Episode 16 - From Army to Lemonade Empire: Quincy's Bold Move Story

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Alrighty, this is Matt with the Bold News Podcast.

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And I've got a really cool guest. I've got Quincy Milam.

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And okay, so just I'm going to break that down for the audience.

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So they all know, but you know, yes, we met in BNI.

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But also, we're both have a military background.

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And we were both in the same, in the same organization, which I think is kind of cool.

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And so we immediately kind of connected there.

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But yeah, so Quincy, I just want to give you a second, we want to introduce yourself, let the

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audience know who you are, what you're all about. What's going on, y'all?

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My name is Quincy Milam.

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I'm the owner of Cuties Lemonade and More.

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Yeah, Matt and I met way back in, I mean, we was both National Guard service members.

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And it's a you go back to those times, man, when we was serving in the field, man.

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I mean, I can't believe like how close proximity we both were to each other when we were both in the Army.

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So I mean, I've since retired.

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I know you still in.

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But I mean, yeah, it's really cool that two soldiers are now standing here representing their

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business, you know, doing their thing, you know, and also shout out the Toro insurance for setting

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up this this cool podcast we got here.

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I mean, this is really a good good setup.

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So shout out to them too.

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Yeah, no, there was I was really like excited that they were willing to do this and kind of get it set up.

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It was kind of like, on the fly because I was using that other studio I was telling you about

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but the it was great, by the way, but the issue was like the equipment was like shared with a lot of people. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Can't have that.

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You need some personalized and just to yourself. Yeah.

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And the issue was like, I was having like connection issues with the audio and it was getting screwed up out. But I feel bad.

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The last podcast I did like the audio totally got like wiped didn't need nothing. It didn't say anything.

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And I still I still have to call her and let her know that.

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Sorry, your episode is not going to air.

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Which Yeah, that's that's kind of messed up.

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But yeah, no, it's cool.

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Because we both have the military background, which is kind of neat.

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And like you, you got out as a major as a major. Yeah. Oh, yeah. That's cool. Yeah.

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Like I'm, I'm sitting at captain, and I'm probably not going to make major because like, I'm

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already on my medical board on the way out.

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And I can't do these schools and all this other stuff.

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So it's kind of kind of kind of a sad thing.

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But you know, ain't nothing about being a major any better than being a major.

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Like I was talking to one of my best friends.

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I went to I went to high school with them.

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We're both in the marching band all that stuff.

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Well, he's in the guard, and I we connected like when I was in ROTC, and he was like, what he's, he's a war officer.

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And I'm like, dude, that's I should have done that. Right.

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Yeah, because they, they fly under the radar.

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Nobody needs anything from anybody wants anything.

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And when they come around, it's like, they're important, you know, it's being a warrant officer,

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I would say it's got to be the most, I would say the best field you can probably get into, you

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know, because you you alleviate yourself from accountability, you make everybody else accountable.

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And you know, you're accountable, but you're not as accountable as like the actual great officers.

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But man, if I could do it all over again, warrant officer, or I'd be like a sergeant major,

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because I think that's, I'd be the greatest sergeant major, dude, I was thinking about that, too.

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I think I probably either would have gone and stayed enlisted, and and saw that through, right,

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or gone the warrant officer route. Yeah.

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Just because my, my mindset and everything, it's more, I think it's more inclined for for that type of work.

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I mean, whatever happened, what happened has happened.

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Right, right where I'm at right. Yeah.

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But I mean, I just I kind of think about that.

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But I'm having my military career, you know, obviously, it's being able to just go back to it,

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you know, I think I took the advantageous route.

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And I wanted to be like an officer so bad, because when I was going through ROTC, I just, I

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did everything I possibly could to like get the degree just so I can place myself to like, a

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higher rank, because I just wanted to get in front, I just want the lead, you know, but I didn't

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understand all the other ways.

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And I wasn't patient enough to like, like, suffer through it, you know, enlisted.

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But I do miss it.

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Army was great to me, I can't hold anything back.

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I mean, I've lived my life through the Army, I have everything in all my success to the military. Yeah.

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Yeah, no, I wouldn't change any of it either. Oh, yeah.

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Where did you go to ROTC?

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In Austin P in Austin, in Tennessee. All right.

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So because I was at ASU.

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And so when you went did how did you do on on swimming on CWST?

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Oh, man, you would think, you know, it being me being black, and I'm Juneteenth today, you know,

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that was just straight to the bottom.

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But I was actually an incredible swimmer.

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Like, people don't know that I can swim pretty damn good.

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You know, I think if I did the whole, we know where you walk up and you got the weapon over your head.

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I mean, I did that in like record time.

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I did it on my back without even having to like stroke, because the bet that I had between the

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person was that I was gonna go and I said, Listen, how I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna drop into this water.

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I'm not gonna use my arms at all.

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I'm gonna put the weapon on my chest.

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And all you're gonna see is me hitting the back of my head.

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And you're gonna say score your go.

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And that's exactly how I did. I fell in backwards.

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I did my little Nemo flips.

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And all I did was continue on until I hit the back of the head.

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And everybody was like, that's incredible.

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Like I'm you didn't have to swim it.

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There's most people like have to swim it over their head and everything.

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And it's like, no, dude, you can keep the weapon out of the water.

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You can coast through this.

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It's like the easiest task that they have.

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And oh, it's starting to start first class. It was there.

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He told me told me he's like, Dude, all you got to do is do this.

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I was like, for real.

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He was that we placed a bet right then and there and he said, I bet you won't do it.

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So right then I know it's wrong time to do it.

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Because he's like you got your whole career on the line.

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If you fail, it's a no go.

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But I just was so compelled about how what he what he was saying, but and just did it.

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So just to kind of let the audience know.

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So CWST, that's combat water survival. Yeah, combat water survival.

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And there's there's a there's like five different events. Right?

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Yeah, I'm trying to think through them.

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But I know one of them is like, you got to kind of swim on your side, got tread water, and you

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got to hold your rifle up out of the water. Yeah.

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One of them is yeah, treading water for like, I don't know, five minutes.

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I think it's like five minutes.

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And then really, you just got to stand you just got to get somewhere within the water.

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I mean, this is kind of to like, there's tricks you can use that you can you can swim in.

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If you're not a really strong swimmer, and a lot of people folks that I was with.

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This is why I was in the group that I was in.

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I'm a strong swimmer, but the folks that I was with was not. Yeah.

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Most of them are black.

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And so that the drill that we had, he was like, Hey, look, if y'all need help swimming, just

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tie up your BDUs because we had BDUs at the time.

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And we tied it up.

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And he said, if all you got to do is drop backwards into the water, and your uniform is designed

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this way that it would create a floaty, your legs will float, your arms will float.

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And all you got to do is lay backwards, you're gonna get a little bit of water in your nose.

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So you got to be prepared for that.

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But once you do, you can just float in the middle of this water and you'll be a go.

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That's all you got to do is make five minutes. Yeah.

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And a lot of people like that would struggle, you know, they would get tired after two or three

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minutes because here's one guy.

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Cadet Rannison, he was straight muscles built like a gladiator, six pack everything.

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And he could not swim for for anything.

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He can run a PT test, 300 PT test, everything.

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When it came to swimming, he just drops, he sinks like a rock, he's full of, he's just muscle, straight muscle.

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And he had to use this technique in order to pass.

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And he made colonel, he's literally a lieutenant colonel right now to this day, but he was never

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going to become an officer if he didn't pass water survival that day. Wow.

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Yeah, I would I would put myself in the camp that was not a good swimmer.

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In fact, I couldn't swim when I first started. Yeah. Well, okay.

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So so the some of the other tests, it was jumping off of like, I don't know how high it was. Oh, yeah.

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Like, it was maybe it was 15 feet or something like this.

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You hit the water, you know, you just but so like you so so everyone knows like, you have to like basically stand there. And you're blindfolded.

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You got to hold your rifle out in front of you and then take a step off like a leap of faith

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and then just drop just drop down. Yeah.

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And then come all the way back and then there was there was another one like this was like pretty

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easy, but you jump in and then take your flick off. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

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Take out your Yeah, yeah.

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But so my first exposure to that I was an MS two. Nice.

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And I had I got I got anxiety.

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Like I didn't think I was gonna have that.

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Like I I freaked out like and I couldn't even get in the water like and they were everyone's

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kind of like, okay, we just kind of like, push me off to the side.

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There was already people like, yeah, hang like, right, right.

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Like, pretty much like, if you can't do this, like, you're not going to commission. Right.

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And so what I did was I went out and I found a swim instructor.

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I went to the YMCA.

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I was like, I need a swim instructor.

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I learned how to do this.

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And I found a swim instructor.

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Dude, this lady, like research the water survival test, because I was like, straight up telling

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her I'm gonna like not commission if I don't get this right.

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And she put together a plan to like, get me there.

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And I think it was for like a year, year and a half, I just would go and train.

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And I learned how to swim. Wow.

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And I remember, I was I had this this thing of like, okay, like, well, there's somebody there to watch me.

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If I'm gonna let you drown, they're gonna pull me up.

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And I would just like, just jump. Okay.

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And I would just do it.

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And I just kind of have like this faith that like, right, I was gonna like not die. Right.

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But I remember like I standing off of the deep end.

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And this lady gave me this weight. Like this.

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It was like a plate. Oh, nice heavy plate.

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I don't know how heavy it was like, yeah, 30 pounds or 45 pounds. I don't know how.

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Yeah, but she's like, okay, go in there and just jump and drop to the bottom.

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And I'm like, looking at this. Are you crazy? Yeah. Like, I did it.

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And then I was like, coming back up.

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Yeah, it took time, you know, and practicing.

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But man, like, if I hadn't had taken that time to like, go learn how to do that on my own, I wouldn't have commissioned.

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Oh, yeah, I barely passed the seat.

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That was the real I mean, honestly, this is how, how strenuous it was, because we train really

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we train for us too.

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But some things you can just get some things you can't combat water survival was one of those maker breakers.

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It was one of those either.

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I'm completely afraid of it.

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I've been afraid of water my entire life.

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Me doing this task, even in this pool practicing just scares the shit out of me. Yeah.

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So when you do it, and you say my entire career is on this, the only reason why I'm going through

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this program is to commission as an officer.

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And yet this one little task, this one little thing that I'm just that I just got, you know,

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I'm just scared to do, you know, maybe from the past, maybe didn't grow up around water or whatever.

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But whatever it is, it's gonna stop you literally stop you in your track.

