Welcome to Close it now, the podcast that's revolutionizing the H Vac and home improvement trades industries. Get ready to dive deep into the world of heating, ventilation and air conditioning. We're turning up the heat on industry standards and cooling down misconceptions. And we're not just talking about fixing vents and adjusting thermostats. It's about the transformative movement that's reshaping the very foundation of H Vac and home improvement. We're the driving force, inspiring top performers who crave excellence not only in their professional endeavors, but also in fitness, nutrition, relationships, and personal growth, proving that we can indeed have it all. This is Close it now, where excellence meets excitement. Let's get to work now. Your host, Sam Wakefield.

Well, all right. Welcome back to Close It Now. Sam Wakefield here. I am stoked to have this guest today. He is a total rock star. I have gotten to know him at door to door con 7 here a few weeks ago and we were introduced then and from the second that we met and he came highly recommended as well. But from the second we met, I knew that I had to have him on the show because the value he brings to all of you listeners today is pretty incredible. You know, something happens when we start to become someone worth buying from is our sales go up and our numbers go up and which means there's so much more money that funnels to the bottom line that we get to take home. Now, there is a big lesson, and I can tell you from, you know, being a top performer, top earner for, you know, a couple decades and coaching so many is it doesn't matter how much you make and how much you earn, it matters how much you keep. And that is going to be the topic of the show today because so many of us, as you know, it all has to do with our personal growth. And so what we don't want to see you happen is you earn more and more and more and more and more, but then you're just as broke or broker than you were before you started because it just spins like water. So that's. I'm super excited to welcome our guest today. This is Ryan Cook. He is a financial advisor and wealth manager. I like the word wealth in that because there's a major difference between having money and being wealthy. And so we're going to talk about that some today. And yeah. So hailing in from Salt Lake City, Utah, thank you for joining us today, Mr. Ryan Cook.

Hey, what's going on, Sam? It's super good to see you again. Thanks for the warm introduction, man, if you're stoked to be here, I'm like, I'm amped, fired up. I am amped, fired up to be here with you.

Good stuff, man. Well, I'm, I'm digging the. For everybody that's just listening behind him, he has this incredible picture of this mountain range, like reflecting out of lake. So I don't know if we're going to be able to even interview because I just want to be wherever that is, but mesmerizing. Yeah, it is, it is. But let's get started, man. So anytime we have a guest on the show, what we like to do is take everybody through your highlight reel. Like, where did you start? Tell them your history and you know, obviously how you ended up doing what you're doing. And like, basically it's the earn the right moment. It's like, why should anybody even listen to you? Right. So let's. Yeah. Give everybody your. Your highlight reel and some philosophies that you. That you live by and do business with.

You bet. So like I said, super excited to be here. I got a bachelor's degree from Utah State University. I got an MBA from the University of Central Missouri. I've spent most of my career in technology in the leadership space. I've worked for some of the world's largest companies, world's largest private label cheese company called Schreiber Foods. I work for Footlocker corporate office. I'm a huge sneaker head. I've got you signed. Nice.

We totally have to rock that out.

I have a pretty decent collection of sneakers. Okay, right on left, the sneaker business. And went to work for Kohl's department stores, headquartered in Milwaukee. And then I spent several years at Amazon working in the fulfillment center space as a technology leader. At my peak, I led a team of 630. And I think that qualifications. I didn't cut my teeth in the finance business. I don't have a degree in finance and this is not how I grew up. But I have spent the last 15, approximately 20, I'd say 18 years working with the financial advisor to. To take some of those chips off the table with doing well for some of these large Fortune 500 companies. And I was highly active in that process. I came from an entrepreneurial family where my dad ran a Apple refurb business.

Nice.

Selling Apple Apple computer parts ever since 1979, all the way up to 2002. So I've always had this itch to scratch and. And I took the opportunity to get out of the business, despite a lot of my co workers saying that I was a little bit crazy to really pursue my passion, which is I love helping people. I love advising different strategies. I love help watching people grow. And I'm in this for the long term, and I want to grow with these highly successful people that have tons of ambition. So that's a little bit about me.

Well, cool, man. No, totally dig. So on the sidebar, we got to stay there for a second because I'm incredibly intrigued. Now hit us with your top three pair and some valuations on that. I am just now, in the last few months, learning that the shoe game is like this whole racket. Right. I had no idea that there were valuations on freaking tennis shoes. Right. So fill us in a little bit. What are some ones that you're really rocking the kicks?

So I have a pair of Jordan ones that I wear regularly. And this is probably gonna. Some viewers that are in that are sneaker heads like me are probably gonna cringe because you've all seen the tick tocks where they take their sneaker off even to like, propose to their, you know, fiance and stuff like that. They'll take their sneakers off to not get the crease. I have a pair of Jordan ones that I wear, so. So evaluation probably less than if I didn't do that. Okay. My favorite. My favorite sneaker is LeBron. Like, I have tons of LeBron's. I have almost all of the LeBrons. I just think that they're just super comfortable. My favorite pair of sneakers to wear is a. Is a Katy Oreo. It's a KD11 Oreo color. It looks like an Oreo cookie. It's kind of black and white with the mix, and it's got this knit that just looks just super fresh. Super fresh.

I love it, man. I honestly, I have to admit that every single word that you just said about that pair of shoes, I don't understand a single one of them, but I will learn. So everybody listening. We found a weakness in Sam Wakefield's knowledge base. So I have a new mission and a new hobby. Watch out. I'll be the next sneaker guru here before long. I love it, man. Well, so I. Gosh, this is. We could spend forever on sneakers, but so did you get into that because of where you were working and kind of got exposed to that world, or was it kind of the other way around?

