Episode 144: Create a Transcendent Business with Yanik Silver

Can we talk about you messing up Shayna's name again?

Oh, my God.

Oh, all the time.

Did you hear that?

Yes.

I remember hearing it last time when you butchered it and you were like, never again, I promise.

You know, I'm such an over promiser.

Shanae.

Shanaia.

You know what, though? That Ron is terrible at pronouncing names. And then he brainwashes us into thinking.

That's right. I'm looking right at it and it looks like Shayna. It looks like. Well, it's S H A N E Shane. And then there's. But I look at it, I'm like, it can't be that obvious. It must be Shania or Shanae Nay.

Yeah.

And you can just see her. She hears that.

Yeah. So I guess it all the time.

Yeah, but she was nice about it, though.

Well, she was so nice about it. No, I really don't care. I'm like, hysterical because, like, you just.

Got through the spiel. Meanwhile, it's the same spiel you did last time about not doing it again and pronouncing it correct. Then it was like, so how about you, Chena?

Am I that. Am I that loud of a talker? I'm a loud talk.

You are.

I'm a loud talker.

You are.

So you can hear it all the way down here in your office?

Yeah.

I'm like, how can you get any work done with me talking?

I don't know. It's a miracle.

Do I share inappropriate things? Do you ever hear me say on.

The phone, only with your bros. Sometimes the way you answer the phone, I'm like, oh, man.

But I don't do anything. It's totally off. Cuz sometimes I'm known to go off color.

No.

Okay.

Oh, speaking of off color, welcome to the Profit first podcast.

Episode 144. That's right.

There it is.

It's all you.

You are so funny.

She's like, yeah, you got that crusty.

I'm the only one now. Oh, yeah. You're like, oh, you're drinking soda pop.

No. This is where you say who you are.

No. You're listening to Proper First Podcast. Welcome, everyone.

So, yes, welcome to the Profit first podcast. I'm Christina Bolduc, the conductor of Profit First Professionals.

Way to pull that one out of the air. And I'm Mike Michalowicz, the author of Profit First. And you, my friends, you're listening to the Profit first podcast. This is the show where we explore all the elements of profitability. We're gonna talk today about Being an evolved business, that's how you really bring numbers to the bottom line. And I'm joined in studio by Fireball herself, or should I say the critic?

Is that the way you view me?

Well, like, let's. We talk about how you can't pronounce names.

Let's talk about this.

Yeah, that was weighing on your mind. That's pretty embarrassing.

Well, you can find us on itunes. Stitcher, Tunein Radio, Google play, of course, profitfirstpodcast.com and really, any podcaster that you use anywhere, go and download us. What are you up to, Michael?

Yeah, I don't know. That felt like an awkward transition there.

I'm awkward, so.

Yeah, no, no, no, no. We're just. We gotta get back into our shorts. We're a little bit off what I've been up to. I've been traveling now, so there may be possibly in the works, another podcast I'm doing possibly, maybe with another company, Influencer Influencing company, A short series perhaps of six, maybe more, maybe less episodes. So I'm recording, and they canceled for tomorrow.

I know, I know. But you still have one session.

Yeah, they go all the way to New York now for one session instead of two.

Okay.

What have you been up to?

You know, I don't know. Just living life. I don't know. I'm enjoying coming home and having dinner ready for me. And Alex is doing a lot of cute little things. Like, my mom gave me this envelope of all these old pictures of, like, me and my grandparents when I was younger and stuff like that. She's, like, cleaning out everything. And I came home and he put one of my favorite pictures with my grandfather of me and my grandfather dancing just, like, in a frame and hollow. And I was like, sweet. Yeah. He tucks in my heartstrings a little bit.

We should do a show on romance. Like, what guys can do to be more romantic. Because I think most guys fall short.

Or they just don't know.

I'm not really sure. I'm an expert on that.

I mean, I don't know if they're all. Anyone experts.

You've had your boyfriends do romantic things for you. Yeah. And you've had it, right?

Yeah.

So then you're an expert.

Let's do it.

Yeah. Okay. What have you been up to, Fireball?

I had a wisdom tooth pulled last week.

