331 | The Labor Shortage, Authenticity, and Bottlenecks In Business: Ryan Englin

Aug 22

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Speaker 1
On today's episode of Gathering the Kings.

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Speaker 1
How do you get to that place? Or better yet, how did you get to that place?

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Speaker 1
Or how would you suggest the listener gets to that place of knowing that you know, that you know that you know, in essence, you've got this resoluteness or this like deep seated like, No, I'm here, right? How do you get there?

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Speaker 1
What's up, everybody? I'm Chaz Wolfe gathering the Kings podcast. Coming back to you here today. I'm your host. I've got Brandon Neely here on the King stage, my brother Brandon. How we doing?

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Speaker 2
Good. Jazz. It's it's so fun to be called a king here, you know?

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Speaker 1
Hey, yo, you didn't even I didn't even need to put the crown on your head. You came. You came with your own crown, my man.

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Speaker 2
Yeah, well, you know, I am a person of faith, so I'm like, yeah, you know, kings, that whole thing. Sons, daughters. Yeah, I, like, resonate with that kind of thing. Totally. And a lot of times people are living in a place of not into their what they should be living in to. Yeah. And living as orphans. So I think that's right.

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Speaker 2
Orphans were, were kings and queens. So that's that's that's right Amazing thing.

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Speaker 1
So hey that's, that's right dude. Wow. What a what a way to start. I agree with you on all fronts. Brandon. Tell us what kind of business that you have, man.

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Speaker 2
Yeah, I am a reluctant in the financial services world. I did not go into this. Like, literally, I got into this to change lives. And I have a company called Wealth Wisdom Financial, formerly grandma wealth wisdom, but wealth wisdom, financial. It's an amazing deal. And the reason we're in it is because this this concept, this foundational asset, helped us like, sell our business, our former business, and not close it.

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Speaker 2
Okay? And so now we're just trying to like

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Speaker 2
in the Bible,

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Speaker 2
one beggar showing another beggar where to find bread. It's kind of the idea. And we're like, Yeah, let's just help as many people as we can. So that's what we do in the financial services world of all things.

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Speaker 1
Yeah, well, it's, it's a big space. I know you've got a couple of niches inside of that, and I'm sure we can get to that. But I know, I know you're a numbers guy. I know your, your wife's a big part of that as well. I see the profit first book behind. Yeah, what a great book. So I'm sure we're going to get into some numbers and some technical things and help a lot of entrepreneurs out there.

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Speaker 1
But I want to know what's the bigger why you're not obviously drawn to financial services as a as a widget. That's in essence what you were just saying. What are you drawn to? What's the bigger picture for you?

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Speaker 2
Brenna Yeah, I'm a person that wants to change the world and make bigger impacts in the world, right? Really, It's more about

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Speaker 2
making people's lives better and impacting like justice and those kind of things. So in my former business, I used to own a, a coffee shop. It was okay flow. And the reason we got into this is to build community building and ethical economics, right?

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Speaker 2
That was that was why we got into it. Yeah. To make a difference with the coffee farmers because coffee people were not paid fairly. Who made the coffee? And we wanted to change that. Yeah. However, going into that we were idealistic. Entrepreneurs

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Speaker 2
have rich relatives

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Speaker 2
to get to help us and our business name was called Overflow. Now what I learned is I can't overflow if I don't take care of me and our hours, our family.

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Speaker 2
Yeah, and a lot of business owners and entrepreneurs don't get that concept or they think they're going to take everything and never leave anything to other people. So they're doing the reverse. So you have to have a happy medium. Yeah, but I learned a lot in that former business that I would tell people what not to do in that regard.

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Speaker 2
But yeah, it was. It's been amazing. But a journey and now I do the same thing justice type work except as in the my the financial world than if you want to look at corruption right look in the financial system.

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Speaker 1
Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So business owners listening right now, they're like okay, I hear you. You want to change the world. You you want to, you know, eradicate, you know, corruption in the financial space. Your your, your little reach is, you know, even as a successful business owner is only so far. Why? Why does that itch the deep place for you?

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Speaker 1
You're I mean from from the other side of the world, it's like, oh, well, your reach is just so small in comparison to this big old pool, but yet it's still very real for you. Like that was your answer. Like, no, I'm changing things.

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Speaker 2
Yeah.

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Speaker 1
Why is that still a thing for you?

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Speaker 2
I think about, like, again, I'm in. I do a lot with life insurance. And one of the things with even just the part of life insurance and I might go a little spiritual on this one, but the it's one of the most spiritual

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Speaker 2
products, financial products out there, because it's to protect widows and orphans, Right? Yeah. Well, literally, that's what it's for.

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Speaker 2
Right. And so I don't know when I ever I help a client how that's going to impact generations. Right. Right. And a lot of times people's financial mindset is a systemic thing of of culture, what their parents taught them or what the grandparents taught them. And it's it's reinforcing. And then, you know, in our capitalistic world, we're told, go buy this, go do this, you deserve it.

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Speaker 2
And oftentimes we we're just spending money we don't have anyway. No. And we have to learn how to one, be content, live with enough. But but also we should be striving. And I think that's a hard balance.

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Speaker 1
You know.

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Speaker 2
To to get to. But but how do we figure that out? And that's for me, it really comes down to I could have a lot of money and be divorced, and that's not good either.

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Speaker 1
So, yeah, there there is a play here, you know, for for people who quote unquote, want to have it. All right? All doesn't necessarily look like what maybe the world is maybe telling us what all is. I'm hearing you say that wholesome values is like, yes, being successful financially, that creates financial freedom or in this case, investing in a life insurance policy so that if something were to happen to me, my wife and children aren't left stranded at hanging.

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Speaker 1
Those types of decisions, though, are based from wholesome values as opposed to just let me take that, you know, two or three or $500 a month and go whatever, fill in the blank with something that maybe I don't really need.

