The Chris Voss Show - The Chris Voss Show Podcast – Entrepreneurs Revolutionizing Wealth Management with Modern Financial Planning at Modern Wealth

Episode Date: December 9, 2024

Entrepreneurs Revolutionizing Wealth Management with Modern Financial Planning at Modern Wealth mymodernwealth.com About the Guest(s): Dillon Kazemi and Montel Hawkins are co-founders of Modern Wealth, an innovative wealth management firm focused on providing financial planning and investment strategies tailored to individual client needs. Dillon Kazemi is a former missionary who realized a better way to handle financial planning around core values and life goals rather than sheer wealth accumulation. Montel, on the other hand, is an experienced entrepreneur and marketer who has successfully exited a tech business. Together, they envision helping clients navigate the modern financial landscape without traditional asset minimums, emphasizing a comprehensive approach to wealth building through business, property, and paper assets. Episode Summary: In this engaging episode of The Chris Voss Show, financial innovators Dillon Kazemi and Montel Hawkins discuss their groundbreaking journey in the world of wealth management. Their new startup, Modern Wealth, aims to redefine how financial planning is conducted, moving away from conventional asset-based strategies to a more personalized and value-driven approach. Spanning over six months since its inception, My Modern Wealth encourages individuals to realize their dreams by aligning their financial strategies with their personal aspirations, emphasizing the importance of core values while managing wealth through diverse economic channels. Listeners will gain insights on how Dillon Kazemi and Montel unify their unique backgrounds and experiences to craft a client-focused approach to wealth management, breaking barriers with remote consulting. They share the philosophy of not setting asset minimums and expanding wealth management services digitally, setting them apart from traditional financial advisors. The episode delves into how their Purpose Power Plan (P3) is designed to connect a client's financial decisions with their core values, offering a comprehensive roadmap to financial independence. Dylan and Montel explore the three avenues to wealth creation—property, paper, and business—advocating a balanced investment approach while harnessing modern technologies such as cryptocurrencies and AI. Key Takeaways: Modern Wealth emphasizes a non-traditional, client-centered approach to financial planning, tht focuses on aligning clients' monetary strategies with their life purposes and core values. The company avoids asset minimums, making financial advising accessible to those just starting, young entrepreneurs, and business owners with funds tied into their ventures. The co-founders advocate for three primary wealth-building paths: property (real estate), paper (stocks, bonds, etc.), and entrepreneurship (starting or investing in a business). Dillon Kazemi and Montel's remote wealth management model exemplifies innovation in consulting, pairing personalized strategies with a seamless digital experience. The Purpose Power Plan (P3) is central to their methodology, which not only enhances client engagement but also significantly improves the likelihood of clients achieving their financial goals. Notable Quotes: "Too many financial professionals get the numbers right and the people wrong." — Montel Hawkins "We empower individuals and families to live their boldest dreams and aims with innovative solutions." — Dillon Kazemi "There’s only three ways you can build wealth: property, paper, and building a business." — Dillon Kazemi "Our process is called Purpose Power Plan; there's power in your purpose." — Montel Hawkins "We wanted to create a place where a client could go and have all of their financial problems solved." — Dillon Kazemi cess.

You wanted the best. You've got the best podcast, the hottest podcast in the world. The Chris Voss Show, the preeminent podcast with guests so smart you may experience serious brain bleed. The CEOs, authors, thought leaders, visionaries, and motivators. Get ready, get ready, strap yourself in. Keep your hands, arms, and legs inside the vehicle at all times. Because you're about to go on a monster education roller coaster with your brain. Now, here's your host, Chris Voss. Hi, folks. This is Voss here from thechrisvossshow.com.

Ladies and gentlemen, there are the latest things that makes it official. For 16 years, going on 17. The Chris Voss Show has been bringing you the most smartest, brilliant people in the world. 2,200 episodes. So if you're just new to the show, go back and listen to every damn single one of them because they're really important to listen to. Go to goodreads.com for it says Chris Voss. LinkedIn.com for it says Chris Voss.

Chris Voss won the TikTokity and all those crazy places on the internet. Today we have two young gentlemen on the show with us today talking about their new launch and their startup and entrepreneurism and some of the stuff they do. We have Dylan Kazami. Kazemi on the show. Did I get that right, Dylan? You're so close. It's Kazemi.

