Latest / Only Fee-Only / #156 - Career Pivots And Clear Thinking with Jacob Tally

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#156 - Career Pivots And Clear Thinking with Jacob Tally · Only Fee-Only

• 0:04
  SPEAKER_02: How's it going, everyone?
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_02: Welcome back to another episode of the OnlyFe Only Podcast.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_02: And thanks as always for being here.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_02: Today's episode is a great one.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_02: We are joined by Jacob Talley from Prospero Wealth, and we dive into his journey from working at Fidelity and in corporate finance to spending over a decade in startups and ultimately making the transition into financial planning.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_02: We talk about what it's like to pivot careers later on, how to think about risk when making big life decisions, and why having a clear framework or even better, questions, can make all the difference.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_02: He also shares how he finds the right fit as far as his firm and what he's learned in his first year as an advisor.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_02: So if you've ever thought about making a career change or you're kind of on the fence about what you want to do next, this is an awesome episode.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_02: So without further ado, here is Jacob Talley on the Only Fee Only Podcast.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_01: How's it going, everyone?
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome to another episode of the Only Fee Only Podcast.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_01: I'm Peter Travolo.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_01: I'm here with my co-host Brock Buckles.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_01: And today we're very excited to have Jacob Talley on from Prospero Wealth.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_01: Really excited to have him on and share his story about how he's helping his clients.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_01: So Jacob, welcome to the show.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_03: Hey, thanks for having me here, guys.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_03: It's uh it's fun to be a part of it.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_03: Appreciate it.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_01: Love it.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_01: So we've had the ability to work together, um, get to know one another.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, but for those who don't know who you are, do you want to give a quick background before we dive into things?
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, uh happy to.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_03: So I've been an advisor at Prospero Wealth for about a year or so.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_03: Um my, you know, the the short story of my journey, and we can take it, we can double-click on any part of it you'd like, is um born and raised in Dallas, Texas, undergrad at a small liberal arts school uh in Switzerland.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_03: Uh first job was at Fidelity Investments, uh, working in the call center.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, went to get my MBA at UT, um, did five years at a Fortune 500 chemicals company in Dallas, uh, moved to Seattle and joined a um the marketing team at a fast-growing VC-backed startup.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_03: And that kind of launched a 10-year uh career working at startups in the Seattle area, um, which I was doing uh up until becoming a financial advisor a couple years ago.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_03: So um, you know, I think you know, you you guys have done 150 of these episodes or so.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_03: I I think it's a pretty common story that people bounce around and do different things.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_03: I think it's kind of the exception to the rule to uh, you know, for anyone who's had a very linear career path.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_03: So I don't know that my story is that unique, but uh definitely maybe some different stopping points than most along the way.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, hey, I think everybody's story is unique, man.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_02: Um so what what so you went to a liberal arts school and where did you say Switzerland?
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_03: So yeah, Franklin at the time it was Franklin College, Switzerland.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_03: Now it's Franklin University, Switzerland.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_03: Um it was a really small school, only about 300 to 400 students in the entire school.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_03: And uh, but like over 50 countries represented on campus.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_03: Um, my roommate was Slovenian.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, you know, I made friends from all across the world.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_03: Um basically, you know, I got to travel across the world for three years and get a degree for it.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_03: Uh it was a pretty good deal.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_03: Um, so yeah, it was it was a definitely a formative experience, not like your traditional uh college experience in any way, you know, instead of going to there were no frat parties or anything like that or football games, uh it was discotex and uh you know things like that.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_03: So um definitely a little different, but it was very, very awesome and informative experience for sure.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_01: Very cool.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_01: And then after that, then you moved um, you know, first out of college you were working for a chemical company.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_01: What were some experiences from that that maybe, you know, looking back, have now been able to help you with your financial planning practice?
