Heidi: 00:08

Welcome back to

Heidi: 00:08

the Slash Tax Podcast. This is the podcast where we decode legal tax strategies, powerful incentives, and smart investing rooms to help you slash your tax bill and build lasting wealth. I am your host, Heidi Henderson, and I am on a mission to empower high income earners, business owners, investors, and financial professionals with the tools they need to make tax strategies work for them, not the other way around. And today's guest is someone who really embodies this mission, Dave Lucas. Dave is a serial entrepreneur, investor, strategic advisor, and the co founder of TaxPlanIQ.

Heidi: 00:49

TaxPlanIQ is a cutting edge platform that's revolutionizing how tax planning and savings are approached in business. His entrepreneurial journey has earned him recognition as an Inc. Five thousand honoree five times and an entrepreneurial three sixty honoree three times. He's the creator of twelve minute trading, a daily trading strategy that empowers people to achieve financial independence in just twelve minutes a day. But Dave's influence extends beyond his business ventures.

Heidi: 01:22

He is also the host of Misfit Entrepreneur, which is an amazing top rated podcast heard in over a hundred countries, and he interviews global entrepreneurs about their unconventional path to success. He's also an Amazon bestselling author, of course. He wrote a book called The Ten Year Career, which is a fast track guide to retiring young, wealthy, and fulfilled. With a deep background in SaaS, ecommerce, real estate, and advisory, Dave brings an unmatched perspective on how strategic tax planning, growth systems, and financial literacy all come together to create a pathway to true wealth and freedom.

Heidi: 02:04

And so in this episode, we're

Heidi: 02:05

gonna explore how you can align your business strategy and tax planning for maximum impact while keeping more of what you earn. And so with that, let's welcome Dave to the show.

Heidi: 02:21

Dave, I'm so excited to dive into all of these achievements. I think you are the epitome of an overachiever. You're probably gonna make us all feel like like unbelievable underachievers, but it's fascinating what you've managed to accomplish. You have been a serial entrepreneur, an author, an investor, an adviser. You're an athlete, top ranked in many of these areas, among many other things.

Heidi: 02:50

So let's start with your entrepreneurial journey. You've been recognized many times in Inc. 5,000, Entrepreneur three 60. I've seen all these different rankings that you have. Can you start with just sharing how did you get started?

Heidi: 03:04

What, like, fueled your passion to build successful ventures?

Dave: 03:08

Oh, jeez. So thank you again for having me on. It's great to be on with all of you guys in the audience. Thanks for watching, listening today. If my voice sounds a little raspy, I we're just recording this after the, national championship game where my buckeyes went and won the national championship, and I was there just screaming.

Dave: 03:27

So just, yeah. So sorry about that, but, we'll get through it. Honestly, it all goes back to when I was five years old. So believe it or not. So I'll tell the story real quick, and then we'll jump into, you know, fast forward.

Dave: 03:41

Yeah. So when I was five years old, I do have a kind of a unique blend in family. So I have one family that were all very successful entrepreneurs on my mom's side, and I actually had another the other side of my family, my dad's side of family literally grew up dirt poor, one room house, all that stuff, you know, and everything, but all of them made it out and and were successful. So I was fortunate to have some good role models growing up, but I've always kind of had an entrepreneur spirit all the way back when I was a kid. So when I was five, looked at my mom and, I said, hey, I wanna make some money.

Dave: 04:22

And she's like, okay, well, you can what are you gonna do to make money? So I got my construction paper and I started making American flags. And I put them in my red wagon and I went up and down the block, selling flags for 5 and 10¢. Right? Wow.

Dave: 04:37

And of course, you have a little five year old that shows up your door. Hey. You wanna buy an American flag for me? I made it for you. $5.10 cents.

Dave: 04:43

Like, I had, like, a % close rate. I was killing it. It was, the best business ever. Right? And I got to, like, the last home on our our block.

Dave: 04:52

And this is the home where, like, all the shades are always down. You don't see the people very often. You know? It's like, you know, it it's just kind of that scary house. And I mustered up my courage to go, you know, up the driveway and and all that stuff.

Dave: 05:05

And I get all the way up there. Nice lady answers the door. I do my pitch. Cute little smile, all that stuff. And it seemed like an eternity, but it was probably just a few seconds.

Dave: 05:17

But just deadpan, she goes, no, thank you, honey. We're Canadian. And she shut the door in my face.

Heidi: 05:21

Oh.

Dave: 05:22

That was my first that was my first rejection. So I I I didn't wanna take no for an answer. I went back and made a Canadian flag and brought it back. I went and researched, got a Canadian flag, figured it out, did that in construction paper, went back, sold it to her. And ever since then, I've just always been involved in some enterprise or another and had a lot of successes along the way, but had a lot of failures as well too.

Dave: 05:46

I think we learned the most from failure more than the successes. But had stuff even in high school, went to college, came out with a business degree and all that stuff and went into a business that did actually I failed miserably and after a year, I didn't have a dime to share for it. I was working three jobs to make ends meet and everything else just sleep on a floor with a couple other people in an apartment and ended up at that point saying, okay, there's some things I gotta learn here if I wanna do this on a grander scale. And so I ended up in the Fortune 500 world, was with Paychex for about seven years. So all of those in the accounting world watching and stuff, you guys are very familiar with Paychex.

Dave: 06:26

Yeah. I was very fortunate to to get in there and get trained and, kind of learn how, the structure of business and how it really works. Had some initial success, and then worked my way up to work with the C suite some and then, ultimately went back out on my own and, you know, built several companies since then and, was able to kind of retire, semi retire by '39, which was the goal was to do it before 40. And, within eight months, I was bored beyond belief. So I started being asked to kind of consult with other software companies because that was kind of where I landed in the software space and kind of help them with scaling and growing and stuff.

Dave: 07:04

I did some board work and things like that. But then ultimately, it was introduced to Jackie Meyer with Tax Plan IQ a couple of years ago and really hit it off, really loved what the company was doing. So started to work with her some helping on the business and then ultimately took over as CEO last year. So that's kinda my quick and dirty story of how I got to where I'm at.

Heidi: 07:26

That's that's pretty amazing. I have a lot of questions, and I definitely want you to share about Tax Plan IQ. I'm gonna ask you that shortly, and your book and your podcast. I I love and very impressive your Misfit Entrepreneur podcast. I mean, you've done such a great job.

Heidi: 07:43

You've had some amazing guests. So I think you refer to yourself also as a misfit entrepreneur. So what is what does that mean to you? And how does that shape your approach to business and to investing?

Dave: 07:55

Sure. That's the dirty secret. Everybody's a misfit. Otherwise, we'd all be the same. It'd be boring.

Dave: 08:00

Right? So it's what what is it? And and when I when I when I look at, you know, leaders, you know, business owners, entrepreneurs, that's the point is like, is their misfit side? Like, what are the unique habits? What are the unique traits that not only got them to be successful, but kept them there?

