From Debt to Control: Elizabeth Wall's Banking Breakthrough

Foreign.

What were some of the things that you can recall from the time that you got to see Nelson in person? You probably had a chance to meet Mary as well. What are some things that come up for you when you think about, you know, those memories?

Yeah. So when I first met Nelson and Mary, as you said, we had them out for an event and, and I actually had the pleasure of sitting next to them at the dinner we had after the event. And we had really good conversations, nothing of really important, not even necessarily about process. I remember talking about the forestry industry a lot because the province I live in has a big forestry industry. And that conversation and those conversations I had during the time I met him was the turning point for me that made me say, maybe I need to actually pick up this book and read it. I heard you guys talk about it. I seen these clients coming in. I had been to the boot camp, but I never actually read the book until I met Nelson. And the way he spoke and the way he always answered a question with a question to really get you to, to think about your thinking. I, I think that was the, the kind of turning point, I guess you could say, that led me to say, I, I need to read this book and find out what it's all about.

Wow.

Yeah.

That's so good. Nelson just had that effect on people. He was really able to, to meet people where they were at and, and to start from there. And he just had that, that charisma and that, that charm, you know, that people just have told us repeatedly over the years, you know, that they love so much about them. And so when you think now, you know, Liz, through your journey in guiding people to implement the infinite banking concept, what's your favorite part of walking someone through their first year in the process? For example?

I always love, of course, the initial education stage when I'm meeting with clients and getting to see that light bulb moment for them, whatever it is for me, I know one of the light bulb moments was like opportunity lost. I came from a family that didn't talk about money unless they were fighting about it. I went out into the real world with no financial knowledge or skills and made all the stupid mistakes that many people do. And to rectify that, my solution was I'm not in debt anymore. Now I'm just going to pay cash for everything. And when I read Nelson's book, I had this moment where I visualized all of the dollars that had just flowed through my hands into somebody else's pocket.

Yeah.

And that was a really big aha. Moment for me. And I love seeing that aha. Moment for my clients, whatever that might be, because every person has a different thing that they really resonate with about the process. So that would be one of my, my most favorite things. But I also love coming back a year later and talking about the progress they made in relation to what their goals were. When we first started talking, that's my real favorite part.

I think that's incredible. And of course, you know, there's, there's the progress that you get to see happen with other individuals and then there's the progress that you experience for yourself. And you know, a lot of times we have people, Liz, they think maybe it's through a piece of content that they saw or they, they learned about this from a friend or a neighbor and they hear about people doing these really extravagant, large, getting started type policies or putting in, you know, oodles of money right away. Etc. And, and yeah, there are people that do that, but there's a lot of people who start very, very small or they begin wherever they're able to begin. I know for myself, my very first policy was $4,219 a year. I didn't have any of that money. I wasn't, but I wasn't going to go and teach people how to go do this if I didn't have some skin in the game first. So not recommended. Wouldn't suggest anyone do this. My experience, I just needed to get started. And so I actually used, I used someone else's bank to get that thing going and that was TD bank line of credit. Now never recommend that. So for anyone listening in, that's not the path that you want to go down. But you know, I, I needed to really commit so that I could get started in this process and, and, and being able to teach people what to do. I couldn't do that without having my hands on the tool and being able to engage with it first and being that kind of first person in the hole, as it were. So I'd love to get your thoughts on that, Liz, because I know you've gone through your own personal experience using this at various stages of your life. You know, your, the stages change, you know, got kids, you've been, you know, I met you in Alberta, you've moved back out, back, back home, out east. So there's a whole number of, you know, dynamics there in your own life. And I'm curious how you relate some of that personal experience to the conversations you have with your clients.

