Afford Anything - Football and Hip-Hop's Financial Advisor Rob Wilson Talks About Managing Celebrity Money

Episode Date: April 4, 2016

#19: Financial Advisor to the stars, Rob Wilson, gives us the inside scoop on what kind of help celebrities and sports heroes need. What he tells us may surprise you! For more information, visit the show notes at https://affordanything.com/episode19 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Paula, what colors your underwear? Welcome to the Paula and Jay Money Show, a podcast about growing wealth and financial freedom. Your host Paula Pant is a world traveler who built financial freedom through real estate investing. She runs the website affordanything.com. Host Jay Money is a husband and father of two striving for financial freedom. He hates real estate but loves to blog for a living over at Budgets Are Sexy.com. Which one resonates with you? grab a beer and find out as you listen to the Paula and Jay Money Show.

Hey, Jay, are you interested in football and hip-hop? I am Paula, and I also love talking about celebrity millionaire money. Then you're going to love today's guest. Rob Wilson is a financial advisor to football players, hip-hop artists, all types of athletes and entertainers. He has coached people through how to handle incredible, sums of money, people who started with nothing. And now they're 18, 19, 20 years old, and they've got millions. And they don't even necessarily know how to write a check. He talks about how he helps people in that crazy situation deal with it.

Yeah. And what I like, too, is that even though he helps lots of celebrities and people with lots of money, he's really down to earth and cool and just a, just a chill dude. And he really tries to empower you anyone, regardless of your situation and how much money you have or don't have, like help get you to your goals. Absolutely. Which I love the best about them. So there are a lot of takeaways in this episode for normal people, people who have regular incomes with regular jobs. Yes, this is an episode about millionaire celebrities and it's got some juicy gossip and we hear a little bit about Taiga and a little bit about Bentley's and private jets. So we've got all that juicy stuff in here. But there are also really good takeaway lessons for

ordinary people who are trying to figure out how to manage their money. Just like us. Exactly. So let's get to this interview, but before we do, we want to take a moment to thank our sponsors, the people who make this show possible, a company called Digit. D-I-G-I-T. I stole your line, baby. Jay, you could totally be the next hip-hop artist, the next jingle artist. We've partnered with Digit. One of my favorite companies I've been using for a year. I love them. You pretty much just sign up to them. It's free to attach your checking account and their little algorithm every few days plucks away a few dollars and literally drops it into a savings account for you. So it's a really simple, easy way to save. It forces you to do it. It's automatic. You

don't have to do anything. You just sign up once. And they've been great to our show and we appreciate it. And it's just a cool partner to have. So you can sign up for free at themoneyshow.com slash digit. That's the money show.com.c.com slash D-I-G-I-T. Before we jump into the interview, I just wanted to let you all know that if you're interested in learning more about Rob Wilson, you can check him out at rob wilson.com. All right, that said, let's get to it. Mr. Rob Wilson. How are you, sir? How's it going, Rob? Awesome. Awesome. Couldn't be better. And you still hailing from Pittsburgh area?

You know, I actually spend more of my time in Philly now because that's where my fiance is. So I kind of bounce on both sides of the state. I've heard you refer to it to Sixburg, too. Is that like a championship kind of thing or is that like a nickname you all have? Definitely Sixburg. You know, we have six of those Lombardi trophies in a case at Heinz Field. And so we're very proud of that.

So you've got to remind people every now and then about the field. That's awesome. Thanks for taking time to chat about money and hip hop and football and all this good stuff. Of course, of course. I'm sure there's some people listening who are like, wait a minute, did you say money, football, and hip hop in the same sentence? Yeah. Okay, this is my kind of show. Why don't you just start by introducing yourself to the listeners?

Absolutely. So I'm Rob Wilson. I'm born and raised in Pittsburgh. I'm a financial advisor. I work with a number of professional athletes and entertainers. I've been fortunate enough to work with NFL players that have signed. more than a half a billion dollars in NFL contracts. I've worked with Grammy-nominated producers and artists and actors on some of the largest shows in the country. So I've just been very,

very fortunate to work with some amazing people. And I really want to do what I can while I'm here to help people really understand how to become wealthy and have their finances, allow them to have the type of life that they want to live. So tell us, I'm just going to jump right into the juicy bits of it. I'm going to skip right over the non-juicy parts. What is some of the stuff that athletes and

entertainers, what's some of the crazy stuff that you've seen them do or want to do with their money? Oh my goodness. There is a never-ending list of stories there, but most of it has to do with jewelry and cars, and there might even be a strip club or two.

You know, thrown in there. You wouldn't imagine the calls that I would get at, you know, two or three o'clock in the morning when all of a sudden their debit or credit card wasn't working and they need to figure out how to pay at the strip club. I've absolutely had to deal with those calls. But mostly I think it's like, look, when you see all of these articles about athletes, entertainers going broke, it's not necessarily because they just don't have the education, right? Because look, now the information is there if they wanted it. But what I've found in my 10 years in this business is that it really comes down to self-esteem. And so if your

self-esteem says, I need to have these things so I can show everybody how successful I am. And look, I get it. A lot of these guys came from nothing. And they would have teachers who told them they weren't going to amount to anything in life. And so to some degree, you want to show them, look, look how far I've come. Look what I have. I'll show you. But the problem is, most of those people don't really care at the end of the day. And you having a nice car doesn't really do anything for them. They're going to see you in your car for 30 seconds and that's it. So if your self-esteem says you have to show off, then that's how you're going to spend your money. You're going to buy jewelry and cars and you're going to be going and hanging out and taking all your friends out to dinner. But if your

self-esteem says, no, that doesn't matter. What I'm more worried about is taking care of my family, leaving a legacy for my kids and my grandkids and impacting my community, then you're going to spend your money in a much different way. So it's not like when I start working with someone that I immediately jump into Roth IRAs and life insurance and annuities and all of these sorts of things because I would sound like Charlie Brown's teacher if I did that. And that's the way I started it. We have to really start to talk about what drives you, what means something to you, because ultimately it's your motion and those sorts of things that are going to drive what you do with your money. Yeah, and I would imagine a lot of these folks take a while to get to that point.

