The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk - 201: Peter Mallouk - #1 Financial Advisor In America: Tony Robbins Business Partner

Starting point is 00:00:00 And Tony got pissed off. And so he started to research and he started to learn about the industry. And he found out that, you know, brokers get paid different ways for doing things and don't have to act in their client's best interests. So anyway, in his investigation, he thought, well, you know, I'm going to write a book about this. So he writes this money master the game. He goes to interviews everybody because he, by his own admission, wasn't an expert on this, right? So he interviews Charles Schwab and Vogel and all these, you know, unbelievable Carl, Carl, Karl, Icahn and on and on and on. and he interviews them all and he tries to find some common thread.

Starting point is 00:00:32 So part of it's he put all their ideas out there, but he basically concludes a couple things. He says, listen, it doesn't make sense to be doing market timing and trading stocks all day long. The data says that doesn't make sense. Creative planning has said that forever. Then he says, instead of working with a broker, you should work with a fiduciary, someone who needs to act in your best interest. And he talks about that group of 30,000.

Starting point is 00:00:53 That's what we've always been here at creative planning. Are leaders born or are they made? Our host, Ryan Hawk, believes that leaders can be made through determined, focused work on learning the art and science behind the makeup of other successful leaders. Now it's time to inhale knowledge and exhale success. You're listening to The Learning Leader Show with Ryan Hawk. Proud to say that this episode of The Learning Leader Show is brought to you by Rohn. R-H-O-N-E.Rone.com, Premium Activeware, engineered with principle, performance, and progress for the modern man. They build clothing around three main tenants, cutting edge performance, premium comfort and simplistic style from rapid moisture wicking

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Starting point is 00:02:18 Now, Rone does not typically do discount codes. So this is a special one. It will expire within a few months. But type in Hawk, H-A-W-K at Rone.com. Hey, and welcome to the Learning Leader Show. I'm Ryan Hawk. Thanks so much for being here. Every once in a while, I'm fortunate to be introduced to someone who is the best of the best of what they do. Number one. And when it comes to the financial industry, that person is Peter Malook. He's the president and chief investment officer of creative planning. Creative planning provides wealth management services to high net worth clients and manages over $24 billion for clients in all 50 states. Have been featured twice as the number one wealth management firm and the United States by CNBC. an only firm to be awarded the number one independent financial advisor in America by Barron's for three consecutive years. In addition to that, Tony Robbins met Peter Malook.

Starting point is 00:03:18 Was so impressed by him that he asked him to write his most recent bestselling book with him. It's called Unshakeable, Your Financial Freedom Playbook, Creating Peace of Mind in a World of Volatility. A few of the topics we got into, how Peter has been able to grow a business to be rated the best, industry from scratch, really insightful, impressive part of the conversation. And then what he looks for in the interviewing process, I love learning about this, when people decide who they want to work with them, the questions they ask, the process that's in place was really good. And then his partnership with Tony Robbins, why they decided to work together. I know you guys will love this one with Peter Maluk.

Starting point is 00:04:05 Okay, Peter, thank you so much for being here. Like I mentioned before in the pre interview talk. I've been really looking forward to this conversation. I had a question that I think is something I ask of people who have been able to sustain excellence over an extended period of time, not just have been successful for a brief bit, but really have been able to sustain it. So when you look around your life, you're surrounded by others, you've partnered with some of the best in the world. Your career has been really incredible. And you're just in the middle of it or just, as you said before, just getting started, so to speak. What do you think separates the people who are able to sustain excellence from those who are not?

Starting point is 00:04:47 I think that you have some people, especially the way that economy works today, where you can have a great idea and if you execute on it, you can have enormous quick success, right? Like everyone's one app away from being enormously successful. I put that group in one category, right? The innovators. And, you know, sometimes those folks go on. and innovate again and again, you know, Steve Jobs, and sometimes you have people that, you know, there was, there was a one and done deal and that's really all they needed.

