Client Conversation Coach

Mike Milan will be joining Matthew and Dan to discuss ways to start a conversation with clients to build value and share advisory conversations

QB Power Hour is a free, biweekly webinar series for accountants, ProAdvisors, CPAs, bookkeepers and QuickBooks consultants presented by Dan DeLong and Matthew Fulton who are very passionate about the industry, QuickBooks and apps that integrate with QuickBooks.

Earn CPE through Earmark: https://bit.ly/QBPHCPE 

Watch or listen to all of the QB Power Hours at https://www.qbpowerhour.com/blog 

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00:00 Introduction to Earmark App and Course Enrollment
01:08 Welcome to QB PowerHour Webinar Series
01:34 Meet the Hosts and Guest Speaker
01:53 Client Conversation Techniques with Cashflow Mike
03:05 Understanding the Client's Perspective
16:06 The Compass Technique and Nudge Pact
35:09 Clearing the Noise: Starting Conversations Right
37:08 Exploring Deeper: Getting to the Root of Issues
39:02 Using the Crowbar Technique
40:04 The Mirror Moment: Solving Problems Through Stories
50:46 Client Conversation Coach in Action
50:52 Interactive Demo: Visualizing Solutions
58:00 Membership and Support: Becoming Part of the Community
01:01:59 Final Thoughts and Upcoming Topics

Transcript

Dan DeLong: 0:33

Welcome everybody to another QB Power Hour. I still need to update that video. Sorry, man. What are you

Matthew Fulton: 0:41

talking about? I'm Michelle today. It's okay.

Dan DeLong: 0:44

I do have you on the slide. Yes. You are officially on, on the slide. Uh, well, welcome everyone to another, uh, QB Power Hour. We'll be talking about the client conversation coach with our guest. Cashflow, Mike. Um, I always mispronounce your last name and I can't get it into my head how to say it.'cause I, I know I wanna say Milan like the city, and I know that's not the right way to say it, so please correct me.

Mike Milan: 1:13

I I will. And, and I'll teach you a way to, uh, uh, oh. In my phone, my, oh, there it is. Uh, you're, anyway. I'll teach you how to, and most people already know this already, but, uh, there's a song that actually helps you pronounce my name. Uh, and it's kind of like this. It's a cash, money, money, money,

Matthew Fulton: 1:30

cash, money, money, cash. No,

Mike Milan: 1:33

no, that was close. So that was really close. It was, uh, this land is your land. This land is my land. There

Dan DeLong: 1:42

you

Mike Milan: 1:42

go.

Dan DeLong: 1:42

See,

Mike Milan: 1:42

see, it's easy. But I'll tell you what, the cool thing about a name like that is. I always know if you don't know me, right? So it's easy to hang up on telemarketers.

Audio Only - All Participants: 1:53

Yeah.

Dan DeLong: 1:54

Yeah. Yes. When they say Dan DeLone, now, click. Yeah. There you go. There you go. All right. So let's get into, uh, get into our topic today. My name is Dan DeLong, uh, owner of the Danwidth and School of Bookkeeping. Worked that into it nearly 18 years. Doing the co hosting duties here today as well as the workshop Wednesday. Turn it over to Matt.

Matthew Fulton: 2:19

Hello everybody, Matthew Fulton here, goes by Spot. I am founder of Parkway Business Solutions and the Facebook group QB Community Live and a big workflow nerd. I actually, one cool little thing I just did, had a client that had all these unbillable time things, 34, 000 items and was able to go in and remove all of them for him. So I love doing weird stuff like that.

Dan DeLong: 2:41

Wow. I'm impressed and Mike, my land live from San Antonio. It's

Mike Milan: 2:52

cashflow. Mike, right? Uh, Hey, I'm, I'm happy to do this. We we've done this several times over the last decade or so. Uh, so I'm happy to be back. Uh, I am a. Consultant, author, trainer, uh, built a program called the clear path to cash, wrote three books. We're going to go over the newest book today. And some of the, the concepts I learned is both the state trooper, uh, and from watching hoarders. So we're going to do that. You're going to see how those two mesh.

Dan DeLong: 3:18

All right. I'm intrigued. So a little bit about the, uh, QB power hour, uh, every other Tuesday at 12 noon Eastern, which now I am finally on the Eastern time zone. So I can finally be on the, on the, on the same time as the, as, as the advertised time, uh, it is eligible for CPE credit, but not on the live webinar. Um, we are partnered and working with, uh, earmark and they create the, um, CPE courses for us. And typically about a week after the live event. So next week when we don't have a peak to be power hour, you can. Review that by going into the the channel on earmark and they should be there We do have the the last three that we've done. Um, they should actually be posting one this week Uh for the one that we did last time uh on um for the power hour there, but you can always access the the power hour channel and just as they're Post it in there. You can just take, get your, get your CPE credit that way. A few things about the housekeeping, uh, if you have specific questions about Mike, uh, what Mike is going to be covering here with us today, um, Please put them in the Q& A because it makes it a lot easier to follow up and make sure it's addressed. General comments, things that you want to just chat about, please put them in the chat. And then, of course, we have the links for the handouts, which I forgot to put in the landing page there so that you can access those, but I'll do those in just a moment. We also have a store with some swag if you want to check it out for all your QB power hour swag needs But what's on the agenda today is we'll be talking about client conversations and we'll we'll be Kind of unpacking them with mike about you know, looking back at how conversations with your clients used to happen and, and how they can happen now. And he has a new strategy that he wants to, uh, tell us about all tell, which, um, is an acronym, uh, terminate every long lecture. And we'll unpack that as well as elevation, the elevation sequence and way that he has, uh, structured a way to have client conversations. Cause that's, that's kind of one of the things that. I think we've been kind of unraveling or unpacking, uh, from this, you know, transition from, uh, the word I was looking for is, um, not coming to me. It's from compliance work, uh, bookkeeping categorization, you know, that, that sort of thing into advisory. And I think a lot of people just have, uh, sometimes they struggle with having that conversation. In, in how to have that conversation, uh, Mike, would you, would you say that's a, a fair statement, uh, uh, an assumption from, from what you've been seeing in your. Um, you were neck of the woods.

Mike Milan: 6:37

Yeah. I, I never started out to wrote, uh, write a third book. Uh, nobody really ever expects to learn how to talk to somebody from state trooper, right? And it wasn't one of those things that kind of came across my radar, but what I was noticing while I was teaching the math, probably everybody on the call goes, Oh, that's the math guy. That he's the guy that does this, that, and the other with, with, with numbers. What I noticed is that there was a breakdown between, uh, getting to the right answer, finding the problem, getting to the right answer, and then getting someone to take action, right? So this is about not getting compliance, not compliance the way you just said it, Dan, but I don't want clients to be compliant because I ask them to do something or tell them to do something. I want them to be committed, right? So this is about a conversation technique that gets people to be committed to take action versus just being compliant because they're required to.

