This week’s guest is Curt Mercadante. Curt left the “corporate” world at age 30 to start his own agency that he scaled to consistent 7 figures. But, like many business owners, he eventually found himself overwhelmed and frustrated so Curt fired half of his clients, started charging more, and created an outcomes-focused strategy that gave him freedom.

Then came dramatic shift number 2. Curt realized he lacked fulfillment. This led him to shut down his agency at peak revenue, instead turning his side hustle of coaching into a full time career. 

Today, Curt runs a media, speaking and lifestyle transformation company aimed at fighting apathy and conformity — and helping individuals fight for lives of freedom and fulfillment. Not only that, but he is also a fellow podcast host, as the man behind the popular show Freedom Club Podcast.

Where to follow Curt:

Fivepillarsoffreedom.com to find the book and order it.

Freedom Club Podcast can be found here.

On Instagram @curtmercadante

In this episode we cover the following topics with Curt:

[3:30] minute: What was life like for you growing up and what were the beliefs around money and success that were instilled in you as a child?

• Grew up in the suburbs of Chicago in a middle class family
• Had siblings but all much older and out of the house as he grew up.
• Story of his Father switching careers in his fifties and reinventing himself.

[7:30] minute: Your Dad starting this second career and reinventing himself, did that have an effect on you? Did you always want to be an entrepreneur because of that?

• Spent time in the corporate world, but when his Father passed away he decided he needed to make a change.
• Always been an “eat what you kill” type person; didn’t wait for permission to do his own things.

[10:30] minute: 

• Working on the limiting belief of not being qualified or worthy.
• “Believe in everyone, count on no one.” mindset; bet on yourself and count on yourself more it’s going to build that abundance mindset.
• Abundance vs scarcity; scarcity pimps.

[13:30] minute: back and forth between Dorothy and Curt on scarcity, abundance, and privilege. 

[17:20] minute: Let’s talk about the point when you were overworked and overwhelmed, and you said you made a lot of drastic decisions to change things. Take us to that point, what was your mindset and what did you do?

• Overwhelmed and stressed. Spent little time not working. 
• Taking money as people offered it; let clients rule his life.
• Clients are Pavlovian, they will learn when you respond and expect that. 
• Learning to work with less clients for more money.
• Working within your strength zone as much as possible. 

[21:30] minute: When you came to this realization that you were lacking fulfillment, what were the actions steps you took, or did it take time to turn that realization into action?

• Took some time because he didn’t know where to go.
• Coaching became a side-hustle that turned out to be what he really felt he was meant to do.
• His 4-year plan became a 4-week plan; jumped off the titanic without a life preserver.

[25:00] minute: For people listening who don’t feel like they have freedom in their business or that fulfillment, what would you say to those people and what does your company do for those type of people?

• Being in a comfort zone of misery, or as Henry David Thoreau said, “quiet desperation”.
• 5 pillars of the freedom lifestyle, explained. 
  • Superpowers; figuring out what your strengths are.
  • Vision; identify that one to two sentence guiding star for your life.
  • Alignment; relationships, self, and worth in alignment.
  • Outcomes; reverse engineer that vision to know where you need to be every year, month, week, and day.
  • Flow; cumulative effect of the first four pillars.
  
  

[28:00] minute: explanation of Curt’s new book, “5 Pillars of the Freedom Lifestyle”.

Where to Find Dorothy:

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