NickHoupt: 0:03

What if leadership didn't start in the boardroom, but in your own home? In this episode of Life Well Balanced, we sit down with Miguel Camargo, entrepreneur, father of six, networking powerhouse, and marketplace master, to talk about what it really looks like to build a meaningful life. From battling early insecurities and breaking out of the hustle culture to launching a family while growing a business, Miguel shares what it takes to lead with intention We explore what it means to raise strong kids without losing yourself, how to reset when you're out of sync, why so many men carry silent pressure, and how accountability and faith can help you realign with purpose. This conversation is honest, direct, and real, filled with practical mindset shifts for anyone trying to balance work, marriage, fatherhood, and personal growth. If you've ever felt like you're grinding hard but still missing something deeper, this one's for you. So take a breath, open your heart, and settle in. This is Life Well Balanced with Miguel Camargo and me, your host, Nick Halt. Miguel Camargo. Yes, sir. It's good to see you, bro. Good to see you. Appreciate you having me. I'm super happy that you came on board here and wanted to hop in the studio with us. Yeah. And I'm looking forward to all the knowledge you're about to drop on us. And I want to start by acknowledging you for the guy that you are. It's so funny that I was thinking about when we first met and we randomly met in a Starbucks probably almost 15 years ago. Yeah.

MiguelCamargo: 1:57

Yeah, it's been within the 14, 15 year

NickHoupt: 1:59

mark. Yeah. And you just randomly came up talking to me about, are you interested in making extra info? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Listen, I'm a prospect and

MiguelCamargo: 2:06

networker.

NickHoupt: 2:07

Yeah. And we never really even connected a ton on that aspect, but all throughout the years, we randomly ended up in the same place and ran in some of the same circles. And we just became friends over that time because of just networking. And I think that you have always been involved as a part of my life. because of the kind of guy you are. And I think like attracts like, and so I think that's why you've always been around. And I just acknowledge you for the guy that you are, the father that you are, and the networker you are, because you're one of my go-to people. If I need anything, reach out and ask

MiguelCamargo: 2:43

who you know. Who do you know? Yeah, yeah,

NickHoupt: 2:45

yeah. So I appreciate it, man. I appreciate you coming here and I'm super humbled and grateful to have you here with me.

MiguelCamargo: 2:51

Well, you know, I think that's good because like you said, we met randomly. I had a purpose of why I was starting a conversation with you. because in my realm of my career, I'm talking to everybody and their mom about what I'm talking about. But I think as you mature and you grow in business, you become a little bit more not so one-dimensional. So when you're having conversations, they're not just one targeted toward that one thing. But I'm glad I asked you the question because it started the relationship. Yeah. And I think, again, over the last two, almost two and a half years, that's when we're actually a little bit more connected. Yeah. And I think seasons of life bring people together.

NickHoupt: 3:26

Yeah. So let's talk about the Miguel origin story. Okay. What inspirations, what experiences, what people have kind of molded you into the guy that's sitting in front of us right

MiguelCamargo: 3:42

now? Okay. I think it all started when, I'm not going to go through too many stories because too much timeframe, but when it comes to the desire, I think at a young age, I saw I'm meant to be somebody. It was as corny as it is, it It was seeing the white Power Ranger, the Mighty Morphin Power Ranger. I saw that. I was like, I want to be an actor. I want to do this. But I realized I wanted to be in front of people at a young age, whether it was either entertaining, comedy, martial arts. But it was because my grandparents at a young age moved me from Atlanta to here, and they were entrepreneurs. My grandmother was a hustler from the very beginning. She had me at 9, 10 years old. Outside of Winn-Dixie, doing petitioning. If you're familiar with petitioning, get people to sign signatures. Probably sure it wasn't even legal at the time, what I was doing. But she literally introduced me, said, you're going to talk to everybody. And it was organic. It wasn't, hey, you're forcing people. It was just, we saw her do it, so we did it. And naturally, at a young age, started talking to people. But what really got the drive and willingness to talk to everybody is that 20 years old, when I was just starting in business, insecure, just because you're growing. I had acne all over my face. And one of my leaders said, if you want to build a business, you got to talk to people. You got to expand your circle. And within my financial services company, we were encouraged to talk to everybody. But over time, some pastors came into my life. They said, Miguel, you're too one-dimensional. All you do is talk business. My business started to become a marketplace ministry. And then over time, you meet good leaders in the community that you just said, you know what, I'm going to take a step back from marketing business and just communicate with people in general. And that's kind of who I am today.

