Authentic Business Adventures Podcast

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,...

Rocky Lalvani - Profit Comes First

Most of us are in business for the same reasons, we want more money, more time and to enjoy our work more.  But often we end up with less money, spend more time working and blindly hope things will get better soon.  But it doesn't have to be that way.

You see, money is a tool.  Like any tool, the more you know how to use it, the better it will serve you.

Rocky Lalvani is a financial expert that helps business owners and bussing entrepreneurs learn how to put profit first in their business.  This is the way to make sure you actually make some cash in your business.

Listen as Rocky explains the Profit First system and details some thoughts on money that will be the paradigm shift you may need to get your money to work for you, instead of the other way around.

Enjoy!

Visit Rocky at: https://profitcomesfirst.com/

Podcast Overview:

[00:04:45] Building wealth, teaching financial literacy, Profit First.

[00:11:41] Business math equation, profit comes first.

[00:16:13] Allocate profit, pay self last, prevent overspending.

[00:21:12] "Multiple bank accounts prevent self-theft."

[00:26:21] Portion control and frugality lead to profit.

[00:33:33] Money mindset shapes our financial success.

[00:38:39] Taking out a loan to buy truck.

[00:43:35] Businesses often overlook hidden expenses.

[00:50:11] "Save before spending, learn to negotiate"

[00:56:03] Money buys freedom, not happiness.

[01:00:54] Podcast promotes business and profitability.

 

James [00:00:02]:

You have found authentic business adventures, the business program that brings you the struggle stories and training successes to business owners across the land. Downloadable audio episodes can be found in the podcast link found at drawincustomers.com. We are locally underwritten by the Bank of Sun Prairie. Today, we're welcoming slash preparing to learn from Rocky Lovanni, owner of Profit Comes First. And I gotta say, I'm excited with Rocky on the show because when he reached out to me and mentioned this book, Profit First, I'm like, that is an incredible book. So Rocky, how are you doing today? I am doing awesome. Thank you so much for having me on. I'm excited to have you on just to talk about more of what you have going on specifically in regards to this Profit First and all that jazz. Cause I guess in the world of business, when you're an entrepreneur, the goal, or at least 1 of the goals, is to have a little cash to be able to afford to do some fun things and to pay for your mistakes, I suppose, is a little part of that as well.

Rocky [00:01:01]:

Absolutely. That's a big part of it. And honestly, I'm shocked at how many business owners don't look at their financials. Oh my gosh.

James [00:01:10]:

Yeah. I was just talking with my accountant the other day, tax time. And I said, I like to think that my stuff is pretty organized, but it probably be a little bit more organized. But many, if not most of the other business owners that I've met and chatted with, coached, that are, I would say, sub 10 to 20 employees, they're shoe boxes of paperwork. They don't even know what's going on. So I only, I just wonder like, if the IRS comes and says you're audited, I feel like for some people, they're gonna be like, good, you figured it out. Cause I have no idea what's going on. I don't think that's how it works. OK,

Rocky [00:01:50]:

I think the IRS is going to say bring us to us in an organized fashion and get us all this stuff. And if you can't, we're just going to tax you. All right. All right.

James [00:02:01]:

But it's interesting because I mean, so I don't know. Fair, totally fair. It just seems like a lot of people, like you said, are somewhat oblivious to whether they're even profitable or not. Money's coming in. Money's going out. People are getting paid. But to know if their business is successful versus just cash flowing, I don't know that a lot of people actually know or even though there's a difference.

Rocky [00:02:25]:

And that's a shame. I think more often we see sometimes the opposite. You know, they say I'm profitable, but why don't I have any cash?

James [00:02:34]:

That's I said that my first year in business, I remember my accountant said, here's your tax bill. Yeah. And I'm like, what am I getting taxed on? I don't have any money. And it was, oh, my gosh, That first year, that first tax bill was a huge education. Oh yeah. Because then I'm like, I'm having to scrape up to pay taxes on money that is not in my bank account. I don't even know where it is. It's just. I spent it apparently. Yeah, I didn't have a show for it, but.

Rocky [00:03:11]:

It was going it happens all the time, I think, And for me, it was a little surprising until I realized most people go into business to do what they love. And accounting wasn't on the list

James [00:03:25]:

of things that you love.

Rocky [00:03:28]:

Fair. You know, for most people, it's an afterthought. And depending on where you're at in the business, you know, if you don't have a good bookkeeper and you're not paying attention to what's going on and you don't have systems to capture everything, or, you know, a lot of them are a mess that. Their personal life and their business financials get a little bit mixed up, so they don't even have total clarity. What's personal, what's business, separate bank accounts, separate credit cards, all of that kind of stuff. If you don't do that up front, you have a mess on your hands. Yeah, that's very fair. Very fair. I was taught very early and I don't even remember who taught it to me.

James [00:04:15]:

I guess there were some classes that I took before I first started my business that described the LLC and S-corporations and all that kind of stuff and said, keep everything separate because that way, well, they're in their little pillars. I mean, you know how to keep track of what and don't dare mix them because from a liability standpoint, that opens the door. Pierce is a veil, I think is the saying as the attorneys go. Sure. So, how did you get involved in this whole profit first jam?

Rocky [00:04:45]:

So, I've always been interested in building wealth. So I was always learning about money, learning about how do I save it, how do I grow it, how do I make it work. And I spent a lot of time on the personal finance side. And throughout that process, I was always like, why aren't more people wealthy, because this isn't that difficult. And I came to learn that most people don't talk about money. They don't talk about it as kids with their parents. They don't talk about money in school, right? They don't they aren't taught how to build wealth. So that was 1 problem. And I was spending a lot of time there. And then during that period, it was brought to my attention that business owners weren't looking at their P&Ls. I'm like, how do you run a business and not look at your P&L? How do you know if they're profitable? And that's where this whole kind of aha came of, oh, my business owners aren't doing this. Here is an opportunity with the skills I have, what I really enjoy doing, and kind of partnering and making it work for them. And it was through that, and through that whole journey that I found Profit First. And when I talked to Profit First, I was like, I've been doing this my whole life. I separate my money as soon as it comes in and I put it in different places for different purposes on my personal side. And I said, this is great. I know how to do this. I don't technically need the training, but I did. We go through like 6 months of that and taking tests and always making sure that we know how to apply it. But what Mike did was bring the language of pay yourself first, of give every dollar a job, of being disciplined with it from the personal side to the business side. And when I saw that there was a great opportunity to help people and do what I love, then it was a perfect match.

