Valuable Finance Insights from Tier 1 Capital

Olivia: Hello and welcome to The Control Your Cash Podcast. Hi, I’m Olivia Kirk. 

Tim: I’m Tim Yurek.

Olivia: And today we’re going to talk about the importance of controlling your cash as a business owner. When it comes to having a family owned business, cash is king. Not necessarily physical cash, but cash accessibility. 

Because let’s face it, whoever controls your cashflow controls your life and more importantly controls your business. I mean most business owners get into their own business to control their destiny. They’re sick of working for the man and they’d rather call the shots and hold their destiny in their own hands. 

Tim: So the key here is having access to cash. And one of the things that I really enjoy about working with business owners is the fact that we can show them how to get one dollar to do multiple jobs. And by that, I mean, you know, maybe they’re setting up plans to fund their succession plan, or they’re setting up plans to attract, retain, and reward some key employees, or they’re trying to set up an exit strategy.

But along the way, if they’re doing this properly, They’re allowed or they’re able to build cash and by having that access to the cash, they can use it to help grow their business. So they’re getting one dollar to do a succession plan or key person retention, but that same dollar is building up cash that they could access and leverage to grow their business.

One dollar, two jobs. And I got to tell you. That works out so swimmingly well for all the business owners that we’ve dealt with. 

Olivia: Exactly. We recently worked with a business owner. We started policies for key employee purposes. Meaning they cross purchased. One owner bought a policy on the other and vice versa to fund a buyout in the event of one of their deaths so they wanted to have that funding available at the death of whichever partner comes first. And they had no plans on accessing that cash whatsoever throughout the life of the policy. But life happens, things change. The economic environment that was there when they started these policies, let’s say five, five years ago, about six years ago.

Yeah. That it was very different back then versus today where inflation is up. Interest rates are up and cashflow in a lot of situations is coming back down because of the squeeze on the consumer. 

Tim: Yeah. And the irony is when we, as Olivia noted, when we, we originally put the plan into effect, we mentioned to them, Hey, you could also borrow against this cash.

And they said, Oh no, we would never do that. So, okay, well, just keep that in mind because it’s certainly an option for you. Well, now fast forward to August of this year. A couple months ago, and we get a call and, Hey, how much cash is in those policies? And we told them and they said, uh, We need a loan. I said, Oh, okay.

What, what changed? You said you weren’t going to borrow. He goes, well, we bought a truck in July. We did it like we always did. We borrowed against our, on our credit line. And we got our first interest statement and it was 9.5%. How much does it cost to borrow against those life insurance policies?

Well, it was 5.35%. He said, well, we’ll take that loan. But here’s the point because they built up this pile of money Now they have the option to use it. And that’s where the freedom comes in. So in their mind They’re looking at it like okay 5 and 5.35 is lower than 9.5 and I get that part of it, but…

Olivia: That’s just the beginning.

Tim: That’s just the beginning. So he calls me and says, Hey, how do I start paying this loan back? I said, well…

Olivia: Do you want to? 

Tim: When, when do you want to? He goes, What do you mean, when do I want to? I said, Whenever you want to start. This is an unstructured loan. So that means, you decide when, and actually if, you pay the loan back and then you also decide how much and oh, by the way, if you commit to a certain monthly figure and you find out that cashflow is not as good as in the previous months as it is now, you can stop it or reduce it.

And that’s when it’s the light bulb went on for him and he’s like, Whoa, we are in control here, aren’t we? And that’s the point. You know, financing in and of itself isn’t bad as long as you’re in control of the process. And that’s the thing that I think the value that we can bring by utilizing plans that are set up for different purposes.

But now we can leverage the cash, and that provides the freedom.

Olivia: Yeah, exactly. And think about it. By borrowing against the life insurance policy, through these policy loans that are contractually guaranteed in these contracts, it doesn’t impact the net worth of the business. Meaning, whether they pay cash, financed traditionally or financed through a policy loan, the piles of cash are still the same.

They still have the asset worth X amount of dollars and they still have a decrease in cash, a loan from a bank, or a lien against that life insurance policy loan. And let’s just take a step back here and talk about the benefits of borrowing against a life insurance policy. First of all, it’s contractually guaranteed as long as they have cash in that policy, they’re able to access it on a guaranteed basis.

Because the way life insurance policy loans work is unique. In that the life insurance company is actually giving the policy owner a loan from the general account of the life insurance company, not the life insurance policy. The life insurance company then places a lien against the policy owner’s cash value.

Meaning after you borrow, let’s say $150,000, you don’t have access to that $150,000 until it’s repaid. And they charge you interest. So when you’re paying back that loan interest, it’s going towards the insurance company’s profits for the year. But when you use a mutually owned life insurance company, the owners of the company who are going to benefit from the profits that the insurance company makes are actually the policy owners.

So when the life insurance company is making that profit, it goes to the dividends. It’s passed along to the policy owners in the form of tax free dividends. Meaning when the insurance company does well, the policy owner does well. Additionally, with a non-direct recognition company, the performance of that policy isn’t going to be impacted when you take a policy loan, meaning your dividends, your growth within your policy is going to be exactly the same, whether or not there’s a loan against that policy.

The only consideration that needs to be taken into account. Is that loan interest, that’s the only cost that the policy owner is incurring on this loan. 

Tim: Yeah, and I think the thing that people miss or the point that a lot of folks miss is the fact that we finance everything we buy. So whether you finance through a bank or you finance through a life insurance company or you pay cash. Every one of those choices has a cost.

And it just, it really becomes an issue of where are you giving up the least amount of money. And I have yet to see a situation where people were not better off borrowing against their life insurance versus any other form of finance. 

Olivia: Exactly. 

Tim: And, and, and that’s, that’s purely from a numbers perspective.

But, the hidden value when you’re borrowing against a life insurance company is the fact that you’re in control. You’re in control of the repayment process. You’re in control of the borrowing process. You’re in control of everything. And because of that, that’s the key for business owners. Most business owners, again, started their business because they want to control their own destiny.

But yet the bank owns them. Now, when we can cut the bank out and put them in control. Oh, my God. That’s a game changer. 

Olivia: Exactly. 

Olivia: I mean, how many business owners have we worked with where, by simply extending the amortization schedule of their existing loans and stop, you know, giving away every single dollar we make to the bank.

Think about the impact that would have on your business if, let’s say, you were able to cut your monthly obligations in half. And instead put that other fifty percent towards an asset that you own and control and could still leverage against without impacting the growth on that asset. 

Tim: Yeah. And that’s a really neat technique.

So a lot of times what we’ll do is we’ll actually do that. We’ll extend the amortization schedule to free up cashflow and use the cashflow to fund a succession plan or a key person retention plan or an exit strategy. And now again, we have that money building up. Now we can utilize that money to ultimately go back and pay off that loan.

So now instead of taking, let’s say half of the loan and using that to build an asset, now you’re taking a hundred percent of the loan monthly loan payment and using that to build up and replenish what you borrowed and that really, again, puts the business in a much stronger position. And let’s face it, you know, the way things are shaking out, businesses are being squeezed from so many different directions.

