00;00;00;00 - 00;00;23;20

Unknown

Welcome to the Profit First for Real Estate Investors podcast. This series is the simple CFO Case Files, where our CFOs break down real client scenarios, financial systems and practical decisions from inside the business. Enjoy the episode.

00;00;23;23 - 00;00;39;24

Unknown

Welcome to Simple Case Files. Today we're going to explore what does it look like when a father believes so much in what his son built that he becomes a client, not just a supporter, not to someone who cheers from the sidelines, an actual paying client putting his own business on the line to test whether the system really works.

00;00;39;25 - 00;01;04;01

Unknown

And then, after seeing it work, joining the team to make sure it works for everyone else. I'm Christina Gutierrez, CEO and partner at simple CFO solutions, and today we have a very special guest. We have Pete Richter. Pete ran a very large property management firm, has decades of leadership and operations, has made huge difference in CFO altogether. And obviously before he was ever on our team, wherever a client.

00;01;04;02 - 00;01;26;04

Unknown

He was the father of our founder, David Richter. So this one's pretty personal, and I think you guys are going to like it. Pete, welcome. Thanks a lot, Christina. Appreciate you having me on, Bob. Happy to have you here. Finally took a little bit. So let's go back to the beginning when David not not David being born. We won't get into those details.

00;01;26;04 - 00;01;45;20

Unknown

But when David started talking about this idea, profit first, real estate investors. I want to help people. A whole company built around helping owners and keep their money. What did you think? What was. What was going through your mind? Were you supportive, dad, were you skeptical, dad? Were you? I don't think this is going to work. Or what were your thoughts?

00;01;45;22 - 00;02;15;09

Unknown

Well, I mean, I, I probably would say this anyway, just to sound good, but it was the truth. I definitely was supportive. You know, my background, I don't have the entrepreneurial mind. I'm not. I'm not in the visionary category. I'm more of a of a implementer, someone integrator, maybe someone to take someone's vision and try to help make it a reality.

00;02;15;11 - 00;02;38;08

Unknown

But I never force that thinking on David. And just at the same time, I wasn't. We had a kind of a standing joke in our family whenever the kids would want something, you know, back in the day, whether it was a puppy or, you know, they wanted to get pizza, whatever it was, one of my answers was, give up your dreams.

00;02;38;11 - 00;02;58;15

Unknown

You know, as a as a parent, you know, obviously the tagline is supposed to be, you know, go after your dreams, follow your dreams. I just kind of made fun of you don't always get what you want. So that kind of stuck as a as a standing joke with both of our kids. You know, dad always says, give up your dreams.

00;02;58;15 - 00;03;21;23

Unknown

But but they knew that it was kind of a backhanded way, also of saying, hey, go, you know, go after what you want. You know, if that's something that you think is pursue. And fortunately, they involve, you know, David and and our and our daughter as have involved my wife and I in their, in their decisions. And we've got great relationships with them.

00;03;21;23 - 00;03;52;09

Unknown

They're obviously both married and have their own families now, but we're still a part of their lives, which is awesome as a parent of adult children. But yeah, I was I was supportive. One of the things you know about David, that that I always was very impressed by is he he wound up as, as valedictorian in his, in his high school and salutatorian in his college class.

00;03;52;10 - 00;04;25;18

Unknown

But it's funny because I would not call him brilliant or brilliant book wise. He basically did it by good character, just by, you know, understanding what was, what was required and then focusing on those things and doing those things and making sure he did them. He was very he was the kind of kid who would come home after school and do his homework, not because he liked it, not because he cared so much about it, because he loved his free time.

00;04;25;18 - 00;05;07;10

Unknown

So he just wanted to get the, the, the obligation stuff out of the way. And he kind of when he started working in the workforce, he started he started with that same mentality, you know, what's required? What am I what what is expected of me when I get that done and out of the way and at the same time, being smart enough to understand how a business works, why his position was what it was, and that that just led him to thinking, as he worked in real estate companies, as he was doing his part, he started having ideas of, hey, there's a real there's a real need out there for, you know, for these entrepreneurs

00;05;07;10 - 00;05;33;02

Unknown

to have some kind of direction with their finances. They're just, you know, with the, the, the few real estate companies he worked in, that was the case. And as he interacted with other investors through those real estate companies, he kept seeing that as a that as a thing and decided that, you know, there's a there's a need out there that I, that I think I can fill in like any new business.

