Profit As A Responsibility - Profit First With Mike Michalowicz | Wealth Without Bay Street Podcast

All right. Well, welcome to another episode of Wealth Without Bay Street. We are beyond excited to have a special guest with us here today. Richard, would you take a moment to introduce Mike to our audience?

Super honored to do that. We've got Mike Michalowicz with us. He's the author of many incredible works including Profit First, Clockwork Surge, the Pumpkin Plan, and a new release which is Fix this Next. I believe we can see them in the background. If you're looking, you're watching this with us. Very well positioned on the tree of knowledge, as I called it. Mike has had a lot of success before his 35th birthday, even founded and sold two companies, one to a private equity firm and other to a Fortune 500 company. He's running his third multimillion dollar venture, Profit First Professionals. We're going to speak to him about that today. And you know, even been a small business columnist for the Wall Street Journal and basically really a business makeover specialist all over the place. He's, he's well sought after by entrepreneurs and he is quite an incredible individual. We're so excited were elated to have him with us here today. Welcome, Mike.

Well, thank you for the very kind intro. I appreciate both you gentlemen having me. Thanks.

We are beyond excited that you're here, Mike, because we've been talking to our listening audience so much about your, your book Profit first and we've given it so much praise because we've actually implemented what you've, what you teach and what we'll share a great story with you here in just a few minutes about that. But because you've connected with well over a million entrepreneurs, can you share with our listening audience what trends have you spotted and what things have come up for you regularly? And more importantly, what inspired you to create the Profit first model?

So in regards to trends I spotted, this is going to be a shocker. Entrepreneurship is effing hard. That's very clear and I've experienced it too. Richard, that was a very kind introduction. There's one piece you left out and not your fault. I leave it out. I actually had one business that was a total collapse. This actually brought about Profit First. To answer your question, Jason, I did sell two companies early on. They were both in the tech space. I was in the right space at the right time. I was a millionaire in my early 30s, self made and I thought I was such a genius. I thought everything figured out.

The arrival syndrome.

Yeah, totally, totally. I was full of arrogance and ignorance, but I didn't know. So for my third business, I Go, oh, I'm going to become an angel investor. I'm simply going to pump and dump businesses. I'm going to do this over and over. I'm going to be the big, you know, the big man on campus. By the way, I looked up in Webster's dictionary, what's the word? Someone that's full of arrogance and ignorance. I want to know what the word is. I found it. It's a dick. I was a dick. So I'm like, this is a dick. I'm like, oh, I'm gonna start an angel investing company. I'm just gonna start making rain money and stuff. So I started 10 businesses. Every single one failed. I was aimlessly investing. I didn't understand that businesses, if you go into multiple businesses, they should link or complement each other in some way. I didn't have any of that comprehension. I was just like, oh, that sounds like a good idea. Plus, the big dick is here. I'll figure it out. Well, it took me only two years and I wiped out all my wealth. And I think that's the important part of my story. I mean, I wiped out everything. I blew it on stupid. You know, I got to have the big house, I got to have the vacation place out in Hawaii, all that stuff. The second thing was I was just blowing money on just bad ideas. On February 14, I remember the day exactly because it was Valentine's Day, I got a call from my accountant suggesting I declare bankruptcy. He said, we got two choices. Declare bankruptcy or liquidate the remaining stuff you have and live like a pauper. I actually chose that path. I didn't think my creditors were responsible for my own ignorance and arrogance. So I lost my house. I lost everything except for my family. My wife and children stood by me and I had to start over. As much as I teach how to make money with profit first, I really know how to lose money quickly, too. I should do a book on that. It became the impetus for profit first. As I grew my first couple of businesses, they were growing in sales. They were never profitable. It was check to check survival. I did have to refinance my house on multiple occasions to cover payroll. I thought I could sell my way out that sales cures everything, which is total bullshit. It doesn't. And I started to reinvestigate everything I thought I knew about entrepreneurship. One of the amazing, shocking, I should say, stats about profit is this. 83% of small businesses. This is a global phenomenon. 83%. This is according to US Bank. They did a study in the US came a global study of the hundred and actually now just surpassed 200 million. It used to be 180. There's now 200 million small businesses. Of the 200 million small businesses globally, 83%, that's over 160 million businesses are surviving check by check. If they don't get significant deposits in this week today, they can't cover the bills tomorrow.

