The 90-Day Sabbatical That Scales with Pete Vargas – EP 256

Justin Donald: Well, what's up, Pete? Good to have you on the show.

Pete Vargas: Man, I am excited to be here. This is long overdue. Long overdue.

Justin Donald: Very long. Yeah. We've been talking about this for quite some time. I'm glad to make it a reality. We go back many years now with a lot of mutual friends, John Ruhlin, a dear friend of both of ours, being one of the catalysts to us connecting in the first place, doing a dinner. You used to host these. I know you still do, but way back, you used to host these business dinners, and you would just show up in a city and you'd reach out to a few people, and you'd say, “Hey, invite some really cool, interesting, fun people. I'm going to pick up dinner and we're just going to talk about what's going on in each other's lives.” And I thought, "What a cool idea.” And that's really the first time we connected.

Pete Vargas: Yeah, man. Actually, that's the first time we connected in person, but John Ruhlin was the one that introduced us via text. I was just looking for it, but I couldn't find it. And he just said, "These are two great guys that you get to need to know each other.” And I remember us talking on the phone and I remember then meeting you in person, and it was just an instant connection, man. Now, grateful for you to be a lifelong friend.

Justin Donald: Yeah. Well, we've done a ton in the last number of years together, which has been fun. You started the Wellspring Mastermind, and as a founding member of that group, I brought in a ton of friends and just think the world of what you're building there and a faith-based place for high-level entrepreneurs to gather and do great things and talk about being more generous and what does radical generosity look like. And it's just powerful.

Pete Vargas: Yeah, man. You've been a huge blessing as part of that group, a huge, huge blessing. And, yeah, we're so grateful for you, man, grateful for your family, and more than that, grateful for what you do for investors. Because what you do, Justin, is you give people the opportunity to have freedom and freedom financially. And I think one of the things that we forget is we're always running, running, running, but one of the greatest things I've learned in the last couple of years is to set a number. And when you set that number and you get to that number, there's freedom. Like, you don't have to run. You get to be present with the things that matter in your life, and you do that for a lot of people.

You've done that for thousands and thousands of people through the free resources you've provided, through your paid resources. And yeah, man, you give people freedom, like literally freedom. And I love that because it's what you're all about.

Justin Donald: Well, thanks, Pete. I appreciate it, and it's fun having a platform inside of different communities that you're part of where I can speak and use my gifts. And we can bless other people in different areas because everyone has expertise somewhere, and it's fun when you can create a synergistic opportunity with many smart people sharing their God-given gifts. You've created a lot of spaces for that cultivation, which is neat. You've had many seven and eight-figure businesses. You've helped many entrepreneurs scale to seven, eight, and nine figures. You've partnered with many people over the years. You've partnered with some big names. You've partnered with Grant Cardone.

There's a lot that you've been able to accomplish, but it wasn't always this way. I'm curious how you kind of got into the entrepreneurship space, first off, as a pastor, right? You started out as a youth pastor, and now you're running businesses, filling stages, running some of the biggest events around the world.

Pete Vargas: Yeah, man, I got into it. The real talk is my best friend who led me to Jesus. And when I was 15 years old, his dad was a very successful entrepreneur. And so, when I came into the faith, into the Christian faith, I got discipled from this family by the name of the Merricks in Hereford, Texas. And they discipled me in faith, but they didn't realize they're also discipling me in entrepreneurship. And that's when I was 15 years old. And I loved it. Like, a lot of people get the faith discipleship, and it was like I got a twofold for it. So, I went off to college, got a business degree, was supposed to go into business with my best friend in Dallas, Texas.

And I got a call my senior year, and my pastor from the church where I had given my life to the Lord where I had met the Merrick family asked me to come back and take over the youth ministry. And it was really crazy because I didn't want to go do it. Like nothing in me wanted to go do it. I think one of the biggest things that entrepreneurs miss is the opportunity to hear that voice inside of them that isn't loud and obnoxious, like the world is loud and obnoxious. It's quiet and sweet and calm, but in order to hear it, you have to put yourself in calm positions. And I remember putting myself in a calm position my senior year in college, and I'm like, "There's no way I'm supposed to go. I'm about to make $80,000 to $100,000 in business. I'm going to make $18,000 as a youth pastor.”

