Heroes in Business - Resolving Tax Disputes and Saving Money through Tax Planning with Blake Pinyan with Carter Wilcoxson Founder of CSI Financial Group

Episode Date: November 18, 2024

In this conversation, Blake Pinyan, a financial planner at Anchor Bay Capital, shares his journey into the financial services industry and his passion for helping clients. He discusses his focus on young professionals and pre-retirees, offering comprehensive financial planning, customized investment management, tax preparation, and estate planning services. Blake also highlights his Enrolled Agent (EA) designation, which allows him to represent clients before the IRS and provide tax advice. He shares examples of how he has helped clients resolve tax disputes and save money through tax planning strategies. Overall, Blake's personal experiences and expertise shape his commitment to helping clients achieve financial success. Carter Wilcoxson, the Founder of CSI Financial Group, Laser focused on Client Acquisition, Client Retention, and Advisor Support. csifg.com    

Shut up and sit down. Welcome to the Health and Wealth Podcast with your hosts, Tim and Carter. What's trending, enrichers? Carter Wilcox, founder of CSI Financial Group here, with my co-host and former wealth advisor, Tim James, founder of? ChemicalFreeBody.com and your new health advisor. This is the show where we reveal the connection between physical and financial abundance. Welcome back, Enrichers. This is Carter Wilcoxon coming to you from Halloween Central in

Phoenix, Arizona. Weather is phenomenal. It's harvest season, if you will. This is our Halloween podcast episode, and I'm very excited about having our guests coming on today but before we get to our guests as is usual we are joined by my esteemed co-host Mr. Chemical Free Body himself Tim James. Timmy how are you buddy? Hi Carter doing great happy to have our guest on it is Halloween this probably will not air on Halloween I know know that. So not probably it won't, but, um, you know, we were just talking, I used to always dress up. I always wanted to dress up even now when I got older as an adult, I just kept doing it. Even when I was, when I was a financial advisor, um, for that, when I was a mortgage broker, car sales, whatever I was doing, um, I always dressed up and,

you know, I think it's kind of important to important to do that kind of stuff because, you know, as we get older, we stop having fun. A lot of people stop having fun. And I think that's why a lot of times the alcohol, because the alcohol helps people get to that fun spot. The only problem is that they don't feel so good the next day. And half the time they do things they wish they wouldn't have. You know, so I don't know. I just think it's a good point. We have the holidays coming up, you know,

and, you know, this is the Health and Wealth podcast. So the health is the most important thing, period. And I've had plenty of clients where I was a financial advisor that would have given me all their money at the time if they could have gotten their health back. You know, so, you know, we got fall coming, right? And there's a lot of stress because of the parties and the holidays and the booze and all the stuff coming and lack of sleep and the travel and the kids are back to school now and all this stuff. So just keep in mind to do things to take care of yourself. Make sure you're just getting to bed a little bit or get to bed on time, putting some self-love into yourself before you get to bed. Drink lots of water. Make sure you have activated charcoal around. If you are going to

do booze, you can pop a couple of those. That kind of helps it up. It sucks it up a little bit. Drinking lots of water and taking your supplements, taking your supplements, getting into the far infrared saunas, uh, doing those on the daily to help kind of counterbalance some of the stressors. And, you know, maybe some of these foods and beverages we partake into maybe a little bit too much during the holiday season. So that it's not such a big, you know, bit too much during the holiday season so that it's not such a big you know new year's resolution where you have to lose 60 pounds and it'd be better if it was only 30 right you can do this but the most important thing is you don't get sick you know it's not just gaining the weight gaining the weight is a byproduct also of a lower immune system so we want to keep our immune systems

up so we're not we're not sick so we can function and we can perform. Well, Tim James, I could not have said that any better. And I think that's a great segue into bringing on our guest now, coming in from Southern California, Blake Pinion from Anchor Bay Capital. Blake, thank you so much for joining us today. Thank you for having me. It's good to be here.

Yeah, absolutely. Our pleasure. So, well, hey, Enrichers, thank you again for joining us for another episode of the Health and Wealth Podcast Show. Let's go ahead and just get right on into it like we normally do here. Let's talk a little bit. We were talking pre-show a little bit about some of your background and what kind of brought you into the financial services industry. But we, our enrichers, really want to be able to hear your story and your journey. So what were some of the early influences or Blake that brought you into the financial

services industry that ultimately give you that ability to help your clients that you're working with now? Yeah, sure. I'll kind of break it out on the professional and personal side if I can. So on the professional side, it all stemmed back to San Diego State University where I joined in as a financial services major and found out about the Financial Planning Association. uncover a little bit more about the industry and just absorb financial planning like a sponge. Reached out to a bunch of various employers and found out all the different career paths available. So I participated in some internships and externships in college, and that was really the way I got my feet wet. And that snowballed into my first full-time position as an advisor support specialist with the independent REA. From there, I had to move to a different city,

