 I will say good morning and welcome. So glad that you're here for another episode of the nonprofit show. Each and every day we show up and have an amazing conversation like the one we're having today with Sebastian Cruz. And Sebastian's here to talk to us about creating a team workflow state. So for some of you scratching your heads like what the heck is this? You're going to be wowed. Sebastian and I, we've known each other now. Gosh, not quite a year, but we've had some really deep, really cool conversations. So Sebastian is the founder of true freedom, and he will share with us a little bit more about who he is and what he does. So Julia Patrick, she is the founder and CEO of the American nonprofit Academy. I am so glad that Julia asked me three years ago in March of 2020 to say, Hey, I have this bananas idea. Would you like to show up each and every day with me to be of service and a co-host for the nonprofit show? I said yes. And here we are. You know, we thought it was going to be a two week endeavor, Sebastian, but here we are coming up on our 600th episode. I'm Jared Ransom, your nonprofit nerd CEO of the Raven Group, and we are honored to have the continued support and investment of our presenting sponsors. Those of you watching, you can see their logos on the screen. Those of you listening, I'm going to give a verbal shout out to Blumerang, American nonprofit Academy, fundraising Academy, nonprofit nerd, your part time controller, staffing boutique, and nonprofit thought leaders. These companies, many of them have truly been with us for these entire three years, and they have leaned into the chaos, their turmoil, everything that's gone on in the last three years. So please check them out, but I like to remind you not yet because we're going to have a fascinating conversation. If you miss any of our episodes and you want to go back and re-listen to anything, including today's conversation with Sebastian, you can find us on Roku video, sorry, YouTube, Amazon Fire TV, as well as Vimeo. And then I like to mention that we are also on podcasts. So make sure that if you're a podcast listener like I am, you go ahead and queue up the nonprofit show wherever you stream your channels and you can listen to today's conversation or any of the other ones. So Sebastian, you've been waiting so patiently and I'm just so glad to have you here in the hot seat, as we like to call it. As Sebastian Cruz, founder of True Freedom, welcome, Sebastian. Thanks for being here. Yeah, absolutely. Thanks so much for having me. Yeah. Well, let's start. Tell us a little bit about yourself and tell us a little about True Freedom. Who are you? What do you do? What's your mission and what's your big goal? Yeah. So I'll start off with what is flow state? And perhaps it's like being in the zone. So whether it's sports, I think we can all connect to a time, whether it was ourselves or we saw, you know, sports athlete be in the zone. And I'm doing like air quotes here. It's that moment where it feels easy. It feels natural and it's actually their best performance coming through. So that is flow state in the most practical form. And how that happens with our work is where we get in the zone where what we're doing, we're engaged with it and our best productivity comes through. And speaking of productivity, there's a lot of research now on flow state. And one of the quotes that I share is that according to Forbes, top executives report being five times more productive when in flow state. Wow. So and that's a 10 year study too. So there's tons of research on this. So it's really weaving together what you love to do, the mission that lights you up, and then bringing that together with your work, which is producing value for people in exchange for money. Love it. How did you get into this? And where did the name of your company True Freedom come from? Well, it all started when I was 19 years old and I had started my own business. And what happened is that we grew very quickly. It was a marketing agency and we 11 extra revenue in nine months. So all of a sudden my team blew up. I had 25 full time team members. I was the youngest person in the company, the owner of the company. And it all and all I knew how to do at that time was just work harder, put more hours in. That's what I did. And pretty soon I found myself at a hundred hours a week working. And I was proud of it too. That's the thing. I remember like I post on Facebook, like, you know, here's my time tracker, you know, world look, I'm a man. Like it was, I was proud of it. You know, now I face poem myself, like, what were you thinking? But at the time that's all I knew. So in a nutshell, my journey went from working a hundred hours a week, which was agency burnout, agency overwhelm, all my team was stressed and burnt out to fast forward on the second version of the business of being like agency freedom, where there was peace, productivity. And that journey, I nearly died in the middle of it. And so that really was what I took into the true freedom software is what I learned on that journey. I love that. Thank you for sharing because I was hoping you would share a little bit more about that. If you want to read more about Sebastian's story, you know, he's, he's very open on his website. You can see that here, truefreedom.ai. So thanks for giving us a little bit of background there, Sebastian. So let's dive deep. I mean, I would say that any of our conversations you and I have had over the last several months, Sebastian, we don't really play in the shallow end. We just dump, you know, dive right into the deep end. And I hope we can do that here today and kind of give our viewers and listeners, you know, a sample of just the awesomeness that you are, you provide and this freedom. So let's start off, you know, as we're trying to create this workflow state for