14: Financial Freedom & the Growth Mindset (w/ Dan Westfall)

Dan Westfall, financial extraordinaire.

What’s happening?

Glad to be here.

So, I know you.

I was crunching the numbers.

Pretty good at it, as you know.

Five years almost that I’ve known you.

No, I’ve only lived here for three…

I moved here in 2020, so it would have been right after that, because I joined the field of workspace.

Right after that, yeah, yeah.

Okay, I rounded up.

Yeah, four years actually.

So, three years, three years, because it was the end of 2020 when I moved here.

Man, it feels like a lot longer.

But going on four.

See, that’s why I have you.

I was going to say, I was like, that’s not your lane.

It’s I stay in my lane.

You’re not a numbers guy.

And you know that all too well.

We’re going to dive into that.

Yeah, for sure.

This is a perfect way to start.

Yeah, we worked at the same office.

I worked with you on Client Focused Financial, which is your business, which is thriving.

I’m working on your website, your marketing.

We worked together in a networking group called NPI.

And thank you for inviting me to that.

I’m trying to try to jive you there.

So get you making money.

It took a little, but it worked.

And I appreciate that.

You were president at the time, and now I’m vice president.

So the turntables.

Yep.

So that was my big picture plan, actually.

No, I really appreciate it, and I appreciate our partnership and friendship.

And it’s been really cool getting to know you.

And you’ve taught me a lot.

And you also manage me and my family’s investments, which is enormous because I tried to do Robinhood for like a year.

It sucked me in.

I mean, it was awesome, and it was really insightful, and I learned a lot.

But I also learned that I cannot be in this realm.

It’s too much pressure.

It was consuming me, and I wasn’t doing a lot.

And I was like working with a thousand bucks or something.

I started with like a hundred, and I kept getting pulled in.

But there was some tug to it, and I kind of wanted to start there.

I’m like, what drew you to the finance realm?

How did you find yourself in this?

Yeah, so I started making money.

My first job, and I think you actually know this story, but my first job was working for my older brother running.

My older brother ran the Trenton Times, which was the local newspaper in New Jersey.

And he got that when he was 12.

And as his younger brother, I was nine at the time.

My dad wanted me to help him out, so we were both working for him.

And after a little while, Andrew ended up getting to the point where he didn’t really need his younger brother helping him out.

And my dad still wanted to have me involved in it and made him basically keep me involved in some way.

So he decided he hated going around to collect for the paper.

So what he did is he had me go around to collect, and he paid me 15% of whatever I collected.

So that was at like 9, 10 years old, making 20, 30 bucks every other week was a lot of money for a 9, 10 year old, and you don’t have anything to spend money on as a 9, 10 year old.

Like I can remember literally going down the street to the liquor store, which ironically had candy.

So it was like the draw in.

Oh, that’s great.

And yeah, it’s like that’s how they get you.

And go in there and like getting candy and stuff like this.

It’s like, well, what do you spend money on as like a 10 year old?

Nothing.

So but otherwise, it was just literally saving money.

And it got to the point where I’d saved enough money.

My dad’s like, you should put this money in a CD at the bank.

And I was like, what is a CD?

And he explained, he’s like, yeah, you make, you know, five, six percent just leaving your money sit there.

And I was like, well, this is great.

Like, I’m not using it anyway.

Like, let’s put it there.

So that was the first investment I ever made was putting my money in a bank CD.

And I kind of love the idea of it because I’m like, well, I’m not working or doing anything.

Let’s make more money with it.

As kind of time went on, making more money and saving more money and things.

My, always was big into sports, grown up.

And my older brother, we had one TV at the house.

And my older brother, when he was 18, got a Scottrade account, which Scottrade was like the kind of like a Robin Hood.

It was then eventually bought out by TD Ameritrade.

TD Ameritrade was bought out by Josh Schwab, so on and so forth.

But he was trading on there, and he would watch Jim Kramer’s Mad Money at 6 o’clock, which always pissed me off because that was right when Sports Center was.

So it was like, if I wasn’t there, he was watching that.

And I was kind of just forced to watch it with him.

And if you don’t know Jim Kramer, Jim Kramer is a financial personality, like very over-the-top personality, and very excitable.

But he used to run a hedge fund, super smart, and he’s still on CNBC today.

And he really kind of just makes it entertaining to learn about investing in stocks.

And that was really watching him kind of forcibly at that point was drew me into it, where I was like, oh, wait, you can invest money in stocks and make even more than like 5%, 6%.

And then that kind of drew me into that over time to where, you know, eventually I opened up my own Scott Trade account and started investing.

And that was right in the beginning of the great financial crisis.

I just went to college, had opened up the Scott Trade account in the summer of 2008, put 500 bucks in to start it, and then the stock market dropped off that fall really dramatically.

It was down like 30%, just that fall.

And…

So everything was on sale.

Everything was on sale.

So when, you know, kind of like full circle, when COVID happened and things really dropped off, and there was this big hype around younger people getting, like the Gen Z people getting involved with investing and doing all the trading through Robinhood, it for me was kind of like, well, this is the way that I got involved, was through a big drop off like that.

And it wasn’t just because of that, but it was definitely more exciting that literally everything that I bought went up eventually, because the bottom of the great financial crisis was March of 2009.

So I was buying stuff in like the summer of 2008 into the fall into the winter, and it was buying it while everything was dramatically on sale.

And six months later, everything was dramatically higher.

So it’s definitely fun to make money when you’re investing in stocks, but it’s a long term thing too.

It’s not like a CD where it’s guaranteed, and that sparked my interest in investing.

And then when I was in college, I eventually changed my major to finance with the idea that I wanted to manage other people’s money.

And you know, that was like half of our class, all of the finance majors, half of them were like, I’m going to be a financial advisor.

And as far as I know, I’m the only one that, you know, after a few years was a financial advisor of the, I went to a relatively small college.

So not a lot of people make it as a financial advisor past their third year.

So it’s definitely, you know, I’m in a good position where it’s exciting to be able to work with people and help people like you and your family out with investing.

Oh, yeah, it’s really important because number one, there is a lack of education early on and even through college on like, what do you do with money?

How do you manage it or even the business side of things?

You know, you have to like learn it in the real world or knowing someone like you, you know, for me, I went to school for computer graphics and creative production and film and audio.

There’s no class on that, at least forced on me.

I should have.

I took like a business class, but it’s extremely valuable.

It like runs everything.

Yeah.

You know, money is, unfortunately, you know, you need money to live and do things.

Yeah, yeah, and I see that I see a lot with like the education behind money is it’s generational.

So you know, this gets, you can see, you know, if somebody grew up in a household where they didn’t have a lot of money or had poor financial habits and that’s just passed down generationally until somebody learns about money and investing and finances and changes that.

So you know, I was lucky to grow up where my dad’s like, hey, put your money in CDs.

