(UN)Conventional Wealth

When was the last time you approached a big life or business shift with rose-colored glasses? And which drawbacks did you discover afterward? No one likes being blindsided by the downside after making an exciting new change. There is a way to make sure you’ve considered all angles before making a move.

Jay Bhakta is a tax professional, business owner, and family man who is dedicated to helping young people learn strong lifelong practices around their finances, decisions, and overall confidence.

On this episode of the Rigging the Game podcast, Dan and Jay go over the rhythms the tax industry goes through and how they have impacted Jay, viewing big decisions with a bias towards asymmetry to the upside, the barbell model of weighing choices, and how that model has helped Jay operate with more confidence without depending on just one business. Listen in to add another invaluable decision-making tool to your toolbox.

• How Jay began reevaluating his businesses in the context of his life as a husband and father.
• What Jay learned after making a big investment in a fitness center without stepping back to view the downsides.
• How Jay is turning his insight from CCA and the barbell method into a way to give young people the frameworks they’ll need to make better decisions throughout their lives.

“I feel very confident that I'm going to make sure that I compile and analyze, I do all the things I haven't done in the past, and all bets will be to the upside, and I will consider downsides from now on.”

• Jay Bhakta

Learn more about Jay Bhakta's Base Case n' Build program on The Success Finder.

Visit Dan Nicholson’s websites - Nth Degree CPAs to learn how he helps small business owners cultivate good accounting and tax practices to achieve their financial goals. 

Get the news that gets you closer to what you want with Certainty News.

Don’t forget to check out Dan’s book Rigging the Game on Amazon. Interested in the Certainty Certified Advisor Program? Get the information you need at CertaintyU.com.

Enjoyed the Podcast? Be sure to subscribe on iTunes and leave a review. We love to hear your feedback and we’d love for you to help us spread the word!

When you’re faced with a lot of options, how do you decide which one will take you where you want to go? If you’re taking the wishes of your partners, what the future might look like two years down the road, and what would make everyone else happy, you and your game can easily get lost. Here’s how to make sure you stay focused on getting closer to what you want.

Anne Amagrande is an economist by education and a real estate investor and teacher with a passion for education in her everyday life. Anne also comes from a family of entrepreneurs, where she learned her love for innovating and looking past the ordinary.

On this episode of the Rigging the Game podcast, Dan and Anne dig into what it means to play your game rather than someone else’s (and how Anne learned that lesson the tough way), what the Investor Frame looks like in action, and how to evaluate your decisions and your path forward in terms of microsteps instead of thinking eight steps ahead. Tune in for a framework that will help you approach big decisions with more clarity than ever.

• Why being a person who considers all the risks involved in a situation can come off as negative, and why that’s really not the case.
• How Anne applies the Investor Frame to everything from her business decisions to her partnerships.
• Why you have to know yourself before you can figure out the next right step for you and your business.

“I would say is that playing my game is is me making my own rules for the way that I want to operate in the world and getting closer to what I actually want…allowing me to help the people that I want to help in the way that I want to help them, versus helping people in the way that they want me to help them.”

• Anne Amagrande

 Visit Dan Nicholson’s website - Nth Degree CPAs and the Rigging The Game to learn how he helps small business owners cultivate good accounting and tax practices to achieve their financial goals. 

Don’t forget to check out Dan’s book Rigging the Game on Amazon. Interested in the Certainty Certified Advisor Program? Get the information you need at CertaintyU.com.

 Get the news that gets you closer to what you want with Certainty News.

Enjoyed the Podcast? Be sure to subscribe on iTunes and leave a review. We love to hear your feedback and we’d love for you to help us spread the word!

When was the last time you made a big decision with blinders on? You know — you were so busy looking at all the potential benefits that you missed the downsides. We all do it occasionally, but fortunately, there’s a way to not only recognize the downsides, but minimize or eliminate them.

On this episode of the Rigging the Game podcast, Dan lays out the fourth commandment — biasing asymmetry to the upside — including what placing your bias to the upside actually means, the backstory behind the phrase “burn the boats,” and why it doesn’t mean what you think it means, and the practice of considering the downsides of a decision up front in order to choose the best possible step forward. Listen in to break out of the work cycles that aren’t serving you. 

