March 4, 2024 • 24 mins
This week, Ira and Stacee share what it actually feels like to see millions of dollars drop in your bank account one day when you sell your company. So, technically you're rich now....what's the first thing two nerds purchase?!
And, we have our eye on some future millionaires (entrepreneurs we love):
Dani Rabwin
Nicole Clausen
Alex Contreras
Favorite tip, trick, quote of the week:
Ira: The book "Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking" by Susan Cain
Stacee: How to handle your overwhelming inbox and still get back to people in 24h
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Ira (00:04):
Hello and welcome.
I am Ira Gordon and, along withStacee Santi, the host of The
Accidental Entrepreneurs podcast.
We each previously foundedsuccessful companies.
Along the way, we becamebusiness owners and eventually
sold those businesses despite ushaving no real background in
business or ever even planningto become entrepreneurs.
In other words, we did this alldespite originally having no
(00:25):
idea what we were doing orgetting ourselves into.
In each episode of this podcast, we will share stories and tips
from our journey and we'llanswer a randomly chosen
question about our experience.
Let's jump right into the show.
Stacee (00:41):
So, Ira, you just got back from VMX conference in
Orlando the veterinary.
What is the M and the X standfor now?
I don't even know.
Ira (00:49):
I believe it as Medical Expo.
Stacee (00:51):
Oh yeah, that's right.
You're formerly known as NAVC,which I can always tell who's
old school when they call itNAVC.
Ira (00:59):
You know, I feel like that was one of the most successful
rebrands I've ever seen.
Like within the first yearalmost everybody was already
calling it VMX and not referringto it as NAVC, and I don't
think that usually happens.
Stacee (01:14):
No, look at.
Ira (01:15):
Twitter.
Stacee (01:17):
Yeah, look at Twitter.
That's a good one.
The other one is WesternVeterinary Conference.
Nobody, everyone calls it that.
No one calls it the Viticus orwhatever we're supposed to call
it.
Yeah, they did a really goodjob.
You made a good point there.
Well, what was it like?
What's hot?
What's happening?
Ira (01:32):
You know, the great thing was it was nice and warm down in
Florida as opposed to snowinghere at home.
Got to see some really greatpeople, had a nice talk about a
topic I only actually know alittle bit about, which is
artificial intelligence indiagnostic imaging.
But that was great and the restof it was a big meeting with,
(01:55):
you know, close to 30,000 peopleand the things that I have a
lot of anxiety about usually.
Stacee (02:03):
How did you survive as an introvert?
Ira (02:07):
One day.
I actually I never do this, butI actually was conscious of the
fact that I was just gettingtired and not feeling it and I
just went back to my room, laydown, listened to music for like
an hour and then tried to getback at it and I was.
I was proud of myself.
It's not something I'veactually ever done before.
Stacee (02:29):
You took a moment.
Ira (02:30):
I did.
Stacee (02:31):
Yeah, that place is crazy and it's funny because I'm
with you like an introvert tooand the bar scene and all the
people and all the noises andall the hype, like it's.
It's like being at Disneyland alittle bit.
You have to be on and thewalking is insane.
Ira (02:51):
I know everyone's always complaining about their steps,
but there's a line in one of myfavorite movies, clerks, which I
believe says I hate crowds butI love gatherings.
Stacee (03:08):
Yeah, I have to go to bed early at those things
because I'm kind of an introvertlike you.
I mean, I can be sort of anextrovert, but only if it's
about something I like talkingabout, like animals.
Otherwise I sort of go into myintrovert state, all right.
So the question today is whatwas it like when you got your
(03:31):
first payout?
So you've sold part or all ofyour company.
You get this big check what wasit like and what was the first
thing you bought?
Ira (03:55):
All right.
So for the most part, I'm notoverly ostentatious with my
spending, but I do have this,this thesis, that is, when
something momentous happens, youshould commemorate it with
(04:16):
something that you'll keep for along time, that reminds you of
that thing that happened.
It actually first started whenmy grandmother passed away many
years ago and left me $600, andI use that to buy a guitar that
I still have today that remindsme of her, and so that is
something I've tried to do torecognize important events for a
variety of reasons.
So when we got our check forselling X prep, the thing that I
(04:45):
bought which is super nerdy andcool is an ACDC Back in Black,
limited edition in ball machine.
Stacee (04:58):
No, that's what you bought.
Ira (05:00):
It is a ridiculously stupid expense to take on, but, in the
grand scheme of things, couldbe justified and was something
that was like well, this shouldpretty much last forever as long
as you take care of it.
Theoretically, it's an expensethat shouldn't become non-usable
(05:21):
or depreciate so much in valuethat it's not worth anything
anymore Not that it reallymatters.