They might take a while to figure out they need to talk to a financial guy to begin with. So they might have like a couple of years of doing stupid stuff until someone nudges them or they somehow get your info. And so hopefully you can get them on the right track. But I would imagine a lot of these kids have to get it out of their system in the beginning before they can kind of settle down. Is that what you see? I do. I do. And so the interesting thing here is that they kind of know that they,

need to have someone. So they figure that they need an agent. And, you know, it's sort of standard practice that they have a financial guy. What they have to learn is they know they need to have one. It takes a while for them to learn that they actually need to listen to their financial person. That is the difference. And so what I found is it's somewhat of a much better market for me to go after a guy that's been in the league for two or three years, maybe is fortunate enough to be coming upon his second contract. And has probably, done some not so good things with his money, but at that point, he gets it and he realizes he has a second chance now because he's going to get another contract. That's been a good person

for me to work for after they've gotten some of the shenanigans out of the way. Right. Just to be clear, like, I know you, like, you've guest posted on my blog before we've been friends for a few years, and I know like you're not trying to tell people, hey, don't go buy something nice for yourself or celebrate. Like, you're all about celebration and having fun responsibly. Just don't like go freaking all over the place and blow your money everywhere with nothing to show, right? And even Paula, you're that way too, to degree. I would never tell someone you don't have fun and enjoy your money. I mean, listen, we all work hard. We put our blood, sweat, and tears into the things that we're trying to accomplish in life. And part of it is enjoying yourself. And so that's necessary. But just

like everything else in life, you got to have a little bit of moderation. Right. Let me ask you, I know the story came out a while ago, but Kanye's $53 million. in debt. Oh, wow. That's all I need to say. Just go. You know, Kanye is a character in and of himself. I find it hard.

I don't even know whether to really believe that number, honestly. I think he may have just been trying to communicate that he has put his resources, his own resources into the things that he's trying to accomplish and hasn't necessarily had the backing of other individuals. So I think maybe that's my takeaway. And I would probably agree that with his fashion line and all of these other things he's trying to do, he may have had to do those things on his own. But is the guy 53 million?

I don't know if I can put, you know, how much stock I can put into that exact number. What I thought was interesting about it was that he said it was 53 million in personal debt. So I don't know how to read that. Like, does that mean it's business-related debt that he's personally backed? Or does that mean it's consumer spending? Like, that's the part that I don't understand. It's inconceivable because if you're in debt, that that would imply that somebody lent you the money. Again, when you're at that level and you have resources, there are things that you can do that average people don't.

Did some bank, did Goldman Sachs lend him $50 million to start this clothing line and so on and so forth? I doubt it. Now, he may be indebted to some suppliers and so forth who maybe let him buy some material and buy some things on credit that, you know, maybe those chickens are coming home to roost right now. But listen, it's just a very bizarre situation, as is all things, Kanye, at this point. So I don't know if there's a message there that we can really pull out. If he wants to throw some records out there, some tax returns like the presidential candidates, then maybe we can see what's really going on.

But if Kanye West picked up the phone and called you, you talked to him? Of course. Yeah, of course I would. Yes. Kanye, if you're out there, I'll ask you boy. That's right. And let's backtrack a little bit too because you don't, from my understanding, you don't come from like, you know, like born into, you know, all this money and connections. Like you hustled your way up, right, over time and got into this whole, I mean, like dealing with like,

as a financial like coach or advisor, like anything you're doing with money, like I feel like celebrities and people with a lot of it for you to manage is a pretty, you know, hefty goal to pull off. And most people don't pull it off, you know. So how did you get from? your interest in this and work your way up to be able to manage accounts up to this level. It's interesting because my undergraduate degree is actually in engineering. And so I studied engineering at University of Pittsburgh. I went to work for Deloitte Consulting for a few years because that's what you do if you want to seem successful after you have your engineering degree. And I always thought that I would work my way up to partner, but I thought that I couldn't just be the techie guy forever.

So I decided to go back to business school. I got my MBA at Carnegie Mellon. And a funny thing happened while I was there. I really, I wanted to do something more entrepreneurial. I didn't like this corporate system where I had to wait on somebody else to tell me, oh, we think you're ready to be promoted now. We think we'll pay you some more money now. I didn't like that.

And so got to business school. I wanted to do something more entrepreneurial. I decided to get into the financial industry. I interned for someone at Merrill Lynch who happened to be working with athletes. And I said, you know what? I think I can do this. And also what was attractive about it to me, is that those individuals were readily identifiable to me.

I didn't have a rich uncle who I could say, hey, I'm in the financial industry now. Can you shoot me over $5 million? I didn't have those types of relationships. But with young athletes, I knew who they were. It's not necessarily the easiest thing to get to them, but at least I knew who they were and I could try to figure it out.

