0497 | Curtis May
24 Jul 2024 · 68 min
Curtis May breaks down financial literacy as cash-flow management and presents a five-principle framework: Save, Protect, Legacy, Liquidity, Velocity. He recommends saving 15% of gross income, keeping 6-12 months liquid, and investing for cash flow and control through business, real estate, and private credit rather than conventional asset management.
Questions this episode answers
Save 15% or more of gross income.
If you don't have three months of income, you shouldn't be investing; preferred liquidity is 6–12 months of income.
4% (industry rule-of-thumb mentioned).
Text BE THE BANK (all caps, one word) to 55444.
Chapters
Hey, this is Curtis May from Practical Wealth Solutions and hosted a practical wealth show. And you're listening to EA interviews.
EA interviews episode 497, inspiration, transformation, success stories and the imperfect action round.
Seven days a week, join Mario Ficcini.
For today's expert authority effect interview. Business requires money. You have your business so you can make more money. But what are you doing and help people? Let me put that in there. You should be doing that. I hope you're not transactional, but what are you doing with the money once you have it? I don't know about how you grew up, but my upbringing in traditional school system was not like here's how you be wealthy by the time you graduate. So I'm super excited to have Curtis May on today's episode. So Episode, really? He's going to be talking to us about principles that have endured the test of time for centuries on building your wealth. I'm going to bring them up right after we thank our sponsor. Every business needs a book, including yours. And that's why I'm launching my new book to help you regardless of where you think your current writing abilities are. Visit eapublishingmethodbook.com today to learn the seven steps to publish and promote your nonfiction, lead and profit generating business book in eight weeks. Once again, that's eapublishingmethodbook.com Here he is, ladies and gentlemen, Curtis May. Curtis, how are you feeling today?
I am fantastic. Thank you for having me on.
Oh, the pleasure is mine. I want to ask you, why do you think so many people in business out of business? Why is fight. Why are finances such a hot button topic and why are so, so few educated on it?
It's not an accident. Okay. I think that like one of my favorite book is books is the Creature. That too. But that just kind of tells you what's going on. Right? But I start with and what really changed my career was Rich Dad, Poor dad. Right. And the whole title of the book is Rich Dad, Poor dad where wealthy people teach their kids that the poor middle class don't. And you know, one of the key things I got from that because I hate accounting. Right? And so the book is really a book about accounting. And financial literacy is not investing. Right? Financial literacy is accounting. It's the ability to read numbers. You know, the numbers tell a story. And most people, whether you're in business or your household, don't know the number that their stories is telling them. They don't know how they correlate. And that's the Start right, the game is won and lost. Most wealth is lost, number one, by how people manage cash flow. And people don't really pay attention to that. Know, most typical advisors don't want to be bothered with that because that's, you know, they get paid for assets under management, so they're, that's not their objective. So that's.
Why would you argue they're really salespeople?
Well, everybody's in sales. Okay. If you're married, you've been on a date, you, you're in sales. Right. So the. But yeah, they're really, I, I don't throw them under the bus. I think that they serve a purpose, they have an agenda. And what your job, because it's your money, is to. You need to have an your own agenda. So for example, here are the four rules of financial institutions that govern all financial advice. They want your money, they want on a regular basis. They want to keep it as long as possible, and they want to give it back as slow as possible, if ever. Right. And so their objective is assets under management. So I'm not saying that's wrong, but your listeners, you need to ask yourself, well, what do I want to be when I grow up? Do I want to be, you know, rich, poor, middle class. So do quote a book, we're just talking about. Right. And, or, or comfortable, secure, rich. And so you've got to decide, you.
Don'T need to throw them under the bus because Kiyosaki talks about like, you know, brokers, you know, you know what he says, or broke.
Right, right. And so some of them are doing a good job. So what happens is it's just how we're trained. Because I was trained like that the first 15 years of my career.
Sure.
Okay. In, in the industry. And I thought I was doing a great job until I read Rich Dad, Poor Dad. I was like, huh? Well, he's talking about. And what I'm doing is different. So that was like my epiphany that, okay, I need, I. There's other games going on here I don't understand. And so, but because what happens is the game they play is not make you rich, make your clients rich. Right. Because you're the people that, for example, find me, that I work with. Their goal is what I call work optional income. They want to be financially free. They want to be financially independent. Well, that is a function of cash flow. And so we're not taught to invest for cash flow. We're taught to invest for capital gains like buy low, sell high, buy.
That's if you're even taught to invest.
Yes. Well, let's go back though, because we're not taught to invest. See, because what people. Yeah, let's talk about how old were.
You when you first heard about passive income?
Oh.
20S.
Early 20s. I was my family, so I'm a little bit weird. My family had always been in business, you know, so that's awesome. I never got that. Yeah, I never got that. Go get a good job talk. My dad told me you never make any money work for somebody else. So I didn't know anything about investing. Now I know that the business is an investment, but that was just how we made money. And so the what to your point when you opened up is okay when the money hits your personal economy now what you do with the money and, and so a lot of people drop the ball. And I would argue typical financial advice is literally toxic for business owners. And because we're trained to. See, I told you I'm step on some toes. We're trained to give our money.
I'm glad you are. This is awesome.
Okay, so we're told to give our money to some fund manager you ain't never met and hope they can get you 6 or 7% with risk. Okay? And so it's work fund, your SEP fund, your solo 401k, put it in the market. But if you ask a business owner, I've worked a lot with real estate investors and small business owners. I said, well listen, do you think you can make your portfolio outperform the S and P? And they go, hell yeah. I mean they're making infinite returns, right? So why would you lock money up and put money in jail for 20 years where you can't touch it, right? Well, you need liquidity, use and control because your knowledge makes money. Your baby put a dollar in business, you make $2. That's 100% right here.
So many. Here's 100 grand.
Yeah, I mean so there's so many ways you can make money in your business. You know, working on your marketing, follow up, retention, you know, and just looking at the million dollars is how to in your business, let alone other asset classes. See, people think investment is the stock market, okay. And that's just an asset class called paper, Right? What are the four asset classes? Business, real estate, paper. Now, but paper is tax liens paper. I got clients that do private lending. Paper is, I got clients that buy notes. So now I don't teach them how to do all this stuff. See, all I do is make sure they have some savings and then you figure out what you want to invest in. Because here's a statement. Investing is not about buying something, it's about becoming something.
So to become a good business or you have to become a. See, people always want to. Looking for somebody to give their money to, but you have to become an investor. And so the typical advice is like, look, you don't have the time to temporary train to manage your own money. So basically they say if you say.
People that just want to give the money away to someone they think is smarter is kind of like gambling. Because it's like, I'm just going to give my money here and hope for the best kind of attitude.
It is gambling.
Okay, all right. And before we get too far, I want to ask, what was the fourth one? And I'm curious if I'm right. You did say the fourth. You said the commodities, right?
Gold, silver, oil.
And gas.
Yeah.
