Dave: 0:22

All right, all right, all right. Good morning everybody. It's Friday, September 12th, man, I cannot believe it's already September, but we're here with another episode of the Business Unscripted Podcast, episode 27. And, as always, if you are a business owner or maybe an aspiring business owner looking to get started, we're your go-to place to talk strategy, talk obstacles, maybe get some ideas, learn from our experiences, our hiccups, our struggles, things that we've worked with on our own businesses, but also with our clients' businesses. And we're here with another show, and so grab your favorite cup of joe and let's jump into the show.

Dave: 1:00

Duarn, thank you for joining me again for another episode. I'm looking forward to a good conversation today, as always. I feel like we always have some great conversations. But to get started too, I also want to let everybody know that, as I stated last week, we are going to be starting in October bringing business owners onto the podcast to talk business talk. Maybe one or two obstacles that they're facing hopefully point them in the right direction with some advice, maybe some connections, to get them moving forward in their business.

Dave: 1:31

So if that's you and you want to come on a future episode, just comment down below that you have an interest. We'll reach out. We're kind of developing the whole system and calendar right now, but we wanted to gather your interest. So if you are interested in coming on to a future episode, go ahead and drop it down below. We're hoping to get these started in the month of October, so we look forward to talking with you, and if you have any questions during the show, drop them down below. We'll answer them live. If we get it post-production, we will answer them in our next episode. But, Duarn, before we get started, man one just wanted to say hello.

Duarne: 2:10

Thanks.

Dave: 2:11

Thanks for joining me again, appreciate it. Thanks for having me. Always a pleasure, I love it, but so it's a little bittersweet today. You know what I mean. Today it just feels like we're in a weird spot in the United States and, of course, if you don't know, maybe you haven't been on social media Charlie Kirk, who was a more right-leaning, conservative-type advocate for the movement of social and young Americans in this world to get in and to understand it, to open their minds about different topics. He was assassinated earlier this week and it's I just feel like I'm not going to get too much into it because it's not what the show is about, but what I will say is I am disgusted by people right now Some people that are on my feed, some people that are being shared, even local politicians right, that are celebrating this man's death and the fact that, right, they think it's okay and justified that they can celebrate it like it's Osama bin Laden.

Dave: 3:19

What has this man done to you that Osama bin Laden has done to this country? This man openly went in and had conversations with people and tried to convince people of a viewpoint and other times got convinced himself of a different viewpoint. And you guys are out here celebrating him. It doesn't matter if it's left or right, right, I don't condone any sort of you know, acts of violence or killing, right, right. I don't condone any sort of you know, acts of violence or killing like. Killing like. No man or woman deserves to be killed because of their viewpoint. And the fact that there's so many people and they're just coming out of the woodwork that are excited and celebrating the fact that this man was killed, in front of his wife and kids, by the way is disgusting and vile and I don't want any of those people in my world. I don't want people that would celebrate it on the left, right. I don't want people that will celebrate it on the right either way. But the problem is that so many people are feeling justified and it's okay that they can celebrate this man losing his life because of his viewpoints, and that's disgusting. And if that's you and you're listening to this, this is not the podcast for you, this is not the network for you, because this is not who you are, not who I want, and maybe even Dwarna won't speak for you, but we do not want you in our network, in our world. I am sorry, but if that's what you want to do and that's how you feel you're justified in this situation that's happening right now. You should go ahead and go find your own people, because we are not in, and that's really kind of what I feel about it. Again, I'm not justified right or left.

Dave: 4:55

I didn't agree with everything that Charlie Crook said all the time, but he definitely didn't deserve to be hunted and killed at a live event, talking to thousands of college kids and in front of his wife and his two young children, like under three years old. They're now fatherless. Their wife is now, you know, husbandless and the leader, you know. The Republican Party just lost a big leader. He was. He was destined to be president of the United States. The Republican Party just lost a big leader. He was destined to be president of the United States and it was just taken away because somebody decided to hunt him down because of his viewpoints and the way that he just had conversations. Yeah, I think that's all I want to say about that.

Dave: 5:46

Obviously, people are right now the people that have chosen to make that choice, to put their opinion out there and to celebrate this man.

Dave: 5:53

It does bring me a little bit of joy to see that these people are being held accountable for that choice that they made to put out on social media that they are essentially losing their jobs because of it. And again, you can have your own opinion. I think we talked about this pre-show, dorn right, you can have your opinion, but when you choose to put it out into the public realm, that's when you have made that choice to accept the consequences of that. And a lot of times when you work for bigger companies, they also have an image and a reputation to uphold and if you are a member of their organization sharing something like that, maybe you know, you just prove to them that you're not a person that they want on their team either. So when you make that conscious choice to put that out there, you know, and celebrate violence and celebrate somebody getting killed, you probably deserve to lose your job. You're all for, I'm all for people having different opinions, but there's a difference between having different opinions and then celebrating death happening to somebody and that's disgusting, yeah.

Duarne: 6:52

You shouldn't celebrate anybody's death. In my opinion, all right, I mean, I don't care who you are, but when you start putting stuff like that out there in the public forum and your opinion is out there, it's there forever. Now you can try and change what you said and oh, I put a spin on it and I didn't mean that. I was trying to be funny or you know, I was trying to be witty or I was trying to fit in. None of that makes a lick of difference at the end of the day, because basically, you're just being negative about a situation which, if you don't have anything positive to say about it, like our parents would say, don't say anything at all. Just move on and look, someone died.

Duarne: 7:29

I mean, let's look at this from a point of view of if that was, you know, jfk and somebody went out and did that, what would your opinion be of them? Right, somebody? You know when he was assassinated. You know if somebody? You know when he was assassinated. You know if somebody? You know the you know the recent assassination attempt of Trump.

Duarne: 7:47

You know there was a similar sort of nonsense going around in the social media when that happened as well. You know, thankfully it was just an attempt, but still people have this real negative condemnation and opinion to share and I think if you're a business owner or you work for somebody, you have to have a realization that if you're going to share shit like that on social media and your points of view, there's going to be consequences related that you might lose clients, you might lose the respect of people who previously respected you, you might not lose your job because a lot of of these contracts out there nowadays they have morality clauses in them and that's a really immoral thing to do to go out and start talking about someone who's you know hasn't even been buried yet and talking about him in such a negative way and what he's saying I know I will say this again these things happen on both sides of the political aisle and we are not in this.