00;05;33;02 - 00;06;02;25

Unknown

But he didn't know the first thing about starting a company or starting a business. But he did his homework, you know, he he would he was not afraid to dig in and figure out what he needed to do when he. We worked together at a real estate company for a few years, and he was the kind of a guy that would be we'd have a meeting in the real estate company, we'd be sitting around the table and you know how a meeting goes.

00;06;02;25 - 00;06;30;05

Unknown

You would toss ideas back and forth and we'd walk away with, okay, we need to call this person. We need to contact somebody in this in this arena. And so often we leave the meeting and on my way back to my office, I pass his office. And almost every time this happened, he would be on the phone. He would be doing what we had just talked about, like we just finished the meeting 45 seconds ago.

00;06;30;05 - 00;06;49;22

Unknown

And he's he's already starting to do the things that we talked about. And, and I think that kind of attitude is really spurred him into, okay, what do I need. You know, writing a book. He wrote the book on Profit First for real estate. He'd never written a book before. We never talked about how to write a book.

00;06;49;23 - 00;07;08;20

Unknown

Who do you talk to about it? How do you get it published? But none of that intimidated him. It was just okay. Obviously, many, many millions of people have written books. So it's, you know, it's I got to be able to figure it out. And so that's. Yeah, they figured it out. Exactly. If they did then, then he could.

00;07;08;21 - 00;07;33;08

Unknown

And that's just, that's all the kind of stuff that I knew that he was capable of and believed in him when he started a business. And that's why I didn't. I wasn't intimidated by it. I wasn't thinking, oh, he's gotten in over his head. I felt like he'll figure it out. He'll figure out what he needs to, what he needs to do to make it to be successful.

00;07;33;11 - 00;07;51;09

Unknown

Yeah. And he definitely has. And I guess I have the same in me, which is why we probably make good business partners. But I've noticed that about him, too. Like the the cool thing that I've noticed is like, he reads a lot. Yes. And a lot of people just say they read a lot. But he reads more than probably anyone I've ever known.

00;07;51;09 - 00;08;11;04

Unknown

And he doesn't just read. He takes it in. He remembers it. He does an outline for it. He remembers it more so, like, and he enjoys sharing the books that he reads with other people because it makes an impact on him. I've never met someone that actually does that. So you can tell not just is he doing it for himself, to learn, for himself and to be better himself.

00;08;11;04 - 00;08;29;06

Unknown

He actually wants to do it for everyone else too, and shares it with the CFO and shares it. I think that's a really cool it's a cool personality of, you know, trait of him. He just he has that where he wants to share with everyone else because, you know, some people, they're like, I'm smart and I know this and I know how to do it.

00;08;29;06 - 00;08;45;00

Unknown

And you're like, well, how do you do it? Well, I figured it out. You know, like people don't want to share that. It's like they they want to be smart on their own. Like, I guess you want to be the smartest person in the room, which never gets you anywhere. But I've noticed David is completely opposite from that, and I love that about him.

00;08;45;02 - 00;09;17;27

Unknown

Before he started this business, he had a friend that turned him on to, I think of the first book he read about real estate investing was Rich dad. Poor Dad, and a friend had turned him on to that book when he was probably 18 or 19, and eventually he had a job where he was working in a company where he basically was like sort of sort of at a mission.

00;09;17;28 - 00;09;45;10

Unknown

He was stationed at a machine to make sure that the machine was working properly. And so we started taking books with them to work. And he would read he, he, he was reading literally dozens of books a week while he was while he was working, while he was sitting there. And it was a kind of a job he he'd actually worked his way up to that position and where if the machine broke down, he didn't even have to fix it.

00;09;45;10 - 00;10;08;16

Unknown

There was somebody to call to come fix it. So it was just a lot of it was a lot of sitting there and monitoring. And he took that opportunity and just was a was voraciously read books, not only about real estate investing, but about all kinds of things, business and so forth. And you're right, he he retains stuff.

00;10;08;17 - 00;10;47;24

Unknown

He's you know, it's I know he's read books twice, but I feel like he doesn't need to because he remembers what he reads. Like you said, he'll do an outline anyway. When when he was in that stage, one of the first ideas he had was to go back to his high school, where he graduated and, like, be able to teach a class to kids about about budgeting and about, you know, investing and about things that he was reading and learning, thinking like, hey, I just came from this high school and there's nobody nobody's teaching these kids this, and these kids need to learn this.

