Build Wealth, Not Just A Business: Eric Miller On Creating A Practice That Sets You Free
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Hello, this is Richard Jacobs with the Finding Genius Podcast. My guest today is Eric Miller, co-owner and chief financial advisor of Econologix Financial Advisors. He's the author of The Financial Beast. So he's been doing financial planning for over 20 years, and he works with private practice owners and associates. So we'll dive into what Eric does and how he advises people. So welcome. Welcome, Eric.

Thank you so much, Richard. Appreciate it. Tell me a bit about your background and then we'll get into your current work. Yeah, I mean, it's really simple. We decided that back in 2008, we wanted to start a financial planning company, which if you remember back then was probably the worst year that you could even think of to start a financial company. And a couple of things that we focused on, number one, coming from a healthcare background,

I saw what bad financial advice did to people in the healthcare industry, the lack of training, lack of financial education, people that were very good with patients, but not so good with their money. So that was the group of people that we wanted to help. And, you know, as we started getting into, you know, the healthcare business, you know, I learned really early on that if I was going to be any good at what I did, I really had to understand the business side of

of the healthcare industry. If I was going to help people get out of debt, if I was going to help people with their personal investment and create multiple income streams, I really had to understand their biggest asset, which is their practice for many of them. And, you know, ever since then, you know, that's been our focus is, you know, I don't work with teachers or engineers or...

anyone else. We only work with people in the healthcare industry. Well, when you say their practices, what do you mean? What kind of practices? Well, we started off working in the physical therapy field. And when I say working with their, yeah, we started off with the physical therapy field and that morphed into dentistry and occupational therapy and optometrists.

optometry and all different kinds of practitioners that we work with. And that's what I mean when I say the different types of practices that we work with. Okay. So in the medical field, what are some of the unique difficulties that these people have? Do they have tons of equipment and they have high loan payments? Do they have like receivables problems because of insurance? Like what are the things that bedevil them? Yeah, you name it. It can be any one of those. And I think, you know, for the...

The practices that have insurance reimbursements, collecting money, it's a problem. Other industries, cost of goods sold is a problem. I think the underlying problem is, is that most of these people that got into this business were caregivers. They loved the healthcare aspect of it. They didn't understand the business side of it. And when I say the business side specifically is the financial management. What do I do with a dollar when it comes into my organization?

And am I really, do I understand how to manage the finances of the practice so that I can expand it, so that I can increase its value, but most importantly, so that I can, you know, I can pay myself so that I'm not, you know, despondent and insolvent in my health. Okay. I mean, so what is the attitude of the practitioners? Are you...

Are they coming to you for help? Are you going to them and saying, you know, I can see from the outside you need help? Like what, you know, how does the relationship with you start typically? Yeah, it typically starts there. You know, I think a lot of people, a lot of people want help financially. They, you know, they, they run a business, they help patients and they look at what's left over every single month. And it was like, there's got to be a better way. You know, I see that, you know, on paper, it says that my profit loss statement says I made a lot of money, but

But then I look at my bank accounts and I don't know where it is. And then, of course, they start looking at their personal investments. They start looking at retirement. They start looking at their debt, their overwhelming amount of debt that they have. And they're like, I need some help. So that's typically what we'll see initially. You know, we'll see people that are making a lot of money. You know, their practices are doing well, but they're just not seeing the fruits of their labor. They're not able to keep it. So that's

or I think we can step in and really help those people. I mean, how bad is this? These businesses usually operate with any free cash flow. Are they one payroll away from death? Or how are they? Oh, I would say that 90% of medical, of practices at least that we've seen out there, you know what, it really isn't just medical. It's all businesses that we've seen this. But I would say 90% of practices medically

maybe have one month of business savings in it that could be able to withstand some kind of a economic downturn. You know, it was, and it was work, pretty 2020. It was work. Like people are much worse. Oh, it was, I would say it was routine for us to see people that would maybe had housework

half a month of payroll in their checking account, like in barely being able to make payroll, you know, and that's more of the norm than the really high quality practices. I mean, obviously there's people that are really, really good with money, but by and large, that's not, we saw the profit margins are dwindling.

