Authentic Business Adventures Podcast

Jason DeSouza - DeSouza Injury Lawyers On the Good, Bad and Shady in the Injury Law World: "There are lots of very, very good, very aggressive injury lawyers that know how to treat clients properly. Unfortunately, there's a lot of mills that do everything they can do to just get as many clients as possible. Stick them through the apple press, get whatever juice they can, and move on to the next one." We've all seen the billboards.  Every big city has the advertisements for injury attorneys plaguing the landscape.  But what is the business of injury law all about? Jason DeSouza of DeSouza Injury Lawyers shares an unfiltered look at the business side of personal injury law. From his law school days and early work with a tough-as-nails tax attorney, to battling insurance companies and adapting to a world filled with AI and self-driving cars, Jason brings humor, candor, and real stories from the frontlines. We dive deep into everything from the ethics (and sometimes antics) of industry marketing, to navigating medical malpractice cases in today's harsh legal climate. Learn how lawyers use AI as a tool for high-level strategy, why most injury cases never see a courtroom, what it takes to hire (and keep) a great lawyer, and what you should always ask before signing on with an attorney. Listen as Jason explains the role injury lawyers play to keep the world safe, and how you can protect yourself from frivolous lawsuits, as well as what to do if you are ever injured. Enjoy! Visit Jason at: https://jfdlawfirm.com/ Sponsors: Calls On Call Extraordinary Answering Service, phone answering for small businesses: https://callsoncall.com Some videos have been recorded with Riverside: https://www.riverside.fm/?utm_campaign=campaign_5&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_source=rewardful&via=james-kademan   Podcast Overview: 00:00 Transitioning from law school to practice 07:04 Challenges in Collecting Judgments 10:54 Negotiating Insurance Settlements 19:44 Importance of Personal Insurance 26:27 Blaming tech, not the driver 31:20 The risks of tech innovation 32:26 Investor interest in Waymo's future 38:40 AI's impact on legal work 43:48 Optimizing Fable with Opus 5 50:38 Discussing medical malpractice cases 59:19 Choosing an Injury Lawyer 01:01:12 Evaluating Injury Lawyer Options 01:07:58 Handling lawsuits with insurance 01:14:16 Judges influencing case outcomes  

Travis Spicer - Spotbookr On Sneaky, and a Bit Creepy But Effective, Advertising: "And then now you're seeing it and you're like, oh, how convenient. And then we get to turn you into this zombie to go and buy something." Where should you advertise your business?  You have a great product or service and you need to get the word out to the masses.  But how?  Where do you spend your marketing dollars to turn ad spend into a multiplier of revenue? Spotbookr founder Travis took his marketing experience and started Spotbookr, a tool used to find where your competitors are advertising, so you can learn from them and either duplicate their success, or avoid their failures. Listen as Travis explains how to learn from your competitors about what is working and what is not so you can spend your advertising dollars intelligently. Enjoy! Visit Travis at: https://spotbookr.com/ Sponsors: Calls On Call Extraordinary Answering Service, phone answering for small businesses: https://callsoncall.com Some videos have been recorded with Riverside: https://www.riverside.fm/?utm_campaign=campaign_5&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_source=rewardful&via=james-kademan   Podcast Overview: 00:00 Analyzing consumer sentiment data 05:05 Helping international brands target youth 08:51 Choosing Brands Based on Ads 12:33 Understanding your brand's identity 15:21 Knowing Your Brand and Audience 18:03 Creating a unified ad platform during COVID 22:24 Challenges for small business marketing 26:05 Social media's influence on consumers 29:59 How online algorithms personalize ads 31:35 Understanding modern ad tracking 36:13 Understanding Digital Impressions 41:01 Brand recognition vs conversion goals 43:55 The importance of targeted advertising 46:23 Understanding your client's brand 51:59 Understanding Brand Identity Challenges 53:18 Trusting your team and vision  

Mark Hartmann - Mergers and Acquisitions On the Value of Purpose: "Either you'll exit it vertically, maybe on your own terms, or you'll exit horizontally, maybe not on your own terms. You will exit your business, right?" What happens when a psychotherapist, a negotiator, and a business dealmaker all walk into the same room—and they're all the same person?  Mark Hartmann of Hartmann Rhodes, a specialist in mergers and acquisitions offers stories, strategies, and the kind of hard-earned wisdom you only get from years in the trenches of small business sales. You'll hear why Mark Hartmann warns entrepreneurs not to let “your cousin Vinny” handle their business sale, how blue-collar businesses like HVAC companies are suddenly sizzling hot investments (think tech-level multiples!), and the art of negotiating like a terrorist—but in a good way. We'll dive into what really determines the value of your business, how to play the tricky game of deal terms, why clean books and owner independence are non-negotiable, and the emotional rollercoaster awaiting every founder ready to exit. You'll get Mark's top nuggets from his Amazon best-selling book, "Sweat Equity Payday," honest talk about seller's and buyer's remorse, and practical advice for buyers, sellers, and anyone thinking about their company's future. Whether you want to sell, buy, or simply understand the market forces reshaping entrepreneurship, this episode delivers the real stories and insights you won't get in a business school classroom. Listen as Mark details how to prepare your business for sale and to execute the sale to make sure you get the best price and the best terms. Enjoy! Visit Mark at: https://www.hartmannrhodes.com/ Sponsors: Calls On Call Extraordinary Answering Service, phone answering for small businesses: https://callsoncall.com Some videos have been recorded with Riverside: https://www.riverside.fm/?utm_campaign=campaign_5&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_source=rewardful&via=james-kademan   Podcast Overview: 00:00 Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition (ETA) 05:03 Valuing a Business for Sale 09:50 Generational shifts in DIY skills 10:50 Electricians' high demand and salaries 14:25 Explaining business market segments 18:36 Evaluating financials and dependencies 20:31 Evaluating business worth 24:08 Negotiating business exit strategies 29:08 Discussing buy-side engagements 31:49 Negotiation strategies with sellers 34:45 Challenges with inexperienced attorneys 39:32 Not the right dealmaker for the job 41:49 Being on the Inc. 5000 list 45:18 Preparing for Business Exit 47:39 Attending the Value Builder Summit 53:12 Advice for buyers and sellers 57:00 Show intro and sponsor shoutout  

Felica Ray Diny - Felicia's Donation Closet On the Value of Purpose: "We're not just bringing a kitchen table, we're bringing it so she can sit down with her children to have a meal together." Sometimes people need a little help, and sometimes people need a lot.  Imagine being an abused woman, with children, trying to escape an abusive relationship with very little, if any, money, and the need to keep your children safe, fed and happy.  That can be a tall order, and the need for help is strong. Felicia Ray Diny saw this need and is doing something about it.  She started Felicia's Donation Closet, a non-profit that collects houses, and distributes furniture and household products to victims of abuse.  Felicia and her amazing team work to collect things like beds, couches, dressers, pots and pans, and the things that most of us have and take for granted.  They then deliver, and often setup, this items for the families that need them most. It is so great to hear about business, it is much greater to hear about people doing good and making the world a better place. Listen as Felicia details her struggles and success in building Felicia's Donation Closet and how this idea has gained a lot of momentum in such a short time.  Truly an inspiring guest. Enjoy! Visit Felicia at: https://feliciasdonationcloset.org/ Sponsors: Calls On Call Extraordinary Answering Service, phone answering for small businesses: https://callsoncall.com Some videos have been recorded with Riverside: https://www.riverside.fm/?utm_campaign=campaign_5&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_source=rewardful&via=james-kademan   Podcast Overview: 00:00 Helping Families Move to New Homes 03:27 Lessons from a food donation 08:25 Learning about a new industry 10:19 Donating furniture to a family in need 15:29 Application paperwork process 18:00 Selecting personalized gifts 22:30 Managing product turnover 25:47 Organizing move day logistics 29:13 Seeking sponsors and warehouse help 32:02 Dealing with public speaking anxiety 36:04 Meeting at the fundraiser event 39:05 Providing furniture and essentials 41:42 Inspiration and starting the company 44:16 Poker tournament at tasting room 46:59 Helping a mom with support 50:15 Business reality vs. student expectations  

Mickie Kennedy - eReleases On Good PR: "Every time you're getting ready to issue a press release that you feel is meaningful to you, think about how can I make it meaningful for that audience person, making them want to read it, make it easier for a journalist to say, yeah, I think my audience would love to hear that." When a woman starts a business and/ or becomes successful, often she does this with pain that has been quelling in her for years.  As an entrepreneur, we push through pain, but eventually it may be time to address Advertising is expensive and doesn't always move the needle.  Marketing as a whole has many options, and PR is one of them.  You see, sharing a press release is taking the steps to get your business out of the paid world of eyeballs and into the world of eyeballs that pay to see you.  That is a much better place to be. But how do you get in the news?  What are the rules of the game for writing and sending these press releases, and who do you send them to? Mickie Kennedy has eReleases, a press release company that caters to the small business that wants to grow, knows the value of press releases, yet has no idea where to start and certainly doesn't have the connections in the journalism world to Enjoy! Visit Mickie at: https://www.ereleases.com/ Sponsors: Calls On Call Extraordinary Answering Service, phone answering for small businesses: https://callsoncall.com Some videos have been recorded with Riverside: https://www.riverside.fm/?utm_campaign=campaign_5&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_source=rewardful&via=james-kademan   Podcast Overview: 00:00 Improving media strategy overnight 06:10 Basics of a Press Release 07:18 How journalists find stories 13:22 Exploiting AI with press releases 16:00 Challenges with AI in literary writing 18:50 Crafting impactful press quotes 23:43 Media consumption through newswires 27:26 Journalists adapting to digital changes 29:29 AI in Journalism: Current Challenges 32:26 Importance of trade publications 35:59 Choosing the right PR firm 39:40 Turning losses into profits 45:00 Media headlines and interpretations 47:02 Discussing marketing and clickbait headlines 51:12 Getting meaningful survey responses 54:15 Being the contrarian in your industry Podcast Transcription: Mickie Kennedy [00:00:00]: We work with all different types of verticals. We work with authors, used to be mostly self-published authors, but over the past, I would say, 12 to 14 years, we work with a lot of traditionally published authors as well. You know, everything under the sun. We work with a lot of people who appear on Shark Tank, people doing side businesses, hoping that it'll turn into something. Everybody's out there trying to get a little attention and find a way in which they can make press releases work for them. James Kademan [00:00:25]: What is a press release? A press release? Mickie Kennedy [00:00:27]: Basically, it's an announcement to the media. I always tell people, if you are looking to work for— with a PR firm, you want to make sure that you choose one that is in your industry. The biggest mistake that I see and the most amount of money that I've seen people waste is working with a local PR firm thinking that that was the way to go when they should have chosen a PR firm that focused on their industry. James Kademan [00:00:55]: You have found Authentic Business Adventures, the business program that brings you the struggle stories and triumphant successes of business owners across the land. Downloadable audio episodes can be found on the podcast link found at drawincustomers.com. We are locally underwritten by the Bank of Sun Prairie, Calls on Call Extraordinary Answering Service, as well as the Bold Business Book. And today we're welcoming slash preparing to learn from Mickey Kennedy of eReleases. Mickey, how is it going today? Mickie Kennedy [00:01:23]: Good, good. James Kademan [00:01:25]: Excellent. And tell me, we're talking about press releases for businesses, is that right? Mickie Kennedy [00:01:31]: That's correct, yes. James Kademan [00:01:32]: All right, tell me a story. What is eReleases? Mickie Kennedy [00:01:36]: So, uh, we are a press release distribution company. We send releases out over PR Newswire, which is the oldest and national press release newswire here in the United States. It's basically a duopoly, PR Newswire, then Business Wire. And we have been in business since 1998. We send out about a little over 10,000 press releases a year, giving mostly small businesses, entrepreneurs, startups access to the Wire at a huge discount because the Wire charges about $2,000 for a national press release going out of 600 words or so. And with us, it's about a third of that price. Wow. James Kademan [00:02:17]: All right. And how— tell me about the discount. How were you able to pull that off? Mickie Kennedy [00:02:23]: Because when they reached out to us years ago, they were really trying to promote like a city distribution. And I'm like, well, my clients are really looking for national media attention. And we kept communicating and I went and met their editorial team. And the one thing I noticed is They have an editorial team overnight, but they don't do much, they said. They said, we have to be there in case there's breaking news or, you know, something happens. And I was just like, well, what if I set up all my press releases for next business day so you could set them up overnight? Wouldn't cost you any additional labor. And they also looked at my customer profile, which is really small businesses, mostly people whose budgets are $2,000 or $3,000 a year. their salespeople would not reach out or want to recruit any customers like that. Mickie Kennedy [00:03:13]: They're going for Fortune 500 companies. They're looking for people who are spending $20,000 to $40,000 a year. So in that way, it was just found money for them. And doing 10,000+ releases a year, it's still a significant amount of money that we're sending them, but it is a huge discount. And, you know, some of our customers do graduate and become much larger, and then we just introduce them directly to PR Newswire and they can work directly with them. James Kademan [00:03:40]: Sure. I suppose if the PR actually works the way a business owner wants it to work, then we hope they graduate up. Mickie Kennedy [00:03:46]: Yeah, absolutely. James Kademan [00:03:48]: Right on. Is there a certain vertical of industry that you typically work with? Mickie Kennedy [00:03:52]: We work with all different types of verticals. We work with authors, used to be mostly self-published authors, but over the past, I would say, 12 to 14 years, we work with a lot of traditionally published authors as well. Seems like the publishers aren't doing marketing anymore, even for established presses and publishers that you've heard of. And so, you know, everything under the sun. We work with a lot of people who appear on Shark Tank. The producers recommend that they do a press release before their episode airs, and we get mentioned quite a bit as a good place for them to send their releases. And so, you know, I think that everything under the sun is who we work with. You know, people doing side businesses, hoping that it'll turn into something. Mickie Kennedy [00:04:39]: You know, people who have small businesses that might have 20 or 30 employees. Employees or even more mid-sized companies moving from there. But I would say it's a pretty mix across all different types of industries. We see everything from technology to, like, you know, waste management to, you know, really, you know, a local carpet company in New Jersey. So everybody's out there trying to, you know, get a little attention and find a way in which they can make press releases work for them. James Kademan [00:05:09]: Sure. How do people end up— or business owners, I should say— how do they end up finding you? Mickie Kennedy [00:05:15]: So a lot of it is either word of mouth or they're doing searches. And, you know, they'll come across us as maybe a blog post that we've written. We've been in business for a long time, so we have over 1,000 articles out there. We also advertise on Google and some other places. But I think You know, I would say probably half of all new customers are just direct referrals. And so someone has suggested they give us a try and, you know, they reach out to us. It's more consultative because a lot of people don't know how it works. So they'll either call and speak to one of our editors or chat or email with us. Mickie Kennedy [00:05:56]: And we walk people through their first press release and their first PR campaign on a a weekly basis. James Kademan [00:06:03]: Sure. Let's lay down the foundation of press releases just so that people understand. What is a press release? Mickie Kennedy [00:06:10]: Basically, it's an announcement to the media. It's usually written in the third person. If you're writing in the first person, it's usually a quote, a company quote, or someone being quoted in, in the press release. They're generally— you've probably seen they say for immediate release at the top. They might have a dateline with the city, state, and the date of distribution. And there's usually a media contact towards the bottom, someone that the media could contact if they have more questions or if they need something a little more specific, like, hey, I really like this, but I'd like to get a quote around this topic, you know, and do you feel like that would be a good fit? So, you know, that's what it is. It's a lot of these just go out on a regular basis. Publicly traded companies have to issue these types of things just to keep their public informed about it so that investors don't feel like they're, you know, something happens that's significant and they weren't notified or given some kind of,...

Morrighan Lynne - Her Sovereign Way On the Learning to Break the Chains of No: "So there's this feeling of my value is tied to them liking me, and if I say no to them, they may not like me anymore." When a woman starts a business and/ or becomes successful, often she does this with pain that has been quelling in her for years.  As an entrepreneur, we push through pain, but eventually it may be time to address the pain you are holding to be able to advance to the next level. Morrighan Lynne of Her Sovereign Way helps women do exactly that. The conversation focused on the powerful, often overlooked ways women are taught to prioritize others' needs above their own.  The toll this takes on their health, happiness, and ambitions can be extreme and a silent killer. The ingrained habit of people pleasing, how it leads to burnout, and why so many choose predictable pain over the unknown risks of change are issues that Morrighan helps women address. A key theme that emerged was the journey to reclaiming sovereignty: empowering women to drop their masks, say no when it serves them, and cultivate a new sense of value rooted in self-awareness and boundaries. Listen as Morrighan details the challenges women face in balancing nurturing roles, entrepreneurship, and self-care, diving into both the science of stress and the emotional roots of self-worth. Including real-life techniques for disrupting old patterns, the unique burnout cycle for women, and why true personal growth often means ruffling feathers in our closest relationships. Enjoy! Visit Morrighan at: https://www.morrighanlynne.com/ Sponsors: Calls On Call Extraordinary Answering Service, phone answering for small businesses: https://callsoncall.com Some videos have been recorded with Riverside: https://www.riverside.fm/?utm_campaign=campaign_5&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_source=rewardful&via=james-kademan   Podcast Overview: 00:00 Discussing people-pleasing and burnout 09:39 Creating healthy boundaries 14:13 Learning to Say No 18:03 Building Self-Awareness and Boundaries 26:54 Choosing Predictable Pain Over Unknown 30:10 Going out for a night out 33:46 Breaking out of comfort zones 43:46 Support for Relationship Transitions 47:32 Understanding shadow work 53:27 Exploring the subconscious mind 57:32 Exploring Childhood Core Wounds 01:01:20 Confronting fear for my son 01:10:39 Reading energy through videos 01:13:09 Launching AI support for women Podcast Transcription:  

Melodie van der Baan - Max Retail On the Success Secret: "You have to be so obsessed with the problem you're solving because it is going to be so freaking hard that you must have the wherewithal to continue going when it gets tough, when you hit dead ends." Melodie van der Baan has seen some things.  As an experienced entrepreneur in the clothing and retail space, she has learned what to do, what not to do and what new thing should be done. That new thing is Max Retail.  You see, clothing stores and retailers have products on their shelves.  those products need to move, from shelf, to customers arms, through the checkout and out the door.  If that doesn't happen, something has to give.  So if a product isn't moving, it has to go. But where should that non-moving inventory go?  Melodie has united the masses of retailers to allow them to buy and sell excess inventory so they aren't losing money and they are gaining value.  This genius business came from the mind of someone that learned through first hand retail experience. Listen as Melodie details how she brought Max Retail to life and how it has helped countless retailers. Enjoy! Visit Melodie at: https://maxretail.com/ Sponsors: Calls On Call Extraordinary Answering Service, phone answering for small businesses: https://callsoncall.com Some videos have been recorded with Riverside: https://www.riverside.fm/?utm_campaign=campaign_5&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_source=rewardful&via=james-kademan   Podcast Overview: 00:00 Retail markdown strategies 04:38 Challenges of retail inventory turnover 07:27 Starting out with no funds 12:30 Adapting to Modern Retail Challenges 16:48 Discovering the art of inventory planning 18:44 How planners manage excess stock 24:03 How MAX Retail data matching works 27:01 Starting Swap Retail in 2016 30:32 Trying e-commerce partnerships 32:58 Rebranding to Max Retail 35:15 Navigating economic ups and downs 38:48 Challenges of starting a retail store 44:44 Sales as a team sport 46:27 Selling seasonal inventory efficiently 51:21 Managing sales team performance 55:16 Pizza Friday gatherings explained Podcast Transcription: Speaker B: What I have learned is that there is nothing more powerful than being human. And when you are human and you treat people like they are people and not a transaction, you will always win. If you chase the American dream in air quotation marks, which says you have to live in a fancy house and you have to drive a fancy car, you will never live the life you want to live. You will be a prisoner to the comparison of others. And if you don't love your dream more than you desire the accolades of others, just don't even bother. There's always going to be someone with more than you. That would probably be my second piece of advice, is instead of keeping up with the Joneses, why don't you make everybody else desire to have the joy and the peace that you have? Speaker B: So instead of going for an object, You're going for a feeling. Speaker A: That's right. Speaker B: And a feeling of wholeness, completeness, happiness. Speaker A: Times are hard. Things will be challenging, but you will always be able to know who you are and, uh, and separate it. Speaker B: You have found Authentic Business Adventures, the business program that brings you the struggle stories and triumph and successes of business owners across the land. Downloadable audio episodes can be found in the podcast link found at drawincustomers.com. We are locally underwritten by the Bank of Sun Prairie, Calls On Call Extraordinary Answering Service, as well as The Bold Business Book. And today we're welcoming slash preparing to learn from Melody of Max Retail. And Melody, uh, let's just start with what is Max Retail? Speaker A: Max Retail is a retail tech platform that helps independent retailers get their cost back on that past season unsold inventory by easily selling it online. Love this. Speaker B: Now, I was so excited when you reached out because I was thinking, uh, so I'm in Wisconsin and Wisconsin stores are very seasonal, and it seems to be the season before the actual season. So if it's January and you want a winter coat, you're a month late. Or if it's, let's say, August and you want a swimsuit, you're a month late. So I always wonder, like, what did they do with all the winter coats? It's August, but they didn't just burn them. So what do retailers typically do with them versus what you offer them to do? Speaker A: Sure. Well, you know, most people assume that an independent retailer is going to just drop it off at TJ Maxx or Marshalls and liquidate it. But that's actually not true at all. Because For the independent retailer, first off, they don't know those guys. And secondly, the money that TJ Maxx or Marshalls would pay the retailer is pennies on the dollar. So for this particular dress that I'm wearing today, let's say it was, you know, $220 retail. Someone like TJ Maxx or Marshalls would probably give me about $7 to $10 for it at most, at most. Speaker B: Wow. All right. Speaker A: So for an independent retailer, we have to pay our vendors, we have to bring in new shipment, we have rent and payroll. So to get rid of a sale rack for pennies on the dollar doesn't make you whole in any way, shape, or form to where you can actually bring in new shipment or run your business. So instead, what retailers do is they mark down that inventory. So this is going to go from $220 to, you know, maybe $180, Then down to $150 and $120 and, you know, $100. And, you know, if it still doesn't go by then, maybe they're going to take it to the sidewalk sale and maybe sell it for like $50 or $80. Still better than, you know, $7 or $10, but still not great. And if it doesn't sell at that warehouse sale, they're going to put it in a box and they're going to put it in the basement. And then next season, When it's warm again, they're going to pull this dress out again and they're going to try to sell it again. Speaker A: But the problem with markdowns that take a long time, or even boxing and bringing out next season, is that you lose time. So in retail, we make money by how many times we can buy and sell inventory in a given time period. So let's say I buy this dress today and I'm a retailer. I buy it today for $100. I sell it tomorrow for $200. Okay, great. What am I gonna do? I'm gonna pocket $100 profit and I'm gonna reinvest the next $100. Now let's say the next day goes by and I'm gonna do it again. Speaker A: I'm gonna buy another one, sell another one, buy it, sell it, buy it, sell it. 10 days goes by. I've made $900 profit off of my $100 investment. But if I buy this dress today for $100 and I don't sell it tomorrow or the next day or the next day or the next day or the next day, and I get to day 10, and on day 10 I sell it for $100, well, did I really win? I got my cost back, but I made no money and I lost time, which is why it is so important. that if something isn't performing well in a store, that retailers have a way to have more distribution, more eyeballs on those amazing products. Because James, the truth is there's nothing wrong with this merchandise. It just needs more people to see it. Speaker B: So how did you get into this? I guess we'd call it, would it be a reseller market or what would you call a market like this? Speaker A: You know, it's interesting. I mean, I call us an excess inventory solution. It's probably like the easiest way to, to describe it. And I, and I speak about this problem because I was a retailer for 9 years. Speaker B: All right. Speaker A: So I had my independent retail store in South Florida. I carried apparel and footwear. And before that, I was a distributor. And a distributor is just a nice word for a young girl in her 20s who had a Sprinter van full of clothes. And I drove from South Florida up to Boston, over to Chicago, down to San Antonio, and everywhere in between, selling to the independent retailers like the one I would become. Speaker B: How did you get into that? Speaker A: Just, I was just really passionate about, about fashion. And funny enough, it all started, if I had to go back to the very beginning, is, uh, I spent 6 months in Israel. Speaker B: Okay. Speaker A: And while I was walking down a street called Bugra Shov, they had boutiques. And I walked into these boutiques and the fashion was amazing. I must— James, I must have been 19 years old at the time, 20 at most. And I looked around and I was so blown away and I said, where can I buy this in the US? And they said, well, we're not sold in the US. How would we get there? And I was so naive. Obviously, I didn't have any fashion background. James, I didn't even go to college. But I had this naive thought and I said, gosh, if only I could help designers get to the United States so that they could be discovered. Speaker A: So I said to myself, I'm going to make an e-commerce site and I'm going to make a place where people can discover this inventory and buy it. And this is at the time of Net-a-Porter and ASOS. And I came up with this whole business plan and I spent about 6 months on it. And then I said, oh geez, you know what? I don't have any money. How would I ever pull this off? So then I said, well, maybe I can place them in stores for a commission. So I went to the local art institute and I found some graduate designers who had nothing to lose. And I said, hey, listen, why don't you let me try to get your collections in store? And they said, oh, sure, why not? I'll pay you based on what you can sell. And so, I just started by sitting at my kitchen table and I picked up the phone and I said, hi, it's Melody calling from JuJu Costa. Speaker A: Can I show you the collection? And the person on the other side of the phone would say, what are the price points? And I'd say, I'll call you right back....

Kurt  Belding - Western Obsessions TV On the Ar: "How fast can I calm down, slow my breathing, slow my heart rate to make a good shot?" Building a business around your passion is a dream of most entrepreneurs.  Kurt Belding has done it with Western Obsessions TV. By combining his love of hunting and travel, Kurt can bring real life dramatic hunts to hunting enthusiasts and armchair travelers across the world. Kurt Belding, founded Western Obsessions TV to explore the thrilling world of hunting adventures, content creation, and entrepreneurship. Kurt shares how his love for fitness and the outdoors led him from running multiple businesses in the sports nutrition industry to launching a media and booking company dedicated to epic hunting experiences around the globe. Listen as Kurt details how he navigates the evolving landscape of video production—leveraging YouTube, social media, and AI-powered tools to scale his brand—and hear candid stories about the challenges and successes of turning passion into a profitable business. Enjoy! Visit Kurt at: https://westernobsessionstv.com/ Sponsors: Calls On Call Extraordinary Answering Service, phone answering for small businesses: https://callsoncall.com Some videos have been recorded with Riverside: https://www.riverside.fm/?utm_campaign=campaign_5&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_source=rewardful&via=james-kademan   Podcast Overview: 00:00 Running a Hunting TV Show 05:17 Practicing archery under pressure 09:24 Understanding Caliber Sizes for Hunting 12:49 Understanding Scope Dial Systems 14:27 Adjusting to Western hunting distances 18:26 Learning to Focus and Hunting Ventures 22:55 YouTube content strategy 24:08 Increasing YouTube video engagement 27:06 Starting a Hunting YouTube Channel 32:55 Challenges of wildlife filmmaking 36:52 Dealing with online negativity 40:13 Researching reliable outfitters 41:58 Older clients fulfilling lifelong dreams 47:13 Customizing Elk Hunts for Clients 48:53 Importance of quality content Podcast Transcription: Kurt Belding [00:00:05]: Look, you're traveling, your heart rate's up, you're out of breath. Now you got to calm yourself to make a good accurate shot. That adrenaline hits and you get very nervous and anxious, and your heart rate goes up and your breathing increases. You got to calm yourself down to make a good ethical shot. Called DOPE, it's Data on Previous Engagement. And after so many rounds of so much practice, it's almost like breathing. You just naturally automatically do it. Let's film it and we'll produce it and we'll put it out there for people to watch. Kurt Belding [00:00:31]: And we did That, and I just fell in love with it. It was so much fun. So huge adjustment, like got rid of everything I was doing just to go on these cool hunting adventures and film them. And when you hit 40, you realize like life is well over half done. What did I do the last half of my life? I wanna, I wanna live it the way I really wanna live it. So I changed everything and started doing that. Entrepreneurship, just getting punched in the face every day. I just went down that path, but I just loved what I was doing. Kurt Belding [00:00:59]: So eventually I figured out a way to monetize. James Kademan [00:01:01]: Mm-hmm. Kurt Belding [00:01:03]: to live— man, I am living the exact life that I have dreamt of living. James Kademan [00:01:14]: You have found Authentic Business Adventures, the business program that brings you the struggle stories and triumph and successes of business owners across the land. Downloadable audio episodes can be found on the podcast link found at drawincustomers.com. We are locally underwritten by the Bank of Sun Prairie. Calls on Call Extraordinary Answering Service, as well as the Bold Business Book. And today we're welcoming slash preparing to learn from Kurt Building of Western Obsession TV. So Kurt, how is it going today? Kurt Belding [00:01:43]: Hey, I'm doing great. Thanks for having me on. I appreciate it. James Kademan [00:01:47]: Yeah. Yeah. Let's start with the foundation here. What is Western Obsession TV? Kurt Belding [00:01:54]: So Western Obsessions TV is a hunting company. I do two— there's two major parts of the, of the company. The TV side is I go on these really cool adventures, which is a hunting adventure. I get to film them and produce an episode or a film to try to entertain others, which also helps me a lot with the marketing and content creation side. And then on the other side of the business, I am a booking agency. I consult for hunters that want to go on these cool adventures, and I connect them with outfitters that will fulfill their bucket list hunts or what they really want to do. And, um, so it really plays well into each other for sure. James Kademan [00:02:36]: That's awesome. So are you, where are you located at, Kurt? Kurt Belding [00:02:42]: I live in Colorado, uh, just outside of Denver, just out on a little acreage out east. James Kademan [00:02:50]: Okay. So I was looking at the content that you have and you're traveling all over the world. Is that safe to say? Kurt Belding [00:02:58]: Yeah, I mean, I've been to Africa and I've been to New Zealand and Canada and Mexico. Um, pretty much, you know, the only places I haven't reached yet would be like Europe and hunting in Europe or like Greenland. Um, you know, stuff like that. But Alaska, you know, I've been all over the place. James Kademan [00:03:19]: That's awesome. So it's funny you mentioned Europe and Buddy and I were talking about different Olympic sports and I didn't realize that there's an Olympic sport where you cross-country ski and then shoot. Kurt Belding [00:03:32]: Oh yeah. James Kademan [00:03:33]: And you have to, you keep your skis on and lay down, shoot, and then have to get up and keep doing it. Kurt Belding [00:03:40]: For sure. No, it's a pretty big sport. James Kademan [00:03:42]: Okay. And I wonder, is that what happens in reality when people are hunting in these places? Kurt Belding [00:03:49]: Well, they, they probably don't have skis on, but, uh, but there is a lot of times that I don't know. Yeah, no, there's a lot of times that, you know, the premise of that is like, look, you're traveling, your heart rate's up, you're out of breath. Now you gotta calm yourself to make a good, accurate shot. That's very common in hunting. Even if, obviously, if you're moving and you got, and you stop and you gotta calm your heart rate and calm your breathing. But a lot of times when you're sitting still and you're, that adrenaline hits and you get very nervous and anxious and the, your heart rate goes up and your breathing increases, you gotta calm yourself down to make a good ethical shot. James Kademan [00:04:25]: Yeah. So tell me about that, because that sounds like you have some skills or had to learn how to calm yourself down when you're in those situations. So how do you do that? Kurt Belding [00:04:38]: Yeah, fitness. I've always had a big affinity for fitness. I love fitness. I've been doing that pretty much my entire life. And so, you know, every day I practice that, right? So every day I do a workout, and every day that I increase my heart rate, my breathing, and I try to keep myself calm while I'm working out. And there's a lot of times I'll actually train while I'm shooting. I'll increase my heart rate and then try to calm my heart rate and calm my breathing well enough, fast enough to be able to make a good shot under stress. Super important. James Kademan [00:05:12]: And is this raising your heart rate, like going for a jog or something else? Kurt Belding [00:05:17]: Yeah. As I'm practicing and training, I'm, you know, I might be a, I have a little archery range out here in my house with my bow and I may just do like 10 burpees real quick or some air squats and lunges or jumping jacks or something right there. where I'm next to my bow where I feel like, okay, my breathing's hard, my heart rate's up pretty high. Cool. Grab the bow. How fast can I calm down, slow my breathing, slow my heart rate to make a good shot? But how that transitions into the real world, I do a lot of mountainous backcountry hunting where it's very physical, it's very hard. So I may have to make a move, a stalk on an animal where I have to cut them off or I got to get into a position fast and I'm climbing a mountain. to do it. Kurt Belding [00:05:57]: So by the time I get to that position, I am pretty wiped out. You know, I'm breathing very heavily, my heart's pounding very fast, plus my adrenaline's going. I'm very excited because I'm in that position. So that translates very well. You have to calm down, you got to lower your heart rate, lower your breathing to make a good ethical shot on the animal. James Kademan [00:06:17]: All right. You know, it's interesting, I just got into shooting, I should say, the past couple years, not I haven't gone on any hunts, or at least nothing of that scale. Kurt Belding [00:06:26]: Mm-hmm. James Kademan [00:06:28]: Uh, tell me, so I didn't realize, I just figured you look through the scope, you pull the trigger, you move on with your life. But I didn't realize when you move your head or move the, the rifle, whatever, a billionth of a degree, when you're looking at something way in the distance, that's really 5 yards or something like that. So how do you steady yourself? To that point where you can actually make an accurate shot like that, especially with an animal that may be moving? Kurt Belding [00:06:54]: Well, it's just practice. You got to practice a lot, right? So for your example of on a rifle shooting, you know, that's why you go to the range and you practice out to whatever range you want to be competent at and feel comfortable at. It's called DOPE. It's data on previous engagement. So now that, like,...

