69. Authorized Infinite Banking Practitioner In Toronto

You are listening to the Wealth Without Bay street podcast, a Canadian guide to building dependable wealth. Join your hosts, Richard Canfield and Jason Lowe as they unlock the secrets to creating financial peace of mind in an uncertain world. Discover the strategies and mindsets to a financial future that you can bank on.

The inaugural Advisor Series podcast. Episode number one. We're joined today by Cole Snell, the one and only, the man, the myth, the legend, an authorized infinite banking practitioner on our ascended financial team who's hailing from the province of Ontario and proudly serves Canadians coast to coast. Join me in welcoming Cole. And of course, we're joined by the amazing co host, my dear friend, colleague, Richard Canfield, who hails from Chilliwack, bc, otherwise known as the Wack Cole. Welcome to Wealth Without Bay Street's inaugural Advisor Series podcast.

It is a privilege and an honor to be here. I can't tell you how excited I am. I feel like I've arrived. This is like the cherry on my IBC Sunday.

I like that. That's a great analogy, actually. And a good place to begin would be maybe share with listeners your journey. So your journey to discovering the process of becoming your own banker and then leading you to wanting to work with Canadian households, Canadian business owners, in implementing and mentoring and coaching people on this transformational process.

Great.

Yeah, I love that question and I'm just honored to be able to share it. My story began as an entrepreneur. Now, going into my 27th year as an entrepreneur, we're often throwing it against the wall. Sometimes it sticks, sometimes it does not stick. Specifically, I find myself as a founder. So I like the startup stage of businesses. And what I found in growing businesses, finding businesses, creating businesses, is that my understanding of the creative process was strong, but my understanding of the money, the financial process, was not that strong. It's a common case for business owners. So I dove into financial literacy and I thought, well, I got to get better at this. And in doing so, I discovered some problems. And then I realized, well, I need to find a solution. So I went on a mission to find the solution. And that the long and short of it is that led me to Richard about two years ago, and Richard kind of started to explain the solution to the problem to me. And then he kind of introduced me to you, and then you kind of started to introduce the solution to the problem. And I realized that, well, the solution to my problem is that I've been trying to make money doing it a certain way, and that was the wrong way. And now I try and do, and now I'm a full fledged infinite banking practitioner. So I think it says a lot about the opportunity as an entrepreneur that now I'm an advisor at Ascendant. The ultimate opportunity is really the infinite aspect of my life. The ultimate infinite banking is as an advisor. The ultimate way to contribute to the 10% is to, is to live it, breathe it, walk it, talk it. And here I am.

That's amazing. Thank you, Cole, for sharing that.

That's great. You know, when Cole and I first connected, it was kind of almost, I think it was somewhat by accident ultimately. And I believe an email went out and Cole happened to be got an email, I think, and he registered for an event and the email went out and it wasn't supposed to go to certain people and Cole ended up registering for an event and I ended up having a phone call with him. And that started what's become a really wonderful relationship and incredible collaborations and more importantly, deep discussions about Austrian economics, about some of the different problems that we become aware of in the world on the global scene and relative to us in Canada and specifically Coal is very passionate about Canadian business owners, the backbone of the Canadian economy, the employers of, you know, half the nation and beyond. And so you, with your entrepreneurial background, starting many businesses and you know, you've come from this, you had a, you know, very successful artisanal cheese business and a variety of things since then. And then shooting forward to today, all those lessons in culmination, the good ones and the bad ones, carrying forward to be able to bring that message and that discussion to the business owners of today. And now bringing in Nelson's principles about infinite banking into the mix. It's really incredible how you're able to frame that and you can speak from a place of, hey, I've experienced a lot of this myself and if I would have had this in the past, just thinking about your past businesses. Cole, you want to share with our listeners, how could life have been different for you today had you just known about IBC when you were a young man?

The amount of cash that has slipped through my fingers.

I started three years ago to try and get control of it again because that was the hardest thing that you two taught me through Nelson was how much control.

I didn't have. And I've been just fighting tooth and nail trying to make up for lost time and it's been a blissful process and it's been quite serene and I've enjoyed the whole thing. But yeah, it's so true. Rish. I wish I knew then what I know now in so many different ways.