You know, costs of employees and associates and providers is going up. Finding good help is definitely challenging. All these things are squeezing profit in the healthcare space. I would think that, you know, with price action going up everywhere, with inflation everywhere, these guys would have raised their prices quite a bit. So are their margins still eroding even by raising their prices? Or is it insurance reimbursement has gone down and that's what gets them where they're at?

certainly for people that are getting insurance reimbursements, you know, they're either getting, they're staying the same while inflation is going up. Okay. So that's just eating into their profit. But we'll still see a lot of practitioners that,

It may raise prices, but wages, wage inflation is going up. And it just at the end of the day, it ends up costing them, you know, more money in their pockets than they see it in their dwindling profit margins. So like I said, the like financial management to me is one of the skills that so many people need to understand if you're going to run a business. But yet there's just so few places to go to actually teach that. And most people, CPAs or bookkeepers are not teaching them how to do that.

Hmm. Are you teaching them or are you just helping them with it? Do they, do they want to learn or they say, look, just, just fix this. And I don't care. You know, my, I'm, I'm trained as a financial advisor. So that means that I'm, I'm trained to help you with your household. I'm trained to make sure that you are building multiple income sources and you have a good retirement and you're managing your debt and you're protecting your assets. I never thought I would have

to get into how to manage your business finances, but it's paramount for you to have personal financial success if you have this practice that is bringing all this money in. And most of the practices that we work with are doing anywhere between...

you know, a million dollars to $10 million in annual revenue with a lot of them in between there. And I can tell you that it doesn't really matter how big you are. The laws of money apply. And if you don't understand what those laws are when it comes to managing your cash flow, then

you know, you're going to end up in the same place, which is insolvent or barely having enough just to get by. So what are some of the things that you teach them early on that maybe should be obvious, but isn't, you know, some of the cornerstone info? Really simple. I think that you got to understand there's two basic principles when it comes to income and expenses of a person.

of a practice. And the first rule I teach every, every single person is that your practice will try to spend every dollar that it makes. And then some people look at me like, what do you mean by that? I'm like, it's just, it is a natural law of any organization that it will try to spend every dollar that it makes. And then some, if you allow it. So it's not just you, it doesn't matter how big the practice is, uh, how much revenue they're doing. There's always going to be a poll or demand to

to spend money on whatever, whether it's payroll, taxes, new equipment, whatever it is. The second rule I teach people is that your practice will make the exact amount of money it thinks it needs to make to survive. And kind of the genius of what I think we've been able to communicate to people is those two basic principles right there. Because money doesn't come from a tree. It

doesn't come from the federal reserve it comes from necessity it comes from demand like if i said to you hey richard you know i need you to come up with a hundred thousand dollars tomorrow to save your child's life like would you come up with the money of course you would why am i absolutely yeah needed it it

It's a necessity. So the problem that most owners have is that they view their payroll as a necessity. They view their rent as a necessity. They view their overhead as a necessity. But you know what they don't view as a necessity? Their profit. And once you start to incorporate your profit and treat it,

like an expense, just on par with any of those other things, it changes the whole dynamic of how you look at money. How do you treat profit as an expense? Really simple. How do you pay your rent every month? It just comes out of your account, right? How do you... Well, right. Your net profit has to pay it. Yeah. You just... You have to remove... You have to fit... You have to set...

a profit account so that when a dollar comes in, then that money directly goes into those accounts that we designate as profit account. And then that way, the necessity level is put on the organization that says, hey, look, that is in a...

treated like an expense. Now, it's something that you can get and you can recover, right? You can get the money out, but it's treated like an expense, just like any other bill that you have. And that's probably the thing that I've learned early on is that if you want to have a profit long term, you have to treat it like an expense. You

Once you do that and you get comfortable with doing that, all the problems that most owners have, which is, I don't have, where am I going to come from up with money to pay tax? How am I going to pay myself? How am I going to get out of debt? How am I going to do all these things? How am I going to expand my practice? How am I going to do all these things? Okay. Well, once you start doing that, now your profit becomes a necessity of the business. And it really has been game-changing for a lot of owners. Well, so what do they literally do? How do they