our company for ourselves and what that looks like. Let's start off with this first one here, which is burden business. And you kind of touched on this already, you know, with your, with your previous story, more growth, more stress. That sounds horrible. Talk to us about this. Yeah, it's like, that's, you know, in a business, we want to grow, we want to, especially, you know, purpose driven business. And by the way, a little PSA, I only work with purpose driven businesses. I cannot work with people who are not purpose driven. It just doesn't work for me. So in purpose driven world, you know, we want more impact. We want to touch more lives and improve more lives. So that's the tough thing is that when the organization is set up to create more stress, the more we grow, for me, it felt like I created a prison of my own design. I was like, Oh, this is the goal where more money than ever before more team members than ever before. But I'm like, why do I feel like a slave? That's how I felt like it was a slave. So, you know, three core problems come to mind with, it's a burden business, you know, number one is like one on one calls, fill your schedule. Like, you love your clients, you love your team, let me do, but it's like, whoa, you look at your schedule for the week. You're like, I need a lot of coffee to power through this week. Yeah, it's exhausting to see that. Exactly. And that's one core problem. Another core problem that these are called common problems too. So there's no judgment with this. I've lived through this. It's just like, we all go through this. I feel like second one is, you know, the never ending group call. It's like, Oh boy, we got another meeting here. And it just never ends and never ends. So that's another thing. And then, you know, as an organizational owner, leader, you know, every time there's a meeting, I see dollar signs above everybody's head. Because it's like everybody has an hourly rate, including me. And when we're all together, somebody's paying for that. And if we're not being effective to me, it feels like taking all that value, put it in a garbage can, taking lighter fluid, lighting on fire, hitting the match. And we're just like not getting anywhere. That's the second core problem. I see that too. I look around, I'm like to change to change to change to change, you know, and and often these are some like high value time. And so we're talking several, several thousands, perhaps. So I like that. I like that visual. Okay, what is the third core common common challenge? The third one is, you know, this very seductive idea of like, Oh, we're just one project manager away. Oh, we're just a director away. Oh, we're just one this away. And what happened, this was what I would always think too, like I'm only one project project manager away. And then I get my weekends back, or I get my nights back. And what happens is we have, you know, more team is more cost and more complexity. Obviously, there's a way to do it right, but it's got to be done right. So it's like, I'd find myself like, yes, I did find the project manager, but now I'm like, Oh, okay, now I'm in more meetings that I pay for. This isn't what I hoped it would be. Yeah, that's the third one. Those are three. Yeah. And as we said, you know, this burden business, you know, identifying those three, I appreciate you bringing that up because that's that to me, you know, I can see it. I've lived it. And so now we're going to shift into how do we move from burden to freedom, right? Where we're switching out the more growth and the more ease. It was in the previous one with the burden more stress, but now we're talking about more ease. So what is this freedom business like? Yeah, so there's three components of this as well. And these three are kind of like giving an Ironman suit to your team, I feel like. So it's like taking your existing team, you know, don't want to want to keep everybody in the team, but just enhancing what we can all do together, giving them an Ironman Ironwoman suit, so you can see what matters most and then blast forward with ease. So where do we get this suit? I know I'm like, that sounds great. So which closet is it in, right? Like where do I find this suit? Exactly. Yeah. And so it's the three ones are focus, flow and genius. And I'll get into each one of these focus, flow and genius. So focus is each week seeing the 80, 20, you know, maybe we've heard of the Pareto principle that like 20% of the activities produce 80% of the results. I like to take it a step further and be like, what if we did the 80, 20 of the 80, 20? And what that equates to is the top 4% and I see it as a circle. Like this is all the activities. These are all the things that feel urgent. These are all the things that need to happen. But it's like, all right, what are the 20% that are in the middle that actually move the needle the most? And then within that, what is the even smaller 20% that creates all the value? And that's that top 4% of activities. So when the team can focus on their one thing each week that moves the business forward, then they start being happy and effective. That sounds, I'm going to be honest, it sounds very like far-fetched, right? Because when I see, when I see, you know, teams and they have a long laundry list of things to do, it's like, well, how do we get everything done if we're focusing on the 20% of the 20%. I know it's doable, but it also makes me think like, what about everything else? Are these balls being dropped or things slipping through the cracks, you know, like, is our business going to end? Is the community going to struggle? Because, you know, as the nonprofit, we're here to serve the community. So I appreciate that focus. And I could see, I could see the benefit of it, but I also see how it's like, okay, how the heck do we get there, right? Like, how do