Dan DeLong: 7:29

Matthew, any thoughts about that kind of having that, that, that conversation with, with clients?

Matthew Fulton: 7:37

You know, it feels like no matter how long I've been doing this, this is always one of the biggest challenges is trying to master this. And it's why I always love to listen to Mike and, and gain some extra knowledge and the reminders of things that he's helped teach me before, but maybe didn't stick well enough the first time so I can keep evolving. So, um, I'm here to be a student just as much as everybody else.

Dan DeLong: 7:59

All right. Well, let's, um, let's go ahead and start our first poll question, and that is, do you struggle with client advisory conversations? Yes, no, or maybe it's just not in your, your scope of work, the things that you do today, but maybe you want to learn having, having those, those conversations. And while that is going on, um, looking for, um,

Matthew Fulton: 8:26

You know, Dan, I guess the one thing I'd add on is I think the term we've already said like the term client advisory can be very ominous at times and not under it's not easy to understand it there for the beginning. I always thought that was just supposed to be part of our services when you're talking about. Um, the value add things helping them understand their workers comp or their merchant processing and understanding Um where their money's going to but truly the cash flow side of it the forecasting That's a whole different level that um, there's definitely a right way to go about it.

Dan DeLong: 9:03

Yeah Yeah, there's definitely um, you know, because you you'll get the most I mean, it's kind of like parenting, right? I mean Yeah, you know saying the right thing to to to get Um, this child or the client to take action is, is part of the, is, is, is the toughest part of the whole thing is, is getting, getting on their level. So let me go ahead and I'll stop sharing, uh, Mike, you have your, your slides ready to go. I

Mike Milan: 9:35

am ready.

Dan DeLong: 9:36

All right. And we'll, we'll dive right into it.

Mike Milan: 9:41

All right. Cool. There we go. Are we good? We see it. Yep. Yes, sir. All right. So here we go. Right. Live from San Antonio. And I got to tell you, this is brand new stuff. So if I stumble, if I fumble, if I flip over, whatever that's going to be, who knows, who knows how this is going to hang out. Right. So, uh, again, like I told folks, I didn't intend. To write a book on conversation. I just didn't write my first book was don't be a dumb business owner. And that was about don't understand my business, right? Acronyms. That's kind of how I learned things myself. And this is all about the clear path to cash aid techniques to maximizing cash in a business. So this reads more like a math textbook. Then with that, I added in the seven minute conversation. You can get a copy of this for free, but this is how to analyze financial statements in seven minutes or less. When I was teaching folks how to do the math in the clear path to cash, we would role play because people would want to know, well, how can I find an issue or how can I, uh, how do I actually work with the solution, right? Once I find an issue, how do I solve it? And we would role play it because that was part of. The education is how do I have this conversation? So once we got to the point where we were doing more and more role plays as a cohort, as a group together, uh, more, more and more people were saying, Mike, how do you do that? And I'm like going, and I would show them the math and they go, no, what you just did, what you just said. And I'm like, oh, You mean talk to people? I said, I said, I don't know. I don't know how I talk to people. And I really put some thought into it because I'm like going, that was where people struggled next. Most CPAs, most bookkeepers, most accountants, they could figure out how to do the math, right? I mean, there's not a lot of secrets in math to this group, but it was how to impart it to the non sophisticated financial. business owner, which is how do I get you to not only understand what we're saying, but want to take action, right? Want to be committed to putting more cash in your pocket. So I said, okay, let me dissect all the conversations I've had over the last 25 years. And I really went back to my first lesson in talking to people. And that was at the highway patrol Academy in Jefferson city, Missouri. And the lesson they gave us was called verbal Judo. So when I say that, I always think Karate Kid, like, wax on, wax off. That's the way I always think about it, like Karate Kid. But verbal judo was more about learning to talk to everyone at their worst moment and getting them to understand what was to happen next, right? Without the fight. I would much rather, believe it or not, after, you know, seven years as a state trooper, I would rather Talk to you for 30 minutes on the side of the road, then fight you for three, believe it or not, that's the better choice is the talking always works out. So that's where this started was just learning how to talk to people, uh, in their worst moments. And a lot of times that's how business owners feels. They feel judged. They feel accused. They feel bad ashamed because of the way they've run their business. So because of that kind of evolved into running my own business. And I remember one of the things that I told my father in law right, right in the very beginning. He says, Hey, what's some of the things that annoy you? And I said, I don't like to be told what to do. And maybe you're the same way, Matt, maybe the same way, Dan, you're the same way. So that became. The basis for this book is don't tell me what to do, but trying to connect it to the math. I used it as an acronym and tell doesn't mean tell it means terminate every long lecture. Because when I started hiring consultants, they would come into my place of business. And they would just ask me questions and then they would just present and I would be presented with walls and numbers and intro to thick binders and that type of stuff. I'm like, oh man, I just got bored really fast. There was no engagement. They weren't including me in the conversation or the work. And because of that, the tell became terminate every long lecture. Your job isn't to come into my place of business and give me a lecture about how to run my business. It's to work side by side with me to find the solution and actually implement it. Does that make sense?

Dan DeLong: 13:51

Yeah. Go ahead, Matt.

Matthew Fulton: 13:53

It totally does. Matter of fact, you know, I want to call myself out and in the, the comments, if you've been guilty of this in the past, put a one in the comments real quick, just to kind of say you have, I know for sure I have where you, you go into solution motor answer mode, right? And you're forgetting to actually engage instead of just try to talk. So that just hit home for me at least.

Dan DeLong: 14:17

Yeah,

Mike Milan: 14:18

right on.

Dan DeLong: 14:18

Right on. Yeah, absolutely. Uh, I mean, I think it's a, um, it's, it's, it's, there, there's something that, you know, we want to prove our, our worth, right? And, and the way that we do that is by throwing up whatever it is, you know, it's a verbal diarrhea of, uh, here, here's why you need to do this, this sort of thing, but it's not, you know, we have two ears, one mouth for a reason, and we should listen twice as much as we talk, but we end up. Talking more first as opposed to, you know, listening and getting on their level.

