Wealth Building Strategies: How to Budget, Invest, and Raise Your Prices with Brandon Kidd

24:11And then what's the fun part of that is you can actually be a lot more competitive with your pricing because not all of your income is dependent on that first initial thing in the first place. So it gives you a lot more confidence moving forward to take a big leap. So that's more for the people that are trying to take a big leap that gives you a little bit extra confidence, right? Obviously, like we said, you need to have the demand there. You need to have the leads, the qualified leads coming in, but you definitely just, I think it's a great way of making you feel confident to take the next step without having to compromise anything else.

24:42Yeah. And so going back to this, this makeup artist, she covers her nut and then she, she covers it and says, okay, I'm going to suck it up and I'm going to do these bridal parties knowing that there's something else different now in your case i want to go back to this because there's probably a listener who's like wait he's a photographer and he's working 20 hours a week like what the heck like there are okay and here's one thing like if that and you are wildly susceptible we're talking about like your photography arm alone brings in multiple six figures okay so people are like he's bringing in multiple six figures he's working 20 hours a week yeah i mean we're like right right so some weeks more depending on the seasonality right so people are probably looking at this and being like okay okay, in your particular situation, you can say that with wedding photography, as long as I hit this, then I could be ultra competitive for booking any other weddings beyond that.

25:33And then as you are building out other businesses, and let's just say somebody's booking you for consulting, the rest of your hours, you can go towards building that other business and diversifying your revenue streams. Talk to me about the pathology. How did you start thinking, hey, I can do multiple things at once to diversify my revenue streams because I learned this big time from you. Well, so for me to back up a little bit, because when it comes to gig workers, right? Or where we get lump sum money. Yes. I think that it's important to know that getting those leads, it really matters when those leads are coming in.

26:07Because if you have one lead and then you don't have a gig and you have nothing for three months, well, now your cashflow, that makes you have to take things on credit. It makes you, so you're spending more money in order to float until the next gig. So one way of hitting your quota is just doing your base rate for each month or whatever it is that you feel like will float you to the next month. Does that make sense? Yeah, give it to me as an example. Well, like if I know my monthly expenses are 10 ,000 a month, okay? I need to make sure that I get a gig worth at least 10 ,000 a month. So, but if my rates are 20 ,000, then I can theoretically schedule book one wedding every other month and not have to worry about expenses.

26:45Everything is covered, right? But you have to know what that equation is because if your monthly expenses and everything is more expensive than that, then you're going to feel suffocated. And then you're going to start making poor choices on the business. Growth will be, what's the word I'm looking for? Truncated? Yeah. Truncated. Or maybe I should use a different word. Growth will be unpredictable and slow. Yes. Yes. And diminished ultimately because you don't have the funds needed. So you have to make sure cashflow is still, like cashflow is king, right? You still have to make sure that it's flowing in and through your business so that you can still...

27:16So let's go, let's talk to this person because right now people are like, yeah but the way that i was like the way that any life coach the way that any lawyer the way that any dentist like when you are bringing in these people and it's lump sum like what people like when you had said oh for gig workers i'm like there are so many creative entrepreneurs who are so offended by i'm not a gig worker yeah we are honey like we are we are dependent on the gigs and the gigs are not guaranteed yes and so then for the person who's just like how do i predict that though? Like with the cyclical nature of what it is that we do, how do I say like, I'm okay to either take on a different project for more revenue or raise my rates?

27:57Like what's the mindset that we have to possess in these times of saying it is unpredictable. So what your question is, is like, how do I know when to create a different source of income or what you're saying is like, so you're saying you're like, okay, so if you know that your monthly expenses are$10 ,000 and then you book a$20 ,000 wedding, well then you bought yourself two months of time. Yes. But like, at what point does somebody say, okay, I'm good for the year, right? Because it's like, you have to know, so are we going back to the B word? You have to know your budget. So like, so if you know, so 10 ,000, so we're at, okay, I have 120 K that I need.

