Latest / Your Thoughts Your Reality / Empowering Financial Independence: Thomas Solano's Journey from Corporate Struggles to Veteran Advocacy and Entrepreneurial Freedom

Transcript

Empowering Financial Independence: Thomas Solano's Journey from Corporate Struggles to Veteran Advocacy and Entrepreneurial Freedom · Your Thoughts Your Reality

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Welcome to your Thoughts, your Reality with Michael Cole, the podcast that shines a compassionate light on the journey of veterans battling through life's challenges.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Michael is a dual elite certified neuro encoding specialist in coaching and keynote training presentations dedicated to guiding military veterans as they navigate the intricate pathways of post-deployment life.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: Join him as we delve into the profound realm of neuro encoding science, empowering these Hello, hello, hello everybody.
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: Society forging a new path forward.
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: Hello, hello, hello everybody.
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: So today, first of all, I'd like to say we did not play in the red shirt day that should be on Fridays, but so we have Thomas Solano on today.
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: He's an accomplished agency owner in the financial services industry We'll talk about that, of course.
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: His dedicated husband and industry We'll talk about that, of course.
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: He has a dedicated husband and father.
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: We'll talk about his son passing him on height, and he is very passionate about empowering veterans and their families to navigate the complexity of financial planning during and after their transition or reintegration from service.
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: So he's so much more.
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: I call him my friend, thomas.
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: Why don't you tell?
• 1:31
  Speaker 3: us a little bit more about yourself.
• 1:31
  Speaker 3: People have not seen you on here before, yeah, no.
• 1:32
  Speaker 3: So I mean I think you covered like all the bullet points if I was going to say so Husband first, you know, father second actually both, but those are probably like my two most important things, follower of Christ or at least I attempt to be and kind of fall short there and then business, and so you know my philosophy is faith, family, business and kind of in that order, as you mentioned.
• 1:53
  Speaker 3: I am passionate about helping any and everybody.
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: I see a huge need.
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: You know over the years, especially with a lot of my clients that I've serviced for, helping veterans.
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: You know transition over and whether that's just having some financial literacy and or income generating opportunities and stuff.
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: So those are the things that I'm most passionate about faith, family, business and being of service to others Outside of that man.
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: I mean, I just like to have a good time and I look at you as a friend as well and I enjoy our conversations and look forward to many, many, many more in the future and hope that we can provide some value here for the audience.
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: So absolutely well, you always bring value, my friend, so so I mean do we talk?
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: Do we talk about the sun?
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: your man.
• 2:42
  Speaker 3: You know I I can talk, I can talk for hours about him.
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: But yeah, I mean, it's humbling to say the least.
• 2:47
  Speaker 3: Man, he just turns 13 at the end of july and, uh, it is 5, 11, he's officially passed up his old man.
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: Uh, he's thriving, he's strong, he's healthy, he's swimming competitively now out here in castaic and uh, and enjoying that.
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: And you know I couldn that, I couldn't be prouder.
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: But I was hoping it would take a few more years for him to pass me up.
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: But it is what it is.
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: You blinked, man, you blinked, yeah, all right, so we're going to talk about, obviously, financial stuff, which is super important, especially in today's current climate, and so on.
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: So you know, thomas, you're always you know fantastic with having you on here.
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: So, if you want, let's just start with how did you get into this industry and you know why are you so passionate about it.
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: Yeah, well, I mean, the passion came from my introduction to the industry, which was about 14 years ago.
• 3:49
  Speaker 3: My wife and I were approached by a mutual friend.
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: We both had careers.
• 3:54
  Speaker 3: I was climbing the corporate ladder, she was making decent income and stuff too but we had found out that we were pregnant, we had just bought our first home and you know that responsibility switch got flipped essentially.
• 4:08
  Speaker 3: So, you know, being responsible for another life, you know we both decided that there was some things that we wanted to put in place.
• 4:15
  Speaker 3: We didn't know where to look.
• 4:18
  Speaker 3: Then, insert, the mutual friend approached us with, you know, just wanting to share something she was excited about.
• 4:26
  Speaker 3: It happened to be financial services.
• 4:28
  Speaker 3: Long story short, you know they helped us eliminate.
• 4:32
  Speaker 3: We didn't have a ton of debt, but we had just bought a house, so I wanted to have none.
• 4:35
  Speaker 3: So they helped us get rid of that.
• 4:37
  Speaker 3: They helped us rebuild our emergency fund.
• 4:39
  Speaker 3: They put some insurances in place which for me as a man was important to ensure that I had something so that my family would always have a roof over their head.
