Episode 179: Make Profitability Fun with Dave Crenshaw

So I got a question for you. Yeah. If you had to take one animal and one thing.

Oh, I forgot.

How could you forget? I gave you like an hour's article.

I didn't realize I had to do an animal.

I thought it was random.

I hate two words.

Okay, got it.

So may I start just giving an example?

Yes, you may.

So I'm picking two words that independently they sound okay, but when you put them together, sound weird. So meat and unicorn. But unicorn meat.

Yeah. Yeah.

That's hysterical.

Is doesn't go.

What's your two words?

Mine's tree and disco.

Tree and disco. That's true.

You said two things that don't go together.

Yeah, but when they go together, you.

Didn'T say it had to be funny. I thought there was more to is funny.

I like disco tree. I like this disco tree.

I do too.

Tree disco. Actually, I like tree now. I like tree disco. It's like a type of disco tree disco, man.

Do the tree.

Right, right. Do the tree. And everyone's like, you know, I don't.

Know, I feel like when you're talking about it like this, anything can go together because the matter is animated. I don't know, like lion and mustard. Lion mustard or a mustard lion. That kind of makes sense.

Mustard. Well, mustard lion would be like a colored lion.

Lion mustard color.

But I like must. I like lion mustard. It's like, dude, I don't eat Grey Poupon.

I eat lion mustard.

So do I. Yeah, I didn't understand what else into that.

It's a real bite in your kick or kick.

Real bite in your kick.

It's a real bite in your kick. That's their tagline. Lion mustard. A real bite in your kick. All right, we are so stretching for stuff here. Welcome to the Profit first podcast, episode 178. And watch out for the lion mustard. Oh, yeah.

You're listening to the Profit first podcast. I'm your co host, Christina Bola.

And I'm the host, Guy Mike Michalowicz, the author of, you know, Profit First. Brand new book coming out, Clockwork. You know, get that pre order in. This is. This is the book that's going to change organizational efficiency. At least that's my goal. Been researching out for six years now. I think we got it. Which I know we got it because this company's already doing it. I want you to do it in your business, too. Plus, I've written some other books. Surge the Pumpkin Plan, Toilet Paper Entrepreneur. Check them all out. They're on Amazon. And since you're with us right now. Why don't you focus in on this? It's the profit first podcast. This show where we explore every single. Every single way to drive profitability in your business. And we're even doing our best hips recaps. I hope you're listening to some of our greatest hits stuff. Juicy ones joined the studio by kids. We're with Kelsey Ayers.

Hey, everybody.

The inventor of Lion Mustard.

That was me.

Oh, you were the inventor of Lion Mustard.

I just did a tagline.

Oh, is there a very clever tagline you invented? Did you make the product and you invented the name for it?

Yeah.

It's teamwork.

Okay.

Okay, then what now? What do we do? Where do we go from here?

You can find us on profitfirstpodcast.com of course, as well as any other podcaster, Stitcher, itunes, Google Play, tune in radio, and all those fun little diddlies.

Yeah, and subscribe.

Do it.

Why? Missed an episode. You know, if you subscribe, it automatically downloads next time you're traveling or something. If you're out of range of WI fi, it's there. That's a good. That's a compliment. That's a. That's a good thing. It's right there. You know what I'm saying?

Oh, yeah.

It even makes that noise.

No, no. You know, another thing I want to talk about is our shout out hotline. 844-876-7221. Why not program that in your phone? Every time you. Every time a little more Cha Ching comes in, you can give us a call and just shout it out. It's a pre recorded message waiting there for you at 844-876-7221. We want to hear. We want to hear about your profit. Plus, I believe we have a profit shout out.

We do, actually. This comes in from Ryan of Fleet Mobile Services. He immediately began implementing profit first into his business and personal life two months ago. He's so glad he did because he had a major supplier of his or for his business. Call out $3,700 tab with them. And if it weren't for profit first, he would have had the. He would not have had the funds to pay it. So he says it works, y' all. If a backwoods Georgia boy like myself can do profit first and make it work, there's definitely no excuse for anyone.

It works for any business anywhere in the world. I'll tell you. Where was I when I met Ryan? Do you remember? I was in.

You were in Baylor. In Tennessee.

In Tennessee. So I'M in Tennessee. Ryan, a profit first proponent says, hey, why don't we go out to a diner and listen, here's the deal. I travel the world constantly. I will grab dinners with anyone. You've got to email Kelsey KelseyKemcalowitz and say, you know, don't say, where's Mike gonna be? Hook me up. Like, actually go to the events page so you know where I am. And then if I'm in your area, tell Kelsey. And sometimes I can do a dinner. So I never met Ryan before. We go out to this diner and we sit down and he's like, you ever have Southern cooking before? I'm like, yeah. I'm like, I went to school in Virginia. He's like, no, I'm in real Southern cooking. I'm like, perhaps not. And so the waitress comes up at that point and she goes, what would you like to drink? I said, oh, I'll have a ginger ale, please. And he just rolls. He rolls his eyes and goes, oh, Jesus. She looks at me, goes, we don't have ginger ale. And Ryan, like, looks at me, goes, you better not order sweet unsweet tea either. In the south, there's two things we don't got. We don't got unsweet tea and we don't got ginger ale. He's like, we only got sweet tea or Coke. And I said, okay, I'll have a Coke. And she goes, which one? I'm like, oh, my God, what is this, like 21 questions? Which one? Like Coke? She goes, do you want Sprite or do you want. I said, actually a Coke because. Oh, you mean Coca Cola. Coke. Mike. Yeah? She goes, okay, everything. Any soda is called Coke.

