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The Alternatives Mason: Building Alts Knowledge Brick by Brick | Episode 12 | No BS Wealth Featuring Stoy Hall
5 Plays7 months ago
Welcome to The Alternatives Mason: Building Alts Knowledge Brick by Brick. Banrion Capital Management uses technology to help independent advisors scale and educate themselves on alternative investments. Since education is such a big piece of the Banrion mission and business, we are excited to kick off this series to dive into the nits and grits of the alternatives space. Episode 12 "No BS Weath" features Stoy Hall, Founder & CEO of Black Mammoth, a modern family office & holistic financial planning firm.
Born and raised in Omaha, Nebraska, Stoy went to college in Des Moines, Iowa, graduating from Drake University with a BSBA in finance and a minor in business law and insurance. In addition to being a four- year letter winner for the Bulldogs during college, Stoy worked at the Boys and Girls Club of Central Iowa as the professional teen development officer. This experience led him to choose a career in financial planning and wealth management.
Stoy’s motto: "Ridding the world of financial illiteracy," came from personal experience. It is his personal belief that financial literacy shouldn’t be limited to the ultra-wealthy, and it is his personal mission to end financial illiteracy in the general population. Stoy is as active in the community as he is in his business, participating in events and seminars that include Females & Finance and the Black and Brown Business Summit.
Connect With Stoy
Learn more about Black Mammoth
Learn More About Banrion: Banrion Capital Management
Follow Brittany on 𝕏: @Brittany_Mason
Follow Banrion on 𝕏: @Banrion_Capital
Subscribe to our YouTube Channel: @BanrionCapital
Important Disclosures:
The opinions expressed on the “The Alternative Mason Podcast” are for general informational purposes only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual or on any specific security.
It is only intended to provide education about the financial industry. To determine which investments may be appropriate for you, consult your financial advisor prior to investing. Any past performance discussed during this program is no guarantee of future results.
The guests featured on this program may be participants on Banrion Capital Management’s platform. As such Banrion may receive payment for their participation as a platform partner.
Any indices referenced for comparison are unmanaged and cannot be invested into directly. As always please remember investing involves risk and possible loss of principal capital; please seek advice from a licensed professional.
Investments are not FDIC-insured, nor are they deposits of or guaranteed by a bank or any other entity, so they may lose value.
Investors should carefully consider investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses. This and other important information is contained in the fund prospectuses and summary prospectuses, which can be obtained from a financial professional and should be read carefully before investing.
Statements attributed to an individual represent the opinions of that individual as of the date published and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Banrion Capital Manage
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Transcript
Introduction to Alternative Knowledge Podcast
00:00:01
Speaker
Welcome to the Alternator's Mason Podcast with host Brittany Mason, Chief of Staff at Bonner & Capital Management. You'll learn how to build alternative knowledge brick by brick. Bonner & Capital Management uses technology to help independent advisors scale and educate themselves on alternative investments. Since education is such a big piece of what we do, we are excited to kick off the series to dive into the myths and bricks of the alternative space.
Celebrating Women's History Month and Diversity
00:00:37
Speaker
I am Brittany and we are here with another episode live right from the green couch with the alternative Mason. It is my one of my favorite months actually out of the year March because it is women's history month and it is also St. Patrick's Day this month and as you know
00:00:57
Speaker
Bonrion is actually an Irish American, all female led company.
Innovative Approaches in Wealth Management
00:01:03
Speaker
So who knows better than the Irish than picking yourself up from the bootstraps and, you know, working hard. So, you know, the Irish, like I said, you know, we know all about it. So really, really excited to have our next special guest on today's story haul.
00:01:19
Speaker
He knows all about picking yourself up by the bootstraps as well. So I'm really excited to dig in deep with Story and find out more about his background and, you know, all the exciting stuff that he's working on today. So thank you Story for coming on and taking the time with us to chat today. Absolutely. And it must be just your month. I mean, to be Irish women owned, I mean, it's just, it is your guys' month. So it's going to be fantastic.
00:01:43
Speaker
I know I'm really excited for what's ahead I've got green on today and you know so so excited for this month and all the exciting things we've got going on so I want to share a little bit with our audience just a little more about your background so
00:01:58
Speaker
You are a pioneer in the world of financial planning and you're known for your innovative wealth management approach, your dedication to financial literacy, and you're also CEO of Black Mammoth and the founder of Kala Capital.
00:02:13
Speaker
He emphasizes inclusivity and holistic client well-being. Your philosophy transcends numbers focusing on emotional intelligence and in financial planning. Your devoted father and you embody the values of both personally and professionally, integrating family,
00:02:32
Speaker
education and happiness. I also am curious about your culinary explorations that you have too, and how you're doing that with finance.
Story's Financial Literacy Journey
00:02:41
Speaker
So really excited to dig in. Story, why don't we just start with, you know, you just telling me a little bit about your background and how did you even become interested in the world of finance to make this a career in the first place?
