Episode 78: A Profit First Implementation with Nikki Begg

Episode 78, take 41.

Oh, God, yeah.

Oh, yeah, that's right.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah. Let me hear you say that. We should. Mike. We should have a contest of the listeners.

Who can do that?

Who can do that? The best.

Oh, okay, there it is. Let's make a note of that somewhere.

You're listening to the Prophet first podcast.

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. And you're listening to episode 78. Oh, boom. Jesus. Yes. 78. Yeah. Nice.

On take number 40, your. Your head, your forehead was nice and purple and bulging, but this one was pretty tame. Mike Michalowicz.

Yeah, I wasn't as angry this time. Now I'm in. Now I'm into this.

He's in the zone.

Yeah, exactly.

Well, welcome everyone, to the Profit first podcast. We're happy you're here. I'm Chris Curran, the founder of Fractal Recording.

And I'm Mike Michalowicz, the author of Profit first. Joined in studio by my personal assistant, my colleague and event coordinator and office administrator, Christina Bolta.

HR person.

An HR person. And you, you're listening to the Profit first podcast. It's the only podcast in the entire web that focuses on profitability like we do. The alpha and the omega. Every aspect, every vantage point, really.

That's right. You can find us on itunes and Stitcher and Tunein Radio and of course the website profitfirstpodcast.com that'll bring you to all our previous episodes. And really, whatever podcaster you use, wherever you listen to podcast shows, find the Profit first podcast, subscribe. You can even give us a rating and a review as well. But let this content drip on you every week onto your brain and it's like little dollar signs from heaven dripping through your ears. I think.

I think it is. Oh, and dude, I have a little shout out thing. This is a new thing we're going to get started. So we get shout outs all the time and you don't make the effort to kind of announce it. So, Christina, share the shout out we got. And this is one of dozens that have come in, but we're kind of picking.

Yeah, this is actually an email that we got this week from. From. I'm sorry if I mispronounce your name. It's a Fiso or fiso. He said hello. I just want to say thank you for the brilliant book. I have listened to it three times in one week. I just signed up with a Profit first accountant and have had my appointment with the bank today to open my little pots. I am sure you get numerous emails like this, but Even before I have fully implemented it yet. I feel like the light has been turned on and I am no longer throwing punches at a monster. I cannot see it in the dark. Best regards from the uk.

So, thank you. Fiso or fiso. But no, we don't know. That was awesome. So, Chris, what have you been up to, bro?

You know, in my own business, I'm having to streamline a lot of my internal processes because I got. I. I finally got the big client. But I don't know when this episode's going to come out. I can't really announce it, but literally, my business multiplied times three, or maybe even four or three and a half.

And, like, we have a song for you, by the way.

You can't touch this.

That's right, brother. You are. You have arrived.

Oh, geez. Anyway, like, a lot of the work I'm doing, I have to do it faster and I have to do it more efficiently. So I'm really streamlining and starting to get ready to figure out what I can offload. And it's probably a place that most entrepreneurs or business owners are in, is that, you know, you have a lot to do, but, you know, you can't do it all. So you got to either become faster or delegate or, you know, it's kind of a good problem, but that's where I am.

Yeah, it's a great problem. And, you know, it's. One thing we're gonna explore a little bit on this episode, is when it comes to profit, first, profitability happens in two ways. One is you can cut costs only so much. And I know, Chris, as you've been building your business, you've also been very careful with costs. But the second element is the increasing margin, meaning accomplishing more more efficiently, meaning doing more with less. And now that you have the more on your plate, your goal is, how do you get that done more efficiently?

Right.

And. And there's only so much time in the day, so you can't do it yourself anymore. You got to start scaling it through other people or other things.

Totally. So what have you been up to besides posting a freaking awesome keynote speech on Facebook?

My God, 1127 people, plus or minus a half person. I don't even know how you do a half person. Well, there's one guy. He was about whatever.

Child.

Yeah, exactly. He's a child. Were at that presentation. I did the closing keynote for the event, and it was just. It was an honor to speak there. If you go on Facebook, if we're personal friends, we gotta be personal Friends, you can check it out. It was an hour presentation on why being different is better. So many businesses try to be better than the competition. Why being different. So that's my update. That was a few weeks back now and just a blast. And a lot more of those coming.