Kazemi. There we go. Dylan Kazemi joins us on the show and Montel Hawkins. Dylan is a former missionary and on the show and Montel Hawkins. Dylan is a former missionary and now he helps clients across the country with a new way of doing financial planning. I guess this is a new religious sort of movement. Montel is the man behind their marketing plans. He successfully exited and sold a tech business where he learned the power of duplication and team building. Together with their third partner, they are building a remote wealth management firm that's breaking old barriers around investment strategies for everyday people. Welcome to the show, Dylan and Montel. How are you?

Man, so happy to be here. I got to be honest, your intro got me kind of pumped up. I'm ready to go hit the gym. It's about the brain bleed. I can't even do the voice of the radio guy who did that intro he's pretty freaking amazing he's a true radio voice i'm just a hack so gentlemen give us your dot coms where can people find you on the interwebs yeah the main one is my modern wealth dot com so that's going to be where everything is housed otherwise you know all the normal socials you can find us as well. Yeah. And on those socials, you can find us on My Modern Wealth. There you go. MyModernWealth.com. Give us a 30,000 overview of this new startup that you guys have launched, I think six months ago, right? Yes. About six months ago. However,

Chris, we have been in the industry collectively with 23 partners about 33 years. New firm, but not new people as far as in the industry. With Modern Wealth, in simple terms, I like to say that we empower individuals and families for that matter to live their boldest dreams and aims with innovative solutions, which is a mouthful. And we can dive into that, I'm sure, today. I like to say, Chris, in our industry, a lot of people kind of like to, or just in, you know, business as a whole, they like to kind of get inundated in industry specifics. And, you know, for example, you can be a financial advisor and specialize in mortuary financial advisor or lawyer financial advisor. We want to think a little bit different in that terms. And

we have a brand or core value or characteristic of our clients. And they saw it in the name in terms of living their boldest dreams and someone who's living with intent. So with that, we kind of couple that with practical planning in terms of financial planning and making sure that they live their aim. I'm planning on being an OnlyFans financial advisor. That's where the money is, gentlemen. That's where the money is these days. $43 million that one chick's making. Dylan, did you want to give us your take on the $30,000 overview? Yeah, definitely.

So I think what's really important to say is that the three of us, before we came together, we were all our own solo advisors running our own solo practices. And at some point, we just realized there had to be a better way of doing things. Different from how we had been trained, what the more traditional model is in financial services and it became clear with all the pushback we were getting the only way we could do things differently is if we just sat out and made our own firm so that's what we did yeah that's what i did too i'm i'm unhirable and i don't work with others so So I'm just like, I guess I'm working for myself for all my life. No other options. And so how is this different? You guys are trying to make it more unique. And is there a minimum sort of client net worth that you guys will work with?

How does that work? So I'll say right off the bat, we knew even before day one. So before we had a name for the firm, we knew we did not want to set asset minimums because we wanted to be able to help the people, number one, who are just getting started. Number two, we wanted to help the people who were closest to us, like our family. And number three, we recognize that a startup business owner, those other entrepreneurs that we get along with really well, they're not going to have money because their money's in their business. So why did we want to limit ourselves from helping the people we could relate to the most? But as far as differentiators, I would say a huge thing is our emphasis on core values and helping people really articulate their purpose with their money. And what I mean by that is if you sit down, I'm going to say at a traditional firm, I won't name any names, but they're named after a person.

If you sit down at one of those places, it's all going to be about retirement. How do we get your money ready for retirement? How do we sock it away so that you don't touch it for the next 30, maybe 40 years? Whereas we flip that and we say, what are you trying to do in your life? What are you trying to accomplish? How can we reorient your money to get you there? Yeah. And that's probably important, right? Yeah, I would say so. You got to do there. Did you have an insert here, Montel, you want to jump in on?