00:02:53
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. It started when I was young. I grew up with a family that just really wasn't financially literate. I like to call it education now as opposed to literacy, but didn't really have the foundation of what the hell money is and how to use it correctly. My mom and my grandma at one point were business owners and didn't really knew what the hell that was growing up, but I love to help out.
00:03:17
Speaker
And when I grew up, I recognize that there's a lot of people out there that were, I guess, more successful, right? When you're young, you have no idea what the hell any of that means. But you start to see like, they have better cars, they have a bigger house, they go on trips. And I always recognize like, why? Like, why? What's, what's different from them in us, right? Growing up, a lot of my friends were them. A lot of their families actually, I stayed at their house a lot in high school. So like, I knew them as people.
00:03:46
Speaker
but didn't understand what was the difference, like what's the disconnect. And so I ended up going to Drake University to play football and get my degree in finance, minored in business law and insurance. And I knew besides playing sports was my way, you know, out of my situation was I needed to figure out how to help people with money. So I thought I was going to get my accounting degree.
00:04:10
Speaker
First test got a 40% said, yeah, we're not doing accounting. We're moving the hell out of here. It was terrible too. It was like a blank piece of paper and you had to put together balance sheet income statement. And I was like, well, I got my name. That's about it. I got the date.
00:04:26
Speaker
It's like, what the hell do we do here? So I've quickly learned that I don't like necessarily that side of the game, although I do like it more nowadays.
Founding Black Mammoth: A Modern Family Office
00:04:35
Speaker
I wanted to be able to, how do we learn all of this stuff, right? Not the big words, none of all that stuff. Cause I feel like our industry loves to throw out giant words and, you know, always talking alpha and beta and you know, financial statements and all that stuff, which really is just an overcomplicated thing of saying your money in money out and how risky is it?
00:04:57
Speaker
And so while I was at college, I worked at the Boys and Girls Club for four and a half years. And I was the team, when was that my title? My title was Teen Development Officer.
00:05:10
Speaker
which was basically I babysat the teens most of the time. But I really fell in love with those kids and getting to know their background. And it triggered me to realize that I grew up the same way they did with parents working as hard as they can, trying to just live every day, every month, but never getting ahead. And I never could grasp like why. And so I turned to financial literacy at that point in time and was like the more education and conversations we can have around money,
00:05:39
Speaker
the more, hopefully, probability-wise that they become successful. And then I quickly graduated and started in the insurance realm, which was great. I learned a lot, went to a lot of conferences, a lot of leadership, but quickly found out that insurance isn't the end of the game, right? It's part of the pie, not the thing that we all focus on. And so from there,
00:06:04
Speaker
really started hitting home on financial planning, left there in 2017, joined a firm Centric there out of Houston and love those guys. But in 2020, I just had to get away because I wanted this concept of a modern family office to really hit home. And that's what Black Mammoth is. We are a modern family office.
00:06:24
Speaker
take the family office concepts of those who have $25 million or more and charge them a big fee. And we just modernized it to almost everyday business owners, really. And I really wanted to hone in on women and minority business owners, because obviously that's what I grew up with.
00:06:42
Speaker
That's who I relate to and I believe needs the most help. And so from there just kind of took off and ended up having, you know, call a capital. We have legacy fiduciary services, really anything you would need in a family office setting, we somehow have grasped that and that's kind of where we sit today.
00:07:02
Speaker
That's awesome. Well, that's such a great journey. I mean, especially so much that you've accomplished too, you're still seem so young. So at such a young age, that's awesome. And that you had positive female role models in your life that were running businesses. Perhaps they didn't know always the best financial choices as you said, but they sound like very strong.
00:07:24
Speaker
women that were were excellent role models for you. So just rewind a little bit more though about that background and what who, how it really shaped you as a person, what kind of conversations were you having in your household at the time, maybe, you know, they didn't, you know, your, your mom and family denoise.
00:07:43
Speaker
you know, like I said, have, have the clear path with like financial freedom and stuff, but you know, they were business owners. So what were those conversations in your household growing up? Like, they
Emotional Intelligence in Financial Planning
00:07:55
Speaker
were really non existent, like most households. There was no conversations besides, we got to pay taxes, or, you know, I have to go do this because I we need the business type of thing. And so it was really more negative based than than anything, but it
00:08:12
Speaker
I'm always a very curious person. I like to learn a lot and learn more. So for me, it triggered me to go, but like, but why? And like, ask questions, but they didn't have answers, you know, especially when it came to like taxes, and they, you know, kept doing their books, like, what is that? And they really didn't have an answer. But I was like, there has to be an answer. You're you have to do it. So what is it? So for me, that piqued more of my interest and intrigue and probably led me to
00:08:39
Speaker
always wanting to figure things out, ultimately, which is really cool, because that's rooted into everything I do every day, right? For my clients, I'm going to figure it out, right? I'll vet people out, I'll go get it figured out. And then we can implement it. And so I think that's a lot where it drove home for me. But it wasn't because I learned directly from them, it was more indirectly.