so decided to switch gears and work for a larger company, but found out shortly that it wasn't a good fit for me. So I ended up going back to an independent REA towards the end of 2020 in COVID area, and I've been there for three years since. So that's a little bit about my professional journey. It kind of revolves around getting involved in leadership on campus and then studying financial planning as a major at San Diego State University. On the personal side, to be vulnerable with you too, I did undergo some challenges as a child. I actually lost my father when I was 15 years old, and that had a huge negative impact on my family. And it actually led to my mother kind of being out of the picture shortly after that. And really, my sisters and I had to become financially independent at a very young age, and we weren't set up with a financial plan. After my father passed away, there was no life

insurance, there was no estate plan, there was no inheritance for us kids. And it ended up where I was forced into having to pay college by myself through scholarships and learn what it takes to be financially successful on my own. So it actually inspired me to get into the financial services industry and serve clients because I wasn't set up with a financial plan. So it led me to want to set families up for success so they don't have to undergo the same difficulties that I had to experience. It was very troubling having to go through that time

without a roadmap, without a journey, without a plan in place after you experience that type of traumatic event. So if I personally, as a financial advisor, can provide a pathway and plan for clients, you know, when the going gets tough for them, it may not cure the difficulty, but it will make things a little bit easier. And to me, that really speaks to the power of financial plan. Wow. So that, you know, that we talked a little, you know, pre-show about that. And I have to tell you, so I've got a 16 year old son and Tim's got some youngins himself, a little bit older than that, I think actually, right, Tim? But, you know, I'm sitting there thinking about my son and what would happen.

And as a parent, these are the things you think about on a regular basis. And I couldn't even fathom the tragedy that dealing with something like that, you know, as a 15 or 16-year-old kid would endure. So hats off to you that you're where you're at today. But what I'm hearing is that you took that really as the foundational reasons why you're where you're at today, which probably give you a much better understanding on how to help your clients be more successful. Is that fair? Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I think it was always an innate drive to be successful and make my

father proud. And I've always had a motivation from that experience to push myself to be better and continue to excel. And that led me to achieve the Certified Financial Planner designation before I turned 25, as well as the Rural Agent designation before I turned 25. So always continuing to advance myself and try to increase my game to a level where I'm competitive within the industry, but allow me to better serve my client. So I think the experiences that I've dealt with in the past made me who I am today. And it's the reason why I'm so passionate about this industry. And I'm so passionate about improving the lives of the clients that I'm working with. Yeah, that's awesome. So you're in your mid-20s, right? You know, fairly young guy. I'm just curious, have you had a chance to, you know, have you started a family

yet or are you still really pretty deep into your personal growth model? Yeah, Good question. I recently got engaged in July. So I've had a long time serious girlfriend and we had our seven years this year and I proposed in July. So the intention is to marry her in the fall of 2025. And then I'll plan on starting a family after that. So it's in the cards and it's on the horizon, but I haven't got to that point yet. That's awesome. So, well, congratulations, obviously. Yeah, congrats, man.

It's cool. Yeah, it is awesome. So where did you guys meet? Did you meet in college or was it a high school sweetheart or what? It's a funny story. We actually met at Coachella. school sweetheart or what? It's a funny story. We actually met at Coachella.

So I'll share it. I'll kind of give this spark notes. Basically, we were freshmen in college at San Diego State. You know, I was with a couple of my fraternity friends. And the last day of the event, we saw some mutual friends and Emily is her name. She was one of the mutual friends. So we had a really good time hanging out that day at Coachella, but it ended up that I got lost from her and I didn't take down her name or her number. So I thought that was that and nothing was going to come out of it. The next day I get back to San Diego State. I go on campus in my dorm room and I go in the elevator. And the only other person in the elevator is Emily. And I say, hey, stranger. And it turns out she lives a floor above me in my dorm out of 25 dorms on campus.

And it's just a crazy story because she's from Northern California. And there was over 100, thousand people at that festival. But we like to say it's fate that we met at that event and we're still together to this day. Wow. Wow. That's awesome. So seven years strong. That is a that's crazy. Speaking of drinking, there's probably a little drinking going on at Coachella, right? People were having fun. There's no doubt about that so um so i am a little bit curious to get a little you know go back to some of the personal you know uh challenges that you've had which you know do shape us um you know the old saying what doesn't kill us just makes kills us just makes us stronger

right but talk a little bit about you know some of the challenges that happened maybe with your mom after that as well, if you don't mind. my father passed. And we came to a decision as a family just to kind of shut her off. And now I haven't had communication with her for a lot of years. And she's not in a good shape, but she wasn't a positive influence in my life. And my sisters and I knew that if we wanted to make something out of ourselves, we had to kind of eliminate the negative energy. So she hasn't been part of the picture since my father passed, and it's really coerced us to kind of fend on our own and learn how to be mature and take the world on from an early age. Well, you know, I got to tell you,

there's some eerily similar things that are going on in your life that sort of mirror some of the challenges that I've had to deal with, you know, on my own. And it's interesting that we both ended up on this podcast together, right? It's kind of like you're talking about like Coachella, you met your girlfriend and now you're there together and there's a hundred thousand people or whatever. But very similar stories. And again, you are not playing the victim. You are playing the opportunistic individual. Right. You're like, this is this is an opportunity for me to better myself, to do things that, you know, I got to see that were done incorrectly.

do things that I got to see that were done incorrectly. And I have no doubt in my mind that you, your clients, are very well served. And any prospects that may be thinking about working with you, they should definitely give you a chance because that experience really gives you such an impactful foundation for ultimately having a true heart for wanting to help people. Because you don't want those same types of things literally, right? I mean, you legitimately care about your clients, and I know that they're going to be well-served.

