1.OAK Financial’s True Meaning: Guiding People to Overcome Fear & Anxiety Around Finances (Ep. 34)

Welcome to the Ideas by Mike podcast, where your one-of-a-kind life meets a one-of-a-kind financial plan. Every episode, we provide insights into financial markets, discuss strategies for navigating Wall Street, and explore how to make informed decisions in a constantly evolving financial landscape, all with the goal of helping you. So, Sit back, relax. This is not your typical money show. We're going to be all in on helping you live a one-of-a-kind life. Welcome to the Ideas by Mike podcast. This is Mike Milligan, your host. Today you get me, and I have a very special announcement I'm going to make today, but I want to go through the history of our firm and give you some historical context on why many of the beliefs that our firm was founded on are, are, are, are why they're in existence and what the rest of 2025 and beyond looks like for us. This is a great take, and I cannot wait to share with you many of the details that I have today. So let's dive in. So, many of you guys know that sitting here in the 4th quarter of 2025, the first part of this decade has been rather tumultuous. We had COVID, we had the great inflation debacle, we've had wars in the Middle East and war in Ukraine and Russia, and that's had significant impact on the stock market, the way people retire. And then we come into 2025 where we have, for many of our listeners, have had, had to face a fork in the road, you know, where Doge wanted to take people out of federal service jobs to reduce the expense of the federal workforce to then move forward. Right. And so, you know, um, it's been a pretty interesting last 5 years, financially speaking. But I don't know if you know this or not, but Ideas by Mike was founded in 2021. Now, that was on the heels of a very successful run as the brand ZGP Financial, Championship College Planning, and just Mike Milligan, CFP. The interesting part about my previous independent companies is they've all been about Mike. They've been about me. They've been about the beliefs I have, and then they've been transferred from me with a few number of staff members to be able to deal with a select few number of clients. Well, when I founded Ideas by Mike just 5 years ago, uh, 5 years ago November, uh, I decided to build something that was going to be, um, much bigger than me. Something that was going to have a legacy purpose around it, where I could transfer my beliefs about the industry that I have learned over the last 26 years of being a part of it and create a better client experience where financial planning, investment solutions, long-term care planning, tax planning, legacy planning, were, were— they were all going to be done with the end client in mind, with you in mind. And we had— we established something called the One of a Kind Financial Plan that really I've been doing now since I was independent back to 2012. But by building a One of a Kind Financial Plan, my belief, it allows you to live a one-of-a-kind life. I even have the saying Be one of a kind behind me. If you're watching video, I wear a shirt that says, be one of a kind, when I'm out in public, kind of on a routine day. And the reactions I get from that shirt is like, I love your shirt. And it allows for conversations. Because here's the thing, I'm gonna go back a little bit further in my career, and then I'm gonna go back to my origin story to tell you where we're going with our company. So let's talk about Mike. Uh, I came right out of college in 1999, June of 1999, from Campbell University. I had, um, um, uh, I grew up in a small town in North Carolina, went to a smaller town to go to college in Buies Creek, North Carolina, and I was privileged enough to graduate with a trust and an investment management degree from the only school at the time who was offering that degree. And it gave a direct line insight to North Carolina banks, which at the time were the hub, right, of the greatest banks in America because North Carolina banking law was more progressive than anywhere else. And so more banks were in North Carolina when, uh, when Glass-Steagall fell down and banks could go interstate banking. The major banks in North Carolina led the charge. Uh, Bank of America right, was, was Nations Bank. It was actually NC&B, right? BB&T, which is now Truist, right, was Southern National Bank and Branch Banking and Trust Company that grew up, uh, merged with SunTrust to become Truist. What is now Wells Fargo grew out of the Wachovia brand in North Carolina. And when I graduated from college, I had interviews with Nations Bank, with BB&T, with Wachovia, and I was fortunate enough to be selected to go into BB&T's management development program. I got inside the belly for 9 months of what a bank was. I got to understand corporate lending, retail lending, branch management. We even read the book Atlas Shrugged. Wow. Which was at the time the CEO, John Allison's favorite business book. He actually led us in a book club discussion on that. Here I was, I was 23 years old, working in a bank management development program at a really decent-sized bank at the time. The CEO's leading a book club. I was like, wow, what personal touch. Well, I stayed with BB&T and actually I moved after the management development program. I moved up into, uh, Norfolk, Virginia, in June of 2000, at a very