0:14

All right , welcome everyone to another episode of the Evolving

0:16

Business Minds podcast . Our guest

0:18

today is a serial entrepreneur profit

0:21

first and bank on yourself . Professional

0:23

and the co-host of the Wealth

0:25

Wisdom Financial Podcast with his wife

0:27

and business partner , amanda . I

0:29

want to welcome Brandon Neely to the show .

0:33

Hey Andy , thanks for having me . I'm excited to be here

0:35

.

0:36

Absolutely , man . It's a pleasure

0:38

to have you on . I'm excited to talk about some of

0:40

your experiences that you've gone through . Before

0:43

we go into any of that , though , why don't you give us take

0:48

a few minutes and just let everyone know listening an overview of what you ?

0:50

currently do and how they can connect with you . Yeah , I

0:52

would say I'm a reluctant financial professional

0:55

, meaning I got

0:57

in , did not know that there's a lot

0:59

of people that have opinions

1:01

about what we do or the financial

1:03

world . All I know is this concept

1:06

I do a lot of stuff with

1:08

infinite banking and banking yourself

1:10

. A lot

1:13

of that stuff is cornerstone

1:15

. That helped me in

1:17

my past and I

1:19

do a lot of full

1:21

financial analysis . I call myself a wealth

1:23

stabilizer . You can

1:25

find us at wealthwisdomfpcom

1:29

and we have YouTube channel

1:31

podcasts . But mainly , if you

1:33

want to find us , just go to wealthwisdomfpcom

1:36

and schedule a call . Love to chat with anybody

1:39

who wants to build a good foundation . Perfect

1:41

.

1:42

So I want to dig into

1:44

your story of you know , you and your wife

1:47

owned a coffee shop in chicago

1:49

, and so I'd like to dig into

1:51

your journey of of everything from

1:53

opening and operating your coffee shop

1:55

and then , uh , you know , just tell us a little

1:58

bit about how it got started yeah

2:00

, do we have like one of those like rewind

2:02

machines or I don't know , a

2:04

toll booth that we can go back in the past ?

2:08

If you remember that movie ?

2:09

Bill and Ted .

2:10

Yeah . That's a good one . I

2:12

feel like I do that a lot and

2:15

, man , if I knew what I knew now , I probably

2:17

would be in a different place altogether . Right , when

2:21

we started our business , we wanted to make a difference

2:23

in the world . We still want to make a difference in the world . We still

2:25

want to make a difference in the world . We just know that there's

2:28

a lot of corruption in finance . So

2:30

we wanted to make a difference in the world . So

2:33

we were like coffee

2:35

, number one commodity in the world . Americans

2:38

are number one consumer , yet the poorest

2:40

countries are often coffee growing countries . Something's

2:43

a lot misaligned there . And

2:45

then we were like hey , we also want to

2:47

create a community space . So we were like oh

2:54

, cheers is awesome . I like that show . Uh

2:56

, let's , let's create a place that everybody knows

2:58

your name . And . And so we we went on that journey . Um , and the business

3:01

name was overflow . Uh

3:03

, what I learned in that business is you cannot

3:05

overflow if you don't take care of yourself

3:08

and a lot of businesses

3:10

, business owners now being

3:12

hindsight's 2020

3:15

, what I learned was man

3:18

, we all like go into this entrepreneur

3:21

, endeavor to make a difference

3:23

, change the world , and oftentimes

3:25

we're less to get paid , less to do

3:27

any of it and we're like it'll happen

3:29

. Eventually Everybody's going to buy

3:31

my product or thing is , and you realize your mom

3:34

doesn't even subscribe

3:36

to your channel or whatever

3:38

you know , and

3:41

like , yeah , yeah , I liked it . Uh , you know

3:43

, whatever it's , it's . So I I

3:45

learned a lot of what not

3:48

to do in that business and

3:50

I'm glad that I had a business partner

3:53

, uh , as well . I don't know if you

3:55

do . You know the EOS system

3:57

? Um

3:59

, it's called traction , traction

4:02

. Gino Wickman .

4:04

Okay , I'm not familiar with it .

4:06

So what I like about EOS is

4:08

it's really talking about . There's

4:10

an entrepreneur and then an integrator

4:12

.

4:14

Oh , so I've read the book Rocket Fuel .

4:17

Yeah , rocket Fuel Rocket Fuel is

4:19

the same thing , yes , or in there . What

4:22

I did not know is we

4:24

had an entrepreneur me

4:26

, and an integrator my wife

4:28

. So I would say we were like front

4:31

of the house , back of the house , those kind of things

4:33

, yes , we just didn't know that there was such

4:36

a thing . We just said , oh , you're

4:38

good at this , I'm good at that , let's go for it .

4:41

It's interesting you say that because when I read the book

4:43

Rocket Fuel , instantly I

4:51

recognized that that was my relationship with my wife in our business . So I was definitely the visionary

4:53

you know , wanting to go after all these things , and she was the one who

4:55

helped keep it all together and keep it cleaned up

4:57

, very good at operations

4:59

and stuff , so that was a . It

5:01

was a difficult book to get through . It wasn't very

5:04

great at storytelling but , man , I

5:06

think it was profound in the sense that I

5:08

realized that I can't do the

5:10

whole thing . You need to have someone else in your business

5:12

that can facilitate the

5:14

growth that you come up with .

5:16

Yeah , I think that's what helped

5:18

us , but also , at the end , why we left

5:21

that business was like , is this

5:23

really what we want

5:25

? And we decided

5:27

to exit , that we

5:29

were able to sell and not close , which

5:32

was a big indicator because

5:34

of the foundational financial

5:36

work that we did previously

5:38

, which was great . I

5:41

didn't know that it would be used

5:43

to sell the business , but it was good

5:45

I had it yeah , what did you

5:47

do prior to owning the coffee shop ? yeah

5:50

, uh , I used to be in the

5:52

music industry . I used to be

5:54

in the military , I was in the marine

5:57

corps as a , as a young person

5:59

um , I'd say a young

6:01

adult , but really probably

6:04

still kid um and

6:06

then I was a server

6:08

for a while . And then

6:10

what else did I do ? Um worked

6:12

in it , okay , all

6:14

kinds of stuff .

6:15

I've been all over the place but you

6:17

didn't have necessarily a financial background

6:19

prior to running the coffee shop . So

6:21

the coffee shop , from the challenges

6:24

you face , is what catapulted you into everything

6:26

else yes , yeah , I did

6:28

not know anything .

6:29

I was just hey , this is a cool

6:31

thing , um , we could do

6:33

this . Uh , we had no

6:35

business background . Um

6:38

, actually , if we had a degree

6:40

in business , we probably wouldn't have been able

6:42

to start our business because we'd have too much student

6:44

debt . We did have student debt , but

6:47

it was other things . So we

6:49

just kind of stepped into it , blindly

6:53

, naively , I

6:55

guess you could say .

