Exploring Prosperity and Personal Growth with Joe Lombardi

Transcript

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The views expressed in this podcast are solely those of the podcast host and guest and do not necessarily represent those of our distribution partners, supporting business relationships or supported audience.

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Welcome to Transacting Value, where we talk about practical applications for instigating self-worth when dealing with each other and even within ourselves, where we foster a podcast listening experience that lets you hear the power of a value system for managing burnout, establishing boundaries, fostering community and finding identity.

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My name is Josh Porthouse, I'm your host and we are redefining sovereignty of character.

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This is why values still hold value.

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This is Transacting Value.

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When you go through that, it sort of changes you where your why is so strong and so powerful that when you just get crapped on and nobody, everyone's saying no, I'm not interested, you stink, blah, blah, blah, you don't care.

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Today on Transacting Value.

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Who you want to become is about more than a value system.

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Values can help be a shortcut to your identity, to your self-awareness, to how you come across to people in the world at present.

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Who you want to become in the future is largely determined by your choices today, and that is also relevant when it comes to your finances.

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Today we're talking to the CEO of Ironhawk Financial financial planner, joe Lombardi, and he's going to talk all about what future planning has to do with present character, present self-awareness and an overall presence in your life.

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Guys, I'm Josh Porthouse, I'm your host and from SDYT Media, this is Transacting Value.

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Joe, how you doing Awesome.

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Josh, Thanks for having me.

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Absolutely, man.

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I know you are super busy, based on everything we talked about before we hit record and obviously running your own business, but I really do appreciate your time, man, so thanks for setting some aside for us.

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I have a favor I want to open with and I hate doing this in the beginning because it's like me asking for something right out of the gates, but I feel like it's important for everybody listening and watching the channel.

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So, if you'll amuse everybody, I want to open a few minutes with you just talking about who.

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You are right.

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So where are you from?

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Let's build some resonance.

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What sort of things have shaped your perspective on life as it is today?

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Events throughout your life.

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However, you want to work that.

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Yeah, I mean, I came from a broken home, I came from a divorced family.

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I uh grew up in poverty, uh, lived in the streets, the ghetto, the hood, uh, battled my way out.

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My grandmother gave my dad a loan to start, you know his company back from the dead, jv Lombardi builders.

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Uh, then from there, you know, became wealthy.

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My dad's business took off.

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You know 10, 10, $20 million company was worth and was buying like new Jordans and I was buying the Allen Iversons had, like the, the red and blue ones on one foot and the black and gold ones on the other, going to wake and boys and girls club, uh, back in the day, you know.

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So, from extreme poverty to live in the attic with like no running water and eating like hamburger helper with no hamburger meat and you know noodles and eggs and no ketchup.

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To go into Fairfield and you know, still being the poor, fat kid.

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But you know, going to Knights of Columbus and and buying a thousand dollars with the football cards and looking for Peyton Manning rookies in 2000 and Randy Moss rookies and you know, like the, you know it was.

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It was a crazy, crazy, crazy life.

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You know my mom left when I was four.

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Uh, she crazy life.

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You know, my mom left when I was four.

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She wanted to party, do drugs and drink alcohol more than be a mom.

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And you know, like, okay, so just me and my dad, and it was rough.

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But you don't know, you're poor when you're five, six, seven, eight years old, right, you just look back and say, oh yeah, I remember having to flip 16 times a night in the summer because there's no, no air conditioning and you're so hot, you're sweating and the bed is soaked, so like.

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But you look back and at the time you're like, oh, this is normal, right, um, so it?

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I was very blessed to say, like I was able to live in extreme poverty and I was able to live in extreme wealth before my dad fell three stories off a ladder and went back to extreme poverty again.

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Um, but when you, when you live that way, you and went back to extreme poverty again.

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But when you live that way, you definitely take a different view on life.

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Right, it's almost like a cheat code.

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I get to experience both sides.

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Right, you hear about these people with silver spoons.

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They don't have any ambition, right, and you hear about these people that come from nothing.

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They have nothing but ambition.

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But sometimes they try and find the quick way.

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So it's drugs or crime and they go to jail, right, I was sort of able to see both.

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And then, uh, got lucky to get into this industry.

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When I was bartending, you know, the CEO of Northwestern mutual came in when I was 19 years old and said I love your hustle, you're crying.

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Gave me a thousand dollar tips to come work for me as my underling, you know.

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So it was.

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It was a crazy life.

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I wrote a couple books three of them but I haven't wrote my memoir yet.

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So that's something that I'll probably do in about 20 more years, because I think my life's a lot more crazy to come.

