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Ron Carson on Financial Advisers' Trust (Podcast) · Masters in Business

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: This is Masters in Business with Barry Ridholts on Boomberg Radio.
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: This week on the podcast, I have an extra special guest.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Ron Carson, CEO and founder of the Carson Group, started
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  Speaker 1: way back in practically in his dorm room in Nebraska,
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  Speaker 1: has been one of the leaders in the r i
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  Speaker 1: A space, not just through Carson Wealth the sm management
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  Speaker 1: business side, but through Carson Partners, which is uh sort
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  Speaker 1: of tamp plus for independent are as who were looking
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  Speaker 1: for succession, planning and help on the back end of
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: their business with technology, as well as Carson Coaching, which
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  Speaker 1: is a program that came about in response to demand
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  Speaker 1: from r I s who we're looking for a little
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  Speaker 1: more helping, a little more assistance in in running their
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  Speaker 1: their businesses. If you're at all interested in the business
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  Speaker 1: off of how asset management is changing, the impact of technology,
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  Speaker 1: the impact of alterations to the fiduciary rule, the general
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  Speaker 1: trend towards fiduciaries and away from commission based brokers, you're
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  Speaker 1: going to find this conversation to be absolutely fascinating. With
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  Speaker 1: no further ado, my conversation with Ron Carson vass Masters
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: in Business with Barry Ridholts on Boomberg Radio. My extra
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  Speaker 1: special guest this week is Ron Carson. He is the
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  Speaker 1: founder and CEO of the Carson Group, which covers several
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: different companies, including Carson Wealth, and we'll discuss the different
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: business lines. Ron is also the author of Proven in
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: the Trenches and most recently The Sustainable Edge, to best
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  Speaker 1: sellers on Amazon. The Carson Group manages well over twelve
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  Speaker 1: billion dollars for about thirty four thousand families. Ron Carson, welcome,
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  Speaker 1: two Masters in business. Very thanks for having me. It's
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  Speaker 1: a privilege to be here today. So I'm kind of
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  Speaker 1: intrigued by your history and your story. This kind of
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  Speaker 1: a Michael Dell background. You started Carson in a University
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  Speaker 1: of Nebraska dorm room in three am I exaggerating that
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  Speaker 1: at all. No. I grew up just north of Omaha
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  Speaker 1: on a farm. I thought it was going to be
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  Speaker 1: a farmer my entire life. And those that remember the
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  Speaker 1: early eighties, you know, interest rates twenty one percent. Farmers
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  Speaker 1: were going broke. My parents went broke, and uh, I
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  Speaker 1: was forced to do something else. And I was reading
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  Speaker 1: a money magazine article talked about the top professions of
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  Speaker 1: the future, and one was to become a CFP and uh,
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  Speaker 1: so I thought, you know what, that's what I'll do.
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  Speaker 1: And I literally ran three years ago is at the
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  Speaker 1: Napa Valley Wine Auction and there's a pre event cocktail
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  Speaker 1: party and some ladies said, oh, you're from Nebraska. What
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  Speaker 1: do you do? And I told her. She was so,
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  Speaker 1: how did you get into that? And I said, well
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  Speaker 1: I read this article. Her faith lit up and she goes,
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: You're not gonna believe this, but I wrote that article.
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  Speaker 1: And I'm like, well, then I owe you my career
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  Speaker 1: that that's amazing. And I go back to you and
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  Speaker 1: I are similar ages. And when I was in college
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  Speaker 1: and eight three, I was trying to scrape up beer money.
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  Speaker 1: I wasn't thinking about, I know, let me launch a
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  Speaker 1: new business in an area that really nobody else is in.
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  Speaker 1: You had to be one of the first independent advisors.
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  Speaker 1: Is that a fair statement? I absolutely was, And in
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  Speaker 1: those days it wasn't even viewed. I didn't know this.
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  Speaker 1: I mean I was totally unconscious and competent. I didn't
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  Speaker 1: know what I didn't know. And so I like the
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  Speaker 1: idea of being independent and uh but there wasn't a
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  Speaker 1: lot of places to even go, you know, the Rooker
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  Speaker 1: dealer community was super small, didn't have a lot of technology,
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  Speaker 1: sold a lot of product. But that's how I got started,
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  Speaker 1: and you know, to this day it was. It was
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  Speaker 1: a great, great growing up experience. I feel like I
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  Speaker 1: grew up, you know with the the advisory world. I
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  Speaker 1: remember in you know, eleven short years after starting, I
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  Speaker 1: was so excited when you know, I realized I could
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  Speaker 1: become an r I A and uh and truly be
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  Speaker 1: a true fiduciary for for clients and and and as
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  Speaker 1: you well know, our space has changed dramatically, you know,
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  Speaker 1: several times over the last thirty years, to say the
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  Speaker 1: very least. So so what was it surrounded by farms
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  Speaker 1: going broke with interest rates that made you say, I know,
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  Speaker 1: I'm going to focus on financial planning. So initially someone
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  Speaker 1: told me if I went down to the brown got
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  Speaker 1: to play football, and I, uh, my first part of
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  Speaker 1: the season, I ended up becoming injured. I was, you know,
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  Speaker 1: reread shirted. And but I came from a family where
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  Speaker 1: you know, my parents were struggling. I'd have any money,
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  Speaker 1: and someone said, you can sell life insurance and make money,
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  Speaker 1: and I thought, well, I've always had a knack for
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  Speaker 1: selling things. Even as a kid, I went to auction school,
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  Speaker 1: so I told people and let me do an auction
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  Speaker 1: for their junk. And you know, I had a little
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  Speaker 1: popcorn business. I had a lot of little businesses. So
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  Speaker 1: I always had this entrepreneurial um spirit. And for six
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  Speaker 1: months I just called out, called out of a phone
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  Speaker 1: book and amical Life had just come out with Life
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  Speaker 1: insurance in those days, the fighting to come out with
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  Speaker 1: the Universal Life, and I didn't like trying to talk
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  Speaker 1: someone into buying insurance whether they needed it or not.
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  Speaker 1: And shortly after that, I thought I want to get
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  Speaker 1: my securities license. And I was fascinated by the stock
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  Speaker 1: market and and you know, the capital markets and how
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  Speaker 1: they functioned, and it just, you know, I feel like
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  Speaker 1: I have hardly worked a day in my life. The
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  Speaker 1: first few years were tough. There's a couple of times
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  Speaker 1: I thought I hated, I was going to quit the business.
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  Speaker 1: But once I got some i'll call it, you know,
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  Speaker 1: epiphany around just you know, taking care of people and
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  Speaker 1: really putting people's interests first. Not only did the profession
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  Speaker 1: become a lot more fun, but I grew incredibly fast
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  Speaker 1: and and I've always stayed in this in this line
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  Speaker 1: of work. And I've always, um, I've always been a
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  Speaker 1: non traditionalist. I've always thought of different ways of doing
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  Speaker 1: things and until it allowed me to not only be
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  Speaker 1: in a in a business that I enjoyed, but it
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  Speaker 1: gave me a lot of, you know, creative space in
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  Speaker 1: order to try, you know, to try different things. I
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  Speaker 1: love that phrase that you hardly you've never worked the
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  Speaker 1: day in your life. My wife used to tell people
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  Speaker 1: I'm gainfully unemployed, which I guess is sort of the
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  Speaker 1: same spirit. So so, since you started back in eighty three,
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  Speaker 1: you're coming up on forty years soon. Do you recall
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  Speaker 1: who was your first client? Do you remember the first
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  Speaker 1: person who said, Ron, you seem like a trustworthy guy.
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  Speaker 1: Here's all the money I have in the world, try
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  Speaker 1: not to screw it up. I do. UM. I I
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  Speaker 1: still they owned UM. They owned a drug store in
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  Speaker 1: the middle of um, Nebraska. It was a small, small town,
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  Speaker 1: and I remember them writing me a check and uh
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  Speaker 1: and I and I pulled. I pulled out a town.
