More Profit, More Savings, and Less Stress with Chris and Julie Gould

Episode 117: More Profit, More Savings, and Less Stress with Chris and Julie Gould

The Profit First REI Podcast

September 29, 2022

David Richter

Summary:

In this conversation with Chris and Julie Gould, sibling business partners for a real estate wholesaling company, we get to hear all about how implementing Profit First can change your business and your personal life for the better.

They share how they experienced the feeling of almost living paycheck-to-paycheck despite having good numbers and the stress of the lack of clarity–that is until they heard of Profit First.

Now they enjoy financial comfort in their personal lives, running a business independent from its visionary, focusing on new ventures, and diving deep into creating more clarity in their business to make better data-driven decisions. 

Check it out on this episode of the Profit First Podcast!

Key Takeaways:
[0:57] Chris & Julie Gould and on Working With Family 

[6:44] On their Wholesaling Company

[10:53] On Profit First

[15:27] On the Stress Before Profit First 

[17:00] How It Felt to Implement Profit First for the Business

[19:23] Profit First and Owner Compensation

[25:04] How Profit First Helps Make the Business Be More Independent From Chris

[29:38] On the Growth of Profit First and Their Business

[32:21] What Was The Best Thing You’ve Done With The New Profit Distribution?

Quotes:

[12:12] “Before we implemented the Profit First system, there’s this question that we ask a lot: ‘Are we actually making money?’”

[14:37] “[Before implementing Profit First], it’s almost like living paycheck to paycheck, even though the numbers are a lot bigger .”

[15:04] “A huge part of looking toward Profit First, and implementing more infrastructure in the business, we’re depending more on data than gut-feeling. We have numbers in front of us.”

[18:42] “It’s not worth it to NOT implement Profit First.”

[25:36] “I think a big part of being able to separate and pull [Chris] out of the business was having Profit First to lean on.”

[35:5l; 9] “You live your whole life thinking there’s not another way, and someone pops up and is just jlike, ‘Hey, it doesn’t have to be like that at all.’”

Links:

Level 10-https://level10official.com/

Profit First Real Estate Investors FB Group-https://m.facebook.com/groups/ProfitFirstREI/ 

Simple CFO-https://simplecfo.com/ 

Tired of living deal to deal? 

If you are a real estate investor or business owner who is tired of living deal to deal, and want to double your profits, head over here to book your no-obligation discovery call with me. Either myself or someone from my team will hop on a short call with you to get clear on your business goals, remove any obstacles holding you back, and map out a game plan to help you finally start keeping more of the money you work so hard to make. – David 

Transcript:

Chris Gould:

Our parents like having to transfer credit card debt from one card to another card because it had zero interest. And like, just the stress that you feel as a, as a kid around not being prepared and not having your financial house in order is something that for us was really impactful, that we said we don’t wanna ever be in that position. So that’s why when you came on and you spoke to us about Profit First, it was like exactly what we needed and what we wanted to hear.

Intro:

If you’re a real estate investor who’s sick and tired of living deal to deal, then welcome home. Hear from everyday real estate investors just like you, and discover how they’ve completely transformed their business by taking a Profit First approach. This is the Profit First for REI podcast where we believe revenue is vanity, Profit is sanity. It’s time to start making profit a habit in your business. So here’s your host, David Richter.

David Richter:

We have brother sister Duo, Chris and Julie Gould here today. All my word you are in for a treat because they told us about their whole Profit First Journey before Profit First, how he felt out of control. Sleepless Night Stressed, built his company on hope. And if you’ve ever felt that, listened to his journey of where it came out on the other side, he also talks about in his past, like both of them said their parents were in credit card debt, they would just transfer their money all the time and they did not want to live there anymore. So they talk about how the mindset completely shifted and changed. They also talk about the two keys to business of how to remove the owner from the owner’s seat and being able to get out of operations outta the finances and giving the owner back control of the business.

David Richter:

So if you wanna learn about that, listen to this episode, I promise it will be a treat for you. You will get them some gold nuggets to be able to implement right away and enjoy the episode. Hey. Hey. So we have Chris and Julie Gould here, which is a brother sister team. So making sure everyone knows that they are not married <laugh>, they are a brother sister team, which I found out before I put my foot in my mouth. I’m just gonna tell people here, I I just tell like it is. But I met them a couple different times. One with Jerry Green’s group, one with Josh and Tiffany Hyde. These are go-getters action takers. They’ve also implemented Profit First, so we’re going to talk about their Profit First Journey today. But Chris, Julie, great having you on today.

Chris Gould:

Thanks David. Good to be here. Yeah, good to be here. We I also have another sister who works for our company and so most of the time they’re like, Oh yeah, your wife Jennifer, she sent me a deal. I’m like, That’s my sister <laugh>. So the joke is kind of that they’re my sister wives because Okay.