Mike Milan: 15:01

Exactly. Right. Exactly. Right. So once I realized that that was the next. roadblock or obstacle in advisory services. I'm like, okay, well I've got to help people understand the way this conversation should flow, at least in my mind, because I feel like they were getting stuck by the solution and wanting to get right to it when the client wasn't ready. Right. So I built this course called the client conversation coach that's inside my community. So the first thing I had to do was say, if I wanted to see different things, I have to change the way I look at it. So if you look at the way I look at financial statements compared to what they teach you in class, that's one of the reasons why my techniques stand out is that I take a different approach to each one of the financial statements. So I took that same approach and put it into this course, which has changed the way you look at things and you'll. And the things that you see will also change, right? So that's kind of the premise for everything. Here's the way I process is happening, right? When I look at people teaching advisory services, they go do step one, step two, step three, step four, step five. And it was just, you do these things kind of in this order. And then eventually you get to the next step or everyone gets to the end. This is where it always fell apart for me. Every time I tried to do a step by step process, it would fall apart because the step would be. Let's do forecasting. But my client would walk in and say, I don't know if I'm going to make payroll next week. Right. So I can't talk about forecasting on next year if we have an immediate problem of solving payroll this week. So what I noticed is that every client I talked to was in a different state, a different position, a different problem, all at the same time. So I had to come up with some methodology to be able to meet them where they're at. So here's what I was thinking. Is that I need to stop starting with the problems that I saw. And started to fix the problems that they felt right so that was the biggest change I made in the way I was talking to people is that I would walk in see financial statements and you know me, Matt. I mean, I'll go through financial statements and find problems dot dot dot dot dot dot this this this this this this this and we can. Start on our way to fixing the problems. But the thing was is if they didn't feel it, they weren't interested in what I saw. They were interested in what they felt. So that was one of the things I had to get to really fast was what's, what do you feel about that? Yeah. Right. A little bit different. It's, it's. It's kind of all the same, but it's a little different, which means you have to be a little bit more flexible in the way that you communicate with folks. Just like we do on the podcast. I don't know what you're going to say next. It's a conversation cone with two people, right? Versating, you know, talking together. So everyone kind of starts in my world with this compass and the compass is kind of, we're going to. Look at what your guiding star is. If we're going to work together for five minutes, five days, five years, 15 years, I need to know where we're going because the advice I give you could be different than the advice I give the person next door. So I always start with kind of the compass, which kind of sets the ground rules. But then every other technique I'm going to talk about below this and I do them in order is looking for an issue. And what I learned is that. Most business issues can be put into six buckets, right? Is an education problem, a profit problem, a cashflow problem, a debt operations of the future. If I can put you into one of those six buckets, I can go quickly to a technique to solve it and get you on the path to recovery really fast. Does that make sense? So that's what I'm doing through the conversation. I'm looking for the issue that fits into one of these buckets. And then what I do is I teach you what to do. Once you get them inside a bucket, right? And then everybody ends at their own transferable value. And transferable value to me is, do I have enough money to do whatever it is I want to do next? I'm transferring value and worth from the business to me, right? Either by selling the business or by, uh, monthly putting away money for me from this business. So there's the two things, transferable value, transferring it from the business to me. So, so what is this? It's just a framework. Of guiding you through an interaction through a conversation. That's all it is. It's not, it's not a script. It's a framework. Even though I'll give you sample questions, it's gotta be you, you know, because if you use my words all the times, you're going to sound just like a hillbilly like me. You

Dan DeLong: 19:26

know

Mike Milan: 19:27

what's funny is in the very beginning of this, I wrote this book three times. The first time I wrote it and I wrote it just the way I say it and I go, Ooh, that sounds way too hillbilly. The second time I wrote it, I wrote it like I teach at the university. It sounded more like a professor. So the third version is what I call the Hillfessor version. The hillbilly professor. It's a combination of both academic and, and, and casual. All right. So what's the point, right? First of all, the problem that I saw was nobody likes to be told what to do. And here's how I kind of proved it to myself. I was sitting doing this live, right? Just doing one of these seminars live. And I asked somebody said, Hey, listen, I brought them up to the front of the room and the room is set up in a U shaped configuration. Right. And the doors in the back. I was the last speaker of the day for this group. And I said, Hey, listen, if we end right, if when we end. We probably all want to go down to the bar, right? We were in a hotel. We are probably want to go down to the bar. What are some ways we could leave this spot and get out of this room? Well, he thought about it. He goes, we could go to the left of this. You would go to the right of the U and go over the tables under the tables. He just came up with a bunch of different scenarios. And I said, okay. Let's try it. And he chose to go to the right and all I did was walk beside him and we walked around the right and went, went to the door. Right. What that was proving is that we came up with a solution to the problem. The problem is we got to leave this room. He came up with several solutions. I just guided him along that path. Then I brought him back up to the front of the room again. And I said, okay, now put your hands up like this. Right. And he put his hands up in front of him just like that. I put mine into fists and place them against his hands and I lean forward. What do you think he did when I leaned forward? I'm 240 pounds. He did. He braced, right? He instantly resisted. I didn't tell him to resist. I didn't tell him to do anything. I just put some body weight against him. And naturally his first instinct is to resist, to brace himself, to push back. That was the lesson I was trying to push is that every time we talk to somebody and we tell them what to do And it's not their idea Their natural instinct is to push back So the whole goal is to get people to be committed to taking an action not compliant with what I just said

Matthew Fulton: 21:54

We've got, uh, Peter Cohen that's watching on YouTube, who's, uh, joins us quite often. He was basically saying, you know, meet them where they're at. This is the primary objective through all this. Yeah. Nails it. Right.

Mike Milan: 22:05

Yeah. Good one. Good one. Right. So, uh, this is just social proof that I actually did wear this uniform at one point in time. Uh. 22 years old, right? I don't recognize you without a beard, though. Matter of fact, uh, I'm in trouble if I ever shave the beard. I shaved it down just closer, and everybody in my family goes, No. Don't do that. And I don't know why. I think it's because I have a more rounded moon face now than I used to. Probably what happens. The whole part of this verbal judo, though, was, again, Meeting them where they're at, you know, uh, but I learned not to say these things. That was part of it. Like going, because I said, so you always, you never, I don't have time for that. It's not my job. You wouldn't understand. Calm down. Anytime people say that, Matt, you want to talk about it?

Matthew Fulton: 22:56

Well, I, I, ironically, just last night I was talking to a good friend of mine, Linda, and I pulled up this. Uh, list of things not to kind of say and a majority of um, like there was a list of 12 and a lot of them are right there. Things not to say. I'm like, talk about something slapping you in the face, like over and over day after day. It's, it's interesting. So it's hitting home. Smart stuff.