00;10;47;27 - 00;11;16;08

Unknown

Again. It wasn't he wasn't talking about how to make money with what he's learned. It was about how to share what he's learned with people that really need to know this and to be able to help him. And so we're I'm very I agree with you. And I'm very proud of that attitude that he has. And now that he started this company, even when we were talking about it on the the infant stages, it was never about getting rich, never about building a name for himself.

00;11;16;08 - 00;11;39;11

Unknown

It was never about, I want to retire when I'm 30 or 40 or whatever. It's it was always about there's this need out there and people just, just need to hear about it. They just need to know about it. And I can I can help them. And that still is attitude today, which I'm very proud of. Yeah, I 100% agree.

00;11;39;11 - 00;12;08;04

Unknown

So it's like making that shift of like, well, I mean you saw from the beginning, but like someone goes to their parent and says, you know, I want to do this, I want to do that. And first question is like, how much money do you need for me? You know, because like, that's always the thought. And then there's like a point where you're listening to him and you're were you thinking like, this is something real, like something that works was there was like a click where you're like, I can actually see this as he was talking, or did it take you getting involved a little bit to see that?

00;12;08;06 - 00;12;15;20

Unknown

Okay, this this will work. I would say from the, from the beginning he was.

00;12;15;22 - 00;12;46;29

Unknown

The reason was because he was so passionate about it, you know. So when we would talk it was rare that we had and we, we, we have had a great relationship all along. So we love to golf together. We love we quote movie lines back and forth together. Got the same kind of humor. But once he got this bug, almost every conversation we had would eventually come back around to this idea he had and this passion that he had.

00;12;47;01 - 00;13;08;09

Unknown

And so it was pretty obvious to me, knowing him the way I did, that he was going to he was going to do everything he could to make something like this happen, you know, and and not let hurdles and not let obstacles stop them. I guess just because of the, you know, again, that figure it out mentality that he has.

00;13;08;11 - 00;13;31;08

Unknown

So I felt like I didn't know what it was going to look like, you know, several years later, like we are now. Of course, I had no no predictions, but what I, what I was pretty sure was that he was going to make it happen or come to the realization that it can't happen because he's done everything he could possibly do.

00;13;31;10 - 00;13;49;03

Unknown

But yeah, I so I would say early on I really felt like he was going to make it work. I get that he that works or it doesn't so. Well. So then, you know, he starts the company. Company, you know, because starts out with a couple people and obviously has grown since then. But then you made a specific move.

00;13;49;11 - 00;14;15;07

Unknown

You actually didn't just go tell all your friends and talk about simple CFO. You became a client yourself. So you have so, so many different aspects. So when you decided that you wanted this to be in your business yourself, what problem were you actually trying to solve in your business? So we had we had a property management company right around 300 doors at the time, and we had just started a fix and flip business.

00;14;15;08 - 00;14;45;21

Unknown

And we had we were the typical real estate company with bookkeepers that were not professionals, were not real estate specific bookkeepers, and they have that knowledge. So we were doing we were using our property management software to track all of our numbers for property management as well as our flips. So all of our flip addresses were going into the property management software.

00;14;45;21 - 00;15;11;09

Unknown

And that's how we were, how we were, you know, tracking those. And so we knew that that wasn't right. We knew that things needed to be separated. So when when David and I started talking about it, he was given some ideas for free because I'm his dad. Of course, like, you guys really need to get on QuickBooks. That's what I would suggest, that that'd be the first thing to do.

00;15;11;10 - 00;15;43;09

Unknown

Get yourself separated. Get a clear picture financial picture on both companies. Give NLS that are separate track. Track everything in both companies and you'll have an idea then of, you know, do you know you're making if you're making money. And I said, well, we think so, but we're not 100% sure. And so it was obvious from, from already having talked to him and then looking at our companies that, yes, we definitely needed we needed the help.

00;15;43;09 - 00;16;07;01

Unknown

We needed the direction at least to get things separated, let alone then having someone analyze that data with us and help us strategize. So we were, you know, we were we were like steps away from that. And so to to get both of those at once was was pretty awesome.