Wow.

It's a constant stress. And here's what was so confounding to me. I suspect Richard, Jason, for me, for everyone listening, the reason we started our business, at least one of the primary reasons is for financial freedom. Like I don't want to worry about bills. That's why I got into my own business. I also want personal freedom. I want to do what I want when I want. So time and money. That's why I start my business. But the two things I don't get, I have no freaking time, I'm working my ass off and I have no money. That's the reason I started what's going on. And I discovered, I thought it was our fault. I thought me as the entrepreneurs failing, I thought we were failing. That's when I discovered the formula. The foundational formula for profit, I believe is a lie. We are told that sales minus expenses equals profit.

Right?

That profit's the bottom line or the year end. That's the actual words we use for it. But it is human. It makes logical sense, but is human. It's behavioral. That when something comes last, it means it's insignificant.

That's right.

If you love your family, I strongly suspect you'll say, I love my family so much. That's why I put them last. If you care about your health, you don't say, you know what? I'm going to start putting my health last like I always wanted to. Last means don't worry about insignificant. It's the manana syndrome, right? First means we do it. So in profit first, what I teach is sales minus profit equals expenses. In practice, every time revenue comes in your company, take a predetermined percentage of that money, allocate it to a profit account, hide it from your business, take your profit first and then run your business off the remainder. I love that's how profit.

Oh, and I love how you said that because that was one of the very first things that jumped off the page at me as I was reading the book for the very first time. And I remember where I was. I remember the aha moment for me. And on page 20 of the book where you indicate profit must be baked into Your business, every day, every transaction, every moment. Profit is not an event. Profit is a habit. Yeah, that was, I highlighted it and said, oh my God, like, of course it is.

Jason's all about the word habit.

Event, or an expansion of it is event means eventuality, eventuality. It's going to wait, you know, one day. That's what event turns into. Event turns into one day.

Right.

Profit is an accumulation of small habitual wins. If I can make profit today and tomorrow and tomorrow it starts accumulating very quickly. If I wait to hit that home run one day, it's never going to happen. It just never does.

Everything that you just stated there is perfectly succinct to the stuff that Jason and I do on a day to day basis with our clients, which is around, you know, the infinite banking concept. It's about that habitual nature. It's behavioral change in your financial household level.

Yeah.

And now what's beautiful about your work is it's a way to integrate additional business thinking principles down at the household level even. And so really we've kind of been teaching people ultimately essentially the premise of your book at the individual, you and me level in their household life. And now we have a new framework, a way to describe that in a powerful way to them on their business life as well. It's a beautiful marriage of ideas, in my opinion.

You know what they say about the entrepreneurial journey, they say that our business, and us, the entrepreneur, personal life, if you will, is that it's a parent child relationship. You know, I start a business, I'm the parent for this business. And I, if I care for it and coddle it, one day it'll grow mature enough and strong enough that it will support me. That's the idea. And I call BS on that analogy. It's not a parent child relationship. We are conjoined twins with our business. We share critical organs, life, we share the same soul. If we're not doing well in the business, that comes home immediately. That comes home. In my life, the business is struggling, so is my house. And if my house is struggling, so is my business. So therefore, the separation is a very surgical and meticulous process. You must take care of the business in order to take care of yourself and vice versa. So these things are in synchronicity. And over time there's methods to remove the business so the business can run on its own. And that's beyond the profit first principles. But the foundation is you'll never have a business that can run itself unless it achieves profitability and you provide for it, so it can do that. But our life is so in synchronicity. Most entrepreneurs actually are even confused how much they take home, because it's really just the business. Just whatever money's left over is flowing home to their house. There's no predictability. There's no salary.

Right.

So profit first is more than just allocating profit. The full introduction of the system includes a predictable salary for you as an owner. So you know what your lifestyle should be like.

Yes.

Fluid jumping around kind of thing.

Well, and that takes us to one of the parts of the book that also really resonated with us on page 40, when you discuss and you. You talk about Parkinson's Law. And one of the interpretations of Parkinson's law that we educate our clients on is, is that expenses rise to equal income. And for. For many people, expenses rise to exceed income. And so you did a wonderful job describing Parkinson's law and how it triggers two behaviors when supply is scant. Could you expand on that for our listeners?

And what does it have to do with a tube? Yeah.

And the toothpaste deal that that was.

