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274: How The Profit First Policy Method Changed Brandon Neely’s Life · Wealth On Main Street

• 0:00
  Speaker A: Foreign.
• 0:11
  Speaker B: Welcome to wealth on Main street, where conversations about growing your wealth are fun and entertaining. Wealth isn't just about money. It's the skills and the knowledge that we develop to pass on to future generations. Tune in each week to to grow your mindset and your net worth at the same time.
• 0:36
  Speaker C: All right, welcome back to wealth on Main Street. And today's guest is someone who doesn't just talk about financial transformation. He's actually lived it. And joining us today is Brandon Neely. He's an entrepreneur, profit first professional. He's also a co host of his own financial podcast named Wealth Wisdom Financial podcast with his wife Amanda. And what's interesting, so we always love to talk to entrepreneurs, business owners. They ran Overflow Coffee Bar for a full decade, an entire decade. A business and a marriage that survived that much caffeine is definitely worth talking about. But here's the kicker. That's really good. You know, after brewing up community and connection in the Chicago area, they turned their entrepreneurial grind into a mission to help individuals and couples and business owners actually profit on purpose. And so Brandon's here. We're looking forward to having a really, really great conversation. And if you've ever felt like budgeting was like eating broccoli, I guess Brandon's here to add the cheese sauce. And so Brandon, you.
• 1:49
  Speaker A: Dairy free cheese sauce. Yeah.
• 1:52
  Speaker C: So you and Amanda. So you ran a community based business for 10 years. I mean, a coffee bar. That's what I interpret it to be. And then you transitioned into financial strategy, which is not really the typical career progression from coffee bar to financial strategy. And so what was, I'm, I'm genuinely curious. Like, what was the moment where you said, okay, there's a better way to help people and it's not just through cups of coffee.
• 2:22
  Speaker A: Yeah. Well, thanks guys for having me. First off. And I, I've. What you guys do and how you serve people there and way up in Canada, I'm not going to say anything about 50 first states or anything like that, but way up there, I love that. But here's what we did. We were in doing this thing overflow. We wanted to change the world. Our business was overflow. And the reason was where we called it that is because it was about changing our, ourselves, the community and the world. And there's a feedback loop, you know, Jesus and God is in center and then it just flows. Right. That was our idea.
• 3:01
  Speaker C: Okay.
• 3:03
  Speaker A: And so we had this idea. We had no rich relatives, no nobody that helped us along the way. We just took out credit cards And, And. And hustle to. To make this happen. Which not the best move if there's other ways to go. I learned other ways other time later, I guess we're going through this. We watched this documentary called Banking with Life and learned about this concept called infinite Banking and said, oh, well, we've done all this, right? We've done the coffee shop, but something needs to change on our finances until we. We immediately talked to our friend and started our policies. Now, now why am I here as opposed to doing something else? Well, here's what happened five, six years into the business, and I would say we were almost at 10 years, probably more like 8 of the business. So what. What happened was we're at the gym, we're trying to work out, we're trying to do all the things to be healthy. And there was a. They were doing some. Some work on the roof. So the roof was not on the building, mind you. And then there was a storm and it rained a lot. And so I got called from my staff saying, you need to come in. I was like, well, I'll be there later. Like, it's no big deal. And they said, no, you need to come in right now. The store is falling apart. I was like, oh, okay. And they had called my wife, too, at this time. And we see. I'm like, prove it. You know, you guys are just, seriously, this is not that big a deal. And you see the store literally falling apart. And we run to the store and we're in water. We're running. I mean, it was bad. And it was because of my policies that I was able to overcome the flood and sell the business.
• 4:52
  Speaker C: Oh, wow.
