Speaker 1: 0:00

Welcome to the Cut the Tide podcast. Once again, hi, I'm your host, thomas Helfrich. If this is your first time here, I hope it's the first of many, and today we're going to be trying to learn a little bit about our guests' journey and how they cut a tie to holding them back, where it held them back or what they had to go learn. We want you to get out there, though, and become the best version of yourself by cutting the tie to something, holding you back, something you think you need or need to evolve to, and today we're joined by Mitch Francis. Mitch, how are you doing, tom? I'm good. Good to see you. You as well. It's always nice.

Speaker 1: 0:28

I want you to just maybe take a moment introduce yourself and what you do.

Speaker 2: 0:40

I'm Mitch Francis. I have a 40 plus year extensive business background where I was the founder and CEO of several publicly traded companies private companies. I developed commercial real estate and still own and manage commercial real estate all over the country, so I've done a lot.

Speaker 1: 0:56

I mean you've done a lot. So what's your current business, though? What's your current like. You know what's the thing driving you every day to get up to go work.

Speaker 2: 1:03

Well, there's a new thing I think we'll get into, that I've written a book and the book addresses 20 of the really what I call the big-ass problems in our country, in the world, and I actually have very doable, reasonable solutions for all of them. So that's taken a lot of my time now. It's really been kind of consuming.

Speaker 1: 1:27

You're in that phase of your life now where you've done a lot and you're like I need to share this and you put it into the book of like, hey, this is a, I take this one. There's a lot of experience and learnings across multiple businesses in this book, Right?

Speaker 2: 1:39

Right and it actually evolved to using. You know, any business person has to develop really good problem solving skills. All of us have roadblocks thrown in our, in our, in our way of of get reaching our goals, thomas, every damn day. And if you don't develop skills you know for for solving those problems, no matter what you have to do, you're just not going to reach your goals. And I was able to apply those problem solving skills to the societal problems as opposed to business problems, and it actually worked and I came up with what was really good. I said doable, but they really are. It's surprising. We can actually stop the ocean levels from rising, we can actually pay off the US debt immediately and it's using an approach that you and your audience a good business person knows how to do.

Speaker 1: 2:42

Well, I usually ask the question like what makes you unique? You dive into that a little bit with the book, like because that is unique? There's a lot of business books talking about problems to solve, but you're tying uh, you're tying to like not small problems, you're talking like giant, like global nature projects, so so dive into that a bit well, let me back up a little bit about how it came about, which is there was actually a family tragedy.

Speaker 2: 3:04

About two and a half years ago, you may recall, there was a mass killing in a suburb of Chicago called Highland Park during a Fourth of July parade, and there was this crazed young man with assault rifles who just started shooting people and seven people were killed and a lot more were injured, and one of the people that were was killed was my brother-in-law's brother and, as you can imagine, the whole family was just devastated by this.

Speaker 2: 3:33

This was a terrific guy, you know. Everybody loved him, he was brilliant, he was fun, he was loving. You know, this was a big loss and and I I left this event pissed, you know, and I took a look around, thomas, and I said, god, we have so many problems in our country that are huge that nobody's doing anything about and and you know I've always been, you know, interested in news and and you events, and I and I and I kind of took stock of myself and I said, well, you know, let me look at all these problems and and I discovered that there were like 20 really major problems that I actually had at least the beginnings of solutions for, and that's how this book came about. That was two and a half years ago, and behind me is the cover of Badass Solutions.

Speaker 1: 4:29

Well, on that journey, maybe it's not a tie you had to cut, but what did you have to discover to be successful in writing that book?

Speaker 2: 4:37

That's an interesting question. I think I had to take stock of myself and realize that, just like in business, it's ideas are easy, you know, it's execution, it's operations, you know that makes the success, you know. And so here I had these beginnings of of ideas and like I would say, you know, I don't, you know, with news I always go well, why don't they just do this? And you know, and, and you know that's a beginning. But then I had to do a lot of research. You know I had to do what I would do in business. You know I I actually equate problem solving to my methodology of of sales and negotiations. You know what's the objective, learn everything I can for about the other side, what do they want to accomplish, what's going to be my way of of achieving their goals? And and then you have successful sales or negotiations.

Speaker 2: 5:34

And I did that with problem solving here and just as I did in business, and found that you know it's interesting, like, like I mentioned a little earlier, you know, um, stopping the ocean levels from rising. I mean, what could be farther from my background? Um, but then I, you know, got into this. I did a lot of research and I found, you know that, that I kept getting more sucked in. So it's like well, how much water are we talking about, you know, and you're asking the general questions.