• 4:52
  Speaker 3: You know, when, whenever I asked in, that time came and things like that, we also wanted to start a college savings for our little one.
• 4:55
  Speaker 3: And then our advisor had mentioned a will and a trust which I had only ever heard of never really understood the differences.
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: She explained the differences and I said man of never really understood the differences.
• 5:04
  Speaker 3: She explained the differences and I said, man, we're going to do all this other stuff for you know, control, so to speak, and building a legacy.
• 5:10
  Speaker 3: We should also do this.
• 5:11
  Speaker 3: So we did a will and a trust, and so we checked off all kinds of boxes.
• 5:16
  Speaker 3: We had insurances, we had savings, we eliminated debt, we had a budget, we had a college plan, we got a will and a trust and we did all of that.
• 5:24
  Speaker 3: Fast forward three and a half years later, I was completely frustrated climbing that corporate ladder in management as a as a GM, assistant GM.
• 5:33
  Speaker 3: I had no time with my, with my wife and our first son at that point.
• 5:39
  Speaker 3: We now have two.
• 5:40
  Speaker 3: But like there was no quality time, we were working opposite shifts but like there was no quality time, we were working opposite shifts and I was essentially just chasing a check and missing out on all of these milestones and it became frustrating and I could not see myself Michael doing that for the next 40 years, the opportunity presented itself again.
• 6:02
  Speaker 3: I had already experienced what they did for my wife and I and said why not give this a shot?
• 6:07
  Speaker 3: I don't come from a financial background.
• 6:09
  Speaker 3: I don't look like your typical financial professional or planner but what I fell in love with was there was a system and a training platform, and then I started to look at all of my family, my dad, and mom my dad had been in the studio industry, mike, for 40 something years.
• 6:28
  Speaker 3: Well, it's actually 46 years now this year, but at that point it was pushing 40 years.
• 6:34
  Speaker 3: And yeah, I, you know he, he always made good money, just didn't know what to do with it, didn't do the right things, I remember.
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: I think a lot of people have that right.
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: I mean you will.
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: I'm sure you see it every day, you know, all day long.
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: With doing what you do, you know so many people are just trying to survive out there.
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: You know let's get people to thrive.
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: So let's talk about some of that, if you will.
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: You know we talked about some supplemental income items and you know entrepreneurship.
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: You know Susan and I own two companies.
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: You know I mean it's so it's very important to not and I'm going to go even go further difficult.
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: Nowadays it's not like it used to be, where you got a job, you worked hard, you grew with the company, you stayed with the company and you retired with the company.
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: You know it's so rare nowadays, so why don't we talk a little bit about that?
• 7:33
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I think you hit the nail on the head.
• 7:36
  Speaker 3: I just think the current kind of climate, so to speak, requires and I think people are starting to realize, with inflation being what it is and that's non-political, it's just the cost of things have gone up right, just kind of the climate right now people are starting to realize that they need something outside of work if they're going to actually get ahead, whether they've hit a glass ceiling or maybe they haven't.
• 8:04
  Speaker 3: But when inflation's 6%, 7, want anymore.
• 8:09
  Speaker 3: It used to be, hey, I want to get a new car, I'm going to go get a part-time job, you know.
• 8:28
  Speaker 3: Or we want to take a vacation, I'm going to work for the season uh, get a seasonal, get.
• 8:33
  Speaker 3: No, it's like it's no longer for once, it's a necessity, um, and stuff.
• 8:38
  Speaker 3: And so I think entrepreneurship is the perfect place to do it, because you can't solve a problem.
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: Doing the same things right, like another job is not the answer you know, yeah, we only have so many hours in the day, so how do we maximize our value in the real world, you know, for instance, I mean, I always tell my clients what do you want, what would you love?
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: Aim there, don't aim too long.
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: Pull the trigger, you'll figure it out or we'll work on that, obviously, but don't just sit and be looking at what are some key indicators that you know that they should be looking towards, to move in that direction, whatever that means to them, whether they're a personality on Facebook or whatever the case may be.
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: I mean, what are, what are some thoughts with that, if you will?
• 9:40
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean.
• 9:40
  Speaker 3: So I think you know if, oh, that white just popped up on the screen and I was like what is this?
• 9:47
  Speaker 3: Susan Cole?
• 9:48
  Speaker 3: Yeah, she's awesome, but you know, I think I think there's generally there's some concerns when it comes to starting a business and taking that risk and things like that.
• 10:00
  Speaker 3: So I'll just share with you what some of my concerns were and how we kind of solved those concerns.
