Intro
📍 Welcome to The Corvus Effect, where we take you behind the scenes to explore integrated self leadership and help ambitious family men build lasting legacies for themselves, their tribe, and their community. I'm Scott Raven, and together we'll discover how successful leaders master a delicate balance of career advancement, personal health, financial growth, and meaningful relationships. Get ready to soar.
Meet Ben Finklea: Family-Centric Business Model
📍 And hello everyone. Welcome back to another episode of The Corvus Effect. I am Scott. Today I am honored to be joined by Ben Finklea of Volacci Marketing, a digital marketing expert who intentionally designed his business around his family rather than the other way around.
From tag team parroting with his wife to recent pivot as a fractional CMO for trade businesses. Ben demonstrates how making conscious choices align with your values leads to success in both business and family life. His journey shows that you don't have to sacrifice presence for professional Volaccievement and his recent learning, that necessity being the mother of invention, that your team can step up to the plate for you.
And can lead the way for that, which you started. So Ben, welcome to the podcast, man.
Thank you, Scott. I really appreciate you having me on.
No worries, no worries at all. Let's, go ahead and just get started.
Balancing Family and Business
we talk a lot on this podcast in terms of success professionally should not mean sacrificing personally and with the family, and that you built your career very early on.
A family first business model, and in particular, a decision to structure your business schedule around your family needs. Coordinating that with your wife who was a senior lecturer at the University of Texas. So obviously you've done something right between you two, raising two Eagle Scouts on the side, right?
How did y'all make that work?
Well, I, I love that you say that was the side part. we consider our jobs the
Mm-hmm.
So my business, my job is my side gig. My family is the main thing. and we've, always looked at it that way. but yeah, it's been an adventure, uh, When we decided to have kids, we had been married for five or six
Mm-hmm.
and we had lots of friends.
Uh. Who worked in corporate America, Dell and Apple and you know, the big companies that have, offices here in Austin. And we just heard some horror stories about guys who never saw their kids. You know, it's like they would leave early in the morning before their kids woke up. They would, I. Uh, get home late at night after the kids were already in bed.
and I was like, I don't want that, you know, that's not success. That doesn't seem like success to me. and so when we started, talking about having kids, we'd both decided like, if we're gonna have kids, let's be
Right,
let's be the ones who have the kids not, you know, hand them off to daycare or, want an absentee parent, right.
right.
so we really made the decision, together long before we had kids. 'cause it was another three years of trying, we had some fertility issues but when we finally started having kids, we had been married for nine years and those few years did give us some time to kind of think about how we wanted to structure
things.
The Decision to Focus on Digital Marketing
being a marketing guy, I was building a lot of websites and hosting websites.
And what I found was that the emergencies that I had in my company were always around a website. this page went down, the server went down things. I mean, this was 20 years ago, hosting and stuff was not nearly as
But ankle nonetheless. Yes.
Yeah. Well, it basically, it, created a. urgency that I just was not comfortable with having, knowing that I was gonna be in responsible for
Right.
But this other part of my business was going really well. probably about 50% of my revenue at the time. and this is relatively new thing, digital marketing and SEO.
And so I made the decision that I was gonna. Stop developing and hosting websites and focus exclusively on marketing, which has like been the story of my whole career for the last 20 years. Right. So it, that pivot, for my family, was just, it's amazing. it created not only space. In my life to have kids and to be present for them, but it forced me to really focus in on a niche that I could own.
and it, literally, I worked fewer hours, but it made my career so much better to be focused in on just one
Setting Boundaries with Clients
And one of the things you and I talked about offline, was that part of what made that success for you? Was setting clear boundaries with your clients about your availability and what surprised you was how much your clients respected that. That's something that doesn't seem like it plays in today's professional world, but you made it work.
you know, I think my clients were, kind of a
Mm-hmm.
they really, and in, some ways, I have to say, they self-selected. I did have a client or two over the years, not many, who said, well, what if I need to get in touch with you on, you know, these days? And I'm like, well, I just like, I'll respond to you, but it might take me several hours to get back to you.
And they're like, well, no, I need you to pick up the phone whenever I call. I'm like, I just can't do that.
right.
