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hello and welcome to our first show what is this show Jim fire your boss what do

you mean fire your boss well um the idea came from uh the

thought that there’s over the years I’ve met a lot of people who were trapped in jobs that uh may just not know how to

get out have direction or anybody in their life to kind of Coach them through the process of exiting but everybody

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wants Freedom everybody wants control their income everybody wants more control of their schedule and the only

way that I found to do that is to be out on your own and start your own business and so that was the Genesis of it

that’s awesome well I’m Kiko Suarez I’m the co-host of this fyb fire boss and

I’m joined here my real good friend coach V2 and did I

pronounce your name correctly because that for hispania to pronounce that name is kind of funny for Spanish that’s

perfect for well just V Vu V letters 27

pronunciations Jim well from now on I think it’s gonna be Jim and Kiko Kiko and Jim and we are delighted to be here

and starting this podcast to exactly try to do that which is give people tips and

tricks on how to start uh their own business and especially fire their boss so you know

I’m I’m really curious about this gym it’s always being a a pleasure to get to know you but um we need to know your

story because that is what really inspired this whole whole thing so you have to tell us more about you

and then how is this fight your boss something that

matters well I came from a lower middle class family Northern Indiana and I

didn’t see any evidence of anybody starting a business running a business

they were all blue collar workers and so therefore my training was to go to school get good grades and get a good

job and I didn’t even have business ownership on my mind but it wasn’t even

in my belief system not not even on my radar didn’t even know what there was no money for college and so the choices

were be a guitarist and a heavy metal band stay in South Bend and go to night

school and work at my dad’s Factory or to go into the military and earn money for college that way and I’ve been told

since I was very young that my destiny was to be the first one to graduate college for my family but my parents

never saved the dime for that and I didn’t find out until late in my senior year so I chose C and I went into the

military for three years full-time got deployed to combat it just went from 18

to 21 in the military but really went from like 18 to 30 as far as just an

emotional standpoint a maturity standpoint I found out that life was short and this wasn’t a dress rehearsal

and so when I got out my best friend had gone to and so I just drove from Ford Hood Texas

to Purdue en rolled in school and started my journey there towards I don’t

know success I don’t know what I was looking for I just knew that seemed like

making more money and success was the on the other side of a college degree and so that’s what I did uh I did

get a degree and I met my dream girl at Purdue about two years in she got a

degree from there as well and she got a teaching degree so when she graduated she became a teacher I got a psychology

degree so when I graduated I got recruited into retail management and I

got an internship in Indianapolis as a supervisor at a Publishing Company first and that’s how we kind of got roots in

Indianapolis because I already had a job here so when she graduated there was plenty of teaching positions here in

Indie and then I got recruited into retail management and worked my way up the corporate ladder like I was told to

do so I went from store manager to District director to eventually Regional director of operations which was like an

executive role in the company and by the time I was 30 I was completely burned out I was managing 35

offices I was driving about 30,000 miles a year going to a chiropractor twice a

week for back issues stressed out all the time um threats made on my life

because I passed somebody up for promotions and my wife said look dude

you’re going to have to change careers like you’re going to have a heart attack by the time you’re 40 or we’re going to be divorced or both so she gave me some

like locker room talk and honestly I can’t take any credit for it because

again I I didn’t have a goal of starting a business but the person that sat down

with me kind of broke it down and uh you know I believe God brings people to your life at the right time for the benefit

of all and he said look you’re managing 35 offices what if you could manage one

office double your income and control your own schedule I’m like is it is it legal

moral and ethical and if it gets checked gets all those three boxes checked I’m

in I didn’t have any background any desire but I wanted to be

free and I wanted to have more control that’s all I knew is I had no control I had no control very little control over

my income very little control over my time um I didn’t have any ownership

opportunities because my last name wasn’t Davis and I was already married so I wasn’t marrying into the family

business they had like 750 locations nationwide and the owners were brothers

the HR Director was a cousin the CFO was the HR director’s husband the managing

directors I think two out of the four were family members so that was not an

option and the other thing that bothered me too is I could never help anybody get higher than I

was right so I could never have anybody like if I was a regional director that’s probably as high as I was going to go I

was the youngest of 16 Executives in a company but I couldn’t promote anybody to regional directors so I had to come

