Clarity, Confidence & Cash Flow: Building a Life You Don’t Have to Retire From

His work is all about clarity, confidence and cash flow. And of course we're going to be talking about passive income today, but helping successful people stop guessing and start living a life they don't have to retire from.

The biggest thing that people really want is they want a sense of financial security, right? So why do we want wealth, why do we want money? Why are we trying to create a certain rate of return? It's because we want financial security, we want freedom from money, we want our time back. And so it's really.

I don't want to run out before I'm dead. Yeah, that's, that's. Yeah, exactly right.

It's exactly right. I have to learn to create passive income instead of just always relying on my ability to work. The idea of wealth, what I find is mystifying to people. So everybody wants to have it, but they really can't define it. If something you thought were true or something you were doing wasn't right, when do you want to know after it's too late or where there's still time to do something about it or years.

In advance when you could save yourself millions of dollars that you could invest and could be compounding?

Hey, welcome to Capability Amplifier. This is Mike Koenigs. My guest today is Brian Scribogna, a nationally recognized wealth advisor. He's got over 30 years experience in helping high net worth individuals that's like you strategically align their money with the life they want to live. Now he is a chartered financial consultant. He's a certified private wealth advisor. He's also written three books, Common Sense, Generational Planning and Retirement Planning. He's also the host of the Common Sense Financial podcast which was named one of The Forbes Top 10 Podcasts by Financial advisors. Now he's also been featured on KMOX 97.1 FM Talk Advisors magazine and is a regular contributor to Kiplinger. And he's been repeatedly named one of the best wealth managers in St. Louis by small Business Monthly. Now his work is all about clarity, confidence and cash flow. And of course we're going to be talking about passive income today, but helping successful people stop guessing and start living a life they don't have to retire from. And he's also a friend who I know from strategic coach. So Brian, thanks for being here today, my man. It's good to be spend some time with you.

Yeah, so glad to be here. I appreciate you having me on.

Yeah, absolutely. I've been looking forward to this. We've been talking about it for months now, so I always like to Ask kind of a big question that will be intriguing to the audience. And I really want to get into the psychology of what you've been doing and how you think, but also how you solve problems. And I think you've been in the business of cash flow and figuring out passive income for a long time. But what is either the strangest money or people problem you've solved in your 30 years or something that just shows up over and over again that leads to misunderstandings that couples have?

Yeah, that's a good question and an observation there. So a lot of times people are thinking, of course, one thing, and then after you go through some diagnosis and talk through some things, that it's a completely different topic altogether. So when it comes to money, what I find is that people will often default to things that they understand. Right. So if there's any void in their thinking, if there's any knowledge gaps, they're going to fill that with things they know. And for most people, what they know is they understand investments. Right. So they kind of equate everything to a rate of return. And so a common question I get for a new caller, new person contacting us is, well, what kind of rate of return can I expect? Or I'm looking for X amount of rate of return. And that's really not the right conversation to have. That's important. It's something that is down the road to discuss, but it's certainly not someplace you start. Okay. The biggest thing that people really want is they want a sense of financial security. Right. So why do we want wealth? Why do we want money? Why are we trying to create a certain rate of return? It's because we want financial security. We want freedom from money. We want our time back. And so it's really digging.

I don't want to run out before I'm dead. Yeah, that's exactly right.

Exactly right. So we have to keep our priorities in check. Right. So, yeah, there's a process around that, but it's really identifying purpose, like, what is it all for? Like, what do we do? Why are we even doing this? You know, we're playing this game most of our life. It's not about having a stack of $100 bills. It's really about being able to fund our purpose. And what is that? And so the conversation really ventures to understanding purpose and what we're really trying to accomplish. And that tends to lift the need and the focus around rates of return.

Got it. Well, let's do a little bit of a backstory here. So for someone who doesn't know about you. I know you are from St. Louis and you've been running a virtual family office, but give us a little backstory and, you know, where did you have your moment of realization of.

Your mindset shift around wealth, freedom, and where you really felt you got it. And you had enough experience with other people and their perspectives to give you purpose and also know why you wanted to do what you're doing right now.