You know, that's, that's not po. So I didn't, those never became clients. Right. So, but the clients that I did have, I really. built a company around not having emergencies. That was the whole thing, was like building a great marketing campaign, setting stuff up and putting it in place.
there's not emergencies and what I told my clients. Was that, look, if there is an emergency, then yes, I will answer the phone and take care of those issues. But for the most part, there really aren't any emergencies in, at least in the way that I created the digital marketing.
so yeah, and I got kudos for my clients. they wanted to see the kids, they wanted to know how things were going with the kids. It was great.
Integrating Family and Work Life
You know, it goes into something else that I can imagine a lot of the listeners here on the podcast who are business owners have as a common challenge, which is balancing. Entrepreneurship with active parenting, and you alluded to the fact that you were able to blend and integrate those two areas of your life a bit so that they weren't compartmentalized or separated.
Were there any other ways that you were able to be more successful in terms of having harmony between those two worlds?
Yeah. So, I think it's important to point out that I have spouse who was a hundred percent on board with this process. And we both knew it was gonna be
Mm-hmm.
I don't wanna. Glossed over the fact that it was hard. we made it work. We did it, but we did it by, you know, I would put in 30 to 40 hours on, uh. Thursday, Saturday, you know, and my wife, who was able to put her classes on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and I might have reversed those. Maybe I, she worked on Tuesday, Thursdays, I can't remember. I think she worked on Tuesday, Thursday,
Uh, our memory gets much better as we get older, obviously,
It's been a minute. But what that meant was that, she would walk in the door and I would hand the kid to
right.
and I would go in my office then for the next 24 hours, that was my time to work. and I would pop out and eat and pop out and spend family time and stuff like that.
Right.
was difficult in that. For six days outta the week. my wife and I really didn't interact a whole ton, right? She was taking care of the kids. I was working, I was taking care of the kids. She was down at ut. and it's what we wanted. and it's what we did and we made the time when it was needed. But Sundays was always kind of our, like, this is family
Mm-hmm.
you know, we're gonna spend the day together, we're gonna go to church, we're gonna spend the afternoon together.
and this, this was all while the kids were before they like started. Kindergarten, you know, so it was eight, my kids were three years apart, so they were eight years when we were doing this. and a couple of those were having, both the kids at home at the same time, but it really was about the scheduling. we also had support from family. So Beverly's parents would come to
Mm-hmm.
during those busy parts of the school year, finals and things like that, and they'd come down for a week and just be there to help. yeah, so I mean, I think. knowing, you know, we're not superhuman. I mean, we, it, took lots of us to, to make that system work. but those integrations
Yeah, it's actually, a nice segue because in that dedicated time that you were flipping from parental mode to focus on yourself mode, right? That it wasn't just all work. That self-care also had to come along for the ride. And I know you and I have talked offline in terms of you're very much aligned with the VU philosophy, that it's an integrated life that we live, that mind, body, spirit, soul work together all together at the end of the day.
And I'd love for you to elaborate a little bit in terms of how you actually activated that in your life.
I think we have this idea in modern society that our work and our life are two separate
Mm-hmm.
I think that's come along since the industrial era
Yeah. So yeah, somebody, uh, clued me into the, show severance in terms of that concept of, you know, up, down what I've never seen the show, right. When somebody mentioned that, I'm like, yeah, that's exactly what we're trying to fight against. So
Yeah. I've not caught up on severance. I've seen the first season, but, basically that idea of, I. Uh, like your family all lived on a farm, and you would get up and you would all have your responsibilities and then you'd all come home and, somebody had cooked and you would all eat and then you would do the other stuff and then you would be there as a family.
And it was like work and family were just right there,
you know, even, uh, looking back, There was a, uh, mentioned in the, in the New Testament in the Bible, that there were, a family was talked about as tent makers, you know, not, oh, the dad was a tent maker, right? No, the family were tent
Mm-hmm.
And so this idea that, oh no, it's a separate thing, I think has really come along since like factories,
right?
Where we had to go somewhere to do the work, and the work wasn't built into our home. Even in cities, you would have like a. shop downstairs and an apartment
and so the family just lived and worked in the same
Right.