David Richter:

I was just gonna say Sister Wives was going through my head right there with that, cuz I’m sure you get that more than just on that side. Oh man, that’s great. So yeah, it’s you don’t see, you honestly, you don’t see a lot of brothers sister teams in the real estate investing world. There’s a lot of husband wives or bro, you know, like brothers and that, but I love this, the brother, sister. How has that worked out for you? Okay, I want the deeds on this before we go into Profit First and that side. How is it working with your sibling?

Chris Gould:

I, I look at the entrepreneur’s journey in and of itself as this, like it’s just about personal growth and, and really like, you know, you changing as a person, as you push yourself cuz you know it’s on you to succeed or fail. Right? And so doing that with someone you love that you grew up with, like to me it’s challenged us tremendously but also like helped us both grow tremendously. Like some of that politicalness that can happen in a company and maybe you don’t exactly say the thing, You’re not being radically candid with a family member. You kind of have this like, I’m gonna love you no matter what and we’re gonna, we’re not gonna break up, right? We’re a family, like we’re gonna stay together. And so having that as the foundation and then adding on top of it, like this need to be professional and to communicate honestly and effectively I think has just like helped me grow as a man as a business owner.

Chris Gould:

And then it’s brought our relationship like so much closer together. And you know, operating, getting on the same page all the time. Yeah. Has just been, you know, such a huge part to it. And I think what it does is it’s helped me bring that way of going about communicating that we’ve had to develop as brother or sister. It’s helped me get better at other relationships as well. How to like put your ego aside at times so that you can solve a problem, Right? How to hear feedback that’s like, Hey, you messed this thing up and not get defensive and just see like, yeah, you’re right. You know? So that’s kind of my, my take on it.

David Richter:

Okay. So now I hear have to get Julie’s part cuz this could be the part where she says, no, it’s completely, that’s completely wrong and that’s a normal sibling relationship. So Julie, would you concur or disagree with that?

Julie Gould:

I would concur for the most part. I think, you know, a big benefit of us working together is that our skill sets are so complimentary. I think that’s a big credit to Chris seeing that and knowing that there was a vision where we could both work together and respect, you know, work boundaries with, you know, when am I wearing my sister hat and when am I wearing my employee hat? Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative>, you know, that was a, that was something that we just had to work on and be dedicated to respecting and and wanting to have. And because we’re able to do that, it creates an environment where we’re able to be, you know, business professional, but also enjoy the fact that we get to work with family. And and yeah, I mean Chris had a vision from the business from the beginning and I feel grateful to be a part of it. I mean, he’s given me a lot of opportunity, personally, a lot of personal growth, financial growth, and we were just talking about, you know, my earnings quadrupling over the last couple years of working with him. I mean, and I wouldn’t have seen that elsewhere, you know? Yeah. Knowing that like he has my back and wants me to work hard for the business, but also reward that very directly. Yeah, it’s a good mix. It’s, it’s not easy, but it’s totally worth it. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>

Chris Gould:

Awesome.

David Richter:

Another very emotionally intelligent answers there. I think you’ve taken it and actually done something with this, with this business that a lot of people that work with family members aren’t able to do. But it seems like you even brought up candor in your, you know, like being very candid with each other. And that’s where I feel like you probably have that as part of your culture in there to make sure of it and like, even when it doesn’t matter if we’re related or not. So I, I really like that. But let’s go back, let’s go back just a little bit before we go into Profit First, can you tell people what are you doing right now? Are you flipping wholesaling, rentals? Like, tell us a little bit, just very high level of the business.

Chris Gould:

Yeah, so primarily we do wholesaling. We did 98 deals last year. Wow. Just, just under a million in revenue. And we’ve, I think we’ve already beat that this year. We’re gonna probably, we’ll beat it this week, we’ll beat it this week. And we’re looking probably like somewhere 1.5 for this year. Hoping to get even higher than that. Wholesaling only I should say primarily we’ve dabbled in, taken some properties down and regretted it every time we’ve done it. We’re a virtual wholesaling company, so we’re located in Denver, but we invest in the Midwest with the intention that we’re gonna expand to be doing more nationwide wholesaling. But we’ve always built this so that we’re never gassing up the station wagon, going out to appointments, which is what a lot of people do. And we think that that really helps set us apart because we’ve had to develop a really strong process cuz you can’t put on your Superman cape and go save the deal in person.

