322 Curtis May

Jeffrey Feldberg: [00:00:00] Curtis May is the host of the Practical Wealth Show Podcast and the creator and owner of Practical Wealth Advisors. Curtis has been planning for individuals for more than 35 years, and he's passionate about helping his clients save money and live the very best life they can right now.

The primary focus of his financial planning firm is to help individuals and families become financially free by following the principles of wealth creation that have endured for centuries around the world.

And before we hop into the podcast, a quick word from our sponsor, Deep Wealth and the Deep Wealth Mastery Program. We have William, a graduate of Deep Both Mastery, and he says, I didn't have the time for Deep Both Mastery, but I made the time and I'm glad I did.

What I learned goes far beyond any other executive program or coach I've ever experienced. Or how about Bruce? Bruce says, before Deep Wealth Mastery, the challenge I had with most business programs, coaches, or blogs was that they were one dimensional. Through Deep Wealth Mastery, I'm part of a richer community of other successful business owners.

The idea shared [00:01:00] forever changed the trajectory of the business and best of all, the experience was fun. And we'll round things out with Stacey. 

Stacey said, I wish I had access to the Deep Wealth Mastery before my liquidity event, as it would have been extremely helpful. Deep Wealth Mastery exceeded my expectations in terms of content and quality.

And you know what, my Deep Wealth Nation, why they're saying this is because Deep Wealth Mastery, it's the only system based on a nine figure deal. That was my deal. And as you know, I said no to a seven figure offer, and I created a system that we now call Deep Wealth Mastery that helped myself and my business partners, welcome from a different buyer, a different offer, a nine figure exit.

So if you're interested in growing your profits, preparing for a future liquidity event, if that's two years away or 20 years away, and you want to optimize your post exit life, Deep Wealth Mastery is for you. Please email success at deepwealth. com. Again, that's success, S U C E S, at deepwealth. com. We'll send you all the information about Deep Wealth Mastery, otherwise known as [00:02:00] Scale for Ultimate Sale. That's where you want to be. You want to be with other successful business owners, entrepreneurs, and founders just like you who are looking to create market disruptions.

And they want to lock in their financial freedom and have success and fulfillment. 

That's the 90 day Deep Wealth Mastery Program. It has your name on it. All you need to do is take the next step. Send an email to success at deepwealth. com.

Welcome to the Deep Wealth Podcast. You heard it in the official introduction. We have a fellow business owner, a podcaster, a thought leader, and someone who's going to have you walking out a whole lot more appreciative of the strategies that you have right now today in front of you to have you wealthier than you really think you are.

So Curtis, welcome to the Deep Wealth Podcast. An absolute pleasure to have you with us. And Curtis, as they say, there's always a story behind the story. What's your story, Curtis? What got you from where you were to where you are today?

Curtis May: So my story is I am a product of personal development, of investing in your, what I told people, your number one asset is yourself. Okay. And so [00:03:00] I'm a crazy reader. I realized about 10 years ago, I was really in the marketing business. So I went in on that, the Dan Kennedys, the Jay Abrahams of the world.

And, you know, it's like hard work. I guess I had aptitude for it because I'm a second generation business owner and I never got that go to get a good job talk.

And so I actually got into the financial business that I'm in, in college, in 1985. I was a junior in college. I realized the NBA was not looking for 511 shooting guards. And that's how I got into this business. I was horrible. Okay. But I stuck with it. And I liked learning and that's where I had a kind of epiphany, I'll go into it like 1999, where I realized what I was doing wasn't quite the best thing I should be talking to clients about after I read Rich Dad, Poor Dad.

And then I kind of my whole philosophy about money and financial planning and investing.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Love that. So before we get into the whole financial planning and [00:04:00] investing, let me circle back to something that you said, because I'm always curious about this. Really entrepreneurs, founders, whatever you'd like to call us, business owners. It's a different mindset. It's a different way of thinking. And it's not that often that I hear, Oh yeah, Jeffrey, I am a second generation entrepreneur or a business owner.

So what did that mean for you exactly in the sense of, well, how did that shape how you grew up, how you looked at the world?

Curtis May: Yeah. It's funny because we've always signed, my dad always signed the front of the check, right? So. Employ other people. So I didn't have that go get a good job thing. and my dad also always, he used to always say, never making money work for somebody else. So I never viewed a job as a good thing.

So that shaped, so I was the type that always had. Little hustles, right? So, seeds in the back of the comic books, you know, I remember our baseball team sold chances to raise uniforms because we didn't want those crappy city uniforms they gave the team, and, you know, brush like fuller [00:05:00] brush type stuff seventh or eighth grade.

I mean, you know, so you're all, I was selling t shirts and stuff for a sporting goods store in college. I sold the programs. At, you know, the basketball players sold programs in the stadium at the football games, right? and I'm not really extroverted, but I had a vision of control.

I realized that people that were, I don't know when I knew this, but I wanted, I don't like people telling me what to do. And then I started to realize that people that make the most money are in the part of the business that brings in the revenue. 

I've worked, and I've worked jobs, but I always view a job as a temporary inconvenience.

Robert Allen said, a job is a temporary inconvenience. This is in creating wealth, I think, to give you the cash flow you need to, you get your thing together. So, or Jim Rohn says, wages make you a living, profits make you a fortune, but you earn your living by day. And you work on your fortune at night and on a weekend.