Yeah, I mean, yeah, I think like most people, it kind of starts with your family and the people that you're around. Right. So for me, it was a little bit unique because my dad was from Croatia, my dad came over from overseas, he kind of worked his way through the country, ended up in St. Louis, met my mom, and we stayed there. But my dad was a. He was a machine. He could work, he knew how to work. And his philosophy was, if you want something, you have to earn it, you have to work for it for it. Right. So he was all about the American dream. That's why he was here. Able to work, create a life, raise a family, have some, have a sense of security as opposed to where he was coming from. So I grew up around work ethic. Like he worked seven days a week, he worked a full time job, he worked on the weekends. He had me involved in all kinds of things around the house because he wanted to teach me those disciplines. And there's a lot of stories there that I won't get into. But anyways, I carried all that with me forward. Right. So when I got into the. Into starting the business, I just worked hard. Like I didn't really know any better. Like, give me the tools and let me go. And so I worked my tail off. And, you know, by my early 20s, I was well into my six figures. From the, from a standpoint of people around me, you know, they saw success. I had all the stuff and beautiful wife and kids and a house and cars and all this stuff. But what, what was challenging is that I was working harder and harder to maintain it. All right? So I was just in this hamster wheel. And what I saw with the other people around me in my space is that they were kind of in the hamster wheel with me. Like, we were all running together and sharing the same ideas, but nobody was really working themselves out of that hamster wheel. And so I just got tired of being sick and tired. And so I started looking at other industries to see how they were doing things to create a different framework around that where I didn't have to work. So Hard to keep up with my lifestyle. So that, that was the beginning of the transition.

Where did that lead in terms of wealth building and pretty common phrase that you talk about and I've seen in your marketing materials, in your webinar is that traditional wealth building, the path is broken.

And about chasing status. But.

How has all this changed your approach? I'm really looking for your overall, your big picture philosophy of wealth, money and life and how that ties together.

Yeah. Well, here's the thing, and I think this is true with a lot of entrepreneurs is that I'm not afraid of work. Like it doesn't scare me. I mean I work hard every day and I do it because I love doing what I do. I like creating things and you know, God willing I'll always be working on something that's just in my DNA. But the epiphany came for me when I was looking at other industries and trying to put all these pieces together and this didn't happen overnight. It took a little bit of time. I'm kind of hard headed and so I was. It took me a little time for it to really sink in to say, you know what, I have to learn to create passive income instead of just always relying on my ability to work. That whole concept really intrigued me and I didn't really understand it completely at the time. But to be able to receive income from a prior effort, that was a mental shift for me. And, and that's what's really different for me today. I'm just trying to, I'm not trying to keep up with a lifestyle anymore. Like my passive income's in place, my life is funded. Okay. My focus right now is building different businesses and growing my passive income so I can really live out my purpose. Which, which isn't just running into that hamster wheel. Right. It's about creating a life, creating a legacy, helping it really impact my clients and my family and my community and just anything as far as my reach can, can reach. I want to impact that through, through purpose and not just trying to keep up with the lifestyle. It's a very radical different way of living and it changed my life once I figured that out and saw it start to come to fruition.

Yeah, well, you've. I think everyone dreams of passive income. It's just the question is how long is it going to take? How do I get started? What's the safest, most secure way of getting there? This seems like a good transition to. You've developed a proprietary system. It's called Wealth Sync. So tell us what is it? How does it help someone align their money with their life in a way that most advisors miss, but for that matter, most people miss. What. What is this?

Yeah. So when I speak with a new client and I ask them about their desires about money, what do they want to do for. For them? I kind of already hit on this. But they inevitably say they want their money to grow. Right. And of course, everybody wants the money to grow. But in my experience, for many financial advisors, that's pretty much. It's not necessarily the end of the conversation, but it's really all that they need to proceed in identifying, like, a risk tolerance and then begin recommending a portfolio. Okay. And while that's part of the equation, don't get me wrong, it definitely is. It's the wrong conversation to be having. Right. So When I created WealthSync, what I was trying to create is a process to help people, to take them through a very complex maze of decisions and situations and break it down into actionable steps that helps to simplify the process. So things that include, like, lifestyle goals, business exits, retirement, philanthropy, generational intentions, and tax planning, asset protection, special needs, all these types of things that are meaningful to people as opposed to just talking about money and rates of return. So it's really connecting those dots to know how to position the assets. It's kind of what the name implies. It's sinking wealth to a purpose. So that's really the idea behind it.

