Episódios

  • FIR 159: High Impact AI RESULTS For Your Business, Now!
    Jan 13 2023
    What are the main challenges that I need to solve as a company trying to apply AI to help my business? In this episode, I have a conversation with an organization that provides an AI platform to help you overcome those.   Grant Hey, everybody, welcome to another episode of ClickAI Radio. This is Grant Larsen. And today I have someone that I bumped into the not too long ago, I was at a conference and literally went to their booth and said, Oh, I want to learn more about this technology. I've been tracking your team, your organization, so it's my chance to learn more about it. And so I got to meet a Atalia Horenshtien I hope I said that right. I'm so excited to have Atalia here with me today. So first of all, "A" welcome I tell you and "B" did I say your name right? And then "C" the first question out of the box, explain the meaning behind your name. Atalia Thank you so much for having me. And you actually pronounced the name correctly. So kudos to your best. The meaning behind my name. So first of all, thanks to my parents for choosing such a unique name. It's actually a Hebrew name. I'm originally from, from Israel. And I totally I need Hebrew pronouncing it as a Talia is actually the first claim in Judaism kingdom. So it's a name from the Bible. And it's actually very unique even in Israel. Very cool. Grant Really. The queen in the Bible, I'm gonna have to go look that up. That's awesome. You should. That's very cool. Do we? Do we bow in your presence? Then? Do we do anything like that? Do we do we say Hey, this is me? Atalia No, no, no, no, not not at all. Grant Excellent. Well, thank you. Thank you for taking the time here today. Now as I understand that, I want to make sure I get this right. Your title in your organization is Global Technology Product Advocacy Lead, I actually had to write that down because I can only remember three things. And that's five words in a title, Global Technology Product Advocacy Lead for DataRobot. Did I get that? Right? Atalia Yeah, that's actually correct. Grant What do you do in that role? Atalia So we did a robot. I started as a customer facing data scientist, where I work with customers in different industries, and helping them how to solve complex AI and machine learning problems. And learning from this role, and those use cases. I shifted a bit towards to the advocacy side. So how we tell the technical story of DataRobot, how we educate the market about what's possible. Some of the use cases I implement, and some of the stuff I saw was working on collaboration with our marketing sales. And our customers as well. Grant Okay, got it. So that global part, I think, is critical, because I'm assuming that you go across multiple markets, you're not focused on any one. I gotta believe that gives you a sort of broader industry cross industry view on on AI and machine learning. Is that correct? Atalia Yeah, so I was very lucky to work with different industries in different geographical locations. And obviously, I see a lot of different trends and maturity around AI, where they are in the stage, how are they adopting? What's the process? There, technical knowledge, their technical stage? Yeah. So from United States to Europe to the Middle East. It's really, really interesting. And I'm very happy that I have the opportunity to do so. Grant So that's awesome. What know what got you into this world? What got you into AI and machine learning? Atalia Actually, it's a really interesting path because I started actually the software engineer Not not a, as a data scientist, and over time, obviously the software engineer you work with, with software development, system design, etc, some stuff that you see today in in machine learning operations. And then when I did my masters, I was mostly specific around business intelligence and machine learning. And I learned a lot, it was super interesting. So I took my software skills into a different level. And it's a funny story, because a professor of mine is actually working for DataRobot. And he's one of the main reasons I'm here. Grant Oh, really? Oh, that's interesting. So was the professor already at DataRobot when you were like, Okay, got it. Got it? Atalia Yep, he's still here. His name is Ted Kotler is a world class Person, both on the personality side, and he's a technical knowledge. So I'm very fortunate to work with great people in the company. Grant That's fascinating. I have a similar journey myself, meaning I too, came through the software engineering path, and then sort of stumbled into  through a whole range of things into the whole data science and ML/AI space. So a lot of people certainly do that. But it's sort of a shift in the thinking, isn't it the first time you come into the ML thinking, you're thinking about your data in a much different way. And algorithms and such you're like, wait, okay, I'm solving it. So much different. But I thoroughly enjoy that. All right. So I want to get to some of the ...