28:30So, so you have to book that. You have to book that first before you can get super aggressive. What I hear you say is you better suck it up, work your tail off and do everything you can. You should not be distracted with another revenue stream. You should not be distracted about thinking about your expenses or expansion. All of your attention should be going, I hit my number. Yeah. I hit my number. And so until you hit that number, we're having no other conversation. No other conversation. Okay. You can optimize. You can figure out ways so that you can lower your costs so that you can get to your number faster, right?

29:04You can reduce your lifestyle. You could maximize and optimize your business expenses. either way, you're trying to get your income to be in line with what you need, right? Because it is only that our minds, our bodies, our souls can be thinking about the next thing until we know we have covered our homes, our families, our children, our apartment, our car, whatever it is. We cannot think about anything else until we have said. You can, but you really shouldn't. You shouldn't. Because if you know that that's main source of income is where it's most statistically probable that you're going to get the income, right?

29:36why would you start something new that's baby form that you might not be able to, right? Like go deep on the thing that you already know, like bet on yourself, right? If you're going to bet at a stock market and something that you don't know anything about, like why wouldn't you choose something where you have the greatest control over, where you have the greatest input and force and be able to steer that ship in the direction that you want versus, right? So go deep, go narrow, laser in, hit your quota, adjust everything accordingly so that you could be as flexible as you need. Because if you are the gig worker that you have specific things that you need to hit, if you have those specific needs, then you can't...

30:15Can I talk about how you do this? Would you mind if I share something personal from my perspective on how you do this? So you have built such a successful business in a very competitive and lucrative market, but it doesn't mean that you rest on your laurels because every year you have to hit that same quota. Your wedding money is the money you say, this is what we use for our family. And so Brandon is a luxury wedding photographer who shoots internationally with the top 1 % of brides, grooms, and specifically coordinators. And so I have seen Brandon year over year, take time out of your schedule to go to the most exclusive events for luxury wedding professionals.

30:56So you go hard, you make relationships, you follow up, you set up appointments with those clients. Like, so you are so focused a very specific time of year. I would say, I see you do this twice a year. I see you do this in early spring. And then I see you do it in late fall. And you're saying, I am covering my nut. I'm covering my nut. I'm covering my nut. And I see you so honed in on, I'm going to book these clients. I'm going to get these things. And the minute you do that, you're like, cool. Anything else that comes, that's gravy. But now I have the time to focus on other things that gives me my 10 to 20 hours a week fulfilling on deliverables for these clients who are keeping my family afloat.

31:35And it's great. And then all of the other money that you are bringing in, I see you budgeting that not towards getting rich, but building wealth. That's correct. Okay. Okay. Okay. So I want to go back to talk about in times where you have faced challenges financially, because in gig economy work, I am talking about therapists. I am talking about videographers. There are times that the economy shakes and despite your best efforts, the market absolutely changes. So can you go back and give me a time where we had a recession? We've gone through - for photographers. I mean, it's the greatest, lost 90 % of photography income that year.

32:17So when we go back to 2020 and we look at every wedding professional, DJs, venues, florists, makeup artists, hair artists, photographers, videographers, officiants, they all took a massive hit in our gig economy. What were you telling yourself and how did you use the money that you had budgeted to float not one year, but multiple years. I mean, I think, again, this comes in line. It's not what people want to do, but living and operating day-to-day life significantly below your means allows and equips you with the ability to draw back on. I had, thankfully, plenty of stock and plenty of rental assets, people that were still needing to rent and other income streams coming in.

33:04Can you talk a little bit? But talk to me about that, Because somebody is listening, but what does he mean? What does he mean? Like, I want somebody to know when the entire industry took a tank, where was your other revenue coming in from? Stocks. Stocks dumped from March until May, June. But they rallied. Not only they rallied, they rallied like 40, 60 % more than where they were within a short span. So you're not able to get yourself into that position unless you are budgeting and saving and really investing, putting things away for a rainy day. Every business should have ideally six months of living expenses saved and banked, right?

33:41There's all kinds of strategies of how risk adverse or risk tolerant you can be, like how aggressive you want to be with that saving. Keep three months of it in actual savings. Keep three of it in high growth investment accounts. So that way you're actually earning money every year. Now, what about the worker who's doing well, has a little bit tiny, maybe over at the end of the month, but it's not as predictable. And they're saying, where do I come up with this money to save? That money doesn't exist. You have to make hard choices. I mean, there's... Because no matter where... What's a hard choice?

