What You Really Mean When You Say You Can't Afford It

Most business objections that sound like "I can't afford that" are really a priorities problem, and the language we use matters. In this episode, we talk about why saying you can't afford something hides the real decision, how to reframe tough choices through your priorities lens, and why that clarity makes saying "no" easier and more profitable. We share examples (vacations, trainers, hires, branding) and a few stories from the shop that reveal how thinking in priorities changes decisions, simplifies sales conversations, and helps you run the business you actually want. Get ready to call the right thing what it is and make clearer business decisions.

Highlights

00:00 Why language matters when making business choices.

05:00 Lesson in choosing your attitude even when the situation is annoying.

09:30 Why "I can't afford it" often means I won't prioritize it.

15:45 Examples of when people misuse 'afford' versus 'prioritize'.

21:00 How your buying behavior sends loud signals about what you value.

24:45 How to communicate your budget without disrespecting someone's expertise.

28:00 How to communicate expectations in a way that's respectful and realistic.

33:45 What we mean when we say prioritize vs. afford.

40:30 A healthier and more flexible way to think about affordability in your business.

Resources + Links

Apply for Luxury Clothier Collective Mastermind HERE

More resources for custom clothiers HERE

Watch on Youtube

Follow

Appointment Only in IG: @appointmentonlypod

Resources + Links
Apply for Luxury Clothier Collective Mastermind  HERE
More resources for custom clothiers HERE
Watch on Youtube

 Follow
Appointment Only in IG: @appointmentonlypod

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

As a business owner, it takes a little bit of a gut check sometimes to not say, I can't afford that, I can't afford that, I can't afford that, and instead to say, this is something that I'm actively choosing to not prioritize in my business right now. When you tell yourself, this is something that I'm actively choosing to not prioritize in your business, it gives you clarity because you will find that there are things that if you actually are honest with yourself and say that, you think to yourself, why not? I should be prioritizing that. This is Appointment Only, the podcast for entrepreneurs building profitable high-end businesses. If you want control, profit, and freedom from the endless hustle, this is for you. We're Kenny and Danny, twin brothers from day one and business partners for 15 years. We're sharing insights from our own experiences running a high-end small business, the highs, the lows, and what we've learned along the way that will help you build businesses you enjoy running that aren't running you. We're here to help you continue creating businesses that support the life you actually want to live. Your appointment starts now. Today's topic is what it's actually perfect coming off of last episode, which was all about pet peeves. Have you thought of any more pet peeves? I haven't given it a lot of thought. Okay. I feel like I'm a man of many pet peeves. Everything drives me crazy. Every I have zero patience for things, especially in the car. When I'm in the car, when I'm in the car alone, the things that I say, I am flabbergasted at that at the words that come out of my mouth. I would never say those words. To someone's face. To somebody's face in front of my kids. I would never say those words. Like they're horrible words that I say. Like what? Oh, I'm not gonna say it. I don't feel comfortable saying that. I'm just trying to get this podcast canceled. Well, believe me, take one ride along. If I accidentally butt dial you on my ride along, I'm getting canceled. That's not good. But the stuff that I say in the car is is just crazy, especially because it's these are people who are gonna make me be 25 seconds later to my destination. It's not that big of a deal. It's really not that big of a deal. Uh, correct. One of my pet peeves as it relates to being in the car, and this is gonna be outside of like so last episode. Well, I just you know, this our this upcoming episode flows into or out of pet peeves. And for those of you who either skipped right past the last few episodes or uh haven't really been paying attention, we are getting to bad business advice is the the segment that we end each episode on now. And uh we've been getting some good, uh, some very uh good reviews from that. You wouldn't know it by reading our reviews. We've got zero actual good reviews from it. We have good reviews. And while we're on the topic, if you wouldn't mind giving us a five-star rating and writing us a very nice review that would be great on the podcast. You're a business owner, you know how hard it is to get people to actually write you a five-star Google review. Why is it so hard? We're asking for that. We're asking for you to write us and our podcast a five-star review. That is our ask. And while we're on the topic of asks, I have one for our for our regulars. I would love to eat at Rayos in New York City. It's, I believe, on the Upper East Side. I wouldn't know because I've never been there because you can't go, you can't make a reservation. I think there's like seven tables inside, and people own the tables. So you have to know someone who owns the table in order to be able to eat there. We're taking uh my parents to New York for Christmas, and my dad wants to eat at Rayos, and I can't take- of course he does. Of course, the one place you can't get into doesn't matter how much literally everything's at. Like, is there anything else? And I mean, he's not like this really demanding guy, but I know that on his bucket list he would love to eat at Rayos, which he'll never be able to do. He'll join the club. I mean, that's everybody's fucking. Seriously. So if you happen to be listening and you happen to have a way for me to eat at Rayos, send us a DM. I will send you the dates. We will make it happen. I don't care if it's lunch or dinner. I think it's probably a dinner-only place. But isn't that wild? Like these people own their tables and you can, you know, borrow them out to people. It's like old school mafia. It's very old school. So that's why my dad wants to go. But that's my ask. Very, very specific there. But that was a very specific ask. It's worth asking. It's free to ask. It is free to ask. It's also free to write a five-star review and rate us five stars on this podcast as well. There's another free thing. You know, it's not free though. What's not free? One of my pet peeves, and then we'll get into what we're actually talking about. Which is not another episode of back-to-back pet peeves, by the way. No, it's not. I don't understand. And now I've I've been pulled over a lot.