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    29 minutos
  • FIR 158: Using AI In Your Product Delivery To Leap Ahead !!
    Dec 15 2022
    In this episode, I talk with the CEO and founder of an organization that has been applying AI to help them develop products. Will AI help you develop your products faster? Come and see. Grant Hey, everybody, welcome to another episode of ClickAI Radio. So today I have this opportunity to speak with one of those brains out there in the market that's being disruptive, right? They're making changes in the industry in terms of not only the problems are solving, but it's the way in which they're solving the problems using AI very fascinating. Anyway, everyone, please welcome Paul Ortchanian here to the show. Paul Hi, nice. Nice, nice of you, happy to be here on the show.  Grant Absolutely. It's very good to have you here today. When I was first introduced to you. And I started to review your material what it is that your organization has put together as fascinated with the approach because I have a product development background and in in the software world. AI was late comer to that right meaning over generations when I saw the approach that you're taking to that I'm interested to dig more into that. But before we do that big reveal, could you maybe step back and talk about the beginning your journey? What got you on this route? And this map, both in terms of product development, and technology and AI itself? Paul Yeah, absolutely. So I started out as an engineer, headed down to San Francisco in the early 2000s. And, and I was more of a thinker than an actual engineer, or just be the type of guy who would figure things out by themselves. But if you were to ask me to really do things that the real things engineers do, you know, creativity was there, but not the solutioning. So being in San Francisco was a humbling experience, I guess, Silicon Valley, you get to see some really, really good engineers. So I had to make a shift in my career. And since I had a passion for user experience, the business aspect, product management was a great fit a function I didn't really understand. And I got to learn and respect, and did that for about 10 years.  In the mid 2000s, and 10s, I basically moved back to Montreal for family reasons and cost of living, of course in San Francisco. And I started a company called Bank Biddick, which in French stands for public bath. And the idea is that most what I realized in Canada was that people here in accelerators, incubators and, and startups just didn't understand what product management was. So they didn't really understand what they do and how they do it. And I saw a lot of organizations being led by the marketing teams, or the sales team and being very service oriented and not really product LED.  So basically, it basically stands for public bath, which means every quarter, you want to basically apply some hygiene to your roadmap, you have a galaxy of ideas, why not go out there and just, you know, take the good ones and remove the old ones and get rid of the dirt. And we started with that premise. And we put we said, well, what does a product manager do on a on a quarterly basis? Because a lot of the material you'll read out there really talks about, you know what product managers should do in terms of personas and understanding the customer's data and this and that, but nobody really tells you which order you should do it. Right. If that was my initial struggle as a product manager, do you try to do it all in the same day and then you realize that there's not enough time? So the question is like in a one quarter 12 week cycle, as my first three weeks should be about understanding the market shifts the industry, the product competitors and and the users and then maybe in the next three weeks working with leadership on making sure that there is no pivots in the organization or there are some some major strategic changes and then going into analyzing the DIS parking lot of ideas and figuring out which ones are short term and re and making business cases in order to present them for, for the company to make a decision on What to do next on the roadmap.  So there is a process and we just call that process SOAP, which goes in line with our public bath theme. So the idea was like, let's let's give product managers SOAP to basically wash their roadmap on a quarterly basis. And, and that's what being public does. And we work with over 40 organizations today so far, on really implementing this product LEDs process within their organizations, we work with their leaders on identifying a product manager within the organization and making sure that marketing support sales, the CFO CEO really understand how to engage with them what to expect from them, and how product manager can add value to to the organization. And so they just doesn't become, you know, this grace towards them as many features as you can pump out, right. Grant Oh, boy, yeah. Which, which is constant problem. The other thing that I've noticed, and I'm wondering if, and I'm sure that your SOAP methodology addresses ...
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    32 minutos
  • FIR 157: How to Be an Entrepreneur AND Hold a Full-Time Job!
