Maverick Rules: Sifu Edward & Sifu Julliana Armstrong Sit Down With Paul Finck on Building Your Own Empire From Nothing
Adapted from the recorded conversation; the guest's words are verbatim. The questions are reconstructed and voiced by Sifu Edward and Sifu Julliana Armstrong.
🎥 Video podcast coming soon. The complete interview will play here once published. The full conversation is transcribed below, and the audio edition will be available on sifuarmstrong.tv.
In a new Sifu Armstrong interview, the entrepreneur behind The Maverick Universe argues that most people never get the life they want because they never actually decided what it looks like.
Forty years without a franchise, without inherited money, and without ever signing a lease on a storefront. That’s the case Paul Finck, known as The Maverick Millionaire, brought to the latest Warrior Intelligence Series conversation with Sifu Edward and Sifu Julliana Armstrong. His central argument is blunt: there is no such thing as standing still.
“You’re either moving towards your great life or you’re moving away. There’s no neutral,” Finck said, tracing the idea back through decades of study, from modern business philosophy all the way to Plato and Aristotle.
Finck built his businesses around explicit criteria rather than accident. Raising six children while running multiple companies, he says the key was refusing to let circumstance dictate the shape of his life. “One of the criteria I set over 25 years ago was, I will never have a brick and mortar,” he said, describing a rule that let him run everything from a cell phone and a computer so his family could travel with him. The pattern behind it, he says, is one most people never adopt: “Most people let life happen to them rather than designing it on purpose with intent.”
That intentionality shows up again in how he coaches entrepreneurs through resistance to change. People fight new habits at first, he says, because the shift feels foreign, until something clicks. “Then there’s a shift. They fall over the edge, if you will, and then game on because they end up learning that they had wings all along, that they were able to fly,” Finck said.
He was equally direct about the tool everyone is arguing about right now. Asked whether AI is a threat, Finck waved off the fear entirely: “If you’re not, at this point, using AI every day in your business, you’re behind the eight ball.” What started as an advantage six months ago, he said, is now simply the baseline for staying in the game.
Family runs through the whole conversation as much as strategy does. Finck credits his wife as the difference-maker in whether any of it happened at all, and says the community he’s built exists partly to give that same support to people who don’t have it built in naturally: single parents especially, he noted, gravitate to his world looking for exactly that.
It’s a philosophy that lines up with the discipline the Armstrongs teach on the mat: nobody drifts into a life worth having. You set the criteria, you do the work daily, and you refuse the comfortable middle ground.
In This Conversation
- Why “growing or dying” isn’t a slogan for Finck. It’s forty years of lived practice
- The specific criteria (no brick and mortar, ever) that let him build a business around his family instead of against it
- How resistance to change breaks, and what’s on the other side of it
- His take on AI: no longer an edge, now the baseline for competing at all
- The role his wife and community play for entrepreneurs who don’t have built-in support
- Where to find his free consultation and The Maverick Universe
The Full Conversation
Sifu Edward Armstrong: I want to start with a confession. The rules of the martial arts business were written long before I came along, and they were written by people who profited when I stayed small. Pay the franchise fee, run their curriculum, fly their flag, never own a thing. I followed those rules until the day I realised they were a cage. So I broke them, walked away with nothing but what I knew, and built my own art from the ground up. That's why today's guest speaks my language. He's spent four decades proving that the unconventional path isn't reckless. It's the only honest way to build something that's truly yours.
Sifu Julliana Armstrong: And I'll come at this from a different angle. When you compete at the world level, nobody hands you anything. You earn every placing, every title, every opportunity by design, by deciding what you want and building the plan backwards from there. The athletes I've admired most weren't the most talented. They were the most intentional. Paul Finck is the embodiment of that principle, and every warrior in our community who wants to build something real needs to hear this conversation.
Joining us is Paul Finck, The Maverick Millionaire, a name synonymous with unconventional strategies in business and life that lead to extraordinary results. Paul's philosophy breaks the mould, encouraging entrepreneurs worldwide to think differently and act boldly. He has spent 40 years building businesses from zero without a franchise, without inherited money, and without asking anyone's permission. Paul, welcome. It's a pleasure to meet you.
Paul Finck: Pleasure is all mine. Thank you for having me.
Sifu Edward Armstrong: Something I've learned standing at the front of an academy is that you don't teach a craft, you take care of people, every student who walks in is trusting you with a piece of their life. That instinct to look after others is what turned me from a fighter into a teacher. Rewind for me, Paul. What ignited your passion for helping others achieve unconventional success?
