Episode 196: Profitability and Spiritual Abundance with Edwene Gaines

Warning. This episode contains references to spiritual and biblical beliefs. So if that's a turn off to you, well, I'm a little bit sorry because I think we should be accepting of all kind of perceptions and learn for ourselves and make decisions for ourselves. So listen, you're in for a wonderful ride with Edwina Gaines. She argues that profitability is more than just a physical manifestation. It is. It's a spiritual being. It's a biblical. It's tied into some biblical references. Edwina talks us through the spiritual side of profitability and I think you're in for a fascinating journey. I loved it and I think you will too in this best of episode. Enjoy. All right, Chris, you know, when it comes to music, I was thinking we've had such, wow, entertaining music to start off shows.

Hey, I feel like I'm high at Disney.

Okay, terrific. On that note, welcome to the Profit first podcast.

You're listening to episode 88.

Yes.

Ow.

Ooh.

It's gonna be great.

88. It's always great, 88.

It's gonna be great. Welcome everyone, to the show. I am Chris Curran. I'm the founder of Fractal Recording.

And I'm Mike Michalowicz, the author of Profit first. And my brand new book that's coming out, Surge, it's at Amazon right now. Go check it out. It's how to sur business. And I'm joined in the studio by Christina Butler.

Hello again.

And you are listening to the Profit first podcast. This is the only show on the entire interweb where we explore all aspects. I didn't say assets, but it's really all aspects of profitability. And, you know, today's episode is really a unique vantage point. Listen, you've heard about profitability from the vantage point of better exercise and how it drives profits. You've heard about the. The necessity to stop clinging and start FL way things that weren't working. Today we're going to talk about the spiritual side of profitability.

Man, that's awesome. You know, funny, my brother always says bigger is not always better in terms of business. You know, just because you're bigger with more employees and more revenue doesn't mean you're more profitable. He always says, you know, sometimes it's better to stay a little small and tight, but make a lot of profit. I mean, it's just. I don't know, it's just so plain and simple.

He's 4 foot 8. Just so you know, so he's. It's a little bit of a Napoleon thing. I mean, there's Nothing wrong with that.

So you can find our show on itunes and Stitcher and Tunein Radio, and of course, any podcaster you want to hear us on. And the website is profitfirstpodcast.com. that's the place to go. You want to see all the previous episodes. You want to browse and just poke around on Mike's website. I mean, feel free. Profit first, podcast dot com. And yeah, bruh, and I forgot to say it. Profit. I mean, revenue is the best, but.

Profit is all the rest, man.

Yeah, that's it.

Nice. Gosh. And these rhymes will really come up with them on the spot.

Yes, but I think.

I think we're starting to repeat certain rhymes, so it's coming easier, you know? Like, I think we've said the best in rest before.

Really? I don't think so, you know? Really?

Okay, maybe not. You know, the ones that throw me off are the dual syllable ones, like wonderful. Yeah, Wonderful. Yeah, Yeah. A three syllable one. Forget it.

Are there certain words that don't rhyme with anything? Like silver and orange? I should actually choose one of those next time.

Yeah, like revenue is to orange as profit is to. I'll be like, yeah. It doesn't even make sense.

Doesn't make sense.

Hey, Chris, before we talk about what we've been up to, I want to learn a little shout out. We had some nice shout outs. I forgot to mention a shout out we got last week, but what did.

We get this week?

Christina?

So, Susan from Corvillis, Oregon, I'm sorry if I'm mispronouncing that town there, but she emailed it and she said, I've been in business for five years and have yet to really pay myself or make a profit. As of today, I'm turning over a new leaf. I commit to running a profitable business. So best of luck to you, Susan. We're definitely rooting for you.

Thanks for being a podcast listener, too. That's a big deal.

Totally.

Hey, Chris, I'm kind of out my last sync now, but just tell me what you've been up to. And now I want to talk about our corporate partners.

