What Are You Trading For Success

The most dangerous kind of burnout is the one that hides behind “success.” George Rivera built businesses for 30+ years, scaled e-commerce companies, and did what so many founders aim for on paper, until he realized he was becoming the person his family only got after the business took everything else. His work now centers on the Buy Back Time Formula, a practical way to help cash-rich, time-poor entrepreneurs reclaim their calendar and stop living as the constant firefighter.

We start with the fun stuff, first cars, Porsches, and an epic family road trip pulling a travel trailer through the Rockies, then we move into the real story: how online buying behavior has changed, why long-form sales doesn’t hit the way it used to, and what it looks like to step back after an exit while still investing wisely through real estate. From Airbnb's to land, George shares how he thinks about keeping money working without letting money become the whole point.

Then the conversation turns personal. George shares the moment that reshaped everything: his dad’s cancer diagnosis and a final warning he can’t forget, “Don’t miss Leo’s games.” We talk about rebuilding a business with delegation, systems, and better design so the founder isn’t the bottleneck, plus the deeper need many high performers won’t say out loud: community. George hosts small founder dad dinners where men drop the mask, tell the truth, and start finding purpose again. We also highlight Leo’s podcast and the interview academy they built to help kids grow confidence and real human connection.

If you’ve ever wondered what you’re trading for your growth, this one will challenge you in the best way. Subscribe for more conversations like this, share the episode with a founder friend, and leave a review so more people can find the show.

Be sure to check out George's website at Buy Back Time Formula | George Rivera, listen to his son's podcast at Leo Interviews | Success Lessons from Entrepreneurs & Leaders and the academy at Leo Interviews Academy — Build Confidence Through Real Conversations

Transcript

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Welcome And Meet George Rivera

SPEAKER_01 0:03

Welcome to Dan the Road Trip Guy. I'm your host Dan, and each week we'll embark on a new adventure, discovering memory and life lessons of our incredible guests. From everyday travelers to thrill seekers and everyone in between, this podcast is your front row seat to inspiring stories of passion, resilience, and the pursuit of happiness. So buckle up and enjoy the ride. One of my favorite things is when a friend says, You have got to meet this person. That is exactly how today's guest, George Rivera, ended up on Dan the Road Trip Guy. I met George through a mutual friend, and I have been looking forward to this conversation ever since. George is a business builder, a founder advocate, and the creator of the Buyback Time Formula, helping entrepreneurs reclaim their time instead of letting their businesses run their life. His website says that he is the voice for founders who refuse to trade their life for their business. And honestly, that sounds like the kind of conversation we all need. So buckle up and come along as I get to know George, hear his story, and learn what it really means to buy back your time. Welcome to the show, George. Thank you, Dan. Super excited to be here. Before we get down the road together, why don't you take a couple minutes and just tell my listeners who is George Rivera?

SPEAKER_00 1:26

Good question. Thank you. Yeah, 31-year entrepreneur. I started my business back in the mid-90s. Started back when I was in high school, and I've been an entrepreneur pretty much my entire adult life. I've been married, I guess 14 years now. Always have to like add it up. Wait, did we cross a year? Yeah. Four children total. Live in Texas. We have a home up in northern Michigan that we like to spend time in. So we spend a lot of time up north as well. We love traveling. We love sharing our faith. We love uh talking business. We love cars. Yeah, kind of just a another classic American family, I'd say.

SPEAKER_01 1:57

I was reading through your LinkedIn this morning. I'm like, oh my gosh, this, you know, you've been pretty much self-employed, looks like your entire career.

SPEAKER_00 2:04

It's it takes a little bit of special crazy to sort of go down this path. Uh takes a takes a lot of faith that it's gonna work out. And fortunately it has, but there's been roller coasters where you're like, oh my gosh, this is uh this is not something people like really sign up for, you know, the non-glamorous side of the entrepreneur life. What uh doesn't kill you, make makes you stronger is what they say. I'm living proof of of some of that.

SPEAKER_01 2:26

And uh so we'll get into that. But uh

First Cars And Porsche Dreams

SPEAKER_01 2:28

this is Dan the Road Trip Guy, and I always like to know what was your first car, what was a fun car story that you can share with us.