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Speaker 1
I think I think the the hard things

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Speaker 1
are what are real in this case, like you're saying,

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Speaker 1
making sure that my family's taken care of in the worst case scenario.

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Speaker 1
So what do you think for you this,

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Speaker 1
this place of I mean, that was pretty deep of like, you know, I want to help generations and you don't actually ever even get to see it. But in the moment of transaction, you're, you know, like you said, maybe selling a life insurance policy and maybe you have a relationship with that family for a period of time or maybe all the way to the end of their life, depending upon life circumstances.

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Speaker 1
But the generational effect you don't get to see.

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Speaker 2
Yeah.

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Speaker 1
How how do you keep that such far thing in advance? Like how do you keep it close and close, even maybe to your to your emotions so that way every single day you're motivated to sell another policy or to help your team sell another policy or whatever.

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Speaker 2
Yeah, I think some is just helping people understand how money works and when they start getting the aha moments of figuring that out because a lot of times our most in our financial world, we're just putting into maxing out our 401k because everyone else told you to do that. And we're like, Oh yeah, that that's important. And then we don't realize how market volatility impacts things similar to returns risks all the the jargon out there that impacts us.

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Speaker 2
And then we want freedom, whatever that means. And I think sometimes the financial freedom number is very different than, you know, I like to have a list or something along those lines, right? Usually it's deeper than just, hey, I'm going to go sit on the beach somewhere because then you you reach that number and then you're like, okay, now what?

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Speaker 2
Yeah. So we want to like, balance that. But really for me, it's like me when somebody gets it and they're starting to use their life insurance policies to buy real estate, for example, and you can do that. You can use the cash value in a whole life property design policy to do it, to buy other assets. Right? That's that's why it's called the and asset and just thinking about holistic

00:09:08:12 - 00:09:21:01
Speaker 2
and not just the family but generationally and honestly, the reason we're in this situation is because we've been thinking about ourselves, not about other people, for a long time.

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Speaker 2
And that's why the world is is kind of in a in a scary place, right? Yeah. And we if somebody doesn't do something about it, you know, that's the one thing I think about. If we say someone should do something about that, usually that's us.

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Speaker 1
Yeah, well, you just signed up. Whatever.

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Speaker 2
Yeah, whatever business it is. And then I think about like that. That was us in our coffee journey

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Speaker 2
and in our journey here, when we say someone needs to do something about it, it's probably you.

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Speaker 1
Yeah. No, that's a great reminder of that moment when most people do nothing, they just like to complain.

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Speaker 1
But

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Speaker 1
action takers or.

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Speaker 2
Get cynical and they get.

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Speaker 1
And get cynical. That's right.

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Speaker 2
That's right. And then I think there's a lot of what I call want your partners out there. They're the one that people who like, I'm going to have a business plan eventually I going to write one and they never actually do anything. And the real entrepreneurs are the ones who, like, have done stuff and they've had failures, right?

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Speaker 2
They've gotten punched in the mouth a couple of times. I kind of like what happened with both my left here. That's not happened. That didn't happen.

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Speaker 2
those are things whenever you hear a real entrepreneur, they're like, yeah, and this happened and suck it up and move on. You just want to have less bruises. That's why I like the policies is because they helped me have I can get back up faster.

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Speaker 2
All right? Yeah.

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Speaker 1
Yeah. Okay. So we're talking about good decision making already, which I love. So we're just going to go there. I'm going to get to your your history here in a second. Give me a good decision that you've made in business, because really what I want is that juicy failure that you just kind of mentioned. But let's start with a good one first.

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Speaker 1
What's the super practical decision that you've made in one of these businesses that has led to your success?

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Speaker 2
Well, I will have to say I married my wife, which is the you know, everybody says that thing, Oh, my wife, you know. But however, we are business partners, we've done two businesses together and she's kind of like the back of the house. I'm the front of the house, if you think about it from a kitchen. Yeah. Idea.

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Speaker 2
And we would not be where we're at without that. And then she's able to really do all kinds of things, powerful things in Excel that I'm like, you know, she comes to me and says, I say it's broken. And she's like, No, it's not broken. It's you.

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Speaker 1
Yeah.

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Speaker 2
So I think that's one. But then the my one of our biggest accomplishments is just stepping out, right? Not just sitting there saying, you know, we're slow to move, I think, but we move.

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Speaker 1
Yeah, yeah. I think that the understatement there of just move, right like a because there's so many entrepreneurs and people that talk that are not action takers in essence. And so the the speed of which you move is always, you know I think what people like, people who are taking action are aware of the speed, but the actual action is what's probably more important and probably just right behind that, the consistency of action more than speed of action.

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Speaker 1
Has that been your story?

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Speaker 2
Yeah, I think I think you're connected to Grant Cardone, right. The massive action. Oh yeah. Idea. Right. And something I've thought about is the massive action is great. I love massive action, but I add in there's massive appropriate action and making sure we're making the right moves but making moves right And you could be moving and saying, Oh, I'm posted 100 times on tick, tick Tock and Twitter and nothing's happening.

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Speaker 2
Well, that's maybe not the most the best use of your massive action. Yeah, maybe you should do something else. Yeah. And track that. So I like to add that appropriate. And I'm sure you wrote that somewhere, but. Yeah, yeah.

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Speaker 1
Yeah. No, that's a that's a good distinguish because do you have a lot of young entrepreneurs, young and tenure necessarily more than age although age as well where it's just like I'm just going to go now there's learning in the go, right? Even though I'm running in the wrong direction. If I run fast in the wrong direction, I typically will find out that I'm running in the wrong direction sooner than if I'm going slow.

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Speaker 1
But you're not talking about going slow. You're talking about being calculated. You're talking about, hey, let's just we're going don't don't don't get me wrong. Let's make sure we pack our bag properly. Because anybody who runs a construction business, any time you start a project without all the stuff, how many times do you go to Home Depot or how many times you go to your you back to your supplier or how many times?

