The 2021 Thankful Episode

The Small business show, episode 355 for Wednesday, November 24, 2021. Greetings folks and welcome to or welcome back to the Small Business show here at BusinessShow Co, where we are small businessing every single week. Sponsors for this episode include the David vs Goliath podcast, dedicated to helping those of us who are small businessing and Coinbase, where you can get 10 bucks in free bitcoin@coinbase.com SBS we'll talk more about both of those shortly here. For now, here in Durham, New Hampshire, I'm Dave Hamilton.

And in Lafayette, California, I am Shannon Jean. How are you, man?

I'm really good. Yeah. Good. Yeah. You know, rock and rolling here. Things are crazy, but it's Q4, right? So business is as usual, is crazy business, which is great. Like this is when we make a lot of our money. I don't want to say all of our money because that's not true. But you know, far more than any other quarter. And, and then I've got, you know, these other things going on, including still prepping a business for sale, as I mentioned, and you know, going through that whole process. Yeah, it's been fascinating. It's, it's moving a little more slowly than I would want. But we're in the process of prepping things. Last week we talked to Todd Sakovitz about accounting and he said most businesses don't need to worry about accruals based accounting. And that is true most small businesses. This business that we are selling, we have never booked as accruals. It's always been cash based because it's simpler and easier and follow the money. And it's much. We're smaller than a. I think what the IRS sets the. If your gross is 25 million or above, you have to be on accruals base. Unless you've got some grandfathering or something, I don't know. But we are not there. So there's no concern with that. So it's fine. But for prepping it for sale, we found that we really might want to show some of the numbers as an accruals based scenario. And so going back, even just over when you're selling a business, there's a term that I had never heard before, Shannon. It's TTM trailing 12 months and people. Right, okay. Yeah. Makes a lot of sense. As soon as you know what it is, right. People want to see the last three years of financials and then a month by month accounting for the trailing 12 months. And it makes perfect sense. That's a Great way to look at a business.

Yeah, absolutely.

Doing accruals based, even just for ttm, we are through it now, but it took a lot more effort and it's, you know, you'd think that it would be easy to be accurate with it, but as we were going through and kind of trying to figure out how to restate and find all that stuff, it's, you would think accruals base and cash base would just be perfect matches for each other, but they are not. And it's, and there's reasons why it's not like a mystery or anything, but. And no one was surprised except us. You know, the M and A farmer working was like, yeah, we get it, you know, it's not going to be right. And we're like, yeah, why is that? They're like, yeah, don't worry about it, it's just how it goes.

Yeah. That whole concept and having sold companies before, when they start talking about, okay, we'll come and help you, you need to restate your earnings.

Yes.

And I can remember the first time I heard, I was like, well, no, no, we want to give accurate everything. No, no, you need to dig through and see what is related to this and what are lifestyle things that need to come out and how did you state this and the timing and all that kind. Because, you know, as small business owners, we're always looking at the calendar and hey, let's spend a bunch of money right here before the end of the year to lower our tax liability or whatever. And having someone that can help you through that process is really important.

It's interesting. I learned two, well, the difference between two different things. There's ebitda, right? The earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization. And that's generally what you're looking for. That's another way of saying profits. It's a very specific way of saying profits, which is what you want to do. But essentially what's happening to price of business is you look at your profits and then you multiply those by whatever the multiple is that you can argue makes sense for your business. And of course the buyer is going to want to lower the multiple, but the multiple becomes the negotiable number, whereas the ebitda, your profits. And I want to zoom out, actually, I don't want to say ebitda, I want to say your profits. That's sort of. You state that and then they presumably come in and, and you know, do due diligence and confirm that what you're telling them is actually true. And so it's good not to, to lie about it, but when selling this small. And so EBITDA makes a lot of sense for large companies, publicly traded companies certainly, but, but even, you know, privately held larger companies, that's a, that's a good way to look at it. For a small business where you've just got, you know, one partner or a few partners, the thing that becomes the way you calculate profits is not ebitda, it's what's called sde, Seller's Discretionary Earnings.