    Dec 3 2022
    In this episode I talk with Dr. Pranay Parikh, where we look at the question, how can you do your full time job while being an entrepreneur to fill the gaps that are missing in your life? Grant Hey, everybody, welcome to another episode of Financial Investing Radio. So today I have this opportunity. It's taken us a few times for me to chase him down. He's very busy. Dr. Pranay Parikh. I'm excited to talk with him when I when I first saw the profile on him and realize the journey that he both has done and the one that he's on and his vision of that I got to talk to this gentleman. I'm gonna read his the little clip that I got before even let him say a word. I just want you to hear a little bit about him. Alright, here we go. Okay, hold on. Here we go. It's Dr. Pranay. Parikh is a physician co founder and president of ascent equity group, a serial entrepreneur, we're going to want to ask him about that. Okay, online course creator and host of the MD to entrepreneur podcast, which is really cool. Continuing on his unconventional journey, and I add it is which is what makes us really cool. His unconventional journey to medicine helped him learn the skills to excel in entrepreneurship. He's launched a seven figure online course. And he's bought over $1.1 billion in real estate. Wow. And he's helped hundreds of physicians launch their own businesses. His goal is to help launch 10,000 physician led businesses. That's amazing. So I want to welcome here to the show. Dr. Pranay Parikh. Welcome. Pranay Thanks, Grant. I'm super excited to talk. Grant It's so good to have you here. Now, we were both talking before we got started. We're both in the southwest part of the country. We sort of enjoy that. In fact, I think you and I might have even had our earlier grown up years in the Northern California area. So we got a lot in similar but the key difference is, I am definitely not a doctor. You know, I went bought band aids last night. And it took me awhile just to figure that out. So I'm more of a tech and investing guy. But I am not a doctor guy. But I'm excited to talk to you about this and your journey. So thanks again for being here. Pranay Yeah, super excited to talk to you and your audience.  Grant Okay, now something happened, right? You were growing up and you said, hey, I want to be a doctor and you got moving down that path. But somewhere along that line, well, first of all, what kind of medicine? Have you been practicing? Pranay So I did a residency in Internal Medicine, and I practice hospitalist medicines. So that means if you ever have to spend a night in the hospital, then I'd be your doctor. Grant Okay. Is that is that the same as as an internist? Is that? Is that what that is?  Pranay Yeah, so it's the same residency, but usually what internists do they do outpatient medicine, so you know, your primary care doctor, they do some inpatient, but I'm kind of sub specialized. I only see people in the hospital, the hospital itself.  Grant Okay, got it. Very good. All right. So you were on that journey doing that work. And something happened somewhere along the line, you sort of sat up and said, I need to add something, either to my life or my purpose or my vision on top of this medical route. Tell me about that. What happened? Pranay You know, so it's kind of funny. So to get into medical school, you have to be well rounded, right? You have to be doing all this other cool stuff, right? You can't just be a nerdy like I was really good at Sciences and maths and all that stuff. They want someone you know, reads a lot of the books and does all this stuff. But after you get in all that stuff gets taken away gets subtracted. And it kind of sucks for people like me that like doing a lot of other stuff, but you're so busy in medicine, doing your job learning that there's not much else you can do. So as soon as I got an opportunity to start doing other stuff I did. So for example, in medical school, I used to hold art shows. And then the money that we grades go to the doctors without borders, I was always trying to do stuff that was, you know, a little bit outside the box. So as soon as I graduated finished everything, I was like, okay, what can I do? What? Where can I go and all this stuff that's been suppressed for so long. Grant That's amazing. You talked about Doctors Without Borders, I have a friend just Sunday night I was talking with he, he spent a number of years I think went five times down to Central America, they were taking both dental as well as medical help and support into some of those areas there. It's fun to hear the service and the blessing that that is to people that are missing those things. So you did these art shows that was providing support to them. That's a cool thing. So it sounds like there was either there's altruistic thing that you needed to get filled in your life, right? I mean, something to reach out further, in addition to the work you're doing that led you to doing this kind ...
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    26 minutos
  • FIR 156: Real Estate Returns Too Good To Be True? The Land Geek...