Yeah. You know, that is going to be what he just said is going to be our new vision. Having that approach, I like to say we start off with your aims before your assets. Too many financial professionals get the numbers right and the people wrong. As financial advisors, we come in and we know our numbers like the back of our hand, but we never really ask or are considered about the person across from us in terms of what are they trying to go after and achieve. And once we have that, it helps us kind of just complete that financial plan. So that's one thing in terms of a new vision. Also a new mindset, Chris, I think you would agree. A lot of people nowadays, just especially in this high inflationary economy, people just want to be equipped with financial tools and to kind of be able to navigate

tough financial situations and scenarios. And we want to come in and be very educational and non-transactional, whether it's through podcasts or workshops, et cetera. And then the last one, Chris, before I talk too much, because I'm passionate about this topic is our new opportunities. One of the biggest, I mean, here we are, what day is it today? We're in December, let's just say. And right before Christmas, and we see, you know, there's a lot more non-traditional assets that we're speaking about that investors are putting in their portfolio. One of the most popular is going to be Bitcoin, right? So if we're caught modern wealth, we want to make sure we're staying ahead and allowing our clients to dip into new opportunities. Wow.

So you guys are playing the crypto sphere. You know, we're getting our toes wet, but that, it may not sound like much, but compared to the rest of our industry and what our competitors are doing, it is a lot. Yeah, I mean, it just hit 100,000. Geez, I remember buying it with 600 and lower. And yeah, I sold out at 35,000,

so now I feel like an idiot. But I mean, it went up and then it went way back down. And who knows? It's a thing. So you guys talk about three ways to build wealth. Now, I think I know them, right? You invest in beanie babies, rims for your Corvette, and cars, right? Those are the three best.

You forgot the yacht, Chris. The yacht? I can't swim, so I don't own a yacht. No, I'll take this. And I think this is another contributor to what really helps make us be a little bit more modern, especially compared to other places, is that we teach our clients that there's really only three ways that you can build wealth. The first is property.

So that's just the things that I own. Most often, that's going to be real estate, whether it's a land, lot, vacation rental, or even just their primary residence. The second is paper. And that's going to encompass the stock market, right? That's going to be cash. I'll even throw in cryptocurrency into there as well, because it has the word currency in it. And the third is building a business, which, to be frank, I tell every single one of my clients, they need to at least consider

starting a business and having a little more control over their life. But we, we look at that and say, Listen, we want to help you build wealth in all three ways. And yes, one's going to be a little more focused than the other. It could be that real estate developer who's just all crazy about real estate, but we don't want to neglect the benefits of some of these other things. Do you want to jump in here on that, Montel? I mean, Chris, I think he was spot on. There's only going to be those three avenues or three ways to create wealth, and you can challenge me all, everything that you do, we're going to correlate within those three. And most advisors aren't going to talk about this because again, like Dylan said,

they can't bill you from it. And they don't want to talk about anything that they can't, you know, make money from, but we want to make sure that we help our clients, you know, have that balance within all three and, you know, not, you know, be shy on either way, because those are the three ways, whether if you like it or not. My financial advisor still takes a 10% cut off my Beanie Baby investment. It's not holding up so well after all these years. I thought it would do better.

I thought it would do like Bitcoin and soar. And so you help manage their money, you process it, invest it, and all that good stuff, or do they have to do it themselves? No, totally. manage their money you process it invest it and all that good stuff or do they have to do it themselves no totally so we still have that more traditional asset management role because let's be frank most people they want to be out living their lives they don't want to have to worry about what any individual investment is doing and maybe maybe they have the knowledge they just don't have the time or they don't even really care so yeah we, we take that off of their plate. But at the same time, we add in all these other avenues that we're taking a look at. That's the second time you said, let's be frank. Is it really? You really want to be frank. I feel comfortable being frank here.

Chris, to add on what he said, because I think what you're getting to is, you do have those people who want to gamble per se, right? and choose individual stocks or do trading, et cetera. And what I like to say is, whatever amount of money that you're going to take to Vegas, we'll go ahead and gamble 20% of your portfolio, maybe even less on those individual stocks. We're not even stock pickers per se, even being financial advisors. What we do is we actually outsource that and we go find the asset managers, the guys and gals who have proven track records over centuries, if you will, of putting together funds, knowing that the beta and alphas are going to be what we like it to be. So again, if you want to gamble, whatever you're going to take the biggest, put it in those individual stocks.

