create options.
Create an option.
Money is it's optionality.
You know, it's, I think of money and it's not good
or it's not bad.
It's a completely amoral, completely neutral force
that people are gonna maximize
for whatever really speaks to them.
And so it creates that optionality in your life.
It's not gonna buy you happiness.
It's better to have it than not have it,
but it does buy you options.
Anybody that thinks that financial resources
don't buy them options is not paying attention
because it definitely does.
That's well put.
It's like you said, it's a resource.
I think you use that word.
And I like to think of water and fire
and how, you know, fire sounds scary to most people,
but that's what this thing is, you know,
and I'm touching it.
There's nothing scary about it.
It's just a resource and how I use it depends
on how it affects my life.
And finances are the same way.
So having somebody to advise you
that pays attention to it all the time, you know,
and that's their career is,
and I'm a big advocate of that reality.
So what are some of the best financial tips
that you can give us?
Yeah, it's-
All right, welcome in to Vision Pros Live.
With Jackson Calame, I'm your show host.
We'll be doing interviews for visionary entrepreneurs
and guest leaders who are building
fantastic visions out there.
And we'll be doing interviews with some of the best
financial entrepreneurs in the world.
So, welcome to Vision Pros Live.
And I'm Jackson Calame, founder and CEO of First Class Business.
I'm excited to have Brent Mekosh on the show today.
Brent is a financial advisor based out of Arizona.
And he's going to unlock every financial reality,
every step by step, what you should be doing
with your finances.
Just kidding, he can't do that.
He doesn't know you personally.
So we're going to be talking about the principles.
And I hope that those of you who are listening,
pay attention well to those principles,
because if you can find somebody in your life
who aligns with your principles and your style,
not that thinks exactly like you,
but that has the same types of virtues,
you're likely going to get advice
that's more aligned with what it is that you do in life.
So we'll be talking about how he goes about weaving purpose
into financial advisory in just a minute.
Before we do that, we got a couple of sponsors to talk about.
People that I'm a big fan of, systems I'm a big fan of.
Coldclick is a system that we use.
We use it for LinkedIn automation.
In fact, I think that's probably how we met Brent,
is through this system where it's connecting us to great people.
And, you know, it's funny.
I hear people say the words badly.
You know, I'm a marketer,
so I've been accused many times of many things.
One of those is sending people bad leads.
Well, I can't send people bad human beings.
You may not know how to work with the person.
You may not know what to do with them,
but at the top of the funnel is distribution.
And yes, you've got a target audience,
but there's going to be people who fall into that.
And your opportunity is to know,
how do I respect this person enough to value their time and say,
hey, you know what, this isn't a good fit,
but you're probably, if you're looking for this,
you might go to Anthony or Betty or Tim, right?
Give them a referral.
They might actually reciprocate
if you just stop calling people bad leads.
They're people, they're human beings anyway.
LinkedIn automation, great tool,
allows you to connect with a lot of great people,
and the right people who are in the right moment
will connect with you in the right way
if your message has done anything to gather their attention.
Simply fast websites.
This is something that I wish I had found,
or really it didn't exist, so I couldn't have found it,
but I spent a lot of time and a lot of money
trying to build up websites.
I contacted a lot of web developers and web designers.
I had to learn the difference between the two.
I had to learn about UX and UI.
There was so much to learn, and I spent thousands of dollars
and hundreds of hours on the process
of creating my first several websites.
Now, it didn't start with a thousand of dollars, by the way.
It started with all that time.
If I had had something like simply fast websites
where it's 179 bucks to get your first website,
the smartest thing I could have done is probably said,
hey, Shane, send me your form.
I'll send you back the info.
I'm doing the 179 version.
Nothing more.
I love you, dude.
Go ahead and hook me up with that first website,
and I wouldn't judge my website versus Nike.com.
It's not going to start that way,
but if I could have just gotten started that simply,
I could have focused my efforts on more productive activities
for profitability rather than trying to interview 20 people
for website help.
Then there's the Water Project.
The Water Project is something that is so easy to overlook
because we have access to water every day.
We don't think about it, but there are millions of people
in the world who do not have access to it.
And when you see the pictures of these children who have,
this guy's sad because he doesn't have access to it,
but the ones who get access to it,
they look like kids in Christmas,
and that kind of breaks my heart, and at the same time,
it gives me a lot of purpose in saying, you know what?
I have the power to do something about this.
So whether it's giving a dollar to one of these communities,
$10,000, or just sharing this if I'm not in the capacity to give
so that other people have the opportunity to help out,
you know, what would happen to, you know, these tribes,
these communities, and little towns if every American
just gave $1, I mean, that's over $300 million.
That would be insane and so cool,
and we would have a very big impact on a continental economy.
So we do have the ability to give more and impact more than we realize.
My request to you is if you're not in a position to do that
or you think there's a better cause to be giving to,
just drop it in the link in the comments.
We're going to judge you for that.
I think it's great.
We have lots of things that we need to be doing to help people raise up their lives.
So thanks for hearing me out on that.
Without further ado, I'm going to bring Brent on the show.
Let's do that.
Brent, welcome to Vision Pros Live, my friend.
Hey, Jackson, how are you doing today?
Oh, I'm doing amazing.
I get to interview yet another visionary, and that's like,
these are just, they blow my mind.
I get to learn so much in this process.
Yeah, I love your intro there, the water project, man.
I've spent a lot of time in some crazy parts of the world,
and you have no idea what a blessing and a gift that is
to have abundant, clean, drinkable water,
10 feet from any of us at any given time.
