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TRANSCRIPTION WITH SPEAKERS
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[00:00] SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Candace Podcast.
[00:05] SPEAKER_00: Hi, this is Cynthia Lockery from Candace Podcast, where we talk to entrepreneurs who are making it happen right here in BC.
[00:15] SPEAKER_00: Today, I'm joined by Dustin Service.
[00:18] SPEAKER_00: Dustin is a financial advisor who has been working with high-net worth business owner families since 2005.
[00:27] SPEAKER_00: With a background in civil engineering, he uses a combination of science and psychology to help his clients realize his dreams.
[00:37] SPEAKER_00: Welcome.
[00:38] SPEAKER_00: Looking forward to learning about your journey.
[00:41] SPEAKER_00: So why don't we jump in and you tell us a bit about yourself and your company?
[00:46] SPEAKER_01: I'm curious to hear from you.
[00:47] SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
[00:48] SPEAKER_01: If we're just diving right into it, I'll go right to the meeting potatoes.
[00:52] SPEAKER_01: For any listener who is a business owner, entrepreneur, you understand, loving your business, focusing on it, and nothing else matters.
[01:02] SPEAKER_01: And for me, it was five years of fertility trouble with my wife and getting my head in the weeds per se of using the business as a distraction
[01:12] SPEAKER_01: to escape a sort of coming, and actually talking about some of the things that were going on in my life.
[01:19] SPEAKER_01: And one day, we had finally had a child, and I had told my wife, I'm going to book us a gym appointment to work out together.
[01:30] SPEAKER_01: And she said, OK, that's great.
[01:33] SPEAKER_01: And I had to be honest, I hadn't been very present for a while.
[01:37] SPEAKER_01: And because in my mind, it was business first, then family, and it was not, you couldn't have one of the other.
[01:45] SPEAKER_01: You could be a great dad or a great husband, but you couldn't also be a successful business entrepreneur.
[01:50] SPEAKER_01: You had to be one of the other.
[01:52] SPEAKER_01: And so when we booked this gym appointment, and 430 came around, and 445 came around,
[02:01] SPEAKER_01: and then my office phone rang, and it was, I could see my wife, her phone number, and I answered the phone in sort of a sexy voice, like, you know, service wealth management.
[02:10] SPEAKER_01: And she said, well, aren't you coming to the gym, like you booked the daycare, and we were going to work out this afternoon together.
[02:16] SPEAKER_01: And I completely forgot, 100% forgot about even booking the daycare in the morning.
[02:21] SPEAKER_01: And I drove home, and you know, that, you know, was the catalyst of, you know, this was a longer story.
[02:26] SPEAKER_01: But that was the catalyst that I need a better way. I need to understand as an entrepreneur that, if you can be successful and be good on the home front, and what was born with something called the spending accelerator, which we now use with our clients in, you know, helping understand, you know, just where are you financially.
[02:46] SPEAKER_01: Because, you know, if you're an entrepreneur and you were, you know, is green in you somewhere, maybe a parent, mentor, coach, somewhere when you were young.
[02:53] SPEAKER_01: You know, if you want to get somewhere in life, you have to work hard. Well, how hard? I don't know, but it's going to work really hard and for how long? I don't know, I'm just going to work hard forever.
[03:03] SPEAKER_01: And if anyone resonates, you know, listen to your resonate with that. And if you haven't checked in on yourself or had optics into where you are.
[03:12] SPEAKER_01: And not just on money and being, you know, whether you're rich or not, it's like where you are in life. And if you strip everything back, where are you with your goals and your values. And you might actually be, you know, way better place than you think.
[03:25] SPEAKER_00: Yeah. And I think as a mom that's a working mom that resonates with me is, is how we struggle with that balance. So what inspired you to become an entrepreneur in the first place?
[03:40] SPEAKER_01: Sure. So you mentioned the intro. I did take civil engineering in school. And at that time, you know, I was always interested in designing things and building things and process and plan.
[03:51] SPEAKER_01: And I graduated university in 2002. And at that time, in Alberta, you could make more as a two year diploma graduate than a full blown engineer in BC, just the way that the whole patch was going. So I went to Alberta.
[04:05] SPEAKER_01: I had, you know, my class three semi driver license that if I didn't get a job in the engineering field, I was going to go drive dump truck in Fort Mac. That was my plan B.
[04:14] SPEAKER_01: And thankfully, I did get a job in in Calgary working for a survey firm and speeding it up a bit. I had worked in the office at two monitors.
[04:24] SPEAKER_01: One of my monitors, I'd be trading stock and the other monitor would be doing my work. And that's at first, my boss is be like, hey, you know, get back to work.
[04:33] SPEAKER_01: But we worked, we literally worked five a.m. to five p.m. Then we'd go workout. We'd eat at the office and we'd work seven to 11 and do this for like 20 days in a row at that time. It was just the way things were.