• 10:07
  Speaker 3: One is you know what's the cost?
• 10:09
  Speaker 3: The other is how much, how long is this going to take for me to be successful?
• 10:13
  Speaker 3: How much time do I have to put in to learn something new?
• 10:16
  Speaker 3: Another is the knowledge right.
• 10:18
  Speaker 3: You may have a great product, or you may be.
• 10:20
  Speaker 3: There may be something you're passionate about, but if you don't understand the business part of it, you spend so much time trying to figure out what works and what doesn't, and generally, by the time you figured that out, for most people they've run out of income, right, they've run out of money.
• 10:36
  Speaker 3: They've run out of the ability to keep the business going.
• 10:39
  Speaker 3: The other is need.
• 10:41
  Speaker 3: Now again, you can have a great product, but if people don't need it, you're going to have a very hard time being successful, and so, in the traditional sense of starting a business, there's a huge amount of risk, which is that final concern.
• 10:55
  Speaker 3: Right, it could be your lifetime savings.
• 10:58
  Speaker 3: It can be, you know, taking out a loan against your house, or something like that.
• 11:02
  Speaker 3: I mean.
• 11:03
  Speaker 3: So it's scary.
• 11:04
  Speaker 3: What I fell in love with about our platform was my ability to leverage a system, to leverage the leadership, the mentorship, and that there was a system in place, so I didn't have to figure out what works and what doesn't.
• 11:17
  Speaker 3: That part has already been taken care of.
• 11:19
  Speaker 3: I just have to put in the raw material we had.
• 11:22
  Speaker 3: We had a training platform that allowed me to learn.
• 11:25
  Speaker 3: You know those things.
• 11:26
  Speaker 3: The need Is.
• 11:30
  Speaker 3: I mean again because of the climate that we're in right now financial and economic climate, the needs bigger than it's ever been, but it's always existed.
• 11:38
  Speaker 3: People have always needed to know what to do with their money.
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: Whether times are good or times are bad, needed to know what to do with their money, whether times are good or times are bad, right, so go ahead Really quick before we jump into that.
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: I want everybody to go back, especially our veterans and their families and, obviously, first responders, et cetera.
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: The thing you learned in the military was figure it out how to pivot right in leadership, and these are some of the key things that you forget when you come out because it was just a job back then.
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: So look back at yourself and look back and bring that back, because it's one of the most important things of what Thomas is talking about right now is bringing those skills that you already have within yourself and bring them out, because it's necessary for this.
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: So please continue.
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: I just wanted to mention that.
• 12:32
  Speaker 3: Such a great point that discipline and the leadership is everything right and there's not a better place to get that and develop that than in the United States military.
• 12:36
  Speaker 3: So, like all the veterans have this incredible skill set right of discipline because it is a skill set, right of discipline, because it is a skill set, but that discipline actually allows you to build healthy habits, and healthy habits when building a business or something like that.
• 12:54
  Speaker 3: I mean our life revolves around the quality of the habits right and that we can make and stuff like that.
• 13:01
  Speaker 3: So I mean they're positioned very, almost perfectly to go out and thrive and make something happen.
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: And then leadership.
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: It doesn't matter what company what industry.
• 13:15
  Speaker 3: everything rises and falls on leadership and it's why it's the highest paid position again in any industry is the leader of that organization.
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: So those are pivotal.
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: The other thing that I looked for was a low barrier of entry.
• 13:30
  Speaker 3: Again, I didn't have $10,000 to start a business, right, and so I found something where you know it was a 1099 opportunity with our firm.
• 13:40
  Speaker 3: My only cost was in my background check my licensing and fingerprints.
• 13:44
  Speaker 3: So for a couple hundred bucks I had essentially a business in a box, but I purchased that system.
• 13:51
  Speaker 3: Again, I didn't know this stuff, but everything is figureoutable, like you said, right, Like veterans just figure things out, Military figures things out.
• 13:59
  Speaker 3: Everything was figureoutable.
• 14:00
  Speaker 3: And the fact that we had a system in place that I can plug into and start learning these things.
• 14:04
  Speaker 3: Really got my juices flowing, I'll tell you where the business went from my head to my heart.
• 14:09
  Speaker 3: Michael was sitting kneecap to kneecap at a kitchen table with the family I had no idea walking into their house initially, what was going on behind the scenes, took a couple of appointments, you know, before we put you know some things in place.
• 14:23
  Speaker 3: But after we did that, the husband walked me out to my car and he thanks me again.
• 14:30
  Speaker 3: I'm like, hey, it was absolutely my pleasure.