Dave: 8:49

So don't clip us right. You better include this statement as well we are not condoning any violence on any side, and you know, this is the situation that's happening right now and I understand that I think it was just a couple months ago, right in Minnesota. This happened to you know Democrat, you know politicians, and that's horrible too. But here's the thing You'll never see us celebrating that type of violence. You know, and that's what we're talking about here is that when you celebrate somebody's death like this, when you celebrate the assassination, that's the problem. That shows, like your inner self right, and when or when you try to, you know, call negative about somebody who literally just got shot in front of thousands of people and you're trying to villainize that person, that that just shows who you're, to your true, you know, inner colors are, and that's the problem that we're having. That's what we're saying. That's where you have to. When you make that conscious choice to put that out in the public, you make the conscious choice to also accept the consequences or the backlash that's going to come to you from that, and it's going to happen. But you said whether it's new business canceling. I've seen that happen. But here's the thing If you're out there and you're taking our viewpoint, where you're condoning violence, you're calling out the people that are celebrating this and somebody who was celebrating it decided to cancel business with you. That's a that's a win by a loss for you, right? Yeah, because essentially you don't want those people anyways. They're probably not going to serve your purpose. They're probably not going to serve, you know, the drive and the passion that you have for your business and to grow, unless your only passion is money. But that's's not why most of us get into business as well. We also have an underlying passion and purpose. But it ultimately comes down to when you make that choice, just like I'm making the choice right now.

Dave: 10:36

I've made the choice to start the episode with this, right. So if you can't agree with me that on either side, violence is crappy and that you shouldn't celebrate the loss, on either side violence is crappy and that you shouldn't celebrate the loss on either side, that again you're not somebody that I want on my network, you're not somebody that I want to do business with. But if you could agree with me that nobody should be celebrated for being assassinated, nobody should be celebrated for any type of violence, on any side, then, yes, we may not agree on political views I didn't agree with everything Charlie said all the time but that doesn't mean somebody deserves to lose their life. That doesn't mean that, you know, it should be celebrated and you know all the, you know fake, negative things that you want to make up about the man you know and put out there in social media are, you know, and that's your first response is to put all these things out there which, by the way, most of those without context are incorrect and not even anywhere close to being true. But we're not going to get into that because that's not this type of show.

Dave: 11:32

You know, I saw something the other day because obviously, you know, also taking a moment to remember. Like you know, yesterday was 9-11 in America, right, which was a huge turning point. You know, it's funny because when that happened, if you think back, you know, and Duarte, I don't know how entwined with, like US activity back, you were back in the day when 9-11 happened.

Duarne: 11:53

I remember where I was when it happened Like that. Ellen Jackson song.

Dave: 11:57

Okay, I was in the library of my high school, right, like the difference between like that event happening and like everybody coming together, you know, and I was still, you know, just getting out of high school. So I remember, you know, getting, you know, the country coming together and surrounding you know, and banding together as Americans because of that happened, right, you know. And so this happening on the eve of that and to see the complete opposite turning around, like you know, I can understand violence in the streets, riots, whatever you want to call them, you know, peaceful protests, whatever, like we can disagree on that. But this has now gone to a little bit different level, where you assassinate a public voice for having a different opinion. And I saw something the other day that said, if 9-11 were to happen now, half the country would actually celebrate it and it wouldn't be a bringing together, half the country would actually celebrate it and and it wouldn't be a bringing together of the country anymore, it would, it would actually just serve as another divisive, you know, event that has happened and that that, to me, like that's disgusting, like to even think about, like that possibility of that happening, and I don't want to see any more violence.

Dave: 12:59

I really hope that there's some way out of this situation that we're basically driving full speed down the path towards and, in all reality, I said probably two or three years ago that this country, if nothing changes, we are literally heading towards a civil war in this country, and that's the problem, and I hope I'm wrong. I hope I'm wrong, but it doesn't seem like anything is stopping. I feel like it's just getting, you know, worse and worse, and you know it's. I'm not going to get into one side or another, because, again, that's not. You know what the show is about. I just feel like I wanted to call out the people that are celebrating and if that's you, I'm sorry for whatever mindset brings you to that point in your life to feel like that's what you have to do, but kindly see the door on the way out, find the door and don't let the door hit you on the way out when you're leaving my network and my world, because I don't give a crap anymore.

Duarne: 14:34

Yeah, it's a scary point of view when you start looking at it. That isn't it. I mean, there was a movie released a few years ago called civil war and I don't know if you saw it, but it was based on the us at civil war and it was told from a reporter's journalism point of view and it was a very scary reality as to just what that looked like with the us at civil war and it wasn'ta big release, but I it had some good names in it and I was really blown away at how scary the prospect of that was and it was just I'm able to check it out. Yeah, check it out. I mean, it's definitely something to check out.

Duarne: 15:18

The one thing is, I mean, for me is people. This is a prime example of people using social media for two minutes of fame or two minutes of gain. I mean, if you feel that that's something you felt like you need to share and tell everyone that you have a viewpoint that someone dying, someone dying, is awesome news, well I feel sorry for you because, right, you know, decent humanity says you shouldn't be celebrating the death of somebody, no matter how much you, you saw of this right, but like there's, there's actually like people like saying, oh, now trump's not totally because they haven't caught the shooter yet.

Dave: 15:56

Like that's the other thing, the last thing I see, he's still at large and so like they're calling for all these other people. Oh, I hope, I hope so, and so is next. I hope trump's next, I hope elon's next, I hope all these people are like that's disgusting and like you never will see that you know from other, you know points of view and if you do call it out, but in all honesty, I have it right and I'm all for, like you know, calling out both sides. Like I said, I don't condone violence on either side. This isn't saying that you know, oh, and I've seen other people say, oh, you're, just because you're, you're conservative, you're calling out of it. No, I, I don't. You never see me. Once, go ahead, go back to my post. I've never condoned or celebrated somebody on the other side of the aisle or my viewpoint getting assassinated or murdered. You'll never find it, because that's not who we are.

Duarne: 16:40

That's not who I am. Let me ask you this then have you ever celebrated the death of anybody on social media as being a positive thing?

