Episode 183: Entrepreneurial You with Dorie Clark

I don't know if you notice the carpet over there. It is like hair festive. I thought someone was bringing a dog in. Is it you? How is it healthy?

Yes.

It's all my split ass.

You just sit there plucking shit.

I. I'm a hairy beast.

You know, sometimes you are a little bit of a hairy beast. You know, sometimes I walk in flip flops.

Oh, stop, just stop.

You sue me and. True story. I took.

I'm gonna say it's not true.

True story. I had to take my flip flops off. I walked barefoot. Didn't notice. All of a sudden I'm looking down like, where did I put my slipper? Like, where did I put these slippers on? Like, where did I get these. This red pair of slippers? It's your freaking split end.

Oh, man. Between you and my scalise with walking.

Around barefoot, is that the most disgusting toes ever?

Yeah, provolone gutters. It's the funniest thing.

I've never seen toenails like that.

You rip on him so hard.

I didn't mean to hurt his feelings. And when I saw that one tear coming down, I knew I went too far. But besides that, I've never seen toes like that. Yeah, I mean, like eagles would be afraid with those talons. Like.

I feel like I've seen worse.

Oh man.

I mean, I don't think, oh, my father. I've seen worse.

Yeah.

Oh, here.

This is the most disgusting for a young fella. They're really bad.

So my father's toes. Toenails are just hard. And I think he's like a fungus in his toenails. But he's like, yeah, exactly like the colors. It's like a whole rainbow of toe color. And no one's painted his toenails. My dad's turning 90 last year. He's like, I think I'm gonna go to a pedicurist to. And he did. He went to one of his local shops to get a pedicure. I just feel so sorry for. I know those people. He takes off the shoes and people like, oh God, pull out that, that grinding system.

You use like a dremel.

Worst topic ever.

Where do we go? From your split ends to slippers to toe shoes.

And none of it was true.

Friggin ball roll. And you are listening to the Pop.

Profit first podcast, episode 182. We're back, baby.

Let me try that again. Welcome everybody to the Profit first podcast. I'm Christina Bullock, your co host.

I'm Mike mcow. Is the host of this little insanity that goes on here, this little shimag that goes on here, the author of Profit first two tell me you have a copy of that. And by now pre orders should be out there for my newest book, Clockwork, and you know, I'm joined in the studio by Kelsey Ayers.

Hey, everybody.

Is your title the coast to the Coast?

Yeah.

You like that?

You like that exactly right?

Pretty cool title. And this is a show where we explore profitability. And today a special topic is Multiple Faster, Mike, Faster. Today's episode, we discussed the multiple income stream methodology. You can have profit from one source or why not multiple? At least that's what our guest, Dori Clark is going to argue today. And you know, and we can do a summary of what we learned and we do some listener mail and some other exciting stuff.

Yeah. Where are you listening to us? Actually, I would like to know if there are any other podcasters out there that I don't list. But of course there's Profit first, podcast.com, stitcher, iTunes, Google Play, and tunein radio. Do we have an icebreaker?

No.

Yeah, we can figure something out.

Kelsey's up.

Who did you have like a childhood crush on? Like actor or singer?

Oh, what I love about these icebreakers, as I'm thinking about this is that our audience can follow along and put this in like the show notes. Not the show notes, the reviews and stuff. Like, who is your actor crush?

Yeah, they can tell me.

I don't know.

You guys can email me.

I'll be your best friend forever. Forever. Kelsey will fall in love.

Yeah.

So I don't know if it's my childhood crush, but I thought Nicole Kidman was just very elegant.

Yeah.

And so had a crush in regards to just admired and respected. But I don't know if it's her reality or her character. That's the weird thing. Like, she may just characters she plays. She could just be a total whack job weirdo.

I know that I think is the hardest thing for me when people are like obsessed with celebrities. Like, you don't even know who they are. You have no idea.

You can see interviews.

That's still a person inclined to a specific character.

Mine, Harrison Ford.

My wife loves Harrison still.

Yeah.

What's the best in Ford?

You know what? I was raised on Indiana Jones and Star wars and I just, I love his like, manly man demeanor. But he's like, he just, he has his. His goal in mind and he just goes for it and that's what he cares about, you know? Like, it's just. I don't know, something about him.

And he carried. I mean, how old is he now? He must be in his 80s, right? Or late 70s.

And still attractive.

Yeah, that's what I'm saying. He's a freaking damn looking good guy. Bastard. Who is your childhood crush?

That's a great question. I feel like mine are all random. I really love, like, members of Genesis. Peter Gabriel. Really, I love Peter Gabriel and Phil Collins.

Peter Gabriel, to me, comes across as an eccentric. I mean, extraordinary eccentric.

But I think that's what I like. I like kind of oddballs. Like, I really love, like, Steve Buscemi. I was always obsessed with Steve Buscemi. And he's not attractive. Well, it's like one of those people that's like, you know, or same thing. Like Paul Simon. I adore Paul Simon. Yeah. Especially when I was younger. I think I watched that first episode of SNL all the time.

Yeah.

And he's just so funny and he is funny and he's so short and.

Yes.