That's a phenomenal charity.
Absolutely.
What's the craziest part of the world you've been to?
They're all interesting in their own way, but probably Iran.
I was in Iran in 2001.
I got back to New York City where I was living at the time on September 3rd.
Serving in the military?
No, no, I went there.
I went there, the whole reason we went,
I had a still good friend of mine back in New York,
and there was a mountain in Iran called Mount Damavand,
which is not far from Tehran.
And at the time, still no diplomatic relations with Iran.
You had to have permission from the Pakistani embassy to go into Iran.
You had to have a reason.
And so my friend and I both wanted to go to Iran
because we wanted to check it out,
and the reason was to go climb that mountain.
But remarkable country, a place that, you know,
obviously you're not going to be there now.
And I got back to New York City on September 3rd,
and it was downtown on September 11th,
and the world really changed after that.
No question about it.
Absolutely.
Wow, interesting.
So I want to bring you back to talk about these hiking expeditions,
unless we end up getting time for it in a little bit.
So we might circle back to that.
My question for you, Brent, is who do you feel should be listening today,
and why should they listen to you?
You know, our focus of our business, we serve a number of different clients,
but the real focus is business owners, closely held businesses,
that are looking for a transition, whether it's an internal succession,
maybe an outright financial buyer, maybe it's a growth partner,
and they're looking to do that in three to five years.
And your podcast and what we're talking about today, I think, is so important
because, you know, about 70% of those owners, they regret their decision.
They regret the decision to transition out of the business, to sell the business,
and it really comes down to the personal piece.
You know, they don't have a personal vision for their life,
and they might have realized some financial success that came out of the sale,
and seeing the numbers in their accounts go up to an area where they felt comfortable,
you know, leaving the business and not working.
But there wasn't that other piece in place.
You know, you've got to have a reason to get up in the morning.
You've got to have a reason to do what you're doing,
whether it's personally or even from a business standpoint,
particularly from a business standpoint,
because that's where we're spending most of our lives every day.
I mean, let's be honest.
And I think that, you know, I'll double down on that.
I think a lot of people, I mean, I'm not, you know, I'm only 36,
but I listen to a lot of people who are older, my generation,
are as dumb as me, right?
That's just the reality.
You have to be looking up.
And I've seen a lot of business owners who get to that stage,
and they go through what is commonly called an identity crisis.
You know, and this is the same with somebody who's been in a career for 30 years.
I think the reality of that crisis, now having gotten to 36,
is the realization that you kind of left your identity behind a long time ago.
You know, and now this role that became your identity, you're letting that go,
but you've, like Robin Williams and Pan, or Hook, you've forgot who you were.
And so you get this opportunity to go back towards that, you know,
and that's scary, you know, if you don't know who you were
and you feel like you lost who you are, that's scary,
but it can be a very beautiful thing.
Yeah, you nailed it there, and that's something I actually have a little bit of experience with
because prior to getting into this side of the business in 2007,
I spent 10 years on Wall Street trading equities and derivatives
for a company that no longer exists called Bear Stearns.
But I quit my job, and I quit my job, and I traveled for a year.
And the one thing, and I was really happy to do it,
I was burnt from what I was doing back with Bear,
but about two, three months into it, I traveled for a full year.
I didn't realize how much of my own personal identity
was tied into that job that I had down on Wall Street,
and it was really, really unsettling.
And I was in my early 30s at that point, and I just turned 50,
so it wasn't like I had had a 40- or 50-year career.
I had maybe 10 to 12 really intense years,
but it wasn't like my entire identity was wrapped up in it.
But that's true. I mean, you think about, you know,
what is we're doing every single day, and we go to work, and we're doing our thing.
Hopefully, we're doing something we love, and I think it's tragic if you're not.
But when you take that away, something's got to fill that void
if you're not prepared for it.
If you haven't given that some serious thought and consideration,
something's got to fill that void.
Yeah, something ideally better than just alcohol.
Yeah, yeah. Or golf. Golf's a great sport, but man, that's not your life, you know?
Well said. Yeah, exactly.
Part of. It will be a part of mine, but it is a small part compared to all the other opportunities.
So what's your vision for those that you serve?
It really is that, you know, and we've touched on this a little bit separately in conversations we've had.
You know, money itself, financial resources, it's just stored energy.
It's not good. It's not bad. It's completely amoral.
It's completely, you know, it's basically going to enhance whatever it is that's in your – that's important to you.
You know, you look at how somebody spends their money, I can tell them what's important to them.
You know, now I said it's not good or bad, but generally it does buy you a lot of optionality.
So it's really good. So I think that it's good in that capacity anyway.
You're choosing whether that optionality is good or bad, you know, what the outcome is.
But I think in terms of, you know, the people that we're working with are – if we've done our job right,
I think our number one goal is to align their resources, their financial resources with what their value system is,
with what it is they're trying to create in their own lives.
And it's really cool when maybe they haven't given that some thought in the past, and we can help walk them through that.
Then that's where it gets really exciting.
Yeah, I appreciate that. And I remember you mentioned that you've penned a book about the quest for purpose.
And, you know, you tie that in with finances. It's not just a catchy title, you know, that you're like,
hey, for vision pros, I want to do this title. You know, but it's – there's a deeper meaning behind that.
Tell me about the book.
Yeah, the book actually, it's definitely not a business book. It's not a typical finance book.
It really comes – you know, so I spent that obviously a decade down in New York. I was there for 9-11.
I was there for a lot of really crazy stuff that had occurred, you know, in the side of business that I was in during that period of time.