It was so funny. You're like trying to make joke. Well, making jokes and stuff. Some of you were trying.

To. Yeah. What were you saying?

Oh, no, I was actually gonna say we shared the video on our Profit first professionals Facebook page if you want to check it out.

Yeah, yeah. If you're a Profit first professional with us, you check it out. You should be checking it out. So I want to thank our corporate partners to make the show possible because we're gonna be talking about something very cool today. We're gonna be talking about a implementation of Profit first in a wedding support or supply business. Actually, we're talking with Nikki Bag and she has a couple companies. One's called Bermuda Bride, but there's also one called Petals Bermuda that's a kind of supplements or works in the exact same industry. We're going to be diving into that business specifically. And I'll share the details on that in a few minutes. But first I want to thank our corporate sponsors, please. Now here's the deal. Leo, can you name them?

Fundbox.

Yep.

Nextiva.

Yes.

Tsheets.

Yeah, I knew that one.

Fundera.

Yep. And see, this is where I got it. Yes, we have a brand new one. Yes. Who are they? Receipt Bank. Welcome. Receipt Bank. We love you. Yeah, so Receipt Receipt Receipt Bank. My God, I can't believe it. So we'll, we'll tell you all about them and, and the other sponsors at the end of this program. But a big shout out to our brand new Bring it sponsor. Receipt back. We are privileged to be working with them and they have a lot of great things to offer. All right, so for today.

Yeah.

Her name is Nikki B. Now, how often you have it? Many times. You've been to Bermuda?

Never.

Never, right. I've been there once and you know the one time I was there for a wedding and I'm curious if Nikki begged it. My sister in law got married in Bermuda.

Really?

Yeah. The destination weddings, very popular.

Oh yeah, that's a thing.

Bermuda is a gorgeous island and unlike many islands, it's an unfortunate situation. Many Caribbean islands, there is the vacation destination and then there's a lot of poverty around these islands. Bermuda is unique perhaps because it's British owned, there's commerce, it is a. You can travel anywhere throughout Bermuda. It's a safe environment. It's commerce is strong there and it happens to be a wonderful vacation resort on top. Yeah, it's probably one of the top vacation. I'm sorry, one of the top destinations for weddings. And so there's a big business opportunity. Well, Nikki Bag started Bermuda Bride and Petals for Bermuda Petals. Bermuda to address this market all the way back in 1997, I believe, or 99 when she got started. And then the floral company petals started in 2001 and then she started implementing profit first. She and I had a dialogue. We were checking out the email a little bit earlier and well, I don't want to get too much further into it, but we're going to coach her through some profit first implementations and all that stuff. Nikki, I want to welcome you to the show.

I'm excited to be here.

Oh good. It only took us about like 6 hours to get to this phase. We had to record the beginning over and over again. Thanks for staying on with us.

Well, I fell asleep, but hey, I'm here now.

Yeah, well you wouldn't be the first, unfortunately.

So I usually say that to my.

Oh.

Was there a husband dig already?

Oh no, no, no, no. Moving swiftly on.

Moving swiftly on. How did you discover profit first?

Well, I was in Dublin in December and I had gone. I'm an avid tangwera, which means that I am passionate about tango dancing. And I had gone to Dublin to dance to do intensive lessons for a week because they don't really have tango here. It was my off season and I came down with a cold. I was bedridden and my tango shoes were sitting on the floor and there I had my Kindle and I started reading Amber McCure who has something called Nice Ops. She did a five day planning session and there I was lying in bed with nothing much to do. So I signed up for everything that I could do for planning because I had also used the time to get away and really have a very in depth conversation with myself about my businesses and the crossroads that I was at. And one of the things that she raved about was this book called Profit First. And I'm very quick on the Kindle and the Amazon thing, you know, buy now one click and there it was. Oh dear, gets me more trouble than I'm worth. And there I had it and I read it in one afternoon, the whole thing. I had my computer out and with runny nose and sinus infection, there I am writing to my accountant in Bermuda saying I don't care what you're doing right now, but we have to do this. We are going to put on our big girl pants and we are going to absolutely embrace this because we've tried everything else, so why don't we try profit first? And she rolled her eyes and said, okay, I'm in. Very cross messages there. But hey, when I came back, I'd already done it for Bermuda bride while I was away. But it was the petals, my petals company that I wanted to focus on. And so that's exactly what we did. We literally. I don't think I've really ever learned how to read a spreadsheet before, but after you.