No. Interesting.

Yeah.

So Little Diddy.

Yeah. What do you think about that? Bazinga? I want their corporate partners made the show reality Fund Box. I don't know if I said that. I got to get them off my notes here because I don't know if they're a corporate partner, but I think Fun Box is so Fun Box. Thank you.

Okay.

Nextiva and Receipt Bank. I gotta scratch this stuff out and this company's no longer here.

Maybe you should put your pen open.

Okay. Okay. Just go to closed pen. Try and scratch things. All right? So thank you. Fun Box, Receipt bank, and next. Stephen will tell you more about those folks in just a little bit.

That's right.

And we'll get rid of that. And we'll get rid of that. There's all this stuff on here we don't need anymore. Let's get to our guest we're getting stressed out. I am very stressed. Why? I think it's heat in this room.

Take a breath.

Yeah, I need to slow down. You feel how hot it is in here? It is.

It gets so hot.

The two of you are wearing sweaters. I mean, whatever. It makes a chick thing. My pits are, like, dripping.

I think maybe it's a chick thing.

Well, I'm just saying, both of you are wearing sweaters.

Yeah.

Maybe it's a you thing.

Yeah.

It's got to be about Jim.

That hurt. That cut. That cut. That cut into me. That's me. All right, let's get serious here. Dave Crenshaw is the master of building productive leaders.

Incredible.

We need that around you.

We do need it.

We do. This guy needs to be more productive. He's appeared on in Time magazine, USA Today, Fast Company, and BBC News, just to name a few. His courses on LinkedIn learning have received millions of views. He's written three books and counting, including the Myth of Multitasking, which was published in six languages and is a time management bestseller. Do you know, getting published in any other languages, like, proves you have a book that's selling. Like, you don't get a call from. I don't know what the six languages are, but, like, you know, China doesn't call up and say, hey, we just want to publish your book. They measure how well it's performing.

Yeah. Yeah.

That's pretty remarkable.

Yeah.

Yeah. His fourth book, the Power of having Fun, is due to be released. Well, actually, when this is broadcasting, it's out. We're broadcasting right before it's due to be released, but it's coming out right now. So get the Power of having Fun on Amazon or at your favorite bookstore. And he's an author, speaker, and online instructor. Dave has transformed hundreds of thousands of business leaders worldwide. Couple things real quick. His company's called Invaluable, Inc. And here's one thing that's really unique about him. You may not know just Chuck Norris. The Chuck Norris cited Dave and his book the Myth of Multitasking in his official Chuck Norris factbook.

The fast book.

Yes.

Well, Chuck Norris is very fast. Dave, welcome to the show.

Hey, thanks, Mike. Glad to be here.

Did you meet Chuck Norris in person?

I did not. Boy, that would be wonderful. But, hey, being quoted by him in the official Chuck Norris Factbook is still pretty darn good in my book.

Yeah.

Is that a serious book, or is that more of a gag book?

Well, if you're familiar with Chuck Norris facts, they've been around the Internet for, I don't know, at least 10 years. You know, just funny statements about, you know, ridiculous things that Chuck can do, like, ask not what Chuck Norris can do for you. Ask what you can do for Chuck Norris. Stuff like that. And so they've been around for a while, but he put together his favorite facts, and so it's got a lot of humor in it, but he also tells stories in it. Like, for instance, the one with myfact is Chuck Norris can kill two stones with one bird. Yeah. And in that, he talks about how he doesn't believe in multitasking and goes into depth about kind of his philosophy about that. So it's a really interesting book, kind of as a side note, lots of inspirational stories, lots of Chuck's philosophy on life, but also a whole lot of hilarious Chuck Norris facts.

I pulled up some Chuck Norris facts. The number one fact in the world right now, according to this list, is Chuck Norris has a diary. It's called the Guinness Book of World Records. All right. That's the number one Chuck Norris show. So, Dave, let's talk about having fun. I mean, clearly, we want to have more fun, but it also sounds like a little bit of a distraction if you're having fun all the time. Is fun really a good way to drive profitability?

Well, absolutely. And first of all, the emphasis is on having fun. So the perspective I'm coming from, I'm a productivity guy. I'm a productivity expert. And so where I'm looking at it is, what can we do to make fun happen in your day? Make you take some time to do that when you take time to have fun. Your performance, first of all, just as an individual, we'll get to the profitability of a business as a whole in a moment. But your performance as an individual dramatically increases. And yet it's something that people feel guilty about, and they try to hide it and put it a little bit here and there. And that is the opposite approach of what you should be doing if you want to be successful.

