Conversations on Conflict Resolution and Financial Empowerment

Are you fed up with the current GOP debate format? You're not alone. Our latest poll reveals a disquieting 80% of conservatives have no interest in tuning in. This episode uncovers the reasons behind the disinterest and lays bare the dissatisfaction with the format as well as the conspicuous absence of President Trump. 

Navigating the politically charged terrain of the Israel-Hamas conflict, we attempt to strike a balance between expressing views without inviting labels of anti-Semitism or racism. It's a conversation we feel is crucial, especially in the era of social media where topical ignorance often breeds uninformed opinions. Speaking of social media, we're thrilled to have a group of middle and high school students sharing their unique perspectives on the role of social media in shaping their attitudes towards revolution.

Finally, we'll be sitting down with our friend Joseph Lombardi from Ironhawk Financial. Joseph's mission is to help blue-collar workers navigate the financial jungle, and his insights into the strategies used by the ultra-wealthy in leveraging the tax system are worth their weight in gold. From the importance of long-term planning to the impact of inflation, Joseph shares a wealth of knowledge. You do not want to miss his advice on insurance strategies and the value of choosing top-rated companies. Join us for an episode that promises to be as enlightening as it is engaging.
Reach out to Joe today & tell him Elsa sent you! 
info@ironhawkfinancial.com

ironhawkfinancial.com/contact

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

Hey folks, clay Novak here on the Elsa Kurtz Show Flying Solo again this week. A couple things to talk about tonight on the night of the GOP debate, so we'll get started here right after this. Hey everybody, like I said, clay Novak on Flying Solo again tonight. This Elsa is out tonight, out in the town, I think somewhere. But so again tonight GOP debate.

Speaker 1: 0:44

Elsa and I talked about it last week, not something that either of us were terribly interested in, but I decided this week to set up a poll on social media and I got about a hundred votes or so and asked people the question are you planning on watching the GOP debate? Yes, and if not, then no, and then provide some comments, if they choose to or not, to why they weren't planning on watching the debate. So again about a hundred or so votes, and it was 79% ish, because I think it was just under a hundred votes. So I think it was like 79 to 80% said no, they were not going to watch the GOP debate. About 20% were keeping in mind that most of my connections on social media are more on the conservative side, which actually is pretty telling, I think. So when you've got 80% of a pretty conservative base saying they were not going to watch the GOP debate. You know, you kind of pay attention. So I went through the comments and I didn't get a lot of comments. I got maybe 10 people or so that decided to comment and basically what I got out of it was two things. One everybody hates the format. The format is, you know, it's too rapid in the sense that nobody really gets to say what they want to say, and then the responses are even shorter and the host generally have no control over what's being said or who's saying it or how much time they're going over or anything else. So the format was one of the biggest things. And then the second piece was if former President Trump isn't there, it's not worth watching because it's not a real debate and that everybody is essentially playing for second place or his vice presidential candidate at this point. So why bother watching Two very valid points.

Speaker 1: 2:30

I'm not a huge fan of the two that we've had so far and I sat and watched both, or at least most of both of them, and the formats have been terrible. The hosts have been terrible, a complete lack of control, and I put part of that on the host, but mostly on the candidates. They all know and understand the rules and they all know and understand what the requirements and restrictions are. They just choose not to follow them and they're trying to get their point across and they think that if they've been called upon, that they should be able to talk essentially as long as they want. And really to me it's very telling in their lack of ability to communicate efficiently and effectively in a very short period of time. Bottom line, up front, get your point across and stop talking, and none of them seem to be able to do that.

Speaker 1: 3:18

We saw the pettiness a couple of times. Chris Christie made an absolute fool out of himself with the whole Donald Duck thing about President Trump. I mean that was terrible. Tim Scott has looked pretty petty on a couple of occasions and so have others. I mean I know Ron DeSantis is a favorite. I know that he's an officer, military officer, former military officer. Although he was a Jag officer in the Navy and just loves to tell people that he deployed with Navy SEALs, he does forget to tell you there that he was a lawyer. He wasn't a Navy SEAL. He was never a Navy SEAL. It's not like he was a guy kicking doors in and those kinds of things. So while he did deploy, and admirably as it was, he deployed as a Jag lawyer, attached to a special operations unit for legal advice, he's not, never was, a Navy SEAL.

Speaker 1: 4:16

So they try and get this image across in the very short period of time that they have. They try and get their point across, depending on the question that has been asked of them, but all in all, the formats are terrible and the hosts are even worse. They can't control and they threaten as much as they want. You know well, we're going to cut you off and we're going to stop the microphone or we're going to do whatever. No one's been able to control it. Yet.

Speaker 1: 4:40

I hope, truthfully, I hope there's a change in tonight's debate. It's on right now. I'm not, frankly, I'm not watching it because I'm recording this, but I honestly I didn't plan on watching it myself. The first two burned me out a little too much, with really no payout. I didn't learn anything, truthfully, about any of the candidates I didn't already know. So the value of watching it at this point is pretty slim and the field's gotten smaller. Elsa and I talked about it last week. You know Vice President Pence has suspended his campaign. That's one last, there's only supposed to be five on the stage tonight and maybe maybe you'd get more out of each of them because there's less of them on the stage. But I think truthfully, heart of hearts, I think it's going to be more of the same and I think it's going to be a very little interest to most people. Which again goes back to the poll, which is, you know, I think, pretty telling on why the 80% decided and again in a very conservative base, decided they were not going to watch. You know, 20% wanted to or were planning on it, and good for them. And again, it's a small sampling, very non-scientific. I just asked a random question of my connections and it got about 100 answers back. So so there you have it.

Speaker 1: 5:56

I think that the GOP, at this point, the debate, this early in the election cycle, is, you know, uninspiring to most. I don't think it tells us a whole lot, especially when President, former President Trump, is not participating. So is it wasted effort? Maybe should the GOP do better. Probably, you know, president Trump is a little bit busy right now with lawsuits, which I think is a little bit telling as well. But I think the requirement there should be some sort of requirement for him to participate truthfully, or, you know, a lack of GOP backing. Potentially, you know something, there's got to be some repercussion for him not participating.

Speaker 1: 6:38

You know he made fun of, and a lot of people did made fun of President Biden for the last election cycle, coming in late, hiding in his basement quote unquote, which you know is a metaphor for something that's not too far from that. I mean, he was in this house, he did spend a lot of time in his house during COVID but, truthfully, you could say the same thing about President Trump right now. He's not necessarily hiding in a basement, but he's also not participating. So you know it's. You know he decided to make fun of and he's not the only one. A lot of people did basement Joe and we heard all these other things and made fun of him during the last election cycle for not participating, and now President Trump is essentially doing the same thing because he doesn't feel he has to, but he does owe it to the voters. So that's a little bit disappointing. I've said that before.