• 14:32
  Speaker 3: And he starts to get teary-eyed.
• 14:33
  Speaker 3: I'm like, man, is everything okay?
• 14:35
  Speaker 3: And he said, no, thomas, I just again, I don't think you understand how grateful I am.
• 14:40
  Speaker 3: He said I think you might've saved my marriage.
• 14:43
  Speaker 3: You might've saved my marriage.
• 14:45
  Speaker 3: There was so much stress, financial stress, behind the scenes because of debt and lack of savings and a lack of you know, planning and things like that.
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: Like they, didn't have a common goal or a vision, like they just weren't aligned Not saying that they hadn't ever been, but they had just reached a point where you know they kind of, you know, started to go in separate directions and stuff.
• 15:07
  Speaker 3: And we're able to bring all that back in, because we start with what are your goals, what are your dreams, what's the long-term vision for your family, what's going to give you peace of mind?
• 15:15
  Speaker 3: You know what I mean, and stuff like that.
• 15:16
  Speaker 3: And then we go everything from there so that that it went from my head to my heart, and that's when I decided to plant my flag here.
• 15:22
  Speaker 3: Because, I love the value of what we do.
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: Absolutely love it, and that's when you know you're in the right place.
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: Right, you made the right choices, and I'll share something, and I know you're going to say the same thing Nothing feels better than helping someone else.
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: Nothing feels better.
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: You talked about your story.
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: I got chills.
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah, just to to.
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: You talked about your story and I got pills.
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: You know, I mean, it's just, there's nothing better.
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: So, um, I'm always going to suggest, you know, when we ask you what do you want, really think about it.
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: You know what's going to bring you fulfillment.
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: I would say purpose a lot, but it's, it's a lot to do with fulfillment.
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: When you're thinking about I want to be an entrepreneur, okay.
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: Well, what do you want, though?
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: You know how do you?
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: You know how do you want that to play out, because you're in, you're steering the ship.
• 16:11
  Speaker 2: Once you know what you want, all of the other pieces come into play, just like you, right, you knew what you wanted and you found a way.
• 16:20
  Speaker 2: Hey, look, there's this opportunity and it started.
• 16:23
  Speaker 2: And look where you are now.
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: It's the same thing for everybody.
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: What do you want?
• 16:27
  Speaker 2: Because if you start with how, you're never going to get there, you're going to have all these roadblocks, you're never going to have that purpose-driven mission, so amen.
• 16:40
  Speaker 3: You're going to talk about need.
• 16:41
  Speaker 3: Oh, the need for what we do.
• 16:42
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I heard this day one coming in.
• 16:46
  Speaker 3: Hey, our business is essentially recession proof when, when things are good and you know the economy is booming and people are making money.
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: They want to know what to do.
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: Right, but then I, and then I heard the flip side.
• 16:57
  Speaker 3: You know when things get a little tight and money's tight and things maybe aren't so good.
• 17:01
  Speaker 3: People want to know what to do, and so I had heard that, but I never experienced it until 2020.
• 17:07
  Speaker 3: And COVID really kind of proved this to me right when it's like dude the economy was shut down people were getting laid off, or they were deciding to not go back to work, or whatever the case may be.
• 17:18
  Speaker 3: And everybody not only needed, they wanted to know what to do, and so you know I've been fortunate over the last 11 years to kind of see both sides of it and and the need now again is bigger than it's ever been, not just because of you know that that wants for financial literacy, but there were also in the middle of the greatest wealth transfer.
• 17:41
  Speaker 3: I don't know if you or the audience was aware of that, but there's approximately 12,000 people turning 65 every day the baby boomer generation that are looking to retire and or retiring, and they have no idea what to do with their money.
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: All they know is they want some protection.
• 17:57
  Speaker 3: They want a little bit of guidance.
• 17:58
  Speaker 3: The one concern, or the top concern, if they have it, is outliving their money Right.
• 18:03
  Speaker 3: So maybe they need to need to figure out how to supplement and make some additional income.
• 18:08
  Speaker 3: And so, because of the nature of our platform, michael, there's two things we offer.
• 18:13
  Speaker 3: There's our profession, which is the financial planning, but then there's also our business opportunity and expansion, where people can get paid on a referral basis or part-time or eventually even transition into full-time.
• 18:26
  Speaker 3: Building an agency, which is kind of what our system is designed to do, is to help people build a multiple six-figure agency running their own organization, just leveraging a system and I mean, I love it again because we work with all of the top companies in the industry, so it's a completely unbiased non-captive.
• 18:45
  Speaker 3: I literally own my book of business and we work with the who's who in the industry.