Starting point is 00:05:14 You're talking more about, which is more common, where you have somebody who get something going and they keep it going and keep it going and keep it going, like to use a sports analogy, it'd be like the New England Patriots, you know, how the hell does it happen? No matter who's the quarterback and no matter who the linemen are and whether you've heard of the new recruits or not, somehow they, sustain that excellence. And I think that group, there are a couple common traits. I think, I think one is they realize that there's a recipe to this. And it's, outsider could look at it and say, well, New England Patriots have the same practices and they have, they're using the same

Starting point is 00:05:55 players. Many other teams have used. And they're using the same amount of money. And so, well, they must be, if they're doing better, they must be cheating or whatever. In reality, it's like making a cake. Like two people might have the same ingredients. And one person with the cake no one wants to eat is going, you know, why does everyone want that guy's cake? And part of it is what are the proportion of the ingredients and what's the quality of the ingredients and the presentation of the cake and so on?

Starting point is 00:06:23 And they realize that all those little incremental things make a difference. And they're constantly trying to look for that incremental value, that little thing that that creates that separation, and then they have the energy and discipline to do it over and over and over again. They stay hungry and motivated. They usually have to believe in what they're doing to stay that hungry and motivated, which makes them great salespeople too, because anybody can sell something they completely believe it.

Starting point is 00:06:53 If you believe you're going to put somebody in a better spot, you know, you're going to be able to sell that all day long. And I think it's that incremental difference that if you look at, say, the top 10 ice cream flavors, there's a big difference between being number one. and number three. It's, you know, way larger percentage want number one. If you look at whatever your 10 most popular radio stations are in town,

Starting point is 00:07:12 there's a huge difference between number one and number three and number four. And it's to the extent you can be incrementally better than everybody, you reap a disproportionate reward. It makes a lot of sense. So for the people who don't know you or haven't heard of you, you've done some incredible things in your career, I love to hear how you answer the question. maybe when you meet somebody new and they say, Peter, what do you do? How do you respond?

Starting point is 00:07:39 Well, you know, I really don't have a great elevator speech. I tell people, I work with individuals and institutions to help them achieve their goals. And that's just like everybody else. But I think that the, I mean, it's, it's kind of like, you know, you go back to the Patriots, which I can't believe I'm using them as example. I'm not a huge fan. But, but I mean, they go, we, we try to win the Super Bowl every year, right? I mean, that's their mission is just the same as everybody else's. mission. But if you're good enough, people will find out that that you're worth talking to and learn a lot more. We've got all those little different ingredients that make that cake better, and you can't explain it in an elevator speech. You really need to be able to sit with somebody for a half hour. And in today's day and age, people, if they have even one minutiae of interest, they'll go to the Google machine and quickly find out you're worth talking to, you know? Yeah. I mean, so just to lay it out there, so you lead creative planning.

Starting point is 00:08:34 Inc. President, Chief Investment Officer, you guys have consistently added to the assets managed. I believe the number is it around $24 billion. Is that accurate right now? That's right. And so,

Starting point is 00:08:48 you know, obviously a lot goes into that. And it could probably be hours of conversation. But I'd love for you, and maybe there wasn't a specific moment, but I'd like to at least ask, take it back to the beginning. I like to understand the inflection

Starting point is 00:09:03 points, the moments where it was really tough. And I know there's still challenges every day for you. It's not like it's easy. But as you got it rolling, because typically the biggest friction point is at the beginning of something when you get started. And it's just hard to put on the running shoes and get out and going. Once you're on the run,

Starting point is 00:09:20 it's a little bit easier than putting the shoes on. So I'm curious, as you're getting the business started, and I know your focus is heavily on, you know, taking care of your people, thinking of them first. And we'll talk about how you differentiate. but can you share maybe a story or a time at near the beginning point to where you felt like, okay, because we did this, it started to us to take off? Well, I would say that one of the things I benefited from in the beginning was I had a great

Starting point is 00:09:48 insight on the one hand and total ignorance on the other. So I had for several years for about six to eight years, I was a consultant to other advisors where I would do legal work for their clients, give tax advice to their clients, help them maybe with portfolio construction for their clients. And I found myself at some uncomfortable situations where, you know, I'd leave, maybe I'm serving as the estate planning attorney and then the advisor would sell the client an inappropriate annuity or something. And I felt like, hey, I'm a part of that.