Speaker 1: 7:26

I wish he would participate, if nothing else, just to show that he is still up and involved in the details of current events, not just in the broad strokes of things but in the details of current events, as the other candidates continue to do, they keep themselves up to date. It's part of campaigning and good for them, but he needs to show the American public and the GOP voters that he's doing the same thing and this isn't just going to be him jumping in at the last minute on reputation and getting elected and then trying to play catch up. So I hope that that's not the case. But again, we have no proof. We can guess, we can make, you know, assumptions, but until he steps on a stage with the other candidates, defends himself, defends his position, we just don't know.

Speaker 1: 8:15

So that's another big reason why I'm not watching, and why I know a lot of other people aren't watching, is because he's not participating and, truthfully, he's the number one candidate. So without him it's kind of a moot point. Elsa and I have said it a number of times if it's not him that gets the GOP nomination, it's going to be the person that gets his endorsement, and whoever that is is going to be somebody that's gone head to head with him, I hope. But we'll have to see how that plays out, you know, over the coming months, as he gets potentially more involved in active campaigning as it gets closer to election time and we're a month out or a year out, you know it's yesterday was election day, so a year from now it'll be presidential election time. So he's got a year to get involved and really show us what he's got, you know, coming into the full up presidential election cycle.

Speaker 1: 9:04

So you know that kind of it kind of brings me to you know something somewhat related. You know, I used to. I used to work for a guy. I used to work for a guy who is a master of mixed metaphors. You know he used to say things like you know, it takes a village to raise an idiot. You know, and obviously it's the mixed metaphor, it takes a village to raise a child and you know every village has got a village idiot. So it takes a village to raise an idiot. But you know he would say things like that and there was a lot of sense behind him. I had a. I have a daughter in her early 20s and I had a great discussion with her last night and she's usually pretty up on current events and pretty stays pretty knowledgeable as to what's going on. You know, being the child of a military officer, she was around, you know, those sorts of discussions her whole life. She's never shied away from them and she keeps herself up to date.

Speaker 1: 10:00

But she admitted last night that she's not, you know, perfectly clear on the Israel Hamas. You know conflict that's going on right now and she asked my opinion as she's.

Speaker 1: 10:12

She's done many times in the past and she really wanted some, some context as to what was going on. And she understands and knows, like most people. You know, the history of, you know, the modern Israelis going back to the Israelites, the 12 tribes of Israel. You know 3000 years persecution. She understands, you know, everything that surrounds Jerusalem and the history there. She gets it. She also understands that you know Palestine, you know, is not a place. There are Palestinian people, but Palestine is not a country. She understands that. But she didn't understand the context of this current fight.

Speaker 1: 10:53

Who started it, why, what's the purpose behind it and really, who's doing the most? You know damage to each other right now. So you know we had a good grown up conversation and it was fantastic. You know, I always appreciate.

Speaker 1: 11:12

You know when, when somebody can sit and listen and take things in and make assessments and judgments, you know on their own, and my daughter's not wanted to, you know, roll over and just because dad tells her something, she just goes with it. She's not one to nod her head. There are lots of things that we don't see eye to eye on. That's okay, because we have those kinds of discussions in the house and and it's great, and last night was kind of one of those discussions and really what we got to you was two pretty solid points and you know my daughter got to one and I got to the other and the first one was, you know, she got to the point or brought the point forward that you can be anti-Israel as a as a nation, you could be against the concept of Israel and not be anti-Semitic. You can be pro-Palestine, pro-palestine for those people, the Palestinian people, to have their own nation, country, whatever, but not be in support of Muslim extremist terrorists, hamas and Hezbollah and those sorts of things. But her point was that it's very, very difficult for most people to figure out the gray area between those two and that it's very difficult for most people to present that as an argument to say I don't think it's right that Israel was established in 1948 at the sacrifice of the people of Palestine, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, and not to make it sound like or not make it seem like you are adjuvating anti-Semitic. People have a hard time doing that and she understands that. And it's sad because, to her point, we lose the ability to have adult, grown-up conversations when you get baited into or you make a slip in what you're trying to convey and all of a sudden you sound like an anti-Semite or you say something like well, they're Muslim extremists. And then you turn it into not just the flip side of anti-Semite. You say something along the lines of all Muslims are terrorists or something of that effect. People have a hard time presenting those cases clearly, concisely, without slipping and making a mistake and sounding as if they're really overtly prejudiced against one group or the other, and that makes it very, very challenging for all of us and I believe that you can be those things I do.

Speaker 1: 14:02

There are people that don't agree with the concept of Israel. That doesn't mean they hate Jews and they hate their anti-Semitic. I know I spent a number of years, obviously, in and out of the Middle East, iraq and Afghanistan, and I know a lot of my peers did as well, and as much as we all were trying to stay alive when Muslim extremist, terrorist insurgent organizations were all trying to kill us to a person, I don't know a single person that came out of Iraq or Afghanistan that just blatantly hated every Muslim for the sake of being Muslim, because we all made some sort of connection with people in Iraq and Afghanistan, whether it was an interpreter, that we worked with, a local national, that we worked with a counterpart, a military professional counterpart that we worked with, whether it was with Afghan security forces or Iraqi security forces, we all made a connection with those people and we understand that not all Muslims are horrible people. In fact, the vast, vast majority of Muslims are great people. They're hardworking people, they're not extremists, they're not overly violent, they don't hate the West. It's not a blanket statement. I don't know any of us that walked out of those conflicts with those feelings. But you can slip, and it's a shame.

Speaker 1: 15:31

And again, when you're trying to forward those arguments of I feel this way, can we have this discussion as grownups and not make it sound like you're a blatant racist and talk politics, political, geopolitical impacts of things and not have it immediately associated with being a racist or being attacking one group as a whole versus the other. Which is what got us to one of my boss's points, the man of many messages, and he told me once and I'll clean this up a little bit for the sake of the audience, but we were having a discussion and I said, sir, I always try and think before I speak even if there's an uncomfortable pause, and I have to take a breath. And before I open my mouth, I wanna be deliberate in what I say. And he looked at me and he said Clay, never pass up the opportunity to shut the F up. Now, he didn't say the F, he said the word, but never pass up the opportunity to shut the F up. And I didn't understand exactly what he meant. And he followed it up with something that was pretty profound and that was if you're always thinking before you speak, then you're always trying to speak and there are times when you just don't need to speak and the best thing that you can do is just shut your mouth and not say anything. And I said that to my daughter and I said the real words that my old boss said, because my daughter's used to me talking like that, and I said this is what was told to me never pass up the opportunity to shut the F up. And she really kinda grabbed onto it. And what she said was also pretty profound is that a lot of Americans can't help themselves.