interesting time in the banking world in Norfolk, Virginia. See, Central Fidelity, which was a major bank at the time, and many other core banks were being acquired by the North Carolina banks. They were being acquired by BB&T. They were being acquired by Wachovia. They were being acquired by Nations Bank. Sovereign Bank was acquired by Nations. Um, but there's this— there were these 2 banks that BB&T purchased here. One was called Life Savings Bank. It was, uh, more of a credit union that, uh, had a great deposit history. But there was another bank that a gentleman named Bob Ashton ran. Um, Bob Ashton decided that, uh, while I was in the management development program, he, you know, sold his bank to BB&T, and then he decided through legal maneuvering to step out and form a new bank. And that bank is now TowneBank, which is a major— one of the largest independent banks, uh, in the state of Virginia today. But back in 2000, when he was founding this bank out of the— out of his garage in Portsmouth, Virginia, um, he decided to, to create this bank right when I moved up here. And at that point in time, BB&T had just taken them over, and there was a mass exodus. out of BB&T, the new BB&T, to go help TowneBank form and grow. And so I got a real-world experience on mergers and acquisitions really early in my career and what drove profitability of banks and how in the trust world, assets under management and keeping assets for the long term were such the bedrock of profitability for a major bank. I had the opportunity Uh, uh, in 2001, right, to make a, make a, a switch over to a bank, right? So I went from BB&T to Wachovia, and here I am in 2001 at the age of 25. I move over to Wachovia Wealth Management. Again, I'm 25 years old and I'm now working in a wealth management firm, and I follow in the steps, right, of a great servicer. Right? A great banking professional named Rusty Bailey. I actually had the, uh, privilege a few years later to coach Rusty's son Davis in baseball in my baseball coaching career when I was at Norfolk Christian. You know, talking about coming full circle. But here I am, I'm following Rusty Bailey. Rusty decided to leave Wachovia Wealth Management at the time, leave banking, and go into the commercial insurance side. He taught me, right? I had many conversations with him after that. He said, hey, listen, I'm trying to build something for myself. And by being at Wachovia, I'm building for them, right? And so I walked into his portfolio with a great group of clients. He had built an amazing set that I got to walk into to start managing as the relationship manager. Vice president at the age of 25. Um, the way they calculated sales results, right? I, in 2020 or 2002, 2003, 2004, in my time at Wachovia, I was the number one salesperson. For credit and investment and planning and insurance of all the relationship managers in the— on the East Coast, and really for the nation at the time because Wachovia was on the East Coast, the number one person. But I would sit in a boardroom every Monday morning from 9 to 11:30, and we would sit there around our team, and our manager would come in and they would talk about, what are you doing today? What are you doing to drive revenue to our company? And we would talk about loan pricing, we would talk about deposit pricing, we would talk about fees charged on assets under management, we'd talk about commissions on insurance, we would talk about trust fees and what the fees were on there. And so, I got a real-world indoctrination in those 3 years to what drove performance, right? It was profitability over clients. And that led me to, in 2004, to seek something smaller. And I had the ability to go to Monarch Bank, which was founded by Bill Roundtree, that was previously an executive at Sovereign Bank, and a friend, Neil Crawford, who was opening up or having the growth engine for Monarch at the time. And I had this ability to go actually start the private client group. Here I am in 2004, I'm 28 years old, and I am a senior vice president leading a private client group inside of a bank that, again, though, I you know, went to a small bank. So I was thinking, yeah, this is going to be great. It's going to be about the clients. But here I am sitting on Monday morning from 9 a.m. to 11:30 in a conference room with Neil and others, right, who are still in the banking industry. And we're talking about profitability, right? We're talking about profitability of the bank. We're talking about how we could get loans approved, how we can do investments through Monarch Investments, how we can get financial fees into the house. And right, and we were treating clients like numbers. And that— so in 2007, I made the bold decision to step out of banking, right? And for me, I was trained. I had this great opportunity coming from Campbell University to go into the banking world, into the trust and the wealth management world. But I knew that there was something there that we could focus on clients. So I actually transitioned over to the insurance world. Because I had a friend named Joe who was friends with my wife at the time, and they were recruiting into the insurance business. And I was already insurance licensed. I was already registered with the state insurance for investments because of my CFP designation. And so I went over there and I was thinking, okay, I'm going to take the advice of Rusty Bailey, who