But I love his music and I.

Love that he plays off of that, too.

Yeah. Sometimes the people who are less attractive are essentially more attractive. I mean, people other like Bobby Moynihan, also Saturday Night Live.

I love him.

And Chris Farrell, right? No.

Yeah, yeah. Well, that's the current. No, no, no.

Who the hell am I thinking of? The big guy. Chris. Tommy boy.

Oh, Chris Farley.

Farley.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I love, like, the goofy guy.

Yeah, he was. Oh, my God, was he the funniest comedian.

I loved him.

Yeah. It's just a shame that he passed away. Yeah. Okay, now it's an awkward moment. It's an awkward moment.

Can you call us with your shout outs?

Yeah, we want your shout outs. Listen, dudes and dudettes, you can put yourself in either category. You can. But we have a phone number for you that we want you to call and just shout out your profitability. Have you made your business more profitable than ever before? Maybe you're following the profit first method. Maybe you found a different way. I don't care. I just want to hear the shout out that you're permanently. I don't care. I mean, I do. I do. That was an artificial. I don't care. Actually, I really care. I hope Profit. It was through profit first. But, you know, call us 844-876-7221 and don't delay. You're like, oh, yeah, I'm gonna do that one of these days. No, no, no, no. That means you won't do it. Do it now. It's a prerecorded line. It's not like someone's gonna answer live and say, tell me your name. No, you call and then give us a shout out. And maybe you. You call and you're like, oh, I gotta think about more. And you hang up and you call again. Then you leave the message. Just leave the message and we get a plan on air and then mention your website or something so people can check you out. Okay. I'm so very upset about our discussion. I loved him. I almost. Just true. He had a car. He had a Viper. I almost bought it. Yeah, so not. I was looking to buy a Viper and I was looking through it, and it was actually his. It was authentically his. I was like, oh, that'd be kind of cool. But I'm like, yeah, it's not the one I wanted. And I'm like, how many people can go around say, this used to be Chris Farley's car, now it's mine?

Yeah.

Like, I don't know. That's weird. Yeah. Yeah, it's cool, man. Yeah, cool.

I actually feel like people would be impressed by that.

You may be now. I regret not doing that. And it wasn't more expensive. It's the same cost as any other crop.

Yeah, you would think that it'd be super expensive.

Yeah, you think so? You think so? I want to thank our corporate partners, Fundabox, Nextiva and Receipt Bank. They make this show a reality. And I want to thank one other person.

Who?

Dory Clark. Oh, you thought it was you. Kelsey's like, hey, it's me again. Christine's like, hey, it's me.

Please, I need some praise today.

You get so much freaking praise. Is your love language words of affirmation?

Yes.

Okay. What's your love language? Quality time, I bet.

Yeah. You know, I need you to show me. Like, don't just tell me. I need you to actually show me.

Yeah, Yeah. I think your quality time.

Yeah.

Because. Because when I listen to the stories that you share from your personal life, when we do this, personal updates, it's always an activity with Alex or activity with your dad or your mom, something, you know, like.

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. No, I. Yeah, like, I. I don't need you to just tell me. I literally, I really need you to show me how you feel. Otherwise, your words just mean nothing to me.

Yeah.

Not funny. Me and Kelsey are both words of affirmation. Like, just say anything. We believe everything.

Any validation, please. I really need some validation.

Again. Again. We're so gullible.

That's so cute.

Her name is Dori Clark and she is an adjunct professor at Duke University's Fuqua School of Business. Oh, I don't know if I pronounced it right.

I like it.

I know. Dory. Did I even get that close?

That was good. I like the frankification. That was.

Thank you. What's the proper pronunciation?

Fuqua.

Fuqua. Fuqua. I like my pronunciation better, so. All right, all right. So just hang tight there. Dory is a professor and the author of Reinventing youg and Standout, both truly remarkable books. I got them on my shelf right here.

Yeah.

She is a former presidential campaign spokeswoman. The New York Times described her as an expert at self reinvention and helping others make changes in their lives. She's the author of a brand new book called the Entrepreneurial you. I'm a massive proponent for the book. You gotta get it. It's on my Kindle. I read it actually. Doria, my last flight. Love all the stories in there. And there's actually a lot of mutual friends we have. I noticed a couple of things. Standout was named the number one leadership book for 2015. And you may not know this about Dory. She is the producer of a multi Grammy Award winning jazz album. Dory, welcome to our show.

Welcome in.

Thank you, guys. Glad to be here.

So I'm not really into one upmanship, but I have won many Grammys myself and really those applause were for me.

He's won multiple.

This is where his words of affirmation come in.

This is part of it. This is when I really need words of affirmation. So I did a podcast with American Express called Turning Points and a lot of people now know this, but I think it's important. Dory, you know this. It won what it win, Kelsey.

Tony.

A Tony Award. What else?

An Emmy.

An Emmy. Yep. A Grammy. Yep. Oscar.

An Oscar. Right. Some kind of Mr. EGOT.

That's incredible.

I know. It won something in Vietnam. We don't even know what it was. It wasn't properly reported. Country Music Awards recognized it.

