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Mastering Financial Resilience: Tom Brainsky’s Journey

Episode Summary

In this candid conversation, Tom delves into the power of resilience, transparency, and the transformative impact of financial optimization. Learn how his expertise has empowered businesses, creating a lasting legacy for entrepreneurs worldwide.

Guest Info

ProfitMax website, ProfitMax ERTC Survey, and Thomas’ email

Key Takeaways

Purpose of ERTC:

  • The ERTC, or Employee Retention Tax Credit, was established during the CARES Act to encourage businesses to retain their employees during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Limited Duration:

  • It’s essential to note that ERTC is not a permanent program. It’s crucial for eligible businesses to explore and apply for it before it expires.

Qualification for R&D Credit:

  • Many businesses engaged in technology, process improvements, and innovation may qualify for the R&D Tax Credit, even if they aren’t aware of it.

Working On the Business:

  • Business owners are often too caught up in day-to-day operations. It’s crucial for them to shift their perspective and start working on their business, not just in it.

Transcript Below

Olivia: Welcome to the Control Your Cash Podcast, where we talk to business owners about how to regain control of their cash flow. Today, we have Tom Brainsky with us from ProfitMax.

Welcome, Tom. 

Thomas: Hello. Thank you.

Olivia: So, Tom, tell us a little bit about your journey and we thank you so much for joining us today. And, um, I know that you’re going to provide our listeners with a ton of valuable content.

Thomas: Well, absolutely. I intend to do that. And thank you so much for having me. Um, as far as my journey goes, uh, I am a through and through entrepreneur. Um, not one of the greatest students that ever existed in the history of high school, uh, but, uh, ended up, uh, flailing almost out of high school, managed to.

Passed by the skin of my teeth, um, got into the working world and realized that that was actually more where I belonged. I did a series of crazy jobs in my life and then, uh, ended up taking to aviation. I had fan, I still maintain a fantastic career, uh, within, uh, aviation. I still own a company that provides really awesome, unique, niche services to airlines that do charter flights that led to, um.

Uh, me entering the dental field because those two don’t go together whatsoever. Uh, but when your clients are airlines and you know, they owe you $60,000-100,000 and you wake up on a Friday morning and go to the toilet and grab your phone as most of us do, uh, and then you look and you go, Oh, look at that. Oh, another one went bankrupt.

So there goes that money. You’re not going to get. And then subsequently you’ll get sued for something called preferential payments, which is awesome, by the way. So I’ve really mastered, um, dealing with those types of lawsuits. I don’t need attorneys anymore. I just call opposing counsel, make a deal, and I make those go away.

Uh, but, uh, that kind of led me into dental because it was something that wasn’t aviation. I thought, you know, maybe I’ll, uh, buy a dental laboratory. Um, it’s available. It’s nearby. It’s something, uh, you know, different basket, different eggs kind of thing. Very difficult business by the way. Uh, and, and, and that one ended up, uh, opening up an opportunity where, uh, recently, um, I was able to get my, my ERTC and we’ll go into that a little bit later in the call.

Uh, and, and with that, I met my partner now in ProfitMax. So that is another venture that I’m in now. And, uh, and she convinced me to, to join her and we’ll be kind of focusing on that today because that one really lines up with, uh, you know, what you guys do. So, um. Uh, ProfitMax is, uh. It provides accounting, tax, uh, tax guidance, tax strategies, ERC submission, or, you know, research and development tax credits, things like that, that can just make a world of a difference for business owners.

And so, so there’s the fit, and that’s how we came to where we are today.

Tim: That’s quite a, quite a journey, Tom, and I’m sure it comes with many scars and bruises along the way.

Thomas: Uh, Yes, yes, plenty of that. Lots of really hard lessons learned and in multiple sectors. Um, and, uh, I think if there was one word that could be used to describe me, it would probably be resilient. I’m just unwilling to stay down because I’ve had plenty of body shots that have, that really should have knocked me out, but I just, I don’t know, maybe I’m stupid, I just keep getting back up.

Tim: Well, you know, um, that’s an interesting point because most successful business owners, entrepreneurs, it, you know, it’s not all unicorn and rainbows. 

Thomas: It’s never unicorns and rainbows.

Tim: Yeah, so there and I think the struggles along the way and those times where we get knocked down are the times of great growth and. So if you could share with us maybe one of those times where you really got knocked down, what were you feeling?

How did you get through it? And what, what was your biggest takeaway?

Thomas: Well, uh, I probably have one of the most unique knockdown, knockout, dragout stories that exist. Um, There was, uh, this actually happened, I think, uh, last summer, summer ago, I think, maybe, I can’t remember, it’s all a blur, but, uh, running a dental laboratory, I have, uh, I have employees, technicians, equipment, you know, it’s a, it’s a, it’s a brick and mortar business, and, um, I was, uh, taking my wife’s car to, uh, get fixed because, uh, her door handle was broken, so I took the car to, you know, the dealer on an average, you know, mundane Tuesday or Wednesday morning, I forget, and, uh, I was in the shuttle coming back from the dealer, and I received a phone call from someone who worked for me.

It was my HR manager, and she was very upset at me. I can’t even to this day tell you exactly why, but something really torqued her up bad, and she was screaming at me, and I’m like, whoa, whoa, whoa, calm down. I, I almost felt bad for the guy next to me who’s driving because I, I just couldn’t figure out what was going on and she’s yelling at me that I don’t have a company anymore and when I got to work, she basically had fired my whole company, told them all that the company was sold, uh, that the company didn’t exist anymore and no one had jobs anymore, go home, good luck, and of course they would take that from HR as being legit.

Of course, if I sold the company, somebody better tell me, did I get a good deal and who bought it? When was the closing? None of this I knew. And, and so I literally had no company after years of trying to build this thing. And it was just gone, you know, instantly. And, and I had to kind of put it all together.

So there was a few people I was able to salvage that day. And, uh, one of them was this great kid. I had hired this homeless kid a couple of weeks before and gave him a job. And he was really starting to excel and appreciate, you know, what he was doing. And he stuck around with me and I taught him how to do customer service because we immediately had to figure out how to service our customers.

Um, And then, uh, you know, while I had him trying to let the customers know that we wouldn’t be picking up or delivering that day, because. Well, we had no staff because our person just let everyone go, which is insane. Thank God. We had tremendous support from our clients. They were very understanding. They were like, my God, I can’t believe anything like that happened.

Either can I, but it did. Um, and, uh, and, and so the rest of the day, it was just a matter of trying to take stock, figure out, you know, fire by fire, what, what do I have to do to bring this thing back online? How do I make this function again? How do I get the employees back? And so I was able to at least get everyone to agree to come in the next day and have a little town hall meeting, a heart to heart.

And, um, and, and through that experience, I’ve been able to, uh, learn and grow with transparency, unlike most business owners have ever experienced. Uh, there was a trust that was broken. I didn’t even do it, but it was broken. And so, uh, you know, it’s, tears were shed on both sides. And how do we put this thing back together?

And, and we were actually able to create a very cohesive team, uh, almost in, in moonshot fashion, uh, and be closer and stronger than we ever were before. And so, uh, if you want to talk about a challenge, having a business just disappear on you, and one day and having to put it all back together, the next. I.

I can’t think of anything worse in my life. And I mean, I’ve, I’ve had some really unusual experiences. I, I’ve had, I’ve had a, a Minister of Oil in the, in, in Kuwait, personally threatened to put me in jail through circumstances that I did not create. Um, I’ve been, you know, I’ve had, uh, French, no, I’ve had, uh, Mexican Federales hold me at gunpoint.

I’ve had guns. Uh, I’ve had, uh, been escorted out at, uh, gunpoint in, in Jordan during, you know, major combat operations during one of the wars. Uh, it’s, I’ve had some pretty bad days. Yeah, but none of them compared to that.

Tim: Wow. 

So what were you feeling? Like what, you know, I, I, I can, I can think of several emotions, but What were you feeling when you were going through all that crap?

Thomas: Um, well, first of all, uh, one of the managers that, that worked for me was very, very upset. And so again, I do feel bad for the dude that dropped me off. Uh, the guy was coming at me and like a raging bull and there were employees that were holding him back. And I don’t know whether it was the normalcy bias or not, but I literally was like, no, no, no, you don’t understand.

We’re going towards him as he’s wanting to kill me. Uh, you know, you don’t understand it, you know, and trying to argue with him and eventually employees like just go in the building, go to it because they couldn’t really hold it back. And he ended up calming down. Thank goodness. And he’s just a godsend to have on staff to this day. Um, but you know, so so there was that there was this this, you know as far as emotions go you, you, you have confusion. Um, you know, and and then you have fear. I mean, there’s this tremendous fear of everything that i’ve, i’ve put into this is gone. Do I have to sell everything? You know the unknown so you’ve got the fear, the anxiety, the stomach is in knots.

I mean, you want to talk about not sleeping that night. I there’s never been a night where I’ve been that wound up and unable to, to, to sleep because you just have that much stress on you, because you don’t know if you’re actually going to even have a company by the time you come back, no one had agreed to stay working with me.

They just agreed to talk to me. And so there was just so much unknown. And, and so working through the fire like that, while still trying to service the clients and do what I could to patch up. As much as I could to salvage what could be salvaged until this thing could be brought back online. Uh, just, in a word, Tim, insane levels of stress.

Tim: Yeah, I can imagine. Well, it’s a testament to your resilience that you’re able to get, you know, to obviously get through that and, and get through it, uh, not only successfully, but to, you know, to certainly to thrive. So, um, tell us a little bit about ProfitMax.

Thomas: So, ProfitMax, uh, I joined ProfitMax, um, sort of unexpectedly. Uh, I did not, I didn’t have any aspirations, uh, to, to jump into the… Tax field. Um, it’s never been in my wheelhouse, but, uh, I had met my partner Stacy, uh, at a, at a, um, a business convention. And, um, you know, she and I, I guess both wanted a good seat.

So we were like first people downstairs. Uh, and I mean, Tim, you know, Stacy, so you could probably actually imagine. That being true. Uh, and, and so I met this woman and you know, what do you do? What do you do kind of thing? And she tells me, Oh, you know, I help people their ERC. I’m like, I have no idea what that is.

She goes, Oh, you know, it’s this thing and it’s from the CARES Act and you know, you’re probably qualify. You’d probably get money back. How many employees do you have? So she’s asked me questions and you know, I said, well, I’ll have to check with my CPA. So, you know, at a break I run upstairs, I go to the bathroom because I mean, it’ what you gotta do, uh, and, and, and then I, I check with the CPA and my CPA is like, ah, yeah, you know, I don’t think you’re going to qualify.

You know, you make money during COVID. It’s, you know, so I went back downstairs. I said, Hey, you know, I ran into her. I’m like, Hey, by the way, you know, my CPA said, no, you know, you’re, uh, you’re not going to qualify. She goes, okay, why don’t you just. After the show, hook up with me, we’ll talk, you know, schedule time Tuesday, uh, and, uh, and, and, and we’ll see if you actually qualify.

So, she sent me a link, we filled out everything on the link, and, uh, oh look at that! Uh, we qualified! For over six figures. My CPA could have screwed me out of six figures. I mean, you wanna talk about something that really bothers you? That really bothered me, because they were so nonchalant about it. And so that, that’s, that shot up a red flag.

A long story short is, uh, I did process my ERC, uh, through, uh, her company ProfitMax and, um, got everything back. Everything’s wonderful. I couldn’t imagine this having no knowledge of this before I met her and and I, I pushed her so hard. I said, you know what, you’ve, you’ve been so helpful to me. Let me help you.

I am deadly at trade shows. I mean, I can sell anything to, you know, to anyone on the floor of a trade show. Absolutely deadly. And, and I said, there’s this trade show. It’s a dental thing. It’s dental technology. I realize it’s probably doesn’t make sense if I, you know didn’t know about this. I guarantee there’s hundreds if not thousands of people that don’t know about this.

Just go, I’m gonna be at the show anyway. I’ll stand at your booth. I’ll help you out a little bit, you know, while I’m doing my business there. And, and so I really forced her hand and, and of course she saw me in action. Good. And, uh, and, and so, uh, her husband and I, uh, lemme, sorry, her husband, uh, and her sat me down at dinner one night and they’re like, um, You need to get into this.

This is, this is definitely something you can do. Um, and your ability to, to connect with people and help people is unbelievable. I mean, they were just very complimentary of it and was like can I at least make some money doing this? You know? Yes. Okay, great. And so that’s kind of how this started. And, and I really got involved with her and, and got to see what the company does and, and how they help people.

And I mean, I have to tell you, you know, I do it a little bit differently just because I, I do love helping people to me. My, one of the biggest motivating things is to have someone just fill out the survey. And I love to get on a zoom call with them instead of just send them an email and say, Oh, Hey, by the way, you know, you qualified.

I got the email, you know, uh, but, uh, I, I love to just get on a call and face to face and say, listen, you just qualified for $250,000. I had one where I was so excited. I said, listen, you just qualified for $1.2 million and to see their faces. And, and to see what that can do for a business owner. And I mean, you want to talk about impact. Tim, what would you do with 1.2 million dollars? Just think about it. That’s impact.

Tim: It would definitely improve my golf swing.

Thomas: I mean, Olivia, what would your dad, what would your dad be like if all of a sudden he qualifies for this and about six to eight weeks later these checks start rolling in? Man’s happy, isn’t he?

Olivia: Yeah, yeah, because I, I mean, I always say this, um, I would argue that most of life’s frustrations come from not having access to money when you really need it. And then number 2, I would say is paying more in taxes than you need to.

Thomas: Oh, my gosh. And I mean that you want to talk about a lesson learned. That was a huge lesson learned. So not only did I fire my CPAs, but now I also moved all of my accounting over to the firm that I now work with. Uh, and we’re partnered with an organization called Lifetime Advisors. But, you know, they do a lot of heavy lifting for us.

Um, but, uh, Having now learned and seen what this does, first of all, I can say most small businesses out there that have between say five and maybe 20 employees, you know, some of the, I would say the average that we see as far as people recovering their ERCs is around $250,000, you know, for a small business, that is no joke, you know, for mom and pop shops have been working really hard and they’ve got their employees and they, they toil away in their business.

They’ve been working and they don’t know. And the accountants aren’t doing it because the accountants, they do what they do really well. They look backwards, they do taxes, they try and find deductions. The deductions they’re comfortable with, that are quick and dirty and easy because they’ve got thousands of things to file.

And I’m not trying to knock the CPAs, but that’s sort of the lane that they live in. And so when clients will go to them and say, you know, Hey, tell me about this or tell me about research and development tax credits. Yeah, they don’t really want to do it. So it just becomes this discouraged thing. It’s too much work or they’re not really good at it.