It'S interesting. Having had success and also having had failure, entrepreneurs that can't admit to having failure are either not trying hard enough or they might be candy coating the truth. Right? Failure is part of the deal. But the beautiful thing is as long as you're enthusiastic in the face of and honest in the face of failure and you get up and you keep going, you will come to the realization that.

A, it's worth it and you can't stop, but you're going to get eventually to the solution. And this is my solution. Getting to this stage, becoming my own banker. The infinite banking process has been my solution, I would say professionally and personally, it's a just a much more comfortable way to live.

And if you think about being in an advisor capacity as an authorized infinite banking practitioner, which we share with our listeners all the time, we wholeheartedly recommend that a person considering implementing this process that they work with an authorized infinite banking practitioner, someone who is thoroughly familiar with with how to implement the process and also implements it in their own life and is able to demonstrate through real example how they go about doing that. Because we know that there are so many people who can sell the tool to a prospective client, but there are very few people who have more than a rudimentary understanding of the process. And so if you think about your journey up to this point as an advisor, what are the optimum mindsets of people that you most love to serve? I mean, we talk about people who are polite and respectful and have strong family values and who are action takers and who make decisions based on fact and not opinion. And so if you think about optimum mindsets, what are those of the folks that you most love to serve?

I love that question. I love to serve people that want more. Simply put, whether that's an entrepreneur and a business owner and you know, I think rich did a good job kind of pointing it out that rich entrepreneurs and business owners are the heartbeat of this economy. They are the lifeblood of economy and opportunity and they are out there every day putting it on the line. So I love to serve the mindset of business owners who want more for their business, for their staff, for their economy, for their country.

And then the other, I want to serve regular people, children, as you both know, is a big, big, big passion of mine, showing parents that they have solutions as there's living benefits and then ultimately the goal of any parent always, without a doubt, you can ask the question, what's the most important thing to you? You can ask that question to any parent and we already know the answer. It's their children, it's opportunity for, for their children and we have a solution for that. And I've dug very, very deep. And I love to serve parents and I love to serve them with the notion that they can do way more than they think for their children.

That's definitely an ambition and a passion that we all share. And you were recently in an advertorial in the mom and Caregiver magazine, which we'll post a link to that article in the episode notes here and also a link to connect with Cole on our Ascendant team page where we invite people just to connect with us and to get a glimpse of what we're really like, maybe share with listeners because as advisors we put that cap on and hey, we show up in the marketplace in obviously a very professional way. But tell folks a little bit about what you're like outside of, you know, your day to day as an authorized Infinite Banking practitioner.

Oh.

I have, you know, one gear and I'm always trying to solve problems. I don't have much neutral. It's, you know, I'm, if you, I have a 8 speed transmission. I'm in gear 8 pretty much all the time. Yeah. Dual clutch, a perfect fit.

On our team.

Yeah.

Some of my friends, I just speak IBC morning, afternoon, evening, probably in my sleep. My spouse probably has nightmares about what I'm talking about in my sleep. So there's not much the cold that you see now. IBC is pretty much, I'm full tilt pretty much all the time on it. I have only so much time on this earth to make a difference and I want to make a difference. I want to make a massive difference in the lives of everybody, North Americans, Canadians, Americans collectively. It's just full speed ahead all the time. And whether that's again business owners, children.

It'S opportunities like mom and caregiver, as you brought up Jay, that really set the stage for that. Having that platform, having the endorsement of a magazine is credible as that the.

The content that we're putting out and starting to distribute now to again parents looking for solutions for their kids. And yeah, it's just been totally fantastic.

And what we're talking about there is the Child Millionaire program which is.

Incredible, nothing short of incredible and I appreciate you sharing that. And what would you say to listeners who maybe they're someone's crossing our path, who's considering taking this journey and becoming an authorized Infinite Banking practitioner? What words of advice or guidance would you share with that listener.

Just do it, but do it right. You know, there's a right and a wrong way to do it. The right way to do it. I'll spell it out. There's one way to do it, and that's to go through the Nelson Nash Institute and follow the mentorship program and the recipe that Nelson laid out that now David Stearns, Carlos Lara, Robert Murphy, Jason Lowe, Richard Canfield, etc. Are endorsing and.

