7 Things We’ve Learned in 7 Years of Business

Episode 19: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix

Episode 19: this mp3 audio file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.

Speaker1:
Any examples used are for illustrative purposes only, and do not take into account your particular investment objectives, financial situation or needs and may not be suitable for all investors. It is not intended to predict the performance of any specific investment, and is not a solicitation or recommendation of any investment strategy.

Speaker2:
Welcome to All Things Financial, the show that helps upgrade your financial literacy. Trey Peterson and Yellows Coots are retirement planning specialists here to provide a unique and conservative approach to managing your money. Now here are your hosts, Trey Peterson and Yellow, say coots.

Speaker3:
Good morning and welcome to the All Things Financial Podcast. I'm Trey Peterson, a retirement planning specialist with my business partner and founder.

Speaker4:
Yellow Say Coots.

Speaker3:
We've got a great episode today. So today is episode 19, and one of the things that I love is setting goals. Like many of you that are watching, and I was looking last week and one of my goals was for us to create 40 episodes, our first year of podcast. And so we're halfway through the year. Today's number 19, so it looks like we're on track USA. So that's pretty exciting.

Speaker4:
Yeah, well just a little bit behind. But you know, I've always I've always thought if you at least hit 80% of your goals, you know, you're on track.

Speaker3:
Uh, I'm excited because today we're going to do something a little bit unique, uh, July 1st. So just a couple days ago, we celebrated our business being seven years old. Yellow. Say it. So that's a pretty big deal. And, um, so we are going to share seven things we've learned in seven years of business. I know for me personally, one of the questions I get a lot is, Trey, how did you know when to start your own business? How did you know if it was worth making the leap? What did that process look like? Kind of the journey to being an entrepreneur. And I thought it'd be so good for you and I to to touch on that, to talk about it. Obviously we're business partners, but we also have different perspectives on a lot of things. And so our journeys are similar but also different. And I think it's great for people to hear from each of us, because there's a lot of people that are considering starting their own business someday, and they want to count the cost.

Speaker4:
Yeah, I think that this will definitely highlight some of the differences in our thinking. And, uh, and hopefully there's going to be a little bit of overlap too.

Speaker3:
Yeah, absolutely. Well, let me share the seven lessons. I'm going to give some titles and then we'll jump in to number one. But number one is chasing money versus chasing, chasing your passion. One of the things I think that we hear so often is if you find your passion, then you'll love every day at work and you'll never work a day in your life. We're going to talk about that.

Speaker4:
And I hate dumb quotes like that.

Speaker3:
Number two is we're going to talk about alignments and relationships. Number three is plagiarize shadow and copy with permission. Basically, don't reinvent the wheel. Number four is talking about Covid. Two and a half years into business we got slammed with Covid. And the title of uh, point number four is Managing Tough Times. Number five is building a winning team, which USA, we found is not easy, but it's doable. Number six is personal development. One of the things that Melissa and I have concluded is that while it's great to have goals, it's more important to be growth focused. So we're going to talk about how we continue to grow as a team and our skills and our discipline. And then number seven, I think maybe one of my favorite, the illusion of balance. People always talk about balance. And we're going to talk about is that a real thing? Is it possible to have balance, especially if you're considering starting a business and a lot of you know the stats on what percentage are successful and what are not. So we're going to go over some of those things before we dive in.

Speaker3:
We don't have to take too long, Elise. But one of the things I love about our relationship is that we're so different in so many ways, but we have a lot of the same goals. And one of the things that our business coach, Keith Craft, uh, told us not too long ago is he said it's important to not let your preferences get in the way of your partnership. And so I love that quote because, you know, again, we have a lot of the same goals, but we see things differently. And I think us even sharing how we see things helps, helps both of us understand a larger group of people just because of our partnership. Uh, but before we dive into those seven points, I'd love if we just took 2 or 3 minutes to give everybody kind of our background. Uh, I'll share something about us. And then if you want to jump in, maybe on your story, but Elsa and I met in in, uh, July, and it would have been August or September of 2007. Can you believe that was 17 years ago?

Speaker4:
Wow. Jeez.

Speaker3:
And, uh, when you and I met a mutual friend of.

Speaker4:
Ours.

Speaker3:
He goes, you guys gotta meet. You both love cars. You both love real estate and business. And I think he said something like. And you both love dogs. Yeah. And so he introduced us. But we both had an interesting journey of me finishing my undergrad, moving back, jumping into business insurance, you staying, doing your MBA, jumping into real estate. And I just thought maybe take 2 or 3 minutes, share your background. I can share mine. And then we can jump into our points for today.

Speaker4:
Yeah, I guess I'm going to start a little bit before college. Um, my parents are immigrants from Ukraine. Uh, I was born in Riga, Latvia, and when we came here, one of the things that you always hear is, you know, pursuing the American dream, buying real estate, buying property, finding a way that maybe you can punch above your weight and get ahead in life. And we thought real estate was our ticket to success. And, uh, we found out the hard way when 2007, 2008 happened, uh, that real estate came with a few challenges that we weren't anticipating. And, you know, I think for a long time, you know, my parents started contributing to their 401 s and getting established at work. They thought the market only went in one direction. So for us, you know, it was a bit of a wake up call. And, uh, and that's when I actually I ended up enrolling in 2007 to Oral Roberts University, where I ended up meeting you. Um, and.

Speaker3:
Let me interrupt really quick. How old were you when you flipped your first house? I think our listeners want to hear that because I think it's really interesting.

Speaker4:
Yeah. So I initially like, it's like so much in our relationship, I got, I got my parents to do it first, right when I'm a little bit unsure. I like to learn off of other people's mistakes. So, uh, and I know you're laughing based on a few times that it's happened in our relationship.

Speaker3:
You're the guy that if we're going to go swim with sharks, you're going to push me in first to see if I'm right.

Speaker4:
See if they're.

Speaker3:
Friendly.

Speaker4:
Yeah. So my parents, they ended up, I think I was 14 or 15. They ended up buying, uh, a actually it was a four plex and they bought one half of it and my uncle bought the other half, and we spent the summer remodeling it, painting it, changing the roof. Um, gosh, there were so many things that that I ended up learning. One of those things was you never stand on on a piece of plywood on the roof because you end up skating your way down. And thankfully, my dad caught me from from falling off and probably dying, but things like that, you know, so you end up learning a lot along the way. But I thought to myself, like, hey, like we ended up making a ton of money. We ended up selling the duplex to our tenants who lived on the upstairs floor, and we made money along the way. The property was cash flowing, and then we made money when we sold it. And I thought like, hey, if we could just do this over and over and over, I don't need to go to college. I don't need to do anything else, like, this is what's going to get me to where I want to go. And, uh, so anyways, I saved up enough money and we actually ended up buying two more homes. I think before before the age of 17, we purchased two homes, one for 25,001 for $15,000 and we doubled our money on both properties. After all, the enormous amount of sweat equity and money that we put into it. Uh, and for me, it was just like, hey, this is the blueprint that I'm going to follow. And I think that all happened before the age of 17, between the age of 15 to 17.