So, you know, you've got to be a credit investor. But. But that's another asset class, gold and silver. Although I don't.
I was debating about asking it because I'm like, I don't know if I'll get this right. And I go, wait, what's gold? I'm like, oh, it's a commodity, like oil. And so it is commodity.
But, you know, I don't view gold and silver as an investment odyssey. So I have people on my show and they're like, oh, you know, they're trying to compare gold to S and P or the Dow. Like, no, no, stop.
You know, it's more of a hedge against inflation.
It's more of a hedge. I view it as insurance, honestly, I view it as a hedge against stuff going to hell in a hand in a hand basket. You know, the hedge against the dollar. Crashing.
Imagine if anything actually got bad.
Yeah, yeah. You know, so I think you look. But because really the. Because it doesn't cash flow, it doesn't do anything. It can be a store of value. So again, if you want to become financially free, like, I don't like retirement. So I'm all, I'm completely opposite everybody. You think you heard, guys. So retirement is a agricultural turn. It means to withdraw or to put out of use. Right. So is that what you want? Or do you want to be able to live like you want to live from the income from your personally invested assets without working? Well, that's a capability. Right. And see, so are you investing for hoping that some fund manager is really smart and you reach 65 now you can stop working and hope. Here's the hope that you die before you run out of money. That's because that's really what you're doing. And so the average family that it was some, it was like a Vanguard report, some report I saw where the, the average 6 year old has less than $150,000 in their 401k.
Which is not going to get it done.
And so it's a, it's a problem, you know.
And so how much do you think someone should have? And I know it depends on how much do you make and how much all these things over the years, but to even keep up with inflation.
Well, I don't even look at money that way. But let's, let's look at, let's, let's go on what you talked about. So let's say you're making $100,000 a year.
Okay.
So the safe withdrawal rate is, it depends who you talk to. Way foul says is less than this, but I'm gonna say 4%. This is what the industry lets you say, right? So if you had, if you had a million dollars and you pull out 4%, that's 40,000. So you're already short.
Right? If so you, if you needed 100, you need $2 million will give you.
80 and you're still short. You'd need two and a half and you're still short.
So now you're trying to save two, two and a half million dollars in a fluctuating market.
Using an, a monetary unit called dollars that the longer you hold them, the less they buy.
And then you're stuffing most of it in an entity called a qualified plan that you're just deferring taxes and you don't know how much taxes will be when you take it out.
Moreover, does that even account for an adjustment in inflation?
No. And see the inflation. So you got to. Because people.
So it sounds like a losing proposition before you account for inflation. And now once we account for inflation, what's the number go from 2 and a half mil? How much do you need?
Yeah, well, a lot. That's why you accumulation doesn't work. So we call that in our process the accumulation theory. Right. And so most advice that's typical is the accumulation theory. Buy and hold dollar cost average, get out of debt, buy term investor difference. And the S and P is the center of the financial universe. Right?
Take us through your, your framework real quick. What are the steps?
So the framework we teach, I teach my goal to help our clients go from financially dependent to financial independence. Okay. And so there's principles that are not new, they're not curses. Principles. If you read the richest man in Babylon, you've seen them. You know, it has nothing to do with products. It's all about your philosophy about money when it hit your account. Right? So the five. Yeah, so that's what I mean. See, you're, it's. You've got to learn to keep your own counsel. So the principles that we teach are principle one, save. Save what, 15% or more of your gross income, okay? Then we track it, right? Save. Now, let me define savings. Savings doesn't mean maxing out your 401k, because that's not savings, it's investing. Okay? And so you gotta. So savings, safe, liquid, assessable, guaranteed. Okay? That's saving. Okay? And if you don't have three months of income, you shouldn't be investing. All right, that's an aside. Okay? So there are three. Principle number two, I'm gonna go through them fast and we can come back if you want. Principle number two is protect. It's what we call maximum protection. Right? So you have to play defense. So the first thing, because while you're building the empire, what could happen? You could die, you get sick, you get sued, you get disabled. So you have to play defense. So that's insurances.
That's especially in business.
Especially in business. So you, you can't. And most people are underinsured. The third principle is full replacement of assets at death. So I call it legacy. So it's really the opposite of self insurance. So you'll have people say buy term, investor difference. And when you get enough money, you can self insure. Self insure. That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard in my life. If you, you know, and I was in a company that championed that, so I can talk about it. Right, so let's say you had a. Let just hit this real quick. So let's say you had a house, right, and you paid your mortgage off, would you drop your homeowners insurance?
No.
No. If you had, let's say the house were 400,000 and you were self insured, you know, you had enough to cover the house, would you drop your homeowners insurance?
Absolutely not.
Right, so that's. Self insurance is a myth. Because now by transferring some of the risk to the insurance company, doesn't that free up that 400,000 to do whatever? Right, so, and so that's the thought process. Same thing with life insurance, if you got.
It's reminding me of when we publish books. It's like when people Go, oh, we'll self edit. You're not even a writer now you're going to edit it too and hope it turns out the way you want.
It's crazy, right?
You got to get, you can do it, you can cover all these expenses on your own. But why would you, why would you.
If you have somebody that you can pull risks with other people, that's insurance, right? And so you want to sell. Principle three is legacy. Principle four, this is where a lot of people miss the boat.
Liquidity, they're way too covet proved. You need way more money saved than you think. So we preach 12, 6 to 12 months of your income.
Liquid, right? So now and then the fifth principle just to hit them all is velocity. So where you heard me talk about the accumulation theory, the velocity method is we teach, you know, so if you look at corporate finance, what do they teach? They teach velocity of money, which is just an economic principle of moving money. Put money in an asset, get it back, put it in another asset. Then they focus on cash flow, they focus on leverage. So they're not trying to get out of debt. If a corporation had a, a million dollars in cash and a million dollars of debt to them, that is a balance sheet neutral decision.
Right?
Because if you pay, especially if they have non recourse on a commercial property.
Yeah, I don't care, I don't care what they got, okay? Is cash is king, right. So if you can, you got a fixed loan at a monthly payment and inflation's already destroying the debt for you. Can you take this? Look at Apple, Apple has all kinds of debt, but they have cash, right? So, so we have to take a play out of the big boys playbook because all that stuff works in small business finance, it works in family, your household finance. And so you know, success leads, clues. They teach you to rent term insurance. Banks are the biggest buyers of permanent life insurance. You know there's a, I had a guy on my show, Barry Dyke, the Pirates of Manhattan. There's a book called the Pirates of Manhattan and he's an amazing researcher and went through all these like Brian Roberts and what's the guy from, who just passed away from gm, Jack Welch. You know most of these guys don't invest in the stock market. They, they will have qualified, non qualified like retirement plans and they fund them with life insurance, right. And see so they put money where certain, where they can't lose money. But they teach us to gamble in the stock market. So it's like you just have to understand it's hard to win a game you don't know the rules and sometimes you just gotta peel back the curtain and really you know success. These clues we always say and you know.
Yes. Stop listening to what everyone's saying and look and see what they're doing.