Dave: 08:15

Right? And that's this all, actually, I'll tie it together because it kinda goes along with the book a little bit, and why I do the podcast. Right? So this actually all started the whole idea for the podcast started when my wife and I adopted our daughter from China almost eleven years ago.

Heidi: 08:32

Wow.

Dave: 08:35

Prior to that, I was fortunate when I had some of that early success, when it was with Paychex, it bought me some freedom and I had the ability to go and learn from the best that I could find. So during about a five year period, I got to go sit down across the table from Zig Ziglar and ask him questions to learn more about what made him tick and what made him successful. I've now been able to interview Tom, his son, and spend some time with Tom over the years to glean even more. But Brian Tracy's of the world, people like that. A lot of people that you've never heard of, but they built hundred million dollar businesses, $2.03, 4, even half a billion and then a couple billionaires.

Dave: 09:17

And then the whole goal was to look for like, okay, what is it that got these people to where they are but kept them there? What are those, I want to say secrets, what are those things that they do that are just a little bit different? What's their misfit side? As I started to learn those things and put them into practice and eventually going into my businesses with them and implementing a lot of those things, I started to have more success. And people started asking me, Where did you learn that from?

Dave: 09:42

That sort of thing. And that's what, after enough prodding prompted me to write the book, The Ten Year Career, encompassing that stuff. But the most important chapter in that book, I think is on our conditioning. You see, we all come out of the womb with a clean slate. It's not like you were born and they're like, man Heidi such a beautiful baby, too bad she'll never make more than 35,000.

Dave: 10:02

That's what she said, right? It doesn't work like that, right? So what is it that like, where do our thoughts come from? What shapes the way we react and everything in our lives? And it all comes from that conditioning that we get from the time we're born.

Dave: 10:17

So family, parents, friends, culture, media, religion, school, all these things shape how we think and react to all these different things of our life. Think of a subconscious like a giant filing cabinet that basically has the automatic reaction to everything that can happen in your life. Right? You don't think to do a lot of things in your life. Right?

Dave: 10:39

What's that Heidi? Okay. It records locally. So if it's on Riverside, so we can just keep going. It'll pick it up and, put it together when we're done.

Dave: 10:55

But as long as you can hear me, it should be all right. Cause it says recording on my side. Yeah. So good. I see the upload happening.

Dave: 11:47

K. Stop it. I know where I'm at, I can just pick up from there. Oh, that could be it. Okay.

Dave: 12:21

Do you have a do you have a backup like Zoom you wanna throw over top of it? That's a good question. I don't know. You're right. Yeah.

Dave: 12:57

If you wanna we if we wanna do a refresh on it, we can do a refresh on it, and then we can just pick up, and then you can splice them together with your editing team.

Heidi: 13:17

K. Alright. It's back to accounting now. It says it's recording, and it says it's recording my end. So I'll just seeing them together if it did break.

Dave: 13:25

So Okay. Well, I will say this. As as I was saying before we were so rudely interrupted by Riverside, you know, we all are conditioned. Right? So it's all these these different influences in our lives.

Dave: 13:40

Parents, friends, media, culture, school, religion. All these things help shape how we think and react to all the things that do come up in our lives, all the situations. If you think about it, like, much do you think really to drive a car or throw a ball or, you know, even when you are in conversation. Right? How you know, how much do you actually think when you respond?

Dave: 13:56

That's all run by the subconscious and stuff. And we pick up everything's pretty good along the way, but we can pick up things that actually can be debilitating to, you know, our success and and our potential. Right? And then once we learn to recognize what those things are, and be able to isolate them, and and decide whether we want to keep them or change them to the things that we truly want. Right?

Dave: 14:17

And ask ourselves, is that something that I actually believe? Right? And if not, change it to what I want. You can, it's the ultimate in personal power. You can really change your whole trajectory, your life, everything.

Dave: 14:28

Right? Yes, And so here I am. I get my daughter. Yes. And she's got the three pairs of pants she's ever worn.

Dave: 14:35

She got the three shirts that she's ever had. She's 18 old. She has no teeth, and she cannot walk. Wow. And after five days of getting three square meals a day, all of a sudden teeth are popping.

Dave: 14:49

Her legs are strong. She's starting to stand. So I would find myself walking up and down the hotel hallways of the hotel we were in in China, like, just becoming a dad, number one, but also, like, you know, holding her holding her hands and helping her get her legs underneath her so she could walk. Right? And it was, like, hitting me the whole time.

Dave: 15:07

You're conditioning her right now. She's modeling what she sees from you right now. Like like, what you say is going into her mind. Like and so and and like the thought hit me like, gosh, there's gotta be a way to immortalize all this incredible information that I've I've learned, that I will get to learn, and from all these amazing people I get to meet along the journey so that Hannah, my daughter, can learn from her daddy and his misfit friends long after I'm dead and gone. And so, like, that's what popped in my head.

Dave: 15:30

And, you know, fast forward about eight months later Mhmm. You know, We're we're home. We're doing doing everything, you know, Joe and his family doing all that stuff, and it's still in the back of my mind. And any entrepreneur out there knows if something sticks in the back of your mind long enough like that, you gotta scratch the itch. So sat down over a weekend, like, what am I gonna do about this?

Dave: 15:47

Do I write more books? Do I start a blog? Do I record videos? And I've always loved podcasting. I've always loved the spoken word.

Dave: 15:53

Right? Somebody may not be able to watch this, but they can take us on the go, in the gym, in the car, anywhere, and be able to feel the emotion and everything as we do as we do this. And so I said, why not? You know? I'd done a number of podcasts as a guest.

Dave: 16:06

Podcast was becoming more mainstream. Never hosted one, but how hard can it be. Right? So, so over a weekend, you know, put up a splash page, hacked iTunes, called a few buddies to do some interviews, and sent it out to the network the next week, and, you know, took off. Here we are ten years later, you know, 450 or so episodes into the thing, and it's been listened to in a hundred countries.

Dave: 16:28

And, you know, I've had just amazing guests. There's literally, you know, multiple MBAs worth of information in the episodes for those that want it. So it's been a lot of fun.

Heidi: 16:37

That that is amazing. I I was late to the podcast game. You know, it seems like everybody has a podcast, but Yeah. You know, it's very similar from my sense of just having a bit of a passion project about an industry and pain points and and and saying, why not have conversations, meaningful conversations with people that are figuring out the things I think that we're all trying to figure out on a day to day basis? You know, success and drive and work and balance between all of these things.

Heidi: 17:05

Are there any particular guests that you've had on the podcast that I mean, I'm sure there are. Give me a couple examples, I should say, of a particular guest that left a really, really lasting impression on you and and what that was.

