Mike Leckrone and Joe Koss - COPA Madison

Art in Life Secrets: "Kids who participate in music, whether they continue it on at a great level or not, become the strong students of that area, that society."

Former UW Band Director Mike Leckrone and former Culver's CEO Joe Koss have joined forces to bring art to everyone, starting in Madison, Wisconsin with COPA, Community Organizations Promoting the Arts.

Listen as Joe and Mike detail their plans to bring art of all kinds to as many people as possible, as well as giving people the space to create their art.  Art is often an overlooked skill and the value of creativity can not be denied.  The world is simply a better place with creative minds open to actually create.

Mike and Joe are working with many talented and connected people on the board of COPA Madison to make this a reality and their plans are admirable and exciting.

Enjoy!

Visit Joe and Mike at: COPAmadison.org

Podcast Overview:

[00:01:00] Retired band director helps organize music programs.

[00:08:21] Nonprofit providing diverse music services, collaboration encouraged.

[00:12:24] Arts program brings smiles and educational impact.

[00:13:29] Participation in music leads to strong students.

[00:22:26] Supporting music for underserved youth, scholarships provided.

[00:24:44] Start-up nonprofit story telling, donor outreach, PR.

[00:32:04] Recruiting board members with diverse backgrounds.

[00:34:07] Strengthened partnership, supportive, successful fundraising workshop.

[00:36:55] Accessible building, grassroots movement, growing programs, worthwhile goal.

[00:40:22] Successful concerts featuring diverse performers before COVID.

[00:44:38] "Get right pieces, tap passion, achieve success."

[00:48:57] Intense focus on art; website for more information.

Podcast Transcription:

James [00:00:02]:

You have found authentic business adventures business program that brings you the struggle, stories and triumphs and successes of business owners across the land. Downloadable audio episodes can be found in the podcast link [email protected]. We're locally underwritten by the bank of Sun Prairie and today we're welcoming slash preparing to learn from Joe Cost, the former CEO of the growing Culver's franchise, which you've probably heard of eaten There enjoyed, as well as Mike Leckrone, the former UW band director, which you've probably seen perform. But today we're talking about the new nonprofit they are part of, which is Copa. So, Joe and Mike, how are you doing today?

Mike Leckrone [00:00:39]:

Doing well, doing well.

Joe Koss [00:00:40]:

Thanks for having us.

James [00:00:41]:

Thanks for being on the show. You guys are powerhouses here. So I'm excited to have you guys. And you're part of this nonprofit which is, I guess in the end just giving back to the community, which is great to hear. So Mike, let's just start with you, former UW Band director. How did you get into this Copa thing?

Mike Leckrone [00:01:00]:

Well, I fell into it when I retired from being the band director. A lot of people say, oh, he's got a lot of time on his hands, let's see if he can help us with this. And I got an inordinate amount of calls from people who wanted to know if I could help them with personnel. They say we've got music groups that want to play, but there's no organization, there's no place for them to play, there's no place for them to do their thing musically. And I looked into it a little further and I discovered that was right because high schools were filling up their programs and they did want to take it on in a lot of cases. There were a few community places, but they were always filled up with requests. So I said there's got to be a place around. So there were a few people came to me and said, well, we're trying to get this organization start which will help people in communities develop a system where they can put on these kind of programs at a low cost. And I think that was paramount in my thinking is I wanted to make sure this was a slow cost kind of thing.

James [00:02:09]:

All right, and then Joe, how did you get involved with this?

Joe Koss [00:02:12]:

Yeah, so I joined a little later than Mike last year in fact. And well, like know, after I retired, certainly folks reached out to me on different organizations and nonprofits and got connected to Copa through a mutual acquaintance of ours that I serve on another board with and went to a meeting and was interested in the concept, the cause really what they were trying to accomplish. And as I told the group, I have no artistic talents at all, so I can't lend that, but maybe I could provide support in other areas. So joined last year and it's been a fun ride since very cool.

James [00:03:03]:

So let's continue on with what is Copa?

Joe Koss [00:03:06]:

Yeah, so Copa is short for community organizations promoting the arts. And we believe that affordable access to the arts is really better for our communities. And so it's our goal to provide a facility that provides access to all forms of the arts. And this is everything from musicians to the visual arts, painters and sculptors and other forms of artists. And we have a facility currently that we're operating out of today in Fitchburg. It's an old repurposed office warehouse space, and we're making good use of that. And really, it is our goal to and we've got some big dreams to ultimately take that building down and build a world class arts facility where folks can not only create art, but learn art, learn the arts and perform as well. And we want to build a performance stage and that as a part of that facility as well.

James [00:04:18]:

All right, so what group of people started Copa?

Mike Leckrone [00:04:25]:

Well, Copa was probably the brainchild of a guy who was blanking.

Joe Koss [00:04:35]:

Dale.

James [00:04:36]:

Dale?

Mike Leckrone [00:04:36]:

Yeah. Dale sticker. Sticker. And he's a musician and he works in the arts. He works in various arts, a lot of television, a lot of live productions. And Dale wanted to get some help with people because he felt like he knew the business side, he felt like he knew the technical side, but he was lost for the production side, for the actual music side. So Dale's been sort of the pusher that made sure we had it's his building that we're planning to reface. And at the end, he's been very helpful in just being an idea guy. Dale's a dreamer, and he comes up with some really great ideas. Some of them need to take the time. So I think he's sort of that aspect of it. All I know is music. I don't know anything else. So I can't help with the business part of it. I can't help with anything except the fact that I can work with the musicians. And again, that's where it comes down to. We want Copa to be accessible to all musicians, not just the higher echelon ones, not just the ones that are great players already or really good players. We want that guy who's maybe played drums for a couple of years and give him an opportunity to get together with a group of people and play. You have no idea how big a kick that is. Well, maybe just to be able to play with a group is just a huge kick for most people.

James [00:06:31]:

All right, so is there a vision or mission statement or something like that with Copa for, I guess, the big overarching goal? Like, what does success look like, I suppose, for Copa as far as that goes?

Joe Koss [00:06:44]:

And again, we want to be able to provide affordable access to the know. You look across Dane County and there's many great facilities right, that provide that access to the arts. But what we've come to find out, and Mike can share more on this, that there is still a great need for space and great need for affordable space. And we want to cater to those that are maybe underserved and can't afford some of these more pricier venues. And so we want to work in partnership with these other venues and provide access across all ages, from young to the seasoned folks as well. That is our big goal. And to be able to provide this space again, for folks to create their art, to learn their arts, to perform as well.

James [00:07:43]:

So if I understand this correctly, you're talking painting, sculpture, music, which includes piano, drums, guitar, singing, all that jazz. There's probably other art I don't know, poetry I'm not even thinking of. So there's two things that come to mind from a business standpoint is one, that sounds like a lot of space, and two, it sounds like a lot of equipment, I imagine, for instruments and painting, pallets, paint, all that kind of stuff. And then I guess, how do you make money or sustain it kind of thing, which I bet are problems that you guys are working on solving now.

Mike Leckrone [00:08:21]:

Yeah, well, from my standpoint, it's a nonprofit, so my idea wasn't necessarily to make any money. I want to provide a service. I want that service to be there when people have that need. I was in Milwaukee when this first thing to visit a school very similar to what we're planning here. And it just blew me away that these people are doing what I think and Joe, everybody else thinks Copa should be doing. They're providing that space. And you'll go in to the Milwaukee arts and you'll find people doing Native American music, you'll find them doing Latin American music. You'll find them doing jazz, hip hop. And the fun of what I saw was there was no competition. There was this idea, hey, we want to work together. Maybe I'll get an idea from you about how to make my Latin American music better, because I know a little bit more about jazz. And I saw that happening, and I literally said, why can't we do this at Madison? And the answer was, there's no reason why we can't. And so that's we got started that way. Now, I made the statement early on again that we could build this building in a yea

Sari Kimball - Food Biz Success

Food Biz Secrets: "Understanding that just because it's an amazing product in your home kitchen doesn't always translate into a great profitable business plan."

Just about everyone loves to eat. A few of us are even pretty good at creating delicious food to eat.

Have you ever considered starting a food business? Maybe you've thought of opening a restaurant or packaging your special hot sauce to sell to the world?

Some of the questions you may have about starting a food business may be:

How do you start a food business?

How do you create the food packaging?

What packaging should I use?

