The Success Trap That Keeps Entrepreneurs Unfulfilled with Rich Christiansen – EP 295

June 18, 2026

Interview with Rich Christiansen

The Success Trap That Keeps Entrepreneurs Unfulfilled with Rich Christiansen

Financial success is often described as the finish line, but reaching it doesn’t always bring the fulfillment people expect. For many entrepreneurs, that ambition in the pursuit of more often comes at the expense of the relationships, values, and sense of purpose that matter most.

That’s why I’m excited to welcome Rich Christiansen back on the podcast. Rich has founded or co-founded more than 50 companies throughout his career and has become a leading voice on values-based decision making, family legacy, and creating a life of true wealth. Through his work with entrepreneurs, executives, and family offices, Rich helps high-achievers live in alignment, dismantle limiting beliefs, ignite their passions and create a fulfilling life.

In this conversation, Rich shares a different perspective on what it means to be truly wealthy. Drawing from decades of entrepreneurial experience, including his work with a billionaire who broke down in tears after realizing he had damaged many of his closest relationships, Rich explains why fulfillment, peace, and meaningful connections are often the missing ingredients in a life that looks successful from the outside.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

✅ Rich’s framework for defining true wealth, building deeper relationships, and creating a life of flow instead of force.

✅ How to identify your true inner circle and strengthen your most important relationships.

Featured on This Episode: Rich Christiansen

✅ What he does: Rich Christiansen is a serial entrepreneur, investor, and founder who has launched or co-founded more than 50 companies throughout his career. He works with entrepreneurs, executives, and family offices to help them create greater alignment between their values, relationships, businesses, and wealth while building lives rooted in purpose, fulfillment, and long-term impact.

💬 Words of wisdom: “I’ve never made more money. I’ve never been more successful, but yet I’m living a life in flow.” – Rich Christiansen

🔎 Where to find Rich Christiansen: Website | LinkedIn | Facebook | Instagram

Key Takeaways with Rich Christiansen

  • Why Success Without Alignment Still Feels Empty
  • The Four Areas Where Your Values Must Align
  • Why Learning to Say No Creates More Freedom
  • The Difference Between Living in Flow and Living in Force
  • Removing the Habits That Prevent Flow State
  • Creating Momentum Instead of Just Staying Busy
  • Rich’s Framework for Measuring True Wealth
  • Why Success Should Never Become Your Identity
  • The Three Mountains of Fulfillment
  • How You Can Learn More From Rich

When Ambition Is No Longer Healthy

Inspiring Quotes

  • “Most entrepreneurs, myself as the king and the leader, are the most functional unfunctional people in the world.” – Rich Christiansen
  • “I’ve never made more money. I’ve never been more successful, but yet I’m living a life in flow.” – Rich Christiansen
  • “Wealth is we are well emotionally, mentally, spiritually, physically, and as you always point out, time wealth. That’s true wealth.” – Rich Christiansen
  • “What whispers in your ear will control the sovereignty of your soul.” – Rich Christiansen
  • “Until you know what you’re really trying to do and what you say no to, then you can’t have momentum.” – Rich Christiansen
  • “Most of us treat the people very intimate inside like garbage and then treat like royalty all the people they’re just using and abusing us.” – Rich Christiansen
  • “Who cares about another title? I got a whole trophy case of them over there. Who cares about another award? But give me a kiss from one of my little granddaughters. Whew, now you’re talking.” – Rich Christiansen

Resources

Want My Team’s Help?

  • Tax Strategy Masterclass
     Learn the 28 most effective tax strategies the wealthy use to save thousands.
    lifestyleinvestor.com/tax

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Read the Full Transcript with Rich Christiansen

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Justin Donald: What's up, Rich? Welcome back to the show. It's so good having you back on for another session.

Rich Christiansen: I always love spending time with you, Justin, so thanks so much for having me. A lot to catch up on.