So I did that for probably six or seven years. probably I went full time prematurely, I said, dad, I think I [00:06:00] want to do this. He said, oh, okay, go ahead. Just make money.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Terrific. And so let me ask you this, so being on both sides of the fence, you know, growing up in an entrepreneurial family and hearing things, grooming you for this life, and now being in the seat as a business owner, as an entrepreneur, for our members of the community. It's a first generation business, and they either plan to have the family come into the business or like your childhood, they want their children not to get a, call it a J O B.

When I speak to my daughters, Hey, there's a J O B, and then you have a business that you can start. And so for our community members that want their children to become entrepreneurial, start a business. What advice would you give to them? What worked for you growing up? What didn't work for you of, Hey, do this.

But you know what? Hold off on these few things here.

Curtis May: The world's changed, right? Like, So even when you want your kids to be in business, if you send them to public school and to college, You better watch this, they're going to come out Marxist so, so you got to kind of be in there, try to give them stuff to read because it's not that easy.

I cause you see [00:07:00] it, right? I saw it every day, right? I also saw the things like. It's July, we get a 1, 300 ice cream order, and the freezer's malfunctioning, and my dad's frantically trying to get this freezer going, because it's 1, 300 melting on the July summer floor,

In the store.

So I saw, kind of processed it, because I remember on the price tags, I'm wondering why he's so upset. now I get it. It's not all bright lights and glamour, right? but you gotta show them both sides of it.

But one of the things my dad used to do to me when I had worked, he would So, one time I was working at this clothing store and I was like, Dad, I didn't want to work at our business. We had a bar at that time. We were out of, we were in a supermarket business and we had a bar and I didn't really want to do that.

so I was working at this clothing store and I said, well, I do this with my kids now. I said, could you, I, Dad, I hate it here. I said, could you run a clothing store if you wanted to?

And he would reframe me and says, well, I says, I don't know. Well, pay attention. And then I went to work looking at [00:08:00] it a different way.

How did the owners spend money? What did they do? What were the salesmen come out? What was the markup? So how did the, you know, I would break it down. So I have a daughter right now, she's working and she wanted to be in the music business. All right, you're working at a small firm. How does it work? Don't tell me you want more money.

Where does money come from? Money comes from, you have to create more value so they have revenue to pay you. Cash. Flow or checks don't come from some magic direct deposit machine out the sky. I mean, you have to stop by. Something's got to be sold. Somebody's got to make money. So you need to understand that.

I try to really work at them even if they start out working, as I told my daughters, you know, you you need to work because you don't know how to work yet. You can't work. Oh, Dad, I can work for you this summer. You don't even know what I do.

You need to figure out what you don't like first.

And people tell you what to do. You want to ask for time off and people tell you, you need to get beat up a little bit first. You're not, they may come back and see me when you're about 25.

Jeffrey Feldberg: So really what I'm hearing you say, my takeaway on this part [00:09:00] is get the next generation, get them involved early, explain things to them. Don't assume, have them see for themselves what it's like, come to their own conclusions, but really be there mentoring the guide on the side or the coach along the way that's helping

Curtis May: Everything's a lesson. And then. \ , Play cash flow with them. , Are you giving them, I've had them read Rich Dad, Poor Dad, The Richest Man in Babylon at eighth grade, How to Win Friends and Influence People. So, you know, I want to groom them for communication and leadership and paying attention I would say you got to toughen up.

You know, Y'all are all little cream puffs. It's hard out here and nobody cares about, my dad used to tell me, look, business and feelings have nothing to do with each other. So you need to get over your little feelings. Okay. And what needs to get done? Okay, and your most common is you ain't going to feel like it,

Jeffrey Feldberg: Sure.

Curtis May: so you got to do it anyway.

So that's the kind of stuff, it's, I coached her in soccer and I coached track and so even when I coach, it's the same thing. I try to get them, listen, everybody don't get a trophy.

You have to put the reps in, you have to do the work. That's what I carried over from basketball in [00:10:00] business is that, you know, the ability to learn to prepare to win.

Which is what you have to have your kids do, is, that, takes work to win. If you want to be a good basketball player. When I was in eighth grade, I read George Gervin shot 600 shots a day. Guess what I started doing? Colby shouts a thousand shots a day, or tennis balls, or whatever.

So whatever it is you're going to get good at, you have to work at getting good. That's why I tell my kids, all right? So that's why I'll tell your kids, you put them in front of me. So,

Jeffrey Feldberg: Awesome. Lots of takeaways, great takeaways for us as we really mentor and raise the next generation. And from one topic, it's actually a perfect segue into the next. There's a bank. I love the slogan this bank came up with, and it really applies to what we're going to be talking about today. And Curtis, the saying from this bank, the slogan from the bank is you're richer than you think.

And I suspect that's the case for us as business owners, but we don't necessarily realize it or understand it. So why don't we start with this? Is it Pareto's law that's going on, the 80 20 rule when you're [00:11:00] working with entrepreneurs, business owners, founders, is it the same 20 percent of the, really the challenges, the root causes that's causing the 80 percent of the problems or the, really the myths that people are buying into what's going on there, where are we getting it wrong?