What they're doing. Don't look where what they're saying. Do what they do. Because if. Because the institutions that tell you the buy and hold dollar cost average get out of debt. They don't do that.
They don't do that. You know they don't. They would never leave a money in account for 20, 30 years. They would never leave money sit while it's going down. They would never.
And you can't use it for those 20, 30 years and then after you die now you take it out.
Yeah. They don't.
You never get the benefit of it.
So if it's good for them, why is it not good for you? And see so you need to use financial companies but you've got to kind of flip the script a bit and do what they do with it.
Not let's break down the qualify you said real real quick. They. They're using life insurance to hedge against their non qualified retirement plan. I believe it was. How would you define non qualified versus qualified?
So qualified plans are 401ks IRAs.
Okay.
Steps that's a qualified plan qualified by the Treasury Department by the government. And so there are plans that is.
For a really high regulated more.
Right. You're right. It's highly compensated executives you can.
This is how they're like golden handcuffs. So there's the thing it's called split dollar not to get you tackled. You look at Jim Harbaugh's article article on in Sports Illustrated a few months ago. Not a few months ago, A couple of years ago when he first got his contract and I know the organization that negotiated that for him and they use life insurance as part of his package and they put you know millions of dollars in it that he didn't have to pay. He paid little taxes on and a lot of big coaches do that, you know as part of their package. And it's like golden handcuffs for them because they have to stay at the university eight years. They get this payout through the insurance and when they pass away that the university is the. Is the. Is the beneficiary. The beneficiary and they get their money back tax free.
Isn't that interesting? Right. And so there's variations of that we can do with our families. You know so when we talked about my framework Right. So principals. The other principles are the three rules of investing. Invest in what you know, invest in what you can control. Don't chase returns. All right, so principles drive strategy. So some of y' all have heard a strategy called infinite banking. Okay? So infinite banking is using properly structured dividend paying whole life as a place to store cash. So if somebody's talking about that and they use any other product in the whole life, they don't know what the hell they're talking about. Okay? So I, I'm not even going in front, you know, and I'm not gonna play nice, okay? I don't know what they're talking about. They don't literally beat you over the head with the book in the first three minutes of your conversation. The, the book, Nelson Nash book. Become your own banker. They don't do it. They just think it's a gimmick to sell insurance. It's a money management system. Okay? And then strategy drives tactics. Tactics are the products that you buy to fulfill the different strategies that you're doing. And so what happens? The products always come last. There's no. Because there's no product that exists in financial industry that in of itself is going to take you to glory, you know, take you to financial freedom. Anybody saying that is full of crap.
The comprehensiveness of having them all working together, it's all right.
They're tools. They're just tools. Right? But you. What is that? It was that book, Atlas Shrugged. It says money is a vehicle. Yeah, Ayn Rand. Money is a vehicle, but it won't replace you as the driver. Right? And so you have to learn how to drive the car. You know, you've got to invest in. Your number one asset is you. Right? So what do you invest in? Your mindset, your skill sets. Because, see, people say I need to make more money. Well, how do you make more money? You have to create value in the marketplace. Money is a result of serving people, of solving problems for people. And so you don't make a lot of money. That's because you don't know how to do anything that anybody's willing to increase your skill set. That's what you focus on. If you want to make more money, I'll focus on that. I invest in Curtis getting better, Curtis getting able to solve problems. And that correlates into our scoring, our business and our revenue. Because I know how to do a lot of stuff people don't know how to do. And people call me to solve their problems. Okay? I'm an. Entrepreneurs solve problems for a Profit, okay, right.
And, and you bigger the problem and the more people you can help.
Yeah, more people you help, the bigger check. And so there's nothing wrong with that because profits are a result of service.
Capitalism is great.
Capitalism is great capitalism. FA Hayek said, capitalism is an ever expanding system of cooperation among strangers. And that through that cooperation amongst strangers, the byproduct of that is capital. So it's not the objective, it's a byproduct of that cooperation. So people marks got it wrong, you know, and so everybody's following all these little Marxist college professors. Don't get me started. And my door have a door. Just graduated. So it's like, I think every time she came over a break, I'm like, what? No, that's not how it works. Okay. And I had to like, be.
I gotta ask one thing because I feel like you've got 12 things you want to say about it. Give us one.
About what? About what?
What you were just saying there. You said, don't get me started. I want to get you started on one or two.
I think that, you know, people, somehow these people resent, like people like you and I, because we, they've got PhDs and we're making more money than them and they resent that. Right? But they're not creating that. They learn more and more about less and less, right? And they're not really solving problems, so they're pro. They're pushing their ideas on 18 year olds that make no sense, you know, that have, they're just, it's just theory and it's never worked. Socialism has never worked in the history of mankind. And so there's that, all right? And so I'll, I have, I'll give like books, high school kids and college kids, they'll say, oh, I'm studying economics. Really? Have you ever heard of economics in one lesson? No. Have you ever heard of fa. Hike? No. Have you ever heard, have you ever heard of Austrian economics? No, what's that? And they don't study. All they do is study Oral Keynesians, right? So they don't really. Which is designed for central planning. But the hubris to think that 12 people in a room can manage an economy where the economy is you and I out there making business buying decisions every day. As you know, whether you're going to a supermarket, whether you're at a shop in a bazaar somewhere, that's economics. And so you can't control that because it's governed by human action.
It should be ever expanding.
It's ever expanding, right? And so you can't control that. What you need to do is get out the way and stop helping, you know, and stop. Because you don't know. And then there are people that are doing it. Never run a business. Okay, that.
Yeah, there's that quote about.
The people, the people complaining or the critics saying stuff about the people doing. Should get out of the way of the people doing it.
Yeah.
You know, the. The man in the arena is a. Is a great one.
Yeah.
If you've never been in the arena, how do you talk about it? How you.
Which advice do you have? Shut up. Leave me alone. You can't.
There was. I don't know if you've ever heard this, but for college students, because I remember saying this stuff. I hate high school mentality, walking the halls of high school. Same thing when I was in college. It was like, I. Opposite of how to win friends and influence people. I was always nice, love people, pray for them, hope they're better. But there are certain things. I was like, what is wrong with these people? And this is more than a year or two ago, let's say. But I was like, how can I. Like, how can you have a constructive argument which is God bless. But. So I gave the example of like, okay, you think we should do this, this, this and this. Okay, everyone's agreeing. I go, you have a 4.0, right? Yeah. Okay, well, Bobby only has a 2.6. Shouldn't we get everyone to 3.0 so everyone can pass? Yeah, but Bobby was out playing and doing all this. I'm the one studying 14 hours a day and did it. And I'm like, why don't we just take some of your 4.0? You know, make up for his difference and Sally's difference and this. Wouldn't that be fair? Then we can all pass. They're like, no, well.
Capitalism.