• 4:53
  Speaker A: Because I had access to capital because I was saving in that. Because my biggest risk was me. My biggest investment was me. Right? And you just happened to see your biggest risk, your biggest investment, your business underwater almost. And it was like when people say there's black swan events happening, this was a hyper local hurricane to just my store, nobody else. And that was one of those things that I'm like, all right, now we're going to sell. And then my friends, like, I had a job posting. I applied. I didn't know my wife was pregnant at the time. And when we were having this. This flood, and we're like, she's like, go get a job. I was like, I'm not employable. I wasn't. And then he had a position, and he's like, yeah, I don't think you're good. You're too entrepreneurial. But I have an idea how about you and your wife. Start your own agency and I'll train you. I had no idea about the financial industry that Dave Ramsey loves to hate on us or any of that stuff. I just knew this system was able. I was able to sell my business, not close it, because of my policies.
• 6:00
  Speaker B: Wow.
• 6:01
  Speaker A: Right? That's what I knew. And so I was like, well, I can sell that. Then I get into this, and you learn that all this other crap that you're like, wait, what? Seriously, this is stupid. It was just experience that led me into this. And then I go into it, and we've been doing this for, I don't know, seven, eight years. Almost seven, because my son is seven and loving it. Helping people, using our policies, buying more policies and buying offices with our policies. And people tell you, you can't do that. And I can say, well, yes, you can. And they say, well, no, you can. I'm like, well, I did. So you can. Anyway, these happen, you know, these conversations you have. Oh, yeah.
• 6:41
  Speaker C: Oh, yeah.
• 6:44
  Speaker A: That's why I'm here and still trying to help more people, because we need to. We need to take control of our finances. And most people are sleepwalking. So that's why I do it.
• 6:54
  Speaker B: It's interesting. It sounds like, you know, the experience of your coffee shop literally being underwater, being in a position where you're able to make that change, you are already saving using policy premiums. You'd learned that along the way because of the documentary you'd watched. So you're implementing for your own purposes. You know, I'm curious, at what point did profit first come along? Because running a business, sometimes it's hard to recognize you have to set your profits aside first and pay yourself first. But to a degree, you had been doing that with policies already. So I'm curious if. If you kind of fell into the profit first model after the fact, and. And when did you incorporate those. That training and that. That leverage in your business to help entrepreneurs understand how they can change the equation of who gets paid first in their business?
• 7:45
  Speaker A: I think it was all an evolution. Like, for us, the policies came before profit first, as you noticed, right? And we were like, oh, well, we need to save. We need to make sure we're good. But we were not paying ourselves. We were living off of tips from the tip jar and the staff makes more. And that's why at one point we said, this business, I can eat ramen all day long, but when you have a kid coming, like, I don't know if I'm going to do that. And so we started to make sure we're paid first. And we would. Then that was like, I think four or five years. We listened to a podcast. This is in 2017, when we started ours. You remember back in the day when people didn't, like, didn't know what podcasts were? We listened to a podcast from Mike Michalowicz and they were given out from free books. And I was like, man, I can write a review and get a free book.
• 8:39
  Speaker B: That's right in our price range.
• 8:40
  Speaker A: Yeah. I was like, shoot, I'll do that.
• 8:42
  Speaker C: We can put it on our credit card.
• 8:44
  Speaker A: So I wrote it, wrote a review, got it and wrapped it and put it under the tree and gave it to my wife. And that was the best present ever for her. She loved it. And I was like, man. And it was free. Amazing. And that was really where we started saying, okay, we need to start doing the systems. And then if you understand profit first, which by the way, Mike Kalowitz does like infinite banking.
• 9:13
  Speaker C: Oh yeah, we know, we know him.
• 9:15
  Speaker A: He says it. He is a very big fan. He won't say it, you know, because Dave Ramsey and all the other stuff, marketing wise, whatever, only die on too many, you know, whatever we learned making sure we do those buckets, we just happen to put one our tax hold account in a policy. So it's a really amazing system. When you understand profit first and you understand infinite banking and you understand cash flow, it's awesome.