How do I create a nutrition label?

How do I sell products to grocery stores?

Can I make any money with a food business?

Listen as Sari Kimball, owner of Food Biz Success takes us through the challenges and pitfalls of starting your own food business to help you be successful.

Enjoy!

Visit Sari at: FoodBizSuccess.com

Podcast Overview:

[00:03:39] Transitioning from hobby to profitable business.

[00:08:08] Managing expectations, striving for 90% quality.

[00:11:44] Food costs surprise people; packaging can be costly. Start small, test, get feedback. FDA compliance is important for labeling.

[00:24:56] Bars: unique, regulated by FDA, customizable size

[00:28:11] Challenges of creating shelf stable sauces summarized.

[00:35:54] Investigation reveals possible reasons for spoilage. Shelf life studies and testing for contaminants important.

[00:37:55] Programs for nutrition labeling need accurate measurements.

[00:45:55] Key tips for selling your product: demo it, create sales opportunities, use social media to drive customers, prove that it sells, look for opportunities in stores like Whole Foods or Natural Grocers.

[00:52:18] Define success on your own terms

Podcast Transcription:

James [00:00:00]:

You have found Authentic Business Adventures, the business program that brings you the struggles, worries and triumphs successes of business owners across the land. We are locally underwritten by the bank of sun prairie. We have downloadable audio episodes found at the podcast link found at Drawincustomerscom. And today we are welcoming, preparing to learn from Sari Kimball, founder and coach of Food Business Success, which are three things that I'm pretty sure almost every listener here loves. So Sari, how are you doing today?

Sari Kimball [00:00:30]:

I am amazing. So excited to be here today.

James [00:00:33]:

Yeah, thanks for being on the show. And it looks like you have all the ingredients for success behind you there.

Sari Kimball [00:00:39]:

Yes, many people have gone in this direction to start a food business.

James [00:00:44]:

Nice. So tell us, what is food business success?

Sari Kimball [00:00:48]:

So, Food Business Success is a program I created back in 2019 where I wanted to I'm a course creator in addition to a business coach and many other things. So I saw a need for people wide eyed, excited to start a food business, specifically a packaged food business. So I created an online program, online course. And anybody who tells you, oh, just create an online program, it'll be so easy, just believe them. But over the years, here we are four or five years later in year five and still going strong. So we have a membership where we do group coaching. And then there's also the videos, the tools, the tutorials, things to really help people create a business that's actually going to be profitable, that is going to be safe and legal, hopefully. And also be fun. Right, because it's food.

James [00:01:52]:

Yeah, very cool. You touched on a lot of stuff there. And for your typical just so I know, for the people that are listening that are like, hey, I'm kind of interested in this. Is this geared towards people that already have a business in the food industry? Or is this someone that's kind of either kicking the tires or trying to figure out if this is what they have, if their option is even a viable if it's a viable class for them to take to go and make whatever food creation they have in mind.

Sari Kimball [00:02:21]:

Well, it's probably mostly geared towards the I call them just an idea people. Like I make the most delicious fill in the blank.

James [00:02:31]:

All right, sure.

Sari Kimball [00:02:34]:

Cookies, all the things right? And I make these things in my home kitchen. I also work with Body care, pet Treats, things like that too. So anything that comes out of your home kitchen and everybody tells you you should start a business, this would know millions of dollars, I would totally buy this. So that's where I really start is just an idea, people. But I also do attract a lot of people who already have a business in the United States. We have something called cottage Food or some similar terminology that allows people for certain products to start in their home kitchen. And so a lot of times people will start there, but then when they get really serious and they want to go into grocery stores or go on Amazon or something like that, then they'll come and work with me on that kind it I got it going, and now I don't know what I'm doing.

James [00:03:28]:

Nice. So tell me, what are the common mistakes that you see people make that go from, hey, this is an awesome idea, my grandma's recipe for lasagna or whatever, to trying to get it into a viable business?

Sari Kimball [00:03:39]:

Oh my gosh, so many. I wish it was just one, but I think some of the top ones are just understanding that just because it's an amazing product in your home kitchen doesn't always translate into a great profitable business plan. And a lot of times there has to be some. We call it value engineering, but sacrifice a little bit along the way of the artisan, the homemade quality in order for you to actually make money. Because we need efficiencies, right. We have to scale up the product itself and the making of it for it to be profitable. So that's really the first thing, is just like I go from a hobby where it's fun and I give this product to friends and family to like, oh, I need to actually set this up to be profitable. Certainly legal food safety issues, right. We were chatting before we started recording, and I think that food is one of those really democratic things that we all eat. And many of us make something that's sort of our signature thing, and we think, well, it should just be easy, right. I couldn't just go start a tech company. Right. That would be a lot of investment. But it's fairly easy for me to get. The barrier to entry is pretty low to start a food business. So everybody kind of thinks, yeah, this should just be easy. But the reality is it's highly regulated by the FDA, and we have a responsibility if we're making food, for people to make sure that it's safe.

James [00:05:23]:

Which is a good thing, I would say it's one of those things that you want to know when you're buying food that you won't.

Sari Kimball [00:05:28]:

Yeah. There's a trust there, right?

James [00:05:31]:

Yeah. So I'm glad there's people looking over that shoulder. Yeah. When I have talked to other people in the food industry, you mentioned the scalability. And one of the things that I commonly hear with a lot of business owners, regardless of if it's food or not, but especially in food, is when I talk to them about having somebody else. Oh, my gosh, I can't think of what the kitchens are named. Were they a contract kitchen?

Sari Kimball [00:05:57]:

So there's a commissary kitchen where you rent out space and you make it yourself, or there's like a Copacker comanufacturer copacker.

James [00:06:05]:

That's what I was thinking of. Yeah. And the pushback that I get is, oh my gosh. I could never train someone to make whatever magical creation that they're making. I could never train that. It's just I have to be the one. And I try to tell them that you can't scale, that you're only one person. And then they come to me and say, I want to grow my business. So can you tell us a little bit about any of your success or failures or anything with working with a Copacker?

Sari Kimball [00:06:34]:

Well, one came to mind as you were talking. I worked with a couple who was wanting to do cookies. And I said, I really think the product you're telling me about and your time right. I always take into account oftentimes these are side hustles to get started. I actually work with a lot of doctors, engineers, lawyers. It's really interesting scientists, it's like they have this very logical left brain career, and then they find a lot of creativity in the kitchen. Right. There's a lot of people who do creative things in the kitchen, and they have zero desire to start a business, to be an entrepreneur, but some people do, and there's that like, what if I could? Right. So when they come to if we want to do a copacking situation where they have to give up some control and we're doing it in a lot larger quantities, right. It's much more equipment driven, machine driven, and it's all about fast, fast. So she really wanted it was something like, I want seven chocolate chips in each cookie.

James [00:07:48]:

Oh, wow.

Sari Kimball [00:07:49]:

They all need to be, like, facing a certain way. And it was just like, we can't do that. We can't do it profitably. Right. Like the amount of time and labor associated with placing.

James [00:08:03]:

Sure we can. But every cookie is $50, right?

Sari Kimball [00:08:08]:

Exactly. So I have learned over the years that I really have to try to manage expectations when I work with clients, helping them to that next level. To say, we're going for 90%. Here you have your, we call it gold standard in the industry. So you have your gold standard cookie. That is like, how you would do it at home and how you wish every cookie looked like t

Farzad Rashidi - Respona

SEO Secrets: "What you want to do is to build relationships with authoritative resources in your space."

Building a website is one thing.  Getting people to come to your website, to make a purchase or find a need and a way to contact you is an entirely different game.

Previously, to build an audience of any measureable amount, you'd need to manually reach out to hundreds of other website owners, in the hopes of getting some links from their pages to your pages.  It was tedious, time consuming and cumbersome, which meant it often didn't get done.

But what if you could use the power of AI and computers to help you comb the internet, to find and connect with the people that you need to help grow your brand?  What if a large portion of the work was automatic and the actual human factor took much less time?

Listen as Farzad Rashidi, or Respona, a link building platform, explains the value of backlinks and the power of using a tool to do a lot of the grunt work for you.

Enjoy!

Visit Farzad at https://respona.com

Podcast Overview:

[00:02:55] Paid advertising is powerful but difficult to sustain. Instead, focus on organic search and SEO.

[00:08:06] Google ranks content based on popularity and credibility.