Ah.

And this way you're actually taking your own salary out as a profit. You're restating your salary as a profit or whatever. You're, you know, again, your earnings, it's your discretionary earnings. Now you may have to, if you are an integral part of the business and by selling it you're leaving, well then you might have to do an add back of, okay, well, you know, we need to hire somebody.

You gotta replace yourself.

You gotta replace yourself. But you probably replace yourself with someone that's much less expensive than you if the business is profitable. Right. You know, you're, you're pulling money out in different ways. Like you said, the lifestyle stuff, all of that stuff, you add it all back in, it's. And that part of it, I knew the lifestyle stuff, but I never thought about, oh, all the things that you're paying yourself that like that from $1, that's considered a profit. Now what do you need now that you're not here? And to be quite honest, it's gotten me looking at my other businesses too. Not that I am intending to sell them, but looking at, okay, wait a minute. What if I took myself out of this business? What would it cost me to replace me?

It's a good exercise.

It's a great exercise. Yeah.

What you don't want to do is find out you can't replace yourself for what you're paying yourself.

Correct. Well, you want to know that if that's true. Right. And when you're starting your business, that's for sure gonna be true.

Absolutely right.

There's nothing wrong with it. But looking that sort of, you know, in the eye and saying, okay, I still need to grow this before I could make it worthwhile to someone else. That's a, it's a fascinating. It's that especially in a business where you are working in the business, because you have to be, and there's nothing wrong with that, this exercise is a great way to look at working on the business and to frame that, you know, and just Say, oh, so it's been really. I knew that whether or not this process is successful and success is, I mean, let's define success as we actually find a buyer and sell the business. Although there are other ways of being successful. But, you know, even if it's not quote unquote successful in terms of selling the business. I know I knew that I was going to learn things. I've already learned things. Like it's already been if it ended here. I'm already way more informed and way more skilled at running a business than I was two months ago when this process started. It's just been fascinating.

It is true. You know, and one of the. I read this years ago, you know, is that try to always run your business like you're going to sell it to Mark tomorrow. In general, you know, and prepping, you know, the same analogy, you know, keep your house clean like it's going to, you know, you're having a bunch of people over that day.

Right.

And so it's, yeah, it keeps you, oh, got to update this, make sure the books are up to date, make sure you're not leaving things to kind of come around, nip you in the butt later. It is a great bit of advice. Hard to put into, you know, make reality. But yes, you know.

Oh, yeah, I say it cavalierly here like it's, oh, it's no big deal. And really that's the problem. It isn't a big deal, but the answers might be long term problems to solve or long term things to address. I don't want to say they're problems, but they are things to address.

It comes down to, you know, I just said talking about it is really easy.

Yes.

But as a small business owner, over so many times I would hear this kind of advice and be like, are you kidding me, man? I am hustling from the minute I walk in the door till I leave at night and I don't have time. And that is a whole nother situation to address. Getting yourself out from under the weight of working in your business and being able to work on it more. And if you haven't read the E Myth, that is just, in my opinion, the bible of small business ownership. And Michael Gerber has written that. We'll link it in the show notes. It'll help you get out from under that pressure so you can make these kinds of decisions. It's a mindset.

Well, that's all it is is right. I mean, I've, I've, I was forced into this mindset because we made the decision to sell this other business. And it was obvious to us that this business was in a position where we could sell. There was, you know, some. A little bit of extra profits on the table. And it was like, wait, this. You know, we've been growing quickly. It's a relatively new business. Like, this makes sense. And so it wasn't scary to start asking these questions about this business, and. But it is scary to ask these questions about the other businesses you've had for decades. Exactly. That we've had for decades. And it's like, I don't really want to peel back that onion. It's.

Don't look under the carpet, because that's where I've been. Yeah, the dust.

I've been sweeping things under there for decades. Do not pick up that rug. And it's like, no, you know what? Let's pick it up. Let's take a look. Let's be honest with what's under there. And like I said, that's a really helpful thing. Again, easy. Easy to talk about. Super difficult to actually do. But because I'm in this mindset with one business, it's almost impossible. It is impossible for me not to be in that mindset with another. And so it's a good thing, though.