Yeah, so good question. Right? So if you think about this demographic of people that are in technology, they're not dissimilar from Your audience, right, they're not that dissimilar. They make really good money. They are huge, ambitious people that have tons of potential for growth. They also switch companies fairly regularly. And this is a group that is pretty underserved because when you get really busy and the money starts rolling in, what tends to happen is you go, I'll figure it out later. Then all of a sudden you lift your head up like in my case, I told you, I spent more than 20 years in corporate IT and, and doing this for some pretty big companies. You basically look up and go, man, what happened all this time? Like, I didn't do anything about it. I had really good, you know, ambition to go do something about how I figure out my wealth management strategy. So I saw a market that was just totally untapped and underserved. Right. So because I was highly engaged with my process, I went and figured it out for myself and now I'm in a position to where I can help others figure it out for them also. Right.

I love it, man.

That's really what motivated me to do it. Now starting starting my own business and leaving the salary, corporate America jobs, that's a whole different story. But, but, but I'm just absolutely loving life because I see the fruits of my labor on a day to day basis. There was a client that, I'll spare you the details of the specific case, but we saved them about $50,000 just at the end of the 2023 calendar year on their taxes, $50,000. It was going to Uncle Sam that we said, hey, let's do it like this. And they put in a basement, they took that money and they put in their basement, they said, this is like life changing information to us. We didn't even know that this existed. And most people don't. Right. Because they don't teach it in schools. They don't teach you tax strategies in schools. They don't teach you how to, you know, be your own bank. They don't. They don't explain to you that the difference between a qualified account and non qualified account and why you would use both in which situations and you know, how to accumulate wealth.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yeah. I mean, what we learn in school is like, you know, the square root of PI, which we use every single day in our daily life. Right, right. I mean, other than a mathematician or engineer, it's like, come on. So I'm with you. So you actually just listed several things that we could probably do an entire episode on every single one of those. So take us into that World a little bit. So say I am a, you know, I'm an H vac Comfort Advisor. I've got a couple years under my belt actually. Let's get real specific with an avatar. Let's see, say I'm 28 years old. I've been in a comfort advisor for four or five years now. And I've taken the Sam Wakefield Close it Now sales training course. And Now I'm earning 4000-005000-00600,000 a year in my mid late 20s and I'm making more money than I ever knew what to do with or even thought was possible. Do I go buy the Ferrari or what? What should we do here? I mean, so that's, that's the question is like where would, if you're talking to that person, right, where would you, where would you even start?

No, that's, that's, that's a great question. And it's actually not dissimilar to people that I talk to on a regular basis. You have variable income. Some years are better than others. I work with a lot of different business owners and sometimes they'll say, hey, I could have, I had a great year this year. Last year I was in the negative, right? And I don't have any idea what, what's going to happen tomorrow. I would say, where do you start? First you got to put the oxygen mask on yourself before you can help the person sit next to you. What does that mean, literally? Well, you know, to replicate it is one thing, right? To get the money is a different thing. So you have the money in hand. There's a lot of things that you can be doing with that money today. To take some of those chips off the table and really set yourself up for long term growth. If you're 28 years old, like the example that you just gave, you have the time value of money and you have compound interest at your advantage, right? So if you could take just some of those chips off the table, sure, the Ferrari would be fantastic. Life is worth living, right? Maybe I'd say get some Jordan ones instead. Save the Ferrari until you can actually replicate it a couple of times. But if you can take some of those chips off the table and do it in the right way and structure it the right way, then man, you might have 3, 4, 5, 6 Ferraris down the road if you figure out the right way to accomplish that. So I definitely look at it from the perspective of what's your level of comfort? How much time horizon do you have for the growth? How much are you willing to kind of part with, to set up your future life for success. And it could be a future wife, future kids, future partner, spouse, whatever the case is. Like there's some things that you can do as a 28 year old earning significant income that can really set you apart from, you know, those folks. Once you turn retirement age, whenever you want to retire, the best thing that I would say is try to find a planner, Try to find somebody that will sit down with you, try to understand your specific situation. What I mean by that is what are your assets, what are your liabilities, what kind of debts do you have? And then basically develop a plan for you. And contrary to popular belief, it's not always a, it's not always something that you need to pay for. There are advisors out there that will do that type of a service for free.

Wow.

And free information. They'll sit down with you for an hour, maybe two hours, maybe one hour, two separate meetings, develop like a 65 page document with different projections and growth opportunities, make specific recommendations to you. And you sit down and you look at it and you go, you know what? Maybe I am comfortable with taking 20% off paying myself. Now I'm gonna have 80% and I'm gonna go hog wild. Right. Making that 20% now could potentially set me up for massive, you know, future opportunity. So that's where I would say you start, is start with, put your oxygen mask on first to make sure that you're taking care of yourself. Get an, get an advisor that you get along with that understands your particular situation. Somebody that you want to work with, right. That's got experience. And then just have them put it together and see what it looks like going into the future. Right. Then make your decision on whether you want to buy the Ferrari or not.

Sure. Yeah. No, I love it. And I, you know, I've done that in the past. You know, we sit down, we looked at, we started up an investment account and did some different, two different types of life insurance to be covered. And it was just a cool experience, you know, saw things that learn every single time I talk to him, you know, I learned something that I had no idea about. And so it's, it's really fun.

Let me make a comment on that. There are certain types of things, like you just mentioned, Sam, to where you can actually do a single funded premium and then it set you up for the rest of your life. Interesting. Okay, let's pretend, let's pretend that you did just get an absolute windfall of money. Right. You know, this would be Taking a little bit more chips off the table. But what if you could make a single investment that would structure something that would pay you continually down the road that. That's possible, right?

Oh, I love it. Yeah. That's where we start to get the. You know, and honestly, everyone listening to this podcast is no stranger to this type of thinking of delayed gratification. You know, we talk a lot about work to become someone worth buying from. We talk a lot about radical personal responsibility, and that means taking that responsibility for our own future, not giving our power away. And so I love this conversation because it falls right in line with every, with all of that anyway. But, and really the cool thing is with the, with that scenario, somebody's used to living off of and making maybe 50 to 60,000 a year, and now they're making multiple hundreds. It shouldn't be that big of a stretch to be able to make a big level of investment like that. So I love it, man. So you mentioned something a second ago I want to ask about, too, is when you were talking about find that person, that somebody you resonate with, somebody that, you know, really get along with, but also can learn from. Does that.

