6 World Records and Achieving Your Business Goals

In this, The Faces of Business, our guest, Mr. Biz®️, aka Ken Wentworth, Cash Flow Pro, On-Demand CFO, Author, Speaker, and Mr. Biz Radio Host, Mr. Biz Radio & Mr. Biz Solutions, shares how his approach to achieving 6 world weightlifting records has helped him and his clients achieve their business goals successfully.

In this, The Faces of Business, our guest, Mr. Biz®️, aka Ken Wentworth, Cash Flow Pro, On-Demand CFO, Author, Speaker, and Mr. Biz Radio Host, Mr. Biz Radio & Mr. Biz Solutions, shares how his approach to achieving 6 world weightlifting records has helped him and his clients achieve their business goals successfully.

MR Biz, aka Kent Wentworth, leveraged his experience working in finance for a Fortune 100 company to launch his successful practice of helping business owners achieve their goals. Mr. Biz also holds 6 weightlifting world records. The process for achieving these records showed Mr. Biz the necessary building blocks to attain extreme goals, author multiple books, build a substantial social media following, host a successful, long-running radio show, develop systems for business and personal development, and change clients’ lives with coaching that helps them achieve their business and life goals.

Damon is happy to host Ken on this Livestream. Both of them already acknowledge that time flies like an arrow. Ken is amazed that he’s been hosting Mr. Biz Radio for six years.

Download our free business valuation guide here to understand more about business valuations and view our business valuation FAQs to answer the most common valuation questions.

Ken reveals that he worked at J.P. Morgan for 22 years. He got promoted to the top 3%. Even the company was about to promote him to the top 1%. He gives two reasons for quitting the company. Firstly, Ken always wanted to start his business. He took his chances. Secondly, he is based in Columbus, Ohio. This shift to a top tier could result in Ken relocating to either New York City or London.

Although he was going to start a business, as he confesses, Ken had no idea what he would do. “I’m going to do something I have no idea I’m going to do.” Similarly, he had no about “fractional CFO.” He hired a mentor to train him. However, when he got his first client, he ran to David, his mentor, and said: “David, I’m so blessed. I absolutely love what I do. It’s not a job.” To the audience’s delight, Mr. Biz enjoys his work. He screens clients and only work with people he wants to work with.

Damon says that firstly, we must have passion for work. Secondly, we must delegate the work we don’t want to do. The guest readily agrees to that. The simple, practical thing he tells people is, for one week, be very conscious. He opines that we must not do what we hate doing. Instead, we must “delegate it to someone who enjoys” it.

Do you want to know if your business is ready for your exit or what you should do to prepare? Learn this and more with our business exit assessment here.

Damon thinks that robotic process automation (RPA) has its fruits. Merely filling up Excel Sheets does not mean revenue growth. Ken adds that he preaches about RPA, especially when someone is a solopreneur or has a couple of employees. It helps entrepreneurs realize their goals with ease.

Damon invites Ken’s comments on being an atypical fractional CFO who is a dedicated, record-holder weightlifter simultaneously.

He answers he enjoys powerlifting. The gymnasium where he worked out was a very competitive one. There were a lot of bodybuilders and powerlifters. When a member first invited him, Ken said, he was not strong enough, nor did he want to waste their time. “I might be the wimpy guy,” he maintains.

Get the most value for your business by understanding the process and preparing for the sale with information here on our Selling a Business page.

However, he mustered courage and joined the group later. They became really good friends. Being a national and a world champion showed Ken the possibilities. He agrees with Damon that dedication, diligence, and resilience are required to achieve goals. Moreover, all these things are transferable to all other parts of our lives as entrepreneurs, husbands, fathers, and so forth.

Mr. Biz’s insight into consistency and safety in competition also extends to business. He opines that one of the secrets to career success and longevity is avoiding injuries. Ken himself received an injury to his pectoralis muscle, but fortunately, he recovered soon. He thinks that this approach applies to life and career. We must know when to drive hard and when to “pull back the reins.” Similarly, he believes that being around the successful, seeing their operations, and observing their mentality is super important. “And it helped me tremendously.”

He delves deeper into this idea and says, “when you’re around people like that, it shows you the possibilities.” However, our self-limiting beliefs turn into broad-mindedness “when we are around these super successful people.” Moreover, we have impostor syndrome that hampers our ability to attain targets. He recalls that when he started the radio show, he about these things. Furthermore, his book talks about “modeling expert behaviors.” To be successful “in whatever you’re trying to accomplish, just immerse yourself, read all their books, follow them on social media, watch their YouTube videos.” Even meeting them can bear fruits “if you can meet them in person.”

He says that not reaching the right people closes doors to opportunities. He quotes Steve Jobs saying that if we don’t ask questions out of the fear of being denied the favor, we might be at a loss.

He discloses that he became the author by dint of chance. He admits he hates “writing stuff.” He compiled some tips on cash flow and measures to improve it. When his brother saw it, he exclaimed, “it’s basically a book-like mass.” He suggested that Ken publish it. Slow and steadily, the book’s reception improved. However, a publishing company in the UK posted an article on top cash flow books. The compiler of the list included Ken’s book in it. So suddenly, he got an email stating that the book was out on Amazon. In subsequent months, Amazon sold 2000 copies. The book rose to fame effortlessly.

He wrote a second book, a business guide, based on his ideas and experiences. Its subject matter is the pathway to profits.

He shares his writing hack with Damon. “I hate to write. I do audio.” He records himself and sends it to an AI transcription service. Then he edits the received document. He still finds writing very tedious.

Although Ken does not like “writing stuff,” writing books proved to be a good exercise. When he contemplated his retrospective life, he realized the magnitude of his accomplishments. “It gave me a sense of pride.”

While talking about his schedule and format of Mr. Biz Radio, Ken adds that initially, they released one show a week. Later, they started doing the audio with a video. They built the studio last December to create a streaming channel. This channel streams various podcasts and radio platforms with different internet radio stations.

