Cosmos

Welcome back to the show, my fellow extraordinary Americans. For today’s guest, we have Phil Rischer. Phil is the founder of Freelash Consulting, a digital marketing firm specializing in helping home service businesses, such as HVAC and electrical companies, increase sales and maintain full schedules. After paying off $30,000 in student loans and saving $60,000 by age 25, Phil transitioned from working at Enterprise Rent-A-Car to entrepreneurship. 

He leveraged his expertise in SEO, email marketing, and social media to help a local duct cleaning company triple its profits, which led to the creation of Filash Consulting. Today, Filash Consulting is a seven-figure business that has helped clients scale their revenue by millions and achieve successful exits at multiples of 5 to 10 times their initial investment. Phil’s insights have been featured in Forbes, CNBC, Business Insider, and Yahoo Finance. 

He has also appeared on industry-leading podcasts, including Jobbers, Masters of Home Services, and Green Industry Podcasts. His team now serves businesses across North America and Canada, helping them grow through data-driven digital marketing strategies. He’s an extraordinary American, and I’m glad to have him on the show. Phil, thank you so much for taking the time to be here.

Phil

Yeah, awesome. I love that intro. That was probably the most comprehensive step-by-step guide I’ve done. So, I love the intro, man. I appreciate you having me.

Cosmos

Yeah.

So, Phil, can you tell the audience a little bit more about yourself, your background, and how you got started in your industry?

Phil

Yeah. Coming out of college, I had $30,000 in student loans, as you mentioned, and I got a job working at Enterprise Rent, earning $48,000 per year. In the first year, since I never lived with my dad, I moved into the basement. I paid off $30,000 in student loans in the first year, then stayed for another two years, paying a little rent and saving up $60,000, as you mentioned. 

And I bought a condo with cash when I was 25. Not such a nice area, but it was a condo. At that time, I was working at Enterprise, where I rented cars and managed a local branch, and I excelled in my role. But I read Rich Dad, Poor Dad, and he said the number one skill you can learn is to sell. 

So I went into Enterprise Corporate and I sold services to large companies. It’s called Fleet Management. So I was calling on ten-million-dollar, twenty, and hundred-million-dollar businesses and setting meetings with the owners of these companies. Meanwhile, I started a personal finance blog. In 2015, I started a personal finance blog website. I reached around 30,000 to 40,000 followers and readers on my blog every month. Through running this blog, I learned SEO, email marketing, social media, and more. 

So, basically, I was working on Enterprise and blogging, learning digital marketing by doing it. I wasn’t really making any money. I had affiliate partnerships and similar things, but nothing really substantial. Well, at that point, I was completely debt-free. I didn’t have any from student loans or a house or whatever. So, I quit my job at Enterprise, bought a tiny school bus, built a small home, and traveled around the country creating content.

And when I got back from that, one of my clients, who was about 27 or 28, was a $3 million home service business from Enterprise. He said, “Hey, I need someone to help me grow my business as my director of business development.” Can you come and help me? When I went to work there, all my worlds collided. My experience in running a local service business and digital marketing came together, and it was game over. Basically, ready to roll. That’s how I got into it, and it’s a little bit of my background.

Cosmos

Wow.

Phil was always very creative and tried different things

So, Phil, just to get a little bit more into it, was your strategic vision to enter this industry since high school and college consistently, or did it evolve?

Phil

Yeah, I was always very creative and tried different things. I had about four or five different things that failed. I tried the VoIP over IP service I spent money on, but I didn’t know what I was getting into. I tried penny stocks and investing. I tried the blog. Even the blog for me was that I spent four years and a lot of blood, sweat, and tears on this thing, and I never made more than probably  $2,000, you know, but I didn’t have a vision that one day I’m going to have a digital marketing company for home service businesses. 

It was more about the skills I developed while failing and going through my regular job, as well as taking on side projects. When I had the chance to put everything together, it all clicked into place.

You successfully doubled and tripled your home service business profits through effective digital marketing.

Cosmos

So Phil, how did you manage? So once you went to this company, right? Towards the end, you basically used everything you learned and managed to double and triple their Cosmos.

Phil

Yes, I went in as the Director of Business Development. We’re $3 million business. We had 28 technicians who had to stay busy. They did duct cleaning. 

So it’s a home service business. Upon arrival, we collaborated with the digital marketing company. And I’m asking them, ‘ Okay, we’re spending $6,000 on ads. ‘ Who are these leads? Who are these people? We spent $6,000. What did we get for it? It was very challenging for them to determine the return on ad spend. 