It's unbelievable how many country music awards recognized it. Yeah. Yeah.

It's unbelievable. I don't know, Dory, if you ever achieved that kind of accolades and recognition. I mean, just have you?

You know, I haven't yet. Mike. I was especially impressed when you. When you won the BET People's Choice Award.

I did. I don't cover the magazine. I know. Yeah. Put that. Mark that down. I did in the bet. Dori, welcome. So dory I'm reading Entrepreneurial U and I'm just blown away. I'm like, oh, my God, this is the answer to profitability. Multiple streams of income. I think a lot of businesses get fixated in one, and your whole book is like, no, no, no. You can make money this way, that way, this way. Tell us, what is the opportunity with multiple streams of income?

Well, part of the reason, Mike, that I got so fixated on the concept of multiple streams of income and really made a very concerted effort to cultivate that in my own business and then wrote a book, Entrepreneurial you, about how to do it, is that I realized early on in my career I had actually started out as a journalist, and I had been doing that for about a year after graduate school. And I got one day very abruptly and unceremoniously laid off and just was not expecting it at all. They gave me four days severance pay.

Oh, my God, that's bizarre.

That's bizarre.

Yeah, they laid me off on a Monday. It was a Monday afternoon, so they gave me a week severance, but I'd already worked a day, so it was not exactly a cushy landing. And I had to really scramble to figure out how I was gonna support myself. And I just realized, wow, these things are so precarious if you're relying on one way to earn your living. And it's certainly true, of course, if you have a day job. But even if you were an entrepreneur, I came to realize you might feel diversified because you have multiple clients, but if you are doing fundamentally the same thing for each of those clients, that actually puts you at strategic risk. If market conditions change, if suddenly the thing that you do isn't as desirable anymore, it creates problems. But if you can cultivate, over time, steadily multiple streams of income, multiple ways to either serve the same customers and just kind of give them slightly different things, or perhaps open yourself up to new customers. Maybe you do a high end coaching service that some people just can't afford. So maybe you can say, well, what could I offer to people that are interested but can't pay $20,000? Those are the decisions you can make that can really diversify you and open up large streams of new income.

I love it, but I also want to challenge it, because I think the more narrow I go, the greater the expertise are. I mean, think about a heart surgeon. Like, I don't want a heart surgeon that's also a neurosurgeon that's also a foot doctor, because she's spreading herself thinner and thinner When I have a brain tumor, I want someone that has had 100,000 or 10,000 operations under their belt already. And the more diverse I am, the less I'm going to have. So I understand diversity for opportunity. Maybe brain surgery goes away, but at the same time, I dilute my expertise. Or maybe I'm wrong about this. What do you think?

So I think your point is a really good one, Mike. And let me clarify a little bit about what I mean, because I think that it would absolutely be pulling people in different directions if they were doing wildly different things. If you are, let's say, a bookkeeper, and you're also a dog sitter, and you're also a ski instructor, and you're also also whatever, you run a daycare center, those are vastly different things where you have to have different skills, you're speaking to different audiences. Your marketing's completely different. It's just doing one of those things does not help your other businesses. And similarly, if you're the heart surgeon who does brain surgery as well, it is pulling you a little bit too far. However, if you are operating in a realm where. Where the diversification of your services is all in service of the same or a very similar audience, when you market one thing, it actually helps you with everything else. So you're not necessarily pulling yourself in different directions. You're actually able to intensify because you're getting the flywheel to spin faster and faster. And I'll give you an example from my own professional life. I have. I think my business, in some ways operates, at least in parts, like yours, Mike. I have eight different income streams. And so just to take an example, I write books like Entrepreneurial you. And when I go out there and promote the book, that's great. I am presumably, hopefully, selling more copies of the book. But when someone reads the book, they might be likely to say, wow, I really like this. I'd like to hire Dorie for coaching work, for private coaching. Then someone else reads the book. Book. They say, oh, I work at a corporation and we're having a conference. Maybe we can get Dorie to speak next year. Oh, okay. Well, I go to speak, and then someone sees me speak and says, wow, this is really helpful. My team could use this. Let me bring Dory in for a consulting project. So it's the same activities, but it is just different ways of serving people, and each activity supports the others. That's the kind of infrastructure that I'm suggesting that people try to put together in their own businesses.

I got you. So it Sounds like you're pulling from a common source of knowledge that you have, but you're delivering it in different formats based upon what customers want.

Exactly. That's right.

Okay, but now I'm thinking now maybe you're limiting to yourself at least those examples of speaking, coaching, consulting. I'm seeing that's the only person can deliver, it's you. The books, once they're out there, that's more of a product. If I do multiple streams of income, am I trapping myself to be the only person delivering that stuff?

Well, one of the things that I raise in entrepreneurial youl, which I think is a crucial point, Mike, is that especially early on, if you're just getting started doing hands on work, the sort of time for dollars, a lot of times people say, oh, that's for the birds, let's skip that. And yeah, it's totally possible, very easy in fact, for people, if they become successful, to just work themselves to death. Trading time for dollars. That is not the solution. Starting out with it is actually not a bad idea because it gives you a really deep and intimate understanding of who your customers are. So you really know what you're talking about. But something that I think is highly useful, that a lot of professionals have not yet done is making the transition to various ways that you can scale your business more effectively. For instance, in entrepreneurial you, I have whole chapters about ways that as you're building your knowledge, your expertise and your following, you can start to do that. For instance, creating online courses, building online communities. It could be things like hosting virtual summits, doing a podcast. Any of these things are Internet enabled and really scalable.