Interest rates are up. Inflation is up. There’s turnover over on their, their workforce. You know, the great resignation. That’s a thing. That’s, you know, four million people every month left their jobs. 

Olivia: Willingly. 

Tim: Willingly. And then, again, now, just to underscore, businesses are dealing with the twin challenges of high interest rates and high inflation.

It costs more for inventory and supplies. It costs more to hire new people. And It’s costing more to borrow to capitalize your business, but boy, isn’t it great if you can be in control of that borrowing process? That, that’s just a game changer. 

Olivia: Yeah, and we say it all the time, whoever controls your cash flow controls your life.

And with our client who recently took that loan to finance the truck, they’re going to wait until their busy season when their cash flow is flush. To knock down that policy loan and the key difference between traditional financing and financing with the policy loan is once they start chunking away at that policy loan. They’re gonna have access to that hundred and fifty thousand dollars that they borrowed again, so that when the next thing comes up, they’re able to rinse and repeat they’re able to finance again using those same dollars.

Tim: Yeah, and, and that’s, that’s key because every payment you make on the loan reduces the outstanding loan balance, but increases the amount of equity you’re eligible to take next month.

Olivia: Exactly. 

Tim: Or whenever, whenever that time period is, you know, whenever you want to take another loan, you know, and that was another thing that he had asked me, he said, well, Is there any limit to how many loans I could take? No, you could take a loan every month as long as there’s, or every day. As long as there’s equity to borrow against, you have the, the contractual right to borrow it.

Olivia: Exactly. And that’s, that’s, I mean, what more could you ask for as a business owner? Access to cash when you need it, plus, you’re able to accomplish other planning goals, whether it be business succession, key person planning, employee retention. Or any of the other things that we deal with that we have to deal with as business owners.

And that are a lot of times avoided because of the complexities of this type of planning. And not only that, but the cashflow that goes into this planning, you know, there’s a price tag to solving these problems, but by looking at the business overall, looking at the cashflow, looking at the debt, seeing where we’re able to free up the cashflow, you’re able to keep the cashflow the same.

Or close to the same, have minimal impact on it, because whoever controls the cash controls your life, you need cash flow, it’s the lifeblood of any business. So we want to make sure that we’re achieving these goals without pinching the cash flow, because at the end of the day, you need the cash flow, you know, and you need to accomplish these planning goals, because the longer you push it off, a lot of times the more expensive it becomes. 

Tim: You know, and one of the other things that, You know, MetLife did a survey and found that over sixty percent of business owners think that a recession is right around the corner. And if that’s the case, having access to cash is going to be the key because the first thing that’s going to dry up and it’s the first thing that dried up during the 2008 financial crisis was access to capital.

That’s when banks started calling in their credit lines and, uh, whether it was a home equity line or a business line, they closed out those lines. Now, just when things are getting tough and you need to access money more than ever, now the bank is pulling the rug out from underneath you. You know, there’s a saying that a banker is somebody that’ll sell you an umbrella when it’s sunny and take it back when it starts to rain. 

Olivia: That’s the perfect example of that. And, and as the business owner, you have to think about it from the consumer’s perspective as well, because interest rates increasing, inflation increasing, and a lot of the employees, most of the employees out there aren’t increasing their income to keep up with these increasing costs. We see that in the increase in consumer debt that’s going up quarter after quarter and is actually at an all time high all across America. They’re not decreasing their, their lifestyle. They’re not able to, in a lot of cases, they’re keeping up with their lifestyle, but the cost of that lifestyle is increasing month after month after month.

Even if the Fed is saying that, you know, inflation is at 2%, they’re not counting the things that really matter that are actually impacting us as Americans. And that’s going to be felt by the consumer as well as the business owner. 

Tim: Yeah, everything is going to certainly pass down to the consumer, right? So when the things dry up for the consumer, they start buying less.

And when they stop buying less, that affects the business. So again, having access to cash. Not only can position you to be in control, but also can position you to not be a victim of a recession, and actually put you in a position to take advantage of the recession, where now if you have access to cash, maybe you can go and buy somebody, buy some inventory from a competitor who’s going out of business.

And guess what? You’re going to buy that inventory for pennies on the dollar.

Olivia: Yeah, yeah. I mean, I, I believe more millionaires are made during recessions than any other time. And it’s not for lack of preparation. Those who have cash are going to be able to take advantage of the opportunities when they arise.

When the stuff hits the fan instead of being a victim of this recession. And the key is to have access to cash, to be in the position where you’re able to take advantage of the opportunities rather than being a victim of the external world.

Tim: Yeah. And that just, you know, being in control, having access to capital puts you in control.

And when you’re in control. Now, you’re in a position where you can start taking advantage of opportunities, and boy, there is no small price tag you could put on the freedom that that creates.

Olivia: Exactly. If you’re a business owner and you’re worried about the recession and you’re ready to become an opportunist in this next recession instead of a victim of it.

Be sure to check out our website at tier1capital.com to schedule your free strategy session today. We’d be happy to go over your specific situation and talk about how to position you to take advantage.

Tim: Thanks for joining us. We look forward to seeing you again. 

Olivia: ​ Hello, and welcome to The Control Your Cash Podcast. I’m your host, Olivia Kirk.

Tim: And I’m Tim Yurek.

Olivia: Today, we’re going to talk about why it’s not what you buy, it’s how you pay for it. That really matters. Um, Tim, tell us a little bit about, about this concept and how, how we came, came about it and why it’s so important in people’s lives.

Tim: Well, you know, it’s interesting because let’s face it, everybody thinks they’re using their money in the most efficient and most effective way because they’re following conventional wisdom. But what they don’t realize, and what I didn’t realize is that, you know, we’ve been trained by the financial institutions, by the government, by the large corporations we’re dealing with.

To use money in a way that benefits them. And, more importantly, it’s to our detriment. So, as I started realizing this, I figured that, you know, maybe it’s not what you buy. Maybe it’s how you pay for it that is holding you back from reaching your full financial potential. So that’s pretty much how I, how I sort of discovered this by accident.

Olivia: Yeah, absolutely. And, and it’s so true that everything we buy is financed, whether we pay cash or finance traditionally through a credit card or bank. Um, but what people tend to forget and don’t realize is that our cash has a cost as in, if we spend down that cash, that account balance, whether it be draining an investment account, draining our savings account, whatever it is.

We’re giving up opportunity cost on that money and that opportunity cost also compounds, right? So we have, you know, the interest we could be earning on our money now, but also the money, the interest that we could be earning on that money in the long term. And that’s money that we could never recapture.

So, you know. If you have a major capital purchase to make and you have the money in your bank account, how tempting is it to just drain down that bank account to avoid the finance costs? But what people don’t realize, and it’s easy not to realize because there’s no price or no interest necessarily on our savings account.

So you don’t see the interest that you don’t earn.

