Latest / The Inspired Stories Podcast / Randolph Love III's Strategy for Legal Tax Savings and Wealth Creation | Fractional Series

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Randolph Love III's Strategy for Legal Tax Savings and Wealth Creation | Fractional Series · The Inspired Stories Podcast

0:04
Welcome to another edition of Inspired Stories, where leaders
0:07
share their experiences so we can learn from their successes,
0:10
how they've overcome adversity, and explore current challenges
0:13
they're facing. Welcome to another edition of
0:18
the Inspired Stories podcast, where leaders share their
0:21
experiences so we can learn from their successes and be inspired
0:24
by how they've overcome adversity.
0:26
My name is Anthony Cotispoti, and today's guest is Randolph
0:30
Love, the third CEO of Shield Wolf Strongholds, an
0:34
organization that specializes in fractional CFO services.
0:38
He focuses on something called the Miracle Money Vehicle, which
0:42
helps to ensure that people can legally keep more of the money
0:45
they earn. He's also a franchise consultant
0:48
where he helps people find their perfect franchise and put
0:51
systems in place to keep it profitable and legally tax
0:56
favored. Before we get into the good
0:58
stuff, today's episode is brought to you by my company,
1:01
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1:05
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1:21
To find out if your company qualifies, contact us today at
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AD back benefitsagency.com. Now back to our guest today, the
1:29
CEO of Shield Wolf Strongholds. Randolph, I appreciate you
1:32
making the time to Share your story today.
1:35
Man, I appreciate you. And that, that business model,
1:37
you got that value proposition. I mean, who can turn that down,
1:40
right? It's like, it's like they're
1:41
they're paying for your services out of the money that you save
1:44
them. It checks a lot of boxes.
1:46
Yep. Yes, Sir.
1:47
Thank. Thank you for the unsolicited
1:48
commercial support then. Absolutely.
1:51
So, Randolph, tell us in your own words, what does SHIELD Wolf
1:54
Strong Howells do and how did you get started with this?
1:57
OK, well, what I like to say is when people ask what do we do, I
2:02
say we help people make money, make babies, right?
2:06
And then at first, what do you mean make money, make babies?
2:08
And then I follow it up with, if you can impregnate $100 bill,
2:12
would you not? And they, you know, of course
2:15
they laugh and they say, yeah. And then yeah, I do it all night
2:17
long, right? So I mean, that's what we do.
2:20
We try to show people how money really works.
2:24
You have active income and you have passive income.
2:27
I think a lot of people agree that passive income is probably
2:32
a good way to go, but there's different levels of passive
2:35
income. So that's what I help people do.
2:37
And, and how I ended up in this industry is it started out where
2:43
I just started earning professional designations just
2:46
for the free trips. I'm a chartered financial
2:49
consultant. I'm a chartered life
2:51
underwriter. I'm a chartered property and
2:53
casualty underwriter. I'm a fellow life management
2:55
Institute. And it just so happens that the
2:57
company that I was with every designation I would get, they
3:02
would give me a free trip. And accidentally, I learned a
3:07
lot while earning a free trip. And, and then I realized when I
3:12
finished the curriculum, it was the American College of
3:15
Financial Services. He said, congratulations, you
3:18
now know more than 99% of the rest of the world.
3:22
And I thought it was just a all right, that's, that's y'all tag
3:25
line. But as I started proceeding
3:27
through life, I realized nobody knows this stuff that we learned
3:33
while earning these designations.
3:34
And then I just started, I said, all right, there's a, there's a
3:37
problem that needs to be fixed. Let me monetize it.
3:41
So that's hysterical. You started to get into all of
3:44
this because there were free trips attached to getting these
3:47
certifications. Absolutely don't be so sure of
3:50
what you want that you wouldn't accept something better.
3:53
That's one of a quote from Chris Voss, author never split the
3:57
difference. And yeah, I I thought all I
4:00
wanted was the free trips, but the something better was the
4:03
positive impact that I've been able to make with individuals,
4:07
with business owners and franchise.
4:10
Can you give some specific examples of the kinds of things
4:13
that you are helping your clients with?
4:15
Maybe without mentioning? Anybody's name like give a give
4:17
a little case study. Well, first and foremost, just
4:21
in general, may having people understand what percentages are.
4:25
I mean, a lot of people hate math, right?
4:28
And I'm not mad at you. I get it.
4:29
But we all have our own genius. Just to use this example, The
4:35
first thing that I tell these people, because a lot of the
4:37
people that I work with, they they already make a lot of
4:39
money, right? They're not, you know, you're
4:42
not going to turn their heads by telling them, hey, I'm about to
4:46
help you make more money than what you're already making.
4:48
What you're going to turn their heads by is by teaching them
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something that they didn't realize, that they didn't know.
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So what I do is I start out at $100,000.
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I say, well, you have, you already have an advisor.
5:00
If you have $100,000 and you lose 50% one year and you lose
5:05
and you gain 50% next year, what just happened?
5:08
And their response is I just broke even.
5:11
And that's when I say actually, no, what just happened is what's
5:15
50% of 100,000? And of course they say 50,000.
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All right, so you just lost 50%. So it dropped down to 50,000.
5:22
All right, so you went up 50%. What's 50% of 50,000?
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They say 25,000. All right, so you just went up.
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So actually when it looks like you lost the same, gained the
5:32
same, because this is the percentages you're actually
5:35
still in the hole, $25,000. And and that's that light bulb
5:39
moment. I didn't know that.
5:41
So imagine, imagine all of these other things that you might not
5:46
know that I can tell you. So I mean, that's in general how
5:49
I help people. That's great.
5:51
How about maybe, yeah, think of a specific client and a specific
5:55
thing, a problem and issue that you help them to resolve or a
5:59
specific money making opportunity or a tax advantage
6:02
solution like help people sort of wrap their heads a little bit
6:06
better around what it is that you do.
6:08
Understood. So for example, a lot of the
6:11
business owners that I work with are business owners who lead
6:15
with reverence. They not people don't follow
6:19
them because they fear them. They follow them because they
6:22
like them and a lot of those people, they want the best for
6:26
their employees. So of course they set up, you
6:29
know, typical qualified retirement accounts.
6:32
What what are some qualified retirement accounts?
6:34
You know, four O 1K plans, you know, things of that nature.
6:37
Now, one thing that I asked them to do, and once and once again,
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I'm, I'm very confident when I tell people because I, I've,
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I've had people bring me their, you know, their reports from
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beginning to end, like when you first got this started to now.
6:52
And one thing that I point out to people is typically a typical
6:56
qualified retirement account, you're losing approximately 30
6:59
to 40% of your principal every three to four years.
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Now, I'm not saying that's every account, but just the ones that
7:06
I typically see, right? So using that same concept that
7:10
I just talked about, if you're losing 30 to 40% of your
7:15
principal every three to four years, how much do you have to
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gain in order to break even? And the answer is 60 to 80%.
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But typically every three to four years, right before you get
7:26
to break even, it drops again. So I say, all right, listen, I'm
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not telling you this or that situation.
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I'm not telling you that you have to stop contributing to
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these qualified retirement accounts for people because a,
7:41
it works for some people. But I, I show them how they can
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use Internal Revenue Code 7772 E 77 O two and one O 1A to where
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if you put it in the right vehicle, you get all of those
7:55
benefits of a qualified retirement account, except now
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it's liquid. You can get to it whenever you
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want to and it's safe, is not dropping on average of 30 to 40%
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every three to four years and it's has a good predictable rate
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of return. A lot of these accounts of
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vehicles that I put people in, they're averaging about 8 to 11%
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and it's tax free because of those Internal Revenue codes.