You look at what their current profit is or you look the way it should be. Yeah. I mean, I'd like to see what it's, I like to see their industry to see what it should be. But mostly, you know, I'll just ask questions of like, Hey, I mean, how do you view your profit? Well, like most people do, I look at my expenses every month and whatever's left over, I guess, is my profit. And I'm like, well, that's an inverse of what should be happening. Your profit is your first thing that should be taken. Why? Because

Because if you don't, it should be a prioritize. We'll call it the profit priority. Because if you don't have a profit, you're not able to expand. If you look at the derivation of the actual word profit, it actually means to expand. Kind of like you forced me to look up the derivation of the word genius because I was curious. And

You know, the derivation of the word genius actually means to beget or produce, which I was like, wow, that's kind of interesting. All right. It's like it's an inherent innate thing. So what profit means to expand, you cannot expand personally or professionally if you don't have a profit. So that's why the importance of putting it in as a necessity and just, you know, hoping and praying that it shows up is...

up is not really a strategy. So that's sort of how, uh, when I'm evaluating, uh, taking on a new customer, for instance, I could say, all right, from a profit first perspective, you know, the numbers show me right off the bat, even before I take them with my overheads, I'm going to lose money on this person. So I could just not take them in the first place. I guess you can make decisions like that by having a profit first perspective. Is that right?

Are you talking about like someone taking on new patients or? Yeah, like a new patient. Every price is custom, let's say, but you look at your overheads and you're like, I

I can't afford this and I'll lose money taking them. We've run into that. People that are taking certain insurances that, you know, just they're not able to sustain the organization long term. And yeah, you got to make some difficult decisions on that. And yet that forces you to look at, you know, your your staff and what you're getting out of them and your and your overhead and everything else. But look, I mean, that that's

That's why there's a difference between just being a practitioner and being like an owner and an investor. And, you know, if you're going to own a healthcare practice, you got to know the difference between the two because there's the healthcare side and the practitioner side, but then there's also the owner side. And sometimes those, I don't think they have to be different because I think any good organization should have profit. It should be there. But the

the laws of money kind of take over if, if you're not mindful of how the money is managed, unfortunately. Well, do you have any redacted examples of, you know, someone you've worked with and you figured out how to help them and they got better? Oh yeah. I mean, I was just talking to someone yesterday as an optometrist and he had a great practice. He was probably did $4 billion a year in revenue and boy, he spent every cent of that for 20 years. And when he, when he came to us, you know, he,

again, he had a great practice. He was a stalwart of the community. Everyone knew him. You know, he paid his people, you know, extremely well. He just looked at his personal portfolio and there's like, I don't have much to show for this aside from I have a great practice. I was like, okay, well then let's start putting some of these systems in play. And first thing I did is I had them incorporate that. Let's start putting these, these, setting up these accounts. And you

you know, over the course of the next eight or nine years. And again, it doesn't happen overnight, but it does happen. He was able to increase his profit margin from where it was, I think, at maybe a 5% to an 18 to 19% margin, which increased the value of his practice from, I think it was maybe two or 3 million. And he ended up selling for $9.2 million. And

And he went to having like $400,000 in retirement to having $2.1 million in retirement over that timeframe. I didn't look. It's not like I'm a magic mystic moneymaker. I just show people how to not allow money to get lost because there is a go. I mean, there's this thing phenomenal with my stuff that there's money in a car and it somehow gets spent. But for you.

When you help people, where does it, where is it going? It just goes everywhere. It's like a dam that breaks. I don't know every nook and cranny of where it's going to go. But if, if you do not have like what I would call a CFO mindset and the CFO, if you don't have someone that's kind of helping you navigate all this stuff, you know, it goes everywhere. It can go to

To consumption, it can go to overpaying your staff. It can go to buying needless equipment that maybe you think you need, but you don't. Your accountant says, hey, you're going to have a big tax, but you have to go buy something that you probably don't need unless you want to pay $50,000 in tax. Okay. That's not a smart use of money just to avoid the tax liability. So it can go

in a number of places. And that's the phenomenon that we see. And that's kind of what I learned, that first guiding principle is like, it's going to go everywhere unless you really have control of it. So you have to know where 99 cents of your dollar is going to go before it comes in. Before it even comes in, you know where it's going to go before that. And that's the trick

that people that seemingly have a lot of money, I think learn more than most of society. Because most of society works backwards. Like they make the money, it comes in, and then it gets spent. Because they don't have a real plan of where that money should be allocated to actually grow their net worth as opposed to just kind of get by. So what is a made up...

