Episode 7: Presenting Your Brand Profitability with Lisa Robbin Young

From the studio. Sorry.

Oh, they keep that. You got to keep that one.

I'll edit that in. From the studios of Fractal Recording, this is the Profit first podcast.

Episode Seven days. I like that. Yeah, you're coughing. You're like.

I don't.

From the. You got it. You got to put that in.

I will. I'll keep it. And before we went on the air, our guest was doing a metal scream over the song. Oh, my God.

Oh, this is fun.

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

And I'm Mike Michalowicz, author of Profit First. And on this show, we talk about profit.

That's right. We talk about a lot of business things, but the focus is on profit, because at the end of the day, that's what matters.

What are you keeping exactly? The bottom line. I don't care what business you're in, to sustain, to grow, you gotta have money in your pocket. So we talk about all different angles of profitability from all different types of businesses.

Yeah. And we're available as a podcast on itunes and stitcher and of course, the website profitfirstpodcast.com and we have some great sponsors. Let's talk about our sponsor.

Yeah, so we got. Our main sponsor is nextiva, who is awesome.

Nextiva.

Nextiva. Maybe we can have our guest sing nextiva. That's how we'll do it. You want to put it on real quick? Okay, Lisa, we're doing a premature introduction of you. The first thing we need you to sing is nextiva.

Just.

Just the word nextiva.

Okay. Nextiva.

Oh, my God. See that crap?

That was good.

Thanks.

We gotta charge them more money.

Did you hear that? Almost sounded like it was, like all audio adjusted and stuff already.

Oh, it's tremendous. That sounds great.

That was beautiful. All right, so everyone, nextiva is a voice over IP phone system. It literally is the best. And I'm not saying that because they're our sponsor. Partly I am, but also because I use the system. It is extraordinary. Other sponsor is tsheets. Tsheets is a time tracking software. Put her back on.

Yeah, she's here.

Oh, do you mind, Lisa, going singing T sheets this time? Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick.

T sheets.

My goodness. This is tremendous.

Dude, I am calling her sponsors, like, in two minutes. We got double the rates off the cuff. She's doing this off the cuff. All right, here, let me throw another one at you. It's Fundera. Can you do that one, Lisa, you.

Gotta Tell me what they are for sure.

Of course. Yeah. So Fundera is a provider. Oh, now I get the whole tick, tick, tick. T sheets just clicked in my thick knotted. All right, so, Lisa, Fundera provides funding, access to loans and other forms of financing for small business. It's one stop shop. You go to Fundera and you get your resources, your financial resources.

Okay, you're up. One and done. Fundera.

Oh, my.

That was not just singing the name of the sponsor. That was creating a whole marketing program for them.

I know. My God, that's insanely good. I mean, you are insanely good.

Seriously.

Literally, I gave her, what, 30 seconds?

Nothing. Yeah.

And she says, one and done. Funder, I'm. This is like the. You're amazing.

This is why I do what I do, guys.

Right?

Yeah.

Okay, we're gonna get into that.

All right, now I gotta put you on mute. All right, so, Chris, I'm blown away already, but we gotta get back to other stuff.

Let's get back to the show.

Yeah. So we did our sponsors. What have you been up to? Just real quick, bro.

Yeah, well, you know, I've been. My wife and I have this meetup group called Paws yous Life. Which is cool. It's just a little paws. And we have.

Oh, I thought it was paws, like with you bring dogs and stuff.

No, it's P, A U S E pause. So it's. It's good. We do a little meditation and we really have a nice group. And we had a meetup last Friday. Bunch of people from local area. We get into a room and it's. It's great. It's just, you know, time to pause. You know, life goes so fast. When do we ever pause?

Tell me about it.

So really, it's really good. It was fun. What have you been up to?

I paused. That was a pause. Yeah. Good. Impressive.

I need some sound effects here. I really do.

Impressive.

The only sound effect I have is a door opening and closing.

God, that's a long. That's way the longest sound effect ever. God. We lost all six of our listeners. Just dropped off. So here's what I've been up to. Dude. Filmed a TV pilot.

Mother.

Can't say the network, but you would know them. And it starts with a T, ends with a C, and there's lots of.

Love in the middle.