NickHoupt: 5:37

So you had mentioned when you were first starting out in business being insecure because of, was it because of what you looked like? Because you didn't feel you had the abilities that you have now. I know when I started in my entrepreneurial journey, I let my age influence my confidence. Okay. And so, because I started in my twenties too, and recruiting people and getting up and giving presentations and stuff. And so was that something that was a part of it? What were you insecure about and how did you overcome that? It was people

MiguelCamargo: 6:11

skills. I was always outgoing and obnoxious, honestly, just immature. So it was really just kind of honing in on that, being willing to accept, Miguel, you have to change. It's, it's very uncomfortable feeling to know you need to change and And it was face full of acne growing up with that kind of insecurities. But inside, I had that internal feeling. I want to be out of this shell. And it really just came into repetition of doing the same thing over and over again, every day, talking to people that said, hey, listen, you want to become this person. You just got to go do the reps. And it was the desire to go become big in business that I was not going to let the shyness or the... the little doubts and insecurities inside stop me from going to go do that.

NickHoupt: 7:00

So if someone's listening right now and they feel that they want to change and they want to make those changes in their life, what are a couple of things that they can start implementing in their routine and their mindset in their life to start moving them into those changes?

MiguelCamargo: 7:19

I think there's a good book called Atomic Habits that people should look at. It's you don't get rid of habits or things. You just replace them with something new. And I don't think everyone can do the whole cold turkey thing. I'm just going to give up this right away. You can honestly ease yourself into a routine of doing something. I know for my sake of talking to people, I gave myself, Miguel, you need to talk to X amount of people a week. There'd be weeks that I'm like, I didn't do anything or I didn't do half as near as I wanted to. Don't beat myself up. All right, go get after it again tomorrow. So with talking to people, I can just relay this back to me. We have the three foot rule. If I'm within three feet of someone, I say, hello, it wouldn't, no intentions of pitching, no intentions of, of anything. I'm just gonna say hello. And eventually you're getting to your groove. So that's what I did. So the atomic habits, and then start with short-term goals. You don't have to have something six months or a year from now. Okay. If I want to get better in this one little area, do one or two things a day, that's going to help you get better than that. You know, it's, That 1% every day you get better. And then at 365 days, you're 365% better than you were a year from now or a year from here.

NickHoupt: 8:36

Now, when you started changing those habits and everything, do you still hold some of those routines and daily habits today?

MiguelCamargo: 8:44

Yes, because they became a part of me organically. I knew I wanted, I had the desire and I knew I had a game plan. I'm going to become big in business. And the only way I was going to do that was get good at talking to people. So it was get good at talking to people. The next layer of that was, well, what do you talk to them about? How do you stay in contact with them? Because I don't think there's anything worse than trying to build a relationship with another grown man that you ain't got nothing in common with, right? So I just had to be intentional with who I was talking to and what I was going to grow a relationship with them on. As I've gotten older, in my later 20s, when pastors came into my business and said, Miguel, you're too one of the You need to go become a little bit more diverse in who you are. That led me down the realm of leaning into God. And again, I was a young father. So life is what gave me that experience and allowed me to become who I am today. But I did set those patterns up that I still do today. I don't let someone walk by me without saying, hey, how's your day going? Even if I'm in a bad mood or don't feel like talking to anybody, it's just organically it's a trigger. That

NickHoupt: 10:00

makes sense. I have the three foot rule too. And I'm actually working on a project where I wrote that in there and I talk about the three foot rule because that was instilled in me in my twenties too. There's a few things I want to dive into with that, but let's talk about when you're talking to people all day, when you get home and you're mentally exhausted, right? Because I deal with that all the time. How are you still present with your family and your wife and things of that nature.

MiguelCamargo: 10:29

So that one varies daily. It really depends on where we're going because mentally when I leave the office or I'm in my car, that doesn't shut down. When you run the business, I mean, it's a constant thing. Someone will call you, text you randomly. I'm not the best work-life balance individual. I believe in compartmentalizing time. If it's, hey, it's time with the kids, business is put away. I don't care who's calling me, who's texting me, who's emailing. It's there. But I get fired up when I see my kids. The moment I walk in, I thank God they're still at this young age where they're like, Daddy, Daddy, Daddy. I'm like, put everything down. And I just straightened whatever we want to play, whatever we want to do. And then as far as relationship-wise, I still, as a man, I'm still working on that. Sometimes the relationships, I think relationships are rocky sometimes. You have your ebbs and flows where she's like, I'm really excited to see you. Then they're actually like, hey, how was your day? You feel me? We're sometimes dry. So I really work hard not to bring the business mental stuff home. Doesn't always work every day though. Every day the struggle is like, oh, we had a great day with this, but we have this challenge over here. I don't really talk about a lot of the business stuff that went wrong at home though. We'll talk about all the great things, but anything that was a challenge, no, that stays out of the house. Why is that? I feel that if we bring in negative stuff from the business into the relationship, that's going to add another sense of worry, another sense of stress. Those specific things aren't going to fix the dynamics at work or in business. Now, if it's a big challenge, hey, that's a big project we got to work on. Hey, this is where we're at. We need to fix this. Like, let's just say it's a budgeting thing. Those are the things you got to work out. You got to talk about. But if there's challenges here, I don't bring this stuff home because it It's just another stress that we don't need.

