S5E21: Weird Taxes, This Beer will get us Banned, Breaking Bad Habits

This week on Cash Flow, Pam and Francis are diving into weird taxes, a beer that's name will get us banned, and the topic of breaking bad habits and some mindset tips to help you along the way.

📰 On this week's 'What's News:
https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tips/fun-facts/7-crazy-taxes-from-the-us-and-abroad/L503QNBEQ

Today's Brew🍺: Vault Brewing, This Beer's Name will get us banned!

🍻 The P.B.K.P.I (Pam's Beer KPI) Scale, for reference ⚖️: 
1. I'm NOT touching it
2. I'd drink it again if you gave it to me
3. I'll order it from the menu
4. I'll scour the ends of the earth to find it

About the Brewery: 
Housed in a bank from the 1800s, Vault Brewing Company brands itself as a non-traditional brew-pub reminiscent of old Philadelphia 'speakeasies.' The brewery explores the effect of unique sensory stimulation and atmosphere on brews. Their available on-tap selection is rotational seasonally. A private event space available for booking.

Learn more at: 
https://vaultbrewing.com/

Transcript

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Bit of a. We're going to step away and really kind of focus on creating or breaking bad habits and seeing, you know, what that experience is like, seeing if we're feeling tempted, seeing if, if it's altering our minds in a different way after we're stepping away from it. Well, so two what? Two things that jump out at me. One is, so are the three of you having like accountability meetings about this or like, is that helping that you're doing it? You said friends. I assume it's. It's two friends. The two friends you have your business with, we have our business with. Yeah. And I'm not participating, mind you. That's why I'm a minority owner. I don't play these games. But do the three of you like check in daily or how do you. Yeah, we're not doing daily check ins. It's kind of like, so every morning, you know, we have our team huddle. We also have our other team huddle. So like, you know, we're, we're basically just touching. Hey, welcome back to the Cash Flow podcast with me, Sam Pryor. Glad to have you here where we talk about everything in your business. So without further ado, let's hop right in and welcome back to Cash Flow. So glad to see you here. We have a great three segments for you today. The first one in the news, we're going to do something fun and talk about some wacky taxes from around the world. You wouldn't believe some of the things that are taxed and some of the exemptions people get. So that'll be the first thing. Then we're going to dive into our beer selection and it's going to be another local brewery for us here in the Philadelphia area called Vault Brewery in Pennsylvania. And they have an awesomely named beer which actually somebody at the grocery store told me a story about, so I'll share that. And then finally in our new segment. Nope. In our Cash Flow segment, Francis is going to talk to us about Sober December because we've just started to get into mindset things around habits and atomic habits and we're going to really dive into a real life example for us in our partnership. So stay tuned. We're going to jump right into the news now. Welcome to our news segment. I love the news music, but here we go. So there are all sorts of wacky taxes all over the world and into it, which it wants to take over the world. The owners of TurboTax and QuickBooks have written a really good article on some of what they picked out as the seven wackiest taxes. I don't think they actually picked the seven wackiest one. I'm going to go through what those seven are, but I think the funnier ones are the ones at the very end of the article that they gave honorable mention. So let's jump through to the first one. So who knew that in the U.S. well, I guess some people knew. There is a jock tax in many states which got instituted back in 1991 after Chicago Bulls beat the LA Lakers because they realized how much money was getting paid into those games. So California decided to institute a tax that is half of the states in the union have now adopted that's a jock tax. So they take a cut from any highly paid athletes into the state coffers. So that's number one. I did not know that. Here's the next one. This one was passed in 1696 and it was called a window tax. It's an ingenious way of imposing an income tax on the rich without calling it that because in 1696 not a lot of people had windows. This was mostly put in place in England, Scotland and Great Britain in the 18th and 19th centuries and essentially was a tax on wealth. So there was a fancy way to say we're going to tax the rich then. I love this one. This is relatively new and related to global warming. And the tagline says Tokyo scientists are trying to stop global warming one toot at a time because this is a cow flatulence tax. So there you have it. Since cow flatulence is a leading cause of global warming, this is something in Ireland, Denmark and a number of EU nations have begun taxing cattle owners on their cow flatulence byproduct of livestock. So that's an interesting one then. One I don't like at all. The fourth one here we're on the fourth one. Yep. Is a playing card tax. Well, I just discovered on she Said, she said I carry. I didn't just discover. I knew it. I carry playing cards in my purse because you never know when you want to do a card trick. But here's why Alabama is not known for its casinos. It's because they are the only state in the union to charge a 10 cent playing card tax for any deck of cards purchased in Alabama. So there's that. Okay, now this one. According to Maine, the production of wild blueberries is one of the most important agricultural