Speaker3:
Well, I love that. All right. So fast forward to 2007. You ended up going to college and then what?

Speaker4:
So I ended up going kind of begrudgingly, you know, everyone that I talked to, thankfully, I had good people in my life that gave me good advice, and they encouraged me to to get an education because I thought I was just going to follow this real estate path. And of course, the market crashed. And, uh, you know, my parents fought really hard not to file for bankruptcy. They had land in multiple states and properties that, um, you know, just it was it was a very difficult time. Uh, so we end up going to oru and, um, you know, I ended up getting my, my degree in business. I stayed later, and I got my MBA and I started in real estate. I started selling, uh, commercial properties, and then I moved to residential after that.

Speaker3:
Nice. And then.

Speaker4:
Uh.

Speaker3:
How many years were you in real estate before making the move to Minnesota? Jump into that.

Speaker4:
Um, so I think it was in 2012 that I started out as a property manager. Um, so there's a guy in Tulsa who had a number of properties. Um, I think it was like maybe 20 units overall between 4 or 5 properties. And I started managing those for him, collecting rent, taking care of various maintenance things, making sure that they were that we had tenants in each of the units. Um, you know, so that's how I kind of started. But then he also I got my real estate license, and I think for about a year and a half, I did some commercial real estate, and another year that I did residential, and I actually managed to maintain the residential real estate. I maintained my license in Oklahoma even after I moved to Minnesota for almost a year. Uh, it was just a way for me to help smooth the transition. Um, you know, I ended up hiring out. I ended up hiring people to put up my signs to take, uh, you know, the listing contracts, um, just almost every aspect I could, whether it was taking pictures or doing everything via DocuSign, everything that I could. I hired out, and I did what I could to maintain my business in Oklahoma while living in Minnesota and pursuing this business.

Speaker3:
I love that, and I actually think that we're going to do this. But jumping into are you considering making a leap into entrepreneurship? I think there is some wisdom in not just making a leap, but actually in making a transition. One of the things in my business coaching that I recommend to people is instead of just stopping your paycheck and jumping full board into entrepreneurship, can you have an overlay where you have some guaranteed income coming in while you figure out if that business or that dream of yours is going to start the way that you think it's going to start. Because when you moved, you moved to start to help another financial advisor start his firm. And actually, what's neat about that is Melissa and I had talked almost every day and I go, man, why don't you move to Minnesota? And he was like, if you can find me a job, I'll move. And I go, let's work on finding you a job. And we knew that somehow we'd end up working together. We just didn't know how. So you moved here, ended up helping an advisor start his business. And it took a little longer than you thought. Tell us about that.

Speaker4:
I feel like I'm getting interviewed here. Um, so I moved in April of 2015, and I thought that I'd be moving in, transitioning into the next job. And part of why I kept the real estate going was we didn't get I didn't get started until July of 2015, and I didn't get any money from the the we were actually we were starting a business from the ground up, which for me was a very enticing opportunity because I've had a number of failed business ventures. And but that's just how I'm wired. You know, I, I love being entrepreneurial. I, I would really struggle having a 9 to 5. So for me it was really enticing. Um, and, and part of why I kept everything going with the real estate in Tulsa, just in case I had to, you know, I had to have a backup plan and, uh, you know, which was moving back to Oklahoma if I needed to, uh, but we started in July of 2015. Uh, I didn't get my first paycheck until October, late October of 2015. And you know and I know that it just in a variety of businesses and, and, uh, a variety of industries like that could be totally different, right? It just it depends on what you're doing. Sometimes, you know, it does take 30 days before you can get paid. Sometimes it takes much longer than that. Um, but part of that was it wasn't the income that was driving what I was doing, but the work, just the work itself, like it was very meaningful for me. It was it was, uh, it was an exciting time. Like, I didn't have any children. I wasn't married at the time. And part of that was I thought to myself, If I'm not going to do this now, I may never do this. Because eventually, once the responsibilities and the difficulties and challenges of life, once those things set in with a family and all the other things that that come with that, like it's a little bit more difficult to be entrepreneurial.

Speaker3:
Absolutely. Well, there's there's more risk on the table. And it doesn't mean that you don't make the leap. It just means you do it more thoughtfully, intentionally. And I like how you set it up for a transition. Instead of just quitting real estate and assuming that your next job would pay right away. I think that was one of the big keys. So really quick before we dive in. So jumped into real estate, did your undergrad or you did your MBA, jumped into real estate and then moved into the financial world. And after about what was it, 2 or 2 and a half years later is when we started our business. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker4:
So now 2017.

Speaker3:
I want that I'll give my background quick. So I was born and raised in a small farm town in Minnesota, Owatonna, Minnesota, where my dad's dad was a hair barber for 63 years. Uh, just a great man that raised four sons. My grandma was a stay at home mom, almost what I would call, like, a storybook, uh, of kind of like the American dream, right? Worked for himself, never worked for anybody, never had an employee. And, uh, my dad would say, who was the oldest of four? That he didn't know that growing up, that they were, you know, basically poor, you know, they they, uh, he had two t shirts, one pair of jeans, but they were happy. They had a great life. And, um, so I was born and raised in a city where my grandfather was a barber for 60 years. My dad did nonprofit work and was a pastor. Still is, by the way, for 43 years. And one of the things that I knew is that I wanted to find my niche or the thing that I was called to do, or the thing that I was supposed to do early on. And I ended up right before high school. We moved to the cities, ended up wrestling for a small school called Apple Valley, which had the number two wrestling program in the nation, which really taught me a great work ethic, and it taught me to figure out a way how to win, even when things didn't look good.

Speaker3:
And so that carried me into a lot of life lessons. Ended up going to Oral Roberts University, where we met USC did my undergrad. When I came home, I got what I thought was my dream job that had a big salary. At least it felt big at that time And I was the first, uh, college grad they had ever hired. I already called Rwjf agencies, which ended up becoming RMA Marsh McClellan agencies, and I remember telling them that I was uniquely designed to be the first person they hired without ten years of sales experience. And I remember they hired me and basically threw me a phone book and said, good luck. And I remember thinking they were right. I am not prepared for this. And those next two years were the hardest two years of my life. Just working 70 hours a week really at something that I didn't love. But I was chasing what I would call a success or the money, which we're going to get into spend two years at. Rwjf ended up leaving, starting my own business and business insurance. Uh uh, Mike Hennick, who's a huge blessing in our lives, uh, ended up investing in me, starting a business as my partner. And 18 months in, I was just as unhappy as I was in the corporate world. And it took me three and a half years to find that business. Insurance was not the thing I wanted to spend my time in.

