Ken “Mr.Biz” Wentworth: [00:00:00] If people don’t know about you, and don’t know about your skill set, and how you can help them, you will never be able to help them. You could be the best fill in the blank there is in the world, but if no one knows about it, you can’t help them.

Peter Margaritis: [00:00:18] Welcome to Change Your Mindset Podcast, formerly known as Improv is No Joke, where it’s all about believing that strong communication skills are the best way in delivering your technical accounting knowledge and growing your business. An effective way of building stronger communication skills is by embracing the principles of applied improvization.

Peter Margaritis: [00:00:39] Your host is Peter Margaritis, CPA, a.k.a. The Accidental Accountant, and he will interview financial professionals and business leaders to find their secret in building stronger relationships with their clients, customers, associates and peers, all the while growing their businesses. So, let’s start the show.

Peter Margaritis: [00:01:03] Welcome to Episode 42. And my guest today is Ken “Mr. Biz” Wentworth. Ken developed expertise during 20 plus years in leadership positions while rising to the top 3% at a Fortune 15 company. Ken is the author of two bestselling business books – Pathway to Profits, which this book made it to number one, and How To Be A Cash Flow Pro, that has helped thousands of business owners achieve optimal cash flow. He is regularly quoted as a business expert in the media, including Forbes, American Express, Fast Company Magazine, Business News Daily, and Columbus CEO Magazine among others. He’s the host of a successful radio show, B2B Radio, which focuses on helping business owners. Finally, he has broken—hold on for this folks – he has broken six world records in the sport of drug-free powerlifting.

Peter Margaritis: [00:02:05] I was interviewed by Ken on his radio show, B2B Radio. And the episode can be found at www.mrbizsolutions.com/b2b-radio. We hit it off so well on his show, I asked him to be a guest on my podcast, and we recorded that episode three days later. Ken is a very interesting man, who is a true entrepreneur, first and foremost, and a business advisor, which is a very close second. Our conversations cover these two characteristics from a variety of angles. And you can learn more about Ken by go to his website, www.mrbizsolutions.com. Now, during our conversations, after we ended, we both agreed that we would be frequent guests on each other’s podcast/radio show. And I’m looking forward forward to my next appearance on his.

Peter Margaritis: [00:02:58] As you know by now, Change Your Mindset is part of the C-Suite Radio family a podcasts. It’s an honor and a privilege to be amongst some of the most prevalent business podcasts such as the Hero Factor with Jeffrey Hayzlitt, Amazing Business Radio with Shep Hyken, and Keep Leading my friend, Eddie Turner. You can find Change Your Mindset and many other outstanding business podcasts on C-Suite Radio by going to www.c-suiteradio.com.

Announcer: [00:03:25] This podcast is part of the C-Suite Radio Network: Turning the volume up on business.

Peter Margaritis: [00:03:32] Maybe you don’t know that I’m a Type 1 diabetic, and I do volunteer my time at the Central Ohio Diabetes Association, which is part of Life Care Alliance Organization here in Central Ohio. Here’s a short commercial about the upcoming Santa Speedo Dash. And all the proceeds from the dash go to help the Central Ohio Diabetes Association’s summer camp for children with Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes. If you’d like to register or donate, please go to www.lifecarealliance.org/programs/coda/santa-speedo-dash.

Kathy: [00:03:59] Hey, Anthony. What’s with the bells?

Anthony: [00:04:15] Hey, Kathy. I’m putting my outfit together for the Santa Speedo Dash.

Kathy: [00:04:19] Love the red leggings too. So, you’re going to run in the Santa Speedo Dash on Saturday, December 14th to support Camp Hamwi?

Anthony: [00:04:25] You betcha. Will you be there?

Kathy: [00:04:27] Of course. It’s the only day each year I’m allowed to wear a bathing suit to work.

Anthony: [00:04:31] Help us give kids with diabetes the experience of a lifetime. Proceeds from the Santa Speedo Dash support Camp Hamwi. Register or donate today at www.santaspeedodash.org.

Peter Margaritis: [00:04:39] And now a word from our sponsor.

Sponsor: [00:04:47] This episode is sponsored by Peter A. Margaritis LLC, a.k.a. The Accidental Accountant. Are you looking for a high-content and engaging speaker for your next conference? Do you want to deliver a story to stakeholders that will transform data dumping to engage in business conversations? Do you want to feel that the value a speaker provides your audience far exceeds the dollar value on their invoice? Then, book Peter for your next conference, management retreat, or workshop. Contact Peter at peter@petermargaritis.com and visit his website at www.petermargaritis.com. By the way, one of his Fortune 50 clients actually made the comment about the value he brings to your audience.

Peter Margaritis: [00:05:36] Now, let’s get to the interview with Ken “Mr. Biz” Wentworth

Peter Margaritis: [00:05:43] Hey, welcome back, everybody. And if you’re in the Central Ohio area, you may recognize this—my guest’s voice. He’s a celebrity here in the Columbus, Ohio, Central Ohio market. But actually, he’s becoming a celebrity around the country. And I’m pleased and excited to have my show Mr. Biz himself, Ken Wentworth. Ken, thank you so very much for taking time, trust me, guys, out of a very busy schedule to spend some time with me on my podcast.