Tim: Yeah, and that’s one of our, one of the things we always tell people is you’ll never see the interest you don’t earn. And It’s funny because everybody obsesses over the interest they’re going to pay on a loan, whether it’s a car loan or a mortgage. You know, a lot of times when you see the HUD sheet and you get when you’re buying a house and you’re like, Oh, I’m buying a $200,000 house and I’m going to pay $435,000 in interest.

I’m paying more in interest than the value of the house. Well, yeah, that’s true, but the answer isn’t to pay cash because if you paid cash for a $200,000 house, you probably would be out $600,000. total, which would be like $400,000 of interest that you could have earned. So, you know, you have to look at the numbers.

And I think that’s really the point. Again, it’s not what you buy, it’s how you pay for it.

Olivia: Yeah. And the numbers, the numbers are, are actually pretty tricky once you look at them because, um, the banks know how the numbers work. That’s their job. That’s how money. But every…

Tim: That’s their, that’s their business,

Olivia: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And you don’t logically in the human mind, you don’t think, oh, if I have money sitting in account earning 4% and the bank wants to charge me 6%, obviously, like, I’m not earning as much money on on this, this pool of money.

So I’m going to drain it down to avoid that 2% extra interest that they’re charging me. But there’s a big difference between compounding interest, growing money on a large balance, a growing balance versus amortized interest where we’re paying interest on a decreasing balance.

Tim: Yeah. And so that concept of the difference between amortized interest versus compounded interest is bedrock in the foundation of what the banking industry is all about. And it’s something if we, if you don’t fully understand the implications of amortized versus compounded interest. You’re probably going to be making some bad choices only because your fear is that you’ll be paying interest.

And, you know, uh, we joke, but, you know, it’s sort of like a caveman. Uh, you know, compound interest, good, amortized interest, bad, you know, and it’s not that way, uh, but anyway, you know, again, that’s something that once you understand this concept, the decisions you’re able to make, you’re going to make them with much greater clarity.

And you’re going to make much better decisions. You’re going to position yourself, your family, or your business to take advantage of whatever the economy or the government or the financial institutions throw at us. Which I think is a good segue into some of the data that we pulled up, uh, doing some research recently.

So think about this. Americans are being squeezed from every direction. Inflation is up. Savings is down. Our access to cash or capital is running out. And what we’re seeing are some really troubling trends. First and foremost, that consumer debt, according to the New York Fed Q4 household credit report, was up over 16.9 trillion dollars which was up 2.4% from Q3 of 2022. That’s a, that was a record. Credit card balances reached over 986 billion dollars in Q4, that was up, get this, 6.6% from Q3 of 2022. Now, the Q2 report came out for 2023, credit card balances in America are over 1 trillion dollars. This was the highest quarterly growth ever.

So let’s face it. Things are getting bad and it looks like it’s probably going to get worse. Now, on top of all of that, according to a MetLife survey, uh, of small business owners, 50% of small business owners. see inflation as the greatest challenge. And that was up 31 points over 2021. But worse than that, a whopping 71% of small business owners think that the worst is yet to come as it relates to inflation.

So, you know, they’re, they’re saying the government’s saying “Oh, inflation’s down. We’re, we’re taming inflation”. Yeah. I don’t know about that.

Olivia: It certainly doesn’t feel like it. 

Tim: Right, you know, every time you go to the grocery store, every time you fill up your, your, uh, gas tank, uh, you know, the cost of college, the cost of housing, everything is almost out of reach.

Tim: Now, Olivia, I think you had some interesting information about this, uh, pending United Auto Workers strike and what effect that’s going to have.

Olivia: So, so today is November. I’m sorry, September 15th, 2023. And I believe at midnight last night, the, um, the auto workers, the auto workers are going on strike and. There’s such detrimental effects that are going to come downstream to the consumers, ultimately, um, in the form of lost jobs all costs all across the country in the form of we’re not only affecting the three car companies that are going on strike, but also, um, all of the other people in the supply chain, whether it be parts, whether it be, um, you know, the people who make the radios for the, for the car companies, this, this strike could have. The effect of hundreds of billions of dollars and just a short time on the American economy. And that’s not to mention that the student loans are coming out of forbearance.

I think that’s going to have a huge effect on our economy, right? Because, you know, all the millennials, if they stopped paying, and majority of them did stop paying back their student loans. It was like we got a raise, you know, um, because that cashflow is no longer coming out of our pocket to go towards student loans every single month.

Instead, it’s going towards our lifestyle. You know, we bought new cars, we bought new houses. Um, we bought whatever we want. We have an increase in cashflow. We got a raise in essence. And, our cash flow is about to be pinched, right? On top of inflation and on top of rising interest rates, on top of the cost of housing and gas and food going up.

Now we have to start paying a large chunk of our paycheck back towards the student loans that we put off for three years now. That’s going to hurt because we all know that our incomes aren’t necessarily, rising enough to even keep up with inflation, add on the credit card debt that we just mentioned is on the rise, right?

Because the cost of living, it’s really a compound and snowball effect that this is having on our cashflow. And that’s why it makes so much sense to make that cashflow as efficient as possible. And it’s more important to do that now than ever.

Tim: Yeah, that’s such a good point, right? So just getting all of that data and looking at it, what does it mean? Okay. So because think about it, they’re reporting that, hey, the economy is healthy, its getting stronger, we’re having all this record growth. Well, where’s the money coming from? Right? So now you got to sort of dig deeper and and read between the lines and and read the tea leaves and, and what’s going on there?

Well, yeah, people are using the money that they were paying towards college debt. Now they’re using that for their lifestyle. And the old saying stands true, a luxury once enjoyed becomes a necessity. So now, when student loans start, start up again in a few months, or actually it’s in November, right? So, you know, a little over a month. Wow, that’s going to be a pinch. That’s why credit card debt is up. People are, you know, the economy might be growing, but where’s the money coming from? Well, it’s coming from credit cards. So, you know, continuing with some of the data, 66% of Americans worry that a recession is right around the corner.

That’s up 48% from a little over a year ago. Now, how does this whole thing manifest, right? It manifests, and it affects, it causes stress. And stress affects our health. It affects our relationships. So the incidence of heart attack, stroke, cancer, kidney disease, depression, suicide, every, all these markers are up in, in, on top of that, what is it doing to our relationships?

What is it doing to it’s the incidence of divorces up. Um, what is it doing to our ability to do our jobs and our ability to run our businesses? So every, you know, every splash out there has a ripple. And again, Olivia, as you had said earlier, that’s why it’s more important than ever to make sure that you’re using your money properly.

We’re not saying don’t make the purchase. What we’re saying is make the purchase in the way that’s most advantageous to you. And that will give you more control. And again, we feel so out of control in so many aspects of our lives. This will give us some, a little control in an area that quite frankly is probably one of the most important areas because financial, if you’re out of control in your finances, that causes stress and worry, and that creates issues in every other aspect of our lives.