industries in their state, making it necessary to protect it with a tax. Without a tax, the precious blueberries of Maine could be over harvested. So yes, indeed, there is a blueberry tax. The state of Maine gets a penny and a half per pound of blueberries that are harvested in Maine. And that's so that they can keep the blueberry businesses in check so that those plants can continue to thrive. This sounds a little bit like the trout thing that they do sometimes. Then, gosh, the candy tax, which we all hate coming from Chicago. This is the candy tax. And it has as much to do with semantics as it does with chemistry. So candies prepared with flour, like chocolate and ice cream, count as food and are taxed normally. But candies prepared without flour, like hard candy and suckers, are labeled candy. And therefore they're taxed at an additional 5.25% merchandise rate. That's a lot. Same holds for soft drinks. Then this one in France, they decided that there's a Google tax because all of the online advertisements make so much money that they're going to, in France, impose a Google tax, which is going to appear on Google. If any ads are going to appear on Google, Facebook, or Dig D I G G, which I've never heard of, they're going to accrue up to $29 million per annum in taxes. And Microsoft, AOL, Yahoo, they're also all going to be subject to the tax. That's a big deal, folks. That one spreads. That's not. But anyway, I thought those were a little weird. But not as weird as some of the honorable mentions. So let's start with the least surprising. In Canada, makers of children's breakfast cereal are granted a tax exemption if their cereal has free toys in it. However, if it doesn't, you don't get it. And it's limited to toys that are not beer, liquor or wine. So you can't put beer, liquor or wine inside your cereal box. Not that I'd ever do it. Interesting. Anyway. But the other ones are. There's a Russian beard tax, there's a British wig powder tax, which I found very interesting. And then finally, in my opinion, the weirdest of them all, in Sweden, which is one of the places my family has often talked, would be wonderful to live, there is a tax for naming your baby something not already in use. Yes, indeed. It's applied to misspelling of names. According to them. And names like Apple, regardless of income status or tax bracket, everybody pays. That's my wrap on weird taxes. There you go. We think the income tax is weird. The rest of these are really strange. But now let's stay tuned for an also tax also taxed segment on Beer. All right, Francis, welcome back. Thank you. We are celebrating a local Yardley brewery, which is the town that I live in, called Vault Brewing. Yeah. They actually have a restaurant and brewery down right in the main part of Yardley, which is just adorable. So, love this Vault Brewing also. It kind of fits with the brand, right? It does. It really does. Because it is a transformed bank. Yeah. And you actually, there's a safe in there and some of the tables are in the safe and they have a picture. Actually, I'm going to put it back on my Facebook today, as a matter of fact. It's a really neat image they have from the banking days that I will put on my Facebook today. Awesome. As the COVID photo. So it's housed in a bank from the 1800s and it brands itself as kind of a non traditional brew pub, kind of reminiscent of old Philadelphia sort of spirit speakeasies. Yeah, that's exactly what it looks like when you run it, when you walk into it. Very like gastropub vibes, right? Yes, yeah. Yes, exactly. And it's always, always full, even during the week. And what they do in the brewery is really look at the effect of very different sensory stimulations and atmosphere on their brews. Yeah. So they. You can only get it on tap. They're available on tap. Selection rotates seasonally in there. You can only get it on tap, but they have the cans that you can take or buy or you can get a growler. And the one we're doing today is one of my favorites. I have tasted it before, to be fair, but I'm going to give my take on it because it actually tasted a little different to me. This time. I actually should look it up online because as I was coming out of the Wegmans the other day, not a sponsor, but you could be Wegmans. The guy explained to me what Dead Cat Bounce was and there was a real reason. So at some point we'll cut here and I'll look it up and then I'll mention what it is. Okay. But anyway, this beer is hopped with citra and Idaho Gem. Now, I haven't heard of the Idaho Gem before. I don't think we've tried that. And it's a double New England style IPA that is describes itself as luscious with sweet notes of juicy papaya and orange marmalade with a vivid and crisp Piney finish. 8.0% alcohol. And I'm interested in thinking about the taste more than I have when I've tasted it before, because as a rule, I wouldn't like luscious and sweet notes. Yeah. Papaya and orange make me go. But ending with the vivid and vivid. The vivid and crisp. I have not had any yet. The vivid and crisp piney finish is probably why I think I like it. Gotcha. So let's open her up and give it a smell and we'll talk about in our segment why you are not joining me today. Indeed. So just also a question. I have had fall beer before, and the last one that I had was the chocolate peanut butter. I would not. You'd probably like that. I did not like that. Oh, okay. It was not my favorite. I would not try that. Unless you made me and bought it here like you do sometimes for our. I think I'm gonna have to do that in the future. That was a really bad pour. No, it's not terrible. We've done worse. That's like a three inch head. That inch and a half. Inch and a half. Inch and a half. So Aristeas, another