And I can't tell you what the show's about, but it's awesome.

Nice.

So I will know for first quarter 2015 if the show is a thumbs up, meaning goes a series and you'll see it on tv or if it's a thumbs down, meaning, Mike, you really sucked. Thanks, but no thanks. And we'll never see you again. And unfortunately, that is the reality. So. Yeah, so that's. That's what I've been up to. Filming a pilot. Yeah. I want to spill my tea there.

Yeah.

All right, so can we get to our. Oh, I have a se. I have something I have to tell you. Could you put her on mute? Put. Put our guest lease on mute.

Yeah, we're going to. Okay, go ahead.

So we pick a word that you have to sneak in. She listens to every single episode we've done, so she knows we do this. So I'm gonna give you a real easy word.

Okay.

It's Men at work.

Men at work?

Yeah. As in the band, right? Yeah. But you have to say as a verb. Okay. So that's it.

Really?

Yeah. Did you. Men at work. Did.

All right. So, yeah. And just for the new listeners, we always pick a word or a short phrase each show that we try to work in that the guest doesn't know we're doing it and we just do it for. Yeah, sometimes they try to guess what it is.

Yeah, we'll have Lisa guess.

Okay. All right, let's introduce her.

Okay. So her name is Lisa Robin Young. And if you haven't figured out yet, she's an amazing singer. So. Yeah.

That was awesome.

Thank you.

Clip that too.

Great. And as a business coach, trainer, she helps owners of businesses and personality based folks like singers build freaking empires, bro. Lisa Robin Young.

Lisa, welcome to the show.

Thanks for having me, guys. Great to be here.

Right?

I'm surprised you didn't sing coming in. It's great to be here. That was not. That was not Lisa, in case you're confused. That was me.

No, no one's confused, brother.

Where in the world are you today, Lisa?

I am in the frosty arctic tundra of Fenton, Michigan, somewhere nestled between Flint and Ann Arbor. Right in the palm of your hand if you're a mitten fan.

Is it. Are you covered with snow?

I'm not, but the roads are.

Oh, good. That's good. That was a zinger to me. Yeah. Because there's been this arctic blast. Thanks, Canada. There's been this arctic blast crushing most of the country.

Yeah.

Yeah. Except for New Jersey. Got nothing.

Yeah. Except a little cold.

It was cold down here. So, Lisa, just build on a little bit what I shared about you. What exactly do you do as a profession?

Well, I get to do the thing that I really Love, which is melding my passion for music with the business savvy that I have in coaching and training. And so as a performing artist, I get to get on stages and talk to people about building a business, what I call a noble empire and an inspired life. And I get to use stories and songs and a little bit of acting to convey whatever the message is. And then when I'm working privately one on one with clients, I don't do quite as much singing, although I do live my life by the notion that life is a musical. And I do just spontaneously break out in song from time to time.

Oh, I love it.

Nice.

I love it. So who's a typical client for you?

My typical clients are personality based entrepreneurs, solo to micropreneurs. And so these are people who are speakers, actors, authors, singers, people where their personality really is the extension of the brand. They are the face out front. And a lot of times these people run into a couple of different problems. The first one being they don't really even know how to run it as a business. The second one being they've got the business part kind of down, but they're driving themselves crazy because they're the bottleneck in their business and they haven't quite hit their stride in fun. And then the third level of entrepreneur that I work with is someone who's gotten through fun and really wants to grow a large, maybe even a global organization like, oh, maybe a Mike Michalowicz of the world and help them really see the vision for the bigger picture and then start to implement so that they're not the bottleneck but they're able to leverage and create a legacy business that can last beyond just their pretty face.

So these are people that are building their own personal brands.

Yes.

And you see them through all stages of growth from startup to globalizing.

Yes, all the way through.

Is there a certain type of makeup of person you're working with? Is it mostly males, females, authors? Both male and female combo deals? Oh no, there's authors like that.

Actually I work with a lot of authors. I've worked with several best selling authors over the last few years. It's not where I started. I actually started with direct sellers, which if you're familiar with party plan type companies where you go into a house and you do a party and you sell some product. That's really where I got my start and kind of tripped into this whole process because as a direct seller myself, one of the things that I was really good at was using the computer built one of, okay, I'M going to date myself. One of the first ever e commerce websites in the history of the Internet. I built it from scratch, coding it by hand because it was some fun thing to do.

