Newsletter Sent out today:

Life is a continuous journey, filled with opportunities for reflection and growth. Each day presents new challenges and lessons that shape our understanding of ourselves and the world around us. On July 26, 2024, a series of thoughts emerged, prompting a deeper exploration of values, time, and the significance of community. This article captures those reflections, emphasizing the importance of collaboration, the nature of work, and the role of time as a currency in our lives.

Signing the Declaration of Independence: A Hypothetical Reflection

Imagine standing in 1776, faced with the monumental decision of whether to sign the Declaration of Independence. Would you take that step? Personally, the answer is yes. Signing that document represents a commitment to freedom, unity, and a collective effort to create positive change. The spirit of that era resonates today, where the goal remains to support and protect one another.

This reflection serves as a reminder that our journey is not solitary. We are all part of a larger narrative, working together to foster change in our society. Embracing the idea that life is a team sport encourages us to build connections and support each other in pursuit of our dreams.

The Nature of Work: A Team Sport and a Solo Journey

Every day, as we march forward, the essence of teamwork becomes evident. In the workplace, I collaborate with my team at Secure Pacific, focusing on providing security solutions. However, the journey is also about individual responsibility. My core mission is to increase tax revenue for America, a task that requires both collaborative and individual efforts.

Understanding the dual nature of work—both as a team sport and a solo journey—helps clarify our roles in the larger economic landscape. The success of any organization hinges on the movement of money, which is influenced by effective sales strategies and exceptional customer service. The ultimate goal is to facilitate transactions that drive economic growth.

Time as Currency: The Heart of Economic Activity

Time is a non-renewable resource, making it one of the most valuable currencies we possess. The speed at which money circulates in the economy directly impacts our financial landscape. While some argue that faster money movement leads to inflation, it's crucial to recognize that we cannot relive the past. The prices of yesterday are irrelevant; what matters is how we utilize our time today.

To foster economic growth, we must focus on how we cycle money into valuable assets. These assets include people—our workforce and customers—who drive demand and create value. Every business thrives on the existence of individuals who seek its products or services. Without people, businesses falter.

Understanding Business Value: The Human Element

Take, for example, a well-known coffee chain like Starbucks. Its success is not merely a result of corporate funding but relies heavily on the people who work there and the customers who choose to buy from them. The moment consumer interest wanes, the business faces decline. This principle applies universally: value is inherently tied to human interaction.

Businesses can collapse if they lose access to time and media. When people disengage from a brand or a job, the organization begins to erode. Therefore, nurturing relationships and maintaining engagement is paramount to sustaining business success.

Shifting Perspectives on Time and Money

In the quest for growth and success, we often find ourselves spending time to save money. While this approach has its merits, it’s essential to recognize that true growth often comes from spending money to save time. For instance, prospecting can be time-consuming and yield limited results if done solely through cold calls. However, investing in targeted advertising can yield greater returns by reaching audiences already engaged with the platform.

Currently, in the absence of funds to invest in advertising, I rely on traditional methods such as cold calls and walk-ins. While these strategies can drive business, they are less efficient. Once cash flow improves, I plan to redirect funds into advertising, allowing for scalable growth.

Scalability in Business: The Importance of Systems

Businesses scale effectively when they are not solely reliant on individual effort. Consulting firms and service companies often struggle with scalability because they depend heavily on the time and expertise of their owners and employees. In contrast, manufacturing plants and automated systems can function independently, allowing for growth without the need for constant human oversight.

Amazon exemplifies this model, automating processes to ensure that its operations are not contingent on any single individual’s time. This approach allows for continuity, even as personnel come and go. Such systems highlight the value of time as a currency and the potential for leveraging it through automation and efficient business practices.

Leveraging Time: The Role of Content Creation

In my journey, I have found that content creation is a powerful way to leverage time. By recording podcasts during my commute, I transform a no-pay activity into a potential revenue stream. However, monetization only occurs once the content is produced and distributed effectively. The aim is to attract leads or sponsors who recognize the value of the content being created.

Subscribing to my blog represents more than just following my journey; it’s a form of sponsorship. It allows individuals to engage with the content and support my mission, creating a larger team built on diverse skill sets. This collaborative effort is essential in a world where social media serves as the primary distribution platform.

