Experiences of Running a Family Owned Business with Chris Prefontaine

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You can find us on itunes, Stitcher, Tunein Radio Spotify, iheartradio entrepreneurshipelevatedpodcast.com yeah, you don't even look down any podcaster anywhere.

I guess we're not doing the screenshot thing anymore.

No, we're not.

Okay. By now we probably have those T shirts, right?

We've been talking about. Yes, for sure.

Yeah. By the time this broadcast we have, you know, also here in the studio is the jbone himself. Welcome, jbone.

Hello.

Thank you. How's your business going? Are you still running Hunter's recipe on the side a little bit?

No, I'm not actually. I, I was looking into it after was like a month ago when we talked about it and I had Shopify to run the E Commerce side.

Yeah.

And then I was like, my card didn't get billed properly and they like, they shut it down, they pulled it. But like I tried to get it back and I don't know, something's up with it. Like I gotta call them. It's like in the cloud somewhere or something. I saw the Domain and everything. It's just. Yeah, I'm gonna throw it back. I'll throw it back up.

It was cool stuff. The, the challenge you have is the product is so good and so shelf worthy. Meaning like we had Hunter's recipe. These different rubs he made still have them like years later and they're still good quality rubs. So I have a smoker now at the house.

Do you still, you still have them?

Yeah, not many of them.

The trick is so like people use seasonings a lot of times over something that's hot with steamy and that takes it up and it ruins it. So like they have to add lots of anti caking agents to it. I didn't add anything.

Like dude, still works, bro. So.

Yeah.

Oh, it still works. Yeah. Well, I had like hundreds of those packs I fit. Not hundreds, but I bought quite a few.

I'll make, I'll make some more.

I love the, the rub you had. That was. What was the paprika was the one of the root ingredients.

There was a. The buck and spicy, I think.

Yes, buck and spicy. That's exactly what it was. That's my favorite one.

Yeah.

So yeah, if you can make some, I want to put it on a flank steak or ribs or something.

I'll make some more. Hey, Kelsey had my nuts.

I know. Say that I wanted to bring it up, but I didn't want to bring it up.

Yeah.

What nuts do you have?

My spicy nuts.

Oh really? What does spiciness taste like?

I really don't want to play this game.

What? Yeah. You. So what, you're on a new diet or something?

J Bone. Yeah. So it's kind of funny because I feel like you think that I have a complex at this point, because one of the first conversations that Kelsey and I ever had was I was. We were doing a thing on Zoom. I was like, I look so fat. Like, what is going on? And then she sent me an email, and it said, does this camera make you look fat or something? That was the title subject. And ever since then, I'm like, man, I really did get fat. And then a guy that I used to work with saw me, and he didn't tell them my face, but he told my friend. He was like, man, he's like, he got fat.

Really? Yeah.

So I'm like, do you know what? I'm doing this good for you, because I was in really, really good shape. And then I just.

Yeah, because you ran mud runs and stuff.

Yeah, triathlons.

Triathlons, yeah. Okay, so you're just eating your own nuts.

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

And there are almonds, predominantly. Or was it.

Yes, I made an almond mix, and it was like a habanero barbecue spice blend.

And you. And so you're not apportioning it, meaning, like, you can share your nuts with Kelsey or someone else. Meaning you have extra nuts. Is there a risk of you eating too much nuts?

No.

Oh, no, because, dude, some people. Some people have measurements, like Weight Watchers and stuff. It's like you have a cup full of this and you can't share it because you.

So honestly, you know what I'm saying? Everybody wants to lose weight. It's just diet and exercise, like that sort of boys down there. And, like, it's a billion dollar industry of people trying to, like, trick people. But, like, that's really what it comes down to. So, like, if you just eat healthier options and, like, work out, like, you will lose weight.

There's no question.

You just got to put the work in.

There's no qu. Yeah, there's no question. And actually, I was reading a study of the two. Diet's more important than exercise. Yeah. Hands down.

I think it's like 80, 20 or 90, 10.

There's a lot of misinformation about food and dieting. Like what people say. They. If you ask people what do you eat, they're like, oh, well, I eat this. It's not healthy. What are you eating that for? Oh, yeah, but it says this. Well, it's a marketing gimmick. It, like, just because it says it's like, I'M sticking to, like, the basics, like, lots of greens. I'm trying to eat some lean proteins, healthy nuts, like, things like that. Nothing crazy. Yeah, yeah.

Sounds like a paleo diet, maybe. I don't know. I don't know. But they put these crazy terms for them. Bring complexity to it. Hey, Kelsey, I got a question for you.

Yeah?

In high school, this is the icebreaker for everyone. What was in your locker? Just one or two things.

I don't think I was that interesting.

Did you not have a locker?

No, I did, but it was.

Did you just carry all your books on your back all the time? All the time. You carried your entire set of books on your back?

I mean, I left some in my locker. That's what it was there for, but I don't think I had anything.

You didn't have a. You didn't have a poster of Rick Springfield, Jesse's girl, when you'd open it?

If I had a poster, it would be of Phil Collins. Okay.

He was your squeeze.

Yeah, no, Peter Gabriel is my main squeeze.

