Episode 140: Facing your Profit First Fears with Scott Mulvaney

New York is full of a very competitive culture. I mean, there's a lot of people up there. Maybe it's a New York. It could be a New York thing.

That's true.

Because in Chicago, they might just trip you. We don't know. I know, right? I don't know.

In Texas, I heard in Houston they shoot you.

Well, never. I saw people.

I saw people walk. Literally, I'm in Houston. This is not like. Or maybe it was Austin.

Oh, they. They roll. Strapped.

Does that mean the gun show?

I guess. Well, no, I mean strapped. Just meaning you got a gun out there in all its glory on the hip.

I saw a guy wearing a gun on his hip.

Oh, yeah, man.

I was not gonna walk past it.

There's no concealed carry in Texas. You just let it out.

You just let it out.

Six shooters, Glock, whatever you got.

You know, speaking of shooting from the hip, you are listening to the Profit first podcast, episode 140.

Yes. Woo.

Wrong with us. Grown with us like that. There you go.

Yeah.

Feel the energy instantly.

Oh, I can't roll my tongue. I wish I could.

He didn't roll his tongue.

Oh, it sounded like he did.

No, I just.

Welcome to the Profit podcast. I am Christina Bulduk, the gatekeeper of Profit First.

That's right. And I'm Mike Michalowitz, the author of Profit First. And you, my friends, you are listening to the Profit first podcast. This is the show where we explore every single element of profitability. I think, Scott, you're our first guest in studio.

Yeah, I like to break the rules.

Yeah. All the way from Allentown, we're talking about profit for your business and, well, we're going to go crazy on profit.

Yeah. You can find us on itunes, Stitcher, Tunein Radio, Google Play, and of course, profitfirstpodcast.com and any podcasting that you listen to. Actually, we're there.

Cab. You know, there's a big shift going on here.

Yeah.

Did I say there's a big. Or did I say there's a big. There's a big going on. I meant to say there's a big shift.

Oh, yeah, there is. There is.

We lost one of our. Our good friends. Chris Curran was our.

He's alive, by the way.

Oh, my God.

I'm a regular listener of the show. What's happening? Okay.

Yeah. So he had no. Chris. Chris has moved on to bigger and better things. Oh, not too hard, because there's a lot of bigger and better things than our little show. I get it. And. And along with him, Barry's walking out the door too.

Oh, Barry.

A lot of people didn't know Barry was not. Barry was a voice recording. He was not a real in studio person.

Yeah.

Actually, no one believed that.

Everyone knew everyone.

So we wish Chris the best of luck in the future. Continue success for the wonderful things he's doing with the pause your life program. And we will surely miss him. But, cabby, you're stepping up, sister.

I'm doing it.

Yeah, yeah, I got you. Step up. That's like Wheezy stepping up to the.

Top for the listeners. She had a nice little jig there.

Yeah, she was a little jig.

Exactly. What have you been up to, Mike?

So I've obviously walking around. Yesterday I was in New York and I went to. I went to this corporate meeting. I'm doing a big project with this corporation. I will not say who they are. I got to tell you the difference between a little office like this and the environment. And in a large corporate space like, it is so. I don't know, like, so square. It's so sterile.

They do like, square and rectangular edging, isn't it?

It feels. Yeah.

Like round. Round. No, no round.

No round. No personality.

They're not round.

Yeah, there was no personality. And I don't mean it negatively. I mean, I just felt people feel quarantined in a way and just couldn't be there.

Well, it's the rat race. It's a whole different world.

Yeah.

As a former corporate employee, I can back that up.

Oh, you were a big corporate guy.

I was in a poor corporate. Yeah.

How long were you in corporate?

I don't want to talk about.

No, not.

Because that'll go back.

Because they may be listening right now. Of course, he can still get fired.

They're always listening.

They're always listening. What have you been up to, Kevstar?

I actually. I don't know those of you out there who believe in this, but I actually went for a psychic reading. I go like about once a year. It just kind of is a very healing experience for me, and it helps me focus on what I should be focusing my energy on as opposed to putting like 30% into everything. I should be putting 100% into what I believe I should be doing with my life. And it was very refreshing. And it kind of got me back in the game and back and kind of feeling good about myself and just kind of helped me get back in the direction of where I should be at 27.

What did. What did they tell you?

She told me I'm Just focusing. I've been stressing myself so much, like emotionally and physically and I really just need to kind of stop focusing so much on what is going on and what I can't control and put my energy into my health and my singing and, you know, raise the bar personally. I mean, she went into so much.

But sounds like a psychologist. Sounds like a psychology. It is.

It kind of is. But it's what? Be more yourself with the universe.

Yeah. No, good for you.

It's life balance.

Yeah, it's life.

Yeah. Life balance is everything. Hey, before we kick off the show and officially welcome our guest Scott here. What. What do we have for community shout outs if.

Yeah, we have had an email come in from Tim Riley. He is the owner of a Cruise Stone brewing company out in Boulder, Colorado. He is a new reader of Profit First. He says the small town that both him and his wife love didn't have much of an economy, so they decided to bring their own jobs and open up a brew pub, something which he has no experience in. He said the dream is beautiful until it became a nightmare. I love the analogy of Frankenstein and the cash eating monster, which is something you reference in the book. So he said he's committing to making this work and turning that monster into a happy pasteurized cash cow. Exactly. He says Profit first has been an inspiration and he's just, he hopes to meet you one day and to, you know, keep things going and we'll get flowing. We're include pictures in the post. He sent us some pictures of the brewery. Go out there, grab a few drinks. It's gorgeous.