And when I left in 2006, you know, I was not married at the time I am now, and there's no kids. There's nothing really tying me down.
And I kind of set off into the world. I spent a bunch of time in Africa. I spent a lot of time in India, Australia, Southeast Asia.
And it was really about really trying to find that sense of purpose for myself and also for what came next
and also, you know, work through some of those internal struggles that we all have as well.
And it was amidst the backdrop of some pretty interesting interactions that I had with some people.
But the book initially, you know, it's not a finance book. It's not how to save for retirement or anything like that.
It was really my quest to try to find some sense of meaning and purpose in life, to be honest with you.
I have a derailing question. How much do you think that has to do with your red hair?
You know, it's actually –
I'll tell you the story after. Go ahead.
It might be the way the light's hitting it. It's more kind of like a blondish, you know, it's more kind of like a dirty blondish.
But we can go with red. I might be getting some pink reflection off the shirt maybe.
Oh, yeah. So you're not a ginger?
No, no, no.
Oh, that's interesting. The light's got me. So I asked one of my greatest mentors in life, Kevin Roche.
He was our health teacher in high school. And, you know, he had red hair.
And then there's this TED talk from this guy about overcoming – how to not become offended.
And I learned a lot about Kevin when I heard that TED talk because, you know, I've got a brother who's redheaded too.
So lots of – you know, he's a redheaded stepchild for my father and was treated as such.
He's one of my best friends to this day.
And so anyway, they go through a lot of bullying and they go through a lot of self-discovery and self-awareness a lot earlier than most people.
And Kevin traveled the world like crazy and all the coolest stories about going places.
So anyway, I thought that might have had an impact on you.
Yeah, he was definitely some wanderer in me for sure. I mean, when I was a kid, I was fascinated and passionate about maps.
You know, like I said, I'm 50, so all the maps were paper at that point when I was a kid.
But I used to look at these places around the world and the way that, you know, couldn't pronounce half of them,
but the way they'd roll off your tongue. And I was like, I want to go there someday.
And that was, that was, that was kind of a realization is the fact that, you know, wherever you – it's kind of an old – it's a cliché.
Wherever you go, there you are. So, you know, you've still got it. You still got to grapple with that.
But I really had that in me. And that, that year of intensive traveling, I still travel quite a bit now.
My wife and I, we got back from the kids were in Scotland about a week and a half ago.
But it's a different kind of traveling I'm doing now. But there was always been that in me to see what's over the horizon, I think.
Absolutely. Speaking of family and kids, what's your vision for you, Brent?
You know, it's really, it's two parts. It's first, from a business standpoint, I'm really passionate about what I do.
I mean, to me, what an amazing gift to be able to come to work every single day.
And I'm walking along people as they're building and doing great, you know, great, amazing things in their lives.
And, and, and my goal is to build the most high-performing team that we can bring them, you know, solutions that they need.
Because, you know, it's, it's, we're on an economic planet. Let's not, let's not kid ourselves.
And the fact that I'm able to, again, participate with people who are doing so much cool stuff so intimately in their lives is just, it's, it's absolutely incredible.
And so to continue to build out that team, continue to be part of what I really think, I mean, I'm, I'm hugely optimistic about, about the future in this country,
particularly, particularly around the manufacturing, manufacturing sector, to be honest with you.
I think one thing we've learned the last three, four years or so is, you know, is it worth it to save 2% to, to, to stretch your supply chain so then you can't get what you need when you want it.
And you're seeing, you are seeing a massive resurgent here of, of onshore in the U.S.
And those are some of the clients that we're serving, which for me is awesome. And to continue to be a part of that's great.
From a personal standpoint, you know, I've got this, the theory in my life that I try to run, the filter rather, that I try to run a lot of my decisions through is when I'm 80 years old,
I'm sitting on my rocking chair or sitting on my chair, maybe on my front porch, and, and hopefully my wife is with us and his kids and his grandkids.
You know, what am I, what am I going to, will I have any regrets if I look back and say, I didn't do this or I didn't take that opportunity?
And it leads to making some bigger decisions sometimes. But, but I'd rather, I'd rather try and, and, and miss, miss the, miss the ball, I guess, and then adapt and change and then keep trying.
But I don't want to have any regrets. And so I think that, you know, taking opportunities thoughtfully, of course, as they come up in my personal life, being a good husband, first and foremost,
being a good father to my kids, trying to raise, in my case, two good, decent human beings. That's, that's the driving, that's the driving purpose for me, at least at home, for sure.
I know that. And, you know, one of the, one of the things you were clear about was, you know, not just like, I didn't hear you just say, my vision is to run my company for the rest of my life, you know, without purpose. You had an extreme purpose associated with what you're trying to do with that.
And, you know, the, and then of course your family is the foundation as well. And the fact that you guys, that was one of the things that inspired me about you was the fact that you had had that Scotland trip right as we talked and you have this balance. Yep. There's the blonde hair guy.
There is actually my wife actually believe it or not said to me like two weeks ago, she goes, you got to change your profile picture online on your website. I'm like, why? She's like, you don't look that young anymore.
And people, I got called a chameleon on the last episode actually is like, you look different every time I see you. Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's what happens when you build a brand. Lots of photos out there. So the, the let's let's anyway, I want to return back to that.
So I, I certainly appreciate that as father myself, you know, seeing people who, who don't leave their families as a footnote, you know, and, and I don't catch that about you. You know, you seem to really be in line with that.