Justin Donald: Well, we have a ton of fun. I love hanging out with you. I just had the privilege of being on your show, and just the conversation is so rich, so I can't wait to dive into it. But one of the things I want people to know, you are, I mean, of all my friends, you're one of the most accomplished, one of the most successful, yet one of the most down-to-earth people I've ever met that actually cares about making a difference in other people's lives at a high level. And I just want to pay you that compliment. Before we get into anything, I mean, you've put out a ton of killer information. You've created frameworks and content, but I just think you're world-class, and I want to start the episode this way, so people just really pay attention to what you say because I don't think there's anyone out there with a better message than you.

Rich Christiansen: Well, Justin, you're really kind to say that, but the reality is we're all these five-year-olds bubbling along down here, and I don't think I'm the smartest guy in the room. Maybe I've just been in a lot of knife fights and hopefully have a little bit to offer. So, the best we can do, I mean, end of the day, all that we can really do is to stand and support each other rather than kick the tires on each other. So, I get a lot of joy and satisfaction. A lot of my internal, I guess what I'd call my internal wealth, comes on maybe helping provide a little clarity and support for those that are following.

Justin Donald: I love it. Well, I can't wait for today's episode, and let's just jump in. I mean, one of the things I want to discuss is just the reality that, like many entrepreneurs, really focus first on financial success. They work so hard to strive, and then only later in their life do they realize like relationships and health feel out of alignment. I know you talk a lot about this. This conversation today, I really want to explore like how values really shape decisions and priorities and long-term fulfillment, far beyond money. And I know you've made a ton of money, and you've had countless over 50 businesses with really an incredible track record across those businesses and with a small amount of money.

But what you've taken away beyond the money, I think, is the real riches. And so, if we're going down this path of a lot of entrepreneurs trying to achieve financial success, I think there's this conflict where they feel restless. And in your experience, what is usually out of alignment or underneath that feeling of never being able to slow down or settle down, or it's never enough, like that striving, the need for more, the need for growth, the need for financial success? Like, what is that? What's beneath it?

Rich Christiansen: Well, that's a pretty deep question. And, Justin, I think you're exactly right, and we don't need to apologize for it. I get the opportunity to work with some pretty successful entrepreneurs, and some of them was financially well off. I didn't use the word ‘wealth’ there. And it was in the world, but the reality is a lot of times, there is rocket fuel driving the behavior. And I mean, we love to glorify. Yes, I've now co-founded or founded 51 businesses, 19,000 or something, the statistic, blah, blah, blah. But what's behind it? What's behind that? And I even had to learn the lesson. It was a lot of proving and trying and trying to make, and I don't apologize for that. It actually was really good, but it's not a lot different than a heroin addict.

I mean, the reality is those either fuel it for good or fuel it for bad, and so it's good that we're fueling for creating businesses. The reality is most entrepreneurs, myself as the king and the leader, are the most functional unfunctional people in the world. And the reality is, we can't really get internal peace. We rally, can't get to actually a flow state, which ironically yields significantly more success. I only will do three things a day now, only three. I'll only do one precipice event per month, but yet I've never made more money. I've never been more successful, but yet I'm living a life in flow. And the reality is that's what it takes. You hear me talk a lot about living a life of flow, not of force, and that comes from this simple truth.

Number one is getting my personal values clarified. What am I… Personally, what was I put onto the earth? Then, secondly, aligning that with my family, so making sure that what I'm doing in my family and manifesting. And here's the brutal reality. When people say, "Yeah, I've got my values,” the reality is 99 times out of 100, they really haven't thought through it. They're up housing another set of values. And how does your significant other or your children or your… If you don't know what they are, how are they going to know what they are? And then most couples, I bet there's not one in a thousand that have actually resolved and settled on five or six or seven precipice values.

So, at that point, we got personal life in flow with family life. And then we all love to do our business values. The first thing we do is a mission statement and get our symbols. So, we do the public thing pretty good, but oftentimes it's incongruent with the next part, which is wealth. The wealth. Wealth is not money. It's just simply not money. Wealth is we are well emotionally, mentally, spiritually, physically, and as you always point out, time wealth. That’s true wealth. So, if we are professing, I saved the environment, or I'm into health, and then we're investing our money in Philip Morris and offshore fracking, I mean, how are you going to live a life of flow? Or privately, you're sneaking in you're… And we all do it. We all have addictions.