So now my parents weren’t people that really outside of their retirement plans put money into stocks.

That just was not what they grew up with because when, you know, my parents were closer to my age, CD rates were close to 10%.

So for them to put money in stocks, what didn’t really make a whole lot of sense, it was also a lot harder for people at that point to invest in stocks.

There weren’t, you know, things like Robin Hood out there where it’s an app on your phone.

So it’s definitely become more normalized for people to be able to open up a brokerage account and invest in stocks.

But I see it definitely generationally, and I see it within my own client base with, and this gets into like, you know, race and money and, you know, economic levels, because, you know, there’s a reason why there’s such a dramatic disparity in net worth between different races out there.

And it’s generational, and it’s how people are taught about money, because that happens from their parents.

And if their parents didn’t have money or, you know, had a lot of debt, and the likelihood is that they are too, just because of where they’re learning their financial habits from.

So I see it, you know, every day with people that I come across and talking with them, because majority of people out there don’t have the type of money that they should have, you know, based on their age.

So it’s, at least, I’m sure there’s statistics out there that are more exact than this, but I know like 50% of people live paycheck to paycheck, and, you know, if not higher percentage, you know, even higher of a percentage don’t have any money in, you know, savings.

If there was some dramatic event that they had to spend $5,000 for, they would automatically be putting that on a credit card.

And that’s, that just starts that spiraling effect of, you know, negative financial habits, ends, you know, putting them in the hole, basically, where they’re just always trying to scrap, scratch and claw to get out.

So, and then eventually it hits the point in their life where they need to really either dramatically save money, or they get to the point of no return, where they’re just never going to have the kind of money that they need to have to retire or live, you know, a financially stable life.

And that’s, it’s sad to see, but it’s all choices that are made.

Everybody has the same opportunities.

It’s just that the choices that people make based on the information that they have isn’t, you know, aligning with long-term financial prosperity.

So that’s the thing.

Number one, it’s a slippery slope from one bad decision, you know, credit card debt here or there, and you have to dig yourself out just to get back to ground zero.

But second, you know, that mindset of the long term, a lot of people may be thinking about the year.

If that, rather than like, okay, like for me, don’t touch what you’re helping me with, Dan, until I’m, what, 60.

Because then we can pull that out, you know, and that’s going to be a large chunk when we just let it grow.

Because it’s not a lot now.

You’ve helped it grow from where it was, certainly, but at that time.

But, I mean, what do you think is, like, the main way to break those cycles if someone’s in, you know, raised where their parents are just making bad decisions and not financially illiterate?

It’s education, yeah.

And, like, that’s the sad thing is that you, like, I grew up, I didn’t have finance class.

Even my, you know, my college, I was a finance major, you don’t have, like, personal finance classes.

It was very, I didn’t really learn a whole, whole lot about investing until I actually got into, you know, my first job, actually.

So, with a financial services company, and that was really where I started learning more about investing, because even college-level courses are very high-in-the-sky type of stuff where it wasn’t getting down into, like, the nitty-gritty of, like, well, what should you be saving?

What are percentages you should be saving?

You know, should you be saving 5% because your company matches 5% or should you be saving 10% because you should be saving in total 20% of your paycheck?

And part of that should go to short-term savings, and part of that should go to retirement.

So, you know, those are, you know, different, like, things that just aren’t taught out there and helping people understand, like, basic financial principles of budgeting and, you know, the Rule of 72, which is, you know, talking about how often your money doubles and things.

So, you know, simple thing if you don’t know what the Rule of 72 is.

I was just about to ask.

Yeah, so I saw the look on your face.

The Rule of 72 is if you divide the interest rate that you’re making on money into 72.

So, say it’s one, for example.

Keep a basic math here for you.

Thank you.

So, one into 72 is 72.

So, if you had an investment that you’re making 1% on and you wanted that money to double, it’s going to take 72 years.

So, if you were making 2% on that, it’s going to take 36 years.

3% would be 24 years, so on and so forth.

So, if you’re making 10%, which like the S&P 500, which is the stock market index of the 500 largest US companies in the US, that’s made roughly about 10% over the last 100 years, including dividends reinvested.

So, that would take your money, and this is for retirement money.

Your money should be doubling in a retirement account if it’s fully invested in stocks roughly every seven years, give or take.

So, that’s a good rule of thumb.

So, that way people can kind of think about, well, what am I making on my money?

So, people that have money sitting in a savings account right now that make nothing, it’s like, well, your money’s really not…

you’re not just not making money, you’re actually losing money to inflation, which inflation right now, the last month, was like 3.4% and average inflation that the Fed’s targeting is like 2.5% over time.

So, minimally, if over time you’re not making 2.5% on your money, you’re actually losing money, even though people always think they’re like, oh, it’s in my safe at the house or it’s in my bank account.

And it’s, well, that’s great, but you’re losing money every year to inflation, because stuff is always going to be more expensive 10, 15, 20 years from now than it is today.

And those are just basic financial principles that there should be a class that every senior in high school has to pass and has to pass at a higher level than just your gym class, because that’s probably the most important thing that they could take away from any class that they’re going to take throughout their K-12 education is personal finances, because they’re going to be affected by it.

Even if they’re a trust fund baby, they’re still going to be affected by it.

And that’s where I see my overall client base, I take money from anybody and everybody who has it, and I can see based on race specifically, and in our country right now, there’s a lot of issues going on that revolve around race and things like that, and a lot of it, I think, comes back to money.

And people don’t want to talk about it, but that’s a big problem around it of Hispanic and Black families not having the same kind of money as white or Asian families.

So I see that.

You can see, statistically, with net worth, you have— and this was something in The Wall Street Journal I saw, this was probably a year ago— the average net worth for white people, and this is all ages, was $150,000.

So that’s including like, equating your house and retirement, savings, all that type.

For black and Hispanic, it was like $25,000, $30,000.

So that’s a dramatic difference.

Holy moly.

And a lot of that goes into home ownership and types of jobs that they have that may not have a retirement plan to it.

But that’s a really dramatic disparity, and it’s like, well, of course there’s going to be social issues revolving around race when you have white people, and I think Asian people are very close to what white people are at as far as net worth goes.

But of course you’re going to have that kind of conflict out there when you have one race or a couple of races that have dramatically higher net worth than you have others, because you’re going to have issues around tax, and you’re going to have issues around social programs, and all of these other things that affect both in dramatically different ways.

And it all comes back, I see it all comes back to education.

So, you know, why do white people have more money?

Well, generationally, white people were learning about money and saving and investing and buying homes, versus a hundred years ago, you know, black people weren’t, you know, saving, owning, buying homes.

You know, that was like dramatically in our country, it was just a very different world.

Yeah, it’s an unfortunate fact.

Yeah, and that’s something that, yeah, that’s just our country history.