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But yeah, that's pretty much how it started.

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Wow, Wow, Okay.

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So first off, you said initially, you said five, six years old.

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Nobody really knows what their circumstances are.

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Obviously, you're just living, experiencing, you take it for what it is.

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I think a lot of that also translates into people's careers.

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You work for 20 years, 25 years, 30 years in different industries and you're like you don't know any different.

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You get so accustomed to the routine maybe a pay raise every now and again if it's shift work, or a promotion every now and again if it's not.

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But you get accustomed to the lifestyle and you stop asking questions.

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What do you think was your trigger to start asking questions and not get stuck in that same pattern?

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Well, back in high school, right, I was 16.

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My dad bought me a Nissan Sentra SCR spec V, right, and I was bartending and waitering because you got to be able to work at that age, you know, back in the day, that young.

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So I had a lot of cash.

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So I would go, you know, to the hood in Bridgeport and I'd go to like this place called La Primavera.

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I'd grab like 40s of OE and like 30 packs of Natty Ice for the charge.

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You like a dollar, a beer back then, you know, and I would go up to Greenfield Hill and I know nobody probably knows much about Connecticut, but Greenfield Hill is, like you know, in Fairfield.

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Not, it's like Greenwich of Fairfield, if you know anything about Greenwich, it's like very, very wealthy town and I would go out there and I would sell the beers like five bucks, you know, and and sell the forties for 20.

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Right, I was doing arbitrage and not knowing it.

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That teaches you a lot.

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I go into some of these guys' houses and they've got 60-foot ceilings.

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It's hard to imagine a ceiling like 60 feet.

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You're talking these ultra-mega mansions.

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I said there's no way people live like this Elevators going down to the basement with baseball fields in it, in the base, in the basement, he's got a baseball.

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What Just the craziest thing you can ever imagine.

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And I said, if people are living like this, I want, I want a piece like get me in, so like seeing it was believing.

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And unfortunately, a lot of people they don't get to expand their, expand their mind to see what could be, and so they're trapped in their little bubble or box.

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Okay, but I mean this is your business model.

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I mean it's basically your role to show people what they can't see, broaden their perspectives, build out what they could be Right.

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So how do you do it?

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You take people on field trips, Doubt it.

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What do you do?

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No, I have a.

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I have a presentation that I built.

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I've been doing this 21 years, so I had a presentation I built in about 2016.

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I was one of MassMutual's top agents in the country and they wanted to buy my presentation, where I walk people through the tax triangle the three different places where you're taxed, I walk through liquidity, I walk through market preservation how to save a million dollars in taxes and it's an elevator view.

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Right, it's something that's from the top down, where the average American, who has very little to no expertise on financial investing or investments or insurance policies or IRS codes or they don't understand any of it and I try to bring it to like a elevator view.

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So it was all about simplifying.

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You know, kiss, keep it stupid simple and if you can do that, you can attract a lot more people to stay with you.

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Because when I start throwing out acronyms like IRS code, section 7702, max funding index, universal life, iuls, and you got an FIA fixed index, and people are just like, huh, what?

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Yeah, I'm already asleep.

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So you have to.

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You have to be able to communicate in a way that that they can stay with you and understand what you're talking about okay, and then?

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what about on the receiving end?

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Because it sounds like at one point that was you, and then you learned and got your licensure and experience right.

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What did it feel like then?

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Or is that where you got the inspiration to simplify?

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When you live a life where your mom doesn't want you.

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She ends up dying at 52 years old, so sliver, from alcoholism and drug use real shocker, right.

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And then your dad falls three stories off a ladder, loses $25 million to our construction company, jb Lombardi Builders, and your grandmother has a stroke led to dementia.

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She loses $4.2 million to Ludlow Nursing Home in Fairfield Crossroads, sacred Heart.

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And then when my dad fell three stories, I was 15 years old.

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My sister was two.

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She was born with two pounds, seven ounces.

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Fetal alcohol syndrome, I accept.

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Mom drank vanilla extract and Listerine during pregnancy so it was like put up or shut up.

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You know, I didn't want to go to DCF, I didn't want somebody stranger being my foster parents, so I just shut up and went to school and kept my mouth shut.

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When you go through that it sort of changes you where your why is so strong and so powerful that when you just get crapped on and nobody, everyone's saying no, I'm not interested, you stink, blah, blah, blah.

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You don't care like you're just you're you're.

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I'm put on this earth to fulfill a prophecy.

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I'm not here to to sell stuff, to make money so I can, you know, buy a bigger house like's.

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Just it's so much deeper than that.