Ken intends to start a foundation in his wife’s name. It is “one of my big goals.” He has not specified a cause yet. He is considering animal rights, the military, and veterans. “Two or three things we’ll focus on.”

The guest notes that today people are worried about the recession. He did a show about this, probably, in June. In it, he claimed, “we’re in a recession.” We already had one-quarter of a negative number. Likewise, we’re so deep in the negative in this quarter that the situation will not improve in the next two weeks. However, he views recession as a “time of opportunity.” He argues that all these big businesses were created during economic downturns or recessions in the past. It’s not by accident. JP Morgan advantaged themselves with “a ton of opportunities” when the economic downturn and recession set in 2008. They could buy Washington Mutual and Bear Stearns at “distressed prices.” A similar thing happened during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many businesses could not survive. Big corporations ensured growth by acquisition. They acquired some erstwhile successful companies.

Damon suggests that recession could only serve global enterprises. For the local ones, there is unemployment. “We hear layoffs and other things.”

Ken believes that if an enterprise is global, it does not mean it is the best. However, he quotes Grant Cardone, who preaches that the best-known product beats the best product every time. “McDonald’s is known globally.” Yet, they do not have the best food.

At the end of the discussion, Damon asks Ken how the latter can be reached. “If you Google, Mr. Biz, you’ll find me.” Furthermore, his team is active on all social media platforms.

The Faces of Business

Learn about the strategies that have allowed other business owners to overcome all kinds of adversities and limitations to achieve their business goals successfully.

All The Faces of Business episodes are

 

Check out this episode on LinkedIn
The Faces of Business on Twitter:
Listen to this episode of The Faces of Business on these podcast channels

ABOUT EXIT YOUR WAY®

Exit Your Way® provides a structured process and skilled resources to grow business value and allow business owners to leave with 2X+ more money when they are ready.

You can find more information about the Exit Your Way® process and our team on our website.

You can contact us by phone:  822-BIZ-EXIT (249-3948)   Or by Email:  info@exityourway.us

Find us on LinkedIn:  Damon PistulkaAndrew Cross

Find our Companies on LinkedIn: Exit Your Way®,  Cross Northwest Mergers & Acquisitions, Bowman digital Media 

Follow Us on Twitter: @dpistulka  @exityourway

Visit our YouTube Channel: Exit Your Way®

Service Professionals Network:  Damon PistulkaAndrew Cross

Facebook:  Exit Your Way® Cross Northwest Mergers & Acquisitions

Other websites to check out:  Cross Northwest Mergers & AcquisitionsDamon PistulkaIra BowmanService Professionals Network (SPN)Fangled TechnologiesB2B TailDenver Consulting FirmWarren ResearchStellar Insight, Now CFO, Excel Management Systems  & Project Help You Grow

43:36

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

people, business, book, recession, damon, reached, couple, talk, fractional, goals, absolutely, clients, powerlifting, delegate, years, hear, started, buy, helped, big

SPEAKERS

Ken Wentworth, Damon Pistulka

 

Damon Pistulka  00:01

All right, everyone, welcome once again to the faces of business. I’m your host, Damon Pistulka. With me today, I’m actually nervous today because I have someone here who is a consummate professional. Someone I highly respect. Today we’re talking with Mr. Biz, also known as can’t win or can Wentworth thanks for being here today, man?

 

Ken Wentworth  00:27

Yeah, absolutely. Damon, I’m happy to be here. I’m honored to be back on the show. I know it’s been. Gosh, it’s been probably a couple years. I think I was on

 

Damon Pistulka  00:34

the boy. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it was it was early on. And we were talking I was like, Man, this guy is cool. And then we then we did a little work back when clubhouse was going. Yeah. And that was, that was a lot of fun. And now you we’re going to talk a little bit about new book you just just came out with earlier there.

Don’t fake the fog, some of the other stuff you’re doing. I mean, let’s just talk. Let’s just jump right in. Let’s start with your background. Because you’ve been on radio. You’ve been with Mr. Biz, with Mr. Biz radio for six years, man, what? I mean, it’s six years, it seems like it’s been that long for you.

 

Ken Wentworth  01:12

It honestly doesn’t. It’s funny, it’s been, it seems like, you know, a year, two years, something like that. It doesn’t seem like it’s been six years. And I just hit me that it had been that long. Recently, when I had a guest on the show. And we got done with the show. And my producer was on as well. And the person was ranting and raving about how great it was and experience and everything. And my producer said, Well, you think we know what the hell we’re doing? It’s been six years now. And I was like six years?

 

Damon Pistulka  01:43

I know, I know. It’s something, it’s something. But let’s let’s talk a little bit about bought your background, can you because you have a pretty unique background.

And you know, you’re helping people as a fractional COO, Coach leadership, different things like that. And you know, because not many people doing what you’re doing, have six world records. So let’s talk a bit about your background and kind of how you got into what you’re doing today. And then then we’re going to talk a little bit about your world records, and how that ties into some other things.

 

Ken Wentworth  02:17

Yeah, so I worked in the corporate world, I worked at JPMorgan for 20, I think 22 years, I think I was there. Got up to the top 3%. And the company was in the process of being promoted the top 1% I always wanted to do my own thing.

And it just, it kind of hit me it was really ironic, when I’m going to you know, get this great promotion, and whatever. And I remember having a conversation with my wife, I was in New York, I got to the airport. And I said, Yeah, you know, I’m gonna get promoted, you know, top 1% Blah, blah, blah. And she said, Oh, my gosh, your hard work, it’s great, you know, whatever.

And I said, and I’m gonna leave. And she goes, and there’s a pause, and she goes, Oh, your planes taken off, you gotta, you gotta go. And I’m like, No, I’m going to, I’m going to quit, I’m going to resign. And there’s a long pause. And she said, Did you get to the airport early? Have you been drinking? That’s awesome. And I said, No. And I explained it to her once I got home. And then next time I was back in New York is when I told my boss, I was going to resign.