Dave: 17:18

Gosh. At this point, there's been so many. Honestly, if I looked back through all of our history, I'd be able to I I really would be able to say, wow. That one yeah. That was a really great episode.

Dave: 17:29

You know, I there's some big names like Alex Rumozzi's been on. He's well known, hundred million dollar offers and all that stuff. I think Alex was I you know, he was on right before he got very, you know, famous. Right? I think it was really cool.

Dave: 17:42

Him and Leila, his significant other, were on together. Oh. That was a really cool episode. I mentioned, like, Tom Ziggler. Ziggler was really good.

Dave: 17:50

Mhmm. He's guy that not a lot of people hear about, but he's kind of in the same vein as, like, Alex, and he's been really successful as an immigrant entrepreneur. He's a guy named Beidros Killion.

Heidi: 17:59

Mhmm.

Dave: 17:59

I've had him on a couple times. A good you know, a really good one. And then we've had I mean, we've had billionaire, you know, that that have been on that have built billion dollar businesses and stuff. There was and I can't remember her name. Sadly, it was a few years ago, but she built the largest transcription service in the world.

Dave: 18:16

Wow. You know? And hearing that story, like starting an apartment in New York and building that, like, you know, there are just so many incredible stories, and and really, that's what we do in the episode. We the guest tells a story. I actually don't wanna know any of that ahead of time.

Dave: 18:33

I like to be genuinely surprised. So and then I get curious, and we go down rabbit holes. Like, that no episode's ever the same, so it's kinda it's kinda fun like that. Right? So I always tell people, because they're like, hey, what episode should I go?

Dave: 18:47

I'm like, the best thing to do is peruse the titles. Which ones speak to you? Go check them out. You really can't go wrong with any of them. Each guest is you know, a highly accomplished in their own right, so you're always gonna learn something.

Heidi: 19:01

Yeah. But is there there's gotta be something, and I'm sure it's hard to pull something out out of all of the ones you've done, but something that somebody said to you that just hit you. You know? And that happens to me sometimes when I'm talking to people.

Dave: 19:13

And Ziegler had one of the yeah. Tom Ziegler had a, you know, one of the best, you know, definitions of success that I've ever heard. And, you know, I I use it to this day. So I asked him. I said, Leo, you know, what's the best way to succeed?

Dave: 19:28

He said, simple. Replace a bad habit with a good habit. And do that over and over and over again. And so, like, last year, we went through an exercise that I started at beginning of the year in TechSpendIQ, and I'm like, let's look at each area, an apartment we have. Let's find a bad habit, and replace it with a good habit.

Dave: 19:47

Yes. And then go to the next one, and the next one, and the next one. And it's amazing, you know, where you are at the end of the year. I you know, I've said for many years, you know, people overestimate what they can do in a week and underestimate what they can do in a year.

Heidi: 19:59

Mhmm.

Dave: 19:59

Right? Yep. And it's amazing what you can accomplish over the long term. Right? And that's one theme that comes up a lot.

Dave: 20:08

It it well, it's really just proven by these entrepreneurs. The those that play the long game win.

Heidi: 20:14

Mhmm. Well, it's

Dave: 20:15

like that

Heidi: 20:15

1% rule. You know, you you I can't remember what book that is, but, you know, getting 1% better every day. And Tiny gains.

Dave: 20:23

Yes. Mhmm. It's tiny gains. It's why am I blinking? I'll come back around.

Dave: 20:30

But Yeah. Exactly. It's the little 1% that add up over time. Right? And that's but you but if if if you don't play the long game and everything is just like because we're we're we're conditioned as instant society.

Dave: 20:42

Right? It's like, you know, the microwave, you know, we stop it with three seconds left. We can't even wait three seconds anymore. You know? It's like I like, you know what I mean?

Dave: 20:50

So there's this this insatiable hunger for everything now. Right? And that's that's that's a that's a a very hard thing when it comes to lasting success.

Heidi: 21:02

Yeah.

Dave: 21:02

You might get it once, but you're gonna give it back, or you're you're gonna not be able to do it consistently because you you're not looking at it for the long term. You're not taking that long view. You know?

Heidi: 21:13

Yeah. Well, obviously, I mean, you have a huge entrepreneurial spirit. And I I could actually go down the rabbit hole all day of talking about the childhood experience because I I am not a big, my my therapy is being outside. My is moving my body. That's how I work through Yeah.

Heidi: 21:30

Psychological, emotional issues is is physically moving. Mhmm. But, you know, you hear a lot about childhood trauma and people working through that. I have three kids in their twenties, and it's amazing to start to see them work through things from their childhood. Not necessarily the word bad things.

Heidi: 21:46

They're just things that happened, like like you with the flag as a five year old, and it it planted a seed so strongly and powerfully that it really does shape how we go forward, and it could be good or bad. And so really taking the time to reflect on that is, I think, so empowering with how that changes the trajectory of our lives. But back to TaxPlanIQ, because this is a big one. Being an entrepreneur, how did you spin into this relationship with Jackie at TaxPlanIQ? I mean, this software, it offers tax planning, savings, strategy really for taxpayers.

Heidi: 22:26

What gap in the market did you see that really inspired you to jump onboard with Jackie, to have buy in, and really wanna to become the CEO of this of this company?

Dave: 22:38

Well, I wanna give a lot of credit to Jackie because she originally saw the opportunity, the need, and everything else. Right? So those, you know, listening, probably some of you have heard of Jackie because she's spoken a lot in everything else, and her her success story has been told a lot. Right? This is a, you know, a CPA running a, you know, just small market firm doing 3 to 400,000 a year in revenue, working sixty, seventy hours a week like crazy, who had an epiphany moment where her husband told the kids that we should just forget mommy exists for the next few months during tax season.

Dave: 23:08

Yep. That pretty much set her on a path to, you know, figure out how to, you know, live the life that she wanted. Right? And she found tax planning is the vehicle to do that. Mhmm.

Dave: 23:22

And over a three year period, she was able to reduce her client base by 60% and grow her revenues by almost four times and have a million dollar business. Now who wouldn't wanna do that? Right? And so all the methodology that she originally was doing by hand, you know, and with spreadsheets and stuff became the initial kind of version of Tax Plan IQ. And so once she launched it, it, you know, it it it got, you know, some falling because people knew her right off the bat.

Dave: 23:50

And I think where I came in was, you know, she had she had reached that initial. Every business has different plateau levels. Right? I always I I use this I have this formula that I've always used called DCP, consistency, and persistent. Right?

Dave: 24:05

Yep. So discipline is doing the things that you know you need to do even when you don't wanna do them. Consistency is doing that day in and day out without fail. And persistence is even though even if you're disciplined and consistent, you are gonna hit what seem like insurmountable roadblocks. And if you're not willing to persevere or persist through those times, you kinda stagnate.