So, but the big thing that can change is now everybody has the same opportunities, you know, and that’s where you can’t cry like, oh, well, we need, you know, reparations or whatever.

Like, it’s like, no, no, no, you have the same opportunities.

So, you know, one of my best friends I went to college with, my boy Sam, first generation to go to college, you know, black dude, he works for the Department of State, makes six figures.

He’s the first person in his family, like, quote, unquote, to like make it, so to speak.

So, but came from, like, classic, you know, upbringing where dad wasn’t around all the time.

There was also the, you know, public assistance, things like that.

But he had the same opportunity that everybody else has.

So, and he took advantage of it.

He went to college, you know, got student loans, made the most of it, actually took that as an investment, because I think a lot of people go to college and just go just because they’re supposed to and don’t look at it.

It’s like college is an investment in your future income.

So if you’re going to just go to college and, you know, go get like become like a history major in college, like, what are you going to do with that?

You know, so teach history.

Yeah, you’re gonna teach history.

It’s like, okay, like you have a very small, like outlook.

You know, I remember there was a major at your college where I went to school in Pennsylvania, wrecking leisure.

And I’m just like, oh, this is like the biggest joke major out there.

It’s just the kids that smoke weed that just want to chill and get their school.

So like, you know, like that’s not like a real, you know, like, what are you doing with that?

Like you’re going to be a park ranger.

So like, that’s where I think people just don’t think through, like at a younger age, and it’s pushed on so many people to just go to college.

When, you know, reality, the trades, you know, plumbing, electrical, HVAC, like all that, those people make a ton of money.

And I think of this, one of my other best friends growing up, my buddy Donnie, we’ve been friends since we were two, grew up right behind me.

He’s like, you know, like my brother.

So he was, he’s definitely not a school person.

And he would say that.

He went to community college, ended up going to trade school, getting into HVAC.

He makes well another six figures doing HVAC.

So, you know, and they’ve helped pay for him to go back and get his bachelor’s degree now so he can move up with management.

So like, there’s so much opportunity out there, and it just takes people actually putting in the effort and making a real plan to do it.

And that’s not just like with finances, that goes with all of their economic life.

So, you know, and I think that like just kind of starting out, you know, I was lucky enough that my parents were like, you need to go to college and do this, because if I didn’t go to college, then I wouldn’t be in the position I am today.

I wouldn’t have been able to, you know, become a CFP, a certified financial planner, because, you know, you need a bachelor’s degree just to sit for that.

So, you know, all those different things, if I wasn’t pushed to do that, would I have done that?

Maybe not.

So, you know, and that’s, you know, it starts early, and I think that nowadays, like, with all the information out there, you know, we’re doing a podcast talking about finances and all kinds of other stuff.

Like, there’s so much free information out there that if people want to get, you know, learn about whatever the topic is, they can go out and do it.

So, I think finances, or personal finances especially, you know, are a very hot topic, so to speak.

Like, I see a ton of it on my, you know, on my Instagram, because partial is probably because of my job, and Big Brother knows what I do.

But, you know, I still see all these different, you know, people out there putting out content about personal finances, which I think is great because, you know, the more people talk about it, the more people know.

And that’s one of those things that, like, growing up, the three things you don’t talk about is sex, religion, and, you know, people’s money.

So, you know, or politics.

So, you throw that in there too, I guess.

But, you know, and thankfully for, I guess, me, I never listen to my parents, so I talk to, you know, it’s like, don’t talk to strangers.

Like, I talk to strangers every day, and I talk to them about their money.

So, but it’s a taboo topic to talk about money, and it shouldn’t be, because everybody needs money.

And it shouldn’t be this thing looked at, like, oh, well, I don’t have money, or I don’t want to talk about money, I don’t want to talk about my income.

Like, you know, it’s not that difficult when somebody tells me, like, what their job is.

Like, they’re like, hey, I’m a nurse.

All right, I know roughly around what you make.

You know, that doesn’t make me think any more or less of these, you know, people.

So, and I think there’s just too much, it’s still too taboo to talk about money as loosely as we should be talking about money, because people grew up where it was just weird to talk about, and it wasn’t socially acceptable to talk about money or things.

And even within groups of friends, like more of my friends talk to me about money just because of what I do, but I know that it’s not just, you know, with people that I’ve talked to, it’s not just a very common topic for people to talk about.

I also know it’s probably more of a common topic for guys to talk about money versus women to talk about money, especially amongst friends.

So, you know, just from like female friends that I’ve had throughout the years, because it’s different from that standpoint, because it’s not a common topic versus men, like, hey, let’s talk more about this, because, you know, guys are just, I guess, naturally, I’m sure there’s some sort of biology behind this, so trying to protect and provide is just more of an instinct.

I mean, history, males have been providers, you know, hunters through time.

I’m sure that’s shifting a little more, but, you know, I knew that that question would get you going, because it’s like, how do you help humanity?

Education is at the root of pretty much everything, in my opinion, where access to more information or better upbringing through an educational lens helps in so many different areas of the world.

It would help with conflict.

It helps with finance.

It helps with people’s happiness in pursuing what they love.

It’s at the root of everything.

So more of that, and I wanted to speak, because something that you do with your business that I really respect is every month you put out a market review.

And it’s on your website.

It’s on your YouTube channel.

And I think that’s really admirable, because you stick to that, and I watch those all the time.

And I’m like, oh, you know, I feel more grounded in what’s going on.

And it’s easy to listen to.

And I think you do a great job of that.

And I wanted to kind of ask you about your business.

Number one, how long have you owned your business, and how long has it been chugging along?

And number two is, compared to the other financial advisors, investment managers out there, what is the unique take or aspect of your business that you do that other people don’t?

I know, I kind of know this answer.

It’s in the names.

Yeah, it is.

So I started Client Focused Financial in 2017.

I had worked for a couple other independent broker-dealers before that, and just got to the point in my career where I was like, I don’t want to keep working for somebody else.

I can do this better and do this myself.

So I started Client Focused Financial 2017.

It’s a registered investment advisory firm, registered with a number of different states.

But I came up with the name because one of the things that I had gotten a lot of clients through the beginning part of my career at that point, and I saw it was kind of like a void within the industry, was that a lot of advisors didn’t actually focus on working with clients.

Like, they’d get a client, and then it was just like a sale, and it was done.

They just put them into the system.

They just, yeah.

And you didn’t hear from them, and they put them in just generic investment strategies, and they weren’t actively managing, or throwing them at mutual funds, or something like that, and just moved on to the next sale.

And that was something where, at the time, I had gotten a large majority of my clients from other advisors that just were like, I never hear from my advisor.

I don’t think that they actually do anything.

And diving into it, I was like, yeah, they don’t.

They just sold you some mutual funds, and the reason you haven’t heard from them is because they got paid commission when they sold it to you, and then they chucked out the deuces and moved on to find the next person.

