Lessons - How to Build Recession-Proof Money Strategies | Chris Miles - Cash Flow Expert

Summary

Success Story Podcast: Lessons - How to Build Recession-Proof Money Strategies | Chris Miles - Cash Flow Expert

Hosted by Scott D. Clary

---

In the episode titled "Lessons - How to Build Recession-Proof Money Strategies", Scott D. Clary engages in a deep and insightful conversation with cash flow expert Chris Miles. Released on May 11, 2025, this episode delves into practical strategies for achieving lasting financial security, especially in uncertain economic times. The discussion provides valuable lessons on money management, investment tactics, and the importance of preparation to withstand economic downturns.

1. The Importance of Proactive Financial Management

Chris Miles emphasizes the critical need for proactive financial management to build recession-proof strategies. He reflects on the 2008-2009 financial crisis and the lessons learned, underscoring that many business failures stemmed not from poor business practices but from inadequate financial reserves.

Chris Miles [04:13]: "The number one failure in business is not because people just suck at business. It's usually because they lack the capital. They usually haven't planned appropriately to have enough reserves."

2. Three Pillars of Financial Security: Get Lean, Get Liquid, and Get Out

Chris introduces a framework consisting of three essential strategies: Get Lean, Get Liquid, and Get Out. This approach is designed to help individuals and businesses navigate through economic recessions effectively.

a. Get Lean: Tracking and Managing Expenses

"Getting lean" involves meticulous tracking of both personal and business finances. Chris advises using tools like QuickBooks or Xero for businesses and personal finance apps like Rocket Money or Monarch Money to monitor income and expenses rigorously.

Chris Miles [04:40]: "Track your money regularly. Know the full flow of your money. How much positive or negative cash flow are you?"

He suggests tracking finances at least every other week and encourages viewing budgets as "spending planned" to foster a healthier relationship with money management.

b. Get Liquid: Maintaining Cash Reserves

Maintaining adequate liquid reserves is paramount. For business owners, Chris recommends having at least three to twelve months' worth of expenses saved to cushion against unforeseen downturns.

Chris Miles [06:00]: "Have a good cash reserve in your business, have reserves at home. As a business owner, I recommend at least 12 months' worth of your monthly expenses."

He shares his personal strategy of keeping $400,000 in various accounts to ensure financial stability and avoid tying up funds in less liquid investments like IRAs and 401(k)s, especially for active investors.

c. Get Out: Diversifying Income Streams

"Getting out" refers to diversifying income streams to reduce dependence on a single source. Chris illustrates this with the example of a real estate investor who survived the 2020-2023 economic downturn by retaining some properties as rentals, providing a steady cash flow even when wholesaling dried up.

Chris Miles [11:30]: "When you have that extra profit, take that and invest in things that do generate passive income for you."

He highlights the importance of building passive income sources to ensure financial security and provide the flexibility to pivot during challenging times.

3. Investment Strategies: Timing and Diversification

Chris delves into investment strategies, stressing the importance of timing and diversification to mitigate risks during volatile markets.

a. Contrarian Investment Approach

Adopting a contrarian approach—investing when others are fearful and selling when others are greedy—can yield significant returns. Chris recounts his experience with Bitcoin, where he capitalized on market downturns to make profitable investments.

Chris Miles [17:02]: "Whenever you're greedy, be fearful. Whenever you're fearful, be greedy."

b. Real Estate as a Stable Investment

While acknowledging the volatility in markets like cryptocurrency, Chris advocates for real estate-backed investments due to their relative stability. He advises keeping a portion of real estate investments as rental properties to ensure ongoing income.

Chris Miles [19:45]: "I like to store most of my wealth in real estate-backed investments. But same thing can happen, right? If everybody's saying everybody buy real estate, that's usually when it's good."

4. Learning and Adapting: Continuous Financial Education

The conversation underscores the necessity of ongoing financial education and adapting investment strategies based on market conditions. Chris encourages listeners to start investing early and consistently to build experience and avoid costly mistakes when managing larger sums of money.

Chris Miles [16:30]: "If you wait until you have this huge windfall... you can make some super costly mistakes as opposed to if you're just playing with a couple of ten, a couple tens of thousands."

He advocates for small-scale investments initially to build confidence and expertise, which can later be scaled up as financial acumen grows.