Oh, boy. Welcome to Skype.

So Dublin. Dublin was the answer.

So that was terrible. Yes. No, that's actually wonderful. So the very end of that cut out on Skype. And so all we heard was Dublin was the answer at the pivotal moment. So I'm gonna ask you questions around that again. Okay, I got a question I gotta ask you first, though. Dublin and tango. You know, to go to Dublin to do the tango, it sounds like going to India to get a good hamburger. Like, I don't get it. Why isn't that a Latin dance?

Aren't cows sacred?

Yes, yes, that's what I'm saying. Why would you go to Dublin?

Because Christina and Julian. So I was watching YouTube and there was this Jules Holland. I'm British and as you might have guessed, and Jules Holland sang with Bono from U2, a song called when you wear that velvet dress. And I had seen this tango video and I was mesmerized. And I usually go to Miami to dance tango, but I wrote to them because the credits had who they were. And I wrote to them and said, do you ever, ever take on private students? And I would love to come for two weeks and do intensive five hours of tango a day. But you're right, it is very, very much about hamburgers in India. So in October, they're actually coming to Bermuda. So I'm bringing them down because it's less expensive for me to bring them both of them. So I can continue to do intensive tango here than me go to Ireland. Ireland. Yes.

Wow. So we, we would like to get a video of you doing the tango. We'll put on this podcast here. I'm sure you have videos of that, right?

Yes, I do.

Okay. And if you're tangoing not with a partner, but with a profit first book, that would be even better. So now tell us about Petals. What exactly does your business do?

Okay. Petals is a phenomenal company that was started in 2000 it began because I started Bermuda Bride first, and I was the only employee, and it was just. Bermuda Bride had phenomenal success. I went. I used to go and get my flowers, and I remember picking up a boutonniere, which is the thing that the man wears on his lapel, and there was some foliage that was silk. And I was just so disappointed. Thought, there has to be a way to do this better. And so I started Petals, and I had 10 years of amazing success. And then the manager and I, you know, fell. We wanted to go in different directions. I go to New York several times a year, and I would go to the flower market sort of at 3 or 4 in the morning, because that's when you have to go and see the most beautiful flowers. And I was just on my knees in ecstasy, just saying, these flowers are so beautif. We have to bring these flowers in. Why do we always do the same flowers? And we would debate it. And because she was responsible for the company, I kind of. And I was up to my neck in weddings. I kind of let her get on with it. Then I decided actually. Damn it. I'm sorry. That was a bit of English profanity.

Just had to give you that little rim shot there. Yeah. Oh, yeah. All right, keep going.

So then I decided three years ago I wanted to open a flower shop, and we parted ways and I opened up my flower shop, which has to be unequivocally the most beautiful shop on the island. It tastes a little bit like Paris and New York blended. It's very European. People walk in and they are just overwhelmed. The smell is stunning. The aesthetic is beautiful, and I've taken my personal aesthetic and absolutely infused into the shop. And so this is why this crossroads is so hard for me.

So clearly you're not proud about your shop. Now, is this for tourists, or is it only for wedding events? Is it a retail shop? Give us a few more details on the shop.

Yep. So it's corporate weddings, retail funerals, and just because.

Okay, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. What do you mean, just because? What does that mean?

Sometimes gentlemen like to buy their ladies flowers.

Oh. Oh, okay.

We say, how bad have you been? And that determines how to take the bouquet.

You know how your business partner rolled their eyes at you, Nikki, and then said, I'm going to do this. Well, this is what Christina did to me. She goes. She rolls her eyes at me and say, sometimes gentlemen buy flowers for their spouses.

So I get flowers almost week.

Does your boyfriend give you flowers?

Yeah, sometimes. Most of the time, yeah.

He's a jerk.

That won't last.