Ken “Mr.Biz” Wentworth: [00:06:15] Absolutely, Peter. I’m glad to be here, and I appreciate you asked me to be on. I’m honored.

Peter Margaritis: [00:06:19] And full transparency, Ken asked me—I got on Ken’s podcast. It was—actually, recorded maybe three days ago.

Ken “Mr.Biz” Wentworth: [00:06:26] Yeah.

Peter Margaritis: [00:06:27] And we hit it off because we’re both accountants. He’s a lot better than I am, quite frankly, in accounting, but we just had this great dialogue. I said, “I want to have you on my podcast.” Absolutely. So, I sent him link to my calendar. And I looked up, it was three days later, here he is. Boom.

Ken “Mr.Biz” Wentworth: [00:06:42] Right. I’m a man of action. I’m a man of action, Peter. You know, get it done. Get it done.

Peter Margaritis: [00:06:49] So, do I call you Ken or Mr. Biz?

Ken “Mr.Biz” Wentworth: [00:06:52] It doesn’t matter. I will tell you though, I go to a lot of networking events, I don’t go to as many as I used to, but when I go to them, it will often happen that someone will come up to me and say, “Hey, Mr. Biz. I need—I’m looking for an attorney that can help me from some intellectual property. I know you know someone. You know, who should I go to?” And I’ll say, “Oh, yeah, sure. Go talk to so-and-so.” And they’ll walk away, the person I’m talking to said, “Who was that?” I’m like, “I have no idea. And I’m pretty sure they don’t even know my name is actually Ken Wentworth.” I mean, it’s becoming more and more that it’s like, “Oh, hey, there’s Mr. Biz.” So, it’s good and bad. There’s a little bit of pressure that comes along with that, right?

Peter Margaritis: [00:07:29] Right. There is, but that’s your brand, and that was very recognizable out in the marketplace. And people see it because of your high visibility in what you do. And we’ll talk more about that. But—so, for my audience, give them an idea of, I would say, what your day job is, but I know it’s so diverse. What’s your main core business that you do?

Ken “Mr.Biz” Wentworth: [00:07:50] Main core business, I’m a– you can say a bunch of different ways. You can say CFO for hire, part-time CFO, fraction CFO, or most recently, one I heard that I thought was kind of catchy is on-demand CFO.

Peter Margaritis: [00:08:01] Oh, it’s so 2019-ish.

Ken “Mr.Biz” Wentworth: [00:08:06] It is, it is. I’m liking it. It’s funny, I feel like when I say part-time CFO, it kind of sounds a little generic.

Peter Margaritis: [00:08:14] Yeah.

Ken “Mr.Biz” Wentworth: [00:08:15] If I say fractional CFO, people look at me like, “Fractional? Fractions, like what? Are you really good with numbers?” you know. So, I might start using the on-demand, but yeah.

Peter Margaritis: [00:08:24] Yeah.

Ken “Mr.Biz” Wentworth: [00:08:25] So, basically, I work with small business—small to medium-sized businesses that they may need a CFO, they may need that financial expertise. They’re really, really good at what they do. Providing services, making the widgets, whatever it might be, they’re really good at that, but maybe they need some help on the financial side and/or, you know, the business side of things, running their business more profitably, more efficiently, things like that. And that’s where I come in and help them on, you know, part-time, fractional, or on-demand basis.

Peter Margaritis: [00:08:51] On-demand basis. And when I hear fractional, I think, are you like a Jet? You know, like jet-

Ken “Mr.Biz” Wentworth: [00:08:53] Right.

Peter Margaritis: [00:08:54] NetJets?

Ken “Mr.Biz” Wentworth: [00:08:54] NetJets, yeah.

Peter Margaritis: [00:08:57] Yeah, something along those those lines. So-

Ken “Mr.Biz” Wentworth: [00:09:00] Wait, wait. Peter, that’s genius. I could call myself the Net Jets of CFOs.

Peter Margaritis: [00:09:05] There you go. You might have a little bit of a trademark issue by using NetJets, but what the heck.

Ken “Mr.Biz” Wentworth: [00:09:13] Maybe, maybe, yeah. I don’t know if Warren Buffett and the boys would like that.

Peter Margaritis: [00:09:17] So, in this world that you’re in, and talking beforehand, I mean you’re just not supplying the organization just the financial aspect of it, from the on-demand perspective. That’s part of the package, but that’s not all that you do in your role. So, explain to the audience what other services or what’s entailed with hiring you?

Ken “Mr.Biz” Wentworth: [00:09:43] Yeah. I look at it as I always say I take more of a holistic approach is, I guess, how I would play this. I look it as my job and if someone hires me is to help them run their business, again, more profitably and more efficiently. And that comes in a lot of different forms. So, I was very fortunate enough in my corporate career, let’s just call it 20 plus years, in the corporate world, of getting a whole—I mean my undergrad is in Accounting. But then, I worked in a whole bunch of different areas all under the same umbrella of JP Morgan Chase. You know, Fortune 15 company. Very fortunate. I had great time there. I did all sorts of different things. So, I’ve got a very diverse background.