    Aug 6 2022
    Today I had the opportunity to speak with "The Land Geek". Fascinating conversation. He's got over, well over four and a half million downloads on his podcast. He's got some interesting ideas and insights on investing with land that the returns higher than normal, I guess normal, what's normal, higher than, you know, eight 10% return, if you will, returns on these investments. So I'm very excited to have Mark here with me today. Thanks for joining us, we learn the secrets from the land geek. Everybody welcome to another episode of Financial Investing Radio. So I have been chasing this person for some time. He is super busy and has an amazing profile. I hope you take the opportunity to look into what he's done. We're going to be having conversation today with Mark, Oh man, Mark. I didn't even ask at a time. Podolski! Mark Perfect pronunciation. Grant Did I say that? Okay. All right. Very good. Mark. Welcome. Thank you for being here today. I appreciate it. Mark Grant Larsen, an honor. Privilege. Thank you. Grant You know, we found out that we are not too far from each other geographically, which is a real treat. There's some neat, neat things about the part of the country we live in for sure. Mark Absolutely. We've lost our complaining privileges living in Scottsdale, Arizona. Grant That's right. That's right. That's right. Even when it gets a little hot. I've learned to quit Quit complaining about it's not a Houston hot right. Mark Houston hot. It's 80 degrees in the pool.  Grant Yeah, that's. That's right. It's fixable with the pool. That's right, right. Okay, so the land geek, you are known as the land geek, you've done a great job getting your name out there as land geek, not only getting your name out there, but proving a framework. But we'll get to the framework here in a moment. Because what you've done is pretty unique compared to other real estate investing strategies that are out there, of which I actually participate in some of those others, right, but I won't get to that yet. So I'm interested to learn more about what you do here. But let's back up. You were doing what what got you started to say I'm gonna go after land investments in this way. Mark So if we rewind the tape now, to 2000 I was a miserable micromanaged. 45 minute commute to work and back investment banker specializing in mergers and acquisitions with private equity groups. And grant it got so bad for me. I wouldn't get the Sunday blues, anticipating Monday coming around. I'd get the Friday blues, anticipating the weekend going by really fast. And having to be back at work. On Monday. I was pretty much yeah, really blue. So I first hired this guy, and he's telling me that as a side hustle, he's going to tax deed auctions. He's buying raw land, pennies on the dollar. He's flipping them online, and he's making a 300% return on his money. Grant. I'm looking at companies all day long. And a great company great has 15% EBIT on margins are free cash flow, average company's 10%. And I'm looking at companies all day long, less than 10%. So of course, I don't believe them. And I've got three grand saved up for car repairs. I go to New Mexico with them. I do exactly what he tells me to do. I buy 10 Half Acre parcels and average price of $300 each. I flipped them online. And they all sell for an average price of $1,200 each. It worked. So I went to another auction and in Arizona, where we live. And again, this is 2000 There's no one in the room. I'm buying up lots of acreage or nothing. And I sell all that property. You know that what auction I made over $90,000 So I go to my wife. She's pregnant at the time. I said Honey, I'm going to quit My job and become a full time lead investor. And she said, Absolutely not. Yeah. Grant What do you say? And what are you doing on? Mark Yeah. So it took 18 months for the land investing income to exceed the investment banking income. And then I quit. I've been doing it full time ever since. And I absolutely love it. Grant That's incredible. So you just sort of stumbled into it, someone happened to say, they'd already sort of figured this out. Now, it sounds like what you did with that is after you've done this for a while, you've created a system out of this, then is that right? Mark Yeah, I mean, after a while, you start picking up things, and you start seeing, okay, well, how do I make this job, myself. And, really, my whole philosophy is, I can always make more money, I can't get more time. And so we want to use three levers to scale and grow a business, other people's time, software and automation, and other people's money. And so once I combined all three of those, I was really able to grow and work really about 30 minutes a week, in my business. Grant What, 30 minutes, you're at a point now where you work 30 minutes a week on your business? In the business? Yeah, that's amazing. Wow. But it took that scaling, right, took that automation to figure it out the team around you to help take care of ...