I followed at Wachovia, and I'm going to build something For myself. You know, the interesting part of being at a corporate-owned insurance company, MetLife at the time, is we had Friday afternoon meetings. And the Friday afternoon meetings were, what clients did you bring on? What is the profitability? What's the commission? What's the assets under management? It was for any, any place I ever went along my corporate path. From BB&T to Wachovia to Monarch Bank, which is now TowneBank. You want to talk about full circle, right? Uh, to MetLife, to then a mutual insurance company that I worked for called Ohio National. Ohio National was based in just right outside of Cincinnati, Ohio, and, uh, worked for them for a couple years. Again, inside the belly, learning standing profitability. But in 2012, I just realized I have— I've had enough, right? Uh, I need to be independent. I need to be able to have independent thought. At this point in time, um, some of the common things that were often told to clients by big corporations— they were told the stock market earns 8 to 10% per year. They were told because of a famous study you just heard it a couple weeks ago when I released my previous episode with Bill Bengen. Bill Bengen generated a sturdy— a study for the Journal of Financial Planning back in 1994 that said that you could safely withdraw 4% of your assets over life. And corporations— Wachovia and BB&T and MetLife— had adopted these principles as the safe withdrawal rate. And so here I was in 2012, and I was told you could take 4% of your retirement income for life and never run out of money, and the market was going to return 8 to 10% a year. And I'm looking at the S&P 500 in 2012 at the exact same level as it was when I entered the business in 2000. See, from 2000 to 2012, we had some major catastrophic events happen in the United States. We had the burst of the Y2K bubble, the tech bubble. in January of 2000. 9/11 hit in September of 2001. Enron failed, right, a little bit after that, the largest corporate failure up to that time that we had ever had in modern history, with billions of dollars wiped out in 401 plans because the primary holding of employees of Enron was stock of Enron in their 401 plan. And then we had some recovery in 2004, 2005, 2006. And then we had the financial crisis that happened and started in '07, right? If you've ever watched the movie The Big Short, he called it in 2006, didn't happen until 2008. But we had the financial crisis that happened in 2008 where the stock market was down over 30%, right, during that time, right? And at the, at the bottom of that, right, from the high of the market to the low, it was down over 40%. Right? Um, and here we are in 2012, and like the S&P is not even back to where it was in 2000. And so I'm like thinking, you know, the market always returning 8 to 12% per year, which is a general hypothesis that's given by investment professionals, just a general— it's not— and we know past performance does not predict future performance. It's on every disclosure that we give as a financial professional. We know that the study in the Journal of Financial Planning of 4% does not apply for everybody, but it's used as a general rule in the financial retirement income space. It's just a general rule, the safe withdrawal rate. And here I am in 2012, and I'm thinking, I've got to be different. So, I started out in 2012, and I went down this path of independence where I was going to do financial planning. And more. That was my tagline. That's what, that's what ZGP Financial did. That's what Mike Milligan CFP LLC did. We did financial planning and more. And the more in what we did is we listened, we cared, we started talking about taxes, we started building retirement income plans. I started learning deeper about the industry. I got very specific. in what my goals were as a business owner to be able to help you, my clients. And I've had— I have hundreds of clients that have been with me since my time in the banking field and in the insurance field. They've stayed with me through transitions because it's, it's always been about the and more, right? Because financial planning is done by big companies. It's done by registered investment advisory firms. It's done by financial planning firms. Financial service companies do financial planning every day, but very few do and more. And the and more is what led me to build a client-centered, client-first business. And I did that right where I had staff. I had, you know, um, you know, on my team, you know, the, the owner— if you're in Norfolk, Virginia, the owner of, uh, The Fishin' Pig, right? The barbecue place here. Tom Fox and I worked together under ZGP Financial for a while. He was amazing. He would come into the office every day and he would reach out to people, right? He would reach out in our circle and, uh, he would do our scheduling, right? And, uh, my good friend Tom, who came through, eventually led into, you know, his true passion. He previously had owned, um, he previously owned, um, restaurants locally. But as a friend, he came in, right? And then he eventually went back into the restaurant business because it was his passion. But he was really good at building the business. I had some other employees along the way, right, who helped with administrative and clerical tasks, who opened the doors for my clients, who, who communicated with