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  Speaker 1: Of course, there was only gravel roads in and out
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  Speaker 1: of this small town, and I remember pulling my car over.
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  Speaker 1: I got out and I ran around it like six times,
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  Speaker 1: jumping up and down. You would have thought I won
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  Speaker 1: the powerball lottery. And those uh, the the they he
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  Speaker 1: passed on shortly after they became clients, maybe a couple
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  Speaker 1: of years, and then she was a client until probably
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  Speaker 1: about five six, seven years ago. And then their children
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  Speaker 1: are clients to today. And but that was that was
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  Speaker 1: the very very first one. You'll never forget the first one. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: that's a great story. Let's talk a little bit about
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  Speaker 1: this division of the Carson Group. Tell us what is
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  Speaker 1: Carson Wealth and how does it fit into the bigger
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  Speaker 1: umbrella organization which seems to have a number of moving parts.
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  Speaker 1: So we have Carson Group and then Carson Wealth. Berry
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  Speaker 1: is the very very first, you know, part of Carson Group.
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  Speaker 1: It's our retail offering. So we're on a registered investment advisor.
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  Speaker 1: We manage you know, close to thirteen billion in assets
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  Speaker 1: for you know, several thousand families around the United States.
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  Speaker 1: And our mission is to be the most trusted for
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  Speaker 1: financial advice. And if I'm driving down the road and
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  Speaker 1: I don't know anything about our profession, I'm listening to this,
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  Speaker 1: I'm like, well, doesn't everybody you want to do that?
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  Speaker 1: And I would say, maybe, you know, how many. I
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  Speaker 1: don't know how many people consciously think of it, but
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  Speaker 1: we're in a profession unfortunately that that you know, in
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  Speaker 1: financial services is a huge category berry, but sixty of
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  Speaker 1: Americans do not believe that their advisor or the institution
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  Speaker 1: they represent, we're going to put their interests ahead of
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  Speaker 1: their own. And that's really the mission of what we're
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: trying to do. Nobody owns the space, and it's so
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  Speaker 1: fragmented to this day. There's two thousand financial advisors. There's
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  Speaker 1: roughly a half a million in the mid nineties. Of
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  Speaker 1: the two today, nearly a hundred eleven thousand are going
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  Speaker 1: to retire. UM we call them rich and tired. Most
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  Speaker 1: of them made a lot of money and they just
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: don't want to keep up all the technological change. And
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: we see that as a real opportunity to UM grow
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  Speaker 1: market share, but do it the right way. You know,
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: we've we have quite a few offices around the country.
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  Speaker 1: We have you know, are proven process We have very
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  Speaker 1: specific ways of of delivering you know, the value proposition.
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  Speaker 1: But you know, ultimately, you know, I feel that we
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  Speaker 1: have a real shot at owning or co owning that
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  Speaker 1: in the future. You know, when you think about Vanguard
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  Speaker 1: owns and as far as a brand low cost investing
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  Speaker 1: fidelity owns. You know the retirement plan market, um, but
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  Speaker 1: no one really owns the trusted wealth management market. Quite interesting.
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  Speaker 1: You alluded to something that I want to circle back
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  Speaker 1: with you because you went by it so quickly. Six
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  Speaker 1: of the public do not believe that their financial institution
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  Speaker 1: has their best interest, Yes, and barried to this day,
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  Speaker 1: most people do not know. So I travel around the
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  Speaker 1: country pre COVID. I probably give sixty seventy talks a year,
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  Speaker 1: and many of those to retail clients of ours. And
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  Speaker 1: I always ask the question, who in here can tell
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  Speaker 1: me the difference between a produciary and a broker, and
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: anywhere from zero to one, hand will go up. I
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  Speaker 1: mean I was speaking at a CEO institution last year.
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  Speaker 1: There was sixty CEOs from all over the world. Not
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: one of them knew the difference between a puduciary and
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  Speaker 1: a broker. And and to this day of broker is
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  Speaker 1: not required to put at your interest first. It's only suitability,
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  Speaker 1: that's it. I mean, if they disclose it in a
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: you know, one thousand page perspectives and it says they
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: can do it, and they can charge it. It makes
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  Speaker 1: it quote unquote legal, and and we have a son
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  Speaker 1: of Carson. Just because it's legal doesn't mean it's right.
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  Speaker 1: And I think we still have a massive gap between
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  Speaker 1: understanding produciery versus brokers. And I will open those talks
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: to say, listen, if you get this one thing right,
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: do you understand a true producer versus a broker? And
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: you pass it on to someone you love and they
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  Speaker 1: get it, You've given a true gift that will give
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  Speaker 1: for the rest of their life. Now here's one of
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: the really interesting things about the R I A industry.
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  Speaker 1: Over the past twenty years, a lot of who we
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: think of as big brokers you b asked Mary Lynch,
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: Morgan Stanley, a big portion of their employees have moved
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: either to be hybrid broker r i A S or
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: just registered investment advisors. Are days, is the fiduciary side
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  Speaker 1: of the street is the fe only no conflict of
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  Speaker 1: interest versus the brokerage sales commissioned side. Is this side winning?
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  Speaker 1: Do you see that as the trend that's taking place?
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  Speaker 1: I do. I mean the trend is accelerating. Marry, And
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: let me just say something because I think this is
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  Speaker 1: a fact that gets lost on a lot of people
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  Speaker 1: is everybody has a conflict of interest, right, you can't
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  Speaker 1: help it. I'll use an example. Let's say you've got
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: it um an R I A who has a hundred
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  Speaker 1: million dollars under management and his largest client has fifty
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: million dollars with them, And his largest client comes and says, hey,
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: I'm thinking about taking fifty million dollars out and buying
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: this business. That advisor has a conflict because he realizes
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: if he loses that client's asset, he may not be
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: able to stay in business. But we all know that
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: the conflict is are you gonna do? Remember what I said?
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  Speaker 1: I said put the client's interests that of their own interests.
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: So this adviser to say, listen, yes, let's do that
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  Speaker 1: and give them the best advice, even at the demise
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  Speaker 1: of his own company. Is it's a conflict, but it's
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: at least a conflict that the client I think consciously
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: knows are going in. Am I going to get the
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: best advice because this could hurt his business? And there's
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  Speaker 1: also conflict very unfortunately even on the fiduciary side, more
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: so that are more nuanced, like cash you know before
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: when we're back, we had yield. There are some fiduciaries that,
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  Speaker 1: in order to they would not take the time or
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: effort to sweep a client into the highest yielding cash
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: and let it set somewhere where they weren't earning a
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: lot of cash. That's a conflict, especially if you've got
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: a custodian. It's going to charge you or the client
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: some additional fee if they're not making the return on
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: the account. I still think our profession has quite a
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  Speaker 1: ways to go. The fiduciary is the future. But I
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  Speaker 1: think even as fiduciary areage, we can get better at
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  Speaker 1: putting the client's interest first and being more transparent. I
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: love that story of the sweep and some time ago, um,
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: I know you must have a ton of war stories.
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: I do. Also, we figured out, you know, very often
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: you run with a little bit of cash an account
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: in case a client asked for a disbursement or something,
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: whether it's forty or fifty or sixty basis points, it's
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: something relatively small, and very often when the market is
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: going higher, it's a slight drag on performance. And we
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: figured out a long time ago it was much better
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: to sweep the cash into one of the higher yielding
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: money market accounts. We figured out, we did the math,
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: we analyze that, We sat and played with it and said,
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: net net, this creates a few hundred thousand dollars of
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: positive gains across all our clients. But we're relatively small
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: shop like yours. Sweeping cash into a higher yielding money
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: I could account. Have you ever sat and figured out
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: the math on how much additional gains that generates for clients? Yeah?
