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Welcome to The VICI Code, where we unlock real stories of small business owners who've battled chaos, crushed doubt, and conquered their challenges. Faith, family, and finances. No fluff, just raw, honest conversations that decode the path to victory, one story at a time. What is up? Thank you for joining us today as we explore our latest purpose-driven journey, The Wealth Structure, where we take a trip from compliance to strategy. How the anti-CPA uses IRS insights and AI to help entrepreneurs save six figures and build multi-generational wealth. Most entrepreneurs lose somewhere between 20 to 50% of their wealth, not because they aren't making enough, but because they aren't structured correctly. Today's guest spent years inside the IRS and the Big Four, only to realize the traditional CPA model is broken. Tony Hong, widely known as the CPA Dude, is based in San Francisco, California. Tony has built a tax strategy firm that views itself as a hero in the battle against overtaxation. He saved clients anywhere from $20,000 to over$600,000 in one single year. I met Tony in the trenches of Dan Martell's Elite Masterclass. He is a disruptor in the industry, often defined by dry compliance and backward-looking numbers. He has positioned, positioned himself as a wealth architect rather than a mere tax preparer. His focus on AI integration and entity design makes him a perfect guest to discuss the intersection of high-level finance and modern leadership. We are exploring the wealth and income divide. We are diving into why most CPAs are looking in the rearview mirror while Tony is using AI and strategic entity design

to look through the windshield. We'll break down the VICI pillars: 1:57

faith, family, fitness, and finance with a man who is literally redefining what it means to keep what you earn. Tony, like I've told you, we have had this day circled on the calendar for a while now. Welcome to the show, my man. Oh, thanks, Joe. Super excited to be here. Time to time, fate is here. Finally. Let's go. All right, we're gonna jump right in. We want to hear some of the nitty-gritty, some of the breakthrough. Uh, you know, we start with the corporate exit. You have, uh, the elite pedigree— IRS, Big Four, major tech. You saw how the machine works from the inside. What was the specific aha moment or breakthrough that made you realize you had to leave what would actually help entrepreneurs rather than just file their paperwork? Uh, the big one was— oh man, that's There's so much, but I'd say the big, big one is that even when I worked at KPMG, like all we did was just file returns. And then the one part was you'd help them get some refunds. But then we did like a, like a reverse audit refund one time. So it was just like getting money back that they already paid to the states. And then I was working at 3M at that time, and I think we found them like $3 million in extra overpaid taxes. And then I was like excited. I'm like, yo, we found $3 million. And then we just gave it back to them like, hey, here's the end results, here's deliverables, $3 million refund check coming from the state of Minnesota. And then they're just like, cool. And I'm like, huh? I was like, that's it? And I was like, okay, that's not as the, you know, I would say the reaction I was hoping. I wasn't hoping for too much like, you know, it's like thank you or anything, but I was just like, hey, we just found you $3 million. And they didn't really care at all. And I was just like, yo, they don't teach you they're not as grateful. The other part too is it's like they don't teach you how to save money on taxes there too. All you do is file, file, file, file, stay in compliance. I'm like, what am I really sitting here and doing and learning? There's not much like, all right, filing returns is super important, don't get me wrong, but like, how is this actually saving anyone money? It's, it's not. So I think that was probably that big moment where I was just like, oh, okay, that's cool. Versus in today's era, you know, I'm California, we save someone $800 on their LLC fee. Then there's— they're super grateful for everything that we can have. So I would say that's like the biggest change, like $3 million reaction versus an $800 reaction. It's just night and day. Yeah. Why do you think most CPAs are focused on compliance instead of strategy? The main part is just actually how our industry is designed. It's kind of sad. Like, you know, even I got caught up in this right when I started the firm and I was just like, hey, you're just so busy filing the returns, just trying to get it all done. And you don't know better at that point. But then it's just so you were just like, all right, you got so many returns, you got to get them done. There's a tight deadline. And then like CPAs, like we're great practitioners. I wouldn't say we're the best business people yet in terms of hiring, scaling operations. That's a whole nother game, right? We joined this field to serve and to help people, but we're not here to really scale a big business. So I think we're just so ingrained into it until you're like, you zoom out or you listen to your consumers. And they're like, how do I save money on taxes? And