Ep786: Mark Kohler – Take Ownership of What You’re Doing Wrong

Andrew Stotz 00:01
Hello fellow risk takers and welcome to my worst investment ever stories of loss to keep you winning. In our community. We know that the winner in investing you must take risk but to win big, you've got to reduce it. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm on a mission to help 1 million people reduce risk in their lives. And I want to thank my listeners in Arizona for joining today fellow risk takers this is your worst podcast host Andrew Stotz from a Stotz Academy, and I'm here with featured guests, Mark Kohler Mark, are you ready to join the mission?

Mark Kohler 00:35
I am ready. I am so excited to be here.

Andrew Stotz 00:38
You look ready, you everything looks ready. And I'm excited to hear more from you. But let me just introduce you to the audience. Ladies and gentlemen, Mark is a highly respected founding and senior partner at KK O 's lawyers specializing in tax legal wealth, estate and asset protection planning. With a reputation as a YouTube personality best selling author and national speaker Mark is dedicated to guiding clients through the complex legal and financial landscapes to achieve the American dream. Mark, take a minute and tell us about the unique value you are bringing to this wonderful world.

Mark Kohler 01:14
Well, I am striving to be and I think I'm almost there the most well recognized and popular nerd in America, I am trying to be America's small business tax lawyer helping Main Street business owners all over the country, just better live their American dream, understand quality tax strategies. And what I've been on a mission to do is help accountants learn how to be better advisors to their clients. And I love saving money and I love helping accountants and I'm going to change the accounting industry. And I'm already doing it and it's affecting 1000s of 1000s of small business owners or investors all over.

Andrew Stotz 01:54
And tell us more about the way you're communicating that between YouTube podcasts books, explain, you know where, how you're doing that?

Mark Kohler 02:03
You bet. Well, we have our law firm and Trust Company. And so counting services that we just help the very proud of and an incredible team helping again, small business owners and investors directly. In the last two years, I caught the vision of the training program I had implemented in my own firms. I'm training 1020 30, CPAs, and attorneys on a regular basis with turnover and their growth and experience and out there on social media and YouTube helping small business owners. And I just realized, oh my gosh, I could really do a better job of helping other tax advisers that are really struggling when you go to an accounting school or get your CPA exam or you're enrolled agent exam or bar exam, I've done them all. You don't learn real street smart tax strategies, and the continuing education programs are so boring and difficult to extrapolate any sort of real world strategy. So I was on a mission to take my internal training system and create a certified tax advisor program for other advisors all over the country. We're pushing now over 600 members in just a year and a few months, it's grown like wildfire. And so we've created a tribe of accountants and enrolled agents, CPAs, financial advisors, lawyers that really want to make a difference on Main Street America. And I've got videos, weekly trainings, semi annual workshop is just been such a fun experience. And that's my passion right now.

Andrew Stotz 03:33
So how does it work? Like, for instance, is this like I think about the typical accountant. And they know the foundations, they know the basics, but the tax and other things are changing all the time. And so they can't keep up with it. So they go into your course or your resources or how does it work?

Mark Kohler 03:50
You bet. And I would, you know, you think that and I'm grateful. You said that as a layperson. Well, the tax laws are constantly changing, you know, when there hasn't been a major tax law change since Donald Trump and the Congress passed the tax cuts and Jobs Act. Six years ago, I wrote a second edition to my tax and legal playbook once that happened, I'm waiting to do a third edition. Once we have another round of changes after this next presidential cycle, and there will be changes so much of the tax cut and Jobs Act is phasing out. But the real problem is accountants get out of school and they're conservative by nature, and they learn from the old guy in the corner office, all the strategies that worked maybe 30 years ago, and because of their conservative approach to life, which is typical, I've been going to therapy for years to unwind my conservative nature and so you have to somehow get out there and learn the strategies that really are cutting edge and it's not the tax laws changed. It's the you've got to change with the case law and and what's working and what's not and being aggressive and, and getting on the same side of the table with your client not across the table. plain like you're an IRS watchdog. And so their accountants really struggle with that how to have a good quality relationship, communicate, and, and be aggressive. And so that's my, my mission in life and just changing one accountant at a time. You know, accounting