DJ Neuville - Haul It All On the Best Skill an Employee Can Have: "The biggest asset in this job is, can you show up? Can you show up? Can you show up on time?." Discover Hidden Savings in Commercial Real Estate Everyone has junk.  Whether the stuff that collects as we live our lives and store stuff in a someday pile, or a house move that brings the option of either moving it and storing it again or just trashing it, we all have junk. DJ Neuville started out in real estate and graduated to building his junk hauling empire.  DJ details how he came across this industry and what has helped his business grow. Listen as DJ explains what it took to start and what he has done to grow his junk hauling business. Enjoy! Visit DJ at: https://callhaulitall.com Sponsors: Calls On Call Extraordinary Answering Service, phone answering for small businesses: https://callsoncall.com Some videos have been recorded with Riverside: https://www.riverside.fm/?utm_campaign=campaign_5&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_source=rewardful&via=james-kademan   Podcast Overview: 00:00 Partnering with a longtime friend 10:16 Early morning routine and challenges 16:07 Challenges with billing and payments 20:43 Expanding into commercial real estate 23:50 Choosing the right job opportunities 31:28 Doing hoarder cleanouts 35:45 Hiring and adapting work culture 38:40 Adapting to flexible work hours 47:06 Owning and communicating mistakes 50:45 Working with donation centers 55:55 Addressing employee hygiene concerns Podcast Transcription: DJ Neuville [00:00:00]: someone sells a house, you pretty much guarantee there is a junk removal opportunity on every, almost every single house. Almost everybody's got old paint in their house, in the basement that they don't want, that the next buyer doesn't want. They might think the next buyer wants it. They don't want it. They might have a few things left. They might have a full house. It might be a full estate. I mean, that's just the key. James Kademan [00:00:22]: You have found Authentic Business Adventures, the business program that brings you the struggle stories, And triumphant successes of business owners across the land. Downloadable audio episodes can be found in the podcast link found at drawincustomers.com. We're locally underwritten by the Bank of Sun Prairie, Calls On Call Extraordinary Answering Service, as well as the Bold Business Book. And today we're welcoming slash preparing to learn from DJ Newville of Haul It All. And DJ, I believe we're talking junk today. So how is the junk hauling business? DJ Neuville [00:00:55]: It is great. Everybody's got junk. James Kademan [00:00:58]: Turns out, it turns out. So tell me, let's just start from the very foundation here. When did you get into the junk hauling business? DJ Neuville [00:01:05]: When I was selling real estate, he had a house for sale by owner. He had a hard time selling his house. He ended up listing the house with me. I sold it to him for him. And he said, hey, I do junk removal if you ever are looking for side cash. And I go, what? What the heck is junk removal? He's like, well, people pay me to get rid of stuff. I'm like, people pay you to get rid of stuff? I didn't know it ever existed. James Kademan [00:01:29]: Yeah. DJ Neuville [00:01:30]: I said, sure. I like making cash. So whenever you want to call me. And I ended up working with him. Shoot, ended up going pretty much full-time working with him. And then he said, hey, in a few years I'm going to retire. So just start your own business. We'll work together. DJ Neuville [00:01:45]: We'll partner together. And if that doesn't work out, you just split off on your own and do your own thing. So 2019 in December, how it all was started. And we partnered for directly for about a year and we butt heads a lot because we're, we're both about similar stuff. So we decided partner is not a good way to go. And it was really kind of like a, like de facto, not even like a formal partnership. Just say, I have a job, come work with me. We'll split it kind of thing. DJ Neuville [00:02:16]: And then Then we just kind of went back to being friends. Still at breakfast with him yesterday. He's been a great mentor to me and he's pretty much retired. And I mean, business just took off from there. We started with a flatbed trailer and a truck, and then in 2021 I upgraded to a dump trailer. And in 2023 we got rid of the truck and trailer model and we went to box trucks and we started renting U-Hauls. James Kademan [00:02:45]: box trucks. DJ Neuville [00:02:46]: And then 2026, January this year, we bought 2 of our own box trucks. So now we use, we have 2 22-foot box trucks and then we use U-Hauls as an overflow if we need more than that. James Kademan [00:02:59]: All right. I love this, DJ, cuz we interviewed you, or I interviewed you, whatever, in late '22. So you've been, would've been using the trailer and at, at that point in late 2022, I mean, we're talking the tail end of the pandemic-ish. Um, what, how many employees did you have back then? DJ Neuville [00:03:20]: Uh, I was pretty much sole operator. I had one guy that was pretty much full-time, but like full-time, part-time, one guy. James Kademan [00:03:29]: Okay. DJ Neuville [00:03:30]: Now we have, now there's, I have 8 guys. There's 10 of us total. James Kademan [00:03:36]: Wow. That's incredible. DJ Neuville [00:03:37]: In just a few years. I hired a CFO. In January. I'm the CEO now. I'm not just an operator. And then I have, uh, 3 truck leads and then labor guy, labor guys. James Kademan [00:03:50]: All right. So let's talk employees from essentially the hierarchy here. How did you find your CFO? DJ Neuville [00:03:57]: He found me. I went to college with him. I've known him for many years. He invested in real estate and he actually used to be part owner of Harker Heaton and Kuhling. And he sold his shares, I think it was 8 years ago or so, and just got into real estate and different avenues. And then, and I've always just stayed good friends with him. And he came to me in January and, well, late December, early January and said, hey, I'm looking for a new avenue and I thought of you and are you ready to just take this to a whole nother level? And we put together a plan. He bought into the company and Here we are. James Kademan [00:04:36]: All right. You're talking January this year? DJ Neuville [00:04:38]: This year. James Kademan [00:04:39]: Yes. Okay. DJ Neuville [00:04:40]: Yes. James Kademan [00:04:41]: So tell me about that conversation when he first comes to you and he's like, hey, I want to take this to the next level. Were you like, what does this mean? Or what is next level? Or I got this, or this guy's pretty sharp. Let me see what's going on. What was your first reaction? DJ Neuville [00:04:55]: No, I've known that he's always been, everything he's touched for investments have done really well. So. That's why we've always stayed in touch and contact. I did have lots of questions, a lot of skepticalism. I was skeptical about a lot of things because I've always been owner-operator, full control of everything. And he said, hey, if you're interested in not being an owner-operator, then I'm interested. If you want to stay as operating on the truck all the time, And stay small potatoes, no problem. You'll— I know you'll make good money doing that, but that's not what I'm interested in. DJ Neuville [00:05:31]: I'm interested in if we want to build this into something big, like the big franchise competitors and go for that competition. If you're interested, I'm interested. And I did a lot of soul searching. I'm 44 years old. I, I know that my shelf life is limited on when I can be on the truck all the time. I love being on the truck all the time. So it's a difficult transition. But I know that when I'm 50, I'm not gonna love being on the truck all the time. DJ Neuville [00:06:00]: And I get hurt all— my guys all have a running joke. I'm the one that gets hurt the most cuz I always move faster than my brain catches me. So it's really easy to truly tell a new employee, there's nothing you can do that I haven't done cuz I probably have hurt myself. So just be careful. Safety. And when I say safety is my Number one key. It is here, but everybody laughs because I'm the one that would wreck the days since the last injury board. James Kademan [00:06:28]: Funny. DJ Neuville [00:06:30]: Um, so yeah, that's, that was our focus has been now of obviously it's a transition. You can't just go from the truck into the office. So we've been transitioning me completely off the truck. I think it's been almost a month since I've been on an actual job site. Maybe not 3 weeks ago, but it's more now of just training. If I go out and do like a small demo or like when we cut up hot tubs, it's training the new guys of, hey, here's how you do it. So I'm not allowed to go out on a job site by myself. Has to be with someone that's learning. DJ Neuville [00:07:03]: So I'm handing it off. All right. James Kademan [00:07:05]: No, is that a rule that you made or is it my— DJ Neuville [00:07:09]: Well, both, both my So my CFO is Luke Hyer. It's both of ours. It's both of our commitment of, hey, you're not gonna get off of the— we can't scale the business with me being on the truck. It's just, it's hard to do. James Kademan [00:07:23]: Oh. DJ Neuville [00:07:24]: I'm making that commitment. It's difficult mentally. I don't like sitting in front of a— thankfully I have a laptop 'cause I can't just sit in one spot. Um, I love, I love just grabbing my laptop and going anywhere. And doing what I need to do. But yeah, I like the physical labor. That's one of the reasons I got into the job. So there's still always, there'll be some avenues where I'm like, hey, okay, for half a day,...

Tom Brodie - CSSI Cost Segregation On Using Bonus Depreciation on Buildings of All Sizes: "So people that own smaller buildings like that, they can actually get a reasonable return on this as well." Discover Hidden Savings in Commercial Real Estate In this week's episode, we dive into the world of cost segregation and tax strategy with Tom Brodie—better known as “The Found Money Guy.” If you own commercial property or are considering buying, this interview is packed with actionable insights you can't afford to miss. What is Cost Segregation? Learn how breaking down your building's components (like carpeting, parking lots, internal walls, and more) can allow you to depreciate assets faster—and potentially save tens or even hundreds of thousands on taxes. (01:11) Why Now? 100% Bonus Depreciation Is Back Understand how the latest tax law changes made 100% bonus depreciation permanent—unlocking huge deductions in the first year for non-structural assets. (08:08) Do You Qualify? Any commercial building, whether a $200,000 office condo or a $10 million high-rise, can benefit from a cost seg study. Find out what kinds of properties see the best returns. (12:22) Tax Credits vs. Deductions—What's the Difference? Wondering if an R&D tax credit or a deduction is better? Get a clear explanation and why tax credits may have more impact on your tax bill. (00:00, 24:19) Bonus—Green Zip Drywall Tape Discover innovative building materials that accelerate depreciation and offer green construction incentives. (25:19) Enjoy! Visit Tom at: https://thefoundmoneyguy.com and https://cssistudy.com Sponsors: Calls On Call Extraordinary Answering Service, phone answering for small businesses: https://callsoncall.com Some videos have been recorded with Riverside: https://www.riverside.fm/?utm_campaign=campaign_5&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_source=rewardful&via=james-kademan   Podcast Overview: 00:00 Helping building owners save on taxes 05:52 Accelerated depreciation for buildings 08:08 Understanding Bonus Depreciation Rules 12:22 Offering free estimates for buildings 13:27 Engineering-based cost segregation process 18:28 Understanding the R&D Tax Credit 21:45 Understanding R&D tax credits 25:20 Reconfiguring and reusing drywall 28:37 Discovering cost segregation 31:16 Discovering cost segregation loopholes 34:27 Handling IRS audit inquiries 39:05 Remote and Office Work Changes 40:03 Understanding property depreciation rules 45:38 Evaluating building estimates and assets 47:34 Understanding condo tax allocations 51:18 Navigating 1031 exchange complexities Podcast Transcription: Tom Brodie [00:00:00]: So that's a dollar for dollar reduction in the taxes you owe. Cost segregation is a deduction. So that's going to lower your amount of income, which means you pay less taxes. So if you got an R and D tax credit of $20,000 and you had a liability of $20,000, now you owe zero because that's going to wipe out the liability. So tax credits are a little bit more valuable than a deduction as far as the impact. James [00:00:27]: You have found Authentic Business Adventures, the business program that brings you the str and triumph and successes of business owners across the land. Downloadable audio episodes can be found in the podcast link found drawincustomers.com we are locally underwritten by the bank of Sun Prairie Calls On Call Extraordinary Answering Service as well as the Bold Business Book. And today we're welcoming, preparing to learn from Tom Brodie of Cost Segregation Services. So Tom, how is it going today? Tom Brodie [00:00:56]: It's going very well. Thank you for having me on the program. James [00:00:59]: Yeah, I'm glad that you're on here. I love the name of your business because it says exactly what you do. So for those that may not know, can you tell us what is cost segregation? Tom Brodie [00:01:11]: Yeah, it's, I know that people stumble over that all the time. What we do is we help commercial building owners depreciate their building faster and say faster just because it's faster than what they're used to. Right. What the CPA or tax preparer will do will take the value of the building and divide it by 39 years or 27 and a half years if it's a apartment complex. What we do is say there's things in your building are not going to last that long. So we do the study to say, okay, you've got this much assets in a five year category, this many assets, you know, in a 15 year category, and break it down that way and then help them depreciate it faster, which means more depreciation expense is less income, which means less income taxes. And so you're really saving a tremendous amount of money in income taxes. James [00:01:59]: So when you're talking about assets, can you elaborate on what those are? Tom Brodie [00:02:04]: It's a commercial building. I mean, so if you got, you know, you're building, you've got the external walls and everything else, but then you've got so much on the inside, internal walls, you know, H vac controls on the inside, things that are not really key to keeping the structure upright. Those are the things that are going to have a slower, sorry, a faster life. And so you're going to depreciate them faster and then record it's the same dollars, you're just recording it sooner. Right. And so you'll be able to write that off when those things are worth more, the whole time value of money thing. So rather than waiting 39 years to get you, your asset depreciated, you can take about 30% of that on average and record it sooner. James [00:02:42]: All right, so you're talking carpet shelving, Tom Brodie [00:02:47]: floor coverings, window coverings. Actually outside a building too. Parking lots are a huge expense that people don't think about. That's a 15 year asset. So if you've got a big parking lot, that's going to be something we can write off right away. And then security systems, fencing, you know, irrigation systems, everything outside the building that's not really part of the structure. Those are going to be usually in the 15 year asset category. James [00:03:11]: All right, now I understand you're not an accountant, but I'm still going to ask the question because it eludes the question. Hey, instead of this cost segregation or the depreciation being spread out over 39 years or 27 years, you do a chunk of it, 30% ish, right away. What happens if you sell it? Sell the building? Tom Brodie [00:03:31]: Well, that's the one thing that we tell people. If you're getting ready to sell it right away, you don't want to do this. Right. Because whenever you sell any building, you're going to have to pay recapture. And so if you accelerate the depreciation and then try to sell it the next year, all that savings is going to be eaten up when you have to pay back the recapture. So we typically tell people three to five years is a, is a good timeframe after cost seg study, you know, to hold it. If you're going to hold it that long, then that reinvested of the savings is going to be able to create a return for you that will offset the recapture. I've had some clients turn around and sell it right away. Tom Brodie [00:04:07]: I said, we talked about this, right? You said you weren't going to sell it right away. They said I made so much money I didn't care about it. Okay, as long as you did that, full knowledge that I told you not to sell it right away. But it's one of those things where, you know, things happen and you have to make a move. But we typically think that you've held on to something within three to five years, you're going to be fine. James [00:04:30]: Right on. Do the math is what it comes down To, Right, exactly. Tom Brodie [00:04:34]: I mean we, we always, we give free estimates because that's the one thing that people don't understand. How much. These are big numbers, right. A lot of times. And so when you actually see the number there and then you put it into your calculation to see if this makes financial sense, a lot of people are surprised by the number to go. I didn't know this was available. Yeah, it is. James [00:04:54]: Can you. Let's just talk the numbers and let's keep it relatively easy. Just for Neanderthals like me that aren't that good at math, let's just say for fun, we got a million dollar building, right? I just bought this million dollar commercial building, office space, warehouse space. I don't know if it matters. Can you just walk me through the numbers I can expect and then what that turns into, as far as money in my pocket goes? Tom Brodie [00:05:17]: Absolutely. Now every building's gonna be a little bit different. Like so if an office building is gonna have more things that you can actually accelerate than if you had just a metal warehouse. Right. Metal warehouse is pretty much a box. But if an office building got a lot of things on the inside of that building that you can depreciate million dollars on average, I'm usually finding a deduction, a tax deduction equal to about 20 to 25% of the building's value. Now I say building's value because you have to subtract land, right? So if it costs you a million dollars, you take the land out. Maybe you're like $800,000 or something like that. Tom Brodie [00:05:52]: So it's 20% of that building. Only value that could be in a depreciation deduction, right? So that's, and with, with 100% bonus depreciation coming back, all those things that are accelerate acceleratable are things that you could write off in year one after doing a study. So it, it's significant. So you know, not every building is the same. So the more internal walls and maybe the high end decor elements you have, you have a nice lobby with a lot of high end granite or marble or whatever. Those things cost money. And typically you're not going to ROI on those, right? So if you can write all that stuff off in the first year,...

Neal Bawa - Grocapitus and MultifamilyU On Using the Right Tools to Make Good Decisions: "I said, I'm going to mine as much data as possible and try to get insights from that data." Many investors use real estate investing as an investment vehicle in their portfolio.  Most of those investors are looking at their local real estate market and trying to find deals that can pump out the returns they want. But the world is smaller now, and real estate investing in your backyard is no longer necessary.  You can invest hundreds of miles away and possibly turn over a stronger margin.  The way to find the best place to invest, starts with gathering data and comparing places. Neal Bawa, known widely as the "mad scientist of multifamily," is the engineer turned real estate investor that combines his knowledge of real estate, data science, and artificial intelligence. Neal shares his unconventional journey from running a successful tech company to revolutionizing real estate investing through data-driven decisions and AI-powered tools. Neal weathered the housing crash of 2008, built a thriving syndication business and a free educational community at MultifamilyU. Listen as Neal teaches us how to be fascinated by real estate, curious about the AI revolution, and to seek new ways to scale and automate your business. Enjoy! Visit Neal at: https://multifamilyu.com/ Sponsors: Calls On Call Extraordinary Answering Service, phone answering for small businesses: https://callsoncall.com Some videos have been recorded with Riverside: https://www.riverside.fm/?utm_campaign=campaign_5&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_source=rewardful&via=james-kademan   Podcast Overview: 00:00 Bringing IV therapy to Madison 05:39 Navigating Franchise Regulations 07:47 IV therapy goes mainstream in Tokyo 12:50 Curated med spa offerings 14:44 Choosing Hydrate IV Bar for Madison 19:02 Starting with franchise questions 20:37 Building a Health-Focused Community 24:53 Benefits of Vitamin D Supplementation 27:55 Challenges with supplement patents 32:20 Functional medicine consultations at Hydrate 34:08 Patient advocacy and safe care 39:05 Frequency of sessions per week 41:33 Supplements and their credibility 47:04 Choosing the right location 48:42 Optimizing franchise location space 52:48 Hiring nurses for IV procedures 56:16 Spa services and mobile options Podcast Transcription: Neal Bawa [00:00:00]: We are currently at 1% of the data center needs that we have where humanity is going through the greatest change in its existence. Greater than the invention of the wheel, greater than the invention of fire, greater than the invention of the personal computer and the Internet put together. We have never seen anything of this Type. The smartphone wasn't even 1% of the AI revolution. And we think of the smartphone as the greatest invention of our times. It's nothing compared to AI. James [00:00:37]: You have found Authentic Business Adventures, the business program that brings you the struggle stories and triumphant successes of business owners across the land. Downloadable audio episodes can be found in the podcast link found@drawincustomers.com we are locally unwritten by the bank of Sun Prairie Calls On Call, Extraordinary answering service, the Bold Business Book as well as Live Switch. And today we're welcoming, preparing to learn from Neil Bawa of Growcapitus. I'm told, Neil, you are the mad scientist of multifamily. Is that true? Neal Bawa [00:01:10]: It's a moniker I present at many conferences. So I presented at over 101 of the times when I was walking up to the stage, they were announcing and talking about me. The announcer said, the mad scientists of multifamily. And that got a nice gasp out of the audience and I was like, I like this. And so the next year I went to the conference, he introduced me as a mad scientist. And then eventually I was like, people like this concept because it helps them understand that I'm data driven. I'm very AI focused. And so it's an interesting moniker. Neal Bawa [00:01:41]: I don't have the dark brown hair, but I mean that's how I roll. So I let it be and eventually it became part of our story. James [00:01:51]: That is incredible. So tell me the story. How did you end up with the moniker of the mad scientist of multifamily? That's not something people throw randomly around. Neal Bawa [00:02:00]: Yeah, so look, I'm not a real estate guy, not a real estate royalty. No one in my family is in real estate. I'm a technologist. I'm from India, came here as a computer scientist. Data science is my area of interest. I'm an amateur data scientist, but my degree is in computer science and I ran a tech company from 1999 to 2013. Very successful, not a start up, you know, hundreds of employees. And we sold it in 2013. Neal Bawa [00:02:28]: And my interest in real estate started when the senior partner in the firm, I was a junior partner, basically said in 2003, we are not going to rent, we are going to build our own campus. And this wasn't a multifamily campus at that time. It was an office campus for a business. And, you know, we had 150 employees, and we were renting from somebody. And he didn't like that. So he, under his guidance and his expert advice, I built the first campus in 2003. We took 12 months to build it. We had no investors. Neal Bawa [00:03:00]: We had no bank. It was just all cash. We built it ourselves because the business was quite profitable. At the end of that process, I realized just the extraordinary, shockingly high benefits that you get when you use depreciation, Right? Cause this big campus, 27,000 square feet, and I just all of a sudden was making. Taking a lot more money home. I wasn't making more money. I was just taking a lot more money home because the depreciation of that building was phenomenal. And that got me hooked into real estate. Neal Bawa [00:03:30]: Because at one time, I remember after that building was done, James, I remember saying to my wife, I think real estate is the best authorized tax scam in America. Now, obviously, I didn't know depreciation back then. I didn't understand accounting. Now I understand that there's nothing scammy about it. You know, depreciation is a legitimate right. And you take it for real estate. You can also take it for other things. But for real estate, it's. Neal Bawa [00:03:56]: It's extremely beneficial compared to any other form of depreciation, any other business. And so I realized that I, you know, I had the big fat tax salary, and I was living in Taxifornia, so I was basically working for the man. 50% of my salary was going to state and federal. And so I said, I need to find a way around this, because I read a book by Robert Kiyosaki, and I remember the statement, it's not what you make, it's what you keep. Right? And I was like, I ain't keeping much of my salary. So I was like, okay, I need to get into real estate. So I went back to my boss and said, you know, what we did with this campus was really great. Let's do it again. Neal Bawa [00:04:31]: And so we built a bunch more campuses. I think four or five campuses were built and improved coming up to 2008. And so each year, what would happen is I was keeping more and more of my income because of all the depreciation that I was getting. And so I was saving and saving and saving. And so I'd ended up with, you know, pretty large amount of money by the time 2008 hit. And then when that happened, all of a sudden, property values plummeted. They went down. And so I would go to, you know, my family events and everyone would just bash real estate. Neal Bawa [00:04:58]: Everyone's like, this is horrible. Don't buy real estate. It's horrible, horrible. It's going to crash. You know, it's worth nothing, blah, blah, blah. And you can imagine everyone was saying that because, you know, all the television, on the tv you're just hearing bad news, bad news. Every day it's bad news. It can only go down further. Neal Bawa [00:05:11]: You know, millions and millions of homes are in foreclos. And I'm like, I don't understand this. I don't understand. I mean, I'm from the Warren Buffett school of investing, which is, you know, when things are cheap, you buy them. So I'm like, but I don't want to make a mistake. You know, I have this money, this, that I've saved up over the last five or six years. I want to go out and buy as many single family homes as I can. But I don't want to make a mistake. Neal Bawa [00:05:34]: What if I'm just an idiot that knows nothing? So I decided that I would basically educate myself. And I did that in the typical way that, you know, technologists and engineers do. I said, I'm going to mine as much data as possible and try to get insights from that data. So I started mining websites like Bureau of Labor Statistics and Zillow and Trulia and Redfin and you know, all these other sites that realtor.com that you've heard about in the real estate area. And I'm mining gigabytes of data and putting them into a statistical analysis software called R. The software is R and statisticians know it. And you know what R does? It makes it easy for you to take huge amounts of data that you know nothing about and give you insights, right? These days, AI does it and it even does it better than the software. But back then there was no AI. Neal Bawa [00:06:23]: So the software would give you insights, it would give you correlation. So you could say something like, show me real estate profits that are made in this city and this city and this city and correlate that real estate profit with these various things that I'm looking at. What is the highest correlation? Is the correlation of profits highest to population growth or job growth or income growth or home price growth or crime reduction or schools. Where's the correlation? The connection? The biggest, right? And then based on that correlation,...

Shahayra Majumder and Jonathan Chizever - Hydrate IV Bar Madison, WI On Focusing on What Really Matters: "They're passionate about their health, which is your only wealth at the end of the day." What good is money if you're spending your time hurting and not able to enjoy this great gift of life that we have all been given?  Health is arguably the most important thing to focus on, to make sure you can do the things you want to do.  Whether that is growing a business or enjoying time with friends. Shahayra and Jonathan set out to help boost the health of the midwest by starting a Hydrate IV Bar franchise in Madison, Wisconsin. Through our candid conversation you will learn what is a IV bar, why do people get IV drips and how they started this business in the IV drip world. Learn how they identified a gap in the Midwest's wellness market, navigated the highly regulated and rapidly evolving IV bar industry, and brought a community-focused approach to health and hydration. Are you curious about how IV therapy went from hospital wards to vibrant wellness lounges?  Or what it takes to build a franchise rooted in both science and local values?  This conversation will open your eyes to the business challenges, customer stories, and passion that drive this growing trend. Shahayra and Jonathan share some great insights into franchise selection, the science behind vitamin infusions, building a winning team, and the power of connection within a unique new “third space” for health-minded people. Listen as they explain the power of IV drips and how they can help you in your health and life journey. Enjoy! Visit Shahayra and Jonathan at: https://hydrateivbar.com/locations/madison/ Sponsors: Calls On Call Extraordinary Answering Service, phone answering for small businesses: https://callsoncall.com Some videos have been recorded with Riverside: https://www.riverside.fm/?utm_campaign=campaign_5&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_source=rewardful&via=james-kademan   Podcast Overview: 00:00 Bringing IV therapy to Madison 05:39 Navigating Franchise Regulations 07:47 IV therapy goes mainstream in Tokyo 12:50 Curated med spa offerings 14:44 Choosing Hydrate IV Bar for Madison 19:02 Starting with franchise questions 20:37 Building a Health-Focused Community 24:53 Benefits of Vitamin D Supplementation 27:55 Challenges with supplement patents 32:20 Functional medicine consultations at Hydrate 34:08 Patient advocacy and safe care 39:05 Frequency of sessions per week 41:33 Supplements and their credibility 47:04 Choosing the right location 48:42 Optimizing franchise location space 52:48 Hiring nurses for IV procedures 56:16 Spa services and mobile options Podcast Transcription: Jonathan Chizever [00:00:00]: This gentleman with Parkinson's started supplementing the NAD with us, and the results we're seeing are just, like, amazing. He's not perfect in running marathons, but he's walking around without his hunch in his cane. I check in with his wife the next day, like, hey, how's he doing? And she's like, I couldn't believe it. I woke up and I walk out and he was up before me, which is rare. And he's sitting in his chair in the living room, giant smile plastered across his face. And. And it's like, what's going on? And then I see him get out of the chair, stand up with no cane, no hunch, and he's like, I feel better than I felt in a long time because of something that we all. James Kademan [00:00:41]: You have found authentic business adventures business program that brings you the struggle stories and triumphant successes of business owners across the land. Downloadable audio episodes can be found in the podcast link found@drawincustomers.com we are locally unwritten by the bank of Sun Prairie, and today we're welcoming, preparing to learn from Sahara and Jonathan of the Hydrate IV bar. So, Sahara, Jonathan, how are you guys doing today? Jonathan Chizever [00:01:06]: Wonderful. Excited to be here. James Kademan [00:01:08]: Yeah. Shahayra Majumder [00:01:08]: Woot, woot. James Kademan [00:01:09]: Let's talk about Hydrate IV bar. I don't know what in the world an IV bar is, and I bet a lot of people don't either. So let's just start with what is an IV bar? Jonathan Chizever [00:01:18]: Happy to tell them you want to go or want me to go? Shahayra Majumder [00:01:20]: Um, yeah, I'll kick it off if you want to add in, if there's anything that I miss. But have you ever had an IV before? James Kademan [00:01:28]: I had. Yes. I had a saline IV thing when I had a. A gut thing, a stress gut thing Shahayra Majumder [00:01:35]: way back when, probably in the hospital. James Kademan [00:01:37]: Yeah. Yeah. Not a fan. Shahayra Majumder [00:01:39]: Yeah. James Kademan [00:01:41]: Not a fan of being in the hospital. Shahayra Majumder [00:01:42]: Yeah, right. Yeah, I. A lot of people are used to thinking about IVs being something that you get in the hospital or at urgent care in an emerg situation. But an IV bar actually takes those services outside of an emergency situation and lets you be a little more proactive about rapidly rehydrating your body. James Kademan [00:02:04]: All right. Shahayra Majumder [00:02:05]: For your different health and wellness goals. There's lots that we can do with supplementing things that you might be deficient in or if you're just feeling certain ailments that could be improved with additional vitamin supplements, meditation, or hydration. That's usually why people come to an IV bar. For me, it's been more of a proactive thing. I realized as I started doing IVs on a regular basis, I felt more energy. I was getting sick less. I didn't really let anything get me down as much. Like during cold and flu season. Shahayra Majumder [00:02:49]: Yeah. Anything that you would add to that, Jonathan Chizever [00:02:52]: I think that sums it up. Great. Yeah. James Kademan [00:02:54]: All right. How do you get in the IV bar business? Shahayra Majumder [00:02:58]: You take that one. Jonathan Chizever [00:03:01]: So we both, in our travels, neither of us are from Madison. I've been here 10 years. Sahara's been here seven. And we've both, in our travels and living other places, seen this as a more established concept in other places. And, you know, in the Midwest, whether it's fashion trends or wellness modalities, we're generally the last to get just about everything. And so here we are. And so, you know, IVs have saved us in numerous occasions from feeling bad, and really, until we got in the business, didn't yet understand how much it can make you feel good in a consistent and proactive sense. But we just saw this as a market that makes so much sense for it, because, you know, what people traditionally associate it with is hangovers, at least in the selective sense, which it is phenomenal for, I've heard, at least. Jonathan Chizever [00:03:54]: But. But beyond that, you know, like, the founder of our brand, she got into this. She was a Broncos cheerleader, and she noticed all the guys in the team are doing these IVs routinely, all the time. And that was part of her origin story of getting into this. And so athletes love it, and athletes have been ahead of the curve and, you know, taking advantage of this. So for athletics and drinking Madison, we have a lot of bubbles, and turns out. James Kademan [00:04:24]: Yeah, yeah. Jonathan Chizever [00:04:25]: So. And then beyond that, we also have a very vibrant wellness scene. You know, we have a population that likes to take care of themselves. And, I mean, in so many ways, it made sense, but it was something that we saw being severely underserved. So it wasn't like we wanted to start a business. And we're like, what business do we do? It was like we noticed that there was a gap in the availability of these types of services in a place that it makes so much sense to have them. And the rest kind of naturally came from there. James Kademan [00:04:55]: Right on. So did you hunt down a franchise, or did you get introduced to the franchise? And you're like, yes, that's what we want. Shahayra Majumder [00:05:03]: Little column A, little column B. I did interview, like, every franchise under the sun doing IV stuff. James Kademan [00:05:09]: All in the IV stuff. Shahayra Majumder [00:05:10]: Yes. James Kademan [00:05:11]: Okay, how many are we talking here? Shahayra Majumder [00:05:12]: Oh, my God. I think I Started talking to folks in September of 2024, and then we signed our franchise agreement February of 25. So, yeah, I mean, that gives you a little gauge. It took me months and months of. James Kademan [00:05:27]: So just talking like, I don't know how many franchise I've seen. Are we talking five? We talking 50? Jonathan Chizever [00:05:32]: Oh, no, I'd say a dozen and a half maybe. Shahayra Majumder [00:05:35]: Yeah, maybe closer to like the 20 or 30. Jonathan Chizever [00:05:37]: Wow. Shahayra Majumder [00:05:39]: Yeah, franchise franchises. And there are a few that dominate the market. There are a few that are bigger. But what's interesting is this industry, it's very highly regulated, but the regulations are different state to state. So if you know a little bit about franchising, you know that franchises have to be registered in every single state. And some states are harder to get registered in. And so I talked to a lot of the folks that I was able to get their franchisees on the phone and get honest opinions about the kind of support they're receiving, how the market has received them. I particularly talk to folks in the Midwest or familiar with the Midwest because, you know, the market in the Midwest is not going to be what it is in, you know, Nashville, Tennessee, for example, where you're getting a lot more tourism and. James Kademan [00:06:38]: Yeah, sober me up. Sober me up. ...

Ronica Cleary - Cleary Strategies On Trying DIY PR: "You don't know what makes you newsworthy. You don't know what lands. You don't know what's a really good pitch and what's not." Every business wants, well actually, needs customers.  How do you get customers?  You get noticed and you get your business in front of potential customers.  How do you grow this awareness?  You can shout from the street corner, cold-call, pay for advertising, or use the tried and true way to build trust and that is to get some news stories written and published about you. The interesting thing about public relations is that, with the right public relation expert, you can control the narrative about your business and grow the awareness of your brand in a trusted space.  People generally trust the news much more than they trust an advertisement.  So if you are in the news, you are much more likely to be a trusted brand. Ronica Cleary has been on the news side of the desk and now helps businesses get noticed with her PR firm, Cleary Strategies.  She and her crew craft the stories and push them to the editors and people that can get them on the pages, print and web, that people read. Listen as Ronica explains the power of PR and how she has built her PR firm from her incredible experience as a television journalist. Enjoy! Visit Ronica at: https://www.clearystrategies.com/ Sponsors: Calls On Call Extraordinary Answering Service, phone answering for small businesses: https://callsoncall.com Some videos have been recorded with Riverside: https://www.riverside.fm/?utm_campaign=campaign_5&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_source=rewardful&via=james-kademan   Podcast Overview: 00:00 Starting Cleary Strategies Unexpectedly 06:09 Covering Trump's first election campaign 09:09 Media relations and crisis management 11:33 Evolution of media placements 13:59 Pitching to a busy newsroom 18:23 Managing media queries efficiently 22:16 Managing Public Relations Challenges 25:45 Concerns about paid media placements 27:11 Shady PR practices discussion 30:51 Using PR to Boost Visibility 33:50 Developing client content themes 37:20 Building a thought leadership presence 40:08 Importance of a founder's story 42:59 The value of PR in business 46:37 Podcast audience quality over size 50:26 Reflections on Starting a Business 53:56 Assessing contractor fit and retention Podcast Transcription: Ronica Cleary [00:00:00]: We, we think like producers when we pitch our clients. We don't. We have to think as a producer would so that when we present the pitch to the newsroom, it's like we've produced the segment for them and not because they aren't capable, not because they can't, but because maybe they don't have the bandwidth to do so. And so if our pitch comes perfectly packaged with the pieces in place, the B roll ready to go, the expert teed up the potential questions all written for you. You know, they're not going to take it word for word, but it's like all of the pieces are there. James Kademan [00:00:36]: You have found authentic Business Adventures, the business program that brings you the struggle stories and triumphant successes of business owners across the land. Downloadable audio episodes can be found in the podcast link found@drawincustomers.com we are locally underwritten by the Bank of Sun prairie, Calls On Call Extraordinary Answering Service, as well as Live Switch. And today we're welcoming, slash, preparing to learn from Ronica with Cleary Strategies. And today we are talking pr. So Ronica, how is it going today? Ronica Cleary [00:01:07]: It's going so well. Just poured myself a fresh cup of coffee, finished the pot. James Kademan [00:01:12]: So lucky. Ronica Cleary [00:01:13]: We've had a caffeinated day, but it's a good day. James Kademan [00:01:17]: Yeah, nice. Tell me, how long have you been in the PR business? Ronica Cleary [00:01:24]: So I'm approaching eight years this summer. So we started our agency, I always say we opened our virtual doors before it was cool. Yeah, nearly eight. And so it's, we're kind of, I can see in the horizon that 10 year mark, which is exciting. James Kademan [00:01:42]: I don't know what the, what the metrics are, what the data is for. How many businesses make it 10 years? It's not many. So I feel like you're doing very well. Ronica Cleary [00:01:50]: They talk about that five year mark as a really big turning point and I felt it and I think that's a very valid marker for, you know, a shift in your business. But I think you maybe hear less about the 10 year mark because people probably throw in the towel by then. James Kademan [00:02:06]: They're like, forget this, I'm done. No more, no more. Oh, it's funny. How did you end up in the PR business Ronica Cleary [00:02:14]: accidentally? You know, it was not on purpose, but that's been the beautiful part of the journey. So if I'm being more specific than accidentally, I think it was really client request for that type of service. So I'm a former television journalist and when I left TV I did obviously intentionally start a business and open Cleary strategies. But my vision was to do a lot of communicate traditional communications and support with internal communications and writing and, you know, coaching and. But what people were asking for in my network, because when you started business, you know, your first customers are usually in your network, was, you know, you used to be on tv. Can you help me get on tv? And it was, you know, I didn't call it PR in that moment, but I did have an aha moment a few years into running my business where I said, I think I'm a publicist. Like, how did that happen? And, you know, then we, I mean, we realized that was becoming our identity. I've really leaned into it and I love it. Ronica Cleary [00:03:12]: And we are now a full service PR agency. And that is very, very much our identity today. And we don't do any internal comms or anything like that. So a big shift from customer demand and direction, which is a really cool way to grow. And it's been great. James Kademan [00:03:27]: Nice. So what made you get out of tv? I guess that's an assumption. Maybe you haven't. What made you get out of being a video journalist? Ronica Cleary [00:03:35]: So that is, you know, a lot of reasons. But I'll make it brief because we only have 52 minutes. So let's see. I had a really beautiful career in television. I like to say I had a storybook career in tv. And my most recent work in television was as a White House correspondent. I worked in Washington D.C. and I covered the White House as a journalist. Ronica Cleary [00:03:56]: And my contract was coming up for renewal and I was pregnant with our second child. And at the time, my husband and I actually lived in different states. I lived in the District, the, the District area. I lived in Maryland, but right outside of D.C. with our daughter on my own. And most of the time and he was up here in Pennsylvania. And, you know, it just seemed like the right time to live under one roof with a. With the birth of our second coming and now we have three, which is really beautiful. Ronica Cleary [00:04:26]: And family's very important. And I always really was entrepreneurial. I always had a passion and an interest. I had a really bad attempt at entrepreneurship in my 20s, and I didn't have the drive or the focus to really turn it into something. And in my, let's see, how old was I? I guess my mid-30s. When I started this business, I was a different person and I was ready to really give it an honest try in, in the real sense of the, of making a service business work. And it felt like the right time. And I had done so many wonderful things in tv, it wasn't that, you know, I certainly hadn't done everything, but I felt like I had checked that box in my. Ronica Cleary [00:05:09]: And that I could really look back on that and feel accomplished and like the ride was extremely meaningful. And it felt like a time when I could close that chapter in a thoughtful way. So that's. That's kind of the. The Cliff Notes. James Kademan [00:05:24]: All right, this is. I want to go down the White House correspondent journalist a little bit. Ronica Cleary [00:05:29]: Sure. James Kademan [00:05:30]: Tell me about the contract. Was that with a specific channel or. Ronica Cleary [00:05:35]: Oh, yeah, sure. So I worked for the local Fox affiliate in Washington. So my TV contract was with WTTG, and that's Fox 5. That's the local station in Washington. And then if you cover the White House, you can become a member of the White House Correspondents association, which I was. But my contract in television was with the local Fox station in Washington. And, you know, I moved down there to become the political reporter for the station. It's actually, you know, I don't know if your listeners are super into this, but, you know, it's really rare for local stations to have White House correspondence. Ronica Cleary [00:06:09]: Usually that's a network thing or a print and print reporter thing or some radio stations. But I was down there. I covered the presidential election leading up to the election of Donald Trump for the first time, his first campaign. And, you know, I know he is president today, but that first time that he won, I mean, that the, the media momentum was a frenzy. It was all consuming. And so independent of the politics, I was down there at a really unique time that as a local news reporter, they actually said, we need someone in the briefing room. So that's kind of where, like, I call it like a bit of a storybook career, because usually to get in that briefing room, you've got to follow the journey into working at a national network or, you know, working for, I would argue, maybe a. A bigger news outlet. Ronica Cleary [00:06:58]: And while WTTG,...