And that calm voice told me I was supposed to go do that. And little did I know that would be my first entrepreneurial journey. I know it sounds crazy, but it was a youth group of three kids, Jewelry, Stacy, and McKenzie. Those were the three girls that were there. When Tyler, my best friend, and I were in the youth group, there were 80 kids in this town of 15,000 people. It was the booming youth group with 80 kids. And the Lord began to give me strategies to build that youth group. And the crazy thing about it is he would give me strategies, but I didn't have the resources. And a lot of entrepreneurs don't have resources.

So, then as I listened to the voice, I would go and guess the number one funder of the things that I wanted to do in that community, like back-to-school bashes and Disciple Nows, and bringing in speakers and music and worship and car giveaways and all of these things to attract kids in the church, which was my “product.” Garth Merrick became the number one funder. Anytime I went to Tyler's dad, the entrepreneur, I would have to pitch him on why what I was doing. And when he felt compelled that I was convicted about it, he would donate to me and he would give me the funding to be able to go pull off this Back-to-school Bash. Back then, it seemed like crazy money. I was asking for $5,000, $10,000. I'm like, "Oh my God, is he going to give that to me?”

But he would make me make my case. And so, I got really good at communicating. First place I got good at communicating is just like you, which was Cutco, but we won't go there. This was when I really got good because I had to present my case. And Garth would fund everything. And our youth group grew from three kids to 800 kids on a Wednesday night in four short years. My last Wednesday night, there were 800 kids in the building, which is 10 times greater than this booming youth group that I was in. And so, that journey really began my entrepreneurship journey. I had to raise a million dollars to fund the youth building that had a coffee house and that had an incredible arena and an arcade and a basketball court resurfaced, and like this really cool place.

And so, I can't believe it, but that was my first entrepreneurial journey right there is understanding how to get kids in a building that would attract them to even want to be there. Like, how do you get them to want to come? And then the product that I was selling them was their faith, like it was. I know that sounds weird, and I'm not trying to be sacrilegious about that, but I had to help them understand why a personal relationship with Jesus Christ would literally change their life. And so, that was my first entrepreneurial journey, which is crazy because the guy who discipled me, I'm now back in that hometown, and I'm having to execute it as a youth pastor, Justin.

Justin Donald: Wow. I love seeing it come full circle, and I love seeing what a generous entrepreneur was willing to do for you to open your eyes, A, to like what entrepreneurship could be like and, B, how to be generous when you've been blessed. And I know that you are living those in your life, and we don't have to get into the specifics, but I know you and Kim are extremely generous, and you do a lot with your giving. And it's neat to see that that mentorship really laid the foundation for like the next steps and the next chapter for you professionally.

Pete Vargas: Yeah, dude. I will say this publicly. Garth and Susie Merrick helped me understand to see that everything on this earth will fade and pass away. Moth and rust will destroy this world. It will. Like, we're only here on a finite amount of time like you and I are in the second half of our life. And no matter all the biohacking and all of the AI and all of that stuff, everybody's life will come to an end. And I believe the things that you do to seed into what I believe is eternity is in your own homes, in your own families, in your own communities, in your own friendships. But I learned generosity. Pete Vargas learned generosity from the Merrick family, and it is the reason why the Vargas family today is so generous is because I got to see it demonstrated from both Garth, but also Susie Merrick.

Garth passed away a couple of years ago, and his time came too quick. He sold his company, Justin, to a VC firm, and then he ended up selling it to Nestle. So, he got a double hit on the company. And Merrick Pet Foods was the name of the company. But here's when you know something that's so profound and have never shared this story ever, is he passed away way too soon, and I went to his wife, who is like my spiritual mama. And my best friend, Tyler, and I got to share three stories with them that Garth never shared with them. I got to share when my car got repossessed my freshman year in college, how Garth helped me get a new car, and I got to share. And he never told anybody. He didn't tell his wife. He didn't tell his kids.

