288: IBC Legacy: Living Wealth Joins Ascendant Financial

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Well, today is one of those conversations that I know is going to stay with you long after you've listened, because it's about legacy. It's about family. It's about the future of something bigger than any one of us on today's episode. And if you've been around the infinite banking world, you will absolutely know the name Poteet. For almost the better part of two decades, the Living wealth family has been guiding people to take control of their money, to implement the infinite banking concept, to take control of their financial future and their freedom. And earlier, just a few short weeks ago, Ascendant Financial had the honor of stepping into that story. And Living wealth has joined forces with Ascendant. And the whole purpose of this wasn't to replace Living wealth, but to continue to carry it forward. And so today, I'm sitting down with Nate and with Holly, and this is going to be amazing in terms of talking about what it means to build a legacy and how to serve families with purpose and why the next chapter is going to be even brighter than ever. And so this isn't just a business conversation. It's a family conversation. And my hope is that by you listening in, you'll feel the weight of what's really possible when values and vision come together. And so let's dive right in. Welcome, Nate. Welcome, Holly.

Thanks, Jason.

How are you both doing?

Yeah, doing really, really well. Thanks, man.

Good. Well, let me begin. For our audience who may not know the Poteets family story, can you share how Living wealth got started and what inspired its mission?

Nate, do you want me to do that?

Go for it, Holly.

Okay. Living wealth really got started initially just as a life insurance agency. My dad founded it in 1972, and the mission was always really serving people and meeting them where their needs were with a.

With our faith being ever present, never being in the. In the shadows that.

We were going to walk in faith and we were going to have integrity. And so as my dad, I'm gonna say, grew the business, he became very successful. And then one of his mentors actually passed away, and he found on his desk the Infinite Banking book by R. Nelson Nash that his mentor had actually, couple years before, had said, why don't we stop in.

Alabama and.

Go visit Nelson and my dad said there was nothing that he could learn there. And once he read the book, he couldn't believe what he read. And at that time, Nelson's phone number was in there. And he actually called Nelson on the phone, and Nelson answered. And my dad asked him, where. Where are you going to be? And he happened to be the next day in Kansas City near. Near Lawrence. And my dad said, okay, I'm gonna go to the event. And he goes, well, the registration's closed. My dad's like, what's it gonna cost? I'm just gonna go. And really, for. I'm gonna say the next nine months, my dad. Wherever Nelson went, my dad went, Ray went. And. And then it became about really not just taking, just not just Nelson's book, but how do we really break the bonds of financial slavery for.

Parents, individuals, families? And how do we teach them how to pass a legacy? And really, the goal was eventually, like, we want to reach this many families. We want to reach this many right after we pass. After he passed, we talked about what do we want to accomplish? And one of the things was being able to. To reach over 10,000 families, you know, and. And I think that that's still the goal, is wanting to change people's lives and transform them with the tools that they need. It's not the money. It's the legacy and the freedom they have.

Yeah, 100%. And, Nate, I'll ask you and Holly, given that Ray is no longer with us, what do you want people to remember most about him, both personally and professionally?

Yeah, Holly and I actually did a podcast about this right after he passed. That would have been. I think it was maybe May of 2023.

I actually can't remember when it launched. I just remember when we shot it, but I remember we did the Ray Potit episode, and it was. It was what you. It was a whole 30 minutes on what you just asked.

You know, we'll put a link to that in the.

Yeah, I think it'd be great. What is the real legacy of Rainbow T? And both of us were. But always astounded at.

His desire that no matter who was with him, if he was with somebody, he was always 100 there. And I know that just, like, easy to say. But until you had sought in Ray, you never knew that because he would go from a meeting with some sort of multi millionaire, successful business owner, and he just 100 there for three or four hours, just loving the conversation, all in trying to teach them about becoming a banker. And then he would go right after that he would have a meeting with a poor.

Missionary or something that was one of his good friends who was also a client of his, and he would give the same exact complete and total focus and energy for that person as it. In other words, he was not, as he said, a respecter of persons. There was no such thing as someone who's sitting in front of him that wasn't worthy of all of what he had. And that was just the way he was. I mean that, that truly was the way he was from. From start to finish. We got to see that behind the scenes. You know, no man is perfect. And So, I mean that's 100 true. But nonetheless we got to see that front hand. And I, it was convicting to me to watch that because I could tell myself that depending on who I was talking to, I might give more focus or not so much focus. And then I would go look at Ray and I was like, well he doesn't do that. And I was like, that's, that's the answer right there. And so that's one of the things I wanted to, that I wanted people to know about Ray. His legacy was just the actual tender. It's something that can be taught to actually care about the well being of people.