So we, we took that concept to our lives as well. So the kids would come with me to the gym. you know, if I had somewhere to go or somewhere to be, the kids were there with me. Um, I tried to, you know, schedule those at certain times, but whatever you do, what you have to
Right.
and our approach.
our thought process about kids are that they're
Mm-hmm.
that just haven't grown up
Mm-hmm.
and so we treated them as part of the process, right? and no, they don't have any life experience and they don't know anything. But we would treat them like they were little
Mm-hmm.
and so we would would talk to them about what's going on and talk to 'em about what daddy's working on and. Where mommy is and mommy's classes and school and what are some good examples? Um,
So, so many across the years. Yes.
many like a bunch, right? So taking my son to the grocery store. To do the family shopping and then instead of just putting him in the cart and pushing him up and down the rows, I would be like, okay, we've been looking at our letters and you know what a tea is, right?
Right.
And he would like, you know, draw a tea. And so that's right. So, okay, so we're gonna buy some tomatoes.
So tomatoes starts with tea, it makes the T sound, you
Yep.
I'd watch him, you know, and, but let, like tomatoes are down that way, they're gonna be about this high off the ground. Go look for a can with the tea on it, you know? And then he would go and do that. And then that kind of developed into, as he of course learned to, read more and, be a little bit more self-sufficient to just, you know, hey, two aisles over is the cereal aisle.
Go pick the one that you like. You know, that kind of, so it, but it starts with, hey, You're someone who's involved in our family, not somebody that we take care
Right,
right? We're all the family, we all take care of each other. We all take care of
right.
I'm not sure that that totally answered
No, no, I, I, it, it, it, it's fantastic. Right. I'm going to come back to that concept of family in just a bit, because you've also developed another family at Ji. But before we get there, let's go back a little bit to 2023.
Transition to Fractional CMO
Which was a lot of the genesis behind this movement and your move away from the large climb a large business to being a fractional CMO, specifically in the trades, industry.
And I'm curious, what was the spark? What was the spark that led you to say, this is where I'm going?
Yeah, it came about because Covid was really hard. my kids were both in high school. or my, I guess my youngest was like eighth grade, you know, late, late middle school. And, It was super hard for them. Like, my older son did real well with distance learning. My younger son did not.
Right.
and that was a struggle. but then I lost most of my business. I had, a handful of very loyal customers that stuck with me throughout Covid. We did work, you know, for
Right.
and that kind of kept the wheels on, but I was kind of looking around like, what am I gonna do Coming out the other side?
I didn't wanna. I have a fear of grinding on the wrong things. That's one of the things I love about being a dad, you know? Yeah. But I know that when I'm spending time with my kids, I know that I am like spending the right time doing good stuff, right? So that's, awesome. But in business, I wanna make sure that I'm, focused on solving the right problems. so I had spent a good amount of time dabbled in some, e-commerce , did some, uh, consulting. But, ultimately I stumbled across an organization called CMOX, which is an accelerator for Fractional CMOs, fantastic organization. Casey Stanton, founded it and runs it. But, I joined and very shortly after that, a really good friend.
Challenges and Triumphs in the Trades Industry
In fact, my, workout partner, you talked about self-care, going to the gym was one of the things I had to do my whole life especially since having kids,
is because you have this stress and this energy that you've gotta do something with.
I
So I went to the gym almost every day throughout that whole period. Anyway, my buddy Louie, became my workout partner three or four years
Right.
and then as I joined CMOX and started learning the CMO process, I said, Hey, Louie, I gotta practice, you know, can I practice on your plumbing business?
And he, owneds proven plumbing here in
Cedar Park.
Okay.
Which is just, I guess just northwest of Austin.
Mm-hmm.
And he said, absolutely. Come try it out. And so I, did, some work for him, evaluated his company, put together a plan, and then we got to the end of it and he said, well, what is it gonna take for you to come run this?
And I was like, uh, uh, uh. I'm not sure. The stuff that I have done all these years for big corporations is gonna work on a small local plumbing company. And he said, well, why don't you come find out? And I
said,
you won. the pie eating contest and your reward was, eat more pie. Congratulations.
so that's how I got into the
trades. but once I got there, I just loved it.
it's a really cool space to be in. a lot of young driven guys, who, are trying to make the world a better place. Love working with their hands and fixing things and making somebody's life better. and
Yeah, we call that output versus impact, on, uh, this show, right? You know, that, we wanna be driven by impact, not by output.