SPEAKER_01 5:13

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 5:14

Brag alert. Yeah. Sometimes it's like, can you just look the other way? We were we we went to the Timberwolves game the other day. Brag alert. Sat in. Imagine the worst seats you could get at a sporting event. Oh, I can. I've I think I've sat in those same seats. Now I want you to go even higher. Were you hanging from the rafters? I wanted to after those, after I saw those seats. We went with my son's basketball team. So we're not going to get good seats. But we had to meet up in the lobby with the team at 650 for what I assumed was a game that started at what time would you assume? If you're meeting there at 6:60? 650. 7, maybe 7.15. Well, games don't start at 7.15. So 7 o'clock game start time is what I assumed. Game didn't start till 8:30. 8:30 start time. So it's going to be a late night. We stay for the whole thing. Why would they want you there before seven? The kids were the boys were playing on the court, like at scrimmaging each other on the court, I guess before the game. I thought it was a halftime thing. Oh. It was a before the game thing. So anyway, that that's neither here nor there. But the game started at 8:30. So it's going to be a late night. We're also not going to be the parents who are like, okay, boys, it's halftime. It's getting late. Time to go. That's what our parents would have done. They would have. Not at a professional sporting event. Yeah. Now, were we allowed to stay up and watch Sunday night football when the Vikings were on? Absolutely not. No. It's like we had to hear about it from Luke the next morning. It's like, well, Luke will know what happened. Luke's parents let him stay up. Steve and Barb are less strict than Kenny and Kirsten. Anyway, game time starts at 8:30. We know it's going to be late. Sure enough, it is late. Game actually is close. So there's one of it's one of those games where they're calling timeouts at the end and it's just dragging on and on. Enough. By the time we're driving home, it's 11:30 p.m. school night. I'm just trying to get home. I'm driving on the road back to my house. Boring. Of course you were. Of course I was. But this is important. I'm driving home. I'm on the road back to my house. It's a neighborhood road. I'm the only car except for a set of headlights right behind me. I've been in this situation so many times. I know what this is. So I tell Anna, I'm about to get pulled over and I don't know why. Sure enough, whoop, lights me up. Pull off to the side. The guy's like, Do you know why I pulled you over? It's a guy who's pulled me over before in the neighborhood. You're a regular. I'm a regular. Let's just say I'm not going to be writing him a review. He's not getting five stars. He's like, You but drinking again tonight, Mr. King. Which bar are you coming from tonight? I can smell you coming. He pulls me over. This is the only set of headlights I've seen on the road. He pulls me over from rolling a stop sign about a mile back. And I have a why bother? You know, I'm not putting anybody in danger. It's more dangerous to pull me over because what if I'm going to do something to you? I'm not endangering anybody on the road because it's just me and you. Like, just go fight crime, dude. Go find crime. You're not going to find crime in this on this neighborhood road. I'm not up to anything. You know, I just I just didn't come to a complete stop at the stop sign. That's a pet peeve of mine. That's really, really frustrating. It's frustrating. He did give me a warning though. And I'm surprised because my attitude was horrible with him. I was kind of pouty if I'm being wrong. What do you mean? I was just like kind of threw my license on the side of my dash. I was like, there you go. And then he came back and he wrote me a warning. I was like, okay, thank you so much. And then I just drove away. I did not have a good attitude, but that's a pet peeve of mine. Like it's late. I'm not speeding. In fact, I was speeding a little bit because he was tailgating me so bad. Oh, yeah. And then he didn't want to go fast. I knew it was a cop. Oh. So I'm like, I'm going to go faster. And then if he tells me I was speeding, I'm going to tell him, well, it's because you were tailgating me. Right. But sure enough, he was that'll show him. That'll teach him a lesson. But this guy's pulled me over before for something else. I actually tried to fight it in court, but they're still dealing with COVID. Oh, we do everything on Zoom now. And it was like, I'm not going to deal with Zoom court days. That's ridiculous. Yeah, that's got to be. Today we're talking about the words prioritize versus afford, which I believe is a great episode coming off of the pet peeves episode because this is one of my pet peeves. And I didn't get into it last episode. He saved it for this. I saved it. We should, we should all be so lucky. You are so lucky that I saved it for