Right.

Regardless if it has anything to do with you. That is, that was what he truly was able to, to leave to us as his family. Yeah. So I mean that was probably the highest thing we could learn from him was the actual to be tender and tender hearted towards clients. It's no longer like just a business transaction. It's. I want your life to be better. I'm. I'm in your life because I want it to be better. That's the reality of it.

So yeah, Holly, I, I would second that a hundred percent. What Nate said that I mean his biggest success story was helping a prison pastor who is. I mean that's his biggest success story was being able to help them adopt their grandchildren because the parents passed away and get them a mobile home on land. And I can remember my dad saying they told him we can't afford paying ourselves $2 and 50 cents an hour, but we can pay a $25 can. Can this work? And, and they were ever present like, like what Nate said, ever present. It. I'm gonna say even in family life, like when he was talking to you, it was about you. It wasn't about what's going on behind you or this or that. It was intentional focus on people. I think too Nate shared in the memorial and I hadn't heard this or known this, but, like, some big clients came in and they flew in on a plane to meet Nate. And my dad. And my dad wasn't about talking business. It was, I think, maybe even on the personal side of do you know Jesus? And that. That's all he cared about. Yeah. Was they wanted to talk business, and my dad wanted to make sure that where they were going for eternity was that they knew.

Wow.

Yeah. Powerful.

That was the idea of it. Didn't care if we made a sale. I just want to make sure it is well with you. That's what I want. I want it to be well with you. And that was such a huge. A huge reality of how to live life. I remember you could bring anything you wanted to Ray, and he would want to do whatever he could to cause that to come to pass. Which, of course, you read in leadership books. Right. Like, that's the essence of a great leader, is casting vision, allowing other people to dive in and achieve their dreams through your leadership. And I would think the difference between Ray is that it was an unlearned trait. That's what is so unique about it was an unlearned trait. It was actually natural to him to do that. And so. And it was just re. Re. Reaffirmed with, you know, what he learned. But that. That was just kind of the guy that he was. And that that type of personality has some. Some goods and some bads to it because you. You can. It can also go off the rails and you're desperate for other people to accept you. And also it can have, like, a bad side to it for sure. And I think he would have told you that as a young man. He was living in that bad side as well for a long. For a long time. But I only got to know him. So I'm married into the family, and I only got to know the older version of Ray where most of that insecurity had fallen by the wayside. And what was left was primarily just, I would love to watch you achieve your dreams. That sounds exciting to me.

So anyway, and it's interesting reflecting, you know, Holly, on how long he had been in the business for, and then shooting forward to how he discovered Nelson's book, which is, you know, left behind on the desk of. Of a mentor. Fascinating. And, you know, that's a. That's a long time of passage because Nelson's book wasn't published until the year 2000, yet he'd been in the business since, I think you said, since 1975. So, like, we're Talking about a massive period of time of being in the industry, being the business, and then, you know, really pivoting, almost changing or amplifying the degree to which you're. You're now focused on helping people. Because I know from speaking to him in the past, it was really a shift of business practice to really, you know, embrace this training. And that's why he had to take nine months of, I think, you know, Ray would have said getting a new hard drive dropped in his head by now by Nelson, so that he could, you know, reprogram himself from that 25 years of financial, you know, history, the way he was doing things to make the transition and the pivot, which is, which is difficult to do. And it takes commitment, it takes courage to go and do that and then really kind of devoting the remainder of his financial practice in life around embracing that concept and serving clients. And I know for me personally, I first Met Ray in 2012 and it wasn't, you know, attending some training. I was really excited about Nelson's concept, like many people were. But it wasn't until seeing and, and, and, and confirming and reaffirming some things that, you know, Ray was doing in the way he was, you know, helping to educate people about certain simplicity aspects of Nelson's message that, you know, I personally started to get traction in this business. And so I owe a lot of my early momentum in getting started in this business to the things and the way of conveying certain aspects of Nelson's message that I didn't know how to convey. So a lot of the initial language that I was able to use to start to, I think, break through.