Yeah, yeah. What's the website?

You know, I don't think I have the website, but if you just Google Crustone Brewing Company out in Boulder, Colorado, it'll bring you to it.

You will find it. Okay.

And it'll be on the web on our website.

Okay. Before we get into today's show, you know we're going to do a little profit first assessment, Scott, of your business and move it along. But first, I do want to thank our corporate partners. These are people who are paying for this nonsense to go on.

Very important.

Do you know who they are? Do you know who they are, Scott? Do you have any. You've listened. You said you're binge listening, bro. This is the big test.

I got distracted because on the way in here I was listening to the new release of the book on audible. Come on.

Good excuse.

Yeah, it's a good one. Yeah, that's good. That was good. That was good.

Just give me one Actually, we just. Actually, I just passed the part where you were talking about the Frankenstein.

Oh, okay.

It was literally as I was parking the car out front.

So we have four. I'm not gonna let you off the hook. We have four corporate partners. Actually, we think we have a fifth one. We can't remember if they're still active. You know, just name any corporation you think could be a sponsor. Let's just try it out and see if you get it right.

Oh, God. Is it called. Oh, is it cash, bank or. No. Yeah, sorry, I got nothing. No, pretty terrible at it. No, you got me on point. You got me on point.

I know, I know. I got you. I got you. Yeah, so it's fundera. I think that's. You're either talking about fundera or fund box.

Fund box.

Fund box.

Thank you.

Yeah, so fund box, Fundera, Nextiva, receipt, bank. And we think Zero still sponsor. I got. Maybe, Maybe. So we don't know.

Thanks.

Zero is a hero.

Anyway, Zero to hero.

We'll talk about more about them at the end of the episode and we also at the end, we'll share the insights that we're going to learn from this discussion that we're about to have together. One last thing. One little last piece of business. Any members that you want to shout out?

Yeah, I want to shout out Jason Spencer. He was actually on a couple episodes ago with us, but Jason sent us this beautiful bottle of bourbon, which is a new tradition that we're starting for profitcon, by the way. We're having our members send in a success story with some booze and we're all gonna get sh. Wasted.

Is that pretty cool?

Yeah. No, but he said that he's so incredibly happy. One of his clients came in and they say that they trust him, that he's extraordinary. They barely know the guy and he's. They're about to drop $2,400 on their wedding entertainment, which is the new for him. And he says he's extremely happy about that. So Congratulations, Jason. Keep pushing the barriers.

Awesome. That's. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. One handed clap there. Two handed clap, yeah. Golf clap, yeah. So his name's Scott Mulvaney. He travels all the way from Allentown, Pennsylvania. Is that where you grew up?

Pretty much. I was born in Jersey actually, though.

Oh, where you were in Jersey?

Yeah. Flemington.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Down. Yeah.

Down at the Hunterdon Medical Center.

Yeah. Wow.

There was a dairy farm there once. And that' where I was born.

Were you born when it was a dairy farm?

Well, it's now a housing development.

The hospital's gone?

No, the hospital's there. I'm saying my farm was down the road from the hospital and that is now a massive condominium development.

So here's what I heard. Yes, I heard you. There was a farm there.

And then a hospital.

Then a hospital. You were born. And they immediately knocked it down and put up condos. Like the only baby born.

Dude, seriously, I don't need any more of me, man. So it was that impactful.

You're like this guy. We've got him. We did it.

Literally broke.

Close the doors.

Yes.

Scott's philosophy is live the fuel. And you probably sense from his energy of doing this. He's an owner of multiple businesses and we're going to explore what they are, including a nutrition business. You're a half marathon runner or.

I've done full and half and I've also done some like 200 mile relay stuff for like, called Ragnar. I don't know if you ever heard of that.

I have not.

Yeah, it's like you do a team 200 miles and you just keep exchanging, oh, my. Over. Over a 24 hour period.

Okay, so you're like a superhero.

No, I don't like that.

Yeah, no. If you saw this guy, he's fit. But your business wasn't fit for a while.

Financially, I was still not perfectly fit.

Okay, so you're here to do.

I've been putting in the reps and the reps aren't really making me happy.

So let's get right into it. Tell us you're unique because maybe you're not that you're an entrepreneur with not just one business. You have a mix of verticals. Right.

I'm a classic definition of a lot of entrepreneurs where you have the shiny ball syndrome or the crazy squirrel syndrome, whatever you want to call it, where it's like, hey, yeah, you know, I have multiple interests in life and I believe in trying to create balance. So it's like, why do I have to give up on all of them? I want to build a couple of business units. Some are successful, some are not. Some are just limping along, but I want to keep them going.

So walk us through the businesses that you have.

Well, so it's funny because in your book you also talk about the power of the subcontract, subcontractor relationship. Right. So I'm a. I have an llc. Fuel Enterprises Live the Fuel is a brand within that. Okay, and then what? My primary income stream is actually through a friend of mine's company who I used to work for. She has a successful manufacturer sales rep firm for like the H Vac industry. That's how we know your fellow podcasting buddy.

Yeah, yeah.

Aguilera.

Aguilera Miguel. Yeah. No one knows how to pronounce it.

Yeah, but so the long story short there is that is my primary income stream. Through a subcontract, I handle and grow sales and marketing, business development for their company and their. Their clients. So, like, she has like 12 clients, and then I manage all that for her in like, upstate New York and stuff like that.

