Podcasts about Cost plus

On this episode of Crazy Wisdom, I, Stewart Alsop, sit down with Gabe Dominocielo, co-founder of Umbra, a space tech company revolutionizing satellite imagery. We discuss the rapid advancements in space-based observation, the economics driving the industry, and how AI intersects with satellite data. Gabe shares insights on government contracting, defense applications, and the shift toward cost-minus procurement models. We also explore the broader implications of satellite technology—from hedge funds analyzing parking lots to wildfire response efforts. Check out more about Gabe and Umbra at umbraspace.com (https://umbraspace.com), and don't miss their open data archive for high-resolution satellite imagery.Check out this GPT we trained on the conversation!Timestamps00:00 Introduction to the Crazy Wisdom Podcast00:05 Gabe's Background and Umbra's Mission00:34 The Story Behind 'Come and Take It'01:32 Space Technology and Cost Plus Contracts03:28 The Impact of Elon Musk and SpaceX05:16 Umbra's Business Model and Profitability07:28 Challenges in the Satellite Business11:45 Investors and Funding Journey19:31 Space Business Landscape and Future Prospects23:09 Defense and Regulatory Challenges in Space31:06 Practical Applications of Satellite Data33:16 Unexpected Wealth and Autistic Curiosity33:49 Beet Farming and Data Insights35:09 Philosophy in Business Strategy38:56 Empathy and Investor Relations43:00 Raising Capital: Strategies and Challenges44:56 The Sovereignty Game vs. Venture Game51:12 Concluding Thoughts and Contact Information52:57 The Treasure Hunt and AI DependenciesKey InsightsThe Shift from Cost-Plus to Cost-Minus in Government Contracting – Historically, aerospace and defense contracts operated under a cost-plus model, where companies were reimbursed for expenses with a guaranteed profit. Gabe explains how the shift toward cost-minus (firm-fixed pricing) is driving efficiency and competition in the industry, much like how SpaceX drastically reduced launch costs by offering services instead of relying on bloated government contracts.Satellite Imagery Has Become a Crucial Tool for Businesses – Beyond traditional defense and intelligence applications, high-resolution satellite imagery is now a critical asset for hedge funds, investors, and commercial enterprises. Gabe describes how firms use satellite data to analyze parking lots, monitor supply chains, and even track cryptocurrency mining activity based on power line sagging and cooling fan usage on data centers.Space Technology is More Business-Driven Than Space-Driven – While many assume space startups are driven by a passion for exploration, Umbra's success is rooted in strong business fundamentals. Gabe emphasizes that their focus is on unit economics, supply-demand balance, and creating a profitable company rather than simply innovating for the sake of technology.China's Growing Presence in Space and Regulatory Challenges – Gabe raises concerns about China's aggressive approach to space, noting that they often ignore international agreements and regulations. Meanwhile, American companies face significant bureaucratic hurdles, sometimes spending millions just to navigate licensing and compliance. He argues that unleashing American innovation by reducing regulatory friction is essential to maintaining leadership in the space industry.Profitability is the Ultimate Measure of Success – Unlike many venture-backed space startups that focus on hype, Umbra has prioritized profitability, making it one of the few successful Earth observation companies. Gabe contrasts this with competitors who raised massive sums, spent excessively, and ultimately failed because they weren't built on sustainable business models.Satellite Technology is Revolutionizing Disaster Response – One of the most impactful uses of Umbra's satellite imagery has been in wildfire response. By capturing images through smoke and clouds, their data was instrumental in mapping wildfires in Los Angeles. They even made this data freely available, helping emergency responders and news organizations better understand the crisis.Philosophy and Business Strategy Go Hand in Hand – Gabe highlights how strategic thinking and philosophical principles guide decision-making in business. Whether it's understanding investor motivations, handling conflicts with empathy, or ensuring a company can sustain itself for decades rather than chasing short-term wins, having a strong philosophical foundation is key to long-term success.

Fixed price contracts work great for cookie-cutter homes and simple builds. But unique architectural projects demand a different approach. Award-winning builder Stephen Mellinger shares his proven “cost-plus strategy” that's transformed his high-end residential construction business. In this detailed episode of The Builders Ladder Podcast, Stephen reveals his exact approach to cost-plus contracts, including: The deposit approach that protects your final payment and maintains a positive cash flow in your building business A practical way to structure project management fees The powerful alternative to “variations” that maintains better client relationships A transparent invoicing system that builds trust while protecting margins Stephen also shares critical insights on avoiding legal pitfalls, and why quantity surveyors are essential for million-dollar-plus projects. Key moments: 00:02:15 - Types of projects best suited for cost plus00:04:35 - Handling admin and project management fees00:07:55 - How to structure payment claims and frequency00:13:35 - Managing deposits and final payments00:15:35 - How to handle margin transparency00:21:15 - Including contingencies in labour rates00:31:15 - Avoiding legal pitfalls and misrepresentation00:33:15 - The importance of quantity surveyor estimates Whether you're currently handling complex residential projects or considering your first cost-plus contract, this episode provides a practical roadmap for implementation. Stephen even shares specific strategies for maintaining margins while building trust with premium clients. - Our construction business coaching has helped 2,500+ building companies succeed. Subscribe to The Builder’s Ladder Podcast for weekly, actionable insights — tailored to help you grow a profitable construction business. Follow TPB for more:

This week Tyler delves into the intricacies of cost-plus contracting, exploring the management of general conditions, the distinction between overhead and project-specific costs, and the strategic use of market rates versus fully burdened rates to ensure transparent and fair pricing for clients. The Modern Craftsman: linktr.ee/moderncraftsmanpodcast Find Our Hosts:  Tyler Grace  Podcast Produced By: Motif Media Tyler's Top Blogs: How I Started My Business Books that Build Site Protection Principles My Preconstruction Process: Part 1 Becoming Proficient in Multiple Trades

Developer Peter Lewis pulls back the curtain and talks about the blockbuster deal to sell the 81-unit Soltara Apartments in downtown Santa Barbara to UCSB. Lewis explains how the deal went down and why it was necessary to do so. He also talks about State Street housing, downtown, commercial conversions, and the Cost Plus World Market. Joshua Molina is a journalist, college professor and podcaster who creates dynamic conversations on housing, education, transportation, business, culture and the issues of the day with community leaders and personalities. Visit www.santabarbaratalks.com to make a financial contribution to support this independently owned podcast. Also subscribe to IG @motownjoshnews