I got to share two or three stories. I got to talk to them about how Garth would fund my back-to-school bashes, and they never knew it because he never told anybody. He just showed up and he was generous. So, I got to share these profound stories at his celebration of life. And it was just a demonstration of a man who lived and walked this planet, a family who lives and walks this planet with generosity. And so, I believe that's one of the biggest contributions we can make is being generous. And it starts in our homes. It starts in our homes because I believe my kids will be super generous as well.

Justin Donald: It starts in the home and it starts at a young age, because the more that you can make that the norm, the more that is just the standard in the family. And I know as a child, it was hard for me to want to do that when I didn't feel like I was making much. I see it in my daughter where it's hard for her, but we do it. I mean, that is part of being a Donald is that we give and we're generous. But the other thing that's really cool is you've attracted other people into your world that are radically generous as well. John Maxwell, I got a chance to meet and hang out with him thanks to you. David Green, got a chance to hang out with him because of you. I actually had him on the podcast.

So, anyone that wants to check out the episode about really how Hobby Lobby became, what it is, and the powerhouse that the David Green family is, check out that episode. But that's all thanks to you, Pete. You really teed up that intro and what a gift that episode was to me.

Pete Vargas: I would go listen to that episode if you haven't because if you don't know this, the most generous man to ever walk the planet earth is David Green. A lot of the billionaires pledge to give their wealth away when they die. He said, “I'm giving my wealth away while I'm alive.” Like, go listen to that and study him because Garth Merrick was my first hero of round generosity. David Green was my next. Those two are literally the two men and their families, their wives that I get to see like it just gushes out of them. Generosity just gushes out of them. So, yeah, man, it's a beautiful thing, but that's really where my entrepreneurship journey started, man.

And as you know, I would bring in speakers to come speak to my kids in the youth group. And what took place, kind of phase two for me, was one of those speakers came and he spoke. This is a true story. The speaker came and we had like 800 people in our church, and he got the biggest love offering that he had ever gotten at a church, and he had been to churches 3,000, 4,000, 5,000 people. I remember it wasn't just Garth, but all of the givers in our church. There was this spirit of generosity, like, you can't outgive God. Like, there's a scripture in Proverbs that says like, I'm going to paraphrase it, but it says like, "Hold onto and you'll have less. Give and you'll have more.” That doesn't make sense.

Like, we're told to save and hold, and that's how we have more. But this, I'm paraphrasing it, so I'm chopping it up, but I remember Garth and Virgil teaching me that scripture, like, "Hold on to it and watch how you actually have less.” And I don't think it's just in the quantifiable bank accounts. I think it's about less even in your heart, but let go and be generous and give, and you'll have more. And I remember Darrell couldn't believe it. He's like, "That's the biggest love offering I've ever gotten.” His daughter was the first girl killed at Columbine, and here's the cool thing. After he spoke, my dad, who was very abusive growing up, who my grandmother had taken me away from when I was 13, I'm now 23 years old, and I'm the youth pastor in that youth group.

My dad’s sitting in the back row, and after hearing this man speak, my dad wrote me a letter and he said, “I'm sorry for the father I've been. Here, my son is having an impact on hundreds of kids' lives. And I can't have an impact on my only son's life.” And he asked me for a second chance to do things right at the age of 23. And, Justin, my second great business idea came to pass. And I'm not telling you, in that moment, I'm thinking, "Oh, this is a business idea.” I'm thinking, “How we got in order for a great idea, you have to have a big problem to solve in this world?” So, here's the problem that got downloaded to me when I was 23 now, biggest youth group per capita in the United States of America, literally.

And I'm like, "Okay. My dad's been to counseling. His seven siblings told him to make things right with me. His parents told him. The Merrick family has loved on him. What just happened?” And the only thing my brain could put together is a speaker on a stage with a message. I thought, "Well, if Darrell can do that to my dad, his message can do that to a lot of people.” And, Justin, that's how I started into helping people use stages and platforms to build their business. We've been able to help I think it's over a hundred thousand customers be on millions of stages and generate billions of dollars for their nonprofits, their for-profits, whatever they're trying to do from understanding how to impact people through their message.