So I said, okay, well, that’s a big issue because we’re spending all this money, but we don’t know if it’s actually making us money or not. So I solved that issue. The second thing was the conversion funnel. This is a really big one. When I was running the blog, the natural trajectory was for people to come in and read a blog post about a specific topic. Then we make them an offer. We offer them a course on how to pay off debt. We offer them, hey, sign up for this affiliate link to get whatever it is. What I found in home service is that they never make any offers. It’s just a matter of contacting us or scheduling an estimate. We built an estimate calculator for their website, allowing people to obtain an estimate or get an idea of the cost of this work. That’s basically 10 times the number of leads they got. Next, we had to fix their lead funnel and their email funnel. 

In blogging, when someone fills out a form, they enter an email sequence and cadence that nurtures the lead, and then they might move on to your next step—and the next thing. When I started working at the home service business, it wasn’t what I expected. You fill out a form, and then maybe someone calls to discuss sending someone over for an estimate, but the information is lost forever. It wasn’t. There was no process for nurturing the lead. 

So we fixed that. Then, probably the honey hole for every single business is this. In the blogging space, you have all these subscribers. So, when you gain a large number of followers and subscribers, you now have people who will listen when you reach out, allowing you to send them offers or take action. When I started working at the duck cleaning company, I found that they had around 5,000 people in their database who had never been retargeted. They hadn’t sent them any emails or made them any offers. 

So, when I went over, I said, “Okay, well, we’re going to start doing this every single month and retarget these people.” To bring them back into the funnel. Things that, as I’m explaining it, you should probably do. But in the home service space, it’s very transactional. If you need your gutters cleaned, simply fill out a form, and we’ll reach out to schedule your gutter cleaning. That’s the basic parts. We implemented a professional marketing system, which we refer to as a three-part system: visibility, conversions, and retargeting.

Cosmos

Wow. So, Phil, is this a continuation of what we started? Since then, you went and started your freelancing consulting.

So, how do you scale and operate a seven-figure business solely through digital marketing? Digital marketing is a relatively new field, having emerged over the past few years.

Phil

Yeah, great question. And I’ll speak specifically to your audience. You mentioned that millennials and Gen Z might be interested in this route. And I can explain what I did. So, I actually tell people I got fired from my job because what happened was $3 million. He then reached 4 million in revenue, earning a million dollars in profit.

This is a man who didn’t attend college. He just did duck cleaning. So I’m ready to roll, ready to grow. And he’s, dude, I’m making a million dollars a year. Please leave me alone. I don’t want to grow anymore.

Cosmos

What?

Phil

And I’m, dude, come on, let’s get after it. And I knew the impact I was making on the business. So, we actually went to lunch one day at Chili’s, and we sat down, and I’m like, “Dude, we’ve got to figure something out.” He said, “I know what you have to do.” You’re going to start a consulting company. You’re going to call it Flash Consulting. It’s going to be. My name’s Phil, and my wife’s name is Ashley, and I call her Ash. I’m putting together Flash, and I’ll be your first client. I’ll also bring in two more clients. I already talked to my friends. They’re going to be your clients. Okay. He fired me from his job and gave me a consulting gig, which paid $50 an hour, 40 hours a week, with three clients. I then started working with them. Exactly what I was doing for his business, I started doing it for three businesses. 

So, you asked me how I made this transition. Here’s what I would recommend. If you have a job right now, I’ll give you two parts. I’m not really sure about it, though. I want to do my own thing, in a way. In your industry, what are the problems that need to be solved? If there’s an owner of the business or a manager, ask them, What keeps you up at night? What are the big problems that you have? They’re going to tell you. Then you say, “Okay, well, what does a solution look like?” Well, if someone built this and did all that, this is what it would look like. 

Okay, how much would you be willing to pay for this solution? Maybe  $2,000. I don’t know,  they’ll tell you, right? Try doing that a couple of times in your current position. One, you already have the industry knowledge. Many others gained industry knowledge through hands-on experience. 

Two, you have a built-in clientele. If you went to your owner and said, “Hey, I’m going to think about building this thing. Can I build it and build it with you?” They would say, Yeah, of course. And then three, you know the price point that other people would be willing to pay. So that’s the first thing. If you work at a big corporate job, let’s just say, and I don’t have access to the owner, I’m just a number here, blah, blah, blah, go and find a local business, go in so that you’re going to order your food or something, and just start asking that question over and over again. What are some of the significant challenges that your industry is currently facing? What keeps you up at night? What’s the big thing? 

