How one financial freedom entrepreneur shows the best marketing vehicle is a mobile home and the personal touch

Jim James: 0:00

Welcome to this episode of the UnNoticed Entrepreneur Show. I've got Howard Dekker join me from Sunny, Florida.

Howard Dekker: 0:06

Thank you, James. I'm, I'm happy to be here.

Jim James: 0:09

And, Howard, you have an interesting character, because you sold your business, where out over 150 employees, you're on a mission now to help entrepreneurs freedom. Can you just tell us about your journey and then we'll get to talk about how you're getting your new

Howard Dekker: 0:24

Sure. Well, it, it all starts back when I was a teenager and when my dad who never earned more than $35,000 a year at a factory. I started working and my dad said, 'look at son, you got to stay 10% of everything here. You gotta do it. This is what I'm doing.' And you know, I was a teenager, like 17 years old and yeah. 'Okay, Dad.' And all I wanted to do was make money. So, I made a lot of money, but I never paid attention to my dad. And then I started building businesses. I had my first business at 28. and I was doing well. I had gotten married. No, I didn't get married till later, but I was doing well. And, I was putting everything back into the company. And then, in my late thirties I had built a couple other business and I was getting moderately successful. Now, what that means is I was able to buy a house on the intercoastal in south Florida, but that means I was able to buy a lot of things. But in my late thirties, my wife said to me, 'Honey, we, we don't have, we're not saving anything for the future. And. It hit me. And, and, and then I started thinking I was basing my whole success later on in the life of being able to build this business big enough so I could sell it. But then I started to thinking what would happen if I can't sell What would happen if I was, I had medical imaging centers, what would happen if they'd changed the laws? And I was forced to go out of business. So now I really started listening to my wife and that's when the light bulb went on to what my dad told me 20 years ago, 20 years before. His son, you got to save 10%. So I actually started doing 10% and I actually started building an environment of economic scarcity. And what that meant is I felt like I was broke. I was making three, 400,000 a year, but I felt like I was broke because I was forcing 10 to 20% of everything I earned because I had to catch up. I was starting late, so instead of making this great income and buying stuff, I started taking it from my checking account and putting it into a brokerage account like my dad did. And, I started at, at about 38 years old. Now my dad had an interesting story. Is he never earned more than $35,000 a year. He started at Chrysler corporation and at age 20 retired at 55 and he didn't retire because he was financially free. He retired because he hated working on the factory. Today, my dad makes $85,000 a year. He hasn't worked in 40 years because he was taking 10% and investing it where that money that it's, you know, most people think my dad has over $3 million in the market right now, never earned more than $35,000 a year. Never owned a business. But, so the point is. Most people think that you have to save a million dollars. That's not what you have to do. What you have to do is have a a monthly, whether it's 50 bucks a month and any entrepreneur can afford 50 bucks a month, a hundred bucks a month. I want to see 500 a month. But if somebody will start out at 50, that's fine because that little bit of money you're saving through the vehicle called compound interest and the doubling of money. All of a sudden it turns into a lot of money. Let me give you an example. If somebody has $10,000, just $10,000 and they put it in a vehicle that earns 10%, that $10,000 will grow in 35 years to $320,000. So people think that they have to save, there's no way I can save a million dollars. That's not what it's about. It's about a consistent plan. So. I simply in my late thirties, I started living more like my dad and I started living within that environment of economic scarcity, meaning the money was no longer in my checkbook to spend, but it was going into my brokerage account and kept growing. So basically. I'm simply playing it forward, right. You know, this is a great little story. Three years ago, I sold my company for millions of dollars and I, I get, I, hit the dream that I had when I started, 20 years prior. I got lucky. I created my luck cause I worked my butt off, okay. And I sold it for millions, but even if I had not sold it for millions, I had millions of dollars already in the market because I was putting 10 to 20% of everything I was earning. So, what people need to understand is anybody not just an entrepreneur now, entrepreneurs. We're lucky because we can put our financial freedom plan on hyperdrive because we have more money coming in than the average bear. Okay. so, but it's all the same. Whether a person just has a regular job or the person is a as an entrepreneur, they need to figure out a way. To not put everything back in the company. You know, I always had a $500,000 loan on my home, always. That's how I built my company and I would hate it when my CFO would walk in my office and closed the door. I'd go, no. Now what she'd say, you know, our payroll was like, I don't know. $500,000 a month, something like that. And she'd say I can't make payroll. And it would be like, damn. So fortunately I would be prepaying that mortgage so that when I needed it, I could use it again. So entrepreneurs, we're a different breed. We're willing to take risks to get to where we want to go. The regular person isn't. So my program, that I built, is catering to the person with a normal job. But if they're an entrepreneur, it goes on hyper-drive. when I sold my company and this is, this is why I'm doing what I'm doing right now. When I sold my company. I was, I didn't have to work. And I had enough money coming in every month from my investments. I've, I've been able to go into real estate, whatever, a lot of things, and I didn't have to work. I was bored out of my tree to the point of getting depressed after the end of the first year. And that's when I put a PowerPoint presentation to teach my 17 and 18 year olds at the time. How to become a millionaire. But before I showed it to him, I said, I want you to invite all your friends over and tell him your multimillionaire dad is going to teach them how to be a millionaire. And my first presentation was a couple of years ago at my big screen TV. I had 10 kids sitting in my living room and I blew them away. And what blew me away, it stayed down they knew nothing of what I was doing. So then I went to all of my sister's kids. Then I went to exit ploy. I was doing lives zoom. I would have 20 people in a zoom. And then all of a sudden the light bulb went off and said, 'Oh my God, this is my passion. This is what I want to do the rest of my life. I just want show people how they can become financially free with a normal job. And if they're a business owner, we can put it on hyperdrive. So that's what this is all about. Now I have an online course, seven modules of video. I only charged $97 and that $97 to not only get the course, they get me because all they got to do is schedule a zoom and I'll be with there and help them any way that I can. So. I'm not doing this to make millions. I'm doing this to help as many people as that I can help because it worked for me. It worked for my dad. I got, you know, just real quickly a year and a half ago. One of my students, Maria, she had $40,000 sitting in a regular savings account. We put it in slowly over six months into the market, into index funds that pay over 10%. I looked at it yesterday, she's up $24,000 in a year and a half. That's amazing because she's done better than 10%, but so that's that's And that's why I do it. It's just like, my.

