July 8, 2025 • 36 mins
Join hosts Chris Picciurro, CPA, and John Tripolsky as they welcome transformational coach Curtis McCullom to explore the powerful connection between mindset and money. Discover how childhood programming shapes your financial decisions and learn to overcome the invisible barriers holding you back.
What You'll Learn:
• Why 95% of your behavior is driven by subconscious programming from ages 0-5
• How limiting beliefs about money sabotage your financial success
• The difference between conscious goals and subconscious resistance
• Why "success is hard" programming keeps you stuck
• How to identify and eliminate financial blind spots
Key Insights:
Curtis shares his breakthrough, discovering that a belief formed at age 2 ("success is hard and difficult") was sabotaging his million-dollar financial services career. Learn how beliefs like "money don't grow on trees" or "tax planning is only for rich people" create invisible barriers to wealth building.
Guest Spotlight:
Curtis McCullom brings 40+ years of financial services experience plus expertise in transformational coaching. He specializes in helping entrepreneurs and high achievers eliminate childhood programming that limits their success.
Practical Takeaways:
• Question limiting beliefs: "Is this true for everyone?"
• Guard your mindset daily - it's not a one-and-done fix
• Recognize that you have all the resources within you to succeed
• Address the baggage before implementing financial strategies
Resources:
Find a tax professional at www.2025.tax
Episode Sponsor:
Legacy Lock
Book a 30-minute complimentary discovery session at teachingtaxflow.com/legacy
(Mention Teaching Tax Flow for special pricing)
- (00:00) - Exploring Money Mindset with Curtis McCollum
- (04:54) - Transformative Journeys and Mindset Shifts for Personal Growth
- (08:02) - Subconscious Beliefs Impact Financial Responsibility and Mindset
- (13:37) - Mindset, Money, and Overcoming Fear of Financial Control
- (15:30) - Identifying and Overcoming Blind Spots in Personal Growth
- (16:38) - Uncovering Subconscious Beliefs That Sabotage Success
- (20:15) - Overcoming Financial Roadblocks Through Mindset and Awareness
- (26:45) - Clearing Mental Baggage for a Focused and Agile Mindset
- (31:25) - Unlocking Personal Growth Through Self-Awareness and Tax Education
- (36:21) - Investment Advice and Legal Disclaimers for Financial Services
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
John Tripolsky (00:03):
Hey, everybody, and welcome back to the teaching
tax flow podcast episode 143today. We have a guest joining
us who's gonna get your mindright as we discuss mindset and
money. So what that means,you're going find out
momentarily. But before we dothat, as always, let's take a
brief moment and thank ourepisode sponsor.
Ad Read (00:27):
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John Tripolsky (00:51):
Hey, everybody, and welcome back to the teaching
tax flow podcast. As I alwayslike to say here at these now,
in the intro or the show notesor the title, you know what
we're talking about here,usually. But today, by
intention, we wanna confuse youa little bit. So you're probably
wondering why in the world we'retalking about money and mindset.
And even if you have an idea,what you think we're gonna talk
(01:12):
about, we're probably gonnatweak that just a little bit.
So before we introduce ourguest, I'm gonna have Chris
introduce him in just a moment.By the way, great guy to talk on
this topic because trust me, youdo not want me or Chris telling
you anything to do about this.More mostly me. You don't want
me telling you about this. Butas always, Chris Pacquero,
(01:33):
welcome back to your show, sir.
We did allow you into the studiofor recording this. So,
hopefully, you bring somethinggood for us, man.
Chris Picciurro, CPA (01:40):
I'll try to bring something good, and it
is amazing to be back. First ofall, listeners, I don't know if
I if and watchers, I have I wasjust thinking about this today.
Like, genuinely, you. Thank youso much for trusting us,
believing in us in the last twoand a half years as we grow this
content and and and allow us tobe able to bring in amazing
(02:02):
guests that I'm gonna introducein a moment and go beyond your
normal tax strategy topics. Youknow, teaching tax flow, the
voice of tax planning, the goalis to legally and ethically help
people reduce the tax they payin their lifetime.
And a lot of that pertains to amindset in thinking the right
(02:26):
way. I think anyone that hasgone to the gym, right, for me,
I don't act I you know, I loveplaying certain sports, which I
will not mention right now. AndI love running and walking, but
I actually don't love going tolifting weights. But if I go to
a class and I have someone tellme what to do, I like that. Or
if I have an app that gives memy workout.
(02:47):
But if you've ever gone to thegym with that good intention,
the hardest thing to do, right,is to get up and get into the
gym, but then you don't knowwhat to do, and you look at the
bench press and so on and all ofa sudden, you're frustrated. So
you have to have that rightmindset before you go into the
gym of what you're gonnaaccomplish. Same thing with
money. So I'm so excited to havethis guest on. I could tell you
I did a personal session, withCurtis.
(03:09):
I got a lot out of it. And hesaid I had so many things wrong
with me that he's I'm beyondhelp, but that's alright. No.
He's
John Tripolsky (03:16):
instantly building credibility by saying
that.
Chris Picciurro, CPA (03:19):
The only thing is only credibility.
I've gotta make better choiceson my podcast cohost, but that's
alright. We're we're gonna we're
John Tripolsky (03:26):
Alright, Curtis. We're gonna go ahead and log you
off. Thanks for joining us,buddy. We're gonna we'll catch
you later.
Chris Picciurro, CPA (03:30):
He also sent my wife a gift basket and
said, sorry. But but, no, I'mreally excited to have Curtis
McCollum with us today. We'regonna talk about the money
mindset, and you have to havethe right mindset to be able to
execute and in implement. Wetalk about in our in teaching
tax flow and in our private CPAfirm all the time, ideas are
(03:53):
cheap, implementation'svaluable. So talking about that
that mindset.
So Curtis is a transformationalcoach. He is he's also a
podcaster. He's the host of theCurtis McCollum Show podcast,
which has amazing guests, whichone may or may not be with you
today, and expert in mindset andleadership coaching. So this is
(04:14):
goes beyond just businessowners. This is anyone that is
unaware of what we call or hecalls their blind spots.
So, Curtis, welcome to theTeaching Tax Flow podcast. How
are you doing today?
Curtis McCullom (04:26):
Man, thank you so much, Chris and and and John,
for having me on the show today.I mean, this is gonna be
exciting, you know, being an oldfinancial guy myself, you know,
so I know a little bit aboutthat world. We were kind of
measuring ourselves againstourselves. How many initials do
you have? And I said, Well, howmany initials do you have?
And we kept kind of going downthe alphabet and finally figured
(04:48):
out that you had more initialsthan I had, but I'm still taller
than you are, so there you go.
Chris Picciurro, CPA (04:53):
I like it. I like it. You know what,
though? I kinda like we talkabout a little bit, and we have
a mastermind group, peer to peermastermind group for tax
professionals that we talk aboutthis a lot where there's a book
called the gap and the gain andand living in the living in the
gain. Right?
So the gain is you can never behappy living in the gap. The gap
(05:15):
is where am I at versus whatwhat I think society needs me to
be or what you are at or whereyou're at. I only can compete
against myself and where I camefrom and where I'm at today. So
but, yeah, I'm so excited,Curtis. Tell us about your and
you've mentioned that you you'reyou're you come from a financial
background, have severalaccreditations, including
(05:35):
certifications for financialadvisory, but now you had a
calling to help people on abroader level.
So can you tell us about youryour journey and what led you to
where you're at today?
Curtis McCullom (05:47):
Wow. Really quickly, what led me to this,
where I am today, I started infinancial services probably over
forty years ago. And the reasonI started in financial services
is because I wanted to be amotivational speaker. So I went
to Tony Robbins, Dennis Whaley,and all those guys and got all
of those things. I used to havea in the day, we used to have
cassette tapes.
I know John don't remembercassette tapes. He's too young
(06:08):
for that.
Chris Picciurro, CPA (06:09):
Oh, remember them though.
Curtis McCullom (06:10):
So we used wear out too. Tapes. I used to have a
university on wheels, right? Sothen forty years, we fast
forward about thirty five, fortyyears later, my wife, we came
into a situation where I couldretire from doing that. And what
I really wanted to do was to bean individual that helped people
(06:31):
move their lives.
I basically specialize withhelping entrepreneurs and high
achieving individuals get rid ofthe blind spots that kind of
been dragging around sincechildhood. And so that we help
them now live a life thatprosperous, that is flowing, and
that is loving, that is caring,and all those things that a
(06:54):
person wished to have. You know,it's almost like this. A person
had a will. If you had a willand your life was going for
blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,blah, What I do, I help you
smooth out those edges so thatnow you can run your life
extremely smooth and to be thebest version of yourself.
Chris Picciurro, CPA (07:12):
Yeah. I could tell you, when our
session, just how I framed acouple things you pointed out, I
realized that I was coming fromfear of loss or instead of a
instead of a and just in onelittle aspect of what I'm doing
instead of striving forachievement. You know what I
mean? And that was helpful. So Ican't wait to dive in and and,
(07:34):
you know, and understand.