You know, conversely, you’ve got these pop ups now with this ERC thing, it’s crazy. And I guarantee all of your listeners have been receiving phone calls left and right, over and over, did you know that your employees and you’re eligible for blah, blah, blah, blah. Are, are they like accounting firms? Do they, do they do strategic tax, strategic tax planning?

No. So all they do is they’ve really gotten into their, let us just do this for you, we’re going to submit this for you, and we’re going to make money doing this. So they’re going to make their money doing that. But the problem with that is, What if they do it wrong? Or what if it does create an audit? Are they going to defend you during an audit?

Well, the answer to that is no. Or if they do, do you really want someone who’s just a pop up defending you on an audit? Probably not. So that’s why I really liked what Stacey had going, because you will have audit protection. So, anything that our organization does, they’re going to make sure it’s absolutely right and conservative and not go for the moon crazy because they don’t want to trigger audits either.

And if there are, then they’re going to sit in that first chair. And so there’s, there’s a lot of reasons why it makes a lot of sense. And to me, I really wanted to get in on that. And once I got in and started getting my feet wet and realizing what we could do, then it was fun to get on calls with, with clients who didn’t qualify for ERC.

They didn’t have enough employees. Maybe they weren’t in business at that time. Uh, but then it’s like, you can help them with your taxes. And it’s like, Oh wow, this is really fun. You know, just like me, it’s like you could help erase people’s tax bill. I mean, you know, you can, you can increase profits a few different ways.

You could either sell more, so sell more products, right? Uh, you can cut your expenses. Or you could pay no taxes. That’s about the three ways that you could really increase your profits. And, and to be part of that and helping business owners do that, the, the, the biggest stumbling block that I see is that most small businesses have no fricking clue because they do their thing.

They’re busy, their heads, their knee deep, you know, their, their, their, their heads are in the weeds. They’re knee deep in it. They’ve got to worry about their vehicle maintenance. They’ve got to worry about maybe their employees and their medicals. And they got to worry about, are we, you know, making enough money?

You know, how are we doing on sales? Do we need to cut the cost? All these things that you think about as a business owner day in and day out. When somebody talks to him about taxes, no, no, no, I got a CPA. I’m good. Are you though? Are you really? Because I guarantee all of them would say yes. Uh, uh. They’re really not.

It’s not something they really know about. And so, unless the right questions get asked, unless it really gets pointed out, they’re going to miss it. And they’re going to miss out on a lot. You know, I’ll give you an example. Um, dentists. Here’s something I know about, right? I own a dental laboratory. Dental laboratories and dentists, all of them, almost all, qualify for a research and development tax credit. That they can get every year somewhere between say maybe, you know, $8,000 and $30,000 a year alone, just that one thing CPAs don’t want to touch it. They don’t want to touch it because it’s too hard. It takes too much time. They do not have the time. They’ve got thousands of, you know, hundreds, if not thousands of filings.

They’ve got to do extensions. They got to do then additional filings. They’ve got to do, they’ve got to go what gets them their bread and butter. So this is what we do. We, we focus on the areas that are different. They can help people in ways that most CPAs can’t, and I mean, you know, it’s like, yeah, look at it this way, right?

So CPAs, they got a rear view mirror. They look in the rear mirror. What did you do? How can we help you with what you did? A strategist looks forward through the windshield. What are you going to do in the next three to five years? Are you going to have any events that trigger, you know, large taxable hits?

Okay, what can we do to mitigate those? And all the strategies that are done can then be shared with those CPAs. Now, we have our own CPAs on staff, if people want to work with us, that’s fine, but they don’t have to. But at least by, by, by thinking ahead and working that direction, you can really lower your tax bill.

And I’m telling you, I’m a small business owner. I’ve been operating as a small business owner in different sectors for 20 plus, 25, 25 years. Didn’t know, no idea. Had different accountants. No idea

Tim: I read a study that said 72 percent of people think that taxes are too high, but 93 percent of people overpay in their taxes.

Thomas: That is actually correct. 93% overpaying their taxes, and of that 93% they’re actually overpaying somewhere between 34 and 71%, which I mean, hello? That basically, I mean, what that boils down to guys is that that means that there is a 7% chance that your taxes are spot on.

Olivia: Those are pretty low odds.

Thomas: It’s, it’s, it’s astonishingly low, but for all the reasons I’ve outlined, it all makes sense. I mean, I just learned today that, uh, there are hundreds of thousands of CPAs that are retiring who are not being replaced. So if you think about it this way, uh, if all of these CPAs start retiring and there’s not enough to replace them, that means the CPAs that do exist are only going to get busier, meaning that they will have even less time to devote to really trying to maximize the amount that you can save in taxes.

It’s only getting worse.

Olivia: Tom, you seem really passionate about helping people save on these taxes. Tell us a little bit about for the listeners who may not know or may not have gotten one of those pop ups on the phone, what the ERC is and, and what a good candidate would look like to qualify.

Thomas: Well, let me predicate this by saying that even though I’ve qualified for it, I got mine. Hallelujah. Thrilled. ERC is one of the stupidest creations the government has ever done. I mean, it really is. Um, thrilled to have it. It’s wonderful. But, uh, it, it is essentially, uh, during the CARES Act, uh, ERC was established, or ERTC, Employee Retention Tax Credit.

And it was basically done, uh, during COVID to encourage businesses to keep their employees, right? And… So initially you could, you had to have less than 100 employees. I mean, they had all these restrictions and nobody was taking advantage of it. So 2001 rolls around and, and Congress and the president revise it and open up the

Tim: 2021, Tom?

Thomas: What’s that?

Tim: You said 2001, you meant 2021. 

Thomas: I’m sorry 2021, uh, they, they revise the law. Which basically now says that you could have, you know, uh, up to 500 employees and you don’t just simply have to show a loss. You could show a loss, but you know, show, show how you were affected during COVID. And this is kind of where a lot of the CPAs will just take the quick and easy and say, well, you know, I’ll work with you client or you client because you did have a loss, but they don’t want to actually do the heavier labor of showing, you know, well, if you didn’t have a loss, how were you affected?

You know, did you have to, put up ridiculous pieces of plastic or redo your ventilation system or have to buy, you know, this or that, you know, um, was it impossible to find employees? Uh, so anyway, this program was put in place and it is not actually based on the, uh, on the actual physical numbers of your payroll.

It is a payroll. It’s a payroll tax refund, but it’s not actually based on your payroll. This is what I mean. It’s ridiculous. And so you have three quarters in 2000, which, you know, any W-2 full time employee, uh, would be, uh, you know, worth $5,000 or up to $5,000. And then for the three quarters in 2021, those same employees could be worth, you know, $26,000. Where do they come up with these numbers? I, I don’t know. I mean, it’s, that’s government at work right there. However, it exists. It does expire. This will not last forever. And so that’s why, you know, everyone’s phones are just being blown up, you know, with every pop up that there is going, hey, you know, we could submit this for you, you know, and, and, you know, that’s just, just be careful, you know.

You want to you want to go with a firm that’s that’s very reputable, been around for a long time. At least our firm’s done well over $1.3 billion in recoveries with zero instances so far of any audits and, you know, zero instances where mistakes were made. As a matter of fact, some of our clients, um, we, we, we did it.

We actually, we did have one where, where an audit, um, a letter was sent from the IRS and the IRS had screwed up and they had to own up to their own screw up. And, and there was an audit that took place that actually found money that the CPA, uh, screwed up and the CPA got it wrong. So we had to run cleanup on that.

Um, so it’s um, It’s an unusual program. It does expire and I encourage all of your uh, listeners and viewers if you have not looked into it. Now would be a really good time to do it. Um, even through our website and I’ll make sure that I give you guys the link. Sign up the link. Just go to go to the link.

Put your information in it’s free and we’ll tell you what you could expect to get back. And it’s a rough estimate. I mean, you know, we’ll give you that. And if you want to move forward, then get all your documentation against get your real estimate. But it’s going to be pretty close. And I’ll give that to you.

So that way, you know, any of your viewers and listeners can at least go in and just get a free estimate and find out. You have nothing to lose, except if you A, take no action, at which point you could possibly be like me and almost lose hundreds of thousands of dollars because your CPA is not telling you what to do. I’m not bitter.

Olivia: Oh,

Thomas: I’m smiling.

Tim: Tell us about, uh, you mentioned, uh, research and development, the R& D credit. Tell us a little bit about that.

Thomas: So that was something that, uh, started back in, uh, 1981. It’s been revised several times throughout the years to make it easier. It’s basically the government trying to, uh, help support small businesses. Uh, and, and, and, you know, usher in research and development. Uh, if you were trying to get it in 1981, very similar to ERC, most wouldn’t qualify, too difficult to get.

And I mean, they don’t make it super, super simple, but it’s also not the most complicated thing in the world either. And believe it or not, most businesses that actually work on process improvements or work with technology and they implement this or that to, to make their businesses better, smarter, faster.

There’s a pretty good possibility that they would qualify and it’s an annual tax credit. So as long as they keep continue working on their business and doing improvements towards their businesses. They’re probably gonna qualify. I’ll give you an example. Let’s talk about a dentist or a dental laboratory again, my wheelhouse, you know if a dentist gets one of those like intraoral scanners So instead of taking, you know physical impressions that make people want to choke to death and they put the little wand in your mouth to you know Well, that’s something that they’re doing They get it, they’ve got to test it, learn how to use it, put it in the park, they’re probably going to qualify.

Uh, you know, 3D printing is now a thing, or, you know, chair side milling is now a thing. And so there’s all these things that are out there for many businesses where people use technology, they bring in new equipment, they have to learn how to use it. And there’s time that goes into that. And then there’s testing and tuning and, you know, losses of products and materials because you’ve wasted it as you’re trying to get better at it.

And, and that’s what this, this, uh, this law is out there for this deduction, uh, is for a tax credit, I guess is for, is for that. And so that’s something that can be applied for every single year. And no, most CPAs do not want to touch it. It’s a lot more work. It’s not that it’s hard work, but it’s just simply.

More work.

Tim: Interesting. You know, it’s, it’s funny because one of the areas that we identify for people. So we, we view things through the lens of, are you in control of your money or is somebody else in control of your money? Cause whoever controls your cashflow controls your life. And we identify five areas where people are.

Unknowingly and unnecessarily giving up control of their money. And one of them is taxes. And, you know, having stated that, I was totally unaware of this Research and Development Tax Credit. So that’s certainly something that I think, you know, you and I could talk about areas of collaboration where we could help our clients, if they’re eligible for this credit, too. You know, apply for it and qualify for

Thomas: Why not? What do they have to lose?

Olivia: Absolutely. And Tom, just for clarification, um, the difference, what’s the difference between a tax credit and a tax deduction?

Thomas: Uh, deductions would be, you know, you, you bought a, you bought a house, you got interest, you’re gonna deduct, you know, your interest on the house. You know, a credit is, I’ve done these tasks, we’re gonna send you a check.

Olivia: It’s a dollar for dollar reduction in the tax bill, correct?

Thomas: Yeah you know, like if you look at the ERTC, uh, program, uh, there are six quarters that you could qualify and you will receive six different checks from the government. This is, comes to you in the form of a check and you cash the check. You feel like adding a, you know, garage to your house. You have the garage.

You want to buy a car, buy a car. You want to throw it into a life insurance policy and throw it into a life insurance policy. Um, you know, it is. Cash money to you versus just less that you have to pay.

Olivia: Absolutely. Well, that’s a huge value, especially for, for business owners, because I know, um, certainly speaking with business owners, they’re always looking for ways to save on their taxes and to optimize their taxes and, you know, ultimately make the machine of the business run as smoothly as possible.

And. Looking at different strategies to do that is certainly very valuable. So we appreciate you speaking about that. Um, and the different ways that, that we’re able to, to do that. And, um, that ProfitMax brings that to the clients.

Thomas: Well, you know, I appreciate the opportunity to talk about it. And, you know, I do want to mention one other thing that I think is, is very important. Uh, this is something that would normally come up with, uh, a ProfitMax based conversation, depending on the direction that the client wants to go, which is just asking.

Asking a business owner, what are their goals? You know, if a business owner’s goal is to work in their business all the time and, you know, be there, be their own janitor, be their own lawnmower, be, be one who just works in the business all the time, uh, that’s, that’s one thing. But a lot of business owners get into business cause they, they like the idea that they’ll have freedom. Yeah, how many business owners out there really feel that right or they like the idea of not having to think about payroll, how are we going to make payroll or how are we going to make it manage that cash flow to where I don’t have to think about it that much. And so, you know, we also have programs in place that can actually help business owners if their goal is to actually enjoy and have a good time. With their business yet still have that business, not as a job, but as an asset, asset that makes the money. You know, we, we, uh, we invest, right? So, you know, I invest in stock, right? So you invest in Apple. I like Apple. Um, you know, I’ve invested in Amazon. I don’t work for Apple. I don’t work for Amazon.

Yet that is an asset that makes me money. You can look at a business and do the same thing. But most business owners can’t even do that because they’re too deep in the weeds. So if they have certain goals, if they want to be free, then we actually can also help them and guide them to actually scale their business up, to grow that business into something, to become that asset, to give them the freedom.

Maybe at some point they even have a CEO. And so they could actually manage and run their business from the beach. These are things that are absolutely possible for a lot of businesses if they would take the time to go, You know what, I need to take a step back from my day to day, what I normally do, and have a conversation.

And so we’re more than willing to have those conversations as well.

Tim: Right, so most business owners are so busy working in their business, they don’t have any time to work on their business.

Thomas: And when they’re working on their business, Tim, chances are they’re working on their next marketing plan or campaign or their social media posting, which, by the way, is still technically working in your business if you think about it that way, but to take it and just kind of open up that that window a little bit more and look at it from a different You know, vantage point, a lot of things that you’re doing to work on your business might still actually be working in your business.

So you go back a little bit further and you go, okay, well, you know, what if I could replace myself and this thing still makes plenty of money. And then, you know, a few years later, if that’s my plan to sell in three, five, six, 10 years later, maybe I can get this thing into like private equity, you know, and get, you know, seven times normalized, you know, EBITDA or five times normalized EBITDA.

Well, you’re not going to get that unless you’re really well structured. And that’s something that doesn’t just come with most companies. It comes with people who can come in there and actually help the company structure for that to actually happen.

Tim: Right.

Olivia: Absolutely. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense, especially because there are so many business owners looking to retire and get out of their business. But how do you make sure that asset doesn’t dwindle when you leave, when you walk out that door? And that’s something that I know a lot of family business owners and small business owners struggle with.

Thomas: How do you maximize the asset before you sell it? Many

Olivia: Yeah to get the most out of it.

Thomas: Right. Many business owners do not think in those terms they should. But they don’t. Because they’re too busy with their head down.