And I said, you know, I could kind of see the writing on the wall, especially at that level. You know, I’m based in Columbus, Ohio, and JP Morgan has 20,000 employees here. But at that level, there’s maybe 15 positions in Columbus and a lot of it based not my wheelhouse. And I knew that they were going to put a lot of pressure on me to relocate to either New York City or London. And we’ve got kids and I really didn’t want to go through all that.

And when I explained that to my to my boss, and he said, Yeah, you’re I mean, you’re right, the expectation would be probably within three or so years that you’ll you’ll need to relocate, to continue progressing your career, etc. And so he said, if that’s if that’s a deal breaker for you, then you’re probably making the right decision. He goes, so So what are you going to do next? I mean, where are you going to go? And I’m like, I have no idea.

He’s like, wait a minute, what? You have no idea I go, I’m going to start a business. I’m going to do something I have no idea I’m gonna do and he’s like, What? Are you kidding me? And I just kind of figured it out along the way, you know, connected with a mentor who helped me help guide me. I didn’t even know that you know, what a fractional CFO was I’d never even heard because I’ve been the corporate world forever. And once he explained it to me, I’m like, Yeah, that sounds pretty cool.

And I got my first client and was off and running. And I gotta tell you, David, I’m so blessed. Like i i absolutely love what I do. It’s not work. I enjoy someone just asked me the other day and I actually felt embarrassed afterwards. They’re like what’s what’s your favorite hobby? And I go I mean, I guess probably a lot of people call it work like live but it’s not but it’s my job is like a what I get to do for a living is almost like a fun hobby for me because I enjoy it. Yeah.

And of course, there’s some aspects of it that are a pain in my neck. But I figured out that quickly too. I screen clients, I only work with people I want to work with, that I gel with and I sync with and all that. And then the crap that I don’t like to do, I delegate it, you know, and get that stuff off my plate. And so I don’t have to worry about that. So I just, I’m excited. I’m so blessed to be able to do what I do. And I just absolutely freakin love

 

Damon Pistulka  05:25

Yeah, well, I knew you’d say a couple of things there. I think that, you know, your clients, my clients, business owners and and practitioners in general.

And you really need to understand, if you don’t love it, to the point that it’s almost like a hobby to you, you might want to try to find something else to do or go work for somebody, because it’s going to take that kind of passion to do what you need to do to really get to the level you want to get to. And, and the second thing you said is, if you don’t like it, but it’s necessary, delegate it, get somebody else to do it.

 

Ken Wentworth  06:02

Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, you know, I know even as I remember talking about this in some of our Clubhouse rooms way back is, you know, people would and people ask me all the time, what should we do, how I use a VA, like if I get a VA or I have an actual admin assistant, you know, what I do, and literally, the simple practical thing I tell people, is for one week, be very conscious. Anything that you attach to you have to do that makes you roll your eyes or sigh, write it down and delegate, because those are things you don’t like to do.

And you know what, I think I’m like most people, Damon, the things I don’t like to do, I will procrastinate the crap out of them. And when I do, I’m probably not gonna do a great job, because I just want to get it done. I hate it, I don’t want to do it. And so, you know, delegating it, someone who enjoys that, whatever it is, and they’re going to kick butt at it, they’re gonna do it much more efficiently. I mean, it just just makes too much sense not to do that.

 

Damon Pistulka  06:53

Well, yeah. And the other thing is, too, and this is a phrase that you do when they you use, and I’ve, I’ve used it, I’ve stole it and used it a lot is you talk about revenue producing activities, right. And if I’m, whatever it is filling out paperwork right now for report, doing some Excel spreadsheet work, that’s not a revenue producing activity. If I’m the one that’s got to produce the revenue, you need to be hitting your RPAS hard every every day to meet the goals that you want to meet. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. I

 

Ken Wentworth  07:25

mean, I preach about RPAS. You know, it’s especially, you know, if you’re a solopreneur, or even just have a couple employees, and you’re, you’re trying to DIY, you’re bootstrapping, and you’re trying to do all this stuff yourself. And even some people that are seasoned, you know, have larger businesses get caught up in that stuff, too, is like, man, you really have to focus on the RPA is the things that really move the needle for your business that you can drive the most effective and get rid of the other stuff.

 

Damon Pistulka  07:52

Yeah, that’s for sure. So now, when it comes to the world of fractional CFOs, I’ve got to ask, how many other fractional CFOs? Do you know that have any world records?

 

Ken Wentworth  08:09

Ah, I don’t know of any. I’m sure there’s some out there, but I don’t know. I haven’t met him yet. But

 

Damon Pistulka  08:17

yeah. So when, when when we think of fractional CFOs. We don’t think of people with world records in weightlifting. So let’s talk a little bit about that. Because that’s that A is a little bit outside the world of being a fractional CFO, but B is something takes a lot of hard work and dedication. And we’ll talk about that and how that kind of helped you throughout your career.

 

Ken Wentworth  08:44

Yeah, I just got into, you know, I really, really enjoy weight training and everything. And I got into it, and I was the gym rat, I was always in the gym. And the gym I was at, you know, had is a very competitive gym, a lot of bodybuilders and all seven and there was a group of power lifters.

And one of them was really successful. And he invited me to train with the group. And I remember when he first invited me, I said, Honestly, I am not strong enough to be I don’t want to waste your time, like I might be the wimpy, wimpy guy. And I set a goal for myself to get to before I would join that group.

And I hit that goal. And then I joined the group and it just kind of took off from there. And he and I became really good friends. He at the time was a world champion. So it’s the same thing is to hold Jim Ron, the five people you’re around.

If I would have been in any other gym, Damon and it would have been just a regular gym and I would have never met that guy. I probably would have never pursued it because I wouldn’t even think it was possible. Yeah, being around someone like him who was super accomplished in the sport, and had been there done that. It it showed me the possibilities and you know, you start to think well, you know if he can do it, why can’t I do it?