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: Last year alone, we estimated, you know, it was in
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: the high single digit, you know, seventy eight million dollars,
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: you know, directly to our clients because we we we
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: did the sweep and very How crazy is I think
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: about banks? They'll pick on banks for a second. Most clients,
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: if you go do you love your bank? Go? Yeah,
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: I love my bank. What are you getting on your
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: cash and your savings? And most of them are getting
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: almost zero yet to think can turn around and get
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: you know, let's sake nineteen of the Fed funds rate.
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: I said, can you imagine if they were crediting you
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: that and at the end of the year they said, hey,
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: we want our fee to be what you made. You know,
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: clients if they were writing that check back would go crazy.
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: But because they never see it, it's a huge hidden
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: drag on their performance that they really don't consciously think about.
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: And that's one of the things we want our clients
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: to think of, every single penny of they're paying, how
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: they're paying it. And and we you know, and I
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: know we're big planners. You know, people will make an
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: investment in their future, but no one wants to pay
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: something and not see value beyond a doubt for the
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: investment we're asking them to make. And I think cash
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: is a great example of that. You know. I want
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: to follow up with what you're saying with the issue
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: of free trading, and let me point out neither of
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: us have a horse in this race. If trading is
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: eight dollars, or of trading is free, it's essentially the
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: same thing as far as I'm concerned with the average
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: portfolio size. However, when you look below the surface of
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: all the companies offering free trading, that cost of carry,
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: that return on cash is where they make all their money.
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: And it turns out free trading, when you look at
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: the numbers, is pretty expensive. Bury and then you've got
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: order flow payment and invisible tax that you know, consumers
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: don't see. Like I said, there's a lot I think
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: we can still do as a profession to become even
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: more consumer friendly, you know, than we are today. I
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: don't disagree at all. Let's talk a little bit about
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: your coaching business. What is Carson Coaching? So Barry and
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: and I guessaid. I started a retail in nineteen eighty
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: three and nineteen ninety three I was giving a talk
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: in Boston at the organization at the time called the
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: i a f P. I don't remember that, International Association
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: of Financial Planners. And I was talking about the different
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: things I was doing in my business, and two gentlemen
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: came up and said, hey, we do coach us. And
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: I said sure, And that's how my coaching business started.
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: In in n I launched Carson Coaching UM. I had
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: seven people come out to Omaha, Nebraska and I, you know,
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: and we've and we've had quite a following over the years.
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: I mean, we have around twelve hundred offices today that
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: we provide UM consulting services and coaching services to. We
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: have tens of thousands of alumni. People that coming in
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: out of there will be in our program for a
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: year or two, come back out, come back in again.
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: And a lot of a lot of independent advisors are
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: they feel like they're isolated islands out there, and they
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: really want to have community. They want to have best practices,
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: They want to have places that they can bounce ideas
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: off of. You know, today we have I think we
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: have eleven executive business coaches, just specialized in a variety
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: of different areas and uh and and I have learned
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: a ton from having our coaching organization. Always like to say,
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: you know, we're better together. None of us is as
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: smart individually as we are collectively. And just this group
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: has pushed me to get better. I've learned so much
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: from them. But it's really a cool community that's all
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: committed to continuous improvement. Quite interesting. When I was kicking
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: around your website, I came across a page of Carson
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: Group Partners. Are those folks affiliated with Carson Coaching? Are
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: they affiliated with Carson Wealth? And by the way, that
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: page was just scrolling scrollings. It's hundreds of people along.
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: So coaching is different than partners. So we have our sert,
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: so we have our retail, we have our coaching, and
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: then we have Carson Group Partners and what I learned
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: through the coaching business, Barry and you, I think you
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: appreciate this as many years you've been around being a
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: mentor to people, either directly or indirectly. Is that old
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: thing you can lead a horse to water, but you
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: can't make them drink. Is you can give them all
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: the ideas but very few people. I used to get
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: questions all the time, like Ron, how can you give
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: everybody your secrets? I said, well, first of all, I
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: want a profession to be better, and I believe it's
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: us against the evil empire out there, the conflicted model.
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: But number two, most of them won't do anything with it,
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: and it's not a real competitive threat. And that's why
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: Partners was launched in twelve. Is a lot of these
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: clients of ours that say, can't you do it for us?
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: So then we evolved into a model today where we
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: are a succession Solutions. So a lot of these firms
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: have become Carson. We bottom, or we own a minority
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: or we own a majority. We are very flexible, but
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: we do their technology, we do their trading, we do
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: their compliance, do their marketing, We do everything, with the
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: exception of actually sitting down and meeting with the client.
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: We have CPS, we have attorneys on our team. We
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: have a trust department, I mean, we have insurance department
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: where we can provide all of that in one single
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: pain of think of an Amazon experience. And most of
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: the smaller independent advisors can't begin. They're so stuck in
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: the whirlwind of trying to run their business day to
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: day they can't really emerge and then think creatively and proactively.
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: And that's really what Carson Partners does for them, and
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: we do it together. It's bottoms up innovation. They come
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: up with some amazing things that that's what we implement
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: into the model. But we also I date top down
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: because there's a lot of none of us knew the
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: iPhone was possible until Steve Jobs came up with it.
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: Right now, we all love it, can't imagine a world
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: without it. So we've also ideated stuff that they're going, wow,
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: I didn't even know this was possible, and it's it's
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: been really an exciting partnership with our partners around the country.
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: So this is a TAMP. This is a full turnkeysset
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: management program. Is that right? It is correct? Yes, and
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: a Camp, Mary, it's it's everything else. I mean literally,
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: we will right there RFP, we will present to an endowment,
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: our foundation. It's not like, oh, they have access. Our
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: team in Omaha is their team. And if you go
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: to our partner's website you'll see that. You know, a
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: lot of them are branded Carson. Some of them continue
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: to go under their own brand, but it's you know,
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: a lot. I think of its Tampa providing just asset management.
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: That's one of ten services we provide to our partner offices.
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: Quite intriguing, how many different offices are you working with
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: with Carson Partners, Because it looked like, right now I
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: have a hundred and thirty five offices. Yeah. Did you
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: ever expect coaching and partnership to develop into two completely
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: different businesses from financial planning? Obviously related, but totally different
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: aspects of the business, Verry, No, And I never expected
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: the success I've had. I mean, I've throwned myself with
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: really great people and it's really their success that has
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: allowed this to happen. And No, I never dreamt in
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: a million years that you know, we would be doing
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: what we're doing. And and because of that, you know,
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: and group is really focused on impact, you know, local impact,
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: community impact, national impact, global impact, and we spend you know,
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: considerable amount or I said they spend. We make big investments.
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: You know, my wife and I make big investments into
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: our communities, and so does Carson. And and I can't
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: say I can't talk about our success without talking about
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: what I feel are are Our personal obligation is is
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: to you know, to lift people up that that struggle.
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: And you know, I think when I got started in
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: the eighties, um, you if you worked hard, you could
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: go out and you could make it. And there's parts
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: of the world today, and especially there's even parts here
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: in the US it's really hard, you know, to emerge.
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: And so you know, with that success comes, uh, I
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: think an obligation that we've been braked, you know, to
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: have as big an impact on our community as we
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: possibly can. Quite fascinating. So the future of the asset
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: management industry. You talked earlier about technology and how challenging
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: that is. How has technology changed the landscape currently and
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: what does this mean going forward? So Barry, I go
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: to a place called Singularity University. I've done it for
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: the last two years and it's out in Palo Alto
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: and it's Peter Diamantes and Frank Kurzweil and you know,
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: just people that are talking about the things that are
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: that are coming. And Frank made a comment two years ago,
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: he goes, you know, the technological changes nothing up to
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: this point. It's been a trickle and the avalanche is near.
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: And I share that view. I am seeing what's going
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: on with artificial intelligence, with data um and I see
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: a world where a lot of this is controversial, right,
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: I mean when you when you you know, for example,
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: I have three children, my sons non on social media,
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: hate Google and and because they you know, they read
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: our email. And I'm on the opposite end of it.