What's the name of that? Is that the Live the Fuel business?

Well, that's all done through Fuel Enterprises, our contract together. But her, her. She has a whole. It's her company.

Okay.

So I'm just a subcontractor. So they only have like one or two employees. I don't want to be an employee.

I got you. So you're.

You're.

You're a consultant to them and they. And they sub you out for projects.

They have me on a retainer and like we have a whole. You know, basically it's a draw. And then like, once I blow the business up, which is happening about right now, there's going to be a whole commission structure on top of that.

Oh, nice. Yeah.

Okay, so I have a good excuse to keep that going with them.

So that's business number one.

So, yeah, that's primary number one.

What do you have next then?

I am. I'm a huge nutrition nut, obviously. So there's a. One of the very successful companies built on network marketing as a model is Isagenix. So I have a business through them. I know you've heard of them.

Yeah, I have.

And I mean, they've been around for like 14, going on 15 years. So then that's. Actually I can actually thank that model for at least opening my brain up to this whole entrepreneurial pursuit and stuff like that.

Okay.

And then I just have my own independent, you know, contract by contract basis. Like my CrossFit gym that I coach at. Like, they're one of my sales and marketing clients right now. I'm helping them with their website and social media stuff. So that's just a lot of other side hustle stuff.

Okay. But so the side hustle is web development.

No, basically my tagline is I help control how you exist online. So most people, like, what, just want to exist.

Okay.

They forget the whole factor of controlling that and actually making sure they actually control how they exist. So people actually really understand who their brand Is and what their company is.

I got you. So it's.

It's like social. Social media.

Social media. So it's your web presence.

Yeah. And brand development and stuff like that. I do not want to do website development. I outsource that.

I got you.

I'm the puppeteer.

Oh, you're the puppeteer. Okay, I got you. So you help with the web development. You direct them on social media from a management standpoint. So are you the guy who's also.

Oh, dude, I use Zoom us. I do webinars. I've designed training, video content, like all kinds of stuff. So. Oh yeah, like I. I'm the puppeteer. When stuff gets too complex, like web development or if they want somebody who just is going to build their Instagram brand and like ch.

Likes.

I'm like, great, I got a guy for that.

I got you. Yeah. What's the revenue breakdown? Like how much you make in consulting, percentage wise versus that all depends.

Like, literally, I basically have a standard basic rate of like a hundred bucks an hour, you know, but like I said, that primary contract through my friend's relationship with her company, that's that on the draw factor, I'm probably ranging between 40 to 60 a year on that.

You generate 460 grand a year?

Yeah.

Or. Okay, okay, yeah. So. Okay, all right, that's even easier. Let me do this.

Exactly.

If you don't mind sharing and then.

No, I don't care. I told you, man. We're going complete transparency.

I love it.

I don't give a crap. I love this.

I have a birthmark on my dance too.

I got this one thing, this one. It doesn't go away. It just keeps. It's just. It's just there.

It's disgusting. Right?

Blocking that out.

Okay, so to be fair, you girls talk about everything girls talk about.

It is true.

Yeah, us guys, we got nothing on you ladies.

Nothing. Yeah, I never talk to my friends and say, hey, I got, you know, this weird ass zit or something.

No, no, no. These la. Share it all.

Everything. Everything.

Yeah, but you talk assets all the time.

Well, I'm not saying. I knew it. Bazinga.

So boom.

Okay, so you make 40 to 60 grand. And thank you again for your honesty in. In the consulting business.

Well, that was like over the past year or two. It just keeps building. So like. So like, I know, I just looked at this year's. I actually have last year's tax return right there. Oh my. So for transparency, I don't care.

Okay.

But obviously my accountant is the old School methodology, not the proper first methodology. And, like. But he's a younger guy in the firm. We talked about this on my podcast, and I was like, dude, I want to get this dialed in. So when I go back to him, like, if you want to keep working with me, do this. Get on the team, get on Profit first Professionals. Because I don't like it this way.

Do you think he's going to go for it? Because there are some people who do resist.

Yeah.

I don't know, man. Like, he's. He's younger than me, so that means anything, but.

How old are you?

I'll be 30. I'll be 40 this year.

Okay.

I'm at them at the end of the 30s, man. I'm excited, though.

Yeah.

My. My. My life gets better. People, like, worried about 30 to 40. Dude, it's your life, man. It's what you make of it.

What was the darkest part of your life just in your life's journey so far? Corporate. Okay. How old were you then?

Late twenties. Your age?

Yeah.

I'm telling you, Christine, you're in the shittiest part of life right now.

I keep saying that. When I turned 27, Ron was like, yeah, that was the shittiest year of my life, dude.

I don't even try weed till I turned 30.

What?

I didn't even try weed till I turned 30. Really? No. I've never done a drug in my life. I've never done a hard drug in life. I. I was in Colorado, and I was like, all right, dude, it's legal here. I'm going to try it.

So we have a. A. A visitor from. I don't know if you saw. You're talking with her step from South Africa. She's visiting. So we were just testing out our new equipment here. We brought her in, and the conversation of weed comes up, and she's. I think mid-60s. Whatever. I'm not exactly sure. I say mid-60s and we talk about weed, and she's like, never done it. I'm like, yeah. And I'm like, so do you miss it and regret it? She's like, yeah, I wish. I kind of wish I did. I'm like, well, let's get high now. I was going to say yes.

Wait, didn't Jersey already pass the medical? Somebody hurt their knee right now. Go to the doctor. He'll give you the card this afternoon.

