#213 Building Your Financial Team

Hey, everyone. Hope you've had a great week. This week, we're going to be talking about a topic that I love talking about. It's about building your team for success. What that means is that you want to surround yourself with the right people to help you accomplish your goals, help you get where you want to be. We're going to talk about those team members today and what to think about and consider when you put together this roster. So stay tuned. Welcome to the Passive Income MD Podcast, where we talk about creating your ideal life through multiple streams of income. If you enjoy hearing about this stuff, make sure to hit subscribe. Now, let's get on with the show. So have you ever heard the saying, you're only as strong as the team around you? Well, I believe in the world of investing, in the world of finances, passive income, real estate, investing, all of that, all of this couldn't be more true. This week on the Passive Income MD Podcast, we're going to dive into that crucial topic, building your team roster. We'll explore why it's essential to surround yourself with the right professionals and how to find and vet them. And first, let's talk about why it matters who you surround yourself with, what company you keep, because I believe it's absolutely true. Your success really depends on the expertise and reliability of the people around you, because you only know so much, you only have so much time and energy. So what you really want to do is look to leverage other people and other people's experience as much as possible. Now, having that right team can be the difference between a relatively smooth journey. We all know there are going to be ups and downs, but having the right people around you to surround you to make it better will, my opinion result in a more profitable journey, and one that's hopefully filled with less mistakes, and the other side, which is where you have all these hurdles and risks that you don't need to take on if you find the right people. Now, all of us understand this concept in our daily lives, for anybody who's in the or, you've got a team around. You've got the right people. You've got the most important people in the hospital, the anesthesiologists. Right now, you've got the surgeons there, too. You've got scrub nurses, techs. Now, all these people need to work in harmony to make things happen and everything to go well. Everyone has their role and understands it, and they're all there to work together for the common goal, to help the patient get where they want to be. So when it comes to finances, that's absolutely no different. And I don't know if you've ever thought of them as a team that you're building around you. And so as we're talking about these things, start to create a checklist for yourself of who you want to surround yourself with to get the best counsel, the best advice, the best strategies, and of course, the best resources around you. So these are not in any particular order, but I'm going to list off some of the people that I put around me and people that I believe you probably will want to have around you too. First is an amazing cpa. Taxes are the biggest determinant to ultimately how much you keep in your pocket. As we've heard before, and I could say it to death, it's not about how much you make, but how much you keep in your pocket. So having a good, knowledgeable CPA that understands your situation, your goals and what you're trying to do is crucial. You want the right amount of tax planning and strategy from them to make sure you're making the most of your situation. And I will tell you, all CPAs and accountants are not created equal. And many of us have been with the same CPA for a while and that's great. They know you and understand you, but sometimes you outgrow your own cpa. It's like being in medicine. They're specialists. Not every doctor does the same thing, not every accountant knows the exact same thing and has a similar type of strategy. So over time, I've personally even switched CPAs a few times depending on my goals and outcomes to make sure that I get the person that is the most knowledgeable in the tax efficient strategies that I want to go for. So if you haven't reviewed that, consider getting second opinion. Sometimes people will take a look at your previous year's tax accounts, then maybe it's time to review that. Most CPAs, especially outside of standard tax season, will be willing to review your file and you can see if someone has a little bit different strategy that maybe you didn't think about or your CPA didn't think about and make you the best informed decision from there. Number two, you want an asset protection lawyer. Now we all know that we are targets in many ways. Being a high income professional doesn't mean if you're at your job or at home or in your car. One of the risks that we have to consider just being in this country, in this environment is the risk of a lawsuit. These could be things that are outside of our control, but These things happen. And so you want to safeguard your wealth. You've worked way too hard to build things up, to build your business, to build your family, to build your house and everything you put around you. And you want to make sure that is protected. Now, I will tell you, when you talk to different asset protection lawyers, you'll have different strategies, different price amounts. So your best option is to shop around, talk to 2 to 3, see what their strategy would be for you, see what makes sense, understand the finances involved, and ultimately go with them and, you know, figure out how to build that umbrella or that zone of protection around you and your family and your wealth. Because again, you want to be able to keep as much of your wealth in any situation, no matter what, and be able to sleep better at night. Next, you want to have good insurance agents around you. And now insurance agents have their own specialties. So insurance agents, when it comes to real estate, when it comes to your business, when it comes to life insurance, when to it comes, when it comes to disability insurance, you're gonna find the most experienced people that have your interests at heart, that are not just gonna steer you into products mainly because they make a better commission, but ones that understand the long term game with you, that if they protect you and take care of you, you're gonna refer other people, you're gonna be lifelong clients of theirs. And that can be the challenge for you to tease that out. So of course you talk to other people who are in the space, other members of our community who have they used, who have they had a great experience with, to figure out what you need. But having the right insurance is absolutely vital. I think we all understand that from a malpractice standpoint. So an experienced agent can really tailor their policies according to your goals and objectives, where you're at financially, where you want to be, to protect all those investments, as well as set you up in case anything goes wrong in your life, like you have a disability claim or that sort of thing. So next, this might work for some people and not for others, is to have a good financial advisor around you. Now what does a good financial advisor do? They look at your whole portfolio from a macro standpoint. They are able to kind of zoom out and zoom in to make sure that every box is checked, that you set yourself up to hit those goals, both in the short term and long term, to protect you and your family and get you in the right place. Now, I will tell you that most financial advisors are pretty cookie cutter in their