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: It's like, I love it. Get to know me as
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: well as you can know me and help me, help
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: make my life easier. So I understand the listeners are
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: gonna fall in one of those categories. Probably most of
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: them falls somewhere in between. And so we made big
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: investments at Carson last year and the year before into
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: what's known as a data warehouse. So we have all
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: our data. We have very clean data. And the other
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: thing that's cool about that is we call we used
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: to say that we have a high degree of i Q.
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: And that's implementation quotation, because when it's all said and done,
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: more gets said than gets done almost in every business.
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: But now at a Q as well, And that's adaptability
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: quotation because none of us can possibly anticipate all the
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: amazing technologies are going to emerge out of the garage,
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: so to speak. And and so if if you are
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: in the old traditional way of having technology, if you
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: were going to switch from you know, one application to another,
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: it was a major migration. I mean it was a
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: big deal to make the switch. Well, now at Carson Group,
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: we've got a data warehouse. All we have to do
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: is consider what's known as an a P I not
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: think the two technicals listeners, but think of a think
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: of it just plugging in a hose and all that
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: information could float any application that we want, and we
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: can switch out an application overnight. And I'll use Amazon
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: as an example. You're an Amazon user, right, Barry for
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: twenty something years already. And how the experience overall, I
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: would you rate at scale of one to five? Pretty
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: rare that it's not a five each time every time?
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: And and and Barry tell me that from the time
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: you started using Amazon to today. How many different technologies
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: were swapped out behind the scenes that you weren't even
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: aware of. Oh god, it's got to be countless biggest
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: of all Amazon web services. Look at how they took
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: their own infrastructure, empowered so many others. So to me,
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: it's just a web interface, but there has to be
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: a ba jillion things going on behind the scenes. And
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: you don't even care, right if you could care us
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: you just want to have a great experience, right to
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: go on. It works, It just works, That's all you
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: care about. That's the future financial services. You know, what
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: we believe is we've built this single pane of glass
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: for the consumer to have everything they want. Like Amazon
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: is super simple to use and to see and to interact,
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: and that is that is the future. But you better
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: have great data because I believe the risk always has been,
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: always will be as far as ruining someone's financial plan.
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: Is a consumer doing the wrong thing at the wrong time.
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: Why do they do that? Because they get caught up
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: in noise and and everything going on, and they make
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: really poor knee jerk reaction kind of moved. For example,
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: it's talking about Donald Trump. You know how many people
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: wanted to just go to cash. Before Trump got elected
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: in the market had a major run up. Many people
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: went to cash in the middle of COVID because it
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: said the world can never recover from this, or at
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: least since for the next several years, when in fact,
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: if they would have just had the risk budget right.
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: And then taking technology a step further, we get to
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: know when a client's blogging on what's going on in
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: their life, what is they're reading, and we can anticipate
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: now moves that they're gonna make that might be counter
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: to what's in their best interests. We can get out
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: ahead of it, we can have a meeting with them,
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: we can talk about it. And this is just a
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: very very beginning. I saw, I saw a technology. I
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: spoke at tibern last year in New York and I
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: talked about the future of artificial intelligence, and a lady
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: comes up to me and says, I'm developing that. You
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: got to see it. And I brought this back to
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: my team and they're like, well, we don't think anybody's
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: that close. They did a demo for Usberry. We were
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: asking this engine financial planning questions and it was giving
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: us answers, and we thought we were talking to another
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: person on the other end. It was that good. And
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: this stuff is going to continue to get better and better.
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: Just imagine today if I if we sit down the client,
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: we got lots of technologies. It used to take me
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: a weekend really to get ready for a big client
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: and review and all the things we needed to do
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: and talking to their tax profession finals and their attorney
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: and their insurance agent. Now all of that stuff is
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: set in and we can be ready and have a
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: really productive meeting in an hour. But the future is
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: all of this stuff tacked legal risk, cash flow, all
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: of that's going to be looked at twenty four hours
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: a day, three in or sixty five days a year,
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: and there's gonna be alpha actions that can be generated
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: because of the technology. That's the future of financial services
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: and it will be mind blowing the kind of value
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: we can we can add and and the consumer is
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: being expected to They want an Amazon and Netflix, a
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: Google kind of experience, and that's what we're going to
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: have to deliver. I don't think each you know, financial
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: advisors look at each other as their competition. It's really
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: those experiences that we're going to continuously be compared against
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: and compete against in the future. So when the first
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: sets of the various automated advisors rolled out, people call
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: them robo advisors, but I think that's a bad moniker.
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: But shops like Betterment and Wealth Front, there was a
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: general backlash, Oh, this can never do what an advisor
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: can do. Do you think that eventually we'll get to
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: the point where hey, ubers will be self driving cars
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: and financial advice will be some bot telling you what
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: is best for your financial circumstances. I think it's going
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: to be a combination. So my view very it's technology,
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: it's a higher end where there's more complex needs. Is
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: not to replace the financial advisor, but it's gonna enrich
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: the experience for both the advisor and the consumer and
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: allow us to do a much much better job anticipating
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: somebody's needs before they even know they have them. It's
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: the lower end. I think there are people that in today.
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: I mean I went and signed up for all of
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: those and they you know, they just there wasn't a
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: lot of substance there. There wasn't a lot of of
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: of wow that was really really good or you really
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: how me? But I think it's a place to get started.
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: I think the future is going to allow people to
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: migrate start there, move up to a hybrid experience as
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: their complexity grows, eventually have a full on traditional kind
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: of relationship. But sometimes a client considers that higher traditional
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: light relationship. There's not a lot of changes, there's not
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: like going on, and then they go, do I really
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: want to pay act for this? And today the only
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: choice they have is to fire their advisor or to
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: have an uncomfortable conversation about reducing their fees. Under this,
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: I think future model, they'll be able to ratchet down
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: to a different service offering without them to go through,
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: you know, liquidating and all the tax ramifications, all the friction,
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: even the big and astriction to come with that. And
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: but I think technology is going to give consumers a
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: lot more choices and a lot easier way to measure.
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: Am I getting the value for the investment that I'm
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: being asked to make in a form of a asset
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: management fee or financial planning fee or a retainer fee?
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: Really interesting? You alluded to something earlier that I have
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: to follow up on. What you talked about a lack
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: of young people in the industry and a number of
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: people retiring, but I want to go a step beyond
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: that and ask you let's let's throw this out in
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: three parts. The first part is how do we get
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: more people interested in financial planning? Secondly, how do we
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: get more women interested in the field? And third how
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: do we bring more people of color into the field.
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: So we're announcing a major diversity and inclusion and next
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: gen initiative at Carson Bury because I think you know,
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: as a profession we've all sat around and waited for
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: someone else to do it, and and we we've been
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: experimenting at Carson with an intern to higher program where
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: we've gone into colleges and at interns and we really
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: interview them as though they're going to come to work
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: for us, and we do offer them a job at
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: the end if they perform well and they want to.
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: We asked them to interview us at the same level.
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: But we're we are We're building an office campus here
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: in Omaha. We have Carson University today, so we do
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: a lot of teaching and get young people interested, but
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: we're gonna take that to a whole new level. Um.
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: The other is I mean of people of color, I
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: mean you you it's been a why it's been you
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: and I. Right, it's been you and I in this
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: profession forever, and it's still I still scratch my head
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: and go, why why have we not been more successful?
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: Because it's people think it's a sales job. It's not.
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: There's so many you know, there's there's so many different
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: tracks that you can take. And by the way, you
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: gotta you got a huge till one behind you. Guys,
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: we have you know, more than half of who's in
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: it today. It's gonna be gone, They're gonna be retired.