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So a lot of the people, well, you know, specifically, I can
8:23
work with a company to where either they add this in addition
8:27
to their qualified retirement accounts or, or a lot of them,
8:31
you know, they replace it completely to where they can
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still be that reverent leader. They can still be that leader
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that wants their their people to earn and, and have their
8:40
retirement taken care of. But they also can see that all
8:44
the typical back falls of a typical qualified retirement
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accounts they're people not experiencing.
8:51
Randolph, help me understand what's the mechanism that is
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happening that is causing a lot of these retirement plans to
8:58
lose? What are you saying 30 to 40% of
9:00
their principal per year? No, on average, every three to
9:03
four years, every three to four years.
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What's happening is the money is put directly into the market.
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I mean that that's the mechanism.
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Usually out of every 10 years, there are 7UP years in the
9:17
market and three down years in the market.
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That's typical. Now you have what's called the
9:22
lost decade where there were actually 5 down years, right?
9:28
And I think that was from what two, when was it?
9:32
It was from like O 8 to 2018, I believe to where it was 5 down
9:36
years. But that's, that's rare that it
9:38
happens. Typically there's 7UP years,
9:42
three down years. The mechanism is it's put
9:45
directly in the market. So you know, one of the benefits
9:48
of having a qualified retirement account is that it's growing tax
9:52
free, right? Well, depending on if you have
9:54
a, a traditional or raw, right, If it's in the traditional,
10:00
you're getting that growth and you're doing what they call
10:03
what's the word you're deferring.
10:05
Another word for deferring for me is procrastination, right?
10:09
So yes, you, you're the the assumption that most financial
10:13
advisors are making is that either one, taxes are going to
10:17
be cheaper in the future. What do we know about taxes?
10:21
It goes up. The other assumption is that
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their client, there's no way possible that they're going to
10:27
be making more money in retirement than they are making
10:31
now. But here's the thing.
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Even if they're not making more money in retirement, chances are
10:36
this person is no, when they retire, they're no longer
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contributing to a qualified retirement account, so they just
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lost that credit. Chances are when they retire,
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they've already paid off their mortgage, so they're no longer
10:47
getting that credit. So even though they are retired,
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even though they're not making as much money as they were
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making when they were working, they're paying the same, if not
10:57
more in percentage because that what we were percentage, they're
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paying the same, if not more in percentage in taxes now.
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It might be a lower number, but that low that low number is
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still percentage wise eating up a lot of their their future.
11:13
So tell us more about what is the Miracle Money vehicle?
11:17
What is this? OK, so miracle money vehicle, of
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course it's an it's an acronym. I think I'm using that word
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right. It's money infinitely
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reproducing a compounding liquid estate.
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I have a mentor by the name of Doug Andrew.
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I talked to him probably at least once a month.
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I fly out to see him in Salt Lake City at least every three
11:41
months. He calls it the Laser Fund.
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So all it is is a brand that I put on top of what's called a
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Max funded index universal life policy.
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Notice I didn't say just universal life.
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Notice I didn't say variable universal life.
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Notice I didn't just say index universal life, I said Max
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funded. Index universal life is where
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instead of doing what people typically do, which try to get
12:07
the most insurance possible for the least amount of money, we
12:10
actually try to get the least insurance possible for the most
12:15
amount of money. That's what's called the miracle
12:18
money vehicle. Because in that hierarchy of
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what I think is important for what you put your money in, most
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people would say, I want to know what the rate of return is.
12:28
They jumped straight to #3 what? But the once again, the most
12:32
important thing is, is it liquid?
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Can you get to your money within one to three days without
12:36
penalty, without hassle? Is it safe?
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Can you go to sleep and wake up and not have lost up to 40% of
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your principal? Does it have good predictable
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rates of return? Can you look back over 100 years
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and average out and it's giving you a great return?
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And is it tax free? What's the point of waking up in
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the morning doing all this work, building all these networks,
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getting all these contacts, taking risks, putting your
13:01
blood, sweat and tears into everything?
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And then when you're ready to finish, somebody comes and say
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they won't have, right? So that that's the miracle money
13:11
vehicle. Because usually when I say, what
13:13
if I what if we can set something up like this that
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grows tax free, You can utilize it tax free and when you die, it
13:19
actually blossoms, it gets bigger and passes to your heirs
13:23
tax free. What would you call that?
13:25
And people would say a miracle. All right, The miracle money
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vehicle. All right.
13:30
You mentioned the misconceptions people have around percentages
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and how that confuses them. What are some other
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misconceptions that people have around building wealth?
13:41
Well, a lot of misconceptions that I believe people have
13:45
around building wealth is what debt free means, right?
13:50
So for example, as I mentioned, a lot of people when they when
13:56
they retire, they pay off their house, right?
13:59
And in their mind I'm debt free. But what the government just
14:03
saw, you know, because not only you no longer contributing to
14:07
the qualified retirement accounts, you no longer putting
14:11
in work at a company, you're no longer paying these interest
14:14
rates. You know what the word
14:16
retirement means, It comes from the industrial revolution.
14:19
It means to be put out of use. So in their minds, you've just
14:24
been put out of you, so you're no longer contributing.
14:26
So it's time for us to get, you know, what we get back.
14:29
And it might, you know, manifest itself in multiple ways.
14:32
It might be a required minimum distributions.
14:34
We can talk about it if you want.
14:36
So another misconception of wealth is sometimes I've had
14:40
clients because I just, I don't just work with business owners.
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I work with people who are already retired.
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Sometimes I say, hey, I think we might need to partner with the
14:49
government again. And they say, what do you mean?
14:52
I say, well, maybe maybe we should go ahead and take out a
14:57
loan against your house. Now I didn't say reverse
15:00
mortgage, Maybe we should take out a traditional loan against
15:05
your house. And they say, well, why would I
15:06
do that? I like, well, it's a amortized
15:08
loan. So majority of the money that
15:10
you're paying into this mortgage is going to be interest.
15:14
You're going to be able to write off this interest.
15:15
So let's say that you're writing off 6% interest on the mortgage.
15:19
If you're writing off 6% interest on the mortgage, that
15:22
don't mean you just completely eliminated that expense.
15:25
That means that instead of you paying 6%, really and truly only
15:28
4% came out of your pocket. And if we take this lump sum of
15:32
money and we put it into the miracle money vehicle, a Max
15:35
funded index universal life policy that's earning on average
15:39
8 to 11% every year. Did you see the triage?
15:43
Not only are you getting the legitimate write off, not only
15:47
are you taking the money that that you're actually spending
15:50
out of your pocket after you account for you being able to
15:53
write it off, which is approximately 4%, now you're
15:56
spending 4% in order for that money to earn at least 8%.
16:00
A lot of people say that there are only two types of people,
16:03
people who earn interest and people who pay interest.
16:06
Actually, there are three types of people, people who earn
16:09
interest, people who pay interest and people who
16:11
understand you got to pay a little interest to earn a lot of
16:14
interest. So the misconception is what
16:17
debt free is. So somebody might say, well, I
16:20
want my family to get that house.
16:23
All right, they can. You, if you look at your net
16:26
worth, it still looks the same. You all you're doing is using
16:31
this as a mechanism for triage and you have money sitting in a
16:35
liquid safe, safe place that you can get to.
16:39
It's liquid and it's safe. If you ever wanted to pay that
16:43
mortgage off, you could. But the thing about having all
16:46
of your money in a, in a mortgage is a lot of, I'm sorry,
16:50
inequity is a lot of people are house rich, cash poor.