But it all began because I was in inquiry around that guy did something that counseling couldn't do, my dad's family couldn't do, friends couldn't do, nothing could do. If he can do that for my dad, he probably can do that for a lot of people. What if I help him? And here's the crazy thing, Justin, he had no money to pay me. He was about to shut his doors. I solicited his cell phone number, 303-910-03. I won't say the last two digits, because I'm like, “Darrell, you just made this impact on my dad. Why aren't you in every school, in every business doing this?” And he goes, we haven't been able to figure it out. I said, "Well, I'm your guy to figure it out.” And, Justin, he said, “I can only pay you on commissions. For every stage you get me, I can duplicate this message and have a bunch of speakers. But every stage you get me, I'll give you a commission.”

And, Justin, for 10 years, 10 years into it, we put him and his speaking team on 25,000 stages including Oprah, including the White House, and we just figured out how to get the message, but it was very easy because my genesis story, here's what most business owners forget, my Genesis story was it impacted my dad. How do I help it impact a lot of people? When you remember your Genesis story of like there's not just a Genesis in the Bible. There's a genesis of why you started your business. And so, when you can remember that Genesis story, it makes the hard times, the good times, all of the times much easier because you know you're doing something that was birthed from a place of you being passionate about it.

And so, we helped him. Justin, he did $52,000 in 2003 and he was impacting thousands of kids. In the next six, seven, eight years, we helped him do $40 million, impact millions of kids, and he was seeing a teen suicide prevented every day. And that's how I stepped into the next side of our business, which was the speaking and the stages and the platforms, and still something we do, but it was kind of that phase two of entrepreneurship, where Youth Pastor Pete was phase one of it.

Justin Donald: Yeah. And really, what ended up happening is you are supporting him. So, you were getting commissions on this, and I'm sure that that was nice, but you recognized the opportunity to do it at scale. Not just do that for one person, but do it at scale. You could help so many people that you could run events where you're helping multiple people at the same event. You could be hosting multiple events at the same time as you build your team. And obviously, you built that out. So, that thing was taking off, but I remember during COVID, you pivoted and you went virtual and you just helped. Some people have their biggest explosion they've ever had in their business. And I'd love to hear some of those stories because you put some people on the map. And some of the biggest names that we know weren't that big of names, like COVID actually set them up.

Pete Vargas: Yeah. I would say so. So, we served Rachel's Challenge from 2005 to 2015, and we helped them explode. That was the group in schools. But then I started to realize we can help a lot of other people. And we started helping a lot of other customers do the same thing Rachel's Challenge was doing. And then 2020 hit. And, literally, nobody in the market can say this. Nobody. No big name. Nobody in the market I say this with, because it was, once again, I was down. My wife took a picture of me from our deck and she saw me calling out to the name of the Lord. I was like, “Lord, our live event was getting canceled in April-May of 2020.” I said, “Lord, that's $5 million.” We budgeted $5 million, and we had a $10 million budget that year, Justin.

So, when $5 million goes away, and by the way, another $1 million or $2 million was based off of that $5 million too. So, like $6 million to $7 million was coming from that one event. It was already sold out, 1,200 people, Orlando. And I heard the soft voice, but I had to put myself in a position to be still and be quiet. I'm telling you the time when I feel like I've been most powerful in my life is when I'm still and I'm quiet, and I'm asking God or whatever you want to call it, intuition, you want to call it whatever you want to call it, but I'm asking God and I have to be in a still and quiet place. I cannot be in a noisy, crazy, running, busy, wild space. But I said, “Lord, what am I supposed to do?” And I got the playbook of how we were going to redesign virtual.

And a lot of the people in the space, if they're being honest, and I have all of the testimonies to prove it, we were the first ones to do a virtual event at scale, and that virtual event ended up doing over $12 million. I think cash collected, it was $9 million or $10 million. And all weekend long Dean Graziosi's on the phone with me who is partners with Tony Robbins asking me about it. Tony flies out to my studio that I did it the day after the event. Grant Cardone, Eric Worre, Brooke Castile. I mean, everybody started asking me, even in the faith-based space, T.D. Jakes, Rich Wilkerson. A lot of people just were like, "How did you do these virtuals?”