Can't even tell. I literally cannot tell.

Thank God.

Doesn't your mouth swell?

Yeah, it. Honestly, for getting a tooth yanked out of my mouth, it was really easy. I feel like, comparatively, it Was a really good experience.

Did they knock you out?

Just Novocaine.

Did you get all, like, loopy?

No, not at all.

Okay.

But last year I had the other one pulled out in Panama, so I was thinking that this was gonna be like that. So I was mentally preparing for, like, major yankage for a long period of time. And it was like, doo, doo, doo. It's out. And I was like, no way.

Hold on. There was a little use through in two words in Panama?

Yeah.

You had your tooth yanked out while in Panama?

Yeah, I got a tooth infection in my wisdom tooth last year when I was in Panama, so I had to find a dentist.

What's the Panamanian dentistry system like?

It's actually pretty good. You know what, there's a whole kind of tourism business for that. So people from the US Will go specifically to Panama or Costa Rica, even Mexico. So they've kind of set themselves up that way. So it's pretty decent services for a lot less money, huh?

I'll be. Yeah, I'll be.

Well, I'll be.

Hey, don't we have some community shout outs?

We have two today. Our first one goes out to Kyle Keegan. His website, by the way, is www.teamkservices.com.

Nice.

He wrote into us, and I kind of have to paraphrase here. He says, I'm sick and tired of the bull poop, Mike.

We can just say, don't listen to Spark because there's some bad words if there's kids listening.

Right now, I'm about to curse.

Yeah, yeah. So read it verbatim. And if you have kids listening, listener, skip this part.

All right. Sick and tired of the bull, Mike. I read this book a couple years ago. Maybe MEANT it implemented 50% of it. It literally changed my business and my life. Long story short, I'm just getting through a divorce and I'm ready for another rude fucking awakening. I appreciate you, Mike. I am a better business owner because of this book. Thank you. Last time I bought 10 copies and handed them out. This time, I think I'll buy a hundred. Fuck you, dude. You're a goddamn stud. Thank you.

I remember seeing that email. I was like, f you, dude.

Yeah, you were like, we have to, like, censor that.

I know, but I didn't know if he was angry at me.

Like.

No, he's happy.

Yeah, he's F you, dude. I didn't realize it was happy.

You rock.

Yeah. No, Kyle, you rock, man. So, thank you. We have another shout out.

We do. Also, Peter Frazier, he is busy serving Fish and chips in England.

And he's like, curse you, Michael.

Exactly. And he just started with profit. First he wants a tummy filled with yummy, as he calls it. He goes, check out his website, harborlights.co.uk and then get over there to visit him.

Yeah, so next time you're in the uk, you got the place to go. I saw some pictures online. I was checking out his website. It was a line around the block.

Oh, that's awesome.

It was really cool.

I also remember shout out. If I can squeeze that in real quick. So we've been doing these bottles of wine promotion for ProfitCon. This is actually a bottle of root beer, which looks delicious. It's brownie caramel cream root beer. But this is from John Briggs. He's one of our members and he surpassed a million dollars in revenue for 2016. So he wanted to celebrate that with us with a brownie.

Root beer.

With a brownie, John.

Thank you. Yeah. Congratulations on your success, John, and thank you for serving all the clients you do. Let me see one more thing we do before we get our guest on boards. I want to thank our corporate partners, make the show a reality. So thank you to Fundera. I need a sound effect there. I was a little late. Okay, that was a horrible sound effect. Thank you to Fundbox. There we go. Nextiva. Oh, yes. Now we're on the rhythm receipt bank, Bazinga and Zero. And we'll tell you more about those folks in just a little bit. And we're also going to interview our guests and at the end you're going to hear a little bit of a summary of what we learned. So. So strap on your five point seatbelt system because you're in for a doozy of a ride. His name is Yannick Silver. Or as Kelsey calls him, Yanni.

You didn't have to say that out loud.

No, I didn't, I didn't listen.

You embarrassed me.

I know. I was. I couldn't wait to get to.

Oh, it's gonna be like that.

Oh, it is.

Oh, it is, it is. You can't pronounce names. Oh, when's Yannick Sliver coming on?

What's the name?