16:55
That equity means nothing if you can't get to it, if nobody won't
17:00
buy it. That equity means nothing if a
17:03
bank won't refinance you. That equity means nothing
17:06
because what a lot of people find out very fast is when you
17:09
need the money out of the equity is when you can't get it.
17:13
So that's a common misconception I believe is what debt free is.
17:16
If you have it in a place that's safe, that you can pay off all
17:20
your debts while still utilizing the benefits and the leverage of
17:23
borrowing. I think that's a beautiful
17:25
thing, but a lot of people have a bad connotation when it comes
17:28
to the word borrow. Randolph, you have a very
17:32
interesting message to share. I'm curious, what are some
17:34
strategies that you've used to grow your business?
17:37
Oh man, all bootstrap. So I am a licensed and bonded
17:42
public insurance adjuster. A lot of people don't know what
17:44
a public insurance adjuster is. Basically imagine, let me just
17:49
give you a scenario. What if I were to loan you
17:52
$1000, right? And because I have a bad memory,
17:57
I write down on a piece of paper that I loaned Anthony $1000.
18:01
And then I fold it up on a piece of paper and then I, I put it in
18:03
the desk. And then six months later you
18:06
come back to me and say, hey, Randolph, how much do you do I
18:10
owe you? And instead of me going to look
18:12
at that paper, I'm saying, I, I don't know, I think 600, right?
18:19
Whenever you file a typical insurance claim and they and the
18:24
insurance company sends out their adjuster, that's like you
18:29
asking the person who owes you money how much they owe you,
18:33
right? So a public insurance adjuster
18:36
is the person who actually comes and looks at your policy and
18:39
says, Oh no, they actually owe you this, this and this.
18:43
So a public insurance adjuster is adjuster that works for the
18:47
public. So how I ended up, you know,
18:50
doing my thing, usually by the time people come to a public
18:53
insurance adjuster, it's at their lowest moments.
18:55
And a lot of people, even though I'm telling them what I've done.
18:59
And I truly believe based off this specific situation that I'm
19:04
able to get you, get you indemnified and indemnified as
19:09
an insurance term meaning to put back to where you were.
19:12
I truly believe I can do it. You know, a lot of them don't
19:14
really believe me, but they'll go ahead and sign my contract
19:17
anyway and then ends up six to eight months later.
19:20
Now they have all the money that they thought they wouldn't have
19:23
gotten in order to put them back.
19:25
So the way it the way my company started was once I got into this
19:30
wealth space was you remember when I first came to you and you
19:34
didn't think I could do it? And now I did it and they like,
19:37
yeah, I say, well, guess what else I can do?
19:39
And then that's that bootstrap my company.
19:41
I've never had to borrow money from my company.
19:43
I've never had to take out loans.
19:45
I've never had to take out any investors, word of mouth and
19:48
people coming into me because what I actually tell them
19:50
happens. What kind of insurance claims
19:53
are we talking about that you're helping with?
19:55
Are these auto home medical? Well, I've done both.
19:59
So when I was working for the carriers, I was doing a lot of
20:02
auto claims. I've done home claims.
20:04
I did what's called MCM managed claim model, which is rare.
20:08
Usually an adjuster handles one part of a claim.
20:12
It's like a like an assembly line.
20:15
I did manage claim model. So everything from first notice
20:18
of loss to the field inspection to the desk adjustments to the
20:23
negotiation with the water mitigation companies, I handled
20:26
that myself. They called it from cradle to
20:29
grave, right? So I had a good insight on on
20:33
how all of this works. So now where where I made my
20:36
most money handling claims. Well, of course, homeowners
20:39
claims is a little bit more complex, a lot, a lot of things
20:42
going on. But since you bring it up, I do
20:45
have something interesting to share about most auto claims,
20:49
right? So a lot of people, you know,
20:52
you get into an accident, right in, in some states, it don't
20:55
matter if it's if it's your fault or not.
20:57
But in most states, as long as it's not your fault, this will
21:01
happen. Like, for example, in Georgia,
21:03
it don't matter if it's your fault or not with what I'm about
21:06
to share with you. But in most states, as long as
21:09
it's not your fault. So, Anthony, what happens when
21:12
you get into an accident that's not your fault?
21:16
The other person's insurance company pays to repair your car.
21:20
Your car, you know, as far as you're concerned, it looks like
21:23
brand new. What happens when you go to try
21:26
to sell it? I don't know is there an issue
21:30
like is there somebody sees on the Carfax that?
21:33
There's yeah. So what happens is when you go
21:35
to try to sell your car, now you have an accident on it.
21:38
So what what happened was you didn't just because most, most
21:42
people don't understand, homeowners insurance is not
21:46
insuring your house, auto insurance is not insuring your
21:50
car. It's insuring the potential of
21:54
loss, financial loss that you inherited now that you acquired
21:58
that asset, right? So what happens is not only does
22:02
the insurance company owe you to repair your vehicle to put it
22:06
back to where it was, they also owe you for the difference in
22:09
value now that you have an accident on your record.
22:13
But here's the thing, insurance companies, by law, they don't
22:16
have to tell you about it unless you ask about it.
22:20
So it's called diminished value. If you get into an accident and
22:24
it's not your fault. Now, some states it doesn't
22:27
matter if it's your fault or not, but especially if it's not
22:30
your fault, say, hey, I would like to get a diminished value.
22:33
And they're going to be like, oh, of course, right.
22:36
And initially they're going to send you like a, you know, on
22:38
average about a $250 check, but not if you have the the right
22:42
information to show exactly what the difference in value from
22:45
your car and another car that's comparable to your yours.
22:49
But one has an accident and one doesn't.
22:51
They will pay you the difference.
22:53
And that way, even when you go to sell your car, trade it in,
22:56
even though they're going to give you less because it has an
22:59
accident on your record, you would have been compensated
23:02
financially for that loss. So the take away here is if
23:05
you're ever in a car accident and it's not your fault.
23:08
It varies by state, but it's not.
23:10
Your fault. You need to ask the other
23:12
insurance company for diminished value compensation.
23:16
Yes, and don't just take the first.
23:18
Don't just think the first check they send you is the correct
23:21
check. You know, you can get an
23:24
appraisal on what the difference in value is because chances are
23:27
the first check they going to send you is a please leave us
23:30
alone check when and it's So it might be a 200 and I typically
23:34
see about $250 that they typically send off, but usually
23:39
it might be thousands of dollars that they owe you depending on
23:42
the type of car. And so who can help them figure
23:45
out this correct amount? Is that you?
23:47
Not not they can call me because, you know, I'm great at
23:51
arguing and debating because here's the thing, all the I'm a
23:54
great public adjuster because I, I have the skill sets.
23:57
I've learned it. But my favorite public adjusters
24:00
are the ones who love to argue, who love to debate.
24:04
So yes, you can call me and I can point you in the right
24:07
direction to my my Bulldog friends, because if you, if you
24:12
had a bulldog, you want the Bulldog to be on your side.
24:15
And I know some real Bulldogs. And so how do you get paid as a
24:19
public adjuster? Are you getting a percentage of
24:21
what it is that you help your customer get?
24:24
Yes, Sir. Certain industries have what
24:26
they call carve outs, right, depending on what it is and and
24:30
not. And once again, we're not an
24:32
attorney, but when it comes to an insurance claim, public
24:35
insurance adjusters get to do a lot of what attorneys do, right?