Yeah. Okay. Okay. Both of them. There's. Those are good. Those are good. What'd you have? What poster did you have? Phil Collins.

I didn't actually have anything because I went to a horrible high school.

No lockers?

No, they had lockers, but I could never get it open. So I just always carried a backpack everywhere.

Oh, that's the worst.

What did you have?

I don't recall. I think I had some stickers, like some stupid. Like a model or something like that. But I had definitely had a mirror in there so I could use. Because I had. I actually had hair then that wasn't thinning. And I would take my. I had a comb in the back pocket, like one of those ones. The handle and the long, you know, spikes on it. Don't make that face. And I would sit there and just comb my hair back.

Were you wearing your white blazer with my black tie?

Yes, I was. Yes, I was.

You had vests back then I didn't wear.

No, not a vest. It was a blazer. Like a jacket. It's a white. So I brought in. So we brought in the most, like, embarrassing pictures of ourselves. Did I have the guitar in that picture?

No, no, that was a different one. Oh, so with your tiny shorts.

Oh, no, no. There's even a worse one than that. My pencil legs. My parents, as a gift, got me an electric guitar as my first guitar. It was an Ibanez white guitar with a black. So it's white and black. The whole thing so then to be cool, I suited up with white pants, a black shirt with white sleeves, white shoes. Yeah. I look so ridiculous.

That's awesome.

Yeah. And dude, I mean, my pet, I was pencil everything, Pencil legs, pencil neck.

At least you've gotten better. And don't buy like denim shirts with angel wings on the back.

You, you play lacrosse, right?

Yeah, I did.

How much did you weigh?

I weighed 200 at my fittest.

That's pretty big.

Yeah, 61200 in college. But I was really fit. Now I'm. I'm down to 188 and my wife told I intentionally lost some weight and my wife's like, you gotta stop losing weight. You're looking too thin. But I actually most of it is in my stomach. You know, the thing is, I also have a pencil neck. And everyone has like when people look at me, they're like, you're so skinny because the neck is a big definer of how people look at you. So I have a small tiny head on a pencil neck.

I've never thought that though. Honestly.

Really?

I've watched so many videos of you at this point. Yeah, you must be sick of them.

You must be sick. Oh, did you see the video? Video from Imaging usa? No. Wow. J Bone, this would. This would make you jealous. It's filmed so well. So Imaging usa, big audience. We should make it public on. On vimeo or on YouTube. But a really good presentation. What the hell was that?

Like the death. The death star just rolled up.

I think Kristen is waiting for us. Just died his head. So. All right, let's get to the business at hand. Right, Kels?

Yeah.

So today we are going to. We're gonna talk with Chris Prefontaine. We're gonna talk about running a family run business. That. That's a challenge. And we're gonna recap what he teaches us. We have a fun game for later on. But first we do have a listener mail of some tort.

Oh yeah.

Okay. What is it?

That's good.

It was good.

So this comes from leadership Detective on itunes. They wrote I love this podcast because I can usually walk away with a specific style step of action that will benefit my business right away. A bit irreverent at times, but great stuff.

So I don't know if you can leader this detective originally had a dot after the away part. It says I love this podcast because I usually walk away and then he relieves us of that period. All right. I do want to thank our corporate partners. Next to even receipt bank, we think we'll thank them later on. And I think that's it, right?

Yeah.

Okay. Chris Prefontaine is the best selling author of Real Estate on your Terms. He is the founder of Smart Real Estate Coach and host of the Smart Real Estate Coach podcast. The interesting thing is he has nothing to do with real estate. That's his challenge. He and his family are co authoring their new book, the New Rules of Real Estate Investing. It's coming out in 2019. And most importantly, he owns a family run business. He's going to teach you how to navigate the challenges associated with that. Chris, welcome to our show.

Thanks guys. Appreciate you having me on.

So listen, how many people in your family are involved in your business? Let's rattle them off. Right now.

Myself, my son in law Zach, my son Nick, my daughter Kayla and my wife Kim.

Okay. And do you still have Thanksgiving together or is it like.

Yeah, yeah, we sure do.

All right, so I presume when there's that many family members in the business, it's business all the time when you see each other. Is that true?

Yeah, good question. You know, we've cut it down so that we kind of have some rules, if you will. And that is at home, even though we live, my son and I live next to each other, literally. And when we get home, we make it a point. If it's positive, sure. But if it's negative, not to bring it home because that can just be a nightmare. We literally will say, hey, how was your day? Yell across the yard and then chuckle and go in the house like we never saw each other during the day, so we kind of have boundaries there.

Oh, that's awesome.

Yeah, that's super smart. So let's go to the pros and cons then. We're going to dig deep. What would you say now that you've lived through this? What is the pros of having a family run business?

Certainly what comes up all the time for me when people ask me that is the commitment. Because it's just a different level. I'm lucky to have that. Maybe, maybe everybody doesn't get that. But staying as much as needed, doing what's needed, it really is a different level when you're dealing with family. And we launched so early with them all here, not even planning. It just kind of happened organically and then so that enabled us to grow probably faster than we would normally. You know, just enough muscle power.

