From Small Family Business to Thriving Entrepreneur: A Journey to Success ⎮ Natty Bandasak

Today's guest Natty is a successful business owner who went through a rough start in his family business. He shares his key to success, including his willingness to learn and grow, his belief in the infinite nature of money when you are providing value, and his love for putting himself in uncomfortable positions. Get inspired and learn valuable lessons as Natty shares his journey to thriving in business. 

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Transcript

Natty Bandasak  00:00

I would love to share that each individual choose should spend time, identify what it means to be successful, because often society, social media, other people define that for us. And when is defined for you, you will end up chasing someone else's goal and not your own. So if you can define that for yourself, then you can truly look and measure your own success based on your own standard, and not living someone else's dream.

Edward Collins  00:28

Welcome back to another episode of Entrepreneur Unleashed. I'm joined in the studio today by my good friend Natty Bandasak. I just want to let you know something. You guys are here because you want to make a difference in your life. And that's what I'm dedicated to doing. My name is Edward Collins, I'm your host today. I'm a sole entrepreneur. I've been building and scaling multiple businesses up to and through six and seven figures each and I've been helping business owners just like you do the exact same thing. And the purpose behind Entrepreneur Unleashed just to give you an opportunity to learn vicariously through the trials and triumphs of other business owners who have been through the things that you may be going through right now. I believe the best way to shortcut that journey is to learn from others. So let's get started. Thank you so much for for coming in today.

Natty Bandasak  01:11

My pleasure, man. This is a beautiful space.

Edward Collins  01:13

Awesome. Thank you.

Natty Bandasak  01:14

Great team. 

Edward Collins  01:15

It's definitely still a work in progress just like everything in life. But yeah, it's it's been a labor of love.

Natty Bandasak  01:22

Now give me pretty much like, Why did my prospective already because we just got a studio. So now I'm always looking for new idea. And just to connect with you, every time we talk, I always learned so much on that. 

Edward Collins  01:32

One of the things that that I have a major advantage over that the audience doesn't as I know you. So what I'd like you to do, if you wouldn't mind, just take a few seconds, few minutes, whatever it may be to tell us a little bit more about who you are. And what you do.

Natty Bandasak  01:46

Yeah, um, so my name is Dr. Natty Bandasak, I have my doctorate in physical therapy. I have my own brick and mortar practice where I scale from zero to seven figure within four years. But really, I think what contribute to my success is really my upbringing. So I immigrated here from Thailand at the age of 12. That point I saw my parents work tirelessly, I helped them start a Thai restaurant. And I also saw them fail in the Thai restaurant business. And from there, that's where my curiosity when it comes to running business and scaling business not coming in, where I'm like, Alright, I've seen what works and what doesn't work. I've seen what actually what doesn't work more than what works. Yeah. So I say, alright, now what do I do what I have to do differently in order to scale my practice, without sacrificing my integrity as a health care provider, without sacrificing my soul, as an individual, and without sacrificing my time that have left in my life and the time that wants to end with my family. And because auto stops important to me. And, you know, I always try to go against the grain of because you've seen people work tirelessly, they always say you can always work more, you can always work harder. And you know, in 2019, my dad passed away suddenly at the age of 58. And from there on, so yeah, it was out of nowhere. And again, he was on a work trip with my mom. And for me that really, honestly, I think just just from from that experience alone, it's increased my growth as a person tremendously and have me reflect on my life for a long, long time. And, you know, I was in Spain during that time, and I had a lot of time to think. And I say, well, if I'm going to do things differently, what do I have to do? How do I have to turn my life? And how do I make sure that the work doesn't run my life? So that's pretty much the framework I'm approaching. So when you guys are listening to me, and it might sound a little woowoo? To me, that's that's where how I approach life first, before I approach business? 

Edward Collins  03:39

Well, I think it's really important for us to go back a little bit because you use the phrase sacrifice, and you said, I don't want to sacrifice X for for Y I don't want to sacrifice this for that. Talk a little bit more about the concept of sacrifice, because as a business owner there is there is a need to sacrifice some sometimes. So how do you balance that out? Like where where where's that that particular fuel gauge, if you will, with regard to what you're willing to sacrifice versus what you're not?

Natty Bandasak  04:06

So I think this depends on the stage of business you're in, right? So the way I looked at it as when I saw my parents work in the beginning, they were always trading time for money, right? And in the beam as as a clinician as a business owner, I was trading time for money, right? So when I see a patient, I was giving an hour of my time for X amount of dollar was charging right and then as I do more and more of that what I realized that the bell curve of dissatisfaction where I'm making more money, but yet I have less time and with less time, there's not much I can do with my money, if anything is bring me more unhappiness, and I was probably at like, probably 20 pounds heavier, was not as healthy. I was not doing doing well at all the training just kind of go to waste. So my core value starts slipping a little bit because fitness is a huge thing of mine. So at some point I'm like Okay, the next level but what is it going to be? What do I have to sacrifice? So and you'll all the books that we read the mentors that we have, you know, everyone always talks about? Well, now will you want to do is you want to sacrifice money to get your time back.

Edward Collins  05:11

Right.

Natty Bandasak  05:12

And then from there, with the time that you have, you can then scale up or have a better leverage. But

Edward Collins  05:18

Well, I think that comes down to like an abundance mentality too. Because when, when you're focused on just trading your time for dollars, a lot of people get into this, this belief system that oh, I'll just give more of my time and get therefore more of my dollars. And it is interesting to see when that shift takes place, and a lot of individuals because I get the pleasure of being able to speak with business owners all over the country at all different walks of life, and all different stages of their entrepreneurial journey. And I see that there, it comes to a point where that they're sitting back and saying, I'm willing to give my time so that I can make money. But then when they have that shift in mindset, where no, I'm going to start giving my money to buy back my time. That's, that's an amazing shift. And usually, that's when I start seeing people being happy in business, would you say the same ?

Natty Bandasak  06:06

100%. And I can vividly tell you when I made that mindset shift, and it was the beginning of last year, where I remember talking to my therapist, and she was like, how's going because we always do reflection at the end of the year. And for me, I'm like, Hey, I think this is the first time where I feel like I am actually a business owner who happened to be a physical therapist, where before for the past two years, it was I am a physical therapist who happened to own a business. So making that shift, like, my world kind of turned upside down a little bit the decision making. Like all the decision making process, or the way I make decisions is on the overarching like, okay, as a business owner, what do I need to do? Right? So before we are as a therapist, I would have to come in every single day works. I mean, I work Saturday for two years straight. I mean, we don't go on vacation or anything at all. And now when I start looking like as a business owner, if I go in on Saturday, what am I giving up when I go in and Saturday? what work am I not doing? Right? And, and the biggest shift like because of that mindset shift. It's allow me to tackle one the biggest, you know, bucket list, and you and I talk about bucket lists, and I know you guys know, but Edie told me that his bucket list was to get a JD, and be a lawyer. And he did that during COVID. And to me was like, Dude, there's 

Edward Collins  07:19

Just before but yeah.

Natty Bandasak  07:20

I was like, This guy's super badass, like, and I love that right? And to me, if I hear you doing that, I'm like, Oh, my God, like, what else am I not doing in my life? And I love that, right? Because you push the bar forward. So you know, as an immigrant, English is not my strong suit. I hate writing. I do not like public speaking. Here we are.