James [00:06:42]:

So when you said the personal finance side, were you in as a

Rocky [00:06:47]:

salesperson, essentially from personal finance side, or this was your own personal finances? It was my own personal finances because I learned very early on that most people who were financial advisors don't know anything about finances, they're salespeople, and they're selling you crap that doesn't serve you at all. Oh my gosh, thank you so much for saying that. That had to be said. Oh, that's perfect. And I just, I refuse to be part of that. I didn't want anything to do with it. And, you know, back then nobody was talking, you really was hard to get people to understand money, talk about it, learn about it, or even create a market where you can make money at it. So here's the bottom line. I couldn't build a business around teaching people personal finance in the sense that everybody wants to get rich this weekend, and they'll give you all your money to do so. But nobody wants to learn how what Warren Buffett says is get rich slowly. And that's the problem. And I realized that I had an uphill struggle. And even if I could build a business, the economics of it didn't work with the way I wanted to do things. So, you know, you take it. This is comes down to basic business. If you can't figure out your business on the back of a napkin and pencil it out, then you've got a problem. And Most people don't do that up front.

James [00:08:18]:

Yeah, very true. Whether it's pricing or volume that they have to push through or knowing what their expenses are or will be. Correct. Incredible. I wanna say It's arrogance and ignorance kind of thing.

Rocky [00:08:33]:

I don't know if it's arrogance. I think there's this mentality out there, if we sell enough, it'll all work out.

James [00:08:40]:

Yeah, I guess you're right, you're right. Maybe arrogance is the wrong word, because I find myself if I have a new idea and I want to go dow

Bryce Henson - CEO of Fit Body Boot Camp

Imagine you have made the leap and become your own boss.  You started your business, built your empire and are doing well.

Then a colleague reaches out to you and asks you to forget all, or most, of that and run their show on a larger scale.  Going back to being an employee.  Would you do it?

Listen as Bryce Henson, the CEO of Fit Body Boot Camp details hi entrepreneurial journey and how he finds answers for the next steps to take in his life by keeping focused on his mission.  

Forgetting about the business side of things, stepping away from our pride and making sure what you are doing is moving you to your ultimate goal, whatever that may be, is a huge lesson we can all learn from. 

Enjoy!

Visit Bryce at: https://brycehenson.com/

James [00:00:01]:

You have found Authentic Business Adventures, the business program that brings you the struggle, stories and triumph successes of business owners across the land. Downloadable audio episodes can be found in the podcast link. Fun to draw in customers.com, we are locally underwritten by the bank of Sun Prairie. My name is James Caterman. And today we are welcoming, preparing to learn from Bryce Henson, the chief executive officer of Fit Body Boot Camp. So Bryce, how are you doing today?

Bryce [00:00:27]:

James I am doing fantastic. Thanks so much for having me on.

James [00:00:31]:

I'm excited to hear because we're at the time of year where I feel like New Year's resolutions maybe fell off a little bit for some people, and I suppose for a lot of it, that's kind of your world. People always get that. I'm going to get in shape January 2 and then I don't know, march, April rolls around. Maybe they're just like, you know, the coach is cozy. So tell me, Fit Body Boot Camp for the people that don't know, can you just tell us a little history? What is it? Yeah, totally.

Bryce [00:00:59]:

So we are the fastest indoor fitness boot camp franchise. We're based in North America and specifically Los Angeles. We have hundreds of locations throughout North America, primarily in the US. But also in Canada as well. And we really specialize in fitness and fat loss for the everyday person that just has a wife or a spouse and kids and busy with work. And that typically hasn't made a huge fitness is a huge priority. Maybe they haven't worked out ever or been since high school, but they know they need a change and they can come to our program. And really what we do is specialize is personal training in a group setting so we can get that one on one feel, but for a fraction of the cost of what it would cost a normal personal trainer. And that's really what we specialize. And I guess, big picture to put a bonus, our mission is to inspire fitness and to change lives every day. And way more than a tagline, this is our life's work and we're super passionate about it because we have our work cut out for us with the obesity epidemic, with nearly 50% of our population statistically obese. So we're here to serve. And that's really a little bit about Fit Body Boot Camp.

James [00:01:59]:

Wow. Yeah. It's crazy when you think that percentage, especially going through a pandemic where health and that kind of thing was center stage. Yeah, I feel like it's kind of weird how the fitness I guess you could argue lifestyle or whatever you want to call it, where that would be I would consider that to be kind of frontline. Number one, a way to avoid getting sick is to be healthy, but they kind of like close the gyms. Fit was kind of one of those.

Bryce [00:02:30]:

Wild and I mean, shoot, we could talk for hours on that I'm not going to go too deep. However, to that point, what I hope and really what I want to do today james and my mission is to change the conversation because I think what we saw is regulations and government probably with the best intentions, but coming down and really having a victim mentality approach. And really, at the end of the day, we need to change the conversation, empower ourselves, and realize we can do and we can take care of ourselves far more than we think we can. And it's time to have some personal responsibility to take back control of our health and fitness. And it was really challenging, especially our industry. We're getting people healthy and really healthy immune systems, fight viruses, and we faced a lot of challenges through the last few years. But the good news is that conversation is changing and again, passionate to continue to march in that way.

James [00:03:19]:

Yeah. Now, from your point of view, and this is probably going off the beaten path of business a little bit, but I feel like there's places like yours around. They're fun, you get to meet people, have a good time, they're all in the same working out mentality. And there's an enjoyment to that, at least from my end, there is. I wonder why aren't more people into that, from your point of view?

Bryce [00:03:46]:

Well, I mean, that's why I'm here, right? To inspire people. But my job is to give a little kick in the booty to someone who's interested, knows they need to change, but for whatever reason, hesitancy and concerned about taking that next step. But you're right, James. What? We really kind of talk to our franchise partners and coaches. People come to us for the result. They typically need to lose weight and feel better and have better mobility change the nutrition, really get in a better positive environments. They come to us for a result, but they really stay for the community and the relationships. And that's really the power of coaching. So to your point, when you haven't been working out in a very long time and you're nervous, you're scared, but then you come into a very welcoming environment through coaching, both fitness and movement and also nutrition coaching. And then you get to meet the coaches and you get to build relationships with other clients. It really is kind of a very fun environment and that's why people stay with us for the long term. So that's a huge fundamental aspect of our program here at Fitbody.

James [00:04:42]:

Nice. So did you start Fitbody or did you?