[00:12:29] Creating and implementing successful solution, worth investment.

[00:17:14] Simple campaign templates and personalized podcast outreach.

[00:22:09] Fully automated research, personalized pitches, human touch.

[00:24:21] Effective local SEO for plumbers and specific geographical targeting.

[00:31:56] Outsource marketing or do it in-house?

[00:34:19] Common mistakes: trusting cheap backlinks and private blog networks. Build relationships with authoritative resources for legitimate links. No shortcuts or cheating in the system. Difficulty is necessary for long-lasting impact.

[00:37:19] SEO for smaller businesses requires differentiation and niche marketing.

[00:41:02] Building software is difficult, requires experience. Selling it is challenging due to contradictions.

[00:45:28] Podcasting increases visibility and credibility for Respona.

[00:49:40] Marketing game: pain, appreciation, sharing, innovation.

[00:50:58] Find previous episodes at drawincustomerscom podcast. Stay awesome, enjoy your business!

Podcast Transcription:

James [00:00:02]:

You have found authentic business adventures, the business program that we're getting to struggle stories, and trying the successes of business owners across land. Downloadable audio episodes can be found on the podcast link, found a draw in customers.com. We are locally underwritten by the Bank of Sun Prairie. Today, we're welcoming slash preparing to learn from Farzad Rashini Rashidi. I'm sorry. Lead innovator and cofounder of Respona. And sorry. Farzad item stumbling over my words here. Respond out was poking at your website, and I wonder just out of curiosity before we get going so that people understand what this is, did you use your own platform to reach out to me?

Farzad Rashidi [00:00:44]:

Yes.

James [00:00:45]:

Yes. Perfect. Alright. -- a little bit more. So that's that's awesome. That's incredible. So that just shows you the power of this. Right? because here we are. So once you tell us what is Respondite, and we'll just run with that.

Farzad Rashidi [00:00:56]:

Sure. So Respona short basically helps businesses get up into search results in Google. That that's sort of our one liner pitch. Now I can give you a little bit of a backstory sort of how we came up with it, and and I think that would sort of shed some terms of -- Please. Yeah. Absolutely. What does exactly? Sure. So, James, I actually joined my Well, I would say it's our parent company in a way. Vismy. Have you heard of Vismy before? I have to apologize. I have not. That's okay. Have you heard of tools like Canva or Prezi when he just, like, design tools? Okay. So we're somewhat of a competitor, but Visby is a bit more are on the on the b b site, so we cater predominantly to SMB And And Enterprise. And I joined as a first marketing hire, and my job basically was just to put it out there. We were like, okay. We built this awesome product. We need someone to actually start marketing it. And we were a complete bootstrap company. Never raised a single dollar in outside funding, which is very rare for software companies. And so what basically I did was to evaluate a few options. So just to kinda give you a a blueprint or, I would say, in snapshot of where Vismi stands now, we have over 20,000,000 active users and over a 100 employees still fully profitable and bootstrap never raised funding. And so but it didn't get here we didn't get here overnight. It definitely was a quite a journey. So, basically, what I started figuring out was a a sustainable customer acquisition strategy. So as you know, there's 3 or 4 different main strategies. A lot of folks start with Number 1, call average. Right? So go door to door, start selling, which is great. If you have a product that makes sense from a pricing standpoint, at the time, our product was $15 a month. So something that doesn't the unit economics don't make sense to hire

James [00:02:49]:

US based salespeople to go companies are selling at $15 a month. -- 10 years have passed, I suppose?

Farzad Rashidi [00:02:55]:

Exactly. So second one, paid advertising, which is, again, could be a very powerful channel. But as a boot truck company, obviously, it's a it's a very cash restrained sort of effort. So we we We still experiment with it. But what what I found that's sort of difficult with these paid advertising channels, I mean, regardless of that that I would say the social platform, whether it be Google or Facebook, etcetera, is that there is some diminishing return So what that means is basically start doubling your budgets. You're like, oh, this ad's working. So doubling it, conversion is still in double. So you sort of hit that plateau, and that's something that we haven't been able figure out even 10 years into the journey is that it's it's hasn't really been a sustainable channel for us as far as being able to scale it. And we're like, okay. So what do we do? Let's let's let's sort of walk through the customer journey and figure out how exactly buyers go about purchasing our product. So say, James, let's say you wanna create a presentation. You wanna create some sort of an infographic for the for this episode. How would you go about picking a solution or finding one if you don't already have a solution? But, like, as a buyer, what's the first step you do when it comes to finding a solution like ours? Man, let's dig on the web and see what what people have out there. Exactly. And what where do you take? Like, what's the first website you go into? To server, I imagine? There we go. So we knew that from day 1. We're like, okay. So our customers are 1 aware of the problem we're solving. Right? And they're googling it. So we're like, great. That instead of us, Standing 100 of 1,000,000 of dollars become the household name, lest our show own up in places where people who are looking for us to offer like ours would organically find us. that way, we don't have to pay cash or go chase off to every customer every time we wanna acquire 1. So long story short, we're like, great. let's just build some pages, you know, do some keyword research and and write some blog posts and traditional SEO advice. Right? Make sure your site load fast and he's responsive and all that good stuff. So Respona months doing that, and we're like, great. We put it out there and guess what happened.

James [00:05:07]:

Nothing. Everything in traffic is working. Right? Exactly.

Farzad Rashidi [00:05:12]:

Absolutely nothing. It was completely crickets. So we're like, okay. Well, we're obviously doing something wrong because everybody stalling is that this is the way to do it. Right? So we we see a lot of other websites being very successful with it. So we're like, okay. Let's For example, let listen. Let's actually go through this exercise together, James. Can you do me a favor? Just go ahead and Google, like, one of our parent keywords, like presentation song. for. Right? Can you go ahead and just Google that for me? Yeah. Let's see when you Google yeah. When you Google, it normally tells you how many web just went through in, like, point one second or something like that. Yeah. One bill. -- zeros do you see?

James [00:05:55]:

369 plus a couple other random numbers in there. So, yeah, we got a 1,000,000,000. Okay. In point 63 seconds.

Farzad Rashidi [00:06:02]:

Okay. So there's some billions what? There are 1,000,000,000 web pages that are targeting the keyword presentation software. So we're in the most one of the most competitive, I would say --

James [00:06:15]:

It's quite a few.

Farzad Rashidi [00:06:17]:

Yep. Exactly. And what do you see on page 1, like, after the ads? You know? As as a as a user, you normally ignore ads straight to ads. -- sponsored ads. Right? You have beautiful.ai,

James [00:06:27]:

simplify

Farzad Rashidi [00:06:28]:

-- These are ads.

James [00:06:30]:

within the first part of the screen that before scrolling, it's all ads.

Farzad Rashidi [00:06:35]:

Mhmm. And what do you see in the organic results?

James [00:06:38]:

First one is VisMe, which you had mentioned. Then we have Zapier, TechRadars, and article comforter. There we go. company thing, then Prazi again. Yeah.

Farzad Rashidi [00:06:49]:

So how do we get up in this 1st organic source? So we pay $0 beyond here, and it's bringing us thousands of users as a business platform is not right now getting over 20,000 new sign ups every single day. Right? So without us spending a day. So how do -- That's cool. -- out in the world did we get it up here? Right? Because and it's not only just for these particular keywords, but, you know,...

Lee Philips - Legalees

Tax Secrets: "Your little business is the most important tax shelter that you have."

You probably started your business because you are very good at the skills needed for that industry.

But knowing everything you need to know to take care of the business side of your business can be a challenge.  It's knowing what you need to know and knowing what you don't know and knowing when it is time to hire someone that knows what you need to know.  Legalees is a company started to help small business owners navigate the LLC and S Corporation side of business.

Listen as Lee Philips, Counselor of the United States Supreme Court, with a long resume in real estate, investing, insurance, research and law shares his time with us to share his expertise in helping businesses play the game of business and play the accounting side well.

Enjoy!

Visit Lee at: Legalees.com/james

Podcast Overview:

00:01:06 SBIR grants, governor endorsement, BYU stock profit.

00:03:27 Word Perfect founder's interesting story and Utah's tech success.

00:08:30 Avoid probate with Living Revocable Trust.

00:13:03 Trust simplifies bank account setup, avoids tax ID.

00:17:54 Estate planning is simple for smaller assets.