allocation of a dollar looks like in a company? Yeah, simple. I would say, let's take a look at what a profit margin for a healthcare business should probably be right around 20 to 25%. Now, some of them are higher than that. Some of them are lower, but let's say it's around 20 to 25%. So the first, the 20% profit margin, half of that's going to go to you as the owner. And

And when I say it's going to go to you as the owner, it means it gets physically removed from the business and goes to a personal account, okay, for the benefit of the household. We call it a wealth storage account. So literally what happens is that when, let's say that you bring in $200,000 in a revenue month, all right, 10% of that $200,000, which would be 20 grand, gets transferred out of the business account to a personal...

what we call a wealth storage account. Now, what is that money for? It's not for watches and cars and boats and consumption items. It is so that you can use that to create other income sources, whether it's real estate or stocks and bonds or, you know, whatever your kind of investment strategy is, that's what that money is going for. Okay. That's the first 10% of revenue.

5% of revenue, three to five, probably should go into a tax account so that you have money to pay your taxes. Another 5% should go into business savings accounts so you have at least two months of business reserves and savings. And then another three to 5% goes into what we call a business expansion and development account so that you can use that money for bonuses or expansion purposes or whatever. And then you got to opt

rate on 80% of that, right? So now 20% goes to my profit accounts. The rest, I got to handle payroll, rent, cost of goods sold, marketing, whatever it is. But that's how I have to operate. And it takes some getting used to, but once that system is in, it really works well because I know where the money is going to go before it comes in. I think that's the key. Do a lot of businesses have shortfalls where you've

You want it to go here, there, and everywhere, but it's just they can't or they have to make a lot of adjustments. No, in the beginning stages for this to really work, you have to do it on a gradient. What I mean by that is if I tell someone they need to start taking 10% of their revenue and putting it away for themselves, well, the business isn't accustomed to it, not accustomed to that expense yet. So they have to start small. So I'd probably start like maybe in the 1% to 2% range and then every...

every single month, just try to get a little bit better, right? And as you start to pull the money out, it's going to increase the demand and the necessity to make more money and be more productive. And that's kind of the trick of the whole thing is that we're just using, again, these natural laws that say, hey, a business will make it if I put enough

pressure on it, it's going to make the money to cover it. But you have to start out small. So we started, we tried to start out at maybe one or 2% and then just gradually increase that over a seven or eight month period. But I mean, my God, I mean, so it takes seven or eight months. But after that, if you're like, you wake up one day, I mean, and I've seen this many a times where I've had an owner call me and say, Eric, I don't know where you came up

with this money, but I have $100,000 sitting in my wealth storage account and my business accounts look pretty healthy right now. And I thought I knew my number, but where's all this money coming from? I was like, it's called control. You put in good control and that's what happened. It's not magic. Well,

Go ahead of this manifest in your own life. Can't see that you're like a spendthrift and get you advise people, but you don't control your own stuff. I do the same thing. We do the same thing for our business that we preach to people. You know, we have, you know, when I set, we set target, you know, and when I set a target for someone, like if I say, what is your make break number mean to you? You're probably going to say, well, that's

that's the bare amount that I need to survive. Is that how you would define that for yourself? Like that's the bare, the bare amount. That's what most people think, right? So when, and I say, okay, great, well, why don't we just include your profit accounts or your buffers in that make break number? Because that is what really allows you to survive well. So when I'm coming, when I asked them

ask somebody what your make break number is for your business, they come up with a number, right? And then when I get in there and I say, okay, your make break number is really about 15% more than what you think it is. And that's why you're having so many problems right now with cashflow. So we correct that first, like, oh, you're right. I'm making 200,000 a month. I need to be making 225. I'm like, yeah. So go in there and figure out how many more product people you have to see a week

How many other, you know, treatments that you can do? What can you do to solve that problem? And you know what? People figure it out. And that's the magic behind it. People will figure it out if you give them the right target. Is this usually a company extra effort and making more money or? Because the money is not controlled. It can be both. It would have enough to survive normally. Yeah.