So in in now that you're doingthis, you've had this obviously
huge success in the financialservices industry. We were able
to retire from from that, andnow you're helping people with,
you know, with this mindset. Sowhat are, you know, what are
some of the things that arecommon for people that that
(07:56):
maybe have good intentions aboutbeing financially responsible,
but they just are struggling todo so?
Curtis McCullom (08:02):
The biggest thing, guy, this is the biggest
thing a person has tounderstand. Think about your
mind as an iceberg. Right? Andon the top of the iceberg is
your conscious mind, which onlyruns about 5% of our behavior.
Reasoning, analysis, willpower,logic, and decision making.
But underneath is oursubconscious mind, which runs
(08:23):
95% of our behavior. So that'swhere your knowns, beliefs, your
values, your attitudes, yourmemories, your languages, and
all of these things are stored.So if a person comes and says, I
want to make a 6 figure income.First of all, it's going to come
to their mind consciously. Thenit's going to go down into their
subconscious mind and look atall those old beliefs.
(08:44):
You know that mom said thatmoney don't grow on trees, or
you know that money is the rootof all evil, so it comes back up
and says, oh, I can't makemoney. So that's what I do. I
help people change those beliefsunderneath the iceberg so that
now their conscious mind, 5%,and their subconscious mind,
(09:07):
95%, is running together versusfighting against each other. So
think about this, Chris. If wewere betting people, right?
And you had 5% of something andI had 95% of something, I'll bet
on myself every day. And that'swhat people are fighting against
when you're talking aboutmindset. So you're talking about
(09:29):
a person who wants to eliminatetheir attacks. First of all,
they might have a negativerelief about that. That has been
drilled down since childhoodbecause mama said you got to pay
your taxes.
So then that pops up. And sowhen it comes to you, it's kind
of hard for them to kind ofreconcile those two beliefs.
Chris Picciurro, CPA (09:50):
Exactly. And and that especially on tax
planning and strategy, one ofthe reasons we did as we started
teaching tax laws, we trulybelieve, you know, tax planning
and strategy is for everybody,and we we feel strongly that the
lower to middle incomehouseholds are the ones that
need tax planning and strategythe most, and they're the least
exposed to it because thatmentality is, well, you know,
(10:13):
retirement plans are for therich people or high asset people
or tax strategies are for therich. It's not really not true.
You know? An extra 2% insomeone's market as far as I is,
like, spending money or ordisposable income is a big
factor for someone in lower tomiddle income versus someone in
a higher or ultra high income.
(10:36):
And and, Chris, tell tell
John Tripolsky (10:37):
me oh, I'm I'm so sorry, man. I cut you off.
No. Go ahead. Go ahead.
I see what happens when they getexcited.
Chris Picciurro, CPA (10:42):
What you're saying is yeah. No. What
you're saying is a lot of thosebeliefs that are in our
subconscious come from come fromour upbringing, ages
Curtis McCullom (10:52):
Oh, absolutely.
Chris Picciurro, CPA (10:53):
The household you you grew up in,
basically.
Curtis McCullom (10:55):
Oh, absolute. Well, think about it. Think
about most of the programmingthat's running within ourselves,
and that's kind of what we didwith you. We did some deep level
alignment, is that most of thatcomes from age from zero to
five. Wow.
That means that we're runningprograms that we don't even know
that are running, that we learnwhen we're between zero and
(11:18):
five. So, that feeling that I'mnot deserving, money is just for
the ultra rich, all of thosethings happen between zero and
five. And now as we move on thiscontinuum on our journey, it
shows up when they come to youand it says, No, this doesn't
resonate with me. It's becauseof the fact that even though you
(11:42):
see that it's something thatthey should be doing, right?
Logically, a person should besaving 10% of their income,
logically, Right?
But on the subconscious level isthey can't do it. Even though
they want to, even because it'sgood for them, their
subconscious mind reject it andmake them feel safe in not doing
(12:06):
it than doing it. Mhmm. Mhmm.
Chris Picciurro, CPA (12:10):
And I guess I could work the opposite
way because we're talking aboutpeople that are yeah. You know,
they grow up in a very modesthousehold. It could work the
opposite way. Someone works in agrows up in an affluent
household, but maybeeverything's given to them too
easy and they don't have anywork ethic.
Curtis McCullom (12:26):
Either one. I mean, you talk about a biblical
principle. A biblical principlewould be, Jesus says, Give and
it shall be given unto you.Pressed down, shaken together,
run it over. Whatever you meetout shall be meet back to you.
That's a great principle. Butthe opposite of that is this,
whatever you give out is goingto come back to you negative or
(12:46):
positive. So it could be apowerful concept of being freely
giving in like this, the conceptof growing, right? So the
mindset goes really deep. Peopledon't really get this is that
whatever you put out is going tocome back to you.
Well, when we look at it on apositive side, that sounds
(13:09):
great. But on the negative sideis that if I'm feeding my mind
negative concepts over and overagain, then I look up and I'm
broke, Whose fault is it? That,you know, it's like scary. Like,
wait, because now I have to takeresponsibility for my thoughts
(13:30):
and my actions. And that's kindof where I help people,
individuals now change that sothey can work more efficient.
John Tripolsky (13:37):
You know, Kirsty, throwing a lot of words
around here like mindset. I hopemy wife does not listen to this,
or I am really in trouble. Ifshe bring if she says the word
mindset at the dinner table, I'mcalling you, buddy.
Chris Picciurro, CPA (13:47):
You're calling
John Tripolsky (13:48):
fault, and I'm in trouble. And then I'm moving
in because she's gonna kick meout. They really, what I was
thinking, you know, even fromwhen we first started this
conversation. Right? And I waskinda jokingly talking about,
you know, how do you what ismindset and money and taxes?
What does this all have to do toeach other? And you said
something too that resonatedpretty well. You know, you said
a lot of people in layman'sterms. Right? They're kinda
(14:10):
living out their life and actingon things that they learned, did
or didn't early, early on.
Right? And I almost think ofthis, and, Chris, you could
probably add into this one. Solong story short, I worked for
my family. So my my grandfather,pretty young. Right?
I don't even know how I ended upI don't know. I wanted a dirt
bike or something, and I dated a$100. I have no idea. And he's
(14:33):
he always gave me personally somuch freedom just to kinda go do
whatever I want, not like, youknow, go play in a playground.
And now it's so easy for me.
I can literally form a company,like, structurally and and get
everything by the time I leavemy office and walk home, and
it's about 200 yards. For somepeople, right, they'll never
take that leap because theydidn't they weren't surrounded
(14:54):
in that. And it's almost thesame to Chris, kind of what we
talk about too with just taxesin general. Right? I think some
people that may are afraid totake a leap, whether it's a
different job or totallydifferent career, start a
company, do any of this stuff.
Right? They're afraid to take itbecause they think, oh, well, I
can't control my taxes. I can'treally control this. I can
(15:16):
control my income, but I don'twanna give it all away, and
everybody else is in control ofeverything Yes. Which is not the
case, which I've learned fromthis handsome bald gentleman in
the purple shirt for anybodythat's watching over the years.
Chris Picciurro, CPA (15:27):
Her favorite color is on today.
Gotta go with purple. Right? It
John Tripolsky (15:30):
it matches your eyes, sir. It it it just goes
very nothing of purple eyes.But, you know, but it's true.
Right? Like, your surroundingsreally have such an impact on
it.
And then, Curtis, what you'resaying, basically, you know,
your role and relationship witha lot of people now is just
kinda resetting it, or I thinkyou worded it as, you know,
kinda getting rid of those edgesYeah. Or those hurdles that they
(15:52):
have to, which is amazing.Right? Because some people
probably don't even know theyhave them until somebody points
them out.
Curtis McCullom (15:57):
I mean, that's kind of where we talk about
blind spots. Right? A blind spotis a is an area in our life have
you ever been driving? Right?You're driving down the street,
and all of a sudden, you getready to move over to your left
or your right and you don't lookin your blind spot, the car is
closer than what you think itis.
You don't see it. It's there.It's always been there, but you
(16:17):
don't realize until you getready to make a shift. Now, and
that's one of the challenges.Sometimes we don't even know
that we have blind spots.
It's like, we don't even knowwhat we don't know until we need
to know it. And then that's whenit shows up. You says, okay, now
I want to make more money. We'lljust get that one, right? I
wanna make more money.
(16:38):
And then he's like, then youthink about it. I wanna make a 6
figure income. That's thethought. That's the conscious
mind. I wanna do that.
Goes into subconscious mind andsays, who do you think you are?
You're not worthy. You're notcapable. All of those old
beliefs and values start to comeup. And guess when they usually
(16:58):
are planted between zero andfive, you could have been on a
playground and some kids says,You know what, John?
