Episode 197: Leveraging Your Strengths with Derelle Roshell
23 Apr 2018 · 41 min
The episode opens with a sponsor message for Abby Connect, followed by light‑hearted banter about weather preferences. Hosts Mike Michalowicz and Kelsey Ayers introduce the show, share a humorous "cookie" analogy that illustrates the Profit First principle of hiding profit to avoid temptation, and thank their corporate partners and community listeners. The main interview features 21‑year‑old entrepreneur Darrell Rochelle, who recounts his upbringing, early desire to be his own boss, and how a school‑based entrepreneurship program (Launch Chattanooga/Co‑Starters) gave him the tools and seed money to launch multiple ventures. He explains how he built a security company by leveraging his Boy Scout/Police Explorer network, hiring younger, community‑connected guards, and positioning the service as a niche that resonates with event‑goers. He also describes relaunching a chocolate brand through private‑labeling with a local chocolatier, using taste‑testing and branding rather than building a factory. Darrell shares his TEDx experience, the mindset shift from an “impoverished” narrative, and offers advice to young entrepreneurs: embrace age as an advantage, take risks, and stay constantly “in the know.” The hosts answer a listener question about how to categorize education and personal‑expense purchases within the Profit First accounting system, clarifying operating versus owner‑comp accounts. The episode ends with typical podcast sign‑offs, sponsor reminders, and a playful wrap‑up.
Chapters
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Did we talk about the weather outside already?
No. It's been demystified though. Huh?
It has been demystified.
Yeah. What's your favorite weather?
My favorite weather? It depends on the. Yeah, there's a lot of contingencies. If I want to sleep well, I can't. I can see you if I want to. If I want to sleep well. Rain.
Yeah.
If I want to have high energy, sunny but slightly cool. If I just want to chill and drink a margarita, hot, sweaty. And if I want to stay near fire, like, you know, a freezing cold day.
Yeah.
What's your weather? I mean, I assume that's true for most people.
Everybody I know, that's what I think. I like the balance of all weather. Like, I love days like this where it's kind of gloomy and you just kind of want to cuddle and be warm and. Yeah, yeah. But you know, it's calm. There's a calmness, there's a sereneness to it that I really like. And then I love, you know, sunny days that you can just explore for days.
Oh, my God. I think it's the human animal. Like, I noticed. I watched my dog and the second it starts raining, she'll go into. She has this little crate thing she loves. She goes in there and she just kind of buries herself in the corner and just snores away.
Yeah.
When it's bright out, she's like, let's go. And she must be the animalistic side of humanity.
Yeah. The biological side.
Oh, my God, I'm so animalistic. I like to sleep in the rain.
Well, everybody, you are listening to the Profit first podcast.
Big episode Cummins197. Whoops, wrong button. There we go. Oh, wow. Hey, I didn't recover fast enough there. You're still smoking. You gotta get off this cigarette.
I know it. I keep saying it, you know, for weeks.
I gotta tell you a story. About not cigarettes, but cookies in a little bit.
Keep going. Well, welcome everybody, to the Profit first podcast. I'm your co host, Kelsey Ayers.
And I'm Mike Malowitz, the other co host guy. And I'm the author of Profit first and a brand new book called Clockwork. Get it? I already got the first feedback, so we're recording this so far in advance, But I've put 25 copies out in circulation. First feedback came in last night. My heart's like. I know, I know. The only problem here's the only problem. It's an uber fan. So, like, sometimes you can do no wrong.
Take it. I know.
Yeah, you can't do any wrong. So I don't know if she's just saying nice things because she's an Uber fan. I need someone that's really critical saying nice things.
Yeah, I can be really critical.
Would you want to read it? Seriously?
I do. Yeah. Yeah.
Oh, can you read it fast?
Yeah. Like, when do you need it fast?
Like this weekend.
Okay. I can do this weekend.
Yeah. Okay, so I'll give it to you. I. I was actually going to give it to you, but I felt actually I'm putting so much on your plate, I got to stop.
Well, that's like, I have my sister's birthday today and then book club tomorrow. You guys didn't invite on Thursday. I mean, you are more than welcome to come. You have to come up to Sussex county, though.
Who's that guy? He's my boss. What's he doing?
I mean, probably you would feel awkward because I got a family of weirdos.
But I wouldn't feel awkward because two weeks ago we did an episode on how I could network. Yeah, I'd be going up to every weirdo at your house and go, hi, I'm Mike.
Yeah.