Olivia: That’s absolutely true. You know, when you’re, when you’re stressed about money, it’s so easy to lose sleep, right? And sleep is so important for the entire, the entire system, mind, body and soul, and your ability to work effectively and efficiently and to make an impact with your kids and your community.

And, you know, if if you’re worried about money and working harder, that takes away time from spending it with your family. It takes away time from contributing to your community. It impacts so much with just this one area of your life. So it’s so important that we keep it balanced and the way that we talk about doing that is by being in control of your cash flow, you know, giving away as little of your cash flow on a monthly basis as possible and regaining control of that finance function wherever possible, because with that, then you’re calling the shots.

Not a financial institution, not the government, not, you know, Citibank or Visa. These, these principles can also have a ripple effect in the opposite way. By controlling your cash flow, by making your cash flow more efficient, you could live a more worry free life because you’re calling the shots.

Tim: Yeah, that’s so important. And you know, that’s one of our key, key themes with where, how we help our clients most is in re, regaining control of their money. And so how does this happen? Right? And I think, you know, think of what we’re up against as individuals. We’re up against the marketing machines that are financial institutions, the propaganda machines of the government, large corporations.

They’re conditioning us to accept as normal, things that really aren’t normal, things that are advancing their interests and basically holding us back again to our detriment. So we can’t get ahead financially. How many people do we talk to on a weekly basis that are saying, you know, I’m making good money, but I just don’t feel like I’m getting ahead.

They’re all financially stuck and it’s so easy to get into that when you’re following all of this conventional wisdom and doing it the way that everybody else is doing it. And that’s where I realized back in 1993, I was doing very well and, and I was stuck. I was, I was living pay to pay. And how many people, I mean.

You know, Olivia, we, we had that one client. He was a surgeon, is a surgeon, making $800,000 a year, and he couldn’t take his family on a vacation to Disney without putting it on credit cards and paying it off over a three or four year period. Now, come on. It’s not the amount of money he was making that was holding him back.

It couldn’t be.

Olivia: Yeah.

Tim: It clearly was how he was using his money.

Olivia: Yeah. I was just thinking while you were talking, one of my favorite parts about, you know, what we do is that we’re able to help, um, the whole spectrum. It’s not just the people who, who are making exorbitant amounts of money. We could make cash flow more efficient for anyone, you know, whether they’re earning $40,000 a year or $800,000 a year.

But the key is a lot of people think and have the belief that I could out earn my problems. If I just earn more income, make more sales, get a better job, my problems are going to go away and I’ll be financially free. But we know from experience with people on every, every scale of the spectrum that if you don’t make your cash flow more efficient, those problems are going to continue to grow and compound as your income does.

It just makes the problem bigger if you’re not addressing the leaky holes in your bucket, we call them. You know, um, we liken it to a bucket with holes in it. There’s two ways to fill it up. Number one is to turn up the faucet. And number two is to plug the holes and then even if there’s just a drip, that bucket’s going to fill up.

And we know this very simply from when we have a leak in the house. If you have a leak in the house, that bucket fills up pretty fast. Doesn’t it?

Tim: That’s an inside joke, but, uh, tell them about it, Liv.

Olivia: You tell them about it.

Tim: Well, I guess, I guess their tenant left the hose on…

Olivia: Oh, my goodness. So we have a. We have a double block and the tenant left the hose on our usage quadrupled in one month and like, what the heck is going on? But it was just on very low for a long time. And it really makes an impact.

Tim: Yeah. So that’s the point. And you make a good point. Entrepreneurs, business people, sales people, we all think that we could earn our way out of anything. There’s, there’s no problem that we have that can’t be solved by the next sale, or the next, you know, bunch of sales, or the next large sale and we’re always, you know, everything’s on the come, but the problem is, okay, let’s say those, those sales come, come about and, and that you realize that you get this big sale and you have this big commission or this, you know, large amount of revenue coming into your business. If you don’t plug the holes in the leaky bucket, you’re going to go back to using the money in the way that you’ve been trained to use it, again to your detriment, and then eventually you’re going to be back to square one again. And what you’re doing is you’re losing time in this process. And that’s our most valuable asset.

Olivia: Yeah, let’s, let’s give an example of that. So one of, one of the biggest, I’ll call it mistakes that business owners are making and an easy way to adjust the cash flow is looking at your debt, your business debt, the amount of money that’s going out to creditors to lenders every single month, right? Because we all know we all think I should say that debt is bad and that it’s not good to be in debt because of that control factor, right?

When you’re in debt, you’re out of control of your cash flow. So as those sales come in, it’s natural to want to pay off those debt as soon as possible, you know, get the shortest amortization schedule possible, um, put extra money towards those payments. But when we do that, what’s actually happening, it happening is we’re decreasing the amount of cash flow that we have going forward.

We’re giving it all away to the control of the banks and the creditors. And then we’re left with a little piece. We don’t pay ourselves first. We don’t build a pool of cash for ourselves along the way. So that. We’re totally dependent. It’s backwards, but we’re totally dependent on the banks and creditors.

The next time we need to make a purchase the next time we need access to money because we don’t take this first step of creating a pool of money that we own and control and could leverage against in the first place.

Tim: Yeah, so if you don’t, if we don’t create our own pool of capital, we have to use somebody else’s. So that’s one of the, one of the things we see so often is business owners, they’re in a race. I always call it. They’re in a race to get out of debt so they can get back into debt. So, right? So they go from a situation where they have debt and they want to get out of it.

So they pay that debt down as quickly as possible, ignoring the idea of saving or creating their own pool of capital. And then, because they don’t have all their money, then because all their money went to the bank to pay that debt, another opportunity comes along, or an emergency, a piece of equipment breaks down, or an opportunity comes where you could buy a business or some, you know, some accounts and then all of a sudden you need capital. Well, you don’t have any capital. So what do you do? You go hat in hand back to the bank. And what does the bank say? Okay, no problem. You’re a good payer. We’ll, we’ll gladly give you this loan. And then here’s the question. Whose money are they giving you?

If you went back to the same bank. They’re giving you back your own darn money and they’re charging you interest and fees and you got to qualify to get it. Well, why don’t you just cut out the middleman, create your own pool of capital, and then you’re in control. Now you can loan it at your discretion, back to yourself or your business and pay it back at your, at your discretion, back to yourself.

From yourself and from your business. So, you know, these are some of the principles that we teach. But again, the foundation here is what? It’s not what you buy, it’s how you pay for it that matters.

Olivia: Yeah, and another thing that another scenario that could happen there is because you’re at the mercy of the bank for access to that money. If your credit isn’t, not in tip top shape. And especially now that the banks are squeezing, they’re not, they’re not loaning out as much, there’s a good chance that you may not qualify for money.

And then what, you know, you gave the bank all of your money, paying off that debt as quickly as possible. And now they’re saying, we’re not going to give you any more money. Um, and then you’re kind of really stuck because you’re not able to grow and expand and continued on your financial journey in the way that you want it to.