You are whatever. And youaccepted that belief at that age
and now it's been traveling withyou all your life, playing in
the background, not knowing, butyou notice, this is what you
(17:21):
notice. The evidence is thatsomething keeps happening in
your life that's preventing youfrom actually moving forward.
But I don't know what it is, butI know what it is. This is one,
want to share this with youraudience is this.
Some of the programming that Iwas running, and I didn't
realize, and I'm an expert atthis, right? And I make
(17:42):
transformations in people'slives that come like that
normally take years to do it. Ido it in really quickly. Even in
my own life, I'm like, I'mmaking all these transformations
in these individual lives, butwhat's happening in my life
that's preventing me? So I hadsomeone do the procedures that I
do on me and come to find outthat success meant to me that it
(18:03):
was hard and difficult.
That's what it meant, right?Once we did the procedure, we
went back and figured out thatsomething that happened when I
was age two that I accepted ordecided that success is hard and
difficult has been travelingwith me all the way to now I'm
60. So I pick up the phone andcall mom. I says, mom, what was
(18:26):
happening in my life when I wasaround two? Oh, she said, this
is the wording she said.
She said, oh, it was hard anddifficult for you to be potty
trained. That belief that was soburied at 18 was still running
(18:49):
in the background of my mind allthe way to now because every
time I had success in my life, Iwould sabotage it. And I would
tell myself when I was infinancial services, was doing
over a million dollars ofproduction, a million dollars of
gross commissions per year on asmall team of just two or three
(19:11):
people, million dollars of grosscommissions a year. And my wife
came to me and says, Curtis,this is your easy. You could do
this with your eyes closed.
I says, no. I looked at hersays, no, this is hard and it's
difficult. Not knowing that theprogramming that was running was
something that I learned toowhen I was two. So with your
audience is that when they cometo you with tax plans and tax
(19:32):
opportunities, if theprogramming does not meet the
even logically, Chris is givingyou some great information on
what to do and how to do it. Butdown inside, it's hard for you
to believe it because the oldprogramming.
It gets become very powerful,guys.
Chris Picciurro, CPA (19:52):
That is phenomenal because, first of
all, we just got John pottytrained about six months ago.
So, Curtis, you did a great job.
John Tripolsky (20:00):
You know what? Now you're saying that. I gotta
I gotta grab something from myshelf just to rub it in both of
y'all's faces, so I'll be right
Curtis McCullom (20:06):
back.
John Tripolsky (20:07):
Alright. So but
Chris Picciurro, CPA (20:09):
so that programming is is in our
subconscious. It's hard tochange because we don't even
know it's it's there. Right?It's a blind spot. What would
you say and it's reallyinteresting zero to five.
So what would you say are someof the common financial
roadblocks people have in theirsubconscious that they don't
even know about? And it's greatbecause you shared a success
(20:32):
story that was you. And then I'mgonna ask you about a couple of
success stories, but, yeah, someof them, like, success is hard.
The ones I'm just I'm justspitballing. You know, tax
planning is only for richpeople.
I mean, are roadblocks. Right?They're I don't know what else
you see.
Curtis McCullom (20:47):
What you just mentioned what you just
mentioned, Chris, is thelimiting belief. Is it true
Where it's only true to youbecause that's your perception
of the world. So the question issometimes one of the ways to
overcoming that is questioning.Well, is there anybody in the
world that's in my income levelthat are financially stable?
(21:09):
Yeah.
That means it's not true. It'slike because some of the times
the people I used to work withis like these guys, sometimes
you don't even know they hadmoney because they didn't show
that they had money, but theywere very well off. Then the
people who were in middle class,who worked hard, who saved their
(21:30):
money, then a person who wasflashy with their money, would
say we need to start a collegeplaying with the person who was
flashy with their money. Theydidn't have any money saved.
Chris Picciurro, CPA (21:39):
Right. Yeah. Oh, for sure.
Curtis McCullom (21:41):
Because of the fact that their beliefs was that
I got to show it to try to makepeople think, look like, feel
like that I'm somebody, but deepinside they felt like they were
not. So they have to show it.And then the other person who
was able to retire as a postmanon their salary, but they're a
(22:02):
financial independent. What'sthe difference between the two?
It's mindset.
That's the difference.
Chris Picciurro, CPA (22:09):
It's hard. And it's and I would imagine the
older we get, the harder it isto change the mind mindset.
Right? I mean, maybe I'm wrong.
Curtis McCullom (22:19):
Well, basically, well, I would I would
I would I would question is itis well
Chris Picciurro, CPA (22:23):
Or is it an awareness thing? It doesn't
really
Curtis McCullom (22:25):
Basically, it's an awareness. I mean, the the
the beauty part about what I donow is that regardless of where
you are in your journey, I canget you to the next level,
period. I'm very confident inthat. So it doesn't doesn't it's
really when are you ready tomake a change? That's what it
is.
What what do you have a desireto change? Do you wanna change?
(22:47):
A lot of people listen to thething about it. I think you'll
agree, Chris. They're like, alot of people, you can't help
them because they don't wanna behelped.
Chris Picciurro, CPA (22:54):
Agreed. Agreed. I we see that all the
time in our so John and I woulddo do another podcast for tax
professionals. We also do wehave a mastermind group that I
mentioned. We do some coaching,and and some of these folks, I
don't know if it's selfsabotage, but they almost in
their mind, they run theirbusiness.
(23:16):
They they walk into us let's saythey have a really heavy tax
compliance time a year, and theyin their mind, oh, I gotta work
a hundred hours week this week.Like, who why? Why do you
because someone decided to giveyou their tax documents three
days before the deadline? That'sno. You gotta create we we talk
about boundaries equal freedom.
Create some boundaries foryourself. If if a client's
(23:38):
bringing their stuff in two dayyou can't do it in two days
properly. It's a it you know,communicate your lead time. So
what are can you give us a and Iand I really appreciate you, you
know, you shared your ownpersonal success story. But can
you give us an example of acouple other success stories
that that you've helped peoplewith some type of finances?
And and Well
Curtis McCullom (23:58):
well well, basically, one was a young lady
who just came to me a few weeksago, and we did some a similar
session that we did with you.That session is more like an
introductory session that Inormally give individuals who
come on my podcast, and and Iwill offer it to your audience.
But that but that particularsession, one young lady came in.
Usually, guys, this isinteresting, is money. And the
(24:23):
one that came in just today, Ihad one today, I had a session
right before we count on.
And his ideal of money, or theirideal of money is that I just
want to make enough money tosurvive. Or I just want to make
enough money to pay my bills.Well, when we change that
belief, once we release theenergy around that thought, that
(24:45):
limiting belief, now they arefree to go out and make money.
An example was one young lady wedid a session with and we did
some of the things that I do.Immediately, she called me back
and says, Curtis, oh, I got apain.
I've finally got this gig that Iwas trying to get for five
years. Just so happened once Icleared out all the baggage,
(25:07):
they called me and they asked meto be the keynote of that
particular of an event thatshe's been chasing now because
the baggage is gone. What wefind guys is that once you
release the energy, the negativeemotions around these beliefs,
instantly your life changesbecause of the fact your model
(25:28):
of the world or your perceptionof the world changes and
everything changes for you. Soit's like for most of us,
especially on your show, who'sdealing with taxes, it's a money
issue. It's all about money.
It's all about the fact thatwe've gotten beliefs and values
and thoughts and feelings thatwe were taught to when we were
(25:50):
kids. When you went to the storeas a child and your mom says,
son, we cannot afford that. Andthat now is running in the
background and you walkingaround, I can't afford to do tax
planning. I can't afford to doplanning. I can't afford to get
a college fund.
Why? Where does that come fromjust back then? So yeah. Wow.
Chris Picciurro, CPA (26:15):
That and and think about baggage. John, I
will give you a compliment nowafter week three. John travels a
lot, and he's really good,especially when he comes to
Nashville at, like, being ableto go somewhere and pack super
light or just do carry on. Sothink about when you're
traveling, the differencebetween walking around four
bags, checked bags, and beingable to throw your stuff on some
(26:39):
carry on and be in in you know,you're still going to the same
place, but it's sure gonna be alot easier without all that
baggage.
Curtis McCullom (26:45):
Absolutely. And that's what we're talking about.
John Tripolsky (26:47):
Cheap, and they charge for bags on pretty much
every airline except for acouple. Let's give that secret.
And and, honestly, you knowwhat's funny, Curtis? And and if
we kinda wrap this up, I thinkthis is very fitting, just not
ridiculous, which I'm kindaknown for, is, you know, you
mentioned a lot. So, obviously,mindset.
Right? It's it is something thatcould be changed, it sounds
like. Right? And I and taking alittle bit what you said and
(27:08):
just kinda confirming it alittle bit is so many people
think that it's so so muchharder to change that than maybe
it is. Right?
Like you mentioned, you kindaclear the way for stuff and
everything, you know, the oldsaying, I think it's what is it?