Ken “Mr.Biz” Wentworth: [00:10:20] Much focus, a lot of the focus is on the financial side, of course, but—so, when I come in, for example, I had a client. This has been a couple of years back now, but I happened to be in the neighborhood, but I’ll pop in and see. You know, it was completely unannounced. I popped in, and the owner said, “Oh, it’s great to see you, but, well, you caught me in between interviews.” And I said, “Okay.” And I said, “What are you interviewing for?” And she said, “Oh, you know, my COO that I had to fire.” I said, “Yeah, okay.” And she’s like, “I had—the next one—next guy is coming in for an interview here in, you know, 10 minutes or whatever.” And I go—I look at my calendar real quick and I go, “Do you mind if I interview the person too?”

Ken “Mr.Biz” Wentworth: [00:10:55] She kind of looked at me funny. She’s like, “Yeah, I guess. Why?” I said, “Well, I’m going to be real honest with you, Brenda. You fired three COOs in the last nine months. I don’t think you’re a very good picker. So, I want to help you because I’ve interviewed literally hundreds, if not, you know, a thousand plus, people over the years. I think I’ve got a pretty good skill set with that.” I said, “Let me help you, at least, give you another opinion of that person. And hopefully, you’re a better picker this time.” And she said, “I would never have thought like a CFO does that.” I’m like, “Well, this one does. You know, this one does.”

Peter Margaritis: [00:11:31] Yeah.

Ken “Mr.Biz” Wentworth: [00:11:32] So, that’s just an example of it. It’s not just numbers and everything. I look at myself as a strategic partner. I try to help business owners get their head out of the weeds. It’s so difficult` as a small business owner or medium-sized business owner of being in the weeds of—you know, you get—you become so tactical because you don’t have a chance. You’re putting out fires left and right. You’re wearing twelve different hats. It’s very difficult to take a step back and have that strategic view.

Ken “Mr.Biz” Wentworth: [00:11:56] I’ve got a client that, literally, the only thing I do with them, I meet with them once a month for 90 minutes, and it is nothing but a brainstorming strategic session because that was the weak point for them. We started out doing a lot of things, and we’ve gotten down to that point. So, literally when, I go in there, it’s a 90-minute call. It’s the third Thursday of the month. When I walk in, he literally has a basket outside of his office. Cell phones go out there.

Peter Margaritis: [00:12:22] Right.

Ken “Mr.Biz” Wentworth: [00:12:22] Laptops get closed. There’s nothing. There’s no interruptions, no anything. And he and I sit there for 90 minutes. Sometimes, other parts, with other members of his team, depending. And we whiteboard stuff and that’s all we do is talk about strategic things. And he said, “I need that. I need someone to hold me accountable for those things,” because, again, he gets so focused-

Peter Margaritis: [00:12:38] Right.

Ken “Mr.Biz” Wentworth: [00:12:39] … and so in the weeds tactically in putting fires out and all that kind of stuff that he doesn’t have a chance to do that. So, this kind of forces him. He’s accountable. He has to do it. And I make him do it, dang it.

Peter Margaritis: [00:12:50] Yeah. I mean, that’s a service that, one, most people think, “A CFO is doing this?” But when I meet CFOs around the country, it’s like, “So, how many of you are responsible for IT?” Hands go up. “How many are you responsible or HR reports to you. So, where did you learn your HR?” “Well, it’s kind on demand and on the fly.” But over time, and unbeknownst to them, they’re developing these additional skill sets that are very vital to an organization where—and like typical public accounting, those skill sets never developed because there’s no need for it.

Ken “Mr.Biz” Wentworth: [00:13:27] Sure.

Peter Margaritis: [00:13:27] And the reason the CFO has—you know, so, how many contracts have you read in your lifetime that they say, “Could you take a look at this because we want your opinion before we take it to legal counsel,” or do we need to take to legal counsel because that could be more expensive. Bingo.

Ken “Mr.Biz” Wentworth: [00:13:46] I literally—it’s funny you say that, and I promise listeners, watchers, we did not discuss this ahead of time. I literally just did that about three—earlier this week, a couple of days ago. One of my clients, she was—we had a meeting. We’re talking about things, the owner. And she said, “Oh, I got to call my—I’ve got to call my attorney to have him take a look at this.” And I said, “Well.” And her attorney, I won’t say how much, I’ll just say it’s greater than $500 an hour. It’s a lot.

Peter Margaritis: [00:14:11] Wow!

Ken “Mr.Biz” Wentworth: [00:14:12] And I said, “Well, what is it?” And she said, “Oh, it’s just—it’s a contract,” blah, blah, blah. I said, “Well, let me take a look at it.” She hands it. It’s four sheets of paper.

Peter Margaritis: [00:14:21] Yeah.

Ken “Mr.Biz” Wentworth: [00:14:22] And one of my roles in my corporate world—in the corporate world was I would review—I was investing. So, I would review offering statements, which is a lot of legalese.

Peter Margaritis: [00:14:32] Yeah.

