you don’t need to follow exactly to the T. Chris and I are saying, or any other like guru types of people are telling you, because if you do that and it doesn’t work for you, then you’re just going to think it’s you, right? It’s the process. You have to learn all of these things.
Chris:
I love that. And there’s a lot of self-discovery and learning what works for you, because like you said, I mean, we’re all different. You may do your best work at night. I’m reading Tools of Titans, like I kind of mentioned before, and it talks about some people get their best creative work at like two or three in the morning when everyone’s asleep and other people wake up at six and they spend three hours, like getting their best writing or their best work done, right?
It just depends on what kind of person are you. And I feel like you can change, I feel like I used to be a night owl and I’ve slowly become the early riser and I’m like falling asleep at 10:00 PM, right? But it wasn’t always like that. So just really tune in and do that self-discovery to make sure you are paying attention to that stuff. Because if you’re not, you’re leaving a lot of potential and energy on the table.
Debbie:
Yeah. There’s a lot of it that, again, it’s self-discovery. It’s really about what works for you and not anybody else. You have to figure this out. That’s why you have to do the work yourself. And no one can do it for you.
So, Chris, when you finally left your nine to five, and I know you said you didn’t really have any plans, you just kind of went into it, you learned about being an entrepreneur and doing this, how did you go about finding what it is that was really right for you? Because in this world, there are a billion things that we could do. The hardest part is figuring out what’s right for you.
Chris:
Debbie, that is a great question. And I was still trying to figure out “what I want to be when I grow up” type thing ’cause I’m like, “Gosh, there are so many things I could do. I could create a software business. I can create a course or have a mastermind with 15 group members that I talk to every week or like every month.”
And so just figuring out and again, tuning into, “What do I like? What feels good?” There’s a yoga instructor on YouTube, Yoga with Adriene. I don’t know if you’ve heard of her or done any of those yoga videos, but one of her taglines is like, “Find what feels good.”
Like, Hey, if this pose doesn’t work for you, modify it. You don’t have to do it exactly like I’m telling you.” So I’ve been really chasing that for my personal life. Like, finding what feels good.
But when I quit the job, if you scroll all the way down on like my social media posts and stuff, I was like posting everything. Like, “Hey, I bought these shoes from a garage sale and I made a hundred bucks, like selling them two days later on eBay. And the next day I bought like a Buddha statue.”
And my fiance, she was my girlfriend at the time, she was like, “What the hell is this Buddha statue doing in the living room? It doesn’t match the house.” I’m like, “Trust me, I got it for 25 bucks. I have a feeling I’ll sell it for like 150. I was like flipping stuff.
And so I didn’t know what I wanted to do, but I was trying stuff. I had a couple of videos trying to make a course on flipping products. I didn’t have a lapel mic, the audio was terrible. So I started, like you said earlier, you kind of just start things. You have no idea what you’re doing and then you figure it out along the way.
And here we go, it ended up developing when we start a podcast to document the journey. And now I have the lighting and the podcast mic and over a million podcasts downloads. And I can speak way better than that first thing where I’m like, “Hey, I bought these shoes and I made 50 bucks and this is how I did it,” monotone. And now I’m like “Today, we’re going to talk about how I made 10 grand in two hours.”
It’s cool what happens when you start to tune into yourself and try things and fall on your face, like a hundred times, and then you figure out what it is that you want to do.
So kind of a long story short, after I was trying a million different things and none of them were working. I was making 50 bucks here, 20 bucks there, losing a hundred bucks on that other thing that I thought was going to sell but didn’t.
I was listening to podcasts about real estate. You know, you always hear real estate. A lot of people get their wealth through that. Bigger Pockets was one of those where I’m like, “Oh, flipping houses. Okay, cool. Rentals…”
Debbie:
That’s a great podcast by the way.
Chris:
That’s a very good podcast. But then my ears perked up because I heard an episode about real estate wholesaling. And the guy speaking on the show was a business owner in Houston. He went to my university so I’m like, “This guy, the office is 10 minutes from where I live, he went to my university. Boom, that’s my in. I can get a job there and like learn from these mentors or offer to pay them.”