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You once they you hit a no go on this, you're gonna kick you out, you out.

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And the crazy thing is that that test, it's one day, one day, there's no like, okay, let's go

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hit the pool and train like that. None of that.

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Nobody even says anything about CWC until it's like, okay, we got to see today.

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Yeah, it's like, you're like, we're heading to the pool today.

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It's like, and that's the day. Yep.

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Either make or break it. Yeah. And that's crazy.

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So yeah, it wasn't until my, my, my ms four year that I finally passed it.

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I didn't pass it my ms two year.

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And that's when everyone that's when everyone normally passed. Yeah, yeah.

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I kept training kept going.

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My ms three year didn't pass it.

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So I went to LDAC and not having passed CWST.

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But for whatever reason, when I went to LDAC, it was at Fort Knox.

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So they changed it from what was it? Yeah, yeah, with Lewis. Yeah.

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So we were at Fort Knox.

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And it was the first year there.

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So they didn't have like the water stuff set up yet.

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Oh, I didn't do the zip line. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

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And then came back my ms four year.

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It was the spring was for right before I commissioned.

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Like it was it was kind of like, hey, like, are we going to do this?

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I know, I take that back.

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I took it this the fall semester didn't pass it.

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And then they hooked me up with another cadet who was like, was working with me.

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And then at spring, then I passed it, man. barely passed. Wow. Crazy. Yeah, it was crazy. It was messed up.

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This is made of legends, man.

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Yeah, the things we go through.

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Yeah, to get past some certain things.

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But I mean, I wouldn't change it for the world, though.

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And ROTC, he went active duty and he went in for a little bit and came out, never did the gas chamber. No, way.

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For whatever reason, he kept missing it.

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Like he would go out and they it's like a rotation his unit and he got skipped or something.

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Yeah, we went to Eldak and they missed him.

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Never did the gas chamber.

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Not once a hit me with the gas chain for so many times.

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I felt like I was.

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I was an expert gas chamber.

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Yeah, I wish they had a badge for that. Yeah.

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That's all I ever do is gas chamber.

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But anyway, um, so yeah, no, I just wanted to kind of let everyone know.

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So you you have a lemonade business. Yep.

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And it's what is what is business called cuties lemonade and lemonade.

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So tell us a little bit about that.

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Like, how did you go from like, you know, being in the military starting in the lemonade business.

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And this also kind of kind of leads us to our show, which is the bold moves podcast.

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And we talked about people making these bold moves, the good, the bad, the ugly, the failures,

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the successes, and we just kind of talked about it.

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But, you know, what's the bold new story for you going into that lemonade business?

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And cuties cuties kind of started kind of of a dream.

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I'm not gonna lie, like, my wife's father does this in Alabama, except the thing he does is

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kettle corn. kettle corn is like real big in Alabama.

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Lemonade is like the sideshow.

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Lemonade was something I never even thought would be like the fruit that would like, like really

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save everything I got with my career and, you know, getting out of the military.

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But when I started this company, it was just to do like size, there's supposed to be a sideshow,

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there's supposed to be something that you know, we kind of make some extra money inside, I never

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really declared myself to really get out of the military, the military was supposed to carry

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me on, I was supposed to do 30 years, if I had to, my wife was a nurse, we were pretty much

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set in our careers, we both had had well careers, we both were college educated.

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Lemonade was not even in the background, you know, just to kind of get a vacation here and there.

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That's when my dad, my wife's dad convinced us to, you know, hey, you should, you know, start

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a food truck and do something like this.

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First, it was kettle corn, but I was like, being outside in the hot heat 115 degrees, Arizona,

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me stirring a pot with kettle corn boiling.

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I was like, nah, man, I ain't no way I'm gonna be able to do that.

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So I was like, what if you don't put the kettle corn cooker in here, and you just did the lemonade?

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He was a non whatever word because no one ever buys just lemonade by itself, you got to like

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have it to buy it with something else.

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And I was like, Oh, no, man, Arizona, we can try to do something like that.

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So it was like just supposed to be a drink concept.

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And honestly, from the first time we did it, like we went to our church made like 800 bucks, which was phenomenal.

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You know, our paychecks in the military, you know, they're pretty good 2500 bucks, it's kind

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of like the going pair.

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But my first event, four hours at my church, it was a trick or treat event that they had, like a truck or treat.

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And we made the day by supporters, we didn't have a wrap, we didn't have anything on the truck on the trailer.

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And we came out making that much money.

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And the line and the this just a just a feedback of everybody saying how good it was, I never had a like this.

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And we was like, wow, our process is really simple.

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Because the real thing about lemonade is it, the standard is so low, comparative to all the

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companies out there, you know, if you think a minute made minute made is not no harm to minute

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made, shout out to them.

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But at the same time, like it's no juice, it's no real juice, it's no real efforts, no real

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fruit, it's no real anything.

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The basic recipe, I'm giving to you straight lemon, sugar and water.

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But most of the time, they don't put lemons, most of the time they barely do sugar, most of

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it is with high fruit.

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So most times bad for you.

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And the water that they use is just tap water where we use alkaline water.

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So when we started this business, I said we got to shoot for all the stars we can get because

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we got to separate ourselves because the standard is so low, that when we just do the basics,

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we gonna make this thing like hot.

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So we started, we did it like that alkaline water, real lemons, fresh squeeze right there on

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the spot made the order.

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And then he said, Well, father in law, he was like, Hey, let me give you this, this, this shaved

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ice machine, you know, you can make shaved ice on the side, it'd be like your third item.

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I looked at that shave, that shaved ice machine, I said, man, ain't gonna be no shaved ice.

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People don't want to shave ice like that.

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He's like, I'm gonna make slushies.

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And when that hit, we're the only people that do slushies in all of Arizona, I have never gone

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to a place where you do you actually make a fresh squeeze lemonade slushie. It's just don't exist.

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You see them at other places where they have a way to freeze the ice or whatever, but not real

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fruit, not fresh squeeze nowhere ever.

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So we made that that's that's like our pentacle. Like we did that.

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And if anybody want to go out there and try it, yo, straight up.

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But slushies, we make all these different cool flavors, we can do all of these different type

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of towers with, you know, different colors, you can make any kind of color out of it, like the

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red, white, blue, for example, he looks like it's just red, white and blue.

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So your straw hits the bottom of his blue raspberry, then it's lemon up in the middle.

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And then it's cherry up top, cherry on top, you know.

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So when we did it like that, I mean, we just we just planted ourselves.

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So since then, I mean, we, we, we embraced it, scaled it, got another truck, got another truck,

18:06 - 18:11
got another truck, you know, now we're two, three stores, we're all over. We're in Florida now.

18:11 - 18:13
So we just opened up a store in Tampa.

18:14 - 18:17
We have a food truck, three of them here in Arizona.

18:17 - 18:19
And then we got the store also in Arizona mills.

18:19 - 18:24
And all of that came from the bold move of us.

18:24 - 18:27
My wife lost her job as a nurse.

18:27 - 18:30
And I was getting out of the army for medical.

18:31 - 18:36
And without those, those things, those tragedies, at the time, I thought they were so bad.

18:36 - 18:45
I was like, yo, man, I can't believe I'm getting my like, I filed a VA claim and the VA claim is chapter me out. I'm barely a captain.

18:45 - 18:48
Like I'm just got back from deployment.

18:48 - 18:49
Like I'm already in the mix.

18:50 - 18:53
I hate it for like 10 years, just so I didn't even want to tell him because as soon as I let

18:53 - 18:57
this out, they're gonna be like, yo, man, now you're police.

18:57 - 19:00
And as soon as I did, my police went from like a one to like a three.

19:00 - 19:03
Then it went to a four when you get four, they're on you.

19:03 - 19:09
They didn't medical board came up and I was like, Oh, you know, I tried to talk kind of rocket back a little bit. It was too late.

19:09 - 19:13
And literally, they put through the process and said, do you want to medically retire?

19:14 - 19:15
Or do you want to actually retire?

19:16 - 19:18
And I had like 18 years or so.

19:18 - 19:23
So I was like, you know what, if I can put this thing off for two more years, I'll just regularly retire.

19:24 - 19:26
So I can get my benefits and do all that.

19:26 - 19:29
So I put it off, but I ended up medically retiring anyways, but I still had 20 years.

19:29 - 19:30
So it still made me eligible.

19:31 - 19:34
But had that not happened, never would have happened.

19:35 - 19:37
The lemonade stand that would have happened, we would have still been working in the army.

19:38 - 19:39
My wife would have still been a nurse.

19:40 - 19:47
And I think it's just, I thank God, man, because I'm like, well, at the time, I thought it was such a tragedy. It wasn't a tragedy.

19:47 - 19:48
It was actually a miracle.

19:48 - 19:50
It was the thing that was gonna set me up.

19:50 - 19:57
And I'm gonna tell you, like, since then, like, it's my income level has gone up times four.

19:57 - 19:59
We just bought a house in Florida.

20:00 - 20:01
This is our fourth house, by the way.

20:02 - 20:05
All of these things I wouldn't have had because of the military.

20:05 - 20:08
But now I have these things despite the military.

20:08 - 20:15
And I can't thank God like not enough that I have all these opportunities now to do all these things.

20:16 - 20:22
Because I got the military background, got the 100% VA, turn that into, you know, now it pays

20:22 - 20:24
for all these all these homes.

20:24 - 20:28
I use that I rent out the homes, and then I get the income from that. So it substitutes that.

20:29 - 20:31
So now I got this other income.

20:31 - 20:32
And then I take the lemonade stand.

20:32 - 20:34
And I buy another house and I buy another house.

20:35 - 20:37
And I buy, you know, just you just keep on going, watch runs repeat.

20:39 - 20:42
That without that bold move. That's what I'm saying.

20:43 - 20:45
Like, so just shout out to the world.

20:45 - 20:51
If something is happening, and it's something that you think shouldn't be happening, and you're

20:51 - 20:53
trying to resist it and fight it.

20:53 - 20:55
Telling you right now, it's a better plan for you.

20:55 - 20:56
That's what you got to focus on.

20:56 - 20:58
You just got to let it let it ride.

20:59 - 21:00
Let God do his thing.

21:00 - 21:04
And you'll be set up. Wow. That's crazy. Yeah. Oh, yeah.

21:04 - 21:06
How long have you been doing that? Now?

21:06 - 21:09
This is this is my 10th year in the business.

