Latest / Charleston's Leading Producers / Ep. #27 | Alwyn Coetzee

Transcript

Ep. #27 | Alwyn Coetzee · Charleston's Leading Producers

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_02: So like there's a lot of coffees and and lunches and meetings that don't lead anywhere because they're not necessarily meeting with the right people.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_02: And it's more a numbers game than a value add game.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_01: Hey leaders, I'm Jake, a loan officer obsessed with business growth and finding out what's actually working in our market.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_01: If that sounds useful, hit follow.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_01: Now, this week's leader.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: Al, thanks for coming on and recording with me, man.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: Jake, good seeing you.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for having me on.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: This is awesome.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_01: So you are a financial advisor with Northwestern Mutual in Somerville, specializing in financial planning and life insurance, uh, helping people build real financial security, mostly through relationships and referrals, not cold leads.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_01: Do I have all that correct?
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_01: You absolutely do.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, you can steal that if you want at any time, you know, copy and paste for an intro point.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_02: That's correct.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_01: Um so I want to start with just talking about the parallels between financial advisors, loan officers, and realtors.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_01: I have so much respect for all the people in our industries.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_01: They get into it and they don't know where their income is going to be coming from.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_01: It's based solely off of their own production.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so my first real question is for these people who don't have a base salary, no clients, unless we go out and get them, what's the one best financial or investing practice that they should be following?
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_01: And so just to be clear on the question, if they're looking at joining this as a career, any of those industries, is that yeah, anybody who's, you know, running their own business, um, because you know, financial advisors, it's so interesting that you guys, you know, run your own career that way.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_01: And a lot of people that you're advising, I'm sure, are business owners as well.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_01: So for people who don't have that salary W-2 paycheck coming in, I'm looking for just like basic money advice that they should be following or investment advice that you have for them.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_02: So the first thing that I would say is before starting the business, make sure that you have a rainy day fund in place.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, based on how you're expecting to generate revenue, whatever that industry is.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_02: So let's say you're going into the financial services or real estate industry and you're not expecting to make a meaningful income for potentially six to eight months, make sure that you have the expenses covered to be able to do that.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_02: I know it's not always possible, but that would be my recommendation number one.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_02: The second thing I would say is if you're the main breadwinner for the household, make sure that you have the support of your spouse going into this and that they are very clear on the expectations that things might be a little bit stressful for those first few few months.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_02: Um then the other part that I would look at, which is I call it potentially the not so fun stuff.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_02: When you have a W-2 job, you usually have quite a few benefits that are provided through your employer.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_02: So as you're starting your own business, making sure that you are protecting those pieces.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_02: Do we have life insurance, disability insurance in place?
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_02: You know, how am I going to pay for my health insurance, especially if I've got people that are financially dependent on me?
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_02: I want to make sure that they protect.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_01: That's great.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I want to pause on the second one that you had there, the spouse.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, you know, it's uh I know when I said to Britt, because we were both, I was a teacher, she was working in a school district, you know, we had very like stable, very predictable incomes, very um, you know, we knew exactly what we were bringing in every month.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_01: And then one night I said, Hey, I think I'm gonna go be a loan officer.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_01: She's like, What does that pay?
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, I don't, it doesn't pay anything.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_01: You have to go find your clients and then you get paid, you know.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_01: Um and fortunately, you know, Britt's been in my corner the whole time, you know.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and I do think that is so important and so underrated, um, especially in tough markets.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_01: Like if you get started and the market's tough and then money's tight and you've jumped into this career and you're six months in and it's a struggle, man, those can be some hard conversations.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, totally.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I'll give you an example.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_02: When I started my practice, you know, Sarah was doing really well at her business, not like fantastic, but she was doing just fine.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_02: And uh, you know, going into a financial services industry where you're very dependent on your network or reliant on your network to help you grow that practice.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_02: For someone that didn't grow up in the US and my network wasn't very big, quite a scary task.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_02: And I I wouldn't have been able to make it if it wasn't for her support, right?