Tim: Right.

Thomas: I mean, I’m guilty of it. I’ve been that guy. I’ve made plenty of mistakes. I’m professional when it comes to that. But we all are.

And it’s just a matter of, you know, once the scales come off the eyes. And you can’t unsee something. What do you do with that?

Olivia: It doesn’t matter how you start. It matters how you finish, Tom.

Thomas: Correct.

Tim: Well, Tom, it’s been a pleasure having you here. Um, how can our, our listeners get in touch with you if they’re interested in, in, uh, talking with you?

Thomas: I am so glad you asked. Uh, you can certainly find us at www.profitmax.co. That’s www.profitmax.co profitmax.co. And uh, also, like I said, I’m gonna give you guys a link and if you just wanna put it with the, uh, show information, uh, it will be a link to the survey for, uh, ERC and I’ll probably also give you a link just to get in contact with me directly.

And feel free to reach out. I’m free to talk to. Your life can change. Big numbers can roll in. Massive numbers that you never expected could end up in your bank account in the next three to six months. All you have to do is just pick up the phone. The phone is not that heavy. It really isn’t. Or, or, or click the mouse.

It’s, it’s not, it’s not heavy. And see what can happen. You won’t know until you look.

Tim: Yeah, it’s certainly worth a phone call, right?

Thomas: Doesn’t hurt. I’m a nice guy. Look at me. I’m smiling.

Olivia: We could attest to that, Thomas. We appreciate you so much. And if anyone wants to get in contact with Tom, please do so. We have links in the show notes and, um, you could certainly reach him at profitmax.co. So thank you so much, Tom.

Thomas: Thank you guys so much. It’s been a pleasure.

Tim: Thanks, Tom.

Thomas: You bet.

Transitioning From Earned to Passive Income

As you go through life, everything changes. The only thing certain in life is, in fact, change. So when you first get a job or you first start in business, your goal is to create 100% of your earned income to support your lifestyle. And as time goes by and you evolve towards retirement, your reliance on earned income will go down and you will transition to 100% of your lifestyle being funded by passive income. And as we’re evolving from 100% earned income to 100% passive income, there are various stages.

Now, whether you are a W-2 employee or a business owner, When you’re first starting out, oftentimes you’re just making enough to get by. All you want to do is to support your expenses and your lifestyle. However, over time, and as things change, hopefully, you’re able to earn some more. Maybe you got a promotion or expanded your business. 

You’re earning enough income to not only cover your lifestyle but also to put money away in a savings account or an emergency fund. And then phase three, really simple. You have enough to cover your lifestyle. You have enough for your emergency fund. And now you can start investing to create assets that will generate passive income. And the fourth phase is when all of your lifestyle can be covered with income from passive sources.

According to a recent study by Intuit, 61% of business owners around the world struggle with cash flow. That means they’re not covering their lifestyle. 69% of business owners either sleep less or admit to losing sleep due to cash flow concerns. And the point is these people are having trouble covering their overhead. So it’s almost impossible for them to start saving because they’re dealing with these cash flow issues. 

So the question becomes, how do you transition between these phases? A lot of times people try to go from phase one all the way to phase three, where they have passive income generated for them through their business. However, it’s important to build a foundation of savings that you have liquidity, access, and control over so that you are not completely bogged down by debt and other financial pressures that come with these big expenses.

That’s why it’s really important to go from phase one to phase two. You need to create that emergency fund, that savings that can be your backstop whenever you go to another phase and then all of a sudden the rug gets pulled out from under you.

One way we help our clients to build that safety net and to build an actual pool of cash that they have liquidity use and control over is by using specially designed whole life insurance policies designed for cash accumulation so that they’re less dependent on banks and finance companies and they’re actually able to own that finance function in their own life.

So instead of going to the bank down the street to finance a purchase for their business or their family or anything like that, they’re able to go to an entity that they own and control and they have a contractual guaranteed access to that cash to finance the things of life. Whether it be a business purchase, like a new vehicle, or they want to go on vacation with their family and they need the cash flow to do so.

The key there is that because they’ve taken this step to create that savings through a specially designed life insurance policy, they now have access to capital and nothing is telling them that they can’t take some of that money and use it to grow their business, to create passive assets. And that’s the key. 

You see, these policies are great for a few things. Number one is getting out of bad debt and debt that has an excessive amount of interest being charged or maybe you want to refinance that debt through the policy so you own and control those terms.

Also, it’s a great place to warehouse wealth because you have tax-deferred growth within the policy as well as guaranteed access through the policy loan provision and it’s also a great place to store money for investments.

You can put money into the policy and then borrow against the cash value in that policy to go out and make investments so you’re able to earn a higher rate of return on your money. Whether that be investing in your business or a great stock opportunity, or maybe you want to make a loan to your family member.

The possibilities are endless with these policies because you own and control the financing function the only person you need to qualify for the loan with is you. And that’s a key point. You’re not asking permission when you request a life insurance policy loan. You’re giving an order that is not a small distinction.

If you’d like to get started with this process, be sure to schedule your free strategy session today. Also, if you want to learn exactly how we put this process to work for our clients, check out our free web course, The Four Steps to Financial Freedom.

And remember, it’s not how much money you make. It’s how much money you keep that really matters.

Effects of Inflation on Whole Life Policies and Premiums

With inflation being a hot topic these days, a natural question may be, are my life insurance policy and my life insurance premiums inflation-proof? And how exactly are they impacted by inflation?

Based on the data inflation is officially a problem that we’re going to have to deal with. And based on experience, we all know the impacts of inflation. In December 2021, inflation stood at three-quarters of 1%. It wasn’t even calculated at 1%. In August of 2022, inflation was over 9%. And in December of 2022, it was down to 4.6%. Still a far cry from 75 basis points.

Now they call inflation the stealth tax because we don’t see it as a tax. It’s nowhere in our tax returns. It’s nowhere on our payroll checks. However, it impacts each and every single one of us, some more than others. We know we’re dealing with inflation, every time we go to the grocery store, every time we fill up our gas tanks, every time we get our utility bill, we are experiencing the damaging effects of inflation.

Now, pivoting to life insurance, how exactly does inflation impact the death benefit and the premiums? Well, keep this in mind. Inflation impacts everything. The question that needs to be answered is, is inflation impacting us positively or negatively? Because the news is not all bad.

Take your premiums, for example. With a whole life insurance policy, your premiums are locked in for your whole life. Whether your policy is a ten-pay policy paid up at 65 or a paid-up at age 121. Those premiums are contractually guaranteed to never increase. So the longer you can extend that premium payment period. You’re also paying those premiums with dollars that have been affected by inflation. So when you get to the tail end, let’s say age 121, the value of those premiums has been greatly affected by inflation. 

A candy bar back in the sixties cost, what, $0.10? Today, you’re lucky if you could get a Snickers for $1.50. Think about that in terms of your premium. Your premiums are going to stay the same. But if you waited all that time, it’s going to feel like a nickel. And that’s the point. Inflation is going to affect your life insurance premiums positively because the dollars are going to have less purchasing power, the longer you extend your premium payment periods.

Now, going on a little tangent, the same applies to your mortgage. This is why it’s important to consider taking out a 30-year mortgage instead of a 15-year mortgage because you have a lower payment to begin with. And by the end of that term, that payment is going to feel like nickels. 

Inflation is also impacting your death benefit. So if you start out with a death benefit, let’s say, to pay for a funeral. The longer you extend that payment period or the longer you live, the value of that death benefit is going to buy less of a funeral. You may not be able to pay for the band or the dinner. Maybe just the burial.

When I first started in financial services back in the mid-eighties, we were selling burial policies for $5,000, meaning you could have paid for a funeral for a little bit less than $5,000 and had some money left over. Today, you can’t touch a burial for anything less than $15,000.

So the point is inflation is always going to be there. It’s always going to be affecting us, sometimes positively, sometimes negatively. But the point is we’re going to have to deal with it. 

The only way to combat inflation on a long-term basis is with proper planning. If you’re ready to start planning for your future, whether it be premium planning or death benefit planning, be sure to schedule your free strategy session today.

And remember, it’s not how much money you make, it’s how much money you keep that really matters.

Navigating Business Success and Setbacks with JPE Inc.

Episode Summary

In this episode, hosts Tim and Olivia sit down with Jason and Liz Peart, owners of JPE Enterprises. Discover the inspiring journey of how they turned a delivery route into a thriving distribution business, navigating challenges and seizing opportunities along the way. From managing personnel and trucks to expanding their routes, Jason and Liz share invaluable insights on building a successful business empire.

Guest Info

Email to contact Jason and Liz Peart

Key Takeaways

Diversification for Financial Success:

  • Diversify income streams to mitigate risk and achieve financial success.
  • The Pearts’ journey spans various industries, including ice cream routes, real estate, and equine therapy, demonstrating the value of diversification.

Continual Learning:

  • Lifelong learning is pivotal to success. The Pearts emphasize attending seminars, reading books, and engaging with educational content, enabling constant growth.

Discipline and Patience:

  • Discipline, patience, and persistence are critical to long-term success. The Pearts emphasize the importance of focus and sound financial decisions.

Faith in Yourself:

  • Liz underscores the value of self-belief and having faith in one’s abilities.
  • Trusting inner guidance can lead to taking the next right step in the entrepreneurial journey.
Transcript Below

Tim: Hello, welcome to the Control Your Cash show with Tim Yurek and Olivia Kirk. And our guests today are Jason and Liz Peart from JPE Enterprises. And we are so happy to have you here. I think you have a great story to tell, and we would like to share that with our audience to see the potential of what can happen when with a little hard work and maybe some luck.

Olivia: Yes. Thank you, Jason and Liz, for joining us today. We look forward to our conversation and everything that you bring to the table. 

Liz: This is exciting for us. 

Olivia: Yes, absolutely. Thank you so much. And would you like to get started with telling us a little bit about your backstory, how you got to where you are and exactly where you are in your, in your, in your journey, if you will.

Jason: Sure. Um, we started, uh, our. first business in 2015. Um, it was me solo as a, uh, I bought a Tasty Cake route, which most people probably don’t realize that you can buy a route and be at the distribution rights to deliver, um, certain products to grocery stores and Wawas and convenience stores. And, um, it was a small route that, uh, bought, I was, I worked for Frito-Lay at the time and, uh, so I was in the business, but not, I worked for a company and, um, an opportunity came upon to buy the route and to be a business owner.

And luckily my wife, Liz, uh, supported me in that decision and, uh, was able to get into that industry. Um, so that’s how it started in 2015. 

Tim: So,

Liz: And then today.

Tim: So, yeah, I was going to say, I, I mean, I know you’ve got more than one route, so tell us a little bit about how the business expanded and how those opportunities came to you and.

And how you were able to take advantage of them. 

Jason: Sure. Um, so from 2015 to 2017, it was just the one route, um, learning the business, learning about taxes, you know, um, corporate stuff, um, and then just networking with other people in the industry and, um, Utz Quality Foods, which was a snack company, which I had an experience with, with Frito-Lay.

Was going IO, which they consider that to be like the independent operator. And I was able to secure two routes, um, in 2017. Um, so that went from one to three, hired two people. Um, so that was a big change, uh, you know, managing not just myself and one route, but all multiple people and three different trucks and, um, So that was in 2017.

And then 2018, a bread guy, um, on the street wanted to sell his route, and he was willing to give it to anybody, like, for dirt cheap. And, uh, I said, what do I have to lose? So it was a $3,000 down payment to buy this bread route. And he, he said that he would stay on and run it for me. So it was a no brainer.

So 2018 was the, you know, the fourth route. And, um, when we closed on that Flowers Bakery, whose product we distribute for the bread, uh, Dave’s Killer Bread, if anybody’s heard of that. Um, yeah, they said, Hey, we have two other routes. Would you be interested? And I said, uh, not really just because of finding more labor and another truck and they’re like, well, what if we make it, you know, really worth your while.

And I thought about it and we said, you know what, we have nothing to lose because they weren’t asking for any money down. And, um, I had lined up another, uh, two guys from Wawa that worked at Wawa. And they came on board and we said, yes. And, uh, I think that’s the key thing is sometimes you’re scared to do something, but if you say yes and figure it out later, it, you know.

It can work out.

Tim: So, Jason, could it, could it be said that they made you an offer? You couldn’t refuse sort of like in the Godfather? 

Jason: Yeah, pretty much. And I will tell you, um, when I first bought my first route, uh, Tasty, it was a Tasty Cake route. They brought me down to Philadelphia to the bakery and they had like a council, a distributor advisory council.

And, you know, you go with other distributors and, you know, you network with them and you get to see the bakery. And they took us out on a, uh, the Spirit of Philadelphia cruise, a dinner cruise. And they had a couple guys up from Georgia, which is the main Flowers, so Flowers Bakery owns Tasty Cake. They bought it in 2011.

And up here in PA, the bread didn’t take off that well yet. Like, it came up in 2012. Um, their bread nationwide is like one of the top sellers, but in this area we have a lot of competition. So they didn’t get a good stronghold, but the guy in Georgia told me who I just met him for the first time. He said, buy as many Flowers routes as you possibly can.

You’ll be rich someday. So that kind of stuck with me when this guy came up to me and, you know, was willing to give it to me for. $60,000, uh, $3,000 down payment and, um, and then Flowers offering the other two. And then they just grew, um, and yeah, I had to put on more trucks and more people. And so my timing was extremely fortunate.

Tim: Yeah, I would, I would assume that. And, and would it be fair to say that, you know, the pandemic might’ve helped you a little bit as far as business or what do you think?

Jason: The pandemic was a huge winner in all of, in my industry. Um, one, everybody was staying home and eating more, you know, restaurants were not doing so well and people didn’t want to go out.

Um, the kids were home for school for a year and a half almost. So snacks were huge. Bread was huge. Um, and then on top of that inflation. As all the prices went up, um, we’re based off of a commission basis. So it’s based off of what we sell into the store. So each of the products got more expensive. So our commission rate went up along with that.

Olivia: Food is sort of an inflation proof income, right?

Jason: Yeah. That’s what we joke. Recession and pandemic. 

Liz: And pandemic.

Tim: Well, you know, there’s, there’s an old, uh, story. If you know, somebody is always making money regardless of what’s going on out in the world. And, uh, If you recall back in, uh, after 9/11, air travel went down, literally went down to zero. And, uh, then it started slowly coming back. Well, these major airlines had hundreds or thousands of planes that they couldn’t keep them at the airports because the airports charged them, like, almost like it’s…

I don’t know what the word is, but it’s, it’s a storage fee or, you know, in, in boating, they call it a docking fee. So to keep your, for an airline to keep hundreds of airplanes at, you know, let’s say Philadelphia International Airport would cost them a very large amount of money. So what these major airlines were doing is there was a guy who had, who owned a lot of land out in Phoenix and he had.