This is qualified for my favorite interview ever. I think we're done. I mean, that was, like, mind blowing through that, right?

Yeah.

So. But people have fun in different ways, Dave. Like, Kelsey's a dancer.

Yeah.

Literally, you walk. I mean, I don't know if you professionally dance, but, I mean, you walk by and Kelsey bebop, a private dancer. Private dancer.

A dancer for money.

Right, Exactly. And clearly not a singer. And Christina. Christina likes to sing. You know, people express fun in different ways, but this is a small office. We have Eight or nine of us here. I mean, is that really possible to have fun in your own ways or is that kind of start becoming distracting for other folks?

Well, that's in fact what I encourage in the book. In fact, one of the things I talk about is sometimes companies, they think, oh, we need to have a more fun workplace. And so what they do is they do something like a party or an event. Let's all go have a company bowling day. Right. The problem with that.

And we made T shirts.

Well, it's great for the 40% of the people in the company who love bowling, but it alienates the other 60%. And the whole point of the book is helping you rediscover what you used to do for fun if you've forgotten and find ways to make it happen in your schedule on a consistent basis. So you know, you mentioned the dancing. Personally, I like to play video games and that's my definition of fun. And that's what I put in my day. And I know that's a bizarre thing for a 42 year old man to admit, but that is the truth and everyone needs to find their own way of doing it. And you can get just as much benefit from doing something passive like that, like playing video games or watching a YouTube video as you can with doing something active like dancing or going for a jog.

Okay, but how do I get the entire company into having their own unique fun and still have a company?

Sure, A couple of examples that I'll give and this might give people who are listening some inspiration. One is LinkedIn, which is a company I'm very familiar with and contract with them all the time. They have what are called in days and what they do is once per month they have a day set aside for all employees to do something of their own choosing. Now they suggest a theme such as family or arts or community, something like that. But then they leave it up to the employees to choose for themselves. So it's self directed fun. So that's a way to do what I call the monthly oasis on a daily work oasis. And another example is kiva.org I don't know if you're familiar with Kiva.

I do, I'm a contributor.

So they have adult recess in their schedule.

I like that.

And it's time set aside where everybody knows, hey, we're gonna take a break from work and we're gonna do some self directed fun. So it's not getting in the way of hard work and productivity. In fact, I believe that you must do hard work. But I also believe, and the research substantiates, that when you take time to have fun, the work that you do outside of that is far, far more productive, far more effective.

Love that.

Let's talk about some more of the benefits then. So one of the benefits I heard of having fun is you perform at a higher level. I assume there's other benefits too, maybe even like retention, stuff like that. Can you share? Maybe there's a list of benefits?

Sure. Well, let's just start with the big picture. So if you look up Fortune's great places to work, right? And what they did is they find the places that people think are that are going to retain employees, that employees are attracted to. And so they ask a series of questions that they have people self assess their company. One of them is, this is a great place to work. And the phrase that most closely correlates with that is, this is a fun place to work. In other words, if you want to have a place where employees want to stay, you must make fun a priority. And that will help attract and from. So now let's step into that profitability side. From a profitability standpoint, one of the biggest issues that I see with businesses that I consult and coach is employee retention. It's extremely costly to have somebody that you train and you put through all this effort to have them just go someplace else. And then you have to go through the process of finding somebody again and onboarding them. It's much, much better if you can find people and retain them. And making a strategy to have fun in your workplace is one of the most powerful things you can do to retain top talent.

Okay, so work harder, better retention. I'm loving fun, but it also sounds like a lot of goofing off time. I wouldn't want a client walking here and see goofing off going on. They may not take it seriously, but I know you're a little bit counterintuitive approach. It says, no, it's really not goofing off. What's your thoughts about that kind of goofing off mentality?

Well, let's talk ratios first, because I think part of it is that problem of, oh, well, is everybody just gonna be jumping around on trampolines with sippy cups? No, that's not what I'm talking about. I believe adults should behave like adults personally. So it's so helpful to understand the science. One thing behind this is called the ultradian rhythm. Now, most people haven't hear of that, but most people have heard of the circadian rhythm, right? That is the 24 hour cycle through which you need to sleep and then, you know, be active and everybody has a different requirement. Well, the ultradian rhythm occurs within that multiple times and that is the optimal activity rest cycle. And the average person can go about 90 to 120 minutes until they need a break. If you persist in working past that point, let's say that your break point is 100 minutes and you work 101 minutes, you tell yourself, I'm just going to keep pushing, I want to keep plowing. Every minute that you work there after is diminishing returns. You get worse and worse and worse and you start making more mistakes, which again is a profitability impact. Instead if you just stop and say, okay, I'm going to take a 15 minute break every 100 minutes and you make it part of your daily productivity strategy, then when you come back to work, you jump back up to those previous levels of performance. And that is the kind of thing that I'm talking about a workplace that encourages people to take breaks, to say, look, I can tell you're starting to lose your energy, Stop, take a break, it's okay. In fact, it's encouraged. Do this. And when you do this, you will likely experience what I have seen so many companies, so many people experience, which is everything performs better.

