Latest / Off the Bench - London / From the Court to the Boardroom: Lessons in Entrepreneurship

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From the Court to the Boardroom: Lessons in Entrepreneurship · Off the Bench - London

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Ladies and gentlemen, you are now tuned in to
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Off the Bench London with your hosts, Malcolm
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the Milkman Noel and Scott the Visionary Horn.
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Only at the clubhouse where the game never stops.
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450 pints, half -priced wings every Monday night.
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Massive screens, the best staff in the city.
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Don't forget to like and subscribe. From YouTube
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to Spotify. Off the banks, Lando! Cheers, y 'all.
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Hey, we're back. It's been a minute. Last time
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we recorded an episode was February 9th. It's
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our longest break since. Yeah, but it's a little
0:54
different this time because we have a guest today.
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We do. All right. Well, I'll let you introduce
0:59
yourself. So which camera am I looking at first
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of all? We're shooting the shit here. We're shooting
1:04
the shit, but you can also look at the iPhone.
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Okay. This one here? Not to be confused with
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the other phone. I'm Fredel. I am the owner and
1:15
operator of Fredel Financial. Been working in
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finance basically my whole career. Went to school
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for finance. I had my first. internship when
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I was 18 at an investment boutique firm. But,
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you know, I grew up my entire life playing basketball.
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So basketball was my thing for as long as I could
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remember. And my career came to an end. So I
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had to find something to make money and it happened
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to be in finance. Okay. Okay. What's your favorite
1:40
team then? Raptors, of course. Ah, you're awesome.
1:43
Come on, bro. Yeah, Lakers all day. I grew up
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being a Colby fan, though. You know what I mean?
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So the Lakers were my team for a while. But I
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was kind of a dual fan. I find like growing up,
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most of the people I knew were a Raptors fan
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by default. But then you also support your team.
2:00
You have some LeBron fans, you have some Kobe
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fans, but Raptors, Raptors is what they want.
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Sure. I feel like a lot of basketball, there's
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people that just follow certain players just
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because they shift around every once in a while.
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I mean, I guess Kobe's different because he never
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moved. I feel like that's changed, though, too.
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Because, you know, back in the day, you had actual
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loyal players. That's the team. Like, Jordan
2:24
wanted to play his whole career. Kobe wanted
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to play his whole career, you know, in LA. He
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threatened to leave. He threatened to leave.
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But I feel like the catalyst for all this was
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LeBron, man. When he left. Setting the precedent.
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Absolutely. Every player has no loyalty to the
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team. So you don't have as many. That's why I
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feel like fans nowadays, you kind of just default
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to the city that you're from. True. You don't
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have as many fans who are necessarily just following
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you very much. I don't know. The NBA now, it's
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totally different. There is no loyalty, like
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you say. Everyone keeps moving. You're right.
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LeBron kind of ruined it for everyone with the
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decision. But it also shined light on the owners
3:02
who have no loyalty to the players. Absolutely.
3:05
Yeah. Right? It's a business, right? 100%. I
3:10
feel bad for generations now, though, where like
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when we grew up, you know, Raptors fan. Best
3:17
memory for me as a Raptors. Well, I'm not a Raptors
3:20
fan. I'm a Laker fan. But for like Raptors, Vince
3:22
Carter was my. Oh, yeah. And then hearing the
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story that, you know, him and his cousin got
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drafted on the same team, not knowing that they
3:29
were cousins. Like that, those moments will never
3:33
really get again. And, you know, it's now on
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the Lakers. I drafted by Dallas. It just doesn't,
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it's not the same. When you look at the top two
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teams right now, though, OKC and Detroit. Yes.
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Who, neither of them, both of them have basically
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built their teams. They didn't trade for them.
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They didn't pick up a bunch of free agents. They,
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like, basically, because of all the draft lottery
3:59
stuff, that's why other teams are trying to tank.
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Yeah. Because they said, like, oh, well, you
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can actually build a team by tanking for, I don't
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know how long Detroit sucked for. Quite a while.
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A long time. Yeah, a real long time. It was a
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process. Like most Detroit teams. Yeah. But it's
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good that it's actually showing that the days
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of LeBron, Durant, and Bosh going together and
4:27
making super teams, Kevin Durant joining the
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Warriors, making those super teams, it's kind
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of dying off. Yeah. Like, there's been a bunch
4:37
of super teams that have failed. Like, the Clippers,
4:40
that was a train wreck. Yeah. Well, sometimes
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you have these super teams where you don't have
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complementary players. Yeah, that's true. Right?
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Like, a lot of times there can be overlap and
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you can have putting points. And if, you know,
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you don't have, you know, that synchronicity
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as a team, then it's going to be challenging,
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right? Well, exactly. Because there's nowhere
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to hide because there's only five guys on. Yeah,
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for sure. Like, it's not like... guy football
5:02
with like the Eagles because the Eagles built
5:04
their super team yes but there's so many people
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but it lasted a year right yeah obviously once
5:10
there's more tape on you yeah learn tendencies
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bad habits and so forth so football tends to
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burn out quick unless you're Tom Brady it's true
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football is one of the hardest ones to win yeah
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well yeah because one injury is that's your year
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where in NBA it's 82 games and then it's playoffs
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and it's the best of 11 so Still less than baseball.
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True, true. Did you catch the gold medal game?
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I didn't. Oh, you didn't wake up in the morning.
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So I was off when I was in Toronto, as I said.
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Ah, right. So I had to get my kid back to swimming
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lessons. So we were on the road from Toronto.
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Serious? Did you have it on serious? Did you
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hear it? What? Serious? We're on serious, right?
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Are we all serious? No, not yet. Nobody listening
6:04
has used this shit. You can't just turn everything
6:07
off and watch the game later because immediately
6:09
something happens. Exactly. I watched the game.
6:17
It was good. Until the end. And then I just turned
6:22
it off and went back to bed. I was like, I'm
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done. No, actually, we were here at Clubhouse.
6:27
Just been ignoring articles about it. Yeah, woke
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up early, came to Clubhouse, watched the game.
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Yeah. It was a packed house day, or on Sunday.
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Yeah, we were talking about that at Palisade.
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They were debating opening early, and they weren't
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sure whether it was going to be. Should have.
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I told them they should have, but. It was ridiculous.
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People were standing watching the game. They
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do this breakfast special, and by the third period,
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we were able to get our breakfast. That's how
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many people were here, because it was backed
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up. So it was cool, but if only Canada won. I
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know, man. Three on three. It's weird. It's a
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weird way to play hockey. All right. Well, first
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off, before we get into our main segment, I do
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want to do a huge shout -out to Clubhouse. Obviously,
7:21
we wouldn't be here if it wasn't for Clubhouse.
7:23
Yeah. So cheers to Clubhouse. 100 Kellogg's Lane.
7:27
Past Case Scenario, our sponsor, as well as Milky
7:31
Way Apparel. Yeah, don't forget that one. I got
7:33
to throw that out there. Yeah. Everything that's
7:39
come into there, making the dream come true.
