Sales Funnel Radio

SFR 267: Brad Gibb Teaches Entrepreneur Cashflow Tactics...

08.09.2019 - By Steve J LarsenPlay

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Brad Gibb Teaches Entrepreneur Cashflow Tactics…   I’m NOT a finance expert, and I can't teach you that stuff, 'cause it's NOT my thing…    I am very interested to know what happens to my cash.    I’ve watched and observed a lot of other entrepreneurs who make A LOT of cash…   They're successful BIG names… (Yes, even Two Comma Club Winners)...    However, behind the scenes, in their personal finances, they're broke.   I was like, "That sucks. I don't wanna be that way.”    I want to pay as little taxes as possible but it needs to be…    Legal   Ethical    Moral   I see entrepreneurs who are NOT experts in finance, who handle their own tax strategy - often they get in trouble with the IRS and owe taxes *FOREVER*.    I've seen sooo many people do that.    It's hard enough to get a freakin’ business off the ground, let alone try to go navigate all that finance stuff afterwards   ... so I don't even try to do that, instead, I hire experts.   HOW TO MANAGE YOUR MONEY LIKE A CAPITALIST PIG   I hire experts to teach me   Then I hire the experts to “Just go do it for me please."    Now, the guy that I listen to explicitly on my finance stuff is Brad Gibb...   I have profound respect for Brad and the things that I’ve learned from him.    I'm a geek and a nerd around the topic of finance and what to do with it.   I want to just listen to those people who are most influential - so I don’t have to be an expert in everything - 'cause that’s impossible.    I’m VERY careful who I listen to…   I have a Marketing Coach - it's Russell.   I've got a Systems Coach - it's Alex Charfen.    I've got a Sales Coach - it's Myron Golden.    I've got a finance coach - it’s Brad      In fact, there's one other person, and I'll kind of keep hush-hush for right now.   But it's almost 150 grand that I'll spend this year on my personal coaching.    It's so funny when someone's like, "I won't spend this amount of money for you to come teach me this or be in your program, Steve."    I'm like, "You are definitely not a fit then, 'cause I am willing to pay for results personally."    I pay for much faster results, (as opposed to me trying to learn it all myself).    HOW TO FASTTRACK YOUR RESULTS   For OfferMind, I’m bringing in my coaches to teach you…    So today, I thought it'd be cool to interview Brad Gibb to give you a glimpse of what you can expect.   So Brad is gonna walk you through some key things that new and existing entrepreneurs can and should be doing to protect their cash.   OfferMind is NOT about funnels    ... it’s about offers, but it's offers in the context of...    Let's learn cashflow strategies.    Let's learn cashflow tactics.    And funny enough, that's actually the name of Brad's company #CashFlowTactics   Disclaimer! Disclaimer: I am NOT your financial person. This is NOT financial advice...   ... this probably won't work for you X, Y, and Z, whatever….    *Everyone feel disclaimed?*    Alright, cool!    … then I'm excited to bring on Brad Gibb. WHY EVEN SUCCESSFUL ENTREPRENEURS ARE BROKE   Brad Gibb has been one of the guys who's taught me probably the MOST about the actual business underneath the hood…    How it works    why I should be doing what I am   Why I should stop doing some things that I am   Brad has actually altered A LOT of the things that I sell and my actual personal finances and the way we run EVERYTHING.    He's given structure to the numbers behind the scenes, and I just so much appreciate everything he's done.    Brad is actually one of the speakers at OfferMind, which is very exciting.    At OfferMInd…    Day #1: I'm going to coach   Day #2: All the people that I reach out and gain wisdom from.    … and foremost on that list is definitely Brad Gibb. Thanks for coming to Sales Funnel Radio.   Brad Gibb: Hi Steve, and I appreciate you having me on - it’s a massive honor. I love working with you…   ... and yes, I'm a professional cat herder   ... 'cause I try to get entrepreneurs to do all the things that they don't wanna do, but that are amazing and really transform and continue to the next level.    So I'm excited to be here.   Steve: Well, you're crazy good at it. And just for those people who don't really know what you do, could you just let them know?    Brad: So it is kind of a catch-all, but…    We're basically money coaches for the world of entrepreneurs.     ...cause what we found in our journey, (which I'll probably share a little bit about that here in a second), is that what happens to an entrepreneur is…    We do EVERYTHING the exact opposite of what we're told.    