• 9:40
  Speaker C: And so when you, when you look back at Overflow Coffee, so what. What do you wish. What do you wish you had known about money that you now teach clients every day?
• 9:54
  Speaker A: A couple things that I would say that in, in running that business is Uncle Sam. And your credit card companies, they never show up to work ever. And they always want money. And you're like, holy crap, how much am I paying in processing fees and all these taxes? And I'm like, I'm not getting anything. And so learning the financial system, this is why I'm a. I'm still a person of. Of. I want to change the world. I want to make a difference. Why I went from coffee ethical economics to money is because I still think there's ethical economics that we should be going after. And so our, our mantra with Overflow was about the ethical economics and community building. What do we do here? We build a community of people that are making a difference we their finances. And it's being ethical with their money and not just giving it to some crazy person on Wall Street. That's really. They're just told, hey, you're not here to serve people, you're here to make money. And I'm like, maybe there's a different way. So that's kind of why I'm here. And it's still a, a altruistic. I didn't know you could make this much money in money in this world. I just did it to change lives.
• 11:18
  Speaker C: Wow, that's powerful.
• 11:20
  Speaker B: The impact of, you know, starting the policy for yourself and the decision to do that, that's. That's one step. And people are usually something's going on for them that prompts them to take that initial step. I think there's a degree of that that happens with profit first as well. And you've experienced that now in speaking to people. What do you find, Brandon, is, you know, from you and your wife's perspective, other than watching the documentary film and being inspired by the idea, was there something else at the core that made you guys decide as a team that you needed to begin the process of becoming your own banker for yourself?
• 11:59
  Speaker A: It was again, seeing that of us being the biggest investment and this idea of why would I. And why would I be putting into other people's businesses and not my own? And so that was like this idea of. And watching that documentary and Nelson Nash and his faith was like, man, I can follow that. And that's where my values, both faith values and personal values led me into this. Because our financial system definitely doesn't reflect our faith values most of the time. I don't know if you've noticed that, but it's, it's definitely greed and fear is there. I'm like, I don't think that's the kingdom of God, personally. So that's what, what led us in that. And then learning the 10-10-10 savings rule of saving a percentage using richest man in Babylon, that kind of led us into what's our premium. Right. And then we've just expanded over time. Our first policies were 400 bucks a month. That's what. That was a lot for us. And now, now I know I tithe more than I make back then. So it's just kind of the overflow principle, I guess you could say. Still happening.
• 13:20
  Speaker B: Wow.
• 13:20
  Speaker A: That's your question?
• 13:22
  Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. And you know, you and your wife obviously being in business together, tag teaming still, what's it like to be on, on the inside of a, of a tag team partnership where you're now helping people in the environment you help them in? How do you find that that shows up when you're serving families and, and you know, husband and wives with kids. I imagine there's some components there that are maybe unique to you guys because you're, you're doing this together.
• 13:50
  Speaker A: Yeah, I, I'd see it as like almost like the hive mind. Like by doing it together, there's so much more power that happens when you're in community, when you're just trying to do it by yourself. And I mean, no offense to people that have their wives of, you know, doing something else, but she's smarter than me anyway, so if something goes in more complex, I'm like, hey, I'm going to call in the cfp and she'll answer all this technical stuff. And when it comes to eos, if you ever remember that EOS track. Track, like traction.
• 14:29
  Speaker C: Oh yeah.
• 14:30
  Speaker A: I'm, I'm more entrepreneur, she's more integrator. And you need both. And so I think that it allows us also, what we've learned a couple things, and we wrote a book on this as well, is we need to make sure that we aren't fully our business or our policies or whatever. And so we had to make sure that we have date night. And we do the certain things that are important to our marriage because our marriage is first, above even the business. But out of, again, out of the overflow of that, we can do so much more. So we've learned a lot. I'm also a caretaker of my mother in law for I've been married for 18. My mother in law's live with me for 12, so that's always fun. She has a policy and she also has a policy on my son, so she's paying for it. So it's not coming out of my cash flow, which is even better. And so grandma's paying for my son's policy, so it's going up and down all the which way.
