The Perfect 100

Hello and welcome back to the Perfect 100.

I am excited to bring you Jonathan McAlister today.

He's with Kimery Wealth Management and he is a member of my chapter.

Not only is he a member, he is the president at least for another couple of weeks, right?

Welcome, Jonathan.

Yeah, my pleasure.

I know you're excited to, not that everybody doesn't wanna be the president after they've
done presidency, but I know that that wind down at the end of the term is always.

a little bit of anticipation towards not having to do that same thing over and over.

It is, it is, but you know what?

We have a great new leadership team coming in ah with Adam Neal and Anna Wells and ah
Daniel Lang staying on as treasurer and secretary.

the chapter's in really good hands.

Yeah, it's a good group and I'm excited for, I think we're all excited to move on to just
see what else we can, it's always fun to have uh that transition and see what's the next

flavor of things that people are gonna add.

But before we get too far, let's let you give us your 45 second story so people know a
little bit more about you.

Sure.

Good afternoon or good morning.

I'm Jonathan McAlister.

I'm a certified financial planner with Kimery Wealth Management.

We're based here locally in Memphis, but serve clients across the entire country.

We really specialize in working with high net worth individuals, families, and business
owners.

Our role is that of basically an outsourced CFO where we are not only handling

their long-term financial planning, charitable gifting strategies, investment management,
but also things like their estate planning, working with their children to make sure that

their dreams and wishes are carried on even after they're gone.

So if you know of anyone like that, please send them my way.

Awesome.

So how long have you been doing that and what role has BNI played for you in all of it?

So I've been in practice December will be 14 years.

I joke with my wife that I would be terrible at any other career because this is the only
one that I've ever had.

And I've been in BNI in the past and have gotten out for different reasons and then
rejoined and helped to start this chapter.

I say start really joined with you and Tammy and some of the other founding members back
in, I think it was.

but I knew what you meant.

Yeah, I know we're interchangeable in our chapter.

We're both blondes and we both help do a lot of stuff.

So everybody calls us interchangeable names.

So I joined our chapter BNI East Memphis in April of last year and it has been really
phenomenal.

I mean in my seat we don't get referrals on a weekly basis um just because of the type of
clients that we work with.

They are fewer and farther between but typically when we get them through a BNI connection
our close rate is

I would say 90 plus percent because it's coming from that very warm introduction.

The person that's referring us to the potential client has really usually spoken very
highly about us.

And it tends to be a really good relationship right off the bat with those new clients
that we've worked.

Yeah, that's the having the uh warm up is really a big piece of at least, mean, obviously
that's why we all do it is having not only the connections, but the warm handoff to

someone that means more, you know, in many cases than any other opportunity to work with
somebody because they were borrowing someone else's trust to get that person right.

Right, no, that's exactly right.

And I would say in our field, trust is the number one thing, right?

If you're working with an advisor or an attorney, CPA, someone in that white collar
professional capacity, you have to trust them first.

And so having that element of trust that's somewhat already established by fellow BNI
members just really helps along that process.

for sure.

So you've been financial advising for many years.

What moment or experience convinced you that being taking that journey was the right path
for you advising people on their money?

So I got into this.

was, I went to Mississippi State, started in August of 2007 and my dad was a home builder
and developer.

And one year later, 2008 kind of starts to rear its ugly head.

I had a very, very nice childhood, went to private school, would go down to the beach.

And about a year after 2008 happened, we lost the house.

lost the car.

My parents ultimately filed for bankruptcy.

And I was just really floored that this happened because, you know, we had all the
trappings of a very, very nice lifestyle.

And I come to find out that they had over leveraged themselves, hadn't saved
appropriately.

They were doing it all themselves, kind of trying to do financial planning, but there
really wasn't any long-term thought there as far as saving for retirement.

Everything was cashflowed.

And actually I switched my major, um, and started going into a financial planning major at
Mississippi state and really haven't stopped doing it since then.

I've truly fallen in love with the profession and then, uh, passed my CFP boards when I
was 29.

So was really young when I passed those.

And that was, you know, wow.

think in 2017, maybe.

Okay, well that's so interesting.

I didn't know that about you and my husband has a similar story.

His dad was a, they sold campers RVs, they're from up north and uh had a great lifestyle
and they had six kids and then one day, know, same thing, you know, over leveraged and all

the things and they went from having a whole lot of stuff and lots of good things and to
not.

And I think that shapes you as a child uh in more ways than one, right?

So I love that your outcome was you want to help other people to avoid that.

Yeah, no, it definitely shaped me.

Like I said, I went from, you know, not having to worry all that much to suddenly I'm
going to school full time and then also working, you know, 35, 40 hours a week trying to

pay rent, get money for groceries and pay my way through school.

And it ended up working out.

I basically went on my own when I was about 19 going into 20 years old and was

to only come out with 13,000 of student loans from college and an out-of-state college.

So it definitely took hard work and it's not an overnight thing, but I'm grateful now for
the lesson that it taught.