Dave: 16:50

Here's the thing the only person that I think I ever felt happy that was gone would be Osama Bin Laden, because of what he did to our country, like he attacked our country, like, of course, like that's different. You know what I mean? That was terrorism. He killed americans. Like a viewpoint doesn't, doesn't he stood for terror.

Duarne: 17:09

I mean what he stood for was severe terror, al-qaeda and all these isis and all these nasty things in the world.

Duarne: 17:16

I mean it's horrible, that's evil, right it's evil, evil in general, I mean, yes, you can be happy at the fact that some evil has been removed from the world, I get that. But to publicly go out and attack and you know, I've watched a lot of the debates that Charlie did and I'll tell you, very smart man, very, very articulate, very good on his feet and having a different viewpoint I never saw, in any of what I watched, him personally attacking individuals who were challenging his viewpoint.

Duarne: 17:49

And the thing is it's very under watch and to see both sides actually come to realizations that they could come to an understanding on different topics.

Dave: 18:00

And most of the time they would right. It's these people that would come up and most of the time right Would be like yelling or screaming or like not listening and interrupting and all this stuff. And you know, having a different viewpoint is not evil right, you know. You know, not agreeing with viewpoint is not evil right.

Duarne: 18:19

You know, not agreeing with somebody is not evil. You know, there's a difference. We encourage that in the workspace. We've talked about this. We encourage viewpoints.

Dave: 18:23

It's how we grow and develop and enhance what we're doing when we can't have open conversations, that's when you don't have a country anymore, that's when you literally you're on the verge of destruction if that's the case. So if you can't have a discussion, whether it's in business, in politics, in country, in your relationships, if you can't actually have recourse, right, a conversation, and it just goes to anger and all this stuff, like that's the problem, like, and I feel like that's where, like we, this guy just got killed because he openly debated people and invited conversations, invited people to have a back and forth, and people are celebrating that. And so you know again, I don't want to make this whole. This whole show shouldn't be about this, right. I just wanted to, you know, kind of start with that and kind of get into it. But if you decide that and we'll end with this right, because you kind of mentioned it as well, jordan is, you know, when you make that conscious decision to put whatever viewpoint you have out there and it's seen as disgusting or vile, and then there's backlash on it or you lose your job because of it, well, that's the consequence that you have to live with Because you made that conscious decision to put that out there.

Dave: 19:44

And I think you know one of the things that kind of hit me as another topic, you know, when we're talking about business here, when I'm just kind of thinking of the entire you know situation, of what's going on. But you know, one of the things that did strike me, if you think of Charlie, is he lived his life with a purpose. Now I might not have agreed wholeheartedly with a faith purpose, but he lived with that purpose and so it kind of hit back when you think of business and it's like what do you have as a business owner as your driving force and a purpose in your business? And what actually struck me even more was this morning I was doing my you know, I typically read, you know, for like an hour or so in the morning when I first wake up. And today I've been going through the book the Unsold Mindset.

Dave: 20:43

Going through the book the Unsold Mindset and ironically, the chapter that I happened to be reading this morning was about purpose and defining your purpose in your business and in your mind, right To help you push forward, to help you be more successful. And it was funny because when, when you think of like, when you ask somebody like what, what's your driving force, you know, typically it's like a goal right, it's not necessarily a purpose, right. And so I guess let me ask you, dwarin, if you were to, you know. And so we'll go through a quick exercise here, dwarin, if you're open to it, from the book, and I kind of didn't get this morning too. But so if you define what, what's your purpose in what you do, if you define, like, the purpose for your business and in your company, what's what's your purpose?

Duarne: 21:32

Purpose for my company is to be able to provide an income to my family and a means for living is my primary purpose for doing it, which is much like what most people I feel would be their job.

Duarne: 21:44

And when, when you when I kind of thought about you were going to ask me some questions about this because you hinted about this in the pre-chat, that was what I was thinking I was going to say because I'm thinking that's where I started, right, I started initially. I started the business as a way to step away from work and pay bills, but the more time I've spent in the business over the years, the more I realize that, yes, it pays the bills, yes, it brings income and allows for the lifestyle for myself and my family and provides. But it also is something which I enjoy doing and my mission is to help people. It's to provide people with great websites, with good marketing, to visibility sharing sites and valuable information and consultation meetings, and to really just give back a little bit of the knowledge and the growth that I'm able to do and to be able to, I guess, get paid for the research and the effort that I put in for doing all of this.

Dave: 22:40

So let me ask you so why? Why is it important for you to provide for your family and for you know the life that you want? Why is that important?

Duarne: 22:53

Well, as the man of the house, I feel it's my duty, but also it's because I want to. It's also something I want to do. I want to be able to provide for my family. I want to be able to make sure that we can have nice things, that we can eat nice food, that we can not be hungry. You know, all of these things are just, you know, very simple things for a lot of people, and a lot of people in the world struggle to be able to do those things, you know. So I see it as a privilege and something that I'm proud of to be able to say I can do that and do it whilst owning my own business.

Dave: 23:32

And why would you say, as a man, it's important for you to provide those things.

Duarne: 23:39

Me. I guess it's my upbringing, it's the culture that I was brought up in, you know, as the as a man it's. You know my lovely wife. You know we've got three children. You know she predominantly looks after the children and also helps out in the business and does great things in the business as well. But primarily, you know I'm in the business all day, every day, and you know I don't get to spend as much time with my children. I don't get to spend as much time as I'd like to doing, you know, extracurricular activities outside of work. But I don't see that as a loss. I see that it's my duty and my passion to do the work and be able to, you know, see the smile on my family's face when I go home and you know for me that's a big part of. You know why I feel like being the man of the house is there's more responsibility, and this is my purpose.

Dave: 25:12

And so, as you kind of define it, you can kind of see, like, at the beginning, right, and this is kind of how the exercise goes you kind of start off by defining, like, why it is that you do what you do. That's like the first kind of question, right. And then each reiteration you say, well, why, like, why is that important, right, or why is you know that second aspect important? And you're continuing to refine your purpose until you get down to an actual inner purpose of what you do, why you do Right. And so you know, I kind of went through it this morning, you know kind of started with it as well.