But 80% of your portfolio, let the professionals do it. Definitely. Definitely. No, I was joking about the Frank thing because I'm a big airplane. I forget who the – is it the Zucker Brothers? Whoever used to do the airplane stuff. Remember the line, don't call me Shirley? Yeah.

So I play a lot of literal comedy on the show. Tell us about both of yourselves. How did you guys grow up up what got you into some of the fields that you're in and what was the proponent for the startup how'd you meet up and wow let's launch this thing you want to take a trip down the memory lane i will i'll kind of get music for this that comes up right memory lane roll out of my red carpet i'll be quick for you and kind of give you a fast version of my background. You're going to be quick and he's going to be frank. That's right. I come from Los Angeles.

My parents kind of share that traditional Los Angeles story where they met at Crenshaw High School. They've been knowing each other since they were 12 and 15. I was born into that L.A. story. And, you know, we didn't grow up at the dinner table talking about how to create wealth. Actually, we didn't talk about money at all. It was actually the opposite in terms of observing what not to do with your money. But one thing about my mom is she was very ambitious. She was very goal-driven and she actually moved us out of a not so great environment because she chose the vehicle of real estate. And I remember she'll sell homes,

she'll get a big boatload of commission, she'll buy my brother a car and buy a house, et cetera. So one thing about my mom, she didn't teach me how to open up an LLC, but she was a go-getter. And I observed her just by going to her real estate showings and viewings and open houses and her listings. So I kind of got in that same situation, if you will, and found myself, you know, creating businesses and knocking on doors in the CD burning days when you actually go the Best Buy and actually buy a CD. I was the guy who burned CDs and put, you know,

all different kinds of tracks on one CD. After that business kind of retired because technology went pretty fast, I started my gardening business and still knocked on doors, dropped off business cards and raped leaves in the fall, which then led me to start my most proud business, which is what I exited, what you gave here in the intro with my twin brother. In college, we actually exited a tech business and built an app. Now, when I got that money in my bank account, after exiting that business, it went out just as fast. I didn't even see it.

That's when I realized, you know what, before I start another business, I need to figure out how money works. So let me just go into sales, make more money, and then learn how money works. One of those interviews when I was getting into sales was a financial advisor and he schooled me on the financial industry like nothing else. I didn't even hear a financial advisor coming from where I come from. There were other guys on the corner selling other things other than financial plans. So I gravitated and I said, you know what? Pick me. If this really works, use it on me. And then I got all the financial products before I even sold one, which was life insurance. I invested. And then I said, you know what? I think I can do this. Fast forward, I believe that same year I met Dylan in that same practice because one of his buddies were that financial advisor.

And I guess Dylan, I'll let you pick it up, pick it up from there. There we go. Yeah. So he became a client of someone who was working in the same office as I was. So he obviously was like a sponge and wanted to learn everything. So he was asking all the other advisors stuff. And we had kind of built a relationship through that way. And then around the same time, a little bit later, we both started to feel dissatisfied, like I said, with how things were being done and how we were being trained.

So we started to have these closed door sessions in my office of what if there's a different way that we could interact with our clients? What if there's a different journey we could take them on, if you will? And we started to craft that, which is now our Purpose Power Plan that we use with all of our new clients. But back up a little bit. So my history growing up was a little different than that. I never knew I was going to be an entrepreneur. I never planned on it. My parents were both that corporate America life. And it was not the best time for them. I remember my mom for a two week period came home every single day in tears with the way her boss treated her. And then a little bit later, it was a different scenario where her and my stepdad were working at an insurance company that had mandatory overtime. And they're working 55, 60 plus hours a week while I'm in

middle school. And I'm just sitting at home like, where are my parents? And I thought, that's what was waiting for me one day. And so fast forward even more, I was flirting with entrepreneurism, not like he was, but flirting with it. And my wife was pregnant with our first child. So I got scared. I said, I need to have at least some paycheck that I know is gonna come because you know I'm gonna be a dad I got a job at a bank it was a very entry-level rudimentary the whole job probably be done with AI right now but when I was there after a while they said you know we recognize you're overqualified for this we want to train you for a new position double the pay salaried you're, we recognize you're overqualified for this. We want to train you for a new position. Double the pay, salaried.