up with great games as I’m sure a lot of people in Corporate America do on why it’s a great fit for them to stay in the

same position they’re at and that was just I just didn’t feel

good about it I didn’t feel right about it and I was like there’s got to be more to life than this and that’s kind of how I

accidentally got into business that that to me is such a

fascinating story because but but but I have to ask you something before when did you fire your

boss oh well that was March 24th 2002 so

I’ve been exactly the date and everything yeah I don’t remember I think

it was a mentor mine that was coaching me because like many people do is I’d

like to date before I get married and so I started my business part-time again I came from lower middle class broke

upbringing 800 square foot home that I grew up in and so and I can do a lot of

heavy lifting and I was used to getting yelled at and cussed out every day in the Army uh every day in road

construction so the stress at my corporate job really wasn’t overwhelming

in because I can I have big shoulders I can take a lot but that’s problematic

because I would take that into my home and dump it out and it was creating

relationship issues it started to impact my family and that’s unacceptable and so I kind of mapped it

out and I was part-time for about a year and a half and I turned in my I drove to

Mason Ohio and turned in my one month notice because I was that loyal to the company I didn’t want to give a two-e

notice because I knew my position would be hard to fill so I offered to do interviews or whatever it would take and

so February 24th 2002 was the day I got my five years of tenure so I got more I

got 20% more of my 401k 20% more of my non-qualified plan and all the you know

bonuses and all that stuff and so I gave my 30-day notice so that’s why it always I always remembered March 24th and then

over the years it just kind of became a thing where I said you know uh I think

it was on a talk I gave one time and I and I just kind of brainstormed it and said you know July 4th 1776 was the

country’s independence day but March 24th 2002 was my family’s Independence

Day that’s that’s that’s pretty fascinating and I and I love the story

because as I told you many times I I was born in Spain came here

became a US citizen and one of the things that I really love about this country is this idea of Liberty and and

freedom and free markets but you connected it with a with a deep core

value of Independence and Liberty at a different level I mean it’s just

unbelievable to hear you talk about these things that way man I really love it well the name of our the name of my

company is the vat group but the name of my team within that we kind of have team bonding and I always like the sports

analogies and so we have Team Liberty and you know as part of that we have like the torch from you know uh the

Statue of Liberty and and we our tagline is freedom lives here and so freedom for

families that we help freedom for our teammates that we’re serving and and guiding and coaching along and then

freedom for those people that eventually make a crew transition and and have ownership opportunities within our

organization as well so I love it well and you and I have talked about this

several times in in my case you know I’m still a part-time entrepreneur I’m not a

full-time entrepreneur so I have to hear you always kind of kicking my butt saying when are you going to fire your

boss goo well you know coaches sometimes tell

you what you need to hear not what you want to hear right you’ve been a coach for many years very true but so on my

side let me tell you a little bit about my story uh apart from absolutely man I’m very curious because I know you’re

some of your personal story but I don’t know as much on your professional story and kind of what led you to to launching

a business so as I told you born in Spain came to the US became a US citizen

um done many things in different fields um basically groomed in in Corporate

America but abroad right so I I worked for dupond for many years um started in

uh in Spain while I already had my own little company so what’s funny is I came out of college and started a company

with a bunch of friends um great Lessons Learned there I I will never forget the

day we go pay our taxes and the lady from the taxes Department the equivalent to the IRS looks at us and

says really I mean you didn’t you didn’t have anything else to do with all this

money basically it’s telling us you know you guys don’t know what you’re doing you could actually start investing this

money and moving it in a different way but it was great lessons um but but you

know the big dupon came to town and one of the things that I wanted to do is to

um learn about the world and explore the world and it was a great opportunity honestly to join a big company like that

so I joined and I stayed with them for 15 years of my career but at some point in time having been in Spain and then in

Wilmington Delaware Corporate Headquarters and then in Geneva Switzerland I was looking at my resume

and it Dupont Dupont Dupont Dupont I like wait wait a minute right either I

become Dupont and I’m not as you said I’m not a dupon family member uh so what am I

gonna do with the rest of my life and I decided that I have enough in me enough

elements in me to just do multiple things um but so I took a little break I

was recruited by another B company by the way at the time uh a big man uh cement manufacturing company called semx

came to recruitment me recruit me okay to be the global director uh of communications and corporate