You're a capitalist, right? And that you just. Because people don't think, they hear dogma. They get stuff from sound bites and they don't really think or. Or understand, right? So, for example, people say, well, inflation, the prices are going up. That's inflation. That's not inflation. That's a result of inflation. Or inflation, until they change the definition has always meant an expansion in the money supply. So you have a lot of dollars chasing few too few goods, which drives up the price, right? So that's the result. And see, so what they do is they make the. You can't see it because they make the boxes smaller. We ship it overseas. And so. But as business owners, what I realized is you have to kind of like I teach people to think from a macroeconomic standpoint because you have to see the whole playing field. Like you have to see, you can't surfing, you got to see the waves before they're forming, you know, and then you'll see crashes coming because you'll understand, like if you read the book, we're talking Creature from Jackal island and you know, in the business cycle theory at the Archangels talk about the distortions are caused by the Fed, right? And you'll see the ripple of that. So you can't control it. But if you understand the game, you can position yourself. See, good financial planning is not investing.
Maybe ride the waves or get out of the boat or something.
You gotta ride the waves. You gotta, you know, if something causes inflation, well, what asset class? Bigger boat, right? Get a bigger boat. What asset class does inflation help?
Right? So you've got to see that. So inflation tends to drive out real assets, real estate, gold, silver, you know, and so does it generate cash flow. And so, because I always tell people, look, you can't control the economy.
So I don't worry about that stuff. I don't care who's in office, doesn't matter, okay? What I care, I can control my family's personal economy, my business economy, my production and consumption as a family or a business unit. So instead of worrying about, you know, you know, is we're going to have a recession, who cares? I made more money in during COVID you know, because I decided that I was still in. My dad used to always say, your store's got to be open. Like we're in a supermarket business, right? So he says, you got to open your store. And so I went, I got up, I went to the office. I didn't sit around watching the Ozarks, you know, because they told you to stay home. I was busting my butt, you know, at the office every day. I found out that people I working with were still open. So I just, I let them know that, all right, let's, let's do this.
Also, you'd have to be to think that was going to continue for 10 plus years. At some point it goes back to normal and you go, okay, now I have to play. You can either play catch up or you're at the tip of the wave leading the charge.
Yes, I was.
You know the old adage about advertising? Oh, we got to cut back. No, double down. Because whoever's left, they're going to be.
Remembering you because you got to take market Share. That's it goes back to my liquidity example, right? If you are liquid, see, if you have money opportunities find you, or you can buy out competitors or you can get, you know, properties on pennies on the dollar. See, because you're liquid and you understand you can read numbers, you're financially literate and, and you know a good deal when you see it. So planning is really more about provisioning than it is about investing. It's like, can I say shit happens. Like, stuff happens. Sorry. And you have to be able to protect yourself and then.
Take ground when people falter. Right. And what's his name?
J.
What's the guy from J.P. morgan? Jamie Dimon calls it a fortress balance sheet. You have a fortress balance sheet that will defend against.
He was, remember I told you I was at the event. He was just in town.
Oh, really?
Okay. Jamie was three weeks ago.
I read his book and so I've. There's a. One of the guys that manages the money of the one insurance companies I work with, he says, oh, we have a fortune's balance sheet. And I said, I've heard that. And I had read his little report for banks. I says, can I do this with clients? And, and there was a guy, he followed Vauban, which is like a French guy that built fortresses and, you know, for them. And so his fortress were if you attacked, they could capture you and then. Or fend you off sieges. He was like a siege specialist. Right. And you could, you could hold off the siege and then you could take ground at the same time. And so I talk people about, you want to have your finances set up so when, when stuff hits the fan, you can protect yourself, but then you can pivot and go on an attack right away. And so I try to get our people to think about that. So it's more about becoming more what I call going from economic childhood to economic adulthood, meaning that your adults, you're more entrepreneurial. You've. What Dan Sullivan calls the entrepreneurial decision. You've decided if you want to be in business, you've decided that you're 100 responsible for making your money. You've resolved everybody else from taking your fan, taking care of your family.
Okay, the entitlement's gone.
Yeah, entitlement's gone. And then two, you don't deserve any money unless you create value in the marketplace first. Right? So you have to. And you have to learn to live in a performance economy. And so even at part time, even if you still have a side hustle, you have to learn to think like that. And that's. See, that's part of becoming right? So this whole transformation, people are always looking for, what's the hot tip? You know, what's the product? Where's. I got $10,000. What should I do with it? Somebody asked me this one time, my wife's an attorney. She had a client come in and goes, Yeah, I got $10,000. She told him what I did, which they don't. I don't do that. I'm not the. I'm the defensive coordinator. Right. I don't tell you what to invest in. That's your job. It's your money. And I will teach you how money works. But you've got to pick the vehicles that you like that you understand that you know, that you could control. Right. Three wheels invested. And so he said, what? I got $10,000. I said, well, look, if you gave me the 10,000, how much would you have left with? Nothing. Well, then you can't invest. You don't have any money. I mean, you can't give me your. What do you. You know. Because people are trying to hit a home run. They're like, okay, I want to put this $10,000 in, and you want to.
Turn the 10 grand into a mill.
So that's.
You can't take any hits.
To invest means to cover fully, to investigate. Right, Ben.
Not Ben Graham. Well, Ben Graham, but I'm talking Buffett. Buffett. Buffett's mentor and Charlie Munger's mentor is Benjamin Graham.
Yeah.
Right. So in his book the Intelligent Investor, the first chapter is investing versus speculating. Right? And think about it. It was a book about the stock market. Now, they. Because they. They were investing in securities. And he says an investment quote, unquote, is something that your capital into where you have safety of principle and a reasonable opportunity to make a profit. Okay. Doesn't fits that definition. You are speculating or gambling. Right? So now if you hold that definition up to what people are training, people save for retirement and 401k, you're not saving. Your principal's not safe. You don't have a reasonable opportunity to make a profit. So I would argue a, you're speculating for retirement in your 401k. Do you know who Graham figured out for yourself? Curtis is not telling you. Giving you investment advice. Okay, so that's my.
Oh, yeah, we're talking finances. We should have a disclaimer here.
Right, right, right.
Use your own brain.
Use your own judgment.
This is for, you know who Graham learned from.
No, I don't.
Okay, do you.
Is there. Is there.
No. I was reading. Reading and watching some stuff on Buffett and Munger, and I was like, okay, I knew that for Graham, but I'm like, won. He learned it from, you know, just like with the success coaches. It's like, well, Tony Robbins was with this guy and this guy was with this guy, and, yeah, Dale Carnegie this and that.
Because when you look at that stuff, like, you got to get that genealogy on that kind of stuff is Dan. Yes, yes.
Like, you're saying success leaves clues. And it's like.
It'S like, where did all this originate from?
Because when. Here's the kind of current nerd I am, right? So when I read a book, I don't just read a book. I read the bibliography, the book, because I want to see who they're reading. Right. And so. And if you like, if you're like, you and I, if you go to enough conferences, you hear a speaker, you can hear what they're saying, but you can hear who they're reading and how they interpret it and how they brought it back out there and who they're hanging out with.