I don't plan to sell it, butthat's what I got, and same
thing.
Whatever I Play the silver ballon that machine, it brings me
great joy.
(06:42):
That's amazing.
And do you remember how it feltwhen you saw that number in
your bank account?
It doesn't even really make sense.
Stacee (06:55):
I felt like calling Wells Fargo and letting him know
there's been a massive error.
Like somebody, I felt likemaybe I was on one of those
reality TV shows where they weregoing to say just kidding.
Ira (07:08):
You kind of have a sense that a big chunk of that money
is ultimately going to bereturned to Uncle Sam, but you
don't know how much of that bigchunk, and so that's a great
source of anxiety, I suppose.
And then you also have thisburden of responsibility to say
this is probably not going tohappen like all the time, or
(07:28):
maybe ever again, and so Iprobably want to do something
with this that allows it to helpme for the rest of my life, as
opposed to for the next month orthe next year, or even the next
five or 10.
You're way more practical thanme.
Stacee (07:43):
I was more like check this out, we don't have to ever
work again, we can buy a privatejet, we can do this.
And then Ellis says that's notthat much money.
We still have to be responsiblepeople.
It was crazy though, I did feellike I mean, it was really I
(08:11):
think the word is unbelievable.
I didn't believe that thathappened.
I didn't believe that that wastrue.
Ira (08:20):
You know you go through discussions while you're sort of
in that process of selling abusiness and those numbers get
sort of thrown back and forthand they, you know they hit you
when that happens.
But there's still like a senseof this isn't a short thing.
There's lots of things that gowrong during the diligence stage
(08:41):
of closing a deal and thingschange and nothing is certain.
But when it finally sort ofarrives, that's when it suddenly
feels real for sure.
Stacee (08:52):
Yeah, it kind of seems like when you're in those final
stages of negotiation.
It seemed like monopoly moneyis how it feels, yeah.
Ira (09:01):
Yeah, because you actually can't think of it the way you
think of regular money, becauseit's different.
And you, the way you've beenbrought up to think about money
and thought about it.
Your entire career is mostlyrelated to like, what do you
(09:22):
need to live on, right, and thenall of a sudden to have the
opportunity of a windfall is notreally money for you to live on
, it's money for you to live off, I guess.
Is that a statement?
Stacee (09:35):
Yeah, that's a good statement.
Yeah, I know like I have apretty good grasp on what a
hundred bucks is like, what athousand, 10,000, when you start
getting up to a hundredthousand, like I kind of, and
just it goes worse from there.
Like it's like when you look ata crowd of people, I can't
really tell you if there's, youknow, 10,000 people there or
(09:59):
50,000 people, because oncewe're up at that level, I can't.
I have no reference forcomparison.
You know, like I'm sure TaylorSwift is pretty good at knowing
how big this audience is inthose kind of numbers, but for a
normal person.
Ira (10:16):
Yeah, Taylor Swift knows like oh yeah, I can handle
thinking about tens of millionsor hundreds of millions, but
once you get to billions andtens of billions, I don't know.
It's hard for me to wrap myhead around that.
I mean, I guess like we feellike that's out of touch and
most people probably feel likewhat we're talking about is a
little bit out of touch withmost folks' realities.
Stacee (10:34):
Yeah for sure.
Well, the first thing I wentand bought and I had my eye on
this for probably about fiveyears was I wanted these blinds
for my house that werecontrolled by an app and you
could set the timer or set theapp up to put the blinds up X
(10:58):
minutes before after the sunriseand sunset.
And I wanted these blinds for along, long time.
I had gone, I had looked atthem, I had priced them, I knew
what they were, I knew they werelike what would you call it?
Like just a total luxury item.
But I just really wanted thisfor a long time.
(11:21):
So I got my check and I wentdown to this blinds place in my
town and I told the ladies, like, can I help you?
And I tell her I want to getthese blinds for my entire house
and I want the kind that aretechnology controlled.
And I don't know if it'sbecause I, how I looked, or I
(11:46):
don't know what the reason was,but she just didn't want to sell
me the blinds.
She kept trying to talk me outof it.
She's like well, you know, it'sreally not that hard to just
pull the string and you'll saveyourself a lot.
Ira (11:58):
Well, I was thinking.
Stacee (11:59):
Yeah, it's not that hard and you'll save yourself a ton
of money, and I'm like, I'mfamiliar with what it's like to
pull the string to blinds, butwhat I want is them all to go up
at once and them all to go downat once, because I actually
know that I don't go around andpull the string every morning
and every evening and I don'tknow.