That's funny. So, okay, so what. What kind of revenue do you generate through the Isagenix?

That's. See, that was higher. And then. And then goes up and down. Because everybody. Here's the thing. I love it because of the residual income model. So, like, right now I might be doing maybe 500amonth. That's it. Because I just haven't spent any time consistently building the business.

Yeah.

So I was making more, you know, a couple years ago.

What was more mean?

Oh, I was doing like 2,000amonth. It was. It was always a side hustle. Right. So it's always had. I've always had that side hustle, even when I had other jobs. I found that when I was doing wildland firefighting and living in Arizona in 2010, 2011, I'm. That's. That's how I left the corporate world.

Yeah, that's.

So I went from growing up on a farm, chasing corporate dreams.

Right.

Screw the corporate dreams. To I'm gonna go be a wildland firefighter with the federal government for two years and then come back and then, like, become a huge health nut and entrepreneur. Figure out the whole entrepreneurial journey.

Unbelievable.

Yeah, I'm all over the place, man.

Yeah. No, that's cool. And that's one of the riskiest life experience jobs you can have, according to.

One of my friends. When I got back, he was happy to give me the statistics on that, and I was like, you know, where was that before? He's like, well, you were too much of a hurry to leave, so I didn't have time to look it up.

Yeah.

So.

But you was probably still gone, I bet.

Oh, hell yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

I don't give a crap. I skydive, I rock climb. I really do. I do it all.

Wow.

Yeah.

What kind of money are you making through the CrossFit, the contractual work you're doing for them?

Oh, we just signed a contract. So like I said, listen, just for this first month, you know, throw me. Because they're friends. Yeah. I'm like, you know, it's that hard thing I'm like, to hear, throw me 500 bucks. We're going to just put them on a retainer and let's get they. They literally have a site. They don't do any blogging, nothing. So I'm literally getting them going. Yeah. And they just had a huge. Here's a funny thing. CrossFit gyms are not profit. They're. They suck. I love. I love CrossFit. I'm a coach. My friends on the gym. But your. Your fellow member Shannon. Shannon Simmons can back this up. We had her on the show as well.

Yeah.

And she said she. She backs it up. She's like, it's like, it's not just CrossFit, it's all gyms. But they, they can't afford me. Yeah, they don't have enough profit to hire anybody to do sales and marketing, so they're just limping along. I'm like, guys, like, all right, here, I'm going to throw you a bone. Here's a retainer. Let's see how much we get done in the first 30 days. I'll even extend it because you're just a client that I care about.

Yeah.

And I'm not going to rake you over the coals.

But they, without you, they don't make sales. I mean, it's a hard knock in the place.

I will say they're making a lot of sales right now because luckily another gym closed down 10 minutes away. And so we're soaking up the membership. But that was like.

Was it a mysterious fire that broke out? You're wearing your fire gear.

I don't know what you're talking about. I just stopped by to say hi. I was like, I like your gym. It's very nice. I gotta go. So there's something. The closet.

So if you get, if you get 500amonth from them, that's 6K. You three. Right here is, you have three primary functions or businesses. You have. One is the, the sales and business development through a friend. Up to 60 grand a year. You have the nutrition business, which is Isagenix, six grand a year. You have CrossFit. Do you have anything else going on for revenue generation or is that the primary.

Well, and that literally I've just started kicking the last piece that crossfit example into gear. So right now, admittedly, I don't know, there's probably other stuff out there, but because I'm so bad at that and I don't have a bookkeeper.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

You know, this is why I'm on here, man. Like, there's this money flying around, you know, it's like. Oh, it goes in like the whole bank balance accounting methodology. It's like I. Oh, it's there. Cool. You know what? I need a new webcam. I got to start shooting videos for the podcast. Literally that happened last week.

I did it.

Real prime is the worst.

Is addictive.

Dude. I have a new high end Logitech Webcam for like 90 bucks. It was a great price. And I'm like, yeah, buy it now.

So, okay, so let's talk into. You started implementing profit first. Why did you go about implementing profit at first?

Because I'm Tired, actually, you know what I'll be. I'm very passionate about loving to see entrepreneurs succeed. And I'm like, if I'm going to try and chase these entrepreneur dreams, I need to be an example as well. And I'm looking, I'm watching my friends with their businesses and for example, my own client, my friend with the H vac industry stuff, I love her. I'm like, she doesn't pay herself a salary.

Yeah, she just one that's hiring you for consulting, is paying you 60 grand is not paying herself.

And I've had this discussion with you over and over about profit. First for a year and a half now I've been talking about this and she's like, well, my account, I have a bookkeeper, I have an accountant. Yeah, that doesn't make any sense. And I'm like, so it's like talking to a wall. But it's okay. She just bought herself a new leased, very nice car. So that's going to be her salary.

Yeah.

Because she's leasing a brand new car. And I'm like, that's not a salary.

Yeah, it's classic.

You can write it off. I get it. But why? It's like, that's not a salary. You're not paying yourself cash. Like I feel like people need to have this connection.

Well, let me ask you, what's the turning moment? I mean it happened for you. Do you get so frustrated?

So I'll get personal here. I was a self proclaimed bachelor for years. I. You said for that I take bazinga. Bazinga. I mean I seriously, like you said, I take care of myself. I'm not an unattractive dude. So I'm gonna come across a little Jersey douchey A little bit because I was born here. Hey now baby. So. But it's like, guys, let's think about this. It's. It's not just how you look and how you live. The money does help. And when I finally pulled my head out of my ass and stopped playing Mr. You know, Jackass Bachelor, you know, using firefighting as an excuse because I'm gone in the mountains for a month at a time, I don't want to drag your heart through this.