Rowan Childs - Madison Reading Project On Building Up Youth: "We want to make sure every kid is excited and sees themselves on the cover or as the main character." Often we take the skills we have for granted.  We want this and that, but rarely take the time to have gratitude for all that we have.  I'm not talking material things, I am speaking of opportunities and education.  As business owners, we know how to read. Did you know that many children have challenges achieving the literacy needed to understand the other subjects in school?  Rowan Childs saw this need and built a non-profit to help children get access to books to read.  Not just any books.  These are books that kids want to read.  Madison Reading Project is a non-profit that offers free books and literacy resources to children to ignite a love of reading. The beautiful thing is Madison Reading Project has blossomed from a small startup to a non-profit that continues to serve thousands of books to children.  This is truly an amazing success story and a story that is making the world a better place. Enjoy! Visit Rowan at: https://www.madisonreadingproject.com/ Sponsors: Calls On Call Extraordinary Answering Service, phone answering for small businesses: https://callsoncall.com Some videos have been recorded with Riverside: https://www.riverside.fm/?utm_campaign=campaign_5&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_source=rewardful&via=james-kademan   Podcast Overview: 00:00 Starting a reading pilot program 04:15 Addressing literacy challenges 07:50 Finding support and gathering books 13:52 Benefits of being a smaller team 14:32 Navigating diverse board challenges 19:27 Building trust with the community 22:38 Offering diverse book options 26:55 Selecting books for community programs 30:36 Lessons from volunteering at food bank 33:00 Donating books through our program 37:20 Giving out books during holidays 39:20 Paper fashion design contest 43:41 Deciding to make paper dresses 45:51 Building Awareness and Finding Volunteers Podcast Transcription: James Kademan [00:00:00]: You have found Authentic Business Adventures, the business program that brings you the struggles, stories and triumphant successes of business owners across the land. Downloadable audio episodes can be found in the podcast link found at https://drawincustomers.com.  We are locally underwritten by the Bank of Sun Prairie, and today we are welcoming, slash, preparing to learn from Rowan Childs of Madison Reading Project. Rowan, I'm super excited to be here. Rowan Childs [00:00:32]: Thank you. Welcome. James Kademan [00:00:34]: This is amazing. We got. I mean, people can see we got whatever, 5 billion books behind us and all that stuff. So tell us the story. What is Madison Reading Project? Rowan Childs [00:00:44]: Yeah. So we are a nonprofit. We provide all kinds of literacy resources, whether they are physical books, digital resources, and our wonderful stuff. We're here to support adults and children in support of them learning how to read in support of them re engaging or engaging in reading and love of books, ultimately to help raise literacy rates in Dane county and now just in Sauk county as well. Yes. That's a brand new thing. James Kademan [00:01:27]: Wow. Rowan Childs [00:01:27]: Yeah. James Kademan [00:01:28]: All right. Rowan Childs [00:01:29]: But we're really here to make sure that kids have their books and to help remove some of those barriers that they have. So whether it's been from the very beginning through what we do today, we do that in a way more sophisticated way than how we started, but it really is to try and provide really high quality materials that children and adults can keep. So we want to make sure that kids are excited about the books and about reading and that they ultimately are inspired to want to hang on to those and to continue to read and love books. James Kademan [00:02:08]: Nice. I love it. I love it. It's so interesting because when you give me address to the place, I just follow gps. And I was like, it's just going to be some warehouse or something like that. But this is a very bright. It's vibrant, it's welcoming. It's not just some dingy, like, there's the books in the back kind of thing. Rowan Childs [00:02:25]: Not at all. James Kademan [00:02:25]: So this is cool. This is very nice. Rowan Childs [00:02:28]: Good. That's how we want everyone to feel. James Kademan [00:02:30]: Yeah. I love it. Let's go back to the way back when, when you first started this 12 years ago, you said, yep, that is a while. We got pandemic. We got. Rowan Childs [00:02:41]: Man. James Kademan [00:02:42]: I feel like every few years there's some kind of a crisis. So I don't remember all the crisis we've been through. But what triggered you to start Madison Reading Project? Rowan Childs [00:02:51]: Yeah, I had just helped my own son re engage in reading. He liked reading things at home, but not so much the books that he was reading at school. And after I helped him figure that out, it just got me thinking about what if I hadn't understood the teacher who had messaged me at home? Or what if they hadn't messaged me? It took me some time and resources to figure that out. So I started just researching and couldn't really find what I was looking for, which wasn't necessarily volunteering on helping kids how to read, it was the other piece of it. And so I spent some time interviewing at some schools and some other after school locations and no one really knew of something of what I was describing and eventually had this idea of potentially how I this pilot program idea. But I wanted to find a pilot program location that would be smaller versus starting somewhere that had 200 kids. So I eventually found a program at Salvation army on Darbo drive that had 30 kids. And Zarbo Drive area is a pretty impoverished area. Rowan Childs [00:04:15]: And the director at that time said he was actually trying to help the kids with homework, but they were behind in reading and he was trying to engage kids in reading. So it was this perfect sort of timing. And the week that we met, the Race to Equity report came out, which was a five year data set on everything that you kind of need for the proof of why literacy is so important. So anything on the actual literacy rates of every school in the county, comparing not just districts and schools, but also third grade reading levels, fifth grade high school in poverty rates, and also race, comparing kids who are white and black or Hispanic. And some of the differences not only were maybe 10 or 15%, but some of the schools were up to 40% differences. And that's just heartbreaking. Still, every time I talk about it, it makes me just really sad because if you can't read whether you're in third grade, you. You're just always going to be behind. Rowan Childs [00:05:28]: Ultimately, you might still be able to struggle through school, but what kind of job are you going to be able to get or can even get your driver's license? You know, it's just snowballs from there. James Kademan [00:05:40]: Yeah. Rowan Childs [00:05:42]: And Will, who was the director at the time, was really adamant that if you can't read, it's just going to be a really difficult life or could lead to a life of incarceration. And so the two of us were very passionate about trying to figure something out. And then the last piece was the funding. James Kademan [00:06:05]: It's a pretty big piece, kind of. Rowan Childs [00:06:07]: I had no money to put towards my pilot program. Someone I had mentioned what I wanted to do, said you really need to have the right money to do the pilot program. Correctly. James Kademan [00:06:19]: Thanks. Rowan Childs [00:06:20]: Yes. And wrote me a check for $1,000. Oh. Which is really nice. That way I could actually purchase the right materials to make the program the pilot. Correct. James Kademan [00:06:32]: Wow. Rowan Childs [00:06:33]: So that was the last piece for that. So we did a three month pilot program that went really well. The parents, the kids were really engaged and excited about clearing out some of the old books that nobody wanted to read, putting in new books that the kids helped so select. The teachers were excited to have new materials so successful that they asked me to come back and do it again. James Kademan [00:06:59]: All right. Rowan Childs [00:07:00]: Which we did. And one thing led to another. But it definitely, as we stayed and sort of kept learning from that, that really was the beginning of learning that. Absolutely kids do want to learn how to read. They absolutely do want to read great books and to select books. And there's a lot of pride in being able to select their own books. And we stayed at that location exclusively for nearly two years, just learning with the kids and the parents and the teachers really what we did or didn't want to do or what we could do before we were going to scale at all. And that was great. Rowan Childs [00:07:50]: And the other piece was, how are we going to fund all of this apart from that initial check? And while we were doing that initial pilot program in that first year, people just started giving me boxes of their nice books that they had never used or just unsolicited. They're like, oh, oh, by the way, I have a box of books for you. Like, oh, thank you so much. Or people were asking me how they could donate some money because they loved what they had heard what I was doing, whether I really knew them or not, till the point where I had a basement full of books in my house. And I was like, this seems like we have something here. So we have definitely children in a population in Madison initially that absolutely would love to have more books and programs. We have people who absolutely seem to love books and want to provide books....

Rachel LaCasse-Ford - Lake Road Campground On the Best Plan for Business: "It's very important when you're thinking about purchasing a business or starting a business that you know the beginning, middle, and end, like, you know all the pieces, you know how you're going to get in, how you're going to manage it, and how you're going to get out if things don't go well, or if things go well and you want and you're ready to sell and move on." There are businesses everywhere, or every type.  Rachel thought it would be a great idea to buy a campground. Now she is here explaining her compelling story! From navigating the ins and outs of real estate and business purchase, to building a self-sustaining, hospitality-focused business with the help of family, trade associations, and thoughtful planning, this episode is packed with practical advice and inspiring stories. Whether you're dreaming of your own entrepreneurial venture or simply love a good behind-the-scenes peek at unique local businesses, you won't want to miss the authentic insights and lessons learned shared here. So grab your campsite mug and settle in for this week's adventure! Enjoy! Visit Rachel at: https://lakeroadcampground.com/ Sponsors: Live Video chat with our customers here with LiveSwitch: https://join.liveswitch.com/gfj3m6hnmguz Calls On Call Extraordinary Answering Service: https://callsoncall.com Some videos have been recorded with Riverside: https://www.riverside.fm/?utm_campaign=campaign_5&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_source=rewardful&via=james-kademan   Podcast Overview: 00:00 Importance of keeping good books 05:06 Managing a small rental property 08:54 Laundry and bathroom amenities 10:58 Things to do around the campsite 15:59 Family-run campgrounds discussion 18:25 Setting competitive pricing strategy 20:20 Preparing for potential flooding 25:19 Watching dredging near the lock 26:35 Family outings by the overlook 29:42 Relying on handyman skills 35:06 Managing campground quiet hours 38:46 Importance of good bookkeeping 39:33 Evaluating a business opportunity 44:42 Planning for future capital needs 47:31 Empty nester future plans Podcast Transcription:  

Shane Perkins - Ultimate Strategy On the Reality Banks Overlook: "If you have that kind of equity and you've worked and you've saved that down payment, then there's nothing telling me that you're not going to make your payments." When you have a job with a W-2, you fit in the traditional bucket.  Traditional things for people with traditional jobs are fine.  They are simple, and easy and everyone can buy them with ease.  You want a loan, let's see your W-2, and see how much house you can afford. The challenge comes in when you are an entrepreneur.  You make money, but it isn't nearly as easy as looking at a line on a document supplied by your employer.  There are many more factors and a bit of gray area.  These are the types of things that traditional banks get scared of.  That is where the Ultimate Strategy comes in.  To get entrepreneurs into homeownership, without the limitations of traditional banks. Listen as Shane Perkins describes how he is training more students to help entrepreneurs implement the Ultimate Strategy to achieve the homeownership they desire. Enjoy! Visit Shane at: https://TheUltimateStrategy.com Sponsors: Live Video chat with our customers here with LiveSwitch: https://join.liveswitch.com/gfj3m6hnmguz Calls On Call Extraordinary Answering Service: https://callsoncall.com Some videos have been recorded with Riverside: https://www.riverside.fm/?utm_campaign=campaign_5&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_source=rewardful&via=james-kademan   Podcast Overview: 00:00 Issues with current mortgage system 05:36 Helping families become homeowners 08:58 Understanding mortgage pre-approval vs. approval 12:45 Real estate deals in different states 13:21 Working in your local market 18:39 Discussing home loan qualification criteria 20:11 Discussing home loan options 24:35 Benefits of refinancing a mortgage 26:57 Real estate investment strategy 29:52 Housing affordability concerns 34:22 How mortgage payments are managed 36:41 Investor strategies for real estate students 41:23 Discussing payment reminders with clients 43:56 Passion for helping people in real estate 47:03 Maximizing returns on home equity 51:38 The value of entrepreneurship Podcast Transcription: Shane Perkins [00:00:00]: I've created a strategy that helps people get into homes that don't qualify for traditional mortgage. I just realized that the demand is so high that I can't help everybody. So I'm creating an army of folks that want to go out there and help people become homeowners. If someone's looking for a real estate investment strategy, there's nothing better out there. It's consistent. Couple deals a month, two, three deals a month, every single month. There's always a demand for it. James Kademan [00:00:33]: You have found Authentic Business Adventures, the business program that brings you the struggle stories and triumphant successes of business owners across the land. Downloadable audio episodes can be found on the podcast link found@drawincustomers.com we are locally underwritten by the bank of Sun Prairie Calls On Call, Extraordinary Answering Service, the Bold Business Book, as well as Live Switch. And today we're welcoming, preparing to learn from Shane Perkins of the ultimate strategy. So, Shane, how is it going today? Shane Perkins [00:01:02]: It is going great. How are you doing? Do you have a good Mother's Day? Yeah. James Kademan [00:01:06]: Oh, yeah, yeah. That was. It just came and went. Yeah, it's so funny. My kids in sports, so any day, Mother's Day, Father's Day, whatever, Memorial Day, Labor Day, they're all. You're just traveling to some different grassy field where he's playing some sport. So, yeah, I imagine that's what a lot of parents are doing. Let's start with the ultimate strategy. James Kademan [00:01:29]: Shane, what is the ultimate strategy? Shane Perkins [00:01:31]: Well, I have been a real estate investor for 29 years, and I've created a strategy that helps people get into homes that don't qualify for traditional mortgage. And I didn't start that until 2001. And so I've been doing that for about 25 years. James Kademan [00:01:49]: Wow. Shane Perkins [00:01:49]: And so I call it the ultimate strategy. And I did it myself for many, many years. And. And now that my kids are grown and gone, and I've decided that I need to empower other people to help more people get into homes. So I teach other people how to do the ultimate strategy, and they use that strategy to go and help other people get into homes. James Kademan [00:02:15]: Right on. And is it the property that has the challenge getting lending happening, or is it the borrower, the people trying to get into the home? Shane Perkins [00:02:23]: You know, James, I say that we have a broken mortgage system. You know, they've been using the same system for 30 years and they're, you know, people change jobs, people start businesses. Business owners are notoriously turned down for mortgages because they are taught, as all of us entrepreneurs are to minimize their taxes. Right. Well, that means writing off everything that you can. And there's many things that you can write off. And at the end of the day, your tax return says that you don't make enough money to pay for a house, but you're sitting there paying $3,000 a month in rent. And so we know that these people can pay. Shane Perkins [00:03:01]: We know how to record their income in a manner that will finance them on a house. And when I say finance, we get them into a house. We are not lenders, so we use creative financing strategies, real estate investment strategies that have been around for, you know, a hundred years. And so that's what we do. We help people get into homes. James Kademan [00:03:26]: Right on. You know, it's interesting you mentioned the small business thing, because I remember the last house that I bought with my wife. We, the lender straight up told us, let's just put her W2 on there and just ignore your income. And if we get challenged by it, then we'll come back and figure something out. But it's better just to not even use the word entrepreneur or self employed. Shane Perkins [00:03:49]: It is. James Kademan [00:03:51]: I'm like, I'm pretty sure I make more money than her, but whatever makes. Shane Perkins [00:03:56]: But that's the way it works. And it is, it's a broken system. And I, you know, what I've figured out over 25 years of doing this program is that there's three components that make people pay for their home. And the first one is the most important one. And that's in that they're in the home of their choice. You know, there are owner finance programs out there on specific houses, but if that's not what you want, what's, you know, what's, you know, what's the factor there? Yeah, you can call yourself an owner, but it's in something that you're having to settle for. And so that's the first factor. The second one is that they must have equity. Shane Perkins [00:04:35]: And so we do require down payment. You know, it's similar to the older old school. Right. 20% down. We do some 15% down deals, but you got to have some skin in the game. So you got to, you know, save for a down payment. And that and the fact that you have income is the third thing. But documenting that income for a bank is far different than documenting that income for what we do. James Kademan [00:05:01]: Right on. So are people coming to you or are you having a cold call and reach out to people? Shane Perkins [00:05:07]: No, once, once you get this program up and running, people seek you out. You know, there's a statistic that I heard, and I can't verify if it's true or not because they're pretty close. Close lipped on their. And I've tried to verify it, but I had a friend of mine tell me that, that, that actually works with Zillow very closely. That said 7,000 people a day are turned down that have a 20% down payment on Zillow. And I don't discredit it. I believe that that's true. I just can't prove it. Shane Perkins [00:05:36]: But that's a lot of people. And they don't want to rent again, you know, that, you know, renting is. It's great when you need it, but when you have kids and you have a family, you don't want to be at someone else's mercy to just raise your payment or, hey, I want somebody else to move into there, you know, or we're going to sell or something like that. You want to give your kids roots, you want to give them a home. You want to be able to build a tree house or paint your girl's bedroom pink and your boy's bedroom blue or what have you, you know, you want to call it yours. And so we've recognized what it takes to be able to help people get into homes. And now I just realized that the demand is so high that I can't help everybody. So I'm creating an army of folks that want to go out there and help people become homeowners. James Kademan [00:06:26]: Right on. Let's talk about this army. Is this army people that are just looking to start their own business in this space, or is this other people that are already in the mortgage industry and they're looking for. Shane Perkins [00:06:37]: It's a little bit of both. Yeah, it's a little bit of both. So, you know, real estate investing, there's a lot of people that want to get into it, you know, and there's all these programs out there, and I don't, you know, wholesaling and fix and flip and burr methods, you know, buy, repair, rent and repeat and all of these different methods. And they're all good strategies, but they're a lot more competitive nowadays because there's so many people getting. Getting into it. So it takes you, you know, you have to go through quite a few cold calls. And the things that loi blaster, where they. You blast out letters of intent, agent outreach, door knocking, foreclosure list, there's all these different strategies. Shane Perkins [00:07:22]: And again,...

Fred Fisher  - Fisher Consulting On the Unrealistic Expectations We Have in the Insurance World: "You have to know more about your insurance needs than the guy selling it, the guy who has to take continuing education classes." Insurance is basically paying for a promise you hope you will not need to ask to be kept.  To avoid great financial loss, or to have the support of a team of lawyers, insurance is a necessary evil.  Like most things that are necessary. Fred Fisher of Fisher Consulting has been in the insurance world for decades.  He has been working in insurance in different roles throughout his career and knows the industry inside and out.  What he shares is both educational and a bit frightening. Listen as Fred Fisher shares hard-earned insights gained through decades in the industry as a claims expert, lawyer, consultant, and author. He uncovers the pitfalls of buying on price alone, exposes the risks of working with “order-taker” insurance agents, and explains why business owners need to demand more from their insurance brokers. Enjoy! Visit Fred at: https://www.fishercg.com Sponsors: Live Video chat with our customers here with LiveSwitch: https://join.liveswitch.com/gfj3m6hnmguz Calls On Call Extraordinary Answering Service: https://callsoncall.com Some videos have been recorded with Riverside: https://www.riverside.fm/?utm_campaign=campaign_5&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_source=rewardful&via=james-kademan   Podcast Overview: 00:00 Pursuing law to help artists 06:12 Understanding legal claim complexities 14:22 Undisclosed potential claims risk 17:01 Handling an insurance claim oversight 23:41 Managing legal risks and disclosures 31:51 Handling policy order requests 36:00 How Farmers handles declines 39:30 Unexpected renovation challenges 44:34 Understanding building code coverage 48:41 Understanding tech liability policies 55:16 Delayed claims denial examples 01:01:21 Restrictive insurance policy drafting 01:09:55 Choosing not to compete anymore 01:12:29 Challenges in insurance claims handling 01:19:56 Treating renewals as new business 01:22:53 Program introduction and sponsorships Podcast Transcription: Fred Fisher [00:00:00]: I used to tell my staff, never take a renewal for granted. Treat every renewal as new business because our competitor will. They're going to dive deep, they're going to find a hole, they're going to find out that our insured's doing something new that we didn't know about, that that we're not covering. And they can. So treat every renewal as new business because our competitor is going to do that because it is new business for them. So either we dig deep and compete or we lose the account. James Kademan [00:00:31]: You have found Authentic Business Adventures, the business program that brings you the struggle stories and triumphant successes of business owners across the land. Downloadable audio episodes can be found in the podcast link found at drawincustomers.com we are locally underwritten by the Bank of Sun Prairie, Calls On Call Extraordinary Answering Service, the Bold Business Book and as well as Live Switch. And today we're welcoming, preparing to learn from Fred Fisher of Fisher Consulting. And Fred, I gotta say I'm excited. Though you probably don't hear this very often, I'm excited to talk insurance with you. Fred Fisher [00:01:05]: That's, that's really interesting. That's the fastest way to clear the room is. Oh yeah, we're talking about insurance tonight. James Kademan [00:01:10]: We're going to talk about insurance. I got a thing at that place, right? Fred Fisher [00:01:14]: Absolutely. James Kademan [00:01:14]: No, I'm, I am super excited for a few reasons, right? One, I have some property insurance that's due, so it's top of mind. Two, I live in southern Wisconsin and we just got hit with I think four out of five days. We had hail, there's tornadoes. I got some buddies that had some baseball size hail. And I'm like, man, if I was an insurance company, I'd be like, oh, we gotta write checks. We're supposed to collect the checks, not write them. So anyways, it's top of mind. Fred Fisher [00:01:43]: That's the product though, that's the whole problem. The claim department is where, and this is a quote from a colleague of mine, Chantelle Roberts. The claim department is where the product is produced. James Kademan [00:01:57]: Ah, I like it. Fred Fisher [00:01:59]: I do too. And I will never take credit for it. It's Chantel's. No, she's a phenomenal professional. James Kademan [00:02:06]: That's awesome. So tell me a story about your business and how you got started by accident. Nah, as per usual, it's all good. Fred Fisher [00:02:15]: You know, up until recently, the insurance industry has never been a destination profession. Everybody got into it by accident. You don't go to business school, say, I want to be working for an insurance company. That just does not happen. It Is more so now, though, because more and more colleges and universities do have risk management insurance curriculums, which is unnecessary. But for me, when I went to University of California, berkeley in the 60s, at least I think I did, and I graduated with a social science field major, but I'm more of a gestalt thinker. And so I couldn't just take political science because what good is that without knowing something about journalism or know something about sociology or know something about psychology? In the real world, all that works together. And so that's why I did a social science field major. Fred Fisher [00:03:06]: But when you graduate with a degree like that, where you're going to end up is probably selling life insurance, which is exactly what happened. But I intentionally had already enrolled in law school to go at night. And the reason I did that and the reason why it was intentional is back then, everybody wanted to be a lawyer. And so unless you really were smart, you didn't get into the top law schools. And even then, if, even if you did, if you didn't graduate in the top 10% of your class, you probably didn't have a job waiting for. James Kademan [00:03:36]: For you. Wow. Fred Fisher [00:03:38]: And I didn't, you know, and I didn't want to work for corporate America or whatever anyways. I wanted to be an entertainment lawyer. I wanted to represent artists and musicians because I had a lot of friends who were artists and musicians in Berkeley, in the Bay Area at that time. And I thought, well, I could help protect them, you know, from the evil of corporate America, what have you. And one thing led to another, and I got a job as a law clerk eventually. And the other reason I did this too, is because if you went to the top law schools, like I said, you wouldn't have a job. But if you went to a night law school and you could get a job in the legal industry during the day, you had a job waiting for you was 90%. I like those odds. Fred Fisher [00:04:15]: I like those odds. So I ended up kind of getting a job as a law clerk in what was called an insurance defense law firm. And I have nothing but good experience from that. The gentleman who was heading that firm up, and we were all employees of an insurance company, so this was in house counsel. And he loved teaching, he loved young people and helping them really learn. And as a result, you, if you work there, you, you could move to another law firm, you know, after a year and a half or so, and one thing led to another, and I did that. And then I. And then, unfortunately, the partner of that law firm, after eight months, decided, well, we don't really need a law clerk. Fred Fisher [00:04:57]: What we need is somebody who's licensed and can do Fred's job and also go to court, you know, on minor motions, so. Enough to send somebody heavy out. And so I got laid off. Boo. Yeah. But he actually did me a favor. I had friends that were work. I had a couple of friends that were working at this claim adjusting firm, and they were doing something I didn't even know existed. Fred Fisher [00:05:19]: They were handling nothing but what were called professional liability claims. They were handling cases against lawyers, insurance agents, real estate brokers, medical malpractice, which I stayed away from. A little too real for me. And oddball stuff for Lloyd's of London, including Seedman Zo, you know, for companies that manufacture seed, you know, for. For farmers, so to speak. James Kademan [00:05:42]: Yeah. Fred Fisher [00:05:42]: Coat it with this little clay stuff so that it could be put into a mechanical planter so they could have control over one seed every six inches. How do you like that? I mean, if you're. If you're going to be planting seed in 500 acres, you know, that's a lot of seed if you don't manage it correctly. And it's really expensive. So this was a whole different world. And so I handled a claim involving that where nothing grew. 500 acres, nothing. It was like what happened. Fred Fisher [00:06:12]: You know, I'll never forget the phrase necrosis of the cotyledon boy. There's a federal regulation on it, and I'll never forget it. But it was interesting work and I was good at it. And especially when it came to lawyers and insurance brokers, you had what was called a claim within a claim. I mean, at first you had to decide that the attorney screwed up or did the insurance broker screw up, and then what was the underlying matter they were working on? Because that's where the damages are, supposedly. And so you didn't know whether you were with an attorney malpractice case, whether you were going to handle a personal injury statute of limitations problem, or the attorney didn't file the lawsuit on time. And then the next case has to do with a merger and acquisition. Wow. James Kademan [00:06:55]: You see, What a variety. Fred Fisher [00:06:56]: Yeah, exactly....

Nuttha Goutier  - Sabai Thai Massage On the Passion to Succeed: "I said I have the dream, I have the vision, I have the belief and I am young and full of energy. I think the vision that I have, people will like it and people will love it." We've probably all been told to relax more than a few times.  The hustle of business can take it's toll on both the body and the mind. How do you unwind, or recharge?  Nuttha (pronounced Neat-a) Goutier as the founder of Sabai Thai Massage in Vancouver has the answer. Nuttha explains the different services her team provides, as well as details how she grew her business to include multiple locations. Listen as Nuttha shares how to start your business, as well as how to overcome some of the growing pains that come with adding multiple brick and mortar locations. Enjoy! Visit Nuttha at: https://sabaithai.com/ Sponsors: Live Video chat with our customers here with LiveSwitch: https://join.liveswitch.com/gfj3m6hnmguz Calls On Call Extraordinary Answering Service: https://callsoncall.com Some videos have been recorded with Riverside: https://www.riverside.fm/?utm_campaign=campaign_5&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_source=rewardful&via=james-kademan   Podcast Overview: 00:00 Growing up in a village 03:41 The hard labor of farming 08:30 Choosing to move to Canada 11:57 Starting the first location 13:12 Early business vision and challenges 16:40 Late nights renovating before opening 22:11 Taking a business break in Thailand 25:50 Creating a caring work culture 27:59 Improving customer comfort skills 31:37 Adapting to new technology 34:06 Balancing family, real estate, and spa 36:46 Exploring franchise opportunities 42:25 Discussing increased massage industry competition 45:28 Massage as a routine activity 48:29 Discussing healthy aging habits 52:00 Types of massages offered Podcast Transcription:  

Alisa Sparks  - Linden Creek On Realizing Your Own Success: "I kind of had this moment where I paused and realized I had accidentally worked myself out of a job, and that should be a good thing. My team had it covered, my clients were happy, things were rolling well, and I kind of scratched my head and went, what do I do next?" As business owners we often have one speed: Go.  We run relentlessly, sometimes with action without actual accomplishment, and other times we find ourselves with an empire we built and we realize we can idle down a bit and not work quite as hard. This is the goal, of course. Selling houses is big business.  Like anything of value, the better it is presented the higher the sales price.  This is why staged homes sell for more than empty or lived-in homes.  But who has the skills and furniture to stage a home? Alisa Sparks started her home-staging business, Linden Creek, and was successful.  Then she built that business into a franchise empire that took success to another level. Listen as Alisa explains what it takes to make start a home staging business, what it takes to build a franchise from scratch, and what can be done when you have the systems and people in place and things are actually running well. Enjoy! Visit Alisa at: Linden-Creek.com Sponsors: Live Video chat with our customers here with LiveSwitch: https://join.liveswitch.com/gfj3m6hnmguz Calls On Call Extraordinary Answering Service: https://callsoncall.com Some videos have been recorded with Riverside: https://www.riverside.fm/?utm_campaign=campaign_5&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_source=rewardful&via=james-kademan   Podcast Overview: 00:00 Discovering a passion for staging 9:22 Real estate staging process 15:42 Learning to delegate effectively 19:25 Shifting demand from staging to design 26:04 Considering a franchise business 28:37 Franchise owner support and coaching 33:07 Ensuring brand consistency across franchises 40:10 Evaluating franchise prospects 48:24 Navigating software development challenges 51:37 Importance of honest sales communication 59:48 Program sponsor and listener call-to-action Podcast Transcription: James Kademan [00:00:00]: Tell me about the art or pictures. And most people's houses you'll see pictures of family or graduation pictures or grandma or whatever. Are you including some pictures like that or is it more art or maybe it's nothing. Alisa Sparks [00:00:11]: Yeah, definitely do not include family photos when you're selling a home. Now, you could have a really cute family and they could be fantastic, but the problem is the moment they see a picture of your family, the conversation in their brain changes from this is this could be my home. I can imagine myself living here to. To somebody else's living here. And all of a sudden it changes that emotional connection. And so we highly recommend you don't have photos of your family in a home. James Kademan [00:00:39]: You have found Authentic Business Adventures, the business program that brings you the struggle stories and triumphant successes of business owners across the land. Downloadable audio episodes can be found in the podcast link found https://drawincustomers.com we are locally underwritten by the bank of Sun Prairie Calls on call Extraordinary Answering Service, the Bold Business Book and Live Switch. Today we're welcoming, preparing to learn from Alisa Sparks of Linden Creek. And Alisa, I believe we're talking home staging here. So how is it going today? Alisa Sparks [00:01:11]: It's going great. Thank you so much for having me today. I'm excited to be here. James Kademan [00:01:15]: Yeah. I'm actually very excited to talk with you because I've met some home stagers before, but I have never met a home stager with a company that's beyond many offices or even beyond really their home office. So I'm excited to talk to you, talk to you about your business growth. That's huge. Alisa Sparks [00:01:35]: Yeah, it's been a really fun journey. This is an industry. You're absolutely right. Most individuals in this have their one stop location and so expanding outside of just our four walls has been a really fun adventure over these last few years. James Kademan [00:01:49]: Nice. So let's go to the way back. Right. When did you first start this? Alisa Sparks [00:01:53]: I started Linden Creek eight years ago. My background has nothing to do with interior design or real estate. I have a background in finance, so I love numbers. Give me an Excel spreadsheet and I will entertain myself for hours. Right. Like that is my. My bread and butter. However, with that being said, I found myself in this place where I was always trying to fulfill this creative itch. Alisa Sparks [00:02:15]: So. So when I would finish my day job, I would spend time buying the ugliest houses I could find and renovating them, building furniture in my garage, whatever I could do to kind of fulfill this creative itch that I had until finally I had this aha moment of like, maybe I should take this passion that I have and this hobby and build it into something that's a true business. James Kademan [00:02:36]: How cool is that? And when were you working in finance industry before? Alisa Sparks [00:02:41]: I was in the finance industry and actually supported the Department of Defense for nearly a decade, managing their aircraft budgets. So again, nothing at all related to what I do today. But so many of the skills that I learned from that experience, whether it came from systems and operations to managing financials, have been crucial for the success of where Linden Creek is today. James Kademan [00:03:03]: Nice. And what was the major contributing factor to make you shift? Saying, I gotta go off and do this on my own. Government, you got health care and whatever. W2BI weekly paycheck, whatever. Alisa Sparks [00:03:16]: All the great benefits, all the safety nets. And so much so that I had a good friend of mine that I worked with two years into me starting Linden Creek. We caught up and grabbed coffee, and she looked at me and she goes, why did you leave such a safe, stable job with such good income? And I was like, there's something more to this. So, yeah, it was a big shift in change to get faster of make this massive jump. It actually all came down to a book. I was at the gym listening to an audiobook of Rich Dad, Poor dad by Robert Kiyosaki. I'm sure many are familiar with that one, but he talked about the value of building a business and how that becomes an asset. It's not just a job. Alisa Sparks [00:03:54]: And there was something about that that struck for me when it came to just that ownership of what you have and the work that you're putting into something. And as I started kind of scratching my head going, okay, what kind of business could I start? I'm playing with aircraft, right? Helicopters and things like that. That's not transferable to my own business. And as I was really thinking about it, we had just put a home on the market that we had renovated and flipped. And the feedback we got was the staging was good, but it wasn't staged. It was just my furniture that I had collected over the years and kind of made look right for the home. But it was this aha moment for me of maybe I could stage houses. I don't have an interior design degree, but there might be something to the staging. Alisa Sparks [00:04:33]: And so that was really what started the entire concept of Linden Creek. James Kademan [00:04:37]: How cool is that? All right, so what was the answer that you gave your friend? So when you're at the coffee shop and she's like, what are you doing? Alisa Sparks [00:04:45]: I Smiled politely. And I said, this one's for the long game and it's going to be worth it at some point in time. And it has been. I'm thankful for the transition I made. I can look back and say with confidence, this was a good call, but it's scary in that interim, right. Like when you don't know, when the math doesn't math, when you're still building your business and reinvesting every penny. It's a scary transition. James Kademan [00:05:05]: Oh, I totally understand that. I. You know, you remind me of a time I had a buddy of mine offer me a job at a place that he was working out. And I'm like, I'm actually starting my own thing. And he was like, why? It's just one of those things where it was interesting. Where? To a point. When someone asks you a question like that, you really don't know how to answer it, because in order for them to ask that question, they don't really have the foundation that's needed to understand the answer that you would give. Alisa Sparks [00:05:36]: Yeah, that's exactly right. James Kademan [00:05:38]: Just say, like, because. Whatever. So tell me, when you first started your business, I imagine you get the website is this. Well, I have to back up a step because I don't know a whole lot about home staging other than I have seen homes that are staged. Inserting couches, furniture, rugs, stuff like that, that once the house is sold, those go to a different house or how does that work? Alisa Sparks [00:06:02]: That's exactly right. Yeah. So we own our own furniture and inventory. It started small in my garage. I became best friends with my FedEx delivery guy who would drop off new furniture every day, and I would spend my evenings, you know, assembling furniture in my garage until everything was built out. We do a much larger scale of that today. So the operations are different. But yes, I was slowly building and collecting my own set of inventory and furniture, putting it in a home and. Alisa Sparks [00:06:27]: And the moment the home sold, taking it out and moving it to the next property. Wow. James Kademan [00:06:32]: So I imagine that takes a lot of space. You have all. I mean, coaches aren't small, right....