• 15:38
  Speaker C: Wow. And with you and Amanda helping people, I guess design, best word I could say is legacy. Right, right. Design, legacy. So given that you both do that, how do you define legacy in a way that's simple and practical? Like Richard and I often run into definitions of it that are really just, they're just poetic. So how do you define legacy in a way that's simple and practical?
• 16:12
  Speaker A: So that's a hard question, I think. Cause it's very unique to each person. And you guys have done financial analysis. I've done so many of them. And they're like, oh, I just want time, freedom and to be able to live on the beach and whatever. And you know, all the fun things of financial freedom, whatever that means for me. I'm like, I want my son, legacy wise, to be able to understand how finance works now or money. Like right now he's an investing club with his mom. You know, they do investing club. He's six or seven now and he's learned this shirt donor, my compounding. He has one too. And so with this shirt, he's like, how come you guys got a shirt? And I didn't. I was like, well, because you weren't at an event. He's like, well, I'm going to be an event. So he was at an event recently and he's seven again. And so for me, I'm like, what that means is teaching him the core. Not about which ETFs to invest in or any of this. It's about the 10-10-10 savings rule. The 10% of all you earn is for you to keep or tithing. Those kind of principles I think are more important. And what I want to teach along the lines. And so our book is Five Smooth Stones. And what that is is a moving from chaos, which we call confusion, haphazard, anxious, overwhelming and stressful, to still setting your sights, tracking your in and out, inspecting your progress, looking for 1% and living deliberately. What I believe is most people are sleepwalking through life. A policy is setting your sights, tracking. And that's what we do in financial analysis. Right. We're asking those questions and we're just like, okay, now you have to live deliberately, put premium in. And so that's something that I want my son, I only have one child, but how do I get that? And how do I help him not just get the money because he's going to get rich, you know, I know that's going to happen, but I want him to have the values of what it means to be a, I don't know, person of faith, person of integrity. Does, does that make sense? Those kind of things?
• 18:40
  Speaker C: That makes perfect sense because it creates a very stable, just a very stable way of being.
• 18:48
  Speaker A: Yeah. And.
• 18:50
  Speaker B: Right.
• 18:50
  Speaker A: Like life insurance. I don't know, it's.
• 18:54
  Speaker C: I find that with, with kids. And we express this at every opportunity where we can give kids credit where credit is due. They're much smarter and more conceptual than most would give them credit for because they don't have that broader language that we as adults can use and throw around like ETFs and dividend reinvesting and stocks and equities and securities and they don't have that language. But if they have a very stable way of being. Because they're well grounded in family values. They're well grounded in blessing other people's lives in a positive way. Just the very act of doing that.
• 19:39
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 19:40
  Speaker C: They grow into very conceptual, kind giving adults. And all that we do as parents is just keep them between the guardrails.
• 19:55
  Speaker A: So what do you guys do? I'm curious because I know with us our family is Neely show up when we serve in our church. And I said, well, 20, 80% of people aren't going to show up, but Neely's do.
• 20:09
  Speaker C: We give, we give 15% of every gross revenue dollar that we earn from any of my companies. 1 5%.
• 20:20
  Speaker A: I think those, those things. Right. How do you, how do you guys do that with your kids? What do you, how do you do that yourself? Like that's, that's me. How do, what do you guys do? I know your kids. I've seen them on stage.
