Billy Keels  00:00

Today's conversation is sponsored by first generation Capital Partners. If you're an accredited investor, and you want to know about how we're helping other accredited investors keep more of their income, go to first gen cpe.com forward slash going well.

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00:12

If I were to kind of like break it down into like very simple terms like what is financial planning, it's just helping navigate through the financial changes, considering insurance, taxes, risk, and your job and other investments. That's what I think financial planning is truly

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00:27

your listening to the going long podcast with Billy keels, the number one podcast for long distance real asset investing.

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Billy Keels  00:36

Welcome to the Golang podcast, we're back once again to continue to help to educate you so you feel much more comfortable as well as confident investing beyond your backyard. And yes, I'm your host, Billy keels, and I am super excited to share today's conversation with you. Because it's one that you are going to really enjoy. It's going to help you get forward, move forward faster, and get you closer to your life dreams and goals. So here's the thing. For those of you that continue to share the podcast across social media, I just want to say I really appreciate you doing that it is so awesome. Thank you, it continues to help the podcast stay in the top 1.5 We're gonna keep pushing to get in the top 1%. But there's more and more podcasts to come every day. So thank you for your continued support for tagging us for especially on LinkedIn and across Instagram. For those of you also that want to leave your honest written review as well as rating and you can do that. And also, if you want to check out any of the previous episodes, go to firstgencp.com forward slash podcast and you can check out every single episode transcript audio video, every single thing first ncp.com forward slash podcasts. And so listen to today's conversation, I want you to get into this one because especially if you've ever wanted to understand how learning to bank on yourself is one of the things that can really help you to accelerate your long distance investing success, like today's guest is going to tell you exactly how to do that. He's going to tell you what the vehicles are that you need to use that so that you can literally bank on yourself, have more control over your future and even accelerate the way that you get to your life goals. So we're gonna get to the conversation with Sarah Abraham. And we're gonna get to that just after this. Are you a busy high paid professional, someone that in the previous two years has earned $200,000 and is expected to earn $200,000 this year. Or maybe if you file jointly, previously, you've earned $300,000 The previous two years and you're also expected to do that this year. Or maybe if not, either individually or jointly, you have a million dollars in net worth not including your primary residence. If you meet any of these criteria, then you're someone that the IRS considers to be an accredited investor, that probably means you're someone like an enterprise software sales executive, you may be an executive in a major corporation, you may be a doctor, you may be a lawyer, maybe a high paid consultant, you may be worked for a major sports franchise, the thing I know you have in common is that you continue to do the hard work like you're doing 100% of the work. And you're only bringing home 50% of the reward because you continue to get crushed by your income taxes. If you are tired of this situation and you're looking for a new solution, then go to first gen cp.com forward slash going long. When you get there, that's going to help you to start the journey so that you can begin to take back control of your taxes take control of your time. And then also that means you're going to be able to spend more of the time that you want with the people that you love the most. And that is the way that you're going to get the personal freedom that you're looking for. So if you're looking to take back control, go ahead and go to first ncp.com forward slash going long, and see how we can help you today. So if you want to understand how learning to bank on yourself, can actually be an amazing long distance investing accelerator for your success. Then guess what? Today's the conversation that you're going to want to listen to until the very, very last word. You know why? I promise because, listen, today's guest not only started, well his current journey when he completed his MBA, and I'm sure he's going to tell us a little bit more about that. He also has lots of experience in working in companies and from insurance to health care. So it brings him a wealth of experience in big companies. He also is really, really focused on helping those investors that enjoy investing in real assets. Some people would even say real estate, real assets. Let's leave it there. He is a financial planner and he's a member of the bank on yourself. And most importantly, he is the founder of financial asset protection, as well as the super popular podcast thinking like a bank podcasts. It gives me great pleasure to welcome to today's conversation. Mr. Seri. Abraham seri welcome the show, man.

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04:37

Hey, Billy, thank you so much for having me on. And thank you for making me sound like a celebrity. I appreciate it.