Okay, but now I'm thinking I can see how that works for a guy like me because I have a book, I have a common source of knowledge. But what if I'm a dog walker? My profession is I have to walk dogs. I do a really good job at it. Is there an opportunity for multiple streams of income or is that just limited to certain types of professions?

No, I don't think so. There's a lot of different ways that you can really build out multiple revenue streams. So for instance, let's say you are a dog walker. Well, you want to look at what your resources are. So obviously you have knowledge of a community of customers that have dogs and love dogs. Okay, that's, that's useful. So what else could you do? Well, there's probably a number of things. Number one is you could, let's say, start to create either an in person course or maybe even an online course related to dog training that would probably be of interest to your community. You might, for instance, become an affiliate for certain products that you believe in. Let's say it's a certain kind of high quality dog food or premium dog toys or something like that. That's the kind of thing you could talk about with your customers, sell to them. They might really be appreciative and grateful that you did that. You could certainly write a book about dog behavior. Or let's say you've become a really good dog walker. You've built a robust business. Let's say you have a six figure dog walking business. Well, I bet there's probably a lot of people across the country. Country. They would be very interested in how you did that. Maybe you could create an online community for people who are opening dog walking businesses and help them figure out their business model and their marketing.

I think this example is not too far off the wall. Who's that dog walker guy? Cesar? Is that guy on tv, the dog trainer. What's his name? Douglas? Cesar Millan. Yeah. I mean he's an example, right, Dory?

Yeah, absolutely. And in fact, in entrepreneurial you I do a case study in kind of a related field. This is not a business or leadership.

Catwalking.

Yeah, catwalking. That would be amazing. But I actually profile a couple, Bjork and Lindsay Ostrom, who are food bloggers. And Lindsey liked to cook. She created this food blog and they built it up over the course of a number of years and now it's very successful. They're bringing in 50k plus per month and they're doing it through a variety of income streams. And so in their case it's everything from affiliate links. So for instance, you might have a post about here's how to make a great crock pot soup. And by the way, here's the crock pot that you should use with the affiliate link. That's very effective. They've built up a substantial audience so they get split sponsored posts. So let's say I'm a flour company. I might pay Bjork and Lindsay to create a recipe featuring my flour. They have created live courses that people sign up for and go to who are interested in food photography, which is one of their specials. Lindsay has self published a book available on their site about how to do better food photography, which if you're a food blogger, is quite useful. They have an online membership community for aspiring food bloggers. So there's so many income streams and ways that they're monetizing, but it's all around their passion of food and recipes and sharing that on the Internet.

How do you get past the what if factors, though? Like, if I'm a writer and I know I'm so good at writing, and then I think, well, maybe I should branch out into public speaking and this and that, but, oh, God, I suck at public speaking. Now I gotta hire someone to kind of teach me how to be good at it. But then if I suck at it, then I wasted all that money. How do you get out of that cycle of thinking to break out into these other revenue streams?

Yeah, I think the key there is a couple of things. Number one is I think it's important to pick just one or two new revenue streams per year to focus on. That's really crucial because you don't want to be trying to do 10 things all at once. It's just too much to learn, too much. It's too confusing. But so if every year you just say, you know what, okay, I've been a writer, I'm interested in public speaking. Let's spend 2018 focusing on that. That's a manageable amount that you can take on and experiment. So I would say first it's about focus, and then if you get good at that, okay, pick another one for 2019. That's what you can focus on. The second thing to keep in mind is that this is really a smorgasbord, right? So in writing entrepreneurial, you, I present probably a dozen or so different options for monetization that people can use with really detailed roadmaps laid out. And the key is that people can read it and look at it and hopefully find what's right for them. So even though a lot of writers want to do public speaking or enjoy doing public speaking, that's not necessarily the path for everyone. And if you're passionate, go for it. But if you don't really like it, if you're not really comfortable, I mean, seriously, don't force yourself unless you feel like this is your personal mission to overcome this challenge. If it's something that doesn't speak to you, do something else. Start a podcast, Create an online community. All of these are valid possibilities.

We have established small business here. Kelsey owns. You have a future objective of maybe having a studio. Christina, let's talk about Kelsey's business. Kelsey has a jewelry manufacturing business. You're actually working today making jewelry tonight for upcoming orders as the holidays are coming through right now. Dori, what could an established business like that do that makes jewelry? Do you think there's an opportunity for multiple revenue streams for something like that?

Yeah, absolutely. I think in all cases, when you're thinking about, well, what could my multiple revenue streams be? You want to either look to who your existing customers are, or you can look to who are people that want to be your customers. But for some reason, often it might be a price point issue. Can't be your customers now, but they've been coming to you. Like, who have you been turning away, essentially? You can also look to other people who are hoping to do something similar to what you do.