And as I got stronger and stronger and I started to compete at the national level, and then I won the Nationals and I was getting World Championships and One knows, and then it’s like, well, what are you what’s after that? You know, I’ve won a handful World Championships. And it’s like, well, I want to keep going, how do I keep progressing? Well, the next thing is, let’s, let’s watch the world record. Well, let’s let’s look at it and see what it can be.

And, you know, find out what the world record is reverse engineer the process and, and work like heck to get there. And, you know, so much of what’s come from that has helped me in my personal life and my career, you know, as you mentioned, the dedication, the diligence, the resiliency, that’s required. All of those things are transferable to all other parts of your, your, your, you know, you’re live your life as an entrepreneur as a as a as a husband, as a father, all those things.

 

Damon Pistulka  10:42

Yeah, yeah, no doubt. So from the time you started lifting, how long was it before you set a world record?

 

Ken Wentworth  10:52

Oh, man. I mean, I guess really, I did, I did some weightlifting in high school. Just kind of dabbled in it. But when, from when I got serious. So I’ll tell you this much from the first time I benchpress, 275 pounds that day. I said I was in that group. And I told those guys, I’m going to benchpress 500 pounds.

And even in that group of guys that are you know, we’re, they’re like, you might want to pump the brakes on that you got a little euphoria going through you because you’re happy about this, you know, 275 but 500. That’s a whole nother thing. And I said, I’ll figure it out. So from 275 to 500, it took me seven years.

 

Damon Pistulka  11:34

Yeah. Yeah. Because it’s I mean, that is a feat. That is a feat where you were at 275 is where I went out. That’s, that’s where I went out. And, you know, but seven years of training, it’s and when you were doing that, I have to imagine there’s some weeks where you make zero progress some months where you make what seems like zero progress. But it’s about the process. It’s about continuing the work. And then you see gains do explain that

 

Ken Wentworth  12:06

a little bit. Yeah, you know, I figured out really quickly, Damon that especially in the sport of powerlifting, the guys who were successful and had any longevity in their career, the absolute 1,000% reason why is avoiding injuries. Now, okay, you also have to push yourself. So it’s that fine line between really driving yourself hard, but not too hard to where you’re, you know, you’re getting an injury.

You know, I was fortunate I really only had one major injury, I tore my pec, which, obviously for powerlifting was terrible. But yeah, you know, that whole process, when you think about, you’re talking about, you know, the progress and slow progress, and sometimes not making it when you’re injured, and you can’t train at all, you’re not making progress, you’re going down, your strength is plummeting, like crazy.

And then it takes you how long just to get back to where you were. So I figured that out really quickly, like, balancing that. And again, it’s applicable to life and your career like that balance of, of driving hard. But also knowing when to pull back the reins a little bit and having that discipline to do that.

You know, just knowing when to push when not to push, knowing your body, well, things like that. That but that was a big reason. I mean, you see a lot of guys in powerlifting that sort of come out of nowhere, like a mediocre and they do really well and then all sudden you’re like what happened to that guy like, in well, he blew out his back.

And he’s he’s done like, not now the guys barely can walk and he’s you know, 35 years old or something. It’s like holy crap, and I didn’t want to be that person. So that again, it was being around those people. You know, I at one point, I talked about it in the book, even I found a guy that was a world champion that was an Iowa and like said, I’m based in Columbus, I reached out to guy I didn’t know him from Adam.

And I said, Hey, I want to basically, I wanted to live in Iowa, and follow you around for a week. And he was like, stalker, what, hello, what are you talking about? And I said, Well, I want to learn from you. I want to see everything you do. I want to I will follow you around, just take notes like a little nerd all day. Because I wanted to be around people that were that successful and see how they operate and see their mentality and things like that. Super, super important. And it helped me tremendously.

 

Damon Pistulka  14:20

Yeah, yeah. So this is a great point, because you’ve done a very good job of this over your career. I mean, you put yourself in the, in the presence of of high achievers, there’s no doubt about it. I mean, explain what that’s really meant to you in business because I think you’ve done some of the same things in business, correct?

 

Ken Wentworth  14:44

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, again, it’s I think it really goes back to Damon is when you’re around people like that. And it shows you the possibilities, right. If you have any self limiting beliefs in your head, when you’re around someone and you You you around these super successful people and you go in the back of your mind, no disrespect to those people, but you go, you know what if this person could do it, I can do it too, you know, like I can apply myself just like this person has.

And that’s the biggest thing. I think that people overall. And I do it sometimes myself too is we limit ourselves because we don’t, we don’t really think that we can do it, we have impostor syndrome, like, oh my gosh, I could never do that, or whatever.

That’s crap. I mean, and you get around people like that, and I tried to do it in everything I did. When I started the radio show. You know, I’m like, I, that’s one of the things I talked about in the book is modeling expert behaviors, getting around people that have been there done that are successful in whatever you’re trying to accomplish.

And just immerse yourself, read all their books, follow them on social media, watch their YouTube videos, if you can meet them in person, you know, maybe not be a stalker, you know, move to Iowa for a week and fall guy around like I did, but like Matt, you know, things like that. I did. When I was learning, I was competing in powerlifting, how to cut weight.

I bought four books on cutting weight. One of them really resonated with me. And I just reached out to the author didn’t know the guy from Adam reached out to him and said, I loved your book. I’d love to pick your brand. I got on the phone with a guy. Um, I was, I don’t know, 20 years ago. That guy’s one of my top 10 friends still to this day.

 

Damon Pistulka  16:19

Oh, man. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Well, you know, you’re very, you make a good point, too. Because in a lot of cases, these people that are very successful, if you’re sincere, they like to help people.

 

Ken Wentworth  16:37

Absolutely, yeah. And I think that’s another thing that people fear, like, oh, well, so and so they would never, you know, connect with me, or they would never respond to me or whatever. And that’s, you know, one of my favorite quotes of all time, Steve Jobs, if you don’t ask the answers always no. I reached out to that author. The worst thing happens is he says, No, or he just doesn’t respond. Right.