00:21:33 Degrees in geology, physics, nuclear chemistry. Chemistry company, law school. Patent work, health scare, hospital visit.

00:23:08 Friend discovers advanced cancer, two-three week lifespan.

00:29:07 Lost everything due to IRS tax issues.

00:32:48 Easy transition, no asset protection, lower taxes.

00:37:07 LLC offers tax advantage and asset protection.

00:38:20 Corporate shield protects owners in slip and fall. Partnership has asset protection against creditors. English law protects innocent partners from debt.

00:42:54 Utah removes corporate formalities, but it's BS.

00:44:33 No formalities in LLC; charging order protection.

00:50:30 Understand taxes for increased income and protection.

00:52:07 Lawyer walks in cow pasture, steps in manure.

00:56:06 Business and real estate: secret to wealth.

00:58:55 Authentic Business Adventures: Business owners' struggles, successes. Locally underwritten. Thumbs up, subscribe, comment. Call answering services. Bold business books. Thank you, Lee Phillips. Website?

Podcast Transcription:

James [00:00:02]:

You have found Authentic Business Adventures, the business program that brings you the struggle, stories and triumphant successes of business owners across the land. Downloadable audio episodes can be found in the podcast link found at drawincustomerscom. Today we're welcoming, preparing to learn from Lee Phillips, the founder of Legalese. So Lee is going to take us right into it. We got going into conversation, so let's hear all about the accounting and legal stuff that you have to deal with with your small business.

Lee Phillips [00:00:32]:

Some background that you don't know is after I got sick, I went to BYU and I'd created an instrument for chemistry as a student there. And then in my two weeks as a patent attorney, I started the patent on it while I was sick, for three years, the patent issued. So I went to BYU and I said, I'd like to make this instrument. And I started a company called Lee Scientific, and it was the first Utah high tech company.

James [00:01:05]:

Wow.

Lee Phillips [00:01:06]:

We got the first SBIR grants, the first all of this crap. And the governor actually spent 20 minutes of his 40 minutes State of the Union address saying, lee Scientific is the future of this state. And I gave BYU, and I'm not going to go through this story for you, but it'll give you some background. I gave BYU a little bit of stock in Lee Scientific. I wrote the license agreement for them and they made about a million dollars off of the little bit of stock I gave them when we sold the company three years later.

James [00:01:44]:

All right.

Lee Phillips [00:01:45]:

And they said, can you do this again? So I created the technology transfer department at BYU, and I was director of research for 1500 PhDs, which was kind of an interesting job.

James [00:02:03]:

Yeah, I bet.

Lee Phillips [00:02:04]:

But I helped create companies word Perfect, Novell, dsearch, which is the search engine for Google. All of these companies I helped create as we moved them out of BYU. So we did. So I had a lot of experience creating companies and doing stuff like that.

James [00:02:29]:

Gotcha. All right, well, that's pretty slick. And you're talking 80s, you mentioned something like that.

Lee Phillips [00:02:36]:

Late eighty s all right, 87 to 91, something like that. It was five years ended in 91. So 86, I guess it would be.

James [00:02:51]:

All right. Word perfect. That's interesting. That was back in the day. Wow.

Lee Phillips [00:02:55]:

Yeah, that was back in the day. It's actually a superior product to Word, even today.

James [00:03:02]:

I just saw a meme making fun of Word for failing in a lot of areas, yet it's still one of.

Lee Phillips [00:03:09]:

The most popular, actually a high percentage. At least a third of the lawyers still use Word Perfect.

James [00:03:20]:

Do they really?

Lee Phillips [00:03:21]:

Yeah, because it's so superior to Word. To Word.

James [00:03:26]:

All right.

Lee Phillips [00:03:27]:

And I can tell you the story. There are a lot of interesting stories associated with Word Perfect. Alan Ashton is the guy who founded the company. He was a music professor at BYU. And Utah is a high tech. They call it Silicon Slopes. You've got Silicon Valley in California, Silicon Slopes in Utah, and we're competing with Silicon Valley. But the reason Utah was so far ahead in computers is the day the PC came out, BYU went to every professor and said, this thing's available. Would you like one of these on your desk? And to put that in perspective, it was over ten years later that Stanford had a PC on every professor's desk.

James [00:04:21]:

Oh, wow. That's ahead of the curve, all right.

Lee Phillips [00:04:23]:

And so they were playing with these things, and Alan Ashton was a music professor, and he was trying to get the computer to write music, and he figured out it could write words. And that's how word perfect was developed. It was originally called Satellite Systems, Inc. SSI.

James [00:04:43]:

All right?

Lee Phillips [00:04:44]:

And one day we're in a board meeting, and Alan's been trying to get a hold of Texas Instruments, and he can't get a hold of them. And we've decided to change the name from SSI to Word Perfect. Everybody knew who Word Perfect was, so we snicker. But he gets on the phone and he calls up Texas Instruments, and they've just been throwing him under the bus for months. And he says, this is Alan Ashton from Word Perfect, and we all kind of snickered word Perfect. And the lady said, just a minute, the president will be right with you. They had no clue who SSI was, but they knew what Word Perfect was.

James [00:05:27]:

Oh, interesting. Wow. Anyway, that's crazy. The power of a name, I guess, right?

Lee Phillips [00:05:35]:

The name is important.

James [00:05:37]:

Who knew? Well, let's get this party started here. You you're all good? All good. Let's go. You have found authentic business Adventures, the business program that brings you the struggles, stories, and triumphant successes of business owners across the land. We're locally underwritten by the bank of sun prairie. My name is James Kademan, entrepreneur, author, speaker, and helpful coach to small business owners across the country. And today we're welcoming, preparing to learn from Lee Phillips, the founder of Legalese Corporation. He said schmucky. I still got that in my head. So, Lee, how are you doing today?

Lee Phillips [00:06:16]:

I'm doing good, yeah. He asked how to introduce me, and I gave him the word. You're not supposed to swear on the radio, though. Yeah.

James [00:06:26]:

Is that swearing? I don't know. I think we're good with that.

Lee Phillips [00:06:28]:

Yeah.

James [00:06:28]:

Is it really?

Lee Phillips [00:06:29]:

I used that in a speech. And one day in New York, a little old lady came up to me and she says, mr. Phillips, you're such a nice man. I don't think you know what schmuck means.

James [00:06:40]:

And I didn't I guess I have to say I'm ignorant in that regard as well.

Lee Phillips [00:06:47]:

It has a Hebrew Yiddish meaning all right, go ahead.

James [00:06:52]:

We'll let them Google that under the bus. Yeah. Right on, right on. So, Lee, let's just start with what is legalese and then we'll work it from there.

Lee Phillips [00:07:01]:

Legalese is a company that I created, started back in 85, actually, and I created it out of necessity because I was supposed to be a patent attorney and didn't end up doing that and ended up working for myself as a lawyer. And the easiest thing for a lawyer to do is wills and trusts for Aunt Gertie and Uncle Harry. And as I went into it, I finally figured out that the lawyers were basically setting people up for trusts. And so I started to write and I started to speak, and I made a kit so that people could do their own wills and trusts, and I created Legalees, and we've just been kind of going ever since then.

James [00:07:51]:

All right, so tell me, the lawyers that were setting people up for failure, I'm assuming this wasn't intentional, they just didn't know any better, or I'm hoping.

Lee Phillips [00:08:02]:

I wouldn't go so far as to say intentional, but well, and we may already be off topic. I don't know, James. I guess we got a while.

James [00:08:12]:

We can go all over the place here.

Lee Phillips [00:08:14]:

As a little business owner, I'm going to say you need a Living Revocable Trust because 95% of the businesses fail within five years after the founder dies....

Marcus Garrett - The Marcus Garrett

We live in a world where consumption is not only enjoyable, it's expected.  But all of that consumption comes at a price.  Actually, quite literally many prices.  All that consumption costs money and often costs money that the consumers do not have.

All this consumption can lead to debt, which leads to your money being consumed faster than you replace it.

So how do you escape this circling of the financial drain?  Shy of finding a windfall of cash, which would probably only make you a larger consumer, you need to get smart with your money.

Listen as Marcus Garrett shares his success story of getting out of debt, and staying out of debt.  His lessons may be able to help you keep the money in your accounts not surrounded by parenthesis.

Enjoy!

