Podcasts about W2

Kiera is joined by Alexis Gallati, founder and lead tax strategist at Cerebral Tax Advisors, to talk about tax strategy not just for 2025 success, but 2026 and beyond. They discuss asking your CPA the right questions, shifting income from your higher tax bracket down, the Augusta rule, and a ton more. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:00) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and today I am super jazzed. I have an incredible guest joining us on the podcast today ⁓ to talk about last minute tax strategies before April 15th. Like why not? I mean, hey, maybe you were like, you're not the early bird. You were like, shoot, I forgot. Like what things can I do? And so I'm super excited. Alexis Gallati, she reached out to us. ⁓ She is founder and lead tax strategist at Cerebral Tax Advisors.   Ansari Real Wealth Academy. And I was so excited about this topic because I know you guys know I love to geek out about this and I have it on my vision board of tax expert ahead. Like I hate taxes. I love taxes. I believe that taxes are such a beautiful way for us to pay to be in this incredible country. But you better believe I don't want to pay a penny more than I need to. So really figuring that out just a little bit about her is she is got a dual master's degree in business administration and taxation, which is super rad because   Let's be real, she gets the business side of it. She gets the taxation and we were chatting before and she was like, what people make like their top line revenue versus their take home pay are two different things. And I was like, amen sister, preach on. She's enrolled agent, NTPI fellow and certified tax strategist. She also is the author of advanced tax planning for medical professionals. She specializes in high level strategic tax planning and multi-state tax preparation for healthcare professionals and business owners. She's raised in a family of physicians and married to one.   She empathizes with the financial challenges medical professionals face. This personal connection inspired her to create accessible, unbiased tax solutions tailored to their busy lives. Driven by passion and guided by cerebral thinking, Alexis forms Cerebral to help professionals keep more of their hard earned money. Amen sister. That's what we want. That's why you're here. Their approach breaks the mold of traditional financial advice, offering a unique perspective for medical professionals and business owners. So while yes, she's not 1000 % dental guys were in the healthcare world and she's so brilliant. So Alexis, welcome to the show today. How are you?   Alexis Gallati (01:54) Thank you so much for having me. I'm doing very well. Hope you had a wonderful holiday season.   The Dental A Team (01:58) Yes, likewise. And I was so excited when I heard that you would be a guest on our podcast. I geek out about this, Alexis, I know it's like our first day meeting, but ⁓ I just think the world of tax is such the game of monopoly. And I'm like, if you would have just told me that rule, I could have played and won the game better. But I feel like it's always as ever changing, ever evolving. And I know there were some big things that happened in 2025 that are impacting like our our taxes. And so, yeah, definitely a timely and   exciting podcast to throw out there. So Alexis, I know I gave you a very welcomed ⁓ bio and intro, but yeah, tell us a little bit about who is Alexis. You're married to a physician. You're in this world of tag. How does one become obsessive about CPA? I'm truly just curious. How do you like, how does this happen? How did you become this?   Alexis Gallati (02:49) Yeah, so I love law and I love money. And so when I was in undergrad, I took a tax and accounting class and loved more the tax side than the accounting side, I do admit. And so after meeting my husband in college and us starting to go through that full medical journey, was about a year and a half out from him.   The Dental A Team (02:54) you   Alexis Gallati (03:18) from him finishing his residency. And I really saw the writing on the wall. Even at that time, with him being in residency, about four months of his salary was going towards taxes. And I was like, that's not right. That's not right. With   The Dental A Team (03:36) No.   Alexis Gallati (03:38) hard he works and how hard   medical community works in general. ⁓ my gosh, that's not right. So that's when I really dedicated myself to   finding out, why do the Warren Buffets and the Bill Gates of the world have this really low to sometimes non-existent tax bracket? And I really dove into that tax planning. ⁓ And so, you know, what's very unique about, ⁓ you know, the way that I work and my business is that my husband and I are in the same exact position as majority of our clients. And so, yes, I'm looking for   strategies for my clients, but I'm also looking for those strategies for myself.   The Dental A Team (04:19) You're like, hey,   it's me. I'm going to help myself out. I'm very motivated to do this.   Alexis Gallati (04:25) Very motivated. And I love it. I love it. It's like you said, it's ⁓ Congress keeps us on our toes, changing the laws consistently year after year. ⁓ it's like a puzzle. Like, hey, how can I just keep more of what I'm earning?   The Dental A Team (04:43) Yeah, and I, this is what I get obsessed about. what I learned, gosh, it's like, I was so naive when I started the company. was like, marketing is marketing. I just need to hire a marketer they can do everything. And then I was like, oh, there's a content marketer. There's a copywriter marketer. There's a strategist. There's a growth marketer. There's like an AEO marketer now. There's an SEO. Like you guys, this thing is like a web. They're a content marketer. And then I started realizing it's similar to CPAs and financial planners that like,   I thought you hire a CPA, Alexis. Like I'm so naive to business. I'm shocked that I've made it this far. Like truly I'm proud of like the journey we've been on, but like not all CPAs are created equal. And then I realized like CPAs play by different rules. Like it's the same rule, but there's shades of gray. They're how comfortable are you with this and how uncomfortable are you with it? Like there's one CPA that told me like, here, you can totally go skiing in Tahoe. Just like put your logo on your skis and you can totally ride it off and like put your logo on your boat and you can ride it off.   And then there's like the Alexis of the world was like, oh, hard pass. No, you're going to like totally get flagged. But I'm like, what rule is right? And so I realized that there are, like you said, tax strategy and for higher wealth earners. I do believe that there's a game, like you said, how did the Warren Buffett's, how did the Bill Gates, like they're not paying this. And then you get into the real estate game and you get into all these other things. You're like, how can we do this? And so Alexis, I'm just jazz. This is me being nerdy. And I'm going to ask you a bajillion questions and I can't wait.   to learn. So let's kind of talk about most of your clients, what's the size of take home net pay that they do. So that way we know like what brackets were in. So that way right clients come to you. I also learned not all financial advisors take all people. I was like, I make 30 grand. They're like, great. So we're going to help you out just a little bit. And then like, when you get to this level, we'll chat with you. ⁓ tell us kind of that. And then let's dig into how do we keep more money, Alexis, legally.   Alexis Gallati (06:10) I love it.   The Dental A Team (06:39) I'm here for legal advice. I'm willing to go gray, but not go to jail. So that's my line. So as long as we're on the same page, I think we are, I'm here for it.   Alexis Gallati (06:40) Yes.   Definitely, yeah. I am more than happy to play in the gray areas. We just have to feel comfortable defending it in an audit. And so that's our line in the sand. ⁓ But yeah.   The Dental A Team (06:55) Mm-hmm.   She's like, this is why I went to law guys. This is why I like the law side and the CPA.   I like it. I like your style. It's so unique and I just am excited. So, okay, I'm ready.   Alexis Gallati (07:07) Yeah.   Yeah. at Cerebral, we work with those that earn at minimum $400,000 per year in taxable income. So we have lots of businesses, which by the way, 99.9 % of our clients are medical professionals. I think we have like maybe two clients that have zero ties to the medical industry. And so the practices we work with, you know,   generally range from anywhere from maybe about $700,000 in gross revenue all the way up to eight figures. So we tend to not work with those that are larger practices, that usually over 50 employees. And that's just because once you get above 50 employees, yeah, it changes quite a bit. So we're definitely in there with those smaller to medium sized practices.   The Dental A Team (07:56) Tax co-changes. Yep.   Amazing. No, that's super helpful. And I know we were talking before, like the average of your clients, about 700,000 like net pay is typical where you guys are at. You have some that are higher, but that minimum of 400,000, which is great because I do think that there are thresholds. ⁓ And I did learn through going through business that who Kiera needed as a tax support and advisor when I was in that 30,000 range compare and as a business owner, I thought it was so funny.   Gosh, taxes, like they hurt so bad sometimes. Like, whoa, easy come, easy go. Like I've never, I've always been a W-2. So that was such a fascinating world for me. But yeah, let's dig into some of the things you've seen for the medical world. Cause I know I have friends that were physicians and they're really big on real estate. And like I took the real estate Kool-Aid and I'm just like, is this really real? There's gotta be easier ways than doing this. And so I'm just jazzed to kind of go through what are some of the things we can do now before April 15th.   What are things that we can do even past April 15th to set us up for great success for 2026? So Alexis, this is your show. I'm just excited, kind of riffed us through it. Of course, I'm gonna geek out and ask probably about way more questions than you care to even be asked, but I'm really excited to learn more today.   Alexis Gallati (09:20) Yeah, great. Well, yeah, I hate to be a little bit of a Debbie Downer in the beginning and that when your past December 31st, ⁓ the number of tax strategies that are available to you are before you actually go to file your tax return are limited. It's just the nature of the code.   The Dental A Team (09:37) I agree. was super, when you were   like, what are the tech? I was like, I want to know because most of the times like when the clock strikes midnight on December 31st, it's like game over and we start again. But yes, which is why I want to know what are like the small ones, but then also Alexis like, let's set our listeners up for like, what things can they do this year to be better prepared for it in conjunction? So yes, before April 15th, but selfishly I want to know what else can I do this year that maybe I haven't thought of.   Alexis Gallati (09:52) Yeah.   you   The Dental A Team (10:06) because the clock hasn't struck midnight in 2026. So like we've got time. So yeah, for 2025 filing, but also for 2026 as well.   Alexis Gallati (10:09) Yeah.   Yeah, so let's talk about 2025 filing first. Especially if you're a business owner, there are actually a number of things that you could still put together for yourself that can impact your 2025 financials. ⁓ So even basic things like if you haven't been taking advantage of your home office deduction or ⁓ vehicle expenses ⁓ and unreimbursed business expenses. So those are expenses that you paid   personally, but our business expenses. So all of those items, you can still go and report on your 2025 return. So if you haven't taken the time to sit down and say, how much should I pay in my home utilities or insurance, repairs, et cetera, and take the percentage. So let's say your home office is 7%.   of your total square footage of your home. Well, then you can write off 7 % of your home expenses on your taxes. the treatment's a little bit different depending upon if you're a sole proprietorship or an S corporation. But in general, you still have that time to take advantage of that. And a lot of you might be like, oh, Alexis, it's such a little amount. I don't even know if it's worth it. Believe me.   All these little things can really add up together. And easily, I usually see between $10,000 to $20,000 of really ⁓ easy to grab savings for yourself if you just take even a few hours to gather all the information. ⁓ And you can even use ⁓ personal financial apps like Monarch Money or You Need a Budget, things like that to help.   organize that information for you throughout the year so it's a little more automated.   The Dental A Team (12:10) Yeah, that's amazing. I do love the YNAB. You're throwing me back to like pharmacy school days of you need a budget. I was like, oh my gosh, got to answer this every time. They have updated so much, but I love that you said like 10 to 20 grand, I think is worthwhile, but more than it being pennies or dollars, I think it's the discipline of having it prepared for next year too. So that way we don't, I think it's like, well, it might not be enough this year, but I'm like, you take that this year and we compound over the next year and the next year and the next year. I think these little things to me at least,   Alexis Gallati (12:15) Ha ha ha.   The Dental A Team (12:41) Like I said, it's their game of monopoly. And I'm like, okay, maybe I didn't get it that time, but I'm going to take that rule and I'm going to apply it this year and the next year and the next year. So I'm even taking notes over here, guys. So Alexis, if you see me, I'm writing it like, okay, I'm going to check in on that, check in on that. So make sure, make sure that they're being taken into consideration because I don't prep my own taxes. I don't even know half the stuff. Like they just tell me. So I also think being a good steward as well and always double checking your CPA to make sure like, are we maximizing every deduction we can?   Alexis Gallati (12:53) Good, I like it.   Of course.   Yeah. And being proactive is like you said, the number one thing because the IRS can deny deduction if you don't have that itemized receipt or you don't have the proper documentation. And 99 % of any fight with the IRS is that documentation. And I did a three year fellowship in IRS representation. So I'm obviously very focused on that tax savings, but also very focused on making sure   that everything's set up properly. So if the IRS were to challenge it or even the state, you're in good hands. then that way, you can just give them the stuff and say, go away.   The Dental A Team (13:51) Exactly. And I heard somebody once tell me, they're like, Kiera, it's not a matter of if I'll be audited, it's when. Like every business will most likely be audited at some point. I hope and pray like we're not. I think about that a lot of like cross my T's, dot my I's, make sure that I'm constantly trying to be compliant with things. But your wealth of knowledge on that Alexis of what things and how to become, I mean, shoot three years of IRS. Girl, you got my vote. That's impressive. And like love the love the authority piece that you're bringing to our podcast today.   Alexis Gallati (14:20) Thank you. Thank you. So some other things that you're able to do before you file that tax return, and this is a big one, is retirement. So you actually have until the filing of a tax return, and that includes extensions. So for example, if you're an S corporation or a partnership, have the original due date, which is March 15th, or the extended due date, which is September 15th, to go and   open and fund that retirement plan. So if you have employees, it can get obviously a little bit more complicated, but you still are able to do it and ⁓ do that employer contribution. And that's obviously really one of the lower hanging fruits when it comes to not only tax savings, but also wealth generation.   The Dental A Team (15:12) Yeah, no, I love that. That's a great idea. And I think a lot of people miss that. And again, CPAs, tax strategists, wealth advisors, they're all playing in their own lanes, but how can we make sure all of them are maximizing together? Because you as a human are trying to build that wealth. So I love that.   Alexis Gallati (15:30) Yeah. And don't forget as well, you know, kind of in the same vein as retirement is that health savings account. So if you had a high deductible plan throughout the year, but maybe your employer didn't actually provide a ⁓ health savings account, like so if you're a W-2, for example, or even if you're self-employed, you can still go open up your   own Health Savings account through, I think Fidelity has some, ⁓ Optum Bank, HSA Bank. So there's a whole bunch of different providers out there. can just Google and find the provider that works best for you.   The Dental A Team (16:07) Interesting. And I know like I just wrote that down because a lot of dentists don't have HSA. Like we are the providers for it. But hearing that that might even be a resource to attract people into your business if you were able to like, don't necessarily provide it, but these are some companies that we could help our employees get if they wanted to have an HSA because I know that that's something that my husband works at a hospital. So there's an HSA there, but as sole proprietors and S-Corps, a lot of times they aren't provided. That's actually really like, I think just a great tool and resource to   possibly provide to our employees, depending upon what it looks like for your business.   Alexis Gallati (16:40) Yeah, definitely. And then one other thing that you ⁓ may be able to do, depending upon your state, ⁓ to help with state taxes, is go and contribute to a 529 plan, which is for education for yourself or other dependent. And some states like Georgia, Indiana, Michigan, South Carolina, there's a number of them. They allow you to make that contribution all the way up to the   filing of the tax return.   The Dental A Team (17:13) Interesting. I did not know that I wrote that down. That's fascinating. I love this. This is like so fun. Keep going.   Alexis Gallati (17:20) Yeah. Yeah. So that, you know, is, a good, especially for, you know, higher earners. ⁓ that's kind of a good summary of what you can be doing before this, ⁓ April 15th or even the extended due date as well. ⁓ but when you start looking into 2026, who, that book, that book opens up, there is.   The Dental A Team (17:39) It does, right? It's like the   monopoly Bible. Like it's so big. Like how do I play the game of taxes? So I truly, and I think like for all the listeners, like the home office, the HSA, ⁓ retirement, the 529 plan, like there's still time. So go look at those things. And even if you can't contribute or do those things now, having that set up for next year, like, Alexis, truly, I'm like, I'm getting the popcorn. I'm getting my notepad. Like,   I am so excited because half these things I haven't heard of. And so it's very fun to just hear different perspectives. And I do love that you've got a legal background too. I love that you're in IRS. I love that you're in medicine and healthcare and like for your own personal savings too. It's like you're the Nancy Drew of like, how can I do the most amount through all of this? It's a very fascinating perspective you bring today.   Alexis Gallati (18:27) thank you. I appreciate that. yeah, when obviously when you are a W-2 employee still that your options are not as open for those that have a business. But ⁓ besides obviously retirement HSA that you can do all year, one thing that a lot of W-2 employees forget is to actually check with your employer to see what their reimbursement policy looks like.   The Dental A Team (18:29) course.   Alexis Gallati (18:55) because if you're maybe in a private practice with a large group, and I mean, these could even be groups that have sometimes hundreds of physicians in it, or even if it's just a hospital system, they'll have actually pretty generous reimbursement policies for things like your CME, your new loops, or going and   doing your mileage in between different hospitals or clinics, things like that. So making sure that you are keeping track of those things. Obviously, if you're a business owner, you definitely want to keep track of those. But some of my favorite for those that own their own practices, my absolute favorite is hiring your kids.   The Dental A Team (19:36) Of course, yeah.   Alexis Gallati (19:48) It seems so basic, but believe me, there are definitely steps in place that have to be done in order to make sure they ⁓ qualify. for me, the ⁓ court tested age is seven. So I usually don't recommend my clients going and hiring their kids until they're at least that age. You can do it younger, but the old my kids are models strategy is kind of ⁓ antiquated now just because ⁓   everybody has these great cameras now on their phones. And so it's kind of devalued, being a model ⁓ for those that aren't professionals basically. ⁓ But that's a really great way to shift income from your higher tax bracket down to their non-existent tax bracket.   The Dental A Team (20:21) Totally.   Right?   Alexis Gallati (20:40) and you can then put that money into a Roth IRA for them. And if you do that, let's say over like a 10 year period in 2026, that amount is 7,500 is the max you can put in. They're easily, by the time they're age 65, gonna have at least 2 million plus dollars in savings. So it's a really great way to create a legacy for your kids and give them a little headstart.   The Dental A Team (20:48) Mm-hmm.   Yeah, that's amazing. And I think so many people are like, I don't know how to help my kids with college or different things like that. And it's like, these are great ways to prepare them for the future for when they retire for things like that. I mean, how awesome I know a couple of ⁓ doctors because   The bulk of our audience, Alexis, are not W-2 earners. They are self-employed, like dental practice owners. ⁓ But I know that there were several that didn't tell their kids that they had done this for them. And then the surprise when they graduated college of, we've been putting this into place for you. I mean, shoot, that money's going to go to the government or to your kids. Why not invest in your children? You're going to pay that money regardless. So ⁓ definitely think that that's such a brilliant idea. And I've heard people, they're like,   their real job, like they have to have a real job. They're like a paper shredder. Like they like literally shred the paper or they open the mail or they like pick out the cards or they pick out the toys for the prize boxes, like actual legit jobs that they employ them for. But I think what an amazing gift and legacy to give your kids as well.   Alexis Gallati (21:51) they   Yeah, exactly. All four of my children are, obviously cerebral isn't a dental practice, but they're hired through cerebral. So that way they are earning enough to put that money into their Roth IRA. ⁓ And a lot of ⁓ my clients are like, man, I don't know what my kids can do. And like you said, there's a lot of admin work that they can do. Even a seven-year-old can.   like you said, shred paper, stamp envelopes. They can help with doing their ABCs and filing things away if you're an older ⁓ practice owner and they have ⁓ still the paper file system. ⁓ yeah, it really is a wonderful way to not only teach responsibility, but also to save. ⁓ I highly recommend ⁓ doing that. And even if you have parents that you financially support, you could even   The Dental A Team (22:45) Yeah.   Yeah.   Alexis Gallati (23:02) go and hire your parents through your practice ⁓ and write off their support. Of course, again, they need to also have a legitimate job in the business. with parents, you have to be careful if they have any benefits like social security or Medicare. Then you just want to make sure that you're not pushing them out of those benefits because of their income ⁓ or making any part of their social security taxable. So that takes a little bit more. ⁓   finesse than hiring a child.   The Dental A Team (23:36) No, that's great. That's a really good idea too, because I hadn't thought about parents. I have heard about children, but you're right, parents are retired. And if there's ways that you can support and give back rather than like, again, I love the government. I am happy to pay taxes, but if there's ways that I can support my own family, ⁓ I think it's great because I'm going to pay that money anyway, but paying it to people that I love and care about is really a great idea.   Alexis Gallati (24:00) Yeah. Another popular one I'm sure that you've seen on TikTok or other social media is the Augusta rule. ⁓ and this is where you're renting your home to your business. ⁓ and this is perfect example where documentation is absolutely critical. ⁓ but basically what happens is you rent your home to your business for 14 days or less. Those days do not have to be consecutive and your business gets to   The Dental A Team (24:07) Mm-hmm.   Alexis Gallati (24:28) right off the cost of that rent. So obviously lowers your taxes. But then you as the individual do not have to pay tax on that rental income. Now, if you do it for 15 days and you've ruined the strategy and you have to pay tax on all 15 days. So that's really important you do 14 days or less. But this is again a really great way if you have monthly board meetings, that's 12 days right there.   Or if you have employee parties, if you have colleagues over in discussing business, though, as long as you have a rental agreement in place between yourself and your business, and you document through meeting minutes everything that occurred during that event, then that is the documentation that the IRS would need in order to substantiate that.   strategy. And obviously a reasonable rental rate as well.   The Dental A Team (25:27) Yeah, no, didn't realize,   I did not realize that you needed a rental agreement. Can you expand more on that? like we check all the Airbnb's and the VRBO's in the area to see what does our house actually go for and like keep that documented every single year and then have an actual agenda and like have it in the calendar. So it's in our Google calendar. It's got an agenda. It's got a PDF didn't attach. But how does the rental agreement work? like, yeah, how do you, I didn't realize that that was a necessary piece to it.   Alexis Gallati (25:57) Yeah, so you can even just use ChatGPT to create it. ⁓ But essentially what you do is it's just that agreement between the business and personal. So ⁓ you just want to think about it like any other rental that you would do. If you were to go to a conference room in a hotel, for example, or go rent that Airbnb, you're going to be signing some sort of agreement saying that this can happen.   that this event can happen on this date. ⁓ you can either do one agreement for the entire year, spelling out like, here are the days that we're going to be doing these things, ⁓ or you can have an agreement for each time that it happens.   The Dental A Team (26:43) Very cool. That's super helpful. Yeah, I do love the addresses for all anything people. And I mean, I've had CPAs and like, don't go crazy. Like that's where I say like check Airbnb, check VRBO like what you think your house is worth versus what market value says your house is worth. Like, let's make sure that we are accurate on that. But yeah, that's definitely an amazing one that I think is great for offices to surely do.   Alexis Gallati (26:51) Yes.   Yep. Go and get two to three comps. So then that way can just take an average. I feel like that's a very safe way to, ⁓ show reasonableness. You're not just like, Hey, I'm taking the highest one on the block. You know, it's taking a few of them.   The Dental A Team (27:21) Totally. No, definitely agree. I love that. Okay, Alexis, what other ideas? know we're, I'm like just like sitting here. I'm like, I love this writing it down. Great ideas. What are some of the ones that like, yeah, anything else that's going to save us? Um, because like taxes are taxes and we are going to pay them, but like, what else can we do to, like you said, Bill Gates or, um, like Warren Buffett, what are the things that you found for like these higher net worth earners? Like, do they need to get into real estate and like use the big, beautiful tax bill or like,   Alexis Gallati (27:23) Yeah.   Okay.   The Dental A Team (27:50) anything else that you've seen that like really moves the noodles or is like, no, just the small consistent things are really going to help them out.   Alexis Gallati (27:57) Yes, well, they all help out. ⁓ But if you are looking for more of that, hey, Alexis, what's like Hail Mary that I can be doing to act to really save? ⁓ You can look at real estate. ⁓ That could be a whole podcast by itself. ⁓ But in general, you you tend to ⁓ get into real estate when you're not talking about like reets or things I can do through the stock market.   The Dental A Team (28:14) Right.   Alexis Gallati (28:26) ⁓ You're either doing like real estate syndications, ⁓ direct ownership, like long-term rentals or short-term rentals. And ⁓ each of those are treated differently and have different ways of making that ⁓ a tax deduction for yourself. So when it comes to, in general, ⁓ real estate syndications, this is where you're   The Dental A Team (28:49) Mm-hmm.   Alexis Gallati (28:54) buying into a partnership that maybe owns an office building. And you go in with other partners and ⁓ it's syndicated. So it's very passive. There's no way for you to write off any losses in that current year. ⁓ When it comes to direct ownership, the IRS basically says, hey, that real estate is considered passive unless you have real estate professional status or you do that short-term rental   deduction or excuse me, short-term rental exclusion. And so what ⁓ happens if you can qualify for the short-term rental exclusion or real estate professional status is that those what would have been passive losses that you can't use against your current income will be considered active losses. And then you can use it against your   active income, when I say active income, things like your W-2 or your business. So you're getting a current year deduction from that. And you can do cost segregation study to help accelerate depreciation. ⁓ So this is very, very much in the nutshell sort of explanation. ⁓ But it can really be a great way to lower your taxes if   The Dental A Team (29:57) Mm-hmm.   Yeah.   Alexis Gallati (30:16) you essentially want a second job. Just know that real estate is not as passive as the social media gurus go and ⁓ try to glamorize. It really does take a lot of extra work. You want to make sure that you are following the rules properly so that you can get that tax benefit in the current year. ⁓ But if you   The Dental A Team (30:19) Yeah.   Alexis Gallati (30:41) do have that prerogative and you want to learn and get do things properly, then it can really save you quite a bit of money.   The Dental A Team (30:48) Yeah. Are there any other things, Alexis, that are like real estate that save that much but don't require that much work? I'm asking you for the weight loss drug of taxes, please. What's our easiest way with the most amount of bang for buck that you've seen? These are the big hits that if you want, because agreed, real estate's great. If you do that short-term thing, but it is a lot of work. With the big, beautiful tax bill that came through, that 100 % depreciation is pretty fantastic. But like you said,   Alexis Gallati (30:54) Yes.   Mm-hmm.   The Dental A Team (31:17) got to have it rented out, you got to have the pieces, you got to like reno it like there are and you have to have it done by the end of the year and like it's a stressful zone. ⁓ So are there other things that you've seen that might be like 50 or 100 or 200,000 off taxes that aren't necessary real estate? The Augustus one, yes. Like paying people, there's things but is there anything else you've found that are like some of those bigger chunks that maybe people don't think about they don't recognize? Yes of course they're going to take a little bit more work but...   Alexis Gallati (31:17) You gotta work for it.   The Dental A Team (31:45) that you found that could be benefits to our audience.   Alexis Gallati (31:48) OK, so let's talk about my Hail Mary for tax savings. I   love this one towards the end of the year because you're going to want to know, have a good idea of where your tax situation is going to end up. So I use this a lot for year end planning. And this is oil and gas. When you ⁓ invest in oil and gas, again, just like with real estate, there's a lot of different options.   But my favorite is our drilling funds and this is where you invest in a partnership that owns oil and gas wells and these this allows you in that first year to Essentially write off usually somewhere between 80 to 95 percent of the investment that you've put in So let's say you invest a hundred thousand dollars Then you're getting about and let's say conservatively an eighty thousand dollar deduction that can go a   against your ordinary income. So if you're W2 or your business. usually, a good rule of thumb is that, let's say, if you're putting in $100,000, you're saving $30,000 in tax. You're putting in $200,000, you're saving $60,000 in tax. And then after year one, you're earning overall, during the life of the investment, about a 2x   The Dental A Team (33:10) Bye.   Alexis Gallati (33:11) you put   100,000, you're getting about 200,000 back. And so it's considered a very conservative investment. And just because the length of the investment, and this is one of the cons of it, is that it's usually about a 10 to 12 year period. So it's generally only about a 7 % return on investment over the life of the investment. the great thing about it is that   you let's say if you did put in that hundred thousand, you're getting that 30,000 in savings, and then you can go put that into something else that will earn you even more money. So then this is something that you can do every single year. And, you know, just depends on how much money you want to save and so that how much you put in for that investment.   The Dental A Team (33:57) Gosh, that's such a good one. And these are things of like just fun, like tips and topics. Like I said, it's the rules of monopoly. I caught like, how do we play tax strategy better? Alexis, what are any like resources? I feel like you guys have some resources. Like I feel the world of tax is so daunting. And so it's like, we hear from podcasts and we hear snippets and we see TikTok and it's like real estate games. like, where do people go if they like want to dig a little bit deeper and really become like more tax expert and more tax savvy and.   like tax strategy, like what are any resources you found or ways for people just to become a little bit more literate in the tax world.   Alexis Gallati (34:33) Yes, so ⁓ of course I'm to do a little shameful plug. My book, The ⁓ Advanced Tax Strategies for Medical Professionals, it's really just that it's a brain dump of all different types of strategies, whether it's for your business or W-2 only, charitable, these alternative investments. And so it's really a space.   The Dental A Team (34:36) as you should.   Alexis Gallati (34:58) for readers to learn more about their options. So then that was the way they can go online and do more research or bring it to their current advisor. So, you know, it's just about opening those possibilities. Otherwise, you know, one resource that is really great for especially medical professionals is the White Coat Investor that Dr. Dali, he has a wonderful, wonderful site and he puts out really good material.   The Dental A Team (35:11) Yeah.   Alexis Gallati (35:25) when it comes to not only taxes, but also for ⁓ just finances in general. And then, of course, on ⁓ CerebralTaxAdvisors.com, our website has wonderful ⁓ material that I put out all the time. There's lots of goodies there, as well as ⁓ different resources and worksheets and stuff like that.   The Dental A Team (35:52) Yeah, no, that's super helpful.   But Alexis, what do you find ⁓ as you go through this? Like one, how often are you meeting with your clients? Because I feel like so many CPAs and tax strategists meet with them in like December 1st and they're like, hey, you owe this much money. Is that how you guys plan? Like how should tax planning actually work?   or is that normal? Like I'm just trying to find a vibe of how this should work in the industry.   Alexis Gallati (36:15) Yeah.   Yeah. So when a medical professional first starts working with us, I design a tax plan for them. And that's really critical because right then and there, OK, what can we be doing to dramatically lower your taxes, legally, of course, and set you up for success? And then we meet with our clients at minimum twice a year. So we do a mid-year tax projection and a year-end tax projection.   The Dental A Team (36:34) course.   Alexis Gallati (36:45) And especially with medical professionals, your income is so variable throughout the year, depending upon insurance reimbursements or seasonality and things like that. And so we really want to make sure that we have a good, clear understanding, good six plus months in advance. Hey, what are you going to be owing tax wise? What does cash flow look like? What quarterly estimated payments do you need to make?   All of these things should not be a surprise. So that's why when I built Cerebral in the packages we have, I was really focused around how do we eliminate those surprises.   The Dental A Team (37:23) Yeah, no, I love that. that's super helpful because I feel like so many just wait till December and it's like, no, like there's things I could have been doing and if I would have known. So that's super helpful. And then I think the other question is like, okay, you guys are tax strategy. Are you CPA? Are you bookkeeping? Like kind of differentiate. Are you in the financial advisor world? Like what specifically would we say I need you for XYZ, but I'm going to need these people again, like marketing, right? Like what facet of my wealth management are you?   and who do I need paired with you?   Alexis Gallati (37:54) Yep, so we are your tax compliance, tax planning, your bookkeeping, and CFO services, and also business advising as well. So we're able to set up entities for you ⁓ as well as provide ⁓ just a lot of the years and years of experience that we have in running businesses and seeing different types of practices, et cetera. ⁓ We are not investment advisors, so we won't   say, buy Coca-Cola versus Pepsi. But we will introduce you to different investments that have tax benefits. And one very unique quality of Cerebral that's very different from other firms is that we do not take any commissions or kickbacks on any strategies we recommend or vendors we recommend. And we don't sell any products. So we're very education-based. I'm very focused on   you understanding your options so you can make a educated decision on what you want to move forward with. And then we are a white glove done for you firm that will implement those strategies on your behalf and make sure they're reported properly on your tax returns. Because that's what we've found being in this industry, especially specializing in medical professionals, is there's a lot of people out there that know about these strategies.   but they do not know how to implement them properly. And that honestly is 80 % of the fight when it comes to doing any of these strategies.   The Dental A Team (39:26) Yeah, no, that's incredible. So, and again, this is just like naiveness on my side. Do I need a CPA or are you guys the replacement of a CPA?   Alexis Gallati (39:35) Yeah, we're the replacement of CPA. We are CPAs. We are EAs. So we are taking care of your tax preparation, so personal and business. We do it all. I try to keep these packages as comprehensive as possible because I hate being nickel and dined. communication's a top priority for us. And so we don't want our clients to hesitate whatsoever to connect with us. And so that's why we don't.   The Dental A Team (39:56) Totally.   Amazing.   Alexis Gallati (40:05) shot like I, my gosh, I just got like a bill from my attorney the other day and it was for stuff that I talked to him about like in August. I'm like, I hate those pop-up bills. So that's yeah, that's, why I try to make it as comprehensive as possible.   The Dental A Team (40:10) Yep.   Right.   Awesome.   No, that's fantastic. That's really helpful. And I know a lot of people are very nervous to switch from their CPA. CPAs, feel like we're so embedded and we trust them with our souls. Truly, I see this. ⁓ So is there complementary calls we have with you? how do we start with that? Because I know, honestly, untangling from a CPA is such a pain. It is so annoying. so ⁓ how does that process work if people want to work with you, Alexis?   Alexis Gallati (40:46) So the best thing you can do is go to our website and go to the contact page. And you will ⁓ go through a very quick questionnaire to make sure that you're a good fit for us, because we also want to make sure we're a good fit for you. And we will ⁓ have a tax discovery session. And during that session, we will. We'll talk about what your needs are and what it's like to work with us. ⁓ I'm very focused on that return on investment. We actually have a guarantee.   with the design of our plans that I will save you at least two times what you pay us in ⁓ tax savings or you get the plan for free. And on average, our clients actually achieve 4.5 multiple with the design of our plans. So again, it doesn't make sense for us to work together if I can't save you more than what you're paying us.   The Dental A Team (41:39) That's amazing. No, that's incredible. And that's a great guarantee. And ⁓ then let's say hypothetical, we do get audited. How often do you guys go through audits and like success rate? Like I'm imagining if you were three years in IRS, you're probably pretty fantastic at that. But these are always things that I'm just curious. Like how does that work? And how often are your clients audited? And like, how is your success rate on that? And if you don't want to share this, I hope you do. We're just going to go for it. Like, yeah, I'm just going to ask the weird questions. Why not?   Alexis Gallati (42:01) Yeah.   I love the weird questions. They're the best. So yeah, that's one thing I can never guarantee that you won't be audited because of course there are always random audits that happen. We've only had three audits since I started Cerebral over 10 years ago. In 2014, I started Cerebral. ⁓ And ⁓ one of them was for the mortgage interest deduction. there's a limitation in that.   The Dental A Team (42:18) It's incredible.   Alexis Gallati (42:28) Um, and that was just, unfortunately, a client had not provided the correct information. And so we were easily able to just change it and be on our way. Um, and then another two were regarding actually real estate professional status. And that was just New York state saying, Hey, like we don't, we don't think that you're actually qualified for this. we're like, Oh, yeah, we do. Here's the paperwork. And they're like, Oh, okay. See you later. So yeah.   The Dental A Team (42:50) Yeah.   That's amazing.   That's a huge thing. And I'm so glad I asked the question because I think for me, that's something I'm curious on of like, I get it. Like you said, you can't guarantee that, but as long as you back in, do you guys charge extra for those audits or is that part of the plan? Like, nope, we stand behind it. Like, how does that work? Cause I know there's some firms that I have chatted with and if we do get audited, it's like 375 an hour for the audit. And I'm like, okay, like I'll just plan for that. But how does that work for you guys?   Alexis Gallati (43:18) Yep, so we back up all of our work and all of our packages. If you do receive a notice for anything that we prepare, you send it to us and we help you take care of it. So yeah, we 100 % back up our work. If you come start working with us and you have some a notice from a year that we didn't handle, like we didn't prepare, we'll still help you handle it. But that would be just.   at our hourly rate, depending upon the extensiveness of the notice. But to go back to your original question about making that change, I 100 % get it, especially if you've been with somebody for so long. And so you just have to look at that cost benefit and see, hey, staying with this person, how much is that costing me in tax savings versus   The Dental A Team (44:01) Right.   Alexis Gallati (44:12) going with somebody like cerebral and we try to go and make that process as seamless as possible when it comes to getting ⁓ up to date in your history and then ⁓ getting access to your bookkeeping and getting your tax returns. ⁓ And so, because I completely understand it can be daunting, but. ⁓   Happy to have a conversation around it when we meet about the discovery session and to see if it's something you'd want to move forward with.   The Dental A Team (44:43) Amazing. Alexis, has been such a great podcast and I just love meeting great individuals. I love how much you have a passion for the law and for the tax wealth and it's your own life and your own livelihood. So if people want to reach out, I know you said it before, how do they connect with you? So yeah, they can get started if they're interested.   Alexis Gallati (45:01) Yeah. So you can Google us or just go to CerebralTaxAdvisors.com. And which by the way, the reason why I have cerebral is because my husband is a private practice neurosurgeon and my dad's a retired private practice neurologist. hence cerebral in the brain. So if y'all can remember. But yeah, so CerebralTaxAdvisors.com is the best way to get a hold of us.   The Dental A Team (45:14) There you go.   I love it. Yeah.   Alexis Gallati (45:27) ⁓ And I look forward to potentially talking with y'all.   The Dental A Team (45:32) Well, Alexis, thank you so much for this. And for all of you listening, I hope you take advantage between now and April 15th. I hope you just like have a conversation. I'm always pro. I love CPAs. My CPA listens to this podcast and I'm always interested in meeting new people like Alexis, chatting with them. Are there different ways that they can benefit me? Because yes, I love my CPA, but I love more than that saving money and learning new strategies that maybe I didn't know about. So Alexis, I really hope a lot of them reach out to you, connect with you and for   All of you listening, thank you for listening. I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team Podcast.  