Starting point is 00:10:19 I'm a, I kind of facilitated that. I don't want to be in the middle of that. I didn't like, I felt conflicted about, you know, coming in as a part of a team for this advisor and the advisor had their own products that they'd be selling the clients or had an investment product that had a commission tied to it or something like that. I really thought it would be great to have a firm that didn't have its own investment products and that always had to be a fiduciary act in the client's best interests. And I thought because I was being brought in a lot to do this,

Starting point is 00:10:49 it'd be good to have a firm that really tailors each portfolio of the client's needs rather than treat everybody the same like a mutual fund or hedge fund or a lot of advisors do. And I also had been brought in to do legal and tax advice. So I thought it'd be nice if we were able to do that. And so I basically set out to have a firm that would do those things, be an independent firm that didn't have its own investment products. That doesn't sound like a big deal, but there's 380,000 advisors, only 30,000 are independent of the 30,000 that are independent.

Starting point is 00:11:17 The majority of them are also brokers or have their own investment products. So you really get down to a few hundred firms in the whole country that manage a billion or more that are not selling their own products or making commissions on investments. It's a very small group. And then you couple that with our ability to do everything else in house. I knew there was a need for that. I knew it was the right thing to do. I felt good about it.

Starting point is 00:11:39 And I thought I could make a good living doing it. I had totally underestimated the market demand for it. And I had also gotten really lucky with some early hires. I just so exceptional, I thought it was going to be easy. And from there, I realized I'd gotten, it is hard to really find outstanding people. And there really is a tremendous demand for the way. that we do things at creative planning. And so I spend a lot of time reacting to be able to handle all of that.

Starting point is 00:12:09 Interesting about hiring in people, because I think in a lot of leadership roles, people listening, we talk a lot about this and the aspect of the importance of what that can do. If you're in a leadership slash management role, the people that you decide to bring into your business can make or break your business as you've learned right away. Now that you've grown to roughly 400 employees,

Starting point is 00:12:30 and I've spoken with, you know, one of your employees about the way you're able to manage time and always be there and seem to be available to both your employees as well as your clients to where it seems that you have this magical power to make time stop. Like, I don't know, Kyle Ruddox, is named the guy who connected us, a good friend of mine and a great guy himself. And he said, I don't know how he's able to do it. I don't think anybody knows that. So when I think about there's two parts, all call it.

Starting point is 00:13:00 I'll tackle one first. First is that aspect of you being available, being there from a time management perspective. This doesn't mean not just for anyone in the financial world, but just in general in a leadership role, when you have 400 employees, you have a bunch of customers and clients who need you, who depend on you. What are some of your strategies or maybe your philosophy around managing time? Well, when we talked in the beginning about being incrementally better, I consider my number one job is to be the best. option for a client or potential

Starting point is 00:13:32 or potential client. I want to be the very best option for them. So I'm always saying, well, how can I be that? The next thing I want to be is I want to be the very best place for a great advisor. I want that, I mean, great advisors have all kinds of options and I need to be better than those other

Starting point is 00:13:48 options. They have to feel good about what they're doing. They have to see significant compensation upside. They have to see a career path if they want one. So those are the things I come in and go, how do I do those things? Now, one of the things I do that I think creates that question is about my availability is I spend most of my time with our employees or with clients. That's what I spend 99% of my time doing.

Starting point is 00:14:15 And I think if you read a book, the book would say, hey, you should be strategizing and going to conventions and, you know, all of those sorts of things. And I don't look at it that way at all. I think the way I get incrementally better and allow that firm to be better for the clients and the, and the, you know, and the. team here is I know them. So I've got my own clients. I'm meeting with clients every single day, several times a day, all over the country. So I know now what they want to hear about in a letter. I know what their concerns are. I know how to coach our team better because I'm, I'm hearing all of that firsthand. When I'm thinking about, you know, what is it that attorneys or CPAs or wealth managers or anybody needs here to be smarter, better, feel better about their jobs, be able to deliver

Starting point is 00:14:59 better the clients. I know that directly because I'm talking to them directly every day. And I don't consider this like a burden of the job. It's my favorite part of the job is being, being with clients and the team here. I actually loathe going to seminars and meetings and conferences. And I go there and I see 3,000 advisors in a room. I think, man, these are 3,000 people focused on the wrong thing. Usually what you can learn all over a three-day seminar, you can read those. same speakers have written an article on it. You can knock all that out in 10 minutes on a plane. And I think being a player coach in this industry is a lot more effective.

Starting point is 00:15:40 And you also have more credibility. I mean, when you're actually doing the things, you know, if I'm sitting down talking to somebody like Carl and he's asking for advice and I talked to him about it, he's not going, well, Peter read this in a textbook eight years ago. He's going, Peter did this and Peter does this. So I'm probably more likely to follow what, you know, Peter's advising me to do. It appears you've been just a high achiever for your entire life. You got, I read this right, four undergraduate degrees.