When I reached out to the guy in Iowa, he could have said, You’re crazy. Leave me alone, right? But if I didn’t ask, the answer will always be No. And so I think that’s another thing too, is don’t be afraid to reach out to those things. When I when I started the radio show, and I reached out to for something like, the first show I did was so bad, unbelievably awful. And I told my wife, I said, I have to figure this out.

Because I don’t want to torture someone who would happen upon the show and listen to it because it would be like nails on a chalkboard, it was so bad. I said, I gotta get better at this. Well, who’s really good at this? I found four nationally, syndicated talk shows, been there done that, obviously successful. And I’ve just reached out to all four of them. I didn’t know any of them.

And I connected with three of them and and up on the phone with two of them. And same thing they helped me. They were willing. And these are names you wrote all know, they helped me they were willing to help me. I was very respectful their time. Yes. Like they could hear the sincerity. And I really wanted to get better at this. And they were willing to help. You know, like you said, so. Man, it’s just to me during those types of things, just accelerate your path to success.

You’re gonna learn from those people that are really successful, they’re gonna steer you around some of the obstacles you would likely likely would have hit on your own. And just accelerate your path to success. Not only that, they help you and give you tips on everything. But again, it’s aspirational for you, for me to be around people like that and say, This guy is like a regular old guy. If he can be a good radio show host Why can’t I be? You know?

 

Damon Pistulka  18:29

Yeah, that’s a great, great point. So as you as you get started down the road, what really got the idea in your head to become an author?

 

Ken Wentworth  18:43

completely accidental? Yeah, it’s hilarious. So anyone who knows me, has known me for any I cannot stand writing. I hate writing stuff. I absolutely hate it. And it was completely accidental. The first book, I had been compiling tips on cashflow on being on improving cash flow. I’m coming up with these things. And I’m kind of writing down and I’ve compiled them into a document. And my brother’s like, I mean, it’s it’s basically a book like mass, it’s not really a book, you know, he’s like, No, you should publish it as a book.

He’s like, put it out there. You can be a published author. You know, if no one ever buys it, who cares? Do you least you know, I was like, oh, okay, whatever. So I did. And the book just, it was slow at first and then an author accompany in the UK was doing a book, sorry, an article on top cashflow books. And I guess the guy told me later that he bought a bunch of cashflow books and he liked mine.

So he had I forget how many books in the article and he had mine as the number one cashflow book, Oh, this guy wrote this article. I don’t know the guy I didn’t even know he wrote the article. So all of a sudden, I get this email and again, I the book is out on Amazon and you know, I’ll probably sold 10 copies or something. Yeah, a couple months, and then all sudden I get this is email from Amazon saying congratulations, your book has now sold, you know, whatever, 2000 copies in the last, you know, whatever.

And I was like I emailed him back, I’m like, You got the wrong guy. And, and then they’re like, No, you literally log into your account, you can see the sales. And so I’m trying to figure out what did I do? What did I do to cause this? You know, I wasn’t promoting the book, I wasn’t doing anything. And when I went out, looked at the sales, I saw that like, 90% of those sales came from the UK, which was even more puzzling to me like, What did I do in the UK who’s promoting me in the UK?

And a guy, one of my buddies, I was telling him the story, what, duh, he went out, Googled, and he’s found the article. And so then I reached out to the article, the author of the article, I was like, geez, you know, thanks so much. He’s like, Oh, man, I loved your book, blah, blah, blah. And so then that kind of inspired me. I’m like, well, shoot, I got other things I want to share.

And so I created the second book, and then you know, this, this most recent third one as well, but But no, my my little hack my writing hack, Damon, because as I said, I hate to write is I will I do audio? And I record myself on audio, I send it to an AI transcription service, I have them transcribe it, send it back to me. And then I edit that. Yeah. Because I, for me to sit down and just start typing.

Oh, yeah, it would never freakin happen. Absolutely never happened. I mean, it’s, it’s still tedious to do the editing piece. But the kind of the funny part about that is, you know, when I’m going to cover a topic, a topic or whatever chapter, I will literally just have a sheet of paper with the chapter title, and I’ll have like, five bullet points, and I just start talking. Yeah. And to get get the creative juices flowing or whatever.

And I make it like I’m talking to someone. And it’s funny. The second book, which is a, you know, another business book, a professional editor, I’m sorry, a reviewer came through and, you know, gave it a really good view and everything. And she said, one of the things I liked most about the book was I felt like Ken was talking to me. It wasn’t like I was being lectured to. And a lot of business books are like, sound like a lecture, right? And she said, and I’m thinking, Well, I was, you know, I was talking to you.

 

Damon Pistulka  22:13

Yeah, yeah, that’s interesting. And I know, we had talked about that before, you said, while back I did, that you use the audio method to do and I think it’s, I think it’s a great way for people to get content on, you know, typed out, at least in a rough draft format.

I mean, we use AI, transcription on so many things. Now, even if you’re doing it with a with a meeting, it’s very, very valuable, because you can get to certain points in the meeting. Remember what people said, or, or even somebody like that, but I have a couple other friends of mine. I know use it, to write blog articles and work on their books as well. And it. But the talking to you, the talking to you thing, I think is much easier for someone to convey if you’re actually using audio to go to text.

 

Ken Wentworth  23:04

Absolutely. Yeah. And I’ve gotten that comment from people, like tons of people have said, like, literally as I’m reading your book, I feel like you’re talking to me, I’m like, I kind of sort of was,

 

Damon Pistulka  23:15

yeah, yeah. So you’ve just finished have not just finished but it was like February this year. He don’t don’t fake the funk don’t make. And so he came out with another one. Tell us tell us why he came out with this one. And you think, Hey, I’ve got a good idea of it.