Speaker3:
And I hate to say I felt like I was a slow learner, but I want to encourage you if you've been doing something for three years, five years, 13 years, you know you don't love what you do. Don't get stuck. It's worth moving on. So we'll get into that. I ended up, uh, we ended up selling that business, and I went to go work for a friend of mine in wealth management and in the education model, which is what we do today. And I ended up falling in love with the business. And I worked for them for 18 months, another group for six months. And then, uh, after two years in the business, you say we started our company, which there's a journey in that in itself. But man, it's it's been exciting. It feels like sometimes growing up, my dad would always say it's important to be the turtle and not the hare, meaning that it's not always the hare that wins the race. And so I don't feel like, uh, we've, uh, built fast. We've built by paying things in cash. We've never borrowed money for our business, and I think we're in a great spot where we at least know enough that we can help a few others. So I'm excited to jump in this morning. So point number one chasing money or chasing passion. Share some of your thoughts on that.

Speaker4:
Well, I think there's like a number of ways to look at this. And like on the surface, like obviously chase your passions of course, like you hear people but like as the, as you mentioned with the quote that you said in the beginning, like you hear people say stupid things like, if you just find work that, that you love, then you'll never have to work a day in your life. And I think that that type of thinking, it's just it's a backwards relationship to work. Like I love what I do for work. I think both you and I would both agree, like, we both.

Speaker3:
Love what we.

Speaker4:
Do for.

Speaker3:
Work.

Speaker4:
But we didn't create this career or this this business that we're in. We didn't we didn't do it by turning something we love into a job. Like, I came from an immigrant family, as I mentioned. Like, you don't have to come from an immigrant family to know this, to get this lesson, because I know you know this really well, but there's an expectation that work is going to be hard. You just expect it like that. Doesn't that concept doesn't blindside anybody in my family, right? Or in your family? Like, we we both come from families where where there's work ethic. It's built in. And I think it's lost on so many people that want to be entrepreneurial. And one of the things that I, that I would share with people all the time, and when somebody wants to, to to do something that's more passion driven, there's nothing wrong with that. Like there's been careers and businesses, probably even industries that have been built on somebody's passion because they continue to pursue it until eventually it turned into something. But I think that a lot of times when people talk about pursuing their passion or getting out of a job that they really don't, maybe they don't really like very much, and they think that, uh, if they if they just found something that they love, that things would be a little bit easier for them.

Speaker4:
And I would say that there isn't a business, there isn't an entrepreneurial endeavor that if you choose something that if only you chose something that you're passionate about, that it's going to shelter or protect you from the difficulties that are inevitably ahead. Like you need to develop resilience. You have to have work ethic. I tell my kids this all the time. You have to have sticktuitiveness. I learned that from my wife, right? You have to have that. And there and just by choosing a passion or making a passion driven decision, like that's not going to protect you or shelter you from any of those things. And I think that while that's great, a lot of times when people end up doing is they they find something that they love or they have a hobby or something that really that just really makes them happy. And I would just sometimes say, hey, keep that in the hobby category, keep that in, you know, that that's your that's what you do for fun. You don't have to make that into a job now. And I know that that's not true across the board, but I think that that for many people that would be good advice.

Speaker3:
It is a good rule. I think the other big thing too, is I think if you if you jump on social media, you've got Tony Robbins and Alex Hormozi and Grant Cardone and all these guys that, you know, you watch and they're getting on their private jets and they're driving up to it and their Ferrari. And I think that we live in a culture that teaches that entrepreneurship is for everybody, and that there isn't a greater call or there isn't anything more elevated than owning a business. And I want to say, as funny as it sounds, coming from somebody that loves business ownership, I don't think it's for everybody. And the reason for that is for an entrepreneur. You have to be willing to always be on. I mean, how many times are we texting or emailing at night because something has to get done or, you know, we're on vacation doing things because they have to get done. And there's a lot of people, I've got family members that, you know, they would rather have work hours because they don't live to work. Their job is just to provide, and there's nothing wrong with that.

Speaker3:
So I think one is, you know, if you're thinking about starting a business, the number one thing you need to do is, you know, count the cost. Are you willing to give up 3 to 5 years of being in balance, to someday have more control over your time, over your schedule? I think the other thing that's never talked about, as I have a sister who's 18 months younger and she is an amazing job in the corporate world, and she's in sales, and she has more flexibility than most business owners that I own. So I think one of the other lies is that if you're a business owner, you have access to all this money, you control your calendar, you do whatever you want to do. But a lot of the people I know that have the most time freedom have great careers working within other organizations. So one of the things, uh, that we're going to move into is talking about alignments. Anything you want to finish on chasing money and chasing passion. Yeah.

Speaker4:
And I don't want to sound like I'm against chasing passion. What I would do is replace the word passion with purpose or meaningfulness. Um, because I think that's really what matters. At least it does for me. Like, I find it incredibly gratifying to do something with excellence. Like I want to do it better than the last guy did it. So I would ask, like, is there a room within what you do for work or within what you want to do for work, for you to have that type of expression, right? Because, you know, sometimes I think work is, is kind of become like a four letter word. Uh, but I think that the labor itself can be the reward. And obviously, you know, we have to we have to have a paycheck, right? You have to be able to provide for your family, too. But I think that if, if rather than pursuing your passion, but you pursue something that is meaningful to you or allows you to express what's on your heart or to to make use of the skills and talents that you have, or maybe that you've cultivated over time. Like I think that that is a better way, a better way to guide your decisions on the type of business that you want to pursue.

Speaker3:
Yeah. Well, I would say two, you have to decide what you value. You know, when we started our company, I had already owned a business. So I knew that business ownership was in my future because for me, controlling the culture and making the decisions was even more important than how much money I made. You know, I look back, and when we started our business, uh, my wife and I had a three, a three week old son. We were living with my parents, waiting to move into a new house that was being delayed. And I had a job that I was working 30 to 35 hours a week, and I was on pace the first six months of the year to make 180 to $200,000, which, you know, most people would say, if you can make 200 grand working 35 hours a week without employees and payroll, that's living the dream. And I would say there's a lot of people that, man, you're going to be way happier being a part of a team where somebody else has payroll and insurances and all those things where for me, I was willing to leave those things, and I went from getting a paycheck of, you know, 15,000 to 20,000 a month to all of a sudden having those kind of costs. So instead of that coming in per month, now it's going out per month.