Really pushing. That's the agenda. To me, it's the only way to do it. With any popular idea, there's going to be different iterations of it and people trying to.

Fix what isn't broken.

There's one way to do it, and it's to first off, do it, but do it the right way and take your time. Go through the mentorship and stay in the. I mean, there's two words to me that if I was to really answer your question, there's the, there's two words in the whole kind of the tapestry of the Infinite Banking concept. There's a lot of jargon, there's a lot of turns, terms. It's the two words are concept and your. And I would put a lot of weight on understanding your relationship to the concept.

That's very good advice. Love the way you put that. Cole, now speaking to that. I really love Jason's question and just to take that one step further, because maybe it'd be helpful for sure, because we have a lot of advisors who tune in as well to our podcast and we appreciate that. We're very grateful for that. If you consider for a moment, know when you and I first connected and you were already entering the path and being a part of the financial industry through a different medium, but recognizing that the path that you wanted to go down was through the Infinite Banking channel and to really celebrate and promote that. And once you had a deeper understanding of the 10%, as you and I have many conversations with 10%, some of our listeners may not be familiar with that. I'll let you share your version of what that means. But going from that other organizational environment and realizing that it wasn't going to be the right fit to be able to actually take the message out there, can you speak to that a little bit? And then how through mentorship, becoming aware and not necessarily like how it takes a little bit of time to start to bring all that stuff into a cohesive state so that you can be ready to move forward and really embrace Nelson's wisdom taken into the marketplace.

Yeah. Thanks for the question, Rich, I mean, you in particular had a lot to do with that. You were the first truly credible infinite Banking practitioner that I met. And I, you know, we kind of auspiciously stumbled across each other. I really kind of stumbled across you. And then, you know, here is this person who's just got passion and time to.

Answer my really silly questions that I had early on. And you just took your time with me and mentored me and coached me before we even had a formal mentee mentor relationship. And I just super appreciated that. And everybody at the Nelson Nash Institute, Ascendant Financial, what have you, or affiliate of Nelson that took direct mentorship under Nelson, always in my experience, takes the time.

But yet has boundaries around the right way to do it and the wrong way to do it. Because I believe today that there is a right way and a wrong way to do it. And so you were very candid in.

Pointing me in the right direction. I'll put to that. And then you always put forward the 10%. And you know, now I've taken, taken it, you know, a step further. My mentorship with Ascendant Financial, you know, organization that, you know, Jason has fearlessly founded and leads today. And the mentorship continues. I mean, it's actually just been kind of mushroom clouded. I'm surrounded by coaching. And you know, it's so interesting because there's so many coaches all over financial coaches and ideas on the Internet. People are signing up and they're subscribing and they're opting into all these different opportunities. You know, I don't pay anything for my coaching. Actually, I get paid for my coaching now at Ascendant. And that's the remarkable thing that is this organization that is infinite Banking through the lens of the Nelson Nash Institute as seen by Ascendant Financial. I mean, it's just been such a remarkable experience. And I'm surrounded by all these coaches and I'm not really, I'm not paying for these coaches. I'm still, now I'm coaching, I'm starting to coach as well. So it's an example at its most kind of rendered down concentrated level, that's building the 10%. That's the foundational way to build the 10%. And so kind of what you were talking about, Rich, just to kind of build on that a little bit more, is that the 10% is kind of that tipping point. That's where the domino falls, where the language of infinite banking and the usage of infinite banking is on a household level. It's the me to you Level where it's understandable, it's conversation that people recognize. It's over the water cooler. It's where the change and the solution really begins to be systemic. And yeah, that's something that I'm clearly fired up about contributing to.

That's one of many sharp examples of why you're such a great fit and a great teammate. And that's the culture that we're trying to expand here in our organization and to bring this message to Canadians. And so absolute honor to have you. And if you think about.

Your journey up to this point with the process, Nelson used to say to us all the time, the more you see, the more you'll see. You didn't see. And so could you maybe just share that from your own perspective as to where your level of awareness is now versus where it was when you first began your journey?

Oh, well, I love that question, Jay. If we go really far back.