And that’s not a good situation either.

Tim: And this is, this is the reason why you want to create your own pool of capital. So you don’t have to jump through anybody else’s hoops to get to your money. Because think about this, when the economy slows down, if the economy slows down, what have you, what’s going to be the first thing that dries up for a business owner?

What’s going to be the first thing that dries up for an individual? Isn’t it going to be your access to banks, capital, or to money? And we’re seeing that now, right? Interest rates are rising. So it’s going to cost more to buy a house. And now you have to, you have to either buy less of a house or not qualify for a loan.

So all of a sudden your choices are going, are narrowing. But again, think about it. If you had your own pool of capital, you don’t have to play by the bank’s rules. Now you’re in control. You can go to the seller who, let’s say you’re, you’re looking at buying a house. You can go to the seller and say, Hey, you know, 250.

I can give you 225 cash, take it or leave it. And if, again, you have to be willing to walk away from that deal. But if that’s the case, now you, you let, let them make the decision as to whether or not they want to accept your offer. And again, if you’re willing to walk away from the deal, who’s in control, you or them?

Well, obviously it’s you. 

Olivia: Yes, absolutely. And those things that we believe are moving us forward financially are actually designed to move financial institutions and the government ahead financially because they have a lively head to think about as well. They have a bottom line. But if you’re ready to increase your bottom line and increase cash flow, you’re, for your family and your business. Be sure to check out our website at tier1capital.com. You could schedule your free strategy session today. We’d be happy to speak with you one on one about how we could make your cashflow more efficient, how we can move your family, your business forward financially, not just now, but for generations to come.

Thank you so much for joining us today on The Control Your Cash Podcast. We look forward to seeing you in our next episode. Be sure to subscribe wherever you listen to your podcasts. We’ll see you next time. 

Olivia: Hello and welcome to the Control Your Cash Podcast. Today we have Kenny Harper, a renowned business coach from Growth Amplifiers. Kenny, thank you so much for being with us today.

Kenny: Glad to be here and glad to be participating and sharing some helpful insights. Some of the things I’ve learned in my experience to help others on theirs.

Olivia: Great. It’s great to have you. I know that you’re going to bring a ton of value to our audience today. Um, do you want to start by telling us a little bit about your backstory, how you got started in this industry?

Kenny: We’re gonna go way back, way back to when I was a kid. You know, cause I believe, you know, we’re all born with unique purpose. We all have our individual talents, and sometimes we find them quickly, and sometimes it takes the scenic journey to find how to shine our light, how to show up as our best self.

As a kid, I was a little shy.

I kind of was, um, quiet, didn’t know how, how to connect with others, more of the artistic type. The loud, boisterous, um, sports professionals, they were complaining and competing about achieving their goals. I didn’t quite align with them. I like to play and be creative, but along the way, I realized that that quiet self, I developed empathy for others.

Empathy for those who maybe did things a little bit differently or weren’t on the top, weren’t the top, most successful, passionate people and connected with them. Then about the time I turned 14, my cousin took me to a rock concert and I, I got into rock bands and played rock and roll. 

And that was the first passion that I pursued where I was like, this is really what I like, but I didn’t learn the business side of how to be successful with that gig. So at some point in time, I had to find a way to pay the bills when I started getting just a little bit older, becoming an adult, and I found out that about marketing and advertising and helping people with, with design and using that creative mindset to still help others still use that creativity.

But now I found a way to get a job, to be employed with that. And I went to school for it, graduated top of my class, worked for some of the best advertising agencies uh, it was really great experience, but I had that little thing inside of me that was like, Hey, do you ever want to try doing your own thing?

Do you ever want to try going out there on your own? And it was about almost 12 years ago now. Oh my gosh. And I had just got married. I bought a house, had a kid on the way. And what I started to notice is that the clients and projects that are really appreciated and loved were the ones that I was getting to connect with the owner connect with someone who had more control and seeing how it could light them up, seeing how it could help them see their vision at a different altitude versus the large conglomerate, um, corporations or brands that they’re making money, but I don’t get to connect with people. So I said, if not now, when?

If I don’t try this now, is it going to get easier later? Probably not. So although I had a nice steady salary, although I had a vacation package and benefits, I said, let’s give it a shot.

I jumped out

And on my own. And I didn’t know, honestly, if it was going to work. I was going to be a freelance web designer. I’m like, we’ll see if this happens, see what happens. I’m going to try it for a year. If I do do it good, then maybe I’ll continue. If not, then maybe I’ll get a job again. I don’t know. Well, remember that whole thing I told you a little bit back where I was following my passion, but I didn’t really know enough about business. Well, that same thing revisited me.

I learned how to do another trade, another craft, but I didn’t know enough about business. And I was watching my bank account say dwindle because I didn’t, I didn’t know the business side of running a business. I knew what I did for a trade. And I, that’s when I really hired my first business coach because I was like, I really don’t know what I’m doing and I want to know. And what I really appreciated about having a coach was. It helped me step into my true potential. And I had the, the knowledge, passion, drive, but I didn’t know what I didn’t know. I had a blind spot and without having someone to help me see that and help hold me accountable to achieve my personal best. I probably would have been getting a job, but I was able to get past that hump.

And started to grow my business. I met a business partner and we started a marketing agency, started hiring some people. We were elevating our firm and things were working really well. And I, I again, started to notice a trend where, you know, I can, I can do work. I can manage people, but what I really like, what’s my zone of genius.

Where I always get people complimenting me is when I’m connecting with people directly really understanding what they’re trying to achieve and help empower them to get past their fears, to get past their blocks so that they can achieve their personal best. I was inspired by my coach. And over the past decade, I’ve devoted myself to learning the knowledge, the skills, the disciplines to help empower people to perform at their personal best.

So when I started my business, uh, the agency was Rock My Image. It was playing off the background in rock music. And we were initially helping people with their image and their brand. But then as, as it evolved and started to helping more holistically realize that name was a little misleading. So hence the name Growth Amplifiers.

And really trying to help people see holistically, what are the actions you need to take? What are the things you need to do to grow, to achieve your full potential? So I’m inspired, I’m driven, blessed, grateful, and I’m grateful for the, for the wins, but also for the, the challenges as well, because that has empowered me to be able to help people avoid taking the painful, scenic route.

Tim: Well, you know, it’s, it’s funny you mentioned that because there’s an old saying that success is a poor teacher, but we learn a lot when, you know, when we’re going through the struggles and we’re, we’re, we’re making the mistakes. That’s when you learn and you grow at a faster pace. And we have seen that, I have seen that, in my own practice and personal life, and I’m sure Olivia could, uh, amplify that.

Right, hon?

Olivia: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Um, it’s funny. It’s, it’s like when, when the student is ready, the teacher will appear and you could hear something a million times, but when you’re ready to hear it and only when you’re ready to hear it after you’ve made the proper mistakes on your path, um, does it hit you and does it resonate and does it, um, inspire change and action.