The cream rises to the top, andyou can tell I don't drink
coffee or anything. But and andbasically just getting stuff out
of the way and just clarity, Ithink, is is a lot
Curtis McCullom (27:30):
of it.
John Tripolsky (27:31):
And then, again, kind of bringing everything full
circle, I think sometimes peopleforget that they have some of
the most valuable resources andrelationships already in their
life, and they and they have allsort of stuff in the way.
Curtis McCullom (27:45):
Yeah. Oh, basically, this this is is my
thing, guys. I wanna leave youwith this. Number one is that I
truly believe that everyone hasall the resources within them to
become the best version ofthemselves. The reason it is, is
that there is been it'soverclouded about all the
baggage and all the things thatwe would carry and our limiting
beliefs, our thoughts and ourfeelings, and all of these
(28:06):
things that we've kind of tuckedaway to not knowing where
they're coming from.
So there is a process now, theprocess that is I can help
individuals get rid of thatstuff quickly, but it doesn't
stop there. And the same thing Ithink you would believe is that
we have to have now, we have toclear the vision, have a clear
vision of where you wanna go. Wehave now have to take some
actions to do that. But with aclear path without the baggage,
(28:29):
like you said, when you'retraveling, you travel in light,
it's easier to travel light thanwithout full baggage. If I can
get rid of that baggage, now Ican travel light.
Now I can think, I can feel, Ican move, I can be more agile, I
can take more action. But thisis the key to it, and I think
this, we can learn with this, isthat you have to condition the
behavior. It's not a one anddone. It's not a one and done.
(28:53):
It's like every morning fordental hygiene, we brush our
teeth.
Why? Because that's important.Same thing with mindset. It's
not a one and done. It's notlike, Hey, I'm fixed and I'll
have to work on it.
No, every day you need tocultivate this powerful mindset.
You need to understand what ittakes to actually ward off all
(29:16):
the negative thinking in orderfor you to always stay the best
version of yourself.
John Tripolsky (29:22):
That is incredible. That is incredible.
And what I did grab off myshelf, I'll show you here in a
second, and this will hopefullymake sense. So everybody always
told me. Right?
Oh, you have a kid on the way.So now she's now we have a four
year old daughter. They said,you know what? When you have a
kid, everything is gonna beclear to you. To me, I wanted to
slap everybody that said thatbecause that was not the case.
(29:44):
Sure. I pre prioritized somestuff. But believe it or not,
and I haven't even told this tomy friend of her family that
gave this to me, right around mybirthday last month, is they
gave me this ridiculous littlecrown. You know, I don't even
know if it fits.
Chris Picciurro, CPA (29:57):
Hey. It does. Look at that. Oh, nice.
John Tripolsky (29:58):
I'll wear the I'll wear the darn thing. I
gotta smash it on my dick.
Chris Picciurro, CPA (30:02):
Trying to get people to go to the YouTube
channel if they're to listen onSpotify and Apple.
John Tripolsky (30:06):
You know what? There you go. There's a fact.
I'm gonna wear this stupidlittle crown for a little bit.
So there's a big four zero onthe front of oh, that hurts.
Yeah. I gotta take them off. Andthe big four zero on the front
of this thing, and it's ironicthat this now sits on my shelf
right next to me about five feetaway. And this is kind of a
reminder that even though I amnow over 40 or I guess they say
(30:26):
over the hill back in the day,it's it's just the way you
think. Right?
Like, I was waiting so long,honestly, like, during my whole
wife's pregnancy. Oh, when thekid comes, I'll realize stuff.
I'll realize stuff. I'llreprioritize stuff. It didn't
happen exactly.
But now, like, this little thingthat was probably $10 from the
supermarket is more of areminder, and it's crazy just
(30:47):
thinking about that, and you canabsolutely change everything And
just making lists and
Curtis McCullom (30:52):
realizing the focus, man. It's all about
changing focus. It's all aboutit's it's it's you know, I tell
people all the time, it's allabout what you're thinking, and
you have to be very carefulabout what goes into your mind
extremely. I think the Bibletalks about guard your mind
because out of it flows theissues of life. Meaning guys,
this is the one thing.
You have to guard your mindset.You have to guard your mind
(31:14):
because everybody is wanting togive you something. You know?
It's like you watch thesecommercials and they dancing and
singing and stuff, and then allof a sudden they pop up a a drug
and says, take it. No.
Right. No.
John Tripolsky (31:30):
Great example. Those darn marketing guys can
never trust them. Can nevertrust them. But awesome, Curtis.
Well, honestly, Chris said ittoo.
Thank you so much for joining uson this. And in full
transparency, when he firstlike, hey. I got some guy to
talk on this. I'm like, how inthe world are we gonna circle
this together? But honestly, Icouldn't think of a better way
(31:51):
to do this.
Like, this is this is great,man. Like, your approach I mean,
obviously, your backgroundfunneling into what you're doing
now, who you're helping, howyou're helping them, the
outcomes of that is fantastic.And, you know, we might just
have to get Chris a, you know, apunch card or something because,
yeah, we gotta we gotta squarethis guy up a little bit. Maybe
you can help him with hispickleball game. Apparently,
he's pretty good, but, you know,I don't have that.
Chris Picciurro, CPA (32:14):
Know what? Honestly, well, I turned like,
kinda like Jono, I hit theodometer this year. I turned 50
in January, and andconditionally, that was, like,
old. I I and Curtis no. Curtisis a avid you know, eats real he
takes real good care of himself,goes to the gym.
We've talked about that. It'sjust different. I am so I was so
(32:35):
excited to turn 50 feeling like,gosh. I feel so good. I'm very
blessed.
And and now I can play in the 50plus, tournaments in pickleball.
So I'll be the youngest guyinstead of being the it was,
like, 18 to 49 forever. But ifif you're, if if if anything in
this episode spoke to you,again, this is you know, we wall
(32:59):
walk around with these thisbaggage. We all have things in
our subconscious that we're notaware of. Please reach out to
Curtis.
His information will be in thissession. And, Curtis, do wanna
just talk one second? I know youabout your podcast and where
they can find you.
Curtis McCullom (33:15):
Yeah. Basically, they can they can
find my podcast on my on myYouTube channel at at at Curtis
McCollum. You'll find the CurtisMcCollum show. You can also find
me on Spotify and Apple forpodcasts. If you wanna reach out
to me, I'm on LinkedIn.
I'm on all social mediaplatforms, so you can reach out
to me there. And then we'll havesome in the show notes as far as
(33:36):
if you wanna direct message meand says, hey, Curtis, give me
that free gift of that valuesession that I shared with
Chris. I'll be more than happy.That's the one hour session
guys. And that's worth, in myopinion, because of the time and
the value that I put in withyou.
It's about $250 $500 sessionthat I give you that I think is
(33:59):
most valuable to let you knowwhat programming is running.
It's like now you can work withpurpose on purpose versus just
doing things just because you'redoing it, and that's so
important.
Chris Picciurro, CPA (34:11):
Yep. Practice doesn't make perfect.
Practice makes habits. So wemight be practicing. We might be
creating habits that we're noteven aware of.
John Tripolsky (34:18):
Yeah. Kinda kinda like doing great podcasts
with great guests. This is youknow, we should keep this habit
going. Chris, you know what youknow what I realized too? Is
that these these shows and thenI promise I will shut up.
That's been you know, it's it'sbeen going on since I was two
years old. I just never shut mymouth. They I love having guests
because they make me and Chris
Chris Picciurro, CPA (34:36):
look better. So No. That's what we
get, which is great.
John Tripolsky (34:41):
This is very true. This is very true. But,
yes, for anybody that's beenlistening to this or watching
this, even if it's a piece ofthis, this is something that I I
think a lot of people don'trealize. Right? Like, we were
talking about those, the blindspots and just kinda getting
things out of the way.
And, yes, this is absolutelyrelated to taxes. Now it makes
(35:02):
sense to me. Now that we gotsome of the blind spots out of
the way and me trying to figureout how we're gonna do this,
like I said, it makes absolutesense. So reach out to anybody.
Reach out to Curtis.
Reach out to Chris. Heck, reachout to myself. I can come up
with tax advice for you. It'llbe wrong. It'll be it'll be with
great intention, but it may beincorrect.
That's why I bring Chris in onthese. But, also, think about
(35:23):
those people as we talked abouta little bit earlier on in this
that you probably have in yourlife already. Reach out to those
people. Maybe just make a listand see who's there and who's
willing to help you. I will saythis personally.
You'll be extremely surprised,almost regardless who you are,
how many people are actuallywilling to help you. Just ask.
(35:43):
That's all you have to do. Andthat's really the basis of
teaching Tax Flow. Right?
Like, we've built this hugeknowledge base, videos,
podcasts, lessons, all thisstuff. It is there. It's put out
there for everybody to have, butit at the end of the day, it's
on the individual to takeadvantage of it. So we'll close
with that. Curtis, thank you forjoining us.
