Dave sits down with Terry Rice, Business Development Consultant and Staff Writer at Entrepreneur magazine, to discuss his podcast, Launch Your Business. This episode delves into life as a father-preneur, scheduling, priorities, and how businesses often aren’t set up to support employees’ health. Most importantly, you’ll learn the one thing you can do to make everything else become easier or unnecessary. Website: https://terryrice.co Instagram/Twitter: @itsterryrice Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/terry-rice/ Our goal is for you to make a single change that begins a butterfly effect. Welcome to the InWork Podcast.
D: Terry, so glad to be chatting with you, brother. How's the week going?
T: Going well. I forgot it was a short week, so it's almost Friday. Which gave us a nice surprise.
D: It'll get you every time. Well, hey, man, I'm super pumped to chat with you. Usually, we have a little bit of a different format for this, but I actually really want you to tell listeners who you are and what you're doing up front, because it's gonna frame a lot of the conversation that we have.
T: Yeah, well I'll start by saying I'm a father of four and it might become very apparent when my kids come home anytime soon. So.
D: How old? How old is your oldest? How old is your youngest?
T: Between eight and 20 months. So pretty tight.
D: Whoa! Oh my gosh!
T: But that actually is very beneficial and I'll explain why. When you have that many constraints, you have fewer options in the ones that are available to you you just execute on without any distraction. But I'll go into what I do as well for more context. So I'm a BizDev consultant and that normally involves helping entrepreneurs build their brand and revenue. And I also write for Entrepreneur Magazine. So creating content that serves the same audience as well as the host of the podcast, Launch Your Business, which also goes out to entrepreneurial media. And I also speak on stages, right? So I speak at Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, like all that good stuff, as well as teaching at New York University and a few other colleges.
D: I love it, man. I love it, brother. That's amazing. So you've got this project that's all centered around solopreneurs. And I love what you have going on. You know, one of the things that people often don't talk about is that there are entrepreneurs that are trying to grow and scale their companies, and then there's also people that are like, hey man, I'm totally fine just doing my own thing, being my own boss, running my own ship, and those people need a totally different community, skill set, whatever. So I love that you're filling that need. Talk to the audience a little bit about why solopreneurs are a focus of yours and what you're doing to help them.
T: A few things, I mean, I always say you have to live it, learn it, and teach it, right? You can't just read a book and then start becoming an expert on it. So I've lived the solopreneur lifestyle and I've made a lot of mistakes. So on my end, I can help people avoid that and just accelerate their growth just by telling stories about my life. So it's actually easy for me. And another thing I should mention is I don't like trying too hard. So I want to be very confident in how I can help people. So if I'm talking about like startups and corporations, all that stuff, that's not my zone of genius or the life I've lived. So on my end, I can help solopreneurs very easily because I can just talk about what I did yesterday and that might help them grow. So that's why the focus is there. And obviously with the market conditions, I mean, there's so many people that are out of work and there's not, in my opinion, enough high paying jobs to absorb some of the tech layoffs and they're going to start their own business. So therefore I can help them because I know what it's like to leave a tech company, I left Facebook before I started my business and have that identity crisis, I can help them navigate that, make money on their own terms as well.
D: Yeah, it's interesting that you say that, Terry, about the situation right now. I put out an ad for a CEO position for one of my companies and literally within 18 hours we had spent $75, so not a whole lot for a job app, and we had 467 applicants, and I had to turn it off. It was just an overwhelming number of applicants, and it wasn't people that were just being silly and like, hey, I want to be the CEO of this company. It was like, no, these are legit people that have great experience. So yeah, I definitely see the wave of entrepreneurs is coming, and there is a gap. You know, the thing that I say a lot, Terry, is we're information rich, but we're wisdom poor as a society. And that's true for entrepreneurs and solopreneurs and business owners as well. There's so many people that have a lot of information, but the wisdom, which is what you're talking about, man, that lived experience is really what takes it to the next level. So, good grief, you have four kids, you're running your own business, you're writing for Entrepreneur, you're speaking on stage, you're doing all these amazing things. That's not easy.
T: I agree.
D: I have three kids under the, from nine to four, and I feel like that's plenty. So whenever you're going about your day to day, how do you keep your head above water? Like, what are the things that you do to stay centered and calm and thoughtful in your behavior?