So I kinda did go back and I got a job with them for a little bit to get my feet wet before getting my real estate license and going off on my own. I realized I need a mentor either I’m going to pay 20 grand a year for it or I can get a job and get paid to learn, which is the route that I went.
And from there, you continue to learn, make relationships, stack bricks – I love that term. You start to make these connections, the dots connect a lot faster. And here we are closing deals virtually with like an hour or two of my time and the rest leveraging teams and systems.
So I know I just talked for like five minutes there, but the whole point is to tell people, “You’re not going to know exactly what you want to do. Do I want to start a company about butterflies because I love butterflies? Maybe, but like what do you want to do? Try it, stick with it and make sure to give it enough time to actually make it successful.”
Because most people they’re like two months in and they get zero likes on their Instagram posts and they give up, right? It’s not going to be a microwave mentality. You’ve got to think more crockpot. These things take time. I would say, expect to spend two or three years without really seeing much progress before stuff starts to click, right?
Debbie:
Yeah. And you know what? I find too with what I’ve seen from people and even myself. I have to admit this sometimes. Like, when you have a lot of experience with different things, sometimes you’re too proud to go back to step one, especially when you’ve seen some success already or maybe you went to school and you’re like, “Okay, now I have to go back to step one because what I went to school for, I really didn’t want.”
And I’ve seen this. It’s so funny. I had seen this incident online where this huge, huge, like blogger, he literally had over a million views a month on his blog, which is ridiculous. That’s a large amount. And he was offering a job more of like an internship and the pay wasn’t that great but the knowledge you would be learning is from literally like a Mr. Miyagi, right?
And then people were like, “This is horrible. How can you do that?” And I’m thinking in my head, I’m like, “If I was starting out and if I didn’t already have a podcast…
Chris:
I’ll do it for free.
Debbie:
Right. That’s what I was saying. I was like, “These people are insane. You need to learn from the best.” And this guy is literally saying, “I’m going to teach you everything I know,” on the post itself. And I know him, he’s amazing.
Chris:
Like, years of experience.
Debbie:
Yes. And I was like, “If I didn’t have all of this stuff, I would take him on because he’s incredible.” And I see all of these people saying, “This is horrible. Why would you pay that little?” I’m like, “He shouldn’t be paying you at all. This is literally an internship and you’re getting paid to do this.”
Chris:
That’s so insane to me. People think so small-mindedly sometimes and that scarcity versus abundance mindset. Sometimes I throw my parents under the bus because they do have that scarcity mindset and I was raised with it. So it took a lot of reprogramming to think abundantly and to spend $2,000 on skydiving just ’cause I feel like it and not be like, “Oh my gosh, that’s so expensive,” or never eat at a nice place because “why would you pay $300 for dinner” to now, like “whatever.”
Like, let’s enjoy it. Let’s tip well. This is life. Not the whole YOLO thing, but like really make sure to enjoy life, right? Don’t go blow through your savings, but think abundantly. And if you actually are doing things and you’re earning the income, then yeah, you can support that new lifestyle.
But the same thing when I took that job with those real estate guys, maybe they were paying me like two grand a month for the first few months plus commission. I think I might’ve made like 30 grand that whole year. Like, it wasn’t exciting. This was just in 2018.
And my parents were like, “They’re taking advantage of you. They’re paying you too little. I can’t believe these Gringos.” My mom’s Hispanic so she’s like, “These gringos are like taking advantage.” “Mom, I am learning how to freaking make $30,000 in five hours on one deal,” which I had done.
Debbie:
You’re paid for it.
Chris:
I did the whole thing on my own and we made 32 grand on one deal that I spent five or six hours on. Ans sure I got a $6,000 cut of that. So I was a little bit bummed that like, “Man, they got all of that and I only made six grand,” but the knowledge, you can’t replace that, right? I would have done that for free as well.