5. The Role of Passive Income and Its Limitations

While passive income is a cornerstone of recession-proof strategies, Chris cautions against viewing any income stream as entirely hands-off. Effective management and stewardship are essential to maintain and grow passive income sources.

Chris Miles [17:55]: "Is there ever a point when you should pull it out?... you run the opposite direction."

He explains that even "passive" investments require attention and strategic decisions, especially in response to market signals and economic indicators.

6. Real-World Applications and Success Stories

Chris shares real-world examples from mastermind groups where members who diversified their investments and maintained cash reserves were able to sustain their businesses through economic downturns. These anecdotes illustrate the practical application of the strategies discussed and their effectiveness in real-life scenarios.

Chris Miles [10:30]: "He was out of business today. But because he didn't have to keep taking care of his family... he was okay and even had some of the business owning some of those rentals too."

7. Final Insights and Takeaways

The episode concludes with key takeaways for listeners aiming to build recession-proof financial strategies:

• Start Tracking Early: Begin monitoring finances diligently to understand cash flow and identify areas for improvement.

• Maintain Adequate Reserves: Ensure both personal and business reserves are sufficient to weather economic storms.

• Diversify Income Streams: Invest in multiple income-generating assets to reduce reliance on any single source.

• Educate Continuously: Stay informed and adapt investment strategies based on market trends and economic indicators.

• Adopt a Contrarian Mindset: Make investment decisions based on independent analysis rather than following the crowd.

---

Notable Quotes:

• Chris Miles [04:40]: "Track your money regularly. Know the full flow of your money. How much positive or negative cash flow are you?"

• Chris Miles [06:00]: "Have a good cash reserve in your business, have reserves at home. As a business owner, I recommend at least 12 months' worth of your monthly expenses."

• Chris Miles [17:02]: "Whenever you're greedy, be fearful. Whenever you're fearful, be greedy."

---

This episode offers a comprehensive guide to building financial resilience against economic recessions. By implementing Chris Miles' strategies—tracking finances, maintaining liquid reserves, and diversifying income streams—listeners can enhance their financial security and navigate through uncertain times with confidence.

For more insights and detailed discussions on sales, marketing, business, startups, and entrepreneurship, visit SuccessStoryPodcast.com.

Transcript

[A]

Prolon is a success story partner. Now long weeks and busy weekends, they can leave everybody feeling depleted and tired. We work nonstop and that's why I love Prolon's five day fasting mimicking diet. I love this company. Let me explain how it works. Basically, they have a fasting mimicking diet that rejuvenates you from the inside and out. They deliver plant based soups, snacks and drinks that keep your body in a fasting state while giving you nutrition. And when your body's in a fasting state, this triggers cellular renewal and it actually works. This is why I loved intermittent fasting for so many years. This is the magic of Prolon. And the exciting news is that they just launched a new next gen five day program. So it has all the benefits that they had before, but now they have 100% organic ingredients in their food, better taste and ready to eat meals that make the whole process easier. I've tried the original Prolon program. I felt fantastic whenever I do it. I personally cannot wait to try this new and improved version. And if you've never tried them before, you're in for a treat because the old one was great. I can't even imagine how good this new Prolon five day program's gonna be. And for a limited time, Prolon is offering Success story listeners, all you guys 15% off site wide plus a $40 bonus gift. When you subscribe to their five day program, just go to prolonlife.com Clary that's that's P-R-O-L-O-N L I F E.com Clary to get your 15% discount and your bonus gift. Prolonlife.com Clary this podcast is brought to you in part by Stash. Are you still putting off saving and investing because you'll get to it someday? Stash turns someday into today. Stash isn't just an investing app. It's a registered investment advisory that combines automated investing with with dependable financial strategies to help you reach your goals faster. They'll provide you with personalized advice on what to invest in based on your goals. Or if you just want to sit back and watch your money go to work, you can opt into their award winning expert managed portfolio that picks stocks for you. Stash has helped millions of Americans reach their financial goals and starts at just $3 per month. Don't let your savings sit around, make it work harder for you. Go to get.stash.comsuccess story and see how you can receive $25 towards your first stock purchase. And to view important disclosures that's get.stash.comsuccess Story paid non client endorsement, not representative of all clients and not a guarantee. Investment advisory services offered by Stash Investments LLC and SEC Registered Investment Advisor. Investing involves risks and investments may lose value. Offers subject to T's and C's. In this lessons episode, discover how to build lasting financial security regardless of market conditions. Learn why tracking your money regularly matters, how maintaining cash reserves can protect your business, and why investing early and consistently helps avoid costly mistakes. Now you can make the argument that if the recession never happened, the strategies you were deploying in your life and what you were teaching are sound. And some of them, like, still are. Like, invest in real estate is not a bad idea. You could still create passive income out of that. But forget pretend the recession. Pretend we would hit another recession, which can always happen. What are some ideas that you teach now that are recession proof that you wish you had done before the first recession, before the 2008, 2009 financial crisis, so that you could have survived regardless of what happens with the economy, the market, the banks, anything.