Chris Gould:

You have to do things the right way over the phone, check all your boxes, et cetera. We also have eight properties and 10 doors we just took down a package deal. It’s super messy right now and it’s pretty difficult to get our hands around, but we got these properties at like 45 cents on the dollar and they were all occupied when we got them. So having to do some work, but that’s kind of also adding some complexity to Profit First and how we’re looking at those things. So I know we can kind of touch on that later. We wanna get away from doing any holding and flipping whatsoever. So we maybe did four or five of those last year and we just decided let’s stay in our niche and just be really good at that. So that’s sort of our focus here going forward.

David Richter:

Awesome. Well that gives us a good overview. And then behind the scenes, before we started, Chris told me he’s the visionary and his his sister there. Julie is the operations person, integrator, whatever you wanna call, whatever operating system you follow, she’s that person that helps implement all of Chris’s crazy ideas. So that way you could get a little bit overview of who they are. They’re like you, I don’t know. Okay. One. Okay. I keep saying we’re gonna go to Profit First by keeping keeping coming up with these questions. You said 98 deals, did that bug you last year that it wasn’t a hundred

Julie Gould:

Totally. Or were

David Richter:

You like now

Julie Gould:

We’ve finished like 30 grand under a million, so, and that’s about our average deal. We do two more deals. We’re right. We’re hitting triple digits and the deal count we’re hitting a million. I mean, it bugs you and then it just kind of motivates you Right. Pushes you forward in the next year.

Chris Gould:

Yeah, I think our goal for last year was 800,000 800 4840. So we beat our goal by a hundred K and then we went into this year and said, let’s double what we did. Let’s go for 2 million this year. And we, we really just were like, it was very ambitious. I don’t know, we didn’t bring on enough people quickly enough that we’re gonna hit that goal. But yeah, there was something really cool about surpassing our goal. But yeah, hitting the million mark for this year is gonna feel really good. Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative>, you know, surpassing that by

David Richter:

A lot. Well congratulations. Can I just say that I mean that you are out there hustling, grinding you last year you beat your goal. Like I know some people would be ah, shoot you or most people would be like, Oh shoot, we didn’t get to the a hundred of the million mark, but like, you blew pass your goal, you did a good job. Like sometimes you just need to pat yourself on the back a little bit. So it sounds like you did an amazing job and then this year already, like you’re gonna be blown past that goal. And if you’re listening right now, we’re recording this at like the end of September, so they’re still three months for them to do their magic. So they are going to get to that, that market sounds like of where that 1.5 million with, with where they are on track to be. So that’s awesome. So congratulations. Thank you. Let’s talk now about Profit First. Now go into those questions that I know that we, why we’re even here today. So what got you excited about the Profit First message?

Julie Gould:

Yeah, I mean I remember sitting on that call and really the big one for me was Chris and I had been having some ongoing discussions about like, you know, how do we pay you? What does the structure look like? How do we make sure you’re seeing something consistently from the business? You know, Chris was of that mindset of like, I don’t have to take anything, right? Like I, I have the business and like that’s what I have and so like whatever, then you know, we cover my bills and then that’s that. But it just didn’t seem like enough and really just kind of write an alignment with that. Was joining that call where you spoke words to say like if you’re one of those kinds of people, like here’s the new system that you need mm-hmm <affirmative> and I remember ordering before your book was even available at that time, you know, ordering Mike’s book right off of Amazon and I started reading it the next day and you know, blew through it and then just told Chris like, I’m gonna open up five new business accounts. And just like started to do the thing and just said, we’ll talk about what are caps and taps, what we want them to be, but just like this is something we have to start doing. Like it just makes total sense. And we just really never look back after that. Mm-Hmm.

Chris Gould:

<Affirmative>, I think, I think also David from my perspective, before I started doing or before we implemented the Profit First system, there’s this question that you ask a lot like, but are we actually making money <laugh>? Like I think we’re making money. Like I see money in there, but like I’m just like randomly taking 20 grand and being like, well that’s my pay cuz I didn’t take anything for the last three months. And it’s like we just kind of didn’t know exactly what was going on. We had bookkeeping. I feel like you go from nothing to bookkeeping, then you can get pro then you can do Profit First. At least that was our evolution of it. But kind of feeling like I don’t totally know what’s going on and if we’re doing good or bad other than looking at my, my login on my bank account being like, there’s good, there’s money, there’s more than there was yesterday and that’s not really a way to run business.

David Richter:

Right. Man, that’s really good stuff because I don’t know about you, but back when I was in it before Profit First it was like living deal to deal. You know, like what are we doing? You know, running around like a chicken with your head cut off. So I get you randomly taking the money. Are we actually making money? You know, all the questions you ask yourself as a business owner, I guess during that time too, because you were on, you started your business in 2018. Correct? That was when you had officially started and then you didn’t get private first until it was a 2020, Right. The end of 2020. Cuz we talked about this offline. So, so that’s when he implemented. So during that time, did you also feel like the business owner, you know, like the, the time before Profit First? Like how were the thoughts of, you know, like, are are we actually making money? You know, like am I able to take this money out? Like did that help you feel like a business owner? Like where were you mentally during that, during that time?