we make that shift? And that to me, you know, I think would be, would be the most challenging, but again, it's doable. So that was one of your three. So we have focus, we have freedom and genius, right? So take us into the into the next two. Yeah. And if I can just address that real quick, because I believe you're absolutely right, because I realized that I couldn't figure it out with my conscious mind. So I just could, you know, especially if we're in a stress state, it's like, you know, where I feel so chaotic, like in that state. So the key was subconscious mind. So there's this quote by Dr. Bruce Lipton that says the subconscious mind is a hundred million times more powerful than the conscious mind. And it sounds crazy and like it is in a way, but when we think about it common sense wise, you know, our subconscious mind is guiding our body. We didn't tell our heart to beat today. We didn't tell ourselves to do all the mitosis and things today. So when we tap into the subconscious mind, and that's what I do with the weekly webinar, weekly flow state webinar, is people come in feeling level of stress, anxiety, burdened. We do the subconscious clearing process. They feel inner peace and clarity. And then from there, ask the question that comes from Gary Keller's book, The One Thing, which is what's the one thing next week that would make everything else way easier or even unnecessary. And then that tends to reveal their 80-20 to 80-20. Thank you. Yeah. Thanks for sharing that. And I have to witness to all of you. I have joined Sebastian on those calls because I wanted to experience it and really see what this was like and they're phenomenal. So I'm glad to hear that you're still doing them, Sebastian. And for those of you that are like, okay, I want a little bit more doses of Sebastian. You can check those out, of course. Okay. So move us into then the freedom and the, yeah, number two. Yep. So number one focus, number two flow. So I've been talking this whole time. So really, you know, narrowing down to that, it's passion, purpose and prosperity all weaving together. Passion, what do you love to do? Purpose, what is the mission that you're connected to? And with your purpose driven organization, what's your mission within the organization as well? And then prosperity, how can you produce more value than you receive? Because then you'll always be paid more and more and more. So that's the second one is the flow with your work. Flow. Sorry, I called it freedom. I'm just looking for that, right? It's like, where's the freedom? That's what we all want to find. So that's flow. Okay. And then the third, you said, I hope I don't botch it, but I think it's genius. Is that right? Yes, absolutely. So that's taken a look at personality profiles of what is your zone of genius? And that comes from Dr. Gay Hendricks of looking at what's your zone of genius? And really, there's four quadrants. And like, what are you not good at? What are you kind of good at? What are you good at and people want to pay you for your zone of excellence? But then what can you be truly best in the world at? Because you love it, it lights you up. That's your zone of genius. So the whole concept of the zone of genius is using different personality profiles to get a clear picture of, all right, this is the role where you produce maximum value in the least amount of time. Right. I love that. And when you and I connected, and I think, you know, we just automatically started speaking the same language, you know, I too have done some workshops on finding and living in your zone of genius. I actually did it for Bloomerang, our sponsor here. And, you know, there's two questions that I like to ask. And it's, what do you love to do? And what are you great at doing? And I think those two questions, maybe they could be different answers, you know, it's not always the same. But that will help all, you know, all of us, others, myself included, to kind of find, you know, like, what is that? How do we find our genius zone? So thanks for sharing that. And so, you know, each of these, the burden business, the freedom business, you just shared, you know, three core elements in each of them. And they're all just fascinating to me. And really what we're looking for and working towards, you know, from this freedom business is truly that flow state that you just mentioned, that productivity. So let's dive deep into the productivity, Sebastian, like, what else can you share with us about this? And I would love any success stories, because you had shared earlier, you only, only, and that's a big word, right? Like that's a powerful word, work with purpose driven businesses. So talk to us about productivity. Yeah, absolutely. So one case study that comes to mind is a friend of mine, Dan Russell, who started, we started having conversations about this early on, like way before he was even developed with the robust features that it has now. And through those conversations, he took his agency and a marketing agency, where he was working 50 hours plus a week, brought that down to 10 hours a week, where he was in his zone of genius. And those 10 hours were like golden hours, like peak productivity. And that doubled his profit in 90 days. So 50 hours to 10 hours, double his profit 90 days. And that gave him time to finally do what he truly loved, which his true calling was coming through. It was knocking at his door at his mind's door saying, write this book. So that gave him time to write his book. And did that come through his subconscious mind? I mean, I think it maybe started there. And then it got pretty loud. It was like, all right, buddy, you got to do something. Yeah, that knock just got louder and louder as it often does, right? It's like, and I know I'm guilty of that too. I feel something, whether it's intuition or this gut