Please share with me your business and the
Division
Yeah, well there's a great great quote by marcus rillius he says everything that exists is in a manner the seed of that which will be
And I like that because everything we're doing now every
Habit you have everything you're eating all your exercise the work you put in
To your body, but also your business
Will ultimately create something in the future
Including you know good things and bad things depending if I'm eating potato chips every night
That's not going to bode well for the six-pack you know
So as far as a vision goes I'm a certified financial planner that is not so average our podcast is called not your average
financial podcast and you know for that reason I
I want to look at why we're doing what we're doing in our finances and with our money
And not just follow the herd because if you follow the herd you're going to get slaughtered unfortunately, especially in wall street
So our focus in our vision is to help 10 of america break free from
unhelpful financial strategies banks
credit card companies and wall street chaos and help them become more in in control and an agency of their financial lives without taking any
unnecessary risk
That's that's uh, that's big now
That's big now. It's big as we have entrepreneurs
business owners, I think it's a a lot more
Appropriate or to say that that's something that most people want to do now
I have met with so many different people and I don't want to say it out loud
But i'm going to say they don't necessarily want to go to college
They want to start a business but not having the information and the knowledge that you have regarding finances
I think could possibly
Do
Them, you know not not in a good way
Um, can you explain to me what it means to be a certified financial planner and what that looks like and
Not to mention your ideal client as well
Sure, yeah, you know the people that we work with um, they are everyone from business owners to real estate investors
Uh folks that are interested in taking back control of their finances
Because you know they have seen that the 401k the ira is just not hitting them where they want to go with their money
in their life
Usually the 401k the ira the brokerage account
Seek saps money away from you puts it in the hands and then in control of other people
um
Who would they be? Well your investment managers your stock pickers and investment brokers
Uh, what are most of our clients looking to do? They're looking to take back control of their finances and help them
uh reclaim certain amounts of
certainty
predictability and agency in their lives
Uh, so the people that I love to work with and seem to fit well with our firm
Are looking to do just that they're sick and tired of wall street casinos taking their money away
When the wrong person says the wrong thing on a social media platform, you know
They don't want their stock to be ruined just because of that or or someone decides that they're going to sneeze the wrong way
You don't want your financial future to be tied to something so ethereal
Uh, so that's what we focus on and what our focus with our clients is all about is helping them recapture
That sense that they can swim upstream
Even if the rest of the world is going down the gutter
Now and I know I mentioned a lot about entrepreneurs or business owners
But those that are actually employees and do have a 401k and actually put their funds in there
Um, what would you say about those that are not yet ready to move past? You know
Being an employee and understanding what their 401k is about or used for
Yeah, about 70 of our clients are our business owners or have a side business as they keep their day job
Uh, so for those that still have to keep the day job, uh a few things to consider
One what do you believe about?
That the future of taxation in this country
Think about that for a minute. Where do you see taxes going over your lifetime? Are they going to go down?
Are they going up?
Yeah, if you think they're going up like most
Uh economists would say then what sense does it make to put money into an asset? That's only going to get taxed in the future
You know if I was uh, if I was a farmer and you gave me the choice to either pay taxes on the seed
Or the harvest
I'm going to choose getting taxed on my seed today so I can have a tax-free harvest in the future
Especially if I think taxes on the harvest might be greater than they're on the seed today
right, so
the first thing I would say is
Carefully consider how much money you're putting into that ticking tax time bomb called your 401k
Maybe don't put more than the company might match you as an example
Everything else could go into strategies that are after tax and won't be penalizing you
If you tried to access the money before you retire
That's another big problem
with traditional retirement accounts is that they lock that money up until you're
You know almost too old to enjoy it. Yeah
Yeah
You know, so let's keep some of that money out of the taxable hands of the irs in a liquid and
Accessible account so that you can use it for whatever you might need including helping your business thrive and grow and get off the ground
But also helping you with your with your stuff in life
Yeah, kids college a new car whatever else might be needed at that point in your life
That's that is so well explained because at the end of the day
We we do believe that when we are employees and we're matched and we add more to it
That it'll be something that you know, we could utilize immediately, you know and truth be told
Uh, you you end up paying yourself back with interest, but you don't get the interest that you pay into yourself back
So it's definitely such a confusing. Um
Thing but one thing that I wanted to ask you mark or or statement that I may make
Who do you how do you trust somebody to tell you and guide you with your finances?