Got it. So the. What I hear, when I hear that from you, is you get. You spend a lot of time psychologically getting to people's whys, and I do.

Yeah.

And you're the how guy in a way, but matching the psychology to the purpose. And I think that's. It's really easy for someone to think and be worried about. And look, I've got the same cycle going on all the time, too. You know, you and I come from pretty similar backgrounds where I never felt any form of financial security for most of my life. And most of the time, the way, you know, money was because I made a lot of effort to make it. Not that there was some strategic design that enabled passive income to be generated on a regular basis. You know, usually the passive income generators were businesses, not investment vehicles. And when they went away, so did the quote unquote, passive income. And then the next part is I was more worried about how much money I had in the bank versus having a strategy for keeping it and what it was there for, or even having some sense of what I really needed to feel Comfortable and secure. And I think that's a big distinction about you and your psychology is you get really, you really get into the psychology, understanding that and figuring out the why and the how.

I would say that's, that's pretty accurate. The idea of wealth, what I find is mystifying to people. Right. Everybody wants to have it, but they really can't define it. Right. People try to define it and they express it in terms of a net worth or a sum of money, but I really do, and I always have. I struggle with that because, you know, if you got 10 million bucks and you reach that figure, what, what then? Like, what does that mean? And so when I speak with people who say they're or they're. They are wealthy, and I get these calls all the time, you know, I speak with people that's got 5, 10, $20 million and they're stressed.

Yeah.

Some of them even, some of them even say they're miserable. And why is that? I mean, how can that be? If your goal is to reach that level of cash in your pocket and you're not happy and you're miserable, is that really connecting those dots? So it's really not where it lies. The problem is that money is seldom the goal. The goal is what the money can fund to get a result. And that's the missing piece. Yeah.

Well, it's like you, I've known a lot of wealthy people, and.

I would probably say they're more.

Frustrated and effed up and sad than people who aren't. And some of that's tied. It's. There's all sorts of weird psychology. You know, some of it is they, they feel either unworthy of it or they feel like the reason they have it is that it's luck and if they lose it, they could never get it back again there. And it's like there, there's so many vicious mindsets and yeah, that's a. One thing I've learned in listening to you and talking to you is you've got the answers. And more importantly, because you've done so many financial plans with so many people, you can deal with things that people don't even know that's going on and give them resolution. So why don't you take Walk me on a typical customer journey? So think about someone who's overwhelmed, they're in transition. So they could have had a business sale, maybe a huge life event, could be death of a partner, or they've decided to retire, or they're thinking about retirement.

What's the experience? You Bring them on. Just describe what you do that's unique and different and special, aside from the fact that you have such a clear understanding and you've systemized the why and the purpose.

Well, I really make an effort to try to dig into kind of like what you did when we first started here. It's like, hey, where are you coming from? Like, tell me a little bit about your background. Because there's, you know, our life experiences create a belief system, right? And that belief system drives our behavior. And so if we want to change the mindset or if we want to change the behavior, we have to go all the way back to the beginning and recreate a different experience or reality. Right? So, so my goal really with people, especially entrepreneurs, because entrepreneurs, if somebody has a day job, they go in to do their job. It doesn't mean they don't take it home. It doesn't mean they're not stressed. That's real. But an entrepreneur, their identity is tied up in their business most of the time. I mean, the business is who they are. And so we have to dig outside of that. So whenever I'm talking to somebody and they say, I'm going to exit the business at a certain point in time, they have a date.

