Latest / Christian Business Growth Podcast / Car Crash to Kingdom Calling
Transcript
- 0:01Hello and welcome to the Christian Business Growth Podcast.
- 0:04Today I'm here with Mike from TriWealth.
- 0:07He's in the financial world.
- 0:09So I'll let him tell his story.
- 0:10But first off, Mike, you have a really cool story.
- 0:12You shared it one of our networking meetings.
- 0:15And I think the impact from that story, people just pause for a moment and really listen in to how God worked in your life.
- 0:21It's really cool.
- 0:22So would you mind sharing that story about how you got started in business?
- 0:25Yeah, absolutely.
- 0:27Thanks for having me.
- 0:27Appreciate you to bring me on as a guest today.
- 0:31You know, I didn't really start my business right away in life.
- 0:35You know, I was in college.
- 0:37Everyone tells you when you get out of high school, this is what you're supposed to do.
- 0:40So I did.
- 0:40Didn't know where I was going to go or where it was going to take me.
- 0:43But I ended up taking a real estate finance class, teaching things like complex compound interest, things like that.
- 0:51really realized I had a knack for it.
- 0:52People were kind of looking around lost and I was really focused in and engaged in it and just made sense to me.
- 0:57When I was in college, um rather than rent a place to live, I decided I wanted to buy a home, get started in investments and purchase a house and rented the back bedroom out to
- 1:08other folks to supplement the mortgage and keep me alive and moving.
- 1:13That ended up being a really wise decision in my life because while I was in college, I was hit head on in a car accident.
- 1:21I spent two hours trapped in a car while they cut me out.
- 1:23Another three weeks in ICU and a month in the hospital.
- 1:27It took me a while to get going again, but I was fortunate enough to be renting a room out in my house to make my bills and be able to survive.
- 1:36I ended up spending eight years of my life learning to walk again.
- 1:41It was an incredible journey and some of it taught me just a lot about just life and humanity, right?
- 1:47um
- 1:48But through that process, when I was in college, didn't want a trust fund baby, didn't have a bunch of cash coming in.
- 1:54I was having to pay for my college.
- 1:55I was going to night school and I was working in automotive during the day to pay for that.
- 2:00And of course, when I could work again, I went back into automotive.
- 2:03I knew the industry, knew how I could make money and I was good at it.
- 2:07So I stayed there and ended up in that industry for 14 years uh running shops, all over DFW.
- 2:13And at one point I was done, decided I didn't want to do that anymore.
- 2:16Didn't know where I was going to go or how I was going to do it, but just was finished doing that.
- 2:20And so I left automotive and ended up working for a trucking company guy that I'd known for many years, invited me in and said, Hey, you know, um, if I have ever have a position,
- 2:33you're welcome to take it.
- 2:33And of course I called him.
- 2:34didn't have one.
- 2:36It's kind of the way the world works.
- 2:37Right.
- 2:38But, I just started showing up and helping out in his office and doing things.
- 2:41And one day he says, man, you're doing a great job.
- 2:43Like,
- 2:43love to have you on the payroll.
- 2:46So he put me on the payroll and helped me grow and expand that business to a point where I brought in someone to do group benefits for us.
- 2:54I went to lunch with him one day just to talk about the next year and the planning that was going to go in place and how we're going to help our drivers and office workers at the
- 3:03trucking company.
- 3:05He asked me the loaded question, how's work going?
- 3:08I said, it's horrible.
- 3:09Right.
- 3:10just, didn't like what I was doing.
- 3:12I didn't have a passion or drive for trucking.
- 3:13I mean, everyone needs it.
- 3:15If you have it in your life, it probably came on a truck because there's not a rail yard behind Walmart.
- 3:19Right.
- 3:19But at the end of it just wasn't what I wanted to do.
- 3:22And, and he says, come work for me.
- 3:25And I said, Hey, like thanks, but no thanks.
- 3:27You know, don't really want to get into the insurance world.
- 3:29It's not, what I'm, what I'm supposed to do.