Yeah, it is. And if you're hearing these words, you know, and you have a relatively new business, this is your opportunity to keep from, you know, brushing those things under the rug and building up things over time is to try to focus on, how do I keep it as clean as possible, possible and up to date, in case someone called me tomorrow and said, look, we. We've been looking at your, you know, the industry you're in. We'd like to buy your company because, yes, I've had that happen, and I had to scramble to, you know, get things in order. And. And when you have a. Let's just say a fish on the line that, you know, you're trying to hook or whatever, you got to work and quickly to keep the deal. Deals have a. Their own kind of lifespan.

Time kills all deals.

Yeah.

Tkad. It's on my monitor down in the office. Yep. Yeah.

So if you're not ready to share, you know, documentation, paperwork, you know, get an NDA in place, and of course, that assuming that you do you want to sell the business, you'd like to at least. At least hear the offer.

Yeah.

It can slow things down a lot, and you can lose your buyer, you know.

Absolutely. Yeah. No, you got to move quickly. I've. I've. I Mean, you and I have told that story many times about deals on the web, but I've. I've had that story happen with other businesses over the years where it's like, somebody comes in and, you know, they're like, we want to buy it. It's like, oh, crap, we're not. What?

Yeah.

Okay. Because like, when. When. When Alan Meckler showed up to. To. To buy deals on the web, which didn't happen, we were actually at a position in that business where it made sense to sell it. Like it. We had. We had gotten that to pretty much the right point. To sell it. Not exactly, but we were. We were out of it enough that we could see a path of detaching from it. Right. You know, and. And. And that's not gonna always be the case with your businesses. So. Yeah, it's. Yeah. Anyway, it's interesting.

Good stuff, man.

Yeah. Hey, I want to, you know, with. With tomorrow, at least release day, day after the release day, tomorrow being Thanksgiving, I want to take a minute, like we do each year, and talk about the things for which you and I are thankful.

Great idea.

But not. But. And the. The next thing that I would like to do, though, is to share a little bit about both of our sponsors. If that works for you.

Yeah, let's do it.

All right. Hey. Do you identify as crypto? Curious if you've ever thought about entering the world of crypto but felt a little overwhelmed. Good news. Our sponsor, Coinbase, makes learning to buy and sell simple. Coinbase offers a trusted and easy to use platform to buy, sell, and even spend cryptocurrency. They support the most popular digital currencies on the market and make them accessible to everyone. I've been using crypto. Well, I've been using cryptocurrency for quite a while, and I've been using Coinbase for my cryptocurrency for quite a while. And they make it easy. It truly is super simple. You've got to go check it out because they offer things like portfolio management, protection, learning resources, and a mobile app that actually works really well so you can trade securely and monitor your crypto all in one place. Like I said, you got to go check it out. And good news. We've got a way for you to do just that. Because for a limited time, new users can get $10 in free Bitcoin when you sign up today at our special URL. Coinbase.com SBS Sign up at coinbase.com SBS for $10 in free Bitcoin. This offer is for A limited time only, so be sure to sign up today. That's Coinbase.com SBS and our thanks to Coinbase for sponsoring this episode. Listen, you know, almost every small business faces competition from much, much larger companies in their industries. And in order to compet and win, small business owners and entrepreneurs need to arm themselves. We need to arm ourselves with all the right tools and resources. And that's why we are loving this podcast called David vs Goliath. In each episode, host Adam to Grade covers the five smooth stones that every business needs to slay the Goliath in your industry. One of the best new podcasts for the people like us who are small businessing every day, David versus Goliath Podcast is dedicated to helping us small business owners leverage technology to compete and win against our large competitors. And it's so clear that Adam has this passion for inspiring and educating and even activating small business owners. With episodes covering emergency industry trends, top strategies in digital marketing, constructive management techniques, and more, this show is packed with everything you need to succeed. Insightful guest interviews, sales role playing, even actionable tips that you can apply directly to your business today. This is the stuff we love. So if you're a small business owner or Entrepreneur, the David vs Goliath podcast is a must listen. Search for David vs Goliath podcast on YouTube, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Go check it out. You're going to love it. And our thanks to the David vs Goliath podcast for sponsoring this episode. All right, man, let's, let's start our. Let's talk about what we're thankful for here. You want to, you want to kick us off, Shannon?