Yeah, it gives you oh an appreciation that can't be felt otherwise, right?

No, you don't appreciate it unless you have been there.

Right, yeah, I definitely feel that.

So BNI was part of your story.

What, anything, shaped how BNI or how has BNI helped shape either your business or your
life, do you think?

So I think it's definitely made me get out of my comfort zone.

ah You know, like I've talked about before, I'm kind of a natural introvert.

So being out in front of people all the time is not really my style.

And it has made me be a much more confident public speaker.

It has put me in front of a group of people that I have not been exposed to before.

You know, we work with bankers and attorneys basically on a daily basis.

ah

I don't often get to work with a lot of trades people ah who are, have a great trade group
in our chapter.

Uh, and then there's two or three people that, I'm able to refer to on a very regular
basis, uh, a pretty significant amount of business.

I think one of the biggest thank you for closed businesses that I got was I had a client
that was in here and he is asking for a roofer and I sent him to Jamie Byrum and

They got that taken care of.

In fact, the client even called me afterwards and said, that was a fantastic experience.

Thank you for that.

That's amazing when you get that, it makes you uh look good, but it also reinforces that
this is a good thing, right?

Is that we can trust the people that we have in our immediate circle, so to speak.

You know, they become part of our closer.

I have high relator and we're going to talk about Clifton Strakes, you know, shortly, but
I also, my number two is relator.

So I also enjoy kind of having that inner circle of people that I trust.

The know, like and trust that we talk about in BNI becomes part of that, right?

So that's a good thing.

We are in the number one chapter in the whole region.

We are...

We're ah not proud of that at all either, are we?

That'll speak to another one of your strengths in a minute.

It's funny because I don't have what your, we'll talk about your number one strength when
we get there, and I don't actually have that, which is funny because I have it.

It's just a little bit lower.

We're speaking about competition.

I'll just let the cat out of the bag.

Jonathan's number one is competition.

So it always is a good thing when someone has high competition, they like to be at the
top, right?

They want to win the race.

and we are at the top, but why I asked or said that we are is we are what I would consider
a thriving chapter.

We're continually building and making things better and we're staying at the top through
hard work.

When you look at, you've been in other chapters, you said you've been in and out in
different chapters, so what do you think is the biggest single mind shift or cultural

change that chapters who are struggling need to make to, what separates the one,

like how we are versus others that are not doing so well.

That's a good question.

ah So I think we had the, we were fortunate in that we started this from scratch.

We were able to develop our own culture, our own accountability methods, and we really
leaned on the BNI systems to do that.

And being very bluntly honest, I was kind of opposed to it a little bit, just because it
does have some rigidity to it, but.

The rigidity is for a reason and it took me a while to get on board with that, but it has
worked for us.

It has worked phenomenally well for us.

But I think I go back to what I said a minute ago.

It's culture.

You have to have a good culture of uh givers gain.

You you have to have people that are there for investing in the chapter.

They're not just there to get out what they can get, but they are truly there to give.

ah You have to have a culture of accountability.

And I will say uh Tiffany Clemmas, who's our VP, has done a great job of leading our
membership committee and really holding members accountable when they need to.

But also, she and I talk probably at least every other day with chapter issues and Daniel
Lang as well.

But we're all on the same page with that.

We're not trying to fight each other.

We're really trying to lead from the front uh and try and build a good chapter that is
sustainable.

Yeah, and those are for those of you that don't know who those people are, they're on the
ELT.

they, you know, they're the leadership out front.

And I 100 % agree with you that, excuse me, having the right people in those roles working
together.

And I feel like I talk to Tiffany every couple of days as well over various chapter
things, being on membership committee.

You know being engaged I think is the big thing right is that we recognize that there's a
structure We follow the structure even though sometimes that's painful because there's

people involved, you know And that isn't always holding people accountable can sometimes
be unpleasant uh But using the structure that exists has made us you know, I think has

allowed us to uh create a great uh Well, I mean you said culture I can think that's just
the best way to put it so love that

Yeah, like I said, I've been in BNI in the past and the biggest issue I saw with prior
chapters was culture.

And it was, you we've done it this way forever.

But then when you look at how it was being done, it's not necessarily advancing them in
the right direction.

It's just comfortable and it's what's been done in the past.

Yeah, yeah, that definition of insanity just because you we do things the same way and
expect a different outcome.

uh I think that that's a thing that plagues a lot of chapters and I see it, you know, I'm
a rule follower.

like to, I like a structure, you know, I'm very much a do it a certain way and it will net
a very similar outcome when you follow a structure and a process.

uh And that's what a lot of people.

they're not great in business because they don't have a structure, they don't have a
process, they kind of just every day is a new day and it doesn't always work like that

very well, especially if you hire people because people need structure.

But when you look at the results and that's the end game here is we're all trying to grow
our business and I go into chapters where they don't follow the process that exists and

they're not doing as well.