Have you found, is there a way to self evaluate that rhythm, that ultradian rhythm? For myself, like, oh, I'm a 90 minute guy, but Kelsey's 110 and Christine is 115. Like, is there a way to measure that?

Yeah, the best way to do it is trial and error. So I'll give you an example. One manager that I worked with, we just started at the 90 minute mark and we tried that for two weeks and then I came back and I said, okay, how's the 90 minute working? And he said, I feel like I still have gas in the tank. Alright, well let's try 110. So we did that. And by the way, his break, what he did for having fun, he's into mma so he would do shadow boxing and he, yeah, like no fun at.

All getting punched in the face.

Well, if you're, I guess if you're really good at it or really bad at it, I don't know which way. But anyway, so that's what he did. He used a boxing interval timer to, to tell him when it was time to take that break. And so he tried it at 110. He said no, that was too far. And then we came back to 100. So it really is just a Matter of experimenting it. I recommend you experiment for about two weeks. That's enough time to get into a rhythm and get a good feel for how you're doing with it.

Gotcha. Gotcha. Kelsey, you got something you want to say? What? See, her microphone's having a problem. Was there, like, a side joke going on here?

I, like, hit the microphone like a.

Like an MMA fighter, dude, loser. Like, I'm like, did you really? Her face was so. Dave, I wish you could see this. When you said MMA fighter, I think Kelsey tried to punch me. She punched herself with a microphone in the face. But this actually brings up a point. So they start laughing. They're having fun, I think. Is it part of having fun? Is it sharing that enjoyment with others and letting others engage and kind of laugh at each other? Is that part of it too? Or is this kind of a solo activity?

Well, it's interesting. I talk, you know, people talk about having work life, balance, right? And in the book, I say, well, I'm more interested in the oasis balance. And by the way, that's a term I haven't used. I refer to these breaks as oases. Think about what a desert is, right? It's this endless journey. And so you need to have these breaks to refresh yourself, to get your energy, to get water, whatever it is. And so one of the keys with these Oasis breaks is that you have balance. There are three different types of Oasis. There is the personal oasis that you have for yourself, independent of work. For me, that was the video games. There is the family oasis. And by family, I'm referring to anyone that you have a relationship with. They care about you, you care about them. They also need to have an oasis with you because they're making a sacrifice. When we're talking about business owners, that's a huge issue, because your spouse has made a sacrifice with you being in that business. So they need to have that moment that they can count on to be rewarded for your work. And then there is the work oasis. And that is what takes place within the workday with your employees as part of that structure. That's really where the Iltradian rhythm comes into play.

Do you need to physically move? I mean, if I'm in a jive at my desk, working, working, working, and I hit the time mark, it's time to go to my Oasis. Do I actually physically have to move?

You know, I think the answer to that is it depends. If you're the kind of person that if you stay at your desk, you're going to find yourself going back into doing work, then, yes, it's probably a good idea to step away. But, you know, I've seen a lot of people who can just stop, put it. Put, you know, close their browser and open up YouTube or something like that and just do that for a moment and come back to work. And that can be effective. It's just a lot of this. And where I come from with the book is the standpoint of the experiment of you. Rather than just trusting me or these studies that I'm going to cite. Try it for yourself. Create an experiment and find out what works for you. But it's important to understand from the beginning that you have permission to do this, that it's right for you to do this. You know, I just spoke in Florida last week, and a woman came to me after I spoke about this. She said, I used to feel so guilty about taking a nap in the middle of the day. She's like, I'm not gonna feel guilty about it anymore. And that's what we're talking about.

It's a lot fun, actually.

Yeah.

How would you approach it coming from an employee perspective? You know, and I want to get my boss on board with this, because if my boss, you know, walks by my desk and he sees me, you know, watching a YouTube video, he's going to think that I'm. I'm not working and I'm not being productive. How do I approach a boss who might be resistant to that?

Yeah, that's a. That's a wonderful question. It's something that I do address in the book because I'm looking at it from both the executive, the manager, and the employee level. And the first thing is to say, regardless of what's taking place at work, you can still have a personal oasis. You can still have that moment in your day outside of work hours, where you're giving yourself permission to watch Netflix for 30 minutes. It is not a matter of whether or not you deserve it for good behavior. It is necessity. And so you can make that. The second thing that you can do is you can share it with your co workers or with your friends. You can say, hey, I just heard this guy on this interview, or I read the book, and this is something that I'm trying. Maybe you could try it along with me. So I think there's the matter of passing it along, of getting people involved, and if there's an issue, you can even test it out. There's one story that I didn't share in the book, but I came across. It was at this manufacturing company. And the guy, one of the guys who worked, went to his manager and said, if we get our work done by a certain time, can we go out and fly paper airplanes? I mean, that's really what it was. And the manager was like, well, you know, I can't have you falling behind. We need you to keep up with production. He said, I know. If we keep production, though, can we do it? Can we make it a part of our schedule? And he's like, well, sure, let's try it out. And I think that's the approach you want to take, is not, hey, I know what's best for everybody, but rather, hey, can I try this? And what do you think about it? And let's see, you compare the results before and after and what you think, then they're buying into it instead of you just saying, well, I know better than you.