Speaker 1: 17:35

A lot of people on social media can't help themselves. They can't, or they're even sometimes not allowed to so as much as some of them would like to keep their mouth shut on a specific topic. We kinda got away from the Israel Hamas thing, but just in general we talked about social media, influencers and celebrities and how they're almost forced to take a position on any political topic that comes up, whether it's presidential race, it's Ukraine, it's Hamas, israel, whatever. And if they choose not to, if they do follow that great advice to never pass up the opportunity to shut the F up, they're almost forced into it. And if they still refuse, then they're risk being canceled because they're not being quote unquote responsible as a celebrity. So if they don't take an overt position and say I believe this, then they risk getting canceled. So they're forced to take a position.

Speaker 1: 18:39

And then there are some who just can't help themselves. They take a position whether anybody asks them or not, whether it's informed or not, and most of the times it's not. But a lot of folks on social media will jump on there and they'll take a position that's uninformed and they'll go, whether it's something. They take a bit of news, a bite off the news, or they read something brief, a headline, or they listen to somebody else say something. They just parrot what they've been told. But it's an uninformed opinion and they choose to verbalize that and put it out on social media and unfortunately that can also do them in. So it's a damned if you do, damned if you don't. Scenario for unfortunately, a lot of people in the social media world right now you're asked or forced to take a position, or you offer one up without being asked or forced and then you risk being on the wrong side of that. Or if you decide to not pass up the opportunity to shut the F up and you do keep your mouth shut, then you get guilted into it. And if you stand your ground and you stay true to your position of not taking a position, you risk that ultimatum of being canceled for not standing up in one direction or the other, not standing up for one cause or another.

Speaker 1: 20:12

And my daughter and I circled back around to the Israel Hamas thing and really the social media influencers and I brought this up is that there's a lot of. I have seen a number of LGBTQ plus community groups protesting in favor of Hamas, which again goes back to the uninformed, ignorant decisions that they are offering forward to say that they support the Palestinian people and they support freeing Palestine, not understanding that the LGBTQ lifestyle is not accepted and in a many Muslim countries a number of Muslim countries is in fact illegal, with some violent punishment repercussions for being overtly and outwardly homosexual or trans or anywhere in that LGBTQ spectrum. So they will stand out there in protest and say free Palestine, we're for Palestine. I've even seen the signs that say queers for Palestine, not knowing or understanding that they're not getting a reciprocal offer from those same organizations to support them for whatever reason. So they may be in support of Palestine, but again it seems pretty uninformed or uneducated that they would take up that position knowing that they would get turned around, get persecuted by the very same group that they're standing up on behalf of. It's very strange, but that's kind of the world we live in right now. So that was kind of a great long discussion with my daughter, who's in her early 20s, and she brought up some great points again about the impact of social media and how social media impacts people and people impact social media and then the forcing of opinions out there.

Speaker 1: 22:27

And so, through what I do on a daily basis, I have a lot of contact with kids in a very specific. For most people don't know, I'm a substitute teacher by day. I work in a school and substitute, teach on a daily basis and have the opportunity to interact with kids of all ages and I do make appropriate thought-provoking conversation, depending on the age of the kids, focusing more on high school and middle school, junior high kids. And it was in a history class today where kids were studying the Revolutionary War and, as a substitute, the teacher had offered. One of the things for them to think about was would they, knowing what they know and studying what they're studying, would they have participated? Do they think they would have participated in the Revolutionary War and on which side would they have thought if they were colonists? Which is a great thought-provoking question and I thought it was an outstanding lesson from the teacher. I did throw a little spice on top of it and I said okay, think of it in as you're doing the reading today. Think about it in the context of today's day and age and your social media presence, which, for kids of that age, in their early to mid teens social media presence, is huge. Their image on social media is massive. And I said just think about it in the context of that as you're making this decision whether or not you would participate and which side you would participate on.

Speaker 1: 24:02

So that the kids moved through the class period and they did their reading and they were working on a worksheet with about 10 minutes left in class, I just kind of told everybody to take a pause for a second. Let's have this discussion about would they participate and which side would they participate on. And I got answers on both sides. They're on every side. I got the no, I wouldn't participate. I got the yes, I would participate. On the American side, I would participate on the British side, a little bit of everything.

Speaker 1: 24:31

But the majority said they wouldn't participate. They would happily not participate. And I asked them why. And a number of them said that one they were scared, which okay, good Kids, that age shouldn't be warmongering. I would hope not. They would not fight at their age.

Speaker 1: 24:59

But they also talked about the context of their social media presence. And would they? Their friends would know their family would know their family would be at risk. They would be at risk. And I asked them I said, okay, so what names? Keeping it clean, obviously, in the classroom environment what names would you be called on social media if you participated? And some great responses, truthfully, from some young minds. They understand that they might be called, depending on who is what platform they were on, which I'd never even would have thought of. I kind of lump them all together but depending on the platform they're on or which side they chose, they would be called a terrorist, they would be called a loyalist, they would be called a murderer, they would be called a traitor, they would be called a hero, they would be called a soldier, they would be called all kinds of things.

Speaker 1: 26:00

Understanding the various perspectives coming in from every side on social media, which one shows that they do truly understand how that stuff works, I think, better than most of the my generation and older, they really, really understand the impact of that, but they also, I pose to them what's more important is that your image, or your principles, and specifically talking about their image on social media, and by far, by far, they were more worried about their image on social media than they were sticking to their principles, to the point to stand up and fight for what they believed was truly right. Which I thought was enlightening for me, but somewhat disheartening at the same time, that this damn thing, this telephone, would have such control over the thought process of the youth today and really would restrict how they present themselves to the point where they would throw their principles out and listen. We all had our own form of it growing up. Peer pressure was rough when we were kids and when I was a kid when really anybody's a kid, I mean if you're in high school or middle school peer pressure's awful. The drive to fit in, to wear the right clothes, to hang out with the right kids and listen to the right music and have the right haircut and all that drive, the right car and all those things. We all experienced that.

Speaker 1: 27:40

But the difference between that, my generation and really up until probably 10 years ago was it was very localized. You know the effect on that image was very localized. It was restricted to your friend group and probably the school that you went to. Maybe if you were lucky and you had a kind of a larger reach, maybe you kind of bounced around some different friend groups or something, then maybe it reached a little further than that, but for the most part it was restricted to your school, your town, your friend group.

Speaker 1: 28:12

Now with this you know, the image of these kids it's school-age kids below the age of 18, high school and middle school is far, far reaching people. They don't know kids, they don't know adults, they don't know, you know, there are kids out there with tens of thousands of followers, tens of thousands of followers, and the pressure that comes with that for them to do the right thing, to be the right thing, to say the right thing all the time, is pretty extraordinary. And this is great of a tool as it can be. It's also, you know, a weapon in a sense. So, you know, but the kids understand that.