Yeah, that's exactly, I mean, I haven't thought about that, but that's exactly it. so the, input is, you skip college, you start working for, a plumbing company. You become a journeyman, you become a full plumber. and it takes three, four years. But then you come out the other side and you're making over a hundred thousand a year as a plumber, And you're in high, high demand. And, these young guys are doing it and loving it.
And how do you enjoy being the catalyst or a catalyst to their success journey? To, being part of the people when they look back and they say, I have to give thanks to X, Y, Z. For helping me through the dark years and get to where I am today, that they mention you and they mention your.
I mean, it's certainly gratifying. you know, I'm never the guy who is, you know, replacing the disgusting toilet or draining the, the backed up sewer line, you know, so I. as far as trades are concerned, my job's pretty cushy, but it's super important. and it's not easy to market a trade.
There's lots of competition. there's lots of places you can waste money. but figuring out the right way to help a company grow is incredibly gratifying. And so we just rewrapped a bunch of the trucks. I, have a graphics designer who, who just did a wonderful design for us.
And hearing, one of the plumbers mention to me, he's like, Hey, I stopped in to get gas and somebody followed me into the gas station. I. just to tell me how much they like the new wrap on the truck. And it was a customer who had seen the, you know, who had seen the truck and it was like, oh, that I gotta tell these guy, you know, and I'm, I'm just like, oh yeah, that's
cool.
All right. People are actually seeing the work that I helped to produce. so there's, definitely some really cool things that happened in that
Mm-hmm.
Um, so yesterday, I don't know when this is gonna air, but yesterday was May the 13th here in, in Texas. I guess it was May 13th on the whole planet.
In any case, it was May
Well, no, it depends. Depends on where you are. I have, I have a number of my, uh, cohorts and friends who live, uh, in Australia, and it would've been May 14th for them, so. Mm-hmm.
Well, we had this freak heat wave come through and it was a, it was 103 degrees out and we had just started this HVAC part of proven, so now it's proven plumbing and air. And we'd been poking along. We, you know, we got some customers calling. It certainly we're, we're hitting our existing customer database to let them know, Hey, we offer this whole other area now.
Right.
but the heatwave hit. We suddenly got all of these people calling us that needed help fixing the air conditioner. cause they hadn't turned it on. This is the first day they turned it
on. and it was struggling to keep up with 103 degrees. And so they would call us. that was
great. I I mean, that's such a great feeling that, we did all the work.
we spread the word, we educated the market, we put the things out there. and then when the time came, we were there and we got those leads, we were there for those customers. Yeah, it, it's super, like those guys would be sitting in their trucks doing nothing if it wasn't for that marketing. Right. I don't take credit for the work that they do, but I do wanna see them doing lots and lots of great work. And so that's what I,
And, and, you know, let's keep on that word. We, right, because I think, you know, uh, now we'll bring it to recent and I told you I was gonna bring it back to, family and the Volacci family because you. Found in recent weeks, just how powerful a work family that you have created for yourself. And I'm just gonna let you have the floor here, man, to describe it to the listening audience.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Well, I guess, to kind of lead into this story, I. One of the things that I like to do for companies that hire me is I like to do photo shoots, so I hire a photographer. We go out, we spend a couple of days. We take hundreds if not thousands of photos, a bunch of
Mm-hmm.
and it becomes kind of like.
The, tools that we use as we create marketing and push out their messaging. So it's
like so many companies, they'll have like three or four photos of it's, it's a truck and maybe a group photo, and it's just not enough. So I flew out, I have a couple of customers in South Carolina. I flew out there. We did, four days of, shooting photos.
It was a ton of work, great time. but on the ride home from the airport, we were in a six car pile up. And, I fractured my spine, um, spent the night in the hospital. I've spent the last few weeks in a lot of, pain and, this was three and a half weeks ago. and in fact, you and I were supposed to record, uh, this podcast three weeks ago, but, uh, that just didn't happen.
think the world understands, I'll put it.
I really do appreciate it. I mean, if you haven't been through it, it's just super hard to describe in just a half a second. Your whole I. Life changed
The Accident and Its Immediate Aftermath
. and it's just hard to, I don't know, it's hard to put words on it. We got rear-ended. we did everything right. we got rear-ended by a big truck, and it was, awful. Beverly was driving. She is more, I mean, she, she walked away with bumps and bruises, a few scrapes. She's fine. I walked away with a shattered, L three vertebra.