one of our local breweries that I love. Yeah, Gardley's good for the beer. So very, very hazy. It looks like an apple cider almost. It's so thin. It does. The smell was very strong coming off of it too. I can't smell the beer. Do it from the glass. You might get more. And it's. It's actually an interesting smell. It's like an orange smell. We end up with this, though. We've been stuck on the fruit specifically, like citrus and orange. I think it's been very strong. To add just a little bit of something to out maneuver the hops. I'm guessing it does smell sweet. It does smell sweet. And what I will tell you is like apple cider. It's very. There's a lot of sediment at the bottom when you're done. I actually like drinking this out of the can rather than the glass because I hate looking at the sediment. It's like, I don't want to drink that. Yeah. But that's just an observation about it. Okay, so let me talk about what I think it tastes like. And I think we should bring a special guest in to give the taste test on the other side of things here, right? Yes. Yeah. Why don't we bring Wen in here? Come on over. We'll put you in sight today. Yeah. Can sit with Francis and Tally. Although Tally won't make much room, you know, interestingly. Well, let's see what Wen says. Well, Wen hates beer, just for the record. So this is kind of fun to have Wen doing The taste for Francis again. I like how it smells. It's always so. Well, Tally. They left the room for you, sweet pea. This is torture. You can see how slow you're tilting the glass so you don't have to taste too much. I mean, I don't like beer, but it's not terrible. It's not my favorite. Yeah, it's fruity. Okay. It's not the worst one you've had. It doesn't taste as fruity as some of the other ones. It just tastes like. Like that's what just tastes like. Beer. Beer. I'm like, okay, beer. Yeah. Okay. And I get that one. Mimosa. One was like, ah, that doesn't taste like beer. Right. It was, like, fruity. To a good point. That makes sense. That makes a ton of sense. What would you. What's your one to four rating? One to five or. No, we switched it. Oh, that's right. One to four. Yeah. Because there's no middle. I didn't want to pick the middle. Yeah, that's right. I don't think I'll ever find a four beer. The Mimosa. What was the Mimosa? One of all of them. That was the four. But I'm never gonna like. Your scale is. I would order. I would hunt it down. No, four means I'm hunting it down. Keeping it in the house. Okay, fair enough. So your highest would be three. What's two versus one? One is like, I will never put that over my lips again. Guinness. Two is. That's good. If. If it was an option, I. You know, I might get it if. I have to get one. Three is if it's on. Like, I'm gonna look for it on a menu. Four is. I'm going to hunt it. Three is the mimosa. One. If I have to drink a beer, I would like whatever that one was. Okay. So that's your top rate. Okay. This one is. I mean, it's. It's like a 1.5. Yeah, that makes sense. Which was rancid, disgusting, or the one. That tasted like socks? There was that one. I didn't make you taste that one. I just. No, it smelled like socks. The soy sauce Guinness one was terrible. Was it? Okay, so you can. 1. Okay. You're cheating with the 1.5, but because, you know, I get it. Your scale is, like, really different. Like. Yeah, different. Yeah. I'm gonna give this, actually a two. Two. Oh, okay. Of the Vault Beers IPAs, it's my least favorite. And like I said last night when I was Drinking it. I saw the sediment again, and that's not a thing for me. But it's. It's good. It's a two. Like, if I go to Vault and I was there for a couple of beers, I might have this be the second one. Okay. So would you say that the Vault and Aristeas are your favorite, like, breweries in this area? In this area, Absolutely. Aristeas is my favorite brewery anywhere in the world. Okay. What would. Is there a third one that you have up in this area that you like? Well. Victory. Victory. Yeah. Do you like them a lot? I love them. They have a beer called Golden Monkey. Yes. Which is, like, I don't know, 9.5% alcohol. We have a funny story about this. I won't use the name of our extended family member that did this, but you know who I'm talking about. Family. And we were in the mountains at an. At a event. We. We would occasionally go to the mountains as a big extended family. Yeah. And there were, I don't know, eight of us, nine of us that went. And we were playing poker one day in the basement of this really cool house up in the Adirondacks. And we had been drinking beer, and one of the people there didn't realize the power of the Golden Monkey beer. Like, how much ab. Whatever there was. And this is one of the people in my generation of the family. So it was really pretty funny. And I knew, and everybody around the table knew. And she had one of these. And we said to her at one point, do you want another beer? And she looked and she went, golden Monkey, Monkey, monkey, monkey. We just looked at it and left. She was so trashed and had no idea what. She just drank a little toasty. This is somebody who doesn't drink a lot of beer. Like, she'll have a light beer, one or two at times, but the. So now one of the family sayings is, mad monkey, monkey. That's hilarious. It was pretty funny. I will never name the name, but we all know who we're talking about. And we all have that friend who did not realize, like, what the heck did I just do? Everybody has that moment where something catches up to him. Right. It's like, I certainly have had that happen. All right, so speaking of. Yeah, you have done. We talked about habits last week. Yeah. And for the last. How long? Month now, I guess. No. Two weeks. Yeah. Like two to