Michael Shapiro  - Ketubah.com On How the Artist Gets Inspired for the Ketubah: "There would be a discussion of the couple's values, maybe how they met, maybe where they met, and the artist would be listening for things that were important to them, including things between the lines, maybe that they weren't speaking about, but that they got a sense of" Business owners that become business owners because they learned a craft and saw a need are some of the most fascinating people to speak with. Michael Shapiro learned about Ketubahs and took the bold step of starting https://ketubah.com/.  The website connects ketubah artists with Jewish couples soon to be wed. After speaking with Michael, you learn about his keen awareness of what couples want, what artists can offer and combines this to help couples get a beautiful piece for their special day, and beyond. Listen as Michael explains what it takes to make a great ketubah and how he has built his business around helping others. Enjoy! Visit Michael at: https://ketubah.com/ Sponsors: Live Video chat with our customers here with LiveSwitch: https://join.liveswitch.com/gfj3m6hnmguz Calls On Call Extraordinary Answering Service: https://callsoncall.com Some videos have been recorded with Riverside: https://www.riverside.fm/?utm_campaign=campaign_5&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_source=rewardful&via=james-kademan   Podcast Overview: 00:00 Reviving historical Jewish art forms 04:21 Understanding the Ketubah document 09:03 Ketubah sizing and ceremony use 11:43 Early ketubah art practices 15:12 Blending tech with craftsmanship 16:28 The significance of ketubahs in weddings 22:28 Transition to online services 24:10 Custom calligraphic font for Ketubahs 29:06 Starting the first website 32:02 Early marketing efforts 33:26 Providing custom design options 37:19 Meeting artists in Israel 42:02 Struggling to break even 43:39 Learning to delegate tasks 46:52 Managing through pandemic challenges 50:01 Managing cash flow challenges 53:09 Following your passion and persistence Podcast Transcription: Michael Shapiro [00:00:00]: There are some. It's something that usually the couple, you know, there's been some dream of it for years and years, in some cases since childhood, people have imagined what their wedding day was going to be like. On top of that, add the hopes, dreams and expectations of parents, other family members. So it can be a very stressful thing. So I'm very proud of the fact that at least with the purchase of the ketubah, thanks to my team's expertise, empathy and real human customer service, the ketubah is one thing that you can just relax. It's not something you're going to have to worry about. We're there to hold your hand every step of the way and make sure that everything is absolutely right. James Kademan [00:00:40]: You have found authentic Business Adventures, the business program that brings you the struggle stories and triumphant successes of business owners across the land. Downloadable audio episodes can be found in the podcast link Fun to draw in customers.com we are locally underwritten by the bank of Sun Prairie calls on call, Extraordinary answering service, both business book as well as live switch. And today we're welcoming, preparing to learn from Michael Shapiro of ketubah.com and I gotta say, Michael, I'm excited because we're talking about what looks to be some art that. It's funny, I had no idea stuff like this existed. So let's start with the foundation. What do you do? Michael Shapiro [00:01:18]: Absolutely. So ketubah.com sells ketubahs. What is a ketubah? The ketubah at its core is the Jewish marriage contract. The traditional text of it goes back more than 2,000 years. And there is a tradition which is only a thousand years old, if you will, of making this document into something beautifully written and beautifully decorated. James Kademan [00:01:43]: Is this so thorough? Thousands of years who or thousand years who, I guess. Tell me how that has translated over the course of modern times. Is it essentially the same that it was forever ago? Michael Shapiro [00:01:57]: Very, very interesting. And, and you know, I, I actually just, just published a book that looks into the history of this art form and then brings it up to date because there was a very interesting ebb and flow, which is it all started that the tradition of decorating these started in the land of Israel and in Egypt about a thousand years ago. It then moved through Europe all the way to Spain. And then after the Spanish Inquisition and the expulsion of the Jews from Spain, it moved all throughout the Mediterranean into the Middle East. Then over time, with the invention of the printing press and the application of the printing press to making inexpensive versions of this, the art form started to die out. From sort of the late 1800s onwards. Then in North America, starting in the early 1970s, some Jewish artists in the United States and in Canada started to bring the art form back to life. And that's what the book is about. Michael Shapiro [00:02:55]: My book is called Ketubah Renaissance and it's about the modern revival of this ancient art form in a North American context. And that really is what made my business possible. James Kademan [00:03:07]: That is incredible. It's so funny something that I would consider this to be pretty major that I must be just living under a rock because I had never heard of these until connecting with you. Michael Shapiro [00:03:18]: Don't feel too badly. I actually, until 1995, I wasn't aware of this tradition either. So my parents and grandparents just had a simple Ketubah, a simple marriage document that was given to them by the rabbi just on a piece of paper filed away. So that was, you know, that was from the period time when this tradition of the beautifully decorated one had died out. So it was only in 1995, when I was studying in Jerusalem, networking with Judaica artists with an idea to open a shop when I came back to came back home to Canada that I met my first Ketubah artist. So don't feel too bad because I didn't know about this tradition either until, well, 30 years ago. And then I started the company. James Kademan [00:04:01]: Right on. That is awesome. So tell me about the contract itself right before we dive into the art, which is probably more fun. Part, tell me about the contract. Is this just a typical copy paste from every other marriage out there or is there some type of a conversation that happens between the parties, the husband, wife, as to what's going to be included there? Michael Shapiro [00:04:21]: So yes and yes. So the handed down text has changed very little up until this period of the Ketubah revival. And it was a revolutionary text for its time. Imagine in biblical times a woman on her own, either because her husband died or because they became divorced. And divorce is allowed in Judaism, not encouraged, but it is allowed in Judaism. Women and her children on their own could be in serious financial straits. So this was a document that basically was a little bit like, if you will, a prenup slash insurance life insurance policy, which is that if she ended up on her own, she would have financial sum that would be available to her so that she and her children would be okay. That very legal text changed very little up until, as I said, the early 1970s. Michael Shapiro [00:05:17]: Around the time, and this was one of the contributing factors that opened up the, the revival of the art form, there started to be A proliferation of texts, and these included texts that went outside of the religious legal framework that the original text had come down. By that time, not all Jews were practicing sort of Orthodox Judaism. Their reform there was conservative and a whole range of texts that were more like what you're mentioning in your question. Many of them now are more like love documents, commitments of shared value, rather than a legalistic sort of a document. James Kademan [00:05:54]: Gotcha. You know, it's interesting because I'm thinking that the. The men are essentially assigned to support the women. So if the guy goes away for whatever reason, divorce, death, whatever woman is taken care of, does it also. I mean, we're in a time now where that could be flipped, where the woman is the one making all the money. So does that go both ways? Michael Shapiro [00:06:12]: You know what? That's a really interesting question. The traditional text, as far as I know, does not take that into account. And the more I would say contemporary texts, they don't get into the financial end of it at all. So I guess in that circumstance, it would really be up to the state laws in terms when a couple divorces to make sure that they're treating each other fairly versus the religious document requiring that. James Kademan [00:06:43]: Right on. And then last question, in regards to the contract itself, is this a legally binding document? So if some. A divorce happens, the spouse can say, hey, or the ex spouse can say, hey, this is. You owe me, according to this. Michael Shapiro [00:06:58]: Well, it's. So it's binding within a Jewish rabbinical court, if you will. It is. There have been some attempts to bring the ketubah to the so sort of, you know, courts of the state, so to speak. I'm not an expert in that field. I don't know how successful they have been. So I guess the answer is kind of yes and kind of no. James Kademan [00:07:20]: All right, fair enough. Let's get into the fun stuff. Tell me about the art side of these. Michael Shapiro [00:07:25]: Okay, so as I mentioned, the art form, it, you know, goes back about a thousand years. It's a very rich art form. And one of the things that I find fascinating is the.

Rihab Abouzaki  - This N That Communications On What She Does: "We are a gateway to the US market. As a company, we take the international brand and help them find distributors or help them directly sell in the US market, advertise in the US market." Often we get a little cozy with success.  Sometimes even a bit complacent, and we slow down our businesses growth. But what if you could expand your market beyond your nation's borders and broke into other countries?  Luckily you can, but it may not be easy. Rihab Abouzaki has started This N That Communications to solve this problem.  Her and her team, with their international experience, help companies navigate the waters of marketing, delivering and growing their business in other countries. Listen as Rihab explains what it takes to expand your product globally. Enjoy! Visit Rihab at: https://thisnthatcommunications.com/ Sponsors: Live Video chat with our customers here with LiveSwitch: https://join.liveswitch.com/gfj3m6hnmguz Calls On Call Extraordinary Answering Service: https://callsoncall.com Some videos have been recorded with Riverside: https://www.riverside.fm/?utm_campaign=campaign_5&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_source=rewardful&via=james-kademan   Podcast Overview: 00:00 Talking marketing with Rehab 06:14 Comparing U.S. and Middle East markets 10:14 Demand for Saudi dates in the US 14:25 Distributing Indian products to the US 16:26 Marketing costs versus sales returns 18:39 Finding the right distributor 22:01 Costs of launching in the US 27:09 Tracking ad performance instantly 28:59 Streaming TV and prime time 31:30 Instagram bots vs real engagement 36:55 Why Instagram is losing trust 41:10 Supporting small and mid-sized brands 44:51 Building a client-focused creative team 46:03 Understanding the advertiser's role Podcast Transcription:  

Todd Graves  - Graves Golf On Understanding Your Value: "Your customer is going to feed on your clarity of what you have to offer. And without clarity, you're just going to be a commodity." Some things just go hand in hand with business.  Things like marketing, closing a deal over a beer, meeting for coffee and, of course, golfing.  It seems that golf is a sport that allows you to chat on a more casual level with vendors and clients to get deals done and have a good excuse to be out of the office on a beautiful day. But this can be challenging, especially if you don't golf well. Todd Graves grew up with golf and learned the single plane swing from the best in the business, Moe Norman.  Using Moe's unique swing that works well, along with a 5 step training process, Todd has built a business to help golfers become better golfers and non-golfers become golfers that don't hurt their back.  He has systematized the golf swing to the point of making the game fun for entrepreneurs. With Graves Golf, Todd has built a business around helping golfers get better.  His process has value for businesses of all types, helping you understand the reason behind the rule of 'Systematize Everything'. Listen as Todd explains his approach to training golfers and how he built his business around one guys process that went against the norm. Enjoy! Visit Todd at: https://gravesgolf.com/ Sponsors: Live Video chat with our customers here with LiveSwitch: https://join.liveswitch.com/gfj3m6hnmguz Calls On Call Extraordinary Answering Service: https://callsoncall.com Some videos have been recorded with Riverside: https://www.riverside.fm/?utm_campaign=campaign_5&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_source=rewardful&via=james-kademan   Podcast Overview: 00:00 Outdated PGA teaching methods 09:52 Regulating equipment in sports 13:15 Learning step-by-step skills 18:40 Todd's seminar on clarity 23:42 Understanding golf swing mechanics 30:20 Fixing common golf swing mistakes 33:51 Starting Graves Golf with a trailer 37:12 Prioritizing values over quick fixes 42:22 Building a custom golf academy 51:08 Raising your standards for excellence 54:44 Golf club components explained 01:02:16 Range balls vs. regular golf balls 01:03:41 Choosing the right golf ball Podcast Transcription: Todd Graves [00:00:00]: Now when you, when you look at the way the game has advanced and I'll just give you some, some data, but just from in the late 80s, early 90s, John Daly led the Tour driving distance. John Daly was the longest striker of the golf ball on the, on the Tour at the time. And he was driving the ball, I think 288 yards, 289 yards. Something was the, he was the longest. And the Tour average driving distance was around 265. Today it's 30 yards greater than that. So now. Oh yeah, yeah. Todd Graves [00:00:29]: So now the average driving distance is in the 295 range and the longest drivers out there in the 32330 range and sometimes longer. James Kademan [00:00:42]: You have found Authentic Business Adventures, the business program that brings you the struggle stories and triumph and successes of business owners across the land. Downloadable audio episodes can be found in the podcast link found at https://drawincustomers.com We are locally underwritten by the Bank of Sun Prairie Calls On Call, Extraordinary Answering Service, The bold business book as well as Live Switch. Today we're welcoming slash, preparing to learn from Todd Graves of Graves Golf. And Todd, I'm excited. We are now entering what, at least in my world in the Midwest, is golf weather. So let's talk golf today. Todd Graves [00:01:19]: Well, yeah, the Masters, you know, coming next week. So really golf, golf season across the country and probably across the world really kicks off for us around Masters. We always gear up for this time of year. You know, nothing's more exciting than the Masters tournament. So that's a, it's a big week next week. So we're excited about what's happening. You know, it's been a, been kind of an early, interesting season this year because the weather seems to be, it's, it's always off and on, but it's, you know, I own a golf course here in Edmond, Oklahoma, and the, the grass came out early this year, which I don't know if that's always a good thing. But, but, but we're, yeah, we got some nice, nice playing conditions and we're ready to go. Todd Graves [00:01:58]: You know, golf's golf kicks off for us and we're ready to get busy this year. James Kademan [00:02:02]: Nice. Yeah, I'm in Wisconsin and we always joke that we have six springs. Todd Graves [00:02:06]: Yeah. James Kademan [00:02:07]: Last a day or two at a time. So I know that the course has been open and they've been snowed on and all that jazz. But at any rate, let's, let's talk about how you got started because it's been a while you've been in this game for quite a bit, it sounds like. Todd Graves [00:02:21]: Yeah. Yeah. You know, I'm not sure, you know, in business, being an entrepreneur, I'm not sure that you ever really know what you're doing at first. You know, you get into the game because you, you have an idea or you have something unique that you want to offer the world and help people with. And I think that's kind of what I stumbled into. I, you know, I, I played professional golf. I played in college, and I played professional golf, and, you know, I aspired to be a player, and I played for a while on the, on the tours around the world, and, and I just, you know, I kind of fell into. I saw a problem. Todd Graves [00:02:53]: I saw a problem in the golf world from, from a golf learning teaching methodology standpoint because I struggled, you know, I struggled to learn the game. I struggled to become better at playing it, even though I was a good player. I, I, you know, I came from a background of, of educators. My parents were both. My dad was a PhD in microbiology, taught at the medical school. My mother owned civil learning centers here in Oklahoma City. She was an entrepreneur herself. So, you know, I came from this background of always questioning how things worked. Todd Graves [00:03:23]: And, and I, I would consider myself relatively smart. I don't think I'm the most intelligent tool in the, you know, the smartest guy in the world. But, but I always, you know, I'm, I'm inquisitive. I always was curious about things and, and as I tried to approach the game of golf and get better at it, there was a lot of, A lot of dogma in, in the golf instruction world. And there was. There was really no standardized teaching methods. There was, and it just didn't seem simple to me. So the more I tried to improve, the more trouble I saw with the industry that teaches the game of golf. Todd Graves [00:03:54]: Matter of fact, to give you an example, the PGA teaching manual, the manual that they teach from today, if you go into a pro shop and you want to learn from a PGA pro, that teaching manual that they operate from and they, and they use has not been updated since 1990. So, so you would think that, you know, with the technology today and with, with the way the game works and with all the, I mean, look at, look at the industry. Look at your world. You know, we got AI. We got so much, we got so much information out there and the ability to do things we could never do before, and you got this antiquated way they teach the game of golf. Now, I'm not saying that everything in that manual is bad and wrong. I'm just saying that there's so much more that we can, we can offer and become better at what we do. And, and that's, that's part of an entrepreneur's job is to, so I look at that. Todd Graves [00:04:41]: That was part of it. And there was, you know, everybody's teaching a different method. So I just, I said, look, there's, there's something wrong with, with the game of golf. It's how it's being taught and it's what's being taught. And I've been, I, I built a business around that and, and so I kind of stumbled into it just because I saw a big need and a problem. You know, that's what we do as entrepreneurs. We find needs, we find problems, we try to solve those things as best we can. You know, that's fair. James Kademan [00:05:03]: That's totally true. Tell me a story, because I have to admit ignorance here I am just getting into golf, like just getting into golf. So I have played golf. Not well. We play best ball and out of 18 holes, we're probably using mine two or three times at best. Todd Graves [00:05:19]: Yeah. James Kademan [00:05:19]: And I'm going to call that pure luck. Nothing. Todd Graves [00:05:22]: Yeah. James Kademan [00:05:23]: So at any rate, tell me a story about, let's just say a typical drive. A typical drive in 1990 versus a typical drive now with the skills and the tools and all that kind of stuff. Is it. When I say a typical drive, I guess a good drive, not my drive. A good drive where it goes straight, where you intended to go. Is it farther than what it was? Todd Graves [00:05:44]: Well, here's what's interesting about it. You know, when you, when you look at the way the game has advanced and I'll just give you some, some data. So just from in the late 80s, early 90s, John Daly led the Tour driving distance. John Daly was the longest striker of the golf ball on the, on the Tour at the time. And he was driving the ball, I think 288 yards to an 89 yards. Something was the, was he was the longest and the tour average driving distance was around 265. Today it's 30 yards greater than that. So 10%. Todd Graves [00:06:15]: Oh, yeah, yeah. So, so now the, the average driving distance is in the 295 range and the, the longest drivers out there are in the 32330 range. So. And sometimes longer so that, you know, you can, you can attribute that to probably, we call it the tiger effect. In the game. You can, you know, better athletes,

Eddie Speed  - Note School On Timing the Market: "What's the best time to be in the note business? I said, there's two things. Either it's inflationary times or disruptive times. Right now we have both." It is always best to have an attorney before you need one, especially in business. Often, to make a deal happen, you need financing.  In real estate especially.  But often the typical bank cannot offer financing for a home to an entrepreneur.  We just don't check the W2 box like the banks want to see.  So where can you get financing for a home, if you are an entrepreneur? From another angle, you want to invest in something that has some great returns, but being a landlord isn't really your idea of fun.  What is another real estate investing option that can help you make money in your sleep? Eddie Speed has started the Note School.  A school that teaches how to invest and offer notes to people that need financing outside of traditional banks. Eddie shares insights from his decades of experience teaching people how to "be the bank, a strategy that has helped countless real estate investors convert their rental properties into seller-financed opportunities. As rental profits dwindle and banks tighten their lending standards, Eddie explains how seller financing can transform a landlord's cash flow and serve an underserved market of aspiring homeowners. From practical math to tax strategies, and a behind-the-scenes look at the NoteSchool training process, Listen as Eddie explains innovative ways to thrive in disruptive, inflationary times. Whether you're a seasoned investor, a curious landlord, or an entrepreneur seeking new revenue streams, Eddie's expertise will open your eyes to possibilities beyond conventional real estate. Enjoy! Visit Eddie at: https://noteschool.com/DrawIn Sponsors: Live Video chat with our customers here with LiveSwitch: https://join.liveswitch.com/gfj3m6hnmguz Calls On Call Extraordinary Answering Service: https://callsoncall.com Some videos have been recorded with Riverside: https://www.riverside.fm/?utm_campaign=campaign_5&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_source=rewardful&via=james-kademan   Podcast Overview: 00:00 Learning to become the bank 04:18 Discussing rental properties as businesses 07:22 Helping sellers with financing 12:41 Rental income and market comparison 13:35 Tax tips for installment sales 19:13 Training successful yet overthinking students 22:05 Starting in the business 25:22 Finding a niche in real estate 27:43 Challenges of property management 32:12 Challenges with traditional mortgage lending 35:16 Frustration with appliance durability 40:36 Comparing 30-year vs 50-year loans 44:25 Finding reliable, hardworking realtors 47:50 Finding local property services 50:19 Getting started with online basics 54:43 Funding notes and marketplace strategy Podcast Transcription: Eddie Speed [00:00:00]: Think and think in terms of the easiest way. People say, people say, give me a reference of seller financing that everybody can relate to the car industry. You, you buy, buy a car, maybe it's a used car or you are, you know, whoever your secretary buys, whatever that is. Right. Somebody buys a car and the car dealership carries the financing. They sell or finance the car. Does that make sense? James Kademan [00:00:26]: It does. Eddie Speed [00:00:26]: Instead of seller financing a car, you sell or finance a property. So you're not renting it anymore. You're, you're transferring the deed to the new guy, but you're saying, wait a minute, I'm going to carry, I'm going to be your bank and I'm going to carry long term financing. James Kademan [00:00:47]: You have found Authentic Business Adventures, the business program that brings you the struggle stories and triumphant successes of business owners across the land. Downloadable audio episodes can be found in the podcast link found@drawincustomers.com we are locally underwritten by the bank of Sun Prairie Calls On Call Extraordinary answering Service, the Bold business Book as well as Live Switch. Today we're welcoming Slash, preparing to learn from Eddie Speed of the note school. So Eddie, how is it going today? Eddie Speed [00:01:15]: I'm great, how are you? James Kademan [00:01:17]: I am excited. We're talking about real estate notes and I gotta admit, I don't know much about that at all. So I'm excited to learn from you. So let's start with the basic foundation. What is the note school? Eddie Speed [00:01:31]: Well, note school teaches people how to be the bank. There's basically two ways you could be the bank. You might have a rental property that's far more profitable for you to finance the rent property than continuing to pay rent and taxes and insurance and the plumber and the all that. Right. And, or you may say, no, I don't have a rent house, Eddie. I just, I like the idea of being a bank. How would I find a note? And so we have run a school for 25 years showing people how to go be the bank. James Kademan [00:02:09]: So help us with a foundation here. A real estate note. Is that essentially the same as the deed or what is that? Eddie Speed [00:02:15]: No, is what we all sign when we go to the title company and buy a house and get financing. James Kademan [00:02:22]: Gotcha. So it's the loan on the property. Eddie Speed [00:02:25]: You know, you sign a promise to pay to the bank, it has an amount that you owe, it has interest, it has a monthly payment and then you sign another document that says if I don't pay, the bank can foreclose. Usually in some states that's a deed of trust in some states, that's called a mortgage, something kind of like that. James Kademan [00:02:46]: Okay. Eddie Speed [00:02:47]: Yeah. James Kademan [00:02:49]: So if somebody has a property, is this. I guess in this case with the notes is this. You are helping somebody purchase the property. So instead of a bank, they'd be using this person? Eddie Speed [00:03:00]: No, I. No, I am, I am pretty specialized in the business, and so we help people. Seller finance. James Kademan [00:03:12]: Okay. Eddie Speed [00:03:13]: So I deal with a lot of landlords. Main, I don't usually deal with too many mom and pops. Normally the people that I deal with are people that are real estate investors. Some really big, some super small, but normally they're a real estate investor. And so I help them create notes and I buy notes that they've already created. And in the, in the little, narrow little world of seller financing, I bought 50,000 seller finance notes. Wow. James Kademan [00:03:42]: So I feel like that's a lot. Eddie Speed [00:03:44]: It is. And in that little industry, it is. And so we're. We're pretty. We've got a seat at the table in that industry. And so we find a lot of these notes and we spend a lot of energy trying to find them. Right. So we do pretty good at that. Eddie Speed [00:04:00]: And then right now we have a really active program where. And a lot of the podcasts and things I do, people are interviewing me, like, okay, how do I convert my rental to seller financing? Because rentals aren't making near the profit they used to. Inflation messed up the rental model. James Kademan [00:04:18]: It turns out as I, as I interview people that are in the real estate world and I look at the rental property world, I'll reach out to a real estate agent and I'll be like, hey, man, from my point of view, a rental property is a business. You look at what it costs, acquisition costs, and then the money coming in, the revenue, the expenses. I don't see how some of these businesses are making money. Who would buy this? This is a. Not necessarily a failing business, but it's a business that's going to cost you money rather than make you money, unless you're working on speculation and saying, in 30 years down the road, this is going to be worth more. Eddie Speed [00:04:55]: So we help people get paid now versus having to wait for appreciation. James Kademan [00:05:00]: Gotcha. Eddie Speed [00:05:01]: And if you, if you just look like this would be kind of an easy way to think about it. The average rent in the United states is about 1800 bucks. James Kademan [00:05:12]: Okay. Eddie Speed [00:05:13]: Ohio and California and Iowa, and you know what? James Kademan [00:05:19]: In the whole US So you got New York and San Diego, and you Eddie Speed [00:05:21]: also have everywhere in between, right the middle of nowhere. The average single family house rents for about 1800 bucks. Okay, that's not an apartment. That's not. That's not a duplex. That's it. That's a single family standalone house. The average payment that a brand new customer pays their mortgage payment is 138% of rent. Eddie Speed [00:05:49]: Okay, so that tells me the banks are making. Getting a bigger payment now. That includes taxes and insurance. So you got to saw a little off of that. Right. But Even if it's 110%, 100, 115%, people's mortgage payment is more than rent. But wait a minute. If I'm the landlord, half of my money runs out the door and paying expenses. Eddie Speed [00:06:10]: And if I'm the bank, none of my money runs out the door. So it doesn't, it doesn't take a, you know, a long spreadsheet to look at the math and go, you know, you know what, Eddie? It is more profitable for me to be the bank than a landlord. James Kademan [00:06:27]: Gotcha. So tell me, who is coming to you? Eddie Speed [00:06:35]: In the last two weeks, I've been to the largest two real estate masterminds for house people in the United States. So call it top, you know, 800 top thousand house buyers. A good percentage of them are in. Are one of those groups or another couple that I'm involved in. They have. I sit down with a guy on Friday who's a fractional CFO for other real estate investors.

Jane Muir  - J. Muir & Associates P.A. On the Bold Truth: "But long story short, litigation has to be part of your comprehensive business plan." It is always best to have an attorney before you need one, especially in business. Jane Muir is a business attorney that has seen almost everything.  She started her law practice to help entrepreneurs navigate the law. From the basics of forming your business entity to protecting yourself through solid contracts and smart bookkeeping, Jane Muir shares invaluable advice for business owners at every stage. She discusses common pitfalls companies face, such as collecting unpaid invoices, navigating litigation, and when (or if) it's even worth chasing what you're owed. You'll also hear about the often-overlooked power of credit reporting, and why a solid business plan includes preparing for legal disputes, not just dreaming big. Jane Muir gets candid about her own journey: growing up in a family of lawyers, how market downturns led her to start her own practice, and why embracing technology and AI has helped her firm stand out and serve clients more efficiently. Plus, she recommends the essential business books every entrepreneur should read (hint: it's not all about law). Listen as Jane explains what to look for in a great business attorney and how an attorney can help you prevent and solve some issues you may come across. Enjoy! Visit Jane at: http://www.jmuirandassociates.com/ Sponsors: Live Video chat with our customers here with LiveSwitch: https://join.liveswitch.com/gfj3m6hnmguz Some videos have been recorded with Riverside: https://www.riverside.fm/?utm_campaign=campaign_5&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_source=rewardful&via=james-kademan   Podcast Overview: 00:00 Business Entity Options Explained 05:45 "Small Claims: Worth the Chase?" 08:51 "Litigation: A Business Strategy" 12:59 "Enforcing Judgments with Legal Writs" 16:03 "Fighting for Justice and Fees" 18:49 Settlements vs. Trials: Key Insights 21:01 Partnerships and Legal Financial Dynamics 26:20 Beginner Business Tax Tips 28:49 "Credit Reporting Agencies Explained" 33:02 "Gemini and AI Automations" 34:07 Automated Document and Scheduling System 39:03 "Spot, Read, Decide Quickly" 42:00 Vespa Insurance Coverage Gap 46:24 "Starting a Law Firm" 50:33 "Legal Challenges and Opportunities" 51:21 "Assessing Threats and Opportunities" 56:23 Bookkeeping: Your Business Backbone Podcast Transcription: Jane Muir [00:00:00]: in whatever that area is. You could be a painter or a social media marketing person, but if you're not getting your invoices out and getting paid, you're just not going to have a business. Well, that's really so important that we make sure everybody is aware that bookkeeping is the backbone of your business and you might not like it. It might be boring. So you got to find someone who's going to do it for you. But if you don't have your bookkeeping in order, then you're lost and you'll never be able to succeed. James [00:00:39]: You have found Authentic Business Adventures, the business program that brings you the struggle stories and triumph and successes of business owners across the land. Downloadable audio episodes can be found on the podcast link found at drawincustomers.com. We are locally underwritten by the Bank of Sun Prairie, Calls On Call Extraordinary Answering Service, The Bold Business Book, as well as LiveSwitch. Today we are welcoming/preparing to learn from Jane Muir of J. Muir and Associates, PA. Jane, how is it going today? Jane Muir [00:01:09]: It's a beautiful day in Coral Gables. How are you? James [00:01:12]: I am doing well. You know, you and I were chatting right before here about the initials after the name, J. Muir and Associates, the PA. So let's dig into some legal stuff right away. What is the PA? Jane Muir [00:01:26]: Every state has statutes that define the different types of corporate entities that they allow. And in order to tell the public what corporate entity you have, there are little letters at the end of the name of the company, like Inc. or LLC or Co. And those are designed to give notice of what rules and, um, rights and responsibilities apply to that corporate entity. Uh, my entity is called a professional association, which is specific to professionals who hold a license. It can apply to accountants, architects, engineers, lawyers, doctors, and it's essentially a partnership form. Um, which is an option just for licensed professionals. James [00:02:18]: Nice. So that would be in addition to, or instead of an LLC or S corporation, something like that? Jane Muir [00:02:26]: It would be instead of. James [00:02:27]: Uh, instead of. Jane Muir [00:02:28]: A professional group like lawyers or doctors, they can have a PA or a PLLC, or they can have another thing called a limited liability partnership, an LLP. Theoretically, they could have other types of entities to allow non-licensed professionals to participate. Like if, if I were going to start a non-law firm business, for instance, I can have anything I want. It could be an LLC, it can be an Inc. And in Florida, they allow us to kind of make a Frankenstein where we take features of the different statutes and make them into one. Corporate entity that has features of all of them. Uh, but really anything goes and the, the little letters at the end are supposed to just kind of give the public an idea of what to expect. James [00:03:24]: Interesting. Is that, is the PA thing newer or has that been around for a while? Jane Muir [00:03:29]: No, it's ancient. It's, it's one of the earliest corporate forms. James [00:03:33]: Oh, really? Jane Muir [00:03:34]: All right. James [00:03:35]: How cool is that? And just outta curiosity here, why did you or your team choose PA versus LLC or LLP or whatever? Jane Muir [00:03:44]: I think, well, I, I'm the sole shareholder of our firm. We have partners, but, um, I'm the sole shareholder and I just think it's a classic choice. It, to me, it conveys that we're traditional even though We're advanced in technology and we're advanced in, in our approach to managing matters. We, we do want to convey to the public that we're old school lawyers doing real legal work. James [00:04:18]: Right on. I love it. So let's dig into that, Jane. What is, what do you do? Jane Muir [00:04:24]: I'm a business lawyer. I'm located in Miami, Florida. Our firm has offices in Dade, uh, Palm Beach, and, um, opening soon in Alachua County. James [00:04:36]: Nice. Jane Muir [00:04:37]: And we help business owners with their legal issues from mainly contracts and, and issues relating to permits needed or, or business licenses, troubleshooting all kinds of random things that can pop up in a business. Uh, and then the remainder of our practice is commercial litigation. James [00:04:59]: Oh, that sounds like fun. Jane Muir [00:05:01]: I don't, yeah, we deal with a lot of conflict. James [00:05:05]: All right. All right. So let's dig into that cuz that sounds like fun, right? Uh, tell me about the conflicts that a typical business owner or business entity would run into. Jane Muir [00:05:15]: I would say mainly it's collecting money. All right. Or dealing with— James [00:05:20]: it always comes down to money, right? Jane Muir [00:05:21]: Yes. It's always money. James [00:05:23]: All right. Um, and is this because somebody put together a partnership that's bad or more, uh, vendor-customer type relationship? Jane Muir [00:05:32]: We do have the partnerships gone bad, but I would say the majority of our work is vendor and customer relationships. Like someone owes you and you need to sue to force them to pay. James [00:05:45]: All right. So in my extremely limited experience. There is a dollar amount threshold where it's just not worth chasing from the headache and the way the system is set up. I guess in the, the little experience that I had of going to small claims court, it was annoying. It was expensive. And in the end, even when I won, I still didn't get paid. So tell me a story from, uh, what you would like small business to know, small business owners to know when it comes to collecting money, when it comes to dollar amounts. Or who's worth chasing and things like that? Jane Muir [00:06:19]: What a great question. That's, that's my every day. I process that question. What, what the cost benefit analysis is for a litigation. So first you want to know how much is at issue. And let's say if it's under $50,000, I really don't, I usually tell people, don't throw your good money after bad. And the reason is because our average litigation has expenses of about $50,000. And takes 2 to 2.5 years to come to a conclusion. Jane Muir [00:06:50]: Wow. Our, our least expensive litigations are $10,000 to $15,000, and they either resolve early by settlement or we win by default. And then the most expensive litigation we've had so far was a 3-year litigation. It had expenses of like $800,000. We ended in a jury verdict of $6.3 million. So that justified the expense, but whether we're ever going to collect on that is still an open question. So question number 1 is how much is at issue? Does it make it worthwhile to pursue? Then you want to ask, is there a way to recover the fees if you win? Because you don't just want the money you lost, you want to get the fees back. So oftentimes when I consult a business owner, I'm looking at their agreements with their customers and they don't have a prevailing party fee provision, which makes it not really worthwhile to pursue. Jane Muir [00:07:51]: So you want to see if you can collect fees and then you want to see that there's a pocket to pull the money out of either insurance or a property that's not protected by homestead or some other exemption that makes it uncollectible,

Annie  - The Garden Mind Body On the Figuring Out That it is All Connected: ""I was so skeptical because I was like, how is working with my mind going to change what my body's doing?" Pain seems to be everywhere.  In our bodies, often we have the aches or headaches that seem to have no real reason for existing other than to feel like misplaced karma. But what if the aches in the body were due to issues in the mind?  What if you realized that everything in the body is connected to the mind and vice versa.  Through many challenges and illnesses and a lack of progress from typical doctor visits, Annie Kubena has researched and discovered what should be common knowledge, but isn't.  Our thoughts and our bodies live and work together, essentially as one.  Sometimes there messages are delivered by using pain as an esoteric way to inform your mind that your subconscious mind has some issues it needs you to deal with. Annie discovered this and this has led her to become a holistic mind-body coach.  She is helping others find relief from anxiety, chronic pain, and even the lingering effects of COVID through nervous system regulation, brain rewiring, and tools like somatic parts work and EFT tapping.  Annie Kubena details the ins and outs of her methods, and why tending to our “inner garden” is essential for lasting health. Listen as Annie explains how you can get the relief you need from the pain that may be slowing you down. Enjoy! Visit Annie at: https://www.thegardenmindbody.com/ Sponsors: Live Video chat with our customers here with LiveSwitch: https://join.liveswitch.com/gfj3m6hnmguz Some videos have been recorded with Riverside: https://www.riverside.fm/?utm_campaign=campaign_5&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_source=rewardful&via=james-kademan   Podcast Overview: 00:00 Listening to My Body 04:43 Listening to My Body 08:36 Long COVID's Lingering Body Effects 11:05 "Building Resilience Through Reflection" 15:53 Homeopathy and Nervous System Rewiring 18:32 Understanding People One-on-One 21:08 "Overcoming Functional Freeze Patterns" 26:24 "Vagus Nerve Healing Commitment" 27:08 "Everyone Has Their Baggage" 30:42 "Remote Coaching Works Well" 34:36 Mind-Body Connection and Pain 37:51 Surgical Collaboration Insight Podcast Transcription: Annie Kubena [00:00:00]: And also I always prioritized like work and school over what my body was asking for. So I learned how to like tune in more to what my body is really asking me for, tune in more to like impulses. I was the kind of person that would like sit at my desk for so many hours without moving, without going to the bathroom when I needed to, like anything. I was just like, I would like settle into my work and just focus and push through. And so this was really having to train myself out of that and more into like, what's my body asking me for today? James [00:00:37]: You have found Authentic Business Adventures, the business program that brings you the struggle stories and triumphant successes of business owners across the land. Downloadable audio episodes can be found in the podcast link found at drawincustomers.com. We are locally underwritten by the Bank of Sunbury, and today we're welcoming/preparing to learn from Annie Kubena. Of The Garden Mind Body Wellness. So Annie, how is it going today? Annie Kubena [00:01:01]: It's going great today. Thanks so much for having me. James [00:01:03]: Yeah, thanks for being on the show. Tell us the story. What is The Garden Mind Body Wellness? Annie Kubena [00:01:08]: Um, I am a holistic mind-body coach and I help people with anxiety, chronic illness, chronic pain, um, recover or prevent those things too through the power of the nervous system. James [00:01:21]: All right. And how do you get in there? Annie Kubena [00:01:25]: It's really a passion I have because of my own decades-long health journey. James [00:01:32]: Decades? Annie Kubena [00:01:33]: Decades long, yeah. James [00:01:34]: All right. Annie Kubena [00:01:35]: I struggled for a really long time with my health and just being a highly sensitive person in the world. James [00:01:43]: Okay. You're talking emotionally, physically, both? Annie Kubena [00:01:46]: Both. Yeah. Yeah. I've always been just really sensitive since I was a little kid. James [00:01:51]: Okay. Annie Kubena [00:01:53]: Yeah, I really struggled with my health for a very long time. I got into a lot of holistic health approaches to help myself, and then I did a 1-year-long nervous system and brain rewiring program. James [00:02:09]: Okay. Annie Kubena [00:02:10]: Just because I was like really desperate. I was like, I'm doing everything right. Like, why am I— why am I having— I kept having these cycles of like, pushing really hard when I felt well and then crashing and getting really sick. Oh, um, and I think that happens to a lot of people with chronic illness. But I did this nervous system program and realized, wow, like, I've almost never in my life just been like calm and centered on a consistent basis. James [00:02:37]: Is that an option? Annie Kubena [00:02:40]: It is, yeah. And it's what your body needs to really heal and digest food and absorb nutrients and turn over cells and all different kinds of things. So So I got into this because I'm so passionate about it and I think it's so needed in our world right now. I think people are chronically stressed and really struggling with their health, and I'm hoping that I can get to people before they have these like debilitating crashes like what I was having. James [00:03:12]: So now where are you at now, I guess, with your health? Annie Kubena [00:03:15]: Are you tip-top or I'm I'm probably realistically like at 80%, but I have all these tools where I'm like, oh, I'm starting to push too hard now. Oh. And I know when to pull back. I'm someone who just, I wanna do everything. I'm so driven and then my body kind of fights against me with that. So I have all these tools now for taking much better care of my nervous system that go really well with all the great food and movement things that I was doing. So I think it, it might take me a while. I was really sick when I was a kid and then I got diagnosed with an autoimmune disease when I was in college. Annie Kubena [00:04:00]: So, but I, I feel so much stronger now because I have this more holistic approach to taking care of myself. James [00:04:10]: Okay. Annie Kubena [00:04:11]: Yeah. James [00:04:12]: Tell me about the, you said nervous system rewiring. Annie Kubena [00:04:15]: Yeah. James [00:04:15]: I've never heard of that. So tell me what that is. Annie Kubena [00:04:18]: Yeah. Well, I think for most of my life I ran on adrenaline. I motivated myself with stress and I really had to change my way of being to one where I could say I can do, I can do life and do everything I want from a more centered, relaxed place. James [00:04:41]: Okay. Annie Kubena [00:04:43]: And also I always prioritized work and school before, like over what my body was asking for. So I learned how to tune in more to what my body is really asking me for, tune in more to impulses. I was the kind of person that would sit at my desk for so many hours without moving, without going to the bathroom when I needed to, like anything. I was just like, I would settle into my work and just focus and push through. And so this was really, having to train myself out of that and more into like, what's my body asking me for today? How can I prioritize like grounding before I like just dive into my work or dive into the day or taking care of other people or other things? So that was part of it. Another part of it was just training my nervous system not to react to everything. So I had a point in my health where I was like reacting to almost every food I ate. James [00:05:47]: Like physically rash type stuff? Annie Kubena [00:05:49]: Yeah, just like all different kinds of reactions. Okay. But some, sometimes it would just be a stomachache or a headache. Sometimes it would be a rash, but I was down to like barely being able to eat anything without like feeling sick. James [00:05:59]: Oh. Annie Kubena [00:06:00]: Because my nervous system was in such a, such an activated state all the time that it can start just tagging a lot of things in your environment as dangerous. James [00:06:12]: Oh. Annie Kubena [00:06:13]: It's like, oh, you're in a state of fight or flight and you are eating a strawberry. You must be allergic to, you know, the strawberry must be dangerous. And so it just, our nervous systems were never meant to be in that state like all the time. So anyway, part of the program was exposing yourself to things that you're reacting to and like staying really calm, just small amounts at a time. So I started eating like small amounts of the foods I was reacting to. I started, listen, like sounds were something that really bothered me. So I started like exposing myself to louder sounds and then keeping myself calm so that my body could learn that the world is a safe place again and stop reacting to everything. James [00:07:01]: All right. Annie Kubena [00:07:01]: Yeah. James [00:07:02]: And was this a program you went through or is this something you did on your own? Annie Kubena [00:07:06]: Yeah, it was a program I went through. It's called Primal Trust. It's a nervous system regulation and brain retraining program. I did a lot of my own stuff too. I learned a lot about somatic parts work, which is, um, it's a therapy style called Internal Family Systems where it's like the movie Inside Out. James [00:07:26]: Okay. Annie Kubena [00:07:27]: You kind of work with your anxious part or your angry part or— yeah. So you really like learn a lot. Um, through that I really learned a lot about parts that were reacting and why.