- 3:31And I prayed about it for three months and I ended up calling them three months out and I said, Hey, you know, does that offer stand?
- 3:38He said, absolutely.
- 3:39you I know what kind of guy you are, please come, come work with my firm.
- 3:43And, you know, I said, let's go to lunch.
- 3:46And I told him my education and my history and kind of where I wanted to go in this vision that I had for a business.
- 3:52And he said, and I'd love to see you get there.
- 3:53And took me in his firm and it was a great thing, right?
- 3:57He trained me up on the insurance world and how to do group benefits and all that.
- 4:01And, uh, he always knew what my target was and where I wanted to actually end up.
- 4:06And
- 4:07When it came time to go, I said, hey, it's time for me to leave.
- 4:10I've learned what I need to learn.
- 4:11moving on.
- 4:12He said, yeah, it's been the plan all along.
- 4:14I started calling firms to figure out where to go and what to do.
- 4:18Someone that I'd rented my house out to called me up.
- 4:21I got ahead and talked to him a long time.
- 4:23He says, Mike, how you been?
- 4:24What's going on?
- 4:25I kind of told him where I was and what was happening in my life.
- 4:27says, man, I know a guy that you got to meet.
- 4:31He introduced me to this man, Kirk.
- 4:32Didn't know who Kirk was, but...
- 4:35We had a good conversation on the phone and told him what I wanted to do.
- 4:38And he walked me through kind of his business and it was what I wanted to do.
- 4:43He ends up introducing me to somebody and that guy, you know, top floor Dallas overlooking, you know, the city, you know, didn't know who the guy was later.
- 4:52Google and figured out who he was.
- 4:54I like, Oh my gosh.
- 4:54I'm glad I know that on the way down and not the way up.
- 4:56Right.
- 4:57But we hit it off and had a good conversation.
- 4:59He invited me back to his office for a followup.
- 5:02And then that followup, I told him, I said, I want to work here.
- 5:06And he kind of chuckled and said, that doesn't quite work that way, Mike.
- 5:08know, of course it doesn't, but you know, my mindset is if I don't tell you what I want, I'm never going to get it.
- 5:13Right.
- 5:14And so he said, do you know how Kirk and I worked together?
- 5:18And I had no clue.
- 5:19He says, go figure it out.
- 5:20So I went to go figure that out.
- 5:22And, uh, you know, I get ahold of Kirk.
- 5:25He's on vacation with his family's on a ski trip.
- 5:28And, uh, you know, he says, man, do you know who that guy is that I introduced you to?
- 5:31And I said, yeah, I Googled him.
- 5:33He said, don't take this the wrong way, but I kind of expected him to just kind of like push you off, right?
- 5:38Like the fact that he's invited you back, not once, but twice now, like he sees something in you, like don't take that for granted.
- 5:45So I show back up at his office, it's a Wednesday morning and what I call the gatekeeper, the guy at the front desk, right, recognized me and kind of waved me on by.
- 5:55And I walk into this man's office and he's on his phone doing something.
- 5:58I say hi to him and he just puts his arms out and gives me a big old hug.
- 6:02I thought, all right, this is going well.
- 6:04We sit down in the conference room and we're kind of talking.
- 6:07He brings the guy in and introduces me.
- 6:10He well, I've got somewhere I've got to be.
- 6:12He's going do paperwork.
- 6:13You're going to work with Kirk.
- 6:14Things are going to be great.
- 6:17The rest was kind of history.
- 6:19I figured out from that point that Kirk's in the top 1 % of advisors in the nation.
- 6:26I now work with Kirk at Tri-Wealth.
- 6:29An amazing team, you know, we've been in business for over 33 years now and the amount of resources and tools that we have are things that other firms just kind of dream of.
- 6:39And it's really cool to kind of be on that path and, you know, see things happen full circle that the relationships and the connections that I made over time truly got me where
- 6:48I am.
- 6:50It's amazing to see God's favor on your life.
- 6:52I mean, you went from a car wreck and eight years trying to walk to God putting you in a position that he can use you in an amazing way.