Paul Finck: Oh my gosh, yes. My passion, I've been a caretaker, if you will, of the world for most of my life. I went from 3 to 30 overnight, and it's always been part of my matrix. I studied psychology in high school and college, I planned to be a clinical psychiatrist. Then I shifted gears when I was in college and realised that I had more passion for the business side of things than for the counselling side, although it's always stayed with me over time. Kind of full circle, I now combine both in counselling entrepreneurs and small business owners all over the world.
My core though, when we start getting clear with my passions, I ignited and really stepped up my game when, about 25 years ago, 28 years ago, I started having children. Now I've got six children. I got to tell you, you want to step up your game, have a whole bunch of people looking at you to make sure that they survive. That now has extended, so I kind of play dad to the world, if you will. That's how I approach everything, is caretaking dad, how do I guide people to have the best world, the best life that they can have?
Sifu Julliana Armstrong: "Dad to the world." I feel the weight of that role. Carrying people, being the one others look to, it demands everything from you. I want our warriors to see the scale of what's possible when you commit to that role for the long haul. Take us into your universe, Paul. Tell us about your books, the strategies, the world according to Paul Finck.
Paul Finck: I engage with entrepreneurs, small business owners, all around the world in live events, in one-on-one coaching and group coaching. I've done somewhere in excess of $50 million in informational products, done somewhere in excess of 250, 300 live boot camps. Have about 18, now it's exactly 18, bestsellers out there on the marketplace in books. So gone through the test of time, and I've been coaching people at this level for 17 years. Gosh, it feels like I've only just begun. So on a day-to-day basis, I spent a tonne of my time coaching entrepreneurs and building up exactly how to create their first million and their next millions, if you will, in multiple different industries.
Sifu Edward Armstrong: When I designed the LSTA ecosystem, people couldn't understand why I refused to keep the martial art separate from the media, the community, the licensing, the wellness path, to them those were different businesses. To me they were one body, like the way the 9 Combat Forms connect into a single living system. You talk about blending things the same way. How do you blend those strategies together to create the success that you've had?
Paul Finck: There's some core... I would consider myself a strategic coach. In that way, you've got to look at the bigger picture. I think that's one of the two major components, if you will, big rocks that people miss. Either they don't look at the big picture, they don't look at the 10,000, 20,000 foot view on how everything that is happening in their business and their life integrates. In the Maverick community, we believe that there's one life. It's not about compartmentalising your personal life and your business life. You want to create just congruency with everything that you're doing, make sure that it flows as one rather than separating it all out.
So taking that big picture on, how does my business relate to my personal life? How do I design my business so that it integrates with my personal life so that my personal life doesn't suffer, nor does my business life suffer? So those are really key. Then the other big rock is, then you also have to go granular. You've got to have a strategic plan. So many people, they might have the bold vision, the great plan for the 5, 10-year, 20-year plan, only they have no idea what they're doing tomorrow. They have no idea what the next step is to create that bridge between today and tomorrow, and you've got to have both.
So one of the things that we help our clients with is getting clear with, what is your strategic plan? What is your bold vision for your future? Then what's the today plan? How does what you do right now impact where you're going to be in five years? I got to tell you, if what you're doing today is not directly connected to your big vision, your big plan, or building your dream life, it's actually detracting from it. You're either moving towards your great life or you're moving away, there's no neutral.
So many people get in that complacency, that neutral space where, "Eh, whatever happens, happens." They're guaranteed to go backwards. This isn't me talking. I accumulate knowledge from all over the world. From throughout the millennium, I've been studying this and reading this for over 40 years. This is philosophy going all the way back to Plato and Aristotle, and this is core. You're either growing or you're dying.
Sifu Julliana Armstrong: "You're either growing or you're dying," on the competition floor, that's not a metaphor. There is no standing still between matches. You're either improving your edge or your opponent is. But here's the thing I've watched hold good athletes back: the moment they're asked to change what's comfortable, everything in them resists. What does that resistance actually look like when you're coaching an entrepreneur, and how do you move them through it?
Paul Finck: It's a little bit counter to how most of us... Even me. I was in the medical field. I was in the dental field. I set up dental clinics. One of the things that I remember back then is my clientele, my dental clients, had nothing to do with my family. They didn't know it, they maybe met them once a year at the big annual conventions. But other than that, they had no connection whatsoever. What I found is that I didn't enjoy my life as much. So when you're not passionate, when you're not enjoying what you're doing, do you tend to do more of it or less of it? Do you tend to fight to create more of that in your life, or do you resist it?