then that was the same repeat over and over. And also like, you know, the big thing that we got through discovery calls was, you know, how, you know, how, what's your SLA? Like, how fast can you respond? And because all other CPAs in the industry just take weeks to respond or never respond at all. And then it's like, oh geez, dude, like, are we in client services? But also it goes back to the model is so broken already, just so focused on returns. So it's, it's tough where like, if you don't zoom out and listen to the customer, you're kind of just going to be running that hamster wheel all the time. Yeah, I've experienced the same where, you know, you're in the bigger firms and, you know, it's all about just getting through the finish line and it's about just getting it done. Not so much, you know, how did we get here? How can we do better? It's just about, okay, on to the next. There's not a lot of reflection there. So I agree. It's definitely something that's, you know, I think, you know, you can— you'll see in the industry like you and like me and like other people, like you can still scale and do really well without having to overhire or, or have tons of work that you're not really giving that customer service. You call yourself a hero against Uncle Sam. How does that branding reflect your personal philosophy on government and individual tax? Yeah, the big thing is just that there is really no one teaching any of this stuff in school. So like financial literacy is lacking, let alone like tax literacy. So it's like You're not even like the system. It's nothing against them. I was just like, all right, cool. That's, you know, that's how we're raised. You know, you do math, you know, you do English, social studies, but you know, not taught any of this financial literacy. And then the tax literacy part is just gone. So I'd say the biggest part is just like helping people educate them, letting them know, hey, there is a different way. It's not, hey, this is the tax bill, you have to pay what it says. There's actually ways to avoid taxes, right? You can't evade taxes, but you can avoid taxes. So that's kind of like the big part where our mantra is just like, hey, give all the information available. And then if they want to help and be part of the journey, that's cool. If not, totally fine. You know, just my big thing is I really don't care if a prospect comes to us and we sign them on as a client or not. I'm like, hey, take this information, don't overpay in taxes, and cool. The big part actually why I'm so passionate about it too is just that my parents were immigrants to the country and then they had a Chinese restaurant and they were overpaid for 20+ years in taxes. And I was like, oh, that's, you know, always there's that stat, right? If you save $10,000 a year, compounded an S&P 500 at 8% for 30 years, that's $1.3 million, right? $300,000 being tax savings, $1 million being compound interest. So I'm like, oh, that's, that's lovely. I'd probably been a million-dollar retirement fund for them there. So it's like, hey, just don't, don't have it happen again, just like my parents. Yeah, no, it's always something personal that goes back to that, a change that we make to pursue doing things differently. And, you know, usually it's something that really close to us like family. So thanks for sharing that story. Let's get into the AI frontier. You're currently obsessed with building AI systems and I get it. That doesn't exist when you were scaling your own portfolio. In 2026, how is AI specifically helping your clients identify tax savings that a human eye might miss? Yeah, so the big thing from our clients, I'm not sure you see on your side too, but starting way upstream before we even get to the tax part. So in order for us to do tax planning for our clients, we always ask, all right, let me, let me see your financials. What's your profit and loss statement look like? What's your balance sheet look like? And usually it's crickets and it's like, oh, okay. So they always know their top line because they can pull up Stripe, look at, hey, total revenue collected, but they don't know anything in the middle. So they don't know anything that's like net income on the year. So the big part that we actually just recently secured like a partnership with was Digits. So it's like QuickBooks Online competitor, more or less, but they're using AI to grab all your transactions, help you categorize it all the first time. And then also they have a reconciliation tool on top of it. So this is like making it way faster for business owners to actually know what their financials are. And even if you don't do the reconciliation part, it gets you 80% of it. And it's like maybe takes, I don't know, like half an hour to do a full year's financials. So that's speeding up huge because now, now that we're actually starting to roll out that tool, our customers are like, all right, perfect. Now we know like up-to-date insights on what their business is performing because every quarterly session that we have is how much— what's net income? Upload your P&L. Don't got P&L. I got to do my books. Whole quarter's passed. We can't tax plan anymore. So this one tool is making it so much faster for us to actually know what's