American healthcare is well known for its extreme cost and worst outcomes among industrialized (such as the 38 OECD member) countries, and beyond that to be remarkably opaque. The high cost of prescription drugs contributes, and little has been done to change that except for the government passing the Affordable Insulin Now Act at the end of 2022, enacted in 2023. But in January 2022 Mark Cuban launched Cost Plus Drugs that has transformed how many Americans can get their prescriptions filled at a fraction of the prevailing prices, bypassing pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) that control 80% of US prescriptions. That was just the beginning of a path of creative destruction (disruptive innovation, after Schumpeter) of many key components American healthcare that Cuban is leading, with Cost Plus Marketplace, Cost Plus Wellness and much more to come. He certainly qualifies as a master disrupter: “someone who is a leader in innovation and is not afraid to challenge the status quo.” Below is a video clip from our conversation dealing with insurance companies. Full videos of all Ground Truths podcasts can be seen on YouTube here. The current one is here. If you like the YouTube format, please subscribe! The audios are also available on Apple and Spotify.Transcript with External links to Audio (00:07):Hello, it's Eric Topol with Ground Truths, and I have our special phenomenal guest today, Mark Cuban, who I think you know him from his tech world contributions and Dallas Mavericks, and the last few years he's been shaking up healthcare with Cost Plus Drugs. So Mark, welcome.Mark Cuban (00:25):Thanks for having me, Eric.Eric Topol (00:27):Yeah, I mean, what you're doing, you've become a hero to millions of Americans getting them their medications at a fraction of the cost they're used to. And you are really challenging the PBM industry, which I've delved into more than ever, just in prep for our conversation. It's just amazing what this group of companies, namely the three big three CVS Caremark, Optum of UnitedHealth and Express Scripts of Cigna with a market of almost $600 billion this year, what they're doing, how can they get away with all this stuff?Inner Workings of Pharmacy Benefit ManagersMark Cuban (01:03):I mean, they're just doing business. I really don't blame them. I blame the people who contract with them. All the companies, particularly the bigger companies, the self-insured companies, where the CEO really doesn't have an understanding of their healthcare or pharmacy benefits. And so, the big PBMs paid them rebates, which they think is great if you're a CEO, when in reality it's really just a loan against the money spent by your sickest employees, and they just don't understand that. So a big part of my time these days is going to CEOs and sitting with them and explaining to them that you're getting ripped off on both your pharmacy and your healthcare side.Eric Topol (01:47):Yeah, it's amazing to me the many ways that they get away with this. I mean, they make companies sign NDAs. They're addicted to rebates. They have all sorts of ways a channel of funds to themselves. I mean, all the things you could think of whereby they even have these GPOs. Each of these companies has a group purchasing organization (I summarized in the Table below).Mark Cuban (02:12):Yeah, which gives them, it's crazy because with those GPOs. The GPO does the deal with the pharmacy manufacturer. Then the GPO also does the deal with the PBM, and then the PBM goes to the self-insured employer in particular and says, hey, we're going to pass through all the rebates. But what they don't say is they've already skimmed off 5%, 10%, 20% or more off the top through their GPO. But that's not even the worst of it. That's just money, right? I mean, that's important, but I mean, even the biggest companies rarely own their own claims data.Mark Cuban (02:45):Now think about what that means. It means you can't get smarter about the wellness of your employees and their families. You want to figure out the best way to do GLP-1s and figure out how to reduce diabetes, whatever it may be. You don't have that claims data. And then they don't allow the companies to control their own formularies. So we've seen Humira biosimilars come out and the big PBMs have done their own version of the biosimilar where we have a product called Yusimry, which is only $594 a month, which is cheaper than the cheapest biosimilar that the big three are selling. And so, you would think in a normal relationship, they would want to bring on this new product to help the employer. No, they won't do it. If the employer asks, can I just add Cost Plus Drugs to my network? They'll say no, every single time.Mark Cuban (03:45):Their job is not to save the employer money, particularly after they've given a rebate. Because once they give that loan, that rebate to the employer, they need to get that money back. It's not a gift. It's a loan and they need to have the rebates, and we don't do rebates with them at all. And I can go down the list. They don't control the formula. They don't control, you mentioned the NDAs. They can't talk to manufacturers, so they can't go to Novo or to Lilly and say, let's put together a GLP-1 wellness program. All these different things that just are common sense. It's not happening. And so, the good news is when I walk into these companies that self-insured and talk to the CEO or CFO, I'm not asking them to do something that's not in their best interest or not in the best interest of the lives they cover. I'm saying, we can save you money and you can improve the wellness of your employees and their families. Where's the downside?Eric Topol (04:40):Oh, yeah. Yeah. And the reason they can't see the claims is because of the privacy issues?Mark Cuban (04:46):No, no. That's just a business decision in the contract that the PBMs have made. You can go and ask. I mean, you have every right to your own claims. You don't need to have it personally identified. You want to find out how many people have GLP-1s or what are the trends, or God forbid there's another Purdue Pharma thing going on, and someone prescribing lots of opioids. You want to be able to see those things, but they won't do it. And that's only on the sponsor side. It's almost as bad if not worse on the manufacturer side.Eric Topol (05:20):Oh, yeah. Well, some of the work of PBMs that you've been talking about were well chronicled in the New York Times, a couple of major articles by Reed Abelson and Rebecca Robbins: The Opaque Industry Secretly Inflating Prices for Prescription Drugs and The Powerful Companies Driving Local Drugstores Out of Business. We'll link those because I think some people are not aware of all the things that are going on in the background.Mark Cuban (05:39):You see in their study and what they reported on the big PBMs, it's crazy the way it works. And literally if there was transparency, like Cost Plus offers, the cost of medications across the country could come down 20%, 30% or more.Cost Plus DrugsEric Topol (05:55):Oh, I mean, it is amazing, really. And now let's get into Cost Plus. I know that a radiologist, Alex Oshmyansky contacted you with a cold email a little over three years ago, and you formed Cost Plus Drugs on the basis of that, right?Mark Cuban (06:12):Yep, that's exactly what happened.Eric Topol (06:15):I give you credit for responding to cold emails and coming up with a brilliant idea with this and getting behind it and putting your name behind it. And what you've done, so you started out with something like 110 generics and now you're up well over 1,200 or 2,500 or something like that?Mark Cuban (06:30):And adding brands. And so, started with 111. Now we're around 2,500 and trying to grow it every single day. And not only that, just to give people an overview. When you go to www.costplusdrugs.com and you put in the name of your medication, let's just say it's tadalafil, and if it comes up. In this case, it will. It'll show you our actual cost, and then we just mark it up 15%. It's the same markup for everybody, and if you want it, we'll have a pharmacist check it. And so, that's a $5 fee. And then if you want ship to mail order, it's $5 for shipping. And if you want to use our pharmacy network, then we can connect you there and you can just pick it up at a local pharmacy.Eric Topol (07:10):Yeah, no, it's transparency. We don't have a lot of that in healthcare in America, right?Mark Cuban (07:15):No. And literally, Eric, the smartest thing that we did, and we didn't expect this, it's always the law of unintended consequences. The smartest thing we did was publish our entire price list because that allowed any company, any sponsor, CMS, researchers to compare our prices to what others were already paying. And we've seen studies come out saying, for this X number of urology drugs, CMS would save $3.6 billion a year. For this number of heart drugs at this amount per year, for chemotherapy drugs or MS drugs this amount. And so, it's really brought attention to the fact that for what PBMs call specialty drugs, whether there's nothing special about them, we can save people a lot of money.Eric Topol (08:01):It's phenomenal. As a cardiologist, I looked up a couple of the drugs that I'm most frequently prescribed, just like Rosuvastatin what went down from $134 to $5.67 cents or Valsartan it went down from $69 to $7.40 cents. But of course, there's some that are much more dramatic, like as you mentioned, whether it's drugs for multiple sclerosis, the prostate cancer. I mean, some of these are just thousands and thousands of dollars per month that are saved, brought down to levels that you wouldn't think would even be conceivable. And this has been zero marketing, right?Mark Cuban (08:42):Yeah, none. It's all been word of mouth and my big mouth, of course. Going out there and doing interviews like this and going to major media, but it's amazing. We get emails and letters and people coming up to us almost single day saying, you saved my grandma's life. You saved my life. We weren't going to be able to afford our imatinib or our MS medication. And it went from being quoted $2,000 a month to $33 a month. It's just insane things like that that are still happening.Eric Topol (09:11):Well, this is certainly one of the biggest shakeups to occur in US healthcare in years. And what you've done in three years is just extraordinary. This healthcare in this country is with its over 4 trillion, pushing $5 trillion a year of expenditure.[New CMS report this week pegs the number at $4.867 trillion for 2023]Mark Cuban (09:30):It's interesting. I think it's really fixable. This has been the easiest industry to the disrupt I've ever been involved in. And it's not even close because all it took was transparency and not jacking up margins to market. We choose to use a fixed margin markup. Some choose to price to market, the Martin Shkreli approach, if you will. And just by being transparent, we've had an impact. And the other side of it is, it's the same concept on the healthcare side. Transparency helps, but to go a little field of pharmacy if you want. The insane part, and this applies to care and pharmacy, whatever plan we have, whether it's for health or whether it's for pharmaceuticals, there's typically a deductible, typically a copay, and typically a co-insurance.Insurance CompaniesMark Cuban (10:20):The crazy part of all that is that people taking the default risk, the credit risk are the providers. It's you, it's the hospital, it's the clinics that you work for. Which makes no sense whatsoever that the decisions that you or I make for our personal insurance or for the companies we run, or if we work for the government, what we do with Medicare or Medicare Advantage, the decisions we all make impacts the viability of providers starting with the biggest hospital systems. And so, as a result, they become subprime lenders without a car or a house to go after if they can't collect. And so, now you see a bunch of people, particularly those under the ACA with the $9,000, the bronze plans or $18,000 out-of-pocket limits go into debt, significant medical debt. And it's unfortunate. We look at the people who are facing these problems and think, well, it must be the insurance companies.Mark Cuban (11:23):It's actually not even the insurance companies. It's the overall design of the system. But underneath that, it's still whoever picks the insurance companies and sets plans that allow those deductibles, that's the core of the problem. And until we get to a system where the providers aren't responsible for the credit for defaults and dealing with all that credit risk, it's almost going to be impossible to change. Because when you see stories like we've all seen in news of a big healthcare, a BUCA healthcare (Blue Cross Blue Shield (BCBS), UnitedHealth, Cigna, and Aetna/CVS) plan with all the pre-authorizations and denials, typically they're not even taking the insurance risk. They're acting as the TPA (third party administrator) as the claims processor effectively for whoever hired them. And it goes back again, just like I talked about before. And as long as CMS hires or allows or accepts these BUCAs with these plans for Medicare for the ACA (Affordable care Act), whatever it may be, it's not going to work. As long as self-insured employers and the 50 million lives they cover hire these BUCAs to act as the TPAs, not as insurance companies and give them leeway on what to approve and what to authorize and what not to authorize. The system's going to be a mess, and that's where we are today.Academic Health System PartnershipsEric Topol (12:41):Yeah. Well, you've been talking of course to employers and enlightening them, and you're also enlightening the public, of course. That's why you have millions of people that are saving their cost of medications, but recently you struck a partnership with Penn Medicine. That's amazing. So is that your first academic health system that you approached?Cost Plus MarketplaceMark Cuban (13:00):I don't know if it was the first we approached, but it was certainly one of the biggest that we signed. We've got Cost Plus Marketplace (CPM) where we make everything from injectables to you name it, anything a hospital might buy. But again, at a finite markup, we make eight and a half percent I think when it's all said and done. And that saves hospital systems millions of dollars a year.Eric Topol (13:24):Yeah. So that's a big change in the way you're proceeding because what it was just pills that you were buying from the pharma companies, now you're actually going to make injectables and you're going to have a manufacturing capability. Is that already up and going?Mark Cuban (13:39):That's all up and going as of March. We're taking sterile injectables that are on the shortage list, generic and manufacturing them in Dallas using a whole robotics manufacturing plant that really Alex created. He's the rocket scientist behind it. And we're limited in capacity now, we're limited about 2 million vials, but we'll sell those to Cost Plus Marketplace, and we'll also sell those direct. So Cost Plus Marketplace isn't just the things we manufacture. It's a wide variety of products that hospitals buy that we then have a minimal markup, and then for the stuff we manufacture, we'll sell those to direct to like CHS was our first customer.Eric Topol (14:20):Yeah, that's a big expansion from going from the pills to this. Wow.Mark Cuban (14:24):It's a big, big expansion, but it goes to the heart of being transparent and not being greedy, selling on a markup. And ourselves as a company, being able to remain lean and mean. The only way we can sell at such a low markup. We have 20 employees on the Cost Plus side and 40 employees involved with the factories, and that's it.Eric Topol (14:46):Wow. So with respect to, you had this phenomenal article and interview with WIRED Magazine just this past week. I know Lauren Goode interviewed you, and she said, Mark, is this really altruistic and I love your response. You said, “how much f*****g money do I need? I'm not trying to land on Mars.” And then you said, “at this point in my life, it's just like more money, or f**k up the healthcare industry.” This was the greatest, Mark. I mean, I got to tell you, it was really something.Mark Cuban (15:18):Yeah.Eric Topol (15:19):Well, in speaking of that, of course, the allusion to a person we know well, Elon. He posted on X/Twitter in recent days , I think just three or four days ago, shouldn't the American people be getting their money's worth? About this high healthcare administration costs where the US is completely away from any other OECD country. And as you and I know, we have the worst outcomes and the most costs of all the rich countries in the world. There's just nothing new here. Maybe it's new to him, but you had a fabulous response on both X and Bluesky where you went over all these things point by point. And of course, the whole efforts that you've been working on now for three years. You also mentioned something that was really interesting that I didn't know about were these ERISA lawsuits[Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) of 1974.] Can you tell us about that?ERISA LawsuitsMark Cuban (16:13):Yeah, that's a great question, Eric. So for self-insured companies in particular, we have a fiduciary responsibility on a wellness and on a financial basis to offer the members, your employees and their families the best outcomes at the best price. Now, you can't guarantee best outcomes, but you have to be able to explain the choices you made. You don't have to pick the cheapest, but again, you have to be able to explain why you made the choices that you did. And because a lot of companies have been doing, just like we discussed earlier, doing deals on the pharmacy side with just these big PBMs, without accounting for best practices, best price, best outcomes, a couple companies got sued. Johnson and Johnson and Wells Fargo were the first to get sued. And I think that's just the beginning. That's just the writing on the wall. I think they'll lose because they just dealt with the big pharmacy PBMs. And I think that's one of the reasons why we're so busy at Cost Plus and why I'm so busy because we're having conversation after conversation with companies and plenty of enough lawyers for that matter who want to see a price list and be able to compare what they're paying to what we sell for to see if they're truly living up to that responsibility.Eric Topol (17:28):Yeah, no, that's a really important thing that's going on right now that I think a lot of people don't know about. Now, the government of the US think because it's the only government of any rich country in the world, if not any country that doesn't negotiate prices, i.e., CMS or whatever. And only with the recent work of insulin, which is a single one drug, was there reduction of price. And of course, it's years before we'll see other drugs. How could this country not negotiate drugs all these years where every other place in the world they do negotiate with pharma?Mark Cuban (18:05):Because as we alluded to earlier, the first line in every single pharmaceutical and healthcare contract says, you can't talk about this contract. It's like fight club. The number one rule of fight club is you can't talk about fight club, and it's really difficult to negotiate prices when it's opaque and everything's obfuscated where you can't really get into the details. So it's not that we're not capable of it, but it's just when there's no data there, it's really difficult because look, up until we started publishing our prices, how would anybody know?Mark Cuban (18:39):I mean, how was anybody going to compare numbers? And so, when the government or whoever started to negotiate, they tried to protect themselves and they tried to get data, but those big PBMs certainly have not been forthcoming. We've come along and publish our price list and all that starts to change. Now in terms of the bigger picture, there is a solution there, as I said earlier, but it really comes down to talking to the people who make the decisions to hire the big insurance companies and the big PBMs and telling them, no, you're not acting in your own best interest. Here's anybody watching out there. Ask your PBM if they can audit. If you can audit rather your PBM contract. What they'll tell you is, yeah, you can, but you have to use our people. It's insane. And that's from top to bottom. And so, I'm a big believer that if we can get starting with self-insured employers to act in their own best interest, and instead of working with a big PBM work with a pass-through PBM. A pass-through PBM will allow you to keep your own claims, own all your own data, allow you to control your own formulary.Mark Cuban (19:54):You make changes where necessary, no NDA, so you can't talk to manufacturers. All these different abilities that just seem to make perfect sense are available to all self-insured employers. And if the government, same thing. If the government requires pass-through PBMs, the price of medications will drop like a rock.Eric Topol (20:16):Is that possible? You think that could happen?Mark Cuban (20:19):Yes. Somebody's got to understand it and do it. I'm out there screaming, but we will see what happens with the new administration. There's nothing hard about it. And it's the same thing with Medicare and Medicare Advantage healthcare plans. There's nothing that says you have to use the biggest companies. Now, the insurance companies have to apply and get approved, but again, there's a path there to work with companies that can reduce costs and improve outcomes. The biggest challenge in my mind, and I'm still trying to work through this to fully understand it. I think where we really get turned upside down as a country is we try to avoid fraud from the provider perspective and the patient perspective. We're terrified that patients are going to use too much healthcare, and like everybody's got Munchausen disease.Mark Cuban (21:11):And we're terrified that the providers are going to charge too much or turn into Purdue Pharma and over-prescribe or one of these surgery mills that just is having somebody get surgery just so they can make money. So in an effort to avoid those things, we ask the insurance companies and the PBMs to do pre-authorizations, and that's the catch 22. How do we find a better way to deal with fraud at the patient and provider level? Because once we can do that, and maybe it's AI, maybe it's accepting fraud, maybe it's imposing criminal penalties if somebody does those things. But once we can overcome that, then it becomes very transactional. Because the reality is most insurance companies aren't insurance companies. 50 million lives are covered by self-insured employers that use the BUCAs, the big insurance companies, but not as insurance companies.Eric Topol (22:07):Yeah, I was going to ask you about that because if you look at these three big PBMs that control about 80% of the market, not the pass-throughs that you just mentioned, but the big ones, they each are owned by an insurance company. And so, when the employer says, okay, we're going to cover your healthcare stuff here, we're going to cover your prescriptions there.Mark Cuban (22:28):Yeah, it's all vertically integrated.Mark Cuban (22:36):And it gets even worse than that, Eric. So they also own specialty pharmacies, “specialty pharmacies” that will require you to buy from. And as I alluded to earlier, a lot of these medications like Imatinib, they'll list as being a specialty medication, but it's a pill. There's nothing special about it, but it allows them to charge a premium. And that's a big part of how the PBMs make a lot of their money, the GPO stuff we talked about, but also forcing an employer to go through the specialty mail order company that charges an arm and the leg.Impact on Hospitals and ProceduresEric Topol (23:09):Yeah. Well, and the point you made about transparency, we've seen this of course across US healthcare. So for example, as you know, if you were to look at what does it cost to have an operation like let's say a knee replacement at various hospitals, you can find that it could range fivefold. Of course, you actually get the cost, and it could be the hospital cost, and then there's the professional cost. And the same thing occurs for if you're having a scan, if you're having an MRI here or there. So these are also this lack of transparency and it's hard to get to the numbers, of course. There seems to be so many other parallels to the PBM story. Would you go to these other areas you think in the future?Mark Cuban (23:53):Yeah, we're doing it now. I'm doing it. So we have this thing called project dog food, and what it is, it's for my companies and what we've done is say, look, let's understand how the money works in healthcare.Mark Cuban (24:05):And when you think about it, when you go to get that knee done, what happens? Well, they go to your insurance company to get a pre-authorization. Your doctor says you need a knee replacement. I got both my hips replaced. Let's use that. Doctor says, Mark, you need your hips replaced. Great, right? Let's set up an appointment. Well, first the insurance company has to authorize it, okay, they do or they don't, but the doctor eats their time up trying to deal with the pre-authorization. And if it's denied, the doctor's time is eaten up and an assistance's time is eaten up. Some other administrator's time is eaten up, the employer's time is eaten up. So that's one significant cost. And then from there, there's a deductible. Now I can afford my deductible, but if there is an individual getting that hip replacement who can't afford the deductible, now all of a sudden you're still going to be required to do that hip replacement, most likely.Mark Cuban (25:00):Because in most of these contracts that self-insured employers sign, Medicare Advantage has, Medicare has, it says that between the insurance company and the provider, in this case, the hospital, you have to do the operation even if the deductibles not paid. So now the point of all this is you have the hospital in this case potentially accumulating who knows how much bad debt. And it's not just the lost amount of millions and millions and billions across the entire healthcare spectrum that's there. It's all the incremental administrative costs. The lawyers, the benefits for those people, the real estate, the desk, the office space, all that stuff adds up to $10 billion plus just because the hospitals take on that credit default risk. But wait, there's more. So now the surgery happens, you send the bill to the insurance company. The insurance company says, well, we're not going to pay you. Well, we have a contract. This is what it says, hip replacement's $34,000. Well, we don't care first, we're going to wait. So we get the time value of money, and then we're going to short pay you.Mark Cuban (26:11):So the hospital gets short paid. So what do they have to do? They have to sue them or send letters or whatever it is to try to get their money. When we talk to the big hospital systems, they say that's 2%. That's 2% of their revenue. So you have all these associated credit loss dollars, you've got the 2% of, in a lot of cases, billions and billions of dollars. And so, when you add all those things up, what happens? Well, what happens is because the providers are losing all that money and having to spend all those incremental dollars for the administration of all that, they have to jack up prices.Eric Topol (26:51):Yeah. Right.Mark Cuban (26:53):So what we have done, we've said, look for my companies, we're going to pay you cash. We're going to pay you cash day one. When Mark gets that hip replacement, that checks in the bank before the operation starts, if that's the way you want it. Great, they're not going to have pre-authorizations. We're going to trust you until you give us a reason not to trust you. We're not short paying, obviously, because we're paying cash right there then.Mark Cuban (27:19):But in a response for all that, because we're cutting out all those ancillary costs and credit risk, I want Medicare pricing. Now the initial response is, well, Medicare prices, that's awful. We can't do it. Well, when you really think about the cost and operating costs of a hospital, it's not the doctors, it's not the facilities, it's all the administration that cost all the money. It's all the credit risks that cost all the money. And so, if you remove that credit risk and all the administration, all those people, all that real estate, all those benefits and overhead associated with them, now all of a sudden selling at a Medicare price for that hip replacement is really profitable.Eric Topol (28:03):Now, is that a new entity Cost Plus healthcare?Mark Cuban (28:07):Well, it's called Cost Plus Wellness. It's not an entity. What we're going to do, so the part I didn't mention is all the direct contracts that we do that have all these pieces, as part of them that I just mentioned, we're going to publish them.Eric Topol (28:22):Ah, okay.Mark Cuban (28:23):And you can see exactly what we've done. And if you think about the real role of the big insurances companies for hospitals, it's a sales funnel.Getting Rid of Insurance CompaniesEric Topol (28:33):Yeah, yeah. Well, in fact, I really was intrigued because you did a podcast interview with Andrew Beam and the New England Journal of Medicine AI, and in that they talked about getting rid of the insurers, the insurance industry, just getting rid of it and just make it a means test for people. So it's not universal healthcare, it's a different model that you described. Can you go over that? I thought it was fantastic.Mark Cuban (29:00):Two pieces there. Let's talk about universal healthcare first. So for my companies, for our project dog food for the Mark Cuban companies, if for any employee or any of the lives we cover, if they work within network, anybody we have the direct contract with its single-payer. They pay their premiums, but they pay nothing else out of pocket. That's the definition of single-payer.Eric Topol (29:24):Yeah.Mark Cuban (29:25):So if we can get all this done, then the initial single-payers will be self-insured employers because it'll be more cost effective to them to do this approach. We hope, we still have to play it all through. So that's part one. In terms of everybody else, then you can say, why do we need insurance companies if they're not even truly acting as insurance companies? You're not taking full risk because even if it's Medicare Advantage, they're getting a capitated amount per month. And then that's getting risk adjusted because of the population you have, and then there's also an index depending on the location, so there's more or less money that occurs then. So let's just do what we need to do in this particular case, because the government is effectively eliminating the risk for the insurance company for the most part. And if you look at the margins for Medicare Advantage, I was just reading yesterday, it's like $1,700 a year for the average Medicare Advantage plan. So it's not like they're taking a lot of risk. All they're doing is trying to deny as many claims as they can.Eric Topol (30:35):Deny, Deny. Yeah.Mark Cuban (30:37):So instead, let's just get somebody who's a TPA, somebody who does the transaction, the claims processing, and whoever's in charge. It could be CMS, can set the terms for what's accepted and what's denied, and you can have a procedure for people that get denied that want to challenge it. And that's great, there's one in place now, but you make it a little simpler. But you take out the economics for the insurance company to just deny, deny, deny. There's no capitation. There's no nothing.Mark Cuban (31:10):The government just says, okay, we're hiring this TPA to handle the claims processing. It is your job. We're paying you per transaction.Mark Cuban (31:18):You don't get paid more if you deny. You don't get paid less if you deny. There's no bonuses if you keep it under a certain amount, there's no penalties If you go above a certain amount. We want you just to make sure that the patient involved is getting the best care, end of story. And if there's fraud involved as the government, because we have access to all that claims data, we're going to introduce AI that reviews that continuously.Mark Cuban (31:44):So that we can see things that are outliers or things that we question, and there's going to mean mistakes, but the bet was, if you will, where we save more and get better outcomes that way versus the current system and I think we will. Now, what ends up happening on top of that, once you have all that claims data and all that information and everybody's interest is aligned, best care at the best price, no denials unless it's necessary, reduce and eliminate fraud. Once everybody's in alignment, then as long as that's transparent. If the city of Dallas decides for all the lives they cover the 300,000 lives they cover between pharmacy and healthcare, we can usually in actuarial tables and some statistical analysis, we can say, you know what, even with a 15% tolerance, it's cheaper for us just to pay upfront and do this single-pay program, all our employees in the lives we cover, because we know what it's going to take.Mark Cuban (32:45):If the government decides, well, instead of Medicare Advantage the way it was, we know all the costs. Now we can say for all Medicare patients, we'll do Medicare for all, simply because we have definitive and deterministic pricing. Great. Now, there's still going to be outlier issues like all the therapies that cost a million dollars or whatever. But my attitude there is if CMS goes to Lilly, Novo, whoever for their cure for blindness that's $3.4 million. Well, that's great, but what we'll say is, okay, give us access to your books. We want to know what your breakeven point is. What is that breakeven point annually? We'll write you a check for that.Eric Topol (33:26):Yeah.Mark Cuban (33:27):If we have fewer patients than need that, okay, you win. If we have more patients than need that, it's like a Netflix subscription with unlimited subscribers, then we will have whatever it is, because then the manufacturer doesn't lose money, so they can't complain about R&D and not being able to make money. And that's for the CMS covered population. You can do a Netflix type subscription for self-insured employers. Hey, it's 25 cents per month per employee or per life covered for the life of the patent, and we'll commit to that. And so, now all of a sudden you get to a point where healthcare starts becoming not only transparent but deterministic.Eric Topol (34:08):Yeah. What you outline here in these themes are extraordinary. And one of the other issues that you are really advocating is patient empowerment, but one of the problems we have in the US is that people don't own their data. They don't even have all their data. I expect you'd be a champion of that as well.Mark Cuban (34:27):Well, of course. Yeah. I mean, look, I've got into arguments with doctors and public health officials about things like getting your own blood tested. I've been an advocate of getting my own blood tested for 15 years, and it helped me find out that I needed thyroid medication and all of these things. So I'm a big advocate. There's some people that think that too much data gives you a lot of false positives, and people get excited in this day and age to get more care when it should only be done if there are symptoms. I'm not a believer in that at all. I think now, particularly as AI becomes more applicable and available, you'll be able to be smarter about the data you capture. And that was always my final argument. Either you trust doctors, or you don't. Because even if there's an aberrational TSH reading and minus 4.4 and it's a little bit high, well the doctor's going to say, well, let's do another blood test in a month or two. The doctor is still the one that has to write the prescription. There's no downside to trusting your doctor in my mind.Eric Topol (35:32):And what you're bringing up is that we're already seeing how AI can pick up things even in the normal range, the trends long before a clinician physician would pick it up. Now, last thing I want to say is you are re-imagining healthcare like no one. I mean, there's what you're doing here. It started with some pills and it's going in a lot of different directions. You are rocking it here. I didn't even know some of the latest things that you're up to. This seems to be the biggest thing you've ever done.Mark Cuban (36:00):I hope so.Mark Cuban (36:01):I mean, like we said earlier, what could be better than people saying our healthcare system is good. What changed? That Cuban guy.Eric Topol (36:10):Well, did you give up Shark Tank so you could put more energy into this?Mark Cuban (36:16):Not really. It was more for my kids.Eric Topol (36:19):Okay, okay.Mark Cuban (36:20):They go hand in hand, obviously. I can do this stuff at home as opposed to sitting on a set wondering if I should invest in Dude Wipes again.Eric Topol (36:28):Well, look, we're cheering for you. This is, I've not seen a shakeup in my life in American healthcare like this. You are just rocking. It's fantastic.Mark Cuban (36:37):Everybody out there that's watching, check out www.costplusdrugs.com, check out Cost Plus Marketplace, which is business.costplusdrugs.com and just audit everything. What I'm trying to do is say, okay, if it's 1955 and we're starting healthcare all over again, how would we do it? And really just keep it simple. Look to where the risk is and remove the risk where possible. And then it comes down to who do you trust and make sure you trust but verify. Making sure there aren't doctors or systems that are outliers and making sure that there aren't companies that are outliers or patients rather that are outliers. And so, I think there's a path there. It's not nearly as difficult, it's just starting them with corporations, getting those CEOs to get educated and act in their own best interest.Eric Topol (37:32):Well, you're showing us the way. No question. So thanks so much for joining, and we'll be following this with really deep interest because you're moving at high velocity, and thank you.**************************************************Thank you for reading, listening and subscribing to Ground Truths.If you found this fun and informative please share it!All content on Ground Truths—its newsletters, analyses, and podcasts, are free, open-access.Paid subscriptions are voluntary. All proceeds from them go to support Scripps Research. Many thanks to those who have contributed—they have greatly helped fund our summer internship programs for the past two years. I welcome all comments from paid subscribers and will do my best to respond to each of them and any questions.Thanks to my producer Jessica Nguyen and to Sinjun Balabanoff for audio and video support at Scripps Research.FootnoteThe PBMS (finally) are under fire—2 articles from the past week Get full access to Ground Truths at erictopol.substack.com/subscribe