Edward Collins  07:37

You're great. Yeah, you really are.

Natty Bandasak  07:39

So but here we are. So last year after I made that mindset shift, I dedicate a lot of time writing my first book on ACL rehab, which is the niche that my clinic specializes in. We published that in March. And to me, that was the ultimate test that like, this is how you actually trade time. This how you trade, you know, pretty much trade time to get some money, right? You do work once and just get paid forever? Oh, every single bank wants

Edward Collins  08:09

Definitely a huge thing. 

Natty Bandasak  08:10

Yeah. Yes. 

Edward Collins  08:10

At the end of day, if you're going to invest your time, effort, and energy and financial resources, because if you're investing time in this area, you're not investing it in this area. So it is a financial commitment as well. If you can create something that continuously generates revenue going forward, it's definitely a beautiful system to be in.  I mean, when I look at the evolution of a lot of individuals, like the vast majority of the world is populated by employees. It's just is what it is. And there's nothing wrong with that, because employees serve a purpose within the entire ecosystem. But what you did is you you graduated from an employee mentality to becoming self employed. And that's beautiful, especially in your niche, because you're a specialist within your niche. And you're a self employed professional service provider. What I found a lot of the times, and I want to know if this is true for you is that a lot of individuals who start off in that, because they're gung ho, they want to be a business owner, but they end up really just becoming a job owner. And as a professional service provider, you can make way more money than when you were just an employee, but you still cap out, because you're now competing with the other professional service providers within your ecosystem that potentially get into an environment where you're now racing to the bottom with regard to how much you charge. 

Natty Bandasak  09:25

Yeah. 

Edward Collins  09:25

Because it then becomes a pricing issue. I know your situation, because we're friends, we talked a lot. You got to a point where you made a shift in your business, you made a shift from being that that that professional service provider who owned the job of doing what you were doing to becoming a business owner, which is implementing systems leveraging labor, leveraging technology, etc. What What was that process like for you? How did you make the decision to do it? And what was it like?

Natty Bandasak  09:56

I mean, that's, that's a great question. I always come back to that. I think the first thing is I was really, I was being realistic with myself and figure out what I was not good at. Because at the end of the day, at that point, I was still a liability to my own practice. So I was like, okay, if I'm a liability, what am I liable for? What am I not good at? Right? And I think we you and I talked about before, where like Tony Robbins saw about, you know, three different key players that you need in the business, right, the artists entrepreneur, and the operator and I say, okay, based on the three things, right, I'm definitely an artist, because I love my craft, like, right, like being a clinician getting outcome. I love that right? entrepreneur to me is like more marketing and sales. Like, I grew up in retail, I work in a restaurant business, I can do that. And then the least thing I cannot do was operating. 

Edward Collins  10:42

Oh, yeah. So I'm right there with you, by the way. 

Natty Bandasak  10:44

Yeah. So like, you know, like, that's why you and I can have this kind of big conversation all the time, right. So as soon as I realized that I am not good at operating the day to day stuff, I say, Okay, now I need to get someone that can do that for me. So I just go based on, hey, here's what I'm good at, here's what I'm not good at. And I was like, since I'm not good at this, why don't I stop doing that, and then start looking for people that can invest their entire time to do the things I'm not good at. So that's where it first started. 

Edward Collins  11:10

So but that's a mindset shift. How did you make that shift? Like, what was it that you were either exposed to? Or what guidance did you get to to recognize that, hey, listen, I have this zone of genius, and it's not over here. I need to find someone else over here to do this. Oh, how did you do that? 

Natty Bandasak  11:26

So pretty much I got my butt kick. 

Edward Collins  11:29

Okay. 

Natty Bandasak  11:29

And it led me to that. So I'll elaborate on the story, where, you know, in the beginning, were very small. And there were four of us, you know, to clinician and another virtual assistant, and I ran my business, as my parents did as a family owned business. And in a family owned business, you know, there's no accountability, right? Because if the overarching thing is when someone does something wrong in the family, you just say, Oh, no, that's family. 

Edward Collins  11:56

Right? 

Natty Bandasak  11:56

And it's okay. So the culture was extremely bad. And during that time, you know, I had someone who worked for me that went to my PT school. So we were close. And, you know, he came from a very operational background, but also a clinician, so I was like, Hey, let me just recruit this person come into the office helped me run the operation stuff. So, you know, in theory on paper, looks, looks great. So after a year in, things didn't look too good. And I started seeing some some shift or license, some Pitfall, when I was away in Florida, my wife needed to get surgery, we found the best surgeon down in Florida took two weeks off, you know, on the surface, and once everything's great, I came back, it was horrible. Everyone's just a lot of friction to the point where when I walked into my clinic, and I just literally built this clinic, they had 5400 square foot beautiful stuff. 

Edward Collins  12:50

It's huge clinic. 

Natty Bandasak  12:51

Yeah. And when I walked in at I can tell you, I was like, I don't want to be here. That's how toxic the environment got out. And I didn't know what to do.

Edward Collins  13:00

I'm sure there are a ton of other practitioners out there that have gone through a similar experience. 

Natty Bandasak  13:05

Yeah. 

Edward Collins  13:05

Like, how did you not let that completely derail you?

Natty Bandasak  13:10

Well, it was a lot of support. A lot of good friends, I have friends from from my other mastermind group who like would be on the phone with me, talk me through who has 10 years experience. And you know, my wife was a biggest support for me. And I had to make the hard decision of, hey, I'm not going to let this dictate how I run this because I was losing control. And it's not that I need control. But I do want to have a say that what I clear business. Yep. So I had to make the hard decision of letting people go.

Edward Collins  13:39

Okay. 

Natty Bandasak  13:39

And that was probably the hardest thing I ever did. And also the best thing I ever did. Because of that, what it forced me is like, Alright, cool. I really need to create a strong culture, that mirror what I stand for what I'm about as a person first, rather than just about the business. And then as soon as I you know, as soon as I made that decision in my head, before I did the firing, I always say, Okay, who would I need to make sure just protect the downside? Because what is like, I'm just like, I'm going to lose money. I don't want to lose that much. What can I do? Right? Who can I pull that I have now, that can go with me? into the future? Right? Because obviously, when you're away from your business, you don't know what said, what's going on? Who's saying what and all I'm saying is like, Alright, let me just go and talk to everyone to see where they're at. They're still on the same mission on the same path. And if I explain to them the vision, what I'm trying to do, are they still going to be part of it? Right? And I made a decision my head that if I have to go back solo again, I'm okay with that. Because I know that at least I hired someone who's an operator, that I'm not starting alone. I'm not starting from beginning we have all this experience for me. So I was I think that the concept of willing to lose it all in order to reveal something bigger, excite me, and that got me over my fear.

Edward Collins  14:56

You're willing to sacrifice who you were in that moment what you hadn't yet to when what you have now.

Natty Bandasak  15:02

Even my current success in that moment, at that point, we're probably close to half a million dollars practice. And I say, hey, if I do all this worst case scenario, I'm dropping down to two, a quarter million, but I'm okay with that. Because I was like, it's a short term pain.