And there was a process. There's a college season, there's a draft, and then they go pro. So I figured that there was a process I could figure out. I started my financial career at Smith Barney, had absolutely zero idea how I was going to get into that business. And so I started out cold calling, you know, old ladies and retirees and, you know, trying to get them to roll their 401k over to me. But I always knew what I wanted to do. And so just little by little, I started to use my network.

I was fortunate that I had a friend from high school who played in NFL. So I called him and asked him every question that I could possibly think of. And then my nephew played basketball, D1 basketball, Duquesne. And so I levered some of those relationships. And it was really just a step-by-step process. I will say one thing that absolutely accelerated this for me. I got a few athletes on my own, but there was a gentleman in my office that was already doing this business in a big way. My managing director in the office suggested that we partner up. And this was a critical juncture in my career, because if I wasn't the type of person that he felt like he could work with or that could bring something to the table, we absolutely wouldn't have partnered up, but we ended up working together. We started our own firm in January of 2009, right in the middle of the financial crisis. We worked together for five years, and then I decided to go completely independent in January of 14. But I think the message that I want to send here is that it wasn't something that happened overnight. I didn't have these relationships already baked in. It was just hustling and going out there. And here's

the biggest thing that I want to say. When I decided that I was no longer going to be embarrassed about telling people what it is that I wanted to do. Because there was no shortage of people who said, well, you're in Pittsburgh. I mean, how are you going to work with pro athletes and entertainers? You need to be in Los Angeles or New York or Miami or Atlanta. You need to be in these other places. There were no shortage of people who were telling me that I could not do it. But once I got over that and I figured I was not going to be embarrassed and I was going to

be unapologetic about what it is that I wanted to accomplish. and I started to tell everybody that I knew, things really started to accelerate for me because you have absolutely no idea who can help you in your network, but no one can help you if you don't tell them what you're trying to accomplish. So I think that's the biggest takeaway with me for how I've been able to get this far at this point. Bam. I love it, dude.

Yeah, it's always a no until you ask, right? And maybe the odds are still a no, but at least there's that shot in hell that you get the yes or you get connected. And that's what I find too, like having that big goal, at least for me, I struggle a lot of times to try and figure out what my goal is. So then I go like all over the place and I kind of like sniff around here and there. But once you figure out what it is, you can kind of backtrack and do the little steps to get you there. Well, Les Brown says people who fail at things or who aren't successful as they want to be. It's not because they aim too high and miss.

It's because they aim too low and hit. And I heard him speak years and years ago, and that's something that has absolutely just stayed with me. If you don't embrace what it is that's your possibility in which you could, what you're trying to shoot for, nobody else is going to do that because guess what? They're too busy trying to achieve what they want to achieve. So until you do it, it's really hard to become as successful as you want to be. So, and that goes back to self-esteem, too. You know, the aiming too low and missing is reflective of kind of that lower self-esteem.

And actually, that was a question that I wanted to ask you when you first started talking about self-esteem. How is it? Like, tell me about what you observe when you're working with people who have had the self-esteem to set very ambitious career goals and they've hit it. But then they also have self-esteem problems that translate into mithandling their money. Wow. That is a really insightful question because here's the thing that I've noticed about pro athletes is the thing that makes them great in their profession, in their skill, and their sport absolutely murders them in every other area of their life, right? Because if you're going to be a top athlete and you're

going to play at that level, you have to say, I'm the best, I'm great, I'm better than everyone else. Whatever happened to that guy doesn't matter because I'm different. And you have to have that mentality if you're going to play on that level. However, when you have that same mentality in your personal finances, when you have that sort of mentality in your personal relationships, when you have it in your business dealings, it absolutely kills you. And so they have a difficulty with separating the two and saying, yes, I've got this bravado and things that I need to perform well on the field, but you have to have some humility in your personal relationships, business, personal finances. And it's difficult. It's particularly difficult for a young person to do that.

Yeah, I live in Las Vegas, and I hear that all the time when it comes to athletes in the casinos. One thing that commonly happens here is because they have a very competitive nature. If their buddies are outspending them at the blackjack table, they want to keep up because it's competition. Or if the house is beating them, they want to win. Absolute worst place for a young athlete with resources to end up is in a casino. Terrible, terrible place. Because you're right. It's kind of like they're on the field and they feel the need to win.

And you're just, but you can't win that game. It's rigged against you. And so I try to, you know, if they're going to go out there, give them a certain amount and say, hey, when you're done, walk away. You know, go have fun. You know, it can be fun playing games. You know, every now and then when I go to a vacation, I'll hang out to casino for a little bit. But when it's done, it's done.

Let's go to the restaurant. The worst thing about casinos too is if when you win, right, when you sit down and you're like, I'm the man, I'm going to win. And then you, like, sit there for hours and it slowly goes away, right? Because you can't walk away. If you're, like, hanging out in Vegas and you sit down and win your first hand big, like, you're like, nope, I'm done. I'm out of here, right? Like, you're having fun. Yeah, that's difficult to do. No, I don't think anyone in the history of going to casinos has ever done that. I think, too, with athletes and stuff, you know, and as you know, I'm a Washington Redskin super fan. And lately, like, the news, you know, at least when the

Super Bowl and before that was coming out. There's all these athletes like, hey, like, I believe in like financial, like, you know, being smart and I drive a beat down car, you know, and I've never spent a money, a check from the league. I've invested it all, right? And you get all these people that I think the media, which I'm glad for once, is kind of propelling it because it's like so juicy that you can make millions of dollars on the field, but you're not spending it and you're banking it. Guys like Rob Kronkowski lives off of his ad deals and all that kind of stuff. just never spent a penny of millions of millions and dollars is fascinating. And I'm glad people are picking that up.