 

Ken Wentworth  23:33

Yeah, so this one, the first two books are both business books, as I mentioned. First one’s about cash flow. Second one’s called pathway to profits. It’s about several different aspects of business and how to optimize those parts of your business. And I was going to come out with the second sort of volume of pathway to profits, additional topics.

But this thing is don’t fake the funk thing. It just sort of happened is I was mentoring folks and was had two guys I was mentoring that had been struggling trying to achieve goals stagnated, just not making progress. And so this is both within two or three weeks of each other. And I said, Well, here’s the kind of process I take.

And I never formalize this process or anything. It’s just in my head, you know, how I approach things. And so the guy’s taking notes. And he was like, Man, this is like, like a pretty practical, simple four steps. It’s really four steps. I was like, I’ve done a lot of talking and seems like a lot more than four steps. And he’s like, No, and we kind of walk through and I’m like, Yeah, a couple of weeks later, same scenario plays out with someone different.

And he mentioned the same thing. And I’m like, maybe I’m kind of on to something here. And so I’m like, they both said, do you gotta write a book about this? You got to put this in a book or whatever. And I’m like, Ah, so again, just happenstance. A couple weeks later, a guy reaches out to me. He wanted me to come speak to his group for the end of the year party, and I said, Well, he goes what you know, I said, what you want to talk about?

He goes, Well, it’s talking about cash flow. And I’m like, people come into this. It’s kind of like a celebration. They don’t want to hear me talk about business crap. Like I said, How about let me let me talk about this new thing that I’m kind of kicking around and developing, and it’s how to achieve, like, goals that you never even thought you were capable of doing.

And he was like, oh, man, I’d be perfect. It’s the end of the year to give people you know, a jump shot into the next year. And as they’re setting goals for the following year. And so I, I got up and spoke about that. And literally, afterwards, people come up to me, and they’re like, where’s the book about this? Do you know, you got to have a book, I’m like, No, I know that, like, you got to write a book. And so I kind of expedited this book in front of the next business book.

And, you know, the response from it has been just absolutely crazy, like people really is resonated with a lot of people. And it’s applicable to everything. So it’s a much wider audience, you can apply it to any goals you have, it could be a weight loss goal, it could be a relationship goal, it could be a business goal, sports goal, whatever, you can apply this, you know, this smack the SMA C is or the four letters of it, and achieve like, just crazy stuff.

And I give plenty of examples in the book of, you know, look at me, I’m just a regular guy, and you know, some of the things that I’ve been fortunate enough to be able to accomplish. It’s, you know, you look back on, you’re like, holy crap, how can I do that?

 

Damon Pistulka  26:20

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that’s cool. So what are what is the one or two main things you learned as writing the book as you go? Oh, my, I didn’t realize that, but it’s pretty cool.

 

Ken Wentworth  26:34

You know, honestly, especially with this book. It really, as I was writing it, and putting examples of things in, I’ve never, you know, rarely do you ever sit back and smell the roses, right? We’re all guilty of not doing that enough, right.

But as I’m writing these things, and giving examples, first of all, some of the stories in there, I were like, Oh, my gosh, I can’t believe I freaking did that, you know, extreme things of that I did in order to accomplish goals or whatever. But so it was kind of funny. But some of the other things was that really created this sort of, in my head of like, holy crap, you know, I’ve been pretty fortunate to be able to do some pretty cool stuff.

And just never really kind of realized, you know, the magnitude or the volume of all this, all these different things that I’ve applied this to and been able to, you know, to do all these cool things. So I think that was a big thing for me. And it gave me a, you know, kind of a sense of pride of like, gosh, I never really, again, took a step back and realize some of these things that I’ve been fortunate enough to get to experience.

 

Damon Pistulka  27:36

That’s cool. That’s cool. Because I tell you, that is one thing. If you’ve worked more than a few years, in a career or at something, you’ve forgotten a lot about what the accomplishments you’ve really made because you’re so stuck in this the recent past and today, that that occupies your mind. And when you go like you said, when you go back and look at it, you got Oh, my goodness, you know, it a brings up the crazy the crazy junkie did to get there and be you look at the magnitude of what you’ve done.

And, and it doesn’t really doesn’t matter what you do. I think everybody can do that. Oh, absolutely. And that’s, that’s cool. So as you’re as you’re going going forward now now looking forward, you’ve been you’ve been adding man, your Mr. Biz radio, how you it’s, it’s everywhere. It’s everywhere. So you’ve got how many shows you still do two shows a week? And yeah, so I do a lot of different places.

 

Ken Wentworth  28:43

Yeah, so we released one show a week. Okay, but we do the audit, we started doing the audio with a video. We’ve only done a couple videos before. I think we started doing that actually, when we built the studio. And we built the studio last December, I guess, at St. The reason we built the studio was we started a streaming channel. The minister is network. And so it’s like, well, I need content for that. So I’m nice. We’ll start double dipping with the radio show and having the video as well as the audio.

And but yeah, and then you know, the whole aspect of it on all these different internet radio stations. And then on all these all these different podcast platforms and radio platforms, it’s on and now it’s on the streaming channel as well. Yeah, it’s just been it’s been crazy. I said, I’ve been very blessed that it’s been picked up by so many different places and all that kind of stuff. And the feedback we get from the reach we get from it is is pretty incredible.

 

Damon Pistulka  29:42

Yeah, yeah, that’s cool. So as you look forward, man, you you’ve done a lot. What are some things that you go oh, man, I really want to do this.

 

Ken Wentworth  29:52

Yeah, one of my big goals. Now that I’m moving towards is my wife and I we want to start a foundation. So it In use that foundation, you know, have basically a portion of all the profits from all the different revenue streams, I have go directly into the foundation to fund it.

So that’s, that’s the next big thing. And we’re still probably a couple years at least away from that. But that’s the next kind of really big thing that I’m kind of focused on. And it’s got me driving some of these revenue streams to build them to where they can be able to, you know, fund that foundation. So that’s an X next big thing I want to I really want to push towards.

 

Damon Pistulka  30:32

Yeah, yeah. So anything in particular that you want to support with a foundation?