you. You're welcome, everyone. But that's been a pet peeve of mine for forever. And one of the things I really appreciated about our parents growing up is they never used the word afford. They never said we can't afford that. Even though there were things that we couldn't afford that I'm sure we were asking for, um, like chia pets. There's a different thing. There's a difference between affording something, prioritizing something, and just knowing when something's just a complete waste of your money. Well, you know what was a waste they decided was a waste of their money that I would really wish we could have prioritized. Picture folders. Yeah, instead of the the instead of just the single color folders. The mead. The mead three-hole punch single color folders, the the paper ones. That's what we had. All of our friends had the the glossy picture folders, and there were cats. Yeah. And there were parrots. And there were goals. Soccer goals. There were sports. Oh, yes. There were all sorts of good things. And we we could we could choose one. One picture folder, and the rest were just uh miscellaneous colors. I personally was drawn to red because that's my favorite color. You know what I've heard once, and this is so true. Why is the yellow folder for math? Do you agree with that? No, green. Oh, sorry. Here's something though that I've also seen. Why is the number 17, November the month, and Thursday all the same? Oh, yeah, you're right. Oh my gosh. Crazy. Why is that? 17, November, Thursday. Yes, that's exactly where my brain went. Oh my gosh. Are you a sorcerer? Yeah. Well, I am a sorcerer. I thought you were a Christian. Nope. He's a witch. I'm a Wiccan. Is that a man, man, witch? I think it's universal, unisex. Wizard. Anyone can be a Wiccan. Wizard would be. I don't think you're a wizard. I think I think like Wiccan is the people like devil worshippers. Well, Thursday, 17, November, they're all the same. Prioritize versus afford. I am so sick of hearing people make excuses for themselves about something that they can't afford when the reality is it's just something that you don't prioritize. Well, and that's the problem, is that these words are used interchangeably and they are very, very different words. They are not interchangeable, but I think so often the tendency is for people to use them as synonyms. But that does not actually speak to what the actual issue is. The actual true objection would be in a business sense. If someone doesn't prioritize spending X number of dollars on whatever thing you're selling, that's very, very different than if they actually can't afford it. But it but it is interesting that people use those words interchangeably, but the dictionary definitions of them are different. Now, I did the service to all of us of finding these dictionary definitions. Wow. Prioritize means to designate or treat something as more important than other things. Okay. Afford is very simple. To have enough money to pay for. That's it. Do you have enough money to buy this thing? If the answer is yes, you actually can afford it. Now, whether it's a priority or not is different. Well, and whether whether or not it aligns with your financial goals or priorities, exactly. That's very different. If you have, you know, if if you're doing, you know, everyone knows the Dave Ramsey methodology. If you're doing that, of course, you know, you can't afford anything. Yeah. You can't afford it. You can't buy anything. But so if you're doing that, that's a very different set of priorities and goals. But the the the dictionary definition is if you have the money or will get the money or have access to it or know it's coming in, you actually can't afford it. Yeah. So some things that people say that they can't afford to do, which are objectively false. I can't afford to eat healthy. Now, unfortunately, there are some people who can't afford to eat healthy is so expensive to eat healthy. And this is not, this is not us coming from a place of assuming that everybody makes the same amount of money or assuming that everybody is on an equal playing field. This is just us really getting into the words prioritize versus afford in a business sense. I hear often or used to hear often, especially when we were in the process of losing weight and getting healthy ourselves, this idea that I can't afford to eat healthy. Now, when we first started our health transformation, we were not in the financial place that we are in today, not even close. Yet we prioritized it enough to make it something that we could do. It took some strategy. It took going to different grocery stores for different things. It took a lot of intention. Yeah. I mean, you know, these days I'm able to just go to Whole Foods and load up or the, you know, the Kowalski's or like the nice grocery store that has all of the nice organic stuff. And I'm able to do all my grocery shopping at the same place. But back then, we were really