Curtis May: ooh, where do we start? So, yes. It's most of it. So what happens is it's a couple of things. I'm gonna try to boil it down to a couple of points. So one, most wealth is lost by how people or businesses manage cashflow. Okay. And so if they do it at all, they're looking at their P and L's or in your household, they'll look at your budget, but that's like driving a car.

Looking through a rear view mirror,

Jeffrey Feldberg: Okay.

Curtis May: right? And so what you want to do is you need to tell your money where to go instead of asking where it went, right? So in our program, we teach something called cash flow mapping, but just in the general terms, I'll start a book so you can y'all can check it out.

It's called Profit First.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Sure.

Curtis May: Okay, so we don't [00:12:00] take profit first. We think that, you know, we do, you know, as Macalus would say, you know, we go, all right, income minus revenue equals profit. No, it's income minus profit. You have to pay yourself first. I don't care if it's one percent.

You need to pay yourself and you need to take a salary because the business will eat up all the money you give it. So the first thing, you're not intangible about money management, okay. The second thing I find is that most people are taught to chase returns, okay. And so they'll let typical financial people sell them investments and solo 401ks and sell them things.

That send money away from their business, but your number one investment is your business. So why would you lock money up for 10, 20 years where you need liquidity, use and control of your capital so that, because if you put a dollar in business, in marketing, in a product development. And you make 2, that's 100 percent return.

Like, I don't know where you're going to get that anywhere else [00:13:00] in something that you understand, something that you control. So we abdicate because we think people are smarter than us. Y'all, you make more money than people you're talking to, right? And they're trying to sell you stuff and you, but you need to, you want to be risked.

That's the other thing. And I think the other part is that we've got it. You've got to get around people. That challenge you? People that like Kennedy calls 'em civilians, like you can't hang around civilians. Civilians are people with jobs, right? You can't do what they do because it's lonely. They can't, you're thinking about how you can grow your revenues, make this month and see if we can double it and go from, 30,000 a month to 50,000.

Now that's not your money, right? 'cause you've got all these other expenses, but you're trying to grow revenue. But if you talk to that with a person, with a job, they're looking at it like you're crazy. Oh, you're greedy. You can't hang around people like that because if you talk to, if you're in a group with us, we don't, okay, well, what do you need to do?

only want 50, 000 that month? What could you do to get 75? I mean, so you want people that will where you're on a [00:14:00] regular basis in a mentorship group, like we're talking about before we start recruiting, where you're around bigger brains. Like, I always strive to be the dumbest person in the room, right?

So, I'm always trying to

Jeffrey Feldberg: Great advice. Yes.

Curtis May: Get in a new room because you can't expand your own thinking.

Jeffrey Feldberg: And so I get that. I know as business owners, we hear that all the time. Okay. Pay yourself first. Look at what's coming in. Don't look at it, you know, big picture wise profits, revenues, it's the cashflow. Practically speaking though, Curtis, what do we begin to do? Because the common narrative, we don't do this and I'm just going to use some really round, easy numbers.

We can fill in the blanks. It's the same story though. You know, The business is chugging along. The business owner has become accustomed to that lifestyle and everything's working. But then the business starts to do a little bit better. The growth is up. Maybe nudge, nudge, wink, wink. They've gone through the 90 day Deep Wealth Mastery Program.

Profits are now growing off the charts. They're doing really well. And all of a sudden lifestyle starts to really nudge up there. It begins to increase. We're not really looking at the cashflow. And even though [00:15:00] the money perhaps is coming in, we have other obligations, other business expenses, and a lot of times.

We'll have entrepreneurs put themselves out of business because of the, really, they're not minding their own business of how they're spending the money, what they're doing and the whole cashflow side. So what would be some strategies?

Curtis May: Okay, so first you've got to be aware of Parkinson's Law, right? Which you described, what I call Parkinson's Law, that says expenses rise to meet income, we call it what our clients, you've got to create a lifestyle ceiling. So you've got to know what your life costs.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Okay.

Curtis May: you, because it's easy to get creep, if you have big jumps you all of a sudden you buy a bigger car, you go on better vacations.

But I think we lose sight of the goal of being in business, right? What is the goal? To become. Financially independent, right? And so it's not cashflow. It's to become financially free, free, independent of the business. So now I'm going to talk about, say, people think they're going to get these big cash outs and get this big payout at the end of the day and sell the business.

Listen, you need to be coming wealthy. While you're [00:16:00] running the business you may not need to sell it. If you create a business that works, A I E, Michael Gerber style, then you don't need to sell it. You can just, you know, go to, I tell people, look, build a business. Like, Go to McDonald's and ask, hey, is the owner in?

Oh, I can talk to him. You'll never see them, right? the business is the system. So, you have to McDonaldize it. That's what I would say from The e myth, right? You should e myth your business, okay? Now, but the other thing is, let's give a tactical thing, all right? So, one of the things that I teach people is we create a wealth capture account, whether they have a job or they have business where you, all right, if I have, let's say, 10, 000 revenue coming that week, I off the top save 15 percent of that.

I get my account, I sweep it over into the Wealth Capture account, we do something else called Becoming Your Own Banker, and I sweep that money into that strategy, but that's, we'll do that in a second if you want. But you gotta tell your money where to go, and then I pay myself,

Jeffrey Feldberg: Mhm,

Curtis May: 35%. I set aside 15 percent for taxes.