them to service their needs. But then in 2019, The And More caught the attention of a regional bank. Around here, and that regional bank wanted to acquire the business. And so at that point in time, the burdens of staffing, right, made sense for me to affiliate with that regional bank, that Virginia regional bank. And I did that for a couple years. And again, I found out again that it's about profit. It's about net interest margin. I was having Wednesday afternoon meetings, right, hour meetings that was talking about, here's your gross dealer concession, right? That's the— it just feels icky and gross to talk about it out loud now, but the gross dealer concession is the profit that you make. And so I started seeing out like what people were doing before COVID right? When even when I got over that thing, I was like, oh my gosh, I got to, I got to get back to being client-centered, client-first. And so I took some time to look what was going on. And I said, listen, I've got to be able to build something that is uniquely me that we can scale eventually. And so I founded Ideas by Mike. I want it to be radically different. Radically different is not a bad thing, right? Back in, um, back in the late '90s, uh, Steve Jobs left, uh, in the early— you know, he was one of the original founders of Apple, right? And, uh, you know, after several years of being an innovator and an engineer and the founder of that company, he decided he needed to discover Who he was, he needed to discover that that you know maybe he was not not made to set an apple all the time. He needed to discover who he was, and so he leaves, and then he goes far east. He discovers his chi, like his inner peace about what he is, and then comes back. as like the prodigal son who returns home. And, uh, the, um, their— the, the marketing team wanted to bring this iconic figure back to the iconic Apple and declare that he was back to save them and take the industry lead again. But at that time, in the late '90s, Dell and Hewlett-Packard and Compaq and, uh, IBM were kicking Apple's butt in technology, right? So in the late '90s, as opposed to saying, I am back, there was this famous commercial that came out and it was called the Think Different campaign. It's that, that commercial, those words resonate with why I founded Ideas by Mike. The commercial said, here's to the crazy ones. The misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes, the ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules and they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, disbelieve them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can't do is ignore them because they change things. They push the human race forward. While some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do. That was a powerful commercial that came out. He was— they were saying, if you don't fit in this modern technology world, we are going to think differently and we are going to change the game. And it wasn't until 10 years later that the iPhone came out. Can you think about that? They put this vision out in Apple, and then not only did they put it within the company, they put it out in the public as a commercial that says, if you don't fit with this modern PC world and you want something more, we're going to build it for you. And now we can't live without our iPhones. Even, even Android users would agree. That Apple in their Think Different approach changed the game. BlackBerry would definitely agree with that because BlackBerry is really out of business. What was a, what was a, was a staple in 2000s, the BlackBerry, uh, that, you know, we all used is really gone, right? The Palm Pilot, do you remember that? It's gone. They didn't adapt to change. And so, when I founded Ideas by Mike, I wanted to think different. I always wanted to put the client first. And so, we built, we started, we put everything that I had learned over my first 22 years of business into Ideas by Mike because my ideas were going to be the center of what we were going to do. And it started when I hired Caitlin and when I hired Kelsey. And we were building from the ground up. And then we hired, we kept hiring and expanding our team to then include Tiffany as our Director of Growth and Liz as our client services, the head of our client services division. We have a marketing division. We have a lead generation side. We partner with some of the most strategic companies out there, Fidelity and Charles Schwab. We have an investment manager with Advisory Alpha where I serve as an investment advisory rep that is, that not only is steep and rich in history dating back to 1979, but is innovative in their thoughts and their approach to client services because we wanted to align with somebody who was compliance-focused, but also investment-forward. And so we appreciate our partnerships with them. But here, as we continue to grow and now have over 20 people in our company, and as we continue to expand, we need to be more. We need to be and more. So here we are in the 4th quarter of 2025, and we are One Oak Financial. Ideas by Mike will still be the corporate name of our business, but our doing business as, our out-front brand will be One Oak Financial. So why One Oak Financial? Because this is about you. If you need a financial planning team that's going to assist you by getting to the root of why money is important to you and help you to create