• 20:33
  Speaker C: Well, my oldest son, he has a part time job and he's adopted the very same. Not because he just believes that that's the right number, but because he's observed and there's some proximity influence there. And so he wants to do the same thing. And so just little things. We go into a Safeway grocery store once a week and we buy all the food bank prepped bags from all the cashier lanes and it doesn't matter how many are there. And the cashier asks the same question every time. Are you sure you mean just the pile that we have here? No, across eight lanes of traffic, we're just going to buy them all. He sees that and so Rich knows he can expand on this too. I mean, with our family, banking meetings are not just centered around keeping money in the family. It's also keeping the, keeping the values close and reiterating those family values and recognizing and acknowledging people with real genuine love that they've been embodying those values. And it's wonderful to see, especially as the kids grow older. Like your son right now at his age, when he turns 18, with everything that you're. That he's observing in proximity influence to you is going to, he's going to carry that with him. And so it's incredible and what a privilege it is to influence kids in that way. Right, Rich?
• 22:10
  Speaker B: Well, I want to give a shout out to Becca Wilhite who we were able to see here just, well, two days ago when we were at the Nelson Ash Institute Coaching Academy and she put together the Beaver Bankers book, which is an illustrated book for kids. And really it's Actually for parents I think as well to understand the impact of Nelson's teachings in a story oriented environment with some visual engagement and recognizing the importance of those types of meetings, those types of conversations, but in a way that tells a story about an ecosystem and that's fundamentally what we're living in. It's just a financial ecosystem. So relating it to that of an ecosystem created by some beavers so that they can thrive for generations and you know, the reason I want to give a shout out is that, you know, our most recent family banking meeting, that was what we used as our topic of discussion. My, my kids are seven and nine and we, we use that, they've read the story, they ask questions about it every once in a while and you know, coincidentally I shared this with Becca just the other day. I took my kids on a hike last weekend and it's a place that we've never been before, but it's a hike to a beautiful lake. It's a bit of a drive there and back and the kids stuck it out. We didn't know how long it was going to take. It took a little longer than expected. But when we got to this beautiful lake, their first question was hey dad, do you suppose there's any beaver bankers over here in this lake somewhere? And you know, so that's kind of, you know, people learn, I think and kids especially learn through stories and we can and demonstration like Jason identified. And so we, we show them things and they're going to learn the good things and the bad things, whatever you show them. So they're always watching is what we're getting at. Yeah, but, but stories are memorable and we're taught that through at our own, in our own life. One of the reasons why, why do we read books, why do we read stories, why are they attractive for us to watch movies and television? Because there's a story being told and you remember the story, you don't remember the content necessarily. And so I think there's a real power as we look at embracing. Maybe it's whether it's profit first, whether it's some of the things you want to do around your faith, whether it's Nelson's principles, what's a relatable story about that and that you've walked the path. In fact, I was recording for my TV show earlier today with my friend Jimmy Jays and Scott Donnell and we spent a lot of time talking about what they call roots and wings. How do you establish a root system of core values and things that matter that's infused in the family. And then you're giving them wings, which are the, the actions, the elements, the skill sets by which they can take that value system and move forward. And if you, if you have skill sets and, and confidence, you can do certain things, but if you don't have that anchoring system and the roots, then you, you know, you, you're not going to, you're not going to see the result of what you want. And if you want to have your, your kids and your grandkids connected to the family, well, then they need that root system. That's the, that's the value system. That's the things that you guys are talking about, you're establishing. And so regular family banking meetings, in my opinion, and maybe they're regular profit first meetings. I'm sure you just combine the two together. You're, you're bringing people to core elements that matter to you and having open discussions about them where they can be fun and engaging. And, you know, I know, Jason, something that I love that you've done and I've certainly incorporated is that we. You have this book with you becoming your own banker. You know, Nelson's picture, thanks to David Stearns, is on the back of the book. So he's with you at every meeting and being able to connect people to Nelson. You know, Brandon, you talked about how much of an impact seeing Nelson on the Banking with Life video was for you. Well, similarly, we receive and hear that feedback all the time for people that watch the Nelson Nash documentary film. When they go through that, they become connected to the spirit of Nelson and what he stood for, his value system, which is the, which is the element of creation for the infinite banking concept that's now, now tied through all of our lives right here on this, on this podcast, the people watching, most likely it's tied through your life. And that connection point is done because of Nelson and his value system. That's really where this stems from. It's not about whole life insurance and it's not about, you know, it is about human behavior, but it's all derivative of the belief system of one man.