Ken “Mr.Biz” Wentworth: [00:14:32] And I am very detail-oriented, very specific to details. And so, I kind of have a knack for it. And I also learned it with that in that role.

Peter Margaritis: [00:14:44] Right.

Ken “Mr.Biz” Wentworth: [00:14:44] I said, “Well, let me take a look at it.” So, I sat down and looked at it, and I read line the heck out of it because there were some things that need to change to protect us and protect our interests. And she took—she got it back, and she’s like, “Yeah, you probably just saved me like $2000 by doing that.” I’m like—and she said the same thing. She’s like, “I would have never even thought. I’m glad you were here because I would’ve never even thought to ask you, could you do that?” you know.

Peter Margaritis: [00:15:07] You know, I would’ve said, “I saved you $2000, but I’m going to invoice you for $1999.”

Ken “Mr.Biz” Wentworth: [00:15:15] I’ll spot the difference. Let’s just call a thousand. Well, you know, you’re still saving a thousand, right?

Peter Margaritis: [00:15:19] Yeah.

Ken “Mr.Biz” Wentworth: [00:15:19] It’s a win/win.

Peter Margaritis: [00:15:20] Yeah. So, you’re really out to breaking the stereotype.

Ken “Mr.Biz” Wentworth: [00:15:24] I think so. Probably, yeah. Yeah. I look at—like I said, I look at it as I want to help however I can. And I’m the first to admit, like if she would have handed me that, I would have looked at it and said, “Holy crap, this is way—this is way out of my league. I can’t handle this.”

Peter Margaritis: [00:15:39] Right.

Ken “Mr.Biz” Wentworth: [00:15:39] “Let’s go get legal counsel.” So, I’m not going to try to do something I know that I’m not really confident that I could do it very effectively for my clients but yeah. And that’s what I love about my job is I don’t have to do the same thing every day. When I first started the business, I found another CFO for hire that was based in Missouri. I’m based in Ohio, and I found him on LinkedIn, and I said, “Hey, can I get like a half hour of your time, just kind of pick your brain on how you built your business?” He’d been in business for like 15 years.

Ken “Mr.Biz” Wentworth: [00:16:10] And one of the things he told me was pick one industry or one niche, and only take clients in that, in that niche or industry. And I said, “Well, why?” He said, “Well, for example, where I’m at is a lot of manufacturing. I only do manufacturing.” He said, “Ken your job is so easy.” He’s like, “I literally have an eight—I have eight steps to go into business there. I have eight steps I take. I have the same financial package that I use. I have the same KPI as I use for every business.” I said, “Well, that sounds great, Darryl, but I’ll never do that.” And he said, “Okay.” I said, “No offense, but that’s not how I roll. Like I love the variety of things.”

Ken “Mr.Biz” Wentworth: [00:16:48] And the other thing that I’m able to do because I have that variety is, for example, I implemented—I have a client who’s a chimney sweep. I implemented something, an idea that we created at a medical practice, and we applied it over to the chimney sweep industry, so much so—listen to this. This is crazy. This guy is based in Charlotte, North Carolina, and he’s kind of a name in the chimney sweep industry. And you know, you’re in the industry, and you kind of get that tunnel vision, right?

Peter Margaritis: [00:17:19] Right.

Ken “Mr.Biz” Wentworth: [00:17:19] So, I bring in this new concept, and it just—it’s wildly successful. So, he starts telling some of his colleagues in other cities around the country. Next thing you know, I’m on stage at the National Chimney Sweep Association talking about this new innovative thinking that was from a medical practice. So, if I only did chimney sweeps, I probably never would have had that idea, right? [Crosstalk].

Peter Margaritis: [00:17:39] Right, right, right.

Ken “Mr.Biz” Wentworth: [00:17:43] When he first reached out to me, he said, “Well, you probably don’t want to work because I’m just a chimney sweep.” I said, “Completely opposite. And I would love to because I’ve never worked with chimney sweep, as long as you’re okay with that.”

Peter Margaritis: [00:17:53] Yeah.

Ken “Mr.Biz” Wentworth: [00:17:53] I said, I’ve work with an HVC company, which I think is very similar. And he said, “That’s exactly what I model my business after. So, this is going to be a marriage made in heaven.” And it has been. It’s been great. So, that’s what I love about it. I don’t want cookie cutter. I don’t want, “Oh I have 10 things to do to check the box.” I am not like that, whatsoever.

Peter Margaritis: [00:18:11] Yeah. It’s cool because you can take—you know, what you did was basically take—if—you get a broader perspective on business, and that’s why you’re so successful because you can bring things from other industries to help your current client, where, if you were tunnel vision, it just couldn’t-

Ken “Mr.Biz” Wentworth: [00:18:29] Right.

Peter Margaritis: [00:18:29] And, now, you’re in group think, and we all think the same way, and we’re not gonna come up with any new ideas.

Ken “Mr.Biz” Wentworth: [00:18:34] Exactly, yeah. That’s-

Peter Margaritis: [00:18:35] Speaking of new ideas, let’s take the conversation just a little bit of a left turn. And that’s not all you do as a—I was going to say fractional, but as an on-demand CFO, you-.