[04:45] SPEAKER_01: I was, you know, 22 years old or 21.
[04:49] SPEAKER_01: And at some point, I realized it's like, you know, then the market had gone up to 2005. This from the tech crash happening and then it went up. So it wasn't like.
[04:58] SPEAKER_01: I was some a genius and people in the office had, you know, used some of my comments to pick their group RSP and those investments that we had through the office and they had gone up.
[05:08] SPEAKER_01: And it wasn't, wasn't because of the picks. It was more along the lines. But I liked to work with people and I had lost lots of money, but I had made more than I had lost in trading inside story back in the early 2000s.
[05:19] SPEAKER_01: I walked in as a 21 year old and went to Scotiabank and they gave me a $50,000 line of credit.
[05:29] SPEAKER_01: And they said, well, what are you planning on using this for? And I said, I'm just going to day trade stocks and they said, okay. And they, you know, signed the application and how different the times are now. But, you know, looking back now, seeing how risky that was.
[05:43] SPEAKER_01: I was, it's, you know, it's pretty risky, but my philosophy was I had a savings account. So I can't remember what I had in the savings account. I said 25,000 or 20,000 the savings account.
[05:55] SPEAKER_01: I had this 50 grand line of credit that would max out by a stock, leave it for a day or two, take it out. And it wasn't like hourly trading and the frequency trading wasn't there.
[06:04] SPEAKER_01: But I would leave it for a day or two. If the swing went the right way, I would get out pay off on a credit and leave the difference. Now in my head, I always thought, if the stock went to zero, and I'm left with this 50 grand line and credit, how many months of interest only payments do I have in my savings account.
[06:21] SPEAKER_01: And if I had to, I would go back to four Mac or I go to four Mac and drive dumb truck, pay it off. And that'd be fine. So that was my, my risk analysis of that time. So helping people, I liked that at the office. I liked working with money, which have, you know, always set a paper roots and so I was eight different things. So I said, I'm going to be, I'm going to be stock broker driver for a, that was literally my thought process when I left the oil patch and came to a colona short stint at the stock brokerage.
[06:48] SPEAKER_01: Here's the stack of postal codes, phone them, you know, I don't know it was terrible. So I went to one firm for eight, nine months. It didn't work out and then I joined two guys and worked there for eight years as there, you know, I had tons of credentials and different things that I picked up and worked sort of as their support, advanced case coordinator. So that was, you know, when they're 2014 and then 2014 started the brand service wealth, even though behind the scenes, it had kind of on the screen.
[07:18] SPEAKER_00: of existed in behind this partnership. So with the work that you do now and you help family
[07:24] SPEAKER_01: own businesses, what are you most proud of? Probably my two sons, to be honest, not in the business,
[07:33] SPEAKER_01: the business is its own thing, but they're eight and six, they're almost eight and six, and they have
[07:38] SPEAKER_01: a world, they see things a lot different, and so to be able to be part of that and live a little
[07:45] SPEAKER_01: bit not immature, but live more with them and through them and experience some of those things again,
[07:50] SPEAKER_01: because you know entrepreneur listener, I don't know if you've sacrificed things throughout life in
[07:56] SPEAKER_01: the quest to do the right thing, to try and advance your career, to try and advance your business,
[08:01] SPEAKER_01: or not suck hold your way, but you've made decisions to get in the pursuit of getting ahead,
[08:09] SPEAKER_01: and again as you get older, you know, and I'm into my young 40s, you start to realize that,
[08:15] SPEAKER_01: you know, a lot of those people, some of those people from the long time go, they're not even part of
[08:19] SPEAKER_01: your life anymore, yet you sacrificed that. My father shared a story a long time ago where he
[08:23] SPEAKER_01: he was an advertising executive, he had a budget, he would pour that budget into, you know, ski passes
[08:29] SPEAKER_01: and big conventions at resorts, and so people were always on him, and he was the man, you know, they
[08:35] SPEAKER_01: move mountains to get to him, and when he retired, you know, he said, you know, within eight,
[08:41] SPEAKER_01: nine months, you know, you call those people, they're like, yeah, you know, you're just,
[08:46] SPEAKER_01: it was all transactional, and so that I always kind of remember in business to be very careful of,
[08:53] SPEAKER_01: you know, the lasting relationships and not quantity and have any more quality relationships with
[08:59] SPEAKER_00: smart group. And what I like is that your personal values are in a line with the values that you
[09:06] SPEAKER_00: have with your clients, right, that family owned businesses, but also the family that you have.
[09:15] SPEAKER_00: So if you were talking to an entrepreneur who's just starting out, what advice would you give them?
[09:23] SPEAKER_01: Well, the cliche of the day is get a mentor, you know, it's like, well, where do I find a mentor?