It can be both. You know, sometimes we'll go in there and I'll see that someone's payroll is like 65% of their revenue. And I'm just like, you know, you're not getting as much production out of your staff as you probably should. Okay. Or you're overstaffed in certain areas. And yeah, they have to confront tough things. But again, my job as a financial guy is to make sure the sustainability and the long-term survival of your business and your household. And it

And if the business isn't doing well or it's barely getting by, that's not long-term survival. So, yeah, sometimes we have to make people like put it right in front of their face to like show them like this is what's happening. And then some people have the confront to actually get in there and make changes. Some people don't. So what are some of the, I don't know, some of the amazing stories you've seen or heard? You gave an example of the 100,000 in the account, which is fantastic.

Any other ones that jump out at you over the years? Yeah, I think another one too is when I have people start prioritizing their profits in their practice, you know, there's been kind of a phenomenon that's happened over the last seven years where a lot of these practices that usually sold for maybe 75% of their revenue, yearly revenue, they're not.

selling for a lot more than that, you know, and these healthcare practices, which, you know, I've seen them sell for anywhere between nine and 10 times their earning. So I feel good when I, when I, you know, have a practice owner that thought he was only going to get, you know, maybe a million dollars for a sale of his practice ends up getting $3 million. Why, why, why does that happen? What are the buyers and potential buyers see in

in those businesses they don't see in others? Well, they know that people need these particular services and they want practices that can grow and sustain themselves and provide that service to the community. And a lot of these buyers are willing to pay more

more. And a lot of it comes from private equity, which is good, bad, or ugly, I guess, depending upon your viewpoint of that. That allows them to acquire a lot of these practices. And then, of course, they end up selling them to bigger groups. But it's good for the private practice owner because they're getting more money than I've ever seen them get in the past for the sale of their practice. So what kind of buyers recognize this and what kind don't? I mean, so the

hedge funds and private equity, do you recognize a company that's really lean and well-run and that they pay more? Oh yeah. I mean, you think of it from a buyer's perspective. If you go into a business that is not well-run, has a lot of employee problems, is not profitable,

You're going to have to fix a lot of things and maybe you want to do that and you're not going to you're certainly not going to overpay for it. Like you're going to probably look at that business and say, you know, I'm probably only going to give you, you know, a pretty low percentage because there's I have to go in and fix these things. But if I go into a business that has strong profit, has really good leadership, has good systems in place, has multiple people.

practitioners in there that are delivering really good quality medicine is really known in the community. Okay, great. I don't have to fix a lot. I'm going to pay you more for that because of that. And that's what ends up happening. So that's why I try to teach people. You have to treat your practice is not just a job. It's an investment. And if you treat it like an investment, it will pay you back many times over what you put into it. But you have to treat it like an investment. And that's

tough sometimes for people in the medical industry because they're so focused on just the healthcare aspect of it as opposed to the business side of it. So what are the top reasons people come to you? Is it they want to sell their business and they've been told they're not going to get very much and they're like, there's got to be a way to maximize the value or they're a death store financially. What are the top reasons? People come to it because they know that

that we specialize in working in this field and they know that, you know, we know them and we know their industry. So, you know, people like communities, they like their own tribes. They like to know that, you know, them, like if I talk to a veterinarian, Hey, I have multiple veterinary clients. They love that. Right. Cause they know that I know them. If I talk to a dentist or, you

you know, a orthopedic surgeon. And then we have clients like that. Hey, I know your industry. I know your business. They like that because they, I can identify with them. A lot of people, sometimes people I'll have people come to me and say, Hey Eric, I'm making good money, but I just don't know what to do with it, which is a great problem to have. I love to help people like that. Another problem would be, Hey, I'm making great money, but just like you had mentioned, I don't know where it's going. And I know that I probably need to do some things differently because I don't know where my money's going.