Speaker3:
And for me, it wasn't a question of is this is it worth it? I knew that it was. It was what mattered most to me. So one of the things I encourage a lot of people to before making a jump is decide what you want most. You know, I we have a friend, a mutual friend you always say that I talked to recently. And he goes, man, if starting a business means that I can't be, uh, home for dinner every night, then making more money isn't more valuable to me than having dinner with my wife and kids every night. And I just remember thinking, man, I'm so thankful that he's aware that you can't start a business and be home for dinner every night. Or I should say, I don't know anybody that's ever done that. There are seasons, probably those first 3 to 5 years, that your life's going to be out of balance and we're going to get into that. But point number two is alignment. So let's let's jump into alignment. One of the things that our business coach Keith crap says is that your alignments are even more important than your assignments. And the first, I don't know, three months, six months, nine months after I heard that quote, I remember thinking, that sounds good, but I don't know if it's true.

Speaker3:
And if you think about it, when you work with coworkers or whoever you show up and go to work with, you're spending the best hours of your best days with those people. And so those alignments matter. So when I look at my journey, you know, I had a friend, uh, his name is Elijah. He introduced me to two of the greatest things in my life. Number one is my wife. Uh, I wouldn't be married to Stephanie if Elijah and his wife Erica hadn't introduced us. And then our industry. So I think about that one alignment brought me my wife and brought me my career, which is significant. And then one of the things I think a lot of small business owners make a mistake in is they don't have an alignment yellow say, meaning that a lot of entrepreneurs, in my opinion, are mavericks. They would rather own 100% of a marble than 50% of a basketball, as it said. And I think one of the things that you and I, uh, recognized early on is that we would have a more successful investment, uh, tax planning insurance firm if we partnered on something versus if we did something on our own. Yeah. The other alignments, I think that happened fast for us is when we started our business, we didn't have to just start from scratch.

Speaker3:
We had a good family friend like Kenny, who, uh, is a partner at a firm that we were able to walk into that firm and start our business with little overhead. So one of the things I would say to people is if you're thinking about starting a business, how can you use what's in your hands or the relationships or the things that you know to save you some of the cost or some of the risk. Maybe others wouldn't be able to because they're not being creative with how they do things. The second relationship that was important is I had a partnership with another advisor that I took some of the things I learned from my first firm that was a rock star firm, and I did some consulting, and while we started our business, he helped me pay for some of our marketing. You were able to keep your job and income, so we both had. I did for six months and you had a safety net. And I think a lot of people, they don't do that. They just they they cancel everything and they jump into entrepreneurship with no paycheck. And unfortunately, a lot of people do it without enough savings.

Speaker4:
Yeah. I think that brings us nicely into the third thing that we learned. Um, do you want to introduce the topic or.

Speaker3:
Yeah, absolutely. So plagiarize shadow or copy with permission. And I think if we're to summarize that, it's don't reinvent the wheel and you'll say, how would you say that. We've done that. And I'll say this quick is, you know, under the alignments piece. Tying that in is when we started our firm. One of the things I think that helped us and there's multiple things, but I said, hey, I'm coming from a firm that is one of the most successful in Minnesota. Let's not reinvent the wheel. Let's keep our model the same way, which is we had an education model teaching classes, and then we had a discovery, an analysis, a solution, and then implementation. And so one of the things that we decided early on is let's replicate a model that already works, and once we're successful, we can improve upon that model and make it better, which is really what we've done. But what are your thoughts on shadowing copying? Yeah.

Speaker4:
How will you and I? We started our business in 2017, but we both got into the industry in 2015, two years before that. Yeah. And, um, you know, I don't think we really knew exactly how things would play out. But one of the things that we did is we had a front row seat to other people that were doing exactly what we wanted to do, you know, and not only just people who were doing exactly we wanted to do like they were killers of the industry, like the firm that you started with. They were maybe one of the top firms in Minneapolis. And the business that I helped to start, like, for me, like because the person that I helped to start the business with, he was more of a producer. He wasn't very, uh, hands on when it came to operations, like I had to learn on the job, but I had a front row seat to all of those things, too. And it's not just learning how to do something. One of the biggest advantages is learning how not to do something. Like, there's a lot of mistakes that we made, but I got to make them on somebody else's dime, if you will. Like, I wasn't putting up any of the capital to help start the business, but I had a huge, huge advantage, uh, when I started my own business, because I learned how not to do certain things. And whenever you're in business with people especially, like, you know, small business like ours and some in business that you were a part of initially, like you get to see a lot of things, you get to see how how some of the leadership behaves, like how do they deal with tough times, like how do they when do they flip out? And you know, what are those emotional moments like and and how does the industry how does it ebb and flow and what do you need to be prepared for. And we got to do all of that before we actually started. And I think that go ahead.

Speaker3:
Well, let's say you're I think what's really neat is when you move to Minnesota, we knew that our goal was to start a business together at some point. And I remember, you know, very different. You know, you started with an advisor that, like you said, was really just getting started. And I walked into a firm that was already a well-oiled machine. And I remember at the beginning, I think just because of how we started, you know, I started with a bigger income. And, uh, I was on a team of a bunch of young guys that, uh, the firm had already made it. And so I remember a conversations of you going, man, you're having all this fun. Meanwhile, we're just trying to stay open. And so the reason I say that, though, is one of the things I think that was important is I remember having the conversation of, you know, like, hey, if you just spend this time learning operations and back office and service work and pipeline and investments all spend my time learning sales and taking care of clients and serving them well and making sure they're happy. And so I think one of the things that you and I did is we knew where we were going, even though we didn't know when we were going to get there or how we were going to get there. I mean, at that time, I remember thinking, man, I'm in such a great I'm on such a great team. At some point I was just going to steal you, and we were going to have our own office working for this, this big company and own a small part of something bigger.

Speaker3:
But what you and I both did well is we both worked harder than we were getting paid for, knowing that there are seasons. And this is one of my favorite quotes, is there are earnings seasons in your life and there are learning seasons in your life. And I don't know who said it or if I just picked it up, uh, you know, doing business. But there are seasons of your life where a lot of people who are what I would say, corporate people. And I don't say that in a bad way, where they've been used to getting paid X amount of dollars per hour and then they jump into an industry like ours. And it's shocking that you spend weeks and months and often years working harder than you're getting paid, hoping that one day that'll catch up and actually someday that you're getting paid more than the work that you're doing. But there's a lot of people and you'll say, we've seen it. We've hired them where they came from. The corporate world of working from 730 to 430. They were home for dinner every night, and they thought they could continue that 40 hours a week and make it and be successful in our industry. And one of the things that you and I did is we put in the time and we worked 60 plus hours a week, and we did whatever it took, knowing that someday down the road it would pay off. And someday, somehow, that you and I would own a business together, even though that we were learning and growing separately.

Speaker4:
Yeah, I think that at least initially when I started, maybe it was different for you, but like, there was nothing to write home about. My parents were asking me, like, what are you doing in Minnesota?

Speaker3:
And I'm like, did they recommend you, like, do something else?