So, again, it's tragic, the things that have happened, you know, to, you know, people like the two of us. That's for sure. But I always took the approach that someone's always got it better. Someone's always got it worse. Right. No matter how good or how bad you got it, it could always be better. It could always be worse. And I actually have a quote that I talk about that I actually have that says, you know, golf, much like life, can always be better and can always be worse. Embrace it. Yeah, absolutely. And I mean, of course, I've gone through some difficult things,

but I'm sure there's other people out there that have gone through things way worse than I have. And I'm not the type of individual to, you know, play the pity card and, you know, what was me. I've always gone in with the understanding that I'm going to do the best that I can without anyone knowing my story. And to be honest with you, I don't share my story a lot. So a lot of people don't know about the experiences that I've had in my life. But when I do interact with clients that are going through some type of challenge, such as, for example, I had a client call

and that lost her husband a few weeks ago and I was upfront with her and transparent, hey, I know what you're going through and trying to be empathetic with her and resonating with the type of difficulty in the aftermath of losing a loved one. So just having those real conversations with widows and widowers about,

hey, I get it. I walked this line before, and I'm here as a support system to guide you through the aftermath of losing your spouse. Onward and upward, right? I mean, that's kind of sort of your approach is what it sounds like. So again, that's great. So how was San Diego State? That's the Aztecs, right?

That is. Yeah. We got a good basketball team and we're working on the football side. Well, one of the greatest football players of all time and one of the greatest baseball players of all time went to San Diego State, right? Yeah, absolutely. so uh um for you and richards out there if you don't know who i'm talking about shame on you these are two of the uh greatest players in the in their sport of all time in football and in baseball so yeah your basketball team man yeah you're you made a very good run into the ncaa's maybe the years, right? Yeah, and this year is probably your viewers now. We came in, you know, the final, the championship game. So we didn't come in with the idea that, you know, a lot of people didn't think we were going to make it that far.

So I think we surprised a lot of individuals making it to that championship game. Yeah, well, I think I had you in my bracket going pretty far already. It didn't surprise me. Yeah, well, I think this is about the time, guys. We'll take a quick break. Blake, thank you so much for sharing your past and stuff like that. Once again, I see this all the time, man. There's so many people that have had childhood trauma.

It's pretty rampant out there. So just know that like if you're, you know, if somebody has a bad day and they might be a little gruff to you or something, understand they probably had something else going on that's built up. And we all have a lot of that. So, you know, opening your heart and being compassionate is always a good thing. Plus, then you don't get stressed out. You keep healthier. You don't stress out your immune system. And then you're more able to help people. So we'll take a quick break.

We'll be right back with our guest, Blake, when we return. Estate planning. What does that even mean? When the inevitable happens for everyone on this planet, your estate plan kicks into action. But first, let's start with what an estate is. An estate is simply everything you own now here's the issue and what needs to be understood when this event occurs you only have two choices on this plan number one either you plan how your estate gets handed out and distributed to those you leave

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make sure to reach out to your local advisor licensed with, or go to our website for more information. What's up, Enrichers? Tim James here. I'm back with my co-host, Carter Wilcoxon. Today in the house, we've got Blake Pinion, and he works over at Anchor Bay Capital Inc., I-N-C. And Blake, thanks for sharing your backstory, my friend. And so we're just going to get more into what are you up to over there at Anchor Bay? I mean, what's your niche? What's your specialty? And what are you doing over there that's different? Sure. Yeah. Thanks. Appreciate that question. So I'd say where I'm focusing my efforts is on

the young professional space. So those that are starting a family, buying a house, working hard and making a sufficient level of income where they necessitate high level planning needs. So that's where I'm targeting bringing in new clients myself. But overall, our firm operates in a way where we have a bunch of clients in the pre-retiree, retiree phase. So I feel like I play in both sandboxes where I work with young professionals personally, but also work with the pre-retiree, retiree phase. As far as my current role, I'm a lead financial planner and we're a comprehensive independent financial planning firm. So we do comprehensive financial planning. We do customized investment management.