[09:29] SPEAKER_01: And it might be not in the most obvious place, like when you hear these gurus on podcasts and
[09:34] SPEAKER_01: different things, they say, well, I had a mentor and I part of this group, it's a hundred thousand a
[09:38] SPEAKER_01: year to join, and you know, that's where I mentor, it's like, well, when you're starting out, the
[09:42] SPEAKER_01: mentors around you, you might not realize their mentors, but be aware of sort of where you're getting
[09:47] SPEAKER_01: your info and what you're using as credible info, you're really the sum of the five closest people
[09:53] SPEAKER_01: around you. So if you want to go in a certain direction and you look around you and there isn't
[09:58] SPEAKER_01: people in that direction, then there likely is a change that needs to be made, maybe not in all the
[10:04] SPEAKER_01: five closest people with you, you can't change your spouse, maybe, you can't change your family.
[10:08] SPEAKER_01: But you know, when you think about it in person's life over time, you get baggage and you get
[10:14] SPEAKER_01: not completely, you know, maybe complacency, maybe that's the wrong word, it's just too strong,
[10:18] SPEAKER_01: but you get set in your sort of way. And if you don't take a step back, look at, okay, where do I
[10:24] SPEAKER_01: want to go? The people I'm around aren't going in the direction I want to go around. I'm not going
[10:29] SPEAKER_01: to nuke them, but I'm going to keep them a little bit separated and maybe not take their decisions
[10:34] SPEAKER_01: or what they say as their opinions as, you know, deep and use those in your life. And again,
[10:39] SPEAKER_01: mentors now with the internet, you know, Cynthia, you're a great mentor to many people. And
[10:43] SPEAKER_01: it doesn't necessarily have to be built up on this big pedestal or being old, you know, for me,
[10:48] SPEAKER_01: it's an old wise guy that's fit and 69 years old with a, you know, gray hair, you know, that's
[10:54] SPEAKER_01: a mentor. Well, no, you know, it could be, my mom is never owned a business. She's a great mentor
[10:59] SPEAKER_01: in sort of a lifestyle thing. So, you know, you got different mentors and different sort of people
[11:03] SPEAKER_01: that you respect their views on things for different silos of wealth. Absolutely. And I love
[11:10] SPEAKER_00: that because we're unique aspects to us. There's the family, there's the health, there's the
[11:16] SPEAKER_00: business. So, one mentor cannot do it all because it doesn't see us as a whole person. It only sees
[11:23] SPEAKER_00: one segment of us. So, I love that advice. So, you and I are both based in BC. What are some of the
[11:31] SPEAKER_01: benefits of being based in this province? Well, I think for anybody who is lifestyle focused,
[11:38] SPEAKER_01: that obviously, well, for anyone who's not from BC, if you haven't been here, for sure, come
[11:43] SPEAKER_01: and check it out. It is a very diverse. So, if you're a curious person, outdoor person,
[11:49] SPEAKER_01: interested in learning, I don't know any other place. And again, I just came from Nashville where
[11:53] SPEAKER_01: a lot of people say, oh, that's the best, you know, best place. Yeah, for live music, it's the best place
[11:59] SPEAKER_01: for stinky streets. And, you know, that's what I think. No, it's not the best place. And for being
[12:04] SPEAKER_01: in a town where it was a heat wave of 40 degrees in a flat city, again, that's for some ideal
[12:12] SPEAKER_01: for my own program, it isn't. But in BC, you have outdoors, you've got a very vibrant business
[12:19] SPEAKER_01: culture. Again, I believe all the political views side for certain people. But there is great
[12:27] SPEAKER_01: communities. And now with the remote working ability, you're seeing more and more people from
[12:33] SPEAKER_01: bigger centers with bigger, maybe ideas or more complex ideology going to smaller centers and
[12:39] SPEAKER_01: instituting that there. Again, Duncan is super fortunate to have you around and bringing some ideas
[12:46] SPEAKER_01: you're exposed to meeting lots of people that are not from there. And so you got ground roots of
[12:52] SPEAKER_01: the small town sort of feel. And the one thing I do notice about being in small town, I'm in
[12:58] SPEAKER_01: seminar, my staff in my office is all in Kelowna. So when I go to the school to pick up my kids or
[13:03] SPEAKER_01: drop them off, there is a ton of dads, dread drop off. And everyone's like, why does he think that's
[13:10] SPEAKER_01: so weird? In my head, in my ideology of like being a child, my father traveled 180 days a year,