You coded an E commerce system?

Yeah, this is like 1992, when animated GIFs were high tech. So this wasn't. It wasn't. It wasn't anything like it is today. But at that time, we built a site for reproductions of ancient artifacts and exotic art. And it was fun and it was a growing little thing. And I had relocated back to Michigan from where I was at the time and fell into direct sales and started building a business that way and said, well, you know what? I bet I could use this Internet thing. And that grew. And then someone said, you should write a book. So I did, and then I started coaching. And so my whole process was very accidental. And so I've really learned the ropes of what it means to get out of that early struggle phase to move into a place where business can be fun and be the brand of the business without killing yourself. I talk a lot about profitability and sustainability because money's nice, but it's good to have a life too.

Yeah, yeah. I think it's actually more important to have a life. I know a lot of folks that do stuff for the money but sacrifice their life and they're just miserable. Rich. Rich and miserable is no fun. Poor and miserable is worse. So. Okay, but. So you're focusing today on these celebra brands or whatever is personal brands. But what I'm hearing is a lot of the time that you invest has to be your time. You're up on stage doing group. How do you make money if you're the only person doing it?

Well, that's the joy of leverage. Because when you are the brand, let's say you're a performer, there's more that you can do than just being on the stage. There's lots of other streams of revenue that come in. I'll give you a great example. Lady Gaga. She's not a client of mine. Although, you know, that could happen someday. Right.

But do you really want her as a client? You know what I'm saying?

You know, believe it or not, she actually has a very strong vision for her brand and what she's trying to do, which is one of the reasons why I'm using her as this example. You know, she was very ambitious. She knew exactly what she wanted to do. She went all in on a. To catch the eye of one of the biggest tour producers in the history of rock and roll music. And she did a great job of getting his attention. And then he went on to help her build this great tour. But her money didn't come from just being on the stage. She had merchandise, she had fan club opportunities. There were lots of different ways to be bringing in revenue aside from just standing on the stage and singing the song.

Yeah, but what if you don't wear a Lady Gaga meat suit?

I was thinking of the meat suit too, I guess.

Always comes to what can a guy like me or Chris do to be profitable besides just sitting up on stage and it's time for money?

Sure. Well, Mike, I can use you as a great example. I knew you'd sing though, I think. Yeah, but when we look at what you've done, you started by writing books and you've been speaking, you did a little coaching and you decided that really wasn't not much. But that is a revenue option. If you have intellectual property that you can leverage, it's really about finding what are the other pieces that you can offer. So in your case, instead of coaching yourself, you have a whole team of people called Profit first professionals that do that function and generate revenue. And so there's a revenue stream that comes in that way. It's really one of the things that I love to do is sit with people who are trying to leverage themselves and leverage their brand in different ways and find what are those unique things that you can offer in a way that's resonant with who you are and what it is that you're trying to do. Because you can't do everything. You have to be selective about what's really gonna sit in your wheelhouse and what's really gonna be reflective of your brand and what it is that you wanna bring to market.

So there's a lot of smart people listening and two idiots, me and Chris, There's a lot of smart people listening and they have a lot of things to share. When you meet someone like this that is a thought leader, where's the areas they can start monetizing outside of just their own speaking and their own effort, time for money type stuff? Where do you find the common areas where they can start making some additional revenue without extra effort?

One of the easiest things to do is to package up any of the speeches that they've done, package up the videos or package up the audio recordings and offer those for sale as a one off on their website or at the back of the room when they're speaking. Because one of the things that I've discovered as a speaker is that I don't like to reinvent the wheel. I don't like to say the same thing 45 times. And so if I've said it once or twice or three times, I'm going to clean it up and make a recording and say if you want to know more about that, you can get it at the back of the room. Or if you want to know more about that, you can go to my website. When you can repurpose the content that you've already been creating, it takes the stress out of producing multiple streams of income.

How do you convert that speech you're giving on stage now to a DVD? Or I guess DVDs aren't cool anymore. Whatever the modern media is, that MP4 or something, how do you do it?