You're going to love it. You're going to be here for a long time. So for a couple of weeks, they trained me. Then one day I come into the office. They say, hey, we're actually going to move you to a different department. And I asked, what about that job you were training me for? And they said, no, we decided to give it to someone else. Just drop the hammer like that.

So I go and I sit in my cubicle and i put my hands in my all right put my head in my hands and i said i'm in the exact same position my parents were in and something moved in me that day to where i said i can't let this happen again i have to become an entrepreneur now wow i love it it's good vision you know the greatest thing about being an entrepreneur is you control your destiny. You work 24-7. You burn out. You end up doing a lot of cocaine just to survive.

Wait, wait, what? Is that an entrepreneur or are we talking about something else? I don't know. I don't know. Anyway, no, being an entrepreneur is the greatest thing in the world. And it's hard. It's challenging. And it will self-actualize actualize you like nothing else at least in my opinion i mean unless you're born rich and you have money

or something and you know you don't really have to develop as a human being it will you know you just hire people blame them for everything which is what i do blame them for all your problems but no it's hard it's a hard process but it is. And Chris, if you don't mind, I want to stay on here a little bit more because you're hitting on something. And obviously, I see you as someone that has bold aspirations and a big dream, obviously being one of the top 1% podcasts. And we all heard of the old adage that how to kill a big dream, a small minded person. And so what we want to do is we want to represent that financial firm where it's okay to let us know and speak about those crazy high aims that you had, which is one of our slogans, live your aim. Because, you know,

if you can't say those bold aspirations and dreams, and number one, you need a different circle of friends. And you're just not doing yourself of service by not speaking about that future you want to create and that generation of wealth you want to leave behind. So that's kind of our differentiator as well, if you will, by kind of highlighting the go-getter, that person who is going after something, whether it's philanthropy work, funding a passion product, or again, leaving behind generational wealth. Whatever it is, it's okay. You can let us know that.

It's a safe space, and we're going to help you kind of tie that money with your mission. I like how you guys ask what a client is trying to accomplish. That was something I taught my salespeople, and I think it's in my book, Beacon's Leadership, where I taught all of our salespeople, in fact think it's in my book, Beacon's Leadership, where I taught all our salespeople, in fact, that you had to say it, but the first question they would need to ask a client when they call them, other than, you know, hello, good day, is what are you trying to accomplish? And shut up and listen. And that's so important.

You know, a lot of financial advisors steamroll you and we know what's good for you, so we'll just tell you how it is. And like, you don't know me. You know, I have that all the time with the Beanie Baby vendor. Tell us about this P3 process. It sounds like that encompasses part of it that you guys have. Yeah, totally. So that's the thing that we locked ourselves in my office and started to put together. But we realized the process that we were taking a new client through, it was just missing something. And so how we started it off is we actually took a step back and said, all right, this first time that we're going to talk with a potential new client, I don't want to see anything about their money. I just want to hear about who they are as a person, what their life has been like to this point, maybe what are some things they're afraid of? And then flip the table

and let them ask me all of those same questions. So we call it the awareness session because it's very intentionally like we're growing in awareness of each other. And at first, you know, some of the other people in our office were thinking, you're just wasting your time, get closer to the sale. But what we noticed is when we slow down and we take that really intentional time, not only does it increase our closing ratios, but then the clients themselves become much more engaged and much more likely to accomplish those goals that they set out to do. Oh, yeah. It's, you know, getting to know the client. I mean, we would have, I think, some of the worst examples we'd have in our mortgage company.

You know, we'd say, call the client, ask him what he's trying to accomplish, shut up and listen. And, you know, they'd want a 15-year mortgage instead of a 30. And the loan officer would just, you know, not listen, not listen to what the client wanted. You know, they would show up at closing with a 30-year mortgage, and they'd be very upset because they wanted a 15. We'd have to go fix everything and make everyone happy again but you know listen the client making sure that you know the goals are aligned for what your financial want advisor wants and you know that way you can make sure that you're you know investing in rims and cars and things all the good things what are some aspects of the