Dave: 24:27

Right? Mhmm. And every business, like, from, you know, zero to 500,000, five hundred thousand to a million, a million to 5,000,000, five to 10, and and so on, goes through these levels of of that. Right? And you gotta figure out how to break through, though.

Dave: 24:40

Right? And I've I've had some experience in doing that. And so Jackie kinda been at, you know, that that first level, you know, over a million and and growing and trying to figure out that next that next kind of phase, and that's where we were introduced. And so when we sat down, you know, she's like, look. I, you know, I I build a business, but I've never built a software company before.

Dave: 25:00

It's definitely different than a CPA firm. Like, what can we do together? Right? So I I started working with her on how to get better alignment, how to approach the market. We brought in EOS, if you've ever heard of EOS before.

Dave: 25:13

Yep. EOS, the entrepreneur operating system. It's a great structure for how to run a business and get everybody on the same page. Right? Did those things, and and we doubled the size of the business in about six months.

Dave: 25:23

Wow. And, you know, after that, Jackie's like, you know what? I really like being, like, out front with the message of what tax planning can do and helping people understand that, as well as working she really loves to work in in the product and and that sort of thing. Right? She's like, would you take over as CEO and, you know, really continue what we've done here?

Dave: 25:46

Because you've got the experience. You've done it. You've gone to these different levels, and, you know, we'll be a great team together. And at that point, I had really fallen in love with the business of of tax planning. Having the background that I had was nice because I understood the CPA community pretty well and understood the the challenges there.

Dave: 26:02

And you look at tax prep, and tax prep is it's needed. Right? But it's a really big bloody red ocean. It's kind of like a race to the bottom. You know?

Dave: 26:11

It's like you know, think about it. Most c you know, most CPAs and accountants watching, like, know, client comes in the office. They're like, well, you know, they had an accountant or somebody doing their taxes before. It's like, well, my old CPA was doing it for this. Can you beat it?

Dave: 26:25

Like, it's a horrible play position to be in. Right? And try to sell value on the on the same thing that everybody's got the same software doing and everything. Right? So, like, how do you separate yourself apart?

Dave: 26:36

Well, if somebody walks in your office, you could say, hey. I I took your your last year's tax return and ran it through our our software, and it turns out I can save you about a hundred and $80,000 in taxes going forward. Now, obviously, there's more work that we have to do for that. It's not just one and done doing your tax returns at the year. It's a year round thing that we have to do to make sure we that all that savings is realized, and, you know, it'll cost you about $30,000 to do that, plus it includes your tax return.

Dave: 27:02

It's a completely different conversation. If I walk into if if somebody walked into me and said, Dave, pay me 30,000, and I'll pay you a hundred and 80,000 Yeah. I would do that over and over and over again. Right? Yep.

Dave: 27:12

And so that's what tax planning really opens up, and that's the thing I love about it is it's really a win win win. Actually, one tax planning client on average is the same revenue as 22 tax prep clients.

Heidi: 27:24

Wow. Wow.

Dave: 27:25

That's an interesting

Heidi: 27:26

that's an interesting stat.

Dave: 27:27

You wanna know how Jackie got rid of 60% of her client base. She focused on the ones that tax planning really made sense for Mhmm. And did the tax prep form, but, you know, that's what allowed her to, you know, grow her revenues that much and have less clients. And Yep. She got down to where she was working four hours a week because she you know, I challenged her on this because she read the four hour work week by Tim Ferriss and was like, I'm gonna do it.

Dave: 27:48

And she actually did get to that point. Wow. And so, you know, her her as a result, her family life changed and what she could do with her family and all that stuff changed. Right? Made a huge difference for her.

Dave: 27:58

And that's really what we're our mission is at Tax Plan IQ. We've got a software that literally does 90 plus percent of the work for you. Mhmm. Reads the data from, you know, the the taxpayer's information, suggests the strategies to maximize the savings, puts together the plan and all of that for you with the click of a button. Yep.

Dave: 28:15

You know? And so it's it's been a lot of fun making really having a win win win. Right? The taxpayer wins. They save a lot of money.

Dave: 28:23

The the CPA or the accounting firm wins because they are now able to generate more revenues and be more proactive and and really serve their clients at a higher level, and obviously, we win because they use our software to do it. So it's it's rare to find that in the software space having been in it so long.

Heidi: 28:40

Yeah. No. You guys have really interesting model. And the it's interesting because I've seen such a shift in in the CPA space over the last couple of years. One of the biggest shifts I've seen in my twenty plus years in this industry specifically, and I think it's a few different factors.

Heidi: 28:57

It's the whole pandemic really catapulted the industry forward with technology. I think that many of the older style firms were very resistant to, and it forced having to go to the cloud and having to begin using Zoom and realizing that, you know, working virtually is actually a possibility. Obviously, you'd seen in other industries, but not the CPA space. But the other factor that's really shifting things is this max exodus of people retiring out of the space and the significant lack of people actually graduating and coming into the CPA or the accounting industry. The difficulty and this is where I see opportunity, but also some probably struggle with something like tax plan IQ, and I'd love for you to address it a little bit.

Heidi: 29:49

For one, we have firms that are realizing for them to change and to adapt, they need to shift their focus into strategic tax planning, into really looking at those opportunities and finding value, and then also success based billing, very possibly. And we're seeing a big shift in the younger, newer firms moving towards that model and understanding the value. But on the flip side, we see some of the larger or regional traditional formed firms saying, look, we don't have time for that. We don't have time. We don't have capacity.

Heidi: 30:25

We don't have the energy. We don't have the desire to sit here and do this strategic plan with our clients. It's just too time consuming. We we are set up to bill on success based billing. And so it's interesting because I see this whole piece of the industry that I think is really going to gravitate toward what you guys have built, And then this other piece that's gonna be much more hesitant.

Heidi: 30:49

Can you talk a little bit about first, some key features in in the platform? And then really, how is it making a real difference for CPAs and how they can this to solve both of those points. They're they're two different problems, I think.

Dave: 31:06

Well, I will say I will say this before I get into those features and stuff. Inertia is a challenge in in any industry.

Heidi: 31:12

Right?

Dave: 31:14

You know, change is tough, especially when you've done things a certain way a long time. You know, our goal is the way we built things and and and set it up is to really be the bridge between the old way and the new way. Right? Yeah. And I think we've done a good job of doing that, and we continue to get better, you know, as with the additions that we make to the software and stuff.

Dave: 31:36

But, you know, the key features, you know, are again, when somebody says I don't have time, that's the exact reason you need to change.

Heidi: 31:44

Yes. K.

Dave: 31:45

Because if you don't have time, if you don't have five minutes to be proactive and really look out for your client in a better way, that's an issue. Yep. Because you're gonna get passed up because somebody will come along and do that. It's just the nature of business. Yeah.