email chris@drchrisloomdphd.com with "Podcast freebie" to book a coveted FREE guest spot on the show. To book a PREMIUM spot on the Podcast: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.drchrisloomdphd.com/_paylink/AZpgR_7f⁠⁠⁠Book a 1-on-1 coaching call: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.drchrisloomdphd.com/booking-calendar/introductory-session⁠⁠⁠ Become a member of our Podcast community: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.drchrisloomdphd.com/membership⁠⁠⁠Subscribe to our email list: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://financial-freedom-podcast-with-dr-loo.kit.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠Click here to join PodMatch (the "AirBNB" of Podcasting): ⁠⁠⁠https://www.joinpodmatch.com/drchrisloomdphd⁠⁠⁠Click here to purchase my books on Amazon: ⁠⁠⁠https://amzn.to/2PaQn4p⁠⁠⁠Click here to purchase my audiobooks, visit: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.audible.com/author/Christopher-H-Loo-MD-PhD/B07WFKBG1F⁠⁠⁠To help support the show:CashApp- ⁠⁠⁠https://cash.app/$drchrisloomdphd⁠⁠⁠Venmo- ⁠⁠⁠https://account.venmo.com/u/Chris-Loo-4⁠⁠⁠Buy Me a Coffee- ⁠⁠⁠https://www.buymeacoffee.com/chrisJx⁠⁠⁠Disclaimer: Not advice. Educational purposes only. Not an endorsement for or against. Results not vetted. Views of the guests do not represent those of the host or show.  

#370 (repost): Rony Hay is a Los Angeles-based entrepreneur with expertise in digital marketing, B2B growth, and consulting. A little less than a year ago, he had his first company acquired (first exit) for multiple 6-figures and now, he is currently the Co-Founder of Lean Growth Formula, where he helps coaches and consultants scale through profit-driven ops.Episode was originally released in February 2024 on episode 264. What you will learn:What to focus on in the early years of your career, especially for longevityThe truth about getting into business or entrepreneurshipImportance and relevance of being surrounded by action-takersWhat happens when you start believing that making $50K/month is possibleHow to grow and scale fast as a W2 employee in the corporate worldBILT Credit Card Info (Pay Rent and Earn Points):https://bilt.page/r/HQ06-ZV7OReceive weekly personal insights from Emily's email newsletter and subscribe hereWatch Full Episodes on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@whatfulfillsyou/videosENJOY 10% OFF THE WHAT FULFILLS YOU? CARD GAME AT www.whatfulfillsyou.com - code "WHATFULFILLSYOU10"Follow the What Fulfills You? Podcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/whatfulfillsyouFollow Emily Elizabeth's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/emilyeduong/Read more on Substack: https://whatfulfillsyou.substack.com/Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/what-fulfills-you-podcast/exclusive-contentAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

⭐ Get my coaching & community to achieve financial freedom → https://www.coachcarson.com/rpm-pod-473 ⚒️Get my best investor tools for FREE → https://www.coachcarson.com/toolkit-pod-473 ▶️ Next Episode: How 8 Rentals Gave One Mom the Freedom to be Work Optional Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/353-how-8-rentals-gave-one-mom-the-freedom-to-be-work-optional/id1448707654?i=1000662961411 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2XRQdnck4pHE1cLxaTS6R1?si=NZX0CcGSSUux81_LpDyiUA Connect with Sean on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/charlotteadubuilders Connect with Sean on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/seanmckay.charlotteadubuilders -------------------------- EPISODE NOTES:

⭐ Get my coaching & community to achieve financial freedom → https://www.coachcarson.com/rpm-pod-473 ⚒️Get my best investor tools for FREE → https://www.coachcarson.com/toolkit-pod-473 ▶️ Next Episode: How 8 Rentals Gave One Mom the Freedom to be Work Optional Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/353-how-8-rentals-gave-one-mom-the-freedom-to-be-work-optional/id1448707654?i=1000662961411 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2XRQdnck4pHE1cLxaTS6R1?si=NZX0CcGSSUux81_LpDyiUA Connect with Sean on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/charlotteadubuilders Connect with Sean on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/seanmckay.charlotteadubuilders -------------------------- EPISODE NOTES:

On today's episode, Dr. Mark Costes is joined by Alexis Gallati, founder of Cerebral Tax Advisors and author of Advanced Tax Planning for Medical Professionals. Alexis brings a wealth of knowledge on proactive, high-level tax strategies tailored specifically for medical and dental professionals. The conversation covers everything from tax-saving tactics for W2 earners like short-term rentals and oil & gas investments, to advanced planning opportunities for business owners, including entity structuring, paying your children, and maximizing retirement contributions through backdoor and mega backdoor Roths.  Alexis also shares personal insights on being married to a neurosurgeon and how that inspired her mission to protect high-income professionals from bad financial advice. Whether you're looking to save more on taxes or make smarter long-term financial decisions, this episode is packed with practical gems. Be sure to check out the full episode from the Dentalpreneur Podcast! EPISODE RESOURCES https://www.cerebraltaxadvisors.com/bigbill https://www.truedentalsuccess.com Dental Success Network Subscribe to The Dentalpreneur Podcast

In this episode of More Than Commas, SFG President Cory Shepherd sits down with CEO of Trail CPA, Trent Trailov, to break down the Qualified Business Income (QBI) deduction and how business owners can strategically use it to reduce taxes. If you earn non-W2 income, own a business, or operate as a consultant, financial professional, or service-based business owner, this conversation walks through who qualifies, income thresholds to watch, and real strategies to maximize tax savings. You'll also hear practical examples showing how the right planning decisions, like business expenses, charitable giving, and retirement contributions, can unlock tens of thousands of dollars in tax savings. -- Timestamps: 03:10 – What Is the Qualified Business Income (QBI) Deduction? 06:15 – QBI Income Phaseouts Explained (Single vs. Married Filers) 08:20 – Real Example: Using Business Expenses to Qualify for QBI 10:55 – Which Businesses Need to Be Careful? (SSTB Rules) 14:05 – Business Expenses vs. Charitable Contributions 16:45 – Additional Strategies to Get Below the QBI Threshold 20:40 – Final Takeaways & What to Watch Going Into 2026    -- This Material is Intended for General Public Use. By providing this material, we are not undertaking to provide investment advice for any specific individual or situation, or to otherwise act in a fiduciary capacity. Please contact one of our financial professionals for guidance and information specific to your individual situation. Sound Financial Inc. dba Sound Financial Group is a registered investment adviser. Information presented is for educational purposes only and does not intend to make an offer or solicitation for the sale or purchase of any specific securities, investments, or investment strategies. Investments involve risk and, unless otherwise stated, are not guaranteed. Be sure to first consult with a qualified financial adviser and/or tax professional before implementing any strategy discussed herein. Past performance is not indicative of future performance. Insurance products and services are offered and sold through Sound Financial Inc. dba Sound Financial Group and individually licensed and appointed agents in all appropriate jurisdictions. This podcast is meant for general informational purposes and is not to be construed as tax, legal, or investment advice. You should consult a financial professional regarding your individual situation. Guest speakers are not affiliated with Sound Financial Inc. dba Sound Financial Group unless otherwise stated, and their opinions are their own. Opinions, estimates, forecasts, and statements of financial market trends are based on current market conditions and are subject to change without notice. Past performance is not a guarantee of future results.