So that was, in the beginning, one of the reasons I wanted to title the firm Client Focused was just putting the emphasis, putting the service back in financial services as the tagline, so…

Love it.

That was really a big focus that I had of trying to get clients and really putting that customer service first and foremost, and that’s one of the things that separates me from most advisors out there, is just that I am actually staying in touch with my clients.

And it sounds super simple and super basic, but it’s probably the biggest thing that I bring to the table outside of the investment management part, which, you know, and you can attest to this, most of my clients don’t know nor really care about that.

They want to make money, but they don’t know all the little intricate details of things I’m doing behind the scenes, and that’s what they pay me for.

So, yep, at the end of the day, what they care about is that I stay in touch with them and update them on things and, you know, talk to them and I’m available when they need me.

So, you know, it’s such a basic thing, but that’s what I found in my industry is one of the things that lacks.

It’s just customer service.

I think in general, in most industries, that’s the ticket.

You know, it’s lacking.

Like, for me, people don’t know how to build a website or how to design a logo or all about graphic design or whatever nuance it is.

And they don’t necessarily care how the website’s built.

Does it function?

Does it perform fast?

Is it long-lasting?

Yep, yep, yep.

And the big thing is that I communicate with them, like, here’s what we’re doing.

Here’s what we’re doing month to month or whatever that may be.

So, I mean, I like how you put it right out front, though.

Like, the name of your business is that.

And that goes a long way.

I felt that.

I know that a lot of people have felt that.

You’ve been very successful over these years, just growing steadily.

That’s the game.

And you’re a long-term thinker.

Ever since I met you with our networking group, that’s long-term thinking, long-term relationship building.

A lot of things that we do.

First is this podcast is long-term.

I’m documenting a legacy with interesting people that I know, but also it’s long-term marketing.

It’s inherent.

I guess I’ve talked a little bit about the business in some of these episodes, but that’s not what it’s about.

But inherently, it works, and all of these things add up long-term.

I don’t know if you want to answer this, but how many households do you manage?

Is there a figure that you can put out of them?

It’s a little over 200.

It’s actually publicly available because I’m a registered investment advisory firm, so I manage just under $40 million in assets under management.

It’s a little over 200 households that I manage.

Yeah, it’s exciting.

My biggest thing, and thinking on when we were at our networking group earlier this week, Mike Marcus gave us a presentation talking about the one word thing, and for him, it was growth this year because he’s having a kid trying to grow his business.

He’ll be on the podcast soon.

Oh, that’s cool, cool.

Yeah, he’s a good man.

Shout out to Mike.

He’d be good.

Shout out, yeah.

So, but for me, it’s always been consistency, and it’s just this strong suit because it’s so easy to be inconsistent, but I think it’s easier to be consistent because it’s like I go to the gym every day.

I eat well every day.

I go to work every day.

I put in that effort in things every single day, and it’s just the consistency that I’ve been an investment advisor for 12 years, and I started obviously with no clients, and I had people that I worked under at the time where I was like, man, these guys are killing it, making a ton of money.

I’m like 21, 22.

How can I be that?

And while there was people that I worked with that just killed it from early on, I was like, I’m not that person, but I can put in the work and just be consistent.

And I think that that’s where most people could fall into that if they just can focus on being consistent with whatever they’re doing, whether it’s their personal life with their health or they’re trying to start a business with their business or in their career, whatever it is.

It’s just being consistent in doing those things that like, I mean, I was in my 20s working like 10, 12 hours a day for six, seven years, really, as I was growing things.

And I know relationships I had at the time, they were like, I’d love to see you more.

I got bigger picture goals.

And the thing is, they’re not around today, but I’ve reached those goals and I’m kind of hitting those points.

And ultimately, that was something that I had as a bigger picture thing that I don’t want to be in my 30s having to 33 now.

I didn’t want to be in my 30s struggling and to grow my business or financially or things like that.

And I spent the time, took the steps back when needed to then take the steps forward.

Because starting Client Focused Financial, when I started, I left my old firm and I didn’t make money for six months.

And it was like, all right, I hope this works.

And I moved with like $6 million in assets under management at the time, which is like not much for any other financial advisor that’s listed in this out there.

They’re like, what?

So it’s not a lot of money.

And now I think of it like my top five clients have more than that.

So it’s just, yeah.

Now you got a big chunk of change that you’re managing.

That’s impressive.

Yeah, but it’s consistency.

There was never a year where I just was like, I killed it and just brought in $10 million of new money.

It was always just two, three, four, five million a year just consistently adding clients.

And that can span a lot of different industries of just being consistent and doing something that I’m lucky that in my world it’s all about compounding, like compound interest and growing people’s money.

And by helping grow their money, it grows my firm revenue and things.

So there’s different ways that businesses can scale and do that within their own world that I think that a lot of people can focus more on.

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Yeah, a couple of things.

I resonate so much with, you know, hard things become easy when you normalize that consistency.

The consistency normalizes that thing.

Good health, hitting the gym, running, not smoking, not doing stuff is also a positive habit.

Or, you know, you could go the other way, and that’s a habit.

Lay off the crack, you know?

Yeah, exactly.

That’ll get you.

But it’s like the consistency of, for me, you know, I could take every day off because I’m the boss, but that won’t work.

And so I don’t, but that consistency keeps it going.

And I feel that very much that like, whoa, three years ago when I started, like, it was zero, literally zero, and took that leap like you’re talking about.

Now it’s a lot more than zero.

And it’s wild.

And it’s fun to think about in five years.

Before I go on to maybe rough spots, I wanted to, there’s something that I saw, it was several months ago, but it was this post, it was this write up or it was a video.

And it was, would you rather have a dollar every day for a month or a million dollars right now?

It’s like combine like doubling a dollar every day.

And that dollar would double every day.

And I was like, a million dollars, of course.

But then they did the math and I go, oh my god, I was so wrong.

So you’re learning about compounding.

Exactly.

That was the most illustrative thing that I saw as far as like, once you start to really grow that money, that’s why once you save enough and you can make that money work for you, that money really works for you towards the end.

Because that just compounds.

It’s enormous.

So, yeah, choose the dollar per day that doubles over a month.

Yes, you definitely want that compounding.

Compounding is, yeah, it’s definitely something that people don’t take into account as much because it’s consistency, it’s boring, it’s not exciting.

The longer you leave money sit there, the more it’s going to grow.

But I want a million dollars now.

Again, it’s like that long-term mindset.

These are all the consistency, the thread through this conversation.

And I was thinking about where this would go right after we set this date was the different things that we talk about.

And mindset was certainly one of them that I’m glad we’re hitting on and not surprised by it.

And maybe speaking of mindset, because I think this is probably one of the things for both of us being business owners, it’s not all like sunshine, rainbows, unicorns, and money.