Chris Gould:

I felt like in Traction they talk about being the genius with a thousand helpers. I very much felt like the genius with a thousand Helpers. I felt out of control. I, it was stressful and it was very much operating on like Hope <laugh>. Okay. And yeah, I mean I just didn’t have a handle on the finances of the business. It was just do we have enough to pay everybody and pay for marketing? Yes. Okay, cool. Oh wait, we did a big deal. I’m gonna take some of that. You know, it’s just, it’s very like, it’s almost like living paycheck to paycheck in a way. Even though the numbers are a lot bigger, it still has that same energy to it. Yeah. Yeah.

Julie Gould:

I something we read interaction that I think we used a lot was the idea of like data over drama. You know, so much of Chris creating the business was not like actual drama, but just like the gut feeling, right? Like going with that. I mean that’s what made him be able to start a business and take those risks and just kind of go for it. And I think a huge part of looking towards Profit First, implementing some more just like infrastructure in the business was like, we’re depending more on data than that like gut feeling, right? Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative>, we, we have numbers in front of us, we have things to look at to tell the story versus us just deciding what the story might be, might not deal.

Chris Gould:

Right. Right.

David Richter:

Yeah, that makes sense. Cuz I’ve seen a lot of people in that, in that place and it’s just not a fun place to be before, you know, like where, like you said, still feel like paycheck to paycheck, but the numbers are bigger now. You said you were, you felt out of control, stressed, operating on Hope. Was there any time there when you felt like, is this worth it? You know, like what we’re doing? Oh, I don’t know. Did you ever get to that point?

Chris Gould:

Yeah, I mean, in the beginning, especially before I had hired anyone, I definitely had a lot of, is it worth it? I think I had a mental commitment to myself at some point that just said either I’m gonna make this work or I’m, it’s just gonna completely burn to the ground. Yeah. And I’ll just have to crawl back to my corporate job and beg them to hire me back. So yeah, I I think that honestly, I forgot what your question was, I just No,

David Richter:

That was good.

Chris Gould:

The feelings of that. Yeah. Yeah.

David Richter:

It was just the feelings of, of that, of like, did you ever want to give up? Which it sounds like you had that plan of like, it’s gonna work or it’s not and I might have to crawl back to, you know, my employer. So that’s where a lot of people that we’ve seen, you know, have those thoughts before they implement it. Like it’s, it’s just so prevalent out there. It’s nice to hear it from other people because a lot of people think they’re on an island unto themselves, you know, like, oh, everyone else has it figured out, you know, like they’re making the money, so mm-hmm. <Affirmative>, that’s where I do wanna ask then. Okay, so you listened, you know, on that call where I was with Jerry Green and then you went out, bought the book, Julie went out, bought it and started implementing it. So how did that feel when you finally broke through on the other side? Like can you tell about that journey, setting it up, When did you start feeling like, okay, it’s giving me clarity or like it’s not out of control or some of those other things that you had mentioned. Like do you remember that part of the journey when you first started? Either Julie or Chris?

Julie Gould:

I, I think it, it still took us, you know, about November. I was like, cool, it’s open up some new accounts, etcetera, et cetera. You know, we had some people issues, like some other things going on in the business aside from just maybe finances that like had to get sorted. So I would say it probably took us about six months to really feel the, the effects of, you know, getting distributions at the, the end of a quarter and putting that money into, you know, Chris’s pocket and seeing kind of a, a better picture of our business. So I would say like, at least about that amount of time, we had a, we had a rough Q1 for 2021, so, you know, we looked a little closer at numbers, but they didn’t necessarily make us happy when we looked closer mm-hmm. <Affirmative> and then things kind of started to take more of a turn as we went into Q2 and q3.

Chris Gould:

I think from the visionary perspective, like for me when it really hit me was when I logged into our account and we had like 90 grand in the tax savings account and I was like, Oh this is Profit First. Cause before the, the year long stress about the uncertainty related to what I’m gonna pay in taxes and and needing to save is just like, it’s, it’s terrible and it’s not worth, it’s not worth it to not implement Profit First because of, you know, maybe you’re afraid of putting some of that money aside. You know, when I, when we got to the end of the year at, I mean with all of our deductions and stuff, we had tens of thousands of dollars left over that we just got to retain. So we over assessed our tax burden, which we’ve done again this year and came to the end of the year and had tens of thousands of dollars and we were like, Oh cool. Like we can distribute this, like we can put this back in the business. That was the moment where I, where I became a disciple of Profit First forever

David Richter:

<Laugh>. Awesome. So it was the tax account for you. What about, I wanna ask too, because Julie alluded to this with, you know, being able to take distributions and pay your, you know, more consistently, how was that process as well? Because it sounded like before you had mentioned like, I’ll take 20 grand out when a big deal closes, like to feel like I’m paying myself. Did that light bulb ever come on as well too for you of like, hey, paying myself consistently have distributions. Like how was that process as well? Cuz it sounds like the tax account was the one that really pushed you over the edge of like being a, you know, disciple of it. But what about paying yourself?