• Why the common advice of burning the boats doesn’t always work  
• What we miss when we constantly look for the upside and narrow our perspective
• How the middle-of-the-barbell system we embrace guarantees us a lifetime of unnecessary work

“At the end of the day, we're looking towards an orientation with the least amount of effort, least amount of risk, and most amount of options…When we're talking about asymmetry to the upside, when you violate this commandment, you're almost guaranteeing that you're going to take on the most amount effort, the most amount of risk.”

• Dan Nicholson

Visit Dan Nicholson’s website - Nth Degree CPAs and the Rigging The Game to learn how he helps small business owners cultivate good accounting and tax practices to achieve their financial goals. 

Don’t forget to check out Dan’s book Rigging the Game on Amazon. Interested in the Certainty Certified Advisor Program? Get the information you need at CertaintyU.com.

 Get the news that gets you closer to what you want with Certainty News.

Enjoyed the Podcast? Be sure to subscribe on iTunes and leave a review. We love to hear your feedback and we’d love for you to help us spread the word!

Entrepreneurs talk all the time about doing their own thing and breaking the mold in their careers, but not everyone can manage both their resources and the trade-offs in front of them effectively. Let’s take a look at someone who’s learned to do both with incredible success.

Paul Sparks is a lifelong innovator with a background that ranges from engineering to real estate to the blockchain. Now, Paul is focused on bridging the real estate and blockchain worlds through The Whale Club.

On this episode of the Rigging the Game podcast, Dan and Paul break down how Paul came into entrepreneurship and why, the process of navigating trade-offs in your first couple of years in a new business and dealing with the urge to go fast and test out options, and how Paul used the barbell method to maximize the upside and minimize the risk involved in his projects. Join the conversation for an inside look at an entrepreneur who’s using the commandments we’ve covered to gain a massive advantage.

• How the pandemic made Paul take a step back and reevaluate what he really wanted to be doing with his life.
• How Paul’s family and social circle reacted to the biggest changes in his career (and how to manage the scrutiny and expectations you face when you buck convention).
• What Paul’s natural curiosity and his time in CCA and around other thinkers and innovators has given him in terms of perspective and the ability to identify and eliminate his blind spots.

“There's a trade-off to growing your business, to doing all these types of projects that suck your time and your energy out. Because resources are scarce. And we can't now allocate those to the things that really get me excited, which is innovation, which is doing something that's going to impact the world in a massive way.”

-Paul Sparks

 Connect with Paul Sparks

• The Whale Club
• Bunny Hill Properties

Visit Dan Nicholson’s website - Nth Degree CPAs and the Rigging The Game to learn how he helps small business owners cultivate good accounting and tax practices to achieve their financial goals. 

Don’t forget to check out Dan’s book Rigging the Game on Amazon. Interested in the Certainty Certified Advisor Program? Get the information you need at CertaintyU.com.

 Get the news that gets you closer to what you want with Certainty News.

Enjoyed the Podcast? Be sure to subscribe on iTunes and leave a review. We love to hear your feedback and we’d love for you to help us spread the word!

Do you ever get tunnel vision when making important choices? Too often, we look closely at the upside or risk of a single decision, and we never stop to look at the possibilities that will disappear once we’ve made a choice.

On this episode of the Rigging the Game podcast, Dan covers the third commandment — every decision has an infinite number of trade-offs — including the TIMER acronym for all the currencies we have at our disposal, how to optimize before maximizing to find the most efficient path forward, and the consequences we run into when we don’t look at the trade-offs involved in our decisions. Join the conversation for another commandment that will help you play your game and achieve even more clarity.

Key Takeaways

• What possibilities we remove when we choose to invest in something, and how to use that concept to make better investments.
• Why the business school idea of “maximizing first” often won’t apply to you.
• How to recognize when you can turn a “no” opportunity into a “yes” opportunity, and what to evaluate as you make your decision.

Favorite Quote

“We tend to view these opportunities that we face through this lens of ‘more’ and maybe fear of missing out. And so what if I don't capitalize on this? What's going to happen?...But what is the trade off? What could I be doing that's going to be a better use of my precious resources, because they're scarce?”

-Dan Nicholson

Resources

Visit Dan Nicholson’s website - Nth Degree CPAs and the Rigging The Game to learn how he helps small business owners cultivate good accounting and tax practices to achieve their financial goals. 