What is really simple, but we often overcomplicate. I really was able to start seeing myself progress because of the things I learned from Ray, which was from Nelson, but, you know, ran through someone else's output essentially to give me additional language and tools. So I'm grateful for that.

I will add to what Richard shared because when we attended our first annual think tank event in Birmingham that year in 2012, we were there, obviously, and I had asked David Sterntz, I said, can you point out who I should be meeting and establishing a relationship with? And he's pointing around the room and he's pointing at your dad, Ray. He's pointing at James Nethery, he's pointing at Tom McPhee, he's pointing at Russ Morgan, Justin. He's just sort of. They're all around, right? They're all congregating. And he's like, these are all the People you need to go meet. And.

After that event. So Ray had said, hey, well, come on down to Lawrence, Kansas, and come and spend a few days in our office, and you'll get to see firsthand how we introduce this concept and how we share it with people. So Rich and I and a few other teammates flew down to Lawrence, Kansas, and spent a few days, you know, watching. Observing your dad do what he did. And there was one. This is super funny. And I'm. I still laugh at myself about this, but this was sort of my first.

Glimpse of Ray's sense of humor. So he asked me, he said, you know what. What life insurance carriers do you all work with up in Canada? And so I. I had mentioned one, which is Canada's largest mutual life insurance company, Equitable Life. And he said, would you mind running me an illustration just so I can see the type of policy results that someone could expect to achieve if all that happened was the life insurance company administering this policy all on its own. So I ran an illustration. This is how green I was still at that time, because my journey began in July of 2008. And so I run this illustration, and someone grabbed it off a printer and gave it to your dad. And he came back into the room that we were all sitting in, and he was teaching us in, and he sort of leans into the door jamb, and he's looking at this illustration, and he looks over at me and he asks, has anybody checked your IQ recently?

And I said, pardon? He said, so this was a joint life insured. So there were two lives insured on the policy. He puts it down in front of me and he says, don't ever run anything like this again, and don't ever give the insurance company two bodies for the price of one. And I'll never forget that learning moment, because at the end of the training, we're walking out to the rental car, and I share this story often, and he sort of puts his arm around me and leans into my ear, and he says, hey, you know, like, you were really. Thank you for being a good sport. And, you know, I was just trying to pour into you and help you along. And I sort of had shared with him just how much I was grateful for all the learning. And he had shared with me what he was personally producing on a weekly basis. And it was a very big number. And he said, jason, you're going to do much better than that. You just don't know it yet. And so it was just that seed that got planted of confidence when I didn't yet have all the capability, and I'm very, very grateful for that. I'll never forget it. But you should have seen the jaws drop in the room when he just.

I remember him leaning against the door. I'd forgotten, actually, about that until you mentioned it. But my. My same. Same event, same time frame, my first initial memory was literally walking into the boardroom, and everyone's got their backpacks, you know, and we got, you know, one. One shoulder slung over, and we're walking in and. And we walk in the door and Ray was in the room. I didn't know he was going to be in there. Like, we were there a little bit early. Jason likes to show up early, and he was kind of rummaging around some things, getting some things set up, and I think he was about ready to exit out a different doorway. And he says, oh, hey, you guys from Canada? Hey, you guys got any bodies up there I can borrow?

And.

And that. That always stuck with me. I thought, oh, what. What a.

What a.

What a fascinating way to introduce, like, conversation and thinking process. And. And fascinating is a good word for.

A lot of what he said. There you go.

The other thing that really stuck out for me, of course, is that there was a portrait of Nelson in the boardroom, and the boardroom was dedicated to Nelson. And so I remember seeing that on the tag on the door, right beside the door as I walked in, and I thought, well, that's really interesting. So those are a couple of just, like, very initial moments I remember from my first kind of real exposure to living wealth at that time. And, I mean, the team. And it was also just this. The embrace of the learning environment and how, you know, the desire to want to coach and help and mentor others and pour into them. Love that.

I will ask, and I'm genuinely curious because we can absolutely all agree that, you know, we haven't had, you know, this degree of conversation around, you know, Living wealth joining forces with the Senate. But for. For the benefit of everybody watching and listening, like, what gave both of you and the Poteet family the confidence that Ascendant Financial was the right steward for the Living wealth legacy? What gave you that confidence?

I think I knew my dad. My dad respected you.

He trusted you, and you're a family business.

And I.

Personally, when we started talking about this.