T: I'd say there's a few things. One is there's this book I read called The One Thing, and The One Thing mentions this focusing question that helps you out a lot. You think to yourself, what's the one thing I can do by doing so, everything else becomes easier or unnecessary. So when I'm creating my goals for the quarter, that's what I'm thinking. Like, what's the one thing I can do? Then every week, what's the one thing I can do? Every day, what's the one thing? In this moment right now, what's the one thing which is enjoying this conversation with you? So I just have this system in my head where I'm like, is this the most important thing I should do right now? Based on the fact that I have four kids that need me to pay for stuff and they're gonna be home soon. And if the answer is no, I just stop, right? So that's part of it. Another is I schedule work around the gym. And I know that sounds ridiculous, but I'll wake up around 5 a.m. Normally my kids wake up around 6. By the time I get to the school, it's like 8.30. Then I go to the gym for about an hour, come back, then I start working around like 10.30 or so. So I'm not going to take my, I'm not going to sacrifice my mental health or my physical health. So therefore I'm forced again to prioritize even more. Okay, great. Now you only have four hours to work today. What's the most important thing and what else can you outsource, eliminate or automate?
D: Yeah. Yeah. So you, the one thing, by the way, great book. If you're listening to this and you haven't picked it up, go read it, it's so, so good. Okay, so you work your days around the gym. See, this is really, most people don't think about it that way, Terry, I know that you know that, I know that I know that, they're not thinking, I've gotta build my day around my well-being, they're thinking, I've gotta build my day around building my business, engaging with my clients and customers, whatever it may be. Was there a shift or an inciting incident that led you to that? Or was that always just something that was in you? I'll say this, when I worked in corporate, and the last corporate job was Facebook, that was not me, right? And the issue with Facebook is you get free breakfast, lunch, and dinner, but you have to be there before 8.30 to get breakfast, and dinner's not start till six. So you're incentivized to get there early, leave late, and never go to the gym. So if you'd see me back then, I looked different, right? Let's just say it that way.
D: Did they not have a gym on campus?
T: Nobody went to it, though. That's the thing. Because you're just like, oh, I can go have a donut, which is free, right? So that's the issue. But the inciting incident, if there was one, was just looking at a picture of myself in my 20s, because I was a college athlete as well. And I'm like, man, I used to look like that, and I don't want to be the guy who's telling stories about how I used to bench 300 pounds. So I started going to the gym again, and I just saw immediate gains. And I was like, this is the identity that I want now. I don't want the identity of the tech guy who brags about working at Facebook to make other people feel bad. I want to be the identity of this, at that point, this guy in his late 30s who's healthy, who runs a business, and is an active father. So I changed my identity by design, and I think that's what a lot of solopreneurs and entrepreneurs don't get, is you can't just change your mindset because that's something that happens in the moment. You have to change your identity, therefore you know what path you're on and what steps you should take to be that person.
D: I love that, man. I love that so much. Okay, so now you are doing all these things. You're building your life around your gym time.
D: You're also building your life around, I can see it, like intentionally spending time with your kids and being there with them. I mean, the six to 8.30 window is like getting them up, getting them ready for school, and doing all that craziness at 8.30, like that's the intentional time that you're saying I'm gonna give that to them. Do you create other intentional times at the back end of your day too? Or are you one of those guys that's like, eh, I can only do it in the morning because that's the best that I can control?
T: I do it near the back end too, and my goal is to spend about 15 minutes alone with each kid every day. Not the baby, because she can't really tell, but the older ones. Just so we have time to talk, because you know what it's like when you have multiple kids. You're talking to one, the other one's interrupting, so on and so forth. So just blocking off that time is important to me. And again, the discipline that comes from that means I have to be done with work when they come home, right? So it's like, again, you're doing the most important thing and you're ruthlessly prioritizing your day, realizing I have to focus on impact and can't do all this extra stuff because it'll take away the time that I need to focus on impact.
D: Yeah, yeah man, I love that. You and I have some similar philosophies in that space. Like I have started to do this thing for when I have speaking gigs, I take one of the kids with me and I rotate them through. And so my oldest is nine, son's seven, youngest daughter's four and a half, and they love it, man. And so if we take a trip, then it's like, this is memory building. They're hanging out with dad. I'm bringing them backstage and stuff. And they're getting to see that this is what it looks like to do work in a different way. Because all they see, and I'm sure that this is true for you for the most part too, Terry, but they can just go, dad's work is looking at a computer. And they have no clue.