Bryce [00:04:46]:

I didn't actually.

James [00:04:47]:

The story about how you got involved with them.

Bryce [00:04:49]:

Yeah, well, I'll actually give you the backstory. My origin story in terms of how he got involved in fitness. Before I do, I'll answer a direct question. I am not the founder of Fit Body. My dear friend, business partner and mentor of mine named Beethros Coolian is the founder. But I am the CEO and I assumed the role back in 2021. But really before I even started as a franchise partner in 2012, I'll actually give you the origin story and we were talking offline because you're a guy from the Midwest and I'm a guy from the Midwest as well. And I'll granted I've lived in California for about 20 years, but I grew up in the state of Michigan and nice little childhood. We know this to be true, the Midwesterners are great people, salt of the earth people, but I think one thing to be sure, not the fitness capital of the world. So when I grew up, no, Wisconsin, skinny, right, michigan is the same way. But growing up from the culture as this is granted, 30 years ago in the Midwest, but also too, my family comes from very humble beginnings for first World standards. So we used to run out of money before. We used to run out a month. And let's face it, fast food and Taco Bell specifically is more affordable, at least in the front end. Certainly has long term consequences in the back end. But ultimately with my mom being a single mom of raising three kids, that was kind of our nutritional protocol for the better part of 15 years. And a fortuitous situation happened. Actually. I got an internship in Los Angeles, California that's turned to a full time job and I was 21 years young, just graduated from school and moved to La. And I was excited to be in California. The palm trees, the beaches, all that California has to offer. But also when you're 21 years young and you're 3000 miles from home and you're not fit, it could also be the plastic capital of the world. Oh, sure, I had a little bit more, a few more dark days than good the first year and a half or so living for those reasons and more. And really when you break it down, I just didn't have the vibrancy, the energy, the confidence, the fitness in my life. But fortunately, good buddy of mine from the Midwest as well moved to Southern California and he was my fit fitness mentor. His name was Adam. I'll tell you a little bit about him. He was not on the COVID of Men's Health, but he could have been. He had the six pack ABS, the glistening muscles. All the girls loved him. And I looked up to that. So we ended up living together and I finally mustered up enough courage to say, adam, can you teach me a little bit about this fitness thing? And he turned to me, Bryce, and he's dude, I thought you'd never ask. He said, we're going to do this, we're going to do this right. And I need 90 days of your commitment. You're going to train what I want you to train. You're going to eat what I want you to eat. And after that period of time, you can decide for yourself if you want to continue. That way you don't waste your time, my time, because you saw how many buddies at college used to ask me how to get fit and how many actually stuck with it. Very few. So that was kind of my introduction to coaching and really what Adam did over the better part of two years, but hyper focused over six months. He introduced me to lifting weights, he introduced me to circuit training, he introduced me to clean nutrition. But most importantly, he introduced me to coaching and accountability. Because, James, and to all your audience, I would love to look you guys in the eye and say, I am so awesome. I would have done this by myself,...

Ryne Ogren - Private Business Investor

Everyone has their own journey in life.  It can take you to places you never anticipated.  With Ryne Ogren, it has been no different.

Ryne was a professional baseball player and is now helping investors find businesses to invest in. 

Listen as Ryne explains how he finds small businesses with owners that are looking to exit and need a buyer, investor or some outside management help to get the business growing.  Every business owner needs to bow out eventually, and Ryne is in the business of finding ways to help business owners do just that.

Enjoy!

Visit Ryne at: https://www.ryneogren.com/

James Kademan [00:00:00]:

You have found Authentic Business Adventures, the business program that brings you the struggle, stories, and triumphs and successes of business owners across the land. We are locally underwritten by the bank of sun prairie. If you would like downloadable audio episodes of the podcast for free, you can go to drawincustomers.com. Today we are welcoming, preparing to learn from Ryan Ogren, the founder of E, to so, Ryan, how is it going today?

Ryne Ogren [00:00:27]:

Yeah, well, so I'm not the founder.

James Kademan [00:00:30]:

Of E two E. I'm sorry. Well, let's change that. Okay, let me change that.

Ryne Ogren [00:00:35]:

Founder of Rhino LLC.

James Kademan [00:00:40]:

I don't see that email. How do you spell that?

Ryne Ogren [00:00:43]:

It's R-H-Y-N-O-L-C. But my real title is I'm a private business investor.

James Kademan [00:00:51]:

All right.

Ryne Ogren [00:00:52]:

Yeah.

James Kademan [00:00:53]:

Private business investor. That's a cool name.

Ryne Ogren [00:00:55]:

Professional baseball player. Private business investor.

James Kademan [00:00:59]:

All right, got you. Okay. Professional. All right. What is the e? Two e thing?

Ryne Ogren [00:01:17]:

So that's Sir Darren Jacqueline's fundraising event. And so I just walked up to him at a random M and a conference. I asked him, I was like, hey, what should I be looking to do here? And lo and behold, he just took me under his wing and looped me in on this cause. So Elevate to Educate is an arm of the Ly Two NK Foundation, which is helping to build schools in Africa. And Elevate to Educate is an arm of that, a fundraising arm of that to raise money through hiking fundraisers.

James Kademan [00:01:51]:

Got you. All right. Got it. Okay, so we can talk about more of that when we get going here.

Ryne Ogren [00:01:56]:

Yes.

James Kademan [00:01:57]:

So let's just say we have Ryan Ogren, the founder of Rhino LLC, professional baseball player, as well as I love this, the private business investor. So, Ryan, how is it going today?

Ryne Ogren [00:02:11]:

Good, James. Thanks for having me on.

James Kademan [00:02:13]:

Yeah, thanks for being on the show here. This is cool. You have quite the story. It sounds like all kinds of things going on. Professional baseball player into business. You don't hear about that too often.

Ryne Ogren [00:02:26]:

Yeah, so I'm not a professional baseball player at the moment. I retired.

James Kademan [00:02:29]:

Right. But we're past tense, right?

Ryne Ogren [00:02:31]:

Yes.

James Kademan [00:02:32]:

Great.

Ryne Ogren [00:02:33]:

That's interesting. It's been a fun ride. I've had a lot of great mentors along the way and just trying to do my best every day, I guess you could say.

James Kademan [00:02:41]:

Sure. So, Wayne, let's start with the whole business thing. Well, I guess business versus baseball was the goal, to get into baseball, and then the business thing just happened in your lap or maybe vice versa. I don't know.