We have to say, okay, I know right now your mind is 100% focused on that. That is a stressful transition. You want to make sure everybody's asking you for stuff, there's a deadline, et cetera. But if we're going to do real planning here, we have to set that aside for a minute. We'll come back to it, but we have to set it aside. And I want you to imagine, Mike, what is it going to be? What are you going to be doing on Monday after that Business is sale. You got a check in your hand, but your business is done. Okay, so what are you going to do? And what I hear over and over and over again is people say, well, you know, I want to travel. I'm going to spend time with the grandkids. I'm going to play golf. And I'll say, that's great. It's all good stuff. Maybe you didn't have time to do a lot of that, you know, before. Yeah. But okay, that's going to get old after a while because that's not really a purpose. That's just some activities. And all activities get old after a while, and the grandkids grow up and they don't really want to be hanging with their grandparents anymore. So tell me, what do you really like? What drives you what are you going to wake up and be motivated to do? And so we start to have those types of conversations around purpose and meaning and. Because what I do see is the clients that don't. Don't stop and do this part. And it may sound like, well, what's this got to do with money? You know, just help me save some taxes and create income and we're done. Well, it has everything to do, because what the people that don't do the step and don't get clarity around this, and I've seen this, they're the ones that age the fastest. Right. And they're the ones that become depressed. Yeah. And it's just the truth. It's just human nature. If we don't have a purpose, we tend to get depressed because we're not made to not do anything. Right. So that's really the first stage. And I don't hammer people with it, but I do want to walk through and get people thinking, because honestly, most people don't think about this. They're thinking about getting to that exit, getting that check, and then. And then maybe it is on to the next thing. I had a business owner recently that. That just sold his business and we can get into that, but.

He'S. I'm kind of in the process of this with him now because I kind of caught him on the back end of it early enough to help him, but on the back end of the whole transition. And so I'm working with him right now to really try to identify that because he goes, man, I don't know. He goes, that's a great question. I don't know. What I'm going to do is he's still caught up in this sale, Right? So, yeah. And then it's just a matter of wealth sinking, connecting all the dots and bringing everything to help fund that purpose.

Right. And that can come in the form of if they want to do humanitarian outreach and knowing what they can tap without running out, or what's a reasonable amount to risk on the next venture, all that stuff. So that's all of it. It makes a ton of sense. And I know.

Again, at this stage, I talk to a lot of founders who exit, and I really am surprised at how unprepared they are. And they're like, well, at least I got my eight figures. You know, they're walking away with their eight figures or so, and they last six months to a year before they're completely bored and their spouse wants to kick them out of the house. And like you said, the Grandkids don't want to hang out with them. They're like, they thought, you know, this is so. And golf ball golf and, and boats get boring pretty quickly.

Yeah. Everything gets old. Yeah.

Yeah. No, you're right. Well, let's.

We've, we've mentioned already.

You know, your ideal target, I assume, are founder business owners who you love to work with and who work best with you. But like, who are your perfect fits, your right fits and why?

Yeah. So the type of clients that are going to be, that we're going to be able to make the most impact with, they would have to have at a minimum of $1 million to invest. Anybody with less than that, we really can't help them too much. They really need to be a financial delegator, not a do it yourselfer. We can get into that, but that's really important. And if you're in a transition with selling a business or exiting a business, that's kind of a sweet spot. And it's really ideal to have a plan in place before that happens, not after the fact. There's things we can do after the fact, but leading up to it is going to be really important and they really need to be in the United States. It's difficult dealing with people outside of the United States. States.

But I'll give you another example. You kind of hit on it and it just caused me to think about something. Is, is that the reason why. Another reason why it's so important to really clarify what you're going to be doing on Monday and, and understand that purpose. Because you mentioned it like, if you have humanitarian things that you're wanting to do charitable, if philanthropy is your thing, man, there's so much we can do before that sale to save you a ton of tax money. So if you sell and then owe all this tax and then get into that, you've missed a huge window of opportunity. So that's what I'm saying is that it really needs to be prior to the sale. Ideally even a couple years before the sale would be optimal.

To really get everything in order, get things well thought out and a plan in place.

Yeah, I. That is so true. It's the thinking about it moment. I know recently.

And this is something that I'm gonna, I'm gonna pose it more as a question than a statement, because when you look at your arsenal of tax mechanisms, because one of the things that you do is you are excellent at finding.

Great tax advantage behaviors.

And vehicles. In addition to the psychology and thinking about this and then the thinking ahead part, which is getting down to the purpose and the why and knowing what you need so you don't run out. But.