Oh, it’s my supply chain over here. Oh, how much would you be willing to pay for this? If you ask that about 30 to 60 times, you’ll likely get one idea that sticks out, making you think, “Okay, I think I can see this working.”

Cosmos

Wow, Phil, there are so many questions to ask here. One question that comes to mind is that you’ve sent people, and their leads are coming to the website. 

So, how do you get website leads into paying customers? Do you have a general strategy, or did you have a specific one in mind?

Phil

Yes, my industry is home services, right? So, plumbers, electricians, and HVAC contractors, there are two key aspects to consider: people must be able to find you when they search for services. Our findings indicate that 87% of people turn to Google when seeking a home service business. They don’t necessarily just know someone to contact. 

So, they go to Google and ask, “Good plumber near me” or whatever. There are four key sections on the Google Search engine results page: Google Local service ads, Google Search ads, Map pack, and local SEO for your website. So, naturally, if I tell you this, you’re going to say, Well, we need to be in all four places. That way, they can find us in all four places. 

So our business helps them get in those four places. That’s the basic thing, right? The second part of this process involves them finding you, and then they need to visit your website to learn more about you. This is where you need a tool to convert them into a lead. Not just having a contact button there to fill out a form, but having a pop-up offer, having a chat widget, having an estimate calculator, something that’s going to convert leads at a higher clip than just a contact form. 

So it’s two parts. Get the visibility so that when people search, they find you, and then when they visit your website, they convert into leads. Now it’s shifting, right? Not everyone goes to Google. A report indicates that about 72% of boomers go to Google, 60% of millennials, and the percentage drops from there. A significant shift is currently underway in the industry, of which I’m a part, and it’s transitioning to AI search. Bright Local, a company, conducted a report that found 26% of Gen Z conducts local searches on social media. 

Specifically, when it comes to AI search and content creation, the focus is shifting from Google into a new realm that encompasses AI search, social media, and content. In my industry, home service, we need to adapt our approach to a new model, specifically, how we appear in AI search results. And that’s kind of the shift that we’re going through right now, which we could talk about, but I wanted to give you what we did and what we do, but also the future.

Cosmos

Yes, I wanted to elaborate on that further. I’ve noticed that AI has been around for the last two to three years, and it’s revolutionized the way we do everything. So, from your perspective, how would people go about getting leads? Will they rely on Google SEO? Will they rely on social media? Or are they going to, or is it a combination of all of these?

Phil

Yeah, great question. For SEO, or search engine optimization, if you were to go to ChatGPT and say, “I’m looking for a good plumber.” What criteria do you look at when you give results? It will inform you of the necessary steps to be taken to be shown. Currently, all the SEO efforts you’re making on Google are still in transition, literally. ChatGPT will search Google and then show you the results, providing a bit more insight into the data. Right. So, it essentially handles the SEO tasks. So you still need to do that. There’s one big part to this. 

So I had Neil Patel on my show. He’s an OG SEO guy. I also had Marcus and Sheridan from “They Ask You” on my show twice; Marcus is an SEO expert for home services. And I asked them all the same question. Here’s the big kicker: a huge land grab is underway because LLMs, or large language models, are powering AI search. Large language models are trained on vast amounts of content. They’re unlikely to come up with anything new beyond what they’ve learned from the content. As a business owner or individual, the most effective step is to create content that trains large language models on your business, ensuring you appear in AI search results. 

So, what we’re doing as a company is shifting from just technical SEO to creating actual content. That way, we’ll remain relevant in the next two to five years as the full shift to AI search occurs. And I’ll give you one other cherry on top. We have an AI avatar of me, featuring every single podcast and content piece I’ve ever made, as well as our team. When I’m unavailable, I’m hosting podcasts. They can ask any question. It will provide the results based on my statements, citing the source and indicating exactly where each point is made, allowing them to review it. If you don’t have content, you’re not going to be able to build an AI avatar off of whatever you’ve said. 

But you also won’t be able to incorporate that into your work. Every business owner says they want to replicate their success. Every business owner would want that on their website, in their sales process. In short, creating content is essential to remain relevant on AI search and prepare your business for the future.

Cosmos

I see. Yeah. Once AI comes into full swing, it’s going to be a whole new ball Game. Right? Marketing has undergone significant changes over the last 20 to 30 years. Before the Internet, we relied on traditional methods, including TV ads and infomercials. Now, everything seems to change so rapidly.

Phil

Yeah, the old school ways. To be honest, there’s one old-school approach that’s gaining significant traction among many businesses. I would recommend this whether you’re thinking about starting a business or already have one. And that is what’s called B2B partnerships. 

