Latest / Epic Entrepreneurs / What Happens When AI Can Answer Everything with TJ Clayton-Cornell, Modern Woodmen of America

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What Happens When AI Can Answer Everything with TJ Clayton-Cornell, Modern Woodmen of America · Epic Entrepreneurs

• 0:57
  SPEAKER_01: Today I'm excited to be joined by TJ Clayton Cornell of Modern Women of America.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_02: TJ, thanks for being here.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_02: How are you doing today?
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: I'm doing just fine, man.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: How about yourself?
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_02: I'm doing great.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_02: So, you know, TJ, again, thanks for being here.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_02: We're really, really excited to have you.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_02: So if you don't mind, let's go ahead and jump right into things.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_02: Sounds good.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_02: All right.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_02: So, you know, TJ, kind of tell us a little bit about what you got going on.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_02: For those of you who, you know, for those of the listening audience who may not know it yet, you know, what is Modern Woodman of America and what do you provide for the community?
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so Modern Woodman is a really funny named company.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: We're a fraternal financial service organization.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: We do retirement planning, internal programs, life insurance.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: Uh we've got about three-quarters of a million members nationwide.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but what we do is as an organization, we have a unique land of financial products, but we serve through our members and impact our communities because we're actually the nation's largest not-for-profit insurance organization.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: So uh it's really unique that we go about how we do business.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't think many people have ever heard of a not-for-profit financial organization before.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's that's extremely rare.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's definitely for sure.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_02: I definitely noticed that the first time I reached out to you.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_02: I was like, wow, that's that's interesting because I looked at your website, kind of did a little bit of research before I reached out to you and I was like, wow, no.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_02: Nonprofit financial place.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_02: That's pretty rare.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_02: It's very rare, actually.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_02: So, yeah, kind of get let's get into it.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_02: So, who is TJ Clayton Cornell as a person?
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_02: What do you got going on personally?
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean, first and foremost, uh, I'm I'm very strong in my faith.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: I've always tried to lead through that lens of everything I do, I I do for God.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: But secondly, I'm a I'm a father and a husband.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: So spent the the last six years, luckily being blessed enough to be a father in the last almost 11 years since I was 18 years old being married to just my still wife, and hopefully another 60 plus years going.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm actually an Air Force veteran.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: Only really held two real jobs in my life after being in high school, went straight into the military, became an aircraft mechanic, worked on planes, and then felt a call to lead the military and get into financial services at the company I had never heard of in my life.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: But really felt like what we stood for and what we did was kind of where I needed to be, and just spend most of my days helping people with finances, spending time with my son or church, or you know, doing volunteer events through through our company.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: So that's pretty much all I've got.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I think it's a pretty good uh synopsis of who I am.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_02: Nice, nice.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_02: Now, TJ, let's get right into the business side of it.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_02: You know, what's something about running a business that people think is amazing, but it actually is not?
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and well, first I've always got to share this.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: You know, ever being on a platform, anything that I share is not like an official recommendation.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: When we talk about finances, uh, anything that I share and I say is is just my personal viewpoint and doesn't necessarily create a recommendation on a legal capacity.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: But the the thing that everyone loves to think of is that freedom of time.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: You know, uh starting their own business, whether it be an entrepreneur or even an entrepreneur like myself, it is amazing at times that freedom of schedule, but whenever you realize that practically every day, if you don't wake up with a plan, you wake up unemployed.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: You know, people love the idea of oh, I want to take off two o'clock to pick my son up or my daughter up or spend a coffee date with my wife as a nurse, whoever it is, they think that time freedom is amazing and at times it is.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: But if you don't have a plan and you're not regimented and you're not willing to spend 80, 90 hours a week when you're getting started to build your business, you're gonna wake up one day unemployed because you don't have something to do because you spent too much time in the freedom side and not so much time on building your business side.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, that makes perfect sense.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, having discipline to know that you still have to get work done while still having that freedom.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_02: Because you, like you say, you do have that freedom, but then you also have to be disciplined enough to get to work when you need to get to work, right?
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: Self-control is paramount being uh being an entrepreneur.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_02: Nice, nice.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, very, very wise words there for entrepreneurs out there.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know if I told you this, but we have a a pretty large bit of our audience extract from all entrepreneurs ourselves.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_02: So, you know, yeah, definitely wise words.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_02: So, you know, TJ, what was the exact moment where you realized, you know, this thing could either really work or it could completely blow up in your face?