Speaker 1: 29:00

But I think it is again disheartening that their lives will be controlled, the way they present themselves will be so controlled by, you know, social media that it's very, very possible that our, you know, if posed today, an American revolution would fail, not due to lack of want, but due to fear of reprisal, long and far reaching further than you know, anything we could have imagined in the past. So people would be afraid to participate because of this, because of the cell phone and the social media image that comes with that, as crazy as that sounds, but I think you would get a lot more or a lot fewer volunteers, because as soon as it hit this, as soon as it hit the phone and the social media and it got out, then everyone would know. There's no way to hide it and everyone that you're connected with would either have to side with you or cut you away, forced to one way or the other, and that would be it. So you know the context of the American revolution happening when it happened. You know 1700s, comparatively till now, is a very, very different environment.

Speaker 1: 30:21

I think that a lot of people don't anticipate, you know we hear it occasionally now and again about. You know January 6th as an example, as an insurrection and you know, a revolution and all these things. I don't know. I don't know if it would happen as it did for our founding fathers. You know the colonials to do what they did against the British government. I don't know if we would have the same participation and vigor to fight against the standing government in today's day and age because of this thing.

Speaker 1: 31:03

Yeah, it's a tool and it could be very useful but at the same time, you know, could really kind of push things in the wrong direction and keep people from participating because they're afraid of their phone, they're afraid of their social media image, they're afraid of their phone and people would not stand up for their principles and morals and ethics because they're afraid of what people would say about them. And it would reach far beyond their family, their town, their class. You know it would reach tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of people on the internet, across social media. So it's an interesting question to pose. If you've got younger people in your life, you probably want to. You know, maybe if you're not as fly I'm not, maybe if you're not as fluent with you. Know the social media platforms, you know. Think about them a little more. You know existentially, beyond just what you know the app itself does. You know Instagram and TikTok and all the rest of these. You know what the, what it does, but think beyond that to the effect that it's having on everyone's lives and really what it would have you know even further, growing beyond that. So it was very.

Speaker 1: 32:12

You know, I love learning from the kids, you know, but you got to stop and take time and listen to what they're saying. But you know, if I can learn a lesson last night from a 22 year old and I can learn lessons today from you know, some 14, 14 and 15 year olds, I think we all should. I think you know there's a lot to be learned. You know they've got a great perspective that a lot of us don't have and we can gain knowledge from them and we should. You know the days of. You know children should be seen and not heard. I think you know there's some value in that at times, but for the most part kids are pretty smart and you can learn from them if you ask them the right questions.

Speaker 1: 32:52

So kind of a shorter show tonight. You know it's just me flying solo, kind of at the last minute, but you know I hope you enjoyed it. I always do. You know. Obviously I'd rather have Elsa, you know, to bounce all this stuff back and forth with, but you know she's out having a good time tonight and good for her. I'm about to do the same thing. I've mentioned this before.

Speaker 1: 33:13

I'm part of a veterans organization called the Phantom Airborne Brigade. I am on my way to Florida tomorrow to jump this weekend with a bunch of old paratroopers. It's one of the things that I both miss the most from the Army, but one of the things that I love to do in retirement is go hang out with a bunch of old paratroopers on Veterans Day weekend to celebrate all of us veterans and the sacrifice and service that all of us have put forth Us and you know those before us and those that have come, you know, behind us. It's a great opportunity for me and it's something that I love to do. Also, for those of you that don't know, the Marine Corps birthday is also coming up. So, for all the jarheads out there, you know I love you guys. You know I've worked with tons of Marines. I've got great friends and some family members, and some of them are Marines and I kid because I love all you crayon eating dudes and dudettes out there. But happy birthday to the Marine Corps.

Speaker 1: 34:13

Tund Tavern, right here outside of Philadelphia or in Philadelphia, I'm outside of Philadelphia, but Tund Tavern is the place where it started. Yes, the Marine Corps started in a bar. If you didn't know that, that's a true statement. But happy birthday to all the Marines out there and for everybody else. You know, if you get a chance, just jump on Amazon. I'd appreciate it. Yeah, I'm looking to to to hawk as many copies of the book as I can. Keep moving, keep shooting. You can look it up by title. You can look it up by my name, clay Novak, but it's got a you know, 4.95 star rating, that people are really enjoying it. So check it out on Amazon and I appreciate everybody listening in this week again short show and Elsa and I will be back next week together, probably with some feedback after the debate. But everybody have a good night and from me and from Elsa keep moving, keep shooting.

Speaker 3: 35:36

Well, hello everyone. Welcome to another episode of the Elsa Kurt Show. Today it's just me and my guest, clay, has a little bit of a break from dealing with me, and instead my friend Joseph Lombardi is going to be on the show and I'm just going to bug him for a little while, okay, well, hello Joseph. How are you?

Speaker 2: 35:57

Good, how are you Elsa?

Speaker 3: 35:59

I am good. Thanks for coming on the show today. I'm really excited to talk to you.

Speaker 2: 36:03

Yeah, I appreciate you having me on.

Speaker 3: 36:05

Absolutely so. I kind of let me add to that I'm excited and slightly terrified, because anytime we talk about this topic I get a little panicky. And if you're all wondering what the topic we're talking about, we're talking about what Joe does. He is a financial advisor. His company, ironhawk Financial, helps a really my personal favorite group of people, and I know it's not just exclusive to this, but I love that you specifically work with the blue collar workers, the people who are just really pretty historically consistently getting the daylights beat out of them financially. So tell me a little bit about why and how that became an important focus for you, instead of like the mega millionaires.

Speaker 2: 36:57

Yeah, so I do work with a few Fortune 500 companies. But my main goal when I got into this industry was, you know, my dad owned a JV Lombardi Builders. It was a multi-million dollar construction company that he built himself. And it was very difficult when one day he was working in Greenwich, connecticut, where he worked with a lot of his wealthy clients, and he felt three stories off a ladder and a bone in his foot disintegrated into a thousand pieces. And he was in rehabs and reconstructive surgeries.

Speaker 2: 37:28

And I had a sister that was born two pounds seven ounces for the Alcalc Syndrome, where my ex-stepmom Drake went all extract and listerine during pregnancy. So here I am at 15 years old and I have a, you know, one and a half year old daughter and there was no adults in the house. So I said, how could that happen? So I, you know, came out of shock because I wasn't 18. I didn't want to go to Child Protective Services or DCF in Connecticut and so I raised her while my dad was in the hospital and it made me think that, you know, my dad was very successful. He had a bunch of employees, a bunch of trucks doing millions of dollars in annual sales, had real estate, had stocks, had everything, and he didn't have health insurance, though, and when he came out of the hospital, you know the trucks were gone, the people were gone, most of our assets were gone, which took him a long time to build, and I said I wonder how many other people are like my father.

Speaker 2: 38:28

I wonder how many people that have a good career, they work their butt off, they make America great, and they're tough people, blue collar guys, and I realized, doing this for 20 years a lot of people that own their own businesses, small businesses. They don't build foundations, they have no life insurance, no long term care, no pensions to speak of, and they work 80, 90 hours a week, and I saw a huge hole. And they're not the people that all the advisors are chasing. They're not the people that say I got to go get me a landscaper today. You know, aren't those the guys who are alcoholics, who beat their wives? You know they're not going to pay their bills, and you know I came from that industry and I'm already at the job site, and you know my dad was best friends with the electrician and the plumber, and they're swearing at each other, telling dirty jokes, throwing crap at each other, like and I'm like, this is normal.