Karma.

His name's Yannick Silver and he's redefined how businesses are playing in the 21st century. He's the author of the Evolved enterprise and he is the entrepreneur galore. I consider him the godfather of info marketing, Internet based marketing. He was one of the first guys on board. On board in this and defined the market. We became friends now about 10 years ago. We haven't hung out in years now, so I gotta go see him. But he just released a new book, and he's really changing how businesses bring about balance between not just their heads, but their heart and bring profitability to their businesses. So it's with great pleasure to bring in Yannick Silver. Yannick, welcome to our show.

Mike, what's up?

What's up, brother? How are you?

I like Janik is nice. That's like my French Canadian special space.

It gives you a little class.

Do you have any other bastardizations of your name that you hear often?

Oh, yeah, plenty.

Like what?

All sorts. I mean, my lacrosse coach in high school used to call me Yahoo.

That's cute.

I don't know. There's so many. Yeah, Yannick is a big one.

I don't know.

There's so many great ones that. So I was just kind of laughing when I was listening to you talk about butchering names, because I do that as well and totally unintentional. And. And it really matters to me because I have kind of a weird name. So I'd like to get other people's more unusual names. Right. But that doesn't always turn out the case.

See, I'm in the same boat with my last name. I always want to get people's names right, and I get them wrong. I get so frustrated at myself, I will flog myself in punishment.

Oh, my.

So, Yannick, from your words, not mine, how do you define the evolved enterprise?

I look at it as a way of taking a business from simply being transactional to transformational, to even transcending what business can be. And you hit on a little bit of it in the beginning. You know, I talk about also about aligning your head, your heart, and your higher purpose in a way that a business can make a difference in the world and make maybe the greatest difference and actually improve bottom line. So it's. It's really exciting in that way.

But isn't all. I mean, the foundation of business is transactional. We got to make money. I don't understand what you're saying about these other levels.

Yeah, well, transactional is the lowest level. And so let me start by baseline, because to me, I've been an entrepreneur for my entire adult life. I grew up in an entrepreneurial family. My dad started a business when he came from Russia when I was three years old. And so I grew up in a family business. So to me, entrepreneurs are the greatest change makers in the world. And having a business that stays in business means that we're already providing a value. There's something incredibly impactful there. But a transactional is literally, if I'm an onion seller and someone else is an onion seller, then the customer's just looking at probably just price, and there's no real extra value add there. And transformational is that we're changing the identity of everyone who's associated with us. So we're changing the identity of our team members, our customers that buy from us, our vendors, anyone that comes into contact with us, our community, our customers. And then transcending is like, how do we use our business as a way of doing immense good that isn't just a business anymore? I'll give you a couple examples if you want, as we keep going.

As long as you're not the onion example.

So, yeah, not the onion.

Okay. But maybe, actually, maybe you can tell me how an onion business does it. So transactional I get. Give me an example of a transformational.

Yeah, transformational. You know, a lot of people have heard of Tom's Shoes, where they've gotten incredibly big. You know, Blake Mycosky started it a couple years back now. And last time I talked to Blake, he had told me that they had given away 35 million pairs of shoes. And so their. Their whole deal is you buy a pair of shoes, you. You. And then they're able to give a pair away to. To a. Somewhere else. And what that does is it actually does a couple of things. One, it changes the identity of the customers. So now I'm not just buying a pair of shoes. My identity has now changed to somebody who's making a difference in the world through my purchase. So that's how we can become a transformational company. And then internally, our scoreboard changes. So obviously, we have our P and L and all sorts of financials, but imagine if we could have an impact scoreboard where now. So Blake will talk about 35 million pairs of shoes given away, which also means, as a byproduct, they've probably sold 35 million pairs of shoes. And so they've gotten to be a pretty big organization. Bain Capital came in and bought 50% of them at, I think, something like $300 million valuation.

Wow.

Sorry, I take that back. They gave them $300 million, so it was a $600 million valuation.

Wow. So, okay, so I don't understand how you can sustain a business this way. It sounds like they're giving half their shoes away. Does that mean that they charge double the prices for the shoes that they do sell? And if so, how do you be competitive.