Is there anyone here I should know.
After I introduced you?
Yeah, exactly.
This is my boss, Mike. Hi, I'm Mike.
Hi, I'm Mike. Is there anyone here I should know?
Hi, I'm Mike.
Person. Other person. Oh, my God, we are so funny.
To ourselves and only to ourselves. Well, everybody, you can find us on itunes. Stitcher, Tunein Radio, Google Play, profitfirstpodcast.com or any podcatcher anywhere in the world.
In the globe. In the world. In the Globe. So. Oh, I wanted to tell you about the cookie story real quick.
What cookie story?
So I do a presentation on profit first. It's kind of a canned presentation, meaning I know exactly how it goes. I share it the same way, but it's great. I think I think it's great. I've been. I've done it now 100, 100 plus times. And so I do this presentation on profit first in somewhere in the US and I'm doing the presentation and one point. I talk about temptation, and I talk about how in profit first, the key is, as you accumulate profit, it becomes very tempting to, quote, unquote, borrow. I'm doing the air quotes, borrow from that account, which defeats the whole system. So you have to hide the money away from yourself. Just like if you have a retirement plan. Hide. Hide the money away so you don't touch it. I give an analogy. I say, like, I'm addicted to cookies. You saw someone sent a box of cookies. I cannot.
Kathryn, by the way, if you're listening, that's fantastic.
They're fantastic. And there's all different varieties, and there's one variety I didn't like, and I'm still eating them. The bourbon ones. I'm like, oh, I don't. I still eat them. I'm doing this event. I tell people about cookies, my addiction to it. I'm like, the one thing I can't resist is cookies. And I play this whole game with myself, but I give in every time. So the real simple thing is no cookies in our house. No cookies anywhere. And I don't eat them, Right? This person, as I'm talking, calls on their cell phone during the presentation. That's rude. I'm like, I know this isn't the best presentation in the world, but that's kind of rude. In the middle, there's a call as I'm talking. You hear him in the back, kind of a little bit loud. But I keep on going. The show must go on. And they hang out the phone. Ten minutes later, a pizza delivery comes. This guy comes with a big pizza box and starts walking to this person with the phone call. She waves her hand, and then she points to me.
And the guy's like, during your presentation?
During. No, I swear to go in the middle of my presentation, it wasn't massive, but there must be, like 70 people in the room. Points to me, and I'm like, this is weird. And the pizza guy comes up, puts the pizza box down, opens it. It's cookies in a cookie box. And puts it down right in front of me.
Oh, my gosh.
Enjoy. And I'm like, oh, my. That's like, thank you.
Yeah.
And I'm sorry. So my punchline is like, thank God I didn't say I'm addicted to cocaine, right? But, oh, my God.
That's pretty wild.
It's pretty wild, but. And then of course, I ate the cookies.
Yeah, well, of course. I mean, such a grand gesture.
No, I know, but. No, but they were. They were manipulating me because they was my weakness.
Yeah.
Talking about my weakness. It's our corporate partners and our community shout out line. And I'm not necessarily in that order or maybe it isn't. I don't know. Let me tell you about our corporate partners and then I want to see if we have a community shout out. Is that cool?
Yeah.
Okay, so I want to thank nextiva Fundbox and Receipt Banks, the backers of the show, and I think Pitney Bowes. I don't know if I did the preamble for this one or not because we record it separately. Not for this one. Okay. I do want to thank Pitney Bowes for stepping up in a big way and they discovered our show. They reached out to us and said we want to back it. So thanks to them. And we'll tell you more details on our foundational or our core sponsors and just a little bit at the end of the show. But first, I know we have a community shout out.
We do. This one came in from an itunes listener. Her name is Dollygirl130.
Dollygirl?
Yeah. She says, I love all of Mike Michalowicz's stuff. Podcasts, websites, books, et cetera. It is all great and relevant information. Tips and tricks for all biz owners with benefit. I always look forward to what is next.
Nice. Dolly Girl 130. You know my. My online name. Dolly Girl 130. It's Dolly Girl 130. So. I know, I know it was me. I felt a little. Fell a little bit, you know, quiet on activity. So let me tell you about our guest who's coming on. Just a second.
Yeah.
His name is Darrell. Rochelle. I met Darrell. I was doing a TEDx speech. Tennessee, remember that? Yeah.
Baylor who?
It's so amazing, your memory. I met a gentleman down there. We went out to dinner. Yeah. What was his.
Kyle.