I will say like, so on the, on the website, there's a tagline about, you know, we really take interest in our clients lives. I mean, I'm always excited to learn more about the depth of that reality and the commitment to the depth. We're not going to dive into right now, but that would be my, my challenge on the surface.
I hope that video next to that dives into that. And if not, I hope you guys do take the time to clearly articulate that because the one thing that I hear when consulting my company so often is that line. And then there's no depth and the market.
And I both know like there's no depth to this. It's just, it's the same thing. Everybody else says, yeah.
You know, well, you're going to showcase that you're nailing something there in the sense that's and I actually came back recently. We do kind of virtual, we do big virtual kind of reviews. We have everybody. And then of course, on the one-on-one stuff.
And one of the things that we incorporate starting in Q4 with our clients is I came across this. It was a visual to me. It was absolutely enlightening. We'll put it that way about financial planners, financial service business on the top was based a heat map.
It was what are people saying they're providing? The bottom is what do clients want? And they're like perfectly aligned. Like everybody in my business says that they're, they're providing what the clients want.
But the disconnect was what do clients feel like they're getting? And then there's a total disconnect in the business. And are we guilty of that? I mean, maybe. That's what I'm trying to find out. And so, you know, I led, I led my, my Q3, my Q3, the virtual we have with everybody that wants to hop on live,
can hop on live and we record them and we have them up. We send it out after that. I kind of led with that. I said, Hey, to the extent, to the extent that we are not meeting this, this, this priority that everybody has, then we're really going to try to spend a lot more time on, on some of those other issues.
And so, yeah, so that's your point. I think so. And I think that in terms of the, you know, that ability to dive deep with clients, it also, it comes with the amount of clients that you have, that you can serve. And if you've got, at least in my business, there's a lot of math around the maximum amount of households you can, you can effectively cover and deliver the level of service that we're hoping to.
If you've got thousands of clients, it's never going to work. You have hundreds of clients, you know, like multiple hundreds of clients, it's not going to work. So, you know, we've got to be really selective about, about who we're, who we're bringing in or you have to expand or you got to bring in the personnel and the manpower to be able to take care of everybody in a way that they deserve to be taken care of.
That's right. Absolutely. So you, you said something and then you even redirected it as a wise leader would, you talked about how, you know, if we're not doing that and we need to, and then you came back and you said, to the extent that we're not doing that.
And I was going to add in to, you know, if anybody can judge you from the surface or me from the surface, it's, you know, as you said, to the extent of where are we guilty, right? Of not providing a certain type of service or where is the opportunity to level up and you get that super well.
So thank you for, for hitting that. I wish more, I wish more providers out there, you know, would, could have the ability to recognize that they're not perfect at what they do.
Absolutely. And, and, and we, and we definitely recognize that. I mean, one of the things that as we're doing, you know, it's always an agenda item on what are our one-on-ones with clients and we're sitting down with them is, is what can we do better or differently?
Because we're, we're missing, we're missing the mark on something. I mean, you know, my wife who I love more than anybody else in the planet and my children as well.
Like we're, we're all missing the mark on something every single day, you know, so, so to pretend it's going to be absolutely perfect. It's just not.
But to the extent we can continually try to improve and that's what we're trying to do.
To pretend it's actually perfect is depression.
So yeah, yeah, it's a great line. I like that.
You inspired it. So thank you for that. We will tag team when people tag us in the memes out there that that quote just put Brent and Jackson.
I'm just put us both right on it. Yeah. So diving into a little bit of a darker subject.
Brent, what's the worst leadership experience you've ever had?
Ooh, you know, that's, that's a challenging one because there's always, I like to look forward, not back. I did have a few people that in the past that I would say maybe we're not the best leaders.
I would also say probably in the past myself, I've probably have done some things where people that have worked with me might have said the same thing.
But, but rather than call people out, what I would probably say is, you know, the word, and I look at it, I look at it today, even in terms of where we are, really around the world.
It's like, who is the visionary? Who can set the, who can set the course that, that people want to follow?
And I feel like, you know, a leader, somebody that's put in a great position of power, but has a complete and total inability to articulate what it is you're trying to move everyone towards is the worst leadership you can possibly have.
And unfortunately, I do think we have a lot of that, we have a lot of that around right now. So I think you could, you probably picked several people.
But in terms of who, you know, who, who would impact me perhaps personally, you know, there's, there's been, sure, there's been people throughout my, my professional career where you look back and.
And you don't have to call anybody out.
Let me, the point more so is just that, that lesson of transition, you know, or like the, the principle that you caught in the reality or the vice that you saw that was hurting.
I mean, that's really the big thing. I know you've, you've worked in leadership quite extensively. You had to be a good leader as a young guy to go start traveling the world.
You know, like that's, that's a nobody who's a, if you're, if you're traveling, you're a leader, like period, you know, nobody takes that risk without having leadership bone in them.
So.
So where, where does that lead you?
You know, I think in terms of, from a traveling standpoint.
I'm sorry, in terms of this, it can be that, but leadership and the worst things that you've kind of seen or, or, or experienced.
Yeah. I think it's a couple of things. I do believe that fundamentally, I think most people are pretty decent.
I think most people around the world, you know, here in the United States, around the world, they want to, they want to live in peace.
They generally want to be left alone. They want to do their thing. Very few are actually maliciously bad people.
Some of those exist as well.
And so most of the time where you get bent on a shape with, with someone, generally they're not trying to, to, to cause a problem.
It's just, they're so locked into their own thing that they're not seeing the periphery around them.
But I think the number one thing as a leader that you could, that you can have is, is two things.