So, you know, we certainly can help people with that as well. So it really comes, there's a spectrum when it comes to that. But I think when someone is in need of change is typically when they will seek out someone like me to help them. It's amazing too. They're not only able to put money away, but they pay you guys too. So they know your services are free. So it's really a...

testament video. Yeah, absolutely. But, you know, we've looked at the numbers as far as what we charge people to help get them, you know, straight or at least to clean up their finances, you know, get them some good systems in place and then really grow from there. And, you know, again, if I can show someone how to become debt free in five to seven years, if I can show someone how to

have a lifetime of retirement and to sell their practice for a lot more than what they ever thought they would. What's the value of that? And I think a lot of people see that. How did you get your first client? What industry were they in? Physical therapy. And it was kind of the same thing. We actually...

or we work with a physical business consultant and they said, hey, we're making a bunch of money for our people, but they just don't know what to do with it. So we're like, okay, cool. So we'll create a financial course for them. And that's what we did. We created a financial course, showed them the basics of money and finances and how that relates to their business. And we got people to sign up from there. And then we just, we kind of moved from industry to industry from there. But that's

That's how we got our first client. Do people want to save money or do they want to grow? And the saving comes along with it. Well, look, I mean, I'm not under the like the either or kind of scenario, which I think a lot of people that are on a fixed wage are. I can only do this or I can only do that.

Most people that are entrepreneurial or have businesses have the luxury of saying, I want to do both. And I agree. I want you to do both. I want you to be able to save money, to invest, to create a future for yourself. But at the same time, I also want you to use money for fun and have great experiences and success.

I've seen both sides of the spectrum. I've seen people that hoard money and I've seen people that are spendthrift and they're both miserable. So there's got to be something in between where you are using money for fun and enjoyment, which it should be used for, but you're also being responsible enough to know that things can happen and I need to make sure I plan so that I am not...

you know, 75 years old with nothing to show for it. Yeah. I saw a documentary recently on YouTube about that. You know, all these old couples that were like in their 70s or even worse and they had no money in it. I was so frightened by the end of it. I was like, man, why did I watch that? It was terrible. And that is more to the norm. That's more the norm than anything else. That is more the norm. Most people are woefully underestimating how much they're going to need in

in income assets and resources to live the life that they want to live. Woefully underestimate how much that actually is. Some people think it's 1 million, 2 million, 3 million. I got news for you. If you really want to have a life where you can kind of really do anything that you want to, again, I cater to mostly people that own their own businesses in the healthcare industry, but we really have a target of like $4 to $5 million of total assets is what you're going to need. Right?

right? Not just in retirement accounts, but real estate, value of your businesses, and all of your other investments. That should probably be a good first target for people. Is that assuming that the whole thing earns like 4% interest? Earning a

4% to 5% rate of return. So what is that? $250,000 a year? That's what it would be. Because that's what most of them make in their working years. And I don't want people to live on less. You wouldn't want to live on less. I don't want to live on that. So yeah, you have to set a bigger target than what most people think. And again, this is kind of the kick in the butt we have to give to people because they've been told that, well, I only need this much. And I'm like, yeah, you can do that, but you're just...

You're really going to have to worry about money forever. So let's not do that. You don't have to. Doesn't take a horse's head. You're going to have to eat cat food when you're old. Yeah. I'll do that. So who would be a good client for you and who wouldn't be? What are some of the parameters? Look, anybody that owns their own business that has, let's say, that does over, I don't know, $850,000 in revenue and isn't part of like a big partner, like a big partnership group.

would be a good client for us. Someone that is in control of their cash flow, that has a business, like I said, that's doing about $150,000 in revenue or more. Anywhere between $850,000 and probably $10 million is our sweet spot of helping people. And then, you know, I think from there, they're just willing to accept help, you know, and they're open to being, you know, given a plan.

a plan and following a plan and can be held accountable for that. Because again, that's another, most people when they have financial advisors, I mean, what are they talking to their financial advisors? Maybe once a year going over the year when it's two, you know, and that's it. I'm like, your money doesn't, you know, you got to pay attention to it.