Creating a Personal Space for Growth

As I wrap up my journal entry for the day, I reflect on the importance of personal space in fostering creativity and productivity. Setting up my office with reminders of achievements, goals, and personal values creates an environment conducive to growth. A clean, organized space encourages focus and inspiration.

Connecting with family and friends also plays a vital role in maintaining balance. Spending quality time with loved ones rejuvenates the spirit and fosters a sense of belonging. This balance between work and personal life is crucial in navigating the complexities of our journeys.

Concluding Thoughts: Embracing the Journey

As I conclude this reflection, it’s essential to recognize that every day offers a new opportunity for learning and growth. Embracing the journey means being open to sharing experiences—both successes and failures. Transparency in our lives fosters connection and understanding, allowing us to support one another in meaningful ways.

By documenting this journey, I hope to inspire others to reflect on their paths and consider how they can contribute to positive change in society. Life is indeed a team sport, and there is room for everyone to play a vital role.

Thank you for joining me on this journey through time. Your support and engagement are invaluable as we navigate the complexities of life together. Let’s continue to learn, grow, and strive for a better future.

Daily Podcast:

Daily Video Journal:

00:00 - Introduction and morning greeting

00:30 - Reminder about God's love and life's journey

01:15 - Date announcement (July 26, 2024) and work plans for the day

02:30 - Reflections on yesterday's sales call and future plans

03:15 - Philosophical thoughts on life's struggles and personal responsibility

05:00 - Encouragement to viewers to pursue change and follow their dreams

06:30 - Update on moving out of the house

07:45 - Reflections on temporary nature of success and failure

08:30 - Thoughts on sales and entrepreneurship

09:15 - Plans to move to parents' house

09:45 - Closing remarks and request for support

Daily Journal Transcript:

Good morning. Good morning. Good morning.

It is July 26, 2024. This morning, I have been thinking about, would I sign the Declaration of Independence if I was given the chance? So I wanted to pose that question to you. If you lived in 1776, would you sign the Declaration of Independence? I would.

I would gladly sign it if I was given that opportunity today. Life is a journey, and we are all in it together. On this journey, our goal is to support and protect as many people as we can.

If you believe we can be the change that we need in society, I invite you to follow the life with Justin Stephens as we live life to do that change. Good morning. Good morning.

Good morning. It is July 26, 2024. Time marches on each and every day.

There's our flag. Why we go to battle every day. I believe life is a team sport and a single player game.

So when I go to work, I go to play on the team of secure Pacific. But in the single player game, my core focus is increasing tax revenue for America. And I believe I do that by being great at sales, by being great at customer service and taking care of people and helping solve their problems and getting money moving.

The whole point, what I do is, how do we get money to move? We need it to move faster. A lot of people push back and say, oh, Justin, the faster money moves than the faster inflation goes. Well, that is true.

The faster money moves, the faster inflation grows. But you know what else is true? True. You can never, under any circumstance, go back in time.

You can never, under any circumstance, relive today. So if that is true, what prices were last week, last month, last year, last decade, last century is all irrelevant because you don't live then, you live today. And that's why I think we need to get better at cycling money into the assets that help us create the value of the world.

And those assets are the people. Those assets are you and me. Wonder what's going on here.

We are the reason that life creates value. We are the reason that the society functions. There's a Starbucks right there, right? So just because there's a Starbucks there, Starbucks Corporation is funding it.

They're putting a bunch of money there. But that only is profitable because there are humans there working at Starbucks, and there's humans. They're buying the product of Starbucks.

Same is true of every company in the world. The only reason a company is valuable is because there is a human who wants the service that that company company has to offer. When there ceases to be any humans that wants the service and is willing to pay for said service.

That is when everything in a business collapses. And it doesn't have to be the employees or the customers. I should say it could be that no one wants to work that job anymore.

No one wants to be associated with that brand anymore. If you want to destroy any company in the world, it's actually really easy. You just cut off its access to time, cut off their access to media.

Right. If you cut off someone's access to time, they will slowly start to implode. If you can get people to decide they don't want to work at a company, that company will slowly start to implode.

Whether that's good or bad is irrelevant. Time is what truly ties us together. And that's the whole purpose behind my blog, behind the content, behind the way I live my life, is to get people to think about time as a currency.