SPEAKER_00 2:35

First car was a 1995 Honda Accord. It was Maroon. My dad bought it for me in high school. I thought I'm old enough to have a car, let's get one that that you can pound the miles away on and it'll last forever. I'm sure that Honda's out there somewhere still running. So um, that was my car for a good four or five years. Oh, 120,000 miles or so. Best car ever, never had to do anything but change the oil and put gas in. Don't think they make them like that anymore. No, I don't think so. As far as uh just best experience in a car, I'm I'm kind of a Porsche guy. I love German cars. I would say my first 9-11. I just remember getting in the in the seat. And I'm even to this day, like, I don't even care to personally drive the vehicle until I own it. Um, I don't know why. I'm just like, you know what, it's not mine. I'm not gonna drive it. But you, I'm talking to the sales guy, you drive it and show me how this thing goes. And he's just going all out on the 9-11, and I'm like, oh man, this is gonna be my car. And yeah, I'd say that was my first experience, really falling in love with it. I've loved it for years, just how it looks, just like a lot of people. But having the opportunity to eventually own one, but being in the seat and seeing what it can do before actually owning it, I'm like, holy cow, my car's got some potency here.

SPEAKER_01 3:41

We better not tell our mutual friend Donnie that uh you're a Porsche guy, right?

SPEAKER_00 3:45

Yeah, I know he leans Bavarians. But uh no, you know, I've had a number of M cars as well. So there's plenty of uh of love for Donnie and my my uh automotive journey. Now

Trailer Life And Rocky Mountain Freedom

SPEAKER_00 3:56

take me on uh epic road trip you've had in your life. I've had so many road trips, even just the like the most recent one. I I look very I look forward to road trips, whether it's just me on my own or with my family. Either way, it's like the effects of it are uh are similar. I okay, I'll point to one specific one. So we bought a travel trailer during COVID, and um, you know, we travel a lot, different destinations and fly everywhere. And during COVID was a year where you know everybody kind of stayed put. But hey, it was a good time to think about a travel trailer. Normal travel was sort of not happening as much anymore. And so yeah, we were we're just driving all over the country. Some of the most uh amazing scenery that I've ever seen was driving through through the Rockies, civically like Wyoming, just breathtaking. Like I could not believe what my eyes were seeing. And it's like we take pictures, it's like, yeah, pictures can't do it justice. It's like you have to be there. And so yeah, driving, I have this big Ford F-50 dually truck that's jacked up from the factory six-inch lift. It's called the Black Ops. It looks like it's ready to survive the end of the world. Okay, and it's so overpowered for for my trailer. I I never owned a trailer and I never owned a truck, so I'm like, I'm just gonna get a big old massive dually that can pull a house. Again, overkill, but um, it's never hurting for power. It's smooth on the highway, and it's just I love the expectation of knowing where we're gonna pull up, where we're gonna set up, and this um there's no greater sense of freedom to me personally than hitting the road, and then it's like the home is is on wheels behind us, so it's like we're gonna sleep in our own bed, but we don't know what the scenery's gonna look like outside, and that's like exciting. It's like, what is it gonna be? Is it gonna be amazing? View of the mountains, is it gonna be a lake or just any random place? Who's gonna be next to us? Some of the nicest people I've ever met too have been from camping in the trailers. I'd say that that's an epic road trip. And so we left from central Texas and then we drove up through uh we drove like like west out to Arizona, then hit up north and went through Utah, um, and then over into Wyoming, and then we decided to go to Michigan from there instead of back to Texas. So that makes that road trip pretty epic. We uh went into uh we had to go into Idaho, then to cross into Montana, then over to North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, then then the upper peninsula of Michigan to then come down to the top of the lower peninsula. Um, and then we did the typical trip back down to Texas, more straight, almost straight south. So kind of did a nice little loop around the country there. Those are great trips, amazing scenery, great bonding time with the family, always little little adventures and things like that in between. So that was an epic trip for me.

SPEAKER_01 6:19

I always tell people look, you have to go out west because there's nothing like being out in the mountain ranges of the West.