Your name was there. There was. And then it was, what does God want to.

And I think it's the. The peace you have when, you know, the decision you made is right and God's going to honor it either way. But I think really it was that you're a family business that I knew my dad had trained you, but I also. There was respect.

Respect for. For what you've built, but knowing that.

You'Re a man of your word. Yeah. So my. My dad used to joke that, you know, we. We've come to a day and age where a person's word doesn't mean much. You got to get it in writing. But I would say I would com. Like my dad's word meant something to him. If he told you he was going to do it, he was going to do it. And I. I'll say the same thing of you. If you. If you say you're going to do it, you. You do it. And so I think that that's. Yeah. The commonality for me, the. The piece, it wasn't a. I'm.

I'm.

It wasn't because we had to. It was what was best to carry the legacy. Yeah.

Thank you for that. Thank you.

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I would. I would agree. I think, you know, when Ray had died and we were continuing forward, Living wealth, and I was happily, of sorts, I guess, kind of take, you know, taking the responsibility of running Living wealth and enjoying it with the president and. And actually was. Was planning on kind of taking over fully. And the Lord had asked me to. To step out of the business and go into ministry, which for all the Living wealth folks, you know, that, you know, somewhat of that story, the ascended folks probably don't. They don't know me at all. But nonetheless, I mean, that's where that's what happened. So I ended up stepping down and actually, I'm a pastor now and. And building something brand new in life. And it was. It was very unexpected. It was very unexpected. Eventually the question before all of us was, what are we going to do with Living wealth, though, without Ray, without Nate? And does. Does Holly want to kind of run it, you know, and be the next primary leader? And I think. And I don't want to speak for Holly, but I think the idea was, no, I would. And so what we said, what was best for Living wealth was to find to merge with someone who.

Would have the similar values to what we are already walking in as best we can, especially with similar values to Ray, similar culture that Ray would have wanted. And it was definitely true that Jason and Ascendant were at the top of the list. So that was like, hey, if they are willing, we are also willing. And that's how we came into it with that understanding. And so, yeah, it was really. It was because if you had asked if Ray was here and he was going to look out into the IBC landscape and say, who would I have enjoyed transitioning it to? Jason would have been at the top of the list. I really do believe that. I really do believe that. I think what would have been a hurdle is the fact that you weren't in the US at all @ that time. So it's almost like two crossroads impact each other right at the same time. The fact that Ascendant had just launched itself in the US.

While we were looking for someone to take over, it was like the perfect storm. As a sovereign move of the Lord, you could say of having two. There is, as Jason, you would say, there is no such thing as coincidence. And so it just happened to be happening that way. And praise God it did. So anyway, yeah, I would say the same thing was for Holly is if it had been a possibility, I think Ray would have loved the way it panned out. I think it would worked out really well for all.

Involved.

We. We consider it to be.

I guess, yeah, I'll end it with that. I'm sure I could keep going. But yeah, I would just say that he'd always had a ton of respect for you, Jason, and for the Richard and for the whole crew in Canada that he got to know, you know. But you guys were telling stories of meeting ray back in 2012. That was before there was a.

Nelson Nash Institute. Yeah, that was before that. So what was the Nelson Nash. The Nelson Nash Institute before there was a Nelson Nash Institute? It was Ray's boardroom in Lawrence, Kansas. That's the honest truth. I mean, he was the.

Or asked by Nelson to train agents in Infinite Banking before there was a training program offered by Nelson.

Himself.

Wow. So the reason why he had agent training programs was because Nelson asked him to do it. And so what was so interesting, though, it was such a unique thing for Ray because he was actually primarily focused on being an Infinite Banking coach himself. He was an advisor himself. And so it was actually essentially a waste of his time to train other agents, because it was not a system of actually recruiting other agents to join him. It was actually just come in here and learn. And there was a. There was a cost to it, but the cost was like way lower than was worth his.

Time.

Right. Compared to how. How successful he was just doing his actual main thing. And so it was truly a labor of love and he enjoyed that. There was many agents who came through during those days. You. You even mentioned some of them who Started with Ray, and he encouraged them to go out and start their own thing. He was never really focused on what was best for him. Deep down, he actually always wanted what was best for the people underneath.

Him. So, anyway, very, very true. And I would say that.

Credit to all of my ascendant financial teammates. It's honestly the work that they've done and what they've built that are deserving of Ray's respect and.