Starting point is 00:16:10 And then you got your JD. So you're an attorney. You got your MBA and you're also a certified financial planner. That was all correct. And maybe I missed something. No, that's right. You've got it covered. So four, I don't know, I never met anyone with four undergraduate degrees.

Starting point is 00:16:26 And did you do it in four years? No, I did in five. Five years, okay. Five years plus the post-graduate degrees. Where did this come from? There was a love of education. Was it you weren't sure? So let's study more than just one subject or where does it come from? Because I got to believe all of that knowledge that you gained, you gained wisdom at a young age, had to propel you in some way, shape, or form to the success that you would eventually have. Well, look, I was not the greatest student in the world. I was having a heck of a lot of fun in college. And I love learning. I don't love reading stuff and taking tests. And my grades certainly reflected that. I did well, but I wasn't doing that great. I basically was entrepreneurial and knew I wanted to be in business.

Starting point is 00:17:10 And so I started with that. But I really, and economics was a major, was a natural part of that. I took political science and psychology because I enjoyed those topics. Now, what wound up being fascinating about that is I think in my job, the psychology education was probably more powerful. than the business and economics ever ended up being. So it turned out to be a great combination of things, but a couple of those I took because I found them interesting

Starting point is 00:17:36 and no other reason. So you look at the rewards or awards and recognition. Forbes number one R.A. firm for 10-year growth this year, Barron's number one independent financial advisor in America. CNBC's number one fee-only wealth management firm. I mean, it goes on and on three years in a row, Barron's named you the number one independent financial advisor. What is the, and this is probably tough, but what is the core or the key indicators that you measure that have led to this, not,

Starting point is 00:18:10 it's just certainly sustained excellence, but you're being labeled as the best of the best when it comes to being an independent financial advisor, wealth managing, all of those for, for people who are listening to say, I'm not really sure what to do with my money or I don't, I, I'm confused, by it. It seems really complex. I think there's even really smart people who get confused. There's a lot of complexities and I have a question around those complexities as to why those are there. And I think maybe you could certainly help answer those. But you guys are rated the best. Like if there's there's one place to go, it's creative planning. And that's not, these are real awards and recognition. There's no fluff there. And so what has been the key to that sustained

Starting point is 00:18:50 label, that sustained excellence of being the best of the best in your industry? Well, I think like what one thing about business is money follows value eventually, right? So you can get away with, you know, marketing or branding for a little while, of which, you know, frankly, we had no advertising through the majority of that period. But eventually the money moves to value in a capitalist society and then the kind of society we live in. And so the answer, I think for why we've wound up where we are, the fastest growing as well as the top of those things is money. has moved its way to creative planning. Now, we've been very fortunate that we had this system that people were coming to.

Starting point is 00:19:32 We were growing very fast. But we had the 0809 crisis. People really started to look at their portfolios differently. I mean, it used to be, hey, my brother-in-law does this or my neighbor does that. And I'll just ask one person at work who they use and go to them. And nobody really cared. You know, you had 9-11 and the tech bubble more people out. But 0-8-09, people just threw their hands up and said, you know what?

Starting point is 00:19:56 I'm going to interview several firms and go pick one. And so we wound up in that mix and we just really exploded because I had always invested in incredible people. I never compromised on that. I was never, and still I'm not anywhere remotely close to perfect on hiring, but I'm very, very good at taking somebody that's pretty good and making them very good and somebody that's very good at letting them realize their full potential and at getting people trained up or out so that there's really a high bar of excellence.

Starting point is 00:20:26 here. So we had the great people. We were an independent fiduciary. We weren't selling our own products. We were tailoring to the client. We were helping them with other things all at a time where people were going, you know what, I need to find an advisor that's really going to get me through this next fair market. And we really exploded from there. So it was preparation meeting opportunity, right? That's kind of the definition of luck, right? We were prepared and we had this great opportunity. And so it kind of looked like we got lucky. But eventually, there was going to come and where people were going to look around. And that event really made everyone look around and take investing a lot more seriously.

