Speaker 1: 0:00

Welcome to the Cut the Tide podcast. Hello, I'm your host, thomas Helfrich, and I'm on a mission to help you cut the tide, or whatever it is holding you back from success, and you own that success. You defined it yourself. You have to, and today I'm joined by Mo Choice. Mo, how are you?

Speaker 2: 0:16

Very well, thank you for having me. Is that a stage?

Speaker 1: 0:18

name.

Speaker 2: 0:19

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 1: 0:20

Good, it doesn't have part for your parents. Good, that was a hard part for your parents. Like when you came out, they're like do you have more choices of children you can uh choose from, because this one has a beard and he just got bored. I hear your accent. Are you from alabama?

Speaker 2: 0:37

I'm not from alabama, no, I I grew up in dubai. My dad's british and I grew up in dubai. He was working for a British oil American British American oil company actually. So this is an international school accent. It's English, it's English pronunciation with an American twang. It's the best way to describe it.

Speaker 1: 0:56

I'm not sure how I would combine those words. I haven't had none. I can't talk, I'm a podcast and used to quit. Uh, and we get going, and so people I'd say my ADHD brethren out there can properly be distracted while listening. Give them one and only one place they should go to stalk you while you're speaking today LinkedIn, just in general, or they should do a full address on that one. If you sit on LinkedIn, they're going to go to someone else's profile. They're seeing other person videos.

Speaker 2: 1:28

LinkedIn Mocho. There's only one Mochoice. You can even just Google Mochoice M-O-E choice and go to my LinkedIn profile and connect with me on LinkedIn or follow me on LinkedIn.

Speaker 1: 1:38

Oh, they can't connect. Yet they got to. They got to earn that right first by listening.

Speaker 2: 1:42

They can connect. I might reject. If you put in the note that you heard me on the Cut the Tie podcast and you'd like to connect, then the chances are significantly higher that I will accept the connection.

Speaker 1: 1:54

Well, introduce yourself. Who are you and what is it you do?

Speaker 2: 1:58

Mo Joyce. I'm a solopreneur six figures, aiming for seven figures and I help. I teach what I want to learn, so I mentor other solopreneurs usually first-time solopreneurs to live a life on their own terms by learning how to independently earn money without requiring anyone else's input.

Speaker 1: 2:20

Is it kind of a coaching setup?

Speaker 2: 2:22

I call it more mentoring, because I just do what I'm doing and then show them what I'm doing.

Speaker 1: 2:27

So yeah, All right, I like that. So there's a lot of competition in your space. I always ask this question of kind of why you? I think you'd explain it, but give me your kind of unique identifier of why people pick you.

Speaker 2: 2:39

Well, depending on. I mean, the competition is quite widespread. You've got agencies, you've got agencies, you've got people that do certain bits of what I do. The difference is I act as like your temporary co-founder, which means I'm fully invested with you until you get to where you want to get to, and I put my money where my mouth is. So if what we do doesn't work, you won't be out of pocket, number one and number two. You're with me for life or until you hit your targets. And even the people that hit their targets, they still have access to everything I'm learning and everything I'm doing, and so it's a lifetime deal for a one-time investment.

Speaker 1: 3:17

That's a really that's a good value proposition. And one thing I love just there's two things that I probably should update my my format because you solve a critical problem for them, which is how do I do this? Cause I don't want to work with people. I mean, and I love the fact that you've narrowed it down to first time solopreneurs. So when you think about as a business owner, listening if you can get that specific first time solopreneurs us wherever, like you get him, you get geographic right. Even with it, now you're like man, I help, you know Atlanta people that are just trying to figure it out, do this. It's a one-time investment, but you get me for life kind of idea it's. It becomes an and if it sucks, you get your money back. It becomes a no brainer way to accelerate. So I do love that approach. I think many people should follow that in their business. So actual coach, not self-proclaimed like the 8 million coaches you find on LinkedIn.

Speaker 2: 4:06

I'm one of them.