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    25 minutos
  • FIR 155: Invest Like The Wealthy To Change Your Life
    Jul 26 2022
    In this episode, I have the opportunity to talk with a self made entrepreneur who's followed the footsteps of her amazing dad, and in the journey has discovered what the tips are that the wealthy use to invest to change your life. Grant Hey, everybody, welcome to another episode of Financial investing radio. So I have been trying to track down this person multiple times and admitted it was my fault. I could not get my calendar right to meet with Stephanie Walter. So glad to have her here with me today. I'm fascinated with her background, what she's done in terms of growing wealth. But before I go any further, Stephanie, welcome. Stephanie Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it.  Grant Yes, this is fun to have you here. Your journey is a fascinating one to me, because it's this journey as I reviewed it, of gathering some financial capabilities, but then not resting on that, but rather using it to leverage for future wealth. So I don't want to give that away because I want I want our listeners to hear this cool journey that you've gone on. But let's rewind. Okay, let's uh, we won't go back to where you were raised as a kid. But let's go back to you get out of school, and you're thinking I'm gonna go do some work. And that led you down a certain path? Would you talk about that? Yeah, I did what like most people do, I got it. I just got a regular job with a corporation. Stephanie I had some interest in insurance. So I became a claims adjuster. And, and I sort of moved up the ranks pretty pretty quickly to where I was working kind of as a liaison between the attorneys in that represented the insurance companies and, and the insurance company. So that was, that was really interesting, but just, you know, working in a corporate setting, I remember that, you know, my pivotal point was I was getting a 2% Raise after my superiors had said, what a fantastic job I was. You're welcome all 2% Did you get to keep all that 2%? Or did you know you got to keep?  Grant That's impressive. Yeah. Stephanie And I went home to my Dad, I just bought a house and was like, Dad, I just, you know, look at how much gets taken out. But with taxes, it was a big learning experience. I mean, well, as you know, I did put, you know, seven years into it, but just realize that, you know, if I'm making these 2% races for the rest of my life, you know, what is that going to look like? And my dad was an entrepreneur, actually, he's a second generation entrepreneur. And he's like, Well, you know, what you're gonna get if you stay in this, but if you go out on your own, you know, really what you build will be up to you. And it's your choice to do what you want to do. And I gave my my two week notice probably the next day, did you really? Oh, wow. That's okay. Wow, a woman a decision and action. That's awesome. Grant So, all right, so you gave you gave the two week notice you left, and then you didn't go to the pool? That's for sure. What did you go though? Stephanie Well, I have a I have a lot of relatives and insurance. And that's kind of how I started in doing in claims to begin with. And so I just knew, you know, the company I was really familiar with, went and signed up with them, took all the classes to become an agent and and just, you know, started started working, you know, right off the bat, state and insurance agent for about 16 years.  See, I started that I'm trying to think of like timeframes, I think it was 2004. And then right around that same time, I kind of decided, you know, with the when the bottom fell out to buy some real estate, single family homes, right in an area in Denver, I'm a native, as I mentioned, where I felt like if there would be growth, from Denver that, you know, over time, these would probably be good, good investments to have. And that was in the Sloan's Lake area if people are familiar. And so I became, you know, a untrained landlord, as well as a business owner at the same time, all in one shot. So quick question. So when you did this transition out of the corporate world, into the entrepreneur going to do myself. Grant How many entrepreneur books did you read before you got started? Stephanie You know, I? I didn't read that many.  Grant Yeah, that's like I could tell you just jumped in and went after it. Right? You got going on. Stephanie I think also my my step up in that area was I'd see my dad growing up who had never, who had always had businesses and so to I never saw him work a nine to five job, you know, have a two week vacation or anything like that. So I had a very good example of what an entrepreneur looks like. And so that's probably why I didn't need to read books. I have since read a lot of books.  Grant But yeah, yeah. But you had a role model, you had a mentor to follow after. Alright, so you go through this journey, you run your real, or excuse me, your insurance agency for 16 years. What happened? Stephanie I mean, as time went on, there was you know, also some distaff ...