It's interesting when you see this massive post about something and it's so easy now with the social. They're. You see the 38 people that are tagged or a hundred, and it's like, oh, they know this one and this one, you know.
But you got it. You got it. But part of it is, you know, I say, investing in your mindset, skill set, network, that's part of it. Because you got to get around people that think like that, that don't drag you down, that are winning, that want you to win there, aren't jealous of you. So you really, like, if you don't have money, people say, what I do, I don't have money.
You learn something new and sell it.
Yes, basically sell it. You got to sell something. There's only six out of you don't.
Know how to sell. Read a book on selling and go test it out.
And so here's the thing. Selling.
Or I'll say this for anyone listening, just ask for money for something you're already good at. The whole sales thing, I consider it serving. And there's so many people that are so good at. I'm good at this, this, this, this, this, that. The issue is they've just always done it as a volunteer for free. While I can do, just say, hey, I see you have a problem. People are complaining on social all the time. Hey, I said whatever. It is. You need a ditch dig, Doug. Who cares? Just offer money for the. The second you do that, you go, huh? I could be doing. Your brain will open to all the other stuff you actually are good at. That may be in line, but if you've never offered anything ever, it. That's the biggest mountain. It doesn't matter what it is firing.
Myron Gold says the offer you don't make is the offer they can't take. Right? And so you have to, you know, you have to.
My first business was lawn care, maintenance, power washing. I was 12, right. I expanded the company when I got my first car. I put a chain on it and said shrub removal. This isn't rocket science, people. And so you find more than ever, people don't want to do anything.
Right?
So if you. Because you eat, you beat 90. I tell my kids all the time, you beat 90% of the people if you show up and work hard. Because most people can't do that, right? And now if you engage in a little bit of critical thinking and not waiting to be told what to do, that puts you in the top percentile.
Absolutely.
People don't want to work. And so that's the thing. And, and now they.
What do I do next?
What do I do next?
What do I do next?
Like, yeah, like I. Listen, get out my. What do I need you for if I got. If I gotta do tell you every day. So my daughter's looking for her first job now. She just graduated. I'm like, listen, I'm telling you, you should look at sales, right? Because you think sales is. I want to be where the most of the money is made, you know, and if I'm bringing in the money, you know that because without the salesperson, everybody else is in support of sales. And so you want to be on the front end of where the money's made. And sales is not. Especially today. But sales is not convincing people to do buy stuff they don't want or need. You're really consultative, right? Help sell. This is my definition, helping. This is from Dan Sullivan. It's a. It's a process of helping people make a future decision that's good for them, right? And so if it's not good, selling.
Snow ice to Eskimos, it's like, it's a cute phrase, but it's like, so you're selling them crap, right?
Because I hate those guys. I can't stand that. Like I'm, I'm.
There's something about them. You can usually pick them out pretty good versus like oh, tell me more about what your problem is. You actually want to solve it. And I've told people, even if it's not me or my team, I know people, right? Like we don't do what you do. We'll publish a great book on finance, but we're not doing what you're doing. But call Curtis.
You know what I mean? It's not just your business, it's everyone you know within your network that you can put them in touch with again.
It'S hopefully not strangers, but it's an ever expanding network of. Because what you want to do is really. What I try to do with people is simplify complexity. Right. Because people have a ceiling of complexity. So what they're doing is they're reaching that ceiling and that causes frustration, anxiety, right?
Oh yeah.
So what I teach people. So listen, if you read a 12 to 15 page a day, right, as your knowledge goes up, your anxiety comes down because now you have more ways to solve the problem. But since you didn't know how to do anything, you're just like know one or two ways and that's not working and you don't know anything. So if you, you want to. As your knowledge goes up, your risk comes down.
And I'd say the speed of solving the problem too. Because there are a lot of good resources online, YouTube, if it's a simple like three step process. But if you're saying investing or book publishing, okay, cool, you got past one and two. Great. What about the other 98? If it's taking you a month to go from here to here, here to here, here to here, it's going to take a decade to accomplish.
Well, that's the Ben Hardy book. Who, not how. So I'm a big fan of that. It's like, all right, if Ben's great.
I had him on, I had him on the show.
Oh yeah, I need to get you introduced me. But he's awesome. I got the 10x is usually in 2x.
Yep.
And I was at a conference in Cancun earlier. He was there and with name dropping Russell Brunson. Right. So I was down there and. But that is powerful. Like you know, because now like, oh, I need to fix this funnel. I was like, I don't. I could figure it out but it takes too much time and it's below my pay grade. Right, right. So who can do this? Right? Because we waste so much time trying to figure out how just is a who out there waiting for you and you just gotta find them or have a system for Finding them. You know, I'm not going to write a book. I need somebody to help me write a book. I need to help somebody ask me some questions. Let me dictate. It's in here. But I'm not going to sit down with a typewriter and type it. You know, I like.
And there's a point where maybe you're doing something for a hobby or fun or you like, we're talking about expand your capabilities. But this whole jack, Jack of all trades, it's like, not if you're in business. It's like, yeah, you might want to do something for fun, but are you really going to try and solve all the world's problems, plus your own, plus your family's, plus the business every day? That's tiring.
You gotta focus on what your unique ability. What are you right. The best at that. Other people find hard. What do you. What comes easier? Other people find hard. And I try to stay in that zone of genius and everything else. I try to outsource. Yeah.
And who can you pay to do this thing actually? And gets joy out of it. Maybe you do figure we're not slow. We can figure it out. But do you enjoy it? No. Not one bit.
I hate it. I'm unhandy. We had a guy working on our, you know, putting like, laying the bricks in our yard for, like, the sidewalk that came loose because another guy did a horrible job. And he's like, okay. We figured out the price. I says, okay. And I went to a movie. I took my daughter to a movie. I came back, it was done. I was like, that's what I'm talking about. Say, I don't want to know how to do this. How much?
It's like in video games. That's the cheat code.
Right? Right. That's a chico. Let me go to a movie. I'll be back. I just want to be done when I get back, you know? And now what does it have to do about money? I don't know. I mean, it's really about.
No, it has a lot to do with it. Because how many people are trying to figure all of this out on their own versus just talking to you, reading a book, watching something, just anything. Well, you know, I didn't grow up that way. Well, it's been 20 years. You're an adult. It's been 40 years. You're an adult.
And is your way working? You've worked. You've made millions of dollars. How much you have in the bank right now? Right. And so that tells you if You're. Because most people will make a fortune, but they lose it to taxes, to debt, to, to light, you know, to consumption. And you know, we always have a saying, it's not what you earn is what you keep. So.
Yes. Kiyosaki, one of my favorites.
Yeah. And so it's, it's, it's being intentional about when money, like the first, if I had to leave them with one thing.