It's evident to me that

some of those changes could make a big difference in people's businesses, but the culture
here is we don't.

So, I mean, it's like, okay, well, if we don't want to do things that help people's
businesses, why are we here?

You know, that's kind of how it works for me.

So let's look at your power of one.

So I'll read from the left here.

So you have a score of 70, which is in the green.

Your attendance.

is not great though, but it is green.

It is green and that is what we ask for, Is green and I always have to make the caveat in
case this is somebody's first time listening is green, know, none of this is bad in terms

of whether you're red, yellow, gray, whatever you are.

It's not bad.

I mean, it is bad.

It's bad in the respect that you're not gaining what you could from operating the system
that I just talked about, right?

There's a structure and if you're going to maximize what you're putting

you're paying to be in a seat that is to there you're showing up every week and splitting
putting time in to be able to make money for your business.

And if you're not doing all the things that we know work, then that's this is your report
card.

uh So can it be higher?

Of course.

um Can you maximize it more?

Yes.

But green is where we all strive to be just because you're getting as much out of you
know, you're getting a good deal of

activity that is going to bring you more and that's what we're going for.

So green in the 70 in the green.

So 15 points on the referrals, which is yellow, 20 points for, wait, I'm reading it wrong.

Sorry.

Total score of 70 attendance, 15 points.

You've had a couple of absences.

Referrals per week, 20 points in the green visitors per week, zero in the gray, one to
ones.

per week, 15 points in the yellow, and CEUs per week, 20 points.

So tell me when you see that.

um Give me some more comments.

Tell me what you think.

Yeah, so the referrals per week have always been fairly strong for me.

ah There's a couple members in the chapter that I can refer to really, really easily.

ah I know one thing that we're looking for right now in our chapter is an estate planning
attorney.

If we can get a good estate planning attorney, ah that would be a really natural referral
path for me.

really, I'm very comfortable sending someone a referral.

ah

from an attendance standpoint, you're right.

I've had a couple of absences.

So that number is going to be a little bit lower.

But I also know that I think I'm two percentage points off from getting a full 20 on that
too.

So I am right there.

And then the one to ones per week, I am 0.04 away from having a full 20.

ah I have always struggled with visitors.

It has not been a strength of mine.

ah

and it is something I need to work on though.

uh Yeah, well, and our transfer does well with visitors because we have a certain subset
of folks that are busy finding visitors for us.

So it's easy to sort of fall into that sometimes.

It's being intentional.

But I know that you have your, when we get to your strengths, you have a lot of things
that kind of line up with daily, weekly rhythm of activities, I think.

So is there a way you think that?

Is that just something you, it's just not part of because you're busy doing, head down
doing, you know, working with your clients that you're not necessarily out and about

meeting lots of people?

Is that kind of how that goes, do you think?

I think that's a lot of it.

So I don't go to chamber events.

I don't really do outside networking outside of BNI.

ah A lot of my day, I typically schedule about two weeks out.

ah And so I follow a pretty rigid calendar.

In fact, I joke with my wife, like, if it is not on my calendar, it does not exist to me.

I run my life by my outlet calendar.

And it is how I schedule my day.

Like I said, typically about two weeks out.

ah As we get closer, you know, to the end of the year, that will get a little bit lighter
and then come tax season when we're working with CPAs or, you know, getting clients 1099,

it gets, it still stays at that two week point, but the ability to have any flexibility at
all really goes away.

because you're fielding phone calls and taking last minute questions and you have to
really be present.

So that's a long answer to your question ah in that I'm not really out and about meeting
other people to invite to the chapter just because of the work that I'm doing here at the

farm.

Right.

Yeah.

And I don't think that every single person necessarily is going to be bringing people all
the time.

I think some are just more likely to do it than others.

You know, I'm out and about a lot, so I'm always meeting new people and others.

You know, you're sitting behind a desk talking to people.

You know, that's kind of makes it more challenging.

You just have to figure out, guess, if that is if you're, what's the right words, you're

looking at it through the lens of building your business, then are you hitting all the
points?

So, you know, that and that's entirely, as long as we're all working together on those
fronts where some, know that some can't do this, but others, but I can, here's where I add

to the pot, so to speak, then I think that's probably okay.

Let's look at your palms too, which is a little bit, you know, more into the nitty gritty.

So,

This is 20 weeks and you have, so two absences, referrals given inside four, referrals
given outside 27, referrals received inside three, referrals received outside five,

visitors zero, one to one's 24, and thank you for close business, given 21,946 and 30
CEUs.

So you have a, seems like you have a process for several of those things.

Anything stand out to you that falls into kind of your day-to-day operations, maybe even
how you discipline yourself.

you draw a correlation between the discipline you have with taking care of your clients
and the same for BNI, so to speak?

Yeah, it's the it's a different type of responsibility.

You know, in our work, we are fiduciaries first.

We our clients will always come first and everything that we do.