Dave: 31:59

Right? And so so that I think to like, that that should be a wake up call. Right? And the the nice thing is, like, we've kinda democratized it in a in a way that, you know, makes it so that you can do it in five minutes. So there's not really an excuse of time anymore.

Dave: 32:16

Right? It's just whether you want to or not.

Heidi: 32:19

I see.

Dave: 32:19

So in our world, you know, we we use the the the ten forty, and the reason that we use the ten forty as the main instrument is because for most taxpayers, 95 plus percent fill you know, everything flows through into the ten forty. So if you get the ten forty, you can you can read that. You can OCR that. Right? And get the data points off of it, and then be able to recommend the the the best tax strategy set up for that client.

Dave: 32:45

We have about a 25, hundred and 30 strategies, and then there's state counterparts in the software, so it's like quote unquote 6,000 strategies if you do it like that. Mhmm. Right? And so the the software does. It reads it within less than a minute.

Dave: 33:00

It tells you, hey. Based on this tax return, here are the top tax strategies. We've got a specific logic, and then we've got brought an AI with that to maximize that and make sure it's right. And so it tells you, hey. Here's your potential savings.

Dave: 33:13

Here are the strategies make sense. It tells you a dollar value specifically for each strategy that could potentially be there based upon how much of it you decide to use. Right? And then you can literally check the box. Check.

Dave: 33:27

Check. Check. And it goes on to the tax plan, and then the tax plan with the click of a button is automatically created with the specific steps for each strategy and what to do. The, you know, risk to understand, you know, the steps that a client needs to do, all of it's right there. It's the playbook at your fingertips.

Dave: 33:43

Yep. And then we also produce some really unique other assets. We actually produce a sales presentation. So if you don't have a sales presentation, it's actually done and ready for you. So that's in there.

Dave: 33:53

Right? So how to you know, it takes you right through how to present to the client. Now we like people that, like, pick and choose slides from that and put it with their own stuff and everything too, but it's just an asset and a resource for you. And then we also have, one of my favorites is like an executive summary. It's like a one page report that, you know, you can download.

Dave: 34:09

Like, think about meeting with a client. Kind of that example I said earlier. Right? You run their tax return through ahead of time. It shows you can save, you know, a hundred and $50,000 for them, and it shows across, you know, that we do it by category, as a default.

Dave: 34:23

Right? So it doesn't say the specific strategies. Maybe you don't wanna give those away, but it'll show you what the, year one, year two is, and then your ten year, you know, trajectory for savings. So imagine sitting from a client being like, well, we can save you a hundred and 50 in year one. We're gonna save you, you know, another hundred or so in year two and beyond, so your total savings over the next ten years is like 1,300,000.0.

Dave: 34:44

Like, that's a really compelling story to talk about. The other thing that we did, probably the most important thing we did, is we we figured out the the standard for how to price tax planning.

Heidi: 34:56

K.

Dave: 34:56

This was about a ten year effort starting with Jackie's efforts, you know, almost a decade ago, and working with the best tax planners that were out there, people that are you know, they've made it their whole business and, you know, clients of ours and and thought leaders out there to really figure out a methodology for how to consistently price tax money because there isn't one in the space. No. And just in November of last year, the AICPA came out and adopted it, and they'll be rolling out more with that in the this year on, really, the standard we call it the ROI method. Good. And so we actually have a workbook on that so people can download that, and they can, you know, plug in things and and see what the pricing is.

Dave: 35:34

But the software does it all with just answering four questions. Wow. So it's all baked in. Yep. So literally, in about five minutes, you've got a tax plan.

Dave: 35:42

You know what to price it at. You know what the going rate is in the market. That's actually factored into the net savings and everything on the tax plan and all that for you. Mhmm. And you're off and running.

Dave: 35:51

So there's we've tried to do our best to make it, like I said, 90 plus percent of the work. Yep. And, you know, make it within a few minutes you've got what you need and and can get going.

Heidi: 36:01

You know what? It's it's amazing because you and I have been talking for, I think, over a year or so, and we had looked for a tool, looked for a partner that was doing something like this. And there are a few platforms, but what you guys are doing different. And one of the things I love the most is that you approach it from the ten forty, from the individual taxpayer. And where we come in as being a tax credit incentive firm, you know, we're working with cost segregation and R and D, your platforms identify when those are applicable.

Heidi: 36:31

But when we're working on it from a client side, we finish one of those, and the inherent question is always, what else should I be doing? What else can we deploy? And then also, oftentimes, our CPA isn't looking at those opportunities for us. Much of our business is referred to us by CPAs that are strategically looking at those opportunities. But the clients that come to us directly because there's so much information out there nowadays, they're finding us direct.

Heidi: 36:58

We're working with an investor on a real estate project or business owner. Those questions are inherently those next things they're searching for. Our tools and resources for someone to provide them that that visibility of what they can be looking at, how they can save, how they can reinvest. Because it's not about their success, how much money they're making, and how much tax they have to pay. It's that the tax code is built to incentivize specific activities, and knowledge is power.

Heidi: 37:29

And so have that knowledge I I can't tell you how many CPAs over the years have told their clients, well, you should be thrilled. You did really great this year. I mean, this is what you owe. So you should just you should be really proud of yourself. And and I agree with that to an extent, except that when they get to that level, that next step is really changing the mindset.

Heidi: 37:51

And to that point, like, beyond the software, I love what you said that inertia is a challenge in any industry. And I think that you really hit the nail on the head because with the accounting and CPA industry, we're resistant to things that are difficult that that create change and probably are gonna take a little bit of time to understand or are new, but this is really what our clients are looking for. So now shifting from use, like, using a platform, using change, which really about mindset. So what traits do you see again and again in in a lot of these entrepreneurs that you work with or investors you work with? What is the mindset they've been able to adopt to really cultivate that mindset to be more open and really start to recognize those opportunities?

Dave: 38:41

Well, I'll talk about that because a few things with that. But I I'll say this. Like, over the last two years, we've saved over a billion dollars in taxes for taxpayers. We average over $40,000 per taxpayer on our platform. So if you took all your clients and plugged them in our platform, you'd average over $40,000.

Dave: 38:57

Now some, you may save a million. Right? But I will say this much. All it does is take the decision. Like, we have people that I I mean, happens every single month.

Dave: 39:10

We have people that start in their first month. Right? And we actually give a lot of instructions. So we don't just, like, give you a platform, and, you know, we have a support team that is second to none that's there to help you, that onboards you, that trains you, that walks you through everything, and we have tax technical experts, all of that stuff there to effectively hold your hand. Right?

Dave: 39:29

Because we know it can be challenging. But our goal was always to get your first tax plans sold with you in less than thirty days and help your clients. Amazing. And that's always the goal. Mhmm.