So what I found is that when we embrace this concept, when we actually flow and create congruency with everything that we're doing, our world exponentially grows. It's the concept of unconscious competence where we don't have to be thinking about it. We don't have to be actively pursuing it, it automatically flows into our life without that resistance, without that heavy lifting. So what I find is, at the beginning, people resist it because it's foreign to how they're normally taught and what they normally think. Then there's a shift. They fall over the edge, if you will, and then game on because they end up learning that they had wings all along, that they were able to fly, and that this really does work.
Sifu Edward Armstrong: "Unconscious competence." That's the black belt in any discipline, the point where the form does itself. And "they had wings all along" is exactly what I tell a frightened beginner: I'm not adding anything to you, I'm uncovering the warrior who was always there. That maverick instinct of yours, refusing the path everyone handed you. That's the same blood that runs through everyone who ever built something instead of inheriting it. Tell us more about where The Maverick Millionaire name comes from.
Paul Finck: Yeah, I've been building up business now. I've never worked for anybody. I've been an entrepreneur for 40 years now, always building my own destiny. Because of that, I looked back at my history and realised that so many of my businesses came out of thin air. Bootstrapping is absolutely so much the part of the entrepreneur. How do you start something out of nothing? So we create that space where I understand it implicitly and guide people through that process on how to create from zero, how to create from nothing, create this amazing abundance, and keep on moving forward in this way that's counterintuitive to how most people operate. That's definitely where the Maverick component is. It's what I've been operating on for the last 40 years, and now is a brand, if you will. But, it's how I've been doing for a long time.
Sifu Julliana Armstrong: "How do you start something out of nothing," that question hits differently when you're also raising a family while doing it. I know what that looks like from the inside. Six kids, Paul. Training, competing, and building at the same time. The distractions are relentless. How do you manage to juggle all of it and still move forward?
Paul Finck: Yeah. One of the biggest challenges is that people forget why they do what they do. They forget where they're going. So the first thing to get clear on is your goals. Exactly what is your principle targets? What are your goals? What is your vision for the next 5 years, 10 years, 20 years? Where are you headed? Keep that in the forefront of your mind every day. So one of my goals... And most people when they do goals, by the way, it's not just goals in business. It's not just, "Oh, I want to be a millionaire. Isn't that nice?" It's goals on both a personal level and a financial level. It's spiritual, it's contributions, it's all of the above, and you put it into your matrix.
So my goal was to be the best father, to be the best husband, and to be the best businessman I could be. So I set certain criteria, and this is really key. You can set criteria to make this work. One of the criteria I set over 25 years ago was, I will never have a brick and mortar. I will never have a storefront I've got to go to every day. So all my businesses, I declared early on, were going to be with a cell phone and a computer, and be able to be run from anywhere in the world.
With that, I was able to be home with my children, be home with my wife in the morning, late at night. I didn't have to go anywhere. And when I did, they could come with me. So my wife's been by my side now with the business for the last 17 years, almost 18 now. The children have travelled all around the world with us as part of what we do. They've all been on stages. All of these things are part of just our world, and I designed that on purpose, it wasn't by accident. It was specific criteria, and most people don't approach their life in that way. Most people let life happen to them rather than designing it on purpose with intent.
Sifu Edward Armstrong: "Most people let life happen to them rather than designing it on purpose," frame that on every wall. A warrior designs; a victim reacts. And there were nights the only reason I didn't quit was the people in my corner. How important for you was the support of your family? Do you think you could have done this without them?
Paul Finck: I wouldn't have. I talk about, for instance, my wife, who is just amazing. She has been my biggest supporter since day one, who believed in me more than I did of myself. So on the one hand I probably wouldn't have done it, is really key. I would've been the couch potato eating bonbons watching movies or sports on TV, and I wouldn't have had to drive or the motivation to build anything greater because there was no purpose. My purpose is to build it for them, if you will. One of the challenges in that, in asking that question, is that a lot of people don't have the support. So they look and they say, "Oh, easy for you to say, Paul. You had the love and support of someone by your side."
One of the things, and I talked about this earlier, is that that's the position that I play in for so many people that don't have the support, that don't have that naturally built into their life, that's the role that I play as their coach and mentor. They reach out to me and I play that role. We've got, for instance, a huge contingency of single moms in our group and single dads. That happened that they gravitate to our world because they're looking for that community, and they're looking for that support that doesn't naturally come in.