Jim James: 9:06

I do it? It's a lovely story rather than, you know, trying to make millions is help millions. You know, fantastic. And I was an entrepreneur. I hear you about everybody's salaries before my own. I spent many

Howard Dekker: 9:19

Right,

Jim James: 9:21

Can we then just turn to how you're starting to promote the new, Howard if you like because you've obviously been successful in your medical imaging. business is now a rebrand, isn't it, for you as an individual? a, it's that you've got a domain expertise through personal

Howard Dekker: 9:40

Yeah

Jim James: 9:41

How are you getting the word out? Because you've got a wonderful story, but as we know, that's not enough, is it? How are you getting people to know about it?

Howard Dekker: 9:50

Well, um, you know, I'm doing everything and anything I can to get the word out. Facebook advertising, Instagram. I love being guests on other people's podcasts. You know, people keep telling me, you gotta do your own podcasts. Look it, I don't want a job. Okay. I don't want a fricking job. You know, one of the reasons why I went to 100% evergreen on a course, I have 20 or 30 people on my screen and every week I'd have to do another. All of a sudden I had a job. I, that's not, I'm not doing this to have a job. Okay. I'm doing this because I love it. I didn't love having to work anymore. So that's why I went evergreen. I am a big RV guy. I just got back from a three month RV road trip by myself. Solo trip, had my Harley in my Jeep with me and I visited six different states, 15 different cities. I'd stay there a week. I play pickleball every morning. You know, pickleball a sweep in America. It's an amazing social sport. You just show up and you play. Everybody I meet, I hand out my business cards and I met a lot of people on this last trip. When I go to a restaurant, when I pay my bill, I put my card on there and my card. It's really simple, It's really simple, just as my picture and my, if they take their phone and put it on this, it'll go right to my webpage deckers.com and they'll find out about it. So it's, it's just a combination. Do I have the magical answer? Absolutely not. I'm nowhere near Tony Robbins or, or, well, who's the other guy, Dave Ramsey. He's been doing it for 30 years. I've only been doing this for 20 years. I'm moderately successful. I have people taking my course. I love when I was in my RV. I would love it when somebody would request a meeting. And I'd go in and log in. Like the, the RV in the background. And when I you know, sometimes they get stuck because when people leave my course, and this is, I don't know anybody else that's doing this. Their financial freedom plan is set up and running on autopilot. It's taken $10, $50, a hundred dollars, 500 or a thousand dollars out of the checkbook. It's putting it into a brokerage account. That's in their name. Nobody makes any money on that, including me. The only money I make is $97 in taking the course. And then it automatically, a couple of days later invest in, in index funds, which is are low risk that's 500 companies at once. And it they've averaged 10%. So a person might get a little confused, setting it up. So they'll schedule an interview and then I'll sit here and minutes I'll have up and running. So it's a. So you really built a mobile business, but also what sounds great is you, you're going to people in person, which in this day and age of digital almost sort of a where the counter factual is the right term uh, um, hindered by COVID or are you able to get out and about. fortunately, I'm living in Florida. I have a conservative government here that didn't get crazy with the mandates. They didn't get crazy with ma- We've been open in restaurants for, we were hired, leaving closed for restaurants and, you know, and we have the lowest, one of the lowest states in the nation of COVID new COVID cases. fortunately, yeah, but that's when I was doing Zoom. I was doing the lives Zoom, but then I put So it's been easier with an evergreen.

Jim James: 13:38

Yeah. Yeah And can you just tell us then how, which platform are you using for your evergreen course?

Howard Dekker: 13:44

uh, ClickFunnels.