Dave: 39:41

And we and we see it's like, one of my favorite stories with a 72 year old who's still doing tax prep work. She's, you know, she's love her to death. She's a wonderful lady, but she had just she didn't know she knew she needed to change, but she wasn't sure what to do. Right? She came on board hesitantly.

Dave: 40:01

She worked with our team. We helped her out, and she went with one of her larger clients to start. We identified over $300,000 in savings for that client. Wow. And the ROI method told her that because of the strategy she was doing and the the work that's involved we it's not a success fee based or anything like that.

Dave: 40:17

The ROI method takes into account the actual work needed to implement strategies throughout the year, assigns like a dollar value to it, like an hourly value, and then it has a markup and everything. So there's no percentage. There's none of that stuff. But the ROI method told her to charge $72,000 for the tax plan. Mhmm.

Dave: 40:33

She'd never charged more than a couple grand in her entire life to any client. Right?

Heidi: 40:36

So

Dave: 40:39

worked with her a little bit. She was you know, got, you know, up the the courage. She sat down with her client and went through the pitch, showed it to them, showed the savings, and said it's gonna cost about $72,000 to do it. Client didn't blink an eye, cut her check on the spot. That's the thing that happens more often than not.

Dave: 40:58

And once somebody has that happen, when I you know, talk about mental. Right? Once somebody sees that that's possible, it's it's on from there. It's, you know, it did you know, it's gone on to do a bunch more since then, and we see that all the time. Yeah.

Dave: 41:09

So a lot of the mental roadblocks are, you know, you know, are in our own minds. Yep. Back to the subconscious and everything. Right? You can't charge $72,000 for a tax plan.

Dave: 41:20

Well, yeah, you can. And, you know, I've got some clients that they deal with really high net worth individuals or business owners, and they're charging 304 hundred thousand dollars. So it's really where your mental limits are in a lot of cases.

Heidi: 41:35

Yeah.

Dave: 41:35

Right? That's, know, that part of that's from being an industry that kind of has had things set in a way and stuff. So the I think the biggest thing the biggest thing that people have to do is is have to take a step back and just say, like, what do I truly want? Not not just for my business, but for myself. Right?

Dave: 41:55

What is the best day in the life look like for me if I had it my way? Right? Yeah. And once you start to, you you look at those things and kind of see what truly matters, right, And what, you know, really makes a difference in your life and and all that. It it it takes on a different meaning, and then that gives you a purpose.

Dave: 42:15

And once you have a purpose, right, you have something to live into, just like anything for anybody, and and you set the goal when you go after it. And I think that's the because we get so bogged down in the day to day, you know, like this we're doing this during tax season, so we're already, you know, we're cranking. Right? And all that stuff. And so we're bogged down the day to day.

Dave: 42:33

You know, you don't stop to, like I I think actually tax season is gonna sound crazy to a lot of people. I think it's one of the best times to you utilize like a tool like ours or any of them out there from a tax planning perspective. Yeah. Because you're working with the client's data now. You're you're you've got the the ten forty being done.

Dave: 42:50

Can identify the opportunities for next year, have great conversation during this time. Maybe you can go back and amend a return from a year two ago and get some extra savings. You know? Like, to me, it's like it's like just the ultimate. It's it's, It's the best time to to do that.

Dave: 43:04

Right? Yep. Interesting. But again, a mind shift. It's a mind shift.

Dave: 43:08

Right? A %. To do that. Yep. A %.

Dave: 43:12

Yeah. So so you have to you have to go down to the core. You have to go to the real your what's your real purpose? And most people never sit down for a few hours on a Friday and just ask themselves, what do I truly want? Yeah.

Dave: 43:25

Why do I want

Heidi: 43:26

it? Mhmm.

Dave: 43:27

Right? And and and question themselves and dig in on themselves. It's not a surface level answer, you know, three, four, or five levels deep. But once you get there and you get it, right, then a lot of things fall in line. And so I think that's what some of these these people that, you know, that that are know they need to move but aren't doing it, right, have to kinda do and then reset how their business is.

Dave: 43:48

It can be a little bit scary, but, you know, there's a there's a best case. There's a worst case. You usually fall somewhere in between. Right? So if you just focus on the worst case, you're you're missing out on a lot of opportunity.

Dave: 43:58

So symmetric risk and reward.

Heidi: 44:00

Right. So is that how so you are an Amazon bestselling author of the ten year career. You mentioned that. The book Mhmm. Promises a fast track guide to retiring young, wealthy, and fulfilled.

Heidi: 44:12

Is this a result of you going through that exercise for yourself in terms of asking yourself, what do I really want? What what do I want? What do I want my life to look like?

Dave: 44:20

Is this book a

Heidi: 44:22

result of that?

Dave: 44:24

It it actually helped spurred that because in order to write it, I had to get real with who I was and and everything. I you know, I when I wrote that, I was in my, you know, mid to late twenties. Right? I'm still trying to at that point, I'm still trying to figure out who I am or what I'm gonna you know, what do I wanna be when I grow up. Right?

Dave: 44:41

For most people. Right? Yeah. And so going through that, knowing that I was gonna put something out there that was going to share wisdom and advice that could help others, you know, with where they were and where they wanted to go, I had to get really real and understand that about myself first.

Heidi: 44:58

Mhmm.

Dave: 44:59

You know? And as you grow older, things change. We know that priorities change. I didn't have a kid back then. Mhmm.

Dave: 45:04

To now, you know, much different. Right? She's 11 going on 18, so or 12 going on 18. So Yeah. She's little it's a completely different world.

Dave: 45:13

Right? So but the you know, and so things do change, and so that's why I I still do it every year. Mhmm. Now a lot of the core stuff like, my core values in principles, those those don't change. You know?

Dave: 45:27

Those are pretty darn consistent. Yeah. But, like, when I look at, like, what do I wanna accomplish for 2025 versus 2024 based on what we have going on, right, I look at your professional life, I look at your personal life, and I look at what I call, like, your discretionary, which is the other areas. Right? So, like, for me, professionals like what I do at TextBend IQ and some of the other ventures that I have.

Dave: 45:47

Right? So what do I what really matters there? Where if I'm gonna put my time in that, where do I put my time and why? Right? What's my purpose?

Dave: 45:55

Personal. What's what's my purpose with my my family this year? How do I become a better father? How do I become a better husband? How do I, you know, become a better man overall?

Dave: 46:03

Right? And then, like, discretionary or, like, the other areas, like, where I have endeavors. Like, you mentioned I'm being an athlete and stuff. I, you know, I compete pretty heavily in Ironman. Right?

Dave: 46:12

So it's like, well, what do I want to like, what would make me a really great year here, and what do I need to do it? What sacrifices do I need to make? Like, you know, once you have that and you align that with your principles, your your core values, and everything, it's it's a lot easier to move forward. And less is more. I think too is another thing.