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Billy Keels  04:41

What do you mean sounded like you're out there crushing it. No, really appreciate that. That you decided to be here with us today. And I am super excited for the entire going on family to get to know more about you concepts that you're helping other people especially those of us that are interested in understanding more about how we can accelerate our journey to success and whatever that looks like, by being able to use different vehicles, and one of them of which you're going to help us to talk about today. So, here's the thing, though, you know, we're gonna, you're gonna get five questions, you're gonna get one in the very beginning or two in the beginning, excuse me, and you're gonna get three in the end. In the middle, you're gonna get a lot more questions as well. Sorry, I just don't know what those questions are yet. That's the thing. So let's jump into question number one. Help us understand. Where is it that you call home today?

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05:30

Yeah, so home for me is Chicago, Illinois. So I was born and raised in Chicago. I used to live in the city on the north side of Chicago. And my wife and I, we live now in the suburbs near like Naperville, Illinois. So it's about 45 minutes west of Chicago. Yeah, this is where I'm from born and raised here.

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Billy Keels  05:47

All right, sounds good shot town, Chicago, Illinois, and on different sides of the different sides of the area as well. So appreciate that. Siri, help us understand. I love positivity, man. So help us understand what is the most positive thing that has happened to you, or for you in the last 24 hours?

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06:03

Yeah, so it relates with you and your audience. So the last thing so as a financial planner, I work with a lot of clients. And one thing we're working on right now with the client slash investor for a new project we're working on is helping him save about a million dollars a year in taxes, or close to a base off of his recent cost segregation study. So I'm not a tax professional at all. But this was really great, something we just didn't last 24 hours, we got an estimate that we can save him like that much money in, in in taxes. And then we're going to use that to allocate towards a new project we're working on right now. So fantastic news. And last 24 hours, kind of a highlight probably of of the month of February,

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Billy Keels  06:40

while fantastic men, it does great when you're able to help investors with like, be able to keep seven digits or more of their own capital, like it feels so good. Like, you can see we're both having like this similar type of smile on our faces, because it does feel great to help others that way. So fantastic. appreciate you sharing that with us. Sorry. One of the other things is, and I know you and I've kind of chatted a couple of times, but you probably don't know this about me, I'm a recovering perfectionist. What that means is, well, sometimes I try to do things that are what most people would say are impossible, kind of like trying to tell your entire backstory in two and a half seconds. Never gonna happen. You've helped way too many people, you've done way too much stuff. So I hope you forgive me for trying to do something that was so insane, because that just was never going to happen. But more importantly, can you help me, because I really would love for you to share your own backstory in your own words. You don't have to take two and a half seconds, you take as much time as you want, because you're today's special guests. But if you could also talk to us about maybe some of the major decisions that you've made to this point in your journey. And then we'll we'll see where you and I take the conversation from there. Yeah, definitely. Thank

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07:45

you for that. Good question. So I started that this journey that I'm in right now when I was about halfway through my MBA programme, so in Chicago do my MBA programme. And I really wanted to kind of complement some real world experience with the MBA I don't want to graduate without without any experience. So I started working for different insurance companies, and my first job was at Allstate Insurance. And it kind of took a twist because I had my intention was just to like work somewhere just just to kind of break into the professional world. But I ended up like really enjoying working for the company, I actually really enjoyed working with people too, and solving problems. And then kinda like these light bulbs went off, like, you know, this is kind of a true business right here. It's not just selling things, it's solving problems for people like bringing value, like client has this problem can you solve and I figured, you know, if I can keep doing this, if I can just keep listening to people and solving problems for them, then I'll probably like I'll never be unemployed, they'll always be employed, right? Or even better self employed. Which brings me to the next point. And so yeah, I want to keep I want to keep focused on that I want to stay in the financial services world. So today, I'm in the financial services services world. So imagine like an umbrella within the umbrella, you have financial planning, you have like financial counselling, and then you have all types of insurance planning, and they all kind of go like hand in hand. So that's what I wanted to specialise in and starting the company financial asset protection is exactly what we do. We work in all 50 states, like helping clients virtually solve all types of financial problems. And then we started adding on like different layers to these right, as clients would talk to us. It's kind of like we were following client's needs and wants. So minds would say, look, I want to invest in real estate passively. And back then six, seven years ago, I didn't know what that even meant. So that opened a new door for research a new door for referrals and partners to work with. And then we started adding that on so like if you wanted to invest in real estate passively, and then do a financial plan together. We can tie that in and even like insurance with all of that together. And then even like further layers, right like working with clients who do like passive investing outside of real estate. So not just real estate best assets. Even though real estate is really good. It's not limited to just real estate, like there are way more businesses you can invest in and then back to how we talked about taxes. There's a lot of tax breaks for investing in these businesses that are real estate and non real estate based. So that's what we do fast forward today. Financial Planning, and then kind of like think of like not your average or unconventional financial planning, right? So typically, when you go to a financial planner, it's usually like stocks, bonds, mutual funds, index funds, those could be good. But I think there's definitely way better options out there from an ROI perspective, and a tax mitigation perspective as well.