Give us a. Give us a sense, Nikki, for the. The size of your business, what kind of volume of flowers do you move? What's the revenue annualized, I guess, in pounds and so forth.

No, I'm in dollars. Do you mind repeating the question? I mean, I'm in. I'm in completely in US Dollars.

Oh, I didn't realize that. Okay, so the question is this. Your. I want to know the size of your business and how I quantify that is the number of flowers or units that you move, how many customers you have, and what the revenue looks like annually.

Okay. We do just short of $600,000 a year. Customers are broken down into three caveats, three sort of modules, and that is walk in telephone and email and corporate. And so corporate encompasses weddings as well. We have for the first quarter, because we've had 1,000 customers for January 1st to today, annualized, it's about 3,500. If we did it on a repeat client basis, then our system captures. If they walk in and pay with cash, we don't capture that. So I instituted a form that says, how do we get our business? Because if we are getting predominantly through the Internet and through telephone, and then we're providing flowers on a weekly basis to corporates, and I'm already providing over $100,000 in weddings, is it necessary to have a retail store?

Oh, great question. Great questions.

I should have asked before I invested $150,000 into the shop. But hey, I hadn't read profit first at that time.

Yeah. So let me give you a little bit of feedback on this. First of all, great that you're asking that question. Secondly, I want to warn you of a tendency that's wired into every human, even tango dancers, called loss aversion. Yeah. Even it's called loss aversion. And the concept of loss aversion is this. Once we possess something we are. It's very difficult for us to release something even if it's a mistake.

Mike, it's been a pleasure chatting with you. Thank you so much.

So listen, we're going to make a judgment on that retail space pretty quickly, but I'm not going to make it yet. But I want you to know that when we have this discussion in a few minutes, that loss aversion will invoke itself. It's just like a bad relationship. You're in a bad personal relationship. We don't end it the second we know it's bad. We find ways to justify, well, maybe it'll turn around, maybe things will improve. Once we own that car that we couldn't really afford, we work a second job just to maintain it, even though we never worked the second job prior to having it. So it's called loss aversion. So when you implemented profit first in your business, you ran an analysis on pedals. What did you discover?

It was tragic. It really was. It was very.

That's a British word. What does that mean? I don't understand that word.

Tragic.

Well, I mean, tragic. What does it mean? Yeah. To you?

Yeah. Tragic means it was reality.

Oh, okay.

Something that I had been kind of in denial about because we've spent the last three years just trying to stay with our head afloat. I've had overdrafts. I've borrowed from my 82 year old neighbor and paid it back. I've borrowed from another and paid it back. I've borrowed from. You know, I've done everything that I can to keep pedals going. And because I believe that it will work, clearly loss aversion is in capital letters in my vocabulary. But I just couldn't face closing it down. And that's why this. It's actually at a very pivotal point that we have this conversation because I came to a decision a little short while ago, within the week, knowing that we were going to be discussing this, and decided to approach a competitor to see if they would buy Petals from me. And so I'm now faced with, do I shut the shop, do I sell the business or do I look for further investment? And actually I have all three options open to me.

Okay, so further investment, sell the company. Is that we consider further investment or is that something different?

No, that's completely. That's to the competitor is to sell the company. And yesterday they came back with an offer.

Okay, so you pitched selling the business. You're considering further investment. What does that mean?

I have been given an opportunity to take on a partner and they would make a $50,000 investment.

Okay, so partner, another option is to slug along as you are right now. Is that true?

Yes. No. I'm about to make somebody redundant because one of the things that I read in Profit first was, was I overstaffed. And the reality of it is I'm spending quarter of a million dollars who are making 600,000. And a quarter of a million dollars is spent in salary.

What the bottom boom. What's the rent cost on that space, that retail space?

It's only $2,000 a month.

So it's 25,000 a year. Actually, 24. I know, I know. I like to round. I like to round up a little bit. Make it easy for my.

Easier on the map.

Yeah, it is. So okay. Do you take any salary from pedals? Do you make any money personally?

Actually this is the first since we did profit first. I am, I have made, I've never taken. In three years I haven't taken a salary. But what I said to our accountant Rihanna is I don't give, I don't give a damn. I am going to take a salary because that's what this book says I have to do. And I take 1%.