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Speaker 1
Like that's just how it works if you're chasing your tail. And that's in essence what brand is telling you to do as a business owner. Don't don't just get started for the sake of getting started. Yes, there's value in that. Okay, I'm with you, but pretty quick, once you, like, become the action taker, just like right before you jump, just put a quick put a quick list together, in essence, right?

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Speaker 1
Yeah.

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Speaker 2
Yeah. And that that's an acronym that we've developed where and I'll get into that in a little bit, but you have to set your sights, you need to stop for a minute. And this is again, be still. You have to stop and kind of think there's a there's a book called I Think The Road Less Stupid. Yeah. And he says, you know, have some thinking time.

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Speaker 2
And I think a lot of people with their social media content and even us and we have to create content because get to feed the machine and and not having enough time to just think Yeah I think that's important.

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Speaker 1
Yeah. Yep. That's a, it's a great book. It's a great concept. And just to back what you're saying for the listener here to kind of back up this point, I actually have three think times on my calendar each week. They're all for different purposes. But what Brandon's given to you guys is, is real. So if you've never heard of think time, I would highly recommend looking at Keith Cunningham and his book Bro La Stupid and or other just you know, resources of his what what about a bad decision or something that you've done you know that that was a big failure that's kind of given you the war scars of I'm a real entrepreneur as

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Speaker 1
you say.

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Speaker 2
Oh, I think as you grow a business, especially a coffee shop, it's very labor intensive. And hiring people can can be war stories. Also, you know, when we started our business, our second year was like the worst that could happen. Everything that could go wrong did from miscarriage to just my grandmother died at as appendix. I think I saw all kinds of our cat died that year and people would come in and ask, you know, how are things going?

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Speaker 2
And nobody wants to hear it. The, Oh yeah, life sucks, you know, they don't wanna hear that. They want to hear it's good. Give me my coffee and then move on. Yeah. And, and our marriage, like, almost fell apart, but we had too much debt, and that was the second year of that business. And so I think about three things that that really got us through.

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Speaker 2
It was know that you know that you know that you're called to it because it will suck, that you're sucked a lot.

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Speaker 2
And the second was

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Speaker 2
have a team around you that care about you, not just your

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Speaker 2
outcome. You care about your marriage, care about the the other things, and then know your numbers.

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Speaker 2
Those three things

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Speaker 2
most people that I've talked to, business owners, was like, Yeah, but I don't like numbers.

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Speaker 2
I'm like, You should I'll just go make money. I like, you know, make and keep is very important. Both Yeah, yeah. And so your question, I.

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Speaker 1
Know it's great. I mean, you yeah, you gave several pieces there. Let's, I want to dissect your, your answers though. The, you know, knowing that you know that you know that you know, if you're called to it, that it's going to be hard. How do you get to that place? Or better yet, how did you get to that place?

00:17:14:17 - 00:17:28:16
Speaker 1
Or how would you suggest the listener gets to that place of knowing that you know, that you know that you know, in essence, you've got this resoluteness or this like deep seated like, No, I'm here, right? How do you get there?

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Speaker 2
I think you have to be asking, is is part of the the faith journey for us is saying, okay, can I do this? And then, you know, from from a faith side, I mean, there is just so many things that happen that I was like, that's weird. That's a sign or something, right? And we just kept stepping one step and it just kind of led.

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Speaker 2
And then you just, you just happened, you know? But then at the same time,

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Speaker 2
I gave myself five years. I'm going to put everything on the table in this this business, and I'm okay. It's okay to step away from it five years, but I don't want to just say I am going to kind of do it right. You got to know that I'm going to put everything in and then also be okay to say, All right, I've done everything.

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Speaker 2
It's not working. I need to pivot.

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Speaker 1
Yeah, yeah. That that pivot, persistent kind of conversation. Because sometimes it's one or the other, Like you either press through and keep going or it's time to make something happen different. How do you know? Like if you're resolute about this is what I'm called to, as you said. Yeah, but then you ended up selling that business. So what was the transition for you?

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Speaker 1
Right? Of like, I'm called to this, but for a period of time, or was it circumstantial? What does that look like?

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Speaker 2
Yeah, so I'll lead a couple stories. So I remember one of my and this is crazy. So I hired a staff person, you know, because that's where I was going to leave with. This is the I leave with those three things, but I have to hire people and take in 100% responsibility for everything, even my my staff, even though I'm not working on that stuff, I have to take responsibility for that.

00:19:04:16 - 00:19:27:14
Speaker 2
And I have one of the staff people I think I'm pretty sure was stealing from me. Grandma died like 100 times, you know, and different things. And I remember going to somebody, I was like, I think this place is is is killing me. Right. And and went to the hospital and they're like, oh, yeah, you have high anxiety.

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Speaker 2
You need to take some of this. Stop drinking coffee. I'm like, that's not going to happen.

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Speaker 1
I want to coffee shop.

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Speaker 2
Yeah, there's not. And literally I fired the girl and my blood pressure went back to normal. Wow. Right, right. Which is crazy to see that. But that was one thing. What happened within in the end of our coffee shop years was we were on a year to year lease with the landlord and we also had a flood in the business.

00:19:59:10 - 00:20:20:06
Speaker 2
So literally they were taking off the roof and we had one of those freak storms that happened and I got called by my staff. I went to the gym because, you know, I learned to take care of myself, make sure we're doing all the right things. So we're at the gym doing that good quality time, probably listening to Cunningham or somebody and on the treadmill.

00:20:20:08 - 00:20:43:15
Speaker 2
And I call from my staff saying I was probably profit first, actually. But listening to to that. And then he calls and I was like, I'm almost done with my run. I'll answer in 5 minutes. It's not that important. Then my wife is on the treadmill next to me and they call her and I was like, Oh, this is serious.