Oh, you want to hear? I can act that one out for you. So expenses, I find, will increase to match available cash. So income doesn't necessarily represent available cash. There's also credit cards, and there's that line of credit you've taken out from the bank. And there's money you borrowed from your uncle. That cash, too, gets swallowed up. Parkinson was a theorist, I think, in the 1950s. And what he was doing was he was studying human behavior around the utilization of resources. Now, the majority of his research was around time. What he realized is that if we were discussing a contract, I tell you guys, hey, I'll get you that contract in one week. Now, we set a time limit of one week. I will likely take a week to get that contract to you. Expanded time, expanded consumption. But if the same people have the same conversation about the same contract, all the parameters are the same. Except I say, I'll get to you tomorrow. I'll likely get to you tomorrow. So as we control or constrain the amount of time, we work more efficiently within the reduced time. Well, as any supply increases, this is what Parkinson pointed out. Our consumption of increases more time. The more we use more money, the more we use. The example I use in the book is toothpaste. And it's kind of funny, but what it does is it points to how Parkinson's law is wired into every human and why I like to use toothpaste because we experience toothpaste every day. A couple times a day, maybe multiple three or four times a day. But every night before you go to bed, chances are you brush your teeth and there are always two experiences. You pull out your toothbrush, and then you pull out your toothpaste, and you either have a full tube or an empty tube. When you have a full tube, it's that long bead. Put it on there. Sometimes I used to travel a lot when there wasn't a Covid crisis. You never know what to predict. Out of a hotel faucet. You put the toothpaste on, you turn on it. It's like a waterfall coming out. The thing blows off, it falls in the sink. And I'll tell you this, here's a tip. When you go to a hotel, if something goes in the sink, do not scoop it out and put it in your mouth. Yeah, there's the tip.

Very good tip.

You're very welcome. You're very welcome.

That's going to be bold in the show notes.

You know, there's toothpaste in the sink. I'm like, that's disgusting. I'm not going to touch it. So what do I do? I put more toothpaste on. The lesson is, when there's a full supply, Parkinson's law. Large supply, large consumption is subconscious. The converse is when there's no toothpaste. You know, I've been on these trips. I forgot to pack my bathroom bag, and I open it up to brush my teeth. And inside is like this gnarled up, shriveled, prune like tube of toothpaste. And that's when I start walking around like, all right, game on, mofo. This is why I've been working out. Let's do this toothpaste. And I'll start twisting and turning that thing. I'll do everything to get it out. I'll do the double thumb grip, you know, where you can push real hard. That little turtle head of toothpaste peaks out. And now one droplet of toothpaste, one bristle hair is adequate. And if I turn the sink and that little droplet falls in the sink, admittedly, I may scoop it out. That's Parkinson's law, too. When there's scant supply, reduced supply, our behavior also adjusts subconsciously. We become more frugal. It's called forced frugality. Less supply, you must be more frugal. Secondly, innovation, Parkinson pointed out, when there's less resource, we become more optimized to leverage that resource. We twist and turn we don't let it go down the drain that time. True for toothpaste. And if anyone listening can relate to that, it's because you're walking Parkinson's law. We're all like that. And you can use it for money. When we reduce the supply of money available to operate our business, the first resistance, I guess people say, well, it takes money to make money. And that's not true. It actually takes less money to make money. Because when you constrain how much money is available, it forces you to outthink the industry. It forces you to be innovative.

I agree completely.

Yeah. And I'm soapboxing a little bit right now, so I'll stop.

Hey, no, keep going. This is great.

So we have over 350,000 companies that have implemented Profit First. We have the case studies, we thousands of them. And here's what we found, which to me blew my mind. But now I expect it. I thought if you take your profit first, if you focus on profit, that your business won't grow as quickly. And I actually found all of our studies show this, the absolute reverse consistently that when a business takes its profit first, it actually grows faster than its contemporaries. So I'm like, it doesn't make sense because we all know it takes money to make money. Well, found out it doesn't. What happens is if you take your profit first, there's less money for opex, less money to operate your business. Which means those businesses become more selective. They are better asking, now we have less money. What money should I spend? What will drive results? What have we seen? What is already working? It's the businesses that have all the money comes in, says, well, let's try out Facebook because everyone else is doing that. Let's try this because everyone else is doing that. Those don't calculate the roi. It's the companies that constrain the cash flows of the business that become more selective and do the right things. Right.