34:14Like moving? Moving. Moving. Moving in with somebody. Take on a roommate. Sell. Don't drive the nice car. Don't buy the nice clothes. Don't stay in. I mean, make a short-term sacrifice. One year. build up. You could make hard choices for one year. It's your, I mean, we, we talk about this all the time, like choose your heart, right? Like what's harder making the sacrifice that really like trimming the fat off of everything so that you can save up a cushion for one year or constantly living the rest of your life. Maybe struggling to always make ends meet, feeling stressed about finances, always feeling like you can't catch up, always feeling like you're overworked and underpaid, right?

34:51Like what's harder? In my opinion, it's the long-term that, that feels more weighty than choosing to just be like, you know what? I'm going to take on a roommate. I'm going to choose to move in. I'm going to choose to change my location in my house. You're right. Like those things, because, you know, transportation, accommodation, and food are going to be the biggest sources of income. You can change those three things. You're going to see significant amount of growth and amount of savings. And what you're going to do with that savings is reinvest it back in your business in these growth categories that I would like to talk about.

35:23if we can get there to how to really increase money. Cause most people are struggling. Like I have no margin. I have no margin. How I have no time and I have no money. So how am I ever going to actually get ahead? Okay. I want to go back. I want to go back to the growth categories, but I know that people are listening because I was that person in your life for so long. And I would see you make lifestyle changes. Now I'm not going to get into your business. You've built wealth. My friend has built wealth and it's incredible to see. but as of two years ago when there was no reason why you needed to make this decision and then you did can you talk about the decision you made about your car oh i mean yeah for my car i think for me there was just more of a personal i felt like i was driving a nice bmw um i felt like i needed to have that car to represent my brand to represent to feel confident to feel like i was you know when i would show up to a wedding that i feel like my clients made a good purchase on me that i was extension of their brand.

36:19And then I realized like, it just didn't matter. It was like, that's just my own personal reflection on what the situation is. So like one easy, you know, I had a coaching call. I think even you and I had talked about this, but it's like, if you're really conscious of that, of what car you drive when you have meetings, depending on how many meetings you have, obviously like real estate agents and things like that use the car more regularly, but for a photographer who's not super client facing, especially on a wedding day, they don't even to see your car, maybe at the valet for 10 seconds, right?

36:46But like talking about ROI, how much is that 10 seconds? How much return are you actually getting on that car that's a thousand bucks a month that you're using for 10 seconds of your brand? Is that really worth it? So we would say like, okay, if that's the case, if the car is truly an extension brand and it's truly valuable, Turo, Turo for the day. Turo a car that costs you a hundred bucks for one day, as opposed to a thousand bucks a month, every month. Okay. I want to pause here because I started drilling down when brandon had said so he traded in his bmw and you got a truck i got a truck which i mean it's beautiful it's amazing it's gorgeous like yes it's very manly i mean bro i mean you like yeah your testosterone you got a car like whoosh immediately i just love it i i had a truck when i first started driving i loved it and now that i have three small kids like you know it's just convenient to have i love having it i love the way that i feel it's more in line with the the trajectory and direction that i want to be uh and you got to a point where you're like, it doesn't matter.

37:40It just doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. Yeah. So I love my truck. I love my car. It feels good. I mean, the thing, the reality is like maybe a bad example because the car is as expensive as my BMW was, but it's like this notion. But it's the mindset. It's the mindset that it doesn't matter. I thought that I needed the car for a brand. And the reality is I didn't. And so how many things, how many choices that we make in our business that are that? Right. And so I think when we look at our categories or business of where we choose to invest, knowing your numbers, like obviously the budget, but knowing true, like a true audit of what is my ROI for each decision I'm making in my business, the car, the rent, like the equipment that I'm purchasing, the networking conversation, like the networking events that I'm attending, track how much money you're getting from that.