Speaker 1: 4:06

I'm one of the self-proclaimed ones.

Speaker 2: 4:09

So I started by targeting ICF accredited coaches, because I built my coaching business doing what I do and so I started with that. So I went even nicher. There was only, I think, 40,000 of them worldwide, and I only focused on the UK first. Then I went to America. So it was nicher, nicher, nicher, and it's exactly what you said is exactly right.

Speaker 1: 4:28

Well, exactly, and, by the way, not to slam people who don't do it, because I'm one of them, I just have 20 some years of consulting. I take that approach. I have a lot of really expensive consulting company stuff, but I like the idea of a certification. I mean, I personally I never considered it because every one of my clients personally as well, like there is it's one-on-one every week to figure out what's going on and how can we improve. You know Business owners. By the way, if you're a solopreneur I hope you're listening Great way to retain clients is to meet with them every week. It was like 15 minutes catch up. Sometimes you can talk business, I assure you. It takes people from 90 days to three, four years, which is what we did when I started doing that. It's worth the investment. All right, your journey, we're going to get into this, but I got to hear from you first. How do you define your own success?

Speaker 2: 5:14

I'm doing what I want whenever I want, with whoever I want to be whenever I want to do it.

Speaker 1: 5:22

Pure narcissism. I love it. Thank you for doing that Completely self-indulgent I'm cheeky, but you know I get through the year, I get cheap I'll tell you.

Speaker 2: 5:32

I'll tell you the flip side of that. This is a zig ziglar idea, right? That the best way to to get what you want is to help others get what they want. 100, so that's my contribution is to help others to do whatever they want whenever they want, wherever they want. And the more I get to do whatever I want whenever I want.

Speaker 1: 5:51

But if your own definition of success is doing what I want, when I want, where I want, it opens the door to family, friends, time by yourself. It is a definition of not chasing happy, of being happy. I do love that because it's fundamentally not. You know, I want to make a million dollars. I assure you, when you get there you're going to be like that's great. Now what it's just, it's a. That's a mindset versus a destination approach. Tell me about your journey, a little bit of how you got here to and then, specifically in that journey, identify a tire too that you've had to cut.

Speaker 2: 6:20

Massive tire, massive. So two, two. So I figured out very early that I don't trust adults. My mom used to say by the age of three, you'd figure it out that you don't trust adults and you're not going to listen to what anyone thinks and you're going to do things your own way. So I figured that out very quickly and then and so I I think by then it was already clear I wasn't going to work for somebody. But I didn't know what to do and I was lazy and I wasn't really interested in any particular skill or craft. Um, and I wanted to have fun and I wanted to explore things, and I wanted to try things, and I wanted to enjoy my youth and do whatever I wanted to do. Um, and so the first idea came to me when to get freedom requires discipline, that's the Aristotle idea.

Speaker 1: 7:05

I think it's the most ironic thing.

Speaker 2: 7:07

True, because you have to contain yourself to be able to be yourself yeah, and so, ultimately, there were days there were more days than not where I wasn't doing what I wanted, even though I thought I was doing what I wanted. So it's like this, it's like this dilute, it's like you I've gaslit myself and it's like I'm doing what I want here and it's like, but is'm doing what I want here? And it's like, but is it really what I want? No, so that was the first thing. Okay, what do I need to do to actually be able to do what I want every?

Speaker 1: 7:28

single day. That's what people struggle with. Sometimes they're doing what they thought they wanted and it's not actually what they want, because then you're taking the time to cleaning. Is that doing what you want? Kind of, but it's more not doing what you don't want. As a kid you realize early I'm going to have to go that trajectory. My guess is some stuff got in the way.