Speaker 2: 6:02

And I did all this study and found that the polar ice caps are melting at a rate that would fill 20 Olympic-sized swimming pools every second. So with that information, I just kept getting deeper and deeper and deeper to to find what's the problem, what's the scope of the problem, and then and then I always play like in sales and negotiations and problems Well, what if, what if we do that? So what if we do that? And and find keep going to find the solution that will work. And it actually was very productive Keep going to find the solution that will work.

Speaker 1: 6:39

And it actually was very productive. I think you mentioned this, but you know you left the event. You know there's a tragedy that's happened. Was that the aha moment, when you knew you were going to do this, or was it?

Speaker 2: 6:55

after it was kind of together it was. The aha moment was what is happening in our country? I was angry and then realizing that we have all of these problems and in this case it was assault rifles and the US has 20 million assault rifles and we're not invading Canada. Trump says badmouths Canada quite a bit. We're not invading Canada, you know Trump. Trump says you know bad mouths Canada quite a bit, but we're not invading.

Speaker 1: 7:22

So we what if they invade us? I mean, they got horses, yeah, mounted police, they do. I guess my point is, if you want to see how he thinks about it, read his book. Don't leave it out there. The point is you have big ass solutions to big ass problems that a bunch of fat asses are not doing anything about. Who are in charge to go do that? Is that? I think that's not in your book. I may have added the fat ass part, no, but I like it. I think I should do a rewrite. Large mouth, bass holes. I miss you, I like it. What's been the impact since writing your book?

Speaker 2: 7:58

I've had really good response. It's interesting I've had response from people who find that one or two or three of these ideas kind of touches their heart. You know, the author of Chicken Soup for the Soul is a wonderful guy named Jack Canfield and he read a pre-published version of my book and he's been. He's a number one seller of nonfiction books of all time and he's been an environmentalist and he it so happens that this stopping the ocean levels from rising he liked my solution so much that he had never heard of it that he actually wrote my forward in the book. That's so cool. So that was a lot of credibility.

Speaker 2: 8:40

And I've had this kind of reaction from people who say, you know, we thought it was the impossible to pay off the US debt and we have a really straightforward to immediately pay off the US debt. So people are liking many of these solutions that are close to their own interests and I'm trying to get people involved. You know we need, we need to make these happen and uh, you know, and actually one of my chapters is all right, well, what now? How do we get these to happen?

Speaker 1: 9:11

You know, my book unpublished. Uh, you know, 90% of writing a book maybe 95 is procrastination, but anyway, I'm still working through it. It's not that I actually got a review for my wife. She's like hey, I think you should do this this. And I'm like oh, she's right damn it. Oh yeah, that's good, that's good.

Speaker 2: 9:26

My wife was my editor. She was, she's a, she's a writer and actress and really talented and she was my editor and you know, and added, added a lot. The book actually is kind of fun and even funny, believe it or or not. You know these are not funny topics, but to make it readable, if I had to add a readable direction here and humor right, Well, exactly.

Speaker 1: 9:45

So I think one of those moments you are in an entrepreneur, sometimes the people closest to you who really not sure you want the opinion of those are the ones you definitely want the opinion of. Yeah you do. And like my wife gives me feedback, my book I'm like, oh you, oh, you're right, I gotta cut that thing in half. I gotta combine stuff. This doesn't make sense. And I read it through her lens. I'm like oh that.

Speaker 1: 10:02

Yeah, I wouldn't have thought of that. Okay, good boy, yeah, it's important. You're like kind of like god, I'm back to score. The point of that was one of the chapters was ideas are easy, execution is everything. I think it's actually titled that and you're 100 true that you know, especially my adhd listeners which entrepreneurs are, cause they got pushed out of corporate, cause you're ADHD, you got to focus on one thing. So, like as best as you can, because otherwise you're not going to execute anything. And this is a huge thing that takes lots of people with a lot of momentum, and maybe it's your book that triggers somebody else who's enough influence to go do the next thing, that creates the group that does that thing and and that's it's got to start some places.

Speaker 2: 10:42

And I'm really hopeful, hopeful about that, thomas, you really hit the nail on the head, absolutely.