Mine happen to be creating businesses. I'm off that crack cocaine now. But we'll say, "Oh, I believe in connection with divine God's source or whatever else.” But privately, we're all chaotic, or we're using substances to cover up. There's no way to live this maintained life of flow and congruency. So, for me, I've always been the values guy. I mean, for 15, 20 years, I've always been the value guy, value, decision making, and value gatekeeping. And at this stage, I'm just quadrupling down, Justin. I'm not quadrupling. I'm 10 times down that. At what point you get value congruency? Number one, you start internally getting peace and resolve because you don't got all this sticky garbage in your life.

And number two, success levels go up dramatically. And third, the most important, you know what to say no to. You're able to very quickly and easily say, "Oh, no, no, that doesn't align with my core ethos. Thank you so much for thinking of me. Right now, I'm focusing on blah,” whatever that value is.

Justin Donald: Yep. It's so good, I mean, on so many levels here. And I will say, like early in my life, I was just a yes guy, every option, every opportunity. And by the way, that probably did serve me in the earlier years, but I think when you get more clarity on who you are, who you want to be, what you want to be about, who you want to spend time with, you end up saying no because when you say yes, you're saying no to something else. Like, if I say yes to going to dinner with friends that are in from out of town, I'm saying no to my family. And I think we have to be real critical of those decisions and make sure they're in alignment with how we want to show up and the values that we have in place as family, right?

Rich Christiansen: Well, and I know we talked last time about, I believe, the Legado Family Framework and that structure family used to stabilize, and that's based on a core ethos and shared set of values of you and your significant other, or your close-knit tribe. And that's vital. But most recently, I've been talking a lot about it individually. If you individually do not know what you stand for, you still have these terrible conflict points. I really love that your point, and I think in the podcast I did with you, we went back and forth on this a little bit, but it is that importance of getting to a no. And in early stages, as young entrepreneur proving yourself, it has to be yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, no. But I think that you have to migrate to a yes, yes, yes, no. And the yes works until it doesn't work. And when it doesn't work, it really, really doesn't work.

Justin Donald: That's right.

Rich Christiansen: Point most of my life. And it's not a hard no, no, no, no. It's a, "Oh, thank you for thinking of me. Right now, I'm focusing on a critical time with my brother. He's going to be gone for three years, so I'm going to focus on that relationship deeply.”

Justin Donald: Which is true. You're going for a week to golf with him next week.

Rich Christiansen: Not apologetically. Non-apologetically. I've never been more prolific. I've never had more output. I've never had better thought leadership. And every day, two hours sacred. Garrett used to always talk about the power hour and one hour, and everyone looked at him in shock. Well, at two hours per day, I spend doing Qigong, meditation, breath work, walking by myself in the river bottoms. And what amazing happens is simply clarity. And that's what most of us are missing in this crazy, fragmented world. I've been talking a lot about sovereignty of soul lately, and I know that sounds so fu-fu, but the reality is, if you do not have sovereignty of your soul, you're going to have your hat handed to you.

And it's not just a crack pipe. I was in Vancouver working with a family office a couple of weeks ago, and I was just shocked how many people were laying on the street passed out. I mean, one guy, the woman I was with, went down and patted him and, “Are you…?” I thought he was dead and, “No, no, no.” She gave him his lunchbox and then went on to tell me the night before, a woman of my age in the bathroom stall slipped underneath and coded, and she had resuscitate. So, of course, crack, cocaine, and that's going to take sovereignty of who you really are. But the reality is, Justin, that there's a lot of tools that will too. Like, the trend with social media and like one poor young man and young woman are not in a real relationship. They have an artificial intelligent lover.

Justin Donald: Yeah. That is very interesting.

Rich Christiansen: Sovereign.

Justin Donald: It's a different world.

Rich Christiansen: And the AI engine you plug into, which I'm a big believer, we've got to do it. We got to, well, if you resist change, I adapt to change and survive. You create change, and you thrive. So, we got to engage it. But what you pick up it's no different than the music you listen to because what whispers in your ear will control sovereignty of your soul.