And is everyone in your family also an owner in the business?

No, no, I own it. And they profit share lucratively. So no one, no one Started on a salary, everyone produces. And as we do deals and as we bring on coaching members, then they're compensated. So everyone has incentive to run hard and run fast.

And what would you say the cons are? Assuming your family's not listening right now.

Yeah. No. Every time you're dealing with finances, in my opinion, that can be touchy if you're not openly communicating. I haven't had any challenges with it yet, but that is just a given. Like, you gotta be very, very open. I don't know. I guess. Schedules. Everyone looks at each other's schedules a lot. Hey, is so and so here. As much as I am. Is so and so Much as I am.

Yeah.

So I think some of that goes on subconsciously. And maybe everybody doesn't say it, but it's there, you know, there's always that little can be turned into a competition, too, but it's that little kind of paying attention to everybody, you know.

That sounds like any business, though, where you have partners. Like, are you.

Yeah.

Evenly and equitably contributing. But I'm thinking with your family, I mean, there may be some bias. What's the term when you. When you have family and you treat them favorably?

Nepotism.

Nepotism, yeah. Thank you. I assume, like, nepotism may kick in, or even if it doesn't exist, the other employees are like, oh, Chris will do anything for Zach because it's his boy. And that's how they say it. By the way.

You know what's kind of cool? I call it organic. And maybe that's not the right word, but we. We kind of fall into our own roles. Meaning we don't. Like, for the most part, I mean, I can do everything because I built it, but for the most part, they don't like each other's roles. Like, my daughter Kayla loves to organize. She's a general manager. She would have nothing to do with working Bo. And, you know, so there's certain things that they love doing. They just kind of gravitate towards that. I wish I could say I charted all this out and it worked perfectly, but it's not how it happened. We just kind of bopped and weaved and got frustrated and said, well, this person's good over here. And then it's to the point where everybody kind of does their own thing and they don't want the others role. And so there's not. There's not a ton of challenges with that, you know.

Okay, now, do you have outside employees, meaning non family members that work there too?

Yes, we have, let's see, bookkeeper, head of support and affiliates is Lauren. And then a part time bookkeeper and head of media and video and creative that just came on this year. So there's another four or so.

Okay, so it's half family, half outside, I presume like if things got tight at your business, if there were some struggles, the outsiders got to go first. I mean family first. So is there any. Do those people who are not family feel at risk ever for their job?

I honestly don't know. You're probably accurate because that's where the salaries are. Right. And then everyone else is kind of in the trenches. So I, I got to think this in truth to what you said. Sure.

Okay, so tell us some of the secrets. How do you get a family business communicating effectively? You've pulled it off. You have a very successful business. How can our listeners do the same? How do you keep the family united and the business united?

I knew I wasn't, I had never scaled prior to 2013, so I knew it wasn't something that came natural to me. So we connected with a group. A lot of companies scaling use different groups. We connected with a group that taught us the whole mission, purpose and vision and then worked with values. So I brought all of them with me. I went the first time by myself. I said this isn't going to work. Like I got to go back and try to communicate this. I look like, like I'm a Martian. So I brought them all with me. We now go every quarter to a group of other business owners doing the same thing. Not not family, but scaling and value and mission and culture. So that every time there's a decision to be made, it's not a personality, it's is it with our values and if it's not, we don't do it. And I'm talking about even taking on clients who want to pay us. We sometimes don't if they don't fit the values. So it becomes a little bit clearer line with that kind of culture. And frankly it wasn't there before. So I had to seek it out and super glad I did because they're all taking to it very well and they love it.

That's interesting. So last week we had a guest on our show who talked about business culture and he talked about the importance of values. I want to dig into that and maybe there's a special nuance when it's family. But how do you define what your cultures are? Can you give us some details on that?

How do we define the values? Yeah, we Sat in the room one of the first visits. So this was back in 18, beginning of 18, end of 17 maybe. And just started, you know, scribbling them, brainstorming them on a board. And we honed it down to six that we all voted on. I can share some if you want, but we just. We honed them all down to. Yep, we voted on that. Yep. Nope. That one nobody really liked except for you and so on and so forth.

Can I guess one of the values?

Sure.

No, no one Fs with the Prefontaine family value one.

Well, no, you're close, blunt and to the point. No gray area. That's exact. That's one value.

Okay, well, so give me all the values.

Okay, sure. So we empower individuals and families. We constantly innovate and improve. We complete all transactions with the highest integrity. Because we're in real estate. We match effort for effort. We are clear, blunt, to the point, no gray area, and team over.

Me, I didn't know the blunt, to the point. I'm proud of that one. So. So give me a scenario. How do you use this? Now to. You said you may not even hire, you may not even bring on a customer if they don't match your values.

Yeah. You know, real estate's different, right? So people watch the midnight shows and they think they can push a button and they're a millionaire tomorrow.

Yeah.