Chris, I guess we'll have youback on another one of your own
(36:04):
shows. We might as well.
Chris Picciurro, CPA (36:05):
Made it a cut.
John Tripolsky (36:06):
We'll think about it. But yes, everybody, we
will see you back here again onthe Teaching Taxable podcast
next week. Different date,completely different topic. Have
a great week, everybody.
Disclaimer (36:21):
The content provided is for educational purposes
only. We encourage you to seekpersonalized investment advice
from your financialprofessional. For all tax and
legal advice, please consultyour CPA or attorney. Investment
advisory services are offeredthrough Cabin Advisors, a
registered investment advisor.Securities are offered through
Cabin Securities, a registeredbroker dealer.
The content of this podcast doesnot constitute an offer of
(36:42):
securities. Offerings can onlybe made through an offering
memorandum, and you shouldcarefully examine the risk
factors and other informationcontained in the memorandum.
Hey, everybody, and welcome back to the teaching
tax flow podcast episode 143today. We have a guest joining
us who's gonna get your mindright as we discuss mindset and
money. So what that means,you're going find out
momentarily. But before we dothat, as always, let's take a
brief moment and thank ourepisode sponsor.
Ad Read (00:27):
This podcast is brought to you by Legacy Lock. If you
are new to estate planning orsimply need to review your
current plan, Legacy Lock makesit as easy as pie. Legacy Lock
is a unique platform thatenables you to easily complete
your attorney drafted documentsconveniently from the comfort of
your home or office. Your firststep to this peace of mind is
simply visitingteachingtaxflow.com/legacy.
John Tripolsky (00:51):
Hey, everybody, and welcome back to the teaching
tax flow podcast. As I alwayslike to say here at these now,
in the intro or the show notesor the title, you know what
we're talking about here,usually. But today, by
intention, we wanna confuse youa little bit. So you're probably
wondering why in the world we'retalking about money and mindset.
And even if you have an idea,what you think we're gonna talk
(01:12):
about, we're probably gonnatweak that just a little bit.
So before we introduce ourguest, I'm gonna have Chris
introduce him in just a moment.By the way, great guy to talk on
this topic because trust me, youdo not want me or Chris telling
you anything to do about this.More mostly me. You don't want
me telling you about this. Butas always, Chris Pacquero,
(01:33):
welcome back to your show, sir.
We did allow you into the studiofor recording this. So,
hopefully, you bring somethinggood for us, man.
Chris Picciurro, CPA (01:40):
I'll try to bring something good, and it
is amazing to be back. First ofall, listeners, I don't know if
I if and watchers, I have I wasjust thinking about this today.
Like, genuinely, you. Thank youso much for trusting us,
believing in us in the last twoand a half years as we grow this
content and and and allow us tobe able to bring in amazing
(02:02):
guests that I'm gonna introducein a moment and go beyond your
normal tax strategy topics. Youknow, teaching tax flow, the
voice of tax planning, the goalis to legally and ethically help
people reduce the tax they payin their lifetime.
And a lot of that pertains to amindset in thinking the right
(02:26):
way. I think anyone that hasgone to the gym, right, for me,
I don't act I you know, I loveplaying certain sports, which I
will not mention right now. AndI love running and walking, but
I actually don't love going tolifting weights. But if I go to
a class and I have someone tellme what to do, I like that. Or
if I have an app that gives memy workout.
(02:47):
But if you've ever gone to thegym with that good intention,
the hardest thing to do, right,is to get up and get into the
gym, but then you don't knowwhat to do, and you look at the
bench press and so on and all ofa sudden, you're frustrated. So
you have to have that rightmindset before you go into the
gym of what you're gonnaaccomplish. Same thing with
money. So I'm so excited to havethis guest on. I could tell you
I did a personal session, withCurtis.
(03:09):
I got a lot out of it. And hesaid I had so many things wrong
with me that he's I'm beyondhelp, but that's alright. No.
He's
John Tripolsky (03:16):
instantly building credibility by saying
that.
Chris Picciurro, CPA (03:19):
The only thing is only credibility.
I've gotta make better choiceson my podcast cohost, but that's
alright. We're we're gonna we're
John Tripolsky (03:26):
Alright, Curtis. We're gonna go ahead and log you
off. Thanks for joining us,buddy. We're gonna we'll catch
you later.
Chris Picciurro, CPA (03:30):
He also sent my wife a gift basket and
said, sorry. But but, no, I'mreally excited to have Curtis
McCollum with us today. We'regonna talk about the money
mindset, and you have to havethe right mindset to be able to
execute and in implement. Wetalk about in our in teaching
tax flow and in our private CPAfirm all the time, ideas are
(03:53):
cheap, implementation'svaluable. So talking about that
that mindset.
So Curtis is a transformationalcoach. He is he's also a
podcaster. He's the host of theCurtis McCollum Show podcast,
which has amazing guests, whichone may or may not be with you
today, and expert in mindset andleadership coaching. So this is
(04:14):
goes beyond just businessowners. This is anyone that is
unaware of what we call or hecalls their blind spots.
So, Curtis, welcome to theTeaching Tax Flow podcast. How
are you doing today?
Curtis McCullom (04:26):
Man, thank you so much, Chris and and and John,
for having me on the show today.I mean, this is gonna be
exciting, you know, being an oldfinancial guy myself, you know,
so I know a little bit aboutthat world. We were kind of
measuring ourselves againstourselves. How many initials do
you have? And I said, Well, howmany initials do you have?
And we kept kind of going downthe alphabet and finally figured
(04:48):
out that you had more initialsthan I had, but I'm still taller
than you are, so there you go.
Chris Picciurro, CPA (04:53):
I like it. I like it. You know what,
though? I kinda like we talkabout a little bit, and we have
a mastermind group, peer to peermastermind group for tax
professionals that we talk aboutthis a lot where there's a book
called the gap and the gain andand living in the living in the
gain. Right?
So the gain is you can never behappy living in the gap. The gap
(05:15):
is where am I at versus whatwhat I think society needs me to
be or what you are at or whereyou're at. I only can compete
against myself and where I camefrom and where I'm at today. So
but, yeah, I'm so excited,Curtis. Tell us about your and
you've mentioned that you you'reyou're you come from a financial
background, have severalaccreditations, including
(05:35):
certifications for financialadvisory, but now you had a
calling to help people on abroader level.
So can you tell us about youryour journey and what led you to
where you're at today?
Curtis McCullom (05:47):
Wow. Really quickly, what led me to this,
where I am today, I started infinancial services probably over
forty years ago. And the reasonI started in financial services
is because I wanted to be amotivational speaker. So I went
to Tony Robbins, Dennis Whaley,and all those guys and got all
of those things. I used to havea in the day, we used to have
cassette tapes.
I know John don't remembercassette tapes. He's too young
(06:08):
for that.
Chris Picciurro, CPA (06:09):
Oh, remember them though.
Curtis McCullom (06:10):
So we used wear out too. Tapes. I used to have a
university on wheels, right? Sothen forty years, we fast
forward about thirty five, fortyyears later, my wife, we came
into a situation where I couldretire from doing that. And what
I really wanted to do was to bean individual that helped people
(06:31):
move their lives.
I basically specialize withhelping entrepreneurs and high
achieving individuals get rid ofthe blind spots that kind of
been dragging around sincechildhood. And so that we help
them now live a life thatprosperous, that is flowing, and
that is loving, that is caring,and all those things that a
(06:54):
person wished to have. You know,it's almost like this. A person
had a will. If you had a willand your life was going for
blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,blah, What I do, I help you
smooth out those edges so thatnow you can run your life
extremely smooth and to be thebest version of yourself.
Chris Picciurro, CPA (07:12):
Yeah. I could tell you, when our
session, just how I framed acouple things you pointed out, I
realized that I was coming fromfear of loss or instead of a
instead of a and just in onelittle aspect of what I'm doing
instead of striving forachievement. You know what I
mean? And that was helpful. So Ican't wait to dive in and and,
(07:34):
you know, and understand.
So in in now that you're doingthis, you've had this obviously
huge success in the financialservices industry. We were able
to retire from from that, andnow you're helping people with,
you know, with this mindset. Sowhat are, you know, what are
some of the things that arecommon for people that that
(07:56):
maybe have good intentions aboutbeing financially responsible,
but they just are struggling todo so?
Curtis McCullom (08:02):
The biggest thing, guy, this is the biggest
thing a person has tounderstand. Think about your
mind as an iceberg. Right? Andon the top of the iceberg is
your conscious mind, which onlyruns about 5% of our behavior.
Reasoning, analysis, willpower,logic, and decision making.
But underneath is oursubconscious mind, which runs
(08:23):
95% of our behavior. So that'swhere your knowns, beliefs, your
values, your attitudes, yourmemories, your languages, and
all of these things are stored.So if a person comes and says, I
want to make a 6 figure income.First of all, it's going to come
to their mind consciously. Thenit's going to go down into their
subconscious mind and look atall those old beliefs.