Um, and it’s funny because, you know, I feel like so many people can relate to this. I mean, because no matter what life is, life is never perfect. Um, and we always, no matter how good we are, we always have room for growth and improvement and, and to work on ourselves to be better, to be our best selves and that best version of ourselves.

So I love what you do and I love, um, what you bring and how passionate you are about it.

Kenny: Well, thank you very much. You know, I was reading a book this weekend, which happened to be on coaching. Um, and it was talking about how, like, no one needs coaching. It’s like, no one needs coaching. You don’t have to have it. However… If you want to go further, faster, you might want coaching, right? It can help you.

And some of the best, most successful people have multiple coaches. So I think there’s, as there’s been a, an opening an awareness of like mental health in the past few years, people’s mental health and fitness. I think there’s also an evolution of what people understand coaching to be. It’s not for people who are struggling.

I mean, sure. People who are struggling might need. Might benefit from having a coach, but people are doing good and are already successful, can still benefit. As the top athletes, champions, and Olympians have coaches to help them get to the best version of themselves. So it’s, it’s really a shift of the minds.

And I know I, I didn’t have that mindset early on, and I’m grateful that I’ve developed it.

Tim: Yeah, you know, that’s a great point because, you know, you look at these guys that are on the PGA Tour and they don’t have one coach, right? They have a nutritional coach. They have a fitness coach. They have a swing coach. They have a short game coach. They have a putting coach. And then they have. Like a psycho-, like a, uh, what do they call it?

Like a, a Sports psychology coach. And when you hear these guys talking after they. Win a tournament or something, you know, well, you know, my, me and my team got together and we had, we made these adjustments and it’s, it’s amazing when you see the amount of success that they’ve had and think, oh, wow, that just all comes naturally.

And it doesn’t. And it’s, you know, anything that you can be good at. You can be better at with coaching and you can be better at when you focus on the things that are important to making you better at those at those skills.

Kenny: Very nicely articulated because I know you have like a. A lot of knowledge and expertise to help people see things deeper, to help like see through the matrix, because we’re busy managing so many different things from day to day. We can’t be the master of everything and even if we know things and learn things, eventually we can start getting tunnel vision in our own worlds.

We can get into our own way. We, like, wasn’t I supposed to be doing that? Oh, yes, I was.

Olivia: Yeah, absolutely. Um, another thing I was thinking about is how success leaves clues and what one person could do another person can do. And that I feel like is, um, something that a coach is so valuable for, you know, they’re able to bring experiences and knowledge. And another thing that comes to mind is, you know, most people get into business to be their own boss to make their own way to, you know, take a chance and become their own source of income. But with that, there’s not necessarily a lot of training. You know, anyone could start a business. Um, anyone could start a business, but that doesn’t mean, you know, even if you have 90 percent of the skills, you could still do better, um, for yourself, for your community, for your family, for your employees.

There’s a lot of, there’s a lot at stake when you’re a business owner.

Kenny: And there’s probably like just like selling can get a bad rap, you know, people have some people like, oh, I don’t like to be sold to I don’t like selling and I agree that bad selling is bad. If someone’s trying to connect with you and push their agenda on you to sell something for their benefit, then that is bad.

However, if someone is honestly trying to understand your challenge and help you get what you want and resolve your challenges, and they’re sharing how they can do that, which is another way of selling, it’s more like. Consultative selling, then that is what helps people. That’s what makes the world go round.

That’s a positive thing. It’s the same thing with coaching because it’s really easy to call yourself a coach. It’s, it’s not like they have licenses, uh, for coaching. They do have certifications, but they’re not all made equal, but because a lot of people can say, Oh. I’m a coach and they can go out and they don’t really don’t know what they’re doing.

Um, and they could give bad advice or they don’t know how to do powerful, transformative coaching to really help people have the self inspection, um, reflection to make sure that they’re making meaningful change. To get to where they want to go. It’s a different skill level.

It’s a different understanding of how to operate.

The reason I’m sharing this right now is because, I still hear in conversation that they’ll say, if I can afford coaching. I don’t know if I have the time for that. And in reality, it’s like, how do you not have the, um, I guess the, the time, how can you not dedicate the time or find a way to invest in yourself when it’s all about helping you be the best version of yourself, like investing-

Tim: That’s a great point.

Kenny: -investing in your self development is perhaps one of the best things you could ever do.

Cause you are you, right?

Tim: Right.

Olivia: Absolutely.

Tim: So, Kenny, what are some of the biggest mistakes you see people doing when they, when, you know, when they’re sort of like DIY or, uh, for those of you don’t know, that’s Do It Yourself.

Kenny: So when it comes to Do It Yourself and from. I’ll talk from the marketing and sales side for a moment, for a moment. So I do business coaching and my background and expertise is more in the marketing and sales arena. And a challenge a lot of businesses have is. They, they get the tunnel vision on what they’re focused on and they may, they may suffer from one of these, these ailments.

So first off, we’ve got marketing that is exploding at such a rate. We can’t keep up with all the tools, software, uh, media channels that you could possibly get involved in. Even if you’re involved in one of them, they change so rapidly. It’s hard to keep up to date with the latest trends. So hearing all these different things. People are looking for the silver bullet bouncing from one idea to a next.

They’re trying to find that easy button

And by shifting gears and bouncing all around, chasing the shiny objects, they can’t really build laser focused momentum.

That’s a mistake to avoid. You don’t need to do everything.

To get focus on what works for you and then be consistent with it.

The second thing when people are trying to. Increase their business is they have a misunderstanding of what marketing is. They think marketing is advertising. I was talking with an attorney who said, well, we don’t need to market our business. We get most of our business through word of mouth. I said, I think you have a misunderstanding what marketing is. You’re at a networking event right now, that’s marketing. Do you think it would be beneficial for your customers to know the other services that you provide? Do you think they’re utilizing your services to the full capacity? Do you think it’d be helpful to make sure that they know how you’ve served other people and to let them know how you appreciate their business?

That’s, that’s marketing.

Uh, do you think it would be helpful to share with them the other types of businesses that you would like to work with so that you can get more referrals or introductions? 

Those are all important things. It’s like, well, that’s what marketing is. It’s just, it’s not just lead generation, it’s not just new business. It’s looking at how do you provide value to those you serve? How do you ensure that they know what you do and that you appreciate them in the type of business that you would appreciate getting introduced to so that you can provide a great experience? So, and to keep it all condensed, it’s just not really looking at the, the full customer value journey from getting the marketing message to your ideal customer.

And then how to keep in contact with that, that customer to build a long lasting relationship that best serves them and provides more value to your business as well.

Tim: Nice. So, when? Do people normally engage with you or come to you? Are they looking to improve or are they sort of in crisis? In other words, Oh, my gosh, you know, my leads dried up completely. I need to do some marketing or, you know, four, four of my key employees left, you know, they went out and started their own business, you know, how do, how do you you, how do people generally onboard with you and like, are they like again, are they in crisis or are they looking to improve?