Well, sure. I tell you what, I'm thankful for those sponsors because even though we don't do this show to make money, we do this show to spread the joy of small business. And we love doing it, but it is a great, it's still something. You measure how you're doing and what type of sponsor will come on and, and, you know, sponsor the show and.

Who renews like that. That tells us a lot. Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah. So it's a, it's a good way to, to measure. So. But one of the things on my list is, and it sounds kind of weird, but, you know, it's taken me a long, long decades to get to this point, but I am very thankful that I don't have an alarm clock anymore. Oh, I still wake up early. Of course. I'm just, you know, you want to get stuff done. But there is no reason most Days. Some days I have meetings or calls or just kind of thing, but in general I can say that, okay, well, you know, I could get up and get myself going because my time has been returned to me after 25, 30 years of, you know, having commitments and having to be somewhere, getting things open, getting, making sure I always wanted to be there, you know, if not before the other employees, at the same time as other employees that were coming in. And I would often, most times stay later than they did, but not having to do that anymore. I miss working with those folks, but I don't miss the alarm clock.

Yeah, that's interesting. I haven't relied upon a daily alarm clock for quite some time. And I realized that the Monday after daylight saving time changed most recently for whatever reason. Now you remember, you know, if it is, if it was 8 o', clock, that's really what 9 o' clock would have been. You know, a few days prior. Prior, I Woke up at 9am on that Monday morning. That's late for me in a normal world. Like normally I'm awake by 8:15, 8:30. That's, that's me, you know, I'm a night owl. I'm up till about one or two. Dude, what's that?

You're a musician.

I'm a musician. I'm a musician and a computer nerd. This night owl thing is I had no choice in the matter, right? Yes, yep. But I woke up at 9am and I'm like, wow. And I like, I was hard, fast asleep. And then, you know, and then I woke up and I thought, man, this is 10:00am like, what am I doing sleep? I, you know, I haven't slept this late in a long time. But it was like, you know what? It's fine.

Like there's body needed it.

My body needed it. It was fine. I went, you know, and then I obviously, you know, got up and, and did my thing and came to the, to the office and started doing my thing. And it, it was fine. But yeah, setting things up so that I didn't need that alarm clock anymore. That, that was a goal a long time ago for me. Yeah.

You know, we always had buildings and people and employees I had to go to. And that's a little different. I suppose you could also say, you know, one of the people I followed for a long time is this guy. He calls himself Mr. Money Mustache.

Okay.

And, and he promotes this concept of, you know, this fire. What is it? I forget what the acronym stands for, but it's basically, you know, saving a bunch of Your money so you could retire early. I know the re.

Retire early. Okay.

And his concept or his thing that he used to celebrate is Monday didn't make any difference to him. And although he worked all the time on his own stuff and I get that, you know, Monday is just another day for me.

Right.

You just roll into it. Okay. What projects I'm working on, what.

Yeah.

You know, have going on. So it'd be a similar. Similar kind of thing, I guess, a little more flexibility. You know, we're not free as small business owners, but hopefully you've built some flexibility into your life.

Yeah, that's the. And I think that's a good litmus test for that flexibility is can you, you know, do you have to set an alarm every day? Like you said, there's some days where you have a meeting or whatever, it's fine. There's nothing wrong with that, you know, or a plane to catch or whatever it is. Yeah, yeah. Financial independence. Retire early. That's the fire concept.

Yeah, that's it. It's a good. I don't really. We could do a whole show about that. Maybe we should. I don't agree with the retire early thing. I think that. And by following people, I think that's a misnomer. They're not really retired. It's more that you're doing things that generate more revenue directly to your bottom line, which allows you the freedom of calling yourself, quote, retired.

