Coffeez with Joe Shalaby - Redefining the Financial Game ft. Manuel Soto | Coffeez for Closers with Joe Shalaby

Episode Date: May 30, 2025

In this episode of Coffeez for Closers, we sit down with Manuel Soto—aka "The Financial Architect"—a powerhouse in the insurance and financial services industry. From top-producing agent to broker-owner of TFA Insurance Advisors, Manny’s journey is all about reinvention, results, and real impact.We talk about what it really takes to scale in a saturated market, how he’s trained thousands of agents through a needs-based planning approach, and why most people fail at wealth building simply because they never change what they’re doing. His motto? “Change what you’re doing to change what you’re getting.”Whether you're building your book of business or redefining what success looks like, Manny drops gems that’ll shift how you think about money, legacy, and leadership.Top producers at E Mortgage Capital are earning more per deal—with faster closings, better tech, and no junk fees.👉 Learn more: https://joinemortgagecapital.comAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Before he was the CEO of TFA insurance advisors, before he trained thousands of agents, before he was known as the financial architect, Manuel Soto was just a hungry kid with a mantra. Change what you're doing to change what you're getting. From top producing agent to multi-location franchise CEO, Mani's not just designing financial plans, he's building a movement. In this episode, we talk business strike. structures, legacy, and why the financial world needs more builders and fewer salesmen. From blue-collar hustle to whiteboard strategy, from crisis to clarity, welcome to coffees.

You got about 230 agents now? Last time I checked, we had 223. That was about close to a month ago, so we're probably at close to 250 at this point. Nice. So we're aggressively starting to scale. A couple different insurance carriers, VPs of insurance carriers. have told me once you go over 200, it's a beast of its own. That's it. It just, you know, you're not going to recognize some of the people inside of your company. Yeah, we're at that level.

You've got an 870 loan officers. And I've heard. Unfortunately, I don't know 750 of them. I've heard. But they know me. They better know you. Yeah. So that's good. And I try to be as relatable. But yeah, it does get confusing once you're over a few hundred. So what is some of your growth strategies right now? I just got done speaking a couple hours ago at a real estate group. You know, we don't do real estate, we don't do mortgages, we don't do taxes. So a lot of these mortgage and real estate companies and tax firms, they asked me to come speak to their agents and help them with sales and growth and scaling and sales skills, et cetera. So one of the big growth strategies that we have right now is multiplication, not addition. And multiplication,

we all know, public speaking, social media, YouTube. I mean, everything that's geared towards IT or talking to crowds of people instead of one plus one, I want to multiply. So public speaking is a big deal. Yeah, that's one thing I've found. It's like, you know, what's allowing us to scale rapidly is just like I can echo my voice on social media. Any video I put out gets 50,000 views minimum. That's awesome.

On one platform. Then I put them on 10 platforms even though. That's what I'll talk about. That's multiplication. Yeah. So, you know, I can get any message out pretty quickly, which makes things a lot easier, especially when you're able to multiply that way. So, and then how about, are you doing any seminars?

Are you doing anything directly for financial strategies to come on board or just work in the relationships? Instagram right now is my best platform. When I teach these sales strategies, one sales strategy is three to ones. So I tell every salesperson, they have to be on Instagram. They have to. And if they post three personal posts and one business every day on their story, they're bound to get something. It's Jab, Jab, Hook. You know, Gary Vaynerchek said it the best.

Yeah. And then they post one on their feet. So if they're not on social media, they're closing the doors to that aspect of business. That's just not smart at all. So that's a no-brainer. Yeah. Yeah, it's imperative to be on social. I mean, that's your open sign.

Yeah. Well, it's free. Free 99. I mean, whatever salesperson out there that says that, you know, social media just isn't me. I mean, respectfully, you're just not wanting to acclimate to the social media platform. Who does not like free marketing? That just does not make any sense. You rather pay for leads.

You rather go doork. You rather go beat the street. Come on. Let's acclimate to social media. It's here to stay. Yeah, to stay. I like to, for my sales strategy, I like to tell everybody. you have to have multiple strategies in place.

One of them social media. The other one's lead buys. The other one is voicemail blast. The other one's text message blast. The other one is, you know, is, you know, buying Google ad space. I'm doing so much when it comes to marketing. I'm everywhere.

I'm on every social platform. I'm on every audio, visual, written platform, blog platform, you name it. I'm on it. I believe the same. And you ask you a good question. We do senior seminars too, and we pay for butts and seats. So normally when, I don't know, those of you that are seniors or you're north of 50, 55,

and you get these coupons in the mail saying, hey, dinner on us at Fleming's or Ruth's Chris or Mastros, we send out flyers like that. So it'll cost us anywhere between $7,000 to $10,000 per night to put butts in seats. But if you have 35 to 50 butts and seats, you're going to make 5 to 10x on that dinner seminar. anytime all day yeah so i mean being a financial strategist you know and people i got this question on my own my podcast history because i don't have mortgages you know so it's like how is a mortgage guy have no mortgages like i just don't want any debt you know like yeah cyclical of market been hit too many times but like for you being a financial strategist's like what's one big

financial mistake that you think taught you the most uh funny that you say that and you led into it with having no mortgage. I mean, I'm a big believer in not paying off your mortgage. And the reason why is because I have an acronym called Litter, L-I-T-R, that is really a full explanation. Well, you didn't go through the mortgage crash and lose everything. I did. Oh, I did.