And so, I did consult with Tony and Tony's team for about three months, and he gave me a thank you and a testimonial in front of a few people, but nothing else than that. And he had his record-breaking event. And I was one of the few pieces that helped. I wasn't the only one that helped, but I started to realize I can go help a lot of people. And we went and did that for Grant Cardone and we went and did that for Eric Worre. We went and did that for a lot of our friends in the space that weren't friends at that time, and the common theme was every one of them, we were able to break records with. They had their biggest events, and they were able to do it virtually. So, we just took a business model and we had to shift it.

And, dude, that's the market. Like, you've got to constantly shift, like now the whole shift with AI and everything. You have to shift and you change, and you evolve. And here's what I want people to know.

I heard this at our last business summit. Innovation does not come without contemplation. It does not come without being still and quiet and creating space to really get the innovation. And so, I guess there’s this theme of like slowing down and listening to what does that next phase of whatever you’re doing, you’re investing your business, whatever you look like. So, yeah, Justin, that was that season. But I want to tell you what happened in that season. It created a hustle and a bustle for me that was so fast paced, so wild. All these groups and masterminds we’re in, that you and I know of in our world, it’s all about build your business and make more money. Well, at what? At gaining the whole world and losing your soul?

Justin Donald: Right.

Pete Vargas: So, I got the opportunity around that time to spend two days with David Green and I got invited with 12 other CEOs, and it was the first time in my life where I saw a man that was concerned about his faith, his health, his relationships, his wealth, and his business. He demonstrated to us all five of those areas of how he was winning in all five of those areas. I mean, the two days were just about how he was generous and you got to hear from his family and hear about his family value system. You got to see an 80-year-old man still running a $9 billion company. His health is chiming. He asks God probably 10 times a day what he’s supposed to do in small and big decisions. He’s multiplying his money. So, all these areas, he’s winning. And I’m like, “That’s what I desire, that’s what I want. I don’t want to just be in business and run and scrape and grind and do it all.”

And so, I walked out of that room. And I went and looked for another room like that in our space. I couldn’t find it, so I called nine of my friends and you would’ve been one of them if I knew you at that time. And John Ruhlin was one of them. And we met for three years every Monday with a commitment to saying, we are going to win in all areas of our lives. We’re not just going to win in business and gain the whole world and lose our soul. And that group of men, who people would know many of them, met for three years, and I saw them all winning. And in that, the voice of God said, you are supposed to go create a group called The Wellspring for Christian entrepreneurs that are winning in business, but I desire them to win in all areas of their life. So, that little group that we did for three years was the birthing of what we know as The Wellspring today, and it’s, to me, the most powerful thing that my wife and I have ever created in our lives.

Justin Donald: Yeah, I love it. And I love that I’ve been able to be part of it since the beginning and I’m a huge advocate for the things I do, so I always love referring people in. And if I’m going to do it, I might as well bring along some friends that I want to do life with. So, yeah, it’s a great concept and it’s a great community, and I think what I’m really excited, so we’ve heard about all these seasons. We’ve heard about Pastor Pete. We’ve heard about Pete helping build a stage for a person. We’ve heard about Pete building stages for many people and building events in person and virtual. We’ve heard about the evolution to Wellspring and coaching entrepreneurs and creating really, the chemistry and the community.

But now you’re about to embark on a really special, magical time, something you’ve never done before, something I’ve had the pleasure of partaking in, and that’s a sabbatical. I remember back in 2017, I think it was, I took a year off and it was really hard to take a year off. It was really hard at five weeks. I started getting antsy and then at five months, I was super antsy. And I know you’re not taking a whole year off, but my goal was to take a straight year off, and I’m so glad I did because I was able to slow down. I was able to feed my mind, my soul, my spirit in a way that I was too busy to before. I was able to just awaken some parts of life that needed to be awakened and, and put to sleep some areas of life that needed to be put to sleep.