Sifu Julliana Armstrong: That community piece is everything. You shouldn't have to do this alone.
Sifu Edward Armstrong: That's the whole reason Club Sabernet exists, a warrior who has no one in their corner walks into our community and suddenly has a whole tribe. I imagine that's a huge part of the draw to The Maverick Universe too.
Paul Finck: Oh my gosh, yeah. We've got clientele in the UK, across the United States, Canada, Australia, so we continue to stretch and grow. We've got clientele in a dozen different countries now. With that, we're able to really be there to support. We also travel a lot, so people see me live as well. It's just built up a great community. We've been around for a while now, so the community aspect of everything that we do is so important.
Before it gets too late into this timeframe, I want to share, if any of you are interested in continuing this conversation, we've been talking about support, here's one of the things that I give, that I do for entrepreneurs, small business owners, and people that maybe just want to be entrepreneurs or small business owners, and you're in that transition, absolutely reach out to me. It's maverickoffer.com. Very simple, maverickoffer.com. Go there and you're going to be able to set up a free, absolutely free, consultation with me. Yes, it's with me.
I've had people get on the phone and go, "Oh my gosh, I can't believe it's actually you." I told you it would be me. It's actually me because I learned long ago how to delegate most of what happens in my business except for the things I love. This is the part that I love. So all the admin stuff and behind the scenes I've learned to delegate. I've got amazing teams. This is what I love to do. So it's absolutely me. It's a free consult, and it's truly... It's not here to upsell you. It's not here to abuse you. It's here to help you in wherever you're at on how to build that next space. So please go to maverickoffer.com. It's my pleasure to work with you. Reach out.
Sifu Julliana Armstrong: Delegate everything except the part you love. I think that's the most honest business advice I've heard in a long time. Your name has become a brand that's hard to miss. How did The Maverick Millionaire brand actually come about was it by design, or did it find you?
Paul Finck: Well, when you say a personal brand... So I started almost by accident. So been an entrepreneur, built up multiple different distribution businesses in the medical field, dental field, and then I got into real estate investing, huge component in the real estate world on real estate investing. I also was a mortgage broker, and a mortgage banker, and all of this great stuff, and do a lot of financing and teach on financing to people around the world as well.
The way it ended up coaching, and training, and being here with the community is, I was doing really well with real estate when I got into it, and we grew a multimillion dollar portfolio almost overnight, within two years had about $10 million. With that, people started tapping me on the shoulder, "How did you do this?" That's where coaching started, so I got pulled into it. My first brand was Paul Finck, so it wasn't real unique. It wasn't like, "Oh my gosh, look, he built a great brand." I did that, and it was almost 10 years into the game of just going by Paul Finck and growing virally, if you will, grassroots all across the country that I then started shifting and we branded into The Maverick Universe and the Maverick brand, and that resonated with me so much that it was a natural.
Sifu Edward Armstrong: Grassroots first, brand second, earned, not invented. The same names tend to come up when we compare notes on who's shaped that kind of thinking. We had David Fagan on this platform recently and I suspect we'll hear a name from you that appeared in that conversation too. Who do you look up to?
Paul Finck: Oh my gosh. I almost hesitate to say because things have gotten so political with so many of the names out there, but Richard Branson definitely one of the ones that I have followed for decades now. I've actually been able to hang out with him. We've been down in Necker Island and spent some time with Richard, so that was awesome.
Elon Musk, who I have not gotten a chance to meet yet, who's also somebody that is just an innovator and continues to reinvent himself continually, which is the Maverick way. The concept of never be happy with yesterday, and always looking for what's going on tomorrow and how can you be a part of it. I want to point out both Richard Branson and Elon Musk are multiple industries, just dozens of different industries they touch, dozens of different types of products and engagement, as well as their persona outside of their businesses. That's what thrills me and excites me about them, is that they're living their life on their terms and building greatness all around them all at the same time.
Sifu Edward Armstrong: "Never be happy with yesterday." That's the engine behind the World Games Pathway. The day we're satisfied is the day we start dying. What's on the horizon for you, Paul? What gets you out of bed in the morning?
Paul Finck: Oh, my. We're driving things to another level. I'm in the process of talking about... I've got one movie that's already out, it's on Amazon, it's called Beyond Limitations. I'm considered a thought leader throughout the world. So I'm on there with about 13 other great, amazing thought leaders, and talking about that we have no limitations except for the ones that we put on ourselves, and what does that conversation look like? So we're in the middle of talking about what's next in that, and we've got a couple movies under our belt that we're working on. So that's exciting and thrilling, just to get more of our messaging out there to the world in a platform that'll sustain time.