Visit Marcus at: https://www.themarcusgarrett.com/

Podcast Overview:

Michelle Kop - Level 28 Media

To get your business found in such a noisy world you can either pay or do something extreme to get noticed.  The extreme stuff doesn't always work, but the paid advertising route, if done correctly, can net you some profitable results.

She details some tips and tricks in the PPC world that many people simply don't know, leading to wasted money and time and ending in frustration.

Listen as Michelle Kop, founder of Level 28 Media, explains how she started and built her pay per click business to help those businesses that need a marketing boost.

Enjoy!

Visit Michelle at: https://level28media.com/

Podcast Overview:

[00:04:18] Pay-per-click lead generation marketing agency specializing in Google Ads, working with small businesses for impactful results.

[00:08:28] Snake oil in industry, be transparent with clients.

[00:14:34] Small business owners frustrated with previous agencies and freelancers. New approach offers value and goal-oriented strategies. Lack of understanding and strategy from previous hires.

[00:21:43] Lack of training and operations issues affect sales.

[00:32:18] Vet clients carefully, cut ties if necessary.

[00:33:58] Accountability and forward-thinking crucial for successful client relationships.

[00:42:50] Google advertising: Cost varies, can be expensive

[00:46:27] Ask for references, check portfolios, industry experience.

 

Business Podcast Transcription:

James [00:00:03]:

You have found authentic business adventures, the business program that brings you to struggle stories and strength and success of business owners across land. Downloadable audio episodes can be found in the podcast link, fun to draw in customers.com. Kop are locally underwritten by the Bank of Sun Prairie. Today, we're welcoming slash preparing to learn from Michelle Kop, the founder of level 28 media. So, Michelle, how are you doing today? I'm doing well. Thanks, James, for inviting me onto your podcast. Yeah. I'm glad to have you. So Tell me level 28, let's just start with the name. What is that?

Michelle Kop [00:00:36]:

So level 28, it actually came kind of randomly. It took a really long time to figure out the name of my business. We didn't want and when I say we, I'm talking about me and my husband because started this business as a freelancer, and my husband was, like, my silent cheerleader in the background. And we didn't want to pick, like, a generic agency name. So I actually come from an agency background. I did marketing advertising for a good 7 to 8 years. And once I had left the corporate world, I decided to go do freelance. And one of my friends was like, what's the name of your company? And I was like, well, Michelle Kop consulting. And he's like, no. You can't be using that name. It's not good. Very smart friend. He's like, you can't be using that name. You have to use a different name. So then I went to my husband, and I was like, okay. Well, what should we go with? There's so many, like, cheesy names, like, out there when it comes to marketing agencies, like click up agency, improve performance agency, like some really cheesy ones. We didn't wanna do that. We wanted something meaningful. Since you were driving around, we're trying to look for inspiration, everywhere and everywhere. And we're driving around on the freeway. We're looking at specific words to see if we can get anything triggering that would like, that relates to who I am. And then one day, we actually went to we went to a shopping mall. And as you're going up the as we were going with the parking structure, I saw the word level level 1. And I was like, oh, How about level 24 media? And 24 is actually it came from because I was born on the 24th December. So, like, it really Alright. And I was like, okay. That's I love it, and my husband's like, that's a perfect name. We took, like, 2 months to try to figure it out. went on GoDaddy, bought the domain immediately. And then the next day, I realized that it's 24, like, a bad luck number because I come from, like, my background is Chinese, and 4 is a bad luck number. It means death.

James [00:02:43]:

Oh, I didn't know that.

Michelle Kop [00:02:45]:

So I called my mom, and I was like, Oh, well, you know, is 24 a bad number? I don't wanna put a bad omen on my business. Like, I'm going to be filing paperwork. I need a good name. but I don't know about 24. And she's like, yeah. 24, when you translate, it means easy death. So that's not a good name for it. Yeah. So instead of 24, it's 28. And we change it to 28 because it's, like, a secret meaning So 28 in Chinese actually means easy prosperity. So I wanted to or yeah. So that's what I wanted it to mean. But on top of that, 28 I realized it was like a launching pad number for me. because when I turned 28, that's when I started freelancing. That's when I started That's when I started working for big companies and getting promotions, and that was also the year when I was 28 when I got engaged. So that was just like, being 28, it just threw me back to, you know, a really positive great time in my life, and that's what I wanted to incorporate in my business. So the secret meaning is easy prosperity, but what I tell clients is 28, it's a it's a very meaningful number to me. So that's There. In a nutshell, you know, where it came from. Alright. That is so interesting that the numbers have that that meaning and all that jazz. I had no idea that 24 is easy to death. have to be very careful using that number again. Yeah. It's funny. I don't know if there's any easy prosperity.

James [00:04:09]:

Maybe a little bit. We, like, at least fun prosperity. Right? Tell me or tell us, I guess, what is level 28 media?

Michelle Kop [00:04:18]:

Level 28 media is a pay per click lead generation marketing agency So what I specialize in is really paid search or Google Ads. So I'm sure you probably heard of, like, SEO ranking on the search engines when someone's searching on Google, and that's ranking organically. But what I do is I help clients appear on Google, but on the paid results. So you do need an advertising budget to appear and to appear higher. Of course, you're gonna have to be willing to, you know, pay a higher fee Every time someone searches, there's an option that takes place. And then with that, then Google will then serve ads. And that's what I do. I manage ads for clients through Google Ads and essentially generate leads for them. So I work with a lot of local businesses well as b to b, my background is actually in advertising. So I used to do this for Toyota AMPM Arco Sage accounting software. A lot of these big brands when I was in corporate, but then I left and wanted to just focus on small business. I felt a lot more compelled and more excited to work on small businesses because there's, like, less red tape. And it's more exciting too because, like, you see, you can watch your small business clients grow versus when you're already working for, like, a big company, you can't really see the impact that you're making because it's just like they're us tiny a tiny needle in the haystack. I don't know if you can relate. I'm sure you probably can. But, you know, then started working with these small businesses and seeing the impact it really it felt there's a sense of fulfillment that I'd never felt before when I started working with these small business. So that's essentially what I do. I work with lawyers, doctors, dentists, software businesses, anything you name it in terms of, like, lead generation,

James [00:06:09]:

typically more like high higher ticket services, though. Alright. I imagine so that the the margin both to spend on ads as well as the I guess, to wherewithal to know to do that. Exactly. because we I call answering service, and we target a lot of clients that are, I would consider it be higher ticket per transaction, but that's purely because it has to be for the phone call to be worth paying the client pain to have it answered. Exactly. -- like, you may have a hot dog stand or whatever. We're probably not a good fit for you. Even though somebody may call your hot dog stand, selling your hot dogs for a couple bucks. It's not gonna be worth it. So -- Exactly.

Michelle Kop [00:06:53]:

Exactly.

James [00:06:54]:

Interesting. I started of flower business online flower business, online flower ordering, and I went to pay for ads for that. And holy cow talk about competition, crazy competition that I would have never guessed, from a bidding standpoint for the ads, So per click, we're looking at 40, $50 in our market because I think I mean, from what I could tell are the people that I work with told me. was that these are people that were bidding for wedding flowers and funeral arrangements and stuff where it's 100 or 1000 of dollars And I was trying to get people to spend 50 or a hundred bucks on flowers. So the margin that we had, like, we didn't have 50% margin to toss to just acquiring the customer or even get a click to hopefully get that customer.

Michelle Kop [00:07:41]:

Yeah. Exactly. That's why I mentioned high margin because at the same time, you need to allow for room for the advertising budget and the room for the person to pay to, like, actually manage it. So that's why I tend to go for the higher ticket ones where customer lifetime value is, like, at least, like, in the thousands, but we know it's gonna be easier to recoup and see a higher return on investment, and therefore, the longevity is gonna be there in terms of recurring revenue for for my business. but then also, you know, the client's just gonna stay with me for a longer period of time, and everyone's happy overall.

James [00:08:15]:

Yeah. So with SEO, there's a lot of people that can just hang this shingle out. They're like, hey. I'm an SEO expert. How do you differentiate yourself from the millions,...

Kyle Arenson - Objective Veterans Smile

Did you know that veterans do not have dental coverage?  The people that fought and worked hard for our freedoms do not have basic necessities such as dental cleanings offered to them.

Kyle Arneson and his Objective Veterans Smile is working to fix that.  With the help of Delta Dental, Kyle is getting veterans the dental help that they need.