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, well, the first job out of undergrad was uh Fidelity Investments Call Center.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_03: So it was kind of like I always knew I wanted to be in this world.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_03: I've I've actually come full circle.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and Fidelity was a great place to get started.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_03: After grad school, I worked at the chemicals company.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and you know, honestly, there were uh you know pros and cons to it, but it definitely taught me that I'm not a big company uh person.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_03: I'm not wired for big companies.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_03: Um, you know, it was a great place to learn kind of like process and you know, if corporate politics is your thing, uh, you know, definitely learned some of that.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_03: But I think a lot of it was just kind of learning what uh I don't want to do.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_03: Um and so it was a great opportunity to kind of move to Seattle and uh hit reset on my career.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_03: But you know, the the process at that company, I was in a financial rotational program.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_03: And so I got to do stints in treasury, uh, internal audit, FPA.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_03: I learned you know a whole lot about just running finance well at a big company that I was able to take with me to all the startups that I joined, right?
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_03: So I think if I had only ever done startups, you never learn best practices, right?
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_03: You don't learn the way, here's the way the pros do it, and here's the way a good organization does it.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_03: And so it was really valuable from that standpoint to kind of get that grounding.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, and I think it made me a more effective startup leader.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah, for sure.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_02: And and I would always say, man, like regardless of if you're in a career where that's what you end up doing forever, you break off and you go doing do something else.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_02: There's always something that you can learn, right?
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_02: And and different things that you, like you said, kind of learning from the pros.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_02: So, what were some of your favorite things, like being in the rotations, all of that you mentioned?
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_02: But what was one of your favorite things that you really feel like you took from that job and were able to like translate it?
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_03: I'll tell you one of my more memorable, memorable experiences there, and it was actually during my internship.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_03: So I when I graduated from my MBA program, I was class of 09, which is like the worst time to be getting your MBA.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_03: So I did my my internship was in the investor relations group in summer of 2008, right?
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_03: So this is right before everything totally unraveled.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_03: And I remember being in, you know, I got to be behind the scenes, I was not adding any value, but I got to see the head of investor relations and our CEO, you know, craft what, craft the messaging and the language that was going to be used in the earnings release.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_03: And this is a global chemicals company, right?
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_03: So they're seeing everything that's going on in different uh, you know, parts of the world, um, seeing price movements, seeing how different countries are responding.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_03: And man, it was like walking on like the amount of time being spent on very specific words and language, I had no idea, right?
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_03: And and it really did matter at that point in time because, you know, now in in today's world, you know, you've got like AI and analyzing all these transcripts and stuff, right?
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_03: But even back then, it was like, you know, analysts would pick up on tone.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_03: And if you said, you know, uncertain versus looks bad, or you know, just all sorts of things could really could move your stock by hundreds of millions of dollars, potentially, right?
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_03: Or move your company's value.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_03: And so, um, anyways, that was just you know, that I always took um, I guess, earnings releases.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_03: I always thought it was just about the number, and I didn't put much stock in the craft of the narrative and storytelling that goes into an earnings release.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_03: And so that was uh just a really insightful moment.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_03: Um, you know, I was in the treasury group when a lot of the Greece and Euro stuff was going down, and so we were doing a lot of currency swaps and jumping on calls with you know JP Morgan to hear you know their perspective on the markets.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_03: And so I've always been a markets junkie, and so being just kind of getting to do some of those roles and being involved in that stuff was um you know, was always just really fascinating and interesting for me.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so let's uh fast forward to the full circle moment, you know, coming to starting, you know, and helping financial planning clients.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_01: You know, how did you find your current firm?
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_01: And um, you know, what was the synergy there that made you pick Prospero?
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it's a great question.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_03: It's been a long journey to get to this point.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_03: Um and you know, there's lots of direction, there's a lot of things that went into the decision, and the reason I I made the move that I did.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_03: Um after 10 years in startups, first of all, like, you know, it's like, do I see myself doing this the rest of my life?