Good job. Hey, let me ask you, by starting to take a salary, has your emotion or relation to your business changed at all? Do you feel?

Actually well, we kind of, we had to. I, I think I'm too emotionally invested. Yes, that's the reality of it. And just turn that off.

Hey, if that's a customer, you got to grab that.

I've actually. Yes, true. I'll catch you in a minute. I recognized that I was overstaffed. I wasn't taking a salary. I recognized too that the staff I had weren't the right team and that if I changed the team up and paid different salaries that I could actually save 30,000. Have less staff, but have more efficient staff.

Okay, so you have three divisions. You got walk ins, you have the telephone email, you have the corporate. Where does the majority of revenue come from or is it equal throughout?

Well, what was interesting is we never knew that before. Profit first. I didn't know where my business was coming from. And so the corporate client, and that's one of the has been the issue is that the person that I hired to develop the petals actually didn't know how to do it. And so we lost a lot of corporate clients. So now it's sort of. It almost equals out to a third. Whereas corporate clients used to bring in almost quarter of a million dollars in. So actually that's what 2015 corporates were. 252. So let's just round it down as quarter of a million dollars. So yeah.

Okay, so you got, I got you. So quarter million dollars. So one third, roughly one third of your business comes in through corporate. How many clients does that represent?

Seven.

Okay. And so that means you have 3,000, if I do the math right, 3,493 other customers every year that are not corporate. So that means the corporate must. If they're doing that much revenue. The average corporate sale is in the thousands of dollars. Actually the tens of thousands.

Well One of them, we have a restaurant that we do and the corporate contract on that is almost 50,000 for the year.

Has a corporate customer ever visited your shop?

No, I don't think they have. They just love me, so.

But yeah, so you've gone to them and they've met you. You're extremely charismatic. Plus you can dance a little bit. So they buy because they like you now.

But that's not enough.

What do you mean it's not enough?

It's not enough.

What's not enough?

I believe that we are only as good as our last sale. And loyalty is the lack of something better. So it's all very, very well and good for me to be charismatic and to. But I have to deliver and the product has to be. Of course, yeah.

Oh, my gosh, yes.

They buy because of me and the relationship. But then, you know, and I remember people's birthdays and I remember specials, so I send them flowers. And it's very, very much relationship bu. But if the quality or the staff, if it's not up to par, then they're going to cancel regardless of that relationship.

Of course. I'm just saying for your first sale, I want to know if they came into your retail store or if you are in fact the retail store. And that's what you just told me. You're going to them. They are impressed by you and you get that first sale retention survey. Absolutely. You got to wow them into perpetuity. But I just learned that you don't need a retail space. I just learned that you have seven customers generating one third of your business and you have thousands of customers. That's correct. Yeah. And I suspect if you were so bold as to close down the retail store, stop taking walk ins and telephones and only do corporate, that you would only need yourself and one assistant. Maybe.

Except for the fact that I have this parallel business and I can effectively print money with my eyes closed with Bermuda Bride. Okay, so every minute. So my billable, I charge $200 an hour. So for every second that I'm spending on petals, I am not spending on Bermuda Bride.

Which one are you more passionate about? Which one speaks to your heartstrings?

Oh, I'm stuck. It's like torn between two lovers. It's really difficult.

Never been there.

I deny category as his wife is standing right here.

You know, very, very. Each has a very different need. So for Bermuda Bride, I have a short attention span and I need constantly to be mentally stimulated. I love reading. I'm addicted to learning. And so Bermuda Pride is great because I can meet a couple. I can design a wedding that can cost up to half a million dollars. And within a space of six months, we're done. It's like a perfect relationship. Thank you so much. And off they go. Whereas what I have recognized in doing profit first and being at this crossroads is that I love the creation of something and not necessarily the reality something. So I took this shop. I gutted it. It had been a card shop for 40 years, and the carpet was dank, and it was just. I ripped everything out. I poured a concrete floor down. I went to Restoration Hardware and bought a leather. Beautiful details cost. I mean. Oh, dear. I wish I'd read your book beforehand. Nevertheless, people walk into. I designed every single detail. I poured my heart into it. Because unlike a wedding, where it is a reflection of the couple petals is a reflection of me. However, I recognize that in one hour in Bermuda Bride, I can make more than I'm making in profit the whole day on a bad day at Petals. So one aesthetically and emotionally completely rocks my world. And Bermuda Pride, I am. Well, I'm not proud. I'm just. It's a fact. I am one of the 25 top wedding planners in the world, as was recognized by a magazine. So I clearly am able to do this well. And what I have chosen to do is take that information and actually am spinning that off. So, Chris, I might need to be in touch with you and take that up to a higher level so that what I'm actually doing is generating effectively passive income in Bermuda Bride, because I only have so many hours in a day that I can actually work and build. And the hard part is that Petals is like this child who's grabbing your trouser leg saying, mommy, Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, mommy, Mommy. And it's just. It needs attention. It has to be me who goes and sits in front of that corporate client to get that job.