6:56

I would say the majority of people

6:59

do that Step

7:01

into a business blindly . I think it's

7:04

easy to think we need to go to school for a business

7:06

degree , but I don't . I

7:08

think you gain more knowledge and

7:10

experience , just , or knowledge

7:13

and wisdom , from the experience

7:15

of running a business , being an actual hands-on operator

7:17

, and that's . You

7:20

know , shoot , we've we've lost a ton of money

7:22

in bad decisions I've made in business

7:24

over the years and

7:31

I just have to look at it as like that's my tuition money . Those are the

7:33

experiences I paid for in real life and they stick with me deeper

7:37

than if I read a textbook . Hey

7:39

, everyone , I have a quick interruption from the show

7:41

, but I'll make it brief . I've got something

7:43

that I think is vital for every entrepreneur out there

7:45

and it can be a game changer for your business

7:48

. Navigating the business world demands

7:50

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7:52

clear financial insight . That's where

7:54

our company , olive Branch Bookkeeping Inc

7:56

, comes in , offering not just book

7:58

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management , corporate structuring and

8:05

the key to informed decisions detailed

8:08

profit and loss reports . Imagine

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8:17

With Olive Branch , you're equipped with

8:19

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8:21

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8:23

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8:30

clarity partners . If

8:32

you'd like to see how our team can help you and your business

8:35

, I'll include a booking link and contact

8:37

information in the show notes so you can schedule

8:39

a free discovery call .

8:41

Yeah , and this is the thing I think

8:43

is really important and

8:45

is I'm a huge

8:48

implementer . On profit , first , I think that that's

8:50

a really amazing tool and

8:53

really people are okay

8:56

losing money or in the market

8:58

. We do a lot in the market and

9:01

then we take on risks in

9:03

our business , but we don't know how to to

9:05

quantify it . We're like , oh , it'll

9:07

be okay , I'm just gonna make this risk and it'll pay

9:10

out in five years , uh , but yet we

9:12

want to pay out from our etfs

9:14

right away . Yeah , uh , and

9:17

and we don't know when to , um

9:20

, what is that ? No one to hold them , no one

9:22

to fold them , kind of idea . We

9:24

don't know when it is . And that's why there's

9:27

three things I tell every

9:30

business owner , and

9:32

a lot of times the people won't listen

9:34

to me because they're like oh yeah , you don't know

9:36

what you're talking about . I'm like , well

9:38

, I kind of have been

9:40

down that road . Uh , you know

9:42

I'm I wouldn't say I'm a bazillionaire

9:44

, uh , yet , but I'm . I

9:46

have owned and

9:48

operated and sold a business and

9:51

another one that's growing with with

9:53

the team Um , but I tell

9:55

every , every business owner , uh

9:58

, these three things is um , know

10:00

that , you know that , you know that you're called to it

10:02

, because if you don't

10:05

know that that and it's just to make

10:07

money , you will leave

10:09

, it will not last . And

10:11

you have to be able to know because

10:14

it will test your marriage , it will test everything

10:17

outside of the business it will test and

10:21

the business itself . So you need to

10:23

know that you're called to it and you have

10:25

to do it . And I think that

10:27

that's where a lot of people are just looking

10:29

for the easy button and

10:31

it's hard , I don't care what business you're

10:33

in . Then

10:36

I'd say , have a team around you that care about

10:38

you , right , not just what

10:40

you produce , but you , and

10:44

know your numbers . If you don't know your numbers

10:46

, there's too many business owners and

10:48

people who fail . It's not

10:50

because they didn't have passion

10:52

, it's because they did not understand

10:55

how to read a pnl or

10:57

do the right things .

10:59

Uh , yeah , I'm so glad you said that . I mean we

11:01

uh , we own a bookkeeping

11:04

my wife's the brains behind that one

11:06

. But it is amazing to me how many people

11:08

don't understand how to read a profit

11:10

and loss . They've never looked at their profit and loss . They

11:13

make decisions , and this was me

11:15

for a long time making decisions , thinking

11:17

I was growing something and really not understanding

11:19

the financials behind it . If

11:21

I was even profitable , it's like just

11:24

because you have income showing up in your bank

11:26

account does not mean you're profitable

11:28

. You know , and

11:30

a lot of people just don't have a clue

11:32

where things are at . And I found

11:34

, as we have consultations

11:36

with clients around this , some

11:41

people don't understand . Like when you have multiple

11:44

areas of service , right

11:46

, like let's just take a marketing company , for

11:48

example , and you have you sell

11:50

websites and you sell content creation

11:53

and you sell Google ads . You

11:55

know I've been able to help people look at their PNLs

11:58

and go , wow , I make 10

12:00

times the amount of money in this one area , but

12:02

I'm spending all my resources and all the others

12:04

and it's like if you just dropped all

12:06

of these . Now that you have , you're

12:09

empowered to make better decisions when you have those financials

12:12

in front of you .

12:18

Yeah , and I was telling somebody just the other day I don't know where you stand on

12:20

the profit first model as a bookkeeper or any of that . There's

12:22

so many different methods or frameworks

12:24

and really

12:26

someone asked well

12:30

, what's the difference ? I'm like it doesn't really matter which way you go , as long as

12:32

you know your numbers and you can read and

12:35

figure out how it works . Um

12:38

, and profit first is great

12:40

it's . It's a reverse engineering , engineering making

12:42

sure you're paying yourself , um

12:44

, but in the end it's

12:47

really about understanding

12:49

how to read and not just you know handing it

12:51

to a bookkeeper and saying , hey , you do it for me

12:53

, right , paying them , but but actually

12:55

know how to read .

12:56

This stuff is helpful well

12:58

, what my wife's been doing with a lot of our clients is that

13:00

she'll go through it depends

13:02

on the client , right , if they want to do a monthly , monthly

13:06

review but she'll actually go through and walk them

13:08

through it so that the more consistent that

13:10

they get in just reviewing these documents , understanding

13:13

what they mean , the better educated

13:15

they are in their in their own business right

13:18

and and that's really

13:20

the failure rate .

13:22

I think it's like 95 percent

13:24

of businesses fail in the first five years , or

13:26

something like crazy .