So, when I went to work at this three-million-dollar business, they generated two million dollars from partnerships. They performed air duct cleaning and partnered with H Vac contractors. They suggested, “When you go out and do your HVAC service, recommend us for duct cleaning.” If you recommend us, we’ll send you $100. That B2B game plan is never going to be missed. And more importantly, it’s going to bypass search. It’s going to be people who refer you business. And if they refer you business, they get paid. Right? 

 A typical affiliate program. But it’s on a local level. My business offers an affiliate program, which is essentially a referral program. If someone refers us business, we give them $1,000. Okay, but let’s take it way smaller.

Let’s say you’re just starting, and it’s, “Hey, I’m building this thing for these people.” Since you’ve already asked some of those questions and gained some understanding. Who else knows all these other people? Well, this realtor knows a bunch of these people. Or does this company person know about these people? Tell them, “Hey, I’ll make you look like a rock star.” Can you just intro me? At the very least, I’ll make you look great. Best case, I’ll pay you. If I close this person, I’ll give you 10% of the agreed-upon commission. 

This is an old-school tactic that is still effective for many businesses. It takes a little hand-to-hand combat. It’s not as easy as just running a Facebook ad, but it definitely can help generate millions of dollars. Cause I’ve seen it firsthand.

Cosmos

Well, can you elaborate on joint venture partnerships, such as B2B?

Phil

Yeah, for sure.

Alright, so let’s say my business, for example, is in digital marketing. Okay. For home service businesses. So naturally, who would come in contact with other people? That would be my target audience. A fractional CFO for home service businesses, a payroll company for home service businesses, a bookkeeper for home Service businesses, right? 

These people already work with my target audience and receive questions. Do you know of a reputable digital marketing company? I’m struggling with mine. They get that question. I need to inform them about my services and provide a compelling reason for them to refer me. Most people won’t refer you just because you’re paying them $10. They don’t care. Their credibility is on the line. 

So, you need to tell them why they should refer you. The story could be, Hey, let me connect you with Phil. He was featured on Forbes. He was da da da, da da, da. You’ve got to give him that story. Okay, but the actual nuts and bolts of how to do this involve finding out who your complementary services are. So, let’s say mine is a fractional CFO for home service businesses. I go to Fiverr, find a list builder, and ask, “Hey, can you build me a list of all the fractional CFOs in the United States for home service businesses?” He says, Yeah, it’s going to be $150. Cool. Gives me the list of, let’s say, 100 people. Now I have 100 fractional CFOs for home service businesses. I connect with them on LinkedIn, send them an email, and call to introduce them to my partnership program. I invite them to appear on my podcast or another platform, and we build a relationship. Then, they refer you to a business.

Cosmos

Nice.

So, Phil, for the sake of the audience, let’s say someone is watching this and wants to make a lot of money online, right? 

They’re unsure about how to proceed, including building a website, setting up an email marketing system, and optimizing for SEO, so they come to you for advice. How would you advise them?

Phil

Yeah, for sure. So, when I first started, my primary goal was to create a website, gain a following, attract subscribers, and sell them affiliate products to make money. Okay. I learned how to do that now. Now I probably make around $4,000 to $5,000 a month just passively through our email newsletter. And it’s not that much in the grand scheme of our business, right? 

So, it took me around 10 years to figure this out. And I’ll tell you exactly what to do. Okay? So, if it were me, I’d say blogs are old school, okay? Create a podcast, a YouTube channel, or a platform, and start producing content. If you prefer not to be on video, consider creating a podcast instead. If you’re comfortable with video, think about creating a YouTube channel. Whatever you choose, pick something you’re passionate about and talk about it. For me, it was money. 

So I could easily discuss money because I had experience and had done something, and I could easily talk about that for you. I don’t know your story yet, but I do know you’re coming on my podcast. It could be as simple as, “I’m interviewing cool people and sharing the wealth with everyone, hoping they gain some knowledge.” Whatever it is, you’ve got to be adding value. Once you add value, it’s the Gary Vee jab, jab, jab. Right hook. Right hook is not about saying, “Hey, buy my course.” Right hook is, hey, by the way, if this is helping you, we also have this program that might be helpful.

Suppose you want it, cool. If not, it’s all good. So, what I’m saying is that you create content about something you’re on your preferred channel or platform, and then you keep making content, right? The longer you delay the request, the more likely it is to be approved. Because they’re going to be, man, this guy just keeps giving out bangers. When’s he going to ask me for something? It’s just constant stuff. I’m going to ask him, “Can I pay you for this?” You know what I’m saying?

Cosmos

Yeah.