Mike Milan: 23:15

Yeah. Cause it's all. Uh, ways for them to argue, right? And the whole point of what I'm going to teach in this technique is to get them to acknowledge, to say it, to verbalize it, because if they say it, there's no one to argue with. If you say it, you can argue with me. So the way I'm going to talk through the questioning is the same way I did as a trooper. If you say it, that's why they ask you, you know, well, how do you think it got like this? Where do you think that came from? If you say it. Then of course it's true. If I say it, it might not be true to you. So instead here were four magic phrases that I learned, right? And that kind of all starts off and you might've heard me this and just casual conversation. Oh man, that's super interesting or that's interesting. And I'll follow it up with. Blah. Hey, why would you say it that way? Or, what do you think? Or, you know, why would you do it that way? Or, when you ask these type of questions, it gets them to start to rethink what their action is, or what they could be, or what the reasons or the rationale is. Now, I started off this whole thing by saying, this whole Concept this whole technique was a combination of what I learned as a state trooper and from watching hoarders. If you were like me in 2020, you spent a lot of time inside and you spent a lot of time in front of the TV. And Courtney got me to sit down in front of the TV and watch an episode of hoarders. And I'm telling you, I don't watch hoarders. For the disorder, because it's sad, it really is. I watch it for the interaction between the psychologist and the person with the disorder. That conversation is magic. And you'll see it, if you've ever seen one of these episodes, they're formulaic, right? Which means they kind of all play out the same way. But the first scene is always the doctor going up to the front door. And as they're walking up, you can see the problem. I always liken that to me. As soon as you hand me financial statements, I can see the problem. And then, but that first interaction is the one that's the most dangerous. And the danger I mean is your client could shut down immediately based on what you say first. Right? So the whole thing is not to be confrontational, not to be accusatory, not to be judgmental right off the bat. Right. But if you see that first scene play out, you go, Oh, I need to watch that because that's how they get them to move towards the committed behavior, which is the action to clean up the place. So, and at the end of today, I'll show you a video of how that works out in hoarders. Okay. So the principles, right? Terminate every long lecture. I want you to start with the end in mind. If we're going to be working together, why are we doing this? Be the guide, not the judge. Right? You're not accusing them. You're not judging them. You're guiding them to the next, uh, way of improvement. Clearing the noise is something I preach all the time. Everybody that comes to this meeting, including people that are on this call today, you already have something in your head. I think he's going to talk about this. I wonder if he's going to hit on that. You know, you got all these things that you think about before you go into a meeting. You have to let people clear the noise or they can't be engaged with you during the conversation. And then turn talk into traction, which is actually doing it. Right? Actually getting them to take action. So, questions or anything? Cause you know me guys, you know, I will go right through, I mean, I'll go two, three, four hours.

Matthew Fulton: 26:32

Um, let's go back one real quick. I do have a quick question. Uh, cause I know you've always got logic with your steps there. Start with the end in mind. Can you talk about that a little bit deeper because when I first hear it, my thought is well, wait a second, if we're already starting with the end in mind, are we listening to what they're needing if we're assuming what the end is? How do you, what do you mean by that?

Mike Milan: 26:53

Here's what I mean. I use the compass technique, right? And I'll start off just like this, man. I'll go, Hey, listen, Matt, usually when I'm in these consulting relationships, they last quite a while, right? Months, years, even if that's the case with you and I, I need to know kind of where you're going. So when you leave this business, what do you want to do next?

Matthew Fulton: 27:12

There you go. Okay. So understanding what their end is, not your idea of what their end is. Yeah. Cause just,

Mike Milan: 27:20

just with you too. I mean, Dan might want to just travel the U S like he does just, Hey, I just want to travel the U S and, and do my thing. And you might want to buy a lake house and sit on the deck and drink coffee in the morning and sit on the deck and drink wine at night. Well, those two dreams cost different amounts, right? So that's where I'm saying, start with the end in mind, because I can't guide you to just having a lot of money. Money is just a tool to fund whatever dream that you want, right? I tell accountants, business owners, bankers all the time, I said, what business do you think you're really in? Dan, what business do you think you're in? If you're an accountant?

Dan DeLong: 27:56

Well, whatever I'm going to say is the wrong answer, so it's

Matthew Fulton: 28:00

the people business.

Dan DeLong: 28:01

Yeah,

Mike Milan: 28:03

you are in the dream fulfillment business and you have to put yourself in that mind frame. Is that the reason why people come to you is that they want to keep more money. They want to keep it in their pocket because they need more money as the tool to fund whatever it is they want to do next. Your job is to help them do that. If you put your mindset there, then it becomes easier to have the conversation. I'm only here to help you fulfill that dream. That's something new that I didn't know. I was this fluffy. I thought it was the math guy.

Matthew Fulton: 28:32

You're looking pretty trim, my friend, pretty trim actually,

Mike Milan: 28:35

but I appreciate that. Appreciate that. So basically the way I teach the whole thing is it's, it's the financial doctor, right? It's analyzed, diagnosed, and treat. I know it's five steps here, but that's really what we're doing. We're analyzing data. When you go to the doctor's office, they gather all this data, how much you weigh, what your blood pressure, all this type of stuff, they analyze all of that, diagnose what's going on with you. And treat it. You should look at the advisory relationship the same way, right? Except for don't make them spend 45 minutes in the waiting room, reading five year old magazines. You know, maybe you shouldn't do that, but, but anyway, that's, that's what we're doing. So all of up here, up here, it's, it's kind of in an order and a flow chart, but I want to go through what the techniques are. Because I'll start with one. If I don't find an issue, I go to the next one. If I don't find an issue, I go to the next one, next one, and so forth. And what I'm trying to do is put you in a bucket. Because if I can put you in a bucket, there is a clear path to cash technique I can use to solve the problem. So that's kind of where we're getting to with this. Here's what it kind of looks like a little bit more blown up. This is just the, you know, the analyze part, right? We start off with the compass. I use the next technique is clear the noise. Now I know you don't know what these are, but I'm just kind of showing you how it lays out. If I don't find an issue, I use the Explorer. Then I use the crowbar and then I use the mirror moment. And if I can't help you, I just refer you to somebody else, right? Or if I can't help you, I'll go and get to the point, you know, I'll say, Hey, let me try something with you. If I can't get them to say it, cause all of this is about getting them to say what the problem is. If you can get the person to say that they have too much inventory, that they're collecting too slow, that their pricing's bad. If you can get them to say it, they're more willing to fix.

Matthew Fulton: 30:18

That, okay, that one, what you just said there is super powerful just to make sure it hits home for everybody. Right? Because there are these, we already know there's different levers in a business you can pull to improve your cashflow. But if you can't get the business owner to recognize it themselves, then it's not going to change. If they don't, you can tell them they have too much inventory or their turnover rates too slow, or they're paying too much. If they can't see that and come to that, they're not going to be looking for ways to improve it. Right?