00:09:01
Speaker
Yeah. Fantastic. I actually similar for me. And I feel like a lot of people that I have here though, on the show, a lot of people, they had a parent or they had someone that was, you know, in the financial industry in some capacity or some way. So those conversations, that path was already, you know, basically an option for them. But I would say I actually, I identify so much more with your story story because I did not come up with a background with that, like that either.
00:09:30
Speaker
and everything was fear-based in my household. So I really stuck my head in the ground for many years of my life and went through a very traumatic financial experience actually that really put me on this whole new path and a whole new journey. So that is actually something I've heard you talk about is really getting to the core of someone's financial background and
00:09:56
Speaker
what their first introduction is to money and specifically trauma, a trauma-based experience to money and how that influences, you know, our decision making. So can you share more about that and your approach?
00:10:12
Speaker
Yeah, it's really an alternative approach. I believe nowadays, and a lot of my colleagues that I bring on to, you know, my podcast and in China and everything is we're developing more of that mindset, right? It used to be about just returns, assets and returns. Really, that was our industry. That's what's driven. That's what the world really knows is you only can have a financial advisor if you have money. That's usually the answer everyone gives. I don't have enough money to work with you. And I,
00:10:40
Speaker
back that out and said that that can't be how it goes it cannot be how the ultra wealthy become wealthier like that that can't be the end all be all like what is really the root thing that's going on
00:10:54
Speaker
And for me over time, it finally came down to it's their ability to make emotional decisions and take the emotions out of it, right? Whether they have a team telling them, hey, we're not doing that or they've just learned over time and have made mistakes and learned from it that you can't make decisions based upon your emotions. You need to run everything kind of like a business, right? And make business decisions. And that's really the biggest disconnect is majority of us think we control our money and we don't.
00:11:24
Speaker
We really don't. No one really controls their money. Money controls us. It's how our society's built now. In order to make it more advantageous for us, we need to set parameters and we need to stick to that plan. Sometimes that plan is investing. Sometimes that plan is buying a business or insurance or going traveling, right? It just has to be dictated around that, which all comes back into our emotions, right? What makes us happy?
00:11:51
Speaker
And it's not getting 10%, 100% returns. That's not it. It's ultimately like, can I do the things I want to do when I want to do them? And that's true wealth. So I always go back to that and lead with, hey, how'd you grow up? Kind of like you just asked me, how'd you grow up?
00:12:10
Speaker
What are some things that when you talk about money, do you like talking about and do not like talking about? And 98% of the time has zero to do with investing or any investments or anything that deals with money. It's always some experience.
00:12:25
Speaker
And I've started to recognize that. And so when you focus on that, it takes away all of the, the glitz and glamor of what our industry thinks is important. And it kind of just pushes it aside. And the core reasoning for everything is how are they and their plan emotionally? Then we can go ahead and do investments and insurance and all of that stuff. But if you don't have you figured out those plans kind of go to die pretty quickly. So what is your,
Virtual Shift in the Finance Industry
00:12:55
Speaker
After identifying what could be a triggering point, a traumatic financial triggering point, how do you recognize bridging that gap then for those emotional decisions that we find ourselves in when it comes to our decision making with money? Yeah, it's a journey. It really is. It's a wealth journey. It takes a while. And so initially with clients, I just say, blame me.
00:13:19
Speaker
All right, put it all on me blame me for the reason, because they need to get out of the decision making they need to get out of the opportunity to go against whatever it is. And typically people right away will listen and go, Okay, fine, you do it. And if it goes good, bad or indifferent, like it's toys fault, right? It's in a very easy scapegoat mentality, which for a long term, if it goes over too long, then it's kind of a negative way of doing it from a psychology perspective. But for a short period of time to get them
00:13:49
Speaker
to relax, put down their guard and learn a little bit, I tell them to blame me. Just blame story. It's fine, you'll be okay. And then from there, it just starts to meld into their decision making and they naturally, us as humans naturally wanna do the right thing. But usually it's disorganization, not knowing what to do, when to do it. And third, having someone say, it's okay, you can do it. Like just do it, right? Yeah. When did you start BlackMama?
00:14:18
Speaker
Technically 2020, September of 2020. In the pandemic, what was that like starting a business during the pandemic?
00:14:27
Speaker
It was, it really was no different. Everyone asked that. I was like, all right, I had my clientele base. I was meeting virtually most often anyway. And so it kind of just was like a name change and a name shift, right? But then it quickly picked up in terms of clientele because everyone was now dealing with some either, and I don't want to say mental health issues, but we're working from home.
00:14:54
Speaker
pandemic going on, we don't know what the end is going to look like, and just more influx of those conversations, right? And then it just kind of just took off from there. And then now look at our industry, we're mainly virtual. And I think it's one of the greatest things to happen of the pandemic, right? I am thankful for the pandemic for mainly one reason, and that is our industry has turned virtual. And we can now talk to a lot more people from everywhere.