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_02: Like, so we knew what we were getting into, kind of.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_02: It was sometimes even more stressful.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_02: But um, without her, you know, this we would have been in a in a lot tougher situation.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_02: So, you know, I think having your spouse, your spouse's buying is incredibly important.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_01: And you nailed it too, of like not knowing completely what you're gonna be getting into.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_01: I don't think you can, you know, it's it's kind of like a real estate transaction.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_01: Like you can put the guardrails in place, but there might be some surprises in there, you know, and I'm sure everybody who gets into one of these businesses gets hit with that at some point.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, exactly.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_02: And then honestly, the other part is, and I don't know how deep you want to dive into that, but but with the real estate business, the learning and finance, uh, we are dependent on our networks to help grow our practice.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_02: And what I found was at least incredibly helpful for me was not to try and connect, but be a connector.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_02: And that that helped me a ton.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_02: So that's how I kind of grew my businesses uh is connecting other good people with each other.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_02: And organically, they were starting to introduce me to their networks as well.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_02: And that that helped me a ton in growing a really successful practice with people who value me because that I was helping them grow their businesses.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_01: Let's definitely dig into that a little bit more because you know, just for people listening, like Al and I, we know each other, we're in the same community.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_01: We actually do some networking together.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_01: We just started a uh network uh of small business leaders based in our church that we go to together, but you've done such an incredible job of like getting in our community, and we live in a big community.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but I don't know if all the people in our neighborhood, you might have done the best job, even better than the realtors that I know, of like everybody knows who Al is.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_01: So walk me through that a little bit more of how you're saying you connect other people and how that helps you.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, it's a it's for me, it's a lot of fun seeing other people succeed.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_02: So that to me, like I I feel I'm I'm very much a firm believer of a rising tide raises all ships.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_02: And so if we have a community where people are doing well, um, you know, it's it's it's it's great.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_02: So so when we when we moved into Summer's Corner, uh I was just very curious about meeting people and making sure that I'm connecting the right people with the right folks and building those relationships that way versus just coming in and saying, huh, I'm new in this neighborhood and I'm a financial planner and I want to do financial planning and introduce me to 30 of your best people that you know.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_02: The other way for me has always been more successful and trying to add value.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_02: And it's not necessarily an instant result, but long-term has definitely paid off.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_02: I see it literally on a daily basis in my practice when I'm getting introduced through estate attorneys or accountants or real estate folks or folks in lending to potential clients because I connected a real estate guy to someone in the legal space to call out sign up contracts, or a lending person to someone in the legal space, or a lender to a realtor, right?
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_02: Or an accountant to a business owner.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_02: Um and now that's that's starting to come back.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_02: And so again, just coming back to maybe asking the question, you know, not who can you introduce me to, but who can I introduce to this person and seeing how that's going to change your practice or your business.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_01: And let's back up to your previous career because it's so fascinating.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I love your previous work history.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_01: You spent how long working as a private yacht captain?
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so I was in the maritime industry for around 13 years, running yachts uh all over the Caribbean, the Maid, up and down the east and the west coast of the US.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_02: Um, traveled a lot.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_02: My wife, you know, she traveled with me for about four or five years during that time.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_02: So we had the opportunity to see a lot of the world together.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_02: It was incredible, incredible.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_02: And um, I think one of the biggest takeaways outside of just being able to see unbelievable areas of the world was we got to hang out on a weekly basis with very successful folks.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_02: So people that are renting these boats for a week or two.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_02: We weren't on a massive yacht, so it was a lot more intimate, right?
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_02: So you get to spend time with people that have been really successful and where they've kicked their shoes off and they're just hanging out and you know, having a glass of wine, and we sit and having a conversation in the evening after dinner, and really awesome to see their mindset.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_02: And the crazy thing is, I would say 95%, maybe even closer to like 98% of those people are people that own businesses.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_02: So I always knew that I wanted to become a business owner.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_02: Um something where I can scale and grow to how I want to and so when we finished on the yachts, and my son was born and I needed to get a grown-up job, I actually was in contact with one of my old bosses, and he introduced me to his son-in-law, introduced me to Northwestern Mutual, and just you know, having a conversation with the financial planner, they're seeing what they're doing, the impact that they make on people's lives, this absolute privilege of sitting in front of folks and and learning about their fears and the things that they get really pumped up about.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_02: I was like, this is something I'd love to do.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_02: Just sit with folks, learn and listen, and see how we can improve their lives and and help them just be financially better set up.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_02: So uh it was it was great.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_02: And I think the yachting helped me a lot with that because it was just having conversations with people.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's really cool.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm curious, you mentioned one of the common threads being that a lot of them were business owners.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_01: These super high net wealth, high wealth individuals.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_01: Were there any other common threads that you noticed that kind of ran through a lot of them?