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When you have that passion and conviction that you know I'm on a mission from God.

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God showed me what, what happens when you fail to plan your plans, to fail and get that message out there and say people, you don't want to suffer the way I suffered, the way my dad suffered, the way my mom suffered, the way my grandmother suffered.

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You don't want to do that.

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Dad suffered the way my mom suffered, the way my grandmother suffered.

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You don't want to do that.

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And if I can help people suffer less because, not to be super positive, but the D who suffers the least wins, in my opinion, in this world, because all this world is is suffering and if I can help people suffer less, I feel like I did my job through God.

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All right, folks sit tight and we'll be right back on Transacting Value.

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Her words weren't written under peaceful shade.

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She worried about being caught by the Nazis.

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"The good news is you don't know how great you can be.

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" "A Though her story ended early, her words live on.

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"I don't think of all the misery, but of the beauty that still remains.

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With her positive outlook, anne Frank continues to fill us with hope.

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Hope, pass it on.

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From PassItOncom.

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The D who suffers the least wins, in my opinion, in this world, because all this world is is suffering, and if I can help people suffer less, I feel like I did my job through God.

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Okay, fair enough, but you're talking about tax-free pension and not to get biblical or religious here, but on a mission from God, somebody's still paying taxes in the end.

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So how do you bridge these gaps?

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Like some of this stuff, is it just math?

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Is it stuff that's just not taught?

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We don't know?

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Or is this stuff that's just creatively sort of financing or debt financing futures?

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I mean, what's the tie?

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The tie is is that slavery is suffering and the United States of America is a corporation and we are all slaves to the United States.

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You know what the definition of a slave is?

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Well, it's twofold.

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If you don't do what they told, they're gonna come in your house with guns and punish you, put you in jail.

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Right, that's number one.

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Number two is when you give your effort, energy, time, god-given talent and they steal it from you and give you no value back in return.

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We don't know where that money's going.

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It's not helping our fellow Americans.

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It's going to build bombs to kill other people overseas.

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They're starting wars.

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We're shooting missiles at Russia now for no reason, trying to start World War III right before Trump comes in.

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There's so much evil when you have a discretion or something.

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Where aren't we all equal under God?

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Right?

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Well, they took God out because they don't want people to know that they equal under God.

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Right Well, they took God out because they don't want people to know that.

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They want serfs, they want, you know, peasants, and they want Kings and squires and and, and they want this class of know your role.

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I mean, look at Epstein, look at P Diddy, all the stuff that happens, like Justin Bieber comes in, he's a great, one of the top singers in the world within a couple years.

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Who knows what great tragedies happened to him that he's speaking about?

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You understand everything's a hierarchy.

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Everything's about power, everything's about control.

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And if I can free people from the government, I could free people from slavery and have them build tax-free accounts that they can lean and leverage and grow wealth and have peace.

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Financial freedom is about peace.

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Does it matter if you have 500 million or 100 million?

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Does it matter if you have 50 million or 5 million?

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It really doesn't.

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The quality of life doesn't change.

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You have shelters good, your transportation's good, you can eat decently.

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So it's not about getting as much money as you can.

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It's about freeing yourself from chains and slavery.

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And again, I'm not trying to be dark and sad and depressed, no-transcript, they're not your friend.

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Look at history, right.

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History doesn't repeat, it rhymes.

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And when you have history books of governments slaughtering millions of its own citizens, why do you think all these countries don't let their citizens have guns?

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Keep the gun laws.

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It's so deep.

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Now we're not gonna get this in one hour podcast or a half hour podcast, but if I can free people and I can keep growing my presence and I can wake people up to the reality of, like blue pill, red pill, the matrix, all these little terminologies, the great awakening, all these things we're hearing.

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Why are we hearing it?

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Because it's true, people are waking up to what the heck is going on.

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And if I can accelerate that, that's going to free more people.

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Now, do you think that's rooted in some sort of demoralization as a society, or is it individual education?

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Is it upbringing and background?

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What's the impetus, do you think?

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Is it upbringing and background?

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What's the impetus, do you think?

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Think about what billionaires do.

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Do the billionaires, with their kids, go to public schools?

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No.

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Do billionaires invest in 401ks and IRAs and SEPs, simples Pensions, deferred Comp, 457s no.

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So if I can just copy what the ultra-wealthy do and bring that to that, to the blue collar market, and bring that to everyday Americans, I feel like I do my job, because there's so many a-holes out there that are like I only work with people with $100 million of net worth and it's like I could be that guy.

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I've been doing this 21 years.

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I've worked with three Fortune 500 companies.