- 7:00Tell me, what's God doing in your life right now in your business?
- 7:03Yeah, I mean, you're right, Lyle.
- 7:06mean, God has really supported and guided me just in every aspect of my life and taken me through there.
- 7:11know, when that renter called me and said, hey, let me introduce you to Kirk.
- 7:16I had no idea who Kirk was or what he did or how it operated.
- 7:20you know, same thing when he introduced me to the other gentleman down in Dallas at this giant office, right?
- 7:26You know, through that conversation, talk with the guy in Dallas, I figured out like he was just like me.
- 7:31He'd actually cut his teeth.
- 7:33in automotive, just like I had.
- 7:36It was incredible.
- 7:37So we had a lot in common.
- 7:39And at the end of the conversation that Wednesday morning, I'm sitting in his office and he introduced me to someone else to do paperwork, told me I was going to work with Kirk.
- 7:47He walked out of the room and actually walked back into the room.
- 7:50A few seconds later, he Hey man, I forgot to ask you.
- 7:53says, what are you doing for dinner on Friday night?
- 7:58knew it was a loaded question.
- 8:00I knew it was my mother-in-law's birthday.
- 8:02We had dinner plans, but I said nothing, nothing at all.
- 8:06Like what's happening Friday?
- 8:07And he says, Hey, why don't you bring your family to my family's home for dinner?
- 8:13And I said, you got it.
- 8:15You know, I'm calling my wife and the elevator on the ride down.
- 8:18I'm like, Hey, Friday, we're not going to go see your mom.
- 8:21We're going to dinner.
- 8:21And my wife is kind of angry at first, but my mother-in-law was like, absolutely.
- 8:25Like, go do that.
- 8:26Right.
- 8:27Like this is an opportunity, make it happen.
- 8:30So we're sitting in this man's home with his family at the dinner table and his wife asked me, says, where do y'all go to church?
- 8:39And at the time we went to Hope Fellowship Church and we went to the McKinney campus and she goes, we go to Hope too.
- 8:46And I thought, wow, like how incredible is that?
- 8:48And the man speaks up, he says, hey, you know something?
- 8:51He said, you know how there's a guy in the parking lot and he's got the flags and the vest?
- 8:56showing you where cars, where the empty spots are, directing cars.
- 8:59He said, that's me, man.
- 8:59He said, that's how I serve every single Sunday.
- 9:03Now, like this man lives in a resort of a home, okay?
- 9:06It's an amazing place.
- 9:07And just to see someone at that caliber to want to give and serve, I just knew I was in the right place and doing the right thing and that God had intervened with that.
- 9:16And then I later found out talking with Kirk, he says, talked about where we go to church.
- 9:22He says, man, you go to Hope too?
- 9:23He went to Hope as well.
- 9:25And he says, what campus do you go to?
- 9:28I told him which campus I went to and he says, do you know this person at that campus?
- 9:31I said, I sure do.
- 9:32He says, hey, know, we need to get him in here.
- 9:35He's one of our clients.
- 9:36And I said, great.
- 9:37And so I reach out to the guy thinking it's test of my abilities, right?
- 9:42It turned out it wasn't quite that, but uh this was a guy that it was a client of ours, but just had been pushing off our review process every year.
- 9:50It wasn't coming in for his reviews.
- 9:53And so here I am trying to get this guy on the phone.
- 9:55can't get him on the phone.
- 9:56You know, I'm trying to catch him at church.
- 9:57I keep missing him.
- 9:58And I think, man, I'm failing my test, right?
- 10:00uh But when I finally did get ahold of him, said, hey, I said, I'm working with Kirk.
- 10:04You know, we need to get an annual review on the calendar for you.
- 10:07He goes, Kirk Quashnik?
- 10:09I said, yeah, Kirk Quashnik.
- 10:11goes, and his exact words were, you know, he's OG Hope, right?
- 10:16I said, what do mean?
- 10:17He's like, he's one of the founding members of this church.
- 10:19And I thought, wow, like how incredible.