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And if you would like to be a partner, let us
7:44
know. Now, you're not just here for the sake
7:48
of just being here. We brought you in for a reason.
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It's February and we needed representation. I'm
7:55
right here. You gotta have a number of you, though.
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Obviously. You always have a number of you. You're
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way heavier than I am. Wow. Shots fired. Shots
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fired. Okay, okay. Since we're not really doing
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football because it's offseason, we're literally...
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pivoting to like a new direction um so we have
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a few episodes coming up with other guests from
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like a referee standpoint for boxing um you know
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we do like we have some other people coming up
8:32
um on the on the show but the one thing i really
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want to like drive home to our guests is basically
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you know growing up playing sports still having
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that competitive edge and how like using sports
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helps you build an entrepreneurship or shows
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you how you are an entrepreneur yeah so that's
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kind of like kind of like what i wanted to bring
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home and obviously you know seeing you on instagram
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you know we are daily with your instagram posts
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it's um it drives home the fact of like consistency
9:09
um and like sending out a message to people and
9:13
like you know looking at everything you've done
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how to bring you on the podcast because you know
9:19
you know get some of our followers to follow
9:21
you and so forth um and honestly like it's tax
9:25
season too so you know if we can help you get
9:28
a few extra clientele why not so um so do you
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want to go talk a little bit about your business
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before we get into everything sure yeah so um
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i'm the owner and operator for all financial
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we've been in operation for about three years
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now We've gone through a bit of a business transition
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where we sort of gone into partnership with another
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company, JSM Financial. So now we work in partnership
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together. So my business partner, John Murray,
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has been in the business for 40 plus years. And
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so we kind of joined our businesses together
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to offer more support to our clientele. So now
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we're up to, you know, a couple of hundred clients.
10:08
Like I think we have over 400 clients on our
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client list right now. We manage over 25 million
10:13
assets, approaching 30 million. So we're growing
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super fast. And, you know, one of the things
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that we focus on is, of course, tax reduction
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for clients. But what we do is comprehensive
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financial planning. So everything from investment
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management. to cash flow, budgeting advice, to
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obviously tax reduction, and then helping people
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go through different transitions of life, right?
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If you're a young person stepping into maybe
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growing your family, there's going to be different
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advice that you would need to benefit from there.
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Whereas if you're going into retirement, we're
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thinking about how you can eventually pass your
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wealth on to your kids. Those are very different
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topics that require different kinds of advice.
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So we kind of handle our clientele through each
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different stage to make sure that it's a full
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comprehensive plan throughout their life stages.
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Damn. Sounds like a lot. It is a lot. Busy, busy
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guy. I don't know how we got you out here. Well,
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thank you for taking the time. You know, with
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everything you were just talking about. How did
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you get into the mindset to stay focused, deal
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with so many different clientele, being able
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to communicate to everyone? Do you have a playbook
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that you work on every single day to make sure
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that you accomplish everything? Yeah, absolutely.
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I think it comes down to organization is key.
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One of the things that I preach to everybody
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is the number one killer in business is lack
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of speed. So, you know, if I'm in the process
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of onboarding a new client, as an example, if
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I take forever to respond, they're just going
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to go to another advisor. Yeah. Right. And no
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business is unique that way. I think, you know,
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speed is everything. And being able to, you know,
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have an open mind of communication is super important.
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Because at the end of the day, people are trusting
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me with their life savings. So if I'm not responding
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and I've just received a deposit from somebody,
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they're probably going to be a little bit on
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it. Yeah. Right. So. I keep to -do lists. You
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know, I have like a CRM, obviously, that I use.
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And pretty much most of everything that I do
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is automated. So through my CRM system, it will
12:20
give me notifications to say, hey, you know,
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you spoke with this person, you know, two weeks
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ago. Maybe you should reach out if you haven't,
12:26
you know, heard back from them. So automation,
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I think, has been major for me because sometimes,
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you know, when you have so many different things
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going on as an entrepreneur, you can definitely
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get lost in the sauce. Yes. And you need those
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automated reminders to help you stay on track.
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So what really got you into finance then? Honestly,
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it was my mom pushing me into like... You need
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to do something other than playing a game. My
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mom's career, she worked as an event planner
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at Bell Canada. So she was the... So Bell used
12:58
to be the sponsor for like the PGA Tour. So she,
13:02
you know, the Canadian Open, she was, you know,
13:05
the organizer for the entire thing in terms of
13:08
like... Doing all of the, you know, stuff from
13:11
the parties to like figuring out how do we run
13:13
these auctions to making sure everybody was where
13:16
they need to be at the right time. So she's very
13:18
organized. It's your life goal to a border. Global
13:30
financial crisis. They had a number of layoffs.
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So my mom unfortunately got laid off at that
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time. And she eventually found herself at Fidelity
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Investments. So now she works as an exec assistant
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for the portfolio management team. So she was
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always pushing me into business. She was like,
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this is a safe career path. You know, regardless
13:46
of like what industry you decide to go in, you
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should study business because then you can do
13:50
whatever you want to do. So it was kind of like
13:52
a little bit of a push. And I found that I was
13:55
super passionate about money. Most people are.
13:58
I got Jordans on my feet right now. I figured
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out I could buy a pair of Jordans in grade nine
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and flip them for double the money. And that's
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how I made my first dollars in high school. Damn.
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So I've been investing since day one since I
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figured that out. I like that. See, you need
14:12
to get Jordans. I know. You got to get a pair.
14:14
You got to get a pair. I got a couple pairs.
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Where are yours? I'll get that. I'll get this.
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You got to get a pair. And from there, so I think
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what was really... you know, influential for
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me in sort of my career transition or figuring
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out what I wanted to do rather was I had this
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personal finance teacher when I went to school
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in the U .S., a prep school in South Carolina.
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And I was playing basketball there and I had
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this teacher named Mr. Sell. And he was a retired
14:40
police officer who turned like a personal finance
14:42
professor. And one of the things that he said
14:46
to me that stuck with me was it doesn't matter
14:47
what you do for a living. You can retire a millionaire
14:50
with the right strategy. And I'm like, OK. That
14:53
sounds interesting to me. As long as I figure
14:55
out how to save and invest properly, I can be
14:57
rich one day. And then we had this class project
15:00
where we had to do some research on different
15:02
career paths and why our personal skill sets
15:05
were aligned with that. And literally what I
15:07
Googled was how can I make the most money? And
15:09
I think the first things that came up were like
15:11
lawyer, accountant, wealth manager, wealth manager.
15:14
And so I picked wealth manager because I'm like,
15:16
well, if I want to be wealthy, like what's this
15:17
about? And I understood that I could. use other
15:21
people's money to make money for myself and also
15:23
help them make money. Right. Because from a young
15:25
age, I always liked, you know, conversing with
15:28
people, interacting with people and helping people.
15:30
And I also knew I loved money. So I'm like, this
15:32
is super, you know, as like a 15 year old kid,
15:35
I'm like, these are two things I love. Why would
15:36
I not do this? True. And then, you know, I just
15:39
got into the industry shortly after high school.