Phil

Therefore, my recommendation would be to identify one channel and focus on it. Reps, Reps. Because you’re not going to be good at it at first, right? You just need to get the reps in. Once you’ve established a rapport with people and started building trust, you can then find natural connections. For instance, I have a company called Jobber, which is a CRM for home service businesses. I’m a brand ambassador for them, right? 

Since I create content, maybe we could collaborate. They pay me $1,000 a month to make a short film. One short. Okay. It’s because I create content that they think, “Hey, maybe I could connect with your audience.” They have me on their podcast, among other things. This is what I mean. You gotta get the reps in. That way, you establish yourself as an authority in the space, and when you discuss something, partnerships will follow. But if you go out at the other angle of just trying to make money, it’s not gonna land.

Cosmos

No, totally. I mean, it’s just value, value, value. And then, and then after that,  you ask, and  I’ve been talking to some,  I went to this conference, and I talked to some, some people, right? 

Do you know how to proceed with this? Some people have actually said that you can achieve more by selling a vision, specifically a long-term one, and then it becomes an integral part of that vision. Then you actually do the ask. But I don’t know, what’s your opinion on that? Is it about having a vision versus just selling a product or offer?

Phil

Okay, I don’t have a product or offer, but I just laid out what I’ve done right with the audience. Right now, if I said, “Hey, I’m going to start a mastermind, I’m only taking 10 people,” I wouldn’t charge you anything. I’d love to build this mastermind with you. The goal is for you to earn up to $10,000 a month, just as I have. Let me show you. Let’s get right to it. I’m not even saying you have to pay me anything. I’m saying I just want 10 people to develop this project. That’s my vision. Right? 

Because I know that I can help people do that, I haven’t built anything. I’m just saying that. Right? But it’s everything I’ve said before that gives people the confidence to say, “Oh yeah, I would sign up for that if you did that.” Right? And then you’re casting this vision out of, ‘ How can I help these people? ‘ Let’s build this thing together. 

And then I didn’t even ask for anything. Then you have to ask later on. It’s as if I’ve taken people through this process. Here are the actual results that they got. Now I’ll introduce the cost. And let me get other people to do this.

Cosmos

Wow, Phil.

So, Phil, what was the most significant lesson you’ve learned throughout your career in this industry, including your time consulting?

Phil

Yeah, for sure. I’m 35 now. Right. When I was 22, I had no idea what the heck I was doing. I had no idea about any of this stuff. And I still am. I’m learning and trying to figure things out. What I can say is that there are four main pillars for me. I made a personal video about this on my YouTube channel. But basically, first, I got out of debt. For me, debt was handcuffs because I felt  I was in a rat race. I had golden handcuffs. If I were in debt, I would have to keep my job to make money and pay off all these debts. 

So, the first thing for me was getting out of debt, so I could truly live the life I wanted to live, not the life I had to live. So that’s the first thing. The second step would be to establish a budget. From a financial perspective, I needed to know how much money I had to make each month to cover my expenses. 

So I got out of debt and made a budget. The third thing I needed was to learn new skills. I told you, I left Enterprise to run a local service business. Cause I need to learn how to sell. So I think it’s okay. Work a job, but don’t just sit at a job to make a paycheck. Consider getting a job where you can learn something new and build more skills. And then the fourth thing was, imagine you do that. You have no debt, and you have a budget in place. 

So, you know your finances, and you’re building skills that will pay you a lot of money. Now, go to a business and take action. Go and actually do something. Because I could tell you until I’m blue in the face, make this cute course over here about AI search and da da da, but if you haven’t actually done anything, it’s very hard to be credible when you talk about things or try to share them. 

So, do something. I worked at a home service business. I helped him triple his profit. I can share that story with someone else, leveraging my sales experience, and I can take a risk and bet on myself since I have no debt. To put it another way, I was 22, not 35. There’s a lot of stuff that has to happen in between there. It won’t be an overnight success. You’ve got to do a lot of these things for me to get to that point.

Cosmos

So, Phil, one thing I wanted to ask for the sake of the audience is, you know, traditional education where people attend college and pursue a four-year degree, and so on. And then society tells them to get a job, or after going to college for a few years, from your perspective as an entrepreneur. 

Entrepreneur: If you’re just coming out of high school and looking to become successful, start a business, or become a millionaire. How do you think you should go about doing so?

Phil

Yes, so first, the debt issue is really challenging. I went into student loan debt, right? So, if you went to college or you’re going to college and you have student loans, it’s really hard because you’re going to put yourself in a hole, right? But if I were to come out of school knowing what I know now and knowing that I’m super creative, I would be the first in my family to attend college, the Grant family, the whole thing. 