actually going on behind the financials so we can tax plan accordingly because The plan for $1 million in net income versus$100,000 net income is night and day. Yeah, I totally agree. Now, is there a tax strategy? Is the tax strategy becoming a software problem or will there always be a need for human dealmaking and vision? Yeah. So this is, this is a unique, unique part. So as much as like, like I always joke and say like, hey, AI won't wipe us away completely. The big part is that once AI is here and it is here, the software still will not solve it. So as advanced as like ChatGPT gets or Claude gets today, right, this answer could change in 2, 3 years. But my personal thoughts is that the person that's prompting the AI does not have all the context to actually put in all the taxpayer information in terms of like what are— so how we do tax planning is what are your goals within the next 12 to 60 months, right? And then also like, what's your forecasted income? Are you going to be chilling? Do you like hit a certain point or you go on rapid growth or do you want to like scale back a little bit? So the prompt in itself to put in all the questions that a personal individual would not know, that's like our key part for being a tax strategist and CPA is that you can ask all these questions that the normal person would not know because you don't know what you don't know. So for now, in the time being, is that if you're able to grab all this information, and then prompt the AI to help you create a tax plan strategy. That's like the biggest part for us. So like until that portion is wiped out, the relationship's always going to be there. So until like you have a device that like, you know, goes into your brain and knows exactly like everything about your past, what you want to do in the future, and know how you can think. So that's kind of like the part one of it. And then like part two is just the actual part of our business is this is just so relationship-based is that You know, finances are just, it's just a weird conversation that people don't have, but they should have more. Like, finances are fun. It shouldn't be awkward. It shouldn't be taboo. And the big part is that relationship will never go away, is that even if you could, you know, save, you know, a few thousand dollars a year using AI, people are just, there's that weird part where they just want to talk to a human and there's deeper parts about the finances to help look forward. So I think that relationship part is going to be really hard for AIs to wipe away just because that's how humans work, is that You know, we want to have bonds and unities with our CPAs and our professionals that we work with. Yeah. And it's not weird. That's just how we're built, right? That's human beings yearn for connection. We're looking to, you know, work, you know, it's a community thing. And so it makes sense that no matter how good the technology gets, you know, people will always still want to confirm, is the technology right? You know, and I want to hear directly from a human, someone who cares about me, you know, substantially, not just from an objective standpoint. Perspective standpoint. So, um, yeah, that makes a lot of sense. For business owners now, you know, listening, what is the first sign they may have outgrown their current traditional CPA? Yeah, the biggest part I'd say that outgrows is that if you don't know what's like the underlying basis behind why you're paying that much tax, then they can't explain it to you. That's probably the first like sniff test. So if the, the bill's like Joe,$20,000, pay this by 4/15. And then there's not the because of XYZ. That's probably the first step, right? The second part is the local CPA. There's nothing wrong with local CPAs. It's just that in your market, is that person suited to fit your business? So for example, like if you're a business owner, but that person primarily just does W-2s, popping those in, they won't know the strategies, right? So like you go from compliance first And then like if you're not sitting down and like having a tax strategy meeting. So that's like one thing about our industry. Like there's some people are not the best communicators. I had to learn how to communicate better throughout my time, but it was people come in and assume that if they use a CPA, that means we're going to save all the money in the world on taxes. But what we all think is that we're filing returns, we're not doing a tax strategy engagement. So it's like on the CPA to be like, hey, we're going to set up a separate engagement for tax strategy. And planning. So if you're not having those conversations and thinking everything's lumped in one, you know, probably reset the expectation of like what services are you actually buying? So I'd say that's your second part. It's like, and then it's just like, hey, do you have a continual relationship with the CPA? Are you chatting, you know, more than once a year, right? Is there twice a year? That's primarily what we move to is just like, hey, we do mid-year, end of year, like, and that's just one for tax, you know, planning. You know, there's calls for tax, you know, just the compliance part to walk over the return. So just really touch points for business