Yeah.

Therefore they start growing faster than their competition. It's, it's almost ironic if that's the right choice of words. But the less you invest in your business to a degree, but the less you invest in your business, the faster it grows. And of course, the more the profitability you have.

That is so good and interesting. You know, when we made the decision to, to implement the profit first model, one of the very first things that we did is we, we sat down and I'll share this story because it's, it's just so impactful. It's a firsthand account of just how Amazing this model is. So we sat down and we said, look, for every gross revenue dollar that comes into the business, we applied the target allocation percentages to the accounts that we created. So we had profit first. We've got continuing capital surplus reserves. So money that immediately gets set aside so that when an event like Covid happens, we are thinking as a team. When Covid first struck and we knew that social distancing measures were going to be enacted, I had to meet with my team. And as a leader, I want to be completely transparent. And I said, look, all indications are this is going to be really serious. Now, we don't know how widespread this is going to get. We don't know what the impact is going to be, but we know it's going to be serious. We have two choices to make as a team right now. We can advance or we can retreat. We can't do both. Pick one. And our entire team said we want to advance based on the profit first model and how we had previously been so disciplined in allocating a percentage of every gross revenue dollar to capital surplus reserve. Not one of our team members were impacted from an income or an employment perspective. In fact, we've hired, we've expanded our team, and we have the capital available. We're not concerned with COVID We're not concerned with the fact that the economy at one point was practically ground to a standstill. Our business has more than doubled during COVID And we have an account for owner's remuneration, for taxes and for opex. And we manage to it. We do an OPEX review. One of my first questions is, what's in the profit pool? And what's our percentage of OPEX compared to revenue? That's what I need to know. And what has happened with our teammates? I'll share this with you. Our profit pool, we distribute once a quarter, and we look inside the pool. We take 50% of the pool and we allocate it to our salaried and waged teammates. And then our team decides what to do with the remaining 50% of the pool to bless someone else's life in a positive way, whether it's community outreach, an initiative that we want to take on. And in this most recent quarter, we took 50% of the profit pool. And through a local food bank, we fed families for a whole month.

Nice.

Isn't that good?

That's amazing. You know, it's funny. So people, when they hear profit first and they don't know what it is, you just hear the title. It's a Similar reaction that I had when I heard there was a TV show called the Biggest Loser. The first time I heard that TV show, the Biggest Loser, I was like, that's the worst of reality television. They're embarrassing people now. Shame on tv. And then when I learned what that title's about, it was the person that could lose the most weight over a period of time. It was actually a very empowering show. Well, I get the same reaction with Profit first when someone's never heard it before. Like, profit First. This guy's all about greed. All he cares about is money. Right? What he wants to do is take advantage of people. And no, that's not the intention at all. Profit first challenges the formula that compromises business. Because when we do take our profit first and we care for the business, it empowers the business to be of service to our community, our country, ultimately our collective world. The fact you did that, you were empowered. Your business was empowered to serve your community. That community is serving your country. And by doing that, you're serving our globe. So thank you. You're being of service. That's what profit does. And I implore businesses to pursue profitability. I actually say it's our responsibility. Shame on the 83% businesses that are not profitable, not because they don't want it. Shame on them for not getting angry and saying, I have to make profit. You know, the more profitable we are, the more jobs we can provide. You know, in this environment, at least in the US alone, 40 million people are unemployed. It is a global tragedy that businesses, many businesses could not keep people employed. Right. So you have this massive force out there that's not working an unworkforce. Those people need jobs. Our jobs as entrepreneurs is to provide jobs. Like, that's our job. 7% of the world population are entrepreneurs. 93% of the world population works for entrepreneurs and business owners. I see business owners that are struggling at stealing jobs from other people because they're not profitable. Like, I have to go to work myself because they're doing the work. They're blocking out someone else from doing it. If we focus on profit, then we have money flowing. The business. It's not dependent on us. We can bring in other people, then we can work as work on the vision. Then we can make phenomenal choices to give to food banks. That's our job. Our job is to give jobs. And you only get there by being profitable.