NickHoupt: 12:28

Now, do you keep stuff locked in inside? Growing up as men, it's always keep it on the inside. Don't show emotion. Don't show feeling. Don't cry. Do you keep that stuff locked in or do you share your emotions at home and everything? At home,

MiguelCamargo: 12:45

the wins, absolutely. The challenges, after I've got through them. But no, do I keep it honed in? No. I have a group of guys that we talk to. Hey, bro, listen, I'm dealing with it. this, what would you do in this situation? Because the way I process things, there's men in my life that have been mentors and they've been through this already, or, hey, I'm going through this challenge. What would you do in this situation? And then there's times where you don't need to talk about it. You just need to let that process. I know that there's been times, I'll give you an example, Father's Day. Father's Day is like the one day we're supposed to be celebrated and I'm like, no, I'm in my thoughts that day. I'm literally like, love the kids. Okay, we're going to breakfast. We're going to take them to Chuck E. Cheese and all that kind of stuff. I'm literally sitting at breakfast and I'm just like, love my kids. And then my mind is just like, what are my responsibilities? I'm looking at it as like, it's not a celebration for me. At least I haven't accepted that yet. It's more of a, this is my responsibility. This is my tribe. I have to take care of them. So there's some times I don't take the time to rest that mentality. Not with the family. It's with the circle outside of that.

NickHoupt: 14:00

So what do you think the difference between providing for your family and leading your family is?

MiguelCamargo: 14:08

That's a big one. I think it's intentionality and your actions behind that, right? So providing is just that you have the roof over your head, the food and all that kind of stuff. Leading them is, hey, let me show you what your life can be like if you follow that direction. And I think there's a huge difference accountability. I'm glad you asked that because it's making me think. That's okay. Am I leading or am I just going through the motions in some of these times? Because I think it's easy to get stuck in the motions. I can tell you, I look at my kids and they copy everything that I do. And I'm loud. The moment I wake up, the kids are loud and they're screaming, it's time or some cameo. Kids are a big UFC band in the house. But no, those are the things that I that I do watch. How are they treating their mom? And it makes me softer because I'm rough sometimes. I'm that man's man. Don't make excuses. Go get at work. But then I see how that reflects because I thought about this morning. They're playing with their mom and they're jumping on her. I'm like, I gotta be soft with her. I don't really stroke that core very much because I got boys. So I'm always in that mentality. So that is a

NickHoupt: 15:24

really good question. Yeah, with my little girl her and I wrestle and stuff. And she's like a little beast and she'll be like, and then she'll go after my wife. And I'm like, no, no, no, no, no, no. You don't, don't do that with mommy. You only wrestle with daddy. Yeah. Yeah.

MiguelCamargo: 15:40

Very interesting situation because again, we have all boys in the house. So it, it's,

NickHoupt: 15:47

And that's a lot of boys. You were telling me the ages. Run through how many and what the ages are.

MiguelCamargo: 15:53

So there's six kids total. We have an 11-year-old girl, previous relationship. Her mom and I have a son together, so I still get her a couple times a month. So that's 11-year-old, 9-year-old, 8-year-old, four, two, and six months. So there's six. At any given time, there's between four to six kids at the house at any given time. How much sleep do you get? I get a lot of sleep. I go to sleep late, wake up early. Her, on the other hand, she's running around the house. I'm very transparent. There's things that I got to work on in areas. She's running around like crazy. She runs the household 24 hours and it ain't always perfect. But today, did you live? Did you survive? How are the kids today? And again, there's things that as we're talking, it's like, you got to work on that. You got to do better on that. But me personally, sleep for me is fine. Two and four year old, they'll still come in the bed. Screwed over our I'm on the edge of the bed like

NickHoupt: 16:49

this. We rock and roll. That's what it is. Two-year-old's been sleeping with us lately too. She's going through some kind of attachment, separation anxiety kind of thing right now. So she's been in our bed like every night. Sleeping sideways. Yeah, yeah. Like, give me some of the blanket. I don't have any. It's on the floor. Now, does that work for you and your wife? Does that work well? Are you a good team with it? How's that work? I think we could do better.

MiguelCamargo: 17:17

I believe I can do better. Because those conversations we've had recently that, hey, I need this, I need that. And my mind is always so focused on this. And it's so easy to process that. And this may be my therapy session that we're having here today. So God say, hey, you know what, Miguel, if you've been talking to you, you might need your friend Nick. This kind of stuff. up in and give you some years of conversations we so we've been together for six and a half years it's we we just kind of came into the relationship with kids yeah so as we were parents and then we had additional kids of our together it's worked our home life is is strong I think it can be better in certain areas our business life is strong today because I don't approach business like business every day it's a I have an intentionality of serving the community and serving certain businesses, certain days. So it allows me to be living more intentionally where I'm not just focused on just producing and earning cashflow. That is the goal at the end of the day, but it's, I have a strategy behind it, if that makes sense.