Speaker4:
Yeah. I'm like, yeah, that's it's a long shot. Like, uh. Well, tell us about the job. There's a lot I hate about my job. That's like my, you know, it's one. And I it's kind of one of my gripes with people coming from the corporate world, like in a small business, especially, but especially when you're starting one. Right? Like my role wasn't defined. I did everything that needed to be done. That's just that's just it. And like, I, I don't know, it's it's something that that just kind of frustrates me a little bit because, you know, there's, there's a, there's a wonderful thing that, you know, the structure that the corporate world provides and really just kind of allows people to, you know, be part of this big process, almost like an assembly line. Everybody has their job and everybody fulfills their role.

Speaker3:
Really?

Speaker4:
Yeah. And when you get into a small business, it's the wild, wild West, right? It's a little bit crazy. And the expectations just don't match up. And one of the things that frustrates me is, you know, obviously in the in the beginning stages, what we were willing to put up with, what we were willing to do in the pursuit of a goal, hoping to find success but not really knowing if it's going to happen, but believing in yourself, betting on yourself. Like I feel like that's just so lost when you when you take somebody from the corporate world and you try to put them into our model like the, the, uh, the ability to see, like what could be and to have the drive to push yourself towards that. Like sometimes like people just want to skip ahead and I get it, like they've put in five, ten years of the corporate world. They've climbed the ladder. They've they've gotten to a certain spot, a certain status within their life, within their company, their career. And they want that to translate immediately into this new endeavor that they're doing. And we find that the most successful people are people that are willing to grind a little bit in those earlier years, uh, because they're pursuing something that's going to be a lot greater than what they've had.

Speaker3:
Yeah. So, I mean, one of the questions I would ask if you're thinking about starting your own business is, are you willing to reduce your income and work more hours for 3 to 5 years to get ahead? And if the answer is not a clear yes, staying in the corporate world and winning in that area may be your answer. Which, by the way, for a lot of people, including my sister and a lot of my friends, they're crushing it. Unlike you and I, Elsa, they have benefits that we didn't have any benefits when we got started for the first few years. You know, we're paying out of pocket ridiculous amounts for insurance. Uh, but let's move into tough times, because sometimes, and oftentimes when you start a business, most people don't make it past that. I think it's like the 2 or 3 year mark, and then again, the five year mark and then the seven year mark, and we just passed year number seven or just hit it July 1st two days ago. But when we started our business July of 2017. Mhm. Uh, we really didn't have any revenue for three four months. And so really our, the beginning of our third year, 2020. I'll never forget I walked into your office. I just got done with a great meeting, somebody that was considering hiring and partnering with us. And you looked so nervous. And I go, hey, I go, what? What are you looking at? And you go, man, I recently just met with somebody that came back from China, and I'm reading the news and I think this Covid thing might be a big deal.

Speaker3:
I think it's going to shut down libraries and colleges. And for those that don't know, you know, our number one way that we meet new clients or new relationships, new families that we serve is through clients and referrals. And you were telling me, hey, I think our I think our country is going to get shut down. I think libraries are going to close. I think, uh, we're not going to be able to teach classes. And I remember telling you because naturally, I'm an optimist almost to a fault or definitely to a fault, and you tend to be more of a critical thinker and, uh, which can be cynical, but I remember telling you, I remember saying, LSA, quit being so negative. That's never going to happen. And I wanted to say within 4 or 5 weeks, maybe six weeks, tops, all of a sudden, libraries and colleges and all these locations that we have classes booked, taxes and retirement, social Security and Medicare. Estate planning, retirement planning, A to Z, things that we've been doing for two and a half years. All of it got shut down, which when you're in business and your main revenue source literally dries up. I remember thinking, how in the world are we going to make it as a two and a half year old business? And man, it was difficult. We had a new team, you know, we had a few employees that had only been with us for a year.

Speaker3:
We had one guy that was a good team member from the standpoint that we hired for character, but he didn't take the time to learn new skills. He was working 34 hours a week. We were paying him a six figure income. And I know one of the things that we learned from that is we hired slowly, but we didn't fire quickly. So one of the things I tell people is, man, it is so important when you have payroll and you're new in business, that you hire slowly and you fire quickly when you know somebody is not in the right seat, because that revenue that you're spending is the opportunity cost of somebody that would be contributing to your growth. Where I look back on it and you said, we've talked about it, that was $150,000 lesson for you and I because we kept him so long. And so the other thing I would say is it wasn't just a loss for us. You know, he was a good guy that didn't want to work more than 34 hours a week. And he came from a corporate job where that he was able to succeed in that time. So even for him and his family, even though he wanted the things that we had, you know, I look back and we weren't just costing us, we were costing him by keeping him. I was actually in alignment.

Speaker4:
Yeah, I was just going to say that. And one of the things that, um, you know, it might sound harsh when you say like, hey, you're you're keeping him too long. You have to fight her quickly when you know, it's it's time for that person to go. But what people don't realize is every person that we've let go, like you've been instrumental in trying to help them land on their feet. We're not just cutting them loose, like for you. It's like, hey, like, clearly this isn't a good fit. Like, you probably should be doing something else. We can we can all agree to that. Let me help you find what that is, because by keeping them in a job that they hate, that they're miserable, like they're eventually going to have to go somewhere else, and you're just delaying their progress in some other field and some other capacity, like they have a job that's probably a.

Speaker3:
Perfect fit.

Speaker4:
For them. Let's let's help. Let's help you find that. Let's let's both be happy. You're not happy. I'm not happy. Let's be happy. Let's find you a different career.

Speaker3:
And I think it's easy, as a small business owner to think I have to take care of this person, because one of the things I have found, I've worked with hundreds of small business owners when I was doing business insurance and 401 K management. And what I found is, man, small business owners have the biggest heart for people. I mean, they love people. If you look at the average small business owner, a lot of them have family members that are staff, some of their closest friends. And I think sometimes we are keeping people from a promotion because we think that we're hurting them by letting them go. And you hit it on the head. Any time that we've transitioned somebody out of our firm, one of the things we've realized is that whether somebody is here for a season or a lifetime, we want to help them add new skills and get better so that they can do what we all want to do. Because at the end of the day, we want to be great providers for our family in an industry that we love and believe in. But let me just say this that was a hiring and firing lesson. The other thing I would say is that going through Covid, you know, one of the things that that we had to do is we had to decide that we were going to keep teaching classes at the non-traditional places.

Speaker3:
So what was so interesting is in our industry, so many people just said, well, we're going to stop teaching classes, we're going to stop looking for new clients. And, you know, if you had been in business five, 7 or 10 years, that was easy. When you're two years in, you don't have the option to do that. So I think one of the things that we did really well is that we found places to teach classes, even though the libraries and universities had shut down. So one of my takeaways before we finish our next couple is that even when everybody in your industry is taking an easy route, you have to do whatever it takes to keep your business going. So we've got a couple minutes left, so let's let's keep moving. So we talked about building a winning team. We mentioned that one of the things that we've done specifically the last two years is we've hired great people and we've been willing to pay more for the right people. I think as a small business owner, sometimes you are worried about payroll, and so you hire underskilled people and you don't realize that it's costing you more to have the lower salaried team member than the more expensive team member. So if I was to do it again, I definitely would have hired more people that were more skilled at a higher income level. Do you agree with that 100%?