strategic. We would go to the co-op, which is a nicer, nicer spot. We'd go to the co-op and we would buy select things and then we would our next stop was Aldi and we would fill in the gaps with things from Aldi. Aldi's trader Joe's. Trader Joe's. Yeah, but we it's we weren't in the place where we were just like, I don't care what it costs, I'm gonna buy all this stuff. But it is, it is expensive. They're not wrong about it being expensive. Right. But to say I cannot afford it is not entirely accurate either. And the same thing is true whether it's a whether it's a personal trainer or a gym membership. There are so many different variations of personal trainers and gym memberships that I would say anybody with a full-time job can afford either or both of those things. Now, whether they prioritize it or not is a different story. Yeah, you might not prioritize. But to say I can't afford a gym membership is really interesting because I know what is it, Planet Fitness costs $10 a month to belong. I also know that there are personal trainers. I remember thinking a personal trainer was out of reach for us when we decided to get healthy and being really pleasantly surprised at how inexpensive it actually felt, even at that time of our lives. At that time of our lives, and that was in person, and that it was ended up being every day of the week. These days we transitioned it into that. Yeah. Yeah, we didn't start that way, but we transitioned it that way. These days, you can actually have a relationship with a very, very qualified, smart personal trainer online. But again, it's a it's it's a priorities conversation. It's not necessarily an afford conversation. Another one that that you hear a lot, I can't afford to go on vacation. Now, this is something that we hear from business owners. And this is something, again, it nobody is saying it has to be a European extravaganza for a month. But to say blanket statement, I can't afford to go on vacation, that's just not true for the majority of the people out there. If you have a full-time job and you have any amount of consistent income, it's more of a question of is a vacation a priority in your life right now? Are you willing to do the things that it's going to take to get you to the point where you can prioritize a vacation? It's not a matter of you don't and won't ever have enough money to pay for a vacation of any type. And I this is one thing where when you own your own business, there is an added layer of you, you actually do have to think about the affordability aspect because it isn't about taking the time off and then spending the money. It's about taking the time off, spending the money, and then also not earning the money you would have earned if you were at work. Yeah. So there's a double that added layer, but I still think it's it remains the same where if you prioritize it, there are ways to make it happen and you can rework your schedule around the thing that you're prioritizing. But yes, I understand where the tendency and the assumption and the temptation would to just be to say, I can't afford that. I'm not doing that right now. I can't afford it. Can't afford it. And I I know the feeling. I remember when we were in those positions, but well, instead of what doing that and just saying, nope, it's not possible, we would just figure out a way to make it work with for a business expense, which is very common. Yeah, make it make it a business trip and not like make it a business trip and don't do anything business related and just pay for it out of the business. Like actually figure out a way in which this is a business expense for you. There's a million ways to do that. Just ask your CPA. So some things don't ask our CPA that we were using back then. We keep teeing up the CPA who well, actually, he wasn't a CPA. That was the whole problem. This tax preparer. Did you know? Did you know that uh all CPAs are accountants, but not all accountants are CPAs? We didn't, we did not, and uh turns out that the guy we were using was a tax preparer. Which is very I'm a tax preparer. I could say that. Yeah, I mean I'm not, but I wouldn't have done as much damage as he did if I would have done it myself. But yes, all CPAs are accountants, but not all accountants are CPAs. Also, did you know I was at the store this morning looking for an anniversary card? When's your anniversary? It's today. Oh, happy anniversary! Remembering, yeah, and here you are doing your favorite thing. But did you know that there are two different types? I was just like, oh, I'm looking at anniversary cards. I'm someone who likes to buy cards. I think it's funny. You're a card guy. I like to give cards, I think it's thoughtful. So I always, and I like to buy nice cards because I save them. I know other people don't, but I save them, so I always give nice cards. But I was looking for anniversary cards. What does Madeline think about you saving all your cards?