So we. Part of managing expectations in aligning with values is we all have to call a client that wants to sign up now. I mean, each one of us call the client, have conversation with them, and if we're all okay, then they come in. And if not, we just don't accept them. It's all by application. We've even mailed back two or three checks in the last 12 months where we thought they fit, and then right away we knew they didn't. So we're constantly looking at it. I mean, it's part of what we do. Hiring employees as well. And we brought those team members in that I talked to you about. We had discussions around those six values. Like, can you give me examples of when you had to communicate bluntly and were you comfortable? And how about them communicating bluntly with you? Are you going to take that personally? You know, conversations like that, so we know they're a fit.

What about family conflict? That happens. Have you ever. Have you ever had family conflict? And if you say no, you're bullshitting me. So have you had family conflict in. Outside the business? I'm saying. And has that affected the business itself negatively?

We've had conflict in the office and resolved it with communication, but not the other way. Knock on wood.

Okay, so when you had in the office, how did you resolve that? Because that's what I'm trying to get to. Our listeners have family run businesses, they have conflict. How do you address it so it doesn't keep on perpetuating on because you see each other constantly.

It's usually ridiculously open in a team meeting with everyone present so that it gets solved right then and we. Okay, you clear now we'd like is everybody comfortable with this or not? And if not, bring it up. And inevitably someone's going to bring it up until everything gets vetted out. So it's, it's right out in the open. And I can't think of any exception that it's not. I mean it's right at the conference room table. It's worked us out.

So I guess my approach of being passive aggressive is not a good thing. In the open is not a good approach. What about say one of your sons, Zach, or your son in law? What if they have an idea for the business and they come to you? I mean, you're the boss, you own the business. They're also your children. How can they come to you with ideas and not feel threatened that you're going to override them?

That's open too, because if it fits within the values and also the goals for the year, because we meet trimester, we don't do quarters, we do trimester. If it fits with that, we go. And if there's too many ideas plopping around, because sometimes they can have a ton of ideas, I'll say, okay, it's a cool idea, but it's not this trimester. Put it on your list for try to and we'll revisit it. So everyone knows that this is what we're working on for trimester one. If it's not there, cool idea, maybe, but just throw it on your list. We'll deal with it later. So sometimes those disappear and sometimes those resurface and we revisit them at the next trimester.

Gotcha. You have to. You ever had to fire any family members?

No, no. I'm thinking back Friday to this business. I had family with me then too, and they. There were some people that left, but no, I never had to get rid of anyone. That was back before the market crash.

Okay. Because I. Well, I don't want to project, but I would presume that's extremely hard. If someone has a family member that's not working out. They are family, after all. It's their source of income. You can't lay them off. I don't know. I don't know. If you have a thought around. I'm sure you do have thoughts around that. What would you do hypothetically?

I guess, you know, back then it was niece, nephew, sister in law. And it's a little bit more, I don't want to say distance. That's close family, but it was, it's not. It wasn't immediate. And so, yeah, I share that. I think it would be difficult. One I haven't luckily had to deal with that. If anything, I tend to delegate more. They want more, so delegate more and let them do more and let them take on more responsibility as each one of their roles dictate. And then, you know, they tend to take more, not. Not having me a reason to push them out.

In my head, in my head, I could see, Chris, you firing your wife. Like, I never want to see your face around here again. You're not quality work. Your work is poor quality. I don't want to see you. Don't show your face again, ever. Oh, and I'll see you for dinner tonight. Like.

Yeah, that'd be a toughie.

That'd be a toughie. What about transition? I don't know why my voice changed on that, but what about transition?

What do you mean by that?

Well, I mean, like, at a certain point you're gonna want to retire. You got family involved. Does it by default go to your kids? Are you gonna sell the business and your kids were just, quote, unquote, just employees, or are they heirs to the business?

What we talked about, we've been talking about, and it's ongoing, is a transition plan with stock throughout the next. So we have like a ten year plan, probably about an eight year plan now.

So you're already talking about it well in advance, openly?

Yep.

Nice. Okay. Yeah.

Coincidentally, my father, totally different industry, did it with my brother quite successfully for like 25 years in the last 10 or so, started that type of transition. So good ideas from that. Obviously it worked well and I can mimic some of those.

Hold on, wait. So your dad had a. Has a business that's transitioning to your brother? You weren't involved in that?

Yeah, so my. I grew up in a business with my dad in the 80s in high school and 90s, and then he sold it in 91 and that's what transitioned me to real estate. And then he started another business and my younger brother did that with him a few Years later, and I had already been knee deep in real estate and kept doing my thing.

Okay, okay, that's cool. So your dad didn't squeeze you out. You elected not to join that business?

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I was going my way, and he said, well, okay, you're doing real estate. Do you mind if I sell? I said, go ahead.

Do we.

What's good for you? So he sold.

That's interesting. So now if your children decide to start a new business, like, say, Zach's like, you know, I'm not. I don't know if I want to be in real estate anymore. I'm just gonna start my own business. That's kind of awkward. I mean, there has to be a conversation around that. And do you think there's a sense of obligation now to invite you into a new business because you invited Zach into your business?

No. Good question. What's cool is I would wrestle with that in the past, but now we have this new kind of culture. We're real open. Like, if someone said to me, hey, I'm starting this cool thing at night online, I'm, you know, I'm doing well, I'd encourage it as long as it doesn't get in the way in any shape, form, or fashion to what we're doing as a team.