You're good. So I meet up with Kyle. So a funny story about Kyle. If you remember. Ask me about the Kyle story.
No, it was Ryan.
Ryan?
Yeah.
Ryan asked me about the Ryan story at the end of this and my experience with ginger ale.
Yeah.
Okay.
You've actually told that story before on air?
Yeah. How do you remember all this stuff?
Dude, I don't know. It wasn't that long ago.
Really. Okay. Okay. So remind me not to share a story again.
Yeah, I won't.
Okay, so I meet Darrell Rochelle. We're speaking. He says the funniest line. I go on to speak before him. He goes, mike, crush your presentation. So they give you a standing ovation. I say, darrell, thank you. And he looks at me so I can then knock him down with mine.
Cheeky, right?
Terrell, do you remember saying that? That was funny. Let me give a little bit. Background Darrell. Beginning his entrepreneurial journey at the young age of 16, Darrell Rochelle has determined to create, was determined and is determined to create a brighter future for his community, his family, and of course, himself. While using the skills he had acquired along his small business journey, he was recruited to work at or for a local non for profit called Launch Chattanooga, which he's very active in. At Launch, he is granted the opportunity to get back into his community, where he was able to encourage and help build and facilitate the millennial entrepreneurial movement. He's been in the security business. He's still in it. He's in the chocolate business. He's in the business of awesomeness. Awesomeness. He's a TEDx speaker and today he's only 21 years old and crushing it in the entrepreneurial space. Rachelle, welcome to our show. My brother.
Welcome, Rachelle Durrell.
Thanks for hanging. Did I say Rachelle? Did I say Rachelle?
Terrell?
I'm sorry about that.
Call me by my last name.
Yeah, you can call me Michalowicz. Good luck with that. So, so Darrell, you know, 21 and you've already grown a couple, couple, couple businesses. What has been, where do you get this entrepreneurial drive, this spirit that's not so typical in millennials or anybody?
Oh, man, Mike. So I would say that, I mean, growing up, I grew up with mom, as you can HEAR in my TedX video, I just grew up in a household with mom and I had three other sibling raised us. But I could never adapt playing any sports. It's just like I couldn't play football, basketball, seemed to want it to be dribbled in two hands and not one. So it's like nothing ever worked. Nothing ever worked. So I had to figure out what exactly. What exactly was my. What I feel, you know, my pollen, what was going to, you know, help me, what was going to be my turn to everybody. I feel like everybody's sport or everybody's whatever, they love to do that turn to is where they go. And I was questioning God, like, where's planting? Like, what's for me? And then I got introduced to this program. So these people came to our school they said, hey, we could teach, you know, a set group of students how to start a business, and then we can help, you know, the winners start a business. They can have seed money. So I remember my principal at my school, he pitched the idea to us, and then from there I'm like, oh, man. Like. Like, this is. This is me. Like, I've always said I wanted to be my own boss, and now I can make it happen.
So, okay, so you find you're not getting engaged in sports. You can become your own boss. But a security business like that. Not that I know much about the security business, but that sounds like you have to have a. You have to be a police officer or some kind of background in security. But here's this teenage kid that says, I'll start a security company. How do you. How do you come across that idea and how do you pull it off at, you know, age 16 or 17?
So that's interesting. So I've always had a love for love. I always wanted to be a police officer. Oh, I say, have you ever been in Boy Scouts?
Oh, have I been in Boy Scouts? Yeah. So, no. I mean, I was a Cub Scout. I was a. And a wee Bluff, too, which was an Indian guy.
Yeah.
Don't make that face. You're an ass.
There it is, this program.
So you're a Boy Scouts.
I was a. I was a television police explorer, but it was through the Boy Scouts program.
Nice.
So it would teach you, like, the skill set. It would teach you the life or the job of police officers around you. And from there, I just met other officers and things like that. So I was able to build a network of officers that I was, you know, friends with. Me and people in the security industry is just from. I like to say I'm a connector because I like, I meet people and then I figure out a way to either help them connect with somebody or a way that I'm able to add them into my network of connections as far as, you know, one of the businesses. So me meeting security, I just decided one day, I asked the officer in my school, I say, you know, if I started a security company, what would, like, how do officers work? What's. How do you work when you're off duty? You know, and from there, I just got some motivation to start it, and they told me to start it. I had a few officers who said that they will work, and lo and behold, they did, and we got it started.
That's awesome.