Starting point is 00:21:04 What's your hiring process like? What's it like if somebody wants to work for you? Kyle told me that your company was like on his dream list. Like this was the company that he'd been in the industry, but he said, I was, I really wanted to work there. I was going to do whatever it took. And he's obviously quite happy when he's able to make it to the process. I didn't talk to him about his interview process, but I'm curious to hear from you.

Starting point is 00:21:29 I love learning from leaders who have specified, one, qualities they look for in someone they're going to hire, and then how they make sure that they find them because a lot of people, and when someone's there for an interview, that's always their very, very best behavior. That's the best you're ever going to see them. So how are you making sure you don't get fooled, even though that's impossible, but you can really increase your odds by having a process? I'm curious, what do you look for and how do you ensure that you're finding those people? Are there certain questions you ask?

Starting point is 00:22:02 Is there a process? I'd love to learn. So on an average week, we might get more than 100 resumes that will come in through our website and various social media and through referrals that are internal. And, you know, of those, we might pull five that we will want to talk to. And of those five, they'll go through a phone interview. So there we're screening for a credential. gaps of employment, what's their experience like?

Starting point is 00:22:29 Is there anything we can glean from that? And that eliminates 95% of people right out of the box. So we're starting with the 5% that we're clear on all of that. Then we have a phone interview and maybe one will get past that. So if we get past that, we try to look at other people we can talk to that know them. We fly them to our headquarters. We usually have them meet an average of six people that I meet with them personally. and we're looking for certain traits and qualities for that role.

Starting point is 00:22:56 And then from there, we'll do a background check and other things. All of those things, they don't give you any guarantees. They just improve the probability. But until you're in the middle of the game, right, we don't know how well you're going to blend with the team. And so, you know, within the first 30 days, you know, we're throwing the ball to the receiver and they better catch it. And so we also, I think when we make a mistake, we're quick to acknowledge it and try to get that person in a situation. in another firm where they're more likely to succeed, maybe in a role where there's less pressure or there's less things happening

Starting point is 00:23:29 or if the situation is less complex or whatever. And we take the ones that are great and we invest heavily in helping them succeed. And so I don't even consider it once you've hired them that it's done. I mean, to me, you really, the next couple months tell you a lot as well. But we try to, we try our best to get it figured out before. you get there. When you say we throw the ball within the first 30 days and they better catch it, what does that mean?

Starting point is 00:23:58 What are you doing? Well, I mean, like it's one thing that using the football analogy, it's one thing to watch the players in a combine or how they did in college and all that stuff. But when you're going to put them on an NFL team and they're going to get hit by somebody that they've never been hit by before, the ball is going to come out of them faster than ever has before. You know, this is like major league baseball here, the NFL here. and the expectation is that you can play at the very, very highest level,

Starting point is 00:24:24 or that doesn't mean you shouldn't be playing in the league, but you shouldn't be playing for this team. So we want this to be an all-star team. We want to have an all-star environment, and I've got to be able to stand up at each of our annual meetings and tell people I believe that. And the only way I can believe that is if I believe everybody here is excellent or on their way to be an excellent, or I've helped guide them out.

Starting point is 00:24:47 What are some of the qualities you look for and people for your team? I think some of the obvious things like credentials, education, experience, but I'm more concerned about the ability to be detail-oriented, task-oriented, and good at time management, and an excellent communicator. I can't teach those things, really, I've found. The other things, we can help somebody get the CFP degree. We can wait for somebody to get an MBA or whatever else they may need for their role, but I can't make them be good at, can improve a little bit, but I usually can't make somebody detail-oriented or task-oriented or good at time management or make them be a high-energy performer. I mean, those are, those are more traits that were developed long

Starting point is 00:25:31 before anyone gets to our door. So I'm looking more for those things. Are there certain questions you ask? I'm big on I read about this stuff all the time. There's certain questions you ask that help uncover some of those qualities. Well, if I'm really, one of the things you want to, one of the main things you want is you want to make sure you can meet the need. So when I'm meeting with a prospective client, I'm always asking what they're trying to accomplish because I want to make sure I can give it to them. You know, every now and then you meet somebody who says, I want her in 18% a year. And, you know, that's just not possible.