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: And there's more people over the age of eighty in
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: our profession today buried than under the age of thirties, right,
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: And and so we at Carson are going to take
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: a major lead in this, and we're gonna put real
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: money behind it. But I think it's it's um not
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: only bringing people in and training them, but letting them know,
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: here's what your career path can look like, and here's
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: one of five different paths that you can take to
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: be successful. So I think it really is going to
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: come with in the trenches education and uh and where
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: I guess that we've been working on this UM for
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: you know, a good six eight months now, and we're
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: we're going to be announcing I think a really exciting
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: initiative around this in the next in the next few
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: weeks there. So you're you're timing on that is really good.
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: Let me stick with the idea of all these over eighty,
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: over seventy, over sixty five year old advisors that are thinking,
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: I think you described them as as rich and tired. Um,
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: are they going to retire? Are they going to hand
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: off their business to somebody junior? Are they going to
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: sell it? What does the and it's a barbell, I
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: think it's like thirty or of the profession is over sixty,
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: maybe even more than that. What are those folks gonna
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: do with their practices, with their businesses? It depends on
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: the advisor. So there's really three different flavors out there.
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: You've got the advisor who has next Gin people there
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: they can't afford to buy in. And this is where
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: we've been successful in helping the next Gin actually buy
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: out the founder. Our Chicago office is booming, and this was,
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: you know a great example of it was a c
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: P A firm. The founder of the firm was like,
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: I love my clients. I want to take care of
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: my clients. But they but I'm not gonna give my
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: business away, so we're able to cut in and finance
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: them buying out the next next generation. So that's one model.
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: The other model is you've got some of the same
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: people that retire, but they're not They don't tell their
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: clients they retired. And what I mean by that is, yeah,
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: they're just you know, they're working a few last hours
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: every every year on a daily basis, or playing more golf,
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: more time with the grand children. They're not really bringing
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: anything to science. And if they lose the client or
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: client passes on, they're not really that aggressive about going
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: out of the next year. And the problem with that
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: is they're not making huge investments, you know, into the
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: into the next you know, into really what it takes
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: to stay competitive, you know, in the field. And then
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: there's a third bucket and they just they want to
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: exit the business like I don't really care about the
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: next gen and I don't care about my clients. I
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: want to get the highest check possible um. And we
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: see all three of those, you know going on today.
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: Of course, we we focused on the next gin, someone
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: that really cares. We did a deal recently and um,
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: the office was in Vermont, and you know this guy,
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: you know, we are never the highest price, you know,
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: payer was. We're really looking for alignment of interest and
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: and we really want the founder to stick around and
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: make sure that it's going to be a super smooth transition.
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: And this guy man the due diligence and the way
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: it's like, if I can have a hundred of these,
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: I do a hundred of them, you know, every year,
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: and it's been it's been a super easy transition. He's
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: happy as clients are happy. And he's now, as he
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: will say, entering the third chapter, you know, of his life.
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: So let's talk about that space a little bit because
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: I'm intrigued by it. We get people offering us firms
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: to be sold all the time, and we're not in
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: the business of buying firms. How do you go about
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: finding these businesses? Do you self finance them? And what
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: do you think about the role of private equity in
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: the roll up slash acquisition space? So, I know, let
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: me just be clear cars that we're building a hundred
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: year firm. You know, I started in eighty three. We're
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: building this new building, and I said, you know, I
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: want to have shirts for everybody. When we move in.
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: At the picture of the building, it says for the
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: next hundred years, because we're we're not building it to
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: sell it, but a lot of people are. And that's
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: where private equity is. Actually he stepped in and we
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: have a small minority interest in private equity. I brought
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: him in. I plan on keeping control um as long
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: as I'm adding value to the business. I've got two
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: generations of succession. I've got my my next succession you know,
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: already done. Private Equity has been fantastic for coming in
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: and helping us professionalize the firm early on. They gave
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: us an m and a strategy that we didn't have before.
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: But I think, you know, private equity is like a
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: mutual fund, Barry. They come in so many different flavors
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: summer in. So how can we how can we change?
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: How can we financial engineer you to get you the
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: highest price and get the heck out. That's a totally
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: different relationship. And when I did the deal with Private Equity,
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: I knew I was looking for some um know how
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: intellectual capital, and I took a much much lower price,
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: but I also got really patient um capital that was
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: willing to give us, you know, pretty much full control
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: on how we run, how we on our business. So really,
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: I think it depends on the type of private equity.
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: So when you I'm I'm talking generally, so you can
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: get as specific and detailed or thirty thousand foot view
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: as you prefer. When you're looking to do a deal
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: with someone in Vermont or someone in Chicago or wherever
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: they happen to be, is that something that you're funding
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: with private equity dollars? Is it something you drive yourself?
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: What does that deal look like? Is it a buyout?
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: Is it an turn out? Because I've seen a million variations,
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: a ton of different flavors, and I want to hone
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: in on exactly how you guys go about it. Yeah,
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: so very up to this point. So the private equity
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: money we took with to build all the tech infrastructure
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: that I talked about because it wasn't available, you know,
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: without our profession. We've been fortunate up to this point.
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: We've been able to self fund all of these. But
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: we're getting to a point. Matter of fact, I had
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: a team with my leader meeting with the leadership group
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: this morning that you know, we're getting enough additional deal
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: to look at that, we're probably gonna have to, you know,
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: either you know, raise a little more um so a
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: little equity or raise cash or we we don't have
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: any debt as an organization and maybe take a modest
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: amount of debt you know, potentially onto the balance sheet.
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: As far as terms go, it depends on the seller
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: um are. Our preferred deal is to have a minority
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: interest and to have the next have us finance the
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: next gin. As far as buying a h of a
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: firm and then leaving, that's really not that not what
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: we want to do. And if we do do that,
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: it's going to be on an earnout basis because if
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: they're not gonna stick around, they're not going to take
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: care of the clients. We're not going to take the
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: risk on it. And the most important thing very and
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: all of these deals is culture. Is there a cultural alignment?
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: We are We probably look at eight deals and do
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: one and and the reason we don't do the other
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: seven as there's not a cultural to it. Hey, guys,
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: make a quick comment back on the retirement peace with
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: your wife and this is for everybody out there. You know,
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: I love to say that you know, most of the
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: society is on this unconscious journey to arrive at death safely.
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: And what I mean by that is, you know, we
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: get into this routine where it's just we live life,
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: and days and weeks and months and years go by,
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: and then all of a sudden, it's all bias and
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: we're like, you know, where did that go? And did
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: I accomplish what I wanted to accomplish? And I teach
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: a thing in my coaching program called blueprinting live your
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: life by design, not by default, And I think most
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: everybody can work their way into that kind of life
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: with a conscious effort. One of my favorite all time
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: books as an employon Hill You'll Think and Grow Rich,
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: And it's and we're in a in a profession where
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: you know, people want to get to a retirement, which
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: I hate that term, like I'm gonna do all this
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: and all this time doing things I don't love to do.
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: So I get to spend a little bit of time
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: during the thing I love to do when I'm the
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: oldest and I'm not as healthy as I can be.
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: So I challenge people to say, you know, if you
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: start moving in that direction, you can't change it. Overnight,
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: but you can get there a lot faster than you think.
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: And just to accept this is my life. I don't
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: love it, but I don't hate it. That's that unconscious
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: journey you know, to death. Quite interesting today in confirming
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: my priors, I have run Carson on telling me everything
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: that I believe in and me just nodding my head
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: vigorously in in a sense. Um. So so let me
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: ask you a question you you referenced earlier, UM, that
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: you don't usually use debt. Let's talk about a subject
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: that's a little controversial, the Paycheck Protection Program. I know
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: your firm participating in this, my firm participating in it.
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: Tell us where you are with your p P P
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: loan and I'll do the veal on ours also. Yeah,
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: so Barry, when this so well? We also have another business.
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: It's an events business that UM really for financial advisors.