Well, they're using the story that's so easily spread about, you know, I buy these pair of shoes and now they give a pair of shoes away. So now their customers actually become advocates for them and they're able to get vendors that they wouldn't normally be able to get if they didn't have this kind of impact built into it. Like they were very early on a part a key partner of Nordstrom's. And Nordstrom sells some of the most shoes around. And they were a key partner because of this impact side and because of their mission of what they were doing. So it is built into it. What I found with these evolved enterprise companies is that they're usually paying less in marketing and advertising. And I remember one guy came in, he owned a company called sevenly.org that he started. And they originally started where it was seven big umbrella causes, seven days. It was done almost in a scarcity type way where there's limited edition designs of T shirts and for seven days they would sell those T shirts and $7 went to a particular cause that they were involved in. And what happened was he told us some really interesting numbers that were 80% of their new customers came from social shares. So I want to let that sink in a little bit, Mike, because that's, that means that they were able to get a tremendous amount of new customers and pay a lot less to acquire a customer because their customers had this identity now that they got transformed to that they were making a difference and they wanted to share that they were making a difference.

Okay, so yeah, you got me on the identity. So what I'm hearing is that people who support your brand, Toms Shoes or Sevenly or whoever it is, if you're providing a transformational experience, that the customers of yours, their identity starts to be synonymous with your business and therefore they kind of, they start spreading the word. Like they start like you're talking about it right now on this show. This is an advertisement for Tom Shoes and Sevenly, right? Is that what happens? People start.

That's exactly what happens. And they, they actively. Yeah, they'll actively. Because they want to be associated with something that's doing good in the world. And they are like. So there's some big macro trends going on right now that are actually fascinating. So there's consumers. Some of the latest research I'm seeing is that consumer buying behavior is changing where something like 60% are willing to pay more or the same amount for a brand as long as they have a mission or a purpose behind what they're doing. So they're willing to change, they're changing their brand loyalty. Companies on The S&P 500 are staying on there just less and less years because it's gotten so hard and it's easy for upstarts come in. You look at a company like Warby Parker that used a very similar Tom's model, which was a buy one and give one model for eyeglasses. And they created a billion dollar market cap for what they were doing because they were able to grow so fast. They blew out their first year sales numbers in three weeks because of that. Then the other side of this trend is employees and team members, especially millennials. They're willing to even work for less if the company that they're working for has a deeper meaning or impact in what they're doing. So this is like inside out and then outside in trends. And that's where it gets really exciting to me. It's like this huge tsunami coming down, the greatest coming business shift that we're experiencing.

So how do these companies, Tomshoes and Sevenly that are already doing so much good for the world and the community, how do they go from the transformational to the transcending? How can they become any better?

Yeah, so transcending is really exciting. This is where you start looking at things in a meta system. You start looking at how can we do something that's even greater than almost like the parts that add up to the whole. So one example is a company called Ultra Testing where they take people who are on the auto autism spectrum scale and they do cross browser platform testing, just sort of boring related stuff. So they're looking at how does one website look on other places. And what they do is because stereotypically people on the autism spectrum scale that they are willing to work in tasks that are repetitive, they're willing to just keep doing things and their attention to detail is very high. So they took what could be a disadvantage and turn it into an advantage. And so that's a way of transcending what business can be interesting.

So how do you pick that mission and purpose for your business? You're saying that customers are leaving the traditional companies and are 60% more likely to serve someone if they have a mission or purpose. But how do I know what my mission or purpose should be?

Yeah, so in the evolved enterprise framework, it actually starts with you. So we're evolving you first. And so that's working on yourself as the founder, as the entrepreneur, and then from there the next kind of concentric circle Is cause, and that's where the mission is and impact. So it either is going to come from something that you have a fondness to, or your story is related to, or it's something that your customers ultimately want to see served in some way. So it's going to come from those two places.

Okay. So if I look at myself, when I started my business, I had a personal experience that triggered it, and it makes sense for me, but how do I know anyone else is going to resonate with that? How do I know? Like, everyone's gonna be like, oh, my God, that's just a BS story. Who cares about this guy?