Like you can't [00:17:00] just have money sitting in one account. So you tactically either have to automate it or you've got to, when money comes in, you got to segment it. And then you've got to, that's separate. That's from the business. Then you've got lifestyle. You got to do the same thing. I mean, so that's the first thing I do with people.

We got to, A, we got to separate church and state, right? We got to make sure that you're not commingling. . All right. And then you've got to say, all right, well I got the business has gotta pay for itself. Okay, then it's gotta pay me. So it's gotta pay you for the you have a mortgage, right? .. You have kids in private school.

Maybe you've gotta, so you've gotta kind of, what does that cost? What does your life cost to? So you gotta look, see financial literacy. Jeff is accounting. The numbers tell a story, so you've got to know the story your numbers are talking to you. So your bookkeeper should be your best friend. Not even necessarily your accountant.

The accountant too, but the bookkeeper you need to look at your numbers, not every three months. Like, You gotta look at your numbers like, [00:18:00] twice a month, every, I just do mine every week. I still do mines every week and I'm in financial services. I need to know, right? I need to know how much I'm saving.

Are you watching your labor costs? It starts there. It's like, you know, it starts at the point of when the money hits your account. You have to pay attention to that because if you can't control your income statement, somebody will always control you.

Jeffrey Feldberg: so Curtis, let me ask you this, because it sounds like you've taken from the profit first regime, you've done some things there, perhaps you've really customized it for your own. So to put you on the personal spot here for just a moment, because you went through it quickly, but for yourself, so when a dollar comes in or a hundred dollars, fill in the blank, a thousand dollars, whatever it is what are the percentages and what are you calling those accounts that you're

Curtis May: okay, now you gotta do it different for every business because I'm virtual, so I have got... You know, Not as much overhead, but, so, like, money hits Curtis's account, or perhaps a wealth account, 15 percent goes into the, what I call, profit or wealth capture, okay? So, draw like, a box. So, income account, then I'll put a box, [00:19:00] and it'll say profit.

So, boom, 15%. I got a large amount I work with out in Denver. We started his at 2%, so it really depends on your business, because overhead is higher, okay? But then I have another account I have for what I call variable expenses. Okay, so payroll is variable, because that can fluctuate

Going to staples, so I might use a business credit card or something like that for things that fluctuate that are unpredictable in both timing and amount, so I have an account for that, right?

I have an account for taxes, so I take 15 percent off the top, you have to look at your business, but I'll set aside in a tax account to pay my estimated taxes every quarter. I got a young guy right now who's coached on his business, he jumped up, he's got an e commerce business, he made 300 something thousand dollars, got a 20, 000 tax bill, and he doesn't have the money for it, he's got to be in a payment rate, and I said, okay, we're going to fix this, and you won't ever have that again if you listen, so I set aside 15 percent for taxes, then I try to run the business, that and the [00:20:00] variable account on like 35 40%, and I pay Curtis 35%. Okay. And then that money goes into, I have personal accounts and I have a whole separate program for that. So that's the business money. So I would look at my, McAloy's calls it TAPS. I've kind of created our own system because I integrate it with a cashflow management I teach called Infinite Banking.

So one of the things that I do is where in the book, he says, all right, you got your tax account and you've got your profit account. Now send them over to another bank. Out of sight, out of mind. I don't, and then take it out, right? So we call that drain the tank. So if you keep putting money in, taking it back out, you're going nowhere because, compound interest works best over time uninterrupted, right?

And so if you save up, you got 10, 000. Then I don't want to just write that check to the Treasury Department, that's a wealth transfer. So they're happy, but my money's gone. And so the other thing businesses don't do is they don't really teach opportunity costs. [00:21:00] Like, What would the money be worth had you not given it away?

 So how I kind of reconcile that, how can I fix that? I don't like that philosophy. So I created. We use Properly Structured Whole Life as a banking system, so what I do is I store my cash there, so when I have the estimated payment due, I take a policy loan against one of the policies, I pay the tax, or I pay the big ticket item or whatever, and then I create a payback plan back to the Bank of Curtis and then I recycle the same money, so at the end of the year, I have my capital and all of the taxing authorities are happy.

Jeffrey Feldberg: So, what I got and for our listeners, we have the profit or wealth capture, and 15% of whatever's coming in goes there for the rainy day. You called it variable expenses, but the rainy day account, just unexpected things. It's gonna happen. We don't know what, but we know it is gonna happen.

Another 15% taxes, another 15%, so we're up to around 45%, give or take. And then you have one [00:22:00] of the most important, the Curtis account, pay yourself account. And that's at around 35%. So if my math is right, that's taking us up to, what is that? 80, 80%, 90%, give or take. And then you're saying the income account would round it out in, and that's, I guess, 

whatever's left 

Curtis May: the income account is where all the money flows in and then you disperse it. So the 35 percent for operations,

I use that money. And then I move some of that into the variable account. So I'm doing the variable. And the fixed account are together, but I try to leave enough money for the things that I know I have to pay.