Actually, I just downloaded this app called the Play Magnus app. The. The world chess champion is named Magnus Carlson, and I've been actually following his career for almost 10 years now. And he. Now he's the world champ, and now he has an app called Play Magnus where you can actually choose the age. You can play Magnus at whatever age you want. So starting from age of like five and six and seven and eight, like, you choose. Ok. Okay. Today I want to play nine year old Magnus, which is who I'm playing now. And I haven't, I haven't beaten 9 year old Magnus yet. I keep losing. Once I beat the nine year old, then I'll go to ten year old Magnus. But anyway, it's just fun. Chess is awesome.

Yeah, chess is awesome for people that like chess. So you know, I've been up to. Well, right now, you know, I check email. I, I check a little bit too often, but I just check an email. Literally right now, look, it's 3:33. Were recording at 3:39. 3:33. This thing came in from Kurt Robinson. I was in one of my supplier's offices two days ago, but sitting on the side of their desk was Profit first. I want to say thank you. I started reading it that night. Blah, blah, blah, blah. I'm committed to driving profitably in my business.

Awesome.

That's the stuff. Oh, man, lights me up. So email me. I read every email, even while doing a podcast.

And you respond too.

And I respond to every single email. Yeah. Sometimes drunk, because I'll be reading like on a Saturday night with a, with a margarita in hand.

But you know what people could do? You know how remember people used to do the planking? They used to like just lay down flat on in weird places. People could actually put your book in weird places and take a picture and share it on social media.

Oh, I like that. Yeah, I like that. Yeah. What's the. Yeah, and don't be too graphic, folks. But I would love that. I would love that. Send me your weird place picture of profit first.

That's awesome.

So, you know, to some folks it may be weird. To me, this is actually very natural and normal, the spiritual side of profitability. You know, I think for myself personally, the turning point in my career was the day I said, it's not about making money, it's about having impact. And I felt, I don't know, just a spiritual drive in me. And I felt ever since I feel very connected to something greater that's out there. Well, there is one of the most important authors that you must read her book. Her name is Edwin Gaines. She's the author of the four Spiritual Laws of Prosperity. This is the book that will get you connected with that ultimate abundance that's out there around profitability. And I am privileged to have Ed Ween as a guest on our show today. Welcome to the show.

Thank you. I'm glad to be here.

So what inspired you to write your book?

Say it again. Please. I didn't hear you.

Why did you come on this crazy show? What inspired you to.

I'm honored, Mike. I am truly honored to be on your show. I really believe in what you're doing and I'm proud of you. And I know millions of people are grateful to you and what you stand for, because I do believe that we're here to profit abundantly.

Well, I agree, too, and thank you for saying that. But what inspired you to put it in writing? What inspired you to write a book? This book?

Well, I've been doing workshops and seminars for about 40 years now, and I was in New York City speaking, and unbeknownst to me, there was the president of a very prestigious publishing company who heard me that day, and he called me the next week and said, write a book. Whatever you write, I'll publish. So I got busy writing and thank you, God. My book has done extremely well. It's been out now 10 years. And I have found that people are really responding to it and having good results when they do what I'm asking them to do.

What are the core four spiritual laws of prosperity?

I discovered these in my own process because I started when I was really, really poor. But what I have found is that when I tithe, when I return 110 of all the monies I receive back where I've been fed spiritually and when I forgive everybody, including myself, and when I set clear cut tangible goals and I get on purpose with my life, then my life works and I live a truly prosperous life. And I'm so grateful that I found these. About 45 years, it was sort of trial and error. I didn't have money to buy books. I'd just go to the library and check out whatever I could check out and then put into practice what they said do. And amazing things began to happen. And I know there's somebody out there right now reading your book, and they're getting that same, oh, this shows me what to do. And they're going to go do it. And life begins to take on a great kind of magic when we do that.

So let me. I want to kind of bullet point these goals and go through them. I heard being on purpose, I heard tangible goals. Can you just go through them again? Like rule one or law one?