Couldn'T do it without them and appreciate them more than I could ever really articulate. And so for all of our ascendant financial teammates who might pick up this episode, thank you. Thank you for being amazing and please stay that way.

But if Ray could see this transition and where we're heading, what do you think he would.

Say? I think he'd just be like, let's. Let's go up on the ride. Like, let's go. Come on.

What?

Yeah. Oh.

Yeah. He'd be full steam.

Ahead. He would.

Be.

Yeah. He would have joined you even if he was here. You know what I mean? Like, if we were. If we. He would have been fine with this. Even with him being here, he would have been like, okay, what are we doing now? I mean, he was a doer, not he. He didn't care much for people to laboriously labor in thought about an idea. His was like, let's just go do the.

Thing.

Right? That's what he was. So, yeah, he would have marched ahead and been. Even if he would have been here and someone brought up, maybe we should join with Jason and be like, yeah, let's do that. I mean, let's go with the same. Yeah, that sounds great. I mean, like, he would just. Whatever is best for the clients. Let's go for it. Yeah. All right, let's do.

It. Well, Richard, you would remember, so Ray would do. I think at that time, he was doing somewhere in the range of 25 + go to meetings, which we would now refer to as like a zoom meeting or a webinar style meeting. And he would go one to one with people who were exploring the infinite banking concept. He would repeat the very same.

Message. He wouldn't have that meeting unless they had read the.

Book. And at the very end, this was one question.

One question that changed my own success rate in this business. It catapulted it, in fact. And I. I've expressed this to Ray when he was still with us. In fact, I gave him a real number. So my. My income had shot up north of 1800%, not 18, not 180 1800. At the end of each webinar, all he would do is ask one question. He would say, nate, I have one question for you. And Nate would say, sure. What is.

That? What is.

It? And Nate would. And Ray would ask, is this something you want to do? I know that that sounds.

Unbelievable to think that that would be the domino that tipped over that created this outcome, but most often when I was meeting with somebody at the end of a webinar, I wouldn't ask them that. I would say, here's, you know, here's what I believe to be our next best step. And. But I. It would always end up being another meeting versus just asking, is this something you want to do? And most often, the recipient of that question would respond, absolutely. Let's get.

Started.

Right.

You. You have no idea how much time that saved.

Me. I agree, man. I. I would have said if one thing he would have taught me, I would have said the same thing. Yeah, I would have said the same thing regarding, like, the actual inside the business. Just ask them if they want to do.

Sounds pretty simple, but I think as. I think when you're in kind of this, know, the sales role, or there's a bit of this. This friction maybe to some degree, and at the end of the day, you just got to ask the person, is it something that you want to do? And if they say yes, great. Let's keep going. If they say no, great. It's like, at the end of the day, we only want people to be doing this if they want to do this. I mean, that's just the. That's just life itself. You don't want to accidentally sneak. Force someone in the back door who doesn't even want to do this. And then they're the. Then they're just mean to you, and you're bitter towards them, and it's just this horrible thing. It's like, yeah, anyway, I would agree with you, Jason. That was. That was life. I. And I only knew that. So that's the difference between you and me is I came in 2013, and all I ever learned was Nate just asked them if they want to do this.

And I was like, okay, that sounds great. Anyway. Yeah, I agree.

Jason. And so, to everybody listening who's perhaps an advisor, you know, either in the process of sharing this with your marketplace or receiving inspiration to share this with your marketplace, when you align yourself with a mentor, a guide, a coach, just do exactly what they tell you to do. If they've. If they've achieved any degree of persistent success, it doesn't just leave clues. There's a roadmap. Follow the roadmap and.

It'Ll create amazing outcomes for the people that you serve. And that was one of the biggest things that I took away after seeing the success of. Of that one simple. Just that one simple addition at the very end of a conversation with somebody. And from that point forward, anytime Ray was kind enough to share something coachable, he would often call me right out of the blue and just tell me that he was thinking about me and that he just wanted to catch up and have a conversation. But he always wove in a coachable moment in that conversation. Not only did I commit it to memory, I would just do exactly what he was encouraging me to do. And it shocker, it worked.

Over and over and over.