• 18:49
  Speaker 3: So as long as it's a good fit for that client, then we can provide it, which gives a lot of flexibility and it's different from the traditional industry and the way things have been done.
• 19:00
  Speaker 3: So, yeah, need nine out of 10 people, if not 10 out of 10, need one, if not multiple things that we have to offer and we find that out through the education and awareness that we bring.
• 19:12
  Speaker 3: First and foremost.
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's fantastic, and you know, thomas.
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: So with your company specifically, let's just you know we're diving in, so let's just use this as an example.
• 19:22
  Speaker 2: What are some?
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: I mean are there?
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: And again, I'm not pushing anybody to go jump and join Thomas Solano, I might but just saying always in a new business, the more you can be diversified, amen.
• 19:37
  Speaker 2: So when you go and like join for your you know business model, if you will.
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: What are some of the steps that people start to take?
• 19:48
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so I mean initially.
• 19:49
  Speaker 3: I mean because we are in a highly regulated industry, there's a there's there's background checks Right, we got to ensure that there are no money related issues Can't be a felon Right.
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: Again, we're in a heavily regulated industry.
• 20:02
  Speaker 3: All the entities that monitor.
• 20:04
  Speaker 3: You know the Wall Street and the banks and you know stuff like that.
• 20:08
  Speaker 3: We're monitored by all of them.
• 20:09
  Speaker 3: So first you got to pass a background check.
• 20:10
  Speaker 3: You know stuff like that, we're we're monitored by all of them.
• 20:12
  Speaker 3: So first you got to pass a background check.
• 20:13
  Speaker 3: Secondly, we got to ensure that this is a fit for you, that I mean really what we're looking for is strength of character, right, and the reason why I say that is because it's the one thing that we can't teach somebody right.
• 20:24
  Speaker 3: We have a system that'll teach you our business.
• 20:27
  Speaker 3: We have information is abundant.
• 20:28
  Speaker 3: There's nothing you can't learn about 401ks.
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: I mean, you're a YouTube search away from learning any and everything about our industry and stuff.
• 20:36
  Speaker 3: And we have a platform where you know, you can learn about different products and upgrades, and you know all the bells and the whistles.
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: So all of that part is learnable.
• 20:44
  Speaker 3: What's not is integrity, trustworthiness, respect, right and stuff like that, and so that's the one thing we're looking for.
• 20:52
  Speaker 3: If you're a good person and you wanna be of service and you wanna make an impact and you wanna lock arms with us and go on this mission of no family left behind and creating financial literacy and there's no background issues, then there's a place for you.
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: But I'll be honest not everybody makes it right.
• 21:11
  Speaker 3: I mean again, it's a business and there's there's some growth that needs to happen.
• 21:14
  Speaker 3: What we're looking for is people that want to develop in a leadership capacity.
• 21:18
  Speaker 3: ultimately it's not, you know if you're just going to be a referral partner, but if you really want to build something that can you know, leave you know a legacy and generational like, for example, michael, when I pass away, my wife inherits all of our book of business and when she passes away, both of our kids will split our book of business, which is going to be forever because we're.
• 21:41
  Speaker 3: I'm now reaching the point where my clients from 11 years ago, their kids, are now becoming adults and they're getting referred over and their kids or chances are going to outlive me, so that business is going to be on the books for generations.
• 21:55
  Speaker 3: So it's something that I can pass along, which is pretty awesome.
• 21:58
  Speaker 3: First steps is understanding what our business is passing that background and then getting your license, which you're responsible for, but that puts you again 1099, it's all attached right off, and then we teach you how to do all of that stuff as well 1099, it's all a tax write-off and then we teach you how to do all of that stuff as well, got it.
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: So you know, and I just want to make a point here is whether you are interested in and guys, you know Thomas is an upstanding guy I wouldn't have him on here, wouldn't be talking about any of this stuff, let alone the potential of, you know, joining his type of business or his business specifically.
• 22:29
  Speaker 2: So but the thing he's talking about, guys, it's super important to understand that that integrity, you know, that drive those kinds of things are you need to be successful in any business.
• 22:43
  Speaker 2: Again, whether you are starting your own in the garage building rafts I don't know Rafts, sure that's it.
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah, gnomes, if you're in there building garden gnomes, or you're joining a financial company, whatever the case may be, those, those skill sets and things need to be.
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: That integrity needs to be there for yourself first, and that's for all of life.
• 23:13
  Speaker 2: Business is one thing, but you know that integrity, that self-integrity and so forth, is so important to have.
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: So I love that you brought that up.