13:28

It's huge . Yeah , I just went through some of the stats on

13:30

another podcast . It's a very large percentage

13:32

and I would actually think that the

13:34

numbers I found were probably outdated , because I

13:36

feel like people are popping business open , popping

13:39

up businesses left and right and

13:41

, you know , not succeeding

13:44

with them . And uh

13:46

, one other thing I want to touch on . You had mentioned having

13:50

you had mentioned something about making

13:53

sure that you are drawn

13:56

or called to doing what you do instead

13:58

of just going after the money , and I

14:00

have been in that transition period for a little

14:02

while . I I you know

14:04

, got into , did very well with it

14:06

, but it was one of those things where I got into

14:08

it with the intention of making money and you

14:11

get burned out when you don't enjoy what you're doing .

14:13

Yeah , yeah . I

14:15

was just talking to somebody recently and

14:18

they were saying with

14:20

the idea to exit , and

14:23

if you're starting with the exit right

14:25

from the beginning , I think that that's gonna

14:27

be a hard thing . Um

14:30

, like for me , I did not plan to exit

14:32

. I was in in my former

14:34

business . I was going to be there

14:36

forever . Um , however

14:38

, you want to build it where

14:40

you could exit right no one's

14:43

going to buy your business if

14:45

you're not even paying yourself . And

14:49

that's the problem with a lot

14:51

of baby boomers and

14:53

a lot of business acquisition . People

14:55

are like , oh , yeah , I'm trying to sell this

14:57

we have and

15:00

that's my retirement . I'm like , yeah , but did

15:02

you never actually set up the books right in

15:05

the first place to pay yourself

15:07

? Yeah , who in their right mind is going to buy

15:09

that business ?

15:11

We have been . I don't mean to keep

15:13

bringing up my own experiences here , but we have

15:15

been on the search to buy new

15:18

bookkeeping firms , people who are wanting

15:20

to sell . There's quite a few of them , Like

15:22

you mentioned , the baby boomer generation . There's

15:27

quite a few up for sale and

15:29

we have reviewed the books on a couple that

15:31

we were in negotiations with to purchase . I

15:34

was shocked having accountants and bookkeepers

15:36

thinking that they would understand

15:39

how to set up their books to sell it , and they didn't . And

15:42

I mean you would think that just automatically

15:45

they're in that field , that

15:47

you'd go in and look at a profit and loss and it would be clean

15:49

, and it wasn't . And they weren't paying themselves very much

15:51

. Yet they wanted an exorbitant amount of money

15:53

for the business and it just didn't make sense financially

15:55

when you look at all the overhead that they have

15:58

.

15:59

Yeah , and I think that sometimes

16:01

and I'm kind of going into this

16:03

thinking as we've been doing the

16:05

infinite banking thing a lot and

16:08

love what we do there , but as I

16:10

do financial analysis for people

16:12

, I've learned

16:14

and I think I'm kind of

16:16

realizing this more and more that

16:18

people love the chaos . Yeah

16:20

, as much as they say they don't

16:23

want chaos , they want clarity , they

16:25

love chaos , including myself

16:27

. Sometimes I'm like maybe I like this

16:29

.

16:31

Do you think you love the chaos or do you think maybe subconsciously

16:33

you're addicted to the chaos ?

16:35

I think we are all addicted to the

16:38

chaos . We have no choice , whereas we're

16:40

told by capitalism oh

16:42

, you want to lower your taxes

16:44

? Buy this

16:46

widget that'll lower your costs . And

16:48

you buy real estate to lower

16:51

your tax liability , and then you have more

16:53

buckets that you can't figure

16:55

out . What to do next year ?

16:57

Yeah , Right , absolutely .

17:00

So I don't know , I'm just like , hmm , because

17:02

we have our book , it

17:04

goes from moving from chaos to still

17:06

. Because

17:09

we have our book , it goes from moving from chaos to still , and I was like maybe it's confusion , haphazard

17:11

, anxious , overwhelming and stressful . As

17:13

I do financial analysis all day long

17:15

, most people are

17:17

so in chaos they don't even

17:19

they haven't even figured out what they want .

17:22

Yeah , yeah , uh

17:25

, you had mentioned your book . What's name , what's

17:27

the title of your book and where can people find it ?

17:45

Because you actually have to work with

17:47

this , and so Five Smooth Stones . You can find it there . I

17:50

think there's Kindle . You can buy

17:52

a Kindle version on

17:54

Amazon , but you can't find the physical

17:57

copy on Amazon . So

18:00

if you want a physical copy , what I like about

18:02

this is it is a interactive

18:04

money book . It

18:08

is a interactive money book , right , and so

18:10

what we talk about and this is after doing a lot of analysis with

18:12

people is we're huge people of faith , right , and I mentioned

18:15

chaos , confusion , haphazard

18:17

, anxious , overwhelming stressful . When

18:19

you're doing bookkeeping , you're like how do I

18:21

organize this chaos ? That's really

18:23

what you're doing , uh , and

18:26

tax code is chaos . Business

18:28

is chaos , right , and we solve problems

18:30

. What we need to do is move from

18:32

chaos to still , and

18:34

still is uh

18:37

. In the bible it says be still and know . Right

18:39

, be quiet . We have to actually know what we want

18:41

, kind of sit with

18:43

ourselves before we can move

18:46

. But then then people are told

18:48

oh yeah , well , you're not busy . Like

18:50

, no , you have actually the thinking time , right

18:52

, you have to think right . So

18:56

still method is set your sights

18:58

right . First . You have to set your

19:00

sights , know where you want to go , track

19:03

your in and out . That's budgeting or

19:05

bookkeeping . Inspect your progress , then you have to not just your in and out , that's budgeting or bookkeeping

19:07

. Inspect your progress , then you have to not just budget

19:09

inspect it . Look for one

19:12

percent adjustments this is kind of like the

19:14

profit first , you know right thing

19:16

or micro adjustments , uh

19:18

is what I kind of think about is like what are

19:20

the little tweaks ? And then live deliberately

19:23

. We don't just do our books just

19:25

for fun , we do it so we can

19:27

live deliberate and make smarter moves right

19:29

, and if we did that on

19:31

a regular we'd be a lot happier

19:33

and I don't know , maybe the government

19:36

would actually work well and all kinds of other things

19:38

.

19:39

Um , I'm not going to go into

19:41

you know managing our money , uh

19:43

, whenever they anyway but but you're

19:46

, you're 100 right and it businesses

19:48

operate the same way the government does . I mean , just

19:50

like there's never

19:53

ending money and right . Then

19:55

one day it catches up to you and you go shoot

19:58

, I'm in a bad spot yeah

20:00

, and that that scares me because we're addicted

20:02

.