It's just kind of funny to think. I'm almost embarrassed to say, if I go really far back to think would I. I thought about compared to. And, you know, it's almost three years. I'm kind of just nudging into my third year and my learning has just really. I really feel as though I'm ready to go. I mean, it's been, you know, in the life cycle of an entrepreneur, three years is not really that long. You don't. I mean, it's kind of that idea where we live in that world, if it takes five years to really have a foundation, it's kind of cliche or almost. And it's so. So for me, three years in to mentorship and training on an idea is not like I'm good with that. That's not a very long time. Like, I'm accustomed to putting in the time and the work and energy. But to really kind of focus on your question.

What I thought I knew compared to what I know today, I mean, it's just a. There's a big, big gap that has been. Has been bridged in my learning. And if I was to try and think of it, if I was to try and answer it very concisely and think of kind of, you know, one. One thing that's really changed, and it ultimately comes down to the kind of the idea of rate. I guess if I want to really answer that question specifically. And I, when I was early on, I really spent a lot of time with Rich, grilling him, trying to get. Bait him into answering my questions about rate. And he just wouldn't do it. And it really frustrate, really frustrated me. Like it was like pull my hair out. Frustration with Rich, he just wasn't having it. He kind of told me, when you stick around long enough, eventually you'll figure out why I'm doing this.

Here I am.

If you don't, you know, you won't.

Yeah, I love that. And when, when you're now working with, with others who are just beginning as a prospective client, somebody who's going to implement this process. What is your favorite moment in that whole method of doing things where people are, they're learning, they're excited, they want to move forward, they want to take that next step. What is your favorite moment in that process?

Well, you taught me the power of the pregnant pause.

And I love that. My favorite process is when I ask the question.

What is the problem? And I give them the pregnant pause, the Jason Lowe pregnant pause, very powerful. And they answer back, banking. That's it for me. You know, when I get, when I get to that level.

And it's happening more and more all the time when I get to that level.

That'S the actionable, kind of quick, three sentence conversation that makes me just kind of go, all right, we've arrived. Not me, but we. Because I. Whether I'm talking to a client or a prospect or what have you. That's a beautiful answer to a really hard question. That's a really hard question.

Love it. And are there any other nuggets that you want to share with listeners about? Who is Cole? Who is Cole Snell?

Cole Snell is on a mission to find value.

I am absolutely obsessed with value. Value is a two way street. There's no gray area. There's no parking lot in the avenue of value. It's add or extract.

I am either adding value or extracting value. I spoke at the beginning, you guys asked me a really good question about entrepreneurships, the businesses or the ideas that I had that didn't turn into million dollar ideas. They were not value add ideas. They were maybe value stagnant. And eventually that means value extract. So yeah, I'm obsessed with finding value. I'm obsessed with serving people. And I mean, I think that the best example of the time and energy that I put into becoming an infinite banking practitioner, arriving at ascendant financial and being accepted in the fold as an advisor here has been really an expression of the ultimate example of being able to offer value. Because infinite banking is. There is nothing more valuable that I've discovered in the last 27 years of entrepreneuring. Infinite banking is the most valuable thing, period.

There you have it.

Now, that's not to say that we don't also like cheese, because you have a. Cheese is also valuable, but it's just not the most valuable.

Can we do a podcast on cheese sometimes?

Sure, absolutely.

Why not? You know, one other quick question I have for you, Cole, I think is really important is you kind of identified. It's like, you know, when Jason asked, you know, what was it like when, you know, the journey from. From starting to now and the gap in between in the learning process. How often have you heard somebody say, whether they get a copy of Nelson's book or they read a few pages of it, they haven't actually read it, or you hear someone say, oh, yeah, yeah, I get that concept. Right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know. Yeah, I know how it works. I know all about it. How often do you hear that the first time out from somebody?

Well, it depends. But off. Like too often? Yeah, yeah, like much too often. And it.

Or people just have like no idea what the words even mean, and then they're honest. But if, you know, if they have a little bit of information, the people that have a little bit of information are the ones that know it all.

And so that's where there's other people. You know, the guy at the, that I meet at the dog park and hey, what do you do? I'm like, I'm an infinite banking practitioner. He's like, eh.

What is that? What breed is that? Is that a mix but.

In a slightly more concentrated circle?