SPEAKER_00 6:27

That's it. We we found a lot of those mountain ranges and um just the elevation and you're at this crazy incline. And yeah, fortunately my truck had the power to do it. But man, I could see if if you don't have a truck that can pull at an angle, it could be a struggle and stressful. Like I'd see other trucks pulling and like barely moving. Be well powered if you're gonna head out west, but it is so worth it.

SPEAKER_01 6:46

Thanks for sharing

From High School Startup To E-Commerce

SPEAKER_01 6:47

that. I mentioned your LinkedIn. I went back and looked at it again this morning just to uh refresh my memory. It kicked off in 1996. I don't know how old you were at that point, but some sort of e-commerce adventure. Then you were helping other e-commerce companies. Take us on that journey, how you ended up there, and and we'll talk about what you're doing now in a little bit.

SPEAKER_00 7:06

Absolutely. Yeah. So I started my first business back in 1995 and yeah, officially sort of like on paper, pulled my first thing, 1996, 17 years old in high school when I started, and uh thought I was gonna follow in my dad's footsteps and go to medical school. He was a medical doctor for almost through the first couple years of college. That was my plan. Is you know, I entered into pre-med, and I remember my junior year of college. I had um my business had started taking off, and I had my first, you know, multiple six-figure year, and I'm already like equaling a doctor's income as I'm a junior in college. Um and I was like, you know, I you know, business and medicine are just completely different. Like, there's no way I could keep this up. So I'm like, let me just like transfer to to marketing. Like that complements something that I already have working and and it's not like opposing in terms of energy and effort. And so that's what I did, and and I stayed in in marketing ever since. I remember my junior year in college, I actually was able to be a guest speaker or lecturer in uh in an e-commerce class because at that time it was still very, very new and everybody's just teaching theories. And I'm like, well, I'm actually doing it. You guys are just kind of going from the textbooks of what you think, you know. So that was kind of cool. But I've been been primarily on my own ever since. Most of my, I'd say 31 years as an entrepreneur has been in the online supplement space, like nutritional products. My target market's been the baby boomers. Up until recently, they've been the largest segment of the population, like wherever their dollars go makes great shifts in the economy and what trends. I heard I believe it's millennials that have sort of like overpassed, but not by much. But so that's why in the mid-90s I started in the supplement space. And and frankly, it's still still a solid industry to be in today because their focus then was anti-aging. Like, you know, maybe they're hitting, you know, mid-40s and 50s. They're like, I kind of like how I used to feel when I was, you know, in my 30s, but I'm not feeling it that way anymore. They look into supplements and things like that. And so I served them in that way for a number of years. And yeah, so that's it. And and I had an agency over the years helping other businesses get themselves online, primarily in the supplement space as well. I've always had my own thing going, but um with the ability of um, you know, hiring and delegating and sort of setting up teams, I I've been able to replicate myself in certain ways to be able to help help others and start businesses. Can't say that I did it the best. I've I've got my own interesting story of burning out and trying to do too many things, but for a while it sounded like a good idea and I did it. And I guess the outcomes could determine whether or not that was a good idea, but it was something that sustained me for a great while, made great relationships, learned a lot of things. So that's kind of what happened in those years.

How Online Buying Behavior Changed

SPEAKER_01 9:35

30 years around e-commerce. That's like, what's one or two big changes you've seen in that industry?

SPEAKER_00 9:40

Man, so many. I I'd just say the the maturity and the spending habits of people online. Used to be five, 10 years ago, I could put together a presentation that's maybe 30 minutes long on a video explaining the benefits of this product and then a nice call to action. And and people would sit through it and and buy. I mean, not a lot, you know, but all it takes is two percent, two out of a hundred people who would sit there and watch them buy. You can have a thriving business at now two percent might be down to like 0.2%. The attention span of people and the expectations are are like instant. So, like if you can't, you know, sell it in a couple of minutes, it's like we're gone. I'd say, I don't know, maybe I don't know if that's the maturity level of the buyer or just the way we consume information. People like bite-sized information more now. And um, and they're just like, eh, just give me the facts and I want to make a decision, which means you know, you have to accordingly. My typical business model has been long presentation, high ticket price because you're you're taking the time to show them the value, why they should invest in this and how it can help them. But now it's just like bite-sized information and it can't cost too much because you don't have enough time to build the value, you know, the value proposition. So you need to sort of compete at a lower level. And some people can make that work. Um, that's not my area of expertise, but yeah, I'd say that's the biggest shift is is is how people are buying these days. And you know, things like TikTok and and you know, I have a TikTok because uh I have uh somebody that posts social media to it, but I'm not a TikTok user in terms of sitting there scrolling or what have you, so I might sound like I don't know what I'm saying in that sense, but but everybody's just so used to like the little tidbit of of information and they're and they're just constantly just looking to be like engaged. If we don't engage them quickly, they're they're gone. And those long format presentations aren't exactly uh engaging like some of this quick small bite content is these days.