unknown 20:04

She doesn't know.

SPEAKER_00 20:06

Don't tell anyone. It's your little secret. You're different. I don't save every card, but I do save ones that are mean. Come home from work, work today. Hey, yeah, she has them all laid out on the bed. Kenny, I found something under our mature that I feel uncomfortable about. Um, but I was looking, and did you know there are two different types of anniversary cards? There's anniversary and then there's our anniversary. You got to read carefully. Because you're not wishing your long life. Congrats on your anniversary. Oh, because like who gives cards to other people for their anniversary, right? But there's so many more cards out there that I could give some random person saying happy anniversary, you guys. Isn't that weird? Why would you ever do that? I'm thoughtful, but I'm not that thoughtful. Happy anniversary to you two. But there's so many more options for people to give an anniversary card to someone else who's not them than there were to choose anniversary cards for me. Yeah, that is weird. So weird. Anyway, so what do you you can't afford that or you don't prioritize that? Or what was that? Oh, I was just saying because we were saying that did like the did you know about the CPAs? I'm saying, did you know about anniversary cards? Cards, greeting cards, that's a perfect afford versus prioritize because they're they're expensive and you throw them away. But sometimes you prioritize them and sometimes you don't. I can't afford to eat healthy, I can't afford that gym membership, I can't afford that vacation. So those are just those are just common things like here, lifestyle. What are things that your prospective clients say as it relates to afford? Now we already know it's not true, but what are the things that we've heard that you've heard? I'd use you, but I can't afford it. Okay. If I could afford to use you, I would, but it's not in the budget. Ever heard that one before? Yeah. That one's a little more honest because they're just acknowledging it's not in the budget. They're not saying I can't find the money. But the that sentence doesn't make sense based on the dictionary. Definition of the word afford. I also just, for what it's worth, I find that to be rude. I find it to be very rude. You know, I them saying it's not in the budget is them saying, I don't prioritize what you do enough to make it work. I'm gonna get, I'm gonna get real uh vulnerable with you. I personally cannot afford to buy a Rolls-Royce. Okay, I don't have the money to buy a Rolls-Royce. So I would never go to the Rolls-Royce dealership and say, oh, I like it. But you'd probably never even find yourself on the phone with a Rolls-Royce person. I'm just gonna put myself in that position where I'm basically telling them that I'm, you know, they're out of my league. Straight up. But I just find it to be, I just find it to be rude. Uh, and I also I think we're really checked in on this because of what we do with what, you know, selling custom suits and them being the price points that they are and what we hear and what bugs us, you know, on a daily basis, the calls we get every single day. We're really checked in to not putting ourselves in situations. I mean, I've had to really overcome the tendency I have to just buy the first thing I'm looking at because I I'm so anti anybody feeling like I'm shopping them around. Yeah, or or overcome the tendency of trying to be the best client that anybody you ever work with has ever had because I just want to be, I just want to be easy. I want to be accommodating. I want them to know that I'm valuing them. I don't ever want to push back on price just because those are the things that bug me. But I do think there's a fine line in, you know, using your brain and doing a little bit of research. Like you don't have to buy the first car you see, and you don't have to use the first company that comes out and bids for your backlandscaping. You know, it's so it's normal in many industries to try some things out. But I think we're really checked in on doing this. So I generally don't put myself in positions where I'm needing to tell someone, hey, listen, I don't value you. But that's how that's how it can come across, depending on what they're saying and and what it is that you do. And a pet peeve of ours is being in active dialogue with someone who says, I can't afford you. Because in my mind, it's like, then why the hell are we even having a conversation? Yeah. That's your job to vet ahead of time, dude. It's not my job to communicate that to you. And also, by the way, he's getting heated. By the way, if you've been on a vacation in the last year, you actually can afford me. You just don't prioritize me. So see you later. You know what my favorite thing is, though? Oh, is unsolicited business advice. You know what you should do. You know what you should do. If you were more affordable, you'd have more clients. Ever heard that? We we used to hear stuff like that all the time. People used to say that. If you were more affordable, think about how many more clients you have. Yeah, if your prices were lower. If your prices were lower, I bet you'd sell twice as many suits. Oh, yeah, no shit. I don't want to hear a lock. Yeah, I don't want to. I don't want to work with twice as many people. I think I'm gonna keep my prices right where they're at. You've heard it before, too. These things that prospective quote unquote clients say as it relates to afford. Oh, listen to you. Prospective clients. No, no, no. Prospective customers. Client is earned, customer can be accidental. But you've heard those things before. These these commonalities, these common phrases, I'd use you, but I can't afford it. If you are more affordable, I'd do it, but I just I'm not at the place right now. Uh, if you were more affordable, if your prices were cheaper, you'd get more people, whatever. That's things that prospects say. Also, let's just be clear. As we're sitting here sort of complaining about this and and and expressing our frustration with this, it's not that I'm saying I can't stand talking to people if they aren't going to use me. It's just that he hates poor people. What we're saying is they're not being truthful. They're saying exactly forward when they mean prioritize. I would have a lot of respect for someone who said, Listen, I love what you're doing. I am just not prioritizing doing that right now. Well, and that's a conversation that's very different. I had with my landscaper a couple of weeks ago. We were doing I'd love to hear the shits he's talking about you. I bet you said it in the right way, though. I did. I said, Hey, I got the proposal. I mean, it wasn't a proposal. We were already like ground had already been broken and we were we were kind of fine-tuning some plans. And I got the number and I said, I would really love it if the number started with this digit instead of this digit. Now I know that that means that I'm gonna need to make some compromises. I'd love if the number