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Billy Keels  10:15

Absolutely love that. And so really helping us to get an idea, you know, really where you start. And that fundamentally, it is about how are you helping to solve problems as you solve problems, you look to expand the scope, and being able to do that, as you mentioned before doing that across the entire US was one thing that's absolutely fantastic. And also to, you know, like you said, like, what, as you continue to look for not just the theoretical knowledge that you're talking about halfway through your MBA, it's also about how do you get that practical experience? How do you get the engagement? How do you get the understanding, and ultimately how you can help to, to solve problems. So one of the things that you've already started to open up, as you talked about, you know, there's, there's this, I like to even go even higher than that, like financial services industry, right? Because there's financial services industry, and then you can go from there, you can go from, as you talked about before, you can go to financial planning, go to insurance and go to a lot of different places, right. But just for that person, because you kind of mentioned it really high level. But when you say financial planner, that goes against probably what most people think of as a financial planner, right? And so can you just talk to that person? When you are saying financial planning? You started a little bit earlier, right? What does that mean, to Siri, Abraham, just to kind of help to break that mould for what most people believe a financial planner actually is?

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11:36

Yeah, definitely. So like, when you want to when you have, for example, a job, let's just say you have a W two job, let's just say you invest in real estate, you have a family, like you have some insurance needs, like you have like you want to do some other passive investing, you want to start a side business with Phil with those things comes a lot of variables, things that you probably didn't even know about, like risk and taxes and changing like you could change your job, you could lose your job you can get you can get promoted, like there's a lot of changes that you come across in life. And with that, you need some guidance, right? It's like, same thing, like, I'm not a tax professional. But if you go to a tax professional, like you have all these tax questions like what if? Can I qualify for these deductions? Can I do this appreciation, like you need somebody to guide you through that process? So that's where we are. So we are financial planners, we guide you through that process of these unknown variables that change. So like one of the biggest things, one of the most important steps is the financial analysis meeting we go through with clients. So this is like a one hour call, usually sometimes a little bit longer, but typically one hour long. And it's just literally understanding your current financial situation, like where are you today? What's happening in your world, like current income situation, current passive income situation, current tax situation, like, we want to understand all of that. So that way, we can provide a suitable recommendation that we can implement probably in the next two to three months after that. And then maybe even every six months, we'll have a review. And then every year, we'll pivot because you have like, it's impossible to say that for the next 20 years, I'm only going to do this one solution. And that's it. Because things change, the solution changes, the industry changes, taxes changes, you know, where you live changes, you can live in the US, like you and then move to Europe. So these things change, and you need somebody there as like your coach to help you through these changes. So if I were to kind of like break it down into like, very simple terms, like what is financial planning, it's just helping navigate through the financial changes, considering insurance, taxes, risk, and your job and other investments. So, you know, that's, that's what I that's what I think financial planning is truly

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Billy Keels  13:33

perfect. And I appreciate you saying that, because this is my show, I'm going to maybe say something that, I guess hopefully won't get into too much trouble. But so then it probably doesn't sound like just doing the exact same percentage of your income into something that you don't really even know what it is for 20 years or 25 years on auto pay probably doesn't necessarily sound like the best solution. If you're looking to get ahead, and I'm taking a direct, like on a direct qualified plan, you're just putting the same percentage for 25 years and hoping everything works out. What's your thoughts on that?