I do think it was one of the most exhilarating, eye-opening, and pivotal years of my life, and I did no work that year. I journaled every day. I went back and was reading through my journal entries and that really is where the Lifestyle Investor came from. It was that year away, where I was like, I love teaching, I love learning. The more I learn, the more I want to teach. And then I love doing deals. I want to share them with people. I love doing tax strategy. We should do more of it because most people don’t know about it.

And then I love just bringing people together and doing cool events, traveling the world, having cool experiences. And iron sharpening iron people, making other people better, stronger, wiser but in a faster way, in a supportive way, in an accountable way. And so, the Lifestyle Investor Mastermind, book, podcast all stemmed from that year off, that sabbatical. And so, I’m really excited. I know there aren’t a whole lot of people in our friend group that have actually formally taken a sabbatical. It’s hard to do. So, walk us through your decision to do it, how long you’re doing it because, I mean, you’re based, like we’re on this podcast right now, and then your sabbatical begins.

Pete Vargas: Yeah, it does begin. And actually, because of some stuff going on in my life that you’re familiar with, we were supposed to do this interview last week. I’m actually to be just fully transparent with people. I’m on day three of my sabbatical. And I’ll tell you why. There’s a biblical principle that every seven years, you were supposed to take a year off, and that year really created the space and the slowdown and the land to kind of renew itself. I don’t know all of it. I’m studying it, and I actually have a sabbatical coach, which has been beautiful for me. Someone who’s helped hundreds of high performing, high achieving people take us do a sabbatical well.

And I just went from running as a youth pastor to running for Rachel’s Challenge and helping them build to running to my stage businesses. We’ve built now six multimillion-dollar companies and a couple of them have been eight-figure companies to then realizing that I’m not winning in all areas of my life to forming the Wellspring, but not taking a break or a rest. I’m talking about on, even on a vacation, not taking a rest. And so, I just feel like in order for me to be the healthiest version myself, I needed to slow down.

There’s some things going on in my life right now that are not easy things going on, like, that are– I have four beautiful kids, and there’s things going on with kiddos, and business has been tough and there’s just been a lot happening and a lot of just not feeling healthy. I just showed you my scripture right before, like my scripture for my sabbatical. I’ll tell them what it is in a minute, but I just said, I’ve got to rest. I’ve got to restore. I’ve got to hear fresh vision. And I’m not just talking about fresh vision in my business.

Everybody that’s listening to this, do me one favor. Spend a little bit of time and evaluate yourself. Evaluate yourself in your faith or spirituality. How connected are you to a God or how connected do you are to whatever it is that you feel like you’re supposed to be connected to? Like, what is that? How is the time in scripture and in prayer? And how well are you hearing the voice of God? How well are you connected to a group of other community of believers? Like, where is that for you? Like, really evaluate that. Take a minute and just evaluate where you’re at, evaluate your health.

And the problem with everybody in this health guru space is all they’re talking about is the physical health, like physical health, diet, and fitness. I’m tired of that because the reason why a lot of people aren’t having diet and fitness breakthroughs is because they’re not studying the emotional health. I have in 46 years, never studied trauma. I’ve never studied emotional health. I’ve never studied the body. The body keeps score and if you don’t break through with your emotional health, you’re probably never going to get a breakthrough in your physical health. That’s reality.

Like, there is so much around health that I believe. There’s physical, which is all we hear about emotional, mental, and here’s the one, recreational, which all that means is fun. Most of us aren’t having fun in our life. I’m playing pickleball and tennis three to four times a week, and I haven’t done that in a decade. Why am I not having fun? I was on the monkey bars yesterday with Shiloh. Why haven’t I done that? So, like, take a holistic look at health, not just your food and not just your exercise, which by the way are important, but start to look at emotional, mental, recreational.

I’m reading a great book right now, The Body Keeps the Score. Never ever understood that my body’s been talking to me for 46 years, but I’ve just been in kind of fight or flight mode ignoring it.

So, evaluate health, evaluate your relationships, your significant other, your kids, your family, your friendships. I haven’t been the greatest friend, and like, evaluate those relationships and where that’s at.