Why do so many chiropractors assume retirement will “just work out” — and why are so many discovering too late that it won't? In this episode, Dr. Lauryn sits down with Dr. Abby Sirovica to have an honest, unfiltered conversation about real estate, wealth-building, and what it actually takes to create financial freedom beyond the clinic. This isn't about hustle for hustle's sake — it's about realizing what's possible when you stop playing small.Together, they break down why relying solely on a chiropractic practice is risky, how real estate can become a powerful exit strategy, and the mindset shifts required to build long-term wealth. From short-term rentals and tax strategy to leadership, leverage, and designing a life with real autonomy, this episode challenges the assumptions many providers make about money, retirement, and success — and offers a clearer path forward.Key TakeawaysWealth for chiropractors requires leverage beyond the clinic. Building real estate assets creates cash flow, tax advantages, and freedom that patient care alone rarely provides.Real estate is accessible — even without business ownership. Associates and W2 earners can use short-term rentals and smart strategies to offset income and build wealth.Mindset and action matter more than perfect timing. Wealth grows when chiropractors stop waiting for certainty and start making informed, strategic moves.About the GuestDr. Abby Sirovica is a chiropractor, entrepreneur, and real estate investor known for her bold, strategic approach to wealth-building. She is the founder of Grassroots Family Chiropractic (now Grassroots Collective), co-owner of a wellness café, and a leader in short-term rental investing. Alongside her fiancé, she coaches healthcare professionals through HBA Academy and hosts The Expansion Podcast, helping providers scale their businesses, income, and impact beyond traditional models.Book a strategy call for your clinic with Dr. AbbyFollow Dr. Abby on InstagramResources:Follow Dr. Lauryn: Instagram | X | LinkedIn | FacebookFollow She Slays on YouTubeSign up for the Weekly Slay newsletter!Mentioned in this episode:Go from surviving to thriving with Genesis Chiropractic Software. Learn more and get your special discount using the link below!Genesis Chiropractic SoftwareHolistic Marketing HubHolistic Marketing HubTo learn more about CLA and the INSiGHT scanner go to the link below and enter code SHESLAYS when prompted.CLALearn more about Sunlighten Saunas and get your She Slays

Entrepreneurship isn't about quitting your job tomorrow. It's about creating options, leverage, and time freedom.

Thinking about making the jump from W2 to independent freight agent, or wondering why so many agents struggle to scale and survive in the market? Erik Larson (Sage) is back on the show to break down what it really takes to succeed as an independent agent in today's freight brokerage and logistics market, starting with mindset, capital, and a realistic business plan for the 1099 transition! We talk about why revenue diversification is non-negotiable, how relying on one big shipper can put your entire operation at risk, and why your top customers should never control more than 10% of your revenue. We also cover the operational reality most people underestimate: the need for a full tech stack, proper insurance, legal counsel, and cash flow discipline to handle complex freight contracts and high-value moves. Don't miss out on hearing why partnering with a strong logistics company like SPI Logistics changed my business, reduced overhead risk, shortened sales cycles, and boosted credibility with larger shippers!   Connect with Sage YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@SageOutcastX  

In this Tax Tuesday episode, Eliot Thomas, Esq., and CPA Barley Bowler address listener questions on diverse tax topics including property management S corporations and QBI deductions. They explain how to structure management companies for rental properties, the relationship between W-2 wages and K-1 distributions, and the power of the 199A qualified business income deduction. Eliot and Barley dive deep into 100% bonus depreciation, cost segregation studies, and depreciation recapture rules—clarifying when to use Section 179 expensing versus bonus depreciation. They also cover maximizing education expense deductions through C corporations, leveraging oil and gas working interest investments for immediate ordinary deductions of 60-85%, structuring private operating foundations with proper payroll procedures, and optimal tax strategies for business sales including the powerful Section 1202 exclusion. Tune in for expert guidance on these advanced tax planning strategies! Submit your tax question to taxtuesday@andersonadvisors.com Highlights/Topics: 00:00 - Intro 05:34 - "I have a property management S corporation for my rental properties. All rents and expenses are paid to/from the S-corporation. I take a W2 from the corporation. At the end of the year I receive a K1 for the net rental income. Can I take a QBI deduction for this K1?" - The K-1 reflects only the management fee, not rental income. QBI applies to that fee. 14:07 - "I am curious how I can get the maximum benefit from a tax perspective for education class fees paid." - C corporations can deduct new business education via loans from shareholders arrangement. 19:04 - "Please explain 100% Bonus Depreciation recapture and eligible assets with a less than 20 year life being fully depreciated in Year 1." - Cost segregation identifies 5, 7, 15-year assets eligible for immediate bonus depreciation. 24:08 - "What happens if you sell a rental property with depreciation recapture after a cost segregation with bonus depreciation?" - Five-year and fifteen-year property recaptures at ordinary rates; building capped at 25%. 29:46 - "Please explain Section 179 expensing." - Section 179 allows immediate equipment expensing but cannot create a loss situation. 36:20 - "Is oil and gas a good tax deduction?" - Working interest investments provide immediate 60-85% ordinary deductions through intangible drilling costs. 40:36 - "My family has a private operating foundation. One family member works full-time for the foundation and we agreed to pay a wage to that individual. Would that family member have a w-2? Or does the owner withdraw? Also payroll?" - Pay reasonable W-2 wages through payroll; no owner withdrawals in nonprofit foundations. 44:40 - "What is the best tax strategy for selling a business?" - Stock sales create capital gains; consider Section 1202 for qualified small businesses. Resources: Tax and Asset Protection Events https://andersonadvisors.com/real-estate-asset-protection-workshop-training/?utm_source=100-bonus-depreciation-recapture-explained&utm_medium=podcast Schedule Your FREE Consultation https://andersonadvisors.com/strategy-session/?utm_source=100-bonus-depreciation-recapture-explained&utm_medium=podcast%C2%A0 Anderson Advisors https://andersonadvisors.com/ Toby Mathis YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@TobyMathis Toby Mathis TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@tobymathisesq Clint Coons YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@ClintCoons

Boortz talks about W2 forms and taxes, how everything we do in society involves taxes, everyime you buy, you are getting taxed, and the FAIR taxSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Boortz talks about W2 forms and taxes, how everything we do in society involves taxes, everyime you buy, you are getting taxed, and the FAIR taxAtlanta's ONLY All Conservative News & Talk Station.: https://www.xtra1063.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It's been 18 months since Cory walked away from his W2 and bet on himself full time. In this episode, we pull back the curtain and give an honest check-in on what actually happens after you make that leap. Not the highlight reel. Not the Instagram version. The real story: freedom, pressure, uncertainty, confidence, doubt, and everything in between. We talk through why no one ever hands you permission to leave your job, why waiting until your business replaces your salary keeps most people stuck, and what it really feels like to live without predictable paychecks or built-in structure. Cory shares how income dipped before it started to stabilize, how months of zero dollars tested his mindset, and why learning to plant seeds six months ahead became non-negotiable. We also break down the hidden costs of entrepreneurship, from investing in ads and people to managing cash flow when bills stay fixed but revenue doesn't. This conversation also dives into how our business has evolved over the past year and a half, the different income silos we're building, why small but mighty real estate portfolios outperform door-count chasing, and how we're thinking about active income alongside long-term wealth. If you're considering leaving your W2, already made the jump, or feel stuck waiting for the “perfect time,” this episode will give you clarity, perspective, and a much more realistic framework for what the path actually looks like. Book your call with Neo Home Loanshttps://www.neoentrepreneurhomeloans.com/wealthjuice/ Book your mentorship discovery call with Cory RESOURCES