38:28There's things that are going to be intangible, like your car or whatever, right? So I think that there are activities that you can figure out that will have a growth multiple to it so that you can double down and triple down on those areas of your business. But I think that it's just important to create that budget first, know, live within your means, and then try to fight to scale back on, create more opportunities for growth by saving on expenses. Okay. We're going to talk about the growth categories and the growth opportunities. But before we do that, before we do that, there are somebody who's listening and they have squirreled away some cash for the hope that they were going to do something to be a brand extension, a visual brand extension, which is kind of now that they're listening, like, I don't know, is that really worth it?

39:13Number two, perhaps they've been driving a car that's just been like, not all the best, but they said, the minute I save this for my down, I'm going to be using this. Or perhaps saying, oh, listen, I'm living with four roommates and I'm going to move now just to have one other roommate. When you look at all of this and they have that money squirreled away and they're looking at you, what do I do with this money to build wealth? So you have all these different avenues of where you can generate income from. The first thing is getting, is your business producing as much money as you possibly need to cover your expenses?

39:43And is it growing beyond what you need? Do you have a lot of margins so that way you can continue, right? Going back to the notion of treating your business as a bank account as a piggy bank, not an ATM, you're going to store your wealth and grow your wealth from the thing that's producing you the income the most first. So build up the business, reinvest into the business. You don't know what to do with that money until you know all of your business activities, what your ROI is on those things, right? So if it's an email campaign, if it's advertisement, if it's creating a course, all of these things have time investment and money investment, and you need to calculate both of those things.

40:19So that way, you know, what do I do with 10 ,000, right? If I have a ROI of 2X on a certain activity, such as advertisement, right? If I have a return on investment, if I invest$1 ,000 and that yields$2 ,000, that is a 2X ROI. So I want to make walk us through exactly. Okay. So are we talking about the growth opportunities or the growth categories? Yeah. Okay, great. I'm writing notes. I want to make sure we're now talking about growth categories. Because we're trying to, you said, what do I do to build wealth? What do I, so to answer your question, I mean, it's a multi-part, but you have choices as the business owner, but I think that of all the choices available, choose to invest on yourself first.

40:58Okay. Bet on yourself first because you're going to have the most exponential growth and the highest return on investment betting on yourself for sure because you can control everything. Second to that would be like other income producing assets. But if that's not your wheelhouse and that's not your expertise, then... Give me an example of other income producing assets? I mean, high yield savings account. That takes little knowledge to know about, but it's going to increase, it's going to grow your money. Small, 5 % right now, but better than nothing. Other income producing would be real estate.

41:31Could be any kind of stocks, any kind of ownership in companies, right? Anything that can grow and appreciate. Okay. So there's somebody who's listening and I would venture to say that the vast majority, not everybody, but the majority of listeners of the growth categories, number one, invest in yourself. Number two, invest in other income producing assets like a high yield savings. Number three, investing in real estate. And number four, investing in stocks or finding a seat on a board or being a partner in a business. If we could focus on the first two. Yes. I think the best information would be investing what you know, right?

42:08That's good. Because it's going to take you too much time and you won't necessarily know what to do with your money. Like obviously everyone, you know, it sounds fun to like own real estate and it's a whole other thing. It's a whole can of worms that you open and you get into and which is great. I mean, it's, it's an important thing to know and learn if that is what excites you and what you know, because there's so many different ways to make money, but I think it's important to know, invest in what you know. So that way it takes the least amount of effort to get the desired outcome. Okay. Right.

42:35If you just don't know real estate and it just feels so overwhelming, well, your time investment, your ROI on what the actual gains that you're getting, if you're taking too much time to understand what that is, that time could have easily just been spent on your business and grown the same amount of money anyways. Okay. I freaking like this. Okay. So then talk to me, the one caveat, when we talk about the growth categories and when people say I'm investing in myself as a, like, not myself, my business, I want, I want everybody to, to separate themselves from their businesses. So even if you're a solopreneur, you only have like, you're not investing in yourself.

43:09Okay. Unless it's yourself is the education component, right? Everything else is like your brand, your identity, your awareness, how people view you. Everything is your business, not you. Okay. Good. So, so how do we invest in the business? Yeah. What are, what are ways that we can invest in the business? Well, what I want to do is draw the caveat because what I did early in my career, what I see a lot of people do is like, oh, well, I need to invest in this new light gear gear. I need to invest in this new special camera. I need to invest in that type of laptop. Like at what point, so if you have a light and you think, well, this light is going to be 50 % better of a light.