owners essentially since you're like ramping up too. So You know, and all the key points from a numbers perspective to make it a little bit more concrete is that, you know, I want to say if you're $70,000 net income, you know, consider are you an S corporation yet? If not, ask your CPA why. You know, there's always valid reasons why they have not chosen that. And then I'd say once you're about $750,000 net income, then hey, ask your CPA, is it time to reevaluate and see if a C corporation makes sense? So there's some numbers if there's, you know, for the listeners that are like more number-based, like Okay, that sounds like, you know, first few points were kind of like gray, but like if I want definitive number, that's what I would also say too. Got it. Great advice. I love that. So if you're listening, that's a nice little checklist. We'll try to summarize that just so you guys know what to look for. I like to get into the pillars now, fitness and discipline or wealth. San Francisco is a high-pressure environment for an entrepreneur. Looking at the fitness pillar, how do you maintain your mental clarity and physical edge, Tone? Yeah, the big part is, you know, from the mental side, the big part is just get up, work out in the morning. That's always been my jam, like smash the workouts before the whole day comes. Like the team's going to need you, the family's going to need you, but you got to first take care of yourself because if you can't take care of yourself, good luck taking care of others. And then especially if you got, you know, thousands of clients, you know, large teams, it's like, hey, you got to be the best person for yourself. So that physically grounds you. But then at the same time, mental-wise personal development in. So I start the day with the workout and then

about 3: 16:05

30 I wrap up for the day and just before the sunlight goes down and then I talk, take the dog out and the wife and we just go to the dog park. We usually walk around an hour and then just like, hey, put away the phone as much as possible. Sometimes it all creeps back up, but put away, have some like quality time and then just like breathe. So kind of like a start of day grounding practice and then like end of day grounding practice and then come back and, you know, have our food and you know, get picked back up a little bit. But we're working on that little portion that night. But those are, those are my two things. It was really funny. I stopped doing that afternoon walk and then felt my stress levels go up. And I was like, oh wait, it's that walk at the evening that actually helps ground everything. Then sometimes the seasons in the past, I skipped some workouts and then I was like, oh, but then that extra tension always built up. And I was like, oh, what's going on? But oh, these two basic items of just doing a quick workout in the morning. I'm not there long, like 45 minutes. And then the walk at night, it's an hour, and the dog's gonna get walked anyways. Those two are actually ironically two big secrets to the, to the fitness side. Yeah, I, I love that. And, you know, I, I do a workout, uh, almost every day. I try to break a sweat every day, and then, um, I, I walk every day. My walks are in the morning, so, um, and I, I'm wait— I'm right there with you. When, when I'm not doing those things, it's pretty obvious. I, I pick up on that pattern as well, that I'm not myself. I'm not regulating my, my stress levels well either. Does the discipline required to master the tax code carry over into your physical habits? I would definitely say so in terms of like what we do. The, the part is like for the tax code or like taxes and planning and strategy is that you— so some people think that I'll come in in April and then file taxes and, you know, CPA will magically just pull a bunny out of a hat and save you all the money in the world. But that's not the case. Like, the tax planning part is an every-quarter occurrence, almost every-month occurrence. If you— especially if you're a business owner, you have to know your financials. And then at a minimum, twice, you know, twice a year to revamp your old tax plan. So it's a continuous process for tax planning and strategy. Even if you're doing tax compliance, technically, you know, you have your quarterly estimates that you have to pay in, otherwise you're going to be hit with penalties and interest, and file that annual return. So like, minimally, you have to consistently do it. So like your fitness, it's like you don't just, you know, decide to do one workout and then you're going to be super fit. Like you have to do the work, you have to eat the diet. And then same thing for your finances too, is that if you're not continually monitoring your profit and loss statements and doing your tax planning consistently, the results aren't going to be there. So I would say the two are very tied in together. And then one thing too was kind of going through the discovery process, like my Why did I like the tax strategy and planning so much? It was, I think it was actually back due to when I was a little kid and

playing like Pokémon, Magic: 18:59