Hilary Berning - Gio's Garden On the Unrealistic Timelines of Insurance Companies: "It's a 6 to 9 month process just to get a wheelchair. I really need some way to get my son from point A to point B." Families with special needs children already have some challenges.  These families need help and some guidance on where they can get this help.  This is where Gio's Garden comes in. Gio's Garden is a one-of-a-kind therapeutic respite center based in Middleton, Wisconsin, and recently expanded to Sun Prairie, Wisconsin. Their essential mission: to provide safe, enriching respite care for children with special needs aged 0–7, giving parents the chance to take a break, run errands, or simply breathe. Hilary Berning shares the struggles many of these families face.  From finding a place to care for your child temporarily since you can't just leave your medically complex child with the teenager down the block. Gio's Garden fills that gap with one-on-one care, specially trained staff, and a joyful, home-like atmosphere. Their houses are filled with arts, crafts, sensory rooms, gym equipment, and caring people who “never like to say no” to a family in need. Listen as Hilary explains the needs and complexities of these children and their families and how Gio's Garden is a place that is doing all they can to help these children and their families. Enjoy! Visit at: https://giosgarden.org/ Sponsors: Live Video chat with our customers here with LiveSwitch: https://join.liveswitch.com/gfj3m6hnmguz Some videos have been recorded with Riverside: https://www.riverside.fm/?utm_campaign=campaign_5&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_source=rewardful&via=james-kademan   Podcast Overview: 00:00 "Local, Unique, Community Focused" 06:03 Supporting Families Through CLTS 08:49 Greek Life Fundraising Show 11:10 "Sanfilippo Syndrome Journey Shared" 13:51 "Growth, Funding, and Strategic Planning" 19:18 Franchise Expansion Plans 20:56 Inclusive Childcare and Respite Plan 25:14 Emergency Presidency Amid Crisis 27:07 "Sun Prairie Location Announcement" 30:07 "Navigating a Life-Changing Diagnosis" 35:42 Sun Prairie Studio Renovation Details 38:07 Wiseman Center Connection Insights 40:48 "Planning Ahead for Kids' Safety" 44:38 "New Podcast Venture Launch" 47:10 "Reinventing With Youthful Engagement" 51:00 Nonprofits: Vital, Challenging, Impactful 52:00 Supporting Local Nonprofits Podcast Transcription: Hilary Berning [00:00:00]: Um, because you have the big nationwide organizations, right? Make-A-Wish, Boys and Girls, like they're all over the nation. They've got nationwide people telling them what to do when providing all these things. And then you have organizations like mine, like there's no one else that does this. We are the only one that does it. We're doing it on our own. We are local. We're serving local people. All the money stays here and goes back to the kids. Hilary Berning [00:00:22]: People can really think that through a little bit where we don't have We are local, we're serving local, and we're doing good. Goal and focus on those nonprofits. James Kademan [00:00:35]: You have found Authentic Business Adventures, the business program that brings you the struggle stories and triumph and successes of business owners across the land. Downloadable audio episodes can be found on the podcast link from drawincustomers.com. We are locally underwritten by the Bank of Sun Prairie, and today we're welcoming slash preparing to learn from Hillary Berning of Gio's Garden. So Hillary, how is it going today? Hilary Berning [00:00:58]: I'm good. Thanks for having me. James Kademan [00:01:00]: So let's start with the foundation here. What is Gio's Garden? Hilary Berning [00:01:03]: So Gio's Garden, so we are a respite center. We are located in Middleton, which is our original location, and we recently just opened a new location in Sun Prairie. James Kademan [00:01:11]: Nice. Hilary Berning [00:01:11]: So what we do is we provide therapeutic respite for children with special needs from ages 0 to age 7. So respite means to take a break. So it's really hard for parents of special needs kids to get a break. James Kademan [00:01:23]: Mm-hmm. Hilary Berning [00:01:23]: Because you can't just leave your special needs child with the teenager down the street. So we provide that opportunity for them to come leave their child with us and they can go and have a break. James Kademan [00:01:33]: Nice. So when you say special needs, tell me the gamut there. Hilary Berning [00:01:36]: We will see, um, everyone with, from autism to cerebral palsy to diabetes, to babies who have had strokes in utero to rare genetic disorders. We have kids with seizure disorders, so we kind of really don't say no very often. There's a few higher-grade medical needs that we can't see, like if they would have a tracheostomy or something like that. But otherwise, we don't— our motto is we don't like to say no. James Kademan [00:02:04]: Fair. And what does the care look like? Because I imagine it's not just an empty room. Hilary Berning [00:02:09]: It isn't, no. So our original location in Middleton, it's a house. It's a 100-year-old house. But we have specific rooms set up for different activities. So we have a sensory room. A lot of our kids have sensory sensory issues. So it's a quiet, subdued room where they can go and have quiet time. We have a reading room. Hilary Berning [00:02:26]: We have an arts and craft room. We have a gym that has swings that hang from the ceiling and an indoor play structure that kids can play on. Wow. Um, in Middleton, we also have outdoor, um, fenced-in yards so kids can run around and we have a place, a play structure out there as well. James Kademan [00:02:42]: Okay. I imagine you need people to be there present, right? Hilary Berning [00:02:45]: Absolutely. Yes. James Kademan [00:02:46]: It sounds like you'd need a lot. Hilary Berning [00:02:47]: We need a lot of staff. Yeah. So we provide one-on-one care. Oh, you do? Oh, wow. For every child that's in our care, they have an adult with them. James Kademan [00:02:54]: Okay. Hilary Berning [00:02:55]: So we currently have, including our executive director, 6 full-time employees. And then we have around 24 part-time employees that kind of comes and goes depending on the semester. James Kademan [00:03:06]: Okay. Hilary Berning [00:03:06]: And then we have a ton of volunteers that work with us. We are blessed to be in the Madison area where we have 3 colleges essentially that we can pull from and a lot of students who are going into medical fields or educational fields or occupational therapy or recreational therapy who need experience working with children with special needs. So we're able to provide that opportunity for them. So we're lucky that we have a large pool of students to pull from. James Kademan [00:03:33]: That's amazing. Hilary Berning [00:03:34]: But also means we have a lot of turnover and their availability changes every semester. James Kademan [00:03:38]: So that's just the nature of students. Hilary Berning [00:03:40]: It's just the nature of the, the, our staff that we work with just because we working with students, but we're blessed to have them and we, we give to them just as much as they give to us. James Kademan [00:03:50]: So nice. Hilary Berning [00:03:50]: It's really great. James Kademan [00:03:52]: So I got a lot of questions for you. Hilary Berning [00:03:53]: Nice. James Kademan [00:03:53]: So I'm gonna try to keep on task somehow. How do you let the students know that you exist even as an opportunity for them? Hilary Berning [00:04:00]: So we are on like all the job boards, like through the university and we're well connected within the different disciplines in the universities at Edgewood and at UW and at, is it Madison College? MATC? I don't— sure. James Kademan [00:04:13]: Sounds good. Hilary Berning [00:04:13]: Yeah. Yeah. So we are heavily involved in word word just kind of has gotten out about us and the people. And there's a special program, especially at UW-Madison, where they can get— part of a class credit is to volunteer at organizations. So they know about us. So they send a lot of students our way as well. James Kademan [00:04:29]: Gotcha. I imagine there's an interview process. Hilary Berning [00:04:32]: There is. Yep. There is an interview process. It's not just like, hey, come on in. Yes. There's a background check that we put all of our employees through. And it all varies depending on if you're coming in as a volunteer basis or you're coming in as a paid employee. James Kademan [00:04:44]: Okay. Hilary Berning [00:04:44]: Because your level of Um, if you're coming in as a volunteer, you're kind of paired with a full-time or part-time paid staff member, um, versus we won't just have 6 volunteers and 6 kids in the house at once. We will have paid staff to kind of help balance with that. James Kademan [00:05:01]: All right, let's talk funding. Hilary Berning [00:05:03]: Funding is— with nonprofits, yes, it is. My life revolves around funding quite a bit. James Kademan [00:05:08]: With for-profits, it's a big deal. Hilary Berning [00:05:10]: It really is. Yes. James Kademan [00:05:11]: Tell me a story. The parents of the children, are they paying? Hilary Berning [00:05:15]: They, yes and no. So when we first, when they first started opening Gio's Garden back in 2012 is when they opened their doors. It was a small subset of parents that got together and be like, we need help, we need help. We have special needs kids and there's no one to help us. So they, the idea of Gio's Garden was born. It's named after Charlotte de Lassiter. She used to be on Channel 3 News and her husband, Ron, it's their son Gio. Okay.

Jake Isham - Creative Minds On Knowing Who You Are Competing Against For Views: "You're not competing with your competitors anymore. You're not competing with this podcast right here. You're not competing with other entrepreneurial podcasts. You're competing with Netflix. You're competing with Coca-Cola." Marketing as a business owner is necessary.  Jake Isham argues that marketing yourself, essentially as your business, can help your marketing explode.  People buy from people they like and they trust.  and they need to know you, in order to trust you. To help entrepreneurs with this marketing need, Jake Isham built his marketing agency, Creative Minds.  Drawing from his own experience as a filmmaker and marketer, Jake Isham shares actionable insights on how entrepreneurs can leverage their personal brand to drive revenue, why social proof matters, and the importance of consistency in content creation. Plus, hear why being the “face” of your business isn't just about fame.  It is a strategic move for building lasting trust and relationships. Listen as Jake explains what tools to use (which you probably already have) to grow your marketing in this world that has the largest opportunity that we have ever seen for a brand to grow so quickly. Enjoy! Visit Jake at: https://jakeisham.com Sponsors: Live Video chat with our customers here with LiveSwitch: https://join.liveswitch.com/gfj3m6hnmguz Some videos have been recorded with Riverside: https://www.riverside.fm/?utm_campaign=campaign_5&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_source=rewardful&via=james-kademan   Podcast Overview: 00:00 Actors and Entrepreneurs: Business Challenges 08:00 "Personal Branding Mindset Shift" 12:18 Accidental Path to Creative Agency 21:13 "PR: Perceived Reality Redefined" 24:41 "Authentic Marketing in TikTok Era" 31:24 Know Your Audience First 37:37 "Roofing Content for Local Needs" 40:23 "Finding Your Core Principles" 46:40 Personal Branding Through Authenticity 52:23 Consistency and Learning in Content 57:56 Consistency Builds Niche Recognition 01:01:22 Overcoming Paralysis Through Action 01:05:46 "Creative Minds Digital Show" Podcast Transcription: Jake Isham [00:00:00]: And it's the same thing, you know, to go back to kind of that conversation that we had at the very beginning about actors is that they know acting. They don't know how to run a business. A buddy of mine who is a very successful entrepreneur gives this speech all the time when he does seminars, which is, you know, you're a car mechanic, you're the top car mechanic at the shop and you see the boss making all the money and you're like, well, screw him. I wanna open up my own car shop until you realize you have to understand HR, accounting, Promotion, sales, marketing, advertising. Like, that's what the boss did. Yeah, there's a couple things to it more than just turning it into all the risk. Yeah. James Kademan [00:00:39]: You have found Authentic Business Adventures, the business program that brings you the struggle stories and triumphant successes of business owners across the land. Downloadable audio episodes can be found in the podcast link found at drawincustomers.com. We are locally underwritten by the Bank of Sun Prairie, Calls on Call Extraordinary Answering Service, The Bold Business Book, as well as LiveSwitch. And today we're welcoming/preparing to learn from Jake Eicham of Creative Minds. So Jake, we're talking marketing today, right? Jake Isham [00:01:10]: Yes, sir. James Kademan [00:01:11]: I am super excited because I don't— I've been in this marketing kick and I was talking actually with a— I'm going to call it a friend of mine who's in the marketing world way deeper than me. And it was interesting, the conversation that we had. So I'm excited to talk marketing more with you. It's just top of mind. So, and all businesses need it. So let's get started. First up, what is Creative Minds? Jake Isham [00:01:35]: We're a creative agency based in Los Angeles. We've done over a billion views online, driving millions in revenue for our clients. And we focus on helping build personal brands and really helping that entrepreneur scale their attention so that they, you know, because at the end of the day, attention drives revenue. James Kademan [00:01:56]: Interesting. Now you touched on something there and I want to dig into this a little bit because another conversation I had was the, it's kind of like chicken and egg thing or nature nurture. It was personal brand versus company brand. Which one do you push? So you as a marketer, if we were to ask you that question. Jake Isham [00:02:14]: It depends a little bit on the industry and the entrepreneur who I'm talking to, but you could say what's gonna beat out in my opinion is personal brand. James Kademan [00:02:25]: All right. Jake Isham [00:02:26]: Because at the end of the day, most entrepreneurs don't stick with one business, just majority, you know? James Kademan [00:02:36]: Yeah, yeah, you're not wrong. Jake Isham [00:02:37]: They sell or they give up or they, or whatever, you know, life comes around. And personal brand, you know, I think one of the individuals who's done it the best regardless of politics is Elon Musk. You look at what he's been able to do as a marketer and as an entrepreneur, purely that, right? James Kademan [00:02:58]: Right. Jake Isham [00:02:58]: This isn't a politics show. James Kademan [00:03:00]: Right, right. Jake Isham [00:03:02]: Yeah, it reminds me of, uh, have such an ultimate personal brand to be able to do that. Another gentleman who came before him was Steve Jobs. He was the face of Apple. And to be honest, if we look at the era of Steve Jobs Apple versus Tim Cook Apple, it's not as good. James Kademan [00:03:23]: Not even close. Yeah. Jake Isham [00:03:24]: Not a force to be reckoned with, but because that was a personal brand also, even though it was a company brand. And, you know, and I'm gonna take, I'll go one step further on this, right? People will, you know, bring up the example of sports and Nike. All right, Phil Knight is not a personal brand. Yes, but what he did was really intelligent. He's not a top athlete, but he got the best athletes to be the personal brand of the brand Nike, right? He got MJ, he got Kobe, he got LeBron. Like, he got these top individuals to be the personal brand of Nike, right? James Kademan [00:04:02]: It makes sense. Makes sense. It reminds me of, uh, somebody was, uh, there's an article that I was reading, I'm sorry, that was talking about these tribes in way out in Africa, and they had heard of Michael Jackson. Wow. I didn't know anybody else famous, right, that we would relate to. I mean, we're talking the '80s here, but they knew Michael Jackson. Like, it had reached like Coca-Cola and Michael Jackson. It had reached that far. Jake Isham [00:04:28]: He, I mean, he is the ultimate persona of you know, the greatest personal brand to ever have done it. He was literally the biggest celebrity on the planet as your example right there. James Kademan [00:04:41]: Yeah, surreal. So, let's dig deeper into that. How do you market yourself as a personal brand knowing, and this is the caution that I have, or I should say the concern that I have, is you market yourself as your personal brand. Now, you always have to be on and you always have to be that voice, or you always have to be pumping out content that you can't necessarily farm out to anyone else because they're not you. So you have to give all the presentations and do all the things. So tell me about that. Jake Isham [00:05:14]: But that's— I, I have two things. The first overall is that's the, that's the business you're going getting into. If that, that is the roles and responsibilities of a CEO. That is like, all right, then don't be a CEO. Don't be an executive. Like, look, you don't have to do a personal brand. I'm gonna 100%, I know lots of millionaires and a few billionaires who you could not point out in a crowd, who you could never name by, like, you would never know their name, never know anything about them. And they are unbelievably successful. Jake Isham [00:05:49]: Okay. 100%. So I'm not saying, oh, you have to or you will never be successful, but if it's just a different path and it's a different— again, it depends on that niche you're in. If you want to be like hyper B2B, you can slightly stay, but you're still going to be known within your industry. Like your personal brand doesn't have to reach the millions of people, right? If you say you service the top 100 law firms in the US, you still have to be the personal brand that is known by those top 100 law firms in the US. Now, Joe in Iowa doesn't need to know you, but you, Better make sure every partner in all those top 100 law firms know you so you can service them. And that's where the personal brand is so important. Like, you know, I mean, as simple as this, you think about like, it's silly, I forgot this example until now. Jake Isham [00:07:04]: Some of the biggest brands that we know were all personal brands. Ford. It's a guy's last name. Walt Disney. That's his name. There was a dude named Walt, last name Disney. J.P. Morgan. Jake Isham [00:07:23]: These are, these are just people, and they literally built a company based on their name. So That's where it's like, again, personal brand is everything. And you don't have to name the company after your name, but there's an aspect of knowing who's running the company, who's the face of the company, who— where does the buck stop, who's leading it? And I think that's where it's so important. So that's kind of— I know I got off a little bit of a tangent on your question, but— James Kademan [00:07:57]: Oh, you're good, you're good. That's the game. Jake Isham [00:08:00]: It's a mindset shift that a lot of entrepreneurs get scared. Oh,

Vance Morris - Deliver Service Now Institute On the Customer Experience: "Every detail in your business is either enhancing or detracting from the experience. There is no middle ground." Many businesses focus on customer acquisition, but not all businesses focus on customer retention.  Some businesses just have a hard time figuring out what to do beyond being nice to retain customers. Vance Morris has taken his Disney work experience, along with his other life experiences and created a coaching platform to teach business leaders how to retain customers.  He does this by teaching these entrepreneurs how to build their brand by expanding the positive perceptions their customers have of their business, by giving these customers wonderful experinces as they do business.  Helping their customers feel something almost magical. Vance reveals the power and profitability of focusing on the customer experience. You'll hear how small details can set your business miles ahead of the competition, why customer retention often beats new lead generation, and how “Disney-fying” your business can create raving, repeat customers. Plus, Vance Morris discusses creative, actionable low-cost ideas to wow your clients, and explains why any business, from the boring financial services to routine oil changes, can become a premium brand with the right approach. Listen as Vance explains how you can make doing business with you something clients actually look forward to. Enjoy! Visit Vance at: https://vancemorris.com/ Also at: https://wow52ways.com/   Podcast Overview: 00:00 "Customer Retention and Experience" 06:21 "Franchise Search After Corporate Exit" 09:15 "Flexible Franchise and Challenges" 11:13 "Contract Dispute Leads to Exit" 16:15 Grassroots Marketing Success Steps 18:55 "Recruiting College Students Effectively" 21:35 "Importance of Personal Thank You" 26:39 Mold Removal and Home Renewal 27:46 "Fogging Walls with Pencil Holes" 32:55 Networking Leads to Unexpected Opportunities 34:15 Disney's Lesson: Attention to Detail 37:22 Kwik Trip vs. BP Station 41:35 Chick-fil-A Ownership Model Explained 46:12 "Building Fanatical Brand Loyalty" 48:42 Differentiation Through Office Experience 51:36 "Transforming Financial Advisor Client Experience" 54:29 Professional Technician Standards Sponsors: Live Video chat with our customers here with LiveSwitch: https://join.liveswitch.com/gfj3m6hnmguz Some videos have been recorded with Riverside: https://www.riverside.fm/?utm_campaign=campaign_5&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_source=rewardful&via=james-kademan Podcast Transcription: Vance Morris [00:00:00]: So now she can charge whatever price she wants to charge, but she still was just a dentist. I said, we've gotta niche down. So I said, who do you like working with? She said, oh, I love working with the kids. I said, okay, great. Let's just have you be a pediatric dentist. So now you work with them from, you know, 2 to 18. And after that, they— you don't talk to them. And I said, okay, great. Vance Morris [00:00:20]: Now you specialize. So you're gonna get a little bit more, um, elasticity in your pricing. You'll be able to charge more cuz you're a specialist. I said, but you need, you need something from your personality to really make this work. I said, what's your favorite movie? And she says, Peter Pan. Great. So you're going to be the pirate dentist. So she dresses up like Captain Hook. James Kademan [00:00:40]: You have found Authentic Business Adventures, the business program that brings you the struggle stories and triumphant successes of business owners across the land. Downloadable audio episodes can be found on the podcast link found at drawincustomers.com. We are locally underwritten by the Bank of Sun Prairie, Calls on Call Extraordinary Answering Service, The Bold Business Book, and LiveSwitch. Today we're welcoming slash preparing to learn from Vance Morris of Deliver Service Now Institute. So Vance, how is it going today? Vance Morris [00:01:09]: It is fantastic, James. Hopefully we'll drop a couple of golden nuggets today. James Kademan [00:01:14]: That's, uh, that's the goal here. So why don't we start with what is the— oh my gosh, what was it? Deliver Service Institute? Deliver Service Now Institute? Vance Morris [00:01:21]: Yep. James Kademan [00:01:22]: All right. What is that? What is that? Vance Morris [00:01:24]: That's a great question. It is a place where, um, I teach business owners, entrepreneurs, uh, really about customer retention. Cause there's a lot of gurus out there that are, you know, can give you, you know, 10,000 leads by Monday afternoon and, you know, you know, flakebook ads, Google, all that stuff. There's not a lot of folks focusing on retention. Um, and then of course, in order to have retention, you've gotta have great customer experiences. So those are the two areas that I really focus on. Um, you know, showing businesses how to— word I've been using a while is Disney-fy. So taking all of the boring mundane things that we have to do day in and day out in the business, uh, finding a way to create an experience out of them. Vance Morris [00:02:12]: So that we become memorable, uh, we're top of mind, um, and, uh, you know, people are doing that, uh, word-of-mouth marketing for us. James Kademan [00:02:22]: Nice. So tell me, how do you get involved in this? Vance Morris [00:02:26]: That's a great question. Um, well, here in Maryland, I have, uh, 3 home service businesses, so I'm, I'm not one of those consultants that have never done anything. James Kademan [00:02:36]: I read a few books, right? Vance Morris [00:02:38]: You know, yeah, you know, I went to consulting school, I got the little, you know, thing. No, it's not, not who I am. So I own 3 home service businesses here in Maryland, mold remediation company, Oriental rug washing facility, and a traditional carpet cleaning company. All very sexy businesses, I will tell you. James Kademan [00:02:56]: Yeah, super duper. Well, they're based on dirt and— Yeah, right. Vance Morris [00:03:00]: Dirt and all the good stuff. James Kademan [00:03:01]: Right. Vance Morris [00:03:03]: So, you know, I— when I started those businesses, I've had them now for 19 years. Um, I knew that I was going to be aiming for an affluent client. I didn't want to be, you know, scrubbing down and dirty rentals and things like that. I wanted to, you know, really have a premium service just like Disney, uh, for affluent clients. And so from day one, that is the direction that I went with my marketing, with the service, with the experiences. Um, after a few years, um, people started asking me, you know, Vance, you don't look like you're working too hard. Um, What's your secret? How do you do it? Um, so I said, well, it's really simple. This is actually the first thing I learned. Vance Morris [00:03:44]: I worked for Disney for 10 years. First thing I learned there was that Disney runs on systems. They got marketing systems, operation systems. You wanna learn— you wanna change a tire on a bus, they got a system for that. Carry a tray in a restaurant, they got a system for that. So all I really did was take all of that, put it into those businesses. Um,, and 7 years ago I actually was able to hire, uh, a GM and fast forward to today, I spend about 90 minutes a week on, on those 3 businesses. James Kademan [00:04:16]: Very cool. Very cool. And how do you— let's just take these one by one, cuz I imagine you didn't start all 3 of those businesses at the same time. Vance Morris [00:04:25]: Did not. James Kademan [00:04:26]: Nope. And I would imagine carpet cleaning came first. Vance Morris [00:04:29]: It did. All right. Yes. Um, and actually I, I, uh, started with a franchise. Um, you know, because I— it had a great proven concept. You know, I was new to business ownership. I'd been in, you know, corporate muckety-muck for 20-plus years. And so I needed something that had a system behind it. Vance Morris [00:04:51]: So I was with the franchise system for about 15 years and then jettisoned it and went out on my own. Along the way, you know, people— I hated walking into people's homes And stepping over things that I could be cleaning, but I didn't know how. When tile floors, wood floors, Oriental rugs. Uh, so I was like, well, might as well add Oriental rug washing. Nobody is doing it in our area. Um, and so we added that service. It was great. I already had a built-in customer base. Vance Morris [00:05:23]: All I had to do was go to them and market that service and boom, we were up and running. Um, and then about, uh, 6 years ago we added the mold company. Again, we had the existing customer base. I mean, I got 10,000 names in my database. Just had to market to them and say, hey, uh, we are now in the mold business. If you like this for cleaning, you'll love us for mold. Well, not love us, but you know what I mean? James Kademan [00:05:47]: Yeah, right. Nobody's in a good mood when they have mold. Vance Morris [00:05:50]: Nobody's in a good mood for that. James Kademan [00:05:52]: So tell me a story with, uh, franchise. Let's back up. I mean, we're talking a long time ago, so yeah, way back when machine here. How did you choose which carpet cleaning franchise to use or to join? Because there's hundreds, probably thousands of them. And that's a, that's a big, that's a big ask to figure out what you're gonna do. Cuz the equipment's expensive. The capital outlay's pretty intense. It is. James Kademan [00:06:16]: The theories and the marketing and all that kind of stuff. Some are well known, some are not. Tell me about that. Vance Morris [00:06:21]: So yeah, I worked with a, um, I didn't know these things existed, but I worked with a franchise headhunter, um, after I left corporate, uh, world. And, you know,

Taylor Bowker - Mindful Insurance Agency On Common Mistakes in Medical Billing: "She ended up getting a bill for $14,000 for a pee test." Health insurance in the United States is a pain.  We all know that.  As business owners, we often get stuck needing to shop for our own insurance.  Only during certain times of year and only with all of these rules.  But how do you buy health insurance, without going crazy? There is a marketplace, but it isn't exactly like going to buy grapes.  It helps to have an expert on your side, as with most things.  In this case, the expert offers their expertise at no additional cost to you. Taylor Bowker is the health insurance expert.  She started Mindful Insurance Agency to help people navigate the murky waters of health insurance.  As an entrepreneur, a business owner with multi-state employees, or someone simply trying to make sense of the marketplace, this episode breaks down the trends, challenges, and solutions in health insurance. Listen as Taylor offers tips on choosing the right coverage, using HSAs, and understanding group versus individual enrollment periods. Enjoy! Visit Taylor at: https://mindfulinsuranceagency.com/   Podcast Overview: 00:00 "Starting My Own Business" 05:11 Health Insurance vs. Cost Sharing 12:34 Cost Challenges in Employee Insurance 19:59 "Updating Marketplace Applications Challenges" 26:40 "$14K Surprise Medical Bill" 29:26 "Health Insurance Subsidy Reduction Impact" 37:36 Snowbirds, Coverage, and Emergencies 38:45 Healthcare Coverage Tips by Age 45:35 "Streamlined Application Support Platform" 51:59 "Insurance Enrollment Rules Explained" 55:45 Employee Coverage Plan Explanation 01:01:10 "Specializing in Individual Coverage" 01:08:09 QSEHRA Benefits and Marketplace Savings 01:11:50 "HSA Usage and Restrictions" 01:16:07 FSA Contributions and Usage Rules Sponsors: Live Video chat with our customers here with LiveSwitch: https://join.liveswitch.com/gfj3m6hnmguz Some videos have been recorded with Riverside: https://www.riverside.fm/?utm_campaign=campaign_5&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_source=rewardful&via=james-kademan Podcast Transcription: Taylor Bowker [00:00:00]: I saw the largest health insurance increase of my entire career this past open enrollment because these folks no longer qualified for a subsidy because their income— your income could literally go a dollar over the threshold to receive a subsidy and you no longer qualify for $1,000 a month's worth of savings. You could owe, you know, $12,000, $13,000, $14,000, $15,000 back at tax time if you go even a dollar over. So that's kind of where the issue lies. James [00:00:35]: You have found Authentic Business Adventures, the business program that brings you the struggle stories and triumphant successes of business owners across the land. Downloadable audio episodes can be found in the podcast link found at drawincustomers.com. We are locally underwritten by the Bank of Sun Prairie, and today we are welcoming slash preparing to learn from Taylor Belker of Mindful Insurance Agency. So Taylor, How is it going today? Taylor Bowker [00:00:59]: Hello. Good. Staying warm or attempting to. James [00:01:02]: Wisconsin, here we are. So tell me a story. What is Mindful Insurance Agency? Taylor Bowker [00:01:07]: Oh, sure. So at Mindful Insurance Agency, we assist individuals and businesses get health insurance, health, dental, and vision. And we are a brokerage. So we are essentially the middle person between the members and the health insurance carriers and just try to advise and educate and help people get health insurance. James [00:01:30]: Right on. How do you end up in health insurance? Taylor Bowker [00:01:33]: Well, um, so I started in the insurance industry back in 2012. I was 5 years old. I'm just kidding, I was a little bit older than that. Um, yes, yes, yes. Um, so I started very entry-level job at an agency in Waunakee, around town here. Um, again, just doing very entry-level things. And then I shortly got promoted to a business development role. Um, and then from there, there there was a different agency hiring that was focusing on health insurance, and I was ready for a change. Taylor Bowker [00:02:11]: They needed a customer service rep, front desk person, so I went there to work, and within a year of me working there, they actually asked me if I wanted to become an agent or a broker, and I had never thought that that was something I wanted to do. Insurance, it can be a very just like cutthroat kind of a situation with sales and quotas and things like that. And that always kind of made me a little nervous. But I am very much a people person. So I, you know, I thought, why not? Let's give it a try. So I got licensed and became an agent back in 2016 now. And then, so started as an agent there doing health, dental, and vision, like I said. And then back in 2019, I decided to start my own business. James [00:03:05]: So that's awesome. Taylor Bowker [00:03:05]: Yeah, I've been doing that for 6 years now. James [00:03:08]: So what was the motivator to start your own gig versus just maintaining with where you were at? Sure. Taylor Bowker [00:03:12]: Yeah. Well, I guess I've always kind of just been somebody who works just, I prefer to kind of be on my own. Being my own boss sounded really great. I was in a group of individuals at the time and other business owners, the group that you're in with me now where we met. And again, there were just a lot of business owners there and they were doing a really good job of owning a business. And it just sounded like a feasible option for me and something that I wanted to do. I also felt like I kind of had learned everything I really could being at the place I was at previously. So I figured, you know, why not give it a shot and rip the Band-Aid off? And it's been, yeah, it's been working out well so far. Taylor Bowker [00:04:00]: So that's good. James [00:04:01]: Right on. Taylor Bowker [00:04:02]: Yeah. James [00:04:02]: So has health insurance changed much over the past, what are we talking, 9, 10 years? Taylor Bowker [00:04:08]: Sure. So I would say yes, yes and no. So I think the biggest thing that's changed is rates, insurance rates. James [00:04:19]: They keep going down. Taylor Bowker [00:04:20]: Yeah, that would be amazing. No, similar to a lot of other things, they just keep increasing and by a lot, especially the last couple years. So a lot of other products have come into play to try to help mitigate those premium costs for people. There's a lot of other products out there now that aren't necessarily health insurance as it is defined by, you know, the commissioner of insurance, if you will, or the government. But there are other products out there that are designed similarly to help people, you know, still get the care that they need and save money on their premiums and their out-of-pocket costs. So I would say prices have changed and other products have been developed in the market to try to help with those pieces. James [00:05:08]: And other products, you mean, I guess, help me what you mean by other understand products. Taylor Bowker [00:05:11]: Sure, yeah. So obviously you have typical health insurance. This would be either through, it's all kind of under the Obamacare umbrella as we've known it for a while now. It can be a group plan through an employer that you work with, or it can be an individual plan on the marketplace or direct with an insurance carrier. And that would kind of be your more typical, just average health insurance policy. But as of the last, say, maybe decade, a couple of new products have come out, one of them being referred to as medical cost sharing. So medical cost sharing in layman's terms is essentially a product that you pay a monthly subscription fee for, similar to a premium, and you choose what's called an initial and shareable amount, similar to a deductible, where essentially you're saying, I'm willing to pay this cost upfront in the event that something catastrophic were to happen to me. And so because it's covering you for more catastrophic occurrences and not the full shebang like a regular health insurance policy would,, they tend to be less expensive for certain people in certain situations. Taylor Bowker [00:06:24]: Those types of products also work really well for lucky individuals that are more healthy, that don't necessarily use their benefits all the time, but just want something there in case. That also works well with what's called direct primary care, which is a newer model, at least around the Madison area. It's where you work with a primary care doctor directly. So they're not affiliated with any any hospital systems. You do pay them a small monthly subscription fee to utilize their services. However, it's, it's really very worth it because a direct primary care doctor is always going to make sure they have same-day or next-day appointments available for their patients, which is very unheard of nowadays. Yeah, unfortunately. And then they can also do a myriad of things for you, you know, because you're paying that monthly fee. Taylor Bowker [00:07:18]: They can run labs for a couple of dollars, which is also very crazy to say. They can run prescriptions for people at cost. If you have an appointment with them, it'll be either a 30-minute or an hour-long time block, which again is not very common if you go to a clinic through a hospital system. They can help you with most acute and even urgent care needs as well. So that can just be, yeah, those two things specifically go hand in hand pretty well together. There's also things out there that have been out there for a while, like short-term policies, you know, through UnitedHealthcare or Allstate or something like that. Those can be less expensive for folks,