Yeah, I, you know. Well, we mentioned it in the beginning of the episode. I'm talking about selling one of the businesses. It doesn't mean that we're selling the others. Right. So I will still very much have. Have responsibilities. And I like that because I know that if I were to not have anything to do, I would go from making money to spending money, because I'm not going to just sit around and let the time tick. I'm going to do something with my time, and it's either going to be things that are earning me money or costing me money. Right.

Well, that's true. You got to be careful.

It's one or the other. So you know what? I probably would. If I had nothing left to do, I'd probably start something else. You know, eventually something would happen, but I would be very concerned about, okay, you know, like now I'm going to. My, My rate of spending is going to increase. If I don't have something to. To work on that that earns money. It's like, I know how this goes. I know how I am so.

Well, you know how to do it. And it's like, you know, I think that's a. It's a good thing. And I don't want to take the next thankfulness thing, but it kind of leads into this if I'm very thankful for new challenges because it keeps things fresh. You don't get complacent. It's very good for your brain to be continuing to solve problems.

Neuroplasticity, man. I'm into it.

You got it.

Yep. I had neuroplasticity on my list. Nice of things.

Yeah.

Well, because it's important, like, if you. If you aren't. Especially as we age, which appears to be something we can't seem to avoid. Keeping the mind limber, as you. As it were, is, is super important. And new challenges are the way to do that.

Yeah, they are. And it can come into form. I'm. I'm doing a bunch of volunteering with the local organization that I have, that I've got involved in. And, you know, they're just, you know, the structure and lack of systems in this organization is just mind blowing. And so it's a massive challenge for me to go in and, number one, build enough credibility to where they will listen to you.

Yeah.

Instead of being just some new outsider that doesn't know how to, you know, nothing's working.

You don't know how. This isn't how we do things. Like. Yeah, that's why I'm here, man. Yeah.

Yes, yes. And I'm trying to overcome those things with this group. And so it's definitely. It's added some stress to my life because I can't instantly solve the problem because nobody works for me.

It's not your thing. Right.

I can't be like, no, no, this is just the way.

Or.

Or we've had these ideas, so now we're going to implement it. Doesn't work that way. So I think that. That those challenges, they just keep you coming up and keep you processing. Like, you say that whatever.

Plasticity, neuroplasticity.

Fancy term.

Yeah. It's just one of those things. I'm sure, as we all do. I have a few friends who are very set in their ways. And it's like, this is how I do things. And if I present something new to them, it is rejected summarily, not out of hand. Yeah. There's no evaluation. There's no experiment, experimentation. And certainly I try things that. That I do not. That don't stick, let's put it that way, you know, and then I go back to whatever I was doing before, but, like, embracing change is the way to keep the mind limber. And I think it's really. I think it's a good thing. Yeah, the, the first thing that I had on my list, though, are you, our listeners. And like, I really appreciate, and I don't say that to pander or anything. Like, I really appreciate. If we didn't have you, we wouldn't have sponsors. Right? I mean, maybe we could convince a couple of sponsors to come on board, but then they would fail and they wouldn't have any success and they wouldn't come back. And most of the sponsors that we get are through ad agencies and our partnerships with those I also value greatly. But those ad agencies are essentially one buyer for lots of different brands. And so if one brand fails on a show, that agency isn't going to risk their reputation bringing on lots of other brands for that show. So, you know, so all of these, like the sponsors that we have today, are two relatively new. One is Coinbase is brand new for this episode, and David versus Goliath. I think this is the second episode that we've had or maybe the third. But they are relatively new sponsors, but from agencies that we have worked with for years. And it's you. Without you, we don't have those sponsors. But without you, even without the sponsors, Shannon and I would not continue to do this show the way that we do it. We would talk and we would communicate, but it wouldn't be once a week, it would be once a month. And quite frankly, you all facilitate this conversation that I get to have with my friend and longtime business partner, Shannon. And I'm really thankful for that. I do have a thought, though, as I was reading through the sponsor spot, the David Goliath one, they said, and you heard me say it, find the show on YouTube, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. And I found that really interesting because those are two places I do not use to listen to. Most podcasts, me included.