Andrew Stotz 05:15
is an interesting area, I have the Chartered Financial, I'm a chartered financial analyst, so CFA, meaning I'm focused on the financials. In fact, I always tell people as a financial analyst, all I look at is from the audited financial statements up, you know, and what's below the audited financial statements, I didn't, you know, pay too much attention to as an analyst, but my business partner is an exceptional accountant. And we basically started about, I don't know, five or six years ago started a part of our business, which is what we call outsourced CFO. And we basically go in and fix the accounting of companies. And then we turn it over to, you know, an accounting provider, a service providers, some that just find it really difficult sometimes to unravel these things, whereas we go in, you know, with a machete and chop it up. And, what I've found is that, actually, most midsize family businesses, which is what I work with, here, in Thailand, most of them, their accounting is absolutely messed up. It's not closed, like it's closed annually. So they get sales data, they get some, you know, basic stuff, but they don't have monthly financial statements. And I always tell people, my advice that I learned from this podcast, talking to many entrepreneurs is, if people ask me, What's your advice about a startup or your own business, so I only have one piece of advice I have on time and accurate monthly financial statements, if you can do that, you've overcome pretty much 95% of the hurdles related to, you know, finance and accounting. And now your objective is to understand those financial statements and use them as a tool. But I'm just curious, what's the state of accounting in the US, you know, are most people just saying, just give me some basic stuff, or what is the state of it?

Mark Kohler 07:06
Well, it's funny as your perspective, and what you're, if we can talk about lanes on a highway, the lane you're in, is not my lane. I love what you're saying. And I totally agree. Quality bookkeeping, accounting, and financial statements, analysis, making good management decisions from that information, love it. And that is what an outsourced or in house CFO would help a business owner do. And until they can afford one, they have to be their own CFO, and make sense of it all. Where my lane is, in my tribe, and community is the 400,000 tax preparers. We're taking those financials at the end of the year going, alright, now we got to do an S corp, tax return 1065, Schedule C, Schedule E, Schedule F, your 1040, bring it all together, save taxes. And there's a second set of books. And that's not an illegal thing. That's not a weird thing. But you take those financial statements you're talking about. Now you've got to turn around and clean them and adjust them for depreciation and amortization and off the books expenses, and oh, I've got an expense over at Costco or on this debit card or this credit card, or I paid for this over here. And so the accountant can either just take it passively, and just plug them in and kick it back out, which is extremely frustrating for the taxpayer because they're not having conversation. And we wonder why there's a rise in the software Turbo Tax, because business owners say I'm just gonna do it myself. No one's helping me. But if we have a real tax professional that says, hey, let's roll up our sleeves. Let's find some write offs. What can we do quit back kids on payroll? Are we writing off your auto properly? The home office deduction is alive and well. It's not a risk. Are we right enough traveled, you have a board of directors of your own family members, right enough electronics and supplies and equipment and everything at Best Buy an Apple Store Nola. And so a good tax advisor is bringing that to bear with asset protection, privacy, good financial advice. And yes, it all starts with good quality bookkeeping and financial statements. But then you get into that tax lien, and you got to meet with your tax advisor every year. So why not make it in a really quality relationship. And so you can see I'm passionate about it. That's my mission.

Andrew Stotz 09:20
That's exciting. Because I know for a lot of people that they just don't know much about it, they're doing well with their business they've got maybe a local person is helping them with it. Maybe they've got you know, somebody internally that's, you know, done, they've studied up a little bit, but when you when you get exposure to some of that really knows, like, I guess someone from your community, it's like boom, you know, real impact that you can reduce taxes pretty quickly to make sure that you're getting, you know, all the benefit. And one of the thing I'd say about the US tax code is and say the US tax situation is is incredibly complex compared to let's say, Thailand, Thailand. and individual taxes are filed every year on one page document. Well, I was argue against tax.