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I'd say probably about six months in.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, like a lot of entrepreneurs, I started with with another job.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: I was doing something else while I was starting my business.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: As I was studying for my federal exams, I was still getting out of the military.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: I was going through something called the Skillbridge program.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: And uh so when I passed all of my exams, I knew that I could do everything that a financial advisor does or that a financial representative does.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: And as soon as I passed those exams, I looked at what I could do.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: You know, what is the potential income of what I can provide for my wife and my son and any future children we may have.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: But also, if those don't come to fruition, just because I passed exams doesn't mean people are going to want to do business with me.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: Just because I I have my website that you saw doesn't mean people will trust me enough with their future savings or their college savings for their kids or the life insurance.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: So if they pass, their their spouse is protected or children are protected.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: Just because you pass and have a piece of paper doesn't mean people want to trust you implicitly with their entire financial livelihood.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: And that was really just six months in passed all my exams, and then it hit me.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: It's like this may have been one of the worst decisions I ever made.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: Leaving a guaranteed income, a guaranteed pension, guaranteed healthcare for the rest of my life if I retired from active duty to go to a 0% guarantee income, no base pay, nothing.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_02: No, that must be really tough, really tough.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_02: So any advice for people that kind of are are looking kind of to do that, looking to take that jump.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_02: You know, any any words of wisdom for somebody like that who's maybe working another full-time job, but thinking about jumping out and starting their business full-time.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: I I think you just have to be meticulous.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: I I'm never going to be a person who says to just jump both feet heads in with no plan.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: You you if you believe in yourself and not just like, I think I can do this.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: When I'm talking truly believe, you've written the things down, you've seen the upside, you've seen the downside.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: If you're married, you have your partner agreeing with you, like knowing that they they they they say whether I think you have what it what it takes or not, I'm gonna support you in every way, shape, or form.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: When you've got that strong backbone and you don't have like a second guess is what I would really say.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: When you when you look in the mirror, and not just, you know, whenever you have a good day, you know, whether it's somebody goes into lawn mowing and landscaping, they've got one big contract on the horizon.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: No, if you can look at yourself in the mirror the the day that you have a bad day and say, I'm gonna do this, there's no other second option, that's when you're ready to jump.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_02: Love that.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_02: Now, have you ever thought about quitting and going back to that 95?
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_02: And if so, what stopped you?
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, there was there was probably one time, it was January of 24.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: I had I had passed my exams in November, I got my what we the what we call clear to sell.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm allowed to start doing business.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: And it was one of those months kind of going back to what I said before of you did I didn't manage my time.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: I was enjoying the time freedom through Christmas, but it wasn't just you know Christmas, it was the week of Christmas and the week of New Year's, and I really didn't do a lot of you know business growth for myself and what I needed to have.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: And I had almost four and a half weeks without a paycheck.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: So I didn't mention this before, but my wife was also active duty, she served as well, and we both left the military within 11 days of each other.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: So we went from two guaranteed sergeant pays to no guaranteed income.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_00: She was using her GI bill, so we had a little bit from her using her GI bill, about 1,800 or so a month, and a three-year-old to provide for.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: And when you don't get a paycheck for more than a month, it's really easy to have that thought of man, I can go back in and I can go back and work planes.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, military at my rank was about$80,000 a year.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: So it was a really good pay.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: And it was, it was one of those, did I jump too quick?
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: But my luckily, my it kind of what I said before, you know, make sure your partner, if you're married, has your back.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_00: And she said, No, you're not going back.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: You said you're gonna do this.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: Even if she might have had her own doubts, she she she backed me and she was the the greatest supporter I could have.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: And then we turned it around and had our probably the the greatest individual growth year that I've had since then.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_00: Just because when you don't see any money hit the bank for two months and you got a mortgage, you get a little bit worried.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, oh yeah.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you just money's coming out, but nothing's going in, basically.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_02: That's really good.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_02: That's really good.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_02: So so I understand a little bit more.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_02: So basically what you did is you just kind of just took the whole holiday season off.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, about two and a half weeks.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: I probably did no work.
• 9:47
  unknown: Gotcha.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: Gotcha, gotcha.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, okay, gotcha.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_02: So, you know, uh let's let's kind of get into a little bit more.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_02: Kind of so what's something about you personally that had to change in order for your business to grow?
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_02: I know you kind of talked about kind of, you know, taking accountability and stuff like that.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_02: Was there anything else about maybe your personality type, your personal life that had to change in order for your business to start growing?
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and this was something that it it really hurt.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: And I still feel the ripple effects of it today, of it was a two-part effort, I will say.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: I I had to quit rugby in order for my business to grow.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: I used to play rugby for the Air Force.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: I got to travel with the military to play.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: I used to play on a few travel teams out of the southeast.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: And being able to, you know, wanted to be a good father.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: If I if all I cared about the business, I would have continued to play rugby.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_00: Excuse me.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: But if I wanted the business to grow and to be a good father to be present was to do the things that I got into being a business owner for, I had to give up this thing that took about 10 to 12 hours a week.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_00: I I was working, you know, every day until five or six o'clock at night the best I could.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: And then I was playing rugby for two or three hours, three to four days a week and traveling.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_00: So if I really wanted this business to work, if you couple that with the multiple permanent deformities I have in my body, both my shoulders are permanently deformed, my foot is permanently deformed from playing rugby.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_00: So when those two factors collided, I I physically couldn't keep up with some of the younger guys anymore, those kids coming out of college, and he's a little bit more athletic than me.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_00: And the fact that my business was being hindered, and because of that I wasn't being as good of a father, I had to stop that passion of playing rugby to especially on the competitive level to try to get up to that point.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: Nice.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I wasn't expecting that it's rugby.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_02: Hey, nice, man.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_02: You're a rugby player, man.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_02: So you were you were pretty good at it?
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: I wouldn't say I was pretty good.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: I never I never made any you know major league teams.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: I may have tried out once or twice, but I I was at least good enough to play for the military teams.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_02: Cool, man.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_02: That's nice.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_02: I love it.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_02: I love sport, so that's why I love hearing that's cool.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_02: So, you know, and this and this next question is kind of hypothetical, but let's see, you know, kind of see, let's see if if this has actually happened to you before.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_02: But let's say if someone kind of shadowed you for a full day or or let's say even a full week, you know, what would you say would surprise them the most about how you operate this company?