Speaker 1: 10:47

I think we should come up with another analogy. What else do we hit besides a nail? We really hit the ball in the middle of the racket on that one. Yeah, it was of the park. That's an overused analogy too. Well, that was a great forehand down the line there. That was a winner. I would like to play tennis, but I have a hurt foot Also not making the cut for him.

Speaker 2: 11:04

Okay, tell me the lesson you have for the listener you know it's it's a little bit of a departure from, I think, your your listeners main interest, which is how to be more successful as an entrepreneur. But my hope with the book is to inspire people to get involved with something beside their career, something beside their career, something beside their work. You know give back. There's an overriding theme of the book that came from Mahatma Gandhi, who said when the people lead, the leaders will follow. And that's all I can hope for. I hope that all of you know find something beside our own money-making business objectives and give a couple hours a week back to making our world a bit better. I hope that.

Speaker 1: 12:02

I mean that's that would be the way not to be a parasite species. Yeah, we are. Guys ever listen. We're our parasites, but we don't think we are. We're smart enough to realize we can trick ourselves with our own thoughts.

Speaker 2: 12:13

We can. We can help. We can help the overall good. And listen, I think business and entrepreneurs help the world. I really do but we can also be more altruistic and charitable.

Speaker 1: 12:25

I think the matrix that we live in is programmed. If any one thing gets too out of whack, it either self-corrects through the earth itself, or an asteroid hits us and takes care of it. One of the two will correct us. We might as well do what we can along the way to make it a little nicer. I think so, mitch, who gives you inspiration?

Speaker 2: 12:43

I think, people who achieve. I love what Gandhi had to say about that. There are people who, I think, achieve, people who are humorous in their achievements, not taking themselves too seriously. I kind of follow that. I'm actually a nut for quotes and I find great intelligence and humor in quotes.

Speaker 1: 13:04

So that's where I get it. Ghani's a solid choice for inspiration. You've had a lot of businesses and experience. I'm curious on this one what's been the best business advice you've gotten?

Speaker 2: 13:18

one what's been the best business advice you've gotten? It's easy. When I finished, I was actually a real estate major at the university of Colorado and they, you know, back in that day it just wasn't a major that was offered to run like two universities in the country that had it. Anyway, I finished, I moved to Los Angeles and I started working as a commercial real estate broker. And I started working as a commercial real estate broker and I was very it's interesting. I closed.

Speaker 2: 13:50

I was going to say very fortunate, but it's it's in contrast to the, to what I'm about to tell you. But back at that time we actually had typists who would do contracts and agreements that had to get typed up, and like a secretarial pool, and one of the secretary typists congratulated me oh, this was great Congratulations. And I was humble and I said I was just in the right place at the right time, thomas. She got angry at me. She said, no, in the right place at the right time, thomas. She got angry at me. She said, no, that's not it. Well, what are you talking about?

Speaker 2: 14:23

And she said more important than being at the right place at the right time is knowing you are, and to this day it's still the most intelligent thing that anyone's ever said to me and it's led to a lot of my business interests and successes. Where, you know, I actually saw an opportunity that hundreds of thousands of people would have seen, to do a business in Las Vegas that became the biggest ticket broker in Las Vegas where we sold a billion dollars of show tickets, tours, attractions and dining. And it was because I saw this opportunity and knew it was an opportunity and I always liken it to like we're like standing in a stream of fish opportunities going by all of us all the time and you have to pick. You have to say that could be very successful and you have to pick. You have to say that could be very successful. And it applies to me, to my skillset, and and I've had that kind of success my whole life by doing just what she said.

Speaker 1: 15:27

That's amazing. Now, besides your own book, though, what's your must read book?

Speaker 2: 15:34

From. It may not be for your, for your audience, but for me. There was a book in the nineties called mega trends and they they discussed 10 different trends that were so big in the direction that that that the economy, the country and the world was going, and I just I took it first of all, I thought it was a fascinating direction and material, but I took that as a way to live your life what's coming at us, where are we headed? And I think that book was important for me because of that.

Speaker 1: 16:16

I love that book was important for me because of that. I love that. I love that. Listen in audience or not, like any, any recommendation of something that changes your perspective or gives you more information no one's ever recommended that one, so that's a first. Uh, okay, if you've it's, so I love it. But I would say, like bad-ass solutions is probably where I'd start. First, guys, please do, yeah, yeah, download the hard copy, or get the hard copy and download every version that you can, but pay for all of them, please.