Would.

Would you recommend that person being in person, or can that be more of a virtual arrangement, or what does that need to look like?

So. Good question. So, like you mentioned in the beginning, I, I live in Salt Lake City, Utah. I would say 90% of my clients do not live in the state of Utah.

Funny.

Yeah, so I, I did spend some time in the Midwest. Right. I lived in, in Missouri for several years. I lived in Wisconsin for over a decade. So it is that most of my, you know, you know, my market, my, my network is outside of Utah. I've only lived in Utah for four months. So the answer to the question is we live in a very virtual environment where we can just hop on a zoom call and do things. So it doesn't necessarily need to be in person. Some people do prefer to have the relationship in person because it's more authentic or whatever the case is, based off of their own preference. But there's really no reason why it needs to be in person or virtual. So long as this is somebody that you trust, respect, that can take care of you, that understands your particular situation, that's also going to be, that's also going to hold you accountable. Right. Sometimes when I get with clients, I don't always say the most favorable things, but I did listen very well and I heard a goal or an objective that they were striving to do. And I also heard something that was contrary to that goal that you just explained that you, you wanted to accomplish. And as a fiduciary, it's my responsibility to hold you accountable to achieve your objectives. So you need somebody that gives you that accountability as well.

Right, right. Oh, I love that. Super. Yeah. Very, very insightful answer. And you know, accountability is everything. You know, it's, we could put a plan in place, but if we're not sticking to it, the consistency of that is huge. And so let's switch up scenarios a little bit because there are, that is the like the dream, like perfect client scenario, the first one that I gave you. Let's throw this around a little bit. Say I am. So we're actually, we're just going to describe myself if I stepped right back into the field. And I'm 44, so different than late 20s. And I haven't really ever saved anything or had much of investments. And maybe in my market it's a little slower, I'm killing it. But relative to the market, maybe I'm only doing six figures. 150. There's enough for the family and maybe a little extra. Where would you start the conversation with that person?

Oh, that is, that's a great question.

Because that's a huge part of the people listening right now.

Yeah, this is an easy answer. Okay, Sam, 10 out of 10Americans need to make sure that they're taking care of their finances. Only 2 out of 10 do something about it right now. Now what does that really mean? That don't be embarrassed, don't be shy, that you haven't done anything to prepare for retirement. You've done them for a very specific reason that was important to you during that time. Maybe I was starting a family, maybe I was starting a business, maybe I had some expenses within, you know, taking care of my parents or something. I actually heard that from a client yesterday. He says I, this individual was 58 years old. It really didn't have anything for retirement but wanted to start right now. Right. And I commend this individual reason this individual didn't have any savings for retirement because he had an elderly mother and an elderly grandmother that he told me just turned 101 years old.

Wow.

And he was helping support them. Right. So like this is the most noble and just and hand over heart like salute type of behavior. This individual is 58 years old and put his family above his own thing. Didn't necessarily put his oxygen mask on first. But you know what, it's, it's water under the Bridge of habit. Start now, right? Start now. Start to figure that out. There's different things that you can do today, even with going through some type of a plan to where you know exactly what's going to happen with every single dollar going out. I know that I got to take 20 cents and I move it here. I take 13 cents of that and I move it here. Sure I do. I take 70 cents and I move it over here for. Okay, that math doesn't add up. You get what my analogy, right?

I think you're doing Enron math over here.

I take that proportion, I move it over here. But I know exactly why, for these specific reasons, I need to do it over this way. And if you can discipline yourself, that that is truly putting your oxygen mask on first. Right. So I would say the answer to your question is simple. 10 out of 10Americans need it. And there's no, there's no good or bad time to start. If it's been something that's been on your mind or it's been a conversation that you've had with your, you know, with your family, then it's probably important to them as well. So, like, get it done. Start now. Right. Just make sure that you can figure out where does every dollar go?

Okay, I, I like that. And sounds, if I'm hearing you right, it sounds like what we're talking about is stop living by chance and start being very intentional about what you do. So back to the radical responsibility thing is being very intentional about knowing where every dollar goes. So budgeting is a, is a big part of that. Sounds like.

Yeah, now, now budgeting is a big part of it, without a doubt. But let's be honest. Right. Like the, it's been a long time since you've seen grandmother balance the checkbook.

Yeah, for sure.

Pulls, pulls that thing out, says, what was that bill? I had to write out? And writes it in the back of it.

Yeah. So, okay, now we're. Everything is account. Here's the account, here's the checkbook.

We're balanced, so 100%. So I'm just trying to ground the audience in.

Yeah.

Budgeting means different people. That means different things to different people. I don't necessarily. Not referring to it in the context of, hey, get a spreadsheet out, make sure that you're counting for every dollar. But what I am saying is make sure that you understand how much you're trying to save, how much you're trying to put forward towards that rainy day. A great rule of thumb would be, do you have an emergency fund. What do I mean by emergency fund? It should be cash in the bank that's readily available to you, that's probably going to last you between three to six months in the event that something weird happened. Could be a broken water heater, could be a unexpected death, could be an unexpected job change. And you just need to float three to six months. Start there. Do you have enough cash to float three to six months? And can you live off of it and cover your expenses? That's a good, huge chunk of budgeting.

Right, Right. Well, and step one of that is actually calculating what your expenses are to know how to calculate it.

Correct, Correct. So hope that gives just kind of a little bit of a, you know, rule of thumb is, you know, budgeting isn't necessarily grandmother in the back of the chair. Right. But it really is just making sure that you have good accountability as to where the dollars are going when they come in. And I'm also not saying that your budget shouldn't include some entertainment or doing something fun. You've worked really hard and you. And. And you've knocked doors all week long and your feet are tired and you're entitled to some good shoes and a movie or something like that.