I'm not saying that B and I comes very far behind that, but you know, we have to take care
of home base first, as we say, ah and then we address everything else where we fit into

the schedule.

And like I said, I'm very schedule oriented.

ah And so a lot of times I will have.

you know, clusters of one to ones.

I might do three or four in a week for a week or so.

And then I might go two or three weeks with nothing.

It's not something where I can do it religiously and say, yeah, I can take, you know, an
hour and a half on this week and I'm going to go to lunch with someone or you got a coffee

with someone because I usually schedule pretty far out.

I will fit it in where I can.

But I need to be flexible as well so I can be here and present at the business too.

Yeah, well, and a lot of people do that.

And I've talked about that in previous episodes is I like to schedule as much as I can at
the front end of the month.

That way, like it's the beginning of we're in the beginning of September right now.

If you're listening to this later and we so we just rolled over to a new month.

So I'm now looking at, do I have what I need for the month?

And I can can I accomplish that soon that way?

If or if you look at your calendar and you say, I've got a very busy week, you know, next
week, so.

Can I offload some of the things I need to sort of check the box to get done?

So I know that my, for me, is the pipeline.

Making sure that that pipeline is full, right?

As we know, for a lot of us, we're solopreneurs, and if you're not out filling the
pipeline, if you're not throwing stuff into the top of the funnel, then nothing's coming

out the other end.

So it's kind of that feast or famine.

I find a lot of small business people have that feast or famine cycle, and it's because
they're not consistently planning, right?

So if you're looking at your, if you live by the calendar, then it's a great way to see,
okay, I've got to knock these things out because these are going to fill my funnel.

It'll help my BNI member team help me fill in the funnel while I'm out working.

So good stuff there.

All right, so let's talk about your CliftonStrengths since we've alluded to it a number of
times now.

So.

it.

Yes, so your number one is competition.

I don't think I've had anybody on that whose number one is competition.

oh You measure your progress against the performance of others.

You strive to win first place and revel in contests.

Number two is relator.

You enjoy close relationships with others and you find deep satisfaction in working hard
with friends to achieve a goal.

Number three is consistency.

You are keenly aware of the need to treat people the same.

You crave stable routines and clear rules and procedures that everyone can follow.

Number four is analytical.

You search for reasons and causes.

You have the ability to think about all of the factors that might affect a situation.

And number five, developer.

You recognize and cultivate the potential in others.

You spot the signs of each small improvement and drive satisfaction from evidence of
progress.

So where do you see those coming together most for you and most powerfully in your
business, would you say?

Yes, I think in my business personally, I really enjoy having something to measure myself
against.

And I have thought about in the past going out on my own and kind of launching my own
firm.

I just don't think it's for me.

ah One reason is I really enjoy measuring my practice against my partners here.

And it is a friendly competition with us, you know, who

You know, who is bringing on the best clients, who's bringing on the largest clients, who
has the highest client retention rate, which I really think is one of the more important

aspects that we don't talk about a ton.

that from a competition standpoint is wonderful, but then I also see it bleeding into my
personal life as well, where I just want to try and be the best at everything I can be,

um, and finding ways to, get there.

Yeah, well, and you have, just reading your profile, know, a lot of your things together
are, you know, the blend of things because that top five is your unique set of superpowers

are all blended together in those top five strengths.

uh I think that you have, you know, you think about things different, well, we all do, we
think about it in the way our strengths are, but you have a very specific.

regimented kind of even would you say at home does that play out for you at home to kind
of how you live your day to day at home do you have structure process that kind of stuff

I really do.

were, um, so perfect example of this, the Delta fair is in town and my wife and daughter
kind of sprung it on me Saturday morning and said, Hey dad, let's go to the Delta fair.

And I said, no, we we've already talked that we're going to clean the house today.

We have laundry to put away.

We have dishes to do.

That needs to be done first.

We we've talked about that.

We had a verbal agreement with it.

Um, and then I, then I was quickly reminded that I am the male in the household and

And that was overruled by the two females in the household.

That's hilarious.

Yeah, I think that's so funny because, you know, that is a...

I think my dad must have some of that because that is...

we're gonna...

it's very...

we're gonna do this and then we're gonna do this and this is how we're gonna do this until
it's done and it's gonna be done right.

Right.

Yeah, no, it's, that's, that's how I was, I was raised.

My dad was ex-military.

My grandfather was ex-military.

And it was, you do these things first and then you move on to B.

Same and my dad was military also.

So I don't know if that's a, I think for him it was a, I mean, it's probably built into
his strengths, but uh he kind of grew up in a little bit of chaos.

So he created the military was a great way to, for him to have structure, learn structure
and operate structure.

So, you know, and that obviously translated to me, because I, you know, followed in those
footsteps.

I enjoy a process and a structure too.

So, consistency and analytical.

Sometimes those can feel rigid and, you know, maybe that's what we were just talking
about, right?

is when you put them together with developer uh that can add to it.