Absolutely. And. But you also, when you use the model, and there's much more framework to the model, which is incredible when you use and implement the model properly, your team begins to understand that it informs the decisions that you make about how to spend capital in your business. Because we in our client services division, one of our team members, you know, had approached and said, you know, I've been doing a lot of thinking about the workload and where we're at, and rather than just come forward and say, I think we need to hire someone else, we're taking a closer look at the process, the customer journey, to see where we can find efficiency in there. Because that's what a lot of businesses do. And Mike, I'm sure you would agree, is that when, you know, you start to get busier. Well, when people's plates start overflowing with work, one of the first inclinations is we need to hire more people, we need to expand, we need to bring on more human resources without first looking at the process and going into Covid. As I shared in our story earlier, you've heard the expression before. We've all heard it. You. You rise to the occasion. People rise to the occasion. Well, because of profit first, we were able to rise to our level of preparedness. We were prepared for this. And so what we want to do, part of our business, and we're so excited about this, is that we're going to be helping established business owners and new entrepreneurs who are starting ventures, and we are going to share and demonstrate that this profit first model works so incredibly well. There isn't a single established business owner out there that should not be doing this like this is. And for again, for our listeners, just a good refresh. What I'm referring to here is Mike's book, Profit first. This is the stepping stone to transforming your business, I promise you from firsthand experience. First thing you need to do is you have to get your hands on a copy of this book. And the second thing you need to do is you need to begin thinking about how to implement this in your business. And then you have to connect with a good coach, somebody who can help you implement it. And we are gearing up to be able to do that, thanks to Mike. We owe you such a debt of gratitude, Mike. As I shared with you at the beginning of the show, once we get to travel again, I can't wait to see. I just want to give you a big hug and say thank you so much. We're so grateful.

The greatest blessings. Romanceable.

That's what we'll name the episode Profit first bromance.

Now. Now, on that note, we talk about helping people implement this process. That's been so impactful in, in this business. Now you have a way of doing that. You, you do provide different levels of coaching. You have, you have classes and boot camps and that sort of thing that you're going to be running. I know when, whenever you're able to do that again in a physical fashion, but I would imagine there's lots of resources available. We're going to put a lot of that in the show. Notes for everyone here that's, that's listening in or watching on our YouTube channel. Can you speak a little bit maybe about some of the stories from others in Canada that you've experienced? You had a lot, have you had a lot of people reaching out from Canada specifically through this?

Oh, yeah, yeah. So we actually, we, we just announced it last week. We just opened an office in Canada last week is led by Lisa Campbell.

Awesome.

And we, it was interesting. It was very clear that profit first translated to all different countries and economic circumstances about three years back, but also that there was a need for local talent. So, you know, it was interesting. We were, we had interest in the Netherlands of all places and we said, oh, let's go to the Netherlands, I'll explain it and I'll do a big presentation, get people excited. And I did and educated thousands of people in the Netherlands and then very few people were doing it and I was like, what, what's going on? And they said the yeah, buts came about. Yeah, yeah, it's a great system, but you really don't understand how the euro works and so forth. We opened an office in the Netherlands when Femke hag come as the president and exploded in popularity. Well, in Canada is about three years ago. I was, I was touring through Canada and I was meeting with farmers through the, you know, I went into Red Deer and Regina and you know, the center provinces and just meeting with all these different farmers and presenting. And it was very clear that there's just enough unique nuances between kind of the American U.S. i should say, financial approach and the Canadian financial approach. We need a local representation today. There's now thousands and thousands of businesses throughout Canada that use it. I was just talking with a fellow up in Toronto, Rob French, who has a manufacturing business. They manufacture products for lingerie cleaning products and stuff like that that implemented profit first. And it's just fascinating on how that business, but any business can take the standard framework of profit first, the five foundational accounts, the two reserve accounts, and start enhancing it. To speak exactly not just to the financial circumstances of Canada, but also the financial circumstances of that industry.

Right.

There's a lot of product movement and so forth. So the book is the framework, but it, it can be and should be tweaked and enhanced specific to kind of the rules and requirements of your. Where you are and of your industry.

Right. And that's where that customization force comes in. Having that local representation as you described, someone who's got boots on the ground where business owners can reach out to. To be able to do that. Now, Jason, you. You were sharing a little bit before we got started on the call about that. Do you want to expand on.

Yeah, you know, we are. We're going down that path and we, we hope you'll have us.

Mike.

This sound now sounds like a little bit too much of a bromance anytime. Yeah, no, I can't wait to have that conversation. Once you're, once you're prepared and get lined up, we'll take great care of you and can't wait to partner with you.