And then I set aside money for things that come up, but that's all out of the 35%.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Got it. And so what I like about this, once it's set up, yes, it's time, perhaps even a little bit of a hassle to set up. Once it's set up though, you don't even think about it and it's just done and it protects us from us because we're likely the biggest obstacle. So let me ask you this, Curtis. I can imagine a [00:23:00] listener saying, okay, yeah, Curtis, Jeffrey, I hear you on that sounds way too complicated, or I'm too busy, I don't have the time.

So, if I'm coming to you, Curtis, okay, Curtis, yeah, I heard you on the Deep Wealth Podcast. I want to work with you, help me plan this out so it can be effortless and I'm really paying myself and I'm building a really brighter financial future. What does that look like? As we begin to work together, how long does it take and what are we doing?

And let me preface that by saying, I know you can say, well, Jeffrey, it really depends. Every person's different. There are certain, there are circumstances, there are situations. It's going to vary, but, roughly speaking, generally speaking, what are we looking at in terms of

Curtis May: Yeah. So I, it's funny cause it's two parts to it. So the first thing, if they're a mess, like it's, before we get into like. the other thing I do is called principle based financial planning, but you're about to bleed out. So I need to throw you on the table and plug the holes, right? Pull the bulls out, plug the holes, right?

So what we're going to do is what is simple, what's coming in, what's going out. you have to be in touch with that. And then we look, the first thing I look for is that, but really [00:24:00] where leaks are. Are some things called wealth transfers, right? So if I'm looking at person's situation, then there's like 15, but the top five are outside of the cash flow management is how you pay your mortgages,

Jeffrey Feldberg: Huh.

Curtis May: taxes,

Jeffrey Feldberg: Okay.

Curtis May: how you fund retirement plans.

How you pay for like, educational expenses, and how you finance things, what we call major capital purchases, which is, we say anything that you can't pay for in full within your cash flow is a big ticket item, and there's more money lost in those five things, Then you'll ever make trying to pick winning investments.

So what I look for, so if you think of you got money coming in and you're trying to fill a bucket up, your money bucket up, but you got holes in the bottom, right? Debt, taxes, opportunity costs. Okay and so, what I am is the whole plugger guy, because when I see your financials, I see different stuff than you see so we're getting together, I'm looking at your finances, and [00:25:00] my mind, I have a, either I have a mental checklist, or I write right out, I'll go, okay, taxes, yo, do I have a tax paddy, where are they over, Pay, are they, for example, if you're trying to pay your mortgage off too soon and you're sending extra payments in to pay your mortgage, that's a complete waste of money in 2023.

If you understand taxes and mortgages and inflation, that's a waste of money, okay? How people are funding their qualified plans. You're deferring taxes. You're not saving money in taxes. So most tax people say, oh, listen, you know, let's put, you put 50, 000 into a SEP to save 10, 000 in taxes. I mean, no, and then lock money up for 20 years that you can't touch without jumping through a bunch of hoops.

It makes no sense.

And again, that you're following the path of the job person. You can't do that stuff as a business owner, right? And then educational expenses, 529 plans and stuff. You're all you're doing is make it more expensive for you, to go to school by doing typical advice. And then financing, 35 percent of every dollar is leaving your personal and [00:26:00] business economy in financing costs and debt to others.

So if you could build a pool of capital that you control, you can be the bank and you can redirect that 35 percent back to you. So you don't even make more money, you've got to stop giving money away. And so if you're going to create maximum wealth, you have to create maximum efficiency.

Jeffrey Feldberg: .. I like that. Maximum wealth. Maximum efficiency. We do the same thing in business. It's the same thing. If we want to grow the profits, we. Well, we can go out and work harder, or we can work smarter, become more efficient, and it goes right down to the bottom line.

Curtis May: And so even on the business side, I'm a big fan of Jay Abraham. And what are the three ways I've added forth? Four ways to grow revenue, right? Get more leads. The most time when you're getting advice from marketing people, you get people that are selling you media, right? and it's hard to grow just on getting more customers, getting more lead flow.

But what if you can increase your conversions?

What if you can increase the customer value, charge more, raise your prices, cross sell, up sell, and then the fourth way is [00:27:00] retention, right? Keeping the people, everybody, they just go get new ones, what's the ones that, keep the ones you already have, sell them something else.

Add continuity, you know, membership to that on the back end and see, so, if you, so think about this, if you're a business, because I happen to be the business owner that knows both sides of that, right? I start with, let's keep it, And then I have another program where, all right, now we've kind of plugged the holes.

Now let's turn on the faucet and now you can get more money coming in, which are, you know, we teach a program called seven steps to more sales. There's things that you can do without spending new money on advertising. It's all about efficiency.

We try to help people improve their finances. Without, I'm not the go, you can't go to Starbucks guy, or you can't go on vacation. You're wasting money in so many other places. You can't win focused on scarcity, right? You have to turn, you have to focus on prosperity. You can't scrimp your way to financial freedom, you know, and you're not fun to be around, you're unhappy, you [00:28:00] know. dan Sullivan from Strategic Coach says, if you want to double your income, you have to double your time off. So, as business owners, you need to. Relax. You need to get away. You need to go on vacation now because you're the lead driving all this stuff. Who motivates the motivator?