Number one, we must tithe one tenth of all the money we receive back to that person, place our institution where we've received our spiritual food. And we must do this on a consistent and disciplined way. Then we must forgive every single day. I ask myself, have I put anyone outside my heart today and usually I have, there's some poor soul that didn't get my rules on how to behave. So it's off of their heads. So if we tithe and forgive, set our goals and really tangible goals, not airy fairy stuff like more love in my life, you know, what does that look like? Do you want a lover? Do you want a new dog? You know, be specific. And then finally to get on purpose, what are you here for? You know, what did you come to do? To be, to have. This may be your only trip to planet Earth. Let's get on the ball and start living the life we want to live.

So let's go through these, maybe in reverse order because maybe that's maybe on purpose is the foundation for prosperity, wealth in life and financial. How did you find your, what is your purpose and how did you find it for yourself?

My purpose? I made this commitment 40 something years ago that I will be 100% committed to transform the abundance consciousness of planet Earth. And I've been traveling around now, around the globe over 40 years enrolling people to be on this program with me. And I found it because I was reading a book by Charles Fillmore and the book title is Prosperity. And in that book he says if just one person would live and demonstrate these principles, that one person would lift the consciousness of all humankind. And there in my one bedroom apartment, single parent, holes in my shoes, I said, I don't have anything better to do with my life. I'll be that person. And my life began to change almost immediately as I got a new worldview of what I'm here to do. And I tell people it's kind of in a joking way, but truly I don't have the foggiest notion how to do this. But doing this with you today is one way.

Yeah, but how can you really make that mental shift? It sounds like you're living in a very impoverished state. And then you decide that I am going to change the world in your own. Really? You can really do that in one sitting?

I think you can. Because I knew I didn't have the qualifications. I knew nothing. But I knew that there was a greater power that would work through me, that would show me what to do. And I did not have any models. There's no place I could go go to teach because I was in a little small east Texas town. But I knew that if I would just turn within to that indwelling information center that we all have and I would say things like these are Silly things. They may not be things you'd put on your business plan, but what would be the most fun thing for me to do today? Because I believe that we're here to totally and thoroughly enjoy life, every part of it. And if we follow that, that's the most important commitment we can make to be truly good to ourselves. That's why I like profit first. If you're not good to yourself, nothing is going to really make you happy. You have to show the universe how you want to be treated by treating yourself with dignity and respect, with love and appreciation. And I'm not talking about spending money you don't have. I mean about taking the time to really go within and look and see what you want to do. Most people are working jobs that they just fell into and they hate and they're miserable. And you can't make a contribution if you're living from that space.

I heard a study, Edwin, on the radio just a week ago, and I can't remember the exact number. I think they said 86%. There was a survey studied of professionals and entrepreneurs. These are people working for corporations or working for themselves. And they said 86% of the people loathe the work they do.

Yes. That's sad, isn't it? It's not sad.

It is sad. But don't we have. We have obligations, we have responsibilities to others, our family. Once you have momentum, isn't it necessary just to stay where we are?

No, I don't think it is. If you're not happy, you're not serving your family, you're not serving your community. You're certainly not serving yourself. So your key in my belief system, your key is to find out what makes you happy and go do that. And that sometimes upsets a life, upsets a family. But if you're doing what you really love to do, in the long run, it's going to be good for everyone around you because you're not pouring love into their lives by going to a job that you hate. You're bringing back pain and suffering to your family, and you don't want to do that. You have to model for your children, what life looks like when you really enjoy. Enjoy it.

It's funny. Christina here in the studio loves to sing. I like to play guitar. But could you imagine me being the singer and her being a guitarist? Someone once told me that if you do what you don't love to do, you're blocking out the person that's destined to do that. So there's a responsibility we have not Just to ourselves, but to the greater society of freeing that up for the person who's destined for that position.