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14:07

Yeah, absolutely. It's like a cookie cookie cutter approach like, aren't your you know, 3540 years old, let's just do two over the next 2025 years, let's just put into a 401k. And then do like an IRA with index funds. It's almost like you're going to like a store and just buying something over the counter. There really is no tailored measure to it. There's no strategy behind it. It's like saying, oh, you know, we'll start off. You know, since you're 35 years old, we'll do like 70% stocks, 30% bonds, and every year, it will like go down a percentage on stocks and a percentage up on bonds all the way to the point where you're like 99% bonds before retiring. Again. It sounds intricate, sounds like well prepared, but really, that's kind of like the conventional process for a lot of people is that just go into debt. But there's other things to consider like, okay, like, what if you want to what if your goal isn't to work at the same company for the next 25 or 30 years? What if you want to retire in the next two or three years, then that's probably not going to help Data Solutions are going to help you also like, think of to like risk. Okay, so there's a potential market downfall, you don't know when that is maybe there's some signs like right now, like, there's some signs that can lead to that. But again, it's not guaranteed that it's going to happen. So there's a lot of uncertainty there. And then think of two is like the potential ROI. So like a lot of financial advisors would say, like, you can get 12% in the mutual fund, I don't see that I just my opinion, I don't see that you can get 12% year after year and a mutual fund, but let's just say you could over a 20 year period, does that really solve your financial problems? Probably not, because you have to lock up your money for 20 years. But if there's something like you could do better, short term and long term at the same time, like you gotta acknowledge both of those, and then taxes too. So look, if you have all your money in a 401 K, or some sort of pre tax vehicle, then when you retire, all that money now is taxable, and tax rates can go up in the future. So again, there's a lot of uncertainty, a lot of other things to consider. So maybe we can break each one down, and then like, you know, save on taxes, get a higher, higher ROI, and then have more predictability. Maybe that'll help you get out of that w two job you're in and, you know, help you live more abundantly.

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Billy Keels  16:05

Yeah. So and I appreciate you breaking that down a little bit. Yeah, it's just because I wanted to, because I, I feel like there cuz I was on that path, right? I mean, I was the person who was on the path, I got the good grades, I did what I was told to do. And basically after that, it was told to, you know, pretty much put the same percentage and maximise your percentage and do that for the rest of your life. And then it took me 2002 1008 To realise like, hang on a second, I have absolutely no control, I need to start understanding more about what I can do, how I can gain more control and gain more insight. Sorry, I do want to talk to you, because I think this is probably one of the things that a lot of people don't talk about is. So like, I grew up in a household where we didn't really talk about money, right? We just didn't talk about it was never comfortable doing that until I got I started being around people. And this took me like really late into my 30s. Right? A lot of people don't you go you go to your job, and you work and you do all the things you're supposed to do. But you don't learn to talk about money. So talk to us about how is that because you talked about that first, I think you called it the financial assess analysis meeting. Yes, yeah. Yeah. Like how frequently do you find that people are just not really comfortable sharing, or they may not even know, kind of like the financial aspects, when they first meet you maybe over time they start to recognise it. But I'm just curious, because I don't necessarily know if I would have felt comfortable really sharing that kind of stuff in the very beginning when I got started, just maybe four cents reality for us. Help us out?