Yeah, word. Yeah.

So build that into the budget as well.

I like it. So with. I mean, since we're. Obviously, it's 2024, where everything is so digital now anyway. Are there any good tools or resources you recommend people, you know, that just kind of out there that people can grab to get started with, getting a better handle on, you know, just the flow of things?

Yeah, there are. There are a ton of. At the risk of naming any specifically, because I don't want to necessarily come across as I'm repping any, because I. I am biased. Right.

I am.

I do have a bias on this topic. I would say find a tool, whether it's an app, there's good, really good apps that exist out there just to. Just to kind of consolidate everything. There are also some that will do a link to your bank account or to your investment account, and it will pull everything into one single consolidated view. I really like those because visibility is king. Right. When you go to the doctor and you get your blood drawn, they come back and they tell you exactly what they found in your bl, and then they'll make specific recommendations off of that. But yet, in our finances, what tends to happen in 2024 is, man, I have a Robinhood account and I have a Coinbase account, and I bank at Wells Fargo, and I also have this other thing through this credit union and I had to get it because it was my car loan. And I also have these three other credit cards. And when I went to TJ Maxx, they said I could get 25% off if I did one of their credit cards, but I never use it. But so you forget where all those things are. So find mine.

Is Kohl's good? Yeah. You literally went down my life there, like in the last, like probably decade.

Well, as a former employee of Kohl's, I thank you for your business, Sam. But the point is, if you like, if your health is so important that you need to look at it consolidated, shouldn't your finances be like, why do you, why would you make a single decision in one particular category? What if you got one of those blood counts and you said, ooh, geez, cholesterol's high, therefore I need to change my entire lifestyle this way when it might be high for a different reason that's within your body and the overall impact. And you're being very short sighted to make that decision, going down that path without taking the overall thing into consideration. Why do you do that with your finances in some cases? I, I talked to a client just this morning where he was talking about paying off some, some interest, right? He want, he had some loans and he wanted to pay it off. And when we actually broke it down and looked at it holistically, it was the best interest rate he was getting out of all of the other things that he was working on. So why would you pay off your freest money first?

Right?

Why would you pay off your more expensive loan money first and those different types of things. So, you know, I would say try to get something to consolidate everything because you need good visibility into everything that's going on. It doesn't do you any good if you're making purchases over here, making purchases over there and you're not correlating that back to the source of income that you're, that you're generating in. If there's no correlation to that, then, then it's off or not.

Oh, I love this. So quick question because you, you mentioned something that got my brain going down a whole, whole avenue is you were talking about your freest money, right? So it made me think about. In fact, just recently, I had a conversation with a gentleman just in Facebook comments about, he was like just really railing and had a rant about how 100% of debt, every single debt, is bad debt and it will kill you. Get out of debt, get out of Debt, get out of debt. And I was like, well, no, there is a difference between good debt and bad debt. And of course he wasn't hearing it because, I mean, he's in a horrible situation right now. His wife lost his job, they're in foreclosure. All these different things are going on. So he's really, really jaded right now. But I would love for you, because this is a concept I feel that everyone needs to understand if they're going to have some financial intelligence. Can you break apart the difference in good debt and bad debt a little bit and kind of talk to that? Because I feel like in this conversation it's crucial to understand the differences here and then maybe talk a little bit about what you meant by your freest money. Because that's. Unless you've read into this and studied it, you don't really even know what that means. So if you could, like go in that order, that would be great.

Perfect. Yeah. So I would say the difference of good debt and bad debt is. Good debt is something that can help you move forward in your life. Right. So what are your goals and objectives? Is owning a house important to you? Can you build equity in that? Can you leave a legacy to your kids? If so, it's good debt. If you have a house that, you know, whatever I might move in the next couple of years. And I don't necessarily want to build up any equity or key or maintain it or those different types of things or I don't have a family. Maybe that, that could be a home, could be bad debt in that particular situation. Now, now let's think about education. What if I got a student? Well, right. I'm getting a degree. I'm going to. I'm going to put myself in a better situation where I can actually get that job that I really want. I would argue that that's good debt. Now, it's no secret that we're in extremely high interest rates right now, right? 2024, record high interest rates. I would say the opposite is, you know, bad debt is. I refinance that good Debt House during 2024 because I don't like the payments or I want to pull some cash out all of a sudden. You took bet you through. You threw bad dollars at good. Right. I now have high interest rate. I have the payment that I wanted. I took the cash out that I needed to go pay off my credit cards or whatever the case is. That would be taking good debt and turn it into bad debt. So it's. It's kind of A balancing act. But does it, does it better you? So here's a, here's, here's a, a great opportunity, right? Like what if you spent a little bit of money on somebody that was creating your personal brand and helping you source new customers? Maybe it was some training material that helped you be a better rep. Is that good debt or bad debt? I don't have the cash for it, but it's going to put me in a situation where I can generate more cash than I could have before by having that skill set. I would argue that that's good debt. Right. That's a, that's an investment in you and putting yourself in a better situation. So long as you don't necessarily put on a high interest credit card. Right. There's opportunities to finance those things for relatively low, you know, you could borrow some money from a friend that, that really believed in you or whatever the case is at a reasonable rate. So in some of those cases it's a, it's a great opportunity to, to make those investments.

Or even if, even if it does go on a high interest credit card, just have a solid plan to use your new increased revenue to pay it off in a very set amount of time and just don't let it revolve. Right? Yeah.

So that's 100%.