Ownership Today Plus Real Estate Investing

SPEAKER_01 11:23

Before we get to what you're doing right now, are you still involved in e-commerce in the supplement business?

SPEAKER_00 11:28

I still have a small ownership in a company that I founded. Okay. And I uh I built it, scaled it, and exited majority of it. I I'm I'm on the board of it, which I'm kind of bored of that board role. Uh don't do a whole lot, but um, you know, offer insight and advice to uh to the leadership team. So that that's my extent to my involvement. And I still make connections and network for the for the benefit of the company.

SPEAKER_01 11:52

I also saw real estate on there.

SPEAKER_00 11:54

I didn't catch that the first time we talked, but real estate's been a great uh great thing on the side. I I never like gone all in on real estate as a primary thing, but it's a great way to just keep your money working for you. One of the one of the worst things to do is have big piles of cash sitting in a bank account. You need to have your like your pay your bills and and some reserves, but not like everything. So diversifying into real estate's a great way to to at least get it out of the way of of inflation, get some appreciation. You know, the housing markets have gone insane over the last 10-ish years. I know they've cooled off the last year or two, but look at it over the last 10-year run. It's just been amazing. I've invested in in single family homes. We have a couple of Airbnbs right now and in raw vacant land that have done some land flipping, land investing, also holding some properties for future plans. I don't have the plans yet, but it looks like a great piece of property in a great location. Something's gonna happen here. So, yeah, that's to the extent of of my real estate.

The Buyback Time Formula Explained

SPEAKER_01 12:50

So take us to what you're doing today, buyback time formula. I think I said that right. I hope I did. Yeah. Take us on that. Tell us about that.

SPEAKER_00 12:58

Absolutely. So, like I said, uh 31-year entrepreneur, 30 of those years has been primarily like active in direct response e-commerce, like we talked about. Now that's been sort of like reduced intentionally. Um, and and I feel like the Lord's leading me down a certain path to serve the me of 10 years ago. And to speak, marketing speak, or customer avatar. It's um cash rich, time poor. And cash rich means, you know, successful on paper, successful business, um, but time poor because business gets all the time and the family gets the leftover. They get the burned down, stressed out, frustrated version of dad and and husband, you know. Don't ask me how I know that. Kidding part of the story. And and um parallel story to this in 2015. My dad