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17:28

Yeah, awesome. Question. That's a very good question. And good observation. You're You're right. It's, it's, we also call it a confidential questionnaire, since it is a lot of like sensitive information and that, but I find the opposite. I don't find I don't find, like if somebody we have like, usually a couple of intro calls, and then the financial analysis meeting. So typically, people already on that path, they want to keep going right? And they're willing to give up. It's like, for example, like you have like a legal problem, you hire an attorney, you're willing to give up like sensitive information to that attorney, because it's, it's part of the case. And same thing in this situation. So I see the opposite, I see that people are like, You know what, I've never done this in my life. I've never gone through all my debt, all my assets, all my income, all these things on in one meeting at one time. And it's an eye opener, and I see that a lot of people, even if they don't proceed with our recommendations afterwards, they get they get a lot of benefit just from going through that analysis, and kind of putting everything together. And it brings it to another point to like, I'm reading this book called deep work here, and it's a really good book, because it talks about one one subject talks about is like mental accounting, or like you mentally coming up with numbers in your head, a lot of people would say like, oh, yeah, I only sleep six hours a day, I work, you know, 50 hours a week. And there's a lot of mental accounting there. And then when they actually they did, they did a study in the book. And then when they went through, and they actually analyse how many hours people worked and how many hours people slept, it was actually less work. They were working like 41 or 42 hours, but it felt like they were making 50 or 60 hours a week. And then they were actually sleeping like eight and a half hours a day. But it felt like they were sleeping like six hours. So the same thing is true with money. Like you think like, oh, I make 250,000 a year I spent 50,000 on taxes, or you invest X amount or you know, I have an extra, you know, extra money. But it's like really like those numbers are usually way off for a lot of people so so like going through like a some sort of process where you can actually count your money and count your data and analyse it, I would say, at least on a monthly basis just to see the actual numbers makes a big difference for the next steps you make after that. Yeah,

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Billy Keels  19:23

it makes a huge difference. Because you start to see the trends, you start to see where you want to go and all those kinds of things, which I think is absolutely fantastic. Trusting that you're enjoying today's conversation. And you know, if you're tired of getting crushed by taxes, and you're looking for greater freedom, to be able to choose what you want to do when you want to do it, make sure that you go to first ncp.com Ford slash going long and see how we can help you today. Let's get back to the conversation. One of the things I kind of talked about it in the very beginning and I would like for you to bring it back and to kind of talk to us about this. So you know we were talking about how can you accelerate your long distance investing success and you have this thought of being able to bank and yourself? What is that? Describe that for us, help us understand what is the whole concept of bank on yourself? What does that even mean?

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20:06

Yeah, awesome question. So I look at it kind of like this way. So like, you have like two bridges, right, like bridge one and bridge two. So like bridge one is like your this investment you come across. So like you come across as an investment, you could expect to make like, a 15% internal rate of return, you have like you can, you know, write off most of it and taxes or something, you can get a huge tax break from doing that. You're locking up money for like five years, it's a good investment. So you check that off, that bridge is on and off. So we'll go to the second bridge now. Now, let's just say the first bridge was 50,000. To invest in it so hard. The second bridge now is how do we invest in that 50,000? We have some options, right? Like, maybe we can use an IRA for them, maybe we can use a checking account, maybe we can borrow money, maybe we can use a home equity line of credit, there's different ways to fund bridge number one. So what if so here's a couple of things. So like, what if there's a way where we can fund bridge number one with our own source of financing, so that we can keep earning interest on that money. And so that way, we can grow that money tax free. And so that we can create a hedge against if bridge number one goes down, we have bridge number two. Now, this is where the term infinite banking or the bank on yourself concept come in, right? You can create your own source of financing to fund your investment, whichever investment you want, doesn't have to be an investment. But let's just say in this situation, and for the audience, that we're going to use this for an investment. That's exactly that's exactly what I help with I help people find build their own policy, their own system, where they can create be their own final source of financing. So that way they could fund this bridge number one or this this investment.

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Billy Keels  21:35

Gotcha. Okay. So being able to bank on yourself, it's really being able to create opportunities, so that you are well, you're not just relying on one bridge, you potentially have two bridges. And so in the event that one doesn't work, or does work, you have both that you could potentially use, right. And then of course, you can take people through more of the process, but you're able to create and fund based on your own ability. Is that correct? If I kind of simplified it? Precisely, yes. Okay. All right, that sounds great. And so just at a very, very high level. So I guess conceptually, the bridge ideas, we kind of understand that, but what kind of vehicles do we need to make this type of thing, or this type of activity actually function for us?