Chris Gould:

Yeah, I mean having the profit distribution at the end of the quarter is like, like I’m looking forward to it. We had a great quarter Q3 and we’re, you know, continuing to finish it out strong. And it’s, it’s also requiring me to have more patience and not act on the drama of like, Ooh, I just wanna take 20 grand. Oh, we did 150,000 in revenue last month. I’m taking 20 grand. And like that’s a very, as the, as your business grows, I feel that like you can’t make those snap calls to just those snap call gut profit polls from your business. And they’re not even profit polls, they’re just like taking money from it. Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative>. So it’s helped me treat this business like a true business. Not like, almost like a, a side hustle where I’m just like taking cash out of the register for myself.

David Richter:

Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative>. Yeah.

Chris Gould:

Man’s

Julie Gould:

Really good. But we forget that aligned was, you also weren’t seeing any money kind of on the front or back end. It was just like at the end of the month, these lagging indicators, we have some you can take, we don’t have some you can take. Okay. We go with that. We don’t, you know, versus now you see Mon money throughout the month as well as at the end of a quarter. Right, Right. Like we’re, we’ve restructured in a way where you’re not just like waiting outside the door to see like what’s the final, what, you know, what’s the final or bottom line I guess. Right,

Chris Gould:

Right. I Julie before we had the employees we have now, I was getting a commission on all the, all these deals and I was helping out, I was closing, now I’m totally operationally removed and I was like, okay, I guess I’m gonna give up what my commission is on each deal. And Julie, knowing what Profit First says and like this is part of that sibling thing, her looking out for me as well, she was like, No, I want you to keep getting pretty much all the commission you were making when you were operationally in the business. We gotta figure out a way that you still get a cut of every single deal no matter what, and we gotta make the numbers work somehow. And so that’s when we finally installed like not just that profit distribution, but like owner’s compensation as a part of every dollar that comes in. Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative>. And that was a big game changer because then I was getting bigger checks more often as opposed to like, nothing, nothing, nothing. Massive check, nothing, nothing, nothing. Again, there’s that paycheck to paycheck rat race sort of mentality and lifestyle and and that’s kind of how we shifted out of that mm-hmm

David Richter:

<Affirmative>. Yeah. Feast and famine. Right. That’s how most entrepreneurs are, are living. And it sounds like the owner’s comp was able to give you more of that, you know, real estate’s already up and down like a rollercoaster enough then you’re paying yourself like on a, you’re on a rollercoaster and then, you know, it sounds like that helped to even it out in good job to Julie for looking out for you cuz that’s, I mean, they’re giving you keys. Yeah. They just did a fist bump if you’re, if you’re just listening. But the keys here that they’re giving you is that the visionary had someone looking out for him as well too. You know, like a lot of times people don’t have that in place and that’s where it’s like the visionary just feels like they’re getting burnt out. No one’s watching out for them. Like they’re the ones that started the business, has the vision and then, you know, they’ve got no one there to walk out for ’em.

David Richter:

But that’s what I love about this system. It sounds like Julie really took a hold of it too and said, Hey, we gotta put some safeguards in place for you as well, especially for you to get paid throughout the month and not just the profit distributions at the end of the quarter. So that’s awesome. I I love hearing those types of stories cuz that’s what Prop First is about. It’s not just even about the money, it’s making sure you’re okay that you’re feeling like that business owner getting that clarity and knowing you can pay yourself. Okay, let me ask this. When you took out the bigger chunks in the past, you know, before Profit First, did you feel guilty about taking money ever from the business or were you like Yeah, it’s okay.

Chris Gould:

For sure. For sure. We’ve had one and, and we had one time this year where I just took a bunch of money out at the beginning of the year. Yeah. beyond the profit distribution. And I felt really guilty about it cuz it felt like it was outside of our operating guidelines. It almost felt like going back to the old ways now, it felt good to put 20 grand in my bank account just like Snap. And Julie got a cut. She got her nice fat cut of that too. But like looking back as you asked me that, did I feel guilty about it? Like Yeah because it was like that wasn’t, that wasn’t in the playbook mm-hmm. <Affirmative> and and then going even farther back, did I feel guilty when I took it out? Yeah. I felt like I was almost like stealing from the business in a way.