At some point, whether it was in school, whether it was at your job, whether it was an internship, at some point, we were like:     "Wait a minute. I don't fit in this world, and I'm gonna go over here and play a totally different game."   And then when we're successful in that other game and we ask people:   "What should I do with my taxes, and with money, and with my investing?"    … and they try to put you back in the box that you just left and say, "Oh, you should do all the things that all the employees are doing with their money."    ..and it ends up sabotaging what you're actually trying to do in this other box.    There’s an entirely different world of finance that mimics and mirrors, and supports you as an entrepreneur.   But unfortunately, just like everything, and everything is a product and everything has an intended audience.    The finance world is a product, and 97% of that advice is aimed at the employee   ... and so for you, 97% of financial advice is either dangerous, misleading or just outright wrong, 'cause you play a different game.    So what we teach you is the game that you're actually in from a money-taxes structure, and even just the mindset, the way we think and feel about money...    That's what we do.   ENTREPRENEUR FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT- AKA: HOW NOT TO LOOSE MONEY   Steve: It's a HUGE deal.    I remember the first time I made 50 grand from this thing that I was doing. I was so excited about it.    I was like, "This is great." It was one of my first big wins.    And I remember paying 46% taxes on that thing!   I was like, "What? This is ridiculous!" I got so mad. I was like, "Uncle Sam... "    ...it wasn't a six-figure check yet, but it was my first big taste of like:    "Man, I gotta learn this or I will literally not keep much of what I actually make after business costs and everything else. It's not gonna be much."    And I started diving more deeply and realized that there really truly are secrets that are ethical, that are moral, that you can use to actually keep money and set up a real good life for yourself.   WHAT’S YOUR FINANCIAL IQ?   Brad: We have two goals   #1: We wanna increase your financial IQ   ... 'cause no one is gonna come save you.    No one's gonna care more about your money than you do.    And ultimately, while we're raising our marketing IQ, we're raising our sales IQ, we're raising our system IQ…    Rarely does the entrepreneur work to really raise their money and finance IQ.    Our job is to make sure that's levelling up with the rate of growth you're experiencing in all other areas, right, Steve?    And you and I have talked about this a bunch like, "Business is like the ultimate personal development tool."    … but we don't do that on the money side, so we upgrade your financial IQ.    The goal is to empower you in the conversation of money.    So as you enter conversations with…    Accountants   Attorneys    Investments   i.e.;  When you ask: “What do I do with this capital?”    … you start to make decisions that have lots of dollar signs next to them; you're empowered in how to make those decisions.    That's our ultimate outcome for the entrepreneur.   Steve: That's massive stuff.    How did you get started on this?    ‘Cause like you said, "Some entrepreneurs are kinda like herding cats." So I'm sure there's like a love-hate relationship with it?  Brad: Absolutely.    So I'm a super nerd, and I love my spreadsheets. I would just sit with them all day long if I could.    But if we rewind the clock, I always liked money, I always liked those conversations.    And so, being the super nerd that I am, (following the traditional advice that I was told), I thought, "If one degree was good, four would be better."  So…    I got an undergrad in accounting.    Then I got a Masters in accounting.    I was a guy that went to summer school not to graduate faster, but so I could do all this other stuff that I wanna do.    I got a degree in economics   A degree in statistics.    So I was like, "I got everything I need." Steve: That's so awesome.   Brad: And I loved it.    I was still supposed to be getting a Ph.D. in accounting   ... that's how much I loved numbers and studying.    But luckily, something deep down inside me told me that it just wasn't gonna be a good fit, so upon graduation, I joined Goldman Sachs, (don't hold that against me).    It’s the evil empire, and I understand that. I was in the belly of the beast.    But the amazing part about that experience was that I was downtown New York in 2008.    And for those who don't understand what went down in 2008…   The world almost exploded, and everything was melting down, and I had a front-row seat to it.     