smart and attainable goals, and you really want somebody who can think different, uh, then we can be the firm for you. See, One Oak Financial will build a one-of-a-kind financial plan for your one-of-a-kind life. And that is my promise as the founder of this company, is that as, as we continue to think forward into the future, And I see, and I've, I've brought my experience from the boardroom of major banks, from the boardrooms of insurance companies. I've been on Wall Street. I've been on the New York Stock Exchange. I've been in the conference room of Goldman Sachs and had meetings there. I have been in Bloomberg. I have shaken the hand of Mike Bloomberg in the lobby of the Bloomberg building. I know what this industry is. And people that are building one-size-fits-all approaches are doing good work because they're helping people build wealth, but they're doing it at the expense, right, of total profit, right? Profit for their entities. They are in the for-profit business. One Oak Financial is a for-profit business. I'm not going to hide behind that, but we're— but profit for us is not going to be first. Client services, our family, our employees are always going to be first. Number two, we're going to put client service second, right? How we serve you is most important. We're going to take our fiduciary duty to heart and make sure that we're always doing what's in your best interest. We're going to tell you the fees that are charged, the commissions that are paid to us. We don't hide behind that. And we're going to tell you from our point of view what your problems are, right? We're going to help you build a vision for your future by helping you identify your retirement chi, right? Chi for us, Steve Jobs, it was about finding inner peace. For us, retirement chi is about what in retirement, your community, your health, and the impact you can make. Yeah. is there? And when we write down that vision, because remember, just because you're retired, it doesn't mean you're dead. When we build that vision for your retirement, right, it allows the financial plan to integrate seamlessly in because the one-of-a-kind financial plan puts taxes first. And if we can use our tools through a LISTA plan, through any AI tool that we have at your disposal for tax planning, We're going to do that to identify options to optimize taxes. We'll work with your CPA if you have one as a team to help counterweight taxes now versus taxes in the future and ultimately try to reduce them. The second thing we do is we try to remove fear and anxiety. We, we look to try to identify, you know, what your core beliefs are, right? And if we understand what your core beliefs are, there's really 5 core beliefs out there. There's the core belief of scarcity, of deservedness. I don't deserve this money. Wealth is not mine. The core belief of I worship money, the stat that money brings me status or self-worth, or that I'm a, that I'm a money vigilante. Those are some core beliefs that people have about money. When we identify those are, and then what motivates you to money, We can help reduce fear and anxiety because what really people want is they want to know that they're not going to run out of money in retirement. And as Tom said, right, many financial advisors only bring the 7-iron to the table, and you wouldn't do that, right, when you go to the golf course. We bring the whole bag of clubs and we'll use them at different times for your solution. But for retirement income, we're going to make sure it reduces fear and anxiety. Then we're going to look at your investments. And, uh, with my team at Advisory Alpha, right? Um, Ideas by Mike, One Oak Financial, and Advisory Alpha are not owned by the same people. Uh, One Oak and Ideas by Mike are independent of Advisory Alpha. Advisory Alpha offers investment advisory service that we're contracted with them to bring to you because I believe they are for my clients and for me, one of the best partners I can have for you. And so we're going to look at your investments from a standpoint of how they help satisfy the goals of, of getting retirement income you need, but also how can they solve the long-term care aspect of retirement, and ultimately how can they be legacy. Because the 5 key elements of your— of a one-of-a-kind financial planning: taxes, retirement income, Investments, long-term care, legacy. When you combine them together, it's about you. That's the more of financial planning, by the way. When you build the one-of-a-kind financial plan, it allows you to live a one-of-a-kind life. So why One Oak Financial? Because it's not about a tree. It's not about an acorn. It's about you. You are one of a kind. And if, if I am ever going to do anything as the founder of this company, I'm going to make sure that our team Going forward treats you like you are the special person you are. Your uniqueness is beautiful. You deserve to have a vibrant community in retirement, to have a health focus that allows you to live and optimize the life that we're given. We're only given one life. And ultimately, your impact. And your impact is something that can live beyond you, right? Just because you're retired doesn't mean you're dead. And there's— our communities need impact warriors today more so than ever to help in the schools by reading to kids. Our teachers are overworked. Our churches, right? If you are a believer and you go to church, they