Why do I mean stories? Yeah, so first of all, like, that origin story is actually really powerful. And that's one of the things that we cover and talk about, because think about like, Spider man bitten by the radioactive spider. And then he goes back home and doesn't stop. I don't know, this burglar or robber or whoever. And then he ends up killing his uncle, and then he vows to fight crime or whatever. So that's his origin story. Right. So that's how he got like, you know, we all have these hidden assets of origin stories that are actually really powerful. And you'd be surprised that people will connect with you in almost anything for what the story is, if it's done in an authentic and genuine way. So, you know, there's like, there's a company out there, I think it's called like, Steve's Paleo, if you've ever seen them at Whole Foods or anything like that, where they're selling just, I think, like dried blueberries and all sorts of stuff. And I don't even know exactly what they sell. Beef jerky and. And so. But yeah, they are only engaged in. In helping, like, their. Their mission in New Jersey, which is. And I don't even know what. What their mission is, but they're able to. That, you know, it's a very specific thing. And. And 10% of their sales or the profits go towards that one very particular mission. And their sales have gone up because of that alignment. Now, you can also be pretty broad. Like, for us, our umbrella is. Our mission is changing the way business is played. So everything that we do is related to entrepreneurship and empowering entrepreneurs in some way. So it's not just one cause partner that we might be working with or one very narrow thing, but it's a lot. So work a lot with Virgin Unite, which is the Branson family charity we work a lot with, actually. And then a little known Group called Village Enterprise. And our whole release for the Evolved Enterprise book, Evolve, was all about how do we actually fund an entire village of micro enterprises that we could fund that are all complementary to each other and have 50 of them and build an entire village that way.

But almost sounds like you're a little bit in conflict with profit. If you're going out doing these good things, that profit should be the last consideration, almost should be ignored. Tom's shoes, the more shoes he gives away, the more successful it is. Is profit even a consideration?

It is. So that's the head part of aligning our head, our heart and our higher purpose. We have to remember all the great marketing wisdom that we have and tactics and strategies and that actually amplifies what we're doing. And the profit side. There's an interesting book out called Firms of Endearment which looked at these companies that had a very high level of culture and what they're able to do. And on the surface it looked like it's just an expense. But when you compare them to the S&P 500 over a. I think it was a 15 year period, they had a 1400% difference between just a typical S&P 500 company. That's a massive difference. It didn't show up right away. The first two, three years is very negligible. About eight to 10 years, then you see much higher and then over this 15 year period, way higher. If you're looking completely pragmatic, which is what I love about the whole concepts in here as well, let's say you don't care about making a difference in that way, but you only have one concern, which is profits. This is the most pragmatic thing you can still do.

How do you spread the word? We have a mission here. We're here to eradicate entrepreneurial poverty. That's what our organization is doing. How do I let the rest of the world know it? Question. Part A, Part B is what? How do I get people engaged in that beyond just the transaction? Or do I get people engaged in that beyond the transaction? So how to make them hear about it? How do I get them engaged in.

The mission of eradicating entrepreneurial poverty?

Yes, sir.

Yeah. I mean, so to me that. That has a perfect alignment with teaching financial independence or financial wisdom to maybe it's inner city kids, maybe it's underserved communities that you pick and allowing, allowing business owners who get the profit first material. Maybe there's some way that they could even be involved in mentoring or coming back. We Learn actually best by teaching. I believe in the learn, do teach model. And so it'd be really exciting to move that transformational or even transcending level of. You get the book. And part of it is there is opportunities to maybe teach some of the concepts to young entrepreneurs or to other communities. I don't know what it would look like, but that would be a way of spreading it, and it really turns into more of a mission and more of a decentralized force that's working for you.

So the idea of helping inner city kids, for example, that sounds very compelling to me. I think there's stuff we're doing that could help that community, but I know nothing about the community. The closest I've been to an inner city was visiting your house, which is. It's a mansion, by the way. It's like a mansion. Like, I don't know the inner city. Like, if someone from so far outside that community with no experience walks in, says, I have something that can serve you, it sounds like a total disconnect. How do I. Oh, yeah, no.