24:40
So basically, and just like most attorneys, they get paid off of
24:44
contingency. So if the public adjuster that
24:47
you hire does not help you then and they don't get you no money,
24:52
they don't owe you. You don't owe them nothing.
24:54
But if they do get you money, then typically depending on the
24:58
public adjuster is anywhere from about 10% to 20%.
25:03
Now some states are higher. I've never charged more than 20%
25:07
and I know a lot of very great public adjusters who's never
25:10
charged more than 10%, but they'll get that compensation
25:15
off of that. And it's actually a lot of it's
25:18
a lot of negative news about public insurance adjusters.
25:23
But all I got to say is all truths are parallel.
25:26
If if you have one side that all they do is help the little
25:31
person, how are they the the devils right?
25:35
Like so to me, it's one of those another common misconception in
25:41
life to why how is the person who only helps the individual
25:45
the bad person? It's just because they don't, we
25:47
don't have as much PR money to, you know, to, to put it out
25:51
there, of course, So, you know, it is what it is.
25:53
And so who's demonizing you? Is it the insurance companies?
25:56
It's the PR companies, yeah. I mean, I, I wouldn't, you know,
25:59
because think about it the biggest and, and keep in mind, I
26:04
love insurance, right? It's one of those things you
26:07
wouldn't have anything to fight for if you didn't have a policy.
26:11
But the thing was back in the 1990s, McKenzie and company
26:15
helped out Allstate and they came out with a thing.
26:19
And if you look up this book, it's called delay, deny, defend,
26:23
right? Just look it up, Delay, deny
26:24
defend basically. And it took courts years to get
26:28
them to release this report. But basically what the report
26:32
says is deny everybody in the beginning.
26:36
If you deny everybody in the beginning, a only a percentage
26:40
is going to fight. So, so usually, and, and you
26:45
know, these numbers may vary, but usually if an insurance
26:48
company essentially denies every claim or if every claim is below
26:52
deductible, typically only 20% are going to going to, you know,
26:57
question it. And then of that 20%, only 5%
27:01
are going to actually hire attorneys or a public insurance
27:05
adjustment. So I mean, it's a good business
27:07
model. I mean, if, if you want to call
27:10
it that, they're just using psychology.
27:13
So you're using the sort of the the business that comes in from
27:18
being a public adjuster to fill the funnel for the your other
27:22
business, the the rest. Of the business, yeah, that's
27:24
how it started and. But how do you get business as a
27:28
public adjuster to begin with? How do?
27:30
How do those leads come into you?
27:32
Well, you have different people that have different ways of
27:35
doing it. Now, one of the difference
27:37
between a public adjuster and an attorney is attorneys aren't
27:41
allowed to solicit. There's a difference between
27:43
solicit and advertising. That's why you see attorneys
27:47
have billboards everywhere, commercials everywhere, Radio,
27:50
they're advertising, right? An adjuster is allowed to
27:54
solicit. An adjuster can literally walk
27:57
up to your house, knock on your door and ask you do you need
28:01
his, his or her help? Now, I know other public
28:04
adjusters who go out to disaster areas and they feed for weeks
28:09
and they never ask for anybody to sign with them.
28:12
But it just so happens if you're feeding and giving in an area,
28:16
people are going to ask what you do and then go from there.
28:20
The way that I did it when I was taking on public adjuster
28:24
claims. And keep in mind, I haven't
28:26
taken a public adjuster claim in approximately 2 years now.
28:30
But when I was doing it, it was all word of mouth, All word of
28:34
mouth. I would help somebody and then
28:36
they would give me a compliment and I would say thank you.
28:39
I love compliments. Compliments are amazing.
28:41
But the best compliment is a referral.
28:44
And then that's how it would that would, that's how my
28:46
pipeline would stay filled. OK, so you're not taking on this
28:50
public adjuster work anymore. You you've got your own customer
28:55
base and now everything comes by word of mouth, referrals.
28:59
You got a happy customer, and that speaks louder than anything
29:02
else. Yes, Sir.
29:04
Now, I still attend and speak at public insurance adjusters and
29:08
attorney conferences. You know, because I already had
29:11
that credibility. I was actually just in
29:13
Galveston, TX at the path to indemnity conference in put on
29:18
by the Policyholders Preservation Association of
29:21
America. And, and once again I was
29:23
speaking to a room full of attorneys, public insurance
29:26
adjusters and contractors. I still have a public insurance
29:30
adjusters that call me on a daily basis to consult.
29:34
So it's, you know, I've, I've transcended, right?
29:37
Because once again, I, I, I want to, I, it's one thing to be good
29:42
at something and it's another thing that want to keep doing
29:45
it. I, I, I'm, if, if, if I was on
29:48
the debate team, you wouldn't be able to stop me, right?
29:51
But that's, that's not fun for me.
29:54
It doesn't give me energy to back somebody you know,
29:58
logically into a corner. Got it.
30:01
Look, how did you get into the franchise consulting side of
30:04
your business? How did that come about?
30:06
OK, so now my giving is what got it that way.
30:11
So I started with individuals when it came to helping them
30:17
with their wealth management and financing.
30:19
Then I moved on to include small businesses, helping them with
30:24
the same thing. And I'm always thinking how to
30:27
work smarter, not harder, right? So I say there's only three
30:33
types of business owners. And I learned this from it was a
30:36
Patrick Bet David podcast, but I don't recall who he was talking
30:39
to. But basically he said there are
30:40
three types of business owners. There are mountain climbers,
30:44
freedom fighters and Craftsman. All right, You have the
30:47
Craftsman who are who's great at what they do.
30:50
I know people in the neighborhood that can do
30:54
anything better than anybody that you can find.
30:57
They've been doing this for decades.
30:59
They are the best, but they only charge by the hour, right?
31:03
So what that means is instead of charging by the result, they
31:06
charge by the hour. So even though they're the best,
31:09
they're probably making the least on that totem pole.
31:12
All they care about is being the best that they can be.
31:15
They're not thinking about the business.
31:17
They're not thinking about how much money they just saved this
31:19
person. They just thinking about, hey,
31:21
I'm good at what that what I do. And I've always charged by the
31:24
hour. And even though I'm getting
31:26
better and better and my hours are getting lower and lower
31:30
because I'm getting better and better.
31:32
So you end up making less money. They're happy because they are
31:35
the in their minds and to a lot of people around them, they are
31:38
the best. You know, that's, that's one
31:40
type of business owner. You also have the freedom
31:42
fighters. I think I'll fall into the
31:45
freedom fighter category to where I like to work smarter,
31:48
not harder. I like to figure out ways that I
31:50
can still have just as big as impact, if not bigger by
31:55
spending less time. I'm building these things in
31:58
order for me to have more times to do things that I just, you
32:02
know, relaxing that I truly enjoy.
32:04
Right. And then you have the mountain
32:07
climbers. I think franchise owners are the
32:10
mountain climbers, right? They want to get bigger and
32:13
better every year. As soon as they exceed one goal,
32:17
they're setting another higher goal.
32:19
They they, they want to just keep growing.
32:21
So what I said was let me go ahead and start building some
32:25
relationships with these growth minded franchisors.
32:28
So what I did was I went to the conferences and I just started
32:33
recording them, interviewing them for my podcast.
32:35
But by the way, I do have a podcast.
32:37
It's called the Entrepreneurist Podcast, the place to hear real
32:40
entrepreneurs and business owners bear it all.
32:44
And, and it's it's one of the top 10% of podcasts in the
32:47
nation. Sorry, sorry.
32:49
Repeat the name again for everybody.