Yeah. So if they start a online real estate coaching business, you'd be like, I don't know if that's gonna work.

Somewhat of a conflict. Right, right.

That's really nice. Okay.

Hey, you know, comment on that, though, if you. What I try to do is set. Get the situation up. So there's. There's very, very good reward when things are done right. And so you wouldn't want to go delve or go on your own, so to speak, because it is your own. You know what I mean? I like even our media and creative guy. I treat him as. As a partner, as a family member. We treat them all like. Like, if you're performing, you're here, you're part of the game.

Yeah, no, I love that. I love that. So the big takeaway here is definitely open communication. Chris, before I let you go, I know you got some books out there. You got a brand new book you're releasing the new rules of real estate investing. Where can our listeners get that? And where can I see more what's going on in your business and with your friends?

Okay, so the smartrealestatecoach.com is the catch. All you can contact me, you can look at everything there. Free webinars, all free stuff. The best seller. I'll give you a link. And this is not one of those links where someone says, get my free book. And you go in. You got to put your credit card in like I do it. I don't know who does it. I'll give you a link that will pay for shipping. It's the Amazon bestseller. It's a hardcover book. It's free. F R E E S r e c book.com free srecbook.com for smart real estate coach. The new book will be released May 14. I think it is on. On Amazon. The new rules. Excuse me. The new rules of real estate.

Awesome. Chris, thank you so much for joining us today.

Thanks.

Pleasure. Thanks for having me on, guys.

All right, we'll have all that in the show. Notes and links, and then we got some other things that we gotta do. You know, I think, Jay Bone, we should set up a domain. I love the idea. The free srecbook.com we should have free when you pay $7 for shipping and handling book. All right, Kelsey, I want to recap what we learned. I want to thank our corporate sponsors. I want to. I actually want to do that order. I want to get right into the meat of this. And then I want to do a game today.

Okay.

Okay. I like games. What's your favorite game?

That was a perfect way to say that I like games.

What's your favorite game?

I don't think I like catchphrase a lot. I like. I like name that tunes a lot.

Oh, we should do that.

Then we can do a Alexa. They have it.

Oh, yeah.

Have you ever done that? I love that.

Yeah. Maybe one of these episodes we'll bring in the Alexa and we'll try. It'll be a disaster. I already look forward to it. All right, why don't you start? Kelsey, what did you learn from Chris today?

Okay. I love the idea of them all sitting down and voting on their six immutable values and that they use that as a filter for everything. I think that, like when he said the decisions then aren't based on a person or a personality, it's based on the parameters that they've all mutually set. So it really weeds out the base for all that conflict. Right. And so when he said that if somebody from his family wants to start another business or they're doing something, it all falls into that same filter. Right? Like, if it's contradicting those values in any way, that's a clear. It's not me as your dad yelling at you because you hurt my feelings.

Right.

It's. You are neglecting the values that we set together. Right.

Yeah. They said so smart. So smart. Rules of engagement, J. Bone.

If it's negative, don't bring out.

Yeah.

Because you're working with your family.

Yeah. So how hard is that, though, bro?

I know. That's why it's a good one.

Yeah. It's true.

Because I would think that, if anything, it matters more because it's like, then you're not just messing with your work, you're messing with your home life.

Yeah.

Yeah. I don't know if I could separate that out. Well, I don't know. I've never tried working with a family. My parents actually helped out my first business a little bit. But literally how they helped was they were cleaning the office for me because I couldn't afford cleaners.

Yeah.

So I wasn't like, hey, mom, like, you're doing a bad job, you know?

I worked with my family, but my.

Mother would say, oh, my, you're so messy. Like, she would do those little.

Yeah.

Digs at Thanksgiving. What were you saying, Jay Bonhams?

Yeah. No, no, no. Like, so I work for my family, and it's kind of funny because my brother and I, we fight all the time. But the one thing still, I mean, like, kidding around, like, he's. He's seven years older than me, so we had a Christmas tree farm, so we'd share.

Yeah.

So. But the one thing that we always connected with and agreed on was the fact that my dad never did what he said he was gonna do.

Classic.

And so then it was, like, so frustrating. It's like, you just said he was gonna do this. And then I would get a phone call from my brother. I just spent three hours working on this thing. He said it was gonna be done and, like, classic. And then we just get together and just, like, bash him. It was fun.

Oh, yeah, it's fun. That's. That's a real family business.

Yeah.

Dad didn't do crap. God, now I gotta cut the trees down, man. So what I learned. Whoops. I learned was that they bobbed and weaved, or bopped and weaved is words he used to find their roles. You don't have to make that face of me. Cannot do that. He bought that everyone bopped and weaved and found their capacity role at the business, as opposed to it being defined in advance. I thought that was super cool.

I agree.

All right. We also want to know what you thought was cool, our dear listener friends. You can post that on our. On our review notes in iTunes, stitch or wherever, you listen in. And I do want to thank our core partners. Kels. Yeah. I don't know why I say yeah. I want to thank nextiva. It's a voice over IP phone system. Probably the best phone system I've ever experienced, in all honesty. And it's very affordable. We use them. Do you have one yet? You have a phone now, right? Do we have it? Do we have a phone yet?