So, when I got home from the hospital.
Facing New Realities and Challenges
I realized that I was not going to be able to work like I used to. I could barely lie down. like certainly couldn't sit for any period of
time. And it was one of the most excruciating things physically, but also mentally.
I can imagine.
my kids today are my, my oldest is in college. my youngest is graduating high school next week. And so they don't need me like they did when they were, one and four. they need me just as much, but it's a very different kind of need. so I wasn't concerned so much about my functioning of the family, right? they're old enough to take care of
themselves. but I was concerned because my livelihood is what, and Beverly's, but in combination, our livelihoods are what pay for college and what pay for,
yes,
you know, clothes and car and, you know, all the things that go with living in this society.
Building a Resilient Marketing Team
And I. Talked to Casey, actually Casey Stanton from CMOX. I mentioned him a few minutes
Yes.
and I said, I don't know what I'm gonna do. I've got these clients, they're really important, we're doing important work
Mm-hmm.
but if I am not there to do this work, if I can't work, the trucks don't roll.
Mm-hmm. The Founder's syndrome in terms of, feeling like you have to be involved in everything I.
Is that what it's called?
I, I, I, I have discussed it with other people, and we've called it the, uh, founder's, syndrome, right? And, you know, I've, talked, about how part of my mission is to make those, companies not, founder dependent or founder constrained at the end of the
day.
I think a key thing that I, I didn't mention is that, three of my customers just, signed up in the last few
Mm-hmm.
So they just signed up and then this happened. and I realized I've got to do things very differently.
Right.
so I. Proceeded to build a marketing team. I had 3 people before the accident. two marketing techs and a marketing coordinator that I had hired less than a week before the accident. I
literally hired her and then flew to South
Right.
she and I were on a Zoom call
Mm-hmm.
the accident happened. so she's sitting there watching me in the car on this Zoom call and basically watched the accident happen.
It
I, I I hope she wasn't like, shook by it or whatnot.
Mm-hmm.
she actually was, she, I mean, she's
fine. she's not as shook as we were, but she was very concerned because of course the laptop, closed and went offline and all that stuff. So, you know, she didn't know what was going
Right.
she heard some profanities and then the end of the call and that was it.
She was like, I don't know what
She's like, did my boss just say that?
Is he, okay? So I said to her, her name is
Empowering Malala to Lead
Malala. I said, Malala, I hired you and I gave you this in this first month you were gonna migrate us from, our old, project management system over to
Notion and, which is something I wanted to do, and she had a lot of experience in. And I said, but I, think we gonna have to change.
We have you doing for the company. I need you to step up and just kind of take over all the marketing. know, I can talk to you, I can, you know, guide you, but I can't sit at the keyboard. I just can't do it. and so, she said, yeah, whatever. She was amazing. this, young woman who is, you know, a year outta
college is absolutely Amazing
Amazing how people, you know when presented the challenge, right, can step up to the moment and, you know, surprise themselves, let alone you, so.
Yeah. So here's the thing. I would've never done that. I would've never handed her the reins. She's too young, she's too inexperienced, she doesn't know marketing. All these things are true. you make up these reasons why you don't want to hand the reins over to somebody else.
But people are surprising,
Yes they are.
resilient. they're much smarter than I think I give them credit for. That sounds horrible when it's as it's coming outta my
No,
That might be
Overcoming Founder's Syndrome
one we cut from the podcast.
but it's it's, it's, not from the standpoint that, you know, I've talked to many founders who have built their practice for their own while, for lack of better term, their smarts, their knowledge, their blood, their sweat, their tears, et cetera. Right?
I can always dig a little deeper. I can
always work a little harder.
and the trapped that so many of them fall into is, I'm the only one who can solve this.
I have the Lone Ranger.
That's, yeah. And, When that's taken away, you still have to have a business.
you do.
So I got taken outta the equation and so I said, Malala, you've gotta step up. I will give you whatever resources you you need.
What do you need? so we started, meeting twice
a day. And I immediately put out ads for more marketing
Right.
I hired two virtual assistants, and, I've got now a company of, seven going on
Nice.
from three, less than a month ago.
and we've brought each of one of them in. We've trained them. we've got them moving on, doing client work. of course communicating with the clients has been key, but it has just been amazing to see, how effective they've been having Malala lead them. and so I met with
Mm-hmm.