00:20:43:17 - 00:21:06:06
Speaker 2
Yeah. So he answer and he calls and says, The store is falling apart. And I had heard the storm in the the gym. Yeah. And I'm like, I'm like, oh, that sounds really bad. I hope the the roof is good because I, you know, is thinking about that and we come in and literally we come in and the store is in a couple of inches of water.

00:21:06:08 - 00:21:36:04
Speaker 2
Wow. And at that same time and this leads into why we sold we had a year to year lease the store was literally underwater. And then a month later, we had found out that while we were treading through the water, we were expecting a child. Wow. Like, all right, That's a lot of things we need to We cannot have a year to year lease as a business owner.

00:21:36:04 - 00:21:58:04
Speaker 2
I can handle the pain, but as a responsible adult for somebody else, I need to, like, change some things. So we decided to sell and it was pre-COVID, which is an amazing, a great blessing. And we were able to sell it not for a lot, but we were able to sell it because somebody kept asking me, What's your number?

00:21:58:06 - 00:22:16:13
Speaker 2
Yeah. And he would always come in, What's your number to sell? And I was like, Yeah, he came on a day. I was like, What's your number? And then we sold it. And then afterwards my wife's like, Well, now that we're going to sell this thing, you got to go get a job. I was like, I'm not employable.

00:22:16:15 - 00:22:39:13
Speaker 2
It's not going to work. So, so, you know, but I had I knew I had to go get a job because, I mean, I'm going to have a job. So my mentor, I kept sending my mentor clients and they hit a job posting. So I applied to work for him and he said, No, you're too entrepreneurial. You'll probably break my system.

00:22:39:15 - 00:22:59:07
Speaker 2
I was like, Thanks, But I thought I was going to be good at this, you know? And I did not know that a lot of people have a lot of opinions about money. I didn't I had no idea about that. All I knew was this changed my life. I was able to sell my business and I closed my business because of this this product.

00:22:59:09 - 00:23:21:07
Speaker 2
Right. And and so then he comes back to me about a month later and says, I have an idea. How about you and your wife? Start your own agency and I'll coach you? I was like, That sounds even better. She's seven months pregnant. No one's going to hire her. So. So we end up starting our own agency. And then we learned that Dave Ramsey loves to hate us, you know, all that stuff.

00:23:21:07 - 00:23:40:14
Speaker 2
And we're like, Oh, well, it only made a difference for us. And within infinite banking in profit first, those two concepts. Yeah. Delta good foundation for us. So yeah, Hey, that's why we're here now. So it was a crazy story. But you said you like stories.

00:23:40:19 - 00:23:58:20
Speaker 1
Yes. Well, that's I mean, that's how we learn. But I have never had a business under water, But I, I had one of my one of my edible arrangement stories that I owned many years ago. I had it in my mind, actually, as you were telling the story. And I was visualizing myself walking in to, you know, several inches of water.

00:23:58:21 - 00:24:00:19
Speaker 1
So I was right there with you, man.

00:24:00:21 - 00:24:22:08
Speaker 2
We were crying. And, you know, you think about it, you put everything, everything into it. But but what I've learned is, as we start a business, I mean, this is a five year old business. It's like a child, right? And you probably I don't know if people get this, but when you start a a business, it's like you have to wipe the the the poop, all kinds of crazy stuff in.

00:24:22:09 - 00:24:38:09
Speaker 2
And a lot of times we compare ourselves to a 20 year old business, not a newborn. That's right. And now we're at a place with our current business that's over five years. My company is starting to do things on its own. Yeah.

00:24:38:11 - 00:25:03:22
Speaker 1
Yeah, exactly. And that's the same as you're saying for children, right? You know, the five year mark, like, Oh, like they get dressed on their own and they're starting to like most of my little mismatch, you know. But, but little autonomy never hurt anybody. And they'll figure it out, you know? But I love that depiction of of correlating it to to business because it's 100% right.

00:25:04:00 - 00:25:27:01
Speaker 1
You know, there's guys listening right now or gals who are two or three years in and and wondering when their business is going to start dressing themselves. And and the reality of it is, is that there's probably real chaos that has to get worked out that, you know, systems and process. But some of it's just a little bit of time like what you're talking about, just letting it mature, right?

00:25:27:01 - 00:25:45:22
Speaker 1
Hey, kings and queens. Chaz Wolf, I want to talk to you about something that's super important to me. We put a lot of time and effort. We meaning myself and my team into this podcast, into the content that goes out every single day. And if you have been getting any sort of value or insight from this, we want it to be able to reach other business owners, too.

00:25:45:23 - 00:26:12:03
Speaker 1
So we would love if you would like comment, share. Leave a review post. Share again all of the things on social media, on all the different platforms or even on the podcast mediums of Apple and Spotify. We would love to be able to get our content into more hands, more entrepreneurs so they can grow their business as quick as possible together, we are building a community of like minded entrepreneurs who are committed to growing their businesses to new heights.

00:26:12:08 - 00:26:16:19
Speaker 1
So let's do this. Let's help each other. Let's have each other grow.

00:26:16:20 - 00:26:17:22
Speaker 1
Yeah.

00:26:18:00 - 00:26:45:14
Speaker 2
And there there is chaos, right? And we will have that. And that leads into something we've thought about a lot of times in business and understanding when to make the right moves and ah, we have an acronym. We love acronyms that was overflow as that's a vision, visual and wealth, Wisdom Financial. There's visual there, you know, with wealth and wisdom, but then chaos.

00:26:45:15 - 00:26:51:11
Speaker 2
This is where a lot of people are in and people feed off of chaos. It's confusing. Yeah, it's haphazard.

00:26:51:13 - 00:26:52:05
Speaker 1
It's it's exciting.

00:26:52:05 - 00:27:14:07
Speaker 2
It's it's yeah, exciting. Sometimes overwhelming and stressful. Right? That's chaos. And we love that. And then you think about the tax code. Figuring out taxes is chaos, right? Confusing, haphazard, anxious, overwhelming and stressful, if anything from COVID years taught us.