Well, really the technology isn't the challenge, it's making sure that the quality of the recording is good because I can upload something to. In fact, when I'm doing the songs that I record every week, I record them in my living room and I can strip the audio out using the software that I put the video uploaded with. If you've got a camera or if you've got an audio recorder that's digital, most computers can take that information in and then you can manipulate it however you want to with a relatively inexpensive piece of software, sometimes even free.

Now I can see like Anthony Robbins. Yeah, I'll run to the back of the room and buy one of his DVDs. But can a guy like me, can anyone listening? Can we really make money selling stuff at the back of the room? Or isn't that only for the Anthony Robbins of the world?

No, no, no, no. Actually most speakers that I've worked with make more money in back of the room sales and add ons after the fact than they do from the speaking fee itself.

Okay, but the speaking fee or the speaking moment is lots of effort. Selling a dvd, it's a one time deal and you sell it over and over. You said there's more revenue in other add ons. What are the other add ons?

If you're an author with Intellectual Property Business arena, let's say it's something that I'm doing or something that you're doing. Then there are year long programs that you can put together. There are time intensive things where you can actually either yourself or one of your trained licensed coaches or trainers or facilitators can come alongside those people in a small group setting or even a large group setting. You can do your own events. I mean, there's so many different ways that you could take it. And that's why rather than throwing spaghetti on the wall, it's really important to come back to how do you like to work? If you really get juiced being on stage, then you want to be able to set the highest fee possible, which means not everybody's going to book you. And so how do the people who really love what you have to say, like the Tony Robbins of the world, I'm not going to get him to come speak at my church on Sunday. So how do I get a guy, that guy's impact out to more people when I can't afford his fee? Well, that's where the recordings and that's where the, you know, the year long programs or the special intimate gatherings. I know that Tony has done, you know, weekend retreats on his island for a million dollars or some such like that. I mean, that's great money to have in a real short period of time if you can make it happen.

There you go.

Every time Chris talks, there's like a frog on his throat, right? Yeah.

Only today, I don't know why you're.

Like episode seven, like, you know, every.

Time, dude, I have that effect on.

Wow, you're making me out to be like this smoker who's hacking up a lung. So. So Lisa, I want to ask you, we're talking about, you know, personalities who are the brand, but really what you're saying, most of it applies to any regular business as well. So when you develop in these new products or these new streams of revenue, you know, one thing that comes to my mind, well, first of all, it takes some effort and time and maybe some money to develop these streams. And then probably every stream you create or you endeavor to create or even after you create it doesn't work. So. Right. I mean, so as part of being in business, you have to try things and see what works. So how does that work with creating these products? How do you know when it's working and when to stop or when to just get rid of it?

Sure. Well, that's the beauty of repurposing what you've already done. If you've already done it, you know, somebody was listening to it, somebody was responding to it. And so that's a really nice place to go. And for someone who's just getting started with speaking, one of the things that I like to ask them is, you know, go back through your content. If you've been blogging for a while and you just now deciding you want to be a speaker you want to get on the stage, look at the content that got great results. Look at the content that people are still sharing and still talking about maybe years after you've written it. There's something in there that you can use to craft the talk that's really going to wow the audience. If you've been speaking for a while, you've got a whole slew of content that people have already been responding to. Use that if you're brand spanking new. This is day one of I think I might want to speak someday then. Yeah, it's really get your voice out there. And the thing that I really hone in on is it's gotta be you. You know, you can't be somebody else. You know, Judy Garland says, be a first rate version of yourself, not a second rate version of somebody else. And nobody wants to hear another Mike Michalowitz. Mike is great.

You sound like my wife now.

No, Mike is great. But if there were two Mikes in the world, you know, oh, my God.

The world would just end. That'd be the vortex that closes us down.

One would have to die.

Yeah, both would actually.

Life is like the Highlander. There can be only one.

So, yeah, so I hear people, person after person, say, I want to be the next Oprah. I want to be the next Oprah. Yeah. So how did you do it, Lisa? I mean, how did you leverage the fact your love for singing? You're extremely talented, yet you're not the traditional scent. You're not. You're not doing Lady Gaga. She's doing it. You're doing this whole different angle. It's freaking badass. How did you figure that one out?