Heidi: 46:30

I'm glad you brought that up because I did wanna talk about you're doing Ironmans. So as I said, you are just just slightly an overachiever. We we've got books. We have the podcast. You're Sounds

Dave: 46:42

like Sounds more than it is.

Heidi: 46:43

It sounds more like it is. I know it's amazing what we can pack into a day. But talk a little bit about a year. Yeah. What talk about how do you balance all of that?

Heidi: 46:56

I mean, just Ironman's by itself. The training regimen for that typically is is extreme with the number of hours that you train in different, you know, swim and bike and run and, and the hours you have miles you have to spend doing those things. Yep. One thing I talk about on this podcast that I'm really passionate about is the commitment to choosing what we want our lives to look like, and then building it that way, that we are not victims of time and tasks, that we are the constructors of time and tasks. And how do you construct that in a way where you can still do the things that you love, that you are passionate about?

Heidi: 47:35

You know, you're a father, your your your family, your work, your, you know, physical endeavors. How are you balancing all that? Talk a little bit about the structure and your commitment to those things.

Dave: 47:46

Well, I I think, and I've said this for a long time too, most people it's in in the book too, most people don't get what they want because they don't know what they want. And so, again, when you know what you want, right, kind of what we just talked about before, things fall online a lot easier. Right? But so I I got him to do an iron man's I I played football through college. Right?

Dave: 48:06

And after college, I still had kind of a competitive itch that I wanted to scratch. Right? So I started running. Right? So you get into, you know, half marathons and marathons and things like that.

Dave: 48:16

But, you know, after 40 of those, it gets a little boring. You know? And so it, like, it you you start looking for kinda some other things, and that's where kind of endurance racing came in. And I like I I I like triathlon because of the different disciplines that you like, me, if I do the same thing over and over and over again all the time, I get bored. Right?

Dave: 48:33

So the different disciplines require a different skill set, a different focus, and everything to get good at them, and then putting them together is is always a challenge. Right? Every race that I do, you know, I just got back from the world championships in New Zealand here in last December and competed. And I did pretty well, but I've never been passed up so much in my life in racing. And so, like, it it like, it's amazing how good people are.

Dave: 49:01

Right? So, like, that spurred me to go, okay. Like, I broke down the race. Like, my transitions weren't fast enough. What other things that I did you know, could I have done better?

Dave: 49:08

Like you know? And so those are things working on this year because I've got the world championship in Nice, France. Right? So, like, to me, like, I I love racing because it's a great metaphor for business and life. Right?

Dave: 49:20

You you have to be disciplined, like, every single day. Right? Again, doing the things you know you need to do even when you don't wanna do them. Right? So I was up at you know, I got, like, two hours of sleep on, you know, Monday night, caught a plane back yesterday, worked, and had a, you know, a a big webinar last night, got some sleep, got up at 05:30, and did my run that I had to do today.

Dave: 49:43

Right? And so, like, that forces me to have to follow a structure and a schedule and everything else. So that's one thing that training does is it it forces me to do that. It also forces me to take care of myself. Mhmm.

Dave: 49:53

You know? Mhmm. I I can't be, you know, you know, weekend warrior stuff. I I and all that. That, you know, a lot of people do.

Dave: 50:00

Like, I you know, when you gotta get up at 6AM for a seven hour training block on a Saturday or Sunday morning, you know, you can't you can't do that stuff. Right? So it forces you to be disciplined and helps with your health and stuff, which also helps as an entrepreneur. Yeah. It also teaches you that the little things make the biggest difference, kinda what I was talking about.

Dave: 50:18

Right? So nutrition. When you're in Ironman, for those that don't know, is a 2.5 mile swim followed by a 12 mile bike ride followed by a marathon as fast as you can do it. Okay? That's that's what

Heidi: 50:32

it all. Yeah. That's all.

Dave: 50:33

Well and, you know, so so over a nine or ten hour stretch, you know, which is, you know, in the you know, just so you know, the pros are finishing, like, seven to eight hours, guys. That's how good people are at the sport. But, you know, for my age group, I'm I'm one of the tops in the world, and the nutrition is such a big thing. If you don't get your nutrition right, if I don't eat the banana at exactly when I get off the bike to get on the run, that potassium that I didn't get from that banana is gonna hurt me on the run if I don't have that. Like, everything's dialed in scientifically at this point.

Dave: 51:02

So business, the little things make the biggest difference. Creating the SOP, documenting things appropriately, making sure that if you got a process, it's consistently followed. Like, things are, like, things that nobody wants to deal with or think about or have to, you know, come back to, but it's what makes a great business. Right? And so, like, there's a lot of these, like, parallels, and then the mental game.

Dave: 51:24

Every single race, wanna quit. There's a point at which, you know, my mind's telling me, you're going too fast. You haven't gone at this speed before. You're gonna, you know, burn out, slow down, or whatever. Right?

Dave: 51:35

Like, where you have this struggle mentally that you have to use will and overcome, right, to to make it and finish it. And, thankfully, knock on wood, I've never not finished a race at this point. You know? And that translates well to business because, again, you know, every day like, business has problems. Every day there's problems that come up.

Dave: 51:59

Right? The more problems you can solve, the bigger ones that you can handle, the more your business can grow. So I welcome the challenge now. Right? It's not like, oh, no.

Dave: 52:09

You know, this happened, or this is going on. It's like, okay. Great. Where's the opportunity in this? Let's figure that out.

Dave: 52:15

Let's how are we gonna take advantage of it? Right? And so that's one of the things that, you know, racing has helped me, you know, get better with myself over the years. So there's a lot of these these parallels to it. Back to structure.

Dave: 52:27

Go back. One of the things that well, I'll share this and then, you know, because I I think it'll give you the last point you need. So when it comes to structure, and I don't like the word balance. Just the, you know, I I what I love is the word harmony because I think as entrepreneurs, balance is actually really hard. Finding true harmony amongst things, right, that's more in line with with what you have to do with.

Dave: 52:51

Because let's face it, there are some times you're gonna work late. You know? It just is what it is. There are some times where you gotta travel and you don't wanna travel. Right?

Dave: 52:59

There's, like, things like that that come up. So what I did years ago is I took back control of my life through my calendar with a very simple exercise. I got up one morning, and I blocked out all the times for me on my calendar that my staff had access to. Workout times, lunchtime, thinking time, my own, you know, blocks for whatever it is I wanna do strategic planning, and even family time. Like, if you look at my calendar, 05:45PM east eastern, family time, and it goes through the end of the night.

Dave: 53:31

Right? And so what I did is with that exercise, I actually trained people when I was available for them. And so if you've ever lived in that world where your calendar's open and people just grab times and take times, and all of a sudden, you've got no time left. Right?

Heidi: 53:44

Mhmm.

Dave: 53:45

Yeah. I I took all that back so that I didn't have to worry about that. And so my, you know, teams know, hey. This is when I'm available. If it's not open, hey.