Yeah. I had heard it years ago as when I read I was 19, I was blessed early on at 19. I was given rich dad, poor dad as a birthday gift when I turned 19 and years ago. And that's when, because I'm 44. So that's when I first learned this concept. And of course, the way Robert Kiyosaki breaks apart assets versus liabilities is if it puts cash flow in your pocket, it's an asset. If it takes cash flow out of your pocket, it's liability. And that's kind of the basis of where I thought about it, kind of got the start of it. So another for everybody listening, I'm just going to expand on this a little bit too. Another example of good debt could be you say, for example, a rental house. You know, you're not going to pay cash for the entire rental house. You're going to use someone else's money. And so you're going to, you know, maybe have a down payment and then you finance the rest. But the rent that you're making is cash flowing higher than what you're paying in for the mortgage. So someone else is paying your interest rate and your debt for you. And then your cash flow positive on top of that, that is an example of good debt or a storage. Storage room. So you got a whole thing of mini storage units. Real estate's some of the best examples of good debt. Right. And there's lots of ways so everybody understands the difference. It's important because stepping out of that into now, we're kind of in the interest rate conversation. Talk to us about having the freest money or not free money, expensive money, because that those cycles go up and down every few years. And. And how do we need to watch those trends and how can we take advantage of that when it. When that changes? So define it and then give us some. Some kind of vision.

I was meeting with a client the other day, and the client's 100 goal was, I want to get out of debt 100%. I want to pay off my cars. I've got a motorcycle that I want to pay off. I have a little bit of student loan, and I want to pay off that house. Okay? And I said, okay, got it. Totally 100% understand your situation. Let's go through your finances and look at that holistically, like the example that we were using about your medical records, right?

Yeah.

Look at that whole thing holistically. Okay, look at this. Yeah. 19% on that credit card. Not good. Okay. Yeah. That motorcycle, that. That's pretty high. You got that at a bad time. Your house is at 2%, right? Your house is at 2%. You still own $250,000. Is it really the best interest in your family to be able to take that money, not apply it to something that could grow more than 2%? Right. Not to put it towards something that could potentially grow 9, 15, 20%, but to actually debit that out of the account, pay it towards this mortgage to get 100 out of debt when you're only being charged 2% interest on that particular mortgage. And at first, this guy was like, yeah, it is. I mean, because that's a goal and it's the way that I was taught. And so what my father did, and that's. That's exactly what I need to do. But in this particular example, if you took the exact same $200,000 and you put it into a brokerage account and you just followed the s and P500 only, right? And you pay taxes on that, you would still be better off than putting it towards that house. So that's the most extreme example that I could give you, the most obvious example, Sam, which is like. I mean, is that really. Should you really be paying off that particular house, given your specific situation? Now, I just want to be really clear this. Paying off a house is a very noble thing. And there are situations where you absolutely should. And I don't want the audience to misunderstand, this was this specific individual's, you know, situation, and might not be applicable in your specific situation, but in this particular individual situation, it was way better that he took that money, put it into something that was going to be a growth engine for him, because he was going to make about 10 times before the time that he was going to retire. He's going to make about 10 times what he could have used to pay the house off. And if he would have just made the 2% payments on that house, he could have just taken that cash, had a whole bunch extra, and paid off that house and still accomplished his objective, same goal.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. And I really appreciate you going through that because there's so many times in the past where I've been like, in fact, recently I was looking at all of, personally all of my things and, you know, I bought a car right at the end of 2020 for five years, zero percent. And it was great. And now, in fact, when I called the finance company for Mazda recently, they were like, oh, my gosh, you got this at 0%. We haven't done that in a long time. Which was fun, but I was just kind of analyzing everything. I was like, okay, I've got a chunk of cash that came in. I've got this credit card, I've been knocking out this business debt. I've been knocking out, uh, we've got the car. And I just was like, oh, look at that number. I could pay off the car. Then I was like, well, why would I do that? It's zero percent. It's free money. So it went towards something with the highest interest rate. So just everybody out there. So at those. The last several years were really rough on a lot of people also in the trades. The last several years were incredible for a lot of people. And this 2023 was starting the. A little bit of getting off of the boom and the down cycle. So as you go up and down with your, with your finances and those kind of things across the years, that's what you have to analyze, is get rid of the high. The lower the interest, the freer the money is. So the higher the interest, the more expensive the money is. So there's cheap money and expensive money. When you're talking about debt, get rid of the expensive stuff first because you shouldn't be having to pay somebody to let a Super high rate. So they can let you use their money because there's plenty of places that you know will definitely let you use their money a lot cheaper. So that's kind of an example I just went through not too long ago. At first the impulse was like, oh, I could just knock it out, but it didn't make any sense to you.

Yeah. And Sam, to further complicate it is we're talking here in February of 2024. It's an election year. Have you ever seen what happens in election years? It's very unpredictable, super volatile.

Yeah.

We're also at the highest interest rates we've seen in a really long time. Right. You know, it's unprecedented times with some. We're just coming off of COVID and doing some really interesting things. So you got to be extra smart in this particular year than you have been in past years. So I would ask yourself, are you doing anything different or are you doing the exact same thing that you have been doing? Because this might be the year that you really reflect and try to figure out something. Maybe. Maybe this is the year that I actually do something different. Maybe this is the year where I get a different opinion from an advisor that might be able to help guide me through this. Maybe this is the year where business is so good for me that I just don't have time to focus on that. And I know that it needs focus. Right.

Well, and that's why, I mean, there's a. In fact, I'm going to have a guest soon that does an incredible presentation on how to outsource, delegate, or eliminate. And this is one of those things that the education. While we need to constantly be educating ourselves on finances and investing, the curve to be a master at it is pretty steep. So learn enough to know what you're looking at. But again, we don't have to just immediately become a master at all the things. That's why we can outsource and outsourcing to a professional is that's why they have the certificates and the degrees and stuff, not so we can focus on what we're good at and then they can focus on what they're good at. So question for you, since we're talking about interest rates and all these kind of things, and actually, I'm going to tie this into a sales conversation here in a second, but what are some of the averages right now? You mentioned the S and P and all those kind of things. What is kind of a short list of vehicles that people can look for and kind of just. I mean, Obviously you're, you can't give like exact details being a fiduciary because I know there's limitations and stuff. But generally speaking, what are some average growth that is happening right now? What can people expect to see? And are there any kind of projections for this next? We talked about how super unpredictable but also the experts every four years, it's not like they don't know what's going on. So you know, the experts definitely know what kind of what to expect across this next several years. So what does that kind of look like?