00:27:14:09 - 00:27:14:20
Speaker 1
Oh, yeah.

00:27:14:20 - 00:27:34:14
Speaker 2
That's that's exactly it. And people are realizing there's there's a lot of that in us trying to need to go back to something else. And that's the what we call the still method. And this is set your sights where the heck do you want to go? Most people have no idea. All of their goals are is to go to Disney World.

00:27:34:15 - 00:27:58:06
Speaker 2
Right? So set your sights, track. You're in and out. That's if you want a good, healthy, you know, rock hard abs and stuff. You do the same thing. Yeah, that's a gym. Set your sights, track, inspect your progress, look for 1% adjustments, not 100%, but little micro adjustments and then live deliberately.

00:27:58:08 - 00:27:59:01
Speaker 1
Yeah, and then you.

00:27:59:01 - 00:28:26:22
Speaker 2
Do that regularly. And I never said anything about life insurance and never said anything about. Right. Anything. But those micro adjustments, those 1% adjustments over time, if you if again, going back to that running guy, if he's going in the wrong direction, massive action but in the wrong direction, that's that that can be a problem. Yep. But if he did the method he could say oh I'm need, I need to orient a little bit.

00:28:27:00 - 00:28:51:21
Speaker 2
Right. Yep. That's right. And re change direction. Yeah. Anyway I we love this still method. We do this regularly and try and teach people. This is an hour in our business. We have a community that we've developed and that's our I don't know inside of us. We're just not good at packaging it. And that's, that's for sure. We could definitely not get at the wrapping paper of sales.

00:28:51:23 - 00:29:10:02
Speaker 1
Yeah, we were talking about this, you know, you know beforehand, obviously you have a great product and so that's why you've been able to be successful. Well, sometimes things sell themselves, but but not all the time, you know, And it's so let's let's kind of go down that road a little bit because I think that there's a worthwhile discussion for the listener, Brad and I, before we hit the record.

00:29:10:02 - 00:29:27:06
Speaker 1
But we're talking about this idea of, you know, you have a present, which is your product, your offering, your service, and then, you know, the wrapping paper that goes on it, which is the marketing. And of course your sales process is attached in between there. But a lot of times I don't if you guys feel this way as listeners, I feel this way for sure.

00:29:27:08 - 00:30:00:06
Speaker 1
You walk into a physical establishment or if you're just online either way, it's like you don't really know like, is this really what I'm getting or is this like a fake photo or is this wrapping paper really shiny for a reason? Are they trying to cover up something? And so really what is what I think it's made me and maybe other people is is cynical of going like I'm a good person and I would I wouldn't put bad wrapping paper on a bad or good wrapping paper on a bad gift.

00:30:00:08 - 00:30:18:07
Speaker 1
And so when I've experienced that, it's like, oh, bummer. Like that's a that's not how this is supposed to go at all. And so now it makes me reluctant to trust people. And so anyway, this is what we're talking about before we hit the record. But so let's just kind of press into this a little bit. For financial services.

00:30:18:07 - 00:30:41:07
Speaker 1
It's like, you know, like pretty dry from a perspective of like really, we all know that we need it probably, but do we really want to go spend money on that? Well, not really, because it's not exciting. There's no shiny wrapping paper. Yeah. And so how are you navigating that or how are you attempting maybe to put the shiny wrapping paper on such a not shiny decision?

00:30:41:09 - 00:31:11:14
Speaker 2
I think some is hiring people that can help you with that, that understand that and can help you become know a star famous, if you will, in those places without compromising integrity. Yeah, that's big. Something I will not do. And I could go to Fiverr and get my YouTube subscribers up and they're all fake in India, but then people will join my community because they're like, Yeah, you're cool because you have all these people.

00:31:11:14 - 00:31:39:22
Speaker 2
I'm like, They're robots, you know, I don't care. I'm not going to do that ever. And if that means my business is smaller because of that, that that's okay. But I have things that I'm willing to die on them for that. But at the same time, we are in a world of of flashiness and fakeness, right? So playing with that and having a good website, it's still hard for us.

00:31:40:00 - 00:32:07:09
Speaker 2
Yeah. And then playing the games. Right. It, you know, having good content like putting out our podcasts, we do that regularly. Is it easy? No, but then people are. This is why people were drawn to the crypto craze and what's happening there or the Bernie Madoff's is they're trying to get the results without the effort right sometimes. And then things happen.

00:32:07:11 - 00:32:26:11
Speaker 2
We get the shovel and we're like, Oh yeah. And you have to be aware when you're being sold something and you don't have to put any effort into it. This is part of it in business. I think that honestly, the reason that most of them fail is because they're looking for a shortcut and there is not. Yeah, unfortunately.

00:32:26:13 - 00:32:46:04
Speaker 1
Yeah. To your shovel comment, you know people, you know us, you, me, the listener, we've all done it where we've purchased that whole right. Like I don't, I don't want the shovel just, just come dig the hole. That's the problem. And so even in sales and marketing, like, that's in order to sell the shovel, you don't sell the shovel, You sell the whole.

00:32:46:06 - 00:32:47:00
Speaker 2
Yeah.

00:32:47:02 - 00:33:18:14
Speaker 1
Because that's the actual problem. That's the actual need. And so there's nothing wrong with that portion of it. But if I buy the shovel thinking that it's going to do it itself or that I have no involvement in that, then that's just that's just not integrity. In this case, we're not honesty. And so I think that's what we've what we've identified a lot, you know, and it's just kind of funny because the example that popped up in my mind online, of course, there's all the gurus and, you know, and I've even I've even had people, you know, comment on ads that we've run and, you know, even stuff that we've posted organically, there's like, you

00:33:18:14 - 00:33:41:20
Speaker 1
know, scam, this scam that I'm like, but you don't you don't even have a clue. But then there are real people out there, unfortunately, doing that, which then makes those people cynical, like we had just got to talking about. And it's just unfortunate really. But so how we're fighting that is we're saying, okay, be genuine, do the thing, but live by integrity.