00:15:20
Speaker
I agree. And I hope it stays that way. I am not all for this big push that they are making for us to go back into the office. I'm not for it. We can do everything from home as long as we have, you know, our access to the internet. I agree. I agree. And we can do these, right? These conversations. We all need to speak to humans. There's just different ways of doing it now. And luckily, technology allows that.
00:15:44
Speaker
Exactly. Well, what are some of the financial concepts that you use in Black Mammoth to demystify people's fear of the industry?
00:15:58
Speaker
Yeah, I tell them stop trying to keep up with the Joneses. Stop listening to the media. That's a very good start. And really start focusing on what you want to do. Our paths are all different. Our journeys are all different. You cannot compare, you know, my situation to your situation. We might have similarities, of course.
00:16:16
Speaker
but you can't compare those two things. And so for them to really own their own path, which makes it really cool and really different than other conversations, right? I've got clients that,
00:16:30
Speaker
What they wanna do with their money is they wanna invest in other businesses, they wanna travel, and they really don't wanna be involved with anything, right? They just wanna live their life and invest in others. Some people want to build a business, right? And be a billion dollar business and reach internationally, which is amazing. And others are good with just where they're at, right? Taking their business and maybe scaling it up a little bit, but leaving the legacy to their kids.
00:17:00
Speaker
And those those mindsets are totally different than the others, right? So what do we have to do and attack it from, you know, more of a financial situation? And like, what can we do to invest in things? It's different, right? Some of them are, I would say, although majority of my clients are all in alternatives, right? Whether that is other businesses, real estate,
00:17:22
Speaker
You know hedge funds those types of ideas because I believe most business owners minds work that way, right? It's easier for them to understand
00:17:31
Speaker
the complexities of alternatives, but understand why more so than the average day person because they're involved with wearing 6,000 different hats. They're understanding or trusting a situation in a plan over a long term, whereas others usually hold that a little more to their chest. So that's really what that's about. What do you think advisors that perhaps don't utilize or take advantage of alternatives, what do you feel is the biggest hurdle with that
Overcoming Barriers in Financial Advising
00:18:02
Speaker
There's two of them. One, they're scared to death of compliance, quotes. Like if you're listening, air quotes just got implemented there. They're scared to death of compliance, and then they don't wanna learn, right? And that's typically because it's an older, our industry's old, okay? Let's be real about it. And they typically do not wanna learn
00:18:22
Speaker
the alternative side, right? And I'd speak a lot about this on my podcast. It's funny, because traditional definition is really stocks, bonds, mutual funds, right? It's like three items, alternatives, literally everything else, it kind of should be flipped, we should be doing everything else, right? And it should all be integrated at once. And so really, it comes down to scared of compliance, because they think that they're going to be more liable, which some of them sometimes you are, they're going to have to know more,
00:18:49
Speaker
which means they have to learn, right? And that's okay. That's our job. That's our duty, is to push our education, push what we know, to figure out what's literally best for our clients. And you'll find more times than not, alternatives in some aspects actually fit a lot better than, you know, building out some some portfolio than traditional markets.
00:19:13
Speaker
obviously we agree here about it. So what other, so you mentioned obviously you're having these discussions on your podcast. So what other ways are you trying to bridge that gap and that that hurdle for people, for advisors to utilize more alternatives?
00:19:32
Speaker
Really just calling it out out there on the social media perspective, publicly having conversations about, you know, alternatives. I really wish we had a different name. I hate the word alternative. I really wish it was like something else, but here we are. Thanks to our industry for them to not be so wary and scared of it.
00:19:51
Speaker
and understand that they're not all built the same. There are, and you guys have more data than I do, but there's hundreds of thousands of different types of alternative investments. So just because you had a bad taste of one, because they had, you know, two and 20 in terms of performance and fees and all that, doesn't mean they're all built like that. Doesn't mean they're all hedge funds leveraging, out leveraging.
00:20:15
Speaker
There's so many different ones that you need to open your eyes because there's a fit for most of it. And I think that's what's the problem is we've been stuck to most alternatives only being some type of hedge fund and shorting most things because that's what's usually out in the media, right? Good or bad, right? And so I think that's like the thing we have to overcome. And we have to have more of these real conversations within our industry to kind of show that.
00:20:42
Speaker
And I love what you guys are doing because you're bringing more of that to all of us and recognizing and going, hey, hey, by the way, there's opportunities everywhere. This is how we can get to. Yes, exactly. Exactly.
00:20:57
Speaker
Yeah, we're really excited to release our technology and everything we've been working on to make it a lot easier for advisors to, you know, access those and everything. So, and we obviously agree education is key. It is so important and all the tools are out there, you know, so all the tools are out there.