Jeffrey Feldberg: Makes a lot of sense. I love that abundance thinking or prosperity thinking. It's all around. The mindset is a game changer. Let me ask you this and it's putting you on the spot or maybe easy for you. We'll see where this one lands. If a listener coming out of this episode. Could do one strategy, one strategy only that would really make a difference for them.

And again, Curtis, I know everyone's different and it's subject to that person's circumstance and situation. But again, generally speaking, if there is one strategy before a listener goes on to that next activity, the next phone call, email meeting, what could that one strategy be that you'd recommend that can really move the dial?

Curtis May: The first, what you gotta do is stamp on your brain, part of all I earn is mines and keep. And so, philosophically, you got to pay yourself first, right? [00:29:00] Now, here's how you do that, though. So, what I have people do is the first thing that we help them create is a wealth capture account, right? So, that's just a checking account or checking a savings account.

And so, if they're working, so that goal for that is 15%, right? So, if you're earning 100, 000 a year WII, then I want you to... 15, 000, you get paid 26 times, that's like 5. 78 a pay or something like that. I want you to make that automatic and drop that into your Wealth Capture account. If you're 100 percent in business or if you got a little bit of both, then you're going to have to do it manually or set it up so that X amount is swept from You can't just put your business account into this account because it's not a willpower thing.

Savings has to be automatic and systematic, right? It can't be after I pay my bills, I'll see what I have left over. It has to be intentional and it has to be a forethought. But what'll happen is if you just do that, you'll see how you can get by on 85 percent of [00:30:00] what's coming in

And you'll, all of a sudden, you'll see this money piling up because it's separate from your other stuff.

You're still running your business, your household. Psychologically, it's like, wow, you know, I didn't think I could do that. You'll want to put more if you start another revenue stream, you should say 15 20 percent of that, and now you've got your emergency and opportunity capital, and now you've got it.

You're thinking prosperous, so you're now thinking, what business can I buy? What other down payment do I need for this apartment building? But you need capital to do that. But the number one problem I see, Jeffrey is, lack of access to capital, you know, and you need, you know, because when can I start investing?

Six months, six to 12 months of your income is what I want. And so, but that starts with paying yourself first.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Interesting. You know, Again, as you're going through that, really what it comes back to is having a foundation, having a system, having what I like to call rituals. When it's a ritual, when it's a system, we don't have to think about it. We protect ourselves from [00:31:00] ourself and things just happen. And really in the blink of an eye, we look, Oh my goodness, look at how compound interest, the eighth wonder of the world, look at what a difference it's made, or look at this.

I have some more investment dollars that I can put into here or there. And I'm furthering my wealth or getting it for the next generation. But again, I'll use the E word effortless or effortlessly, we're doing all that because of systems that you're helping your clients create and get that out there.

Let me ask you something. So when you begin to work with a client and they put the systems in place, are there some success stories, naming names or getting too personal? Are there some general themes that you

can share with 

Curtis May: Yeah, so we focus what they tell me I do is so what our framework is, we teach is that principles. Drive strategy drives tactics. Okay, so I teach the five principles of personal finance. Save, protect, you got to play defense, maximum protection legacy, liquidity,

Jeffrey Feldberg: Uh

Curtis May: And velocity.

[00:32:00] Okay, so I don't focus on accumulation or compound interest, you know, compounding is part of it, but it's really Emphasis on cash flow. So I'll give you let me see. Let me think. Let me think. So, all right, here's a woman. She was a therapist. She making about 120, 000 a year. She's on my website. So I interviewed her about it.

And set up bank, but I started her with this. I said, all right, we got to create your wealth coordination account. We call it in our system. And I got her saving. I got her protection in place. She had two kids, but what she did in our first meeting, she says, well, I want to buy real estate.

She had all this stuff. She's all over the place. I said, well, listen, what is your fastest path to cash? Well, I do have this Therapy business on the side.

I said, what's this make? I'll make it about 3, 000 a month. Okay. Do you, on a scale of one to 10, what do you know about the stock market?

She goes, nothing. Okay. So that's not where you should be spending your time, is it? And on a scale of one to 10, how you know, how much you know about real estate? Not that much. So I told her the story that I got from my mentor at a [00:33:00] similar story. I told her about this guy at dinner practice using my system, personal life planning that I teach.

And most people would have tried to have him put money in stock markets, so he had, we looked at his numbers, so he had a half million dollars of, on his preference P& L on his business, he paid himself 175, 000 a year, had a decent amount of savings, so he spoke to his advisor, my mentor, about, hey, you know, He said, look, I see this 200, 000 practice management program for a year, and you think I should do it.

He goes, yeah, I think you should do it, so he did it. So, one year later, his business He paid himself 300 grand. His net profit was like 1. 3 million.

And he was in the process of buying another practice. This was within 12 months. So I told my person that story. So we come back for our first or second meeting.

She goes, Mr. May, I did what you said. I was like, I don't remember saying anything. What did I say? Oh, I, she looked [00:34:00] at companies that helped. Therapist, grow their business,

She goes, well, how much is it? It's six grand. you think I should do it? So I never answered a direct question.

Okay. Cause it's your money, you're grown, right? I said, well, listen, what's a client worth to you? So she told me, I was all about 3, 000. I was like, okay, well, so can you make your money back? So Fannie, now she hated her job. I told her to hang in there.