Wow, yeah, that's a really big that goes to the deepest parts of us
You know the human brain at the core is a fight or flight. It's trust or don't trust
It does come down to your gut telling you
This person's safe or this person is out for my money
I will tell you this. Uh, there's a few things to keep in mind here one
Nobody should care more about your money than you do
I can't emphasize that enough. You cannot outsource this
And that includes to folks like me your financial advisors, you know
There are plenty of wolves in sheep's clothing in every business. Yeah, not to mention finance
And there are plenty of good ones out there, too
But I would say even among the good financial advisors, you cannot outsource this
No one should care more about your money than you do
If you find yourself in a situation where you've forgotten about that ira or you've forgotten about that brokerage account
Somebody else is going to pick it up, right?
Everything kind of like water money is like water. It flows to the pockets of the people who care about it the most
That's not just investment advisors either. That's also
You know the the gucci brands, you know the lug the the luxury cars if you don't care more about your money
It's going to flow to their pockets as well. Right?
So back to your question
What can you do? Well a few things look for look for financial professionals who don't feel like they have to be your guru
Like you don't have any sort of agency of your own life. You can't figure this stuff out
This money thing is way too complicated. You got to come up with a way to do it
You can't figure this stuff out this money thing is way too complicated
You got to come you got to come to the altar of your investment manager. I don't like that. Yeah
for one it keeps you
Dependent on them and again, one of my big values in my business is to help break you free from control
Of outside forces. So instead let's find a financial professional
Myself or someone like me who would be interested in not being your money guru but being more of a a guide
Uh less like less like some sort of uh guy in a hilltop and more like gandalf getting his feet dirty with you
And walk into mordor with you
Uh, you know, let's find a way to get you to where you need to go with again without taking unnecessary risk
I'm okay with risk. I like risk. I'm a business owner. I'm a real estate investor myself
I don't get into unnecessary risk anymore. I'm not 18 years old
I don't need unnecessary risk if I can get there safely
Yes, yes, and I love that you said that you know, especially when you're not 18 actually when you're 18
I'm not even sure I thought about that when I was 18, but I do believe that there's a lot more
Younger people thinking about finances and I think the possibly to get rich
Soon and and now kind of lifestyle
lifestyle
when you have chose to be in this field and
And actually help business owners and do and advise what you do
What was your why what
Yeah, great question
I think our why is to get our clients certainty and confidence to meet their financial goals without taking unnecessary risk
Yeah, yeah certainty
And confidence those are two
Assets that are sorely lacking in the financial world today. Most people have no idea what their 401k is going to be worth
They're not confident that the market or their existing assets will help them get to where they need to go
Without taking unnecessary risk, you know the typical investment portfolio for somebody or investor, right?
This is according to third party research. Okay
So a group called Dalbar D. A L B A R
Puts out a report and they show a 30 year longitudinal study of actual investors over 30 years
And you ask well, what kind of real return can I get in the stock market?
This report tells us over 30 years. We can expect you to get about three to four percent
rate of return
Um in the stock market and that's not just me saying that that's a third party research firm giving us that result
After a 30 year period and that's after a very long bull market too
So if I could say one thing I would say help your clients
Get to where they want to go help them feel good about it
The success if we've had any in our business has been in helping our clients falling in love with our clients to help them know
That we're we got their back. We're going to give them that feeling of confidence and certainty
With financial strategies that have stood the test of time that grow even outside of stock market whims and whistles
Uh, we're able to help our clients get to retirement and get past
Retirement and past dead and on to multiple generations of wealth generating
And that gives me a lot of excitement and helps me get up out of the bed in the morning. That's my why
Absolutely
How did you get started?
well, it was a
Pain point myself, you know
It's sort of like when you're starving and you're blind and you're feeling around for bread and you find some bread and you get
A little taste of it yourself and you got some friends you want to share the bread with others, you know when you're
When you're blind and you found some bread just got to get it out to other people
So I myself did not grow up with much money
Okay, and we had a ton of student loan debt and we graduated in the midst of the great recession of 2008
So the first thing we wanted to do was how do we pay off this monster?
Of a debt problem and we found some strategies that helped our ourselves my wife and I become not just debt free
But better than debt free and it got us so pumped up and excited because we knew we were on track now
We actually had a plan to get to where we wanted to go with our financial life with our business
So for us that meant we got to tell as many people as possible and so we have
So are you in business with your wife?
She's my coo and and uh the boss of the business. So yes, absolutely
Absolutely. So I was reading something and I really truly like this question
And that's on I believe it's on your
On your page. How can an entrepreneur fire their banker and become their own source of financing?