Gotcha. Let me give you the profit first diagnosis here, and I just want to ask you one question, and I just want a yes or no answer. I'm sure you're aware there are some of the world's greatest heart surgeons out there. I'm sure you're aware there's some great brain surgeons out there. Have you ever heard of a world's greatest heart surgeon and brain surgeon combination person?

That would be me.

No. So the answer is no, by the way. But thank you for not answering that.

Thank you for playing.

Thank you. That was. Yeah. So, no, there. You would never. There's no World's Best heart surgeon says, oh, I also.

This work. We have to make it work.

Yeah. No. So they don't exist. Because I'll tell you, no. Every time that heart surgeon, world's best heart surgeon goes into brain surgery, she is not practicing heart surgery. She's diminishing her skills. The world's best are the elite at one thing. Athletes are the same thing. It's. There is no. Michael Jordan was the best basketball player ever. He tried to play baseball. He stunk. There was. Bo Jackson was the one guy out of all world history that was able to play two sports, and he was no Michael Jordan.

Yeah.

So the thing is this. In your business, you can't be the world's best at two things. And you're telling me you're the world's best bridal planner. Events to run a second business is very risky because it takes you away from that. Secondly, I'm hearing you have entrepreneurial ADD, which 99% of the entrepreneurs listening have entrepreneurial ADD. We want to do something and move on to the next thing. We got to be in a creative mind space. And if that business, the bridal planning, allows you to create something new every time. And it's a short Runway. You do a short period, six, seven months, you're done. Let me float something.

Let me float something.

You got one. You got 30 seconds to float it. Because we're running out of time.

Why don't I just have a really amazing team for a great manager for pedals?

You can. And this is how I would do it. First of all, don't jump on my diagnosis. That's why I was getting to. So here's option one. You can get rid of pedals. I would be very careful ever about selling business. I know every listener right now is asking in their head, what's the offer? How much are you offering? I don't want to know. Because if you start looking at the numbers, you start losing focus on what's best for your business and you start kind of spending that money before you have it. So I don't want you to tell me number Selling a business when you need to sell a business is the worst time to sell a business. So I don't like the idea of selling a business, period. But I do like the idea of focusing on what's working the corporate arena. If I was to keep the paddles business, I would get rid of the retail. You clearly have a gift in the corporate area. And there's huge profitability by ditching that retail space and maybe sell that off, you're removing almost 3,500 customers that are not bringing profitability to you, and you start focusing on the seven. Now, here's the one last option is you do that move. Get rid of the retail space because it's already proven not to be profitable. That frees up capital because you're going to keep revenue coming in from the corporate clients. You're going to become more profitable, and then you make that key higher. And I'd even consider getting a partner in there, someone that runs that business not for you, but with you. And what I mean by this is when someone runs a business, if their skins in the game, if their livelihood depends on its success, that's a good partner to have. If you put a key employee in there that could leave two months from now to go somewhere else or they decide to leave Bermuda, it'll put you back in the same spot. So that's what my prescription would be. Just to summarize, go all in on what you're excellent at. Cut out the retail space, telephone stuff. Focus on the individual corporate space. Get a partner in there that has skin in the game and her or his life depends on the success of that business, and then go down that path. What do you think?

I think I need oxygen.

The Prince of Prophet has spoken.

Yes, the Prince of Prophet has spoken and so has his brother. Here's the deal, Nikki.