Ken “Mr.Biz” Wentworth: [00:18:46] Wait, wait, wait. You said you weren’t going to talk about this during the show. I thought this was the top secret. It’s top secret.

Peter Margaritis: [00:18:55] Exactly. So, we’re going to let the world know about them, my mom and three other people. So, we mentioned that I was on your podcast that you have, and you’ve got your hands on a lot of different things. Why don’t you share the ideas the breadth of what you do outside of the on-demand CFO?

Ken “Mr.Biz” Wentworth: [00:19:17] Yeah. It’s taken on a lot of different things for me. So, I’ve written a couple of bestselling books, How to Be A Cash Flow Pro—I got to do the plug. How to Be A Cash Flow Pro. You can find them on Amazon. And the second book is called Pathway to Profits. They’ve both been, thankfully, very successful. And by the way, as I mentioned to Peter before we started, I absolutely hate to write. Isn’t that crazy when someone has written two books and is in the process of writing a third, it doesn’t. But I have a trick. I have a trick on how to do that, but anyway.

Ken “Mr.Biz” Wentworth: [00:19:48] So, the two books. I have an online course. I do lots of videos, lots of live videos, Facebook lives. I always joke and say I’m like Frankie Facebook Live. I do a lot of Facebook Lives. Covering topics that I get every day from business owners, from people that listen to the radio show, or people who comment on my videos and say, “Hey, that’s great, but what about this?” And so, I’ll do another video, and follow up, and things like that. I’ve got the podcast. That started as a—you know, I had been—a friend of a friend worked at a radio station, and they said, “Hey, we need a business expert.” And I said, “Oh, let me see if I can find one.” And they’re like, “No, dummy. I am talking about you.”

Ken “Mr.Biz” Wentworth: [00:20:27] So, I went on this, and I answered some questions, and it was a live call-in show, and there was a marketing person, there was an attorney, and there was me. So, depending on which one of the areas, you know, the question fell, you know, either one of us will take it.

Peter Margaritis: [00:20:42] Yeah.They

Ken “Mr.Biz” Wentworth: [00:20:42] They were mostly the softball questions, pretty easy stuff. And so, after the second time, they’re like, “You need to have your own show.” I’m like, “Oh, no, I don’t.” Anyway, long story short, I said, “I’ll do eight shows and see how I like it.” And about four shows in, I was like, “This is pretty cool. I enjoy it.” And I was reaching people. And I thought I want to reach and help people. I know it sounds cliche but, honestly, that’s—I love it. I love what I do. I don’t work a day. I know that’s, again, another cliché, but I honestly don’t work a day in my life since I’ve been doing this. I absolutely love it. It’s not like work for me at all.

Ken “Mr.Biz” Wentworth: [00:21:16] You know, my wife is a nurse and will say, “Man, you work all the time.” And she even mentioned, we’re having dinner on Sunday evening, and she said, “You just work so much.” I said, “No, I don’t because I don’t consider some of the things I do work.” And she said, “Add up the last seven days, how many hours did you work?” So, I start counting on Monday, and I’m like, “Well, kind of from here to there. And then, on to, you know, conference three hours, and I came back into this.” Then, I got to Tuesday, and the numbers are already escalating pretty quickly, and I’m like, “Well, we don’t need to do all that. I just really like what I do.”

Peter Margaritis: [00:21:49] So, you mentioned something, but you went over it really quickly. I want you to go back. And you said something. You have an online course out there. Tell us more about that online course.

Ken “Mr.Biz” Wentworth: [00:21:59] Yeah. It’s—so what I did was I figured out through a survey, what are the most critical things for success for small business? And so, I have those five topics. It’s a five-week course. So, every Monday, I release a—it’s a 60 to 90-minute professional video done in the studio, not just a Facebook Live, you know, with graphics and all kind of cool stuff, all the bells and whistles, but you get a 60 to 90-minute video. Every week is a different topic.

Ken “Mr.Biz” Wentworth: [00:22:26] So, for example, week one is cash flow. So, you get a 60 to 90-minute video on cash flow. And then, on Thursday, I do a live Zoom session with all of the class participants, and we talk through that week’s video, and I answer questions on how specifically to implement the things from that week. So, “Hey, Ken. You mentioned in the video this week A, B, C. I am a salon owner. So, how can I implement that in my business?” “Oh, great question. Here’s what I would do if I were you.” You know, that kind of thing.

Peter Margaritis: [00:22:55] Right.

Ken “Mr.Biz” Wentworth: [00:22:55] So, in five weeks, five different topics, five different Zoom sessions. We go through them. It’s been great. It’s, again, a way to reach people, you know, for the value you get, of course, I think. So, it’s a good—it’s good value. and it hits on those five really critical topics, I think, that are most important. And some of the topics are things that, I think—well, the feedback I’ve gotten, they know it’s important, but they kind of—it’s like that gorilla in a corner or the elephant in the corner of the room. It’s like, “Well, I know I probably should have a budget, but I don’t even know where to start.” It’s like, “It’s just a budget,” like—and I always joke and I say, “When I say the B word, and I don’t mean that B word. I mean budget.”