Oh, interesting, interesting.

So any of these could be. Could be valid possibilities. So for instance, you might create materials or trainings or courses or whatever for other people who hope to do jewelry manufacturing. Maybe that's a growth area that a lot of people would like to do. You have specialized knowledge, you could teach them how to do it. Or let's say you have a specialty in really high end custom jewelry. Is there something that you could make that might be cool and neat but accessible to people at a lower price point? Maybe you've only been doing things in the finest platinum or whatever, and you can find a more funny thing.

She says it that way too. She's like, we only use the finest platinum. It's ironic that you nailed that. Let me actually jump over to Christina's situation. Christina has a vision one day to have a singing studio where she trains singers. But that's a big investment. You know, you need a studio and so forth. How can she start experimenting or introducing a revenue stream for herself today where she can start building to that ultimate vision she has?

Yeah, great, great point and great question. So, you know, I mean, an obvious one, of course would be until you can buy your own studio, it would be renting studio time. And I'm sure that there's people who would be paying for lessons to validate the premise that this is something that people want. I think this is another area where things like crowdfunding could actually potentially be of interest. So I have a chapter in entrepreneurial you where I interviewed a gentleman named Clay Hebert who is a well known crowdfunding expert and he talks about some of the strategies involved in doing successful crowdfunding campaigns. But the fundamental idea of crowdfunding, sometimes people get caught up in it. But really it's just customers who believe in you, are interested in what you do, and they are willing to prepay for whatever your service is. And so it could be, if you're a band, they're prepaying for your album. So that you have the ability to make your album. And if you are creating a singing studio, then it's people who are really interested in that who would like to see that come to fruition. Now, the only caveat there, Kickstarter, which is the best known of them, is specifically for, quote unquote, creative projects and having a physical space, they may consider that a little bit outside their ken, even though singing is creative art. So you might look to some of the other crowdfunding platforms, like, say, Indiegogo, which is a little bit more liberal in terms of the type of things that they fund. But that could be another thing to look at potentially.

You know, we were talking offline and you were mentioning that we need to challenge the key assumptions about the industries we're in that's holding other people's back. Other people back. What did you mean by that?

So when it comes to challenging assumptions of the industry, I mean, one case study, for instance, that I have in entrepreneurial, you, which, since we're on a podcast, is probably pretty relevant, is the story of a guy who's become a tremendously successful podcaster in the past few years named John Lee Dumas, who has.

A show before you continue the story. It's not John Lee Dumas. We have him on the show. It's Jalood. We call people by their three acronym initials, you know, J, L, D. So he pronounces his name Jalood. What's your middle initial, by the way? R. Oh, so you're Druck. Druck. Druck.

You're Druck.

Druck. All right, Druck. So continue your story. Druck.

So.

Inauthentic. I love it. Bazinga. Okay, I'm sorry. Keep going.

Good stuff.

So.

Sir John starts his podcast, and at the time that he launched it, everybody knew, Right? A podcast is cool, it's fun, it's interesting. It's not a way to make money. And he was able to just turn that around and make it extraordinarily lucrative nowadays. He's bringing in sometimes as much as $500,000 a month from his podcast. It's just eye popping. They keep going in Puerto Rico.

Yeah. And he lives in Puerto Rico too, now, right?

Well, not really anymore, after the storm, unfortunately, yeah, he has had to flee, at least for a while. So, yeah, pretty unfortunate what happened there. But, yes, it was very lovely and scenic up until that went on. But a key thing that he did, which really was, I think, a great example of challenging the conventional wisdom, is part of the reason that everyone knew you couldn't make money from a podcast is that sponsors wouldn't be interested unless you were able to cobble together a certain number of downloads per month. And it was just hard to do that. It was hard to build an audience. At the time he was launching five years ago, not that many people were podcast listeners. And people would do these weekly podcasts. And. And there's X number of subscribers, so you get X number of downloads. Okay. It's not enough for anyone to care. What John realized was that if he went all in, and instead of doing a weekly podcast, he did a daily podcast that automatically by itself means that with the same number of subscribers, you are 7xing the number of monthly downloads.

Oh, I see. Yes.

And so very rapidly, he was able to shoot up to a number that sponsors were interested in. So he started bringing in financial sponsor income. So everyone says, oh, my gosh, this is amazing. What are you doing? How does this work? And he, of course, very cleverly, was like, let me tell you, boys and girls, you can join my private community for podcasters, which cost $1,200 to join. And he was creating all these resources to help other people become podcasters. And so it just created this massive momentum that's now led him to be making millions of dollars a year.

So smart. So smart. Just that little tweak. I thought he figured out some special hack to get millions listening to him, but he just simply produced more.

Special hack.

Yeah, it is. Right. He just produced more. So the people that were already listening had more downloads, which actually inspired more people to download it, because they start talking about it, then it becomes.

You got it.

Yeah. He's a jalood. Such a horrible childhood name, Jalood. But the fact he achieved that success made up for it. So, Druck, what else can you lay on me here? When it comes to multiple income streams, there's a lot of listeners here that have businesses of all different types. They've been looking at their singular source of income. If they introduce multiple sources of income, do they start compromising the one key thing they've been dependent on? Truck.