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_01: Either things that they did, things that they talked about, how they acted while they were around you.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_01: I'm curious if you noticed any other patterns.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_02: Good question.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_02: Um I suppose all of them were quite adventurous.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, coming on a yacht and sailing around.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_02: And I just I just and valuing their time, I think, is another thing that I noticed.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_02: People prioritize and with folk even on the boat, you know, some of they they would maybe do a few meetings in the morning, some of them, because as a business owner, you know that you can't really ever switch off.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_02: But I think just being disciplined and valuing their time and making sure that they're available when they are and making sure that they're not available when they're not, right?
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_02: And so um, but but usually these these are kind of folks that like to take risks, and and that's why they start businesses and and they've got the the the courage to grow that.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_02: So it's it's a different kind of personality, right?
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_02: To someone that and neither one is bad, it's just different.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_02: Some folks like to have consistency and in revenue, and other folks are more like on the outside.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_02: We were very lucky that we kind of had a base income when I started my business, so I I I could take more risks, but let's say Sarah wasn't earning an income at the time, maybe we wouldn't have been able to take that risk.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_00: That makes sense.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_00: Do you feel like you're a risk taker yourself?
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_02: I used to be.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_02: So I think I think that when I started to practice, maybe a bit more so.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_02: Now not as much.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_02: I I feel like as I'm getting older uh and the business is is kind of you know growing itself and I'm getting introductions from existing clients.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_02: I don't I don't think I'm as much of a risk taker as I used to be.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe life dictates that a little bit as well, because Ben, your son, he's how old?
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_01: He's 12.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_02: He's 12.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_00: He's 12.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_00: And one other child, right?
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, Emily, who's nine, nine going on 19.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_01: No kidding.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, but maybe that, you know, time of life just kind of dictates, all right, let's put like some parameters on things and make sure, you know, uh not nothing's going off the rails here during the next few years.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_01: So maybe some of that risk taking will kind of like re-reenter itself.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, exactly.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we'll we'll have to see.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_01: Um take me back to the first um year or so.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_01: We make this hard transition from yacht captain to uh being a financial planner.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_01: Where'd you find your first few clients?
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_01: How how'd we get this business off the ground?
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_02: Networking opportunities looks different for different folks.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_02: For me, it was about uh building a network with people that have the same passions as I do.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I just felt like it it was easier to create uh conversations from that.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_02: So I looked for, I started a like a dad's group in my old neighborhood up in Northern Virginia where where we could just hang out and and and talk about the things that, you know, honestly, how to become a better parent.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_02: And I met a lot of really cool folks there that were business owners or um you know worked in really cool jobs that were going through the same things that I was as a parent, as a young parent, and I could relate to them with.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_02: And so when, you know, I asked them to sit down and have a conversation, it was really easy.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_02: And so I would encourage folks if they're looking to build out a network to find people with within the same passions as them.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_02: I used to play golf once a week, uh, and just I'd unfortunately be that fourth guy with the other three people, but by the end of nine hours, we usually got along really well.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_02: And I would tell them, like, listen, I'm building out a business.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not asking you to become a client, but at least can we have a conversation and then worst case scenario with part raised as friends, but then at least for future reference, you know what I do.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_02: And usually just because of the awesome work that we do in our industry, there was one or two different talking points that they wanted to address, and I could help them out.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_02: See organically referrals just started to come up.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_02: But that's that's how I grew my business, was more looking for introductions to people that are in the same uh you know, interest and and and lifestyle that I made.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_01: How's your current golf game?
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_02: It's terrible.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_02: I feel like it's just gotten just gotten worse, honestly.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_02: But um, no, it's it's I still love it.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_02: I'm actually playing this afternoon.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_02: I play in a Thursday night league.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_02: And you know, that's another cool thing, making friends and and your your circles where you're passionate about stuff, you you meet people like-minded folks, and honestly, a lot of those folks have introduced me to some really cool clients just because they know what I do.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_02: We hang out quite often.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_02: I get a phone call.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_02: Hey, Johnny X has said you're in finance, you know.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_02: I'd love to have a conversation with you around the business of my family.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_01: I love that.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_01: Finding the like-minded people is perfect.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_01: Um, yeah, we we we gotta get out on the golf course, man.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_01: We we've put that off for too long.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we gotta figure that out.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_01: But um back to the financial advisors.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_01: What do most financial advisors get wrong about building this type of referral-based business?