[B]

Yeah, well, that's where you kind of, kind of heard the undertones of it in that story, right? I remember in 2020 when we thought, oh, okay, this is it. This is the, this is the actual black swan event that's going to create the recession that we were already expecting in 2019 because we were predicting 2020 would be the year real estate would actually get hit and possibly depreciate. And then it didn't because they started printing money like Willy Wonka choco bars. Right? And.

[A]

Yeah, but that's not, but that, that's not good for the future.

[B]

I know. Like that's, you know, this makes the bubble bigger that, you know, it's like blowing up that bubble. You like, get this nice little bubble gum bubble and you're like, oh, that's big. Well, let's just keep going. And then it's all over your hair and stuff. Right? That's. Yeah, that's kind of what I'm expecting too. And so in 2020, it's the same advice I even give people today, which is these three things is get lean, get liquid, and get out. So get lean means, you know, make sure that you're tracking your money, right? Track, if you're a business owner, even in real estate or wherever it might be, track your money, your business, using QuickBooks or whatever you might use. Xero is another one. Like Xero is another one that's like QuickBooks you can use too. Um, in the personal life. Make sure you're tracking your personal home as well. Track things you know, you can use, like rocket money or Monarch money are good tools you can use to track your money. But start really watching what's coming in, what's going out. Don't just watch your spending. I mean, that's important, too. But watch what's coming in and going out. Know the full flow of your money. How much positive or negative cash flow are you? And. And understand that on a very. On a very solid level. Don't just do it once a month or at tax time, once a year. You know, do it like, I would say, if not week, at least every other week. You know, really start to understand your money and where it's going. Don't even worry about creating budgets if you've never done this before. Track your money for, like, at least six to 12 months. Then you'll have enough evidence and enough data to figure out how to actually create budgets and whatnot, which, by the way, I hate the word budget. I like spending planned because, let's be honest, that's really what it is. So that's a big one. So get lean and get rid of the expenses that just don't serve you right. Things that, you know, it could be a subscription that's not serving you very well. Maybe it's like, you know, maybe it's like you're just going out to eat one too many times, or probably more like 10 too many times, if anything, right? Or whatever it might be. Like, just try to find ways to. To be a wise steward of your money. Then get liquid. Now, see, that's the problem. I. So first, I wasn't tracking my money, you know, in 2007, I was, because money was so abundant. It was like air, but also like air. When it disappears, you count every breath, don't you? And the same thing with money. I didn't start counting my money until it was already too late. I was. I was already. I was reactive, not proactive. And so track Your money for 1, 2 is get liquid. Get liquid means make sure you have liquid reserves. In business, man, you could. You better make sure you have at least a few months of expenses for your business. Now, if you're a real estate investor, like I was talking on Steve Trang's show recently, we're talking about this. If you've got, like, marketing strategies that could take nine months to finally deliver results, then you might want to have nine months of reserves or more, just in case. Because if it's going to take a while for that to kick in to start producing some income. You don't be left high and dry. Because the number one failure in business is not because people just suck at business. It's usually because they lack the capital. They usually haven't planned appropriately to have enough reserves. So have good cash reserve in your business, have reserves at home. As a business owner I Recommend at least 12 months is pre of your monthly expenses. So if you already know your expenses are, say it's 10,000amonth, you probably want to have about $120,000. You don't touch. In my own life I have 400 grand that I keep between, you know, typical bank savings, high yield savings and then life insurance that I keep, you know, most lion's share there just so I can diversify my money a little bit. But make sure you have those reserves and don't tie your money up in those IRAs and 401ks and whatnot. I mean I know that's counter to what everybody else wants to teach you. And even in the real estate space you have some people say oh no, it's good, get the solo 401ks or get the, you know, the self directed IRAs. And if you already have them, that's one thing. But if you're trying to put new money into these plans and you're thinking oh yeah, I don't want to, I don't want financial freedom before I'm 60. No, screw that, like I want to make sure I'm at least 60 years old before I have any kind of freedom. Well then good, keep putting money in those plans. You want freedom before you're 60 because you don't have to deal with 59 and a half penalties and things like that. Well then get your money liquid, you know, have it outside of that and then that's where I will say to then get it out. And especially if you're an active real estate investor. One of the biggest mistakes I've seen, and I'm in several mastermind groups where I mean there's like high level investors you would never think would go out of business and are today one, because they didn't have enough cash reserves, but two, because they were all in on their business. And so Mike Michalowitz, that's another great book if you ever read Profit first. Great book to read. And then implementing that system into your business and make sure you actually have profit if you're always reinvesting all of your money back in your business. The thing is you're not profitable Right. You're spending money, you know, and, and I'm, I'm all about growing a business and making it bigger and bigger, but not if it means that you still have to keep working as a slave in that business forever. I like to be work optional where I work because I want to, not because you have to, because I've, I've tried. I've. I've been able to retire twice and I just can't do it because I get bored. Right. I just, I have to have purpose. I can't sit around on a beach or go golfing because I don't golf. And that's a big reason, you know, Sorry, I know you're in Miami. I know they've got great golfing out there too, in that direction, but.

