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Here we are. Good morning.
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My name is Nathaniel Elely and I live in
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Northern Idaho with my family of seven,
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including myself.
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I moved out here in 2001 to go to a
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really small Christian liberal arts
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college called New St. Andrews.
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that kept me here. Uh because once I
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came to the community and saw how rich
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it was, I didn’t want to leave. So I
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stuck around, formed a construction
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business pretty well straight out of
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college. Got that rolling in 2006.
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I worked for a local builder, became his
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foreman within 6 months, and the second
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to last day before I left the field
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working for him, I cut off these two
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fingers with a table saw because I was
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not paying attention.
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I don’t like carpentry. Um, I’ve been in
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it my whole life, but I am not good at
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it. I realized that I would not be
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excellent in my craft, and that’s just
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part of my DNA. I I’m driven to be
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excellent at whatever I do. It just
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graded on my soul to be in something
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that I could not become excellent at
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just because it wasn’t in my in my DNA.
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It wasn’t in the cloth that I was cut
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from. Spent more and more time in the
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office reading business books and just
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telling my guys like ah you guys just go
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figure it out out there in the field.
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The first decade we spent uh you know
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confused and in the wilderness and the
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last 6 years was when we’ve actually
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really launched a business.
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We’ve had several different ventures
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along the way. We went from building a
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construction company to investing in
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real estate. We launched a roofing uh
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silo within our construction company
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four years ago as well that’s been quite
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successful.
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At this point, we built an app. It’s the
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augusta rule.com. The mission of the
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augusta rule itself is to put money back
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in the pockets of small businesses and
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entrepreneurs to the tune of a billion
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dollars within 5 years of commercial
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launch.
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What it is is software that educates
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people on how to apply a specific tax
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rule. And the tax rule revolves around
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being able to rent your personal
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residence for up to 14 days a year 100%
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taxfree. What we’re doing is applying it
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specifically for business owners so that
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business owners can pay themselves to
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rent their own home. It’s a way to
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reduce taxable income in the business
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and then receive it taxfree. The second
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part is that you get to advance your
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business goals while using your home,
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while inviting clients over to your
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home, while inviting your team over for
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meetings. What the app does is it helps
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again educate, collaborate, automate the
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process as well. It’s really helped me
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out. It saved us thousands and thousands
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of dollars a year in taxes.
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My dad is one of the hardest working
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guys that I’ve ever met and everybody
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that knows him thinks of him in that
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way. He’s a carpenter to this day and
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this is now I think his like 52nd year
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as a carpenter or something like that in
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a long time. He is a master craftsman
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but he’s not a businessman at all. never
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has been, would be the first to tell you
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that, you know, the details that he pays
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attention to are in his craft, not on
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his desk, and that has gotten him into
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trouble at various stages uh throughout
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his career. He also uh was just
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frustrated at how much money he was
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paying in taxes when he felt like he
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could barely get ahead anyway, working
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his tail off and then raising a small
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family. And that frustration grew to the
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point where he said, “That’s it. I’m not
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paying taxes.” And so, he literally
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stopped paying his income tax. And that
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caused him to be arrested and go to
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federal prison. And uh he returned from
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prison, started working again, and still
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refused to pay his taxes and said, “I am
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not paying them.” And so he was arrested
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again and went back to federal prison.
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We subsequently lost the house that he
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literally built entirely by hand.
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I absolutely agree with his philosophy.
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Um I think that the level of taxes we
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have are reprehensible. And at the same
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time uh I disagree on the tactics. How
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do I understand what the reality is not
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fight the reality and then work with it.
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I have a personal mission to increase
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freedom and I want to see that freedom
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specifically for entrepreneurs and small
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businesses. Really there’s four freedoms
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that everybody wants whether they
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realize it or not. Money freedom, time
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freedom, relationship freedom, and
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purpose freedom. When you have these
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freedoms, you’re not able to be coerced.
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You can tell, you know, your your woke
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company, “Ah, I’m out.” And you’re fine.
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You can vote and not worry about losing
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your job or having, you know, sanctions
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against you. So, we need more free men
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because free men lead to free women and
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free children in a free country. And so,
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for me, this is just my small uh
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contribution to that uh with small
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businesses and entrepreneurs through the
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Augusta rule and through every
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enterprise that I’m involved with.
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That’s the underlying purpose.