I mean, our service model is like once a month we're talking to our people because there's always financial questions that come up. So the whole financial model, advisory model of like once or twice a year, I'm like, man, that's just not enough. You really have to have a team where you're looking at this stuff a lot more routinely. Well, how can people get in touch as they want to be evaluated and see how you can help them? What's the difference? That's a great question. They can go to our website, Econologic.com.

dot com, which is E-K-O-N-O-L-O-G-I-T-S dot com. We have really cool, like a really cool financial scorecard. We call it our Financial Prosperity Index, where it

it's about a hundred question assessment. You can take it right online. You don't need to know what you have in your bank accounts or what your debt is or anything like that. You just answer a hundred questions, yes, no, or maybe. And it'll give you a score, almost like a credit score of where you stand in all the critical areas that make up your finances. And it's a great place to start because it'll show you some areas that, hey, I'm doing well here. My retirement's on track. I'm

my debt and credit's okay. Ooh, my estate plan. I haven't done my wills and trust and all that, but it'll give you like a score for each of those different areas. So it's a really great tool. I'd encourage people to go on there and take it. And I guess last thing, I don't know, when people have asked me financial questions, I'm like, oh man, you know, because you have to reveal what you've been doing. Sometimes you kill like an idiot or a loser. You know, I've been bad with money, that kind of thing. Does that stop people from working with you? And how do you overcome that?

No, because we ask a lot of questions to people. And, you know, it really does start with, I don't care what condition that you're in at all, good, bad, or ugly. And as long as you're willing to confront and look at your current scene for what it is, not what you want it to be, what it is, and you're willing to take some responsibility for maybe some of the things that you've done in the past that weren't awesome, then we can work with people. And those kinds of people...

I think, turn out to be the best client because they are willing to look at their situation for what it is. They're not going to give excuses. They're willing to say, you know what? I know I shouldn't have done this, this, and this, but I want to make up the damage and take responsibility for it right now. And those people fix their conditions so quickly when they do that. It's the people that want to fight and go to six different people for opinions until they hear the one that

that fit their viewpoint, those are more problematic. I'm sure you probably encountered that in your life too. Yeah, I try not to be one.

Oh, very good, Eric. So thank you very much for coming. It's been eye-opening and it's really cool to see that it does not seem like, I don't know, having an heart transplant to fix your business or it doesn't seem like magic or any of that. Sounds like a few simple changes of allocation really does it. It's amazing how much it can have an impact on your life. That's what ends up happening because maybe you've heard the term burnout before. I've heard people get burnout and it's

You know, from what I've seen, people get burnout because if you're doing an activity and you're not getting back from that activity, let's say I'm like working really hard, but I'm not getting back either compensation or recognition or whatever it is. I mean, that's going to have a negative effect on your emotional well-being. So I just see a lot of people, especially medical professionals, that when they're not getting the financial reward that they should get,

from running a business like this, then that gets them irritable and tired and really can have an effect on them. So that's what's important to me is that they take care of themselves financially so that they want to stay in the game and do that. And I think that's the

that's the biggest reward that we get. Oh, this is last question. What if someone's not in a medical practice industry like that? They hear what you're saying and they're like, man, I need the help. I'm in the construction business or whatever. Then they get help. What's it called? What you do and who should they look for? Well, they could certainly come to us. I mean, we focus most of our attention on

in this space, in the medical space. But honestly, I have clients that had Amazon businesses. I have clients that had construction businesses. I had clients that have done all kinds of marketing business. I've had clients that do all kinds of things. I,

Honestly, I think I've learned enough right now that there's so many similarities in business and the cash flow of how it works. There's nuances to it, but I could probably figure out someone's business and how they make money and their profitability in a future and not very long. And all the basic laws still apply. It doesn't really matter what kind of business that you own. As long as it generates cash, we can help. Okay, cool.

Well, very good, Eric. Thanks so much for coming on the podcast. I really appreciate it. Yeah. If you like this podcast, please click the link in the description to subscribe and review us on iTunes. You've been listening to the Finding Genius Podcast with Richard Jacobs. If you like what you hear, be sure to review and subscribe to the Finding Genius Podcast on iTunes or wherever you listen to podcasts. And want to be smarter than everybody else? Become a premium member at FindingGeniusPodcast.com.

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