Mark Kohler 10:09
Well, I would argue the complexity is a good thing. And here's why. When Steve Forbes back 15 years ago was arguing for one rate, and there was a lot of commentary I was writing in The Wall Street Journal at time about it, and I, and we, it sounds great. But see, we motivate our citizenry with tax law, put in handicap access, get a deduction, do something nice for the environment, get a credit. Oh, go give money to charity, get a deduction, go hire this group hire veterans do this, a college, Roth IRAs 401 ks. So we have crafted this complex system. I agree. And but we accomplish things as a country when Katrina hit the hurricane down in Texas, approximately 10 to 15 years ago, the government couldn't even get water down to the Astrodome in four days. But what did they say? Let's pass a tax law that we can get bonus depreciation 100% For three years, and investors went in droves and rebuilt the state far faster than the government had ever done through tax legislation. And it's a really an amazing thing. And so there's nothing about tax evasion, or using tax strategy that's unethical. Just know the game, Don't hate the player. Just know the game. And you can exploit strategies that were built to motivate us there when the government wants us to use these strategies, and why people think Oh, you shouldn't do that. I just pay your fair share. What planet are you on for crying out loud? So I think the complexity is a blessing. Once you understand it, you can use it to your advantage.

Andrew Stotz 11:44
So what's the best place for someone who needs what you have? They like what you're saying, where's the best place for them to engage with you? Oh, thank

Mark Kohler 11:53
you so much. You any of the social media platforms Mark J is in jolly Kohler, Mark J. Kohler, and type any tax topic, any legal topic and Mark J. Kohler, boom, you're gonna see all sorts of videos, I'm working on my gold play button. No accountant, tax lawyer has more videos, podcast downloads, social media posts or articles than me in this it with my credentials. And I am so grateful for the followers I have, and so fortunate to make be making an impact and really on a trajectory to do far, far more. So just plug in my name somewhere on the web, you're gonna find me my website, Mark J. Kohler, is where you can start that certified tax program, if you're just want to do it for yourself, I know you'll save money, or as an advisor, check it out. Fantastic.

Andrew Stotz 12:42
Well, hats off to you for all the work you've done to bring that out to the world. I know. It's a challenge. It takes time and all of that. So well done. Thank you so much. But now it's time to share your worst investment ever. And since no one goes into their worst investment thinking will be tell us a bit of circumstances leading up to an intelligence story.

Mark Kohler 13:01
All right. Well, I would define and I think this is fair, you probably with 800 podcasts on this topic, which is so awesome. Thank you for what you're doing to help others not make the same mistakes. Others have. Let's do a little defining. And maybe that's because it's the lawyer in me. What is a worst investment? Is it you lost money? Is it that you lost time? Is that a damaged a relationship? You got hurt physically, emotionally? So what may be worse for you out there, folks? Maybe not even a punch in the gut for anyone else? Don't? May not I don't care about that. So I think as you approach an investment you want to and I'd love how you said mitigate risk. You want to say what are the risks to me, like some people, this is my last 10,000 or $100,000, I cannot lose this. That's a big risk for someone else. So like, I don't care about that. But I don't have a lot of time to deal with this. And if it sucks up my time, that can be a huge loss for me. So we want to know what we have at risk, and it's not always money. So the story I want to share is about time. All right. Perfect. All right. So I think the stats are that 60% of adult Americans have stayed in a short term rental now, whether it's VRBO, or Airbnb, or just a little rental in your life. So most of you should know what I'm talking about when I say Airbnb, which is now worldwide. They're everywhere. So I'll just use the acronym Airbnb to mean short term rental. So I own a couple of these and I own long term rentals and commercial rentals. I am not a huge real estate tycoon. I recommend all my business owners to be deploying some of their profit into real Real Estate, wealthy people own real estate. So when you hear on this show, I want to warn all of you listeners, when you hear a nightmare story of buying real estate, that doesn't mean real estate's bad. It just means, hey, there, I got to be on my guard, I gotta be careful. I gotta be wise and smart, no matter what your freakin investment is, there's gonna be risk. And it doesn't mean that that investment is bad. It just means you know, the universe worked against you on that one, learn from it, pick it up, fall forward, and go out and kick some ass don't give up. So sorry, I got all these little points. Anyway, so here's my story. So we buy my partner, I, we go out and bought a couple Airbnb. Now this is actually a fairly recent story. I could have gone back in time and picked out something that was maybe 20 or 30 years ago, but this is so recent, and it still stings a little. So that's why it comes out. But it wasn't about money. It was about time. And so it's really interesting. We bought these two Airbnb ease

Andrew Stotz 16:01
when you say Airbnb is do you mean they were already on the market? Or that you bought them for the purposes of renting them? And then you guys to get them in the condition for that?