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: It's super important.
• 23:23
  Speaker 2: And so you know, with with entrepreneurship in general, you know what are some key things that, financially, you would say you know what are some key things that financially you would say, hey, make sure you're getting these things set up for success.
• 23:36
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean.
• 23:37
  Speaker 2: I think, a budget.
• 23:38
  Speaker 3: First, life, whether you're in business or not, I think you should be budgeting, you should know what's coming in, what's going out, living within your means, and then, with whatever's left over, right then that's that's.
• 23:55
  Speaker 3: You know what you work with, that's what you build off of, whether that's long-term savings, college planning, whatever, like understanding what that discretionary is.
• 24:02
  Speaker 3: So I would say, you start with budget, you stay out of debt, which is why building an emergency fund is so important.
• 24:09
  Speaker 3: I'll tell you, ben, I sit with so many clients that their only focus, their singular focus, is paying debt down, which I get because it's a heavy stressor.
• 24:21
  Speaker 3: The challenge is, life doesn't stop while you're paying debt down.
• 24:23
  Speaker 3: So if you're not saving and building that emergency fund at the same time which seems counterproductive when you're trying to pay down debt, but if you're not doing that generally, what happens is you have you get a blowout right, or you get a speeding ticket, or you need a major tuna, or the water heater blows at the house or something like that, and you haven't saved the money to pay for that.
• 24:47
  Speaker 3: Where do you go?
• 24:49
  Speaker 2: Right back to that credit card.
• 24:50
  Speaker 3: Right, so you're this close to paying down debt and now boom thousand dollar charge, which it seems like everything now at minimum is about a thousand dollars.
• 24:57
  Speaker 2: Like all of these unexpected, it's about a thousand dollars you need one tire.
• 25:01
  Speaker 3: It's about 250 bucks, you know what I mean.
• 25:03
  Speaker 3: You need a set of four.
• 25:04
  Speaker 3: You're out a thousand bucks, you know.
• 25:06
  Speaker 3: So, um, I would say like that yeah, the financial aspect of it whether again business or personally should start extra slim gym while you were filling up the tank energy drink.
• 25:16
  Speaker 3: Like it just goes to all of these little things.
• 25:38
  Speaker 3: So.
• 25:39
  Speaker 2: So let me ask you a tough question.
• 25:41
  Speaker 2: So you are barely making it.
• 25:44
  Speaker 2: You want to start and be an entrepreneur business, Right?
• 25:47
  Speaker 2: So budgeting if you don't know how much money is going to come in, how do you budget properly?
• 25:55
  Speaker 3: Say that again If you don't know how much money is going to come in.
• 25:58
  Speaker 2: You're just.
• 25:58
  Speaker 2: You're just wanting to start a business.
• 25:59
  Speaker 2: You want to be an entrepreneur.
• 26:02
  Speaker 2: You just got off this amazing podcast with this guy named Thomas Solano and you want to start start your own business building gnomes in your garage.
• 26:11
  Speaker 2: You don't know how much money you're going to make.
• 26:14
  Speaker 2: You're new at this, so you don't have any past details or information to go by for proper budgeting.
• 26:21
  Speaker 2: How do you budget.
• 26:23
  Speaker 3: I would say you need to have either a nest egg before you decide to quit your job and start a business.
• 26:30
  Speaker 3: You need to have six months.
• 26:32
  Speaker 3: You know what I mean?
• 26:33
  Speaker 3: I mean, in a perfect world, a year worth of your expenses.
• 26:36
  Speaker 3: So you need to know what your cost of living life is going to be right.
• 26:43
  Speaker 3: So you either have a nest egg because the income is not immediate right, by the way, our opportunity is not a get rich quick thing either.
• 26:50
  Speaker 3: So, like I encourage people to either maintain their job, get a part time gig or, if they have enough savings saved, then we hit the ground running and we'll really show you how to be profitable.
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: But it doesn't matter.
• 27:02
  Speaker 3: in any business, you need to know what your expenses are and what your bare bones minimum is that you have to make.
• 27:08
  Speaker 3: So now again ideally you'd want to have an estate, so you can at least make it three to six months until you start generating some income, and then you adjust as you go, but you get lean and mean you know, especially if you're going to have no income and everything's riding on that business, you better be lean and mean.
• 27:28
  Speaker 3: You don't need to have the NFL ticket and you know the MLB ticket and you know, and you know Netflix and Hulu and all the streaming services, like.
• 27:37
  Speaker 3: In fact, you should cut the cable, cut all your subscriptions, you know, and make that little bit.