15:43
You know, I got a internship at a brokerage firm
15:47
in Toronto. And that was kind of my first exposure
15:50
to what it looks like to be an investment advisor.
15:53
And I just kind of continued on that career path.
15:56
Nice. So what kept you motivated going through
15:59
the trading process of doing an internship? Obviously,
16:03
you're not getting paid to do an internship.
16:05
I believe that one was paid. Oh, was it? Okay.
16:08
But what was your motivating drive going through
16:12
the process, knowing that the outcome is you'll
16:15
be taking care of people's money? Going to school
16:18
sometimes, you know, you have your distractions,
16:21
you know, your partners and all them are going
16:23
out, you know. Honestly, Malcolm, I think a lot
16:27
of this has to do with your upbringing. So growing
16:31
up, I wasn't allowed to watch TV during the week.
16:33
It was only on weekends I could watch TV because
16:35
the focus was do your schoolwork. And once you're
16:37
done your schoolwork, then you can go play outside.
16:39
So my parents were very traditional that way,
16:41
where it was unacceptable for me to come home
16:43
with less than 80%. So I knew that. Not being
16:47
successful was just not an option for me. My
16:49
parents were both very successful in their careers.
16:52
So I had that benefit that way, where I had very
16:55
positive role models in my life who told me that
16:57
whatever you want to do, strive to be the best
17:01
at what you're going to be doing. So when I decided
17:04
I wanted to be in finance, You know, and I got
17:07
that internship. I'm like, I have to go all in.
17:09
And it was to the point where I was obsessive
17:11
over it. Like I would literally be bringing a
17:13
finance book to my little cousin's birthday party
17:15
and I'm sitting there at the dinner table reading
17:17
books. So I was teaching eight year olds how
17:20
to do finances. Right. Wow. I think it was just
17:24
ingredients for me at a young age. I also had
17:27
going back to basketball. I played on a number
17:29
of different teams and I had really positive
17:31
role models that way where it was very much on
17:33
like. Every time you're on the floor, you need
17:36
to be giving it 100 per shot. It's unacceptable
17:38
to give 70 or even 80 per shot. It has to be
17:42
100 all the time. What would you contribute to
17:44
your playing days that helped you earn the skills
17:49
to be successful today? On the court, was it
17:52
the teamwork aspect or was it you learning how
17:56
to tune your ego to accomplish a goal that you
18:00
wanted to? Yeah, good question. Being an athlete
18:04
and being an entrepreneur are very one in the
18:07
same. You know what I mean? You don't have the
18:09
option to not show up to practice. You don't
18:11
have the option to not show up to a game because
18:13
you don't feel like it. Some days, if you work
18:16
in an appropriate environment, you can just call
18:17
in sick or take a personal day and take a day
18:19
off. But as an entrepreneur, if you don't work,
18:21
you're not making money. Unless you have some
18:24
sort of passive business. But for the most part,
18:26
even if you do, there's the opportunity cost
18:29
of you not working. And that's you not bringing
18:31
in new business. Right. So like growing up playing
18:34
basketball at a high level, like after a game,
18:36
especially if we lose, we're watching game day.
18:38
Like you're not going home to like just like
18:40
find yourself to sleep. Like you're focusing
18:43
on your coaches having a conversation. What did
18:45
you do wrong and what can you improve? So that
18:47
next time we can actually win. Well, when you're,
18:49
when you look at it like that, you're like, if
18:51
we lose and then we take a day off, the other
18:54
team won and they didn't take a day off. So now
18:57
we're a loss and a day behind. So you keep doing
19:00
that and it just keeps. getting worse and worse.
19:02
Yeah. Yeah. Now with sports, it gives you, it
19:08
does give you that drive. And like, I find because
19:12
I played sports growing up, it gives me that,
19:15
Oh no, you can always do more. You can always
19:18
just keep pushing and nobody wants to be the
19:22
worst person on the team. So regardless of where
19:25
you are. Yeah, exactly. Right. Yeah. Bottom 10
19:29
% always gets cut, whether it's in sports or
19:32
at work. So step it up. Make sure you're not,
19:37
if you can elevate the right people, help them
19:40
get up there, then by all means do that. But
19:43
like, make sure you're up there. Absolutely.
19:45
I think that's one of the most humbling experiences.
19:48
And like, that's either going to make you or
19:49
break you. Like if you're a bench warmer, either
19:51
you're going to do it or you're going to take
19:53
matters into your own hands and become better.
19:55
And one of the best things that my dad did for
19:57
me, honestly, was I was in grade 8 and I played
19:59
up on a grade 9 team. So the team that I played
20:02
for was called St. David's out in Vaughan. And
20:04
I literally sat on the bench the entire year.
20:07
I was probably one of the better shooters on
20:09
the team, but at this time I was not athletic
20:11
at all. I just was not fast. I couldn't jump.
20:13
I couldn't defend. But playing with those guys
20:16
every practice, I've had to guard the best players
20:19
on the team. Some of those guys were on Team
20:21
Ontario and ended up playing on Team Canada.
20:23
right so i was playing with high level dudes
20:25
even though i had no business being on the floor
20:27
right but going into grade nine then i had my
20:32
growth spurt then i got a little bit more athletic
20:34
and i had the confidence where i was playing
20:36
with guys who were way better than you know my
20:39
other teammates who were i was going to be playing
20:41
with in grade nine yeah yeah it's all about that
20:44
mentality that's huge well it's it's uh what
20:48
is it uh you're the average of the people you
20:50
surround yourself with exactly so if you're surrounding
20:52
yourself with your dad put you in a position
20:55
to surround you with the best basketball players
20:57
he knows you're gonna become one of them whether
21:02
you want to or not because you're just gonna
21:04
be like no i it's as long as you don't quit you're
21:07
gonna keep getting there for sure absolutely
21:09
that's huge now during those processes when you're
21:12
like on the bench and not playing Do you remember
21:15
what was going through your head at that time?
21:18
Damn, I want to play. I had no business being
21:23
on the floor either. So sometimes near the end
21:27
of the game, if it was like five seconds left,
21:29
I would be the guy they might pick up off the
21:32
bench to go and shoot a three ball. Like that
21:34
was kind of my role. I was a shooter, but I just
21:36
was not athletic at all. So I couldn't keep up
21:38
on defense. So I began to like maybe. hopefully
21:41
get a shot off and then they just pull me off
21:43
when it was time to play defense so you had a
21:44
solid like minute throughout the entire season
21:48
that's fair that's fair um with that experience
21:52
do you think kids nowadays are getting the same
21:55
opportunity as you did um because obviously now
21:59
we know kids have social media so they're making
22:01
their own mixtapes trying to get noticed but
22:04
like the type of experience that you went through
22:07
you're sitting on the bench you're learning You
22:09
have coaches that are role models. I don't think
22:12
kids really have that opportunity. But what do
22:16
you think about that? My personal controversial
22:19
opinion is kids nowadays are soft. Things have
22:23
changed, right? I think I was like one of the
22:24
first generations where we had like fair play
22:26
in basketball. So like when I was younger, I
22:29
was probably like, I don't know, eight, nine
22:30
years old. And there was something called fair
22:32
play where you couldn't just sit a kid off a
22:34
bench for the whole game. Really? At a certain
22:36
age. Really? Yeah, so. I think I was one of the
22:39
first generations of that. Nobody liked it because
22:42
if you were one of the better players on the
22:44
team, you're like, I'm getting pulled off when
22:46
this bomb is coming now to play and beat us.