Yeah. So, okay, so you just get started when starting a business, does that Mean, you're the guy providing security. Are you, are you one of the guards? How do you get a business started and ensure it's profitable from the get go, regardless of what business you're in? But how do you do it?
How do you get a bit, how do you make sure a business is profitable?
How did you, how did you pull this off? Like, I assume you don't have security guards at your beck and call. How do you find these people? Like, how did you even get started?
So interesting. So like I said, I've been through a program, through launch, through lunch. There's a group called the Co Starters, and we use the Co Starters curriculum, if you've ever heard of that. And that pretty much. So you should look it up. A group called Co Starters, they wrote some curriculum. They have the urban curriculum, the urban inner city curriculum, as well as some other curriculum that they write. But this is just for small businesses. And this helps you map out the starting stage of your business. So it helps you lay the foundation before you're able to make your first move. So this, this book will take you from, you know, the idea stage all the way to your first sale, all the way through. So from there, I laid the platform for this business. I mean, I know I had the idea. And what I always like to do is I like to test the waters. I say, I like to find people who are already in the industry and I ask them questions and then I find people who potentially have events and I say, okay, what do you look for in a security team when you're having these events? What's the rate that you would pay? Like, all that information for me, if I really need to start the company. So I took all of that information, I just analyzed myself to see how much work would be out there for up and coming security team. Any industry that you want to get into is going to be competitive. But you have to realize, you know, what's your niche, what's your specialty? How can you get in the industry? So my niche was just having a younger team. So I always like to tell people, Mike, that our generation, its own generation, right? What that means is we understand we have to be a part of us to understand us in the way that we choose to do things. So I started the security business after going to events and seeing the older security teams not know how to react to the decisions, to the thoughts, to the ways that my, my generation, you know, acted the way that we party, you know, the older teams, they just can't, they can't get with it. So I started a team around with people around the same age. So in order to work security, you have to be unarmed. So 18 to 21 is unarmed. And then 21, you can be an armed security. You have to get licensed through your state. I went ahead and started finding, and what they would do is they were obviously certified through the state mic, But I would just go out and look for work for the team, and that's how.
Yeah, so I'm getting some fascinating insights here. The fact that you identified the parties or the other types of events, concerts and stuff, that needed security, and then instead of picking security guards that were of a different generation, you actually picked basically the community itself to guard itself.
Right? Definitely. That's how you do it.
And now it becomes kind of this, like, verbal ju do as opposed to weapons and so forth. So by picking people from the community, they know how to communicate with that community, is what you're saying.
Right, Right, Mike. They understand each other. They know how to take. They know how to interpret the actions of those people. And then when they can interpret the actions of those people, we can then step in, you know, at the actions that are not needed.
Interesting. How. How did your clients receive this? That. You know, I have an event going on. I'm thinking about traditional security. You approach me, you say, listen, our approach is a little different. We're going to bring in the same people that are going to be at this event as the security guards. The same kind of commitment community. They may be a little tentative because that's a new approach. How did your customers respond to these different.
I mean, still within the community, Mike, we have people who are already security certified, so they're not like the people who were previously at that party, but they're people from that community.
Right, right. I understand that. I understand that.
So when they go and they get certified through the state, they become professional, and then they get all these training hours to the state, and then I take them in under my wing and I give them some more additional training into the team. And then we have a team. They become a part of the family. So what happens then, Mike, is. I mean, I still have people from different communities, but we create the community mindset on the team. And when you have the community mindset team, then you know how to deal with the community as a whole.
I love that. I love that. What, now you're picking kind of atypical security guards? There's. There's still security guards. By hiring these people, your cost was this. Are these security guards more Expensive because they have a specialized skill. They speak security. Were they less expensive because they weren't traditional security guards? How did it affect you on cost?
So since everybody already came certified from the state, that's the most efficient cost right there. I mean, the state certifications. But since they already come to me certified through the state, so you can go get a state certification, you pay for that. So I was contracting them to work. You know, as they were working, my startup was low because I didn't have to pay for that. I just had to pay for insurance, LLCs and things like that, but I didn't have to pay for per person.
Okay, got it. So you start this. You get your. How'd you get your first gig? Were you just hustling on the street, basically going out there, trying to find opportunities?