Yeah. Yeah, that's a question that's I think stood the test of time because banks
In of themselves have existed for thousands of years thousands of years. Okay
So as long as we've had human civilization, we've had debt and banks not in their current form, of course
But there's always been a banker
In fact, I lived in small texas towns for a while and every small texas town has three buildings. It has the bank
The church and the bar. Yes
And you kind of go in that order don't you you you borrow money?
You fall into debt you pray asking for you know for freedom salvation from that problem and then you end up at the bar at the bar
So so to answer your question
How can an entrepreneur fire their banker?
unfortunately
businesses are closing their doors and the main reason
according to us census bureau data
77 percent of businesses failed due to cash flow and debt problems
Okay, so that's a big deal
So if you could fire your banker and become your own source of financing
You've done two incredible moves there with one fell swoop one
You've gotten rid of the biggest problem that most entrepreneurs face
so you're gonna
Improve your odds of success by getting rid of the the parasite on the back of your business the bank. Yeah
Second not only did you get rid of the problem the blood-sucking banksters, but now you've become
The most profitable enterprise in all of human history
you've
Reintroduced banking into your own life you know i'm not talking about checking and savings accounts here
But the lending function of banking could be the most profitable part of your business look at ford
They make more money financing their vehicles than they do sometimes
They make more money financing their vehicles than they do selling their vehicles
Yes, that should be a hint that whatever you do in your business whether you're selling widgets or lemonade or whatever you sell in your business
Make banking an in-house function and you can do that. There's financial tools and strategies
We offer our clients you do not have to be
You know a decamillionaire or a centimillionaire to open up a fdic insured bank
This is not what i'm talking about there are financial tools and concepts
Which we can get into now or I could get into in our one-on-one calls with clients
That helped them become their own banker fire their other lines of credit and become their own source of financing
And that's a that's a big thing you you mentioned. I believe you said 77 percent of businesses are
Are lost because of the funding and I believe that most people think that
banks are the answer right that it's
um
I it just brought me back to the fact that when my grandparents used to hide their money under their bed, right?
And then banks happen right and they became this
oh
Now it's like you got a checking of savings and then they contact you for all these other added things
And in our minds as human beings and thinking that these people have our best interest at heart
We begin to open up things that we
Forget about
Right know nothing about when we call a customer service. It's actually going to someone
Around the building and we don't necessarily have that relationship
So I appreciate you explaining the fact that you know
We can fire our bankers and and try to make this something
That we have control over one of the other things that you said that was super
important that everyone should hear again is
It should not be more important to someone else your finances
It should mean everything and do not become dependent on someone else
and so with the language that is used by a lot of um
professionals and in financing
How can someone
Begin to at least just go and have a conversation
What does that look like at the beginning as we have this discussion and many people are watching?
What do you do at the beginning to get it started? Yeah. Well, you're exactly right on banks. I'll just quickly mention
um
It was a big aha moment when I realized on facebook
It's free because we are the product
True that and we're being sold to the advertisers, of course, right?
Well, the same is true with your bank. Why do you get free checking? Are they just so generous?
No
You are the product you are their asset and what is the real profit center of a bank?
It's when they lend your money
To the guy behind you in line who needed a credit card or an auto loan or whatever
Yeah, and you can look that up. This is not a tin foil hat theory
Look up fractional reserve banking and just check out what's going on with your money
At their bank, okay, so back to your question
Yeah, there's there's a way to get started if you want to take back control of your finances if this is
Sparked some interest with you if you're sick and tired of the banks taking the profit off the top of your business or your personal life
Uh, we can help our financial firm is a comprehensive financial firm, but we specialize in helping businesses
And business owners take back control of their finances and do it in ways that are sound predictable
multiple generations of experience
Of experience through our firm. So we'd be honored to serve you
It's really just a 15 minute phone strategy session to start the conversation
And see if our work would be a good fit if you want, you can go to kickstartwithmark.com
To begin that process. It's very simple to have a quick conversation. We just had a conversation with someone this morning
He he is out in hawaii. So it was very early for him his family was not even up yet
And he said mark i'm done with banks. I want to start building real wealth outside of wall street
And I want to do it in a way that I know I can meet my goals in not so many words
So he was thrilled and we're just getting started with him. Maybe we can do the same for you
Thank you for being here today. I'm really happy that you tuned in to vision pros live
I'm looking forward to seeing your reactions as these episodes continue to move forward
This is going to get more and more fun. We'll have more and more engagement as well
Won by people to participate in the show and thank you for giving us your time and attention
Have an excellent time building out your vision and becoming a vision pro yourself