The best of technologies with easy and reliable solutions!
Ben Faurot is the Founder and CEO of Far Out Solutions.
Small and medium-sized businesses and enterprises are among the most important lifeblood of the US economy – and at Far Out Solutions, they honor this by providing their clients with expert assistance and quality service. Through cutting edge technology and data science, they help customize the perfect IT infrastructure for businesses and empower them to continue to grow – at their own pace, within their means.
Learn more about how Far Out Solutions can build your perfect IT infrastructure by listening to this episode of The Thoughtful Entrepreneur above and don’t forget to subscribe on Apple Podcasts – Stitcher – Spotify –Google Play –Castbox – TuneIn – RSS.
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0:00
Welcome to The Thoughtful Entrepreneur Show. I'm Josh Elledge, founder and CEO of UpMyInfluence.com. We turn entrepreneurs into media celebrities, grow their authority, and help them build partnerships with top influencers. We believe that every person has a unique message that can positively impact the world. stick around to the end of the show, where I'll reveal how you can be our next guest on one of the fastest growing daily inspiration podcasts on the planet in 15 to 20 minutes. Let's go. All right, Ben Faurot. You're the CEO of Far Out Solutions, which I can tell already with a name like that you're probably kind of a cool guy.
:43
Thank you.
0:46
And now you own a couple of other companies as well. Ben Baron investments, we'll talk about that just a little bit. And it poolside entrepreneurs, which so is for just poolside entrepreneurs. If that's your that's Mainly is that mainly your Instagram account
1:03
is an Instagram account. We have 20,000 followers and then we have and then we do consulting for travel and we hope to turn it into a full scale consulting business and tie that into management business and financial consulting and then have an online How can you travel for for a couple of years and live out of your suitcase if you want to or fancy travel we do everything in between. So it appeals to everyone.
1:40
Well, y'all just speak for your Instagram account alone is is is quite an inspiration. Yeah, it's if you want to see beautiful photos from all over the world. That that's what Ben and I assume is that your wife there?
1:56
She's my partner for six years-ish. Yeah,
1:58
sure. Sure. Yeah, you guys have so many great photos here being reviewed for beautiful and where are you in the world right now?
2:09
Currently we're in the English countryside out in the States, the the Cotswolds. It's beautiful rolling hills, it's green, it's some of the most beautiful real estate anywhere in the world. And you just the air is delicious. You see these beautiful houses that you don't see anywhere else in the world with this yellow stone. You keep you just you see people that are really happy. It's completely different from the countryside in America. So it's it's really interesting just to be here and experience and to meet people and live life and yeah, appreciate nature.
2:49
So Ben, what we'll talk about foreign solutions in a moment, but how were you able to so I assume like a lot of other entrepreneurs, he started company very, very busy and then eventually You made the decision to be able to run that company or or maybe you're not as actively involved in the operations so much anymore. But But how did you make that transition?
3:16
So when I started, I had to work really hard and I started my business at 20. And I had to outwork other people. And then I was lucky enough to land the betters the Golf Academy as a client and I just kept working hard from there. They introduced me to their friends. And then so I had racecar drivers like Eddie Cheever, Orlando, magic basketball players, just tons of people, and I just kept working hard and and growing and learning about business. And then I had to decide how much is my time worth and how much is money worth? And I really said, I don't want the same things that other people want to have. I want what makes me Be happy and that was freedom. So I turned down clients and jobs that would pay me far more money. I said, I wanted to be balanced, and chase my dreams. And so a lot of that was travel and seeing the world. I was really curious about other people, other countries, other cultures. A lot of times the media kind of says a different picture about what the world is like, and maybe you're scared to go somewhere. And then you go there. I mean, I went from Israel, to Turkey to Iraq, all in one trip. And it's nothing. Imagine they talk more kindly about each other than we do about them. We think there's conflict and vice versa. They just want to go visit the other country. So I really work on how can I have freedom? And how can I build a sustainable business and so I had to focus more on On honesty, and a little less on talent, I felt like of course, you want to hire talented people, but I wanted people that had a great soul and love life and had a purpose and motivation that I could understand and I could accept and that always wanted to grow and would be happy for me as I became more and more successful, so that led to me having more of a outside the business role now, and they're happy for me, you know, so you're
5:35
speaking specifically about your team. So how do you What did you do to hire for that?