- 10:21is that, you and again, we went to a satellite campus, so didn't know him through that aspect.
- 10:27But I later found out that this particular person had been pushing those reviews over and over again.
- 10:33It wasn't a test at all.
- 10:34He was just trying everything he could to get his client back in front of us to make sure that their planning was up to par and good.
- 10:40But, you know, I say all that because, you know, what God's really done is just really connected me with people, great people.
- 10:48And it's always at the right time in my life.
- 10:49Right.
- 10:50And I say that because
- 10:51There's plenty of people that we get connected to and we don't understand why or how or what the purpose behind it is, but it's always the right time.
- 10:59It's going to teach you something or open your eyes to the possibilities you didn't know existed.
- 11:03And that might be tomorrow, six months, a year from now, maybe even further.
- 11:07Right.
- 11:07But I look back on all those connections of people that he's placed with and it always made sense when I look back at it.
- 11:12And it's just, em it's incredible to be a part of that and have those connections and be able to foster and grow them through time and turn them into.
- 11:20amazing opportunities.
- 11:22Yeah, we're going through judges in our Bible study at my church.
- 11:24I teach an adult Bible study class and we looked at how God is in the background so often we don't even see him working.
- 11:32And so those connections you've made, there were so many things that happened before that you had no clue what was happening ahead of time.
- 11:37mean, even just the relationship with your mother-in-law, God had worked that out to where there was favor there.
- 11:43Again, I use the word favor.
- 11:44think you're person of favor.
- 11:46People are drawn to you.
- 11:47You have a lovingness about you.
- 11:49You have a servanthood about you.
- 11:50I love that you
- 11:51pointed that out about other people, because I see that in you as well.
- 11:54Yeah, appreciate that.
- 11:55and it's you're right.
- 11:57How many mother-in-laws would have shunned their son-in-law for blowing their birthday off and instead she praised it.
- 12:02You know, she saw the opportunity that we were being given and know where it could take my career and and you know our family and she fully embraced the love, you know.
- 12:12That's great.
- 12:13So we're going to switch our gears a little bit.
- 12:15We're going to talk about business growth.
- 12:16What are some things you're doing in your business growth and some tips you might have for somebody else?
- 12:20And we chatted about this a little bit.
- 12:21So I think people are going to be impressed with the thought you put in behind this.
- 12:26Yeah, you know, the biggest tip that you can get, right?
- 12:31Everything is situational, right?
- 12:32Nothing's good or bad until you compare it something.
- 12:35But the advice that I would give anybody in business out there is just to stay engaged, right?
- 12:39And that little tip has a lot of different meaning behind it, you know?
- 12:43Staying engaged uh on my end, know, it's one, it's always learning, right?
- 12:48I schedule every day, I have one hour scheduled for learning.
- 12:54Now granted, might be like learning something business related.
- 12:56It might be learning something emotionally or family related.
- 12:59ah It might be just something weird I want to know more about, right?
- 13:03But I've always got one hour on my calendar that's precious to me that's just to learn.
- 13:08My grandmother always told me, if you're not learning, you're dying.
- 13:11And so I believe in that.
- 13:13think like, that's true.
- 13:14You got to learn something.
- 13:15And so I put time aside every day for that.
- 13:17The thing I do is it's, you know, stay engaged.
- 13:20It's working on those processes, right?
- 13:22And those are processes that impact both you and your clients in your business and personal life.
- 13:30um Different isn't always better, but better is always different.
- 13:34So I'm always looking for a different way to do something.
- 13:36How can I improve this process?
- 13:38And sometimes I move forward and it wasn't a good move and that's okay.
- 13:41I can move back to what I was doing.
- 13:44Anyone who's ever lived in a house that's being remodeled.
- 13:47It's hard, right?
- 13:49And having your business be structured that way where it's always under remodel, it does make things more difficult, but it makes them easier as time goes because you figure out
- 13:57where the landmines are and how to avoid them.
- 13:59And you really get to progress forward and uh move processes and create a bigger change for both you and your clients, right?