20:03

We are addicted like a what

20:05

do you call it Dialysis machine

20:07

. We're addicted to , oh

20:09

, we'll just get an infusion . We're told that by

20:12

Shark

20:14

Tank and all that other stuff . And

20:16

all the while , jamie Dimon is

20:18

saying , oh , that's great , here you go , you

20:21

can take it at 10% . And I

20:24

was thinking about this . On real estate

20:27

, why do they have higher interest

20:29

rates when you're a real estate

20:31

investor ? Versus buying it for

20:33

your own assets

20:36

, right , for your own house , they charge

20:38

more money . I was like , yeah

20:41

, because they'll say , oh , because

20:43

it's bigger risk . I'm like , no , they're just taking

20:45

money off the top . Yep

20:48

, that's really what's happening . Let's

20:50

be , honest yeah

20:52

, but if we don't have our goals

20:54

and we don't understand how to read that

20:57

stuff , we'll be taken every

20:59

day .

21:00

Yep . So

21:02

I want to jump back a little bit to your story with the coffee shop

21:04

. What were some challenges you

21:07

faced while operating this coffee shop ? Besides

21:10

staff and , uh

21:12

, all the regular like marketing

21:14

, like what I wish I would have done is done

21:16

more marketing um , now

21:19

, when you say marketing , I don't mean to interrupt you , but

21:21

when you say marketing , do you mean paid or

21:24

organic marketing ? Because

21:26

they do all of it .

21:27

I think I think I started in 2011

21:30

before instagram . Uh

21:32

, everybody will tell you like , hey , you need to

21:34

do this or that . I think

21:36

really like whatever I could

21:38

do to get people to get in in the

21:40

door , um like

21:43

, but at the same time , you

21:45

have to look at your customer acquisition

21:47

costs and all that stuff . So

21:51

it was good in our partnership . So

21:54

we had a great partnership

21:56

for the beginning of the venture

21:58

, not for the end . That's

22:00

why we left . But

22:04

we wish we would have

22:06

had a drive-through , because people love

22:08

their convenience , yep , but

22:11

that location wouldn't allow for

22:13

it . But

22:15

we wouldn't have started had we had

22:17

to raise all the capital on our own . So

22:21

those are some

22:24

of the things I wish I would have done differently

22:26

. I

22:29

think , also realizing we're all in

22:31

the real estate game , owning

22:33

the real estate . The reason that I

22:35

had to leave or transition

22:38

is there was a transition in

22:40

leadership . Where we're at , we were in

22:42

a faith-based school building

22:45

and they had a change in leadership

22:47

and the principal of that school

22:49

said , well , I

22:53

got hired to be a principal , not a landlord

22:55

. I was like , well , we

22:57

were here first . Yeah , you know that

23:00

we're part of it and we were

23:02

on a year-to-year lease and we're also having

23:04

a baby . The

23:18

other thing I think is really important is people underestimate how much liquidity they need

23:20

, access to capital when things get hard , and so , for us , the reason that I love

23:22

infinite banking is because I was

23:24

saving I'm

23:28

my biggest investment , biggest risk too , so I was putting it into

23:30

my policy , my life insurance policy

23:32

, and then , lo

23:35

and behold , something hit the fan and

23:38

it really sucked .

23:40

Because you're not liquid .

23:42

Well , I was liquid , so

23:44

that's why I was able to overcome it . So

23:47

, basically , what happened is I had

23:49

a , the roof

23:52

was off of the

23:54

building and

23:56

it rained right did

23:58

it get ripped off ? Or

24:00

just no . No , they were doing a , a repair

24:03

, okay , and a freak storm happened

24:05

, and it was a big

24:07

rainstorm . All of a sudden that we didn't

24:09

know it's going to happen and uh

24:11

, so we were not in control . It was the school

24:14

and I got a call from

24:16

my staff saying um , yeah

24:19

, you need to come in the . Um

24:21

, the store is falling apart , right

24:24

, and I didn't answer the first call . My wife was on the

24:26

treadmill . We're trying to do our make sure

24:28

we're healthy personally as

24:30

well , so we're running . She

24:33

calls me . I didn't answer . Then he calls

24:35

her and I was like , oh

24:37

shoot , we better answer . We look , see

24:40

a video Cause . We were like , oh yeah , it's

24:42

no big deal , right , send me a video

24:44

, it's not that big a deal , you're just being dramatic . Then

24:47

we see it and we're like , oh crap

24:49

, oh no , and we go into

24:51

the shop and everything

24:54

is like a hurricane came through , right

24:57

. What I did not know at

25:01

the time is my wife was about

25:03

four months pregnant maybe

25:05

three months pregnant , we did not know at the time and

25:09

so she's wading through the water and

25:12

all of that . And

25:14

what saved us is because we had

25:16

access to

25:19

able to use our policy . We

25:21

were able to take that out real quick

25:23

to run

25:25

payroll and do some

25:28

things , because we weren't you know

25:30

, we were closed for

25:32

a while .

25:33

Yeah , and you can't just like your expenses . Don't stop

25:36

just because you had a disaster

25:38

of those expenses continue to pile

25:40

up . You don't want to lose your staff because

25:42

your goal is to come back in and start running it again

25:44

. But if you don't , you

25:47

know you don't have money . I think that's why cash flow

25:49

like understanding your cash flow in the business and

25:52

your profit is huge , because

25:54

majority business

25:56

owners are operating on , you

25:58

know , uh , very little

26:00

cash flow . There's no profit in the business

26:03

and they don't understand that you know , one wrong thing

26:05

and it's going to sink you or put

26:07

you in a ton of debt that you just don't

26:09

want to .

26:10

You know that

26:12

puts you in a whole another direction and

26:14

that that was why infinite banking

26:17

just made sense for me . Because my , why was I going

26:19

to invest in the 401k

26:21

and all that when my biggest risk in business

26:23

and investment was me

26:25

? Right ? So I needed access

26:27

to capital and I was

26:29

able to use that , and I've used it in real

26:32

estate and other ventures along the way and

26:34

why it became such an advocate . I

26:37

just didn't know that Dave Ramsey loves to hate on me . Oh

26:40

really I was just like , oh , this is only

26:45

logical , but

26:47

apparently the world is not

26:49

logical . They love chaos .

26:51

Yeah , you had mentioned

26:53

too I mean , this is you

26:55

had mentioned about going in and having this . This

26:58

all happened to your shop and luckily you had

27:00

money to be able to

27:02

come in and cover it . But do

27:04

you remember what you felt while you were

27:06

dealing with these challenges , like , how did you you overcome everything

27:09

? Or were you just super stressed

27:11

out of your mind and struggling through

27:13

it ?