It'S, you know, I teach people to create a wealth capture account, right? So if you got money come in, this is a tactical thing. So I always want people to walk away with something they can use, right? So let's say, so I make you make $100,000 a year. Just make it up a round number. So I would want you saving 15% or more of your gross income. So that's 15,000. So if you're on a job, divide that by 26, right? So I think that's like 5. 74 pay, right? So you create a separate account and then every pay you make sure that is direct deposit, not in your 401k but in a savings account. Because one savings needs to be automatic and systematic, Right. If you're an investor. I just had this conversation with a client a couple hours ago. I said, I told her to do that and I said, well, all right, now what about my cash flow from the properties you need to save? Maybe all of that past what it takes to run the thing, but at least 15, 20% of that flows into that wealth capture account. And then that flows into your, we call private reserve or your infinite banking accounts where you can store the cash. And now you have the ability to use it without liquidating your money, right? Because you have access to money with uninterrupted compounding. So you get to use it, leverage your cash, buy or build assets, but always have your money moving forward, right? So principles, strategy, tactics, that's the framework. But I find that people just focus on the tactics or a strategy, but they miss the big picture of, okay, what's your philosophy? Do I, am I saving? Do I have maximum, maximum protection? Right.
You got to be thinking down the road, not just what am I doing this quarter.
Yeah, because you follow the principles. The principles will see, because a good plan has to build work no matter what. Like, it can't only work when the sun is out. It's got to work because markets go up, markets go down, markets go sideways. So you plant your ideal plan, works no matter what. And see, so that, so that. Because if you look at like when financial Planning was created. It's four. Let me see. Five components of financial planning is helping average people. Not rich people, average people when they started, 1969. Lauren Dutton. Save.
Invest, insure.
Wait a minute. Save, invest, insure and plan for financial freedom. Right? Okay, I'm missing one. I'm going blank here for a second. But investing is one of five. And if you were to put them in order, I would say it's five. It's number five. It's not number one.
It's the last thing to be worried about. Because if you don't save, you don't have any capital to invest. If you don't insure the first time there's a storm, your boat sinks. Right? If you don't have a plan, because investing is a plan. If you don't know what you want, why, what do you. How do you know if you've won? How do you know if you're there? Right? So you got to slow down and think. People just, honey, I need to make more money. I want to invest. For what? What are you trying to do you investing for? You want cash flow? You want capital gains? Do you want to be a. As Kiyosaki would say, a dairy farmer and milk the cow, Cash flow. Or do you want to be at a cattle ranch and slaughter the cow? Now you got to go back, raise them, you know, take them to the. To the. To the slaughterhouse, and you got to go back and you got to do it all over again. That's for my flippers, wholesalers, you know, transactional people. You're always selling it. You got to go back out and do another one. Right. So that's not creating financial freedom. So it starts with, what do you want? What does that look like? And another great book on this is named your lifestyle investor by.
Going blank.
The call is the Lifestyle Investor. Where's that book at?
It.
The name sounds familiar.
I'm going completely blank. I'm. So the title is lifestyle Investor, but I can't think of the authority. But what would.
Justin Donald.
Justin Donald, yes.
And Cash Flow Investing for passive income and financial freedom. Yeah, I could recognize the COVID Yeah.
So that kind of stuff, like, you know, because what happens is you just don't know. There's a lot of ways to.
Skin a cat. There's a lot of ways to do stuff. And I think that through shows like yours, through books you read, through podcasts, through audio, you know, you start to see that there's more than just maxing out your 401k. If you're willing to work if you're willing to think. I always tell people, listen, if you don't want to think and you just want to work and stuff money into a qualified plan, don't call me because I can't help you. Okay? So don't. Don't think, because I. If I'm not, I don't convince people to do stuff. So don't call me up because I need you to talk me out of why I shouldn't fund my 401k. Now, you need to call your cousin and you know, at whatever that. That does that kind of stuff. Your friend Edward Jones, your cousin, Primerica. I don't have time for that. I don't have the energy for that. You know, people that I want to talk to already know they can make your money, make more money than. Than some fund manager I've never met. And all I do is help them lean into what they know is true because everybody else talking them out of what they know is true.
Right.
And I'm just validating. No, you're not crazy. You're thinking, right? You know, and so you just need to do more of what you're thinking about. And I just kind of free them up to say, yes, you should save it. And you need to invest in your business. You need to invest in your market. You invest in good people, you know, marketing, sales systems and people. That's what moves the needle in business.
I like that.
That was good. Was that good?
The whole thing's been good, but that was real pointed.
So that's what I think about, you know, I'm a big J, like, Jay Abraham fan, right? You know, the, you know, three ways to go. Revenue and just learning that, you know, there's wealth. If you're in business, a lot of wealth is in the business. You're looking for somebody to give your money to when you need to double down and figure out the profit. That's already.
I'm actually doing some stuff around that too, because I. I'm working with a real estate office right now. It's like, I've done it for my business. I says, all right, so I've seen people see my growth. And so now I'm starting to teach, you know, seven steps to more sales with profits, you know, and I'm doing it for a real estate office, a business optimization process. So I'm still.
Sounds like seven good chapters.
Yeah, we have talked about that. Yeah, I got all kinds of stuff, you know, and that for anyone listening.
To the Jay Abraham, that hasn't Heard this. You want to give it to him.
So the. I actually adjusted a little bit so he'll say the three ways to grow. Get more leads or get more customers frequency. So it's is that. It's. Here's how. Let me do how I do it because I, I forget his way. Right. So it's, it's four. I. I added one. And so it's. Get more customers is increase your conversions. Okay. Which is better follow up like, and staying in touch with people, having a database and capturing their information.
So that's CRMs. Love them.
CRMs, right. I interviewed the, the founder of that's Annoying CRM on my show last week. Right. With my favorite tool. Okay. And it's. So it's increased your conversions. So if you're seeing 10 people, you close three of them. If you can close six of them, you doubled your revenue. Right. It's increase customer value. Right. So this I changed. It was the same thing Jay is saying. So how do you increase customer value? Raise your prices.
Like create a premium offer. You can increase frequency, get them to buy more often. You can cross sell or have joint ventures with other people. You can upsell. Right. Would you like the Biggie size that? Would you like fries with that? And the fourth one is. And I got this from kind of Myron Golden. Dan Kennedy, Dan Kennedy's book, the Ultimate Marketing Plan. He says view customer retention as a profit center.
Sure.
You know, it's like if you ever go to Jiffy Lube and you don't.
Go back when you're in the slaughterhouse. Example.
Yeah. So what they'll do is you go to Jiffy Lube and you don't come back and say, look, your next. Your change is due. When is this? November 15th. If they don't see you, you get a postcard. Hey, we miss you. That's a reactivation offer. Right. And you know, here's five. Next one is $5. Said about three of those. And so most people go to restaurants. People don't even. You have a nice experience. Do they get my email.
Or address to send me a thank you card, have me part of their birthday club? So when some do.
But now that you mentioned, I'm thinking don't. Yeah, most of them don't. Another one, you know, we're in the northern hemisphere and everything, and the second it gets cold and snowy, it's like, oh, don't forget your tires. You don't want to slip off the road on the ice and die, do you? It's a good point. No, not really.