Don’t forget to check out Dan’s book Rigging the Game on Amazon. Interested in the Certainty Certified Advisor Program? Get the information you need at CertaintyU.com.

 Get the news that gets you closer to what you want with Certainty News.

Enjoyed the Podcast? Be sure to subscribe on iTunes and leave a review. We love to hear your feedback and we’d love for you to help us spread the word!

How much time do you spend following your own advice instead of someone else’s? In life and in work, it can be hard to tune out the ready-made business advice all over the Internet and move forward the way only you can — but the rewards are worth it.

Dan Barrett is an artist at heart and an online real estate marketer by trade, as well as the founder of AdWords Nerds. He combines both his creativity and his business skill sets to help those around him live more fulfilling lives.

On this episode of the Rigging the Game podcast, Dan and Dan discuss the meeting of creativity and analytical skills in each of their personalities (and how bias can affect whether you primarily see one or the other), the moment Dan Barrett realized he needed to put the preference vs. binary concept into play in his SEO work, plus the questions he now asks himself to figure out whether he’s making the best decisions possible, and how intentional, consistent writing has changed Dan Barrett’s life, work, and sense of self for the better. Tune in for an episode that will begin to break down your boundaries and help you mold your life in a way that works for you.

Key Takeaways

• Why Dan Barrett sees both creativity and analysis as paths to get to the same place — and why the end goal matters more than how you get there.
• Why following the same checklist and practices as your competition won’t put you ahead of the game, and how to change your direction.
• How Dan Barrett learned to embrace his rebellious streak and evolve beyond it to sculpt the best possible version of himself.

Favorite Quote

“There is so much more in life that is preference than binary, right? So much more of reality is open to your influence than you think. And that's really, really fun and a little exciting and a little scary sometimes. But it's liberating in the deepest sense of the word.”

-Dan Barrett

Connect with Dan Barrett

• AdWords Nerds
• Better Questions
• Get a copy of Dan Barrett's book, Break Free Of Your Rut: 10 Steps To Discovering And Breaking The Patterns That Dominate Your Life

Don’t forget to check out Dan’s book Rigging the Game on Amazon. Interested in the Certainty Certified Advisor Program? Get the information you need at CertaintyU.com.

 Get the news that gets you closer to what you want with Certainty News.

Enjoyed the Podcast? Be sure to subscribe on iTunes and leave a review. We love to hear your feedback and we’d love for you to help us spread the word!

What do you do when you encounter a question with no clear answer? More importantly, what if you were to find out that there are far fewer “right” answers than you thought–and that that’s a good thing?

On this episode of the Rigging the Game podcast, Dan digs into commandment number two, or understanding the difference between preference and a binary view of right and wrong. 

He breaks down the freedom that comes with a world based on your preferences, recommendations to help you avoid a guilt spiral as you navigate preference-based questions, and how to recognize and push through the peaks and valleys of all your endeavors. Listen in for a perspective-shifting look at how we answer life’s most important questions.

Key Takeaways

• Why starting any question with “Should I?” puts you at a disadvantage.
• How the willingness to change your mind gets you closer to your goals and priorities.
• What you need to acknowledge about yourself to progress past “fake guru” status.

Favorite Quote

“We tend to view the world as if there's just a right and wrong in almost everything that we're dealing with. But the reality is that most of the questions that we're asking ourselves about business and life are not right and wrong. It's a preference… It depends on what you want.” 

Resources

Visit CertaintyU.com to Learn More about joining the CCA Program (Certified Certainty Advisor) or get updates from Dan's private Telegram Channel here.

Get the news that gets you closer to what you want with Certainty News.

Enjoyed the Podcast? Be sure to subscribe on iTunes and leave a review. We love to hear your feedback and we’d love for you to help us spread the word! Intro Music by: The Marshall Law Band. 

Is your perspective holding you back? It’s easy to believe that the future of your business, and even your family, rests on the next big project or partnership. When you’re in that place, having partners and mentors to help you pinpoint what’s worth pursuing makes all the difference. 

Ben Frank and his wife Joyce are dedicated to helping kids (and humans in general) reach their highest potential through athletic programs and education initiatives including the Play Big Project. 