Mike Milan: 30:47

Yeah. So, and that's just, again, that's from history of me working with clients. Now is that I have been more, uh, productive, more effective when I can get them to see this problem the same way. Cause then they go, yeah, it is a problem. Then go fix it. Every time I've told them what to do, they give me excuses of why they can't get it done. Yeah. Right. So this is, this is the transition from good to great. Good is I can find the problems and tell you what the solution. Great is I can get you to acknowledge it and want to solve it. All right. So, so the compass now inside of this, and I thought I had all this, uh, yeah, but inside the compass or just sample questions like, Hey, what does it look like for you longterm? Where do you see yourself? You know, I always say something like when you leave this business, what do you want to do? Right. What do you want to do next? So the compass is just about you setting it. These are just typical questions. I always start there. Sometimes I find a problem, but if not, it tells me what I should be, uh, working towards. My job is to get you on the lake. My job is to get you to travel the U S right. And we need X amount of dollars to do that. That's where I start with the end in mind. The next part is this thing called the nudge pact. Now this nudge pact I use in two parts. I get an upfront. agreement with the client. And here's what the way it looks. The nudge pack is getting permission to push them, getting permission to coach them, to go from advisor to coach. You know, when you see a coach on the side of a field, baseball, you know, diamond soccer field, football field, they're driving performance, right? Well, here's where you have to get permission up front. I tell my clients this. I'm like, listen, when we start this, it's going to be hard. There's going to be a day when I want you to go count that warehouse and you know in your mind, it's going to take you three days to do it. And you're not going to want to do it. You're going to procrastinate. I know. Cause I would, I'm like, Oh, I don't want to go out there and deal with that today. What are some things you do when you procrastinate? What are some things that you do when you don't want to do something? Right. That's the question I asked. What are some things that I would see? And they go, Oh, I'll stop taking your phone calls. I won't answer emails. Uh, you know, I might even cuss you out. I'm like going, okay. When you do those things and I see it, can I call you out on it? Can I say, Hey, listen, remember when, uh, when we talked early on the very first week and I asked you, what are some things you do when you don't want to do something? You said this, that, and the other, well, I saw this, that, and the other, you know, so what should we do next? So what I'm doing is getting permission up front to call you out on your, I'm going to talk Texas for a minute. I'm gonna call you out on your bullshit. Right. And, but I'm gonna do it in a nice way. Hey, remember you told me you would do these things. We did those things. What should we do about it? What should we do next because I'm trying to get you to move off of your pedestal or off of your, your, whatever's holding you back. So the nudge pact is in two parts. I do it up front with the compass and then I do it once we're taking the action and you start to stall. All right. You ever seen that before? Or you guys probably do this already.

Matthew Fulton: 33:54

No, but I love it. I mean, my, so my, to, again, to wrap myself out, my best procrastination is cleaning my house. And I could tell you my house has been very clean lately. So there you go. I need to stop doing that.

Mike Milan: 34:08

All right. Uh, I start off almost every meeting with clearing the noise, right? And the way I do it is with this sentence. Hey, Hey, it's been a week or so since we talked, man. What's going on in your world lately? That's me letting you get whatever's on your mind or off your chest. Out into the open. And once you get the hang of that. Your client will just start to tell you the issue up front and you get to the issue within the first couple of minutes of a meeting rather than trying to dig it out of them 15 or 20 minutes later, they'll tell you up front. Hey, I don't know if I'll make payroll. Hey, I bought this and I probably shouldn't have because now I got too much debt and I don't know if I can make the debt payments. They're going to tell you whatever's on their mind. I even do it at the beginning of seminars. I'm saying, Hey, Bathroom's over here, we're gonna take a break at mid morning, we're gonna take an hour for lunch. I'm clearing the noise, answering all the questions I think you could have up front, so we can both be committed to engaging in the conversation that we're having. So, clearing the noise. Yeah, go ahead.

Matthew Fulton: 35:03

I assume, do you try to make sure to limit the amount of time of clearing that noise? Because, um, I could see situations where that noise can easily take over the whole hour of time if you're not careful with it, right?

Mike Milan: 35:19

Yeah. All right. So that's, that's the biggest, uh, shift that I have to have in clients, especially right now, tax season. Everybody says I have to get as many of these things out in an hour, right? Everything is about speed and how much time. This is the opposite. Advisory services and advisory relationships are the opposite. It's okay to let them talk. It's okay to let them ramble. If you don't get to your plan or whatever you wanted, that's okay too, because you did exactly what they wanted and they're engaged in the conversation for that whole hour or however long you're with them. So don't be in a rush to solve a problem. If they want to talk, Maybe that's part of the problem. They don't have anybody to talk to. That's great. Right?

Dan DeLong: 36:03

They need some

Mike Milan: 36:04

friends. Need some friends. Yeah, need some friends. Alright, if I can't find the issue and clear the noise, I move to the Explorer. Because usually, some people are vague, like going, I don't know, it just doesn't feel right. Then I'll say something like, well, tell me more about that. What doesn't feel right? Or can you say that differently? When I say those two things, can you say this differently or what's happening? Or, you know, uh, tell me more about it. It allows them to rethink about what they're trying to say. And maybe say the issue again. The whole point is to get them to say the issue, because if they say the issue, then we can start solving it. So that's the second thing I do is explore. And it's just about digging a little bit deeper, right? Creating some depth in their conversation. It's not about me. I know what the issue is. We'll say it's too much inventory, right? I've already saw what it is. I need you to acknowledge that it's the same problem.

Dan DeLong: 36:52

Now, do you, do you find that Mike, that you're like. Because what I'm gathering here is that these are just tools to extract from them what, what the, what the underlying issue is, um, you don't have to use all of them. It's more of, you know, once you, once you get something out of them, then it's, let's move on to the.

Audio Only - All Participants: 37:14

Yeah,

Dan DeLong: 37:15

that's good hand. Right. Exactly. Right. So like

Mike Milan: 37:18

with this, if they tell me, Oh, I have a, we'll say an accounts receivable problem. Now I got something I can work with. That's a cashflow problem, right? Cashflow. It's about cashflow optimization. Now I can move right into the solution. Oh, really? Accounts receivable. Okay. Well, let's walk through that. And I would say I got a tool that kind of helps us visualize it. And then I opened up the app and I'll kind of show you how this kind of plays with the app as well. Okay. Uh, if, you know, if you guys don't mind, it's

Dan DeLong: 37:44

not like you have to go to the next thing of the Explorer when they've already said it.

Mike Milan: 37:49

Nope. Yeah. If they already said it, don't go to the next phase, right? All I'm doing is just saying, okay, so it's a different way of trying them to get them to say the right thing each time, right