Justin Donald: That's right. And something else I know that you love to talk about, so I want to get into the dichotomy of flow versus force, especially for entrepreneurs. So, when you think about entrepreneurs, they're often conditioned to push harder. And wherever there's a challenge, you just push through it. But that constant pressure can create friction. I see it in the form of burnout or confusion, lack of clarity. So, this topic, like what I want to do, is I want to explore the difference between operating from force, which I think most people do, most entrepreneurs do, even most people in corporate America do, where it's like we're just pushing in a certain direction, and then alignment and clarity.

So, you talk about this a lot. You talk about the difference. And by the way, for anyone that's ever been in flow, I even said on your show, it's one of my favorite places to be. It's one of the most fun, relaxing, creative, like, feelings and environments, and states to be in. But how does an entrepreneur know when they've crossed the line from healthy ambition into destructive force?

Rich Christiansen: I love to answer that in a diagram, and I'll make sure I get it to you, and would refer everyone, maybe to my website. You can download all these tools for free. But I have the force cycle and the flow cycle, and it happens not only generationally, but it also happens within our life quite frequently, and it typically knows how do you know, well, internally you know. I like to talk about the middle way. The balanced middle way is kind of operating. We need some ups. We need some downs in our life to actually grow and expand the capacity of who and what we are. So, that's good, but at what point you drop to extremes? I like to diagram, like starting a business. I'm going to do whatever it takes. I'm going to kill myself for three months. I'm not going to eat, sleep, or drink, which I've been there so many times.

And then you go, and then it's like, "Ah.” And then you drop into this resolve spot where it's like, "Okay. I got a little balance. I can now take a breath and have a little family vacation,” and then typically it crosses that apex point where it drops into now start generating some wealth. Oh, now I can invest, and I can save, and I can really leverage that. But then a really dangerous thing happens when it drops below that point is we stop producing, we stop adding value. And oftentimes, generationally, this is where things break down. 70% of all money and not, again, wealth because wealth is, we are well, and money is not wellness, but 70% of all money is lost by the second generation.

Justin Donald: Isn't that crazy?

Rich Christiansen: 95% by the third generation.

Justin Donald: That's brutal. Brutal stats.

Rich Christiansen: Brutal stats. And the reason for that, I used to think those stupid generations, but the reality is they're shackled. And any calendar problem that you have is magnified 10-fold when you get over, particularly 100, 200, and a billion dollars. Oh, my gosh. And so, at that point, there has to be a death occur at the bottom where it's like a total collapse, and oftentimes those families and even individuals would be completely, and this is where addiction abuse, all the traumas, all the hell occurs in our own lives and in others. And oftentimes it takes seven generations to climb out of that misery.

Justin Donald: Right. Well, and even just true ignorance, I think sometimes people pass on the finances, the money, but without the values, without like the understanding of how to use it or what it means to be a Christiansen or a Donald, right? I think that matters, matters more than the money.

Rich Christiansen: That's exactly the precipice to the point, and we don't need to go into Legado and what I do with my families and others encourage, but passing the values is what really matters. And we pass a bag of money. What we're doing is actually enabling destruction. So, I'm a huge believer. We've got to turn and tip that over and get into the flow state. And I'd already given the first tip. There are two things that have to happen for that to occur. The first is simply to get value and congruency, clarity on what your own values are, clarity on the family values, clarity on business, and clarity on wealth. And at what point you have that, then that's the first part. But then you got to unstick it, and that's a little bit harder.

That requires removing the guck, the incongruencies, and that's where the real personal work takes place. I mean, it requires you looking really deep and hard and saying what patterns were occurring in my family as an entrepreneur. We're the most functional unfunctional people in the world. What patterns we’re engaging in that I've got to get rid of? And I don't want to pass that on to my family. What individually and privately in my private moments that I'm honestly not proud of, and I'm hiding? And getting clear of what value aligns. And then at what point we start removing that grit and grind and lubricating with the values? It flows over, and it's remarkable how much more time you're able to spend in a flow cycle. And quite frankly, Justin, also a peace cycle.