started with a zero. Let's do business. Hey, what can we do? If you want to earn my business, this number cannot start with a one, my man. I wish it. My dude, I wish the number started with positive. Is there any way we can do this where you're paying me? Just be shoot straight. But it was one of those conversations where I got the number, I told him I don't feel comfortable with the project starting with this digit. I would feel much more comfortable if it started with this digit. I know what that means is that I'm gonna have to make some compromises on some things that I originally said that I wanted. And what that also means is I'm probably gonna want to do this in a couple different chunks. So let's figure out a way for me to get something awesome for that dollar amount. And by the way, it was a reasonable digit. Okay. I'm not asking for a, you know, $5,000 backyard renovation here. Um, yeah. It's not like uh champagne taste on a beer button. No, no, no, no. It was we there were just some things that I had asked for that he was like, okay, well, the easiest thing is we don't do this and we don't do this, and we have a conversation in the spring. Thank you so much. Conversation over. I think that's the sort of 2025-26 version of our past habit of trying to just say yes and being the best customer ever and just like not asking questions and buying the first thing that was available. I think that's the more realistic way of doing it, where you're able to have a real conversation with someone, but you're using the right terms in a way that they still feel respected and you're coming to the table with some realistic expectations and you're asking the right types of questions. I mean, I was just doing this, it pained me to do this. But I went to the car dealership at this point, it was like three months ago, to test drive a car that I knew I wasn't gonna buy because it wasn't the right color. And I wasn't gonna do how I did it in 2021, which is where I bought a car I didn't like the color of because I wanted to be the best be the best client and easy. So I said, you know, I'm not gonna do that this time. And I was very straightforward with him. I said, listen, I'm not gonna buy this car because I don't like, I don't want to buy a blue car. I bought a gray car in 2021 because I wanted the car. And I really this time around want the car, but I want the car to be the color I want. So you don't have the color I want. I'm not buying a car today, but I need to test drive it because I've never driven the car and I want to make sure I like it. It was very straightforward, very respectful. And this time around, I've been waiting. I mean, this was three months ago. I still check almost every day. Like, did something come in? And I'm just like waiting it out, and he knows that and it will eventually pay off for the guy. But it just pained me to have that conversation with him because I felt bad, but also that is his job. And when you walk into a situation and you're able to present realistic expectations for both sides, I don't think there's anything wrong with that. And that's what's missing as we're over here complaining about when the emails we're getting or the calls we get, and when people are saying, I I wish I could use you, but I can't afford you. You know, that's not a realistic thing to say. It's not a realistic, it's not a truthful statement. If you're saying I'm not prioritizing using you, that's very, very different than, and that maybe to them it might sound like it would feel more rude to say that, but actually I would love to hear that over a Ford. Absolutely. Sometimes we'll get a no email from a client, and it is something along the line, or not a client, somebody who has reached out, a perspective something, something along the lines of, you know, I was looking into it more. I actually think I'm gonna go this route because I'm just not ready for the price points that you do things in. I love, I love what you do, looks great. Totally that's not something that I'm gonna be doing right now. I'm always totally pleasantly surprised to read that email versus I would so much rather get that email versus this. I I found a different option, but I'll keep you in mind for next time. We look at each other and we say, no, bullshit. No, you're not. No, you're not. Because you don't prioritize it. So we're essentially just saying, be honest, but let's call a spade a spade here. Let's call prioritize priorities and let's call afford affordability. These things are two different things. What do business owners say? Flipping those words, using those words interchangeably when they shouldn't be. Well, we've heard some of this as we've been doing uh luxury clothier collective, which is our mentorship mastermind. Is we have had people say, I can't afford luxury clothier collective. Yes, you can. Oh, are we gonna go down this rabbit hole? Well, you you brought it up. Not me. I'm just riffing here. I'm just riffing here as gaslighting everyone. I'm just riffing here as the number two. But it's like that is one of those things where it's like, yes, you can afford it. By the way, remember that conversation we had however many months ago where you told me about this sale and whatever? You can afford it. I know that you can. Now, the fact that you don't prioritize it, got it. That's totally fine. Totally fine. You're using the words interchangeably to a place where the sentence doesn't make sense. I can't afford to make that hire or hire that person to make my life easier. I can't afford that rent. Or I can't afford this other element of overhead. Now, listen, those things can be true, depending on what your numbers look like, what your actual profit is versus the revenue that you're bringing in. There are going to be lots of things out there that you look at and you actually straight up cannot afford. But I think most things that end up causing this roadblock and this mental decision, like, I can't afford that. It's actually a priorities thing. I remember this is this is kind of going back to like when you were talking about vacation. Because we didn't grow up taking a lot of vacations, and in our early days in business, everything we were doing was a business expense. We grew up going out of town often, but it was like to visit family, you know, it wasn't like vacation. Anyway, right. Yes. And we would drive, we would drive in in the car. And actually, I would I wish I could drive more. I love road trips. I do not road trips. I do not prioritize spending the time it would take to drive somewhere versus spending the money to fly. The time affluence thing is where it really comes into play. But back in the day, I remember thinking, you know, we we were looking at doing, you know, some quicker trips, like long weekend stuff. And I remember thinking, like, I can't afford that. We can't afford that. No way. And then actually realizing, oh, actually, it's just a priorities thing. And I've just decided for some reason that I'm not prioritizing it. And it's