It's a natural curiosity about people. Like if you, if, if you find people interesting, and you, which you obviously do,
if you find people fascinating, then I think people are going to be magnetized toward that.
And I think also a huge degree of empathy, you know, a huge degree in understanding that we're kind of all on this journey together.
Everybody's journey looks a little bit different.
But if you can, the ability, even if you don't understand it or agree with it, to put yourself on the same side of the table,
at least momentarily, as whoever it is you're dealing with to see, OK, well, what, what's going to be driving them?
What's, what are they trying to achieve here? Is it at odds with what I'm trying to achieve? Is there, because you're not always going to get,
there's not always win-win. Let's be honest. This is, we live in reality.
But, but if you can have some, but you can make a, a, a concession in terms of, you know, what is the least important thing
maybe you can give an inch on and they can make that decision as well. And then maybe you can find consensus.
Win-win's possible, but it's not always going to be the case. Sometimes you just got to find that consensus.
But you can't really do it unless you have some empathy.
Well said. And I like that you talked about how, you know, some people might say it was watered down.
I just think it was respectful. And I think, again, there's a lot of wisdom in what you talked about,
whereas leadership often occurs when we are leading out of selfishness.
Yeah, a hundred percent.
And so we're, you know, if we're, and I see this happen a lot in the multilevel marketing world.
It's a very easy market to recognize that because you've got a lot of brand new and experienced leaders
trying to lead towards a cause they don't really understand yet. And that's how they're taught to lead is,
I don't really understand this, but come and see my thing. Come and see the party.
Come and see what we're, what we're up to. We're not going to tell you what it is. Right.
And why are you doing that? Because you want to sell somebody on something, you know, and sure, it's changed people's lives,
but that's, that's kind of the afterthought. And that's the sucker.
Yeah, I agree with that. And the thing is, too, is I think in any kind of deal, if you're, if you're just looking to make one deal,
and I don't care what it is you're doing or selling, you got to really think about what's, what's going to put the relationship in place
where I can make five more after this, you know. And, and so it's, you know, it's not always about, you know,
extracting every single concession that you can get or extracting every single dime from it, from a situation.
It's really about, OK, you know, understanding that whatever, whoever it is you're dealing with, you know, they've got their agenda.
They've got their, also a tremendous amount of value in many cases they're trying to bring to the table,
and they need to be compensated for that. So how do you, how do you, how do you balance all those things out
where everybody can get as close to winning as possible anyway?
Lots of practice, right?
Right. Well, yeah, and lots of listening.
Lots of listening, lots of practice. James Malinczak, silly guy, he knows it. He actually owns that.
But he says, don't work harder, don't work smarter, do the right work.
And I think if you combine all three of those, you're better off. Work hard, work smart, and do the right work.
That right work aspect, you've got to listen in order to know what that is.
So what would you say your best leadership experience has been in life?
You know, I had several. I'd start with my dad, for sure.
And it's obviously predates the business world, but actually not really.
You know, he, he always instilled in me, I think, I don't know how he necessarily did it being a father myself,
but he was, he managed to have that fine line between being very, very difficult in some cases
and having, and having hard and fast rules that he would bend or break when he needed to.
And how do you, how do you do that and still have the rules mean something?
Do you know what I mean?
Like it's a case where he always encouraged me to be on my own two feet, but I always knew that he was, that he was there, you know?
And so I would say that, that my father, particularly, particularly powerful early on, and even from a business standpoint,
I remember, you know, he got me when I turned 10, I grew up in New Jersey, he got me a lawnmower and he said,
all right, you know, your job now is you're taking care of the grass.
And we had a lot of it in New Jersey.
And he said, if you're smart, you take, you would go around the neighborhood here and see who else needs their yard cut, you know?
And I did. And I was, you know, at the time I was 10 years old, and this is in 1983, you know, this is a while ago.
And I was making like 200, 300 bucks a week in cash back then, you know, just cutting everybody's grass.
And, and like, there's a lot of lessons like that, a lot of lessons that were instilled in me.
My dad was a very entrepreneurial guy and that, and that, a lot of those lessons hit home.
Once I kind of got in, into the professional world when I wound up in New York and some really phenomenal people that I knew,
that I knew from the floor that, one guy who was a, he's still a phenomenal friend of mine, a mentor of mine, a guy named Dan.
And Dan was, again, I think a commonality is that they were tough. They had demands.
You had to do the job. You know, there was, there wasn't coddling.
There wasn't, there wasn't everybody gets a trophy. There wasn't that.
But there was also an enormous amount of empathy behind that.
Like you were being, you were challenging people, pushing them further than they thought they could, than they thought they could go.
And as a result, you made a stronger person that needed them less, if that makes sense.
And so there, so that, that to me was extremely powerful. And then also too, you know, once I've, once I've kind of migrated over to this side of the business,
we're really fortunate where, with my broker dealer and our A's, Raymond James, it's a big company, but we have a lot of independence from them.
But my regional guys are fantastic. I think that they, they do, they are truly there to support my business.
I don't really have a boss. They're the closest things I have to a boss.
But I would say that, you know, to Bill and Sanjeev and Casey, if you guys, if this makes it to you guys, I think you're phenomenal leaders, at least for the entire West region.
So there's a lot of those. There's a lot of people I've been fortunate enough to come across in my life.
That's awesome. You know, I, I learned the quote far, far later in life than I wish I had, that great leaders are also great followers.
And I see that action taking place with whether you talk about your regionals with such high regard, even though you're a leader yourself.