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    30 minutos
  • FIR 154: The Secret to Creating Passive Income As A W2 Employee !!
    Jul 25 2022
    In this episode, I have the opportunity to sit down with Christopher Nelson. A technology executive out of Silicon Valley who's figured out the secrets to helping you achieve passive income as a W-2 employee. Grant Hey, everybody, welcome to another episode of Financial Investing Radio. So today I have in the house with me, Mr. Dr. Why don't want to call you. Sophisticated, brilliant. Christopher Nelson is in the house here with me today. I love his subtitles technology executive real estate investor, author, podcast hosts and inventor of the space station. Was that right? Or did I get that right? Christopher I think you may have stretched on the space station. But I you know, space has always been a dream of mine. Right? I am a low tech tech technologist, a bit of a geek. So yes. You can learn more here: WealthwardThrive Community Grant Excellent. Excellent. Well, okay, so let's start with that. technologist geek. What does that mean? What? Tell me about your background? Christopher Yeah. So So my background, you know, interestingly enough, I started with just a love of technology, right? You know, I heard some people tell stories, the other day of how I think exploring and wanting to take apart, you know, televisions and, you know, anything remote controls, understand how they worked. And I just was fascinated, especially as the computer age started taking off. What can we do with these? So, you know, my thought was, I wanted to go to university and I wanted to learn how to become a software engineer, so studied very hard. And then when I went to my first internship junior year, with a large database company, and I was by myself working on this code, I started going crazy. I started thinking, what am I going to do? Like, I, I love this, I do not like this. And it was actually in a job fair that I met somebody who, who had a similar major who was working in technology consulting, he said, Hey, there's different things. It's not all you have to be a software engineer, I solve difficult technical problems with people moving businesses forward. And so that really, I mean, hit a lot of cylinders for me and took me off into technology, consulting, which is where I started my career. Grant That's awesome. I love that background. i It's funny, I didn't know that about you. I had a similar journey. I come through the technology world. But I ended up bouncing from doing my first startup right out of college. Because when you come out of college, I don't know if you know this, but you typically have all the answers, right? So so I jumped, I jumped right into startup, I'm gonna go solve these world problems. Clearly, everyone's having struggle with course, I failed miserably on my first startup. So then I jumped into the technology consulting world with back then one of the big six, you know, in Chicago doing some technology work. But yeah, it's funny, I jumped to the people side of it, also. And that, that was liberating for me, because if I spent all the time just and I love I still code today, don't tell anybody. But I use it as a tool to keep my brain active. But if I had to read every day, all day, I think I'd go crazy. Christopher Right? And, you know, it's, I actually tried to now actually take that message to people, kids graduating from college is the fact that you can actually be involved with technology. And it doesn't have to be this one way like we see, you know, again, media, movies presents this one view, but there's a lot of other things that you can do. And I found that it was great start to my career, to really get me launched. Give me a ton of skills. Give me a great background, because I did I went to work for Accenture, right that came out of one of the you know, the big six became the big four. Yeah, it was, you know, one of the big four back in the day. Well, well, we're constant names.  Grant Yeah, I did. KPMG. So there you go. Yeah, technology. There we go. Wow. Okay, which office were you located? Where were you? Christopher At San Francisco. I mean, I felt like that was a great opportunity because I while I was doing the tech consulting thing I did want to work for high tech, like I wanted to work for companies that were really, you know, moving the needle. And that's actually set me up. So about eight, nine years into my career, I realized that I had this great experience. And this is what I call in my book, Your career capital, which is a combination of your education, your experience and results. And I realized I could actually go trade this for equity in startup companies, because like you said, I've been working for these tech consulting companies, I got that figured out, right? Well, I went to work for my first startup, abject failure, right, I found myself and then a year nursing and Ulster having a bad boss. And I didn't know how I got there. But taking a step back, and I think a lot of us figure out pass through failure. And so I don't think we should fear that. And I ...