 

Ken Wentworth  30:39

You know, we’ve kicked around a couple of different ideas. And we haven’t really settled on anything specific yet. But, you know, we’re big animal lovers. So we talked about an animal aspect to it. You know, I’m a huge supporter of the military and veterans. And so maybe, you know, something like that, obviously, kids. So we haven’t really settled on what we’re going to do yet, in particular, but and we may, maybe we’ll have different aspects of it in support a couple of different things, but it’ll probably be one of those, you know, two or three things we’ll focus on. Awesome.

 

Damon Pistulka  31:13

Awesome. So as you’re out there, helping people with their businesses, what are you what are you hearing in the business community? What are the things that people are worrying about thinking about today?

 

Ken Wentworth  31:25

You know, the big are right, recession? You know, I just did, I did a actually I did a show about this, like, gosh, I’m trying to think it was probably been about three months ago, I think, was in June. And I said back in June, you know, they hadn’t officially said anything. I’m like, we’re in. So just, they haven’t officially announced that yet. It’s not gonna officially Yeah, second quarter.

So we’re in a recession, we already had one quarter of a negative number, we’re so deep in the negative in this quarter, we’re not going to jump out in the next two weeks before the end of the quarter. However, what I feel like and what I did in this video, and it actually took off, and I think, because people it was, I think it was a little bit.

People either loved it or hated it. As I said, recession is not a recession is time of opportunity. Yeah, you got to stop looking at it in the other way of crawling into a ball in the fetal position and saying, Oh, my gosh, I gotta, you know, if you if you are, you know, if your business is barely surviving, then yeah, you need to do some of that, of course. But, you know, I talk about all these businesses that were created during economic downturns or recessions in the past. It’s not by accident.

You know, and I learned a lot of this too, when I worked at JP Morgan, as we build a strong balance sheet at JP Morgan. And when the economic downturn and recession set or hit in 2008 2009, because we were fortified and prepared for that. It created a ton of opportunity for JP Morgan, to be able to buy Washington Mutual to be able to buy Bear Stearns at distressed prices. It happened during COVID to my clients, we were prepared.

So it’s funny, I looked like no Chicago, it was actually it was semi planned to kind of dumb luck is I started preparing my clients in June of 2019. So there’s an economic downturn coming. And I think the soonest that will begin as July of 2020. So I want to make sure we’re prepared. So when that downturn happens, we are in a position to be able to be opportunistic, well then COVID hits in March, they just go in the crapper. Right?

And so my clients are like, Oh my gosh, she, I’m like, I didn’t predict pandemic, okay, I was thinking, you know, recession, etc. But, you know, during COVID, to two of my clients, their competitors didn’t make it through COVID. Yeah. And they’re going out of business. And so some people look at that. And they say, well, that’s kind of, you know, it’s kind of shady, you’re like taking advantage of situations like No, no, again, wrong mindset.

If we didn’t have the wherewithal to do that, those businesses would have gone under the impact on all the families, all the people lose their jobs, all the owner, the owners, family, all that stuff, we were able to come in, by take the owner out right by him, get him out, and he’s cool. We need new resources. Now we’re able to pull those people in, they didn’t lose their jobs, you know, all that kind of stuff, and grow our business.

And then when we got out of it kind of got kicked out of the pandemic, those two businesses like just rocket ship, you know, Dalkey went up because they had all this additional market share that they gain from that and being able to buy assets, you know, to both have more service businesses, so they need trucks on the road. Well as business going out, they have trucks, and literally the owners are like, look, just just I just went out of business, you know.

So, I think going into recession, having the right mindset that it’s not time to curl into a ball and you know, batten down the hatches unnecessarily unless you’re in a really bad financial situation. ation, it’s a time to really look to double down. Because guess what your competitors won’t. Some of your competitors make up the numbers demons, you say your competitors are spending 10 grand a month in marketing, and they go, Oh my gosh, recession.

We’re gonna chop 80% off, we’re gonna spend 2000. Well, I want to take money from 10 to 20. Yeah, because when you see someone who’s marketing and say it’s a local business in your area or something, and you regularly hear radio ads, or you see billboards or whatever form of advertising, and then all of a sudden during a recession, especially, you don’t hear from them anymore, you automatically think they must have done a business.

Well, no, they just, they just retreated. And now that’s an opportunity for you, if your competitor to seize that market share, like look fine, I’ll double down, I got ads that are working, I’m advertising this work, and let’s go, you want to you want to, you know, you want to retreat, that’s fine. I’m charging ahead. And, you know, seizing market share as as as applicable in that situation.

 

Damon Pistulka  36:00

It’s funny that you did talk about that now in terms of recession, because we do we do some of our work is growth by acquisition. You know, we’ve always for years done organic and, and growth acquisition, we don’t talk about it nearly enough.

But that is our most popular thing we’re doing with people right now is, is buying other companies. And it’s it is a great way to like you said gain market share, gain employees gain new capabilities. Go a little more vertical in your industry. And, and like you said, the geography too, if you’re if you’re geography constrained, or you want just bigger market share in where you’re at, it’s it definitely helps.

 

Ken Wentworth  36:44

Yeah, yeah. It’s, it’s so much of, you know, we, you kind of get, I don’t say, program is too strong of a word, but you just get used to like, oh, recession, it’s time to, like, shrink. And it’s like, oh, man, I want to I want to change people’s thinking around that to say, no, it’s time for expansion, like there’s opportunities out there to be able to expand and or create new businesses.

Right, you know, again, there’s so many different businesses that were started during a recession or some form of economic downturn, that are, you know, global businesses now, and huge businesses. So, you know, think, think, from an abundance perspective, not from a scarcity perspective.

 

Damon Pistulka  37:24

Well, and it’s just that last statement is probably one of the most poignant in the last couple of minutes, because there is enough business out there for you. You just don’t have enough people that know about you what you do and trust you or know you well enough to do it. And especially in today’s economy, where, where a lot of things are global, or at least regional, that they can do this with.