It was basically desert land and because it was so flat, he was leasing his property out to these airlines who were renting the space so they could store their planes. Um, you know, again, just just to underscore that somebody is always making money, even no matter how bad it is out there. 

Olivia: Right. Yeah. It’s like making lemon.

When life gives you lemons, give you make lemonade, you know, rent out your, your barren land in Arizona. 

Jason: Well, money’s always moving. So, you know, yeah. Trying to get ahold of, you know, or catch as much as possible. 

Tim: So now you’ve got all these routes. Theoretically, you have more cash flow coming in, but you also I’m sure that wasn’t without its problems.

What are some of the biggest challenges that you had to face as you were expanding your business? 

Jason: Personnel mainly and, and trucks, uh, maintaining the trucks, you know, keeping them on the road, safe. Um, you know, we’ve been lucky. We haven’t had a whole lot of turnover, but you know, you can’t get. You know, all rock stars.

So the training, mentoring, you know, people and trying to find the best home for them sometimes, you know, the guy might’ve started on a Tasty Cake route and then he, you know, well, he didn’t like that or, you know, wasn’t a fit for him. So let’s try him on a trip route and you know, not giving up on people until the very end, I guess, but always trying to figure out a solution.

Tim: So what, what would, uh, Be some of the well, let’s put this way. What didn’t you know when you first got in business that you wish you knew when you started? Like, what do you know now that you wish you knew when you started?

Jason: Um,

well, it’s been learn as you go. That’s that’s for sure. Um, 

Tim: Right.

Jason: You know, when we first started, it was a J Peart Enterprises, all everything under one company. Um, and then we, we attended a couple of seminars, um, starting in 2019. It was like real estate seminars, but learning all about business and real estate and investments and applying that to our business, um, because, you know, business is pretty much business.

It’s doesn’t matter if you sell, you know, snacks or real estate or, you know, insurance, it’s all the same principles. Um. So, you know, being, uh, going from a W2 employee to running, you know, wearing six different hats and always learning on the go and, um, be able to transition, um, It has not always been easy, you know, here we are, you know, start eight years into it and, uh, finally getting to a good spot where, you know, we’ve made mistakes in the beginning, but, um, you know, now we have multiple, we’ve kind of spread it out over multiple entities, which is good for accounting and liability purposes, but, um, You know, there’s other, there’s complications to that too with banking and, uh, getting loans it’s, you know, and that’s, you know, kind of why we got hooked up with you in the first place with the whole life insurance policy and infinite banking concepts and learning to play both sides of the equation, you know, cashflow, but also the banking and, um, try to be a full service, you know, operation.

Tim: Yeah.

So, you know, our, our whole thing is all about teaching our clients how to be in control of their cash and be in control of their cashflow. And, you know, you’re, you’ve taken the first step. You and Liz have taken the first step to start that process to be in control of the loan process or the borrowing process.

And you’ll find as time goes by, if cashflow is Gets pinched a little bit. It’s easy to stop a payment, you know, a loan payment on your life policy when you’re dealing with a bank. It’s not so easy to stop a loan. You know, they’re not as sympathetic. Let’s say 

Jason: Right.

Liz: Right. Absolutely

Tim: So I guess another good question would be to say to ask is, uh, Talk to us about a time where things were a little bit difficult, whether, you know, whether it was from a business perspective or a personal, you know, when you got sort of knocked on your butt from a financial perspective. 

Liz: Back in 2019. Um, again, as Jason talked about was, Besides the personnel and bringing on contractors to run the routes, was also working with the trucks and these vehicles.

And we found that one, it was expensive to get them maintained. And two, um, people didn’t want to, you know, the local garages weren’t too crazy about working on these box trucks. And so the thought was, is that we’d start our own. Um, company that would, um, work on the box trucks. Um, so we bought into, uh, somewhat of a franchise like business, um, so that we can do the maintenance, um, and, um, be the auto mechanics essentially.

And, uh. That we opened in 2019, the pandemic happened in 2020, and we closed it up in 2020, so it didn’t even last a full year, and we lost quite a bit of money in that endeavor. I think, it had, It had a good, we had good intentions with it. Cause even today, Jason’s running around fixing the trucks on his own. He’s learned a lot.

Um, but I, I know we, we kind of lost a lot in doing that financially. We lost a lot of money. 

Jason: I think we’ve got, you know, when you, when you win on the first couple of businesses and everything’s going really good, you get pretty confident. And you think like. You’re going to succeed at everything. And, you know, that’s not always the case.

You can’t always have, you know, five home runs in a game, you know? Um, so that was unfortunate, but also I’m grateful for, um, the experience. You know, I’ve, like Liz said, I’ve learned a lot about maintenance and, um, auto repair, um, that I probably wouldn’t have without going down that route. But 

Tim: Right. 

Jason: And on the backside, we still have a thriving business that is generating lots of cash.

And, um, you know, that’s the beauty of business. You can take one loss, business loss, and offset the, you know, the income on the winning business. You know, some people call me a, you know, I pulled a Trump, you know, Donald Trump’s airline, uh, endeavor that didn’t work out, but he just didn’t pay taxes for a while.

Olivia: Let me ask you this. Was there a learning experience in that? In that event, or was it just because of the pandemic? I know, obviously the pandemic had an impact on it, but looking back on it, was there any lessons learned from that experience? 

Jason: Yeah, well, one, we couldn’t really find a good mechanic. Um, I think labor shortage everywhere in every industry is a big deal.

And on the route side of things, it’s not, there’s, you know, it’s a skilled position, but not like a mechanic. Um. So it’s more teachable where a mechanic, you know, is teachable as well, but, you know, it’s more specialized and, um, finding the right person to, to do that. And neither of us are mechanics. Um, I call myself a junkyard mechanic now, you know, I think also, you know, one thing that I, you 

Liz: I think also, you know, one thing that I, you  know, we learned was that we went into this thinking that. We put all our money into it and then we thought we could get loans and so forth. We thought we could get capital on the back end and then, and it didn’t happen out, it didn’t happen that way. We just, because of our businesses and the multitude of them and so forth, we really were not able to get an SBA loan.

And so we were cash strapped from the beginning. Um, and so that’s just another example, you know, jumping into something without really. Padding ourselves on the back end. I don’t think we would do that again and get into any type of business without making sure that we had, you know, some sort of cushion on the back end.

Olivia: So, yeah, it’s funny. It’s funny. You don’t know the things you don’t know until you’re in it sometimes. You know, no matter how much research or lack of research there is, there’s just things that you don’t know until you’re in the thick of it. Um, but. Hindsight is always 20/20. So 

Liz: Absolutely.

Tim: Well, you know, it’s also sort of like, you know, Jason, you didn’t mention this, but you sort of alluded to it.

It’s like you had a little success. So then you have this curse of recent, you know, of recent success, and then you endeavor into something that you really don’t know that much about.

Jason: Correct. 

Tim: And then in the process, like when you’re starting to capitalize your business, you’re taking all of your free cash and dumping it in the business and thinking that, oh, this will be easy to, to get, you know, used for collateral, et cetera, et cetera.

But the problem is… You know, when you’re dealing with banks, if you have a dollar, they can give you up to a dollar of, of, they could loan you a dollar against that dollar. But if you have a dollar in business equity, you know, they may only give you like 40 or 50 cents on the dollar. Because that business is not as liquid as the cash

Jason: Right

Tim: And it all, it goes back to the old saying, right? Cash is king. And unfortunately, we sometimes learn those lessons a little bit, you know, slower and, and, and they’re, they sting a little bit, you know, when you’re, when you’re going through those, those situations. And it’s not uncommon where we see a lot of business owners over the years, right?

All of their profits back into their business on the thought that, Oh, when I, you know, go to retire, I’ll be able to get all this money out and not so fast. It, it, it doesn’t generally happen that way. 

Jason: Right

Liz: Yeah,absolutely.

Jason: Yeah. I mean, that’s, what’s a little different about the route. is, you know, all you, all you really have to do is show up and fill the shelves and fill the products, um, and customers are going to come buy it.

So, you know, it’s, um, like you said, we had early success because, you know, all you had to do was show up. And with the Promoc, uh, which the name of the company that we started. The fleet maintenance, uh, you, you needed to find the customers and, you know, yes, we had our own trucks, but we’re not going to make money.

You know, we’re going to save money, but we’re not going to make money on ourselves. Um, and then all the other route owners that are in the same boat as us that need their trucks, they’re all cheap and they don’t want to, uh, they rather have the wheel fall off and then they’ll figure out what to do that.

They don’t want to be proactive

and, you know, I’ve, I’ve rescued a couple of guys out on the side of the street, you know, where their tire had blown and they kept driving and the rims all bent. But luckily, you know, we have enough trucks and I have some spare tires and now I have the skills to go out on the roadside and change a tire and, you know, yeah, 

Tim: Yeah well, let me ask you this.

Have you ever had had your drivers pulled over and, you know, get D. O. T. Or anything like that? 

Jason: A few times, but we’re actually not D. O. T. Because we stay in state and so we don’t cross any state lines. But yeah, they have, and they just usually, where are you, you know, where you going, where are you from? And then they kind of, uh, wave them through, but I’ve had guys drive under bridges with the, uh, 11 foot box truck and destroy, you know, the box.

Getting that phone call.

Olivia: I heard that’s a problem in Philly

Jason: Yeah

Liz: Yeah, yeah in our area down here

Jason: Getting phone calls at three in the morning. The guys ran out of gas on 76 and I, you know, I have to go there with a gas tank and dodge traffic, putting I mean it wasn’t a lot of traffic its 3am, but. It was at a bad spot, you know, we’re holding a flashlight and, uh, trying to put two gallons of gas in this thing to limp it to, uh, the gas station.

So 

Tim: Well, I don’t know that there are, there are actually any good spots on 76.

Liz: Yeah. Not at all.

Olivia: Seriously. I was going to say there’s no better time to have a breakdown than 3 a. m. That road is always jam packed.

Liz: It is.

Jason: Yep. But you never know what, what’s going to happen each day. Like I could get a phone call in an hour saying, you know, I got to go, you know, I got to go take care of this or it’s, you know, it’s 24/7.

Tim: Right. And, and, you know, that’s the thing, right? So as a business owner, you’re never off because if you’re not, if you’re not working in your business or working on your business. You’re thinking about it. 

Jason: Constantly

Liz: Absolutely 

Tim: You’re always waiting for that call. 

Jason: Right. Well, now we’re in the midst of vacation season.

So, you know, I cover the guys vacations and, you know, and then. Bad planning on my end. I let two guys go the same week on vacation or, you know, one guy won a trip and another guy, you know, it’s, it’s bad on my part. And then I’m scrambling, trying to figure out, okay, how, how am I going to cover two routes this week?

And, you know. It’s always an adventure. 

Tim: Well, and then, and the key is, somehow, someway it’ll get done, right? 

Jason: That’s right. 

Liz: It does. 

Jason: Yeah. 

Olivia: So, Jason and Liz, tell me a little bit about, um, some mentors that have had an impact on your life, whether it be someone directly in your life, someone you follow, I know you mentioned some seminars that you go to for business.

Who’s, who’s made an impact? Because, you know, we could only learn so much. You only want to learn so much from your own mistakes. But it’s also, it’s often easier to learn from other people’s mistakes and experiences. So who has had an impact in your lives? 

Liz: And I guess we started with all, well, some of this with Robert Kiyosaki, that, you know, a Rich Dad Poor Dad.

Um, and he has, he has. Some pod, a podcast as well and has a lot of great, um, people on his show that we follow and listen to. Um, I don’t know if there’s anybody personally that you in the business. 

Jason: Um, there’s a couple of guys that had multiple routes prior to me even getting into the rock game that I kind of looked up to.

Um, And, you know, picking their brain. And, you know, they always said, you got to pay the guys, you know, pay them well, like they own it because turnover will kill you. So I think we, you know, we pay our guys very well in order to keep them. Um, and luckily for us, our timing was really good. So we got a lot of these routes pretty cheap.

So we can afford to pay them well and still cashflow, you know, money. Um, but we’re always, you know, looking on YouTube and, um, the seminars, there’s a couple of guys that, you know, uh, we developed some relationships with, um, guy named, uh, Pip. Stehlik? 

Liz: Selnick 

Jason: Stehlik, I think. I don’t know. But, uh, you know, he, he had a little bit of, uh, he’s family owned grocery stores in the Midwest.

So I was able to talk to him about the route business and then he also had, um, some experience with Little Debbie routes. Um, so he was a good resource to, uh, and every once in a while we reach out, um, you know, like I was saying earlier about business is business, like whether you’re doing real estate or what, you know, the same principles can be applied to any business.

And um, so he’s been somebody that’s been helpful in the past. Um, and then recently we started, uh, we sold a route in January and ended up buying another rental property.  In our area, you know, hometown area here. So we’re starting to convert, you know, business assets to, uh, rental income.

Tim: And how is that working out?

Jason: Okay. Um, we’re still doing some work on it. So we closed in April. Um, I do have a renter lined up. It’s just a matter of finishing. The property off and, um, you know, getting them to move in. But, um, and we have another rental property that was, uh, a house that I owned prior to meeting Liz. So we kept that one.

And then we have a couple out of state, um, that we bought through a seminar, um, in our, uh, self directed IRA accounts. 

Tim: Right. So, so did, did the real estate come before? Or after your first route in 2015? 

Liz: After.

Jason: After. 

Tim: After. Yeah. So, you know, I think if you, if somebody said to you ten years ago, this is what your life is going to look like, you probably would have said, what are you, out of your mind?

There’s no way that’s going to happen. 

Jason: Yeah. Right. Yeah. Sometimes, you know, it’s nonstop, go, go, go, and some, you know, when you. Think back on things and reflect on what you have accomplished like day to day It’s like you just keep moving on to the next thing But you know when you do take the time to realize, you know, what you have accomplished already and where you’re going.

It’s pretty Remarkable. 

Liz: Yeah, it’s awesome 

Jason: To think you know

Tim: Well, so so there’s a there’s a concept where you measure backwards And if you’re measuring, see, if you’re measuring forward, you’re never going to get to your goals because your goals are always moving, right? So if your goal was to have one route and then.

Then, you know, then, uh, or if let’s say your, your goal is to have 10 routes and you had, and you got those first three, well, you’re, you’re sitting there thinking, oh my gosh, I’m such a failure because I only have three routes, but six months prior to that you had one, right? You know, so, so, but when you measure backwards to see the progress that you’ve made, and then you sort of take that, uh, growth curve or that growth rate.