Exactly. I tell people, if you don't love your job, you're stealing somebody else's job. Stop it.

I love it. Now, tell me about rule number three. We're going in reverse order here. You said, set tangible goals, don't love tangible goals.

Yes.

Okay. And I heard, you know, don't love, meaning. That's generic. Is it. Is it a relationship? Is it an animal? Is it contribution? How do I pick the tangible goals that support my purpose?

Well, here's what you do. You don't. You don't. In my opinion, you don't go that way at first. You go first. First. What do I want that would make me happy, Right? That would make me. This is not about my purpose. It's just about me. Because if I'm happy, I will fulfill my purpose. So if it's a gold toothpick or a new home or a new car, you don't say, I want to go on vacation. You say where you want to go, what you want to see, how you want to travel. The more specific you are, the quicker the demonstration will show up. And I say to people in the workshops, don't put down something like, I want more love in my life. One woman did. And after the workshop, she called me. Called me. She was crying, edwin, I did it wrong. I'm so sorry. She said, I put down on my goal sheet, I want more love in my life. And I got home, my neighbor brought me over a pregnant dog.

That's a lot more love coming in your life.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's not what she wanted. But, you know, if you're not specific, you're not telling the universe what you want. And I believe that your words have power. And if you speak it out, you're creating it or you're destroying it. Either way. And if you want a new car, you begin to claim it. I have a brand new red Maserati. All right. You go drive the different. You pick up the. You know, whatever you want, you can have. I don't believe in a trickster universe. I believe the universe is here to respond to your thoughts, your feelings, your words and your actions.

But there's this mentality out there. There's only so much. There's only a limited amount of resources. No, every time. Okay, well, I want to know that, because I hear if I take, I take. There's, you know, if I take something, there's less available for You. Now, why is that not true? What's your experience?

Well, here's what I know for sure. There's more than enough food, more than enough fruit that falls off the trees and rots every single day to feed this planet thousands of times over. Now, we are working on distribution, but it's already here. So one of the ways we learn to appropriate the things we want is by our thoughts, our feelings, our words, and our actions. So we have to sit and we have to meditate. We have to call into being the things that we want. And there's a process for doing this, and I've been doing it now for over 40 years, and I've gotten every single thing I want. Beautiful retreat center, 30 acres. No debt of any kind, no mortgage. I go down, buy a new car, I pay a check for it, write a check for it. I travel first class. I know this works. I'm not blowing smoke and talking about something that I hope is true. I know it's true.

I don't know if it's appropriate, but I just fell in love with you. And I kind of want to. I mean, I hear spiritualists and it's like, no, you know, I ride by donkey. But you're riding first class. You have a red Maserati.

Yeah, no, I don't have a red Maserati, but I do.

You deserve it. You deserve it. When we get married, that's my wedding gift to you.

Okay. All right.

All right. So. No, but I love it. So it sounds like we can accept from the universe without sacrificing what our desires are. Is that what I'm hearing?

Yes. What we do have to sacrifice is our blame, our judgment, our condemnation, our self hate, our need to be right. Our being stuck and being afraid to make change. We have to be willing to let go of the things that make us place small. One of the things I do, Mike, is I teach people how to walk on fire. I've been a firewalk instructor for almost 30 years now. And when people come to retreats, I teach them because it's a metaphor for walking through your fear. If you can walk through fire, guess what else you could do? You know, it's a powerful thing. Fear keeps us stuck. Fear keeps people in that job. What will happen? Well, you know, allow space for this greater knowledge to move into your life and find out. But, you know, people sort of live by that. Better the devil I know than the devil I don't know. And they stay stuck in things that. They stay stuck in relationships. They stay stuck in Businesses that are failing in jobs they hate because they're afraid of making change. And I believe change is the name of the game. You have to learn to flow with life. And when you have a challenge, you begin to think, well, I wonder what new opportunities will come out of this. It's an amazing process when you give up the notion that life is out.