- 14:07uh Stay engaged, it's being a giver, right?
- 14:12Always be willing to mentor people, right?
- 14:14When you mentor somebody,
- 14:16Not only does it help them, but it helps you because they're going to come back and ask you questions that you may or may not have the answer to, ideas that you've never thought
- 14:23about.
- 14:24And so it helps you grow and it helps them grow.
- 14:27know, share those ideas with them and help them grow and don't hide that.
- 14:31And it's going to come forward to you just as much as it comes through to them.
- 14:35You know, it's, you know, it's building relationships, right?
- 14:39You know, God placed everybody in my life for a reason.
- 14:43And I always tell people it's my job to figure out.
- 14:46why God placed that person in my life.
- 14:49I I ran a trucking company for five years and the first week I'd bring the driver on, I'd always ride with them because I want to train them how I want it done.
- 14:57Because if I've given you the training and shown you how to do something and it's not done right, well, now I know it's a willingness issue, right?
- 15:03Versus if I give that task to somebody else, it was, well, maybe whoever I gave it to told you to do a different way.
- 15:09There was an instance where I was sitting at an intersection and there was a man homeless begging for money on the corner and
- 15:16And the driver I was with looked at that guy and he just said, that's a human being.
- 15:21And the tone and inflection in his voice, I knew there was a backstory behind that.
- 15:26you know, not that I ever looked down on homeless people or anything, but I'd never thought about them in the aspects that he had having been in that situation before.
- 15:34I'd never had experienced that.
- 15:36And so hearing his story, it really allowed me to relate to more of those people in a deeper way.
- 15:41And God placed that person out at the end of not being a driver for me, it didn't work out, but he...
- 15:45place that person in my life to teach me that lesson, right?
- 15:48uh It's doing what you say.
- 15:50If I commit to something, like this podcast, Lyle, Lyle says, hey, Mike, I'd love to have you join this podcast.
- 15:56I said, yeah, sure.
- 15:57I'll see you at two o'clock.
- 15:58And then just didn't show up.
- 16:00man, that's a direct reflection of me and my character.
- 16:02so, it's honesty versus integrity, right?
- 16:06Honesty, it's easy to prove because it happened.
- 16:08It was in the past.
- 16:08I'm an honest person, but integrity is that future.
- 16:12honesty, right?
- 16:13So what's going to happen in the future and how are these things going to impact?
- 16:16And when you have that integrity and you have that stay power of, I'm going to do this and people see that you're going to do it, it builds trust, right?
- 16:24When people trust you, it just helps your business move forward.
- 16:28And the last thing to me staying engaged is being able to explain what you do, right?
- 16:32And not just high level what you do, but how do you tell people what you do, how you do it and who you do it for effectively?
- 16:40Because when you can do that,
- 16:41It really sets you apart from your competition and allows people to say, hey, people like me work with people like that.
- 16:48Now there's that continuity between us and we can move forward in business.
- 16:52that'd be kind of long-winded my answer of, what's, uh, you know, what, what's my, you know, tip, you know, that, that would be kind of, kind of it.
- 17:00Yeah, base on it because you talked about relationships.
- 17:03That's very important to you.
- 17:04So touch base on that.
- 17:05You're at a networking meeting.
- 17:07You find somebody and you want to connect with them.
- 17:09What's your short process of, I'm going to reach out to this person.
- 17:12How often do you reach out to them?
- 17:14Once you touch base with them, you just drop them.
- 17:16How do you keep them going?
- 17:18What's that look like to you when you're
- 17:19Yeah, great question, Lyle.
- 17:22for me, you know, when I, when I meet someone, no matter where it is, if we, if I feel like there's a connection between us, I want to get to know that person and not just like,
- 17:30let's get to know each other.
- 17:31Like I want to know about you.
- 17:32Like what, what, like what's going well for you, you know, what's not going well for you.
- 17:37Is there some way that I can help?
- 17:39And when I say some way I can help, it doesn't mean we bring in support part of my business to help assist you get to where it is, where you want to be more efficiently.