Subscriber-only episodeSend us a textResources for the Community:___________________________________________________________________https://linktr.ee/theplussidezpodcast Ro - Telehealth for GLP1 weight management https://ro.co/weight-loss/?utm_source=plussidez&utm_medium=partnership&utm_campaign=comms_yt&utm_content=45497&utm_term=55If You are having issues accessing Paid Subscriber content please send an email to support@buzzsprout.com and a member of Buzzsprout's technical team will help you access the content.______________________________________________________________________In this episode, we try to unravel the confusing web that is the intricate workings of the pharmacy industry. We try to grasp a better understanding of the role of Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) and explore the differences between chain pharmacies and PBM pharmacies. We also touch on the rise of Cost-Plus Pharmacies, including Mark Cuban's pharmacy, and how they aim to disrupt traditional pricing models.We chat with Forest Park Pharmacy co-owner Brad Hart as he analyzes the challenges faced by CVS, despite owning a PBM like Caremark, and examines the intricacies of GoodRx and its impact on prescription drug costs. We'll also explore the purpose of price checkers and how they can empower consumers to make informed decisions.We discuss the challenges faced by Medicare recipients and local pharmacies in accessing affordable medications, particularly GLP-1 therapies. It's a jungle out there in the pharmacy world, and we think this will help give us just a bit of clarity in the complexities in a confusing pharmaceutical arena. ______________________________________________________________________⭐️Mounjaro Stanley⭐️griffintumblerco.Etsy.comUse code PODCAST10 for $ OFF______________________________________________________________________Join this channel to get access to perks:   / @theplussidez______________________________________________________________________#Mounjaro #MounjaroJourney #Ozempic #Semaglutide #tirzepatide  #GLP1 #Obesity #zepbound #wegovy  Kim Carlos, Executive Producer TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@dmfkim?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc Instagram https://www.instagram.com/dmfkimonmounjaro?igsh=aDF6dnlmbHBoYmJn&utm_source=qr Kat Carter, Associate Producer TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@katcarter7?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc Instagram https://www.instagram.com/mrskatcarter?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=ZDNlZDc0MzIxNw==

Live from the ROCKWOOL studio, Matt discusses the pros and cons of fixed-price and cost-plus construction contracts with guest Jeremy Martin, co-owner of Risher Martin, a leading custom homebuilder in Austin. Jeremy shares his firm's unique approach to fixed-price contracts, emphasizing rigorous pre-construction planning and detailed specifications to ensure predictable budgets and schedules. This method fosters trust and minimizes change orders by clearly defining project scopes, materials, and allowances upfront.Jeremy explains that fixed-price contracts work even for large-scale renovations by incorporating allowances for potential issues like structural damage. Pre-construction, often a nine to fifteen-month process, includes site inspections, constructability reviews, and close collaboration with architects and designers. While these efforts are treated as a "loss leader," they set the stage for efficient, on-time construction. Matt contrasts this with his cost-plus model, which offers clients transparency through access to detailed invoices and flexible budgeting. However, he acknowledges that cost-plus often involves making decisions during construction, increasing the potential for delays or unexpected costs.Both agree on the importance of peer-to-peer collaboration and continuous learning to navigate industry challenges. They highlight how thoughtful planning and communication can lead to client satisfaction and successful project execution, making it a valuable listen for builders, homeowners, and industry professionals. Find Jeremy on the web:Instagram: @rishermartinFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/RisherMartin/Houzz: https://www.houzz.com/professionals/general-contractors/rishermartin-fine-homes-pfvwus-pf~2046903330?Website: https://www.rishermartin.com/Find Matt and The Build Show on the web:Build Show Videos: https://buildshownetwork.com/go/mattrisingerInstagram: @risingerbuild and @thebuildshowTikTok: @thebuildshowYouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@buildshowWebsite: https://risingerbuild.com/ and https://buildshownetwork.com/Save the Date for Build Show LIVE 2025 in Dallax, TX: October 16-18, 2025! Don't miss a single episode of Build Show content. Sign up for our newsletter.

SpaceXNeeds to be celebrated an honored. President Trump in attendance. Starship 6 launch! 120 meters tall. Each Raptor rocket engine produces twice as much thrust as all 4 engines on a 747. 33 Raptors = 66 747'sPointy RocketsElon on call with Sundar Ron Baron on Cost Plus contracts. PoliticsHow is Kamala in debt? Beyonce 10m? Oprah $1m for an interview?https://x.com/BillAckman/status/1855432554666664043Trump spent $345.42 Million$10.4 Million was spent on StaffKamala Spent $1.37 BillionKamala Spent $582.53 Million on StaffMarc and Ben on Policy Recap at 2:00 min It was the worst four years in our career in terms of White House policy as it related to technology and and business more broadly.DOGEVivek and Elon to to lead DOGE (Dept of Govt efficiency)Milton Friedman on getting rid of federal agencies. Elon explains why important. “There are around 428 federal agencies. There's so many that people have never even heard of.From Vivek: Here's a key point about our mission at DOGE.From Elon: All actions of the Department of Government Efficiency will be posted online for maximum transparency.We will also have a leaderboard for most insanely dumb Javier Milei: Afuera

This week we will be talking about Cost Plus Contracts. This episode content meets PC5 - Building Procurement of the Part 3 Criteria.Resources from today's episode:Websites:https://downtobid.com/blog/cost-plus-construction-contracthttps://www.procore.com/library/cost-plus-contractsThank you for listening! Please follow me on Instagram @part3withme for weekly content and updates or contact me via email me at part3withme@outlook.com or on LinkedIn. Join me next week for more Part3 With Me time.If you liked this episode please give it a rating to help reach more fellow Part3er's!