Affairs um then I came to the US got married have kids but all in between

those I had a lot of passion projects small companies and I always help people

start their own business like my brother in Spain he started his own business and I helped him launch it really so I being

on the sides helping people launch businesses all the time and that together with then my

doctoral degree in leadership and things like that took me to a place where I thought that the best use of my time is

to actually help others help others be better people help others um have better

lives and a big part of my advice to people when I do this kind of coaching

is think about entrepreneurship very seriously uh especially if you are in

the US but it doesn’t matter where you are because it is more of a

selfawareness introspection than it is to only make money that’s why I say that

when you say Liberty is such a profound value that um and the way that you

celebrated is such a profound thing for me and I guess for many people that when

when you and I said okay well let’s let’s actually talk about fire your bond

as something that we can do in a podcast and um I love it because it represents

so much of what I think people want which is to achieve that state of

Independence that so valuable yeah I was uh I heard somewhere

in a talk that boss is double s so backwards and so the word boss is actually f forbidden in our

business we talk about leaders people are called leaders they can be called coaches you can call me knucklehead just

don’t call me a boss because I haven’t found too many people that love their

boss now of course I was a boss you were a boss there’s a lot of people out there listening to this that are bosses but a

boss and a leader I see a distinct difference between the two you know and

so we just try to develop leaders within our office and and servant leaders that are focused on helping others and of

course you know through Zig Ziggler’s adage if you help another enough people get what they want you can get what you

want and so you know that wasn’t U ever taught to me in college got four-year

degree graduated college debt free uh paid for by myself but I never learned

anything about money I didn’t learn anything about business I didn’t learn anything about self-development there

was none of that and so all of that came to me when I got some mentors in the

entrepreneurial realm that would you know first thing is have you read Rich

Dad Poor Dad have you read Think and Grow Rich I like no they’re like what audio books are you listening to I

listened to Bob and Tom and Metallica what do you mean what’s an audio book right I mean it was all foreign to me

but through business I got put on a path of self-development and really done my

best to try to become uh a person that you know my family respects and our team

respects and that was all done through business so everything good that’s come to me has come through business on that

side whether it be the income or just even becoming a better human being my spiritual life came to me through

business that that that is another fascinating thing that um sometimes we

uh we take for granted that uh sometimes we just think business money and and

it’s a lot more than that and and and and as you’re saying sometimes it’s it

becomes uh a center for reflection about your own life and it has

multi-dimensional aspects that I personally love to to talk to my uh life

coaching clients about is taking entrepreneurship as something that allows them to develop themselves in in

multiple areas of life not just you know uh their their their wealth But but so

let me ask you something that I think is important in this first episode as we are testing the waters and trying to

bring people some good news and tips and tricks and eventually I guess uh a bunch

of guests that have gone through this journey in your experience what is it

that people um are thinking or why do they hesitate I mean there’s there’s a

moment where people either jump or they don’t right so what do you see in that

in that regard well I think think any big decision in your life there’s going to

be hesitation I’m not a I mean I’m 50% ay

personality but I’m 50% analytical so I overthink a lot of things and so I think hesitation is normal hesitation is valid

if you’re if you’re not solely hesitating out of fear if you’re hesitating out of reflection in planning

hesitation is fine right but you know

know I was programmed in school go to school get good grades get a good job go to school get good grades get a good job

I follow that plan and literally that plan delivered everything that it was

promised I had the title and the income and the benefits and all of that stuff

but I didn’t have inner peace right and so if somebody is in

that same situation where they don’t like their income they don’t like their

hours and how much control they have over their schedule it’s surely crossed their mind

right but the number one killer of most dreams is fear of failure or maybe even

more has more weight is fear of what other people will think right they say behind every

successful is a shocked mother-in-law right and so I remember

having a conversation with my in-laws and it’s like hey I’m GNA leave my job and launch a business and this is going

to be amazing and and they’re like what are you thinking like don’t do that right I

remember the day that I went to fire my boss uh he had owned a business before

and I was the youngest executive in the company he told me I was stupid he told me I was throwing it all away like what

am I doing and I wasn’t cocky at all I was naive and I just remember thinking

like wait you owned a business and now you’re an

employee why would I ever take advice from you about getting into business right now again I’m sure he had greatest