• 26:42
  Speaker A: Yeah, I was thinking about this recently. I was at two events, this guy named Perry Marshall, who wrote a book, 8020 sales and marketing. Yeah. So we're good friends.
• 26:54
  Speaker B: Good friends with my buddy Tim Francis.
• 26:57
  Speaker A: Oh, yeah, well, we're good friends with. We, we actually met Perry through church. Didn't know he was famous until five years later, but we asked him some advice for our business and, and got some good advice and then found out he was A big deal later, which is strange, but Perry is all about principles. 8020 principle. I think infinite banking is a principle. Right. And what I was also at another event that was more tactics. And somebody's like, well, what do you do? I'm like, depends. I don't, I need a. I mean, I do this infinite banking policies, but it, it's, it's maybe that, maybe something else. But I need to know where you're at, where you're at first. And so understanding the principles before we have any kind of tactics. And a lot of times people are like, well, here's the tactic. This is the great book. Let me use it to sell stuff. And that's tactical, which is still maybe a good thing. And so I was thinking about a lot after these two events, and I'm like, oh, well, here's, here's what. Why I liked Nelson is all of his book, his book talking about Sutton's Law. You know, I don't, I don't think he had 80, 20 in there. You guys were correct me, but I know all those laws and, and those kind of things in there that helped saying, oh, here's the principles. And this is why we do what we do. I think that's a huge thing. But most people are looking for, for quick hits, tactics when they need principles, foundations, anyway, all day long. Yeah.
• 28:37
  Speaker C: And one thing that Nelson, God rest his soul, we miss him and we think about him every single day. And one thing that he shared so often in primarily I, I found anyway, Rich, you may have had a different experience, but it was primarily one to one. And he would always encourage and remind you to never deviate from your principles. And he would say, ever deviate from your principles. The first deviation is the most difficult, but each one after that gets easier. And I'll never, ever, ever forget him sharing that wisdom. Because whenever you find yourself, especially in a position where as entrepreneurs, it's not a matter of if, it's when you're going to find yourself in a situation where your principles that translate to a broader team, call it culture, values, your principles will clash with a critical decision that needs to be made or something that involves someone, maybe it's someone that you, you've come up with and that you really care for as a person. But there's a clash there with principles and whatever the incident is, and you, you have to lean back on your principles and, and let that guide you, as difficult as that may be. But that's why the principles exist to begin with. It's not just when everything is in alignment with your principles, it's what happens when something occurs that clashes with them. How are you going to navigate your way through that? And that in my own journey of fatherhood, Entrepreneur, just learning how to get better. I've always learned my best lessons through the most crucial situations. And it creates. I was sharing this with Richard just a couple days ago. I was like, man, I'm feeling stressed because there's something occurring that is causing that clash. And through all this traveling, I was able to really think about my thinking. And it's like, no, I already know what the right thing to do is. It's to lean back into the principles that protect everything that we, that we have, regardless of the who's involved, regardless of the scenario that all, like, none of it matters if you deviate from your principles, no matter how stressful it is.
• 31:34
  Speaker A: And I think, like, with profit first there's principles and then there's systems. The, the systems of profit first help, say, whether living out the, the other thing. And then we can figure out our tactics of, of how we deploy cash value. Yeah, I used it to buy an office, and then I personally own. And, you know, anyway, there's fun things that people just don't get because they're not understanding principles, strat systems, and then the tactics. And so I love, I love control. My wife.
• 32:08
  Speaker C: Well, what entrepreneur doesn't?