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    33 minutos
  • FIR 153: Tax Saving Secrets From An Insider
    Jun 30 2022
    In this episode, I have the opportunity to sit down with someone that has digested and synthesize the tax code and brings the tax saving secrets to you. Grant  Hey, everybody, welcome to another episode of Financial investing radio. So today I have with me someone that just barely met. But as I review, his biography, his profile what he does, it is in one of those places, which I admittedly know so little about, I lean on so many people for help in this area. Now I get to meet with and speak with an expert in the area of how to take it to the tax man. All right, let me welcome Mark Meyers here today. Welcome, Mark. Mark Hey, thank you so much, Grant, I'm excited to chat with you about this. And, you know, hey, if you can keep more of that hard earned profit. It definitely helps in the wealth accumulation realm for sure. So this exciting topic. Grant Boy, for sure. You know, when when you think about taxes and talking about taxes, you know, it's probably right up there with flossing your teeth, right? It's like, oh, everyone should be doing it. Right. But oh, my gosh, do I really want to talk about taxes. Turns out, as I was reviewing some things that you have done to help people, individuals, businesses, really reduce their tax burden. And putting that money, like you said, or leaving that money back in your pocket, suddenly, it becomes really an interesting topic to address. But before you give away any secrets, let's back up. How is it that you got interested in taxes? What is it that even got you to this point?  Mark Grant, you know, it's an interesting story, because I started out my career at the University of Florida, with as an undergrad in exercise physiology, get my Master's in sports management, moved to New York City to manage health clubs, and then moved to Los Angeles to edit, manage more health clubs. And in the process of doing that, I helped a really large high end brand, open a number of different locations. And in that they were they went from a 10 clubs to over 100 clubs. And in that process, I really learn to be an owner operator, every club that I would open or go chant, you know, help return around, I'd have to really be mindful of driving revenue, minimizing expenses, putting the operations in in place, you know, the best practices in place to get the best output. And of course, I was compensated on EBIT margin, so I'd get a base, and then I'd have cash bonus based off of how profitable is the company process, I realized, you know, hey, I might be running health clubs. And I might have a background here, but I have a knack for running companies. And I know there's a lot more opportunity in the financial markets in the financial world, particular to consulting with business owners, that's when I said the light came on after, you know, working well over a decade, you know, 365 days a year, and these clubs are open from, you know, five in the morning till 12 At night, you know, they never got hit. So I'm like, Okay, I'm going to shift gears here and do something fun that can ultimately help other people, and also helped me kind of increase my income opportunity here. Get out of this glass ceiling environment. Grant Yeah. So So you are living this life of just constantly being on right, the lights on, right, because your clubs are on right, the gyms are open, and so you're trying to optimize as much as possible. Talk about school, hard knocks, right? I mean, you learn the lessons along the way, for sure, right? Oh, for sure. Mark I mean, it's one of those things where you know, every penny counts, particularly in that industry. And of course, I worked in a higher end layer. So it was, you know, we're looking at 200 plus dollar a month memberships with spa packages and training and Pilates and Yoga. But at the same time, you still have to be mindful of your margins. That's really, really important. So it was it was a nice experience. It was a nice way to understand how to really learn the p&l, learn the people, learn the drivers, and then of course transitioned over to say, hey, I can speak to business owners, I could speak to those that are looking to, you know, increase efficiency. And there's a lot of opportunity there. So that's kind of where this all kicked off. Grant So in the course of doing this, you start uncovering, I'm assuming, oh, here's a little secret about how I could save a little more money or take some out of the taxes. I imagine over a period of time you started to build up this cadre, or list of or selection of wait, here's some best practices of actually taking the tax back from the tax man and leaving it with you. There's it was it was it that it was a 10 year journey that you invested in to build up that knowledge base? It sounds like, Right? Mark Absolutely. And you know, you really said something important, and it was very accurate in that my, my getting to where I am now didn't happen overnight. In particularly shifting gears, I'd say the last seven or ...