(08:44):
You know that mom said thatmoney don't grow on trees, or
you know that money is the rootof all evil, so it comes back up
and says, oh, I can't makemoney. So that's what I do. I
help people change those beliefsunderneath the iceberg so that
now their conscious mind, 5%,and their subconscious mind,
(09:07):
95%, is running together versusfighting against each other. So
think about this, Chris. If wewere betting people, right?
And you had 5% of something andI had 95% of something, I'll bet
on myself every day. And that'swhat people are fighting against
when you're talking aboutmindset. So you're talking about
(09:29):
a person who wants to eliminatetheir attacks. First of all,
they might have a negativerelief about that. That has been
drilled down since childhoodbecause mama said you got to pay
your taxes.
So then that pops up. And sowhen it comes to you, it's kind
of hard for them to kind ofreconcile those two beliefs.
Chris Picciurro, CPA (09:50):
Exactly. And and that especially on tax
planning and strategy, one ofthe reasons we did as we started
teaching tax laws, we trulybelieve, you know, tax planning
and strategy is for everybody,and we we feel strongly that the
lower to middle incomehouseholds are the ones that
need tax planning and strategythe most, and they're the least
exposed to it because thatmentality is, well, you know,
(10:13):
retirement plans are for therich people or high asset people
or tax strategies are for therich. It's not really not true.
You know? An extra 2% insomeone's market as far as I is,
like, spending money or ordisposable income is a big
factor for someone in lower tomiddle income versus someone in
a higher or ultra high income.
(10:36):
And and, Chris, tell tell
John Tripolsky (10:37):
me oh, I'm I'm so sorry, man. I cut you off.
No. Go ahead. Go ahead.
I see what happens when they getexcited.
Chris Picciurro, CPA (10:42):
What you're saying is yeah. No. What
you're saying is a lot of thosebeliefs that are in our
subconscious come from come fromour upbringing, ages
Curtis McCullom (10:52):
Oh, absolutely.
Chris Picciurro, CPA (10:53):
The household you you grew up in,
basically.
Curtis McCullom (10:55):
Oh, absolute. Well, think about it. Think
about most of the programmingthat's running within ourselves,
and that's kind of what we didwith you. We did some deep level
alignment, is that most of thatcomes from age from zero to
five. Wow.
That means that we're runningprograms that we don't even know
that are running, that we learnwhen we're between zero and
(11:18):
five. So, that feeling that I'mnot deserving, money is just for
the ultra rich, all of thosethings happen between zero and
five. And now as we move on thiscontinuum on our journey, it
shows up when they come to youand it says, No, this doesn't
resonate with me. It's becauseof the fact that even though you
(11:42):
see that it's something thatthey should be doing, right?
Logically, a person should besaving 10% of their income,
logically, Right?
But on the subconscious level isthey can't do it. Even though
they want to, even because it'sgood for them, their
subconscious mind reject it andmake them feel safe in not doing
(12:06):
it than doing it. Mhmm. Mhmm.
Chris Picciurro, CPA (12:10):
And I guess I could work the opposite
way because we're talking aboutpeople that are yeah. You know,
they grow up in a very modesthousehold. It could work the
opposite way. Someone works in agrows up in an affluent
household, but maybeeverything's given to them too
easy and they don't have anywork ethic.
Curtis McCullom (12:26):
Either one. I mean, you talk about a biblical
principle. A biblical principlewould be, Jesus says, Give and
it shall be given unto you.Pressed down, shaken together,
run it over. Whatever you meetout shall be meet back to you.
That's a great principle. Butthe opposite of that is this,
whatever you give out is goingto come back to you negative or
(12:46):
positive. So it could be apowerful concept of being freely
giving in like this, the conceptof growing, right? So the
mindset goes really deep. Peopledon't really get this is that
whatever you put out is going tocome back to you.
Well, when we look at it on apositive side, that sounds
(13:09):
great. But on the negative sideis that if I'm feeding my mind
negative concepts over and overagain, then I look up and I'm
broke, Whose fault is it? That,you know, it's like scary. Like,
wait, because now I have to takeresponsibility for my thoughts
(13:30):
and my actions. And that's kindof where I help people,
individuals now change that sothey can work more efficient.
John Tripolsky (13:37):
You know, Kirsty, throwing a lot of words
around here like mindset. I hopemy wife does not listen to this,
or I am really in trouble. Ifshe bring if she says the word
mindset at the dinner table, I'mcalling you, buddy.
Chris Picciurro, CPA (13:47):
You're calling
John Tripolsky (13:48):
fault, and I'm in trouble. And then I'm moving
in because she's gonna kick meout. They really, what I was
thinking, you know, even fromwhen we first started this
conversation. Right? And I waskinda jokingly talking about,
you know, how do you what ismindset and money and taxes?
What does this all have to do toeach other? And you said
something too that resonatedpretty well. You know, you said
a lot of people in layman'sterms. Right? They're kinda
(14:10):
living out their life and actingon things that they learned, did
or didn't early, early on.
Right? And I almost think ofthis, and, Chris, you could
probably add into this one. Solong story short, I worked for
my family. So my my grandfather,pretty young. Right?
I don't even know how I ended upI don't know. I wanted a dirt
bike or something, and I dated a$100. I have no idea. And he's
(14:33):
he always gave me personally somuch freedom just to kinda go do
whatever I want, not like, youknow, go play in a playground.
And now it's so easy for me.
I can literally form a company,like, structurally and and get
everything by the time I leavemy office and walk home, and
it's about 200 yards. For somepeople, right, they'll never
take that leap because theydidn't they weren't surrounded
(14:54):
in that. And it's almost thesame to Chris, kind of what we
talk about too with just taxesin general. Right? I think some
people that may are afraid totake a leap, whether it's a
different job or totallydifferent career, start a
company, do any of this stuff.
Right? They're afraid to take itbecause they think, oh, well, I
can't control my taxes. I can'treally control this. I can
(15:16):
control my income, but I don'twanna give it all away, and
everybody else is in control ofeverything Yes. Which is not the
case, which I've learned fromthis handsome bald gentleman in
the purple shirt for anybodythat's watching over the years.
Chris Picciurro, CPA (15:27):
Her favorite color is on today.
Gotta go with purple. Right? It
John Tripolsky (15:30):
it matches your eyes, sir. It it it just goes
very nothing of purple eyes.But, you know, but it's true.
Right? Like, your surroundingsreally have such an impact on
it.
And then, Curtis, what you'resaying, basically, you know,
your role and relationship witha lot of people now is just
kinda resetting it, or I thinkyou worded it as, you know,
kinda getting rid of those edgesYeah. Or those hurdles that they
(15:52):
have to, which is amazing.Right? Because some people
probably don't even know theyhave them until somebody points
them out.
Curtis McCullom (15:57):
I mean, that's kind of where we talk about
blind spots. Right? A blind spotis a is an area in our life have
you ever been driving? Right?You're driving down the street,
and all of a sudden, you getready to move over to your left
or your right and you don't lookin your blind spot, the car is
closer than what you think itis.
You don't see it. It's there.It's always been there, but you
(16:17):
don't realize until you getready to make a shift. Now, and
that's one of the challenges.Sometimes we don't even know
that we have blind spots.
It's like, we don't even knowwhat we don't know until we need
to know it. And then that's whenit shows up. You says, okay, now
I want to make more money. We'lljust get that one, right? I
wanna make more money.
(16:38):
And then he's like, then youthink about it. I wanna make a 6
figure income. That's thethought. That's the conscious
mind. I wanna do that.
Goes into subconscious mind andsays, who do you think you are?
You're not worthy. You're notcapable. All of those old
beliefs and values start to comeup. And guess when they usually
(16:58):
are planted between zero andfive, you could have been on a
playground and some kids says,You know what, John?
You are whatever. And youaccepted that belief at that age
and now it's been traveling withyou all your life, playing in
the background, not knowing, butyou notice, this is what you
(17:21):
notice. The evidence is thatsomething keeps happening in
your life that's preventing youfrom actually moving forward.
But I don't know what it is, butI know what it is. This is one,
want to share this with youraudience is this.
Some of the programming that Iwas running, and I didn't
realize, and I'm an expert atthis, right? And I make
(17:42):
transformations in people'slives that come like that
normally take years to do it. Ido it in really quickly. Even in
my own life, I'm like, I'mmaking all these transformations
in these individual lives, butwhat's happening in my life
that's preventing me? So I hadsomeone do the procedures that I
do on me and come to find outthat success meant to me that it
(18:03):
was hard and difficult.
That's what it meant, right?Once we did the procedure, we
went back and figured out thatsomething that happened when I
was age two that I accepted ordecided that success is hard and
difficult has been travelingwith me all the way to now I'm
60. So I pick up the phone andcall mom. I says, mom, what was
(18:26):
happening in my life when I wasaround two? Oh, she said, this
is the wording she said.