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I've got 2,000 clients with $2 billion of protection and rollovers.

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In my career I've won 27 industry awards Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

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I could be that a-hole, but my job is to help people.

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I've been very blessed, very blessed that I had a good work ethic.

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God gave me a life of pain and suffering, which, you know what it did Made me stronger.

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You know what happens when you go to the gym you rip your muscle and that muscle gets bigger and stronger, and now you're able to do more, and that's what happened to me.

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So is it socioeconomic?

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Sure, if you grew up impoverished, do you know what the ultra wealthy do?

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No.

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So don't you think it would be smart to know that, instead of knowing what your favorite baseball player batting average is or what your fantasy sports team's average points per game is, don't you think it'd be kind of important to figure out what are those billionaires and millionaires doing?

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Because I have clients who make $40,000 a year they're millionaires and I have clients who make $800,000 a year and their net worth is negative.

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So you know what I've learned doing this for 21 years.

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It a year and their net worth is negative.

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So you know what I've learned doing this for 21 years Makes no difference what you make.

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What it makes is how you value and love yourself.

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Do you have a hole in your heart?

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Do you have childhood trauma?

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Do you not believe you deserve it?

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Do you not care?

00:17:15.126 --> 00:17:15.969
If those are true, it doesn't matter.

00:17:16.009 --> 00:17:24.854
You hear these people winning the lottery, getting 100, 200, 400 million dollars enough for a thousand people to have a great quality of life.

00:17:24.854 --> 00:17:27.124
And what happens within three years?

00:17:27.124 --> 00:17:28.528
Not only are they broke.

00:17:28.528 --> 00:17:28.990
What do they say?

00:17:28.990 --> 00:17:35.470
They are Bankrupt, which means they lost more than the two 300 million.

00:17:35.470 --> 00:17:40.828
There are another 30, 12, 12, 30, 40 million in debt on top of the 200 million they lost.

00:17:40.828 --> 00:17:45.509
You know what that comes down to Ethics, morals, principles, self-worth.

00:17:45.509 --> 00:17:54.003
So being financially successful, which money doesn't make you happy but it solves problems which inadvertently make you happy.

00:17:54.003 --> 00:17:58.173
If you have financial peace, it's just one part of your life.

00:17:58.173 --> 00:18:09.173
That you can spend time elsewhere, becoming a better version of yourself and growing your soul, which I think is what we're here on, this experiment called Earth, in my opinion, I agree, yeah, absolutely.

00:18:09.799 --> 00:18:12.608
I think there's a lot of things too that are powerful about what you just said.

00:18:12.608 --> 00:18:14.306
Obviously because I've got a show about values.

00:18:14.306 --> 00:18:24.585
But specifically, for example, I talked to a school last week and the goal that they initially brought me in to talk about was my Marine Corps career.

00:18:24.585 --> 00:18:31.713
In places I traveled, things I've done, why I've done it sacrifices, what it's done to my family good, bad, indifferent.

00:18:31.713 --> 00:18:58.933
That was the point of the conversation, right, and I said, okay, well, one of the biggest things that I've learned from my Marine Corps career now just over 15 years, one of the biggest things that I've learned and I learned a lot tactically, traveling, whatever has been about myself Self-awareness, the impact of a value system, my own worth, despite now being on a commission, as a realtor, I give up a six-figure salary, a company, vehicle benefits, and I'm on commission.

00:18:58.933 --> 00:18:59.914
I may as well be waiting tables.

00:18:59.914 --> 00:19:04.137
So you don't have to be broken because of it.

00:19:04.137 --> 00:19:11.558
And I don't mean medically Ticare is what it is but like spiritually, right, there's something to be said for that and it's the same thing.

00:19:11.558 --> 00:19:12.320
We talked about it earlier.

00:19:12.361 --> 00:19:14.346
People have 20, 25, 30 year careers.

00:19:14.346 --> 00:19:16.771
They get out of whatever industry they've been in.

00:19:16.771 --> 00:19:18.528
Let's say they retire.

00:19:18.528 --> 00:19:27.188
Let's say they're lucky enough to retire and they're like I don't know who I am anymore because you focused on the game, you focused on the job, the professional development.

00:19:27.188 --> 00:19:32.214
But I think the personal development counts for just as much in any other industry as you're saying in finance.

00:19:32.214 --> 00:19:33.155
It can as well.

00:19:33.155 --> 00:19:41.067
Alrighty, folks, sit tight.

00:19:41.067 --> 00:19:43.230
We for more perspective and more podcast.