NickHoupt: 18:24

Yeah. I know my wife and I have had conversations in the past too, where there's a lot of stuff going on in life and with her family and everything. And she has come to me and talked to me because she's like, I feel like you're just pushing it all Yeah, yeah, yeah. side to have those conversations do you guys still get date nights and stuff

MiguelCamargo: 19:12

yeah yeah but we gotta schedule those in it's a you have to schedule those in and they're not as frequent as they need to be

NickHoupt: 19:20

yeah ours are few and far between really right now we don't have any family or anything in town either so when it comes to scheduling those date nights and everything how present are you when you do that or I

MiguelCamargo: 19:34

think that depends on the on the on the season that I'm in and in life and in business. Give an example. We had an anniversary February 19th. We went to a Capitol grill. Never been there. Her parents got us gift cards there. I'm like, okay, she's having fun and she's trying to keep the thing romantic the entire time. I'm like, I'm there physically, mentally, emotionally, just something off about the vibe of the restaurant. And just, I just like ruined the entire evening because we're outside. I said, we walked in, it was loud. I'm like, Oh, this, I like it inside. I realize I don't like quiet places. There's got to be a lot going on around me for

NickHoupt: 20:15

me to feel comfortable. So when it comes to building that business, being a family man, I know you say you don't really shut it off.

MiguelCamargo: 20:24

Yeah.

NickHoupt: 20:26

If you feel like things are a little off with your work and family and the balance between that, do you have a reset button when you're kind of feeling out? of sync or do you ever feel out of sync or is your wife bringing it to your attention of not being in sync together

MiguelCamargo: 20:46

no no no I think there's a lot of times in life we're not in sync together and I really believe that's on my part actually because she's always she's the one always pressing that we need to sit down and talk we need to do this I have like I was telling Steven earlier I look at this podcast out of my that crap gives me anxiety I have an easy time sitting down with someone busy The moment you want to talk about planning out the week for the kids, I'm like, just send me the, just put in the calendar. Like, I don't know why I have a hard time doing that, but I, there's like, I battled that in our entire relationship. The small details of things, I don't like to sit there and talk about it. Ask the question again, so I make sure I get this correctly.

NickHoupt: 21:28

So if you're, do you ever feel out of sync? Yes. And then do you have a reset button for when you feel out of sync? And what does that look like?

MiguelCamargo: 21:40

I'm out of sync. Yeah, I'm out of sync sometimes. And what is a reset button? Resets for me are when things are, let's just say the house is out of order. Me staying home one day and just cleaning up and get things in order. Because if I feel my environment is not where I need it to be, then everything's out of mess. Because I don't know about you, I'm not the neatest person, but when I wake up to an environment in I'm like, that's out of place, that's out of place. And she's overwhelmed in this area. Okay, Miguel, step up and just help out in those areas and just get it in place, if that makes sense. Cleaning, listening to music, and just shutting everything off. I don't think business. I literally turn on some R&B music and just cleaned. That's kind of, I don't know, that's therapeutic to me.

NickHoupt: 22:27

R&B music?

MiguelCamargo: 22:28

Yes, I'm an R&B fanatic. Throw on some Neo, that's me. That's funny. Yeah.

NickHoupt: 22:33

Now, if someone's listening, if they're in the same position that you of feeling like they could do better in some areas and stuff what can they do to not beat themselves up while they're having these epiphanies and going through these changes

MiguelCamargo: 22:50

I think be willing to accept that you're not going to be perfect you guys are seeing this live right now you're seeing that I'm actually realizing some changes I need to make right now in my relationships so don't be hard on yourself give yourself grace if one day you're not consistent Start over tomorrow. God gave you another day. Guess what? It's another chance for you to go get after it. You have 30 days, 30 new chances every month. And then I think accountability partners are good. And whatever area you're trying to grow in, have an accountability partner because there's that gut check that they give you that tough love when you need it, when you're a little too soft on yourself. I know that happens with me in the gym. If I go to the gym by myself, I will let myself get off. The moment I have someone there with me that's kind of competitive and they have Miguel pushing me to be better, I get a better workout.

NickHoupt: 23:38

Yeah, I think accountability partners are good.

MiguelCamargo: 24:08

And when I'm in front of so many people every day, it's like breathe. What's the next thing to do? My brain doesn't shut down, but my body has to. And I think the burnout happens when I'm not in alignment with what I need to be doing. It's so easy to be chasing this next thing or, or this one thing that you got momentum. And if you're not in alignment with what you should be doing, it's easy to burn out in that area.

NickHoupt: 24:32

So when you are starting to burn out and you notice that you're not in alignment, what do you do or what What do you implement to make sure you get back on track and get back in that alignment for what your purpose is?