43:47Yeah. How do they say, like, when do you say that's a dumb investment? Because you don't know, like, what is the return on that purchase? So how much? No, no, it's not even that. It's what's the return on the increase of a 50 % better light? Yeah. Not even like you're went from zero light to light. No, correct. Yeah. Yeah. But whatever that delta is, that change and what you're trying to make, what is the return of that specific change? How do we determine that though? Okay. So, so easy. I mean, not necessarily easy, but easy for you. And for me, I'm like, oh, calculus. Yeah. Yeah. True. But if you just view your whole business as two main categories of, of business effort, right?

44:20You have growth and then you have operational, you have the growth side of it is anything outside of your business, anything that would be brand awareness, right? Like anything that would lead you to create the sale. Okay. Get the sale. Okay. Then everything on the other side of the column would be to like fulfill that sale to service that sale. Okay. Okay. So of all of those that would be outward facing, you're going to filter it through everything that was outward facing. We call that like in the growth category. Yes. So I want to focus on this main kind of like for max growth, right? For M would be measure.

44:54Is it, is it measurable? Max growth. We're doing an acronym. Acronym. acronym M for measure. Is it easily measurable, right? You buying a light that has 50 % more outlet. Is that actually easily measurable? Not really. Right. A, so we'll go through the max M. Is it measurable? A, is it awareness is the main purpose of it to create and further your brand awareness to the outside of the business. And then X, does it have a growth factor attached to it? right? Is there a multiple? So if you invest one, are you getting at least one or more as a result? And the X is X factor? Yeah. X is like, is your multiple, right?

45:31Is your, stands for a multiple growth, right? A multiple growth. So go back to the light. How would you explain, does it have an X factor? So does it have, so one, one isn't even, isn't even truly measurable, but if it is X factor, so we're going to calculate what that return of investment is. Okay. So if the light is a thousand dollars and I'm getting 50%, it's not about the amount of output, but it's how do you measure that light actually getting income? Is that light actually generating income? Is that light actually generating? Is it? Is that laptop really generating income? Is that new camera?

46:03Is that car actually getting you income? Is that upgrade in flight actually getting you income? If it is, then you should be able to track it. If you can't track it, then I would - Okay, so this acronym, MAX, if you can't answer M - Don't even go. Okay, don't pass go. Don't go, because it could still fall, like a new website, right? There's sophisticated ways of actually tracking. Like this was a good investment of, you know, faster load times and easier to navigate, easier to see call of action. So it led to conversions of X, right? So you could see that the$10 ,000 to purchase a new website led to an increased conversion based on what your last website did.

46:41Okay. But you're not going to be able to figure out any of this until you know your numbers, top to bottom, your return on investment for every business activity that you do. So, so, so going back to that thousand dollar, can you see significant change? Can you see measurable change? Like you said, if it doesn't hit M it's out. If it's for rent, like me choosing a new office building, if it's only for yourself, is that outward facing? Are you able to measure the actual gain that you're getting from that? Are you getting more foot traffic? Are you getting more conversions from that? So you can measure these things if you take the time to do it, but you have to figure out where your leads are coming from.

47:17So if you can't measure it, don't even bother. Don't even, don't even. Yeah. When you are for now, for now, for now, for now, when you are focused on growth, when you are focused on growth and increasing your rates, having more money, and you're going to use that money for growth. If you can't measure it, we're not talking about it yet. Yeah. We're going to talk about the things that we can measure. And those are the things that we're going to double down on because then that'll give us the more time and more money that we can use to then streamline and optimize the rest of the efforts. Okay. Okay.

47:45So the A is for awareness and the X. So how do we calculate X or multiple, right? So that's ROI. ROI is return investment and return of investment. The I can be either time or it can be money. Okay. I have an idea. Can we use an example? Yes. And can I use a personal example for you? Yes. We're going to get real. We're going to get some numbers. Okay. When I talked about how I see you indexing on putting on your, I'm going to get the revenue I need to make me feel safe. And I see you go hard twice a year. I see you do it specifically a very exclusive event. Can we talk about that event? It is an event that I went to when I was in the wedding professional industry and it's called Engage.