00:19:43.230 --> 00:19:50.229
You can check out Transacting Value on Weeds Across America Radio, listen in on iHeartRadio, odyssey and TuneIn.

00:19:52.977 --> 00:20:02.441
Let's say they retire and say they're lucky enough to retire and I'm like I don't know who I am anymore because you focused on the game, you focused on the job, the professional development.

00:20:02.441 --> 00:20:07.460
But I think the personal development counts for just as much in any other industry as you're saying in finance.

00:20:07.460 --> 00:20:08.403
It can as well.

00:20:08.403 --> 00:20:09.727
It's.

00:20:09.727 --> 00:20:14.125
It's such a huge and highly underrated and understated concept.

00:20:14.125 --> 00:20:15.488
I mean it.

00:20:15.488 --> 00:20:24.201
It can either revolutionize broadcast media or totally degrade it because it doesn't help ratings.

00:20:24.201 --> 00:20:25.486
I think that can be problematic.

00:20:25.486 --> 00:20:26.817
So what's your recommendation then?

00:20:26.817 --> 00:20:40.527
How do we build this out, this message of self-worth, this, in your case, focus on finances to help bring stability and peace and contentment based on your values, this entrusted sort of wealth planning metric?

00:20:40.527 --> 00:20:42.897
What do we do.

00:20:42.897 --> 00:20:47.738
We wait for people to call, or we go out and we tell people and sort of proselytize what's the angle?

00:20:49.162 --> 00:20:55.727
I'll tell you, I lived a life where I put money as my God and it brought nothing but sorrow.

00:20:55.727 --> 00:20:59.415
You know, uh, I made millions but I lost millions gambling.

00:20:59.415 --> 00:21:00.679
You know I didn't value it.

00:21:00.679 --> 00:21:17.525
Uh, I don't want to sound corny or anything or like a Bible thumper, but the minute that I can just tell you personally, you know, the minute I put God as number one in in my life, above my wife, above my children, above my career, my life above my wife, above my children, above my career.

00:21:17.525 --> 00:21:18.326
My life got better.

00:21:18.326 --> 00:21:22.010
I lost weight, I got healthier, I started caring about myself.

00:21:22.010 --> 00:21:27.246
I got a therapist I talked to, which alleviated a lot of the childhood trauma my mom caused me by not wanting me.

00:21:28.036 --> 00:21:29.280
That was a big hole in my heart.

00:21:29.280 --> 00:21:42.104
It strengthened my relationship, my marriage, which made me have more self-worth, which pretty much caused more conflict in my marriage, but it made me realize that I'm worth it.

00:21:42.104 --> 00:21:49.025
I don't need to be degraded, I don't need to be used and abused and treated disrespectfully in front of my own children.

00:21:49.025 --> 00:21:56.190
It went deep and I'm in the process of figuring out whether it's better to stay or go, whether it's better to stay or go.

00:21:56.190 --> 00:22:03.803
But it also makes you look in the mirror because I go to the gym and I try and eat better, because I was about 30 pounds heavier even though I'm still overweight.

00:22:03.803 --> 00:22:09.184
I was obese and it feels good to look in the mirror and be like I feel good about myself.

00:22:09.184 --> 00:22:11.740
I'm not where I want to be, but I'm better than I was yesterday.

00:22:11.740 --> 00:22:29.162
And then having a team getting 20, 30 people working with me growing Ironhawk Financial on a daily basis and I've always been a solo ranger for 20 years so many 10, 20, 15 years like you need an assistant, you need this, you need that and nobody could do it as good as me.

00:22:29.162 --> 00:22:32.176
You know, and when I found God, god's like.

00:22:32.176 --> 00:22:32.396
Help other.

00:22:32.396 --> 00:22:33.577
You help all these families in their personal finances.

00:22:33.577 --> 00:22:35.840
Help other you help all these families in their personal finances.

00:22:35.840 --> 00:22:37.061
Help other families.

00:22:37.061 --> 00:22:46.872
Teach them how to sell indexed universal life, fixed index, annuities, eyelid trust, irrevocable life insurance, trust, estate planning, tax and mediation.

00:22:46.872 --> 00:22:57.127
Teach those guys everything you've learned, because not only is it going to help them and their families, it's going to help them do the right thing in this field.

00:22:57.127 --> 00:23:08.957
You know how hard it is to be 21 years in this and be 5.0 rated on Google and A plus on the Better Business Bureau with zero complaints, from dealing with hundreds of thousands of dollars to millions of dollars per person.

00:23:08.957 --> 00:23:15.048
Yeah, I bet Again, I don't want to sound corny, but God is the reason.