We also do tax preparation and filing, which is another thing that I do. I'm also a tax preparer. And then in certain circumstances, we can help clients get estate documents through a partnership with a company called Encore Estate. So you talked a little bit in the first segment, you mentioned EA. And obviously, a lot of our listeners are probably going to know what an EA is. But talk a little bit about why you got that designation and specifically what it is. Sure. Yeah. So EA, enrolled agent, plain and simple, it gives individuals an ability to represent clients before the IRS. So it is a continuing education designation that is offered by the Internal Revenue Service. So I like to think of it as a specialization in tax. It's different from the CPA, where the CPA covers around four different exams and is more inclusive in areas such as audit, whereas the EA

focuses specifically on tax. And in order for someone to obtain the EA designation, they have to pass a series of three 100-question exams, and that's on individual tax, business tax, and then rules and regulation. So in order to obtain that designation, I had to pass a series of exams, do a bunch of studying, and then now I am eligible to provide tax advice and then represent clients before the IRS. So I was really motivated to do it because I, unlike most people, I have an interest in tax and I find it very appealing in my service model with clients. I do a lot of tax planning when I'm working with clients and analyzing whether to do some tax strategies before year end, or if there's a certain scenario where a

client could save money in taxes, I'm going to bring that to the table. So I felt like the EA really covers a lot of what an individual could know about taxes. And by getting that, I feel like I can offer a greater level of tax service to my clients above and beyond just the CFP certification curriculum on tax. Another thing that I'll say about the EA that I love about it is that part where you can represent clients before the IRS. And I wrote an article about this, but there's some cool things where if you submit what's called a power of attorney designation, a 2848, I can actually contact the IRS on behalf of the client and resolve tax disputes for them. So there's been situations where my clients have got notices from the IRS saying that they owe some large tax bill.

And then as the tax professional, I can do the calculations and provide the checks and balances. And if we disagree with the IRS, this assessment, I can submit a power of attorney and fight back for the client to the IRS. And I've had a win in that scenario where we turned a $11,000 tax bill into a $7,000 refund. So I just like to use that example as with the EA, you're able to provide a level of tax service above and beyond what the typical financial advisor may do. Yeah, that's actually really cool. I know a few financial advisors that have their EAs, but the one part that I really wasn't aware of is this POAa that you can effectively you know speak on their behalf and in that that's got to be a level of appreciation from their perspective because

right i mean some of the clients that you work with they're not financial advisors they're not tax specialists right they don't really know they just they're trying to you know stay within the lines you know follow the rules and do what they're supposed to do. And then they get this thing and they're like, what? Having you to be able to fall back on that has got to be, you know, super valuable for not only your clients, but anybody prospectively that's looking for a tax specialist like that. Yeah, absolutely. And if you try to ask your client to call the IRS, it's a black hole. You're not going to get a human on the line. But as a professional, I have what's called a practitioner priority line where I'm first

in line basically to get in touch with the IRS. So I can get in touch with the IRS a lot easier than my client may if they're trying to call on their own. easier than my client may if they're trying to call on their own. Another example that I like to give is that with the power of attorney designation, I can receive electronic copies of notices and communications the client gets from the IRS. So if the client got this nasty gram from the IRS saying they owe all this money, I can potentially get that before they do and then give them a call and let them know, hey, I received this letter as well. Here's the game plan of how we're going to solve it.

So it's just another example of how you can provide some peace of mind for your clients and illustrate to them that you're on top of it. Wow, that's actually really cool. And again, assuming that having more of those disciplines available to your clients and prospects, that bears fruit, I'm sure, on a regular basis whenever you're working with either

young professionals, as you mentioned, or retirees, pre-retirees, probably a little bit more for the younger professionals, I would assume, so then maybe someone that's been retired for five or 10 years, right? Yeah, absolutely. And I do have a strong interest and the nuances of that type of equity compensation specifically and the following tax implications and strategies that go along with it. So that's something that I help my clients with as well. Cool. So you said you've been now with AnchorBait Capital for about three years. You had pictured off to maybe get together with a larger conglomerate, obviously not naming any names or whatever, but talk a little bit about what the culture is there at

Anchor Bay Capital that has you very pleased with your decision to go there three years ago. Yeah, absolutely. What I love about our team here is that we really feel like we provide a one-stop shop, being able to serve the client in all dimensions of their life. Like I said, the tax side of it, the investment side, the financial planning, and then we could potentially help them with getting their estate documents. So to me, I have a strong interest in the tax side and the financial planning, but the investments part of the business doesn't excite me as much. So at our company, we have a investment team that is responsible for overseeing the client portfolios, executing trades, deciding the strategy for the firm. So it's nice being a part of a team and a family where you have other individuals responsible

for one dimension of the business that doesn't get me too excited and allows me to focus my time on my highest and best uses, which is doing the tax work and then meeting with clients and serving. All right. So I'm assuming since you work with some younger professionals, you know, and it's been three years, so you've gone through, you know, the COVID thing or post-COVID now, you know, what were maybe some of the challenges or since they are younger professionals in the digital age that we're living in now, you know, what was that environment like for you as being

a young financial advisor yourself? A lot of uncertainty because I didn't go through the 08, 09 economic recession. So I didn't experience a time where the market was dropping in such a short period. And it was scary. It was kind of the first real glimpse of what I got of like, hey, we're not sure what's going on. And there's some scary things going on within the markets and the economy. So it was really my first glimpse into we have to be a sounding board for clients in times like these, because if we're not confident on what we're doing and we don't give them the peace of mind that we know what's going on, then who will? So to me, COVID

really was an opportunity for myself to develop a confidence in talking clients off the ledge or having those conversations that are unpleasant and really the way that we demonstrate our value. So to me, I found it to be a good training opportunity for my growth and personal development. But as you put it, since I focus on the young professionals, I didn't think that the COVID and the enforcement of using Zoom and the virtual platforms really impacted them that much. It was just more of the uncertainty and the general theme of what was going on and no one really knew what was going to happen next.