No, no. I think this is the key here, is that by creating multiple streams of income, you're not shifting away from what's been your core source of revenue. Unless, of course, you want to do that. Unless that's the goal. Ideally, what this is about is creating more safety and security in your business. It's really just about having more options in your back pocket.

And.

And so for me, I know that when I launched my consulting business, 11 years ago, I did one thing. That was it. I did marketing strategy consulting. And so companies would hire me to create marketing plans. And that was great. And it worked well for a while and for what it was. But I eventually came to realize that it was a little precarious just doing one thing. And so over the past few years, I very consciously sought to create new streams and new opportunities with some of the things that we mentioned. Whether it's writing books or paid speaking, doing business school teaching. I created my first online course last year. It's just about that conscious cultivation. But the core of my business in terms of consulting is absolutely still present.

Now, you were talking about Gillette earlier and his kind of all in bet on the show. It sounds expensive for him, meaning expensive risk. If it didn't work out, he'd be in trouble. Do you have a way, if I start a new source of income, a way to mitigate the cost I'm going to incur so I don't take on that huge financial risk?

Yeah, absolutely. And in fact, I really encourage people in entrepreneurial you to adopt the strategy of little bets. You don't want to be in a position where you're quitting your job or making some rash decision that may or may not pan out. It is very useful to test things first. By way of example, actually in entrepreneurial youl I profile a guy named Bozie Dhar who actually saw both sides of this. He originally, he actually has a day job, very successful day job at a life sciences company. But he was interested in entrepreneurial stuff. And so his first outing in the entrepreneurial world was that he launched an iPhone app and he thought it was gonna be so great. He had this great idea and he paid developers to create it, spent a lot of money and he put it out there and nothing happened. And it was just, oh, it was so painful. But what he realized in retrospect, that he did what wrong was that he thought it was a great idea, but he hadn't tested it with other people. He hadn't even talked to potential customers. He realized, oh, if you have this hunch but you've never validated it, that's not really where you should be spending tens of thousands of dollars. You need to validate it first. The second entrepreneurial venture that he launched was actually much smarter because what he did instead was he started from the ground up. He had been promoted really fast and really frequently at work. He had just been kind of crushing it at his day job. And people started coming to him and talking to him about it and saying, oh, you know, what are you doing? I want to learn. Can I take you out to lunch? Can I buy you coffee? Can I pick your brain? And eventually he realized, like, oh, this is the market showing me that a lot of people are really interested in this topic and that they think that I have something to say about it. And so with that validation in hand, he actually created his second entrepreneurial venture, which is he did an online course in how to get promoted faster, and he launched that. And because it really was springing naturally from what people were already wanting and already asking him, he hit it out of the park. In the first full year that he offered it, he actually was able to bring. Bring in $106,000 on the side doing.

Something that he just naturally was doing on his own. What about if you introduce a product and then it goes sour? Maybe the uptake or the demand isn't there, but you have a few people that bought it. Am I now stuck with this product? Is there a way to wind it down? I'm afraid that I introduced a new revenue stream and I have a few clients that want it, but the majority don't. But now I'm stuck still providing that because I have a few people. Do you see what I'm saying? And how do I address that?

Yeah, absolutely. And so I think it is certainly really important to make sure that before you commit any major capital resources or anything like that, that you have a track record over time that people are actually legitimately interested in something like this. But for many of the things that I write about in entrepreneurial, you know, they're intended to be things that are really lean. This is not advice for people that are going to go out there and get bank loans to start a factory. These are things that regular professionals can do on the side for very little money. If it turns out, let's say that you started coaching on the side, at first people were interested, but then it trickles down and maybe you're left with two coaching clients. That's not the worst thing in the world. Okay, you're coaching two people. If you want to do it right, you can give them notice. If you're no longer interested in doing it and just say, hey, guys, I've decided I'm going to wind down the coaching practice. We can do it another month, another two months, but then I'll refer you to someone else. It's like, okay, no harm, no foul, but because you haven't invested a lot of capital, and in this anyway, you know what if you like it, keep coaching those two people. That's fine. You don't have to spend time marketing or thinking about it in order to grow it if you feel like it doesn't have momentum. But you can certainly keep doing it. But you just focus your new business development energy on a different area that's more promising.

All right, Druck, you have me convinced now. I mean, there's no excuse not to do this. I think, Kelsey, you got to do it. I think, Christina, you can get a little test of this business going instead of having that dream way out there. I think you can start pretty soon. Chuck, where can people learn more about your book? Pick it up, all that great stuff, because they got to get entrepreneurial you.

Thank you. Well, entrepreneurial you is available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, lots of great real world bookstores.

I'm selling it too, by the way. It's another source of income for me, so you can buy it from Mike.

Good plan. I like, like it. And if folks are interested in learning more about how to apply these ideas about creating multiple income streams to their own business, I actually have a free resource. It is an 88 question. Entrepreneurial use self assessment that actually walks you through how to develop multiple income streams in your own business. And folks can get that for free right off my website at. Dori Clark. D O R I E C.