Oh, you did? Oh, I did. Yeah. So L stands for liquidity. I've been doing financial planning for 23 years and I've made all the mistakes that every single household makes. So L-S-stance for liquidity. your mortgage, if you have equity inside of it, it's truly not liquid.

It's only liquid if you have it in cash or if you have a sideline account. So liquidity is a major. Number two is eye interest rate. People that have a 3% mortgage right now, they're never refinancing that bad boy. Never. They would be dumb to do so. And they're holding on to sell their property even though they're broke. I is interest rate.

That's a biggie. So if I'm borrowing money from a bank or a credit card at 20%, why would I, do that and pay off my 3% mortgage. You never want to send more money to principal. T is tax advantage. That's the biggest tax deduction that you have. Oprah Winfrey still has a damn mortgage and she could pay it off anytime she wants to. She thinks I'm broke. Tax advantage is a major. But the biggest one to me is our risk. So we live in California. I know the big one's never going to happen here in California. But if and when it does and we have a paid off house or we have mad equity inside of our properties. There's a lot of risk there. So if I have

600 grand of equity inside of my house and an earthquake happens and my foundation is cracked, I'm thinking to myself, damn, the lender's not going to help me now because they're going to, they're like, hey, you got 600 of equity. I'd love to have your property and fix the foundation. We need earthquake insurance. And if you want to research it, all you have to do is go through the big, oh, what was it, hurricane in Florida, the other hurricane, hurricane. King Katrina in Louisiana and just asked some of the people that paid off their properties that saw their house float down into into the ocean. It sucks. So one of the big financial mistakes is doing that. Another one is not saving money early. So many people say, you know what, once the Honda's paid off,

then I'm going to start saving and investing. Once little Johnny goes to college, then I'm going to start saving and investing. People never plan to fail. They just fail to plan. So starting early is so, so important. And then lastly is, of course, the big no-no, which is not doing a due diligence when it comes to investing, period. There's a lot of investment advisors. I own a fiduciary firm, a registered investment advisory

company. People pay us 1.6% on fees. 1% on fees when I can get a better rate of return, historically speaking, from the S&P 500, which is you can go to Vanguard and get an S&P fund, SPX fund, for 25 basis points. So that's a nugget.

I just saved lots of people here millions of dollars just on that one thing alone. So I'm a mouthful, bro. I love it, man. I mean, listen, you're like, I think your industry is probably more saturated than my industry. Everyone calls himself a financial guru. How do you distinguish the financial guru and between the financial architects methodology? Actually, I don't know if this is current, but years ago. When I did do the due diligence, I think the real estate industry and the mortgage industry was more saturated than the financial planning industry.

It's just that you and I were from Orange County. So here in Orange County, there's a lot of fiduciaries. There's a lot of financial advisors. A lot of mortgage guys, a lot of real estate guys. Yeah, because this is, I mean... It's like the hub. Yeah, I mean, I have an office in Cheneal Hills. It's one of our 27 offices that we have.

And in Chinole Hills, if you do research, the, average median household income is $11,000. Here in Corona del Mar, it's $200,000. Corona Del Mar? Yeah. Corona Del Mar. That only makes $200,000 in Corona, Omar. That's because they're business owners, and they deduct it, and their AGI.

And how do they afford a house that's $1,800 a square foot? Absolutely. Absolutely correct. So there's a lot of old money. There's a lot of old median household income. The wealth transfers over $80 trillion. There's so many attractive things. that are happening right now.

Like we're in the, we're knee deep in the thick of this, so it excites me. It gets me all pumped up. But what separates us from the competition is, me personally, is relationships.

I mean, I don't know if you guys have seen it or no or not. When I met Joe, it was like Man Crush Friday, man, I was, the guy's great speaker.

He's very influential. He's got great energy. So I wanted to connect with him just as much as he wanted to connect with me because he's just, he's a high, identity guy. So for me, it's relationship building. People want to be friends with the people that they trust and respect with their money, obviously. That's number one. But number two is we're

full service. So if they go to, I'm not going to say any names, but Primeraica, Primera only has like one product, or they got one investment and they're overpriced and they're, I'm getting trouble for this. Their fees are super high. So if you get a term insurance policy with Primeraica, they're 30% more pricey than any product that I have. So we're the footlocker of financial services. We got a bunch of choices. I got AIG, I got Prudential, I got Pacific Life, Fidelity and Guarantee, where A Primerica has one company, one product, and that's your only choice.