48:25Can we talk about those numbers? Yeah. Great. When we talk, when you look at the price tag to go to an Engage event, how much is that price tag? Price tag for the event is 7 ,500. You have airfare, you have accommodation. Hold on, but this is not airfare to like Phoenix. Oh, correct. International. International airfare. To luxury. Luxury. Yeah, yeah. So yeah, flying to... Paris. Paris, Morocco, Greece, right? So all over the world. So expensive airfare, but expensive accommodations even more than that because they're at luxury places. Beyond that, you're paying for the food, the wine, everything also.

49:00And you have all kinds of attire to match the mood boards of everything. Okay, okay. Brandon, Brandon. No, but that's not it. Let me just say, son, you look fresh. When I saw you in Paris and I was like, is he wearing a tux? Wait, is that the trimming? Look at this suit. Oh my God. But yeah. But expensive. So what is the cost of an engaged$7 ,500? What is the actual cost of going? $16 ,000 to$17 ,000. Okay. All in. So measurable. Can we measure? What leads am I getting? Yes. What leads am I getting from there? Specifically where I wouldn't have gotten otherwise. otherwise so when you absolutely what i know about you is we come back i'm like spill the tea you know i freaking love this event i mean i want to go back to this event and i'm not even in the wedding world it is over the top it is freaking amazing it's so well done you leave there and you're like the world is too beautiful so we go back and i'm like tell me and you will say i talked to this person i talked to this person we have a meeting they have a client i've shot there before blah blah you come back and you already have a lead list okay great that's measurable yes i have the leads because eventually I'll track weddings if anything came from them or if it came from a referral from them.

50:07So I know exactly who's talking about me, where that lead, and that lead is one thing, but the conversion, am I actually booking anything? Because you could put in growth and you can see, because sometimes it's going to take time to put in money and investment before you start seeing return. It's not always one-to-one, right? So when you finally get that sale of booking that wedding, where did it come from? And so you can easily track. So then now you have an ongoing kind of Excel spreadsheet of figuring out how to actually convert ROI. The amount of money that you invest divided by the amount of money that you get back, that's your return.

50:38That's how you figure out the money component. But the kind of like hack, I mean, I don't, we don't, maybe we can talk about, maybe we not is how do you do this for time? How do you measure your time as a, as a way of getting a return of investment? Right. Because so many things, so many tasks in our business is time and money, right? I'm going to create a Sally talking about, she's created a newsletter, like in a course for her coaching. And she's trying to figure out what was like, what is she, how much money did she invest in that? How much time did she invest in that? When you figure out how much you, when you're trying to figure out your time, an easy way to do it is figuring out what your hourly wage is.

51:17So every business owner should know specifically how much they're earning per hour in their business so they can measure that opportunity against other decisions. Okay. I know where we're going with this. And I know that the audience is going to be like, I actually don't care. Because time is important, yes. But this is going to be the most distilled version of Sally and also the most distilled version of you. You go to engage and you spend $17 ,000. You also go and you're there about six days. Yes. They're like three. Okay. Yeah. Traveling, getting there and stuff like that is more, but yeah.

51:55Well, in totality, because you're not working, right? So we'll say six days,$17 ,000, six days. When it comes to measuring the ROI on that event, Brandon can ask himself, could I spend$17 ,000 on ads, not have to lose six days of time and get the similar results? This is what I want people to start thinking about in terms of time. I know it's going to be important for the hourly wage. It's going to be important. But right now, can we think very high level? Could you do the same thing in a different way to get the same results? Right? So when we talk about building out leads, Brandon is building out leads with$17 ,000 in six days.

52:38If he decides in the future to test $17 ,000 and have it being automated, does it lead us in a different direction? But because Brandon is tracking his leads, he could say which one is better or not. So when we go back to the fact that it is measurable, you going to engage, getting your leads, tracking them and figuring them out. And then you go towards awareness. You get more attention. Can you talk about the type of attention that you're getting? Like in terms of that precise example. So when it comes to attention, it's really deciding, like this is trying to figure out where you should spend your most time.