Listen as Kyle explains the issue and goes into how he is working on solving the problem.  Starting in Wisconsin and building from there, you will soon see more veterans smile.  

Enjoy!

Visit Kyle at: https://www.objectiveveterans-smile.org/

Podcast Overview:

 

 

Business Podcast Transcription:

Robert Wynn - Climb USA

We've all been given good advice when we were young, sometimes even when we aren't so young.  Many of us, myself included, didn't take all of the advice I should have.

This is especially true in regards to the advice given about investing. The advice can be summed up into two words, do it.

Robert Wynn has taken the idea of given advice and brought it to a whole new level.  He has founded Climb USA, which teaches children how and why to invest.  He uses real life examples and allows the students to learn, first hand, what it takes to make their money work for them.

Listen as Robert details the joy of teaching, the power of investing and one way he has chosen to make the world a better place.

Enjoy!

Visit Robert at: https://www.climbusa.org/

Podcast Overview:

[00:02:30] Real estate ownership realization post dad's death.

[00:03:03] Learning about investing from dad's savings.

[00:07:42] "Stock Selection Guide" used for value-based investing.

[00:10:23] Discount brokers revolutionized investing, now diversified.

[00:15:40] Business life cycle and investing strategies explained.

[00:20:53] Fascination with short selling, not promoted.

[00:23:24] Community organizations teach personal finance, sometimes investing.

[00:25:28] Virtual focus on Wisconsin, equity in investing.

[00:28:39] Financial literacy and changing behavior trends.

[00:34:06] Family starts finance-focused non-profit with relatives.

[00:37:00] Youth learn investing through Stock Market Experience.

[00:38:55] Programs develop student leaders and investment enterprises.

[00:43:43] Nonprofit empowers youth with virtual meetings.

[00:46:38] Teaching basics of stock market, progressing slowly.

[00:49:32] Young lady buys affordable headphone stock, sells.

[00:53:32] Pipeline for financial services career hopefuls.

 

Business Podcast Transcription:

James [00:00:00]:

You have found Authentic Business Adventures business program that brings you the struggle, stories and triumphant successes of business owners across the land. Downloadable audio episodes can be found on the podcast link found at drawincustomers.com. My name is James Kademan and we are welcoming, preparing to learn from Bob Wynn, the founder of Climb USA. So, Bob, how are you doing today?

Robert Wynn [00:00:27]:

I'm doing well today. Thank you very much.

James [00:00:29]:

Thanks for being on the show. I was poking on the website that you have, and I think the gist is it's helping kids with investing in financing or finances, I should say.

Robert Wynn [00:00:40]:

Is that right? Yes. Generally, financial literacy and specifically, we're focused a lot on investment, education, and wealth building.

James [00:00:48]:

That is awesome.

Robert Wynn [00:00:49]:

Yeah. And of course, the name of the organization, I like to say, describes who we are and what we do.

James [00:00:55]:

All right.

Robert Wynn [00:00:55]:

Lime is actually an acronym. It stands for communities learning to invest and mobilize for business. I think it's important that people approach their adulthood in that sequence, learning about business, finance, and investing, and then eventually entering into business and hopefully do it on a community mobilization basis as well.

James [00:01:18]:

Nice. I love it. You know, it's funny, it is rare that I don't have a conversation with someone where we start talking about money or investments and stuff like that. And we always talk about how we never were taught this in school, or how it's never just like, how do people know this? Or you'll be talking with a financial planner, or there's a time I had a financial planner that didn't do so great for me. And I was like I joked with him because I'm like, I can lose money on my own. I'm really good at that.

Robert Wynn [00:01:45]:

Right.

James [00:01:45]:

I don't need to pay somebody to lose money for me. And it was one of those things where I'm like, I don't know if other people would have even been aware. And it was just well, it was the John Oliver thing that made me look a little deeper. He had a little thing about financial planners and all that jazz anyways, the whole financing, investments, even just the power of a dollar kind of thing, I don't believe that many schools are really teaching that. And it's one of those things where I'm like, that's pretty important.

Robert Wynn [00:02:15]:

Well, you're making me remember how I got started myself.

James [00:02:19]:

All right.

Robert Wynn [00:02:19]:

Growing up, I just remember big box stores, sears and some of the other big companies. I never thought about the fact that somebody owned those.

James [00:02:29]:

Oh, sure.

Robert Wynn [00:02:30]:

Or you see real estate and people were living in apartment complexes, et cetera, and you just never really thought about the ownership behind those things. Like you said, no one in school was telling you about business and ownership and all of that. It was really only after my dad passed away, and that was in 82. And then my mom I'm the only son and a lawyer by training, so my mom wouldn't listen to anybody else's advice. And she had been a traditional mom. She worked outside of the home as a teacher, but she just never dealt with the finances.

James [00:03:02]:

Okay.

Robert Wynn [00:03:03]:

So she was starting from a pretty elementary basis of understanding. And I had a job by then, but I didn't really know that much about money. But then realized that my dad had saved kind of quietly for his limited income and all that he had on him financially. I was actually impressed with the fact that he had enough that you could have called them investable assets, because saving beyond what he needed for emergencies, his house was paid for. And it just occurred to me a whole family could have been a lot better off if we had been investing. All right, so I knew somehow along the way learned that there was something called investing, but I didn't know that much about it myself. So, at the time, Merrill Lynch had a book called how to Buy Stocks, and it was a thick, like, 300 page book, and it was boring, but I plowed through it because I wanted to talk to my mom about maybe taking a slight different turn and go beyond just saving and investing a little bit. But we had to really educate ourselves. And then through that whole process, I began to get fascinated by it myself. This, again was in the early to mid eighty s. And I opened up my own account because I actually wanted to take more risk and just be more experimental than I thought I could advise my mom to be. And as I learned more and more about it, I just became not only smitten by it, but also very concerned and passionate that everybody should know the basics about investing and how the stock market works. Because so much financially revolves around what we call the capital markets.

James [00:04:51]:

Right.

Robert Wynn [00:04:51]:

And so I ended up getting involved in state government with economic development, not really because of the investing, but it sort of helped to broaden my understanding of what business was all about and especially how important capital was. And of course, capital comes in different forms.

James [00:05:13]:

Sure.

Robert Wynn [00:05:13]:

Debt as well as investments or equity. And I just felt like I was being empowered by what I was learning and just felt that more people could do more for themselves if they learned about investing.

James [00:05:28]:

Yeah. Interesting thing here as you're talking 80s versus today, investing is a totally different game.

Robert Wynn [00:05:36]:

Very much so. There's some things that are similar.

James [00:05:38]:

Sure.

Robert Wynn [00:05:38]:

Yeah, sure.

James [00:05:39]:

But today it's much easier for me to get on my phone, open up an account, and just start trading away. Right. I can be a day trader in less than less than a day.

Robert Wynn [00:05:50]:

Right.

James [00:05:50]:

We're in the 80s. What did you have to do to trade a stock?

Robert Wynn [00:05:53]:

Well, again, funny that you would ask, because Charles Schwab pioneered discount brokerage I would say probably in the early 80s. But before that, you just basically had full service brokerage companies. And that just meant that there were these account executives, or we call them stockbrokers, and they made their money by recommending people to buy and sell stocks. And then they made a commission off of those buys and sales. And oftentimes, sometimes the advice dovetailed with the financial incentive for the individual to make money off of those decisions.

James [00:06:37]:

Sure. Wolf of Wall Street, right?

Robert Wynn [00:06:39]:

Yeah, that's right. So, collaterally. I was approached by a good friend to start an investment club. This is more of a do it yourself approach to investing.

James [00:06:50]:

Okay.

Robert Wynn [00:06:50]:

And again, this was in the mid eighty s. And it was literally 1987, the summer that we started this investment club in Wisconsin. And we connected immediately with a major nonprofit that supports the training of people who want to learn to invest for themselves. The organization back then was called National Association of Investors Corporation, and everyone referred to it as its initials, NAIC. They had a magazine called Better Investing and later changed the name of the organization to what's now called Better Investing and Website is Betterinvesting.org.

James [00:07:29]:

All right.

Robert Wynn [00:07:29]:

But because I was so interested anyway, I went to their meetings, which were all physical. There was not much on the Internet back then in the 80s.

James [00:07:39]:

No, I don't think there was not a useful one anyway.