A Father’s Final Lesson On Presence

SPEAKER_00 13:39

was diagnosed with cancer early on in the year, uh, was a seemingly healthy, you know, 67-year-old practicing, you know, medical doctor, and um, you know, great, great career on paper. But um, you know, cancer doesn't care. It'll just come for you and just there you go. But yeah, he he told us that early on, and um our relationship grew really, really tight. And um, a couple weeks uh before he passed away, like a deathbed statement, deathbed confession, he says, Don't miss Leo's games. I miss too many of yours. And as you can imagine, as like a ton of bricks just fell on me, he's like, holy cow, a couple thoughts came rushing. I was like instantly transported back to my high school gym where I played in about 40 basketball games and and he only went to one of them. And I I'd been okay with that. Like I was raised with a dad who like wasn't around much, so like, okay, by high school, I kind of already know who my dad is. But the perplexing thing is that a lot of my, you know, my teammates, like all their dads over there for all the games, cheering when they scored every basket, like they won the championship. And I I do my my fancy move that gets fancier in my head every time I think about it. Uh and and I got nobody cheering for me. Remember looking at another dad loving on his kid, and I was like, I wish that was my dad. Uh, you know, I didn't care that dad was a you know plumber or you know, like I didn't care about his career, you know. I was like, I just want that to be my dad because that's the attention that I want. Yeah, that would have crushed my dad because he was a good man, but he he was the cash-rich, time poor person that I later became and that now I'm looking to serve. And so that was nice closure for whatever that was. I'm I'm not a therapist, I don't know how to put language on that. But uh coming back to that moment, that was like my lying in the sand moment, my before and after of my life. I'm like, I became version two of my dad, and this is where it ends. But it's gonna have to start tomorrow, this whole restructuring thing, because I'm working 16 hours today. And of course, sometimes tomorrow means never. In my case, tomorrow meant three years from now or from that date. And so three years comes and goes, and my dad's already long gone, and um I'm scaling my company to numbers I'd only dreamed about as an entrepreneur, just printing money, more money than I knew what to do with, but hating life, and and I know hate's a strong word, but there's no other word that explains like having your family like ripped away from you and nearly losing them. It wasn't like they're standing at the door, you know, about to leave, but you know, I've seen where that movie ends. You know, that's how the movie ended with my dad. And but they they don't, they might necessarily leave right then, but they start to drift and then they plan a life without you. And those are kind of the first steps of the inevitable. And so I came to the point of okay, I'm either gonna burn this thing down or I'm gonna sell it. Selling a business is a multi-year process. You can't like snap your fingers and boom, you're done. That's not gonna solve my problems tomorrow, but I could burn it down. That's like an overnight fake. Probably not the smartest. I already had a successful business, it's just poorly designed. I was the most important person in the business, and I shouldn't be. I was the founder, but I should have built it in a way that didn't pull me for every decision, for every approval. Can we do this? Can we spend that? And that would just completely like suck me in. Even on vacation, it's like you'd see me like, you know, this on my phone, you know, putting out fires. Like we're in France, Eiffel Towers behind me, and and in our pictures, I'm like this. And I should be like looking at the tower. I, you know, I should be enjoying the presence of my family. And I can say that these days that happens, but at that time was was not not great. I had a uh a friend that lovingly like walked me off the ledge. At the time he was a coach and a mentor, but a dear friend now, and he just said, Stop doing what you don't like doing and keep doing what you're good at. And I'm just like, holy cow, 23 years in business, and that finally clicked in a way that it just hadn't before. I had 40 people working for me, but I was addicted to being the firefighter to my company. Um, and and probably uh for another discussion for another day, but there's uh, you know, childhood wounds and trauma that keep you trapped in a place of seeking approval. In my case from my dad, that I I never really got. I feel like I might have gotten it here and there, but like overall, my whole life seeking his approval. Even after he passed away, I'm trying to get his approval. You know, it at work, it's like you get a PL. You can see when you're winning or losing, you can adjust. Um, at home, there's no PL. It's like you gotta like listen in, feel it. And I don't want to speak for all men, but for me, I'm like, I like the quick response, and then I just take action. And it's hard to like slow down and and kind of try to feel things out at home. So anyway, I started restructuring my my business and the pinnacle of the transformation on the other side was I went from working 90 hour weeks down to zero, like off the grid for weeks on end. Um, when I did work, it was never more than 30 hours by design. And um, I actually doubled my income. I was willing to sacrifice it, but I doubled it. The frameworks took the emergencies to somebody else, didn't rip me off the dinner table or wake up my family at 3 a.m. And um the most impressive part of all that is I never uh missed any of Leo's games, like my dad told me not to. And um, you know, like I've been there for everything at eight years old. I taught him how to negotiate real estate. He made the offer on one of our properties and he fully handled it. I mean, I had to coach him, but now he's got that experience. We got the house and he fully did the offer side of it. And one day he'll be telling that to his kids of what he did with grandpa. And my hope is that that just carries a legacy of its own. And current day, as we've discussed, he's got a podcast, he's interviewed over 150 people, had his first billionaire come on a couple of weeks ago, the founder of eEntertainment. Not trying to find billionaires, but like, you know, in a networking thing, is hey, have you heard this kid? And then it just like, oh, I got found introduce you to this person. And and so it's it's kind of has a life of its own over there. We created a program to teach other kids how to do the same thing. And then kind of coming back to me on the founder dad stuff.