I almost died, sort of. I was driving down the freeway, and this was August of 2013, 2012. I was driving down the freeway and my car went into a dead spin and I was on dry road. It was end of summer, so it wasn't this winter ice stuff. It was dry road. And the car just started to spin, spin out of control across three lanes of freeway traffic with Mack trucks behind me. And I just threw my hands up in the air and said, oh, my God. Oh, my God. Whatever happens, I'm just, you know, I'm just gonna turn it over. And so the car just slowly backed off the freeway and landed ba boomp, in this, like, ditch on the side of the road. And I got out of the car and nothing had hit me and nothing. You know, the car wasn't damaged. I'm like, okay. I got back in the car, I turned it on and drove off to my appointment. But as I was driving, you know, this nagging thought of, I should be dead right now. Why am I still here? What is there left for me to do? And my whole life, I've had these two competing things. I mean, I've been singing since I was 2 or 3 years old. I would gather the neighborhood kids together and put on little productions. And then the other side of the coin of me growing up was, you know, we were inner city and we were poor, and so we were on the hustle all the time. I was selling popsicles that I made out of Kool Aid from the kids in the neighborhood. I was selling penny can at school for a nickel. And anything that I could do to make a buck was what I was, you know, So I had these two competing things. And for two years, from the time of, you know, that accident, I was like, so, what am I gonna do? And so I decided I was gonna record these 300 songs. And I said, you know, I wanna do it in a variety of genres. Cause I wanna find my groove. I wanna find where I wanna go. And so, Chris, this goes back to what you were saying about you gotta test stuff, you gotta throw stuff out there. Some of those songs people really enjoy. And some of them are like, what were you doing, really? Why did you do a rap song? What's wrong with you? But for me, it was just about.

Was it the guy's name? Harold Glasscock? I'm sorry.

Okay.

I just wanted to check that.

No, it was not.

Okay, keep going. I'm sorry.

So I'm sitting here working on these songs, but I'm still getting this call. People are asking me questions and wanting me to help them grow their business. And what do I do? And I had the internal fight of, am I a business coach or am I a musician? And that's when I. You know, it took me a good, good few months to realize there's no difference between the two of them. And if I was gonna be true to myself, I had to be willing to embrace all the parts of who I am. I love jazz music. I love music of the 40s and 50s. That's my wheelhouse. That's where I sing and sound amazing. So that's the kind of music that I'm gonna do most of the time. And. And I love to coach, and I love to entertain, and I love to be on a stage and help people get those ahas. And I don't believe in just inspiration. And I don't believe in just how To I live. I thrive at that nexus between how to and can do. And when I got clear on that, it was like, okay, well, this is easy now.

Wow, that's awesome. You just took your two passions and basically, man at worked them into one. One thing. I really like that. That's impressive.

You meant it worked it. You know what I like besides minute working things?

Who can it be now?

Oh, what?

I said, who can it be now?

Yeah, who can be Nice. Wow.

You win a hot glue gun soon.

You'Re gonna Village People this. So, and just as a tip, we're gonna ask you at the end, what was the secret word we tried to sneak by you? Sneak by the goaltender. So what's very clear in your tonality, in your voice, in case you don't know what tonality means? I don't know why I had to say that, but your energy is just cranking as you're talking about singing. And Chris, when we did the sponsor introductions, this is no joke, Lisa. There was no rehearsal, no preparation. She effing nailed it.

Yes.

That's called men at working something.

That is.

I see. Thanks for defining that for me.

Yeah, yeah. You know that definition. So does everyone have. I mean, your energy is so high, we can feel it across the radio waves of the Internet, but there's no radio waves. But how do we find that? How does. How do people listening in right now find their thing?

Passion.

Passion. Their tonality. What you have. How do you. How did you. Do you have to go into a spin out?

God, I hope not.

What car was that, by the way, that we'll never buy?

It was a Malibu. Max and Malibu.

Okay.