(12:22):
I was annoyed that she didn'twant to sell them to me, and I
think she thought I was notfamiliar with the cost.
It was a weird shoppingexperience, however, and then I
got my blinds and I there you go.
I was gonna ask.
Ira (12:37):
Yep.
I think they still bring youtremendous joy.
Stacee (12:40):
Oh yeah, every time they go up and every time they go
down, I think of my sale, muchlike you think of yours, when
you see ACDC pinball machine,like it's just something that's,
it feels like the room isopening up for the day.
I love it.
Ira (12:59):
I'm doing it.
I can't say that I would havefound similar inspiration and
that sort of splurge, but I'mglad you did.
Stacee (13:09):
When did you start to think that it was going to be
possible for you to be amillionaire?
Ira (13:19):
I remember when I was in veterinary school and sort of
started to imagine, like myfinancial future and, like you
know, how much I would need toearn, and did some of that
modeling and I was young anddumb but I figured out that I
(13:41):
would probably or we, I shouldsay, like my wife and I, like we
would need to earn about $5million over the course of our
career to be able to do thethings we wanna do raise a
family, put kids in the college,live in the type of place we
wanna live, you know that typeof stuff.
And that didn't seem entirelyunrealistic, based on sort of
(14:01):
how much you could earn as aveterinary, oncologist and
various other things I might doand she might do.
Bye Jack, yeah, I do remembersort of thinking about that and
that being a long time and a lotof work and not easy.
And honestly, over time I'vesort of looked at that number
(14:24):
and it's gone up a little bit.
It's relative to what I thoughtwhen I was 20 something, but
certainly yet an event like thesale of the business, like at
the very least, it pushes youway closer to that lifetime goal
than you had before.
So I sort of thought about itthat way.
(14:45):
That helps.
Stacee (14:47):
Yeah, I never had a lifetime goal.
I pretty much am the kind ofperson I just sort of have.
I go off a feeling, which isalways smart Like if I feel my
bank account's overdrawn itprobably is.
I have a funny story.
So when I was first gettingstarted I joined this group,
(15:08):
which is where I met you, Ithink of that partners, and it's
a group where a lot of peoplethat support the veterinary
industry get together a coupleof times a year in network and
stuff like that, and when you'rea new member you get to go up
in front of everyone and you getto do what they call the
elevator speech, which I thinkwas like five minutes, and you
(15:30):
can do a little presentation.
Ira (15:31):
Long elevator.
Stacee (15:32):
Yeah, and then you get a little presentation on who you
are and what your company is.
And I was sitting at this tablewith you know, their tables
aren't like those round oneswith about eight people and I
was sitting next to this guy whohis name is Christopher I can't
remember his last name, buthe's a wealth management
(15:53):
specialist.
So, anyways, it was my turn andI went up there and I did my
little show and I came and I satback down and he looked at me
and he goes you realize you'regoing to be a millionaire one
day, don't you?
And I'm like I thought he wasjoking, right, I thought he was
(16:14):
just like being silly and Ilaughed.
He's like no, I'm serious, Likeyou do realize that, don't you?
Like he looked me straight ineye and said that and I'm like
does he know something I don'tknow?
You know.
Ira (16:29):
I did, sounds like he did.
Stacee (16:31):
He did, and I think about that and that statement he
said to me and how this randomstranger who I didn't know and
didn't pay told and I wasn'trelated to said this.
It kind of felt like inspiring.
Ira (16:45):
But don't you know that?
You know you're an opinionleader and people come to you
for advice and all those things.
Don't you feel like you seethat in people all the time that
are at the beginning ofsomething and you think to
yourself, oh, like this personis going to make it big.
But I actually don't know ifthis thing they're working on
now is the thing that's going todo it, but I can tell that this
(17:07):
person has the drive, thepassion, the smarts and they're
going to do that.
And that must have been youback then, which is pretty cool.
Stacee (17:16):
Yeah, I kind of do see that.
Like I see there's two peopleon my radar that I feel like
have it, and one of them is Dr.
Dani Rabwin with ReadyVetGo.
Like she is, there's some abouther and I feel like she's
really got it.
And the other one is this girlI met maybe two or three years
(17:37):
ago, Nicole Clausen.
She's a veterinary technicianand does inventory management.
Yeah, she's got it too.
Like I didn't even know she wasgoing to be building a company,
but when I first met her she'sjust so bright, such a bright
star.
I felt really like, oh, she'sgoing to be a millionaire.
(17:57):
I wonder if she knows.
I wonder if I should tell her,like Christopher told me, it's
great.
Ira (18:03):
Dani actually is a classmate of mine.
She is.
Stacee (18:05):
I love her very much.