of intentions I’m sure he was trying but he didn’t really breathe any wisdom into me he didn’t give me any life advice he

just told me I was stupid right right well you know I don’t know if you’re

wired this way I don’t know if anybody listening is wired this way or watching but if somebody tells me I can’t do

something there’s like a 50 to 70% chance that I will absolutely do it like

I don’t like to be told what to do or what not to do and so fear of failure was a big one for me fear of what other

people thought was big but my wife and our life was more important and I I

could already predict what the future looked like if I stayed in the same position right I

already saw people 10 15 20 years older than me and they didn’t look happy they

didn’t look like they were having fun in life right I think another hesitation

is really deciding what you want to do right some people a passion comes to

them maybe they make model airplanes maybe they’re a musician maybe they do things in art maybe they’re very good at

building things maybe they’re very good at uh it and technology and so there’s

something they’re really good at uh I I started a financial company and I didn’t

I had $122,000 of debt I didn’t know what a mutual fund was I just wanted the

freedom and I figured if I could take a part in M16 and put it back together in a minute like learning Financial rules

didn’t seem that intimidating to me right and then I think lack of exposure

to entrepreneurship like I didn’t even know that existed that wasn’t even a word in my vocabulary I might have just

learned how to spell it two years ago right I just didn’t know that that was a

possibility right I grew up on the south side of the tracks if there was any

nugget that really like a little seed that was planted when I was younger is

my dad was a very good golfer like really really good should have been Pro but circumstances kept him away from

that and so we lived on the South Side in a shack but he belonged to the country club on the north side of town

because he wasn’t going to play at the public courses he called those hackers you know he wasn’t going to play with the hackers on the goat ranches he would

call it right so he literally even though we were poor he belonged to a country club but he would drive to the

north side play in a beautiful Country Club Drive backside back to the Southside to his Shack but I remember

going with him several times and hanging out afterwards and having lunch with the people he was playing golf with and all

of them seemed to own their own business and all of them lived in the neighborhood where the golf course was

and we would drive past those houses and I’d be like wow what what would it I mean how do I get in one of those right

and so I just had a lack of exposure but I did have enough to know that there was a better way there it seemed like other

people were having more fun and making more money I just didn’t know how they were doing it right and I think another

thing is too many people just don’t know where to start they just don’t know where to start

so what our goal is with this podcast as well is give kind of some planning and

some strategy and some things to think about that if this is part of of your

realm where you’ve always thought about it or maybe you’ve done it in the past and you want to relaunch something just

give some advice but then also from all aspects and all all uh areas of business

we’re going to have expert speakers in that were employees that decided to launch their

business whether it be technology or coaching or um janitorial business I’ve

got several we’ve got several speakers lined up to kind of give you their story and how they got started and what

motivated them so you may not relate to me or my story you may or may not relate to Kiko but there will be somebody in

this podcast that you’re going to relate to and say oh okay that guy did it if that guy can do it or that girl can do

it then maybe I can do it and if we give

you know they say uh a drop of encouragement to one could be a river of

Hope to another so if we can just give any sort of Breeze in your wings or a

little drop of encouragement that’s really the goal is with this podcast yeah I love it and you said something

that is also very important which is sometimes people connect with different

stories that they don’t need necessarily to connect with with you and I as as a co-host in our story

but as we bring people in in different Industries it could be that all of a

sudden someone says oh man truly can you do that in music or can you do that in art and can you do that in this and the

other and because you say also something that is fascinating to me and and is

very true that the exposure to entrepreneurship through resources that

are not necessarily in the in the traditional water stream right you go

you can go to college and I’m I’m a I’m an educator I’m I’m in college there are entrepreneurship programs that are great

but entrepreneurship is something that you have to feel it and you have to start just getting um in those trenches

that you when when you went to war and you actually feel the trench and you say wait a minute this this is it this is

this you have to feel it and many times that comes from the most unexpected if

you want not Country Club type of person that actually inspires you from wherever

they are and that’s one of the things that fascinates me most about entrepreneurship is that anybody can

become an entrepreneur and anybody can just find that freedom you don’t have to come from a lineage of anything you

don’t have to belong to a dynasty of any names that’s true and that is the beauty

of also um thinking about it as what you said that Independence right it’s not

only financial Independence which is critical and very very important but at the same time is this other level of