Founder Dad Dinners And Real Community

SPEAKER_00 18:52

I host dinners at my home in Austin for my cash-rich, time poor founder dad. They come to my house, I feed them. We talk about, you know, the successes, the excitements, and the struggles all kind of in one. You know, you come in, you know, wearing that mask of successful founder, doing things, great things in life, as as you know, I would do going into a place. So then you sit down, you get vulnerable, take the mask off. And I I've had men, you know, tell me how they're on the verge of leaving their wife or their kids don't like them. What is am I doing all this for? Literally, I had my last dinner last night. I don't want to say specific numbers in case they hear it, but many, many millions, and but seeking the purpose of life, thinking that these millions would sort of equate to something and no, it doesn't. And I've tried to get more and I do get more, and it still doesn't. So let's not keep barking up that tree, but let's seek what purpose is for. And and I'm excited to where he's headed because at least he's seeking for that. I I have a, you know, I create a place for for these men to come and like share that. We're not fixing problems, we're not solving things overnight, but just to get it off their chest is like a weight lifted off their shoulders. So so that's that's what my passion is in life right now is helping them realize that uh, you know, you can always make more money, you can always start a new business, but you can never redo a childhood. You only get 18 summers, and that's at day zero. Once you realize the number of summers, you're like, oh my gosh, I got three, or I'm out of summers. And those years fly by. Oh my gosh, they do. Are these local groups only, or do people fly in to meet with you? People fly in, yeah. You know, at first, uh, you know, I and I was thinking too small. I'm like, hey, do you know any local founder dads in Austin? Because I live in Austin, and that was great. But after a while, it's like, well, no, this one lives over here and over there. And I started having men fly in for these things. Still majority local, because that's just what's most convenient. But I've got a man in Portugal who plans to attend, another one in Toronto, so they're even international. But um, I've had men come from other states. It's it's something that kind of takes off like wildfire, you know. Men tell other men and and uh sort of builds a life of its own.

SPEAKER_01 20:47

We weren't built to travel alone.

SPEAKER_00 20:49

Exactly. That's the thing. Last night, especially in all of these, but since I'm fresh, like 12 hours of my most recent one, big thing everybody kept talking about is community and the lack of friends that they have, and they feel alone. And I'm like, look, I know because that's how I used to feel, but you're not alone. We're all we're all like in in this, you know, together but separate, but now that we know each other, and we now have like this brotherhood. I'm hearing things that they've never told any other person before. It's an honor and it's it's humbling and uh just seeing where the Lord takes this whole thing.

SPEAKER_01 21:18

I've got your book right here uh on my death, uh good read. So I'll recommend that to people. Thank you for sharing all that. That's a great journey you've been on, and we wish you more success with that helping people buy back

Bucket List Trips And Big Faith Questions

SPEAKER_01 21:31

time. Thank you, Dan. Let's switch gears a little bit. What's on your bucket list in life? You've obviously been a lot of places, you've done a lot of stuff, but anything on that list?

SPEAKER_00 21:39

A couple of the most fun things that I've crossed off is the Nureberg ring that our our good buddy Donnie uh took me on. I've done that a number of times. Um, and then ice driving in Sweden. I always like, what's the bucket list? I always go back to that, but I'm like, I already did that. But like I wish I could do it again. And so maybe repeat visits will sort of be more bucket list stuff. Sure. But I'd say visiting Australia. Visiting Japan, you know, my son wants to visit those those countries. That's that's one thing. We've never really targeted anything really beyond Europe, so that'll be an interesting thing for us to do. So I'd say traveling abroad to those countries.

SPEAKER_01 22:13

Imagine today you can go on a road trip with anyone, living or deceased. Who would it be? Where would you go? What would you talk about?

SPEAKER_00 22:20

It's a good question. Honestly, I I I would probably be Jesus. He's one of those interesting ones that had died and he's still alive. So he's an interesting category. But um, I I'd probably just ask him questions. And honestly, like I'd probably be like, How the heck am I in your presence? But assuming I get over that part, I'd just be like, Yeah, well, how why why do you love us so much? You know, I'm thankful for the patience that you have for us. I'd be like, I spent years, you know, fighting against you and you still pursued me. That that's kind of awesome. And just have that conversation and then just just all these random questions of like, wow, and what were you thinking? Because you he was around at the beginning of time, like when this specific thing, like, what was the thought behind that? Because that'd be nice to know. Yeah, it would. So just getting getting deep on on certain topics and subjects, I think it would be. But you know, I I don't know if that's a common answer that people say, but um, I I feel like I'd like to just get deep on some of those things.