"If my child needs a gene therapy to live, they should get it and anyone's child should. So let's figure out how to pay for it." - Jake Frenz On the final of four podcasts filmed at a recent healthcare thinktank I hosted in Frisco, Texas, Jake Frenz, the founder and CEO of SmithRx, joined me to share his journey from the Marine Corps to Pharmacy Benefit Management, and what makes him so passionate about ending prescription drug price gouging.  Jake and I discussed what some of the core challenges are in the PBM space, why he was so inspired by Mark Cuban's venture Cost Plus Drugs, and what the “watershed” moment in US healthcare will look like.  I'm grateful to have had the opportunity to talk to one of the best minds in the PBM space, and I hope you enjoy this week's episode of Self-Funded with Spencer. Chapters: 00:00:00 Meet Jake Frenz 00:08:06 Consumer-Driven Healthcare 00:15:53 Transparency in the PBM Industry 00:20:57 The “Watershed Moment” in US Healthcare 00:36:14 Mark Cuban's Innovative Healthcare Venture 00:39:34 Subscription-Based Models Disrupting Pharmacy Competition 00:52:34 Revolutionizing Healthcare 00:55:14 Empowering Americans to Drive Healthcare Reform Key Links for Social: @SelfFunded on YouTube for video versions of the podcast and much more - https://www.youtube.com/@SelfFunded Listen on Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/1TjmrMrkIj0qSmlwAIevKA?si=068a389925474f02 Listen on Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/self-funded-with-spencer/id1566182286 Follow Spencer on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/spencer-smith-self-funded/ Follow Spencer on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/selffundedwithspencer/ Key Words:  Healthcare Insights, Pharmacy Benefit Managersm, Simplify Healthcare, Watershed Moment, Cost Plus, cost plus drugs,  mark cuban, Big Picture Healthcare, American Spirit, Healthcare Innovation, Affordable Medications, price gouging, self funded, podcast #HealthcareInsights #PharmacyBenefitManagers #SimplifyHealthcare #WatershedMoment #CostPlus #costplusdrugs #markcuban #BigPictureHealthcare #AmericanSpirit #HealthcareInnovation #AffordableMedications #pricegouging #selffunded #podcast --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/spencer-harlan-smith/support

"If my child needs a gene therapy to live, they should get it and anyone's child should. So let's figure out how to pay for it." - Jake Frenz On the final of four podcasts filmed at a recent healthcare thinktank I hosted in Frisco, Texas, Jake Frenz, the founder and CEO of SmithRx, joined me to share his journey from the Marine Corps to Pharmacy Benefit Management, and what makes him so passionate about ending prescription drug price gouging.  Jake and I discussed what some of the core challenges are in the PBM space, why he was so inspired by Mark Cuban's venture Cost Plus Drugs, and what the “watershed” moment in US healthcare will look like.  I'm grateful to have had the opportunity to talk to one of the best minds in the PBM space, and I hope you enjoy this week's episode of Self-Funded with Spencer. Chapters: 00:00:00 Meet Jake Frenz 00:08:06 Consumer-Driven Healthcare 00:15:53 Transparency in the PBM Industry 00:20:57 The “Watershed Moment” in US Healthcare 00:36:14 Mark Cuban's Innovative Healthcare Venture 00:39:34 Subscription-Based Models Disrupting Pharmacy Competition 00:52:34 Revolutionizing Healthcare 00:55:14 Empowering Americans to Drive Healthcare Reform Key Links for Social: @SelfFunded on YouTube for video versions of the podcast and much more - https://www.youtube.com/@SelfFunded Listen on Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/1TjmrMrkIj0qSmlwAIevKA?si=068a389925474f02 Listen on Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/self-funded-with-spencer/id1566182286 Follow Spencer on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/spencer-smith-self-funded/ Follow Spencer on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/selffundedwithspencer/ Key Words:  Healthcare Insights, Pharmacy Benefit Managersm, Simplify Healthcare, Watershed Moment, Cost Plus, cost plus drugs,  mark cuban, Big Picture Healthcare, American Spirit, Healthcare Innovation, Affordable Medications, price gouging, self funded, podcast #HealthcareInsights #PharmacyBenefitManagers #SimplifyHealthcare #WatershedMoment #CostPlus #costplusdrugs #markcuban #BigPictureHealthcare #AmericanSpirit #HealthcareInnovation #AffordableMedications #pricegouging #selffunded #podcast --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/spencer-harlan-smith/support

Originally broadcast November 22, 2022 When we have a guest like “Shark Tank” star Mark Cuban, it's can be hard to keep up with all his thoughts. He was a bundle of energy in November 2022 explaining his then-new venture trying to reform how Americans can purchase lower-priced drugs; he called it “dunking on the pharma industry.” Since our conversation, experts say Cuban has become a major disrupter in generic drug pricing. Cost Plus now offers 2,500 drugs and has... Read More Read More The post Mark Cuban: Drug Price Disrupter Explains How It Works appeared first on Healthy Communities Online.

When we have a guest like “Shark Tank” star Mark Cuban, it's can be hard to keep up with all his thoughts. He was a bundle of energy in November 2022 explaining his then-new venture trying to reform how Americans can purchase lower-priced drugs; he called it “dunking on the pharma industry.” Since our conversation, experts say Cuban has become a major disrupter in generic drug pricing. Cost Plus now offers 2,500 drugs and has signed up a large list of health systems. Join us for this encore presentation as hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter ask Cuban to explain how his approach also includes introducing transparency to drug pricing.

When we have a guest like “Shark Tank” star Mark Cuban, it's can be hard to keep up with all his thoughts. He was a bundle of energy in November 2022 explaining his then-new venture trying to reform how Americans can purchase lower-priced drugs; he called it “dunking on the pharma industry.” Since our conversation, experts say Cuban has become a major disrupter in generic drug pricing. Cost Plus now offers 2,500 drugs and has signed up a large list of health systems.Join us for this encore presentation as hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter ask Cuban to explain how his approach also includes introducing transparency to drug pricing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Tune in as Kyle Hunt, host of Remodelers On The Rise, interviews Steve Tankersley, the owner of Tankersley Construction on his journey into the remodeling industry. After working in commercial construction, he decided to start his own remodeling business in 2018. Steve emphasizes the importance of the fundamentals in running a successful business, such as responsiveness and reliability. He also values the freedom and flexibility that owning a business provides, allowing him to spend more time with his family. Steve discusses his transition from fixed-price contracts to cost-plus contracts, which offer more transparency and build trust with clients. He provides insights into his cost-plus approach, including setting goals for net profit, accurately estimating project costs, and itemizing direct costs.  ----- Visit RemodelerRetreat.com and sign-up to join Kyle and his wife Sarah for the Remodel Your Marriage, Life, and Business Retreat, October 2nd-4th, 2024  ----- Takeaways The fundamentals of responsiveness and reliability are crucial in running a successful remodeling business. Owning a business provides the freedom and flexibility to spend more time with family. Transitioning from fixed-price contracts to cost-plus contracts can build trust and provide transparency with clients. Setting goals for net profit and accurately estimating project costs are essential in a cost-plus approach. Itemizing direct costs, such as insurance and software, can help reduce the markup in cost-plus contracts. The cost-plus pricing model allows for open and frequent communication with clients without the fear of racking up hourly bills. Delivering value to clients is crucial when using the cost-plus pricing model. Knowing your numbers and having a robust accounting and project management system is essential for success. Self-performed labor rates can contribute to higher margins in cost-plus projects. Using contingencies can help manage unexpected costs and build trust with clients. Cloud-based software and coaching can be valuable tools for remodeling contractors. Chapters 00:00 - Introduction and Background 01:45 - Approaching Pricing in the Remodeling Business 04:10 - Transitioning to Residential Construction 08:50 - Achieving Dreams and Balancing Family Life 10:46 - Recognizing Success and Reflecting on the Journey 12:58 - Unpacking the Cost-Plus Approach 16:28 - Setting Goals and Estimating Project Costs 19:42 - Reducing Markup in Cost-Plus Contracts 22:09 - The Benefits of Cost-Plus Pricing 23:35 - Delivering Value and Accountability 26:06 - Knowing Your Numbers and Having a Robust System 27:06 - Maximizing Margins with Self-Performed Labor 31:41 - Managing Unexpected Costs with Contingencies 39:28 - The Value of Cloud-Based Software and Coaching

The Cost-Plus Pricing model seems to go completely against common sense, but it's a concept that we're getting more questions about from our membership. One contributing factor is that consumers increasingly demand transparency when purchasing products and services — and homeowners are coming to expect it when undertaking a remodeling project. But so many remodelers... The post How to Successfully Use Cost-Plus Pricing with Josh Baker – [Best of PowerTips Unscripted] appeared first on PowerTips Unscripted.

If you're thinking of renovating in the next 12-24 months you won't want to miss this!Today's conversation with builder Colin Campbell from Camstruct Design & Build packs a punch with real and raw insights into what it takes to renovate in the current market.We cover:• Should you have a Fixed Price or Cost Plus contract? • What's the difference between an Estimate and a Quote?• Range of builders % margins• What level of documentation do you need?• Prime Costs vs Provisional Sums• Selecting the right builder• Finding alignment You will love Colin's candid perspectives on the state of play renovating in today's market. Connect with Colin here:Website https://camstruct.com.au/Instagram https://www.instagram.com/camstruct_design_and_build/Connect with us: Website https://janeledger.com.au Instagram https://www.instagram.com/janeledgerinteriors Thank you for listening! If you found this useful, please leave a like, review or rating as this helps other people just like you find this information. I'd love for you to hit follow wherever you're listening to this and share a favourite episode with someone you know who would really benefit from it.

Episode 026 | Luká Yancopoulos is a visionary entrepreneur and the driving force behind Grapevine, a groundbreaking startup that is transforming the healthcare supply chain. Since its launch in 2022, Grapevine has made waves in the industry, including earning the prestigious President's Innovation Prize the same year for its outstanding innovation and entrepreneurship. Under Luká's leadership, Grapevine has secured approximately $4,000,000 in funding and partnered with more than 400 businesses across the United States. The Grapevine platform enables clients to save up to 50% on medical supply costs, reduce order times by over 90%, and seamlessly work with multiple vendors, thereby accelerating procurement and delivery processes.The Grapevine leadership team is committed to addressing critical issues in the healthcare supply chain, including:- Hidden Costs of Single Supplier Dependency in Healthcare Supply Chains- Inefficiencies in Medical Goods Transport- Warehousing Costs in Medical Supplies (a hidden killer!)- Managing Backorders in Large Hospitals- Embracing Digital TransformationLuká's thought leadership has been featured on prominent podcasts such as The Healthcare Leadership Experience, Healthcare Untold, and Health Innovators Show and notable publications including Medical Economics, Healthcare Express, and Healthcare Business Today. Grapevine has been highlighted in major outlets like USA Today and Benzinga.As you will hear, Luká is committed to inspiring and educating healthcare professionals on the importance of digital transformation in supply chain management.In this episode:

John Walker, the CTO of Buildertrend, discusses how he leverages customer feedback to improve their construction management software, while Nick Schiffer and Tyler Grace debate best practices for running profitable construction businesses and adopting new technologies. Modern Craftsman Partnerships   Andersen Windows Buildertrend The Modern Craftsman: linktr.ee/moderncraftsmanpodcast Find Our Hosts:  Nick Schiffer  Tyler Grace  Podcast Produced By: Motif Media Tyler's Top Blogs: How I Started My Business Books that Build Site Protection Principles My Preconstruction Process: Part 1 Becoming Proficient in Multiple Trades

Welcome to Omni Talk's Retail Daily Minute, sponsored by Ownit AI and Mirakl. Ownit AI helps brands and retailers win Google search by answering their shopper's questions online. Learn more at ownit.co. Mirakl is the global leader in platform business innovation for eCommerce. Companies like Macy's, Nordstrom, and Kroger use Mirakl to build disruptive growth and profitability through marketplace, dropship, and retail media. For more, visit mirakl.comHere are today's top headlines:Nordstrom is nearing completion of its transition from its fulfillment center in San Bernardino, California, to its West Coast omnichannel center in Riverside, California. Harps Food Stores is embracing in-store retail media by partnering with Grocery TV to introduce digital displays to 145 of its locations. Ahold Delhaize USA partners with Mark Cuban's Cost Plus Drug Company to offer added convenience to customers seeking affordable healthcare solutions. Stay informed with Omni Talk's Retail Daily Minute, your source for the latest and most important retail insights. Be careful out there!

Sponsors:• ◦ Visit Buildertrend to get a 60-day money-back guarantee on your Buildertrend account!• ◦ Pella Windows & Doors• ◦ Sub-Zero Wolf Cove Showroom Phoenix Connect with Cody Thompson:T3 Construction website https://t3build.com/Instagram https://www.instagram.com/t3build/LinkedIn Page https://www.linkedin.com/in/cody-thompson-00675b194Facebook https://www.facebook.com/t3BuildLLC Connect with Brad Leavitt:Website | Instagram | Facebook | Houzz | Pinterest | YouTube

Episode 214: On this episode of “The Building Code,” Zach and Charley are sitting down with Jon Walker, chief technology officer here at Buildertrend. Jon has an impressive background with more than 30 years of proven experience in technology leadership roles. Today, he works directly with our Product Engineering team to optimize the platform and provide the best customer experience. Listen to the full episode to hear more about how cost-plus builders will be supported through updated workflows.   Read the shownotes for this episode here: (add page link here)   Join “The Building Code” Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/thebuildingcodecrew/   FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/buildertrend/ INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/buildertrend/  TWITTER: https://twitter.com/Buildertrend/ YOUTUBE:  / @buildertrend LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/company/buildertrend #Buildertrend #BuiltWithBuildertrend #ConstructionSoftware

Times are changing in the pharmacy industry. Whether we're talking about PBM reform, the rise of cost-plus models, or new ownership journeys, there's always something new to talk about in the pharmacy realm. In this edition of Catalyst Rewind, we take a look back at some of our favorite conversations of this (relatively) new year. From RedSail's Rx Cash+ to the minutiae of profit margins, there's something for everyone here. Guests include:   0:00 - Scotty Sykes, EP 109 3:17 - Lacy Epperson,  BTS EP 55  8:38 - Bill Osborn, EP 111 15:01 - Cynthia Feldman, BTS EP 54 22:07 - Scott Brunner, EP 110 23:18 - Joey Chamberlain and Terri Albarano, BTS EP 56 Hosted By: Mark Bivins, SVP Sales | Josh Howland, SVP Pharmacy Management System | Jeff Key, President of PioneerRx | Marsha Bivins, Director of Trade Shows and Events | Will Tuft, Director of Event Education at PioneerRx Looking for more information about independent pharmacy? Visit www.pioneerrx.com

Mark Cuban built a career disrupting industries and creating new ones. Now, his sights are set on healthcare. There's no secret ingredient to Mark's success. As the world sees very publicly on Shark Tank, his style is the opposite of keeping secrets. It's based on providing respectful, but direct, honest and unvarnished opinions. He's bringing that style to healthcare in order to inject what he says the industry is lacking most. Trust.To kick-off a series of Healthcare is Hard podcast episodes that will dive deep into all aspects of reinventing the pharmacy space, Keith Figlioli sat down with Mark to discuss his vision and strategy behind Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company, and many other healthcare-related topics.With Cost Plus Drug Company, Mark is bringing radical transparency to what he says is the most opaque industry he's ever been involved in. He's doing it by pricing every single product the same way – the cost of a drug, plus 15% markup, plus pharmacy fee (if any), plus shipping – and publishing these details for everyone to see.Through this model, Mark aims reduce costs and improve access to drugs, while rebuilding trust in the industry. With 2,400+ drugs now available, he's off to a fast start and talked to Keith about other evolving elements of the business including wholesale operations for providers, partnerships with grocery and pharmacy chains, and more.Some of the other topics Keith and Mark discussed include:The Netflix model for specialty drugs. With revolutionary precision medicine coming to market at high costs that can reach millions of dollars per treatment, how will employers and consumers afford them? According to Mark, that's the wrong question. He's looking at the challenge through the manufacturer's lens, asking how much they've invested in drug development and at what dollar value can they make reasonable returns. He discussed conversations he's having with manufacturers about creating subscription services that could cover a wide range of high-cost, specialty drugs.Transparent, direct contracting. Mark now self-insures his employees and their family members, contracts directly with providers on payment rates, and – following the Cost Plus philosophy – publishes everything for the world to see. He shared a personal story that helped lead him to this decision where he paid a provider directly when his son needed an X-ray and realized it was a fraction of the cost of agreed upon rates with his insurance company. He talked about how this decision cuts other costs while improving employee wellness, removing burdens on HR, and ultimately helping providers by removing the risk they take and helping them get paid faster. Millions of AI models. Mark is a big believer that there will be millions of AI models and everyone will have one. He says 100 years from now you'll be able to ask him questions through a model trained on all his emails and data. But AI in healthcare will be more segmented. He talks about how there's no way leading research hospitals with respected brands will feed their data into one large language model unless they get paid an extreme amount of money. They may even stop publishing “anything and everything” to prevent their research from being ingested into someone else's model.To hear Mark and Keith discuss these topics and more, listen to this episode of Healthcare is Hard: A Podcast for Insiders.