00;16;07;03 - 00;16;25;23

Unknown

Any client would say that. So that's a good thing. That's definitely a good thing to say. So the weird thing is, is that this is your son, this is this company. So is there any awkwardness and like, okay, I'm going to pay my son to help the business. Did that feel strange at all? No, no, it it didn't.

00;16;25;28 - 00;16;53;11

Unknown

You know, I obviously knowing him as well as I did, I, I did not feel like he was taking advantage of that or working that relationship to his advantage because he he doesn't he doesn't have that, that that's not part of his personality. He's not a he's not someone that'll that'll work a room or work something to his advantage and try to win, so to speak.

00;16;53;16 - 00;17;19;28

Unknown

He really has that, that heart of wanting to help. Now, he was very excited that we were going to be one of his first clients, of course, and kind of kind of help legitimize his ideas. But at the same time, you know, at the at the very beginning, he was the one meeting with us regularly. You know, he didn't there weren't there wasn't a team of CFOs for him to select from.

00;17;20;03 - 00;17;47;08

Unknown

And so, you know, it was obvious with those meetings that he was all in trying to trying to help us build something successfully. That's cool. So that's that's right there. The true definition of separating business from personal right for sure. Oh, so walk me through what actually changed and when you actually felt like the business was turning toward the positive, what actually what system was he able to implement?

00;17;47;09 - 00;18;13;02

Unknown

What did you guys actually were you running profit first before he came in, or did he actually get profit first up and running? No. So so that obviously that was a huge a huge advantage that we didn't we were not running that before. And getting getting the company separated and the clear financial picture, you know, as far as money's not being, you know, combined.

00;18;13;03 - 00;18;39;20

Unknown

And then there wasn't there, you know, there was that separation was huge. The monthly meetings, which included accountability. So that was that was big to be able to, you know, walk away with to do's from one meeting and then the next meeting you're on. Okay. Where are we at with these? You know, here David and his team at the time would always have theirs done.

00;18;39;22 - 00;19;04;18

Unknown

Of course. And then it was did we have ours done on our side so that accountability was big. And then, as you already mentioned, the profit first principles, which, you know, obviously he's built the business on and that's that that was huge for us and made a huge difference in our companies. Was there anything that he came in and did?

00;19;04;18 - 00;19;26;23

Unknown

So you guys had tons of conversations before this, right? You talked about the business. You're his dad. Was there anything that when he started working with you directly in your company directly that actually surprised you? Like, wow, he actually I know he's smart and he's good. Was there anything that you were like, wow, that's actually really good. So I think one of the things that surprised me was the connections he had.

00;19;26;26 - 00;19;49;20

Unknown

So as questions would come up and we, you know, and I obviously I've known him his whole life and here he is and his, you know, at the time his late 20s, you know, and we would be discussing something and it was, it was some kind of expertise that that was needed, you know, outside of a simple CFO deliverable.

00;19;49;23 - 00;20;17;26

Unknown

And he would say, well, I think I know somebody or I know somebody that knows somebody that could that could help you with that. And it didn't matter what it was. I was, I was I was very surprised that at such a young age, he had these business connections. And every time he we got connected, someone it was somebody who seemed to share the same values, you know, very, very good business person wanting to be helpful.

00;20;17;26 - 00;20;39;03

Unknown

There wasn't just somebody that, that was just a name off of, you know, the old Rolodex days. It was it was somebody that that was legit and could help. And I was surprised that that like I said, it's such a young age. He made those connections that proved to be so helpful. Yeah, yeah. No real estate world.

00;20;39;04 - 00;21;05;27

Unknown

I mean, in the business world in general. But the extra step of in the real estate world, like those connections are huge when you need something in that business. So at that point you go from proud dad in the stands, the supportive to then the client, and then now you're now you're making the move to the inside. So at what point or how did that conversation even happen to where it just seems you're hey, I'm doing good.

00;21;05;28 - 00;21;39;13

Unknown

Hey, come help me. And then it's like, hey, want to help me? Right. So, so again, because we we've had this good relationship where he actually is, you know, an adult child who will pick up the phone and call his dad just to say, hey, not always when they need something. As we be having some of these conversations, he would be relaying some management issues, whether they were, you know, personnel or processes or, or something.