So that's a big difference. New York Life, I mean, all these direct lenders, you would call them in the mortgage field, we're the broker and the direct lender together. That's what makes us different. So, I mean, it's very similar. models. And we actually call ourselves a hybrid broker banker. We are a hybrid broker. All the big moneymakers are exactly what you just said. So you guys offered the service directly under the financial architects that you guys have in your own products? Even better. We don't have our

standalone. This is the financial architects insurance policy, but we have direct relationships with all these insurance carriers and investment firms. So if let's say, I talk to you, and hypothetically, let's say you have diabetes type 2, and your A1C sugar levels are at 7.2. They're escalated. I'm not going to put you with LSW. I'm going to put you with AIG or foresters because they will underwrite your deal a lot better. Once I get a decline, I've now screwed you from getting life insurance for the next year at least. So it's little underwriting things like that that make a big difference that a lot of special

specialty guys just don't know about it. So it's things like that that are like, these are all underhanded softball pitches, dude. So things like that that'll make us different. Yeah, but we actually do lend. That's why, like, we lend our own. Through your own bank, right? Yeah.

E-mortgage capital is we have our own warehouse lines. We write the notes, they pay back. We sell it off. So, but like what is the hybrid approach? Is it underwriting guys? Is it like flexibility with underwriting? It's underwriting, number one. That's the biggest challenge normally.

Yeah. Because there's some insurance policies up to $3 million. It's simplified issue. So you don't even have to take blood, urine, step on a scale, blood pressure, nothing. It's simplified issue. So if I'm outside looking in and I'm talking to the client, and client goes, hey man, I haven't seen a doctor in seven years. I probably want to go simplified issue because I'm not going to go simplified issue because I'm not.

because I want to make sure that they get insurance when they check their MIB, medical information bureau. So the underwriting is number one. Number two is product menu. Price matters to a lot of people. So if they get a term policy, for example, I'm shopping it with 80 different insurance carriers to get you the cheapest, most affordable rate based on your height and weight, et cetera. Another one is cost, internal fees.

So if you get a permanent policy like a whole life or an index, life or universal life. There's internal fees inside of the plan. Very similar to mortgages. The difference is you show your fees. We don't. So you almost have to be a smart consumer and say, how much am I paying for fees?

I know I'm giving you $1,000 a month for my whole life. How much of that is going towards fees? And a sharp salesman or a little bit of a special salesman is not even disclosing that. They're like $1,000 a month. Write the check. okay awesome you know you're writing checks and you have no idea what the internal fees are as far as investment goes investments are easy way easier than insurance investments it's more like relationship

built well i got a guy at morgan stanley i got a guy at merrill okay what are the costs what's what's the cost that they're charging you based on your assets under management uh they're charged me i don't know okay i'll beat your costs and i'll put you in the same asset allocation that they are so that's what makes it a lot different I like it. It's a mouthful, dude. I mean, it's so much. I've been doing this 23 years and I'm still learning, you know, so.

Yeah, it's just like our space too. I'm always learning. I'm always like something new is coming out, especially with AI. How are you guys using AI in your space right now? AI is here to stay. It's kind of like social media. If you don't acclimate to the new stuff, you're going to get eaten alive. I know some wholesale companies that we used to do business with, and they're like,

we're old school, we're kind of family-based, and I'm like smiling at them and saying, man, I got to cut real quick because AI is going to take over this space sooner than later. AI can do due diligence on products. AI can literally manufacture plans. But what makes financial planning special because I heard that tax advisors are in danger right now because AI may be coming out with an app where I download my PDF and the computer, the AI specialist does my taxes. So they have no room for error on the human side.

Financial planning is different. We're a moving target. So let's say you tell me, I got $2,000 to invest. Where should I put it? I'm asking more questions like, well, what's important to you? Is little Johnny going to college? When are they going to college? And what's your height and weight?

What's your health status? Are you worried about long-term care? does mom and dad need an in-home nurse i'm asking more questions that change over the length of time over 20 and 30 years so i in that strategy can only help with underwriting specifics but they can also help with the general questions of a new advisor as well so we use that inside of our well the back end of our chassis now everybody talks about financial freedom what's that word financial freedom mean to you? Because you'd like you're you you you tabooed me with no I thought financial freedom was being

debt free. So like man. Financial freedom means something different to you. Yeah. I mean again, dude, whenever I'm sitting down with a client, I'm more asking about them and what's in their world because you for example, you may believe in I want to be debt free. Whereas other people, they're like, I want to use my credit. or I want to use my company as a conduit to getting more ROI on some money on debt.

So if I could borrow money from a bank at 3% and I can make 8% on it, I'm making a 5% arbitrage. It's different. So that's why my job is to really get into their world. I like not having debt, Manny. Now, based on that, what is financial independence to you? And then I would go through something called a fin. A fin is an acronym that stands for finance. Independence number.

So the way that you figure out of Finn is you ask the potential client, what is your monthly desired goal? And they go, what do you mean? Well, to live on, let's say you retired tomorrow. What's your monthly goal? Well, that's a moving target with inflation. Well, how are you going to factor in a 23% inflation rate? So there's an old, there's an old formula that accounts for inflation, whether it goes to

eight or whether it goes three. Yeah, but never counted for 20. I completely agree. And it's something that, again, is going to be a moving target. And I'm interested to see what goes down, whether the Fed raises or lowers interest rates or whether unemployment goes up or down is going to be, it's going to be interesting. We may even go through stagflation, which is a big danger right now. Yeah, I mentioned stagflation on some of my videos. Stagflation is the worst possible thing you can go through.