The most advanced one.

Yeah, that's right, babe.

The one where. Yeah. It's got the little numbers on the front. Oh, you punch a sequence.

Okay.

And somebody picks up the.

The other line on the other side every time.

It's amazing.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Wow.

It's really good.

Yeah.

And I. I got the new color.

Was that black? Yeah. Next. He was the first to come out with black phones. I love it. Yeah, I love Nextiva or Nextiva.com. best phone system. What about Receipt bank? You use that? Do you ever use it? You never use it? Nope. Why not? Am I the only person that uses it?

Because I think you use it for profit first professionals.

Oh, that's right. I don't use it for the other side of the business. Yeah, I guess we don't need it. Really? Because I don't. Yeah, I've been better with expenses. Have you noticed?

I have.

Yeah, less and less. I shouldn't say less and less. More controlled, more specific. But I'm not going into the accounts I shouldn't be going into. You know why?

Excellent.

Receipt bank. So because I use receipt bank on the profit first side, I feel obligated to scan a receipt. This is true. It's like a subconscious thing because I'm scanning the receipts. If I go onto the obsidian side, I'm like, oh, no, no, we don't. Receipt bank for that should stay to the profit first side.

Yeah.

So that's, you know. So Receipt bank scans in receipts and subconsciously it makes you a better spender, apparently. All right, Kelsey, we got a little game to play. Let me get a little punch.

I like games.

So, Kelsey, it's always your honor to pick the game. We have the pure cheese quotes. These are quotes from very well known authorities. And me and a fortune cookie. And you gotta pick which ones are from me in the fortune cookie. We also have my personal favorite where I can't. Oh, the. I just laugh thinking about there's three businesses. One's a total fake, two are real, and you have. You have fake. The fake. It's so. Well, there's.

So what?

The copy's so well written because I write it. And then we have the new game we just brought about. I said we had two new games. We had one new game with two versions. What I should have said last week. Yeah. And it's. It's companies that had a different original name. Companies like Google or Nike or something. And you got to figure out which was their true original name and which one's the. The fake.

Okay, which.

What do you want to play?

I want to do the cheesy quotes.

Pure cheese. Okay. It's called pure cheese. All right, let's. Let's do a punch for that. An awkwardly long punch because it's pure cheese. Oh, crap. Oh, I do have one. Okay, Jay Bone, you ready for this?

Yep.

So you two have to vote on this.

Okay.

The first quote. Hold on. Am I missing. I might be missing a quote. Oh, okay. I see it goes over pages. It's just a little bit hard to read all this stuff. This is. Read this again. This quote is either by me, by a famous celebrity name that hopefully you'll recognize, meaning just you may not recognize. No, that's a notable person or a fortune cookie. So one of these is a fortune cookie. One's for me. You have to identify the fortune cookie and which one's me in right order. Otherwise you have to eat Jeremy's nuts, the almonds you brought in. Okay.

Yep.

Okay. Until you're sick, you just gotta keep eating them and eating them. Eating. People who succeed have momentum. The more they succeed, the more they want. What? What's wrong? Can you go into the microphone when you're laughing? What are you laughing about? Okay. People who succeed have momentum. The more they succeed, the more they want to succeed and the more they find a way to succeed. Similarly, when someone is failing, the tendency is to get in a. On a downward spiral. That. That can even become a self fulfilling prophecy. Gosh, that was a doozy. Okay, that's. That was one quote, by the way. The other ones are shorter. Next one is, mistakes are good, successes are great, and idleness is a sin. Now that's what I call a quote. Next one is, a ship in a harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for. Ooh. The last one is, if you want the rainbow, you have to tolerate the rain.

Oh, wait a second. How many of these are fortune cookies?

One's a fortune cookie.

One Mike.

One's a pure cheese. Mike Michalowicz. And one or two are from famous people. Two are from famous people. So the first one, I'm only going to do a brief version of it says people who succeed have momentum. The more they succeed, the more they want to succeed and the more they find a way to succeed. And then he flips it and says, you know, if you're failing the next one. Or she says it. The next one says, mistakes are good, successes are great, illness is a sin. And the one after that is a ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for. Moron. I had the moron part. That's not in the quote. And then the last one is if you want the rainbow, you have to tolerate the rain. J. Bone or Kelsey. Kelsey, you go first because last time you went last.

Okay, so I think the fortune cookie is the rainbow one.

Okay, let me mark your name there. Kelsey says it's the fortune cookie. Okay. Is the rainbow and which one is the Mike pure cheese quote?

I think the first one is the mic. I feel like you've said a version of that.

Yeah, yeah.

You might be.

I do rip off other people. Yeah, I do rip off the other people's quotes all the time.

So, yeah, I'm just gonna go with that.

Okay, so you're gonna say I ripped off the first one and made it my own. Okay. Cal Jay, Bone, you're up.

I'm gonna say the first one was a celebrity. Right? This is. You said celebrity, right?

Yeah, because they're notable. Notable person. A notable person. But we'll take celebrities.