Ira (18:06):
Yeah, I saw her at VMX this last week and had to spend a
nice bit of time with her and Iam extremely excited and proud
of all the things that she'sdoing and working on and fully
agree she's going to be an allstar as, yeah, as are others, I
think the other person thatcomes to mind I hate to put like
(18:26):
pressure on people, but I thinkI think they can handle it.
The other person that comes tomind is a technician named
Alexander Contreras, and he hasa product called Clip Trio and
he just has this drive,personality, charisma, passion
for what he's doing, and I knowhe's going to be successful.
I am not sure if this productis going to be what gets him
(18:48):
there, but he is reallyfantastic and it's just exciting
to watch their journeys.
Stacee (18:56):
It is Wow.
We're now going to share afavorite tip, trick, technology
tool, inspirational quote withour listeners.
What do you have for us today,Ira?
Ira (19:19):
I've got a book that relates to something we spoke
about at the beginning, which isa book by someone named Susan
Cain C-A-I-N, and it is "uietthe power of introverts in a
world that can't stop talking.
Stacee (19:37):
And that seems right up your alley.
Ira (19:40):
Somebody not surprisingly somebody recommended and gave me
this book.
They said you need this book,and they were right.
It is really about this notionthat introverts have tremendous
advantages and skill sets thatextroverts don't, and I've for
most of my life, and probablystill now, thought of my
(20:01):
introversion as somethingbetween a weakness and or
something that needs to beovercome at times, and so this
was a helpful tool that allowedme to appreciate the fact that,
yes, you sometimes do need toovercome your introversion to
accomplish certain things, butin fact, it is, in many ways, a
(20:22):
huge advantage and has skillsand abilities that you have as
an introvert that the othersdon't, so that made me feel good
.
Stacee (20:31):
Ooh, I'll have to check that out.
Ira (20:34):
How about you Stacee?
Stacee (20:36):
My tip for this week is really some advice on how to
manage your inbox, because theredoes come a point where you
have over supply of emails thatare coming in and it's really
easy to get behind and you feellike you are beholden to Gmail
(20:58):
all the all the hours of the day.
And one tip I have is to scanthrough all your emails, triage
them and then all the ones youcan't get to soon, within the
day, Just push back a reply thatsays I got your email and I'll
get back with you shortly.
I think that's so importantwhen you're starting a company,
(21:21):
versus waiting until you havethe proper time and the
bandwidth to answer the email inthe way you want to, Because
then you're keeping peopledelayed.
And one thing that's superimportant is to show you're very
responsive and you're reliableand dependable, and so you don't
have to answer all the emails,but you do need to respond to
(21:45):
them every day and just say Igot it and you know I'll be with
you in just a bit, and peoplereally like that.
They remember that more than ifyou wait till you have this
great response and they send itfive days later.
Ira (22:02):
Well, I would agree.
My old partner used to callthese placeholder emails Right,
and, as somebody that does a lotof email communication with a
lot of people that I don'treally yet know, it is
definitely a turn off, a concern, when you don't hear back from
them for 24, 48, 72 hours andyou wonder did they get my email
(22:26):
?
Did they not care about myemail?
Are they going to respond?
Should I send them a follow upnote and if, and all it really
takes is a relatively immediatethanks.
So much for this email.
I got it and I'm caught up withsome other things, but I'm
going to write back to you nextweek or whatever the time frame
is, and all of that is overcome,and so I think that's great
(22:48):
advice.
Stacee (22:49):
Even if you're a big deal like a CEO of a company,
and you know, if you're, ifyou're a big deal in a company
and you're trying to foster aculture of you know, inclusion
and equality and you know, justhave basically a nice culture.
Even the CEO needs to do this.
Ira (23:08):
For sure.
I have literally never hadanybody write back and say why'd
you send me an email thatdoesn't say anything, right Like
that's never happened.
I don't think it's ever goingto happen, and so it's always
appreciated.
It doesn't take that much time.
You can do it from your phone.
You can set it up as an emailsignature that you tap it Like.
(23:29):
You can really automate some ofthese things and and it makes a
huge difference- oh, I neverthought of that.
Stacee (23:35):
Setting up it up, setting it up as an email
signature, that's clever.
That's a good idea, all right.
Well, it's time to spin thewheel and see what our question
is for next time.
Ira (23:45):
All right, can't wait.
Who did you hire first?
Stacee (23:55):
All right, I got a good one.
Do you have a good one?
Ira (23:58):
I do.
Stacee (23:59):
Okay.
Well, I'll see you next timeand have a great rest of your
week, you guys.
Thanks for listening to theshow today.