I mean, 19th of the game is it's here. It's the relationship with yourself and what you stand for, and the private recesses and the private moments of being really comfortable with yourself. I think that's either the magic or the hell, based on where you're at.

Justin Donald: That's right. Yeah, a lot of it is mental. It's the conversation you're having yourself. It's mindset, right? But it's really like finding reasons to love yourself. And so, when I think about this, I think a lot of founders are really hard on themselves, and often there's some sort of trauma or wound, usually from the father figure, their dad.

Rich Christiansen: Not always.

Justin Donald: Not always, right, but it's like hard charging to prove someone wrong or to show that they're worth it. So, what practical changes can founders make to create more flow in their business and personal life? But here's the key, without losing momentum or performance, right, because I think otherwise we lose them.

Rich Christiansen: Yeah. Well, and I think the reality is you do it and get clarity on what really matters, then you have the ability to say no to the things that really don't matter. I like to call it motion. I wish you were here right now. There's a difference between, well, I'll do it. Oh, I'm so busy. Look at all that I'm doing today. What a busy important day. Look at me. Look at me go. Woo. What a great day.

Justin Donald: Yeah.

Rich Christiansen: And that's what most of us do.

Justin Donald: That's right.

Rich Christiansen: And that's a lot different than that's motion. Lots of motion. Lots of movement. But actually, now I have to pick up that darn pen.

Justin Donald: Totally, it's busyness. It's busyness. It's living a reactionary life.

Rich Christiansen: Until you know what you're really trying to do and what you say no to, then you can't do momentum. And if you were there, I'd grab you by the shoulders and give you good shove. That's momentum. So, we have to have the discipline to actually say what really matters, what's my core competencies, and say no to all the superficial noise. And that goes by the way for investments. I think investing is number one, although I believe the 80-20 rule applies to everything, and I bet you anything, one or two of your investments cause 80% of the brain damage.

Justin Donald: Yeah, I think you're 100% right on that.

Rich Christiansen: If you have the screen on the front end with even trick questions loaded, this is the value blueprinting, then you can actually screen out and never hit your thing. You just say, "No. It's noise.”

Justin Donald: Say no more than yes.

Rich Christiansen: Vitally important for relationships to make sure you don't get faker takers, to quote The Speed of Trust. That's an amazing book. But you have a safe container operating in a group, and if you have a shared ethos, the speed is so quick because you're not having to always guard your back. It's vitally important that we actually guardrail who gets into our inside circle. Most of us are way too quick to just let people enter the inner recesses of our relationship. No, no, no, no. They have to earn their right in most of the time. Can I take one second? Maybe teach this fun little model.

Justin Donald: Please do. Yes.

Rich Christiansen: This is called Blood Brothers, Blood Sisters, and it's actually in this little workbook, this Values Blueprint, and you can get it for free on the website. But at the very epicenter is the question, who are your blood brothers and blood sisters? Who would give you a kidney? Honestly, truthfully, who would give you a kidney? Guess what the average number is.

Justin Donald: I mean, it's got to be super low. I'm going to say one or two.

Rich Christiansen: One. And it's typically a mother. If you have three or more in your life, that's wealth.

Justin Donald: Yeah. That's the truth.

Rich Christiansen: Three or more, honestly, that's actual wealth. The next container is, who's your trust network? Who could you call at 2:00 in the morning if you have a flat tire? Or if you get thrown into jail for some stupid thing and you're embarrassed as heck, but they show up, and they love you and wouldn't shame the tar out of you. Very interesting question.

Justin Donald: It is, and it's a great perspective on what real wealth is. So, I like that you distinguish between having a lot of money but having a lot of wealth, wealth being relationships.

Rich Christiansen: Guess what that number is.

Justin Donald: It's probably going to be higher, so I'm going to guess three.