Yeah, everyone has the concept figured out and they have really no concept.

That's amazing to see how people. The belief is that they know what it's all about. But it takes actually a lot of time and digestion and conversation and growth and self learning to really start to crack open the surface of what's actually there. Because it's just like an iceberg. Here's Nelson's book and it's the tip of the iceberg. It's rereading the book, it's engaging with people, being part of community, deepening your knowledge, learning about Austrian economics. That's when you get below the surface and everything that actually really all the meat and potatoes is really down there.

I got below the surface. When you, I don't know, two years ago, year and a half ago.

After maybe four or five conversations, I thought I had it all figured out. I'm like, oh, I got this guy. I got what I needed out of him. I'm gonna go on and be a infinite banking practitioner. No.

When you sent me the YouTube video link to Riding the backwards bike.

That'S when it clicked for me. That's when I realized that I need to rewire everything that I thought I knew and steer the bike in the other direction. Good luck.

We're going to include a link to that video in the show notes as well, because that is a powerful, powerful demonstration of what it takes to rethink your thinking and how quickly you can fall back into your old way of thinking. And what you described, Cole, and what Richard talked about in the way of what happens most often if somebody has a glimpse at the book or maybe they've read it once, and when we are interacting with them for the first time and they proactively communicate. Oh, I think I've got a really good grasp on the concept because we're curious. Hey, what were your lingering thoughts or questions that came up for you after having read the book? I think I've got a really good grasp on this. Well, that's excellent. That's great. Would you mind just taking a moment and describing the problem to me?

When that doesn't happen.

You know that there's opportunity, of course, to.

Continue with the learning process and helping people along that path. And so, any closing remarks, Cole, that you want to share with listeners?

Yeah, one closing remark for sure. And it's something that actually you just made me think about. And if any listeners are out there looking to explore, get advice, if they're talking to maybe an advisor or a friend or family member, colleague, what have you that has it figured out? I guess I would say I would encourage you to ask them if they're doing it.

Are they putting it into action.

And what does that look like? Specifically, ask them to show you a policy that they have and how they've implemented and how they've implemented it. Yeah, I mean, that, I think is the ultimate test is to see if they're actionable in their own life, about it and what is their relationship and how has it changed their life.

Very, very good advice, Richard. Take us home.

Well, you know, Cole, we've got a ton of value from you. Lots of good stuff shared with our listeners today. And now, you know, you. You know that I actually do like the odd superhero movie, but some of my favorite ones are the ones where the heroes don't wear capes. And so you might not necessarily think of yourself as a hero, but when you're adding value to others as you've identified as something that's really important to you with your obsession and you create value for them through the many different ways that you do. You're benefiting them. You're making their life easier. Whether it's the child Millionaire platform, helping people through the mom method or medium, or working with business owners one to one to help them optimize cash flow, our question is, who do you want.

To be a hero to anyone that wants more?

My superhero would be Ironman and I would be the Ironman to anybody that just wants. Simply put, wants more. Wants less stress, more happiness, more control, more opportunity, whether that be for their business or their children.

There you have it, folks. Such a pleasure, Cole, thanks for being such a great teammate. Thank you for being agreeable to being the inaugural guest on the Ascendant Advisor series brought to you by its proud sponsor, Wealth Without Bay Street. And for our listeners and viewers on the YouTubes, Facebooks, the Instagrammies, wherever you're locating us from, if you just look right up there, there's going to be a playlist of recommended videos. Continue your journey. Continue growing. There's no such thing as having arrived in knowledge. There's always something new to learn. And we're happy to give all of you a glimpse into just how incredible our teammates are. And we're just real privileged and grateful to be able to showcase them here for the world. And so thank you, Cole. Thank you for being with us and thank you to all of our listeners. And we look forward to our next episode of Wealth Without Bay Street. Take care everybody and make the rest of your day awesome.

Thanks for listening to the Wealth Without Bay street podcast, where your wealth matters. Be sure to check out our social media channels for more great content.

Hit subscribe on your favorite podcast player.

And be sure to rate the show.

We definitely appreciate it.

And don't forget to share this episode with someone you care about. Join us on the next episode where we continue to uncover the financial tools, strategies and the mindsets that maximize your wealth.