And interpolate that over the next 10 years, my gosh, think about what, what would happen like if you look at how many routes you have today versus how many you had eight years ago, and then you say, well, if I could have that same rate of growth over the next eight years, that number is going to blow your mind.

But here, but there’s a difference. The difference is now, you know, you can do it and the reason, you know, you can do it is because you have done it. So I don’t, I don’t know if that makes sense, but that’s really the value of all the experience that you’re getting being an entrepreneur. And I would say from what I’ve seen or from and from what I’ve heard today, both of you are serial entrepreneurs, like it’s, it’s in your blood and you’re not going to, you’re not going to get rid of it because You’re always looking for the next, you know, for the next opportunity.

And fortunately you’re in a position to take advantage of them as time goes by. 

Jason: Yeah, we haven’t even talked about Liz’s, uh, business or 

Liz: what’s in the horizon and someday coming up. 

Olivia: Tell us more, Liz. 

Liz: Well, I’m just, I’m a psychotherapist, a trauma therapist. So, um, right now we are actually looking for properties where, that have multiple acres.

So that, um, I can start an equine psychotherapy business on, on the property. So, so that’s the next endeavor that we’re kind of looking forward to coming up. So we’ll see.

Tim:  Wow. Yeah, that’s exciting. My understanding, and I don’t know much about it, but I’ve heard a little bit that that is sort of like the next level in psychotherapy.

Liz: It is. It’s, um, it’s amazing to use equines, um, as part of, uh, partnershiping with them, um, in order to do therapy. It’s very, it’s experiential, um, something that, um, more and more, it’s just a growing, uh, part of the field. So I believe. Wholeheartedly in it. And so hopefully we can find this property and and move to there and then that business can be started.

Tim: Right. So they say the results are are fairly convincing in right for the patients who go through that. 

Liz: They are convincing. They are, um, because it’s a lot about, um, connection with the horse, horses are able because they are prey animals. Um, they have a sense that’s a lot broader than even humans. And so they, um, have this connectivity with humans that helps with a trauma person who might, you know, have PTSD and are very triggered by things and having flashbacks and so forth. And horses are very grounding and solid. Um, and again, just connecting so you can do ground work with them, meaning being on the ground with them and working with them. And you can do some riding and it’s not classic riding, like you’re going to be doing Western or English riding, but just sitting on the back of the horse, um, and being able to, um, connect with the horse and so forth.

So it’s a little bit of, you know, if you’re going to bring in some yoga, you’re going to bring in other types of practices. 

Tim: Right. Well, that’s awesome. We wish you the best of luck with that. 

Liz: Thank you.

Olivia: Absolutely. Liz, what area are you looking to to do that in? 

Liz: Um, actually we’re thinking of moving back up towards where Jason’s from in that Perkiomenville area.

Um, so right now I, I partner with a farm down here in Bluebell and, um, and, and I’m able to do some of that therapy there. Um, but we’re gonna hopefully go up towards Perkiomenville area.

Olivia: Cool. Is that far from where you guys are?

Jason: Uh, about 40 minutes. So it’s like closer to, in between Quakertown and Pottstown. Okay. I’m sure you’ve heard of Quakertown. Yeah. 

Tim: Okay.

Jason: I’m sure you’ve heard of Quakertown.

Tim: Yeah.

Olivia: Right

Liz: Yep

Jason: Yeah. So, you know, the goal is to have, we’ve always wanted to have property and like a little hobby farm. And, you know, now that Liz is learning and, uh, getting into that field, we can.

You know, legitimately use the property for business purposes and her business can help generate, you know, to pay for some of this, uh, for the property. So it’s all about, uh, business is the way to go. Keep trying to tell everybody, recruit everybody like, you know, college, you know, going to college to get a W2 is, you know, good for some people, but don’t feel that you have to go that route because there’s so many op opportunities elsewhere.

And if you have your own business, there’s a lot of upsides. Mm-hmm. so, 

Tim: Well, you know, there’s a lot of upside, but there also, there’s the idea of controlling your own destiny. Right. And as we all know, it’s not, it’s, you know, it’s, it’s not all. Unicorns and rainbows, uh, but at the same time there is, you know, the more you do, the better, the more you make usually.

And, uh, so there’s, there’s always those, you know, that aspect of controlling your own destiny, I guess. 

Jason: And betting on yourself, you know, like Wall Street, like you can put your money in a 401k or a stock market, but I mean, who knows what’s going to happen, you know, I rather bet on another route or putting in life insurance and being able to control it way more and use it to our benefit rather than Wall Street using it for their benefit.

Tim: Exactly. Very well said, by the way, Jason.

Jason: Thank you. 

Olivia: I was just thinking about that the other day, how, how, how you invest in the stock market and these are actual companies that are, that are run for your profit. An interesting thought process. 

Liz: Yeah, absolutely. 

Olivia: So, tell us a little bit, so tell us, um, if you had to go back and you could talk to your younger self, what would you, what would you tell them about the future?

Like, how would you get them to, to, Maximize their potential.

Jason: I think staying disciplined like we all think like we have a 16 year old son and he’s working with me, uh, two days each week for the summer, but he’s not as far as we know, going to be college bound, doesn’t have any interest in that. And I kind of made him a deal that, um, I could make him a millionaire by 30 if he listened to what I said.

And, uh, he’s receptive to it and he’s, you know, tomorrow would be day three of this summer, you know, job. But, um, you know. I think we can, we all know what to do, but staying disciplined and doing it like with saving and, you know, um, investing in yourself. 

Olivia: Absolutely. 

Liz: Yeah. 

Olivia: And in essence, it is, it is like you’re, you’re talking to your younger self when you put it in the perspective of your son, right?

Liz: Wow. I think unfortunately though, you know, history tells us that. They say, yes, yes, yes, I know, I know, I know, 

Tim: You know, Liz, I thought my kids were the only ones that did that. 

Jason: No, I’m sure we did it too with our parents. And you know, that’s what’s it’s frustrating and it’s just nature. I don’t know, like natural, but you know.

It takes until you’re, you know, older to realize, Hey, I should have listened to, to mom or dad. 

Tim: You know, it’s funny, right? There’s a saying that When you have a kid, they don’t come with owner’s manuals, right? And it’s the same thing in business. And in many ways, our businesses are just an extension of our family.

It’s, it’s sort of like your business is, is like another child. And it, cause it, it demands a lot of time, a lot of attention, and a lot of nurturing. 

Liz: Absolutely. Well, Olivia came into your business, right? 

Tim: Yeah, we never saw that coming. We really didn’t. And, uh, we, there’s two different versions of the story.

My version is right, but she has a, she has a different version. 

Olivia: It’s funny. I can’t believe I’ve been working with you for almost, it’ll be nine years in September.  Which is just astonishing to me. That time goes so quickly. Even this year, I can’t believe it’s, you know, this, this deep into 2023 already.

Tim: Almost half over

Liz: Yeah.

Jason: Time is flying.

Tim: So, any parting shots? Any words of wisdom? Thoughts?

Jason: Um, I think, I think the, the key thing that, you know, I think we learned at one of the seminars was, you know, don’t be scared to say yes and figure it out on the, you know, on the way the journey is part of the process, you know, if you, if you say no, I can’t do that or a million dollars. No, I could never afford that.

Or like, there’s always a way. And, you know. There’s ways to be creative and there’s, uh, there’s ways to get things done. And, uh, so if you’re, if you’re negative from the start, it’s never going to happen. 

Liz: And ask questions. There’s so much, I mean, in this day and age, everything’s at our fingertips.

Google it, right? So always ask questions. I mean, it’s like the teachers used to say, there’s never a stupid question, but there really isn’t. You need to ask. questions and find, you know, mentors out there and have many, um, I think that’s really important. 

Jason: Yeah. I, I always enjoy asking people about, you know, how they started their business or, you know, I love learning about all that stuff.

And, uh, You know, being able to network with other people and help each other out. And, you know, one of the, Robert always says it’s, it’s a team effort. Robert Kiyosaki, it’s, you know, it’s not a one man show. So, 

Liz: And I think patience is another, we come across quite a few people that are saying, Oh, well, I did it for a couple of months and I’m not, I’m not there.

And, and, and in business there’s patience. Um, and. So learning to be patient and going through the steps, you know, yes, we want, you know, that big house tomorrow, but, you know, we’re not going to get there yet. 

Tim: Right. But if with hard work and maybe some, some luck, it’ll happen. And that’s, I guess that’s really the big lesson in entrepreneurship.

Um, you know, you’re never, you’re never that far away from success. And unfortunately, you’re never that far away from failure too.

Jason: Right. 

Liz: Yeah.

Olivia: I would go one step further.

Tim: As business owners, we all know.

Olivia: Yeah. I would go one step further and add faith in there too. Yes. You know, having the faith in your, in yourself and that you’re being guided on this journey to do the next right thing.

You know, those little moments of silence where you have a, a ringing in your ear saying, this is your next step, you know, take that next step. 

Liz: Absolutely. I agree.

Olivia: So Liz and Jason, if our listeners wanted to get in contact with you, how, how would you suggest they do that?

Liz: Well, they could always, email is always best, I say, I think Jason has about 500 voicemails he hasn’t gotten to, so email is always best.

Um, so, you know, certainly I can always provide my email address. I’m usually the contact person and then, and then I can. Connect with Jason, um, from there. 

Jason: Absolutely. Well, thank you. Liz Dixger is, she, she’s the C, CFO, C, CFO. 

Liz: Yes. Yeah. The chief financial, financial officer. Yeah. I’m the 

Jason: Yeah. I’m the operation guy. Yeah. 

Liz: But, and then of course, business manager and you know, you know, the hats.

Mechanic. Mechanic. So, uh, did you want me to provide you with that email address? Sure. Okay. So the email, best email address actually for the business is liz, L I Z at J P E distribution. com. Awesome. 

Olivia: Awesome.Well, thank you so much guys for joining us today. We really appreciate you taking the time to spend with us and our listeners.

Liz: Yeah. Thank you so much for having us. This was wonderful. 

Jason: Thank you for the invite. 

Tim: So, Jason and Liz Peart from J. Peart Enterprises Incorporated. Yes. Thank you so much for appearing on our show and sharing your story, and I’m sure our listeners will get a lot of value from what we discussed today. Thank you so much.

Maximizing Retirement Benefits Using Life Insurance



I recently had a conversation with a longtime client who had some life insurance set up prior to his retirement. He’s now ready to retire and he called me to discuss his options for his pension. He has a defined benefit pension plan through his employer. And he wanted to know which was the best choice for him as far as leaving survivor benefits for his spouse.

Well, the good news was that because he had such a large amount of life insurance. That life insurance will be more than enough to replace his pension without having to take a reduction in his monthly pension. His life insurance is now paid up and consequently, he has a guaranteed death benefit. He doesn’t have to take a reduction in his monthly pension to leave his spouse a survivor benefit.

You see, a lot of times people view life insurance premiums as a cost, not an asset. However, when you have a specially designed whole life insurance policy designed for cash accumulation, it’s both an asset as well as a death benefit. You’re able to access cash value via the policy loan provision while you’re alive and take advantage of those living benefits as well as take advantage of the death benefit so that when you pass, the main beneficiary receives a death benefit.

You see, you’re able to purchase death benefit dollars, with pennies, the premiums paid. What this allows you to do is take more risk in other parts of your portfolio. your I.R.A., your 401k or your pension plan.

In the case of our client, he had a defined benefit pension for $5500 per month. However, his wife is a lot younger than him, almost 15 years. So the defined survivor benefit was going to cost him about 1,500 dollars per month, meaning that instead of getting $5500 per month, he was going to get $4,000 per month. And he said, Tim, I can’t afford to retire on $4,000 per month. I can retire on 5500. What are my options?

Well, it was really simple because he had a paid-up life insurance policy that he had funded for over the past 20 years. He was in great shape. He had a guaranteed death benefit that would have more than compensated his spouse if and when he dies. They’re able to maintain the $5500 per month and provide the survivor benefit through the death benefit of his life insurance policy that he would have had to have paid for had he taken that survivor benefit through his retirement system.

Not to mention, because this is a specially designed whole life insurance policy designed for cash accumulation. He also has access to the cash values via the loan provision while he’s alive. So if he wanted to control the financing function, let’s say, for vacation or their child’s college education or anything else while they’re still living, he has the ability to do so and access that cash value on a tax-favored basis.

And you may be wondering what impact would accessing those cash values have on the death benefit. It’s really simple. If you die while there’s a policy loan on the policy, it will be reduced dollar for dollar against the death benefit. In essence, the policy loan is just an advance on a portion of the death benefit.

This really underscores the flexibility and the options you have when you get to retirement. You get to use the money prior to retirement, but now you have options. And those options can help to make your retirement lifestyle so much better. When you access life insurance policy loans, they’re not recorded anywhere for the IRS to see, meaning they don’t increase your taxes.

So what taxes will they not increase?

There’s no increase in your federal income tax. There’s no increase in your state income tax. There’s no increase in your Social Security offset tax. There’s no increase in your Medicare premium, which, let’s face it, is a tax. As well as in most states, The death benefit passes federal income tax-free. And in most states, the death benefit passes outside of probate and outside of estate and inheritance taxes. So when you add up all the taxes that you’re not going to have to pay. That’s a huge way to make your money go a little bit further.

If you’re interested in making your cash flow and your money, now and in retirement, more efficient, schedule your free strategy session today. Or if you’d like to learn exactly how we put this process to work for our clients, check out our free web course right on the homepage, The Four Steps to Financial Freedom.

And remember, it’s not how much money you make, it’s how much money you keep that really matters.  

The Benefits of Owning Multiple Life Insurance Policies

We’re often asked how to implement multiple policies using these specially designed life insurance policies designed for cash accumulation. When we talk about being in control of your cash, being in control of your money, or being in control of your life. One of the main tools we use is the infinite banking concept. 

The infinite banking concept allows you to take back the financing function in your life. Take it away from creditors, banks, and other outside entities and control that family banking function within your family or your business. The most important step of this process is to start where you are. However, as time goes on and situations change, it’s important to adapt your banking system to meet your current situation. 

Let’s say you had money in your left pocket. Now, in that left pocket, everybody can and will try to get in there. The government, banks, large corporations, credit companies, and Wall Street. Everybody wants access to that pocket.

Now what we teach people how to do is to take some money out of that left pocket and put it back in your right pocket. Now, it’s still in your pants. But here’s the key. The only ones who could get access to the right pocket are you, your family, and your business. Now, if you knew that there was a pocket designed that way, how much of your money would you want to put into that pocket? 

These life insurance policies, specially designed for cash accumulation, are a great place to warehouse your wealth. Now, after you build that warehouse for wealth and have inventory or cash, you’re able to access that money to finance the major capital purchases that you make. 