• 27:43
  Speaker 3: People call it a sacrifice, I call it a commitment, right?
• 27:47
  Speaker 2: If you're really serious about this.
• 27:49
  Speaker 3: You need to make a commitment.
• 27:50
  Speaker 3: Get lean and mean Don't go out buying a new car the second you start earning a little income or anything like that Cut whatever.
• 27:57
  Speaker 3: You can make the adjustments wherever you can until this thing becomes regular.
• 28:02
  Speaker 3: So I hope that answered it it did.
• 28:05
  Speaker 2: It was absolutely exactly what I was looking for.
• 28:07
  Speaker 2: So, thank you, plan ahead, make sure you have enough to sustain yourself until some sales come in.
• 28:14
  Speaker 2: And, hey, talk to some other people that do it so you have an idea of, hey, yeah, we're probably looking at three months before we're going to start making money.
• 28:22
  Speaker 2: You know, plan ahead, don't just jump in and say, okay, I have no job and I'm going to make garden gnomes, but I can't buy the paint, let alone I'm not going to have a house in two months.
• 28:38
  Speaker 2: So I love that advice.
• 28:39
  Speaker 2: So let's talk about the other thing, and I know we've got a couple of minutes left here, but I think it's important.
• 28:41
  Speaker 2: So you talked about paying down debt and creating an emergency fund.
• 28:43
  Speaker 2: How do you do that at the same time?
• 28:46
  Speaker 3: Again, knowing what is left over.
• 28:48
  Speaker 3: So again, the income versus the expenses gives you what we call a discretionary.
• 28:53
  Speaker 3: That discretionary amount you then divvy up based on what are those?
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: immediate priorities.
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: So whenever I sit with any of my clients it's like hey let's break down financial objectives.
• 29:05
  Speaker 3: In the next one to three years, we'll call that short term.
• 29:07
  Speaker 3: In the next three to seven years, we'll call that midterm, and then seven plus years long term.
• 29:11
  Speaker 3: And in in this one to three, what is the most important and nine times out of 10, it's paying down debt credit cards and student loans or saving for that emergency fund or alternate income in case of disability or anything like that.
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: So those are usually the top priorities.
• 29:28
  Speaker 3: So from there we say, okay, well, let's figure out this debt situation and figure out how to pay that down sooner rather than later with that discretionary.
• 29:37
  Speaker 3: So there's strategic waste excuse me to pay on that on those credit cards especially.
• 29:43
  Speaker 3: But most people don't have a strategy.
• 29:46
  Speaker 3: There's no method to the madness and all they're doing is oh yeah, this bill's up, I'm going to.
• 29:50
  Speaker 3: I have an extra 40 bucks, I'm going to put an extra 40 there.
• 29:53
  Speaker 3: I'm going to put an extra 15 here, I'm going to put an extra 10 there.
• 29:55
  Speaker 3: What I do is I put all of that into a program software, figure out what makes the most sense to pay down whether it's the highest balance or highest interest rate or lowest balance, and this and that, and we stack that, and then we start adding a little bit of additional income there to pay that down.
• 30:13
  Speaker 3: And then we also focus on building that emergency fund.
• 30:17
  Speaker 3: So again it's telling that money where to go versus wondering where it went, and the reason why you want to focus on that emergency fund and you have to outside of that debt is because what most people do, michael, is they spend first and save whatever's left over.
• 30:32
  Speaker 3: So you have to treat that savings for yourself like it was a regular bill, like it's a regular fixed expense.
• 30:40
  Speaker 3: So no ifs, ands or buts that pay yourself first.
• 30:44
  Speaker 3: That's what that means you have to make a commitment.
• 30:47
  Speaker 3: If you got $300 of discretionary left at the end of the month, then you need to make a commitment to save half of it to that emergency fund for the next 12 months, or however long it's going to take for you to make up that shortfall or to start building that savings, and then the rest of that you decide what to do with it.
• 31:06
  Speaker 2: Absolutely love it, man.
• 31:07
  Speaker 2: I think very sound amazing advice, so thank you very much.
• 31:10
  Speaker 2: I appreciate it.
• 31:10
  Speaker 2: So shocker, we're out of time Already.
• 31:15
  Speaker 2: Yes, I know.
• 31:16
  Speaker 2: So, thomas, as always, can you give us three tips to get veterans and their families further faster?
• 31:24
  Speaker 2: Get them say that one more time and cut out.
• 31:27
  Speaker 2: Three tips to get veterans further faster.
• 31:31
  Speaker 3: Further faster yeah.
• 31:32
  Speaker 2: I mean, I think, writing down those goals.