Edward Collins  15:15

Right? 

Natty Bandasak  15:15

That will build to a bigger vision. And I don't know if a lot of people would do that. Because I also never allow myself to get too comfortable. Like, every time on my birthday, I go to my hometown, I sit in the bus stop, they would take the bus to go to work, I would go down that bus. I just remind myself back all the time. 

Edward Collins  15:32

That's amazing. 

Natty Bandasak  15:33

Yeah, I go back to the shop, right? That we used to go grocery shop. And we used to bring like, a bag of cans, you would just, you know, put the cat in, get get five, seven, cycle back to all the route, my origin, where it came from. And I say wherever I can come from that. Like, this is nothing. 

Edward Collins  15:52

Yeah, that is an amazing reframing that, that you're you're engaging in, you're basically saying, Okay, I've achieved X. But I'm not going to forget where I came from. And I'm going to allow that to continue to motivate me to, to put one foot in front of the other and make continual progress, which I mean, we've known each other now, and we've had tons of conversations about this, you are making continual progress, like what? Like, what would the audience like, if you gave them a few seconds to jump into what you've been doing lately? Tell us a little bit about that.

Natty Bandasak  16:23

Lately, what I've been trying to do is I've been trying to have more FaceTime with my employees. And I think our last conversation at my clinic, and that just fill you guys in to listen to that. And and I really spent a lot of time over dinner, talking about how do we coach our employees, just like how we would coach if we take on a coaching clients. And I think that idea excite us so much that we just literally just 

Edward Collins  16:46

Yeah, how do we get it done is that so? 

Natty Bandasak  16:48

For me, that's really excite me, because now I have a team of people like we grew from again, we went from four, back to two. And now we're at 13. And now with the 13, I have different department and I get like, you know, what I look forward to is that those department meetings, those one on ones where I get to be like, Hey, what's going on? What are you What do you need help with? Well, where are we going with your will your personal life? Because you and I know that is the professional life that should feel the personal life, right? Again, this is a vehicle to support my life on where I want to be. And again, professionally, everyone needs a job that they can feel fulfilling. So that way, they can then do the same thing on their personal life. And to me, the best thing that happened to me is that I was always working when I was younger. And another good thing that's happened to me was, I had people who gave me opportunities in the past, even though I didn't have the skill set. But at least they know that I was coachable. And what I'm trying to do now is do the same thing. Where if I have an opportunity to give someone, even though is raw talent, but they have it to have that X factor to have that grid. And you know, they're self starters like, why don't I give them a shot. And that's excited me every single day to see progression to see, you know, one of my employees from from day one, go from you know, buying a house to now getting marry you know, and that employee just got engaged. Like to me that's, that's great.

Edward Collins  18:14

Yeah, you not only do you get to witness it, but you're actually participating in it too, because you're providing the ability for them, one to thrive within whatever the ecosystem is that you're building for them the role that they're in, you also give them the opportunity to expand beyond the role to when when we were talking that day over dinner, one of the things that I took away from that conversation that you actually brought up, I don't know if you remember this was how could we create almost like a system that does this on a continuous basis where you can track it. Tell me a little bit about like what you're considering doing within your practice.

Natty Bandasak  18:47

So, you know, after our conversation, what what I've been trying to do more is, you know, obviously we do our by weekly scorecards getting people on to understand it. And now what I'm really excited about what all the new spaces that we have the entire org chart mapped out, and everyone has their own individual tasks they're responsible for, right? And what we can do now is say, hey, how do you want to move up? What skill set do you need? What role do you see? You see all these people doing these things? What else do you want to tack on next? Right? And then I can I can candidly and tell him like, Hey, I know you want to do that. But if I can offer a suggestion, here's your strong suit, I think you might be better here. Can we give it a go? Right? And then from there, they can kind of see the progression. And what I want is for them to like, flip the flip the card, you know, that's an idea of like, hey, based on the card that you what you're doing right now, what can we take away from so we can add some? And if we take that away, who do we give it to? Because now we level someone else up as well. And then the conversation will be like, well, if some we're going to take away your tasks, who would that be? So now they play an active role. Like okay, cool. Like I get to move someone up, I get to move myself up. So the overarching theme is less individualistic behavior. There's more of a hey, a we mentality.

Edward Collins  20:03

Exactly. When you when you're looking at at taking your employees to that next level, you first have to get to the next level. Right? So how are you doing that, like, well, what are your own personal goals with regard to growth and advancement and just improving yourself, but tell me a little bit more about that.

Natty Bandasak  20:20

So just doing something that I'm uncomfortable with. 

Edward Collins  20:24

Okay. 

Natty Bandasak  20:25

Like, flying down here, having a conversation with you. And sitting in a room where I know people know a lot more than me, and just be willing to just listen and be like, Hey, man, what are they taking? And as I'm getting older, all I'm trying to do more is just shed old beliefs. And most of it is really ego driven. And just say, like to say that like, hey, again, it's going back to the Dunning Kruger effect, right? Where like, when you think you know, something you actually don't write and just trying to get to that curve where like, Wow, do I really know that that well. And the more I teach my staff, the more I can really gauge like, how well do I know that? Can I sum it up in a three sentence? Right? Can I talk to it at length? Or can I make it as simple as possible? Right, so I'm just trying to get to that point where I'm constantly just refine my message, finding my voice is again, you know, you and I talk about fitness all the time, it's like going to the gym, you do almost the same routine, but the stimulus is different. 

Edward Collins  20:36

Yes. 

Natty Bandasak  20:39

And as you get older, you know, you can throw your body against the wall like you used to. So you have to be smarter, more tactical, more strategic with what you do. So I look at the way I build myself personally, from a spiritual and emotional and anything physical standpoint. That's how I need to level up first, I have to take care of my body, I have to take care of my mind, put myself in a good space. And then from there, what dragon do I need to slay? And I just go there, slay some dragon. And then the best part is, when I have my team with me, we're doing all this thing. They know what I'm trying to work on. They see my progression. And I'm trying to tell him like, Hey, listen, I'm working on myself every single day. Like, there's no reason that you you cannot do it, right.?Like, you know, we took on the new space. I tell him like this space is as much for me as it is for you. I say we plan everything black, we make sure that you can write on the wall. Just because we're going against the grain we're going against whatever the establishment says, like, Who told you that you can write on the wall? 

Edward Collins  22:24

Right, right. 

Natty Bandasak  22:25

Now we can find the wall? Why don't we do it? 

Edward Collins  22:26

Hmm. Okay. When you when you look at that growth that you're going through, and you witness it in your team, what would you say is the thing that has led most to the growth? What what? Either have you done? Have you been exposed to that's led most to your personal growth?

Natty Bandasak  22:45

I think exposure is huge. 

Edward Collins  22:47

Okay.

Natty Bandasak  22:47

For me, I'm a visual learner. 

Edward Collins  22:49

Okay. 

Natty Bandasak  22:49

I like to emulate greatness when I see it. 

Edward Collins  22:52

Okay. 

Natty Bandasak  22:52

I'm also someone who's very humble enough to say that man, I'm like, I'm just dumb. I don't know that. Why don't I just follow the footsteps of someone who already did it? You know, the concept standing on Shoulder of Giants is huge for me. 