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22:20

Yeah, so this this concept was detailed in the book becoming your own banker, it talks a lot about this. And in the book, the author, Nelson Nash, who also invented this concept talks about using a special type of whole life insurance. So like, for a lot of people, there's they think of life insurance as just life insurance. And that is true, most of the time, it is just life insurance. But there is a special type of cash value whole life insurance that has two parts, so it has the life insurance part, and then it has a cash value part. And the cash value part has a lot of like tax benefits and growth benefits, too, because it's based off of using insurance companies that have been in business for well over 150 years. So these are long standing businesses that have weathered the Great Depression, the 2000, crash, 2008 crash, they've gone through a lot of things because of the way they operate, and because of the way they have to operate. So when we use a cash value, whole life insurance policy, where we get the life insurance, we also get the cash value, and the cash grows and is based off of the performance of an entity that's been in business for well over 100 years. So what that translates into is, there's a lot of safety behind that cash. Like there's never been a situation where somebody had cash value whole life insurance, and then there was a market crash, and they lost that cash inside the policy because of market conditions. So that's kind of and then with that comes like tax benefits, and then risk benefits as well. But like high level, that's what it is like, the the actual asset that's being used.

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Billy Keels  23:40

Okay, perfect. So that helps us to understand a little bit and also to and I'm just going to make this general statement. By no way, shape, or form is Sara giving anybody any type of advice. And he's already mentioned, you know, before, not in the tax base, not a CPA, I am not either. What we're doing here is simply sharing concepts, ideas. And I'm sure, Jim, Sarah, you're going to tell us pretty soon, like how people can even find out more about what it is that you do and how people can get in touch with you and stuff like that, and really go through with you and your team. But one of the other things that you said and I just I'm just curious before, because pretty soon we're gonna have to get into the going long final three, as you know, but I think one of the things that people tend to not think about is the asset protection side of thing when it comes to investing. Maybe you could talk to us a little bit about asset protection, what that is and how that should be taken into consideration when we're looking to make an investment.

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24:38

Yeah, absolutely. So this is part of the risk mitigation conversation right? So like we you're building up these assets, you're building up income, good for you, it's working, things are working, that's awesome. But there's risks involved like market risk is one of them, like things happening outside of your control could affect your assets or your investments. And then you have like taxes which is technically can it can fall under risk mitigation or potential risk taxes. And then you I also have like litigation risk, right. And I'm not an attorney, but we part of using the infinite banking system and using cash value whole life insurance as part of an asset protection tool. So like, you would have to figure out a way to build your assets, build your income, and also not have it exposed to creditors and things like that. And one of those ways could be using cash value whole life insurance, because in the US and a lot of states, especially my state like Illinois, and like, Florida is a really good state for asset protection. The the use of like putting money into a whole life policy and the cash inside there is typically excluded or exempt from from creditors and from bankruptcy and things like that. So you want to consider these, right? Like, as you're going through these podcasts, as you're building up your business is dealing with your CPA dealing with your attorney like you want to consider like, what if something like what if somebody something outside of your control, like you were just wrong, it's the wrong time, you get sued, and you have to like put up those assets, and you have to get a you sell those and things like that happen. That doesn't mean that doesn't mean that like, people who get sued are bad people, not at all. It's just really like, especially living in the United States as part of our economy. lawsuits are part of the economy. It's just something like the wrong place the wrong time, especially if you're a real estate investor, you have tenants, you're a business owner, like you're a surgeon, like all the like, there's a lot of variables that happen that are completely outside of your control. Again, it's not a it's not a level of your ethics, or your morals, it's really just the environment you're in and the situation that happened. So protect your assets, right, like use different different vehicles and different assets that are exempt from creditors and things like then definitely 100% Check with an asset protection attorney, or an estate planning attorney, somebody who an attorney who specialises in this matter. And realise that there are some assets that are exempt and some that aren't like, very basic rules or like a checking account is usually like the highest vulnerability, right? Like a bank account is the highest vulnerability that's, that's like the low hanging fruit for lawsuits. And then like more technical things like trust, like LLCs, and different layers, and the cash value life insurance and annuities are definitely on the top of that as far as like being like secure, depending on the state you live in.