Peter Margaritis: [00:23:34] Yeah.

Ken “Mr.Biz” Wentworth: [00:23:35] People are like, “Oh.” And I’ll tell you just real quick on that, one of my sort of things and one of my stances on that is I think that it’s a semantics issue in some ways because people hear the word budget, and in their head, the word budget is construed in the same way or interpreted the same way as the word diet. So, if I told you, “Peter, you need to go on a diet,” you’re thinking, “I got to eat lettuce and drink water,” right?

Peter Margaritis: [00:23:59] Right.

Ken “Mr.Biz” Wentworth: [00:24:00] Well, guess what. I’m a former power lifter, and I would be on a diet where I was gaining weight, right? And I’m eating like crazy.

Peter Margaritis: [00:24:07] Yes.

Ken “Mr.Biz” Wentworth: [00:24:07] So much that it was like a job, and it was terrible, and I hated to eat, and everything tasted the same, and it was crazy. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Sometimes, budget is a growth budget, and you’re making sure—you know, a lot of my clients, I have—I think you should spend between 2& and 8% of your annual revenue on marketing. Most companies don’t spend that much. Now, I want effective spending. I want a good ROI on the spend.

Peter Margaritis: [00:24:31] Right.

Ken “Mr.Biz” Wentworth: [00:24:31] But it’s important to spend that money and invest it in your business. And so, that’s part of it is I have—you know, every month, when we do a financial review with each of my clients, if they’re not spending enough, they get yelled at by me because you’re not spending enough on market, which is not what you think. You would think the CFO guys are going, “Let’s cut this, and let’s cut that.”

Peter Margaritis: [00:24:49] Right.

Ken “Mr.Biz” Wentworth: [00:24:50] That’s not always it.

Peter Margaritis: [00:24:51] Right. It’s when—I was—one of my previous employers offered me the job of manager of budgeting, and I immediately said no. Just—you know, it reminded me of Norm Peterson when he would be in tears when people had to come to his office and need to fire him. It had the same connotation to me because everybody would just come and say, “Just tell me the number that you want. Quit bugging me.” Just-.

Ken “Mr.Biz” Wentworth: [00:25:11] Yeah.

Peter Margaritis: [00:25:12] … give it to me and just—it’s outdated by the time we implement it. And you know, it’s semantics. I’ve kind of changed. When I have this conversation with folks, it’s not—we’re not doing the budget, we’re setting a plan. We’re planning for something. Like we’re planning for a vacation. It’s a little bit more easier to kind of elevate a little bit more exciting. And going through the budget process, but with just changing the words just a little bit just to make it more palatable.

Ken “Mr.Biz” Wentworth: [00:25:40] Quick funny story from the corporate world. You’re saying, just tell me what you want the number to be kind of thing.

Peter Margaritis: [00:25:46] Yeah.

Ken “Mr.Biz” Wentworth: [00:25:46] Through this process, JP Morgan Chase put together this huge budget deck, huge, like all tons and tons of hours. The guy who was, at the time—I guess I could say it because no one will know what year it was, so this person won’t be incriminated. He’s actually the CEO of a rather large company now, but he was the COO of JP Morgan Chase at the time. He had his budget review. I think it was supposed to start at 1:00 p.m. Everyone’s there. We’re there like half hour early waiting outside. We’re getting this big exec conference room, all the fancy stuff, right?

Peter Margaritis: [00:26:17] Yeah.

Ken “Mr.Biz” Wentworth: [00:26:17] We’re all sitting around, and he’s like—he’s running behind. Fine. Kind of part of the territory, right? He shows up about 15 minutes late. We left the head of the table for him, of course.

Peter Margaritis: [00:26:29] Yeah.

Ken “Mr.Biz” Wentworth: [00:26:30] Then, he doesn’t even sit down. Everyone’s like, “Hey!” Frankly, people start to butt kiss a little bit, “Hey!”

Peter Margaritis: [00:26:36] Yeah.

Ken “Mr.Biz” Wentworth: [00:26:36] “So, how’s it going?” He’s like, “Oh, pretty good.” And he walks in to the head of the table where the deck is sitting there, and he takes it, and he goes, “I feel, it’s about ten million too heavy,” throws it on the table and walks out. And everyone looked at each other, and they didn’t know whether to laugh or cry and they’re looking at the door like that was a big—that’s like a candid camera moment. “He’s just joking, right? He’s gonna come back in and say, “Oh, guys,I’m just messing with you.” He never came back in. Like-.

Peter Margaritis: [00:27:06] Oh, my God. That’s hilarious. That’s hilarious. Now, then, it was like, “What?” Yeah, “What the heck’s going on here?”

Ken “Mr.Biz” Wentworth: [00:27:15] Yeah. It was not funny that day, especially all the work. And the night before, you know, being up until 3:30 in the morning preparing this and preparing yourself for what else is he going to ask about. I got to make sure I know about this, and about that, and statistics about this. And, yeah, that feels about 10 million too heavy. We were like, “What the heck?”

Peter Margaritis: [00:27:36] There’s a title to the third book, It Feels About 10 Million Too Heavy.

Ken “Mr.Biz” Wentworth: [00:27:43] Yeah.