Yeah, I thought that article in Washington Riskins was amazing because it talks about how some of them room together and they've, you know, lived in sort of small townhouses and even some of the guys who are very well paid. Because look, at the end of the day, who cares? I mean, do we admire and, you know, have great reverence for some of our famous athletes because of the car that they drove, you know, the suit that they wore to the draft? No, because no one remembers any of that. You know, we remember how they played on the field, you know, how they made us feel and how they motivated us and inspired us. That's what's important. Nobody

cares at the end of the day. That's your tie was, you know, cost $2,000. And no one really cares about that at the end of the day. A normal people. I couldn't tell you if he showed me two ties, which one was expensive and not anyways. Like the average person has no idea. No way. And because there's no reason that those garments should cost that much other than they just told you that that's what it costs. So, you know, we are in a consumer society, right? And so we're just bombarded with all of these messages about, well, if you buy this and just because it costs more than, you know, you're a better person and you're winning at life. And so it's difficult to deprogram folks from those

messages when you just see that every day on the television day in and day out. Right. And how do you prevent, like, because you always hear stories too where like obviously like when you win the lottery or you sign into the draft, you get millions of dollars that all of a sudden people show up out of everywhere to either ask for it or to invest in some super awesome new thing, right? Because they know you have money. How do you protect them more from those types of things, you know? And I know it depends on where they are in their career and when you get them. But can you talk a little bit about that? Yeah, I relish the role of playing the bad guy, you know, and I will take that burden, you know, for my clients because it gets difficult for them to say no to mom or to uncle or to cousin or

to friend who, you know, they've known for 15 years since they were little kids. That gets difficult. But what I tell them that if, you know, somebody has a business idea that they want to pitch to you, tell them I don't deal with that. Go talk to my financial advisor. send him the business plan. And as soon as you asked them for a business plan, 90% of those people drop away because there is no business. Hell yeah. They just want you to write them a check. So I try to be the middleman, the go between the firewall so that they can say, look, I'd love to hear about that, talk to my financial advisor about it, and we'll get back to you. And a lot of times I can filter a lot of the garbage away before it even gets to them. So your role, and I imagine it's

different, but there's all different kinds of financial helpers, right? Like there's money coach which deals with budgeting and getting out of debt early on. And then you know, you escalate to like maybe a financial advisor that helps you get your investments going, right? And then there's also this thing that I've learned recently because someone was asking me. They said, hey, Jay, can you pay my bills for me and just do it all for me? I just don't want to deal with it. There's this thing called like daily money managers.

And usually from what I've heard, it's like if you're an older person that can't manage it anymore, you can hire someone to do this for you. And then the other side of the spectrum is super like wealthy. the businessmen or maybe even athletes or they don't even have time and they shouldn't be focusing on that. They should hire someone to do it for them. So it sounds to me that your role, you'll be the barrier for a lot of this stuff, but you'll help them with their finances and get the plans straight and investments.

But do you also pay the bills and do you kind of manage it all for them if they want that? Or is that good or bad? Yeah. For most of the guys, you know, I handle the bill pay sort of things. And then that starts to extend into travel. and then, you know, when they want to get a mortgage, then we're talking about that. So here's the thing that I found it, and you know, particularly when you're talking about the really young guys, the rookies. If you don't get in there and start to help them with their bill pay and all of these other sorts of things,

you can't even get to the point where you're going to be able to manage the investments because the things will be gone. They're just, they get so inefficient with understanding how travel works. And, you know, if you can't just, you know, show up at the airport, and go buy a ticket because it's going to be $2,000 on the day of. You know, you need to do it a little bit advance. If you cancel, there's all these kind of fees. So you have to really teach them a lot of how these things work. Some of these guys have never even flown before.

Some of my guys have been 19 or 20 years old and have never written a check before in their life. And then all of a sudden, they have a $2 million signing bonus in their bank account. You have to help them understand, okay, what types of accounts, you know, do I need? where should these accounts be? What is a brokerage account? How do I invest? You have to really educate and set up that structure right in the beginning, and that includes bill pay and all this other stuff

before you can even think about getting to investment. How long does this take? How much time do you spend with each client? A lot. We end up being on the phone a lot. So probably other than their agent. And really, honestly, once the contract's done, I'm probably one of the people that

they talk to the most because if they allow you to have some of the control and I use that in a light way. I mean, I don't want, you know, guys should never sign power of attorneys or anything like that with any financial advisor because that's where you really get in trouble. But to some degree, they will, they will trust you to sort of help manage their budget. So like the big pot of money is kept in one account and then maybe you have on a budget with their sort of weekly and daily expenses. And if they need more money, then they kind of have to call you. And that's a way that you can sort of slow down the burn. Yeah, a little bit.

Babysit their money a little. Yeah, exactly, exactly. So it's still all theirs. They're in control, but, you know, they may give you some authority over that. So if that's the setup, then we end up talking a lot because, you know, they always need a little bit more money than it was allocated to them. So it takes a lot of time. It does take some patience because there's an education component there where you have

to realize that, look, they don't have experience and all. kind of stuff, and you don't want to make them feel silly. You want them to know that, look, you can ask me any question. There's no silly question whatsoever. I don't want to just, there are a lot of guys who aren't scrupulous in this business as far as financial advisors. What they tell the athletes is they go, oh, you just go focus on what's going on on the field and I'll take care of the rest of it.