[13:16] SPEAKER_01: he worked a ton to provide for us, which was the narrative. I don't remember ever seeing dads
[13:22] SPEAKER_01: I drop off. So not to see that here, you've got maybe the world's changed because of COVID,
[13:29] SPEAKER_01: I don't know. But being in the smaller center from Kelowna to 18,000 people in Sam and Arm,
[13:34] SPEAKER_01: family is a lot bigger. And so again, I think you find that outside of the, you know,
[13:40] SPEAKER_00: well, you find it in a lot of BC towns. Yeah, and that's what I love. There's so many unique towns
[13:45] SPEAKER_00: with their unique personalities that you can find a connection. So what's the challenge that you
[13:51] SPEAKER_00: have of being based in BC? Because there's always the other side. Well, I think it's just not getting,
[13:59] SPEAKER_01: you know, caught up in the politics of, you know, is Alberta more go-getter? So is there a,
[14:05] SPEAKER_01: you know, a movement to go that direction? Or can BC be a place where you've got everyone,
[14:12] SPEAKER_01: you know, succeeding and, you know, business isn't, you know, it always seems, again, this is close by
[14:19] SPEAKER_01: spoken to belly button for a second, but there's, there's tax, you focus on business owner. And there
[14:26] SPEAKER_01: is, you know, sort of like make them pay, you know, they're doing well, make them pay. And so, again,
[14:32] SPEAKER_01: that it's all really what you focus on, those Cynthia, all that stuff in the news, I don't watch the
[14:37] SPEAKER_01: news, I maintain a pretty optimistic outlook and positive vibe. So I think part of that is not
[14:44] SPEAKER_01: getting caught up in that stuff. I go to work, I pay my taxes, you know, I try to, you know, hire
[14:50] SPEAKER_01: the best people that, you know, can handle that stuff. But yeah, well, 50% tax rate for some is,
[14:57] SPEAKER_00: is not ideal. So you and as you mentioned, you and I are both based in small communities, which
[15:04] SPEAKER_00: is a little bit different to getting established. So if you, if somebody was looking to get established
[15:12] SPEAKER_00: in a new community, and it was a small community, what advice would you give them to help them find
[15:18] SPEAKER_01: a foothold? Sure. Great question. And I'll be super truthful. I've lived here now. So we moved
[15:24] SPEAKER_01: almost three years ago. I haven't found that group in the small town. So coming from Kelona,
[15:32] SPEAKER_01: and again, Kelona is only maybe 240,000 people. Kelona is an interesting beast for anyone who's been
[15:38] SPEAKER_01: there. That's an interesting sociological, whatever you want to call it, going on there. A lot of
[15:43] SPEAKER_01: pretension, a lot of flash and a lot of money there. And then coming to a smaller town, there is
[15:50] SPEAKER_01: quite a bit of money here. It's just shown difference and it resonates different and people value
[15:54] SPEAKER_01: things different. So I have, you know, I'm being, you know, super truthful that I haven't broken
[16:00] SPEAKER_01: into this market as easy as I had thought. You know, maybe it's my ego coming here. Oh, I got all
[16:05] SPEAKER_01: these great ideas. I've got some experience. People just like flock to me. No, that actually hasn't
[16:09] SPEAKER_01: happened. And so we've, we've revamped a bit of our sort of language, a little bit of our
[16:15] SPEAKER_01: narrative and our brand in the last couple of months to accommodate that I live here. I do
[16:22] SPEAKER_01: commute one day a week to Kelona and my staff is all there. Everything else is remote. But I do
[16:27] SPEAKER_01: love people and I do want to work, you know, I do want to work where I live and work with the people.
[16:32] SPEAKER_01: I think we do have good ideas and value to add. It's just breaking into that sort of like everyone's
[16:39] SPEAKER_01: kind of dealt with the same OG people they've always dealt with. And so new is, is kind of weird and
[16:45] SPEAKER_01: you're not really part and time, time will heal that. As a young kind of go getter that I think I
[16:51] SPEAKER_01: could do better at, you know, getting out there, visiting, I'm on boards, you know, I'm starting
[16:56] SPEAKER_01: to volunteer more and be part of that. So it'll come. But for anyone else, you know, going to a new
[17:02] SPEAKER_01: community, I think it really is getting involved with whatever groups, you know, when you move to a
[17:08] SPEAKER_01: town, you know, who, you know, within a couple months, you can figure out who's kind of the influencers.