Justin, the one that I– I go to you, I have a Genesis story with you and it’s reading Lifestyle Investor and reading this guy’s book, and I’m like, oh, my God, this guy is brilliant. Evaluate your wealth and not just the making of your money. But there’s nobody else that can help you multiply your money as good as Justin Donald. And like, today, as I’m listening to the Holy Spirit, I’m like, what am I supposed to do today? And the Holy Spirit told me I’ve been resisting money. Like, I’m afraid of it. I’m scared of it because I don’t understand it like Justin. That’s literally in my journal today.

So, evaluate your wealth, evaluate your generosity. Like, evaluate that, and then the last thing, but it’s usually the only thing is evaluate your business. And when I say evaluate, I’m talking about spend time and reflect and meditate and journal. That’s what my sabbatical is about, Justin. It’s taking inventory of where I’m at and where I desire to be. And Jeremiah 30:17 says, “But I will restore you to health and heal your wounds,” declares the Lord. I believe these 90 days of sabbatical here in Michigan at our home where we got married 22 years ago, I believe it’s going to be the time, 90 days of me being the healthiest version of my life. And a good friend and a friend of ours in the Wellspring by the name of Jeremy said, “You’re going to come down the hill like Moses and you’re going to be lit up because like, there’s just going to be this light and this glow to you.” And when he said that, I got goosebumps. I believe that. But that would not happen Justin, if I would just keep pushing through and running.

So, that’s what my 90 days is going to look like. I’m going to be calling upon friends like you and Bob Frazier and other men and women in my life to help me in those areas. Like our friend Adele invited me to come spend some time at Lake Arrowhead. I might go do that just to be able to walk through the forest with a friend and have conversation with a friend. Another friend invited me to go, Steve Weatherford, to hang out two days in Dallas. Not a business trip, like a revival two-day, like unbelievable, it’s called launchpad and just spend two days in worship and physicality and prayer. And so, yeah, man, my plan is to take an inventory and to put myself in a position to get healthy.

And I will tell you this, I said this before we got started, yesterday, the miracles that happen with all five of my family members, I had a magical moment with all five family members in one day. And this morning as I was praying, and I’m not talking about like some big, like, oh, we got engaged or no, magical moments that were profound, and here’s what the Lord told me, “Pete, this doesn’t have to be where you have a magical moment once a year. You can have a magical moment every day with every family member, but you have to slow down and you have to actually experience it.”

And yesterday, day two was magical and I’m looking forward to 10 weeks, 12 weeks of that man. So, that’s what I’m doing this summer, is I’m resetting, I’m reevaluating, and like you said, dreams that you would never be able to have will come out of that time that today, Justin, this is part, what we’re happening today is because of your sabbatical, man. So, that’s the journey I’m on, man. It’s all of these runnings and all of these phases where I haven’t slowed down and I’m going to slow down and I’m going to get healthier than I’ve ever been.

Justin Donald: Oh, it’s so good. It’s so powerful. It’s so hard for entrepreneurs to slow down. It’s hard for them to take a day or a weekend or a week, let alone three months, and I commend you for doing it. I commend you for having the team and the systems and the infrastructure to be able to do it. And to those that say that would be great, I want to do that. Start it at five weeks and build it out in your organization or find a way to do it. Maybe you’re working a corporate gig and you can clock in five weeks.

But I just think that there’s power in taking the time to slow down. There’s power in the intentionality that you can have in where you want to invest your time. And then I think I just had a lot of clarity around who I am, why I’m on this earth, what my next business chapter is like, who are the mentors I need in my life, who are the relationships that I need to make priority in my life? And I just had so much time to iterate and reiterate those things that it gave me just a blank canvas, a fresh start, and just a powerful look at life. It’s like, I got a second chance. And for me, it was like probably my third or fourth iteration as a businessman, right? But it was like the new beginning that I wanted where nothing was pre-baked. I could just start from scratch and it’s a beautiful thing.

Pete Vargas: Yeah, man, it is Justin, and you and I had a dear friend of ours, John Ruhlin, pass away this last year and you never know when you have that last day on earth. I can say this with full integrity and Justin, I just want to be honest, I couldn’t have said this in any of 2025 or probably 2024. There wasn’t one day that I could probably sit back and say, if I went to be in heaven with the Lord today that, this day, I would’ve been complete in leaving. Yesterday, I would’ve been complete in leaving this earth because of the slow pace.