I wanted to get her savings up. She left it in six months. She's doubled her income and we're still, she's still doing the principles that we talked about. But what happened was she said, I changed how she thought because I have them focused on cashflow. Here's another quick one. Got young guy, real estate investor, got laid off from his job.

We taught him the, how to be the bank strategy. So he was doing that. And he's on my, we do Saturday like, educational calls like, study groups. And we were talking about, I'm always challenging him, what are you doing to make more money? What are you doing to make more money? So, we were on a call, we started talking about rental cars, right?

Toro and, the other one's called Hire A Car. So, he calls me, this is month before last. And [00:35:00] Kurt said, I just bought a car. I said, really? yeah, we were talking about it on the call, what did you hear about it? Oh, your call. And he bought a 6, 000, took a loan against his insurance policy, bought a, 2010 Nissan Sentra for six grand, put it out on hire car, within two days it was rented at 38 a day, okay, now it's been out for like a month and a half, look, if you just rent it out for 25 days a month, that's 950 a month, okay, so with a 6, 000 investment, he's actually making cash flowing more than his real estate, okay, so I told him, look, I'm cash flow agnostic, as long as, you know, you're creating value in the marketplace, have at it and so, and then guess what, the last month he bought another one, so now he's, created in two months Almost 1, 900 a month in passive income from a, what, 12, 000 investment.

And so what we talk about is, I don't talk about net worth or ROI, rate of return on in stock market. We focus on cash flow. Our goal, you can't eat equity, right? So [00:36:00] my goal is to get them out the rat race. We say passive income, twice your expenses. So all our messaging is on, are you growing your cash flow?

Are you growing the net profit of your business? So that's what we focus on, because that's what you can control.

Jeffrey Feldberg: And Curtis, as you're going through this, what's becoming abundantly clear, pun intended with abundantly, what's abundantly clear is you are taking what people already have, but you're doing it in such a way you're putting some things over here, you're reserving some things over there, but at the end of the day, really without much time, without much effort, you're not asking them to go out, become a different person or start a whole other business.

So you are going back to that old slogan I was saying, you're showing them how they really are richer than they think if, and it's a big one, if they can follow your system and your plan, stop doing some things, start doing more of other things. And almost magically it begins to add up. And some of your examples, it was 1, 900, but it could be 190, 000.

Really the [00:37:00] numbers are irrelevant. The system

Curtis May: yes, the system works, and it's for all successful people. This is Ray Dyer, Operate. By principles, And so that way, if you didn't have principles, everything that came at you would be like new for the first time, wondering what to do. But one of the things that we teach is investing is about becoming something, not about buying something, right?

And so actually financial plan precedes the investment or the business plan. That's what business owners miss. See, whatever business, real estate, they're vehicles. To get you from point A to point B. But where is point B? What do you want and why? That's the plan, right? And what's the best vehicle that you like?

And you understand because we teach the three rules of investing, invest in what you know, or invest in knowing, okay? Invest in what you can control or influence the outcome of, and don't chase returns, see? Because see, most people are chasing returns, that's not investing, that's [00:38:00] speculating. Most people are speculating with 95 percent of their money because they're listening to Wall Street.

And so, you know, we want you to, if you don't know, then... You need your best thing to invest in is masterminds, reading, I teach people to read 10 to 15 pages of a good book a day, podcast, that doesn't cost anything because, Jim Rohn would say, most people don't have a money problem, they have a philosophy problem so everybody gets bored with all this mindset stuff, I'm telling you, you don't fix that and if you don't, during the basic two principles of the richest man in Babylon, pay yourself first and spend less than you make,

You can't win, right?

I'm telling you. I don't even know what to tell you. You can't win.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Time proven strategies and principles that have been around literally for eons. We just put different words around them. Times have changed, but the principles haven't. Curtis, let me ask you this, because we could literally go down

all these different areas You know, forget an episode, it could be an entire series, but let me ask you this.

Before we go into wrap [00:39:00] up mode, is there a question that I didn't ask or a topic that we haven't covered or even a message you want to get out to the community before we go into the wrap up question here?

Curtis May: So we talked about the principles, the three rules of investing and cash flow management. I think that's the, that's where I start people before I even get, because the framework is principles drive strategy. So a lot, for example, a lot of people hear about the concept of, you know, being your own bank and infinite banking, which is using properly structured dividend paying whole life as a play store liquidity, but that's not.

That's a process like, that's a money management system, and then tactics are products that you buy, and so most people lead with product, but there's no product that will win for you, in and of itself, that's, see, anybody saying that is full of crap, there's no product, it's because your number one asset is you, how do you think, how do you use it, what's your philosophy, that is what's going to take you to glory, so I'd really want to drive that home, it's like, it's you as the [00:40:00] artist, Figure out what you want and why, and then playing towards your, as Dan Sullivan said, your unique ability and, you know, figuring out, cause investing is asset class.

So you look at the four, 400, who's on that list? They build businesses and they buy real estate. They don't usually get there, like investing in what you would call stock. Now they'll do paper is a private lending. Paper is tax liens, paper is life settlements notes. I got clients that buy, you know, they don't buy the real estate, they buy the mortgage.