So how do you balance the numbers with the human side of things when you're talking about
somebody's financial journey?

You can't.

ah So much of what we do, people think we sit behind a DISK and trade stocks or bonds all
day, or we look at a 401k all day.

That is maybe 10 % of my every day.

90 % of what I do is talking with clients, working through issues, and then solving the
problem.

Right, so that may be, hey, we own a business, we're going through an expansion right now
with an SBA loan.

We have our house, but we've outgrown it, but we found our dream home and we won't be able
to afford it without drowning ourselves in debt.

How to, what levers do we pull to make that happen?

Um, it's really dealing with people's emotions and money at the exact same time.

I mean, the exact same time I'm working on a situation with a client in Texas right now.

And they're wonderful people.

I've worked with them for over a decade at this point.

And.

you know, they're going through a unique situation like that where you have money at play,
but you also have the emotional side of things at play and you have to be able to balance

those because very, very, very few people can purely look at the money side of things and
say, yes, this is the monetary, this is the best way to do it and be able to completely

ignore the emotional aspect as well.

Right, well I think that plays to your relator too, is your uh relator's about deep
connections with people and you know on an ongoing basis and so do you think that those

authentic relationships are the keys to working with clients um who are, you know, they
have lots of different choices for financial advisors.

Throw a rock and you can hit one.

It's kind of like a realtor.

So do you think that that's a big piece of what you do?

I think it is.

Yeah.

that's so I have, I think I have 90 clients right now, maybe 95, ah which is not a lot in
our, in our industry.

It is not uncommon to have thousands of clients.

If you're working at, you know, a Morgan Stanley or a Wells Fargo or one of these, you
know, massive institutions ah as a firm, have, think under 500 clients, we've run about

half of over half a billion dollars now.

between the four advisors and our five staff.

So we really prioritize those deep relationships, actually knowing our clients and being
able to spend time with them versus seeing it as a transactional relationship and just,

all right, yep, I'm taking this order, I'm getting off the phone.

If a client needs it, I'll spend two hours on the phone with them and I'll tell the other
appointments that day, hey, I need to push or can we reschedule?

I have an issue that really demands full attention and I don't want to discount them nor
do I want to cut your time short.

So, you know, let's be flexible here.

But a lot of credit to my clients for that.

Most of them are extremely flexible.

They understand that and I think they appreciate it too.

Sure, yeah, would assume that they've asked for your time.

Probably they recognize that they're potentially taking time from someone else, but they
want, know, kind of what goes around comes around.

They're gonna get theirs also.

So what's a common mistake that you see successful people making with money that others
could avoid?

Lifestyle creep So lifestyle creep if uh let's say someone's making a hundred thousand
dollars a year it could be from W2 wages it could be from self-employment it could be from

contract work and suddenly their income just skyrockets and they go from a hundred
thousand dollars a year to two hundred and fifty thousand dollars a year instead of

Instead of incrementally increasing their lifestyle, they suddenly start spending like
they're making $250,000 a year.

They keep saving the same amount, but the same amount is maybe relative to the hundred
thousand, not relative to the 250,000.

And suddenly now they're in a massive house that they maybe can't afford.

ah They've got kids in private school.

They went out and bought the new car.

They bought a vacation house, didn't save up an appropriate down payment.

and they come to me three or four months later and they're like, I'm making all of this
money, but at the end of the month, I feel completely broke.

Like what's happening?

And nine times out of 10, it's lifestyle creep.

So it's kind of like the people who win the lottery and they came from, know, oftentimes
they're not making a ton of money and all of sudden they have this big sum of money and

they start going crazy and they've done studies where years later almost all those people
have lost all that money.

Yeah, I would say to a lesser degree, I think in our field, ah if the person has come from
humble origins and they're not trust fund babies, but they have put themselves through

education, they've started their own business, they appreciate the hard work.

You don't see as much in them.

A lot of times when we see it, we see it in a way.

It happens very, very slowly to the dollar amounts aren't as large as say when someone
wins the lottery, which I think now the powerball is at 1.3 1.4 billion.

Yes, my husband was telling me about that.

need to go buy a ticket.

m

heard the odds of winning it are one in 293 million right now.

it's crazy because it goes like everybody waits till it gets really big, but the odds
significantly reduce them.

Would you be happy if you won a couple million?

You'd have much better odds if you just played, if you're going to play, you might as well
do it when it's low because your odds are better.

But yeah, keep going.

Well, I think it what I'm getting to is the same point as the lottery is that you know,
necessary making more money necessarily will not improve quality of life.

It will not raise your happiness quotient.

It won't necessarily make you happier and people think all the time like oh if I just do
this if I make this then I'm gonna be happier and in all reality you really won't and

A lot of what we do is just trying to keep people on a steady path.

So when the hurricane comes or the storm comes, we need to be the steady element in the
life.

We need to be the ship in the storm that is not rocking by the waves and just really
keeping them aligned with their goals, but more importantly, their values.

Awesome, love that.