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: We've been doing this for going back to nine three
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: and we had a we had a we had an
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: event we canceled in Vegas hit it hit our company
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: to the tune of four million, almost four million dollars UM.
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: We had eighty other events that we canceled around the country,
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: and we have we have a lot of people that
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: work on the events business and there was nothing to do.
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: And so you know when we when we looked at
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: our Carson Group, are r A doesn't need it, right,
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: but our events business needed it when we have a
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: transformation business that needed it. And we also were building
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: technology and you know, just with the uncertainty around at
• 43:53
  Speaker 1: one point, you know, our A U M had quite
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: the depth as everybody's did. And we're like, we're gonna
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: you know, before the paycheck paycheck protection program came out, Um,
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: we were gonna have to lay off you know, a
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: fair number of people and we probably would have hired
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: them back at some point and and but not yet
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: this year. And so the whole purpose of that program,
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: as the government said, was to keep people employed that
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: we otherwise would not have kept employed, you know, through
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: the through the downturn. And you know, there's been a
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: lot of pot shots. There's some gentlemen who have never
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: met back East doesn't know me, doesn't know our business,
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: and he's trying to shame us and to take in it.
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: And I like, you know, I'd like for you to
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: meet with these families, um that you know, I have
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: have a continue to have a good job, and I
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: want you to tell them why they shouldn't have gotten
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: that benefit. Um, And so we take We took it.
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: We thought it was a good program. By the way,
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: we helped a lot of our our business owner clients.
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: I think Nebraska at least at one point had the
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: high UH success rate relative to our population of anybody.
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: And we had a big hand in that because, you know,
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: Jamie Hopkins, who works at Carson, really was on top
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: of the care's act and really had all of our
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: advisors very well educated on it. You know, the second
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: there's action could actually be taken. And that's you know,
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: indirectly what I was talking about earlier, being super proactive,
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: you know, with our with our relationships, thinking about things
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: that you know a lot of people aren't thinking about.
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: I could tell pretty much the exact same story about
• 45:31
  Speaker 1: the non advisor related businesses and our our thought process,
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: my thought process, and this has evolved. Yeah, and this
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: is the pot shots where oh, you're taking money from
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: somebody else. And again I want to know the people
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: taking the shots. Why is one family's employment more important
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: than another family employment? You know, that's really what they're saying,
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: is we we want to pick and choose, you know,
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: the fan, the fan and all these are people making
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: us in a hundred thousand dollars a year rules rule,
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: those are rules. We are faced with another dilemma this fall.
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: We have, UM, we have you know how this works.
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: We contractually committed for a large conference, the Falling Omaha.
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: We've got five hundred hotel rooms that were on the
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: hook for because social distancing. We don't have enough room
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: to bring people in and actually to consume all those rooms.
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: So guess who gets to write a check for that.
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: It's amazing to think that. And it's that's before this
• 46:33
  Speaker 1: the second wave comes in. What we're dealing with today,
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: and especially along the Sun Belt has been a spike
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: in infections that's still part of that first wave. This
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: is this isn't even the second wave. I don't think
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: this thing is done by any threat of the imagination,
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: you know, I think it could. I think it should
• 46:50
  Speaker 1: have been anibled a lot differently. I think we should
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: have quarantined those that were high risk that you know,
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: to put to do what we did to our economy,
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: you know, And of course you know Monday marking, Monday
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: morning quarterbacking is great. UM, and and hey, our leaders,
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: this was an unknown you know, we still don't know,
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: you know, the full ramifications of the of how this
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: will impact our society for many years to come. If
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: you look at places like Germany and Switzerland and New Zealand's,
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: they seem to have come up with the right balance
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: that were very aggressive, not only with quarantining but with
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: testing and contact tracing, and our numbers are still you know,
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: not going down the way they should. At least the
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: mortality rate has improved. The number of people who are
• 47:38
  Speaker 1: dying from this is you know, it's ticking up more
• 47:42
  Speaker 1: slowly than it was. It's not accelerating, but it certainly
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: seems like more and more people continue to get infected
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: every day, especially if you back out the early states,
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: back out Washington State, New York, Connecticut, New Jersey. The
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: rest of the country ain't looking so hot these days.
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: I agree. I mean, we've been fortunate in Nebraska, um
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: and you know, we got I still go up to
• 48:07
  Speaker 1: our family's farm pretty much every weekend, and the whole
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: county up there has five cases. I mean, then you've
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: got to drive, you know, two miles to see another person.
• 48:15
  Speaker 1: So it's been nice having yeah, we've been. We we
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: social distance our whole lives. When we're up there, we
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: don't even know what we were doing. That's right. But
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: before we get to us being around, there's a couple
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: of questions I missed during the broadcast portion that I
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: have to ask you, one of which is what's a
• 48:34
  Speaker 1: day in the life of Ron Carson looked like, how
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: do you spend your time? Every day? So? I get
• 48:40
  Speaker 1: up super early. I typically, UM, get up somewhere between
• 48:44
  Speaker 1: four and four thirty in the morning. UM. I love
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: my morning coffee. So I get my car, put the dogs,
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: get my coffee, I catch I read. I love to read.
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: I read, I think, I meditate, I do a little
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: bit of breathwork, um, and then I work out, um.
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: And then I move into you know, I've got meetings, um.
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: You know pretty much you know, throughout throughout the day, um,
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: and then the evening is. I'm so lucky. I have
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: my kids. I have one daughter lives five minutes north
• 49:17
  Speaker 1: of me, and other daughter that lives four minutes west
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: of me. I have a grandchild. I have another one
• 49:21
  Speaker 1: on the way. It's got a son who just graduated,
• 49:24
  Speaker 1: who lives about fifteen minutes east of it, and so
• 49:27
  Speaker 1: you know, we're spending time with family and uh and
• 49:30
  Speaker 1: and I normally sound asleep by ten o'clock at night,
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: So it's uh and I and I gotta tell you
• 49:37
  Speaker 1: I love you know. I've got my life to where
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: I get to spend my life doing things I love
• 49:43
  Speaker 1: to do very versus the things I have to do.
• 49:46
  Speaker 1: And I can just hear it in your voice. I mean,
• 49:48
  Speaker 1: you're you're a man of passion and uh and it's
• 49:53
  Speaker 1: just you know, it's it's I get out every day, um,
• 49:57
  Speaker 1: with a ton of enthusiasm and I people, hey, do
• 50:00
  Speaker 1: you start getting the snooze button and you hit up
• 50:03
  Speaker 1: more than twice, something's wrong. You've got cancer developing on
• 50:07
  Speaker 1: your enthusiasm. So, you know, reorganize your life and your
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: day to where you can't wait to get out of
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: bed and and get started with today. I totally agree.
• 50:16
  Speaker 1: And I'm gonna horrify you a little bit, snooze button.
• 50:19
  Speaker 1: If you're still using an alarm clock, you need to
• 50:22
  Speaker 1: change your lifestyle. But that's a whole nother conversation. Um
• 50:26
  Speaker 1: the phone metaphorically of my alarm plots, my iPhones. Yeah,
• 50:30
  Speaker 1: I'm fond of saying this podcast is the most fun
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: I have a week. But it's a pretty high steady steak.
• 50:36
  Speaker 1: This is this is just the peak of it. Um.
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: And speaking of podcasts, tell me about the Framework podcast.
• 50:43
  Speaker 1: Is this a new venture for you guys? What are
• 50:46
  Speaker 1: you doing with that? It is brand new. Jamie Hopkins
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: Um who joined us you know about a year and
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: a half Agou is running that and very there's so
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: many podcasts out there that it's like, oh my gosh,
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: is a really room for another podcast. And he's done
• 51:02
  Speaker 1: such a great uh job with it. You know, he's
• 51:06
  Speaker 1: had really an eclectic group. We just had Ashton Kutcher
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: on who um genie and I got to know Ashton
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: Amila through um our. We belong to a thing called
• 51:15
  Speaker 1: the Reserve out in Napa Valley and his technology knowledge
• 51:19
  Speaker 1: and they're very much philanthropist. We had just had them
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: on talking about Thorn, you know, their their company and
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: technology about you know, stopping you know, child sex trafficking.