Talk about some of the tech strategies that, that you found are non obvious that you like to employ.

Or some of the biggest tax blind spots that people seem to overlook all the time or their CPAs do that are just either non obvious or so obvious people miss them anyway.

Yeah. So one of the things to keep in mind, I think before we even talk about that is understanding the role, role that each advisor has in your, your virtual family office. Okay. So you know, a tax person or a cpa, they're really good about understanding codes and filling out forms and confirming if an idea is viable. But to, to think that, and there's, there's definitely some anomalies out there, there's unicorns out there. But the majority of CPAs, you can't look at them as your source of ideas. Right. So, so they're part of a team. They're part of a team. And I think attorneys are the same way. Attorneys there are really, really good ones that are forward thinking and whatnot, but they're problem solvers. So you give them a problem and they will help work through it, but they're not going to come up with necessarily the ideas. And so having a, you know, a good financial person that understands and has a lot of experience in.

Supported by a CPA and attorney, that is the trifecta. Okay. In my opinion, there's ancillary business, you know, coaches and things that, you know, brokers and things you'd want to bring to the table. But these are really the three. So, but to answer your question, you know, the two most common scenarios I run across, there's all kinds of things, but the two most common are business exits and people with a whole lot of money sitting in tax deferred accounts like subs and 401ks and things like that. And it's great while you're saving the money and getting that deferral, but it is this snowball, this monster that's waiting for you that whenever you get ready to go use that money, it's all taxable. Right. So everybody wants to get that converted over to Roth and get that money to be tax free. And some people get pretty aggressive with that. Right. They want to just start moving it all. And they're just, they're, they, they're, they're saying, well, the taxes are the taxes. Well, that's where we pump the brakes and say, hey, let's, let's think strategically about this and figure out ways to overcome some of this tax liability. And, you know, working with the CPA to say, hey, what if we did, you know, some charitable things? What if that made sense? What if we accelerated our giving for 10 years? And in a couple of different years where we're trying to do these conversions, you know, what if we're looking at things like oil and gas and things like that for somebody that is just.

Like. That doesn't have a lot of real estate and things of that nature? Because if you have real estate, there's a whole lot of other things you could be doing with a business exit. It's really like thinking about. I'll give you an example. So if somebody calls me up and says, hey, Brian, I'm selling my business. I just need to know what to do with the money, that's a very common phone call I get. My first question is, how far along in the process are you? Have you signed anything? And sometimes they'll say, yeah, we've signed it. And other times people say, no, we haven't signed anything. I'll say, great, don't sign anything. Let's talk through this a little bit because, you know, there's a lot of questions around that. Are they getting all the money in the same year? Do they need the money in the same year? Maybe we spread that out over a few years through some kind of deferred sales contract. Or is there goodwill involved in the sale? Is the real estate part of the sale? There's a lot of things. Okay, but if we can work with the CPA and the attorney to. To really think through the structure, like segregate the business, you know, like you would on a real estate bill. You cost segregation on it. You can do that with a business, kind of tear it apart and say, okay, this type of asset can be taxed at this, and this can be technically this. And that's we're working with. A good asset attorney would be good.

That's what I was looking for.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we have. We have good asset protection attorneys. So there are many variables, and every situation is different. There's really no cookie cutter. But the most common thing is on that charitable side, because a lot of people do have charitable intentions. And then it's also getting ahead of that sales contract to understand the difference between goodwill and inventory. Right. Or asset sale versus a stock sale. These are things that. That a lot of people just don't understand. And that's okay. But that's why you should reach out to somebody that understands this stuff to work through that. And I do need to say this, just keep the regulators really happy here, is that there's a difference between tax advice and tax strategy. And so I do tax strategy. The CPA does the tax advice. And so we typically will come up with a strategy and we'll lay it in front of the CPA and say, is this viable? Does this make sense? And hopefully they have some input too. But it's a team effort. And so this isn't to be construed as tax advice.

Good call. I appreciate that. And I'm going to give you a shameless plug, which is if this inspired you at all. Just listening to Brian, because I think this is where the gold's at. Head over to wealthsyncprocess.com.