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_00: I I would say probably the amount of time I spend in front of people.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of people have this vision of a of a financial advisor or someone who's in the financial services world, that they just spend an hour like, you know, eight hours a day sitting in front of people giving them financial advice about uh investments or anything like that.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_00: When when really it's it's only about two or three.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: And in a an average week, I probably spend 15 to 18 hours in front of people in a full week compared to I'm probably spending another 15 hours or so doing administrative work with my office admin, Chloe, trying to figure out, you know, are we doing something for this charity this day?
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: How are we doing in our recruiting?
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: Let me doing a portfolio analysis or let me reach out and do follow-up.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_00: So, really, only about a third of my time, I'd say I work about 50 hours a week now that uh it's been a little bit more established after four years, but only a third of my time is actually spent in front of people.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_00: Another third is probably just doing that administrative side, and that's with an admin who's a rock star.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_00: Chloe is I wouldn't be anywhere near where I was if it wasn't for someone like Chloe.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_00: And then another third is networking, just trying to get out into the community.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: We've got a funny named company that nobody's ever heard of before.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_00: So trying to raise awareness for who we are and how we do stuff differently.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, two-thirds of my time is not actually sitting in front of people giving financial advice.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_02: Nice networking.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, okay.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_02: You have any networking kind of groups that you'd like to shout out or kind of recommend for any entrepreneurs listening?
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean, obviously, you're gonna have the ones that, and they're only as good as what you put in.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I've been in a BI group before, and I've got some great people in my B and I group, and there's been bad people in it that just don't care about others.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_00: Uh one that I love personally is uh I'm in a Christian chamber of commerce, and it's just a bunch of people who get together, and yes, they want to work on their business, but it's very strong to them that they use their business to help promote their faith, which is obviously what I want to do.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_00: And that's probably one of the greatest things of you know, if you've got a belief system constantly rooting yourself in that twice a month, just so you you fight greed.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, whether whether you're a Christian or not, I think a lot of people worry about greed or the greedy people in the world.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_00: And if you've got this belief system that you can hold on and have 10 or 15 or 20 fellow entrepreneurs, men and women sit by you and help you grow your business, I'd say that the Christian chamber I'm in here in Greenville is probably one of the greatest growths uh as a person for me.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_02: Nice, nice.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_02: I love that.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_02: So, DJ, what actually moves the needle most in your business right now?
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_02: Is it leads, conversion, pricing, team performance, or is it something else entirely?
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna I'm gonna say team performance.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_00: You know, there's I make the joke that realtors, there's no A in realtors if I'm mispronouncing it.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_00: Hopefully no realtor yells at me.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_00: But there's realtors and financial advisors, especially in cities like Charleston, Greenville here in South Carolina, we're a dime a dozen.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_00: You had any networking group, you find the guy with a fancy jacket or the girl with the fancy jacket and maybe a tie, and you you got six other financial advisors around them.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_00: So really it's the team performance, and by team, I mean all the way to my home office staff off in Illinois.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_00: We all, for the most part, every financial advisor or financial rep, because there's a you have to have special designations, a special uh education to be an advisor, and not everybody has that.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_00: For the most part, we all have the same access to funds.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_00: What I work with, the the guy at the financial firm two doors down for me, or the guy across town and owns his private owned wealth firm downtown.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_00: We all have the same products 99% of the time.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_00: And the biggest needle mover is people realizing that they don't like that service model of I only talk to my advisor once a year.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_00: And again, that's that's for my business, but I would say the same for any other business.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_00: You know, even if you're doing pest control, you should reach out to your people quarterly.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: And that's how I change my model and modern woodman's model when it comes to investments, is we reach out to our people quarterly.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_00: And with my team is talking to their person four times a year, and then we're seeing them at our volunteer events, we try to do a volunteer event once a month on top of that.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_00: You can't match that service because people are growing to know like and trust you on a very personal level.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_00: They see the knowledge that we have.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_00: We train very extensibly in markets and different mutual funds or things like that, as long as somebody's licensed.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_00: But when it comes down to what our home office supports and what my local team here supports through the charities and through the service models, so touching people more throughout the year, not just once a year, like the standard historical financial advising model, that's been what's really moving the needle is those four years of networking and growing and building trust in the community and just wiping away our competition because people just get to talk to us more.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_02: Now, DJ, what would you say was the hardest leadership lesson you've ever had to learn while growing your team?
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_00: Hands down, what what I had to face earlier here in 2026 is you can't want it more than the person.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_00: You know, sometimes whether I said whether you're doing like a paint, you got a team of guys who want to paint, you as the the business owner or the manager, if you're an entrepreneur, you can't want it more than the person who's on your team.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_00: There may be like some motivation, maybe, maybe they just don't understand it yet and you want to guide them.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_00: But if you're funneling, you know, some of your leads or some of the people that you've met, or even just a good chunk of your time to help develop somebody and they're just not getting it, I think it's the respectable thing to just set them aside and say, hey, I don't think we're the right fit for you.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_00: Not that you're a bad person, not that you have any anything, but I can't want this more than you, and that's what it feels like because I'm putting in more work than you are on your own practice.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_00: And I just don't think that's fair to everyone around us because I could be spending that time with someone else who's willing to put in that extra.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_00: And that happened to us earlier this year, where I just I just wanted it someone, wanted it more than someone on my team.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_00: And I mean, I literally gave business that was mine, so gave income that could have been for my family and for my great kids or my future grandkids to them to try to help them grow, and they're not here anymore.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_00: They took it all and they're somewhere else.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_00: Uh it's just because I wanted it more than they did.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_02: Now, what kind of separates your best employees from everyone else, would you say?