Edward Collins  23:05

Huge. 

Natty Bandasak  23:06

Like, I don't need to reinvent the wheel. Like, I'm that guy. And my wife disliked this. When we go somewhere. And when we go overseas, I asked for direction. She was like, why don't you just figure I was like, it's a waste of time. I want to I got somewhere to be, unless you want explore together, then that's fine. 

Edward Collins  23:21

It's a different thing.  Right? 

Natty Bandasak  23:22

Yeah. But if we need somewhere to be, I want to ask for direction. And that's always been me. My, you know, where we met? Especially in the circle that we're in now. I forced myself to get in there. You know, did I feel ready? I was in there. No, there was a lot of imposter syndrome. And that, but as soon as I get in there, I was like, Okay, this is uncomfortable. I don't know anyone. You and Jose were the first people that I met. And, you know, after five minutes conversation, I was there. I'm flight home right now. I got I got everything I need. You guys over pro games. Right. So putting myself in a uncomfortable situation, to learn from other people. I'm like, this is where I need to be like, just learn, keep moving up the ladder, learn from people who've done it, I have something to chase. And the coolest thing is I can always go back to you know, my village, my company, my people and say, Hey, guys, here's where I learned. And we had a yearly meeting and I say, you know, I want to be resource for you guys. Whatever you need, like, I probably know someone that can solve your problem.  You know, if I can do it, I'll help I help you find the answer.

Edward Collins  24:24

I think that's one of the things though, that that really sets you apart from a lot of other business owners is that you are willing to learn. And I know that sounds a little bit like Fufu. But at the end of the day, you have the right mentality because Epictetus is a philosopher he once said that it's nearly impossible to teach a man something he already knows. But the reality is, we all think we know everything, especially as a business owner, anything you think, oh, especially if you build a business and it's go it's good going concerns making revenue. Oh, yeah, I know it I know. But the reality is, there's so much more that you don't know that you believe you do know that If you're willing to just accept that you may not know it, and reach out to others to give you guidance, you can make major major steps into the direction you actually want to go. 

Natty Bandasak  25:11

Yeah. 

Edward Collins  25:12

When you when you look at your career over the course of just the past few years, how is it different today than it was when you were just getting started? Like, what are the major differences?

Natty Bandasak  25:23

I can easily say, I'm more fulfilled today. 

Edward Collins  25:25

Okay. 

Natty Bandasak  25:27

I'm more fulfill, in regards. My impact scale is much bigger. Because we have four clinicians in the team. That's more people that we help within the past year, I did within the first two years working alone, right. And the job that I have created for people, that's also an impact scale, and the ability to, you know, just challenge some old thinking and have people say, oh, you know what, that's a good way of doing it. To me, to me, that's huge. So my life is way more fulfilling, I'm happier. I have dinner with my wife earlier. And way more, I can't eat anything past six anymore, because I just don't get good sleep. 

Edward Collins  26:04

Yes. 

Natty Bandasak  26:04

And I'm just having revert back to like, Okay, now let's go take care, keep taking care of yourself. Because all this hard work, mean nothing if you don't get to enjoy it. And I try to enjoy it each and every day. And you know, what's best about having, you know, someone like you that can I can text I can call is, you know, even with growing the business, and starting a new adventure, or whatever it is, I can always add, what is the most ethical, legal way I can do this, but not to grow, but really to protect what I has. And I think, you know, I'm in a mindset now where rather than keep grow, grow, grow, I'm so okay, how do we get deeper in what we do? How do we provide more value and then grow slowly, steadily, and grow through risk mitigation? And I think before you came to my office, I mentioned to you that yeah, I just shut down a satellite clinic where, two years ago, that would hurt my pride, because like, I have this, I had this arbitrary goal of like having five clinic. If someone asked me, Why five, not four, why, you know, why five? Not six, I can't tell you.

Edward Collins  27:10

Right? 

Natty Bandasak  27:10

Again, it's ego driven right now, I made the decision to make shut that down was like, Okay, well, because we're willing to niche down and make make this the place where it's pretty much a training ground for other clinician to come in, who owns their own clinic be like, Hey, this is how you do things ethically, and make profit and, you know, have growth for employees. Right. And again, it's a learning process. For me again, this is just a dream of mine I have right, obviously, you know, there's got to be some obstacles we faced along the way. But I think that's, that's the best part about it. Like, I'm looking forward to the obstacle. Because I'm no longer alone. I have a great partner, I have a great team behind me. So whatever I tackle on, I don't have good, good team that can be like, Alright, hey, let's do this together. 

Edward Collins  27:57

And making profit ethically, is an amazing thing, right? Because the reality is this in, if you just boil everything down in economics to this one phrase, it's true. Money follows value creation. If you go out into the marketplace and create value, that is an ethical processes. If you're creating value for others, you're doing a good thing for society. And money comes. So when when I sit back, and I talk to business owners, and they're like, I'm so frustrated, I don't know how to do it, it comes down to this, find, find where there's value needed, create that value, and you will do phenomenally well. One of the things I want to make sure that we do is is touch on something that's important, I think for a lot of lot of our our particular audience. We live in an Instagram society right now. Everyone sees the flash the perfectly curated photos, the perfect videos, the the great clips from podcasts. But the reality is, it's not always great, right? There are definitely hard times that business owners have to go through. I mean, if you've been in business for any length of time, you're gonna go through some some significant struggle. I'm curious, what has been the most difficult thing that you've been through as a business owner?

Natty Bandasak  29:13

I mean, as a business owner, to make that decision to let people go. 

Edward Collins  29:17

Okay. 

Natty Bandasak  29:17

And to digress and progress a little bit. 

Edward Collins  29:20

Okay. 

Natty Bandasak  29:21

And then to leapfrog in progress, that's, that's the biggest thing. And it's, again, it's all going back to ego, right? Because if I want to show true linear progression, which again, if I go back to working out or anything, nothing is linear, right? You have to do load before you can progressive overload again and then do all that. So, you know, I think that's probably the biggest challenge is admitting that I'm wrong when I'm wrong. Admitting that I don't know what I don't know. And just listen.

Edward Collins  29:49

How did you learn that though? Like how, who taught you to be willing to admit when you're wrong because not everyone's able to do that?

Natty Bandasak  29:55

So I think that's, that's more me and also my wife. 

Edward Collins  29:59

Okay.

Natty Bandasak  30:00

She's great at like, reminding me when I'm feeling myself a little bit and she's great. Oh, are you feeling yourself today? I love that. Right. That's, that's a relief. And again, I can't I wouldn't be where I am without her. And you know, her support. The fact that I'm here is fantastic. And I always have this picture of starting a business that I grew up. So I moved in Thailand grew up in New York, right Rockland County, really nice close to the city. But growing up at you know, as as an eye view business as me going to New York, and getting jumped by four guys wearing Tim's. So in my head, I was like, how do I make sure I read and again, jump I for guys wearing Tim's I just get jumped by two regular guys wearing sneakers. So how do I make that easy? Because I'm gonna get my ass beat. 

Edward Collins  30:00

Yeah. 