Kenny: So it’s, it’s a really good question. Um, because my people that may be looking for me aren’t necessarily my ideal customers. Uh, because more of somebody who helps people amplify good to great is more of an ideal. 

Um, people who are struggling definitely can help them out, can help them get a framework so that they can have consistent results, can help them improve some bottlenecks they may be holding them back, but ideal customers are the ones that are doing good already. And they may not even be looking for me because they, they may think we’ve already got an internal marketing person. We already have a marketing agency. We, we already have things that are working for us. And I’m looking for the people that say, you know what, I know, I don’t know what I don’t know, and I want to do the best I possibly can so I can get the best possible result. And for them, I, what I do is I do a, uh, overlook of their customer value journey. Help them look at what they’re doing now, understand what their goals are, and help them see things that they may not have seen before. Explore untapped opportunities. Explore, um, the bottlenecks that could be holding them back.

Help them see their blind spots. And then I’ll just say, hey, these are things. That if you resolve these things and put them into action, you can maximize all of the marketing and sales efforts that you’re doing right now. So if you’re looking to amplify your results and you need help doing that, or your internal team needs help doing that, or the agency you work with could use a fresh perspective. Then let’s have a conversation and we’ll find a way to amplify your business.

A lot of the times, the people that are looking for me or end up reaching out. They, um, they are the ones that are looking for some help. They’re having challenges with what they’re doing now. They’re not quite getting the result they want and they, they’ve tried working with other firms, they’ve spun their wheels. And they’re, they’re getting like, I need to find something that works, but the ideal ones are the ones that are, that are doing good and want to do great.

Olivia: So, Kenny, what does it look like working with you? Is it, um, you know, a short term, um, consultation commitment, or is it more of an ongoing, you know, week to week or month to month type situation?

Kenny: So I’ve been working with a lot more service professionals, a lot of people in the B2B advisory sort of work, they’re helping advise people, whether that’s with their finances, with tax planning, kind of like as a controller or exit planning, retirement planning, things of that nature. And one of the things I suggest to them is, is to follow how I engage.

The challenge I see a lot of them making is you’ve got to hire us and commit to a full time gig if it’s going to make any sense.

So to answer your question, I’m more like prescribed based on the situation.

So in some cases you might have, if, I’ve worked with a company that they were selling real estate lots.

So lots of land in rural communities, they had an internal marketing team. They had a sales team, they had a marketing agency, and their challenge was they, they were just having trouble connecting. It was a little bit political. Uh, they couldn’t see their own blind spots. So I told them what I did and they said, you know what, it’d be kind of helpful if you could help us, like, meet in the middle, get better aligned, so we can get better results. So for them, I facilitated a workshop where I invited everyone from the team. We worked through some exercises and over a period of time, we helped, uh, define the biggest bottlenecks that were holding them back, how to resolve them for the current time, but also for the future so that they can, um, get past those bottlenecks and move forward. Um, prior to that sales was blaming the marketing that your marketing isn’t really driving good leads and marketing was blaming sales. You guys are doing a pooey job with the follow up. Once we give you the leads and what needed to happen was they needed to have a more refined process in the middle for building up the relationship prior to passing off to sales. 

For other people. I have one of my clients that have been working with for about three, coming up on four years. And I work with him regularly. Initially understood what his business was and started helping out with his marketing system. But then in the past year, I’ve been working with this team to help get them aligned so that they can play a better role, so long story short, different results for different people. So if you, if you do serve people and like I was talking with the CFO that was trying to get more CFO clients and their offer was hire us for this term. I was like, what if they don’t do that?

Then they’re like, well, they’re not a good fit. I’m like, could you do something that, you know, maybe a strategy session that could at least help make a little progress. Like, that’s a, that might be helpful. I’m like, it would be because you’re losing business right now because there’s some people that probably really want your help.

They just have a block and they’re not ready to make that full commitment. But once they’ve worked with you a little bit and can see the transformation you could provide, they would be glad to follow you and work with you because you really do transform lives.

Olivia: Yeah.

Tim: Nice. You know, one of the things that, so the thing that we do is, this show is called Control Your Cash. And our whole focus in business is helping people and business owners find the cash flow they need. To fund their exit plan or to, you know, retain their key employees or to fund their succession plan.

And a lot of times they don’t realize that they have the money within their wherewithal. It’s just being utilized inefficiently. So everybody thinks that they’re using their money in the best way possible, right? Because you wouldn’t get up in the morning and say. You know, I want to see how much I could screw myself up financially this week, but nobody does that.

But the key is, so everything you’re doing, you think is moving you forward. Unfortunately, some things are actually holding you back. And what that leads to is maybe sometimes where cash is a little tighter than others. We have found, we had commissioned a research report and found that 61 percent of business owners around the world struggle with cashflow and 69 percent either sleep less or lose sleep due to cashflow concerns. So Kenny, if you could, share with us a time where you got sort of knocked on your butt, uh, you know, from cashflow or financially and tell us what led to that. Tell us what you were thinking as you were going through it and sort of how you got your way out of it, and what you, what you took away from that.

Kenny: So, oy, oh joy, reminiscing on struggles, but I’ll be glad to share. And it’s funny because there was a time that this situation really messed with my mind to the point where I was getting some bad anxiety over it. At the time, I was working to transition from being the director and manager of the agency to more into coaching and advising.

This is about five plus years ago. And I had a, I had two business partners. Now I have one, I did have a second one. And. That other business partner kind of had a change of heart with how they wanted to show up in the agency. It was a lady and I’m not going to point fingers. But, let’s just say we had an agreement of how things would work out and it didn’t work out that way.

So we ended up running into putting some, for the first time we ran, uh, put some bills on credit because we had her as the head communication person in our agency. When she started to pull out, we weren’t really in tune to that. 

So around the same time, she said, I’m going to run with these new prospects. We lost our biggest accounts and we had debt, and we’re like, what the heck just happened? And I was so, um, I felt so victimized in that situation because I’m like, I would never do that to someone. We had an agreement. We could have communicated things differently, people, people change, and the cash flow, because we lost our biggest accounts and the, some of the opportunities that we had weren’t there anymore.

It got hairy. So what do you do when life hands you lemons? You throw them at the people who betray you. I’m just kidding. You make lemonade. So, I, I realized that we’re not going to give up we need to find a way to proceed and so I, I created a plan to be really focused and we said, we know a lot of people, we can provide a lot of transformation.We just need to get our message to more people. 

So we’re going to host workshops and we’ve done workshops in the past, but typically it’s been like one a quarter. said, we need cash fast to turn things around quickly. And we put six workshops, six workshops on within a month’s timeframe, really get focused and said, how can we, who can we call, who are the influencers we know?

And not like online social media influencers, but like local influencers, because these were in person workshops. Um, how can we cultivate a workshop that provides a lot of value and helps people see things differently so that they can have transformation in their business? A lot of the content that we’ve put in that workshop is outlined in our book, Amplify: How to Maximize Your Profits and Claim Back Your Time.