Oh, that's fantastic. And I'm so excited to hear your comments about your latest book. It's titled Fix this Next. And what really compelled me about what you shared in terms of strategy that businesses can use. You indicate to determine what to do in what order to ensure healthy, fast, permanent growth and to avoid debilitating distractions. So can you expand on what inspired you to write the book Fix this next?

Yeah, I'm smiling because it's just a funny story. It takes me about five years to write a book. Probably first. Actually took me about seven. I started it back in 2008. So fix this next. I started five years ago. And it's not just. I don't just write for five years. It does take me a long time to write, but it's the research testing. I own three businesses now. We test in my own businesses. We always guinea pig here first and Fix this next. Five years ago, I emailed my readership and I said, what's the biggest challenge you're facing in the year ahead? The reason I asked that is because I wanted to get the big challenge to fix. And I'm not the most technically savvy guy. I must have clicked the same button like four times in a row because the email went out four times on the same day or three times the same day. So the same people receiving the same email saying, what's the biggest challenge this upcoming year for you? In certain cases, the same person is answered that same question with different answers on the same day. Like one guy said in the morning, he's like, we have a massive sales problem. This year is the year we fix sales in the afternoon. It's like we have a massive systems problem. We need to bring absolute organization to the company. The evening was, we don't have a clear vision. We need better planning this year. And it became very apparent that the biggest challenge entrepreneurs face is knowing what their biggest challenge is. That's the premise for Fix this Next. How do we pinpoint that one vital need, the one most important thing the business has that needs from us? How do we pinpoint what it is and fix it? Most business owners are focusing on all the different fires they're putting out. They're firefighters. Fire here, fire there, fire. My email, Fire with the person outside the door. All fires. And maybe they grow a little bit. They hire an employee too. Maybe they're not a firefighter, but now they're the fire chief. They're just sending people all over the place. We gotta get out of firefighting mode because those businesses just stay in the circuitous pattern of never moving forward. It's exhausting.

Right.

At any given time, there can only be one most important thing that a business needs from us. Question is, what is it? So fix this next. Pinpoint what your business needs from you, you fix it, and you move on to the next thing and the next, and you really start moving forward.

Interesting.

Yes, very interesting. And could. Could you. Mike, could you describe a little bit more about chapter seven of your book where. Because I think it's really timely right now, especially for. For people during, you know, COVID 19 and destroy your debt. And on page 118, you talked about preparing for your worst month.

Yeah. So most people. Most people, and this is a natural human phenomena, have a good month and expect that to be the standard going forward. So, you know, say a bad month, and I'm just gonna do it on revenue terms. There's other elements, but say, you know, I make $10,000 and then $10,000, and then the next month I make $50,000. All of a sudden, people start feeling, oh, Now I'm a $50,000 business. All right? We've leveled up and start acting that way. Parkinson's law, our ability to adjust up in our spend is very easy. We can turn that throttle very quickly and spend more reversing and cutting our expenses very hard, very difficult. It's called loss aversion. And a classic example of this is if you ever aspired to have that fancy red sports car and you see it at the car dealership, it looks great. It's Amazing, but whatever. Then one day you pull the trigger and you buy that car. Well, now it's changed. Now it's your baby. It's in your garage. You will do anything to retain it. Like, if you can't afford the monthly car payments and they're going to pull the pink slips on you, what do we do? We get a second job. We're going to start working Uber or Lyft. We'll drop the insurance and never drive it again. It'll just sit in the garage because it's my baby. That's called loss aversion. Once we possess something, we become so fearful of losing it that we'll do extraordinary things. When our spend increases, when we have a good month, we so quickly have that red, beautiful car that we're hesitant to actually stop spending. So the next month when our revenue goes back down, like. But my new lifestyle standard, I have the new grade A office space. I have to keep this. And we'll justify it and behave illogically, really compromising our business. So in prop first, what we teach is it's actually the lowest standard that you should be prepared for. The spikes are wonderful. And then when that cash comes in, we'll hide it away. But let's be prepared for the lowest levels. And by doing that, you always protect yourself. Because if you learn to run your business off of the worst months, your business will thrive in the best months. But if you learn to live your business off the best months, your business will die in those worst months. So you focus on the worst.