If you want to learn more aboutmy story or I restore it, be
sure to check out episodes twoand three.
And if you are an accidentalentrepreneur and would like to
be a guest co-host on the showand spin the wheel, just message
(24:20):
be a co-host, no spaces, to1-833-463-9727 and tell us your
story.
See you next time.
Hello and welcome.
I am Ira Gordon and, along withStacee Santi, the host of The
Accidental Entrepreneurs podcast.
We each previously foundedsuccessful companies.
Along the way, we becamebusiness owners and eventually
sold those businesses despite ushaving no real background in
business or ever even planningto become entrepreneurs.
In other words, we did this alldespite originally having no
(00:25):
idea what we were doing orgetting ourselves into.
In each episode of this podcast, we will share stories and tips
from our journey and we'llanswer a randomly chosen
question about our experience.
Let's jump right into the show.
Stacee (00:41):
So, Ira, you just got back from VMX conference in
Orlando the veterinary.
What is the M and the X standfor now?
I don't even know.
Ira (00:49):
I believe it as Medical Expo.
Stacee (00:51):
Oh yeah, that's right.
You're formerly known as NAVC,which I can always tell who's
old school when they call itNAVC.
Ira (00:59):
You know, I feel like that was one of the most successful
rebrands I've ever seen.
Like within the first yearalmost everybody was already
calling it VMX and not referringto it as NAVC, and I don't
think that usually happens.
Stacee (01:14):
No, look at.
Ira (01:15):
Twitter.
Stacee (01:17):
Yeah, look at Twitter.
That's a good one.
The other one is WesternVeterinary Conference.
Nobody, everyone calls it that.
No one calls it the Viticus orwhatever we're supposed to call
it.
Yeah, they did a really goodjob.
You made a good point there.
Well, what was it like?
What's hot?
What's happening?
Ira (01:32):
You know, the great thing was it was nice and warm down in
Florida as opposed to snowinghere at home.
Got to see some really greatpeople, had a nice talk about a
topic I only actually know alittle bit about, which is
artificial intelligence indiagnostic imaging.
But that was great and the restof it was a big meeting with,
(01:55):
you know, close to 30,000 peopleand the things that I have a
lot of anxiety about usually.
Stacee (02:03):
How did you survive as an introvert?
Ira (02:07):
One day.
I actually I never do this, butI actually was conscious of the
fact that I was just gettingtired and not feeling it and I
just went back to my room, laydown, listened to music for like
an hour and then tried to getback at it and I was.
I was proud of myself.
It's not something I'veactually ever done before.
Stacee (02:29):
You took a moment.
Ira (02:30):
I did.
Stacee (02:31):
Yeah, that place is crazy and it's funny because I'm
with you like an introvert tooand the bar scene and all the
people and all the noises andall the hype, like it's.
It's like being at Disneyland alittle bit.
You have to be on and thewalking is insane.
Ira (02:51):
I know everyone's always complaining about their steps,
but there's a line in one of myfavorite movies, clerks, which I
believe says I hate crowds butI love gatherings.
Stacee (03:08):
Yeah, I have to go to bed early at those things
because I'm kind of an introvertlike you.
I mean, I can be sort of anextrovert, but only if it's
about something I like talkingabout, like animals.
Otherwise I sort of go into myintrovert state, all right.
So the question today is whatwas it like when you got your
(03:31):
first payout?
So you've sold part or all ofyour company.
You get this big check what wasit like and what was the first
thing you bought?
Ira (03:55):
All right.
So for the most part, I'm notoverly ostentatious with my
spending, but I do have this,this thesis, that is, when
something momentous happens, youshould commemorate it with
(04:16):
something that you'll keep for along time, that reminds you of
that thing that happened.
It actually first started whenmy grandmother passed away many
years ago and left me $600, andI use that to buy a guitar that
I still have today that remindsme of her, and so that is
something I've tried to do torecognize important events for a
variety of reasons.
So when we got our check forselling X prep, the thing that I
(04:45):
bought which is super nerdy andcool is an ACDC Back in Black,
limited edition in ball machine.
Stacee (04:58):
No, that's what you bought.
Ira (05:00):
It is a ridiculously stupid expense to take on, but, in the
grand scheme of things, couldbe justified and was something
that was like well, this shouldpretty much last forever as long
as you take care of it.
Theoretically, it's an expensethat shouldn't become non-usable
(05:21):
or depreciate so much in valuethat it's not worth anything
anymore Not that it reallymatters.
I don't plan to sell it, butthat's what I got, and same
thing.
Whatever I Play the silver ballon that machine, it brings me
great joy.
(06:42):
That's amazing.
And do you remember how it feltwhen you saw that number in
your bank account?