[A]

Oh, you're not offending me. Listen, I grew up in Toronto, so golf was the necessary side effect of playing hockey in the winter. That's all we could do. But outside of that, I'm not a big golfer.

[B]

Yeah, it's indoors, isn't it?

[A]

Yeah, yeah, there's that. Listen, after moving down, I'm still acclimating to everybody loving football and basketball over hockey. So it's fine. I'm, I'm getting used to it eventually. But. Yeah, no, I also don't think that people completely should completely retire. But that's besides the point. The point is, do you have the option to retire? Do you have the option to work if you want to?

[B]

Your, your family's safer, especially if you have other streams of income outside of that business. So when you have that extra profit, take that and invest in things that do generate passive income for you. And that's a kind of a debated word about passive. Because is anything truly passive? Not necessarily, because you still have to manage it. You still have to be a steward of your money. But it's nice for me, like, I like to be able to. Well, here's, here's the example. Like several guys in this high level wholesaling flipper group that I was in the mastermind with, you know, I don't want to say their names out, you know, out here, but they're great, great group. But in that group, there's a lot of guys that were like all in on wholesaling, they're doing great. And I kept saying for years on my, and I wasn't the only one, even the leadership was saying the same thing is take the chips off the table and you know, even if you got great deals, maybe keep them for yourself instead of flipping that property. Maybe you keep it and you rent it out, you know, or whatever it might be, like get additional streams of income. And there was one guy in particular, he was out in, in Pennsylvania and he was even like, dude, how do you have so much passive income? He's like, I would love to have like 10,000, 20,000amonth. I was like, well dude, just even if you're an active investor, cherry pick, cherry pick some of your best deals, keep them, don't flip them all. Yeah, it looks good on the ego numbers for revenue and such, but maybe keep those properties and cash flow. Em. And dude, when 2020, especially going to 2022 and 2023 hit, which was even worse than 2020 for us, right? I mean, 2022, 2023 hit. He was one of those guys left standing cause he finally decided to take some of the chips off the table, cherry pick and keep some of his properties, his rentals literally saved his wholesaling business. If it weren't for that, he would be out of business today. But because he didn't have to keep taking care of his family because he knew he can maneuver and pivot and do certain things, he was okay and even had some of the business owning some of those rentals too, so that the cash flow was still coming in even if the wholesaling had dried up. And so that's where I think that's, that's the big thing I learned. That's why the second time around in 20, end of 2016, when I was financially independent again, you know, and I don't do active stuff, I'm not the type of person to go and wholesale or flip is really anymore like I let other people do it now I just use my capital to go out and work for me and let those guys do all the work, right, because they're, they're younger and full of life and energy.