On this episode of the Rigging the Game podcast, Dan and Ben discuss the advantages and challenges of running a business with your spouse–including letting each set of talents shine, not only deciding what you want but accepting what you want, and how being committed to playing your game and letting go of the outcome changes every relationship you have, from your partners to your clients to your family. Tune in for an episode that will revamp how you show up in business and in life.

Key Takeaways

• What Ben and Joyce realized about dividing their strengths and passions versus bringing them together, and how they changed course to become better than ever.
• How Ben learned to reject a black-and-white view of business opportunities and worked to mold them to his priorities instead.
• How letting go of your limiting beliefs and need for “more” opens up a world of options and opportunities you never knew existed.

Favorite Quote

“When you can interact that way with people, you're coming from a place of abundance rather than scarcity and confidence rather than fear…all of a sudden, it just leads to things that you didn't think were possible starting to present themselves.”

-Ben Frank

Resources

Learn more about Coach Ben Frank at https://linktr.ee/CoachBenFrank

Visit CertaintyU.com to Learn More about joining the CCA Program (Certified Certainty Advisor) or get updates from his private Telegram Channel here.

Get the news that gets you closer to what you want with Certainty News.

Enjoyed the Podcast? Be sure to subscribe on iTunes and leave a review. We love to hear your feedback and we’d love for you to help us spread the word! Intro Music by: The Marshall Law Band. 

What’s running your current operating system? Most of us, consciously or not, are still operating on conditioning we received as kids or on pressure we’re feeling from our peers. If you could cut out all that noise and stress, what would it mean in your life and the lives of your loved ones?

Renee Metty is devoted to helping humans live their lives with more ease. From helping preschoolers build strong foundations for a mindful life to coaching adults through life and leadership without harmful conditioning, Renee guides her students in getting out of their own way and back to their natural state.

On this episode of the Rigging the Game podcast, Dan sits down with Renee to take a look at Renee’s own journey of self-discovery and how she began to move away from her Type-A tendencies, the inflection point she encountered when she began embracing “closer vs. more,” and why that one commandment alone just isn’t enough. Listen in for a breath of fresh air and plenty of much-needed insight.

What You’ll Learn

• Why Renee’s natural state of being is so intriguing to hard-driving entrepreneurs
• How to get comfortable with the idea that priorities don’t have to be permanent
• How Renee’s kids have played an active part in keeping her on track and in line with her goals.

Favorite Quote

“I thought…there's got to be something where people don't have to suffer so much. And I knew I wasn't going to take away suffering. But I figured there was something to ease the burden of it.”

Resources

Learn more about Renee Metty at https://www.withpause.com/

Visit CertaintyU.com to Learn More about joining the CCA Program (Certified Certainty Advisor) or get updates from his private Telegram Channel here.

Get the news that gets you closer to what you want with Certainty News.

Enjoyed the Podcast? Be sure to subscribe on iTunes and leave a review. We love to hear your feedback and we’d love for you to help us spread the word! Intro Music by: The Marshall Law Band. 

When is having more not enough? When it isn’t bringing you closer to anything that matters. If “more” isn’t getting you what you want, it’s time to take a new approach. The first step? Deciding exactly what it is that you want.

On this episode of the Rigging the Game podcast, Dan lays out the first commandment in achieving certainty, closer vs. more, the “more” mindset we’ve been conditioned to follow, how to use your mental flowchart to make decisions based on your actual priorities, and thinking in terms of relative change as you get closer to what you want out of life. Listen in for the clarity you need to start achieving certainty.

Key Takeaways

• Why money isn’t the only currency that matters
• How to filter out the actions and paths that won’t bring you closer to what you really want
• How following this first commandment gives you back your time, energy, and resources.

Favorite Quote

“The game is, recover, reallocate, resources, because we want to put in the least amount of effort, least amount of risk, and have the most amount of options.” - Dan Nicholson

How To Get Involved

Visit CertaintyU.com to Learn More about joining the CCA Program (Certified Certainty Advisor) or get updates from Dan's private Telegram Channel here.

Learn more about Rigging the Game book at www.riggingthegame.com/book

Get the news that gets you closer to what you want with Certainty News.

Enjoyed the Podcast? Be sure to subscribe on iTunes and leave a review. We love to hear your feedback and we’d love for you to help us spread the word!

Intro Music by: The Marshall Law Band.