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Billy Keels  27:06

Yeah. So it's once again, just you series giving you insight into how you want to think about asset protection. And in terms of your decision making, as well as your risk mitigation strategy overall. Once again, this is going to help you to get to your to your financial goals, your life goals, your wealth, goals, whatever the case may be. So I appreciate you giving us a couple extra minutes to break that one down as well. Sorry, but you know what the thing is meant we've got to get to the going long, final three. And because you our special guest today, I never asked any of our guests now I'm not going to start with you. The final three unless you tell me that you are ready to go. So my question to you is, are you ready? Ready? All right. I think you were kind of born ready. Sorry, if you asked me, but hey, that's just that's just me. So So here's the thing. You know, um, well, I don't know if you knew or not, but I'm originally from Columbus, Ohio. So fellow, Midwestern, er, but I've been over here for the last 22 years. And so we started with you over in Chicago. But I want to bring things back to this side of the pond, if you don't mind, help us understand what is your favourite European city that you've either visited Syria or is still on your bucket list to visit?

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28:14

Yeah, so my favourite has to be Paris. So Paris was we went, I went there, we actually went on a honeymoon. It was like one of the best places, but I think for sure, Paris of all the European cities.

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Billy Keels  28:26

Love that Paris is where my adventure started. And it's been 22 years. So it started out pretty well. And it's, it's still been going so awesome. So here's the other thing. I've been exposed just like you to a lot of really, really successful people, men, really successful people. And I've learned a lot of lessons from them. I consider you to be someone who's also very successful, you're making a massive impact around people, you know, all over the US you mentioned before all over the globe with your podcast, and we talked about before as well, and continuing to educate and help people get closer to their own goals and dreams. And so one of the things that I've noticed with really successful people, sorry, and hopefully you've noticed the exact same thing with other successful people is that successful people, unlike most people, whenever they have a plan, every single time they put the plan together, they unlike everybody else are able to execute that plan perfectly the first time, which allows them to go so much faster and sooner and no, hang on a second. I got that wrong. I'm kidding. The series go away. Billy. What just happened here? What happened? What was going on? Siri? No, it's a joke, man. I like to have a little bit of fun. But you're going along with me? Like I think you said that they get it right the first time every time is like I don't know any successful people that do that every single time? Of course not right here. Here's the thing. It's just kind of a joke. Successful people. Not only do they not get things the first time typically and I know you see this all the time is especially getting started like because you're trying so many different things like you can make 20 to 30 50 times more mistakes than most people. But every single time that I have seen someone who's successful and this is the first part was a joke, this is not a joke. Whenever successful people make a relevant mistake. Yeah, every single time they stop, they learn from that mistake, or learning opportunity, or however you want to call it right, whatever outcome you were looking for, it didn't happen. But then afterwards, they put different strategies, tactics and actions in place to minimise the probability of that exact same thing happening again. Yeah, for sure. So what I would love for you to share with a series is not the mistake that you made, or the learning opportunity that you had. But what was the lesson that you learned that, you know, someone needs to hear today from the Golan family? What's the one lesson you want to share with us?

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30:40

Yeah, I think one lesson is like, sometimes I think that when you when you when you try to aim too big people might think that that's a mistake. And then when you aim lower, it's like it's easier to obtain. But I have learned that the opposite is true. Where if you, if you, if you aim higher, your chances of success are greater because what Yes, you mentioned plans aren't perfect. But I just remember, like two, I was taking this finance class in my MBA programme, and my professor said that when he graduated college, he used to do like financial analysis. And then what he would do is he would analyse, like the expenses and projected revenue for the company for like, five years on right, and he said, by the end of year one, it was 80%. Accurate by the by the middle of year T was 50%. Accurate. And by the end of year two, he had to do a new five year plan. And you have to keep doing that process over and over again. And then right away, I raise my hand and he's like, Let me guess what your question is, why do a five year plan if we're going to do it every two years? And what exactly is it because it's process over result, we know we're going to lose money, we know we're not going to hit our targets, but we're just projecting it. And then as we're projecting it, we're learning more about ourselves, about our competitors, about the industry we're in and then have the same mentality to is like, bringing it today like to what I'm doing today, working with insurance companies and banks, like insurance companies don't say that we're going to make exactly this much money, they just project it, and they have a loss ratio, where if it's even if it's like 50% loss, they're still one of the most profitable companies in their industry. And the same is true with planning, like you want to plan plan big, right. And then you will lose money, you will have these downfalls you will have things that go out of place, you'll have people that cancel on you, especially if your business or goals are oriented around sales, like you'll have people that like are not interested at the last second those things happen. But just aim big and account for those differences. And, and you'll be way more ahead of where you were if you plan bigger. So that was kind of like the overall thing I learned this plan big. And even if you can get to like 50% of a big plan, it's better than 100% of a small plan.