To get you, but it is overcoming fear. You know, there's. There is so much comfort in the familiar, even if the familiar stinks. So how do I get past the familiar onto what's so fearful but maybe so right for me?

Well, I believe that if you will begin to tithe, because that's where most of fear is. Around fear, around money. And so what we say when we tithe is, I am giving this back where I've received my spiritual food, because I know there's a promise in the Bible that says the widows of heaven will open for me if I do this. I don't have to know how yet. I just know that I'm going to do this by faith. You start on that process, and then you start forgiving yourself for all the dumb, stupid things you've ever done. And we've all done them and forgive everybody else. You know, we have to give our somebody done somebody wrong song and take responsibility for our own lives, and we have to do that forgiveness piece. It's not easy sometimes. Sometimes it's very difficult. But if you will do that, amazing things will open. I personally believe that all financial debt is about unforgiveness.

Oh, my God, we got to dig into that. I want to share a little story for a second. I lost all my money. I sold a couple companies. I became a millionaire in my mid-30s, self made, and then lost it all because of just dumb, arrogant, egotistical decisions in investing, Quote, unquote.

Investing.

Okay, I feel like I'm in a confessional right now. And I. I went into depression. I went hail Mary. I went into depression, Edwin. And one day, two years in depression, a friend of mine said, have you given forgiveness yet? And I said, well, no one deserves to be forgiven. It was my fault. And she said, exactly. Have you forgiven yourself? She said, look in the mirror and say, I forgive myself. It was so hard. I started crying and I felt embarrassed. And finally I said it. And I swear to you, a weight was lifted off my shoulder that second. And I felt, yeah, praise God, I felt like I could move forward. Edwin, does forgiveness start with ourselves? And does it really eradicate? Okay, it eradicates debt. Like, tell me about that.

I had some really hard issues to forgive in my childhood and I, you know, I spent a lot of money on therapy. That didn't help. And it wasn't until I got to the point where I could forgive myself a child. I was not responsible for what happened to me. But I began to forgive myself because I carried guilt around it. And I began to forgive the other people involved. And I got lighter and lighter, happier and happier and began to take steps that were no longer self defeating. And I let go of a lot of ego stuff about always wanting to be right and just amazing things began to happen. The more forgiveness I do, the richer I get.

It's funny, it's this release. I have a close friend, you know, had real difficulties as a child, was molested and held on to the anger and defensiveness and protection of herself. And it was muckity muck for her entire life until she forgave. And what I found, Edwin, is forgiving is not saying it's okay, it's releasing the experience so that you, the person I guess was the victim, can move on.

Yes, exactly. It's not about them, it's about you. And forgiving them doesn't mean they did the right thing. It just means you're not going to let them occupy rent free space in your mind anymore. You're just going to let them go. They're gone now. That's done. And you know, early in my young adulthood I was raped. And I know that I've forgiven the young man who raped me. I really do know that coming from his background and his experience, he did what he thought he needed to do. I have forgiven him. I can talk about it without emotion and I'm not going to have lunch with him, you understand? Yeah, but if he came and asked for forgiveness, that would be a different thing, you know. But I'm not going to allow him to keep me playing small and playing afraid all the time. But I don't want to forgive and forget because I want to remember what I did that got myself in that position to be raped. And so it's a very, very powerful thing to do this work on a daily basis. And I learned that when I was doing some forgiveness work, I didn't know how. I had something really difficult happen and I was really having trouble forgiving this person. And I would say, I forgive you, I set you free. And five minutes later I'd be mad again. So I just took. You've heard about that business of the New Testament where Jesus told them to forgive 70 times 7. Well, I wrote it out. I, Edwin, forgive myself completely. 35 times in the morning, 35 times in the evening for seven days. And then I did that for the person who I was holding as blameworthy. And I did that. And, you know, I started at the end, every week I would do that, somebody that I knew that I need to forgive. And by the time that I was through, I was completely debt free. No mortgage, no car payment, no nothing.