00;21;39;19 - 00;22;03;17

Unknown

And he said, you know, he would say, I know you, you manage for a long time. What about what do you think about something like this? Or how would you address this problem? And that happened enough times to where, you know, I feel like I was able to give him some helpful advice and that he was able to apply it, which again, is strength.

00;22;03;18 - 00;22;31;04

Unknown

I think one of his superpowers is, hey, I've learned, I agree. Now I'm going to apply it, I'm going to implement this thing. And I think a few of those things had some success early on. And that just got him thinking, okay, what about you? What about me not having to just one off call you when things happen, but actually have you on the team and help me as these things come up, or maybe even prevent some of these things from happening.

00;22;31;06 - 00;22;53;10

Unknown

Would you would you be interested in doing that on a fractional basis? And, and of course I would. And and I told him Furley on hopefully he won't listen to this podcast, but I told him early on I will do it for free. But he has he has nicely been paying me this all this time to do it.

00;22;53;13 - 00;23;19;19

Unknown

And I would do it for free even if you if and when he stops paying me or decides, you know, to put me out to pasture, I guess. But, but yeah, he was, you know, he's definitely somebody worth investing in for me and for me to be able to do that, use my experience to help him specifically is just so rewarding.

00;23;19;19 - 00;24;00;09

Unknown

It's it's rewarding to help anybody to make hey, all this experience I've learned over all this time. For what? Well, if you can pass it on and have somebody now use it and apply it, very rewarding. And then for it to be my own son, well, that's just gravy. So yeah, I mean, absolutely, because you've come in here and been able to help the CFO, the admin, me personally, you know, because there's always times where your management experience of just just managing people and understanding how things go in and out, just having your insight on certain things and, you know, tough situations that I you know, when I came in, I ran my own business,

00;24;00;09 - 00;24;23;25

Unknown

but not not with a partner, not with a big team and definitely not remote. So that makes a big difference too. So sometimes things get get mixed. So it's always nice to have that ear. So I feel like you, you have you being able to manage people and having that experience has been really helpful in bringing people up, helping other people, how to manage and even being a sounding board for me personally.

00;24;23;25 - 00;24;49;12

Unknown

So I how do you think that experience, which I can tell mine all day, but I'll let you speak to how do you think that helps our simple CFO client and our everything internally now? Sure. So you know on 62 or been in in management over 30 years. The great thing about age and experience is you've learned a bunch of the wrong ways to do stuff.

00;24;49;14 - 00;25;11;23

Unknown

And if you can then have having learned from that, keep somebody else from making those same mistakes. Well, that's that's a win that makes the experience of making the mistakes and getting yourself in a jam by doing it wrong, that makes it worth it. It makes it like, oh, okay, well, now there's a reason, you know, I can point to that.

00;25;11;23 - 00;25;38;08

Unknown

I, that I went through those things. And so I really feel like in, in simple CFO, you've got the CFO, you've got clients, you've got our own staff. And then, of course, David and you at the top. And anytime I can, I can do something that will help somebody like that and be able to take my experience from all these years and then see them.

00;25;38;10 - 00;26;11;05

Unknown

You know, recently we had a we promoted someone to manage and position in bookkeeping. I spent I spent weeks training her on management. And then she was she was taking copious notes and went and went and applied a bunch of that stuff specifically that we talked about. And I can't tell you how rewarding that was to see to see that happen, because, you know, I believed in what I was telling her, but it was up to her to be able to apply it and to see somebody actually do it.

00;26;11;05 - 00;26;29;17

Unknown

Very rewarding. Yeah. And understand it like, you know, you go to school for four, maybe six, maybe eight years and they teach you how to do something that you like. I'm going to be an accountant, I'm going to be a doctor. I'm going to do this. They teach you how to do it, but they don't ever teach you how to actually manage people.

00;26;29;17 - 00;26;46;08

Unknown

So you can build up and know you can be an expert in your field. But when people start being hired underneath you, it's always good to have the side of like how to then manage those people because the department can fall apart if you don't know that. So I know how helpful that could have been to her. Absolutely.

00;26;46;13 - 00;27;14;29

Unknown

Yeah I agree. So I'm thankful it's all businesses, you know, have relationships in them. And that's what managing is. It's managing relationships. All of us are managers, right? We're spouses. We manage our spouse, our children, our brothers or sisters or parents. There's there's it's it's people. It's managing people. And when you have it, we work with the staff where you work for somebody, it's managing those relationships too.

