This is Our Team (Ep. 2)

Welcome to Ideas by Mike, the podcast with Mike Milligan, where you will find one-of-a-kind financial planning advice for your one-of-a-kind life. With over 22 years of experience as a certified financial planner, Mike shares experiences and advice on crafting simple, easy-to-understand financial plans based on your values and priorities. He believes that taking a personalized approach is the best way to prepare for the future and give meaning to your finances. So follow along as Mike, and from time to time his guests, explore different strategies and tools that could help you secure your financial future in retirement. Now on to the show.

Hello and welcome to the Ideas by Mike podcast with your host, Mike Milligan. I'm Wendy McConnell. Hi, Mike.

How are you?

I'm doing great, Wendy. How are you?

I'm good. I'm good. I'm pretty excited about today. We're going to do something a little bit different today, right?

We are. We are. We're going to do an introduction to my team, but mainly through the eyes or, or through the voices of my team. So I'm really excited to, for everybody who listens to hear directly from them and just see why our mission of being a dynamic financial planning firm that impacts our community, our employees, and the clients we deal with. I'm really excited for people to hear that from the point of view of the people on my team.

And you have a whole bevy of lovely ladies that Are included in your team.

Yeah. So, you know, one of the things that's interesting is just to give you guys a little more feedback. I know last week we talked a lot about me and I don't want to talk a lot about me on this one. I want to talk more about the team. But, but my wife and I were at an industry event about, about 3 years ago now. It was, it was post-COVID, one of the first times that people started traveling again. And we were literally sitting in this awards event that had the 50 top financial planners in the country at it. And my wife, when they were giving awards out that night, my wife squeezed my leg up under the table and then just whispered in my ear, we're going to talk about tonight when we get back to the room. And generally, Wendy, men would get very excited when their wives say, we'll talk about something when we get back to the room. But I knew she was serious about something.

Yeah.

My wife was serious because And she pointed out something to me that was not clear to me. The financial planning industry does not have women leading financial planning firms. And so, one of the missions of being a dynamic financial planning firm is to have my team look like my clients, to have experiences that they had as kids growing up and having stories of why money is important to them. But more importantly, having a woman on the team who can empathize with a woman, having young people on my team who could empathize with beneficiaries, having just one of the most diverse teams that we could have in the financial planning industry available to the clients that we serve.

Yeah, I love it. So, we're actually going to hear. From those lovely team members now.

Ideas by Mike is a dynamic financial planning firm.

Dedicated to help those who don't fit the mold of traditional financial advisors.

So together we can make an impact.

Our collective impact is found in how well our employees and their families live life and the communities we serve by bringing visibility to causes that need attention.

And to each of our clients who deserve a one-of-a-kind financial plan for their one-of-a-kind life.

Our company has 5 key values.

We are family first. We are invested in the health and future of your family, and we want your family to be a part of ours.

We believe in education and empowerment. We make the complicated seem simple. We help you understand important financial concepts So that you can feel secure, confident, and in control of your financial future.

We will make a community impact. We are committed to a larger purpose. We use our resources to support growth and change in the communities around us.

We will have industry leadership. We're dedicated to changing an industry that is often stuffy, outdated, and unreachable to many people by investing in new and innovative ways to communicate, We believe in having a fiduciary responsibility.

We always act in the best interest of the client with their unique dreams, goals, and stories in mind, no matter what.

So, Mike, what does financial planning mean to your firm and how do you help people?

Well, you know, financial planning to me is about seeing people where they are. My mission, or really what I tell my clients, is that we are here to create a one-of-a-kind financial plan for your one-of-a-kind life. So often, people think they're average. They just think they have a 9-to-5 job. They've saved money in their 401 plan. They don't understand what an S&P 500 fund is. They don't understand why life insurance could be a powerful tax-free tool. They're going to TikTok and Instagram to try to find out how financial planning topics and tools can help them. Well, see, we're different in that because we want to be dynamic, but we want to help those people who don't fit the traditional mold that the major financial advisory companies lay before them. And so, financial planning to me, is about hearing somebody's story, identifying their resources, and bringing ideas to the table that's going to do that. And we do that in terms of a one-page financial plan that hits tax planning, investment planning, retirement income planning, long-term care planning, and legacy planning.

One page, that does sound one of a kind.