32:51
Entrepreneurist Podcast. The place to hear real
32:56
entrepreneurs and business owners bear it all.
32:59
I like to play on words. That's fun.
33:01
Sorry to interrupt you, but I wanted to make sure we called
33:03
attention to that and. People.
33:04
Oh no, I thank you. And whenever you seize anything
33:07
related to nudist, I think you should call attention to it
33:11
immediately, full stop. Right.
33:13
So what I did was I started interviewing these people like
33:18
for free. And I'm saying I'm going to put
33:21
them on my podcast and I'm going to give them free exposure.
33:24
And, and, and, and you know, thinking about the law of
33:27
reciprocity, if I do this enough, they're going to want to
33:31
do something for me, right? So what ended up happening is
33:36
not only was I talking to franchisors and franchisees and
33:40
franchise consultants after I would finish the interviews,
33:44
because, you know, just like yourself, you asked very
33:48
intuitive questions. And I'm imagining a lot of
33:51
questions that you asked, you already know the answer to, but
33:54
you want to give your guests the, the ability to show
33:57
whatever their expertise is to, to answer that question, right?
34:01
So I'm asking a lot of intuitive questions.
34:04
And then with more times than not, I would finish it.
34:08
And they say, are you a franchise consultant?
34:10
And I would say, Oh, no, they say you should be your franchise
34:14
consultant. And it just kept happening.
34:18
And then and so, and with the organization that I align myself
34:22
with, the franchise consulting company, I noticed that all the
34:26
consultants were telling me this, you know, and most times
34:28
you people have a, you know, a weird, a weird thing around
34:32
competition. So they don't want nobody to
34:35
come in. We're not realizing it's more
34:38
than enough for all of us. Like in every industry, anything
34:42
you want to get paid for, you can get paid for.
34:45
And anything that you're doing is more than enough for
34:47
everybody essentially to get in on it, right?
34:51
So I know that I say everybody has an abundant mind.
34:55
Everybody keeps inviting me, even though, you know, some
34:59
people might be like, Oh no, he's too good.
35:01
I don't want him to take on any of my business.
35:03
So I ended up aligning myself with them and very quickly they
35:08
made me the Co chair of the African American Franchise
35:11
Council. And and once again, it just
35:14
related to all that abundance. And then and I just been hitting
35:17
the ground running since then. It it's it's been a fun
35:21
experience. And so what's the service that
35:23
you provide? So basically we help
35:26
franchisors, but most. So I think our value comes in
35:31
with franchisees. A lot of people who want to own
35:35
a franchise, the reason why they want to own a franchise instead
35:38
of just start something from the ground up, bootstrap like I did,
35:42
it's 'cause either A, they realize that most businesses
35:45
started by themselves fail within the first five years or
35:51
they, they hold up. Most businesses that are
35:53
franchises, at least 85% succeed after the first five years.
35:58
And, and what's the reason that this is happening?
36:00
The reason that this is happening is because they
36:04
already have proven standard operating procedures.
36:07
They already have systems in place, They already bumped
36:10
their, the franchisors have already bumped their heads in
36:13
this industry over and over again.
36:17
As long as you follow the program, you got it.
36:19
And where most small new businesses can't get any money
36:23
at all, we have access to over 150 private equity groups to
36:28
where even though you're a brand new business owner, just because
36:32
that they see that you are aligned with this already
36:35
profitable franchise, they're giving you $400,000 plus just to
36:40
get started. That's amazing.
36:43
So how does somebody, if I understand correctly, you've got
36:46
a relationship with the franchisors where you're really
36:49
helping as the franchise come and they say, hey, I want to
36:51
start a business. I don't know what, you know, I
36:55
don't have an idea to start my own company.
36:57
I'd rather have sort of the security of an existing brand
37:00
and existing franchise that I can learn from.
37:03
They've got the systems, they can teach me, but but how do I
37:06
get started? Which, which one is right for
37:08
me? Is that part of the process that
37:09
you're taking them through is trying to figure out, OK, here
37:12
are all the options. Tell me more about who you are
37:14
as a person and let's see how these these these fit together.
37:18
Absolutely. What we're doing is I'm, I'm,
37:21
I'm causing very critical self-awareness.
37:26
I have a lot of the people that we work with, they have to put
37:29
together a business plan, not on the business, but on themselves.
37:33
Most people have never created a business plan on themselves.
37:38
And all of the attributes and virtues and characteristics that
37:42
make a good business is what makes a good person.
37:46
So one of the first things we do is we get very, very aware of
37:49
where you actually are. And I, and I do do believe the
37:53
reason why a lot of people were saying, thinking that I was a
37:56
franchise consultant before I was a franchise consultant was
38:00
because in, in my line of work, I have to force you to look at
38:04
yourself. One of the questions that I
38:06
asked people is say what, what, what's the first piece of
38:09
information that gets put into Agps in order for you to go
38:12
somewhere? And most people say you got to
38:15
put in the address where you're going.
38:16
I say no, you have to 1st put in where you at.
38:20
Now a lot of GPS is have it to where it automatically puts in
38:23
current location, but that's where it starts.
38:27
No, you cannot pass a direction to get somewhere without first
38:31
norm where you at. So what we do is we figure out
38:34
exactly where you at, right? And then we determine, all
38:38
right, is this just the status thing?
38:41
Because I have AI have a pet cremation business that their
38:46
margins is better than most businesses.
38:48
But will you be ashamed to say that you work with pet
38:52
cremation? Do you want to be able to say
38:55
you do this or that even though the margins aren't as good?
38:59
Or maybe the margins are as good, all right, But you don't
39:02
like the leaders of this company because even if the margins are
39:05
great, you have to make sure you like the people that are in
39:08
leadership, right, or else it won't be successful.
39:12
So all we do is we make people think about that.
39:15
The the leader of the franchise consulting company, Nick
39:19
Neonakis, one of the things he says is you got to treat each
39:22
step as if it's a slippery stone in a river.
39:27
You don't just run across slippery stones.
39:30
You, you step very lightly across each stone.
39:35
So all we do is we teach people how to step lightly.
39:38
And the franchisors, they like it too, because, you know, a lot
39:41
of people are just tired tire kickers.
39:43
They rather, instead of talking to 100 people, they might only
39:47
talk to 10 people because we've already had conversations with
39:51
that 100 people and 90 of them just want a good fit.
39:54
But the 10 people that we bring to you are people who seem to
39:58
align with your your culture, align with your business model,
40:02
and then you're able to funnel them down from there.
40:05
So how are you feeling your sales funnel for the franchise
40:09
side of the business? How are you finding these
40:10
franchisees who are interested in in a new opportunity?
40:14
Well, myself personally, I put out a lot of online content,
40:17
right? I, I prefer people to reach out
40:19
to me. It, it's better.
40:21
You know, I, one of my colleagues, Maddie, she says
40:26
she, she doesn't chase, she replaced, right?
40:29
And when people come to you, you kind of, you don't have to
40:33
replace as many, right, 'cause they don't feel like, like you'd
40:36
like to say you're soliciting them.
40:38
A lot of our people that's in the funnel.
40:40
They come in through the Great American Franchise Expo.
40:44
They have, they, they are in a different city every two weeks,
40:48
over 15, a thousand 1500 people attend every conference.
40:53
And basically you have a, a, a list of a line of franchisors
40:57
that are basically just telling what their business model is.
41:01
And you have potential franchisees.