• 51:31
  Speaker 1: But then also he's a tech genius. And then all
• 51:33
  Speaker 1: the way over to Tyrone Ross you know, very successful
• 51:38
  Speaker 1: um you know advisor and he like and I'm listening
• 51:43
  Speaker 1: to podcasts, I'm going man, I learned some stuff I
• 51:45
  Speaker 1: didn't know and uh, and it's and he had his
• 51:48
  Speaker 1: you know, Jamie was playing with Michael Felt and had
• 51:52
  Speaker 1: his his coach on and and I learned something there.
• 51:55
  Speaker 1: It's like they never took a day off for five
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: years in training, where everybody says, oh, you need to
• 51:59
  Speaker 1: take time off to rest. So it's YEA framework has
• 52:02
  Speaker 1: been awesome. It's not around financial services, it's around interesting topics.
• 52:07
  Speaker 1: And Jamie's getting getting a pretty decent following fairly fast
• 52:11
  Speaker 1: with it. I love that. I love that. And then
• 52:13
  Speaker 1: the last thing I want to ask you before we
• 52:15
  Speaker 1: get to the speed round is about your philanthropic efforts.
• 52:19
  Speaker 1: I know you and your wife have a number of
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: different projects underway. Tell us what you do when you
• 52:25
  Speaker 1: want to spread some some happiness and some inspiration for people. Yeah,
• 52:31
  Speaker 1: so we decided early on that we were going to
• 52:33
  Speaker 1: leave our kids much money. I've seen just the flip
• 52:37
  Speaker 1: side of that and how awful it can be. And
• 52:40
  Speaker 1: by the way our kids have celebrated it and with pride,
• 52:43
  Speaker 1: you know, they know they're gonna I'll take a quote
• 52:46
  Speaker 1: from Warren Buffett, We're gonna give our kids enough they
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: can do anything. But not so much. They can do nothing,
• 52:51
  Speaker 1: and the rest is going to our charitable foundation. And
• 52:54
  Speaker 1: Jeanie and I are like, well, let's be giving it
• 52:56
  Speaker 1: away while we're alive. And we started a foundation called
• 52:59
  Speaker 1: dream Weaver where we do end of life dreams for
• 53:02
  Speaker 1: the terminate, ill, financially unfortunate elderly. That's been tremendous. We
• 53:09
  Speaker 1: were now funding some projects in the Dominican Republic around
• 53:13
  Speaker 1: coral restoration. Anybody that wants to know more about coral,
• 53:16
  Speaker 1: there's a great Netflix documentary called Chasing Coral. But it's
• 53:20
  Speaker 1: a crisis and our ability to feed the world Carson.
• 53:24
  Speaker 1: We have UM three schools in Africa that we're feeding,
• 53:28
  Speaker 1: We're help We're involved with Scott Harrison's charity water UM.
• 53:32
  Speaker 1: We're giving you know, over twelve hundred people a day,
• 53:35
  Speaker 1: you know, fresh water from from Will's well. As we've
• 53:38
  Speaker 1: driven but we're just getting started Bury. I mean, we
• 53:42
  Speaker 1: as an organization UM really want to have impact and
• 53:46
  Speaker 1: and we're looking for more and more ways, you know,
• 53:48
  Speaker 1: to to help people. And I personally believe private enterprise
• 53:52
  Speaker 1: can do a much better job than the government can,
• 53:54
  Speaker 1: you know, and figuring out who needs it and being
• 53:57
  Speaker 1: very efficient and trying to deliver your needs. UM for
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: causes that that can can very efficiently invested. Quite interesting,
• 54:06
  Speaker 1: So let's jump to our speed rounds. Although we should
• 54:09
  Speaker 1: feel no time pressure. You can answer these um as
• 54:12
  Speaker 1: quickly or not as you like. You mentioned that Netflix
• 54:16
  Speaker 1: documentary about Coral. What are you streaming these days? Give
• 54:20
  Speaker 1: us your favorite Netflix or Amazon Prime Video? What are
• 54:22
  Speaker 1: you podcasting, listening to, etcetera. I love Joe Rogan, so
• 54:27
  Speaker 1: I listened to this podcast all the time with our
• 54:31
  Speaker 1: kids being out of the house. Janie and I we
• 54:34
  Speaker 1: just got through watching the Michael Jordan's The Last Dance.
• 54:38
  Speaker 1: That would be fantastic and we're good, um Avid readers,
• 54:42
  Speaker 1: and I'm reading UM The Tattoo Us of Auschwitz, which
• 54:46
  Speaker 1: is really really good right now Essentialism, which is another
• 54:50
  Speaker 1: great book UH that I love and UM and I
• 54:54
  Speaker 1: I spent a lot of time going on walks and heights.
• 54:57
  Speaker 1: I think most high functioning creative people can can gain
• 55:02
  Speaker 1: a lot by just going and not having anything, just
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: letting your mind go to wherever it goes. Then, UM,
• 55:08
  Speaker 1: Carson Partners was actually born on a hike. I'm trying
• 55:11
  Speaker 1: to summit all of the fourteen thousand foot peaks in
• 55:15
  Speaker 1: the US Berry and a lot of them I've done alone.
• 55:17
  Speaker 1: I've been fifty seven. I have twelve left. I got
• 55:20
  Speaker 1: to get a knee replacement before I can finish out.
• 55:22
  Speaker 1: But some of my best ideas have come on these,
• 55:25
  Speaker 1: on these, you know, several day mountain expeditions. You know
• 55:28
  Speaker 1: that I've gone on. You've done fifty seven fourteen thousand
• 55:32
  Speaker 1: foot peaks. Is that what I heard you say? And
• 55:36
  Speaker 1: it only cost you one knee? That's a fair trade.
• 55:39
  Speaker 1: Well cost me both, but I got to get the
• 55:41
  Speaker 1: other one fixed soon. Here COVID I supposed to haven't
• 55:44
  Speaker 1: done in March, but COVID hit and that didn't happen.
• 55:48
  Speaker 1: So let's talk about your mentors, who influenced your career,
• 55:52
  Speaker 1: who helped make you into the run. Carson, we know
• 55:55
  Speaker 1: today my mom and dad, My mom um growing up,
• 55:59
  Speaker 1: My dad, hard worker, hard farmer, farmer. My mom though
• 56:04
  Speaker 1: she was Ronnie, you can do anything you want to do.
• 56:06
  Speaker 1: I mean, this is being a kid. She had me
• 56:09
  Speaker 1: convinced if I wanted to be the President United States,
• 56:11
  Speaker 1: that was gonna be it. And and uh, and she
• 56:14
  Speaker 1: encouraged me on any any businesses that I ever wanted
• 56:17
  Speaker 1: to do or start, and she was my partner. UM
• 56:20
  Speaker 1: A lot of times she's passed away, um five years
• 56:23
  Speaker 1: ago Mother's Day. And then I, um, I got to
• 56:28
  Speaker 1: know a warm buffet here in town back when I
• 56:30
  Speaker 1: was a business editor and and his nephew was in
• 56:33
  Speaker 1: a YPO forum with me, and you know, just his
• 56:37
  Speaker 1: his you know, wisdom and advice. And and then there's
• 56:40
  Speaker 1: a gentleman here in Omaha, you know, self made billion billionaire,
• 56:44
  Speaker 1: you know Howard Hawks who really started as business later
• 56:47
  Speaker 1: in life. UM, just really gave me a lot of
• 56:50
  Speaker 1: great advice growing up, uh in the business. And but
• 56:54
  Speaker 1: ultimately it's my partners too, in my my coaching group.