So, no, you’re doing this. If I had that mindset and knew what I know now, I would skip it and do something else, since I already have some of the necessary skills. But I think it’s two, two sides of it. One, you don’t really know what you don’t know. 

So, if you could work at a corporate company like Enterprise, it would essentially be a full training ground, an MBA program that teaches you how to run a business. And I learned so much. I wouldn’t be where I am today if I hadn’t gone through that program. On the flip side, if I knew there was an opportunity to start a gutter cleaning company, for instance, that could be a million-dollar business I could launch tomorrow. Yeah, right. If I had known about that, I probably would have done that because I was already trying things. I tried the VoIP thing when I was 18, and then I tried something else when I was 20, but I didn’t really have the actual framework in place to know what to do. 

So kind of a double-edged sword to that. If I had a framework, I could watch YouTube videos that showed me how to start a gutter cleaning business and earn up to $10,000 with just $100. Now I know I could have done that, but I wouldn’t have done it if I had known this information at the time. I would probably recommend trying that.

Cosmos

Throughout your career, what do you think was the biggest challenge you had when it came to attaining success, and how did you go about overcoming it?

Phil

Yeah, the scarcity mindset is really what it is. Growing up, you have to go to school, get good grades, and then make money because you’re going to have debt and other expenses, and you don’t have enough money for that. 

And you gotta pay off your debt. You’ve got to make sure it’s all those things that scare you. It scared me, right? Because I didn’t think that the world was abundant. I didn’t. I’m throwing out numbers and talking about stuff, and it’s, wow, this guy’s so confident. He gets it. And this. I wasn’t like that before. I used to pinch my pennies very, pay off my debt. Is there really all this opportunity that people say out here and this kind of stuff, right? For me, it was about overcoming the scarcity mindset. And when it really hit me, to be honest, was when I was about 29. I had Flash Consulting. We were generating approximately $ 200,000 in revenue. 

So I’ve been doing it for two or three years. 200 000 in revenue? Two years. And I was making good. I was making around $120,000, right? And I’m okay, I could do this forever, or I could go to the next level, right? And it was. I had to overcome the scarcity mindset, which is essentially about going all in. I’m about to risk it for the biscuit. I’m about to risk $50,000, $100,000 to hire some people, right? Before this, I had an interview with someone whom I was hiring, right? And it’s that money that I could take out of my business and put in my bank account or put in another investment that I’m actually investing back into my business. 

And we have 17 team members. Personally, I had to overcome that. And that was the biggest thing that I think a lot of people, especially in your 20s, there’s so much opportunity out there. But really, I’m kind of going along with it because I’m very passionate about this. Once you’re in your 30s and have a family, a wife, kids, a mortgage, and a car payment, that’s when things get real. That is not when you’re thinking, “I should start a business,” right? I should really take a risk. It’s the complete opposite. 

And a lot of people think, oh, well, I’ll just wait till I get to the point of having some money in the bank. Do it before. Then for me, it was perfect. I was 28. I wasn’t married yet. I didn’t, right? So then I got married. Now I have a family, kids, and all this stuff, but I was able to take that hit right away. For me, the biggest thing is having a scarcity mindset. However, if you do it in your 20s, it becomes much harder as you get older.

Cosmos

Well, Phil, that’s one of the major reasons I’m actually doing this podcast. Many people want to start their own businesses, but they often begin with a scarcity mindset. However, achieving a thriving and abundant mindset is a process. 

And then that process is the main reason I interview people who started from nothing and then went on to make six figures, seven figures, or eight figures. And they have to all go through a process. But the way they go through it, it’s a certain pattern, you know?

Phil

Exactly.

For me, one of the biggest things is that I’m not saying this to push anything. It’s just. For me, breaking through was about investing $15,000 to $20,000 in a coach. At Flash Consulting, I could have taken out $20,000 and hired someone else. I could have taken it and done something else with it. 

But I literally said, Okay, I’m going to spend $20,000 this year on a coach. When I did that, it basically broke all the moral codes that I have, which is, you know, I went to college and I got these loans, but who’s going to pay $20,000 for a coach or something, right? In my mindset, when I did that, it was basically, all right, Phil, you’re basically betting on yourself, so you got to get after it, bro. And from there, it was game on. I just put 20,000 on my back, so I got to go for it. And every single year, I try to go for more because, if I’m willing, I think about how valuable I am to myself if I’m going to put up $ 30,000, $ 40,000, $ 50,000 on me, on my back.

Cosmos

Yeah.