three weeks. You have decided to do something. So tell us about it. Yeah. So me and my friends have kind of just decided, you know, November, we It was holiday with Thanksgiving, the wedding, parties, all that stuff. We were going a little crazy and we decided to do what we're calling dry December. So it's, you know, everything, anything that could be an influence, a substance. So like, you know, anything from it could be something that we might feel addicted to. But for me it's like, you know, alcohol and. What did you call it? California. California sober. I love that line. It's not California sober, it's full sober. Yeah, because like California sober. I feel like it's just marijuana. Yeah. Okay, got it. But like for this it's like I'm leaning more towards just cleansing myself of everything. So food as well? Yeah, I've been eating. You've been doing that anyway? Yeah, well, I was, I was on. But what. Of course, with these types of things, when you're drinking, you want to eat certain things. When you're, when you're a little toasty, you want to enjoy a little bit of a different food than you might normally. You know, I'm not eating as much protein, I'm maybe probably eating a little bit more fried foods. So yeah, it was, it was a little bit of a. We're going to step away and really kind of focus on creating or breaking bad habits and seeing, you know, what that experience is like. Seeing if we're feeling tempted, seeing if, if it's altering our minds in a different way after we're stepping away from it. Well, so two. What, Two things that jump out at me. One is, so are the three of you having like accountability meetings about this or like, is that helping that you're doing it? You said friends. I assume it's, it's two friends. The two friends you have your business with, we have our business with. Yeah. And I'm not participating, mind you. That's why I'm a minority owner. I don't play these games. But do the three of you like check in daily or how do you. Yeah, we're not doing daily check ins. It's kind of like, so every morning, you know, we have our team huddle. We also have our other team huddle. So like, you know, we're, we're basically just touching base, you know, throughout the week on how you guys feeling. And if one of us has like something that comes up temptation wise, it's like, oh, last night I was feeling really tempted by this. And we kind of talk through it a little bit, which is, I feel like it's, it's a really cool experience to have that with men in this at our Age group and the generational kind of like where we're. Cultural change. You're making, I think, to the whole concept of who men have to be. Yeah. And it makes for just so much better. So in my opinion, so much better. Everything. Politics, economy, etc. When you are tempted, is this a group of people you can call during the temptation? Like, say at midnight, you're sitting there and you're like, I know I'm California sober, but I just had this most stressful thing happen. Do you, like, can you pick up the phone to one of these guys and say, you know, Kenny Ricardo, I'm getting. Talk to me quickly. Yeah, definitely. I mean, like, I feel like the relationship that kind of. We've built. We feel comfortable calling, like, really at any point if anything comes up. But what's been cool about this is, like, I feel like as I go through these things, I definitely. Knowing that people are doing it with me is enough, I think. Yeah. Because you'd let them down, fight the temptation. Yeah, exactly. It's kind of going back to what we talked about before. We'll let ourselves down, right? Yeah. We'll break promises to ourselves, but we won't break them to our friends. Exactly. That's the same with clients. You'll find that, like, I know as an accountant, my taxes were done late. Yeah. Right. Because I'd never break a promise to a client, but will I break it to myself? Yeah. You know, it's just the way it. Works, which is an interesting dynamic when you think about it. It really is. Because if we take care of ourselves, that we're in much better shape to. When you're on the airplane, it's give the oxygen to the. To yourself first, then your kid. Yeah. Which is very counterintuitive for us humans. Yeah. I think the. The mindset thing with this is, you know, we deserve to do these things. You know what I mean? Going back to what we talked about last, like, good habits. We also deserve to put the time in to see if things that we're leveraging are bad habits. You know, like drinking, for me is something where I can recognize that familially. You know, looking at ancestors, addiction is a common thing in the family, and then it's also a common thing in the adopted family. So being able to really confront that head on and recognize that. Okay. I do have an addictive personality, you know, and I'd rather be addicted to working out and reading and. Right. If you got to feed addiction. So it's very. I also have a very addictive personality. You were talking about this when I stopped something. So I smoked. I drank Diet Coke. I drink beer now. When I stopped something. And I tried so many times to quit smoking. And I tried tapering off, and I tried, you know, oh, I'll only. Back in the day, I'll only do one pack a day. I'll only do half pack a day. Well, that never worked. But the what did work was cold turkey. Yeah. Is I literally for whatever. And I still can't distinguish what it was on these particular days, the two days that I quit these things. But smoking. I just woke up and said, that's it. I'm done. Yeah. And Diet Coke. I woke up and said, that's it. I'm done. But I will tell you that for probably three or four months after that, certainly with the Diet Coke. Diet Coke was harder than cigarettes. But