Mark Kohler 16:10
Great question. And I should pause a little bit for a moment here. So you can really extrapolate the story points, I might brush over something. So we bought these two properties, I'd say in Arizona, and we needed to modify them and get them furnished, and a little bit of rehab, put in a yard and get them ready to Airbnb. So we got a steal, we thought kind of a good deal on these two. And so we hoped in over a two to three month process. We are going to have these up and on the Airbnb platform and renting during the winter months of feedings which is a great Airbnb season. So we dive into these two Airbnb ease. And one of them. Beautiful, is simple needs yard furnishings. I don't think I put in one smoke alarm. I mean, it was just the easiest little thing we were really on our game when we bought it, we got it for a great price. And it was just it's really come together beautifully. At the same time 10 blocks away not even tapped me on probably 10 blocks. We bought this other one. And I think we had beer goggles on or something. I don't know what was going on that day. We just saw it at a light. Maybe it was dark outside. And we thought oh no, it was great. And we put it on the same level as this other good one. And real quick into it just a few weeks, we realized oh my gosh, this is going to take a ton of work and the train left the station. There is no turning back. And so the damage began. Now, you may say, well, the financial damage of improving this property. Yeah, I don't buy that. I mean, I really think real estate is such a quality asset, we're going to get our money back, it's going to be maybe a longer trajectory. But we really added a lot of value to this property. But it was far more than we want it to bite off and chew. And so we started to dive in. It was taking night after this night that night, it created create a great social media content. But it just was a time sucker from day one. And we really had there was one night where my partner she's like, this is terrible. And I'm lifting her spirits. Other nights. She's lifting my spirits. We're losing some weekend time. And so it really started to take a toll. But okay, so that's the bad part. And I could continue with that it took more months than expected and more money than expected. But really the disaster of that investment was the time suckage. So now, your GI give the silver lining. Yeah, go? Or do you want to make it really make it ugly? if you will? No, no,

Andrew Stotz 18:59
I think that. I mean, maybe just to update us kind of where things are at right now. Just so we understand the project trajectory. And then after that, maybe tell us the lessons that you learned. And you know what you got out of that?

Mark Kohler 19:12
You bet. Well, both properties are online now. Literally, no pun intended. And the good one, or I should say the simpler one is we've locked in some midterm tenants, which is very powerful, and a different strategy, especially in the offseason in Arizona. If you can lock in a midterm, that's a good deal. So I've kind of a three to four month rental, and then we'll bounce over to weekly and daily rentals after that. The other one that was the time sucker. It has been a shocker. It has literally been rented 90% of the time of the days so we'd say at least 20 to 25 days out of the month. From the mid We put it online and it was just a couple of months ago. And we were gonna go work on it this week on a Thursday evening and attach it up and someone booked just a one night. And we're like, holy crap. And so we've just been really, really pleasantly surprised that it's renting as much as it is, especially when we're coming up on the summer months, it's already 100 degrees. But it that was not expected. It's a blessing. And thank heavens because we put a lot of money into it. So we're really pleased with that. And so from a financial standpoint, it has been turned out really well. From a time standpoint, I'm still licking my wounds, it really took me away. It took me away from a lot of other priorities. Some family, I have some grandchildren, it took me away from some work that was very pressing, that would project we are in the middle of some project development that needed my attention, it just got pushed to the side, there was a couple of events that I was going to speak at that I had to move around, it really took a toll. And then physically and emotionally, when it takes that much time, it's hard. So I'm still licking my wounds a little bit with that point of view. However, here's the silver lining. And this is why my partner and I are so, so grateful. unexpectedly. We didn't plan on this, we just called all of our kids who are in and around the area, adult children and said all hands on deck, we need your help. That's point number one. And the kids that have the time there are some children that have families and day jobs or seven kids between us. But the ones that could just dove right in and my daughter Molly, I want to give her a shout out she was there daily doing painting and this and that and and not only did it bond our family closer together and children getting to know other children. Molly was learning skills other children were learning skills that would they wouldn't have normally learned. And so number one, there was a lot of family unity created. I think we celebrated the Super Bowl there. We've celebrated a baby shower there. It's just been a really neat situation we never expected number two the kids are learning skills they wouldn't have learned otherwise. And then third, what I just so pleased with is the oh my gosh was gonna say so. I'm sure you're going to edit this so I can touch this up, hopefully. Okay, so is the camaraderie and the skills that are learning and then what was it? How to add some help? That's