Phil

And that really broke the scarcity mindset because it showed me how much I’m worth. You know what I mean?

Cosmos

Wow, Phil. So, when you tell somebody who wants to start a business that they have to invest $20,000 in a mentor, they’ll think $20,000 is a lot. 

But ultimately, it’s the difference in investing in yourself that will actually get you to the next level.

Phil

I would flip it a little bit if you’re going to start a business. Okay. There are numerous gurus and all this associated material. There are people out there who will tell you how to do all this stuff. I’m not suggesting that. What I’m saying is that when you start taking action and seeing results, that’s the number one thing you can do, okay? 

Take action by asking the questions I mentioned, then obtain the results and act on them. However, when you start making money, many people often want to withdraw all that money because they feel rich. You know, they’re getting money from something that they did. What I’m saying is that’s the scarcity mindset. It’s taking the money and not reinvesting it in yourself or your business. 

So, for me, I was making that money and just kept taking it out, over and over. Once I started investing in myself and my business, it really started to build wealth, and the snowball effect began to grow. But the scarcity mindset was holding me back because I wanted to take it all for myself. You see what I mean? 

So, if you’re starting, take action, do the work, and begin generating some income. However, be prepared to invest, learn, hire people, and take calculated risks, as these are necessary steps to gain experience and build your reputation.

Cosmos

So Phil, you hit the nail on the head. You have to invest in yourself and seek mentorship. This is something I’ve discussed with other guests, and they call it “time compression.” If you have the right mentor and a community of people who are already where you want to be, it can significantly reduce the time it takes to achieve success. Instead of 10, 20, or 30 years, it might take only 2 to 5 years or less.

Phil

Exactly. It’s the premise, not how, it’s a book, but if you think about Michael Jordan and Kobe, any professional athlete, they have multiple coaches, they have a shooting coach, they have a dribbling coach, they have someone that helps them with their physique, right? They have a mindset coach, as well as various other coaches, right? 

To be a top performer in your space, you need coaches. I hired a video coach, a mentor coach, and a management coach, and I’m going through all these different programs, right? It’s gotten to the point where I didn’t do this right away, and now you can’t hire coaches or buy back your time. What you’re saying is that it will just take you longer to achieve your outcomes. When you can invest in yourself and shrink the amount of time that it takes you to get results and have someone who’s already done it telling you how to do it, it’s going to shrink the amount of time that it takes you, which then is going to alleviate a lot of the pain points that you have. 

So I think that is very important to consider. How long does it take to do something? It could take you five years. But if you could pay $5,000, would you rather do that in one year?

Cosmos

So, Phil, I wanted to ask you something on a national level. Right. America is about freedom, and many people aspire to financial freedom, but there’s a significant amount of wealth and income inequality. 

So, in terms of the national level, how should people go about attaining financial freedom, and what are the most effective methods for doing so?

Phil

Yes, it’s challenging because every person has a unique situation. I can speak to what I might recommend when I speak to people in their twenties. In my experience. Right. For example, this is not a soapbox. It’s just that this was my situation. Maybe it will give someone else a confidence boost. 

Okay. I grew up with my mom, a single mom. I went to college. She moved away when I was in college. And I had student loans. So, basically, I could either rent a room or something else. Or I could call my dad, whom I never lived with, and move into his basement. I called my dad and asked, “Hey, could I move into your basement?” I won’t be able to pay rent for the first year since I’ll be paying off my student loans. Right. 

So I’m saying this because I don’t know everyone’s situation and where they’re at, whatever. But if you want something bad enough, you can find a way. And if not, you’ll find an excuse. And for me, that’s a premise that I live by, which is, I’m saying, I could tell you to get out of debt, but you’re, oh, I got this and that and this and that. It’s cool. That’s your situation. However, what I’m saying is that there’s probably a way I can figure it out. In Rich Dad, Poor Dad, he talks about this as if it’s not a problem, saying, “I can’t afford that.”  How can I afford that? It’s not, I can’t do that.  How can I do that? Same thing with my bus situation. I said, “I want to travel and take a bus.” Right. For many people, it sounds ridiculous, but how can I do that? I could do this, I could do that, and you figure it out. So, I would say it’s a mindset shift for many people. There are also other extremes where it might be nice for you, but this is the situation I’m in, and I am empathetic to that. 

So I’m not saying that, you know, that is not the case. What I would say for the majority of people is that it is a mindset shift that has to happen, and at the end of the day, you have to decide that this is the outcome that you’re going to go for, and here’s how you’re going to do it, and just get after it.