And, I mean, is there also a logical explanation to this? Can you say because you were able to free your mind from this distraction, that you were able to focus more on what could eradicate debt? Is that how you explain it? Or is it even explainable?

And I also believe that when we hold on to bitterness or revenge and. Or we hold on to blame and self condemnation, what we're doing is building a wall all the way around us, as if we're building all those big, thick concrete blocks, and the good that we desire and deserve cannot get in. And every time we forgive the least little thing, the person who cuts you off in traffic or the person who runs over your toe at the grocery store with her golf, with their little grocery cart, you forget the least little thing. You open a way for more good to come into your life. Because the good that you receive, and I'm not just talking about monetary good. I'm talking about relationship and work that you love and being around people that you care about. All the goodness of life, all the richness of life, you allow more of that into your living space, into your sphere that surrounds you. You allow this intimacy that grows deep and abiding friendships. And then money comes as well. That's been my experience, and I've been doing this for 40 years, and I'm really, really doing well. Thank you, God.

Yeah. You know, expansion comes from learning. You know, it was funny. It's unfortunate. Edwin, I bet you some people are listening to our podcast and saying, oh, there's biblical references, or talking about God and praying tithing. Some people get turned off to that because I think it's a fear trigger, saying, I don't want to go in that space. It's not my belief. And it's a shame because they won't expand themselves. I'm not saying you have to believe in this, but I think we all have an obligation to explore what's different and new. If you don't believe in spirituality, you don't believe the influence of a greater abundance. I still think that's okay, Edwin. Just, I think we have a Responsibility to at least explore and expand ourselves, to say, maybe it is possible. What do you feel?

You know, what I do and I have, I get a lot of skeptics and a lot of cynics and that's okay. You know, some people have told me this is the sixth time I've come to your workshop. I don't believe it yet, but I'm going to keep coming till I do. But the thing that I know is true is if you will just give yourself a chance to prove it to yourself, and I ask people, do it for six months and see what happens. If it doesn't, nothing good happens then. Stop it. Don't be stupid. But I guarantee if you will do this for six months, your life will be changed so much that you won't even begin to know what happened. When I first started to tithe and forgive and set goals and get on purpose, the first three months I did that, nothing much happened. At the end of three months, my income was doubled. At the end of six months, my income had tripled. At the end of my first year. Now remember, this is 40 something years ago. At the end of my first year, I was making over $100,000 a year. Now, that was a whole lot more money than it is right now. But I was going from a salary of 8,000 a year to over 100,000 in one year.

That's unbelievable. Oh, my goodness.

Yes. Yes. I started two businesses. I didn't know how to do business. I didn't have any models or mentors. I just turned within and say, okay, what do I do now? What do I do now? And my businesses were very successful and I finally just sold them. And I went into ministerial trading. I am a minister, so I do talk about God stuff. But even if you don't believe, if you will do this, you will find something special in your life that you didn't know was there. And life will become a grand adventure and wonder. It was not about, oh my God, I have to get up and go to work again today. It's what can I do today that will be really, really fun? And life just gives you those opportunities.

I think you just defined the ultimate definition of profitability, that life becomes a grand adventure. Edwin, it's a privilege to have you on the show. And I don't know if our listeners know how I found you is readers of Prophet first were buying the four spiritual laws of prosperity. And at least as of this recording day, when you go and look up your book, you'll see frequently bought together is Your book and my book standing in parallel. I think there's a compliment there. Yeah, me too. Me too. For all the folks listening in that want to explore more what you're doing to learn about your books, to come to your events, what can they do?

Well, I have a webpage. It's ProsperityProducts.com or just look up my name, Edwing Gaines, on your search engine and it will lead you. I have lots of things on YouTube and some different workshops that have been recorded and put on YouTube. And my book is available on Amazon and everywhere. I have lots of CDs and affirmation cards, and I would love to hear that you heard this show. That would be wonderful if you just let me know.