Lesley Logan and Brad Crowell unpack the conversation with Pav Lertjitbanjong, founder of Pavness Leadership Lab, and why job security is an illusion for most people. They explore what it really means to build career resilience so you feel less anxious about change and more confident in your options. The conversation also highlights the three key numbers Pav says everyone should know to create stability in uncertain times. If you've been waiting to feel secure before making a move, this episode is a reminder that security is something you build. If you have any questions about this episode or want to get some of the resources we mentioned, head over to LesleyLogan.co/podcast https://lesleylogan.co/podcast/. If you have any comments or questions about the Be It pod shoot us a message at beit@lesleylogan.co mailto:beit@lesleylogan.co. And as always, if you're enjoying the show please share it with someone who you think would enjoy it as well. It is your continued support that will help us continue to help others. Thank you so much! Never miss another show by subscribing at LesleyLogan.co/subscribe https://lesleylogan.co/podcast/#follow-subscribe-free.In this episode you will learn about:Understanding career resilience as knowing your value beyond a job title.How emotional clarity reduces fear during career uncertainty.Understanding the role financial numbers play in personal stability.How strategic debt can support long-term financial stability.Why maintaining client relationships protects income for entrepreneurs.Episode References/Links:Cambodia Retreat Waitlist - https://crowsnestretreats.comAgency Mini - https://prfit.biz/miniContrology Pilates Conference in Poland - https://xxll.co/polandContrology Pilates Conference in Brussels - https://xxll.co/brusselsPOT in London - https://xxll.co/potSpring Training: How To Get Overhead - https://opc.me/eventsPilates Posters - https://opc.me/postersSubmit your wins or questions - https://beitpod.com/questionsLayoff-Proof Your Life Emergency Checklist - https://www.layoffready.com/emergencykitPav Lertjitbanjong's Website - https://www.pavness.comEp. 352: Tess Waresmith - https://beitpod.com/tesswaresmith If you enjoyed this episode, make sure and give us a five star rating and leave us a review on iTunes, Podcast Addict, Podchaser or Castbox. https://lovethepodcast.com/BITYSIDEALS! DEALS! DEALS! DEALS! https://onlinepilatesclasses.com/memberships/perks/#equipmentCheck out all our Preferred Vendors & Special Deals from Clair Sparrow, Sensate, Lyfefuel BeeKeeper's Naturals, Sauna Space, HigherDose, AG1 and ToeSox https://onlinepilatesclasses.com/memberships/perks/#equipmentBe in the know with all the workshops at OPC https://workshops.onlinepilatesclasses.com/lp-workshop-waitlistBe It Till You See It Podcast Survey https://pod.lesleylogan.co/be-it-podcasts-surveyBe a part of Lesley's Pilates Mentorship https://lesleylogan.co/elevate/FREE Ditching Busy Webinar https://ditchingbusy.com/Resources:Watch the Be It Till You See It podcast on YouTube! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq08HES7xLMvVa3Fy5DR8-gLesley Logan website https://lesleylogan.co/Be It Till You See It Podcast https://lesleylogan.co/podcast/Online Pilates Classes by Lesley Logan https://onlinepilatesclasses.com/Online Pilates Classes by Lesley Logan on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjogqXLnfyhS5VlU4rdzlnQProfitable Pilates https://profitablepilates.com/about/Follow Us on Social Media:Instagram https://www.instagram.com/lesley.logan/The Be It Till You See It Podcast YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq08HES7xLMvVa3Fy5DR8-gFacebook https://www.facebook.com/llogan.pilatesLinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/lesley-logan/The OPC YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/@OnlinePilatesClasses Episode Transcript:Lesley Logan 0:00  People do need to know that their job security is an illusion, so that they can not only have career resilience, but also just be really aware of that they have a lot more power than they think. And I think sometimes people go, oh, my ability to stay in this job is their decision when it's actually your decision. Lesley Logan 0:18  Welcome to the Be It Till You See It podcast where we talk about taking messy action, knowing that perfect is boring. I'm Lesley Logan, Pilates instructor and fitness business coach. I've trained thousands of people around the world and the number one thing I see stopping people from achieving anything is self-doubt. My friends, action brings clarity and it's the antidote to fear. Each week, my guest will bring bold, executable, intrinsic and targeted steps that you can use to put yourself first and Be It Till You See It. It's a practice, not a perfect. Let's get started. Brad Crowell 1:01  Take it away. Lesley Logan 1:03  Welcome back to the Be It Till You See It interview recap where my co-host in life, Brad, and I are going to dig into the purposeful convo I had with Pav Lertjitbanjong in our last episode. If you haven't yet listened to that interview, feel free to pause us now, go back and listen to that one and then come back and join us. Yeah. Do both. You got time. You can also put it on a 1.5 speed. I mean, we talk fast, but you can still understand us.Brad Crowell 1:26  Yeah. I mean, it's gonna be awesome. It was actually a great, very transparent convo is the right way to say it.Lesley Logan 1:33  I would say so I actually really appreciate, like, having someone be so honest about the transition that they're on. I don't think enough people share that. And so I think that was a beautiful gift for everyone listening. Because otherwise you just listen, people got their shit together, and you're like, oh, they got it all together. And it's like, well, you know, they they have it looks that way, but it's a journey.Brad Crowell 1:53  Yeah. And I think, I think the idea of preparing to step away from a job is always a win, you know, to have it together on the inside. So that's good. Anyway. What is today?Lesley Logan 2:04  Yes, well, today is January 22nd. It's four days until my birthday, everyone. Brad Crowell 2:09  What? Lesley Logan 2:09  Yeah, but that's not what today is. Today is January 22nd 2026 and it's Roe Versus Wade Day. Roe Versus Wade Day is celebrated on January 22nd, the anniversary of the court case that gave women agency over their bodies. And here we go. The US Supreme Court made a ruling that legalized abortion throughout the country, with variations from state to state depending on the length of the pregnancy, no matter what your opinion is on the controversial abortion debat,e should not be fucking controversial, and it does matter what your opinion is. But here we go. Roe Versus Wade Day marked a pivotal turn in US history, the anniversary of landmark court decision celebrated by people everywhere, especially by women. Unfortunately, on Friday, June 24th 2022 the Supreme Court overturned Roe Versus Wade, the landmark piece of legislation that made access to abortion a federal right in the United States. The decision dismantled 50 years of legal protection paved the way for individual states to curtail or outright ban abortion rights. My loves. Brad Crowell 2:59  Which is happening. Lesley Logan 3:01  It's happening. It's happened. People, women are losing their ability to have have babies because they can't get what they need. The biggest thing if you, if you're like, uncomfortable with the word abortion, and I get that because if you were raised religious, you probably were raised and it's like, the worst thing anyone can do. And like all these women regret it. I can't speak for these people. What I can say is, men get to go to every fucking state in the country, and their rights don't change. But if I go to different states, my rights do change. And for the majority of the listeners, you go to a different state, your rights do change. And it's just really pisses me off that we don't have like that we're constantly fighting for equality in this capacity. And what this means is hospitals and doctors in the areas where there is not abortion available will have less experience and less understanding about what to do when a mother needs it. And if you try to tell me, in case of like, the healthcare of the mother, the doctors are so scared and they will have to answer questions. Brad Crowell 3:59  That they're not helping the mother.Lesley Logan 4:01  That they're that they're not so we have to wait till women go septic, yeah, which is the worst you you are lucky if you come back from that a normal person. So it just really pisses me off, because this is not a this should not be a fucking law. This is a health right.Brad Crowell 4:15  So as of November of this year, 2025, 12 states have near abortion bans, or for all intents and purposes, abortion bans in place. Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas and West Virginia. Lesley Logan 4:32  Was Idaho on there? Brad Crowell 4:33  Idaho is on there. And addition, North Dakota has a near total ban that was recently revived in the state's Supreme Court, which makes it a felony to perform an abortion, except in limited medical emergency or cases of rape and incest. And that's the problem. The problem is the limited medical emergencies, and that's never clear. And so regardless of whether or not the doctor knows that that's what needs to happen, the hospital is basically saying, don't, don't do it because they're gonna get. Yeah or the doctors themselves are worried about it, because, you know, like, in Texas, they're like, going after doctors. It's nuts.Lesley Logan 5:09  There's okay. So I saw something recently, and I'm hopefully, as I as I say out loud, I'll get it right. So because some states are trying to grab doctors from other states that are helping women access abortion, right? Like some doctors from New York can send medications to people in different states and and allow them to safely, you know, have a decision over their body. And some of these states are trying to, poor women are going to different states, and then, you know, so the state that the woman is from is trying to do something to the doctors or the woman for doing that right in the place where they have a right. And someone explained it like, okay, Nevada has legalized gambling, right? But let's say you're from a state that doesn't have legalized gambling, and you go to Nevada and you gamble, and you win money, right? You gamble. It's proof you did it. That would be like the state you're from arresting you for gambling.Brad Crowell 6:06  So you didn't finish that. So then you go home to whatever state, yes, and they arrest you, yes. But you were in Nevada.Lesley Logan 6:12  Yes, where it's legal. Brad Crowell 6:14  Right. Lesley Logan 6:15  So if that, if you're like, oh, that doesn't make any sense. It's the same fucking thing when it comes to women's and abortions like this is and to be honest, like if you struggle with this, I really need you to do some extra research on what an abortion is, on what the Bible has even said. I need you to understand what, what, what week a baby is even viable on their own. And then I need you to look at how much it costs to be a parent, and you need to understand if you are also not voting for health care for children, for food at all of their schools and all these different things you do not care about life, you don't. If you are not, if you are also not voting for every single thing that makes it illegal to be poor in this country, you do you don't understand what being pro life actually means. And I know that sounds harsh, but that's how I feel. It's how I feel. I used to, used to think, okay, well, they can have a difference of opinion, not anymore, not when women are dying, not when women who are not able to have the babies that they want to have because something went wrong and that affects their ability to have babies in the future. No.Brad Crowell 7:21  Yeah, the laws that that are being passed are, I would argue that the terminology is confusing that I would not say it's fair to call them pro life. They're, in fact, pro birth. So they're, they're not looking out for the mother ever. They're looking out for what could hypothetically be a child someday, maybe. Right?Lesley Logan 7:43  Yeah, that they don't, that they're not going to care for once it's once it's born. Brad Crowell 7:48  Well, that's not necessarily the case but. Lesley Logan 7:50  I'm not talking about the parents. I'm talking about the law. I'm talking about the, the parents, oh, some of these people already have kids and they're like, I have enough. Some of them just are in the wrong time of their life. Some of them don't want to have them. Some of them, you know, it is with someone that they don't want to have a child with. This is all their rights to have. Brad Crowell 8:05  Yeah. I mean, the running joke is that the law cares before you're born, and then once you turn 18 and you can join the military, but between those times, good luck.Lesley Logan 8:15  Yeah, yeah. So anyways, I, I know, I know there's there's there's, I understand if you are someone who has a hard time with this topic, because I do remember being a child and a teenager and a young adult having a problem with this topic. And the more research I did, the more I realized how many, how, how hard it is for a for the woman in this country, specifically, and how, how much, how, in this country, we have women who will die giving birth because we do not do proper medical research, we do not care baby like we have a high mortality rate in this country that we should for a first world country, because of all, and because what I've seen what having a baby does with her body, it is her choice. She should be able to do what she wants, and there isn't judgment negatively around it.Brad Crowell 9:03  Yeah,we have a higher maternal mortality rate than most other high income countries. Whis is mind blowing.Lesley Logan 9:09  And then when you go deeper, when you go deeper, look at how high it is for black women versus white women.Brad Crowell 9:14  Yeah, significantly higher risk for black women and women over 40.Lesley Logan 9:17  And if you are worried, it's because, oh, maybe it's a different No, a high school educated white woman will have more likelihood of surviving over a medically educated black woman because of racism in this country and the stress it does on our bodies. My loves, like I will always, I will fight for women's rights, and one of those rights is having choice over what happens to your body, period, no matter what state you're in and if you don't want babies to be aborted, then you need to go to your congress people make sure that they're taken care of, because I think more women would even have a child if they had help and support. We don't do that here. So on this day, call your congress person, see what they're doing for people who have children and need help.Brad Crowell 10:00  Yeah, yeah. This is a tough this is a tough conversation. I think that. Lesley Logan 10:06  It's hard. Brad Crowell 10:06  Well, it's, what frustrates me is also that this is for 50 years the law was clear, yeah, and then three years ago now, we've got a bunch of Supreme Court justices who are like, just kidding, and they're just taking these kinds of rights away. And that frustrates me more than anything, is that that, that that's even an option. That shit, it was, it was the law of the land, you know. So that's, that's insane to me, and I, I think that the only way that stability gets created is if we are all paying attention to the things that are happening in our state and also in our federal government. But you know, right now, it's up to every single state to protect their women, you know, individually. And so it's important for you to participate in this and be educated and call the people who are making the decisions in your state.Lesley Logan 11:01  And also, it used to be, if you didn't like something for you personally, you just don't do it. So if you don't like abortion, don't get one. Brad Crowell 11:08  Right. Lesley Logan 11:09  But like, like, you know, it's just, it's really hard. It's just it get gets me really. I was just at the I was just at the women's clinic today. I love my women's clinic. If you do live in Las Vegas, the WHASN clinic. Shout out to the WHASNclinic. It is fucking phenomenal. At any rate, they have like, a sign on the wall, which is like, how to prevent pregnancy, right? And sterilization for a woman, or vasectomy for a man, are in are like, not going to have a baby, not going to happen, okay? And then they go through like, okay here are the birth controls. This is how we have to change them. This is how effective they are. So it starts to go from 99.9% to like 97% to 94% here effectiveness in preventing pregnancy. And here's what it said at the bottom of this. And this is like mind blowing that they do not teach people in school because they don't want you to know, because they want you. They want you dumb and pregnant. They if you are not doing anything to prevent pregnancy. So you aren't on a birth control, you don't have any protection going on birth like things like that. He doesn't have anything. You're 85% likely to have a baby if you are, if you have reproductive abilities and you don't, don't do any intervention, the chance of you getting pregnant annually will be 85% not in your lifetime, annually. So don't be shocked when people end up pregnant. People can, they can accidentally take not even accidentally. They could get sick and they need an antibiotic, and it it causes their their birth control to not work, literally, right? I have friends who had IUDs, and their parents got pregnant with them. So like all people can do all the right things and still have this pregnancy happen, and it might not be the right time for them, or it might not be the right thing for them, and they that is their fucking business. Period. I have no judgment towards people who do it or don't do it. It's up to you, but it should be up to you, and the fact that it's not in certain states pisses me off. Anyways, we do need to move on, yeah, but hope, hopefully you're off. I feel like people are fired up with us, but just pass it on to your friend.Brad Crowell 13:09  Yeah. Well, look, let's shift gears here. That's a heavy topic that we're obviously very passionate about. So thanks for following along. Here's what's coming up in our world here. So it's right now, today, January 22nd is the second to last day to get the early bird for joining us this year in Cambodia at a Pilates retreat at Crow's nest, right? So go to crowsnestretreats.com. Tomorrow is the last day to get the early bird. January 23rd is the last day to get the early bird. Go to crowsnestretreats.com or just DM us if you want the link, we'll send it over. Next week is Lesley's birthday, like she already said.Lesley Logan 13:44  I know, I'll be 43 I know, so good. Brad Crowell 13:48  We're just, we're just sharing that. We're probably gonna. Lesley Logan 13:51  No birthday sale. Brad Crowell 13:52  Go out to dinner or something here.Lesley Logan 13:54  Open a party, babe. We're having a party where you dress for the wrong party party.Brad Crowell 13:58  Oh yeah, yeah, we're doing that. That's right. Next month, February, Agency Mini is coming back. We're going to be doing Profitable Pilates is hosting Agency Mini. If you have ever felt like, what's the thing that sets me apart as a Pilates teacher from my my super close friend who's also a Pilates teacher, then you should come to Agency Mini. Lesley Logan 14:16  Yeah. Or if you're frustrated by the studios in town where they are lacking training their own. They're like, they're buying, like, cheap and cheerful $200 reformers and packing people. And you're like, come to Agency Mini because we will with you and also give you what you need to stand out, because that's what we do.Brad Crowell 14:33  Yeah, so go to prfit.biz/mini. Just make a noise over there. Lesley Logan 14:40  Just me making noise. Brad Crowell 14:41  prfit.biz/mini that's profit without the O dot biz. And then in March, we're going to be bopping around Europe and looking forward to that. We're going to be in Poland and then in Brussels. So if you are anywhere near either of those places, go to xxll.co/poland, or xxll.co/brussels. And then in April, we're going to be at POT in London. Lesley Logan 15:05  And by now it has announced. Brad Crowell 15:07  Yeah, it's announced. Tickets are available. So come join us. Come hang out. It's gonna be super fun. Go to xxll.co/pot. And then finally, this is new for those of you who listen every week, thank you for that. May. We are going to be doing spring training again, and this time, we have a really cool topic. We're going to be doing How to Get Overhead.Lesley Logan 15:25  Yeah, we're getting your butts upside down. Brad Crowell 15:27  Get your buns in the air. Lesley Logan 15:28  So if you struggle with overhead exercises, or you feel like it's not in your practice, or you want to be doing them, we're talking like back knives, headstands, control balance, all the ones upside down. Brad Crowell 15:39  Any of those. Lesley Logan 15:40  And you don't have to have to have equipment. We'll have mat classes, we'll have Reformer, we'll have everything. We'll have something for everybody. And if you're on the early bird wait list, for sure, you get a better access options all that good stuff. Brad Crowell 15:49  So go to opc.me/events that's opc.me/events plural, and sign up for the events waitlist. And you know, we'll let you know about the things that happen throughout the year, and then, yeah, so that's what's happening through May. And then this week, we actually had a question from one of our eLevate grads. Her name is Shannon Billings, and she pinged us on IG and she said, hey, I saw those, those posters that you guys made of all the exercises in a grid, and I want to hang them on my wall. Lesley Logan 16:20  Yeah, they're pretty. Brad Crowell 16:21  But I cannot find them. I don't know where I'm supposed to be looking. Where should I where can I find those posters?Lesley Logan 16:26  Yeah, so they're on the OPC site, and the quickest link is just opc.me/posters. And here's the coolest thing about these posters. You guys right now, we're not good at going to the post office, so these are print on demand posters. They're beautiful, so don't let that change. They don't. Doesn't change the quality. Quality is freaking awesome. Yeah, they're great. What it means is, when you, wherever you live in the world, they'll probably print it somewhere near you. So that means shipping to you is actually not astronomical.Brad Crowell 16:50  Yeah, it's pretty reasonable. We've had people order them in Europe or in Australia, and it's, it's not crazy, it's not an arm I'm gonna like to ship. So, yeah, go check that out opc.me/posters, and if you have any questions, just text us at 310-905-5534,Brad Crowell 17:03  Or beitpod.com/questions Brad Crowell 17:04  beitpod.com/questions where you can also leave a win. Lesley Logan 17:10  I just want to add to that, some people are putting two posters per poster frame. So like on one side, it's the mat, and the other side is the reformer or tower. And so if you have not a lot of space, but you want all the posters, order all of them, because you can get frames that have clear stuff on both sides, and you can just like, flip it. Brad Crowell 17:30  Flip it. Yeah. That's clever. Lesley Logan 17:31  I saw a girl who she has my posters, and then she has a different set of posters that are black and white. And so sometimes she wants color, sometimes she wants it to be not. So you can do that. Brad Crowell 17:41  Love that. Lesley Logan 17:42  I know people are so creative, you got to share that stuff.Brad Crowell 17:46  Well, stick around. We'll be right back. We're gonna talk about Pav Lertjitbanjong. Brad Crowell 17:53  All right, welcome back. Let's talk about your conversation with Pav. Pav Lertjitbanjong is the creator of Layoff Ready, the financial resilience program that she built before her work evolved into Pavness Leadership Lab. Lesley Logan 18:08  I love it. So cute. Brad Crowell 18:09  The Pavness Leadership Lab, I love it. She after a divorce that left her financially and emotionally depleted. She spent months avoiding the reality of her situation before finally facing her budget a single day of focus work that revealed nearly a half a million dollars in a forgotten 401(k), pretty crazy. From there, she paid off six figures in debt, rebuilt her stability and retired from corporate life at the age of 43. Today, through the pavness leadership lab, Pav studies how people build courage and make clear decisions under pressure, continuing her mission to empower others, to create long-lasting stability, confidence and options in your lives. Yeah. Lesley Logan 18:47  Yeah. I really enjoyed this conversation, because I think we talk a lot about strengths and knowing what your strengths are. And, you know, we even have a conversation about retirement coming up and things like that. But, like, I think people live in fear of different change, what if I lose my job, what if I lose this. But she's like, okay, so what if we've talked about career resilience and having a career resilience and so allowing yourself to really understand it's better, that it's more than just like, okay, I'm financially ready if I get laid off. It's like, no, like, how can you really understand who you are and what you do, what makes you amazing? So which I really love that she brought up, like, job security is an illusion. It fucking is. And it pisses me off that banks value a W2 when some of us are over here betting on ourselves and every year kicking ass. I'm just saying from personal experience, it's just me. But what don't you think? Brad Crowell 19:32  You're not wrong. It's really annoying. I mean, I don't know how else they would should do it, but like, just historically.Lesley Logan 19:39  Just look at my history. Just look at my taxes last look at what I'm doing. Brad Crowell 19:43  Yeah, there's that.Lesley Logan 19:46  But I but I appreciate that she brought that up. I think we I think people do need to know that their job security is an illusion, so that they can not only have career resilience, but also just be really aware of that they have a lot more power than they think. And I think sometimes people go, oh, my ability to stay in this job is their decision when it's actually your decision. You know, just like an interview, if you want a job, it's your decision, all that stuff. And she also brought up, and I thought this is really cool, the emotional clarity that gives you peace of mind. When you have career resilience, it gives you a lot more clarity. So I think it means, like, less anxiety about, I'm going to lose my job. What am I going to do? Like you just feel a lot better about it, you know? And it's critical, because we are going into a weird world of AI, and I don't even know what that means for a lot of people's jobs, because I teach Pilates, and luckily, right now, AI kind of sucks at doing that.Brad Crowell 20:35  Yeah. I mean, so the conversation that y'all had was more focused on not necessarily walking away from a job that you might currently have, but what if, right, being prepared for worst case scenario? Because who knows, you know, who knows? Like nothing is especially now, things feel very unstable, economically, I think it's more of a feeling than it is a numbers thing. But it doesn't change the fact that it's a feeling still, and people are feeling weird about it.Lesley Logan 21:04  Yeah, and weird feelings have changed economies many times in history. And so, yeah, I also think I just want to bring up.Brad Crowell 21:12  But the point the point is, then that, you know, not necessarily wanting to leave a job, but how do you be prepared for it? And this is the kind of thing that she digs into. Like, she, she talked about layoff being layoff proof.Lesley Logan 21:25  She even has a checklist for you guys, and I think that that is, if that's something you are, like, I want to be layoff proof. Like, I might as well start now. You know, you don't want to start it after. So it's layoff ready.com/emergencykit.Brad Crowell 21:39  Yeah, look, and here's the thing, for those of you who are entrepreneurs like us, you're clearly not laying yourself off. The best thing, the biggest thing you could possibly be doing is conveying to your clients how you are adding value into their life, and not necessarily you are, although inadvertently you are. Pilates is how is your teaching? How? What is it that is benefiting them? How is their life changing? And I'm working on a series right now with our Agency members, where I'm helping walk them through not only how to identify the benefits the changes that they're seeing, but also how to communicate those to their clients without feeling weird about it and not being overly like salesy, because if you can continue to reinforce the why that they initially told you that they were coming and then reminding them about the changes that you're seeing as a teacher in their world, right, it's going to change the way that they value their practice with you. So especially for y'all you know, entrepreneurs out there who laying layoff proof, like, what am I supposed to do for that? I'm not, I'm not firing myself. So how do we make sure that we are maintaining our income? We really have to continue to build relationships with our clients. You have to continue to do that.Lesley Logan 22:59  Yeah, I think that's and we actually have a relationship, like authentic relationship episode coming out soon, like, and they'll be in April. Brad Crowell 23:07  Amazing. I love that. Yeah. Well, one of the things I really dug that she mentioned was she said, how can you really design a life that you wanted to live? It could give you the freedom to walk away, whether that means leaving the job or retiring early. And she said, if you are waiting for security, if you're waiting to feel security, you should be building it, not waiting for it. So whether that is maybe you're learning how to do another skill, or maybe you're learning how to manage money, you know, we've had a bunch of people over the years in the pod about this, like Tess Waresmith is one that comes back to me here and talking about financial stability and literacy, financial literacy. So these are things that you could be learning how to just think through. Lesley Logan 23:51  We have Tess Waresmith coming back. Brad Crowell 23:53  Oh, that's even better. Lesley Logan 23:53  I just oh, it's a great interview, guys. It's gonna be so good. I was just like, girl, I need you to tell me how I'm supposed to do when it's like this, and it's crazy like now, when it feels crazy. I also just want to highlight the don't wait for security created. This is everything this is, this is be it till you see it right here, because I was listening to a phone call conversation in a book club I'm in, and some people were complaining that the situation they're in, they can't create a culture. They have all these other outside things. It's affecting the culture they're creating, and I'm listening to them and like, I get that right? And I was like, I waited a second. I was just like, well, I am in a different studio all the time. Like, I'm in a I don't have a studio, right? And so what do I do? And I'm like, oh, in every space that I go, I own the space that I am, and I create the intention that I want. I create the culture I want them to experience, and I set the stage and I shared that with them. I said, instead of waiting until you can, like, move studios or move this, what if you just acted the culture you want to create in the space right now? Because then, if you do get to change a situation, you'll already have practiced it. It'll be really easy for you to do, or you might not even have to leave. Maybe the culture just changes around you. And so it goes back to like, don't wait to feel secure. Create security. What is the be it till you see it? What does security for you in your job or something else look like? And how can you create it in the space that you're in and wait, instead of waiting for someone to wait for someone to come, put a fence up, you know, you know what I mean, like, you're gonna wait for someone to, like, hand you a lottery tickets you have extra money. Like, what are you gonna do? I think that I like the action step that she's providing here.Brad Crowell 25:29  Yeah, one thing that she was talking about, which might sound a little scary, she actively leveraged debt to to consolidate and then pay off her debt, right? I mean, I've done that too, where I took out a credit card with a balance. I transferred one or two or three credit cards to that one, right? It had something like, if you transfer it in, you get 12 months of, no, you know, no fees, yeah. And so, you know, took those 12 months to pay it down, yeah? So, you know, it just something that seems straightforward, but also might feel you might feel hesitant to get started on that, but you know that stuff's worth, worth thinking through. I think so.Lesley Logan 26:12  I think it's worth talking to people who who understand it too, like a wealth manager or things like that. But like to be honest, that is how the rich get richer, right? Like credit score is, if you're in the States, your credit score is pretty much just like, how do you manage debt? So if you're debt free, and you've always been debt free, and you don't get any cards, you actually don't have a perfect credit score, because you don't have credit for them to like, see how you do. So it is all about strategically leveraging debt to, like, increase that score. You can strategically leverage it to allow you to have the security you need for in case something negative happens in your career or in the journey that you're on.Brad Crowell 26:47  Yeah, well, stick around. We'll be right back. We're gonna cover those Be It Action Items that you had with Pav. Brad Crowell 26:53  Okay, welcome back. Let's talk about those Be It Action Items. What bold, executable, intrinsic or targeted action items can we take away from your convo with Pav Lertjitbanjong.Lesley Logan 27:07  Pav let us know if, after the four attempts, any of us got close on that.Brad Crowell 27:11  She said, Know your numbers, which is so funny, because this is like, I never stopped saying this to our coaching clients. It's so easy to know your numbers, but it seems so hard, right? It seems like this scary black hole of like, oh my God, I don't even know what I need to know. So it just seems like this amorphous, like blob of unknown. And when we dig into the things that most people need to really know is, what are your expenses and what are your income? Those are the things. That's where you want to start, right? What are your expenses and what are your income? Yeah, so she said, for her, it's, she said there's three numbers that truly matter. One is your net worth, right? So she's, she said, assets minus liability. What does that mean? An asset would be, maybe you have a house, right? Liability would be, I have a credit card debt and it has, you know, $10,000 on it. Okay, great. So you have a house that has, you know, or actually, you could say the house is worth $250,000 I still have a loan of $150,000 against the house. So I have equity of $100,000 right? So that's net that's your net worth, right? So that's an easier way to think about that. She also said the second number is something she calls an FU fund, what she describes as that six month cushion that lets you walk away from anything you have to, you know. And today we were talking about it. Maybe it's a little more than six, maybe it's six to nine months, or something like that, where you know, okay, because you know your expenses, and let's just hypothetically say your expenses are 10,000 a month, you know, how do we what's the quickest way that we can get to setting aside $60,000 that's a scary number to be honest. That's a lot, you know, but we got to get started. You have to start sometime, right? And that that kind of buffer will certainly protect you were something bad to happen at an employment situation, and then you feel like, stuck, and you're like, Oh my God, but at least you have a buffer, right? So that's what that that's for. And then finally, she said, your firing number, your fire number, how much money would you need to invest in the market so you can make smaller amount each year on 4% and still have money left to reinvest, right? So what does that mean? That's your like retirement number, right? So for anyone who's who's like financial planner, they'll ask you the question of, all right, how much money do you want to live on a month? Again, let's just say $10,000 and then they'll, what they'll do is they'll work backwards based on your your retirement portfolio, and they're going to assume that you'll be able to live if $10,000 a month is the 4% number, then they'll be able to reverse engineer the number and be like, great. You need to have $2 million or, I think it's more than that, but you'll need to, need to have X amount of dollars in your portfolio so that you can live comfortably on $10,000 a month and never have to worry about it again, because it's in the market, right? So, and the reason that she said 4% is because the average market return is eight, like seven to 8% or maybe even it's eight to nine, I don't remember, but if you can live on half of that, that gives you the other half of what you hypothetically are earning to reinvest back into the market again, right? So that's, that's where the numbers, that's how that kind of breaks down. It's a bit in the weeds. So thanks for following me there.Lesley Logan 30:25  I love that she has those and that you did those ones, because the other one is pretty amazing. And this is simple, but true. Bold doesn't have to be loud, but it has to be true. And so you don't have to have this, like, law, the way I interpret this, like you don't have to make this bold move where you're like, what was that Tom Cruise movie, where he just, like, was like, goodbye, fuck you. I'm out of here. Like, who's coming with me? And like, Renee's. What was that movie? It's the one that everyone quotes, and it's the worst one. Jerry Maguire.Brad Crowell 30:55  Jerry Maguire. Lesley Logan 30:55  Jerry Maguire. Brad Crowell 30:56  Show me the money. Lesley Logan 30:57  Show me the money. And like, but it doesn't have to be like that, but it but, but whatever you do needs to be true to you. And I think that's where a lot of people don't take time, is to, like, really understand, like, what do you want? What do you need, you know, and, and that's scary, because maybe what you want and need is different than what you've been doing, you know, or maybe you've been letting yourself realize, like, how strong you are. And we have a couple great episodes coming up about, like, getting to know yourself and like, also being kind yourself if you haven't lived in that way. But truly, I think that's one of the best be it action items, if you if you can do that, if you could live authentically to you, and you can know your numbers, you are resilient, and you could probably kick some ass. Brad Crowell 31:39  Kicks some ass.Lesley Logan 31:40  Yeah, yeah. So the other thing is, is that Pav has actually been, recently, been doing more coaching in a focused position on the science of making courageous decisions under pressure. And so if you are needing more help with like, making great decisions under pressure, things like that, you can also coach with her. And I think that'll be really if you liked how she sounds and how she coaches and her insight on things. I think that's a really great thing that she's doing. You know, because making courageous decisions are really hard, and also, like, she understands how to, like, take imperfect action, even your nervous system resists. And a lot of people, you know, when you have to make big decisions, sometimes your nervous system does have anxiety. And so of course, it does. Why wouldn't it? It it would be so against what our brain does to go into the fear. So I highly recommend reaching out to her. Brad Crowell 32:25  Awesome. Yeah, that's great. Lesley Logan 32:27  Well, I'm Lesley Logan. Brad Crowell 32:28  And I'm Brad Crowell. Lesley Logan 32:29  Thanks so much for being here, and thanks for listening to our rants. I do happen to know that people like them and someone reach out after our Transgender Day, and they were so glad that they found us. They found our Pilates stuff, and they like our little rants there. So thank you for that. Send this to a friend who needs to hear it, especially one who needs some career resilience or some support, support under making decisions under pressure and until next time, Be It Till You See It. Brad Crowell 32:53  Bye for now. Lesley Logan 32:54  That's all I got for this episode of the Be It Till You See It Podcast. One thing that would help both myself and future listeners is for you to rate the show and leave a review and follow or subscribe for free wherever you listen to your podcast. Also, make sure to introduce yourself over at the Be It Pod on Instagram. I would love to know more about you. Share this episode with whoever you think needs to hear it. Help us and others Be It Till You See It. Have an awesome day. Be It Till You See It is a production of The Bloom Podcast Network. If you want to leave us a message or a question that we might read on another episode, you can text us at +1-310-905-5534 or send a DM on Instagram @BeItPod.Brad Crowell 33:37  It's written, filmed, and recorded by your host, Lesley Logan, and me, Brad Crowell.Lesley Logan 33:42  It is transcribed, produced and edited by the epic team at Disenyo.co.Brad Crowell 33:46  Our theme music is by Ali at Apex Production Music and our branding by designer and artist, Gianfranco Cioffi.Lesley Logan 33:53  Special thanks to Melissa Solomon for creating our visuals.Brad Crowell 33:57  Also to Angelina Herico for adding all of our content to our website. And finally to Meridith Root for keeping us all on point and on time.Transcribed by https://otter.aiSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/be-it-till-you-see-it/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

You formed your LLC. Good job.But many business owners unknowingly make critical mistakes after formation that quietly destroy liability protection, trigger audits, and limit growth.In this episode, Mike walks through the 10 most common LLC mistakes business owners make in 2026 and explains exactly how to fix them. From mixing personal and business finances to ignoring tax planning and misclassifying owner compensation, this episode gives you a practical framework to audit your business and protect it the right way.If you want your LLC to survive and thrive, not just exist on paper, this episode shows you what to fix now before it becomes expensive later.