00:33:41:20 - 00:34:04:21
Speaker 1
But you also have to play by the rules. And and so here's for the listener. Here's the take away. Playing by the rules means you still got to be a good marketer. You still got to be good at sales. That doesn't mean that you need to be sleazy or that you're you're making false claims. What that does is that you need to get really, really good at telling your story clearly to the people that need to hear it because they're going to respond to that message.

00:34:04:22 - 00:34:10:10
Speaker 1
And you got to do it a lot and you got to kind of put some frill on. I got to put some nice wrapping paper on it.

00:34:10:12 - 00:34:28:00
Speaker 2
I think that that's where we're learning a lot over the course, even in the coffee shop or like in you know, we don't need all that, but we have to. And that's where you hire somebody out. But then I also learn, you know, and I got really offended when Dave Ramsey is saying, like infinite people who sell infinite banking.

00:34:28:02 - 00:34:55:12
Speaker 2
It's a scam. And I was like, I really take offense to that because this is what I do and I know he makes a crap ton of money. It's going to use another word, but and he's done some some questionable things because of, you know, clickbait type things, right. Of knowing if you show negative, you'll get more. And you know, I can say how the 401k is a scam and all these kind of things.

00:34:55:14 - 00:35:24:08
Speaker 2
I just don't want to go there. But I do know my own story and how this concept has impacted us from both a financial standpoint and a Yeah, spending time with their families standpoint, right? Yeah. And when somebody attacks you, you're like, Oh man, now here's my story. And then people will argue and say, Yeah, but, but I'm like, Yeah, yeah, but, and I've had clients tell me, yeah, but it doesn't do this.

00:35:24:08 - 00:35:48:09
Speaker 2
I'm like, No, you're wrong. I know for sure it does what it does because I've used it this way. Yeah, yeah. But I watched the tick Tock video and this guy said, I'm like, No, that is not what it does. Yeah, I never went through the process and there's a lot of haters out there and that we're going to have them as we're successful.

00:35:48:10 - 00:36:01:21
Speaker 2
Yeah, but, but the reality for me is like, be know who you are and know how it's impacted you. All right? That's that's ultimately where we need to have more ethics and integrity has to do our job.

00:36:01:23 - 00:36:07:08
Speaker 1
Brandon, I think I just heard you say that you wanted the thumbnail on this video to be for one K is a scam.

00:36:07:10 - 00:36:11:09
Speaker 2
I mean, I do I do have probably a thumbnail that said that, right? Yeah.

00:36:11:11 - 00:36:12:12
Speaker 1
Good. It's funny.

00:36:12:12 - 00:36:38:03
Speaker 2
Yeah. And sometimes I don't want to be on that. Oh yeah. For all in case so I can all hater like I'm like you know we that's not healthy either as a person to say right these guys suck in this and I don't need an audience check on Dave. Yeah I have a little bit but you know not too much but I was like this is he's he's just trying to get some people in his video.

00:36:38:03 - 00:36:58:04
Speaker 2
If you look up Internet banking, you'll find him number one on that concept on YouTube. And it's wrong like 100% right. And I'm like, Yeah, yeah. But a lot of times people don't want to look at the math. That's why I know your numbers is really important for any business.

00:36:58:06 - 00:37:23:00
Speaker 1
Yeah, for any business, Absolutely. What as we kind of transition here, what's a good business resource? I mean, you've mentioned profit first a couple of times. You've mentioned the still method already. You take this opportunity to give us the most impactful thing, the most impactful business resource, book or method, whatever, that the listeners can go dive into and get some value from.

00:37:23:02 - 00:38:00:09
Speaker 2
Oh, I mean, I just named a bunch I feel like like that book word Less Stupid. That was a really good one. And people not just just thinking time and think we need to step away just to, to, to be able to know who we are, right? I think they're one of the most valuable resources. And again, I'm not a super religious person, but, you know, I would say go, go to garden, ask questions and reflect internally about who you want to be and then step into that.

00:38:00:09 - 00:38:12:03
Speaker 2
Right? Yeah, that's one. We always are looking outward. Maybe we need to be looking inward a little bit. Yeah, that's a huge person. Personally, I think you know.

00:38:12:05 - 00:38:39:11
Speaker 1
What's been the growth and yeah, well I mean tell us about that because like you said whether whether you're reading a book about thinking time and going and sitting strategically in a quiet place and thinking about certain questions or reflection or you're reflecting, you know, like you said, and asking God to enlighten certain areas or give you answers or give you wisdom or help you with things or help you with understanding whatever the situation is.

00:38:39:13 - 00:38:46:17
Speaker 1
What does that do for us as an individual when we reflect on the internal as opposed to what's happening external.

00:38:46:19 - 00:39:13:04
Speaker 2
I think you start knowing more about what you want and who you really are, right? There's a Franciscan priest, Richard Warr. I think a lot of times we are. Where he says is that there's two halves of life and we're building all the things on one side and then we realize, oh, none of that stuff really matters. And we go to the end of life and say, Oh, it's all about the relationships, the other stuff.

00:39:13:10 - 00:39:37:20
Speaker 2
Yeah, I think that's wisdom that's why our business is called wealth Wisdom Financial. It's not about money, but money does help. Like, you know, it does if you if you can't feed your kids. There's that Maslow hierarchy of needs kind of thing, right? There's business hierarchy of needs as well. We need to overcome that. But realizing where do I want to be?

00:39:37:20 - 00:39:57:09
Speaker 2
What kind of even even as I think about reverse engineering my life, I'm like, Well, I have a five year old, but what kind of grandparent do I want to be, Right? Does that do I want him to still like me when he's 25? Right? So I got to do those things now. And that's that's again why we do our financial framework.