Ryne Ogren [00:02:54]:

Yeah. So my dream growing up was always baseball. If you talk to anybody that was around me coming up, I was baseball all the time. And while when I finally accomplished my dream, I kind of started to think, well, what's next?

James Kademan [00:03:12]:

Sure.

Ryne Ogren [00:03:13]:

And every offseason baseball, you only play when it's warm out. So every offseason, you have to find something to do and I started doing some starting some businesses in the offseason. I had a wood shop and then had a drop shipping company during spring trainings. And so it just kind of morphed into this small business. And then as soon as I started getting out of baseball, it turned into investing.

James Kademan [00:03:40]:

All right, and what got you out of baseball? Because I imagine if that's your dream, you want to keep running with it, or imagine you can also advance within the baseball. I don't know that world very well at all.

Ryne Ogren [00:03:50]:

Right, okay, well, I'll try and give you some background. So I played one year with the Seattle Mariners, and then I got traded to the Baltimore Orioles. And so when I got traded, I was a shortstop, and the Orioles converted me into a catcher. And so as I was going through that transition into a new position, the new coaches and everyone trying to get their hands on me, and now I'm learning something completely from scratch, which is just you have to start from square one, and eventually you have to start over. And there's new guys getting drafted coming in, and it's very competitive. So I wasn't even playing my position anymore, and they had new guys coming in, so I just kind of figured, you know what? My business is starting to take off. Let me just focus on that. I've already accomplished what I came here to do.

James Kademan [00:04:45]:

All right. I'm just curious about the money thing, because everybody assumes that professional players are making just boku cash, right? Like, they just back up trucks and dump cash. But when you're first starting out, I don't think that's the case, is it?

Ryne Ogren [00:05:00]:

So you have the draft, right? You have the MLB amateurs draft, and so that's when you make most of your money, and then you go to the minor leagues, and you don't really have that much money after that. And then if you're fortunate enough to make it all the way up to the big leagues, then you have those big checks. But even then, they'll send big leaguers up and down, up and down, up and down, and they won't even get to collect the full check of minimum.

James Kademan [00:05:29]:

Wow. All right. So there's a point where you're just like, you know what I'm beating up my body for. What kind of thing?

Ryne Ogren [00:05:36]:

Yeah, well, I was actually catching guys throwing 100 miles an hour and throwing dirt. And after that, after seeing it was just kind of like, okay. You kind of had a feeling that it wasn't meant to be at this point. And at that point in time, I was like, all right, let's spend this time wisely. Let's use this time to invest in our future. So at that time, I knew I had to make that decision, and it was tough, but made it, and it was the right thing for me.

James Kademan [00:06:08]:

Nice. Yeah, I imagine that would be a tough that's your dream, you accomplish it, and then you're kind of like, I feel like this. You get the ferrari or you get the corvette or whatever super speedy fast car you want. Then you're like, now what? Speeding tickets from here on out. I imagine my hand is hurting. Just thinking of catching 100 miles an hour fastball.

Ryne Ogren [00:06:31]:

Yeah, no, it definitely gets on you quick.

James Kademan [00:06:35]:

All right.

Ryne Ogren [00:06:35]:

And the scary part is blocking, because they expect you to keep the ball in front of home plate. You are, as a professional catcher, you're supposed to be able to do that. Guys have been catching their entire lives are able to do that. Someone that's been catching for two months, that is definitely an interesting spot to be in.

James Kademan [00:06:59]:

All right. Interesting. So, from when we look at it a little bit analytical, like decision making, just like you do in business, when you're looking at what the coaches are choosing or deciding to do with you, did you understand why they're making those choices, or did you think, you guys are making a wrong call here?

Ryne Ogren [00:07:16]:

So, on paper, and their thinking was spot on. I wasn't too fast to stay at shortstop. I had a great arm, and I had great hands and great footwork. So that makes sense to be behind the plate. And plus, to play infield in the big leagues, you have to hit a lot of home runs. That's just where the game's going. And unfortunately, I didn't really have that crazy power. My stats didn't show it, at least, but even then, I didn't think I had that crazy power.

James Kademan [00:07:48]:

All right.

Ryne Ogren [00:07:50]:

Catcher just makes it made sense on paper. The timing was really tough on me because they told me at the beginning of spring training and gave me two months to learn it before the season. So I was kind of like, okay, I'm already up against it here, but let's just give it our best shot, and we'll see what happens.

James Kademan [00:08:08]:

All right. Interesting. So let's go with to that shifting. When you're like, okay, no more baseball. No more professional baseball. You probably play it still for fun kind of thing yeah. With your businesses and stuff like that. Did you just put your businesses on hold while you were playing ball?

Ryne Ogren [00:08:27]:

Well, my very first business was a wood shop that I'd run every offseason. And that wood shop was actually very successful. It was just a nice wood shop. When I say very successful, it was just me, and it worked for me, so I could work whenever I want. And that's how I made my money to live in the offseason. Didn't do really any advertising for it besides just instagram referrals, and that's how I got all the business for it. And that taught me how to run a business. That taught me every process you need to know....

Lori Hackman - Olive and Herb

In the mad rush we almost always seem to be in, we often neglect one of the most important of our five senses.  We love looking at beautiful things, appreciate a good handshake and listen to music almost daily.  But when was the last time you took the time to appreciate the taste of the food that you eat?

Lori Hackman owns Olive and Herb, a local retail store offering Olive Oil and Vinegar in a medley of flavors in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin.  What may surprise you is that to visit a store like this is to open up your flavor palette to new and delicious worlds.

Listen as Lori explains how she got started in the olive oil business and how she has gained a loyal following of people that appreciate all that her store has to offer.

Enjoy!

Visit Lori at: https://oliveherbco.com/

James Kademan [00:00:00]:

You. 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. Downloadable podcast episodes can be found at the podcast link found at drawincustomers.com. And today we're welcoming slash preparing to learn from Lori over at Olive and Herb in Sun Prairie. We're actually in her store, which is super cool. So, Lori, how's it going today?

Lori [00:00:27]:

Great. We have a beautiful day.

James Kademan [00:00:29]:

Oh, my gosh. I'm glad because we've got some sun on us here as we're doing this. So we're surrounded by I know there's probably a special name to this. I want to say Joe, but that's not that exactly.

Lori [00:00:40]:

They are called Fusis.

James Kademan [00:00:42]:

Fusis. Fusis.

Lori [00:00:43]:

So they're made in Italy, and they hold olive oils and balsamic vinegars.