On the five profit drivers in your business, the leads that you’re generating, the percentage of leads that you’re converting in the customers, the average number of transactions per customer, the average amount per transaction, and your profit margin.

If you can get focus on creating the systems to improve each of those five profit drivers, you can. Amplify your business. You can maximize it and take it to the next level. You can double your profitability without having to double your workload. It’s truly transformative. And so we did the workshop. We were able to find the clients we needed in the timeframe.

And the rest has been onwards and upwards since then, but to share one other takeaway so that the thing was don’t give up, but a bigger takeaway for me that I learned is has been impactful is during this, um, challenge. I was, my ego was so angry and victimized, and I felt like I’m the, I’m trying to be a business coach.

I can’t admit this out to the public. I can’t share this with other people. That was working against me. I, I was trying to be strong and plow through that. But luckily I was attending, um, some meetings with the International Coaching Federation. And I met a mindfulness practitioner, she was a coach that did a lot of mindfulness.

She was going through grad school and she asked if she could do some sessions with me for her grad school.

And I’m so grateful that I had that opportunity because what I realized was, had I not had some guidance and communicated some of those things, why I was having anxiety and stress was because I was trying to force through it versus process it and work through it.

And now, looking back, like, I’m fully transparent about it. I’m like, yes, I have mistakes. Yes, I have failed. I, I wear that as an object, um, badge of honor because it’s not failure that leads, it’s not like avoiding failure that leads to success. It’s, it’s failing again and again, and coming up with enthusiasm and drive and consistent persistence to achieve the result.

That’s how you get to success. So now I’ve, I share that with others because I know there’s a lot of people. That have failures that they’ve faced or are facing right now, and they’re fearful to share that and they don’t realize the impact that working to resolve that might have if they give themselves the grace of saying, you know what, maybe I did fail at this, maybe it did hurt me, but I’m willing to work through that now so that I can show up as the best version of myself, not for just me. But for my inner circle, for my family, for those I serve, so I could just be the best as that, that I can be. So that was a, the biggest challenge that I ever overcame. And I’m really grateful to have went through that in hindsight.

Although I wouldn’t have said that at the time.

Tim: Yeah, well, you know, well, thanks for sharing that because, you know, I, again, our biggest growth comes when we work through some problems and working through those problems isn’t a bad thing. You know? Yeah. Hey, it stinks when, when life throws crap at you or when you, when you get handed lemonades, you gotta make, I’m sorry, you get, get handed lemons, you gotta make lemonade. And uh, it’s really great to see that you have done that and more importantly that you’ve learned from it and you’re sharing that.

Kenny: I, I’m really glad and I’m advocate for being transparent and sharing those, those failures. And those lessons learned, we can get out of our egos, get out of the ego. It’s, it’s, it holds us back. It really does. We don’t even realize it’s, I didn’t even realize how much of a grip on it until going through some of that work.

But that was, that was my ego saying: Victim! Revenge! Rahhhh!

Tim: How dare she do that to us?

Kenny: Poor me.

Olivia: But hey, you came out on the other side stronger and, you know, I think, thank goodness, hindsight is 20/20. Um, and you’re able to reflect back on that and learn the lessons. But more than that is have that lesson to share with others and have that. Ability to connect with others because so many people go through the same exact thing and are afraid to talk about it so you coming forward and speaking on it and talking about it from a perspective of gratitude and coming out on the other side with more to give is really inspirational

Kenny: Thank you. And I’ll, I’ll share. That I hold no ill will to my partner. I was frustrated at that period of time, but now I’m wishing her the best. And you being grateful for that experience. Cause it, it did help me grow. It helped me step into a different level of leadership and challenged me to be a better version of myself.

So like you said, you can look at it with the right perspective.

Olivia: Yeah.

Tim: Yeah, that’s awesome. So, Kenny, share with us also, like, some, uh, what resources have been beneficial to you, whether they’re, you know, books or authors or websites or technology tools? What, what, what, what are you finding that’s, that’s worked for you in the past?

Kenny: So I’m a certified DigitalMarketer, uh, trainer and advisor. DigitalMarketer is a company based out of Austin, Texas. They help put on one of the biggest conferences on marketing called traffic and conversion and their concept of the customer value journey, which I alluded to earlier and really focusing on optimizing your customer value journey, looking at the different stages of the relationship that you have. With your potential customers and guiding them from one stage to the next. You can craft a process to get your message in front of your ideal customers and seamlessly and subtly guide them to become customers that pay, stay, and refer. You can avoid doing a lot of excess work, spending a lot of time creating content, a lot of time doing busy work and just work on the 20 percent of the efforts that give you 80 percent of the results.

By honing in, looking at that and fine tuning it. It’s like building an engine versus trying to be the master of plethora of different marketing trends and sales techniques and all that jazz. Just build good relationships and optimize the process that does that, the systems that does that. Uh, so that’s, that’s one is the customer value journey optimization from DigitalMarketer.

Um, a book that I, I really like, um, is Positive Intelligence. So this is a book on how to develop mental fitness. So, inspired by some of the challenges that I went through and also working with other business advisors who were running into their own mental blocks. I didn’t have a framework to help them through that, but Positive Intelligence is a framework to help people strengthen their mental fitness so that they could reduce their saboteur self, sabotaging thoughts and habits and step in to their better version of themselves more often. So I went through that program and got certified through Positive Intelligence as well.

Uh, it’s a great book and what I really like about it is it takes a really complicated process that I’ve studied in the past about mindfulness, about habits, about thinking, personal development, and makes it to a easy to understand process that you could share so easy that even my kids understand the concepts and have been implementing them into their development.

Olivia: That’s pretty cool

Tim: Nice, thank you for sharing that. Kenny, how could people, uh, get in touch with you? What’s the best way?

Kenny: So my website is growthamplifiers.com. And if they went to. Growthamplifiers.com/success. Um, we’ve got a free download of our book, um, we’ll have our assessment that you can take on there. If you have business and you’re looking to perhaps see some of the blind spots that you may have, get some direction on which areas you can improve upon to maximize your results.

You can take our free assessment, you get a checklist. And you can also find me on LinkedIn, Kenny Harper, or YouTube, Kenny Harper. And I will share that, approach to building relationships, business relationships. It’s not to try to sell anything to anyone. So if you do go to our website, growthamplifiers.com/success, and you opted into one of our assets, we’re not going to try to sell you things. We’re simply going to share resources. And if you want our help, then we’ll be there to help you out.

Olivia: We appreciate that Kenny.

Tim: Very nice.

Olivia: And thank you so much for joining us today. I know that you brought a lot of value for our listeners and a lot of value to your clients based on what you’ve shared with us today, um, your positive light. And we greatly appreciate you spending time with us here today.

Kenny: Thank you so much. I appreciate the opportunity to be here.

Olivia: Absolutely.

Tim: Well, Kenny Harper, thank you very much, and, uh, we look forward to having our growth amplified.

Kenny: Yes!