So I've always tried to have my hand in a lot of different. That way. I stay. I say, you got to stay in the know. I always tell people that you got to know what's going on around you, because people will know that you know what's going on, and people will want to connect you into other opportunities. I stayed in the know, and I just so happened to be introduced to a team within my city. And this was a dance team, but they were having, like, small fundraiser parties. So we began to become their officials. And then from there, I knew people doing other things. This grew. It just came out of nowhere. And the fact that we had so much police presence, as I previously stated, I made friends with so many other officers, wanted to. Who said that they wouldn't mind helping out or working as well. I heard so much from.
How about age? So you'll get age discrimination. Here's a young teenage guy, started a business. You're gonna do security. I could see people saying, sorry, kiddo, but I don't want to. I don't want you. I want someone has some experience, some age. Did you have age discrimination from clients or maybe even your own employees? Who said, you can't run a business like this? Dude, you're 18 years old.
Mike, I think that anything in life is about how bad you want. I just refuse to let anybody tell me that. You can't tell me that. You know, you can't tell me that the plan that I've created, you know, has. Is age restricted. Show me your plan and put mine to it. Let's compare that. You know, I just. I don't know, Mike. I never had that because I built such a great network, it's such a great team, that it Was not like it was just me coming. It was a team of people coming. You know, he's already got so and so and so and so. He's already got so and so and so and so. You see what I'm saying? I built such a great team around me that people had no choice but to say, okay, yeah, now here comes Darrell. You know, he's coming now. He's coming to recruit us.
Right.
So, yeah.
Interesting.
I didn't have that in my team. I just talk to my team as I would my family members. I let them know I'm a part of the team. I always see me out at a job with the team. So it's much more of the culture that you create within the team that then earns the respect.
So, yeah, okay, so you get this security company going. You're also seeing yourself through school. If I remember correctly from our conversation before, as you're building a security company, right?
Yes, sir. As I'm doing a lot of things right.
Well, then that's how it's gonna get to. Then you start a chocolate company.
So the chocolate company actually went first in high school.
Chocolate always goes first, by the way.
16 to 18 was chocolate, and then 18 until current is security, and chocolate is under relaunch.
So working on chocolate on the relaunch now.
Yes. So I'm working on relaunching the product. Yeah, that's pretty much what's going on.
So tell me about. I totally messed that up. So you can see the due diligence. I do, Kelsey.
It's amazing.
But so this chocolate company, how do you start a chocolate business? Because I'm also thinking, now you started at 16. Yeah, I could. And maybe this is what you did. I could sell it to my neighbors, but if I actually want to really sell this, I got to comply with the FDA and different kind of food requirements. How far along did that business go, and did you get to that level with the chocolate company?
Yes, sir. So once again, it's about the team. I'm just so blessed to have great teams of people around me. So as I went through the program, as I said, a team, a group called Lunch Chattanooga that came to the school told us that we could. That they could teach us how to start a business. We went through the curriculum, pitched the competition, and the pitch competition that they hosted won the competition. So from there, the idea had to become real. So within that seed money, we had prize packages where we have, like, we'd be able to sit down with lawyers. We'd to be Able be able to. Our graphic designers bring this idea to life, but they still assist us in bringing this idea to life. So along this process, we had someone to walk us through this process. This was at the young age. So basically they were helping me to stand on my feet before I could. And I'm just so grateful for them. We were able to. What we did was we private labeled the chocolate. So through just meetings and finding out ways that we could do it, we were able to connect with a local chocolatier. And since she was already producing chocolate recipe, we did. We had a lot of taste testing. I'm trying to perfect the recipe. A lot of taste tests, a lot of taste testers. I can tell you tastes with too much carry and I can tell you how it tastes with way too much curry.
So that's interesting. So to start a business, one thing I'm hearing, Darrell, is you identified the market you want to be in. You want to be a chocolate manufacturer, but you found someone already runs the business. So you were really a branding expert in making your own formulas for chocolate, but you didn't have to open a chocolate factory.
Correct. Correct.
Smart. Very smart. Okay, so what about. Because, listen, I saw you speak on the TED platform. I know other entrepreneurs. There was a lot of young millennials there, teenagers too. It was, this was the first ever teenage run TedX, I believe.
Right.
And I know people were inspired by what you were saying, but I suspect most of them, Durrell, won't. Won't be starting their own business, even though they're excited in the moment. What do you think is the recipe for a young entrepreneur, like a teenage entrepreneur, an early 20s entrepreneur, to get started in business and really pull this off profitably? What are your tips and advice to them?