Matthew Fulton: 37:59

tool for the right job, basically, right tool,

Mike Milan: 38:01

right? Yeah, so if I've tried twice, I tried clearing the noise and I tried the Explorer and I still can't get to the root of the problem, I'll use the crowbar, right? And this one's, this one's in depth. So I would have to, I would have to do this in a different thing, but it's all five questions. And when you ask somebody five questions in this order, you can backtrack backwards. And draw a sentence to what the theme is, right? So it's what's working, what's broken, what's missing, what's confused, and what's extra shouldn't be here, right? And I draw it in four different columns. It's five, five things, but I draw four different lines. And I just brainstorm, hey, what's working? And I just write down whatever they say, what's broken, write down whatever they say, what's missing, what's confused. And what you'll notice is there's a part of their business. One of the functions of business is broken. It's the one that needs the attention because they'll mention it four or five times. You're like going here, tell me more about this and you can actually pop out a problem. That's why I call it the crowbar. Uh, the last one is if you're just hardheaded and you don't want to say it, I will tell you a story about your problem, but it won't be about you. It'll be about somebody else. It's a technique I call let you and him fight. I'll say, Hey, uh, I had this client, He had too much inventory and I'll tell him a big story about too much inventory and how it was 50, 000 that was sitting on the shelf that could have been in his pocket and all this type of stuff. And I'll end the story with, Hey, if this was you, what would you do about it? Because everybody can solve somebody else's problem. They can't solve their own. So. Yeah. Yeah. Once, once he solves the other person's the imaginary person's problem, they'll say, Hey, you think that would work here? Do you think that's our problem too? And all of a sudden they go, Oh yeah, you're talking about me. It's the mere moment where I'm showing yourself in the mirror, but I'm showing you through the eyes of somebody else. So it's you and him fighting, not you looking at yourself and I'm not judging him. I'm telling you a story about somebody else can ask me what you think. So that's another way to get them to say the problem is the mere moment. The whole goal of this is to put you in a bucket, right? Cause if I can put you in an education, you just don't, yeah, I don't know what these numbers are saying, or I feel like I'm not making any money. I'm always got losses or cashflow or debt or operations, or it's about the future. Then I have a technique inside my program, the clear path to cash to solve it, right? I mean, the home run financial system, mining your business for hidden cash, all of these things are what I teach to solve the problems. Right. So the whole point is to ask the question, to put them in a bucket, to solve the issue. Well, that was an interesting, I wonder what that said. Oh, Wonder what that one said. What did I do? Hide it. All right. Was that the video? Did you have a Oh, that, that's what those were. Those were videos. I, I going, I'm like, what was that? All right, so let me show you a couple videos and then I'll show you how this works in the app to find problems and how I've built this guided conversation. Yeah, that is a video. How do you press play? Does it not play That's super interesting. There's, imagine if you will you guys, you guys can still see that, right? Yes. But it's all right. Here we go. All right, so this is Hoarders and I'm gonna show you two, one that was really good. One of'em that had some issues and they're only about a minute long. You probably can't hear or see that.

Matthew Fulton: 41:36

Just wanna make sure you turn your, when you're doing the share, you got the audio shared.

Mike Milan: 41:40

I, this didn't show up on, on the share. That's really weird, right? I've never had that before. I wonder if it's a Zoom problem. Hmm. All right. Well, that was going to be awesome when I did it because he had the videos are here. They just won't play or they'll play, but they won't.

Dan DeLong: 42:04

Yeah. The, uh, when you share, you got to hit the, uh, share sound.

Matthew Fulton: 42:10

Yeah. So stop your share, pull it back up and then you'll see the little box on the right hand side. It's the share audio also.

Mike Milan: 42:15

Uh, okay. Share audio or share audio at, uh, I've got to

Dan DeLong: 42:23

stop sharing first. Oh, then when you share again, there'll be like a check box to share the computer audio.

Mike Milan: 42:32

I got it. Okay. So share. I'll share this. Where's the share the box at share sound. Perfect. Got it.

Dan DeLong: 42:42

Zoom technical support also on the QB power hour.

Matthew Fulton: 42:46

Well, they keep changing where the buttons go all the time.

Dan DeLong: 42:49

They do. They do.

Mike Milan: 42:53

All right. Okay. You think I could share this again or

Matthew Fulton: 42:58

not? Let's go for the play.

Dan DeLong: 43:02

That doesn't work. Yeah, some, I don't think that video is in, in the, in the presentation.

Mike Milan: 43:08

All right, we'll do it this way.

Video: 43:26

Hi Dolores. Hi. David Tolan. How are you? Very good. Very good. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. May I come in? Yes. Okay, great. Thanks.

Video (2): 43:35

I'm Dr. David Tolan. I'm a clinical psychologist and a specialist in the study and treatment of hoarding disorder.

Video: 43:41

So tell me what we're looking at here. A mess. A mess. Chaos. Chaos. Yeah. Where did all this stuff come from? Shopping, shopping, shopping. So you're a shopaholic? Shopaholic. And a hoarder. And a hoarder, too? Mm hmm. What makes you think that? Because I keep bringing stuff in. Okay, and you just pile stuff up here. And the pile gets Higher and higher. Yeah, as you could see.

Mike Milan: 44:11

All right. So Matt, what'd you see?

Matthew Fulton: 44:14

Um, I'm, I'm starting to sweat. My brain can't focus when there's clutter like that. Like I literally in my house, started removing all flat areas to get rid of all the clutter. Um,

Mike Milan: 44:26

All right. So, so let's think about this. You're looking at it. I don't want you to look at the hoard, right? Because everybody that comes in with a set of financial statements could have as big a mess. And they couldn't need QuickBooks cleaned up. That could be just totally just destroyed somehow. But think about this. He walks up to the front door. You already see the remnants of the horde. There's stuff on the front porch even. Right? So, that's what I'm saying. He sees the problem. He knows that the problem exists. When he goes in, he doesn't judge. He could go, What the heck's going on here? What are you doing? This is a mess. Yeah, this is a mess. Instead, he got

Matthew Fulton: 45:01

her to say she was a hoarder and then he actually had her validated a second time by saying Why do you think that? Right? Instead of it just being Boom.

Mike Milan: 45:11

That's what I'm saying. This is an example of something good. He got her to say this, those things. And he didn't come in and judge anything. He says, Hey, tell me what I'm looking at. That's important because it lets the person start to rationalize. Well, maybe it's not as bad as I think it is. If I can talk him through this, he'll see it the same way I do. Right. You'll see that play out over and over and over again. This is the same way with a business owner. They think that, you know, Hey, I'm just. Keeping this thing afloat. Uh, this is the way I do business, even though, you know, it's a mess. So, I mean, I mean, you know,

Dan DeLong: 45:43

exactly where everything is there. Yeah, right. Yeah, exactly. Right. That's, that's my system.

Matthew Fulton: 45:50

So, yeah, I mean, I got my spot piles all over the place in the past. Right. So we're guilty of that kind of thing. Yeah.

Mike Milan: 45:56

So here's one that doesn't go out so well. Um, meaning it's not, she's not as agreeable up front. So let's watch this. Don't get sucked into the horde. Right? Pay attention to the conversation, right? This is a, this is a class about conversation. All right, watch this one.

Video (2): 46:20

So Sherry and I have had a chance to look at each of the rooms of the house and get a sense of what's going on. Mom, I don't want to make you upset, but mom, this house is killing you. No it isn't. It is. The mice. What do you think needs to happen here?

Video (3): 46:37

I don't want them here. I don't want to kill them. I've tried to trap them, but they're outsmarted me.

Video (2): 46:44

She's saying, I know these mice need to go. I know this isn't safe for me. And yet she feeds them. Judy, like so many hoarders, is ambivalent. She wants two different things that can't coexist. She wants to have the mice and not have the mice. She wants to clean up and not clean up. So who should we call, and what should we ask them to do?