5:41
Uh, well, after a few years, I had built up a small team, and I invested all the money that I had earned into that team and I failed. It didn't work out. I just thought they would do their jobs. And so I earn more money and I invested comes to building a team and about 2013 I really knew this was the team that would take us to another level. And they helped hire each other. I mean, they would interview people when when I hire someone, I am of the philosophy that we do this as a team. Do we all like this person? Do we think they can make a difference? Do they do be think they want to have a big impact beyond just their paycheck? So we hire as a group, it's not just wild, who gets hired, who gets fired. We are a team. And so we are strong because of that. If somebody is slacking off, everyone doesn't like it because everyone's working hard. And we work together on those things. So yeah, and financially. Money is not the only thing that motivates us. I mean, there are times when people have had to go without their paychecks for whatever the reason, including myself and yeah You really see then what their motivation is and like how quickly people can change or get upset. When that paycheck if it doesn't come for some reason, whatever it is, we have for years been in a great financial position. So we're well capitalized, but sometimes some crazy thing happens, you know, maybe the HR person doesn't turn in paper on time or somebody hasn't turned to payroll. So yeah, it's very interesting.
7:31
Wouldn't interest I'm just thinking about this. What an interesting interview question. If you were to say, Now, I hope this would never happen. But what would happen if your paycheck came in five days late? You know, how would you react to that? Like, how would you feel like, I don't know how you ask that question or how you like ferret that out and get people to be honest about they're not going to be honest about it. But like that, that really is I mean, if you know You know, and again, I'm absolutely sympathetic to everybody's like one, you know, one rule I've learned about, you know, money and payroll is you don't you don't mess with people's money like you, you know, try try to just never make mistakes there it sometimes you're right. I mean, sometimes it happens or, you know, God forbid, you know, you know, times in my business past where, you know, like a client was supposed to have paid us two weeks ago and I were I'm relying on them cash flow wise. And so you know, I've had that happen yeah, but I you know, what, what does it ego and it's, I'm just I'm fascinated by this, you know, this hiring and committee thing. And I almost picture you know, just like you've got like a candidate and everyone kind of looking around after the spiel, and then everyone chance starts going into a one of us chant one of us. Yeah, is it something like that or not quite. It
9:01
We're like 60 to 70 people now so much larger now. So it's not in the exact same process as when we were starting and building but we're, we're growing all the time. And so when we hire Yeah, we still make decisions as a group as as who we like. And in higher end teams, we have departments and we don't like that. Yeah. And the interesting thing about going it without a paycheck is is you're talking about is some of the hardest working people and heads of the departments, the ones that will work 60 to 80 hours if they need to, if we just get an influx of of work and clients are the first ones normally to say no problem. We understand and they're the most understanding so it's interesting how their mentality and emotions kind of aligned there. Normally the difference makers to
9:56
when hiring, I assume that you have mindset that you know, skills can be taught but personality it that's kinda, you know you kind of come in with that a little bit of hardware. We're not going to change your personality a whole lot. Is that kind of your experience?
10:12
Yeah, we, we are a technology company. So we thrive on intellectual capability. But when we're hiring, we are really looking for honesty and someone that will play in the middle and someone that cares about the people they're working with. They care about life, they have a purpose, and they care about their clients, like they want to make an impact and grow. As a company, we want to grow, we want to make a difference. We want to grab market share, and do something within our power to make a difference out there. So we want people on our team that have that individually, we want self reliance. So that's really what we're looking for is more personality and less on the talent side and we we have workers Over six countries. So, it really we try to do that on a global scale and make an impact in their countries in their cities. India, the US, Canada, Mexico, Venezuela, Philippines, Georgia, GA, Iraq. So we would like Dresden and I will go visit the teams and see them and talk to them. And it really makes my day to see them and see what they're doing and how their life is better with work and a job. You know, it's it's different levels. It's an opportunity to grow to better yourself, like businesses, not just about money, and not just about getting more clients. It's as a business owner, I have to grow every day. Stay curious, try to learn and be humble. I mean, we've we've had all kinds of success. Every year I revenue doubles. And we started from zero. And we were bootstrapped. And we never took a loan. And we did all a word of mouth marketing into a company that does millions of dollars of business, you know, with this mindset, so we're we've tried to be a team of difference makers, whether that's in the US or in other countries and with our families or with our clients, we just want to make an impact.