The Gathering, Yu-Gi-Oh! And you had to assemble decks of like, what's the best combos you can use to win? And I'm like, I think it was that little portion that's just carried over my life of like assembling these different strategies that would work. So I think that kind of goes back to like where all this like kind of stemmed from was like from childhood of like, Playing like assembling Pokémon decks ironically ended up doing well for the, for the job. That's so funny. You look— I look back and I just— I actually started out in audit and I originally accepted an offer for tax, but some things change on the personal end and I ended up going, going audit and staying closer to home. But after a few years, I realize my brain's just wired to be more tax. I'm just more finite. I know audit's a little bit more theory and sampling and statistics, whereas, you know, there's just a— there's something about, you know, with taxes where I find it to be somewhat gamified, right? You know, you know, there's a lot of different ways to get to where you want to go. There's a lot of secret passages. There's a lot of things you can do. From a gamified. So I just realized that looking back on it, you know, the way I grew up and how I, how my brain thinks, tax was really a much better fit for me in the end. So that's interesting that you've made that connection from your childhood memory. It's pretty cool. Yeah, it was, it was unique. I was just like thinking, oh my gosh, like, why, why do I obsess over this sometimes? Because I was like, go beyond like forms online, like reading like, hey, like You got like, how do you like get the Pikachu faster? You know, get the bill card, draw 2 cards. So it's like just funny, like, like going back to like old times. Now, going back to your, your, your daily habits, is there, is there one non-negotiable daily habit that keeps you from burning out in the trenches of tax season? Oh, that's a good one. I think there's a mix of them. I would say, you know, the fitness is always the big one, just like ground it, get the stress off. Also too, because at night after the tax, it's like day is over. Definitely like to binge a little bit and like, you know, eat a little bit too much, like too many cookies. So that definitely just helps stave off like the extra calories, that portion. But then I think the big part, yeah, the dog walk is the second one that grounds it. But then just like collaborating with like the team just to like know, because it's a battle that we're going through every season. It's never going to be super smooth. If it is super smooth, whoever is that accountant, let me know. I want to take lessons and notes, but it's, it's a troop. So it's like, hey, just sync up with everyone. Let's chat with them. We're fully remote. We're on like, you know, all on Slack. We do some quick huddles there and there too. We got weekly meetings. But the big thing is just like we're all in this like, like war together. So we

just got to get out and breathe until 4: 21:56

15. So really the team aspect that makes it, makes it fun at this point. So it's like, all right, cool. You can hire all the fun people that you can afford, invest into them, and then you can go through this journey together versus— I remember when I was first starting out and then every 4/15 I would be like, I'm not doing this again next, next year. And then I'd do it again next year. And then I think I did that for 3 years till I finally found like a killer tax manager. And then John came in and just completely just turned it up, like turned off that, like the whole part for us. So it's been a big change, but it's really the people in the journey that we've really been able to like make it more fun because like we'll just text on like random items, not even tax related. It's just like the outside part of the tax part. Yeah. Let's switch gears to family, faith, and compounding. You talk a lot about Truly Wealthy being about structure and legacy. How does your family pillar influence your business decisions? Yeah, so this was actually the big part. And I like a lot of parts, like what I said, like, really, is this the family? Like, why do we do what we do? And the big part is like the parents came over and they pretty much just sacrificed their lives just to give me and my 3 sisters a better life, I would say. It's just like they didn't really ever enjoy themselves. I would say they never really bought anything for themselves. It was always for the kids, for a better life. So them coming over and then just giving us some solid cards to work with in life is like, I'm not going to stop. And I think that's where, hey, the, or no matter like what levels that we're going to hit at, where it's just that. Burning inside fire of like, hey, we got to continue and do it. A lot of it's like, I do it for myself, but the big driving parts, like, how come I haven't just like, hey, just take the backseat, just go in cruise control, is because of them. So family is huge for myself, just from my mom and dad, what they gave us. And then also just supporting my little sisters too has always been huge. Like, hey, we kind of carve out the path. I don't have any older brothers, so those 3 sisters, I was like, oh, man, well, I just wish I had one brother to do this journey with, but it's totally fine. And, hey, my sisters along can ride the whole