They talk about deflation being danger. Nah, man. It's stagflation. that's going to be super dangerous. So let's say in that, the fin, you asked me that question. Let's say the client goes, I can live on 20 grand a month to pay all my bills, and I want you to take into account inflation. There's a formula called the rule of 200.

So you take the $20,000 monthly, you multiply it by $200, which is $4 million. That's going to be their fin, their financial independence number. That means that by definition, whether they're 56, 66, or 71, once they hit, $4 million through an annuity you can pay and get paid through principal and regular payments, you can get paid the $20,000 a month like clockwork. So it's an old formula. Sounds like alimony. Yeah, that'll be another conversation big time. Allemone. It sounds like child's for an Damn, that's funny. No, but I like that,

financial independence number. Because that's kind of like how, you know, a lot of us kind of create our retirement models. What do you think the average Finn is for someone right now? If the average husband and wife make $80,000 a year, which is a mindblower to you because you're in a top-notch area here, But the average husband and wife in L.A. County make, I think, $87,000 a year. So you would just factor in $87,000 a year, take the monthly, which let's say is about $7,000 a month, multiplied by $200.

It's $1.4 million. That's crazy. It's $87,000 when the average home to buy in L.A. is like $2.5 million, which puts the average mortgage payment around like $18,000. Don't get me started on that. There's literally, I think, 13%, 12% of Californians that can buy right now. And if you're sitting in that 12%, half of them don't believe they should buy. They think it's a dumb decision right now, currently. Yeah.

Now, I don't want to go and be controversial. Yeah, I do. So if 6% are looking to buy and they can qualify, that's the reason why the mortgage industry is down right now. I mean, it's like, what, 70, 75% down the real estate industry as a whole. And unfortunately, you can't pay the bills like that. California has runaway inflation, in my opinion. I think California has just run wrong. Obviously, it's a liberal state.

I won't get political too much. But there needs to be something to save more business owners because business owners create jobs. They create more paying jobs if the economy is doing well. But unfortunately, economically, we're to standstill right now because of that. affordability is wild and i i normally ask like people that tell me that real estate's going to double in the next seven years or five years my dad and i said dad please explain how how does that make sense when husband and wife still l a county make 87 grand a year oh man it's just going to okay explain

to me mathematically how that even makes sense it can't so either all the rich guys move to california or we have some type of economic shakeup that's going to be forcing us to be more affordable. Well, we're seeing all the rich people from L.A. moved to Newport Beach, and that's because of the fires. The fires. I was about to say that, yeah. And what's happened as a result of that is Newport Beach has gone up like 50%. And Newport Beach, Orange County in general, they're a red city, a red county.

They're conservative. Vast majority are conservative. And they're mostly business owners. I can see why. I get it. But I won't get that political. Now, you've emphasized, like, always creating additional income streams. What's an unconventional strategy you recommend that has yielded you and others you know surprising results?

I mean, as a business owner, you know this, Joe, is leverage. I can take 100% of my own efforts and go to work and kill it, or I can take 1% of 100 people's efforts and get the same type of outcome. So I think leveraging businesses, leveraging ownership, for me, I own a franchise, so it's a Kindle like a McDonald's, like a jack-in-the-box, like a subway. So TFA is a franchise. I sell the franchise model. So if there's a real estate group and they're down 70% and I own a financial planning firm,

I put TFA inside of their already successful business model. It's like having an extra, like an escrow company within their company already. And offering mortgage protection, offering living trusts. There's only two things that get you out of being broke. It's making more money or saving more money. Only two. So if I work a job and I'm making $62,000. $1,000 a year, I literally have no opportunity to make more money. So the real opportunity is

having the opportunity. So if, let's say, they pick up a side hustle, they do Uber eats, they Uber, they go work for the financial architects and sell one living trust and make an extra $400, $500 within that model. That's a great side hustle. Again, you can only get out of trouble when you make more or you save more money. Another thing is rebudgeting. people never look at their apps. I'm even guilty of this, bro. I got apps on my phone that I didn't even know I downloaded. And, you know, it's costing me money every single month.

And, you know, I don't pay attention to that. Again, people never plan to fail. They just failed to plan. And they're just not paying attention. Edison bills, again, rebudgeting, looking at their cars, looking at their taxes. Some people go to their tax advisor for 18 years and they never check their tax advisor. this guy or gal is a human just like you are and if they're making mistakes or they're being lazy with your taxes it's time to replace them so these are just some small things making more or saving more money that can help a regular consumer i love that and i mean it's just the obvious that helps the regular consumers but it takes to your to your fanning your fire bro it takes a podcaster it takes someone in public uh publication

sharing these types of things so that the listeners go damn man he's right I gotta take some action I gotta take some action yeah and that's the thing normally to make a sale you've done sales for years dude

normally you've got to touch that person five to eight times it's more now is it really yeah that blows my mind it's more around 30 touch points oh my gosh yeah we got 30 touch points

before we get a conversion man get it going and it's gonna get worse because society's more ADD. They're busier than ever. They don't answer phones. They stop answering phone calls.

Now they don't answer text messages. Now they don't answer voicemails. So it's like how many times can one be reminded before they actually make a response? Right. Wild. Wild 30. That blows my mind, dude.