Yeah.

But clearly that copy was written very specifically and very intentionally. And so clearly for David versus Goliath, that is either the audience that they have that they want to expand and they know works for them, but. Or are places that they have no audience and they want to expand there. So I'm curious. I have a question. I always have a question. Feedbackusinessshow.co. where do you listen to this show? I know everybody out there knows the answer to this question. It's super easy because you're listening to the show. So just tell us, where do you listen Is it in Spotify? Is it on YouTube? Because we are in both of those places. Is it on Apple podcasts? Is it somewhere else? You just listen on our website. Just let us know. Feedbackusinessshow.co let us know where you listen. And I would be ever so thankful for your answers. So I'm just curious. Good stuff. Yeah.

One of the things on my list that is I call the luxury of good equipment. Being able to buy what you need to do your job, not having to scramble. I've spent a lot of my time over the years like, okay, make and do. I mean, it was a time I was running companies where somebody would come and say, hey, I just sold your laptop. We need a data transfer and get you into something else because I got to ship that out today. Or we need that screen from this device and all that kind of stuff. And just being able to, you know, have the luxury of having the right size, big curved monitor on my desk and the right Mac laptop that I want when I, you know, just having that, I think it's great and makes your life better. It makes you more productive and I'm thankful for it.

I agree. Yeah. No, I also experience the luxury of good equipment. It's not an accident. I organized some. I started some businesses that were very much focused on that. Right. Like Mac observer and macgeekab are focused on my love for Apple equipment. And that has served me well. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. I mentioned it in the last. When I was talking about being thankful for you, our listeners. I'm thankful for all my business partners, and that includes you, Shannon, and it includes everybody else that I'm a partner with. I found that I do very well with business partners, with the right partners. If you've listened for a number of years, you've heard me tell stories of the wrong business partners that I've been with, which is probably what gives me the. The framework from which to know that I'm thankful for the right ones. But it really. Finding people that can either drive you in a way that you wouldn't drive yourself and. Or complete those tasks or take care of the things that you don't like to do or you aren't good at those partnerships can be wonderful. And I encourage people to seek them out. And even if you've had bad experiences in the past, you know, we're. None of us are good at everything. Yeah.

That is for sure. And I think that the sooner you can recognize what your weaknesses are.

Yes.

And then try to surround yourself either as employees or as partners. Of some sort. And that may be even, you know, doing an entirely entire joint venture with another company. They're better at certain things. I mean, like we had Todd Sokovitz from accountage on, and he was talking about they bought by Priority Software because primarily they wanted a small business application because they didn't have one and they didn't have a solution for their customers. So they went out and acquired a product because they're trying to offset one of their weaknesses. I think that's really true.

I agree. Yeah. Yeah.

So one of the things, I'm very thankful. I've thought about it more and more. I'm very thankful for the pessimists in my life. And what I mean by that is I'm just an eternal optimist. I'm always looking for the bright side. One of my catchphrases, I always, when I'm celebrating is our best years are always ahead of us. Which I truly believe that because I'm the author of my own story. And why would you think otherwise if you have the choice? And I think we have the choice. But the pessimists are really good for kind of sometimes calling out the BS of that and, you know, making you fine tune those concepts of how good things are going. And it's another weakness. You can be blinded by optimism. And I've been that way before and it's cost me a lot of money at times. So having some pessimists around.

No, you need the pessimists. I have to play the role of pessimist in some of the partnerships that I have.

Yeah.

You know, and I don't, I don't think of it as the pessimist, though. In the moment, though objectively, I certainly would agree that that is the role. But in the moment, it's more the realist. Like you've got the, you know, the, the optimist. If somebody's more optimistic than me, that actually worries me because it's like, wait a minute. Like, right. And so, you know, I see, see my barometer as I need to argue that this point. And if somebody can convince me it's not like I'm entrenched, but it's like, no, this is. I don't think that we're going to, like, that's a little bit pipe dreamy man and thing to recognize and it like draw the line. And now let's discuss it. And sometimes it's like, oh, no. Okay, I see that. All right, great, fine. Maybe I didn't have the information or I didn't see the vision. I'm not the visionary in any of the businesses. I have. Rarely am I the one that comes up with the idea for the business. But, you know, I'm the execution guy.