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_03: Um right.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_03: Um the startup game is not you, you don't see a lot of guys uh, you know, in their 50s, 60s uh doing doing startups and stuff.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_03: And so, you know, I was about just turned 40.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_03: Um, I my the time at my the startup that I was at was kind of winding down.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_03: We were being aqua merged with another company.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_03: And so I love startups.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_03: I love um, you know, I think you guys can appreciate this as business owners, right?
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_03: Like I remember one of the startups I joined as the very first employee.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_03: And uh we were, you know, VC backed, we were scaling, we were growing exponentially.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_03: Uh at the same time, it felt like the wheels were always on the verge of like coming off, and things were processes were held together like bubblegum and bubblegum and duct tape.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_03: And uh, but you're in the trenches with co-workers you like, you feel like you're working towards a common goal.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_03: And even though it was absolutely crazy, it was also awesome, right?
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_03: Like there was a moment in time where like it was just so much fun, even though it was also hard work.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_03: In fact, it wouldn't have been as much fun if it hadn't necessitated hard work.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_03: And there's a part of me that's always been chasing that high again because it's a it is a great feeling.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_03: I've always loved building companies and being able to make a tangible impact.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_03: And I've wanted to do something of my own.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_03: And so when I thought about like what does that look like, what form can that take?
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_03: You know, I'm not a a big ideas guy, and I recognize that not every business or thing has to be something like totally new reinvention of reinventing the wheel, right?
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_03: So um, you know, so when I looked at what the opportunities were, I was just like, this makes sense, it's for it's what I like to do.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_03: I love working with people one-on-one.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_03: Um, so it wasn't really a matter of what to do, it was about how to execute it.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_03: I knew I wanted to be fee only.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_03: It was really about that I did not want to join a big, you know, corporate um, you know, RIA or planning firm.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_03: And so at that point, it was like, do I want to go totally solo or can I find the right independent RIA to join?
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_03: Um and so it was early 2024 when I kind of made the decision to make the career move.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_03: I was still at the last startup I was at.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_03: And I'd gone ahead and taken my Series 65 um in past, and I was just kind of biding my time.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_03: I was continuing to research, you know, monitoring a lot of like Reddit uh forums and learning.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_03: And I was just kind of simultaneously going down the path of launching solo, but kind of trying to explore and find independent RIAs that might be a fit.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_03: Um, because I knew how important fit was, right?
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_03: Like I didn't want to go with an independent, like join a firm just because I didn't want to do the compliance or didn't want to do these things um that kind of come with launching your own firm.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_03: I wanted to make sure it was um, you know, you're working with people you like, right?
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you're not just doing it because it's easier.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_02: You're like, I have to be intentional about this decision.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_03: Right, right.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, I always tell people, um, you know, people I've worked with in startups, it's like you need to always be running to something, not away from something, right?
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_03: And so you want a good, a good, you want to land somewhere well good.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_03: And um anyways, to make a long story short, I it was late 2024 when I was listening to Kit Kitts' podcast, and he's talking to this guy in Seattle who had previously worked at Amazon, launched his own independent RIA, uh, was doing it kind of solo.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_03: And I was like, man, this guy's journey, like it's more big tech.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_03: I'm a little bit more startup, but it's he's in my backyard.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_03: I need to reach out to this guy.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_03: It was Eric Franklin, right?
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_03: And um we grabbed coffee um, you know, that November, December, hit it off.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_03: And uh, you know, what he was building, it just seemed like the best of both worlds.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_03: It seemed like a really good fit that here was someone that, you know, I could relate to his background, I could relate to what he was doing, I could relate to the clientele that he was serving.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_03: Um and he had a structure that just kind of really fit what I was looking for, you know, which was I was willing to bet on myself and eat what I kill.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_03: Um, you know, but it it's also just a lot more fun to build with a team.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_03: Um, that was one of my biggest concerns of going totally solo, is just like it's hard, it's hard to be, it's lonely, right?