For me, I'm all action. Like even, again, I did a sales presentation a couple hours ago. And I'm like, hey, when you guys guys get out of bed, the alarm goes off, you got to tell your mind immediately. Time to go, man. No snooze button. You're wasting an hour just by pressing snooze. It's time to get up, go take a walk for 15 minutes, do something to shake yourself up. And what I find is that people are just so fixated on these habits. One of my best sayings is the chains of habit are too light

to be felt until they're too heavy to be broken. We all just have bad habits, man, and shaking out of those habits are so important to regular people that, you know, influencers like you need to go, hey, man, this is, this is the direction that we're going. Let's go. And they get motivated by your action, your energy, your enthusiasm and in your excitement to go and push towards that direction. So it's awesome. Yeah, it just takes, you know, a few more million of me and we'll have a great society. There we go. Shit, I'm on board. How do you address people who are skeptical? You know, you're the skeptics from your clients who are weary of financial planning due to all the misinformation, their past experiences, all the sales mumbo-jumbo, all the BS that they're fed all the time. There's like financial planners are almost borderline taboo.

Getting like that mortgage broker taboo that we had in 08 financial planning. Yeah. I have to get behind it, actually. I think, you're like, yeah, you're right. You're right. I hate to say it this way, but rookie advisors are going to get you in more trouble than anything else. Because think about it for a second. Let's say I'm a rookie.

And this was me 23 years ago. You're like, hey, just do a whole life. Exactly. No, I was telling them to do a VUL, and that VUL was really expensive at that time when I first got in the industry in 2003. That was a pricey vehicle to get involved into. I should have just bought a cheap term policy and invest a difference in a Roth IRA. seven, eight, eight out of ten people in the United States should get a term policy and invest the difference in a mutual fund or stock portfolio. The rest should be looking at more of a permanent chassis.

Or if you're worried about long-term care, let's see you're 80, 82 years old, and you're like, man, I don't want to bug my friends or my family. Come take care of me when I just had a stroke. That's more of a permanent chassis inside of that plan. So financial planning, again, is a moving target. But advisors, I mean, if I had to put a fraction on it, bro, God, I feel bad if you're even saying this. Nine out of ten of us just suck. They don't do their due diligence.

They take their broker's word for it, and the brokers, they're trying to make as much money as he or she can, and they need to go do more due diligence and homework. And, I mean, I didn't go to college for a year and go, man, I'm just going to act like I got a degree after four years. that's what I find financial planners doing is they're not well read they don't know economics they don't I mean I look at the SMP 500 every single day like I'm on it I have my ear to ground and I'm not even servicing clients anymore unless their net worth is over three four million

dollars so take me for example I'm up there when it comes to good advisors but dude I have 220 plus agents. If I had to throw a rock at them, I think like 180, I wouldn't want designing my plans, unfortunately. And I say that as transparently as possible because even my advisors, they need to go get their

ass more well-read. They need to do the research. They need to go to more trainings than anybody else. And once they've gotten to that point, then that's when they should be doing more financial planning. So right now, we're more like, take a senior advisor with you in the field.

And these new advisors, they're like, they're cheap. They don't want to share commissions. So instead, they're the Wild West, and they're like, no, man, I'm going to go see if I can get as much commission as possible off this client. So you're right, bro. I hate to say it, but you're right. The industry as a whole. Skeptics have a reason to be skeptical.

Yeah. And my personal opinion is go with someone that has good reviews. I always Google anything. I'll Google it. I'll look on Yelp. I'll see if the reviews are right. And if the reviews are right, I look at their complaints. And then I go, if the complaints are right, more than likely, this guy or gal knows what the hell they're talking about.

I vet it. Yeah. Good advice. In your journey, what's a pivotal moment for you that challenge your philosophy? And how did you adapt to that? Man, what you just said, that really hits home. to tell you. And I feel bad for even saying this, but I think the first two years of me being in this career, I was winging it. I had no idea. I was just throwing crap up against the wall. And that was

challenging for me because I thought I had done my first year, I think I did a little over 200,000 in Target premium, second year, a little over 200,000. And I don't think I did the right thing for a lot of clients. So I feel bad in saying so, but that's been my biggest challenge because I reacted, like we're talking about, it didn't take me 30 tries. I reacted as proactive as possible saying I need to change what I'm doing to change what I'm getting. So I started reading more books. I started analyzing more plans. I started looking at the stock market a little bit more in detail and the lack thereof. I started looking at freaking politics a little bit differently. And it made me a bit better advisor slowly one year by one year, et cetera, et cetera.

And, you know, now you have this great conversation, like all the questions you're asking me just so you guys know, we didn't script this out. He didn't like, hey, man, I'm going to ask this question. I already know how to respond to it because I'm very well read. I'm very prepared when it comes to it. So I love the questions, by the way. Love it. Love it.

Yeah. This is a good one because you got a great mindset. But what role do you think mindset has to play in financial success? I think that's a that's a learned skill so I'm big on mindset now but that was a result of being around high identity people I mean damn bro my the guy that recruited me in business was Ed Milet he's one of the best speakers in the world ever I mean I love Ed Milet one of my good friends is Patrick Bit David I still talk to him on a on a regular basis and they have strong mindsets everyone at some point in time is going to quit in business I mean My best friend since the seventh grade, he owns several franchises. He's worth lots of money, but he's very humble about it. You know, these are all my associations. And I think your mindset is really indicative of your associations and the lack thereof.

