Episode 45: Investing and Profitability with Sofia Macias

Oh, yeah, there it was.

We have babies in the. In the studio here, Sophia.

And that was with. That was with a Spanish accent too. I don't know if you heard that.

Yeah.

Okay.

S.

That would be good. All right, everyone has to use Spanish on this call. Let's roll, Chris.

Ready? Oh. In Spanish. To escuchas.

Ah.

La Profit first podcast.

Bienvenidos amigos. S episode. Cuatro y cinco.

Yes.

No. Oh, boom.

I'm impressed.

Bienvenidos.

Gold.

Wow.

Yo soy Cristobal y tu estas Miguel.

Michalowitz e mi amigo as Chris Caron. Chris, thanks for having me on here. I am the author or auteur de Profit First. Profit primo.

Yes. By the way, this isn't a Spanish show if you're listening for the first time.

And Sophie, Sophia's like, what the hell are you saying?

She's like, what just happened?

I know. She didn't understand gold, though. Gold.

So welcome, everyone, to the Profit first podcast. I am Chris Kern. I'm the founder of Fractal Recording.

And I'm Mike Michalis, the author of Profit First. And you know, what we do on this show is we talk about profitability. Every angle you can think of, how to get there, and we talk about it from every perspective, including today's guest. What's going on in Mexico to drive profitability for people individually, personal finances. And I'll tell you, I don't care where you're sitting in the world right now today, this is going to translate to what you need to in your own personal life and in your business.

That's right.

Oh, and Christina's here today too. Hey there.

Hey, Christina. Hola. Bienvenida.

The V is more like a B, so bienvenida.

Bien, Cristina. So, by the way, our podcast is available on itunes and Stitcher and Tunein Radio and our website, profitfirstpodcast.com which has.

Just show notes, pictures. Last episode, we have our guest who grew a $140 million business in his skivvies.

Very popular photo.

Yeah, yeah. So you gotta go to the profitfirstpodcast.com and you know this show is sponsored by. Or I shouldn't say sponsored, supported by our corporate partners, including nextiva and including Fundera and also including T sheets. Isn't that amazing? These companies have been with us for literally every single episode, supporting us, this venture in helping businesses go profitably. So a big shout out to them and thank you for your support. Hey, Chris. What have you been up to, my brother?

Oh, man, I'M moving from New Jersey to Colorado Springs.

You've been talking about that for a while. Is that legitimately happening now?

Well, we were buying a house. The closing date is set. The movers are hired. It's happening.

Fantastic. We should have a packing party because I'm moving too.

Yeah, Christina's moving, you're moving.

We'll do the a. A pack packing crawl. We'll crawl from one house to the next.

Yeah. Well, we're going to miss you, brother.

Boxes and duct tape and what else do you need?

We'll miss you. Having you here.

Be they can take. They can take you out of your house too. It seems like it's a fashion to move out of town, right?

Are you. Are you threatening me, Guest? I mean, we haven't even introduced you. Sophia Masus is, like, already threatening me. I will take you out of your house.

See, that's how we roll on this show. We start the show, we leave the guest's mic on. We just leave it on.

We leave the mic on. We forgot to mute him. Well, let me do a formal introduction. And Sophia, before I do this introduction, when I did that video for you and I did my Spanish, I spoke in Spanish for a little bit, you said something about my accent. What do you say about my accent?

It was so cute. It was like, hola, I'm gonna. This is a book of an author of pequenho certo capitalista. And it was like, I wanted to adopt you almost.

Oh, my God. You are two. Esmi. Hermana de madre differente. That means you're my mother. Yeah, Basically, you're my sister from a different mother. As opposed to brother from a different mother.

Yes.