00:39:57:09 - 00:40:19:17
Speaker 2
When we when we do meet with our clients, we do sell life insurance policies. But I feel like whenever I do my financial analysis, I'm asking those questions and people are like, Whoa, no one's ever asked that before. And I'm like, And the policy will help, but it's just a policy. It's just life insurance. What I mean, but what it can help you do, that's up to you.

00:40:19:17 - 00:40:29:14
Speaker 2
It's infinite. Yeah. And so that's cool. Yeah, well, I would say resource. Go to our podcast. There you go. I'm going to plug myself.

00:40:29:19 - 00:40:31:00
Speaker 1
Yeah.

00:40:31:02 - 00:40:55:08
Speaker 2
Wealth, Wisdom, Financial. My wife is really smart. She is a CFP, you know? Yeah, I have a background in, you know, running a crazy business with with her So wealth wisdom financial you can find our podcast you to look us up we better be able to be found in if I fear not being found there's still a lot of work to be done.

00:40:55:09 - 00:40:55:22
Speaker 1
Oh sure.

00:40:55:22 - 00:41:00:16
Speaker 2
The web site will change at some point, but yeah, yeah.

00:41:00:18 - 00:41:01:04
Speaker 1
It's all good.

00:41:01:04 - 00:41:02:11
Speaker 2
Men. You'll find a lot there.

00:41:02:13 - 00:41:25:09
Speaker 1
Yeah, I appreciate that. I want to get a question for you about just family dynamic, because you've you've been open about just the partnership with your wife and being in a business and now multiple businesses as entrepreneurs. You know, I find that it's easy for us to go all in on things. We get excited, we get obsessed, and then there we go.

00:41:25:09 - 00:41:44:08
Speaker 1
Right? And so my question is, how have you been able to obsess over, you know, your wife, your family at the same kind of rate or intensity as the business, especially since you've a few minutes ago mentioned that, you know, the thing that held you together was your massive debt, which was obviously not a. Yeah, that's not that's not the greatest place to be in a marriage.

00:41:44:08 - 00:41:48:01
Speaker 1
And so what have you done maybe since then that's been super helpful.

00:41:48:03 - 00:41:52:15
Speaker 2
Yeah, I think. Have you ever heard of that? The jar with the rock analogies.

00:41:52:17 - 00:41:53:22
Speaker 1
You know. Oh yes. Yeah, yeah.

00:41:54:00 - 00:42:21:21
Speaker 2
Right. Yeah. So when I told you second year of our marriage, everything was happening, we were going wrong and all kinds of crazy stuff. What we did to overcome was we were putting everything into the business. We were running on like no money, steam. But what we made a priority was putting date night on the calendar. And we've done date night every week since.

00:42:21:21 - 00:42:44:19
Speaker 2
Even with the five year old, right where we've done date night, where we don't talk about work, we we can't. We're even, you know, she yells at me all the time because I bring it up. But we put that on the calendar. Yeah, right. The things that you want to accomplish, this is the financial still. We have this still framework that we're doing and we're writing a book, right?

00:42:44:21 - 00:42:49:05
Speaker 2
Well It's what we had to do. We had to put time to do those things.

00:42:49:07 - 00:42:50:04
Speaker 1
Yeah.

00:42:50:06 - 00:43:14:03
Speaker 2
Because if you don't put those times in place, they will every everybody else will have a plan. They'll have a plan for your money. They'll have a plan for your time. That's right. So put those big rocks in place. If you value your marriage, then show that you value by, you know, putting those date nights in place. And I see this all the time and they're like, Yeah, but I just don't have time for that right now.

00:43:14:03 - 00:43:16:13
Speaker 2
You, you do. We make time for what's important.

00:43:16:15 - 00:43:17:17
Speaker 1
Exactly.

00:43:17:19 - 00:43:40:17
Speaker 2
And then on Sundays we don't do work. We, we have a mantra, a family adventure day. We go, we do adventures and I'm also a caretaker, my mother in law. So, yeah, those things are important. But putting those big rocks in place and then filling it with the sand and the water. Yeah. Not last.

00:43:40:19 - 00:44:03:21
Speaker 1
Yeah, it's good. It's good. It's. It's. It's something that we've heard, but it's good to hear again. And even the way that you establish that, that format this first and then this really matters. I love the Adventure Day kind of title as well. We've got young kids as well and I think that that that that sounds awesome. And what we do also, we don't call it that.

00:44:03:21 - 00:44:07:11
Speaker 1
And so I think that that just needs a title and then you can lean into it.

00:44:07:13 - 00:44:36:07
Speaker 2
Yeah. Oh, and here's the thing he's learned it's not an adventure unless something goes wrong. That's right. Something will go wrong. Life in business, something will go wrong. You just roll with it and it's like, All right, cool. That was interesting. Right? Let's let's figure it out. Let's figure it out. And and what I like again, going back to the faith thing is the Bible talks a lot about tithing, right?

00:44:36:09 - 00:45:00:21
Speaker 2
That's a big rock thing. Right? So and then if you do that and there's a book called Richest Man in Babylon, I mean, 10% of all you earn is for you to keep. You do the same thing as you do with tithing and what that what that says there and profit first is the same thing right I'm like well they're just saying put what's important first, not last.

00:45:00:23 - 00:45:20:18
Speaker 2
That's right. And if you really value your kids and you value your marriage, you do that. Know. Now I still have a big business and and staff and all and we're growing as fast as I want but that's I have a five year old so that's okay. Yeah you know Yeah exactly.

00:45:20:20 - 00:45:46:19
Speaker 1
I love what you said there. The correlation of even profit. First of Babylon's all my favorite books, but it's not just about money. It's about putting the important things first, even though it feels undoable. And that's really probably even the caveat. It's like, no, it feels undoable or feels impossible, or it feels like, Oh, I'll get to that later because I don't have enough or the philosophy of tithing, the philosophy or method of of profit first or first richest man.