it's worth prioritizing and it you can't afford it. It's not that hard to do something domestic for a long weekend. When you take a step back and you actually think about the definitions of those two words, it helps you be honest with yourself as a business owner in certain situations. And it also helps you understand prospects as well. But as a business owner, there are so many, we always say there is no shortage of things we can spend money on, no shortage of people we can hire to do things, no shortage of opportunities that cost money. No shortage of places where we can spend advertising. I mean, all might it may be true to say there's nothing you couldn't do if you had the money to do it. There's no magazine you couldn't at you couldn't be in if you didn't have the money to advertise. Right. There, there's just no shortage of places where you can spend money. And as a business owner, it takes a little bit of a gut check sometimes to not say, I can't afford that, I can't afford that, I can't afford that, and instead to say, this is something that I'm actively choosing to not prioritize in my business right now. When you tell yourself this is something that I'm actively choosing to not prioritize in your business, it gives you clarity because you will find that there are things that if you actually are honest with yourself and say that, you think to yourself, why not? I should be prioritizing that. So it's easier to say, I can't afford it because of the price. Well, and and what that is, is that's the poverty mindset. And I think that's that's the mindset shift that is so important. And it you fight it. It's an active fight all the time. But when you're approached with something or where you're when you have an opportunity or when you're making a decision, it doesn't matter if it's a big decision or a small decision. It can even be each time you have an opportunity to take on a client or a customer or turn that person away, instead of just saying, Well, I can't afford not to. There's something business owners say all the time. Can't afford not to. Yeah. I can't afford to turn this person away. Okay, stop, stop, stop, stop what you're doing. Doesn't matter. Think about that person, think about that opportunity. Think about your priorities now. And you we have to sort of rewire our brains from immediately saying, I can't afford, I can't afford, and then thinking about the affordability problem, the poverty mindset. Think about your priorities. And instead of saying, I well, I can't afford to turn this person away or I can't afford to do that, think about what are my priorities and try to see these things from your priorities lenses. This was a huge shift that we made in our business. We readjusted our priorities. And as a result, when we get a lead that comes in of a prospective customer who wants to use us, we put them through this filter of our priorities. And if this client doesn't fuel our priorities as a business, it is a very easy no. And there are also so many other easy no's that exist when you're funneling things through a priority lens. But there are also things that we would have a tendency to say, can't afford that. Not right now, not gonna happen right now, that we're actually forced to take an additional look at. And sometimes we decide, well, we actually do prioritize this end goal, which means this thing that even though it costs more than we wish it did, even though it's gonna take X amount of time that we feel like we don't really have right now, this actually is something we need to be pursuing because this has been run through our priorities funnel, our filter. And this actually is where our business is. We just did this with we rebranded our business. Uh, and uh we we love the way everything turned out. Old us would have just reached out to one company and hired the first company. But we didn't do that. We did our due diligence. We got a number of bids from a number of different companies, both local and around the country. And all of the bids we were not all of them, there were some that were a lot less expensive. And then a lot of the bids of the different companies, the designers and the branding agencies were kind of in a very similar wheelhouse. And we found a company that we really liked. They happened to be one of the local companies. The difference between this company, though, and all of the other companies was that their process was a lot different. It required that we ourselves be more involved, a series of Zoom calls where they're really getting to know the identity of the business, not only what the business has been, but what the business currently is. But it was a great process and it was actually very enjoyable when we got into it. But it was, we had to have a conversation. Are we willing to spend the time here? Because money-wise, it was very in line with everything else we'd heard for the most part. But are we willing to do this process? And my gut instinct was no. I'm gonna be honest. I was in, I was in Danny was pushing for it. And I was like, I this is feeling completely unnecessary. Why wouldn't we just hire a company that's just gonna do what they tell us to do and provide us with something? But the end result that we got to after going through their process was excellent. And I'm really glad we did it the way we did it, but it did require that we sort of see this opportunity through the priorities lens versus just the affordability. Because we're talking about affordability as far as money, but also we've mentioned a number of times time affluence. And if you were looking at it just on the time it would take, that would be an easy no. And you and you know that we value our time and we see our time as having a monetary, you know, value. And so when you're talking about almost 20 hours of Zoom conversations, turns out that was the most expensive bid because they required a lot more of our time on the front end. Exactly. You also know we take a lot of pride in our processes. And we had a conversation that, you know, this company has a very strict process that they recommend taking all of their clients through, just like we do. And we thought to ourselves, well, we expect the people that come to us to follow our process and trust that we have a way that we're doing this for a reason. So I think it would be kind of cool if we put ourselves in a position where we were able to experience that ourselves, where we were able to just go with it and see how it goes and trust that they might know a thing or two about why they're doing this and trust that maybe some good could come from this. So that was a really cool way that we very recently experienced this perspective of afford, uh, prioritize, and how they both work together to achieve something really cool. I guess my encouragement after rambling so so long about the word prioritize and the word afford and my disdain for the word afford when people really mean prioritize is just to take a little bit more of an inward look as a business