I know. No, I know you're not. You're telling me something that I know and that. Yeah, that I know.

Here's. First of all, I'm proud of you. You did profit first. I'm really proud. You came on the show and was so candid. And what I want to tell you, where I commend you, is by doing profit first now, you are facing a reality that's going to happen anyway. The thing is, you're facing it today because you implemented profit first. You started taking money for yourself. You see where the problems are today. If you decide not to take money for yourself, this problem would still, of course, happen. It just may be a month from now or two months from now. You're hitting crossroads sooner, which means you're not in pure desperation. I mean, you're in a bad spot, but you're not in pure desperation. I just ask you to take a decisive move, and when you do, the payoff will or the chance for success is much greater the sooner you take it. So the earlier you do this, the better. The last final thought for you is I want you to just play a mental game. I want you to Truly envision for a second that you no longer own pedals. It is done. It's gone. You're all in with the bridal business. Do that and then just watch your motion in the inaugural side. Don't worry, don't. Don't worry about all the thoughts like, oh, my God, I don't know if I can do it, and all the mind screwing that goes on. Just pay attention to the initial emotional feeling. Is it relief or is it more stress? When you feel an initial sense of relief, that's usually the guidance. That's the way you should go. And let's do this for every iteration. If I had pedals in a corporate space and a partner and kept on the bridle, how would I feel? And just measure that. If I let things stay as the way they are, how do I feel? And maybe you get a little agita over that. That means don't do it. That's kind of your soul guiding you. You make sense.

Yes.

Yes, it does.

All right, I'm sorry, we're kind of racing out here, but we got to go. We're tuning up time so you can hang tight. We're going to talk about you in a second. We'll put you on mute and you can hear what we're going to say.

Thank you so much.

It was a pleasure having you. Oh, and before I let you go, you know, people do have to have weddings and you're one of the top 25 in the world. Where can people learn more about you?

They can go to www.bermudabride.com. we're just doing our new website, so check it out next week.

Awesome. And you promised to send us a video of you doing the tango. I'll have to do that with your book. It has to be with your book. Good. We'll put it on the site. Okay, Hang tight. Chris and Christina, we got a little talking today.

Thanks, Nikki.

Thank you. First, I want to thank our corporate partners. And listen, we got so many corporate partners now. We have a deal with them. We're not going to go into details on each one. I'm going to repeat them and I'm going to talk about our brand new one a little bit in depth. So I want to thank Fundbox, it's invoice financing. I want to thank Nextiva, it's VoiceOver IP phone system. I think it's the world's best. I want to thank tsheets, which is time tracking software, and Fundera, which is a loan source. If you have a small business and you Know, something that maybe even Nikki could use. But I want to welcome today Receipt Bank. Receipt bank approached us about a month ago and said they want to come on board because of what we're doing with Profit First. And one of the ways to maintain profitability is to be able to live through an audit. Every business, it seems one day the government will come and say, you're not paying enough taxes, show us all the receipts for the transactions you've had and all that stuff. And that's when you scramble into your shoebox. You collect all the receipts in, and you produce what you need to produce. Receipt bank automates that with your iPhone or your Android. You simply, when you get a receipt, you take a picture of it, and literally, that's it. It automatically connects to your bank account, looks at the transaction, syncs them up, and says, here's the transaction for this amount. Here's the receipt. And then it categorizes it. It is fully automated. The process of scrambling and producing stuff is gone. The process of capturing stuff is like a second. That's Receipt Bank. We're now users of the software, too. So, again, I always believe, don't just take people's money, which, you know, that's not bad. But I also believe in, use the stuff, too, that you can truly live by and. And. And believe in. And Receipt bank is definitely up there. So thank you, Receipt bank, and everyone listening in. Just do a check for receiptbank.com on. On the web. You'll love it. I think it's receipt dash bank bank, by the way.

And we have links to all our corporate partners on the website, profit first podcast.com. and by the way, these. All of our. All of our corporate partners. I almost said the S word, Christina. All of our corporate partners are great tools and resources for business. So seriously, you might need one. You might not know it, but one of these tools might solve a problem you have. So check them out.

Yes. All right, Christina, what's the one thing you learned from today?