So if you could, not everybody listening here is gonna be a high net worth client, so to
speak, but if you could give us just one or two practical tips that we could take to start

building wealth, what would those be?

Yeah, I would say one, pay attention to taxes.

ah Taxes are always going to be there.

know, death and taxes are certainties.

ah But two is follow a plan.

If you're not working with what I refer to, what our industry refers to as a fee only
fiduciary, make sure that you are.

The Department of Labor several years ago started to come out with these rules and
regulations and, they're still kind of unclear as far as who can call themselves a

fiduciary and who cannot.

There are advisors out there that are called dual registrants where they can act as a uh
salesman and earn commissions on products and they can act in a fiduciary capacity, which

is where they are only paid by their clients.

I have firmly believed since I got out of the uh commissioned world that fee only
fiduciary is the way to go because it removes conflict of interest at all times.

Clients don't worry about

Or is he being paid under the table to recommend this to me?

That does not exist in our world.

The SEC forbids it.

Ethics prohibits it.

ah And frankly, I value my licensure much more than I do any sort of small commission that
we have been offered.

And you said pay attention to taxes.

What does that mean?

Yeah, so pay attention to taxes, how things are taxed, the timing of taxes.

You know, if someone's self-employed or a higher earning W-2, how do you reduce tax
brackets in an effective manner by funding 401Ks, SEP IRAs, spousal IRAs.

Make sure that you're using tax-advantaged investments like Roth IRAs for retirement, 529s
for your children, but also

Don't ignore things that you can access at any time because everything that I just
mentioned has a goal behind it, right?

It's either retirement driven or education driven.

People also need the other side of the equation, which is all right, you know, I need to
buy a new car.

How do we save up for that?

And you just need to be knowledgeable about how do you really set yourself up?

How do you build your financial house in a way that you're not putting yourself in a
position?

to not have access to funds when you need them.

Yeah, I didn't figure that stuff out until I was older, unfortunately.

I actually sold insurance when I was in my 20s and recognized that there were some value
and they have like whole life policies where you can start to build wealth that way.

And that was kind of my first introduction to, I need to really look ahead.

But when you're in your 20s, you find that...

you need all the money you make.

Right?

So it's really hard to save em because you're not making as much as you would like to or
you're not seeing the big picture because you're too young to see the big picture is

you're not saving for your future because it's better, know, having the things or the look
or the experience, you know, might be more important to you in those days than having a

future because you just can't see.

if 20 years or 30 years later that you would rather have the money, you know, than have
the thing.

So I love it.

the flip side of that coin though is you get one shot at life.

And I went through cancer three years ago.

It drastically changed my outlook on how we save and how we spend.

And I think everyone will have that experience, not necessarily cancer, but they will have
that defining experience in their life about money and relationships and how that impacts

them.

And since then,

We have started to spend much more freely, but we still make sure that we are saving what
we need to.

We're just not trying to over save at this point.

Yeah, that's interesting you took that tack as, so you are savers, what it sounds like,
not a spender, which is probably why, you know, we can analyze all the way back to if

you're, least for my husband, you know, going through what he went through as a child with
his family, having money, then not having money, he likes to save money.

Other people like to spend lots of money, so, you know, it depends on your personality is
when you go through those big life changes is do I...

what way does that alter me?

And it always has some sort of impact, whether that's in your case, you said spend, do
things that are fun now because I'm here now to enjoy them or in other people's cases, it

might be I need to start saving more because I might not be here, um depending on the
personality of the person.

um So that's really an interesting take on things.

When you...

look back at your career so far, what habit do you think has, what would you give credit
to for the most, the ability to go from where you were, you know, kind of starting out to

where you are now in your success, if you will?

I really struggled with talking to people when I was just new into this career.

uh scared it honestly, excuse my friend, it scared the ever loving hell out of me ah to go
out and talk to someone I had not known.

I was a 22, 23 year old kid and asking someone, hey, I want you to trust me with your
financial future.

And I had this massive imposter syndrome.

And I think I was having a one-to-one with Anna Wells, who owns Anna's Pet Care in our
chapter.

She said, you know, she was talking about her imposter syndrome and I said, I still have
it.

You know, my goal was to cross managing $100 million of assets this year.

I will probably do it.

I think I'm two or three million away right now.

And I still have it because I'm still just working through that.

And part of that, I think is

being competitive and just wanting to find, right, how do we optimize it?

How do we make it better?

How do we become the best firm, the best practice that we possibly can be all the time?

So, playing to your strengths, in other words.

Yeah, understanding them and utilizing them sounds like a good thing.

So, if you're an introvert and what you just spoke to speaks to not really wanting, you
know, imposter syndrome, all those things can make networking feel intimidating.

What's an insider practice that you have used to kind of overcome networking to make it
easier or more effective for you?

ah So very rarely will you see me go up and actually initiate a conversation with someone.

ah It still scares me.

I don't know why.

It just does.