Dave: 25:49

I kind of redefined, you know I partner with entrepreneurs to like master their finances and escape the reality that more than half of small business owners are only breaking even or losing money, while the other profitable businesses have a median income of only $48,000 a year. And for me it's not about spreadsheets or finances, right, it's about urgency, because life is short, I know it all too well, right, we've just urgency because life is short. I know it all too well, right, we've just kind of seen it from the events that are happening this week. So every moment in our lives matter. So each business owner that I work with, not only do I impact the business owner, but it creates a ripple effect of stability and opportunity for their families, their employees and the communities around them. So my purpose, as we've talked about in this show before, my purpose is to serve in a way that leaves a lasting legacy of impact and pride that my children can be proud of and that the business owners that I've worked with can also be proud of. And also we have the goal of serving and impacting at least a thousand businesses by 2028. Of serving and impacting at least a thousand businesses by 2028. And so what's great about when you can define it like that is now, when I'm having a conversation, I don't feel like I have to sell anymore, and that's part of the idea of this book and I would highly suggest that anybody if you're a business owner, you should probably read it.

Dave: 27:17

Again, it's the Unsold Mindset. I'll put it right here on the video and then I'll put it down in the comments, but I highly suggest you guys go read it. But now it's like you can now clearly look at activities in your business and say, does it align with my purpose and if it doesn't. It helps you filter out clients. It helps you filter out right clients. It helps you filter out activities. It helps you filter out, you know, distractions from your progress Because if it doesn't align with your purpose, you could feel great, right. You don't have to feel like it's a loss because it's not aligning with who you are and you're not now chasing money, like you know. Define your purpose early on. You know, and your whole process will be different in your business. Your whole. You know mindset, your whole. You know vision around what you should be doing changes and so you know that's kind of like an activity.

Duarne: 28:15

You know, you're probably even refined it a little bit more, goran right. So absolutely, I think when you start thinking about it you start to really appreciate it more, and a lot of us we got in the business because we thought it would be our own box. We'll be able to make some good money and a lot of us end up working in our business just to make the same income we could have got. And yeah, I mean, if that's the case, which is what you're describing is a case for a lot of people as well, I mean, that's a far less appealing reason to get into entrepreneurship and get into running a business. So if there's any sort of assistance and shortcuts that you can get in business to be able to do that better, I think as a business owner, we should all embrace that. You know we should take. It's not about taking shortcuts, it's about getting the advice that we can save ourselves making so many mistakes that cost us time, money and effort.

Duarne: 29:10

I talked to lots of business owners about different things and, like we had one, I had one conversation this morning which was related to a very scary related staff issue which led to legal related issues, and I'm not going to say much more than that on it, but basically that one position could jeopardize the entire business for that person and that's really crazy to feel. Like you know, that can happen. So what they've realized is in retrospect there was things that could have been done to help prevent some of these situations, which they've implemented since then, but it didn't help with that particular situation. I've had plenty of those sort of moments not exactly related to that, but plenty of moments where I thought, wow, if I had implemented this earlier, this could have been avoided, and I'm sure here's the, and I guess this kind of goes with like the motto or the.

Dave: 30:05

You know the idea, right, that like the only better time than making a change and implementing something better than today would have been yesterday, right, or, you know, five years ago. Obviously you can't go into the past, you, you can't change that. So make the change today, start making the movements today, like that's all you can control. You know, stop, don't make an excuse to put it off. You know, like you just said with the legal, if they would have, just, you know, kind of turned a blind eye or maybe turn the shoulder, turn the cheek, it may have been a bigger issue, but they decided to address it, make a change and now at least moving forward.

Duarne: 30:38

Things are things that you know, protected or whatever it is not knowing the situation, you know what I mean absolutely, and you know, and I think that's exactly it and that's why, leading into what you were saying there, when it comes to the financial side of things, I think this is the most business owner this. We fail on the finance side of things because we sit there and we think, okay, we're just going to make enough money to cover the cost of keeping this running and then we forget about something simple like paying ourselves. Or we'll go oh well, you know, there's a little extra in the kitty We'll go and splurge and get something that we need, or we'll build this new product or we'll create this new service, only to find out that we didn't stay for a rainy day. There's all these different scenarios that come up that catch us and blindside us and have us sitting there second guessing ourselves and our capability on running a business. So just having a system, a process, a plan can make a world of difference and having someone who's actually understands what that plan process does and can help you with that foresight six months, 12 months, two years down the track you can't put a price on that.

Duarne: 31:48

I mean that's not waking up in sweats with sleepless nights because you're trying to figure out. How am I going to pay salaries this month? Or if this client doesn't pay me this week, oh my god, how am I going to pay my other, my suppliers? You know what? I'm going to send legal action out against this individual company that hasn't paid their bills yet, or this company looks like they're going to go into administration. What am I going to do now? You know all these little things which can affect you and your cash flow and your business coming through and it's easier to just live in the dark sometimes and feel like you know, ignorance is bliss, but you can't be ignorant when it comes to your own business, and that's why the failings of not going when you talk about reserves and cash projections you know I actually put a video out on our YouTube because it's one of those highly searched questions is what's a typical cash reserve for a business?

Dave: 32:46

And it will range, but typically between three and six months is a good cash reserve focus for a business owner. If you're more stable and maybe things are more longer term or maybe you have a lot of clients that are small monthly, then maybe three months can be a good cash reserve. But if you're more volatile, so maybe you're more high ticket, more or less client numbers, maybe you want to have six months of expenses in your reserve. And here's the thing you don't have to just go Again. You don't have to go from zero to six months in reserves like right now, like you don't have to like stress about it. The idea is kind of building that habit, moving forward. So it's like you know maybe you're going to, you know you'll commit to putting 5% away to build that reserve. You know that's the idea of controlling your money and controlling, you know, and having that management system in your business, is because you can build it right, you can save for it, you can start today.

Dave: 33:40

Don't think like, oh, I'm supposed to have six months of savings. I don't, so it's such an overwhelming number I can't get to it right. It's like just start today and, who knows, in six, nine, 12 months you may have that six months of reserve built up. Not, hey, let's just, we have one bank account and we're going to take all of our money and we're going to spend it on expenses or payroll or, you know, I'm going to take some money out and do extra owner draws because it's there.