And that's when these guys really get in trouble. So I want them to ask every question that they could possibly ask so that they become more knowledgeable because ultimately if they are, more knowledgeable about their finances, I think they'll appreciate what I do for them even more. Right. Right. When I would imagine, too, once they're off the field, they get hurt, they retire, their contract ends, whatever the case, all of that publicity goes away.

Your agents are gone. The hype's gone. The deals are gone. And you're probably one of the last people provided they still have money and you guys are helping them out, right? Like you're the last person standing on their side that actually cares. I'm the last man standing because, you know, what's your agent going to do for you when you're not playing anymore? He's got to go and recruit more players.

But, yeah, I'm the one that when they retire and they need to figure out what's next that they sort of come to and ask for advice because it might be a business, there may be career advice that they need. But what I try to do is, since I'm working with them throughout the whole way, is to make sure that they maximize their opportunity while they're playing. because I don't care if you're the quarterback or if you're the 53rd guy on the roster, if you put a uniform on every Sunday, people in that city are going to talk to you. And so there's a giant missed opportunity where players don't meet the individuals who own the suites in the stadium, because most of times those are the wealthy folks. They don't go meet season ticket holders. They don't go meet the politicians in the city or other influential folks that they need to meet.

So these are the things that I try to walk them through and teach them how to do because you have to maximize that opportunity because you're going to be in your 30s when you're done playing and there has to be something left. Some of the guys are going to be Peyton Manning and they're good for life based on what they've done in the league. Most people aren't. What they're going to have is a great start on the rest of their life. And so you really have to figure out how you're going to maximize that opportunity. So when you're actually playing or you're like at your peak and everyone will listen to you, You want them to go and hustle and meet and do all the stuff that other players pretty much aren't because they're all partying or training or whatever. So you actually tell them, hey, expand your network.

And if down the line you want to be interested in like a franchise of a restaurant or real estate, start making those connections while you're hot. So when you're not, you've already have something to work with and you've got like your network, yeah? Absolutely, because they're going to pick up your call. You want to go meet the bankers before, you know, you need them, right? You want to go meet the business people. You want to go intern somewhere for a few weeks in the off season, you know, while you've got a little bit of downtime, your body's recovering.

Go learn something about business. A lot of these guys want to retire and then go get into business and have never held a real job in their life. So how are you going to run a business and manage employees and you've never actually worked in a... And, you know, I don't want to say like, you know, football is not a business, but you know what I mean, sort of a non-sports-related business. And so go get some experience in something else.

Go try some things out, figure out what you like and what you don't like, so that it's not like the day after the season of your last year in the league. You're saying now what? Right. So, and this is just sports related, right, which has a shorter self-life. And you say you do some with actors. I think you said musicians. Does all this change?

I mean, I know it changes in the way that they can be in the game for a longer time, if not forever if they wanted to depending on you know everything how good they are but as far as like the financial parts of it big money is big money and regardless of where you are it's all roughly the same just depends on your goals and and the things yeah yeah the fundamentals are really the same because even if you're an artist you don't know if your next record's going to be a hit record you know right if you're an artist you don't know if your next movie is going to be big or your your next show and and those things are are very fickle i mean you can you can literally be on top one day and the next day you're forgotten about.

And so it is important to say, okay, I've achieved at least at this level. Now, how am I going to make the most of what I have? If we get more, that's going to be fantastic. But let's take what we have and let's do the best we can with it. And so what do you encourage artists to do? Do you encourage them like you do with athletes to go network with other influencers? Or do you encourage them to go deeper into their profession so that they can increase longevity? How do you talk to them about the business and opportunity maximization aspects of what's

front of them. Yeah, a lot of times with the artists, you know, I try to encourage them to think about what their alternative revenue streams are going to be. So it's great to go audition and then you got on a nice show. How do you monetize that? What other opportunities are there? I heard one of the reality stars say there's no point in being on television if you don't have something to sell, particularly reality TV because you can kind of do that. If you're playing a role, you don't necessarily have the opportunity to sell something. But you can, you can, you your notoriety and those sorts of things and social media following all that sort of stuff to monetize. So how are you going to do that? Are you going to come out with your own t-shirt

or product line or something like that? I used to work with Tyga and, you know, he has a big clothing line called Last Kings, which is like, okay, this is going to be an alternative revenue stream for me other than just music and shows and concerts. And that actually has grown to be a big revenue source for him. And so it's, it's always like, okay, let's not, be 100%. Let's not put all of our eggs in one basket. Let's use what you have. Let's use the spotlight to figure out other ways to make money. Hey, if you ever get anyone that wants to get into social media and blogging and podcasting, well, we'll partner up with you and help them out, all right? And you know what? It's interesting that you say that because I really think that right now,

there has never in the history of this planet been a better time for folks. to create a business around either their own knowledge and expertise or around their celebrity. It's just this generation has given us the rise of the Kardashians, right? And so everyone can sort of be their own Kardashian light in their marketer, in their niche, or what have you. And so if you want to show, a lot of these guys want to be commentators and so forth after the game, you don't have to wait for permission from ESPN or any other network to say, oh, okay, we think you're good enough to be a commentator now. You can literally go directly to your fans and monetize that fan base.