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_00: I'd say the people who who respect the systems.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_00: There's everyone wants to jump on the train, I think, especially nowadays, and I'm not trying to be that old guy that's like, oh, technology is the problem, but in a sense, everyone on LinkedIn is reaching out to me about their AI model, their AI model, their ghostwriting book.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_00: And while it may have been helpful for some people, at the end of the day, a lot of people, especially my generation, millennials, and I think Gen Z, especially with those who graduated during COVID, they want relationships.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_00: And if all you do is have some robot do your business for you, whether it be your AI flyers, whether it be AI emails, I think people want to sit down and talk and grow with you as a person.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_00: And that's gonna be the hardest thing that I think so many other people that failed in this business, like the people who haven't made it, they keep trying to rewrite the system and not trust the thing because technology is better now, and yes, it is.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_00: But if you just trust the system, trust the processes, don't jump on any of the new bandwagons, it's worked for a hundred years.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_00: It's going to continue to work.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_00: Technology is not replacing financial advisors or life insurance salesmen or insurance agencies anytime soon.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_00: It may happen.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna say it's never gonna happen, but people want that.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_00: And when some of those employees that step away from that model trying to lean into that, at least at my firm, it's not on my team, it's not gonna be the way to grow.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_00: You've got to be genuine.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_00: You've got to lean into our systems and you've got to trust the process because the process is proven.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_02: Nice, nice.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_02: Love that.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_02: Now, TJ, have you ever had to make like an extremely tough call, like say, you know, letting someone go or cutting off a job and not doing it that ended up being the right move long term?
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I I think a lot of people have had this happen in one way or another.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe they don't realize it.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_00: But I'd say starting this year, I started saying no to a lot of new clients.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes it's just people with unrealistic expectations.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_00: I've had somebody want me to be the lawyer, the tax advisor, the financial advisor, and the insurance agent all in one.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um and while I'm 99% sure that's a conflict of interest, I can't operate in all four of those capacities.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_00: I had to tell them like that, that's not feasible.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_00: I can I can do one of these roles and I can help introduce you to people, but I can't do all of those.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_00: And it's actually become kind of a common thing in my practice is actually starting to say no to certain people that just have unrealistic expectations.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_00: You know, people that want to spend their whole life on AI is a perfect example of someone I turned away this year that everything I said they typed into AI and said, well, AI says this.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_00: But you know, if you you can manipulate AI, I'm sure you've seen it.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_00: You just change one word in a sentence, you get an entirely different answer.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_00: So that's probably the tough call.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_00: I think early on, anyone and everyone, somebody wanted to call me at 8:30 at night, I'd answer the phone my first two or three years in business because I had to.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_00: But now, after you know, four years in business, being able to say no to clients that I realize are not gonna respect my time and respect my personal life, even though I try to give them as much as I can, I think that would be probably one of the tough calls that has been a beautiful call now, especially going back to that very first question we talked about with that time, time answer.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_00: You know, people that just expect me to drop everything on Labor Day at 8 p.m.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_00: to answer their call.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_00: No, I'm not doing that.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, like I said, right?
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_02: You gotta ruin family.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_02: Well, you know, got kid and wife, and you know, they they need attention too, right?
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_02: So you know, obviously you need to get to that too.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_02: So and give them the respect of your time, especially on a holiday weekend.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_02: Hope you're and we're recording this right on the day after Labor Day.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_02: Hope your Labor Day weekend was well.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, man, it was it was beautiful.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_00: You're here in the in South Carolina.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_00: It was after the rain, it was in the 70s.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_00: So I got the motorcycle out.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_00: I went outside and played and got in a friend's pool.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_00: So I can't ask for much more of a Labor Day.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_02: Low humidity.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_02: It was beautiful out.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you can't ask for a better day.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_02: It was really great.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_02: I was out there grilling.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_02: I grilled a pork butt.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_02: I do it, uh I smoke it on the smoker.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_02: And uh yeah, it was great.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_02: Great day to do that.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_02: It's perfect.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, sir.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, perfect day.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah, no complaints from me.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_02: All right, man.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_02: I appreciate that.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_02: So we're gonna head into the this or that round.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_02: So how this works is I'm gonna give you this or that, two subjects, and I want you to choose one and then kind of give me a little, a little, you know, explanation of why you chose it.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_02: Kind of a good way to break up the business talk and get to your personal side a little bit.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_02: All for it.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_02: All right, perfect.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_02: So uh coffee or tea and why?
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_00: Coffee.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_00: We left the the UK for a reason and we don't need no tea.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_00: If you've ever seen Ted Lasso, it tastes like like dirt water.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_02: Early bird or night owl?
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_00: Early bird.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_00: You know, every people talk about the second mouse gets achieved, but I've been waking up early my entire career and it seems to work out for me a lot better than a lot of my night owl friends.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_00: Mountains or beach?
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_00: Mountains.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_00: I I can get in the water in a mountain hole, but then I can also enjoy the crisp air and not just get baked by the sun.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_02: Totally agree, totally agree.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_02: That mountain air is something else.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_02: Can't beat it.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_02: It's always generally like five, even sometimes ten, fifteen degrees cooler in the mountains.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_02: So take it.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_02: Road trip or fly?