27:14

I was both super stressed and

27:16

saying what the heck ? But I also

27:18

knew we had . We

27:20

had built uh and

27:22

I I have this thing called 10 , 10 , 10

27:25

savings rule , where I save 10%

27:27

for long-term , medium-term and short

27:29

. We are okay to overcome

27:31

. It Still doesn't mean when you

27:33

have no money coming in all of a sudden you're like

27:36

oh yeah , this is a little stressful and we're having

27:38

a baby and the landlord

27:40

sucks and

27:42

somebody kept asking me . Once we got up

27:44

and running they would ask me

27:46

what's your number ? You

27:50

know meaning I want to buy your business . I

27:52

was like , hmm , what's

27:55

your number ? And probably not the

27:57

best way to do a business valuation

27:59

or sell of a business . But

28:01

because we were finding

28:04

out what was happening , we had

28:07

our books ready , we had

28:09

read how to Sell a Business and we were able

28:11

to sell that , not

28:13

for a ton , not for seven years of what

28:16

we put into it , but we were able to sell

28:18

it . Now what I like about that

28:20

is fast forward a

28:22

little bit . They got kicked out

28:24

. They're still running . They moved

28:27

to another location , they had an

28:29

infusion of capital from other places and

28:32

COVID happened . We would not have

28:34

made it . We would not

28:36

have made it , and so I feel like it was a God thing

28:39

that happened

28:41

.

28:41

I'm like , oh yeah , all right , and we were

28:43

able to use that sell to

28:46

start our next business yeah

28:49

, because imagine if you had continued in it

28:51

after investing your capital and

28:54

then covet hit you would have been . You

28:56

would have had probably zero reserves , right

28:58

? Yep , or very little yep

29:00

. I'm curious , when you sold your business , uh

29:03

, was there anything that came up during that process that was a

29:05

surprise to you , or things that it

29:07

sounds like you had your financials ready , which is a big

29:10

part of selling a business but was

29:12

there anything that came

29:14

up that you just didn't

29:17

know ? What you didn't know ?

29:19

yeah , I think really , the buyer

29:22

wanted it and they didn't know

29:24

what they didn't know . We were educating them

29:26

how to buy a business . Okay , that

29:28

was kind of weird . We're like this is

29:30

how it goes . We read the yellow book that says

29:32

um , selling your

29:34

business for dummies , um , you

29:37

know which . We literally were like how

29:39

do you sell a business ? Uh , let's start

29:42

reading . And . And we learned

29:44

and educated them . And then it was

29:46

interesting as um , what

29:49

was just hilarious is they were like , oh

29:52

, um , license

29:54

, you got to get licensed and you have to have your own

29:56

license . And they came back to us after the

29:58

cell and said , um , uh

30:02

, we don't have a business license . I

30:04

thought something crazy like that . I was like , uh

30:07

, we don't , you don't just transfer your license , you

30:09

have to have your health

30:11

license and all that stuff yourself

30:13

. That was kind of uh

30:16

. Interesting is people think

30:18

, oh , I just buy a business and it's it's

30:22

that it just transfers no , I'm

30:24

like now . you actually , just because

30:26

you bought a car doesn't mean that

30:29

the previous owner's license transfers

30:32

over . You actually have to make

30:35

sure you can drive a car . Right

30:37

, obvious right

30:40

, you would think , but apparently

30:43

not .

30:44

So I'm curious , curious too

30:46

, on the business . What were some things you

30:48

felt you guys did really well

30:51

while running the business and what were some things you you

30:53

learned not to do ?

30:55

yeah , I think that's why I love profit

30:57

first . Right is because

30:59

what we are are activists

31:02

. Um , I even have a bible

31:04

verse in humility consider others

31:06

better than yourself . The . The

31:08

problem in in that is , uh

31:11

, as I'm and still trying to

31:13

teach myself on this is

31:15

if we don't take care of ourselves

31:18

, we cannot overflow to other people . Right

31:21

and making sure , and there's

31:23

there's two extremes . Right , you might have

31:25

the ones that are hey , I'm paying myself

31:28

and they're overpaying themselves

31:30

. Yeah . Right , and you're

31:32

like dude , you need to , like , cut

31:34

it out , like you're killing your business . And

31:36

then there's the other ones that are like dude

31:38

, I'm just putting everything into the business

31:40

. Um

31:48

, maybe you need to take a date night , and , and , and your kids are going to hate you

31:50

because you never actually bring in income . Uh , to make it

31:52

feel like it's worth it . Yeah , right , and

31:54

, and you probably know in bookkeeping that

31:57

there's those camps where you need to be , as

31:59

in that middle place , uh

32:01

, and , and being able

32:03

to look at the dashboard and say , okay , there's

32:06

a problem coming and

32:10

what do I need to do ? And not just , it

32:12

is a dance . Running a business is a dance . It

32:15

is , but knowing

32:17

how to pivot .

32:19

And it's a constant evaluation

32:21

of everything . Like , I mean , and

32:23

it does get overwhelming . I think that's why people just ignore

32:26

it and they go . Well , I'm just gonna focus

32:28

on more sales . But you know , then you start

32:30

hiring people and don't understand . You

32:32

know , can you afford to hire somebody , can

32:35

you afford to give them raises , and

32:37

um , I think it's important

32:39

to just have a structure of how you pay yourself , like this

32:42

is where budgets come in . You know really well

32:44

, it's like okay , well

32:46

, I need to pay myself x

32:48

amount , but I know that I have this much

32:50

left for taxes , this much left for

32:53

operating expenses , and

32:55

then you guys still have a bucket for tax , you know , for

32:58

emergencies , off to the side .

33:00

So yeah , and I think that's the problem

33:02

is god forbid . You say discipline

33:04

and

33:07

you know , but I do think discipline

33:09

brings freedom . Right , and

33:12

that's the hard part in business . We

33:15

want to be able to make my own schedule . It's

33:17

going to be easy and that's what

33:19

people say all the time , but I'm like I

33:21

don't think so .

33:23

I saw it all the time in real estate too . People get

33:25

into the business for freedom and

33:27

then allow that chase

33:30

of freedom to completely push them out of the business

33:33

because they don't they're not disciplined to

33:35

do the activities that actually make

33:37

them money and

33:42

you're doing .

33:43

how much was that interest rate ? Oh

33:45

yeah , jp Morgan

33:47

is making the money , and

33:50

Uncle Sam . And

33:54

who's working for who here Anyway

33:56

?

33:57

So , from your experiences , what

34:00

do you see other business owners doing that's having a negative impact on

34:02

their personal and business finances

34:04

? What's something common that you see

34:06

a lot ?