Natty Bandasak  30:27

So how do I lessen the damage? 

Edward Collins  30:39

Okay.

Natty Bandasak  30:39

Right? Do I have to fight Mike Tyson? I can just fight someone else. 

Edward Collins  30:54

Right, right. 

Natty Bandasak  30:54

Either way. Punches are being thrown out. 

Edward Collins  30:56

Yes. Yes. 

Natty Bandasak  30:57

So that's, that's always my approach. 

Edward Collins  30:59

Yeah. 

Natty Bandasak  30:59

And I'm always the, you know, like the grass. I'm sorry. I'm always like, super optimistic, right? And growing up in Thailand, you know, 99% is Buddhists. So, as part of the rite of passage, when I was growing up is, you know, to, to give something back to your family, you have to become a monk. 

Edward Collins  31:20

Oh, okay. 

Natty Bandasak  31:20

So I was a monk for a week. And all we did was, you know, I like this is actually a great story. 

Edward Collins  31:27

Yeah, tell me.

Natty Bandasak  31:27

For a week, I shaved my head, shaved my eyebrows,

Edward Collins  31:30

That I'm right there with ya, I could do it, I could do it. Okay.

Natty Bandasak  31:35

And it gives birth to the to, to your family. 

Edward Collins  31:38

Okay. 

Natty Bandasak  31:39

And this was the first time my grandmother came from Thailand to visit me. And I was like, Oh, this is something I get to do for grandma. So, it was a week long, sorry, there was a second time my grandmother came to visit. I was like, alright, it's a week long. So you live in a temple for week, all you do is you meditate. You clean the temple. And you just meditate. We eat two meals a day. So from that perspective, I really learned how to meditate, I learned how to just like, tame myself a little bit through meditation. 

Edward Collins  32:13

And that's a skill set. Yeah, the self. 

Natty Bandasak  32:15

And ever since then I meditate every morning. And if I don't, you know, my wife is like, hey, you need to go meditate. So just always checking in with what's going on your mind having the opportunity to reflect on what the voice is saying in your head? Really keep me in check.

Edward Collins  32:30

Well, it seems that you also have the advantage of the accountability partner and your wife. 

Natty Bandasak  32:34

Yeah. Because she doesn't want to deal with a grumpy version of me. Yes. 

Edward Collins  32:34

She's gonna hold you accountable to that, then she's committed to it. I don't think anyone does. 

Natty Bandasak  32:41

Exactly. 

Edward Collins  32:42

But that that does lead to a really interesting point. Like, if you look at even the witnessed business owners that you have like that, you know, the ones that have achieved milestones of success? Would you say that all or at least a large percentage of them have accountability partners? Or is it does that not even factor in?

Natty Bandasak  33:01

I think, has played a huge role. 

Edward Collins  33:03

Okay.

Natty Bandasak  33:03

I think the circle that you have, that you that can keep you accountable is fantastic. 

Edward Collins  33:09

It's a secret ingredient, right? 

Natty Bandasak  33:11

It is, it is because you know, your, your circle, right will call you out on something, but also keep you accountable for something and also give you courage when you need it. 

Edward Collins  33:21

Right. 

Natty Bandasak  33:22

Right.

Edward Collins  33:22

What happens if you don't have that circle, though?

Natty Bandasak  33:25

You know, I think is one of those things where you start, you need to start creating yourself. 

Edward Collins  33:29

Okay.

Natty Bandasak  33:29

Become the attractive character where people want to come into your circle. I think by just being honest, being transparent, I think just being human. The great thing about social media is that you can quickly point out who's being real or not.

Edward Collins  33:33

How do you do that, though? Oh, 100% 

Natty Bandasak  33:37

And by just not look like you know, what I love is abuse. You see Gary Vee doing this and you know, it's a show a real version of him is him doing just do the talking head with a like, just him not his hair down his hat on like that people? Like like it way more? 

Edward Collins  34:01

No, right? 

Natty Bandasak  34:01

So like, 

Edward Collins  34:02

It's authentic. 

Natty Bandasak  34:02

Exactly. So if you see that, if you see someone always done up, maybe maybe that might not fit your vibe or your value. But if you find someone that like, oh, that message kind of stick with me a little bit. 

Edward Collins  34:14

Yeah. 

Natty Bandasak  34:14

So easy to just throw like and comment. 

Edward Collins  34:17

Yeah. 

Natty Bandasak  34:17

That's great content, you know, shoot a DM. And, and like with us, like when we first met, we stay in contact with text like, hey, when you come to Jersey, 

Edward Collins  34:26

Exactly, exactly. 

Natty Bandasak  34:27

Yeah.

Edward Collins  34:28

And I think one of the things that I found so remarkable, at least in my journey, is that the people you surround yourself with, absolutely impact your future. And you've made very wise decisions, but not everyone does, like how can someone really gauge who they should be surrounding themselves with? And then how did they actually go about doing it? And speak in the context of like your audience, the ones, the ones that you serve, like how could they improve their lives and by surrounding themselves with the right people? 

Natty Bandasak  34:59

Yeah, I mean, great question I think is all coming down to, if you if you're going to take a road trip, you want to go on a journey with someone who's like minded, that want to go in the same place as you.

Edward Collins  35:11

Okay.

Natty Bandasak  35:11

That will always look out for you from a different angle. And that's okay, sharing resources. I think that's the biggest thing. And I think you have spoken on this and I ingrained in my brain says you said it where, you know, money is infinite, where it is not, it's not a piece of pie, like you said, right? If someone make more doesn't mean they take it away from you, it's a zero sum game. So if you can get into a mindset of like, Hey, I'm just giving more value. And if I give advice to this people, I know they could do the same thing for me. But understand that, especially for me, the clinician I connect with, these are people who are a ethically driven to do the right thing. Try to do try to be a disruptor in a failing model of healthcare that's running by private equity owned by a corporation, choosing, you know, profit over people. And again, I'm not naive, you have to be a profitable business in order to grow. And the way I see is like the people I connect with the most are the people who just genuinely care, genuinely care about the patient genuinely care about their staff, genuinely wants to do the right thing. But it just being beat down and just doesn't know how to how to play the game of business. Right? And again, it's not because we don't know how to play the game, it's because the rule is not explaining to us. 

Edward Collins  36:28

Yeah. 

Natty Bandasak  36:29

Right? The fact that I have connection with you, and other people in our circle, now I understand the game a little bit more. Like if you put out a Monopoly board on here, and you don't tell me to rule, there's no way I can win.  And again, you're playing against someone who's a banker. They know all the rules, which is big corporation, like, all you have to do is say, all right, how do I smarten up? And what are you going to do? How many business books can you read now accumulating real world knowledge, always trying to say if you know someone, and I connect with people who may be two years ahead of me that know what they're doing, and I just, hey man, and tell me when I'm when I'm gonna get beat up. So I can avoid that. I normally get beat up, like, just tell me, so maybe less punches being thrown at so that way I can, you know, fast track my learning curve a little bit. So now I learned more rules. So I can play against the banker, you know, in a monopoly game, and that's all we're trying to do. Like, what I'm trying to do now in my next journey is obviously, resize coaching my team, helping more patient, you know, scale my clinic to the next level by just providing more value solving more problem for people, I want to help other clinician who are clinic owners who are stuck, you know, after like, hire date, that third employee, and they just like, I'm pulling back, I'm sacrificing my time for money again, this and that. And, and big corporation want us to do that, right? Because all they want to do is just absorb that, right? They don't want to hand out the rulebook. And all I'm saying like, Hey, this is what I figured out for FAR, I figured out 1/4 of the rulebook.