Brian. Not only you can book a conversation with him, but he has a really short and it's really effective mini webinar. It's more like a video sales letter. It's called Assets to Income. So check that out. But Brian, I have one more big question for you before we take this home, which is is there something I should have asked you that I didn't that you think is important that we either restate or is there a piece of psychology or this nugget that you had right now, which I think is so important. Important is.

What just a little bit of reframing of sale can do is the difference between paying tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars. Because good tech strategy is about making an argument. Sometimes it's about how something gets framed and set up. And that's a matter of just. Just talking to some people who really understand this and being able to defend a point of view.

Yeah, I would say that you're kind of hitting on it if something you thought were true or something you were doing wasn't right. When do you want to know? After it's too late or will there's still time to do something about it?

Or years in advance when you could save yourself millions of dollars that you could invest and could be compounding.

Exactly.

That is.

Yeah. And one other thing you mentioned, I'll leave you with this, is that you had mentioned it a little while ago. It's like, how long does it create take to create the passive income? I think it's like, well, how long does it take to create $10 million? You know, I mean, it takes time, it's incremental. But you got to remember that everything is about cash flow. Everything you do in your business is about cash flow. Every investment decision you make is about cash flow because you can have assets, but if you're. If they're not producing assets, what are they really doing? They're just on your balance sheet. So I think that one thing, just thinking about it before any financial decision is how does this affect cash flow? Makes an enormous difference. Yeah.

Yeah. And that, that is.

That is usually the third, the fifth or the last thing or the neverest thing that people think about.

Yeah.

So that's a really good distinction. So anything else before we send people over to wealthsyncprocess.com again?

Yeah, I just say I appreciate you having me on. I think that defining your purpose is huge. Don't underestimate that. Know why you do what you do, right, not just in business, but in life. Because, you know, everything, like I said, is about cash flow, knowing what you really want.

Everything we're doing is about clarity, control, and building a life. And if you listen to these words, building a life, you don't have to retire from. That's huge, in my opinion, because you can retire from doing an occupation, but you don't want to have to retire from living your life and go back to work or create something new.

So hallelujah on that. I.

Totally, totally agree. I think.

And what we think, especially if you're a founder, entrepreneur.

The challenges we all go through building a business that hopefully we don't hate. And then when we do hit that exit with whatever our safety mechanism is, you know, you've got a certain number of years that you still have your mobility and being able to have the freedom, the mobility and choice is ultimately what this is all about. And where, if. If your internal belief is, well, a financial advisor does X. One thing I've learned after spending time with you, Brian, and listening to you is you've been exposed to so many different kinds of thinking that you can think ahead and catch a lot of psychological challenges, not just monetary, not just planning, not just tag things long before they happen and warn someone about them. So it might not just be the passive income or the freedom that you protect, but it's a prevention of not experiencing some disastrous emotional condition as well. And so.

Many couples just aren't prepared to have some of the conversations they need to have or even know they're going to have them. And there's a lot of. So there's a different kind of insurance that's at work here, and it's not insurance we're talking about. So that's my summary of what I've learned after listening to you talking to you and getting to know you.

Yeah, I think that's great. You know, when we're working a job or raising a family or running a business, that's what we talk about around the kitchen table a lot of times. Right. But when those things are, the kids move out, business is sold. You gotta know where you stand. It can't be. It can't. That can't be your driver. That's right. It's gotta be something beyond that. So, yeah, that's what we have to keep in mind whenever we're building the financial plan. Awesome.

Well, let's close it out here. So if you're in a period of transition, you're retiring, you're selling a business or thinking about it or just want some clarity. Brian's available. He does a full diagnostic with you and. And discovery call. And one more time, that's wealthsyncprocess.com that will be in the show notes. You can learn more. You can schedule your call. Make sure you watch his Assets to Income video webinar. And I'll leave it to you. Anything else? I should have said that. I didn't. Brian.

You got it.

All right, well, this is capability amplifier. If you know someone who'd enjoy or appreciate this episode like you have, make sure you share it with them. In the meantime, I'll see you on in another episode soon.

Bye.

Bye.