nudge, which, you know, to me, I think that's intuition. And it's like, no, no, that's, you know, I'm not going to pay attention to that. And it's just kind of like push it away. And then it comes up and it comes up and it comes up in a bigger, louder kind of way. So, you know, finding that one of the questions I'd like to ask you, you know, because our viewers truly are nonprofit leaders, people of service, people that, you know, are truly passion and purpose driven. So how do we get into this true productivity state? And how do we stay there? Right? Like, how do we stay there as a team? Because I know, Sebastian, you've done so much work on this. And I'm curious, if you also find yourself slipping into that burden business, like, do you find yourself, there's days or weeks or months where you're like, I'm seeing too many one-on-ones on my calendar. I'm seeing too many group calls that are going too long. Like, do you find yourself also slipping into this sometimes? Yeah, absolutely. So it's like, it's a moment of like, keeping the guard rails on. And that's what I started developing, not me personally, but my team, I started having my team develop the software was for my freedom clients that I was guiding through. And I was like, Oh, wouldn't it be easier if we just had guard rails here, or we had, you know, a visual thing here to help keep that because, you know, the reality is, is we can get so in the caught up in whatever we're doing, and pulled in so many different directions where maybe it takes a while to be like, Oh, my gosh, like I got pulled off my center. So really what the operating system designed to do, it's coaching systems and software, it's designed to keep us in the pocket, keep us in that, you know, inner peace place. And anytime we get off just a little bit, it can, you know, guide us back in. It's not a shockwave, right? It's not like Yeah, yeah, gentle guidance. I like that. So tell us about, you know, you've mentioned the software, you've mentioned that you've built this, tell us a little bit about that and how that works for, for individuals, for companies, nonprofits, how does the system work? Yeah. So the core philosophy behind it is, I believe we're born to do what we love. It's my core belief. We were born to do what we love. So true freedom to me means creating wealth with what you love to do, while having the schedule that lights you up. And when it comes to an organization, I want that for everybody. Because when we're working in our zone of genius that we can create more impact. So the software, the mission of the software is to free one billion people by 2050. And so everything is, every decision is evaluated. Is that getting us closer to that or not? And the reason why we're doing that is because, you know, I believe when we have an extra, we have extra time and extra money, it's more natural for us to give to the causes that light us up. You know, maybe it's children, maybe it's infrastructure, maybe it's the ocean, animals. And with United Nations 17 global goals, I figure if we free one billion people by 2050, then that's people that are contributing in some way, whatever way is great. And then that'll give us 50 years of contributing. And I believe we can solve those 17 global goals by 2100. And that will usher in a new reality of global abundance, where we have a prosperous planet. And at that time, you know, if Elon Musk continues at his pace, like we'll be a multi planetary species at some point. And at that point, we'll be able to just simply evaluate like, is our planet a prosperous planet? Or is it like a in debt planet? And I would like to see us be a prosperous planet. Yeah. Now, this is so fascinating to me. And I will share my personal why is freedom, flexibility and travel, right? And so to find a way to live my life, yeah, that allows me the freedom and the flexibility, travel is a huge thing for me. I share often and I know you've heard about him, but my son who will be 12. And so, you know, really living a life working in my zone of genius, nerding out with nonprofits in a way that, you know, is impactful for the global community, but also fulfilling to me. And I love that because, you know, and I also joke and said, okay, in third grade, when my teacher always said, you know, stop talking, Jared, stop talking, Jared, I'm going to write your name on the board. It's like, well, hello, third grade teacher, and I'll get paid to talk. So, clearly, my zone of genius was shining through. Granted, it showed up in my report card for talking too much, right? But here I am doing what I love to do. It does not feel like work. There are moments that are a little bit too, you know, burdensome. There are moments when those group calls go forever. There are weeks when I look at my calendar and I'm like, there's a lot of one on one calls. Everything that you just said is like those core, you know, red flags. But really finding and living in my zone of genius has just changed. It's changed my world. So, I commend you truly, Sebastian, because that's a big goal. It's a big global goal. And I think, you know, it's something that many of us are interested in. One of the things I like to share is, you know, a lot of nonprofits, they pride themselves as you just did on like, I worked 100 hours this week, right? Like, we pride ourselves on not taking vacations. We pride ourselves on taking our work home. We pride ourselves on, you know, working through the weekends with our clients or community, whatever that might look like. But really what I'm learning from our conversation is, at some point, that's going to catch up to us. And just like it did to you with your marketing agency when you were 19, I don't know how long that stretch was, but this is serious. You know, when we talk about mental health, we talk about self care. This conversation today, I