Edward Collins  36:41

Yes. 

Natty Bandasak  36:41

And I'm gonna go out and find a rest. But I'll give you the 1/4 When I learn more, I'll tell you more like and whatever you figure out what from what I gave you come back and report it. And that's how we grow together. Right? So I'm just recruiting people to be on my bus. So that way we can go together. And to me, you know, is taking on big corporations like zombie apocalypse, where you're going against the zombie, you're going against all this? I love zombie movies, right? So all these, you know, like outlaw people that try to take your bus. Right? So how do we do this together and, and protect each other? 

Edward Collins  36:41

Yes.  Yeah, I think one of the things when we when we had that conversation, I distinctly remember it the concept of abundance and wealth, the concept of abundance of money. The way I like to talk about it, it's almost like relating money and the making of money like going to the gym. When you go to the gym and you lift weights and you build muscle, you're not taking muscle from anyone else. 

Natty Bandasak  38:44

Yes. 

Edward Collins  38:45

And that's the reality because when it comes to money, it does come down to value creation. And when you're creating value, which you have an infinite capability of creating value in the universe of the world, if you will, you have an infinite ability to create value. So therefore, value creation in and of itself doesn't take value from anyone else. value creation. Therefore going out creating value for others creates Infinite Opportunities for money coming your way. When you're surrounding yourself with the people who have that right mindset that's similar to yours. Your ability to make major strides in your life is just an unbelievable looking at where you're going next. What do you think is our that going to be the biggest challenges in your like the next two to five years?

Natty Bandasak  39:32

I think the biggest challenge for me is not to get too far ahead on my big picture.

Edward Collins  39:41

Okay. 

Natty Bandasak  39:42

And not to get too far away from the home base of why I'm doing it for as always going back to the why. Because you know, you and I know that when you get to a certain level. Opportunities are coming at you. 

Edward Collins  39:53

Yes. 

Natty Bandasak  39:53

Hard, fast. And you know, like Dan Kennedy said as it's like as you get more successful every place turn into a strip club. 

Edward Collins  40:01

Yes. 

Natty Bandasak  40:01

Right? it, there's just tons of stuff thrown at you opportun. Everywhere, people tried to distract you. And it just remember to always double down on my core value. And that's why daily meditation, daily reading, journaling, talk to my wife, talk to my friends, talk to my team, that's always gonna be a home base for me. And I need that more now than ever. Because, again, like, I can probably check my DM and I have like, all these things. Do you want to open here? Do you want to do this you want to do? And for me? It's just, again, working on that no muscle? 

Edward Collins  40:32

Yes.

Natty Bandasak  40:32

And I alluded to my upbringing a little bit, right. And you see, like, I we came from nothing. We grew up in a one bedroom studio, just with my family. So I was ingrained in my head is you got to say, yes. Is this money? Go, get it.

Edward Collins  40:46

Right, right. 

Natty Bandasak  40:46

Go, get it. So now, I'm like, I'm fighting that tick, as like, oh, man, I bet a stop is, you know, that's,

Edward Collins  40:53

That's the paradox that a lot of beginners don't get, like, when you start saying no, that actually leads to more. Because if you're saying no to this, that gives you the opportunity to say yes to something else. Or if you're saying yes to the things that matter to you most saying no to the things that don't give you more fulfillment. When you look at your goals, what would you say are your top three goals for the next this basically for the coming year?

Natty Bandasak  41:20

I mean, top three is always just taking care of my body, I'm thinking about my health, you know, I, my dad passed away and younger and I'm just like, Alright, how do I, you know, there's obviously a genetic component that's stacked against you. So again, going back to saying no, right, knowing what I know, based on the genetic component, how do I not make it worse? So what am I saying no to so prioritizing my health, because my bodies feel good. Mentally, I'm gonna feel good, right? So taking care of my body, taking care of my mind. And then back to my core values that I think about every day is deepened relationship with myself, you know, with God with my wife with the people around me. So that's the second thing. Third thing, pursue knowledge. 

Edward Collins  42:01

Okay. 

Natty Bandasak  42:02

Just It's again, all these things are infinite. 

Edward Collins  42:05

Yes. 

Natty Bandasak  42:05

Right. You can always be healthier. You can always have deeper relationship. 

Edward Collins  42:09

Yes. 

Natty Bandasak  42:09

You can always learn more. So that's, that's my top three, I try to keep it as simple as possible.

Edward Collins  42:15

Okay. When, you've obviously had some significant success over the course of just the past few years, and more so in recent years, when with success comes money. And oftentimes, that's where a lot of business owners struggle to. When it comes to your financial situation. What would you say are some of the best learning things that you've experienced in recent times that have helped you that not only have helped, but continue to help you make good decisions regarding money?

Natty Bandasak  42:43

Yeah, this is crucial for any business owner who want to grow, to grow is that I learned quickly that most businesses die during the growth phase because they overspend. 

Edward Collins  42:53

Yes. 

Natty Bandasak  42:53

So be mindful of the cash flow is huge. 

Edward Collins  42:58

And cash is the lifeblood of a business. But growth eats cash. 

Natty Bandasak  43:02

Yes. 

Edward Collins  43:02

So you need to make sure you understand how those two things work together. 

Natty Bandasak  43:05

Exactly. So, you know, rather than throwing money at the problem, figure out, you know, if that problem can be solved with less resources, and or how do you solve that problem one time, so you'd have to throw money at it again? 

Edward Collins  43:19

Yes. 

Natty Bandasak  43:20

So that's, that's, that's a huge thing. Another thing too, is just really understand, like the, the true costs of operation, how much it's going to cause projection, all of that stuff. So that way, you can plan accordingly. Right? I mean, I have one, one scary moment, two years ago, where one of the staff that I had didn't deposit pretty much the checks that we were getting reimbursed. It was like, $50,000.

Edward Collins  43:50

Oh, goodness. 

Natty Bandasak  43:51

And I'm looking at my bank. And this is when all the things was going south, right. So I was preoccupied with everything. And obviously, you know, when when something goes back, I'll go back. 

Edward Collins  44:00

Yeah.

Natty Bandasak  44:00

I'm like, Oh, my God, I have this happen culturally. I'm running low on cash, am I about to like die? Like business wise, and this is not like a video game where you're like, Alright, I'm just gonna come back start this and that is not that. So you know, just just having a post on everything is good. But that's a big thing is that for you to have a financial overview you need to have, you need to be able to outsource some of your tasks to someone else. Right. So pretty much you spend money to scale. And you scale by hiring the right personnel so they can do all this stuff for you. So that way you buy back your time so you can have the oversight on the cash flow. And now, you're not going to be cash flow because you have oversight on it right? Because whatever you put attention to grow or get protected.