22:50
So I think kids need to, or I think sports in
22:55
general need to challenge kids in a certain way.
22:57
And you're like, that's why you have different
22:59
levels in sports, right? Like you have high level
23:01
and then you have house league and you have somewhere
23:03
in between. So if you're not good enough to be
23:05
on the high -level team, you shouldn't have fair
23:07
play. Just put them at an LCT. If you want to
23:09
just play and you don't care about advancing
23:11
your career, then just play on a team where you
23:14
can get the minutes. To be honest, I don't watch
23:17
kids' basketball right now, so I don't know if
23:19
that still exists. But that was something that
23:21
I personally didn't like as a young kid. Well,
23:24
it's hard because obviously everyone wants to
23:27
play, but at the same time, the kids that are
23:31
the best ones have... generally been busting
23:35
their ass to get onto the court like they've
23:38
earned their spot so like yeah and if you're
23:42
not getting to play maybe you should work hard
23:45
when you're not like the game isn't isn't the
23:48
time to figure it out and learn how to play earn
23:52
your spot at practice it's like uh even like
23:56
in the one year i did playing football i was
23:59
tiny but uh obviously didn't have a ton of playing
24:03
time but we all understood because like practice
24:06
everyone enjoyed going to practice because you're
24:08
learning you're always getting better and then
24:10
you see the guys that are playing and that's
24:13
what you're trying to get to for sure and then
24:16
i never grew and then i switched sports so for
24:21
you yeah and then you fit it yeah it's true it's
24:25
true no i think it's sped up a little bit more
24:28
because i look at athletes now in the NBA. A
24:31
great example, and I'm sorry to say his name,
24:33
John Moran. Explosive player, reminds you of
24:37
Derrick Rose, but doesn't have the mentality
24:39
for the NBA, in my personal opinion. Like, in
24:43
the time that he's been, he hasn't really improved
24:45
his game. Obviously, he has the off -court situations,
24:48
but he hasn't really grown the Memphis Grizzlies
24:52
to anything. And I also look at Zion Williams,
24:55
who is a heist, or, you know... elementary school
24:58
prospect dominant in high school dominant in
25:02
ncaa and then now i thought he was going to be
25:06
the face of the league and now he's just like
25:09
a basic world player in my opinion and the reality
25:12
is at a certain level like skill sets there's
25:14
not really a lot of gab in terms of skill level
25:17
yeah right it's all about your mentality once
25:18
you get to that level that's why kobe was that
25:21
guy yeah those guys were obsessive and they were
25:25
insane yeah And certain people didn't like playing
25:28
with them because they just didn't like how they
25:30
were treated. But that's what it takes to be
25:32
great. Yeah. Well, especially in such a competitive
25:35
field. You look at it and how many basketball
25:41
players are there? Well, how many starters are
25:44
there? There's 30, what, 30 teams? 32 teams?
25:47
32 teams. 32? So there's 160? 160 starters? So
25:54
you're the best out of the, if you're a starter,
25:56
you're one of the best 160 basketball players
25:59
in the world. True. You better have the right
26:01
attitude. Like when you see them slacking and
26:05
like load management, but like you look at it
26:10
and you're like, why? Like there's so there's
26:13
think about how many people there are in the
26:14
world that play basketball. It's true. And everyone
26:18
would kill to have that spot work harder to earn
26:21
it. So. For you growing up, it was like that
26:24
mindset, like your dad instilled, you know, you're
26:27
going to be the best 160th person. You're going
26:31
to be the first one, like the first best one.
26:33
And everyone else is going to be behind you.
26:35
But you had to get to that point. For sure. Like
26:37
there was, I never had this expectation that
26:39
I would automatically be the best. I knew the
26:41
work required to get there. And frankly, I was
26:44
a lazy kid, right? And it wasn't until a certain
26:47
age where I'm like, I don't want to sit on the
26:50
bench anymore when I have that experience every
26:52
day. So I need to actually start working hard
26:54
so that I can actually play and do good. Because
26:56
that's one of the things that, again, it can
26:59
either make you or break you. And, you know,
27:01
especially once you get into high school and
27:03
you're starting to think about girls, like, do
27:04
you want, you know, the girl that you're crushing
27:06
on seed, you sit on the bench the whole game?
27:08
Do you want to be that guy? You don't want to
27:10
get sweaty for her. But yeah, like there's a
27:17
status thing when it comes to sports. It's like,
27:19
you know, it could be one of two things. It's
27:22
either you're going to take matters into your
27:25
own hands, put the work in. If you don't have
27:28
the talent, right? Because some guys are just
27:29
talented, but that only takes it so far. Work
27:32
ethic is everything. It's true. And business
27:34
is the exact same thing. So I feel like when
27:37
you pivot out of sports and into your career,
27:40
it's the exact same mindset the whole day so
27:43
far. Sure. Sure. Um, one thing I would ask is
27:49
how would you rate your business in like quarters?
27:55
So, and what I mean by that is like in the first
27:57
quarter, like how do you evaluate how you're
28:00
building your brand from like the first quarter
28:02
all the way to the fourth quarter? Um, in terms
28:05
of like maturity of my business? Yes. I'm first
28:08
quarter, man. I mean, I'm in growth mode. So
28:10
I launched my corporation, as I said, three years
28:12
ago, right? This is a business I'm going to be
28:14
in forever. I'm 30 years old. I have 35 years
28:17
to go and probably more, right? Might even be
28:20
in preseason then. Might even be in preseason.
28:23
I've gone through the weeds of going from doing
28:28
very well, making good six figures, working in
28:30
a corporate sales environment, to making zero
28:32
as an entrepreneur. And that's how you develop
28:35
your thick skin. You absolutely have to hustle.
28:39
Otherwise, you can't put food on the table. I
28:41
get you. I'm very much in growth mode. And honestly,
28:45
I don't know if I'm going to get out of that
28:46
mindset because that's one of my favorite parts
28:48
of running the business is like always be, you
28:51
know, finding new people to help, always be figuring
28:54
out ways to, you know, streamline the business
28:56
and improve things. And yeah. What would you
29:02
say is your best way of asking for help? Obviously,
29:05
you know. working on a team you can't do everything
29:08
it's not calling mom right for sure but uh it's
29:14
tough right because sometimes our egos get in
29:16
the way and sometimes it's hard to ask for help
29:19
yeah as as we play sports like in football um
29:22
if you're on the line like i have my objective
29:25
but if i don't do my job the other person can't
29:28
do it but sometimes a linebacker will let me
29:30
know that he's going to be cheating to the left
29:32
so then it gives me an opportunity how do you
29:34
use that but your mindset of learning how to
29:37
ask for help in basketball, how do you use that
29:41
skill now? Yeah, that's a great question. So
29:43
I think the first order of that is understand
29:46
where your weaknesses are. Okay. Because you
29:48
don't know where you need the help unless you
29:50
understand where your weak points are. So if
29:53
you can identify where you're strong and where
29:54
you're weak, then you're going to know where
29:56
you should personally spend your time. So there's
29:58
something called the 80 -20 parade principle.