For me, several months ago, I had a dip in my business where I’m like, oh my gosh, but now I’m in a month where it’s fantastic.

These ups and downs.

So I just wanted to ask, what is one of the most difficult parts of your journey?

How did you get through that?

Yeah, I mean, I have to think back to the very beginning was definitely the hardest because I think I said earlier that most financial advisors don’t make it past year three because the first three years suck.

Most businesses.

Yeah, most businesses.

But I think it’s like, I remember there was this dude at Ed Jones that I was when I was interviewing in college for internships, and he had said, he’s like, I got together with me, took me out to lunch, and he’s sitting there’s like, yeah, 90% of advisors don’t make it past year three.

I was like, damn, I was like, am I making the right decision getting into this world?

And I guess the competitive nature of meals like sucks for that other 90 because I’m gonna be the 10.

And then ironically, he didn’t give me the internship because he just couldn’t get interns through at Jones or something like that.

I was like, dude, I’ll work for free, still didn’t give it to me.

And then a few years later, probably like five years after that, I ended up seeing him at an event where it was like a marketing event we were doing in the area.

And I saw him and he didn’t recognize me, but I did.

And it was just like one of those things of like, I remembered, I was like, yeah, you didn’t give me that job.

And it was like, in my mind, I was like, you know, I said to you before I wouldn’t curse.

You’re doing a good job.

But if you need to, you drop it.

But like, you know what I mean.

So that’s where I was.

That’s where I was like in that moment.

He was still working at Ed Jones, talking about starting his own RA with his registered investment advisor firm with his brother-in-law.

And I just remember being, I was working at an independent broker dealer at that time.

And he was talking about going independent.

I don’t know if it was a registered investment advisor firm, but I was like, I’m already a step ahead of you.

And it was just like that mindset where I was like, I’m always going to be a step ahead of you too, because I’m just going to outwork you because you’re, you know, and it was just like the internal shit talking that I was then like, and that’s just the same way with other people that I’ve worked with throughout the years.

Or, you know, I can remember even early on, like the first three years, I made total revenues 18, 13, and 35,000.

You know, 20, 2012, 13, and 14.

That was like my total revenue, which is like at the time, I remember making 35,000.

That was like 35,000 revenue.

Then I had my expenses, so I didn’t actually make that.

So yeah, so like I drove all the time.

I was driving like 20, 30,000 miles a year because I was doing, you know, meetings with people.

So I was hustling.

And I remember like being talking to my mom, who my mom always, my mom is an accountant, and she would help me out with my books and taxes and things like that.

And I made 35, I was like, Mom, killing it.

And she’s like, Yeah, well, you’re profitable this year, but that’s not what, you know, you need to keep growing.

And my mom always being the half glass, your half glass empty person that my mom is always the pessimistic person.

And me being always wanting to like prove my mom wrong kind of thing was and that was just, you know, something even actually getting into the industry where my mom had when I interviewed and worked like kind of an internship at Morgan Stanley.

And at the same time, work for this small little independent insurance agency and decided to that I want to work with this small little financial services company.

And my mom was like, you need to work with the big guys like Merle Lynch and Morgan Stanley.

And I’m like, nah.

And it was like, and it was just because of her saying that, that I wanted to prove her wrong to then be like an independent advisor.

And it’s always been that way.

There’s always like, I can remember, you know, earlier on, like friends being like, yo, he’s struggling.

Like, he’s not making them like, you know, I’m gonna be killing it at some point.

And, you know, I’m gonna be managing your money.

So, and I am today.

And that’s where I know that, you know, long term, it’s like I have that 10 year outlook on it.

So like, I know where, at 43, where I want to be at.

And I knew when I was 23 that I wanted to be here today.

And I am.

And it’s, in a weird way, like it doesn’t feel as gratifying, I guess, because I knew I’d be here.

You know, it’s like you’re supposed to win.

But when I look back and think on like those first like three, four years, where like after year four, I went from 35 to then 70,000.

That was like, oh, I’m actually, you know, making it, so to speak, where, you know, I’m making actual grown people money.

Where like going out of college, all my friends were making, you know, 40, 45, $50,000 salaries.

And I’m like, literally, I don’t know what I’m making next month.

You know, like month to month, because I was doing a lot of life insurance at the time to just like make commissions on things initially to like eat early.

So, you know, thinking back on those times, it’s definitely the hard times because there was a lot, there was definitely some moments in months where I was like, I might need to go get a job.

You know, I might need to like give this up and go work for a bank.

That was like always like my fallback.

I was like, I’ll work at a bank.

Like, you know, they have jobs there.

Luckily, we could get hired, you could get hired pretty quickly, but it’s the perseverance through those times where that upswing is right beyond, you know, the horizon.

And that’s the thing, because there are always dips, no matter what.

And it’s getting through that, having the mindset to go, nope, I’m going to keep chugging along.

Yeah, I think that’s the difference like EQ versus IQ.

Like, I don’t know if you’ve heard this before.

I’ve heard this in different, like, different, you know, personalities on social media.

Let’s talk about this.

Like IQ obviously is your, you know, intelligence.

EQ is your emotional quotient.

And it’s like the people that run businesses and that are super successful, while they might be smart, they’re, you know, they’re not the smartest person in the room necessarily, but they’re able to, like, overcome obstacles and power through difficult times.

And what they end up doing is they end up hiring smarter people than them.

So, you know, that’s the difference.

I think I’m not like a, you know, I had a 3.1 GPA in college.

Like, I’m not super smart.

You know, I’ve always been, like, I think, you know, my skill set leans more towards, like, being conceptual and, like, being able to take money and finances and break it down into basic levels.

I think that’s something that, luckily for me, that I have, like, an easy, it comes easier to me.

So versus, like, when we talk money, that’s, you’re shaking your head right now.

You’re like, nah, it’s not for me.

And that’s a lot of people.

That’s why I have you.

Yeah.

So, but I’m not sitting there doing calculus and stuff like that.

Like, that’s not, you know, that’s not my, that’s not my strong suit.

So, you know, but I think EQ versus IQ is definitely something that is overlooked, especially, you know, like, there’s not really a way to teach that in schools.

So, you know, it’s just overcoming obstacles and really that internal fire of people.

Certainly.

And it’s also hard versus soft skills kind of come into that.

Yeah, like, for me, I’m using, like, several programs right now to record this.

But if they all went away tomorrow and then I had to learn new programs, I don’t care.

Like, I’ll learn.

Figure it out.

Yeah, it’s not a big deal.

I have a growth mindset as far as I’ll learn it.

And now I know how to learn better, learning how to learn better.

But I like that EQ versus IQ.

That’s interesting.

Before we move on to a fun segment of the interview, I wanted to ask real quick what your outlook on the future of, you know, the financial markets are, like the big change is coming.

So for instance, like crypto hit, and it still is like, whoa.

Or like what happened with GameStop?