I also started a tech division this year, which is just being able to take the world by storm. In all my frustrations in having perfect tech, and having tech that actually is going to do what I want it to do when I want it to do it, all in one spot, we've built that now. We've got a tech division. It's called Total All-In-One Solutions. It's one of the main products, which is a CRM, so we've been starting to market that. So just in the same line as what we were just talking about, the multiple businesses, multiple industries, all of which for me is focused in on how to support the entrepreneur, how to support the small business, because all the businesses that I'm touching now have to do with that.
So financing our publishing house, now our tech division, all these things are all for the entrepreneur. How do you build an abundant life where you don't have to know everything, you don't have to do it all yourself? There's tools out there. Make sure to reach for the tools, make sure to bring them into your world. If anyone wants to talk about that on their consult, come to maverickoffer.com, absolutely we can talk about tech, we can talk about your book, we can talk about how to build a business, talk about speaking and training, being a speaker all around the world. All these are verticals that we work within.
Sifu Julliana Armstrong: "We have no limitations except for the ones we put on ourselves." That lands for me every single time I hear it, because stepping onto a world championship floor teaches you that fast. Paul, one more question, the word on everyone's lips: AI. Good thing? Big scary monster? What's your take?
Paul Finck: To be fearful of a big scary monster that is here to stay and going to be a part of your life doesn't make any sense to me. So absolutely embrace technology, embrace what's happening. I remember when I was in school and the calculator was going to be a smart calculator, and all the teachers were like, "No, no, no. You can't use the calculator during tests," and in the following year, "You must use your calculator during tests." Yeah, embrace it now. Be the leader. It's here to stay. AI, it's one of the things that we've incorporated with all of our technology. We use it every single day.
If you're not, at this point, using AI every day in your business, you're behind the eight ball. That's the challenge, is that it came out and, for about six months, whoever was using AI was like, "Oh, man..." They had this huge advantage. Now it's not just an advantage, it's a flat line. That's the core. That's the baseline now. Everybody's got to use AI or you cannot compete, and that's where we're at. So don't be scared of it. It's nothing to be scared... It's another piece of the pie of what we live with in our day. Embrace it. It's going to be highly important to your success.
Sifu Edward Armstrong: "Be the leader. It's here to stay." That's the warrior's posture toward any new weapon. You don't fear it, you master it before your opponent does. Paul, this has been a genuine pleasure. For the warrior who's ready to stop letting life happen to them and start designing it. Where do they go?
Paul Finck: Maverickoffer.com. Maverickoffer.com. Please go there. You'll have a chance to go right into my schedule, we'll schedule an appointment. Be a pleasure. We'll spend some real quality time together, and get to know one another. Come with some great questions. I'll be able to help you out.
Sifu Edward Armstrong: Excellent. Paul, thank you so much for your time today. It's been an absolute pleasure, and we wish you all the best with the future too.
Paul Finck: Thank you so much. I'll talk to you soon.
Sifu Julliana's closing word: "They had wings all along, that they were able to fly." That's the moment every serious competitor knows, the one where you stop waiting to feel ready and you step forward anyway, and realise the readiness was always there under the surface. Paul's life is proof that intentional design beats every circumstance you were handed. Build it on purpose. You already have what you need.
Sifu Edward's closing word: Paul and I were forged in the same fire, the refusal to live by rules written to keep us small. He never punched a clock; I tore up a franchise contract. Same blood. What he calls the Maverick way, we call the warrior's path: design your life on purpose, refuse the neutral, grow or die, and build it alongside the people you love rather than at their expense. The cage is always optional. You had wings all along. We don't entertain warriors. We create them, and we create the kind who build their own empire from nothing.
Paul Finck, The Maverick Millionaire. Entrepreneur, author of 18 bestsellers, and founder of The Maverick Universe and Total All-In-One Solutions. Book a free consultation at maverickoffer.com · Beyond Limitations on Amazon.
ILLUSTRATIVE RESULTS. Any revenue, enrollment, margin or retention figure in this conversation is either a documented result from one of our own operations, a figure the guest reports about their own business, or an illustrative example, never a projection of your results.
Nothing here is financial, legal or tax advice.
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This conversation is part of the Sifu Armstrong Warrior Intelligence Series: interviews with world-class performers, builders, and thinkers, filtered through the lens of the warrior's path.
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