think just like really focuses in on where we can focus to be more productive and inefficient. Absolutely. And I feel like that's a really relevant topic for all of us in the purpose driven space, because it's so easy to burn ourselves out because like we're connected, like we exist to help fulfill this mission that we're connected to. And that's been a really big lesson for me that's taken more time than I would have liked. But it's like, okay, if my cup is empty, the amount that I give is just like drops. And maybe I show up, but the quality of that is just drops, whether if I take the time to fill up my cup, and it's overflowing, then the energy that I give is at a totally different level. And I feel like it's we as purpose driven people, we've got to have a higher level of skill with that, because we're so connected to our passion, like somebody who's just doing for the money. And I, you know, points my career, I was just doing for the money. So it's like, if there was no this, I wouldn't be doing it. So it's easy to disconnect. But when our passion, purpose, prosperity together, I feel like it calls, it requires a higher level of distinction for us, filling up our cup. Yeah, no, you're so right. And I, you know, I myself, found myself, you know, where it's like, I am exhausted, you know, I need to take a break and finding that time, you know, many of us in the nonprofit sector and passion, purpose driven as well, you know, it is, I feel like we're always on the front lines, you know, I feel like we're always in some kind of a crisis mode or trauma. And so it really does take a toll on us. But you know, one of the things that I do say, Sebastian truly is, you know, I am the nonprofit nerd 24 seven. And there's not a turnoff switch, you know, like I am on all the time thinking of community thinking of missions and impact and how I can change the world and help other people change the world. So I appreciate this conversation. I think it's very timely. And, you know, just looking more for for just to consume on on this conversation so that we can get into that flow state. And I think that's that's really what we all want. I have Sebastian slide up here so you can take a look at his company name and his website. Again, it's truefreedom.ai. If you would Sebastian, which is a little bit of remaining time, would you share with us a little bit about your your calls and if those are still open to the public and kind of what that looks like? Yeah, so right now, our goal goal is to help teams work in flow state. But that's a lot of teams, you know, we've got interest from big corporate teams, small businesses, everything in between. And so what we're doing right now is focusing specifically on purpose driven agencies. And so if you're listening this and that feels like a fit for you, you can go to the website and you can take a free flow state quiz, which will guide you through seeing the value of flow state for your organization, what that means in actual dollars. And then you can schedule a demo if you'd like and if that resonates with you. So that's one thing. And really the last thing I just feel a share from my heart is like, you know, we're times have changed so much. And when I was starting on business, you know, 11 years ago, passion was a dirty work. Passion was a word that, you know, was weak, you know, you'd be looked I'd look be looked down on. I'm like, Oh, you know, business isn't your passion. But now times have changed. And so everybody here who's followed their passion with their career with their business, it's our time. And now go figure the productivity that the traditional business world always sought for is linked to your passion. So follow your passion, do what you love, create value, and let's solve these global goals together. Because I can't do it alone. But we can do it together. Let's do it. I'm all in. Sign me up. Thank you so much. Yeah, this is amazing. Truefreedom.ai. Please do check out Sebastian. And if you can join in on one of those calls that he shared, I highly recommend it. It's really, it's really cool to be a part of that. So thank you so much, Sebastian. And we of course want to recognize us as the cohost, those of you that might be watching and listening, Julia Patrick, Jared Ransom, I'm your nonprofit nerd, honored to have this conversation with you, Sebastian, thanks to our presenting sponsors that keep these conversations going and growing. And we're just so honored to be able to have these unscripted, very organic, natural conversations like the one that we just had with, with you, Sebastian. So again, thank you to Blumerang. Thank you to American Nonprofit Academy, fundraising academy, nonprofit nerd, your part-time controller, staffing boutique, and the nonprofit thought leader, you know, each and every day we wake up. And this is one of the things I'll say, you know, is for me, my flow state includes the nonprofit show. It includes waking up, having these high level conversations with amazing thought leaders like yourself. We have a great lineup this week. We have a great lineup next week, so please do make sure that you tune in and join us. Sebastian, thank you. I just have to say thanks again for spending your valuable time, cha-ching, cha-ching, and your expertise with us, because I know, I know that time is money, and you're just someone that I really enjoy, you know, having a conversation with every time we end a conversation. I feel like my energy and my vibration has raised as opposed to when I've entered the conversation with you. So thank you, my friend. Absolutely. Thanks for having me on, and it was a blast. Awesome. Great. Well, thanks for all the good work you do. Thanks for all the great work that everyone who's watching and listening does. Please, please stay well, so you can do well, and we'll see you back here tomorrow.