Starting point is 00:26:01 And they tell you somebody else promised that to them. And you tell them this is why I think that's not possible. But if that's what you want, don't come here because I don't want to disappoint you. So I always start by figuring out what is this person I'm meeting with. What do they want to accomplish with their career? Some people, they want to be a great. planner and they don't want to be called at eight at night by somebody that's freaking out about the market. And do I have a role for that? Yes. Some people want to start as a planner, but then

Starting point is 00:26:26 they want to grow and they want to be more client interfacing and practice development and dealing with all of that. Is there a path for that? Yes. But some people want things that aren't possible. So for example, if I've got somebody who says, well, I want to go from this role of actively trading stocks all day. Well, that's not part of our philosophy. So I don't care how great that person is. is it anything, I can't meet that need. So it doesn't make sense for them to come here, even if they're willing to be in a certain role for three or four years. I'm looking for someone that will be a great cultural fit for the long run.

Starting point is 00:26:58 And criteria number one is can I give them what they need or the opportunity to get what they need? Gotcha. In addition to all of this that we've talked about, most recently you were, I'd love for you to tell a story, but in conversations with Tony Robbins after his bestselling book came out, a money master the game. And I believe when he wrote that original book that you guys had not met, but then it sounds like from some of the reading I did that you guys,

Starting point is 00:27:26 there was conversations you had and maybe there was a third party involved as well. And basically in the quote that I read said that Tony Robbins did not get what the average consumer didn't get. And then a colleague of yours, eventually that message got to him and Tony said he wanted to meet with you. So you could potentially teach him. Could you share some of the story on how you helped educate Tony Robbins, a guy who wrote pretty much the number one book in the world when it comes to money? Yeah.

Starting point is 00:27:54 And you taught him maybe some of, I don't know if I'd say mistakes or maybe what he didn't understand, which a lot of the people listening probably don't understand and how you were able to teach him and then what some of that message is. Well, I think like his journey journey was really interesting. It was kind of like my typical client. So he starts out. He's looking at getting a new 401K for his own company, for his employee. for his employees. And somebody he meets, points out, he'd been paying 3% this 401K all these years

Starting point is 00:28:20 and he could have been paying less than 1%. And Tony got, you know, pissed off. And so he started to research and he started to learn about the industry. And he found out that, you know, brokers get paid different ways for doing things and don't have to act in their client's best interests. So anyway, in his investigation,

Starting point is 00:28:35 he thought, well, you know, I'm going to write a book about this. So he writes this money master of the game. He goes and interviews everybody because he, by his own admission, wasn't an expert on this, right? So he interviews Charles Schwab. and Bogle and all these unbelievable Carl, Carl Icon and Ray Dalio and on and on and on. And he interviews them all and he tries to find some common thread. So part of it's he put all their ideas out there, but he basically concludes a couple things.

Starting point is 00:28:58 He says, listen, it doesn't make sense to be doing market timing and trading stocks all day long. The data says that doesn't make sense. Creative planning has said that forever. Then he says, instead of working with a broker, you should work with a fiduciary, someone who needs to act in your best interest. And he talks about that group of 30,000. That's what we've always been here at creative planning. So that was what he advocated for in the book.

Starting point is 00:29:21 And people started reaching out to his advisor and they started referring them to a variety of firms. And what Tony thought, if you're an independent advisor, if you're a fiduciary, that it meant you didn't have your own products to sell to your clients and so on. And what you didn't realize is that's not the case at all. that there's a lot of independent advisors that still have their own mutual funds, their own hedge funds, their own private equity funds. They have the same conflict of interest as the brokers do. They get paid more if they invest in certain things or their sister company gets paid more. He had no idea about any of that. And then he got really mad after that and called me back.

Starting point is 00:29:58 And that's where we found a way to work together. He became a client and he joined our advisory board and all went from there. And then you guys wrote a book together. Yeah, we just wrote Unshakeable. out a couple weeks ago. He's a juggernaut. You know, I wrote a book and I think it might have sold 50,000 copies or something. I think he's going to sell a

Starting point is 00:30:17 million. Yeah. On unshakable here. And I did some of the media with him and he's just got this boundless energy and he's passionate about it too. So he's a lot of fun to be around while we're promoting the book. So for the people who, and

Starting point is 00:30:33 I'm going through this, I'm actually scheduled to being tomorrow with my financial advisor because of this conversation. And because I just read Unshakeable to prepare for this talk and because I wanted to read it anyway. And I'm curious, so the person listening and, like I said, there are a lot of really smart people who don't understand this. I think there's a lot of complexities built in when you look at a statement or you look at what's going on with my money, what's going on with my 401K?