Well, you're a get it done guy.

Yeah, exactly. But that's important. That's what also makes me a pessimist. It's like, well, wait, what do you mean you think we can do that? Like, I don't think we can do that. And I'm the one doing the doing. So let's have this conversation. Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah, absolutely.

I am thankful for the vaccines. We spent a year plus being locked down. And if we look at what has. I know things aren't perfect out there, but especially in the performing arts portion of my life, which is another portion of my business life. But it's also just a portion that I'd love to do. You know, that part was shut down basically, without any other options for a year. And it really was the introduction of the vaccines that allowed that to open up. Whether, you know. Well, I'll leave it at that. It really, like, without that, I think we'd have had to find another way, and I don't know that we would have as quickly as we did. So I am super, super thankful for the vaccines, for reopening business, because without it, and I know there's people out there that agree with the vaccines and don't agree with them, but without them, like, none of the concerts that any of us saw this summer would have happened were it not for the availability of vaccines. Whether people attended, took them or not is sort of irrelevant, but it is also relevant. You know, if you attended a concert, you took advantage of the vaccines. If you, you know, me as a performing artist being able to perform for people, I took advantage of the vaccines. I am vaccinated. But, you know, like, whether or not you are vaccinated, that's what's been happening, right? That's the reason for all this. So I'm super thankful for it.

Yeah, I'm thankful. I'm thankful for it as well. I'm also thankful on the flip side for the freedom of choice that we have in our society. So that's another argument. Whether, you know, you want to talk about mandates and different things. I do believe I'm for vaccines. I'm not for mandates. But I think that, you know, you and I are on the same page. So much of things would not have happened had we not had it. I wish they would have called it something else because I think there would have been less argument about it.

Yeah. And well, I was right. We, we are humans. We, we love to be divided. It truly, like, it's ridiculous. It drives me crazy. But it is just a fact of being human that we seem to love to argue and take our sides and all of that crap. And so obviously it happened with this too. Of course it did.

You know, and I think poor persuasion from the, you know, entities in charge of how it was presented. But I also cut them a break that like, well, we're kind of in this pandemic. We don't really know.

We didn't know it was our first pandemic.

Yeah.

I mean, really, you know, I mean, I know this one other ones, but this is the first one that really hit hard. But yeah, I'm, I'm super thankful for the vaccines because I like, we would not be as open as we. The reason we are as open as we are now is the vaccines. Whether there would have been another reason, I can't say. There's no control group, but. Correct. But yeah, I'm very thankful for them and the fact that they're keeping a lot of people safe. It's great.

I agree.

Yeah, I agree.

It's great from that aspect. I agree.

Yeah.

Good stuff, man. We have, we all have a lot to be thankful for.

Yeah.

And certainly our best years are ahead of us.

Definitely. Our best years are ahead of us. Oh, by like, if we've proved nothing over the last 40, you know, 24 months, like, that's definitely the case.

Absolutely. Absolutely.

Thanks so much for listening, folks. Send us a note. Feedback business show co. Let us know what you're thankful for. Let us know. Let us know what we're wrong about. We'd love to hear about that. Absolutely. That's right. You got anything else, man? Or is it time to wrap?

No, that's it. If you're celebrating Thanksgiving, which I hope you are, have a great day with family and friends and maybe you're having a friendsgiving. Those are cool too.

Those are cool too. I remember doing those as a, you know, before we had kids and all that stuff. Yeah. Kind of in those in between years, who knows? Maybe those will happen again for us. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Absolutely. Check out our sponsors folks, coinbase.com SBS and of course, search for that David versus Goliath podcast we mentioned. Keep living that charmed life, will you? See you next week. Thanks.