Speaker 1: 39:34

And again.

Speaker 2: 39:34

I go to other Italian companies that I work with and it's the same thing the dad's swearing at the kids, the kids swearing at the dad. They're having like brawls in the middle of the job site and I'm like this is crazy. But you know those guys, they work so hard and they just don't have anything. And you know I do a lot of home shows throughout the country, which is, you know, a room full of 100 business owners and part of the HBRA Homebuilding and Modeling Association. There's three of them in Massachusetts, connecticut and New York.

Speaker 2: 40:06

And you know I was on the cover of the Blue Book, which is, you know, your contractor. You know what that is Like how to hire subs and I realized that, like these guys, they have great incomes, they have great families, they have great spouses, great kids. You know they do the right thing on a daily basis. They just don't have what the people that are top executives at Coca-Cola and Apple and Walmart and Tesla they don't have any of that. And then, when something happens, everything they've worked their butt off to build is gone. It's literally gone. And I want to make sure that doesn't happen for people and I want to save them a boatload of money on taxes, and that's really where my main strategy comes into play, where I have books on Amazon being your own bank, and there's a new one. There's a better way than a 401k? That just came out recently and you know I'm just trying to help business owners understand that you have to have a plan, because if you fail to plan, your plan is to fail.

Speaker 3: 41:03

Yeah, wow, yeah, I mean, and you're talking about just the salt of the earth, people, the people who you know, pick them up by their own bootstraps and just go out there every day and do their job and take care of their family and do all those things. And you know, I probably I'm guessing like a misconception of you know most people, or a lot of people I won't say most, I'll say a lot of people who are in that lane. You know there's that whole thing of you know, well, the rich can do this and they can do it and they know how to do that and they know that they're not going to be in that exclusive club that we're not part of and never could be part of, and that's really not true at all. That you know it's just money management and knowing where to put your money, when to do it, how to do all of those things.

Speaker 3: 41:55

And you know, a lot of us come from a background of like you. Just, you know you take your paycheck, you put it in the bank and you pay your bills and you do it all over again the next day and the next day and the next day, and there's a lot more to it, obviously than that. And you're so right and your personal story is just absolutely incredible and you're my favorite kind of story that you took such really lousy circumstances and said, all right, well, how can I not only make it better for myself and my future, how can I help other people and teach them to protect themselves, or help them protect themselves from the same types of catastrophes? Really, I mean, that is a debit to lose everything like that and all of that is just beyond devastating, and there are people that that happens to and they never recover, you know, because they don't know where to go or who to talk to. So I love, I love that you took your, your, your knowledge and your, your business sense to help people who really, truly need it.

Speaker 2: 43:06

Yeah, I mean, I was. I was very poor after my parents divorced at four. My mom liked party and hence she died at 52 years old from cirrhosis liver, from alcoholism and drug use. And you know, after she took me she called my dad a month later so couldn't get her son or I'll put him in an orphanage. So my dad drove down to Florida where I was living, and drove us up to Trumbull, connecticut, and we lived in the attic on Main Street and there was no running water. There was a mattress, a TV, a bucket, toaster and a microwave and you don't know any different. I'm four, five, six, seven years old. Then we moved to the first floor of the same three, three family house and then crackheads moved upstairs and my say Genesis, stolen about 15 times. I had to carve my initials on the bottom. They could bring it to the same pawn shops to grab their $10, to get their, their drugs. Until my brother was six foot six and my nephew and my cousin put a net out and then beat the crap out of him and then never came back.

Speaker 2: 44:05

But I grew up in you know the hood and poverty and then my dad's business took off then and we were multi-millionaires and he felt these stories lost it all. We're back to being povertyist and I said you know what? I'm going to make sure that that doesn't ever happen to me and my family. I'm going to work really hard and all the ethics and morals that were taught to me I'm going to build something that is, you know, long lasting and a legacy for my three children that they now have a spot to come, grow and work if they want to. And it was something very important to me to help people, because I realized at a young age that if you help a lot of people, it always comes back to you. I believe we live in an energetic karmatic universe that if you do the right thing, karma will reward you. If you do the bad thing, karma will punish you. But either way, you're going to get what you sow. Reap what you sow, as they say. So you know, I just love helping people. It's something that I get mass happiness knowing that families I speak to, businesses I speak to, are now, in a way, better situation now than they were before they met me.

Speaker 2: 45:15

And doing this 20 years, you know, I've had clients pass away. I had clients get disability. I had clients that are on long term care and, at least I know as of right now, I helped about 21 families from death, disability and long term care. I've got about six people out on tax free pensions I built for them that are very happy. That's how I'm able to maintain a 5.0 star rating on Google and the A plus rating on the better business bureau, when you know I'm in all 50 states and deal with thousands of people.

Speaker 2: 45:42

It's just trying to help people and when you have that mindset, you have that energy. I'm not there to make as much commission off of them as I can. I'm not there to sell them one product because that's a company I work for. That was a big reason I want to get out of that whole system of you have. You know, you work in MetLife. You sell in my life, auto, home life, disability, long term care, annuities and they're the best. And then you go to the free market. You're like they're not the best in any of those situations. Not trying to pick up that life here, but it's just when you're able to own your own business, you're able to be a master broker.

Speaker 2: 46:14

I'm approached by a bunch of brokerage houses that have hundreds of carriers that say show me your best.

Speaker 2: 46:19

And at the end of the beginning of the year I quote them all out and I say, okay, well, even though this one pays me 10% more, it's an inferior product to this company. I'm going to get my clients set up with this one. That's why I have a 99.7% retention rate. That's why I went awards. That's how I was on the cover of the top 40 advisors in the country under 40 years old. That's how I was in international business times business insider, market insider all in the last 90 days is just trying to do the right thing. And when you have that mindset and you continue to grow and people I'm a competition, a lot of people so they're trying to find what does this guy do? Is he doing it wrong? And I do the right thing and I pray and God has my back and that's really all I'm trying to do is just we're put on this earth for a short period of time and I just want to do the right thing so I can go to the next level of whatever this is.

Speaker 3: 47:14

I love it. I love it. Listen, guys, when I tell you I bring no joke people to the table here. Joseph, no joke, no mistake kind of guy, and I love the integrity and I love the character. I love your love for America and what's right and God country people who are salt of the earth, like I said, and that was why I was immediately drawn to you. As soon as our mutual buddy, kevin Allen, brought us together, I was like, yep, he's my person. Yep, he's good news. He's good news. I like it and I love that we get the opportunity.