21:09 - 21:17
We started, I mean, starting in 2025 2015 2015.

21:17 - 21:22
Just a concept really incorporated in 2016. knew we had to actually do something because we

21:22 - 21:23
was making too much money.

21:23 - 21:25
We couldn't we can do we got put this in the business.

21:26 - 21:27
So we just did it.

21:27 - 21:31
And I mean, I was literally from the time I was going through retirement.

21:31 - 21:33
My mom wouldn't even focus on retiring.

21:33 - 21:35
Like I was I knew I was good.

21:35 - 21:40
I was like, well, you know, at first before this even happened, I was like, I can't do nothing.

21:40 - 21:43
I got to hide everything in order to stay in. At the time.

21:43 - 21:45
I'm like, I'm you won't kick me out tomorrow.

21:45 - 21:46
I can kick me out.

21:46 - 21:49
And this position made me that much more confident.

21:49 - 21:55
It made me that much more like lackluster about the military career, which I you know, I still

21:55 - 21:59
honor to this day, but I was I was not afraid to let it go where a lot of people in the military.

22:00 - 22:01
They're afraid to let it go.

22:01 - 22:02
They get out to get back in.

22:02 - 22:06
They don't know how to get another job and you shout out to all the struggles that they have

22:06 - 22:07
and trying to find other positions.

22:07 - 22:13
But if they would just think that invest in themselves and start their own business, that is

22:13 - 22:17
going to be the way because when I started cuties, man, I'm telling you, I lifted up out of my chair.

22:18 - 22:20
I stood up out of my chair when I thought of the name.

22:20 - 22:22
So my wife, my name is Quincy.

22:22 - 22:23
My wife's name is Tiffany.

22:23 - 22:31
So cutie cuties stood up out of my chair, stood up out of my chair, looked up at the was just

22:31 - 22:35
like and just smiled and I couldn't stop smiling. I couldn't stop smiling.

22:36 - 22:38
My energy, my like my blood pressure went up.

22:38 - 22:42
I'm in this this my office at the military alone. Ain't nobody in here.

22:42 - 22:44
And I just stood up.

22:44 - 22:49
I'm just like in this was I just knew it was going to be bigger than I can ever imagine. And it has been.

22:49 - 22:54
It's done everything I could possibly want and need. So yeah.

22:54 - 22:56
Yeah, I'm thinking about it. You have.

22:58 - 23:03
Businesses in other states, other state business in other states doing the exact same thing.

23:03 - 23:05
So how is that structured?

23:05 - 23:10
Do you have somebody over there manning it or my wife and I bought the house because we want

23:10 - 23:12
to get closer to to home.

23:13 - 23:15
Yeah, we live in Tennessee. She lives in Alabama.

23:15 - 23:19
So, you know, our parents, you know, so we was like, well, we got to figure out a plan, you

23:19 - 23:22
know, take care of them, be able to take care of them in their old age.

23:22 - 23:26
So I looked up and I said, man, I don't know how we're going to do that because I love Arizona

23:26 - 23:27
and I would never want to leave Arizona.

23:27 - 23:31
But the problem with Arizona is our parents do not want to get on the plane.

23:31 - 23:32
They do not want to come here.

23:33 - 23:36
They barely visit us and it's just like it's one of those things where you just kind of separate.

23:36 - 23:40
So when you have kids, you know, you're thinking to yourself, they're never going to know their

23:40 - 23:41
grandparents because I live too far.

23:41 - 23:44
So I was like, well, what if we got a summer home?

23:45 - 23:50
Then the summer home got kind of dreamed up and then we was like, well, how do we qualify for the summer home?

23:51 - 23:55
So then we came into, OK, what the what are the income streams that you can make, which goes

23:55 - 23:57
back to another story, but I'll tell that.

23:58 - 24:03
So the income streams that you make all got to add up to you being able to afford that house

24:03 - 24:05
or they're just, you know, you don't get the underwriting.

24:05 - 24:07
They're going to say you don't make enough income.

24:07 - 24:12
So part of it is you got to have, you got to pay yourself, got to pay yourself as a W-2.

24:13 - 24:15
You got to structure the business where the business is in Florida.

24:15 - 24:17
The business is also in Arizona.

24:17 - 24:22
You got to have a business that's conceptualized where it's so simple that you can train anybody

24:22 - 24:27
to do it from afar that you can solve any problem from a phone call.

24:28 - 24:34
In doing that, where all you need to do is go there for a few moments at a time, get the things

24:34 - 24:37
established, put these systems and processes in place.

24:37 - 24:41
So when you actually launch it, it's running and it runs on its own.

24:41 - 24:49
So the systems and processes because we've had repeat stores that we built are so simple that anybody can do it.

24:49 - 24:52
Anybody can do it the first day that they started up.

24:52 - 24:58
A new employee, I can train them over the phone, never meet them and they can actually work this entire stand.

24:58 - 25:00
One employee that we have at the stand each day.

25:01 - 25:02
We don't have a lot of staff.

25:03 - 25:04
We keep it very conservative.

25:04 - 25:06
We keep our expenses down.

25:06 - 25:10
We have one ingredient and turn it into 18 different flavors.

25:10 - 25:15
That one ingredient and then when you add slushies on top of it, now you got 18 more flavors.

25:15 - 25:21
I mean, you can do this thing so many different ways and shapes and forms and all you do is

25:21 - 25:24
invite the customer based on how it looks.

25:25 - 25:28
How it looks is what sells it.

25:28 - 25:30
Our tagline is it tastes as good as it looks.

25:31 - 25:36
So when a customer sees this lemonade, they either have never seen something like this and they

25:36 - 25:41
have to try it and they're enticed to try it based on the pictures and the projection that we

25:41 - 25:44
give to them and then from that, they taste it.

25:44 - 25:49
Then they're like, goodness, this really is a great lemonade and the only reason why it's a

25:49 - 25:53
great lemonade is why I was telling you earlier because it started the standard.

25:53 - 25:59
It's been so low that when we made a fresh squeeze lemonade and then turn it into a slushy and

25:59 - 26:02
then that that that's automatically just good.

26:02 - 26:05
If you have a perfect lemonade, it's great.

26:05 - 26:10
The problem is you've never you don't you don't enjoy a perfect lemonade, good lemonade, fresh

26:10 - 26:12
squeeze lemonade because we don't we just don't it's not.

26:13 - 26:17
In our daily lives, we drink the crap all the time. So you get this.

26:18 - 26:20
You're like, wow, this is something different when it really ain't.

26:20 - 26:23
It's really the original thing, but just our standards are so low.

26:24 - 26:27
So if men and men ever catch on and start doing it like this, they don't put me out of business.

26:28 - 26:33
But I bet they won't because it's too hard and it's too hard because I put the effort, I put

26:33 - 26:38
the love, I put the time into it to do it right, to do it the correct way.

26:38 - 26:43
And I know they never want to do this because they're doing it for, you know, the cost savings and everything else.

26:43 - 26:47
You know, they want to kick out the product that people will drink for two cent on a dollar,

26:48 - 26:50
you know, and it ain't got no juice in it.

26:50 - 26:51
Well, let's cut out the lemons.

26:51 - 26:52
Let's see what we get, what we end up with.

26:53 - 26:55
And it's like, OK, you know what I'm saying?

26:55 - 26:57
So I had to do that.

26:57 - 27:01
I had to create that space to be in because no one else did it.

27:02 - 27:08
And that's all you got to do in business is create your space that nobody else does create something

27:09 - 27:11
a business around something no one wants to do.

27:12 - 27:16
Provide something that ain't normally provided. It ain't consistently provided.

27:16 - 27:20
And you will have the weight of your dreams just from that.

27:21 - 27:26
So is most of your business coming from like word of mouth?

27:26 - 27:28
Do you do a lot of social media stuff?

27:29 - 27:33
Most of the social media, Instagram, typical Facebook, you know, simple stuff.

27:33 - 27:38
A lot of it, too, is, you know, we do markets, we advertise, we go on the news a lot and we

27:38 - 27:39
kind of, you know, just get the word out.

27:40 - 27:47
But a lot of it, and truly, honestly, especially in Arizona, like it's been they've seen my truck out. They've tasted it.

27:47 - 27:50
They've they've they've honestly said it's better than what they normally get.

27:50 - 27:52
And then they kind of follow me from there.

27:52 - 27:54
You know, we got a pretty large following on social media.

27:54 - 27:59
So, you know, they're looking for it at that point in time because they just they'll come across

27:59 - 28:03
town to get something that they that their taste buds just absolutely desire.

28:03 - 28:09
And once you see this thing on social media, the same reaction happens on social media. They look at it.

28:09 - 28:10
They say, I got to have it.

28:10 - 28:11
Where is this place at?

28:11 - 28:15
And they'll drive from freaking Queen Creek, you know, to Albuquerque if they have to.

28:15 - 28:22
They'll drive from from from Avondale, you know, to come to Tippie like to get just a lemonade.

28:23 - 28:29
But this is just this with anything, you know, if you cook something that is special, people will come to it.

28:29 - 28:31
They'll they'll come around the world and they do it consistently each day.

28:31 - 28:36
So a lot of customers we find, yeah, ad hoc, you know, they see it and they have to react to it.

28:36 - 28:39
A lot of customers that we have, they come from afar.

28:40 - 28:41
They see us on social media.

28:41 - 28:44
They either come to one of our truck stops or they had us one of our truck stops.

28:45 - 28:47
But a lot of it, too, is building those relationships.

28:48 - 28:49
That's where you get your real business.

28:50 - 28:53
Those relationships keep paying you out.

28:53 - 28:54
They keep they keep finding you again.

28:54 - 29:01
Those again and again, customers that we have, they have a birthday party or or a casino night

29:01 - 29:06
that they're having or a gathering or a barbecue or a graduation party or, you know, some of

29:06 - 29:10
the setup options that we have, corporate events that they have, poorly appreciation.

29:10 - 29:12
You know, they'll have us. They'll taste this.

29:12 - 29:14
Their employees will like us. There's something different.

29:14 - 29:21
They'll shock them when they actually taste it in all the varieties that we push out to them. It's it's just consistent.

29:21 - 29:27
And it has been our farmers markets that they find us that that's real big, especially in the food industry. Got to start small. Got to start.

29:27 - 29:30
Got to go to people are farmers markets is where people come.

29:30 - 29:31
So farmers markets where you got to go.

29:31 - 29:34
You can set that up in a tent, truck, whatever.

29:34 - 29:35
You know, you can just be out there selling.