And so the mindset, it does take some experience and recalibration to change your mind from like, “Oh my gosh, you’re only paying $10 or $15 an hour,” to “Holy crap! I get to learn from a multimillionaire who has a million downloads a month. I get paid for it. Like, what!?”
Debbie:
It’s crazy. And also, because if you’re a beginner, expect to be a beginner. Don’t expect that all of a sudden be like a top-notch person, that you’re going to get six figures or all of this money.
Chris:
That entitlement mentality.
Debbie:
Yes. And I hate that. I’m like, “We don’t succeed by not barely doing anything and just being given stuff.” Like, you know this, you’ve worked hard enough. And even right now, I’ve been doing this for several years and I’m still not where I want to be, but I continuously work and you do too and everyone that I’ve interviewed, that’s just the way it is. You have to pay your dues. You have to learn. You have to not be too proud to go back to square one and admit defeat and failure and then get back up again.
Because honestly for me, I fail every day almost, or not even almost every day, but that’s just the way it is. And whether it’s finding the right job, the right career, whatever it is that you want to do business, for entrepreneurs, it’s constant, right? It’s constant failures and having to get up and just trying to rework things and figure it out. And then one in a million you’ll get that hit and it just works.
Chris:
It just takes one.
Debbie:
Yeah. And that’s what it is. And I love that mentality too. That’s why I’m like, “Chris, I get you.”
Chris:
That’s what we were talking about where I have so many friends that are really close with that I’ve never even met in person. ‘Cause when we have a conversation like this, you get it, I get it. Like, of course, we work for that person for free to learn.
And it blows my mind when you talk to someone who’s maybe still stuck in the matrix of the nine to five and they’re looking at hourly like, “No, I want this other job that pays $2 more an hour.” And I’m like, “Dude, you can learn how to make 30 grand in five minutes with this other person if you just work there for free for a year. Why would you not do that?”
So it’s just funny to see, but it does take some time to start thinking that way and just abundance versus scarcity. I know Carol Dweck has that book, Mindset, talking about growth versus fixed mindset. That’s a great one to start understanding we can grow. We don’t have to be stuck where we are.
Like, if you think that you’re stuck where you are and you can’t make a big jump and you can’t increase your income $50,000 or more next year, you’re not even going to take the actions required to see if that’s even possible. But if you kind of get into that growth mindset and you realize, “I might’ve only made 20 grand on my year, but next year I could break six figures. And the following year I could have a seven-figure business.”
Like, once you believe that’s possible and you start taking massive action, that’s when magical stuff happens. And you’re like, “Whoa, I’ve never made this much money in a day. What’s my new record?” Your brain kind of changes forever.
Debbie:
Yeah. And that’s the thing, like, our mindset and ourselves, we’re the ones that kind of push ourselves down because you have all of these doubts, especially when things are not going right. And then you start questioning yourself. But yeah. And like I mentioned before, all of this stuff, you don’t learn in school, nobody teaches you these things.
That’s why having mentors, that’s why going to find the right people like you did is so crucial to all of this. Now, you’ve talked about a lot of different books, Chris, that have really inspired you. Can you give us a few that are your favorites that have helped you out?
Chris:
Absolutely. So I have dropped these on several podcasts and many times you hear them, a lot of people talk about it, right? Rich Dad, Poor Dad just changed my thinking from like how the poor thing versus the rich and how you leverage resources and others to get to where you want to go instead of just thinking a Ph.D. is going to magically change your life. Like, that really helped me shift my mind.
And so many people who read it are like, “Oh my gosh, it’s so simple.” But just the way things are drawn out and assets and liabilities and expenses, it’s like really, really cool. So that one was one. The 4-hour Workweek as well. I read that in 2017. I’ve read it three or four times since, and I’m just like, “Cool, I’m doing all this. I’m doing all that. Oh, I haven’t done that. Let me try that. Like virtual mailbox…”
Debbie:
It’s a checklist.