53:10So that is all about expanding your network, right? Because in order to get a higher ticket value. You have to constantly going back to that supply and demand. I have to constantly raise the demand. How do you increase demand? How do you get more inquiries? You get more people to know about you, to inquire about you. Right. So this is just a way of getting building awareness. So it's measurable because I can see which leads are coming from it. I'm building awareness because I'm creating a whole new network of people that I didn't meet. Right. And, and so does it have a growth factor? Am I, am I getting at least$17 ,000 back?

53:42Let's just say we don't account for our time at this point. Am I at least getting 17 ,000? It's a one-to-one. Is that worth it? You can choose because, you know, in my line of work, like if it was just from the plant, it was just from the bride, probably not worth it because I'm not going to get additional referrals from that bride. Okay. So hold on. Let me, let me, let me peel that back. Okay. Brandon is saying he might not spend$17 ,000 to go to a conference where there's a bunch of brides because their awareness of him is great for that one year that they're getting married. Now, Brandon is making a decision to say, I'm gonna spend$17 ,000 with a group of people who are not just booking one wedding.

54:21They're booking multiple weddings for multiple years. So the awareness of where he's spending his time is going to be different based on how was he building out his lead generation. Yes. Cool. Because it's like the same thing with product is you're talking about the lifetime value of the customer, right? Like you're, you're banking on repeat purchases to offset. It's more complicated to figure that out later. But the main point is, are you calculating it? Are you tracking it? So that way, you know, oh, that actually was worth it. And sometimes these investments in your business, you won't even see fruition three, four, five years down the line.

54:53It could still work with the brides because at each, each wedding that you go to now there's 200 referral potential referrals. So I'm not saying that it wouldn't be, but at our level of price, not every person in attendance is actually a referral. Maybe there's one or two. That's right. So whereas a planner is going to have eight to 10, I'm going to focus more on the planners than on the bride. Absolutely. So when we talk about the multiple, if you book one wedding from a lead that was derived at engage, you know, it's not one wedding. It's awareness with the other people who you run with at that high level.

55:28And you also know that that coordinator or the DJ or the venue, because So there's a bunch of people that are represented there could and probably likely will refer you again. Yes. That's right. Yes. And so then that's what you're tracking though, is because over time you'll see, is that, was that just a one-to-one exchange? Right. Right. Did I spend 17 ,000 and I got 17 ,000? Yeah. If it's just a concentrate of one-to-one, then I don't feel like that really, that activity belongs in the growth category of what we're talking about. It just belongs in the operational side. Right. Things are not leveraging or you can't grow exponentially in.

56:01your efforts, then that's not what we're talking about. That's not where we're going to focus our time. If we have five, if we're going back to our example where she has$5 ,000 to spend, where is she going to spend it? Probably not on something that she's just going to get 5 ,000 back. She's going to find something, an area where she has the advantage. Running this math and knowing where she can apply that money to that growth factor, that's where her unfair advantage is. That's where she knows she's going to get a two extra turn, three extra turn. And wouldn't we always, anytime we have an extra money, wouldn't we choose to double down on what we know we can get back or what has worked statistically for us in the past?

56:37So if that's the case, that's why we're saying going back to the lifestyle choices, it's like, do we choose to sacrifice, you know, choose a different car and say 500 bucks a month? Well, if that, if I were to spend that 500 bucks a month on something that I had two extra return, then that's a thousand bucks that I'm getting. I could buy the car anyways. So that's what we're doing with real estate. It's like, hold on, let's pause and repeat that again. If I could save$500 and turn it into a thousand by tightening my belt now, why would I not do that? Yes. Short-term, short-term sacrifice. Because now once you have that money deployed on the growth side, that's already earning that for you.

57:13You use the proceeds of your growth to come back into the thing that you want originally. So it's a constant short-term sacrifice. Invest it. Take the earnings from that to fund that purchase rather than just purchasing it the first time. so freaking good so if you want a car if you want the car earn let your business do the earning or let the real estate purchase do the earning so let the stock investments let whatever avenue create the income to buy let your asset purchase your liability right like let those things fund because those things will be in perpetuity those things will be growing without siphoning money out right?