00:45:46:19 - 00:45:51:11
Speaker 1
BABYLON All those are No, no, no, it doesn't. The circumstances do not matter.

00:45:51:13 - 00:45:52:12
Speaker 2
Yeah, and I do.

00:45:52:12 - 00:45:52:20
Speaker 1
This for.

00:45:52:23 - 00:46:16:16
Speaker 2
You. And again, going back to the still method, make 1% adjustments. You don't start with, you know, want to be like Grant Cardone and have a giant plane right. Maybe that's good for you. Maybe not. I don't know. But. But he didn't just get there. He probably made things progress along the way. Yeah. All right. All of those kind of things.

00:46:16:16 - 00:46:17:07
Speaker 2
I don't know.

00:46:17:09 - 00:46:18:07
Speaker 1
Yeah, it's so true.

00:46:18:07 - 00:46:20:23
Speaker 2
There's just one guy trying to figure it out, so.

00:46:21:01 - 00:46:32:21
Speaker 1
I love that. I got one last question here for you, Brandon. I want to know if you had the opportunity reach back into time and whisper in your younger self, your younger ear, what would you tell that guy?

00:46:32:23 - 00:46:50:07
Speaker 2
Oh, I would say, yeah, one has to do those things. I used to be in the Marine Corps and the music industry and all kinds of crazy stuff. I'd even get to. But and I don't think my younger self would listen. But, you know, none of that's usually how it works.

00:46:50:11 - 00:46:52:12
Speaker 1
Yeah, exactly.

00:46:52:14 - 00:47:10:08
Speaker 2
Understand the principles of the first and start saving put into a life insurance properly design life insurance policy right now. Because if I did that at age 20, I'd be in a lot better place. Have multiple real estate properties, not just two or three. Right.

00:47:10:09 - 00:47:12:03
Speaker 1
So there you go.

00:47:12:05 - 00:47:22:00
Speaker 2
Use your money that don't do it. The banks tell you to do do it, The banks do. So I tell my younger self, reflect on that.

00:47:22:02 - 00:47:43:23
Speaker 1
Yeah. Yeah. It's an interesting concept. Do what the banks do, not what they tell you to do. Brandon How can the listener find you? Number one, if they are interested in this concept profit first or this infinite banking thing that you mentioned several times, how can they find you? Or if they're just an entrepreneur, they want to know how you've run your businesses, how you made it through the up and down, how can they find you?

00:47:44:01 - 00:48:08:00
Speaker 2
Yeah, if you go to wealth, wisdom, RFP, dot com, FSM, financial peers and partners dot com slash Brandon there's a link you can schedule an intro call with me really easy wealth wisdom FP dotcom and then our website we have I don't know, a community site there. We have all kinds of stuff. So if you look up wealth wisdom.

00:48:08:00 - 00:48:15:11
Speaker 2
FP or wealth wisdom financial, you better be able to find me or my amazing wife. There you go, both of us.

00:48:15:13 - 00:48:33:23
Speaker 1
There you go. Well, we appreciate you giving us all that information. Will make it easy for for folks listening to be able to find you guys as well and partner with you in that. But it's just been a fun conversation and and thought provoking. I hope for the listeners to be able to really do some of those things that we know that we need to be doing that we've heard probably on the podcast before.

00:48:33:23 - 00:48:40:05
Speaker 1
But here's your sign do the important things first, like Brandon has taught you how.

00:48:40:07 - 00:48:41:16
Speaker 2
To schedule it.

00:48:41:18 - 00:48:48:04
Speaker 1
Make it work. Brandon thank you for being here. Blessings to your family and to your business and all that. You put your hand to it. 23 Thanks, brother.

00:48:48:06 - 00:48:49:19
Speaker 2
Awesome. Thanks.

00:48:49:19 - 00:49:07:09
Speaker 1
Thank you for listening to Gathering the Kings today. I hope that you were able to pull out a few nuggets to go apply to your business right away. More importantly, though, I hope that you're realizing that it takes more to be successful than just being by yourself, doing it all on your own, carrying the weight all by yourself.

00:49:07:11 - 00:49:35:04
Speaker 1
What I have realized not only in my own journey from multiple businesses and multiple different industries, and now interviewing over two or 300 other very successful seven, eight and nine figure business owners is that it's tough to do it alone. And so gathering the Kings exists to bring together successful entrepreneurs. In fact, we are putting together 1000 kings specifically who are grateful but not done.

00:49:35:06 - 00:50:01:02
Speaker 1
We're intentionally assembling kings who fight tooth and nail for their business, family and communities. And here's what we believe that in the pursuit of excellence in those areas that it ignites within us the responsibility to govern power and forge a lasting legacy. So that relates in and resonates with you. And you know that you need people around you sharp, qualified, other very successful business owners.

00:50:01:03 - 00:50:14:20
Speaker 1
I want you to go to Gathering the Kings AECOM. I want you to take a look at what we're doing and see if it makes sense for you to be part of our pursuit to 1000 Kings Talk soon.

In this compelling episode of the Gathering The Kings Podcast, Chaz Wolfe dives deep with Ryan Englin, the visionary behind Core Matters. As the CEO of a business that specializes in coaching and training for recruiting and HR, Ryan provides a unique perspective on what's truly stopping your success. From tackling the misconceptions of being the best to embracing authentic growth, this episode is a treasure trove of insights for business owners and leaders. Join us for another enlightening session as Chaz Wolfe brings to light the mindsets and strategies that shape success. Ryan Englin's journey and insights are not just a testament to business success but to personal growth and self-awareness. Dive in and uncover the core matters that might be limiting your success.

Ryan Englin:

Website: https://corematters.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanenglin/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thecorematters

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@corefithiring