Chris:
Yeah. It’s a little checklist and like, “How much of this book have I actually implemented.” That one’s been really good. Essentialism was very mind-blowing for me as well by Greg McKeown. I don’t know how to pronounce his last name, but Essentialism is amazing because I was a yes man.
I’d say yes to everything. I’d say yes to all these meetings. And then my calendar was so booked that it had no time to like think or plan or work on the business. I was always in the business, on a zoom call, in a podcast, right?
So I’d say Rich Dad, Poor Dad, 4-hour Workweek, and Essentialism. And most recently, and I know we could talk about this in the other segment where I talk more about productivity and automation, and delegation. There’s a book called Who Not How.
I already was doing a lot of this stuff, but like most of us think of when we get a problem, how do I solve this? “Hey, I want to create a website. How do I do that? I got to take five hours tomorrow and figure it out in three hours the next day to build it. When you think who, who can do this for me, you immediately have a solution. You have an assistant or something, you put a job post up on Upwork. Now you don’t have to spend 10 hours building a website. You find the right who, who figures out the how.
So hopefully that’s a great list. I mean, I love those books and I’m like, “That’s it. That’s how I’m working and living this lifestyle.” So many people have DMed me and they’re like, “I wish I could do this.” And I’m like, “Read these books, start trying stuff. You can do it.”
Debbie:
Yeah. It’s so true. And I love those books. I’ve read two of them actually. Yeah. I’ve read two of them. Now. I just wrote down the other two that you have: Essentialism and Who Not How. I’m like, “I’m definitely going to read those things.”
Also, have you read, I think it’s called, I Have a Millionaire Mind by T. Harv Eker? I think that’s the name of it.
Chris:
Is it Secrets of the Millionaire Mind?
Debbie:
Yes, yes, yes.
Chris:
That, I have read. I was like, “I don’t know if I read that one, but I’ve read Secrets of the Millionaire Mind.” My brother, I just messaged him. He’s still in Houston, I texted him. I’m like, “Hey, do you have this book? I want to reread it, but it’s not on all my bookshelf.” It is over there in his room. So I’m like, “Okay, finish reading it and then send it to me.”
Debbie:
It’s so good. Actually, you should download the audiobook where he actually reads it.
Chris:
That’s cool.
Chris:
And it’s so good because he’s very enthusiastic. So my husband and I usually put it on whenever we have a long drive and it gets you all hyped up and you’re like, “Yeah, that’s right.”
Chris:
I can do that right away. I have a credit waiting to buy on Audible.
Debbie:
It’s so funny. Make sure he’s the one reading it ’cause there are other ones where it’s not him. But if you get T. Harv Eker to read it for you, his own book, he’s just so enthusiastic. And you’ll get all hyped up and you’re like, “Yeah, that’s right.”
Chris:
I can do it. Anything’s possible.
Debbie:
Yeah. Exactly.
Chris:
That’s a really good book for sure. I read that a year or two ago. And I think I was in a conference in Las Vegas for digital marketing, 2019 maybe. Yeah. So I got to definitely get the audio book. Thank you for that recommendation.
Debbie:
Yeah. I love it. We literally put that on whenever we have a road trip, it’s just on. Cause I just love his voice.
Chris:
I gotta get my fiance into those books. We’ve been listening to like Crime Junkies the other day and I’m like, “Oh…”
Debbie:
Oh my God, I’m a true crime person too. So I’m like, “I could deal with that too. Oh my God.”
Chris:
I love the entrepreneur stuff. But like after three episodes of Crime Junkie, I’m like, “Okay, let me guess. This person kills somebody.
Debbie:
Okay, that’s done.
Chris:
It was interesting but you know…
Debbie:
Another book that I recently read that my husband is really into as well is David Goggins’ book. I forgot the name.
Chris:
Yeah. Can’t Hurt Me?
Debbie:
Oh my God, that’s such an excellent book. Yeah. And I do everything audio because whenever I’m working, I like to listen at the same time. But that’s a really great book. I love that one too.