David Richter:

Yeah. A lot of people get there. So I get that. So it’s like how has it felt taking those distributions or paying yourself like did does the guilt ease at all? You know, like as you’re going along now, like now that you know where the money is

Chris Gould:

Oh. N meaning now that we have like a, a system with the distributions, how does it feel Exactly.

David Richter:

Yeah.

Chris Gould:

Yeah. I mean no guilt. I’m just like that’s my money. Give it to me. <Laugh>.

David Richter:

Oh that’s good stuff.

Julie Gould:

And I wanna just speak to that cuz you mentioned something David, about like, you know, it’s more than just finances and Chris you mentioned about how you are totally out of the operations of the business and I feel like those two things, like it doesn’t happen without Profit First. Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative>. Like you don’t trust me to step and in and run all of the day to day and run the business and to keep your nose out of it in a lot of ways. To not come in and try to steal the ball. What’s going on with this particular deal, You know, I wanna know, I wanna be in the loop because you know, that like the numbers are gonna just speak for themselves mm-hmm. <Affirmative> and I think that was a big part of being able to separate and pull you outta the business was having Profit First to lean on mm-hmm. <Affirmative> to benefit our operations in a way that yeah. I don’t know if it happens otherwise.

Chris Gould:

I I agree. Yeah. I think that we’re big disciples of traction in the EOS model and I feel like they marry really well with Profit First and I just look at like, you know, I needed both of those to remove myself and get out of being in the business and now being on top of the business zooming out. And I think just for the visionaries that are out there that are wearing multiple hats you know, you have to let go of control of every little thing. And that’s what I found was the biggest piece for me was letting go of control and like trusting that this person I hired that’s better than me and smarter than me at the things I’m not good at is going to take us in the right direction. And part of that was giving up control of the finances, which is a big one as the founder of a company to give up control of the finances to someone else.

Chris Gould:

But the ultimately, the more that I’ve been able to let go of and give over to my integrator who has complimentary skills, the more I can zoom out. And now we’re working on things like building predictive analytics to find the best sellers that are gonna be off market building, like building out an amazing CRM that we are probably gonna resell one day. Like those are things that if I was still in the business holding onto everything, I wouldn’t be, they wouldn’t even cross my mind. Yeah. So you have to let go to float Up and Elevate. And I just think that our path has been the perfect example of, of that that journey.

David Richter:

Nah, that’s, that’s really good stuff because you have to have those systems. You see that, you see that in your business, but I’m sure you go out to other events, you know, into these places and it’s like if you have the operation system like an operating system like eos, then you can feel like okay, I can let go of the operational portion, but if you don’t know what the money’s doing, then you’re like scared and like what the freak, you know, like I can have all these KPIs in line, but like on the other side, if I don’t know what the money’s doing, but then it’s the same thing is in reverse. If you have the money in line but you can’t get the reins away to someone else, then you’re like, then it’s a different issue. Maybe you not, might not be losing sleep at night because of the money situation, but now it’s like, okay, can I trust them to run it cuz don’t have a system to run the business, you know, and just the operation. So I really like that if you’re listening there, he gave you a huge clue to successful businesses that run without headaches and without being, without the visionary running around being the firefighter. Cuz when you’re the firefighter, you’re usually the arsonist too. So like making sure youre getting outta there, that’s where, you know, you wanna get out of that as soon as possible. So, Oh is that they’re both laughing so that must have hit a chord there with them. I don’t know,

Chris Gould:

I was just gonna say firefighter, but I I agree. I started a fire and then I have to go

David Richter:

Put it out. Right. Oh, I get you. I’m there as an owner. I, yeah, we create so many of our own fires, it’s not funny. So I, I think we do that a lot. This helps you at least though, have a system to say there’s an issue, I don’t have to take care of it right this second all the time. Like, let the team, let me empower them. So that was good that if you’re listening EOS and Profit First very Well together. If you’re like, what the heck is eos? He talked about Traction the book by Gen Wickman. Make sure you pick that up and make sure you pick up Profit First for real estate investing. So that’s, you gotta get that book as well too. But there you go. This was some good stuff there. I want you to also, in the last few questions here, talk about going 2.0 like your business is changing, growing. You talked about that at the very beginning that you were, you know, like we just brought this, you know, 10 door unit, you know, that we’re, you know, growing as well too. So talk about like how Profit First to You needs to expand or you know, like how your business is growing and changing

Chris Gould:

Mm-Hmm <affirmative> I, I think the evolution of how Profit First it works in, in a business from, from the perspective I see in our business is this. You go from having one bank account to five and that’s okay. That’s, that’s a big step. We have to figure out how to, how to distribute to each of those. So you do that, then you’re running for a while on that and that feels good and it works. Then there’s this point where we’re at right now where we want additional clarity around, well wait, within Opex there’s kind of like 15 mini buckets and some of ’em are kind of owners comp and some of ’em are kind of more profit, but they don’t feel like profit cuz I’m not putting in my bank account, it’s paying for things like my mortgage. And so we’re getting into this gray area and it’s this natural breaking point where it’s like we need more division to have more clarity to make better data driven decisions and also to not get caught up in the drama of we are this profitable, but maybe we’re not because I’m taking some of this and it, it just gets muddy.

Chris Gould:

So we’re, we’re moving really to that next level of financial analysis and I think Profit First ties really well into, into that and, and is gonna provide us the roadmap for that. So yeah, that’s kind of what 2.0 looks like in my mind. Mm-Hmm.

Julie Gould:

<Affirmative>, I think the only missing piece is just like starting from scratch with this rental business. Like we’re immediately implementing Profit First, right? There’s no one bank account, et cetera, et cetera. We just set it up right from the, from the get go and like that feels great. Mm-Hmm.

Chris Gould:

<Affirmative>. Yeah.

David Richter:

Awesome. Now I I I love that having those good habits when you form a new company right from the very beginning. So getting into that and, and I get you because a lot of people go through, if you’re a real estate investor, you’re probably not gonna stick to one thing your entire lifetime as a real estate investor, especially if you start out in the active game, I feel like Right. Wholesaling, flipping eventually you want to own the real estate and build the wealth and eventually, you know, like have that portfolio. So we see a lot of people go that direction. It’s just like making sure you have that clarity. So that’s where it’s like getting, you know, what do I do with a rental company or with these other things. So totally get where you’re coming from, but I like that you’re starting off on the right foot with the thing I do. I have kind of a, a fun question to ask here. So since you’ve been running on Profit First since the end of 2020, you’ve probably had a couple, you know, profit distributions up to this point. Have you done anything crazy, like either with that money, like bought something crazy or like went somewhere crazy or like what’s the best thing that you’ve done with the profit distribution up to this point?

Chris Gould:

Oh wow. Or your favorite thing? I bought I bought a house, which is pretty cool.

David Richter:

Oh, okay. That is cool.

Chris Gould:

Yes, the house in Denver, so it was an expensive house. Yeah. that was pretty cool. I’m trying, I yeah, I found out Julie went to the Dominican Republic on a trip. Okay. And while she was there, I said, As soon as you get back, I’m gonna go to the Dominican Republic myself. So

Julie Gould:

I, he sent him one photo of me at the beach. He saw the water and he was like, That’s where I’ll go.

Chris Gould:

So I booked a trip for one week from that day that I saw the pictures and then I, I was gone for a week all inclusive. Yeah. And I, I mean, you know, it’s, it’s, the thing though about it is David, it’s less about anything crazy. Yeah. And it’s more about like getting to live your life the way you want on a day to day basis. Yeah. To take my girl out and go to whatever nice restaurant we want to go to, to play golf whenever I want to buy my dad new golf clubs for his birthday and not have to blink mm-hmm. <Affirmative> to be able to like create a pension for a family member that’s struggling and just do it and not have to worry about it. And so it’s, it’s that the comfort around the entire lifestyle has increased so dramatically for me. I know for Julie as well. So that’s the, that’s kind of the big crazy thing is that every day is a lot more safe and comfortable and less anxiety inducing than before.

Julie Gould:

Yeah. I, I totally agree on the day to day and yeah, I see, I see a cut of the profit distributions at Awesome. The end of the quarter. So, you know, I think it’s, it’s the same thing like you mentioned like taking it and trip to the Dominican Republic and not putting it on a credit card, not then paying it off for four months after that, et cetera, et cetera. It’s just, I booked it, it’s paid for, we’re done here. There’s certainly something that’s very empowering about that, especially when you grow up in a family where, you know, thing money is tight or, you know, there’s not this like wealth, you know, that exists and then you carry that into your early adulthood and then you’re able to start making different decisions and decisions based out of financial stability mm-hmm. <Affirmative> rather than just, you know, financial need or, you know, requirement kind of deal. So I would agree with you that it’s just the subtle power of

Chris Gould:

It. Yeah, totally. And I, I think David, just to speak one more, like go back a little more you know, we were talking just earlier today about how we remember our parents like having to transfer credit card debt from one card to another card because it had zero interest and like, just the stress that you feel as a, as a kid around that, around not being prepared and not having your financial house in order is something that for us was really impactful that we said we don’t wanna ever be in that position. So that’s why when you came on and you spoke to us about Profit First, it was like exactly what we needed and what we wanted to hear. And so yeah, I just, I, I think it’s important to get into like your why even with Profit First. Like for us it’s like we don’t ever want to get in that position where we’re having to put money from one card to another card. And I think the other big thing that you did is Julie bought a ring for her partner and like just paid for it straight up. Nice, nice one too and a nice expensive one too. So that’s another big win I would say.