James Kademan [00:00:50]:

All right.

Lori [00:00:51]:

So right now we specialize in olive oils and balsamic vinegars, all direct from Italy.

James Kademan [00:00:58]:

Oh, wow. Okay. Excellent.

Lori [00:01:01]:

And the olive oils are all from one producer in Italy.

James Kademan [00:01:06]:

Wow. Yeah. All right.

Lori [00:01:07]:

It's crazy. Well, I have to taste them later.

James Kademan [00:01:10]:

Yeah.

Lori [00:01:11]:

A man named Adriano and his family live about an hour south of Rome.

James Kademan [00:01:15]:

Okay.

Lori [00:01:15]:

And they actually grow the olives, make the olive oil and send it directly to us. There's no middleman.

James Kademan [00:01:20]:

Holy cow.

Lori [00:01:21]:

Yeah.

James Kademan [00:01:22]:

So do you mind giving me a little history lesson on olive oil?

Lori [00:01:25]:

Oh, go ahead.

James Kademan [00:01:26]:

Because I look at oil from, like, vegetable oil and coconut oil and all the oils of the world and I always wonder who was the first person to squeeze that.

Lori [00:01:37]:

Exactly.

James Kademan [00:01:39]:

An olive. A little tiny thing.

Lori [00:01:41]:

And you'll find artifacts popping up all the time, like 2000 years ago and earlier. And even that, they found a piece of a carafe, a pottery that had remnants of olive oil in it.

James Kademan [00:01:58]:

Oh, my gosh.

Lori [00:01:59]:

It's a tree. That's kind of a smallish tree. But they can grow for hundreds of years. Typically. The trees themselves do.

James Kademan [00:02:15]:

Wow.

Lori [00:02:16]:

Yeah. The oldest known olive tree that they know about in Italy they think is about 2000 years old.

James Kademan [00:02:22]:

Holy cow.

Lori [00:02:23]:

It's still living, it's still producing olives. So it's a really sustainable and it grows in kind of Mediterranean kind of arid locations. You'll find them in the Mediterranean, but also in California. Now in the United States. They're starting to grow them in Texas and Arizona. Olive trees. But once you plant an olive tree, it can grow with very little water for a long time.

James Kademan [00:02:52]:

Interesting.

Lori [00:02:53]:

It's kind of cool that way. You find a lot of references in the Bible about the olive branch okay. And anointed with oil, that type of thing. All right.

James Kademan [00:03:04]:

So when you get an olive from Italy or olive oil from Italy versus an olive from Arizona or Texas or, I don't know, France, Guam, who knows? Can you taste the difference?

Lori [00:03:16]:

You can.

James Kademan [00:03:17]:

Okay.

Lori [00:03:17]:

For example, I've tried olive oil from Greece, which is another large olive oil producing company in the country, and it's very kind of fruity, so it all gathers that from the soil and the climate and the care. So it does have a particular flavor. And Adriano actually blends all of our flavors specifically for us.

James Kademan [00:03:43]:

Like I said, I didn't even look at the tags to see what do we have? Roasted almond, roasted walnut, avocado.

Lori [00:03:49]:

And then those lime against the wall are specialty oils.

James Kademan [00:03:56]:

Okay.

Lori [00:03:56]:

So those are not from Italy, but they are also very well made, acceler, pressed. So three are from California, one is from France, the hazelnut. And then one is from Japan, the sesame.

James Kademan [00:04:12]:

All right. And what do you do with the hazelnut oil?

Lori [00:04:15]:

Hazelnut oil, walnut oil. Super interesting. What I found out is hazelnut is the most popular nut around the world. Really?

James Kademan [00:04:24]:

Yeah.

Lori [00:04:26]:

I didn't know that either. And then here we see it maybe like hazelnut flavored coffee.

James Kademan [00:04:32]:

Yeah.

Lori [00:04:32]:

But we don't really see it many other places. But so when that particular company, they pick the fruit or the seed, and they toast it. All right. And that brings out more of the flavor, and then they press it, and out comes the oil. You can see kind of labor intensive, but it's a big reason why it's only mechanical process. There's no added, like, solvents or anything.

James Kademan [00:05:07]:

Okay.

Lori [00:05:07]:

So it makes it much healthier. And in fact, extra virgin olive oil, the extra virgin means it's the first pressing of the olives. So when they pick the olives within 24 hours, they should turn them into olive oil.

James Kademan [00:05:23]:

Okay.

Lori [00:05:24]:

And then in Italy, they harvest about once a year, which is in the fall.

James Kademan [00:05:29]:

Wow. Okay. Have a good try.

Lori [00:05:32]:

Exactly. They pick the olives. Basically, they press it, and then they use a centrifuge to spin out the oil. All right. Yeah. And so olives can be pressed a number of times. So extra virgin means it's the first pressing of the olives.

James Kademan [00:05:53]:

Okay. All right.

Lori [00:05:55]:

It has the highest quality and the most flavor and the most health benefits.

James Kademan [00:06:02]:

Interesting.

Lori [00:06:03]:

Yes. All we carry are extra virgin olive oils, and we have about 16 varieties. We have four.

James Kademan [00:06:10]:

Holy cow.

Lori [00:06:11]:

Plain olive oils. Just the different varieties of olives gives them their flavor, and they can be from mild to medium to robust. And those are kind of used for different cooking. Some people just prefer the different flavors.

James Kademan [00:06:30]:

Okay.

Lori [00:06:31]:

And so we encourage you when you come in to try, and then if you like it, we'll pour it fresh for you.

James Kademan [00:06:38]:

All right.

Lori [00:06:38]:

You know, it's this exact same thing that you just tried, but for example, you might want a very mild olive oil on your salad.

James Kademan [00:06:47]:

Okay.

Lori [00:06:48]:

But you might want a medium or robust, depending on what you're cooking. Say you're cooking steaks, potatoes. Yeah. You want something that can stand up to heat a little bit more.

James Kademan [00:07:00]:

Okay.

Lori [00:07:00]:

Dipping bread a little bit more flavor, because bread really soaks up a lot of flavor.

James Kademan [00:07:06]:

All right.

Lori [00:07:07]:

Yeah.

James Kademan [00:07:07]:

I was just going to ask you, what do you do with olive oil, exactly?

Lori [00:07:10]:

Olive oil. Super interesting. So, of course, salads, okay.

James Kademan [00:07:15]:

Just drizzle it on kind of thing. Yeah.