Again. Speaking of amazing clients and outstanding outcomes, we're having this conversation largely because we're embracing a whole amazing new group of clients. And we're, we're blessed to have the ability now to be able to serve them, to create continuity and, and add value. And so, you know, I'm curious, you know, maybe Holly, to start with you and I'd like to hear from you as well, Nate, when you think about your client community, and now we have, we have a combined client community and we're kind of hitching these wagons together. What, what has you excited with what your existing clientele and the people that living wealth has served to this point about them being able to be. Have additional service and value and continuity going forward. What, what has you excited about.

That? I would say.

Coaching or mentoring that.

Like because my dad was so one on one. Like you were his attention and then he passed so suddenly like they got, they felt dropped 100% if they didn't.

It was missing. Something's missing. So being able to have that rapport again or that relationship, it's not a, it's not a.

I'm the agent, you're the client. It's a relationship. A. A genuine relationship. I mean you, you say the closing. My dad told me go into every meeting believing it's the start of a long relationship.

And, and if you go in with that mindset, it'll change the way you speak to them and talk to them. And I would say even the quarterly meetings or the content, we don't do the pot. We used to have a podcast, Nate and I, we don't do it anymore. And being able to re. Engage that way. So I would say that and, and just there's, there's more than one person like, oh, okay, can somebody else can help? And I think feeling part of a community again, I agree with.

That. I mean, I don't know about much to add. The re. Engagement of the client community is going to be a huge deal.

Absolutely. And for Living wealth clients who do not know our team members yet, Holly, you've, you've been interacting on a daily basis practically with your new teammates. And so what would you want Living wealth clients to understand about the kind of people that they will be working with alongside.

You? They genuinely care. They want to know your story and they're there to help you. It's not to sell something, it's to. To pour and help you build your legacy. Yeah.

They're not all Nates. They're not all raised, they're not all Jason's, they're not all Richards, but they all are unique and they all, they all have a genuine desire to, to create that legacy. They, they. It's not an accident they're working with you. It's not just a coincidence. I, I think they'll find that it's actually a really good fit and something that.

I'm taking hours in working with them, telling backstory if I know it.

And it's time consuming, but it's worth it for the.

Clients. Amen to that. Let's talk about the infinite banking concept for just a minute or two. So what do you think.

Most people misunderstand about the infinite banking concept? And how have you seen in your journey in serving people? How have you seen those light bulb moments change families lives? So they come in with some degree of misunderstanding. And then once they get to clarity, like, what are those light bulb moments that you've seen in serving.

People? I think first is like, oh, I'm just buying this policy instead of understanding that it's a process. It. It's a process. It's not. Yes, it's the infinite banking concept, but that concept is a process. You actually have to engage in the entire process.

Yeah, that. And I'm just going to say Nate and his four stages of commitment, like, where do you want to be if you know where you want to go and what type of commitment? It's way easier to figure out how to get to that step and have somebody help you. Then you have no idea where you want to go. And you might start off. I'm going to say, oh, I want to do this, and you can get to that. And then it gets to that next.

Stage. Yeah. Okay.

Nate. Yeah. I mean, I don't know even where to begin, but it's kind of fun to have resigned from being a life insurance agent and now I'm just a guy doing the infinite banking concept. So that's a new world to me. Right. In other words.

I entered and I don't know if this is the same. I don't actually know your origin stories for both you and Richard to some degree. Jason, I may have heard a little bit about yours on that last Ask me anything call that we did. But nonetheless, I became an agent and a client practically at the same.

Time.

Right. That essentially what, what happened. So I, I, I was going to school to, at the time, at going to college to. I wanted to become a financial advisor of sorts. I barely even knew what that meant as a kid. Right. But I just, I knew, I knew that's what I wanted to do, or I thought that's what I wanted to do, of course. And so I was going for finance and I was also dating Ray's granddaughter, his oldest granddaughter at the time. And I had asked him if I could intern over the summer because that's what everyone says to do if you're in college. You got to intern. No one cares about your degree anymore. They only care about your experience. You got to go out and get an internship. And he, at first he said no to me, which is kind of a funny story. So I was like, if I can't get in with my girlfriend's family's financial business, I'm gonna, I'm toast. And he said he got into a battle with the holy ghost that night, and he lost and ended up calling me back and saying, actually, you can come on board. And so that was in 2012. And so it was right around the same time you guys were meeting him. I was, I was getting introduced to it too. So I came in intern in the summer and got my first policy that year. But I also, in my mind was thinking, I'm also going to do this. Like, this is something I'm going to do. So I always learned Infinite Banking not just for myself, but also for other people. And I think one of the, as you mentioned, what's a big critique is I think they're really, the people are curious. Are you only doing, telling us about this so you can make money? Or is it like, actually.