Video (3): 47:07

Probably an exterminator, but then that means that they're gonna kill him.

Video (2): 47:11

So maybe we've got some discussion, some negotiation to do around that issue.

Video (3): 47:16

Where do you go to the bathroom? I, that I will not discuss.

Video (2): 47:20

You're killing me. She's embarrassed. But, I can do the math.

Dan DeLong: 47:27

And what did you see on that one? Just that, you know, the vision of, you know, the resistance, you know, right off the bat. Um, I think emanating from, from the, from the family member as they were like, you know, trying to do this intervention type of thing. Uh, and I think that's what immediately, um, you know, put up that wall of resistance for.

Mike Milan: 47:54

Yeah. First of all, if anybody starts off a sentence, like, I don't want to offend you, you know, the next thing that's going to happen is

Dan DeLong: 48:00

going to be offensive. No offense, but it's something offensive. The thing

Mike Milan: 48:07

that I, this reminds me of is if you've ever worked with a business with partners, sometimes when they're in the same room, one is a little bit, every time they say something that creates volatility, it creates resistance. It creates. Something. What I like what the doctor did there is he immediately diverts it to something important. He sees the resistance go up. No, it's not right. This house is killing you. No, it's not. And he goes, the mice, right? And he points directly at a problem, right? To break the chain of the no, it's not. Yes, it is. Because who knows how long that goes on and it gets worse. So he goes right to something that's important. And he gets her to at least understand that the mice are a problem. What I really like is that he didn't solve the problem. He goes, who should we call and what do you think they should do about it? Again, remember the first example I gave you of doing this live is how can we get out of this room? It's them coming up with a solution and then walking them down the path, even though she doesn't want the mice to be killed. He doesn't say, well, duh, it's an exterminator. What do you think that means? He says, well, we got some discussions and negotiations to do about that. He doesn't just poopoo it and shut it down. He actually gives her away and then the daughter chimes in again and the barrier comes back up. So again, what I do is I look at the interaction and try to say, I can apply some of this technique to my conversation with clients because they're a lot more agreeable to committing to action if I can get them to, to, to at least say it up front. All right. If you don't mind, I want to show you what the client conversation coach looks like in action. Is that okay? Yeah. Yeah. Uh, so inside my stuff, I say my stuff, my membership is an app, right? So people, some people know me from being, you know, part of the. Uh, cashflow tool team, Phenograph team. Uh, I've also built other apps, so this is the latest one and it does all the calculations that I teach. But the one I want to talk about today is this thing called the client conversation coach, right? And how this works using a combination of what I call AI and MI. MI is my stuff, right? AI, everybody knows what AI is, but my stuff. Uh, and believe it or not, I have a t shirt that says AI does not equal ME. Because it doesn't have my timing, doesn't have my instinct, it doesn't have, you know, the personnel skills or personal skills that we have, right? So AI as a tool, it's not the thing. So, if you look at this, I've built it kind of like a chatbot, but some of my clients now have this off to the side to just help them remember how to get to the problem and what to do to solve it. So, I start the conversation in three different places depending on who I'm talking to. I don't always use the compass with somebody I talk to every week or every month. Right. I don't use the compass with the sales prospect because I just want to try to show them that I can solve their problem. So Matt, who we want to talk to today?

Matthew Fulton: 51:11

Let's do, um, a new onboarding client.

Mike Milan: 51:16

All right. So when we do no new onboarding client, that's somebody I'm talking to for the first time. Guess what we're using, right? We're going to use, well, we're going to use the compass. So, and then I tell you, Hey, try asking them this. So I'm going to tell you, here's the technique to use. Here's why you should use it. Here's how to do it, right? Three different things there. Technique to use. Now I say we're going to go to start with end in mind and I'll say, click here to start and it will open up, start with end in mind, right? So that's one of the things I'm helping you to do is once you get there, I'm going to show you the technique to use next. So let's say that we did that. That was cool, but let's keep going. So when we keep going, we're going to use clear the noise, right? And when you do this, I'm saying here, we're going to clear the noise. What's been good on your world lately, or what's been worrying you. What's keeping up at night. I want you to listen for issues, right? These is helping you put, put your client in the bucket. I have taken down the 12 most common things I've heard from clients over the last 20 years. You know, I don't understand my numbers. I'm always out of cash. Uh, we're drowning in debt. Nothing runs smoothly here. So I've built this to, whereas do you hear anything like this? So Dan, do you hear anything like this? You know, we're clearing the noise. Let's just say, I can't tell. They're too vague. Let's do that one first. Right? So you see what happens next. If I say, I can't tell, I click on that and it says, okay, we'll try this one. Try the Explorer, right? The Explorer is, Hey, here's why we do the Explorer. Here's tell me more. Or can you say that differently? Do you hear an issue? So Dan, do you hear one of these issues in our pretend client?

Dan DeLong: 52:50

Um, that one that you're hovering over, our costs are. Eating all our profits. Eating all our profits. All right. So if I click that, it's going to say, okay, very topical.

Mike Milan: 53:00

Yeah. Right. Awesome. You can go to the province. All right. So here's what to do next, right? I want you to use mining your business for hidden cash, and I want you to go into some pricing and cost analysis. But if I click on mining your business for hidden cash, it's going to open up that technique and I'll just. Pick up some data here. Hey, listen, this is why you're eating up all your profits, right? You've got, we just found 11 million of hidden cash. It's a sample data, but 11 million of hidden cash. Most of it's in sales, but everybody can sell more. Right? So let's just turn that off. That's just saying you got enough stuff. You don't need to go buy another truck. You don't need to go open another office. You have enough stuff to sell more. So then I turned that off and it kind of recalculates and focuses us where the problem is. So from here, we're like going, Oh, this is why you don't have enough profits. You are really underpricing, right? Your biggest problem is in gross profit. You're spending. Okay. You actually have a little bit too much inventory, but not a lot. That's not a big problem. You're collecting a little slow, but you're paying. Right on time. So let's just turn off the things we're doing good at because you're doing good at them. Now, if we were playing name that tune, I'd say I can put 3 million in your pocket in three moves in three notes, right? We have a pricing problem, you know, that we need to address or something with our vendors. Uh, we've got too much inventory and We have accounts receivable problems. So now I know where to focus is. And if you don't know where to start fixing the company, start with the longest red line, which means I would start here and start to put this cash back into our, our business. Uh, so that's kind of the way we do that. And if I went to like, cause we had an inventory problem, I would do cash conversion, right? So cash conversion is, Hey, we've got too much inventory. That's for a service based company. Let me move to an inventory company. This is saying that you're short 300, 000, right? That's your cash conversion. It's the financial gap. You don't have enough money to run your business. That's why it feels clunky. I'm always waiting for money to come in before I can make a payment or, you know, do something else. Well, this says you've got 92 days of inventory, which is 1. 4 million on the balance sheet. If I reduce that, look what kind of happens. You see the number of reducing the smaller, your financial gap, the less money it takes to run your business. So if I just reduce that and look for it to go blue and positive. Oh, there it is. See that red blue. You should have 63 days worth of inventory to keep up with your sales. Well, how much is that, Mike? Oh, 1 million. When you look at your balance sheet, right now it says 1. 4 million. I want you to run it down to a million, and every time it goes over a million, run it back down, or you're going to create the same problem over and over and over again. Alright, so that's one of the ways I help people, uh, do this is give them a visual of what's happening. Really simple, and simple is hard, but I can actually guide them towards the solution and then hold them accountable to take an action. So,

Matthew Fulton: 55:47

so question for you, Mike, um, the information that you're showing, obviously demo data, but how does this information get pulled in? Is this a connecting to a company file and it's got some fancy algorithms or are there certain numbers that you're plugging in and you help us understand that part?