It's interesting, you talk about, you know, going to the Netherlands and all those people that you did, those thousands of people you spoke to and the. Yeah, butts came in and nobody was implementing until you got boots on the ground. It really speaks to such. The so much the importance of that coaching level and by needing to have a person to tap into so that you can check in, you have essentially it's.

It.

It's really just an accountability aspect. You need an accountability partner so that, you know, you can, you can offload the disciplinary aspects where you're cracking the whip on yourself and you can have someone else help crack the whip for you, that you actually want to be there. You know, that's kind of one of the things that coaching provides, I think, for a lot of people.

Oh, yeah, is it? You know, when you read the book, you start doing it. When you have a coach now, you know, if you're doing it right, that's a big difference.

That's it.

And I consider Like a gym. Like, I like to exercise. And I notice when I go to the gym that many people, myself included, will show up and then pretty quickly wane off. I may not be doing exercises right. I may actually be doing the wrong exercise for years. And it may result in a shoulder injury, for example, because now I have a shoulder injury in my right shoulder. I noticed that some people prudently choose a trainer, and the trainer offers some specific advantages. The trainer shows you do the right exercises the right way, so you avoid injury. Secondly, because you're paying them, they're an extraordinary accountability mechanism. Like, you got to show up. Some people, myself included, say, you know what? I don't need a trainer. I'll do it myself. Or I'll work out with a workout buddy. And a workout buddy is great for accountability until it becomes collusion. One day you call your friends, say, hey, going to the gym? You know what? I'm not feeling it. Me neither. Why don't we get some donuts? Yeah, donuts are great. Let's eat donuts. That's collusion. And now you're actually hurting each other. But a trainer is paid for one specific thing. To train you the right way, the healthy way, and get the results that you always intended to get. So there's a high degree of accountability. And because they work with so many other people, because they have so much experience, you do the right way without injury. That's the key. Sadly, I've seen a lot of businesses. We have 350,000 businesses doing profit first. Sadly, there's probably hundreds of thousands that have injured themselves because they read the book and they went full throttle like, let's do this. And they didn't know what they were doing. It didn't work. It hurt the business. And they said, well, the system doesn't work. And they're back to the way that's not working from the get go. And that's a shame. You really need to do this right and you need to do it slowly, too. You don't go to the gym and all of a sudden you throw £300 on trying to bench it, and you rip out your shoulders. No. If you haven't worked out in a while or ever start slow, let it grow. Muscle will grow over time. So a Profit first advisor, Profit first professional directs clients on how to build momentum. With the profit first system, it's not you don't get rich overnight, but you get rich permanently over time.

Every single word that was just said there, it was like, wow, that fits in our business. That Fits our business.

That fits in our business.

Well, we're. Yeah, we can't wait to. To be helping coach, you know, others to implement this model. It's brilliant. Mike, we sincerely appreciate you being with us today. We know that you could have been doing something else with your time. We're so happy that you chose to spend it with us. We'd love to have you back as a guest, you know, once we move into that model of being able to help. And we'd love to have you come back and join us and we'd encourage you.

Got to have a celebration.

Oh, for sure.

And we partner up. When that day comes, you guys tell me and we'll do version two.

Oh, I love that.

Like Jaws too big. Like Jaws too bigger.

Better.

Mike, we're very grateful to you and we would share again to all of our listeners, do yourself a favor, just get on your phone or if you're already on your phone, just get a copy of Mike's book Profit first and fix this next. Get those books shipped to you. You'll be glad you did. And we're going to include a variety of resources in the show notes as well. Mike has an abundance of wonderful entrepreneurial tools that entrepreneurs can subscribe to. And so he's a real giver. He provides a lot of great content and has no expectation of anything in return. And so, Mike, we appreciate you so much. We wish you a terrific weekend. Thanks for being with us and thanks to our listeners. If you're on the youtubes or the Facebooks or the podcast, smash the like.

Button, hit the subscribe and all the associated things so you can get more of this great stuff.

Thank you, Mike. We appreciate you.

Thanks, gentlemen.

Have an amazing day. Bye. Thanks for listening to the Wealth Without Bay street podcast where your wealth matters. Be sure to check out our social media channels for more great content. Hit subscribe on your favorite podcast player and be sure to rate the show. We definitely appreciate it. And don't forget to share this episode with someone you care about. Join us on the next episode where we continue to uncover the financial tools, strategies, and the mindsets that maximize your wealth.