Gracias. So Sophia Macius is from the wonderful country of Mexico. Actually, if I can pick my top favorite countries, they are United States, Mexico, and I think Germany or maybe Jamaica. I don't know. The Mexican people are phenomenally kind and giving people. I get an email from this Mexican person. I don't know who it is. Her name's Sophia. And she says, hey, read your book Profit first. I'd love to talk to you in six months from now because I'm going on a honeymoon for like the next year. And I'm like, this is. Am I being set up or something? So I email her back. I do some research. I'm like, whoa, this woman is legit. I mean, too legit to quick to quit. I check out her book, which is now. It's for my English speaking friends here. I'm gonna say the title, it's gonna sound cute in Spanish. And then you have to. Christina, translate this, okay, Into English. She is the auteur Day. Pequeno Cerdo Capitalista. Finances. No. Did I say that correctly?

That's cute.

What's the name? Translate that, Christine, into English.

The capitalist pig.

Yes.

So it's a little capitalist pig and.

Pequeno means little, Right?

Okay, so it's close.

The small Capitalist. Small capitalist Pan.

Pig. As in P. I. G. Yes.

And then the subtitle is Finances person. Personales para hippies. Or I guess epis.

You said it correctly. Hippies. It like in English.

It's pronounced hippies. Oh. All right, we have to stop the show right here, right now. We just landed. We just landed a new client. Where's my. Where's my belt?

Really?

Yeah. Where's my buzzer? Where's my buzzer? There it is. No, no, I can't jam the tune. I can't. There it is. All right.

You want Beyonce. Oh.

New client, new client, New client. So I'm so sorry during the introduction, Sophia, but we have a commitment here that every time we land a new client or member, that we play music. And Ron, my colleague here, the co founder of Profit First Professionals, committed to Landing2 clients today, and he just landed the second one. So we're excited. Yeah. All right. So it's pronounced. It's pronounced hippies.

Yeah, hippies. Like the Woodstock hippies. Hippies Up. Bohemians.

Okay. Jupies.

Yeah, like. Like the 80s up. The ones that were in the movies of Wall Street.

So are these like, like Jewish people that are, like, walking. What's a Jew?

Young yerva. Professional, so.

Oh, yuppie.

Professional, so, yeah, yuppie.

Oh, and then Bohemia. That's a tongue twister right there. That's right there. And Bohemios, Right? Did I pronounce it properly?

Yeah. Well, in Spanish would be Bohemios, but Bohemios. English bohemians.

Okay, so, Sophia, now that you're actually officially on the show, and we just took you off mute for the 10.

Minute introduction instead of crushing it.

I know. I want to welcome you, and I can't tell you, of all the guests we've ever had, I am so excited to have you on here. You are prolific in your country and the impact you're having on people's personal finances. So welcome aboard officially. It's an honor to have you on our show.

Thank you. Thank you, Mike. I'm a huge fan. It's very funny because all these communications started because I read Profit first and Became an instant fan. Cause it makes all sense with like personal finance for entrepreneurs. I think that, I mean, we like in this idea of brothership, separated in birth or something like that.

You think we were separated in birth, me and you?

Maybe. Yeah, maybe. But I think you're a little bit younger, but yeah, maybe.

Oh, right. Oh, right.

There's a movie there, actually. Yes, I think Separated Birds.

Yeah, like the one of Arnold schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito. Like those three.

We should create a movie like that. That would be hysterical. That would be hysterical. So tell us, how did you get started in helping people with their personal finances?