So, but you have to become a note investor. So, it goes back to, it's B. Become, then do, then have. Everybody wants to skip the being, because that's work, and everybody gives you this, oh, just hit the easy button, I just wanted to work and get somebody else,

Jeffrey Feldberg: Yeah.

Curtis May: and I, that's the mistake, because you, if y'all, if you're listening, ask yourselves, where has I Not having control, not understanding it not [00:41:00] working, worked out anywhere else in your life, you know? And so, it won't work out with investing if you try to invest that way. 

Jeffrey Feldberg: Well said. Words to the wise. And speaking of words to the wise, this is, and I say this every podcast, the listeners know this, but it really is true. It's really an honor. It's a ritual here at the Deep Wealth Podcast. We ask the same question of every guest and Curtis, it's a really fun one. Let me set this up for you.

When you think of the movie Back to the Future, you have that magical DeLorean car that will take you to any point in time. So the fun part, Curtis, is tomorrow morning, you look outside your window, not only is the DeLorean car there. The door is open, it's waiting for you to hop on in what you do, and you're now going to go to any point in your life, Curtis, as a young child, a teenager, whatever point in time that would be, what would you tell your younger self in terms of life lessons or life wisdom?

Or, hey, Curtis, do this, but don't do that. What would it sound like?

Curtis May: that's why I did a show like this recently, what would I tell my younger self? And, part of me would say, because I got mad at my coach and transferred, [00:42:00] this is an off topic thing, and I transferred to out of where I was going to school, to Boston Gordon College and transferred down to Winston Salem State, where I was a nobody when I transferred down there, so I would have said, stay where you are.

And keep playing. I would have taken my athletic career directly, but I wouldn't have the wife I have or the kids I had I stayed in Boston. So that would be where you come back and the world has changed because you made different decisions. I would leave that decision alone. But that, I always think about that.

What would have happened if I had stayed there? But from a financial standpoint, I would have, I used to be like Dave Ramsey on steroids.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Sure.

Curtis May: you know, Permanent insurance is the devil. And I would have doubled down. I would have saved more,

through the insurance, I would have kind of made myself buy more real estate early on.

And I would have, one of the things I would have told myself Is what business I was really in, which was the marketing business, because I didn't discover that for a long time, you know, [00:43:00] that I was always prospecting and chasing people around. Now, I've developed a business where I don't make any outbound calls and they all call me.

And that's the business that you want, and I wish I had learned that in my twenties, how to do that. So that you can be present with your family because you're not worrying about money because you know that you got in lead flow coming in and you're always going to make money. It took me a long time.

So you're always in that in business. You always feel like You're hunted by a wolf you can't see something like that, and so you want to build a core good business where your income is not fluctuating, so you can just go to the beach and not think about stuff that you have to do back at the office that's, I wish I had learned, because if I had learned that stuff earlier, I would have got to enjoy it Longer.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Terrific insights there from, Hey, stay where you are and keep playing to save more, buy real estate, but then really you cap it off with, always remember that you're in the marketing business, because if we're doing that. Well, then we're going to be generating more profits that we can [00:44:00] go into real estate.

We can go and save more and do all those other things. And so let me ask you this just as a follow up to that. So when you're saying, always remember you're in the marketing business, have people come to you as opposed to the other way around, you're saving yourself time and effort.

And Curtis, just before we wrap things up, I know offline, you were sharing with me that you've created a very special offer for the Deep Wealth community. Tell us about that. What's going on with that?

Curtis May: it's a gift. I'm a financial educator at the core, so it's like, I have a free report called Creating Wealth with the Velocity of Money that you can click to go to. It also gives you a link to listen to our show, and you can get more of the madness that is Curtis. We also have a membership called the Money for Life Club, we have a few free offers to give that a test drive, and then if anybody ever wants to like, talk there's a link to our calendar, where if you'd like a complimentary consultation, you've got 30 minutes, you can talk about whatever you want to talk about.

Jeffrey Feldberg: And for our listeners, it doesn't get any easier. It's a point and click. It's all in the show notes. And speaking of the show notes, Curtis, if someone does want [00:45:00] to speak to you online, they have some questions or want to become a client, are they going to the site and booking that call with you? Or is there a better way to get in touch with you?

What would that look like?

Curtis May: That's the best way. Actually, go to practicalwealth. net or if you're like an IG person, go to IG, go to my link tree and a link to my calendar will be there. It says welcome listeners of Deep Wealth Podcast, and they can get a free report, they can get a consult, they can just follow the show.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Doesn't get any better. So for our listeners, go to the show notes, click on that link, take Curtis up on his offer for all those resources that are there. He's put them together special for you. And why not? Why not learn something new? And take yourself to the next level. Well, Curtis, with that said, congratulations.

It's official. It's a wrap. And as we love to say here at Deep Wealth, may you continue to thrive and prosper while you remain healthy and safe. Thank you so much.

Curtis May: Thank you. 

Jeffrey Feldberg: So there you have it, Deep Wealth Nation. What did you think? So with all that said and as we wrap it up, I have another question for you.

Actually, it's more of a personal favor. Did you find this episode helpful? Have you found other episodes of the Deep Wealth Podcast empowering and a game [00:46:00] changer for your journey? And if you said yes, and I really hope you did, I have a small but really meaningful way that you can actually help us out and keep these episodes coming to you.

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