company that we haven't talked about that you guys feel are pretty unique to you guys and to give you an edge? Yeah, I'll kind of take a step back and I probably hinted at it, but I think this is a good time, opportune time to touch on it. So not only do we have that, you know, emotions and aspirations that people can kind of chime with in terms of resonating with modern well-being, live your aim and support those people who have those bold aspirations. But how do we do that? It's all about, okay, we know who you serve, but then how do you do it? And we have those practical ways as well. And I'll kind of sum it down into three things. Number one is just instilling them with a new vision. Like Dylan said, our process is called purpose, power, plan. And that is because power in your purpose. My most favorite topic, Chris, is how if you don't know your purpose, you're sabotaging your finances. Because if you can show me where a man spends

their dollar and I'll show you who they are. I think money is the greatest show on earth. I can take a step back and watch how someone, if I'm looking at your accounts and you spend a hundred grand on FanDuel or DraftKings, and I kind of know where your values align or if you're taking that to make it. So that's the one thing is instilling that new vision. Then we have that new mindset, which is just really educational. We do workshops locally here where we're at in Chandler, Arizona. We have a couple of strategic partnerships of 1099 contractors that we get in front of and really just do educational workshops. And number two is, you know, we want to also teach future generations, right? A lot of financial advisors drop the ball on not only helping out

the mom and dad you're sitting in front of, but what about the parents or what if they want to leave some generation of wealth behind to a charity? So we're really, really educational and changing the mindset. We've all heard of this new phrase coming out in the last four years, financial literacy. So we take pride in that and making sure that we have that education. And then lastly, being on the forefront, our third partner, who's our chief investment officer, Dylan and I like to say he's probably one of the most qualified as partners. He's been investing in the stock market for over two decades. And we just make sure we're on him to stay ahead, making sure that, you know, Chris, if you look at if you look at the S&P 500 in the early 2000s, 80 percent of those companies were manufacturing companies and tangible things that you can see, touch and feel. 20% was software based. Now in 2024, it's completely flipped

where 80% of those companies are not tangible at all. And 20% actually are. So we believe if the market evolves, we'll show your portfolio. So what is that next new thing that we want to get in front of AI, crypto, alternative investments, et cetera, that we can take pride in our name, Modern Wealth, and add it before the market? Yeah. And really another thing that we had in our vision when we set out is we wanted to have a place where a client could go and have all of their financial problems be solved. And so Montel and I had a history of working with self-employed people and they would continually come up. I need help with bookkeeping. I need help with tax planning. I need help with all these other things.

And because of compliance requirements at previous firms and whatnot, we had to always say, I'm sorry, I can't help you. I'm sorry, I can't help you. Go talk to that person. Go talk to that person. And one day we just said, this is ridiculous. And so what we're building out is a single place where a client can go and they know they have professionals that can solve every single problem that they have. So obviously, the two people on the screen here, we're helping with those investments. We're helping with the financial planning aspect, but we have a whole accounting division with a budget coach, with a bookkeeper this coming year, keep it on the down low. We're bringing in a CPA to help with tax filing. And then we also have an insurance agency because protecting against risk is a huge component of building your wealth. Yeah. I mean, you've got mean, you've got to look out for, you know, there's all sorts of things.

Lots of stuff is happening with, you know, I mean, it'll be interesting what goes on with tax code coming in the future presidency. You know, tax code changes all the time. You've got to know what the angles are and stuff like that. So it sounds like you guys are really expanding. What's your overall vision for the company as you scale it? Oh, man, how much time do we have? It's a one-hour podcast.

Here's the synopsis version there. Yeah, just to expand on that. Like I said, have a solution for every financial problem you might have. So we've got our giant 10-year vision of what we want to be able to accomplish. And it is introducing other departments or divisions to help solve with those other things. I won't say all of them specifically due to, again, compliance reasons,

but adding on a specific entity for business consulting is, again, we have a big history of working with self-employed people. And they ask, how am I supposed to treat my business? How do I get my business to be a real business and not just a job that I have? As well, of course, bringing on attorneys to help with everything on the legal side of things as well. I don't know, Montel, do you want to add? I was going to say, when it comes to more divisions and more services, Chris, then obviously you want to add more human capital because we actually want to build a business and not be the ones actually doing the doing in every single department.