She said, oh, it was hard anddifficult for you to be potty
trained. That belief that was soburied at 18 was still running
(18:49):
in the background of my mind allthe way to now because every
time I had success in my life, Iwould sabotage it. And I would
tell myself when I was infinancial services, was doing
over a million dollars ofproduction, a million dollars of
gross commissions per year on asmall team of just two or three
(19:11):
people, million dollars of grosscommissions a year. And my wife
came to me and says, Curtis,this is your easy. You could do
this with your eyes closed.
I says, no. I looked at hersays, no, this is hard and it's
difficult. Not knowing that theprogramming that was running was
something that I learned toowhen I was two. So with your
audience is that when they cometo you with tax plans and tax
(19:32):
opportunities, if theprogramming does not meet the
even logically, Chris is givingyou some great information on
what to do and how to do it. Butdown inside, it's hard for you
to believe it because the oldprogramming.
It gets become very powerful,guys.
Chris Picciurro, CPA (19:52):
That is phenomenal because, first of
all, we just got John pottytrained about six months ago.
So, Curtis, you did a great job.
John Tripolsky (20:00):
You know what? Now you're saying that. I gotta
I gotta grab something from myshelf just to rub it in both of
y'all's faces, so I'll be right
Curtis McCullom (20:06):
back.
John Tripolsky (20:07):
Alright. So but
Chris Picciurro, CPA (20:09):
so that programming is is in our
subconscious. It's hard tochange because we don't even
know it's it's there. Right?It's a blind spot. What would
you say and it's reallyinteresting zero to five.
So what would you say are someof the common financial
roadblocks people have in theirsubconscious that they don't
even know about? And it's greatbecause you shared a success
(20:32):
story that was you. And then I'mgonna ask you about a couple of
success stories, but, yeah, someof them, like, success is hard.
The ones I'm just I'm justspitballing. You know, tax
planning is only for richpeople.
I mean, are roadblocks. Right?They're I don't know what else
you see.
Curtis McCullom (20:47):
What you just mentioned what you just
mentioned, Chris, is thelimiting belief. Is it true
Where it's only true to youbecause that's your perception
of the world. So the question issometimes one of the ways to
overcoming that is questioning.Well, is there anybody in the
world that's in my income levelthat are financially stable?
(21:09):
Yeah.
That means it's not true. It'slike because some of the times
the people I used to work withis like these guys, sometimes
you don't even know they hadmoney because they didn't show
that they had money, but theywere very well off. Then the
people who were in middle class,who worked hard, who saved their
(21:30):
money, then a person who wasflashy with their money, would
say we need to start a collegeplaying with the person who was
flashy with their money. Theydidn't have any money saved.
Chris Picciurro, CPA (21:39):
Right. Yeah. Oh, for sure.
Curtis McCullom (21:41):
Because of the fact that their beliefs was that
I got to show it to try to makepeople think, look like, feel
like that I'm somebody, but deepinside they felt like they were
not. So they have to show it.And then the other person who
was able to retire as a postmanon their salary, but they're a
(22:02):
financial independent. What'sthe difference between the two?
It's mindset.
That's the difference.
Chris Picciurro, CPA (22:09):
It's hard. And it's and I would imagine the
older we get, the harder it isto change the mind mindset.
Right? I mean, maybe I'm wrong.
Curtis McCullom (22:19):
Well, basically, well, I would I would
I would I would question is itis well
Chris Picciurro, CPA (22:23):
Or is it an awareness thing? It doesn't
really
Curtis McCullom (22:25):
Basically, it's an awareness. I mean, the the
the beauty part about what I donow is that regardless of where
you are in your journey, I canget you to the next level,
period. I'm very confident inthat. So it doesn't doesn't it's
really when are you ready tomake a change? That's what it
is.
What what do you have a desireto change? Do you wanna change?
(22:47):
A lot of people listen to thething about it. I think you'll
agree, Chris. They're like, alot of people, you can't help
them because they don't wanna behelped.
Chris Picciurro, CPA (22:54):
Agreed. Agreed. I we see that all the
time in our so John and I woulddo do another podcast for tax
professionals. We also do wehave a mastermind group that I
mentioned. We do some coaching,and and some of these folks, I
don't know if it's selfsabotage, but they almost in
their mind, they run theirbusiness.
(23:16):
They they walk into us let's saythey have a really heavy tax
compliance time a year, and theyin their mind, oh, I gotta work
a hundred hours week this week.Like, who why? Why do you
because someone decided to giveyou their tax documents three
days before the deadline? That'sno. You gotta create we we talk
about boundaries equal freedom.
Create some boundaries foryourself. If if a client's
(23:38):
bringing their stuff in two dayyou can't do it in two days
properly. It's a it you know,communicate your lead time. So
what are can you give us a and Iand I really appreciate you, you
know, you shared your ownpersonal success story. But can
you give us an example of acouple other success stories
that that you've helped peoplewith some type of finances?
And and Well
Curtis McCullom (23:58):
well well, basically, one was a young lady
who just came to me a few weeksago, and we did some a similar
session that we did with you.That session is more like an
introductory session that Inormally give individuals who
come on my podcast, and and Iwill offer it to your audience.
But that but that particularsession, one young lady came in.
Usually, guys, this isinteresting, is money. And the
(24:23):
one that came in just today, Ihad one today, I had a session
right before we count on.
And his ideal of money, or theirideal of money is that I just
want to make enough money tosurvive. Or I just want to make
enough money to pay my bills.Well, when we change that
belief, once we release theenergy around that thought, that
(24:45):
limiting belief, now they arefree to go out and make money.
An example was one young lady wedid a session with and we did
some of the things that I do.Immediately, she called me back
and says, Curtis, oh, I got apain.
I've finally got this gig that Iwas trying to get for five
years. Just so happened once Icleared out all the baggage,
(25:07):
they called me and they asked meto be the keynote of that
particular of an event thatshe's been chasing now because
the baggage is gone. What wefind guys is that once you
release the energy, the negativeemotions around these beliefs,
instantly your life changesbecause of the fact your model
(25:28):
of the world or your perceptionof the world changes and
everything changes for you. Soit's like for most of us,
especially on your show, who'sdealing with taxes, it's a money
issue. It's all about money.
It's all about the fact thatwe've gotten beliefs and values
and thoughts and feelings thatwe were taught to when we were
(25:50):
kids. When you went to the storeas a child and your mom says,
son, we cannot afford that. Andthat now is running in the
background and you walkingaround, I can't afford to do tax
planning. I can't afford to doplanning. I can't afford to get
a college fund.
Why? Where does that come fromjust back then? So yeah. Wow.
Chris Picciurro, CPA (26:15):
That and and think about baggage. John, I
will give you a compliment nowafter week three. John travels a
lot, and he's really good,especially when he comes to
Nashville at, like, being ableto go somewhere and pack super
light or just do carry on. Sothink about when you're
traveling, the differencebetween walking around four
bags, checked bags, and beingable to throw your stuff on some
(26:39):
carry on and be in in you know,you're still going to the same
place, but it's sure gonna be alot easier without all that
baggage.
Curtis McCullom (26:45):
Absolutely. And that's what we're talking about.
John Tripolsky (26:47):
Cheap, and they charge for bags on pretty much
every airline except for acouple. Let's give that secret.
And and, honestly, you knowwhat's funny, Curtis? And and if
we kinda wrap this up, I thinkthis is very fitting, just not
ridiculous, which I'm kindaknown for, is, you know, you
mentioned a lot. So, obviously,mindset.
Right? It's it is something thatcould be changed, it sounds
like. Right? And I and taking alittle bit what you said and
(27:08):
just kinda confirming it alittle bit is so many people
think that it's so so muchharder to change that than maybe
it is. Right?
Like you mentioned, you kindaclear the way for stuff and
everything, you know, the oldsaying, I think it's what is it?
The cream rises to the top, andyou can tell I don't drink
coffee or anything. But and andbasically just getting stuff out
of the way and just clarity, Ithink, is is a lot
Curtis McCullom (27:30):
of it.
John Tripolsky (27:31):
And then, again, kind of bringing everything full
circle, I think sometimes peopleforget that they have some of
the most valuable resources andrelationships already in their
life, and they and they have allsort of stuff in the way.
Curtis McCullom (27:45):
Yeah. Oh, basically, this this is is my
thing, guys. I wanna leave youwith this. Number one is that I
truly believe that everyone hasall the resources within them to
become the best version ofthemselves. The reason it is, is
that there is been it'soverclouded about all the
baggage and all the things thatwe would carry and our limiting
beliefs, our thoughts and ourfeelings, and all of these
(28:06):
things that we've kind of tuckedaway to not knowing where
they're coming from.