Yeah, so your communications weren't really a hindrance with some of those younger clients that you've got. Within your firm though, did you have some challenges internally with maybe some of those younger clients that you've got. Within your firm, though, did you have some challenges internally with maybe some of the older generations that the firm – and Anchor Bay has been around for how long? Let's go back. 1996, so a long time.

Obviously, the founders and the owners that have been there for a long time, their clients may be up there in age. Were there some challenges there with some of those older age clients? Yeah, absolutely. Especially those that are used to the cadence of coming in person to our review meeting. So that was a shock for them, just trying to have to communicate, hey, we're going to do virtual meetings, you know, our phone calls and try to have them get set up with our, you know, video conference system. So that was definitely, you know, a new revelation that people found and just trying to convince people to operate in a new way against the grain of what they've been around for a long time. So we've had this cycle of people being used to coming in person to meetings. And with the COVID disruption and everything going virtual, it was definitely kind of a shock to everyone. And we had to adjust our systems to accommodate for the time.

more strict in some areas than it was in others, obviously, as well. And it's very well documented that California was very strict. Maybe your area specifically, not as, but I know that lots of parts of California were, you know, were very strict on that type of stuff. But it sounds like you guys overcame it and you're now moving forward and things are moving along swimmingly for you and you're looking to continue owning your space, so to speak, there in Southern California. Yeah, absolutely. It seems like Los Angeles was more strict compared to Orange County and San

Diego is where we primarily live. We do, we do a heavy amount of marketing and like seminars in Orange County and Carlsbad. So we did shift from the seminar to the webinar. So that's another example of how we adjusted to the. So that was while COVID was going on or you guys have continued doing that instead of. Well, while COVID was going on, we switched from doing the in-person seminars to the webinars, given the fact that we weren't able to meet in person. Now, since we're past COVID, we continue to do in-person seminars in Orange County and Carlsbad as a way to market and attract new clients. Gotcha. I gotcha. Okay. And then what's the subject matter that you guys are doing,

or is it different subject matters that are on a... Is it a monthly? Is it quarterly? How do you guys do them? Yeah. So generally, we'll do a couple in-person seminars focused on social security. And then in addition to that, we'll host monthly webinars on various topics throughout the year, like tax planning, estate planning. Next month, we're going to do one on a market update, market and the economy, and then real estate. So we try to do frequent communications to our client and also send out a monthly newsletter just to let all of them know that we're staying on top of the

news and what's happening within the world. Perfect. Awesome. But as far as bringing in that new blood, so to speak, right? You guys are doing the workshops as a way for that client acquisition. Yep. Absolutely. Yep. We just did one a few weeks ago in Orange County. Gotcha. Awesome. Well, the weather is pretty good there to get people out of the house, I'm sure, and into a room. So that's awesome. Tim, you know, it sounds like there's a one-stop shop mentality going on over there at Anchor Bay. And as we know, that's the right way to do it. Yeah, absolutely. That's the approach that we took and the clients loved it because you're taking, you know, all that and putting it together. The financial advisor, the CPA, the tax side of things, and then also the legality side of things with your trusts and wills. You put them all in one house, it's just people like it, you know. house it's it's just people like it you know and i mean statistically i remember i got some data from a pnc agent one time and he said that if i i can't remember the numbers but if they had one piece of business it was like 22 retention if they had two pieces of business it was 46 if they had three

pieces it was like 86 or something like that the the more pieces of business that those people had the less likely they were to leave because it was just like, you know, probably because they're lazy and they didn't want to move around and do anything, you know, switch all that stuff. But, you know, to have it all done in one place, it's really easy. And from a financial standpoint, a financial advisor standpoint that actually cares, like we're the ones that are actually facilitating a lot of times the,

the will, the trust, right. And getting that done. Cause otherwise they're just not going to do it. It's like you got to whip people to get it done. And they don't realize like what a mess they're leaving if they don't get it done. So good stuff. All right, guys, we're going to take another break and we get back. We're going to let Blake flip the script on me and we're going to talk about health. A very exciting topic.