00:23:21.755 --> 00:23:33.163
Sound corny, but God is the reason why I feel so much better about myself, who I am, fixed so much healing that I had that I used quick fixes, alcohol, gambling, smoking, cigarettes, porn all the things I did to numb that feeling.

00:23:33.163 --> 00:23:35.607
When God was there, I didn't need to do that anymore.

00:23:35.607 --> 00:23:42.196
And then all that time and energy I wasted on that I put into my business and my business, yeah, I was making a million bucks a year.

00:23:42.196 --> 00:23:42.740
I'm on track.

00:23:42.740 --> 00:23:48.300
Next year I want to make a hundred million and I want to reinvest that back into grow, not not so.

00:23:48.340 --> 00:23:50.767
I already can afford a 600 horsepower car.

00:23:50.767 --> 00:23:51.955
I already have one for years.

00:23:51.955 --> 00:23:55.002
I already bought a brand new Escalade this year Cool, right, awesome.

00:23:55.002 --> 00:23:57.407
But that's not going to change anyone's life.

00:23:57.407 --> 00:24:01.450
Right, it makes me feel good when I get in it or whatever, but I want to make a difference.

00:24:01.450 --> 00:24:13.701
Right, and when you have a mission and money is not the goal, but growth and awareness to a big problem, I think that's out there.

00:24:13.701 --> 00:24:21.179
It's bigger than yourself and it's God and Yeshua, that's my God and hopefully you all have your own.

00:24:21.179 --> 00:24:48.864
And if, like Trump's my little buddy, I'm glad he won, but it's like God's my little dude over here, like, hey, you know, I may be lonely, I may be depressed, I may be arguing with my spouse or, you know, lost a deal, but I got a little buddy right there that I'm like it's okay, who cares?

00:24:48.864 --> 00:24:51.878
Who's next, let's go.

00:24:51.878 --> 00:24:57.730
You know, and that everyone needs and not a lot of people have, because they took God out of our country and I think we need to put him back.

00:24:58.835 --> 00:25:03.279
Yeah, there's something to be said for spirituality, and I don't necessarily mean religion to the point you brought up.

00:25:03.279 --> 00:25:05.161
There's correct, I am not religious at all.

00:25:07.115 --> 00:25:08.000
I'm not religious at all.

00:25:08.000 --> 00:25:10.161
I don't go to church, I don't believe in the Catholic church.

00:25:10.161 --> 00:25:19.037
I actually think that even though I'm Catholic, I'm Italian, right, everything is Catholic.

00:25:19.057 --> 00:25:19.858
I think they're the worst.

00:25:19.858 --> 00:25:39.269
Yeah, there's a lot of aspects, I think, that people tend to misconstrue, but human spirit, let alone any degree of inspiration through a Holy Spirit or whatever you prefer to align with, is absolutely contagious and it changes everything perspective, clarity, purpose, hope.

00:25:39.269 --> 00:25:42.401
You can't buy those you can't.

00:25:42.401 --> 00:25:45.508
It doesn't matter what educational systems you purchase.

00:25:45.508 --> 00:25:48.999
Yeah, right, value systems, let's just call them like.

00:25:48.999 --> 00:26:06.307
Yeah, there is a certain inherent benefit to internal modes of control and, on one hand of this spectrum, let's just say it's affirmation every morning I am a super awesome dude and I'm going to have a great day today in the mirror.

00:26:06.307 --> 00:26:06.996
Great, do it.

00:26:06.996 --> 00:26:07.356
Whatever.

00:26:07.356 --> 00:26:09.762
If that works, that works.

00:26:09.762 --> 00:26:21.076
And in my opinion, that's the same sort of financial parallel, as I don't have a dollar to invest today, but I can find two quarters underneath my driver's seat and I'm not spending them, unless it's something that's going to grow money, right, cool, great, do that.

00:26:22.460 --> 00:26:26.147
On the other hand, podcasting for me has become my therapy.

00:26:26.147 --> 00:26:49.762
It gives me people like you to talk to, to probe, to learn about this human experience, and helps me get through my own whatever mental health issues, behavioral isms, things that I've transitioned from the Marine Corps into, like I said now, real estate you can't talk about, like in my case, the infantry going on a long patrol shooting at places where people live.

00:26:49.762 --> 00:26:51.988
Hey, do you want to buy a house?

00:26:51.988 --> 00:26:59.469
There's no overlap, and so some of the stuff that exists, though, is humanity.