34:07

I think what they're not doing is what's more important impact on

34:09

their personal and business finances . What's something common that you see a lot ? I

34:15

think what they're not doing is what's more important , right , what they are

34:17

not doing is building and understanding how numbers work

34:19

. Right , they'll just say , oh , I'm going to give it to

34:22

Andy

34:24

and Andy will deal with it . Right

34:27

, they just offload it , and I think that

34:29

that's a detriment , right

34:31

? Um , and so I think

34:33

that's important . And then

34:35

they say , well , if I just keep go , go , go

34:37

, it'll , it'll be fine , um

34:40

, and so I

34:42

kind of think about it in

34:44

that you know , remember that raw , I just released

34:46

this episode today . Foundational

34:49

principle of of , of

34:52

putting the first things first . Again , profit

34:54

first . They're not

34:56

organizing uh , time

34:58

, right ? Yeah , um

35:01

, whether it's eos system , whether

35:03

it's profit first or or , I don't

35:05

care , you put a label on it , it doesn't matter

35:07

, right ? But they are

35:09

not thinking . And they'll say they

35:12

are , but a

35:14

lot of times it's like dude , what is

35:16

it that you want ?

35:17

Yeah , yeah , that

35:19

makes sense . Uh

35:22

, what is my ?

35:23

opinion I could be . I could be wrong , though you know

35:25

, who knows ?

35:26

no , I don't think so at all . I think it's . It's

35:28

just good to hear your perspective on it , especially because

35:30

you've been there , you've run businesses before

35:32

and and you're helping people and not you

35:34

know , you're helping analyze people's

35:37

finances and it gives you a good

35:39

insight to what people are doing the

35:41

wrong way .

35:50

So what are some ways we can be thoughtful about the

35:52

social impact of how we use our money ? Yeah , I think that the

35:55

impact is everywhere . Right , we vote with our dollars

35:57

, right , people say this

35:59

whole China thing . I'm like , oh

36:01

yeah , china , this or that . I'm like , dude , we've been

36:03

voting with our dollars for the past 50

36:06

years , right , yeah . And

36:08

we're saying , oh yeah , well , because

36:11

we want it free and cheap , right , it's

36:13

going to cost us , right , same with Amazon and

36:16

all of that . I'm like , yeah , we , it's

36:18

going to get us

36:20

right . And I think that

36:22

, what , how we can be thoughtful

36:24

is not just say what is poverty

36:29

, but what is enough , like , what

36:31

does the enough look like to you ? And

36:36

then people will say you're a socialist and all of this , but

36:38

but I'm like , okay , living within our means , saying

36:40

this is good , I can still keep growing

36:43

, yeah , right . But , um

36:45

, I don't know about you , but this

36:48

idea of growing , continuing

36:50

to grow , um , if

36:52

you look at the economy and you look at

36:54

a I thought about this recently

36:57

and in somebody who's overweight

36:59

, right , or continues to

37:01

eat , if you keep eating , you will grow

37:03

, yeah , you will

37:05

continue to grow . And then they , what do they do

37:07

? They put you on pharmaceuticals

37:10

to keep you alive . Right

37:12

, right , is that healthy to

37:15

keep growing ?

37:17

Not in that sense .

37:18

No , and so sometimes

37:20

knowing that in that business

37:22

sometimes there's times where you need to shrink

37:25

, whether it's staff or

37:28

other areas , so you can grow

37:30

in a healthy way . I

37:33

think that that's not thought

37:35

about or talked about , but it's about

37:37

really thinking

37:39

what's the priorities really ?

37:41

thinking what's the priorities . I actually really like that

37:43

. You said that You're

37:48

probably the first person on my show that has ever talked about shrinking your business and reevaluating

37:50

where you're at . Something I've been diving into

37:52

quite a bit for probably

37:55

the last year just really focusing on is value

37:58

propositions , pricing

38:00

and a lot of times

38:03

and with the client retention

38:05

stuff that I'm doing , it's like a

38:07

lot of times people are so focused on growth

38:09

they're constantly

38:12

chasing the next lead , the next incoming

38:14

sale , but they're not taking care of

38:16

the other stuff , right , they're not taking care of

38:18

the current business , and I

38:20

think there are times when you need to reassess

38:30

your value proposition , maybe change your pricing that reflects that . Most of the time , I would say raise

38:32

your pricing if you have a good product or service

38:35

and

38:38

just realizing

38:41

that you build those systems

38:44

so that you can continue growing in a better way .

38:46

Yeah , I

38:49

think that's the making money . People are just saying , oh , you know , and

38:52

this is what's the TikTok and everything

38:54

. Oh , they have an eight and nine figure business

38:56

, or 10 , whoever , it doesn't even matter

38:58

. Yeah .

38:59

Most of it is bullshit too .

39:00

Yeah , most of it , and that's what I'm saying . I'm

39:04

like I've done a lot of uh financial

39:06

analysis . You're

39:08

just lying , yes , and I know

39:10

it and I can tell you and I

39:12

, I , you know even some people

39:14

on uh that are in

39:16

clients and have those kind of things . I'm like

39:18

I know what's going on

39:20

. I actually , I see this and this

39:22

and you , you were totally . It's

39:25

a bunch of BS , but it's about

39:27

making and keeping right

39:30

.

39:30

Yes .

39:31

That people don't talk about keeping cause . That's not

39:33

sexy and

39:36

that's why it's so hard for me to even grow our

39:38

business . It's like , yeah , I want to talk

39:40

to you about saving money . Who

39:43

no one cares about that ?

39:45

they , they , they look at the next

39:47

bitcoin video or whatever it's

39:49

going to be or they see a guru online

39:51

that's telling them that saving is bad and

39:54

that you should just reinvest all of your money . But

39:56

back to your point earlier . I guarantee

39:58

those people still have , if they're

40:01

successful , and the one in particular I'm thinking of , he's

40:04

very successful , but I guarantee he

40:06

has a bucket where

40:08

he's liquid and he has money in

40:11

case there's something that goes wrong and it can't

40:13

just depend on cash flow 24-7

40:15

, incoming cash flow to pay

40:18

something else that happens .

40:21

Mark Cuban is one of them . I know for sure he

40:23

has a lot of liquidity . Yeah

40:26

, um , and people are like , oh , yeah

40:28

, well , he's an investor , he does that

40:30

. I'm like , yeah , but he also has some

40:32

. And I would bet you they

40:34

probably have life insurance that is properly

40:36

designed that they can access as a line

40:39

of credit . I'm like , hmm , that maybe

40:41

the and . And people will tell me , oh

40:43

, but that's just for the rich . I'm like , well

40:45

then , how come I did it right ?

40:48

um , you just reverse engineer

40:50

this is a total side

40:52

note and kind of off on a different

40:55

tangent , but , uh , on instagram

40:57

there's a channel called baller busters and

40:59

I it recently and it is actually

41:01

taking all these people who are throwing

41:04

out these ridiculous claims of how

41:06

they're running eight , nine , you

41:08

know figure businesses by the time they're

41:11

21 , whatever , it is right Sitting

41:13

on their Lambo . But even people

41:15

who you wouldn't realize

41:17

are scamming people

41:19

are and they're

41:21

calling them out and there's a lawyer . I think that runs the whole thing

41:23

. But anyways , I just had to mention that

41:25

because we were talking about the people who were giving

41:28

out bad advice .