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_03: Uh it's a lonely path to do.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_03: Um, so so, anyways, yeah.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_03: So I joined Prospero um, you know, about a year ago.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_03: And uh it's it's been it's been great.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_03: It's been uh a strong start that's kind of exceeded my initial goals.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_03: And um, you know, no regrets kind of all in now as we head into 2026.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and you guys have a great team over there with Eric and Suehaas.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_02: And I mean, you guys just you guys have a really great team.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_02: So you definitely joined a good team, and I'm I'm glad that it's going well for you the way that you thought it would.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, from the outside looking in, I'm like, of course, because I know those guys, and I'm like, they're they're great people, but yeah, that's that's really cool, man.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it's been a lot of fun.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_03: They have um, you know, not only it comes with all the obvious benefits of like not starting from scratch in terms of like not having to choose your tech stack and try out new tools, but there's other benefits of just like, you know, if you're looking at different long, short implementation strategies, there's different partners to work with, there's different custodians.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_03: I'm so thankful I didn't have to like learn all that on my own.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_03: That you know, I'm joining a firm that's kind of worked with different partners and has insights on who uh who's you know better than others and in different different spaces and what their strengths and weaknesses are.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and and so yeah, it's it's been a it's been a great group.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_03: So yeah.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_01: So I mean, who do you work best with and who are you marketing after?
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_01: You know, are you looking for tech startup founders or someone like from a previous you know experience?
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, who's working best with you?
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_03: It's great because you know, even though our firm largely caters, you know, our niche is really tech, big tech and startup employees.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_03: They tend to have more complex kind of like equity uh scenarios and things like that.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_03: There's a lot of niches within that.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_03: Um, you know, we've got a few people on our firm who specialize specifically in maybe a prior company or employer.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_03: Um for myself, you know, I'll be honest, uh, I'm still a little bit broad within that space and sector.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_03: Um, you know, I don't have a you know big, you know, when you're working at startups, it's not like you have like a 10,000 employee pool to draw from, uh, you know, of like, hey, this company's specific benefits or anything like that.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_03: Um, so, but a lot of my a lot of my clients do kind of fit that mold of previous startup or tech uh experience.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_03: I think a common thread is just life transitions, right?
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_03: Um, I think uh I love working with people who are trying to kind of navigate a journey that was similar to my own, right?
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_03: I I was kind of looking at where I was career-wise.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_03: And hey, this isn't it until I'm 70.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_03: What's something that is, right?
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_03: I don't want to do this the rest of my life.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_03: Um, do I have enough to break out on my own and do something?
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_03: What does that look like?
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and I think there's a lot that goes into that, you know, in finances, financials is really only one small part of the piece, right?
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_03: It's really, and you guys can uh, you know, probably talk more about this.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_03: And I'd love to hear your perspective, but just risk, right?
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_03: Like it's like here is here's an option or choice before me.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_03: Do I pursue it?
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_03: And what does that risk look like in fear of making that jump?
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_03: And um, you know, how do you quantify it?
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_03: What's the framework you apply?
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_03: So, you know, I don't know if uh, you know, what's your guys' thoughts on kind of like I mean, it's a very different kind of risk than what you guys deal day deal to deal with day to day.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_03: But I'm curious if you guys have thoughts on like risk frameworks for life or big decisions that you know you guys think about this all the time.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_02: As a general rule of thumb, I always say that like you don't know what you don't know until you really take like stock of what you have going on in your life and have a conversation with somebody about it, right?
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_02: Like the amount of times that we talk to people who have like could arguably be overinsured in one area, it's like you what are you doing with all this life insurance, but they don't have disability income insurance, or they have like great disability income insurance and great uh life insurance, but they have like state minimum auto limits or liability limits, and they don't have an umbrella.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_02: And and so, you know, I think that the best thing when it comes to risk and kind of looking at it and understanding it is look at the entire picture of your life and try to poke holes in where you're vulnerable and go from there, right?
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_02: And and be open to recommendations and and ask questions, right?