I mean that this is age. First off, age is. Age is what I define as one of the key things to keep me going. I was able to be young people really. People really love to see young people with passion. You gotta go for what's your path. You gotta do it while you're young because people are willing to invest in you more when you're young, you know, and this is the time where you're able to experiment, but then be able to pick up at something else and keep going. So I would say if not anything, the recipe is just go ahead and risk it. Go ahead and just get started doing something that's just those ideas that you have daily, you know, that you could start pretty much working on to see if you're going to, you know, be able to. That's going to offspring into something bigger, you know.
You know, one thing I noticed when we were at the event is the people rallying around you, Darrell. And there's some, I guess you have some mentors and stuff there, but what it like, that's rare to see that an entrepreneur has a business and these people wanting your success, backing you through their own actions, maybe even giving you money or whatever. How do you get people to support you like that.
Mike? I could just say that I'm blessed. I mean, it's been, it's definitely been a journey. I don't know. I, I think as for me, my, my will to do for others and people see that. I mean, I really want the best for everyone that's around me, people that I just come in contact with daily. If I'm able to help in any way, I, I try to. I try to be there. And for me that means that, I mean, for me, I come from a community. I. If you heard my TED Talk, it was, was how to escape the impoverished mindset. And I come from a community where the world told us that we lived in poverty. And I just don't believe that. I still don't believe that.
Yeah, when you and I were talking Prior to your TEDx speech, you were talking about that mindset and how people. Lisa, what I heard from you is when people believe it, they start acting with it and then they prove it to be right. And you said these people are like, yeah, you're told you have no money. I think it was a teacher who said that to you too. Right.
So, wait, which story? Oh, so, yeah, in the ted. Are you talking about the story that I told within the TEDx?
Well, I don't recall if you said in the TEDx. I remember when we were sitting, having coffee upstairs that room prior to the TEDx speeches. I thought you said there was a teacher who kind of looked at the class and started saying, you are experiencing poverty. You are poverty, impoverished.
Basically telling us the statistics she was giving us.
That's what it was.
And she was just saying that, you know, a certain amount of Americans live in poverty, you know, and this is why, like, we have to, we have to be better than this. You know, she was just basically making that reference. And so some people's mind, it didn't register in my mind. I'm like, dang, is that, Are we in that number?
Yeah.
So, yeah, that.
Yeah. Hey, before we let you go, tell me what's the future look like for Darrell Rochelle, or as I call you, Rochelle, Darrell.
I told my mom, like, I have two first names. Rochelle, Darrell, Darrell.
Yeah, you'll buy all those.
So I actually, with a few friends at school, we actually just launched our own podcast series.
Nice.
We are second episode, which is about to air and the next in Nashville called Advocate. We are the millennial advocate.
Cool.
Itunes as well. So I'm just working on a lot of stuff.
Yeah, yeah. Good, good. I love it. And I think there's a lesson there too, is at any age, particularly a young age, there's an opportunity to experience life and see what entrepreneurial opportunities resonate with you. All right, Darrell, we got a rock and roll. I want to thank you for being on the show. Before I let you go, where can people learn more. More about you? You got a website that you head over to?
You can head over to my website. Well, just head over to my social media. Head over to me on Instagram. I'm just Darrell Rochelle on Instagram. And from there you can just go check out my links. It'll take you to my TEDx, to the website as well.
Okay, that's. We'll do. Everyone check it out. We'll have in the show links. All right, Jarrell, hang tight because we got to upload the recording of you, but we gotta also talk about you, so you may want to listen in.
All right.
All right. All right, thanks. All right, cows, give me a punch. I love it. I like your punches. You know what that means? That means we're the part of the show where we talk about our corporate partners.
Yeah.
Make the show a reality. It's a shame. I think some people do the old. You push the 15 second skip ahead on your podcaster.
You can do that.
You didn't know that?
Nope.
Oh, my God.
I mean.
Mike Rose podcast, I love it. I can't remember the name of it now, but it automatically downloads. But he shares like the. These little short stories about just different, fascinating, just trivial stories, Right?
Yeah.
And there's always like this kind of twist at the end. Like it's someone you already know, but you. You don't know who it is until the very end.
Ooh.
Yeah. And they're eight minutes. So there are these super short things. But if Mike Rose listening, I know he is because he's a big fan of the show. Is the first 1 minute and 30 seconds to 2 minutes is a commercial.
Yeah.
So I go. And then it cuts over to the new show.
Yeah.