Chris:
I have physical books out here. Like, here’s the Tim Ferriss one, it’s 600 something pages, but I do love audio as well. But I actually have been sitting in highlighting because I feel like I focus more. If I’m listening and I’m working out or doing something, I sometimes zone out and I’m like, “Wait, I gotta rewind this back five minutes. I haven’t been paying attention.”
Even if it’s really good. Only if I’m driving for five hours, then I can really focus. But if I’m like working out and someone says hi at the gym and I take a year out, things like that happen. Or trying to write an email and listen at the same time.
Debbie:
I know. You know what I do? I’m so bad. So I’m trying to do more like candy stuff now. I don’t know. Now I’m like trying to learn how to knit. So when I’m knitting…
Chris:
Okay. That’s good. Yeah. I’ll throw the ball for my dog while I’m listening, because I’m like, “Okay, these two things I can multitask. Like, pick up a ball, throw it.”
Debbie:
Yeah. It’s the same thing over and over again. Love that.
So Chris, let’s move forward to about 30 to 40 years from now and you’re looking back at your life. What legacy would you like to leave and what do you want to be remembered for?
Chris:
That’s a great question. The other thing I just read in Tools of Titans is like, “How do you make enough impact to be remembered two or 300 years from now?” And I’m like, “Gosh,” ’cause I thought about that. I had a call with my life coach and I’m like, “If I die today. Sure, some people will miss me. My podcast will obviously stop being released, but how much impact did I really make other than on the clients that I’ve helped buy or sell real estate?”
So I’m working on figuring out how do I leave that bigger legacy and maybe have some sort of masterclass that really helps people take control of their lives and start thinking like the Who Not How type thing. ‘Cause I’m really good at, like I mentioned, automating, delegating, outsourcing just the way I think.
Friends can tell, they’re like, “Wow, I would’ve thought, how do I do this and spend five hours on this. Chris thinks who can do this for me so he could spend two minutes on this and move on to the next thing.” So the legacy that I would love to leave 30 or 40 years from now is just helping people do things a better way and just change their thinking so that they can achieve more through less.
Debbie:
Yeah. I love that. And also it will allow you, if you don’t want to be more successful in business, you could be more successful in your personal life, right?
Chris:
Absolutely.
Debbie:
Spending more time with the people you love while you’re still earning that income, which I think is also really incredible. So whether it’s business or personal life that is the mentality, that is so life-changing and not a lot of people think that way, which is really interesting.
Chris:
Yeah. I think the thing is like a lot of people they’re stuck spending so much time at a job that they don’t have time to think about anything else. They don’t have time to work out, get in shape, cook, eat healthy. When you free that up and you’re still making 10 grand a month or 20 grand or whatever. If you figure that game out, you now bought yourself the time and like the breath of fresh air where you’re not broke and have time.
You’re not super-rich and have no time. You have that balance of, “I’m making an income and I have time.” That’s something that a lot of people haven’t figured out. They either have no money in a bunch of time or money and no time, right? How do you have money and time? That’s the game.
Debbie:
Yeah. And you know what? You don’t have to be a millionaire to be happy. You just need to have more freedom and to be able to afford that freedom like you mentioned. So love that.
Well, we love having you here, Chris.
Chris:
Thank you.
Debbie:
Thank you so much for being here. If our listeners want to know more about you, where can they find you?
Chris:
Yeah. I’m most active on Instagram. And thank you once again, Debbie, for having me on here, I had a blast. So my handle on Instagram is just @chrisbello_ . And if you go to ChrisBello.com, that’s another way to get connected. And I’m on YouTube and podcasts and all that stuff. Got a free guide on productivity.
So thank you once again, really enjoyed it. We’re like-minded, right? In so many ways.
Debbie:
Love it. And I always enjoy having conversations like this with people like you, Chris, ’cause it’s always so much fun. Thank you again. We really appreciate you.
Chris:
Thank you.
Listen to Chris’s extended interview where he shares how to automate and delegate to free your time.
What you’ll find:
In this episode, Chris will show you the easy way to automate and delegate to free your time so you can do more.