Edward Collins  44:49

Yeah, it's important to understand your numbers. I mean, at the end of the day, it's like if you got into a car, but it had no fuel gauge, and you're trying to take a long distance road trip that can be scary. Because if you don't know how much fuel you have, you don't know how to make the right decisions and when to pull into the fuel station. And the same thing happens in business, I find so many business owners just don't know their numbers. Like if, if I were to walk into most businesses and just say, What was your profit last quarter, most people couldn't tell you that most business owner and if you look at the statistics, it's something like 68% of all small businesses fail by the 10th year in business. And a significant reason for that is just a lack of understanding of finance. Financial literacy is not something that's taught in schools, how to do learn it?

Natty Bandasak  45:37

Again, through appointing the right mentor.

Edward Collins  45:40

Okay. 

Natty Bandasak  45:40

And just really address the discomfort of finance. Right again, like I another thing I, I always work out is my relationship with money, right? Because my idea of finance in the beginning was that Alright, make more and don't just spend what you make, right? And then the rest is that. But as you grow in payroll, as you grow in all these other things, you have to budget things accordingly. I'm just like, Okay, this is a big dragon I have to tackle. But why don't I just tackle the little dragon first? Why don't I just hey, what does the payroll needs to look like? How much do we need to make in order to cover this, and then I just do bits and bits. And once I tame one dragon and move on to a bigger Dragon, they move on. So it's just building tolerance for it again, going to the gym? If I see someone throwing 315 on bench, and I haven't trained, I'm not going to jump there. 

Edward Collins  45:55

Yeah. Exactly. 

Natty Bandasak  46:30

I'm just like, Alright, why don't I start baby step? So I think I can always trace back to just going to the gym?

Edward Collins  46:35

Yes. All the all the lessons, lessons of life, when you look at, at how you're currently structured business wise, like, would you say you're ideally structured for what you want to accomplish? Or you think there's changes that you'd want to be making going forward?

Natty Bandasak  46:51

Definitely changed I want to make, just because you and I already talked about, like how we want to grow our vision, how many? Who else do we want to help, and who helped who else that we can help and, you know, and want us to help them, that will then create another business, right. And I think the fact that my guests here, I'm going to take advantage of it too and ask you your opinion on this, because obviously, I'm getting to business coaching, structuring an LLC. And last time we spoke, you were talking about, you know, structuring a trust, to help protect the downside. So, I mean, I would love to give you the floor. So you're gonna explain that?

Edward Collins  47:28

Well, I think there are a lot of different ways to structure businesses, and there's a lot of different ways to protect yourself, one of the things I say, is this, the way I do it, I'm not sure if it's gonna be right for you, I'm not sure it's right for any of the audience members. But what I do is I have trust at the top of all everything, trust on everything, I own nothing. And there's a few reasons for that. One, there's there's just an anonymity protection situation and, and also from an ongoing legacy issue with regard to my family, making sure that things are always going to be kept in good order for my family, my wife, my kids, but ultimately, my trust and everything, my trust owns all my personal assets, things like my bank accounts, my automobiles, boats, etc. Like all the personal tea, or personal real estate, etc. When it comes to the businesses, I layer businesses, so I have a holding company, which owns all of my operating companies. And the reason there's a few reasons for that as well. One is asset protection, making sure that I'm shielded from from any type of litigation, creditors, etc. But also, it creates an ability for us to layer tax strategy on top of it, because one of the things I'm super passionate about is, I really do not like the government. So I don't want to give the government a penny more than I'm required to. So I want to pay the absolute minimum that I'm required to pay when it comes to taxes. And when you layer and structure things the right way. And then layer on top of that actual tax strategies, you get to keep more of every dollar you're making. And you were talking earlier about trying to be smart with with the outcome with with with your overall effort and energy. You can massively increase profit, just by keeping more of every dollar you make. I mean, if you sit back and you're sending 40 to 50% of your dollars off to governments, whether the federal government or state governments, you've put a lot of effort in order to get that 50% that you're sending away. If you can figure out how to keep most if not all of that, you should definitely invest time doing that.

Natty Bandasak  49:28

Yeah. And I love that you took the time to explain that just because in the world I'm in, right. Some of the people I'm talking to that I can help. They always say how do I get more leads? How do I make more money? How do I do this? And this? I'm like, Dude, how about we just figure out like, how much you're paying like that's, that's just huge, right? And I don't know much about that. I just know that. There's so many different ways to go about it. And I love the way he just broke it down just again, to answer your question. You clearly know that whatever I'm going into in the future, the structure is playing catch up to it right? 

Edward Collins  50:03

Oh, yeah.

Natty Bandasak  50:03

Yeah. So now my question to you is that is that normal?

Edward Collins  50:07

So the vast majority of businesses in the United States have no formal structure at all. They're structured as sole proprietorships. Like, quite frankly, the vast majority of business owners are structured that way. And quite everyone who's watching should thank them, because those are the individuals that are spending the most money on taxes, which provide for the government operations, etc. So they call the people who don't put a formal structure, yes, because they pay all the taxes. When it comes to understanding what to do, though, the real problem is twofold. One, financial literacy is not taught in school, at least not to a degree that it's legitimate. And two, even the professionals that are out there who are supposedly offering guidance, aren't really working for you. Like, for instance, I have conversations all the time with business owners, and we're talking about tax strategy, they'll say, my accountant has that covered. That's the biggest mistake that you that any business owner can make. Because the vast majority of accountants are nothing more than glorified historians. They spent all of their time, their effort and their energy, just trying to figure out how to best tell the IRS what's already happened. It's a backward looking game. And the reality is, if you want to save money on taxes, you have to be doing things forward looking into say, what do I need to do tomorrow? What do I need to do next month, in order to make sure that my next year is less burdened by taxes, and the vast majority of professionals just don't do that. They're not specialists with regard to being one a business owner, but also understanding the tax law. 

Natty Bandasak  51:35

Yeah. 

Edward Collins  51:36

And I've been fortunate enough that over the course of the past two and a half decades that I've been in business, I've, I've made a personal commitment, to try to figure out how not to give the government any money at all, if I could. But if I was going to end up having to give the government money, I want it to be the absolute minimum that are required to do it. And there's ways to do that, then there's people out there that pay next to nothing in taxes legally, legitimately, all you need to do is model that. 

Natty Bandasak  52:02

Yeah. 

Edward Collins  52:02

Figure out what they're doing. model that behavior. Don't vilify those that don't pay taxes, because they're the reason why they don't pay taxes is just using the tax code as how it's meant. I mean, there's two purposes to tax codes, right. The first is to generate revenue for the government, which, obviously the government needs to operate. But the second is, the tax code is written to incentivize action. So if you understand that, you just read the code as to, oh, the government wants me to do this. And when I do this, it rewards me with tax savings. That's an incentivization program. I'm going to do that, because I get rewarded. And everyone does that in life, right? You do the things that give you a reward, we try to avoid pain, and we seek out pleasure. So the reward concept that that that dichotomy of action, though, is what it comes down to. So if I'm, for me, it's painful for me to give any money to the government. So I'm trying to avoid pain, but I'm also trying to get the pleasure of being rewarded by doing the things that the government needs done. But ultimately, when you look at your life, the challenges that you've had, over the course of your career have been overcome by just learning, overcome by saying, I don't know X, I'm going to find someone who knows X, learn from them and put X into action. 