41:30

And this is again going back to

41:32

the infinite banking thing is

41:34

what I like about this and there's

41:37

some scammers in that that run

41:39

some of this but in the essence

41:41

of what the policy does

41:43

is it is a contract . As

41:46

long as you do yours and I use whole life

41:48

insurance , that's probably designed but

41:51

as a contract . I could guarantee

41:53

you that it will

41:55

, because it's in the contract . it says guaranteed

41:58

right when it's gonna be

42:00

a profitable business venture right

42:02

as a business model and

42:04

people don't realize the power of a contract and

42:06

it's not an investment , it's a savings

42:09

, but it can be used to

42:11

amplify your investments real

42:14

estate business . But you have

42:16

to actually understand how money flows and

42:18

be smart . But most of

42:20

the time we're like , oh , like , oh yeah , but it's not this

42:23

or that . I'm like , yeah , well , how many people

42:25

have the sam bank been freed

42:27

and the bernie madoffs and whoever

42:30

else I know is a bunch of those guys . I'm like you're

42:32

totally screwing people oh yeah I

42:35

can't do it ethically

42:37

. I I've thought about it . I'm like you

42:40

know it would be so much easier just to thought

42:44

about it . I'm like you know it would be so much easier

42:47

just to create a great , great uh flash page and do all this and um , I could do it

42:49

oh yeah but I can't , I can't yeah

42:52

, because you have integrity . Yes

42:55

, I can't , I can't , I I

42:57

would like to , but I mean , like personally

42:59

, but I would like to make more , yeah , but it's not

43:01

in my DNA .

43:10

Can you give us just a quick , like a basic , overview of what the Profit First

43:12

model is ? Or banking on yourself with these whole life insurance policies

43:14

? What does that look like ? You know , do the insurance

43:16

companies . They obviously make money from it too

43:18

, because it's a product that they sell . So

43:21

can you just kind of give an overview of that ?

43:27

Yeah , so profit first is a cashflow management system and then banking yourself as

43:29

another kind of strategy . So first

43:32

thing I would say is profit first is just

43:34

a way of enveloping

43:36

, like Dave Ramsey would say is

43:38

putting your money

43:41

in envelopes so you're not overspending , right

43:44

? So money coming in and

43:46

you put profit first . That's exactly what it

43:48

says . But so you have income

43:50

, then you have profit , then

43:52

you have owner's pay , then

43:54

you have OPEX and

43:56

taxes right . In

43:59

those orders , right , or

44:01

taxes first before OPEXpex

44:03

, right . But if you've

44:05

done that , then you're not going to be

44:07

like , oh yeah , I owe money for taxes

44:10

and I forgot , like I spent it . Like

44:12

that's a lot of what happens with business owners

44:14

is they forgot that they owe money , um

44:17

, somehow , um , but

44:19

you're putting them in those buckets to

44:22

then be deployed . So then you're running

44:24

a leaner business versus

44:26

a business that's 110%

44:30

when you're making 100 , right . Then

44:33

what I like to think about is okay , so

44:35

I'm making this money . My

44:38

biggest investment is me . There's key

44:40

man insurance and all kinds of other tools

44:42

that I could use , but I'll put it

44:44

into a life insurance policy that I

44:46

can access and use , right

44:48

? So then I'll you put my

44:51

one of those buckets of

44:53

savings , I'll just put it through a policy

44:55

and then I'll leverage

44:58

that cash value as

45:00

my line of credit . Right . So

45:03

and again can

45:05

get confusing . But that's why you do a full financial

45:07

analysis , right ? Because then I have

45:10

this bucket that I can use . And

45:12

it's almost like a people

45:14

say this all the time they'll use their house

45:16

and they'll say I'm going to

45:19

take a HELOC , yeah Right , and

45:21

they'll use that , right . And

45:23

then they'll tell me well , I'm putting money into

45:25

this policy , it's my money . How come I'm

45:28

getting charged for it ? I'm like how

45:30

is that any different than a HELOC ?

45:32

Right , there's still interest on a HELOC , the credit line

45:34

can sit there without being charged

45:37

? Yeah , but as soon as you pull

45:39

money out .

45:40

Yeah , Same with a life insurance policy

45:42

. So the only reason I think about it . But

45:44

it's simple interest that I can borrow

45:47

against and it's from the insurance company , but

45:56

what's cool ? Is . I just think , instead of the asset being a house , you're the asset , and then eventually

45:58

guess what's going to happen you

46:01

will die right , 100%

46:08

that is going to happen . And

46:10

then if you have a loan outstanding , they're just going

46:12

to subtract that from the death benefit and your heirs get that money tax-free

46:14

. It's just a way

46:16

to store your liquidity

46:19

to be able to do the things

46:21

you want to do . And then I used my policy

46:23

to buy my office condo . I

46:26

did notes

46:28

, I do notes investing and I did a

46:30

note with myself . I'm both

46:32

the business owner and

46:35

the owner of the policy , and

46:38

the owner of the property and the business is paying

46:40

me rent and the owner of the property

46:42

and the business is paying me rent right

46:44

. So then , from a tax situation also

46:52

helps for depreciation because I'm owner , not just a renter right . Just going

46:54

back to way in the beginning , when I said what was my biggest thing is I wish I would have owned the

46:57

real estate yeah okay

47:00

, yeah , that makes sense .

47:01

I definitely think , think , and I'm

47:04

sure you agree , it's a much longer conversation

47:06

than a short podcast to go through

47:08

those two concepts . I think we

47:10

could probably do a whole show just on the profit first

47:12

model , but

47:15

especially on the bank on yourself . I've had other

47:17

people on my show that have discussed it before . We've

47:20

never done it not on the bank on yourself . We've

47:22

looked into it and we've just never done it . Not on the bank on

47:24

yourself . We've looked into it and we've just never done it . But it

47:26

is an interesting concept , uh , and there are a lot of people who , who

47:29

swear by it , you know , obviously , including yourself .

47:31

That's what got you out of some tight spots I

47:34

mean , and it's a both and right

47:36

, if you're gonna like , for me , I'm like it's

47:38

my savings component that

47:40

I could have and I'm just

47:42

kind of doing both . So I

47:44

love it that it's not

47:47

an investment , but I can use it for

47:49

investments , right .

47:52

So I've got just a couple more things before we wrap

47:54

up . I've been asking everyone who comes on the show

47:56

about AI . It's

47:58

been all over the place , we're all hearing about it

48:00

and obviously it's progressing very

48:02

quickly . What are your thoughts on AI

48:04

and how do you think it's affected business owners

48:07

and entrepreneurs currently , and how do you think

48:09

it will affect them in the future ?