So you have to make stuff happen. You can't. Most businesses have like a lemonade stand mentality. So the weird thing, I'm the financial advisor that can talk marketing all day long because that's awesome. What I've realized is we're in the marketing business and I only reason I know this stuff because I was starving to death and I had to figure this out. And I started studying dan Kenney around 2009. Then it started to kick in until about 2015, 16. I'm a slow learner, I guess, but. And, but that stuck with me and I. And so that's when I started looking at my business as my number one investment. Right. And then like if you look at what we were talking about before we started recording Rich Dad's guide to Investing, the rich dad plan was to build your business. So because if you have a job, you earn money, you get taxed, then you get to spend what's left. But if you're in business, you earn it, you get to invest it, spend it, pre tax, take your deductions, and then you give Uncle Sam was left over. So if your deductions are buying assets like real estate or, or things that are favorable to invest the money, then that also offsets some of your business income. That's why rich people, that's why Kiyosaki says rich people. The number one lesson in Rich dad poor is rich people don't work for money. Right? And what that means is they don't work for earned income, which is the highest tax. Right. And so it's like a lot of stuff like that.
We just don't, we hear subtleties behind it. And it's like you people have heard it, they get it, they conceptually understand it, but they don't get it. And I remember, I remember when I read Guide do investing, it's geez, over a decade. But I almost didn't. Because I go investing, this is all going to be on stocks, bonds, mutual funds. And I wanted business entrepreneurs, entrepreneurial books. And the biggest thing my takeaway was investing is a plan.
Yes.
I was like, oh my gosh, I've been investing the whole time. I'm awesome at this.
I think there's only one chapter. I don't even think there's a chapter on stocks, bonds, mutual funds. It was like a paragraph or a page and a half or something. It was very little.
And it was, it's about business investing because see, if you're a good B from the cash flow quadrant, right? Eyes investors that Are in the I quadrant. Invest in good bees. Yeah, right.
And I wish they would have put In Business on the COVID I hesitated for a year and a half or two. I thought it was all on stocks and stuff. And the second I read it, I'm like, it's one of my favorites now.
It is by far my favorite book of his. Of I should say theirs, because I got the first one with him and Sharon Lecter. And so I met her once. I was like, huh, she's the cpa. So I see her.
She knows what she's talking about too.
In the book though. But I can see because I met her, I was like, huh. I saw her speak one time by herself. I was like, okay, I see where some of this stuff came from. It all come from Kia, in my opinion, just looking at the CPA influence in it. So it was really definitely a partnership for a long time. And so that, that's when you read it enough, you can kind of see stuff behind the scenes stuff. And I think that you have to. People just read it, but they want instant results. But you know, it's b. I say.
That'S the biggest problem with business investing. All of this is. I actually was thinking about this the other day and almost made a post that was like, no, I actually did. I go, what's the number one thing you want to do? What's the number one goal you'd want to achieve? Dot, dot that by next year at this time. There are so many here's 101 things of this. We can get it in by tomorrow. We can get it this weekend. And it's like, do you plan on living no more than two weeks from now? What are you doing two years into the future? Five years, 10 years? Like all these different things. It's like no one's aiming down the road.
Well, and you think about it, you have to. If you want to be a good anything, you have to work at it, right? So if you want to be a good musician, they Pratt like the whole Malcolm Gladwell thing. They, they, they practice an hour, two, three hours a day. You know.
Kobe shot a thousand shots a day. You know, Tiger hit some 500,000 golf balls a day. That's what it takes to be great. So you can't just be a great investor and you know, just, you know, you're mostly urban gambling. Don't do the rest to look, you know, you know how much I watched.
An episode on the plane at the. When we were on the tarmac.
Watch out, Warren Buffett. Oh, Shoot. Right.
You know, and so he's got. There's another book. It's called.
I Can Never. I didn't think of it. So it's coming to me as I'm talking. It's called the. I'm looking at my bookshelf. You can't see it's behind me. But it was a guy writing about Buffett and his. And Munger and their. Their thought process is fascinating.
Right.
And because that's what you want to do, I want to see how they think. You know, what are the clues that Curtis can take away from that? Where. The clues that I can take away and teach our clients when I'm doing podcasts, when I'm doing, you know, meetings for our members or whatever, Right. You know, I'll do stuff because I want them what. What I have clients tell me. Like, it's not the products I help them set up. It's really more how I've helped them think about. I had a young lady that I told her so from my coach, I told her a story of this dentist that invested in his practice. He bought. He invested 200,000 in his practice. The first year when we. We did his financials through our game plan, a guy was paying himself like 175,000. He had a net profit off of half a million dollars. He had about half a million dollars in liquidity, right. So he. Maybe 800,000. So he had enough to invest $200,000 in his practice management course. One year later, he would raise his pay to himself to 350. His net profit off his business is $1.2 million. He had over a million dollars in liquidity, was in the process of buying another dental practice for half a million dollars. Okay. And that was just in one year. But the stuff he invested in doesn't leave him. So now he can run that play over and over and over again. So I told. Anyway, I told this client that story, right? So for. I said, ross, so it was only that 20,000. It was 200,000. But I told her that. So she was a therapist. I interviewed her on the show, same as Leslie, and called Dr. Leslie. And so she hated this job making six figures. Hate it, right? Just didn't like the people she was working with. She loved the therapy. And she had a side therapy business. She's like, Curtis, I want to buy apartment bills. I want to do this and that. I was like, you know anything about that?
Right?
No.
I said, well, what about how much you making off this little business here on the side? Oh, I'm making about 3, 500. And I told her that story. So we, I, then we went away. We were meeting to start our first process. I think we'll do it like a 4 to 6 meeting process. And she said, oh, I did what you said. I was like, what was that? I don't, you know, I'm talking to 10, 12, 50 people a week. He said, oh, I found a company that helped therapists grow their practice.
Really?
Okay, well, tell me about it. And she told me about it. I said, well, how much is it? It's about 6,000. You think I should do it? It's expensive. What's a client worth to you? About 3,000. And they, they put you in a program with marketing and building your website where they promise you would get one or two clients a week. So how much do you have to make to get your money back? So fast forward, because I said, look, just wages make you a living, profits make you a fortune. Let's figure out why you like it. Let's save money, get your, you know, your, your cash flow stacked up. Six months, four, I don't think it was six months later, I quit my job. So. But she's never looked back her egg. She was, she already passed what she was making at the job she loves.
Yeah. Because if you're saying one or two a week, that's 156,000 to 312 for a 6,000 investment.
It seems like a no brainer.
So that's what I mean. So no regular advisor would have told her to do that because I don't make any money. There's no grid where I can get a fee on that. That's just good, solid. Here's how money works. Invest in what you know. Right. And I had her double down in that. And she's, she's not financially free, but she's on her way because she's doing that. She's got another program.
Yeah. But the sheer fact that she got to quit something she hates, what's that worth?