Doug Brown - CEO Sales Strategies On Knowing What to Look For: "Number one, we help companies find revenue, hidden revenue that they already paid for but they haven't collected in their bank." There's a funny thing about business, and that is that your entrepreneurial journey will take you places you may have never dreamed of.  This can often mean that you are in a situation, with a business, that you may not fully understand.  That can lead to you leaving money on the table.  So how do you make sure your business sis as profitable as possible? Doug Brown learned these lessons early on.  Trial by fire, similar to how many of us entrepreneurs get taught.  After years of experience and some profitable success, he decided it was time to share his knowledge. From sweeping floors at his father's electric machinery repair shop as a young child to discovering multi-million dollar opportunities inside companies, Doug Brown shares his journey through entrepreneurship, the lessons learned from the trenches, and the emotional impact of helping business owners transform not just their companies, but their lives. Listen as Dough explains some things to look for in your business to make sure you keep of the cash you have earned. Enjoy! Visit Doug at: https://ceosalesstrategies.com/   Podcast Overview: 00:00 "Entrepreneurial Journey and Business Insights" 05:29 Early Lessons in Business Leadership 15:06 Medicine to Music Business Shift 16:48 From Medicine to Business Success 25:18 "Straight Talk Changed My Life" 26:58 "Moral Obligation to Guide Others" 33:37 "Connection Builds Rapport" 37:36 "Preventing Revenue Leakage" 43:57 Customer Insights Through Questions 47:42 "Seeking Feedback on Past Missteps" 56:06 Effective Prospecting Leads to Opportunities 01:01:24 "Hiring: Learning and Improvement" 01:03:34 "Preparing for Top Talent" 01:10:10 "Skate to Future Success" Sponsors: Live Video chat with our customers here with LiveSwitch: https://join.liveswitch.com/gfj3m6hnmguz Some videos have been recorded with Riverside: https://www.riverside.fm/?utm_campaign=campaign_5&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_source=rewardful&via=james-kademan Podcast Transcription: Doug Brown [00:00:00]: So what they would do is they did a two and a half hour business training and at the end of the, toward the end of the training, they would go around the room and say, hey James, what did you find here? And you go, Well, I found $600,000 in my business, you know, and they go from person to person to person. They were small rooms, they were only like 10 to 20 people. But what they were doing after that, you know, I mean, they were literally finding sometimes hundreds of millions of dollars in these trainings. Right? James Kademan [00:00:30]: You have found Authentic Business Ventures, the business program that brings you the struggle stories and triumphant successes of business owners across the land. Downloadable audio episodes can be found in the podcast link phone@drawincustomers.com we are locally underwritten by the Bank of Sun Prairie, Calls On Call Extraordinary Answering Service, the Bold Business Book and Live Switch. Today we're welcoming Slash, preparing to learn from Doug C. Brown of CEO Sales Strategies. So Doug, how are you doing today? Doug Brown [00:00:59]: James? I'm doing great. Thanks for having me here. I'm so grateful. James Kademan [00:01:02]: Yeah, you know, it's funny, I just came back from a trade show in Florida, so. And when you work in a booth, the name of the game is sales. So I'm excited to talk to you now because maybe I should have talked to you last week before I went to this thing. Let's just lay the foundation. What is CEO Sales strategies? Doug Brown [00:01:19]: So the company itself is a company that does primarily four things. Number one, we help companies find revenue, hidden revenue that they already paid for but they haven't collected in their bank. And I don't mean, you know, outstanding invoices, I mean in the whole customer journey, there are places where revenue just stagnated, stopped, not optimized. Could be, you know, something as simple as pricing dormant clients, lack of follow up, something like that. Where we get in there, we find what that revenue is and we, we go, you know, identify it and then help collect it and put that money in the bank for the folks. We also do that with margins, ebitda, so profit, if you will, in some capacities. We manage or build, you know, teams of sales people as well for companies. And then we end up coaching CEOs and founder led businesses on how to do all of the above. James Kademan [00:02:28]: All right, and how do you get involved in something like this? Imagine you don't. Just, you're not born with sales strategies for CEOs. Doug Brown [00:02:37]: No, no, I actually it started when I was very young. I didn't realize it until, you know, I'm 63. This year and I was doing a podcast and somebody asked me, how did you learn what you're doing? And I actually started working for my father's business when I was three years. And. Yeah, three, all right. Yeah, I was sweeping floors for 25 cents a week. I loved it because they used to bring me to the, to the lunches, you know, so we'd go to like the, the local, you know, pub and grub, if you will, or whatever. They prop me up on the bar stool, give me my Roy Rogers and they'd sit and have business conversations. Doug Brown [00:03:19]: I hear my mother wasn't too pleased they took me to the bars. James Kademan [00:03:22]: But, you know, you learn in all kinds of places. So it's all. Doug Brown [00:03:28]: So, you know, a lot of that stuff when we're with children, it sets in. Like you hear CEOs and business owners talking and, and so along the path, you know, we started selling at 5 or 6 to clients, but it was a family owned business, so the family helped me. And one day I sold a part for $20 and we paid 10 for it. And I realized I was making 25 cents a week at that point, which was still pretty good for that time. But I had to work a whole week for 10 bucks. And I just did this in like six minutes. Right. So what I realized is you can make money by looking at ratios and numbers and that's where it kind of started. Doug Brown [00:04:10]: So even in my dad's business when I was a young boy, I mean, 10 years old, I'm looking at his inventory and trying to figure out, because, you know, when you have inventory at the end of the year, you got to pay taxes on it. And so I was looking at, like, how do we widen out the margins in the company? And I, I always had my own businesses growing up since 13, and you know, I always worked my dad until I was up to about 19, before I went into the military. And so I was kind of doing this with all these businesses back then and that's how it sort of started. I didn't realize it, but then as I got into larger businesses, you know, tens of millions and hundreds of millions, I realized that they had the same challenges that businesses in the hundreds of thousands or the millions, multi millions still have, just on a different level. But when you look at the math and metrics in all of this, you can find all these great stories that tell you the story of where you're supposed to be going. Once you figure that out, then you just optimize the point. So it's, I guess I Don't know if I was born with this or it just kind of, you know, it certainly the skill grew over, over time, but I enjoy doing it because to me it's like a treasure hunt. James Kademan [00:05:23]: Sure. Fair. It sounds like you were sent on that trajectory with your dad's business. What type of business did your dad have? Doug Brown [00:05:29]: He had an electric machinery repair company, so industrial machinery, and it was sales and service and you know, so I was constantly around all kinds of different businesses from manufacturing to, I mean, you name it, pretty much we were, we were around anything that had a, like even in an office building, they had a commercial fan or something. We would, you know, we would work on that. So it was a great, wonderful part of my life that, you know, I love doing it. And you know, sometimes when you're a little, little kid, you don't realize some of the things that shape you as you get older. But as I start to look back on things, you know, even my dad ended up in the hospital one time. He had a heart attack and I was 17 years old and I had to run the company for a little while and that was a super learning experience. But I got at certain levels of the books I never got at before, so I was able to kind of look at it. So when he came back, I was like, dad, I think we should do this and this and that. Doug Brown [00:06:33]: And one of the things that was successful in my dad's business was actually raising prices because he hadn't done it in over 10 years. James Kademan [00:06:40]: Oh, wow. Okay. Doug Brown [00:06:41]: Yeah, yeah. So my dad was a brilliant guy. He just wasn't the, he was a guy who knew how to build a business around him, but he didn't know how to build a systematic, functional, you know, business without him being present. James Kademan [00:06:57]: Sure, that's fair. So the inspiration for, I guess growing the business or seeing even that the pricing should be different. Imagine a 17 year old. That's not necessarily something that every 17 year old in the world is going to be aware of or even know that it's a thing, let alone no look at it. Doug Brown [00:07:16]: Well, I mean, Most of the 17 year olds I meet are really smart. They just, they didn't, they weren't around it probably for 14 years. Right. And so, you know, and I, I had, you know, I, I could, I could look and see things that, and spot things that could be monetized a lot of times. So for example, even when I was, I think I was 8 years old and I wanted to, you know,

Dean Mathews - On the Clock On Watching Your Numbers: "They just realized that their sister in law who's been working for them for 10 years has been adding 10 hours onto every pay run for the last 10 years." Dean Mathews, CEO of On The Clock, shares his journey as an entrepreneur and the evolution of his timekeeping software. He emphasizes the importance of building a people-centric culture, the challenges of managing hybrid teams, and the significance of customer service in differentiating his business in a crowded market. Dean also discusses the future of On The Clock, including plans to integrate HR solutions and enhance their payroll services. Visit Dean at: https://ontheclock.com   Podcast Overview: 00:00 Introduction to On the Clock and Dean Mathews 02:55 The Journey of a Serial Entrepreneur 05:56 Transitioning Technology: Moving to Modern Solutions 08:48 Building a People-Centric Culture 11:59 Career Advancement in Small Teams 14:55 Understanding Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS) 17:48 The Importance of Culture in Modern Workplaces 20:57 Navigating Hybrid Work Environments 23:53 Fostering Team Interactions and Communication 26:58 Management Style and Learning from Experience 29:51 Insights from 'Scaling' by Claire Hughes Johnson 31:18 Effective Communication and Team Dynamics 33:01 Navigating a Crowded Market 35:58 Customer Service Excellence 41:06 The Importance of Payroll Solutions 46:48 Common Mistakes in Timekeeping and Payroll 51:46 Proactive Business Management Sponsors: Live Video chat with our customers here with LiveSwitch: https://join.liveswitch.com/gfj3m6hnmguz Some videos have been recorded with Riverside: https://www.riverside.fm/?utm_campaign=campaign_5&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_source=rewardful&via=james-kademan Podcast Transcription: Dean Mathews [00:00:00]: Tracking payroll, all of those things are very complicated things to do. One of the most common mistakes we see people do is they try to do it themselves, like with a spreadsheet. If your business grows and you end up, you know, like Most businesses do, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 20 people, and you're still trying to use spreadsheets and not use a system that ends up in a really bad place. You don't have audit logs for traffic, you know, for, for, for history. You don't have compliance, you know, you don't have transparency a lot of times. So you lac of these modern features where, you know, you choose a system like us and like everything's right here in your phone. That's probably the biggest mistake is they're either choosing the wrong system, not choosing a system at all, or they're trying to like, leverage a spreadsheet or a word doc or a Google Doc to run their business. And that, that never turns out well. James Kademan [00:00:54]: You have found Authentic Business Adventures, the business program that brings you the struggle stories and triumphant successes of business owners across the land. Downloadable audio episodes can be found in the podcast link found@drawincustomers.com we are locally underwritten by the bank of Sun Prairie Calls On Call, Extraordinary Answering Service as well as the Bold Business book. And today we're welcoming Slash, preparing to learn from Dean Matthews from On the Clock. So, Dean, how is it going today? Dean Mathews [00:01:21]: It is going wonderful, James. Thank you so much for having me. I can't wait to chat with you. James Kademan [00:01:26]: Yeah, you know, I'm excited to talk to you for a few reasons. One, you've been in business seemingly forever, so that's. Dean Mathews [00:01:33]: Yeah. James Kademan [00:01:34]: And the other is you seem to be pretty people centric, which is great, and I'm gonna dare say rare. And on top of that, you run a service, the timekeeping system, I guess that we. My gosh, when I was looking for a timekeeping system forever ago, it was bizarre to me how few options I found that actually could do all of the things. Dean Mathews [00:01:59]: Yeah. James Kademan [00:01:59]: And I'm like, I'm not asking for a rocket ship to the moon or anything. I'm just literally asking to keep track of employees hours. That's all I want. Dean Mathews [00:02:06]: Yeah. James Kademan [00:02:07]: So how about you? Let's just start from the very beginning, right back at the dawn of time. Dean Mathews [00:02:11]: Dawn of time. James Kademan [00:02:12]: When did you get started with? On the clock? Dean Mathews [00:02:14]: Yeah. So I'll give you the quick rundown. So I'm kind of a, I guess you call it a quote unquote, serial entrepreneur, if you will. Quite A few startups, businesses, side projects, passion projects throughout the years. But with on the Clock back In like the mid 2000 era, I had several projects, passion projects going on. On the Clock was one of them. I'm always looking for problems that I can solve. So this is the kitchen story or the kitchen table story. Dean Mathews [00:02:49]: This was late 2003 ish. So like 20 some years ago now, sitting at the kitchen table, looking through forums, business forums, remember those business, small business accounting forums. And I saw this trend of all these small business owners and accountants in this forum, just talking. I just looking for something simple, something like you just said, that works well, something that can track my employees time. And I want it online and I want it easy and I want it reliable. That was their two requests. So I was sitting there and I was reading that and I'm like, I'm going to build that for them. So I'm also a software developer or in a former life I was a software developer. Dean Mathews [00:03:34]: So I set out to build it and pretty much within a couple months we actually had on the clock running. It was very simple, very bare bones, but it was up and running. Employees could clock in and clock out, managers and admins could get time for payroll. And it was really just a passion project at that time along with, you know, several others. And kind of fast forward to right around 10ish years ago, it had just been kind of organically growing on its own. Like I said, it was more of a side project. But about that 10ish years ago, Mark, really it started, started getting to the point to where I couldn't ignore it anymore. So decided to go all in with on the Clock and want to just focus on one thing really, really heavily and put all my energy into it instead of half a dozen or a dozen different projects. Dean Mathews [00:04:26]: So focused on that and decided to turn it from a passion project to a real business. Got it into an llc. My brother Mark was also interested in doing some of these things so got him to come on board. And we hired our first employee, Samantha. She's still with us today. She's actually moved up a lot in the tier. She is now product owner. Super proud of her. Dean Mathews [00:04:52]: And so now we're sitting where it's 22 of us total and we serve about 18,000 customers, mostly here in the United States. James Kademan [00:05:00]: Yeah, 18,000. Dean Mathews [00:05:01]: 18,000. Yeah. It's crazy. James Kademan [00:05:04]: Holy cow. Dean Mathews [00:05:04]: That is a. James Kademan [00:05:06]: That's a pool and a half. Dean Mathews [00:05:07]: Yeah, it's a. Yeah, two and a half pools. James Kademan [00:05:10]: So crazy. Dean Mathews [00:05:11]: Yeah, it's kind of crazy when you Step back and look at it and. But you know, it goes to show you, you know, you put your effort and your time and your energy into something and it can pay off, it can turn into something big. James Kademan [00:05:22]: Yeah, yeah, Tell me a story. You were doing software before you said so were your other passion projects software based? Dean Mathews [00:05:30]: Almost all of them were, yes. So built a kind of like an online survey type tool similar to like a survey monkey where you could ask different surveys. Had a database type tool where you could just create a database for anything you wanted to contacts customers, sales online. Started that one, had another payments processing, a business to business payments processing, Ach type solution. Those are two or three of the ones that I started. There was a couple others as well. They kind of, some started, some really took off, some didn't, some just kind of floundered. But yeah, so I always had that entrepreneurial spirit, just wanting to do something big, you know, just make a change, something I could just stand on and, you know, just be happy with. James Kademan [00:06:18]: Yeah, it's interesting, I had another guest on the show, I don't know, fairly recently and he said all we want to do is sell usernames and passwords. So I feel like you're, you're in that world, which is pretty good world to be in. Dean Mathews [00:06:34]: Yeah, yeah. James Kademan [00:06:36]: Tell me a story as far as the back end goes, because programming languages that were popular 20 years ago are not necessarily the same now. So has your platform shifted or had huge rewrites or anything over the course of the past couple decades? Dean Mathews [00:06:52]: Yeah, from a technology standpoint, the technology we wrote it in, you know, 22, three years ago now is an older technology. Right. And it, it still worked, but you really have to keep up with the times. You can't just sit on these older technologies. You know, developers aren't versed in them anymore, they're inefficient. And the new technologies have so much more to offer for our customer experience. So we started a venture about three years ago, ish, where we called it Move and Improve, where we pick off a couple pages, a couple screens at a time and move those over to the new new technology. So now as of the turn of this year, there's just a couple little pieces we're picking up now, but we are going to be 100. Dean Mathews [00:07:41]:

Tom Schwab - Interview Valet On Standing Out: "What's amazing now is AI is indexing all of these. So if you just say, I'm a coach, it's saying, well, do I recommend James or the other million people that identify as a coach?." Podcasts are everywhere these days.  They are the current neato thing to be a guest on, a host of and a listener to. But how do you become a guest on podcasts?  Should you be a podcast guest?  What podcast has the best audience?  What do you do after you have been a guest? Tom Schwab is the founder of Interview Valet, a white glove podcast guest placement service.  Tom explains the ins and outs of podcasts and the value that being on the right podcast can bring to you and your business. Listen as Tom explains the value of podcasts and how to grow your brand by being a guest on them Enjoy! Visit Tom at: https://interviewvalet.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/interview_valet/   Podcast Overview: 00:00 Podcast Evolution and Accessibility 07:33 Building Relationships in Marketplace Growth 11:28 "Specificity in Digital Marketing Strategy" 20:37 "Accountability for Server Content" 26:20 "Curiosity and Caution in Interviews" 27:43 "Podcasting Tips for Professionals" 36:49 "Feedback That Changed Everything" 43:06 "Maximizing Engagement Through Feedback" 45:37 "Podcast Guesting Gone Wrong" 53:53 "Scaling Through Systems and Collaboration" 56:48 "Building Trust in Client Pitches" Sponsors: Live Video chat with our customers here with LiveSwitch: https://join.liveswitch.com/gfj3m6hnmguz Some videos have been recorded with Riverside: https://www.riverside.fm/?utm_campaign=campaign_5&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_source=rewardful&via=james-kademan Podcast Transcription:    

Jody Grunden - Anders CPA On Working Together: "It's only going to help everybody if we can all learn how to get better and faster." Every business owner needs to watch their money.  You watch it come in, go out and hopefully end up with some leftover to make sure you are doing more than just moving money. But not every business is large enough to justify a full-time chief financial officer.  Which leads to a conundrum, how do you get the talented person to help you with the financial end of your business when you don't have enough financial paperwork for them to poke at full time? Jody Grunden saw this need years ago and has built a virtual CFO business that he then sold to Anders CPA.  Jody discusses what a virtual CFO can do and why it is important. Listen as Jody details how the use of a virtual CFO has helped grow many business.  Plus he details the value of standing out.  In his case, with a Hawaiian shirt. Enjoy! Visit Jody at: https://anderscpa.com/   Podcast Overview: 00:00 "Virtual Beginnings and Success" 03:57 "Next Year Finally Paid Off" 06:50 "Interactive Pricing Strategy Breakdown" 11:40 "Finding Success Beyond Accounting" 12:40 "Pivoting Amid Layoffs and Guilt" 18:45 "Educating for Success, Not Selling" 19:42 "Productizing Services with Subscriptions" 24:58 "Dynamic Forecasting Explained" 26:33 Truck Repair Business Insights 31:20 "Flexible Client Collaboration Process" 35:07 "Building Connections and Growth" 38:29 "Rethinking Strategy for Success" 42:01 "Thought Leadership Eased Hiring" 44:26 "Expanding Connections Beyond Remote Teams" 47:32 "Scaling Processes for Sustainability" Sponsors: Live Video chat with our customers here with LiveSwitch: https://join.liveswitch.com/gfj3m6hnmguz Some videos have been recorded with Riverside: https://www.riverside.fm/?utm_campaign=campaign_5&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_source=rewardful&via=james-kademan Podcast Transcription: Jody Grundon [00:00:00]: I realized real quick that, you know, hey, I wasn't an accountant, I was an entrepreneur and I just didn't realize it. I didn't enjoy accounting and I still don't today. I don't enjoy accounting, but I love the entrepreneur part of it and growing a business and seeing how successful I can get that business and then even more so helping other people be successful running their business, which is, which is even a bigger joy. James Kademan [00:00:27]: You have found Authentic Business Adventures, the business program that brings you the struggle stories and triumphant successes of business owners across the land. Downloadable audio episodes can be found in the podcast link found@drawincustomers.com we are locally interwritten by the bank of Sun Prairie Calls On Call Extraordinary Answering Service as well as the Bold Business Book and Live Switch. Today we are welcoming slash preparing to learn from Jody Grundon of Anders cpa. Which I feel like this is right about the time to start talking taxes. Jody, is that safe to say? Jody Grundon [00:01:00]: I. I guess so. But man, you don't ask me to ask tax questions, that's for sure. James Kademan [00:01:04]: No, so let's just break it down. What is Andrew cpa? Jody Grundon [00:01:09]: Yeah, so Andrew cpa. They're, they're a, one of the largest CPA firms in the nation. They're pretty large. They do a lot of different things, audit, tax. But the, the special that I run is on in what we call the Client Advisory Service Group, which is virtual CFO services. So that's something that, that I founded way back when. It was about 20 some years ago. A lot of CPA firms now you use that type of a service. Jody Grundon [00:01:31]: I actually founded it back, you know, 20 plus years ago. So it's been a great ride. Before it was, before it was even a thing. Yeah, it was one of those, one of those things that there was something called outsourced CFO or outsourced CPA service, which was outsourcing it to a foreign country type of thing. And I'm like, well, that's not what I meant. So I'm trying to figure out how, what can I call it? And I, and so I did. I got the big, the thesaurus, if you remember one of those things. I got one of those things out. Jody Grundon [00:01:55]: I'm like, what could I, what could I name this thing? I thought virtual sounds kind of cool. And, and then my partner's like, well, no one will think you're real. And I'm like, ah, they will. It'll catch on. And back then we had the yellow pages and so we, we did the yellow page Thing didn't really get a whole lot of traction. And then we decided, hey, we're going to go this, do this on the Internet. And so when we did on the Internet, it was kind of cool because nobody else was doing it. So it was one of those things that we are right away number one in the rankings. Jody Grundon [00:02:21]: No, yeah, we. James Kademan [00:02:22]: Back 20 years ago, man, that's. Jody Grundon [00:02:24]: Yeah, yeah. And we have, we, we. We haven't gone far from that. So we're still number one in the rankings today, which is kind of cool. James Kademan [00:02:31]: Be interesting to go back and just visit if you had a time machine or something like that and just visit. What was the Internet like 20 years ago? Jody Grundon [00:02:38]: It was brutal. James Kademan [00:02:39]: No YouTube. I don't even know if Google was around back then. I mean, yeah, totally different world. Jody Grundon [00:02:45]: It was. And it's kind of funny because everybody thought, well, that was. That's a big waste of money. Don't put money in there. Because we, we got out of the yellow page. Yellow page is what accounting firms are always in. Accounting firms, law firms, you name it. You had these big ads, you spent tons of money, and then you just kind of hope people called you. Jody Grundon [00:03:00]: And I didn't have the money back then, so it's like I bootstrapped my own company. So it was one of those things that I just couldn't compete with the big boys. And so the only, only thing we could do is try something different. I thought, hey, this Internet thing sounds great. Let's try it. And yeah. And everybody thought, hey, you're wasting your money. No one's going to call. Jody Grundon [00:03:19]: And the funny part is, nobody called. It took a long time to actually get going and figure it out and get people to realize what virtual CFO even was. It took about, I'd say, probably five to 10 years, really, to. To get a lot of traction for it. James Kademan [00:03:38]: Stick with it for a while. Jody Grundon [00:03:39]: Oh, yeah. It wasn't one of those things. Overnight successes. It was, hey, we started it. And they, they always say, you know, building the plane as it's flying in the air type of thing. That's exactly what we did. It was like, okay, what can we do to make this better? Improve this? And we were not profitable at all for probably eight, eight, nine, ten years of that. It was, it was one of those things. Jody Grundon [00:03:57]: My wife kept asking me, hey, when are we going to do something? You need to get a job? I'm like, no, no, no. Next year's gonna be the perfect year. And then next year coming, there'd be all these obstacles that we we didn't overcome. And then it's like, oh, well, next year will be the best year. And then finally next year ended up being the right year, and it just, it just blew up from there and became super profitable, super high growth. And, you know, we grew it to Gez, probably 10 million bucks or so before we actually sold it to Anders and became part of the, the larger accounting firm. James Kademan [00:04:25]: Gotcha. The irony of the CFO not making money. Jody Grundon [00:04:28]: Right. Yeah, I know. I tell everybody that too. The other irony is I can't, I can't add in my head, oh, wow, you got a CFO that has to use a calculator. Yeah. Which is kind of funny. And, and, and the funny part about that was on my, the very first. So I, I, I speak at a lot of conferences, and the very first conference I was invited to, I was super unprepared. Jody Grundon [00:04:47]: You know, it was one of those things. I just didn't know what to talk about. Here I'm supposed to talk about. Talk to 30 at that time, agency owners and, and teach them how to be profitable and all that kind of stuff. And the guy's like, do not, whatever you do, do not bring a PowerPoint. I'm like, okay, okay, I won't bring a PowerPoint. And I'm thinking, okay, now what do I do? What do I do? And, you know, the funny part about it was my luggage got stuck, got routed to the wrong airport. So I came in. Jody Grundon [00:05:13]: No, no, no luggage. I didn't have anything really to wear other than I had a T shirt. I had shorts and, and, and, and gym. Gym shoes. And I was like, what do I do? And I went to the local mall, bought some stuff, and, and at the time, my credit cards kept getting denied. And I was like, what's going on here? Why are my credit cards getting denied? This is weird. And, and so eventually, I, I, I, I looked across the mall. There was a Tommy Bahama store there. Jody Grundon [00:05:37]: And I thought, oh, that's kind of cool. That's a little different. I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll get some Tommy Bahama stuff, because he, he said, do not be the traditional accountant. I'm like, okay, that's kind of cool. And, but by the time I got, I got done, I was like, the only thing I had left was my debit card, because nothing was working. And so I went to this dinner after the fact and that. And you can imagine, here the finance guy comes in. You know, at that time, I was wearing an Italian Bahama shirt and like, hey, find this guy wearing Italian Bahama shirt. Jody Grundon [00:06:03]: I'm like, hey, I'll get the hors d' oeuvres for 30 business owners here. I'm thinking, this is kind of cool. And I go to pay with my debit card, and guess what? It got denied. I'm like, what the heck?

Henry DeVries - Indie Books International On Marketing With Authority: "The book is more than a calling card. The book is the greatest brochure." There are a few things you can do to make yourself important in the eyes of the people you meet.  One of the best ways is to be the author of a book.  But how do you write and publish a book? Henry DeVries knows that entrepreneurs are good at their thing, but writing and publishing a book can be a daunting and time-consuming task.  So he started Indie Books International to help professionals get their books published and in the hands of the people that will soon be their clients.  This is something no postcard or brochure could ever dream of doing. Listen as Henry explains in detail what it takes to become a published author and how your book can be used as a marketing tool to help you grow your business. Enjoy! Visit Henry at: https://indiebooksintl.com/   Podcast Overview: 00:00 "Why Editing Matters" 03:19 "Nonfiction Books as Business Cards" 08:03 "Don't Cut Corners on Publishing" 10:01 "Authors Question Publisher Practices" 13:52 "How to Get on TV" 19:00 "Expert Publishing and Education" 20:55 "Overcoming Traps to Publish" 25:35 "Rise of Print and Amazon" 28:26 "Books as the Ultimate Brochure" 31:13 "Indie Publishing Support Network" 35:35 Editing and Writing Service Costs 36:52 "Delegation and Leadership Insights" 41:49 "AI in Publishing: Challenges & Risks" Sponsors: Live Video chat with our customers here with LiveSwitch: https://join.liveswitch.com/gfj3m6hnmguz Some videos have been recorded with Riverside: https://www.riverside.fm/?utm_campaign=campaign_5&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_source=rewardful&via=james-kademan Podcast Transcription: Henry DeVries [00:00:00]: The world changed. There was two parts of the digital revolution that changed the business. One was print on demand publishing where you didn't have to do big print runs to get the cost down. So my first book, you know, first run was 2,500 books. Second run was another 2,500 books. It was called the second printing. The joke is, yeah, my book went to two printings because the first one was blurred, but no. So you would earn extra printings. Henry DeVries [00:00:24]: But with print on demand it's just, just as economical to print one book as the unit price. On the 2500 books. James Kademan [00:00:35]: You have found Authentic Business Adventures, the business program that brings you the struggle stories and triumphant successes of business owners across the land. Downloadable audio episodes can be found the podcast link found at drawincustomers.com we are locally underwritten by the Bank of Sun Prairie Calls On Call Extraordinary Answering Service as well as the Bold business book and live switch. Today we're welcoming, slash, preparing to learn from. Let's see here, Henry, I'm going to try to say your last name. Devries. Henry DeVries [00:01:06]: There you go. Henry Devries with the cheese. James Kademan [00:01:10]: I love it. Of Indie Books International. And we're talking books and marketing and all that jazz. So Henry, how is it going today? Henry DeVries [00:01:18]: It is so great. I'm so excited to talk about the virtues of a book marketing with a book that you're proud of. James Kademan [00:01:26]: I love it. I love it. You know, you raise an interesting point here. I just want to give you a really quick anecdote before we run down the road of marketing with your book. I was given a book by someone that they were hustling as something I suppose like a business card. Probably what we'll mention. Henry DeVries [00:01:43]: Sure. James Kademan [00:01:43]: And I had started reading it and it was, it was bad. It was really bad. It's not to say the content itself was bad. I felt like it was very poorly written and not edited at all. So I saw this guy later at a different networking function. I'm like, hey man, your book was interesting. Who did you use for an editor? And he's like, oh yeah, I edit it myself. I don't need to pay someone to edit it. James Kademan [00:02:08]: And I was like, oh, okay, great. Fantastic. Way to go. You can totally tell I didn't say that. Henry DeVries [00:02:15]: James, we have a saying. The world does not need another crappy self published book. James Kademan [00:02:21]: Oh, I love that saying. That's perfect. That's perfect. So let's start with what you got going on, Henry. How long have you been in the book marketing world? Henry DeVries [00:02:32]: Indie Books International. We started on April 1, 2014. I'd been a ghost writer for books for years before that. So officially 11 years publishing over 200 books in that time. James Kademan [00:02:48]: All right, well, that's a fair number that is Any specific genre. Henry DeVries [00:02:55]: Yes. Well, business books. So according to Barnes and noble, there are 16 subcategories of books. And then since we're nonfiction, some of our books fall under self help, or they'll fall under whatever industry the person is in. So it. It. But it tends to be these nonfiction books to help business people find right fit prospects. James Kademan [00:03:19]: Right on. You know, it's interesting you say that. I, I assume as you know, I wrote and published a book, and it was interesting because I use it essentially as a business card. But I had somebody ask me if I ever made money from the book, and I was like, no, no, I would love to be Stephen King or something like that. Where you're making thousands of dollars every month off your book and to not have to fight to find a publisher, that was not the case. So in that non fiction realm, I guess I'm saying that to say I feel like in the non fiction realm, that's more of the case rather than the fiction realm. I don't. Correct me if I'm wrong here. Henry DeVries [00:04:01]: Well, in the nonfiction realm, it's all about marketing with a book. I didn't write the book marketing a book. I did it marketing with a book, meaning it's what happens as a result of the book. And our authors have found they've gotten returns of 400 to 2000% ROI by marketing with a book and a speech. We like to say publishing the book is the starting line. The book is your ticket to ride. It's your ticket to get into the game. James Kademan [00:04:32]: I love. Okay, so essentially what you're saying is the book is a marketing tool. You're not marketing the book, you're marketing with a book. Okay, that's way better. Clarification. Henry DeVries [00:04:42]: One of my authors made a million dollars, and he didn't even care how many books he sold, but he gave away hundreds and hundreds of books. And. And that resulted in clients. Five figure clients. And that he says it adds up to over a million dollars that he got as a result of being the author of that book over and above what he would have made. James Kademan [00:05:07]: I love it. All right, so let's dig into why someone would want to market with a book rather than throwing ads on the Internet or a big billboard or cold calling or something of that nature. Henry DeVries [00:05:18]: Well, because you want to be seen as the authority in your Space for a certain group of people who have a certain problem. You're the authority and you can't spell authority without the word author. So authors are respected because of the research they've done, the people they've talked to and the results that they share. And then that attracts people especially right fit prospects to them. And they're not chasing the prospects. It's like a magnet that's attracting the prospects to them. James Kademan [00:05:51]: I love it. You mentioned self publishing. Is that typically where you're steering people to or what you're steering people to do? Henry DeVries [00:05:59]: Oh no, we call it self publishing, the S word. Even if you do it, don't ever say your book was self published because that has a stigma to it. It's like what crazy old grandpas do? You indie publish your book. You might cobble together a team to help you indie publish the book. The person in your example, he missed a big player at it. An editor. And there's different types of editors. I'm a developmental editor. Henry DeVries [00:06:26]: I help people develop a manuscript, an idea how it would play in the marketplace, how to bake marketing into it. But you also need line editors, people who make sure that you don't use the wrong word or the styles right, or a typo. James, I'll tell you, you triggered my all time worst story of somebody who came up to me, was so proud of their book and he handed me his book and he said, what do you think? And on the COVID it said forward F O R W A R D by this name. Well, it's actually F O R E. W O R D is a forward, a word that comes first in a book. So he had this major glaring typo on the COVID of his book. James Kademan [00:07:16]: Oh no. Henry DeVries [00:07:17]: And he said, well, what do you think? I said, well, I've got to point out you have this glaring typo on the COVID of your book. Oh, oh, I printed 5,000 copies. What should I do? And I said Fahrenheit 451. If you know science fiction and Ray Bradbury, that's the temperature books burn at. Fahrenheit 451. Famous science fiction book. So I was telling him to burn 5,000 books, which he did. Because I said I don't even want you to give these away or donate them to some thrift store because every time somebody sees your name and this book and that typo, it's bringing you down in the market. Henry DeVries [00:08:03]: The same thing with a crappy self published book where they said, oh, you know, I can do it cheap. I said, okay, well, let's say you have a big speech and people have paid you $5,000 to come speak to them, and you got to wear something. Are you going to go to Goodwill and see if somebody donated something good that week? Or, you know, maybe there's an Armani suit there,