00:26:59.469 --> 00:27:27.063
Here's what that looks like Talking about ethics and morals and decision-making processes, and collateral and opportunity, cost and all these other actual economic things that are the same principles, but the spirit between the two, the amount of resonance that something like that builds, that's how you get clients, that's how you help people, that's how you get listeners, that's how you make friends, that's how you have sleepovers when you're five.

00:27:29.386 --> 00:27:34.586
It's the good dude role, just with a cross in some cases, in some buildings, in some places.

00:27:34.586 --> 00:27:48.644
But, yeah, being able to interact with people as just a ground-level human, despite any degrees of success, I think is huge, and so, like in your case, you've got all sorts of stuff.

00:27:48.644 --> 00:27:54.883
I've seen you on magazine covers, other podcasts, radio show, which we'll talk about here soon.

00:27:54.883 --> 00:28:00.198
Dude, you've got so much stuff going on, how do you stay grounded?

00:28:02.261 --> 00:28:09.358
When the goal is bigger than you and my why is so strong?

00:28:09.358 --> 00:28:10.039
I don't get tired.

00:28:10.039 --> 00:28:14.204
I mean, I'm not the most physical specimen of success?

00:28:14.224 --> 00:28:25.823
physical specimen of success but, I, can work 12, 14 hours a day with a smile on my face, happy, and I don't need to work anymore.

00:28:25.823 --> 00:28:29.289
When you get to a point where you have billions of dollars of protection and rollovers in your career, thousands of clients, there's residual in this business.

00:28:29.289 --> 00:28:30.771
I have six different businesses.

00:28:30.771 --> 00:28:32.494
I got real estate, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

00:28:32.494 --> 00:28:35.380
I don't have to work anymore.

00:28:35.380 --> 00:28:43.239
I just turned 40, but my why is so strong that I've been so blessed.

00:28:43.239 --> 00:28:45.544
I want to bless other people.

00:28:45.544 --> 00:28:48.982
All the pain and all the suffering I had in my childhood, that's not me anymore.

00:28:48.982 --> 00:28:50.548
I'm a 40-year-old man.

00:28:50.548 --> 00:28:54.019
I don't live there anymore and I live in this abundance.

00:28:54.019 --> 00:28:55.300
I don't live in scarcity.

00:28:55.903 --> 00:28:59.730
When you change your mindset to live in abundance, life changes.

00:28:59.730 --> 00:29:02.801
You know, like, if you buy a red car, what do you see?

00:29:02.801 --> 00:29:04.586
Nothing but red cars everywhere.

00:29:04.586 --> 00:29:06.701
You buy an Acura, what do you see?

00:29:06.701 --> 00:29:08.461
Nothing but Acuras, right.

00:29:08.461 --> 00:29:11.163
That is how we are programmed.

00:29:11.163 --> 00:29:12.882
If you think you can, you will.

00:29:12.882 --> 00:29:14.280
If you think you can't, you won't.

00:29:14.280 --> 00:29:15.655
Either way, you're right.

00:29:15.655 --> 00:29:18.239
The little train that could right.

00:29:18.259 --> 00:29:22.222
We learned that when we were three years old, but it's so true.

00:29:22.222 --> 00:29:25.286
So many people have negative self-talk.

00:29:25.286 --> 00:29:29.971
My whole life changed in regards to production success.

00:29:29.971 --> 00:29:38.674
All that when I started listening to believe it or not Amway, double diamond CDs remember that network marketing company, amway that sold soap.

00:29:38.674 --> 00:29:47.607
And then they got into like energy drinks and so, yeah, this is 2006, 2007, 2008.

00:29:47.607 --> 00:29:54.536
And I started, I started listening to my buddy, went in, right, and I joined just to like buy some stuff to help him out, right.

00:29:54.536 --> 00:30:02.521
And then he said, come to the meetings, come to the meetings, the meetings, and I'm like I'm already selling insurance, I'm probably going to sit down on people's couches selling energy drinks and stuff.

00:30:02.521 --> 00:30:07.165
So I learned so much from these CDs because what they were?

00:30:07.165 --> 00:30:14.042
They were like the meetings they have every quarter, the hoorahs, and all it was was positive self-talk.

00:30:14.694 --> 00:30:15.881
It was a bunch of people.

00:30:15.881 --> 00:30:18.718
A lot of them weren't even americans, you know they.

00:30:18.718 --> 00:30:19.078
You know they.

00:30:19.078 --> 00:30:28.036
They had down lines in south america, they down lines and in australia, and they would go on stage and be like I knew I could do it, you know, and I was just like a lot of them.

00:30:28.036 --> 00:30:28.857
It was just hilarious.