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_01: Where do you see a lot of the young financial, I shouldn't say young, but early in their career financial advisors getting tripped up as far as the referral-based business goes?
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_02: That's a great question.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_02: I would say a lot of them do networking and not connecting.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_02: And what does that mean?
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_02: So networking is going to these whatever network group you can find on Facebook or uh, you know, wherever you go, whatever.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_02: So, like there's a lot of coffees and and lunches and meetings that don't lead anywhere because they're not necessarily meeting with the right people, and it's more a numbers game than a value add game.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_02: Platform you use, uh, and and just going out there to shake hands and and kiss babies and talk to people with no real intention of becoming a connector or or creating a value ad.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_02: And so where I feel like coming back to the the connecting piece, you know, if I'm meeting with someone like yourself who's a lender, I would love to connect you with.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_02: I would we would probably have a conversation.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_02: I'd be like, dude, I need to introduce you to X, who's a real estate person.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_02: I need you to introduce you to Y, who's you know, and in the legal aspect that can help with setting up contracts.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I've got a great CPA.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_02: He works with folks that are you know mainly moving to this area, and I think he could be a great resource for you for folks that are moving here, that's looking for an accountant that potentially wants to buy or refinance a house.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and automatically, Jake's gonna be like, oh, I need to send this guy, the clients that are coming to me to buy a side of house to sit down and help them with their financial planning.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_02: Versus if you're just a networker, I'll meet you at a network opportunity and be like, hey, I'm Al, we need to meet for a coffee.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_02: What do you do?
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_02: Jake is not necessarily interested in financial planning today.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, that's cool.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_02: And then that's an hour of nothing.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_02: And that relationship because an offer to add value is not gonna really go anywhere afterwards either.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_02: So uh I would say making sure you're a connector and not just a networker is really important, especially as we start the practice.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_01: I've been going back through it, sounds like you've definitely read this book, How to Win Friends and Influence People.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_01: And it's so much focused.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's on your Facebook.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_02: It's a great book, it's a great book.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_02: I have not read it, I listened to the audio.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, perfect.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, but it's so focused on you know, people focused on themselves.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_01: You know, as soon as you're asking somebody, how can I help you?
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_01: How can I connect this person, you know, from here to here?
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and the more other people that you help get what they want, the more that is gonna come back to you.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_01: And you you put that so well and you put that so eloquently, and I can see it in your business, I can see it in the way that you interact with people, and you've totally embodied that, which is um, you know, it's such a desirable character trait.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_01: I love it, man.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you, man.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_02: But honestly, same same to you, and and and uh I think part of growing a business that's so important because people don't buy the product, they buy the person.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_02: And so if you are uh just someone that people can rely on and trust and consistence and stay true to your word, and you don't have to have every answer.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I don't, it's one of the first things that I tell people when I meet them for a first time.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like, listen, this is what I do, this is how I help.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_02: The great news to you is that I've got a team behind me that's a lot smarter than I am, so you don't have to rely solely on my advice, and I'll tell them about the team, and um and so they buy the person.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_02: And so I I think I think that's really important as you build out a practice is just to know like you don't have to have all the answers, but building out with true, genuine good intention is is really, really important.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_01: If a new client came to you, I I want to get back to the variable income thing because we're all living in this commission based world.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_01: If a new client Came to you as a variable income earner and they had zero financial plan.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_01: What's the first three moves that you would have them make?
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_02: I would make sure I would look at their emergency spending.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_02: Number one, which is do we have a rainy, do we have a rainy day fund in place?
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I would look at what kind of debts they have on the balance sheet.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_02: Because if we've got any huge high credit card debts on the balance sheet with high interest rates, no investment account's gonna outperform that very rarely.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_02: If you've got a 25 or 30 percent credit card debt on your balance sheet, I I can't do anything with new revenue to actually outperform on that.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_02: Does that make sense?
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_02: So we need to look at it, be really strategic and how to pay that off.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_02: The third thing is if you've got people that are financially dependent on you, how are you protecting them as you're starting this new business?
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_02: Do we have life insurance in place, knock on wood, if uh to pass away, is my family gonna be okay?
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_02: All right.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_02: So uh, do we have disability insurance?
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_02: Because uh the best way I can put this, you are the ATM, and if you had an ATM in your basement, definitely you're gonna be ensuring that thing if it's printing out 100, 200, 300k a year.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_02: So why wouldn't you do that on yourself?