Heather Reekie - Casa de Corazón On Working With the SBA: "Getting the SBA loan was literally the hardest thing I've ever done. And I've given birth twice, naturally." We all wish we were smarter.  As we get older, it becomes more difficult to learn new things. What if children could learn new things while they have a developing brain that can handle faster education.  What if you could immerse a child into an environment that helps children learn another language, eat healthy and fresh food and do it all with peers that are learning and playing alongside you?  It is with questions like these that Casa de Corazón got started. Heather Reekie is the owner of the Madison, Wisconsin based Casa de Corazón.  She shares her inspiring journey from speech and language pathologist to entrepreneur, detailing the transformation of an old translation office into a thriving early childhood center focused on nurturing bilingual minds and compassionate hearts. She highlights Casa de Corazón's unique approach, including their in-house app for real-time parent updates, commitment to organic meals and sustainable practices, and the importance of intercultural learning. Heather details the challenges of launching a business, the joys of fostering a strong community, and the impact of quality early education. Listen as Heather gives more insights into how passion and purpose can create lasting change, one child at a time. Enjoy! Visit Heather at: https://casaearlylearning.com/location/madison-wi/ https://www.instagram.com/casa.madison.wi/   Podcast Overview: 00:00 "Bilingual Boost at Casa" 06:54 "Acquiring a Language-Focused Property" 16:20 "Connected to Franchise Core Values" 17:17 "Eco-Friendly Childcare Practices" 23:33 Franchisee Frustration with Franchisors 29:09 "Teachers Genuinely Care Deeply" 33:39 "Raising Thriving, Empathetic Early Learners" 42:15 Playground Requirements and Safety Standards 44:48 "Overcoming Leadership and Loan Challenges" 53:19 "Staff Excellence and Parent Resources" 59:12 Infant Curriculum and Monthly Themes 01:02:37 Storm Shelter and Flags Display 01:07:09 "Elevator and Furnace Challenges" Sponsors: Live Video chat with our customers here with LiveSwitch: https://join.liveswitch.com/gfj3m6hnmguz Some videos have been recorded with Riverside: https://www.riverside.fm/?utm_campaign=campaign_5&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_source=rewardful&via=james-kademan Podcast Transcription: Heather Reekie [00:00:00]: But the Casa app is special to the Casa brand and it's real time updates on what your child is doing throughout the day, including photos. So that's throughout the day innovation. Yep, yep. And so you know, like no notates when the child falls asleep for rest time or what they, you know, how much of the lunch they ate and you know when they used the bathroom or had a diaper change and that kind of thing. James Kademan [00:00:23]: Holy cow. So that's cool. Heather Reekie [00:00:26]: It's informative and just fun to interact with as well. James Kademan [00:00:35]: You have found Authentic Business Adventures, the business program that brings you the struggle stories and triumphant successes of business owners across the land. Downloadable audio episodes can be found on the podcast link found drawincustomers.com we are locally underwritten by the bank of Sun Prairie and today we're welcoming slash preparing to learn from Heather Ricci of I'm going to destroy this. But I don't mean to Casa de Corazón remotely close Casa de Corazón and I just learned is that House of Hearts. Heather Reekie [00:01:05]: House of Hearts. House of Love. James Kademan [00:01:07]: All right, very cool. So let's go on. What do you do, Heather? Heather Reekie [00:01:12]: Well, so I'm the owner operator of Casa de Corazon Madison, which is a franchise from the corporate offices which are in Minnesota and we opened almost exactly two years ago, November 15th of 2023. James Kademan [00:01:28]: Nice. Heather Reekie [00:01:28]: And so I am trying to keep. James Kademan [00:01:31]: Running the place and this place, I gotta say, this place is huge. I expected a little daycare and this is. We're in two story building. Heather Reekie [00:01:41]: Yes. James Kademan [00:01:42]: In what I would consider to be the southern heart of Madison. So we get the belt line right here and all that. So I got a lot of questions for you, so let's just knock it out first. So Heather, tell me about the Spanish immersion. Heather Reekie [00:01:54]: So that's the icing on the cake of just a really high quality childcare and preschool situation. Here at Casa de Corazón, Spanish immersion is help helping grow the synapses in the children's brain. So even if you don't go on to a bilingual or Spanish immersion elementary school after attending casa, you will have reaped the benefits of growing your brain cells by becoming bilingual or learning a second or sometimes in some cases a third language. Because what it does is it gives you multiple words for the same vocabulary and the same sentence structure. And all you're just learning all of these ways to think about language. It increases your empathy, it increases your ability to start talking at a younger age and communicate your thoughts and feelings. One mom told me about her two children who attend here. They're siblings and they speak in Spanish when they're playing together at home. James Kademan [00:03:00]: It's oh nice. Heather Reekie [00:03:01]: Sounds really adorable. And then they're code switching when they're talking to her because they know that she's not fluent in Spanish like they are and so they'll switch to English to talk to. James Kademan [00:03:10]: I'm just imagining a pair of kids that know a language that the parents don't. I don't know if it's good or bad. Heather Reekie [00:03:14]: Yeah, it could be fun. James Kademan [00:03:16]: Interesting. So the, the age. I guess I never asked you that. What are the ages that attend here? Heather Reekie [00:03:23]: We are licensed to provide care for children starting at six weeks and then up through school age. So we have had some school age children attend on days off of school school, you know, old older siblings a lot of times and also in the summer when they're not in public school or the school year school and but technically the franchise caters to birth through four year old kindergarten. James Kademan [00:03:52]: Okay. Heather Reekie [00:03:52]: Right before they would go to 5 year old kindergarten in an elementary school. James Kademan [00:03:57]: Tell me. So the daycare is way back when I had to deal with daycares and stuff like that when I had a kid. I shouldn't say I did, my wife did. I didn't have anything to do with it, but I learned from other people that there's wait lists and all that other kind of stuff. Where are you guys at with the wait list? Or is there a wait list or that whole people can't find daycare anywhere? Is that still a thing? Heather Reekie [00:04:19]: It can be, yes. Because we're still Fairly new at 2 years old, we have been able to enroll children for their desired start date. So we do have a wait list. It's through the branded CASA app it's called. And we keep track of families based on when they tour and when they want to enroll their child. And for certain ages, the younger the child wants to be enrolled, those are our smaller classrooms with lower teacher to student ratios. So those ones fill up more quickly. And then because we're still like the children who started with us at a young age haven't grown into be a three year old and able to attend or be enrolled in one of our older age level classrooms where the ratios increase so those classrooms are not full. Heather Reekie [00:05:20]: And we are sitting in one of our our 11th classroom which we haven't opened yet. We've opened the other 10, but this is our pre K room. The franchise calls it pre K which is essentially a four year old kindergarten classroom because we are currently combining the three And a half year olds and four year olds together. James Kademan [00:05:39]: Okay. Heather Reekie [00:05:40]: In our two preschool B classrooms. So there's a little multi age learning going on right now and so we have more capacity to enroll those older children right now. James Kademan [00:05:54]: Well, I imagine if somebody starts with you at birth or early, whatever, six weeks that they'll go with you through until they get to school age, is. Heather Reekie [00:06:03]: That safe to say that is the, the most beneficial way to benefit from a Spanish immersion environment. James Kademan [00:06:10]: Yeah. Heather Reekie [00:06:11]: And just the high quality education and the loving teachers. Yeah. Yes. That is the, the corporate idea is that the children would start with us, you know, as soon as they find out about us whether their babies are a little bit older and then. Yes. Stay through that four year old year and then possibly go to kindergarten when they're five or six. James Kademan [00:06:32]: That's cool. That's super cool. They'll find out about you on a podcast. So it's all good. Tell me, how did you end up. A couple years ago you opened this place. So let's first talk about location. So to me this is pretty, I mean you can get to this place anywhere pretty easily. James Kademan [00:06:51]: So how did you end up in this building? Heather Reekie [00:06:54]: I had hired a broker to find a location and there just weren't a lot that were in a price range that I could afford. And so we looked at several options but kept coming back to this. And this used to be Geo Co. Geo Group, which did translations in all different languages for like manuals and, and auditory, verbal, you know, and written translations. I'm sure they did way more than that.

Mike Zlotnik - Tempo Funding On Investment Advice: "At the end of the day the best risk mitigation strategy is prudent diversification." Investing in real estate is often thought to be a great place to grow your wealth.  But often investors have other things going on and they don't want to deal with tenants, paperwork, searching out properties and all of the headaches that come with doing your own real estate investing. What if there were a way to invest in real estate in other ways?  Investing in the loans other people have on real estate, or investing with a group and getting into large commercial properties with leases that run decades long? Mike Zlotnik started Tempo Funding to help investors grow their money with real estate, without needing to get their hands dirty.  He shares his journey in the tech world to discovering the power of passive real estate investing, buying his first apartment in Brooklyn back in 2000, and growing into large-scale commercial projects like industrial facilities and open-air shopping centers. He explains Tempo Funding's focus on marrying “money and opportunity,” helping individuals, often those who have exited businesses or cashed in on appreciated assets, find reliable income streams backed by real estate. Listen as Mike explains his real estate investing strategies and how they may work for you. Enjoy! Visit Mike at: https://tempofunding.com/ https://www.instagram.com/tempofunding/   Podcast Overview: 00:00 "Triple Net Leasing Explained" 03:50 "Predictable Returns in CRE Investments" 08:17 "Long-Term Commercial Lease Structures" 10:46 Ground Leases and Property Ownership 13:36 Real Estate Tax Implications Simplified 19:31 Deploying Capital for Investments 21:29 Quarterly Distribution Expectations Explained 26:18 "Low Rates, Inflation, and Stimulus" 27:41 "Understanding Capitalization Rates" 32:22 Moore's Law and AI Progress 35:29 Interest Rates and Real Estate Trends 37:13 Industrial Investment: Focus on Longevity 40:49 "Branch Closures and Lease Management" 44:39 "From Tech Exec to Real Estate" 49:21 "Real Estate Value Through Leasing" 50:00 "Value-Add Real Estate Strategies" 54:07 "Strategic Capital for Specialists" Sponsors: Live Video chat with our customers here with LiveSwitch: https://join.liveswitch.com/gfj3m6hnmguz Some videos have been recorded with Riverside: https://www.riverside.fm/?utm_campaign=campaign_5&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_source=rewardful&via=james-kademan Podcast Transcription: Mike Zlotnik [00:00:00]: I had a successful career, had some exits. I was doing well, but I was a little burned out. I spent almost 15 years in technology. I had great friends. I liked it. Technology. Felt like I wanted something that I really didn't have to work all the time, something that I can make investment decisions and the money could work for me. So I discovered real estate passively in year 2000, buying my first apartment in Brooklyn. Mike Zlotnik [00:00:25]: And then I continued to buy more and passively. James Kademan [00:00:33]: You have found Authentic Business Adventures, the business program that brings you the struggle stories and triumphant successes of business owners across the land. Downloadable audio episodes can be found in podcast link found at https//:drawincustomers.com We are locally underwritten by the Bank of Sun Prairie, Calls On Call Extraordinary Answering Service as well as the Bold Business Book. And today we're welcoming Slash, preparing to learn from Mike Zlotnick of Temple Funding. That's TF Management Group. Is that safe to say, Mike? Mike Zlotnik [00:01:01]: Yeah, yeah, but the easier way, people call me Big Mike. I am six four. So Big Mike. James Kademan [00:01:05]: Well, you can't tell on the screen, so. All right, that is a. That's a Big Mike. Big Mike, indeed. So, Big Mike, what is Tempo funding? Mike Zlotnik [00:01:15]: We are the best way to describe Tempo funding. We marry money and opportunity. We are a platform for folks with capital to invest, typically in real estate, kind of. I don't want to call myself exactly one trick pony, but I am mostly one trick pony. It's real estate. We have a team, we have organization that focuses real estate projects, industrial, open air shopping, multifamily, et cetera. James Kademan [00:01:42]: Okay. Mike Zlotnik [00:01:42]: And then we have folks with capital who sold businesses, they've sold highly appreciated stock, they sold bitcoin, whatever, they made their money and then now they're looking for steady, predictable income. And that's what we try to bring them. That's kind of what we do for many, many years. James Kademan [00:02:01]: You mentioned steady predictable income. And can you elaborate on that? Because sometimes in the real estate world that's not always the case. Mike Zlotnik [00:02:08]: Yeah, so today the world's changed quite a bit and we really gravitated towards predictability. I literally have an article that I wrote and a video comparing high IRRs versus predictability. Wide majority of people, especially with monetary event where they've got significant lump sum, they're looking for predictability. So what is predictability? So normally it means the assets themselves have a great engine, how they generate predictable income. Take an example, triple net industrial. This is just a simple way to explain. It's right before the call we were talking about made in China versus made in America. Well, there's a renaissance now to build in America. Mike Zlotnik [00:02:50]: Made in America and industrial production in America is welcome. So quite often there are companies that manufacture here and the real estate underneath it gets sold by the owner of the business. They sell the real estate, lease back and stay in that property. So where does predictability come from? Well, that business has been there for 60 years. They sell real estate, they use capital for further investment or to pay their parent company and then it's a mission critical property. And to make long story short, they're there, they have a 20, 25 year lease and it's triple net, meaning that all the expenses, taxes, insurance, everything else is covered by the tenant. So as a landlord you collect rent and every year it goes up between 2 to 3%. So you have high predictability of outcome simply because it's contractually guaranteed with a credit quality tenant with long term lease, with rent escalation clauses, with triple net structure. Mike Zlotnik [00:03:50]: So you're collecting this, you're an equity investor, but you're collecting it like a bond. You get your coupon today, this year. So what does that coupon look like? For example, year one you could start with 7%, maybe even higher. And year two goes up, and year three, it goes up. So it begins to look like a predictable investment because it's so contractually built to be predictable. So you know, initial cash flow, you know, year two cash flow, year three, year four, year five. And then that increased NOI drives forced appreciation. Because in commercial real estate, the price of the asset is a function of net operating income. Mike Zlotnik [00:04:24]: You hear these fancy terms, cap rates. All the cap rates describe is what do you pay per dollar of income. The lower the cap rate, the higher the price per dollar of income. So as interest rates obviously impact cap rates, but in general, the structure itself grows. Niy, if interest rates don't do anything, they stay flat. You're still growing the value of the asset because the NOI is growing. That's a predictable structure. You see these structures in real estate quite a bit. Mike Zlotnik [00:04:50]: And I'll shut up for a second, let you chime in more questions because I can talk on this probably for hours. James Kademan [00:04:55]: No, that's awesome. That's awesome. It's interesting you mentioned real estate that's essentially large scale commercial. It sounds like you're talking manufacturing. Yes, this isn't just the small mom. Mike Zlotnik [00:05:06]: And pop house, it is a manufacturing facility quite often gets bought for $25 million. There are of course bigger projects, but the sweet spot is anywhere from, you know, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, $30 million small manufacturing. I'm not talking about AI data centers that are getting built for a billion dollars, not, not for that. James Kademan [00:05:29]: Okay. I guess, I think as you're talking here, I'm thinking south of me on the north way north of Chicago is Belvedere, Illinois, which has a car manufacturing plant that I think since I've been driving to and from Chicago every once in a while, I want to say that thing has changed hands four or five times. And that thing, that property, I don't know if it's necessarily one building, but that complex, it's probably the size of a small city. Sorry, it sounds like you're getting into stuff that big. Mike Zlotnik [00:06:04]: Not that big, but an example, we do have an asset in New Castle, Indiana, again, Midwest. And it's a, you know, it's called $25 million asset. It is a multi acre property and it produces stainless steel and it's been in that business and that location over 60 years. So that kind of a facility. All right, not a small city, but for that local town, it's a significant manufacturer and industrial facility. James Kademan [00:06:32]: Oh, I bet it's huge. And for something like that. Do you. I mentioned the equipment goes with the building. Just because it took so much to get that equipment in there, it's like an old pool table. To get it out is a big deal. Mike Zlotnik [00:06:45]: They end not moving so effectively you own real estate as an investor, but they've made so many tenant improvements themselves over the years for their own business, plus all the equipment, everything else. They're going to stay there, they're going to continue to.

Jessi Ricci  - New Life Greens On Being Present: "It's definitely life changing when you put your phone down for a meal." In the mad rush that is our world, we often take for granted some important things.  Some of those things are nutrition, flavor, time spent with friends enjoying a great meal.  Celebrating the gift of life that we have instead of just rushing through it. Jessi Ricci started New Life Greens, partly as a way to help people enjoy life.  In the food they eat and the people they share the experience with.  At only 19 years old, she is already a successful entrepreneur. In this inspiring conversation, Jessi Ricci opens up about how her dream of becoming an environmental science teacher at UW Madison took an unexpected detour when a part-time job at an aquaponic farm introduced her to the world of microgreens. From those first nervous meetings with chefs, armed with living trays of fresh greens, to building relationships with supportive mentors and her own family, Jessi Ricci reveals how authenticity, faith, and hustle fueled her success. Listen as Jessi details what she has learned and how she has made New Life Greens a success. Enjoy! Visit Jessi at: https://www.newlifegreensco.com/   Podcast Overview: 00:00 "Microgreens: Nutrient-Dense Seedlings" 06:43 "Helping Mike Sell Microgreens" 14:19 "Choosing Business Over College" 16:58 "Defying Expectations as a Woman" 23:29 "Smooth LLC Transition Thanks Mike" 28:12 "Back Door Delivery Reflections" 35:57 "Grateful for Restaurant Connections" 40:55 "Living an Unexpected Dream" 45:45 "Intentional Dining and Presence" 49:51 "Local Restaurants Embrace Teen's Microgreens" 54:07 Blind Tasting Microgreens Experience 01:02:04 "New Life Through Faith & Food" Sponsors: Live Video chat with our customers here with LiveSwitch: https://join.liveswitch.com/gfj3m6hnmguz Some videos have been recorded with Riverside: https://www.riverside.fm/?utm_campaign=campaign_5&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_source=rewardful&via=james-kademan Podcast Transcription: Jessi Ricci [00:00:00]: And I, like, came in with plants for them, like an alive plant and a cut plant. And I really do not feel like I'm pushy. I just really believe in my product, and I think it speaks for itself. Like, I don't need to talk to them. I can leave them these microgreens, and they speak for themselves. So I'll come in. Jessi Ricci [00:00:19]: And bring my price sheets and everything and a live tray of greens. Like an alive plant of greens, some cut product and. And talk to them. Just show it to them, have them eat it. And they're like, whoa, this is so flavorful. James Kademan [00:00:36]: You have found Authentic Business Adventures, the business program that brings you the struggle stories and triumphant successes of business owners across the land. Downloadable audio episodes can be found in the podcast link found at drawincustomers.com we are locally underwritten by the bank of Sun Prairie and today we are welcoming slash, preparing to learn from Jessi Ricci of New Life Greens. So, Jessi, how is it going today? Jessi Ricci [00:01:00]: I am doing great. How are you? James Kademan [00:01:02]: I am doing well. I'm in green. Jessi Ricci [00:01:04]: I know. I love that you're in green. I always wear green. James Kademan [00:01:07]: So you really. Jessi Ricci [00:01:08]: Yep. James Kademan [00:01:09]: That's cool. Is nature of the business. Right. Jessi Ricci [00:01:10]: But I love that you're in green, too. James Kademan [00:01:11]: Oh, thank you. Tell us the story. What is New Life Greens? Jessi Ricci [00:01:14]: Yeah. So New Life Greens is a microgreens farm based in Verona, Wisconsin, and we distribute just to the greater Madison area. And we focus on distribution to chefs, which is what kind of sets us apart. We grow specialty microgreens with chefs in mind. James Kademan [00:01:32]: All right, now I'm going to play dumb. Jessi Ricci [00:01:34]: Yeah. James Kademan [00:01:35]: Or maybe I am. Whatever. What is a microgreen? Jessi Ricci [00:01:38]: That's not dumb. I did not know what a microgreen before I started my business. So you. James Kademan [00:01:44]: Did you say when you started your business? Jessi Ricci [00:01:45]: No, before. I did not know before I started my business. James Kademan [00:01:49]: All right. Jessi Ricci [00:01:51]: Yeah. I still don't know. James Kademan [00:01:53]: These things just ship up and I sell them and. What? Jessi Ricci [00:01:56]: Yeah, yeah. The textbook definition of a microgreen is that it is a young seedling of an edible flower, vegetable or herb. So if you. Do you have a garden? James Kademan [00:02:08]: I'm going to say yes. But I mean, it's. Jessi Ricci [00:02:11]: Do you start your own plant starts or no, it's fine if you don't. James Kademan [00:02:15]: Tomatoes, you do Okay. I grow things that are very easy to grow. We're talking rhubarb, tomatoes, cucumbers, stuff that you could probably light the entire world on fire and they would still grow. Jessi Ricci [00:02:25]: Yes. James Kademan [00:02:26]: That's what my skill set is. Jessi Ricci [00:02:28]: It's funny that that's the vegetable that you said, because tomatoes are part of the nightshade family, so they actually are deadly in microgreen form. James Kademan [00:02:35]: Really? Jessi Ricci [00:02:36]: Yes, because they are. They like. Well, it's a whole thing. But basically, if you think of your garden and your plant starts, if you're starting like a pea pod or a cantaloupe or what's another one? Radishes, that little start, that's a couple inches, it's what is what is technically classified as a microgreen, just so it' easier to, like, envision. Usually they're like the size of a blade of grass. And since they are microgreen and they're harvested before they actually produce fruits and before they run out of nutrients in their seed and start using from the soil, they are extremely nutrient dense. So that's kind of the appeal from the consumer. But chefs really don't care about the nutrition. Jessi Ricci [00:03:15]: They just care that they are really beautiful. They're very colorful and flavorful. So they're a great way to garnish. So a lot of high end restaurants will garnish their dishes with them. But I do partner with some restaurants, like Settled Down Tavern, who puts it in a burger, or Youngblood who puts it on a hot dog. But typically they're used as more of like a fancy garnish. James Kademan [00:03:34]: All right. Jessi Ricci [00:03:35]: Yeah. James Kademan [00:03:35]: So how do you get into the microgreen business? Jessi Ricci [00:03:38]: Yeah, you know, I was trying to think of. I knew you probably would ask this, so I was trying to think of my answer for this, and it's really confusing. I mean, if you look back, because I started my business in high school. I'm 19 right now. So if you look back back in your high school, I'm sure, you know, it's totally a blur. And even though it was just a few years, for me, high school was totally a blur. I started my business kind of by accident in a way, actually. So all of high school, I always dreamed to go to UW Madison, be an environmental science teacher, or go to UW Madison. Jessi Ricci [00:04:15]: I said, go to UW Madison, be an environmental science teacher, be in the band. And so my whole high school was just. My whole high school career was filled with trying to accomplish that dream. So I was 4.0 student. I joined all the clubs. I was in band. I joined a sport just to make my application look better. And kind of like the final seal of that was me applying to be a youth apprentice my senior year to make my college application look better, which I did not go to college. Jessi Ricci [00:04:41]: I Don't know if you. I did. I would be in college right now. I would be in class right now. So I'm not there. Jessi Ricci [00:04:50]: Yeah. So everything I did was with that goal in mind. And the job in which I started my business out of was literally. I got the job because I wanted my application to look better. So I got a job at an aquaponic farm in Paoli, Wisconsin, which is definitely the up and booming little area near Madison, at Clean Fresh Food. And they provided an array of products to restaurants. When I started working for them, they only had one restaurant client, but it filled up, like, a third of their capacity. And so I started working there, and I was thinking, you know, this is kind of. Jessi Ricci [00:05:24]: They grow all year round, which is really environmentally friendly. So I was thinking, this will look so good on my application for UW Madison. I'm gonna be a part of this farm who has really great values. And I thought it would really set me apart. Little did I know. I mean, it set me apart so much that I'm not going there. Jessi Ricci [00:05:43]: Yeah. So this farm was the hub for my business. The owner of the farm, Mike Knight, helped me incubate my business. It all started out just with me. My dad always raised me to have, like, a strong work ethic, and so there wasn't that much work for me to do at the farm. There was one other. I had one other co worker and me, and it was just us two, and he worked in the mornings, and I worked, like, at the end of the school day, and so I never saw him. So I would show up to the greenhouse, unlock the door, and I was all alone, and I would just kind of find things to do, like organize or do whatever. Jessi Ricci [00:06:20]: But my dad, like, just knowing him, I could never sit down. I, like, when I was working, I was working, and I didn't have anyone watching over me, so. So I could have done whatever, but this, like, strong work ethic of mine ended up with me reaching out to the owner. And, I mean, I. I love this guy. He is like my business mentor. He's an amazing guy.

Carrie Stevens  - Fed Up Foods On the Knowing What it Takes to be Successful: "When you're setting up your business, you want to make it convenient for the customer, but also it needs to be convenient for us because if we can't maintain it then we're going to get burnt out and we can't sustain it." Thousands of pounds of produce goes to waste every year.  This is due to many things, often having nothing to do with the actual taste or health of the produce.  Sometimes it just isn't pretty enough.  So what can be done with all of this good food that should be consumed? Carrie Stevens has a farm, butchers animals to sell and recently purchased the business named, Fed Up Foods.  This is a business that takes less than pretty food and turns it into beautiful sauces, relishes and pickled produce. Fed Up Foods got its start in the local farmers markets, thanks to Wisconsin's pickle law. Carrie Stevens is building on that foundation to bring locally sourced, shelf-stable products—ranging from pickle relish and maple ginger beets to cranberry applesauce—to more retail shelves and customers. Discover the surprising details behind what it takes to buy and run a canned goods business, from PH testing and food safety to sourcing "imperfect" produce and managing labels and inspections. Listen as Carrie explains her journey and what she has learned from building her sustainable food businesses. Enjoy! Visit Carrie at:https://www.fedupfoodswi.com/   Podcast Overview: 00:00 Woman-Owned Artisanal Canned Goods 03:41 Pickle Business Journey and Growth 09:04 Pasture Management and Livestock Rotation 10:44 Horseback Observation Resolves Calf Issues 13:23 Wisconsin Food Finance Support 17:00 "Work to Eat Philosophy" 21:21 Pickling Process and Variations 22:58 "Imperfect Produce Solutions" 27:59 "Pickled Beets Worth the Effort" 30:04 "Lard Pigs, Not Lean" 32:04 "Food Business Quality Challenges" 35:50 "Product Testing & Process Authority" 40:27 Scaling Production with Co-Packer 43:41 Cost-Effective Labeling Challenges 46:33 Frozen Meat Storage Advice 50:26 "Balancing Business and Convenience" 53:47 Cranberries: Creative Uses and Recipes 55:03 "Podcast, Support, Share Sauce" Podcast Transcription: Carrie Stevens [00:00:00]: And I said, hey, why don't you try the cranberry sauce in there? Because, you know, muddled cherries kind of look like cranberries in the cranberry sauce. And I picked them up just that day from the Mr. Ayan Rousch from Roush Century Farms in central Wisconsin. He gave me a nice little tour of his cranberry farm. Organic cranberries. Fantastic. James Kademan [00:00:20]: Sounds like another podcast guest. Yeah. Yes. Carrie Stevens [00:00:22]: So, yeah, just a little cranberry sauce in your old fashioned. James Kademan [00:00:27]: How about that? Carrie Stevens [00:00:27]: Make it the rest of the way however you like, your favorite way. James Kademan [00:00:30]: Foreign. Authentic Business Adventures, the business program that brings you the struggle stories and triumphant successes of business owners across the land. Downloadable audio episodes can be found in the podcast link fundedrawincustomers.com we are locally underwritten by the bank of Sun Prairie and today we're welcoming slash preparing to learn from Carrie Stevens of Fed Up Foods. Carrie, I'm so freaking excited. We're talking about food, which is always good. Carrie Stevens [00:01:00]: Always good. James Kademan [00:01:01]: We're talking about pickles, which is always good. Carrie Stevens [00:01:02]: Absolutely. James Kademan [00:01:03]: And we're talking business. So I feel like we got the trifecta here. Carrie Stevens [00:01:06]: Yeah, absolutely. James Kademan [00:01:07]: How's it going today? Carrie Stevens [00:01:08]: Good, good. James Kademan [00:01:09]: All right, tell us the story. What is Fed Up Foods? Carrie Stevens [00:01:12]: So Fed Up Foods is a woman owned Wisconsin based artisanal canned goods company. So I purchased the business this past August. So I'm fairly new to it. However, it has been around for about five years. So it was started by a woman in central Wisconsin and her, her background, she was a produce buyer at the food co op and, and kind of different roles like that, very involved in the farmer's market and she saw a lot of produce going to waste and that was bothersome to her. Well, you know, and if you, we also own a farm, I'll talk about that more. But for a while I was getting produce from the grocery store, feeding it to our animals when it's, you know, there's a lot of beautiful produce, but you know, what happens to that produce after they can't sell it anymore. James Kademan [00:02:03]: So you would get the stuff that was blem essentially or just didn't look pretty. Carrie Stevens [00:02:07]: Yeah, or it was too, you know, I had been there for a couple weeks and it was okay, it was going mushy or whatever. James Kademan [00:02:14]: Pigs like it, humans don't love it. Carrie Stevens [00:02:15]: Right, all right. Yeah. And humans go, so, so anyways, what do you do with that, that produce as it's going bad or almost going bad and it's not selling? So the previous owner had started with Doing some home canning, home pickling. And in Wisconsin there's a pickle bill. So you can pickle at home and sell at farmers markets up to a certain dollar limit. James Kademan [00:02:40]: That's fairly new, right? Carrie Stevens [00:02:42]: You know, I don't know the, the history of it. James Kademan [00:02:44]: Okay. I mean last 10 years or something like that, I feel maybe, maybe. Carrie Stevens [00:02:49]: And then there's like there's the cottage baker law too. So that's a different one. Bakers, they can just bake in their house and sell. James Kademan [00:02:56]: Is there a limit like you can't for bakers? Carrie Stevens [00:02:58]: No, I don't, I, I do not believe so. But don't quote me on that. James Kademan [00:03:01]: Okay? Carrie Stevens [00:03:02]: Contact your lawyer for that. All right, fair. But for picklers canners there is a dollar limit. So Once you hit $5,000 in sales for the year, then for the year you flip over to not being under the pickle law. So the previous owner had grown, the business, passed the pickle law. So that means I now produce out of a commercial kitchen. I have all sorts of licenses and fun inspections. But that also means the product I'm producing is PH tested and I temp test everything so it is safe to consume. Carrie Stevens [00:03:41]: But that, so that started, she started from that under the pickle law, making it in our house, selling it at farmers markets and grew a business to where it's in retail stores, food co ops, kind of boutique stores or stores that specialize in local products. So shelf stable product that is taking a consumable product that is going to go bad and preserving it. So, so you can put it in your pantry and eat it when you get to it. So I purchased the business and have, am continuing the same recipes, getting restocked in the same stores, selling through website. We also sell it through our farm. So we have a customer base that purchases from our farm, so we sell through there too and just kind of looking at different new avenues as well. But it's been quite the learning experience we've started. My husband and I have started a business before but purchasing a business is a little different. Carrie Stevens [00:04:46]: So a lot of interesting learning but you know, good, bad and otherwise. Right. Some good things, some things that I'll change but it all is a good learning process. So, so it's been, been interesting and you know, little bumps through the, in the road. But you know, my husband keeps reminding me that one thing at a time and just it's. And it's going to take time. So with any, with anything it is going to take time to figure it out. I burnt a whole batch of pear sauce. Carrie Stevens [00:05:18]: And you burnt a whole. James Kademan [00:05:20]: How big is the whole batch? Are we talking a cauldron? Carrie Stevens [00:05:22]: Like a hundred? Some jars. James Kademan [00:05:24]: Well, that's a fair amount. Carrie Stevens [00:05:25]: That's a fair amount. Yeah. I mean, but my kids still like it, so. Hey. James Kademan [00:05:28]: Oh, well, there you go. Maybe it's a new product. Right? Carrie Stevens [00:05:30]: Burn. So white elephants at Christmas. Going to be fun. James Kademan [00:05:34]: If people drink Zima, they'll eat burnt pear sauce. Right? Carrie Stevens [00:05:38]: I mean, it's not totally burnt. It's just a little burnt. James Kademan [00:05:40]: All right. A little t. It's charcoal, right? Like, what is that, tequila? Carrie Stevens [00:05:43]: Like a zest of charcoal. James Kademan [00:05:47]: Tell me. So you have a farm that you butcher stuff at, right? Carrie Stevens [00:05:51]: Yeah. So we raised beef, cattle, pigs, chickens, chickens for meat and chickens for eggs and sell all direct to consumers. So we purchased the farm seven years ago, moved onto the farm. It'll be six years ago this fall and pre pandemic. So fall of 2019, we took our first steers to the butcher, sold to friends and family. And then when the pandemic hit, I said to my husband, and maybe I should have taken these words back, but I said, hey, I think we can sell this. And now we. So that was fall of 2019, when we took two steers into the butcher. Carrie Stevens [00:06:33]: Now we take anywhere from three to five steers into the butcher every month. And we do about 50 pigs a year. I did 450 meat chickens last year. I'm gonna double it this year. James Kademan [00:06:50]: Wow. Carrie Stevens [00:06:51]: Because I sold out in about two weeks. James Kademan [00:06:53]: Holy cow. Carrie Stevens [00:06:55]: Yeah.

Kevin Murphy  - Evolve Artist On the Value of Learning Art Beyond Making Art: "As an artist, you require more data. And so an education trains your subconscious mind to feed the data that you need to draw and paint, rather than just the stuff you need for survival." The power of art goes well beyond pictures, sculpture and music.  To simplify it down to the audio and visual alone is to miss the power that learning how to have an eye for art can offer you.  Knowing how to view the world from different angles to help you create a painting is just as useful to see the world from different angles to understand all manner of perspectives. Kevin Murphy draws thought provoking parallels between learning art and mastering other complex skills, exploring how our brains process visual information and how deliberate, foundational training opens doors not just in painting, but in any creative pursuit. You'll also hear inspiring stories of Evolve Artist students, from high school competitors to retirees, many of whom have gone on to find personal fulfillment and financial success through their art. Listen as Kevin explains how Evolve Artist systematizes the fundamentals of art to help you and other artists see the world and make it more beautiful. Enjoy! Visit Kevin at: https://www.instagram.com/evolveartist/ On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/evolveartist/   Podcast Overview: 00:00 Art Foundations and Skill Decay 10:00 "Subconscious Processing and Art" 11:02 "Understanding vs. Replicating Visuals" 19:34 "Foundations of Creating Poetry" 25:51 "Photoshop Pixel Tool Insight" 27:47 "Improving Color Accuracy Techniques" 34:24 Brush Types and Their Uses 38:49 "Quality Paints Worth the Cost" 45:41 Portrait Artist Opens a School 50:30 "Building a Frictionless Art School" 56:30 Mentorship Through Shared Experiences 01:03:33 "Knowing If It's Done" 01:04:10 "Painting Perfection and Consequences" 01:14:05 Authentic Business Adventures 01:19:04 "Gradual Pricing & Promotion" 01:22:18 Business Basics in the Program 01:30:56 "Corporate Structure Enables Success" 01:36:05 "ABA Art Site Launches" 01:37:10 "Appreciation and Positivity" Podcast Transcription:  

Cody Wiseman  - Wiseman Capital On the Caring for Your Investments: "I don't want to be driving by that in 15 years and seeing it's a dump." Investing in real estate has many benefits, but not all investors are created equal. Cody Wiseman started investing in real estate a few years ago.  Through his hard work and care he has built a portfolio, which is great.  the exciting thing is that he gets compliments from his tenants and neighbors for the work that he has done to the properties, to lift the neighborhoods to be nicer places to live.  Without necessarily raising rents.  Affordable luxury, is what he calls it. From the challenges of his very first property renovation, to the ambitious transformation of a rundown motel into affordable luxury apartments, Cody Wiseman shares the behind-the-scenes realities of real estate: sleepless nights, hard-earned lessons, and the creative hustle required to make deals work. Listeners will get an insider's look at how Cody Wiseman partners with local investors, the value of authentic networking—like the Madison Multifamily Meetup that he's grown into the Midwest's largest—and why hands-on leadership and a passionate team matter. Listen as Cody explains his philosophies on real estate investing and how you can apply them to your real estate investments as well. Enjoy! Visit Cody at: https://www.codywiseman.com/ https://Wisemancapitalgroup.com On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/codyewiseman/   Podcast Overview: 00:00 Wiseman Capital: Local Real Estate Partner 03:30 Real Estate Investment Journey 09:09 Getting Started in Real Estate 10:55 Multifamily Real Estate Networking Event 13:39 "Learning Multifamily & Passive Investing" 18:21 Delegating While Staying Hands-On 22:16 "Journey to Affordable Housing" 23:54 Personal Standards in Property Development 26:37 Community Impact and Urban Transformation 31:08 "Hidden Costs of Rent Explained" 35:00 Property Agreement Protects Long-Term Value 38:49 "Delays, Costs, and Waivers" 40:58 "Proving Creative, Affordable Housing" 45:56 Hardee's Worker Brings Joy 46:48 "Emily Sets Event's Tone" 50:19 "Authenticity in Business Partnerships" 52:49 Navigating Challenges with Confidence Podcast Transcription: Cody Wiseman [00:00:00]: Average rents in Madison, you know, 15, 1600 bucks. Our average rent is a little over a thousand bucks. James [00:00:04]: Wow. Cody Wiseman [00:00:05]: Brand new. I market it as affordable luxury. So people are like, what, what is that? How do you do? Well, let me tell you, we have all of the amenities that you're going to have with a brand new class a ground up deal in downtown Madison. Pool, pool, fitness co working areas, bike parking and storage, dog park, dog wash. James [00:00:30]: You have found authentic Business Adventures, the business program that brings you the struggle stories and triumphant successes of business owners across the land. Today we're welcoming slash, preparing to learn from Cody Wiseman of Wiseman Capital Group. So Cody, how's it going today? Cody Wiseman [00:00:45]: Excellent. Thank you so much James for having me. I'm excited to be here. It's a beautiful studio you have and so close to home. James [00:00:51]: Indeed. So nice. Tell me a story. What is Wiseman Capital Group? Cody Wiseman [00:00:55]: Yeah, so Wiseman Capital, I founded this company back in 2022 and so we're a real estate investing firm really focused in the greater Madison area, multifamily specific. So at the end of the day what it is is we partner with everyday people to invest in real estate together. So that's, that's the beautiful thing about it is a lot of times people are, hey, how do I invest in this building that I see getting put up in Madison or these apartment buildings? They think it's just a big investment firm or something like that. But Wiseman Capital is partnering just with everyday people, a lot of local Madison people,