Do you really believe it?

And I remember Ray was accused of that by somebody. He actually mentioned that and he made a joke like they were saying, well, she was saying, well, you're only saying this because you're gonna make money from it. And he goes, I mean, I Don't know about you, but I didn't wake up today thinking today's a great day to lose some money.

Yeah, I remember that. But it was, it was certainly true. So anyway, for. Right. I guess that was a long story. Just to say like right now, after being in the business for 12 years, having be my life and also practicing is interesting to now be on just the other side with no intention of ever making a dollar from quote unquote being in. In the. In the. As a professional in the business but actually just being simply a consumer of it. And I can honestly say that my thought process about what it is has not changed. It's the same as what it was, the value proposition. I'm glad that it was confirmed in me through. Now I have no benefit for doing it other than the fact of doing it itself. There's no real reason I'm not learning how to do it just so I can be a better educator of it. And so what you find me sitting here now having.

I think 12 policies.

And what I used to say about it is proved to be true. Just the idea that infinite banking as a concept is a platform for you to build whatever you want to build on top of it. That is at its core what it is. The banking function is meant to be built upon. It's meant to be built on. It's not an as. As we've always said. It's not an investment alternative. I mean as. As Holly talked about with the stages, it technically can be it. You can purchase a life insurance policy and use it as a savings.

Alternative.

Sure. That's not infinite banking though. But yeah, you can do that. This is not what the concept is. The concept is a change of your entire paradigm on how the banking functions that apply to you. And it's essentially a new way to bank of which you get to build whatever you want on top of it. So now I'm actually in that stage where. And I have been. I mean that's the way I taught it, but that's the reality. So where do I find myself right now? Yeah. Reaping the fruits of many years of paying large premiums and. And using those policies to accomplish things in life and to invest in other things that now I'm able to receive in passive income essentially enough to pay my lifestyle. Even as a young man, in order for me to go into ministry without requiring a sal. I'm like a testament of the ability of the thing to work whether or not. But it's only based on what you do with it. So that's what I would say. It's interesting to have been come from the industry to out of the industry. And now I get to actually feel like I can speak freely with no hooks and there's no bias anymore. Who cares what I. What I have to say? I have nothing to gain other than just simply the fact that I can attest to the benefit of doing it if you do it, of course, the right.

Way. So anyway, I love that there's two things that I want to share with viewers and listeners. So one, and Rich will remember this too.

We spent. There were a few occasions.

Where we had attended, you know, a mastermind, I guess, if you will, in Nuevo Vallarta, Mexico. And it was at the.

Merrival.

Sure. With.

Ray. Beautiful property, by the way. And so Ray would bring a group of people together.

So we would start the day and we would spend the morning and it was all around infinite banking, top to bottom. It was amazing. You get to meet a lot of really wonderful people and.

Be around people of like mind. So you're not feeling like a lone ranger in practicing this concept in your family or your business or as an advisor. And we're going to revive that.

We're bringing that back.

And it's going to be.

Incredible. And you know, Jason, just really quick to throw that in there. That was the very last thing that Ray and I did.

Together. I know when you and I talked, you had shared that and hosted.

Our last mastermind at the Maribal Resort in Mexico in the end of February 2023. And he passed away the beginning of March 2023. So.

Interesting. Anyway, we're going to bring that back and there's going to be a big emphasis on family banking.

You know, Nate, thank you for sharing. You know, what you've built in your system. I will tell you at the time when I first met Ray, there were 110 policies.

In Ray's ecosystem at that time. And he had shared with us just the amount, just the amount of interest.

That was being recaptured by the family. Now, for those of you who don't really grasp what recapturing interest is, that's simply paying premium that the extra interest is not really extra interest. It goes back into your program as more premium. And Ray shared that number with us. And we almost fell out of our chair because we didn't even know what was possible at that time.

And we have 77 policies in our family today, another one in underwriting. Right now.

We have over $100,000 a month flowing back to our family's money pool.

Our premiums are 1.569 million a year.

60 plus percent of that number is optional paid up additions.

And.

If you would have told me that when I was in Lawrence, Kansas, sitting in a room.

That that is what was going to be in your future in the implementation of this process.