- 17:46It's, you know, like
- 17:48It could be something simple.
- 17:49You need a connection to a person that does this.
- 17:52I connected a person who runs a nonprofit with another nonprofit the other day.
- 17:57And it was something very simple in my eyes, but it meant the world to that person.
- 18:01They have this vision to grow and expand their nonprofit to touch people's lives, but they couldn't get in front of the right people to make that happen.
- 18:08But the audience wasn't there for them.
- 18:10And I said, hey, you know what?
- 18:11I know another nonprofit that has an audience, but doesn't have this gift that you have.
- 18:16Let me connect you to, and between that, know, God intervened and connect these people.
- 18:20And not only did it go extremely well, but they asked this other nonprofit if they could come back later that day and start.
- 18:26Like they weren't prepared and able to do that, but that's just an incredible connection, right?
- 18:31And just knowing where people are in life and what they need done and ways that you can help.
- 18:36It's glorious, right?
- 18:38It's so rewarding to see those connections move forward.
- 18:41And the way I track it, I mean, it's not a secret.
- 18:45I just send you an email.
- 18:46I give you a phone call, right?
- 18:48And either you want to be part of the solution or you don't.
- 18:51And if you do, that's great.
- 18:52And when you want to be part, well, guess what?
- 18:53It's simple communication.
- 18:55I don't work hard at it.
- 18:56And I hope that the other person isn't working hard at it, but we have similar values and similar goals.
- 19:01And because of that, we just work and I don't have to struggle for it.
- 19:05And there's people it doesn't work for, right?
- 19:07There's people that I reach out for connections and you know what?
- 19:10I call you half a dozen times and you don't want to call me back.
- 19:13Well then.
- 19:14I'm sorry we couldn't connect.
- 19:16And that's okay, right?
- 19:18It's perfectly fine.
- 19:20A lot of people see those one-on-ones as I'm going to go sell this person my wares, so to speak.
- 19:25But you see it as how can I make a connection with this person?
- 19:27And I love that you said, I want to figure out why God put this person in my life.
- 19:32I think somebody could take that away.
- 19:33And every person you meet, I go to these networking meetings, you and I talked about it a while ago, is how people represent themselves.
- 19:40And as a person, I'm starting my business.
- 19:41I want to be a CEO, and they show up on a t-shirt.
- 19:43And you're just like, are you representing yourself?
- 19:46And you're like, how do you take that person and help them get that next level?
- 19:49make those connections and everything.
- 19:51So that's great.
- 19:51Thank you for sharing.
- 19:52As we end up, what's one little tip of wisdom you want to leave us with?
- 19:58Yeah, you know, do your best, right?
- 20:02em When I say do your best, that could mean a lot of things to a lot of different people.
- 20:07But in my eyes, doing your best, take all your talents, take all your resources and use them to the best of your ability.
- 20:13Right.
- 20:13God gave us an amazing gift.
- 20:15We live in an amazing country with amazing resources.
- 20:18We're able to do things that other places can't and other people aren't allowed.
- 20:21Right.
- 20:22But use that gift.
- 20:23Do what you're supposed to do.
- 20:24Be a good steward of it.
- 20:25Right.
- 20:26And whether that's time.
- 20:28energy, money, whatever that is, just do your best with it.
- 20:33And at the end of the day, if you did your best and you know you did your best, you can lay your head down on the pillow, close your eyes and sleep soundly knowing that you did
- 20:42the right thing.
- 20:45Thank you for that.
- 20:45And how could someone get in touch with you?
- 20:47Yeah, best way is probably email.
- 20:49uh My email address, are you gonna post it for everybody or do you?
- 20:53Yeah, if you'll say it here, it'll type it up and we'll get it on the screen.
- 20:57you can email me.
- 20:58It's mike at triwealth.com.
- 21:00uh
- 21:04Perfect.
- 21:05Thanks for joining us today.
- 21:06Absolutely.
- 21:06Thanks for having me, Lyle.