SPEAKER_01 23:13

Honestly, I think you're the second person out of my 105, 106 episodes, whatever it is, that's actually said that. So I appreciate that.

SPEAKER_00 23:21

I'm sure he'll he'll just say things, hey, I I work in mysterious ways and then and leave it at that. That'd be fun to sort of get some insights or or even just like yeah, asking questions about my own uh yeah, my maybe my ancestry, and and yeah, just just fascinating would be to have a discussion with him. Or or like what were your thoughts, you know, when uh you know, when you were there on the cross? Because I know there there had to be, you know, he he said, you know, father, why have you forsaken me? And I'm like, but you you also would know that that it would turn out okay, but then so explain how how how that disconnect happened for like a split second. You know, that was like, okay, he had to feel that disconnect in order for it to be valid. Because otherwise it's easy to be like, well, we're just gonna get through this and we'll be fine. Like that would have sort of not not been the payment that was required to fulfill everything. So I don't know. And again, that's one of those things where only he kind of understands how that works, and that's why we're not God, so we can just kind of speculate and give our thoughts and ideas. But yeah, just going deep on all that stuff is would be fascinating.

One Rule For A Wonderful Life

SPEAKER_01 24:16

We've already given us some great advice on business, life, Jesus. But if you could leave my listeners with a piece of advice on how to live a wonderful life, what would be that one piece of advice?

SPEAKER_00 24:27

If I could speak to my my founder dads who might have young ones at home, especially like like last night, if I'm speaking of one last night was talking about how his child would ask him to do things and he just didn't want to do it. Like he's just being transparent, like I just don't want to do it. But he sometimes thinks he has to force himself. I just be like I alluded to it earlier, like you can always go out there, you can always start a new business, make money, but you're never gonna be able to rewind these times and be present for your kids so you can never redo a childhood. And I know that at the end of our lives, nobody's ever gonna say, I'm so glad I blew your game for that client meeting. Like nobody's ever gonna do that. But we do that a lot on autopilot, thinking, you know, that there's more time. And so my message is be aware of it now so that you can do the best you can. I know nobody's gonna do it perfectly, but just do the best you can so that by the time you get to those end days, you know, we'll all say, I wish I could have done this and that better. But you'll be proud of how you lived those days with the awareness that you got and that you did your best. And that's what you can kind of hang your hat on and say, I did did my best. That's my goal is just to bring awareness to that.

SPEAKER_01 25:29

Thank you. Well, George, this has been a pleasure for me. I hope the same for you. But before

Where To Find George And Dan

SPEAKER_01 25:34

we go, leave people with how to find you, the business, the charity, Leo's podcast, whatever you would like.

SPEAKER_00 25:40

Absolutely. I'll share a few links. Yeah, buybacktimeformula.com is the best place to check the book out, to find me on my socials. Leointerviews.com is the best place to find my son's podcast. Leo InterviewsAcademy.com is the best place to find if you have a child who maybe they're struggling with confidence and they they might need some inspiration. That's uh that's a program that my son and I put together to help kids learn how to talk to other people, uh, talk to other adults, uh, reflect back in comprehension skills, skills that'll serve them for life, especially in a world where AI is is making it kind of less important, at least for now on the human connection. We're we're bringing that back. Those are three great places you can get into our world. Again, it's been a pleasure. Thank you. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:22

Thank you for tuning in to Dan the Road Trip Guy. I hope you enjoyed our journey today and the stories that were shared. If you have any thoughts or questions or stories of your own, I'd love to hear from you. Feel free to reach out to me anytime. Don't forget to share this podcast with your friends and family and help us to spread the joy of road trips and great conversations. Until next time, keep driving, keep exploring, and keep having those amazing conversations. Safe travels. And remember, you can find me on the internet at dantheroadripguy.com.