41:02
And usually the average age of a franchise is approximately, you
41:07
know, 44 years old is usually as that person, they've, they've
41:10
probably been a manager and in leadership in the corporate
41:13
America for a while. And they, you know, they like
41:16
that structure, but at the same time they want to feel like it's
41:19
something of theirs that they're building.
41:22
And that's what we can provide for them.
41:24
One thing that we're doing in addition to the Great American
41:27
Franchise Expo, which we do have one coming up in Charlotte, it's
41:31
June, it's May 30th and 30th. No, it's June 1st and 2nd.
41:36
We have coming up in Charlotte, the Great American Franchise
41:39
Expo. One thing that we're
41:40
specifically doing for the African American Franchise
41:45
Council, So what we're doing is we're finding franchisors that
41:49
are willing to give away franchise territories at no
41:53
cost, right? And because these franchisors
41:56
already have these proven systems, we have private equity
42:01
groups that are willing to fund the build out and all of that
42:05
because they're following this. And then a lot of these cities,
42:09
because we're meeting with the coalition of Black mayors next
42:12
month, is all the black mayors throughout the United States.
42:15
A lot of them have cities with empty buildings, dilapidated
42:19
buildings. Imagine if you now have a new
42:22
business coming in, bringing in tax dollars, right?
42:25
You have funding from these private equity groups building
42:28
out these buildings that have that were, that probably have
42:31
haven't been used for years or decades.
42:33
Now you have a city that's earning tax dollars, you have
42:37
more businesses for the for the people who live in the city to
42:41
use. And whenever the franchisor
42:44
leaves, if they leave, now you get as a city, you get to keep
42:48
all the betterments. Now we're not just doing this
42:50
for black cities. We want to do this for every
42:52
city, but it's just something that people can think of.
42:55
This is what we can bring. We bring tax dollars, we bring
42:58
jobs, we bring bright futures franchising.
43:02
And so I'm assuming that once you get a franchise customer
43:08
there, it's probably a natural lead in to the other services
43:12
that you provide in terms of wealth management.
43:15
You're smart, man. That's why I went out there in
43:17
the 1st place. It just so happened that I just
43:19
found a new revenue stream. But yes, it's it's definitely a
43:23
natural lead in because it's not about how much you make, it's
43:26
about how much you can legally keep.
43:29
And that's the way I go. All right, yeah, this is a great
43:31
business model. How much of this do you want to
43:34
keep? Right.
43:35
Because here's the thing. I do know some red blooded
43:38
Americans. I'm a red blooded American as
43:40
well. I know that there is a function
43:43
for taxes, right? However, even the people who
43:47
truly believe that taxes are necessary, which they are in a
43:51
lot of instances, I say don't know, be so sure of what you
43:56
want that you wouldn't accept some something better.
43:58
There are a lot of people who get visibly upset if they feel
44:03
like somebody isn't paying their fair share of taxes and you
44:07
would love for them to pay millions of dollars in taxes.
44:11
All I say is don't be so sure of what you want that you wouldn't
44:14
accept something better. What if I could teach you the
44:18
legal way to do it yourself? Right.
44:21
And, and I'm not telling you just to be selfish.
44:25
If you truly believe that taxes are necessary, my next question
44:28
is, do you believe that they're handling your tax dollars
44:31
appropriately? Do you believe that they're
44:33
managing your tax dollars appropriately?
44:35
If you think not or maybe not, wouldn't you prefer to keep a
44:40
lot of that money yourself so you can give to your the people
44:43
that you know like and trust that you can give to the
44:45
charities that you know like and trust that you yourself can see
44:49
how this money is being managed because you're giving it out
44:52
yourself? I think a lot of people would
44:54
take that that option. Randolph, what's a serious
44:58
challenge that you had to overcome in your professional
45:01
career? Maybe some lessons that you
45:02
learned from it? Well, I would say a serious
45:06
challenge was probably, you know, and this is a, this is a
45:10
term that a lot of people use. I wouldn't say that this the
45:14
term that I ever used, but a lot of people heard of the term
45:18
imposter syndrome right? Now, the way that I break this
45:23
down for people is a lot of people know the term con man,
45:27
right? And then I asked him, do you
45:29
know what con man is short for? And most people don't know that
45:32
con man is actually abbreviated confidence man, right?
45:36
So what ends up happening is this confidence man gives you
45:41
all this enthusiasm, spews all this confidence on you.
45:45
They get you to part with your money and then they disappear,
45:48
right? Whereas a typical business
45:50
owner, we understand that periodically we're going to have
45:55
to take on an assignment or a project.
45:59
This is a little bit too big for what we currently know, right?
46:04
And what I with me, it was one of those things of knowing, all
46:08
right, OK, maybe I don't understand how to do this yet,
46:14
but I know I'm the type of person that if I get the
46:17
contract signed, I'm going to figure out how to do it.
46:20
And that's, in my opinion, that's the difference between a
46:23
typical con man, a confidence man, and a good business owner.
46:27
If you're going to grow, if you're going to help more
46:29
people, if you're going to give give more positive impact, every
46:34
once in a while, you're going to have to take on something that's
46:37
a little bit out of your reach. But being the person that you
46:40
are, the good business owner that you are, you have to do it.
46:43
That's what I overcame once I realized, all right, the more
46:47
you know, the more you know, the more you don't know, right?
46:50
I thought I couldn't. Eventually I could know
46:52
everything. But then once I realized it's
46:54
impossible for me to know everything.
46:56
So therefore I can't keep turning down these opportunities
47:00
because I don't feel like I'm ready.
47:02
I need to align myself with the right people to where when these
47:06
opportunities come along and I need to prepare.
47:10
And so where, when these opportunities come along, I can
47:13
take it and then I can get it. Because how do you eat an
47:16
elephant? One bite at a time.
47:19
Yes, Sir. Randolph, what's something you
47:23
wish you could teach a younger version of yourself?
47:25
Seems pretty common sense now, but if you had known that when
47:29
you were 20 years old, what would have helped?
47:32
Ah man, Love Is All it takes. Because a lot of us, you know,
47:40
we, we get adversely affected by the rumors and innuendo, right?
47:44
But imagine if you're somebody who always leaves with love,
47:49
right? Everybody that you encounter,
47:51
you're giving. Everybody that you encounter,
47:55
you're loving. If you're tempted to criticize,
47:58
you bite on your tongue. When you move the praise, you
48:01
shout from the rooftops, that's Augmentino, the greatest
48:03
salesman in the world. If you do that, don't, don't,
48:07
don't, don't, don't listen to the rumors, but don't contribute
48:10
to the rumors. Always love people.
48:13
Because what happens is if somebody is trying to disparage
48:16
you, because the thing about manipulators is if they can't
48:19
get you to do what they want, their next job is to convince
48:23
people to change what they think about you, right?
48:27
But if you're somebody who leads with love, all those people that
48:30
you've given to that you gave love to, they might hear that
48:34
rumor, They might hear that innuendo, but they're not going
48:37
to believe it. Now you're going to have a
48:38
segment of society that's definitely going to believe it
48:41
that that that wasn't your crew, that wasn't your tribe.
48:46
Somebody told me a long time ago, and I believe this and I've
48:48
been living by it ever since. They say the way that you tell a
48:51
good friend is by the people that they introduce you to.
48:55
If you ever, if you want to know a bad friend, keep paying
48:58
attention to the type of people they introduce you to.
49:00
Like, wow, you introduced me to this person.
49:02
You, you, you really want it, this person that be in my, in my
49:06
immediate vicinity. What do you really think about
49:08
me? Right?
49:10
But the good people, they introduce you to good people and
49:13
good people recognize good people.