Peter Margaritis: [00:27:43] As we start to wrap up, there’s one story you have to share with my audience. It goes back to the podcast world, and how you are now blowing up on internet radio.

Ken “Mr.Biz” Wentworth: [00:27:55] Yeah. It’s just weird, you know. I have that sort of—I don’t know if anyone follows Gary V, Gary Vaynerchuk. And he talks about-.

Peter Margaritis: [00:27:59] Yeah.

Ken “Mr.Biz” Wentworth: [00:28:00] … putting up content all the time and things like that. And you know or as they say, build it and they will come. It’s like I’ve done all these shows, and there was a guy who followed me on LinkedIn. We connected on LinkedIn. I’ve talked to him a few times. I don’t know if he follows me on a couple other social media platforms as well but—and I know he’d listen to the show and things like that. Well, so I didn’t know that he owned an internet radio network. So, he reaches out to me and basically said, “Hey, I’d like to put—just one of my new channels is a talk radio channel, and I would love—I need a business show. So, I’d love to have your show on.” “Okay, great. Sure.”

Ken “Mr.Biz” Wentworth: [00:28:35] So, he puts one show on, and it just takes off. So, I don’t know, four or five days later, he gets a hold of me, and he’s like, “Hey, the show is doing like crazy good compared to—you know, just starting. We’re not running any promos for it. People are just, you know, picking up on it, et cetera.” He said, “So, I want to—I don’t want to do a half-hour show a day. I want to have two and a half hours a day.” “Okay, hold on a second. I am not going to—I enjoy radio, but I’m not doing two and half hours a day. That’s crazy talk.” He’s like, “No, you have enough of an archive. We’ll kind of move it around and, you know, juggle shows around, things like that.”

Ken “Mr.Biz” Wentworth: [00:29:09] And so, now, the show’s on during 4:00 to 6:30 p.m. Eastern during drive time for the East Coast on this internet radio station, and it’s reaching tons of people. He just sent me—every Tuesday, he sends me sort of snapshot. And, you know, that snapshot that point time during that day on Tuesday, it was people in 28 different countries were listening to the show. I mean, it’s crazy. I mean I would’ve never guessed any of this. Someone want to listen to my goofy rantings at my—what I think is funny, and it’s not really funny, so anyway.

Peter Margaritis: [00:29:43] That’s —I mean that’s—so, having you podcast, I have my—I know that my podcast reaches, I think, about 44 countries. And when I started, I would have never thought that that would even happen. But now, on internet radio, on top of the podcast, I mean, you truly are now becoming a global brand.

Ken “Mr.Biz” Wentworth: [00:30:04] But, you know, honestly, part of it, that is kind of the goal. And not the sound boastful or anything like that, but that’s part of the goal. I follow—I don’t agree with everything he says and does but I like a lot of what Grant Cardone talks about. And I went to his Growth Con back earlier this year. And one of the things that he said that really resonated with me is he said, “If you have an expertise, if you have a skill set to where you can help people, and you are not doing everything you can to get it out there, so people know about you, so you can help them, you’re being selfish.”.

Peter Margaritis: [00:30:35] Selfish. I knew you were going to say that. Exactly.

Ken “Mr.Biz” Wentworth: [00:30:39] And so, at first, I’m like, “Wait a minute.”

Peter Margaritis: [00:30:41] Yeah.

Ken “Mr.Biz” Wentworth: [00:30:42] “That doesn’t make—wait a minute, that kind of does make sense.” So-

Peter Margaritis: [00:30:45] Yeah.

Ken “Mr.Biz” Wentworth: [00:30:45] You know, he said, “You have to get out of obscurity. If people don’t know about you and don’t know about your skill set and how you can help them, you will never be able to help them. You could be the best fill in the blank there is in the world, but if no one knows about it, you can’t help them.” So, I’ve really started—so, every—I set goals right after that Growth Con on the number of people I want to be able to reach to learn more about me. As I mentioned, I do a lot of Facebook Lives and things. And so, that’s continued to grow.

Ken “Mr.Biz” Wentworth: [00:31:13] And so, even outside of, now, this internet radio, before that all started, the reach of the podcast in and of itself before that and with all the videos I do and everything, I reach between two and three million people every single month, which a lot of people doesn’t sound like a lot, but I’m proud of it because I started out, it was not a lot of people. Now, that means that between two and three million people every single month across the globe seeing my ugly mug on a video or are listening to one of the episodes of this show. Or I mean, in some cases, part of the book and all the other things that happened, that’s another thing I should mention is, you know, I have writers reach out to me now and say, “Hey,” and I’ve been in Forbes a few times, I’ve been in Fast Company, I’ve been in Inc Magazine, I’ve been in—American Express calls me fairly often. They say, “Hey, we’re writing an article about cash flow. Can you—can we interview for like 15 minutes to get some quotes to stick into this article?” So, that’s helped, you know, gain that reach. Now, you know, I hear from people. It’s hilarious. You know, I should do it is have a map of the world and like put pins in countries that I’ve heard from people because it’s—to me, it’s really cool to know that you’re reaching those people and helping those people.