So one thing that Dylan and I pride ourselves on is as we are bringing in more human capital for these other divisions to flush out the other services, we thought, you know, why not change the complexion of wealth while we're doing that. And instead of bringing in, you know, a typical advisor for traditional, and they may look a certain way, let's bring in someone different, whether if it's, you know, bringing in more women into the financial industry, more minorities, and how can we get closer to making a difference while also, you know, spreading the services within my modern wealth. So it should be interesting. Now you guys, this is a virtual thing that you're building.

That sounds kind of unique. How's that working for you in your setup? Again, that was one of the things, even before we launched, that we wanted to do. So Montel and I both live in suburbs of Phoenix, Arizona. Our third partner actually lives 2,000 miles away in central Wisconsin. Obviously, we had to make things work virtually. But even before then, you know, I've been meeting with clients on video calls like this since 2018. Before, you know, we all knew what zoom was, that was still over Skype, and just starting to realize that we're entering into an economy where people, they're not bound by geography, they just want to

work with someone who understands them and what they're trying to accomplish and who's competent enough to get them there. So we knew right from the get-go, we want to not limit ourselves to our zip codes. We want to find the people that are looking for us. Yeah, definitely. And doing a virtual thing, I mean, you can have probably a good brain meld of lots of great people in the

organization and what you're doing. So I noticed people can download a free e-guide on your website. Tell us a little bit about what that offering is so people can check that out. Yeah, so that e-guide is pretty much in line with exactly the exact conversation that we want to have and align within the purpose power plan. You've heard Dylan talk about, you know, having those core values. And you even heard me just say that if you don't know your purpose, you're sabotaging your finances. So that e-guide is literally just going to walk you through how to align your dollars with your values. Or what we'd like to say is how do you tie your money with

your mission? Right? So you have those core values exercise. Actually, I believe that website is inside that e-guide. We have the clients actually go ahead and take that individually, right? If it's a married couple, take it individually and then also take it as a family because you want to know your family household core values. And then once that is in the forefront, you know, we ask them to print it out, put it in their office, put it in their car so they can see their values. And now it's all about every dollar that I make, how do I designate it and give it a job? How do I make sure that it is actually aligned with what's most important to me? And then once I have my values, guess what? I'm a little bit closer to my purpose, which is going to kind of encapsulate it all to make sure that we're being strategic with

tying their money with their mission. Yeah. And I have a real quick story that goes along with that. So all new clients, we make them take that core values assessment. And what we found is once we know what their values are, it helps us give better advice. I had a client very recently, she lives in California, and she was faced with this really tough career decision. She came into our last appointment and said, I just don't know what to do. I've done the pros and cons, you know, I've got option A, which I don't know, and I've got option B, I just can you help me process through this? And I said, of course, which I don't know. And I've got option B. I just, can you help me process through this? And I said, of course, you know, let's go back to your core values. I read them

back to her and she paused and went, oh my gosh, if I chose option A, I would be living opposite of my core values. I can't do that. I have to choose option B. I said, great. That's why we do this. That's why you do the core values. You can always return to the basics and the floor and make sure you're staying on track. And that's kind of one of the things you guys do. You work with your clients to help keep them on track with the goals they've set. And if not, what happens is electrocutions or something that happens like shock therapy, if they know. Oh yeah, you know it okay that's what my therapist and my financial advisors does to me you know they just they're

just like you you bought you bought more beanie babies as an investment all right let's put the taser on them you know because you mentioned beanie babies an awful lot i think there's some repressed things going on here. Something to unpack there. I'm just watching, you know, Bitcoin hit $100,000 and I'm stuck with what used to be $100,000 worth of Beanie Babies and it's worth $5 or something now. You know, I used to day trade during the dot-com era and I had saved up a ton of money in the bank and and so that was my retirement investment sort of fund which it was a great time and i remember going to my business partner i'm like i'm like so what are you doing to invest you know the extra money we have and he was buying those franklin plates i don't know if you remember those but they're there was in the

back of the magazines and stuff and they're just like plates that have some sort of painting crap on them. Yeah. They have gold on the edge, which is 24 karat gold. Yeah. But he bought like hundreds of those things. And he thought that was a worthwhile investment that was going to appreciate. He was dead set on that. And I just looked at him and like, how have you been hanging out with me all these years?