Independence and value I told you a few times when I remember people that would

work for the big corporations like dupon and um I I remember this talk man I was

in my 20s and this gentleman was retiring already from the company and said one of the one of the things that I

fear the most is whenever my name is not in a car that says dupon on it so who am I right right

after that day who are you and so you one of the good things about creating

businesses is that you create a legacy that is attached to you and that you can

respond for it in the good things and the bad things right it’s a it’s a very interesting way to

create um and also at the same time you’re creating wealth you’re helping the economy you’re helping your country

it’s much bigger than you sure and um I think that with with this idea of

bringing guests and things like that we’re gonna we’re gonna uh bring additional stories there yeah that’s a

great point I mean you know one of my mentors said there’s never been a test

nor will there ever be a test to judge the heart of a man or a woman right and I and I’m super excited for schools like

Purdue and many many others who have started entrepreneurial schools in in curriculum that really didn’t exist when

I was there at least it wasn’t on my radar I don’t think it even was a thing but the reality is you can’t learn how

to swim from reading a book you just have to dive in right and you don’t Dive In The Deep End first so

that’s why finding something that you can do part-time and learn the business

and prove to yourself that you can be successful is a great way to do it but there’s 168 hours in a week you’re

telling me you can’t find 5 to seven hours that are being wasted in front of the television or something else that

you couldn’t use that time to launch a business right to prepare to fire your

boss right and so that’s one of the things I’m most excited about is of just

encouraging people right encouraging people I I often tell people one of their homework is uh is when they come

to work for me they have to watch the Sha Shank Redemption so if you’re not familiar

guess what your homework is if you are familiar I just say I’m Andy and you’re

red you’re still trapped Behind Bars I’m free I’m on the beach sanding my boat on

the beach of San wo right um and I said watch that movie because you got to be

digging when the warden isn’t looking right and the warden is your boss you got to be digging when the warden isn’t

looking you got to be starting something up if that and again maybe you love your job maybe you’re not dis satisfied like

I was but what would an extra, or 2,000 or $3,000 a month do for your family’s

financial future right so it could be starting a business maybe you don’t want to fire your boss but maybe it could

give you the means to take your life style to the next level so it doesn’t always have to be I mean if you are an

employee that loves their job I mean high five I’ll give you a hug like I have

no hesitation to to give you a high five and say that’s awesome it just was wasn’t my situation right and I had hit

the glass ceiling by the time I was 30 and got burned out there was no way for me to go up because there was four

managing directors they all made six figures they were all in their 50s and they weren’t going anywhere anytime soon

and so I just saw that there was no future in that company I was called by

recruiters and they said hey we want to talk to you about you know making a career change would can I buy you lunch

of course I’m a I’m Frugal I’m like yeah of course free lunch let’s go and they

would pitch and they would you know build a relationship and it was great and they I’m like okay so what you got

and they’re like well it’s uh the same position you’re in but with your competitor but we’ll pay you like 15

grand more I’m like whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa you said you were gonna we

were having lunch to talk about a career change that’s a job change I’m like it’ll be the same job the same stress

everything will be the same it’ll be new and interesting in for like six months and then I’ll be in the same exact

situation I’m in I’m like call me when you have a career change for me and we’ll have lunch again right and so I

just encourage people that if it’s in your heart and you don’t know I see hey

I launched a business before really the full internet was in existence I mean

not the way it is now with YouTube and all these different videos and Tik toks man you you can find your passion and

you can literally learn for free from people that have already been there done that the things to do the things not to

do and at least make an attempt right yeah always check with your spouse first

absolutely yeah I came home and told my wife I’m gonna quit my job she’s like no you’re not so make sure that your

partner’s on board with that but uh yeah man I’m just proud of you I’m proud of the businesses that you’ve launch now

you’re helping your your partner launch a business Kiko and so you are a great

friend and somebody I look up to and I’m I’m so excited to be doing this podcast with you yeah looking forward to it man

and um you know we’re going to be repeating this a few times during this show so we’re gonna end it today just by

saying what hey hopefully we’re gonna help you one day fire your boss fire

your boss all right Jim we’ll talk soon all right God bless you Kiko

thanks

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