A lot of my clients will come to me and say, hey, I can get a CD at my bank or my credit union and it will pay four to, I've heard five and a half percent, right. And that's awesome, that's great. But that's going to change as interest rates change. So that's great today, but sometimes you might be able to lock that money up and then it's not great tomorrow when those interest rates come down. The best kind of gauge is if you look at the U.S. treasury, right? The U.S. treasury issues a couple of different things. They issue T bills that are short term, they issue notes that are kind of 2 to 10 year time frame and then they issue bonds that are 10 years plus. That is really the best gauge for where the interest rates are going is what is the US Government doing? Because the US Government is in a unique position to where they will release money into the marketplace if they want interest rates to drop because they're creating a free economy and they will pull back money when they want interest rates to rise and tighten up. So they're right now pulling back money and the interest rates are going back up because there has been such an expansion growth that it's existed within the economy that they need to kind of rein some of those things back. So right now, I think the last I checked it might have been last week. You know, depending on when you're listening to this is about five and a quarter percent for a T T bill, meaning I put, I take my cash, I give it to the US Government for either four weeks all the way up to a year and I can earn 5.25% back on that, on that investment. That's the best, that's the best baseline to really look at. So now if you're thinking about what can I do with my money, you should be getting more than 5.25.

Yeah, I was gonna say now talk to everybody that says I wouldn't trust the government with a single dollar. Where Should I put it?

So that should be the floor because it should be the most liquid, the most safe, it can be easily traded. You can get back to it, whatever the case is. So if somebody comes to me and says, hey, I got a CD and it's less than the T bill price for the US Government, I would say you can do better. Right now, that's kind of the floor. Right now. With interest rates being high, you should be looking between 6 to 8% for investment or brokerage accounts. Obviously, there's some things that are just going absolutely gangbusters. But the more risk you take on the higher reward that you could potentially get. But that can also get you in a lot of trouble because, you know, I'm chasing a high reward for something that was get, you know, get rich kind of quick or, hey, I just heard a rumor about a thing that might happen, and there's this crypto.

There's this one stock from this company talking about.

Right. Trust me, I hear it every single day.

Just laugh at my Robinhood account because it had this huge spike from, like, I heard that news, and, oh, this is great. It's awesome. Found this ev trucking company. It's. It's super cool. And now I, you know, I was buying the stock everywhere between 13 and $20 a share, and right now, I think it's hovering around, like, 80 cents. It's like, oh, no. And I can't sell it because I've got, you know, all this tied up into it. It's like, I got it. It's got to come up some. Surely it can't stay there forever. So, yeah, don't. Don't end up in that scenario. Everybody talk to a professional. I was doing that on my own.

I can either confirm or deny that I might have been following that exact same company.

Okay. But we'll talk about it offline because they're. Their office is about 12 minutes from me here.

Oh, that's hilarious. That's hilarious. I would say, you know, America was built on taking risk, right? Now, I wouldn't bet the farm on it. What do I mean by that? I mean, if you're taking your nest egg and you're putting it in those types of lucrative opportunities, you're not doing it right. If you can take something out and you can carve that off, because, remember, you put your. Your mask on first before you help others. You already put your mask on. Now I've got this left over, and you want to put that towards something that could potentially be, you know, lucrative or Maybe it's an. Maybe it's an investment property. Maybe it's a. Maybe it's a stock or something like that. Then just you've got everything else taken care of. You got the fundamentals taken care of, then take a risk, you know, do something that's going to earn you a good return on those types of things. What you shouldn't do is do that before you have the basis covered. Right. You shouldn't do that before you've got. You haven't put your mask on first. That's just being, you know, erratic. So have I done anything like that in the past? Well, I mean, yes. You know, America was built on taking risks.

Yeah.

Have I lost big on some things? I have.

Right.

Has it impacted my family? I can look you in the eye and say it has not. Right. Because I didn't, I didn't do anything that. That would have impacted my family or my situation or whatever the case is. Right. Have I won big on a couple of them? You know, we're, we're doing just fine. But, but, you know, you gotta be pragmatic about the risk that you're taking.

Right. I love this. And so I. What I would like to do right now is let's tie this, because this is a sales training podcast. There's so much value here in understanding these concepts, because for everybody listening, when you're in a situation where you're talking to. And this is what I mean, this is a great example of what I mean when I say, become someone worth buying from. So the more that you learn and understand about different topics like finances, that means you're going to be able to relate to and communicate better with people of a higher class. So when you're in those homes that are the, you know, call it the 1, 2, 3, $5 million house, and they have 6, 7, 8 heating and air systems, instead of feeling nervous and out of place and not know how to talk to them, this is where growth happens. So in this conversation, I hope everybody's listening to the language that Ryan is using because it's crucial because the minute you step into a house like that, for example, we're just gonna park here for a minute, Ryan, and then we'll come back around. But so you get into a house and the homeowner is, you know, it's that, that demographic, and they are, of course, they're, they're, they're like, oh, I'm just gonna pay cash for it. You can start to have the conversation around maybe your 0% financing, but more Importantly, your language needs to change. And your language, especially if somebody is. And let's take us through this. Objection. The most common one from that demographic is. Yeah, you know, like the company. We've used you guys for a long time. You're a great salesperson. Love it. The project makes total sense. We just need to think about it. We don't know if we want to do it now or maybe in the future. There's no urgency. That particular client is where we need to start asking more clarifying questions. And usually what happens in that scenario, they're just trying to decide if they want to upgrade their heating and air, so their comfort system in the house and some of the other things, or go to Europe or get marble countertops. So your language needs to change to match your client, which sounds a lot more along these lines. A lot more. Like, if I could show you a way where you could do both, would that help you? And they say, yes. Say, great, I have something you're really going to like. We've got our, for example, 18 months, 0% financing. And that'll catch their ear. Because now we're talking about free money, the ability to use other people's money for free. And then your language needs to shift to. So this is what most of our homeowners in your situation do, because that way they don't tie up all of their liquid capital at once. You can still use that liquid capital for the other project or the other trip you have going on. Finance it out at 0%, let someone else carry that for you because it's free money, or leave that invested and only pay out the monthly and let your growth cover the payment. And so that's how our language needs to shift when we're talking to a client that understands this kind of thing, because they will now be able to relate and be like, oh, I never looked at it that way. Yeah, let's go ahead and do it. I didn't know you even had that option. So there's a quick little sales nugget for everybody listening along these topics. Anything you want to add to that or to help out with that conversation.