recommendations. Many of them come from one School of thought, which is everything should be poured into long term index funds. Now, it might work for some of you, but for many other people that are interested in investing in real estate, creating cash flow, sometimes that can be at odds with many financial advisors out there. But I will tell you, there are financial advisors out there who do their own investments in real estate that understand how to put together a great financial plan with somebody who owns a business, likes to invest in real estate, likes to invest in some alternative assets. So instead of just finding a financial advisor and letting them tell you exactly what your strategy should be, find one that understands some of the strategies that you bring to the table, will help put that all into consideration when they consider your plans. Next is when it comes to your other investments, like investments in real estate. Especially if you're going to buy your own properties, you want a team there too. You want to find agents, you want to find lenders, you want to find property managers, you want to find contractors, and that comes with time. None of that happens immediately. That's why for a lot of people, I tell them, getting one property sometimes can be the hardest startup because you got to build your team. But after that, things become a lot easier. Now, many of you might not want to build that team and do it completely actively. Then you want to build a team of real estate professionals that you can invest with. Those are usually real estate syndicators. They might also be called sponsors or operators or real estate private equity groups. They're the groups that you can trust to handle your money, that they put together great deals that make sense for you as a limited partner to get into those, in some of those investments. And I'll tell you, you're going to need more than one in that situation. You want to build a roster of them, people you can trust. And I always tell people my goal has always been when it comes to sponsors and syndicators, my goal has always been to find 10 that I completely trust. Doesn't mean that I'll invest in every single one of their deals, but at least I don't have to do the due diligence all over again to figure out who's trustworthy, who has a good track record, who has a great alignment of interest with me that I can trust. You want to build that roster? I know it takes time. Next, if you want to invest in different asset classes. Now we talked about a lot of different asset classes to create wealth, that they might be things like mineral rights, there might be things like investing in other businesses, investing in debt options, I believe that the right amount of diversification minimizes risk, but keeps the upside there for you. So you want to find experts in various asset classes that can help you make those great decisions, people that you can trust that can help you diversify your portfolio. Now, just so you know, by being part of this community, you probably got introduced to a lot of these people. That's why, even though many people know I run my own real estate private equity group called Ascent Equity Group, I bring on a lot of other people and a lot of options because I know the goal is to create a diversified portfolio, have groups that you can trust, that our community trust has vetted out to, to at least give you options. Now it's really on you still to do your own due diligence to make sure things fit for you and your goals and perspectives. But at least they're easier to access once you're in this community. And of course, whenever we can, just so you know, we always strive for better terms and conditions for the people that are listening here and that are part of our community. And that's something we've always fought for. So I know what you're thinking. How do you find these people and how do you vet them? I mean, first of all, I think the biggest thing is by being part of a community like this, hopefully you should have access to many of these people. But networking, asking other people, asking for referrals, being part of communities who are talking about this stuff, you know, your trusted friends, your colleagues, mentors who have had great experiences, should be able to refer some of those people to you. Then after that, once you get sent people, you should interview all of them. Would you hire anybody for your practice or anything without interviewing them? And would you interview only one person or multiple candidates? I always say interview as many as reasonable. That makes sense to narrow it down. But ask about their experience, ask about their track record, their approach to providing amazing service for clients. And I think there's a lot to be said for intuition in this case. You get the referrals, you can do the background, you do the objective things like check their track record, but at the end of the day, it's a relationship. Hopefully it's not just a one time transaction, but a situation where you can call upon them if you need help and you have ongoing support. Of course you want to do a background check, meaning that you want to check their credentials. I would Google every single person that you expect to do business with just to see if there's anything like lawsuits or fraud or bankruptcy. It Just helps you understand their background and something like a simple Google check can save you so much headache. And then the other thing to do is consider trial period. But many of these people, you want a long term commitment, but maybe you try them for a little while with maybe one part of your portfolio or you start with a small project to see how they perform before committing to a long term relationship. But this is the process I typically go through before I sign on with anybody. Again, I make sure that I get some sort of referral. Where does it come from in terms of the source and do I vet that out? Number two, I make sure I interview and talk to them, ask them the hard questions. Three, I do, you know, I check their track record, I check their credentials, I check for any issues with their background or history. Then I understand. For many people the best way is to just try and see what happens, but keep them accountable and have a standard that you don't let down on and be willing to switch if necessary. So how many of you checked all of those boxes? I mean again, the right having the right team can really change and impact and elevate everything that happens in the world of finance. When it comes to you can change the investing game. If you have the wrong team, it can really create obstacles for you. So you want to surround yourself with trusted people. Don't rush the vetting process. Do your proper due diligence because it'll really help you in the end. So if I had any action stuff for all of you right now this week, evaluate your current team, who's in your roster? Are you happy with them? Is it time to consider an upgrade? Are you settling just because you don't want to find somebody new? Could there be somebody out there who helps you get to your goals faster, better, more competently? Well, hope that was helpful for you in some way. Thanks for tuning in as always. Whatever we can do to continue to support you again, we're here for you. We love this community and we want to thank you for everything that you do. Appreciate you all. Have an amazing week. I talk again soon. Enjoy the show. Let me know by dropping a review in the podcast app you're listening to us in and if you haven't already, make sure to hit subscribe. 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