It was really funny because I. I mean, I'm a journalist and I was working in. In a newspaper in Mexico called El Economista, which is like an economics newspaper. It's not the Economist. It's like the same in Spanish, but not the same brand. And I was a front page editor, so I had like tons of news coming. And my sense was that people was not really getting useful stuff for daily life. Maybe they would know about mergers and acquisitions, about certain funds, certain banks or whatever, but they would not like really know what should they do with their retirement plans or which was like the best or worst credit card or why if you are just paying like the minimum from your credit card, you will end up with a huge debt. So in the meantime, it's very funny how newspapers work. Like you have, like if you're in the front page editor, you have kind of meeting at 11, an information meeting, and you start receiving like the news and choosing which would be the most important News. Then at 5pm you have another one, or at least that's in Mexico. But you would not get to work on the front page until 7pm So I had those two hours of the day to really either scratch my belly or do something useful. And I decided to open a blog. Because there I was in my very early 20s and I saw that all my friends were really lost on personal finance, but really lost, like having huge debts on credit cards and not huge job. So it was. Everything was senseless. So I started writing. And the blog that was the same, that had the same name as my book, Pequeno Cerro Capitalista, started growing with a lot of followers. But then I left for my master's in France and I was really gonna leave my project there. I was just writing like once a month or something for the blog. But then it was like some instant magical thing that happened. And somebody wrote a review for the blog on. On the news, on the magazine of an Airplane of an airline company. Well, and then like coincidences are more like, I don't know, things that should happen. I don't know.

Yeah, serendipity would be the word.

Yeah, yeah, exactly. So there like in that flight where that magazine was placed the Fernando Steve, which was like the director of Santillana, my first publisher, like he saw the article and he was like, wow, this is awesome. Just write an email to this girl and ask her if she wants to make a book.

Now let me ask you, did you personally go through financial struggles in your own life?

What I did go was through financial silliness because I did stupid things. Like my second or third blog from Pequeno Surro Capitalista was called don't be the Sleeping Beauty. The Bank's sleeping Beauty. Because for example, like in. When I was 18, I started saving for a trip to Europe. I was gonna go for 40 days with my friends. And it's nice. That is still like a. Like a. More like a fairy tale. Not. Once upon a time there was a little princess that wanted to go to Europe with her friends, blah, blah, blah. But what I basically did was like I worked as a teacher for two years in a primary school. I had like just two hours of classes each day while I was in my university and I was saving my money to go to Europe on a trip. And I really had like an amazing time with my friends. It was an awesome trip. But when I came back and I started working in Economista, I realized that if I had not been so silly, I would have invested that money. And like in that time, like the interest rates in Mexico were like 8% per year. I mean, that was serious money. It was like for that time I would have taken like €200 more from what I took. And when you are backpacking, really it's a huge difference between sleeping in a hostel full of cocarraj and dirt and whatever and eating in not very nice restaurants all the time. So really I understood that knowing a little bit about money makes things much easier. Any kind of dream you have, it's easier if you have at least a bit of personal finance literacy.

So let's start off with credit card debt. I mean, that is so common throughout, it seems the globe now, but in the United States, for most of our listeners, credit card debt is a real issue. I understand it's true with so many of your readers too. And how do you start addressing and tackling and finally get rid of credit card debt?

Well, the chapter of my book is called the bank is Not Guilty for your debt. I mean, in Spanish it doesn't sound that aggressive, but in English it is, but it's a reality. I wrote that post for my blog, and I wrote it because I really received tons and tons of mails saying, like, oh, this lousy bank. They gave me such a huge credit line and I used it and now they want to charge me. And I was like, of course. But nobody put a gun in your head to use it. So, first of all, I think that the first thing to go out of debt is to understand that you're responsible for your financial situation. And that's not only regarding debt. It's regarding also investments and whatever. So after that, you can of course say that banks sometimes are very abusive. Sometimes they have huge rates. Like in the United States, I think that the very expensive rates are like 12% a year, but our rates are like, our low rates in Mexico are from 11% per year to 52% per year.

52%. That almost sounds illegal.

Yeah, almost. I mean.

If your interest rate is that high, can people get out of debt or is it just impossible? Is it just not doable? Sofia?

No, they do get out of debt, but what they do have to understand is that it will be harder than in any other country. And besides, well, what they have to do is really they have to first to address which is the exact cost of their debt. Did they really misuse credit? Because some people get into debt because they don't know which is their due date. They don't know when do they have to pay. So they don't pay on time, and then they charge them higher interest than there are already. Some of them really spend more than they could afford. Some of them do not have an emergency fund. So every time they have an emergency, they use their credit card. And sorry, guys, credit cards are not for emergencies. Credit cards are payment media. I mean, of payment. So really you need a fund for that. You need a little bit of savings for that, even if it's small. But it's better to have small savings than using your card every time, because you will have to pay interest if you cannot pay it on time. So a lot of people did because of that. And amazingly, in Mexico, one of the highest causes of debt is lending money.