I said, I don't know how I'm gonna do it. He said. This Is the best thing that's ever happened to you? Not in so many words, but he basically
said, this is the best thing that happened to your business.
Did he give you any reasons behind that? I can imagine now that you look back at it in hindsight, your energy is much more focused on your business versus
in your business.
he was dead on.
He was absolutely right. I was trying harder
Right?
and I had to create something that I could step out of the equation. I had to let other people come in and do the work.
he said, this is your chance to remove yourself because you, you. Can't do this.
Yes,
cannot literally, physically cannot do this work. You need to focus on getting better.
yes,
have got to restructure your business. this is the best opportunity. He didn't mean it. Hey, you know, I'm glad you got in a car wreck. What he meant was, you need to use this crisis to change your
Necessity is the mother of all invention, and this was a period of necessity. And looking forward now, as you said, you are. Very close to being empty nesters. I I mean obviously, you know, your kids will still come back to say, Hey, can you do my laundry? And I need, uh, good food. Right.
but you're very close to, uh, being empty nesters at this point. Has this changed your philosophy in terms of what your professional life looks like as an empty nester and how you are going to spend that time and energy?
You know, as you asked me that question, something else came to mind that I really want to touch on, and then I'll, and then I'll
answer your question. I think it's really easy for us to think of ourselves as the mom and the dad, and we are the ones who are giving to the kids. And I'm gonna say, when we were in this car wreck and I was in the hospital, my boys, I. Stepped up
Nice.
in amazing, amazing
ways, and, showed up at the hospital. my oldest drove in. and just basically spent the day with me taking notes, about what the doctors were saying. They helped with meals, they ran errands, they've, literally been my, arms and legs at times, you know?
so what you're building when you're building a family is not, it shouldn't be dismissed as, Hey, I I gotta get through this thing. It's, you are creating what the future's gonna look like because
Crisises come,
hardships come. You don't, you can stand there doing nothing and hardships are gonna
come. Right. but how do you function as a family unit when that happens? Is. that's what you're working to build. So I really feel like, and I know that making myself available to my kids, Beverly, making herself available, treating them as the adults that they always have been from the moment they were born, they are
you've trained them that
human
You have trained them that
way.
and, teVolaccing them that it's better. To be nice then to be smart.
Yes.
smart is good
though. but, they're amazing human beings. They're just amazing human beings and I think that's the reward that you get from dedicating your life to. Family
because that's what's gonna, this job can go away.
I could lose all my clients tomorrow. It happened,
Yep.
it happened to me five years ago. Four years. How long has it been five years ago? For in Covid. I mean, it could literally be gone in a matter of days.
Mm-hmm.
I was
lucky. I could have been hurt far worse than I was in that accident. My health, my life, every, I could have just been taken away instantly.
But what I know now is that my family would be. They would be okay. I hope they would be sad that I wasn't there, but they'll be okay. That they'll be okay,
I, I, I, I get the feeling that folks want you around. So let's, you know, just say, be thankful for where things, ended.
Lessons Learned and Future Hopes
But you know, as you are looking towards what you've learned, across this longevity of being an entrepreneur. At various family stages and with various crises that have hit right.
If you were just to give some. Best words of wisdom, right? For those who are going through it, right? Maybe they are taking the bet on themselves because they want more freedom, they want more flexibility, and they still wanna be that provider for their family. They want all the things.
Right. What wisdom have you learned from your experiences that you would share?
Yeah. I would say, first of all, it is, possible. you can do, I.
Mm-hmm.
but you can't do everything.
Yes.
So if you wanna build a life, that is not
Mm-hmm.
It's hard, but it is so
Mm-hmm.
It is so good. You need to be deliberate about thinking about what you want that to look like, and you've got to have a mindset on that goal that I feel like I'm kind of like almost there.
Like, you
know, where I am today is very different than where we started, you know, 21 years
Mm-hmm.
right, Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. I, we will, we will see what happens. But I would say my best advice is to know that you can do it.
Right.
know that it's gonna be hard.
Know that you're gonna fight with your spouse, you're gonna be frustrated at your kids, but at the end of the day, you're doing the right thing. If you have that mindset, and don't let anybody tell you that you're
Mm-hmm.