That's where it starts. The secondary thing is even if you don't have that great association, I could have been grown up in Kansas. But if I read more or I listen to podcasts and YouTube's more, It's like I'm literally in the room with them. And now I can adopt their beliefs because belief drives everything. If I believe I can do something significant, I'm going to. If I don't, I'm not.

My belief starts with that. But how do you gain belief? You gain it by association. You gain it by the books, the YouTube's, and the podcasts that you listen to. So having a mindset, I think, is inherent in indicative of all of the great publication that you're involved into. One of my best leadership books is by John Maxwell. If he writes it, I read it. So 21 irrefutable laws of leadership.

That was authored more than, I think, 20 years ago. And it still holds true today. Law the Lid, you want to be around people that are tens, not fours. If you're around five different fours, you're going to become a four, even if you're a seven. So the law of the lid is super important. All those different books, man, I can go on for three hours about mindset, dude. Mindset is the absolute pinnacle of something that you want to get a hold of. Yeah, absolutely.

I mean, it's imperative if you're an entrepreneur. Now, do you have a story that comes to mind where a client, like, resisted your advice and the outcome of that resistance? Dude. I'll tell you the most recent. And I know he doesn't mind that I say this because he's literally told me that I was right. In 2000, I'm going to guess, 13. I had a guy that I sold life insurance to. And he was making, at that time, about $300,000 a year.

He got a little term policy, 30-year term. it cost him like $140 a month. The reason why was because he was out of shape. He had diabetes. He had high blood pressure. Physically, he was challenged. And he says, I'll pay $100 a month. It was like a budgeted.

It's like, dude, this isn't a mortgage. Like, you know, your family needs $2 million of coverage since you make $300 grand a year. The factor was you need $2 million. And he goes, nah, it's too expensive. So I follow up, being a great salesperson at that time, because I think I'm a horrible salesperson. now. But I followed up, followed up, followed up. In 2017, 18, I told him, dude, you should,

you're in better shape now. You should get another million five, two million dollars, life insurance. And he goes, nah, man, it's too expensive. I'm not dying. No bullshit. Three weeks ago, he text messages me and says, hey, bro, I have stage four cancer. My doctor says I got about three months to live. I don't believe them. I believe in God. I'm doing all these things. My this, my that. His wife called me five days ago

and said he had turned for, I'm getting goosebumps talking about it. He had turned for the worst. And I need to know how to apply for his life insurance when it goes down because we're putting him in hospice now. So, dude, I could tell you, it's really sad when it comes, because

think about it for a second. We're blowing and going. We're doing all these different great business things and a defining moment. Paradigm shift happens like that. You look back and you think about all the great, all the other things that you could have taken place. This is a guy, I'm not saying his name, but this is a guy that's filing bankruptcy chapter 11 right now. His wife told me. He didn't even tell me that. And he's going through financial hardships. And it literally took him, I think it was like four months to go through financial shambles. because, you know, he's going through this physical challenge. He's only going to get a quarter million dollars in life insurance, and they owe way more than a quarter million dollars that she's going to be getting. So she was very appreciative.

She was very kind. She cried on the phone. And, you know, I felt bad. And, you know, I obviously think back, I take a step back, and I think, what could I have done differently? Could I have marketed differently? Could I have had one of my agents reach out more? That's the most recent story, dude.

Like my cousin had a stroke four years ago, and I had the same thing happened. I said, man, what an idiot. Here I am. I'm doing great. And I didn't even reach out to my cousin for a policy. So, yeah, that's been the most right now. That's the tip of the skull. And it has me kind of circling.

I mean, I've paid about a half dozen life insurance policy death claims. But this one got me for whatever reason. I think because his wife called me. I think that's what got me. So he's got kids, you know, he loves his kids. Anyways, it was bad. It's always tough. Yeah, dude, it was, it sucks.

It sucks. That's a tough thing to deal with. A couple last questions. Looking ahead, what innovations are shifts in the financial industry are you most excited about? And how are you preparing your clients for them? I got to change my state, man. I know. Physiology changed.

Yeah, I just feel so bad about this guy's family, dude. Like I'm a recovering people pleaser. So instead of me pleasing everybody and trying to jockey for a position on how I can help these different people, it just, it shakes me up a little bit. What was your question again? How are, like, what does the future of the future? financial industry look like to you? I think it has a lot to do with AI. The future of the financial industry has a lot to do with AI. If I'm in an industry that is potentially going to be taken over by AI, I want to research as much as possible about AI. I'm always researching some up-and-coming things.