12:41
I think that people will stop listening to you. First off, and they won't want to be around you. I love being curious and staying interested and learning from everyone in different countries. I mean, I normally wear a T shirt and you would not know how much money I have. When I'm walking around the streets of anywhere, and I find myself in all kinds of different economic situations, and you can learn from people in different situations, different countries, I learned from people that work with me. And I listened to them. And I always want to understand them, and grow and learn from their experience. And I read tons of books. I tried to read one to two books a week, and just stay hungry with my mind. I don't want to be an empty sack like Benjamin Franklin said, like, then your your soul kind of starts to rot. You know, like, you don't stay in alignment with your dreams and what makes you happy. I really try to focus on what made me happy as a kid and stay in alignment with that. Those basic things that feed my soul that feed my mind. I want to be strong mentally, emotionally, and Physically, and go out there and become a better person and interact with people that are amazing. All the time, and now I'm surrounded by them. And I didn't start that way, you know? So where do you want to go? If you know where you want to go, get in alignment with it and have a five year plan, work back from that outcome and stay hungry? Follow your dreams.
15:15
Yeah, I see that all over the world. And I find the big cities, a lot of them are very similar. And then I go to the countries that are more in poverty. And like I love it there that people are full of life. They're outdoors, they're having barbecues. They're sitting by the river, that we wouldn't sit at for, like two minutes. They're there for hours on Friday and Saturday night, thousands of people in Serbia, just hanging out by the river, as a community, all ages, from kids to college, to their parents are all out there as as a community, you know, sharing stories, and you can learn so much from listening. When when you talk all the time. You don't get the same conversation. As if you someone, maybe they respect you, you know, you're a CEO or whatever. And they want you to talk and they want to hear things. But if you listen, you will learn so much from them and you'll stay humble. And you will love life because you're in touch with who you are, and you're in touch with other people. Sometimes, if we think about what makes us happy, a lot of people focus on wealth. And money is freedom. And it's an opportunity to do things. But a lot of times we start distancing ourselves from the people that are around us, we buy a big house, and there's gates, and we're no longer connected to the people and the soul. And I think a hybrid mix of those things is really good. Like you want to be. If you're if you're happy, the amount of people you have around you, it amplifies your happiness and on the opposite side if you're sad, it can make things worse if you have a lot of people around you but that builds your character and feeds your soul now.
17:03
And then one last question to and then I want to make sure folks know how they can get in touch with you that they can follow you and your, your adventures. But, you know, so obviously so you built up a success in business and and and i think that you're in a position in your life now, where you are appreciating those moments of now and you're appreciating the present. You know, there's this mindset, or there's, you know, I think you see this in a lot of like, entrepreneurial gurus that, you know, I'm hustling and grinding 24 seven while you're sleeping, and I don't really, I don't really resonate with that, like, I believe in seasons, like I believe, you know, we're going to work in bursts and you know, and we get good things done and that we find opportunities for other people and where are you at on that, you know, kind of the whole hustling grinding and then it sounds like you know, right now, I would say you've Definitely have an appreciation for being in the moment.
18:02
Yeah, I appreciate every day. So I wake up in the morning early, and I'm happy. I started for years you know, working 80 to 100 hour weeks sometimes I slept on clients floors if I needed to, to the job server install over the weekend, I would sleep on their on their concrete floor until I was done and then leave their office. I think that that hustle mentality is good when you're growing and when you're you're trying to get ahead and you're trying to get traction and momentum. But you have to be able to stop and pause that and say why am I doing all this and stay in alignment with why you're doing it stay balanced. I like to think of life as maybe seven buckets like you You have your family you have your finance you have your your love, you have your relationships, your spirit, spirituality or religion, whatever those different things. Our business. And so sometimes to create success, you're out of balance, but a successful person will realign quickly and staying out of alignment won't happen for a long period of time. So you come back to balance, like it's not all about hustle. It's not all about money. It's not about materials. It's about filling up those buckets with balance and living life. And if you select a partner, whatever your partner is, you know, in life that complements you and they have dreams, they have happiness, their soul is beautiful. If they want to grow, I mean that's so important a partner that wants to grow, versus going after someone for maybe superficial ideas or whatever you really can sustain and have a meaningful relationship where you continue to grow and they keep you grounded. They help you and you do the same and so yeah, I don't I don't think the hustle is good. Great all the time. Yeah.
20:04
Great. Well Ben for I listened I've really enjoyed our conversation. And and I really appreciate your insight, your experience. Congratulations on your success. And again, so, and I know you serve, you're based here in Orlando, but you serve clients far and wide, but your website is far out solutions.com and then I really want the person who's listening to our conversation right now. I really want you to follow Ben's Instagram, you're going to want to follow it. And you're probably gonna like every single photo that that Ben and his partner put up their instagram.com slash poolside entrepreneurs. So again, poolside entrepreneurs on Instagram. lot, a lot of fun. Hey, Ben, thank you so much for joining us.
20:52
Thank you, Josh. It's been so much fun talking to you and learning from you and having this conversation. I appreciate your time.
21:00
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