people really. That's. Yeah, it's sugar. No, Diet Coke. It's Diet Coke. And it wasn't the caffeine, and it wasn't the saccharine. It was the habit. It was the taste. It was the. Like, there was. I had no physical withdrawal symptoms of either thing. Yeah. It was just the habit. Like, with smoking, I knew when I got in the car, I instinctively wanted to roll my window down and light a cigarette because I'd done it for 22 years. Yeah. Well, 20 years since I was driving with the Diet Coke. It was everywhere. I was like, what would happen to me is I'd go to an event, and I remember this one event, I'm like, are you kidding me? Like, the last event, there was no Diet Coke to be found. This one, there was a refrigerator lined beautifully with Diet Cokes. And you know how when you. My mouth's watering. You know how when you look at a can, you can see that it's cold? Like, it's got the. It glistens a little bit. It was full. There had to be 150 to 200 of them in there. In your ear. You kind of see it. And you have Halo angels singing in your ears. It was two days after I quit. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, man. And so. So I find that really hard. Yeah. However, once you break through that, it was good. So for you, how has this first kind of couple weeks been? I think so. I. You know, earlier this year, I did something similar, but I did it on a much larger scale. You've also changed all your eating habits. Yeah. Gotten fit and lost weight and all of those. Yeah. And I think that a lot of those things were just because I Was like, oh, man. Like, I just don't feel good anymore. And it wasn't even about like, oh, I need a break habit. It was just like, oh, wow, I don't feel in health right now because I'm drinking so much. I'm smoking X, Y, and Z. Like, yuck, I feel like crap. Yeah. Yeah. And that was really what the change was there. But going off of that during that time was. Was. Wasn't as difficult with drinking. Drinking is something I've always been okay to not do if I need. You know what I mean? The other side of it, though, we're leveraging things for anxiety management, different things like that. That's where that was a struggle. And what I realized was I've gotten to a really good place, and then I brought it back in. I was like, oh, I can manage and handle it and stuff. And now that I'm stepping away again, it's like this time has been ten times harder. One. That's interesting. Yeah. So quitting it the first time was easier than quitting it the second time. Yeah, I think that's really important. I found that with smoking. Yeah. So I quit a hundred times smoking, and the next time was always harder, harder, harder. So that's an important thing to think about when you're. If you realize you're in a bad habit early, it's gonna be a lot easier to quit than once you get down the road. Okay. Keep going. I didn't mean to interrupt. No, no, no. That's so important to emphasize there, because when you think about addiction or habits, I feel like this is an interesting kind of territory that we're in, because. Every entrepreneur can relate to this. I know it. But when you think about those things, right. It's so easy to just be like, oh, I could do it once. You know what I mean? Or, oh, I can just do it. Right. And for me, that's a personality that I have. If I do it, I know that I'm going down right back into it. Yeah. Okay. And what a good self awareness to have, though. Yeah. It's also like a fear, you know? A fear. Because I know what. One, growing up in a world where that was kind of prominent, and then two, also, you know, recognizing myself that I don't want to repeat the patterns of kind of generational. Not curses, but traumas that were what people have struggled with. I think that was one of the big things, you know? So making sure that just one little taste is too much even. That's. That's amazing. Self awareness and without kind of sharing super deep secrets. Yeah. You've had a glimpse of what the other path might look like. Yeah. And does that image, like, help you or does that image challenge you as you're trying to do these, Continue to do these things that are better and better for you and your life and your friends and your family? I think it drives me so. And I don't know if that, what if that means help or challenge, but it drives me because it just drives me to stay on. Stay on the right path. One, going back to kind of the habit, the good habits that we've talked about. Fitness and eating, Eating the right way, taking care of my body in the way that I think I deserve to. Going back to that mindset, you know, putting the time in. You deserve to be on the right path, and you deserve to, to, to treat yourself in the way that you do. You need to, you know, and, and. You deserve the rewards of the right path. Exactly. And I'm not saying that. And it's different. Your right is different than my right. I'm not saying that it's right, like Universal Truth. Right. 