Speaker4:
And I think that when it comes to this topic specifically, I think I'm a little bit of the problem here, because why I almost like I have a chip on my shoulder. I'm thinking to myself like, hey, like, this is what I this is what I was paid my first 2 or 3 years. You should be okay with that too. And and obviously, as the business owner, you're that that's the type of risk. And that's just what you have to deal with. And sometimes I feel like, um, I don't know, like I know people, you know, they're grateful for the position, they're grateful for the opportunity. And sometimes I just have to like, I have to realize, like, hey, we're not saving a buck. We really aren't. Not in the long run. Uh, we're actually doing what's best for the business by paying a little bit more, paying somebody what they're worth. And I think that also translates into into a better employee who's going to work harder. Not every time, right. We can get it wrong. We've got it wrong on a number of employees. But for the most part, I think that, you know, if there's areas where you're going to save money, um, you know, don't don't cut back on what you're paying the employees. That's not where you want to skimp. Right?

Speaker3:
Right. Well, I think, too, one of the things that we've done is I don't know the percentage, but we look to see if we're hiring for a role. What do other firms pay that receptionist? What do they pay that associate advisor? And we've actually paid more so that we can not just catch the right people, but so that we can keep them. And obviously, you know, nobody thinks they're being overpaid. But we've done it as we've just said. What does the industry say? They should be paid per hour. Hey, if this is a great person, let's pay more because we value them. And and I think that's really important as well. Let's move into number six personal development. So one of my favorite quotes is to quit being goal focused and start being growth focused. And I think one of the things that I really value about Ulsa is that, like me, that you continue to grow in your skills, uh, practically you do and pursuing new designations, but also, you're a reader. Uh, you're always watching YouTube videos, you're learning, you're improving. And I think that when you are that person, when you're somebody that just loves growth, personal development, reading, becoming, I think at least for me, I assumed everybody was that way. And there's a stat, a statistic that in the United States, only 2% of people have read a book after high school. And another one. I don't know why it's related, but the other one, and maybe this is why. But it was something like only 2% of Americans have a library card. I don't know if that's still true today, but I know a few years ago it was. And so one of the things that you and I have done is we've continued to develop, we've continued to grow.

Speaker3:
And one of the ways that we've done that is we've invested in having great coaching. So almost three years ago, you and I started a coaching program out of Dallas, Texas. And I'll never forget, you know, when we started and we heard the cost of being a part of this group of entrepreneurs, I remember thinking, man, that's that's, uh, the same amount as my mortgage. Like it was significant for us to be in the room, not excuse me, not including flying there, getting a hotel room, paying for food. But we invested in our personal development, hoping that it would increase our skills so that we could increase our revenue in our business and become better at what we do. But when you think about personal development, one of the things that Keith Kraft, our business coach, says it is the rooms that you get yourself in today are the rooms that will decide are the rooms that you get yourself in. Today is what's going to decide what rooms you're in tomorrow. And so when I look at that, you know, I know some people, they think personal development is hurrah. And a little I don't know what the term would be, but a little bit hokey. But one of the things that I've found, and you've pointed this out, even though we can't point to and say, hey, spending X amount of dollars on personal coaching has brought in X amount of dollars in our business. We both agree that developing ourselves and getting better has helped us grow a better business. Share kind of your thoughts on that.

Speaker4:
Yeah, I actually I, I look at the amount we spend every month and I have to intentionally block that out of my mind because you know why? I do much better when there's a direct relationship where you can actually just point to it and say, hey, this is how much we're spending. And then, you know, whether it's marketing or something else and, and look, our revenue happens to have increased by, you know, a certain percentage. And I know that, like, there are no direct relationships like that. It's really difficult to say, hey, to what extent has our business revenue gone up because of this one decision that we've made? Uh, but one thing that I do know is it's it's helping us to think in a different way, how we think about our business, how we think about our relationship with our employees and what we're doing. And I think it's it's, uh, even though it's an indirect relationship, I think that it's really just improved so much in, in, in how we conduct ourselves, who we are, uh, inside the business, outside the business, with our families, with our staff, uh, and I think all of that stuff, even though it's difficult to measure sometimes I think that it's invaluable. And, uh, I'm 100% for it. And I think that whether you're adding new skills or whether you're, um, just expanding your relationships and talking to different people that are in your industry, outside of your industry, other entrepreneurs, people that are kind of on the same path that you are. Sometimes it's a very lonely path to be an entrepreneur. And I think that getting around people who who do, who are doing this right, who are in business, who've started a business, who've had some of the same struggles that you might have, I think that that's really, really valuable.

Speaker3:
Yeah. Well, I think, too, you know, in the ways that we're opposite, they strengthen each other. But for me, there's been a lot of seasons where I I'll say to you, hey, I feel like this is significantly impacting our business. And I, I go by feeling like I, I think a lot of people that are in sales or CEO roles are very feeling led, where in a positive way you're like, show me on a spreadsheet. And I think those balance each other, because in a business it's important to have checks and balances. One of the things I've noticed watching friends who are entrepreneurs, those that are more like me, that don't have an implementer or operations person like you will overspend or they'll not have, uh sticktuitiveness in things that we're trying where somebody, an organization that's led by somebody like you versus a sales person, might not have as much sales and therefore have a slower growth. So I appreciate that we balance each other, and I think we do a good job of hearing each other as we have differences in how we do things. That's been a strength, but one of the things I would say is, you know, if you're looking at a mastermind, so what is a mastermind really? It's a group of people.

Speaker3:
Think of a master of the minds where instead of having to learn everything on your own, you may be going through a challenge in your business or maybe personal, in your marriage or with your kids, and you can share that in a room of people that you know, like, and trust. And a set of spending years trying to find the answer. Somebody else in that room has already solved the problem that you're trying to solve. So I would encourage anybody, that man, you either need a business coach or you need a mastermind. And if you don't have somebody or know somebody, feel free to reach out to yell or say or I. We have several contacts. Um, but one of the things I'd encourage people to do is invest in yourself. And I'll kind of end with this. One of the questions I get a lot is what percentage of my income should I invest in personal development? And the first thing I tell people is one is just get started. But I think a good rule of thumb is, you know, having depending on your income, obviously the higher your income, the percentages may not stay the same. But a good rule of thumb is if you can invest 3 to 5% of your income on personal development.