• 32:10
  Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, my wife loves control more. But. And, and that's something that I love about this concept, the profit first. I, I think, again, most business owners are just sleepwalking or just saying, oh, well, somebody. I have a guy. Yeah. And, and whenever people say I have a guy, I'm like, no, you should be your guy. I will help you. I will help you understand how it goes. But you need to be the master of your ship. You. You need to make. Write your family mantra, you know, but it all ends with. In the end, you know, I'm not taking any of this with me. And so how do I best prepare him? Like the Rockefellers versus, you know, the Vanderbilts, if we're going to go that way. And so those are things I, I think about. But it's also hard because, man, people are. People are people. I don't know what to say.
• 33:02
  Speaker C: Sometimes it's the human. It's the human condition. And Nelson would say, welcome to the world again.
• 33:09
  Speaker A: I'm like, yeah, we would have had fun, I think, you know, because of being a person of faith. I was a church planter. There's all kinds of stuff. But. And I'M so glad I got into this. It's so weird to be, you know, I mean, again, I was, when I was having the coffee shop, we were also church planning, and I told somebody the other day, like, when you follow Jesus, you, You drink communion and, you know, when you accept Jesus, you know, this communion blood. And, and now I take blood in order for somebody to work with me. I'm like, oh, my gosh, could I pick something else easier without blood in it? But, but I guess it's a good qualifier. How committed are you? I mean, there's a reason that we do communion, I guess so anyway, I just, I, I think ram. Weird thoughts, you know, as you can tell.
• 34:07
  Speaker C: Well, I. The one question that I really wanted to. To ask you as well is, so if you think of, I guess in. Given that we're talking about the world and, you know, that glorifies, you know, hustle and accumulation and all of that, how do you, how do you stay anchored in contentment and, you know, generosity? Because as you grow in your profession, obviously there's more financial abundance that gets created and which is great. I mean, that's a wonderful thing. Money's a wonderful utility when it's used, you know, responsibly. But how do you stay anchored in contentment and generosity as, as your financial abundance grows?
• 34:54
  Speaker A: Yeah, that's a great question. One is, it's. I go back to the principles of, of tithing, 10%, whatever. Like, like that's off for sure. We've given a lot, or they just did a big campaign and we're like, oh, we're going to give this amount on, you know, you know, that whole thing when they ask and your wife says more than you do, and you're like, can we go smaller? That would be great. That's always how it works. So there's a lot of faith still. And really the reason I want to grow is to make an impact. You know, I would, I love that I make decent money. I, I wonder, like, as, as you guys. You guys are 15, 20 years longer than I have. I've only been doing this seven years. I'm like, how, how am I going to help more people? And it's. We're just stewards, right? But I, I think about again, growing up, I lived on federal assistance. My, my wife did, and my son gets to travel all over the place. And that's amazing. So teaching them humility. I mean, this is why I also, I have this on my arm. And humility, consider others better than yourself. I put that my Way to remind me. Because it's not about, oh, yeah, I've, I've arrived. And that's what Nelson says, the arrival syndrome. I, I haven't. If you think you have and you've lost the game and so I, I won't. I mean, of course. And if I do think so, my wife will set me straight or I hope other people will, you know, and so I think that's part of it.
• 36:39
  Speaker C: And that's proximity influence.
• 36:41
  Speaker A: Yeah. And just trying to help people along the way. We need to. I mean, you look at the world and you're like, holy crap, look at what's happening if no one's going to get out there and help them. Like, you know, because Wall street, all the other things, there's so much corruption and people don't know how to live with enough that we want more, we want more. And I'm like, you know, being content is good.
• 37:08
  Speaker B: But also, speaking of proximity influence, we talked a little bit about Grant Thompson at the beginning of our call before we hit record, and a great guy who Jason and I met through the think tank conference. Now, you had the opportunity, Brandon, to attend your first think tank here recently, and I'd love to get your, your thoughts. What came up for you, Being in a room of, you know, 300 financial professionals who are connected around Nelson's message and actually being in proximity with them, being that you've been doing this for a while, but that's really your first foray kind of on a larger scale with, with such a group of people. I'd love to get some, some thoughts from you about the event and your perspective on, on attending.