Okay. The rainbow was you and the ship the harbor.

Very fortunate cookie. Yeah. Okay, so one person got one right here. It was Kelsey. Kelsey is correct. If you want the rainbow, you have to tolerate the rain. Is a fortune cookie. You thought it was me. I appreciate that, though. I appreciate that.

That's a good one.

A Jeremy says a ship in harbor is safe, but that's not what ship is built for. Was a fortune cookie. No, it was John shed. I don't know who John shed is.

That's why I heard that before.

Yeah, I've heard that before too.

That's the guy who created the sheds.

Oh, is he the founder of the shed?

Yeah.

That was a Mike Michalowitz thing to say.

Yeah, that was very Mike McDonald. I'm proud of you, Jeremy. You're learning. I know. Kelsey accused me of being Tony Robbins. People who succeed have momentum. That was Tony Robbins. The one I said that neither of you thought was me. The pure cheese quote is mistakes are good, successes are great, and idleness is a sin.

You're like, now that's a quote.

I did say that. Right now that's a good quote from the toilet paper entrepreneur.

I didn't think that was you because why would you talk about sin? Like, what? Yeah, that's weird.

I thought the same thing. That's interesting.

Well, that's sin. Like religious sin. As in, like.

Oh, like, not doing. I got.

Yeah, like.

Yeah, still. It's teetering.

It's teetering. It's heater.

Yeah.

I mean, I don't understand. It's a religious.

You're the most religious person I've ever met, by the way.

How's that? Really? No, no, J Bone. I'm like, yeah, I am pretty religious.

Next, diva.

All right, I have a new quote I'm trying to put in my new book. I thought of what's the most ridiculous quote I could think of, and now try to make sense out of it.

Just try to put your made up words together.

No, it's not even that bad. It's even worse. So it's taking. You know, sometimes they say, like the same sentence, but they flip it over. I'm trying to think, and they reverse the words and it becomes a new meaning. Like, it's not how hard. This doesn't make sense. But not how hard you try. It's how. How much you try being hard. Do we do. I mean. No sense. That was horrible.

You're gonna. You're gonna.

I'm gonna.

Both of us. For me saying this, but it was one of the first times where we all had lunch together.

Yeah.

And you told us the name of the new book. And I was like, oh, really? And then you went to the bathroom and I asked Kelsey. I was like, is he serious or is that a joke? And she's like, no, he really wants a name. And we both were like, no ascension.

You mean no ascension.

No, I don't. It was.

Oh, dude, you just slapped me.

Yeah.

What was it?

Do you remember Prime Time? No, no. Is the book that became Clockwork.

It was like you took. You took a. A phrase or like, oh, built. Built to soul.

Yes. And you hated that. Oh, thank you.

Five times. If you were really serious and you're like. Yeah. And I was like, built to soul.

Okay.

You were so amped up about it.

I was jacked. Yeah, yeah. Thanks for your candor. Listen, if I didn't get that feedback, I would actually do it because there's a saying, built to sell, where you build a company to sell it. So I was like, oh, built to soul means built to the soul inside. But whenever I said it, people are like, what does that Mean, I explain it was a disaster. And then thank you for your candor and vomiting on me.

It was great because we both looked at each other.

Oh, my God.

And he was like, you should say something. He'll trust you.

Yeah, Yeah. I was like, I can't say anything right now, dude.

I would trust both of you. I literally would trust both of you. It's my first day. I can't say anything.

He's buying lunch. Shut up.

So wait, so here's the.

Not now, Jeremy.

So the quote I just made up. Just making jokes of quotes, there's a saying, how bad you want it, you know, So I made a quote, says, it's not how bad you want it, it's how good you want it. And that was my joke quote. And now I'm trying to make that and take a real quote and included my next book. So my justification is like, how good you want the world to be is how good you want it. Right? That's my spin on this now. So I'm trying to make it to a real quote as a speaker. I did this during the conference. I did a tour of Canada to all these different farmers. Every speaker, I would challenge a word. I'd say, what's the word that you're going to use in your speech that you wouldn't normally use? And we started assigning them to each other's other. Mine was rhinoceros. But I had to say it rhinninoceros. I had to say stutter through it. So mine was running an osiris. Another person. I did. No, that was the rule. I swear it was a rule. Another person was skid mark. Someone was moist, and then they ditched it because it was just. It's. Yeah, yeah.

I don't know why that's too universally.

Yeah, yeah.

She's like, skid mark is awful.

Skid mark was great.

Yeah.

Not. Not to like, drag this on. There is a question I've always wanted to ask you. So when you do big presentations, you always try and be funny, right? But like, yeah, during big presentation, is there one time where you just, like, it just was like crickets, like one. Like you thought it was going to kill and you're like, oh, my God. Really? Nobody? Like, is there one time.

One time?

No, but like, is there, like, is there something that, like.

Oh, yeah, yeah. So I'll give you the best that's funny question. I was in Texas, right? So the profit first speech. So the rule, by the way of speaking, is to get people to laugh and also cry. You want to experience the diversity in emotion. And so this one speech prophet first. I've done it now, I think, two or three hundred times. Right, Kels?

Yeah.