And it really was like the beginning of my awareness of ‘there are things that I learned, but the application and what's going on in the real world is like completely different.’    And that's where, after a very short time, (seeing what was going on), it was one of those things where I had a Jerry Maguire moment of like:    "I can't be here. I can't be part of this. I gotta get out."    So, I leveraged some contacts that I had there and started a consulting firm.    ENTREPRENEUR CASH FLOW TACTICS   So this is where I realized…   #1: Not only was there a lot of stuff going on in money and finance in Wall Street that I wasn't okay with   #2: The bigger story there was that I thought that having a good job, having a good education, and having the resume of Goldman Sachs was gonna be what brought me security…   ...but that was the wake-up call, "Wait a minute, there is no such thing as security."    The Lehman Brothers disappeared overnight, and it just as easily could have been Goldman Sachs.   It was Lehman/ Goldman Sachs? Lehman/ Goldman Sachs?... and it happened to be Lehman that went out.    I was like, "Wait a minute, this isn't what I thought it was gonna be."    So I took the leap to be an entrepreneur and said, “That's where my security is gonna come from…”   I'm not gonna have a boss, I'm gonna be the boss.    So I made that transition, and things went really well.    We grew an audit consulting firm, where we actually helped companies go public - we were on the interface of the SEC and investors.    We're putting all this together to help companies go public.    We've taken about two-dozen companies public during that time, then I had my second realization which really led into what I do now was…   I was making good money, on my resume, everything was exactly... I was a partner of the firm. We were growing. We were hitting, making more money than I ever imagined.    But I still remember vividly…   MY 2ND WAKEUP CALL    I was sitting in my desk, looking outside. It was pitch black, it was two in the morning and I was finishing up client work for the deadline that was coming up the next day….   And as I finished it up, I kind of took a breath and thought for a minute and realized that it had been multiple days in a row.    This was the third day in a row that I'd been in my chair at two in the morning, finishing up client work.    I had left so early the morning before that I didn't get to see my kids. I hadn't seen my wife in three days.    I sat back, and I was like, "Wait a minute, what is all this about? My business is now totally and utterly controlling me."   Steve: Wow.   Brad: And that was kind of the second part of freedom…   I was like, "Wait a minute, yes, I need the control and benefit that comes from being an entrepreneur, but I've gotta figure how to also be free from my business."   And so, that started a personal journey for me into…    Business finance is NOT personal finance. The economics that Wall Street uses is NOT what is going to put dollars and cents (from an investing and a tax standpoint) in my own pocket.    So that started the path to, “How do I get free and independent from my business as fast as I possibly can?”   So that's why I started bringing those two worlds together and put the entrepreneur first.    Because I have a business for me, first and foremost…    I need to make money and I need to have the life that I want.    And so I lined all that knowledge up against me as the entrepreneur and asked, “How do I structure everything to benefit me and put me where I need to be?”    And that process, obviously, enabled me to eventually walk away from that firm and start Cashflow Tactics, which is what we do now… It enabled me to make all of those lifestyle decisions that allowed me to run and be involved in an amazing business, that gives me an arm's length sort of freedom to balance that…   ... if that makes any sense?   Steve: No, it totally does. And it's an awesome story going from...    You have these amazing talents, man.  This is so incredible, you're one of the smartest people I know. And it's super fun to listen to you.    You're a source of gigantic financial education for my wife and I, and my business and all these decisions we make.    It's amazing how eye-opening it's been.    I look at the world differently, my decisions as a marketer are actually influenced by what you and I have chatted about.    The topic of funnels in marketing is giant, but it's like the same five things I see EVERYONE screwing up.    What are the things that you see EVERY entrepreneur, big or small, where you're like, "I just know this is gonna be jacked up, 'cause it almost always is..."    You know what I mean?    