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_00: Uh fly.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_00: I want to spend most of my time at the destination, not getting to the destination.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_00: But I do respect people who love road trips.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_00: I I don't want three hours added to my day due to road traffic in Atlanta, where the airplane traffic is typically only about 15 minutes.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_00: Much more feasible.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_02: Mm-hmm.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, no, I agree.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_02: For for me, it's always I I have a cutoff.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_02: I think it's over anything over six hours or seven hours that it takes to get there, I'm I'm good.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_02: I'll I'll fly.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_02: I'll do a little road trip.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_02: I'll do a I'll do a small day trip on anything over six hours.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_02: I'm I just can't sit in the car that long.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I just I don't like sitting in a car just staring at the road.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_00: It just doesn't.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_00: I can only listen to so many epic entrepreneur podcasts before I need a break it out of the car.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_02: You're like, man, I need to get up and do something.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_02: Like it's like, uh, so I agree with you.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_02: Barbecue a pizza.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_00: Barbecue.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_00: You can feel I love pizza.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_00: My Italian family would would hate me for this answer, but you can just do so much with barbecue in different ways.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna say barbecue.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_00: Mm.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_02: NFL or college football?
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I had to change my answer recently.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_00: NFL.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, uh college football used to be the thing, but I love NIL.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_00: I respect the players getting what they're worth, but I I hate the idea of a dude being there for three months, seeing a a big fat check somewhere else and just jumping.
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like it took the edge that college had on NFL.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_02: No, I totally agree, totally agree.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_02: And and also even get into that a little bit more, it also makes them a little bit spoiled when they get to the NFL.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_02: Just feel like the guys don't work as hard as they used to because they're they're already getting paid right out of the gate.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_00: So I do think we're gonna see a massive drop-off in play in the NFL in about four years from those guys who who, again, rightfully so, were getting NIL deals from high school all the way through college.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_00: That's gonna be in about two, three years.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_00: I think we're gonna see a massive drop-off in play in the NFL in three years.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I feel like we're already kind of seeing that, right?
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_02: With the quarterback, I don't know, quarterback play has never been all more never been more awful to me.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_02: I feel like you you look 10 years ago back at all the quarterbacks who are playing, and it's like, you know, now it's, you know, I don't know.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_02: It's just, you know, you had Peyton Manning, you had Ben Roethlisberg.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, you had all these stars, and it's now it's like I can only probably count on my hand probably a couple of guys that I actually would like to watch them play.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_00: I think, I think five.
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_00: It's probably only five guys in the NFL that really got it where it used to be half the league.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, exactly.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah, I just feel like you I think you're totally right, right?
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_02: The the guys are gonna come out of school, they're just so you know spoiled, getting paid already, right?
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_02: There's they're they're gonna feel like, oh, I don't have to work hard.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_02: I've already I already got a bunch of money.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_02: So I don't really need to work that hard.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I'll see if that's that's the case.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_02: You said two or three years thinking?
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_02: Two or three years is my call.
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_02: Is your call?
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, definitely, definitely make sure to look out for it.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_02: I'm a big big football fan.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_02: So so yeah, like let's kind of get into that more a little bit more.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_02: Who'd you who'd your NFL team?
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a I'm a Ravens fan through and through, Baltimore all the way.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_00: So I mean I'm pretty happy with my quarterback play.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_00: I'll say that.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you got Lamar Jackson, multiple time MVP winner.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I think you're good.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, I'm good for a few more years.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_02: But you gotta go Super Bowl, though, man.
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_02: That's the crazy part.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_02: It's like he's too talented to not have a ring yet.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, if we if we learn to run the ball in the fourth quarter a little bit better, maybe we'll maybe we'll win a Super Bowl.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_00: I'm excited for 26.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_00: Let's just say that.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I feel like, I mean, if man, if Sam Darnold and the Seahawks can win, the Ravens can win, man.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_02: Especially last year.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_02: I just feel like uh it was wide open.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_02: I feel like it was very morning workout or evening workout?
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_00: Morning.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_00: I I think I get better workouts in the evening, but there's just something about getting your workout and know you're done for the day.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_00: I whenever you do evenings, it's too easy for life to happen and get in the way.
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_02: And then the next one is this could be different for business or personal, so let me know if it is.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_02: But call or text, what do you prefer?
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_00: Legally, I gotta go call here.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want my compliance office getting on me, but the answer is always gonna be call.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_00: Phone call.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_00: And in your personal life too, you prefer a call?
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_00: I do.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, there's there's there's a real deep rabbit hole I can go into that.
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_00: But I I've had I've had friends that have texted me and and the next day they're not here anymore.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_00: And and I feel like a phone call could have changed that.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_00: So we need human connection.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_00: Going back to what I said earlier, we are social people.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_00: That's how we were made, whether you whether you believe it from how we were created by a creator or another standpoint.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_00: We've always been social people, and uh, I think we need real, genuine connection, and we're lacking that in today's society.
• 28:20
  unknown: Yeah.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_02: Wow.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_02: And Def, I'm sorry to hear that about your, you know, a couple of your buddies there.
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, I've unfortunately I've had that happen too, and it's and you're exactly right, right?