Jacob Walter  - VP of Finance - Patriot Properties On the Property Management Conundrum: "We look really good when everybody's making money. You know, we're always the problem when they're not." The thing about investing is that the financial part is the important part.  It's all fun and games until you realize you aren't making money, or worse. This is where it pays, literally, to have a smart finance guy in your corner.  Jacob Walter is the VP of finance with Patriot Properties.  As the guy watching the money go in and out for themselves and clients, he is in charge of making sure the numbers are not in parenthesis in the wrong spots. Listen in as Jacob Walter shares his journey from college intern to finance executive, offering a behind-the-scenes look into the complexities of managing thousands of rental units, navigating the fast-paced real estate market, and building a team that can handle everything from apartment complexes to storage units. Whether you're an aspiring investor, experienced landlord, or simply curious about the business of property management, you'll hear plenty of candid advice, funny client stories, and hard-won lessons on scaling up in a competitive industry. Enjoy! Visit Jacob at: http://www.patriotpropertieswisconsin.com/ On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/patriotpropertieswi/   Podcast Overview: 00:00 "Client Forgot Their Property" 05:12 "Life Insurance: Niche Necessity" 08:30 Hiring Considerations for Job Roles 11:35 "Client Forgot Their Property" 13:24 Property Deals and Financing Insights 18:08 Madison's Rental Market Trends 20:52 Real Estate Rent Challenges 24:24 "Leaky Boiler Water Feature" 28:30 "Unrealistic Deal Evaluation" 31:01 Unit Maintenance and Value Maximization 35:19 Madison Property Repositioning Strategies 36:53 Tired of Property Management 41:37 Barrack-Style Madison Property Sold 43:49 Less Competition, Greater Opportunity 46:28 "First Deal Matters Most" 50:15 "Scaling Property Management Success" 53:26 Competition and Property Pricing Factors Podcast Transcription: Jacob Walter [00:00:00]: I do have a funny story. One of my clients, he, he left for, I believe like Italy or Greece or something. He was gone for like two, three weeks. That was right. You know, when he came back was like, right when we were sending out our monthly statements and he called me, he's like, Jacob, like, I forgot I had this property. I'm like, what do you, what do you mean? He's like, yeah, you just, you guys have been handling. I haven't had to worry about it. Nice to see that there's plenty of money in the account. Jacob Walter [00:00:23]: Like, this is great. This is exactly what I want. James Kademan [00:00:31]: Have found Authentic Business Adventures, the business program that brings you the struggle stories and triumphant successes of business owners across the land. Downloadable audio episodes can be found in the podcast link found@drawincustomers.com we are locally underwritten by the bank of Sun Prairie and today we're welcoming, preparing to learn from Jacob Walther, the VP of finance at Patriot Properties. Jacob, how's it going today? Jacob Walter [00:00:56]: I'm doing well, thank you. Thank you for having me. James Kademan [00:00:58]: Let's start with what is Patriot Properties? Jacob Walter [00:01:00]: Yeah, Patriot Properties, full service property management company. So we kind of joke around that if you can rent it, you know, we will manage it for you. We do. Obviously our bread and butter is multifamily. We do short term rentals. At one point we did camper van rentals. James Kademan [00:01:19]: Oh wow, you weren't joking. Jacob Walter [00:01:21]: Yeah, yeah, don't do that anymore. That was, that was an interesting time. But storage units, whatever you can rent, real estate wise, we can manage. James Kademan [00:01:32]: All right. And how long have you been with them? Jacob Walter [00:01:35]:

Tim Packer  - Tim Packer Art Academy On the Truth: "I mean the universities and colleges are failing them just miserably." We all remember being kids and making art of some kind.  Water colors, macaroni pictures, maybe even some Play-Doh creatures.  But did you ever think you could make a living from it?  Tim Packer realized he could. In this candid conversation, Tim Packer pulls back the curtain on the realities of the art world, busting myths about the "starving artist" and explaining why most universities and mainstream art advice miss the mark for artists hoping to make a living from their passion. He details how he leveraged both his artistic talent and business savvy to grow his own career, how he turned his mentorship of a young artist into a global success story, and how his experiences inspired him to launch his online academy to help others achieve the same. Listen as Tim explains how to enjoy what you do and make some good money doing it. Enjoy! Visit Tim at: https://www.timpackerartacademy.com/ On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/timpackerartacademy/   Podcast Overview: 00:00 Teaching Artists to Earn Income 07:56 "Regret, Art, and Helping Others" 12:25 Art Worlds: Villages and Markets 16:39 90s Limited Edition Print Boom 22:11 "Keys to Successful Art Sales" 30:03 "From Artist to Police Officer" 35:30 "Art, Auctions, and Breakthroughs" 39:44 "Keys to a Thriving Art Career" 43:29 "Creating Art You Truly Love" 52:39 "When to Pursue Art Full-Time" 54:13 "Turning Point in Career Success" 01:03:10 Artistic Process and Experimentation 01:04:04 Breaking Free from Comfort Zones 01:11:18 "Art, Critics, and Accessibility" 01:15:44 Art vs Commerce Priorities Podcast Transcription: Tim Packer [00:00:00]: I mean, my dream when I. Because I quit my job and walked away from my pension as a police officer when I was 40 to give this another try. My goal was if I could ever just make as much as what I would have made had I stayed and gone on pension, then it'll be a wash, right? Well, I far surpass that. But while I was in there, you know, just kind of and watching the sales go up and I was mentally crunching the numbers because this was November, and I thought, holy. Know what? I'm going to make over a quarter million dollars this year. As an artist. James Kademan [00:00:34]: You have found Authentic Business Adventures, the business program that brings you the struggle stories and triumphant successes of business owners across the land. Downloadable audio episodes can be found in the podcast link fund@drawincustomers.com we are locally underwritten by the bank of Sun Prairie Calls On Call, Extraordinary Answering Service, as well as the Bold Business Book. And today we're welcoming preparing to learn from Tim Packer of Tim Packer Art Academy. I'm excited we get to talk about art, Tim. So how are you feeling today, Tim? Tim Packer [00:01:04]: I'm feeling great. I'm excited to be here and thanks for having me on the podcast. James Kademan [00:01:08]: Yeah, I'm excited because I don't know if you know this or not, but I majored in graphic design. Tim Packer [00:01:13]: Oh, me too. James Kademan [00:01:14]: Way back when. I don't do anything with it now. And I just got back from Italy and it was interesting because I'm like, wait a second, I've actually painted and drawn this cathedral. Tim Packer [00:01:27]: Yeah. James Kademan [00:01:28]: And I just never knew where it was. Tim Packer [00:01:30]: Oh, this is going to be a lot of fun then, because there's going to be a lot of context on your end, and I'm sure you're going to have a lot of questions as well, which is cool. Yeah. James Kademan [00:01:37]: So let's start with the foundation. What is Tim Packer Art Academy? Tim Packer [00:01:41]: Okay. It's my online art academy. And there's a lot of, like, recorded courses where people pay just for a certain course.

Cole McCloskey  - The Electrician, Inc. On the Appreciating the People: "I don't know that it's necessarily a bad thing that we, as a society, in business, are adopting a culture of being appreciative and valuing people for more than just what they produce." Flip a switch, the lights come on.  Plug in your phone charger at night and your phone is ready to go when you wake up.  We take things like this for granted, but what does it take to make the lights turn on and the power to move through a house? Cole McCloskey, co-owner of The Electrician, Inc. shares with us what it takes to become one of the people that do what they can to make sure the lights can turn on the and the electricity can move through the right wires. The conversation goes beyond the nuts and bolts of working with electricity, delving into the challenges and rewards of starting a business, the importance of building trusted relationships in the trades, and the lessons learned from managing and growing a team from just a handful of employees to nearly one hundred. Cole opens up about the pivotal moment he became a partner at The Electrician Inc., why he believes in empowering team members rather than binding them with golden handcuffs, and how genuine appreciation and leadership can make all the difference in retaining good people. Listen as Cole explains his journey and how others can follow his path to become not only electricians, but entrepreneurs as well Enjoy! Visit Cole at: https://theelectricianinc.com/ On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theelectricianinc/   Podcast Overview: 00:00 From Construction to Electrician Journey 06:10 "From Apprentice to Entrepreneur" 08:17 Succession and Growth Strategy 12:13 Reluctant but Generous Mentorship 15:27 Organic Leads Build Relationships 18:43 "Freedom Over Golden Shackles" 20:01 Retaining Good Employees 25:03 "Code Exceptions and Missteps" 28:53 Journeyman vs. Master Licenses 29:54 Master Electrician: Skill vs. Integrity 33:38 Madison Electrician Training Insights 36:32 Electrical Practices and Misconceptions 42:13 Trusting and Empowering Others 44:36 Prioritize Valuing Top Performers 46:51 "Embracing Appreciation in Business" 50:16 Strategic Approach to Tough Conversations 54:23 Entrepreneur Stories & Electrician Insights Podcast Transcription: Cole McCloskey [00:00:00]: You do have to have a master electrician license to have your own business, because to have your own business to pull permits, you have to have a contractor's license. You have to have a master license to get the contractor license. So if that's a route someone wants to go, they do have to pass that exam. James Kademan [00:00:14]: So if they pass that test, then they have achieved master electrician status. Cole McCloskey [00:00:18]: Yeah, really above that, you can get into credentials for being an inspector if you want. The master exam is the first step towards that. If that's route you want to go. James Kademan [00:00:30]: You have found Authentic Business Adventures, the business program that brings you the struggle stories and triumphant successes of business owners across the land. We are locally underwritten by the bank of Sun Prairie and downloadable audio episodes can be found in the podcast link found at https://drawincustomers.com Today we're welcoming, preparing to learn from Cole McCluskey of the Electrician Inc. And we are talking construction, electrician, electricity, all the good stuff. So Cole, how is it going today? Cole McCloskey [00:00:59]: Going very well. Thank you for having me. James Kademan [00:01:00]: Let's talk about the foundation. What is the Electrician Inc.? Cole McCloskey [00:01:04]: So we are a full services electrical contractor. We do jobs large and small across all sectors from residential to commercial to industrial. We do also fire alarm and low voltage access control systems. So we cover a wide variety of the market in that w...

Isabelle Blaser  - Vet Receptionists On the State of the Veterinary Field: "I think it's just a nationwide thing. That vet hospitals are understaffed and overworked and they always need an extra set of hands." Pets are like family to a great majority of our population.  As living creatures, these pets need help.  Sometimes just a checkup, and sometimes something deeper, such as surgery.  Regardless of what they need, they are the animals we care about and so we want them to be taken care of. The world of veterinary medicine is a challenging one.  The volume of pets is increasing, the volume of veterinarians and technicians is decreasing.  The workload is simply too much for most people to bear for anything considered long term. But does it have to be this way? Isabelle Blaser is the incredible manager at Vet Receptionists, a company designed to lift much of the burden found in most veterinary clinics, by taking calls and helping reduce the workload of the overworked staff.  By doing this, Isabelle and her crew at Vet Receptionists are able to help their client's employees keep doing all they need to do, keep them sane and keep them happily employed. In this episode Isabelle shares the problems facing most veterinary clinics and the solutions that can turn a struggling practice into a place of happiness.  Though most veterinary clinics may not be struggling financially, mentally and culturally they are often a house of cards.  Many times without the doctors or clinic owners even knowing of the issues or demands being made on their team. Listen as Isabelle explains the need for improved customer service to allow your clients to be treated better, as well as your employees. Enjoy! Visit Isabelle at: https://vetreceptionists.com/ On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vetreceptionists/   Podcast Overview: 00:00 Supporting Overworked Vet Hospitals 04:20 Staffing Shortages and Owner Misunderstandings 08:15 Vets Avoiding Independent Practice 09:49 Veterinary Staff Experience Insights 13:12 Teamwork in Hospitals Explained 16:57 Veterinary Medicine: Broad, Demanding Expertise 19:31 Healing Through Puppy Care 23:08 "Clinic Growth and Staffing Strain" 28:08 General Practice Veterinary Hospital Size 29:58 Dominance of Market Software Leaders 34:05 "Veterinary Hiring Knowledge Test" Podcast Transcription: James Kademan [00:00:00]: What is Vet Receptionists? Isabelle Blaser [00:00:01]: Vet Receptionists is a remote reception service for veterinary hospitals. James Kademan [00:00:06]: Nice. Isabelle Blaser [00:00:07]: In short, that's. James Kademan [00:00:08]: That's cool. That's cool. Why is that important? Isabelle Blaser [00:00:11]: It's important because I'm sure you've been to a veterinary hospital sometime recently. The staff is more than you'd like to admit. I think it's just a nationwide thing that vet hospitals are understaffed and overworked and they always need an extra set of hands. That way they can take care of the patients that are in the hospital. Isabelle Blaser [00:00:29]: So that's where we come in. James Kademan [00:00:34]: You have found Authentic Business Adventures, the business program that brings you the struggle stories and triumphant successes of business owners across the land. Downloadable audio episodes can be found in the podcast link found@drawincustomers.com we are locally underwritten by the banks of Sun, Bank of Sun Prairie. Woof. Calls on Call, Extraordinary Answering Service as well as the Bold Business Book. And today we're welcoming, slash preparing to learn from Isabelle Blaser, at Vet Receptionists. So, Isabelle, how is it going today? Isabelle Blaser [00:01:04]: It is going just fabulous. How about yourself? James Kademan [00:01:07]: Sweet. It's going well. I'm excited. We're talking about veterinary receptionists. Let's just start there. What is Vet Receptionists? Isabelle Blaser [00:01:14]:

Allen Curran  - Curran Cabinetry and Design On the Knowing Your Users: "So if you have teenagers at home, it might come in really handy to be able to slow that down so they don't have the opportunity to slam things shut." We all live in homes with a few of the same types of rooms.  We all have kitchens, bathrooms, bedrooms and a place to do laundry and maybe even a place to hold stuff in the garage.  In almost all of these rooms we have cabinets.  That is where the similarities deviate. Cabinets can be made of a variety of materials, and styles.  How do you choose the best cabinets for your remodeling project. Allen Curran, owner of Curran Cabinetry and Design, knows a thing or two about cabinets.  He has been in the industry for years and has seen designs come and go and come back again. Listen as Allen explains the nuances of cabinets, the different design options and even the things you don't see, but you actually feel when using the cabinets.  It opens up a whole new world to making your house a much nicer home. Enjoy! Visit Lane at: https://currancabinetrydesign.com/ On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/curran.cabinetry.design/   Podcast Overview: 00:00 "Timeless Cabinet Color Choices" 04:00 "Architect Encounter on Flight" 09:45 Soft-Close Drawer and Door Features 12:17 Toolbox Over Kitchen Cabinets 14:46 Friendship, Friction, Sales Strategy 20:07 "Connecting with Amish Artisans" 22:55 "Helpful Advice From Retiree" 25:19 "Shop Machinery and Systems" 29:37 Local, Quality-Focused Service 33:07 "Custom Cabinets, Semi-Custom Pricing" 37:39 Muted Colors for Timeless Kitchens 39:17 Oak's Decline and Revival 42:38 "Microwave Drawers and Filtration Systems" 46:56 "Counter-Depth vs Full-Size Refrigerators" 49:43 Ethical Start in Remodeling Business 53:30 Modern Trends in Door Desgin 57:20 "Efficient Kitchen Showroom Design" Podcast Transcription: Allen Curran [00:00:00]: White or shades of white are still the most popular. Gray, blue, and green are the other options. And if you look at the blues and the greens, they will tend to have a shade of gray in them. And the reason for that is so much easier to decorate with other colors. If you wanted cobalt blue cabinetry, certainly we can do it. We offer all the Sherwin Williams paint colors as standard, different colors to choose from. But if you want cobalt blue, my biggest concern and first question is going to be how long before you get tired of that color? James Kademan [00:00:42]: You have found Authentic Business Adventures, the business program that brings you the struggle stories and triumphant successes of business owners across the land. Downloadable audio episodes can be found in the podcast link find@drawincustomers.com we are locally underwritten by the bank of Sun Prairie, and today we're welcoming, preparing to learn from Alan Curran of Curran Cabinetry and Design. I almost forgot the and design part. Allen Curran [00:01:06]: Perfect. James Kademan [00:01:07]: So, Alan, how is it going today? Allen Curran [00:01:09]: Today's going well. It's a beautiful sunny day. James Kademan [00:01:11]: Yeah. We're talking cabinetry here. Allen Curran [00:01:13]: We are. James Kademan [00:01:14]: So let's just start with the foundation. How do you get in the cabinetry business? Allen Curran [00:01:18]: Well, how I got into the cabinetry business is I applied for a job, having had experience selling to general contractors and found out a little bit later that I was the only one who applied and dressed in a suit. That's my claim to fame, is I wore a suit the right day. James Kademan [00:01:37]: You know, that is. That's funny. You say that side anecdote here. I'm hiring, I guess you've been doing some hiring. And I get people in Zoom meetings. You probably, I imagine, have people in person. Allen Curran [00:01:48]: A bit of both. James Kademan [00:01:49]:

Lane Kawaoka  - The Wealth Elevator On the Reaching Higher Wealth Floors: "For some people out there, above a few million dollars net worth, time is more valuable than money. It's not the pursuit of money anymore, but it's the pursuit of trading in the money for the experiences." One of the most important things to know when building your wealth is to use the tools that are available to you.  Interestingly, the tools available to you grow as your wealth increases.  This means you need to build your awareness of opportunities, as you build your wealth. Lane Kawaoka, founder of The Wealth Elevator and a seasoned real estate investor, helps build that awareness to educate people that are in wealth building mode. Lane started out like most of us, as a young worker-bee, blindly following the traditional path—working a W-2 job, saving up for a house, and living frugally.  Realizing he wanted more and more was out there, he moved to discovering the power of cash flow and passive income through real estate investing. Starting with a single rental property, Lane scaled his investment portfolio strategically and ultimately transitioned from hands-on property management to larger commercial deals and passive investments. Lane and James dive deep into the nuts and bolts of real estate, including how to evaluate a property with the rent-to-value ratio, why market selection and insider knowledge are critical, and how networking with the right crowd can redefine your investment trajectory. Lane breaks down key concepts like forced appreciation, the difference between Class A, B, and C properties, and the barriers to entry that can be both a curse and a blessing in the business. Listen as Lane explains the value of knowing what opportunities are available to you at the floor you are on in the wealth elevator. Enjoy! Visit Lane at: https://thewealthelevator.com/ On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thewealthelevator/   Podcast Overview: 00:00 Network Determines Success 08:15 Strategic Networking vs. Weekend Warriors 12:10 Real Estate Investment Strategies 20:33 Investing in Apartment Demand 26:26 Building Wealth Through Real Estate Investments 27:48 Scaling Passive Income Strategies 36:46 Contractor Reliance Challenges 38:32 AI's Impact on Workforce Polarization 47:42 Wealthy's Real Estate Strategy 50:53 "Wealth Strategy and Investment Growth" 59:19 Self-Reflection on Book Quality Podcast Transcription: Lane Kawaoka [00:00:00]: On a whim, I just got a. Got a property manager started to rent it out. And that was kind of where I got this taste of cash flow. And that was back in 2009, 2010. And when I mean the numbers, you look at this thing called the rent to value ratio, where you take the monthly rents divided by the purchase price. If that is not anywhere near 1% or higher, it's not going to work. You know, like, it might be a great place to live, great school district, but, you know, we're trying to find good rental properties that cash flow. And that was kind of why I started to buy these turnkey rentals. Lane Kawaoka [00:00:32]: Out in Birmingham, Atlanta, Indianapolis. James Kademan [00:00:41]: You have found Authentic Business Adventures, the business program that brings you the struggle stories and triumphant successes of business owners across the land. Downloadable audio episodes can be found in the podcast link found@drawincustomers.com we are locally underwritten by the bank of Sun Prairie Calls On Call, Extraordinary Answering Service, as well as the Bold Business Book. And today we're welcoming Slash, preparing to learn from Lane Kawaoka. I hope I did that. Okay, Lane of the wealth elevator. We're talking real estate investing here. So, Lane, how is it going today? Lane Kawaoka [00:01:13]: It's good. Aloha, everybody. Thanks for having me, James. James Kademan [00:01:16]: Yeah, thank you. I'm excited you're in Hawaii, but were you born and raised in Hawaii?

Ibrahim Mohmed  - Taja.ai On the Being Real: "The first element is you have to be authentic. So it's about what's authentic to you." The world of business gets moving with marketing, and marketing now happens via social media platforms.  These platforms love short form video, to keep our attention spans short and our eyes on the next ad, err, video. But creating short form videos from long format videos takes time.  Going through and editing down every bit of profound short video used to take hours.  But the ever present question now is, can AI do this? Ibrahim Mohmed founded Taja.ai to solve this problem.  A problem he was having with his marketing agency.  After building out Taja with his partner, he now offers a robust and useful platform to create video shorts, along with many other useful bits of content, in minutes, rather than hours.  Best of all, they aren't your minutes, the computer does the work and you can do other things. Listen as Ibrahim explains how the idea for Taja.ai came to him and his partner, how they built it, what they have learned and how they are continuously working on improving it. Enjoy! Visit Ibrahim at Taja.ai On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/growwithtaja/   Podcast Overview: 00:00 "Taj's AI-Driven Transformation Journey" 06:23 "Transitioning to Software Products" 08:25 "Emotional Creative Entrepreneurs" 11:37 "Shifting Focus: Diversifying Platforms" 16:29 "Becoming an Authentic Influencer" 17:23 Maximizing Watch Time for Platforms 23:25 College Connection Sparks Startup Venture 24:14 ChatGPT's Role in Agency Launch 29:43 Content Creation Tools and Scheduling 33:35 Streamlined Video Content Expansion 36:19 Improving AI-Generated Video Shorts 39:31 Automated Video and Blog Creation 42:06 "Video-Based System Advantage" Podcast Transcription: Ibrahim Mohmed [00:00:00]: The first thing is these algorithms care about watch time more than anything. And what watch time is essentially how long is someone watching your piece of content? And if the. The higher the watch time of your content is, the higher the algorithm will pick it up and showcase it to more people. Because it's signaling to the algorithm that as a result of your video, people are staying on the platform longer. And so as a result, these platforms can serve more ads, these people, and then that platforms make more money as a result. So watch time is huge. James Kademan [00:00:41]: You have found Authentic Business Adventures, the business program that brings you the struggle stories and strength and successes of business owners across the land. Downloadable audio episodes can be found in the podcast link funded drawincustomers.com we are locally underwritten by the bank of Sun Prairie Calls On Call Extraordinary Answering Service as well as the Bold Business Book. And today we're welcoming, preparing to learn from Ibrahim. Oh, my gosh, is it Mohammed Mohmed? Yep, Mohmed. All right. Founder of Taja. Let me try that again. We are welcoming Slash, preparing to learn from Ibrahim Momed, founder of Taja who. James Kademan [00:01:17]: I gotta say, Ibrahim, I'm excited because we were just talking about this before. We create shorts with this software. So we're talking about, or talking to the founder of a guy that's you, that created a product that we're actually using. So that's kind of monumental in our world. So I'm excited. So, Ibrahim, how is it going today? Ibrahim Mohmed [00:01:37]: No, thanks for having me on. Yeah, I'm happy to hear that you guys are using Taj actively. And my day's going well. Weeks going well. It's crazy that we're in September, but mid September, that is. But yeah, just trudging through and trying to end the year on a high note. James Kademan [00:01:54]: Yeah, fair. Tell me just a quick history. I know my experience with Taja, but I have no idea how old the software is or really how you got started. So let's start with how long have you been arou...

Michael Wedaa  - Augmentus Business Solutions On the Keeping the Details Correct: "If your address is your old business address with the Secretary of State or with the IRS or on one of the credit bureaus, there's an algorithm in a lot of banks that will give you an automatic denial." Money makes the world go 'round, and it does that by flowing.  Money in your business, money out to employees, vendors, investments, and the ever present tax-man. But what if you could shuffle your money a bit to be able to improve the flow to the good things to build your business and your net worth and reduced the amount going to the less than good things?  Would you want to learn how to reduce your tax burden, limit your liability and build your business credit?? The crazy thing is, a lot of these strategies are simple and effective.  The crazier thing is that many entrepreneurs don't know about them or feel they are too small for it to matter. It matters. Michael Wedaa is the owner of Augmentus Business Solutions.  Their purpose is to help businesses navigate the game of business to make and keep more money.  He understands the nuances and differences between things like LLCs, S-Corps, C-Corps, and how you want your different business entities to be structured. Listen as Michael goes into detail on business credit, taxes and business entity differences. Enjoy! Visit Michael at: https://www.augmentusinc.com On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/corp_llc_guru/   Podcast Overview: 00:00 Understanding Business Credit Types 07:23 "Ensuring Business Credit Readiness" 12:22 Boost Business Credit with Proper Address 18:05 Kid-Friendly Jobs and Saving Tips 22:51 Passive Income through Market Rent Strategy 31:32 Protecting Assets with Equity Liens 36:55 Strategic Lien Planning Explained 41:22 Real Estate Investing with Business Credit 46:18 Delaware Business Court Advantage 48:50 "Registered Agent Requirement for Businesses" 59:11 Asset Protection Through Liens 01:04:44 "Business Rogue: Advanced Corporation Hacks" Podcast Transcription: Michael Wedaa [00:00:00]: No, but, you know, business credit is what I wanted to talk about today. As you know, we focus on helping people get the most out of their corporation or llc. And one of the ways we help people do that is by helping them build business credit. And business credit is very different from personal credit. The rules are different. James Kademan [00:00:25]: You have found Authentic Business Adventures, the business program that brings you the struggle stories and and triumphant successes of business owners across the land. Downloadable audio episodes can be found in the podcast link found@drawincustomers.com we are locally underwritten by the bank of Sun Prairie Calls On Call, Extraordinary Answering Service, as well as the Bold Business book. And today we're welcoming Slash, preparing to learn from Michael Wedaa of Augmentus Business Solutions. And Michael, we're hitting a lot of things here. The business credit, I believe, is the main one. So let's just start out with what is business credit? Michael Wedaa [00:01:01]: Great. No, first off, James, it's great to spend some time with you again. It's been a while since we last. James Kademan [00:01:06]: Chatted, but it has, you know, it's funny. I'll just elude here a little bit. YouTube is moving into shorts and all that jazz because they're trying to compete with all the other social media things that have short videos. And so we just got fancy software, whatever to find shorts. And it's interesting because some interviews, you're like, yeah, there's a handful. And yours is like, ba, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam. All good stuff. So I'm so happy that we have you on here a second time because, well, good. James Kademan [00:01:34]: Now we get more content for the masses. Michael Wedaa [00:01:36]: Right? That's right. That's right. No, but, you know,

Tracy Anderson  - Big Brother Big Sisters of Dane County On the Value of Being a Mentor to a Kid: "When you spend time with a child, it's shown to prove that they'll likely go to college when they grow up or have a better paying job or not partake in violence, alcohol or drugs." As entrepreneurs, we strive to do our best every day.  We push and drag ourselves, our employees, our clients and our vendors to join us in growing our business.  We do all of this for many reasons, but for many of us, that reason is based on two words, Growth and Freedom. What is interesting is that not everyone has that mindset, or has even had the opportunity to be exposed to that mindset.  Not everyone knows that you can do and be better.  Some people simply have not been shown all of the opportunity they really have. That is one of the reasons I became a Big, with Big Brothers Big Sisters and why we are lucky to have Tracy Anderson, of BBBS Dane County in Madison, Wisconsin to chat with us about the difference a mentor can make. Tracy explains what all Big Brothers Big Sisters does for kids, adults, the community and society at large.  All of this rolling around the idea of people sharing time, experience and ideas with each other, thinly veiled as just having fun hanging out. If you have ever wondered how you could make a difference in the world, as a way to show gratitude for the success you have achieved, I'd highly suggest becoming a Big. Listen as Tracy explains what it takes to be a Big and the challenges Big Brothers Big Sisters has continued to overcome, just like any business.  Often success can be measured by a bank account, more importantly, it can be measured in smiles and expanding the opportunity that you were lucky enough to learn about. Enjoy! Visit Tracy at: https://www.bbbsmadison.org/   Podcast Overview: 00:00 Building Birdhouses and Life Lessons 03:59 Mentoring Program: One-on-One Impact 07:04 "Child Signup Process Overview" 12:07 Revamping Recruitment Post-COVID 14:58 Interview Process for Kids and Bigs 18:14 Event Hub: Free, Discounted Activities 21:27 Unbreakable Bonds Through Mentorship 23:50 Podcast vs. Gaming Popularity Dilemma 28:31 "Community Outreach & Partnerships" 31:03 Economic Uncertainty Hits Spending 34:54 Dane County Scavenger Hunt Adventure 36:56 Team Roles: Fundraising and Missions 38:58 Mission-Based Team Challenges 44:43 "Team Building and Mission Alignment" 47:46 Transformative Experience Perspective 48:44 Mentorship Boosts Future Earnings 54:38 "Girls on the Run Program" 57:52 Local Giving Transparency in Madison Podcast Transcription: Tracy Anderson [00:00:00]: So it's a one to one mentoring program. So it's all about spending that one on one time. It truly makes a difference. And when you spend time with a child, we create new matches, ages 6 to 13. Another great reason why mentorship works. I mean, you're getting out of a different environment and you're being asked to do things that you know are going to help you when you become an adult. James Kademan [00:00:34]: You have found authentic Business Adventures, the business program that brings you the struggle stories and triumphant successes of business owners across the land. We are locally interwritten by the bank of Sun Prairie. Downloadable audio episodes can be found in the podcast link fund@drawincustomers.com and today we're welcoming, preparing to learn from Tracy Anderson of Big Brothers, Big Sisters of Dane County. So, Tracy, how is it going today? Tracy Anderson [00:00:58]: Good, good. James Kademan [00:00:59]: I'm excited for you to be here. Tracy Anderson [00:01:00]: Thank you. James Kademan [00:01:01]: I've been a big. I guess I'm not technically a Big anymore, but I was a Big with Danny. We got connected when he was 11. Tracy Anderson [00:01:08]: Okay. James Kademan [00:01:08]: So it's like I said, is almost forever. It's been a while.

Therese Merkel - Tricky Foods On the the Goal of Being a Business OWNER and not a Business OPERATOR: "How do I build a machine that works without me so that I can still be involved in this business, but I'm not the one working Friday, Saturdays and weekends?" The food business can be tricky.  You've got health codes to deal with, so people don't get sick.  You've got the whole issue of spoilage, so you need to keep product moving.  Then you've got the fluctuating prices of your ingredients.  Add in the challenges of employees, and property and customers and different tastes and you have a very challenging business. That is why it is so incredible to chat with people like Therese Merkel, of Tricky Foods. Therese Merkel always loved cooking and has brought that passion to her charcuterie board business for Madison, Wisconsin (soon the world) visitors to love. Therese's journey from a traditional tech career at Epic to building a thriving cheese and charcuterie business is filled with twists, hustle, and a whole lot of Wisconsin pride. She shares how she turned her culinary passion, and a timely Instagram trend, into a storefront that's more than just a stop for cheese boards.  She added a wine and beer bar, event space, and catering hub that celebrates all things local. In this candid conversation, Therese opens up about the highs and lows of entrepreneurship, from bootstrapping her business with just $10,000, to navigating Madison's real estate market, negotiating everything from kitchen rent to employee wages, and learning how to build systems that let her step back from day-to-day service and focus on expansion. She discusses the inspiration behind launching shippable charcuterie boards using Wisconsin cheeses, the powerful impact of authentic social media marketing, and the ongoing challenge of scaling up while keeping her signature brand of creativity and local spirit. Listen as Therese explains how she used her persistence, skills, and a bit of luck along with her incredible wit and charm to get things done in such a blisteringly fast way it must be heard from her to be believed.  Therese is nothing less than amazing and you will be inspired after just listening to her tell the tales. Enjoy! Visit Therese at: https://www.notsotrickyfoods.com/   Podcast Overview: 00:00 Driven by Money, Not Passion 08:51 Considering Investing in a Storefront 13:36 Unexpected Offer for Dream Space 19:30 Adjusting Business Hours 24:38 Indifferent Sports Parent 28:28 Madison's New Entrepreneurship Hub 34:05 First Experience with Delegation 41:51 Creative Holiday Charcuterie Artists 43:32 Navigating Bureaucracy for Permits 49:29 Prioritize Engagement Over Acquisition 55:55 "Profitable Meat Shipping Realization" Podcast Transcription: Therese Merkel [00:00:00]: Opposed to using. As opposed to using like Harry and David or like 1-800-FLOWERS. They can support a local company and shippable boards that only uses Wisconsin cheeses. And we're from Wisconsin. It just feels like a good way. It. It's serendipitous with like, my feel on community and supporting local and like the. The local economy. Therese Merkel [00:00:19]: Here. James Kademan [00:00:28]: You have found Authentic Business Adventures, the business program that brings you the struggle stories and triumphant successes of business owners across the land. Downloadable audio episodes can be found in the podcast link fund@drawincustomers.com we are locally underwritten by the bank of Sun Prairie, and today we're welcoming, preparing to learn from Therese Merkel of Tricky Foods. We're talking foods today, so that's always a good thing. How's it going today? Therese Merkel [00:00:54]: It's going good. Yeah. Nothing really crazy going on such a sweet podcast. James Kademan [00:01:00]: I know, right? Therese Merkel [00:01:01]: You're right. This is probably the most exciting thing I've done today.

Danielle Burken - Danielle Burken Marketing On the How Marketing with Human Design Helps Your Business: "You're attracting the clients that you want to work with because you are showing up as the version of yourself that really trusts in the work that you're doing." We all have a voice.  In marketing our business, we often try to sugarcoat or use an inauthentic voice that may not really align with us.  Or really even sound anything like us. If you've ever wondered how to find greater alignment in your work, or felt frustrated by “cookie-cutter” marketing formulas that just don't fit for your personality, you won't want to miss this conversation. Danielle shares how she went from running a successful food blog to managing a marketing agency, and ultimately discovered the power of applying human design—a system based on your birth details—to help entrepreneurs market and run their businesses in a way that genuinely feels right for them. James and Danielle dive deep into what human design is, how it differs from traditional personality tests, and why knowing your own design can clear the noise and confusion so common in the modern marketing world. Danielle offers up real-life stories from her own journey and client work, discussing the challenges of entrepreneurship, the importance of authenticity, and even the tough conversations she faced when leaving her day job to take the leap into business ownership. Listen as Danielle explains how using Human Design can be a great way to bring your own voice into your marketing for your business. Enjoy! Visit Danielle at: https://www.danielleburken.com/   Podcast Overview: 00:00 Personalized Business Marketing Strategy 07:14 Journey from Blogger to Marketer 13:24 Human Design Holistic Wellness Success 17:06 Human Design: Understanding Your Type 24:33 "Understanding Human Design Differences" 27:20 Clarity Through Actionable Planning 36:53 "Human Design Marketing Strategy Shift" 38:16 Aligning Content with Human Design 46:23 "Attracting Genuine Marketing Enthusiasts" 52:14 Authentic Marketing through Collaboration 57:10 Entrepreneurial Loneliness and Accountability 01:03:04 Pursuing Side Business Dreams 01:05:31 Pursuing Passion Beyond Stability Podcast Transcription: Danielle Burken [00:00:00]: I do everything through the lens of human design. So for audience members who haven't heard about human design before, it is a tool similar to, let's say, Enneagram, disc assessment, Myers Briggs, those personality type tests. However, this goes a layer deeper because it's based on your birth date and time. And when we apply it to marketing, business becomes so much easier. James Kademan [00:00:28]: Oh well, easy business is best. You have found Authentic Business Adventures, the business program that brings you the struggle stories and triumphant successes of business owners across the land. We are locally underwritten by the bank of Sun Prairie. Downloadable audio episodes can be found in the podcast link fun@drawincustomers.com and today we're welcoming preparing to learn from Daniel Burken of Daniel Burken Marketing. So Daniel, how is it going today? Danielle Burken [00:01:02]: I'm good, how are you? James Kademan [00:01:03]: I am excited because I was poking around your website. Danielle Burken [00:01:07]: Yeah. James Kademan [00:01:07]: And you do marketing, but it, it goes a little deeper than that. Danielle Burken [00:01:10]: It does a lot deeper. I do everything through the lens of human design. So. James Kademan [00:01:15]: Okay. Danielle Burken [00:01:16]: For audience members who haven't heard about human design before, it is a tool similar to, let's say, Enneagram Disc Assessment, Myers Briggs, those personality typ tests. However, this goes a layer deeper because it's based on your birth date and time. So it's not answering any questions which I feel can sometimes skew your results.