MiguelCamargo: 24:45

Prayer has been my biggest go-to these days. I'm like, God, what's happening here? Get me in place here. And the next thing is literally I go to my car. I go to my car, just throw music on and just like start thinking through the process. Just put the phone away. It's so easy to get in that scroll mode and just like getting your thoughts. I go to my car where it's quiet-ish and and turn the music on. And then just getting through my thoughts, work through the thoughts, and okay, all right, come up with a game plan. What's the next step? And then once I have the next step in line, just one foot in front of the other. And then eventually, before you know it, I'm like... oh, I just need to move down this one road and I'm back in my alignment where I needed to be.

NickHoupt: 25:26

Now, do you think you fall into that hustle and grind culture?

MiguelCamargo: 25:30

Used to.

NickHoupt: 25:30

Yeah.

MiguelCamargo: 25:31

Yeah. A hundred percent. The, the hustle culture early twenties was for sure.

NickHoupt: 25:35

Yeah.

MiguelCamargo: 25:35

Do I still believe in hustle? Absolutely. I don't think it has to be a 24 seven thing.

NickHoupt: 25:41

Yeah. I think that's how we were brought up in business because that was the key thing was you got to grind, you got to hustle. What has changed to get you out of that?

MiguelCamargo: 25:49

My children. Yeah. My kids. I literally will shut down the day early to go spend time with the kids yeah definitely my two and four year old they're at this such phase where I'm their superhero I'm like I'm not missing that time my appointments can wait so no my kids just seeing them grow and I'm just grateful for every day like the conversation I have with Jade is whenever she's having a hard day we had this conversation last night something happened wrong with the kids aren't you so glad You got to see this with the kids today. How did it feel to be able to see? I know this one's destroying the house. How cool is it? The fact is that you're potty training him to do this. You're doing that. And I saw perspective as a paradigm shift that I don't have to, I get to. So no, my children are my resetting. Money can wait. The money will be there later in three hours. Go spend a couple hours with your kids.

NickHoupt: 26:47

Yeah. When it comes to what you just said, I was the same way when my My daughter was three months old. I got laid off and it was the best thing that ever happened to me. It was because I got to be there in those moments. I was sitting there when she crawled for the first time, when she laughed for the first time, it was my stupid joke, you know, and you got to be there and experience that. So what can someone do to be more present with their kids?

MiguelCamargo: 27:17

Put away the, this is an extension of what we are today. I literally turn that ringer off. I put that thing on the counter, on the charger. I'm like, I don't care about that. I literally, right here, what do you want to do? How was your day? And obviously, they're in the age where they're just copying everything you're doing. So in my mind, what did I do? Again, I just go back to nostalgia of the stuff of the 90s and early 2000s. What was I doing? I was obsessed with Power Rangers or Pokemon or Yu-Gi-Oh! and all that stuff. Hey, you want to watch this show? And I just bond with them the things they want to do, whether it's just playing with the cards or getting on my shoulders or running around the house and playing or chokeslamming them on the bed. It's just being there with them rather than there. I'm okay with shutting the world off for my kids and for my family.

NickHoupt: 28:09

Are there any non-negotiables that you have with family, with work, with how they intertwine?

MiguelCamargo: 28:19

Non-negotiables? Yes. The way I run my business is a lot the way I run my family. Meaning, if it is to be, it's up to me. I don't allow excuses for myself. I don't care if I'm sick, if I'm down. You got to get better. But at the end of the day, the job's got to get done. The way I raise the boys, let's talk about the older two. If I'm being productive, you're doing the exact same thing. It's not sitting around the house watching YouTube TV or whatever you want to watch. It's we have to be productive. productive. I believe the first seven years are sponges. That's the non-negotiable. We're going to build that communication skills. I mean, I don't want to go off subject too much, but we teach our kids business in the very first seven years of their life. They're learning the AI stuff now. We're teaching them, hey, we're learning this. And that might not go into the work-life balance aspect, but I believe children need to become independent fast because Because if we caught all these things, they become adults and teenagers that are going to be leeching off you for the rest of your life, if that makes sense. Those are the non-negotiables I could think of right now.

NickHoupt: 29:32

I tell my 16-year-old when I'm teaching her different stuff, I always say, you can't live in my basement forever. Yeah. She goes, we live in Florida. We don't have basements. And I say, exactly.

MiguelCamargo: 29:44

No.

NickHoupt: 29:44

The

MiguelCamargo: 29:44

thing, you have a 16-year-old. That's crazy. And 18. Golly. And then you started over. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. Dang, yeah. How's that going? It's good, man. Two different

NickHoupt: 29:57

seasons. I got three different seasons. One's a freshman in college going into her sophomore year. One's going into her sophomore year of high school, and then one's turning two. Wow. So it's crazy. How's that life? It's cool, man. It's all girls. I'm the opposite. I got all girls.

MiguelCamargo: 30:13

I think God didn't let me have girls of my own for a reason. I don't know why. I think I've become too soft. Yeah. I I'd baby my 11-year-old. She comes over. What do you want to do? The boys go over there. She can have whatever she wants.

NickHoupt: 30:30

Yeah. I always mess with my wife. After a while, I go, all right, I'm going out back to chop wood and shoot guns. Men, men, men, men.