Dave: 34:05

If you're not planning right, you're literally just going day to day and you're always going to be feeling like you're fighting fires. You're always going to be feeling like you're reactive. Putting a cash management system in your business and looking at it and making it first thought process in your day-to-day actually puts you in control of your business, and it's one of those things that you really can't do without. All great big, successful businesses, even successful small businesses, which is under $25 million in the US they have some sort of cash management process in their business and if they don't, they're probably the ones that are struggling or they're probably the ones that you know are underpaid as owners. And that's what we're looking to, you know, hopefully solve and at least get people in the right direction what is it?

Duarne: 34:54

one day at a time you know, I mean, that's it right. And those people you describe like they could get surprised by something as simple as a tax bill, something that prevent. They could have been preventing or reducing the amount that was doable, but because they hadn't planned for it, they're retrospectively having to deal with it well, not even like you know, obviously.

Dave: 35:13

Yes, you know, reducing your tax bill is always one, but here's the other thing, that you don't want to just spend money, right, because you want to reduce your tax bill, because you don't have money in the bank to pay your taxes, because that's counterintuitive as well. You're like hey, I want to reduce my tax bill. Let's say, for example, I have a $10,000 tax bill right now. Your tax guy says hey, go out and spend $5,000 and it's going to reduce your tax bill by 2,500. So you now go out and spend $12,500 when you could have just had the $10,000 saved up over the year and just pay 10, 10 K and you didn't have to go make an unnecessary expense. Now, if it's something where it's your, your and maybe you're in a cruel you know or not, you're in a cruel but your cash basis business and you're deciding on do I purchase something in December, do I purchase it in January? You're going to need it one way or another. Well then, purchase it in December because the money's still got to go out one way or another, and then you reduce your tax bill for the year that you're filing for. But if it's between, hey, let me go buy this thing that I don't need or I don't need to spend the money on to reduce my tax bill. Well, you know, a tax deduction or a tax saving spending is not a dollar for dollar reduction in your tax bill. So you're ultimately going to end up spending more money to combine to feel like you saved money by, you know, not paying the tax man, whereas if you would have, just over the year, built up a tax reserve, you wouldn't have to worry about your taxes because your taxes are already built up throughout the year and then the payment just goes out and if there's anything left over, boom. An extra owner distribution or an extra owner, start building your cash reserve, pay down debt. There's a lot of things that you could be doing in your business to actually manage it and not just be rationing the things that are happening in your business.

Dave: 36:55

And far too often I've seen it doing people's taxes. I've seen it doing people's taxes. I've seen it, you know, doing people's accounting. I've seen it, you know, in a CPA when I worked in a CPA firm. You know it just happens and people aren't planning and that's that's because you know people are either overwhelmed, they're doing you said it earlier too too much in the business versus you know on the business and you know they may feel we talked about it last week. You know people don't want to have that honest conversation and they feel like if they ask for help or they ask for guidance, that it shows less on them or they feel like they're a failure. I can't tell you how many times that I've had a conversation and people have said no, I don't need help. And then six months down the road, you know they're reaching back out and saying, hey, can you give me some advice here? And it's something that could have been avoided if they would have just asked for the assistance six months early.

Duarne: 37:46

Yeah, well, I mean that leads you to. A big part of it probably comes down to education, and if you don't know any better, well how can you make better decisions? I mean learning about it and being aware of these things. I mean there's a lot of people out there who don't realize what their obligations are in their first couple of years in business. You know like there's laws out there, like here in the Philippines.

Duarne: 38:54

If you've got board members and you're registered with this local SEC, then if you change your board members you have to manually submit a change to SEC to tell them you've changed your board members, the number of board members and who they are.

Duarne: 39:09

So even though you filed it with them and even though you've gone through the process of filing all that correctly, you've then got to go through and change your articles of incorporation with them as well. So there's manual processes. Now if you don't know that, you don't know that and they change process here in the philippines very regularly. One of the good things I guess in the us is you probably have a better awareness and education campaign around obligations, so it's a little easier to keep up with, but I mean as a small business owner, so many changes happening out there based on state and federal. Sometimes it is really hard to keep up with all that. So just having someone in your corner who can help you with all that sort of stuff's huge value, right and and too, like you know again, there's you know there's there's multiple different.

Dave: 40:00

There's, there's, you know, tax advice. There's accountants that help you with the analysis. There's CF fractional CFOs there's bookkeepers different levels of service and I think also putting your trust in just one place is also not something that I would advise anybody to do in their business, is also not something that I would advise anybody to do in their business. You know, be willing to. You know even people do it with doctors all the time and they're, you know, sometimes the best in their field. Right, but they still advise people to seek a second opinion, and I would advise anybody as well to always seek a second opinion in their business or for a business decision, and that's why I feel like having that group or that circle around you that you know is going to be honest with you is not detrimental to a business owner. It's actually like a benefit to the business owner.

Dave: 40:53

I think we even talked about it. I think maybe it was last week. We talked about Henry Ford and he surrounded himself and he had people in his corner and in his team that pushed him forward, drove him to be successful, and now his name's on millions of cars across the world, maybe even tens of millions or whatever the number is, but he didn't have to know everything and he had people around him that he was able to bounce ideas off of, understand if it was good or bad, get their feedback, and I think that's the ultimate goal is you are don't have to do everything alone in your business. Uh, and far too often I have conversations that feel like if they ask for help or they don't do it, then it's like, why didn't accomplish this on my own?

Dave: 41:34

Okay, well, you know, go ahead and do it on your own and know you get you fail right, versus if you would extinct advice or surrounded yourself with people you know and maybe you know maybe it's even partnerships that you bring in right.

Dave: 41:48

Well, 100 of 50 is is better than 100 of zero, you know. So I would much rather, you know, bring people in and partner and and you know, or share a deal with somebody right or that can provide complimentary service, know to a client that can really, in line with my mission, better serve that client than just me say, oh, I have to have a hundred percent of this deal or I can't do it. Yeah, I would much rather do partnerships all day with people that you know have a complimentary service or even part of what I do, like I don't even have to do all this, like, let's just, how could we partner right and this is as a business owner, you should be thinking of these types of conversations how could we partner to make a bigger impact on clients than just me having an impact alone, and and those In your area.

Duarne: 42:41

right, if you specialize in one particular niche of client, then maybe you get a client approach and say, look, I've got a couple of clients who specialize in this area and they want to use your services. You may not specialize, so being surrounding stuff with that group means, look, that's not my specialty, but I have someone in the group who can help with that and bring them in. And, by the way, based on chat just a quick check it estimates that in 2012, ford had reported they'd made 350 million cars to that point.