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_02: Like I always say when you're talking to someone, you have to understand where they're coming from as well.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_02: So it doesn't just feel like, oh, they're just trying to sell me something and they're trying to push something on me.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but yeah, I would say for sure in risk, it's like be humble about it.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_02: Admit that there's just some things that unless this is what you do all the time, you're not gonna know about, and then pressure test the situation.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, if this happens, this is our course of action.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_02: If this happens, here's what we're gonna do.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_02: And so I think I and at Peter, I would I think you would agree.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_02: That's kind of how we like go about things within the way that we work at BC Brokerage.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_02: But um, anything that you would add, man?
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_02: I think Peter's frozen right now.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um moving on.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_03: Um I mean, piggybacking on that though, I mean, it's I it's so true.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_03: Like, I think about you know, there's a quote, um, you know, there's no no no one easier to fool, more easy to fool than yourself, right?
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_03: And it's so hard to be objective.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_03: We are not wired as humans to do a very good job of measuring or mitigating risk, right?
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_03: It's like the the classic insurance analogy is like the uh, you know, the the amount of like attention and risk around like swimming pools versus like car accidents or things like that, right?
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_03: And so um emotional risks outweigh by far like actual statistical risks, right?
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_03: And um yeah, I mean I've been thinking a lot about this.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, you know, I think another useful framework I've come across for making some of these decisions is like you've heard of everyone's heard of goal setting, but um not as many people have heard of like fear setting, right?
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_03: So um this is something you can like look up, but you know, it's kind of like what is what am I afraid of, right?
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_03: If if it's this career choice or decision, like loss of income could be a big one, but like, okay, like fear setting would say like write down what is the specific fear?
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_03: Is the fear uh and this is kind of a I realize that A, I'm kind of wired this way anyway, but I've also found it uh to be really good, like specific practice, which is like what's the worst that could happen?
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_03: And when I made the decision to leave uh Texas to go to the small school in Switzerland, uh it seemed crazy, but I was like, well, what's the worst that can happen?
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_03: If I really don't like it and it's not a good school, I can always transfer back to a school in the States.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_03: Like, is it really, you know, it's the classic one-way door, two-way door?
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_03: So I think it's like if you're facing a big, you know, career switch or career transition, it's like does this risk me ending up on the streets, right?
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_03: Homeless.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_03: Like maybe, but like that's probably like an oh probably not until like a lot of other really bad things have happened, right?
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_03: So like be specific about what the fear is and think through like what are the ways to mitigate it or you know, prevent the worst case scenario.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and you know, I just think things like that and frameworks like that um help, you know, are helpful for kind of getting to where you ultimately want or need to be.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah, a hundred percent, man.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_02: Like I couldn't agree more.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_02: I I remember uh like there's this stoic philosophy or concept in a book that I read once, and I believe it was called negative visual visualization.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's just like take it all the way, man.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_02: See, okay, like what happened?
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_02: I started a company, okay.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_02: What if the company goes bad?
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, well, then I'll get a job.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_02: Well, what if you lost that job?
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_02: Well, then you'd find another job.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_02: Well, what if you can't find another job?
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_02: Well, there's a gig economy.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_02: You could be an Uber driver and make your like, okay, but what if you don't have a car?
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_02: Find a place where you can walk to go work or make money.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_02: Like, go shovel a drive.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_02: Like, there are so many ways where I think the people can kind of get in their own way because they they do not they they think that if they lose exactly what they have right now, that's the that's it.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_02: That's the end.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_02: You can never go backward.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_02: And realistically, man, nothing in this world is guaranteed.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_02: Your health's not guaranteed, your finances aren't guaranteed, uh, your current family structure is not guaranteed.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_02: Things can happen and they do happen.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_02: So, no, I I love I love that you made that point because I think it's really important um to kind of think about in that way.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_02: Um, transitioning, man.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I just kind of want to know a little bit around your thought processes or thought processes when you're talking to clients and you're digging into those conversations, and maybe you're doing a discovery meeting, like, how do you actually get into those?
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_02: Those conversations and you know determine if you're the right fit.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_02: And then if you are, what what do you like those conversations to look like?