So that's kind of where the Beanie Baby pulls from. I remember the Franklin Play thing. And there was a lot of people investing in that Beanie Baby, too. They thought that was going to be a deal. But I see him all the time at the store. And so I think that's why. So I grew up in central wisconsin and you know we would have tornadoes occasionally come through and so i'm a kid and my mom made sure we had

our quick grab basket of things that we wanted to make sure we had in case there was a tornado coming through and i distinctly remember i had a separate basket just of my beanie babies so that if a tornado came through i could quick bring them with me yeah they were probably worth some money back then yeah too maybe yeah i remember it was a crazy it was a crazy market there was like you know people it was kind of like i think now the crazy market is those this is actually the i should probably do jokes that are more up to date so i think it's those drink containers the women buy now. The Stanleys?

The Stanleys. Yeah. I've seen women, they have one of every color and they collect them. Yeah. And they'll murder for the pink one, I guess.

Yeah. The pink one's like worth a lot of money or something. And I'm going to have to use that joke in the future for financial instruments because that's more current. You say Beanie Babies and the Gen Xers glaze, eyes glaze

over, which is what they do mostly when they listen to this show. They're like, there's so much intelligence here. I can't handle this. As we go out, guys, pitch people on how to pick up the phone. I see there's a way that they can reach out to you on a call and have a call with you and figure out how to align with you guys and if you fit.

Tell us all that stuff as we go out with the.com. Dylan, did you want to take a nap? No, I was waving for you. Go ahead. So yeah, there's actually a few ways that you can reach us, but if you're on our website, just go ahead and click that contact more. And the first step is really just having a 15 minute business chat or just a, you know, a chat to make sure that we fit and we're aligned. In that chat, Dylan and I really try to focus on a few things. Number one, what is going on great in your life? Because a lot of people like to come to financial advisors and there's some kind of life-changing event, right? Where if they received that inheritance

or got fired from a job or just got a divorce, right? Whatever it is, they like to kind of pow out on the reason why they're reaching out to an advisor. But we like to focus on, okay, what's great, right? What's already working? Because that gives us an idea of, you know, their values already before we're doing a core values assessment. And again, it's super quick, 15 minutes. And then we kind of like to touch on what's next, which is going to be that awareness session. And that's when we really kind of do a bird's eye view of everything that we do in that awareness session. I like to say, Mr. and Mrs. Client, this idea of today is, you know, leave your checkbook and your wallet at home. The idea of today is to kind of get a feel of on your end,

you know, what is it that you're going for? What's most important to you? And of course, I want you to get a feel on our end. Who the heck are we and how does our process work? So that is our first engagement starts off with that 15 minute chat. Dylan, do you have anything? Yeah, the reason we decided to include that 15 minute chat is I've actually had a couple of times where I'm on the phone with someone and 11 minutes in, I can determine we're not going to be a good fit for each other. You need to go somewhere else. And it could be a me thing. I'm just not the right guy for them.

Or it could be a them thing where they have the wrong expectations of what we could do together. And that's why it's so important to clarify and make sure that everyone's goals are aligned, make sure you're a good fit because working with clients or clients or clients working with people if it's not a good fit it's not good for anybody usually it's it's you got to find those simpatico fuel i guess as we go out one last time my modernwealth.com thank you very much for coming the show we really appreciate it yeah absolutely chris it was a blast and then

i was going to say i i can't unsee beanie babies anymore now since you stated it a few times but no i appreciate it congrats on your over 2 000 plus shows and almost two decades of doing this and we're a big fan so thanks for having us thank you my back really hurts no they they still have beanie babies i think the reason it comes up is because it's at the store and they have, every time I go buy it, they have to be, it's a local Walmart and they're still, they're still selling those things. But maybe you guys should have that, your portfolio of. We can set aside 1% just for Beanie Babies. They say history, you know, comes back, right?

I mean, seriously. Thanks to Greg Graham for giving us a thumbs up there on the LinkedIn. We certainly appreciate it. Thanks for joining us for tuning in. Go to goodreads.com, FortressChristmasLinkedIn.com, FortressChristmas, Christmas1, the TikTokity, and ChristmasFacebook.com. You can see all the groups we have over there. Be good to each other.

Stay safe or else, damn it, don't make me pull this car over and come back there. We'll see you next time. Stupid.