It doesn't even really make sense.
Stacee (06:55):
I felt like calling Wells Fargo and letting him know
there's been a massive error.
Like somebody, I felt likemaybe I was on one of those
reality TV shows where they weregoing to say just kidding.
Ira (07:08):
You kind of have a sense that a big chunk of that money
is ultimately going to bereturned to Uncle Sam, but you
don't know how much of that bigchunk, and so that's a great
source of anxiety, I suppose.
And then you also have thisburden of responsibility to say
this is probably not going tohappen like all the time, or
(07:28):
maybe ever again, and so Iprobably want to do something
with this that allows it to helpme for the rest of my life, as
opposed to for the next month orthe next year, or even the next
five or 10.
You're way more practical thanme.
Stacee (07:43):
I was more like check this out, we don't have to ever
work again, we can buy a privatejet, we can do this.
And then Ellis says that's notthat much money.
We still have to be responsiblepeople.
It was crazy though, I did feellike I mean, it was really I
(08:11):
think the word is unbelievable.
I didn't believe that thathappened.
I didn't believe that that wastrue.
Ira (08:20):
You know you go through discussions while you're sort of
in that process of selling abusiness and those numbers get
sort of thrown back and forthand they, you know they hit you
when that happens.
But there's still like a senseof this isn't a short thing.
There's lots of things that gowrong during the diligence stage
(08:41):
of closing a deal and thingschange and nothing is certain.
But when it finally sort ofarrives, that's when it suddenly
feels real for sure.
Stacee (08:52):
Yeah, it kind of seems like when you're in those final
stages of negotiation.
It seemed like monopoly moneyis how it feels, yeah.
Ira (09:01):
Yeah, because you actually can't think of it the way you
think of regular money, becauseit's different.
And you, the way you've beenbrought up to think about money
and thought about it.
Your entire career is mostlyrelated to like, what do you
(09:22):
need to live on, right, and thenall of a sudden to have the
opportunity of a windfall is notreally money for you to live on
, it's money for you to live off, I guess.
Is that a statement?
Stacee (09:35):
Yeah, that's a good statement.
Yeah, I know like I have apretty good grasp on what a
hundred bucks is like, what athousand, 10,000, when you start
getting up to a hundredthousand, like I kind of, and
just it goes worse from there.
Like it's like when you look ata crowd of people, I can't
really tell you if there's, youknow, 10,000 people there or
(09:59):
50,000 people, because oncewe're up at that level, I can't.
I have no reference forcomparison.
You know, like I'm sure TaylorSwift is pretty good at knowing
how big this audience is inthose kind of numbers, but for a
normal person.
Ira (10:16):
Yeah, Taylor Swift knows like oh yeah, I can handle
thinking about tens of millionsor hundreds of millions, but
once you get to billions andtens of billions, I don't know.
It's hard for me to wrap myhead around that.
I mean, I guess like we feellike that's out of touch and
most people probably feel likewhat we're talking about is a
little bit out of touch withmost folks' realities.
Stacee (10:34):
Yeah for sure.
Well, the first thing I wentand bought and I had my eye on
this for probably about fiveyears was I wanted these blinds
for my house that werecontrolled by an app and you
could set the timer or set theapp up to put the blinds up X
(10:58):
minutes before after the sunriseand sunset.
And I wanted these blinds for along, long time.
I had gone, I had looked atthem, I had priced them, I knew
what they were, I knew they werelike what would you call it?
Like just a total luxury item.
But I just really wanted thisfor a long time.
(11:21):
So I got my check and I wentdown to this blinds place in my
town and I told the ladies, like, can I help you?
And I tell her I want to getthese blinds for my entire house
and I want the kind that aretechnology controlled.
And I don't know if it'sbecause I, how I looked, or I
(11:46):
don't know what the reason was,but she just didn't want to sell
me the blinds.
She kept trying to talk me outof it.
She's like well, you know, it'sreally not that hard to just
pull the string and you'll saveyourself a lot.
Ira (11:58):
Well, I was thinking.
Stacee (11:59):
Yeah, it's not that hard and you'll save yourself a ton
of money, and I'm like, I'mfamiliar with what it's like to
pull the string to blinds, butwhat I want is them all to go up
at once and them all to go downat once, because I actually
know that I don't go around andpull the string every morning
and every evening and I don'tknow.
(12:22):
I was annoyed that she didn'twant to sell them to me, and I
think she thought I was notfamiliar with the cost.
It was a weird shoppingexperience, however, and then I
got my blinds and I there you go.
I was gonna ask.
Ira (12:37):
Yep.
I think they still bring youtremendous joy.