Well, that's the best way is actually partnering up with cause partners who are already on the ground and doing this great work. And there's a lot of them who. They know that community inside and out and are in there every day living it, breathing it. And so to me, that's where is also a really exciting aspect of evolved enterprise are these partnerships that develop between nonprofits and cause partners that are doing amazing work and businesses who can funnel resources and sometimes funds and even talent and ideas for them. So Warby Parker, who we discussed before, they work with a company called Vision Spring, and Vision Spring is their partner on the ground that's delivering these eyeglasses and eye care and eye testing to places where they couldn't and they don't. That's not our job as entrepreneurs. I think our job is to be involved in the best things that we can in our business and then partner up with another organization that can help us on the impact side.

I got you. So what I'm hearing is if I have an organization that can generate profit but doesn't and wants to serve a community, but doesn't have a means, you can find an on the ground partner, maybe that's already there. They don't have the ability to have to get the money you can bring the money they can bring the execution and the knowledge. Is that what you're saying?

That is. But not even just money, Mike. Like, it's like. Imagine if you had your team members come in and serve or you came in as a group together or the community said, you know, the profit first community came in. Look, we're gonna, you know, we're gonna come into, into the Bronx or whatever and we're gonna, we're gonna do this day together anyway.

Okay, Harlem, Harlem.

I'm in. I'm in it. I'm in. How about in the Onyx community? Harlem, Harlem, Harlem.

How much more engaging is that as a community to come in and do that? Like, that connects people in a deep way and connects your team in a deep way. So there's a lot of ways of doing it.

Yeah, I think it, I think that's really key. I think I. But just putting money into something, like I contribute money to Kiva. Are you familiar with Kiva?

Yeah, yeah, Kiva's great.

So I put money into their organization regularly. You know, it's a. Not for profit that supports entrepreneurs, but really micro businesses all throughout the world that are looking for micro loans. Sometimes a few hundred dollars, sometimes a few thousand dollars. And so you loan people money, but you don't give it to emulate. So I've been doing that for now, years. But the problem is it's very passive. You put money in. It's like, I feel good about myself. Yeah, that's it. That's it. And Yannick, what I'm hearing is, no, no, do that, but get involved. I presume it's more transformational for yourself then too, if you participate.

Oh, it absolutely is. Actually, I heard from a friend of mine the other day who told me that Helper's High, which is when you are actually engaged in that day to day and your hands in there, it lasts for three days to sometimes weeks. And it's actually Steven Kotler, who wrote the book still and Fire, the most recent one about neuroscience and altered states.

Interesting. So what I'm hearing is by becoming a transformational or a transcending company, you're serving the greater good in such an amazing way. But also it sounds like it drives more profitability.

It does. And you also want to create it where it's genuine and it's authentic. So maybe there's a day that you do as a. A company that's your serving day. And you go plant trees and you go, I don't know, go build stuff or Habitat for Humanity or whatever. Those are all great. But do they really serve you and your company and your mission? And is there alignment there? So when you get everything in alignment, then it actually accelerates what you're doing. So you want to look at it from that lens of, okay, how does this fit into what we're doing? Because there's probably more that you can. Most companies I know are actually. They are very good community stewards do a lot of things, but we might not be doing it in a strategic way or might not be doing it in a way that they even get points for and they even get credit for by telling their story and aligning it with what matters most.

So, Kelsey, cancel that Habitat for Humanity event we're doing next week and let's go to Harlem. Janik, we got it going. Thank you so much for this. Where can people learn more about you and the Evolved Enterprise book and all that stuff?

Stuff, yeah. So on. On Amazon, you can buy the book Evolved Enterprise, or@exolved enterprise.com we have a special box that we put together, limited edition box, where actually each box goes to. To help fund basically taking one person out of extreme poverty through our partner, Village Enterprise.

Awesome. Thanks for joining us, brother.

Thanks, Yanni.

Thank you.

All right.

All right.

Bye, guys.

See you later. Wow, that was a fascinating journey. Right?

That hit me right here.

He's a good guy. He's a good guy. He got you in the kegels. Is that what you said?

Yeah. Oh, my God.

What's the kegel?

That's very inappropriate.

Oh, Jesus. This show. Yeah. Awkward.