Such an interesting thing.

You watched that Netflix on GameStop recently?

No, but I will.

It was a really good one, actually.

I’d love to.

I just watched it like last week.

It’s a fascinating thing.

Same with crypto.

Like also with crypto, there’s so much more that people don’t think of.

Crypto, the blockchain, is a technology that’s well beyond finance.

It’s a way of tracking, and so crypto could be used for concert ticket sales and flights.

That technology that was dumped on the world anonymously is incredible.

However, obviously, the financial markets with Bitcoin and such, it blew up.

But I’m wondering, do you see anything in the future that’s coming?

I’m not one of these crypto people, but I think that crypto is something that…

I compare it to what the internet was in the early 90s.

There’s this really famous interview that Katie Couric, who was host on The Today Show, did in 1993, I think, where she asked somebody, and I don’t even know who it was.

She’s like, what is the internet?

And today, 30 years later, that sounds so dumb to ask, because it’s like, well, the internet’s literally everything.

But at the time, that was a very honest and real question that so many people in America had.

And I think that’s where we are today with crypto, where it’s like, well, what is crypto?

What do you use it for?

And I think that that’s going to be finances as a whole, is one of the things that hasn’t really changed a lot over the last 100 years.

For example, when I place a trade for you or any of my other clients, it takes a trade date plus three days for it to settle, which is wild that it takes that long for me to be like, let me place this trade, and then I can then process the withdrawal for you.

And it’s like, that’s crazy that it takes even more than just seconds for that to happen, because the technology is there.

That was the same amount of time it took in the 1920s.

So it’s just wild that there hasn’t been this evolution within finances.

So I think that that’s definitely a space that will evolve more over the next 10, 15 years.

I think like sectors that I’m very, I think the market as a whole, for those people that are out there, like I’m a half glass full person.

So I have a very positive view on the market from a long term standpoint, but especially over the next five, 10 years, because trend wise, we’re in what’s referred to as a secular bull market, where there’s these time frames over history, where markets go down and sideways, which that would be a secular bear market, and then these longer time frames where it goes up.

So like going back through time, if you were to pull up a chart of the stock market, and you looked at from like 1929, when the Great Depression hit through the end of World War II, into the initial recession after World War II, markets were down and sideways.

And then from like 1946 through the end of the 1960s, stocks went up like eightfold in that 20-year time frame, roughly.

And then we went through high inflation, high oil prices, oil shortages, like all these different things that happened in the 70s that caused the economy to drop off dramatically, stocks drop off, and we went through that for about 10, 15 years.

And then the early 80s turned around, and all of a sudden inflation started dropping off because they had raised interest rates so much.

And then from 1982 through 2000, stocks went up another tenfold.

And that culminated with the.com bubble in 2000.

And then we then had the 9-11 recession right after that, which caused the market to drop off.

And then a few years later, we have the great financial crisis from 2007 to 2009.

So we had another nine-year stretch where markets were down and sideways.

And then from 2009 through today, we’ve had this dramatic move higher again in the market.

So if history repeats itself, which I think it’s gonna, we’re in the midst of another 20, 25-year upswing, which means that we would have, you know, if it’s 20 years, we have another, you know, five, 10 years left in a bigger move higher within stocks.

I think there’s a lot of sectors within the stock market, like semiconductor companies, that are gonna do really, really well.

Those are companies that make chips that power your computer, your phone, your car, all these different things.

Any piece of technology has a semiconductor in it, and that’s companies like NVIDIA, AMD, Intel.

I think that those are gonna do really well because of artificial intelligence and…

Just about to ask.

Yeah, yeah.

I think that’s gonna be a big move with technology as a whole, is AI, over the next 10 years.

And then, you know, one of the other sectors, I think, is gonna do really well is home construction, home builders, because the millennial demographic is the largest demographic out there.

So that’s people born, I think it’s like 1981 to 1996, fall into the millennial demographic.

And we’re the largest demographic because, you know, the baby boomers were the largest demographic, and a lot of us are kids of baby boomers.

And, you know, the reason I think that home builders are gonna be a huge growth segment is because there’s such a housing shortage.

And we see this now with housing prices going up dramatically.

I mean, we live in St.

Pete, and St.

Pete is, you know, super expensive to actually live in, whether you want to rent or own.

But, you know, to get, like, you know, a house in the US like, it’s gone up dramatically, but there’s just not a lot of houses available.

And millennials are renting at a higher rate, which eventually they’re gonna get to that spot where, you know, we’ve all done stuff slower than previous generations, where, you know, it took us longer to get jobs, it took us longer to, because a lot of that had to do with the great financial crisis, but it took us longer to get jobs, you know, it takes us longer to get married, have family, buy a house, like, do all those things that traditionally people do, you know, at least at a larger scale.

And we’re doing that all later in life, so I think that we’re gonna see this huge influx of, you know, people that are millennials eventually settling down and buying houses versus, you know, moving around like gypsies and, you know, renting place to place.

I think that at some point, you know, millennials were gonna grow up and want to actually have a house, and that’s gonna cause the next big leg of demand in housing.

So people think right now, I get this a lot, that people are like, oh, we’re waiting for housing prices to drop.

I’m not a realtor, but like, just from an economic standpoint, don’t do that because I don’t think housing prices, and this is like on the US, but especially in the Tampa Bay area, like housing prices aren’t dropping off dramatically.

There’s only so much space.

You can only grow up.

It can always drop off.

People thought that in like 2005, 2006, that real estate always goes up in value, and then we had the great financial crisis that was caused by the housing bubble.

So the market, it can go down, but demographically, it’s pushing us higher, because there’s going to be more people that want to buy houses.

So that’s one of the biggest pushers.

Historically, that’s always a big push, in all kinds of different economies, is larger populations.

That’s what we saw in the post-World War II, was that we had all these baby boomers being born, and people settling down, buying houses, all these things.

And that ended up driving the economy at that point.

And then you had your Gen Xers being born in the 70s and early 80s.

And not surprisingly, there was a smaller demographic.

And then you then roll into the 80s and early 90s, and that’s when your baby boomers were our age in their 30s, where they’re settling their good job, saving, spending money, but getting married, buying houses, doing all those things.

And that drove the economy up pretty dramatically for 20 years.

So I think that’s what we’re in the middle of right now, is a big demographic push.

So that’s one of the issues that other countries like Japan, who has had a shrinking population and very old population, their stock market’s gone sideways for like 30 years because of their, predominantly, it’s their demographics there.

So they just don’t have the people to grow the economy.

Yeah, makes sense.

I think we’d have to do a whole part two on outside of the US.

If we start talking about the world, that’s, you know, because also like 4X.

Once I learned about like foreign exchange, you know, my wife is from Turkey, and I’ve been watching what’s happening with the Turkish Alira, and I’m like, whoa.

And it’s just thinking about like people move money to make money, and there’s like foreign exchange.