If you're putting your family first as a father, as a mother, you are doing the right thing. and there are lots of people that'll come along and say, oh, wow. I could never do that. or, like that potential customer who just like, you need to change your life to serve me. You know,
I'm gonna give you all this money. I'm like, no. I just, you know, I, I. It was good money.
I just was like, no, it's not gonna work.
Mm-hmm.
not what's important to
me. But it was very easy to make that decision because it went against what it was I was trying to do. So get that one thing in your mind and then sacrifice everything else I. everything else needs to sacrifice to that one thing that you're trying to accomplish.
What is that one thing? For me, it was being there for my kids, raising my own kids, being there for my family, building a really good, strong family. That was my number one thing. And so as I built my business, the other things in my life, the things that I spent time doing, I. Was all to serve, that singular goal.
So again, I'll say it again, you can do anything,
Yep.
but you can't do everything.
Well, this is a beautiful segue to my traditional close of these podcasts where I do a little, uh, tip of the cap to, Randy P's book, the last Lecture where at the end of it he says, this book was written for my kids. Right? So now your sons of listened to this podcast. They've heard you say. You can do anything, but you can't do everything and you have to have, what is your number one in mind?
What do you hope their number one is as they progress in their young adulthood and how the lessons here can aid them?
What I hope is that they spend their time focusing on being good people, being people that serve, people that bring goodness into the
world. people that
Mm-hmm.
you know, I, I could have spent this whole podcast talking about ways that my, sons are leaders and what they're doing with their lives.
Absolutely.
and so my hope is fulfilled.
I mean, it's my hope, but it's also, I just watch it, you know?
Absolutely.
both of them are, Eagle Scouts. they look for leadership positions, but they're also helping behind the scenes. they see what's going on in the world. I mean, we live in a very tumultuous
time.
we do.
and they're like, you know, how can we make it
Mm-hmm.
what can we do? How can we stand against evil and how can we lift people
up? these are questions that they're asking me, you know, and I'm like, I don't know guys. We gotta, I mean, we gotta figure that out. But, you know, So my, I, I have no further hopes than I just want them to continue to be and grow and, find their way. You know, give me some grandkids there. That's my hope. Gimme some grandkids.
Well, all in good time on that last part.
Final Thoughts and Takeaways
The rest of it, I'm sure they'll, Ben, how can people reach out to you, learn more about you? Uh, if I've got, you know what, anybody who's in the trade business who wants to further explore working with Volacci, how can they do that?
I appreciate that, Scott. sure. So my website is vici.com. It's a, little bit of a weird spelling, so I'm gonna spell it for you here. V-O-L-A-C-C-I. and I'm sure you'll put that
on the podcast notes.
that on
the notes.
and, put a link to my LinkedIn. You can reach out to me on LinkedIn. My email is.
Super simple. If you, ben@Volacci.com, how, feel free to shoot me an email. and if you just wanna, you know, chat about how to build your family, if you're just getting started with that, you wanna try and figure that out. you know, I love being on this podcast because this is one of my favorite topics to talk about.
Appreciate that.
yeah, it's, How you build your family. That's everything. That's how you're gonna be. Nobody's gonna be, remember how many, you know, whatever I sold and how many companies, nobody's, nobody's gonna care what my legacy are, my kids,
you know? And so it's super important. And if I can help anybody through that, call me, me.
You know, you know what? I hope that folks who are listening to this and are inspired by you, because you're certainly an inspiration, will take you up on your offer. Right. And Ben, this has been a fantastic, uh, chat. Thank you so much for everything that you brought to podcast. Yeah. to my listening audience.
Thank you. For spending your time with us. I hope that you take these lessons and apply them to your life. Subscribe and share this with the people in your circle who could use this wisdom in their life, and I will see you next time on the Course Effect. Take care.
Outro
📍 Thank you for joining me on The Corvus Effect. To access today's show notes, resources, and links mentioned in this episode, visit www.thecorvuseffect.com While you're there, you'll find links to our free tools and resources to evaluate where you currently stand versus your aspirations with personalized recommendations for action. If you found value in today's episode, Please take a moment to subscribe wherever you get your podcast and share with those who may benefit from it. You won't want to miss future conversations that could transform your approach to leadership and life. Join me next episode as we continue our journey towards building lasting legacies that matter. Remember, it's time to soar towards your legacy.