Okay, okay.

I thought. I thought you said Kegels.

No, I said in the feels, in the fields.

Oh, in the fields.

In the kegels too.

I think I know where the kegels is now. God, that's embarrassing. Well, in a moment. Moment. In a moment, we're gonna talk about our one takeaway. I'm gonna learn what the word kegels means. And I also have an update from a former guest. But first, I wanna thank our corporate partners. Make the show a reality.

Of course.

Do you wanna say who they are?

I do. Nextiva.

And do you know what Nextiva does, Kels?

Sure. Nextiva is a VoIP phone system.

How's the one working at your house?

It's working awesome.

I love it.

Are you using it a lot?

Yeah.

Awesome.

Yeah.

I feel like I'm here, you know?

Yeah. So you work one day a week from home now. Is that working out okay?

Yeah.

Okay.

It's working out great. Is it working out okay for you?

It's working out great for me. Okay. Yeah. How are you? You're working one day.

I love it.

Yeah.

That's when I get the most on, actually, is what I work my day.

I know I know.

No distractions.

Yeah. And you have the flexibility, too. If you need to do something else at home, whenever you can, you come back and. Yeah. And you have nextiva phone at home also.

I do.

Okay.

I do.

Good. And you're loving it. Okay. Who else we have as a corporate partner?

Find box.

Fund a box. You know what they do? Sure. Oh, you can all look down. You have no idea. I do do you do do. Explain. They extract teeth. Now what do they do?

Fundbox is when you know you have accounts receivable.

Yeah.

And let's say your accounts receivable aren't paying you on time.

Right.

You can reach out to Fundbox and they will spot you that money until you get the money in.

Perfect.

Good recovery.

She knew.

Yeah, she knew, but she did the old look down. When they look up and down, they have no idea what's going on.

What about Fundera?

I'll do that.

Yes, you may. Go ahead, Michael.

Fundera is a one stop shop for loans, but they educate you on what loan's the best loan. So not every loan's the same.

Zero.

You want to do that one now?

Sure. Zero is a hero. It is.

That's right.

It is a cloud accounting software system based out of Australia, right?

Yeah.

And now they're diddy in there, right?

Yeah, they are. They're excellent.

And the last, last corporate, not least is Receipt Bank.

Receipt Bank. Receipt Bank. You can scan in your receipts instead of having the old shoe box like you're doing the accounting now. Callous at the office here. One of the things is actually receipt entry. You don't have to do it. Don't worry about it because Receipt Bank's doing it for you.

Oh, thank God.

Yeah. Oh, my God. My life has been saved. Good. All weekend I was doing receipts. Yeah. Receipt bank does it. I want to thank our corpor partners. And you should check them out. I mean, we like to joke around about them and with them. They are great companies and we use them. We use them all. We've actually never taken a loan out because we do private firms. But our members have. Our clients have. We've never used Fundbox because we don't have collection issues, but we have a lot of clients who've used them with great success. Nextiva, we live and die by Xero, we use for two years. It's exceptional. And Receipt bank, we use now for I think two, maybe even three years. All right, let's talk about what we learned today, my friends. You want to go first, Kristen?

Okay. Oh, man. I mean, Everything he said just resonated with me. From being a transformational business to becoming, taking that extra step and going to transcending. And it all just boils down to being genuine and having a purpose with what you're doing with your business because it attracts better employees, which I can talk speak for personally. I took a huge pay cut and I switched to part time to come work for here because I knew it was a great organization.

The huge pay cut, that's not necessary.

I left a full time job with benefits, full disclosure. But no, it was, you know, obviously it turned out to be the best decision of my career, but I can speak for that. And also to its customers. I'm actually currently wearing Toms shoes because I believe so much in their brand. And that's true. Customers will pay more if they know that their money is going to help other people. That's a big deal.

I was gonna go look at your TOMS shoes and I'm like, you had this whole Kegel conversation. I am not gonna look at your Tom shoes. Those are Tom shoes.

They're Tom shoes.

Oh, those are nice. Look at that.

Oh, they're like slippers, like designs inside of them. And you wear them like the first two times you wear them, they're like stretching it out, but it forms to your foot. They're amazing.