It’s way of investing, which is just wild to think about.

And also like being in Turkey, you know, the lines at banks of people like taking out cash or using US dollars or taking out US dollars, really actually interesting because a lot of people want to put US dollars in Turkish banks because it’s more valuable.

They’ll take out their lira, convert it to US dollars.

But anyways, I think we’re going to have to do a part two.

Yeah, we’ll just talk more about that for sure.

Yeah, because my goodness, I mean, you’re in such a realm where it touches everybody, you know?

Like for me, not everybody needs a logo or a website or marketing.

Everybody needs money at the end of the day, unless you inherited a farm and you’re living off the land.

And good for you.

Yeah, I think it’s always funny.

I don’t hear it about Tom anymore, but people that say that, it’s like, oh, I don’t need money to be happy.

I was like, well, it’s real happy.

It’s real hard to be happy without money.

So, you know, happiness and money don’t correlate directly.

But if you don’t have any money, you’re probably thinking about money more than happiness.

That’s a great way to put it.

Yeah, that’ll go on one of the quotes.

Okay, so reach to spot the rapid fire section.

Let’s do it.

So, essentially, everybody wins in this.

I’m keeping score, but the points don’t matter.

And if you can, try to keep your answers short.

But I ask, guess this, consistent questions, just to see the common threads and the differences between everybody, because they’re both.

So just a handful of questions for you.

Number one, what is your biggest source of inspiration?

My biggest source of inspiration?

That’s super deep.

I guess just that want to be better and have a better life for myself, future family.

That’s definitely something.

So you could say family.

Short, concise.

I had my grandma on the show in the last episode, and that was her answer, family.

That was all we talked about, though.

I like that answer.

For me, especially with a new daughter, that’s a driver.

But it certainly has been.

Okay, do you have a favorite book?

That’s one of my weaknesses is reading, but I listen to audiobooks.

So Good to Great by Jim Collins is one where it talks about how companies that were good companies became great companies.

So that’s definitely one that pops to mind.

Yeah, that’s a good one.

There’s others.

I was reading one that probably not in the top five, but all books.

I like a lot of business books or self-development, that type of stuff.

But Good to Great was definitely one of them that I really like from a business standpoint.

Even just that title is really empowering, where again, it’s like a mindset thing, where there’s always a level up if you’re in the right mindset to take it there.

There’s also a good book that I was required at one of my former jobs to read Good to Great in a book called Mindset, and those were both really, really good.

There’s also one called The Checklist Manifesto, which was also really, really good.

But I’m there with you.

Anything that you’re reading to push the envelope in yourself, you can’t go wrong.

Yeah, and just learning more.

Books, I’ve always been nonfiction.

I don’t read or listen to fiction books because it just doesn’t watch Netflix or that.

Yeah, I read a nonfiction here and there, but usually it’s a hard science, so it’s based in reality.

Like, oh, this could happen, but it’s sci-fi out there, but it’s rooted in reality.

Do you have a favorite musical artist or favorite album?

I don’t.

It’s a tough one.

I’m not really an A year musician, so you’re probably just like, yeah, you could name that right off the top of your head.

I really don’t.

I listen to all kinds of music, and it’s really whatever mood that I’m in, like if I’m at the gym, I’m listening to something, then I’m different than probably what I’m listening to in my car.

But Spotify is good for that, just helping me mix it up.

Just to let you know, that’s like my answer.

Being a musician, I feel like it’s even harder.

Oh, really?

Yeah, and it really does depend on my mood.

Last night, I ended the day very late, listening to classical instrumental.

But earlier that day, I was listening to something heavier.

I go all over.

It’s just like where the wind takes me and what I’m feeling in that moment.

I could see that.

I could see that.

You got a little hippie in you.

My parents are both in that realm.

Shout out to both our moms and families and dads.

All right.

Do you have a favorite business tool?

Favorite business tool, like in my own business?

Or in general?

Well, I mean, I use my CRM every day.

The first thing that came to mind, but that’s literally just organizing my life.

That’s a big one.

I feel you on that.

Yeah, maybe my CRM.

I don’t know.

That’s probably the most important thing, which seems such a basic thing.

But yeah, as far as a business tool goes, that’s like, if I didn’t have my CRM, I don’t know what…

I guess I would use a spreadsheet.

God, no.

So yeah, that would be chaos.

You say CRM is a basic thing, because it’s basic to anyone in business now.

Of course, I guess.

You’ve got to have it, but it gets so deep once you start to…

When I talk to some small businesses that don’t have it, I’m like, what do you mean you don’t have it?

How do you run your day?

Not even small businesses.

Businesses that I work with that have been around 20, 30 years.

I’m like, what are you doing?

You don’t have tasks or follow-ups or client notes or whatever.

So yeah, I couldn’t…

My business wouldn’t function without my CRM, which ironically is one of the cheapest things that I pay for every month is my CRM, but yeah.

Yeah, I’m feeling on that.

That’s certainly up there, and it’s more and more important as we scale, too, because there’s so many moving parts, and that helps condense it all and keep us on track.

I feel you.

Last one.

How do you define success?

Happiness, like time, flexibility, or like flexibility with my time, enjoyment of what I do.

So I’m definitely in a spot in my career where I enjoy what I do.

I don’t slave, you know, by any means.

Like I talked about in my 20s, working 10, 12-hour days.

I don’t work.

I barely work six-hour days anymore.

So like it’s very, very different, and a lot of that, it’s just been intentional because I don’t, you know, my goal isn’t to slave and work 40, 50 hours a week.

Like if I’m working 30, I’m grinding, you know?

Like that’s, but I’m also like work working with those 30 hours, so it’s not just playing around, yeah.

Intentional.

That for me, like time flexibility, you know, happiness, being able to do what I want when I want.

That’s why I got into, you know, running my own business and didn’t want to go work for like the big guys and just make a ton of money because I was like, I don’t want to just be that person that’s 50, 60 years old with a ton of money and hates their life and doesn’t have a connection with their family or a spouse or, you know, like their kids, like things like that.

Like I don’t, I see that so much in my industry with advisors because it is very, you can always, there’s always another level because we’re just talking about numbers and money.

So you can always manage more money, more clients, have more advisors.

You can grow it to like an infinite level, but at what cost?

And for me, I look at that like there’s, you know, levels that I’m at now and that I’m very close to where I’m like, is it, you know, like to me to work 50 hours a week for the next year to get there isn’t worth the quality of life that I’d give up by doing that because I’ve already given that up, you know, years ago in my 20s, and I did that intentionally.

So I didn’t have to do that at 33.

So, yeah.

Set yourself up.

And you’ve kind of already answered, you know, by the way, you won rapid fire.

Congratulations.

Winning is important.

Yeah.

Yeah, medal’s at the door.

Participation trophy.

No.

You have a plaque.