00:21:18
Speaker
And they're only getting better, right? With you guys pushing it and leading that charge, it's only going to improve and become easier. And one day, hopefully you're sooner than later, it's as easy as a click of a button like everything else. So we can all focus on the root thing and that's everyone's emotions. And then we just click a button to get what we want done as opposed to some of the steps we have to go through on the alternative side right now.
00:21:45
Speaker
Yeah. Well, can you share a story, a success story that you have perhaps where you changed the mind of someone to really take a chance and to take a risk and it turned out successful?
Success Stories in Client Transformation
00:22:00
Speaker
Yeah.
00:22:02
Speaker
One of my newest clients was working for someone, right? They have an autism clinic for the children, which is phenomenal, but had always been tooled around with by the owner saying, you know, in years three or four or five, you'll be able to buy it from me, right? And that's usually just a carrot on a stick that a lot of business owners
00:22:25
Speaker
do over their employees to keep them longer. And it was time. It was time for her to either move on or buy it. And so we went through and took on that risk, right? Because as a normal W-2 salaried employee, typically you don't have a lot in savings, right? You don't have
00:22:46
Speaker
A lot of assets and she was like, I don't really know how we're going to do this. And I said, I got you. I got your back. You run this business because I don't know anything about autism therapy.
00:22:57
Speaker
And we'll handle the back end and get this thing done. And it took us like six months to finally close. It'll be June, first will be one year anniversary. She's moved into a new clinic or a new building as of now. We're looking at buying one in the next 18, 24 months. She's got new staff and finally just getting around to the new taxes. And it's been really cool to see her development from a,
00:23:26
Speaker
you know, a manager role to like a business owner, and how much weight that changes it. Yes, it sucks being a business owner. I say that all the time, being a business owner sucks, but it is so enlightening and so enriching to help others and be the one that like really makes those decisions. And so
00:23:44
Speaker
Now I say that and I have another client doing the same thing. We're looking at buying her owner out and it's just really cool to see the transition to that for someone to take on that risk and for when I run the numbers to show them it's not really at risk. There's always a risk, but it's minimal when you talk about that. You have an operational business that brings in 60K a month basically, there's relatively low risk here.
00:24:11
Speaker
right? The risk is maybe you have to put in more hours than you have been, but it's there, right? Let's let's jump. And so we've jumped. And now this year, we really get a focus on investing back into the business and then truly investing for it to grow on their personal side. That's fantastic. And what a great business to support and, you know,
00:24:31
Speaker
change in those people's lives. And that's what I love about finance the most is that it truly is life changing. Once you can understand, I fully believe, like you said, understanding our own relationship to money is first and foremost, the foundation of everything. Absolutely. Yeah. So tell me about Kala. Tell me more about- Yeah. So Kala Capital was
00:25:00
Speaker
hedge fund by definition. But we wanted to do something different and unique, because we were doing ourselves anyway, personally. So it's a combination of banking instruments, real estate, foreign currencies, and then, you know, I don't say traditional strategies, but
00:25:18
Speaker
more of our stock market strategies, if you will. And we were doing that in different pieces and different buckets with my previous business owner. And it was like, why can we not combine this and do it for others?
00:25:34
Speaker
um and so that's that's what we've been doing we're in year three i believe technically year three but we've ran it for four years four or five years now um and it's been one of the hardest strangest fulfilling things that i've ever dealt with from you got to deal with compliance hurdles you know legal issues
00:25:54
Speaker
making sure traders are doing what they're supposed to be doing. And then you've got investors and performance. It's it's been really fun and cool all at the same time. But that's kind of the the basis behind what we wanted. We wanted something different that hits upon all of our our clients or our needs but our clients needs that we all like to do anyway. Why not do it under you know one fund and then Kala
00:26:17
Speaker
is means money in Hawaiian and so we kind of wanted to tie that in. We go to Hawaii every year for a couple weeks. It's where you know we would love to live and so we just tied that that into our brand and it's been fun. It's been really fun.
00:26:32
Speaker
I love that. I love it when, you know, a name has special meaning behind it. R is bonery and it means queen in Irish and Gaelic. So little, little tidbit. So you've been really busy. So when did you start that business? That also technically started in 2020. I think the fund opened 2021, but we've been running it for about a year prior to that. So really all at the same
Creating Community with No BS Wealth Podcast
00:26:59
Speaker
time.
00:26:59
Speaker
You've been really busy because you also, on Friday, you just launched No BS Wealth. Yes. That podcast finally got its website after two years. This is year three. We finally launched that website, which has been.
00:27:15
Speaker
really fun and in the making. And we're taking it to the next level, right? I've been talking about it for years that I have a community of people, right? Shana's one of them, of how we all operate together and help each other. But it's always been like an arm's length. I feel like we've never all of us come together and been like, we can do this thing together. And so I've now decided that no BS Wealth is going to have a community
00:27:42
Speaker
And that community is going to be vetted professionals that I've vetted personally that are there for the betterment of, well, our listeners, anyone out there, and as opposed to just being like here's a referral to go meet somebody, right.