• 56:58
  Speaker 1: I mean you, if you have an open mind and
• 57:01
  Speaker 1: you take the philosophy that you know, the older I get,
• 57:04
  Speaker 1: the less I know. And I don't defend what I
• 57:07
  Speaker 1: know and what I'm comfortable with, but embrace the unknown.
• 57:10
  Speaker 1: You will learn something new every single day of your life.
• 57:14
  Speaker 1: And a lot of it's very useful. I call it
• 57:16
  Speaker 1: custal cool and useful information. Custal information. UM, as long
• 57:21
  Speaker 1: as you don't think you've arrived or you've figured it
• 57:23
  Speaker 1: all out. I love that there's a poster with an
• 57:26
  Speaker 1: eight scratching his head. It's as soon as I figured
• 57:28
  Speaker 1: out the answer, as they changed all the questions. And
• 57:32
  Speaker 1: that's so true. You know that, Uh, the questions are
• 57:35
  Speaker 1: changing rapidly. So one of these days I'm going to
• 57:38
  Speaker 1: have to lean on a favor and and my collection
• 57:41
  Speaker 1: of podcasts will be incomplete until I get Warren Buffett
• 57:45
  Speaker 1: under or Charlie Manger under my belt. I don't suspect
• 57:49
  Speaker 1: that's gonna happen anytime soon, given the lockdown. I think
• 57:52
  Speaker 1: I sent them a snail mail about five years ago
• 57:55
  Speaker 1: and I never heard back from them, but it was
• 57:57
  Speaker 1: still early days. I should probably follow up again. You
• 58:01
  Speaker 1: mentioned a couple of books earlier that you're reading. Now,
• 58:05
  Speaker 1: what about books you recommend to people who say, Hey,
• 58:08
  Speaker 1: I want to learn more about investing, finance, the economy.
• 58:11
  Speaker 1: What books do you recommend for those people? You know,
• 58:14
  Speaker 1: I really have never read any of those books, very
• 58:18
  Speaker 1: attentive because and here's here's why. I mean, I've read
• 58:22
  Speaker 1: I've read a handful of them, but I'm a little
• 58:26
  Speaker 1: different in my beliefs, and that is this is that
• 58:30
  Speaker 1: most people are trying to find a silver bullet of
• 58:34
  Speaker 1: investing and they're just it doesn't exist. And and the
• 58:38
  Speaker 1: silver bullet is is that if you stick to a
• 58:42
  Speaker 1: plan and you get your risk budget right, you can
• 58:46
  Speaker 1: be successful with deep value. You can be successful with
• 58:50
  Speaker 1: momentum growth. You can be successful with passive you can
• 58:53
  Speaker 1: be successful EPs with mutual funds. But as soon as
• 58:59
  Speaker 1: you start reading this book, and then you read that book,
• 59:02
  Speaker 1: and then you get distracted and you think that you've
• 59:06
  Speaker 1: got something that's a black box, I mean, trying to happen,
• 59:09
  Speaker 1: to have it happened in a hurry berry just doesn't happen.
• 59:13
  Speaker 1: And my nearly forty years in this business, the clients
• 59:17
  Speaker 1: that have followed a plan not gotten emotional. They got
• 59:21
  Speaker 1: more wealth and they could possibly spent in ten lifetimes.
• 59:26
  Speaker 1: But I've had those clients that are always chasing the
• 59:29
  Speaker 1: hot dot, or they read this or that book. I mean,
• 59:32
  Speaker 1: I liked um Unexpected Returns um uh, you know the
• 59:38
  Speaker 1: Value Investor UM. I mean, I've probably read you know,
• 59:41
  Speaker 1: twenty books over the years, but I really hesitate to
• 59:44
  Speaker 1: give a book to say this is this is really
• 59:48
  Speaker 1: what you which, which you really ought to follow, because
• 59:50
  Speaker 1: it's the consumer behavior that's gonna drive their success, not
• 59:54
  Speaker 1: what the market does or when not not, what investment
• 59:57
  Speaker 1: philosophy they have. So just recommend think being fast and
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 1: Slow by Danny Kahneman and that'll scare them off everything else. Um. So,
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 1: so what sort of advice would you give to a
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 1: recent college grad who came to you and said, Hey,
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 1: I'm thinking about a career in finance. What would you
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 1: tell them? I had this conversation yesterday, and I try
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 1: to have them, um any day I can, because I'm
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 1: lated and I have kids reach out to me all
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 1: the time, and I tell them this is the the
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 1: best time to get into financial service. I said, you
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 1: don't realize that, but you've won five powerballs And they're like,
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 1: what are you talking about? And I said, well, let's
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 1: just let's just count them up here. First of all,
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 1: you're a mammal. Do you know what the odds are
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 1: for you to be a mammal? And then you're a human,
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 1: And then you're in the United States of America and
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 1: financial services if you choose at the most disruptive time possible,
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 1: every single relationship is in play because consumers are starting
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 1: to look and say, am I getting a return on
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 1: the investment I'm making? And I and I and I
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 1: give them the stat that we're going to have a
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 1: huge capacity issue because we're don't we don't have enough
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 1: financial advisor. And it couldn't be a more powerful, powerful
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 1: hill win. But do it right. Don't go to the wires,
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 1: don't go to the brokers. Go find an r I
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 1: A that really is mission focused, that's not building it
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 1: to sell it. That is really about being a consumer advocate,
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 1: and you will do incredibly well. And by the way,
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 1: when you prove your worth, negotiate a way to participate
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 1: in equity. You know, in that way. That way you
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 1: won't have to make it. Don't don't move around a lot,
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 1: You'll find a place, stick with it, and and don't
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 1: be afraid to ask, you know, for equity at some point,
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 1: you know, in the in your relationship. Good answer. And
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 1: now our final question, what do you know about the
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 1: world of investing today that you wish you knew back
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 1: when you were first getting started. I wish I knew
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 1: my own advice because early on I was doing commodity sutures.
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 1: I mean, this is the stuff I was doing on
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 1: my own account, Barry, And I mean I actually had
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 1: cattle delivered to me, you know, I never realized that
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 1: a paper contract could turn into real cattle. And I
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 1: went through that. Um I if someone would have said,
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 1: run American businesses are like a yo yo going up
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 1: a flight of stairs. You know, the market kind of fluctuate,
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 1: you know, short term. I love what Buffett says. He says,
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 1: our markets are capital relocation centers. They relocate well from
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 1: me in patient to the patient. And I and my
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 1: own take on that is they relocate well from those
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 1: that have a plan from those that don't have a plan.
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 1: And I wish earlier I would have figured that out
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 1: for myself so I could then apply that to clients
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 1: and uh and investor behavior will dictate your success, not
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 1: what the market does, because you know, Barry, there's always
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 1: that to make money regardless of what's going on in
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 1: the market. Thanks Ron for being so generous with your time.
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 1: We have been speaking with Ron Carson, founder and CEO
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 1: of the Carson Group. If you enjoy this conversation, well
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 1: be sure to look up an incher down an inch
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 1: on Apple iTunes and you could see any of the
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 1: previous three D plus conversations we've done over the past. Wow,
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 1: six years, that's a long time. You can also find
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 1: us at any of your favorite podcast hosts, Spotify, Overcast, Stitcher,
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 1: wherever finer podcasts are sold. You can check out my
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 1: weekly column on Bloomberg dot com slash Opinion, follow me
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 1: on Twitter at rit Halts, sign up for our daily
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 1: reads at rit Halts dot com. I would be remiss
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 1: if I did not thank the crack staff that helps
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 1: put this conversation together each week. Michael Boyle is my producer.
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 1: Maroufle is our audio engineer. Michael pat Nick is my
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 1: head of research. Attica Valve Run is our project manage Here.
• 1:04:00
  Speaker 1: I'm Barry Hults. You've been listening to Masters in Business
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 1: on Bloomberg Radio