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so I would look at the risk management piece and I would look at the rainy day fund piece and make sure that those two things, the not so fun stuff, are in place before I start before I start your business.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_01: Can we dig into the credit card aspect?
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_01: Because this fascinates me, you know, and I always find it really interesting as a loan officer.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_01: We see people's entire financial picture.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_01: We see all their debts, we calculate their income down to like the penny, you know.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and we see their credits, we see how much money they got in the bank, like the full picture.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_01: And some of the things that that blow my mind is the credit cards.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_01: Um, credit cards are at an all-time high.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_01: I forget the billions that that's out there in credit card debt right now, but it's astronomical.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I just saw this stat, you know, Coachella, the music class, the music thing, yeah.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_01: It I forget the number, but it was something crazy.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_01: The number of tickets that were purchased um on financing.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_01: So Kelly Coachella apparently has like their own financing system and they're charging like 25% to borrow this money.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_01: It was like 60% of tickets purchased were purchased accumulating this 25% interest.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_01: Something crazy.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_01: But um, do you see a lot of clients coming to you where they might be high income earners, but they have this out-of-control credit card debt or somebody that's kind of like mixed up in that world, what can they do to get out of it?
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's uh I call it lifestyle creep.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_02: So some folks you you think about people earning a high income and they must be doing well, and a lot of the times their expenses are rising with the income, and it's scary because then you know, if you lose your job or something happens, now your your debts are significantly higher, and where do you, you know, where get the capital to to find that?
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_02: So we do we do see it, and then I've got folks that are making meaningful income, but they live below their means and they're just unbelievable savers, and it comes from building really good habits, and that's why I feel like if you haven't sat down with a financial advisor to build a plan and a strategy to attack those things, you should definitely have a conversation.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_02: Not saying you have to work with them, but get with the financial planner and build out a strategy.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_02: One of the first things that we do, and if it's okay with you, if I share it, we'll take five minutes.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_02: We look at the risk management piece.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_02: Risk management is, you know, knock on wood.
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_02: If something had to happen to us, are we protected?
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_02: Do we protect our income stream?
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_02: Risk management is are we paying too much taxes?
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_02: Risk management is do we have too much debt on the balance sheet?
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_02: All right, those are the risk management pieces.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_02: That's the foundational piece that we attack before anything else, before the fun stuff of investing money.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_02: And so we'll build out a plan and say, listen, I'm gonna use you as an example, you're Jake.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_02: Look, Jake, we've got X amount of debt, X amount is in high interest rate debts, those are the things we're gonna attack first.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_02: We don't want to do that solely.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_02: We also want to start building out an emergency income fund at the same time.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_02: And we also want to start investing because that's another big mistake is people think they don't have enough money to invest.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_02: Eighth one of the world is compound interest.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_02: So we want to start doing those three things at the same time.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_02: We're gonna see what money we can allocate to attack those three pieces all simultaneously.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_02: And then we only start looking at like the fun stuff of okay, now we've got extra cash.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_02: We once we pay those debts off, what do we do with that money then?
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_02: Because when it's available, instead of spending it on like a boat or something else, we're gonna allocate that to like a really blue investment account based on timelines when we that's perfect, man.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna wrap it up on that because that was so beautifully put.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_01: Um, if anybody who's uh been listening, you've got incredible advice.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_01: If anybody wants to reach out just to ask some follow-up questions, uh get some more information, how can they find you?
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so they could they could either I I'm a big fan of my mobile number, giving up my mobile number.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_02: So if that's okay, it's 571-309-9916.
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_02: Um, just send me a text or give me a call.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, if I'm if I don't answer, I'll get back to you as soon as possible.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_02: Otherwise, it's just my email, which is my first name A-L-W-Y-N, and then my last name dot C-O-E-T-Z-E-E at NM.com.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_02: They can reach me through through e do in those ways.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_01: Beautiful.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_01: I appreciate your time and uh sharing some incredible insights, man.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_01: Jake, dude, great seeing you.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_00: Keep crushing it.
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um and thanks for having me on.
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for listening to Charleston's Leading Producers Podcast.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_01: Could you take a moment to hit subscribe on the platform that you're currently listening on?
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_01: That allows this show to grow and bring you more of the top of the line producers and business leaders.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_01: And if you think these stories will help someone you know, please share this with them.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_01: New episodes every Wednesday.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_01: I'm Jake Cummings.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_01: See you next week.