00:27:57
Speaker
Literally, we can schedule a forum, get right on there, show them everything we want to do as a person, and then just walk them through and say, hey, let's go meet with Shayna. Let's go meet with Brittany. This is what they're doing. As opposed to that, it's always uncomfortable when someone gives you a name and a number, and you're expected to go call them. Yeah. Right. It might be a connection and a referral, but it's still eh. And I want to take that eh out of it.
00:28:23
Speaker
Yeah. So what I mean, you're so passionate. What what would you say drives you? I want to see people succeed. It's it's important that people are happy. And as humans, we all can be happy at the same time. Right. I don't think there's competition in our industry. Everyone says there is. There's just too many people out there that need a lot of help. And the more people we can help,
00:28:52
Speaker
the better we all are, right? That takes away economic divide. That takes away racial divide, gender divide. Those all become very minute when we're all doing well and we're all happy together as a community. And we just, we don't have that right now. And it's, it's pretty sad. And so I know every day, like I know I'm going to wake up and just go at it. It's heavy, right? It's heavy to take that on and to always try to fight every day for it. But
00:29:21
Speaker
someone's got to because there's gotta be something different specifically in our industry that can happen that isn't so negative and so what's the word, aggressive towards different genders and races in our own industry, let alone the world. And on that note, what are you doing to help the industry be more inclusive and to reach more minorities, minority groups?
Promoting Minority Representation in Finance
00:29:51
Speaker
Um, I'm in our own podcast, no BS wealth. We have a minority CFP series. Uh, I there's not very minor. I think it's don't quote me. I'd have looked at the percentage, but it's like under 10% minorities. Um, I think if we throw in women, we're maybe reaching 11 to 19% somewhere in there of CFPs, which is insane to me. Um, so I've, I've launched that to, to really speak more, um, and spread the message.
00:30:17
Speaker
The other is when I go to events and the people in my colleagues is to step in when there is a conversation or a situation happening.
00:30:26
Speaker
And I believe that as a male, let alone a black male, we have to step in in situations that we see at conferences, that we see in public, and be the ones to step in and say, no, we're not doing that. And make it know. Not the good old boy, take him to the side and talk. When it's happening, sit there and say, no, we're not doing this.
00:30:48
Speaker
And as more of us stand up to do that, it's going to change the demographic of one, our industry, but two, just us in general. And that's really what I'm trying to voice as much as possible with sharing and yelling from the rooftops and being involved with we got to step up and do the right thing at that time, not behind the scenes later.
00:31:10
Speaker
Absolutely. What is one thing that you could encourage other people in the industry to go out and do one small little thing you would encourage someone to do for the month of March that they can do to support women in the financial industry? If you're anyone who has in our industry, who has any sort of social media presence or podcast or newsletter or whatever,
00:31:36
Speaker
Go reach out to any woman business owner in our industry or not, and have them on as a guest, okay? And blast them everywhere possible. If you do not, and you don't have any of that, then find those who, if they're business owners that you know or women that you know, send them to me, send them to us that have podcasts, we'll do it for you. But I really wanna be as loud as possible.
00:32:02
Speaker
And the only way to do that nowadays is let's get it out on social medias because it lives there forever. Yes. Allow me women to have more, more platforms for their voice. It's not that we don't have a voice, we just need more platforms. So as a father, what are you teaching your children?
Teaching Financial Literacy to the Next Generation
00:32:24
Speaker
Teaching them. And what is to, is there ever an age that's too early to introduce, you know, financial tactics to children?
00:32:33
Speaker
I don't think there is, once they understand what the hell it is. We started our boys relatively young, and I don't remember how old they were, maybe three-ish, with whenever they got money, right? Gift, present, didn't matter. However they earned it, however they got it. As soon as it came in, I would give them 50% of it. And the other 50%, I would say, I'm putting into an account you can't touch until you're 21.
00:32:58
Speaker
and I use that as kind of like tax although I'm not really going to tax them because I think that's just rude but it's forcing them to understand that like when I get money in some of it has to go away and some of it I can use for whatever I want right now that they're well
00:33:15
Speaker
whenever this goes out, my youngest will be seven on March 20. And my oldest will be 10 in July. So now that they're about 10 and seven, we actually use the green line app, and they're able to save and invest themselves when the money comes in, and set up it like a job, right? So I believe in jobs, I also believe in chores, those are two different things.