Hold on. I wanted to punch you real quick. Quick.

Oh, oh, oh.

There's the punch.

Okay. Thanks for the punch to the face. What's the one thing you learned today?

I was gonna say another thing that you might not know that you need is tough love. And that's what Nikki got from you today. It's so hard when you want something so much and you poured your heart and soul to it. It's like a painter. If you made this amazing painting, and then it's so hard to sell it because you're like Oh, I worked so hard on this. But sometimes you really do if it's best for you. You know, she's bringing in 600k a year. She's paying out quarter of a million dollars in salary. Sometimes you got to make the tough decision to just let it go.

Yeah, that's a great analogy, that painting that you spent all this time building and making. So for me, the takeaway was the danger of selling the company. You know, when people hear that someone wants to buy the company, two things happen. Either you feel deflated because you're. They're giving you so little and they don't understand your work. And when that transaction, if it does happen, you feel regret and disappointment selling the company. Other times, it's money that you want, and then we start spending the money in our head and we start being illogical in the business. A sale doesn't happen today. It can take months. Or sometimes in the case of me selling my business, it took eight months to sell the business, and there's a number in front of you that you keep waiting for, and you totally lose the plot of running the business, and it can fall apart. Chris, what did you get out of today's episode?

Yeah, first of all, Nikki, you're a brave woman. Definitely. And I like, at first, she really talked about how it was her disappointment that spurred her entrepreneurial creativity. Like, she saw. I forget what she said. It was. It was like some product or something, and it was like, ugh, like, this can be done better. And that's what spurred her whole business. That's cool. The other thing is personal development leads to growth. And she said that she was in bed and she was looking up ways to grow herself and her business, and that's when she found your book. So the growth, the pathways to growth are out there. We just have to look for it. I mean, they're there. You will find it. If you look for it, you'll find it and you'll grow yourself and your business. I love that.

Amen to that.

Please can I punch myself?

Punch yourself.

Do it.

Oh, wait. Dang it.

Oh, there you go.

Thank you.

Well, now you guys start talking, you punch yourself. Oh, I thought you were going to punch yourself and go in to leave a comment.

Oh, no. Okay, well, I'll do that.

Punch yourself again. One more time. One more time. One more punch. Oh, I want three.

Okay. Oh, sorry. Yeah. So you can hear this show on itunes and Stitcher and Tunein radio and the website profitfirstpodcast.com. did you guys know you can Go and stalk all the previous episodes. Like, no one will even know you're there. Looking all these awesome guests, these crazy.

Voyeuristic, disgusting person that you are.

Go to Mike's website.

Binge it, baby. And, you know, I just learned. I don't know why it took me this long to figure it out. You can double the speed. You can one and a half times the speed. Yeah. So if you listen to a podcast, you can blow through them. There's one problem. I speak so damn quickly that if.

You sound like a chipmunk.

Yeah.

You don't speed me. You have no idea what's going on. But most podcasts, you can do it. And this one, you can even squeeze out at one and a quarter times. Maybe one and a half if you're real hardcore.

That's right. So this has been a great episode, thanks to our guest, Nikki. Thank you, Mike. Thank you, Christina. I love doing this show. I know you guys love listening. Keep your comments coming. And because we want to hear from you and we want to know how you discovered Profit first, how about send an email with your answer to that question? We love it. Right, Mike?

Yeah. Mike at Profit First Professionals, I'd love to hear you. And if you want to learn more about Profit First Professionals, we are an organization of accountants, bookkeepers, and coaches who drive profitability in businesses. Just like Nikki's business. She needs a bookkeeper. She needs an accountant anyway. Why not have one that drives profit in your business? Go to profitfirstprofessionals.com right now. Right now. Don't waste a minute. Click on the find button. We'll hook you up. Oh, and I got one other little surprise for you. I've got a brand new book coming out. So if Nikki wants to read her fourth book, it's called Surge. Nice. That's my newest book. Go on Amazon.com right now. You'll see it sitting up there. Surge by Mike Picallow. It's how you grow your business fast.

That's awesome. Thanks, everybody, for listening. Check out Surge on Amazon and the website for Profit First Professionals. Profit First Professionals.com. see you guys next week.