100 your right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, like, I, I. People drink, People do what they need to do. People do what they want to do and have fun with it. But for me, what I can recognize is like, oh, wow. Stepping away from. It really becomes clear that I have, I have, like, not an addiction, because I wouldn't call myself, like, addicted to these things, but I have addictive habits with them. And I think that that's what the really interesting kind of process has or what this process has kind of allowed me to realize in myself, especially with the second time that I'm doing it now. Yeah. Like, you know, we were talking about we could potentially break it next year. But for me, in my head, I'm like, I. Probably. Why, Maybe I'll drink every once in a while or something like that. If I'm in a social environment, it makes sense. But I'm never going to go out and buy. Buy beer. Yeah. Except for me for the podcast. Exactly. There you go. Yeah. Yeah. So. And that's really interesting because the thing, like, I definitely have an addictive personality as well. Yeah. I'm addicted to work. Yeah. I'm addicted to spreadsheets. I'm addicted to. I'm not addicted to spreadsheets with people. I'm addicted to, like, so, for example, for a while. And this is going back, I don't know, 20 years. That many now, maybe 10. Candy Crush. Oh, wow. Bingo. Oh, wow. Right. So here's what happened with that. I'm going to tell a completely transparent and honest story. I was doing bingo on, you know, the handheld thing. And I would just buy little things, you know, just to move it along so I don't have to wait till tomorrow to do, like, classic addictive behavior. Yeah. I don't want to wait till tomorrow. I want to do it now. And would play for, like. That would be my wind down. So I'd start at like, 8 at night and play till 11. Oh, wow. Right. Or whatever. Deb at one point showed me the apple bill. Yeah. And I believe that in a month, I had spent a thousand dollars. Wow. Had no idea. Yeah. It's like, holy cow. And so I said, that's it. I'm done. I did another one of my cold turkey things, and I stopped. But that's when I realized just how addictive. Addictive behaviors are. Yeah. And the thing I think that we should emphasize here is you didn't do it all in one go. It was a small one here and a small one here and a small one here. And it was okay. Yeah. Yeah. It's 30 cents. It's a buck. But then when you. Five bucks. In the grand scheme of things, it all just adds up. I did what. And that's. That's really. So the awareness. I think the thing that's become. I've become aware of is that I do have an addictive set, and I pick which addictive behaviors I'm going to be okay with. But they change over time. But that's not to say I can't still get trapped. I think we all can if we have that tendency. Yeah. The thing with me, with. When I don't drink beer. So I grew up in a household, you know, opposite of kind of what you described. Very healthy environment. I was just totally blessed with not having to deal with what a lot of people had to deal with in their childhood. You know, I was told I could do anything I wanted to do. I was never hungry. My parents weren't. Well, they. I don't think they were alcoholics. Yeah. However, what I will say is every night when my dad came home, my mom had martinis ready for them, and they drank a couple martinis every night. Gotcha. And that was just. And they smoked, too. You know, it was just a weed. I kind of took on that habit now. And I have a couple beers every night. And that's not great. Right. It's not great for you. So. And I know it. So I. When I Stopped, though. I stopped cold turkey. Yeah. And it's like, that's the only way I can do it. Because for me, if I don't say, I'm not gonna have beers for a while, period, and I have one, I'm gonna have two. Yeah. And I just know that about myself. So that's really interesting. So here's a question for you. Thinking about entrepreneurship mindset and how we approach things and where it's all in in one way and it's all in in the other way, do you find that building a good habit is harder or easier than breaking a bad habit? Because for me, I find that it's the latter. Breaking a bad habit is much more difficult for me than building a good habit. See, I kind of think of them as one in the same. Yeah. Right. So. And they're both hard. And hard's the wrong word. I like to say it's hard because I think people often do these kind of shows once they're through something. It's like, yeah, it was hard for me five weeks ago. Well, it's hard for me now. Yeah. And I. Instead of thinking of it as breaking a bad habit, I think of it as creating a good habit. So, for example, if I were to decide, you know, I'm not going to drink beer for a while, I would replace it with something, and I'd say, my good habit is going to be every night I'm going to have a cup of tea. Yeah. And that would be the habit I would. So then I'm not focused so much on giving something up as taking on something new. That's that. I feel like that could be why you're so successful when you do. When I do decide. Yeah. Smoking. I forget what smoking. It was definitely eating I took up. That's when I gained my 20 pounds of smoke. Smoke quitting. Oh, okay. Diet Coke was also eating beer. I don't want to be eating. So I'll probably do tea or something. Because I like tea. Yeah. And it's really not so much the. When I think about it, this is what's so weird about it. When I think about it, it's not so much like a buzz I'm after or I like the crack of the can. It's like with the Diet Coke, it wasn't the caffeine. I like the crack of the can. I like the pour. I like the taste. I like the smell. And that I can get with tea. Yeah. Right. It A little. You just have a different ceremony. Right. Different little ceremony. So that would be Kind of how I'd have at it. I, I don't, I don't think breaking a habit is easy. I think creating new ones is easier, but they're both hard. Yeah. Like I should be walking every day. Here's another one. I should be out walking every day. I should be on that rower every day. I just have to freaking do it. And I have not made myself get out from behind the computer to do it. Do you think that that's because you're lazy? No. Your health isn't as much of a priority you as your work. Well, I've been either blessed or cursed with not feeling crappy when I'm overweight or you know, drink alcohol. Yeah. A lot of people have stomach issues. Anything. A lot of people don't feel good