In this episode of The Fractional CMO Show, Casey shares a line from a boardroom member that stopped him cold: "I'm never going back." This member joined the accelerator in 2025, won their first two clients, and declared they're done with W2 work forever. Casey breaks down why this declaration changes everything.   Casey shares the moment he left his agency thinking they'd miss him - they didn't skip a beat. The agency owner tried scaring him about insurance and taxes. Turns out that "security" was bullshit. Companies fire 15-year employees in five-minute Friday meetings without emotion.    You see how the world actually works when you win that first fractional client. Your value isn't being likeable or having insights - it's identifying and solving big problems. You write your own rules. You're at every appointment that matters. You're not too old, too young, or missing the MBA - those are excuses.    Get that first client paying $3-15K monthly for strategy, not implementation. You'll taste the freedom and say it yourself: I'm never going back.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ Key Topics Covered: -"I'm never going back": A boardroom member's declaration after winning their first two fractional clients - and why it hit Casey so hard -You see how the world actually works: Not the fake security of W2 work where companies fire people in five-minute meetings - the real meritocracy where big problems get big rewards -You understand your actual value: Identifying and solving big problems. Nothing else matters - not being likeable, not tenure, not showing up -You control your own time: At every appointment that matters, every family moment - no asking permission or burning vacation days to be present -You write the rules: Too old, too young, no MBA, wrong industry - all bullshit excuses keeping you from the game you actually want to play -Freedom tastes different: 3-4 clients at $3-15K monthly for strategy work, not implementation - then you get it and never want to go back​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

If you're making $100K-$300K+ and watching 30-40% of your paycheck disappear to taxes every year, this episode will change everything. You're not stuck paying those taxes — you just haven't learned the strategy wealthy investors use to legally eliminate their tax burden. In this episode, CPA and tax strategist Amanda Han reveals exactly how high-income W2 earners can use real estate (even just ONE rental property) to offset their W2 income and pay little to ZERO in taxes — 100% legally. What You'll Learn: ✅ Why your CPA isn't telling you about these strategies (and why most tax returns leave money on the table) ✅ The depreciation "loophole" that offsets your W2 income dollar-for-dollar ✅ How rental property tax benefits work — even if you only own one property ✅ Real examples of high earners cutting their tax bill to $0 legally ✅ The biggest misconceptions keeping W2 earners overpaying taxes ✅ Why tax planning is NOT just for the ultra-wealthy (it's for YOU) Here's the truth: The tax code is designed to reward real estate investors. And you don't need 10 properties or millions of dollars to start — you can do this with ONE rental property and the right strategy. These strategies help you build wealth without taking on excessive debt or adding stress to your life. And if you want a deeper breakdown of the biggest roadblocks keeping landlords stuck — and how to fix them this year — make sure you're registered for my January webinar. ✨ REGISTER FOR MY FREE CLASS The 3 Biggest Roadblocks Keeping Landlords From Scaling — and How to Fix It January 20, 2026 at 7PM ET via Zoom

This episode is for real estate investors who feel stuck because banks cap them at one or two properties, and their debt-to-income ratio kills further approvals. Ryan walks through how DSCR loans underwrite cash-flowing rentals instead of your W2, how to avoid low DSCR and appraisal traps, and when to use non-QM DSCR loans instead of conventional financing so you can safely own three solid doors instead of being stuck with one.

New year, new interest rates? It's a strong maybe. That isn't the most helpful answer, but if you are close to closing on a new house, should you wait to see if they drop or lock in now? Nate Reineke and Chelsea Jones discuss some factors to consider when deciding whether to wait or not. We also look at how a change might already be factored into the rate you're getting. We also answer your colleagues' questions. A Psychiatrist in Maine says, “My 13-year-old just received a couple hundred bucks at Christmas. He is very interested in investing that money. He doesn't have any earned income. Is it best to open a UTMA in his name, a 529, or a Roth IRA?” A Double doctor family in Hawaii asks, “My 18-year-old son just committed to a paid internship for this coming summer and will make enough money to fully fund a Roth IRA. What is the best way to set this up?” An Oncologist in Oklahoma is wondering, “I looked at our last paycheque for the year 2025. Based on my calculations, it's likely that we will not meet the safe harbor rules for 2025. I am not sure how this happened, as we are both W2 employees. I know that we will have to pay some penalties, but should I hire a CPA for taxes this year? Generally, I do the taxes myself, but I am not sure if TurboTax can run this analysis.” Are you ready to turn worries about taxes and investing into all the money you need for college and retirement? It's time to make a plan and get on track. To find out if we're a match visit physicianfamily.com and click get started or, you can ask a question of your own by emailing podcast@physicianfamily.com. See marketing disclosures at physicianfamily.com/disclosures

In this special episode of Limitless MD, I'm sharing highlights from some of the most impactful moments in 2025. We start with Dr. Ryan Mallory, who shares how the traditional W2 physician model is limiting and how embracing locum work has granted him greater freedom. He shares his journey from being a salaried cardiologist to regaining control over his time, working fewer days, and spending more time with his family.Dr. Kristine Goins shares her journey of overcoming self-limiting beliefs and finding ways to blend career and freedom. As the founder of Nomad MD, she empowers physicians to explore work-from-anywhere opportunities while still excelling in their field. Greg Dickerson shares his perspective on leadership, effective delegation, and scaling businesses, particularly for medical professionals looking to grow their practices or side hustles. Finally, Dr. Mike Van Thielen talks about his groundbreaking work on biohacking, focusing on how physicians and high performers can unlock "zone" productivity and regain control of their time through structured rituals. If you're ready to take control of your time and income, as well as learn how to thrive in both your professional and personal life in 2026, this episode is for you!In This Episode:- Exploring locum tenens with Ryan Mallory- How much can you earn as a locum?-The Nomad MD: Living and working anywhere- Greg Dickerson on mastering people and leadership skills - How to supercharge your productivity with Dr. Mike- Practical tips for optimizing your dayConnect with Dr. Ryan Mallory: Website: https://halftimefreedom.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rdmallory Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanmallorymd/ Connect with Dr. Kristine Goins:Website: https://thenomadmd.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thenomadmds Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thenomadmds Connect with Greg Dickerson:Website: https://www.dickersoninternational.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/agregdickerson Connect with Dr. Mike Van ThielenInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/drmike_health4life/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/drmikeinspires/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikevanthielenphd Resources:➡️ Free community of high-performing physicians: the Physician Wealth Accelerator -

Wanna work with us? Schedule a call here: https://go.oncehub.com/bookacall In this episode of the Private Lenders Podcast, we break down the biggest mistakes lenders make when scaling with loan originators—and why adding originators the wrong way can stall growth and drain profits. After 20+ years in private lending, we've tested nearly every structure imaginable: commission-only originators, W2 sales reps, internal leads, outsourced brokers, and full partnership models. Some worked. Many failed. In this episode, we cover: Why most commission-only originator models fail Internal leads vs. self-sourced deals—what actually works The dangers of high base salaries and underqualified hires Why intake-only or admin pre-screening hurts conversions Two proven originator structures that consistently scale A compensation "hack" using inspections, draws, and valuation fees When partnership models make sense—and when they don't Why brokering loans outside your lending box is usually a mistake If you're a private or hard money lender looking to scale beyond a one-person operation, this episode will help you avoid costly mistakes and build a sustainable lending business. ✅ Please like, subscribe, and share! ✅ Are you a new or experienced private lender or hard money lender? Join Jason Balin and Chris Haddon from Hard Money Bankers as they draw from their extensive experience running a successful hard money lending company since 2007. Tune in weekly with episodes related to all aspects of private lending. From discovering lucrative loan opportunities to securing private capital, effectively managing your loan portfolio, handling defaults, and much more, we've got you covered. ✔️ Tune in now and watch the full video podcast at www.privatelenderspodcast.com ✔️If you enjoyed this podcast we would appreciate a positive review... https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/private-lenders-podcast/id1476153070 ✔️Make sure to check out the #1 Online Community For New and Experienced Private and Hard Money Lenders.. Create your account at www.hardmoneymastermind.com FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL Get updates or reach out to Get updates on our Social Media Profiles! ✅ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hardmoneymastermind/ ✅ Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@hardmoneymastermind  

In this powerful episode of The Real Estate Breakthrough Show, host Christina Sudter sits down with 20-year-old entrepreneur Michael Rebello. Michael shares his incredible "why", a deeply personal mission to retire his mom from her W2 job, and how it fuels his journey in multifamily real estate. Rejecting the traditional college path, he chose mentorship and immersion in real estate instead. Christina and Michael dive into: - How a clear "why" gives you the strength to face any downturn. - The moment Michael and his mom realized the traditional financial system wasn't working for them. - How they built a balanced, successful partnership (he's the visionary, she's the pragmatic leash). - Their rapid traction: going from zero to co-GPing on over 200 units in their first year. - Michael's bold advice for young people: why college isn't the only path and how to build your own "education" through mentorships, courses, and networks. This is a raw, inspiring conversation about family, financial literacy, grit, and creating your own blueprint for success. Whether you're new to investing or a seasoned pro, Michael's story will remind you of the power of purpose and partnership. Connect with Michael Rebello: Website: www.everforwardcpartners.com  #RealEstateBreakthrough #MultifamilyInvesting #KnowYourWhy #Entrepreneurship #FinancialFreedom                                            

Getting laid off from your W2 job can be a crushing blow, but for today's guest, it was the push she needed to finally bet on herself. Her first “real” rental property wasn't the perfect deal, but it didn't need to be. Today, it cash flows over $25,000 a year and has become her favorite creative outlet! Welcome back to the Real Estate Rookie podcast! Where you invest is often just as important as the property itself, so when Alex Reeves had the opportunity to buy a run-down rental in a great area of town, she jumped—getting it under contract with only a day's notice, sight unseen, over FaceTime. Despite going over budget by roughly $100,000, she finished the renovation, furnished the property, and had her listing up in only a few months! Once a “house of horrors,” this same property now cash flows over $2,000 a month and has 100% five-star reviews on Airbnb. How? Stay tuned as Alex walks you through the entire journey of buying, rehabbing, and renting out this property—the good, the bad, and yes, even the ugly! In This Episode We Cover: How Alex makes over $25,000 in yearly cash flow from ONE rental property How to get more funds for your renovation project when it goes over budget The mindset shift that turned this “accidental landlord” into an Airbnb Superhost Tips that will save you a fortune on your property's design and furnishings The keys to crafting a five-star experience with your short-term rental How Alex spent an extra $100,000 on renovations (and still made money!) And So Much More! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

⭐ Get my coaching & community to achieve financial freedom → https://www.coachcarson.com/rpm-pod-ep470  ⚒️Get my best investor tools for FREE → https://www.coachcarson.com/toolkit-pod-ep470  ▶️Next Video: DSCR Loans Explained: How to Qualify Without a W2 or Tax Returns - https://youtu.be/cEm90D-Wcxc?si=OuFyx91UJhFBvtOQ   -------------------------- EPISODE NOTES:

Send us a textSunny is a practicing CAA, currently working both as a locum and on a W2 basis. He currently practices in Texas and Indiana, where he is proud to provide quality anesthesia care in the anesthesia care team. Sunny began his career in the Marine Corps, where he developed a respect for education that led him to the University of Arizona. Sunny graduated magna cum laude with a degree in medical physiology before attending the Indiana University School of Medicine's CAA program. He graduated top of his class and earned the Outstanding Academic Achievement Award. Sunny has done anesthesia for level 1 trauma, cardiac, neurosurgery, outpatient surgery, high-risk OB, and everything in between. Sunny was awarded the 2024 Outstanding Clinical Educator Award by the Indiana University School of Medicine's CAA school, and he currently runs a TikTok dedicated to educating people about the CAA profession.Learn about career options from the people doing it

What if you didn't have to save 70% of your income to retire early? What if you could hit a number in your 30s, ease off the gas, and still reach financial independence—without sacrificing your present life? That's Coast FIRE, and today's guest Andy Hill is the perfect example of how it works in real life. Andy hit his Coast FIRE number in his late thirties, left his corporate job at 40, and now runs a successful part-time business that supports his family of four while giving him total control over his time. In this conversation, Andy breaks down his journey from W2 employee to entrepreneur, the specific Coast FIRE calculations that gave him confidence to leave, and how he built a business that prioritizes family first, income second. This Episode Covers: What Coast FIRE actually is and how it's different from traditional FIRE Andy's path from corporate employee to hitting his Coast FIRE number in his late 30s How Andy built the confidence to leave his W2 job at 40 Transitioning from employee to entrepreneur while supporting a family of four Building a part-time business that generates enough income without the corporate grind How Coast FIRE allows you to prioritize family and lifestyle now (not just in retirement) Key lessons from Andy's book 'Own Your Time' How to structure your life around what matters most If traditional FIRE feels too extreme or you're tired of delaying life for decades, Coast FIRE might be the strategy you've been looking for. Andy's story proves you can have financial independence AND a life you love today. Connect with Andy Hill: Social: https://www.instagram.com/marriagekidsandmoney Website: https://marriagekidsandmoney.com/ Pre-Order ‘Own Your Time' Now: https://marriagekidsandmoney.com/book/ Subscribe to our Weekly Newsletter: www.biggerpocketsmoney.com Follow BiggerPockets Money on Social: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/BPMoney Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/biggerpocketsmoney/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Is real estate investing still worth it? High mortgage rates and home prices can make buying a rental property seem challenging, if not impossible at times, particularly for a rookie investor with zero experience. But not to worry—in this episode, we're sharing beginner-friendly tips that will help you find and fund cash-flowing deals in 2026!   Welcome to another Rookie Reply! We're back with three questions from the BiggerPockets Forums, the first of which comes from someone who's looking to break into real estate but is unsure of how to make the numbers work in today's high-interest-rate environment. Is now a bad time to invest, or conversely, the best possible time to get started?   Another investor is looking to leave their W2 for a job in real estate, but should they? Ashley and Tony debate whether this move actually gives you an edge. Finally, behind every good real estate investor is an investor-friendly tax professional. But how do you find one? We share some of the most crucial questions to ask when hiring a CPA! Looking to invest? Need answers? Ask your question here! In This Episode We Cover How to find cash-flowing real estate deals (despite high mortgage rates) Whether rookies should start investing in real estate in 2026 (or wait) Choosing the right investing strategy for your long-term goals The BEST real estate jobs to help fast-track your investing journey When to leave your current W2 job for a job in real estate Crucial questions to ask a tax professional before hiring them And So Much More! Check out more resources from this show on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠BiggerPockets.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.biggerpockets.com/blog/rookie-664 Interested in learning more about today's sponsors or becoming a BiggerPockets partner yourself? Email ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠advertise@biggerpockets.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of the Real Estate Pros podcast, host Michelle Kesil interviews Adam Czajkowski, a commercial real estate investor specializing in senior living. Adam shares his journey from the W2 world to real estate investing, emphasizing the importance of networking, partnerships, and understanding the unique challenges of the senior living niche. He discusses the emotional connection to this field, the complexities of underwriting, and the significance of building relationships with passive investors. Adam also offers valuable advice for new investors, highlighting the importance of having a clear 'why' and focusing on the process of investing.   Professional Real Estate Investors - How we can help you: Investor Fuel Mastermind:  Learn more about the Investor Fuel Mastermind, including 100% deal financing, massive discounts from vendors and sponsors you're already using, our world class community of over 150 members, and SO much more here: http://www.investorfuel.com/apply   Investor Machine Marketing Partnership:  Are you looking for consistent, high quality lead generation? Investor Machine is America's #1 lead generation service professional investors. Investor Machine provides true 'white glove' support to help you build the perfect marketing plan, then we'll execute it for you…talking and working together on an ongoing basis to help you hit YOUR goals! Learn more here: http://www.investormachine.com   Coaching with Mike Hambright:  Interested in 1 on 1 coaching with Mike Hambright? Mike coaches entrepreneurs looking to level up, build coaching or service based businesses (Mike runs multiple 7 and 8 figure a year businesses), building a coaching program and more. Learn more here: https://investorfuel.com/coachingwithmike   Attend a Vacation/Mastermind Retreat with Mike Hambright: Interested in joining a "mini-mastermind" with Mike and his private clients on an upcoming "Retreat", either at locations like Cabo San Lucas, Napa, Park City ski trip, Yellowstone, or even at Mike's East Texas "Big H Ranch"? Learn more here: http://www.investorfuel.com/retreat   Property Insurance: Join the largest and most investor friendly property insurance provider in 2 minutes. Free to join, and insure all your flips and rentals within minutes! There is NO easier insurance provider on the planet (turn insurance on or off in 1 minute without talking to anyone!), and there's no 15-30% agent mark up through this platform!  Register here: https://myinvestorinsurance.com/   New Real Estate Investors - How we can work together: Investor Fuel Club (Coaching and Deal Partner Community): Looking to kickstart your real estate investing career? Join our one of a kind Coaching Community, Investor Fuel Club, where you'll get trained by some of the best real estate investors in America, and partner with them on deals! You don't need $ for deals…we'll partner with you and hold your hand along the way! Learn More here: http://www.investorfuel.com/club   —--------------------

How Andrew Freed (@InvestorFreed) Scaled to 400 Units | The Modern American Dream Podcast

Welcome back to The Cashflow Project! In this episode, we're joined by Patrick Grimes—founder of Passive Investing Mastery, Amazon bestselling author, and Forbes Council contributor. Patrick shares his journey from robotics engineering to building a highly diversified portfolio across real estate, energy, litigation finance, commercial lending, and other alternative investments. Patrick explains why true diversification goes beyond stocks and real estate, and how sophisticated investors reduce risk through non-correlated assets in industries like medical and legal services. He breaks down his process-driven investment philosophy and highlights lesser-known opportunities most investors overlook. Whether you're a high-earning professional, W2 employee, or investor looking to future-proof your wealth, this episode offers practical insights into alternative investing and building resilience in any market cycle. Tune in to learn how to grow and protect your wealth—even during economic uncertainty. [00:00] "From Tech to Real Estate" [04:24] "From Lockdown to Lanikai" [08:08] "True Non-Correlated Alternatives Explained" [12:13] "Investing Education and Accessibility" [13:29] "Exploring Alternative Investment Opportunities" [16:03] Legal Funding: Risk and Reward [22:09] "Overcoming Analysis Paralysis" [23:00] "Cross-Functional Team Collaboration" [27:44] "Sharing Insights Through Education" [29:27] "Legacy, Time, and Fire Round" [33:54] "Lessons in Balance and Diversification" [37:07] "New Medical & Investing Opportunities" [39:55] "Join, Connect, Like & Share" Connect with Patrick Grimes! Website LinkedIn Books Connect with The Cashflow Project! Website LinkedIn YouTube Facebook Instagram

#678: Anonymous (02:36) -  "Victoria" (Anonymous) is 51, single, and still enjoying their W2 job while building a side business from a passion hobby. They're thinking about heavy Roth conversions, planning for retirement, and wondering how much traditional money to leave untouched. Should Alex prioritize tax efficiency, or focus on growth and flexibility? Anonymous (37:18): Anonymous "Gwyneth" and her husband moved to the U.S. to start a sanctuary for senior dogs and cats. With $100,000 in debt soon paid off, two properties in hand, and a dream to buy land for their sanctuary, they're torn: sell, refinance, or keep their rental property? What's the best way to fund a long-term dream while building wealth? Soyman (48:17): Soyman is 25, saving aggressively, and planning to take all of 2027 off to go backpacking. They see a rare tax opportunity to convert nearly $30,000 to a Roth at a negative tax rate—but is the strategy worth the small cash buffer and other risks? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

“Cancer.” One word would change this mom's life forever, requiring her to drop her career and become a full-time caregiver. But little did she know that real estate investing would bring her more time, flexibility, and freedom than she had at any W2 job. Today, she owns several rentals, including one that brings in over $6,000 in monthly cash flow! Welcome back to the Real Estate Rookie podcast! Jane Ng and her husband had been climbing the corporate ladder when a family medical crisis turned their lives upside down. Following her daughter's leukemia diagnosis, battle, and long recovery, Jane knew her next job would need to accommodate their new normal. Real estate has provided that and more, allowing her to spend more time with her children, work without being chained to a desk, and bring in more than enough money to help support her family. After dabbling in wholesaling, long-term rentals, and other investing strategies, Jane has since pivoted to short-term rentals, leveraging her hospitality background to craft memorable getaway experiences. Stick around and she'll show YOU how to copy her success, whether you're a stay-at-home mom or a nine-to-fiver! In This Episode We Cover How Jane turned a medical crisis into a launchpad for financial freedom The luxury rental property that nets Jane over $6,000 a month How to find more affordable real estate deals (beyond your backyard) How to (legally) avoid paying capital gains tax when selling an investment property Maximizing your monthly cash flow with short-term rental investing Planning and completing a successful renovation project (step by step) And So Much More! Check out more resources from this show on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠BiggerPockets.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.biggerpockets.com/blog/rookie-662 Interested in learning more about today's sponsors or becoming a BiggerPockets partner yourself? Email ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠advertise@biggerpockets.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