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What's up, enrichers? Tim James here. I'm back with my co-host, Carter Wilcoxon. All right, Blake, we talked about wealth. Let's let the health out of the cage here. What questions do you have for me for health? And again, it could be for you, friend, family member, it could be public health, whatever you got. Yeah, Tim, thank you. I like to center around the theme of mental health. I mean,

personally, this month has been a doozy with tax season wrapping up in California and then us doing our review meeting cycle. So, you know, I felt a bunch of work, which has led to some stress. And so kind of the first question to you is, what do you feel like are some of the ways to decompress after a long work week and kind of recharge the batteries? and kind of recharge the batteries? Well, I think some of those same strategies that I'm going to say that are, you know, how to decompress from a long work week are some of the same strategies that in the future moving forward when this happens again,

you could be using them on the daily, right? So it doesn't get to that point. And, you know, a lot of that is simply just taking some time for yourself right in the middle of it. I'll give you an example. I've got a nurse right now and she came to me for coaching and she's being pulled in a million different directions. She changed careers in the middle of it because of, you know, political views and stuff like that. She's she just saw too much stuff happening at the hospital that she didn't want to be a part of anymore. And so she's completely stressed out so for her what we do is we have what i call sacred time it's about an hour before she actually decides to go to bed which we have a pick a time

on that so let's say when would you like to go to bed like what's the ideal time for you 10 30 do you hit you hit that very often it's in between 10 and 11 okay well let's just say it's at 11 so if 11 o'clock is your non-negotiable and that's where your your starting point is and again you can always work on these that means at 10 p.m that means you get off of all electronics, right? For multiple reasons, the light, we want the melatonin to come up in the body. It's not going to do it if you're looking at light because, you know, in nature, there is no lights except when the sun goes down, the melatonin goes up, right? So you want to get off that. You start doing beneficial things for you. This would be meditation. It could be prayer. It could be, you know, I got one gal, she listens to sermons. You

could read a book. You could take a sauna. You could maybe work with your partner and massage each other or whatever. I mean, you start doing things that serve you, right? And calming yourself down. And then when you wake up in the morning, same thing. You wake up, let's say at six. What time, actually, what time do you wake up? 6 a.m. Okay, 6. So you wake up at 6. So that first hour, I know you don't have any kids yet, so I know you can do this probably, is, again, that sacred time.

Nothing gets in the way of it. And, again, no lights, no blue lights, no TV, no laptops, no social media, nothing. It's just you and nature and yourself. And, you know, you just take care of yourself. Again, you're going to go for a walk. You're going to do things that are going to be beneficial for you. And some people do a little bit more than that in the mornings because they have exercise routines they're doing. But, you know, I'm talking about meditation again and prayer and being calm.

Carter and I take saunas in the morning, right, Carter? And yeah, every morning we take an infrared sauna. You can do a little meditation while you're in there and calm yourself. Now for you and other busy business professionals, you also have this thing called lunch. And I know you're doing business lunches and stuff like that. But what you can do is like in your car after the lunch or before the lunch, you can do both of these actually before and after lunch, or you can just go into the bathroom and sit on the toilet, even if you don't have to go and just take some deep breaths in and out of your mouth for

in your nose and out through your mouth for just a couple minutes and calm the nervous system and center yourself. Because what's happening is when you allow these stressful things to build up inside of you, you're actually creating poor chemistry. You're actually spiking your adrenal glands and your cortisol levels in your body, creating those chemicals for fight or flight so you can run. And so you can do extremely, you can be more athletic and save your life more than you would be in a sedentary state. So those are mechanisms that God has put into your body to save you. But if you get stressed out and you don't burn through them by fighting something or running,

they turn into toxic chemicals and over time they're going to destroy your health. That's just the way it works. So you have to be mindful of this and allowing, knowing that there's stressors and stuff out there. What are you doing on a daily to stay calm? And then the other thing is just having a different perception. And what that means is, is no matter what happens to you, understanding that you choose how you get to respond to it. You're in total control of choosing what you get out of any circumstance. And how I was taught this was that everything in life, Blake, is meaningless. There's zero meaning to anything in life. Nothing. Life is meaningless. It's only the meaning that you give it, right? So everything

in life serves both double duty. It is a neutral prop. You get to decide what that is towards you. And, you know, and we see this. I was if I'm just saying as a financial advisor, it's like you put a big deal together. You worked with these people forever and you're like, yes, it's done. And then somebody calls you from your marketing organization like, hey, they missed a signature. It's like, we can't fund this deal. And like, but they just took off. And it's like, ah, you know.

And then, you know, it's this kind of stuff, right? It can stress people out, especially if you're like, if you need to make your mortgage payment. All right. And that kind of stuff. So you can't let that stuff deal, bug you like that. I'll tell you, today I had one. I put in for a passport because I've got three business trips in a row

out of the country. And I put in for a rush thing and they said it'll be done towards the end of October. Well, today's the 31st. I still haven't gotten it. Check the mail. I call them up and they're like, well, we delivered it in September. I'm like, what? I got my like September 1st. And I'm like, cause I ordered it way back in August and now I'm freaking out. And then they sent me my old one afterwards. And then the guy's like, well, that's odd. He's like, normally they send the old one first and then they'll send you out the new one. I can't believe your new one got out that fast. And I'm like, well, that's odd. He's like, normally they send the old one first, and then they'll send you out the new one.