00:33:38
Speaker
and so we just recognize that and have them continuously investing in the way they want to and so when they go to invest I tell them invest in things that you know and you like or that we buy and they'll bring it to me and then I'll go to trading view and we'll go look at the charts and we'll go look at the value and then they're able to push the button and and start investing into whatever they want to invest in right and I let it happen good bad or indifferent
00:34:05
Speaker
That is fantastic. So Young learning that, that's great. What is the app again that you sell? Greenlight. Greenlight? I haven't heard of it. Look it up. It's pretty, it's pretty cool. I think it's like five bucks a month per kid, but that's almost irrelevant. But it has also educational platforms in there so they can do like fun games and courses, right? On top of the fact that like as an apparent, we can approve and deny everything and they have access to
00:34:35
Speaker
to purchasing items like my oldest he bought netflix and is up like 35 percent and he's thrilled now he only put in like a dollar 50 but still hey hey you're winning bro it's exciting learn that's so young it's so great it is what do they want to be when they grow up
00:34:55
Speaker
That changes a lot. It's been firefighter for both of them at one point. My youngest wants to be a chef, which is cool, because that's what I wanted to be. But the oldest wants to be a YouTuber.
00:35:10
Speaker
He doesn't know what though, what type of YouTube we started a channel in December. We haven't updated any posts yet. I've been editing. Could be cooking. He told me he wants to do a cooking one, him playing games and then him reviewing stuff and not doing anything financial because it's boring and no one watches it. And I said, yeah, tell me son, I know about it. My YouTube channel doesn't grow very fast. So I get it.
00:35:38
Speaker
Well, I mean, he could grow following and then get that following on over to yours. Those kids are paying a lot of money on YouTube. They sure are. Just for playing or, yeah, or reviewing stuff. It's insane. It really is. Oh my goodness.
The Future of Alternative Investments
00:35:54
Speaker
Well, what, on another note, what kind, what are some of your favorite alternative vehicles that you, that you like? Some favorite ones?
00:36:05
Speaker
Real estate in general, I really, really do love real estate. And that's even from a REIT perspective, if not, but like, just honestly, real estate is really good one. And the reason for that is obviously depreciation and all those things, but it's the ability for that to be another
00:36:26
Speaker
business in itself when you invest in all of those and there's one investment in this world that we all can agree upon that won't go away and that's some type of real estate because we all have to live somewhere or we all have to work somewhere now that's changing a little bit but we all have to do those things and so you know if you make the right choice then
00:36:44
Speaker
It's it's an asset that's always going to be there. It's not going to go away. It's not going to change. And so I'm really heavy into that side of it. And then I just love to learn like the different aspects. I've been diving in obviously some foreign currency stuff. I haven't gotten to crypto much at all. But those types of avenues and then whatever you guys throw at me.
00:37:06
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Gosh. Well, is there anything else you would like to add? What else you got working on? What else you got working on that you haven't shared with us? Yes. Those are really the big ones. There's another one that
00:37:21
Speaker
I'll talk a little bit about right now, but I want to get Shana on it as well. It's in tune with that community concept, but I wanting to do like a, and I hate the word webinar, but I wanting to do like a quarterly call, like a quarterly live call with, you know, like myself and Shana and you and some others that have this no bullshit approach to how we do all our lives.
00:37:45
Speaker
and really, truly answer some of these questions that I know other advisors are out there asking, I know clients are, and really doing it from a perspective that isn't so professional, right? I think that's how we can relate to a lot more people is coming down and just being real. I completely agree. I mean, as someone who was doing something entirely different before, I mean, it was such a foreign industry to me and I,
00:38:15
Speaker
It was my own internal fears that I had built and everything like we talked about that I had to get over. And so, yeah, I think just keeping that conversation, it's so crucial. So that's an effort. That'll probably take a little time, but we'll get there. Yeah, I think that, why do you think the industry
00:38:39
Speaker
throws out all these big terms and big words that makes it intimidating for others. Why do you think that is? Truthfully, but I don't even know if it's conspiracy, but put my hat on of why. Our industry loves power and control.
00:38:55
Speaker
Money is power and control. And so if you can speak above others, you naturally put them in a defensive perspective of I'm not good enough or I'm not smart enough to deal with you. So I'll just listen.
00:39:10
Speaker
Doctors have that same persona a little bit as well. Attorneys definitely do too, where they have the more power and control and the more that they can stand above you, the less you're going to question what they're doing. And that's why our industry has done it so far in the past. That's why we haven't been very transparent with a lot of things, because we don't want them to see that really what we do is relatively simple. And if you learned it, you could do it yourself.
00:39:38
Speaker
But there's this really big push now of transparency and showing the ins and outs. And I mean, I do it all the time. And still people are like, that's cool and all. I don't want to do what you do though. So I'm going to hire you still. But I love that you're telling me what's going on.
00:39:53
Speaker
Exactly. Having the option or having the option to have access to information about your own money and to understand it. Absolutely. It's so key. You may not want to do it yourself. That's why we still need advisors. We still need everyone in the industry. But to be able to access that knowledge is so crucial, so important.
00:40:21
Speaker
How do you see alternatives evolving in the way that we approach them as things are becoming more accessible and as education becomes better? How do you see the world of alternatives evolving?