29:36 - 29:42
So once people try you and you got something good, they're going to come find you straight up. Hmm.

29:43 - 29:49
So what's like the the plan for like the next, you know, five, 10 years, like do you want to franchise this?

29:50 - 29:53
And yeah, you know, the the idea is to franchise it.

29:54 - 29:59
Um, owner operating it is more of an idea to like you don't have to go through a lot of the

29:59 - 30:05
legal implementations when you go through franchising the systems and processes are there.

30:05 - 30:06
So it's not off the picture.

30:06 - 30:12
But as long as we can own these and do it with a manager type of input, like we download a manager

30:12 - 30:17
into that store, train that manager up, give him about two weeks to sit with us and actually

30:17 - 30:21
go through everything, put together all the processes that where they can be handled remotely

30:21 - 30:23
or just a simple question.

30:24 - 30:28
Do training videos that we have that gives them every little thing that they can have.

30:28 - 30:30
And this is part of systems and processes.

30:30 - 30:34
We film ourselves actually doing the questions that they're going to have.

30:34 - 30:37
So our Q&A resource is already there. We download that.

30:37 - 30:38
We put it on the computer.

30:38 - 30:40
They just click it and it's like, OK, that's how you mop the floor.

30:40 - 30:42
OK, that's how you smash a lemon.

30:42 - 30:44
OK, that's how you do this or that.

30:44 - 30:46
So that's really thing, too.

30:46 - 30:51
But it's simplicity is simple ingredients, systems and processes.

30:52 - 30:57
It's leaning into your manager because your manager is going to be the one that you actually want to retrain everybody.

30:57 - 31:00
And then once you do that, man, you off to the races.

31:01 - 31:06
So you have stores and trucks. So the trucks.

31:07 - 31:12
Are they kind of like so it reminds me of like, have you heard like Kona ice? Yeah, like Kona ice. Yeah.

31:12 - 31:13
Is it kind of like that or.

31:14 - 31:16
But they only do shaved ice. Yeah.

31:16 - 31:17
They only do shaved ice.

31:17 - 31:20
They got a good model. Not going to lie. I mean, they're good.

31:20 - 31:24
We have that plus lemonade, plus slushies. Nice.

31:24 - 31:27
It's in the system like Kona ice. They kind of specialize.

31:27 - 31:30
They give you the ice that lets you fill up your flavor or whatever.

31:30 - 31:32
They already have the flavors already outside of the truck.

31:32 - 31:33
You just you want grape and strawberry.

31:33 - 31:35
You just go out there and get it.

31:35 - 31:38
We have more of a menu kind of thing where it's kind of like Starbucks.

31:38 - 31:41
You you see what you want to get. You get you.

31:41 - 31:48
But our flavors are real simple, too, like a strawberry lemonade, just strawberry and lemonade, the raspberry pineapple.

31:48 - 31:50
What's in a raspberry pineapple? Raspberries and pineapple.

31:51 - 31:53
What's in a cherry mint? Cherries and mint.

31:53 - 31:56
So when we train our staff, you go with the same impulse.

31:56 - 31:57
I point to the side.

31:57 - 31:59
I say, what do you see right here? I see a lemonade.

32:00 - 32:01
OK, what kind of lemonade is it?

32:01 - 32:05
It looks like a raspberry pineapple or it looks like a pineapple cherry.

32:05 - 32:07
What goes in a pineapple cherry? What do you think?

32:08 - 32:13
And I give him a questionnaire and I'm like, if they can say pineapple and cherry, then you got it.

32:14 - 32:16
So that's the training, you know, saying in this.

32:16 - 32:21
So like simple, you know, and then but once you get the concept that everything is exactly like

32:21 - 32:23
it sounds, everything is exactly like it sounds.

32:23 - 32:24
Same thing with the customer.

32:25 - 32:29
When the customer hears pineapple cherry, they're thinking I'm going to get some pineapples,

32:29 - 32:30
I'm going to get some cherries and it's going to be lemonade.

32:31 - 32:33
When I see a raspberry pineapple, same thing.

32:34 - 32:40
So with the way that we train the customers, the same way we train employees, which gives less frustration and impact.

32:40 - 32:43
We don't name it strawberry lightning because you don't know what lightning tastes like, you

32:43 - 32:50
know, so we just name it strawberry. Strawberry lemonade. That's it. That makes sense. Yeah. Huh. Interesting.

32:52 - 32:56
When we go on like our bold journeys and we do things, a lot of the times, you know, there's

32:56 - 32:59
like, you know, bumps in the road and stuff like on your journey.

32:59 - 33:04
Was there like any roadblocks or any stumbling blocks like you had to like plow through? Oh, man.

33:05 - 33:09
Well, I'm going to tell you in any business you're going to have, you're going to have to deal with the government.

33:10 - 33:11
You got to deal with permits.

33:11 - 33:13
You got to deal with regulation.

33:13 - 33:14
You got to deal with competition.

33:14 - 33:19
You got to deal with regulation, competition at the same time, the customers.

33:19 - 33:22
And when you finally get to selling it, then you got to deal with taxes.

33:24 - 33:26
So, I mean, but that's business. That's everything.

33:26 - 33:31
You know, some of the challenges, you know, a lemonade stand is the oldest hustle in the game.

33:31 - 33:33
You've been doing it since you're eight years old.

33:33 - 33:37
You know, you're you're your youngest child can do a lemonade stand to the fullest.

33:38 - 33:41
You know, they can go out there, they can do a setup, the setup.

33:41 - 33:43
They can have the drink itself, which is the product.

33:43 - 33:49
And that's, you know, what you actually graduate to the customer as, you know, they're they're

33:49 - 33:50
what they want from you.

33:51 - 33:53
Then you got to figure out the price point.

33:53 - 33:56
Once you figure out your price point, now you got that.

33:56 - 33:57
And then you get your register.

33:57 - 34:01
And then once you get your register, you can kind of figure out what locations you want to go

34:01 - 34:04
to, where you're going to earn more business, where you're going to have more of a platform

34:04 - 34:05
to be able to sell.

34:06 - 34:08
And then from that point on, you know, it's watch, rinse, repeat.

34:09 - 34:11
But you got to get those things, those basics down first.

34:11 - 34:16
That's why you eight year old, when they go out and do a lemonade stand, they got to think through all those humps.

34:16 - 34:18
They got to think through all those, all those things.

34:19 - 34:22
If they walk out with lemon and water, you forget the sugar. You ain't got lemonade.

34:23 - 34:24
You know what I'm saying?

34:24 - 34:29
If you walk out and with expecting to sell lemonade, but you forget your table, you don't have

34:29 - 34:31
lemonade, you know, you don't have nothing to sell off of.

34:31 - 34:33
So it's those bumps in the road.

34:33 - 34:36
But this is this is, you know, me and you, we come from the military.

34:36 - 34:41
So we think about things that you got to have in order to do a mission. We think about logistics.

34:41 - 34:44
We think about our supply and resources that we have.

34:44 - 34:45
We think about our packing list.

34:45 - 34:50
We think about all the things the military pretty much gave us a foundation with, because when

34:50 - 34:57
you got to do it on your own, you're going to want to bring that that wet weather gear that

34:57 - 34:57
you didn't think you needed.

34:58 - 35:00
But you got it because you packed it.

35:00 - 35:02
You packed it because you you thought you would need it.

35:02 - 35:06
You know, same thing with lemonade, same thing with with any job you do.

35:06 - 35:10
You know, once you got your packing list, once you got your criteria, what you got to use out there.

35:11 - 35:12
Now you just implement it.

35:13 - 35:15
Same thing you do when you're eight years old.

35:15 - 35:18
Same thing you do when you when you're in a full fledged business.

35:18 - 35:21
If you forget the sugar, you just call it diet lemonade.

35:23 - 35:26
A lot of people are going to be like, man, this is sour. This tastes like water.

35:27 - 35:28
You know what it basically is, you know?

35:31 - 35:34
Where where do you see like the most business come from?

35:34 - 35:36
Like out of all the events that you do?

35:36 - 35:38
The farmers markets are more consistent.

35:38 - 35:40
You know, festivals are real good.

35:42 - 35:46
Routine festivals, if it's ever a second annual, third annual something, something barbecue

35:46 - 35:49
fest, you know, those are real good because they've already established themselves.

35:50 - 35:56
Advertising, especially for like a food truck land, you know, getting your name out and establishing

35:56 - 35:58
your brand is going to be the most challenging thing you do.

35:59 - 36:02
So it's better to let the venue do it for you.

36:02 - 36:08
That way you fall into the situation where all your planning and all your advertising is already set up through him.

36:09 - 36:11
So that means you're in a tight there.

36:11 - 36:13
You're in a criteria of applying for events.

36:13 - 36:18
Once you start applying for events, then you got to actually knock down the whole bureaucracy

36:18 - 36:21
of who they pick and who they don't pick. Because that's the obvious.

36:21 - 36:24
That's the obvious thing that you're going to have trouble with because you're not going to

36:24 - 36:26
be the only lemonade stand is going to apply.

36:26 - 36:30
So you got to be first or you got to be the most creative or you got to be the one that they

36:30 - 36:31
want or you got to have a relationship.

36:32 - 36:36
So all those things put together is how you get into those events.

36:36 - 36:41
But if you land it, you don't have to worry about a marketing strategy because it's already done.

36:41 - 36:42
The venue is going to plan it for you.

36:42 - 36:45
Ain't got to worry about an established customer base because the venue done it for you.

36:46 - 36:47
You just got to set up the logistics.

36:48 - 36:49
You guys, you got to make sure you got all your supplies.

36:49 - 36:53
You got to make sure you nail it on the day you go out. So that's real.

36:53 - 37:00
That's the real advice that I would say, because most of your customers would come from your venues, other customers.

37:00 - 37:05
You know, you you can say social media will bring them to you, but you need a viral moment and

37:05 - 37:07
you need the algorithm to work for you.

37:07 - 37:10
So advertising sometimes will work for you and sometimes it won't.

37:11 - 37:15
It's just hard to get in a space that has already so much saturation.

37:16 - 37:23
So a lot of it's word of mouth and a lot of it is consistency at consistent events with consistent venues ongoing.

37:23 - 37:27
And so you have a you have a spot in Arizona Mills.

37:27 - 37:31
Is it like where is it at in Arizona Mills?

37:31 - 37:34
It's right in the food court, right in the middle of the food court where the information booth is.