MiguelCamargo: 30:41

Get some of

NickHoupt: 30:42

your

MiguelCamargo: 30:43

testosterone back. Yeah.

NickHoupt: 30:45

I want to kind of shift gears. I know we talked a lot about family and parenting. You probably didn't know you were coming on to do a parenting podcast at all. okay with it though I think it really with what you do and how you do it and having six children I think that people out there try and figure out how to make it work or people that do have kids and want to start a business don't because they don't know how or they think that they can't so I wanted to bring all that in into what we're talking about and everything most of my life my life now is parenting you know with the And so I wanted to make sure we touch on these subjects and I want to put that information out there for people so they know that you're not alone. I've talked to so many people about stuff going on with the baby and everything. And they're like, yeah, I went through that. Yep. I did that. And it's like, oh, okay. It's not just me or my baby or anything. So I want to make sure we talk about that stuff. But I want to shift some gears too, because you're a big networker and you launched a networking group, correct? Yeah. Do you want to talk about that?

MiguelCamargo: 31:54

Yeah. So I can tell you four years ago, we started hosting networking events and it all became with the purpose of you meet so many people and I have no intentions of just meeting someone to sell them something. I don't want to do that. I did that for so many years of my years of financial services. So you create all these contacts and you're like, how do I like build something with them organically without them thinking I'm trying to call them to recruit them or sell them something. And I had to have this paradigm shift where I said, you know what? I have a bunch of friends. I have an office. Why don't I just throw a networking event and see how it goes? And then one event after the next, after the next, and we're almost four years into this where I just love seeing people connect because it's amazing when I can see two people that didn't know each other six months from now, they're working, they're making money together. And I just look back and I'm like, Look at that. That's dope. I don't have any benefit from it financially or anything. And I don't look, I don't do it for any kind of a recognition. I do it. I'm like, man, I love that. I just want to see people win so bad that I actually go out of my way to introduce people together. One of the biggest things that I do when I, when it comes to networking is I find out what you do, find a kind of vibe. What kind of person are you? Who can I connect you with that? Even just as a friendship, Again, you need that community. Who can I connect you with? And then third thing is, what do you need right now? What projects are you working on? How can I help you? Is there anybody, any person that you need? And people are like, you know, I don't really know of anybody. I don't have anything on my mind. And if they don't have a project, in my mind, it says, okay, well, guess what? You need to be working on something because you should always be asking somebody for something. Whether it's, hey, Miguel, do you have a contact that does this? Because in that realm. It's currency. You always put in people in a position to either serve or make money. And that's all money is. It's just money moving in its frequencies and through relationships. I love to see people win and then obviously making money is the name of the game for business, right? So

NickHoupt: 34:11

how do you continuously ask people for stuff? Not just you, but in general, how do you continually ask people for stuff or business without coming across as a No,

MiguelCamargo: 34:24

no. When I say you got to get something or ask for something, I'm asking, hey, what do you need? Gotcha. So I call people intentionally to build a relationship. I call on people, hey, how are you? What are you working on? How's the kids? Anything you need right now? One thing I look for is people that are having brand new babies. What do you need for your kids? I have so many people that are parents. Hey, listen, I got someone that needs it. Are you getting rid of anything? And it's just to serve. That's what I mean by asking for something. Gotcha. Not asking, hey, I need this. I need this. No, no. What do you need in your current stage of life in business or anything? Because how many times have you said, man, I wish I knew someone that did this? If you just had them in your contact as a relationship, sometimes financially, it's not always as expensive. My friend Sonia says this, build a relationship before you need it. Yeah. That's good. So I've kind of taken that. into account of what I do.

NickHoupt: 35:26

So when you're going into building a relationship, it seems like you're going in to serve and help and connect. What other qualities have to go into building a good relationship with someone, whether that's business, whether that's friendship, whether that's marriage? Big one is execution to me.

MiguelCamargo: 35:49

I have met so many great people with great intentions, but they are not in the season of their life where they can actually execute on the business stuff. And you don't shut them away. You just put them in this little section over here. Help them grow and mature in business as I think we've all had to mature in business. You just feed into them. But the ones that are executed, that are ready to move, again, off camera, I gave you that example of what just happened. I love to see people that you nurtured a relationship for years. All of a sudden you found an opportunity. You marry the two and they make money. I love to see those people win because we did right by each other. And we may have never done business together. We may have never made money with each other. But because I was in the position to find it and marry the two together, everyone wins in this situation. The other one was relationships and even marriage. Go back to that equally yoked and alignment. You two have to be looking for the same thing. There are certain times in relationships that, in business relationships, friendships, some of you guys just aren't meant to be around each other. You don't need to force yourself onto people. There's a good phrase, don't go into rooms you're tolerated in. Go to where you're accepted. I don't know about you, Nick. I've never been the popular person as far as people just love to be around me. I had to go build my own circle even in business when I was always I was the youngest person in my group when I came in and over the years I said I can build a business with people that I want to be around and I want to hopefully want to be around me right so I've accepted the fact is that I'm not for everybody neither is everyone for me and those ones that are with me let's ride together those are who are not just let them be