need people in there to help the younger generation understand, be mentors. Our community gardens, our cities are overtaxed, they're under-resourced to be able to provide the services they need. And so, maybe your impact is picking up trash in your neighborhood. Your grandkids, right? Maybe they need you more. Maybe your kids need you to help offset some of the babysitting costs and it gives you more time with them. That's not for everybody, but maybe that's yours. Because see, when we build your Retirement Chi and we put that into the one-of-a-kind financial plan, It's your one-of-a-kind life that's going to allow you to build something worth living for. One Oak Financial is for you. It's a financial plan built for you. So until next time, this is Mike. I cannot wait to see you face to face in a One Oak Financial meeting, right? Because you are important to us. If you want to connect with us, you now can go to oneoakfinancial.com. That's the number one, oakfinancial.com. There, you're going to see a one-of-a-kind website that tells our story, but that you're going to see in our story, you're going to see you. And when you see you at the bottom, you can hit Connect With Us. Our team will get to know who you are. They'll get to know why money is important to you. They'll get to know your core beliefs. Do you have a scarcity mindset or a a deservedness, like, I don't deserve this. They'll find out what you, what your real concerns are. And then we'll talk about some motivations, right, to build a vision. And when they do that, we're going to build a one-of-a-kind financial plan for your one-of-a-kind life. If you're watching this on YouTube, before you get off, click the subscribe button to our site, to our channel. We're growing our influence, and by subscribing, you help do that. You could share this podcast also to a friend or neighbor or family member who may need to see what has happened, what has transpired through my eyes in corporate American financials over the last 26 years. Because over the next 26 years, there's going to be more change. And if, if we lose the art of human connection in this and let AI dominate it all, we're going to be— we're just going to be one herd of financial Well, you know, we're going to be one herd with all the same goals doing the same thing financially. That's what the system wants for us. And unfortunately, we need to break free of that. We need to think different. And if we think different, for those who don't fit the mold of traditional financial services, to the crazy ones and the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square hole, we're here for you. Can't wait to see you. Until next time, this is Mike. Thank you for joining us today on the Ideas by Mike podcast. This has been Mike Milligan, your host, where I look to bring real-world conversations with you of people changing the game in the financial planning, investment, and retirement income space. If you want to reach out to Our firm. To learn more, go to ideasbymike.com. As a reminder, in the coming weeks, we will change over from Ideas by Mike to One Oak Financial. One Oak Financial is a nationwide firm here to help you build a one-of-a-kind financial plan for your one-of-a-kind life. You can go to oneoakfinancial.com to see our transition. That's the number one oak financial.com. See you soon. Thanks, Mike. The CFP Board owns the marks CFP®, Certified Financial Planner, and CFP® in the United States. As a reminder, Mike Milligan, Certified Financial Planner, is an investment advisor representative of Advisory Alpha, LLC, an SEC-registered investment advisory firm. All opinions expressed by me or our guests are solely our own opinions and do not reflect the opinions of Advisory Alpha. This recording is for informational purposes only. informational purposes only. It should not be relied on for investment, tax, or legal decisions, and it's in no way intended to communicate or guarantee specific performance or suitability of any security instrument or product as we may have discussed. Investment advisory and financial planning services offered through Advisory Alpha LLC, a registered investment advisor. Insurance is offered through Ideas by Mike, a Virginia-based LLC. Here to serve you in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Ideas by Mike is a separate and unaffiliated entity of Advisory Alpha, LLC. While tax and legal issues may be discussed in the general course of financial and investment planning, Advisory Alpha does not provide tax or legal services. Please consult with your tax or legal professional prior to making a decision relative to those decisions. Any and all statements of purported or observed general practices The statements and opinions expressed by Mike Milligan and the businesses of non-affiliated firms and advisors or conditions of the broad financial services industry are solely the opinions of Mike and are not intended to be offered as factual. The validity of these statements has not been verified, and as such, no representation of their validity are made. An annuity is a long-term financial product designed largely for asset accumulation and retirement needs. All guarantees are backed by the claims-paying ability of the issuing insurance company. This podcast is produced by In conjunction with Mike Milligan, LLC. Thank you again for joining us today. We'll see you on the next podcast.