37:34 - 37:36
You see the IMAX to the right.

37:36 - 37:37
You see the carousel to the left.

37:37 - 37:40
You see the AMC in the background.

37:40 - 37:43
The Harkins over where I forget what it's called, but they have.

37:44 - 37:44
We're right there in the middle.

37:45 - 37:50
So we're we're basically the only island business is sitting out there.

37:50 - 37:55
So what kind of what kind of business do you get from there? It's pretty good. Yeah.

37:55 - 37:58
You looking at twenty five thousand a month, you know. Wow.

37:58 - 38:01
It's it's not like it's it ain't the greatest, but it ain't.

38:01 - 38:03
It's not going to put you out of business. Yeah.

38:03 - 38:04
But you've got to be conservative.

38:05 - 38:09
A lot of customers, a lot of a lot of businesses that go up there, the customers look at you

38:09 - 38:11
like, OK, you're making tons of money.

38:11 - 38:16
But you've got to realize the only way you're going to make a profit is if you are not spending

38:16 - 38:21
a lot of time or a lot of energy into your product.

38:21 - 38:24
You can't have a thousand different types of drinks.

38:24 - 38:26
You can't have a thousand different sizes.

38:26 - 38:27
You got to have one.

38:27 - 38:32
You got to you got to, you know, draw down the amount of flavors or amount of ingredients that

38:32 - 38:32
you use in a flavor.

38:32 - 38:39
So if you make a flavor or a flavor change, redo it off of something you already got or an ingredient that you already got.

38:39 - 38:43
Another thing is payroll having a lot of employees. You see places, man.

38:43 - 38:48
They got five, ten people working at a at a at a eating restaurant.

38:48 - 38:51
And it's like, how in the world do they make money?

38:51 - 38:53
Because you've got so many people.

38:53 - 38:56
So when you have that many people working, you've got to make sure you've got a lot of volume.

38:56 - 39:01
And if you don't have a lot of volume, you've got to make sure you keep your employees down

39:01 - 39:04
and make sure you work in the most efficient and see that you can.

39:05 - 39:06
That's why we only use one employee.

39:07 - 39:08
Most of the time you only see one employee that you have here.

39:08 - 39:12
One employee can run the entire stand. They're not overwhelmed. They're not overworked.

39:12 - 39:15
They make good money in tips because they're helping every customer.

39:16 - 39:19
And so whatever comes in, like they're getting the bulk of that.

39:20 - 39:23
So the employees are happy because they get all the tips from each sale.

39:24 - 39:28
Whole lot worse to compete when you got five people working to stand.

39:28 - 39:29
You're trying to split tips five ways.

39:30 - 39:34
The employees make good money because they make twenty to twenty five dollars an hour because

39:34 - 39:39
if they serve twenty people, you know, and they each person tips a dollar, they make another twenty five dollars.

39:40 - 39:46
You know, so you think of yourself like all those little things add up and it's got to add up.

39:46 - 39:47
It's got to be in your favor.

39:47 - 39:48
It's got to be in the employee's favor.

39:49 - 39:52
And all you can you got to do is get what's expected to the customer.

39:52 - 39:57
If they walk up wanting a lemonade and they want a fresh squeeze lemonade and they want tastes

39:57 - 39:59
like strawberry, don't give them blue raspberry.

40:00 - 40:05
Give them what they expect and the rest will be good. Hmm. That makes sense.

40:07 - 40:15
So when we when we go through all of our, you know, the the bold moves, there's usually like

40:15 - 40:17
hard times that hit us.

40:18 - 40:27
So what did those experiences teach you about like the process and and I guess about yourself, too?

40:27 - 40:33
Man, our hardest time to taxes taxes in the range of TPT.

40:34 - 40:40
So I didn't know when I started the business that Arizona passed a law that each business will

40:40 - 40:44
create a sales tax on the sale of each product that they sell.

40:45 - 40:46
And I didn't know this.

40:46 - 40:47
No one told me this.

40:47 - 40:48
And you didn't have any in this.

40:48 - 40:50
No, I'm sure it was out there.

40:50 - 40:55
But it just wasn't at a place where I was just, you know, where it's just automatic.

40:55 - 40:58
You know, when for you to start a business, they was they wouldn't wagging your fingers, say,

40:58 - 41:01
make sure you pay TPT, make sure you register and do all this stuff with it.

41:01 - 41:04
So I was charging eight dollars on a drink each one.

41:05 - 41:07
Every single drink I sold, eight dollars flat.

41:07 - 41:09
That's that's that's what they paid.

41:09 - 41:10
They didn't pay no tax.

41:10 - 41:11
They didn't pay no nothing.

41:12 - 41:17
It turns out that the state wants you to tax that every single product.

41:17 - 41:19
The state will have you tax every single product.

41:20 - 41:24
This went on for five years, five years.

41:24 - 41:34
When I was said and done, I owed the state one hundred and forty thousand dollars on taxes for

41:34 - 41:39
every single drink that I sold since 2016 to 2021.

41:40 - 41:41
Hit me like a freight train.

41:41 - 41:44
I was I was like, what the hell?

41:44 - 41:49
And after all this, like I tried to go back and forth with TPT and say, hey, I know I got to

41:49 - 41:52
pay something like it was a monthly thing.

41:52 - 41:55
Turns out you got to be on a monthly. I was on yearly.

41:56 - 41:59
No one told me that you couldn't do that or shouldn't do that. I just registered.

42:00 - 42:03
I just selected what was there and just went on, you know, thinking, well, they'll tell me if

42:03 - 42:06
I need to pay them something, you know, they get my tax returns.

42:06 - 42:09
I file, I do everything like I'm supposed to do. Oh, no.

42:10 - 42:11
You got to go into their system.

42:11 - 42:16
You got to self report your sales and then you you get a kick out a number.

42:16 - 42:21
Then you got to go in and pay that number every single month before their due date.

42:22 - 42:23
Didn't know how to do none of that.

42:23 - 42:24
No one told me how to do none of that.

42:24 - 42:27
So I'm just I'm just a regular, you know, lonely food truck.

42:27 - 42:31
I'm out there just just slinging. You know, I'm happy. I'm whatever. We make money.

42:31 - 42:33
We come back and, you know, I'm asking the IRS.

42:33 - 42:34
I'm like, make sure we're good.

42:34 - 42:36
Like, yeah, I mean, I pay my taxes and do everything right.

42:36 - 42:38
I had a CPA and all these people coaching me, too.

42:38 - 42:40
And I did not know about TPT.

42:40 - 42:42
And yet they came back.

42:42 - 42:44
I get a letter in the mail. Hey, you're being audited.

42:45 - 42:47
They audited me when I opened up my store at Superstition Springs.

42:48 - 42:51
Like when I'm growing, you know, and we have three stores going.

42:52 - 42:54
I'm like, so the one in Mesa, there was like some Mesa.

42:54 - 43:02
The cities can audit you as a city that may city of Mesa sent a letter to every single city

43:02 - 43:03
that I possibly could bid in.

43:04 - 43:09
Look back on Facebook, found every single Facebook post that I made of where I'm going to be

43:09 - 43:13
at siphoned out the city where that's at.

43:13 - 43:21
Sent the letter to them saying, we want to audit for you through us to make sure we collect

43:21 - 43:26
the taxes for your income that you was owed for this event that he had on this day or that day.

43:28 - 43:34
And after two years of being audited, they charged me one hundred and forty thousand, and then

43:34 - 43:39
they charged me another thirty thousand dollars in just fees, just fees.

43:42 - 43:48
And so I was strong, I mean, you got to you got to imagine, you know, you built this entire

43:48 - 43:51
business, you grew it from all this.

43:51 - 43:53
That is finally taking you places.

43:53 - 43:55
You're finally seeing the efforts of your work.

43:56 - 43:59
Your bank account is finally able to just have it.

43:59 - 44:03
And you got this money, your bank account, and then you get this letter.

44:03 - 44:09
And just like that, it's gone. TPT, what is that?

44:10 - 44:15
It's what is it called? Drift privilege tax.

44:16 - 44:19
Some TPT transaction privilege tax.

44:19 - 44:20
I think it's what a car.

44:21 - 44:24
So and this is something the state does. State does it.

44:24 - 44:25
State does it by city.

44:25 - 44:30
So you were working with a CPA. Oh, yeah. Is it?

44:30 - 44:32
I mean, are you still working with that same CPA?

44:32 - 44:33
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

44:33 - 44:38
I mean, do most CPAs or is this CPA just like not with it? You would think.

44:39 - 44:43
But the criteria and the scope of work, well, people don't know this, that the CPA don't have

44:43 - 44:45
to do your state taxes.

44:45 - 44:46
They have to do your state taxes.

44:46 - 44:51
They have to tell you about your state that that part of the state tax was a different thing

44:51 - 44:52
that they had to like do.

44:52 - 44:55
They didn't even offer to offer that service.

44:55 - 44:59
And I mean, I've been in extensive conversations about are we doing everything right?

44:59 - 45:03
They file the IRS things, all that stuff on time. Everything's good on that.

45:03 - 45:08
If I'm a state tax on time, when the company income tax statement, income tax time filed on time.

45:08 - 45:14
But the monthly stuff, the day to day, the charting, like taking a sales spreadsheet, taking

45:14 - 45:18
every single event you go to, deciphering it by location. That's the key.

45:19 - 45:26
And then getting the correct tax rate plugged into your POS and then charging the sale according to that. Hmm.

45:26 - 45:32
I know for a fact every single food truck is no possible way that they can be doing this.

45:32 - 45:37
It's no possible way they can be looking at their POS screen and saying, I need a two point

45:37 - 45:45
seven five Glendale tax rate, along with a ninety nine cent processing fee.

45:45 - 45:49
Combine those two together to give you the correct amount of tax.

45:49 - 45:55
Oh, and then I need to switch when I'm in Mesa because I need when I just left Glendale, I need

45:55 - 46:00
to switch to Mesa, which cost you 30 bucks a month if you get a location is that so every location

46:00 - 46:03
that you get it just to put this tax rate in there.

46:03 - 46:04
You got to do got to do a whole nother one.

46:04 - 46:08
Now, if you're invoicing into it, knows it into its greatest thing.

46:08 - 46:12
I can never like get into a get QuickBooks because that's great.

46:12 - 46:15
If you invoice new QuickBooks, it calculates your taxes.

46:15 - 46:15
It knows to do it.