Fantastic. Edwin, thanks for joining us.

Thank you, Mike. I enjoyed myself entirely.

Thanks, Edwin. Great job.

Thank you.

So in a second, we're gonna. We're gonna recap what we learned. What I love about the show is you don't know what's coming.

You never know.

Sometimes it's this, like, it's just insanity, actually, usually because I'm hosting it. Other times it goes into deep things. We have had people reveal the biggest challenges are facing and, and how they got out around it or what they've. How they've expanded themselves. And this episode is probably one of the deepest we've had in a long time. And it's just, it's a joy to go there, but it's also uncomfortable, I think. I think a lot of our listeners are seeing and say, oh, my God, this isn't the normal high energy, pump you up stuff. This is about the challenges of life. Rape.

Yeah. You know, it reminds me of. There's a book called Power vs Force. And when you talk about these deeper subjects, you're actually tapping into more power then, I mean, setting up the profit accounts. That's good, good stuff. But the deeper you go, you're tapping into. It's much more power there.

Yeah, yeah. There's a saying like, you never talk about politics, you never talk about religious belief, you never talk about any kind of crime like molestation, rape, or something like that. You know, we touched on the politics I got, but we touched on this stuff. And it's funny, when you explore those things, maybe it doesn't connect with you, but I'm sure you can relate your own story somewhere there. Power is there. There's a lot of power there. All right, in a second, we're going to recap what we learned. Our biggest takeaways, and they were big. But first, I want to thank our corporate partners who make the show possible, please. Who are they, Christine?

Fundera, nextiva, Tsheets, Fundbox, and Receipt Bank.

Yeah, and I want to thank Receipt bank specifically today. I want to thank all our partners for supporting our show. Receipt bank is our newest onboard corporate partner. They have software where when you have an expense and you get a receipt, you don't have to put in the old shoebox anymore. That's a means click my phone. Sound effect.

Nice.

You click on your phone, it scans right in, and it sorts your receipts, stores them permanently, and links it to the transaction in your bank account. It validates it. It is the ultimate in ease. You have your receipts taken care of. You have them stored away for your tax reporting. Any purpose you need to reference to receipts, they're categorized and done in a click. Love Receipt Bank. We've been using it now three months in the house, maybe two.

Three months.

Love it. Absolutely love it.

You know, a long time ago, I actually asked Barry, the maintenance guy, what do you need to keep track of all your receipts? This is before he knew about Receipt Bank. And this is what.

Yeah. What'd you say, Barry? You're gonna need a couple of horses. Yes. A couple of mules. A little bit of giggle. Yeah. No, it's true. That's how you. We used to handle receipts was through horses and mules.

Specifically.

Specifically. And look what we got in today. All right, Chris, I want to start with you, man. What did you learn? What was your big takeaway from Edwin?

I personally like the whole forgiveness part of this the most because it does make you light. And I even looked up one of my favorite quotes, and I don't know who said it. I don't know if it's attributed to anyone, but not forgiving someone is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.

Yeah.

So when we don't forgive someone, we're actually hurting ourselves. And she touched on that, too. So it's not about the other person. Forget the other person. It's about taking the weight off my shoulders. I love that.

Christina, what was your big takeaway?

I'm actually laughing to myself because Edwin also reminded me of one of my favorite quotes that I just came across the other day. But she says that you need to tell the universe what you want. And I think that has such an impact on your life. And it reminded me of this quote. I don't know who said it, but it's every. Everything is energy, and that's all there is to it. Match the frequency of the reality you want and you cannot help but get that reality. It can be no other way. This is not philosophy. This is physics. And I think that you just gotta be yourself and you gotta put it out there what you want. If you keep the good vibes going, it's all gonna come back to you.