Andrew Stotz 22:48
certainly something

Mark Kohler 22:49
Yeah. Oh my gosh, it was tip my tongue thank you for give me two seconds here. Dylan shorter. What was I gonna say? I said it earlier. That was the kids all helping in chipping in the bonding. What they learned Oh, thank you for giving me a moment. It's going to really bring it together. Know Thank you, thank you for your patience. Now this is important. lasting memories as I already said, the memories, the kids learning skills. Oh, okay. Okay, here we go. Yeah, bring it bring it in. And third, it was a chance for us to be an example, to our children, that when you run into a situation that you didn't expect, you don't throw in the towel, you don't walk away. You can't sometimes hire someone else to do it. And you say, Well, Mark, your time's worth more. Yeah, maybe, maybe not. Sometimes, by the time you pay someone to take it to the level you want to take it to and resolve the problem. It gets even worse financially. And so I, I, we had several children be like, Wow, you're eight, I don't sound I don't look that old or sound at all. But you know, when I'm successful in my career and all that, I was able to tell me, you don't you don't walk away, you step up, and you take care of what you committed to and you can do it. And if that means work until three in the morning on a Friday night and you're just burning the midnight oil. You gotta do it. Now, as I said, that was a very difficult thing to do. Time is very, very valuable to me more than money. And it took a toll in a variety of ways. But I think my when my kids run into a problem, and I go roll up your sleeves, they're like, ooh, and I'll say See what I did. Yeah. Okay. They can't complain. So anyway, I just felt it was a really needed learning experience in that way. So maybe I'll

Andrew Stotz 25:06
share some of my takeaways, I, let's call it an own goal. Like, the problem we have in our life, is that and I think most people don't realize this till they get older is that the majority of trouble that we face in our life is going to be caused by us. And yes, we have accidents. And you know, other people, there are malicious things that can come out of the blue, you know, but generally, it's our decisions we have to overcome. And I have a lecture I do in ethics in and I basically do an ethics and finance lecture. But I also then say, Oh, by the way, I have a bonus lecture, it's a very short one, it's how to get out of trouble. And I basically tell people, you're gonna get in trouble. And it's going to be caused by you. So I have four A's, I say, first, you need to be aware, you know, particularly in the world of finance, you know, you need to be aware of the people around you, but everywhere, people, people could be doing things that are bad or wrong. So first is aware. And then what, what you then need to do is, when you've done something wrong, you need to basically admitted. And that can be to yourself, it doesn't have to be to somebody else, just admit it to yourself as a first step, Solon. Yep. And the third one is, when you're ready to, to throw away the wreckage of your past. You then apologize. So first, you're aware, then you admit, then you apologize. And as I tell people in that lecture, I say, apologizes six words. I am sorry, I was wrong.