path. So the family portion is this big and then how can we just help all their families? It's like I zoomed out one time and having some reflection points and it was like, oh, sheesh, now that you're an employer, you have, you know, 40 other families that you're, you know, helping out and then they all have kids, they have all spouses. And I'm like, oh my goodness, it's a big responsibility, but you feel great in terms of like, hey, I'd love to pay people more and more and more just so everyone can live their best lives because I was like one grind that I had. And, you know, all the business owners had this too, where you work 9 to 5, it's the same consistent salary, but how can you make a little bit extra, right? So what incentives can you give your employees so they can make more too? Because those opportunities were never provided to us either. Yeah, it's, it's, it's not always pretty, but it's very rewarding when you can really take stock in, you know, what you're doing as a business owner. That's— I try to tell everyone, even if it's a side hustle, you know, have something, have something for yourself. Have something that you can call your own. And, you know, you don't know, it can turn into something a lot bigger. So, um, and family is a really good, you know, why as to how you get into things and why you stay in it. So, um, I'm right there with you. Um, question about, uh, your intent with the CPA Dude. Are you building it to be a legacy for your own family, or is it a vehicle to buy back your time? Uh, it's going to be a little bit of, uh, Both, I would say. So in terms of like buying back the time, it was, it was funny. I was just like, when I first started this company, I just did everything myself because my dad was an entrepreneur. He owned his own Chinese restaurant. He did everything himself. So I'm like, monkey see, monkey do. I just follow what he does. And but then there's only so many hours that you can have. And I'm like, oh my gosh. So then that's when I start hiring just some assistants to help out, some tax preparers to help out. But then I was like, all right, but then all your time went into training. Them and it was just lower skilled labor. They're not as big in terms of like technical expertise, but best personalities. And I was like, I can take any personality and shape and mold them. Quickly found out, I was like, oh, it's the opposite. It's like you should hire as much as you can afford and then just hire the expertise to buy back all that time that they put in to learn. So the big part is to like, now that I have like a great tax manager, a great tax advisor, like he's kind of leading all our other tax strategists. Accounting manager, like these guys are kind of key pillars to holding down the fort. So then I can like, you know, hop on fun podcasts like here with you. And then so it's kind of buy back a lot of the time as much as possible and then really just build the empire out here. It's— it'd be curious to see like if, you know, as we grow in scale, what PE looks like. But I don't know what I would do. Like, I literally just love tax strategy in itself just because it's so impactful for everyone's lives. So I don't think we'll ever sell per se, but at least just build this up and more and more of it can be on like a big engine. And then we're just kind of like working, you know, normal hours, not crazy 60-hour, 80-hour weeks, but, you know, maybe go back down to 40. That would be sweet. But so that's kind of like the two ways, like use the time to buy back more expertise and in order to have more time with the family in the future. Yeah, I completely agree. In terms of faith, is there a, is there a core belief system that drives your integrity when you're helping people navigate the gray areas of the tax the tax code? Yeah, the big part, and I think that's why the industry lines up so well, is that, you know, so in California you have to do an ethics class every single year. And, you know, just as CPAs, right, you have already an ethical duty to look out for your client's best interest, right? So it's always the client first, you know, no one else afterwards. So, and then that's why you have to get, you know, keep on reminding, reminding yourselves. But it's so easy because like you do the courses, the continuing education, it's like Well, no crap. Like, that's how it's supposed to be done. But obviously there's some bad cookies in our industry. Unfortunately, you know, they're licensed professionals. The public is trusting you with that credential too. It's not the easiest credential to get in the world. So the big part is just like, hey, always just treat others how you want to be treated. That's always like— I remember it's in kindergarten, there was like this little like award thing that I won, and it was that core principle is just treat others how you want to be treated. Like sometimes I see it from other people where like, oh, you know, hey, Joe's like a$10 million guy, make sure you take care of them. But then like this, if Joe's $10 million, but I see Bob with a dollar, I never like look at it. They're all the same to me. Like these are humans. I really like literally don't care how much you make. Like you treat all humans the same. So just