49:15
So if I could go back and tell my younger person, my own
49:18
younger self, something which, you know, I, I, it was a theory
49:21
at the time, but it's a theory that I tested it.
49:24
I would say, hey, you know that theory that we, we always show
49:27
people love. We, we don't contribute to the
49:29
rumors. We, we, we are, we always are
49:32
trying to give, give. If I know it's a theory now, but
49:37
it's me from the future. It was proven.
49:40
Where did the theory come from? Is that something you learn from
49:42
your family? From a mentor.
49:45
It must be family, man. As the twig bends, so grows the
49:49
tree, right? One thing that I, you know, and,
49:54
and this is a touchy subject because I don't have any kids
49:57
yet, right? At least none that I know of,
49:58
right? But so one thing that I don't
50:01
get, I give a lot of advice, people give me advice, but one
50:04
thing that I'm very careful of is giving advice to people with
50:07
children because I know once you have kids, it all changes.
50:10
But one question that I asked a lot of my friends and colleagues
50:14
is like, how long does innocence last, right?
50:18
How long are you going to not tell your child things that you
50:22
know to be true or not? Have conversations with them
50:25
because you want to protect their innocence.
50:27
And usually they say about 13 years old.
50:30
By that time that child has been programmed.
50:33
That child was a twig back then. You could have instilled in them
50:37
all of the virtues that would make the rest of their lives
50:42
amazing. But instead, because you didn't
50:45
download into them these good things, because you wanted to
50:47
protect their innocence, somebody else was allowed to
50:50
upload their philosophies, which probably want philosophies that
50:54
for their good. Now they're spending because
50:56
most people don't even do this. But now they're spending decades
50:59
doing self work just to shave off the solid limbs that they've
51:04
developed when it could have been shaped by you as a when
51:08
they were younger and they were twigs.
51:11
I believe my family, they treated me like an adult.
51:16
I was cutting my my granddaddy's yard at the age of four.
51:19
People don't believe me. I was four years old cutting the
51:21
yard. My granddaddy let me cut that
51:23
entire yard before he told me. Now you see those little lines
51:27
between, I don't know if you ever cut the yard, but you have
51:30
to, you have to slightly overlap the line that you did.
51:33
He let me cut the entire yard and he said, hey, you missed
51:37
those lines right there, right? I was washing my own clothes by
51:41
the age of 6. I was walking we I was walking
51:44
from elementary school at six years old by myself right now, I
51:49
wouldn't recommend, you know, in today's age, right for a lot of
51:52
these things, right that I was put through.
51:55
But what it is is it's just what it is.
51:57
I would be going to the store. Friends of mines would steal out
52:01
of the store. I couldn't steal because it was,
52:04
it was taught to me all of these things when I was younger or
52:08
what you're supposed to do. So I credit it to my upbringing
52:13
and that they didn't just rest on.
52:15
I want him to stay innocent. But because I wasn't allowed to
52:20
stay innocent for so long, I think it allowed me to have
52:26
these, you know, ideals at an early age.
52:30
Randolph, you've dropped a lot of wise and insightful quotes on
52:34
us today, which has been a lot of fun.
52:37
I I'm curious, aside from your family, who you you've already
52:40
called out and given credit to, are there specific mentors or
52:45
books, authors maybe that have been particularly influential in
52:50
your personal and professional development?
52:53
Oh yeah, absolutely. You have Think and Grow Rich by
52:56
Napoleon Hill. Very good book.
52:59
You have The Greatest Salesman in the World by Aug Mandino.
53:04
Very good book. You have a book called Psycho
53:07
Pythography, which I can't remember the authors.
53:10
I don't want to try to guess this isn't at his name, but it's
53:12
called Psycho Pythography. I think it was published back in
53:16
the 60s, if not earlier. And basically what that book
53:19
does is it basically all truths are parallel.
53:23
A lot of people when you realize it was usually be usable and
53:26
workable in one facet of life is usable and workable in another.
53:30
And what they do is they tell you a truth and then they point
53:34
it to how in your actual life, how it must be true.
53:39
That's Vernon Howard. There you go.
53:40
Vernon Howard. What?
53:42
What? What other books never split the
53:45
difference by by Chris Voss. He definitely crushes a lot of
53:50
things that we think are intuitive, right?
53:53
He said, hey man, 'cause he he was AFBI negotiator and
53:58
terrorist negotiator. He said terrorists are more
54:00
reasonable than the average business person.
54:04
That's frightening to think about.
54:06
And and, and, and when you go through his book, it's true.
54:08
Like, you know, for, for example, he, he, he, he phrases
54:12
everything in a negative, right? Because most people psychology.
54:16
And here's the thing, a lot of people have their own feelings
54:19
about learning psychology. My question is, does the whole
54:25
world not run on psychology? I think most people will agree.
54:29
So are you telling me only the bad people are allowed to learn
54:33
what runs the entire world, Right.
54:35
So what we do is what he says is most people, they, they, they,
54:39
they, they prefer to say no and they prefer to correct you.
54:44
So when you ask questions in the negative, even though that seems
54:47
counterintuitive, it allows them to tell you no what's true.
54:53
And what happens is, and even if they initially would have just
54:56
told you no because you asked the positive, because once
54:58
again, the knee jerk reaction is to say no to most people,
55:02
they'll tell you no. So they, they, they did what
55:04
they, they knee jerk reaction is they get to correct you, which
55:09
also makes them feel good and releasing the good chemicals in
55:12
their brain. And then y'all are working to
55:14
collaborate on how y'all can reach a mutual agreement
55:18
together. It's not manipulation, it's
55:20
influence. It's using psychology to help
55:22
everybody get the best out of the deal.
55:24
That's. Pretty clever, Randolph, What's
55:28
a fun fact most people wouldn't know about you?
55:31
Well, one fun fact is I used to make music, right?
55:35
I've been on Billboard. I still get hundreds of
55:38
thousands of streams a year. You know, it's just another
55:41
revenue stream. I, I haven't, I haven't created
55:44
music in a long time, but it's something it's, it's kind of
55:48
almost like a stock. It just keeps growing and
55:50
growing and growing. So usually people are pretty.
55:54
They pretty. You're like, Nah, no.
55:57
And then, you know, sometimes they look it up and they're
55:59
like, oh, man, you, you, not only did you make music, you
56:02
made good music. And not only did you make good
56:04
music, people are still listening to it today.
56:07
You can look up some of my music and you can see people in Japan
56:10
doing whole dance routines on it.
56:11
So it's very cool. What kind of music it's?
56:14
Just one. It was just one, one phase of my
56:17
life, right? What?
56:18
What kind of music? I mean, R&B, rap, the list goes
56:24
on. Pop it.
56:25
You know, it's the universal language and you know, I've
56:28
always been a wordsmith. So it's it's one of those things
56:32
to where it's just different ways to say different things.
56:36
And do you still play? Do you still record?
56:39
Do. You still, I haven't done it in
56:40
a while now. I, I did recently talk to one of
56:43
my colleagues. He's looking for interns and I'm
56:47
like, man, I got you remember, I'm a freedom fighter, right?
56:51
So I like man, I, I got more free time.
56:54
Maybe I need to, you know, go hang out and, and, you know,
56:57
work behind the, the, the keys and, and record some music from
57:01
people and give them some of my insight and advice.
57:03
Because a lot of the things that made me successful in music and
57:06
also made me successful as a fractional CFO.
57:09
That's also making me successful as a a franchise consultant and
57:14
also Co chair of the African American Franchise Council is
57:18
that I see the truth and I do it right.