I believe that is where change starts. We need to change the way we think about the assets we have access to in our lives. Most people will spend time to save money, and there are definitely times when I do that right now, I do that almost exclusively.

I spend time to save money. But growth and success in business comes from spending money to save time. Let's take prospecting, for example.

I can pick up a phone and I can cold call people all day long. I might get some leads, I might have some conversations. But it's not the best investment of time.

Especially if, let's say you have money, then you can look at it from the standpoint of you go buy ads on Facebook, and mark Zuckerberg's already collected the time, your prospects are already spending time there. Now you just have to get them to transition to paying attention to you while they're there. They already picked up the phone.

Now you need to get them to have the conversation. And you can do all of that by putting money into the machine and letting the machine work the way it's designed to work. And then you'll get leads without needing to invest the time doing the cold calls.

And right now, I'm. I don't have any money to invest in ads. So I'm focused on cold calls and walk ins and all these other strategies that can drive business.

But they're very inefficient ways to drive business. Once my cash flow is going, I'll be able to take that cash flow and invest it into ads. And those ads will bring me more cash flow.

And that's how businesses scale. They scale because they're not built on any one person's time. Consulting firms, service companies, are much harder to scale scale because the scalability depends on the time of the owner and the employees being there and having the knowledge and skillset to be successful.

You go look at a manufacturing plant though. They've automated systems and processes so that almost anyone can be taught the skills and knowledge needed to run the system. Excuse me, but they can be automated to grow.

Look at Amazon. Amazon's a great example. Amazon needs a ton of time to be successful, but it's most of their processes and procedures are automated in such a way that they don't need any one specific person's time.

As people come and go, it's painful, but it's not like in a small business where everything depends on the owner. So that's why I think time is the true value. The world, the true currency of the world, is because it's the one thing that does not cycle ever.

You cannot cycle your time again. You can leverage it. That's why I do a podcast right now.

I'm driving to work. That is a no pay activity. I put on my glasses, start recording a podcast episode.

I've turned a no pay activity into potentially paid activity. I say potentially because just recording it doesn't turn it into a paid activity. It's once it's recorded, produced, distributed, that it's getting closer to a paid activity.

But it's not paid until someone pays you to do it. And they do that by either becoming a lead in your process, lead for your company, or they do that by sponsoring your content and saying, you know what, I see what you're doing. I see the people you're trying to get in front of, and I want to leverage that.

That's why I do that. Everything the way I do is because I want people. Eventually I believe people will understand that the subscription to my blog, which create, gives you ownership in the blog, that subscription is just a sponsorship of me as an individual.

And it's a way to leverage the time I'm collecting and monetizing with your time. It's a way to build a bigger team because it's not built on any one skill set. It's built on all our skill sets.

Social media is the distribution platform. I don't need to build my own social media company. There's already companies out there doing exactly what I'm trying to do.

X is the one that aligns. I align the most with, which is why I am an X primary. Oh no, I forgot my phone.

I'm an X primary user. So anyways, that's what's on my mind this morning. I hope you all have a great day, and we'll talk to you soon.

I got my office all set up. We got a whiteboard, my desk, got my flags, my diploma. How fun is that? Some hats.

Gonna bring some of my other decor from home. Like the tax code. Gonna set that up in here.

I like having it as an example. Feel good, though. Good evening, everybody.

I am wrapping up my journal entry for the day, and then I'm gonna go hang out with my parents and my brother and his family and just have some fun time. So I may do more entries later, but I'm not gonna add them to my distribution, which is my choice. Yay.

That's the fun thing about being. Creating content and being transparent is you get to choose when and how you live your life. And this is the way I choose and how I choose to live my life.

So I gonna keep this pretty quick. It was a great day at work. Got my office cleaned up, went out, had knocked on some doors.

Didn't get any good results, but that is life. Then went with my parents and looked at a house. My parents are amazing and are gonna help.

They're gonna buy a rental and let me be the tenant while we fix it up a bit. And then I either. Thanks for watching today's journal entry.

The best way to support my work is by following, liking, and sharing the content I create on a regular basis. I appreciate you being on this journey through time with me and have a wonderful day.