30:01
You've probably heard of it. And basically it
30:02
talks about, you know, just being efficient with
30:05
your time, right? So basically the model is,
30:08
you know, an easy example is taking a look at
30:11
the number of vehicle crashes that happen on
30:13
the roads, right? So 80 % of the crashes happen
30:18
on 20 % of the roads, right? 80 % of your business
30:23
comes from 20 % of your top clientele. Yes. Right?
30:26
You should be spending 80 % of your time on your
30:30
top 20 % most highly leveraged activities. Right?
30:34
So it's important to understand how to break
30:37
that down because if you can say, okay, these
30:39
are the activities that I could do for this 20
30:41
% of all of the activities I could possibly do
30:44
is where I should be spending 80 % of my time.
30:47
You're going to be so efficient and so productive,
30:49
but you need to figure out how do I not ignore
30:51
the other things? And that's where you need to
30:53
find the help. So in business, you have to hire
30:55
people. It's true, right? You can't be a one
30:57
man show forever. Otherwise, you're going to
30:59
hit a scale. If you want to scale your business
31:01
past a certain point, that's why I went into
31:02
partnership with another advisor. That's why
31:04
I have an assistant, right? Because at some point
31:07
I'm like, I'm doing all this paperwork, right?
31:09
That means I don't have time to be going out
31:12
finding new business. Or if I'm only finding
31:14
new business, how am I actually servicing my
31:16
clients up? So it's important to understand that,
31:18
I think. Well, sure. Now, pride gets in the way
31:22
of understanding your weakness, though. So how
31:24
did you really hone down on what your weaknesses
31:27
were? Because, like, honestly, you know. The
31:32
framework for it is a SWOT analysis. True, true.
31:35
Right? Strength, weaknesses, opportunities, and
31:37
threats. True. But did you do it yourself or
31:41
did someone else do it? I did it myself. So I
31:43
have the benefit of working in a corporate environment
31:45
where they force you to do these things. Right.
31:47
So I didn't just like wake up one day and understand
31:49
how to run a business. I had many years working
31:53
in the industry where I was in that framework
31:55
where we have review meetings with my manager
31:58
and they would ask me, like, what do you think
32:00
your strengths are? Where did you win this year?
32:03
Where could you have done better? And you take
32:05
those things into the world of entrepreneurship.
32:07
Right. So I think for anyone who aspires to be
32:09
an entrepreneur, I strongly suggest. You work
32:12
in the industry that you want to start a business
32:13
in first. Yeah. Basically have someone else pay
32:18
you to learn how to do it. Yeah. And take notes
32:22
via sponge. Yeah. Ask questions. That's you.
32:25
So when I used to do like the tax consulting,
32:27
that's how we would sell bookkeeping and all
32:30
that all, all the time. Uh, because I was talking
32:35
to farmers and small businesses and I would talk
32:38
to them and be like, Hey, you're a farmer. My
32:41
money is on you hate bookkeeping. Am I right?
32:43
They're like, yeah, I absolutely hate it. It
32:45
takes me forever every year. How much is your
32:48
time worth? If it's worth your time to have someone
32:52
else do this so you can do the things that you
32:54
want to do, that way you can make more money
32:57
and you could probably make more money having
33:01
someone else do this and going to do something
33:03
else while you're also growing your business.
33:05
And then once you explain that to them, they're
33:08
like, oh yeah, yeah. Write the check. It was,
33:13
it was the easiest way to do it. And I was like,
33:16
and you're just helping them help themselves.
33:18
Absolutely. So on top of business, you also have
33:25
a club going on. Oh, did you actually? I didn't
33:29
have the time for it. I just did not have the
33:32
time anymore. So this is another thing where
33:34
I sat down with myself and, you know, I just.
33:39
had some introspection and I'm like, this is
33:42
something that I'm super passionate about, but
33:44
is it aligning with everything that I want out
33:46
of life? And it was super rewarding, don't get
33:48
me wrong, but it was taking up a lot of my time
33:51
that was going to be taken away from my business
33:53
and my family, which are my number one priorities.
33:55
So did you shut it down or did you pass the reins
33:58
off to somebody else so they can keep it going?
34:01
I ended up shutting it down because it wasn't
34:04
around long enough to be able to think. like
34:09
formulate the culture necessarily that I wanted
34:11
for the club and I felt that if I was to pass
34:15
it on to someone else then you'd still have to
34:18
keep the reins quite a bit yeah right so I kind
34:22
of like put it on hiatus so to speak where I
34:26
may have actually come back to in the future
34:28
but Uh, at this point in time, I just do not
34:31
have the capacity to understand. Well, I remember
34:33
when you were talking about that before, I was
34:35
like, that sounds like a lot. That sounds like
34:37
a full -time job. Yeah. Like I can only imagine
34:41
like the organizing, like that aspect of it.
34:44
And they're like trying to get, I don't know
34:46
how many people together every like once a week,
34:48
once a month. It's like, it's hard enough as
34:52
it is. And even trying to organize 12 weeks to
34:57
show up in one place is one thing. And then to
34:59
get everybody on the same track where we're actually
35:01
learning skills every week, to stay focused on
35:05
the skill and the task at hand was challenging,
35:07
right? It was a great club and everybody loved
35:11
it, but it was a lot of work. Okay, that's fair.
35:14
I'm sure you learned a lot while you were doing
35:16
it. Absolutely, for sure. What would you say
35:19
for a person inspired to be an entrepreneur later
35:22
in their life, say 30, 40? 50. What would you
35:27
say would be techniques that they should be honing
35:31
or basically a kick in their butt to start doing
35:35
that can actually project them into getting to
35:38
that goal? If I were to ask you, what do you
35:41
think is the single most important thing for
35:42
running a business? What do you think it is?
35:44
Time. I have another answer. I would say, honestly,
35:50
getting a business started, mostly networking.
35:53
Absolutely. Sales. As a business owner, you are
35:56
a sales guy. A lot of people don't like that
35:58
word, but you're selling all the time. You need
36:01
to be out and about. People need to know who
36:03
you are and what you do. If you cannot sell and
36:06
you cannot convince someone to do business with
36:07
you, you have no business. That is the single
36:10
most important thing that's required for success.
36:13
But then how do you sell? So you have to figure
36:16
out what is your actual value proposition. So
36:19
understand how to articulate what it is and how
36:22
it is you're going to offer value to people.