Speaker 3: 47:55

This is one of the reasons why I love my platform One, because obviously I'm a ham and I love to be in front of the camera, obviously. And two, because I really and of course I'm joking guys sort of ish. But two, because I love to bring people like Joe to the table so that you can just see that these possibilities are out there, that you can protect your investments, your money and have that option that some of us I'm not saying everybody, but some of us think that are only affordable or available to the ultra wealthy, and that's just not the case and I think that's cool to be able to pass that pass that along, and especially somebody you know your heart comes through and everything that you're saying here, and I love it. I think it's pretty badass. Now if you could tell me, tell me, so you wrote two books. Is that what you have out? Two books.

Speaker 2: 48:51

Yeah, the first one being your own bank is on. That's what it basically is. Is the elite what they do, or the ultra wealthy is? If you had a choice to have a tax free asset or a taxable asset, which one would you choose? Right, silly, if you had an asset that could be liquid, meaning you can access it during a down market, when everybody else's money is tied up in 401ks, IRAs, pensions, 403bs, 457s your money's fully liquid which one would you want liquidity or not? Right? If the market were to crash, you want the ability to lose. You know, if market lost 50%, like it did in 08, or 70%, and market lost 35% in 2020, you know? Do you want the ability to have that loss? You know, and there's silly questions, but people don't ask them. It's like you're telling me there's an asset that's legally tax free.

Speaker 2: 49:38

Yeah, section 7702 of the IRS spent around 175 years. Well, why don't they teach you about it? Because they want your money taxable. Because if government makes so much money on 401ks, IRA, sep, simple pensions, deferred comp, profit sharing, it's funny, right? People don't do long term planning. If I put a dollar in a 401k in 2023, and I'm going to need to pull the money out in 2053, for whatever reason usually income, right? What's going to happen if taxes don't go up? Right? If they don't go up which they are, and I could prove it to you very easily if taxes don't go up, right, that dollar you write off today is going to be more valued, meaning the dollar is going to grow, just with inflation, right? So if that dollar is worth $10. And taxes don't go up, I saved a quarter. I saved 25% on the dollar to pay $2.50 on the $10, which is the same 25%.

Speaker 2: 50:30

Now, the logic of oh, I'm going to make a ton of money in my 50, 60s, possibly work to my 70s, and then when I retire, I'm gonna live in poverty, I'm gonna be in a lower tax bracket because I'm not making as much money. Well, if you heard of the term inflation, you're not gonna be able to live in poverty or a lower cost of living. You're gonna sell your house, you're gonna live in a smaller apartment, you're gonna move to a different state, right? That's the whole logic. But do people wanna be stripped from their children, from their grandchildren, so that they can go to Florida and then see their family once a year and Florida's not cheap, by the way. Go look to see how their real estate market's doing. And then you have North Carolina, which is popular, but that's just up 100% in the last 10 years. Okay, so where are you gonna go? That whole mindset of I'm gonna defer a dollar today being a lower tax bracket tomorrow is idiotic, and the reason for it is our debt. We owe $33 trillion.

Speaker 2: 51:30

We have another $250 trillion of Medicare Social Security and US unfunded liability. Just go to usdebtclotorg. Right, I'm plugging in a website that I have. No, I didn't even make it. It's just valuable information if you care about your financial future. But usdebtclotorg it shows you. It's a ticker going around Times Square in New York City. Been there for decades. They put it in front of our faces but people are trying to not win.

Speaker 2: 51:57

They're trying not to be in pain right, there's a lot of books I read that said if you offer somebody be successful, they're not interested. If you offer them not to lose or be in pain or not to fail, then they'll buy that book, right? It's the mindset we have. And then the second mindset we have, which is all by design, is interest in gratification. You wanna buy a house? Do you pay for it in cash? You wanna buy a car? Do you pay for it in cash? You wanna go to college? We pay for that in cash, right?

Speaker 2: 52:27

No we get student loans, mortgages, car notes, and the best one is if you're broke. The best way to get money is a credit card right.

Speaker 2: 52:33

You give the credit card five times the value back for the dollar you borrowed from them over three years, because they're charging you 29.99% daily compounding interest. So we are trained on interest in gratification. So why not get a benefit on your retirement? Hey, I don't wanna pay this $30,000 in taxes. If I could save five grand by putting $15,000 away, I'm happy. But what did you ultimately do? If you put away $15,000 here in your 401K for 30 years, that means you put away 450 grand. Right, you can do the math. You don't have to follow on with the math, just listen to the numbers. And if you are a math person, listen to the math. Really, right? So I put away $15,000 a year for 30 years for way 450. I'm gonna high tax bracket, I'm gonna 28%, fed 6% stay. So I'm saving a third. A third percent of 15 is five $5,000. I saved $5,000 for 30 years of the work. I saved 150 grand. And you're all like, yes, I saved my 150 grand, but you didn't save anything. You just deferred all that money.

Speaker 2: 53:29

Now you wanna start drawing $100,000 a year out. It's gonna cost you $138,000. So you gotta pay $38,000 in taxes, just taking federal taxes and state taxes in the consideration. I retired at 60, lived till 90, 38,000 times 30 is 1.16 million to save 150. Well, I'm not gonna lie, I'm gonna retire at 70, lived till 90. That's still 38,000 times 20 is $760,000 to save 150. And that's if taxes don't go up.

Speaker 2: 54:02

In the 1980s the highest marginal tax rate here in the United States was 70%. The highest marginal tax rate here in the United States in the 1960s was 90%, over 91.2, 91.6. Google everything. Go to Google. Just type in 100 year federal tax bracket picture. It's not that hard. I do it for my clients all the time.

Speaker 2: 54:24

I do stupid things with clients. I bring up all those information. I'm like what are you doing about this risk? What are you doing about taxes going up? Nothing. What are you doing about interest rates and inflation going up? Nothing. What do you want the stock market going down or going sideways like it did from 1999 to 2012? And the SP500, you're in zero. And that doesn't include 12B, one fee, class A, share fund fee, money management fee. So these people aren't doing the long-term planning. They're not looking at numbers. We live in a numeratic world. What are we on right now? We're on a bunch of zeros and ones.

Speaker 2: 54:55

Our whole world is numbers and numerology right, and people are like you know that and though I'm not good at math, I'm like, okay, well, fine, we'll find somebody who is that's trustworthy and listen to them and make sure they're credible. Doesn't have to be me. Make sure they're credible, make sure you trust them and build the plans. If you fail the plan, your plan is to fail, and there's so many Americans that have no plan B. They're holding their money in the market. They think the market's gonna magically make money when it's the casino and you're going into supercomputers that are buying and selling a thousand times a second. So what are the ultra-wealthy? Do they have a strategy? Right now it's very popular.