Right?

I love that because I think many employers think hours worked and that's their measurement. Where, Dave, you're just saying it's the results, right? It's the results produced. And I wonder if an employee can go, listen, I think I can get more done during the day with a little strategy. Would you be interested in hearing what the strategy is? And I think that'll intrigue the employer to get more done. Yeah. If I give myself recovery breaks doing certain things, I think I get more done. Are you willing to try this out with me? And I think now you can win them over. What about just falling into. I think about those ruts we fall into. You know, this system's working for me. I find my rhythm. It's every 60 minutes. But then after a few weeks, like, I just have a few off days, I can see myself saying, well, maybe the system isn't working anymore. Maybe the system's too rigid. But is it just me throwing myself off? Could it be too rigid? How do I address those ruts?

I think there's nothing wrong with changing it up on a regular basis. And again, it kind of goes back to it depends. I work with people in a variety of different leaders who have a variety of different working styles. And some people thrive on consistency, and some people thrive under variety. I think that the average entrepreneur is going to lean a little bit toward variety. But sometimes it surprised me how that's not true. So if you're somebody who needs consistency, then you're probably going to want to establish that schedule and stick to it as much as possible. But if you're someone who wants variety, maybe you just create a reminder for yourself. Once every I don't know, three, four weeks that says make a change, do something different with my schedule for these oases. And I think when you just play around with it, people will start to figure out what's right for them.

We were talking offline and you mentioned there's a couple cultures out there. The culture of wish is the acronym you use and then the culture of win W I n Wish versus win. Could you tell our audience and me, what did you mean by those?

Yeah, and by the way, these are the only two acronyms I use in the book. I'm not Gary Busey. I don't just go crazy with the acronyms. So the culture of wish is the culture of the desert. The desert is the idea that I'm going to push myself through to the end. I'm going to just keep driving relentlessly and somehow it's going to pay off. And that's what WISH stands for, that it's worth it someday, hopefully. And boy do we see that with entrepreneurs, right? This idea that, you know, someday, hopefully Google's gonna come in and buy me out or I'm gonna cash out or even just at the employee level someday, hopefully I'm gonna get my retirement and then everything will be wonderful. And the culture of Wish perpetuates this degradation of performance because we're depriving ourselves. It's a culture of deprivation continually. And you know, when I talk about this, some people go, well, you know, I have a vacation once a year. A once a year vacation is still the culture of wish. It's still saying, you know, six months from now, then it will be worth it. Someday, hopefully all this will be worth it. So what I'm inviting people to do with the Oasis is to substitute the culture of win, which is worth it. Now, it doesn't have to be just worth it at the end. I mean, certainly it's great if you can cash out your business and have someone buy you. But in the meantime, what are you going to do in the meantime? How are you going to make it worth it now? Not next week, not six months from now, but today? What is the thing that you can count on today that makes it worth it? And the interesting thing about this from a brain chemistry standpoint, what you're doing is you're giving yourself an injection of dopamine. It's that legal chemical that your body creates. It's a motivation inducing chemical. And when you experience satisfaction and achievement and a feeling that what I'm doing is worth it now, that doesn't decrease Your likelihood of success, it increases it. So for me, being able to say, you know what? I can count on playing my Xbox for 30 minutes each day, that's part of the reward that I get. I have many more oases than just that, but that's my daily one that communicates to my body that everything that I'm doing, all this effort, all this time that I'm spending getting on and doing a podcast with you, Mike, and working on writing a book, all of that effort is worth it. And then what do I want to do if I feel like it's worth it? I want to do more of it.

Work harder.

Yeah, I like that.

Exactly.

Now my head keeps going to this kind of fun environment. The paper airplanes or different examples kind of. We're mentioning now I'm thinking about the customer's perspective. You know, we had a customer walk in this morning. I think we were expecting her, but still. Right. And we quickly try to stage the office clean up, for God's sake. But you know, customers can pop in, a phone call can come. What's the perception of customers seeing these fun environments? Could there be a negative consequence to that?

Oh, I think far to the contrary. In fact, if you want to see a good example of a business, I'm sure you're very familiar with Zappos as a culture of people that have fun. And from a customer standpoint, there are very few companies that provide such an incredible customer experience. People want to work with people who are having fun. We like seeing people have fun and contrast that too, with the other side, with somebody who is fully immersed in the culture of wish. Right. You go into a company and you interact with a customer service agent or whoever it is, and they are in a state of deprivation where all they're thinking about is someday, hopefully this will be worth it. What's the quality of that interaction? If you're talking to a salesperson, what's the likelihood that a salesperson like that is going to make a sale? Well, it's much lower than it would be if they were in a state of worth it. Now everything I'm doing is worth it. Man, it's so great to be able to have this interaction with you, because I know that having this interaction with you means I'm going to be able to have fun with my family tonight. I'm going to be able to do whatever it is I want to do. People sell better when they're in a mindset like that and they serve other people better when they're in a mindset of having fun.