Dave: 43:17

There you go, and that's one year.

Duarne: 43:20

Or up until that point. So it's estimated at this point there's no official numbers that it can find between 450 and 500 million cars of Ford that have been manufactured since the beginning. Not bad for a little company that started over 100 years ago.

Dave: 43:39

Yeah, and obviously it's made improvements. Obviously you know it's it's made improvements. Obviously he's long gone, but his name is still here, right, you know it lives on and and that's ultimately like when I think you know, kind of going back to the initial conversation, you're in this kind of point about purpose, like that's what I want to eventually. That's why I want, like my purpose, right, my legacy to be, is that, through our business, through our you know strategy, through our support, through our advice, through our you know ideas, is that we are going to leave legacies and impacts that are going to go far beyond me, right, far beyond even the business owners that I partner with, because those ripple effects are going to involve their kids, their spouses, their families, maybe even their communities that they're involved with. And just thinking of that, that's how I want to eventually be remembered right Is that I worked and partnered with people in their businesses to provide them the opportunity to one, achieve the freedom and the success that they dreamed of when they started their business. But, two, we were able together to make a big ripple effect on everybody around them in their business and then, at that point, like that ripple effect becomes, you can't even, you can't even quantify it at that point, right, because it becomes too big. And that's ultimately like when I think of my purpose, like that's the purpose that I'm driving for, that's the purpose that I started this business full time for you know, and it's crazy because it does when you, when you kind of are able to redefine that, you know, and it kind of put it in the words you, you know what I mean. Because now, like every conversation you have is defined by your purchase, your, sorry, your purpose, that your purchase, you know, your conversations and networking, your sales conversations, your networking conversations, your business decisions, are all then defined by that purpose. And now you have that, you know, we always talk about it, you, you know, in conversation, and if you don't know where you're heading, it's like trying to go on vacation without knowing your destination, right, you don't know how you're going to get there, you don't know if I need to take a train, a bike, a train, you know.

Dave: 45:52

A car, a rental car, a bus, right, a plane, like maybe a cruise ship, because you, you know you want to take a cruise, but if you don't know the destination, you can't figure out how you're going to get there and what your actual mode of transportation is going to be. It's the same thing in your business If you don't know where you're heading, if you don't know when you go to AAA, where you're going on a family vacation, and they would map out your route for you on the highways on an actual physical map. Obviously we don't have that anymore, but just imagine that if you didn't have that direction to go and there's a detour and you're like oh crap, and you had to pull out the physical map and say how do I get around this the quickest way? And then you go down dead end roads or like you take the longer way route. But you know, just by having somebody which now we have it in our phones they can reroute you instantaneously as as guidance and support. So think about that for your business.

Duarne: 46:52

You have to define where you're going and then you know how you can get there no, I love that and you know, I just asked the question in ChatGPT if it could verify the source and give me what was Henry Ford's purpose, what was his driving purpose? And interestingly, in one of his speeches he had his Ford Central mission was to put the world on wheels. Great, and basically, like some of the highlights that he he part of his purpose was make cars affordable for everybody, transform, transform work through mass production and improve workers lives. And you know, you know I'd heard this before like but uh, it's, you know, the five day, five dollar a day working wage, double the industry standard at the time, you know, back in 1914.

Duarne: 47:44

Like, I mean, he did some really amazing things and you think he could have done any of that without purpose? Absolutely not. So he surrounded himself with really smart people and have a purpose. And it's interesting, if you're struggling with finding your purpose, maybe you can do this exercise that I just did here where you can jump on chat to be in state. What's the purpose of these people?

Dave: 48:07

well, and here's the thing too, like here, and here's what I did. Right, because obviously, in the book, right, I read the book this morning, or the chapter, and I was like, oh man, like that's awesome, this is, this is the power of a chat gpt. Right, go to chat gpt. Hey, I want you to act as an expert on this book. Right, the own soul mindset, and I am focusing on the chapter on purpose. And I want you to act like a coach for me and I want you to go through the why exercise described in the book and it literally said okay, here's, here's the you know detail of the of that chapter.

Dave: 48:38

Here's what I'm going to do for you Tell me what your initial purpose is and I'm going to follow up with why's so that we can dive a little bit deeper and that you can truly define the underlying purpose of why you're doing what you're doing. And so that's what you could do is go to ChatCPT, prompt it in a way, right, you'll say, hey, it's the unsold mindset, the purpose exercise that they describe in the book. Help me, right, go through that exercise with the whys and it'll ask you the why. It'll be like direct and that's the piece is you want to have that, you know, kind of directness, and so you know whether it's Chan TPT, or maybe you want to do a live, like you know, with a friend or a partner, you know, have them listen to what you're saying and then ask the why? Follow up, why is that important to you or why does that mean something to you personally? And that's how you get deeper.

Duarne: 49:23

I love that doing that brain swimming back and forth with chat, gpt or any other ai. It's got the system's got the capability down an eye cord, whatever I mean gives you that back and forth and lets you refine it so that when you do go and present that to somebody and ask them and do the questions with them, you're a little bit more prepared, right, and you actually put some thought into it. I think that's a really clever use for that. I like that. I think a lot of us these days, like we're afraid to be judged by others for what our purpose is, or you. You know, if we were to answer that out loud, or maybe we don't have a group of people that we can, we feel comfortable going saying that to just yet and not having a clear direction. So I think using these tools to help you come up with that, then having a bit more of a refined direction, can help you feel more comfortable going to those individuals and talking to them about this sort of thing.

Dave: 50:21

Well, here's the here's, the here's, the stuff that you can do it Right. Then you then in. I know this is kind of the next step, but I kind of got started with the chat. This morning was OK, now that I've got my purpose defined right, which is the internal full purpose, which is what I kind of gave earlier, you know, kind of gave earlier. Now help me kind of turn that into a one or two sentence introduction purpose.