Speaker 2: 55:33

I'm doing millions of dollars a week of my client's money putting in this strategy where you cannot lose in index funds US fundamental, us global average in 14% compounding in the last 10 years, 55% rate of return in the last two years Cannot lose and they have a zero fee. One no 12B1 fee, no class issue for no money management fee is by far the best strategy right now. Using contracts, calls, profits, warrants. So again, I'm sure this went over 99% of your clients. Hence I do really well on my career, but it's something where, if you need to speak with somebody, I will say this I've never charged a client $1 in 20 years. I never lost a client $1 in 20 years.

Speaker 3: 56:21

Yeah, that's that right. There is like the moment where most people, including myself, go sold, you're hired, you're the guy right there. Yeah, so let me first say that the way that you can rattle off numbers and statistics and facts, I can only equate that to the way I can recite lyrics of songs from the 80s. It's pretty darn impressive, not my lyric reciting, but your knowledge, your breadth of knowledge and the ability just to like, just say it all right there is beyond impressive. You touched on something that I'm gonna guess would be the most common fear or misconception that potential clients come in with, and that I mean, I guess it seems kind of obvious, but the fear of trusting their money, their finances, to a stranger. So two part question One is that the biggest thing that people come in with, that fear or misconception? And two if so, how do you allay that fear for people?

Speaker 2: 57:36

Yeah, I just had this conversation yesterday with a prospect who's now rolling over $2.8 million with me. It comes down to who's Joe Lombardi, you know, or who's your agent. What has he accomplished? What has he done? Who's the company works for I don't know how financial the situation Are the five star rated, eight plus better business bureau. You know I won 27 industry awards over the last 20 years. Million dollar roundtables to 2,000 every single year. Okay, I'm reputable, my company's reputable.

Speaker 2: 58:03

Now what's the strategy? Well, I only use triple A rated companies, double A rated companies or A rated companies. Right, do they pay the most money to me? Absolutely not. I have carriers calling me twice a week. You know we'll offer you double the commission you're making if you just sell C companies and B companies and I'm like I'm not gonna put my client in a risk so I can make an extra $20,000 or $30,000.

Speaker 2: 58:24

Cause I have to sleep at night. I have children that I have to teach how to be ethically, morally and responsible and spiritually responsible, and you have to do the right thing. If you're not doing the right thing and you're in it for money, you're gonna fail 100% of the time. God has to be number one If you put money number one, that means the devil's number one, and so you have to make sure agents good company the agent works for is good. Number three is what's the strategy? Right, again, I only use triple A rated companies. Most of my strategy is 175 year old, 176 year old insurance companies, triple A rated mutual right. So that means they went through World War I, they went through World War II, they went through the Great Depression unscathed, unscathed. Then lose dollar, didn't ask money from baby daddy Biden to bail them out, never did anything in regards. They were always fiscally responsible. Can I say that about banks? I can't.

Speaker 2: 59:20

You had signature value go down. You had FTX go down. You have banks fail, right Insurance companies don't? The last insurance company to fail was AIG 2008. What happened? Within one week, they're bailed out. And then what was the news story? Not that all the policy holders, all the annuity guys, all the money that was there, were made whole. It was that they were given too much money. And now they're getting bonuses and buying jets and helicopters and what the hell we weren't bailed out, but they were right.

Speaker 2: 59:56

So what do you think the millionaires and billionaires do? They go to a bank with a $250,000 FDIC or they go do an insurance company where they have hundreds of millions and trillions of dollars of reinsurance. Because every insurance company from New York Life, mass Mutual, metlife, guardian which, by the way, is bigger than the 401k market if you add in dollars coming in those companies are backed with more protection than the banks are. So wealthy people say, hmm, do I want 250 or do I want unlimited liability? So did you take a look at name me a product that's been around 175 years? Oh, I don't even know.

Speaker 2: 1:00:37

Name a company that stayed without going public or bought out for 175 years.

Speaker 2: 1:00:43

Those are the carriers I work with exclusively directly, where I can custom build plans for my clients, where I have the freedom, where most people work at a carrier. They can only sell you that one carrier, so they're doing the best thing for the company, not for the client. I do the best thing for the client because I don't care what the company is. I care in regards to what the benefits are, what the guarantees are, how strong the company is with the guarantees, and then people feel safe. Google how much money has gone into annuities in the last 12 months. Msmbc had a good article on it 300 billion with a, b.

Speaker 2: 1:01:16

So Americans are really, which is more than 2008, by the way, which was the first highest ever, because everyone was scared of what we have too much risk right now. We have risk taking away our petrodollar. We have Israel with the war of Palestine. We have Russia going against Ukraine. We have our own government civil war coming on, where the government is blatantly lying to us, which we know. What happened in Hawaii? If you have critical thinking, you could say it was a storm that caused a bunch of fires, sure, so you can understand what's really going on. If you critically think and look what's going on and you say what can I do? Right, can I change the government from murdering people, dropping bombs? You know, because who wins with war? Right, people who supply the war, not the people who fight with it. They die and lose their homes and families, but the people that fund it, fund both sides of the war, right.

Speaker 3: 1:02:08

You heard that story. It's true, absolutely true.

Speaker 2: 1:02:11

So they try. It's what can I do? Can I change that? No, but what I can do is do what the millionaires and billionaires do.

Speaker 2: 1:02:18

If you want to be a winner, you know the quickest way to be a winner is in this entire life is to copy a winner period. I like that. I like that. So true. So I became a winner, so to say Right, I'm a multi-millionaire. Ooh, I won, but I really won because I have a wife, been with 21 years. I have three children who I love dearly. I coach sports basketball, football, lacrosse. I'm able to live the life I want. I drive a reliable car, I live in a safe neighborhood, my kids get a good education. That's what I call a winner. Can I afford a Lambo? Absolutely. Can I afford a mansion in the hills? Sure, I don't call that being a winner, because the liability and the cost of that long term is not worth the squeeze in my opinion. So it's making sure you have everything that you need from a foundational standpoint life, disability, long term care, chronic illness, terminal illness, liquidity, pension. Then you go to real estate, business, equity, risk and luxury, but most people skip that. It's so important to have.

Speaker 3: 1:03:13

Wow, wow. I would imagine anyone listening to this right now is yelling at their screen for me to put up the website and information of how to talk to you themselves, so let's tell them where they can find you.

Speaker 2: 1:03:33

Yeah. So you go to wwwironhawkfinancialcom. There's a contact us button. You can fill out your information name, email, phone number. I'll most likely be in touch with you, if not, my vice president, steve. You can email me, joe at ironhawkfinancialcom, or you can call my business cell phone at 203-815-3673. By doing that you get me. I have a team and, based on what you tell me, I'll refer you out to somebody in my team.

Speaker 2: 1:04:03

If you need to do a budget, you need to save money on your mortgage, you're looking to raise your credit, you're looking to do anything that will help you financially, I have a team member that will take care of that for you, because the ultimate goal is to build wealth. You can't do that when you have super high-interest credit card debt. You can't do that when you don't have your three months liquid reserves. I turn away about 15% of people that are begging me. I was referred to you by this guy.