46:16 - 46:21
But if you have a regular old POS, I don't care if you got Clover Square, whatever it is, you

46:21 - 46:22
got to plug in those tax rates.

46:22 - 46:23
You got to know what they are.

46:24 - 46:28
Then you got to plug them in and then you got to change them when you go to a certain city or

46:28 - 46:33
you got to do an over encompassing charge too much tax, pay too much to TPT.

46:33 - 46:40
So you ain't got to switch locations every single time whenever you move around like you do as a food truck. Oh, interesting.

46:40 - 46:43
So that's why some places charge a little bit more in tax.

46:43 - 46:44
I live more in tax.

46:44 - 46:45
I was like, why is why?

46:45 - 46:50
Yeah, you can look up the tax rate and maybe they may be charging eight point seven percent

46:50 - 46:55
on tax, but the tax rate may only be eight point six, where the reason why they're charging

46:55 - 47:00
eight point seven is because they got the technology and we're going to offer it as as like

47:00 - 47:04
a leisure to be able to switch tax rates up and down.

47:04 - 47:09
Like you can't just plug it in without creating a new location, without creating a subscription

47:09 - 47:11
to the new location just to do that.

47:11 - 47:14
So how did you figure this out that you had to pay this?

47:14 - 47:15
Like you just got hit with a bill?

47:15 - 47:17
No, I got out of it.

47:17 - 47:23
We sat down across the table, looked each other in the eye and he was like, I'm counting up 140,000.

47:23 - 47:31
As a matter of fact, I went through your entire Facebook post as of four years ago, looked at

47:31 - 47:36
every single place where you were at, but built a database spreadsheet to that.

47:37 - 47:40
And then that's what I'm estimating. You should be owning.

47:41 - 47:44
And I'm like, wait a minute, 2020, man, we got half our events canceled.

47:44 - 47:46
You counting events I didn't even go to.

47:47 - 47:48
Yeah, but that's not important.

47:48 - 47:52
I'm like, that's not important, but man, yeah, it's very important.

47:53 - 47:56
But but his estimate was his estimate is you against the auditor.

47:56 - 48:00
You can get a lawyer, you can get whatever, but that burden they can put on you no matter what.

48:00 - 48:03
So you don't have the opportunity to decipher all this.

48:04 - 48:09
So I'm telling every single food truck, every single business that sell something you sell some

48:09 - 48:16
tangible if you don't do something outside of service, meaning is nothing that they actually got from this.

48:16 - 48:20
If they if they if they get a blade of grass and you mow yards and you sold them something,

48:20 - 48:25
you added fertilizer to it, then technically you sold them fertilizer in the lawn care.

48:25 - 48:29
So you own TPT service. Don't count. Don't count.

48:29 - 48:31
It counts, but it don't really count.

48:31 - 48:35
You ain't got to report it like you do with sales tax, because sales tax, the square of your

48:35 - 48:36
merchant account will report it.

48:36 - 48:38
So therefore, you have to pay it.

48:38 - 48:41
So you get you get hooked by, you know, because it reports it.

48:41 - 48:44
So therefore, you got to you can't like hide it.

48:44 - 48:45
You can take cash, I guess.

48:46 - 48:48
But how long are you going to be able to do that?

48:48 - 48:49
You're not going to be able to take cash every single time.

48:50 - 48:53
But but the point of this is, yeah, got it.

48:53 - 48:58
You got to understand TPT to the T. Don't be like me.

48:59 - 49:07
So did you did you get like a like an advisor or a coach or like a mentor or something? Kind of.

49:07 - 49:13
I had an auditor and the auditor, you know, emailed me day to day. He was looking. He created his spreadsheets.

49:13 - 49:18
They ask for all your sales for the last five years, all your tax returns for the last five

49:18 - 49:23
years, all your personal and bank and business bank accounts for the last five years.

49:23 - 49:29
So they go through everything on every place that you can possibly get income to see if you're trying to hide it.

49:29 - 49:31
Once you get out of it, it's already over.

49:31 - 49:36
The point is to not get out of it, because once you get out of it, they're looking for all these

49:36 - 49:39
sales and they're averaging those sales and they're just going to send an estimate anyways.

49:41 - 49:44
So the whole point of growing is to make more money.

49:44 - 49:48
Well, that resulted in growing, but getting on the radar.

49:48 - 49:49
Once you get on the radar.

49:50 - 49:51
Now they start looking at you.

49:51 - 49:53
Now you start saying, how did you get on the radar?

49:54 - 49:55
Was it all the social media?

49:55 - 49:56
So the social media, too.

49:56 - 50:01
But I opened a store at Superstition Springs, which was in their jurisdiction, still carrying

50:01 - 50:03
on the practices of not knowing.

50:03 - 50:07
I failed to pay TPT on the store after investigating.

50:07 - 50:09
They were like, hey, man, you got it. You go on.

50:09 - 50:11
You got food trucks, too.

50:11 - 50:12
You got food trucks that came to Mesa.

50:13 - 50:14
You got food trucks that went to Peoria.

50:14 - 50:16
You got food trucks that went to Glendale.

50:16 - 50:17
Oh, you got another store in Tempe.

50:17 - 50:19
Oh, you got another store in Chandler.

50:20 - 50:22
I wonder if you're not doing it for them, too.

50:22 - 50:36
So that whole investigation locked in and once they honed in on me, it was it. It was over. Wow. It was over. Cost me 170. So cash. Wow. Wow. Yeah.

50:36 - 50:41
So like if someone's in this situation and they're maybe thinking like, oh, I'm not doing that,

50:41 - 50:42
like, where do they go?

50:42 - 50:43
Like, who do they talk to?

50:43 - 50:46
They can either bankrupt the business.

50:47 - 50:49
Maybe it will be forgiven. Maybe not. I don't know. I'm not CPI.

50:50 - 50:54
I don't know the legal implications to that, but maybe they can bankrupt the business.

50:55 - 50:56
Maybe they can be forgiven.

50:57 - 51:03
All I know is every single day that you don't pay this, you get interest on it.

51:03 - 51:06
So this was the reason why it was so high.

51:07 - 51:14
I think the first the 2017 taxes only made like 1100 bucks, but it cost me like 10000 dollars

51:14 - 51:19
because the compound interest and the fees over five years of not paying.

51:19 - 51:23
So every time you don't pay, they add interest and then they compound it.

51:23 - 51:29
So you will pay an astronomical amount of ignoring it than you would just to handle it.

51:29 - 51:30
So you have to pay it.

51:30 - 51:31
You have to get on top of it.

51:31 - 51:32
You have to stay ahead of it.

51:33 - 51:34
You have to stay consistent.

51:34 - 51:37
And you just can't be wrong. Wow.

51:37 - 51:38
You can't get on their radar.

51:38 - 51:39
Don't get on their radar.

51:39 - 51:42
I'm telling you, Gus, where would you go?

51:42 - 51:44
You can ask CPA, but you ain't going to pay more to do.

51:45 - 51:46
You still got to pay it.

51:46 - 51:47
You still got to pay the penalty.

51:47 - 51:50
You still got to pay the tax on that.

51:50 - 51:53
First thing is charge tax. That's the first thing.

51:53 - 51:55
Know how to charge tax.

51:55 - 51:57
Explain to your customers that you're going to charge tax.

51:58 - 52:01
I know a lot of us small businesses think we can get away with not paying taxes.

52:01 - 52:03
The wing and add taxes on top of your sales.

52:03 - 52:04
And a lot of us do.

52:04 - 52:06
A lot of us, you know, I get it.

52:06 - 52:12
But if you don't and they audit you, they're going to they're going to look for every nickel

52:12 - 52:16
and dime you had coming to your bank account and they're going to find it and they're going

52:16 - 52:27
to estimate and they're going to going to say arbitrary number. Here you go. Hmm. Wow. Oh, yeah. Wow. So. That's pretty wild.

52:28 - 52:32
So I'm curious, like what kept you going during that?

52:32 - 52:35
Because for most people, they're like, man, I got to pay 170 G's.

52:36 - 52:38
I'm out in cash, in cash.

52:39 - 52:42
Uh, you know, I live conservatively.

52:42 - 52:44
I don't spend all my money. I happen.

52:44 - 52:47
I had, you know, a little bit in the bank account.

52:47 - 52:52
I was like, either we can not pay it, but we lose what we built.

52:53 - 52:54
We have to start all over.

52:54 - 52:56
We lose kind of the accreditation that we have.

52:57 - 53:01
We have, you know, just the whole point of starting on the whole point of being in business is being in business.

53:01 - 53:07
So, I mean, I just was writing $38,000 checks, just started writing them every week until you

53:07 - 53:10
look at this and send me another bill, look at this and send me another bill.

53:10 - 53:13
And I was just like, this is never going to end.

53:13 - 53:15
So, I mean, I called a meeting, discussed with him.

53:15 - 53:19
He's like, and we broke it down and what no payment plans, no such thing.

53:19 - 53:21
Payment plans come with penalty in interest.

53:22 - 53:28
So, you have to have it because I live conservatively, because, you know, I don't just blow on everything. Now, I had plans.

53:28 - 53:30
I was like, yeah, I'm going to get a jet ski.

53:30 - 53:32
I get to go out, you know, I get to do all these things.

53:32 - 53:38
I've always wanted to get to buy my mama a house and all this, but I was like, nope, nope, took

53:38 - 53:40
it, took it, wrote a check.

53:41 - 53:46
That's like a gut punch, man. Gut punch. Oh, man.

53:49 - 53:56
If you could sit down with a passive version of yourself, what would you, what kind of advice would you give yourself?

53:57 - 54:00
I'd first tell myself about TPT. That's number one.

54:00 - 54:03
Because if I did that, I'd earned the money.

54:03 - 54:07
I would have charged every customer and I would have had another 170 at an addition, I would

54:07 - 54:10
have paid it, but then it's kept all the money that I actually made off the lemonade.

54:11 - 54:13
That's number one, in business I've done that.

54:13 - 54:19
Number two, you know, I probably would have fought a little harder to stay in the military because

54:19 - 54:25
when you double dip, you'll be able to like string you out, string you out certain things because

54:25 - 54:32
you have a set and steady income from your job, W2 income qualifies you for homes, which gets

54:32 - 54:37
into the point I was talking about earlier, what I would have told myself, even before I got

54:37 - 54:43
out of military, every time I PCS out about a home, I'd have bought a home.

54:43 - 54:52
And when I buy that home, a PCS order in a enables you to use your VA loan again, to buy another home.