Speaker3:
One of the things that Alex Hormozi, who is one of the top entrepreneurs today. He said, when I first heard him say this, I was like, that's stupid. But he said, everybody talks about investing in the S&P 500. But what I tell people is to invest in the S&P 500. And I was like, man, that is cheesy. But uh, we just had to say is make sure you're investing in yourself. Get in a room of people that have built the kind of business that you want. And one of the things I like about our room is two things that we've done. We've focused on, uh, getting in a room of entrepreneurs that have different industries because we've learned a lot from them, but that also we have mentors in our industry that are five, ten, 15, 20 years ahead that have built great firms and that think the way that we do and that we just know, like and trust that have helped us as well. Uh, the last one, you'll say the illusion of balance. One of the things you hear people talk about so often is I want to live a balanced life. What does that look like as an entrepreneur? And is it a real thing?

Speaker4:
It is not a real thing. So I would say, don't quit your job to start a new business with an unrealistic sense of what it's going to require of you. Um, give up. On balance, it's an illusion. And I, you know, I would I guess what I want to say is I want to remind people that there is a, a season of your life where if you if you decide to go down this path, if you decide to be an entrepreneur, it's going to require a lot of you. And you have to decide, like, do you want balance or do you want to intentionally create an imbalance for some type of future benefit and the part that that really can be challenging for people is there's no guarantee you'll find success. Like, it could all end up being in vain. But I think that's that's what separates people who are entrepreneurs from from people who'd rather just work a 9 to 5 in the corporate world. Not that there isn't risk in going down that path, but, you know, there's a certain level of risk that it requires when you decide to bet on yourself. And I think that, you know, when I look at people that are successful and I know that, you know, you do a lot of coaching and maybe you're a little bit more exposed to this than I am. But when I look at it, I think that there are very few successful people who live a balanced life.

Speaker4:
And I don't mean, you know, it's totally out of balance. Or maybe you know, what I mean by that is they've prioritized certain things, you know, and I think that the challenging thing for me is sometimes, you know, when you look at somebody's Instagram account, um, you know, there's there's so much pressure to, to appear a certain way, like in today's environment, you know, if you're an entrepreneur, like your life is, is on full display, like that's kind of baked in, right? Everybody has a window into your life and it's usually through social media, Instagram or Facebook or something like that. And I think that you, you kind of you can't have it all like, I think you can't have all the success, all the family life, all the balance in the world. Like probably you've sacrificed something and, you know, there's probably some areas in your life that haven't received the attention that they deserve. And and maybe you fooled everybody, but your spouse is probably the one person that knows, and they probably would tell a different story. So, you know, obviously there's something that to be said about balance, and it's an important thing. I just think that especially when you're starting out, especially then, uh, it's a bit of an illusion.

Speaker3:
I think, too, it's I think that's well said. I think life's less about balance and more about getting in a rhythm. You know, I've lived this way because I was raised my my dad and mom did a great job of having good rhythms. Uh, but Keith Kraft coined it for me of of living in rhythm. And what that looks like is not necessarily having your schedule so laid out that you do the same thing at the same time every day. But it's more like for me, like I work out five days a week. Most of the time it's in the morning, sometimes it's at night. One of the things I love is that my natural defaults is that I don't like doing the same thing at the same time, every day, where I think you'll say you actually love that. Uh, correct me if I'm wrong, but you like. You like, um, having your schedule laid out pretty clean. Where for me, I need I need change all of the time and almost to a fault. But I think life's more about rhythms than that. When we started our business, I knew that there were seasons that I would be at work way more than I was with my family. And I think it's okay as long as you don't live that way. I think one of the mistakes that some entrepreneurs make is that it's never enough, and they started working 60 plus hours a week.

Speaker3:
And my goal, I'll say this I don't live to build a great business. I build a great business so that I can live, because for us, family time matters. Uh, having hobbies matter. And one of the things I found is that it's okay to have seasons where you take more vacations and more family time. As long as you know that through your career of owning a business, you're going to have seasons that you have to work harder than you play. And so I think it's more about rhythm. The other thing I would say is I think a lot of people get stuck, uh, pursuing the, the fruit of something or the profit of something instead of the process. And so one of my favorite recent quotes, actually by a pastor out of Chicago, his name is Kent Muncie, as he said, how do you know when to stick with what you're doing? Or how do you know when to make a change? And he said, if you've been very disciplined and working hard in something for years, and it's not producing close to what you think you can produce, It may be time to move on. And so I think one of the challenges that a lot of good people fall into is they don't want to quit things, and so they end up living with a tension of frustration and maybe even just disappointment that they're not who they thought they were, or things are going way too slow.

Speaker3:
And so one of the things I found in my life is I always set measurements. And so what I'll do is I'll say yellow, say I'll say my goal is to hit this, uh, to hit this goal within six months. And I'll set a good goal and a great goal. And if I don't hit the good goal, I know that this may not be the thing that's for me in trying a new career. And I try to do that. I do think it takes, you know, two, three, four years to build momentum. But once you're two, three, four years in, I tell people set that six month goal, set that year goal so that you don't get stuck in something that makes you look average when you have gifts and something that can help you be great. So, you know, as we wrap up, uh, a couple of key things that I'd love, some takeaways from you is I think everybody has gifts and talents to where, whatever those gifts and talents are, there's something that you can be great in that you can win in.

Speaker3:
I know for me, had I stayed in direct sales, I think I would have been just average because I didn't love a lot about it. Uh, there's a lot that I loved about it, but I didn't love working evenings. I didn't love working weekends. I wanted to find a career where I could work when most people were working so I could be at my kid's sporting events, and I didn't have to work on the weekends. So those are things that you have to think about. The other thing I would say is, if you don't love what you're doing, you listen. You get on this early. Even entrepreneurs don't love 100% of what they do. But if you can either find a job and be an entrepreneur within a company or an entrepreneur where you build a team that you spend the best days and your best hours in the most of your time, and your best and highest use. I think that's one of the other things that separates people that love what they do, from people that just like what they do or don't like what they do. Because one of the things we've done is we've we've really built our business where we try to each spend the majority of our time in our strengths. Would you agree on that?

Speaker4:
Yeah, 100%. Definitely finding your highest and best use. And I think it kind of goes back to the conversation that we had on on passion versus purpose and meaningfulness. And I think that, like, I like what you said about rhythm. I think my only thing, the only pushback that I would I would give is, you know, I think that you settle into what you said about rhythm, but you certainly don't start a business with rhythm in mind. And I think that, um, you know, I look at how difficult it is to make it and how many people don't make it. And most of the time you could probably like point out some of the obvious flaws and things that maybe were, you know, that they did incorrectly. But a lot of times I think it's you have to have a mindset that sets you up to actually make it. And once you've made it, you can have a conversation on rhythm and balance and all those things. But if we're talking about the seven lessons that we've learned to help us get started, to help us be where we are today after seven years, I think that I don't know, it's something you said about, like, you know, the work itself and, uh, I think you're probably not going to like this, but I'm going to I'm going to mention something. I'm not a Buddhist, by the way, but there's something that a different perspective.