Once I didn't listen to it, actually. I didn't skip through it. I listened to the commercial, I was like, oh my God. Like he actually shares a little story in there. So then I went back to all these other episodes, like I'm missing the commercial. Sometimes it tells a little quip about his own experience with the product, which can be funny, or he talks something about dirty jobs or something like that. So, yeah, shame on anyone that's skipping through the commercials because maybe you're missing something.
You missed that, Justin.
You just missed that. Unbelievable. So I want to thank Fundbox, that's a cash flow accelerator. If invoices due to you, they release the funds to you in full up front. Nextiva Voiceover. IP phone system, communication system. They have a CRM and platform. They're wonderful. We use them and, and Receipt bank, by the way, we use all these companies. Receipt bank is a receipt scanning system, goes right into your phone. You have to store your receipts if you're an entrepreneur. If you get audited, you have to produce your receipts. Receipt bank manages all of the organization. That's the ultimate organizational tool, quite frankly.
And don't forget about Abbyy Connect, the leading live receptionist service. It just makes sense. If potential customers can't reach someone, they're going to call the next company on their list. You invest in websites and advertising. Shouldn't you invest in converting those calls into customers? And don't forget, Abby Connect is offering the no obligation free trial for our listeners. And after your trial is over, our listeners will also receive a $95 off their first bill, but only when you sign up at our special link abbyconnect.com profit first. Thanks Abby Connect.
All right. That's our corporate partners. Thank you to them. Ruby, anything to say about them fat daddy Fatbacks? Yes, sir.
Appropriate.
Yeah, Normal, right? Right. Okay.
Okay. I have a question for you.
Yeah.
This one comes from Daniel Prieto.
Okay.
And he says for investing in in the business like masterminds, books on audible, new training courses for the business, what account should that come out of?
Oh, great. So Daniel, with this is profit first question. Of course, when you have expenses for your own education, still comes out of the operating expenses of the business. Everything comes out of the operating expense of the business. Here's the one little caveat. The owner's compensation account, which is money reserved for what I argue is the most important employee. No one works as hard as you or as loyal to the business as you as the owner. And often the owner sacrifices themselves the most. They don't pay themselves. So we got to pay you. That's the owner's comp account. But if you derive direct exclusive benefit from it and the business isn't truly benefiting, but you still apply it as a business expense because your accountant says you can save taxes, which is prudent legally, then it comes out owners comp. So say you get that new car and you don't really use it to drive to and from work. And for your fun times, that can come out of owner's comp because it's an owner exclusive benefit. So if you're training is something like you're taking a knitting class, but you're not in the knitting business, but the business will still pay for the expense, then it could be considered owner's comp. The rule here is if in doubt, it's an operating expense. Everything's an operating expense if you're not sure where it goes. There you go. How do you like that?
Perfect.
Okay, now I, I have a, a emphysema type cough coming, so I'm going to try to hold it in.
Good.
What? Oh, and there was yours. What did you learn from Darrell? I know we had really bad connection, so it was a little awkward at times.
Yeah, yeah. It was hard what you learned. I think my biggest takeaway was to stay in the know. I loved how, you know, when he had sort of this idea to get started in the security industry, he went with the connections that he had. So he went with those, that network that he built through the Boy Scouts, and he asked them, he asked them what the need was and how he could fill that need in a way that was authentic to him and in a unique niche sort of way. And then throughout everything, he keeps asking the questions, you know, and I love that, you know, how much would you pay for this? How much, you know, you know, get granular about every aspect of your business so that, you know, you're building on a sound platform.
Yeah. I think he leveraged his age in many ways. He went to his competitors, future competitors, and said, how do you run a business like this? And they told him, right, you're an 18 year old kid, you know, very smart young guy. I also like that he used his age that people like young people and they want to support.
Yes.
So older people, you know, that, that 50, 60 year old entrepreneur looks at the young entrepreneur and says, oh, yeah, you can do this.
Yeah.
Because they don't feel threatened by them. They feel they're mentoring him. And Darrell leveraged that.
Yeah. I love how his response too. I felt like it wasn't. It didn't even cross his mindset that it Was a disadvantage. Of course it's an advantage. He's younger and that, you know, he knows this community.
I'm like, darrell or Shell that's working against you? And he's like, no.
No, it's not.
Shut up, Mike. Shut up. It's.
It's.
It's Darrell.
Yeah.
Here's another question for you. You don't know what weed blows are?
No, but that's hilarious.
You gotta look it up.
I do.