36:24
value to the people that you're going to be servicing.
36:26
No, you're right. No, Andrew's not correct with
36:28
that. Damn. Yeah. I was thinking in a different
36:31
aspect with the time concept. It was like, well,
36:35
time management. Yeah. Right. Because you have
36:39
to accept the fact that you may be working 18
36:41
hour days some days. Yeah. And like things that
36:45
can start as a hobby project takes time away
36:48
from what you're good. It starts a. It starts
36:52
out as something you enjoy and then you figure
36:54
out, oh, I can sell this. And then you get good
36:56
at selling it. And then you can start paying
36:59
someone to do all of those other things that
37:01
you don't want to do. And you can just focus
37:03
on the selling. No, you're right, though. I think
37:05
sales is probably the best one. Yeah. Well, I
37:09
feel like literally, yeah, every business, sales
37:12
is the number one thing. You're selling either
37:14
idea, a product or service. It's like you can
37:17
tighten. everything else but if the sales aren't
37:21
there the business will fold like whether you're
37:24
tightening labor tightening like all your controllables
37:26
tightening uh material costs whatever if the
37:32
sales aren't there the business goes down that's
37:34
why i at every business the sales guys are always
37:38
treated the best and everyone is mad at them
37:40
for it because but like they're the driving force
37:43
of the business like if the sales guys leave
37:46
then the business is no more correct Correct.
37:50
Damn. So then what would you, cause so I was
37:52
talking about like 30, 40, 50, sometimes, you
37:55
know, trying to sell something is hard for some
37:57
people. So what would you say for those people
38:00
who are 30? Cause like when you're, when you're
38:02
20, you have the risks sometimes cause you know,
38:05
time is on your side. But you know, when you
38:08
get to the older ages, you know, responsibilities,
38:11
whether you have a kid or, you know, a house.
38:15
figure out how to sell what would you say an
38:18
entrepreneur i can't even speak now entrepreneur
38:21
would actually need to facilitate that yeah so
38:25
i i would say in my opinion the the most ideal
38:28
times to start a business would be when you're
38:31
young and have no responsibilities or approaching
38:34
retirement when like your responsibilities are
38:36
mostly gone right And usually at that point,
38:39
you probably have a little bit of capital that
38:42
you can push towards it. Right. And that is what
38:44
I would say. One of the ideal things that you
38:47
have in place is have some sort of, you know,
38:50
savings where you can support yourself if you
38:53
have no revenue coming in from your business.
38:55
Yes. Yeah. Like if I didn't have savings when
38:58
I was kickstarting my business, like I would
39:00
have lost my house. Yeah. Because the first few
39:03
months of being in business, I probably made
39:05
$0. Maybe I made $1 ,500 in three months. So
39:09
it was rough. But fortunately, I had savings
39:12
that I could fall back on and still pay the bills.
39:15
So I would say having your savings in place is
39:18
absolutely paramount. And also, I think it's
39:22
important to understand where your target market
39:25
is. So understand who are your clientele. Because
39:29
a lot of people I find when they get into business,
39:31
they're just trying to sell to everybody. You
39:33
have to understand who is your ideal client to
39:36
work with. And that can make your marketing so
39:38
much easier, which can make your sales process
39:39
so much tighter. And I find sales has a negative
39:42
connotation. I say sales because I'm okay with
39:45
the term, but some people are like, oh, I don't
39:47
want to be salesy. Well, sales is just you being
39:49
able to articulate your value. So it's me sitting
39:52
down with you, having a conversation to say,
39:54
this is how I know. I'm not trying to sell you
39:58
anything. I'm just telling you about the value
40:00
I'm offering. Yeah. Well, and a lot of sales
40:03
is just listening. Like you're just, you're asking
40:05
the right questions. You're just listening to
40:08
what they have to say and listening for their
40:10
pain points or whatever problems they have that
40:13
you can figure it out. That's fair. What are,
40:18
what would you say are the most like mistakes
40:21
that most entrepreneurs make nowadays other than
40:24
not knowing how to sell? I would say focusing
40:29
on the areas of a business that are not making
40:32
you money. I find there, and I've done some business
40:37
consulting as well. And oftentimes I'll get questions
40:40
like, oh, like, how can I optimize my website
40:43
to bring in new customers? Or how does, what
40:47
tweaks can I make to my logo to make it look
40:49
prettier? It's like, that's not making you any
40:51
money, right? What you need to be doing is going
40:53
out and talking to people. So I find people get
40:55
caught up. And so Kevin O 'Leary is a guy that
40:58
I love pretty heavily. And he talks about noise
41:02
versus signal, right? So a lot of entrepreneurs
41:04
can get very much caught up in the noise, but
41:07
they're not looking for the signal, which is
41:08
how your business is actually going to make money.
41:11
So focusing on the wrong areas that are not money
41:14
-making activities, you can hire someone else
41:15
to do those money -making, those non -money -making
41:17
activities. You as the business owner, nobody's
41:20
going to care more about your business than you.
41:22
So focus on the money -making activities. It's
41:25
true. Damn. You just hit us with some gold right
41:31
there. Damn. Milky Way is going to hit the next
41:35
level soon. Oh, for sure. Now with social media
41:41
becoming huge. Now like TikTok, Instagram, YouTube.
41:48
even spotify like serious serious you know what
41:53
i mean um when you buy a new vehicle yeah they
41:58
just trick everyone into having it and then you
42:00
forget to cancel it cancel it um how do you leverage
42:04
social media now obviously i see you every day
42:08
yeah you know basically you're in my house every
42:10
time i have a coffee that's right i see a new
42:12
report but like Is it generating a lot of return
42:17
on investment or is it catching bluff? You know
42:22
what I mean? So I have people ask me all the
42:26
time because I don't have a large following,
42:28
but my Instagram has been monetized from day
42:31
one. I think within the first week, maybe I had
42:34
like 90 followers. So there was a period of time.
42:37
I only got back on social media, I would say
42:39
like 18 months ago, maybe two years ago. And
42:43
for about five or six years, I was completely
42:45
off social media because I just didn't see the
42:47
value in it. There's no value in me being on
42:49
other than just like posting stuff for people
42:51
to give me likes that maybe makes me feel good.
42:54
But I recognized that it was a missed opportunity
42:56
for my business. Right. And I was seeing how
43:00
much money people were making online. And I read
43:03
a book by Alex Hormozy. I think it was like 100
43:05
million leads or something like that. One of
43:08
his books that he has. And he talked about the
43:10
value of the one to many approach. So I was doing
43:12
some of that. Like I was doing client seminars
43:14
where I was getting in front of a large group
43:16
of people and I was doing well for business.
43:18
But when I understood that I can do one post
43:21
that can take me like less than 10 minutes to
43:23
create and I can spit that out to potentially
43:26
hundreds of thousands of people, like why would
43:28
I not be doing that? It's a major missed opportunity
43:31
not being on social media. It's true. And you're
43:34
not going to get views from day one. Like it's
43:35
a process. We know. We know. And I only just
43:43
had my first post that hit like 300 ,000 like
43:47
a couple weeks ago. And like for most of my posts,
43:50
like that's among 2 ,000 views. And now I'm just
43:52
starting to do a little bit better. I think I'm
43:54
a little old school too because word of mouth
43:57
used to be more powerful than paying for advertisement.