It's lending money.

Your boyfriend. Yeah, yeah, your boyfriend.

First of all, how do you know I had a boyfriend? That was crazy.

I don't know. Whoever. I mean, like, they come. They come and ask you for money and you say, okay, you can use my credit card. And they never Pay you back. So that's something I always tell people from Pequena Cerro Capitalista. Like it's good, good to have a kind heart, but come on, not a great car.

Have you ever got caught in that trap, Sophia, that you ever.

No, no, no. I mean, I'm in. Juan, that is my husband, he has his own credits and his own separate finances. And I have my finances. No, I'm actually what we would call in Spanish tacania, in that it's. I'm not sure which is the word in English when they say that you're not very generous with money, but I just forgot.

Oh, that you're like. What would be the term for that? If you're a stinge, would that be the word?

Well, maybe the thing is that regarding. No, there's a word, but I just forgot it. But regarding lending money, I really don't like to lend money because usually like you lose not only the money, but usually the friendship. So I prefer like to do it only in very specific cases and in specific ways. Like, the only person I have lent money that was a successful loan, to say it in some way, was my best friend Alejandra. And we really signed a contract and we agreed that we would have the inflation rate as interest. And it's funny, but having this formal stuff really, really helped her to pay me on time. Actually, she paid me before time. And we never had not even a small discussion about this. Instead, I have met people that really have lost even houses because of trying to help other people.

That's interesting.

You have to be kind, but you do have to know your limits.

There is a chart that we use here, and I would like to know if this is the same experience you have in Mexico. If you can picture in your mind one of those charts, those line charts where it starts on the left and moves to the right. You draw two lines and they basically make a big X. One of the line starts high and over time goes low. One starts low and. And over time it builds up. The one that starts high is the lender, the person that borrows. I'm sorry, the borrower, the person that gets the money. The one that starts low is the lender. And what happens over time is the movement is obligation. What means is when a lender gives you money, the first day they're like, hey, I'm giving you, you know, I'm giving you money. Don't worry about it, take your time. And the borrower though, feels a high obligation, like, oh, you're doing me a big favor. Thank you. So they in their obligation feel very high. But over time, as you move out in time, the borrower's sense of obligation reduces. It's like, well, it wasn't that much money and who cares? And I can't pay it back now. And it fades. But the lender's sense of obligation increases at first, like, don't worry about, take your time. And they're like, where's my effing money? And by the end they're like, pay me. So there's this crisscross. Yeah, and there's this crisscross. And when those two senses of obligation flip, that's the danger point. Because now the lender's like, it's been too long because pay me my stinking money, muchacho. Tondes mi dinero. And then, and then the. But the borrower feels less and less obligation. Do you experience the same thing in Mexico with that kind of thing?

That's completely true. I mean, you just described it how it is. Because actually when you are asking for money, maybe like if it's a personal lending, let's say if it's a personal loan, you will, like at the beginning, maybe somebody will tell you, no, I can't. And then the second person, if they say yes, then you will feel like really, really grateful because they did you a favor. But then since all this was like a lot of pressure regarding, I don't know, the emergency you had or the problem you had and you needed money for that problem, then after time, when you solved your problem, you don't feel like such an urgency to pay, or this person doesn't feel like a huge urgency to pay. And there's when this thing that you explained, this chart happens. So I think that like you have to consider. There's a post on the Pequeno Cerro de Capitalista blog called are you really lending or giving away money? Because if you're giving it as a present and you don't care if they pay you back, then you say, okay, take the money. That's it. If you are really lending the money and you're really expect it back, then you have to really sign some. In Mexico we have like this new format that they have to pay you back and that's it.

