The Journey to a Life You Love
Welcome back to the Lifestyle Entrepreneur Podcast. I’m Mark, also known as Money with Mark on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. This is the show where we believe in working less and living more. After completing my education at MIT, I worked for one of the world’s biggest affiliate marketing companies. Now, I run my own marketing agency, which is a lifestyle business.
If you’re interested in building a business that gives you a life you love, then subscribe to this podcast on YouTube, Spotify, or wherever you’re consuming this right now.
This episode was inspired by a recent Thanksgiving gathering. As a Canadian, I appreciate our earlier Thanksgiving in October. It feels like perfect timing, allowing for a healthy craving for turkey again by Christmas!
During my Thanksgiving celebration, I had a guest who aspired to be an entrepreneur. Our conversation truly inspired me to share my journey and emphasize a crucial message: don’t start a business just to become rich. Instead, start a business to have a rich life, a life that you love to live, a life you don’t need a vacation from. You don’t need billions of dollars in the bank to achieve this.
I want to use my story as inspiration to share how my view of money, and more importantly, building a rich life, has evolved.
The Early Pursuit of Wealth
Childhood Dreams: Doctor or Lawyer?
Growing up, through high school and university, I was obsessed with the idea of being rich. I remember watching a TV show, I think it was Joan Rivers’ “How’d You Get So Rich?” in high school. The show interviewed various wealthy individuals. What struck me was that these truly rich people were rarely the careers I was told would make me wealthy. As a child, I was taught that to be wealthy, you had to be a lawyer, a doctor, or maybe an engineer. There weren’t many other paths presented to me.
Instinctively, from a young age, I wanted to be rich. When asked, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” (a question I’ve always disliked), I’d say, “A doctor.” The response was always, “Oh, you’re going to be rich!” And I thought, “Great, that’s exactly what I want.”
The Entrepreneurial Revelation
My perception shifted dramatically after watching Joan Rivers’ show. I realized a common thread among the rich individuals she interviewed: they weren’t doctors, lawyers, or engineers. They were mainly business owners, entrepreneurs who had built seemingly random businesses. You’d never guess there was a super wealthy person or family behind a particular product, service, or business. This realization truly stuck with me.
From that point on, I started viewing everything through the lens of, “How can I turn this into a business?” My mother was instrumental in fueling this passion. Whenever I acquired a certification, like becoming a certified swim teacher in high school, instead of getting a job at a local pool, my mom encouraged me to offer private swimming lessons at a lake. That’s exactly what I did.
She constantly pushed me to build a business rather than just getting a job. Because of this, I was hardwired from an early age to believe that building a business was my ticket to wealth. This interest in entrepreneurship continued into university, where I became the president of my university’s entrepreneurship club, a new club I helped found and run. This experience truly set me on my path to becoming an entrepreneur.
Defining a Rich Life: Beyond Just Money
After college, my perspective started to mature. I began listening to podcasts and reading more. I remember one book, which I can’t recall the title of now, that advocated for repeatedly asking yourself “why” until you reached the root of your desires. At the time, I thought it was a bit “woo-woo” and wondered how it would make me rich. However, it turned out to be one of the most impactful exercises I’ve ever done.
I went through the worksheet, starting with my goal: “I want to be rich.” Then I asked, “Why do I want to be rich?” My answer was, “I want to be able to live anywhere in the world I want. I want to work whenever I want. I want to spend as much time as I want with my family and future children.”
Drilling down through these layers was eye-opening. I realized I didn’t necessarily need to be super rich. What I truly needed was:
- Control over my schedule to set my own work hours.
- Control over the projects I work on.
- Enough money to spend ample time with my family.
- A way to achieve all these things from anywhere in the world.
This realization became the foundation for everything I did next. I began acquiring digital skills that I could offer as a service from anywhere. I had numerous side hustles before I truly delved into affiliate marketing.
The Aha Moment and Building a Virtual Agency
Working at one of the world’s biggest affiliate marketing agencies, I had an “aha!” moment. My first solo project involved a team of computer developers and a writer, all managed by me. I transformed a website generating about $100k a year in affiliate revenue. Within four months, it was on track to make almost $3 million in the next 12 months.