Starting point is 00:30:58 What are some of the basic things that people just don't understand that maybe you could help clear up for them? I know we have a few minutes. I'm just curious, a few tips. Well, you know, Warren Buffett always says something like, I always like to assume a company I buy the stock of is going to be run by an idiot because one day it will be. So he's trying to find something that's idiot proof, right? And I always tell people when they're looking at the investments, we talk it unshakable about how to look at your statement and protect yourself and so on. But really, the main thing is to really start with you have the right advisor.

Starting point is 00:31:32 And so that's the main issue. You want an advisor that's an independent advisor all the time when it comes to your investments. They get paid the same on all of your investments, no matter what. There's no sister company or parent company where they get paid more if you happen to buy their mutual funds or products. If you can just get yourself an independent advisor, you solve most of the problems because then you don't need to look at your statement. It's impossible for them to collect a commission back on the mutual fund on the front end or the back end or ongoing. And if we can have that same advisor pledge to you that they don't own any of their own proprietary funds,

Starting point is 00:32:07 we can then ensure those aren't going to work their way to the statement either. Unfortunately, when you look at a statement, the mutual fund names are often not the same names of the parent company, right? So you can't even tell, hey, these mutual funds are owned by the advisor's company. And that's the conflict that's a big problem. When looking at what you've written, your videos, everything you've put out, do have you noticed what what is the response from other financial advisors like it seems like you're kind of pulling the curtain back on an industry that could potentially make them quite mad at you

Starting point is 00:32:39 or what's the response been yeah i always say the response from the financial industry has been negative and i could i could care less you know what i mean like if i'm if i'm a major league baseball team i want to win the world series every year and i don't care if every other team doesn't like me i'm more concerned about my my players on my team and my fans and i come every day to work thinking that way. I know I'm not making any friends in the financial services industry. And if you think about, you know, the way I've written, even when I was a small firm, I said, shouldn't work with a broker.

Starting point is 00:33:12 Every investment advisor should have to act in their client's best interest. I think it's the most ridiculous debate. You know, doctors by law have to act in the best interest of the patient. Lawyers, by law, have to act in the best interest of the client. Same with CPAs. This is unique to financial advisors. And it's unique in America. In the United Kingdom, by law, financial advisors have to act to the best interest of their client.

Starting point is 00:33:33 In Australia, by law, they have to act of the best interest of the client. So this idea that somehow I'm radical, you know, that for the last 10, 15 years, I've been saying an investment advisor in America should have to act in their client's best interest. Yes, I understand that pisses off 96% of the financial services industry, which is either a broker or a broker sometimes and an independent sometimes or owns their own products. I, again, don't care. You know, there's still a few percent in the industry that meet that criteria that allows for thousand plus advisors that somebody can go to.

Starting point is 00:34:06 It's not just creative planning that has to act in their client's best interest and doesn't own any funds. And to me, if we're going to make, you know, some enemies within the industry because of that and because clients are moving towards us, I'm okay with that. Awesome. I love it. Peter, thank you so much for being here. I really appreciate it.

Starting point is 00:34:23 Where would you send my listeners to learn more about you, creative planning? Maybe it's get a second opinion. I'm curious, where would you send them? They could go to our website is thinking beyond.com. So Creative Plains website's thinking beyond.com. And they can email us or call us from there, learn a little bit more about the firm there as well. I've got a book called The Five Mistakes Every Investors Make and the new one with Tony Robbins, unshakable.

Starting point is 00:34:46 Those talk a little bit about how we invest to. And we'd love to hear from any of them. Great. Peter, thanks again. I absolutely want to continue this dialogue as we both progress, man. It'd be fun. Thanks a lot. Thanks a lot. Thanks, Peter. Bye.

Starting point is 00:34:58 This episode of The Learning Leader Show is over, but we have plenty more to keep you locked in until next time. Head over to Learning Leadershow.com for more information and to request your favorite entrepreneur, CEO, world-class athlete, or anyone else that inspires you. You can also talk to Ryan directly by reaching out to him on Twitter at Ryan Hawk 12. Thanks again, and we'll see you next time on The Learning Leader Show. Proud to say that this episode of The Learning Leader Show is brought

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The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk - 201: Peter Mallouk - #1 Financial Advisor In America: Tony Robbins Business Partner

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