Now, I've been at the companies where the. The owner. Someone's listening to your show right now, Dave. I'm sure of it. And they're like, this is incredible. I got to do this right? And they walk into their meeting with the 50 employees and go, starting today, we're gonna have fun. Damn it.

That's an order.

As an order, you over there, smile. So, you know, they go in and they. It's artificial. How do you. If you haven't had that fun environment, maybe today you listen to this and it clicks. Finally you say, okay, this is what we need to do. How do you make that transition, though, without being too abrupt?

Yeah, well, a great question. And the first thing is, do not do what Mike just said. Do not take this podcast and go back and try to teach a lesson to everybody about it. There's a step that you need to complete first, which is you lead by example. You must first immerse yourself in the culture of win. You must first create your own oasis and start to experience that for yourself. Then when you go to talk to people about it, they will have seen some sort of a change, a difference in your attitude, a difference in your body language because of this. And then you can say, all right, some of you may wonder what has happened over the last few weeks. This is what I've been doing, and sometimes I can do it, and sometimes I don't. I'm still working on it, but I'd like you to start working on it with me, because this has made a powerful difference. I see so many times. Business owners intellectually understand that they want to have a happy workforce, right? They want to have people having fun. But then their actions, their strategic actions each day communicate a very, very different message. And who you are teaches your employees far faster than anything that you say. They will follow your example.

Very similar to parenting. Who you are is what you'll teach your children. Dave, we gotta rock and roll. Where can our listeners get more information about you? Where can they get the book the Power of having Fun? And I also understand you got a free little fun quiz they could take. Where can you get all this stuff?

Yeah. Yeah. So a couple of things I would go to. My personal website is davecrenshaw.com and if you want to get the book, you can go to davecrenshaw.com fun. That'll take you right to Amazon, where it's located, and every format that you want the quiz. The best place to do that is to go to powerofhavingfun.comquiz and what you'll find there is a 21 question assessment. I call it the fun scorecard. So you can find out how well you're doing in terms of having fun. In particular, the balance between the personal oasis, the family oasis, and the work oasis. And odds are you're probably doing great with one of them and then the other two, you're going to need some work, and that's a fast way to figure it out.

Awesome. Dave, thanks so much for joining us today.

Thank you so much, Dave.

Thank you. Lots of fun.

Cool. Hang tight. We got to upload your file while we chit chat about you so you can actually listen if you wish. So here's the dealio. We are going to recap what we learned from Dave. Yeah, we got listener mail. Maybe we can do the one I forgot from two weeks ago. We can do that one too. We can bang on to them. And we're gonna do the takeaways, and I'm gonna embed our corporate partners. So, you know, I noticed why I started doing. I'm listening to other podcasts and I skip over the, like, the commercial parts. My God, I'll just skip over it and I start listening again. So now to counteract that, I'm gonna embed our corporate partners. Fun box in what I'm talking. See, it just hit you.

What was that?

I don't know.

Are they even a. A sponsor, though?

Am I wrong or am I right? Networks. None of them are corporate sponsors anymore, which is ironic.

You're doing a great job promoting people who don't care about corporate partners.

Yeah. So let's. Let's go what we learned today. Who wants to go first? Who wants to go first?

I'll go.

Okay.

So what you learn today?

Christina wants to know, what'd you learn?

I learned, actually. I feel like I. I got some clarity to sort of switch my mindset because I feel like to a degree, I know this. Logically, I understand it. But when I. In the moment when I'm working, I'm always like, oh, but I gotta do this. I gotta get this voice. You do want a different thing.

You do that Kermit voice.

But then I will find myself literally just staring at my screen because I'm like, I have no idea what I'm supposed to be doing. There's so many things, you know? And I know that I need to. Yeah, yeah. And I do feel like if I took more of a conscious effort to regularly take those breaks, I would be more productive.

Would it help if I called you on our next episode and just interrupted you.

Break time.

Break time. Time for fun. Okay, that's interesting.

Yeah.

So, you know, because you're naturally a fun person, like, you joke around, you're a ball buster, you dance. You do these things here in the office. Do you feel because of the load, the amount of work you have that that kind of gets squelched a little bit?

No, not consciously. Like, I. Because I feel like I dance simultaneously. And especially, like, if a song that la comes on, like, I love how you dance. Yeah. Like, it'll switch. It'll automatically, like, make me feel good.

Seinfeld dance. What's her name did that?

Elaine.

Elaine. Yeah, the Elaine dancer.

That's the best.

All right, what'd you learn today?

To lead by example, Plain and simple. Especially, like, your attitude, whether you're a boss, whether your employee, how you handle yourself is going to trickle through the rest of the company. And if you want to see a change and you notice that your office is, like, so stressed out and there's so much things that has to go on, Dave said, just you have to lead by example, you know, start within yourself. People are certainly going to notice that something is easier and breezier about you. Cover girl, you know, and then just.

Get for that face. Exactly.

Oh, wow.

She said. I was just saying.

I don't remember her saying that at all, ever.

I told her that I didn't think that she had one.

Thank you.