Dave: 53:54

You gotta find another time. Right? Or wait till our one on one time. Right? And that sort of thing.

Dave: 53:58

Because that's your time, right, that I put into you at the at those. The rest is is mine, and that has made a a massive difference in just taking back that control and not ceding it to others.

Heidi: 54:10

Yeah. I think that's huge. I mean, time blocking and prioritizing, we do a quadrant exercise, and part of that comes from the Covey thought process of the quadrants and really understanding. But the time blocking is so imperative. You have so many insights on everything from tax planning and business.

Heidi: 54:30

We didn't even get to your investing because I know you you're also doing some real estate investing. You do some coaching with different businesses, business coaching and consulting, career growth. But if somebody's listening, as we kind of wrap this up, what is just one step that somebody could take towards that next step for them, whether that's their financial freedom or the harmony that they have between their work life balance, their mental health, physical health, and their own success? Like, just one little thing, and and and I'll I'll preface this by saying, I asked that question because sometimes it's so easy to get overwhelmed. You know?

Heidi: 55:10

And and honestly, looking at someone like you and seeing everything you achieved, it's like, well, I mean, that, you know, that's impossible. That's him. He's amazing. He's he's like a superhero. You know, I I haven't worked out in ten years.

Heidi: 55:22

So so we talked already a little bit about 1%, you know, replace one bad habit with one good habit. I love a lot of these little takeaways you've provided. Is there anything else, just one thing that resonates with you that you feel like you could share with listeners as just a motivator for just starting with that one little thing?

Dave: 55:41

Yeah. I mean, honestly, Tom Ziegler's advice, pick the one bad habit and replace it with a good habit is one of the best things that you can do. And then once you've done it, you're gonna gain momentum. The the other thing, though, I I I and I go back to this. Most people don't get what they want because they don't know what they want.

Dave: 55:56

So if you don't take the time to really figure that out, you're gonna be running from one thing to the next, and you're not gonna really get there. So those are I think those two things, if you can do them for yourself, it will make a huge difference for you. You know, I I guess aside from that is, you know, start recognizing your thoughts that you have, especially in trouble situations or when you get scared or fearful. Start recognizing what you're thinking there, and then ask yourself if that's what you really wanna have or if it's really warranted, and then start to change your belief system around it. Because I think that's that's what holds people back.

Dave: 56:40

Right? It's that conditioning and stuff. So, you know, pick from those that makes what makes sense for you, but I think those are a few of the things. And and if you've I got it up there. If you've never read The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

Heidi: 56:55

Oh, yes.

Dave: 56:57

I would pick that book up and and read it this year for yourself. Kind of encompasses a lot of what we talked.

Heidi: 57:02

Yeah. Thank you for sharing that. I've read that book. It wouldn't hurt to read it again. It is is a phenomenal book and very insightful.

Heidi: 57:10

And and as we wrap up, you know, it gets my wheels turning. One final comment. You know, not not everybody's an athlete. Not everybody's, you know, competing in something actively. But I have to I have to say it resonates with me what you're sharing about you doing the Ironman and wanting to quit and how you have to fight through that and how you have to have that discipline.

Heidi: 57:34

Ride horses. I talk about it all the time. I ride and show dressage. I feel like it's the biggest form of masochism that could exist. Like, it has to be the most difficult thing to ride a 2,000 pound horse that has their own mind and their own emotions.

Heidi: 57:47

Some days, they're in a good mood, some days, and they're in the bad. Right. And, you know, I I will go out there and I'll compete and be really excited and have worked for a year to achieve something and get somewhere and have the worst ride in the world. I mean, just horrific. And the self the self the self talk, those inner beliefs, those the belief systems that you say to yourself, that feeling of, I wanna quit.

Heidi: 58:09

Why am I doing this? I hate this. I'm an idiot. I'm you know, I think I'm doing good, and it's like, oh, I just failed, you know, because this guy was faster or this guy did better or whatever. But in a strange sense, I feel like allowing ourselves those opportunities or experiences really opens us up to success and failure and realizing how much we actually can accomplish when we realize or push through something we didn't think we could do.

Heidi: 58:43

And so that very much resonates with me. I feel that very much. And I think, know, I always encourage people find something you're passionate about, not just work. Don't don't make work your life's passion. Find something you love and feed your soul.

Heidi: 58:56

And, you know, and if it's good for your body, that's even better, and just live that. So I I really appreciate you sharing all of your insights.

Dave: 59:04

Yeah. Absolutely. That last point's a really great one. And guys, this isn't like something that is just like, you know, somebody wrote a book or something like that. Literally, what you focus on in your life expands.

Dave: 59:18

That goes all the way it's written about in the bible. What you gaze upon, you become. Socrates. Right? Man is a it's like man is a living animal, but his life only has meaning if he's reaching out and striving for his goals.

Dave: 59:32

Like, this is not like, much smarter people than us throughout history have figured out, like, you know, that where your focus goes, your energy flows, and all that stuff. And so just pay attention to what that is. And when you have times like you just mentioned, I I think that that's a great story because the work that you put in to get to that point, even though it didn't turn out, you're a better person for it. Yeah. You know?

Dave: 59:56

So it's a wonderful thing that you shared that.

Heidi: 59:59

Well, thank you so much. So where can the audience find you, connect with you, or learn about your work with tax plan, with your your podcast, with twelve minute trading. You have we even talk about that. You have so many things. Where's the best way for someone to find and connect with you?

Dave: 01:00:14

Yeah. I I mean, if you're interested in what we do at TaxPlanIQ, w w w Tax Plan IQ Com. That's the easiest. And then misfitentrepreneur.com. You can find that anywhere that the podcast that you got wherever you get your podcast at, it'll be there.

Dave: 01:00:28

And from that, you know, website, you can pretty much find everything else about me and all that stuff too.

Heidi: 01:00:35

Alright. Dave, thank you so much again for being a guest on today's podcast. It's been such a pleasure. I've really enjoyed working with you, and, I can't say enough amazing things about how impressive your work has been and, the insights that you've shared. So thank you so much.

Dave: 01:00:52

Thank you. It's been an honor, and thank you all for watching and listening.

Heidi: 01:00:57

And that wraps up today's episode of SlashTax. Huge thanks to Dave Lucas for sharing huge insights into entrepreneurship and tax strategy and how to scale your business without leaving money on the table. And his personal insights are pretty impressive, I have to say. If you're looking to elevate your tax game and grow strategically, check out the show notes for links to tax plan IQ, Dave's podcast, and other resources to help you get started. Remember, SlashTax is here to bring you the tools and strategies to cut your tax bill, build wealth, and invest smarter.

Heidi: 01:01:32

Make sure to subscribe, leave a review, and share this episode with someone who may need to hear it. And we'll see you next time.