00;27;15;00 - 00;27;36;05

Unknown

And that that's the real nitty gritty of of business. You can have the best systems, the best ideas, and if you can't, you can't get along with people or have people understand your vision and apply it, then you're stuck. Yeah. That brings me any question that I didn't even think of. But you know, we've run everything on iOS now.

00;27;36;11 - 00;28;09;21

Unknown

Whose idea was iOS? Was that something that you had experience in, or was that another thing that David said, I like this. I'm going to study it and I'm going to implement it. So the company we work together in, in real estate, we actually had an iOS implementer. So we went we attended the meetings. We had the quarter, the quarterly meetings, the annual meetings, and then of course, the weekly meetings without the implementer and having both come from that.

00;28;09;24 - 00;28;34;13

Unknown

The company we had was a little bit, well, mostly the owner of the company was a little bit dysfunctional. And so although we saw the benefits of iOS, it was frustrating us to actually be going through the process because we were like, there's a better way to to use iOS. And so it really helped having that experience.

00;28;34;14 - 00;29;01;03

Unknown

And then when and then as this company grew, it was his David's idea to to get us back on that track because there's nothing like that. The weekly meeting pulse, of all the things of all the tools iOS has, I think that's that's the one we we think is the most valuable. And so once he once he got that implemented, that was definitely his idea.

00;29;01;03 - 00;29;24;20

Unknown

But I think he the way he implemented it was just much less dysfunctional then than what we're the example that we'd seen and we knew it could be. It could be good if done, if done the right way in anyway. So yeah, that was that was his idea and that was our experience. And I were so glad that we've done that and that, that that keeps us, keeps us.

00;29;24;22 - 00;29;48;20

Unknown

It's a it's a vital part of, I think, of what we do in all in this company across the departments. I agree, and like you said earlier, you learned what not to do. So you could do it better for sure. So then from the inside, what from your perspective, what do you see that clients don't see? Like what a simple what are we doing as simple CFO that people underestimate.

00;29;48;23 - 00;30;20;04

Unknown

So the a lot of the behind the scenes processes, are all are all worked on and built with the idea of clients ways to make clients successful. You know, all of the things we can do on our part. We all know with any business relationship, you know, the client's got their part to do. So the client has to show up to meetings, the client has to do their part.

00;30;20;05 - 00;30;42;19

Unknown

But from the simple CFO side, where the client doesn't see are all the things that are worked on consistently. With that goal in mind, we want the client experience to be good again. Not not to become rich, not to become the biggest company out there, but to help as many people as we can because we know the need.

00;30;42;21 - 00;31;11;26

Unknown

The need is so great. You know, the entrepreneurial spirit to start a business, to have the idea, to take the risk, to chase the deal, all of those things are very admirable, and you want that to be rewarding for somebody. So if there's a way we can help them, help them make it rewarding for them, that's awesome. And that what they don't see, maybe behind the scenes, is that that's all our meetings are about, that our decisions, our processes.

00;31;11;27 - 00;31;33;29

Unknown

How what can we do to make the client experience as good as possible so that they can be successful? Not so that we can become the greatest of all time, but that they can be successful. And the reason they started their business. Yeah, I like that. That's very well said. Very well said. So let's, let's, let's be a little lighthearted here.

00;31;33;29 - 00;32;04;25

Unknown

So what have you actually learned about David through him being a leader, or has he taught you anything to become a better leader? So what I've learned, what I've learned about him is he still is. I used the word passionate earlier. He is he is passionate sometimes to a fault where he. You know this better than anybody he cannot take.

00;32;04;27 - 00;32;35;03

Unknown

He has a hard time taking bad news as a business owner. He has, you know, if somebody disappointed, he he he still is taking it personally. He's he's not he gets I think he and not saying he gets mad at them, he gets hurt. He's like somebody's disappointed. You know I think he's a deep down probably would classify himself as a people pleaser of of the, of the different ways to describe somebody.

00;32;35;10 - 00;32;59;13

Unknown

And so what I've learned, what I've learned is he has a he from about him is that he has a hard time saying that's just the price of doing business. That's that's inevitable. That's going to happen. Let's work through it. Let's make the best decision we can and move on. There's this certain perfectionism in him that he wants it to.