Ire in their fire. So here's what I learned. Quite frankly, I was expecting Dave to be a little bit of a waka waka type guy. Hey, let's have fun. Waka waka. Squirt, Squirt. You know, with the clowns with the, like. He would have, like, that little flower here, you know, like what kind of flowers? The water squirting.

That's you, not him.

That is me.

What's the noise?

That is me. What?

What's that noise?

That's how the water's squirting out. And if people could see me, I was actually squeezing my nipple doing that. But he. What? It's interesting to hear a sophisticated professional talk about having fun.

Yeah.

You know, he talks about a very cerebral level. I thought the biggest impact he shared retention, harder working. But then he said something at the very end. He goes, and people will be of better service when you have fun, when it comes to interfacing your customers. I was like, holy cannoli.

I agree with that 100%. Yeah. Summer. I feel much more at ease when I feel like There's a level of fun or, you know, an easiness about them.

Yeah, I totally agree.

That even trickles in, like, over the phone. Like, if Chelsea and I, like, have a joke about something and then my phone rings and I answer the phone, you can tell that I'm smiling.

Yeah.

And I'm going to be more cheerful in helping that customer. That. Yeah. And also the culture of win. Like, if you. If you're in it for the long haul and you. You find yourself going through some rough days, just take a step back and say, okay, what is one thing that I can do today that's going to remind me how wonderful I have it right now?

Maybe next time you're about to do a phone call, we can start reading off Chuck Norris. Like, the phone rings and I'm like, chuck Norris, count to infinity twice. There you go.

Or we can change the ringtone to.

Yeah, I like this one. Bigfoot claims he saw Chuck Norris. Oh, that's cute. That's not. You don't like that cute?

I mean, I get it.

Chuck Norris can hear sign language. Why do you keep smashing your face on?

I have no idea. He's excited. You know, I think it's the way that I laugh. I, like, jerk my head when I laugh. So this is in the wrong place.

You do jerk your head and you laugh so hard sometimes it sounds like you're a smoker. I know. I'm laughing.

I know why sister always acts her. He's like, okay, wheezy, you.

Literally, I thought you. If I'm not looking at you, like, she suffers from emphysema.

And I never.

Okay, that's a good laugh, cuz.

That's a horrible.

It's a horrible laugh, and I apologize.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Don't apolog. It's a deep inic. It's an emphatic laugh. It's genuine. It's genuine. It's authentic.

Yeah. I can't help it.

My favorite laugh of all time was a guy who expressed all his air, and the very end, the last sound came out. So you'd say a Chuck Norris joke. Like, Chuck Norris threw a grenade and killed 50 people, then it exploded. And he'd go at the very end, when there was no air left, like a deflating balloon. Yeah. That's my favorite laugh of all time.

Oh, my gosh.

And you know one other thing that makes me laugh?

What?

Every time I have a receipt sitting in front of me, how I scan it in and it's in, and everyone Else is like, what do I do with my receipt? And they're stuffing their wallets mine to scan right in with receipt bank.

Hilarious.

No, receipt bank's not hilarious. The other people doing the old fashioned way, that's what's hilarious. Okay, okay.

This is like laugh yoga, guys.

Listener mail.

Oh, listener mail. I gotta queue up the sound effect. Hold on, hold on.

That's what listeners can do. They can do laugh yoga. When we have some fun, we should do that. Just start laughing.

I want to try that on, Ron.

Yeah, let us try that.

You know what we. You remember? This is funny. Yeah. Remember in high school, maybe in grade school, like someone passed around a note and say at 2 o' clock everyone dropped their pen at the same time.

That never happened.

Did it ever happen to you?

We did it in theater. We tried because our director used to drive us nuts.

Yeah.

So the one day we were like, okay, when I make this noise, everyone's just gonna drop to the stage and not listen to anything that she says. And we did it. And it lasted for like 10 minutes. It was hysterical.

I've never done that.

It's so funny. So we're sitting there in the teacher Mr. Thomas, like, and all of a sudden you hear, always pens. He goes, what the hell just happened? And he goes, are you guys playing a trick on me? It was the best. So I think we could do with Ron.

Yeah.

Everyone, like someone starts laughing. Let's pass an email around. So everyone start laughing at 2 o' clock and just start laughing. And Rami, what the hell? And he'll start laughing. He'll start laughing.

Let's do it.

Okay, that's all right. Listener mail. Hold on, let me queue up the sound. Okay, we have two pattern.

Okay, that's funny.

Bazinga.

Okay, listener mail number one. Yeah, this comes from Kevin Allman. He said, I was trying to figure out which accounts we should be using as personal and which ones business. I understand that the income account should be business and the operating expense should be business. Then the owner's pay should be personal. What about the profit and tax accounts? If we will be paying the taxes for the business from the business, should the tax account be a business account? We were planning to do the two non temptation accounts as personal savings accounts, but then we had this question.