It's who I am and I've accepted that now.

A lot of times when we're having open networking, you know, from 1130 to 1145, I will
often go up to two people or three people that are already talking and kind of interject

myself into that conversation or just stand and listen and really

gets to know what they're talking about, then add my two cents.

And that's typically how I will enter a conversation.

ah I understand that's not the most polite way to do it either, especially in the South,
but it's what works for me.

Yeah, well if it gets you talking, that's the battle, right?

It's funny, um so I've been in the last couple of episodes, I've been sort of hinting to,
I've created a tracker, um I called it the Perfect 100 Networking Tracker because I feel

like...

not just in BNI and not everybody listening to this might be in BNI.

So, and that might even seem intimidating to come to a BNI meeting is like, wait, there's
going to be 30 or 40 people that are all going to be wanting to talk to me I have to stand

up and talk in front of that can sound intimidating, but people still have to grow their
business.

So I created this tracker.

is basically to give someone who doesn't naturally network, you know, I'm

I'm a natural networker.

This stuff just kind of comes to me, like I don't even think about it.

It's just kind of in my DNA.

But for someone like my husband or maybe like you who doesn't naturally understand, not
that you don't understand it, but it's not a, you have to kind of talk yourself into it,

right?

As you have.

not a huge strength of mine.

Right, it's just not your driving force, so to speak, is you're not getting energy from
going to do that.

So you have to kind of talk yourself into it.

Would having a game plan before you walked into a room full of people you didn't know help
you, do you think?

I think it would, I think I also have to, and I've been doing this over the past probably
six months, I have to learn how to reframe my mindset and really go into it and say, these

people are here because of the givers gain philosophy of BNI, they want to help me.

I need to be able to tell them how they can help me.

And then conversely, I need to ask them, how can I help you?

And once I get in that mindset, I might spend a minute or two in my car doing it.

but really reframing that and saying, all right, not hyping myself up for the meeting
necessarily, but just getting in the right head space.

That has helped me, but something like that Perfect 100 Tracker would work great as well.

Yeah, I love that because, know, and I'm looking at your strengths over here, you've got
you can gamify that rate is you can take your strengths because you have competition.

And that's actually on the tracker is using your strengths to give yourself an opportunity
to exercise your superpower, so to speak, is you can since you have competition, you know,

is if maybe go with a friend or if you know somebody there that's going to be there is

make it a competition, right?

So that gives you, you know, obviously in a BNI meeting, there are other people that you
know.

you know, you could make it in before if you see somebody walking in and go, I'm going to
talk to two more people than you today, you know, or something along those lines, but

trying to, I love that you're sitting and thinking about it.

That's half the battle is if you can think, you know, I have, uh

my number one strength is strategic.

So I'm gonna think of a strategy before if I'm sitting in the car, if I intentionally
think about something before I go in is how can I maximize that or even talk to somebody

about that is, know, what when some because people are gonna ask you questions, right?

When you go to any kind of networking event, their first question is, usually, what do you
do?

You know?

Yes.

Yeah.

so that to me on the relator side, I really want to know someone before I'm going to send
them a referral like that.

Just because we're, you know, in our role, we're in such a position of heightened trust
with the public and with our clients.

The worst thing that can happen, I think in our business is me to recommend someone, say
they're going to do a great job for you.

And then it go terrible.

I will take that so personally.

Yeah, yeah, I think we all feel like that.

mean, you know, if you're going to put your name on the line, you want it to go well,
right?

So, you know, and that for me is oftentimes a way that I bring people in as a visitor is,
you know, I have a very close network of people that I know, like, trust.

And I'd love to introduce you to them, right?

uh People are like, oh, okay, well, that sounds interesting, you know, is people want to
be invited to the inner circle.

And as relators,

We have an inner circle.

That's what we rely on is we don't, people with high relator want to, they don't want to
necessarily, now I have other strengths that compliment my relator that actually allow me

to flex in and out of, I can meet lots of people and it doesn't drain me.

I'm also, I saw I've done DISK, or not DISK, but Myers, wait, Myers-Briggs where it's, you
do the, where your E or an I is on a scale in my,

E is introverted versus extroverted and the line is in the middle.

I'm very close, I'm on the other side, I'm on the, I'm an extrovert, but I also can roll
into the introvert depending on how busy I've been, right?

If I've been talking to hundreds of people, when I go to a conference, I've worked
conferences where I've spoken in front of lots of people and lots of people wanna come and

talk to me.

by the end of that day, I'm ready to go lock the door and not talk to anybody for, know,
they say that it's kind of a scale, right?

If you're an introvert, it doesn't mean you can't talk to people.

It just means you need more time to recover.

So kind of the equal amount of time you've outputted, so to speak, is you need that alone
time to kind of recharge your battery, so to speak.

And uh I'm that way too.

but I have, I have kind of the...

other supporting characters that allow me to kind of show up in a room and it doesn't
bother me.

Because I go in with intention to build my network and build my business.