• 37:50
  Speaker A: Yeah, and I would say I was part of the, you know, one of the subgroups and still am. And, and I like that they're really great group and Grant's part of them and, but going in and kind of saying, where did this come from? Like, you know, this idea of infinite banking kind of originated from him. And so to go into that group of those people that are, you know, use it not, I wouldn't say as the Bible, but, but a, a good word. And, and to be around people that are committed, not just in, you know, because the financial world is crazy. Right? I mean, seriously, it's, it's jacked up. But to find people that actually care for their clients and so many of them is powerful and we need more actually, because look at how much money is wasted, how much is, is going into, I'd say the dark side to be able to help and really not just Care about us, but Right. As, as agents, but care about the people and actually have stories. Like, I think that's the huge thing of hearing the stories, you know, now some people, you're like, hey, maybe that's a little shady and you, we need to get corrected. And I think being in those groups helps you to say, you know, you probably shouldn't do that. Yeah, but I know even, even as I do videos, I've had people's say something to me and I'm like, oh, yeah, you're right, I'm. I said this wrong. I should have said this differently. And it's really hard when we're trying to market and reach people and, and this clickbait world. But I know people and I know their hearts. And so being around James Neitherly, which did the documentary that impacted us to be able to say, you know, you, you changed my life and you're changing all my clients lives, by the way, you know, and I think those things, the Money Advantage podcast, I listen to those. I've listened to you guys from afar, you know, and some of the reason I didn't join as early is because, you know, having a little kid, I'm like capacity, right? And travel and having a mother in law that, you know, and so to be able to go there and Grant saying, you know, hey, you should do this. And he's amazing. So shout out to Grant and to James. Little guy, little guy. And they're totally different. Definitely Grant. Grant. Grant's more like Nelson in size. Yeah, they're both tin, I guess. I mean, Nelson was a tiny guy, right? I mean, I'm going like this. He was not that tall.
• 40:44
  Speaker C: Maybe physically. Yeah. But yeah, he sure was a giant.
• 40:48
  Speaker B: Big, big personality in a, in just right size package.
• 40:53
  Speaker A: And I feel like for me, I'm like those guys, right? And, and maybe over time you. I'm learning to write, ask the right questions. I feel like my wife is way better. I guess it's feminine. I don't know what the heck she's like as she's like Mary Poppins and she gives you medicine and you don't even realize you took it. I'm like, wow, I said the same thing. And maybe that's parenting, I don't know.
• 41:23
  Speaker C: Well, Rich, bring us home.
• 41:25
  Speaker B: Brandon, pleasure to be with you here today. Fantastic that you're spreading the message and you're helping people focus on creating both profit first and the right location where they can stick it so that their family can benefit from those profits over generations. You know, you obviously talked a lot about, of course, your faith and. And your son and your wife here and what's important to you. But what we'd really like to know and for our listeners, maybe just share, who is it that you would most like to be a hero to?
• 41:56
  Speaker A: Oh, I mean, you have to say your kids and your wife. Right? Isn't that. Yeah, for sure. Him. My. My son's name is Blue. I want that first and foremost. And again, if I'm thinking the overflow, it's those people there. And then our clients and, you know, love to get some YouTube people one day, but I don't know how that stuff works, but ultimately him.
• 42:27
  Speaker B: Brandon, this was awesome. Thanks for being with us here today. Thanks for your commitment to be a part of the Nelson National Institute community and to spread his message out to the people you serve. For those of you, of course, watching on the YouTubes, we like to serve you there as well. We have a lot of great content. In fact, poof, you should see there's this magical video that showed up that says I'm great content. And you should click on it and watch some of it. Stay tuned for more of that stuff as it comes up and next week as we continue to have these incredible conversations and stories from folks just like Brandon. So have an amazing rest of your day, guys. Thank you so much.