Rich Christiansen: It's actually four to five, but if you have seven or more, that's pure raw wealth. I was with a billionaire, very, you would know who this was, a year and a half ago, went through this. And as we got to this stage, very tenderly, in one of the two-day intensives, he started weeping. And he says, "Honestly, I could pay a thousand people, but I don't think there's one person that loves me enough to actually come pick me up or to give me a kidney.” And he was right because he had ravaged and abused most of his relationships. So, that container is vitally important, and you need to draw an iron curtain around that because most conflicts that we get into resolve on this next level, and it's our tribe.

These are the people we like to go to dinner with, we like to golf with, we like to hang out with, you like to go and hang out with your tribe, but don't expect them to be there at three o'clock in the morning. And you, oh, I gave you a… Think of this conversation. “What are you doing? You won't even turn my call on the… and I gave you a thousand dollars when you were in trouble last week. What the heck?” Most friction in relationships gets confused because of that boundary of tribe versus trust network. My proposal is strongly to bound it, to circle it, and then to earn right in and put an appropriate, just take the screen out of the relationship. Slow in, learn it very slowly. Earn it very carefully in.

Then the next relationship is going to be the contacts. These are the people that we know. And the reality is, we can't remember more than 250 names. So, we got to have 250 people. That's a really healthy size of an organization. These are we associate with. And then the last is our contacts. This is anyone in the Rolodex. And here's the irony, and why social media is so damaging, most people spend most of their effort worrying about what all the idiots out on Facebook are saying about them, and they don't even give a rat's ass about them. They don't even care. You've got to invert that and give 60% to 70% on that inside circle, 20% or 30% on the tribal ring, and then 5% or 10% on the outside circle, and invert that.

Most of us treat the people very intimate inside like garbage and then treat like royalty all the people they're just using and abusing us. So, I think this concept of very carefully screening and keeping an ethos on the inside is vitally important.

Justin Donald: Yeah, that's good. And that's powerful. And I think to figure out who are the key people in your world and how do you spend more time with them, like that is going to be enriching. That's going to be fulfilling, and it's those people that I really try to create epic moments and experiences with. Hopefully, these can be, you know, I like to look at it as like inflection moments or unforgettable moments, and I think it's just powerful to know who those people are.

Rich Christiansen: Yeah. I think you do a really good job of that. I know you have your group and your tribe of 100, 125, and that's a really healthy group for a tribal level, you know? And I just think the concept of being really deliberate. And it's okay to actually say, "No, no, no, I really value your relationship, but I know I'm not going to give you a kidney. And I know you're not giving a kidney, and that's okay. Let's call the relationship what it really is.” Trying to force and fracture, too. Most often, we put people too quickly into that inside ring of trust, and it's okay to go slowly and protect the essence of our value base.

Justin Donald: Yep. And let's talk a little bit more about entrepreneurship, because I think a lot of success, and this can happen in corporate America as well. I mean, parallels are very similar, but success can easily become tied to identity and status and external validation. We talked a little bit about that already with the contacts group of people's network. And so, I want to talk about how founders can pursue growth and achievement while staying grounded in who they are. And this is beyond their business, beyond their business success. So, Rich, like, what personal principles have helped you avoid letting business success define your identity? You've done it extraordinarily well.

Rich Christiansen: Well, I've done it well. I didn't do it well, and then I've done it well, and then I've not done it well, and I think part of it is growing into it a little bit. I loved, oh, David Brooks wrote a book called The Second Mountain. It was actually a really well-written book. And he talked about how when he got to the top of the mountain, it was like so non-fulfilling. And then he went upon the mountain of service and helping others. And that second mountain was where it's a lot. And I love the concept, but I actually kind of disagree with it. And I've climbed that first mountain of fame and fortune and all that stuff, and every time I get to the top of it is like eating a box of Krispy Kreme donuts. It's like, "Oh, my gosh, sugar buzz and, ugh, can feel like garbage.”

And I've also climbed that second mountain a number of times, and particularly when we do it privately without the expected accolades, and we go, and we do the right thing for the right reason with our fellow man and woman and humanity is really deep and rewarding. It really is. And I think we've got to aspire and strive to that. There's no harm in standing on the front cover of the Rolling Stones and carrying the... We need to do that. I think it's part of wiring of the human experience, but if that's all you're chasing, I mean, you're just never going to get sustained from reaching the summit. And also, I would argue that even that second mountain is super interesting, but I think that there's actually a third, and I think it's the high hidden plateau.