Julie Gould:

Yeah, totally. And I think it’s just that initial wake up call, right? Like you live your whole life thinking that there’s not another way and then someone pops up and it’s just like, hey, it doesn’t have to be like that at all <laugh>. And you’re just like, Oh shit. Like yeah, I don’t want it to be. And then you just, you course correct in that singular moment and then just kind of press on in that new direction. Yeah,

David Richter:

I love that because what I heard there with all of what you were saying is that you wanted the freedom, the freedom that real estate really provides. You wanna do what you want when you want make those decisions on a, you know, the drop of a hat, Oh I need to help a family member, I need to go over here, I wanna find the Dominican. That’s what it’s really all about. It’s not just about the bank accounts and setting them up. It’s like, what does it really provide you at the end of the day? And I think you hit the nail on the head there. So that was really good and I really appreciate you opening up cuz a lot of people say they, they learn the habits from, you know, the people that were in their life, whether that be parents or teachers or friends or family or what, whomever and a lot of us get those things inside of us.

David Richter:

So I’m glad that you acted on it and said, Hey, I want it to be different than it was and you know, in taking those different steps. So man, this has been really, really, really good. So I’m gonna just, I’m gonna recap here cuz there’s so much good stuff that came out today. So before Profit First they were feeling like they were living, you know, paycheck to paycheck. He wasn’t paying himself, you know, like, just like a lot of business owners randomly taking the money fell outta control. Then it took them, you know, through the transition going through Profit First came out of a bad core. Then on the other side of that, able to pay themselves, have the clarity around the numbers. You, they also, if you’re listening to this, they also realized as they’re adding another business, that they get to start Profit First from day one and be more profitable with that new entity right away.

David Richter:

So just going from full circle, it sounds like, like an out of control business owner running around like a chicken with their heads cut off to what they just said here, More freedom, more power, more control, have the business. They gave the big tips about EOS to like have an operating system that you run in your business. I mean, this has been an incredible episode. So you both have dropped a ton of gold nuggets here today. Is there any way our listeners can provide value to you? Like either connect with you on socials or connect with you on your, you know, like maybe on your website, like if you’re looking for buyers or lenders, sellers, whatever, who might be listening to this. So how do you want people to connect with you?

Chris Gould:

Yeah you can head over to level 10 official.com. We have some educational resources and offerings there. We also have podcasts where we talk to some of the best real estate investors in the country. Jerry Green, Tiffany and Josh High are some of the folks that have been on there. And we’re also launching by the end of this year, a artificial intelligence driven predictive analytics tool to define awesome. Who are the best sellers in any given market, most likely to sell off market. So that’s predictive seller.com. You can head over there and learn more about that and we’ll be launching that here in the next couple of months.

David Richter:

Cool. Well that’s where you can find both of them. Make sure you look them up. These people are going places. They are on their entrepreneurial journey here and already this year, it’s already a killer year for both of them. Thank you both for coming on today. Like this has been an awesome episode and if you are listening to this now and you’ve ever felt like Chris, or if you felt like Julie, like what in the world is going on with the money, if you out of control, I feel like I’m living deal to deal paycheck to paycheck, you can head over to simplecfo.com. That’s where we have our part-time financial leaders and CFOs that come and implement Profit First. Make sure that you are heading that right direction. If you don’t have a good Julie by your side, you know, that’s where we come into play.

David Richter:

Making sure that that gets implemented for you so you can have that freedom. If you want the freedom and come full circle like Chris did, make sure that you get that implemented. And if we can’t help you, we’ll point you in the right direction. I just wanna bring value through this episode, which, oh my gosh, you got a ton of value here today from both of them. But if you wanna do that, go to simplecfo.com. We’ll have to help you. I wanna make sure that you remember, if you’re listening to this make profit a habit in your business. Chris, Julie, thank you so much. Thanks

Chris Gould:

David. Thanks David. Appreciate it.

Outro:

This episode of The Profit First for REI podcast is over, but there are plenty more where that came from. Are you ready to learn how David and his team can help implement the Profit First system in your business? Schedule a discovery call @ simplecfo.com right now. We’ll see you next time on The Profit First for REI podcast with David Richter.