I was behind the entire strategy, understanding why we built web pages in a certain way, the importance of fast loading times, and the need for unique, valuable content. I understood the psychology of getting people to click on our website versus a competitor’s. This experience was a lightbulb moment. I realized, “This skill set I have in digital marketing through search-optimized content can truly provide me with the life I want.” It was a highly valuable skill I could leverage.
That’s exactly why I started offering marketing agency services. I knew I could replicate that success for other businesses. My very first client was a law firm. The lawyer, a solo practitioner for 25 years, took a risk on me. She didn’t have a huge budget, but she wanted to grow her business, make a bigger impact, and hire people. She had an incredible process for providing legal divorce solutions and wanted to reach more people.
In 18 months, I helped transform her from a solopreneur stuck for 25 years into a multi-million dollar business, all without running a single paid ad. This success, my first case study, was incredibly powerful for my business and marketing, helping me secure subsequent clients and build my business the way I envisioned.
From the beginning, I structured my business as entirely virtual. While I do have in-person meetings and networking, most of our operations are remote. My team is virtual, working from anywhere, and we meet clients virtually. The pandemic, ironically, helped accelerate this by pushing everyone into the Zoom and Google Meet world, making online interactions the default. The familiarity with SEO also meant that when COVID hit, many businesses realized the need for it, which significantly boosted my agency’s growth.
The Three Freedoms: Time, Financial, and Location
The most important thing my marketing agency gave me wasn’t just wealth, but three freedoms. I’ve transformed from wanting to be rich to wanting to be free. I define these as:
Time Freedom
This means I’m in charge of my calendar. It doesn’t mean I don’t work, but I schedule the work I want to do. I can outsource tasks I’m not good at or don’t enjoy. I control my time. For example, I can schedule swimming lessons with my toddler on Tuesdays at 2 p.m. or go mountain biking on a beautiful Thursday afternoon before the local market.
I control how long I work, what I work on, and the overall amount of work I do. If you’re still listening to this podcast, you’re likely not building a business to work 80 hours a week under fluorescent lights in a downtown office. You built your business for something more. You probably want to be rich, but you also want these other things: time freedom, financial freedom, and location freedom.
Financial Freedom
This goes hand-in-hand with time and location freedom. It’s about having enough resources to support your desired lifestyle without being chained to a desk or specific hours. It’s not about endless wealth, but about having the means to make choices that serve your life goals.
Location Freedom
The ability to work from anywhere in the world. This was a key driver for me, enabling me to combine my passion for work with my desire to live and travel freely. It allows for flexibility and a rich life experience.
These three freedoms dictate every decision I make in my business and with the products and services I choose to work on. They serve as my guiding light, helping me understand what I want to do, and more importantly, what I need to say no to.
For instance, one of my podcast episodes highlighted firing a client who was paying us $100k a year. Why? Because they were consuming too much of my time. A time audit revealed I was spending 50 hours a week on just that one client. It simply wasn’t worth it.
I offered them new packages, but they couldn’t commit. I was willing to say no to money, to work, because it didn’t align with my goals of time, financial, and location freedom. These freedoms are interconnected; freeing up your time often requires better financial management. As Alex Hormozi often emphasizes, the goal isn’t just to make money, but to make money in a way that serves your life.
I recently had a difficult conversation with my VP of marketing, who was concerned about losing some clients. But what I shared with her, and what I continue to emphasize, is that focusing on these freedoms allows us to make strategic decisions that ultimately lead to a more fulfilling and sustainable business. As Tony Robbins teaches, true success is about living life on your own terms.
The Path to Your Own Rich Life
My journey from wanting to be “rich” to building a business that provides a “rich life” has been transformative. It wasn’t about accumulating endless wealth, but about strategically building a business that supports my desired lifestyle, offering time, financial, and location freedom. By constantly asking “why” and aligning my business decisions with these core freedoms, I’ve been able to create a life I truly love, one that doesn’t feel like work.
Consider what a “rich life” means to you. Is it time with family? The ability to travel? The freedom to pursue your passions? By defining these, you can build a business that serves your life, rather than your life serving your business.