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Billy Keels  32:37

So aim even higher, improves your chances of success. I love that example that you that you share and really process over results. So really, really appreciate that. And lastly, listen. So here's the thing Siri, would love for you. And you've already talked about a book before but in may want to use the same one. I have no idea. But I love to fill our brains with knowledge before we go. So please share what is one book that you would like to share with the going long family today?

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33:05

Yes, so as a business owner, I'm currently looking to grow my team. So I read the book traction, that book is phenomenal, right? Because it kind of changed my opinion, a lot on entrepreneurship. And really like I learned like to grow like you really have to like fire yourself from certain positions and expand and kind of focus on being the CEO, while other while you have other people that get really good at their role. So traction is a really good book for that.

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Billy Keels  33:30

Absolutely love that traction. Yep, it's one of my one of my favourites as well. And you know what I just, I'm already sitting in I'm thinking about the just the very beginning of the conversation, these conversations fly by Siri, like, we're in the middle of the first conversation, you're telling us like halfway through your MBA you realise like, Hey, listen, you know, and just want to make this theory, you actually want to get some practical knowledge. So you went out, you got the practical knowledge, you started working at the insurance company that you named earlier. And so you realise that, hey, listen, there is there's a lot of practical application, and I enjoy what I'm doing here. I like it. This is real world experience. And at the same time, I realised that I don't particularly want to be doing this forever, I want to be able to focus on how I can become self employed. So that I can actually go out and solve problems and continue to solve problems. And you have been relentlessly looking to solve problems with your company. Now with your podcast, and you're consistently looking to do that. And you're doing that across all 50 states, as you mentioned before, and so it's not just about recognising one problem, it's recognising the impacts that could happen based on where someone wants to go and you and your team today continue to help others to be able to get to their life goals to their wealth goals and do it in a in a better way, in a way that's much more efficient as well as effective in working hand in hand with you so like everybody here in the Guanlan podcast is like yeah, Billy just asking the question, man, just stop talking about it. Ask him the question. So here's what I want to know. Everybody in the going long family wants to know Siri, what is the best way for us to connect Would you connect with your company? Find out more about the things that you're doing. Help us out. What's the best way to connect?

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35:05

Yeah, thank you. Thank you so much for that. So it's thinking like a bank.com. Go to the website thinking like a bank.com. You can find our podcast, ebook, my LinkedIn, YouTube email address all that at thinking like a bank.com.

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Billy Keels  35:18

Thinking like a bank.com. We make it super simple. We're gonna include this the link in the show notes. So if you're running on the treadmill, don't worry, just click the link. If you're cooking dinner, don't worry, just click the link, we'll make it super simple for everybody. So Wow. You know, sorry, I just want to say on behalf of the entire going long family, thank you so much for deciding to invest your time with me with us today. And thank you very, very much, really appreciate it.

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35:40

Thanks. Really appreciate it.

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Billy Keels  35:41

Okay, awesome. Sarah, can you give me like 15 seconds, I just want to wrap things up with the Goldman family. And we'll get you out of here. So listen, go along. I mean, sorry, he couldn't have made it any easier for you like he broke down the concepts. He gives you his link, the link directly to his website asked you to contact him, he's happy to go even deeper on some of these concepts. He talked about the wealth of team members that he's working with and continues to focus on. So take today's episode, share it with your family, share it with your friends go from the theory, just like Sarah talked about before, to going into the practice making this something that is an investment of your time that you can actually walk away with practical application. And while you're doing that, I'll be here preparing for the next conversation. So until then, go out and make it a great day. And thank you very much. Trust that you enjoy today's conversation. And once again, today's conversation was sponsored by first generation Capital Partners. If you're an accredited investor want to find out more about how we're helping accredited investors to gain their personal freedom even faster. Go to firstgencp.com forward slash going long.

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