It is. And what's easy about the one page is my team is the one who really gets to execute it. See, I'm really lucky, but the people that really are lucky are the people we serve. As you know, Wendy, as you heard before in the recording, we really have a dynamic financial planning firm. Part of being dynamic, though, is asking really thought-provoking questions. So, I'd like my team to kind of walk us through what those are.

The heart of financial planning is discovery. We have to get to know each other by meeting one-on-one to answer a couple of questions.

Why is money important to you?

What do you expect for your financial planning team?

What experiences have you had with financial professionals?

What resources do you have?

What are your thoughts about taxes?

What do you value most?

How can we serve you?

Then our team begins planning for you. We create a one-page financial plan.

The one-page financial plan is a tool that makes your unique plan easy to implement by our team and you.

We want to connect with you.

We connect through hosting educational webinars. designed to provide timely information about taxes, retirement, and current economic trends.

We use LinkedIn to meet and chat with people who are currently looking for help.

We use Instagram to educate and share the impact that we are making.

We are available to answer questions using text messaging, over the phone, or through one-on-one virtual meetings.

Mike, take me back to the very beginning. Tell me how you got started.

So, Wendy, on the last podcast, you know, if people are just joining us in like this podcast 2 to hear about our team, I would invite you to go back to listen to podcast 1 because that's my origin story. That's how I got to, you know, it's the beginning of how I got to where I am now. But from early on in my career, I realized that there was just something broken in the financial planning world. I noticed, from working in banks, I noticed money just sitting around, not earning interest from the banks earning money, and through people who call themselves fiduciaries, making the agenda of the company they were working with the agenda they put toward the clients. So, I want you to know my story. But I want you to know how Ideas by Mike was created. And again, I want you to hear that from the voice and from my team.

This all started when Mike joined the regional bank in their trust management development program in 1999 and became a certified financial planner in 2002.

Through Mike's first decade, he was trained in helping individuals by offering products the bank wanted him to offer.

Then he worked directly for MetLife, Ohio National Life, and major registered investment advisory firms.

Mike realized that being a fiduciary meant you have to be independent and make financial planning the main priority for each client.

He developed Ideas by Mike and created strategic partnerships with major financial companies like Fidelity, Athene, Nationwide, Espita, JP Morgan, Barclays, and others, not to push a product to clients.

He wanted a team that listened to what individuals need.

There are not many financial planning firms that can say we will offer what the client needs every time. This is our firm, a group of 12 talented people with one goal: a one-of-a-kind financial plan for your one-of-a-kind life.

So, connect with us on LinkedIn.

Listen out for a call from me to invite you to a webinar or a one-on-one meeting.

Ask questions about who we are and how we can help.

Let us help you organize your financial life.

Be open to what you don't know.

Express to us your greatest fears about money.

Let us know why money is important to you.

We will then create a statement of financial purpose that aligns your values with your money.

We will then implement goals and an action plan that I will help you live out.

So that we can together make an impact on this world.

Register for a webinar on our website, subscribe to our YouTube channel, or connect with us on social media.

It's great hearing from the team members themselves. Tell me, how do they work together? How has this been for the business and for you?