But if you, uh I think that intentionality is the big piece here is if you show up with a
plan, then that's half the battle.

So love that.

Yeah.

And I think my, I differ a little bit in that approach.

If I'm going into a room of people, I am typically going in there to have fun and, and try
and enjoy it.

I, I have never liked, and I've said this before, and I'll say it again, I've never liked
networking for the sake of networking.

Uh, it's, it is draining to me, but if I can go into a room with say 50, 60 plus people
and have fun,

I will have a blast and I will be the life of the party and my wife would tell you that
about me, but I will need that time to recover.

You know, when we get home, I need a couple of hours to just mentally decompress and
really digest everything that just went on.

Right, well, and my husband's like that too, where he just needs to go shut himself in his
office.

Like, he doesn't, you know, come up for air for a while.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, I need I I need to go swim in the pool.

I need to watch college football and I just need quiet.

That's it No, nope

So what's exciting to you in your business right now?

Anything new projects on the horizon?

Anything you want to talk about?

We've got some stuff working right now can't quite talk about it yet ah But you know
crossing a hundred million will be will be a big landmark for me.

ah I'm 35.

I'm sorry 36 about to be 37 ah So that is a big landmark that I've really never saw myself
getting to and it's very very attainable now ah That's a big one the the one big beautiful

bill act that just got passed

a couple of months ago, we're still digesting that, seeing how that applies to the
practice and clients and, and starting to implement some of it.

But most of what we're doing every day is still blocking and tackling and just making sure
that clients are taken care of.

That's big, that's big, that's what we need, uh So when you look forward, what do want
your legacy to be?

Whether it's your business or in the lives of the people that you work with, what would
you hope that your legacy would turn out like?

Yeah, I've been asked that before and I think it will ultimately be, you helped send my
kid to college.

You helped us retire when we didn't think we could.

And then personally, it's going to be, you know, leaving a legacy for my wife and daughter
when I'm no longer here, which is my ultimate responsibility as a father and a husband is

taking care of them and making sure that what happened to my family, you know, my parents
does not happen to them.

Right?

Yeah.

I can do that, I'll be very, very satisfied with my life.

Love that.

All right, so the last we've been doing a thing where the last guest leaves a question for
the next guest.

So the last yeah, the last guest left you this question.

If you find someone in your chapter or in another chapter that is struggling in BNI right
now, what might you do to support them?

Hmm.

My wife, Shelly has this thing called a lemon squeeze.

And I think it's just, it's just asking someone straight up, Hey, let's, let's go to
lunch.

I want to talk to you about how I can help you.

It seems like you're struggling right now and then just go, you know, and have a very
honest conversation with them.

You don't need to sugar coat conversations like that.

If you just are, if you show up and you're vulnerable and you say, how can I help you?

I want you to be here.

I really enjoy you in this group.

I like sending you business.

how can I help you be better?

How can I help you get more out of this?

And you're really vulnerable in that conversation.

I think they will get a lot out of that.

Yeah, well, and I love that from the aspect that you take the vulnerability first is
oftentimes people, we can see sometimes that people are struggling or maybe we can't, but

we never ask that question.

And people sometimes are very proud and don't want to say that they're struggling.

So they may or may not ask for help.

But when confronted with, hey, I'm here for you, uh oftentimes in that one-to-one
situation, they'll let their guard down and give you what you need to be supportive.

How does that transfer to the lemon squeeze though?

I'm not getting the correlation.

the lemon squeeze is just more so just hitting the nail on the head and not beating around
it.

ah I don't know where she got the lemon squeeze from, but we use it in our marriage and
sometimes she'll say it's time for a lemon squeeze with X, Y, and Z and I'm like, that's

not going to be a fun conversation for them sometimes.

ah I try and avoid the lemon squeeze on myself because I know those are not fun
conversations.

That's hilarious.

her strength is communication.

She got her undergrad and UT about it with it and then got her MBA from CBU here locally
in communication.

And she is a fantastic communicator.

I am not so much sometimes.

I like to internalize and she externalizes.

Well, and that's good thing in a marriage when you have a good balance, right?

It is, it is, but the, the lemon squeeze is really about just hitting the nail on the
head, addressing the problem or addressing some scene or, or unseen issue and saying, how

do we work past this?

Right, that makes sense.

So finally, if you could leave listeners with one guiding principle about business, money,
or life, what would it be?

Probably about life and it's that you're you get one of these ah You don't have to be the
absolute best and everything that you are just try and find balance in your life where you

can and Where we are I'm a parent.

I'm a father.

I'm a husband I've run a practice and I get pulled in all these different directions as
does everyone else and so just do the best that you can obviously

you know, family is first.

Family is always going to be first in our world.

And so if you can prioritize your family, make sure that they're taken care of.

Everything else will follow along with that.

Love that.

Well, thank you so much for sharing all that with us today.

I appreciate having you as a guest.

Thank you for having me.

I enjoyed it.