Stacee (12:40):
Oh yeah, every time they go up and every time they go
down, I think of my sale, muchlike you think of yours, when
you see ACDC pinball machine,like it's just something that's,
it feels like the room isopening up for the day.
I love it.
Ira (12:59):
I'm doing it.
I can't say that I would havefound similar inspiration and
that sort of splurge, but I'mglad you did.
Stacee (13:09):
When did you start to think that it was going to be
possible for you to be amillionaire?
Ira (13:19):
I remember when I was in veterinary school and sort of
started to imagine, like myfinancial future and, like you
know, how much I would need toearn, and did some of that
modeling and I was young anddumb but I figured out that I
(13:41):
would probably or we, I shouldsay, like my wife and I, like we
would need to earn about $5million over the course of our
career to be able to do thethings we wanna do raise a
family, put kids in the college,live in the type of place we
wanna live, you know that typeof stuff.
And that didn't seem entirelyunrealistic, based on sort of
(14:01):
how much you could earn as aveterinary, oncologist and
various other things I might doand she might do.
Bye Jack, yeah, I do remembersort of thinking about that and
that being a long time and a lotof work and not easy.
And honestly, over time I'vesort of looked at that number
(14:24):
and it's gone up a little bit.
It's relative to what I thoughtwhen I was 20 something, but
certainly yet an event like thesale of the business, like at
the very least, it pushes youway closer to that lifetime goal
than you had before.
So I sort of thought about itthat way.
(14:45):
That helps.
Stacee (14:47):
Yeah, I never had a lifetime goal.
I pretty much am the kind ofperson I just sort of have.
I go off a feeling, which isalways smart Like if I feel my
bank account's overdrawn itprobably is.
I have a funny story.
So when I was first gettingstarted I joined this group,
(15:08):
which is where I met you, Ithink of that partners, and it's
a group where a lot of peoplethat support the veterinary
industry get together a coupleof times a year in network and
stuff like that, and when you'rea new member you get to go up
in front of everyone and you getto do what they call the
elevator speech, which I thinkwas like five minutes, and you
(15:30):
can do a little presentation.
Ira (15:31):
Long elevator.
Stacee (15:32):
Yeah, and then you get a little presentation on who you
are and what your company is.
And I was sitting at this tablewith you know, their tables
aren't like those round oneswith about eight people and I
was sitting next to this guy whohis name is Christopher I can't
remember his last name, buthe's a wealth management
(15:53):
specialist.
So, anyways, it was my turn andI went up there and I did my
little show and I came and I satback down and he looked at me
and he goes you realize you'regoing to be a millionaire one
day, don't you?
And I'm like I thought he wasjoking, right, I thought he was
(16:14):
just like being silly and Ilaughed.
He's like no, I'm serious, Likeyou do realize that, don't you?
Like he looked me straight ineye and said that and I'm like
does he know something I don'tknow?
You know.
Ira (16:29):
I did, sounds like he did.
Stacee (16:31):
He did, and I think about that and that statement he
said to me and how this randomstranger who I didn't know and
didn't pay told and I wasn'trelated to said this.
It kind of felt like inspiring.
Ira (16:45):
But don't you know that?
You know you're an opinionleader and people come to you
for advice and all those things.
Don't you feel like you seethat in people all the time that
are at the beginning ofsomething and you think to
yourself, oh, like this personis going to make it big.
But I actually don't know ifthis thing they're working on
now is the thing that's going todo it, but I can tell that this
(17:07):
person has the drive, thepassion, the smarts and they're
going to do that.
And that must have been youback then, which is pretty cool.
Stacee (17:16):
Yeah, I kind of do see that.
Like I see there's two peopleon my radar that I feel like
have it, and one of them is Dr.
Dani Rabwin with ReadyVetGo.
Like she is, there's some abouther and I feel like she's
really got it.
And the other one is this girlI met maybe two or three years
(17:37):
ago, Nicole Clausen.
She's a veterinary technicianand does inventory management.
Yeah, she's got it too.
Like I didn't even know she wasgoing to be building a company,
but when I first met her she'sjust so bright, such a bright
star.
I felt really like, oh, she'sgoing to be a millionaire.
(17:57):
I wonder if she knows.
I wonder if I should tell her,like Christopher told me, it's
great.
Ira (18:03):
Dani actually is a classmate of mine.
She is.
Stacee (18:05):
I love her very much.
Ira (18:06):
Yeah, I saw her at VMX this last week and had to spend a
nice bit of time with her and Iam extremely excited and proud
of all the things that she'sdoing and working on and fully
agree she's going to be an allstar as, yeah, as are others, I
think the other person thatcomes to mind I hate to put like
(18:26):
pressure on people, but I thinkI think they can handle it.