Dave: 50:44

When I'm at a networking meeting or I'm having a coffee with somebody, because that's what's going to drive the conversations, the networking, the relationship building, and here's what I want here's, here's what I don't want you to do. Like, here's, here's what you don't do when you're doing this exercise is you don't think of it from the perspective of well, what does my prospect think my purpose should be? Like, that's not going to drive you, that's not going to push you forward. Maybe that's a piece of it. Maybe you know your prospects want you to be their partner to help them overcome X, y and Z pain points. That can be step one. I want to help business owners overcome X, y and Z. That's step one. Now you need to go deeper with the why questions and like well, why is it that you want to do that? Why is it that this is important to you? And then you're truly going to get into your purpose. So don't define your purpose as what you think other people want to hear from you in a conversation. Your purpose is what drives you specifically, and what you'll come to realize is that maybe what you're doing is not even in line with your purpose, which is why you're probably not motivated, probably why you're getting burnt out, probably why you regret having to make phone calls or outreach conversations because you're not truly in line with your purpose. And once you do an exercise like this, you can then, like I've talked about, you can evaluate every decision that you make. Every movement forward can be defined by does this align with my purpose or not?

Dave: 52:21

And so in the book, you know a couple of examples that they've talked about right, it was, like you know, bill Gates. His. His purpose was to empower every person in every organization on the planet to achieve more. Right. That was his purpose, that was his driving force, and so you know his goal then was to have a computer on every desk in every home, and so what better way to help people achieve more than by having the goal to have a computer on every home Right. And some of these people you know again, I don't, you know we talk about politics. I don't agree with the politics, but you know their, their examples here are great. You know even Oprah. You know and you wouldn't think of. Oprah is selling right, but you know no-transcript Coggins and Garrett Brown they met each other at Bidium and then now they're professors. They have their own business together and they do sales conversations. But it's a great book where they did interviews with a lot of leaders in different industries that even sometimes you wouldn't think of them as being like salespeople right, are in the business of selling, because anytime you have to essentially convince people or get them to understand a particular solution or not, or a particular outcome, you know you're you're essentially selling that outcome to them or selling that option to them. And so it talks about the different sort of ideals that these people all have in common and that's why I feel like it's a great book for any business owner. You know I highly suggest it have in common and that's why I feel like it's a great book for any business owner. You know I highly suggest it.

Dave: 54:24

I pretty much wrapped it up this morning, but you know it's kind of. You know, purpose is a big thing for me and it was. I kind of knew an underlying right Like I, I was following a passion to impact business owners. But I think, going through this exercise, I realized that was high level, which is why I truly didn't feel like driven right or I wasn't using it to move me forward, move the business forward, move conversations forward. And now that I actually went through it, I was able to define it and realize that, putting into the urgency fact, because not only with the fact that we just saw what happened right this week, but I lost my brother in a car accident which I've talked about on this podcast before.

Dave: 55:04

You know, life is not guaranteed past the moment that you're living in right now and if you feel like, oh well, this is something that I'm just going to do address down the road, you know, okay, I hope you get there, I really hope you get the opportunity to do that.

Dave: 55:19

But I know all too well that you need to address things today if you want to make an impact into tomorrow and if you're not, it's just always going to be kicked down the road.

Dave: 55:29

It's always going to be the can kicked down the road.

Dave: 55:32

And if that's a decision you want to make, okay, I can't force you to do it.

Dave: 55:35

It's not my problem to help overcome in your business.

Dave: 55:42

To help overcome in your business, yeah, but with my position, my position right, my purpose here. It helps me then refocus and not feel like I have to like keep pushing that person forward, like ultimately, if they're not ready, great, like they're gonna be only eventually, you know, hopefully they either turn it around themselves or maybe they'll reach out in the future and get some advice, whether it's from watching our channel or listening to our advice or listening to our videos, you know, but it is. It is great how, once you kind of, can dive a little bit deeper in and really expand on, like a surface level mission, how different your mindset is. And again, it's one of those things where, yes, did it just happen to me like an hour and a half ago? Sure, you know working through it, but I can tell you now that, like it's, my brain's just been like, oh shit, you know, like it's, it's kind of something that I've been missing, right yeah, and sometimes you've got the information there, you just don't know what the framework it's required to make it work.

Duarne: 56:34

You know the amount of times I look at something and I go if only there was a framework to explain how that could make it easier or so anyone could do that, and I love using you know the tools that I have at my disposal to create frameworks to do that sort of thing, and what, effectively, you've just described as a framework that's taken, something it's already conscious and you're thinking about on a regular basis and just put in a way that makes you focused on it in a different light and I think that's what we all need to be aware of is we don't all have the answers, and sometimes the answers are going to come to us in the weirdest spots or in the middle of a conversation that we didn't expect, or in a podcast we're watching and go, holy shit, yeah, I need to do more about that. Or holy shit, that's really what I'm thinking right now. That's how I'm feeling. I don't think I need to do more about that. Or holy shit, that's really what I'm thinking right now. That's how I'm feeling. I don't think you need to care too much about where the advice comes from as much as how it affected you and the amount of advice. Like I'll be watching a podcast and I'll be like, wow, you know what I love what that's saying about this particular topic. I'm going to utilize that in one of my non-profit courses and I'll create it and I'll put it into you know, like a ai an ai course that I wrote last week which we're going to be launching for our non-profit and one of the things that is it came from.

Duarne: 57:57

The inspiration came from somewhere that I would never have picked it to come from, but it came and it just turned out to be the perfect solution at the time for what I needed and it was incredible. And I think you've just got to embrace those moments. And and when we start talking about business cash flow support networks, like what you're offering with tbs at the moment and we had that lucky winner last week, which was incredible who won that full package, congrats again and I think that is the sort of thing that is really important for people to consider in this day and age, because money saves, money earned right and how many and just going with how volatile the market can be and how quick things can change is just at least understanding your own business and the operations from the financial point of view can help make you a better business owner and help you survive those tougher periods as well. So I love the fact you found purpose in what you're doing and a way to express that quickly. You have the purpose already.

Dave: 59:06

I just think you found a new framework to express that clearly and articulate that very simply for others and I would say, like you know, it was there like, but you know, I think ultimately it was jumbled. You know what I mean. Like you know, like the pieces were there, like I understood, like I had a purpose of belief. You know that that life is always short, that you're never guaranteed tomorrow. I've said that from you know, whenever we started giving away scholarships in my brother's memory, like it was one part of like what I said, you know. You know you're never guaranteed tomorrow. You know you only have today. So what are the choices you're going to make? And so I had that piece right.