I'm always researching what could be making more money at that time. I'm always like ear to the ground when it comes to things like this. So I think AI is going to have a big difference in it. But as far as advisory stuff, I don't believe it will take over the insurance industry. Maybe the investment industry would be affected most. And even then, seniors right now, they're baby boomers. So they're not really on the AI stuff. But the ex-geners and the millennials, you better be ready because they're going to be the ones that come to you and go, what's your AI strategy? And you better be prepared to answer that instead of, well, we're a mom and pop shop. We're not really concerned about that. I want to get concerned about that because that is the future. Yeah, it's the same thing. When the loan officer's coming,

it's like, ask them, what's your strategy for building your personal brand? They're like, I don't have a personal brand. Like, done. You're going to be at business. Yeah. You got, your days are like maybe 500 days left in the business. Yep. You know, like, you got days left. What are you going to do these days? Dude, if I was one of your loan officers, I would appreciate that question because all you're doing is you're trying to help them out to get better. So for me... It throws them off and I'm like, guys, like, you know... Right now, the only place AI can reason is based off the information has online.

If you don't have a brand online, how is it going to give you any data? 100%. 100%. But that's the difference between haters and congratulators. I mean, I hate to put it in two different categories. like that. But let's say you're an employee, like a loan officer of yours. And you ask that question. A hater goes, I don't need an identity, bro. You feed me leads anyways. That's somebody that's comfortable in the zoo. A congratulator is like, man, I never thought about that. I appreciate

that question, dude. What do you, what's your opinion? I mean, they're, they're talking to a millionaire that's somebody that's literally sitting there talking to them, trying to make them better. If they see the alternative, that's just really dumb on their part. And they need to go to book camp at least when it comes to self-development. So the congratulator normally is more action-oriented. But I think that's awesome, dude. It's, you know, it's the reality. You know, it's just the world we're in. Everyone wanted AI. Everyone wanted things easy. Sadly, AI now requires you to have a brand. and if you want AI you got to have a brand. What do they say?

UBI, universal basic income? I think that that is a real thing. I think that AI is going to put a lot of people out of business. A lot of employees are going to be unemployed. And I believe that unemployment will skyrocket. And at that point, the government will have to enforce some type of UBI. And just so the listeners understand what UBI is, universal basic income is like a child support check.

It's kind of like a government check that says, hey, we know that you can't get a job, we feel bad for you, so we're going to give you $1,200 bucks a month. It's like communism. It is. It is. Sounds like our socialism, whatever you want to... Whatever you want to call it, but you know how it goes,

do. Whenever government cannot come up with a solution, send you a check. Unfortunately, society says, well, I need money. I count on you, so you need to send me some money. Socialized health care. Same thing. I mean, people believe in socialized health care. For me personally, I don't want to pay for the guy that weighs 350 pounds, eat cheese burgers

every day, because he's lazy. There's always exceptions to the rule, of course. So for socialized health care, it's the same thing. It's like, why am I paying a thousand dollars a month for my health insurance when my insurance cost should be $300? Well, it's because we're putting in a pool of other people that need health care. Well, I shouldn't be responsible for them. I go to the gym three times a week. I'm in the sauna. I'm not eating horrible food like that. So, you know, my thoughts are a little bit different, but I'm a little controversial, though. Pivoting a little. You know, you have four kids, and you've been fortunate enough to not grow up in poverty. To grow up in poverty. Now, your kids are adverse to that. What are you doing right now to teach your kids the same level of grit

and that winner mindset. Good question. Dude, how'd you know I grew up poor? You did some research, huh? Every CEO pretty much. That's true. That's set on that side. Nobody has come to me and said I grew up rich.

Yeah, I mean, I grew up a latchkey kid. My mom was on food stamps. I was a little bit embarrassed when I go to the market with my mom because back then they didn't have EBT cards. It was like a food stamp. Like, you cut it up. And I never wanted to. that for my kids. I never wanted them to be given anything by me. I have two older boys. They're 28 and 25. And I taught them how to doork when they were 13 and 15. So I gave them a script and I said, the script, I'm paraphrasing, of course, in an effort for my dad to teach us the value of money, he has asked us to do doorknock and wash cars for the neighborhood or do yard work. Which of the two would best interest you? And my kids got badass at

communicating and doing alternate of choice and then isolating the objection. So my son, Mani, who's 25, he went to the Navy. His CO, for five years he was at the Navy, his CEO would call on Mani to go and communicate about multiple things because Manning was great at communication. My son Dominic is a badass. I mean, he communicates with people and he asks why. That's his best question. And he's not afraid to ask why. And this is all because of as a parent, a single parent. I taught them the value of learning communication and the value of asking questions and not being a little bitch. Those are my two sons. Now my daughter who's 16 and a half, she's like going through it right now because I'm teaching her how to public speak. So she has 10 vocabulary words

that she needs to do and she needs to create it in a paragraph. She needs to put it in paragraph and she needs to publicly speak in front of two people at least. So she's done five so far. I pay her 50 bucks each time. And she wanted to go to summer camp this year. And I said, well, you're a little short. Well, dad, mom said that. Well, mom reached out to me, said, you make all this money, but you're not well. And I love her mom.

I love my daughter's mom. I think we co-parent terrific. But I have different values than just giving kids stuff. I'm not going to do that. They need to earn it. And I'm a firm believer that if we create great kids will foster independence the right way, and they will ultimately be terrific adults and we will change society. But what's unfortunate is that people don't take parenting seriously.