St. Croix Tax Benefits Explained, Build Wealth Without Leaving the U.SGrant McGaugh is the CEO and founder of Five Star BDM, Brand Development and Marketing, with deep experience in business development, personal branding, and investment banking strategy. In this episode, we talk St. Croix, the U.S. Virgin Islands, tax strategy basics, brand building, the BRAVE framework, and why positioning often beats having the best product.Guest:Grant McGaughCEO and Founder, Five Star BDMEmail: grant.mcgaugh@5starbdm.comRecorded: December 18, 12pm ESTChapters:0:00 Grant McGaugh introduces himself0:33 Kellen intro, Diversified Game opens the show1:06 Why St. Croix, tax advantages, Caribbean leverage6:26 Is St. Croix truly Black run, power and economics10:11 Healthcare, logistics, tech opportunity on islands16:20 BRAVE framework, why visibility matters23:36 Grant's book, First Light, and authentic leadership27:14 Investment banking, who qualifies, $3M EBITDA sweet spot33:00 Purpose, reinvention, leaving the W2 mindset43:30 Community impact, Omaha AI, St. Croix development45:55 Omaha opportunity, affordability, building legacy51:10 Final message, HAI, visibility, executionLearn the mindset and moves that lead to real results. Please visit my website to get more information: http://diversifiedgame.com/