54:52 - 54:59
Now they also, as long as you got the credit and the income to be able to afford these homes,

54:59 - 55:01
you can do it over and over and over again.

55:01 - 55:03
The VA will let you do that.

55:03 - 55:09
Now it's a necessity that they allow you to do this because when you PCS, the PCS, they're sending you somewhere else.

55:09 - 55:11
That's an actual government move.

55:11 - 55:15
So I would buy a house at every single duty station that I'm at.

55:15 - 55:17
I do this for my entire career.

55:17 - 55:24
When I walk out the military, not only do I have a million dollar portfolio in assets, not only

55:24 - 55:28
would I have people renting these houses throughout the whole time, so now I got a cashflow

55:28 - 55:37
on top of my million dollar assets, but I also have the ability to take those assets and bind money against it.

55:37 - 55:41
I can actually invest money in right against it.

55:41 - 55:43
All of these houses would age, so they will build up equity.

55:44 - 55:51
The equity that you have will then allow you to take out loans to do bigger and better and more aggressive endeavors.

55:52 - 55:54
This portfolio will come naturally.

55:54 - 55:55
It will come with time.

55:55 - 55:58
It will come with effort or very little effort.

55:58 - 56:02
You pay a property management person and you just let it ride.

56:02 - 56:04
So take your 20 year.

56:04 - 56:10
You take private mile at the time back in 2000 and say, Hey, when you get stationed to Fort

56:10 - 56:15
Benning, Georgia, buy you a house there, use the income you got based on what you get.

56:16 - 56:18
So it's going to be a small house. Get it rented out.

56:19 - 56:21
Wait till you get stationed for it. Lee. Cause that's coming.

56:21 - 56:25
Go to state, go to Fort Lee, Virginia, buy a house there.

56:25 - 56:29
When you go into Fort Stewart, go to Fort Stewart, buy a house there.

56:29 - 56:31
Oh, they can send you to Fort Campbell.

56:31 - 56:33
Go to Clarksville, Tennessee and buy a house.

56:34 - 56:41
Oh, they're sending you to California, California, buy a house in California, buy a house in New York, Fort drum.

56:41 - 56:43
They send you to Fort Lewis, buy a house there.

56:43 - 56:45
When they send you to Florida, buy a house there.

56:46 - 56:48
When I look up, it's going to be 20 years.

56:48 - 56:52
Now you got your 20 year retirement, a million dollar portfolio.

56:52 - 56:55
You have all this money in cashflow coming to you.

56:56 - 56:58
You have the ability to invest in all this much.

56:58 - 57:00
You can refinance on all this too.

57:00 - 57:06
So when you need to pull cash out, refile on your homes, just pick one and do it.

57:06 - 57:11
And when it, when times get too tough that your renter has to pay these, the, the, these payments,

57:11 - 57:14
you sell it, sell the asset, wash, rinse, repeat.

57:15 - 57:17
You will never have to work again.

57:17 - 57:18
You will have a million dollar portfolio.

57:19 - 57:20
You'd be able to invest.

57:20 - 57:24
You'd be able to build other businesses, make other businesses, do other things.

57:24 - 57:29
And then you, if you are misfortunate enough to go to war, you get your VA.

57:30 - 57:31
Now you got that additional income.

57:32 - 57:34
Now you got VA money coming in.

57:34 - 57:37
You got a 20 year retirement. You get paid. Yeah.

57:37 - 57:38
Now you got social security.

57:38 - 57:41
You can pay three times just off of the military.

57:43 - 57:51
Like it's, it's insane how much financial recourse and ability you could build yourself up just

57:51 - 57:54
by being in the military, getting that steady paycheck.

57:54 - 57:55
They know what's coming first 15. Boom.

57:55 - 57:57
It hits every, every time. Use that money.

57:58 - 57:58
Go get you a loan.

57:58 - 58:01
Go get you a house loan. Use that VA loan.

58:01 - 58:07
Zero down a hundred percent, uh, financed. You pretty much living. Yeah.

58:07 - 58:09
You pretty much living show that you've got rental income.

58:10 - 58:14
So that, that takes out what you would have used your, your regular income.

58:14 - 58:16
So now you, that, that, that exhausts it.

58:16 - 58:24
It equal, uh, zeroes it out. Use that money again. Go get another one. Go get another one. Count the income. Not to mention.

58:25 - 58:30
Not to mention the rental income against your taxes is going to, it's going to serve you.

58:30 - 58:31
Well, man, it's going to serve you.

58:31 - 58:34
Well, use that rental income against your taxes.

58:34 - 58:38
Now you can write off pretty much the world. Watch rents. Repeat. Watch rents. Repeat.

58:38 - 58:40
Do that for 20 years.

58:40 - 58:41
See what you end up at.

58:41 - 58:47
So many new soldiers, they go and buy cars and pay like 20, 30% interest.

58:47 - 58:55
When all they got to do is stack their money, put it in a home, at least just buy a home and don't spend crazy.

58:55 - 58:56
Just do what you got to do.

58:57 - 59:00
Spend, buy a home, don't spend like crazy. Let time form.

59:00 - 59:02
You're going to get three square meals a day.

59:02 - 59:04
You're going to get uniform. You don't need much.

59:04 - 59:05
You don't have to do much.

59:05 - 59:06
They won't be able to go out.

59:06 - 59:16
I would tell myself, join the military, buy homes, get those homes, flip those homes, rent those homes, sell those homes.

59:17 - 59:21
And the rest is history. Hmm. That's smart. All right.

59:21 - 59:23
I got some quick fire questions for you.

59:23 - 59:32
What is your favorite book, podcast, or resource that inspires you to be bold? You like Gary V? I love Gary V.

59:34 - 59:37
I got to say like his book and just his podcast.

59:38 - 59:40
Like it, it, it really, it got me shaking and moving.

59:40 - 59:46
He said, man, he's like, you got to work your shit job until you get enough money to where you

59:46 - 59:47
can actually make a move.

59:47 - 59:50
Don't sit here and say that you're good. You mean you're good? So you're good, right?

59:50 - 59:52
He'd be like, yeah, I'm good. Okay.

59:52 - 59:56
So if you're good, then why are you complaining about what you won't have? You know?

59:56 - 59:59
So first start first, got to get off your butt, man.

59:59 - 01:00:01
You got to get off and you got to go.

01:00:01 - 01:00:06
So use your shit job to be able to qualify for something else.

01:00:06 - 01:00:08
Work it until you can do that.

01:00:08 - 01:00:09
Everybody's got to start out somewhere.

01:00:10 - 01:00:13
Number two, uh, Brad sugars.

01:00:13 - 01:00:14
He has a nice book.

01:00:14 - 01:00:19
It's, it's, he kind of implements a lot of things as far as, you know, entrepreneurship and diversifying.

01:00:19 - 01:00:24
Because once you follow the Gary V plan, now you can use this book to diversify your income,

01:00:24 - 01:00:30
use things like loans and life insurance and other things that you can have as assets and build

01:00:30 - 01:00:35
those assets until you got a portfolio that can match anything to where, and then use business

01:00:35 - 01:00:49
business, use, use, use, use, use business income as its own credit line by doing this, your business age.

01:00:49 - 01:00:54
Those businesses start them early. Start them yesterday. Let those businesses age.

01:00:54 - 01:01:00
When those businesses age, you'll be able to then bank against loans against it.

01:01:00 - 01:01:02
It's just like another, just like another human being.

01:01:02 - 01:01:03
It can represent itself in court.

01:01:04 - 01:01:08
It can go, it's just like a social security number, your EIN for your business, they can do

01:01:08 - 01:01:12
everything a person can do, including build credit, except have feelings.

01:01:13 - 01:01:16
Your business doesn't have feelings. Your business doesn't bleed.

01:01:16 - 01:01:20
Your business doesn't have to drink water, eat. It can build itself.

01:01:20 - 01:01:22
It can represent itself in court.

01:01:22 - 01:01:30
It can take out loans, use your business income and the loans you can put against it for your personal life.

01:01:30 - 01:01:36
Put everything you have under your business, everything you buy, everything you do.

01:01:38 - 01:01:40
So say, say that again.

01:01:40 - 01:01:41
I'm trying to comprehend that here.

01:01:41 - 01:01:46
So get the business started, let it age. At least three years.

01:01:46 - 01:01:52
And then take loans out in the business. Yes. Yes.

01:01:52 - 01:01:59
If you fail to pay those loans, if you Matt fail to pay those loans, you at the very least of

01:01:59 - 01:02:04
options will be forced to bankrupt and that hurts you for seven years, plus you got to report

01:02:04 - 01:02:10
that every single time, but your business, if it bankrupts, what do you do?

01:02:10 - 01:02:11
You just start another business.

01:02:12 - 01:02:13
He's just starting a business.

01:02:13 - 01:02:18
Now make sure it is not a personal guarantee on those loans, but basically once you get enough

01:02:18 - 01:02:20
credit, they don't ask for personal guarantees.

01:02:20 - 01:02:24
The business has its own credit, has its own credit line, sometimes shorter, sometimes larger.

01:02:24 - 01:02:27
But when you get enough income, you file your taxes.

01:02:27 - 01:02:29
Your taxes show you make income on this business.

01:02:30 - 01:02:34
You show that to the bank, the bank evaluates you and it the same.

01:02:35 - 01:02:39
Sometimes they'll ask you the co-sign against it, but still it's still business income and business debt.

01:02:40 - 01:02:43
That business debt will then, it can be used for anything.

01:02:43 - 01:02:47
Because it's just a debit card in the business's name.

01:02:47 - 01:02:53
If just so happens that you come under hard times, you use the legal means that you have available

01:02:53 - 01:03:00
to you to forgive that debt, meaning you bankrupt that debt, and then you start another business

01:03:00 - 01:03:04
in a different name, in a different setting, and just do it again.

01:03:04 - 01:03:06
That's why you need to have a bunch of businesses.

01:03:06 - 01:03:09
That's why you need to age a bunch of businesses so that you can do that.

01:03:09 - 01:03:15
But what you actually will find out instead of betting on the bankrupt option, run the business,

01:03:15 - 01:03:17
I guarantee you'll be successful.

01:03:17 - 01:03:18
And then you'll just have a business that works.

01:03:20 - 01:03:24
Does the business have to have a lot of income? It don't.