NickHoupt: 37:42

now if you feel like you're let's say in the wrong room. What kind of toll does that take on your mental health and your wellness? Well, I try to have discernment

MiguelCamargo: 37:54

that if I'm in the wrong room, that I'm not there very long. Give an example for networking. A lot of people go to networking events with the idea to pitch. When I host my events, I always say there's always a real estate or an insurance agent at my event. So guys, put your business cards in your back pocket. For the next 45 minutes or an hour just ask questions about other people how you can help them you'll find out you'll sniff the ones that are there just to take

NickHoupt: 38:23

yeah

MiguelCamargo: 38:24

and they don't last long in my environments or our environments it's stated from the get-go this is what we're here for and I've been very fortunate I haven't been in a lot of rooms where it wasn't meant for me to be there I don't know it was just God protecting me in that area but that's I've been very fortunate that that hasn't happened a lot

NickHoupt: 38:46

Well, it's probably because living with the intention, like you said, to where you don't end up in those rooms because your intention isn't being there. It's doing what you're doing every day, going through that. So that's probably why you haven't really gotten in those rooms.

MiguelCamargo: 39:01

Hopefully I don't have to deal with that.

NickHoupt: 39:03

And I think too, when you're younger, you figure that out because I was the same way. I was always the youngest guy when I started and I can think about calls that I made now where I'm like, I shouldn't have done that. I shouldn't have talk to them like that, where you're just like, sell, sell, sell, sell, sell. I'm going to be a millionaire. I want to build this business. And then as you grow, you start to learn and develop into that person you're really meant to become. And then you do start living more in service and how you can help. There's a book called Rocket Fuel. Have you ever heard of that? No, no, no. And what that talks about is there's people that are idea people and there's people that are implementers. And when you get two of those people together, the business thrives because you have that person that's like, this is a great idea, but they're not good at putting it into place. And then you have this person that's like, here's how we can make it work. That's your Steven. And that's my Steven right there.

MiguelCamargo: 40:03

There you go. I love, I love that. Okay. Yeah. I believe that's so true though. People haven't, so many people have great ideas, but don't know how to execute. Yeah. Don't know how to, what's the next step? Everybody should have a new friend called Chat TV that can help you with some implementation of how to do it, right?

NickHoupt: 40:19

Yeah, I agree. This wasn't a part of my plan. Let's talk about AI.

MiguelCamargo: 40:22

Okay.

NickHoupt: 40:22

Because it seems like you're utilizing AI a lot. Oh my God,

MiguelCamargo: 40:25

yes. I'm utilizing it and the efficiencies of... I think my mind only works in a couple of different ways when it comes to creating new ideas or how-tos or we always get stuck in our thoughts of like, well, who do I talk to? How do I do it? Man, put that prompt into ChatGBT or the other ones. I think I'll give you some ideas. It's your job to elaborate on those ideas. Not just take it for face value, but you got to add your touch to it, personalize it. And it's your assistance these days. Yeah. Yeah. It's scary that what it's going to be like in five, 10 years, what it's going to be like. Like we don't go anywhere without this, with this thing's arm reach of most of us. What is that going to be to us now? Is that going to replace my spouse?

NickHoupt: 41:13

I know like with, with Balance Wellbeing, our mental health therapy Yeah, that's good. Kind of geared toward that. And what do you use the AI technologies for the most?

MiguelCamargo: 41:54

Organizing my thoughts. There are things that I have in my head. I'm like, how do I phrase this? Give me an idea of da-da-da, and then we'll go into details. I'll give you an example right now. I've been working on a networking book for the last two years. All the stuff we're talking about today and more, the stuff I live... I believe anybody can do it. If you have the desire and the willingness to learn it. And it's not just becoming a people person. It's becoming, hey, a connector, an expert in your field saying, if you need to know so-and-so, you need to go through me or let me show you how to do that. So organizing my thought and really, I can't sit there and type out a computer to type up my story, but I can speak it. And then it helps me organize those thoughts. That's kind of the biggest thing that It's helped me out with.

NickHoupt: 42:46

Yeah. I do. I do that a lot where I'm like, I'm trying to say something, but I don't know how to say it. Yeah. Or I have all this stuff in my head. How do I make it more clear so that I can go in and integrate stuff or take the actions to move forward? And I actually, I was sitting at a training in Orlando a few weeks back and I'm sitting there trying to learn something and I'm like, I'm not getting anything out of this. And then I had that epiphany of, I can utilize AI for this stuff. Like everything that I'm not knowing what to do or knowing the next step, I can use ChatGPT to help me figure it out. Absolutely. So I think AI is an exceptional tool to utilize. And I

MiguelCamargo: 43:39

believe it, you know, there's a scarcity mentality of, oh, this is going to replace people's jobs. It will absolutely to replace certain people. I think as individuals, we need to be focusing on skillsets and how this can enhance what we're doing versus being scared that it's gonna take everyone's jobs.