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it's a great question.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_03: I think you know it's kind of like where in the process do you insert those kinds of conversations, right?
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_03: Um it's something that you can make a talking point in an intro call or something like that, but it's really something that you can't really get into the weeds to until you're like in an engagement.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_03: Um for you know, for for me and my clients, it's a it's a gradual uh process.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_03: I think the insights review, um, so we have a kind of a four-step process.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_03: We have a kickoff call, um, and you know, an uh kickoff call, uh, information gathering meeting, uh, insights review, and then implementation.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_03: And there might be some other meetings, but there's a kind of the four key milestones.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_03: And so for me, it's kind of like in that process, I'm getting a sense for where they're at.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_03: You know, it's very common for clients who are, you know, looking for a financial advisor, it's it's at a it's at a point of life change or stage of life change, right?
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_03: Whether it is coming, um, you know, having a windfall or something like that, or they're about to launch into retirement or seriously think about retirement and they want to get all their ducks in a row.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_03: And so those are great points at which to be having these kinds of conversations.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_03: And um it's really on a client-by-client basis based on what those kind of situations are.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_03: Um, once we've had, once I've had a chance to kind of like hear from them what their goals are, you know, they might articulate goals of X, Y, and Z, but then maybe the way they talk about money and manage their investments is uh, you know, I don't want to say different, but brings to light other insights or ways that they think about risk or their goal, you know, maybe goals that are not articulated specifically.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_03: And so it's it's honestly it's a process, and I think it's it's not something you hit you want to hit them over the head with uh or try to be overly profound.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_03: It needs to be a natural um you know part of the process and a natural part of the conversation.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_03: And it's a lot, it comes off as a lot more authentic when you know it is um, you know, let's not jump to conclusions.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_03: I'm not gonna pretend that I know everything about you in the second, third meeting.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_03: Um like the one year, the one year mark, kind of where I'm at, I have found is in, you know, a lot of this is like testing in in in the moment, but like to me, that one year milestone is a huge milestone to be like, okay, when we started your plan and built it, we said X, Y, and Z.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_03: Here's been my observations over the last year, right?
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_03: And do you think that this is still true?
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_03: Um, or is there more nuance to it because of, you know, ABC?
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_03: And so um, yeah, I I don't have it boiled down to a science, but I think, you know, kind of recapping, it's it's it needs to be natural and um it it tends to be kind of client by client and worked into the process, you know, more I'll say medium term, um as opposed to kind of leading with it uh on an insights call or something like that.
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and you're I mean, I I completely agree.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_02: And by the way, welcome back, Peter.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_02: It's good to see you again.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_02: Um no, that that's that's a great point, man.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_02: And I I think that when you do stop learning or you don't continue to adjust your process, it's like I'm sure that there will be things for years and years to come that you'll change about the process just because you're like, oh, now I have this perspective, or now that I've seen, now I've seen this works better.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_02: And um, did it feel like when you were first starting out, did it feel rigid at all?
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_02: Or was it like, okay, I feel like I need to do these things by the book?
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_02: And now you've been able to kind of like free-flow a little bit more within it?
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_03: Uh so so yes, like so.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_03: Maybe I guess the way to say it is like not to imply like rigidity is a bad thing, but actually is a good thing.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_03: It reminds me, uh, I did a short stint one summer in college selling cut co knives, which was a thing, right?
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_03: Um and so, like, now look, I like I did all right actually with the program, but it was definitely like, you know, a little uh it has a reputation that precedes it for a reason, right?
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_03: But one of the things that was really great about that program was like they give you a script, right?
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_03: Here's the script you follow to sell our knives, and they're just memorize the script.
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_02: And you tell me that was extremely we start we started at Northwestern Mutual, so we we understand.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, usually you go cut and toe exactly Northwestern.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_01: That's that's a good recruitment.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_03: 100%, right?
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_03: So there's value in that approach, and so it was really helpful to kind of like again step, not have to figure it out on my own.