00:40:35
Speaker
Uh, I mentioned it before, um, I believe it becomes not traditional and alternative. It just becomes investments or whatever, uh, within the next probably five to 10 years. Honestly, I think right now a lot of say that you should have 20 to 30% roughly, um, in your portfolio in terms of alternatives, your institutions and your ultra wealthy probably go 50 plus because if you tie again, hard assets into it, it really ramps up that number.
00:41:03
Speaker
I believe that's all what it's going to be. I think it's going to be intertwined to the point where it is 50% or more in alternatives for most and every part of their portfolio is integrated. I mean, you're seeing it. We don't have all the data on this. Tyrone Ross would a little more than us of the crypto side of things too. We don't have the numbers on crypto.
00:41:24
Speaker
of how much that's in someone's portfolio right now. And that's technically an alternative. So right now, are they already at 50%, 30%? We just don't have the data. But I really, truly believe in the next five, 10 years, almost everyone's going to have roughly 50% of their portfolio in some form of alternative. And it's going to be intertwined with that's just how we invest. It's just normal. There's no thinking about it in a different traditional model. It's just, this is your portfolio.
00:41:55
Speaker
Do you have any, what are some of your favorite books or favorite, perhaps podcasts, you know, for education on alternatives? Besides yours, of course. What does it call off the top of my head? Alternative Mindsets, one of them. Let me see.
00:42:21
Speaker
I guess I don't have it on my bookshelf right now. But there was one, what's it called? It's something about allocation, but it's behind the mindset of allocation. And it focuses on like your mind when it comes to investing, which is a very alternative way of thinking about it. And it eludes more people to
00:42:41
Speaker
different types of alternative investing. For example, I just had a perspective client come by and say, I want to do ESG funds and I want to give back as much as possible. That's very difficult to find in just the normal public sector that allows them to control an insight into actually what they're investing in.
00:43:04
Speaker
And I know there's a probably a handful off the top of my head of alternatives that are super ingrained and super transparent of what they're investing in in their outcomes, as opposed to some of these funds that are
00:43:18
Speaker
different their toes into it, but turn around and are investing in tobacco companies that you just didn't know, right? And this book kind of dies into someone's philosophy with what do they want to invest in? And your decision of what you want to invest in, no matter how detailed it is, is going to point you to the alternative side.
00:43:37
Speaker
Nice, nice. What about, because I do have listeners on here that are actually just new to the whole, this entire world, what would you recommend where they can start for just basic education and for their own personal finance journey?
00:43:58
Speaker
Oh, that's a tough one. Um, because it took me, God, I'm trying to remember all the things I had to go through to learn. Because you pulled yourself up from the bootstraps. Right. It was a lot. Um, honestly, reaching out on social media to us that are involved and just ask and talk is one great, definitely one great way. Um, I would stay away from
00:44:21
Speaker
I know a lot of information comes from Reddit. I would stay away from those because we are not really allowed to be on there from a regulatory perspective. Okay.
00:44:29
Speaker
Um, but I would definitely dive into us. Uh, the other thing I would start to just, is just really just Google it, go to Investopedia, um, and type in hedge funds. Uh, pay attention to what's going out in the markets of the news, right? I hate, I hate news, but you'll get to like get a glimpse of, you know, this hedge fund did this or this fund did this and take that time.
00:44:54
Speaker
to take those terms and go throw it on an investopedia and just start to pick up on the language a little bit. And then once you pick up on the language, and if you are a nerd,
00:45:06
Speaker
then you could start to get into their disclosures and their documents that are public anyway, and then really start to hone in on those. I know I do it for other advisors too. I do PPM reviews as well, just to give an understanding what those disclosures are. So if you're an everyday person, I know I'm throwing out big terms and I usually don't like to, literally Google it and throw up Investopedia. And then when you get to a point where you're like, I don't know what this means,
00:45:34
Speaker
Just reach out, I'll answer it. You guys won't answer it. Reach out to us, but don't be afraid to because in our alternative world, there's a lot of moving parts and there's a lot of different ways things could happen. It's not as simple as saying this is a stock and this is how it works when you buy and sell it.
00:45:55
Speaker
Well, thank you so much. That is all great advice. I really appreciate you taking the time to chat with me today. I learned so much from you. So thank you so much. Thank you. Want to add anything and yeah, no, we're good.
00:46:11
Speaker
Oh, all right. Thank you so much everyone for tuning in and listening. Um, I just had such a great time talking with you today and learning more, you know, about what you're doing. You're so busy. You've got so much going on. So really excited to see all the stuff you've got going on for the future too. So thank you everyone for tuning in and we will see you next time right here live on the green couch. Have a good one.
00:46:38
Speaker
The opinions expressed in this program are for general informational purposes only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual or any specific security. It is only intended to provide education about the financial industry. To determine which investments may be appropriate for you, consult your financial advisor prior to investing.
00:46:58
Speaker
Any past performance discussed during this program is no guarantee to receive the results. Any indices referenced for comparison are unmanaged and cannot be invested into the record. As always, please remember, investment involves risk and possible loss of capital. Please seek advice from a licensed professional.