Cosmos

So, what you just said about finding a way or making an excuse is essentially a million-dollar mindset. Basically, it’s right? You can either make excuses for yourself or find a way to succeed.

Phil

Yeah. Sometimes I challenge myself on this, and I’ll think, “Oh, yeah, I want to do this.” But then if I find myself making excuses, I’ll be, well, do I really want that bad enough? Because if I wanted it badly enough, I would figure it out. 

But if I make excuses on this, then I must not want it bad enough. And that’s okay. I’ll have grace with myself. But don’t say you want it if you’re just going to make excuses and not do it.

Cosmos

No, totally. And for the audience, I want them to know that, look, there are so many cases of people who have come from nothing and they’ve made six figures, seven figures, eight figures. And the way. The reason is that their mindset enabled them to find a way. You’re either going to find a way or you’re going to make an excuse. And I want to bring home this point.

Phil

Yes, one other really good quote on this is that you have to stay away from negative people because they have a problem with every solution. And, you know, there are a lot of negative people out there. 

Sometimes, you have an idea or do something, and it always turns out to be a negative thing, especially with family members. It’s as if they always have a problem for every solution. And at a certain point, it’s not constructive. Unfortunately, you have to limit your exposure to some people in your life due to that situation. 

But that will unlock the opportunity and the positive outlook that there is abundance out here. And I know that a lot of times in family, I had in mind that you have this whole pool of different things, and you have to navigate them. It’s all. A lot of it is in the mind of what’s actually happening.

Cosmos

 No, you brought up. Brought up a very important point, because a lot of the negative people tend to be friends and family members, and our emotional attachments to them can sometimes hinder our progress. We need to meet with genuinely positive people, you know?

Phil

Oh, yeah, of course. And the thing is, it’s a typical person who goes to school, earns good grades, gets a job, stays on track, follows the rules, and does all the right things, right? My wife is a kindergarten teacher, okay. She sees me buying a school bus, traveling, and quitting my corporate job. She’s asking, “What is going on?” This is not the rule. This isn’t society’s rules. Right?

Cosmos

Yeah.

Phil

We have a great relationship and a good balance, but it’s not the norm to do this kind of thing. So it’s natural that the majority of people are not going to understand or comprehend or even buy into what you’re thinking of doing, which is okay, because if you want different results, you have to do different things. 

So, I don’t want to be you, which is why I’m not doing what you’re doing. You know what I’m saying?

Cosmos

Oh, totally, Phil.

And Phil, can you tell me a little bit more about Flash Consulting and the premise of how you started and what it’s about?

Phil

Yeah, yeah. So basically, with Flash, we work with home service businesses. I worked at a home service business and helped the owner grow. He said, “Hey, you need to go help other businesses.” So I started working with those three clients. The three clients were a duct cleaning company, a law firm, and a $7 million flooring company. Those are my first three clients. 

And slowly, over time, we began to attract more clients, help more people, and grow our business. We help home service businesses leverage digital marketing, their CRM, and automations to create a professional marketing system that drives growth. We work with companies that have between $1 million and $10 million in revenue, which is essentially our bread and butter. And we help them grow their business by implementing a professional marketing system.

Cosmos

Awesome, Phil. If someone wants to reach out to you personally or get consulting services, how do they go about doing so?

Phil

Yeah, so my time is not for sale. So, what that means is I don’t offer one-on-one consulting, coaching, or any other services. I’m running a business, right? If you are a home service business owner with $1 to $10 million in revenue, you can visit our website, Flash Consulting, and schedule a time to talk. Hey Phil, you seemed like a cool dude. I have some questions for you; feel free to reach out to me on Instagram. Phil Richer, LinkedIn. Phil Richer. I have a YouTube channel, Flash Consulting, and I’m also associated with Phil Richer. I had to be a resource, but I’m not doing one-on-one coaching or consulting with anyone. Mostly just here to be a resource.

Cosmos

I hope you take the time to revisit this podcast at your convenience.

Phil

Yeah. Oh yeah, for sure, man. I appreciate you having me. As a final note, when starting a business, always consider the problem you’re going to solve and who you’re going to help. There’s money on the other side of it. 

However, when you consider your customer and the problem they have, that’s really the starting point. And the money will flow. The more problems you solve, the more money you’re going to make. When you flip it the other way, it never works for sure.

Cosmos

I hope that the audience takes note of this. The key is to shift from a scarcity mindset to a mindset of thriving and abundance. 

But I want to conclude this episode by letting my fellow extraordinary Americans know that, hey, there’s an extraordinary within every one of us. It’s our duty to awaken it and unleash it. Until next time, bye for now.