If you’re going to do the thing, do the thing. If you’re Jeni Lee of Mac’d, the thing is creating a meal prep service that combines providing a tasty variety of food, making it easy to get, and ensuring it covers the balanced nutrients you need to meet or exceed your fitness goals.

This week we talk to Jeni about how a three week span between jobs changed her career and life forever. Plus, how the desire to not feel arbitrarily limited in life, coupled with the gift of discernment, forms the entrepreneurial gut instinct that helps give you the ability to act in boldness even when it isn’t clear where the leap will land you. Also, we hear more about how she got started in meal prep, how her work is changing lives, and the future of Mac’d.

To learn more about Jeni, you can visit her Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/macdbyjl/

In this week’s simple step, we’re talking about the difference between riches and wealth. Without giving the whole five minutes away, at least know that here your mindset and the relationship between your money and your passion make all the difference. In the end, riches are too shallow, wealth is a much deeper and helpful aim.

To share with us when you started to understand the differences between riches and wealth, or just to provide some feedback on the show, hit us up at [email protected].

The journey from working for someone else to working for yourself can take many twists and turns. For this week’s guest, Dominic Bottenfield with AHG Insurance, that journey included getting a degree no one was hiring for, taking the business end of a nail gun to the head, getting fired as a gift, and finally deciding to take the entrepreneurial leap only to find out the fellas that were going to leap with him had to back out.

Yet family, oftentimes the factor that in prudence drives us to seek the stability of the steady paycheck, can also be our source of greatest encouragement and ultimately our leaping partners. Join us as we learn more about Dominic’s journey, the services he offers the world, and where he wants to go next.

You can find more from Dominic at: https://ahg-benefits.com/

This week on the podcast we’re talking with Arron Cramer about paying off college debt. Sure, you have to do it, but how it gets done can make a world of difference (or, as a recent client of Arron’s found, a $100,000 difference. We’ll cover the importance of putting a plan together, finding people to help and hold you accountable, and the impact of student loans on retirement planning. Plus, we’ll help you discover and sort out all the repayment options that are out there, the impact of dependents on student loan payments, and how consolidation changes the landscape.

We love the topic of college, it’s a unique time early in life to take an uncommon approach. Check out the resources below for additional information:

Have questions on how to get started? Get ahold of Arron Cramer.

Other Uncommon Life Project podcasts:

The College Debt Crisis

College Alternatives

Building a Scholarship System

Standing Out in College Admissions

The Blending

Often the most poignant pictures of grace are those that are present against the odds, the whole shining brighter than the wary and cautious shadows that sometimes color the individual parts. Blended families are such a grace, a beautiful picture of hope and new beginnings even with the realities of the past ever present. But as you would expect, or perhaps have experienced, the challenges of merging lives together is not a simple nor predictable path.

This week, we talked with Mike and Kim, coaches who specialize in helping struggling yet motivated couples navigate the complexities of blended or step-families, helping them gain clarity about the issues and lead their homes confidently using practical strategies so that they can experience greater connection and peace. We’ll learn about Mike and Kim’s own personal journey with a blended family and how they navigated what it looks like to love, parent, and grow in unity even when they don’t always agree. Plus, the importance of marriage to your financial well-being and how the strategies to successfully navigate blended family life aren’t all that different from those used for any family, which means everyone can benefit from this conversation!

You can find out more about Mike and Kim by visiting mikeandkimcoaching.com. You can also check out their podcast, The Blended Family Coaching Show, on iTunes or any other fine purveyor of podcasts you may use.

Trust in a marriage is the harbinger of confidence and freedom, which means keeping secrets is a risky business. Financial infidelity, not being honest or transparent with your partner when it comes to your money, not only breaks trust but it robs you from the chance to agree on boundaries and flourish within them. Ask anyone who has visited that glass walkway at the Grand Canyon, the rails that surround it aren’t a handcuff, they allow you to enjoy the view freely without risking your demise. (Yeah, financially infidelity can be like that).

So what do you do? We’ll hit it up in this week’s simple step, but if you’re sharp, some of the links below will give it away. Suffice to say, get a budget.

Qube Money: https://qubemoney.com/  Code: Uncommon

Our Qube Money coach Ryan Garvey: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-garvey-071850180/

This week on the show we’re talking with Alan Hon, certified life coach, fitness trainer, business optimization consultant, real estate investor, and very likely a bunch of other things he’s just too humble to mention. Alan talks with us about how focusing on making things better for others, helping them overcome their challenges and roadblocks, drew him out of some successful sales management positions into the world of coaching, training and consulting. He finds success comes from legitimately caring for people, helping them identify where they want to go, and empowering them to know they can overcome everything in their path.

We also talk about dealing with underlying emotional barriers that anchor success and the challenges of trying to help people who just can’t seem to grab hold of good advice.

For more info about Alan visit https://livelifedifferently.dev/

What do you get when you cross liquidity, reduced tax liability in your retirement years, and a name that sounds like a toad enjoying a milkshake? A LIRP (life insurance retirement plan). Although the name lacks a certain flair, a LIRP is an investment and tax strategy that allows you to use the cash value in your life insurance policy to not only be your own bank but also provide a place to direct cash for future tax free withdrawals of cost basis or liquid access through policy loans.

This week, we talk more about what a LIRP is, who should consider one, and how this option compares to and can work alongside other retirement/investment options such as 401ks, ROTH IRAs, and brokerage accounts.

As always, our discussion is for education only and should not be construed as advice. Definitely get a hold of your personal tax and/or investment advisors for additional information to see if a life insurance retirement plan is right for you.

In business, your values are one of the only things that won’t lie to you. They anchor you, define your integrity, and outlast the low moments that tell you it’s all crumbling and the high moments that can get you chasing things you didn’t care about yesterday. Your values are sometimes your harshest critic and, as such, are often your truest friend. Your values are also often your greatest opportunity to spread your influence as they can still be present in all the meetings that you can’t be in, all the conversations between employees you’re not privy to, and can be the glimpse of what kind of company your customers are looking to work with without them ever picking up the phone or shaking your hand.

Drew Harden knows what it is to start and grow a business. Over the last 15 years, he and his partner have taken Blue Compass from a two-man web design firm to an award winning digital agency. But after a major win that effectively required that they double the size of the firm immediately, Drew began to recognize that the power of his own personality wasn’t enough to fuel a great company culture. They needed values, ideas that defined what was important, what they wanted to be for their customers, and the way they treated each other in the process.

Join us this week as we talk to Drew about digital marketing, values, and what can happen when your passion outweighs your fear. Plus, how to deal with employees who are acting outside your values, the power of a supportive spouse, and the possibility of working without stress.

You can learn more about Drew at drewharden.com

When we’re not at our best, we can’t help others be at theirs, and that includes spouses, children, friends, employees, co-workers and anyone else we influence. In this week’s Simple Step, it’s time to stop the noise, put down the phone, and do some introspection. What are your struggles? Where is your bucket low and how do you find ways to get filled up so that what you pour out serves the world around you? How do you reframe how you see the time that focuses on you as being life-serving instead of self-serving?

If you’ve had experiences where taking the time to focus on yourself first resulted in being better for others, we’d love to hear them! Shoot us an email at [email protected].