The tranny blew on it a few months later and we had to retire it, so I think it was a sign. But, you know, to answer the question about how do you find comes honestly through, well, being ruthlessly honest with yourself and not letting the paradigms of everybody else pen you in. And one of the things that I talk about when I'm working with clients is called dream scale. Shame. And it's the idea that your dream, whatever size it is, is wrong compared to everybody else around you. So, for example, I grew up in inner city Flint, and shop town, blue collar town. Who has dreams of becoming a rock star? I mean, you play basketball or you work in the shop, and that's pretty much it. And so for me to have this big dream of impacting people on a global scale, everybody around me was saying, well, that's really nice, sweetheart, but maybe you should have a backup plan right and, you know, as a musician, you hear that a lot. And so, you know, I was hammered with that every single day. But there's the other side of dreamscale shame, where you're quite content, where you are doing the thing that you love and you're really happy to be of service in the way that you are. And the people around you are going, oh, no, you should dream bigger. You need to see things bigger. And. And what I tell people is if it's a dream and it's in your heart, it's big. Because size is really relative in that respect. Just because somebody else's has a larger scale than yours or a smaller scale than yours doesn't make yours any less valid. And I think when people latch onto what it is that's really calling them without judgment, without fear, shame, reprisal, guilt, any of that, it's so easy to be present to what it is that really fills you up. Now, I'm the kind of person who has a lot of energy, obviously, but you don't have to be this fireball to be very passionate about what you do and show up confidently, with clarity and with purpose for the way that you choose to serve in the world.

You've coached a huge variety of clients. Is there more profit to be made when you're absolutely passionate about what you do?

Yeah. Yeah.

How? Why? Where? When, Who?

How? Why? Where? When, who? Because one of the struggles that entrepreneurs face, and you know, Seth Godin talked about it, he wrote a whole book about it, it's called the Dip. You're struggling on something and you're pushing and you're pushing and you're pushing, and then you hit this dip. And passion is the fuel that you can rely on to keep you going. When you hit the dip. I mean, we all hit it. And it's the moment when we go, well, do we keep gutting it out or do we turn around and go find something else? Do we pick up another ball and move to another playground? But the passion piece is the one that gets you up every morning. You know, it's why The Beatles performed 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 shows a day, 8 hours a day, 10 hours a day for a year in Germany so that they could come back to Liverpool and be amazing because they were passionate.

And the critics. You've had critics. Why are you doing rap?

Yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

Well, how do you handle that? I mean, that must get you down at times. Someone's like, who are you? They're picking on you. They're HG ing You, as we say here in the studio, Harold Glasscock, H.G. they're H.G.

Ing you. Well, see, here's the thing about critics. When you look at the sky and you see that the sky is blue, and you look at the grass and you see that the grass is green and someone tells you the sky is green and the grass is blue, you pat them on the head like the cute little 8 year old that they are and you go, that's nice, honey. But if you look at the sky and you're not sure what color the sky is, and someone comes up to you and says the sky is green and the grass is blue, you go, oh my God. Oh my God, I don't believe this. What am I gonna do? Oh my gosh. And you start to panic. When you can stand confidently in your truth and you know it's true and that you're doing the best that you can in the moment that you're in it without judgment, that's when all the critics, they can have their opinions. They're absolutely entitled to them. And I know I'm not the world's greatest rap singer, but I also knew I had to do it so that I could see what I was capable of. Am I gonna build a career around rap? No, not. Not now.

Not yet.

Not yet.

That's what my teenager is for.

There you go. Last question I have for you.

Sure.

When it comes to profit, if you could look back when you started out in your career doing this coaching business, what would you have done differently?

I think I would have been more mindful of profit in the first place. Now I know.

Did that slow you down? Did it hurt you?

Well, yes and no. And here's why. Because there was a time when I didn't even care about profit. And that hurt me. But then there was another point in time, not too much farther along, where profit was something I needed to be mindful of. But I didn't let that guide my decision making process. Because my priorities are principles, profits, then people. And I don't say profits before people in a way that's degrading. I say it in a way that's healthy and holistic. Because if you put people first, you jeopardize the long term health of the company. If you put profits first, you jeopardize the long term health of you. But if you put principles first and trust the process and mind your P's and Q's along the way, then you can be profitable. You can have a sustainable business. You can have clients that love you that you love right back. And I didn't know that early on. I didn't realize that I had the principles piece, but I was not paying attention to the profits. And now I'm glad to say that I have all of those pieces in place, and I'm really thrilled with the direction of my business and the direction of my clients businesses as well.