owner. As a business owner, don't get in the habit of not doing certain things because you blanket statements say you can't afford it, or you tell yourself this is something that's not in the budget, or I can't do this. I can't, can't, can't. When the reality is these are actually things that you won't do for any number of reasons. It's not that you can't do it. It's not that by the dictionary definition, you don't and won't have enough money to pay for this thing, or don't and won't have the time to do this thing. It's that that thing isn't a priority. Take a step back, flip it on its head, and look at things and opportunities through a priorities lens. Start with the priorities. What are my priorities? Why did I get into this business? What do I want to get out of my business today? And allow that to inform what you prioritize in the getting there. There are going to be things that you would have said, I can't afford it, that you actually should prioritize and do because it will fuel your priorities. There are other things probably that you're doing because at one point in time you started doing it, whether it's with your time or with your money, that don't now fuel the priorities that you have for your business. Well, great news. You can stop doing those things now and funnel, create a new priority. Because the definition of priority is to designate or treat something as more important than other things. We already know priorities change. So if your priorities for what you want to get out of your business have changed, you're allowed to change how you're how you're doing things in your business. That's the great thing. It's not so, so blanket and so cut and dry and so black and white, where here are the things that you can't afford to do, here are the things that you can't afford to do. It's much more fluid than that. Here are the things that you could choose to prioritize, here are the things that you might not prioritize right now. Think about it that way. And just know that most people use the word afford when they mean prioritize. And yeah, it's annoying. Yeah, it bothers us. And we're not going to sit here and be one of those Instagram-y yellers that you see that are, you know, when they say this, just say this right back at them. But, you know, maybe you could challenge if they if if that is the an objection that you hear when you're working with someone, whether it's on the phone or in person, oh, I can't afford that. Are you sure it's it's not maybe just a priorities thing? You know, or maybe you just don't prioritize it. In which case, what do you prioritize? And then they can tell you, well, I actually prioritize this other thing. And then you can maybe see it from that perspective. All right, you ready for the bad business advice? Let's have it. Are you ready for it? I am. Okay. So here's uh here's today's piece of bad business advice and what we think about it. Offer more services to reach more people. I mean, it's kind of like when we would get all this advice from people. You know what you should do? You know what you should do? You know what you should do? You should you should do this too, because then the people would do that. First of all, no, they won't. That's more is more. And we all know that less is more. And more is not better. Oftentimes less is better. You should offer more to reach more people. Absolutely not. You should focus on your unique offering, your unique business, and go after the right people. That would be my counter to that. But we have heard that so many times. You know what you should do? You know, if you sold this, people would be really interested in that. Oh, you know, you what you should do is you should you should carry this or you should have this line. No. Also, you know what? I just want to work with people who are really interested in what I'm actually selling. I don't want to work with people who aren't interested in this and find other things they might be interested in. You can't be everything to everyone. You never will be. And focusing on what you're great at and what you want to focus on. And also think about the flip side. Focusing on things that you're not great at and that aren't why you got into this industry in the first place? That is a surefire way to burn out fast and to just grow sick of what you're doing and hate your life. Don't just take on things because you feel obligated to or because someone told you you should. Focus on what you're great at and what fuels you and what you know you want to prioritize, and the right people will come. Have you ever watched a restaurant flip show where a Gordon Ramsey or a Robert Irvine goes in, takes a struggling restaurant, you know, does renovations physically and you know, inside the company as a whole and renovates it from the inside out. And then they are a whole new restaurant. What's the first thing that those chefs do, those experts do? They pare down the menu. They say, What are you great at? What do you want to be known for? All right, here's your one-page menu. It doesn't have a binder, it doesn't have multiple sides. Here's your one-page menu. This is all that you do. You're going to be a better and a more profitable restaurant as a result of this. That's a great example because restaurants are really a volume machine. You need to have a healthy margin within that volume, but restaurants do multiple turns a nice. They're notoriously a low margin, especially the higher end you get. Yeah. It's they rely on lots of people to come through. But even that sort of a business is saying, let's pair it down. Let's not expand the menu to try to reach more people and get more people through the door. They're saying let's pair it down and let's really focus on a few things that we earn a good margin on that we know we're excellent at, because we assuming we're doing these things well, we know that the volume of the people will come. And it just simplifies. It's a lot easier to read a one-page menu. It's a lot easier to find something you like. And you know that if you see it on the menu and it's a one pager, that it's going to be really good. Absolutely. Kind of like when you're scrolling through uh Apple Podcasts and you see the thumbnail, you know this one's gonna be good. You know this is gonna be a banger. Yeah. This episode is going to rock. This podcast is my new favorite podcast. Thanks for listening. Thanks for showing up for your appointment. This appointment is over, and we'll see you for the next one. And that's that. Today's appointment is over. This has been appointment only. Your time is valuable, and we're very appreciative of you spending some of it with us. Thanks for showing up. Thanks for being on time. Thanks for being receptive to what we have to say. And if you have a question you'd like us to answer here on appointment only, please shoot us a DM. We would love to hear from you. We would also appreciate a five star review. We'd love if you'd follow along. 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