If you would have told me that I would have been blessed beyond measure to be mentored by Nelson himself for a minute, let alone years.

And I made him a promise a few weeks before he passed. We had a very long conversation.

And I have every intention of honoring that promise that I made to him. And serving people.

Always is, always has been, always will be our most important metric.

It isn't a metric around.

Here. It's a purpose and a.

Reality. Thank you. And people want to know. I'm getting ever increasing correspondence from people who are saying we need to know more about the family banking element of this because people begin their journey at the individual you and me level. How is a policy going to help me? How is the implementation of this concept going to help me? Here's what your dad taught me, Holly. He said, when you're growing up.

Please correct me if I'm wrong. When you were growing up, you heard your parents say things like, one day you're going to grow up and move out and start your own family.

They never say, one day you're going to grow up, move out and start your own family banking system.

And Ray went on to say, that's not how the wealthy talk because what you just heard creates division in a family, not unity. What the wealthy do is circle the wagons around the family and say, look in the center. That's where all the money's going to be. All the money's going to flow back in to the hands of the family, precisely where it belongs.

Part of why I'm sharing this is part of why living wealth clients can receive inspiration and know that they're going to learn a lot about the family banking system so that when they're having conversations with their family and they feel the urge to say one day you're going to grow up and you're going to move out, it's going to be to start your own family banking system.

That's the.

Platform. Isn't that good to expand the family banking.

System?

Yeah. And similar to what you mentioned, Jason, the other model that I'm sure listeners most people have heard something or know someone that said something just like that, it creates division like you said, but it creates division of mindset, division of assets. And most Importantly, division of cash flow. Right. Assets can't be built unless there's some cash flow to go with it. Cash flow is the thing that everything else is built upon. And in the world of 100% of money coming in, where the world is telling you to only save 10% of it, and then the world is training you to figure out how to make that 10% effective and efficient. So you, first of all, have to be able to put the 10% away. And then secondly, you have to figure out how to make it efficient. So all the financial education and training is around, what can we do with 10% that's left over? The infinite banking concept is how do we figure out how to work with the 90%? And if we can get that right, there's going to be a lot more than 10% left.

Over.

Absolutely.

Yeah. I love.

That.

I've got a question. I'd like to know, Holly, if.

If your dad were on this show with us right now, if he was here.

What would you want to say to.

Him?

Well, he owes me a.

Hug.

Take your.

Time. Thank you.

He changed our family.

And he's changed families.

So I would just say thank.

You. Yeah, Ray, thank you. And what I love about most about today's conversation is that it's proof that legacy doesn't end. When a chapter closes, it multiplies. And the Poteet family has spent decades showing people a better way to think about money. And that's not disappearing, it's growing. And at ascendant, you know, I can speak humbly on behalf of all my teammates. We see this as. That as growth, as an adoption of vision, an adoption of values.

With a responsibility to carry it forward. And.

To the Potee family, you know, thank you for trusting us with something.

So personal and so powerful. And to all of our viewers and listeners, I really do hope that you walk away reminded that money is just a tool and that family, legacy, and freedom are the real treasures that we're all building. And so we're just getting started, and the best is still ahead. And couldn't be any more grateful to be with all of you on this mission as well. You know, it was a real pleasure speaking to you both today, and thank you for being generous with your time. Rich, anything you want to.

Add? The only thing I would add, Jason, is we're excited about building a bigger future. And so that goes for everyone watching, which we encourage you to be excited about your bigger future, regardless of what that might be for you. But specifically to anyone from the living wealth, client, community, for those of you with our ascendant client community, we are now a one community. We're growing together. And this is just such an amazing and incredible future that is ahead of us all. And so we encourage you to get involved with our ongoing education, our client portal, the podcast, and so on, and continue one of the most important things, which is the ever valuable journey of.

Learning. There's always something new to learn. There's no such thing as having arrived in knowledge. And I know that Rich and I are incredibly grateful for today's show and incredibly grateful for the influence that Ray had on our lives personally and professionally, and that we look forward to meeting so many amazing clients in the living wealth ecosystem. And we're going to do our very best to serve you and can't wait to see you at the next Nuevo Vallada gathering, because I know for a fact I just might have a bit of persuasion in getting Holly and Nate to be there.

It's called an airline ticket.

All right, thanks.

Guys. Nate will be.

There. Thank you guys so.

Much.

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