And what an amazing opportunity that is. And I haven't necessarily seen a lot of players take that route. And so maybe that's something we need to put in front of it to get interested about. Well, the crazy thing is, if you did that and you got the audience, ESPN is a lot more likely to listen to you because you're like, dude, I'm doing it on my own. I've already got $5 million. Imagine if we amplify it going to ESPN. I mean, that's brilliant. And even if you're not a celebrity and you just want to do this stuff.

on the side anyways. I mean, there's tons of new YouTube stars and bloggers and podcasters and all that good stuff. So you're absolutely right, man. Oh, there's folks on YouTube who have followings and views on their videos that outdo a lot of popular network television shows. And so they need to be paying attention to that. Yeah. Is it weird or does it help you, like your own personal finances, right? I would imagine, I know you're successful, but I would imagine a lot of these people bringing millions make more than you. Okay. Of course. So does that get weird or does that motivate you to make more? Like, how does it affect your personal finances when you're dealing with all this stuff?

You know, there's some sort of motivation there, you know, because sometimes you may say, oh, you know, this person has an opportunity to do some nice things and, you know, you want to be able to do those things on your own. But, you know, it hasn't gotten weird at all. There's no sort of envy, you know, type of situation there. Because honestly, I've been able to. do some amazing things, just sort of being associated, you know, with these individuals. So, you know, I've taken private jet flights and, you know, been on private boats and, and so on and so

forth. And honestly, you know, from the outside looking in and you see people posting these pictures on private planes and you're like, oh, that's, that's awesome and all that kind of stuff. And it's cool, but, you know, do you need to own a private plane? No, you really don't. So it's kind of cool, you know, to have the experience or right around in a Bentley for a while and that's cool. But I mean, do you need to have a Bentley? Because look, if you own that Bentley, the maintenance on that thing is outrageous. Wait until you have to repair something on that and see how you're happy about that that kind of bill. So I'm proud that I've had the opportunity for these individuals to trust me with this really significant role in their lives. And it is somewhat of a motivator because

I'm like, okay, maybe I don't just always want to work for all of the super wealthy people. Maybe I, you know, I want to be one of those folks myself. And so how can I, you know, build my own platform in order to do something like that? But for the most part, I'm just proud to be able to, you know, help them achieve and take care of their families. Yeah. Have any of them asked you to partner up on a project or to invest in a project or is there like a conflict of interest or do you just not recommend that as an advisor?

Is it a great area there? or have you done it? Yeah, I have sort of done it now. So, you know, I have one of my clients who retired and has decided to get into the franchise business. And so he's opening up a number of wing stop restaurants. And so, you know, I've partnered up with him in that way. I'm sort of serving his outsourced CFO in that role. And so I have, you know, I have an interest. I'm not technically an owner of the business, but, you know, I have an interest in the business doing well. Okay. That is a gray area.

You know, if I was on the outside looking in, I would probably not suggest that to most folks. But this particular guy, I mean, we've been working together for a long time and we've built up our own friendship and relationships sort of away from the advisor client, you know, sort of situation. But if another player came to me and just said, hey, I want you to take a look at my situation from the outside looking in, I would probably say that that's not necessarily something that you want to do. Right.

When you first start out in the business, I mean, I was, licensed and all of these things and I couldn't do it. I was I was I could not do it because of that structure. Okay. Now what I've done with my business is that well let me give you a little bit of background of why I decided to drop my licenses but you know when I started at Smith Barney you know it was great and they trained me well and I learned a lot while I was there but I worked to Smith Barney for four years and there was not one time when my manager came and said hey Rob let's talk about the performance on your clients accounts. What?

Not one. Now what they did come in and say was, hey, Rob, how much in assets did you bring in last month? And oh, by the way, what were the fees that you were able to charge on those? Wow. Neither one of those two things are in the best interest of the client. And, you know, this is not to disparage Smith Barney. I mean, that's the financial industry for you. I mean, when you are, here's the thing, when you have financial advisor on your business card,

I was a licensed broker, okay? So they caught me an advisor, but I was a business. broker and if you know anything about the laws, you don't have a fiduciary responsibility to your client. The only thing that you need to make sure is that the investments are suitable, meaning you're not going to take a 69-year-old grandmother and put her, you know, try to get her in the Twitter IPO. Right. Wow. So the investments have to be suitable. You do have that duty, but you don't have a fiduciary responsibility to your, to your customer. And so that's just how it works. When I left and started a business with my partner, we became registered investment advisors,

which gets you a little closer. You do have a fiduciary responsibility, but it's still sort of product pushing, and really the relationship is built around the investments. I decided that I got into this business to be an advisor, not a product pusher. I wanted people to know that when they're coming to me, that there's no ulterior motive. There's nothing that I'm trying to push down their throat. They can just get the most unbiased advice that they're going to get anywhere. And so I decided to drop all of my licenses and just be a fee-only financial advisor.

Good for you. Yeah. And is that what you recommend? Like, that's what I've been trying to recommend too. But the whole advising stuff, you always hear these horror stories and goods and bads. But like for an average listener, like all our listeners, right, presumably don't have millions of dollars from being a star. And if they want to talk to an advisor, what's the type of advisor that you recommend for folks like that? I would suggest that they also go get a fee-only advisor because, listen, I liken it to this.