March 19, 2024 - Lauren Young joined Byers & Co to talk about the proposed Healthcare Protetion Act, ghost networks, partnering with Mark Cuban's Cost-Plus, their Stock Up Sale, and Pharmacy Facts with Friends. Listen to the podcast now!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This episode of Health Matters is focused on our new Cost Plus Generic Prescription Savings program called the Health Matters Membership Savings Program.    Pharmacists Paul White and Brad White discuss what the components of the Membership Program include, what the Cost Plus model means to patients, and other popular pharmacy services.  http://www.medshoprx.com/membership  

2020: https://thewonderpodcast.podbean.com/e/the-winter-solstice/ 2021: https://thewonderpodcast.podbean.com/e/winter-solsticeyule/ 2022: https://thewonderpodcast.podbean.com/e/winter-solsticeyulemidwinter-2022/   Remember, we welcome comments, questions and suggested topics at thewonderpodcastQs@gmail.com   TRANSCRIPT:----more----   Introduction and Welcome --- Mark: Welcome back to The Wonder of Science-Based Paganism. I'm your host, Mark, Yucca: And I'm Yucca. Mark: and it's that time again.  Discussion on Winter Solstice --- Mark: We're going to talk about the winter solstice and all the different things we call it, and what the themes of the season are, and how we celebrate it, and all that good kind of stuff. So happy solstice to everyone. Yucca: That's right. Happy solstice. it's, we're here already. Mark: End of 2023 already. Hard to believe. Yucca: Yeah. So, and the Reflection on the Show's Journey --- Mark: Does that mean we're going into season five? Yucca: we're going into season five. That's right. Mark: Whoa. Yucca: Yeah. On the one hand, it feels like forever. It feels like it's been a decade. On the other hand, I can't believe it. Mark: Yeah. Yucca: start doing this last year? Mark: Yeah. Something like. Yeah. Understanding the Solstice and its Significance --- Yucca: Yeah, well, let's talk about the solstice, and we'll link to some of our previous episodes of the solstice as well, because since this will be, we're going into Season 5, right? We've done this particular one, you know, several years before, and that's one of the lovely things about the Wheel of the Year, ? It keeps turning, and we keep coming back to it, Mark: Right. Yucca: again, and again, and again, but every year it's a little different. Mark: Mm hmm. It's a spiral rather than a circle. Yucca: Yeah, it's like those, you can look up animations of the solar system, but from the perspective, instead of having the sun stationary, having the sun moving through the galaxy, because it is moving just depends on what you're using as your frame of reference, but the planets all going along for the ride as well we're Orbiting the sun and moving with the sun as it goes through the galaxy. This reminds me of that spiral that we do. Mark: Huh. Huh. Exploring the Themes of the Holiday --- Yucca: So, but let's start with themes. So, Mark, what do you call this holiday? Mark: Well, that is a bit of a moving target. For many, many years I've called it Yule. I called it Yule in my book. Yucca: hmm. The Transition from Yule to Midwinter --- Mark: But I'm moving off that into midwinter. Yucca: Mm The Cultural Significance of Yule --- Mark: Um, for a couple of reasons, one of which is that Yule is still a cultural reference. It's a, it's a Scandinavian word that references a winter solstice y kind of holiday that happened around this time of year in those cultures. And I've been very careful not to be drawing from any cultures in my practice. Yucca: hmm. Mark: midwinter, you know, it's the corollary to midsummer. At the summer solstice, and so that just seems like it feels pretty appropriate to me. Yucca: Nice. Okay. Mark: How about you? The Personal Connection to Solstice --- Yucca: uSually solstice, just the winter solstice or solstice sometimes first winter. I don't use midwinter because it's not midwinter for us. Mark: Mm hmm. Yucca: The, it certainly isn't the start of winter the way it's shown on like the calendar in terms of the astronomical seasons, but it's been winter for a month at this point, ? But we will not be into midwinter until, midwinter is more, you know, January, you know, end of January for us where we'll really be in the middle of winter. So, yeah, usually solstice, I've never really connected with the name Yule. I think it's pretty. It's on cards that people send. But it, just I've never had that connection with it. The Separation of Solstice and Christmas --- Yucca: I don't know, it, it, also you'll me, it still has more of a Christmas association. Like, it's still very Christmas. And even though Christmas is happening around the same time, for me, the solstice and Christmas are two very separate things. Mark: Yeah, I guess in my case, because I've really just, I've abandoned Christmas. So I have a lot of people around me, of course, who are celebrating it at work and so forth.  The Celebration of Solstice --- Mark: But I, I just adopted solstice celebration and that's what I do now. So I have a tree for that rather than for Christmas, for example. We were just putting lights on it and discovering that the new lights, there aren't quite enough of them. So now we desperately have to find some more and get them delivered immediately. So that'll be fun. They're, they're LEDs. that have a phone app where you can adjust the lights and the patterns and Nemea really, really is excited about this. Yucca: Okay, nice. Mark: Yeah.  Yucca: Lovely. Mark: yeah. Yeah. I haven't seen it at night yet, but it'll be pretty, I'm sure. So, yeah, I'm moving away from Yule. Yule seemed like kind of a harmless name to use. When I was writing my book, as opposed to, like, the Celtic names and stuff like that, that feels appropriative to me, and not really relevant to who I am and where I live and all that kind of stuff. Yucca: But in retrospect, it's seeming a little appropriate to you right now. Well, Mark: believe you can appropriate from a dead culture. So I'm not so worried about appropriating Scandinavian stuff from a Norse Worshipping tradition that didn't exist for a thousand years or so after Christianization. But, Yucca: still a lot, depending on where, like in Iceland, and there's still there's still some that is around today, Mark: oh, absolutely. Yucca: not necessarily in the same maybe strength that it was or, or prominence, but there's still aspects of that around. Mark: Well, and there's a resurgence. Yucca: Mm hmm. Mark: I mean, I think that if we had looked at things in 1950, we probably would have seen a few folk practices, but not really anything that was as organized as, you know, a religious practice, for example. But I, I don't know enough about it to say for certain one way or another. In any case it's safer to simply abandon that name and move with one that's more more generic and English. Yucca: Mm hmm. Mark: But, you know, when I first came into paganism, everybody called it Yule, and that was okay, and Yucca: That was just what you were around, yeah? Mark: Yeah, um, so whatever you call the winter solstice, and you may call it midsummer if you live in Argentina or, or Brazil, um, whatever you call it we're here to talk about celebrating it, and why don't we talk some about some of the themes that come up at this time of year. There's so much with it. Iconography to this season, you know, with the trees and the Santa Claus and the reindeer and the on and on and on and on.  Yucca: You know, I wish that everybody could see the backgrounds that we both came in with today, because there's a huge difference. So, Mark, you've got this scene with this, the pie. I don't know what trees those are back there, but you're Your conifers with the snow on it, and this little night scene, and this little house and it's these dark, you know, blues and grays. And then my background, and this was not planned, is the sun. And it's an up close of the bright bright sun with all the convection cells and Mark: and prominences bursting off the limb. Yucca: of it.  The Symbolism of Light and Dark --- Yucca: Yeah and I think that that reflects a big theme for this time of year is the the relationship between the light and the dark and the sun and the night and all of that. Mark: Ooh, nice, nice segue. That was great. Yeah. Yes the whole question of how we relate to darkness. is very much up at this time of year, because there sure is a lot of it in the Northern Hemisphere. And boy, the days are short now, and they're going to get even shorter.  Yucca: At my latitude, we get about 14 and a half, almost 15 hours of night at solstice. Mark: wow. Yeah, Yucca: north it's even more extreme. Mark: I think we get close to 16 hours. No, Yucca: No, you can't know not that much, but yeah. Mark: Yeah, 16 and a half hours. 15 and a half hours. Okay, third time's the Yucca: hmm. Mm hmm. Mm The Importance of Rest and Reflection --- Mark: yeah, so, waking up in the dark, finishing work in the dark I, I feel a lot of empathy for people who have commutes during that time, because of course I've done that for many years of work at home, so that's a, that's a relief. And the whole piece about how we fear the dark, and Metaphorically how we fear the darkness in ourselves, the, the, the not so nice stuff. The, uh, the sub, the, the submerged stuff that we've pushed down. tHis is a time of year that's often associated with dreaming and with ghosts and. I see that as useful fodder for contemplation, um, you know, trying to get more of a handle on, well, what am I pushing down? What am I ignoring? What am I afraid of in myself that I'm, that I'm repressing? And maybe it's stuff that needs repressing, that's okay but I'd still like to be aware of it. And, you know, be making conscious choices around all of that. So that's, that's a part of how I come to this season when it relates to light and dark. How about you, Yucca? Yucca: Yeah, I mean, the dark of this going in is a big theme for me. The peaceful, restful night in which you have the deep self reflection and there's a stillness. about it this time. Although, yes, we have so much happening in the holidays like we were talking about last week, but this solstice for me is a really, really contemplative, quiet, inward experience in a lot of ways. And it really is, I mean, I just keep wanting to say going back to this going in, I really, Picture, like, going deep into a cave, down deep into the earth, slash, me, to really kind of understand and reflect and see what, what quiet seeds you have waiting, sleeping there, and, you know, what will become. It's not, things haven't woken up yet. It's what is going to be waking up. What have we been planting? What's there? And there's something much more vulnerable, much more visceral in the dark, away from the light. Mark: Mm hmm. Yeah, I think that's very well said. That whole, that kind of journeying piece about Going down into the dark which is so often a theme of, of guided meditations and solo journeying, inward work. It's a good time for doing that stuff. Yucca: Yeah. Mark: the, the body's circadian rhythms are really oriented towards sleep and it's it's a good time for dreaming. For, and I, I, when I think of, when I think about this in the, the context of the life cycle, and the context of a human life, it's a time for dreaming new stuff, Yucca: hmm. Mm Mark: uh, you know, dreaming new life, dreaming new ideas just starting to get those first glimmerings of what might And that's it. The what you plant next year and work to achieve. Yucca: Yeah, Mark: soon to get firm on those plans. It's all just Yucca: you can't be doing anything with the soil yet. It's, it's, whether there actually is snow or not, it's sleeping under that snow right now. Mark: right, right. Yeah, so it's, it's not a time. I mean, one of the things that I do appreciate about this holiday in the overculture, and there aren't very many things that I appreciate, but one of them is that for a week or so The world seems to hold its breath, at least for Christmas Eve and Christmas, those two days when commerce mostly finally stops, and people are at home with their families, and there's just, there's a silence in the world that I really appreciate, and that seems to persist to some degree through to New Year's. Yucca: Mm hmm. Mark: Most people are not going to work and I would imagine that Yucca: School's out for, Mark: School is out, Yucca: Yeah. Mark: all that sort of stuff. So, there's that, that withdrawal into the darkness that I really appreciate. The Connection to the Forests --- Yucca: Mm hmm. The other theme, uh, for me is the forests. So I see the, the Wheel of the Year, the different stations at it, or seasons, often celebrating different Types of ecosystems or components that are really connected to how we experience the world as humans and who we're connected with. And this half of the year is the forests. there's a, there's association with the, the forest there, particularly the the pine. Yeah whereas on the other side, we've got the grasslands, ? In the summer and the autumn, there's the grasslands, but now it's, it's the forests and the forest creatures and the and we'll get more into, you know, some of the, the bovines and ungulates and things later, but there's something very Very, for me, kind of ancient and primal about that, too, that kind of pulls back to, you know, different, some of my different roots in terms of my ancestry and that kind of connection with the forest. Mark: Sure. The Celebration of the Sun and Stars --- Yucca: And for a lot of people, it's also a celebration of the sun and of stars, ? And our sun as a star as well. Mark: Huh, yeah, yeah. I like that historically, the forest was a scary place to go into, for one reason, because it was dark, right? So, you know, you built your little island of civilization in your farmstead or whatever it was, but out beyond those fences, there was more uncertainty. And so going into the woods, you never knew what you were going to encounter, and there's more of that mystery, that going into the darkness. Yucca: But it's also necessary. Mark: Well, yes, Yucca: also where the, that's where you would go to hunt, ? That's where you'd go to gather your medicine. That's where you'd go for that. There's, you can't just stay out of it, ? You've got to go back in and be part of that whole system. Mark: which is very much like human psychology. Yucca: Mm hmm. Mark: You, there are layers and layers and layers of things. There are things that you may think you're over and you may not be over them. There are things that have been profound enough in your life that you may never be over them. You have to revisit them over and over again. You know, I have quite a number of things like that.  So I really like, at this time of year, to kind of take a step back, reflect, imagine, do all that sort of soft path under the surface kind of work, Yucca: Mm Mark: um, it just seems like an appropriate time when it's so dark and it's cozy inside and feels relatively safe to contend with some of that stuff. Yucca: Yeah.  The Coziness of the Season --- Yucca: I really like the coziness of just really getting into the coziness of this time of year. We, I use a diffuser with different oils in the house, and I don't buy into, like, the, you know, magical properties of, you know, this particular oil does this or that. I'm like, I like the smell of it. So I use it in the house, and I change those out throughout the season. And right now, you know, we're doing a lot of those very kind of Spicy, yummy cedars and cinnamons and all of that, just very cozy stuff this time of year with the big blankets and the cuddling with the kitty cat and all that, the warm drink and all that stuff. Mark: Absolutely, yeah. Yeah, I, I really like to lean into that stuff, too. It's I mean, I suppose it really should be thematic for the next and a half months, something like that, Yucca: Oh, we'll, we'll, Mark: time. Yucca: yep, we'll lean into that a lot. Yeah, and we'll, when we talk about the next holiday, we'll get into that more too. But, um, yeah. Mark: that, we'll talk about slog. Yucca: Slog, yes. So, and I think we said we were going to at some point come back to doing a darkness episode, probably sometime in January or something like that when we're really in the, um, kind of the thick of it. Mark: The deep cold, yeah. Yucca: yeah. Now there's some parts of the holiday too that you were talking about, like doing a tree or things like that. What's that like for you? Mark: Oh boy, I have so many observances at this time of year, so many traditions that I do, other than just redecorating my focus. We do do a tree, we have collected a set of ornaments over the years that are very thematic, a lot of, a lot of wildlife some antique. Glass ornaments from the 40s, 50s, and 60s that, you know, remind me of childhood. Some of the few happy memories that I have of childhood are evoked by the scent of that tree and by, you know, these old ornaments. And don't really buy presents for one another because we have too much stuff as it is. But what we do is put Cozy, appealing, charming things under the tree to sort of celebrate our abundance and so forth. We just got a bunch of internet, we went to, there's a store called Cost Plus here, I don't know if it exists elsewhere. Yucca: Yeah, we've got that here. Mark: it's a, it's an import store and so we got German cookies and English figgy pudding and a bunch of different things like that for the holiday and have those sitting under the tree right now. The Tradition of the Yule Log Ritual --- Mark: We do a Yule log ritual on the solstice night where we decorate, actually what I do is I take the lower half of the trunk of last year's Yule tree, which I sawed off and kept, and of course now it's dry. So what I do is I use some kind of natural fiber twine, like sisal or hemp or something like that, to tie that to a larger log, because, you know, Christmas tree trunks generally are Yucca: Not very thick, yeah. Mark: in diameter at max. And then we decorate that with holly and pyracantha berries and fresh boughs from the, from this year's Yule tree. And then, and we put candles on it. And then we tuck little notes into, under the twine and in amongst the branches and stuff that are wishes for the coming year. And when that's all done and we've done our Booga booga ritual stuff over it. We take it out and we burn it in our fire pit outside. And that's just, It's a cool thing to do. Yucca: hmm. Mark: My ritual circle does a ritual every year where we turn off all the lights in the house of my circle brother and sister. We go outside, you know, we get cold we have a little cauldron with some fire burning in it in the middle of us so we have a little bit of illumination. But we sing songs and really get ourselves into the whole mood and then each of us takes a taper. Lights it from the fire in the cauldron, and we go into the house again, and light every candle in the house, all throughout the Yucca: Oh, nice. Mark: bringing the light back. And that's a ritual that I really enjoy as well. Yucca: hmm. Mm Mark: How about celebrations at your house? Yucca: hmm. Well, we don't have a tree. They, we've got a, at their grandmother's, a Christmas tree. When we lived in the city, I did take I would take branches. Instead of taking the whole tree, I'd take branches and bring them into the house. And part of that was just I, just, I'm not a city person. It was hard for me to be in the city. So I just wanted any, like, I just craved that. The connection with the land that, and we weren't like smack in the middle of the city, we actually kind of on the, you know, a nicer part of town that did have a few trees and a yard and, you know, that sort of thing. But, um, so I would bring stuff in, but now, you know, we're, we're out. You know, out in the country and it doesn't, I don't miss it all in the same way because we're in, we're surrounded by it all the time, so I'm not, you know, feeling that thirst to bring stuff in as much but we do have, we do have some lights we have some like little solar LED Christmas lights that I think are meant to go out on your fence or something like that, but I just have the solar panel sitting in the window. And it does it well enough, and you know, it's a dark time of year, so it doesn't charge a lot, but it'll just go on as soon as the light sets in. Natural light fades and it runs for a few hours and we've gone to sleep at that point. So in terms of sort of the more traditional stuff, we do that. And again, for us, the Christmas and solstice are two different times. It's all related. And we've talked about how, you know, the, the history of, you know, why Christmas is on the day it is and the weird calendar switching stuff that happened and all of that. But when it's solstices and equinoxes, I like to set an alarm for the actual moment, ? Because that is an astronomical moment that happens, not just the day. And so this year, I think it's gonna be 827 p. m. our time. So I've got an alarm set so that when it does happen, the alarm can go off and we can go whoo and put our hands in the air. It's much better than when it happens at like 2 or 3 in the morning, because I do wake the kids up for that. We go whoo and then they go back to sleep. But this time I think it's nice that it's going to be during the day. night when we're still awake, but it's, it's been dark for a few hours at that point, so that'll be lovely. Mark: That sounds great.  The Celebration of Solstice in Different Cultures --- Mark: A friend of mine is doing a party that he used to do before COVID. This is the first time since the arrival of COVID, which of course isn't over, but Yucca: Mm hmm. Mark: we're doing parties again. So, he's doing a winter solstice vigil, which is an all night party that goes until dawn, and then you greet. Sun at the, they climb up to the top of the hill in San Francisco and greet the, greet the sun. I'm going to go, but I am not going to stay all night because the next morning I have to be in Yucca: isn't it? Solstice is a Wednesday night Mark: I thought it was Thursday. Yucca: I think it's the 21st this year for North America. It'll be the 22nd for Europe. But anyways, it's a Mark: Yeah, the 21st is the Thursday. Yucca: Oh, it is a Thursday? It's not Wednesday? Okay. I just had to Okay, great. Mark: That's good because I took Thursday and Friday off, and if it was on Wednesday , I would feel kind of silly. So. Yucca: Oh yeah, so it is the 21st. I said the day's wrong in my head. All right, so you'll have to, Mark: that next morning I have a part in a Unitarian Universalist solstice service, and so I'm not going to stay up all night, greet the sun, then jump in my car, drive 60 miles, and do that. That that sounds like dangerous to me.  Yucca: I don't know about you, but I can't do the whole stay up all night thing. I have not been able to do that in years. People do it for New Years. I'm like, nope, not doing it. I'll Mark: but I don't choose to very often. Yucca: If I need to be up at midnight, I'll go to sleep at 6 and I'll wake myself up at 11 30, but I'm not gonna. Stay up till midnight or one, yeah. Mark: huh. Yucca: Getting Mark: you're a mom, so sleep is really at a premium, Yucca: I like my sleep, yeah. But even before I was a mom, I do not do the staying up. I am not a good person to be around when I'm not rested. Thinking about all that self reflection, we do this type of year. Yeah, I've learned that. Like, nope. Need my sleep. So, but I think for people who that works for, I think that's lovely. I certainly remember being younger and feeling that, like, that kind of altered state of having stayed up all night. Mark: Yeah. More emotionally vulnerable and yeah well, this is a separate topic, but the fire circle rituals that I've been to many of, they go from typically eleven at night until dawn. Yucca: mm hmm, Mark: And there's the same kind of feeling, and you do them three nights in a row, Yucca: mm Mark: and catch some sleep during the day, but of course you don't get a full eight hours, so you are really sleep deprived by the last night, and everybody's just really tender and open, and it's, it's beautiful to be around a ton of people who are like that, but what you don't want to do is operate heavy machinery after having that experience. It's not, not safe. Yucca: Right. Heavy machinery, including cars. Just a Mark: That's, that's what I was meaning Yucca: Oh, yeah. Mark: yeah, cars. And I am 60 miles from San Francisco, and I don't want to have to drive on, you know, being awake 24 hours, Yucca: Yeah. Mark: back up to Santa Rosa. So, yeah, so I'm going to go to the party for a while, and then I'm going to come back, uh, and it'll be great to see some friends down there, but it'll also be great to catch some solid Zs, uh, on the morning before I have to do this other thing. We're we're having a, we're recording this on the 16th? Is Yucca: Yeah, it's Saturday the Mark: Yeah, Saturday the 16th, and tomorrow the Northern California Atheopagan Affinity Group is getting together for a Yule celebration. Yucca: Oh, yay. Mark: Yeah I'm driving down there and we're having a fire pit and sharing delicious, you know, cozy making food. There's a good chance it may rain. So I'm bringing stuff from mulled wine and we can sit inside and listen to the rain and drink mulled wine and Yucca: Lovely. You know, Mark: So are there other things that you do at this time of year? The Evolution of Family Traditions --- Yucca: it's still kind of evolving just as the, my kiddos are getting to an age where they can be part of creating those traditions, we'll see what happens over the next few years, right? So. Mark: Yeah. Yucca: Yeah, Mark: Yeah. I mean, and it's wonderful to let yourself kind of be led by their interests in this as well. Yucca: yeah, Mark: you'll develop traditions that are just your families and that's very cool. Yucca: right, yeah. And who knows, maybe, maybe that'll go, they'll, they'll remember that and do that with their families, or something different, or just it's one of the lovely things about what we were talking about in the beginning about it, just that spiraling back around to it. You know, each year there's something familiar but different, and over time that might change to something very different, but still have some of those same roots. Mark: Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's that's this sort of balancing act that happens in, in modern paganism, where on the one hand, it's very DIY, and you can create your own rituals, and those can all be unique. On the other hand, there's something to be said about tradition, about having these things that you do every year at a particular time of year. Just to acknowledge that it's that time of year and to create a particular feeling that you associate with that kind of, that time of year. I really enjoy both. There have been times, well, like, for example, my ritual circle, Dark Sun, does the same Hallows ritual every year. Yucca: Mm hmm. Mark: and I've talked about that before during those episodes. And there have been times when I've had, like, cool ideas for a hallows ritual, and I would have loved to do it with them, but nope, we're doing the traditional thing. So, I think there's both sides to that. The the to be creative and the desire to create tradition. Yucca: Yeah. Here we are. Conclusion and Farewell --- Mark: Here we are, once again, at the darkest time of year in the Northern Hemisphere, and the brightest in the Southern Hemisphere, so if you're enjoying summer, uh, have a wonderful time, you know, go swimming eat some ice cream, do all those things that one does in the summertime. For those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, we wish you a meaningful and joyous and warm and cozy solstice celebration and time of year. And we will be back next week. Yucca: Yep. See you next week.        ----more----