Yeah. You know, I think, I think it's a great point is I think that really great leaders, they, they want to try to bring out and maximize the absolute best of the people that, that they're in charge of, to the point where almost, you know,
because the risk of that is, is now that you've, you've created, I think this is always in the back of people's minds, now you've created somebody that doesn't need you, you know, that can, that can go off on their own.
And maybe, maybe if you're leading a group of people from a business perspective, now you've got somebody that's so good at what they do, they've got leverage over you, first of all, because, you know, now they're, they're good, they can go somewhere else.
Or they could jump and do their own thing. And, and, you know, and you've got, you've got to have that, you've got to be able to create that environment where they continue to expand and grow. And, and you got to promote that.
I'm a huge, huge advocate of that, of trying to, and, and hopefully, you know, as a leader, at least in our business, I think about this is, is we're growing and expanding fast enough that they've got a place here and they, and they, and they can, and they've got a future here and they see a future here.
So there's not necessarily that desire to hop someplace, someplace else.
Yeah, absolutely. All right, Brent. So if this was your last opportunity ever to share a powerful lesson with visionaries, what's the powerful lesson other visionaries can learn from your experience?
You have to actually take the time to create and craft that vision. I think that one of the things that we're all challenged by, particularly those of us that are very busy, is you're carving out time to do all these other things that you need and have to do.
But you really need to separate yourself, in my case, at least once a quarter, and sit down and take, preferably a day, but even if it's a five, six hour block, and really think about, all right, what is it that I'm trying to accomplish?
Because, you know, there's, I think, I forget who coined this, could have been Tony Robbins or somebody like that, but people often overestimate, I'm paraphrasing it, what they can do in one year, and they vastly underestimate what they can do in 10.
And I think that's really, really true, you know, and what you find is, another great book, Atomic Habits, it's like these, these, these little decisions that you're making, they really do compound over time.
But you have to be really thoughtful in terms of what, what decisions are you making every single day, and break it down to chunks, you know, and Attraction, another great book that talks about really breaking it down to your big rocks and, and focusing on them every quarter to get yourself where you want to go.
But you can't, you can't get there from a visionary standpoint if you actually don't take some time to consider what your vision is.
One of my favorite things about this interview has been your willingness, your openness to reference your sources.
You know, I don't have a lot of people come on the show that, that just steal a reference or steal a quote from somebody. I don't think I've had anybody who's done that noticeably.
I have had people in my past who do that. It's like, why not, why not? Why are you in such a scarcity mindset that you feel like you have to own the quote yourself?
There's just, there's a, there's a strong balance and appreciation, in my opinion, for leaders who openly give credit because they are aware of the abundant value that they're already giving.
So I would say any visionary listening in, that's an awesome opportunity to learn from. Go ahead.
Well, and I'll tell you too, I mean, one of the, when I jumped from, from being on the institutional side of the business, I was, I was, you know, successful enough for sure when I was on the trading side of things.
And that was not because I was some brilliant trader, had some incredible insight. The market structure was different back then for sure, which, which, which allowed, you know, a lot of a lot more, I think a lot more opportunities to be a point of sale.
But more than that is I would go around, we had about 40 in our group and there were five to 10 guys that were just awesome. And all day long, I'm kind of circulating around those guys.
Hey, man, what are you seeing? What's going on? Because they're probably seeing something that I'm not.
When I got into this side of the business, when I say this side, you know, the retail side, more working with the investing public, a gigantic mistake that I made early on was I was going to rewrite the book, man.
I was going to do it my way. And, and you learn really quickly. It's like, all right, first of all, you're just making it much harder on yourself.
And secondly, if you've had people that have invested time and energy and their own bandwidth into, into, into trying to get from A to B as quickly and efficiently as possible, then piggyback off that.
Those are, those are really easy lessons, not easy lessons, but they're lessons that are readily available.
And even, you know, if you, if you read a lot of those, those types of books and follow a lot of this type of people, which I do, there's really nothing, there's nothing groundbreaking or new.
It's packaged and repackaged differently. But sometimes you just get something that resonates, where you hear it.
And you might've heard it in five other variations in the prior six months, but, but one day it hits you and you're like, the light bulb goes off and you're like, oh, wow. Okay. That's, that's how I can apply it.
Or a new situation arises in your own life and you can, and now you see where the application is.
Absolutely huge. And I, I was able to find it and I miscredited it. I said, Bill Gates said that quote, the most people overestimate what they can do in one year.
Bill Gates, not Bill Gates. I wrote it wrong. Yes. We're good though. That's right.
You use in your application, you submitted something that was also just beautifully said to me. We're orchestrating futures, facilitating dreams and sharing in the gift of their financial journeys.
And I love that you included your, your, your self, your own brand in that reality. A lot of people don't, I don't know if it's just out of a, like, Hey, it's your finances, not mine type thing.
And so they, they break away from that. But tell me about this quote. Yeah. You know, I think that again, when I talk about walking alongside people and as they're building out these incredible lives and, and that is, that is truly a gift.
I mean, I've, and when I wrote this to you, I'd had a client that's, that bought a pretty cool place in a beautiful part of the world.
And we had like a long discussion about whether they should be doing that or not. And to me, it was really clear. Yeah, go for it. You know, you've got the resources, go ahead and do it.
This is what the money's here for. As long as you're not doing something to blow up your future, you know, that in this case, it can make complete sense. Go ahead and do it.
But, you know, as I got off, as I got done with those conversations, because it was a couple, because it was pretty significant place, I was like, wow, how cool is this? You know, like here's, here's a case where this family had, had a lot of success and got themselves to the point where they could realize this dream.