You see, we all make purchases. It’s part of being alive. The question becomes how are you going to finance those purchases? Are you going to pay in cash? Are you going to go to the bank? Are you going to use a credit card? Or are you going to use a life insurance policy loan that you have complete liquidity use and control over to make those major capital purchases?

And keep this in mind. If you pay cash, you’re no longer in control of your cash. If you finance, you are no longer in control of the process, the bank or the credit company is. But, when you borrow against the cash value of your life insurance policy, you’re in control. Your money is continuing to earn uninterrupted compounding interest. You are in control of how and when you pay back that loan. It’s sort of like having your cake and getting to eat it, too.

When it comes to implementing the infinite banking concept, we talk about becoming your own banker. And the policy is kind of like a bank branch. How many bank branches do you want to build within your system? 

You may not be able to handle all of the financing in your personal and business life with just one policy. That’s why we recommend multiple policies. You don’t have to buy them all at once. You buy them over time.

Another caveat is that you may want to start buying policies on other people, other people in your family, or your business. And the reason why you want to do this is to diversify. You see, everyone is going to die, but not everyone is going to die at the same time. And when you have a life insurance policy on a certain insured, a death benefit is paid at the time of their death.

What this allows you to do, if and when somebody dies first, you’re able to recapture the capitalization cost of that policy. Not only do you recapture the capitalization cost, but you also get an explosion of value, meaning a much larger death benefit comparable to the premiums you put into the policy.

In comparison to other types of insurance, you buy car insurance, but you don’t know if you’re going to have a claim. You buy homeowner’s insurance and you don’t know if you’re going to have a claim. You buy an umbrella policy and you don’t know if you’re going to have a claim.  Comparing that to life insurance, we know you’re going to have a claim. That’s why the system works.

Now, implementing this process in your life, your family, or your business is a great way to create generational wealth, wealth that will pass on and the legacy will be sure to pass on for many, many, many years to come.

If you’re ready to regain control of the finance function in your life and ensure generational wealth for generations to come. Be sure to schedule your free strategy session or check out our web course, The Four Steps to Financial Freedom.

And remember, it’s not how much money you make, it’s how much money you keep that really matters. We’ll see you in the next one.

Mastering the Art of Business Storytelling with Park Howell

Episode Summary

In this episode, Tim & Olivia are joined by Park Howell, host of “The Business of Story” podcast. With over eight years of podcasting experience and a wealth of knowledge in branding, advertising, and marketing, Park brings a unique perspective on the power of storytelling in today’s noisy world.

Guest Info

This is Park Howell’s website

Key Takeaways

ABT Framework for Effective Storytelling:

  • The And, But, Therefore (ABT) framework is a simple and effective way to structure stories and messages.
  • ABT can be applied to various aspects of business, communication, and problem-solving.

The Power of Storytelling:

  • Storytelling is a powerful tool for connecting with people and conveying messages effectively.
  • Stories allow individuals to relate, connect, and find common ground even when they initially seem unrelated.

Simplifying Complex Topics:

  • Storytelling can simplify complex topics, making them more accessible and understandable to a broader audience.
  • Using stories to illustrate financial concepts can help clients grasp and engage with the information more effectively.

The Importance of Personal Growth:

  • Both business owners and clients can experience personal growth through financial education and taking control of their finances.
  • Improved financial literacy can lead to a brighter and more secure financial future.
Transcript Below

Tim: Well, today we have Park Howell from the Business of Story. Park, it is definitely an honor to have you on our podcast, and, uh, if you don’t mind, why don’t you share with our audience the, your backstory.

Park: Sure. Well, Tim and Olivia, thank you so much for inviting me on your new show. I, uh, Congratulations. My hat’s off to you. You know, I’ve been doing my podcast for almost eight years. And people are like, dude, how you know how much can you actually talk about storytelling? You’ve got like 425 episodes, but there’s just something about it.

You get a chance to meet really interesting people and talk to great guests. And um, I think through my show, I got, uh, acquainted with you all and they did a little bit of work with you over the, uh, well what was that? Pre pandemic or that was during the pandemic, I think some brand storytelling work with y’all.

Tim: Well, so originally Park, we worked pre pandemic, and then when pandemic hit, uh, we did some other, uh, some of your courses, et cetera. So,

Park: Gosh, that just seems like it was so long ago now, but I’ve been at this for a long time. You’d asked quickly about my backstory, so. As you know, I’ve been in the branding, advertising, marketing world for 35 plus years. I ran my own ad agency in Phoenix, Arizona for 20 of those years, and really about 2004, I started looking for other ways to communicate because technology, the internet, you know, took over and where our clients used to own the influence of mass media, the masses had become the media and they are more, you know, vocal and louder than ever.

This day and age. So you and I and everybody watching and listening to this program, you know, our biggest struggle is how do we get our messages to land right the first time, every time quickly, so that we can hack through the noise and hook into the hearts of our audiences out there. And it was, I went in search for that very answer to that very question, and that’s where I found story tell, telling back in the early 2000 aughts and have studied it inside and out and, um, 2016 really pivoted away from my traditional ad agency.

Uh, closed it down, and now all I do is consult, teach, coach, and speak on the power of story internationally from sales and marketing to brand building and so forth. And it’s probably more crucial or critical now than ever to be able to really understand the power and use the power of story because we are all competing in this cacophony.

Of communication out there, and it is almost impossible to be heard unless you use these three primal frameworks that we teach. And you know, they all begin with the, And, But Therefore, but that’ll give you a quick little background in who I’m a, who I am, what I’m about. My ultimate goal is to help everybody here excel through the stories they tell by using these frameworks.

Tim: Well, the, you know, and, and we could attest that it works. Uh, we, our messaging has been spot on since we had consulted with you, um, Park share with us Also, you know, a lot of us have read. And our, our proponents, so to speak, of Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey, and I know that that sort of played into part of your journey.

Why don’t you share with us how that’s worked?

Park: Wow. It sure did. You know when I went back looking for an answer as an ad agency owner to how do we possibly be effective in this very noisy internet driven world? We were lucky, our middle child. Our son Parker was going to film school at the time over at Chapman University in Orange, California. A very, very prominent film school.

And he graduated, went what? 2006, graduated 2010. Spent the next 12 years in Hollywood, primarily directing virtual reality and mixed reality films. And he has since moved on to Austin, Texas, and he’s doing a ton of work out there. He loves the intersection of technology and movie making in Austin. But I tell you that because since I was looking for this answer to this question of how do we stand out in this noisy world, I asked Parker.

I didn’t ask him. I, I prompted him. I said, listen, Send me your books and your recorded lectures when you’re done with them since, well, we’re paying for them because I want to know what does Hollywood know about coaching and building? Right. You know, competitive storytellers in the most competitive storytelling market in the world.

Los Angeles and Hollywood. That’s when I found Joseph Campbell read the Hero’s Journey. Looked at this monomyth. That’s anywhere from 12 to 17 steps, um, depending on who you read. It is an amazing, amazing framework and we’ve used it to great effect in, in brand development, brand story strategy. In fact, growing one brand by 600% using our story cycle system, which is based off.

The Hero’s Journey, I tell you all that because I started in the very complex world of storytelling and started to learn that in the business world, most business leaders, sales and marketers don’t want complex brand storytelling. They don’t even care about the theory. What they really want is give us a simple, foolproof, proven way to be able to communicate that uses the three forces of story.

And so everything I teach now, Tim and Olivia, I, I, I, I teach exactly backwards from how I learned it. I learned the very complex. Hero’s Journey, applied it to the 10 step story cycle process, tried the eight step Pixar way, which is really cool in its own right. But you know what? Majority of us are not screenwriters, so it’s kind of hard to figure out.

Um, Blake Snyder’s, 15 beats of story is brilliant still. It’s hard to figure out. So I’ve boiled it down to first the five primal elements of a short story for big impact and then even reduced that down to the, and, but, therefore. This ABT framework that we know works because it uses the three forces of story of agreement, contradiction, consequence, which plays to this subconscious, primal limbic brain, which is pattern seeking cause and effect decision making.

In the background while all the rest of this noise and hub hub is going on around us. So long-winded way of saying I learned it for the complex, create it simple, and now I teach it just the exact opposite way.

Olivia: That’s interesting Park. Um, because the, what really hit me there is. The business owners do want the simplicity as, as someone who’s working in the business, give me an equation that’s going to work time after time. I know I need to tell the story. I know that’s how I relate to people, but the how, how can I do it as effectively and simply and consistently as possible to make the biggest impact?

So that certainly makes a lot of sense.

Park: Yeah. And that’s where the And, But, Therefore, comes in because you don’t have to be a story theorist to be able to apply it in all of your work, whether you’re doing a brand strategy, an email campaign, social media focusing, a sales presentation, you name it. It starts with really understanding how to use the, And, But Therefore, and real quick, just for your viewers, listeners, what that means is, the And is a statement of agreement.

You want to get your audience nodding yes, saying yes, that’s what we want. But is a statement of contradiction, but you don’t have it because of this problem. Your Therefore is a statement of consequence. Therefore, imagine what it’s gonna be like when you get it. When you follow my advice to do this or whatever, set up problem resolution.

It is literally what I have learned is the DNA of storytelling. Get this three word framework down and it will completely revolutionize how you communicate everywhere else. Using those three forces of story, agreement, contradiction, and consequence.

Olivia: That makes a lot of sense.

Tim: Now Park, we, uh, we’ve been, uh, subscribers or loyal listeners to your podcast. And, uh, I’m, I’m amazed almost every time I look at a guest and I’m thinking, oh my God, I have nothing in common with this person. And then they come out and tell their story and it’s like, Oh my gosh, this is so fascinating and it’s because of how they’re, I really think it’s because of what you taught them and how they’re delivering their message.

Uh, you had a, uh, uh, a woman on not long ago from the Better Business Bureau, uh, and I was thinking like, oh my God, there’s no way. Yes. And, and I’m thinking, there’s no way, well, I’ll listen to it because Park’s podcasts are usually pretty interesting, but son of a gun, I’m walking out, I’m thinking I gotta join the BBB.

Olivia: It’s funny, it’s funny how, how, how stories allow us all to, to connect and, and you know, you could be listening when I’m listening to keynote speakers especially, it’s like I have nothing in common with them, but I, I’m so interested in, in. In relating my own story cause we look at everything through our own lenses and relate everything in our, in our existence through our own lens.

So I love listening to other people’s stories and how they triumphed and, you know, the story is just so powerful how it’s able to connect so many people with so many different lenses and, and cause action. You know, it’s, it’s a very powerful way to, to cause people to take action and, and move forward.

Park: Yeah, and, and you’re exactly right and, and what we all have in common. Whether you look at that guest and go, I’m not really sure if the BBB show’s right for me, or there’s a lot of guests on there. You could look at the business of story and go, really, where’s he going with this? But we always have one central focus with the show, and it doesn’t matter who comes into it.

We’re always trying to find that Central focus, and that is to help our listeners excel through the stories they tell, which is the tagline for the business of story. And what I have learned in this whole process is you can approach storytelling from myriad directions. And where, and, and, and people that seem so far removed from you that it couldn’t possibly have anything to do with your business.

My job as the host is to show you how they’re using story to be able to build their own thing, be it a career, a business, a nonprofit, for-profit, whatever, and then weed out, suss out those tips that they have that you have never thought about before in your own line of work and go, I could use that. I’ve never thought about it that way.

I wanna see how I can apply it now in my world. And I think, again, it kind of goes back to this, And, But, Therefore, methodology of getting you super focused on who your audience is. Who listens to my show, who listens, watch, watches your show? What is it they want relative to our respective offerings? And why is that important to them?

What is it that they want out of life, and why is that important to them? That’s our statement of agreement. So in my case with the show, you know, these are often small business owners, solopreneurs, chief marketing officers, HR leaders, you name it. What do they want? They want to be able to connect and convert their audiences as quickly as possible into their way of thinking, feeling, doing.

Could be an internal initiative, it could be a sales and marketing program, whatever. That’s what they want in the world, but they quite often don’t know where to start. And storytelling can be really confusing for ’em. Therefore, with the business of story, I try to simplify it and approach storytelling from any number of surprising directions that hopefully our listeners, viewers have not thought about before, that they could at least take one tip from that and apply it to their business.

So, you know, my next question for you two, what’s the ABT for your show? Let me put you on the, uh, hot seat for a minute. Who’s your listener, who’s your number 1 listener?

Tim: Well, you know, park, I. I was, I was sitting here chomping at the bit, hoping you would ask that question. So, um, yeah, so the, the, here here’s our ABT, our ABT. Everybody wants to be in control of their cash flow.

And their money, and they think that every move they’re making financially is putting them in control. But the reality is that we’ve been conditioned by the financial institutions and the government to give up control of our money unknowingly and unnecessarily, therefore, We designed a process to show you how to put you in control of your money so that you could win not the financial institutions and not the government.

Park: That’s awesome. 

Tim: Well, I had a good coach. I just wanna say that I had a really good coach.

Olivia: So the goal of the show is to, to showcase business experts or business owners and share their experiences and how they either help businesses grow or grow their own business and, and share that with other business owners out there so that they could take advantage of the same opportunities to be in more control of their cash flow and more in control of their life.

Right? We always say whoever controls your cash flow controls your life. So if you’re able to gain more control without increasing your income or you know, having to chase and increase your sales and just gathering information from this community and take it out like you say and, and just apply that one thing to move yourself forward, that’s a win.

You know, that’s a good use of your time.

Park: Absolutely. And we’ve all bought into that old story, haven’t we? Of what? Of the way they want us. To save the big corporate industrial financial complex that in some cases uses predatory tactics to get us to save so that they can live off of that money, pay us in the long run, but then tax that payment even when they do that too.

So what you are to are about is not creating a new story because it’s, there’s revealing this new narrative about how you can get in control of your own cash flow.

Tim: Yeah, and we’ve, we’ve found that it’s. People. People have the wherewithal and the cash flow and the money to do almost anything they want to do. The problem is, is that they’re so inefficient in areas that they shouldn’t be inefficient with their money. That, it ties their hands and prevents them. It sort of puts them in a position of scarcity rather than abundance.

And when we free them up, a lot of times Park, it’s, it’s sort of like, uh, it’s just a, a different way of thinking or a different way of looking at things. And when you. Open up that lens for them and show them how they could be in control of more and more of their money, more and more of their cash flow.

All of a sudden, the world is just completely different for them, and now there’s opportunity, after opportunity, after opportunity. And it, and now they’re, they’re, they’re sitting there and saying, well, what’s the best utilization of my money? Rather than saying, boy, I’d like to take advantage of that, but I don’t have the money to do it.