I was in this thing called the Indian Guides. And what the Indian Guides was. They don't call it Indian Guides anymore because that's so racially tense. They call it adventure Guides, I think, now. But you. My father was the. So, like, in Cub Scouts, they had Cub Masters, which were almost always the moms. In Indian Guides, they had the dads do this, and it was all boys. And the first meeting was at our house. I remember seeing in the den, my dad had moved the furniture out so we could all sit in a circle. And you do these Indian, you know, cheesy Indian rituals. They're not real Indian rituals, but, you know, and everyone got their name. So you, you know, you are Falcon. Falcon. And you are, like, you know, Hawktail and stuff like that. I was like, brown Feather. It was, like, so lame. They had nothing left. And my dad's, like, scrambling because he was my father. He couldn't do me first. He had to make sure all our kids are taken care of. He scrolls through, he goes, you're brown. Brown Feather. Brown Feather. So it was like Falcon. It was like someone grabbed Sitting Bull. The best name ever. All these things. And then Brown feather. I punched myself. And the early stage of this. So in Cub Scouts, you have Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts. You can go to, like, a master level. We blow is the first. I was a weeblow. Brown feather. The weeblow.
Is that real? Like, is that derived from something real?
It must be the wee blows. Yeah.
Total cultural appropriation gone wrong. Gone horribly wrong.
What group are you? None of the wee blows. You know, I swear, you've got to Google this.
Oh, my gosh. That's awful.
All right, Kelsey, do we have anything else to talk about before you did the. You did the question. The listener mail. I didn't push the mail. Pattern baldness, which is probably a blessing. Ruby yelled at me. I think we're good. All right, take us out there.
Okay. Let us know what you think. Leave us your comments on iTunes. Stitcher bravofirstpodcast.com the favorite one. Yeah. What else, Mike?
I think what else? People can do. Kelsey is go to profit first professionals dot com. Have you been to the website recently?
Of course I have.
We. I know you have. We've, we've renovated the site. Do you renovate sites? I guess you replace sites. I don't know what you do.
You can say renovate. I feel like it's applicable.
We renovate the site, we streamlined it. It's. It's more efficient, it's more fluid and there's a big opportunity for you on the site right now. You gotta check it out. Have you been there in a while? Probably not. Now's time to go back. Go to profit first professionals.com right at the top. Talk about streamline. It's right there. There's an option says find a profit first professional. Click on the find. It says find one like o n e because it's like b1 find one haha. Or cute. But you click on the find one and it'll bring you to a page where you can give us little details on your business and we will hook you up with a profit first professional. Now here's the thing. We don't hook you up necessarily with someone that's regional to you. That's. That's an old mindset. Hey, I'm in Kansas City. I need someone who's in Kansas City. I don't know why you have a lisp all of a sudden, but the thing is you need someone that specializes in your industry. So if you're a knitter in Kansas City, don't you want someone that specializes in knitting?
Yeah.
Which, you know. Billy Ann Greg. Does she specialize in knitting stores?
Oh no, I did not know that. Oh yeah, that's perfect.
Yeah. And it is. She made all those hats for the women's march, I think those pink hats.
Oh, I love her. Just love her.
She made one at least. I don't know if she made all. I don't know if she made all millions of them.
Did you Women's March?
No, I didn't.
I actually totally forgot about it.
Oh, that's really supportive. Nice.
I know, it's awful. I know.
I'm a woman. It's raining out. I'm tired. I'm going to sleep.
Yeah, so you totally removed from pop culture.
What is up with you? Go to proffers professionals.com. click on the find button. We'll introduce you to a profit first professional who specializes in your industry. Someone who knows how to drive profitability in whatever industry you're in. We've yet to be stumped. I mean, I bet you. We could be. I'm thinking. I don't know of anyone that specializes like in the porn. I don't think we have any porn. Profit first professionals. So if you're in the porn industry and you need help, we probably don't have a person for you, you know.
But might open up a market for it.
It could open up a big market for it.
Who knows?
Good point. I could we do some pervy members. They probably want to get into that.
We do not. Guys, we don't.
In my mind, I picture Ron Fowdy. Poor Ron Fowey. The nicest man on the planet.
He's also 90.
Ron, we have an opportunity for you. Her name is Debbie. That's Dallas. No, she's looking.
Yeah, she's been around for a while.
You've been around for a while. She needs the private first professional. All right. Go there right now. It's up to you to do it. And let's make your business profitable permanently. Okay. Okay. We'll see you later.
Okay. Bye bye. Bye. Bye.
Ra.
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