Yeah. And I have it down. It's like a play. And so I know where people will laugh. And there's some things I actually think are so not funny, but I know people will laugh at, so I do it. And this one thing I like. There's all the parts. I know exactly when they're gonna laugh. I have to pause and wait. I'm in Texas. It's like, just big, burly Texas. It was mostly men sitting, their arms crossed, just staring at me. When I walked on stage, I'm like, oh, my gosh. I do the first joke, nothing. I do the next one, nothing. I'm, like, going into it. I'm keeping laying jokes, and as I'm going, I start laughing myself. It was. It was so bad. They hated me so much. I actually started laughing at the absurdity of this. And at the end, they. A couple people like. Like, that was the clap and out of there. But no one beat me up in the parking lot.

That's awful.

Wow.

Yeah. Oh, God. Dude. It's hard. Like, inside, I'm crying. I'm like, I can't. I'm not worthy of this anymore. Yeah, I would.

I would think, like, the bigger ones would be the ones where, like, you're. You're like, I don't know how you can continue after that. Like, I think it would bother me so much, and I just be beating myself up in my head, like, oh, yeah, I suck.

I do all the time. I'm like, I'm pathetic. Actually, that turns into the elevation point I want to talk about today. I have a theme song, and it's the final countdown.

It's like chickens just replicated the final countdown.

I still want to do karaoke when we go to Nashville. All of us, we gotta do karaoke night. Are you up for Jay Bone?

Oh, God, yeah, sure.

Me, you, and Kelsey up there. The band, we're putting it back together. So my theme song, I have a couple. Actually. I have a mix of, like, nine songs. I play every time before I speak. My lesson here for everyone is get your theme song. Two songs that really stand out. One of them is Learn to Fly by Foo Fighters. And the lyrics are about kind of the struggle that is really more about, I think, a relationship of a couple people having. But I perceive as the audience that entrepreneurs are struggling, and they need to learn to fly. And it's just a really hyped up song. I will crank that. Usually the last song before I get on stage. Just sitting there and then remember the name by a band. Fort Miner. Oh, yeah, that was 50 sweat or 50% pain. 5% not pain.

Well, you know.

It'S like. It's like a half rap, half rock song, right?

Yeah, yeah, I think it's great. And it sounds like. Listen, it serves ego right. But I feel that when I'm going on stage, I have a responsibility to bring the best of me. So I want. I gotta make sure people remember my name, which is horrible. Michalowicz. So that's the two songs I listen to. My challenge to everyone listening is what is your theme song like? Pick it out. What's yours? Kelsey, there's a song you particularly love.

Mine is Beyonce's. I was here.

Okay.

Yeah.

J Bone, do you have any favorite song?

Yeah, this actually gives me goosebumps when I. When I hear it.

Does it remember the name by Fort Miner?

No, it's not one of their best.

50% something.

50% swag, 3%. It's like all these different percents. One and a half percent liquid bleach, sales minus profit. 4% profit.

Some kind of Monster by Metallica is a really good theme song.

Wow.

Maybe we'll start next episode with Some Kind of Monster. Cal, do we have listener mail?

Yeah, we do.

Long punch coming. Just hang on, hang on, hang on. All right, what do you got?

Hold on.

Oh, you want.

Okay. No. Ready? This comes from Morgan Blenn from Blends Feed and Farm Supply.

Hey, Morgan.

They write, I pay for my inventory on cod. So I am wondering, how can I still make the 1025 work for me?

Morgan, Morgan, Morgan, Morgan, Morgan. It doesn't matter what you pay, COD or otherwise, you still can accumulate money. So on 1025 money, that stands for the 10th of the month and 25th of month money comes into your income account and then you allocate out on those days. Actually, Kelsey, you have us on a weekly basis here, right? So you can do it weekly, you could do it, whatever. But the money that gets transferred to the opex, you have to have the money in the OPEX to pay your cod. So what I'm hearing is if you can't pay cod, you're actually cash backwards. You're waiting for money to come in so you can pay the bills that you're incurring. You got to accumulate that wealth of cash, and you do it by accumulating money. Every 10th and 25th and whatever money's the OPEX is the only money you can spend. If you don't have enough money to pay COD cash on delivery, then you have to see if you can make orders smaller so you can pay for it. It's your business speaking to you. There's a challenge going on, Morgan, and you gotta fix it. Stick with a 1025.

Come on, man.

Yeah, it's true. All right, Kels. I nailed that one, I think.

Yeah.

Without stuttering. Without saying a gross. All right, take us out, Kals.

Don't forget to subscribe. Where? Wherever you're listening to us.

I like this outro that you picked for us.

I really like this outro. Yeah.

Do you? Yeah. Do you like it? Jackie picked it.

I picked it.

You know who picked this?

This is the third conversation we've had about this.

You gotta get this.

I have a next diva phone.

I get credit for nothing. Nothing.

But, you know, you do get credit for. You came up with the tagline or the hashtag EEP E E P eep. So that's the hashtag for the show. Make sure you visit mikemotorbike.com too, my friends. There's a special gift waiting for you there. And talk about the show on Twitter and hashtag eps. See you later.