Park: Mm-hmm. Yeah. I mean, it’s a tremendous service you provide to the world out there. It’s just getting people to, for lack of a better term, buy into that story. Right. Um, I know when I’ve shared your story and some, some similar stories from your competitors to people, I go, what do you think of this? This is pretty cool.

The one thing I hear back, and I don’t know that you probably hear this too, and I’m kind of curious from a storytelling standpoint, how do you overcome it? People will say, it just sounds too good to be true. Everything I know. It doesn’t work that way. How could this possibly work that way?

Tim: So here’s, we, we give, I think we give really good examples and we tell it in this form of a story. So when you’re talking about folks who, uh, let’s say we’re thinking about things a little differently, or needed to think about things a little bit differently. I, I met with a gentleman about four years ago.

Who was making really good money and, you know, over $600,000 a year, and we’re thinking, I was thinking like, well, there’s not really much I could do to help this guy. But the reality was he had two business loans and a credit line, and the business loans and the credit lines, uh, popped up because he couldn’t pay his quarterly taxes, uh, without drawing on his credit line. And ultimately what would happen is he would draw on his credit line and then not pay back as much as he he drew for for the previous quarter, and then keep adding to that, and then the credit line would be maxed out. So the bank would term out that loan, make it a five year.

Monthly payment loan instead of an interest only credit line loan. And then he’d have to get another credit line. So he had two of those business loans and an open credit line. And so I, I asked him, at this point, I didn’t know how much money he made, and I said, well, how much, what was your income? And he said, well, I’m making about 600,000 a year.

I said, what was your goal when you started this business? He said, if I thought, and he started laughing, he said, I thought if I could make 150 to 200,000 a year, that we would be in pretty good shape. And I, I started laughing and I said, isn’t it ironic that you’re making three and four times what you ever dreamed you could make? And you can’t pay your damn credit your your damn, uh, quarterly taxes without drawing on a credit line. And he, he, I, I remember the, the look on his face, he said, you know, I never thought of it that way, but that’s just what I do. And that’s where I realized that the system conditions us to do things in a way that benefits the system, but is to our detriment. And, you know, we, we got him straightened out. This is the, this is the great part about it. We started his plan in October of 2019, and in, uh, July of 2020, he filed his, uh, 2019 taxes on extension on his way back from his CPA’s office. He texted me and said, Hey, Tim, I just want to share with you. That we just finished up my 2019 taxes.

I had enough money to pay my tax liability for 2019. I have enough money set aside for my September quarterly, our January quarterly, and what we think we’re gonna owe for 2020 in April of 2021. Thanks so much for everything you do for myself and my, my family, and my business. Now, that’s a great story,

Park: Oh yeah.

Tim: it’s even better. Because in December of 2022, now here’s a guy who couldn’t pay $50,000 a quarter in cash. He had to borrow on a credit line. In December of 2022, I met with him and his CPA and we found out that he’s got all these little businesses set up for various locations of his business. He has over 1.8 million of cash sitting in those businesses.

So what a transformation that was from, from October of 2019 to December of 2022. What are we talking? Three years? A little over three years. He went from not having 50,000 to having almost $2 million in cash, all because of how we taught him to think about using his money. So that’s the power when people ask.

It’s too good to be true. This could be you.

Park: Well, and when we met, and you were talking about this a few years ago, we sort of arrived at this central narrative for you all. I’d be curious if you’re still using it about this idea of. You know, playing off of cash flow to cash fluency, meaning understanding everything that you teach that we don’t, we aren’t all the best at cash flow.

And really, how do you do it? It’s not our world. It’s where you all live all the time. It’s your swim lane. The rest of us are floundering in that swim lane. But are you still using that concept of cash fluency?

Tim: We do, not as much as I think we should, but at the other, the other side of it is, one thing that we did walk away with from, from consulting with you is that the money is literally hiding in plain sight.

Park: Yeah.

Tim: And, you know, and this was a great, this, this example that I shared with you was a great example of this gentleman had the money.

It was just, and it was hiding in plain sight. All he needed to do was look at things through a view, things through a different lens. And now when you view things through the lens of being in control, all of your choices and all your decisions with how you’re gonna use your money. Become much, much more clear.

And that’s why he’s in this significantly stronger position financially.

Park: Yeah. That’s awesome. It’s a great story.

Tim: Now, Park, you co-wrote a book recently, uh, The Narrative Gym of A, is it of ABT, was that the title?

Park: No, The Narrative Gym for Business, but it is all about the ABT. Yeah. So my first book that I came out with, do I have a copy of it? Well, look at that. I just happen to have a copy of it right here. Brand Bewitchery, this is the 10 step story cycle system that will teach you how to develop a real powerful brand strategy for your business.

Plus, it’ll teach you the two other, uh, frameworks that we share so you know how to talk about it. But Tim, since you asked, here you go. I wrote this, co-wrote this with Dr. Randy Olson. He’s the gentleman that introduced me to the And, But, Therefore, Har, uh, you know, as you probably know from listening to my show, Randy is a Harvard PhD evolutionary biologist, turned USC film school grad, produced three documentaries on climate change and global warming now has 10 books under his belt.

Teaching scientists what he learned from Hollywood, how to communicate their big ideas. It was Randy in his second book called Connection that I read back in 2013 before it came out actually, they sent me a galley proof of it, and that’s when I was first introduced to the ABT. And that’s where I thought, wow, this thing is so powerful, but it’s so short.

Can it really work? And so I spent the last decade working with Randy. We teach it in the science world, I translate it to the business world. And yes, this is the book, very simple, you know, 75 page guide to help you craft ABTs in all aspect of business, not science, but business.

Olivia: Oh, that’s awesome. And, and so much that’s so applicable. I mean, the thought of how many, how many great scientists and business owners have a great story to tell, a great message to get across, I should say, a great, something that could be transformational and life-changing for the people in their community.

And you know, so many people out there, but if you don’t know how to communicate it in an effective way, It’s, it’s like a pile of rocks. You know, it’s not gonna do anything for you if, if, if you don’t know how to communicate it and communicate it in a way that is going to provoke emotion and cause action.

So that’s great. And man, the, the, the thought of applying it to scientists, That’s gotta be so powerful and, and rewarding, you know, to, to be able to translate it into science and have them communicate their message.

Park: Yeah, well, Olivia, during the pandemic, you know, when a lot of our speaking gigs, in-person courses and whatever got shut down, Randy went through the same thing because he was, again, working with science and then academics, big thinking, academics, and so he started an online 10 session online. Uh, course ten one hour sessions, four scientists.

Specifically during the pandemic, we were working completely, virtually on it. Myself and Randy and a few other colleagues, and we trained, we log over 300 hours training this program to the science world, and guess what? In that process we learned so much, about how to communicate it, how to train it, um, that it was invaluable for us.

And so, yeah, I, I travel all over now, thankfully, and I do virtual work too, but I was just in Virginia last week. I was working with McCormick. You know, the Spice Spice people, you go in your pantry, the McCormick Spices. Well, I had done, uh, several full day training sessions for them. Pre-pandemic. Hadn’t heard from them in a couple years, but now they’re just bringing their sales teams back in and people back in.

And so I did another half day session out there with them. I do in the tech world, uh, the music world, I mean, you name it, you can apply this to any line of work you’re in because what do they all have in common? As you and I and everybody watching and listening to this, we are trying to communicate and convert that Homo sapien sitting across from us.

Essentially that storytelling ape. And I don’t mean to, you know, dissolve us down to apes, but essentially we are, cause we’re not that much different than our brethren, you know, the, the monkey out there. But we are the only organisms that we know that plan, think, organize, and act in story. So you know, Tim, that story you just told earlier about that gentleman who you helped out, who went from being in debt every quarter to 50 for 50,000 bucks to whether he had 1.8 million in cash reserves that he could use anywhere.

Well, that’s a story that happened now, but you are telling it to a prospect and it’s still a fictional account for that prospect. Because, what you’re trying to do is get them to buy into this fiction, and then you make it fact by delivering on all the promises you make in that story to show them what a brighter tomorrow would be if they follow this, and then you know, you prove it out by making that happen for ’em.

Well again, we are the only organisms that we know of that can buy into that fictional account. See that bigger picture. Then of course, as a storyteller, you’ve gotta deliver on it and make that fiction fact as you’ve done so many times before with all of your other customers. And that’s why stories work.

It’s, it’s a bonding agent. You know, you, when you hear a good story, you can feel it. You can well up, you can laugh, cry, make, you know, the hair stand up on your arms on the back of your neck. It has a visceral connection with you. And make no mistake, we buy with that visceral emotion and we justify the purchase with our logic reasoned brain.

That’s why we always in business want to begin with placing our business points in the context. Of a story so that Homo sapien sitting across from you can easily process it in their primal limbic brain without any effort. And then you start backfilling with the logic and reason to support your emotional problem solution point.

Tim: Well, you know, and, and, and that’s the struggle for a lot of business owners and, and a lot of salespeople, right? We’re good at what we do. I could, I, I, and I think I told you when, when you and I first started working together, I could say with a hundred percent certainty that you’re giving up control of money.

I not even seeing your situation, but I know for a fact you’re, you’re probably giving up control of your money now. You don’t believe that. Because you think everything you’re doing is moving you forward. You wouldn’t do it if you didn’t feel that way. True?

Park: Right, right.

Tim: And so the easy part for us is to deliver on what we’re, what we’re saying or you know, our story.

The hard part is doing it in a way or communicating that in a way where people understand it. And that’s where we got invaluable coaching from you to. Be able to deliver on what we actually do in a way that our clients and prospects can understand it, and more or less, uh, more so take action for their betterment.

Park: Yeah, that’s, that’s so awesome to hear and what you’re saying right there, Tim is a very valuable point for all your audience here, and that is, Whenever we are trying to sell something to someone, or let’s say selling people have such a bad connotation of the word sales, but that’s what we all do. Let’s say we just want them to buy in to our way of thinking, feeling doing brand, product, service, or your way.

Of ma- of doing a better job of managing cash flow. What we’re doing and every single time we ask them to, to consider this is we’re trying to shake them out of status quo. To your point you just made there, mark, you’re not gonna change because you think it’s actually working for you, but I want you to consider doing something like this.

Well, I’m gonna tell myself an anti-story. I can’t help it. It’s gonna pop up and it’s all about survival. Well, no, you know, Tim, I can’t possibly do it because I bought into this story here and it seems to be working okay here. And don’t shake me outta my status quo because it’s comfortable for me. I don’t feel like I have to deal with any sort of change if I don’t have to move.

But how often by remaining in status quo do we find ourselves shooting ourselves in the foot? Blowing it? Because we didn’t move. We didn’t change when we need to change. And our jobs, no matter if we’re leaders, sales, marketing, branding, nonprofit, teachers, coaches, consultants, parents, our job is to do what’s best for that person sitting across from them, right?

And quite often that means change. From their point of view, it would be better if you exercised more, if you drank less, if you got out and saw more people, if you stopped working so hard, if you managed your cash flow a little bit differently. You’re asking me to change, I’m gonna well up. I’m gonna create a anti-story.

You and I, and everybody else has to have a better story. A true story well told to combat that anti-story because there are no amount of numbers. That are going to beat an anti-story cause they have emotionally bought into it. It’s that what they believe, it’s what they value. Even if it’s wrong for them, that’s our job then to go and show them a new way of looking at a new vision, buy into a new belief.

And then, you know, as we’ve been talking about, you gotta pay off on that. You gotta absolutely deliver so that they go, wow, this change blew my mind. I was scared as hell going into it, but I am so glad I did it.

Tim: Yeah. That’s so powerful. You know, and, and just as well, I, I, I’m gonna give a plug for you Park, but one of the, the things that we found of incredible value, Is that, uh, even on your online courses, once you go through that, and I think it’s each course is what, an hour?

Park: Yeah, if, if that, and I’ve got a new one I’ll tell you about here in just a second, but go ahead. But yeah, I try to keep ’em under an hour.

Tim: Yeah. So in, in an hour’s time, you’re gonna walk out with something of value that you could utilize to help. Craft your message and to help people to take action, that is gonna put them in a much better position.

Park: Yeah, and, and again, it starts with this basic, simple framework And, But Therefore, that you can use in everything. And I do have this online course called the ABTs of Agile Communications. And it is just under an hour. It’s three 20 minute modules, 20 minute or less modules where I walk you through how to build the ABTs.

I give you a whole ton of examples in all different kinds of businesses, all different kinds of communications channels. But what I’m doing right now is something new, and I’m not exactly sure when this show airs, but I just launched, uh, the ABTs of Business Storytelling, and it was an answer to people, entrepreneurs, solopreneurs.

Folks like yourself and Olivia, smaller companies that wanted to take, go through one of my mastery courses, but didn’t have the benefit of a large brand paying for it coming in. You know, I, I mentioned, I was just worked with, uh, McCormick, the Spice Company. I had 40 of their sales and marketing people in that session before that.

Technology group up in Whistler. I had 60 people in the room. The Home Depot, Walmart, Canada, Dell, you name it. I’m typically hired by these large organizations that come in and work with their large teams, but in this case, it is meant for yourselves, solopreneurs. Any customers that you may have that wanna get really.

Good at their communications so that they can grow revenue, and it is what the way it’s set up is it’s like a four week deliver practice program, but it’s really, really simple. We start by having them take the one hour session and they immediately learn the ABT. They can start applying it in all their work right there.

Plus they email me their ABT, and then I give them some personal coaching. Then I’ll do a live 90 minute virtual training for the entire cohort. The cohort’s, only 25 people. And we just launched this last week, so we’ve already sold, I think, 10 of those seats. We have 15 left. I wanna keep it small so I can work with everybody.

So then on Thursday, June 1st, I’ll do a 90 minute virtual training. We’ll do a bit deeper dive on the ABT, and then we’ll get a chance to work everybody’s ABTs during that session and they learn from each other. Take a week off while people are working on their ABTs. And on Wednesday. June 7th, I’ll do another Ask Me Anything session where we’ll come in and we’ll do some more ABT building and then that final week is just answering any questions via email.

The thinking here is that anybody can take advantage of this course. They don’t have to belong to a big brand that covers the cost. It’s only 250 bucks and that 250 bucks, Tim and Olivia is absolutely guaranteed. If people get done with this mastery course and don’t feel like it’s worth like 25,000 bucks to ’em, I’ll give ’em their $250 back.

Cause you know how it works. I’ve got testimonials day in and day out of how well this works. So I want to take any fear out of anybody’s minds and say, look, it. Invest 250 bucks. It will revolutionize how you communicate and grow your sales. And if you’re not a hundred percent pleased, I’ll give you all your money back and you get to keep all the wisdom you’re learning so they can learn all about [email protected], they go to the website, there’ll be a quick little popup there.