Speaker 2: 8:01

Yeah, well, it got to a stage when I was an adult where I wasn't doing what I wanted, even though I thought I was doing everything that I wanted to do, and so I went down the I'm going to open my own business, because then I'm the boss. And then I realized I'm not the boss. I've got a landlord and I've got the tax man and I've got my customers and I've got my suppliers and I've got my staff who have rights. And so it was like I don't like this. And so I started to look for different businesses 12 businesses I came up with in different industries just to try and find something that I enjoy. And I didn't enjoy any of it. And then I realized one day actually I don't want any of this. I don't want to run a business, I don't care about business, I don't care about selling products, I just want to do something I enjoy doing. But what do you enjoy doing? I enjoy talking to people. What are you going to do? Radio host, podcast? Podcasts weren't around at the time when I figured out that I wanted to just talk. I probably would have started a podcast.

Speaker 2: 8:51

And so I started to think about how do I live life on my own terms if I don't know what to do. And then I read a Richard Buck book Illusions, where the quote in there is you teach best what you want to learn. So I'll teach how to live life on your own terms, hoping to learn how to do it. And I've been doing that ever since and Well, here's how long has that been? So 2015, I realized. Or 2012,? I realized I don't want to be this person anymore. It took me three years to realize that I had to kill the old version of Moe. That's where Mo Choice essentially came from. I had to kill the old version of me. I couldn't keep what I liked about my old life and what I liked about the old me and ditch what I didn't like and then find the gaps in what I did like I had to kill that off completely.

Speaker 1: 9:47

How did you do that? I always ask the question I left everything.

Speaker 2: 9:50

I went to the airport in Dubai my business was in Dubai with my passport in my pocket and I bought a one-way ticket out of there, and I left everything behind my girlfriend, my investors, my unpaid checks, my meetings, everything. I just left it behind, that's extreme Wow. Yeah, people say it's brave. I think it's chicken shit, but it didn't matter.

Speaker 1: 10:14

I just wanted to get out of it. Labeling is what it is. It could be self-preservation to. There's no other way that I can see. Whatever it is, it's better than depression, putting a gun to your head and saying I'll do it that way too. That's a better alternative. I'm not there.

Speaker 2: 10:27

This is an important thing, because I suffered from I didn't know it was depression. You know how people say I'm depressed and they use that word quite loosely I couldn't get out of bed. There was a period of three months I couldn't get out of bed. I couldn't face the world. I faced it every. That's severe. Yeah, andrew, I literally couldn't get out. I couldn't physically, mentally, emotionally get out of bed. But to the highest you've, I would tell you, that sounds like the biggest one. That's the biggest one.

Speaker 2: 10:53

Leaving my identity, killing my old identity and leaving everything I'd earned and everything I'd worked for, all my friendships, my home, and I knew I couldn't go back to Dubai after that because all the checks were going to bounce and you know I don't know if you know how it is there it's like that's a big, big problem. A debt collection. Is that an Irish person? Uh, debt collection, and it's an irish person? Yeah, yeah, right, it's like I would have been. My passport would have been um, confiscated until I paid it off. I don't know, I could even want to pay my passport. Well, that helped cut the tie, because I knew that that one-way ticket was literally a one-way ticket, like there's no going back no, I'm gonna come back to that, because I think the bigger tie you described was getting out of that hole.

Speaker 1: 11:31

However, you did it and it's painful but at the same time, it's freeing. Do you still struggle with depression and things like that? Is it something that you I don't even get an aches?

Speaker 2: 11:41

anymore. I couldn't sleep properly. As far back as I remember, I couldn't sleep properly. Now I sleep nine hours.

Speaker 1: 11:49

So it sounds like you you needed a kill, because it was killing you.

Speaker 2: 11:51

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I killed, I murdered the old Moe, murdered him, destroyed him, buried him, rebuilt and was born again. It's the redemption story you see in Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings. It's the same story. Which character do you most identify with? Oh, I don't really know those movies too well. I'm not, I'm yeah, but but I, I, I. The people I most identify with are the flawed people that are flawed but themselves.

Speaker 1: 12:25

So okay. So so you're taking big ties there. I mean that's a congratulations to you, and I hope you keep living that life, because it sounds like it's a healthier environment. No doubt I would never. You're inspiring too, right. I mean that's a really good place to come from is as low as you get right there. What, today, though, are you most grateful for?