00;32;59;14 - 00;33;21;16

Unknown

He wants it all to work exactly the way it's supposed to for everybody, and has a hard time accepting when it doesn't. So I think that's the way he has said before. One of the many books he read had the statement in it how you do something is how you do everything or how you do anything is how you do everything.

00;33;21;19 - 00;33;44;10

Unknown

And I think that's the way, you know, he's he's definitely adapted that and wants to hey, you know, I take care of the little things because I'm a you know, he's got that perfectionism mentality of, you know I, I do this the little things even to the same extent with the same care that I do the big things.

00;33;44;12 - 00;34;09;11

Unknown

So that's definitely a quality I've seen in him. Oh yeah, me too. And I get it because it is. I think it's the fact of like you, like, I know I can help them if they would just open their mind and they would just accept what I'm trying to tell them. But we're also working with people's financials, and it's always a tough thing to come out and accept, you know, what could be going wrong with your financials?

00;34;09;11 - 00;34;27;19

Unknown

And then somebody else actually telling you that when you think you're running a great business. And it goes back to the first question that we talked about earlier that you're like, well, I thought we were doing well. And that's what a lot of business owners, I think I'm doing well. And the last thing you want is someone to pull your business apart and show you that you're not, but then it's life saving at the same time.

00;34;27;19 - 00;34;54;21

Unknown

So it's it's it's funny. You're so right. It's finances are very personal. You know, you can you can talk with friends and people you are very close to all the way up to, to, to just acquaintances about lots of different things. Your kids, your, your wife, your family. But no one ever asks, how much did you make last year?

00;34;54;24 - 00;35;20;04

Unknown

How much money is in your bank account right now? That's like whoa, whoa, that's that's that's the plague. Hey, that's crossing the line. That's too personal. But yeah, we're best friends. Well, it doesn't matter. I'm not. I'm not telling you, and I'm not expecting you to tell me. So finances are a very personal thing. So, yes, I totally agree with you to to have somebody get in there and say, let's really look at what's going on here.

00;35;20;06 - 00;35;42;22

Unknown

You know, you you don't want your best friend doing it, let alone, you know, somebody that you don't know that. Well, yeah, I agree, I've done it for long enough to see it. So I gotta, I gotta, I gotta ask and Dave is probably going to kill me, but we need a funny story. We need something about David that leads to the person that he is now.

00;35;42;22 - 00;36;03;19

Unknown

But maybe something you saw when he was younger that you're like, oh, yeah, this is this is how he's going to be. And we'll make sure he does watch this. Yeah. So, well, I'm trying to think of the funniest story. I don't know if this is it tells you what kind of person he is, but we cared about this a lot.

00;36;03;26 - 00;36;30;12

Unknown

He was probably ten ish, and we were going out to breakfast one Saturday morning, my wife and I. And at the time we had two cars and two car garage and separate garage doors. One of the garage doors was on the blink, so we were parked in one of the cars out front and we were going out to breakfast and we were taking the two cars because afterwards, I don't know, I was doing something and my wife was doing something.

00;36;30;14 - 00;36;53;02

Unknown

And so one of, you know, one of us goes out to to the garage, you get into one car, my wife goes out to the front. And we each assumed that we had David and neither of us had David. So we both take off. We we drive to the restaurant and had the classic, you know, where's David? I thought you had him, you know.

00;36;53;08 - 00;37;16;22

Unknown

So we left him at home. And this was before cell phones. You know, this was what? So 25 years ago ish, we didn't have a cell phone. And so we were probably, you don't know, five, ten minutes away from the house. So, you know, we weren't necessarily panicking, but, you know, that's not not something you want to do.

00;37;16;22 - 00;37;40;03

Unknown

And he what he had wound up doing was he called his aunt my my wife's sister who lives, you know, who lived in the area at the time. And he just basically said, hey, this is what happened, you know, what do you think I should do? And she's, you know, she told him, just wait there. They'll realize, you know, that they left you and they'll be back for you, so it'll be fine.

00;37;40;09 - 00;38;01;29

Unknown

He wasn't crying. He wasn't panicked. He was just like, you know, what do I do? So I was a little bit impressed that at least did that much. You know, it wasn't sitting there crying or, you know, worse. I don't know what, like, started taking off and walking toward the restaurant, I don't know. So a few of the things he could have done.