Is that your line? Oh my God.

I told you, man. Complete transparency. So besides, I just stayed single.

Yeah.

And. And I didn't really date a lot anyway. So since moving back to the east coast, I'm literally having to finally like build more of an adulty life. The past few years I live with my girlfriend. She bought the House off of her family's estates, her great grandmother's house, and just being surrounded by their construction. Their family was a construct company and just like, literally was founded in like the cinder block building behind my house that I've since gutted and monetized for her benefit. But like, there's literally antique cars stored out there and the guy pays us every single month. So now the garage, storage. Oh, yeah. I know how to generate money.

Yeah.

I teach people this all the time. Like, guys, you can always make more money, right? Especially if you have an entrepreneurial mindset. Like, I gutted that 3,000 square foot garage. I was like, dude, I have a little corner for bike tuning because I'm a mountain biker and a road cyclist. I'm going to build a little gym area because she's also a crossfitter and I still have room to store another seven or eight cars.

Wow.

It's stupid. It's all monetized. It's awesome.

So then what triggered you though, to go profit first?

Because it's just I'm tired of not having money in the bank. Like, she is super frugal and she's been a great influence on me because her mother was the controller of the family's construction company. Her father is a. Is a retired ex CFO of a very successful, like the company that does all the laundry for the major hospitals. And like, there's a company out by us called Mill Memorial Blood Center. Like, like, where you go donate blood to all their branches. Like, he was over all of that.

Yeah, yeah.

And I'm just like, okay, dude, I didn't grow up with a lot of money. I grew up on a farm. Like, we lived paycheck to paycheck.

Dude, you were born in a hospital. Exactly. Right?

I mean, so it's like I'm just tired of it. I was like, Scott, like, I've tried listening to other people. I've tried figuring it out on my own, limping along and then you just find excuses. I'm just like, you know what? It's been working. Just keep doing it. And then when it comes time for vacation and stuff like that, and my girlfriend's got her act together, she's ready to go, and I'm finally at that frustration point where it's like, dude, you have so much going for you. Why don't you have your act together like she does, right?

Yeah.

And this is ridiculous. So. And I know I'm not the only business entrepreneur or network marketer. Whoever's out there listening to this is like, guys, like, this is some of the frustration that's going on out there, man.

So how did you make that mental shift? What was the day or the moment that your mind finally said, this is not working anymore?

Oh, dude, like, literally, when I listened to your first. The first edition of your book.

Really?

I've learned about your book because of Michael o' Neill.

Yeah.

Then I found the podcast, but then I had already bought the book, and then I tried reading the book, and I realized I suck at reading books now. I'd rather listen to them because I travel so much for my client. I do a lot of road travel. So I was like, dude, I have a mobile library and university right in my car, so that I crushed your book in, like, literally a couple of days. And then I went back and listened to it again, and I'm trying to go back to the book and make notes, and I was like, dude, this makes so much sense. And I try to explain it to my girlfriend. She's just like, that doesn't make any sense. I'm like, you're from the old school world, and I'm the. I'm the guy who embraces the new age stuff. Yeah, yeah. And I was like, there's always room for change.

And sounds like she's rocking it out anyway, so she doesn't need to change. She's good, right?

She's fine.

Yeah.

But in order for us to succeed, and this is a. Something that I've had to swallow my pride on and get transparent, show vulnerability on, and we. I think when you do it in personal and professional life is like, guys like, dude, you don't know everything.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And what's working for her isn't gonna work for me. She pays an office manager. She has her own office manager, does all the books. It's automated for her vet business, so her and her business partner, they're good.

She owns a vet business.

She has her own. She's an entrepreneur too, but she owns.

Her own veterinary school.

Yeah, she's a horse vet.

Are you effing me right now?

No, dude.

So I gotta talk with you after this. My daughter is looking to intern free. Intern.

Yeah, she does interns all the time from Lehigh University and other ones around us. Yeah, dude.

Hot dog. This is the best episode ever.

There's three. It's a female owned business, three female entrepreneurial veterinary doctors. Two are owners. One's the employee now.

Oh, my.

Oh, yeah, dude, I'll hook you up. My girlfriend, she's a chiropractor as well. She's actually a doctor of chiropractic for animals as well. And her new employee doctor is a doctor of acupuncture, so she'll learn all the wellness stuff. Oh, yeah, I'll hook you up.

I would love an introduction. Okay, now that we're done talking about me, let's get back to you. It's all about you, Mike. It's all about me. So tell me about what you've done with profit. First in your business so far, the impact that's had, and then what? What do we need to do next?

It's called pull the freaking trigger and get it fully implemented. I've been literally so, like, I have all my accounts with Wells Fargo. I'm not worried about people hacking. Go ahead and take what I don't have.

Take my nothing.

Take my nothing. But like, I have for years, I've had a secondary account sitting there, not being used with my old credit union from my corporate days. I've always kept my credit union accounts, and I've always, like. I always like the big world and the small world, and I have a line of credit through them that I'm just. I need to pay down because I use that to actually go back to college, finish a degree, everything else before the firefighting. So it's like, I took on a nice chunk of debt to create my own freedom, if that made any sense. I got you now. I realized that that degree didn't really give me anything, except people think you're more impressive because you have a BS behind you.