[17:12] SPEAKER_01: And I don't mean the like selfie things. I mean, like the real deal business people, the community
[17:18] SPEAKER_01: leaders, the vault, you know, the, the donors, you know, who's donating lots of the possible
[17:22] SPEAKER_01: foundation, you can figure out that out relatively quick. And then being where those people are,
[17:27] SPEAKER_01: and just acknowledging, you know, what, you know, with you've got kids in school, you've got, you
[17:33] SPEAKER_01: know, a ton of people there. So depending again, listener, your business could be way different than
[17:37] SPEAKER_01: mine. But I think there's definitely grounds to explore it. Yeah. And I would say for the parents
[17:44] SPEAKER_00: listening, being involved in your school and volunteering is a great way. Just, you know,
[17:50] SPEAKER_00: what the fun fairs at the pizza days. So let's talk about success and challenges. How do you define
[17:57] SPEAKER_01: success? But more importantly, how do you celebrate? Well, so I think this way, how do you define
[18:06] SPEAKER_01: success? Is it moving target? I think you're allowed to, you know, even when you're younger. Again,
[18:12] SPEAKER_01: I think of my goals when I wrote when I was 18, it was like, I wanted a million dollars in assets
[18:16] SPEAKER_01: at 30. I wanted a million dollars in cash at 40. And like those were the, you know, when the reality
[18:22] SPEAKER_01: is, you know, if, if listener, you make 200,000 a year and work four days a week, take seven weeks
[18:28] SPEAKER_01: of holidays and you save a bit and you're good at paying down your mortgage, that, you know, especially
[18:33] SPEAKER_01: with real estate for lots of people, they bought a piece of real estate for 500. It's worth 1.5,
[18:38] SPEAKER_01: 20 years later, they could literally sell that house and live on the cash. If you don't spend that
[18:44] SPEAKER_01: much from the time you're 65 on, and that could be your retirement plan. It doesn't have to look like
[18:49] SPEAKER_01: the financial advisors market and you know, you go into them and they'll say, well, we've got this
[18:54] SPEAKER_01: money. What should we do with it? It's like, you got to invest it. It's like that, that isn't,
[18:57] SPEAKER_01: you know, my narrative for sure. So success for myself has evolved. I have, you can't see in the
[19:04] SPEAKER_01: video, but it's just off the side, a calendar where, you know, when we moved here, the first year,
[19:10] SPEAKER_01: drop offs, dropping our kids off at school was important to me. So every time I did, I put a green
[19:15] SPEAKER_01: mark on every day and it would be four times average a week. I go to Kelowna one day. So that,
[19:21] SPEAKER_01: to me, that year, success was that, you know, going to the gym, you know, that's all part of it.
[19:28] SPEAKER_01: But the other, you know, markers I've had is snowmobilings, a big passion of mine in the winter.
[19:32] SPEAKER_01: So how many days of that? So on the calendar, marking what it's, it seems like an easy thing to do.
[19:39] SPEAKER_01: But when you, when you want to do something serious, it does take planning and it does take
[19:44] SPEAKER_01: sacrifice. So one of the things I did it a while back, right four years ago now, I took Friday
[19:51] SPEAKER_01: mornings off for about six months and then I took all of Fridays off. And it was a test to say like,
[19:56] SPEAKER_01: if I take this day off, like, what if the whole business goes for crap? And you know what,
[20:01] SPEAKER_01: Thursday afternoon at one o'clock, I'm getting pretty aggressive in what my task list is. And I'm
[20:06] SPEAKER_01: able to get that done. So Friday comes that day. It moves and shakes. Sometimes I'll do something
[20:12] SPEAKER_01: with my boys if they got a, you know, a pro-D day, my wife is working or I will, like, have a self-date
[20:17] SPEAKER_01: where I literally will go snowmobiling because then when the weekend comes, I've got enough time
[20:22] SPEAKER_01: for family. So there's the example I use in my talks is 168 hours in a week. So if you divide that
[20:29] SPEAKER_01: up, it's 56 hours for sleep, 56 hours for yourself, 56 hours a week for work or your business.
[20:36] SPEAKER_01: So the U bucket includes your family. And so if you think you get home at five and you're up till
[20:41] SPEAKER_01: 10, that's five hours with the family. Well, if you want to do something for yourself,
[20:46] SPEAKER_01: it's got to come from somewhere. 56 hours is seven hours of sleep a night. That's what I like to
[20:51] SPEAKER_01: get. I don't know other people can go on less, more. But if you want to get more out of that week,
[20:58] SPEAKER_01: you got to either cut down the work or be more efficient in the U. So get the work hours down.
[21:04] SPEAKER_01: Be more efficient is the only way that I saw a way to do it. So that's, you know, what I think is
[21:10] SPEAKER_01: success. It's moving. And yeah, the second part of your question was challenges. Is that what you
[21:16] SPEAKER_00: said? Yeah. How do you deal with the fear and doubt and the challenges that arise of business or of
[21:23] SPEAKER_00: either just as an entrepreneur? Because like we said, we're multi-dimensional.
[21:29] SPEAKER_01: Yeah. I think it is. It's a very simple question, but it gets pretty deep. But I don't know how deep
[21:36] SPEAKER_01: people go and you're, you're thinking, but there's, you know, whether it's, should we do this website?
[21:41] SPEAKER_01: It's 15 grand to, you know, should I take Friday up? Should I hire this person? Should I, you know,
[21:48] SPEAKER_01: I, yeah, so this is the, how do you deal with the challenges? I think it's just not getting too
[21:53] SPEAKER_01: excited about what happened, what's happening and it's more how you react and taking in and then
[21:59] SPEAKER_01: digesting and then saying, okay, what do I logically need to do? And if it comes right away, great.