00:30:28.857 --> 00:30:46.723
My buddy didn't say joke on it, but like we knew that they can do it, like and and these are just normal people, normal Normal people, and they had such conviction that what they were doing was the best thing, and they would talk about their wins, and that sparked something in me.

00:30:46.723 --> 00:30:51.443
I don't know If you can see it as a possibility.

00:30:51.443 --> 00:30:59.165
Your mind can comprehend it as an opportunity, but if you've never seen it, you have no idea it exists.

00:30:59.194 --> 00:31:03.042
How could your mind portray that into reality?

00:31:03.042 --> 00:31:04.384
Right, and we live in a.

00:31:04.384 --> 00:31:09.964
We're learning a lot about our virtual reality of whatever the heck this is, and video games.

00:31:09.964 --> 00:31:15.441
We make video games and AI, and we're getting deeper into figuring out what the hell we're here for and how everything works.

00:31:15.441 --> 00:31:25.638
Right, but a lot of census or consensus of this information is we dictate our reality with our projection of reality, right?

00:31:25.638 --> 00:31:29.125
So if you think something is, it is.

00:31:29.125 --> 00:31:31.737
If you think something is, it isn't.

00:31:31.737 --> 00:31:34.002
And if you think you're a winner, you're a winner.

00:31:34.002 --> 00:31:35.366
If you think you're a loser, you're a loser.

00:31:35.366 --> 00:31:36.634
If you surround yourself with losers, you're going to be a loser.

00:31:36.634 --> 00:31:37.601
If you surround yourself with losers, you're going to be a loser.

00:31:37.601 --> 00:31:42.172
If you surround yourself with winners, you're going to be a winner, and the word winner or loser has whatever that is to you.

00:31:42.172 --> 00:31:47.405
There is no universal definition of a winner or a loser.

00:31:47.405 --> 00:31:48.067
It's just whatever.

00:31:48.474 --> 00:31:50.542
Are you going closer towards your personal goals?

00:31:50.542 --> 00:31:51.976
Do you have personal goals?

00:31:51.976 --> 00:31:54.858
I mean, if you don't have goals, I mean, what the heck are you doing?

00:31:54.858 --> 00:31:59.083
Right, if you have dreams and you don't write them down, you have nothing.

00:31:59.083 --> 00:32:01.965
You have to take a dream, write it down on a piece of paper.

00:32:01.965 --> 00:32:02.606
It becomes a goal.

00:32:02.606 --> 00:32:04.909
Then from the goal, you figure out how do I get there?

00:32:04.909 --> 00:32:11.936
And then you obsess about it and think of how do I win, how do I lose?

00:32:11.957 --> 00:32:19.708
Reach out to people, talk to people, and the quickest way to success in anything is copy the most successful person that you have access to.

00:32:19.708 --> 00:32:21.349
That's what I did.

00:32:21.349 --> 00:32:25.326
I was at Barnum Financial Group, which was MetLife's number one office in the country.

00:32:25.326 --> 00:32:28.905
They were the number one general agency with numbers like 400 agents.

00:32:28.905 --> 00:32:31.201
I found one of their top guys, mike Lynch.

00:32:31.201 --> 00:32:37.763
He had a radio show, Money Talk on WICC, and I have a radio show called Money Talk with Ironhawk I wonder why.

00:32:37.763 --> 00:32:40.541
And so I just copied him.

00:32:40.541 --> 00:32:57.824
I swear to God, I just copied him and he was so good and he taught me so much and what I learned from him in that year that I just brought opportunities to him and I sat there and you know whatever he said yeah, and I'm duplicating that with my guys.

00:32:58.675 --> 00:33:03.778
And I got guys that that are a year into the business making six figures it's selling, you know IULs.

00:33:03.778 --> 00:33:08.328
And I got one guy we opened up a $1.2 million commission.

00:33:08.328 --> 00:33:11.824
The guy never, never, closed a $50,000 deal in his life.

00:33:11.824 --> 00:33:14.798
He opened up a 1.1, $1.2 million commission with me.

00:33:14.798 --> 00:33:21.190
So it's all about finding who you want to be and copying it.

00:33:21.190 --> 00:33:22.842
There's 8 billion people.

00:33:22.842 --> 00:33:25.143
You're most likely not going to reinvent the wheel.

00:33:25.143 --> 00:33:37.835
Okay, so copy who you want to be and then just emulate and become your version right, personally, your version of that, what you deem as a winner or successful

00:33:39.740 --> 00:33:42.307
all righty folks sit tight and we'll be right back on transacting value

00:33:45.962 --> 00:33:53.518
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