She can sing. And Cha Ching.

Great answer. Wow.

Hey, where can people find out more about you, Lisa?

They got to go to lisarobinyoung.com Robin has two B's. If you get it wrong, you won't find me.

Yeah, so it's L I s a R O B B I N Y O N Y O U N G. Yes dot com.

And we'll have that on the show post.

Super.

For all you clickers out there, Lisa.

Is absolutely a blast having you. You gotta sing something going out. And what we like to do is throw on our music and maybe you can give us a little, you know, metal scream or whatever. Rap.

I won't rap, but I'll try some metal scream.

Give us something here.

Oh, dear me. It's all about profits. Lots and lots of money. You gotta make it Monday now.

I love it. I feel like. I feel like punching money in the face. Lisa, thank you for being with us.

Thanks, Mike.

Thank you, Lisa. So, Chris, great job. Wow, that was awesome, dude.

It blew my mind. I mean, that was unscripted. Nothing. We just started throwing out. Hey, here's a name. T sheets Fundera. I'm gonna call our sponsors and say you are getting bingo bango for your bucks.

Wow.

Okay. What'd you learn?

Well, I learned a lot. I mean, what she said at the end there was pretty profound. And to throw more P's on pretty profound principles. Profits and people. Right? That's the order.

Yep.

That's. That's a. That's. I like that a lot. That people are last, not because they're least important, but if you don't, if you're not profitable enough to sustain your business, you can't help any more people. Right.

You have to have the foundation in place. Yeah. Yeah. And I hear a lot of people say, oh, people always comes first. And they people their way out of business. They're not making money. They love their folks, but the business is dying and the whole ship goes down because they don't put the profit first. Listen to this one, dude. I love that. She said, in the beginning, I didn't care about profit. And you know what, dude? That's the brutal reality of most business owners, no one thinks about profit. And everyone we've interviewed said, oh, profit's the most important thing. It's all I worry about. I've always been profit focused.

Bull.

Bull, dude. I wasn't. I was like, just grow, man, grow. Make money. And so listen, maybe everyone had on. Actually they are pretty smart people. So maybe they were thinking about it. But I think it's common to think that profit is a one day event, it's somewhere in the future. And Lisa experienced that and that connected with me that now she realizes if you want to sustain, no matter what it is, you got to be making money. You got to have profit right in the beginning.

Yeah. And I also like that she, she had that little accident on the road, which was kind of weird, but never drive a Malibu. Yeah, and, and yeah, no, I was gonna say don't listen to our show when you're driving.

It's a train wreck already, right?

No, but like that her accident woke her up. And unfortunately in life it takes a traumatic situation to wake us up. And. But then she, after that, she said that you have to be ruthlessly honest with yourself. So I think something my take is you don't have to wait for that accident or that trauma. You can be ruthlessly honest with yourself in advance and save yourself the trauma.

That's what you gotta do. Most smokers stop smoking after the heart attack. It's the wrong time to do it.

Right.

Dude, where can people find out more about you?

Well, me, you can go to fractalrecording.com again in that link I'm sure will be in the show post.

And you, dude, why don't you promote yourself a little bit and tell the reason people have to go there is people need podcasts.

Yeah. So I. At Fractal Recording, we produce podcasts for people virtually through the Internet. Now you're over promoting really high quality. Now you're over promoting stupid high quality. In fact, that's our tagline anyway.

Stupid high quality. No, I'm kidding. You weren't over promoting. I wish you would do more of it. So my name is Mike Michalowicz. I wrote a book called Profit First. But what I want you to check out, if you want to, is profitfirstprofessionals.com. we have access to accountants and bookkeepers and business coaches that help businesses drive their profitability.

That's huge. That's great, man. This is a great episode.

I love this episode.

Thank you.

Always something new and unexpected, right? Yeah.

Great stuff. And Again, our website profitfirstpodcast.com and you can find us on itunes and stitcher. Listen to all our previous guests. We've had on some doozies.

We've had some. We've had singers. We've had people lose their heels. We have people calling from parking decks. We've had authors of all types that boycotted us.

That's it.

Yeah. It's awesome.

All right, thanks, everybody, for listening. We'll see you next time.

Sam.