57:22
I do best practices once I and and I'm I'm a person, I ask dumb
57:25
questions. I refuse to search for hours and
57:30
hours when I can ask somebody 20 years older than me what the
57:33
answer is. All right, yeah, I can go and
57:35
validate what they told me. But I'd rather start from a
57:38
place of wisdom and then go validate to see if it's still
57:42
workable today. So it'll be good to probably,
57:46
you know, be around young artists and tell them things
57:49
that I learned and know and what made me be able to get those
57:54
accolades that I did in the relatively short time that I was
57:57
doing it. So what do you do for fun
57:59
outside of work now? Man, it this all right, Let me
58:03
tell you this used to be a tough question for me because I used
58:07
to always get stumbled when people ask me what I did for fun
58:10
because what I do for fun is what most people do for hate,
58:13
right? I learned for fun like I love
58:18
the I learned for fun. Like what?
58:19
What? Let me see something new.
58:21
Because once again, I, I, because I understand all truths
58:24
of parallel. Even though I'm learning about
58:26
one thing, I'm always able to apply it to so many other
58:31
things. Mr. Wonderful or Kevin O'Leary,
58:35
I remember or somebody asked him how was he able to sell his
58:38
education company for over a billion dollars and most
58:41
education companies can't sell it.
58:43
He said, nobody's never asked me this question.
58:46
Well, what happened was I used to be in the cat food industry
58:50
and in the cat food industry, it had two bases, tuna and beef.
58:54
But depending on what they sprinkled on the tuna or what
58:57
they sprinkled on the beef, they were able to sell it for a lot
59:00
more. And that way they had a larger
59:03
cat catalog of, of of of products.
59:07
He said what he noticed in the education industry is people
59:10
would spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to create a
59:13
new math course or create a new English course.
59:16
And because, and he said those are just the two engines.
59:19
That's the that's the beef and the tuna.
59:21
All I need to do is we keep the same course, but just license it
59:27
out to different characters. One course, because it's it was
59:30
kids course for English and math.
59:32
One course is being taught by Mickey Mouse.
59:34
Another course is being caught by Dumbo.
59:36
Another course is being taught by Daffy Duck.
59:39
Same material, same 2 engines, but different licenses.
59:44
And when a company went to acquire them, they saw they had
59:46
all these products, which is simply the same two products but
59:51
with different licenses. So when I learn something in one
59:54
industry, I always apply it to another when I learn something.
59:58
So that's why I love to learn, because it's so many
1:00:00
applications and so many different things.
1:00:03
I like that. Randolph, I have just one more
1:00:06
question for you. But before I ask it, I want to
1:00:08
do 2 things. First of all, I invite the
1:00:10
audience. If you like today's content,
1:00:11
please hit the subscribe, like or share button on your favorite
1:00:14
podcast app. The second thing I want to do is
1:00:17
to tell people how to get in touch with you.
1:00:19
You've got a lot of interesting things going on.
1:00:22
What's the best way for people to get in contact with you?
1:00:25
All right, you can reach out to me at shieldwolfstrong.com.
1:00:28
That's SHIELDWOLF strong.com, or you can check out my podcast,
1:00:38
the Entrepreneurs Podcast at entrepreneurs.com and that's
1:00:41
ENTREPRENUD ist.com. If they misspelled that, are
1:00:51
they going to get redirected to something?
1:00:54
I can't control what's in your search history.
1:00:57
That's on y'all. You, you think your provider
1:01:00
don't realize every time you go to private browser what you're
1:01:02
doing? They know what's going on,
1:01:04
right? But now, yeah, I hope, I hope
1:01:06
you don't spell it the wrong way.
1:01:08
But yeah, it definitely worked out for me.
1:01:10
I think it provided enough shock value to where people just
1:01:13
listen just like what is this? And then, you know, they, they
1:01:17
ended up liking the content. I like it.
1:01:19
So last question for you, Randolph.
1:01:21
How do you see the industries that you're involved in evolving
1:01:24
in the next five years? What do you think the big
1:01:26
changes that are coming are going to affect your your
1:01:28
career? I see.
1:01:33
I see people being more made more aware and more
1:01:37
knowledgeable about what these wealthy families have known for
1:01:41
over a century. I see it being more, more
1:01:46
acceptable because a lot of people don't realize this.
1:01:49
In EF Hutton, which was a brokerage company in the 1980s,
1:01:53
they were the first ones to bring how life insurance works
1:01:56
to the masses, right? And guess what?
1:02:00
It was OK when the wealthy families were doing it, but once
1:02:03
they brought it to the masses, that's when the IRS sued EF
1:02:07
Hutton and the IRS lost. And of course, you know,
1:02:11
whenever the IRS loses, some laws have to get changed, right?
1:02:14
So that's when they came up with Tamara Teffra and Debra.
1:02:17
So maybe it may be possible that they might eliminate this for
1:02:22
people completely. But here's the thing, you'll get
1:02:26
grandfathered in if you like what I was talking about, how
1:02:29
you can utilize these Internal Revenue codes 72 E 77 O two and
1:02:34
one O 1A to grow your money tax free.
1:02:36
Utilize it while you alive tax free and when you die, blossoms
1:02:40
and passes to your heirs tax free.
1:02:42
You need to do this sooner than later because if you lock it in
1:02:45
now, you'll get grandfathered in.
1:02:47
If they decide to eliminate this, which is possible, every
1:02:51
two years they bring it up and just so happens every two years.
1:02:56
Everything is, you know, the status quo is still going, but
1:03:00
we have no idea. So a potential change is they're
1:03:04
going to shut out a lot of this for people to utilize their
1:03:07
money. And as far as franchising is
1:03:09
concerned of the FTC, the Federal Trade Commission just
1:03:13
recently banned non competes. That's a big deal and I like it.
1:03:19
The reason why I like it and you know, some people might hate it,
1:03:21
but the reason why I like it is it's going to force leaders to
1:03:25
be better leaders. If you know that somebody can
1:03:28
leave your company and start another company right next to
1:03:30
you doing the same thing, essentially you're going to
1:03:33
treat them better. And if you are somebody who you,
1:03:36
you know, you're good at what you do, but you just didn't like
1:03:39
the leadership and now you're you were stuck under this non
1:03:42
compete and I keep man, you got me foaming at the mouth.
1:03:46
You were stuck under this non compete that has that that kept
1:03:50
you down and now you can get out.
1:03:52
So now it's going to bring in more competition.
1:03:55
And what's going to happen is the cream is going to rise to
1:03:58
the top and and somebody's going to be able to do what you're
1:04:02
doing just as good, if not better for a lower price.
1:04:06
It's going to force you to either get provide more value,
1:04:10
treat your people better and give better prices.
1:04:14
So I mean, I'm OK with it. I like it, Randolph, I want to
1:04:17
be the first one to thank you for taking the time to Share
1:04:20
your story today. I really.
1:04:21
Appreciate it, man. Thank you for bringing me on,
1:04:23
Anthony. I truly, truly appreciate it.
1:04:26
I'm, I, I, I don't know what you have going on, but I was just
1:04:30
talking to my, my my colleagues say yeah, man, I'm, I'm about to
1:04:33
start doing some more podcasts myself, right.
1:04:36
And and just like magic, you were in my inbox, so thank you
1:04:40
the. The universe had something in
1:04:42
mind for us to get together. Yes, Sir.
1:04:44
I appreciate that. That's a wrap on another episode
1:04:47
of the Inspired Stories podcast. Thanks for learning with us
1:04:50
today.