Speaker4:
There's something that, uh, it was from the Bhagavad Gita, and I'm not a Buddhist, but something that I don't know if I either. I either read it or I heard it somewhere, but it stood out to me over the years. And I think that this to me is, uh, how I would how I would say this is the mentality you have to have, especially when you get started where there are no guarantees, when you're I think the focus needs to be on sacrifice and not on balance. Uh, but the quote is something to the effect of, like, you have the right to your labor, which you don't even have the right to the fruits of your labor. In other words, it's, uh, it's it's you know, I've mentioned this before. I think that work has become like a, a four letter word. Right. But I think that the work itself, the labor itself, can be the reward, and especially in the earlier stages, in the beginning when you just start, it needs to be right. It needs to, of course, you want to find the meaningful work. You want to find something that you're passionate about. But in the beginning, sometimes it needs to be the work and the paycheck isn't always there. And you need to have enough reason. You need to have enough. Why to keep going.

Speaker3:
Yeah, well, I, uh, I guess wrapping things up. Let me ask you a question. Let's end with this. What do you love most about being an entrepreneur?

Speaker4:
The paycheck.

Speaker3:
It's actually what we like to say is yellow. Say loves the people. Yeah. And if you look at the dollar bill, you will see a president, which is the people you want people. No joke about that. And obviously, you know, at the end of the day, everybody goes to work to provide a better life for our families. You know? And I think what's great about what we get to do is great businesses are built on win win relationships. And one of the things I love about what we do, in fact, every day, you know, I don't even know if you know this, but every day when I'm getting ready, my kids will say, daddy, are you going to work? And I'll say, yeah, I'm going to work. And I'll say, Cyrus, my oldest, or whoever it is, I'll say, what does daddy do? And Cyrus will say, you help people make money. And I love that because my kids know that I'm not just going to work to bring home a paycheck, but I have a job, a business, a career that I get to go have build great relationships with people. One of the things I love is, you know, I have 300 families that I have great relationships with, that we get to help them earn money. We get to help them have peace in retirement.

Speaker3:
We get to solve their problems. And so one of the things I love is I'm teaching my kids that I don't just go to work, I get to go serve people. I get to go help people. And I think in whatever you do, it's really important that you love what you do. And we talked about passion versus money. I think if you're doing the right things, you know, indirectly, if you serve people well, life is going to pay you well. And so the thing I would say is find find something that you love. You know, I was, uh, I know we're going a little bit long, but I was really blessed in that. I grew up in a family where both my mom and my dad did something that had an impact on people. My dad was a pastor, man. He loves people more. You know, just he loves people endlessly. My mom does marriage and family counseling and the reward of of helping marriages and relationships of parents with their kids. And so one of the things I love about what we do is that we're not a transactional business. We're a business that we actually impact people's lives, and we have great relationships. And so one of the things I tell people is, you know, make sure if you still have kids in your house that you're not just going to work or your kids think that your job sucks, like Like tell your kids what you do for a living.

Speaker3:
What? What's the result? Because my kids know that when I go to work, I'm not just going to work, I'm not leaving them for a paycheck. I'm leaving them to have a positive impact on people's lives. And one of the things that I believe in, you say we found this is that if people have their money in order, if they have it in mind, you know, the thing that we do in our office, which is all things financial and Guardian Wealth Strategies, is we help people retire once and retire well. But one of the things we found is that when people's money is in order, everything else in their life is easier. And I love that. My seven year old, my five year old, and now even my three year old when I say, what does daddy do? They say daddy helps people make money. And so whatever you do, make sure your family knows that you're living by core values. Maybe your next podcast. We do it on core values and we build that into talking about finances. Um, but but let me.

Speaker4:
Answer that question before I, before we ended on me, uh, doing it for the money. Um, I think for me and and it doesn't have to be for you, but for me, it's, it's utilizing the skills, the talents that I have in a meaningful way. And I think I said it a little bit earlier, but I think that's everything for me. Um, you know, and sometimes people confuse that with like, hey, you know, you're very skilled or you're very talented. A lot of the skills that I have, they don't come natural to me. I've had to develop and acquire and refine those skills. And, and I'd have to get better in areas that that just. I'm not naturally good in those areas. Um, but I think what happened was, you know, when I got into this industry, it just it placed certain demands on me, and I found that I had skills that I didn't have. Um, and it allowed me to, to continue to grow in those areas. And I think that when I get to use those things, when I get to utilize the stuff that I've developed over time. Um, I think that's very meaningful for me and something that I really enjoy about what we do.

Speaker5:
Yeah.

Speaker3:
Well, there you go. Seven key things. I'm going to hit on them and then we'll wrap up. Key number one. You guys ready for this? Here we go. Key number one chase money or chase passion. You can have both. Revisit that. Number two alignments. You know I think one of the biggest things a lot of CEO entrepreneurs want to be mavericks. Don't be a maverick. Find the right partnerships. Partner with people. Build something bigger than you. Build on your own. Number three plagiarize shadow copy with permission. Yellow. Say you and I, we haven't been great on our own. We shadowed, copied and stole information with permission from people that were already doing great things in our industry that had our gifts. Uh, actually, one of my favorite quotes is nobody's better than anybody, but some people are more developed. And it really helped me realize that if I was going to hit my goals, I had to continue to develop because I wasn't. And even today, I'm not the person that that can accomplish my dreams. You and I have to keep becoming number five. Build a winning team, man. If you've got a big dream, you cannot do it by yourself. Get the right people in the right seats. It's not easy, but it's worth it.

Speaker3:
Number six invest in personal development. If you have questions on that, uh, send me an email. Trey at Jewel, give us a call. I love helping people grow, develop and become better. And then number seven, the illusion of balance. Count the cost. Before you start a business, know that you're going to have seasons, maybe even years, that are out of balance. And you have to decide, is it worth giving that up in order for the fruit of a successful business in what might become if you're successful? Thank you for joining us. By the way. I'll end with this. If, uh, if you've been listening to our podcast and you've been watching and you and you're thinking, you know what, it'd be nice to see how Trey and Yellow State do things different at their firm. We would love to do a complimentary analysis for you to show how we think about money differently, and how we do everything under one roof. We may be able to add value to you, or we may show you that you're already getting everything. We'd love that opportunity. Thank you for joining us today. Episode number 19. Feel free to check out the other 18. We're only going to get better. I hope you have a great day.

Speaker2:
Thanks for listening to all things financial. You deserve to work with retirement planning specialists who care about your money, and take a unique approach to your financial and retirement needs. Visit all things financial.com and set an appointment today.

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