48:12

I think , if we don't know , think it's

48:14

going to affect us , we're delusional and

48:18

I think that it is kind of scary

48:20

and exciting at the same time

48:23

, because now what we used to

48:25

offload to India is now like a

48:27

robot , right . So

48:29

from a economic point

48:31

of view , I'm like this is going to be crazy

48:35

, right , because

48:46

, and also from a writing point of view , I know we can

48:48

use it to our advantage . Like , literally , on our podcast , we uh put in a chapter

48:51

of our book and said write me a story . And it created a story for

48:53

us , really quick , um

48:55

. And so I'm a little bit

48:57

both worried , because

48:59

there's a lot of people are gullible , yeah

49:01

, and they'll read . They'll just

49:04

say , oh , yeah , that's cool and and they'll believe

49:06

it and it's not true , right

49:08

, and so misinformation , I

49:10

think , is gonna go

49:13

faster , um , but

49:15

at the same time , I'm like it's really cool

49:17

but um , terrifying

49:20

and and I don't know when , when we're gonna

49:22

have uh skynet and if

49:24

that's gonna happen in my lifetime

49:26

or not .

49:27

uh , the trans that's transformers , the uh

49:29

terminator thing yeah , but

49:32

I'm a little like we kind of already have that with starlink

49:34

right yeah .

49:35

So I'm , I'm like , yeah , maybe that's gonna happen

49:37

at some point , um , and

49:39

we're gonna say , well , it's too late . Like we're going to say

49:41

well , it's too late , like even this , we know Amazon

49:43

is too big , but we kept

49:46

going because we are addicted to it . So I'm

49:48

a little I don't

49:50

know where it's going to lead .

49:51

But yeah , it's an interesting take . I

49:54

think there's pros and cons to it and I think there's

49:57

always good and bad in everything . We do right , if

49:59

the intentions are good , most

50:02

of the time it can turn out good , but there's a lot of people with bad

50:04

intentions . Um , I've

50:06

explained to some other guests on my podcast . I use it a lot

50:08

for brainstorming

50:11

with myself , as weird as that may sound . If

50:13

I need , it's very difficult if I

50:15

have a blank sheet to sit there

50:17

and come up with new concepts or frameworks , and

50:19

a lot of times I will put in

50:21

a general idea and I'll it'll spit

50:23

me back something and I just I can go back and

50:25

forth instead of trying to sit there and google search

50:28

and yeah take the long way , the

50:30

long way through it , um , and

50:32

then just minor tasks . You know stuff like that . We're

50:34

using it for redundant tasks

50:36

, but I

50:39

don't know we had I had this conversation with

50:41

someone else . I don't know that it'll necessarily replace

50:43

. I think everyone's worried . It's going to completely

50:45

replace humans altogether .

50:47

No , we can't . I mean , we thought about everything

50:49

else . It's not going to but

50:51

doing things . If I could

50:53

use a robot

50:56

like this is the thing of having a

50:58

coffee shop If

51:00

I could have a robot do it and

51:02

make the same amount of money as a business

51:04

owner , yeah , that makes

51:07

more sense , right ? But

51:09

I think we need humans . I

51:12

think I know right by we , we need

51:14

each other and I do think that you'll

51:16

.

51:17

I mean , we're seeing more and more of these like this isn't

51:19

even ai , but just like self-serve kiosks

51:21

at walmart's and restaurants and

51:23

all these you know fast food chains . But

51:26

the more those that pop up , the more you realize that we

51:29

, we need the human element in

51:31

our interactions .

51:32

Yeah , so I I

51:34

do think that , uh , all of

51:36

the stats on vulnerability

51:40

or not vulnerability , suicide , suicide

51:42

, everything is red , and

51:45

I think , even though we have social media , we

51:47

actually need each other . We

51:51

are lonely , broken

51:53

. It's that chaos thing

51:56

.

51:56

Disconnected .

51:57

Yeah , it's getting worse and I think

51:59

we need to just again

52:01

go back to what is enough and and like hey

52:03

, I'm okay to not be on every social

52:06

media platform yeah , which is really hard

52:08

as a business owner , but you know it is

52:10

, and it's funny you say that because it is , uh

52:12

, the more connected we feel with internet

52:15

, it seems like people are more disconnected .

52:17

And it's total random , just

52:19

thought . But it was my wife and I were in a restaurant recently

52:22

and and , uh , it was a newer restaurant

52:24

we went into . It was one of those where you

52:26

walk up to the counter , you order and you can go sit

52:28

down . I guess kind of like a fast food

52:30

place , but it's not . It wasn't uh

52:32

fast food and the

52:35

serve , the , the cashier and the

52:37

servers bring the food out , like everybody just was

52:40

super awkward . It was like they couldn't even make eye

52:42

contact with you and I mentioned

52:44

that to my wife . She's like , well , it's because everybody's on their phones these

52:46

days , like people are just getting more

52:48

and more like introverted .

52:50

When they're in public yet they'll be

52:52

on camera .

52:54

Something is weird it is very strange

52:56

. It's weird , but I have to have

52:58

some social behavior expert on

53:00

here at some point to talk about it . So

53:02

one last thing before we wrap up if you could

53:05

leave listeners with one actionable item that would

53:07

have a positive impact on them today , what

53:09

would it be and why ?

53:11

Yeah , I would say know your numbers

53:13

and know your why , like this is

53:15

Simon Sinek right ? And

53:18

like , ask yourself

53:20

what do I want ? Yeah , and start

53:22

going in that direction . But you need to ask yourself what do I want ? Yeah , and start going in that direction . But

53:25

you need to ask yourself and , and it really

53:27

doesn't require a book to buy . I mean

53:29

, you can buy my book , but you can

53:31

also just use a piece of paper and

53:33

do that with your spouse . Yeah

53:35

, right , that's what I would

53:37

say .

53:38

Okay , awesome , man . Well

53:40

, thank you for being on the show today . I appreciate it . I

53:43

I think everybody will get a lot of value from just

53:45

hearing your story and and the

53:47

things that helped get you out of a bind when

53:50

things didn't go perfect , right so

53:53

cool .

53:54

Thanks for having me , andy absolutely .

53:56

I just want to thank everyone else who's listening today . If you enjoyed

53:58

the show , felt like it provided you value , I'd

54:00

love to hear from you in the comments , uh , what stuck

54:03

out most to you from today's episode ? We'll see

54:05

you on . The show felt like it . Provided you value . I'd love to hear from you in the comments

54:07

what stuck out most to you from today's episode . We'll see you on the next one .