Ever struggled with chronic pain and found yourself lost in the labyrinth of the healthcare system? You're not alone. Meet Hayla Folden, a health insurance broker, who shares her personal journey of battling unexplained pain and her fight to navigate the murky waters of health insurance. Hayla's story is not just about her struggle; it's a beacon guiding us through the intricacies of working with hundreds of carriers across eight states to ensure her clients receive the best healthcare coverage. Join us as we plunge deeper into the nitty-gritty of health insurance for the self-employed. Hayla imparts her knowledge and strategies on how to find the right doctor, stressing the importance of asking the right questions, and understanding your own needs. But it's not all about doctors and insurance; Hayla also shares some valuable alternatives like Direct Primary Care and the role of initiatives like Mark Cuban's Cost Plus in lessening the burden of prescription costs. This episode is a treasure trove of insights for those seeking to better understand health insurance and its impact on their healthcare journey.Find Hayla on InstagramFind Hayla on FacebookSupport the show

After months of anticipation and rumors, the Michelin Guide bestowed five local restaurants a Michelin star at an exclusive ceremony in RiNo on Tuesday evening. There were big winners and big snubs. But was this moment the validation for Colorado's dining scene that we thought? Newsletter editor Peyton Garcia joins producers Paul Karolyi and Olivia Jewell Love to talk about who won, who lost, and talk through a revealing new report from the New York Times about how Michelin really works. Plus, our picks for the coolest events going down this weekend.  Would you hike four miles for Arby's? We want to know if you've ever participated in a stunt like that and what you'd hike four miles to try first. Leave us a voicemail or a text at 720-500-5418, and you might hear it on the show soon! Here are links to the events Peyton mentioned: Hispanic Heritage Celebration (Aurora) Michelada Fest at Mile High Flea Market (Henderson) Sand Creek Mural Festival (Central Park) Hunger Free 303 (Wash Park) For even more news and cool events around the city, subscribe to our morning newsletter Hey Denver at denver.citycast.fm. Follow us on Instagram: @citycastdenver Chat with other listeners on reddit: r/CityCastDenver Learn more about the sponsors of this episode: Thirst Denver BadBoyBoards. The first five listeners who show up to their new retail location's opening today (Sept. 14) and mention City Cast Denver will get a free cutting board! Looking to advertise on City Cast Denver? Check out our options for podcast and newsletter ads at citycast.fm/advertise Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

[00:02:23] Close relationship with Callaway and Travis Matthew. Topgolf is future of company. [00:05:54] Late to market, focused on value. [00:08:33] Cost Plus pricing: Calculate costs, add markup. Weaknesses: Customer perception, competition's pricing. [00:13:32] Extensive price history, AOV increase, wallet market. [00:15:02] Gucci wallet: affordable gift with high demand. [00:18:39] Affordable premium product, strong email deliverability. Exceptional. [00:21:44] Pricing strategy: gross margin, cost optimization, discounts. [00:25:38] Failed auction website experiment reveals psychological pricing. [00:29:49] Differentiation is key in pricing strategy. [00:33:46] Audit costs and lack of systems explained. [00:37:42] Price psychology and price buckets are important. A Dutch auction maximizes revenue. Consider industry-specific price buckets for better pricing. [00:42:18] Supply and demand is real, price affects demand. Testing pricing can be helpful. Successful retailers discount. Higher pricing acquires fewer customers. Luxury brands target fewer customers. Understand who you're trying to talk to. Pricing drives customer acquisition. Lower prices can introduce people to a brand. [00:48:14] Surviving middle market through omnichannel pricing. [00:49:56] Multiples mean nothing. Factors: growth, profit, sector, supply, demand. [00:53:57] Zimmerman sold for $1.6 billion, impressive. The importance of actual money in deals. Value determined by what someone pays. [00:57:47] Think like competitors, know your value, sell. In the world of eCommerce, a legendary WhatsApp group is rumored to hold the secrets to unimaginable success. The catch? You must have nine figures in revenue to gain entry. The world's biggest brands have denied its existence for years, until now. Three titans known as "Operators" are leaking the secret contents in an effort to share their wealth of knowledge with people like you. Powered By: Northbeam. https://www.northbeam.io/ Sendlane. https://learn.sendlane.com/operators Fulfil.io. https://bit.ly/3pAp2vu Visit Our Website: https://www.9operators.com/ Follow us on Twitter: Sean (Host) https://twitter.com/SeanEcom Jason (Host) https://twitter.com/JasonPanzer Matt (Host) https://twitter.com/mbertulli Mike (Host) https://twitter.com/mikebeckhamsm Finn (Producer) https://twitter.com/finn_radford Northbeam (Partner) https://twitter.com/northbeam Fulfil.io (Partner) https://twitter.com/fulfilio Sendlane (Partner) https://twitter.com/Sendlane We Rise Together. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/9operators/message

Dad-ager Marc D'Amelio discusses the 200 million+ TikTok followers that his two daughters Dixie and Charli D'Amelio have amassed in the past few years. In the content creating family's latest IRL venture, D'Amelio Brands is getting into the food business. Insurer Blue Shield of California is teaming up with Amazon and Mark Cuban's online pharmacy Cost Plus; CNBC's Bertha Coombs discusses the move away from traditional drug store chains, the pressure it's putting on CVS, and how much money each player is hoping to save consumers. Plus, options activity put pressure on the S&P 500 this week, NYC has banned TikTok on government devices, and Buy Buy Baby stores are making a comeback.Bertha Coombs - 14:32Marc D'Amelio - 23:38In this episode:Marc D'Amelio, @marcdamelioBertha Coombs, @berthacoombsJoe Kernen, @JoeSquawkAndrew Ross Sorkin, @andrewrsorkinKelly Evans, @KellyCNBCCameron Costa, @CameronCostaNY

Photo: No known restrictions on publication. @B #NASA: Cost plus contracts vs fixed cost contracts & the rise of commercial space. Bob Zimmerman BehindtheBlack.com https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/essays-and-commentaries/nasa-official-in-charge-of-its-manned-program-denigrates-the-idea-of-fixed-price-contracts/ 1899 atchelorshow

The concept of cost-plus dates back to the earliest manufacturing days. You could call it a historical view of pricing strategy. But so much has changed since those first Model T's rolled off the assembly line. The ubiquitous nature of machine readable data is one force; the power of AI is another; the complexity and abundance of supply chains is yet another. Add it all together, and you've got a renaissance in pricing! Find out more on this special episode of DM Radio as Host @eric_kavanagh interviews Pascal Yammine and Barrett Thompson of Zilliant, and Lou Simon of Uptima Elevate.