I’m not saying that things aren’t happening and we’re not seeing things happen because we’re such doers, but we’re never being, we rarely slow down to be. And all of 2024, all of 2025, I couldn’t have stated a day where it’s like, okay, I would’ve wanted to do, I need to make amends with Mia, or Kim and I weren’t connected today, or I didn’t pray with Keaton nor I’m talking yesterday was beautiful. Yesterday was beautiful. I got to dream with my daughter, and she got two job offers and dad was there to support her and help her in her communication. Shiloh wanted to make sure that she got the monkey bars accomplished before mom gets here on Friday with my son. And her and I, she got the monkey bars accomplished and she talked all the way home. And then we got to talk about the difference between states and cities, which I’m like, oh, my gosh, it’s crazy. She wanted to understand the difference between states and cities. It was confusing her. And now, she gets it.

My daughter, Emma, shared her biggest fear with me yesterday. My son sent me a text message that my wife and I needed to hear from him. And my wife and I got to be in some pain that my wife’s walking through, and I just got to be a container and a safe place for her. That was my day. And my prayer for people on here is that you don’t have to have a sabbatical. I encourage you to have a sabbatical, but you don’t have to have a sabbatical to create a day like that. I literally laid down Shiloh cuddling with me in my bed last night. I’m holding her for six hours and I thought, Lord, today could have been my last day and I would’ve felt complete in this day.

And so, Justin, I’m hoping and I’m only talking about the relationship bucket, bro. I’m not even talking about faith and what happened with my health yesterday and all of that. I’m talking about one domain. And so, one of the things I would love to give to the people that are listening, Justin, is if you’re this group of Wellspring members, like Justin has made my wealth so much better. Bob Frazier has made my faith so much better. There’s so many people that have made my health. I could go through all the Wellspring members and how they’ve made– Don Winter has helped me in business, really think about business better. And there’s a lot of those.

And so, one of the things we created for, I mean, your group is the first group to get this is an assessment of where you’re at in those areas. And then some practical nuggets that I’ve learned from the members of the Wellspring around nuggets that can make your weakest areas stronger. And it’s literally an hour long. There’s an assessment, there’s an hour of free content. Actually, it’s not free, but we want to give it to your group for free.

So, if they go to WinInAllAreas.com and that’s plural, WinInAllAreas.com, and they write the word “lifestyle” in there, it’ll comp it out and it’s just a little miniature course that will help people really understand a framework in winning in all areas of their life. And they can do that today, but hopefully, all of them get to take a sabbatical, too, to be able to do it in an extended period, Justin.

Justin Donald: I love it, Pete. This has been a great episode. I’m so thrilled that we’re actually recording this a week late so that we could capture some of these magical moments and experiences you had yesterday and really, the springboard for three more months which is just incredible. Where can people learn more about you, Pete, and more about your stages and your businesses?

Pete Vargas: Yeah, here’s what I would tell them. I would say, if you are a successful investor or business owner, seven, eight, nine figures, I would tell you go to WellspringDinners.com. WellspringDinners.com. We’re hosting these dinner series all across the US. I’ve asked Justin to not only host one in Austin, but I’m going to have him teach a little bit on investing as well that night. And it’s just three-hour experiences for people who are winning in business and winning and investing, but really want to win in all areas of their life. We have worship, we have prayer, we have powerful nuggets that we share. They can go there. Justin, is WellspringDinners.com.

And then they can find me on Instagram if they have any questions, and they can find me on Instagram, petevargas3, the number 3, petevargas3. DM me or tag me. Let me know something that was impactful for you today, and I’ll get back to you while I’m on my sabbatical.

Justin Donald: Love it. Well, thank you for a great day. I love ending every episode of the question to our audience. So, if you’re watching this, if you’re listening to this, my question for you is this, what is one step that you can take today to move towards financial freedom and move towards living life on your terms, so not a life by default, but a life by design? Pick something that you learned from Pete today, implement it. Thanks so much, and we’ll catch you next week.