Okay, so we have a great lesson here. Neither a lender nor borrower be. Sophia, what else can people do to improve their personal finances? Don't be a lender. But what else can they do?

I think that in general terms, the golden secret. And that's why I like so much Profit first, because it's a golden secret applied to entrepreneurs and to companies. I call it in Spanish, quita melo que belogasto. That would be something like.

Let me translate that. Let me. If you don't mind, I'll translate it. That's you just said. Okay, what I just heard is Mike Malowitz is extremely handsome. Was that. I don't mean to embarrass you, but that's the direct translation.

I want a set of your headphones. I think they are good. Like, they're good self esteem headphones. I want something.

All right, so what does that really translate to.

Is like, take it away from my hands, otherwise I'll spend it. So that's what you have to do with your money. It's not only pay yourself first, which is good, but pay yourself first and put it in a separate account. It's better. So I think that's like the real key because even if you try to save and you say you're gonna pay yourself first, but you leave your money in the same account as you have as all the rest of your money for your expenses, sooner or later you'll spend it. So it's very funny, but two or three weeks ago, we were really, really, really giving a hard time to Paula, my designer in Pequena Cerro de Capitalista, my graphic designer, because something very funny happened to her. She was like, from the beginning. When they started working on Pequeno Cerro de Capitalista, I told Paula and Julia, the two girls that work with me, okay, if you really want to work here, you need to have healthy personal finances. Because really we have to be coherent. We cannot. It's like the person, like the people that work in profit first, they are really frugal people because it's important for the company. So these girls, they. The first one, like, she has her insurance. She's been saving like for two years. Actually. I really want to congratulate her on her because she's going to New York for her first trip alone. Like in. In a couple of weeks for 10 days.

Oh, tell her to look us up. We will ruin her.

We will corrupt her.

Yeah, not financially, but we'll party with her. Oh, please do. Tell her to look us up.

And she will be 10 days away in New York and she paid all her trip and she's really young, so it's nice that she has her first trip alone. But Paola, she was like a bit of a mess. So Paola, what she did was Julia convinced Paula to open an account, like a kind of Investment account that in Mexico is called Cetes Directo. That is like the treasury bonds from the US but from Mexico. And you have no fees for that. And you can say from 100 pesos that now with the dollar that is so strong around world would be like zero cents. But well, in that you can start saving like from around $8, like whatever you want. You can start investing from $8. So it's really, really, really nice. But then Paola started like she opened her account, but she was convinced that it didn't work out. So she just left. And some months after Juli asked her what had happened and she's like, I don't know, this doesn't work. And I am going to. And she's like, okay, I'll help you. And then they opened the account and there were like 4,000 pesos that would be like, I don't know, like $300. And Paola was like, oh my God, somebody broke into my account. They are using it for money laundering. I don't know what is happening, blah, blah, blah. And it was her money. Like she actually could open the account and they were taking 500 pesos, like $30 every month, every two weeks, $60 a month. And she didn't realize that she was saving already that that amount. So what I told her is like, okay, there are two problems with you. The first one, you don't know what you use money for. And the second one, you had been convinced that you could not save and look like in very few time, because that was like three months or something, you really have some money. And now she's very happy because she will use it for her holidays.

So that money, that money was being transferred to another account. She thought it was being stolen, but it was actually her saving her own money, right?

Yeah, yeah.

Oh my God, that's interesting. So I love it. So what I heard for this lesson is get it out of my hands. Like if I got money in my hands. Idle hands does the devil's work, right? So you gotta have your hands. Any other tips you have for us to improve our personal finances?

Don't be the sleeping beauty of the bank. Really start investing as soon as possible. And please be knowledgeable about investing. Start with simple things. Because I don't know why everybody like you tell them, invest. And instead of saying, okay, I'm going to start with this like very conservative investment account or with this small savings account. I want to go to Forex. I want to start with bitcoins. It's like when I buy stocks it's crazy. So start investing. Start step by step, but really do it because, like, time is money. So if you don't do it, it's going to be very complicated.