T: You know? Like what it is every day.It's weird. Well, my kids, like they see me on TV too. So every day they're like, are you gonna be on TV again? And I'm like, no, they're like disappointed. Like, okay, my dad's apparently a failure because he's not on TV today. So that's what I think they think I do. It's just talk on TV. But I love that you're bringing your kids with you on a trip. I've never done that yet, but I'm gonna challenge myself to do so, so thanks for that.
D: Yeah man, it's been cool and it definitely means that I get to bed earlier on those trips too, which is nice. Because I'm like, man, I gotta go get them to bed. But yeah man, I love that you're doing that. So when you're doing all this beautiful work with your family and kind of like making that time and space, you've got the workout routine, are there other routines or other habits that you've picked up along the way that have helped you to achieve the level of success that you have?
T: There's a few, I mean, time blocking if we're talking about how we structure our days, and I think that's kind of basic, so I won't go there. I think it's this, it's finding the opportunity within the opportunity. And I'll explain what I mean by that, right? So years ago, I was approached by Amazon to give some free talk here in New York City at this event called like Amazon lofts, right? So I did this talk there, did a good job in my opinion, but then I always think to myself, how can I endear myself to this organization such that I can form a long term relationship? So what I'll often do is look for a gap in their content and their programming and their offering, and then proactively offer to fill that. And in this case, they need to help with some, some content for their website. So I was like, Hey, Amazon, I got you. So fast forward three years, they're like, Hey, by the way, we're doing this event in Seattle. Can you come be a keynote speaker for our event?
D: Sure.
T: But that was in the back of my head the whole time. Right. And I'm not saying I'm doing it in a predatory way, but I am always trying to find the opportunity within the opportunity. And I think if more entrepreneurs leverage what's called second order thinking, essentially saying this thing happened, now what's another thing that can come next? You'll make a lot more money, you'll build more partnerships and you won't have to try so hard to grow because there's all these people out there that know, like, and trust you and want to see you grow as well. So that's really what it is. It's just looking for the opportunity within the opportunity and also stressing legacy over currency. So by design, I always want to be the best person anyone's ever worked with, right? Whether it's a vendor or a client, so on and so forth. And I want to feel free to know that anytime I post on social media, no one's ever going to say, oh, this guy sucks, he ripped me off, so on and so forth. So it's that integrity, I think as well, that people pick up on.
D: I love that, man. I love that. If you were going to give one piece of advice to solopreneurs, entrepreneurs, aspiring entrepreneurs, what would it be?
(13:24) T: It's gonna seem kind of trite, but pay someone to help you. Pay for help. Because you can buy speed, literally. That's true. No, not speed the drug, but speed speed. Because I know right now, if I had talked to myself eight years ago, it would have taken me an hour to say, look, Terry, just do X, Y, and Z, and you will grow quicker, you're gonna avoid setback, you're gonna not fear failure, you won't be so stressed about how you're gonna feed your family. I would have paid thousands of dollars for that one hour, but unfortunately, so many entrepreneurs think, well, I'm not making any money, so I can't spend any yet. But it's like, well, do you realize that your whole business model is based on exchanging value for money? So how about you go pay some money, get some value yourself too, because you're just pushing the timeline back to success more and more. So if you have to get a credit card, borrow some money, whatever it is, just give some expert 500 bucks, take a course, do something. But it's really that, just invest in your education earlier, and that way you won't have to make so many mistakes.
(14:22) D: That's awesome, man. Well, listen, brother, if people want to connect with you, they want to find out more about what you have going on, where can they reach out to do so?
T: Yeah, I mean, my website is terryrice.co, it's not com, some photographer in Indiana has that and he's not giving it up, but if you want some photos, go there. Also on social media, it's at It's Terry Rice, you can check me out there as well as LinkedIn. But I think the most important thing I would recommend people do is I have a free LinkedIn learning course where I teach you how to create a high-performance mindset for entrepreneurs. And I think that's where it starts. It's actions, tools, and mindset. But if you don't have the right mindset, you will not have the will to execute the actions or use the tools because you don't have it within you to push through challenging situations. So I would check out that course. Again, it's called Developing a
(15:10) D: High-Performance Entrepreneurial Mindset. I love it, man. I love it. Terry, thanks for the time, brother. Thanks so much for coming on. High-Performance Entrepreneurial Mindset. I love it, man. I love it. Terry, thanks for the time, brother. Thanks so much for coming on.
T: Yeah, thank you. This was fun. I appreciate it.