Brad: That is such an awesome question... because you're right!   I've asked you for funnel advice, and you've given me, like, "Brad, really? Like, come on, it's right there. Don't you see?"    But, yeah, so a couple of things for entrepreneurs, (and it's funny because I'm thinking about our conversations), and we've had these with you,  so don't feel bad, everybody has them…   WHERE ARE YOU SCREWING UP?   One of the big ones is:    Revenue and Profit are not the same thing.    Cash and profit are not the same thing.    You're gonna have profit and NOT end up with cash.    So understanding how to take the numbers that we're running our business with and make them real and tangible - so there are conversations around that.    Understanding, as I said, the difference between revenue and profit, and how to understand what drives both of those.    And then understanding…    What is profit?   What is cash?    And that's really what then opens up a conversation of...    How do we pay the least amount we can in taxes yet still have money in our bank account?    .. ‘fortunately, MOST tax advice just requires you to drain your bank account and be poor - which isn't what we want!   So separating cash and profit is a powerful piece to it.    And then just understanding dashboards -  understanding what are the levers that my business is running.    So that's kind of one area of a lot of questions, so that when an entrepreneur comes in and says, "Hey, can you help me set up my structures or help me invest?"    “Yeah, after we dive in, and we help you understand where you're numbers really are.”    ‘Cause ultimately...    I can't help you unless you're really clear on what your business numbers are.    So that's definitely where we get in and clean everybody up initially is:    Revenue and Profit   Profit and Cash   A Set of Dashboards.   Steve: That's awesome.   Brad: That's one major element.    A second one is…    There’s a huge difference between being an actual investor and being a gambler or a speculator.    … and we're never really told the difference.    How do we actually understand what investing means and not what we've been taught?    i.e, Not what most employees are taught to do.   So exiting that world of employee over to entrepreneur, and understanding that what investing entails, is NOT what you think.    So yeah, the second major one would be that.    And there's a third one, (it'll come back to me in a second), but those are two major conversations we have.   Steve: It's funny, man, because people will say that to me about ads, " There's a huge gamble on ads."    I'm like, “If you've done all the pieces we've said, there's not... It's not a gamble. You're playing the game. This is what's supposed to happen.”    It's really interesting.   THE ICEBERG PRINCIPLE   Brad: And then, I guess the last one I kinda talk about is, ‘The Iceberg Principle.’   Everybody wants to look at that part we can see that sits above the water, but really, 90% of investing and wealth creation is what's below the surface.    I want you to upgrade your question, don't ask, “What are the rich doing with their money?”    Instead ask, “What did the rich do to get their money in the first place?”    That's the question that we wanna answer, right?    I don't care what Bill Gates does with his money today - when I have a billion dollars, maybe I'll ask those questions, but I don't.    “What did he do in my stage to get there?”    Those are the questions that we look at and really answer.    And so, it's a question of:   Do I understand what's going on?    How do I keep the money I'm making?   Keep the money that you’re making first, and then understanding what your investing looks like.    Those are the main conversations we have.   Steve: I love that, yeah, 'cause we're all on different stages as entrepreneurs…    But I think too many times, we'll look at other people and say, "Well, so-and-so did this."    But "Yeah, but so-and-so is running a billion-dollar enterprise."    Brad: Yeah, “Bill Gates just did this or that.” Who cares? You're NOT a billion-dollar endowment fund, so what do you care?    Steve: Yeah, who cares?    “…that's where they're putting their cash,” for a totally different reason! Or “...that's where they're getting their traffic,” and like, "Ugh! Anyway, they're selling Beanie Babies.”   Brad: But it's so crazy because truth is truth is truth, right?    A lot of the same mistakes people are making on the marketing side that you're dealing with every day, it's the same set of underlying assumptions of, "Well, that guy's doing it, so I should too."    Well, *NO*   We're NOT asking the right question - that's so much of the problem.    Would you agree with that?   