Jim James: 13:46

So ClickFunnels is the lead magnet. Is that also a platform like Thinkific or Udemy for hosting the course as well.

Howard Dekker: 13:54

Yes. Yes. That's where I was. Yeah. That's why I'm hosting it through ClickFunnels. And now I have, I have a new webpage built. I haven't always been using Howarddekkers.com. I was using, I have a company called Howard Dekker's school of success, but I changed that. And now I'm marketing Howarddeckers.com. So I'm directing. I used to direct people to my ClickFunnels, but now I'm directing them to my webpage. And then when they click that takes into ClickFunnels. So that's how I am doing it. Now. I know there's other programs. I'm using ClickFunnels because I hired a consultant. When I first started, I was paid him a lot of money to build my ClickFunnels and,

Jim James: 14:40

And has that been successful? I mean, ClickFunnels and Russell Brunson is what we see his own right now, one of celebrity CEOs, isn't he?

Howard Dekker: 14:47

Yeah. It's yeah, I couldn't have done it without them. Now I could have used another portal, but I only use ClickFunnels because the consultant said, and now that it's all built, it's good enough for me. And you got to remember, I'm not sitting here having to earn. I don't need to earn money. I've made millions of dollars and I've got millions of dollars working for me that send me money every month. So, some people, if they were doing this to make a million dollars, they might look at other vehicles and change it or whatever but I don't care. All I want to do is deliver my information to the student and then be there for the student through calendary, calendary.com and they can the appointment with me. That's all I care, you know

Jim James: 15:35

Well

Howard Dekker: 15:35

know

Jim James: 15:35

Well it you've got a good set of ecosystem of promotion through Facebook. The, the online courses on ClickFunnels and using Calendly schedule appointments for Correct.

Howard Dekker: 15:47

And doing direct and you're doing podcasts. Are you doing as well, sort of media relations

Jim James: 15:57

that,

Howard Dekker: 15:57

You know, I'm, I'm talking about, you know, my initial vision, when I told you I did that presentation for the kids. I have a background of public speaking. Okay. I used to speak to a thousand, 2,000 3,000 people. I used to teach them how to be successful, in multilevel marketing business. So that's what I first envisioned. I envisioned that I would be doing these seminars, pack a hotel room, and I didn't want to do Zoom, but I didn't have a choice because of coronavirus. And then I started loving it after I got used to it. It was like, wow, I love this. Except it became a job. So now I just do Zoom for support. But, uh, so anyways, I can't, I can't remember where's

Jim James: 16:46

No, no, let's go. We're just looking at the that you built is really nice that you've got an evergreen course and you've got deal flow coming in through ClickFunnels. And do you having fun making money? Doing what you're passionate about, right? Ultimately as an entrepreneur that is kind of the dream and it's not even a job it's just the dream isn't it Because then you're working you're not struggling with cashflow, which, frankly, someone I used to know And I

Howard Dekker: 17:12

can do this, whether I'm in Asheville, North Carolina, you know, Austin, Texas, Detroit, Michigan, no matter where I am, I had my RV set up with three big screen. I took out a couch and I got a really nice RV and I got three screens. So I can do everything in that RV that I have here. And you know, so it's, it's really, it's, it's, it's a lifestyle by design. However, I didn't design it to be like this, but now that I got there, then I had to say, well, what do I want to do? And I want to travel the United States. And I want to teach people how to become financially because I don't want to be bored. I want to teach what I know works. And

Jim James: 18:03

people

Howard Dekker: 18:04

will follow my lead, I'm telling you they're good. They can have $500,000 in 30 years, they could have 800,000. They could have 1.5 million in 30 years, but if they continue to do nothing. And they continue to do what I did in my twenties and thirties. Keep spending everything that comes into the household. They're not going to have anything, you know, it's

Jim James: 18:29

know Right, really a cautionary tale. So how would am I mindful, I only have 20 minutes of your time. So if we want to find out about you where can they come

Howard Dekker: 18:39

Just simply go to Howarddekkers.com and that's, Uh, my name. Last name is D E K K E R S just Howarddekkers.com. They can get a half-hour three training there. they can get a lot of in my half hour free training. We'll give them some great information. And then, then if they choose take the course, only $97 and promise it will be the best investment they ever made, you know, and there's a money guarantee the whole shot, you know, whatever. So all to do is the dream day being free. I'm the first step of getting there.

Jim James: 19:17

Howard, and on that note, I thank you for joining me from what sounds like a wonderfully free entrepreneurial lifestyle. Thank you so much, Howard Dekker for sharing with me today on the unnoticed entrepreneur show, slightly different content than normal, but actually a really good sanity check for those of us that are all working hard on on how we to a stage one day. We're not having to work on anything that we don't want work

Howard Dekker: 19:39

Right. Well, you're welcome. And I really appreciate your time and I have, I always have fun when I do this. I love it.

Jim James: 19:45

Well, no, no surprise. You're a wonderful character. Thank you so much for joining me today on the of the show

Howard Dekker: 19:50

Thank you.