Mike Milan: 56:05

Yeah. So you can do it two different ways, right? So, uh, I can do it with user input. If I just want to do one calculation, don't want to connect to somebody's QuickBook file. Maybe it's a sales prospect. I can just type in a few numbers. And actually get to the calculation, or it's got a QuickBooks online connection, which does about three years worth of data in years and months and quarters and rolling years, if you did that. So you can even select rolling years, which is what I like. Cause it smooths it out. Right. So January to December, then February to January and so on and so forth. Uh, if I do just. manual input and I want to do just a fast money formula, I just type in these numbers so I can do it during a sales call and show them demonstrations is most powerful way, uh, to actually sell, right? It's like, Oh, he did that in 15 minutes. I'm that's the guy to help me. He didn't show me his package of how he fills out reports. He showed me what my problem is and that he can solve it.

Matthew Fulton: 56:58

Beautiful.

Mike Milan: 56:59

So,

Dan DeLong: 57:00

and you, and you take it a little bit different approach then, you know, Most traditional folks of as far as, um, an app or, you know, a tool is, you don't necessarily sell the tool you sell on the course of how to how to use said tool and, uh, The app or the tool comes, comes along with it. Right.

Mike Milan: 57:23

Yeah. So here's what I did at cashflow tool and all the other software companies I worked at, we would be a software company. And then we would try to sprinkle in education and then people get lost. So like, like cashflow tool is so robust and so many different levers and pulls and things like this. You almost have to take a course to be able to know how to use it properly and get it and be effective. And some, some software that I've bought is like that. I'm not going, I get, I get confused, frustrated, and I shut off the software. I'm like, ah, it's probably the right tool. I just don't know how to use it. So I said, I'm going to take a different approach this year, these last two years. And I'm going to become an education company with software, which means I'm going to teach you how to do all this stuff and give you the tool. So the way I've done is just, it's just a membership to keep going and, and, and be part of the community, uh, to get live coaching. And what people are using the live coaching for now is they'll bring real life client issues. Hey, I'm working with this manufacturing company on Tuesday. Here's what I'm seeing. Give me a strategy to help me go through it. So it's, it's more like you're hiring me to be part of your team, right? To help you either sell, I even jump on sales calls with people that kind of help, you know, this process, uh, when I, when I got time and opportunity. The other thing is that the tool is not per user. It's not per client. It's like going, I want you to use it with everybody. Sales calls. It doesn't matter. Use it because that's the way, uh, most people get the most benefit.

Dan DeLong: 58:45

So it's not like a tiered, you know, start with simple start and then we'll move you on up to advanced. It's, you know, learn how to use this tool and, you know. You, you, you, you get unlimited access, uh, to the tool.

Mike Milan: 59:02

Yeah. Well, and then still on, you get the whole video course, right? Cause I've got the video course and I've got a hundred different worksheets, spreadsheets and all that type of stuff that go deeper than just the app right now. So like, Oh, when I say like pricing analysis, I have worksheets and spreadsheets for that. That's not built into the app yet, but it gives you something to work with your client with. The second thing is the support, right? So you got, I got training the video courses, you got support, which is about 15 times a month. I have, we'll call open office hours, but there's their topic driven. And then the app. Uh, as well, all comes as a package, uh, it also in the professional package, you can get 27 hours of CPE through NASBA now as well.

Dan DeLong: 59:43

Learn and grow at the same time, and you've made, um, you've made available the, the, the book, um, as, as an ebook, uh, for, for our users and we have it on our, um, on our landing pages. So the, if you just want to, um, get a refresher of, of what this is, uh, Recapsulation of what Mike was talking about today. You can access that on the QB Power Hour landing page there for you. I did make it available there while you were Uh, showing one of those hoarder skits, which somebody asked, where do you get those?

Mike Milan: 1:00:20

You

Dan DeLong: 1:00:20

scour

Mike Milan: 1:00:20

YouTube and clip

Dan DeLong: 1:00:21

them out.

Mike Milan: 1:00:25

Yeah. So, uh, the other thing before I turn it back to you is that, you know, uh, I, I just, you know, you know, Michelle and I have been friends for a long time, Dan, Matt, all of us been friends for a long time, uh, for your group, anybody that's watching this, uh, no upfront fee. And the reason I charge enough up free is because I give you the whole course up front, right. Um, but for your group. No upfront fee. You can just jump into a membership and go from there. Uh, if anyone wants to talk about it, my email address is mike at cashflow mike. com. Super easy to remember. And, uh, that's the discount code if you can share that with your folks. So, uh, I'll turn it back to you. Thanks guys. All

Dan DeLong: 1:00:58

right. Yeah. So we, uh, really appreciate you Mike joining us today. Uh, I did want to throw the last poll question, um, so that we can, where'd it go? Oh, there it is. Okay. Um, for, you know, cause some people were asking, how do you. Get this app. How do we get become a member? So we'll grab that as a last poll question. So maybe we can help you follow up with with those folks that that might be interested in using this tool. Matthew, any, uh, any, any final thoughts of what we covered here today?

Matthew Fulton: 1:01:32

You know, just a kind of a, um, word of praise. You know, I've, I'm fortunate to have known Mike now for many, many years. And we've worked together on many different things. When you're talking about cashflow, truly, this guy's earned his nickname. He really, really understands it. So I put my word on it. It's worth getting into the community. Check it out. Mike's great guy. Super knowledgeable. He's got a big heart, always willing to help people. So good stuff.

Dan DeLong: 1:01:58

Thanks, man. Awesome. All right. So next, uh, next time on the QB power hour, Matt, Matthew and I are going to be talking about bridging the apps, not bridging the gaps, bridging the apps, uh, and how you can utilize Zapier, uh, as a no code option to, um, to bridge those integrations that are just a little. On the needs more side of things. So, uh, hopefully you join us in a couple of weeks for that. Uh, we appreciate everyone that did join us today. Um, and hope you have a great week and we'll see you next time on the QB power hour. Have a great day, everyone.