Mark Kohler 26:59
And then we skipped that

Andrew Stotz 27:00
one. Yeah, exactly. That's the hard part. But of course, that's where the magic happens. Because even if somebody doesn't accept the apology, if you sincerely deliver a real apology, then you have cleared away the wreckage of your past. And the fourth one is really the hardest one, and that is amend. If you cause damage to another person, because of this, you need to amend that and resolve it. Now, you may say, but Andrew, I don't have enough money, or you know, I caused so much damage, I said, what you need to do is go to that person and say, I'm gonna pay you 100 bucks a month, you know, for the next, you know, as long as it takes for me to be able to resolve it. And if you owe them 10,000, and you say, I can pay you 100 bucks a month, and I'm going to do that until I pay off the 10,000. You know, you never know what can happen, you may make a lot more money, and then all of a sudden resolving it is easier, you may also find that somebody really admires that you've really stood up, you know. And so those are the four A's that I like to teach. And what I like about your story is that you admitted it. So you can't admit, you can't get help on something if you haven't admitted it. So by admitting it to your family and saying, We need help. So this is a little bit different than you know what I was describing. But in this case, you admit it, and you say I need help. And when you ask for help, it's incredible what you get. And it's humbling because particularly as a parent, you don't want to you want to have you want to have things together. But it's such a great thing for kids to see. And so those are my things that I always say about how to get out of trouble. But the most important thing that I wanted to get across was that we cause most of the trouble that we face in our lives. And therefore if we've got a good system for dealing with it, such as being aware, admitting, apologizing and amending, then we can leave that behind and leave and have a happy life. So anyways, anything you would add to that. Yeah, it's

Mark Kohler 29:09
I'm trying to envision out of these 800 Plus disaster investments, worst investment ever decisions. Let's think about the words again, the worst investment I ever made. Now someone may show up and I bet you've had a few people show up and go, Oh, I did this investment and someone ripped me off. Or there was an act of God and I lost everything, or the building fell down to the ground or the burn burned down. Okay. That was not the worst investment you ever made. You made a good investment and then something happened outside of your control in that situation. That doesn't mean I've argued that didn't mean you made a bad investment, or that was your worst investment. The worst investment I ever made means you're owning a Bad decision, and that the investment had gone bad whether it was money time, financial, emotional heartache, whatever it was, it was because you made a bad decision. That's your worst investment ever. If someone else causes the problem, I don't know. Yeah, I don't know, that's what I hear there too, is that you can take an ownership. Yeah, what you're doing wrong,

Andrew Stotz 30:22
I don't know. And in Episode 601, ne Duke talked about the concept of decision making, and, and how the outcome of a decision doesn't necessarily mean that the decision was let's say, it's a bad outcome from a decision, it doesn't mean it was a bad decision. And so, you know, the, the process of making your decisions is what's critical, because sometimes you're gonna have random outputs or outcomes that really, as long as your process was good, and you keep improving your process, then you're progressing. So definitely, you know, the point, the point is, is that things happen in our lives. And it's things that we can't, but our response to what happens is what we're really talking about, particularly in your case, and that is, I think I want to just stop at this point in time and tell the audience from my perspective, you know, look at Mark's story as a challenge to step up to the plate. When you found yourself in a mass and admitted and asked for help and take step by step action to get out of it. That's my main takeaway. Yeah. And,

Mark Kohler 31:35
and I want to add kind of a life coaching twist to it. Is that can I make one more comment about it? Sure. Yeah, yeah. Is that what you just said is a huge part of it, when disaster or whatever, if this problem occurs, whatever that problem is, and you own it, you're aware of it, you admit it, okay. I like your action item that you got to step up, you got to try to solve it, you're going to get in and work hard, you're not going to run away or stick your head in the sand. But I think there's another component A lot of us don't talk about. And that is, what's your mindset and that process, you can either be beating yourself up, feeling like a loser. Boy, was I dumb? I have shame, guilt. You don't want to share it because you're embarrassed, embarrassment. All of those feelings are your thoughts. They're unnecessary. When we make a mistake, we can and I know it's hard. I was there. But that's how my partner and I lifted each other up, as we said, hey, let's look at the good that's going on here. This was the right decision. This is what we were supposed to do. This was meant to be? How can we learn from this. And when you are pivoting in the face of a disaster or a bad investment, the first thing to do is give yourself some grace. And by the way, if you need an example of someone that's made some bad decisions, I'm here. Yeah, start listening to the podcast. There's 100 episodes, you're not the only one, holy crap, quit beating yourself up. And so I think your mental approach to the problem is just as important as what you do to get out of the problem, don't you? You can lose years of your life, beating yourself up. Or you can go you know what this was meant to be a liquid I learned from him.