Sam, I love that. That was just. You just dropped truth right there, man. You just dropped truth. Okay. I want to add high net. The high net worth clients that I work with, they want to make quick decisions and they want the information. And they. And they have.

They.

They are successful because they are able to make really quick decisions. They. They look at the situation. They go, yep, I understand it. I understand the pros and the Cons, you did a good job kind of articulating. Here's the decision. Let me give it to you right now. Right. So your language needs to change. It doesn't work if you just want to sit chit chat with me and talk about, you know, the weather and those different types of things because you now you're just wasting my time. Time's money. And I need to make this, make this, make this decision right now. So I love it. Right. Your language needs to change. You need to talk to them about the economics. And if you present it in the right way, expect a quick decision. Right. If, if one of those high net worth people puts you off or things like that, they might not be interested and you have to figure out what that objection is to your client. Right. And so if you're able to articulate it really well, they want to make quick decisions.

Yeah. And I love that. Thank you for adding that because that's something that, you know, honestly, I know this, but I haven't really talked about it in the past or trained on it. But yeah, you're exactly right. As someone increases in their, just where they're at in life, they're stationed in life, say they're entrepreneurs, they run big or they run big teams, that kind of thing, everything they do in life functions off of the ability to make a fast, educated decision. And so when we start to hear, I want to think about it from that particular client, that means we missed something in our presentation. There's something they don't understand or don't agree with. And so if we really nail down the presentation and more importantly do a great job of asking the right, clarifying questions and listening, just like you mentioned earlier, Ryan is, I've listened, I've listened to exactly what their goals are. And if we do a good enough discovery, they'll also tell us all of the reasons or the things that may keep them from buying today. So if we listen well enough, then we can present in such a way that they have enough information to make that quick, educated decision. And they are much more likely to close in the home because they don't put things off. When you can start saying language like hey, let's just get this off your mental to do list so you don't have to worry about it anymore and let's go ahead and take care of it for you and then you're going to have a decade of peace of mind and not have to think about this again. That resonates with this client.

I, I lived in Green Bay, Wisconsin. For a little while. I. I told you I was in the cheese business a little bit earlier. I actually have two kids from Green Bay. I'm a big packers fan.

Yeah, Cheese that. Love it.

Vince Lombardi once said, if you get to the end zone, act like you've been there before. Right? Okay. So the point that I wanted to bring this up at this point in time, Sam, was exactly to the point that you just made. Right. If you've got. If you're in that sales situation, somebody's giving you those objections, Be introspective and look to say, did I really articulate this? And if you can look in the mirror and say, I truly did, and they. The client still says, I don't know, call me in six months or whatever, then go. I'll call you exactly in six months. I'm going to set up some time right now in my calendar, this still good phone number. I'll be on you in six months. And you be really decisive, Right. Act like you've been to the end zone before, right? You be really decisive back and make sure that you. You call them in six months, right?

Yeah. And we have to actually show up in integrity and do what we said we're going to do. Because I tell you, there's so many deals that I've closed, you know, three, four, five, six months later, and the homeowners have told me, they're like, you know what? We were not originally going to go with you, but you were the only one who showed back up. And I was like, perfect. That's exactly why we do better work than everybody else. They're like, yeah, we see that now. And it's true. Just do, you know, hold to your own word. I love it. Cool, man. So we need to start landing this plane a little bit. This has been a really great episode. I'm so, so stoked that you're on on today. Let's do this. Because I know that there are a lot of people listening that have plenty more questions because we just barely scratched the surface on a lot of things. And also maybe looking for someone to talk to and potentially maybe even use as for a service. So how does everyone get a hold of you and, like, what's the best way to contact you? And is there anything that they need to know or be prepared when they give you a call and be like, hey, I'd love for you to take a look at my stuff or just have a couple of questions, you know, how they get. How they get in touch with you?

Yeah, so my name's Ryan Cook. My phone number is 414-559-5395. That's my cell phone number and I'm available to have a chat about it. You can also find me on LinkedIn. I, I'm on Instagram as well. I would say if, if you're still listening and any of this stuff resonates with you, find an advisor. Right. If any of this, and if any of this was something that you paused, you paused and kind of thought about, thought maybe I need to be doing something a little bit differently about that. Let's talk. My process is, is I spend with, with all of my clients. I spend. The first initial call is 100% free.

Right.

We usually spend an hour together. I'll even provide like up to a 65 page document back to you with different projections. And it's a free service. It's got recommendations. You can get that type of thing for free. If you want one of those, give me a call. Right. Let's, let's, let's have a chat about that. After that, the recommendations balls in your court. You can either take them and do something about them or not. You know what I mean? And so that's probably the best way to get a hold of me now, if it's not me, if I said something, you know, didn't sit well with you, or, you know, maybe your grandma still balances a checkbook and she doesn't have any sneakers. I don't know. Whatever the case, find somebody that will do that, type that same thing for you, Right?