when they don't exercise. And I imagine if I started exercising I'd see a whole different level of feel good. Yeah. And then I go, oh, that's what that is. Yeah. But as it is, I love my life. I love how I feel. I love my. Once I got my second knee fixed, I'm like, well that feels good. And so I don't like, like Deb, if she eats something that's. That's bad for her. Stomach hurts. Yeah. Doesn't happen to me. Doesn't happen that I really. I'm impressed with your doing this with your friends. You kind of inspired me. I'm not going to commit to anything here, mind you. But you know, I think that actually is the mindset we go through. It's like you get a little bit of inspiration. A little bit of inspiration. And I like sharing the struggle to get into a good habit. And at some point I'm going to crack and go, okay, I'm just going to start doing it and it'll be interesting when that happens to study why. Yeah. And one thing that I would say on this and I think it's really important is do things with a community of people that your, your tribe. Yeah. Because whatever it is, no matter what your mindset is, if it's kind of going back to what you said, calling somebody when you're feeling that temptation and it's maybe if you actually have a full on addiction, it's calling your sponsor or something like that. Right. But for even if it's on a smaller scale, you know, with this type of thing, it's just knowing that you have people that you can reach out to connect with that you're going through the same struggle connect with that. You don't have to, to, to Break the. The make commitments to other people. Yeah. Because as bad as it is, we tend to keep those more. I love that. Yeah. And the other really important thing I just want to say, especially on the changing a habit to something new, because despite my mindset thing of I'm starting something new as opposed to stopping something, you always have that urge. Right. What I realized or learned from a really good coach of mine is that that urge passes very quickly. So say, for example, I wanted a Diet Coke, and I like, look at that refrigerator. I'm like, oh, my God, I could reach in there, grab one of those, pop it. That's going to taste great. It's going to sound great. I'm going to hear that fizz. I'm going to smell this. I mean, like, all of that's muscle memory for me, but that passes in a second. If I literally walk by, it's gone. Temptation lasts a second. Regress lasts a lifetime. There you go. Oh, my God. Listen to you reeling off philosophy. Yeah. But it's true. You know what I mean? Like, temptation is such a temporary thing, but the moment that you break and. You can't react very fast to it. Yeah. Because we're in that adrenaline space. We're not in that pause space. But it's one of those things. Yeah. I think it's a very neat thing to be talking about as we wind down the year, because all of these things affect our work with other people. Yeah. And, you know, to me, the transparency of it is important that everybody knows there's just a no judgment zone. Yeah. Especially with entrepreneurs. Well, anybody. I don't know why I say especially entrepreneurs, but definitely with entrepreneurs. Yeah. We are so hard on ourselves. Yeah. And everybody's walking around with things that need to be fixed and things that are going great. And, you know, once you get to know people, there's always more to the story. And that's the cool thing about getting out there and meeting more and more people as our businesses grow. So. Yeah, I love that. Going into the end of the year, do you have any resolutions? I mean, I know that we still have, like, maybe two weeks before we have New Year's, but kind of piggybacking off of this conversation, is there a goal that you have kind of for a habit to develop or something like that, or have it to break this year, upcoming in 2025? Yes. I think I'm gonna write. I'm not gonna go crazy. Yeah. But I think I'm gonna write myself a letter from Pam. December 2025, back to Pam, December 2024 that says congratulations on walking at least three to four times a week, every week this year. I love that, you know, you feel better, your legs are stronger, which is one of the muscle things I need to work on because I've had the bad knee for so long. So I'm not going to ramp up to some major thing that I might fail at. Yeah. But that I can do. And the way I can do that is I can celebrate that my knees don't hurt. I walked for so long with knee pain that every time I walk, whether it's up and down the stairs or around the block, I'm like, I'm happy. Yeah. Like I can walk without celebration. Yeah. So I want to live into that. How about you? It's interesting. One of the buddy of mine sent me something this morning actually. And it was three, not three things. It was things that going into a new year every year, setting like a large sale goal. Because if you accomplish that goal, if it's a large scale goal, the feeling of success is so much greater. Oh yeah. Especially if it's a long Everest. Aren't you? No, not Everest. Okay. The goals, I thought it's going to happen. Not yet. Okay. But there was three that I kind of came to officially full send launch on the business that we've been working on developing. Do you have like a financial target in your mind or. I think that really the goal would be. So I'm very happy in my role with. With the multiple businesses that I'm working in from Priorities. Talk about that gets complicated sometimes, right? Yeah, yeah. We're navigating it really nicely. Yeah. But you know, there's so much going on, so. But I'm really happy and I feel like I've really kind of come into my stride in each of these kind of things, even though I'm juggling three different things in one one