Lisa and Amy discuss the nuances of a comparable sale and how that differs from the cost of purchasing land and paying a builder to build a home.

At the 2023 edition of RAPID + TCT held in Chicago, Additive Manufacturing Media editors noticed evidence of AM's maturation both in terms of technical capability and utility for end-use applications. Stephanie Hendrixson, Peter Zelinski and Fiona Lawler discuss themes discovered at the event, including more precise DED, new tools for process monitoring, more sophisticated understanding of AM and sustainability, AM winning on cost and much more. Find photos and video from the show in this blog post on our website.   This episode is brought to you by Formnext Forum: Austin.   Mentioned in this episode: RAPID + TCT Fiona Lawler's work for Additive Manufacturing Media   Sustainability Caracol robot-based DED used to 3D print wind turbines from old wind turbines Thermwood's LSAM 510 3D printer used to print chairs live at the show SABIC's LNP ELCRIN WF006NiQ resin made with post-consumer PET An impeller 3D printed with Uniformity Labs' Ti64 Grade 23, with scan time reduced by 1.5× Uniformity labs: aluminum powder for LPBF Uniformity Labs: cut off stock/metal material options Xtellar's recently launched flexible EVA derived from sugarcane Thermoform dental aligner tool made with Jabil's PLA3110P powder for SLS 3D printing NatureWorks' Ingeo for 3D printing Sustainability episode with Tim Simpson EOS's PA 12 and PA 11 materials precertified for environmental impact EOS Cost & Carbon Calculator Cost as a driver of AM production Divergent Adaptive Production System (DAPS) for cost-effective 3D printed vehicle chassis components Wurth Additive Group's automotive body clip now made additively DMG MORI's Lasertec 30 SLM US developed and manufactured in Davis, California  Fabrisonic's SonicLayer 1600 hybrid ultrasonic additive manufacturing (UAM) machine Formlabs' Form3B+ for healthcare professionals and medical devices  3D printed titanium mountain bike brake lever produced by Trumpf as an affordable alternative to machined aluminum and carbon fiber Process monitoring Nexa3D XiP Pro desktop 3D printer for LCD-based vat photopolymerization Exum Industries' MassBox for desktop mass spectrometry  Renishaw calibration device for laser powder bed fusion DED getting more precise Mitsubishi AZ600 wire-laser metal 3D printer InssTek multi-material rocket nozzle produced with powder-fed DED New Infrared Technology's Clamir system for controlling DED through meltpool width Meltio's CNC machine tool integration from IMTS Meltio integration with machine tool as seen at IMTS Formalloy's introduction of DEDSMart for wire DED DEDSmart system from Formalloy seen at IMTS Acquisitions as a means of diversification Xtellar, Braskem's new 3D materials division PX100 Digital Metal binder jetting platform now available from Markforged 3D Systems acquired Titan Robotics Ultimaker and Makerbot merger Collaboration BASF Forward AM Solutions Development team / Ultrasim3D Lattice Engine developed with Hyperganic New HP automation for powder handling and automation accessory for swapping build units  Endeavor 3D contract manufacturer that is a member of the Digital Manufacturing Partner network Flavor of the Show Xjet 3D printed ceramic mouthpieces Xjet ceramic printing process nTop rebrands and introduces nTop 4.0 Inkbit and why AM is great for drones and robots     polySpectra tensile test and tea kettle demonstration HP minifactory 3D Systems Titan Robotics chair

Join host Spencer Smith on another episode of Self-Funded with Spencer, as he welcomes the PBM Princess, Rachel Strauss from EHIM. In this engaging and informative podcast episode, Rachel shares valuable insights about the Pharmacy Benefits Management industry and EHIM's merger with ProCare Rx. Rachel and Spencer also take a deep dive into the importance of transparency in PBMs and how it affects the relationship between PBM and clients. Rachel shares her journey of becoming a PBM consultant and how she found her niche as a problem solver, helping clients navigate complex healthcare systems and policies. This episode discusses PBM selection and highlights the challenges of determining which PBM would work best for your company. Rachel shares her thoughts on a pricing model called "Cost Plus", which Mark Cuban has popularized recently in the world pf Pharmacy Benefit Management. Additionally, the podcast highlights the need to align PBM incentives to client goals, the importance of understanding client priorities, and writing RFPs that align with them. In this engaging conversation, Rachel shares her prediction on the reporting mandates that will track dollars and rebates, potentially affecting the earnings of some companies. Another important aspect of Rachel's work is in fixing problems, rather than just identifying them. She explains that her role is not just about diagnosing issues but providing actionable solutions that can make a difference in the lives of patients and providers. Rachel's work is guided by her passion for improving healthcare access and quality, and she encourages others to find their own purpose and drive in their work. Don't miss the fun banter between Spencer and Rachel as they share stories, opinions, and experiences. Tune in now for an engaging and informative conversation on pharmacy benefits management, self-funding, and everything in between! Chapters; [00:00:00] Introducing "PBM Princess" Rachel Strauss [00:02:32] PBM Princess's Impact in Sales & EHIM's Merger [00:05:50] The Rise of Transparent PBMs [00:08:59] EHIM's Integration into ProCare for Advanced Tech [00:11:59] Navigating emotional experience of company acquisition [00:14:46] Navigating the Complex PBM Industry [00:17:44] Pharmacy Benefit Management complexities and Mark Cuban's involvement [00:20:26] Spread Pricing in Pharmacy Benefit Industry and Mark Cuban's Launch [00:23:22] Strategies for Saving Costs in PBM Industry [00:26:14] PBM Tactics and Rebates Issues [00:29:05] The Deceptive Nature of Pharmaceutical Rebates [00:32:04] EHIM's formulary strategy and committed rebate transparency [00:35:00] Private Equity in PBMs [00:40:37] Turning Healthcare Data into Actionable Insights [00:43:30] Customized Services for Diverse Client Goals [00:46:30] Third-party Vendor Blacklisting and PBM Priorities [00:49:30] Debate on Ozempic coverage for weight loss [00:52:27] Insurance Coverage of Bariatric Surgery [00:55:19] Creativity and Collaboration in PBM #PBMs #pharmacybenefits #consultants #EHIM #ProCareRx #specialtydrugs #transparency #rebates #formulary #privateequity #dataanalytics #medicalcompliance #Ozempic #obesity #bariatricsurgery #creativity #partnerships #healthcareindustry #podcasts #podcastingtips #podcastingcommunity #businessstrategies #salesindustry #employersponsoredplans #specialtypharmacy #pharmacycosts --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/spencer-harlan-smith/support

Professional Builders Secrets brings you an exclusive episode with Co-founders of the Association of Professional Builders Russ Stephens and Sky Stephens, along with APB's Head Coach, Andy Skarda. Throughout this episode, the trio delve into the key differences between fixed price and cost plus contracts, the pros and cons of each option, and how builders can go about making the switch. INSIDE EPISODE 79 YOU WILL DISCOVER The difference between fixed price and cost plus, and which is better for you Potential downsides of each contract type The impact of the past few years on builders' pricing strategies and how it may have affected their decisions Why so many builders are struggling with pricing How you can switch strategies And much, much more. Listen to the full episode to uncover exactly how switching to fixed price contracts can help to set your building company up for success. ABOUT RUSS STEPHENS Co-founder of the Association of Professional Builders, Russ is a data analysis expert who has introduced data-driven decision making to the residential construction industry. Russ is also a proud member of the Forbes Business Development Council. Connect with Russ: linkedin.com/in/russstephens ABOUT SKY STEPHENS Co-founder of the Association of Professional Builders, Sky specialises in taking complex business strategies and converting them into actionable step-by-step guides for building company owners. Sky is also a proud member of The National Association of Women in Construction and the Top 100 Women in the broader construction sector. Connect with Sky: linkedin.com/in/skycheristephens ABOUT ANDY SKARDA Head Coach at the Association of Professional Builders, Andy specialises in helping business owners in the building industry identify and implement the skills and systems they need to be successful, without needing to go back to school. Or more importantly, without going bust. Connect with Andy: linkedin.com/in/andy-skarda-92a6875/ TIMELINE 2:01 The difference between fixed price and cost plus 6:59 The downside of fixed price and cost plus 17:39 Builders who are adamant about using cost plus contracts 25:53 Builders we've seen transition from cost plus to fixed price 28:26 Can you offer both options to a client? 29:12 Can fixed price contracts be dangerous in the long term? LINKS, RESOURCES & MORE APB Website: associationofprofessionalbuilders.com APB Rewards: associationofprofessionalbuilders.com/rewards/ APB on Instagram: instagram.com/apbbuilders/ APB on Facebook: facebook.com/associationofprofessionalbuilders APB on YouTube: youtube.com/c/associationofprofessionalbuilders Join the Professional Builders Secrets Facebook group for builders & connect with professional builders world-wide: facebook.com/groups/builderssecrets

This Podcast Is Episode Number 520, And It's About The Problem With High-Profit Jobs In The Construction Industry Many problems can be traced back to the "Halo Effect," which happens when a contractor thinks, "We are so good at (fill in the blank) we should expand into (fill in the blank)." The most common situation is when a residential remodel contractor with a reputation and a substantial company generating 15% or more profits decides to start building custom homes. Or the opposite, a home builder who decides to branch out into residential remodeling. Residential Remodel Contractor Building A Home The processes, tools, equipment, materials, skills, and invoicing procedures required to build a house from the ground up differ entirely from modifying a home with people living there. The remodeling contractor uses a form of "Cost Plus" or "Not To Exceed" to provide the homeowner with the scope of work and a contract price the bank needs to finance the construction. That process can work for a residential remodel because the house is already in place, which helps define the size and scope of the project. The size and scope of the homeowner's dream house are limited only by what the building codes will allow. When the labor, material, other costs, and subcontractor bills pile up, the remodeling contractor asks for a construction draw and is told the bank needs a Pay Application filled out and submitted. Then it will take a while for the bank inspector to review the project and approve the draw. This is when the remodeling contractor figures out they are providing all the labor, material, other costs, and subcontractor expense up front and getting paid only when and if the building inspectors, architect, bank, and the client agree to the draw request. Home Builder Doing A Residential Remodel The processes, tools, equipment, materials, skills, and invoicing procedures required to modify a home with people living in it differ entirely from building a house from the ground up. New construction workers are more like cave dwellers with a brute-force mentality. If something doesn't fit or will not work the way they want, they use more brute force until it does. Every problem has one answer "Brute Force." The same goes for managing sub-contractors and suppliers. The home builder bids on a residential remodel project using the exact square foot costs they have continuously operated in building houses and quickly discovers the meaning of "Hidden Costs." These costs include dry rot, cracked foundations, broken plumbing, bad wiring, worn-out HVAC, and other unpleasant surprises. Homeowners living in the house while the remodel is happening do not ever want to be without water, lights, heat, and privacy, and they don't know how much debris, dust, and noise is involved in a remodel. Homeowners want to believe everything is included in the original contract price, including the little extras they think of along the way. When it comes to change orders, that is something most home builders do not understand. They don't have a process for tracking them, let alone pricing and getting paid for doing them. Most trade contractors and subcontractors working on residential remodel projects understand change orders and how to pressure the builder to get paid. Too often, this is the main reason home builders go bankrupt - cash flow issues. The Solution Most construction business owners who use accounting software quickly master the basics. They automate processes like invoicing and payroll, track expenses, and view real-time financial reports to manage cash flow and make better business decisions. The problem is that high-profit jobs have a way of turning into low or no-profit jobs, and in some cases, they can bankrupt your construction company because you bid on the project using whatever model you are accustomed to using, and in the end, you wind up with cash flow problems. But what many business owners don't take advantage of are key insights that can improve customer care and increase sales. With the help of your accounting software, you can continue to provide services that you're good at, work on improving them, and help boost your bottom line. Gain insights that increase sales If you're not tapping into your accounting software analytics to better understand your clients, you're missing a significant opportunity to close more sales. Most accounting software can highlight your biggest spenders and buying trends. Knowing who your best clients are, your most extensive selling products and services, and how much each customer spends impact your marketing decisions – not to mention - help you fine-tune your sales strategies. Improve customer care and boost profits Accounting software can offer peace of mind when you know your financials are accurate and up to date. But another significant advantage of an online accounting solution is how much time you'll save by automating processes like invoicing and payroll – giving you more time to follow up with clients and seek out new prospects. We all know how important the personal touch is in sales. So why not use your accounting software client data to help remember your customers' birthdays or thank them when they've hit a milestone – being on your subscription service for five years, for example? With enhanced customer data at your fingertips, your construction business will earn a reputation for personalized service. You'll be able to respond quickly when a client calls with a question about a service. And you'll be able to suggest substitutions and offer valuable add-ons based on their buying preferences, so upselling becomes a snap. How will you use accounting software to grow your small contracting business? Savvy construction business owners take the first step toward better profitability when they stop thinking of accounting software as a financial management solution and consider it a comprehensive tool for business growth. You may be surprised at how accounting software can help you better serve your customers or improve your sales strategies when you look at its true potential. Final Thoughts For your construction company to survive and thrive in any economy, you must pick a niche market and develop your Strategic Business Process Management System (BPM) with written goals of what you want to accomplish and how much money you want to earn. Once you have picked your construction specialty, stick with it no matter what, and in the end, you will have the best chance of making much money and retiring wealthy. All contractors who try to do the right thing deserve to be rich because they bring value to other people's lives. About The Author: Sharie DeHart, QPA, co-founded Business Consulting And Accounting in Lynnwood, Washington. She is the leading expert in managing outsourced construction bookkeeping and accounting services companies and cash management accounting for small construction companies across the USA. She encourages Contractors and Construction Company Owners to stay current on their tax obligations and offers insights on managing the remaining cash flow to operate and grow their construction company sales and profits so they can put more money in the bank. Call 1-800-361-1770 or sharie@fasteasyaccounting.com  

Our guest on this episode is Mark Cuban. In addition to a storied business career that includes owning the NBA's Dallas Mavericks and a role on ABC's Shark Tank, Mark is the founder and lead investor in the Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company, a generic pharmaceutical distributor that prices medications at cost, plus a 15% administrative markup and any relevant pharmacy and shipping fees. Founded in early 2022, over 1.7M patients have signed up for the service in their first year, and Cost Plus Drugs now offers over 1,000 generic medications for purchase on their website. Mark founded the company with CEO Dr. Alex Oshmyansky, a pediatric radiologist who originally tried to start an organization similar to Cost Plus Drugs as a non-profit, before pivoting and convincing Mark to be his partner. In this episode, I spoke with Mark about: His journey to starting Cost Plus Drugs How the company is able to drive down prices so drastically compared to the existing players How incumbents, such as traditional pharmacy benefit managers and new entrants, such as the Amazon RxPass, will impact the success of Cost Plus Drugs

This week on The Build Show Podcast, Matt and Jeremy Martin of RisherMartin Fine Homes out of Austin, Texas, go deep into fixed-price vs. cost-plus contracts. Jeremy and his partner, Chris Risher, have been in business together for a year, but they've been in the industry since 2010. They do a mix of architect-driven remodeling and new home building but started as a renovation company. They believe, as Matt does, that being a remodeler makes you a better builder because you can see what has gone wrong in the homes you're remodeling and take action to prevent those issues in new projects. RisherMartin works mainly with fixed-price contracts, while Risinger Build works with cost-plus agreements. They drill into what makes a good fixed-price job and what's a better fit for a cost-plus builder, and what those processes look like. Listen in while they discuss the risks and benefits of both business models for builders and their clients. You can find RisherMartin at @rishermartin on Instagram Their website is: https://www.rishermartin.com/

The future of pharmacy benefits is inside the local community. Cost Plus Pharmacies empowers the local independent pharmacies to run independently of PBMs. We talk with Blueberry Pharmacy, Dr. Kyle McCormick, PharmD who runs his pharmacy "cash only" no-insurance. Then we talk with Dr. Angela Riley, PharmD, about how HIV care is evolving.   This episode is sponsored by Omnipod®: Visit Omnipod.com for more information.