Yeah, yeah. Wonderful. Wonderful. So my takeaway was tithing. You know, I don't financially tithe, and I bet you a lot of people listening in do not tithe. And traditional tithing is 10%. But one thing that. And I want you to write this down, because I want to start doing it, is I think we can tithe financially, but we can also tithe in our time. Our contribution. And one thing we talked about, we were driving back from. We're preparing for the Mastery meetup event we're having, and we're talking. We're like, oh, we got to work at the food bank. We got. Could you put that in our calendar? The whole team here, we're going to the food bank and we're going to tithe. And. Meaning there's going to be six of us working at a food bank for a day, supporting our community. And I encourage everyone listening in think about how you can contribute. And maybe money is too scary of a step. Maybe you can't do it financially. That's okay. You're forgiven. Right. You don't have to do it that way, but you can contribute in other ways. And let us here be the first step. We're going to go be heading over to a food bank and start making that a regular contribution to our. Our. Our neighbors here who. Who are struggling.

That's awesome. It's a good place for Ron, too, because he gets hungry.

Yeah. Right, Right. So, yeah, any of the food that is not edible anymore, Ron will just eat it anyway. No, it's good and it's good. And I've actually done that now three or four times. And you know how fulfilling it is to contribute to your neighbor. You feel like you're giving, but really you're receiving.

Absolutely. I've. I've volunteered at some soup kitchens before, too, and it's just. It's very. It opens your eyes and it makes you feel good because you're helping others.

It's a privilege. All right, Chris, what can people do right now?

Yeah, you can go rate and review this show in itunes and subscribe as well if you haven't subscribed yet. And stitcher, or tune in as well. And the. Our website, profit first podcast.com has all our other episodes. All Our previous episodes of just awesomeness on top of awesomeness. And the big thing, though, you need to know is in creating your vision, in setting your tangible goals and being on purpose, you need help from an accountant and bookkeeper at some points. So Profit First Professionals, Mike, that's your organization that you started to make it easy.

Yeah, yeah. And we, you know, we have accountants and bookkeepers who have mastered profit first. They teach it, but also they specialize in different verticals. Maybe you're in a business that is involved in metaphysics or spirituality. We have an expert accountant. We have an expert bookkeeper who specializes in that category. Maybe you're a personal trainer. Maybe I'm just thinking of things that came in this week alone. A landscaper. Maybe you have a digital marketing firm. I don't care what business you're in. You need to improve. Improve your profitability. That brings sustainability to your business. It brings strength to your business. We have an accountant. We have a bookkeeper who specializes in your industry and has mastered profit first. And I'll bring it to you. All you have to do is one step. Go to profitfirstprofessionals.com right now. Don't wait. Go there now. Click on the find button. We'll do the dirty work. We'll find them for you, and we'll hook you up with someone that will increase your profitability today.

Totally. Even reaching out and having a conversation will probably make your business more quickly profitable, for Pete's sake.

For Pete's sake, Right?

So thanks for listening, everybody. Thank you again to our special guest, Edwin Gaines and Mike, Christina. Thank you for listening. We'll be back next week. You're gonna want to hear. Well, not next week. You're gonna want to hear this episode. This is like.

This is the big one everyone's been waiting for, you know, it's episode 89, and it is time.

And there's no drugs involved. We promise.

No, but supposedly there's gonna be a musical. It's like, it's gonna be a coffee shop kind of meetup. There's gonna be music. There's gonna be learning. There's gonna be laughter.

And I'll just.

We all use a little more laughter. Isn't that a Led Zeppelin song?

Yeah. Does anybody remember laughter?

That's it. Does anyone remember laughter? That's how we're gonna start next week.

And just a hint, Mike has a guitar in New Jersey, and Christina has a voice in New Jersey, and I have a drum set in Colorado Springs. That's enough of hint. See you all next week.

Bye. See you. Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah. Oh, yeah.

People listen to the show. They must just shake their head about half the time.

My God, it's so funny.

Yes, it is a little bit crazy.