I can't believe your new one got out that fast. And I'm like, well, me either. I never saw it. And so I'm five days away, and he's like, well, we can't help you here. We're going to send you to right here. You need a schedule to have your passport reissued. So they sent me to another lady, and I spent half an hour with her on the phone

getting it all ready. And I have to drive to Seattle tomorrow, she says. It's the closest one. So seven hours one way and seven hours back. And I got family coming in tomorrow. And my son, and I'm supposed to spend, it's our sacred time, right? And I'm just like, and then I have business meetings and i have all this stuff

and i'm just like what is what am i gonna do here well i set up the meeting and i went and i'm like you know what i live with my parents and they're older i'm gonna go through everything so i went through all the mail i found it it been sitting in there somehow it got in and mixed in with my mom and dad stuff and so i call them back and they're like oh i think you've already canceled it you might still have to go to seattle i'm like i have it in my hand and so finally i got on the phone with the guy and he's like we got it handled you're good to go right but i didn't let it get to me i started to but then i realized i'm like you know what if I have to go to Seattle, then I have to go. I just have to go. That's what I, that's the, you know, even though I, I could be like,

I planned to him. I did this way early. I paid that expedited fee, those bastards, you know, it's like, but what good is that going to do me? They don't care. Uh, you know, I just need to get my, I just need to get my passport so I can carry on with the things that are most important to me, which is I need to get there to help I can carry on with the things that are most important to me, which is I need to get there to help. That's part of my business deal. So anyway, really looking at how you respond to things and then having some daily practices like some breath work and meditation

and getting outside in nature, being around people that you love, and just don't let shit get to you. I mean, you have deadlines. All you can do is do your best. I don't know if you're ever around cub scouts but that's what the motto is just like do your best if if you do your best i mean what more could you possibly do there's no sense of being stressed out about it after that i have hundreds and hundreds of emails coming in i used to stress about it now i'm like um i just tell people if it's really important i i know they'll email me again that's where it boils down to now like if it's really important, I know they'll email me again.

That's where it boils down to now. Like if it's really bad or you know, they'll make a phone call and on. Maybe I can get an extra assistant now to start cleaning those up and maybe I'll get to that point. But I just don't worry about it because I love myself. I understand how stress creates emotions, which create certain chemistries in the body that either, you know, tear my immune system down or build me up. Does that help? It does. Yeah. You know, I started, I started meditating in the morning. At the beginning, I was super excited about it. I was doing the manifestations, but you know, lately when I meditated in the morning, I feel like my mind's going in a million different directions and it's harder for me to stay on the same page as my meditation.

So do you have any suggestions to kind of continue the routine of meditation and stay from like a mental standpoint, stay in the zone rather than having your mind wander? Well, I mean, there's nothing, first off, there's nothing wrong with you letting your mind wander. There's nothing wrong with you letting your mind wander there's nothing wrong with that um one thing you can do is you can picture like you're a cat and there's a mouse hole and you're the cat staring at the mouse hole waiting for the mouse to come out that's the the thoughts you're waiting for the mouse the thoughts are the mouse waiting to come out when you get really present on waiting for them to come in and you're really focused on it, what you'll notice is they'll drop off significantly.

Why? Because you're focusing on the present moment. These thoughts are coming in because your mind is going to the past and it's going to the future and neither of those two places exist. I mean, can you go to the past right now? No. How about right now? No. How about the future? No. You physically can't do it, but in our minds we can.

It's one of the things that separates us from humans because we can actually think of if we do this, what would be the secondary or third action that could happen from that. So that gives us kind of an advantage because we can actually have some thought. We can look into the future. We can get excited about things. But the reality is, is we don't know what's going to happen. We don't. If we did, we'd all be rich in the stock market. And if you look in the past, it works out really good to have memory. We have

this memory deal. So if you burn your hand on a stove, like when you go back up again as a kid, you're like, oh yeah, don't touch the hot stove. I'll get burnt. So that memory serves you. But when you're going back and going, oh shit, did I get that done? Oh man, that guy was a dick. And it was like, I don't want to work with him again

or whatever, but you know, then you do it anyway. Or he really did me wrong. And you're creating a bad chemistry. You're literally creating something in the present that doesn't even exist on something in the past that's already long gone, right? So when you're doing your meditations, you have to be very careful that it's like,

why am I thinking about the past or the future? It's like, I'm here right now. I'm gonna be in the present moment. You can also listen to your voice, your breath. So if you're breathing in, you can kind of constrict your breath a little bit like and just focus on your breath. That can help be the cat looking through the mouth hole, being in the present moment. And the other thing is just let the thoughts go around. The most important thing is just stay consistent with it.

There's no right or wrong. You're just trying to calm your mind. That's it. You're just trying to clear your head and get into a space. So those would be my recommendations. Let me share something with you just real fast. And again, Enrichers, thank you for joining us for another episode of the Health & Wealth Podcast Show.

We're on with Blake Pinion of Anchor Bay Capital. So we talked a little bit earlier about this infrared sauna that I am a huge proponent of. Thank you, Tim, for turning me on to that. Yeah, just get one of the saunas. I mean, they'll help you, too. I mean, it's like. What I was going to say was what I was going to say is, you know, I combine. Well, first of all, it's a one-person sauna.