Okay. Definitely do it. Dori's been a friend of mine for years now. We spend a lot of time together. She is extraordinarily integral, kind, caring, and wants to drive entrepreneurs forward. Her book is phenomenal. I've personally read the book. I couldn't recommend it more highly. So go get it. And Dori, thank you so much for joining us today.

Thank you, guys.

Thank.

All right, we'll catch you later. So she can barely put up with me. I think I love her. And she's like, oh, my God, this guy. Yeah. So your name's Druck now? She's like, oh, yeah, cute.

Mike, you're funny.

Yeah, cute. I think I drive her crazy. She's a consummate professional, but she's just a caring, good person, and she puts up with my crap.

That's important.

All right, here's what we're gonna do next. We are going to.

Oh, oh.

We are going to thank our corporate partners, but I want to embed them. I noticed I skipped the corporate. I listen to our own show. Right. I always want to see how we're doing. I'm skipping the corporate partner stuff. You know, you push forward. 15 seconds. 15 seconds.

Okay. And I'm like, you know, don't do a chunk.

Yeah, I'm. I'm skipping over Chunk.

Yeah. Chunk ate it.

Chunk ate it. Rocky Road. Do you remember that movie? Yeah. Thank you. So we'll embed our corporate partners because they're. That They're. It's that important that you hear about them, you know, I want to do our corporate mail, and I want to do what we learned today.

Listener mail.

Listener mail. What is that?

Corporate mail.

I wanted to cover so much mail.

Here's the bill that came in from Verizon corporate mail. I do want to do a corporate mail section. That would be so much fun. What corporate mail do we have?

What email did Mike get today?

Mike got an email from Aflac. So first, let's do the listener mail.

Also, I forgot to do. I forgot to do the shout out before, too.

Now, this shout out could have come through our nextiva phone system, and nextiva is an extraordinary voiceover IP phone system. But it didn't, because you didn't leave a shout out that way. It was via email, but if it was over the phone, it could have been next to you. It was actually. What?

It was actually Visa. Visa. I told you today it was gonna be interesting.

Is Visa. What?

I came in this morning, and I cannot speak.

It's part of the corporate mail.

Visa.

Exactly.

Visa. This actually comes via itunes. I'm hoping I pronounce your username correctly. Dasan Mo. But he says that you knew that wasn't correctly. Whatever, Kelsey, Whatever. He says that you are the Howard Stern of. He said he loves our podcast. It's fun, it's funny, and it's educational. The cast, meaning us, is hilarious, and everybody has a lot of fun with it. It's like they're. All they're missing is a Baba Booie.

Baba Booie? Yeah. That's.

Little do they know that I actually look so much like Baba Booie.

You do not. Like, Baba Booie has, like, massive teeth. You do not have massive teeth. Do you know anyone in your family or anyone with massive teeth? To me, that's the most distracting facial feature of people is when their teeth are huge or their gums are really low down.

Yeah.

Very gummy.

You said it was nose hair, I think.

Oh, well, that's not a facial feature. That's just disgusting. But big teeth, you can't. Nose hair you can trim.

Yeah.

What's your facial feature that drives you crazy?

I said like a bulbous nose.

Oh, yes, Right. That's right. You start. You're sticking with that?

I don't know.

Yeah, okay, well dasa, no mo.

That's the Sodball.

Thank you very much for that.

Also listener mail. This comes from Catherine Walker.

Involved.

Yes, thank you. She wants to know if payroll tax comes out of the tax account or does it come out of opex. If I want to pay myself a regular salary and my payroll company calculates the tax burden, how much additional percentage should I reserve for the non salary.

Taxes so it comes out of the tax account? You know, one thing else that could not come out of, but would be a good embedding of our corporate partners is Receipt bank. Oh yes, that's right. Receipt bank scans in all your receipts, right into your QBO, QuickBooks, online or other accounting systems. And Catherine, that tax money comes out of your tax account. So the tax account in profit first is set up for the personal income taxes of the business owners and all of the other corporate tax liabilities, including the Payroll account. Now 15% typically covers most businesses, but you have to adjust your percentages over time. So you may, as you pay your corporate taxes realize, oh, that really should be 17 or 18% total. So just be cognizant of what you're paying for or how much you're paying and then make an adjustment to the corporate tax or the tax account which covers your corporate tax liabilities. If you don't have enough money in your tax account, then pull out operating expenses. If you don't have money in your operating expenses, then it's time to one time to pull it out of profit, make the proper percentage adjustments and never have to do that again. Okay. Okay, good. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Okay, now let's talk about what we learned. How's that sound? Oh yeah, I learned. Hit the button. I'm sorry.

So what'd you learn today?

I made, I did the lip sync to that. I did the SIP link. Goes like this today. What did you learn today, Kels?

I learned how important this is. Right in the beginning when she was talking about it, about being laid off unceremoniously, it made me think of when I first started out of college. I was working at social services and it was in 2008, 2009 when the recession hit and my clients were formally making six figures and above and had four thousand dollar mortgages and now, you know, they were losing their house and had literally no place to go. I was a housing specialist. So it was homelessness that I'm believable. And that's what it's. I will never Lose sight of that. I will never take for granted that, you know, any job, no matter how well you're doing, cannot be taken away. Because it can be.