QUESTIONS LEAD TO REVELATIONS    If we correctly identify the problem and then ask the right questions, the solution becomes easy.    … that’s so much of what we spend time doing on the money side, diagnosing the same things you are, just a different outcome.   Steve: Yeah!    I find it's harder to actually figure out what question to be pursuing rather than actually find the answer.    This is really interesting.    Okay, so I sat next to ‘The Man’ for a while and I would watch him. We'd set up all these funnels,  all this marketing, and put all these pieces together, and I’d watch how they would treat the cash.    I wasn't sitting around, going, "Oh, what are they saying?" But, it was easy to observe it.  There was a pre-created strategy that they had.    The cash would come in.    It would break even all these ad costs.   They'd upsell people.    They’d take profit for the business   Finally, they’d go in and fill their pockets.    That was a really cool front-row seat to a lot of that.  PROFIT OR REVENUE?   Let's take an entrepreneur who is around the million-dollar range.    What are some of the things they could do with their cash?    Brad: It's kind of funny, you picked the million-dollar range because what we harp on to so many entrepreneurs (it’s not a hard and fast rule because profit is different than revenue, right?)...   So if they’re making enough profit there are levers we can pull, but certainly, up to a quarter-million, my answer is…    Just keep figuring out how to make more money.   Steve: Let's just make money.   Brad:    It's too easy to make a quarter-million dollars today.    I know that might blow some people's minds that are reading, but it really, it's too easy to make a quarter million to a million…   So if you're NOT doing that, stop trying to do anything after that, (like, investing in vehicles with the stock), and just take all your money and figure out how to make that kind of money.   Steve: Just bring more cash.   Brad: Just bring more in, right!    Don't fall for the $10,000, $15,000 packages of ‘protectionals’ because you have NOTHING to protect.    You don't have enough money to invest to make a difference.    So let's just start there and just say you need to be making, (depending on your business and profitability model), you need to be making a quarter million dollars or more.    Fair?    Steve: Yeah.   Brad: Cool. Sorry, what was the question you were asking?    Steve: And then after that point though, what would you suggest maybe someone start doing?    THE MOST EXPENSIVE MONEY YOU HAVE   Brad: So the first thing to do, ( I usually keep a dollar bill here for emphasis, and my kids must have taken it…)   Steve: Still on your board?    Brad: Yeah. Right here.    That $20 bill, 'cause I use this for other things, but this $20 bill...   The $20 bill that you have in your wallet is the MOST expensive money you have in your life... because what did it take to get this 20 bucks?    You had to…    Launch funnels and promote   Have ad spend   Break-even    Upsell to actually make a profit    Pay all your vendors   Pay all your employees   Write Uncle Sam his check   ... and then after all of that happened:    Your wife wanted to spend money    You had to eat    Put gas in your car    Make your mortgage payment   Live your lifestyle   … and *then* there was money left over to be in your wallet, right?    Once entrepreneurs get good at making money, it's easier for them to just say, "Oh, if I want something, I'm gonna make MORE money..."    ...instead of trying to keep a little bit of the MOST expensive money.    If I can help you keep an extra dollar, for most entrepreneurs, that's five to 10 on the top line.   Steve: Interesting.    Brad: So it's getting a focus of, “How do I keep the money that's coming in? “   And so it's this conversation, (and Stephen, you and I had it)...   The business becomes this snot-nosed, whiny baby that just cries until it gets what it wants.   Agree?    Steve: Yeah.   Brad: And we have to do a lot of work of separating the entrepreneur from their business- so that they can discipline their business and make it give them what they want.    So it's this bridge between understanding how your business needs to operate and how you're gonna operate independent of that.    So it's teaching a blend of the idea of this metric of …   How do we then reverse engineer the profitability and the cash that we want in the business owner's pocket?    … and until we think through that process, we're always going to be robbing Peter to pay Paul.   And I think entrepreneurs have been through this...    