Brad Leavitt is President and Founder of “A Finer Touch Construction” - a Scottsdale based luxury residential and commercial builder. AFT Construction, as known throughout the industry, is an award-winning construction firm and has been nationally published in magazines such as: Fine Home Building, Luxe Interiors and Design, and Professional Builder. Brad was awarded as an “Icon” in the AZ building industry by Sources for Design in October, 2019. He was also recognized as a 2022 Phoenix Titan 100. The Titan 100 program recognizes Phoenix's Top 100 CEO's & C-level executives. They are the area's most accomplished business leaders in their industry using criteria that includes demonstrating exceptional leadership, vision, and passion. Brad is an energetic public speaker and ambassador for many national brands. He completed a Bachelor of Science in Construction Management from BYU in 2005 and worked on notable projects around Phoenix, including the Omni Montelucia in Paradise Valley. His Podcast, “The AFT Construction Podcast”, is focused on bringing value to its listeners, no matter their industry. The topics are focused on marketing, social media, entrepreneurship, organization, building science and construction.  In this episode we discuss what Brad did to build his company from scratch to do doing large multi-million dollar projects, how to manage the fluctuating prices, and what and how you should be charging for your services. 3:36 Starting in the Business  6:10 What does it take to become a contractor  10:03 Breaking into the high end luxury market 13:59 Business challenges today 19:30 Net Zero High Performance 20:47 Cost Plus 31:36 Current developments and changes in the industry   For more from Brad and AFT: social media: @aft_construction  AFT Construction Podcast www.aftconstruction.com  

In this episode, our guest is Dr. Erin Albert who is a

Keaton and Evan hit the ground running by breaking down how out of touch some influencers are. Cost + Drugs is saving people tons of money and you should be taking advantage of it. ( costplusdrugs.com ) Cost plus drugs tik tok video: https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTRGUsNyh/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/simply_technicl Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/simplytechnicl/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/simply_technicl/ Intro/Outro Song: Suburbs by Nick Midnight https://music.apple.com/us/album/suburbs/1318520299?i=1318520676

It's In the News, a look at the top stories from the diabetes community from the last seven days. This week: Cost Plus pharmacy starts putting out feelers about insulin, asking people to take part in a pilot program, EO Flow looks at the US market for their new patch pump, quite a few new studies about type 2 diabetes drugs, a study about slowing down type 1 in kids and much more! Learn more about the T1D exchange and drive research that matters! www.t1dexchange.org/stacey Check out Stacey's books! Join the Diabetes Connections Facebook Group! Sign up for our newsletter here Episode Transcription Below (or coming soon!) Please visit our Sponsors & Partners - they help make the show possible! *Learn more about OMNIPOD* *Learn more about AFREZZA* *Learn more about DEXCOM* Hello and welcome to Diabetes Connections In the News! I'm Stacey Simms and these are the top diabetes stories and headlines of the past seven days. XX In the news is brought to you by The T1D Exchange - Help drive research that matters. XX Possible new player in the US Patch pump business. EO Flow has submitted a 510(k) application to the FDA for its EOPatch wearable, disposable insulin pump. EO Flow is based in California and has launched the pump in South Korea. The company also has FDA breakthrough device designation on an integrated artificial pancreas. The website says EOPancreas is a wearable disposable artificial pancreas system that integrates a continuous glucose sensor and an insulin pump in one small wearable module and autonomously controls insulin infusion. They're looking for a US partner for the pump and hope to launch in 2024. http://www.eoflow.com/eng/eopatch/eopatch_010100.html https://www.drugdeliverybusiness.com/eoflow-submits-insulin-patch-pump-fda-clearance/ XX Your time in range before getting a COVID vaccine may predict your body's response. This was a small study, 25 patients with type 1 who received two doses of a COVID vaccine. Researchers followed the group two weeks before before and six months after the shots. Main outcome measures: The primary exposure and outcome measures were pre-vaccination glucose control, and antibody response after vaccination, respectively. Patients meeting the recommended pre-vaccination glucose targets of TIR (≥70%) and TAR (≤25%), developed stronger neutralizing antibody titres (p < 0.0001 and p = 0.008, respectively), regardless of HbA1c. highlighting a role for well-controlled blood glucose in vaccination efficacy. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36611249/ XX New study in kids with type 1 seems to show that the drug golimumab – brand name Simponi – can help preserve beta cell function. This is the Tiger study which included people ages 6 to 21 years old with T1D and given either the drug or a placebo for 52 weeks the off the drug for another year. The group taking the drug used less insulin and had a higher c peptide level in the time after the medication stopped, indicating that there was a difference. https://diabetesjournals.org/care/article-abstract/doi/10.2337/dc22-0908/148228/Two-Year-Follow-up-From-the-T1GER-Study-Continued?redirectedFrom=fulltext XX New study confirming what a lot of you already know, Metformin failure in people with type 2 diabetes is very common, particularly among those with high A1c levels at the time of diagnosis. An analysis of electronic health record data for more than 22,000 patients starting metformin at three US clinical sites found that over 40% experienced metformin failure. This was defined as either failure to achieve or maintain A1c less than 7% within 18 months or the use of additional glucose-lowering medications. "These results call into question the ubiquitous use of metformin as the first-line therapy and suggest a more individualized approach may be needed to optimize therapy," they add in their article published online in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism. The investigators identified a total of 22,047 metformin initiators from three clinical primary care sites: the University of Mississippi's Jackson centers, which serves a mostly African American population, the Mountain Park Health Center in Arizona, a seven-clinic federally qualified community health center in Phoenix that serves a mostly Latino population, and the Rochester Epidemiology Project, which includes the Mayo Clinic and serves a primarily White population. https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/986994 XX The FDA has approved a label update for semaglutide that allows the drug to be used in addition to diet and exercise as a first-line option to improve glycemic control in adults with type 2 diabetes. The brand name here is Wegovy. With its initial FDA approval in 2019, semaglutide became the first and only glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) analog in pill form. https://www.pharmacytimes.com/view/fda-approves-label-update-for-semaglutide-allowing-use-as-first-line-option-for-adults-with-type-2-diabetes XX Merk says it's diabetes drugs Januvia and Janumet have become contaminated with a potential carcinogen.. and it can resolve the problem by the end of the year. The company submitted a report to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and other regulators. The impurity arose mostly during storage, as well as during manufacturing, Bloomberg News said. The FDA said in August certain samples of sitagliptin, a compound in Merck's diabetes drugs Januvia and Janumet, were contaminated with a possible carcinogen. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-01-17/merck-mrk-ready-to-remove-cancer-linked-chemical-from-diabetes-drugs-in-2023 XX Researchers studying new methods for improving blood sugar control in type 2 diabetes have discovered an old class of antipsychotic drugs may offer clues to a novel kind of treatment for hyperglycemia. While the researchers propose the old drugs could be directly repurposed to treat diabetes, they could also be slightly modified to more specifically target blood sugar control. The class of drugs, known as (DPBPs), were developed back in the 1960s and are still used today. The researchers say they “They all improve blood sugar control by preventing the muscle from burning ketones as a fuel source.” Because the DPBP drugs are already approved medicines the researchers hope to quickly move to proof-of-principal human trials. This would establish whether these preclinical findings are reproducible in human patients. The new study was published in the journal Diabetes. https://newatlas.com/medical/old-antipsychotic-drugs-new-class-diabetes-treatment/ XX Another study showing an AID system works well for people with type 2. Scientists from University of Cambridge set up a small study, no surprise, the closed loop system did a lot better than standard injection therapy – people stayed in target range 66-percent of the time versus 32-percent with shots. That was an additional 8 hours a day of time in range. https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/type-2-diabetes-artificial-pancreas-may-soon-be-an-option XX Dexcom gives us a little more information about the G7. I interviewed Kevin Sayer for this week's long format interview and he says the G7 will launch in the US during this first quarter.. so by the end of March. He also gave a more pessimistic view for interoperability with Tandem and Omnipod than we've heard – with Tandem end of summer early fall and Omnipod 5 next year. It's up to those companies, not Dexcom. XX T1D Exchange XX On the podcast next week.. how are those new year's resolutions going? If you haven't kept them up, maybe you tried to do too much at once? Nutritionist Ben Tzeel joins me to talk about how to get back on track. I mentioned last week's episode with Dexcom CEO Kevin Sayer. We talk about the G7 launch and lots more, including their plans for the type 2 community and moving into “health” That's In the News for this week.. if you like it, please share it! Thanks for joining me! See you back here soon.

Tony Tzeng, Chief Product Officer at Transfix, joins us in this tech in action interview to highlight the evolution of cost plus and how Transfix TrueRate+ helps customers rethink pricing with its transparent pricing system. He is joined by FreightWaves Enterprise Trucking Carrier Expert, Thomas Wasson, in this fireside chat.Love's Truck Care & Speedco is the nation's largest preventative maintenance network over the road. With more than 1,500 maintenance bays offering light mechanical services and DOT inspections, we've invested in our locations and staff to get your drivers back on the road quickly and safely. Visit loves.com to learn more.Follow FreightWaves on Apple PodcastsFollow FreightWaves on SpotifyMore FreightWaves Podcasts

What is the Right Price for My Product? This is one of the most common questions business owners must answer. Defining your pricing strategy is critical to your success because it tells prospective customers a lot about your business, helping them place you in relationship to other companies in the market. So how do you come up with that price? There are many different approaches to pricing. Some are easier to implement and manage than others, and some are more appropriate for specific types of businesses. Let's take a look at some of those alternatives to help you select the right pricing strategy for your business. Cost Plus Pricing Strategy The is the simplest approach and very common in construction and contracting industries. Essentially you start with what it cost you to build or to provide a service. Then you simply add your profit margin on top of that number. The “cost plus” your profit margin. If something costs $100 to build and you want to make $25, you sell it for $125. While the cost plus approach will guarantee a profit, it doesn't mean you're pricing your product or service appropriately. Maybe your cost plus analysis results in a price of $125, but people are willing to pay $200 or $300 because of the value. In this case you are leaving money on the table. 

(0:00) Welcome Rashad(1:20) Ghostwriting tweets(16:18) Mark Cuban backstory(17:24) Introducing Mark Cuban(18:23) When Bill Gates stole Mark's girl(19:24) Making his email public(20:49) Mark's superpower(22:29) Advice for young entrepreneurs(25:52) Growing up in Pittsburgh(30:27) Owning the sales process(35:18) Mark's journey(41:10) Retiring at 30(44:00) Broadcast.com(47:50) Recognizing the internet bubble(50:25) Crypto and early Internet parallels(58:28) Buying the Mavericks(1:02:50) Create your own narrative(1:06:08) Fame(1:08:37) Cost Plus Drugs(1:26:30) Rapid fire questions(1:31:25) Problem with the SEC(1:40:24) Outro Mixed and edited: Justin HrabovskyProduced: Andrew Nadeau and Rashad AssirExecutive Producer: Josh MachizMusic: Griff Lawson 

Today, we have two interviews with founders innovating in the US prescription drug market to bring prices down for consumers. First up, Molly talks with Alex Oshmyansky, CEO of The Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company, about building a "parallel supply chain", the importance of transparency, and a breakdown of the "financial engineering" in the industry. (3:22) Then, she talks to Capital RX CEO AJ Loiacono for a full breakdown on PBMs (pharmacy benefit managers) and the opaque pharmaceutical supply chain. (40:35) (0:00) Molly intros today's two interviews (3:22) Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drugs Company CEO and Founder Alex Oshmyansky on operating a startup while still being a practicing doctor and Cost Plug Drugs' business model (11:21) Harmonic - Get $4000 off at https://harmonic.ai/twist (12:43) Alex explains the state of the US drug space, why they're trying to build a "parallel supply chain", the importance of transparency, and the origin story of the company (23:44) Prometheus - Go to https://prometheusalts.com or download it on the App Store and use the access code TWIST to sign up (25:11) Drug production, hot button drug issues (32:16) Alex explains the "financial engineering" and profiteering in the prescription drug space (39:15) BairesDev - Go to https://baires.dev/twist and get $10,000 off when you sign your first contract (40:35) Molly intros the next guest: Capital RX CEO AJ Loiacono, who explains the convoluted and opaque pharmaceutical supply chain (54:30) Understanding PBMs (pharmacy benefit managers) and the broader healthcare industry (1:04:09) AJ gets into his background, starting Capital RX, and how it fits into the ecosystem

Serial entrepreneur Mark Cuban was one of the very first guests on How I Built This, way back in 2016. Mark has been founding and investing in startups for decades, but he's never put his name on a company until now. This week on How I Built This Lab, Mark joins Guy to talk about what he's been up to since he was last on the show. They discuss his interest in NFTs and how his latest business, the Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company, is looking to disrupt the pharmaceutical industry. Listen to Mark's original How I Built This episode: https://wondery.com/shows/how-i-built-this/episode/10386-serial-entrepreneur-mark-cuban/See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.