It's the most complicated of all, and we have a few examples of individuals that have pursued it, and quite frankly, it's very privately, but it's where I'm aspiring now, is what practice are you engaging so you really know who Justin Donald is? What are you doing so that you're making sure you're in integrity with yourself? Right thing, right reason. What are you doing where you have the courage to stand for what you believe despite gut-wrenching pressures to the contrary and be a sovereign king, to stand in your own sovereign power? And most of all, what are you doing to love on that little 5-year-old that got the crap beat out of him that caused him to go be a big, fancy pants that created the coolest, the next Warren Buffett. You got the glove.

What are you doing to actually take care of that 5-year-old and that teenager that went through the trauma? Because most of the time, that's what the rock up fuel is that's driving it. And it's not until we get kind. I know. And here it is. I'm the bootstrap entrepreneur. I'm the ultimate entrepreneur. But what really matters is getting clarity on who you are and what you are and then getting peace with yourself. And that's where the real jam and the real magic happens. I mean, who cares about another title? I got a whole trophy case of them over there. Who cares about another award? But give me a kiss from one of my little granddaughters. Whew, now you're talking. It's that daftness of relationship that really, at the end of the day, matters and means something.

And the most elusive and also the most beautiful is when you're able to stand in your own power in the quiet moments and actually say, "Yeah, yeah, I booth that up, but I was sure trying hard,” and then laugh at yourself when you tell a bad joke. And that's where the real internal gravitas comes is inside the private recesses of who and what we really are.

Justin Donald: That is well-said and absolutely beautiful. And it's very clear that you have your values in order. I love that you're helping people get clarity on what their values are and helping them to slow down. Don't just keep running or moving to the next thing or going from meeting to meeting to meeting, but slow down, reflect, connect with the people that matter. This is so awesome. Where can people learn more about you? And specifically, like this content and the frameworks that you're creating now, this is a whole another elevated level of, I think, brilliance. So, where can we learn?

Rich Christiansen: Well, if you go to richchristiansen.com, that's just a spell of the Rich, R-I-C-H Christiansen, C-H-R-I-S-T-I-A-N-S-E-N.com. Then all my tools, frameworks, and everything are there. I do want to make one comment here before we wrap up is most of us run around operating in our limbic brain. And our limbic brain is really a bad judge because all it wants to know, do I eat it, do I kill it, or do I mate with it? And it's not until we get to the frontal cortex that we actually really operate intelligently and high-minded. The first thing I do every time I'm working, doing a private two-day intensive, or working with a high-end executive is teach them a setup routine. How to get out of limbic into frontal cortex.

Every great athlete, every high-end athlete that there is, that performs, has a setup routine. And so, if you do not have a set of routine, I beg you, get one so you can get into frontal cortex, and this concept of flow is not just nice, fluffy little words. It's actually the predecessor for long-term success, also. Otherwise, you're just going to be clunking along and have a few wins and then have a couple of more big losses.

Justin Donald: I love it, the predecessor to long-term wins. That's powerful. Well, thank you, Rich, as always. You bring just such an amazing, one, energy but, two, perspective that I think is so needed in the world today. I love ending every episode that we ever do with a question. That question is the same each week. Maybe it varies or is modified based on the thing that you take away, and what area of your life it impacts, but let me ask you to wrap things up. What is one step you can take today to move towards financial freedom and really living life on your terms, a life that you truly desire, unlike most people living life by default, going from thing to thing, finding a life by design that you're proactively creating with the ones you love most? Thanks so much, and we'll catch you all next week.

Rich Christiansen: Thank you so much, Justin. Great to be with you.

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Justin Donald

Justin Donald

Justin Donald is a leading financial strategist who helps you find your way through the complexities of financial planning. A pioneer in structuring deals and disciplined investment systems, he now consults and advises entrepreneurs and executives on lifestyle investing.

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