• 31:33
  Speaker 3: I think I might've said this the last time.
• 31:35
  Speaker 3: I think writing down and really spending some time on what you want you know that future to look like.
• 31:42
  Speaker 3: I mean it's I don't know how long it'll take, I mean it could take a couple of days, but what is that in the grand scheme of things?
• 31:49
  Speaker 3: I mean it's only the rest of your life, right?
• 31:51
  Speaker 3: So figure that part out first when do you want to be, what does that look like?
• 31:55
  Speaker 3: And then reverse engineer from there.
• 31:57
  Speaker 3: I think you know money is not everything and I know we spent a lot of time talking about it today, but it is something and it is a necessity for you to accomplish those things.
• 32:06
  Speaker 3: So really start dialing back that budget or figuring out what that is that's going to put you in a position.
• 32:14
  Speaker 3: Really, if you do it right, it creates options right.
• 32:20
  Speaker 3: It creates the ability to go out and maybe get licensed somewhere or go back to school or start a business right and buy a couple of t-shirts and press them, whatever that goal is.
• 32:29
  Speaker 3: And then lastly, seek out mentorship.
• 32:31
  Speaker 3: Like again, information is abundant.
• 32:33
  Speaker 3: Find some good books based around what it is that you're looking to accomplish, whether that's financial independence or starting a business, or, you know, e-commerce or whatever.
• 32:43
  Speaker 3: Whatever it is, there's plenty of books and information out there that you can even get for free.
• 32:49
  Speaker 2: You can check it out of the library.
• 32:50
  Speaker 2: You don't even have to pay for courses.
• 32:52
  Speaker 3: But at least figure out what that is and start doing the research and take some time to figure out what's required to accomplish those things.
• 33:01
  Speaker 3: So write those goals those dreams down.
• 33:04
  Speaker 3: Get a budget so you can create some of those options and then seek out mentorship and information because it is abundant, and then at that point everything's figureoutable.
• 33:13
  Speaker 2: Amen, love it, man, absolutely.
• 33:14
  Speaker 2: So, of course, how do people reach out to you?
• 33:23
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so I mean you can message me direct on Facebook.
• 33:24
  Speaker 3: I think StreamYard's going to be on there, it's Thomas Solano, like it shows in there.
• 33:27
  Speaker 3: Instagram you can email me at Solano, my last name, 330 at yahoocom, but yeah, dm, social media is probably the quickest, easiest way to get ahold of me and I'd love to connect and answer any questions.
• 33:41
  Speaker 3: By the way, any and all of my services are completely complimentary to everybody.
• 33:46
  Speaker 3: I can only get paid by those companies on our platform that we represent, so it's a win-win.
• 33:51
  Speaker 3: If there's anything I can help you out with, reach out and we'll talk and have a consultation and come up with analysis and recommendations and all of that good stuff.
• 34:01
  Speaker 3: Completely complimentary.
• 34:03
  Speaker 2: Love it man, Absolutely love it, Thomas.
• 34:05
  Speaker 2: You're an amazing individual.
• 34:07
  Speaker 2: I appreciate every time you're on here.
• 34:09
  Speaker 2: Your soul is amazing man.
• 34:10
  Speaker 2: So thank you for the help, Thank you for spending the time.
• 34:13
  Speaker 2: Of course, as human beings, most precious resource we have is time.
• 34:18
  Speaker 2: We don't get it back.
• 34:19
  Speaker 2: Thank you, my friend, for coming on again and I'm sure we're going to have you back.
• 34:23
  Speaker 3: It was absolutely my pleasure.
• 34:24
  Speaker 3: I look forward to it, and that feeling is mutual.
• 34:26
  Speaker 3: Man, you're equally as good.
• 34:28
  Speaker 3: You're equally as good actually, in my opinion, better for all that you do.
• 34:32
  Speaker 3: So you know, I appreciate you taking the time to put this together for everybody.
• 34:37
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, man, we'll be back.
• 34:39
  Speaker 2: All right, everybody, we're out of here.
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: Bye.
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: Thank you for joining us on another insightful journey of your Thoughts your Reality podcast with your host, michael Cole.
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: We hope the conversation sparked some thoughts that resonate with you.
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: To dive deeper into empowering your thoughts and enhancing your reality, visit empowerperformancestrategiescom.
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: Remember your thoughts shape your reality, so make them count.
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: Until next time, stay inspired and keep creating the reality you desire.
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: Catch you on the next episode.
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: Until next time, stay inspired and keep creating the reality you desire.
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: Catch you on the next episode.