Lori [00:07:17]:

To make a salad dressing, it's about two parts oil to one part vinegar. Like we have balsamic vinegars or an acid, like a squeeze of lemon.

James Kademan [00:07:28]:

Okay.

Lori [00:07:29]:

So I know it seems like there's so many dressings in the grocery store, but it's actually really easy to make your own dressing and just right on the salad, even you could just pour a little olive oil, a little squeeze of lemon, little salt and pepper.

James Kademan [00:07:45]:

Oh, that's it.

Lori [00:07:46]:

That's it. And then basically, it's really similar for a marinade.

James Kademan [00:07:50]:

All right.

Lori [00:07:51]:

Marinade for meats, for meats, for vegetables. But back to olive oil. What it can be used for sauteing.

James Kademan [00:07:59]:

Okay.

Lori [00:08:00]:

I know extra virgin. We've all been taught growing up that it's too fussy, it's too delicate, so don't heat it. Very high temperature. Sure. But what I've found over the years and what we've experimented with is the higher the quality of olive oil, the higher heat it can withstand. And they've done a lot of studies about that that it actually doesn't break down. So I'm guaranteeing all of our olive oils to about 400 degrees.

James Kademan [00:08:28]:

Oh, that's pretty hot. Okay.

Lori [00:08:29]:

Yeah. So, for example, we'll take the garlic....

Jamie Perez - Beyond Words Productions

Sometimes you find yourself in a great job, or a pretty good job, or maybe even a terrible job.  At some moment, you decide that you don't want to work for someone else anymore, you want to work for yourself.  Naturally, if you're listening to this podcast, you know that is probably a great choice for you.

Jamie Perez, owner of Beyond Words Productions, found herself in a place where her skills were not being utilized or appreciated.  So she took the bold step of going out on her own.  Can you relate?

Listen as Jamie explains why and how she got started in the videography business.  Jamie explains what she has learned and some of her successes, and challenges.  She brings to light both the risks of entrepreneurship, as well as the, often immeasurable, rewards.

Enjoy!

Visit Jamie at: https://www.beyondwordsproductions.com/

Nicole Moll - Box of Balloons

Opportunity is something we often take for granted.  We live a sweet life and don't really keep in mind that not everyone has the resources that we now have.  It may surprise you, but not every child has the opportunity to even have a birthday party.

For a multitude of reasons, the presents, the cake, the friends over singing are just not in the cards for some children.  Because of this, Nicole Moll founded Box of Balloons, a non-profit to help give children the opportunity to have a real kids birthday party.

Listen as Nicole explains why she started Box of Balloons and what she learned along the way with starting this non-profit adventure.

Enjoy!

Visit Nicole at: https://www.boxofballoons.org/

Eric Melchor - Optimonk

Websites are often built as a one size fits all medium to communicate with your potential clients.  But what if you could personalize the experience each visitor has on your website?

On this episode of Authentic Business Adventures, Eric Melchor from Optimonk details how personalization of your website can increase engagement, which is what you're after.

Optimonk is a startup that offers personalization solutions for e-commerce sites. The episode explores the power of micro-engagements and using zero-party data for personalization, as well as the importance of aligning your website's value proposition with your ad's headline. The episode includes some interesting anecdotes from the speakers' past careers, and the importance of letting go of past mistakes and focusing on the good things in life.

The episode is brought to you by Calls On Call and The Bold Business Book.

Enjoy!

Visit Eric at: Optimonk.com

Chris Hanna - Hire 4 Me

On this episode of Authentic Business Adventures, host James Kademan speaks with Chris Hannah, the owner of Hire 4 Me, a company that helps small business owners find the right staff to alleviate the burden of doing everything themselves.

Chris shares his unique perspective on entrepreneurship, hiring, and the value of time. He discusses how his personal experiences led him to create Hire 4 Me, the importance of solving problems in business, and the similarities between poker skills and business skills. Chris also shares insight into the value of flexibility and genuine fulfillment in one's work.

The episode is brought to you by Calls On Call and The Bold Business Book.

Enjoy!

Visit Chris at: Hire4Me.ca

James Kademan [00:00:00]:

You have found authentic business adventures business program that brings struggle, stories and triumphs and successes of business owners across the land. Downloadable audio episodes can be found in the podcast link. Founded drawincustomerscom we are locally underwritten by the bank of Sun Prairie. If you're listening to this on the web, be sure to think of your comment, hit that big ol like button and of course, subscribe. Today we're welcoming, preparing to learn from Chris Hannah, the owner of Hire for Me, Inc. That's four with the number four. And I got to say, Chris, I'm excited to talk to you because in my meeting with my manager today, she tells me, hey, we got some employees that aren't doing so hot. And I imagine that's a common thing for business owners to hear.

Chris Hanna [00:00:46]:

Yes.

James Kademan [00:00:46]:

And I'm like, oh, great, we get to go on this hiring spree again. So that's well, maybe not spree, but we get to hire a couple of people. So, yeah, so tell me, let's just start with what is Hire For Me? And we will just go from there.

Chris Hanna [00:00:58]:

Well, thanks for first having me on the show. Hire for Me is really about how I came up with this business idea. I was talking with a lot of business owners and they were all saying that they're frustrated, they're absolutely miserable because they're doing everything in their own business. They're the chief everyone officer, wearing every single hat, sales, marketing, ops, it finance, you name it, right? And they're like, I wish someone could hire for me because I would give them advice. But they kept saying, I wish someone could hire for me. So I'm driving back from an event and I'm like, I can solve this problem. I can actually go out and I can hire for these small business owners, these solopreneurs, and make their life easier because some people, they just don't have the experience of having hired or trained or really led a team before. But over 20 years, across a variety of industries, I've hired, lead, and promoted over 500 people. So I was like, why don't I just use that skill and that talent in a different way and create a business around it?

James Kademan [00:01:50]:

So you started this. And tell me, ideal client, just describe who is this? Who's coming to you?

Chris Hanna [00:01:57]:

Well, most of the people that I'm supporting are those true solopreneurs. They're the people who are actually already successful. I seem to attract a lot of people who are like, in real estate, but they're people who are looking for customer service, admin, marketing, salespeople. They are doing everything on their own. They're typically a few years into their business, I'd say like between two to five years. They're in their business, but they've gotten to the point where they know that they need to hire, they need to scale, all right? They don't want to do it anymore by themselves or they're losing business because they can't actually fulfill as quick as they possibly could.