Yeah.

That will sit down with you. Make sure that they ask you the holistic situation. They don't write you a prescription for a recommendation without understanding the full, broader picture. The worst thing to do would be get into a singular position with somebody because they just heard that snippet of what it was that you were doing at that particular point in time without understanding your goals or objectives or whatever the case is. But yeah, thanks for having me on, Sam. This has been.

Yeah, for sure. I love it, man. And you, you are on Facebook as well, correct?

Yeah, I do have a Facebook as well. Right, Perfect. You can find me in Utah.

Yeah. So what we'll do is I'll shoot you an invite to the Close It Now Facebook group as well. And then we'll, once this episode goes live, we'll put up a post and everybody can. It'll be one clearinghouse. Everybody can connect to you through that avenue as well.

Perfect.

Which is incentive for everybody listening. Go join the Facebook group. Just Search close it now and it'll come up right away. So. Well, man, last second. You've given everybody a ton of info. But what this, this podcast is known for is immediately actionable items that people can, like, use today. So if you could drop one thing for the listeners that they can do today to get started in this process, what is the number one best thing? I mean, obviously we know we need to talk to somebody. You start getting handled. But what's one actual action step they can start right now?

Hey, pay yourself first. Let me give you some context, okay? So at Door to Door Con, you and I were both there, Sam. I had an opportunity to connect with one of my childhood friends. His name's Casey Bob. He. He and I grew up together. I've known him for over 30 years. He did a presentation at Door Door Con. It was phenomenal. He talks a lot about. About this book called the Richest man of Babylon, right?

Since.

Since then, what we were at door to work on, what, less than two weeks ago. I've, I've reread it, right? I've reread it since Casey mentioned it again because I'd forgotten some of it. It talks about this concept of even if you are the brickmaker, right, in Babylon, you can still figure out a way to accumulate wealth. The way that you do that is you take 10%, you pay yourself first. That's my tip. It, right? Are you paying yourself first? This is the actionable thing. Are you taking that 10% and making it meaningful to you? Because once you accumulate that 10% time, over time, over time, over time, and you get this compounding interest effect, then you can take that. They refer to it in the book as the slave, and then you can actually loan that to other people, and then it becomes, you know, slaves of slaves that are all working for you in this context, right? So my, My tidbit is, are you the actual pieces, are you taking that 10% and paying yourself first, right? Are you saving that? My advice is you should do 20%, but are you taking at least 10% and making sure that you're making it work for you? Are you furthering your education? Are you putting in a savings account account? Are you putting in a brokerage account that's going to grow for you? Are you helping your family out, whatever the case is, are you paying yourself first? If not, take action. Take action today and pay yourself first. 10%.

Oh, love it. That is excellent advice. I mean, if we had all started when we got our first job at 16 and put 10% into a growth investment account. I mean, holy crap, man. By the time we're 30, we'd be able to retire just when compounding it's ridiculous and we have such a hard time grasping this concept. And this is the difference that wealthy people teach their kids that the middle class and the poor don't. I've read a ton of Robert Kiyosaki, so that verbiage is in me, but it's super important. So I'm glad you mentioned that too, because this month actually is the first month I started a book club for anybody around the country that wants to participate. We meet once a month over Zoom. Right now we're doing a book called the Gap and the Gain, which is I'm halfway through it and it's such a good memory jogger and it's such a good lessons for me. But I definitely am going to put the richest man in Babylon on the list because the concept, I've read it years ago and it's time to read it again. And the concepts there are incredible. So if you'd like to know more about the book club, let me know. And everybody listening. I am hosting a book club. There's no strings attached. There's no sales pitch. It's nothing other than my intent is to grow the level of the industry. As we all up level, everything will get better. Rising Tide raises all ships. So if you want to know about the book club, message me. And the only other quick announcement is March 21st and 22nd. I am hosting a sales masterclass. We're going to cover the close it now system soup to nuts, start to finish. When you leave there, you will have a solid plan of attack to go into the house. And more importantly, the results speak for themselves. This is how companies are making up, you know, 3, 4, $500,000 in a single month in revenue to make budget when they couldn't before. I was there doing their training. And this is how you know, like our reps are going from average ticket of 5, 6, 7, $8,000 to 14, 15, $16,000 in just a matter of a couple months. Close rate from 40% to 55 to 60% in just a matter of a month. And more importantly, it stays there. So that is the power of what we're going to be going over in the sales masterclass. So March 21st, 22nd. Email me sam closeitnow.net or text me 512-364-8559 or join the Facebook group at Close it Now or go to the website closeitnow.net I am happy. And it's front and center there. Everyone who gets a ticket and locks their seat in before the end of February 2024, there is an extra bonus for you. I'm going to be given some really cool stuff there, but you have to get your ticket before the end of February 2024, so everybody make sure to do that. And yeah, that's it for announcements. Any parting words before we land this plane here?

Stan, thanks for having me on. This has been just tons and tons of fun. I mean, parting words for the group is go get it right. Get after it, right there you are here in this place at this time, doing exactly what you're doing for a very specific reason. Go make the best of it. Don't give it up to another person to be in your own place at this time. Go crush it. Right?

Love it.

Thanks.

Appreciate it, man. For everybody listening, you heard it from Ryan Cook first. Go crush it. And until next time, everybody go save the world one frostbite at a time. Go save the world one heat stroke at a time.

You've been listening to the Close it now podcast. Our passion is to dive head first into the transformative movement that's reshaping the very foundation of H Vac and home improvement and at the same time, covering fitness, nutrition, relationships and personal growth, proving that we can indeed have it all. We hope you've enjoyed the show. If you did, make sure to, like, rate and review. We'll be back soon, but in the meantime, find the website@closeitnow.net find us on Instagram at the real Close it now and on Facebook at Close It Now. See you next time.