[22:04] SPEAKER_01: If it doesn't, I'm going to solicit help. One of the things when, when 2014 was around, I was the
[22:11] SPEAKER_01: president of this little mastermind group. We had business owner group, but at the specific coffee,
[22:16] SPEAKER_01: I was talking about leaving the partnership that I was previously in. And the most conservative guy
[22:21] SPEAKER_01: at the table who, through all our meetings, he was always kind of had the most conservative sort of,
[22:25] SPEAKER_01: you know, suggestions and nature. He said, I think you just got to go for it. And when he said that,
[22:31] SPEAKER_01: I thought, okay, I got to go. And so using that group to like ask yourself, and this is, you know,
[22:38] SPEAKER_01: one's an accountant, two of them own a collision repair shop, and one's a tech guy. And then there's
[22:43] SPEAKER_01: another group who kind of ate that are part of it on a lower level. But that group for sure helped
[22:49] SPEAKER_01: me push over that decision of like, hey, I got five very smart people at the table that we've all
[22:55] SPEAKER_01: vetted sort of what the options are. I've got enough credentials that if I leave and start this
[23:00] SPEAKER_01: business, I could probably work somewhere and make 150 grand a year. It's not my ideal, but that's
[23:05] SPEAKER_01: okay. And so let's go for it. And, you know, that year, I left a double the business. And, you know,
[23:11] SPEAKER_01: it was a meeting that I had with my partner and I said, hey, I want my sign, my name on the sign.
[23:15] SPEAKER_01: And they said, kind of laugh and said, well, that wouldn't never happen. And I said, well, what would
[23:20] SPEAKER_01: need to happen? You got to double your income. And so I left and that happened. So again,
[23:25] SPEAKER_01: for any entrepreneurs that are kind of questioning themselves or doubting, you don't know what the
[23:31] SPEAKER_01: future holds. And we all doubt on the low side, or we all default to negative because it makes
[23:36] SPEAKER_01: you sound smarter. But the reality is it can go either way. And if you've been successful in just
[23:42] SPEAKER_01: the most simple things, keeping your lawn up to date, keeping your driveway shoveled, likely,
[23:47] SPEAKER_01: you're going to be successful in what you set out to do, especially if your butts on the line and your
[23:51] SPEAKER_00: reputation. And I love how you, how you brought your mentors in and you, and you look, look for
[24:00] SPEAKER_00: outside instead of getting stuck in your own head because too often we get stuck in our own head
[24:05] SPEAKER_00: and have a story we told ourselves, which might not be true. So you have, you've touched on the
[24:15] SPEAKER_00: question I was going to ask is how do you do established that work life balance? So you've got your
[24:21] SPEAKER_00: your Fridays off and you find that time for you. Is there any other tricks or advice that you'd
[24:29] SPEAKER_00: give for people that are, you know, I was talking to someone the other day and they said, oh,
[24:34] SPEAKER_00: that word, that term work life balance. I've heard of it jokingly, right? Yeah. And so some people
[24:41] SPEAKER_00: think it's overused, but for those of us that actually take the work life balance, we know that
[24:47] SPEAKER_00: it adds value. So is there any tips of how to get to that for somebody who's struggling to, to
[24:54] SPEAKER_01: have juggle all the balls? You know, using as success, you mentioned Fridays off, the decision-making,
[25:00] SPEAKER_01: one of the things that Tim Ferris, again, he's a book writer wrote that for four hour work week,
[25:05] SPEAKER_01: he had something called batching. And so it's something I read a long time ago and kept it.
[25:10] SPEAKER_01: So batching is you check your emails at 8am, you check them at 12th, and maybe you check them at the
[25:15] SPEAKER_01: end of the day if you can try not to. So in my process with my staff, I found I was getting so many
[25:22] SPEAKER_01: emails just CC'd from staff. So for any entrepreneur who has staff, you probably resonates. Ideally,
[25:30] SPEAKER_01: you'd like to say don't CC me, but there's some things you need to be kind of up to speed with.
[25:34] SPEAKER_01: So I created in Outlook a rule that any internal emails coming from staff go into an inbox, right below
[25:42] SPEAKER_01: my inbox called inbox internal. And so all those emails go there and I only check those once a day.
[25:48] SPEAKER_01: So those ones you go in, scroll them, you see your CC'd. If I need to do something, they put my name
[25:55] SPEAKER_01: at the bottom of the email, I am bold, and then they have a hyphen and then the text. So I know,
[25:59] SPEAKER_01: like I usually just give the email go right to the bottom. No question for me. I delete the email.
[26:04] SPEAKER_01: But now I'm up, I'm still up to speed with what's going on. If it's really important, they fool me,
[26:08] SPEAKER_01: or we use zoom chat. So they would get on there. I know that that's sort of first point of contact.
[26:13] SPEAKER_01: We're doing a big what we call a meeting surge where so again in our client block,
[26:18] SPEAKER_01: we meet all of our clients in September and all of them in January. So we call those surges where we
[26:23] SPEAKER_01: like meet everyone. It's the same thing. So it makes it more efficient, you know, for again,
[26:28] SPEAKER_01: not getting into the weeds of our business, but the clients can access us anytime in the year.