The other person that comes tomind is a technician named
Alexander Contreras, and he hasa product called Clip Trio and
he just has this drive,personality, charisma, passion
for what he's doing, and I knowhe's going to be successful.
I am not sure if this productis going to be what gets him
(18:48):
there, but he is reallyfantastic and it's just exciting
to watch their journeys.
Stacee (18:56):
It is Wow.
We're now going to share afavorite tip, trick, technology
tool, inspirational quote withour listeners.
What do you have for us today,Ira?
Ira (19:19):
I've got a book that relates to something we spoke
about at the beginning, which isa book by someone named Susan
Cain C-A-I-N, and it is "uietthe power of introverts in a
world that can't stop talking.
Stacee (19:37):
And that seems right up your alley.
Ira (19:40):
Somebody not surprisingly somebody recommended and gave me
this book.
They said you need this book,and they were right.
It is really about this notionthat introverts have tremendous
advantages and skill sets thatextroverts don't, and I've for
most of my life, and probablystill now, thought of my
(20:01):
introversion as somethingbetween a weakness and or
something that needs to beovercome at times, and so this
was a helpful tool that allowedme to appreciate the fact that,
yes, you sometimes do need toovercome your introversion to
accomplish certain things, butin fact, it is, in many ways, a
(20:22):
huge advantage and has skillsand abilities that you have as
an introvert that the othersdon't, so that made me feel good
.
Stacee (20:31):
Ooh, I'll have to check that out.
Ira (20:34):
How about you Stacee?
Stacee (20:36):
My tip for this week is really some advice on how to
manage your inbox, because theredoes come a point where you
have over supply of emails thatare coming in and it's really
easy to get behind and you feellike you are beholden to Gmail
(20:58):
all the all the hours of the day.
And one tip I have is to scanthrough all your emails, triage
them and then all the ones youcan't get to soon, within the
day, Just push back a reply thatsays I got your email and I'll
get back with you shortly.
I think that's so importantwhen you're starting a company,
(21:21):
versus waiting until you havethe proper time and the
bandwidth to answer the email inthe way you want to, Because
then you're keeping peopledelayed.
And one thing that's superimportant is to show you're very
responsive and you're reliableand dependable, and so you don't
have to answer all the emails,but you do need to respond to
(21:45):
them every day and just say Igot it and you know I'll be with
you in just a bit, and peoplereally like that.
They remember that more than ifyou wait till you have this
great response and they send itfive days later.
Ira (22:02):
Well, I would agree.
My old partner used to callthese placeholder emails Right,
and, as somebody that does a lotof email communication with a
lot of people that I don'treally yet know, it is
definitely a turn off, a concern, when you don't hear back from
them for 24, 48, 72 hours andyou wonder did they get my email
(22:26):
?
Did they not care about myemail?
Are they going to respond?
Should I send them a follow upnote and if, and all it really
takes is a relatively immediatethanks.
So much for this email.
I got it and I'm caught up withsome other things, but I'm
going to write back to you nextweek or whatever the time frame
is, and all of that is overcome,and so I think that's great
(22:48):
advice.
Stacee (22:49):
Even if you're a big deal like a CEO of a company,
and you know, if you're, ifyou're a big deal in a company
and you're trying to foster aculture of you know, inclusion
and equality and you know, justhave basically a nice culture.
Even the CEO needs to do this.
Ira (23:08):
For sure.
I have literally never hadanybody write back and say why'd
you send me an email thatdoesn't say anything, right Like
that's never happened.
I don't think it's ever goingto happen, and so it's always
appreciated.
It doesn't take that much time.
You can do it from your phone.
You can set it up as an emailsignature that you tap it Like.
(23:29):
You can really automate some ofthese things and and it makes a
huge difference- oh, I neverthought of that.
Stacee (23:35):
Setting up it up, setting it up as an email
signature, that's clever.
That's a good idea, all right.
Well, it's time to spin thewheel and see what our question
is for next time.
Ira (23:45):
All right, can't wait.
Who did you hire first?
Stacee (23:55):
All right, I got a good one.
Do you have a good one?
Ira (23:58):
I do.
Stacee (23:59):
Okay.
Well, I'll see you next timeand have a great rest of your
week, you guys.
Thanks for listening to theshow today.
If you want to learn more aboutmy story or I restore it, be
sure to check out episodes twoand three.
And if you are an accidentalentrepreneur and would like to
be a guest co-host on the showand spin the wheel, just message
(24:20):
be a co-host, no spaces, to1-833-463-9727 and tell us your
story.
See you next time.
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