Yeah. And so I talk about that stuff and she said, well, what do you, what did I do? She says, you change how I thought about the situation. That's what's, that's really what I did. And so, and what?
Approximate age range.
Under 40. So I was going to say.
So you have what, 30, 40, 50.
70 years left, young kids, more free time, the whole thing.
I mean, I, I take the time over the money. You can always make more money.
Yep. And that, that's, that's the thing. It's like, how do you think, you know, do you want to become financially free? You want to work for 40 years, put money into a qualified plan and hope you have enough, or do you want to take control of your finances? So that's kind of, you know, my message to people. But everybody should do that. That's not for everybody though, right? It's, it's. You got to decide you're sick and tired. This is all these cliches.
Tired of being sick and tired.
But you got to have something that drives you to take action. Like, even when I talk about saving, you've got to have something you want that's going to cause you to save. Right?
Right.
Otherwise you'll just do what you're doing.
Otherwise, it's a checklist item. Just another thing to do.
Yeah. Ship without a rudder. You're just like, you don't have any goals. So goals should pull you toward them.
Right.
And so anyway, that's, that's my story. I'm sticking to it.
I'm glad you are. Let me ask you. We're going to do the wheel, whatever, then come back.
You want yellow or black?
Black.
All right.
Where is somewhere you would like to go that you haven't been with your family yet?
Egypt.
Oh, how come?
Because I'm a history buff. And you too. I like the pyramids and the whole thing.
People forget. Egypt is North Africa. Okay. I'm going to Egypt. We going to Africa. Okay. And so I want to see that stuff. I always, I've always been fascinated with historical places like that. So I want to go to Nice.
I want to go there too.
All right, we're going to thank our sponsor and come back for the imperfect action round. You've heard me say every business needs a book, including yours. And it's true. And that's why I'm launching my new book@eapublishing method book.com so you can learn the seven steps to publish and promote your nonfiction lead and profit generating business. Book eight weeks. But you know what, don't take my word for it. Take it from a few of my authors like Laurie. I went from having an idea and.
A possibility to actually getting my book published.
Or Catherine, thank you for making my.
Mom number one best selling author.
Or Mary Alice. What he got done for me in three days regarding my book launch.
Unmanageable John Cody.
I've worked with Mario over the phone.
And online and he's been very helpful in getting me where I needed to go with promoting my books. Rocio, there's no way in the world.
I would have been able to do this with somebody else again. I've attempted it in the past.
It didn't serve me.
As a matter of fact, I ended up more frustrated than anything. So this has been a very seamless process. Adele, if you're looking for an amazing business coach, I highly recommend Mario Ficcini or Bill Benner.
I can't make a higher recommendation for me than to work with Mario Ficini.
He has been great for me and right now I won't work with anybody else except for Mario.
Hey, their words, not mine. Visit eapublishingmethodbook.com to get your copy and I look forward to hearing your transformation as our next video success story. Once Again, that's EA publishingmethodbook.com and we are back with the imperfect action round. Curtis, are you ready to take imperfect action?
I am.
Three questions for you. 60 second or less answers. The first one is what is the fastest path to the cash business? Number two. Number two, what is the biggest problem you see your prospects making and the fastest way for them to fix it?
Not saving. And the fastest way that or not not managing your cash flow. Okay. And the fastest way to fix it is to have a system that we teach called telling your money where to go instead of asking where it went. So instead of having all your money going to one account, sort out your different accounts and have one for savings, one for variable bills, one for fixed bills and then just it's like the envelope system but for business but using check accounts.
Number three, what's the best way to maximize customer lifetime value?
Create a.
Client for life mindset and create a subscription based offer that they pay you a membership software as a service that that makes you very sticky.
Very good. We've talked a lot about books and but being a publisher, I just gotta ask you, is there any you haven't recommended that you would like to.
Yeah. So my this is a friend of mine's book. It's called principles based financial planning.
Okay.
Kind of literally wrote the book on the process I teach Kyle Christensen. I it's one of my favorite books because it really gave me ammunition to. I already believed it. But then you know, you go deeper to figure out more stuff. A book I'm really liking is.
I just started be your future self. Now I'm a big Ben Hardy fan. So all his stuff, anything about Benjamin Hardy, I would read that one. And another book I would if I hadn't mentioned is boss moves by Myron Golden.
Okay.
Which is Short for Business Optimization Success Secrets.
Ooh, I'll make sure those are on the show notes for eainterviews.com thank you for those suggestions. Where would you like people to learn more?
One, I would have you go to practical wealth.net or practicalwealthsolutions.net.
From there you can get to our YouTube channel or the podcast the Practical Wealth Show. And as a I'm gonna give you a free gift. We didn't make it so I'll give it to you later so you can put it in the show notes for your listeners.
But mention it. We're good.
Well, I'm gonna give you our free gift. I just my assistant didn't create it before she left so I'll give it to you after the fact. But it'll it'll have a link to we have a free report called Creating wealth with the Velocity of Money. So I really want to hit that velocity thing and but I think you could also get it. So if you want it fast, if you will text all one word, all caps be the bank to 55444 we'll get that that report out to you.
Very good. Thank you for that.
All right, Expert Authority World, we have another great episode here today. I'll see you on the next one. Have a great day and God bless.
You're already the expert, but have you transformed your expertise into a tangible asset that will generate qualified leads while increasing profit for you 247 and if so, how well are you promoting it? With my new book, the Expert Authority Effect Publishing Method, I take you through my process step by step. Visit eapublishingmethodbook.com today to learn the seven steps to publish and promote your nonfiction, lead and profit generating business book in eight weeks. Visit eapublishingmethodbook.com to get started. Now once again, that's eapublishingmethodbook.Com thanks for listening to today's episode. I would love to know what you enjoyed most from it if you haven't done so already. I invite you to connect with me on my new LinkedIn. You can go to it directly at eainterviews.com LinkedIn Once again, that's eainterviews.com LinkedIn lastly, check out the full eainterviews.com site for complete show notes, the full interview video experience, links to the resources we mentioned, and more. Have a blessed day and I'll see you on the next one.
More from Mario
0551 | Beyond ChatGPT: AI as the Next Evolution of Business Automation with Ethan King
0551 | Beyond ChatGPT: AI as the Next Evolution of Business Automation with Ethan King
0549 | Beyond the Scale: There's a Better Way to Lose Weight with Author and Secret for Weight Loss CEO Dr. Todd Cevene
0548 | Liberty Spenders: How to Reach The $5 Trillion Market of High-Value, Conservative or Faith-Based Clients to Grow Your Business with Author and The Prosper Group Co-founder Kurt Luidhardt
0545 | Scaling Rich: Create Predictable Profits To Grow Your Business Without Burnout with Author, Speaker, and Your Biz Rules Founder Leslie Hassler
0544 | Ego-Free Leadership: Secrets to Breaking blind Spots and Empowering CEOs with Leadership Coach and Vistage Chair Aviva Leebow