Speaker 2: 16:39

If you had to start over today it's also the kindle version and I did just. I just recorded the audio version, so there's audio. So, yeah, you can eat it any way, you want in making a book.

Speaker 1: 16:51

I'm like, oh my god, I had the. I've had the main thing out first before I do the main thing anyway, so's like you got to get one out.

Speaker 2: 16:56

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 16:56

If you had to start over today at any point in your timeline, when would that be and what would you do differently?

Speaker 2: 17:05

I think I've had a fault in in my own business life, which is I tend to get that which we we all, we always hear all the time Don't get emotional, but but it's caused me to like what I'm doing and and think that it's going to continue. So I end up staying at the party too long. In other words, I hold on to a business or a piece of real estate or something else that I hold it longer than after it's already reached its peak, and I should be out With stocks, with real estate, with businesses. I think it's that I've learned not to stay at the party too long.

Speaker 1: 17:50

Yeah, that's a big. I mean you'd like to see the peak, but you're like I'm an okay man. Just short of that I've been fine.

Speaker 2: 17:57

You never know where the peak is. I mean, this optimist thinks, well, it's going to keep going, leave it for the next guy, take your money and go do something else and just keep making money.

Speaker 1: 18:08

Keep taking profit. It's interesting you say that because it ties back to the original thing. The smartest thing I ever heard was know when you're in the right place, right, and you should. You missed that, right, and I'm like I'm in the right place right now. Let's sell, let's go the move on.

Speaker 2: 18:21

Because it never is, though.

Speaker 1: 18:22

I mean, that's really where the wisdom's applied of oh, I did it in a year early, but I did it at the right time, cause I would have stayed here for two more. Like it's like knowing that you would have, knowing that that's it. Whenever you start feeling that like maybe I should exit, it's probably the right time. Anyway, I'm one who says I'd rather I use it, a company at seven, 8 million early and go do it again, cause I wouldn't want to be the guy who takes it to 100 million because that does not interest me at all. Like, getting it off going and oh cool, it's running. I'm a SimCity player that wrecked the city and rebuilt the city every time. I never kept it going. You know what I mean. That's actually probably a post I should make. What kind of SimCity player were you? It's probably more profitable. You should make blog work. By the way. Thank you so much for coming on today. If there was one question I should ask today and I didn't what would it have been?

Speaker 2: 19:14

I think maybe out of the 20 different topics that I address in my book, what do I feel is the most important to get accomplished, to get done.

Speaker 1: 19:25

You have to answer it though. Oh, oh, you have to answer your own question now.

Speaker 2: 19:36

I think there are two. One is and we've touched on it because it affects the whole world the stopping the ocean levels from rising is critical. I mean, by the end of the century, all coast, coastal cities and islands are going to be flooded and nobody's doing anything about this, thomas. But we can actually stop it. There's a really good, viable way to stop the ocean levels from rising. As crazy as that sounds, there is we got to do it entire $36 trillion US debt now and ensure that it never happens again.

Speaker 2: 20:15

And all of these people they have good intentions. Let's cut out the expenses that the federal government has, let's raise taxes or let's lower taxes, let's increase trade. And none of those are going to do this. Let me just give you a little quick ditty. Nobody can really really relate to what 36 trillion is. 36 trillion is seven times more than the the federal government brings in taxes annually, which means if the federal government didn't spend a single penny, it would take seven years to pay off the debt, not including interest. That can't happen. It can't happen with cutting expenses. It couldn't happen with raising taxes. We need something radical to make this happen and I have it. Actually, I'm trying to get to Trump and Congress and try to make this happen.

Speaker 1: 21:20

I think you will, if you put your mind to it. I'm sure of it. I'm trying Step by step, you know what, and probably the first step was this podcast. So thank you so much for coming on. I hope, so I hope, you're going to make that happen, thomas. Thank you, you know what. Definitely, if you move it up the ranks. I know what started here. That's why I'll give you credit too. Mitch, thank you for coming. Who?

Speaker 2: 21:41

should get ahold of you, and how do they do that? The book, wherever books are sold, the easiest is Amazon. So it's badass solutions, with or without a hyphen, and I have a website that goes into more detail and you can actually buy it through the website, and it's bad hyphen, ass solutionscom.

Speaker 1: 21:58

Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate you coming on today. Thanks for having me. This was fun. Anybody who's still out there listening you rock and if this is your first time here, I hope you come back and I hope everyone listening goes out there and cuts a tie to something, holding them back.