And when you bought those shoes, Tom's donated.

They send another pair to a child in need.

Wow, that's pretty cool. What'd you learn today, Kel?

Spoke to my heart as well.

Come on, man.

Yeah. I swear, Obama. So I love this. I love the whole shift of business culture in general. I feel like a lot of businesses are moving away from transactional business. And I think it's a reflection of understanding that we're more dynamic than that as humans. And in terms of progressing as an individual and as a culture, I think it's huge. And I love here. I mean, just last night I was thinking of ways that we can be more effective in eradicating entrepreneurial poverty. And. And it's exactly like he was saying. I think that we need to infiltrate mentoring programs a lot more effectively. But I was thinking with our training facility that we have here, what an awesome opportunity. If we could bring in once a month a group of local students smart to here so they can see the culture that we have and see this thing that they could build themselves. They can reach for something like this.

That is smart. Gosh. That's why you're leading that for us.

I'm excited to lead it.

Yeah. That's that. I. You know, I think the. I wonder if we didn't ask Yannick. We didn't have time, but I wonder. I didn't think about it, but I wonder if you should find someone in your organization that has that natural ability. You have the. The background, the enthusiasm to lead us in. In our contribution to the community.

Yeah. Thank you for the opportunity.

Yeah.

Yeah, I love that.

All right. What I learned.

So what you learned?

Yeah. What I learned today, I learned I never heard of seven Eleven or celebrity.

I bought from seven before. Yeah.

Really? Y.

You seven Eleven?

I wonder why you never heard the Bobby Slurpee yesterday.

I go to 7:11 all the time. The hot dogs are amazing. I learned that you got to find a not for profit that you're aligned with if you. If you don't have the ability to do it in house, find that not for profit. I love the book Firms of Endearment.

That's.

That was a hysterical title. And I liked Head, heart and Higher Purpose. You know, he did a lot of alliterations. Transactional to transformational to transcending. Head, heart, higher purpose. Yeah. So.

And if you don't know where to start, you partner with somebody who's already in deep in the cause that you're looking at. Yeah, I liked that as well.

That is cool. You know what? I have an update, but I'm not going to play it. You know why?

Because we're out of time.

We gotta rush, so I'm gonna hold. Where'd I put my. My show notes? I'm going to hold off Erica Wernick's update. I. I had a call with her. I recorded it. We'll broadcast it next episode. She was on here maybe six, seven months ago, maybe even longer ago.

Longer than that, actually.

Maybe a year ago. And she's got some cool things to share. So with that being said, let me look at my notes here. One last. What did you learn? What did you learn, listener? Like, we want to know. There's the music building. I love it.

Here we go.

We want to know what you learned, so go to itunes, Stitcher, wherever you listen, listened. Give us a rating. We'll take any stars. We just want your rating. But quite frankly, I prefer five stars.

And your comments.

And your comments. Yeah, just give us, you know, tell us what you think and. And tell us how you're contributing. How. What else add to the show. Okay.

Can you give us a little ditty about first professionals as we leave?

Yeah. I love it. So here's the deal. Cabby yeah. Oh, I stepped on you. That's right.

Totally fine.

I just noticed. I write move it. So you know what Profit First Professionals is? We exist to eradicate entrepreneurial poverty. We're a membership organization of. Organization of accountants and bookkeepers and business coaches. We just had a call where I pronounced her name. Shanaynae.

Shanay Nay.

Shayna and others who are out eradicating entrepreneurial poverty, they use the Profit first method to make your business profitable. Could you get your nose off the microphone? You're doing the old nose. You were doing a nose rub. You were doing a nose rub. Oh, this is becoming a nasty episode.

That's why she has a special cuff.

So go to profit first professionals.com right now. Click on the find button. We'll hook you up with Shayna or another Profit first professional who drive profitability in your business. And then you too can be transformational or transcending. Oh, next week.

Next week.

Cuz I stepped on you. I got to do all the updates. Next week is Grant Baldwin, I believe, right?

Yes, it is.

It is.

Which is about two minutes, so we gotta rock and roll. We'll catch you guys later.

Bye. Bye.

Bye.