James Kademan [00:02:32]:

All right, so today is it as easy as someone coming to you and they're like, hey, Chris, I have XYZ business. Let's just say I'm a plumber. I need another plumber. I can come to you and you'll wave your magic wand and stuff.

Chris Hanna [00:02:47]:

So those are the only roles that I won't do. I don't do trades.

James Kademan [00:02:50]:

Oh, got you.

Chris Hanna [00:02:51]:

Okay. That's definitely not my lane, right? But I will hire any of those other roles that I can definitely hire virtually as much as possible, whereas trades are a little bit more tougher to do. Right. But I will post for the role. I will write it all up. I will poach for the role. I believe in going and hunting for talent, right? Don't just post and pray, but hunt for talent. Promote for the role. And then I interview them and I assess them. And as part of my process, I ask for a video from every application as well.

James Kademan [00:03:17]:

Oh, nice. Okay.

Chris Hanna [00:03:18]:

Right? Because I don't believe in cover letters. I think cover letters are dead. Why don't you get a video? Which is always such a unique thing to ask a video from someone, because then you get to see more about who they are. You get to understand how they communicate, even their creativity level as well. It doesn't have to be super creative, but a video shows so much information, so I use it as part of my process.

James Kademan [00:03:38]:

All right, let's just say a real estate broker comes to you and they're like, hey, we need a few real estate agents. You can find them.

Chris Hanna [00:03:47]:

Yeah, absolutely. So I sit down and I really ask a lot of great questions. And I think it's the poker player in me, but I ask a lot of questions to really understand their business, to understand who they are as a person. Because I'm trying to find someone that's going to fit for them in their leadership style. Because every single person is different. Right. So I'm finding out about who I'm hiring for the business itself, understanding the role, because I'm as hands off as possible. Like, you talk to clients that I've worked with, they basically have the intake call with me, and then a couple of weeks later, I bring them a source of, here's a couple of candidates to take a look at. Let's have an interview together. They're hands off the entire time, so.

James Kademan [00:04:28]:

They can just more or less done for you, all right. Until you show up and say, hey.

Chris Hanna [00:04:33]:

I said, here's two candidates. Let's choose who you think is best. It's those people who obviously don't want to be part of that process, or they're just busy doing other stuff, like, I'll trust you, Chris. Run with it. Hire for me, and then we'll get them in the door. What I added in that helps, though, is onboarding support as well, because one thing to hire, it's another thing to actually retain your people. So you got to train them all retention.

James Kademan [00:04:59]:

You know, it's interesting because I'm looking at the market, the employee market, where it was definitely an employee market or employee driven market the past few years safely. Now, I don't know what your take is, but I feel like it's starting to shift a little bit to the employer side, I guess. Tell me where you're seeing that.

Chris Hanna [00:05:20]:

Yeah, it is shifting to the employer side. Right. There are so many companies that have gone through restructuring, needing to let folks go. You've got layoffs, terminations across all different sectors. Obviously, there's a lot of people who are used to working remotely because of what happened over the last few years, but then those privileges are kind of getting pulled back because employers know they're holding some of the power, which is the unfortunate thing. So this is for this reason, I'm a big believer in that there's an entrepreneurial revolution that's coming where more people are going to get fed up as employees and say, I'm going to go create my own stuff because I don't want to go back into this old school world and thought process that exists.

James Kademan [00:06:00]:

I can appreciate that the concern or maybe not concern, because I guess in the end, I really don't care. It's not mine. I feel like there are a lot of employees that are good or good enough employees that I can also see them having the mentality that I can go off and do it on my own. I've even had employees go off or an employee that went off and screw James the man, I'm going to go off on my own. And then lo and behold, even I mean, we're talking five, six years ago, she went off on her own. She's still struggling. She would have been way better off either staying with me or just finding another job, working for another competitor of ours. She's just not a good business owner. So it's interesting because people are like, I can always start on my own. I know how to do this better. And that's not necessarily the case because I feel like there's a difference. I know there's a difference between having a skill set in whatever trade service you do and then being a good entrepreneur, knowing the business world.

Chris Hanna [00:07:01]:

But I also think that there's this element where some people just want to ultimately try and sometimes they would rather struggle than do a job where they're miserable in and then try and they'd rather struggle on their own, do 8000 hours in their own job than do 40 hours for somebody else. Get that mentality of why they would try and do it. Hell, I went away from being a CEO, six figure salary to go and start my own business.

James Kademan [00:07:26]:

Yeah, I mean, both of us started our own thing. I imagine the majority of people listening to this have started their own thing. So I'm not saying it's a bad idea. What I am saying is that I don't believe that it is a great move for everyone.

Chris Hanna [00:07:39]:

That's right. Not everyone can be an entrepreneur or a business owner.

James Kademan [00:07:44]:

Yeah.

Chris Hanna [00:07:44]:

...

Alexander Cruz - CR of Maryland

Real Estate investing is often a great place to grow your money.  You have a lot of options with commercial properties, land, apartment complexes and more.  An often overlooked space is single family homes producing revenue as rental units.

Listen as Alexander Cruz informs us of the single family home investment opportunities, how to use this investment without having to live anywhere near the property and how this investment can possibly work for you.

Enjoy!

Visit Alexander at: https://www.cummingsrealtors.com/alexander-cruz

James Kademan [00:00:03]:

You have found authentic Business Adventures program that produces the struggle, stories and triumphant successes of business owners across land. We are locally underwritten by the bank of sun prairie. Downloadable audio episodes can be found in the podcast link found at drawincustomerscom. Today we are welcoming, preparing to learn from alexander Cruz, partner of Cr of Maryland is in the real estate business, which let's break it down here really quick. You can make money in the real estate business is what it comes down to, right? Hopefully. I guess we'll check with Alexander to make sure. Alexander, how is it going today?

Alexander Cruz [00:00:38]:

It's going really well, man. How are you?

James Kademan [00:00:40]:

I'm doing really well. I put some pressure on you to help you teach people how to make some money in real estate. Hopefully I did. Okay there.

Alexander Cruz [00:00:48]:

Yeah, I'll do my best. No promises.

James Kademan [00:00:51]:

All right, well, let's just start with what is Cr of Maryland.

Alexander Cruz [00:00:56]:

Sure. So, Cr, Maryland, is locally owned and operated investment company in Baltimore, Maryland. Our primary business is the sale and then property management of turnkey rental properties. But outside of that, we do all the classic kind of single family real estate activities. So we also do some fix and flip. We do our own buy and hold set. We don't sell. And then wholesale as well. Formerly used to have a retail team, do not have a retail team anymore. And right now we're about 32 employees company wide.