And I'm part of that conversation. And that it just, it was awesome. You know, it was really, it was exciting because it's, you know, I like, I like the, to participate in a win like that is pretty cool.
And there's a flip side of that, too. You know, personal journeys for people also can involve a lot of really challenging times as well. And, you know, you're here, you're here for that also. And I think that, you know, with our clients anyway, early on, a lot of it's business, because everybody's kind of fueling each other out, even to the extent that we are as well, because I'm trying to, I'm trying to really determine what is expected of us, you know, and how do we necessarily need to adopt and tailor what our service model is going to be to them based on their needs?
Because it is different for everybody. I've got a client that is over in India, a ton for business. And he has said to me in the past, he's like, look, dude, he's like, I never want to do Zoom again. He's like, we're out of the sitting down in front of each other for a cup of coffee, or it's a phone call because I'm tired of this. And I don't, you know, you don't need to be checking in on me as frequently as you are because when I'm home, I want to be home, you know, that type of thing.
And you've got other people that, that really want a lot of hands-on, a lot of high touch. And you got to figure that out. But once we've gotten kind of past that point, if there are longer-term relationships and people we've been with for a while, maybe 10 to 15% of any interaction we're going to have is going to be something that has to do with the business side of our relationship. And the rest is everything that's going on personally. And I think that's, and that's going to be, I think for most service-related businesses, but particularly for mine, as a lot of these tools come online in the next 5 years,
which are going to be absolutely extraordinary, that's the piece that can't be replicated. You know, the back office stuff and the stuff you're doing behind the scenes and crunching the numbers and that, that stuff is going to get replaced.
And so, what can you use that technology to leverage? And it's the personal relationships. I mean, that's, if it frees you up to really try to dig in and find out what this person or people are trying to accomplish and what makes them tick.
And every hour I can spend doing that and not on some of the more operational stuff is an hour that grows the business and expands the business.
Absolutely. There's a subject I, one side of me wants to just dive down into, and that's the staying together, going through the divorce aspect. There's so many finance aspects around that.
I'm going to leave that where it's at though, because I think people understand that, you know, who are on one side or the other, they understand there is a certain cost to that as well as opportunity.
And it's good to have advisors from different angles regarding that process. So, skipping through that back to weaving purpose and the financial advisory, you've, you've showcased that a lot of ways throughout the show, but let's hit that head on for a little bit.
We got a few minutes left. So, I just want to give you the mic time in regards to weaving purpose and the financial advisory. What other principles do you want to talk about?
I think it starts with there. In fact, if we, anybody that we meet for the first time, we've got a, we've got a number of different points that we're trying to get into.
We don't, we don't get into the money until last. We actually start with values. We start with what's your value system, because you can kind of determine a lot from people in terms of how they answer that question.
If you get them, if you get them in a very open, honest space. And one of the things that, that we'll always do is I want to ask, you know, give me, give me your top value or something, because most people are going to say family.
I'm going to, I'm going to ask for 3 to 5, because by the time you get to 3 and 4, now they're thinking, and it's going to open up, it's going to open up a lot, a lot of broader discussion.
And then beyond that point is the goals. And then we get into the key relationships, and then we get into other, you know, experiences they might have had with different professionals.
And then we're getting into how they want to be engaged. And at the very last part of that conversation, usually everybody walks in if we haven't met them, and they're leading with that.
If they've come prepared, they've come with all the paperwork and the documents and statements and everything they want to talk about from the money aspect.
But we actually, very intentionally, we try to, we go there last, because it's, again, the money, I fundamentally, in my core, believe this.
I think that, that's, as I mentioned before, it's not good. It's not bad. It's a completely amoral force that can be chanced. It's like water.
You know, you, what water can, you can channel it, direct it. You can, you can do whatever you want with it. Money is very much the same way. It's stored energy.
And it's going to amplify what is important to you. And, especially if you haven't taken any time to think about what's important to you.
Because if you've at least taken that time, then you might realize that some of the things that you, on the surface level, or sort of instinctively think are important really aren't.
And then you get a change in mindset there. And, and then maybe that money can be redirected towards something that's truly going to make you happy instead of the quick fix or the quick hit or that type of thing.
So, so that, that, that is, I think, you know, the, the vision aspect of it's important. From, that's from the, you know, the client perspective, from our, from our perspective,
and this is, you know, sometimes you have these moments that really strike you. And I was at a conference about, it was pre-pandemic time.
So we're talking probably 18 or 19. It was a group of advisors, and everybody that was in the room was pretty successful.
But the person that was leading the discussion basically said, What's, what's the biggest challenge you have with your business right now?
And the woman answered, My clients. And I thought to myself, Well, that's tragic. I was about to use an expletive there. That is absolutely tragic.
If you are in this business and your clients are your biggest problem, that's absolutely, because then, you know, you're in the wrong business.
You're in the wrong business. Where, where I think that's, from, from my perspective, it is okay.
We've got, you know, this, this journey that we're trying to navigate together. The money, like I said, it's not going to make you happy,
but it is massively important because it buys you optionality. And if we can, if we can engage with these people and hopefully add value along the way,
and maybe even, you know, open some doors in their perception for what's possible in their lives, that's exciting. And that's, that's a massive win.
And it's, and the industry itself is fantastic and incredible, incredible because it changes every day.
Some days and some years are better than others. But for the most part, it's constantly evolving, constantly changing.
And it's so deeply embedded in everybody's life that if you like people, then it's a phenomenal business.
