Life is Good - 4th Quarter 2018 Update

I love life. Every day I get to experience a deep sense of appreciation for the incredible journey I am blessed to be on. 2018 was a year with higher highs and lower lows than years past. I try to find pleasure in pain and bliss in the best of times. This attitude has been cultivated over time. The simplest practice became part of pop culture via Oprah and hasn’t lost steam in the past decade – a gratitude journal. Jared just started keeping one, a demand we imposed to help him build this muscle. If you want to be happier in 2019, give it a try.

Learning Adventures

Audible told me I listened to 450 hours of books this year. Add another 300 hours of podcast interviews and 100 hours of live training and courses and it ends up that I spend more time learning than any other single activity outside of sleeping. I see learning as the primary driver of my results.

Ask me about any of these books I read this quarter if they sound of interest to you.

Taking Your Company Public: A Corporate Strategies Manual

Moonshots: Creating a World of Abundance

Nine Essential Things I've Learned About Life

Clockwork: Design Your Business to Run Itself

1-2-3 Magic: Effective Discipline for Children 2-12

The Secrets of Happy Families

Entrusted: Building a Legacy That Lasts

Riveted: 44 Values That Change the World

Above the Line: Lessons in Leadership and Life from a Championship Season

This Is Marketing: You Can't Be Seen Until You Learn to See

Dare to Lead: Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts.

Game Changers: What Leaders, Innovators, and Mavericks Do to Win at Life

Why the Rich Are Getting Richer

I attended a couple of EO learning events: Alexa Carlin shared her amazing entrepreneurial journey; and Kelly Swanson taught about the importance of storytelling. I also helped organize the first MyEO Deal Exchange conference in Denver where I spoke on “lessons learned making deals” but more importantly learned from others. One major highlight for me was learning how billionaire Jeff Hoffman spends his time and money supporting entrepreneurs with social missions. It gave me a vision for how I’d like to be able to make greater contributions to the world beyond business and philanthropy.

I spent 3 days in workshops to create my “Why” and “Core Values” which you can see here.  The process was insightful the whole way through, and I took away a lot more than simply the end result.

Business Adventures

Once again, we had 100% retention at Freedom Wealth Advisors, in addition to adding two new families as clients. The primary reason I can proactively design my life is because of the consistent support my clients have given to me. After working with some for 10+ years, my relationships have gone well beyond that of a financial advisor. 

Our Freedom Internet Fund closed the year with the acquisition of AdvanDate. A strong tailwind has been helpful to our Freedom Real Estate Fund, though finding attractive cash flow opportunities keeps getting harder and harder. Our Freedom Income Fund continues to seek out high yield debt opportunities, and like most asset classes, good deals are fewer and farther between.

We launched a new “Create Tax Freedom” service at Freedom adVentures. We helped save over $5,000,000 in taxes in our first six engagements. Expect to see more from me on tax strategies for entrepreneurs, specifically those that own Internet-based businesses.

At iluma Agency, we were profitable each and every month in 2018 – an uncommon feat at growing companies. More importantly, we ended the year with 100% confidence in our team. Every individual “gets it, wants it and has the capacity to do it” (GWC), especially our rock star management team. 

Our best quarter fourth quarter ever helped us end the year with revenue up 20% over last year at Cadsourcing,. We hired an impressive new controller, which we desperately needed. Everything for an explosive 2019 is in place!

Philanthropic Adventures

Tis the season when it comes to charities. We provided Halloween costumes for foster children, children's books and stuffed animals for Kids 4 Kids and Christmas gifts for Kids In Distress. 

Amanda and I helped pack 300,000 meals for our Broward County food pantries with United Way. Jared, Eden and I did a Turkey Trot with our synagogue to raise money for families of domestic abuse and the whole family did the Rizzo Walk Off for Cancer. 

I attended the Legacy Society gala for Jewish Federation of Broward County, launched the EO speaker series at Homestead Air Force Base with my talk “What if YOU won the lottery?” and talked about the new tax law to the Tocqueville Society at United Way.

We also made a big commitment for 2019-2023 – to send a student from MSD (Parkland’s High School) to college through Eda and Cliff Viner’s amazing program that not only provides financial support but more importantly mentorship and services to students and their family so they can become a successful graduate. Watching Eda and Cliff send 100 kids to college has been inspiring, and it’s exciting for us to follow in their footsteps.

Family Adventures

Once again, Eden decided to celebrate her birthday at Disney World during the Not So Scary Halloween season. After a fun night, we drove back to Parkland to see the World of Dance show. It was really fun! Eden was thrilled to see the tv stars so close up, and the music and energy was really great.

For the first time ever, Amanda left the kids and me for a few days to visit her friend and former Zumba teacher that moved to Colorado. The kids enjoyed “daddy’s rules” and the funniest thing was realizing I didn’t get the mail for the four days she was gone. Oops. It wasn’t on the “to-do” list she left me!

We celebrated Thanksgiving with my in-laws and left the kids by them, so Amanda and I could enjoy South Beach alone for the long weekend. I’ve read reports about how parenting young children is often rated the worst/hardest/most stressful time in people’s lives. A few days away makes this apparent. When it’s just the two of us, things are so simple and carefree. 

My parents came to visit, which is always a treat for the whole family. They were here for the first night of Hanukah, so we celebrated with Amanda’s parents and her brother and nephew as well. We hosted four other parties at our home, a night out to the Miami Heat, and a night at Stache for EO’s holiday party, so we only had one quiet evening at home for the holiday. I find a lot of joy in sharing Hanukah with Eden and Jared’s classmates, our friends and family. 

Amanda’s folks took us, my BIL and nephew on a small Holland America cruise ship for Christmas week. The main highlight was visiting Cienfuegos, Cuba – the 62nd country I’ve seen. The kids did well together, although the weather was less than ideal and the boat was a little boring compared to the big Royal Caribbean ships.

To end the year, Amanda’s friend from preschool came with her two kids to visit. It was great to log some quality time, let our children get to know each other, and have her see first hand where we live and meet some of our friends.

Can I Help?

If you have goals for 2019, ask if I could share something that might help you reach them faster, cheaper or easier.