Robert Wynn [00:07:42]:

Exactly....

Harry Spaight - Selling With Dignity

If you ask some people, sales is a four letter word.  Some salespeople seem to uphold the stereotypes of the leisure suite wearing hustler.  

Harry Spaight, of Selling With Dignity feels there is a better way.  After working in some less than great jobs and being told to do less than great things to sell people, Harry decided there was a better way.

Listen as Harry explains how he helps train sales people to sell with dignity and actually make sales.  

This was a great conversation and will be sure to offer you some selling tips to keep your ethics and your sales way up.

Enjoy!

Visit Harry at: https://sellingwithdignity.com/

Podcast Overview:

[00:02:41] Learning service led to successful sales career.

[00:04:03] Sales bullpen: overwhelming but profitable challenge.

[00:10:07] Quick car purchase, no dealership involvement.

[00:13:50] Sales under pressure, be consultative, not needy.

[00:15:14] Believe, work, and have faith.

[00:18:28] Get info by asking for help kindly

[00:21:48] Deal forecasting requires managing probabilities effectively.

[00:25:26] Forecasting is not as important as results.

[00:30:55] Building trust with bank account deposits.

[00:34:02] Brand is what people say about you.

[00:37:54] Podcast about business struggles, triumphs & sales.

 

Business Podcast Transcription:

James [00:00:03]:

You have found Authentic Business Adventures, the Business program that brings you the struggle, stories and triumphant successes of business owners across the land. We're locally underwritten by the bank of sun prairie. If you're looking for some downloadable audio episodes that can be found for free on the podcast, link found a drawincustomers.com. And today we're welcoming, preparing to learn from Harry Spaight, the founder of Selling with Dignity, which I mean, can you do that, right? Harry, how is it going today?

Harry Spaight [00:00:30]:

It's going great, James. What's the good word for you?

James [00:00:34]:

Sales. Lo and behold, in the business world, nothing happens till sales made. Well, hell, that goes beyond just the business world, right? Why don't you tell us, first of all, what is selling with dignity? I guess both the phrase and the business, and we'll just go from there.

Harry Spaight [00:00:51]:

All right. So if you think about people who are stereotypical salespeople, they're always selling, they're very talkative. It's always about them. They've got to hit their number. They're the top producer for their company. They've got it on their business card. I am the complete opposite of that. So I like to refer to myself as the anti salesperson. I didn't trademark that, though. But for a lot of people who don't like sales and don't fit in that personality type, there's hope for you. Selling with dignity. This is my thinking for the day. Selling with dignity is the short version of it is self valued. Dignity for yourself. Right. Dignity for your client and dignity for the craft of sales, which is treat everyone well, do the right things for people, good things will happen. Interesting. How's that sound?

James [00:01:50]:

That all sounds great to me.

Harry Spaight [00:01:53]:

Quite a concept.

James [00:01:54]:

Yeah. The question that comes to mind then is when did you get into this? Did you sell or get sold without dignity? And then you're like, wait, we got to change this, or how did this.

Harry Spaight [00:02:05]:

Yeah, it's a good question, and it's really been a work in progress over the past two and a half decades. So prior to my sales career, I was selling of another type. I was doing mission work.

James [00:02:19]:

Oh, interesting. Okay.

Harry Spaight [00:02:20]:

Everything is sales in life, right? We're selling since we came out of the womb, when we cried for our mama, we wanted to close that deal and throughout life. So I eventually I had a higher calling, supposedly, and I was adventurous. So my wife and I ended up living for a couple of years in the Dominican Republic.

James [00:02:41]:

Nice.

Harry Spaight [00:02:41]:

When we left that beautiful tropical paradise. And by the way, no resorts, so it was lots of outhouses, very little running water and limited electricity. So it was rustic, to say the least. But I learned a lot about serving people. And then when she dropped some line about, are we ever going to have kids? Oh, my goodness, I'm going to have to earn an income. So we came back to the States long story short, I got into sales, struggled, mightily realized that the best thing I had going for me was I knew how to serve people. Started applying that in sales instead of trying to be the closer the ABC guy always be closing and so forth. Just started serving people, and that stuff worked. Built a great career, got into sales, leadership, servant minded leading teams. That worked out really well, and so I wanted to pass that on to others.

James [00:03:43]:

All right, so what were you selling initially? That was more the ABC stuff.

Harry Spaight [00:03:48]:

Yeah, exactly. Are you familiar with The Wolf of Wall Street and Boiler Room and any of these movies where they show a sales bullpen?

James [00:03:59]:

Yeah, I don't know anyone that's listening to this. That is not okay.

Harry Spaight [00:04:03]:

So the sales bullpen is an interesting room, right? There's a lot of testosterone, there's managers, there's a lot of yelling and maybe a couple of curse words here and there. So I went from the Dominican Republic with a little bit of a break for a few months into a sales bullpen. I was completely out of place. Completely. I mean, I was like, what did I get myself into? That kind of thing. So I was so out of place trying to figure out that am I supposed to be, like, running to the manager on every question? People were breathing next to me. People were listening. I mean, it was really gross for me in the beginning, but I enjoyed to embrace it, or I learned to embrace it and good things happen, but in the beginning, it was tough. And so I learned from that experience that I could separate myself from the pack, do the right things for people, and still be successful in spite of the surroundings of the bullpen.

James [00:05:12]:

All right, so were you selling investments.

Harry Spaight [00:05:14]:

Of some oh, I'm sorry, yeah, I was selling office technology.

James [00:05:20]:

Are you talking printers and copiers?

Harry Spaight [00:05:21]:

Printers and copiers, that was my world. I'll cut it out.

James [00:05:26]:

Oh, yeah. I had a printer repair company and I worked as a technician for years.

Harry Spaight [00:05:31]:

Way.

James [00:05:32]:

I mean, we're talking a long time ago. Yeah, but yeah, that's savage business. I joked with people that it would be safer to sell crack than it would be to sell machines, office machines.

Harry Spaight [00:05:41]:

Because it was brutal. Brutal, brutal, no question about it. But it's like, it's really easy to separate yourself from the pack if you are true to your word, right. You follow up, you're good to people, you do the right things for them. It wasn't nearly as gross as it could have been.

James [00:06:01]:

Page counts. Page counts, right?

Harry Spaight [00:06:03]:

Yes. Oh, my gosh, count. Yes. That is so oh, my God, there's so many stories we could go down that road, I'm sure.

James [00:06:11]:

So what made you or let me back up a step when you decided, hey, I don't want to do it this way because I imagine the company of whatever kind it was was probably offering training. That was the ABC, right. Hustle and all that kind of stuff. I imagine they had.

Harry Spaight [00:06:28]:

Yeah. So they didn't know what to do with me because I was a free spirit. I was older than my manager because I was in my mid 30s. My manager was still 20 something.

James [00:06:40]:

Wow, okay.

Harry Spaight [00:06:41]:

Right. Because that's what they did. It's a business model. They hire a bunch of kids out of college, in five years, they're management, and seven or eight years are VPs. They're still barely 30 years old. So basically, I just was tough to deal with. But I felt like, I can do this. I'm just going to have to do it my way. And I had plenty of conversations with my manager, who was really cool and just gave me some rope to hang myself, and thankfully, I didn't.

James [00:07:15]:

So was he this particular he? She? I don't know who it was.

Harry Spaight [00:07:18]:

Well, first it was a he who was a really calm, collective guy. But I felt like the smart thing to do was to complain about my manager to the owner, because you know how that goes over always well, and the owner actually took my side. He says, you know, you're right. I'm going to let you work with someone else who is a lot more my style, personality wise, a lot more fun and had certain characteristics, like, didn't have their collar sticking up. That was just like a complete embarrassment. It's like I can't even go out in a call with someone whose collar is sticking up. A person needs to go to a dry cleaner. So little joke, but that's kind of the way it was. And then once I had it better not better, but a different style for me that fit perfectly. We knocked it out of the park.

James [00:08:07]:

Interesting. You know what's interesting? You say that about the employees, the underlings, I suppose, complaining to the owner about the manager. I was thinking of that as an employee, but as an owner of a company, I love it when employees do that because they're telling me stuff that I don't know because I'm oblivious to it.

Harry Spaight [00:08:25]:

Right.