There's a lot of truth. Yeah, a BS is often bs, Right.

Exactly right. Like, dude, everything that I'm using in my business now that I'm using to generate income, I taught myself. Yeah, I didn't learn that in the university, so I was like, I'm not trying to bash colleges.

No, no.

But they teach you to be a great employee.

I agree. What is your BS in, Christina?

Oh, God, I don't remember recreation.

There you go.

I think it's recreation management. Yeah, that's.

Yeah, there you go. You got a punch for that one.

You probably went to school with a friend of mine here in New Jersey. She also has a degree in recreational management.

Yeah, I went actually to East Stroudsburg in Pennsylvania.

Yeah, so does she.

Oh, really?

Well, here is a girl by the name of Lauren Hepplewhite. There you go. Little name job for you. She's from North Jersey. Up here, everyone.

Everyone knows Lauren Hepple.

Everybody knows Lauren.

How many people know Lauren?

You got to get up on your game.

I ponder the same thing because, you know, I'm, I'm in so much student loan debt and I'm like, yeah, did my degree help me get my jobs? Yes. But was it worth what I'm doing now?

Like how at the highest level, it shows that you can commit to a program and learn something. It shows that you have. And doing air quotes for our listeners, it shows you have commitment and you have work ethic and you can actually study something. Yeah, that's really about it.

Yeah, Yeah, I, I agree.

Yeah.

So, okay, so you started profit first year at Wells Fargo. How many accounts do you have set up right now?

I have four accounts with them.

Okay.

But they're not all being set up properly at all. I haven't really implemented all the equations and all that stuff.

Okay.

Like I have a. Here's the thing. Over the past year, everything was in one place.

Okay.

So then when I finally, I set the LLC like two years ago, and then I moved my contract with my friend's company over under the LLC out of my name just for, just for sanity in my standpoint. And then I said, okay, well now the monies are still muddled, so let's separate everything else went back. I actually relisted a business checking and a business savings attached to that LLC tax ID to separate it from my personal. So currently, whenever I need money for personal expenditures, I have my personal and my checking and savings also with that bank and I just transfer and I label it owner's draw.

Okay.

So whenever I need cash that's not business related, everything stays in that business checking. Okay, so it's that income account that you've talked about. I have my income account. Everything is going there. All but everything. All of my expenses and everything are coming out of there too. So I still have all the bills automated to that account. So I have my personal bills automated to the personal checking and my business bills automated to that same business checking.

Oh, so everything's.

I haven't divided that out yet.

Okay, and so you have four accounts, but you're not basically using the other accounts.

No. And then I have accounts with the credit union that are just sitting there. Those are. I've decided that there's. Technically I have to remove the features that you teach us. Like I don't need all the benefits. I say I'm just going to cut that. I already cut the card up. I don't need the Visa debit card to that account because I don't use it. So now I already Set up automated transfer functionality from Wells Fargo to the credit union. So all that stuff is ready. Okay. I just haven't implemented the new percentages properly down to move that stuff into that separate account that I only have to physically go into and touch. So that's already in motion.

I gotcha.

So things are in motion. They're just not fully executed in the way of profit first.

So I'll give you two approaches, then you can take first. I'll give you a recording I have of someone coaching how to do profit first. Do it. Just do it.

You need, like, the F word in there.

He's got. Do it. Make your dreams come true.

He won't stop. Nothing is impossible.

No.

What are you waiting for? Do it. Just do it. Yes, you can. Okay, so that's one over here.

That's one option.

But that. That'd be you. That would be. Hey, listen, if we're at the gym together and I'm like, I can't push this weight up.

You just do it as. As a coach. Yes, you would. Yeah.

So here's option two, though, because I realize it's too much for most people and we fall back into our natural habits. So small incremental steps. It's lowering the bar. What I would do is. That's great. If there's four accounts, I would just have one new account. Not at Wells Fargo, not that Wells Fargo. Span for a profit account. And I think we start transferring a small percentage, 2 or 3%. Continue to do what you're doing, like taking your. Your personal and your business expenses out of that income account. It's okay for now.

Okay.

But I want to start high accumulating profit for you and piles up.

Yeah.

And I'll start putting a little bit of squeeze on your expenses. And then three months from now, when you do your first profit distribution and you have a few hundred bucks stored up, and you and your girlfriend go out for a killer dinner as a profit distribution for me, that's the first moment, like, oh, my God, things are changing. Like, I'm actually accumulating a little bit money. And then we do the next steps.

So you know how I cheat that?

How do you cheat it?

She's a client because I manage their website for her.

Your girlfriend's a client?

Yeah.

Oh, of course. Because her veterinary business.

Yeah. I was like, they don't know anything about websites. And they have a WordPress site, and a monkey can manage a website. WordPress site. No offense to you words, WordPress Specialist, but let's be real. So I Said, listen, babe, you don't know anything about social media, blah, blah, blah. I was like, so let me just take this over. So I, I manage her site. They don't pay me because she's my girlfriend.

Oh, she pays you, so. Oh, she pays.

Yeah, she pays in other ways.

So Christina's vomiting.

She's like throwing up over in the corner.

Yeah, I know. I feel so.

Oh, man, I'm so sorry. So the point is, is that. Okay, great. From time to time I'm gonna write off a dinner or something like that. I don't use all of our outings, but I work the system. I don't think that's unrealistic. I don't use Receipt bank, which I'm really thinking about launching because I just literally this year is the first time I ever actually started stuffing receipts away.