time. But. So I think the main goal would be to get it to the point where my partners can step away from the stuff that they're not happy with because I don't feel the need to do that. So building this to a point where they can step away and really chase the passion that they really want to, I think is my main goal. And that's what I mean by full send launch on that. So in other words, you guys, this business is 100% for them. Yeah, whatever. Percent for you, but 100% for them. Yeah. And it's. And by that I mean, you know, not that the. We're building it only for Them, but it's, you know, the mindset of they, their dreams and their goals are so much greater than what they're involved in right now that I think we can take this business to that point and accomplish those goals for them. And that's like one of the big things I think that I would really love to do. One of the other things is doing another trifecta. Spartan race trifecta. I want to do two this year. I think that would be really cool. Threes. Yeah. So you do six races. Six races total. And a marathon I think would be cool to do. How is your knee from the last one finally? Fine. We went. I went on like a longer run this morning. It was the worst part of the run this morning was just. It was like 20 degrees out. It was freezing. Okay. Yeah. Yuck. And then the last one is just, you know, fully kind of embracing and recognizing what it means to be happy as a human being. And no matter what. That is beautiful. Yeah. I love that third goal. Yeah. And it's, it's. Those goals are hard because they're not necessarily like super concrete. Like specifically metric wise. It's more of like an emotional thing. The Spartan race is. But, you know, I think that all of these goals contribute to one overarching goal, which is just continuing to grow and be a better man and a better person every year. Yeah, I'm going to think about that and maybe at the next one, I'll tell you, hey, here are the three I'll throw out there. I love that. Yeah. The walking is one, but to me that's more of a habit than a goal for the year. I haven't thought about yet the goals for the year. However, I am going to an event with one of my coaches next week. Awesome. Where we're going to spend, you know, four hours really diving into this and what's really how we limit ourselves in thinking about what's going to happen a year from now. Because I've told you this before. Every time, future Pam has written a note to current Pam. When I've looked at that note in the future, what I put in that note has happened. There is magic that happens. Call it God, call it universe, call. It whatever you want. There is magic that happens when you write things down. And I don't mean type them, I mean write them down. Yeah. And I often forget I've done it. And then I come across this thing 3, 6, 9, 12 months later. It's like, holy cow. Yeah, that thing happened. Not in any way that I expected to Happen. And in some cases, it's not even important to me anymore, but it happened. Isn't that beautiful, though? It is one of the most magnificent things. And every day I'm like, why don't you do that more, Pam? Why don't you do that more? Yeah, it's because I love my life. I'm very blessed that way that, you know, I've got a fantastic family. I've got a fantastic team. I've got three dogs, should be four. I've got three dogs and a cat and friends, family. I love what I do. You know, all of that. Of course, that's part of the problem. Right. That I was saying before, I don't feel the bad stuff. I do because I really blessed. But on the other hand, I don't want to. So don't, don't universe think that I want a stomachache every time I eat something bad. But what a great conversation coming to your end. And I will, next time we talk, I'll have kind of what I think my three big goals will be and I'll have written my letter. So here's my challenge to you guys out there. Write this letter to yourself. Yeah. Pick three things that @ the end of next year you really want to have accomplished and write yourself a note to today, you. But in the future tense. So, like for example, Francis, you knocked it out of the park with those two spartan races. You did this, which you never even anticipated you were gonna. You know, you did more than you ever anticipated. Yeah. You know, now you're ready to climb Mount Everest, which you may not even want to do. But I just, as hard as these spartan races are, I'm like, everest can't be that much harder. I guess it probably is. I think it definitely is. I guess do it all. No oxygen, right? Yeah. So, yeah. So challenge yourself to that. Throw. Throw them down. If you've come up with your three, drop them in the comments. Yeah. We'd love to see what they are. We'd be glad to share them. Yeah. If you want your name shared, we can share it with your name. If you want to say anonymous, we can do that as well. But I think it's an important thing for us to be thinking of as we wrap up 20, 24. Yeah. And kind of to add on to that, lean on us as a community, you know, don't do any of this stuff by yourself, really lean on the people around you, lean on us, lean on your family. But don't think that you have to do any of these things by yourself alone. Yeah. Yeah. That is a very, very good point. And entrepreneurship can feel so lonely until we realize just how connected we really are. Yeah. Perfect. Well, thank you guys for joining us on this very special episode and we will see you next week with another Cash Flow. Take care and have a great week. See you guys. Thanks so much for watching the Cash Flow podcast with us. We want to bring more and more of this to you. So please like, share, subscribe, comment so that we can keep bringing more of this content to.