I get in it. I've got a gym at my house and everything. So I get in it. And when I'm in it, I can't go anywhere. And literally, I'm stuck, right? So that forces me to be present, even though my mind wanders, too, because I run a business and I've got all the things and kids and family and, you know, all those same type of stressors that, you know, that we have. I simultaneously, or I combine being in that sauna stuck in one spot, you know, 15 to 18 minutes every single day. And there's no electronics in there, right? I can't be on my phone. Well, I choose not to be on the phone.

You could have your earbuds and listen into a podcast or listen into music or whatever, but I completely removed myself from all of those devices because I have plenty of time. Other than that 15 to 18 minutes, I'm going to. But I do my breathing when I'm in there. I'm stuck in there. I'm in the present, right?

I've got a board on my wall that I have messages on there. I read those messages like over and over and over again, reaffirming the types of positive things I wanna put into my body to get positive stuff out of it. That's my thing that I do every single morning and a lot of times even on the weekend, right? Because it's just one of those things that I know has benefited me to relieve my own personal stress.

I just wanted to share my own little bit of information with you as well. Like awesome. Thank you. Super helpful. Yeah, for sure. Anything else that you have for our chemical free body co-host? Yeah, I guess I'm wondering kind of the same theme of like negative thoughts and stuff like that. What would you say is a good way to kind of shift the mentality of thinking something negative to being optimistic and looking at life with that half half glass half full mentality.

Well, it's just it's the same thing. I, you know, here's the thing is like labeling something negative or positive. Both of those are valid choices. That's the thing about the human experience. There's light and dark and we get to choose so neither are wrong um both um the way i look at things is instead of negative or positive i look at them as like contrast it's like wow that's giving me some good feedback right because it's like an engineer i don't know if you're familiar with engineers but engineers love feedback because it allows them to improve their design or whatever they created. They want as much feedback from the end users as possible so they can tweak things and get them better and

better. So when something so-called negative happens to you, you can look at it as contrast and let you know, well, that didn't work. So now that you're that much closer to what you know that will work, right? So it's always a benefit. And if you look, no matter how bad things are or what somebody's intention is towards you, if you look for the positive, it's always there. You just have to stop for a moment, create a little space in between jumping in emotionally with how bad it is and seeing what the benefit is for you.

And it might take an hour, it might take a day, it might take a week. But I had a similar thing happen where I had a contract rip me off for about nine grand, which turned into 12 and turned into 15 because I found a bunch of other stuff we had to rip. Literally brand new construction, had to tear it all off and redo stuff more and more and more.

And I let it bother me for about a day. And then I'm like, well, where's the benefit here? Because man, that's a lot of contrast. There's got to be some really good stuff here. And what I found out what it was, it was how he acted on the phone when I finally called him out. Just the vibrational frequency. Well, I had another deal going on in another business, my main business, and somebody who I trusted, I had to call them out on something and they gave me the exact same vibrational frequency. And then I realized, oh my God, it's the same. I don't need these people in my life. So because of this other person, this smaller deal, it was allowed, allowed me to give me, um, I guess in one way you would say the, um, awareness, um, encouraged to be

like, Oh, I need to move on in that situation too, which I did. And I feel much better. And I've got a much better replacement happening because of that. So that all happened within two, three weeks, you know, but it took a while, but I was always looking for the benefit. And then finally I was like, aha, you know, right. So I had to learn over here. I took a financial hit to learn over here so that, you know, I can move forward with the other business. So that's how I got the benefit of it. And I stayed calm the whole time and didn't stress out my immune system.

Triple win. Yeah, triple win yeah that's awesome that is fantastic well that is a great path of questioning by the way you know we don't talk a lot about the mental aspects of it and uh and hopefully you know you got a lot out of this hopefully our enrichersers, as they're listening, going into the holiday season, there can be a lot of stress that happens during that time. So hopefully that was able to benefit you today, Blake. Hey, enrichers, thank you so much for joining us for another episode of the Health and Wealth Podcast. And to be able to see all of our previous guests, like Blake Pinion of Anchor Bay Capital, please go to our website at www.feehealthandwealthpodcastshow.com. Make sure to like, share, and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts, Apple, Spotify, Podbean, whatever that may be.

So for my fantastic chemical-free body co-host, Tim James, I'm Carter Wilcoxon, wishing you a wonderful day and thanking you for joining us again. Blake, seriously, my man, thank you so much for joining us. It was a great pleasure. Thank you. This is fun. So until next time, Enrichers, we will see you on the Health and Wealth Podcast.

Thank you, everybody. Hey, Enrichers. Thanks for tuning in to another episode of the Health and Wealth Podcast. I'm your host, Carter Wilcoxon. And I'm your host, Tim James. And by God, we are committed to helping you guys have fat wallets, flat bellies. So tune in again for another episode

and make sure to like, share, and drink a lot of water. Or fear. You have just listened to the Health and Wealth Podcast with Carter and Tim.