00;38;01;29 - 00;38;28;11

Unknown

But I thought he used his head and I was a little bit proud of him for doing that. That's smart. We didn't raid the fridge and grab some whipped cream and chocolate sirup and get some a little home alone, start being in the room. Invite his friends over. Right? So that is pretty smart though. Oh man, that's a great story.

00;38;28;14 - 00;38;49;14

Unknown

About that. No, and I know it. If and when somebody asked me to write my parenting book. Ha ha. That'll be one of those stories in there. I'll definitely be read that. But you should write a management book. That might be the next step to that one. All right. So let's go ahead and close this out. So there's a lot of people listening right now.

00;38;49;14 - 00;39;13;17

Unknown

And if there's people listening there are real estate agents. There are closing deals. They have revenue. Again no idea where the money's going or they think they got it all together. What would you say to that person? So I would say you definitely would need to start. I would suggest you start with somebody from the outside coming in and, and, you know, giving you financial clarity.

00;39;13;18 - 00;39;35;09

Unknown

Let somebody go in there and look at, look at how your business is truly doing, giving you a health check. And you'll you'll be surprised. You'll be surprised, hopefully in a good way. You know, some people we that we've helped have been one of the one of the guys that David helped along the way. He'll tell the story.

00;39;35;10 - 00;40;01;00

Unknown

He tells a story a lot. Is the guy he worked with in Virginia. He had a company who was unaware of the potential he had with a bunch of rentals he was holding in the equity he had, and he thought he was doing a lot worse than he was until, you know, David showed him that, hey, you've got you've got a lot of wealth here, you know, untapped, untapped wealth.

00;40;01;02 - 00;40;21;21

Unknown

And here's some of the things you can do now with it that you didn't think you could and transform. The guy's the guy's business. He was doing. He was doing successful. He just didn't even know how successful he was or what his potential was or what his opportunities were. So that's one end of the spectrum. And of course, the other end is, oh, wow, I thought we were doing great.

00;40;21;21 - 00;40;57;11

Unknown

But look, we're we're bleeding cash or we're on life. We're really on life support. We've only got a few months left. If we keep going this way. Both ends of the spectrum. Most people are somewhere in the middle. But to know exactly where you are is invaluable. I mean, that's not only peace of mind and all of those things, but then helping you have the strategy to to to implement what you need to to make little tweaks or big adjustments, whatever is required in order for you to be able to fulfill the dream you add when you started the company.

00;40;57;13 - 00;41;13;14

Unknown

Absolutely. And we can do that. Health tech, we can do that financial assessment. And one of the greatest things I think, that we've added that I really love is David getting on the phone doing an orientation for clients that come in. So attacking the operations side, figuring out what's wrong on your management side. So we're really and that's David right.

00;41;13;14 - 00;41;31;14

Unknown

That's all David trying to take that extra step trying to do more. Because nine times out of ten if your finances are in order, something's going on with operations. Or you could at least then some advice or need something. And it's a little easier to talk about. Yeah that biases. So him getting on the phone is is amazing.

00;41;31;14 - 00;41;50;11

Unknown

So thank you for being here. This has been amazing opened up and give us some insight. It's it's cool how you went from the dad the skin well I guess not the skeptic the dad, the supporter the client, the team member. And you're still here with us. So I thank you for being here. I thank you for all the support that you give us still in it that says everything.

00;41;50;11 - 00;42;08;13

Unknown

You haven't given up on him or you actually never questioned the ability for this to work. So if you're a client or if you're a potential client or you're thinking about this and Pete story or anything that we've talked about resonates with you and you're thinking, oh, I got revenue, or maybe you have a deal coming up and you just want a health check or a financial assessment.

00;42;08;14 - 00;42;27;14

Unknown

Go to simple, book a call, and then we'll show you exactly where your money is going and show you how to how to figure it out. Thank you for listening. Thank you, Pete, for being here. Thanks for having me. We'll see you in the next one. Thanks for listening to the simple CFO case files on the Profit First for Real Estate Investors podcast.

00;42;27;16 - 00;42;41;23

Unknown

If you found this helpful, make sure you're subscribed so you don't miss our guest interviews featuring other real estate investors and our profit first chats with David Richter. If you're ready to bring clarity and structure to the finances and your business, visit profit. To apply for a free financial discovery, call with our team.