It can be taken away. You have, as an employee, no control over that.

Right, Exactly.

Yeah.

So this. And I. And I think on another level, it's super cool because it's making you look at your gifts, your intrinsic gifts, and how you can utilize that to sustain you in any circumstance.

Yeah. Nice insights.

I love that.

Super nice insights. What'd you learn, Christina?

Yeah, I mean, mine kind of ties into the same thing that Kelsey. First of all, first and foremost, I need to get my hands on a copy of Reinventing you, her first book, because I'm literally doing that right now.

Such a good book, by the way.

I need to.

Perennial top seller.

But just creating more safety and security in yourself and in your business and realizing that it's not going to happen overnight, you need to take the proper steps to build it carefully instead of just pulling the trigger right away. And she said, focus on one thing a year that's going to grow. And then if that works, great. If you like it, keep doing it. If not, okay, what else can I explore? But to take your time with it I think is important.

Love that in Reinventing you, she really digs into the mental aspect of it.

Yeah.

People say, oh, you could do this, you can do this. What skills do you have? But she also talks about kind of the mind, and once you make the mind shift, the body goes in alignment with it, the execution. So you will love that book. Get your hands on it for me. What community do you already have? I love that she's like, you know, the business opportunity exists there. Once you understand who your community is and. And then how do you serve them? My thought was, oh, what else can I do? Without even considering the community, which is totally bass ackwards. And now she straightened me out. I love the prepay for service, too. To get people to pay you before you even deliver. Yeah.

The crowdfunding.

Yeah. And it proves, by the way, that they believe in your concept. So it's a win, win. And let's see. Oh, gosh, I can't even remember. Test and then the testing. I like the fact that she says you can test things out so you can get people to prepay, then you can test it. You don't have to go all in. Try in a small way. And if it works, then build from there. So prove it and then build it. So that was my big takeaways. That's Right. And just. Just do it. All right.

You also need to embed Fun box.

Oh, I didn't embed Fun Box. So should let me ask the Magic 8 Ball here. I'm shaking up. That's me shaking up. It looked like it didn't sound like it. Let me shake up Magic 8 ball. Should I use fund box?

Do it.

Just do it.

I wanted it yesterday. Yesterday you said tomorrow. So just do it. No, I need to wait. Make your dreams come true. Come on. I can't do this thing Is impossible. It is.

What are you waiting for?

I don't know. Do it. I need more time. I need more time. Yes, you can. All right. That didn't work at all. That was not funny though.

That was like close, but a little.

I know. Every time I make a comment really good, he's responding to something. I know. I got to rehearse this. That was so bad now. But Fundbox is not so bad. I am. Fundbox is extraordinary. If you have an invoice due to you Fundbox release those funds to you in its entirety. It's called a cash flow accelerator. So never be caught shorthanded again.

Fat daddy, Fat bank.

Yes. Okay, I think that's all I got, right?

Yeah, that's it. Okay, listen to us folks. Stitchers, itunes, Stitchers, stitchers, Google Play, of course, course profitfirstpodcast.com. that's where the meat and potaters is. And then head over to profitfirstprofessionals.com, my favorite website ever. Why?

Well, it's a brand new website, nice and pretty, just got released this past quarter. So a few days, a few months ago. But you gotta check it out because on there is an option that says find and you can find a profit first professional. This is a certified accountant, bookkeeper, coach, we call them ABC's who will drive profitability in your business. You want more profitably, don't you? Yeah, Druck does. Jalood does. Don't you? Yes, you do. So go to profitfirstprofessionals.com right now. Click on the find button. These are individuals who become certified in the profit first method. They are their all own independent business owners. But they've become certified in our method and we will introduce you to them and they will work with you hand in hand to drive profitably in your business. That's what I'm talking about. So take that last action. Go there now. Prop first professionals dot com. Click on find, Fill out the form, we'll take care of the rest. All right, guys, so would you be Midjum? Yeah.

Well, we already knew mine.

Just. Cabbie. Yeah. Cab.

Mine's Ka.

Ka.

Like a car in Boston.

Your middle initials? A. Yeah. What's your middle name?

Ann.

Ann. Ka. Ka. I like that. Like a bird. And my. My elbow. Wings flapping up every time. Yeah, I like that.

I was gonna call you from now on.

What's Aaron. What's Aaron's middle name?

Oh, I know. Her maiden name is Sterling.

Yeah, but we gotta find out. Her middle name is. And then she. Meet Elm.

Elm Street.

If only we knew that was true.

Wow. Tell us what your middle initials are. You know, put them on our. Our comments in your podcatcher, and we'll make fun of your name, too, next time. All right, let's get out of here, guys. Mujam out.

Bye.

Oh, my God. Now we're gonna. I don't want to fade out of this. I just want to go. I want to go, go, go.

You like the sound of do it.

I do like it. I like the sound of it. I'm, like, loving it. I got all these buttons coming. No one else is liking it. Just me. All right, let's get out of here.