Welcome back to another episode of the unSeminary podcast. Today we're talking with Tim MacLeod, a former nurse who escaped the financial treadmill by flipping couches—and now teaches others how to do the same. Are you a church leader feeling the financial squeeze? Looking for a side hustle that doesn't require debt, special skills, or hours you don't have? Tim's story offers a practical roadmap—and encouragement—for anyone needing to close that income gap. Burnout and financial pressure. // Tim became a nurse at 21, newly married, supporting his wife through teacher's college, and quickly thrown into adult responsibilities. The only way to stay financially afloat was by working overtime once or twice a week. When their second child was on the way, he realized the path he was on was unsustainable. Finding financial freedom. // Options like upgrading his nursing degree, relocating, or working in dangerous psychiatric facilities were unappealing. Tim needed something flexible, part-time, and profitable enough to replace overtime. He discovered flipping phones and iPads first, but competition was fierce. Then, after borrowing a trailer and responding to a free couch listing, everything changed. He cleaned it up, sold it the next day for $280, and instantly covered more than an entire nursing shift. Why flipping couches works. // The opportunity exists because of a gap in the marketplace. Most people don't own trucks, can't move heavy furniture, and face tight deadlines when moving. Sellers value reliable pickup over price; buyers value affordable furniture delivered to their door. Tim steps into this gap. With polite communication and kindness, he creates a “win-win-win”: sellers get rid of furniture quickly, buyers get affordable delivered couches, and Tim earns a consistent profit. He estimates most beginners can make $1,000/month by flipping just five couches—buying each for around $50 and selling for $250 with delivery included. A side hustle with time freedom. // One of the most surprising parts of Tim's business is the flexibility. He built the early stages of his flipping business in the evenings with his wife and baby riding along—road dinners, cheap pizza, and trips to pick up inventory. Now he schedules pickups during school hours, stacks deliveries based on availability, and can pause or accelerate the business as needed. It's ideal for ministry families with unpredictable schedules. Why you can succeed at this. // Many of Tim's students are pastors or church employees, and he says ministry workers have unique advantages: access to storage at the church, a heart for helping people, strong communication skills, and the ability to bring calm to awkward interactions. Many pastors live outside their ministry communities—creating the perfect “import/export” opportunity where they can buy in one market and sell in another. And unlike many side hustles, flipping couches doesn't conflict with ministry—it simply provides supplemental income with minimal stress. A free resource to get started. // Tim created a free Google Doc of scripts—his exact messages for starting conversations, vetting couches, and negotiating with integrity. To get it, simply comment scripts on any of his Instagram videos and he’ll email it your way. He also offers an affordable course walking through his full system, including storage setup, videos, delivery strategies, and scaling beyond $1,000/month. To learn more or access Tim's free scripts, visit him on Instagram @thefulltimeflipper or explore his full course at tim-macleod.com. Thank You for Tuning In! There are a lot of podcasts you could be tuning into today, but you chose unSeminary, and I'm grateful for that. If you enjoyed today's show, please share it by using the social media buttons you see at the left hand side of this page. Also, kindly consider taking the 60-seconds it takes to leave an honest review and rating for the podcast on iTunes, they're extremely helpful when it comes to the ranking of the show and you can bet that I read every single one of them personally! Episode Transcript Rich Birch — Hey, friends, welcome to the unSeminary podcast. So glad that you have decided to tune in. We’re definitely having a very un-unSeminary episode today. You know recently I heard some statistics that I was like, man, we gotta do something about this. According to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics—you’re like, it’s a little early in the year for the Bureau of Labor and Statistics—but there’s a 13% gap between what religious workers—people who are clergy actually, is the title—and the average income in the country makes – a 13% gap. In fact, it even gets worse when you look at people, there’s a category called “religious workers, other”, which these would be like not the senior pastor types. This is like everybody else that works in a church. There’s a 40% gap between those people and the the average salary in the country. Rich Birch — And so why am I bringing this up? Because I know that there are people that are listening in today that are feeling that gap. Here we are in January and they’re feeling the pressure of that. And I want to help you with that. And so I’ve got a friend, like a friend from real life, friends. This is like we’re in the same small group. We know each other, incredible leader, and I want to expose you to him. But more importantly, I think he can help you with that gap.Rich Birch — It’s my friend, Tim MacLeod. Tim was a nurse with the dreams of fatherhood and home ownership, but after a few years was faced with reality and no time, no amount of overtime was really going to fill the gap that he needed to make things work. And after being stuck on that kind of financial treadmill, he found a way out. He found the niche of, wait for it, friends, flipping couches. What? Flipping couches and was able to quit his nursing job and now does this full time. And I’ve asked him to come on. Uh, because I think what he did at the beginning, even part-time, I think could help some of us today that are, that are listening in. Tim, welcome to the show. So glad you’re here.Tim MacLeod — Thanks so much for having me, man. I’m excited.Rich Birch — This is going to be a good conversation. Kind of fill in the story. Tell us a little bit, uh, tell us about your background, and how did you get in? How did you go from nursing to flipping couches?Tim MacLeod — So I wanted to be obedient and I got married maybe a little bit too young at 21. My wife was still in teacher’s college. And so very, very quickly I was thrown into adulthood of two cars, rents and all the things that come with that.Tim MacLeod — And nursing was good. I was a registered practical nurse, so not a university educated RN making bank, but doing okay with a college diploma. And I got the comfy gig at a long-term care home because I preferred eight-hour shifts and not the, I didn’t want nights.Rich Birch — Midnight and all that.Tim MacLeod — I just wanted, yeah, exactly.Rich Birch — Yeah, yeah, yeah.Tim MacLeod — I wanted the free parking and the the reliable six to two shifts. That was just the lifestyle that I liked. And the only way that I could stay afloat financially was with doubles. I had to do my six to two and then at least once a week, usually twice, if I wanted to have any money to play with, um I would work the two to ten.Rich Birch — Wow.Tim MacLeod — And that was cool while my wife was in college or while she was finishing up teacher’s college, that was fine. And then, we had a newborn baby and that was fine. Because anytime that I would have to do those doubles, she’d go to sleep, go for a sleepover at her parents’ place. And, uh, and I would just drudge up the shifts.Tim MacLeod — And, but then when we were pregnant with number two, I knew that there was difficulties coming. And the road ahead did not look very good. And so I needed something different and all my options for replacing the income suck. Like I could go back to school and upgrade to RN, but I scraped through the first time. So that was nuts.Rich Birch — Right.Tim MacLeod — I didn’t have much hope in myself in that avenue. And I could go, I could relocate, I could move or I could commute about an hour and 20 away to the mental health hospital and make like danger pay in like an asylum, basically with my current qualifications.Rich Birch — Right.Tim MacLeod — And everything just looked terrible. I hated all of that. And all I needed was something better than overtime. I just needed to replace that portion of the income. And I needed something better in my evenings that hopefully I could do with my wife or from home. And so I was looking at side hustles.Tim MacLeod — And I had a little bit of success flipping phones and iPads because that’s all that I really understood…Rich Birch — Okay. Yeah, yeah.Tim MacLeod — …all I understood at the time. And I live about an hour north of where my in-laws live, which is a pretty dense population. I’m in the sticks and the supply was really light there. So I could reliably go for a free meal at my in-laws place, pick up an iPhone or three and for like 300 bucks and then bring them home and sell them for 450 bucks. And so that took that took the pressure off and that was like grocery money.Rich Birch — Right.Tim MacLeod — And it was really consistent, really reliable. And and it was fun too. I really liked it. I liked the negotiations. I liked, I liked not trading time. Rich Birch — Right.Tim MacLeod — Like I liked making making a profit instead of a wage. And that I was hooked on that, but there was competition. Like I wasn’t that clever doing that.Tim MacLeod — There was there was kids that were closer to the inventory ripping around in little Hyundai Elantras and uh i remember meeting this this Indian kid named Lucky, at least his Canadian name was Lucky, and he was beating me to all the goods. And and I met him one time to buy a phone for myself and I actually got to meet him and ask him some questions and he was making four grand a month flipping phones.Rich Birch — Wow.Tim MacLeod — And I thought that is so sick, and it’s just a pure cash hustle. And he was making more doing that than whatever his office or IT job was at the time. And I was super inspired by that, but I didn’t want to compete with him. So that kind of that kind of festered with me a little bit.Tim MacLeod — And um I just got an awesome idea. Well, was gifted to me by the Holy Spirit, I think, based on how fast and how fierce it came, that I need to get skills and tools to sell in a different category, something with a higher barrier to entry. And I wanted something where I didn’t have to compete with the Honda Civics and the Hyundai Elantra’s that were closer to the action.Rich Birch — With Lucky. Yes.Tim MacLeod — Yeah, exactly. He was smoking me. And and it also, it was a little bit of that and then also a little bit of me coveting. I wanted to get like, um I wanted an excuse to buy a Ford Ranger. I wanted a truck at the time.Rich Birch — Love it.Tim MacLeod — And so this combination, this combination of like wants and needs at the time, had me pitching an idea to my brother, Ross. I’m just like, Hey, what do you think about instead of phones and iPads? What if I got a truck and I started doing like washers and dryers or appliances or something like that? And he said, that’s a cool idea.Tim MacLeod — You’re good at the phones and iPads thing. And I definitely like, you’re good at the negotiations, all that. But don’t start eight grand in debt. That’s so stupid. Why don’t you just borrow my trailer and just try it? And I said, well, I don’t have a, I don’t have a hitch on my car. He said, get a hitch on your car, buddy. Okay. So, put that on the Visa, did not have the money for it. Rich Birch — Wow. Tim MacLeod — Put that on the Visa, put a two inch two inch hitch and four prong wiring on Mazda 5 like the little four cylinder, little mini minivan.Rich Birch — Oh, I wish I would have saw this at that. I wish I would have s seen this at this phase. Cause that, that, that would have been amazing to see him getting pulled around.Tim MacLeod — It was it was pretty cute and it was a big trailer too 12 by 6 aluminum being pulled by this little aaaaahhh. And it was stick shift and and…Rich Birch — Nice.Tim MacLeod — …and the first day I got the trailer, the only thing I could find, because I was just itching to use it, was a free couch. And it was one of those beige microfiber, like gets dirty if you look at it wrong.Rich Birch — All right. Yes.Tim MacLeod — Like they hold on to every water stain.Rich Birch — Yes. Yes.Tim MacLeod — And it was that and it was free and it needed a little bit of TLC. And I went and I got it for free. Brought it home and with a damp cloth, scrubbed out all the little marks and had it looking good. Took a picture of it, listed it with an offer of delivery and it sold the next day for 280 bucks.Rich Birch — Wow. That’s amazing.Tim MacLeod — It was awesome. Because a nursing shift net was like 180.Rich Birch — Wow, OK.Tim MacLeod — I think I was, I think I was 28 bucks an hour for an eight hour shift after taxes. Yeah. Probably like 180 hit the account.Rich Birch — Wow.Tim MacLeod — And so 280 for that. And it was one of those trips of free meal at, at the in-laws and then a free couch and then bring it home and then solve somebody’s problem of, I just got an apartment. I don’t have a car or my car’s too small and I need a couch.Rich Birch — Yes, yes.Tim MacLeod — And their option was, rent a U-Haul or go to Leon’s and finance something that comes delivered. Both are not very good options for most people. And then lo and behold was this guy who said, I got a couch, I can bring it by. And it was just the easiest yes for them. It was a win for everybody. Rich Birch — Right.Tim MacLeod — The person who needed the couch picked up, didn’t care about the money. They needed reliable pickup more than they needed cost recovery of the item because they had a deadline. I needed a way to make some cash and the person on the receiving end needed a couch that was affordable that came delivered. So it was just a win-win-win for everybody. I was like, okay, forget about appliances. Couches – I love this. And it was easy, it was it was easy enough to lift by myself. Rich Birch — Did you ever do appliances? Did you ever do appliances in there? Tim MacLeod — Yeah. I did a washer and dryer and ate a loss on that because it needed repair and I didn’t… Rich Birch — Love it. Tim MacLeod — …I paid for someone to assess and they were like, yeah, this thing’s broken. Was like, sweet. Okay. So a hundred bucks to you for, for, to tell me that it’s hopeless, and then pay for junk removal too.Rich Birch — Yes.Tim MacLeod — Like it was just such a loss. But couches, I could reliably sit on it and be like, well, that’s not broken. And I can handle that little stain or I can, my wife could stitch that up.Rich Birch — Right. Right.Tim MacLeod — And, uh, it was just so safe. And I loved it. If, if I were handier, I’m sure I could, flip snowblowers or lawnmowers or cars or something like that, but I’m not handy. I’m just, I have the ability to relocate stuff. Rich Birch — Right.Tim MacLeod — And so couches were just so perfect where I could just accurately be like, that’s 300 bucks to me. Rich Birch — Right.Tim MacLeod — And they only want 60 for it. Perfect. Let’s do that.Rich Birch — So and let’s double click on that. A part of what, so friends, like with the reason why, I think you’ve seen why I’ve got Tim on the the line today. I want to inspire you to think like, hey, you you could in part-time make a little extra a month. And I’m going to get to that with Tim. I’m going We’re going hammer down on, okay, what exactly would be some of the first steps that you take? But let’s unpack a little bit more. You’ve talked about once this insight, which I think is just a stellar insight that’s obviously at the core of your business. It’s this whole timing thing. Like people, you know they think a couch is worth certain certain amount, but they’re moving on X date, and the value of that couch goes down. But then it’s literally the reverse. Someone on the other side, they have an empty living room and they’re like, I need something here.Rich Birch — Unpack that a little more, kind of double click on… that value exchange and how you’re in the middle of that. What’s it talk us through what that looks like.Tim MacLeod — Yeah, there’s there’s a gap. There’s a gap in the marketplace. On the one end, we’ve got people who need it picked up and their options are hope that someone will pay the price that they want. And then if they hit a deadline, then their option is junk removal or put it to the curb. And so there’s a gap to fill there. Tim MacLeod — And then on the other side, there’s a gap of people who need a couch dropped off but can’t do it themselves. Like how many, what’s the population of people that own a truck that can actually do it is probably less than 10%. Most people have cars and hatchbacks and SUVs and stuff like that.Rich Birch — Right. Tim MacLeod — And then there’s also the how many people can lift a couch. I would say easily less than half the population. And so there’s just this huge gap that can be filled. And so by just committing to being the dude, you can help a lot of people solve a lot of problems. And there’s a little slice in it for you too.Rich Birch — So one of the things I’ve heard you say is that you have found this process of buying couches and then, you know, sitting on them for a while, maybe cleaning them a little bit and then turning around selling them is really flexible. Talk us through that. You know, it feels like you’re, you know, you’re, you have some time control. Talk us through what that looks like for you in your current world.Tim MacLeod — Yeah, the time freedom is crazy. And that was the appeal in the beginning was [inaudible] I didn’t want to be strapped to a location, a building to to make money. I had to be away from my wife and kids. But when it, couches just took off so fast that the first time I flipped a couch, I immediately called the scheduling office and reneged on all of my overtime. I said cancel all my two shifts.Rich Birch — Oh, wow.Tim MacLeod — I’m done. I’m I’m I’m just doing my 10 shifts. And, and then it didn’t take too long before i wanted to quit so fast, man. I wanted to be out of there. My, my my passion for the, like, I was so replaceable. Like as soon as if if I’m gone, someone’s going to fill the shift.Rich Birch — Right. Right.Tim MacLeod — Like, ah but there was a, there was a huge, there was a need that, and it was fun for me too. It was a game. I forget the question.Rich Birch — Yeah, I was just talking about the time flexibility, like how you feel like it’s, you know, you have a fair amount of time freedom. Part of what I’m trying to get to is pastors are busy people. Church workers are busy people. Is this even the kind of thing that they could fit into, you know, an existing as like a side hustle kind of thing?Tim MacLeod — Yes. Yeah. The time freedom is crazy. And so on the buying side, I’m just letting people know when I’m available. And sometimes I’ll tie it up with ah with a $50 deposit so that they can market it sold with confidence and they know that I’m not going to ghost on them. And that I have the peace of mind of nice, that’s mine for when I need it. And I’ll squeeze them for a deadline so that I make sure that I’m providing the service of reliable pickup in a manner that works for them. Tim MacLeod — But yeah, I’m just stacking pickups when it’s convenient for me. And in this current season, it’s during school hours. Rich Birch — Right.Tim MacLeod — So I’ll drop the kids off at school and then rip south and grab some stuff. But in that season, it was I’m available in the evening. And so I would come home from school, I’m sorry, work from my nursing job. And my wife would pack up, we pack up a little cooler bag of like a road picnic of dinner.Rich Birch — Right.Tim MacLeod — We had a one-year-old baby at the time and, uh, oh, that summer there was a lot of 50% off pizzas. Pizza Hut had a, the, the apps, we had all, all the apps, lots of road dinners. Rich Birch — Yes. Yes. Tim MacLeod — And Costco was clutch too.Rich Birch — Yeah.Tim MacLeod — But, um, yeah, just when I had an availability, I would acquire inventory and then they’d sell when they sell. And and again, full flexibility of, okay, I’m available at this time. I can squeeze in a delivery or someone could come pick it up. But yeah, the the time freedom is crazy and it’s sweet to to to just dabble in profits instead of relying on a wage. Rich Birch — Right.Tim MacLeod — Yeah, time freedom is awesome.Rich Birch — Well, you talked about the fact that your you know your brother was telling you you’re good at negotiations. I know there are people that are listening in today that are feeling like, oh, there’s no way that I would be good at negotiations. Obviously, you’ve got to buy the thing for considerably lower than what you’re selling it for. Talk us through even just a couple, help us get over that hurdle in our brains. Man, I just don’t know that I could do that.Tim MacLeod — Yeah. So the first thing is I’m scrolling a lot. And not not frequently. I’m not glued to my phone. But when I do it, I lock in. Like today was the shopping session and it was headphones in with some instrumental music, just kind of vibing. And I’m probably scrolling, looking at probably 400, 500 couches. Rich Birch — Okay.Tim MacLeod — And I’ll message probably 20 to 30 of them. Because a lot of them are crap. A lot of them are actually new. There’s no opportunity with new coaches. like There’s lots of warehouse stuff that’s still on first Facebook Marketplace and stuff like that. But what I’m looking for is very specific. I’m looking for private sales from real people. You got to be able to spot the scammers and weed them out. Tim MacLeod — And I’m looking for couches that I would want in my lockers. I’m not worried about the price whatsoever. Because the price is super subjective and it’s just kind of like what they’re hoping for. It’s not actually what they’re necessarily going to get. So the price is irrelevant. I’m just looking at pictures and I’m compiling lists of couches that I would want. And I’m starting conversations so that it’s kind of like I’m, I’m, it’s it’s like I’m offering my service. I’m starting the conversation to see why they’re selling it, if there’s a deadline, and if they would be someone who would be receptive to my service. And it’s kind of like they’re paying me for my reliable pickup service with a smoking and deal on a couch.Tim MacLeod — And so I have to get them there. And it’s not just, I can’t just go around lowballing everybody because you burn the bridge and you hurt feelings. Rich Birch — Right. Tim MacLeod — So I’m starting conversations and I’m filling in the gaps on the item. So I’ll read the description and see what’s missing. Like, did they specify that there’s pets in the house? I want to know, is there pets? Are there smokers in the house? Does it need any repairs? Does it need any stain removal or restoration if it’s leather? And I’m filling in all the gaps. So I have a complete picture of what it is that I’m actually buying. And that’s all kind of like a trauma response from my many, many drives of shame of I didn’t ask the right questions.Tim MacLeod — And so it’s it’s definitely preventing the drive of shame. And I’m just running through these scripts that I have. And it would sound like it’s a lot of typing, but I’ve actually made keyboard shortcuts for all of it. So my opening question is, I’ll never say, hi, is this still available? Because everybody hates being asked, hi, is this still available? On Facebook Marketplace, right? Because they’ve made it ah they’ve made it a button… Rich Birch — Yes. That’s why it’s up. Tim MacLeod — …where it’s just like, hi, is this still available? But that upsets people, which is fair, because it’s annoying. But at the same time, most people don’t have empathy for the fact that, how else are they going to start the conversation? Why would you ask questions if you’ve got someone lined up for it? So I’ll ask the exact same question, but in a way that annoys nobody. And I’ll say, is anyone scheduled to pick this up? It’s the same question, but upsets nobody.Rich Birch — Same question, just in a different way.Tim MacLeod — So that’s, that’s my first shortcut is, good morning, good good afternoon, good evening, whatever. And then any, and so on my keyboard, any with two wise expands into anyone’s schedule to pick this up. And then the next one is, does it need any repairs or stain removal? That’s if it’s fabric. And that’s does D or D O E S S and then D O E s S S S or with three S’s is, does it need any repairs or restoration? That’s if it’s leather. And so it’s just these quick little, my thumbs are just, and just… Rich Birch — So cool. Tim MacLeod — …I’m, I’m drafting up this quick little paragraph that fills in all the gaps, firing that over. And then, And then they’ll reply and fill in the gaps. And then I park it. I pause the conversation by saying, okay, awesome. Thanks so much. Just starting to have a peek at options, might get back to you.Tim MacLeod — And that one line separates me from everybody on Facebook. Because most people ask a question and then they just leave it on read. They got that little picture, that little tiny profile picture of yourself that says that, hey, he read it, but he’s gone and it’s crickets.Rich Birch — Yes.Tim MacLeod — And it’s a very, very infuriating experience. And that’s kind of like part of my service is that I am very, very different on Facebook Marketplace. Like an experience selling to me is better than anybody…Rich Birch — Right.Tim MacLeod — …because of how I talk. Like I’ll receive offers every day from people that don’t use words. They just send a number. Rich Birch — Just money. Tim MacLeod — Like I’ve got a couch listed for 1150 and someone just sends 700 – no dollar sign, no question mark, no good morning, nothing like that. And, and that’s a fair offer. Like he’s… Rich Birch — Yeah. Tim MacLeod — …I paid, I paid a fifth of that, like 700 is a fair offer, but I automatically hate this guy. I don’t, I don’t hate, I don’t hate him. Rich Birch — Yes. No, I get what you mean.Tim MacLeod — But, but it’s immediately just like, dude! Rich Birch — Yes. Tim MacLeod — You like say, say hi, say please. Rich Birch — Yes. Yes. Tim MacLeod — Even a, even a question mark would be, you know, so that’s the kind of people that I’m dealing with. And I’ve got thick skin and I always operate on the mindset of, I do want to sell this guy and I, and I do want to see him later today. So I’m not going to match his energy. Rich Birch — Right.Tim MacLeod — I’m never, I’m never a thermometer. I’m always a thermostat. I always set, set the temperature in the room, you know?Rich Birch — Right. Love it. Yep.Tim MacLeod — And so that’s ah that’s a big factor. But yeah, running through those scripts and and just getting people to their best price. And so after pausing it of, thanks so much, just starting to have a peek at options, I’ll reconnect with them.Tim MacLeod — Now, this is this is if their price is optimistic and it’s not a price that I’m willing to pay. I’ll slow play it a little bit by pausing the conversation. And then I’ll come back and then I’ll hit them with my my secret weapon is my polite lowball offer. And the number they might hate the number, but it comes gift wrapped in this like apologetic, like, Hey, I’m…Rich Birch — Oh, you got to tell me more that you’re, you’re setting that up. Well, you’re like, what is the polite low ball offer?Tim MacLeod — For me, I’m shopping in Toronto, which is like 90 minutes, two hours away.Tim MacLeod — And so my apologetic offer is: It’s so far, is there any chance you’d consider this much, any chance you’d consider for an out of towner? And then I just plug in the number. And, and it’s always received well. And even if it’s even if it’s even if they’re firm, that’s fine. Now I know. Rich Birch — Right. It’s data. Tim MacLeod — But and ah honestly, if somebody accepts my offer, then I didn’t offer low enough. Like I’m i’m really pushing the limit.Rich Birch — Oh, interesting.Tim MacLeod — I’m flirting with the line between an optimistic offer and a rude offer, but because I’m so nice about it. And it’s, it’s kind of like, it’s my secret weapon to get them to their best price. Because the the worst way to get someone to their best price is what’s your best price?Rich Birch — Right.Tim MacLeod — Like whenever someone asks me that, it’s again, it’s just like, that’s annoying. I don’t like you.Rich Birch — Yes. Yes. Right, right, right, right, right.Tim MacLeod — But to politely lowball and then their counter is their best price. So I just want to squeeze them for their counter offer. And now I know what their best price is.Rich Birch — Right. Okay. That’s cool. There’s a lot there. And I know you’re want to stay tuned because Tim’s got an offer of some free help that he wants to give you that we’re going to, we’re going to get to here in a minute. So I know some of you were like, go back and ask questions on that. But I know that the free offer to help is going to help with some, some of those things. Rich Birch — What about negotiation on the other side? So I get a sense of what you’re talking about to try to get them, you know, there’s a time thing there and we’re going to wait and all that. But now on the other end, you’re trying to obviously maximize or get the biggest money for that couch you just bought, bought. What are some things we should be thinking about on that? How are you offering the couches in a way that, you know, captures people’s imagination and says like, oh, okay, that’s this, I want to do business with this guy.Tim MacLeod — So a big thing is where I’m selling it. It’s almost like I have an import business. It’s that I’m I’m ripping down the city and I’m shopping in the Tesla BMW neighborhoods where nobody has trucks and they sell really slowly. Rich Birch — Yeah.Tim MacLeod — And I’m loading a trailer and then bringing it home to the sticks where there’s not as much supply. And I’m selling to people who do have pickup trucks. Like where I live, there’s lots of people with trucks and trailers, but they weren’t doing that drive to the city like I did.Rich Birch — Right. Right.Tim MacLeod — So I’m destroying a Toyota Highlander in kilometers, which is really hard to do. It’s at 400,040 and she ain’t quitting anytime soon. It’s been a great car.Rich Birch — Love it.Tim MacLeod — So that is definitely like the fact that it feels like an import business feels like cheating.Rich Birch — Well, and can I just, I just want to interrupt you for a second here. This, because that dynamic, this is a part of why I wanted to have you on the show. Because one of the things that I’ve seen is like, it’s super common, like super common for church leaders to not live in the community that they serve. Because frankly, they can’t afford to live there because of that gap that I just told you about.Rich Birch — There is a wage gap between what people make and the communities they serve in. And so they typically live you know, 45 minutes, an hour away. I actually think that that, the fact that they’re just driving into the office could be, and then going back to wherever they live, could actually set them up for running this kind of business just because they’re in and out of where they’re at.Tim MacLeod — Oh, yeah. Yeah, that’d be cheating. If you could, if you could grab a couch on your way home from on your way home from work to bring it back to the sticks, that’d be awesome.Rich Birch — Yeah. Yeah. I see that all the time.Tim MacLeod — For sure. And at a lot of…Rich Birch — So the distance is one way. So there’s like an import out, out, port anything else that you get, it’s kind of an interesting part of how you negotiate on to try to increase the, the, the price.Tim MacLeod — Knowing what it’s worth and how quickly it would sell is definitely a factor. And just patience wins on both sides.Rich Birch — Right.Tim MacLeod — Being the dude who um can pick it up and someone is now, they had their optimistic kick at the can and now it needs to go and their patience has run out. Patience wins there. And then on the selling side to where I don’t, it’s not in my foyer. It’s not in my living room. The new couch hasn’t arrived. It’s in a storage locker ready to be picked up anytime. And my lockers are fairly affordable being in a rural spot.Tim MacLeod — And so it’s kind of like if if we were playing poker, I’m holding aces. I can deliver it. I can sell to anybody. I’m not relying on people on the small demographic who can pick it up. I can sell to the Honda Civic crowd. I can sell to seniors who can’t lift a couch themselves. I can finesse it into a patio door by myself. And so there’s the there’s the skill gap there as well. And all of the all of the hindrances that make selling a couch difficult are not a factor for me. I can lift them by myself. I can I have the best trailer. I have storage lockers. They can take as long as they need to sell. And I live in a market where there’s not as much supply. So it’s just, it feels like cheating. Like I’m just really, really set up for it. And it’s super easy to be patient.Rich Birch — Now, I don’t know if I’m going to force you to give away one of your secret weapons here, but talk about the videos that you shoot ah of the, you know, of the products. Because i to me, I think this is one of the things you do that I think is super unique. What is what’s unique about the videos that you might shoot? Say got this nice leather couch. It’s like, you know, it sells for $5,000 somewhere else. You’re selling it for whatever, $1,500, $2,000. What’s actually in that video that might set your your listings apart?Tim MacLeod — Yeah, so that was something that I feel like I pioneered. And since then, Facebook has now added a feature where you can add a video to a listing. But it’s so nice to have. So I’m I’m posting flattering photos. So it’s it’s a scroll stopper when they’re on Marketplace.Tim MacLeod — And they’ll inquire. And then my video is super, super honest. And the goal is for it to be so detailed that they could confidently say, okay, he just showed me all the reasons not to buy the couch because all my stuff is used. I’m not selling anything new. It’s all pre-owned. They all have some blemishes or some quirks or worn spots or something like that. But to include ah a video that shows all of the reason not to buy it really, really greases the wheels because no one’s coming to see a couch and then being disappointed when they get there. Everything was already shown.Rich Birch — Right. Right.Tim MacLeod — So they’re coming to just give, basically just come sit and sniff and make sure that it’s something that they would want in their house, or something they’d want to sit on for two hours a day. And, um, and so those videos really, really saved me so much time and gasoline. And since then they’ve added that where you can add a feature. So, or where you can add a video into the listing. And so as long as the video is less than a minute, so I’m aiming for 59 seconds, I’ll fill the whole thing and I’m showing every inch of it and I’m packing it with dialogue on the neighborhood that it came from, the people, the house. And a lot of times that’s a selling feature of this this couch came from North York. The house was ridiculous. Rich Birch — Right.Tim MacLeod — It’s one of those houses with three living rooms. And this is the one that had the Christmas tree for a month a year. Like this was barely used. And I’m just packing it with dialogue and really, really selling it.Rich Birch — Yeah.Tim MacLeod — And my goal is that I could deliver it with them like sight unseen that they could firm up. And that when that couch arrives, there are absolutely no surprises. It’s everything they ask for [inaudible]…Rich Birch — Which from from your point of view, like this isn’t the only couch you’re hoping to sell this week. And and a part of the way that you have to protect your time and protect your business, frankly, is not having a bunch of people come and check out couches and then decide against it. Whether they’re coming to your locker or you’re driving it to their place. That’s like the worst case scenario is they show up and they’re like, oh, I don’t want this. So you might as well be fully upfront and be like, hey, here’s some stuff that’s not great about it.Rich Birch — And you do it in a really clever way. I love those videos. You helped me sell a car, which was fantastic. And I love the video you did for, you know, for that, because it was the same thing. It was this kind of like fun, um you know, here’s five reasons why you shouldn’t buy this, which which is just endearing. People, you know, lean in and want to hear more about that.Rich Birch — Well, what about the lifting piece? So, you know, if you’re not seeing one of these clips, Tim is a man of a certain size. He’s got some girth to him. He can pick stuff up. But what if I can’t? What if I’m not that guy? What if it more like me? You know, you’re like, hey, I’m not sure that guy can pick up 20 pounds. Like, is that like, I know that’s a part of what your you offer. Obviously, it’s a part of your advantage. But, you know, not everybody can do that. Talk us through that hesitation.Tim MacLeod — Yeah, I don’t think that it’s a deal breaker for having success. I think that if you can carry in a stubborn load of groceries in from the house that you could make a lot of money flipping couches.Rich Birch — That’s good.Tim MacLeod — And it it feels like a very unique form of laziness. Like I’m the kind of guy that if I need to go start start the barbecue or go run and grab my wallet from the car, I’m going to walk across the whole house and look for my flip flops instead of bending over and lacing up my boots that are right there. Like it’s a very unique form of laziness where I could jackknife park the trailer up to the storage locker. I have the dolly, but I’d way rather just, hey-yep-hey-yep-pep-pep just, just he-man lift it myself. And I’ve got a lot of really good mechanics lifting it. Tim MacLeod — Lifting a couch solo actually is not very heroic. And, and I’ve taught a lot of people how to do it. And there is, there are some heroic angles where, where the couch is on the ground and all four feet are on the ground to like clean and jerk it up overhead is that would definitely take some mass and some explosive power, but you can always also lift the couch up from the side until it’s vertical and then kind of like let it teeter and, fall on you in ah in a safe manner. And the lift itself, like once it’s up, it’s it’s as easy as like portaging a canoe. It’s not it’s not as heroic as it seems.Tim MacLeod — And I’m still reliant on other people. I am a one man show and it’s not, the money’s not good enough to pay an employee to sit in the car with me for four hours for 30 seconds of actual work. And so that’s one of my, one of my questions that I’m asking people, lift with two T’s on my phone expands into is anyone available to help me lift it? I’ll be alone. So I do need muscle.Tim MacLeod — And, um, if it’s in the garage, I can do it solo, like dragging a couch onto my trailer is easy enough. They slide very well. And I do have the dolly if there’s anything overly technical, like the pullouts, it’s nice to have a dolly. But yeah, a lot of the times there’s people, there’s someone there to help me lift it. And very, very rarely is it, sorry, I had back surgery or sorry, I’m a single senior lady or something like that. There’s usually, and even even when they say that, sometimes I’ll press a little further. Like, do you have a helpful neighbor? Rich Birch — Right. Meet us.Tim MacLeod — Do you have a son-in-law who can who could that I could coordinate with? Yep. And a lot of times I’m just handing it, or I’m squeezing them for a cell phone number of whoever the the muscle is. And now I’m on their schedule.Rich Birch — Yeah, that’s cool.Tim MacLeod — So solo lifts are not required, but they are, they are helpful sometimes, especially at the locker when I’m by myself.Rich Birch — So this is how many years you’ve been doing this full time? Like you, so you left nursing, you know, I know this goes way back to the beginning the story. You left nursing and then how many times, how many years you’ve been doing this?Tim MacLeod — July, 2019, I borrowed the trailer from my brother. And I did full-time nursing plus evening couches for about a year, pulled back from full-time to part-time, part-time to casual. And I think it was May, 2021. Like I did a year of COVID nursing and hated every second of it. Like as soon as COVID was announced, I wanted to be out of there, but I had mortgage approval on the brain and T4 income, or W2 income for the Americans, is much more preferred for lenders than self-employed income. So I held on for that reason. And eventually left just because I hated nursing. I was getting like ulcers on my ears from wearing masks all day. Just the the charades of COVID were really, really ruining it for me.Rich Birch — So we’re going I want to get to that, that help that you’re, you know, you’re offering, which is fantastic. But I want to think about like a person that, you know, they, we want people to stay in their jobs. We don’t want them necessarily to leave. And so ah somebody that wants to make maybe like an extra thousand bucks a month, maybe that’s like, which is, you know, to lots of people, that is like a, that’s a game changer. Like that’s like, that makes all the difference in the world.Rich Birch — Give me a sense of what you think that would take to actually get to that point where, okay, yes, I could, you know, how much time do you think they would need to invest? You know, what would, what is that going to look like? How many couches do you think I’d have to move? You know, I know that’s hard to say. It’s like all North America wide, but give us a sense of kind of the framework of for an extra thousand bucks a month, what would that look like for somebody? Maybe it’s like a youth pastor that’s that’s listening in or an executive pastor. Or and they’re like, Hey, if I just had an extra 1000 bucks that’d make a huge difference in my life. What what would that look like?Tim MacLeod — Sounds like five couches to me.Rich Birch — Five couches. Okay.Tim MacLeod — Buy them for 50, sell them for 250. Delivered. Yep. And that’s that’s a great way to start is just three-seaters. Just rinse and repeat. Three-seater, three-seater, three-seater. But the money is sets and sectionals. That’s where my focus is now.Rich Birch — Okay, okay.Tim MacLeod — Now that does require trailer privilege. But with a with a minivan, you can pick up a three seater. Most three seaters will fit inside a Dodge Caravan or an Odyssey or a Toyota Sienna. And that’s a really good way to start lean and mean with a U-Haul, enclosed trailer, you just need a V6 all wheel drive. So obviously preferred, especially if you have the kind of weather we do, but, um, yeah, for 45 bucks for a U-Haul enclosed, that’s, that’s insured so that you could get in an accident and you’re not paying for it. Always take the insurance. Always. It’s only like five bucks. Tim MacLeod — But um yeah, 45 bucks for 12 by 6. And then you can pick up couch, love seat twice. But yeah, just fill in those trailers. But yeah, starting lean with what you have available and scaling up when it’s smart. And once you’ve proven that it’s possible in your market as well. But everyone’s using couches, so I think it’s good alright.Rich Birch — Yeah, so five, so five couches. How many conversations do you think I’d have to get into take to buy five couches, maybe on that side first?Tim MacLeod — I think, yeah, with the numbers, I think that if you were to start 30 conversations a month, that there would be, there would be five people that hit deadlines and they’d be like, sure. 50 bucks. If you can actually show up, it’s yours.Rich Birch — Right. Right. That’s that feels very doable. That doesn’t feel like crazy out of reach. Like there’s no way that feels like a good, you know, a great starting point for sure.Tim MacLeod — And nobody wants to do it. The barrier for entry is, is ah high enough that it’s it’s basically a private little fishing pond. A lot of people to help.Rich Birch — Right. So let’s talk about, I want to, you’re going to help people, which is amazing. And so you’ve put together some resources to help them kind of get the the ball rolling on this front. And how do, first of all, tell us what it is and then talk to us about how we can get that contact information. We’ll put links and all that in the show notes, but talk us through this.Tim MacLeod — Yeah. So those scripts that I was talking about, um, I’ve made a Google doc that is available. All you got to do is comment scripts on any of my videos and, uh, my little robot Tim will fire over, um, just squeeze you for an email and then I’ll fire that over. And, uh, it’s a good little list and you can plug those in just copy and paste and plug them into keyboard shortcuts in your phone. And then you can use those. Tim MacLeod — And it doesn’t have to be for couches. Like a lot of them are pretty couch specific, but just using those as inspiration for starting conversations and getting people to their best price and making sure that you have all the information so you’re making an informed purchase and there’s not any surprises. And and you’ll see with the with the flow of the conversation, I really am just gifting the blueprint on getting people to their best price. Tim MacLeod — And yeah, and then in my in my bio on instagram I’ve also got the couch course and I’ve run that before as a high ticket offer um and I had help from an agency to, to get leads and all that stuff. And I didn’t like it cause I didn’t like how much people were having to pay in order for me to afford that team. And I just want it to be an impulse buy price range. Tim MacLeod — So for a one hundred bucks, you can come along on a three month ride along with me while I’m pulling like $15,000 months. And, uh, the summer that I recorded that, was 2023 and I did 180k in sales with a gross profit so just sales minus cost of goods was north of a 100k, I think, after tax. I think it was like an 80k a year income. Rich Birch — That’s amazing. Tim MacLeod — And I had a three-year-old with me the entire time. My wife had gone back to work and was using her teaching license and I had a little three-year-old tow. And I also got 75 rounds golf in that year. So it’s, it’s…Rich Birch — That just got some people’s attention. Yeah, that’s amazing.Tim MacLeod — Yeah. The time freedom is stupid. The money is incredible. And, uh, it was, yeah, that was a really, really fun year.Rich Birch — Love it. So what we want to do is send people to your Instagram. Would that be the best? So @thefulltimeflipper, @thefulltimeflipper. And again, you can just comment on any one of his videos.Rich Birch — Well, first of all, Tim’s a great follow on social media. I’ve said this to lots of folks. It’s just such a fun follow. You know, it makes something like flipping just like I was like, man, I think I could do that. And, but just comment scripts on any of those and we’ll get access to those scripts.Rich Birch — And then if you’ll find the link to tim-macleod.com on there as well, which takes you to the course, it’s only a hundred dollars friends. That’s worth your investment. It’ll, it’ll really literally outline. There’s a bunch we could have talked about today and there’s a bunch of details to get into. It will drive into all of those. Literally just take his approach and just do it. Like just, take his scripts, take the what he’s done and apply it. And you’ll for sure be able to find that extra thousand dollars a month or more, you know, down the road. So, yeah, I would love that. and Anywhere else we want to send them. So Instagram, @thefulltimeflipper, anything else about that?Tim MacLeod — Oh, that’s lots. That’s good. And I was feeling pretty pretty silly that I never asked to come on your podcast earlier because a lot of my students are in church ministry in the States. And I think it’s such a sweet side hustle.Tim MacLeod — For me, it was an escape from a job that I didn’t like. But the fact of that most people need supplementary income is pretty across the board and especially in ministry. And a lot of my students have um have had that background and are still in it. And a lot of the time, the people that are in church ministry have an advantage of storage where the church, like they’re like, oh, I got free storage at my church. Pastor said the back room is available. And he said, as long as I just keep a rotation of couches for the student ministry…Rich Birch — Oh, that’s a good call.Tim MacLeod — Yeah, there was a lot of advantage there for church leaders. But yeah, it’s awesome, reliable, supplementary income. And it’s nice to not rely on your ministry for income. Like people aren’t in ministry for the big bucks. They’re there because they that is their purpose. That’s their calling. But the pressure of having to rely on that for income isn’t always the best.Rich Birch — Well, and I do think, um you know, I think folks who are in church ministry, a part of what I why why I think this is great that we’re talking about this is you might underestimate that even like a part of your core, it’s like literally core to your business is like, be kind to people and like be helpful. Tim MacLeod — Yeah.Rich Birch — And, you know, you don’t need to be sleazy. You don’t need to be, ah you know, some sort of like, oh, you’re like a used car salesman of couches. No, that’s not what it is at all. You’re just being kind and helpful and you want to try to close this gap in the market. And and I think there’s a lot of people in ministry who are like, my I could totally do that. I can make that happen for sure. So, Tim, I really appreciate this.Tim MacLeod — It really does feel like stewarding my gifts, you know?Rich Birch — Yeah, that’s great. So again, that is, if you just go to Instagram, @thefulltimeflipper, you should follow them there and then comment scripts for any of those. Appreciate you being on the show today, sir. Thanks so much.Tim MacLeod — Thanks, man.