Yeah, to have all this money sitting at the bank is just such a. Such a waste. But I think some people do it, Sophia, to get confident in themselves. They haven't had money to start building it. They want to see the money accumulating and want not for it to be at risk and to lose it because they've lost in the past. They're so fearful of not having money again. How do you get over that mental hump of being afraid to invest money?

I think that there are two problems. First, you have to realize that if you are not investing right now, you're already losing money. Because even though right now in the US the inflation rate is really low, whenever the economy starts growing a bit more, it's gonna rise. So things are gonna cost more through time. And if you have the same money saving it in the same account, next year, it's gonna have like a lower value. So really realize that part. And the second part is you can go step by step. Like, you don't really have to go to the highest, like, risk options. You can start with very simple options. Maybe Treasuries, maybe investment funds that are diversified and that are mostly obligations and have a very low percentage in stocks. Actually, right now it's not really a good time to invest in stocks in the US because you are listening the news that the NASDAQ has like the highest yield in, I don't know how from. I think that since the dot com crisis. So right now we are in very, very, very historical high levels. But, well, maybe you can wait a little bit till it falls because gravity works in all markets and maybe start with options. But it's very important, I think, that there's something called the double crown in investments. And whenever you, you start investing, maybe you hear, ah, the stock exchange is giving a lot of money. The yields are awesome. And then you get excited and you go to the market exactly when it's on its top, and then it falls like a castle of cards, like a house of cards. And then you think it's, it's, it's like it was because the stock was very risky. But no, the stock was not risky. You were not knowledgeable about the levels of the stock market. Right.

You bought high when you should really be buying low and you didn't have the patience to stick it out. It sounds like.

And that's like the second. That's the first crown. The second crown. That's why it's called the double crown. Maybe it goes down, the market goes down. You take your money out with your loss, and then somebody starts convincing you again that the stock exchange is already rising. And then you go again into the stock exchange and you lose again. And then. And then you do swear that you are never, ever going to invest in anything, not even treasury bonds. So that's very important not to like, because then you will be cured for life. You will never, ever take any kind of risk in investments, and your money will lose value over time. So first, start with very conservative stuff. Start, like, analyzing the different type of assets where you can invest, because it's not the same. And you need a different timing for gold, a different timing for silver, a different timing for stocks, a different timing for bonds, for everything. It's very important. That's actually my second book is about investments, because when I wrote the first one, everybody started like, oh, great, now I have money.

What do I do with it?

What do I do with it?

Yeah, yeah, I hear you. We gotta wrap things up here, but I wanna do two more things. First of all, each person here is gonna throw a little phrase, their best Spanish at you, and I wanna see if you can translate it back to English for us. So first, anything you know in Spanish, I put you on the spot here.

Dodiestas pantalones.

Okay, What'd she say? What'd she say?

She said in a. In a. In an awfully cute, beautiful accent, she said, donde estan? Ah. Where are my pants?

Where are my pants? That's correct. Where are my pants? Chris, you're.

I'm really worried about this kind of podcast because.

I don't know.

I know you have magical earphones, then you don't have pants.

Yeah, I know. It's a little crazy. Chris, you're up, man. Your best Spanish.

I have a double Maria, va a la playa. And donde esta el. No, wait. Donde.

Wait, Donde esta is good.

No, I forgot it.

Or worse, I heard that would be the phrases, because it would be like, maria is going to the beach and where is she?

No.

Yeah.

Donde esta?

Donde esta el bano? There we go.

Nice. What's that?

Where's the bathroom? That's very important. You really need to learn to learn that kind of phrase if you're coming to Mexico.

Donde esta toleta? And by the way, I was in Mexico, and they had damas and caballeros they had hombres. And so they have all these different definitions. And I didn't know caballeros was like, gentlemen. And I was like, what the hell? All right, here's mine. Chris Legusta, Biber Leche de gato.

That would be a kind of a bump for his stomach, but he says Chris likes to drink milk and Tecate. That is a kind of beer, so.