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_02: If I had picked up the phone and maybe had talked to this person, maybe, maybe they'd still be here.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_02: Maybe not.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_02: But you know, you you never know.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_02: But I do feel like that that that personal connection maybe had maybe could have won them over.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_02: Who knows?
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_02: I don't sure.
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_02: But I definitely agree with you with that.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we need to we need to talk more.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_02: It's just but the problem with text for me is that you know, I and I've had so many instances where I text somebody and they think I have an attitude, or if they think I'm talking to them a certain way.
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_02: It's like I'm I'm not, I'm I'm perfectly fine just answering your question.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_02: But text, you can interpret things a certain way.
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_02: Whereas a phone call, it's all instant, right?
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_02: You you know, if somebody's interpreting an attitude or whatever, even if you don't have one, that you can at least interpret it instantly rather than shooting someone a text, letting it stay undelivered for hours.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_02: You don't know if that person's mad at you, whatever.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_02: You know what I mean?
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_02: It's just it's very different.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_00: It's like I said, it's all about that genuineness, that that connection.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_00: And uh texts are at the end of the day, that's just that's just pixels on a phone.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_00: You're not hearing the person's voice.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_02: Yep, yeah.
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_02: Uh small town or big city?
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna go, I love a small town.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_00: I I love a small town.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_00: The feel, the football games are better in a small town.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_00: You get those guys who have never left, but I I've never heard a good country song about the big city.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_00: That's true, that's true.
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_00: That's true.
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_02: Leadership or innovation?
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_00: Leadership.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_00: Innovation comes from the the lower ranks, quote unquote.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_00: Not that I'm trying to put anything down, but a good leader creates innovative employees.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_00: Whereas innovation itself, it it can be great, but if you don't have anyone to help direct it, it's not gonna go anywhere.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_00: And uh do you plan everything or do you are you a go-with-the-flow type of person?
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a go-with-the-flow type of person.
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_00: I do my best to plan everything, but one of my one of my admins, she she she's a ball of anxiety, and she's amazing.
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_00: I love her and her family, but she something might change and she starts freaking out.
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, it's gonna be fine, we'll figure it out.
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_00: She's like, well, that's not how it's supposed to go.
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, I know, but I can't change it anymore.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_00: So let's just figure it out.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_02: All right, and this last one here, this is a good one here.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_02: So would you rather would you rather have dinner with your future self or relive a great day from your past?
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_00: And that's a tough one.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I I think one of the beauties of life it is the the mystery of the future.
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_00: So I kind of want don't want to rob myself of that that beauty.
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_00: I would much rather relive a certain day in our past, you know.
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_00: Like I said, there's there's people that aren't here anymore.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe there's relationships that uh have dropped and you've got these really big core memories.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, I you you you think about eulogies and and what happens, uh, you know, somebody's 85 and they lived a great life, but there's one story that they told a hundred times.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, just imagine what it would be like to to hold that person's hand once again, or or to laugh genuinely with somebody like a child without any any worries in the world, or experience a roller coaster for the first time.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_00: I I think reliving that that memory just just would bring so much more joy than the knowledge of the future.
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_00: And and I'm I'm gonna I'm gonna go with some you know, trying to relive one or two of my childhood memories before I I I jump to talking to my future self because I'll talk to my future self when I get there.
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I agree.
• 31:45
  SPEAKER_02: I agree.
• 31:45
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, a lot of people it's it's funny you you you're one of the rare people that actually chose that.
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_02: Most people want to see their future self.
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not sure why they're so excited to to to you know to see what that looks like.
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, we'll we'll get there, man.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I don't know.
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_02: I I I personally I'm with you.
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_02: I'd love because me first I had a great childhood, right?
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_02: So I there's so many different days I can pick and relive.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_02: So I got a lot to choose from.
• 32:05
  SPEAKER_02: I had a lot of great days.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah, definitely would choose something for the past.
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_02: I love that.
• 32:11
  unknown: Yeah.
• 32:11
  SPEAKER_02: So but I know some people didn't didn't have a great, you know, maybe some people did have a great childhood, so they're like, uh no, I'll I'm good to go.
• 32:17
  SPEAKER_02: I like it now.
• 32:17
  SPEAKER_02: So which I understand too.
• 32:19
  SPEAKER_00: So um Yeah, I mean I think it's kind of funny because I I I said not the road trip earlier, but you know, some some like life, the the the beauty of life is the journey, not the destination.
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_00: So I think that's kind of like the the the flip side of saying you would have something with your past self, seeing as I I would want to fly.
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_00: But I I would even say, and I'm sorry if I'm going over, but so even in some of the pain, there's beauty.
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_00: Like, you know, it every interaction, whether it's positive or negative, has have brought you to this point, whether it be in business, whether it be in your personal life, whether it be a rough or a beautiful upbringing, like like you, I mean, I had a had a great childhood.
• 32:57
  SPEAKER_00: It was by no means was it perfect, but it was mine and it was good.
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I'm I'm here, I'm healthy.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_00: I I got some people that love me in my life, and even those painful moments, yeah, I I wouldn't mind reliving some of those just because they they really form who you are as a person.
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_00: And if you if you like who you are when you look in the mirror, or even if you don't, reliving some of those moments are really powerful just so long as you don't dwell in them.
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, like you said, it's about the yeah, it's about getting where you're at.
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_02: So you can't look behind to get where you're going.
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_02: So you gotta definitely gotta keep looking forward.