Empowering Gig Workers  Tamara Laine is the founder of MPWR, a fintech services platform launching in 2026 to serve the some 80 million global gig economy workers.  This isn't the first founding experience for Tamara, here she is speaking with Nasdaq in 2023 regarding an earlier experience with Card Shop Live.  MPWR will focus on providing lending and support tools to gig economy workers who up until now face significant challenges accessing the financial services that W2 workers typically take for granted.  Their reach could be vast, Tamara is focused on the domestic market but also has her eye on markets in Africa and Asia where gig economy workers proliferate.   This sector is one we've been following at the podcast for some time.  Our parent company SMGraves Associates has been advocating for support opportunities by new services providers through their accelerators and economic development programming.  Tamara also gave us her perspective on artificial intelligence beyond just its beneficial use through her work, a discussion you don't want to miss.   Connect to Tamara  In her own words 'I started my career in documentaries and journalism, which taught me so much about human behavior and intent. Every day was fast-paced, but, more importantly, it was filled with talking to people about their problems, conflicts, or solutions. I learned that unique personalities brought unique solutions to every situation. Now as a team leader, I see the value of every teammate's perspective, insights, or roadblocks and how that could be something to utilize for growth.'

Growing to $8,000 in monthly cash flow and 35 rental units—all while working a W2 job?! Just two years ago, today's guest knew nothing about real estate investing. But he found a deal and brought it to someone with money, and this single move launched his investing journey. Want to do the same, starting from zero? Then you don't want to miss this one! Luke Tetreault was miserable at his W2 job. When he had finally reached his breaking point, he decided to take a swing at real estate—and at first, it wasn't pretty. Without any investing knowledge or experience, Luke found his first property on Facebook Marketplace and didn't even have the money to close it himself. So, he reached out to an old contact, who ended up funding the deal. Over time, he grew his network until he had contractors and private money lenders for all his deals! He started with a single-family home, but his most recent deal? An 18-unit mobile home park he bought with creative financing. Stick around as Luke teaches you how to find off-market deals no one's looking for, use your everyday hobbies to build out your investing team, and scale your portfolio starting with little to no cash! In This Episode We Cover How Luke scaled to $8,000 in monthly cash flow and 35 units (in TWO years) Boosting your cash flow by pivoting to another investing strategy Buying an 18-unit mobile home park with zero money out of pocket Creative ways to find off-market real estate deals at a deep discount Two signs you're ready to leave your W2 job for real estate investing Leveraging your own hobbies and passions to build your investing team And So Much More! Check out more resources from this show on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠BiggerPockets.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.biggerpockets.com/blog/real-estate-1219 Interested in learning more about today's sponsors or becoming a BiggerPockets partner yourself? Email ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠advertise@biggerpockets.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're closing deals. Revenue looks strong.So why does your business still feel broke?In this episode, Austin McMillian delivers a hard truth most entrepreneurs avoid: sales do not equal success. If you're not tracking the right numbers, you're working harder than a W2 job for less freedom, more stress, and thinner margins.We unpack why service-based business owners get stuck chasing growth while profits disappear, how messy financials quietly sabotage great businesses, and the simple metrics that actually determine whether your company survives or fails.If you've ever thought:“We're busy, but the bank account never reflects it”“Sales will fix this eventually”“I don't really understand my P&L, but I should”This episode is for you.Austin breaks down labor efficiency, simplified financial buckets, and why profit has to come first, not last. No fluff. No finance jargon. Just clarity for entrepreneurs who are tired of grinding without winning.

After nearly 200,000 cold calls and a million auto-dialer calls, Stephen Oommen discovered something shocking: 98% of his revenue came from warm referrals. Today, he breaks down how sellers can turn relationships into predictable growth. In this episode, host Lyndsay Dowd sits down with Stephen Oommen, a 25-year go-to-market veteran, speaker, and author of the upcoming book The Referral Effect. Stephen shares why nearly 98% of his business revenue came from warm referrals, despite making hundreds of thousands of cold calls throughout his career. Stephen opens up about growing up as the child of immigrants in Oklahoma, navigating an identity crisis that ultimately became his superpower—the Chameleon Effect—his ability to adapt, connect, and create trust across any environment. That skill later became the foundation for his referral-based sales methodology. You'll learn: - Why executives don't respond to cold outreach—and what they do respond to - How to close the trust gap by scaling warm referrals - The "Magic Networking Question" that instantly upgrades your network - The 99 and 1 Principle for managing energy in sales and relationships - How leaders can balance intensity, kindness, and long-term legacy If you're a B2B seller, founder, GTM leader, or executive tired of low-yield outreach, this conversation will challenge how you think about networking, sales culture, and growth.

    Timestamps
 00:00 – Introduction: Stephen Oommen, the Truth Teller.
 02:22 – Stephen's Origin Story: From Bankruptcy to Corporate Success.
 04:48 – The Chameleon Effect: Turning Identity Crisis into a Superpower.
 10:39 – Cold Calls vs. Warm Referrals: The Efficiency vs. Effectiveness Debate.
16:54 – How to Start Networking: Nurturing and Activating Relationships.
 19:16 – The Live Exercise: Asking the Right Questions to Build a Network.
 22:50 – Using Qualifiers: Geography, Industry, and Title.
 26:08 – The 99 and 1 Principle: Managing Energy in Sales.
 30:04 – What Inspires Stephen: Growth, Contribution, and Laughter.
 32:38 – Legacy: Kindness Character vs. Intense Personality.
 35:00 – What's Next: Speaking Tours and The Referral Effect.

    About the Guest Stephen Oommen is a 25-year go-to-market veteran with experience spanning frontline sales to executive leadership. He has worked with startups and global enterprises including Microsoft, ADP, and Citibank. Stephen is the only speaker and trainer dedicated to helping B2B sellers solve the biggest challenge in modern sales: lack of access to decision makers. His work focuses on closing the trust gap by scaling the most successful method known—warm referrals. A successful entrepreneur and W2 employee ("entreployee"), Stephen has retired from corporate twice, paid off hundreds of thousands in non-mortgage debt, and is currently writing his book The Referral Effect. He believes legacy is built at the intersection of kindness, generosity, and laughter.  Connect with Stephen LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephenoommen/

    About the Host – Lyndsay Dowd is a Speaker, Founder, Author, Coach, Podcast Host—and unapologetic Disruptor. With 30 years of leadership experience, including 23 at IBM, she's built and led high-performing teams that consistently delivered results. She also served as a Guest Lecturer at Harvard University, sharing her insights on modern leadership and culture transformation. 

 As the founder of Heartbeat for Hire, Lyndsay helps companies ditch toxic leadership and build irresistible cultures that drive performance, retention, and impact. She's been featured in Fortune Magazine, HR.com, ABC, NBC, FOX, CBS, and over 100 podcasts. 

   Lyndsay is a two-time best selling author of Top Down Culture and Voices of Women, and the host of the globally ranked and 2X awarded Heartbeat for Hire podcast—sitting in the top 2.5% worldwide. She is also the host of a weekly live show called THE LEADERSHIP LOUNGE. Lyndsay is a frequent speaker, moderator, and guest, known for her candor, humor, and ability to spark action.
  Official Brand Partner: https://MyDeals.Page/19c3 
 To my loyal listeners - I love luxury and I love a great deal. 
 If you are looking for an amazing gift or a way to treat yourself, Go to https://cozyearth.com/ and use the code LEADWITHHEART and get 41% off. It's the deepest discount you will find anywhere and I get commission too! This brand has been on Oprah's Favorite Things 9 times!! Happy Shopping! 
   
 Connect with Lyndsay Dowd: 
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   #B2BSales #SalesStrategy #WarmReferrals #ColdCalling #SalesLeadership #GTM #Networking #RelationshipSelling #SalesPodcast #TheReferralEffect

Think you can't create cash flow in this housing market? Think again! Today's guest will introduce you to a strategy that can take a regular rental property and maximize its profits. It's allowed him to net $5,000 each month and quit his W2 job in just 18 months! Welcome back to the Real Estate Rookie podcast! Just two years ago, Andres Martinez was waiting tables and saving every penny possible for a house. But when he was told he still couldn't qualify for a mortgage, he turned his attention to wholesaling in order to learn more about real estate investing and make some extra money. Little did he know that he would soon stumble upon a strategy that would change his life and give him financial freedom—co-living! After buying a couple of properties, Andres quit his job to go all-in on this strategy. This move paid off, as he's been able to scale his real estate portfolio to five properties (soon to be six!) and over $5,000 in monthly cash flow. The best part? He's been able to buy all of his properties using other people's money (OPM), seller financing, and subject to deals. Stick around as Andres tells you all about his buy box, how he analyzes rental properties, and why co-living might just be the next big thing! In This Episode We Cover Making $5,000 in monthly cash flow from five rental properties How Andres was able to quit his W2 job in 18 months with real estate The investing strategy that maximizes your rental property's profits Why co-living presents a huge opportunity for investors in 2025 and beyond The best real estate side hustles to fast-track your investing journey And So Much More! Check out more resources from this show on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠BiggerPockets.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.biggerpockets.com/blog/rookie-656 Interested in learning more about today's sponsors or becoming a BiggerPockets partner yourself? Email ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠advertise@biggerpockets.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The episode features a discussion on the current state of profitability and revenue growth within the Managed Service Provider (MSP) industry, highlighting that 2024 marks the fifth consecutive year of strong profitability. Despite this positive trend, revenue growth has cooled compared to the rapid increases seen from 2021 to 2023, with organic revenue growth peaking at 25% before declining to around 10.6%. This shift has led to concerns that MSPs may be under pressure; however, profitability metrics indicate that the industry remains healthy, with best-in-class firms achieving significantly higher earnings than their median peers.Peter Kujawa of Service Leadership elaborates on the factors influencing these trends, noting that while profitability has improved, wage inflation has impacted service gross margins. The data reveals that the best-in-class MSPs maintain a W2 ratio that allows them to generate more revenue per employee compared to their median and bottom quartile counterparts. This efficiency is crucial as the industry matures, with many MSPs now facing the challenge of adapting to a more competitive landscape where automation and AI are becoming increasingly important.The conversation also touches on the evolving compensation structures within MSPs, emphasizing the importance of incentive pay over base salaries. Best-in-class firms tend to offer higher variable pay percentages, which are tied to performance metrics that employees can control, thereby motivating better outcomes. This approach contrasts with the bottom quartile, where compensation structures may not align as effectively with performance, potentially leading to complacency.For MSPs and IT service leaders, the key takeaway is the necessity of embracing operational efficiency and automation to remain competitive. As the market continues to mature, those who invest in automation and refine their compensation strategies will likely see improved profitability and growth. The episode underscores the importance of understanding market dynamics and leveraging data-driven insights to make informed business decisions.

In Part 2 of this Medical Sales Podcast conversation, Samuel continues the deep dive with Rashago Kemp, a regional director in the biologics and wound care space, breaking down the real differences between W2 and 1099 medical sales. Rashago shares how he manages independent reps, why leverage and motivation work differently outside of W2 roles, and what separates average reps from elite performers in the 1099 world. They unpack earning potential, commission structures, distributor models, and how top reps scale into multimillion-dollar businesses. The conversation also explores leadership, reputation, long-term relationship building, work ethic, family responsibility, and the nonnegotiable habits required to win consistently in medical sales. This episode is a must-listen for reps deciding between W2 and 1099 paths and anyone serious about building a high-impact, high-income career in medical sales.   Connect with Rashago Kemp: LinkedIn Connect with Me: LinkedIn Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share! Here's How »

Send us a textWhat really happens when you walk away from a packed, 7-figure beauty business… on purpose?

House hacking in Colorado just paid off for 30-year-old Carly Caprio. She’s living for free in a Lakewood fourplex after completing her fourth house hack in 2025. Even better? When she moves out next year, this property will generate over $2,500 in monthly profit while she continues building her portfolio toward early retirement. Chris Lopez sits down with Carly Caprio, one of the most disciplined house hackers in Colorado, alongside regular panelists Jeff White (Envision Advisors) and Troy Howell (Nova Home Loans). Carly’s journey started with a $17,500 first-time buyer grant that made her first townhouse purchase possible despite working a nonprofit job. Since then, she’s converted properties from 3 to 5 bedrooms and 5 to 6 bedrooms, navigated challenging tenants including paranoid relapses and 3am emergency calls, pivoted to Section 8 when needed, and most recently locked up an all-brick Lakewood fourplex for $849,500 with just 5% down. What makes Carly’s story particularly compelling is her rock-solid financial discipline. Troy Howell confirms she’s increased her savings dramatically between properties while maintaining zero car payments and living below her means. The result? She’s already matched her W2 income through rental cash flow and qualified for progressively larger properties without any salary increases. Her fourplex currently rents three units at $1,750 each while she lives for essentially free in the fourth unit. Once she moves out, the projected income jumps to $7,780 monthly against a $5,454 mortgage payment. Jeff White calls Carly his “Mount Rushmore” house hacker for good reason. She didn’t chase trendy strategies or overextend herself. Instead, she executed the same proven playbook four times, learning from each property and improving her systems. When faced with disastrous tenants (one who stood in doorways watching people sleep, another who drank two bottles of tequila and one bottle of vodka within 48 hours), she adapted her screening process and converted to Section 8 rather than quitting. When friends expressed fear about living with strangers, she demonstrated how to maintain control over tenant selection while building serious wealth. In This Episode We Cover: $17,500 first-time buyer grant that launched Carly’s 4-property portfolio Why 2-4 unit properties are easier to qualify for than single-family homes How debt-to-income improves with each house hack (no salary increase needed) Converting 3-bed townhouse to 5-bed using existing egress windows Managing terrible tenants and when to pivot from rent-by-room to Section 8 $849,500 Lakewood fourplex breakdown: 5% down, 6% rate, $1,750/unit rents Living free now vs $2,500 monthly profit when she moves out Financial discipline tactics that matched her W2 income in three years Why the first property is hardest and subsequent deals get easier Female investor perspectives on safety and building wealth through house hacking And So Much More! Carly’s story proves house hacking in Colorado isn’t dead despite 6% interest rates and higher property prices in 2025. With the right financing strategy, disciplined savings habits, and willingness to sacrifice short-term comfort for long-term wealth, reaching financial freedom in your 30s remains achievable. Whether you’re a woman considering your first house hack or an experienced investor looking for inspiration, Carly’s methodical approach and honest discussion of challenges offers a realistic roadmap. Watch the YouTube Video https://youtu.be/569rUnGaVmw Timestamps 00:00 – Welcome & Guest Introduction02:33-Meet Carly: 30 Years Old, 4 House Hacks, Financial Freedom Achieved05:21– Finding Her First Property in Just 2 Showings06:44 – Wild Tenant Stories: Relapses, Paranoia, and 3AM Calls 09:30 – Pivoting to Section 8 Strategy 10:35– Property #4: The Lakewood Fourplex at $849,50012:15 – Qualifying Power: Why 2-4 Units Beat Single Family15:17 – Deal Breakdown18:43 – First 6 Weeks: Smooth Operations, Tenant Transition, Paying in Cash20:48 – Long-Term Vision Including Early Retirement and Moving to Colombia21:44 – Advice for Female Real Estate Investors25:24 – How Carly Matched Her W2 Income in Under 3 Years28:00 – First-Time Buyer Grants: $17,500 Free Money That Changed Everything29:14 – The Truth About House Hacking: First One’s Hardest, Then It Gets Easier Connect with our Guests: Carly Caprio: carly.caprio@gmail.com Jeff White: jeff@envisionrea.com Troy Howell: troy.howell@novahomeloans.com LinkedIn: Troy Howell Website: https://www.novahomeloans.com/loan-officer/troy-howell/ Who is Nova Home Loans? For over 40 years, we've been focused on helping homeowners find the perfect loan to fit their financial needs and personal goals. Working with NOVA is a personalized experience from initial application to final loan closing and beyond. We will be with you every step of the way toward successful homeownership. Start working with NOVA & Troy Howell today! NOVA FINANCIAL & INVESTMENT CORPORATION, DBA NOVA HOME LOANS NMLS 3087/ EQUAL HOUSING OPPORTUNITY/8055 EAST TUFTS AVENUE, SUITE 101/DENVER, CO

Alan Franks reveals why so many business owners stay broke, how to build wealth outside your company, and why financial planning must include real estate.In this episode of RealDealChat, Jack Hoss sits down with Alan Franks, founder of Empowered Money and Business Planning Institute, to discuss why so many entrepreneurs stay broke — despite high revenue, long hours, and endless sacrifice.Alan explains why entrepreneurs often treat their business like a “baby,” reinvesting everything back in and starving their personal finances. He lays out the framework he uses to help business owners build real wealth, diversify across real estate, capital markets, and business equity, and structure operations so the company can run without the owner.He shares lessons from the 2008 crisis, why comprehensive financial planning matters more than ever, the truth about generational wealth (it's NOT the money), how to balance liquidity and long-term growth, and why today's economy demands a plan that includes real estate, investing, AND a sellable business.This is one of your most actionable “business + finance + real estate” episodes.What You'll LearnWhy so many business owners stay broke despite big revenueHow to split revenue into operating, owner comp, taxes & wealth-buildingWhy financial planning must include real estateThe power of fee-based planning vs financial product salesThe “Ready → Aim → Fire” framework for new investorsWhy liquidity risk is the real danger in real estateHow to evaluate today's economy (rates, tariffs, inflation)Why owning a sellable business = real generational wealthHow to avoid over-reinvesting in your companyHow SOPs, documentation & AI-driven systems free the ownerHow to build personal wealth outside the business

Many rookies assume it's easier to buy a rental property in their own market, but today's guest proved you don't need to by taking down his first deal in another area of the country, sight unseen. And good thing he did, because it not only pocketed him $250,000 but also gave him the confidence to leave his W2 job, move to another country, and go all in on real estate investing! Welcome back to the Real Estate Rookie podcast! Stephen Keighery was living in one of the most unaffordable cities in Australia when he decided to try his hand in another market. Then, after a few home-run deals, Stephen packed up and moved across the world to New Orleans, where he's since built his own real estate business. By pairing wholesaling and the BRRRR method (buy, rehab, rent, refinance, repeat), he earns active income while rapidly scaling his portfolio! Stephen's secret? He knows his strengths and uses them to his advantage—leveraging his marketing and sales background to grow his network and build rapport with potential sellers. In this episode, he'll show you how to dig into the data and identify up-and-coming markets, hunt down off-market properties, and close! In This Episode We Cover How Stephen made $250,000 in profit from his very first real estate deal Building a real estate business that can replace your W2 income How to scale your real estate portfolio from anywhere in the world Using public data to identify up-and-coming real estate markets How to land your first wholesale real estate deal (in six months or less) And So Much More! Check out more resources from this show on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠BiggerPockets.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.biggerpockets.com/blog/rookie-651 Interested in learning more about today's sponsors or becoming a BiggerPockets partner yourself? Email ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠advertise@biggerpockets.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us a textIf you're a new business owner, you've probably wondered if you are doing any of this correctly.Should you get an LLC? Do you file a Schedule C? Can you hire your kids? Does a home office hurt you when you sell your house?In this episode, Mike walks through real questions from listeners and gives clear answers to the tax issues that confuse most new entrepreneurs. From 1099 income and deductions to home office rules, the Augusta Rule, and hiring your kids, this Q&A hits the topics every early-stage owner struggles with.

In this episode of the Medical Sales Podcast, Samuel sits down with regional director Rashago Kemp to explore the world of biologics and regenerative wound care, revealing how amniotic tissue is transforming outcomes for diabetic foot ulcers, venous leg ulcers, pressure injuries, and complex wounds that traditional care can't heal. Rashago breaks down the science behind why this tissue works, why amputations are rising in the U.S., and how patient compliance can make or break recovery. He shares powerful real-world cases, including a patient who healed after living with a wound for 20 years, and explains what it takes to succeed in this relationship-driven specialty. From managing more than 60 independent reps to navigating the differences between W2 and 1099 structures, Rashago delivers a rare inside look at sales, leadership, and patient impact in one of the most meaningful corners of medical technology.   Connect with Rashago Kemp: LinkedIn Connect with Me: LinkedIn Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share! Here's How »

Most beginners dramatically overestimate how much capital it takes, and that belief alone keeps them stuck. The truth is, the number you think you need is probably wrong, and the small deal you keep dismissing might be the one that transforms everything. In this episode, Alex Pardo reveals the real amount of money you need to get started, why small facilities are the fastest path to freedom, and how investors inside his community consistently close deals with little to none of their own cash. He breaks down facility sizes, common beginner mistakes, creative financing structures, and the mindset shift that makes funding fall into place. You'll learn the framework for finding great opportunities, structuring terms, and getting the capital to show up. You'll Learn How To: Find and analyze mom-and-pop storage opportunities with real value add Structure deals using seller financing, SBA loans, and equity partners Build trust with operators, lenders, and partners even as a beginner Use the LMAO method to generate leads Think like a transaction engineer so you can close with $0 out of pocket What You'll Learn in This Episode: [00:00] How mindset and deal flow matter more than money [03:00] Why most beginners overestimate capital [06:00] The three types of storage facilities [09:00] How traditional bank financing works [12:00] Buying storage with zero out of pocket [14:00] How seller financing and equity partners make deals possible [16:00] The LMAO method for finding deals and making offers [18:00] Creative strategies that let you close with little to no capital [19:00] Why your first deal is the most important step toward freedom [20:00] How one great facility can change your entire financial trajectory Who This Episode Is For: New investors who think they need huge capital to enter self-storage Action takers stuck in analysis paralysis who want a simple starting framework W2 employees looking for their first cash-flowing deal Anyone who wants to use creative financing to buy a facility  Why You Should Listen: Success in storage isn't about your bank account, it's about your ability to find great deals and structure them the right way. Learn how money follows deals, how beginners are closing facilities with none of their own cash, and how one small facility can be the deal that changes your life forever. Follow Alex Pardo here: Alex Pardo Website: https://alexpardo.com/ Alex Pardo Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/alexpardo15 Alex Pardo Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alexpardo25 Alex Pardo YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@AlexPardo Storage Wins Website: https://storagewins.com/ Have conversations with at least three to give storage owners, brokers, private lenders, and equity partners through the Storage Wins Facebook group. Join for free by visiting this link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/322064908446514/