So I think the vision is, again, trying to make sure that we stay competitive, lead from a, hopefully from a, from a thought leadership perspective as well,
move the ball forward, continually expand and grow. Because this is a business definitely for sure, if you're not growing, you know,
you're going to wither on the vine and, and deliver the best possible service we can in a way that is going to adapt to what I believe are transformative changes coming in the next five years.
That is so well said. I think that it's going to be hard for some people to catch because, and I mean that, like,
to realize the value just threw down and it reminds me a lot of our path and journey for how we do things at first class business.
Like, so you, you laid out six key factors about how to weave purpose into financial advisory.
And it was so articulate that I was able to write it down while hosting, listening to the rest of your story, values, goals, key relationships,
people they're working with, engage desire, their desire to engage and the money.
And then you sum that up by saying, hey, this basically encapsulates vision. And I had no disagreement with that whatsoever.
I was like, this is the guy, if you, if you really did define each one of those things in your own personal life, even if you're not working with Brent.
And then, then afterwards, you know, after those first five steps, start looking at your finances, the depth, the direction with which you're then headed for
establishing that financial base is far more clear than if you were to start with the finances and not think about any of those other aspects.
Thank you for gifting us with that. That was awesome.
No, my pleasure. My pleasure. And I think too, that, you know, again, a lot of our core, our target and core clients are people that might be in the next five years,
you know, having that transition. Like they might say their purpose is their business. And I would argue that's part of your purpose.
I mean, I think that, you know, that this is a vehicle for me. Absolutely. It's a vehicle. Yes. 100, 100. And I agree. I agree with that.
1000%. And I think there's personal purposes and there's, and there's business life purposes as well. And hopefully your business or whatever you're engaged in is aligned with that.
But if this is what I think really hurts people on the transition side, where we really, you know, we want to engage them, hopefully two to three years at least before they really think that they're
ready to make this exit. Because it's really a three-pronged thing. It's, you know, how to get the business ready to sell. Because most people, it's just not, you know, there's too much to their personal life.
It's kind of tied into the business. You got to normalize things and really find out what the market is out there for it. And then secondly, you know, financially, can you, can you do what you want to do?
But the, but the reason these things fail, the reason, the reason the major business transition, the majority of the time is going to fail is because, you know, that person is transitioning out or selling the business
or that might be bringing in a partner. They've never taken the time to clearly think about what's important for them outside of a dollar sign or outside of just being done with the business in retiring.
Well, what does that mean? You know, like, what does it really mean? Well, then we're going to go and we're going to buy a house on this, this particular area and I'll play golf during that.
Okay. Then what? Well, you know, and there has to, you know, there's got to be, there's got another phenomenal book, you know, Victor Frankled, Man's Search for Meaning, one of my all-time favorite books.
And you look at the people and in the worst of circumstances that were able to not only survive, but also, you know, in the wake of all of that, you know, gaining strength,
where people had a reason for the pain and a reason for the suffering. And that was under, that was in, for those that haven't read the book, in a Nazi concentration camp.
So it really can't get much worse than that. But imagine if you found that person and that reason to get up every, the purpose rather, and that reason for getting up every single day,
where life's overall pretty good. And for the vast majority of us, relative to what human history has looked like, this is a miracle, what we're experiencing every single day.
Yes, it is.
You know, and so if you can, you can bring that level of, that level of clarity and purpose, it's just, it's going to trickle through to everything else.
Absolutely. And everybody listening in, one final quote from myself would be, good is the enemy of great. So be careful with Kushi.
Brandon, this is awesome. Where can people reach out to you?
Yeah, we got some, the only social media platform I'm active on is LinkedIn. That's how we find each other. And I will say, you know, the cool reason that we're having this conversation,
because I love LinkedIn, I think it's an amazing platform. I don't like all of a sudden, it's like, you get the email, like, you know, like, let's, basically, it's not an, if you can, if you can work LinkedIn in a way where it's an introduction,
and it gets to know each other, it's a really powerful tool. And I think you guys were really effective at doing that, which is why we're having this conversation right now. So LinkedIn, so LinkedIn, I'm, I'm active.
In other words, I didn't send you a message that said, Hey, we have five mutual connections that neither one of us talked about.
No, yeah, exactly. Yeah, I know.
It's good.
You're all the case studies, you know, you should hire us.
Yeah, and it led to a conversation offline. It led to I think is a great conversation today. But LinkedIn, we're on their website is mpadvisorsaz.com or smartmoneysimplified.com. It'll go the same place.
Phone number in here is 602-255-0555. Either Andy or Kayla, or Susan will pick up and they've got access to my calendar. But if anything, if anything, we talked about today resonated with anyone, I'd love to have that conversation. And Jackson, it's been, it's been awesome being here with you today.
Awesome, everybody. You heard that you had the ability to call now to pick up the phone, give him a call. Also, we'll drop, of course, the links and the landing page once that's ready.
Vision pros, if you have a vision to share, don't hesitate to join us on the platform. Of course, if you can like, comment, subscribe, all that stuff means a lot to us. Definitely helps us promote the show and, and get it out there more and bless more lives.
If anything, if you have any final questions to drop those in the comments, we're happy to forward them to Brent, make sure to tag him and, and let him know if you are on a platform that's not LinkedIn, we will still facilitate, help him make sure that he's aware of that.
So thank you everybody for your support and we will see you on the next episode. Everybody have a great rest of your day. Bye.
Thank you for being here today. I'm really happy that you tuned into vision pros live. I'm looking forward to seeing your reactions as these episodes continue to move forward is going to get more and more fun. More and more engagement as well. We'll invite people to participate in the show.