Natty Bandasak  53:05

Yeah. 

Edward Collins  53:21

How would you say that has transformed your life that just that that mentality?

Natty Bandasak  53:27

I think it's helped me avoid many more hard eggs than necessary. I think it's also helped me leapfrogged, you know, my, you know, my success in some way, where I was able to just think differently and execute on things faster, just because I have the information ready at hand. In fact, rather than, you know, most of the time in the, you know, healthcare community, we look at any research is, you design a hypothesis, you then go collect the data, and then you analyze the data, and then you come to a conclusion whether the hypothesis is correct or not. So, if we're doing that in the medical field, they don't reinvent new study, every time, they just go based on this past study, they test this, oh, we're gonna try to test this out a hypothesis, see the same thing? We're doing that a medical community, which is also slow? 

Edward Collins  54:19

Yes. 

Natty Bandasak  54:20

Why don't I do the same in business in life and growth? Why don't I just go to someone? They did it. Take that framework, maybe add a little spin to it on my own again, it's like cooking recipe. 

Edward Collins  54:33

It's art. 

Natty Bandasak  54:34

Yep. 

Edward Collins  54:34

Exactly. 

Natty Bandasak  54:35

And I was like, Alright, how do I make this my own recipe? How do I make this my own framework? What can I add to that? And

Edward Collins  54:41

Cajun seasoning, add Cajun seasoning everything.

Natty Bandasak  54:45

Right? Like that's, that's super easy. And all it is is like, the question I always ask is, if this is successful, how do I make it successful for my business? That's always my framework. I'm not questioning whether it's going to work. And I'm not I'm also really good at not getting myself into any limiting beliefs trap where like, this is not going to work because I'm in this city, no one's gonna pay for this, oh, three people down the block is doing this already, that's not gonna work. I always go like, Alright, how do I make this work for me what I need to do to make this work for me? And what problem am I solving by addressing this like, and I'm at the point where I'm not just doing things for the sake of doing thing. And I was just listening to to Dan Kennedy, on my way here. He's like, you know, in the past this thing where I discover unintentionally, but going forward, that thing become intentional. 

Edward Collins  55:39

Yes. 

Natty Bandasak  55:40

And that's always in my, how do I make that unintentional thing become more intentional? 

Edward Collins  55:44

Yes. I love it. Yeah. What I love to do right now is, every guest I bring on the show, I like to engage in almost like a thought exercise. So if you wouldn't mind, 

Natty Bandasak  55:54

Yeah. 

Edward Collins  55:54

I'm gonna take you down this little scenario, I want you to imagine for a moment that you have the ability to go back in time to visit a younger version of Natty. So you're gonna go visit yourself at some point. And in the past? What I'd want to know is, what version or what age what what scenario are you going back to? And you have the ability to just share one piece of information? What piece of information would you share?

Natty Bandasak  56:22

Hmm, um, I would probably go back to 2019, like, right after I just lost my dad.

Edward Collins  56:31

Okay. 

Natty Bandasak  56:32

And the information I was going to share is pretty much saying like, hey, you know, things happen for a reason. And for and someone says to me, and it's super powerful was like, for every prince who become a king, the previous king has to die. And that's just part of the evolution. So within that framework, I would then say, keep that in mind, how will you step up to the plate, not just from my dad legacy, not even from my legacy? It just from what can I add on to what he taught me? And what can I add on to what I learned now? And when is my time, right, when there's a new king, new queen needs to come up? What, how can I prepare that individual so that way they can add on to that.

Edward Collins  57:22

I love that. Okay, there's a second part to this thought exercise. What I'd like you to imagine now for just a moment is that a future version of Natty has come back in time to meet with us here in this setting in this moment? And he's going to share something with you. What does he share?

Natty Bandasak  57:41

Um, you know, it's just back to the future like Doc Brown comes back. 

Edward Collins  57:45

Exactly, exactly. 

Natty Bandasak  57:47

I would say. Probably keep going. And just doubling down on what you believe in your core value. And just let that be your your Northstar.

Edward Collins  57:59

Wow. So two versions of Natty previous version and the current version have both gotten nuggets of wisdom from Natty.

Natty Bandasak  58:07

Yeah. 

Edward Collins  58:08

But I don't want the audience to feel left out. So what what one piece of information that you think could be most transformative to anyone who's watching anyone who's listening? What piece of information would you love to share?

Natty Bandasak  58:22

I would love to share that each individual choose should spend time identifying what it means to be successful. Because often society, social media, other people define that for us. And when is defined for you, you will end up chasing someone else's goal and not your own. So if you can define that for yourself, then you can truly look and measure your own success based on your own standard, and not living someone else's dream.

Edward Collins  58:53

I'm 1,000% going to steal that. 

Natty Bandasak  58:56

Yeah. 

Edward Collins  58:56

Because that's phenomenal. I mean, if you allow someone else to define your success, you end up living their dream. I love that. 

Natty Bandasak  59:04

Yeah. I wrote it on my tweet this morning.

Edward Collins  59:07

I'm stealing it. 

Natty Bandasak  59:08

Yeah. 

Edward Collins  59:09

I'll give you credit. 

Natty Bandasak  59:09

No, no, I like 

Edward Collins  59:10

That's an amazing concept. Anyone who's watching this and listening to this, that in and of itself was definitely worth the investment of your time. I appreciate you being so willing to share authentically, how can someone reach out and connect with you like what's the best way for them to to follow your journey to get in? Get into your ecosystem?

Natty Bandasak  59:30

Yeah, on all platforms, social media, Instagram, Doctor.Natty, TikToks, the same . Actually YouTube is where I'm putting all my long form video out, especially if you're a business owner that happened to be in healthcare, I think and you you want to go on the same journey, same ride, you know, battling to zombie apocalypse together, please connect. I love it. And I really, I have to thank you, man. For for for pushing me to come here. You extend the invite two months ago, and the fact that you did that is always in the back of my head. And you know, because of that we made this happen. Your team has been great. Just to see what you accomplish here, what you do, really, again, gave me something to emulate. And that's all I'm about. So I appreciate you, pushing it forward, passing all the nuggets. And every time I talk to you, man, it's always great. We can probably do this for like, three hours.

Edward Collins  1:00:27

At least nine more.

Natty Bandasak  1:00:27

Yeah, exactly. 

Edward Collins  1:00:28

Well, it's definitely been a pleasure. I know. I know, everyone who's been watching at home, who has been listening at home or in the car ride. I know you've gotten significant nuggets of wisdom. And please, please, if you've loved any moment of what you've seen, hit that thumbs up, hit the like button, subscribe, because ultimately, it's not just benefiting us. It's also benefiting you because no matter what platform you're watching this on, when you like it, you're telling the algorithm, the type of information that you want to consume, whether it's our information or information like it, so it's benefiting you as well. I wish you well in your journey. I can't wait to see you on the next episode. Bye for now.  Natty that was so awesome. Thank you so much. Your story is amazing. Like everything that you do is just like, through the roof. Awesome.

Natty Bandasak  1:01:12

I appreciate it, man. Thank you