Andrew Stotz 33:33
Great. So I think we really had a good masterclass on how to react when we get into a situation where it didn't work out. You know, it's not working out the way you thought. But now, let's go back to the beginning and say, well, the purpose of what we want to try to do is help someone who's listening or viewing, maybe not make that investment, even though they can learn a lot from it, and it can teach them a lot. So based on what you learn from this story, and what you continue to learn, let's go back to the day you walked in that place, the first day you saw it, what's one action that you'd recommend for our listeners to take to avoid suffering the same fate?

Mark Kohler 34:18
Well, hindsight is 2020 I would have done the same thing. I the pain of that bad decision did not outweigh what I found to be the benefit. And I think many of you out there sit could say that was my worst financial decision I ever made. But if you flip it around and go, Well, what did you learn from it? I think, Oh, wow. I learned a lot, and it changed my life. And so would you trade that some of our worst decisions, our best decisions,

Andrew Stotz 34:55
most of the ones we learned?

Mark Kohler 34:58
Yes. And so I don't know if I'd redo it, it was hard. I will say this, I would have probably made a few remodeling decisions differently. I gotta save a few times. A lot of time in the kitchen. But

Andrew Stotz 35:16
if I think about it, that would probably be one of the things is to make sure that you are realistic about the expenses that you're going to have to outlay to. Yeah, you know, and yeah,

Mark Kohler 35:28
I would say this too, is that what I challenge the listener to do differently, is, recognize that it's not the end of the world, give yourself some grace, look for the silver lining and get to work. Okay. That's what I would challenge all of you to do. I don't know if I not do it over. I mean, yeah, I'd rather shop a little more at Home Depot versus Lowe's or vice, or whatever. But but the the investment itself, I would have done it. And I do it again. So it was hard. What's,

Andrew Stotz 36:01
what's a resource that you'd recommend either of yours or any other resource that you have that you'd recommend for our listeners? Well,

Mark Kohler 36:09
since we're on the air b&b theme, I'm going to give a shout out to Daniel rusting. He is the preeminent author of the short term rental rehab, and rental strategy. He just had a new book come out. In fact, he texted me about two hours ago, because I was asking him a question. I had him on my podcast and it was phenomenal. But if you're in the Airbnb market, I'm not saying Airbnb is bad. I'm not saying you're going to, they're going to be perfect either. But Daniel, Rusty is a great resource for an interview going into that market. He's traveling in Brazil right now. He's all over the world too. And then I'd say get over to my podcast as well, Main Street business podcast. I've got some great interviews there. I've got some lined up here in the near future that are just incredible. I'm at 400 episodes, and it's about Main Street business and investing, just practical takeaway strategies on a regular basis. I think some of you might find that helpful, too. Fantastic.

Andrew Stotz 37:06
Well, and Daniel is spelled R U S, T, E N. And I'll have a link to that and especially to your show in the show notes. So last question, what is your number one goal for the next 12 months?

Mark Kohler 37:23
Who business I've got lots of goals. I've written down my 10 year plan five year and my one year plan, sticking to business. Number one goal is to really dial in the Mainstreet business tax pro certification. We're working on the dashboard, we're working on some new key personnel. And we're having a great event coming up. It's going to be a great event in June in Salt Lake and then Phoenix in December. I want to have 1000 members by the end of the year, we're on track for that. And these are 1000 business owners, tax professionals, legal and financial professionals that are looking for a common group of like minded individuals and tribe and I'm going to blow it up and we're going to make a difference in the accounting, the tax professional accounting lane, here in America, and it's going to be awesomes. Exciting.

Andrew Stotz 38:21
Well listeners, there you have it another story of loss to keep you winning. Remember, I'm on a mission to help 1 million people reduce risk in their lives. As we conclude, Mark, I want to thank you again for joining our mission and on behalf of a Stotz Academy, I hereby award you alumni status for turning your worst investment ever into your best teaching moment. Don't try to refuse it. Do you have any parting words for our audience?

Mark Kohler 38:47
Don't give up no matter what. Or you go.

Andrew Stotz 38:51
Boom. And that's a wrap on another great story to help us create, grow and protect our well fellow risk takers. Let's celebrate that today. We added one more person to our mission to help 1 million people reduce risk in their lives. This is your worst podcast host Andrew Stotz saying. I'll see you on the upside.