Click on that and it’ll explain what the whole course is about, but it’s underway now. So that people are taking that online course, and then we’ll kick in and do that training on June 1st and again June 7th. And even if they get a late start on it, they can do one of those virtual trainings first and then do the online course as well.

So if they feel like they’ve missed this boat, they haven’t. It’s just we only have about 15 seats left for anyone that’s interested in it.

Tim: Very good, and I would say well worth it. So if anybody’s out there, jump on it.

Park: Well, thank you.

Olivia: Do you have anything else you wanna touch on Park before we, um, close out?

Park: Well, you know, number one, I wanna thank you both for having me here and in your world, the financial world. It can be extraordinarily stressful for the folks like me that don’t understand your world inside and out. You know, a lot of business people, a lot of your viewers and listeners here are really adept at at their businesses, and they probably made a lot of money in it, but a lot of time we don’t know what to do with it.

All right, well, should I put it in that 401k or should I put it over here? I know when I was running my agency, we got to be about 20 people, which was a lot for me. And we had quite a lot of, you know, I mean, we had $125,000 a month payroll that I had to meet, and I always stockpile a lot of cash. I was raised by a, uh, uh, a father who came out of the Depression Era in North Dakota.

And you know, of course his business advices, cashflow advice was make more than you spend, son. And so I would stockpile cash in case that rainy day came that I could still write checks to people and whatever. And I would have no end of financial people say if Park, you have $400,000 of cash, right?

They’re not working for you, you should put it in these different instruments. And I was fearful to do that because I was raised with this Depression Era. Thinking of don’t trust the banks, you know, I mean, keep that money there, divide it up and make sure that you have access to that cash. Now, I think in hindsight, that was probably not the best move.

It was a safe move for me. Extraordinarily conservative move for me. But what I’ve learned a lot since then is that um, you know, there are a lot better ways to find that cash fluency to understand how can I really put this wealth in this cash flow to work for me? And I, I know that that’s the great work that you were all doing.

Cause I had a chance to peek under the hood when I was working with you all on your brand story work. So keep up the great work and I’ll be curious to hear how your storytelling helps people overcome. That big fear of change. This is what I’ve been indoctrinated into the, you know, industrial financial complex.

You’re saying, I can have more authority and autonomy over my cash. That scares me. Shouldn’t I trust all these good people over here, or you? And that, and that’s the story tension you deal with day in and day out. Right?

Tim: Exactly. And, and I like the, the wording there, tension cause it is definitely tension And uh, the idea of being in control for a lot of folks is probably scary. And I think that, that that’s behind, you know, a lot behind the psychology of maybe some folks who don’t move forward.

Park: I read something Tim the other day, that somebody equated fear is nothing more than ignorance about a problem and, and he wasn’t even being like calling people ignorant. They’re just saying if you’re really fearful about something, it just simply means you haven’t done your homework. You don’t completely understand whatever this scenario is you are in.

And so this fear wells up inside of you because you just simply haven’t done your homework. And I think maybe that comes to play quite a bit in a line of work you’re in.

Tim: Oh yeah, it does. And, and you know, another acronym for fear is, um, Fake Emotions Appearing Real.

Park: Hmm. Yeah. Isn’t that the truth?

Tim: Yeah, well Park, I can’t tell you how much we’ve enjoyed this. I, I can’t believe, you know, 45 minutes has gone by so quickly, but, uh, I can’t tell you how much we appreciate you appearing on our show and sharing your journey and putting people hopefully in a position they might take you up on your, uh, your upcoming, uh, help me with this again Park.

Park: I called it a mastery course because in those three to four weeks, you’re gonna be able to master this ABT and use it in all of your communication.

Tim: Absolutely. And uh, for $250 you don’t have anything to lose. It’s fully guaranteed. Uh, it is definitely a bargain. Uh, so Park, thanks so much. Thanks so much for appearing on our show. We appreciate your time.

Olivia: Thanks, Park.

Compound Interest vs Simple Interest: The Key Differences

Sometimes money concepts could feel complex, especially compound interest versus simple interest, and how they impact your life insurance policies. Interest is a very complex topic, the further you dig into it, the more complex it gets.

Every once in a while, we’ll hear that life insurance policy loans are calculated on a simple interest basis, and that’s not exactly the case. Let’s take a step back and look into the difference between compounded interest and simple interest.

Compound interest is where you calculate interest on your principal balance, plus the interest. Simple interest is interest that is calculated only on the principal balance. 

An example of simple interest would be a $10,000 deposit into a CD and it’s earning 4% interest. If it was calculated on a simple interest basis, you would receive $400 per year for the duration of the CD. Looking at this, we’d have a $10,000 balance, and the interest would only be calculated on that balance. Within those three years, we would only earn 1200 dollars worth of interest.

Now, when you compound interest, you’re earning interest on your principal, plus the interest that you earned. At the end of that three-year period, you actually earn an additional $48 and change because you’ve been earning interest on your interest.

But let’s translate it into how it affects our policy loans and paying back those policy loans, and how interest is calculated over the policy year.

Most life insurance companies calculate the loan interest due in advance. Basically what that means is you will be charged interest at the time of the loan if your policy anniversary date was today and you took a $10,000 loan and the interest rate for borrowing was 5%, your loan balance would be $10,500 because they charge you the interest in advance.

Another caveat with life insurance policy loans is, that as you make loan repayments, those repayments go towards reducing the principal of the loan, not towards the interest being charged on the loan. That’s why in many cases at the end of your policy year, you’ll get a bill for loan interest that may be due whether or not you’ve been paying on that loan all throughout the policy year.

Now you do have the option as to whether or not you want to repay that loan interest. If you don’t, it will accrue onto the loan balance and become part of that principal after your next policy anniversary. If we step back, this makes sense, you are actually in control of the repayment process. The insurance company charges the interest. The decision as to when and how you pay that interest is completely up to you.

Let’s look at an example of what this would look like.

Let’s say you borrowed $1,170 against your policy cash value via the loan provision, and you wanted to pay it back at the rate of $100.16 over 12 months. Assuming 5% interest is charged. A simple way to figure out the loan repayment is to use an amortization calculator.

With this, we’re able to see that we paid back $1,201.92, which is $31.92 of interest over that year. This could be calculated simply through the amortization calculator. However, the insurance company views things through a different lens. You’re working off of an amortization schedule based on $100.16 payable each month. But the insurance company looks at it from the perspective of saying, okay, we’re going to charge you 5% interest on the principal, $1,170, and you’re going to be paying this loan back at the rate of $100.16.

When you make your last payment. The insurance company will refund you any unused interest, meaning when you pay it back, you might pay it back in 11 months and 22 days and they will refund you the eight days of unused interest.

If you’d like to learn exactly how to put your life insurance policy to work for you, your business, or your family, check out our free web course. The Four Steps to Financial Freedom.

And remember, it’s not how much money you make, it’s how much money you keep that really matters. We’ll see you in the next one.

Taking Advantage of Opportunities through Your Whole Life Insurance Policy

You hear us talk all the time about using life insurance cash values to finance the things of life. Recently, we had a client who used her life insurance policy values in order to finance a home purchase.

Whole life insurance policies have something contractually guaranteed called a policy loan provision. And if you’ve been following our strategy for any amount of time, you know that we often recommend that our clients borrow against the equity or the cash value of their life insurance policies to take care of the things of life, whether it’s an emergency or an opportunity.

Recently, this client called us and said, “Hey, we have an opportunity to purchase some real estate. It’s an insider deal, but I need to close in 21 days. I don’t believe I can go and borrow from a bank and close within 21 days.” Because it was an inside deal, a sale from a family member, they didn’t necessarily need the inspection report because they knew the history of the property. Consequently, the client asked, how much do we have in the policies and how much can we borrow? 

Well, fortunately, there was enough equity in the policies that they could borrow against the cash value and make the closing within the 21-day period.

You see, this is a huge benefit and future of whole life insurance policies. You have a contractual guarantee to access the policy loans via the loan provision. And what this means is that it’s an unstructured loan from the insurance company to the policy owner. The policy owner is able to set up their own loan repayment terms.

The insurance company does charge an interest rate that goes to the insurance company, The client gets to decide how much and how often they make loan repayments to that policy loan.

And you see, having access to money when you need it is a huge benefit. And it’s a benefit that you get with cash value life insurance. Most financial frustrations come from not having access to money when you really want or need something. And the fact of the matter is when you have access to cash, opportunities tend to find you.

Here was a great opportunity for one of our clients to buy a piece of real estate that they loved and cherished. Keep it in the family. But more importantly, it was a great deal because they borrowed against the cash value, there were less in closing costs, they didn’t have to pay any bank fees, and consequently, that will all increase their overall rate of return. Not to mention the fact that they have complete control over the loan terms.

You see, with this process, you are in control of the process rather than being controlled by the process. And that’s not a small distinction. Now, the key to utilizing this process is to be an honest banker. If you were to go the traditional route and pay the bank X amount of money for X amount of years, whatever the amortization schedule stated, you want to do the same thing with your policy.

And you may be wondering why. Well, there’s a few reasons.

The first is loan interest. The quicker you pay off that loan balance, the less interest that’s going to be transferred to the insurance company as lost opportunity cost. The second reason you want to pay that loan back as quickly as possible is because you want to be able to be in a position to take advantage of the next opportunity. If you’ve borrowed out all of the equity against your policy, you have less equity available for the next opportunity. It’s a concept called inventory turnover. When you’re in control of your cash, you want to turn it over as quickly as possible. Meaning borrow it, pay it back, borrow it, pay it back. The more you turn it over, the greater the profits. And again, when you have access to capital, opportunities will find you.

With a mutually owned life insurance company, you’re entitled to non-guaranteed dividends. Meaning the profits of the life insurance company that come from, let’s say, policy loan interest, could be credited towards your policy in the form of non-guaranteed dividends but keep this in mind.

Once the dividend is declared by the insurance company, it is guaranteed. And once it’s paid to you, it could never reduce in value. The only non-guaranteed dividends are the ones that haven’t been declared yet.

So let’s take a look at what happened here.

We had a client who had an opportunity to make a great investment, and they had equity or cash value in their life insurance policy that they could access at their discretion. But they needed to close within a very short window, 21 days. Therefore, they borrowed against the cash value of their policy, reduced their closing costs, made the closing, made the investment, and now they’re in the process of paying back that loan. You see, liquidity use and control should not be something that’s taken for granted.

If you’d like to get started with building a cash-value life insurance policy designed for cash accumulation, schedule your free strategy session today. If you’d like to learn more about exactly how this process works, check out our webinar called “The Four Steps to Financial Freedom” which goes into detail about this exact process.

And remember, it’s not how much money you make. It’s how much money you keep that really matters.

Should I Own a Whole Life Policy Individually or Through My Business?

When setting up a life insurance policy designed for cash accumulation, a question that often comes up is, “Should I have my person own the policy or should I have my business on the policy?”

Today we’re going to talk about the pros and cons of each.

Before we get started, let’s address the elephant in the room. Should your premiums be paid with before tax dollars or after tax dollars? Basically, the question of, “Can I run the premiums through my business and take a tax deduction for it?” The answer is a big NO.

You cannot get a tax deduction for paying life insurance and understand why. Life insurance is not an expense. It’s an asset. You can’t expense an asset. And, if you do, you’re paying tax on the harvest instead of the seed.

You see, the premiums are the seed, the small amount that you’re paying today, and the harvest is the life insurance death benefit. And the last thing we want to do is expose several thousands or hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars to taxes in the long run.

You see, one of the great advantages of owning life insurance is you could put in pennies, the premium, and get back dollars, the death benefit. That’s called leverage. And why would you want to counteract that leverage by having the dollars taxed? It doesn’t make sense.

Now that we got that out of the way, the question becomes, should you have the person on the policy or should you have the business on the policy?

The short answer is, either is fine and each situation is different. But, keep this in mind, whether or not your business should own the policy really comes down to what type of business entity are you? Are you a sole proprietorship? Are you an LLC, a partnership, a sub S corporation, or a C Corporation? The answer to that question, what type of business entity do you own, will dictate who should own the policy.

Now, in most cases, having the individual own the policy can accomplish what you want to accomplish when you’re capitalizing a whole life insurance policy for cash accumulation to help capitalize your business. But then again, there’s the question of what’s the purpose of the insurance? Is it for a stock redemption? Where the business is going to redeem a deceased shareholder’s equity in their business, or is it a cross purchase, or is it for key person reasons? There’s a variety of reasons why a business would want to get or own life insurance on one of its employees. 

However, in most cases where the business owner wants to take loans from the policy and infuse that cash into their business using the policy loan provision. Even if the individual owns it, you could just add one extra step and it allows that individual to own and control that cash value rather than the entity.

Another question we often get is, is there any tax benefits to the business owning the policy versus the individual owning the policy? And to that, the answer is no. You see, there are no tax benefits that go to the business, if the business owns the policy. If the business does own the policy and the business is the beneficiary of the policy, that means the death benefit is paid to the business and that goes tax free from the insurance company to the business. But now you got an issue where the death benefit, the dollars, are tied up in the business. There’s only two ways you can get the money out of the business. One is to expense it, meaning pay expenses. And the second is to salary it, to pay somebody’s salary. Either way, they’re taxable events.

And the bigger question often becomes, who should be paying that premium? And to that, we see that often the business account has more cash flow running through it. And as long as the individual is owner of that entity, the business is able to make those premium payments and expense it to the individual.

So basically what that would look like is the business entity is going to pay the insurance company and then the business entity is going to bonus out that premium amount to the individual so it gets taxed. So, ultimately, the business paid the premium and was able to deduct it as salary to the executive or the owner. That’s all kosher from a tax perspective. The individual paid the premium but he didn’t have to write the check, he just paid the tax on the premium.

Now, let’s not forget about the tax benefits of whole life insurance policies in general. Although there are no added benefits for the business by the business owning the policy. There certainly are benefits associated for tax reasons with whole life insurance policy designed for cash accumulation.

First of all, we have tax deferred growth within the policy. After we pay tax on that premium, we’re able to grow that asset in a tax deferred environment. We also have tax favored access to policy loans on a guaranteed basis. We have tax favored benefits in retirement with access to the cash value, and then we have a tax free death benefit paid out to our named beneficiary outside of probate.

On top of all of that, you have additional tax benefits if you’re using the cash value to supplement your retirement income. If it’s done properly, you can avoid state income tax, federal income tax, Social Security offset tax, no increase in your Medicare premium. The death benefits pass outside of probate and in most states pass outside of state inheritance or estate taxes. And the death benefit, again passes tax free to the beneficiary.

If you’d like to learn more on exactly how to use a whole life insurance policy designed for cash accumulation for your individual or business situation, schedule your free strategy session today and download our free business owners guide.

And remember, it’s not how much money you make. It’s how much money  you keep that really matters.