[A]

I have to take a second and thank Northwest Registered Agent for supporting today's episode. Now listen, I know a lot of entrepreneurs listen to this show. If you're an entrepreneur, if you're building a business, you have to listen if you want to get more when you're launching your next big idea. Northwest Registered Agent lets you establish your entire business identity in just 10 clicks and 10 minutes. For nearly 30 years, they've been the secret weapon for entrepreneurs who want to move fast while getting expert guidance. For just $39 plus state fees, they'll handle your formation, create a custom website and establish your local presence wherever your business takes you. As an entrepreneur myself, what I value Most is their one stop business solution. You get everything from formation paperwork to custom domains to trademark registration all in one easy to use account. No more juggling these multiple services or wasting time figuring out the legal stuff. So don't wait. Protect your privacy, build your brand and set up your business in just 10 clicks and 10 minutes. Visit northwestregisteredagent.com success and start building something amazing. Get more with Northwest registered [e-mail] success. Hey everyone, Scott here. I just want to take a second and say thanks for listening to the podcast over the past couple years. Obviously this wouldn't be possible without each and every one of you. I have a favor to ask so I would love to get some more information about you and why you listen to the podcast and why you listen to the show and why you tune in every week. And I have put together a short survey and we are using this to help us sort of inform what type of content we want to create and the direction of the podcast going forward. This information is not shared with anyone else, so this is just for us internally and I put together a link so scottdclary.com survey where you can go and you can fill in some information so we can know what kind of content you love. Also, for the first 100 people that respond to the survey, you will be entered into a draw for a hundred dollar Amazon gift card. So we'll be giving out one of those to the first people that respond. It should not take more than two minutes of your time to fill out the whole survey. It's really not that long and it will help you shape the future of the podcast. So I really appreciate each and every one of you and thank you for listening. I just want to take a second and thank Cornbread Hemp for supporting today's episode. Now Cornbread Hemp CBD Gummies have been this really nice addition to my wellness toolkit. I don't use them every day, just when I want to unwind after those extra busy weeks, but they're perfect for those moments when you want to take the edge off and just find your balance. Really just shut off from work. And what makes them special is how Cornbread Hemp crafts them. They only use a flour of USDA organic hemp implants. That's the best part for the purest, most potent experience. No fillers, no artificial fluff, just clean full spectrum goodness in delicious watermelon, berry and peach flavor. I keep them in my nightstand for those moments when I just need a little extra help. Relaxing. And I love how transparent they are too. Every batch is third party lab tested so you know exactly what you're getting. And they put together a special offer for all success story podcast listeners. All listeners can save 30% off their first order. Just head to cornbread hemp.com success and use code success at checkout. That's cornbreadhemp.com success code success for 30% off your first order of these amazing gummies. I think that it's. So this is something that I see with entrepreneurs as well. They, they build a business to the point where then they make a ton of money with an exit or an acquisition and then they just start investing. Then I'm a big fan of invest along the way and take money off the table a little bit earlier. So you're again, it's the same concept, right? You come from a real estate world where it's all active, active, active. I come from a background in tech where it's all active building and raising the next round and, and whenever you have the opportunity, start to learn how to invest. Because a good entrepreneur or a good active somebody who's actively participating in real estate wholesale flipping, it doesn't mean you're a good investor. So you have to learn, you have to practice. It's not something they teach you in school. And I think that if you wait until you have this huge windfall, this huge amount of money, and that's when you start, that's when you can make some super costly mistakes as opposed to if you're just playing with, you know, a couple, 10, 10,000, couple tens of thousands, as opposed to doing really large investments before you've ever really had experience doing it. And what I see often is people who become good at making money and they make a lot of it, they think that they're going to be good at investing and then the mistakes they make are in the hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars, which is horrible. I mean, they can probably afford it, but that's not the point. Those mistakes could be made completely. Those mistakes never had to happen if you just start acclimating yourself and, and, and learning how to invest at a very small level in something that can generate income while you sleep.

[B]

Earning money and growing wealth are two very different skill sets.

[A]

Very much so. And for some reason they get conflated as just one, one idea and which is incorrect. When you put your money and you park your money into something. There's another point or an idea that we have to discuss, which is say it is something passive Is there ever a point when you should pull it out? So, for example, you sort of saw some signals that the market wasn't going in the right direction. You mentioned that guy, the general out of California that just by chance took his money out of the market at two very specific points and he had great returns. So it can be invested for the long haul for a period of time. Are there signals that you should maybe liquidate and take some of those sort of longer term investments and just maybe hold that cash that you've seen?