You had a plaque for the most valuable employee of the month.

Employee of the month.

He has my data.

He got that for me, actually.

Picture of me.

I said employee of the month.

I’m like, I’m the only employee.

Yeah.

I love that.

Just to kind of wrap things up, I wanted to talk about, you know, some general tips that, you know, you could leave people with.

Ways that people could avoid common pitfalls and mistakes, being aware of, you know, how they manage their finances, what’s like one or two nuggets that you can leave the listener with?

I think like some, I’ll just talk super basic stuff, is having money in like an emergency fund.

While it’s super boring, it also is like, you don’t want to invest money that you might need for your car getting fixed or whatever it is, because the last thing you want to do is then go into credit card debt if you do have an emergency, because that’s the vicious spiral, because you’re paying 20, 25% for interest on your credit card if you’re holding the balance.

So I think that that’s a simple one.

And then just being consistent with saving towards retirement, because it’s going to come up.

And I see it a lot with people that live just on Social Security, and that’s not the spot you want to be at in retirement, is living on Social Security income, because that was created to make sure that people weren’t in poverty in their retirement years.

But if you’re living just on Social Security, you’re basically poverty.

So yeah.

So that’s not the spot you want to be at.

So I think having three to six months of money just sitting in a savings account, and then having consistent amount that you’re putting away towards retirement, and that should be like a percentage of your income.

Minimally, 5%, if not 10% of your income should be going towards retirement.

So, my grandma had always said, growing up, she said, you save 20%, and 20%, and she’s like, that’s how I bought this house.

And it was like 20%, like, well, obviously, like 20% when you’re a kid doesn’t really seem like much because you make 100 bucks, it’s like 20 bucks.

Adults, for some reason, it’s like, what, like 20%, like, that’s so much.

And she said, well, you need to be saving for the future.

And you know, you need to have money.

And I think it’s too common for everybody to have that keeping up with the Jones mentality of like, oh, well, these people have this, or these people have that.

And it’s just like, well, you’re not them.

So and I think there’s too much of that, you know, status sort of stuff going on where people don’t just focus on themselves and what they need to do and taking care of themselves and their family.

So I would say, you know, emergency funds, having three to six months in there, you know, consistently saving five, 10% towards retirement, and then the other, you know, you should be saving 20 in total because the other 10% should be going towards easier emergency fund or what I refer to as like the middle bucket where it’s like a, you know, a taxable account that you’re that’s invested sort of for like those bigger things that come up over time.

So but yeah, those three things, I think, are probably the important little foundational things I could leave people with.

You taking notes out there, people, you know, if you don’t just rewind.

Yeah, that’s a good point.

Don’t need notes anymore.

Yeah, you can always listen back on this over and over again, because Dan’s voice and way of speaking is so soothing.

Well, honestly, we’re talking about finances and stuff.

Not quite that level, my goodness.

Appreciate that.

Listen to episode one and you’ll get a really good taste of Eric.

Good man.

Anyways, so I think that’s fantastic, and this whole conversation is extremely practical, and that’s the power of your outlook and your approach to finances.

I think that’s going to propel you continually into the future.

Is your accessibility, your personal touch on everything, the focus on the client and that person is huge.

I get the privilege of seeing you weekly.

So we can kind of stay on the bles with each other inherently.

That’s heartwarming.

It is.

I enjoy our time, and I continue to.

Hence, you’re here, and I really appreciate you.

I wanted to know, kind of the last thing is, where are you seeing yourself in five, ten years?

What are your future goals?

Are you going to scale up the firm?

Do you see yourself with people under you?

I mean, it’s something, actually, I’ve been debating over the last six months or so, is hiring people, and I’m just not quite at that point where I want to focus my time on training someone.

I want to get to the point where I’m not really, where I’m personally not bringing in new clients, but I’m bringing in new clients for another advisor, basically.

So I’m not at that point yet, but nearing that, and I think within the next couple years, I’ll be there.

So that’s really where the scaling happens.

But it all comes back to quality of life, the things that I do this for.

I don’t want to just create more work to create more work.

Totally.

It’s a lot of work managing other people.

So I have a good amount of time flexibility and other stuff.

So that’s one of the things that plays into it where I was like, well, I don’t want to be doing two things, working 50 hours a week again, and not enjoying running the business and working with clients and doing all the things that I like to do outside of the business.

And I know you’ve got your 20-year plan.

You saw yourself when you’re 23 where you’re going to be at in 33 and so on and so forth.

So that’s certainly not surprising.

And I know you’ll achieve those goals and exceed them, especially at the rate you’re going now and with your growth mindset, plus with friends all around us and our networking group and beyond.

And we’re also in a good circle that uplifts each other.

I think that’s so important because it can be lonely running your own business.

I think it’s important if you’re a business owner to get involved in business groups.

Chamber of Commerce is fine, but we’re in a referral networking group doing stuff like that.

You’re really getting involved and getting to know people.

And I think that there’s a lot of power in talking to other people that while they’re not in the same industry, they’re running a business and they’re in the same struggles or they’re in sales and they’re in the same, going through the same ups and downs of sales and marketing and all that sort of stuff.

So I think doing that for people out there is important.

And also aside from the referrals, because I think about our networking group and how much it’s helped me personally develop and as a CEO in my business mindset, learning from 20 other people week after week, where I go, oh, they’re crushing it.

Or I didn’t think about that in that perspective, like a painter, Filippo, and Serta Pro painters.

His insight to business in general is so valuable.

That week, if I don’t get a referral, it doesn’t matter, I got that insight, that’s gold.

And so there’s a lot more to it.

And also the community, like we’re talking about, to help make sure that we’re keeping each other company and in check and inspired and uplifted.

It’s so important.

So I really appreciate you bringing me into that.

So I wanted to make sure to thank you because you had invited me and I went and I was like, okay, I got to save up.

It’s just getting them in the realm.

People find their way in, the wrong people find their way out.

So I knew you’d benefit from it.

Yeah, certainly, so thanks for that, to leave anybody, especially you.

Someone might be listening and go, yeah, I don’t want to manage my finances.

I can’t.

I don’t have the know-how.

How can they get in touch with you?

How can you help them?

You tell them.

You ran their website.

clientfocusfinancial.com.

There you go.

That’s the spot.

You go there, fill out the form.

I’ll reach out to you and we can talk more about your personal finances, your investment goals, concerns, issues that you’re having going on.

So happy to help anybody out there listening.

Boom.

Yeah.

And I know from personal experience and the name of your firm that you will personally reach out and you’re going to take care of them.

It means a lot knowing that because money is an interesting thing and so serious.

And for me, I never thought about having someone invest money until you came into my life.

And I feel so comfortable having you do that part, managing our finances.

So thanks for everything.

And I look forward to the future.

Definitely appreciate you.

Appreciate you having me on there.

Yeah.