Yeah, so whoa. People bring a lot of complexity to profit first where it's not necessary. First of all, I want to acknowledge that's a great question. The answer is always the simple approach. Everything stays with the business. Everything stays the business. You know, it's the entrepreneurial tendency to ingrain personal life and business life. And it gets so ingrained that literally, I know business owners that look at their expense accounts like, oh, I need a new couch or I need this. And they take it from the business. No, just keep everything in the business. Now I don't care if you have an S corp, a C corp, or you go all the way down to a sole proprietorship, which technically is the same as your personal life. Still separate out the accounts, just having the business. Once the money transfers from the business from owner's pay, you transfer it to your personal income account, whatever you want to call it, personal checking account. That's when the money is in your possession. The reason you have these, these accounts in the business is that is the business's money until it transfers over to you. And you don't want to blend the two because there'll be confusion. Okay, I heard we have another one.

We do.

Pattern baldness. Thank you. I love that.

This comes from Dan Ferguson from Fergman and Waffles, which is a T shirt design company.

Yes, this is from Daniel.

From Dan Ferguson.

Dan Ferguson. Okay.

From Daniel.

Daniel, yes. Daniel.

How much of a percentage should one take? Except especially with being a new company that had around 4k worth of debt incurred from startup costs. And then side note, I'm looking forward to making this business a profitable one from my first sale.

Nice. Dan, how much profit should you take?

How much of a percentage should one take when also being a startup and having about 4,000 worth of debt?

Awesome question. If you're a brand new business and you're doing profit first, you can actually go full throttle. I think that's the benefit because your business isn't developed yet. It doesn't have a standard that it lives by. So set the high standard and you'll be pleasantly surprised your business can actually do it because you'll be forced right from the get go. So if you go in the profit first book or you can get the free Download, it's on mikemicalitz.com in the resources section. Get the download where I have what's called taps, that stands for target allocates percentages. That's what the most fiscally elite companies do. You can start as a brand new startup with those percentages. If it doesn't work, we can make adjustments back. But in most cases, a brand new business, the business will tell you. Your own business will tell you by taking those taps what you need to target for each account from the get go. And you have to reverse engineer and find your way to get there. It's way easier to do it when you start than after you're established for a long period of time, even if you have debt. Now, here's the deal with debt, Dan. When. When that profit distribution is ready to come out at the end of the quarter, it's got to go to service the debt until you whack out that $4,000 of debt. And then once it's out, then it goes and gets distributed to your company. And we started. Listen, we're doing the profit distributions with all of us now here. Do you guys like that? Love it, Love it. It's nice. What'd you do with your profit distribution?

What did I do? Oh, I actually went. I took my cousins out to lunch. My cousin just got engaged. We went out to lunch on the past weekend.

Not nice. You earned that.

Yeah.

Literally. You made that happen as company cutting costs, doing things. Yeah. What'd you do with your private distribution?

I saved it. I went in my vault.

Wow, that's a big vault you must have.

Yeah.

That's a lot of money.

Yeah.

Okay.

Fat daddy, fat back.

Yes. I think that's all of our questions, right?

Yeah.

Is that where. Listen, are we done?

We're good.

All right, let's. Let's hit the cue for the music.

So, yeah, leave us a comment in itunes, Stitcher, tune in radio anywhere you're listening to us and shoot over to practice profit first. Podcast.com. and then where else do they need to go?

Mike, you need to go to prop first. Professionals.com. i think that's what you just said. But more, more, more than just. Isn't that what she just said?

Podcast.

Yeah. Oh, podcast. I'm sorry. Go there. But I also want you to go to proffers. Professionals.com. hopefully you guys sense we are a fun company. We like to have fun and. But we are deadly serious about driving profitability in your business. In fact, in all businesses, business, we have this crazy notion that we are going to eradicate entrepreneurial poverty. 83% of companies in the world are impoverished, which means they're living check by check. And if you ever think, and I know everyone here has faced financial challenges in our lives, think about that financial challenge and amplify it to a business where you have responsibility to pay payroll for eight or 10 or 15 or 20 employees. That's how it is for most businesses. That stress magnified cause you got others to take care of. We are eradicating that. In fact, this morning we shouted out. We are here to eradicate our. Can you look at my armpit? Is it sweaty? I point out the door and you glanced at my pit.

Did you see?

I was just checking to make sure it wasn't.

Is it sweaty? Is this sweaty?

Get my brother out.

You don't have.

You're fine.

Is there a little sweat scene? No, you're fine. I'm sorry. I did not mean to offend you with my armpit, but we're having fun, so here's what you can do. You can. You can go to proffersprofessionals.com and you can click on the Find button. We will introduce you to a Profit first professional. Someone that's certified in Profit First. We have coached them on the method, they follow it, and they implement it in their own business. Then they went out and they've done it with their clients. In fact, we have 40,000 implementations. That's an estimate, but about 40,000 implementations of profit personnel in the world. We want you to be 40,001 because it will drive profitability in your business. So, again, go to propfersprofessionals.com, click on find, fill out the form, and we will hook you up. You got no excuse. And I'll give you a little extended play of the music that you can listen to while you go to profitfirstprofessionals.com and do this. All right, we'll see you later.

Bye, guys.

Here comes. Here comes.

Oh, my God.

That was good, right? That was good.

Sa.

Sam.