If you walk in and you go into the BMW dealership, okay, you're looking for a car. The guy or the girl and salesperson may be totally nice person, but are they going to tell you that what you really need to do is go to the Hyundai dealership because basically they're all the same? Right. They're not going to tell you that. So I would suggest that, yes, people go get a fee-only advisor because you know that they're not trying to push a life insurance policy.

They're not trying to push an annuity down your throat. They're not trying to push some structured product that the mutual fund guy came in the office and bought everybody pizza so that they would sell this product. You want somebody that can just tell you objectively what you should be doing because you can go do that on your own. If they say you should be allocated this way, go open up an account at Schwab and allocate yourself that way. If you need a life insurance policy, you can go do that. If you need an annuity, you can do that as well. But you want to know that the advice that you're giving you is really because they think that's the best thing for you. Yeah, yeah. And to people listening to, there's a group that specializes in, you know, the younger generation. They're called the XY planning network and they're all fee only. And they're a good group of people. You know, so you can check them out online. Or we'll link to it in our show notes if you guys are interested.

Which is the money show.com. Good job, Paul. P. Had to slide that in there. Yeah. So, Rob, and what I know about you too, like you want to be successful. You're a hustler. But I know that like, you know, we've talked about your charity, kind of. kind of related stuff, especially with the younger generation. Can you talk a little bit about that? And I don't know if you're still doing, you did a project a few years ago, like trying to teach people. There's other ways to be successful and make money than just playing sports. Yeah. So what I realized when I would go and speak to kids is that, you know, the moment I told him I work with athletes and entertainers and they would just get fixated on that, you know, what kind of cars you drive? What kind of house, you know, what's that look like and so on and so forth?

And the thing, particularly with inner city sort of minority kids, the thing I didn't like about that is that they tend to feel like that's their only option out because, you know, they're inundated with MTV, BT, VH1, ESPN. And so it's just like, oh, you know, if I want to live this type of life, I need to rap, act, sing, dance, or do something with a ball. And I really wanted them to realize that, look, I don't do any of those things, but I've been able to make a nice life for myself. but there are so many options available to you. But when they don't grow up and they don't necessarily have people in their family that, you know, we're doctors or lawyers, you start to think that those things aren't even available to you. So I created this project called The Best Kept Secret where I would take some kids out of school for a day. I'd take them around the city and get them right in front of people who they may never have had a chance to meet before,

but who have been successful outside of sports and entertainment. So I did a couple of rounds of that. and we shot some great video with that. And now I'm sort of working with the team of folks to try to figure out how we take that to the next level, whether we do a fully-length documentary, whether we pitched this as a sort of 30-minute show that's kind of like MTV Cribs,

but not with athletes and entertainers. So I'm actively trying to figure out how to take it to the next level so that we can impact and educate much more young people. That's awesome. And for people listening to, like going back to early, like falling into a lot of money, right? Like, actually, I read this article recently about Dante Stalworth. And he's saying that when he, like, the biggest check he ever got was like

$300. And then one day he got a check for like a million dollars. And he didn't even know if it was real. I didn't know if you could just like go to the bank and cash it, right? Because you're not used to it. I mean, it's like a fake check, right? Yeah. Yeah. But publishers clearinghouse. Yeah. But to people that do fall into, let's just say a million dollars, right? Like anyone listening or we win the lottery. What are, what are some tips to? you know, like what's the best way to manage it or think about it or what would you do? Like if I, like, you know, a 30-something year old just came with a million dollars, what would you suggest to me? This is a great question because this happens to everyday people all the time. As a matter of fact,

I do have a client that won a lottery. I have a client that won the mega millions jackpot in 2006, which was crazy and, you know, kind of really changed the trajectory of my career to have that type of person as a client. But you also have folks who, you know, may for one reason or another win a lawsuit or get a medical settlement or something like that. And so you have folks who come into sudden money. The biggest thing that I say is, look, take a breath. It can get exciting. Your heart starts pumping, you know, especially when you get the check in your hand. But you do not want to go run out and do something rash with that money. You want to make sure that you take a breath, maybe act like you don't have it for a little bit. But then, you know, really think about what you want the money to do for

you and what your goals are, you know, because it's, it's not just, oh, let me go buy a car because I can, but ask yourself why, for what? Who is it that you're going to try to impress with this? In 10 years from now, what do you want to say that the money did for you? And those are more important questions to ask than, you know, where's the closest Ben's dealership? And so I think you want to take some time, take a breather, you know, deposit the check into your account, maybe look at it for a few days, but then go get some advice from an attorney and a financial advisor that you trust and put your plan in place before you start spending. I like it, man. So attorney, financial advisor. I'm just taking notes for when I win the lottery.

Yeah, I mean, is there something that you have to tell me here? Jay, you play the lottery? Yeah. I used to play all the time like a couple of times a week, not recently. I'm actually a fan of it for entertainment purposes, not like to go play to actually win, you know, like I have no, you know, I never believe I'm going to win. But, for me to waste a couple dollars for the fun chance. You know, I don't mind doing that. Well, I, you know, after I got a client that won the lottery, I started wondering, have I used up all of my luck now since that I got a client, but maybe I used up my luck of winning.