They make a kid and plop it out and they're on Instagram and they're like, okay, I'll just Uber eats you something. No, man, I don't want to be from that factory. I want to create players. I want to create leaders. I want to create badasses. So these are just some basic things that I do to work on their mindset. I like that.

I'm going to have to take that script. Done. I'm going to have my kid doing that this summer. I mean, he's 10, but I'm all about breeding them young. My bro, and Manning was 13, and Dominic was 15 at the time. I remember them coming home the first day. They're sweaty. It was in the summer.

And I started a shirt brand for them called the Hills. You know, Beverly Hills, Agora Hills, all the Hills-oriented things are upper class, right? So they went out and they had shirts on and said the Hills. people never, quitters never win, winners never quit, you know, the hills, right? And when they first came back,

the first day, they go, Dad, you walk in, they go, we're going to be millionaires. I go, what happened? Dad, like the fifth door we knocked, man, this lady comes out, she says, I love your idea. There's no kids out there.

They're doing this. I'm prepared to write you a check for $5,000. I want a website. I want this, I want that. I go, that's what's up, Mihole, let's go. And then he goes, all right, what's next, dad?

go, you better do a business plan, bro. Go to YouTube, figure out what a business plan is all about. So they literally go to YouTube for everything. YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world behind Google, and YouTube isn't even in different countries. That's a pretty large, you know, search engine. So they literally go to YouTube every single time they need to learn something. I go, YouTube it, when you exhaust all the information, come to me and ask me the question.

And they literally did not ask me any questions because they are independent and they answer it on their own. So they never got the five grand. No, they never got the five grand. So, you know, I got to teach them a failure too. Yeah. I love that. A couple last questions. For sure. Goals. What's a personal goal you have for yourself, a family goal you have for the family and a business goal that you have for the financial architects? Personal goal for myself has always been the same thing. I know this off the tip of my head because I constantly think about this is happiness. So many people are, my opinion, they're dictated by other people. people's timelines. So I don't know how old you are, but let's say you're 40 years old. And you think everyone else in society says you need to be married. You need to have a white picket fence. You need to live life this way. You need to believe in God and go to church every Sunday. You're living other people's dreams, not your own. And I think that happiness is created by living truly in your own dream, your own steps to freedom. I mean, the journey through life is bliss. It's not the destination in my opinion. So I want to be happy. I live happy every single day.

Here on the podcast, I'm having a great time. I'm going to leave. I'm going to probably go to the beach, chill out, get my little sandals on. That's my personal goal on a daily basis just to be happy. So whatever comes along that space, terrific. On the family side, I'm real heavy on my kids. Like right now my daughter's 16 and a half and I need to show her the proper example. So I try and spend as much time with her as possible. When I'm around her, I try not to be on my phone, even though I'm guilty of being on my phone a lot because of, you know, the business that we run. But my daughter, I want to spend as much time as possible and I want to show her a good example.

She has a great stepdad. Leo is an incredible stepdad. I think that I thank God every day for him. I even text him randomly go, hey man, thanks so much for being a great dad to my daughter. And I get goosebumps talking about that because I care about my daughter so much.

My two older boys, you know, they're on their own paths right now. I step in with them, but a personal goal of mine with all of them has been every quarter at least to be on a Zoom and talk about their financial goals. Because if you do research, people that are moneyed up live in their 90s.

That's wild to me. So when people say money isn't everything, last time I checked, they live longer than everyone else. They have less stress, less cortisol than everyone else, and they give back to society a lot more than everybody else, contrary to what they may believe. So my family goal would be that, to get my kids closer together to talk about finances.

As a matter of fact, I'm going to make that action step once a month, just because of this conversation. I love that. And then business goal, we will have 400 offices within the next five years. We've already plugged out a plan for that. I don't even think it's a big plan anymore. I said it two years ago. And now I'm thinking, damn, 400, I'm really like lowballing it, dude.

So 400 offices in the next five years should be somewhat simple because we have the winning recipe that makes sense. And we have the systems in place to make it go. So you asked some really good questions, bro. You did that on your own or your staff? No, these are, this is, I do this. That's what I'll do. Yeah.

Last question. Go for it. When you're in front of the pearly gates, what do you think God's going to tell you? In my opinion, God's going to say, manny, you ran with the big dogs, man. 90% of your life was on point and you did the right thing all the time. there's some deficiencies, but I think overall you're a good guy. And granted, you could have done better, but welcome to heaven. Let's go.

There you go, man. I love it. I hope that all your goals, if people want to find you, how do they connect with you? So my Instagram channel is Money Business Mani. That's probably the best handle to take advantage of. I have a YouTube channel called The Financial Architects. We don't have a million followers yet, but. It's really not for views.

It's for publication. And it's easy to grab a video and send it to a client. And that way they get an educational course within that YouTube. So they can find me there on The Financial Architects on YouTube. And you can just Google Mani Soto, the Financial Architects. And a lot of publication will come up. I look forward to our conversation. And I look forward to knowing Joe at least for the next 50 years.

Let's go. Mani Soto, a legend. Make sure you connect with him. Mani hope you hit all your goals. God bless you. God bless your kid. God bless your family. Let's keep winning, baby. Love it. Thank you so much, sir.

Let's go.