NickHoupt: 43:55

I saw something, I think it was this morning or yesterday, and it was saying, you shouldn't be worried about it taking jobs. You should be worried about how to shift and be able to utilize it in the job that you have. Correct. And I think that's brilliant because I think you can utilize it in every area. And if it is taking certain jobs, Yeah, 100%. Yeah. and being on the life well balanced podcast i want to ask you what do you think a life well balanced looks like

MiguelCamargo: 45:24

i think first of all the family's got to have the overall goal what are we doing as a family the family's got to be in alignment with where we're going because Our goal is to become financially independent and to raise our kids to be healthy and good people. Exceptional people in being competitive. We're training our kids to be exceptional people, people that love on people. That's going to set them up for the entrepreneurial journey. I hope all my kids want to be exceptional business individuals, but we'll see what happens. But our goal as a family is to become financially independent, get free of that race that most people are in financially, and I think a lot people are struggling with it today just like economics and then the next thing is besides the finances part once that's accomplished or it's happening and simultaneously is are we in sync with each other what are we doing as a family where are we growing are we just coexisting with each other we spend time with each other intentionally even if it's just one day a week because a lot of families will spend quality time but they're all on their phones in the living room or at the table yeah and we've tried to work her way out of that it's like okay the phone's put over there I'm again I'm the worst at it but I think better hey throw that away put that over there so being in alignment with where you're going in general and the work-life balance I think you just need to compartmentalize what's a priority at this current moment you might know this better than me because you're a little bit further down that parent journey every child is different their seasons of life are different so every day I think it's going to be different with parenting and your business There's times where I'm gone out of the house by eight, seven, eight o'clock in the morning. And I don't come home till after everyone's asleep. It's just what it is. I think there's no glory without sacrifice and what you're trying to obtain. And ours is a real one is to grow a very successful family and a business to make that.

NickHoupt: 47:27

We're going to shift gears a little more. And we do at the end of our episode, it's called balanced or unbalanced. Okay. And it's a speed round. Okay. So I'm going to ask you questions and the answer is going to be balanced or unbalanced. Okay. Now you can elaborate on it if you want. That's fine. If you want to just keep it moving, we can do that. Okay. All right. You ready? Yeah. Ready. Balanced or unbalanced spending money to save time. Unbalanced. Okay. Having a tight knit friend group instead of surface level connections. Balanced. Talking openly about your feelings and mental health?

MiguelCamargo: 48:05

Unbalanced. Interesting. Why? I think it's just more of a mental thing. Me, personally, I'll talk about it with guys. But at home, I like to tell you, I talk through things after I'm already gone through the journey. Not as I'm going through it. Not all the time. Do you think that's healthy? No, 100% no. Like I said, I'm working on that. Like I said, this is a therapy session.

NickHoupt: 48:33

Yeah, yeah. Sharing your goals with your children.

MiguelCamargo: 48:37

Absolutely balanced. Not being yourself while networking. Not being myself while networking? Elaborate on what that question means. So

NickHoupt: 48:48

being phony, being fake, not being the true version of yourself when you're out networking.

MiguelCamargo: 48:54

I would say I'm balanced in that. Who you get right here is who you get

NickHoupt: 48:57

everywhere. Setting boundaries in business, even if it costs you. Oh, balanced. 100%. Letting your emotions show in front of your children.

MiguelCamargo: 49:09

Balanced.

NickHoupt: 49:10

Coming on the Life Well Balanced podcast.

MiguelCamargo: 49:13

Well, it's balanced, though.

NickHoupt: 49:15

Awesome, man. Well, I appreciate you coming out. I appreciate it. I had a good time. Before we jump off, how can people find you? Social media, website?

MiguelCamargo: 49:22

Yeah, I mean, you can find me on Instagram or Facebook at IamMiguelCamargo. Or just Google me, YouTubing.

NickHoupt: 49:29

I'm

MiguelCamargo: 49:29

all over the

NickHoupt: 49:30

place. Cool. Now, before we jump off too, is there anything we didn't talk about that you feel you'd like to share to our listeners?

MiguelCamargo: 49:37

Well, if you guys get value out of what we spoke about today, October 18th here in Jacksonville, we will be doing a live business conference. One that I've been, it's been in the works personally, just the mental, probably the last four years. Once I started doing the networking events, I said, this can eventually become a conference. If you want to be in a room full of people who are like-minded, like spiritually in that realm and that want to take your life and your business to the next level, this is an event you want to be at. Awesome. And then if they go to the social medias, I'll keep them up to date on tickets and everything from there.

NickHoupt: 50:13

Very cool. Awesome, man. Well, thank you so much. I appreciate you having me, man. Yeah. This is good stuff, man. Appreciate it. Of course. Thanks.

Unknown: 50:21

Thanks.