So, we have— so, for me personally, it allows us to impact so many more people because when it was just Mike Milligan trying to do everything that these 12 talented members do together to bring to clients, I was doing all of their jobs. And quite honestly, I wasn't doing it well because Lorraine's zone of genius is not mine. Caitlin's is not my zone of genius. Kelsey is talented, and Liz, and Marcus, and Scott, and Joseph, and Vince, and Christina, and Nicole. You know, our team is just beyond talented in the gifting that they have. And so, when we combined, Lorraine's gift of hospitality and Vince's data entry and his ability to work with numbers and Kelsey's organization skills, Nicole's ability to digitally market us and be able to connect with people through social media platforms and messaging. So then we get into those who kind of start the planning process with us, Joseph, And Scott and Marcus, who's, you know, who they start collecting data, and we then start planning it with Caitlin, Christina, Liz, and myself. You see, this, this team lives out daily our motto, which is creating a one-of-a-kind plan for your one-of-a-kind life. And one of the most, you know, one of the biggest things that I can say about our team is the work that Katie does. So, Katie is not only my personal assistant, but she is our impact coordinator. Our team, in its focus to be able to impact the lives of the people we deal with, to help them see that through a properly structured financial plan, In organizing what your taxes will be like, what your investment plan and your retirement income plan, what your long-term care plan and legacy plan will be like, is then we can go out and do things that are meaningful. Our clients can travel. They can impact their community. They could focus on the health that, you know, their personal health that often has been neglected because of a a typical 9-to-5 job while they've been working all this time. And so, the work that Katie does for me in helping keep me organized and keep our team on track, and ultimately the impact she helps our company make, is important because being dynamic, being one of a kind means that we're also going to be different in the impact we make. Ideas by Mike as a company, Wendy, has a goal of giving back, not just giving financial planning advice, but this year alone, already in 2024, we've given money to 14 different charities, charities that are meaningful to each of our employees, charities that are meaningful to the environment, like the Elizabeth River Project. in Norfolk, Virginia, Samaritan House for battered women, and, you know, couple and people in transition, you know, and then just in general, helping a young lady who's facing a, you know, a disease that she shouldn't have to live with and creating modifications to her life. Our company is here to make an impact. We want to change the financial planning industry forever. But the only way I can do that is to have this team in place, because I cannot do it alone. And I think those who connect with us and meet with us will see the power of this amazing team put to work.

Sounds very exciting. It sounds almost like, you know, you're inheriting a whole family when you come on board.

You are. You're inheriting a group of people who are going to be like-minded, just like you are, with a common goal, because they're all one of a kind. The people in my office are one of a kind. I tell them that every day, but they firmly believe that you are the most important person. You know, No matter how small the detail, you are the most important person they're working with at that time. And what's important to you is going to get their attention. So, you are inheriting a family, you're inheriting an extension of your family, you're inheriting a team that's going to be there when really nobody else will be, right? So, when a spouse passes away, this is the team that's going to help make sure what you put in place gets executed. When a child goes to college, this is the team that's going to help execute the payments of those bills. When the market gets tough, the stock market gets tough, this is the team that's going to remind you that the investment plan we put in place is there. When a spouse needs long-term care, this is the team that will remind you that we planned for this. And, uh, and we've got your back.

So, tell us once again, how do we get in touch with you and your amazing team?

As, as we talked about earlier, when the team talked about it, you can connect with us on LinkedIn. Uh, you can, uh, @IdeasByMike on LinkedIn. You can go to YouTube @IdeasByMike, Instagram @IdeasByMike, on our website ideasbymike.com. I think you're starting to hear a theme now, right, Wendy? It's @ideasbymike everything.

I know.

But if you search, you're everywhere. If you search Ideas by Mike on any of the major social platforms or our website, there's a way to connect with us on each of those. And when you connect, you're connecting with my team. First of all, you'll connect with Kelsey and Lorraine. You'll connect with Caitlin and Katie. And Liz and Marcus and Scott and Joseph and Vince and Christina. Wendy, I have an amazing team that I think people that are looking for one-of-a-kind financial planning will love to have help them create the one-of-a-kind financial plan.

Absolutely. Well, thank you, Mike. It was great to hear from your team today. Thank you for listening. Please like, follow, and share this podcast with your friends. Until next time, I'm Wendy McConnell.

Thank you for tuning in to Ideas by Mike, the podcast, the show where ideas turn into money. If you enjoyed today's episode, make sure to click the follow button to stay up to date on future releases. For additional information on becoming a part of the Ideas by Mike community, Check out our website at ideasbymike.com. Don't forget to take a look at the show notes, and for more financial insights, subscribe to the Ideas by Mike YouTube channel or visit the website to find one of the upcoming webinars. Also, connect on Instagram or Facebook @ideasbymike. Ideas by Mike is an LLC headquartered in Virginia with offices in 42 cities. The company owns an insurance agency registered in all states directly or through affiliate companies. Mike is an investment advisor representative with JB Wealth Advisors. Any financial planning information shared on the show should not be construed as financial advice for you personally. For your one-page financial plan, please reach out to Ideas by Mike through the website. The information covered and posted represents the views and opinions of the guest and does not necessarily represent the views or opinions of Ideas by Mike. The content has been made available for informational and educational purposes only. The content is not intended to be a substitute for professional investment advice. Any financial planning information shared on the show should not be construed as financial advice for you personally. For your one-page financial plan, please reach out to Ideas by Mike through the website.