• 33:29
  SPEAKER_02: So all right, man, I appreciate that.
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_02: So, all right, so a couple last things here.
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I kind of know this talk of AI itself automation is huge right now, right?
• 33:36
  SPEAKER_02: Everybody's talking about AI every day.
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_02: So, you know, where do you think your industry is going and where do you see your industry in the next 10, 15 years from now?
• 33:43
  SPEAKER_02: Do you think AI will automate quite a lot of what you guys are doing?
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's gonna automate a lot.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_00: And just like any good business owner, AI is a great tool.
• 33:53
  SPEAKER_00: I think it should be used.
• 33:55
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, medical offices are using it with underwriting to help accelerate uh view looking at things like the the risk taken by somebody with medical issues.
• 34:04
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's gonna implement itself pretty strongly into our career.
• 34:08
  SPEAKER_00: But by no means do I think it's going to replace advisors.
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_00: I've I've said it multiple times that people want to be connected.
• 34:15
  SPEAKER_00: If somebody wants to look at a TV screen or a computer screen and just let the robot tell them what to do with their life, I think, uh and this is not me, it's throwing throwing shade at anybody, I don't think they're gonna enjoy life as was you actually having a genuine conversation with somebody and sharing that.
• 34:31
  SPEAKER_00: So I think it's it's gonna make our career better, it's gonna make my job easier, but by no means do I think it's gonna replace me.
• 34:38
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, definitely, definitely.
• 34:41
  SPEAKER_02: Now, uh, you know, and we've kind of talked a lot about kind of you know the past and stuff like that and kind of where you guys are going, but let's kind of look in the future here.
• 34:47
  SPEAKER_02: So, where do you think, you know, your particular business will be by let's say 2030, right?
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_02: People here 2030 think it's a far away.
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_02: It's actually less than three and a half years away.
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's right there, man.
• 34:57
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah, where do you see your business by 2030?
• 35:00
  SPEAKER_00: I like to to live on high expectations.
• 35:03
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, one of my goals is to try to grow eight people a year.
• 35:07
  SPEAKER_00: And right now we're sitting right around nine.
• 35:09
  SPEAKER_00: So if I'm growing eight people over the next three years, I'm at in 24, I'm hoping to sit in that low 30 to 35 financial advisors or financial representatives underneath me.
• 35:19
  SPEAKER_00: I I want to be the I want to be a force for good in the financial industry.
• 35:25
  SPEAKER_00: And by I I'm not trying to be selfish.
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_00: I mean just me as a representative of my organization in the upstate.
• 35:31
  SPEAKER_00: I want people to know, and Anderson we have this, modern women is a force for good that gives back to the community.
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, we help people with their finances, but we use it as a vehicle to help others.
• 35:41
  SPEAKER_00: And so I would love to see our team being a household name.
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_00: When people hear modern women, I want them to think, oh, fraternalism.
• 35:51
  SPEAKER_00: Fraternalism means we give stuff back, we we we're a benefit for our members and the benefit for the community.
• 35:57
  SPEAKER_00: So I want people to have not the minor women, that's a peculiar name for life insurance.
• 36:02
  SPEAKER_00: I want people to have the thought of modern women, oh, those people who are always helping others.
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_02: Love that.
• 36:07
  SPEAKER_02: Love that.
• 36:08
  SPEAKER_02: Now, you know, and I want you to be kind of as you know candid and honest as you can.
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_02: You've been you've been doing, you know, been a great conversation here, TJ.
• 36:15
  SPEAKER_02: I hope you agree.
• 36:16
  SPEAKER_02: But, you know, let's say a business owner, like I told you, you know, we have a pretty, pretty good sized uh amount of artists or small entrepreneurs that listen every week.
• 36:22
  SPEAKER_02: So let's say a small entrepreneur is listening to the podcast episode with you today, and let's say in their, you know, they're feeling stuck or overwhelmed, right?
• 36:29
  SPEAKER_02: They're they're roofing business and they just had to let go of one of their techs because cost of materials is too high.
• 36:35
  SPEAKER_02: They just don't have quite as much work as they've had in the past.
• 36:37
  SPEAKER_02: And he just had to lay off one of their good techs and he feels draught about it.
• 36:40
  SPEAKER_02: Guy is feeling stuck or overwhelmed.
• 36:42
  SPEAKER_02: What's a piece of advice you want that business owner to hear from you today?
• 36:47
  SPEAKER_00: I I think it's well, obviously it's always going to be situation dependent, but when I when I'm stuck or I'm worried about something, the first place I like to jump to is what I call a time audit.
• 36:57
  SPEAKER_00: And it it may seem counterintuitive of you know, spending two or three hours just deep diving into everything I spent time doing that week.
• 37:05
  SPEAKER_00: And I mean down to the to the half hour.
• 37:07
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I'm looking at my phone, I'm looking at how much time I spent on certain apps, I'm looking at how much time I spent driving, how much time I spent at a coffee shop.
• 37:16
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I mentioned how I'm in a BI group and uh they have a different thing called one-to-one, spending time with somebody talking about business, but there's a joke that was made by somebody called a fun to one.
• 37:28
  SPEAKER_00: You know, are you saying you're working on your business, but you're just having a laugh and having a beer with a buddy?
• 37:33
  SPEAKER_00: Are you really working on your business, or are you saying it's business?
• 37:36
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's for a tax write-off or whatever it is, but you're really not working on your business.