[B]

There are. The thing I often teach our clients is I, it's. I tell them not to basically ignore the news, at least from the standpoint of taking any advice, but listen to what people are saying. Not just the news, but even like what might be like the person that barely graduated high school that you went to school with, right. Or even the person that's like on the street, or your Uber driver for that matter. I mean, if they start talking about a certain investment as being like the best investment right now, that is probably an investment to start selling. For example, I remember, you know, there's been ups and downs in bitcoin right now. I'm not a big fan of like bitcoin as a wealth building strategy. I think it's a kind of a fun thing to play with. You know, great gamble with money, but don't be, you know, but don't be mad if you lose it. All, right? That's kind of what I say. Like, don't invest more than you're willing to lose when it comes to things like bitcoin. Same thing with stock investing and whatnot. Well, I remember this is in 2018, it was in December. It was starting to hit a high of like 20,000. Everybody's talking about bitcoin. And I said, you know what? I predict it's going to crash. And it did. It crashed because why everybody's talking about bitcoin. And then it started to rear back up again, you know, towards like 65,000. Remember that? Like in 2022, right? The spring of 2022. And I actually bought it when it crashed down. When everybody was scared of bitcoin, that's when I bought bitcoin. It's kind of like that Warren Buffett thing. Like, you know, when everything's. Whenever he's greedy, be fearful. Whenever he's fearful, be greedy. Right. So I always do the opposite. Wherever the crowd's running away from or running towards, I run, I run the opposite direction. Well, same thing happened again. So I bought like a 6,000 Bitcoin. Now it's going up towards 65. And then everybody starts to say how to buy bitcoin. I even remember on Facebook had friends that barely graduated high school saying, how do I buy a bitcoin? And where do you, I mean, where do you buy it? Do you get it from a store? Like, I was like, oh my gosh, this is the time when dumb money's in right now. This is it, this time to get out. So I sold right around 50,000. And of course it came crashed down to like 16,000, right? And, and that's, that's the thing, like now real estate isn't much different, even though real estate tends to be a little bit more stable. And that's why I like to store most of my wealth in real estate backed investments. But same thing can happen, right? If everybody's saying everybody buy real estate, which I haven't seen that day really happen. I've, I've always heard people be scared of real estate ever since 2008, right? Like it really, everybody's like, oh, I don't know, real estate's gonna come crashing any minute. But you don't really hear that about the stock market. Stock market just keeps going up, up and away more than it ever has in history for these last 15 years now, going on 16 years. And yet people are still like, oh yeah, that's where you put your money. That's where you go, yeah, put in stocks, it's great. Put in The S&P 500 index, you know, don't even pay the extra fees, right? They all say same thing. That's when you know something is overvalued. So now when everybody's fearful, like right now, people would be fearful of buying apartment buildings. Like it's finally got to the point where people now been burned so badly in the last two years, this might be a good time to start looking at apartments again because the value should come down. Self storage, not so much. Self storage is still a little bit overpriced. Nobody's really said self storage is a bad deal, right? So when people tell you it's a bad investment, that's usually when it's good. When they tell you it's a good investment, that's usually when it's bad. At least for the timing.

[A]

Thanks for tuning in. If you found this valuable, don't forget to hit that subscribe button so you never miss an episode. And if you want to dive deeper into this conversation, check out the links in the description. To watch the full episode, see you in the next one. Lingoda is a partner of success story. Look, I'll be real with you. My French used to be solid. I learned it in school. I even had decent pronunciation. But when I booked trip to France last year, it was a total blank. I could barely order a croissant without sounding like a tourist. So I jumped into the Lingoda Sprint challenge and man, it changed everything. I take live classes late at night after podcasting. Only five students max. Real teachers, real conversations. And in just two months, I went from Bonjour to holding full conversations at a Paris cafe. Confidence unlocked. Now here's the play 30 or 60 classes in 60 days and if you finish them all, you get 50% cash back. That's basically €4 or $5 per class. That's insane value. Go to try.lingoda.com successsprint and then use my code scottsprint for an extra €20 off on top of their current deal. Registration closes May 5th. Classes start May 12th. Let's get fluent.