Speaker 2: 12:49

That there's very little that someone says or does. That makes me go. Oh, I never thought of that.

Speaker 1: 13:02

Was that a thing before?

Speaker 2: 13:02

No, If you look at self-awareness on a scale, I'm the highest I've ever been. I don't know how much higher I can go. I'm the highest I've ever been. I don't know how much higher I can go, but I was two out of 10, maybe three before this episode that we just talked about.

Speaker 1: 13:25

What do you think? Why is that? Why the change, Like what have you is this.

Speaker 2: 13:32

I questioned everything. So I, I the. So the quote was something like assume that everything you know is wrong and test to see what is right. It's that idea. So do I really think that way? Do I really feel that way? Am I really this person? Am I really that?

Speaker 2: 13:54

And I started reading books again. I hadn't read a book since school. I started reading books about neuroscience and emotional management and how the body works and philosophy, and, and I started paying attention to people that I really thought these are smart people and I started listening to what they're. You know really, what are they saying here?

Speaker 2: 14:11

Um, and I learned how to read and I learned how to ask questions and I and that's what, when I say proper coaching, certified like coaching is not like a sports coaching. Coaching is more in it's more Socratic, it's more I'll ask questions. That helps you figure out what you need to figure out. Like Socrates never wrote anything because he said I don't know what to write, I don't know anything, but he used to ask like 12 questions and he'd just blow people's minds with those questions and it was like that's the coaching that I'm talking about. So I started to get involved in that asking questions. How do I know this is true? Why do I think this is real? What can I do about this? What's in my control? What is it? No-transcript. I was just pissed off, to be honest. While I was doing all that Cause I was like why didn't I learn all this in school? Why am I learning the name of clouds?

Speaker 2: 15:07

And school teaches you how to work in an office.

Speaker 1: 15:19

That you how to work in an office.

Speaker 2: 15:19

That's what the whole point is. So I I was totally resentful and there was there was this idea about what would you change? Oh, it's coming. That's my next question what? What you know? Self-counseling out.

Speaker 2: 15:24

So if I knew everything I know now, I would go back to the age of 16 because then I can, I don't have to go to school, I can leave home and I can, I can start to do my own thing. I would I certainly wouldn't want to live school years and being under my parents' guidance, so I would go back to the 16 and I'd start again. Anyone who tells you if they know what they know now, they wouldn't go back and change anything, are fucking lying, in my opinion. If they were given that honest chance, they would take it every single time. So I would love to go back to the age of 16 and start again. That's what I would do. Thing really is, I didn't trust anyone from a young age and I lost that. I started to trust things and people and and I shouldn't have, I should have just had this whole attitude of I don't believe anything until I feel it and see it and experience it.

Speaker 1: 16:06

How do you, uh, let me dive into some. So how do you deal with, or uh, rationalize like think, ideas, like faith.

Speaker 2: 16:14

I don't really know if I have any opinion on that word. I prefer to think of things in this way I get to choose what I believe, because it's just a belief. I don't get to choose whether water freezes at 100 degrees or whether the pen will drop if I let go of it. I don't get to choose that that's going to happen, but belief. I get to choose whether I believe in God. I get to get to choose that that's going to happen, but belief. I get to choose whether I believe in God. I get to choose what God means.

Speaker 2: 16:41

I get to choose whether I can change the past. Oh, you can't change the past. I did. I changed the way I thought about it, and so the way it lives in my memory is completely different to how it did before. Isn't that changing the past? I don't know If you don't hear the tree falling in the woods, does it? Did it really fall? And who cares? I can only go with what I can experience. Right, my existence is my experience, and so can I influence that experience. Yes, okay, how Positively? Or negatively? Okay, well, I'm going to go with the positive. So I'm only going to believe in the things that help me enjoy life, be more engaged, believe more, have more faith, have more responsibility. Believe in that I can influence the outcome. I'm going to believe in that stuff.