always doing the best and looking out for the client's interest has always been the easiest part. And then it's just treating all people the same. Like sometimes I see other people get caught up not in the financial sense, but then they get caught up in like the following. So it's like, oh, that person's got like 100,000, 100,000 followers. And I'm like, they're still the same human. I don't— there's no difference to me. So when you talk to these people, if you go talk to a really rich person and you go talk to a really famous person on social media, they're all people. I guess then our company brand, CP Dude, just another dude. Like everyone's just another dude at the end of the day. Sure, there's some people, some cookies are like, oh, I got a lot of money. I got a lot of fame, but most people are just really down-to-earth people. Yeah. And the ones that aren't really just— probably they're probably hiding something, you know what I mean? So I think that's— I think that's where audit helped me out a lot. It helped desensitize, you know, talking to people with higher roles. Like I was talking to CEOs and CFOs and, you know, people in high-ranking positions. And I think also that's, I think, where my military came in, where you're just, you're just talking to like really high-ranking people and they're just people at the end of the day. Celebrities are just people. People with money are just people. They've just found different ways to, to live life. And honestly, like, you know, you can't be jealous or envious of, you know, people of the fame and money because at the end of the day, a lot of those people kind of don't really love their lifestyle. They don't really You know, they may give it back for, you know, more time with family or, um, just to be left alone. You know, a lot of these famous people just want to be left alone. Um, so, uh, yeah, um, I always say, you know, uh, you can judge a lot— you know a lot about a person by how they treat, you know, the, the wait staff. Or in, in my interviews with our client— with our, um, with our staff, you know, I always mention, you know, are you the type of person you know, to pick up a broom? Are you too good to pick up a broom? Because if you are, then, you know, I'm not. I'm not too good to pick up a broom. So yeah, everyone's human. We all end up, you know, in the ground some way or another. So, uh, yeah, I like, I like that question. Yeah, it's like, yeah, can you pick a broom? Can you clean the toilet or not? Yeah, so I'd be curious. Yeah, that's— how do, how do their faces react when you, when you ask that question? Yeah, humility is so important to me because I just, you know, I just don't find myself to be— you know, I know I feel good about myself, you know, I'm confident, but I'm not special, you know, I have struggles, you know. So when I ask that question, you know, usually it's, it's one of two. It's either they get where the question's going. They're like, yeah, I got no problem with that. Or they're kind of like scared and they don't know. And they know the, they know the right answer. So they say it, but they seem a little bit panicked. So it's usually one of those two reactions. There you go. There you go. Yeah. So we're getting towards the end. Can you tell us a little bit about how our listeners can get a hold of you? We're going to drop a bunch of stuff in the notes, but tell our listeners how they can get a— they can reach out to you. TikTok, Instagram, you know, all the different things. Oh yeah, just— yeah, everything's the CPA Dude. So we got that handle pretty easy. So our website's thecpadude.com and then Instagram, TikTok, thecpadude_ there. And then my personal LinkedIn is Tony Hong. So those are our main platforms that we use and just feel free to shoot a DM if you're interested. Boom. You'll, you'll see those in the show notes if, if you didn't catch them. Just want to go over a couple of key takeaways before we wrap things up. You got to know the difference between income and structure. Income will always be the same, but how you structure it will change how much you end up paying in taxes and also know why your CPA should be a strategist. Yeah. So a lot of us are W-2s, but, you know, as you, as your tax situation becomes more complex, You know, you gotta be forward thinking, you gotta be more proactive than reactive, and your CPA should reflect that. And then also remember how AI is the new secret weapon for tax efficiency. Don't sleep on AI. I know there's a lot of people that are scared of it. They want to avoid it. It's here. It's not going anywhere. You know, use it in a way that's beneficial to you and your family and your community. It's not going anywhere. Tony, thank you so much for your straight talk approach to wealth. If you're tired of overpaying Uncle Sam, follow Tony. He's got awesome content. I love watching his stuff on Instagram, on TikTok. He's all over. Stay blessed, stay structured, and keep more for— keep more of what you earn. We'll see you on the next episode of VICI Code. Thanks for tuning in to to The VICI Code, where the underdogs rise and the numbers finally make sense. If today's story hit home, share it. And remember, faith fuels a fight, and your comeback is already in progress.