No, no, no, no. They got gato. Gato. Gato de gato.

But gato is cat.

Yeah.

Yes, he likes to drink.

He likes to drink cat milk.

Cat milk.

I could have said leche de gato.

Okay, Leche de gato, Chris. Leche de cerdo de gato.

No, no. Serdo Capitalist speak. Oh, my God.

Chris loves the milk of men.

Podcast hosts aren't.

I'm sorry. Sophia, you are an absolute charm. If people want to learn more about Pequenho Cerro de Capitalista, where do they find out more about your book?

Oh, you can find. I mean, the book is on itunes. Amazon. It's in Spanish. So if you want to have, like, a wonderful Spanish, like, now Mike wants to do that. He's like, really, really close. You can read it in Spanish. It's itunes, Amazon, and also, well, Google Play and all that. In my. My website, that is pequeno. Pequenocervdocapitalista.com There's a small section that is called Los Libros, the books. And there you can also find the first chapter of each book. I have, like, a Facebook fan page, a Twitter account that is also just look it up like, serdito Capitalista. Like, small pig. But anyways, I will send a tweet to Mike and he will retweet it, and that will be easier. And you can also read one of our latest posts that was about how to have your payments and your money management, all your. If you have trouble with your suppliers or with your clients, how to do it well. And it also includes a mention to profit first, because I think that it's a very important tool for all entrepreneurs to be able to organize their money. It's crazy, but I was in Zacatecas, a small city in Mexico, not long ago. This problem, like, okay, I have, like, this profit. I mean, last month I had, like, all these sales, but I don't know where my money went.

All right, guys, check out her articles. Sofia, gracias. Porto tiempo. It was a wonderful time being with you. Thank you so much. Gracias.

Thank you so much, guys. I really enjoyed it. And next time, you come to Mexico. I'll buy your tacos.

Oh, that sounds wonderful, dude.

My face hurts from laughing and smiling so much.

She is. I. I think I love her, dude. I mean, not in, like, an awkward way.

No, absolutely.

I just love her.

That was great.

So I Skype with her. Yeah, we've been Skyping maybe once a month. We're talking about doing a book thing together. And that energy you just heard, that's how she always is. You know what blows me away? And, I mean, this is always an American thing, because most Americans. Many Americans, speak only one language. When someone speaks your language, but also can get the humor and the caveats to a language that always blows my mind.

You mean when they speak a different language?

She is. English is not her native tongue, yet she gets all the jokes, and she can hang in there tight and stuff. And I don't know. To me, that's always amazing, but she's just a wonderful person. Christina, what did you learn from Sophia today?

She had so many little helpful tips. But, you know, you're responsible for your own financial status, and even knowing just a little bit about money can make your life easier.

Yeah, yeah. Stop blaming the other people. I never heard that saying. Don't be the bank's sleeping beauty. Yeah. Once you start making some money, don't let it sit in the bank. Invest it. But what I really liked is get it out of my hands. That is the principle of profit first. Listen, I know people that survive with no money or extremely little because that's all they have. Well, we don't have to put ourselves in a dire situation, but take a good chunk of that money. Hide it away from yourself. I think you'll impress yourself of how well you can do with very little money.

Don't spend it like it's burning a hole in your pocket.

Yeah.

Put it away.

Yeah, exactly. Kris, what'd you learn, bro?

Right. Well, I like what she said. Invest now. She's like, if you have money sitting there and it's not invested, you're actually losing money. So.

Yeah, that was fascinating.

I'm looking forward. I mean, it's just, again, common sense. But I'm looking forward to investing more after I move and. And get settled and everything then.

Yeah, and you got a little profit coming because you've implemented profit first for yourself for a little while now.

I got some accounts.

End of each quarter. End of each quarter, my brother. End of each quarter, take a profit distribution. So end of September is a profit distribution, right? That's right Now. Ish. So do it.

Party. Colorado Springs. Ish.