57:54You're not taking money out from that purchase or from that expense. So we talk about these things and a lot of this, we are focused on money, riches, and turning it into wealth. For people who want to have a good, cold, hard look at their business and say, am I treating it like an ATM? Is this a bank account? How do I start growing it? How do I change my operating costs? And how do I focus on growth? Where do people go to get more information about you, these conversations that you and I have had for over a decade that have radically changed the way that JD and I have been building wealth? I mean, there's a lot of great resources.

58:31I mean, I'm happy to set up a call, anybody to kind of help walk them through to see. But the easiest thing is just take an audit, take an inventory of your expenses, look to see are those expenses, are those purchases justified? The goal is for you to be empowered so that you are in charge and that you have the knowledge to know where you're spending the money and how much money you're getting as a result of that spending. So if you need help with that, happy to help. There's tons of resources available online that can help you create a budget, create an operational budget. But where it gets tricky is, well, how does this work for me specifically?

59:02How can I take, this is my business, this is my lifestyle, this is what I need. How do I make this work? How do people set up a call with you? I have a free, we can include it in the show notes or whatever, but if you just want to book like a free 30 minute call or something just to kind of chat and kind of help digest and figure out the process a little bit. yeah, would be more than happy to. Thank you, Brandon. We'll be sure to include those in the show notes for people who want to dive deeper and connect with you on social media. Where do you point him to? Photography. So Brandon Kidd photo or Brandon Kidd coach.

59:32Brandon Kidd coach. Let's go. Yeah. I'm going to close. And I don't think that I can talk about it without crying. So I told myself I'm not going to say it. I told myself I wasn't going to say it. And then here I am saying it. because one of the things that mean a boatload to me is surrounding yourself with people who challenge you to be an expander, to show you what is capable of what you can do personally and professionally. And so for years, Brandon and Kristen have talked to us about taking our money and turning it into wealth. And one of the things that really stood out about our friendship was that they don't just look at money as wealth.

1:00:12They look at friendships and they look at giving as wealth. They give so generously to charity and they let nobody know about it. In February of 2020, we got the word that we were placed with our daughter for adoption. We had nothing. We had nothing in our house. We had literally zero. And so one of the first people I call is Brandon and Kristen. I was like, oh my God, you guys, we're driving to Las Vegas and I think we're going to start our family. And then there's Kristen and she says, before you go, stop by Nordstrom. I got you a baby car seat. Do not go to Vegas without it. You cannot leave the hospital without a car seat.

1:00:45So I go to Nordstrom, the pickup center. They give me this car seat. And I was like, oh my God, we threw it in the back and we drove to Las Vegas and we have nothing. I have nothing. Brandon and Kristen are celebrating your anniversary. Yeah. 14, 14 years. JD and I shot their wedding anniversary. They're celebrating in Arizona. It was only 14 years this year. How many years? Was it a decade? It was a decade. They were celebrating their decade anniversary in Arizona, in Sedona. and then we tell them, we're going to go pick up our baby girl. They end their vacation early. They drive from Arizona to Las Vegas and they stopped and they bought us everything we needed.

1:01:26Clothes, bottles, formulas, toys, onesies, blankets. I didn't know anything. They show up at our hotel with bags and bags and bags of stuff. And they said, we got you. Baby girl's going to be welcomed. And I say all of that, not because they are rich in money or wealth. They are rich in human character. So I just want to say thank you, man. I love you, man. I love you. And so for people who would like to have expansion around wealth and riches, not just in bank accounts, but in life and humanity and giving and charitable organizations, be sure to connect with Brandon and set up that call. if you would like to change the way that you do business.

1:02:12Oh man, I got through. I mean, I teared up like a gangster tear. It didn't exactly fall. My makeup is intact. Y 'all, thank you for listening to the Jasmine Star Show. Thank you, Brandon, for being here and giving so generously for your time. Be sure to hit them up on social. Thank you for listening to the Jasmine Star Show. If this show had an impact, please be sure to leave a review. They have a wild impact on what we do and the amazing talent that we get to attract to the show. Thanks for listening. Bye.