Speaker 1: 17:27

Well, I think your definition of of of discovering faith on your terms, is actually the point of it, because it's if it's done in a way that helps you live a better life, that helps treat others better and helps bring more positive instead of negative. I believe that's pretty much the goal of every religion perfect. I'll fight what may happen or not happen after death. I mean, I'm not getting that argument, but the truth is, while you're here, there's something you should be hearing and and that's great, and but the reason I ask that's an abstract feeling, but it sounds like you've worked through it, because that's applicable to other things, like when you question everything, not to be an antagonist but to be more Socratic with it, like, hey, let's test that idea, george, how do you test that, George Carly.

Speaker 2: 18:09

That's it. The comedian said if you're going to teach your kids anything, teach them to question everything. Oh, I love that quote. It teach them to question everything. Oh, I love that quote. It's exactly right. Just wait why my mom says. My first sentence, the first sentence I put together, was says who? Can you imagine? The first combination of words that I ever came up with was says who.

Speaker 1: 18:33

My son quoted my mom one time who said Tommy, why don't you be quiet or why don't you shut your mouth, tommy, why don't you be quiet or why don't you shut your mouth? He goes why don't you shut your mouth, g-ma? And we all learned right. She said where do you learn to talk like that? He's like you just said it. I was like isn't that hilarious.

Speaker 2: 18:54

Where did you learn to talk?

Speaker 1: 18:55

She's like looking for support. I'm like nailed it, you want some cream for that burn mom. He was like three and that's him. Oh, amazing, I love kids. I'll hang out with kids all day over adults oh my God, all right, give me something Just keeping us conscious of time. But what's the book you got to recommend? Like you said, you started reading it again. What's what's been one that?

Speaker 2: 19:19

you're like, damn, there's so many. There's not that many, but there's so many that you have to. I think read a man's search for meaning is really important. Um, man's search for meaning. Tell me about that. What'd you get from it? Or the powers that be can take away everything my dignity, my clothes, my family, my rights, my possessions but they can't tell me how to think about things. They can't take away my attitude about what's happening. They can't take away my search for meaning from whatever is happening to me. They can't influence that?

Speaker 1: 19:57

That sounds like a. Whitney Houston song. Maybe it is, I can't remember the thing.

Speaker 2: 20:09

Anyway, you get to choose your attitude at any. You get to choose your attitude at any given moment. I'm going to read that one. I'm going to write that.

Speaker 1: 20:17

It's a must read for me. I like moment.

Speaker 2: 20:18

I'm going to read that one. I'm going to write. I'm going to write that. Yeah, it's a must read for me.

Speaker 1: 20:19

I like that because I've been reading a lot more. I read a lot of the books that my guests send me. Some are good, some are long. I noticed I said that Some are good, some are long, which implies the long ones are generally not good. Anyway, keep them short. Good, um, anyway, to get keem short people. But I will read that one, uh, because I've heard it before, not for the first time, but it's also kind of where I am in my life. I think I'm gonna do that. So thank you for that. Um, let me ask you. So, uh, if there was a question, though, I should ask you today, and I didn't, and we covered a lot of cool stuff today, but what would that question have been?

Speaker 2: 20:52

uh, can I pay you to help me?

Speaker 1: 20:56

that's the next, next one, that's Seamus Park time. We're coming to that.

Speaker 2: 20:59

You can't burn a deep thought question on that one I don't know about should, but you could have asked me what the next level is.

Speaker 1: 21:09

Actually, I did forget your actual question. I really legitimately did. What is the current tie you're struggling to cut?

Speaker 2: 21:17

Yeah, there you go, that's a good, that's a good.

Speaker 1: 21:19

Actually, I forgot to ask that one so I could get that one off the table as well when you would ask. I forgot to ask, I'm sorry, please.

Speaker 2: 21:26

I feel like I have to cause. I'm a solopreneur, now a team of one. I have other solopreneurs that work with me, but essentially I'm a team of one. I feel like I want to figure out how to not feel like I have to control everything.

Speaker 1: 21:41

That's where you come to me Now.