Yeah. Well, no, don't. See, no, don't. Don't waste it on drugs up your nose, if that's what you mean with a party. I'm saying. Wow, nice, dude. All right, well, I think Colorado, the drug thing.

Oh, see, yeah, I missed that.

You're gonna get a bad rap in Colorado.

I know. Everyone's like, oh, we know why you're moving there.

Do people say that to you?

Almost everyone. Oh, literally.

Swear to God. Yeah.

Moving to Colorado.

Oh, I always knew you. You like that. Wacky.

Yeah. 15, 8, 20 years ago, but come on.

All right, dude, we got a rock and roll here. I first want to thank nextiva, Fundera and tsheets. Now listen. Every episode you've listened to of ours, you've heard us talk about them. They are truly amazing companies. Nextiva is a voice over IP phone system. Check them out at n e X-T-I v a dot com. TSheets is a time tracking software. It is a big money saver when you know who's doing what for what clients and automates the whole process. That's T as in the letter T sheets. S H E E T s dot com. And Fundera is a funding source. If you need funds to expand what's working in your business and you want to grow it and make more revenue based upon that, that's a great time for a loan. Fundera goes and shops it out for you. You do one application, they source it for you, they get the funds, they come back to you. That's F u n D E R A dot com. Chris, tell us a little bit about you so people can learn more about your cool podcast.

Yeah, man. I produce podcast shows for business authors and some other folks who I can't.

Why can't you say that, Mike? Why? Well, your voice gets all weird.

No, it's. It's a big, big, big corporate company and we're just getting started and I don't know if I'm allowed to mention it yet.

Is it Enron?

It is. It is not.

It is not.

But yeah, Podcasting. Fractal recording dot com. If you have any questions about podcasting, give me a call.

Yeah. And I got to give you a plug. The most important platform for marketing and getting the word out on my own books has been working with Chris and doing a podcast. If you are an author, do a podcast and do a professional one. I mean, hold on one second, one second. Here's professional right now, bruh.

I like that.

Professional meaning is the quality. And you can just be your true personality on it. It gets people intimate with you and resonating with you. Totally. And if you want to learn more about what I'm doing and Christina's doing, we're wearing the shirts today again. Profit First Professionals.com. we are a membership organization of. I almost forgot. Of accountants and bookkeepers. I was going to plug Ron during this episode. We just had a new member join us. If you have a business and you surely do, and you want to be more profitable and you surely do, go to profitfirstprofessionals.com, click on find and we will hook you up with an accountant or bookkeeper. You need them anyway. But an account or bookkeeper, that will drive profit in your business.

Get that money.

Get that money.

Right? Who would have thought?

Don't be a bank. Sleeping Beauty.

Totally. You gonna hit this one?

Way late. Way late.

Christina. Thank you. That was awesome. So, by the way, you can find.

I feel safer already.

Our podcast is on itunes and Stitcher. Go ahead and subscribe. You can even rate and review us too.

Yeah, more than even. Please do that. We want your rating and reviews. It helps. Okay. People call it there, cracker boy. I'm not finished. I'm serious.

Do the Obama listens to our show, so. And our profit first podcast.com is the website. We have a. We have so many great episodes. This is so much fun. Thanks for listening. And, Mike, take us home, dude.

You're a gentleman and scholar. Everyone. Today's the day. Take your profit first and get.

Whoa. Psychedelic, baby.

I love it. I love the bridge.

Hold on and get your pets. Your pets.

Get your pets.

This goes long time, dude.

I know. It's my favorite bridge ever.

So good.

He's going down right now. Coming up. Now it's coming up. That is my favorite bridge. Because you think they would drop, like, four notes.

Yeah.

Over four bars. They drop like 50 notes over, like 100 bars.

12 octaves or something.

Yeah, it's like, Jesus, just keep on going.

Just kidding.

No, no. We're gonna go down further. There's one more note below this.

All right, see you guys next time.

Get your pets spayed and neutered.

Sam.