Peter Margaritis: [00:32:26] Yeah, it’s pretty incredible with technology today that reaches far beyond Central Ohio, that reaches far beyond Ohio or the Midwest, and the ability to quit being selfish. And I didn’t hear from Grant but somebody referred to him because I knew the name sounded familiar through the National Speakers Association, and I knew exactly where you’re going because when he said that, I went, “What?” I had the same reaction that you did. Well, I guess he is right.

Ken “Mr.Biz” Wentworth: [00:32:58] Yeah.

Peter Margaritis: [00:33:00] If that’s truly what we’re called to do is to help people, then people have to be able to find us, and know us, and get to know us in so many different avenues in different ways.

Ken “Mr.Biz” Wentworth: [00:33:13] And I mean—and not to cut you off, but I-

Peter Margaritis: [00:33:15] No.

Ken “Mr.Biz” Wentworth: [00:33:15] … say that, I don’t mean just from, “Hey, pay me money, so I can help you,” or “Buy my stuff or my book. Here, buy my book.” I mean, that. I mean, if you just follow me on social media, and watch every one of my videos, and never spend a dime, will I help you with that? I’m completely okay with that. I’m completely okay. I love knowing that. I love getting e-mails of people saying, “Oh, my gosh. That was such a great tip. We implemented, and we saved this,” or “It helped this.” And I know we’re running out of time here, but I had one owner that I worked with that told me I helped save his marriage.

Peter Margaritis: [00:33:49] Wow!

Ken “Mr.Biz” Wentworth: [00:33:51] He turned his business around and he had been [crosstalk]-

Peter Margaritis: [00:33:54] Wow!

Ken “Mr.Biz” Wentworth: [00:33:54] … working more and more hours, and how do you even fathom that? You know, I mean the impact of that, I mean, that I’ll stick with me for the rest of my life, you know.

Peter Margaritis: [00:34:02] Yeah.

Ken “Mr.Biz” Wentworth: [00:34:04] He’s got three kids.

Peter Margaritis: [00:34:05] Wow!

Ken “Mr.Biz” Wentworth: [00:34:05] If you don’t think of these kids, and their lives, and how it would have been otherwise, oh man, it’s just very humbling, and I’m very grateful that I’ve been led to this place to be able to do what I absolutely love to do. And I think I’m pretty good at it, and I just love it. I just love it.

Peter Margaritis: [00:34:22] So, audience, I think you can hear the passion in his voice. That’s the giveaway that he really does care. And I’ve known Ken now for maybe three or four days, but it’s weird, I feel like I’ve known for three, or four, or five years because we have a lot of the same beliefs and the same mindset. And I want to thank you again for being on the show. I greatly appreciate it. I am going to have you back again, and we’re going to talk some more in some more depth and some of these things that you’re doing because I believe that my audience would benefit greatly from hearing more from you, And hopefully that we can get together maybe November or December face-to-face via Zoom and probably spend two hours until they throw us out of a Starbucks or something, like, “Would you guys get out of here?” I mean, you’re not spending enough for the time that you’re spending here.

Ken “Mr.Biz” Wentworth: [00:35:12] Exactly.

Peter Margaritis: [00:35:14] But before we leave, how can people find you out on the interwebs?

Ken “Mr.Biz” Wentworth: [00:35:18] You can go out to mrbizzolutions.com. My online program is Mr. Biz. The online course is mrbizprogram.com. But honestly, guys, just follow me on social media. I put out content on all the platforms almost every day or, at least, five days a week. So, on Facebook, Mr. Biz Solutions as the business page. Mr. Biz Solutions on Instagram if you have that. How about Mr. Biz Tweets on Twitter. And then, of course, LinkedIn. You can find me, Mr. Biz or Wentworth on LinkedIn. So, follow me. And hopefully, what I share is helpful.

Ken “Mr.Biz” Wentworth: [00:35:53] And by the way, if anyone ever has a topic, I tell you this all the time, if there’s a topic you’d like me to do a video on, and when I do these videos, I try to keep in between four and six minutes, so they’re fairly brief and hit whatever the topic is, you know, quick and hard. But if there’s a topic you’d like me to cover you know I’m going to help with, by all means, let me know. I take requests as they say, and we’ll get it out there.

Peter Margaritis: [00:36:14] That’s cool. Well, guys, take him up on it. Connect with him. Send me some ideas. Send him some request. He does a lot of Led Zeppelin at times and-

Ken “Mr.Biz” Wentworth: [00:36:25] Absolutely. [Indiscernible].

Peter Margaritis: [00:36:33] Thanks again, Ken. And I look forward to the next time we get a chance to chat.

Ken “Mr.Biz” Wentworth: [00:36:37] Absolutely. Thanks for having me, Peter. I appreciate it.

Peter Margaritis: [00:36:41] I’d like to thank Ken for his time and wisdom that he shared with my audience. And I hope you all took something away that you can apply immediately in your daily life. Thank you for listening. If you enjoy the podcast, please take a moment, leave a review on iTunes or whatever platform you download your podcast episodes from. Also, please subscribe and share this episode with a friend. Make today your best day

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