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    26 minutos
  • FIR 152: True Grit To Make A Whole Life
    May 20 2022
    In this episode, I have the opportunity to speak with someone who demonstrates true grit to make a whole life. Grant Everybody welcome to another episode of Financial investing radios. So today I have with me, someone who is more than what you might think she is an expert on whole life. But do you really know what whole life is? She's going to help us to understand what that means. I'd like to welcome Svetlana. Svetlana Thank you so much. It's such a great joy to be here with you and sharing this space. Thank you for having me. Grant Oh, it's so good to have you here. So I had this opportunity to interview your wonderful husband twice. He's so gracious with his time. He's really skilled in the financial markets. I've even gone through a whole bunch of his courses and applied those. And so it's been I'm a Jeremy Newsome fan. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And and while I was talking with him, he said, Hey, have you thought about interviewing my wife? And I'm like, Well, what is she talking about? And says, well, she talks about whole life. And I'm thinking well, yeah, whole life such a critical part of life, no doubt. But let's back up set. Svetlana, would you tell us a bit about your origin story where it all started? And how you got into this business? Svetlana Absolutely. Yes. So I'm originally from Kazakhstan. And I moved to America at 19, turning 20 with big American dream as the $100 in my pocket, and I had an opportunity to come and create opportunities and live here. And it wasn't as easy as I thought it was, right. But it is a beauty of a young person that, you know, be 19 and 20. And so courageous, and so naive in so many ways, making those leaves a lot easier than when we become a little bit older. And we have more things that we start considering. Yeah. And so I was blessed that that time, was that mindset, like, what can happen? I'm just going to go and have all of these dreams come true. Grant I'm just gonna go to America, everything's gonna be fine. Right? Svetlana Exactly, exactly. That was like people are so nice there. And so how cool is the wonderful, and it's really a beautiful way to see the world. And I kind of when I was telling my mother, I will come to America. And in five years, I will have all of my dreams realized, I will have, I will get married and I will have a baby and I will have a beautiful home and nice cars and travels. I will have my papers like all of it. I just kind of described for the life that I created. And I knew like just give me five years, it will take me a lifetime in context and to create those things. Wow. But it'll take me only five years in America. And that is the beauty of an opportunity that exists in this country that most people don't recognize. Because when you're born here, you can't think this is how it is. Grant Yeah, you take it, you take it for granted. I mean, I've traveled the planet for 35 years doing business. You do recognize that when you're in other countries, but it is easy to forget it or not be aware of it. Svetlana Absolutely, absolutely. And so when I came here I was like in a Candyland. Like oh my god I can do all these things like it's so amazing. And to start a business you just go on mine create LLC pays $150 get a business license, build a website and you're ready to go. Right like it's a marvelous back home who do you know who do you pay it on the table? Is it my favorite though because the government like I was just like was so impossible, and it couldn't like believe the ease and I recognize truly that there is only one obstacle, truly one obstacle in us. And it is us in our mind, our mindset. Grant The mindset is the obstacle. Svetlana That's a like there is no actually real worldly obstacles that you have to seriously overcome. And yes, you might have a harder life and different things. And not everyone have the same cards dealt. However, you can I was going to library, right, using the computer in the library, did you write emails and just start doing some things. And I was walking for two years didn't have a car. But that still felt like I'm gonna Candyland. And it was amazing because the hardship that I experienced before in my life. Grant So compared to the hardships that you came from, you looked at this hardship of oh, I have to walk somewhere. Oh, I don't have a computer and in your mind, those weren't showstoppers. Those are just things you're gonna go do because you're pursuing that dream, that vision? Svetlana Yes. And the computer is in the library. And it's on the 20 minute walk. Yeah, I mean, my did it was Las Vegas. 120 degrees in the summer. Still possible was a bottle of water. Grant A bottle of water and maybe a hat or an umbrella. Right. Svetlana Exactly, exactly. And so you know, life started. First couple years were very difficult. And then life started to add folding. And indeed, I got married to this incredible man. And we bought our first home. And we have two BMW in the garage. And we I have a great job. And...
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    30 minutos