James Kademan [00:01:34]:

All right, well, let's work backwards here. No retail real estate. Can you tell us why? I have some experience, but I'm going to let you tell us.

Alexander Cruz [00:01:46]:

Yeah, I'm very transparent. So the juice wasn't worth the squeeze. So for the income that it produced required a ton of hands on activity and process and personnel. So in the COVID year, we were kind of going through some restructure stuff anyway, and it just made sense that we were going to close that arm down.

James Kademan [00:02:12]:

All right, so the people watching understand the retail side is just a typical real estate agent, buyer's agent, seller's agent.

Alexander Cruz [00:02:20]:

Exactly.

James Kademan [00:02:21]:

Turn the lights on, tell you where the kitchen is kind of thing.

Alexander Cruz [00:02:24]:

Yes. So the classic realtor model and why it made sense was because we have a lot of home sellers call us that have a house to sell, that maybe we can't buy it, and the house is beautiful. Why would we buy it? That's a listing opportunity. So the theory was to be able to capture those opportunities, which it did work, but at the end of the day, we could also refer that lead to an agent who's not on our team, but that we work somewhat closely with. And now I have no overhead and I have nothing to do. It's just a hand off and get a referral fee a few months later. Got you. So that made more sense for us.

James Kademan [00:03:03]:

All right, so the employees that you have, talking about them, you have a small army, it sounds like. Are they mostly in the real estate industry as far as white color behind a desk, buying, selling, finding deals, or are they fixing swinging hammers, stuff like that?

Alexander Cruz [00:03:20]:

A little bit of everything. Yeah. So just kind of going through the business, we have an acquisition and sales team, and that is kind of like you said, very much, making deals, buying and selling, meeting with sellers or participating in auctions, whatever the day brings. And then from there we have our construction team of project managers who oversee our renovations from start to finish and deal with quality control and budgeting and all that fun stuff. Then we have a property management team and kind of self explanatory. They manage the 460 plus rental properties that we now manage, fall under their domain, and they'll manage it from A to Z. Then last but not least, we have a three person accounting team, and they oversee all the bills, all the money in, all the money out TMLS, all that fun stuff.

James Kademan [00:04:15]:

All right. What's interesting is I was poking around at your website and I loved how simple it was for both a person that was interested in investing, kind of getting involved that way, as well as for the tenants. It's like, pay your rent here, hey, I got a problem, all that kind of stuff. So I know we're bouncing around here, but that was such a cool it was such a useful website. It looks good.

Alexander Cruz [00:04:41]:

Thank you. Yeah, it's awesome. Thank you.

James Kademan [00:04:44]:

I've talked with a lot of people that are in the real estate industry, and we answer phones for people that are in the property management side. And some of them maybe it's a pain intentional because they don't want people to call them with property management issues. But it's interesting how you guys set that up. And I imagine that wasn't like, hey, let's start a business, get this website going, that there was a learning curve involved in getting that put together.

Alexander Cruz [00:05:08]:

Yeah, I think honestly, still on a learning curve. I've been here for eight years. I've been in real estate for ten and eight years ago. It was myself and the founder and one other project manager. So we were a company of three. All right. And we were to grow that to where we are today. And it changed a lot along the way. We were really heavy on fix and flip in the beginning, and that was like all that we did. Then we ran really heavy into rentals. We built a pretty sizable portfolio of rental properties here that we then began to sell, and that's kind of what got us into the turnkey space. So then the focus became selling the turnkey properties and of course had to figure out property management on the way. So, yeah, I think the property management team is probably twelve ish people. Could be a little bit more. And when we first started, I was out showing our first rental property. I was leasing, I was collecting money. We had like a whiteboard on the wall was like our whole system for the first three properties.

James Kademan [00:06:20]:

Sure.

Alexander Cruz [00:06:21]:

Then we're like, oh, wait a second, this isn't going to work. So yeah, it's a constant evolution, right?

James Kademan [00:06:27]:

What got you here won't get you there kind of thing. Because not everything scales.

Alexander Cruz [00:06:31]:

Yeah, whiteboards included. The whiteboards are great, but yeah, unfortunately we do still have some around the office, but it's just limitation.

James Kademan [00:06:40]:

I imagine if you're keeping track of 1020 properties, whatever. Sure.

Alexander Cruz [00:06:44]:

Great.

James Kademan [00:06:44]:

When you got hundreds, now you got a mess. And if somebody backs up their shirt against that thing, now you got a problem.

Alexander Cruz [00:06:52]:

Exactly.

James Kademan [00:06:53]:

Who's this rent? So tell me about the turnkey stuff. So you're talking about turnkey rental units. Are you talking individuals or like eight plex? Twelve plex kind of thing?

Alexander Cruz [00:07:06]:

No, they're all single family individual in our market. They're townhomes. We call them row homes here.

James Kademan [00:07:13]:

Oh, yeah. East coast? Sure.

Alexander Cruz [00:07:16]:

Okay, exactly. So yeah, DC, Baltimore, Philly, New York, all have a lot of these similar style brick row homes from the early to mid 19 hundreds. And that's what our bread and butter is because they're a great structure, but when we buy them, they're typically old and beat up, which is great because it's kind of like a blank slate. We can just strip the whole thing down and rebuild it back and that's really what our primary focus is. And it's a differentiator a lot of turnkey operators in the world and it's not a knock, it's just a different business model. They're looking for something they can do a really light rehab to paint carpet, appliances and move on. Really not looking for that. And it doesn't work that well in our market anyway because they are older houses. So I prefer something that we can rebuild back to a really high standard and know that there's nothing old on it. There's no deferred maintenance here. All right, so that's what our model is.

James Kademan [00:08:16]:

Are you getting to the point where you're taking down walls and stuff like that or yeah, lead abatement gets involved. There maybe some asbestos because these things are hundreds.

Alexander Cruz [00:08:27]:

Right. All of the fun stuff we actually now and for about a year have gotten really good at building back what we call a shell. So this is a brick structure, it has brick walls, but obviously the roof is framing. If you have a property that was abandoned and for many years fell into disrepair, the roof is leaking, leaking, leaking. Eventually that roof gives way. Now the floor joists start to give way, so you literally have to strip that house down to a shell. Brick walls are the only thing left and then rebuild it back. So we're able to do that now and do it very efficiently. It's definitely a learning curve there,...