But look, you know, especially when the jackpot got up to close to a billion dollars. I mean, you know, you got to throw a dollar to it at it and see what happens, right? Yeah, especially the co-working one where everyone around you's doing it. you know like if they all what it's just like that feeling of you do not want to be no you do not want to be the one that's left out of that and i've always wondered if they all quit then what happens to that company you know like your whole team because the managers the managers above they all play in it they all just leave and everything grumbles yeah yeah yeah or maybe they just buy the company at that that would be cool too oh man well dude this is this has been good i'm racking my brain to try

and eke out some more info before we leave here. What do you got, Paul, you got anything juicy left in you? I guess the main question that I'd ask is, Rob, if there's one kind of key takeaway that you want the listeners of this show to have, one message that you really want to send out there to, and bearing in mind that most of the people who listen to this show are not all-star athletes or entertainers, what would you say to them? Well, you know what?

And this will take us full circle because it kind of goes back to what we talked about at the beginning. But, you know, I've learned a lot of things from working with these individuals that I think applies to all of us. And, yeah, we may all not sign $30 million contracts, but in some way the principles can help us. This is one thing that I've learned. A lot of people feel like they haven't achieved what they want to achieve, and they call it procrastination, right? And they're like, oh, no, I want to do this, but they're sort of waiting for the right time. And wait can mean procrastination, but wait in my world.

and what I think it means is because people ask themselves, who am I to? That's the acronym that I feel like weight stands for. And so when people don't do things that they know they really want to do, it's mostly because they're asking themselves, who am I too? And this is what I learned from athletes, because if they're going to play at that level, they don't ask themselves that. They don't go, who am I to go win, you know, three championships in a row, or who am I to lead the league in rushing? They don't ask themselves that. And so, when, We let that voice in the back of our mind say, who am I to have a popular blog with all of these readers and have people listening to me for my advice? If we can stop asking ourselves that, and look, it may not ever totally go away, but you have to try to push through it and say you deserve it just as much as the next person does, that's when you really start to see things take off for you.

Now, when I started in the financial industry, I, you know, I really looked up and say, okay, who are the people that I would be shooting for? And it was sort of like Dave Ramsey and Susie Orman. If you talk really, really at the top and, you know, where do people go for financial advice? And so I sat there one night looking at the Susie Ormond show because I was waiting to see like, what is the super amazing insight that's going to come out of this show that? That I'm like, oh, okay, I got to work towards that. And I sat there and I watched this show and we got to. the end, I realized the only difference between Susie and me is that she was on television and I wasn't.

When I stopped asking myself, who am I to? You know, who am I to work with a professional athlete and plight on a private jet and all those kind of things and realize I deserve it just like anybody else? That enabled me to go at it with full force. And so that's what I would suggest that your audience do is realize that if you're in the audience. You deserve it just as much as the next person. Go after it as hard as you can. I like that. Good question. Good answer, my friend. Thank you. I practiced that, by the way. Well, you know, it's funny with Susie Ormond, too. I don't know how long people have been in the

financial space, but a few years back, like she, remember when she came out with some credit card or debit card that was like 20-something percent interest? Do you remember that? It was prepaid debit card, which had all of these ridiculous fees. Yeah. Yeah, and so she got absolutely just massacred. Destroyed. On social media, so a lot of bloggers were talking about it, right? Because that's what we do. We are all like, you know, bashing her or whatever.

But then she made the mistake of coming on to Twitter and bashing people. Like she'd say, oh, you're such an idiot. You're just a blogger. And she, like, pissed off so many people. And so that's what I think about every time. I love, I think she's awesome at what she does. But now that stupid thing is in my head every time I hear her name, like, oh, she hates bloggers.

Well, in particular, she went on Twitter and went after one particular blogger who is very respected in the financial blogging community. Yeah, I think it was PT money, right? Yeah, it was. The founder of Finn Khan and yeah. Yeah, yeah. You don't necessarily want to do that, especially when, you know, social media is blowing up. That's where everybody is. And that's, you know, honestly, that's where I think some of the older guard don't necessarily get.

But I think that's opportunities for folks like us. you know, Susie was the person for a while and CNBC every week and now she's no longer there. And Dave Ramsey had a show on Fox and all this sort of things. He still has a radio show. But I do think that the market's sort of wide open for folks with a different sort of voice and that can speak different to a different generation because, look, things are different.

You get wealthy and you get financial independence differently than your parents or your grandparents did. And so I think that really leaves it wide open for new people to get their voice hurt. Yeah, dude. Well, and lastly, where can we find you speaking of that? You're on TV, you know, on stuff all the time. Where can we all find you if you want to hear some more from you?

Yeah, home base for me is my website, Rob Wilson.com. Most folks, you know, I do a lot of local-based television. I'm moving up. You know, I've been on CNN a few times, so we're really trying to push that national exposure. But you can get all my segments there. You can follow me on Twitter at Rob Wilson TV, Facebook at Rob Wilson TV. And so I try to keep it consistent. And so actually a big source for me is LinkedIn.

I actually get a lot of people reaching out to me on LinkedIn as well. So you can find me if you use Rob Wilson TV there as well. You can find me there. So I'm happy I read every email. I respond back. I really enjoy trying to help people solve their problems. So folks are out there, they want to talk. Let's chat.

All right, dude. Next time you roll that Bentley around, come scoot me up. I'll enjoy it while someone else pays for it. Well, I'm getting married soon. So I think I may call in a few favors. Oh, nice, dude. So we'll see how it goes. I'll shoot you some picks.

Yeah. Well, don't forget to invite, my man. Absolutely. 100%. Thanks so much for coming on the show, man. Yeah, thank you. Thank you so much. Oh, thank you for having me.

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That was great. There was no property brothers in the background to date.