Speaker 2: 21:42

you're working into how I help people, there you go, see, that's the question you should have asked.

Speaker 1: 21:47

This whole thing is a top of funnel for you to work with me. I essentially knew that. It's like you're deep in it now. You don't realize how close you are to the meat grinder to become part of sausage. It's going to be great, I'm kidding. Topic is delicious, though. We can all agree. If you don't like sauce, oh. I like sales, all right. But you're struggling with control and you're struggling with which leads to scale. I'm going to ask you a question how old are you right now? 47. All right, so we're effectively the same age 49. Are you starting to have those moments of I'm not doing this shit 13 years from now?

Speaker 2: 22:19

No, it's not even a struggle, it's more. It's like I'm looking at AI, I'm looking at agreed partnerships, I'm looking at the robots are coming, they're fucking coming. If you don't believe me, they've been coming for years.

Speaker 1: 22:34

man, I'm a consultant.

Speaker 2: 22:35

Yeah, but they're coming, coming. They believe me gone, and then for years, man, I'm a consultant. Yeah, yeah, but they're coming, coming like they've always been. They've always. Yeah, yeah, they're on our doorstep, though now that's different. Um, so it's more about what can I seed control of that's going to help me just keep living life on my own terms. It's more that question. So I wouldn't call it a struggle, I'd call it a question and I'd call the tie whatever tie I need to cut to leverage what's happening to live my life even better.

Speaker 1: 23:07

Yeah, we can follow up with that. That's actually core to some of the stuff I actually and tax evasion. No, I'm joking, you can't go back to Dubai. I'm sorry you had it. You had it in your hands and you screwed it up. You're OG right there and now you're like they're looking for you. Little guys with you know, mo, you rock man. This has been awesome Once again. Now shameless plug time. Who should hire you? How do they do that?

Speaker 2: 23:35

Who should hire you? How do they do that? Anyone who wants to become a sole opener and make more money than they could have made even in a job without spending any money $105 is all I recommend you need to spend online a month to make $15,000 plus a month. And so anyone who wants that life where you can work from wherever you want with whoever you want without spending ridiculous money no ads. You don't have to create content, you don't have to build funnels, you don't have to use expensive tech. I can show you how to do that. Um and linkedin is where I talk about this the most and where I deliver most of my stuff and where you should connect with me if you want to know more. I've also got something for your for your guests in particular if you want me to share this is your time to shameless plug.

Speaker 2: 24:17

You can share anything you want. It's a masterclass presentation that I give on the framework that helped me get to 15K plus and that helped my clients get to. So I show you the framework, I show you where it worked and for whom, and it's a live presentation so you can ask me questions, you can interact with me, and I do it once every five or six weeks, and so I want to invite your guests to the next one. It's in a few weeks time, so you have plenty of time to plan it in, and there's also going to be a couple of bonus pieces of content that I'm going to give them that explains a little bit more about how I work, and I put that together just for you guys. You can find that at mochoicecom, m-o-e, choicecom, forward slash podcast Love it slash podcast.

Speaker 1: 24:55

Love it. This is awesome, mo, you rock. I'm personally going through a cycle of reducing my connections on LinkedIn from you know you're clipped at 30,000 down to 20,000. I'm sorry I'm removing 20,000. It should take a hundred days. Legitimately, I'm I'm I'm fitting out people who have not looked at my profile or messaged me and I'm rebuilding based on value, not metrics, vanity metrics. I am taking the lead on that. So I look for you to go comment on that post and message me so you don't get deleted. How about that? Moe Choice People M-O-E Choice. If you can't spell that, please stop listening to the show, moe. Thank you for coming on today. Appreciate your time, man. Listen anyone who made it to this part of the show. You rock and I want you to get out there. Go cut a tie to whatever's holding you back in life from achieving success that you better have identified and defined yourself. Otherwise, you're chasing someone else's dream. Own your success. Cut the ties to get to it.

Speaker 1: 25:53

Thanks for listening.