James [00:08:25]:

But as an employee, I can see and I've certainly been in a position when I was an employee that I've talked either owners or higher ups ab

Michael Wedaa - Augmentus Business Solutions

You start a business because you want some time and money freedom.  You know you need to start an LLC, or is it an S-Corp?  Who knows what needs to be done to keep your business protected, while also keeping your business on legal and tax compliant ground, while also minimizing what you pay to the IRS?

Michael Wedaa is a great help here.  He explains, from his book, Corporation & LLC Secrets how to set yourself for success by putting the pieces of the business puzzle together.

Listen as Michael explains some of the rules of the game for incorporating your business and how to make sure you do it right.  Also of interest is how to minimize your tax bill, all within legal and ethical bounds.

Enjoy!

Visit Michael at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-wedaa-1765693/

Podcast Overview:

[00:02:08] LLC is versatile and flexible, great starting point.

[00:04:05] C corporations face double taxation, avoidable.

[00:08:46] Contradictory professional advice inspires DIY expertise.

[00:12:58] Missed thousands by not understanding tax rules.

[00:16:15] Criteria for choosing a creative tax accountant.

[00:20:56] Legal and tax advantages vary by state.

[00:24:36] Remote hiring hindered by California payroll laws.

[00:28:30] Expanding yoga Pilates studio faced challenges.

[00:30:43] Started a corporation to house income streams.

[00:33:53] Entrepreneur shut down a Texan restaurant. Partnered and consults for other eateries.

[00:39:49] Vending business requires home run locations.

[00:42:17] "Create contract with duties to avoid misunderstandings."

[00:45:07] Tax savings and asset protection tactics for entrepreneurs.

[00:48:40] Legal tips for avoiding IRS audits.

[00:52:15] Tips on travel saving and corporation secrets.

[00:54:08] Business podcast with guest Michael Wedaa.

Business Podcast Transcription:

James [00:00:02]:

You have found Authentic Business Adventures, the business program that brings you the struggle stories and triumphant successes of business owners across the land. We're locally underwritten by the Bank of Sun Prairie. If you're listening for the or looking for the downloadable podcast episodes, you can go to drawincustomers.com and click on that fancy little podcast link. My name is James Ketaman and Authentic Business Adventures is welcoming slash preparing to learn from Michael Weta, the incorporation specialist of Augmentus business solutions, author of Corporation and LLC Secrets, which he's gonna share more here today, teacher at UCLA on corporations and LLCs, and speaker at business events across the nation. So needless to say, we have an expert in the room here with Corporations and LLCs. So Michael, how are you doing today?

Michael Wedaa [00:00:50]:

I'm doing very well, James. I'm glad to be here. So yeah, thanks for being on the show. It is so interesting. It's very timely

James [00:00:57]:

that this is going on because I was just at an event 2 days ago, and somebody was giving some advice, I'll use advice air quotes, about LLC. And they're like, nah. And I was like, oh, I don't know if that's correct. So how about we just start, so people that may or may not know, business owners, entrepreneurs, people that are looking to become 1 of the 2, can you just let us know what is an LLC to start?

Michael Wedaa [00:01:25]:

Sure, it stands for Limited Liability Company. And the best way to describe it in a short way is that it's kind of a looser form of a corporation. So it does provide some tax advantages and it does provide some asset protections. It just doesn't have as much legal precedence as a corporation because corporations have been around for hundreds of years and the LLC has only been around since the 70s.

Michael Wedaa [00:01:48]:

Oh, they're fairly new. I mean, relatively new. Yeah, they're very new entities. All right. Interesting. So, just consider it as a less formal version of a corporation. There's not as much paperwork to upkeep and

James [00:01:58]:

it's a little bit weaker, but not significant enough to avoid. All right. And tell us about the goal that someone would be trying to achieve by starting or creating an LLC.

Michael Wedaa [00:02:08]:

Sure. So, an LLC basically is a good entity because it's the most versatile. So, for someone who's getting started, a lot of questions are, hey, what's the difference between S-corp, a C-corp, an LLC, which one's right for me? And an LLC is a good starting point because it gives you the most flexibility. So you can start off with an LLC. And once you start making a little bit more money, you can tell the IRS to tax your LLC as an S-corp. So you'll get some of the tax benefits of an S-corp without having to shut down the LLC and form a new entity. That costs a lot of money to do in some cases. And you can also have your LLC taxed as a C-corp once you get to a certain point. So a good path to follow in general. Yeah. A good path to follow in general, and it depends on your situation. So, this is like a lot of past clients, but it doesn't fit for everybody, is to start with an LLC. And when you start making a chunk of money, have it switched to an S-corp, have it taxed as an S-corp. And then when you get up close to the $200, 000 profit range, switch to a C-corp so you can take advantage of that flat tax. Interesting. Tell me about the flat tax, because I've done the steps LLC to S-corp.

James [00:03:14]:

No problem, super easy, Accountants work their magic. Yes. But I guess I didn't even know that moving to a C-corp was an option.

Michael Wedaa [00:03:21]:

Yes, absolutely it is. So what happens is you could just file a piece of paper with the IRS that tells them to tax your LLC as a C-corp. And right currently the flat tax of 21% is what C-corps get taxed at. All right. And the reason that's good to switch once you hit about $200, 000 is the S-corp and the LLC are taxed at the personal income tax rate, which goes all the way up to 38%. And so, when you start hitting that 21% tax bracket, that's about the time that you want to switch over to the C-Corp. So you can save money. You can save about 17%

James [00:03:55]:

on income tax. Does that move into the double taxation that some people have to deal with the corporations have to deal with? So with C corporations

Michael Wedaa [00:04:05]:

have double taxation as corporations do not. And for those listening, just a quick run on that is that if you have 100, 000 in profit in your C corporation, you're going to get taxed at the corporate level. And then you pay it out as a dividend to the personal side and you get taxed again on the income side on the personal side. But a lot of people tell you avoid C-course for that reason, but there's so many legal tricks that you can use to make sure that you don't get legally, or that you don't get taxed twice. A couple of them, yeah, a couple of them offhand is pay yourself a paycheck. That means you're only getting taxed once. You're also allowed to leave a reasonable amount of money in the corporation without paying it out as dividends because you need to reserve it for future use. So, if I made $2 million this year, leaving $2 million in the corporation wouldn't fly. Right? Right. Sure. But if I left $500, 000 in there because there were some major purchases coming up, As long as I can justify, then it only gets taxed once. So, there's many, many ways that you can avoid double taxation. All right. That's an issue that we had even this past tax year. Since pandemic, you've been stocking money away just for that, what the hell just happened kind of moment.

James [00:05:18]:

Yes. And but you still get taxed on that like thanks for saving money you're a responsible adult. We're going to take a chunk of that because we're the government kind of thing. Yes. Yeah. You get roads and schools but we're going to take a good handsome percentage of that. Yeah, it felt like 1 of those like, I feel like I would have been better if I just would have spent this recklessly. The business. You essentially get a discount on whatever it is you're buying because you're not getting taxed on it because it's an expense kind of thing.

Michael Wedaa [00:05:51]:

Very true. So it feels like I'm getting punished for being a grown up here. Yeah, that's kind of what it is sometimes. That's what it feels like. So

James [00:06:00]:

Anyways, when you are talking to, let's say the person, I don't, this particular individual was talking about someone that was, had their own business doing marketing. So they're essentially a solopreneur kind of thing and not necessarily looking at the time to grow with employees and all that jazz. So is the idea there, this person specifically suggested

Michael Wedaa [00:06:25]:

forget an LLC, you don't need it, it's a waste of time and money. And I don't know what your thoughts are on that. So it can be a waste of time and money for those who aren't making enough money yet. Let's say they just started and they're working, let's say someone's working a job and they have a side hustle and they're bringing in maybe 2000 a year. If you form an LLC at that point, it's going to be a wash as far as the annual fees you got to pay. You also have to pay an accountant to file the taxes for it. And you're not going to have a lot of money left over. But I tell people, once you get above 5, 000 or typically even better, once you get close to the 10, 000 point, it starts to make sense for someone to form an LLC. So the person who said that wasn't wrong, it sounds like they kind of made a blanket statement that almost anyone Very broad. Doesn't need it. Very broad. And I would disagree with that because if you're a marketer and you get sued, then your personal assets can come up under,

James [00:07:18]:

they can be vulnerable to a lawsuit. So, absolutely,...