Dave: 59:43

And then you know, I obviously have, you know, the idea that I want to leave like a bigger legacy you know, not just that than me, right, just live a bigger legacy that's going to get impact on more people. I always had that piece. And then I had the passion for business owners and small business owners especially, but I never put the three together. You know what I mean. So they were always there. They're always three sort of defining purposes, but they never were brought together towards right, my business. And I feel like, now that it's there, it's like you know, it's like this, you know, really big bang aha, like you know, wonderful moment that was one of those things, yeah you're like yeah

Dave: 1:00:18

I wish I would have had this. You know, like two years ago, maybe things would be a lot. You know further along, but, like again, the only better time that five years ago to implement a change is today. And so, ultimately, you know you can't change the future. You can't spend your your time looking in a rearview mirror and wondering what if and you know if I would have done this, then you know where would I be now. You can't live your life like that.

Dave: 1:00:39

You know's like driving a car. You don't drive a car looking in a rearview mirror 100% of the time and it's just like life. You check your mirrors, you check your past, you check your side mirrors, what's coming up in your life, but ultimately you spend 85% to 90% of your time looking ahead. And if you don't whether it's in life, business, driving, you know what happens. You end up in a car accident because you don't see what's happening in front of you. If you're too focused on what's happening in your rear view mirror, on your side, you end up in a car accident because you missed what's in front of you. You missed opportunities, you miss, you know, the success that you are meant to have or the things that are that are happening on in your life and ultimately, you know you got to change your focus and you know the best time to do that is today.

Duarne: 1:01:27

I love it, love the topic today. Yeah, look, condolences to the family of Charlie Kirk and just an absolute tragedy to have lost somebody who was just such a brilliant debater and a brilliant mind. And, yes, like you said right at the beginning, right, I mean we may not need to agree with everything he did and said, but it doesn't. You know, one moment in your life can define your entire life sometimes, and the person who made that decision to do what they did in the end years has just defined both their lives now. Sometimes, then, the person who made that decision to do what they did in the end years, it's just defying both their lives now, which is just devastating for both of them, because both their lives they're ruined over this yeah, you know.

Dave: 1:02:13

Ultimately, you know what would I wait, I kind of hope for is that his two, or his daughter and his son, do not have that image of their father ingrained in their mind. I hope they're young enough to not remember that. Now the problem is the video's on the internet.

Duarne: 1:02:32

That's the drama.

Dave: 1:02:34

I hope sometimes how it gets scrubbed, it gets deleted, so when they're older they don't have to see their father die like that. I watched the video. It's pretty. It's obviously disturbing to see that happening to a human being, especially when they're just there to have a conversation. And so condolences again.

Dave: 1:02:54

We don't condone violence on any side of the aisle for any differing opinion. You shouldn't be dead because you have a differing opinion to somebody else. Either way, one way or another, we're not here to condone that. We're here to obviously condone the people that celebrated it, because that's messed up and disgusting and vile. Those are people that I don't want in my world and my network. Again, I'm going to close with that. If you are a person that felt like you wanted to celebrate that event happening, kindly see the door, don't let it hit you in the ass on the way out. And good life to you. I don't wish you death, I don't wish you harm, but good luck, because you're not somebody I want in my world.

Dave: 1:03:37

And with that, like I said, purpose is again something kind of came from this event. I was kind of thinking of that. Obviously there's a lot of. I don't know whether it's foreshadowing or whatever, but like it just seemed like recently on a lot of his podcasts he was being asked, like what happens if you're gone? Like, how do you want to be remembered? You know what? What? What do you want people to think about you if you're gone? And like the fact that, like then this happens, you know, a month or two later it's.

Dave: 1:04:02

It's crazy. But, like you know, that hit me and like you know, I may not agree with some of his. You know, ideas like we talked about and his purpose driven, but the fact is is that the man had a purpose. It drove him right. You know, he didn't let other things deter him from his mission because it was his purpose. And I felt, felt like that was something that I could take from Charlie Kirk and put that into my life. And then the fact that then, coincidentally, I'm reading this morning and I'm reading about purpose, and so it just really hit home and, whether it's in your life or in your business or both, find your purpose, develop your purpose, hone in on your purpose, because it will define everything that you do and it should define everything that you do.

Duarne: 1:04:50

Yeah, To make sure there you're in there, for there is a purpose there. So take that minute to figure out. That'd be my takeaway, right. Take that minute to figure out what your purpose in business is and maybe ask yourself what was your original purpose and what is your purpose today, because it could have changed, and it probably has changed, as for me as for you, remember it's.

Dave: 1:05:17

It's the purpose. Like and we'll close with this, the purpose is again your purpose, not what you think people want to hear about. Your purpose it's what is your truly reason or ideology that pushes you forward. What is that reason why you want to push forward? And that's how you develop a purpose and why you want to push forward and that's how you develop your purpose. Don't think of, well, I need to save this for my purpose because I feel like that's what my prospects want or that's what my partners want. No, no, that's not how you develop it. That's never going to drive you. That's never going to push you forward. Develop your purpose because it's what's inside you, in your head, in your life, what's going to push you forward and that's how you develop your purpose.

Dave: 1:06:00

So, with that, warren man, I appreciate you joining me again. As always, if you've made it this far, whether you're watching live or you're watching the recording, we love you. We wish you all the best. Again, we're in close thoughts and prayers with Charlie Kirk, his friends, his family, his wife, his daughter and his son. We're not guaranteed tomorrow. We only have today. So make the choices you know for you and for your life that you know are going to make the best today, because, again, you don't have tomorrow. Tomorrow's never guaranteed.

Dave: 1:06:33

So with that, you know, if you'd like something from today's episode, please share it. Invite, you know your business owner, you know owner network to watch the episode. Again, we're here on a mission to help grow this show. In October we're going to be bringing business owners on as well. So if you're interested in doing that and would like to drop a comment down below, we're building out, as I said, the process to automate this. But right now, if you're interested, just drop a. Hey, I'm interested in joining the show. I'll reach out and we'll get in contact with you to get you scheduled for an upcoming episode. But with that, I hope everybody has a wonderful and fantastic end to their week. Hug your family, hug your friends, tell everybody that you love them in your life. And until then, dwarren, I thank you, brother. I hope you have a wonderful and amazing weekend and give those two little kids and your big boy and your wife just a hug tonight, 100%.

Dave: 1:07:27

All right, guys, We'll see you later and we'll see you in the next one.