44:01
See, word of mouth is powerful, but the way social
44:06
media is... things just get or it gets around
44:10
so much faster absolutely for sure like you'll
44:13
post something and like everyone will see it
44:15
instantly let's put it this way almost anybody
44:17
that i know that i interact with or see like
44:20
at random they're like oh i just saw your posts
44:22
yeah it's one of the things they say to me it's
44:24
true so i'm in the eyes of the people that i
44:26
know and maybe you don't know all the times how
44:28
could you forget that i'm a finance guy i know
44:31
yeah you can't well and they know you're working
44:33
like so they can they feel like they can try
44:36
to like oh this guy like I can clearly see these
44:39
doing things every day. Well, this is going to
44:43
lead to my next question. How do you feel AI
44:45
is taking over social media? So AI, I use AI
44:50
as part of my process for social media, like
44:53
to help come up with content ideation and, you
44:58
know, sometimes with scripting. But I find it's
45:01
not like I see people who will use AI for like
45:03
actually like. representing themselves and oh
45:06
god you can tell it yeah yeah um like the voice
45:09
and just the matter isn't or just not on um but
45:13
i think it's a game changer because it just saves
45:14
you so much time like even the apps that will
45:16
use ai to like help you edit like those are yes
45:20
um so i think in terms of like helping you stay
45:23
consistent even helping you create a content
45:25
calendar it could be massive not sure well it
45:28
just cuts down the amount of time that things
45:30
take like whether it's researching something
45:33
or like writing scripts or editing like when
45:38
ai can start doing those things that you don't
45:40
want to do or don't have time to do yes it's
45:43
like it's instant sure now how do you think ai
45:47
is integrating into the sports uh and i'm not
45:50
talking like high level i'm talking about like
45:52
high school and so forth like where do you think
45:55
ai is going to lead in younger generations when
45:58
it comes when it comes to sports There's someone
46:04
at the wall for us. The ghost. So I haven't looked
46:11
into this. I'm not enough familiar with it. So
46:14
maybe you tell me, where do you think AI is going?
46:17
Well, what I'm thinking is like game tape, you
46:20
know, being able to send a video to AI and being
46:24
like, look at this player. Absolutely. Figure
46:27
out the tendencies that they are doing or, you
46:30
know, for some. Oh, yeah. example right like
46:34
how would i how would i beat this guy yeah i
46:37
can't even quantify in hours how much time i
46:40
spent watching game tape like that's a waste
46:42
of time if we if you could put that into an ai
46:44
platform where you can say these are the things
46:46
where you know let's say number 24 made these
46:49
mistakes you can have an entire report saying
46:52
this is what this player needs to work on yeah
46:54
this is how you can improve yeah so that you
46:56
don't have to sit there for two hours re -watching
46:59
your game Right. You can have it almost immediately
47:01
and know exactly what you need to do to be done.
47:04
That's massive. I never even thought of that.
47:06
Yeah. Even like I was talking to a client at
47:08
work, a tasting room the other day, and he was
47:11
doing a golf sim and he had a recording of him
47:14
and a swing. And he said, he took the videotape
47:17
and put it on AI and said, Hey, what can I improve
47:21
on? And it spit out all these things. And then
47:24
he said, you made one mistake. I'm left -handed.
47:27
And the AI was like, Oh, I should have caught
47:30
that and then switched everything accordingly.
47:33
And it's just like, for the, for most of it,
47:36
it was actually like things that he knew he needed
47:38
to do. Right. And then also picked up that his
47:40
grip was too tight. Right. So it was just like,
47:42
AI is getting huge. I know a lot of people are
47:45
losing their jobs. It's going to get there. It's
47:47
getting to a point where it's like, it's helping
47:50
dramatically and speeding up process. So, you
47:53
know, I, I look at it in sports. It's like, I
47:55
see, I see that for golf. I can see it for like,
47:58
Maybe that's how, like, Seattle Seahawks were
48:00
so dominant in the Super Bowl because, you know,
48:02
they shipped all the game table Patriots and
48:05
knew exactly what. But honestly, though, like,
48:07
what is their most run play? You don't have to
48:11
watch it and figure all this stuff out. Yeah.
48:16
Oh, wow. Now. Yeah, you really got to check AI,
48:20
though, sometimes. Because, like, it does things
48:22
like that. And you're like, yeah. Oh, yeah. It's
48:24
still a game changer. I use it every single day.
48:27
Now. And for your perspective, what's stopping
48:32
someone from just using AI and taking some of
48:35
their suggestions and building their own portfolio
48:37
where they could just talk to you who actually
48:40
has all the tools, years of experience, and the
48:45
communication with people in the industry? You
48:47
know, how would you say don't always rely on
48:51
AI, talk to a professional? Yeah, great question.
48:53
So there's a few layers there. So first of all,
48:58
Many of the asset managers today are already
49:00
using like quantitative approaches. They're already
49:03
integrating AI into the processes to help them
49:05
find opportunities faster, right? Like the old
49:08
days of asset management and portfolio management,
49:11
they'd have boots on the ground, like associates
49:14
that would be doing all the research and they'd
49:17
have to talk to them and be on the phone and,
49:19
you know, basically shift through thousands of
49:21
companies that they might want to invest in.
49:23
Now AI can do that in 30 seconds. You don't need
49:26
to pay a guy six figures to be in Japan looking
49:29
for opportunities there. You can just literally
49:31
use AI. True. But I think to your question about
49:35
will AI take over the client -advisor relationship,
49:40
I don't think it's quite there yet. I think that's
49:43
something that's very personal, dealing with
49:45
your finances, and most people would still rather
49:47
deal with a living, breathing person. True. The
49:49
other side with AI is you need to have the correct
49:51
prompt in order to have the correct response.
49:54
So if you don't know necessarily what you don't
49:56
know, then how are you going to get the correct
49:58
information from AI? Yeah. Like when it comes
50:01
to financial planning, there's so many different
50:03
variables and factors that can affect the advice.
50:05
And if you say, if you just ask, what should
50:08
I invest in? You might hold those investments
50:10
in the wrong account that are best for your situation.
50:12
It's true. Yeah. Well, it depends on like a million
50:17
different factors. Absolutely. unless you're
50:20
like there's a reason that when you sit down
50:22
with a financial advisor you sit down with them
50:24
for a while talk to them they learn all of the
50:28
different little things about you before they
50:31
take your money and put it into anything of course
50:33
no they should at least oh yeah absolutely that's
50:38
huge no um and especially like with a financial
50:41
advisor um you're sitting there and you're going
50:44
to take calculated risks based on past experience
50:48
sure absolutely well i find i find for a lot
50:53
of people too like oftentimes when i'm sitting
50:56
down with you know a new client who may want
50:58
to work with me they'll ask like what is your
51:01
past experience dealing with someone in this
51:02
scenario right so i can give an actual story
51:06
or tell an actual story to someone who is dealing
51:08
with something similar yeah and there's just
51:10
you don't have the same interaction it's not
51:13
the same experience if you just typing something
51:15
into the computer. Some people like that and
51:18
they're okay with that. But I think the majority
51:19
of populations still want a living freedom person.