01:03:24 - 01:03:29
But if it has some income, if it has any income, put your paychecks in that income, pay yourself

01:03:29 - 01:03:35
out of that business, create and take the tax deductions that the business is able to take,

01:03:35 - 01:03:38
instead of you taking or just using them for nothing.

01:03:38 - 01:03:43
Use your business as your cashflow, pay yourself through the business, and then take the deductions

01:03:43 - 01:03:47
that the business gives you to then write that off.

01:03:47 - 01:03:51
You'll take the same amount of money, but you get in the head because you can take the deductions

01:03:51 - 01:03:55
that you get refunds back on versus someone that just spends the money and it's just gone.

01:03:56 - 01:04:00
Spend it with a business card, take the deduction, write it off.

01:04:01 - 01:04:03
Spend it with just your personal, it's just gone.

01:04:04 - 01:04:06
And can this be just like an LLC?

01:04:06 - 01:04:10
It can be an LLC, especially an LLC, especially an LLC.

01:04:11 - 01:04:16
LLCs, you do payroll out of LLCs, the best tax advantage, and I'm not a tax advisor, so don't

01:04:16 - 01:04:25
take it as this is tax advice, but an LLC can be owned by an S-corp, so get 20,000 LLCs, have

01:04:25 - 01:04:32
one S-corp, meaning they files a K-1, have that roll up into the one S-corp and you file taxes

01:04:32 - 01:04:36
one time on an S-corp, which makes your CPA happy because you only got to file one tax return.

01:04:36 - 01:04:42
But you have all these K-1s that are reporting income from all these businesses, from different

01:04:42 - 01:04:47
places, agencies, things, real estate, holding companies, whatever.

01:04:47 - 01:04:52
Have all those businesses rolling into it. Your S-corp files it.

01:04:52 - 01:04:58
Now you get the tax deductions that's offered for an S-corp, but you own and you make business

01:04:58 - 01:05:04
from the LLCs and then you do that and they all have bank accounts and they all can represent

01:05:04 - 01:05:08
themselves in court and they all have their own income that comes in and out.

01:05:09 - 01:05:15
But even if you don't, just income is one source, but mainly report the expenses.

01:05:16 - 01:05:22
If you have expenses, report that on a business instead of on your personal. And I mean everything.

01:05:23 - 01:05:28
Do your cell phone, do a portion of your house, do all your groceries, do everything that you

01:05:28 - 01:05:34
can hook into, make a business that makes it liable and legal, because having a car dealership,

01:05:34 - 01:05:37
it ain't going to make sense if you're at Fry's, you know.

01:05:37 - 01:05:42
But if you have a, you know, a lemonade stand or a food stand, shopping at Fry's, you know,

01:05:42 - 01:05:44
you got to shop at Fry's, you got to get stuff.

01:05:44 - 01:05:49
So shopping at Costco is going to be able to enable you to write that off. And why do that?

01:05:49 - 01:05:55
Because when you serve it as deductions, those deductions will then be lifted and you will take

01:05:55 - 01:05:57
that off of your taxable income.

01:05:57 - 01:06:02
Now your income is untaxable, which means you have more of it.

01:06:02 - 01:06:03
You don't owe it to the government.

01:06:04 - 01:06:09
And saving your money in the tax system is where it all counts.

01:06:09 - 01:06:13
So either you can be somebody who earns the money and just spends it, or you can be somebody

01:06:13 - 01:06:18
who earns the money, still spends it, still rent, still has a car, but the car is paid for by

01:06:18 - 01:06:19
the business, is owned by the business.

01:06:19 - 01:06:22
And you lease the car and the business pays it off.

01:06:22 - 01:06:29
But then here's your refund check for leasing that car or buying a car outright and then using the entire amount.

01:06:29 - 01:06:32
I forget the actual legal law to it.

01:06:33 - 01:06:38
You can write off that entire car as a asset and that asset can be counted against your taxes

01:06:38 - 01:06:49
as a liability, which gives you forgiveness eventually under your taxable income. Got to work it. Man.

01:06:49 - 01:06:50
Got to work it, man.

01:06:50 - 01:06:53
We don't have enough time in this show to go around and do it. Okay.

01:06:55 - 01:07:01
In one word, how would you encourage someone to be bolder today? Got to be aggressive.

01:07:02 - 01:07:03
They got to be confident.

01:07:03 - 01:07:04
They got to be smart.

01:07:05 - 01:07:08
I don't give me more words, but these are one word, more words.

01:07:10 - 01:07:13
And you know, they got, they got, they got to be willing.

01:07:14 - 01:07:21
Temperament is such a key thing because being able to start something, but just having the tenacity

01:07:21 - 01:07:23
to doing it because a lot of people get stuck.

01:07:23 - 01:07:26
Well, I know I want to run a business, but I don't know what to sell.

01:07:26 - 01:07:29
Just sell, just sell something. Just sell yourself.

01:07:30 - 01:07:31
Just say you're a coach.

01:07:31 - 01:07:35
Just say, do the thing you're good at is playing video games.

01:07:35 - 01:07:39
You're now a coach of video games. That's now your business.

01:07:39 - 01:07:42
And that's now your aging business to do all these things.

01:07:42 - 01:07:46
So when you go out and you buy a video game, it's an expense that you use for your business

01:07:46 - 01:07:49
to then write off your income, your taxable income.

01:07:50 - 01:07:54
You'll see the taxes will spread that way and you earn more money the same way.

01:07:55 - 01:07:57
Take the Roth IRA plan.

01:07:57 - 01:07:58
It's doing the exact same way.

01:07:59 - 01:08:05
All the Roth IRA is doing is taking your taxable income and putting it in a place where you

01:08:05 - 01:08:11
can, you won't miss, you won't miss the penalty after so many years, but, but your taxable,

01:08:11 - 01:08:18
your taxes on that goes away after 30 years, you take all that money, you invest small amounts of money.

01:08:18 - 01:08:25
It compounds, it grows, it compounds, it grows, it compounds, it grows, it compounds, it grows before you know it.

01:08:25 - 01:08:26
And this is the promise.

01:08:27 - 01:08:29
When by the time you're 30, you're at least a millionaire.

01:08:29 - 01:08:36
And then you can take that money out without paying the taxes. I'm paying the penalty. Still paying taxes.

01:08:39 - 01:08:44
What's the best piece of advice you ever received? Best piece of advice.

01:08:48 - 01:08:53
Uh, stay humble and, and, and, and giver's game.

01:08:53 - 01:08:59
You gotta be able to give and express the compassion for helping others.

01:08:59 - 01:09:06
You can't be somebody that keeps all of your keys and tricks and tools to yourself. Can't be selfish.

01:09:06 - 01:09:13
You gotta be able to help and helping will, will not only put yourself in a position where it's

01:09:13 - 01:09:18
kind of like an I owe you, but it's, but it's definitely you're in a position that helping,

01:09:19 - 01:09:21
you're not afraid to help helping.

01:09:22 - 01:09:24
We'll, we'll put somebody else on. It changes their life.

01:09:24 - 01:09:28
It increases their income, increases their, their trajectory. It helps all society.

01:09:29 - 01:09:34
If everybody helped everybody, everything would be better. Everybody would be better.

01:09:34 - 01:09:35
Everybody would be better for themselves.

01:09:35 - 01:09:40
I just wish I would have helped younger or knew that.

01:09:40 - 01:09:43
Cause a lot of times when we're young, we're a lot, we're definitely all about ourselves.

01:09:44 - 01:09:46
We think everything is forced to ourselves.

01:09:46 - 01:09:53
We're very self-centered when being compassionate and being giving is really don't be, don't

01:09:53 - 01:10:02
get taken advantage of, don't be stupid, but, but just be more giving, give, give for gain. That's good advice.

01:10:03 - 01:10:09
Is there anything that you wanted to talk about that we didn't talk about? Anything we missed?

01:10:09 - 01:10:15
Nah, just, just shout out to, if you're ever in Arizona mills, you know, stop by there, get a fresh squeeze lemonade.

01:10:15 - 01:10:17
It's one of the best you ever taste.

01:10:17 - 01:10:18
Try out the cherry mint.

01:10:18 - 01:10:20
You don't make a cherry mint anywhere else in the state.

01:10:20 - 01:10:22
We're the only place that sells it.

01:10:23 - 01:10:28
Um, shout out to all the food truckers that are out there, small businesses that are trying

01:10:28 - 01:10:32
to do everything they can to just, just put food on the table.

01:10:32 - 01:10:35
Shout out to the CPA supporting those. We need more CPAs.

01:10:35 - 01:10:43
If you're a CPA or somebody who wants to get into banking and bank with businesses, um, shout out to Torres insurance.

01:10:43 - 01:10:45
I mean, they're a really good company.

01:10:45 - 01:10:51
I would really honestly invest and move your, move your assets, move your business, get your life insurance plans. Get with Toro.

01:10:51 - 01:10:53
Cause they, they'll, they'll definitely set you up.

01:10:54 - 01:10:59
Um, yeah, just cover all the ends and make sure you play this game smart because the smart will

01:10:59 - 01:11:00
win and the dumb will not.

01:11:03 - 01:11:06
Toro insurance, not Torres insurance. Yeah. Yeah. That's what I said.

01:11:10 - 01:11:14
You're going to be like, Hey y'all, I'll get some of these fees.

01:11:14 - 01:11:18
Just let me clarify that. It's not mine. Um, yeah, man. Very cool.

01:11:19 - 01:11:19
No, this has been awesome.

01:11:19 - 01:11:23
I know we've been trying to get you on the show for, for a while now.

01:11:23 - 01:11:25
I mean, the schedules just didn't line up.

01:11:25 - 01:11:28
You busy man, busy man, going all over the place.

01:11:28 - 01:11:29
You know, you got BNI stuff.

01:11:29 - 01:11:30
You're going all over the place.

01:11:31 - 01:11:33
So I'm, I'm like really happy.

01:11:33 - 01:11:36
We were able to kind of like lock us in and you know, you share your story.

01:11:36 - 01:11:38
I appreciate you having me. Yeah, man. It's a good deal.

01:11:38 - 01:11:40
You set up is awesome.

01:11:40 - 01:11:41
This is, this definitely good.

01:11:41 - 01:11:42
It's get some more voices over here.

01:11:42 - 01:11:49
I know I'm not the first, but I'm definitely not going to be the last. All right, man. Well, that's been cool.

01:11:49 - 01:11:52
And, uh, this is going to be a wrap for today's episode of the bold news podcast.

01:11:53 - 01:11:55
And, uh, until next time we out. We out.