[26:32] SPEAKER_01: But those two times they know that we're going to have a formal sit down and talk about two specific
[26:36] SPEAKER_01: things in their wealth. We booked those meetings at 10, 12 and two. So all my staff, my assistants know
[26:43] SPEAKER_01: when their bookie meetings or when they're talking to clients, setting those up and we just said
[26:46] SPEAKER_01: I'm being able to today because in August, they'll start doing it. They know that 10, 12 and two.
[26:50] SPEAKER_01: And that way I know that I've got enough time to get the kids to school in the morning if I need to.
[26:55] SPEAKER_01: I might have enough time to have another meeting that I would book or squeeze in there just
[27:00] SPEAKER_01: if depending on workload. But I know that in my days for three weeks in September, we are going to be
[27:05] SPEAKER_01: stacked on those times. And for the most part, clients are super accommodating. If you go far enough
[27:10] SPEAKER_01: out, they can make it work. And again, we're remote. So again, taking all the decisions,
[27:16] SPEAKER_01: trying to steal it down and that just frees up your bat, you're you're bandwidth to
[27:21] SPEAKER_00: you know, get more, get more done. I love that. And I do the same thing, the block of time working
[27:30] SPEAKER_00: so that you can just have your head down, get some work done so you don't have all the distractions.
[27:35] SPEAKER_00: Totally. Although in the summer when kids are home, not so easy. Yeah.
[27:41] SPEAKER_00: And is there any advice that you've received?
[27:46] SPEAKER_00: We whether it be a book you read or a mentor or a podcast you've heard that's resonated with you
[27:55] SPEAKER_00: and really help guide your journey that that you want to share with our listeners?
[28:01] SPEAKER_01: Thinking real rich is it the major famous, you know, book that lots of entrepreneurs use. And
[28:07] SPEAKER_01: I just often pull it out and we'll just open it and just start reading. It's just something that
[28:11] SPEAKER_01: again, it always sort of just reorientates my mind like where am I going? Because you get caught up
[28:18] SPEAKER_01: in the well that we should do this. That stacks staff, you know, staff input at our firm is welcome.
[28:25] SPEAKER_01: And so sometimes we can get too much going on and I need to kind of rain it back and go, okay,
[28:32] SPEAKER_01: thanks for the input. Your fingerprints are on it. We're going this direction and give that
[28:35] SPEAKER_01: leadership. But that, you know, that book is hands down the best for reorientating to a couple
[28:42] SPEAKER_01: things. You know, a couple things are like, where are you going? What's your goal? But also,
[28:47] SPEAKER_01: I'm not super religious, but talking about the universe and putting things out there and
[28:51] SPEAKER_01: goal setting and really materializing what you want using your subconscious. So again,
[28:57] SPEAKER_01: I know this is in the psychology thing, but there's tons of books on that. But that is if we look back
[29:02] SPEAKER_01: at some of our biggest files or, you know, best clients that, you know, had the most wealth,
[29:08] SPEAKER_01: it isn't because we did a marketing campaign. It's because we knew someone, we did a good job for,
[29:13] SPEAKER_01: we knew someone, we knew someone, we knew this person a long time ago. We were nice people. We
[29:17] SPEAKER_01: were likeable. And also, they just showed up. But usually it coincides with where my brain space
[29:23] SPEAKER_01: is at. And here's a funny example. So I went on a kick about a year ago where I was like, I think
[29:30] SPEAKER_01: luck has to be a part of the equation. So if a person's lucky, one of my good friends is super lucky.
[29:36] SPEAKER_01: And again, I don't know if it's because he swings at the plate and does lots of stuff that
[29:39] SPEAKER_01: it just appears he's lucky, but he always never seems to miss on whatever he's up to. And so,
[29:45] SPEAKER_01: I thought, well, what is it? And so I bought like five or six books. I read a ton on luck.
[29:50] SPEAKER_01: I don't have the one here, but, you know, so that week after I finished all those books,
[29:57] SPEAKER_01: I had three things happen that were like out of the ordinary, extremely good for the business.
[30:04] SPEAKER_01: And so is it coincidence? I don't know, but I do think that we as humans do not have a clue yet
[30:09] SPEAKER_01: about the power of the universe, both the frequencies in our brain connection and all that stuff.
[30:15] SPEAKER_00: Absolutely. I completely agree. And it's about, it's about for me focusing on what I do want,
[30:21] SPEAKER_00: instead of focusing on what I don't want. I love it. Yeah.