Like, they'll go sacrificing, sacrificing... making sure the business grows. Going without, going without, going without... until it just teeter-totters and just spend a bunch on the other side.    And every time they're spending, they're worried about, "Is there gonna be enough for my business?"    And then every time they're actually re-investing in their business, they're like, "This sucks 'cause I don't know when I'm ever gonna benefit from this?"    However, in reality, it's simple, it's a process.    There's a formula to understand how to live our life and build our own wealth, while not taking from or at the detriment of our business growth.    ...and how we balance those two things? Brad: 'Cause, unfortunately, too many business owners get lazy once they start making money…   When I didn't have any money, I had to put my thinking cap on and be an entrepreneur and just figure out how to do it anyway.    Does NOT having money ever stop you from what you want to do?    Steve: No, I figure it out.   Brad: No, we just figure it out, right?    Steve: Yeah.   Brad: But once you have money, then you let the dollar solve the problem instead.    You're just like, "Oh, I can't do that in my personal life because my business needs the money." Well, how is that...?   That's just lazy rather than saying, "What if I didn't have the money, how would I solve it?"    Or, "I'm paying myself this much 'cause I'm demanding it." And then, “How do I create that problem, so I can solve it?    Rather than just papering over it with, "There's money in the bank account so I'm gonna spend it."    Does that make sense?    Steve: It does, and that's one of the major things I learned from you.   Basically, I had to define the relationship with me and the business.    Not just the CEO hat, (which is what I studied and was focusing on like crazy and learning from guys like Alex Charfen)...   ...you took it to this other level.    It's like, “Now, let's talk about you as just a human, and your family needs compared to the actual business needs.”   It was nuts to see how that worked and the security that came from that was astounding.   Brad: And so everybody says like, "What can I do?” Or... “How do I…? "    That comes after we set up what we call 'A Game Plan.'    Start figuring out…    Where you are?    Where do you want to go?    ...and then, depending on that gap, we set in the things that we need in order to get you there.    That's really the most impactful thing I could ever do for somebody is connect these conversations.   The tools and tactics become a lot easier once we have a game plan.   The most impactful thing I could ever do for somebody is to give them a very clear step-by-step roadmap…   ...'cause we're all entrepreneurs, once we have a target, it's just a matter of time, we're gonna hit it.   Steve: I'm gonna do it.   Brad: It's setting up the right target.   Steve: Yeah. That makes sense... and then having clarity in where you are in relations of the target, yeah.   GETTING HONEST…     Brad: Yes, and as embarrassing as that sometimes feels, like that's just being honest with:    Where things are at?   How do we feel?   What frustrates us?   Like there was a lot, (not just you), but every entrepreneur I’ve worked with - you really unpack that.    Like…    How are we feeling?   What's causing us to not feel secure?   There's a lot to unpack there, and then... we can line up the road map and go from there.   Steve: Interesting.    You can obviously see that Brad is just this fountain of knowledge and it's so incredible, and it's super exciting to have you on here.    I asked Brad to come speak at OfferMind.    Day one is my offer creation formula…’cause #OfferMind.    But you all know, I mean I’m wearing the Capitalist Pig Shirt, right now…    It's for the purpose of profit, and it's for the purpose of doing things in your life that you want to do in relation to these structures that Brad teaches.    And so what I asked Brad to come in and teach more about personal cash flow tactics.    His actual business is called Cashflow Tactics.       Brad: I think it's fun. We hit it on the head. We did it.   Steve: Yeah. Super fun.    Could you just give a little brief, just really briefly, what are you gonna talk about at OfferMind?    SHAMELESS OFFERMIND PLUG FROM BRAD   Brad: Yeah, can I plug your event first?      Steve: Yeah.   Brad: Okay. Guys, I've known Stephen for four years, I've been in Russell's Inner Circle.    We met there, and I think we both had this little rush of like, "Oh, that's Stephen. I can't go talk to Stephen."    And Stephen was like, "That's Brad and Ryan. I can't...   Steve: "It's Brad. I can't go talk to Brad... "   Brad: For two years, it was like that…   We got over that…

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