Yeah.

I was like, there's an electronic record. I think that's fine. And I know that's probably a no no as well.

Yeah, Receipt Banks are amazing. But now this sounds totally schmucky because they're our sponsor. Don't do Receipt bank yet.

Okay.

The goal is we gotta stop spending money. Yes, Receipt Bank's phenomenal, but we got to start taking your profit out first because it's gonna put a squeeze on your spend. And that's what you want to feel because then you have to start considering. Should I not get that Logitech microphone? You know what I'm saying?

Yeah. The webcam with what has microphone built in.

That's right.

It's true. It's expensive. It's good.

Yeah.

But let's see the reason. Here's. And here's the secret behind why I think Profit first hasn't been fully successfully implemented. It's nothing against what you've taught us. It's. There's a fear. Right. Let's be real.

Yeah.

And when we have to embrace our fears, and more importantly, I figure that I'm worried about taking away the day to day cash flow because like, for example, when I travel up to upstate New York for that one big contract, I'll be up there for two or three days. So historically, I've been covering the hotels and stuff like that. And then we have an agreement where that's. It's not technically reimbursed because I'm not her employee. I don't think you can legally do that. But the point is, is that she's like, well, Scott, going forward, she's like, it's. You're our contractor. You don't have to cover the hotels, yeah. So now she's like. Like, just call. She hasn't. She hired an assistant, so now she's paying an assistant too, by the way, instead of herself. Okay. So she's learning how to delegate. But the point is, is that then she's like, well, Scott, we'll book the hotels for you. So, like this, this. This week, actually this Friday, I got to go handle a training for a company for them, and they already booked the hotel for me.

Well, let me ask you this. Do you think that you have the skills to find cost savings of, say, 60 bucks a week in your business that you could say if I want.

Easily.

Okay.

Right off the bat, cocky son of a bitch. Starbucks.

Starbucks, okay.

Because I buy for myself. And then I was like, you know what? Because it's a sales and marketing relationship, I like this. I don't like to show up with crappy donuts and crap because I'm anti crappy processed carb guy, right? And so I was like, listen, I'm gonna show up and bring these guys, like a nice little coffee kit or something like that. So I probably drop like 20 bucks a week right there. At least.

So here's the deal. We take your profit first, 5% of your top line, and I'm spaced on the 60,000, 3,000 a year. 5% of every deposit goes into profit. Account. Account. It will force you to save that 60 bucks a week. It'll force you to save it. You have to. Now.

Yeah.

And you just said you're smart enough and able enough to do it. I know you are.

And this automated.

Yeah, click move that fight. So. So here's. And we gotta get going. Here's the rule. Set up an account somewhere else besides Wells Fargo. That's it. And then move 5% of every deposit there and don't worry about anything else. Let's do that for three months and see where you stand.

I suspect, should I use that credit union account since that's already separated?

Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah. Do you. It. Do it.

Okay.

All right. We cool?

All right.

All right. We cool, Christina?

Yeah.

All right.

So that's all we got for you, Scott.

All right.

No. No parting gifts.

Why'd you wait so long is my question.

Oh, yeah, I'm sorry to let you talk.

Like I said, I have no excuses. There are no excuses. We have to hold ourselves accountable. I was like, I'm basically been a slacker, and that's not me. That's what pissed me off the most. Yeah. Like, this is the one weakness in my life. I'VE always struggled with money, and it's like it stops struggling with money. Yeah, that's why I need this. Because then when it comes time, like for our big annual ski trips, who cares? There's already money sitting in the profit account.

Right, right. But you're the guy who teaches this. Like, you would. You would say to. I suspect to me, don't save for the ski trip. Save to not save, so you have an extra money for Starbucks. Like, if we were working out and you're teaching me, you wouldn't say, hey, Mike, you want to bench 250? Forget it. You know, let's. Let's start at 250. You'd say, you want to bench 250? Let's start at 20 pounds, Mike. That's about all your feeble.

We gotta figure out where you're at.

Right, and then you'd build me up. Yeah, yeah, that's what I'm saying. Let's start slow. Let's not go big. And you will see results.

Awesome.

All right, you hang here, but we're gonna talk about you, so pretend you don't hear us. Oh. Oh, I pushed the button too early. Well, that's. We're gonna do in a minute. That isn't that funny. That was Christine singing. I gotta turn up the volume a little bit. Let's try it again.

So what'd you learn today?

So we are going to talk about what we learned in just a minute. First, I want to thank our corporate partners. The folks.

Yes.

That make the show a reality. Who are they?

Christina Vandera.

Yeah. You know what Fundera does?

They save lives.

They make loans. They make loans to who? They make loans. Any business. But don't go there arbitrarily. I mean, you have to have a specific need. If you know a thing that will make you more profitable, you can prove it. Then make a. Get a loan from.

And they do the work for you. They will find the most appropriate loan for you and say, hey, I got these great people. You know, this is where you should go. As opposed to saying, hey, you figure it out. And then we'll fund it.

Exactly. Also, we have. Who else do we have?

Fund box.

Oh, my God.

One Stop shop.

This is true. I was in Louisiana, you know, on Friday. I'm talking to this guy. He's. It's a $5 million company or so, and they have a major client who isn't paying them on time. And he said, this is really hurting our business is a huge bill. He called Funbox on a Saturday. Actually, I made an introduction on Saturday, 7:30 in the morning. The text that comes back is from Dave Tolkien. He goes, you know, it's 4:30 in the morning in California and beep, beep, beep, right?