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_03: Eric's like, here's how I do it.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_03: Uh I watched him do it with a client, but then it was kind of like turn turn me loose, right?
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_03: And so you learn these things uh kind of gradually and and you make them your own and you make the pitch your own.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_03: And um, so that's been you know, that's been fun to do, but it was good to have kind of some of those, a few of those building blocks in place to be able to fall back on uh starting out.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_03: And so I think now it's um yeah, and and and continues to evolve.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_03: So it's been good.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_03: Very cool, man.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_02: Well, for everybody that's listening, man, I I love to ask this question because I think it it can really help people kind of frame where they want to do or where they might want to be.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_02: Um, if you could talk to yourself a year ago, knowing where you are today and how much better you feel in the role and all the stuff that you're doing, not that you didn't feel good, but after everything that you've learned, what would you say?
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_02: Or if you want to make it more broad, maybe there's somebody sitting at a call desk at Charles Schwab that's thinking about going out and being a part of a planning practice.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_02: Like what advice would you give yourself or that person that's thinking about it?
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_03: I have two things.
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_03: So one kind of goes back to something that we were talking about earlier.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_03: And so point number one would just be that you always have more options available to you than you're aware of and andor can see, right?
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_03: Some of those, some of the options might be options that you're writing off and not considering because of kind of going back to what you were saying, fear or like I can't do that because X, Y, self-imposed constraints that you might want to revisit those constraints.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_03: And then there's other opportunities available to you that you just might not be aware and ignorant of.
• 29:27
  SPEAKER_03: And so discovering those, it those are a process of discovery, right?
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_03: And but you're not gonna discover those things, most likely scrolling TikTok.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_03: You're gonna find those things, having conversations, being intentional about finding those things, and not hoping to just stumble across them.
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_03: And so I think I think point number one is just that, that you have more options available to you, but be intentional about it.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_03: Yep.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and then the second one is you know, something I've been thinking a lot about recently, coming across a recent podcast, but um not being goal-oriented.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_03: Um, I was listening to this podcast, Patrick O'Shaughnessy, and he talked about how uh he wrote this essay called Growth Without Goals, and how goals are actually, for some people, they're great, but there's also this binary either you're falling short of the goal and you haven't achieved it, or you have, and it's like now what?
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_03: And so, as an alternative to having a goal, a specific goal to chase, um, having a principle.
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_03: And so he pointed to an example of invention um or a principle of helping others.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_03: And so there's these other things that I which I found really uh for me that was great because I've always um struggled with kind of goal setting framework and there's the short term versus long term.
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_03: But I think it's a lot, um, I think reframing it from a principles standpoint of like what am I here to do every day and kind of executing on that every day and having a process around it as opposed to a really fixed goal is a great way to reframe that.
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_03: So if I was, you know, thinking about this a year ago and where I'm at, I think that would have, you know, helped, I think, maybe better prioritize how I should be spending my time, um, focusing a little bit less on the decision of you know, maybe finding an independent RA that meets XYZ criteria.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, look, practice what you preach.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_03: And I I actually got really fortunate by listening to a podcast and stumbling on this episode and serendipitously finding Eric.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_03: But um nonetheless, like those would be kind of my two points if I was uh you know giving advice to myself a year ago.
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_01: So I love it.
• 31:45
  SPEAKER_01: That's a great mindset to have.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_01: It's easy to get caught up in goals and you know, feeling status-wise where you're at behind them.
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_01: So thanks for sharing that.
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_01: Um, for those who want to maybe reach out or learn more about you andor prospero, what's the best way to um prosperowealth.com or hit me up on LinkedIn uh slash j h tally.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_03: So best way to get me.
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_03: Love it.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_01: Well, Jacob, thank you so much for carving some time out of here.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, thank you guys for having me on.
• 32:11
  SPEAKER_03: I really appreciate it.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you for the opportunity.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_03: Thanks, man.
• 32:15
  SPEAKER_03: Y'all take care.