[30:25] SPEAKER_00: Limit that energy on the don't and really tune in on what I want. So this has been a great
[30:33] SPEAKER_00: conversation. And before we go, is there anything else you want to add or is there any way that
[30:39] SPEAKER_01: people can get a hold of you? Yeah. So the website that we use is servicewealth.com and it's
[30:47] SPEAKER_01: SERVSS. I do also have a podcast called The Picture of Wealth. And I do have a book coming out
[30:53] SPEAKER_01: for construction business owners called man's picture of wealth. So that should be out in the next
[30:58] SPEAKER_01: couple months. But my final thought would be, you know, for anyone of its specific, you know,
[31:02] SPEAKER_01: entrepreneur, you want more confidence in general. We found a direct connection to if you can get
[31:09] SPEAKER_01: your finances clear. That gives you more confidence in your financial world. It gives you more
[31:14] SPEAKER_01: confidence in your relationship with your partner. The household is a lot more
[31:18] SPEAKER_01: humor and allows you to go after opportunities. So the one piece that I would leave you with is
[31:23] SPEAKER_01: something called the Life Clarity Summit. And this is it is imagine a pyramid, a drawing of a
[31:28] SPEAKER_01: pyramid. The bottom of the pyramid is, you know, the bottom section. And that's your financial plan.
[31:34] SPEAKER_01: And you even listening to this podcast, and what I'm about to tell you, we could call out your
[31:38] SPEAKER_01: financial plan. But the plan includes your goals, where are you going? It includes your BAM,
[31:42] SPEAKER_01: which is your bare ass minimum expenses. Those are the expenses that exist for you to exist.
[31:46] SPEAKER_01: Not the fancy Louis Vuitton or the travel. That's just what are those expenses? You understand that.
[31:52] SPEAKER_01: If you need a spreadsheet, send me an email. I'm happy to share it to you. I'm sure it
[31:56] SPEAKER_01: with you for free. So we got your BAM. We've got your goals. And we use, we use something called an
[32:01] SPEAKER_01: asset map. Again, you can do it right off our website. It says get started. You can do one for
[32:06] SPEAKER_01: yourself and we'll send it to you. But you can call it a financial dashboard. This is just simply
[32:10] SPEAKER_01: writing down what you have for insurance. We have for investments, debt, and savings. Get all
[32:15] SPEAKER_01: those. And so you got your real estate in there as well. So if you've written that down, even on
[32:19] SPEAKER_01: one piece of paper scribble, though the numbers get it on one piece of paper, you'll be ahead of 40%
[32:23] SPEAKER_01: of Canadians. The next layer up is your risk management. So once you got a plan, we're going to
[32:28] SPEAKER_01: manage the risk. What happens if you die? What happens if you, you know, get sick or injured and
[32:33] SPEAKER_01: can't work? Do you have a will? You know, all those things go in risk management. And the big
[32:38] SPEAKER_01: thing in there is leisure spending. Are you spending enough? If you don't spend enough, it actually
[32:44] SPEAKER_01: is a risk in your plan. And again, I'm happy to go into that in depth if you've got more interest in
[32:48] SPEAKER_01: that. Next layer up is accumulation. So this is where you're, you've got your plan. We've managed
[32:53] SPEAKER_01: the risk that might happen or get in the way of your plan. And then we got the accumulation. So
[32:58] SPEAKER_01: this is where you're starting to save money, maybe putting money into emergency savings, investments,
[33:03] SPEAKER_01: maybe paying down debt, and mental health. Mental health is a big thing that we talk that
[33:08] SPEAKER_01: often a lot of financial professionals don't wait into, but we do. And part of that is what you
[33:14] SPEAKER_01: are putting in your mind. And I find it in, you know, say said X example 60-year-old business owner,
[33:21] SPEAKER_01: they just sold their business for four million. That's great. They're rich, but they've got a
[33:26] SPEAKER_01: bad relationship with their spouse or maybe they don't have a spouse because they're on their
[33:28] SPEAKER_01: second divorce. They got a bad relationship with their kids. And they got a bad relationship with
[33:32] SPEAKER_01: themselves. They got negative self-talk. So really they're rich, but they are not wealthy. And
[33:37] SPEAKER_01: that's a huge cavity that can develop in someone's plan, even as young as age 30, if you're not
[33:42] SPEAKER_01: set on the right path. The final, the peak, this preservation zone, this is where you're going to
[33:48] SPEAKER_01: either sell your business and or exit your career and estate planning. And yeah, you could say a
[33:55] SPEAKER_01: estate planning like save tax and do life insurance, but we, we like to call it like what are you
[34:02] SPEAKER_01: going to have kids? Are you mentoring a niece or an nephew? Or if you do have kids, what are you
[34:07] SPEAKER_01: telling them? And that is a major component of a estate planning. Wow, I think that's absolutely
[34:12] SPEAKER_00: fascinating. I love that you include the mental health because it's it's key. Well, thank you for
[34:18] SPEAKER_00: this. And I look forward to learning more about you on your website and your book when it comes out.
[34:26] SPEAKER_01: Thanks. Thanks, Cindy, for all you do for us entrepreneurs in Canada.
[34:29] SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