• 37:41
  SPEAKER_00: So whether it's overwhelmed, you feel like you don't have enough work or you have too much work, doing a time audit is a great place to start because you realize I'm not doing what I thought I was.
• 37:51
  SPEAKER_00: I've been lying to myself.
• 37:53
  SPEAKER_00: And realizing where your time is spent doing those certain things.
• 37:57
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, there there's a a great book that I'm sure a lot of people have read, and if you haven't, it's called the 12-week year.
• 38:03
  SPEAKER_00: It's basically f focusing on three KPIs to change every quarter, but living a full year's plan in 12 weeks, and that's something that we try to implement on my team just personally, and and doing a time audit is a necessary thing.
• 38:18
  SPEAKER_00: You need to understand where you're spending all the time because usually, and even for myself doing it for the last two years, you'd be surprised how little you actually work in your business.
• 38:29
  unknown: Okay.
• 38:30
  SPEAKER_02: I like that.
• 38:30
  SPEAKER_02: It's really good advice.
• 38:31
  SPEAKER_02: Really good advice.
• 38:32
  SPEAKER_02: I appreciate that.
• 38:33
  SPEAKER_02: All right.
• 38:34
  SPEAKER_02: So, you know, kind of what's next for Modern Women of America?
• 38:37
  SPEAKER_02: I know you've talked about some things coming up in the future, but uh, what should people be excited about coming up in the near future for Modern Women?
• 38:42
  SPEAKER_00: Whereas a lot of companies are are cutting their benefits and cutting the ways they're doing things, trying to focus on that shareholder, Modern Women is doubling down, being in some of our conferences, and obviously I can't share everything they say in our internal conferences, but we are doubling down on giving back to the community.
• 38:58
  SPEAKER_00: We're doubling down on putting into our employees, our financial reps nationwide.
• 39:02
  SPEAKER_00: We're doing get increasing our benefits.
• 39:04
  SPEAKER_00: We're not cutting them like some other companies, so we're giving to our people who work for us more.
• 39:09
  SPEAKER_00: We're giving more to the community, we're changing initiatives for the better, so we're trimming away some of the things that aren't being used to give more money to the things that are.
• 39:16
  SPEAKER_00: So last year we did over$22 million in charitable contributions, and I believe a quarter of a million volunteer hours, and we're trying to increase that even more.
• 39:24
  SPEAKER_00: So I think, especially here in the upstate, but nationwide, people are gonna see modern women doing even more than we have been for 143 years.
• 39:34
  SPEAKER_00: We've been around since 1883 and we're now slowing down.
• 39:38
  SPEAKER_02: Hey, man, that's awesome, man.
• 39:40
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, a lot of stuff coming up in the near future.
• 39:42
  SPEAKER_02: That's awesome.
• 39:42
  SPEAKER_02: And finally, what's the best way for someone to connect with you or learn more about what you all do?
• 39:46
  SPEAKER_00: I love a good, love a good phone call.
• 39:48
  SPEAKER_00: Like I said, uh, you if you want to find me on LinkedIn or Facebook, please feel free.
• 39:52
  SPEAKER_00: But just just give me a phone call.
• 39:54
  SPEAKER_00: If I see the phone number, I'll even answer those spam calls and just tell that person to have a nice day.
• 39:59
  SPEAKER_00: So I try to answer my phone every time it rings if I'm not with somebody.
• 40:02
  SPEAKER_00: So give me give me a phone call.
• 40:04
  SPEAKER_00: I'd love to connect, even if it's just you know, go into a local coffee shop, like Inspire Coffee, a great nonprofit coffee shop in Greenville, and just learn about who you are and how I can help you.
• 40:13
  SPEAKER_00: I mean it's like it's life's about connections and growing with people.
• 40:17
  SPEAKER_00: It's not about, you know, making a dollar, it's about helping others.
• 40:20
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, totally agree, totally agree.
• 40:23
  SPEAKER_02: All right, TJ.
• 40:23
  SPEAKER_02: Well, hey, man, this has been fantastic.
• 40:25
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, thank you again for coming on, sharing your story, your perspective, and your real behind the scenes of building your business.
• 40:30
  SPEAKER_02: Really appreciate you coming on, man.
• 40:31
  SPEAKER_02: I think you got a lot of good things going on.
• 40:33
  SPEAKER_02: You gave a lot of great nuggets of advice on this podcast.
• 40:37
  SPEAKER_02: Before I let you go, any last words for the listening audience?
• 40:41
  SPEAKER_00: Don, just make sure they press, you know, they're subscribing and listening.
• 40:44
  SPEAKER_00: You guys got a lot of good things that are shared on here.
• 40:46
  SPEAKER_00: You had my buddy Luke.
• 40:47
  SPEAKER_00: If you guys haven't listened to Luke's episode, go listen.
• 40:49
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but you know, just learn from each other.
• 40:52
  SPEAKER_00: Learn from things like this, because the life's too short to try to do it yourself.
• 40:55
  SPEAKER_00: If you want to go far, go together.
• 40:57
  SPEAKER_02: Yep, totally, totally agree.
• 40:59
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, again, TJ, thank you again.
• 41:01
  SPEAKER_02: We appreciate everything you're doing for the community and wish you continued success.
• 41:04
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks, TJ.
• 41:05
  SPEAKER_02: Have a great day.
• 41:06
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks, man.