So there is a process now, theprocess that is I can help
individuals get rid of thatstuff quickly, but it doesn't
stop there. And the same thing Ithink you would believe is that
we have to have now, we have toclear the vision, have a clear
vision of where you wanna go. Wehave now have to take some
actions to do that. But with aclear path without the baggage,
(28:29):
like you said, when you'retraveling, you travel in light,
it's easier to travel light thanwithout full baggage. If I can
get rid of that baggage, now Ican travel light.
Now I can think, I can feel, Ican move, I can be more agile, I
can take more action. But thisis the key to it, and I think
this, we can learn with this, isthat you have to condition the
behavior. It's not a one anddone. It's not a one and done.
(28:53):
It's like every morning fordental hygiene, we brush our
teeth.
Why? Because that's important.Same thing with mindset. It's
not a one and done. It's notlike, Hey, I'm fixed and I'll
have to work on it.
No, every day you need tocultivate this powerful mindset.
You need to understand what ittakes to actually ward off all
(29:16):
the negative thinking in orderfor you to always stay the best
version of yourself.
John Tripolsky (29:22):
That is incredible. That is incredible.
And what I did grab off myshelf, I'll show you here in a
second, and this will hopefullymake sense. So everybody always
told me. Right?
Oh, you have a kid on the way.So now she's now we have a four
year old daughter. They said,you know what? When you have a
kid, everything is gonna beclear to you. To me, I wanted to
slap everybody that said thatbecause that was not the case.
(29:44):
Sure. I pre prioritized somestuff. But believe it or not,
and I haven't even told this tomy friend of her family that
gave this to me, right around mybirthday last month, is they
gave me this ridiculous littlecrown. You know, I don't even
know if it fits.
Chris Picciurro, CPA (29:57):
Hey. It does. Look at that. Oh, nice.
John Tripolsky (29:58):
I'll wear the I'll wear the darn thing. I
gotta smash it on my dick.
Chris Picciurro, CPA (30:02):
Trying to get people to go to the YouTube
channel if they're to listen onSpotify and Apple.
John Tripolsky (30:06):
You know what? There you go. There's a fact.
I'm gonna wear this stupidlittle crown for a little bit.
So there's a big four zero onthe front of oh, that hurts.
Yeah. I gotta take them off. Andthe big four zero on the front
of this thing, and it's ironicthat this now sits on my shelf
right next to me about five feetaway. And this is kind of a
reminder that even though I amnow over 40 or I guess they say
(30:26):
over the hill back in the day,it's it's just the way you
think. Right?
Like, I was waiting so long,honestly, like, during my whole
wife's pregnancy. Oh, when thekid comes, I'll realize stuff.
I'll realize stuff. I'llreprioritize stuff. It didn't
happen exactly.
But now, like, this little thingthat was probably $10 from the
supermarket is more of areminder, and it's crazy just
(30:47):
thinking about that, and you canabsolutely change everything And
just making lists and
Curtis McCullom (30:52):
realizing the focus, man. It's all about
changing focus. It's all aboutit's it's it's you know, I tell
people all the time, it's allabout what you're thinking, and
you have to be very carefulabout what goes into your mind
extremely. I think the Bibletalks about guard your mind
because out of it flows theissues of life. Meaning guys,
this is the one thing.
You have to guard your mindset.You have to guard your mind
(31:14):
because everybody is wanting togive you something. You know?
It's like you watch thesecommercials and they dancing and
singing and stuff, and then allof a sudden they pop up a a drug
and says, take it. No.
Right. No.
John Tripolsky (31:30):
Great example. Those darn marketing guys can
never trust them. Can nevertrust them. But awesome, Curtis.
Well, honestly, Chris said ittoo.
Thank you so much for joining uson this. And in full
transparency, when he firstlike, hey. I got some guy to
talk on this. I'm like, how inthe world are we gonna circle
this together? But honestly, Icouldn't think of a better way
(31:51):
to do this.
Like, this is this is great,man. Like, your approach I mean,
obviously, your backgroundfunneling into what you're doing
now, who you're helping, howyou're helping them, the
outcomes of that is fantastic.And, you know, we might just
have to get Chris a, you know, apunch card or something because,
yeah, we gotta we gotta squarethis guy up a little bit. Maybe
you can help him with hispickleball game. Apparently,
he's pretty good, but, you know,I don't have that.
Chris Picciurro, CPA (32:14):
Know what? Honestly, well, I turned like,
kinda like Jono, I hit theodometer this year. I turned 50
in January, and andconditionally, that was, like,
old. I I and Curtis no. Curtisis a avid you know, eats real he
takes real good care of himself,goes to the gym.
We've talked about that. It'sjust different. I am so I was so
(32:35):
excited to turn 50 feeling like,gosh. I feel so good. I'm very
blessed.
And and now I can play in the 50plus, tournaments in pickleball.
So I'll be the youngest guyinstead of being the it was,
like, 18 to 49 forever. But ifif you're, if if if anything in
this episode spoke to you,again, this is you know, we wall
(32:59):
walk around with these thisbaggage. We all have things in
our subconscious that we're notaware of. Please reach out to
Curtis.
His information will be in thissession. And, Curtis, do wanna
just talk one second? I know youabout your podcast and where
they can find you.
Curtis McCullom (33:15):
Yeah. Basically, they can they can
find my podcast on my on myYouTube channel at at at Curtis
McCollum. You'll find the CurtisMcCollum show. You can also find
me on Spotify and Apple forpodcasts. If you wanna reach out
to me, I'm on LinkedIn.
I'm on all social mediaplatforms, so you can reach out
to me there. And then we'll havesome in the show notes as far as
(33:36):
if you wanna direct message meand says, hey, Curtis, give me
that free gift of that valuesession that I shared with
Chris. I'll be more than happy.That's the one hour session
guys. And that's worth, in myopinion, because of the time and
the value that I put in withyou.
It's about $250 $500 sessionthat I give you that I think is
(33:59):
most valuable to let you knowwhat programming is running.
It's like now you can work withpurpose on purpose versus just
doing things just because you'redoing it, and that's so
important.
Chris Picciurro, CPA (34:11):
Yep. Practice doesn't make perfect.
Practice makes habits. So wemight be practicing. We might be
creating habits that we're noteven aware of.
John Tripolsky (34:18):
Yeah. Kinda kinda like doing great podcasts
with great guests. This is youknow, we should keep this habit
going. Chris, you know what youknow what I realized too? Is
that these these shows and thenI promise I will shut up.
That's been you know, it's it'sbeen going on since I was two
years old. I just never shut mymouth. They I love having guests
because they make me and Chris
Chris Picciurro, CPA (34:36):
look better. So No. That's what we
get, which is great.
John Tripolsky (34:41):
This is very true. This is very true. But,
yes, for anybody that's beenlistening to this or watching
this, even if it's a piece ofthis, this is something that I I
think a lot of people don'trealize. Right? Like, we were
talking about those, the blindspots and just kinda getting
things out of the way.
And, yes, this is absolutelyrelated to taxes. Now it makes
(35:02):
sense to me. Now that we gotsome of the blind spots out of
the way and me trying to figureout how we're gonna do this,
like I said, it makes absolutesense. So reach out to anybody.
Reach out to Curtis.
Reach out to Chris. Heck, reachout to myself. I can come up
with tax advice for you. It'llbe wrong. It'll be it'll be with
great intention, but it may beincorrect.
That's why I bring Chris in onthese. But, also, think about
(35:23):
those people as we talked abouta little bit earlier on in this
that you probably have in yourlife already. Reach out to those
people. Maybe just make a listand see who's there and who's
willing to help you. I will saythis personally.
You'll be extremely surprised,almost regardless who you are,
how many people are actuallywilling to help you. Just ask.
(35:43):
That's all you have to do. Andthat's really the basis of
teaching Tax Flow. Right?
Like, we've built this hugeknowledge base, videos,
podcasts, lessons, all thisstuff. It is there. It's put out
there for everybody to have, butit at the end of the day, it's
on the individual to takeadvantage of it. So we'll close
with that. Curtis, thank you forjoining us.
Chris, I guess we'll have youback on another one of your own
(36:04):
shows. We might as well.
Chris Picciurro, CPA (36:05):
Made it a cut.
John Tripolsky (36:06):
We'll think about it. But yes, everybody, we
will see you back here again onthe Teaching Taxable podcast
next week. Different date,completely different topic. Have
a great week, everybody.
Disclaimer (36:21):
The content provided is for educational purposes
only. We encourage you to seekpersonalized investment advice
from your financialprofessional. For all tax and
legal advice, please consultyour CPA or attorney. Investment
advisory services are offeredthrough Cabin Advisors, a
registered investment advisor.Securities are offered through
Cabin Securities, a registeredbroker dealer.
The content of this podcast doesnot constitute an offer of
(36:42):
securities. Offerings can onlybe made through an offering
memorandum, and you shouldcarefully examine the risk
factors and other informationcontained in the memorandum.
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