 

Ken Wentworth  37:49

Yeah, you know, anyone is familiar with Grant Cardone, one of his, you know, one of the big things he preaches about is the best known product, beats the best product every time he said, you know, don’t take that the wrong way. I don’t mean that put out a crappy product. That’s not the point. But he said, if you have the best product in the whole world, but to your point, Daymond no one knows about it, they’re never gonna You can’t help them.

If I can help business owners, they don’t know about me, this, this hit me during COVID When I see all these businesses failing, and I’m thinking you know what, this is some of those are my fault. Now, it may sound silly to some people, but I look at it. If those people knew me, and said, Hey, can can you please help me I’m gonna go under, I can maybe help them survive, right?

But they didn’t know me. So they didn’t know about me, so I couldn’t help them. And so, you know, thinking about it from that perspective. You know, a silly example that I always use I like to use is McDonald’s. Right. McDonald’s is known globally. Is it because they have the best food? Literally not. Right. They don’t have the best best product, right? Yeah. Best known and well known, super popular and super, do well and all that stuff.

Because they’re the best known how much does I have no idea what the answer is, but what do you think, you know, McDonald’s spends in marketing every year, and sponsorships and all that kind of stuff. They’re the best known and they’re everywhere. That certainly doesn’t hurt. But you know, there could be Damon and Ken’s burger shop and our burgers would kill McDonald’s burgers, but no one knows about us so we’ll never be McDonald’s you

 

Damon Pistulka  39:23

know? Yeah, we’re two mile radius and they’re global. Yeah. Yeah, I think that’s a great that’s a great point you know and the recession is I mean it’s real right there’s there’s there it’s It’s weird though it seems weird to me because we still have the the unemployment hard time finding people but yet we we hear layoffs and other things. What what, give me your thoughts on that. You know, it’s

 

Ken Wentworth  39:52

a puzzle, after puzzle. All of my clients in every type of industry Each and every geography, it’s not even geography specific. It’s not industry specific. I have trouble finding good resources. And is it? I don’t get it, like you said, with the unemployment, where it is.

And, you know, you had the great resignation during COVID. And all these people, where are these people working now, like when you know, unemployment, the numbers keep coming in, you know, everyone keeps waiting for that number to like, skyrocket, and it just hasn’t, and so that the yin and yang just doesn’t make sense this at all.

And again, we’ve I’m experiencing it, everyone, we’re trying all sorts of different creative ways of trying to attract good employees. And again, a lot of that is it’s not about money all the time. And I think that’s another mistake that employers use is I think it’s always about money, but it’s kind of a whole nother topic.

But, you know, it’s, it’s puzzling to me, it really is puzzling to me. And I understand some of the, you know, the entry level jobs, I understand some of the, you know, the the aspects of that, but, you know, when you get higher up and, and, and you’re talking about seasoned people and experienced people, it just doesn’t make a lot of sense, you know, just, you know, one plus one is not equaling two right now, and I didn’t, you know,

 

Damon Pistulka  41:13

yeah, I was hoping it wasn’t just me. So I’m gonna, because it’s hard to understand, really, you know, because, on one hand, you see, a lot of a lot of industries are having trouble. But on the other hand, you have so many people that can’t find the people they need, or the resources they need and, and do that.

So. Yeah, interesting stuff there. Well, Ken, it’s been awesome talking with you. Because I think, you know, you bring so much to what you do your passion, you know that. And from from the, the books you write to your Mr. Vis radio, to all the stuff you do, I’m just really appreciative to be able to know you, call you a friend and to be able to talk with you like this once in a while.

 

Ken Wentworth  42:07

Absolutely, man, the feeling’s mutual. When I know when we connected a couple of years ago, and then we shared lots of time on clubhouse together. And, you know, I really got to know you a lot better during that time. And between me and you and Ricky and a couple other folks that were in there with us. You know, that puzzled me too, by the way, I thought, man, we’re killing it.

We’re like, do all this great stuff. And, but it was a lot of fun. I really enjoyed that. And I said, I got to know you a lot better than two as well. And really appreciate that time. And always, always appreciated that to spend some time with you and talk with you. And same same as well, because consider your friend and loved seeing all the stuff you’re doing online and keeping track of you there as

 

Damon Pistulka  42:47

well. All right, well, well, Mr. Biz, how do people get a hold of you if they want to talk with you about so?

 

Ken Wentworth  42:55

Honestly, if you Google, Mr. Biz, you’ll find me. I’m on all the social media platforms. We share stuff on all the platforms on a regular basis. Mr. Beast solutions is our primary website. You can find all the different things we’re doing there as well. But yeah, reach out, man. If you don’t ask the answers. Always know, right?

 

Damon Pistulka  43:17

Yeah, that’s for sure. Well, thanks, everyone for listening today. Thanks so much for being here today, Mr. Biz. Appreciate it. And we’ll be back again later this week with another guest on the face of the business. hang around for a moment, Ken and we’ll wrap up. All right, thanks, Damon.

Schedule a call to discuss your business goals and answer your questions on growing business value, preparing for sale or selling your business.

Check Out Posts Talking About Sales.

Related content

These posts may also interest you

The Faces of Business Live Schedule

The Faces of business Livestream / Podcast episodes are conversations with interesting people sharing life and business experiences to entertain, engage, build community, & help others succeed.

Putting Your Soul Back into Your Work

In this episode of The Faces of Business, Cari Jacobs-Crovetto, executive coach, and the mind behind The Force Majeure / Cari Jacobs-Crovetto discusses how she helps professionals reconnect with their true selves to rediscover who they are and lead more meaningful lives.

Stand out by Writing Your Own Book

In this episode of The Faces of Business, Michael Levin, the visionary behind the Michael Levin Writing Experience and New York Times bestselling author shares how writing your own book can help you stand out, demonstrate thought leadership, and help you break free of the commodity trap.