Like, oh, sorry.

He takes the phone call anyway. And they got a loan on Monday morning, cash flow accelerator. So what they do is if you have an invoice due to you, they release the funds to you on the spot.

Yeah.

Pretty sexy.

Sexy, sexy.

What else we got next? Eva.

Yeah, that's.

Where's our phone? Oh, there it is, right there. Yeah. Ever see a phone that. That's attractive.

Scott on the phone, too.

On the phone. It's just beautiful, right?

Sitting around a nice little foam block.

Could you imagine? We could do with that thing?

Oh, okay. All right.

What else, Christina? Receipt bank. This is the stuff that. Well, I. I use my phone for any receipt that comes in, I scan it in. Last night, I went to dinner as a business expense. My wife was there, surely. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was my neighbor, but we're doing business together. So this is my life insurance. So it's business. Scan into receipt bank record. You know, on the receipt, I wrote down his name and what we talked about. Scanned into receipt bank. It already synced up with. Now we're using QuickBooks. Synced up with my QuickBooks like that. It's powerful.

No more shoebox for you, sir.

Yeah. And Xero, we don't know if you're.

A sponsor of ours, but maybe so. Thanks.

Yeah, but Xero is a hero. You know, we've been. We use Xero for two years. It's a great platform. We would still be on today, but our bookkeeper is QuickBooks certified and just asked that we cut over and we said, you know what? Okay. It's more fluid. Good. But we love zero. All right, now it's time for me to hit that button that I can't find. Here it is. Oops.

So what'd you learn today?

So, Christine, what did you learn today?

I learned that you have to be pushed to your breaking point of motivation sometimes. Like Scott was saying, your girlfriend has the ability, if you want to go on vacation, to just say, okay, let's go. When are we booking it? Tomorrow. And a lot of people do not have that luxury. And I myself had to. To push myself to a point where I say, enough is enough. I need to start putting money aside so that I can do the things that I want to do. And I think that's so important for everyone out there. Not just entrepreneurs, everyone out There should be able to, at the drop of a hat, say, you know, I want to enjoy myself. Let's do this.

Yeah. I love Scott's self awareness and said, listen, I went through this phase of my life that I was a little bit full of myself, you know, and then he said, and. And this is the big one. I must be an example of what I want to teach or what I am teaching. And I think that's true for all of us. I was with a friend once, and we were walking through a university, and he kept on pointing to rooms going, oh, there's a smart student. There's a smart student. I'm like, what are you pointing to the kid up front? He's like, no, the teacher. The teacher's always the best student. So once we teach these things, we have to become it. And kudos to you, Scott, for. For being that way. Yeah, that's. That's. That's a throw to you, Christine, I think. Or is it throw to me? I don't know. I'm throwing to someone.

It's still you.

Oh, is it still me? Well, listen, we're getting out of here is what we're doing. But first, our listener friends. You heard another amazing episode. You learned stuff from Scott. You learned stuff from Christina.

Yep.

You learned something from me too. And we want to hear about it. So post it on our blog. Post our blog.

Yeah. Leave us a 5 star rating if you would. Go to itunes, go to Stitcher, any podcaster that you use, and of course, go to profitfirstpodcast.com. that is the immediate post. And Mike himself will respond if you leave a comment.

Yeah, I'm in there all the time. I'll talk back to you. Yeah, when we love the reviews. We announced them at our huddle when we get them. Now. We don't have too many, though. We need more.

No, but you know what? Share your stories with us and we will. We'll shout you out on the podcast. We want the world to know that you know, especially people who are struggling and entrepreneurs. You are not alone. You are not the only person going through this. So we want to hear from you.

And you know, you can do it with someone at your side as a Profit First Professional. Are you working with the Profit First Professional? I don't think you are. Not yet.

Oh, we'll talk.

Okay. Well, you mentioned Shannon Simmons. Shannon Simmons specializes in working with CrossFit gyms and so forth. And you're right, the majority are not profitable. She's the one who turns them around by Putting profit first. Profit first professional is a team and organization of members. We have accountants, bookkeepers, and business coaches who've been trained by me, by our staff here. You met some of our team, Scott, here at our offices or abroad. We teach them how to implement profit first. And so now you have someone that's not just skilled in accounting, bookkeeping, coaching. They know how to drive profitability in your business using this method. Now, here's what you gotta do. Go to profitfirstprofessionals.com right now. Do it today. Let me put a pause on this. When I say do it today. There we go. There. Now I'm back to my music. So go there today. Go to Private First Professionals. Click on the find button. We'll hook up with a profit first professional. And profit will be inevitable for your business. Oh, one more thing that's inevitable is another episode of profit first next week, which means in about 20 minutes, 15, we have a call with niece Blasovic. She is the owner of S3 agencies. Going to teach you how to find a unique way for your company to give back. Because when you give back, she says, you're more proud, profitable. All right, let's get out of here. You want to say something? You. You want to say this time? How you doing, Scott, guy?

Rocking out, baby. All right.

This was fun. Thanks for coming on, Scott.

Yeah.

Got to break the rules.

Keep hitting those buttons, man.

Oh, there's the bridge. Just go through. Oh, there is a bridge in this one.

I didn't know it didn't false.

Oh, okay. Guy, I. I wonder if I just cut that part out. Comes back hard to listen. He's dragging us down.

Here we go. Any minute now.

Here goes. Yeah, there we go.

Okay, we survived.