Speaker 2: 1:04:27

Trust more than anything. Just tell him I'll do my money, pay off your debt and then come talk to me, because people don't understand that there's two things about finance one-on-one. Everyone knows this one to buy low, sell high. That's the one everybody knows. The one they don't know, which is really finance one-on-one is make more money on the money that I lend or invest than the money that I take or borrow.

Speaker 2: 1:04:55

An example if I give you a million-dollar loan at 1% and I have funds right now that are guaranteed at 6%, you can make $50,000 on a million-dollar loan on somebody else's money, opm. So that's the number two thing is buy low, sell high. Their number one thing, number two thing is to make more money on the money you lend. So I turn clients down unless they're just looking to protect their family or they're looking to make sure that if something happens out of their control, they have something covered and they're well aware that those dollars should be going towards a credit card at $29.99. But this concern to them is worth the difference in loss money by doing this, then by paying off the debt.

Speaker 3: 1:05:40

Amazing. Tell them too where are your books? Where can they find your books?

Speaker 2: 1:05:45

Yeah, so I made it easy. I try to make them free. They're $4.99 on Kindle and if you have Amazon Prime, they're free.

Speaker 3: 1:05:52

You can't beat that. You can't beat free 25, 35-page book 40-page.

Speaker 2: 1:06:01

Yes, keep it stupid simple. I start racking off how they work and I'll lose people. I make an example person one has this, person two doesn't. Here's what goes through in their life. This is what person two has benefited of. This is what person one missed out on, and I literally try to make it that easy because it is complicated. When you talk to accountants, you ask a professional what do you think of that? If they don't know, the answer is no.

Speaker 1: 1:06:27

You never noticed that you?

Speaker 3: 1:06:29

ask them why.

Speaker 2: 1:06:30

Why I heard stuff. I mean, go on Google and just put no and bad reason for whatever you told me, which isn't really the truth. So it's, if you don't know, the answer is no. So you need to figure out. What do I want to do? How do I want to do it? Like I said in the beginning, do I want it liquid? Do I want it tax-free? Do I want it sue-proof? Do I want it divorce group? Do I want it nondisclosable in the fast form and secondary form, where it doesn't disqualify my children from grants, scholarships, loan-trade student loans and financial aid? Am I playing monopoly where the rules are in my favor or am I playing monopoly where it's in the house's favor? And when you deal with the monopoly called the government right because you invest the government is there any competition? No, so that's why they put penalties on your own money highly feed, highly taxed, illiquid and you're like okay.

Speaker 3: 1:07:26

I'm doing the right thing.

Speaker 2: 1:07:27

Well, you are. You are doing the right thing. You are doing it the wrong way. So it's saying you know, do what successful people do and winners do. Don't do what the sheep do. Because I'm telling you right now, the lions, or the leaders, are the ones on top of the rock seeing everything coming, and all you're seeing is the back of another sheep's butt, because you're just following everybody doing what they're doing.

Speaker 3: 1:07:50

Right, right, yeah, we're so conditioned to do exactly that and not anymore. If we're going to listen to you, not anymore, we don't have to be the sheep anymore. I like that. I don't just like that, I love that. And you know not to insult anybody, but you'd have to be a fool not to love that as well. You really would have to be.

Speaker 3: 1:08:12

So, joe, I can't thank you enough for coming on and sharing this information. I think it is invaluable. I think it's life-changing, game-changing for so many people. I know it's going to be life-changing for us because, yes, you better believe, my husband and I are going to go talk to Joe. We're going to go sit down with him and get our retirement all set up. I mean, that's, you know, as Joe and I talked prior to this, and he knows that we've got grandbabies and you know we're in approaching those retirement years and, yeah, we got plans of things we want to do and all of the fears that people like us have, as blue-collar people that are sitting there going. You know, I don't know, we're just doing what we're supposed to do, but I don't know if that's going to be enough. So Joe's going to get us on the right path and I'm really excited about that.

Speaker 2: 1:09:07

Yeah, it's wonderful knowing that I get to help people. Somebody once said years ago that you know, if you do this career right, being in the financial industry and you're not a selfish POS, they do it right. It's really charity. You know, like when people double charge people, they charge you a fee to give you like like this financial plan where, like 99% of it is repopulated for the every single person where they change like your name, your address, your income, but it's all generated. They charge you $10,000 for this book that's like this big, that you'll never read, that will go over once. And then they're like I don't work on commission, you know what they do. They build their commission in the charge and the fees and the plans they set you up with.

Speaker 2: 1:09:50

So it's like, if you really understood and I've done, I've been on both sides. I've been the insurance guy, I've been the investment guy. I've had my securities license for 16 years before I got rid of them March of 21, so that I can write books, advertise, get out there, be on podcasts and actually speak my mind without Fender and SEC like totally destroying me and taking away my ability to run a business. So it's being on both sides right. What do they teach you as an investment advisor? All right, here's the secret, right? If the market goes up because of you, if the market goes down, it's not because of you, but it's a great time to buy Either way. I'm right. Yeah, I like that.

Speaker 3: 1:10:32

I like that yeah.

Speaker 2: 1:10:34

Okay, my Lambo fee, right, right, I'm taking one to 2% of your retirement on an annual basis. So if you do that, by what? 40 years I end up taking more than 100% of your account without you knowing it, because you're just saying, oh, it's only 1.5%, it's only 2%, it's no big deal. Well, $2, and the account keeps going up, right. So you put in your money, I get 2%. You put in your money, I get the 2% of that, plus growth. I put in your money, get the 2% of your premium, what you had in there the year before contribution. So now I'm making 12%, 15%, 80%. So on the flip side, it's oh, insurance people, they just make up-front money. That's insane. The investment people are the ones who make all the money.

Speaker 1: 1:11:14

It's hilarious because I only make 1%, 2%.

Speaker 2: 1:11:17

That insurance guy is making 40%. I'm making it one time and you're making it over 30, 40 years, which equals five times more fees than this. People again look at instant gratification, they look at today, they look at now, and it's not their fault, they're just brainwashed.

Speaker 3: 1:11:34

Sure, that's so true. Well, not anymore. Not with my buddy, joe, over there. So listen, guys. Yes, of course I'm going to have all those links in the show notes. You will not be lacking for any of them. If you missed it before, they'll be in there and give Joe a call and, man, get your finances straightened out. You're going to be so much happier. You're going to get a lot less gray hairs this way. Joe, thank you again for coming on. I appreciate you.

Speaker 2: 1:12:04

I appreciate. You have a wonderful day.

Speaker 3: 1:12:06

Same to you. All right, my friends, I hope you're sitting down taking notes. If not, that's okay, you can just watch it again and take your notes. But better yet, just give Joe a call and yeah, we're going to be doing that. I'll tell you all about it in future episodes, how things are going with that, and take care, we'll see you in the next episode. Bye-bye.