51:22
What advice would you give somebody who wants
51:24
to manage their own and not necessarily go in
51:27
the direction of a financial advisor? Don't do
51:30
that and call them. So that's fine. I think that's
51:35
okay. And, you know, frankly, I've never had
51:38
a financial advisor myself. Right? So I went
51:41
through... the hardships of making the wrong
51:44
decisions myself, which I use as learning experience.
51:46
But I think, you know, if you have, let's say
51:49
you're an 18 -year -old just beginning to invest,
51:52
you can probably do reasonably well just buying
51:54
an ETF, right? A passive index fund and do okay.
51:58
But once you have more money, that's when you're
52:00
taking on a whole lot more risk, right? And so
52:03
that's where you have to think about tax optimization.
52:05
That's where you have to think about asset location,
52:08
meaning what account types are you holding your
52:10
money in to make sure that... You can draw it
52:12
down in the most tax -efficient way later on.
52:14
You have to think about how can I officially
52:17
pass my wealth on to my kids. There's a lot of
52:20
factors there that the average person just would
52:22
not know. Because you have to know where to find
52:25
that information. You would have had to take
52:27
some courses like a CFP to understand what should
52:31
I actually be doing for my situation. It's not
52:33
just what's the best investment. Not everyone
52:37
is a numbers person either. That is so true.
52:40
And not everyone is an entrepreneur. Like some
52:43
people, like I've known some people that are
52:45
absolutely terrible with numbers, but they are
52:49
great at making money. But because they're good
52:52
at making money, they don't even care and don't
52:54
really pay attention to it. Like I worked with
52:58
some people and they had basically no idea what
53:01
was in their books, but they were multimillionaires.
53:05
And you're like, sure. And then. some of them
53:10
they'd have like one of the spouses would be
53:12
doing the books and then their wife passes away
53:14
and now all of a sudden they have no idea so
53:18
then you're going over going in there and trying
53:20
to clean everything up but like this guy has
53:24
no idea about his like any of the numbers of
53:27
his business but he's great at sales so the business
53:31
is booming sure the other side of it to you is
53:35
the emotional side right So if you're managing
53:38
your own investments, you're going to be more
53:40
emotionally attached to your money. So a lot
53:43
of people make the mistake of selling at the
53:45
absolute wrong time. And there's actually studies
53:48
on this that says investors that work with an
53:50
advisor on average make an additional two to
53:54
three percent return on their money per year.
53:56
Right. And that's literally just because of emotional
53:58
investing. It's not to say that an advisor always
54:01
makes a better investment recommendation. It's
54:04
literally that. an advisor will be closer to
54:07
the information of the markets or of the portfolio,
54:11
you know, that you're invested in. And they're
54:14
not as emotionally attached to it as you are.
54:17
So they're able to talk you off of that ledge
54:19
more consistently. Versus yourself, maybe you
54:22
ask chat. And I had a client who asked chat GPT
54:24
back in March last year when the markets tanked.
54:27
Should I sell everything now? And AI said, yes.
54:30
And I told him, absolutely not. And look at where
54:33
we are here now. And his portfolio is up over
54:35
25%. Damn. Damn. Yeah. Well, AI is only looking
54:40
at trends now. They're not looking to the future
54:44
because it doesn't have that value yet. That's
54:46
right. Right. So we're only looking at the past
54:48
and what's happening. It's like it's a down sell.
54:50
So obviously you have. Future investment, future
54:54
knowledge, future... Well, no one has a crystal
54:56
ball, right? But if you look at history, the
54:58
trend line is upwards. Yes. Right? So we'll always
55:01
have periods of volatility where things go up
55:03
and down. But if you hold on for the long term,
55:05
odds are you will make money. It's over a 10
55:08
-year period. It's over 95 % certain that you
55:11
will make money. As long as you're invested in
55:15
a diversified portfolio. And something similar
55:17
to like the S &P 500. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, well,
55:21
like... Like the client you had that put it into
55:25
ChatGPT, you don't know what prompt they're using.
55:28
Exactly. Because they're like, I have this stock,
55:30
should I sell it? Like, should I sell it when?
55:34
Is it projected to go up? Should you have added
55:37
like... And you'll notice sometimes ChatGPT likes
55:39
to tell you what you want to hear. Oh, it's such
55:42
a yes man. True. I've had that. I'm asking tough
55:48
questions. You want me to be direct or not? At
55:52
least it does that now. Before it would just
55:55
be like, you could be like, I would like to,
55:58
I don't know, something completely ridiculous
56:01
and be like, that's an excellent idea. You should,
56:03
should I start a business doing this? Like, yeah,
56:06
absolutely. Dump everything you have into selling
56:09
this. Like, what? It's not realistic. Here's
56:12
a business plan. Yeah. Damn. Well. I am out of
56:19
questions now. You're out. I'm out. Holy. Anything
56:23
you want to add? I got nothing. I'm out of questions.
56:28
Well, I appreciate you on in this episode. Is
56:31
there any closing remarks you would like to say?
56:33
Yeah. Thanks for coming out. I guess it would
56:36
say for anyone who does aspire to be an entrepreneur,
56:38
I think it's a great way of living. I think it's
56:40
not for everybody. That's for sure. But those
56:42
who can handle the life of an entrepreneur, I
56:44
think it's super rewarding. One of the most rewarding
56:47
things for me is I can stop working whenever
56:49
I want. I don't have to ask anybody. If I feel
56:52
like picking my son up from daycare early, I
56:54
can do that. If I feel like, you know, taking
56:56
three days on vacation, I don't have anybody
56:58
to ask and I can work from anywhere. So I think
57:01
entrepreneurship is massive. And I think in a
57:05
shifting, you know, economy like we have and,
57:07
you know, a period where AI is taking over some
57:11
sectors. entrepreneurship can be a way to mitigate
57:14
yourself from that risk. Sure. So I strongly
57:16
encourage anyone who is aspiring, I'm all for
57:19
it. I appreciate that. You can't get laid off
57:21
if you're working for yourself. That's right.
57:22
So true. Only if you stop. 100%. Perfect. Well,
57:26
if this episode hit you hard, make sure you send
57:29
this to someone that you know. Yeah. Don't forget
57:31
to tag us, like, subscribe. How can people find
57:34
you? People can find me on Instagram and TikTok
57:36
at Bronson Fredel. Perfect. We'll have that there.
57:40
Sweet. Well, that's another episode. That's a
57:43
wrap. Honestly, it's been an honor. Cheers, man.
57:46
I keep drinking my whole beer. Cheers, guys.
57:50
And we'll see you soon.