One of the things that I Always say to people is it's better to get started where you can than not at all. And I say this a lot because for myself, although I picked up the book and read it around 2014 or 15, I never implemented the process right away. And do you think that I don't wake up every single day thinking, man, if I only did that when I first read that book instead of waiting the time that I did. And I didn't get started right away because I felt like I wasn't ready, I didn't have the money, I couldn't afford it. I needed to do this first, I needed to do that first. And while I did make some changes during that time that really helped me to be able to get started, I still only got started with a really small amount myself. Much smaller than your policy. In fact, my first policies annual premium was $1,722 and it was a policy I purchased on my daughter who was just an infant at the time. And I, over the years of course have progressed in how I utilize the policy, how I flow my money to the policy, and today I am putting in a lot more premium than that per year. In fact, I was just sharing this story with Jason and Richard at our, our coaching session that we had last week in Calgary. When I met Jason and Richard, I had just come from another job where I was making $14 an hour. I couldn't imagine putting the amounts of capital that I was, I am today into the policy back then. But today I'm happy to say that I am currently funding my banking system to the tune of the annual income I was making when I left that job just before we met. So it's really, really changed my life completely in so many different ways. Obvious, completely changed my career, but it absolutely changed the way I handle my money, the way I use my money, the way I view my money. And I'm a little bit wealthier for it.

That's amazing. And so in, in your, you know, journey as, as an advisor, if, if you reflect on all the experience that you've been accumulating up to this point. So what, what do you wish, what do you wish that other advisors would really, truly understand around connecting with clients? Like really connecting with clients?

I guess I would say it really is about relationship building with your clients, getting to know your clients. And you know, a lot of financial advisors will want to know what are your financial objectives. Sure, yeah, I want to know that too. But I really want to know what matters to them, what drives, drives them, what, what fuels them in life because that's going to really help me dial in for them what's most important and how we can create a solution that's going to help them.

Very well said and remarkably accurate.

Well, you know, meeting Nelson and being prompted to read the book and now shooting forward many years later, you've gone through the book a number of times. I'm sure it's made a few trips for you. One thing I love, of course, is anytime we have a gathering or even you attended the annual think tank conference here, when Liz has to travel, it's always an interesting. She has some of the best travel stories because she's often held up in airports for extended periods of time and whether a plane is snowed, snowed in or snowed out or what have you. So. So you, you really are a trooper when it comes to making and making the effort, the extra, putting in the extra 10% to make sure you show up when called. And I really appreciate that about you. So given that you have maybe a little bit more time in airports or on planes than some of the average people we know, other than Jason, who's got more frequent flyer miles than probably President Trump does, you've had a chance to go through that book and a number of other great books around the subject. What have you found now from that initial review of Nelson's book, after meeting Nelson and sitting with him for dinner, to now, as you progress and you're continuing to learn about the concept, what are some of the things that are presently like pulling you and connecting with you more as you go through Nelson's work?

Yeah, I mean, for me, one of the things that really resonated in the beginning and I think still continues to really resonate with me because it's something I have to bring up with clients often, is this is really something where you have to have the honest introspection into what you're doing in your life with your money. That really resonated with me early on because, you know, at this stage of my life, I didn't have kids, I was enjoying life. I wasn't being serious about finances, and I was being frivolous with how I was spending my money. And, you know, the whole idea of really sitting down and saying, well, you can't do these things because you're choosing to do something else. And confronting myself with that is something I grappled with a lot in the beginning. And I think I still sometimes grapple with. And I see my clients struggle with it often, you know, having a feeling or A thought around not being able to do this because of whatever their excuse is. But in all actuality, it's just a matter of sitting down and saying, well, what is going to be important to you? And if this is important to you, and you do see the value in the change it's going to make for your family, then it's time to take an honest look at what you're doing and what you might need to change to make that process work for you. So I'd say that's probably the one that stuck with me the whole way through.

That's one that's important to shine a bright light on. I. I appreciate that reflection because we. So any of our teammates, right, who come on the show, we're asking these questions to really develop that. That understanding of what really resonates. And Nelson, as the three of us know, I mean, he described it best, this all begins with desire and then taking a very close look as. As you. As you expressed, taking a very close look because you're already prioritizing where every dollar that flows through your hands goes every dollar. And so this requires the understanding that there has to be some change and change for the better. And so if you were to now think about that through the lens of other advisors. So if you were training the next wave of advisors on the ascendant team, what would be one lesson that you think they must learn from day one?

Everything you teach your clients should come from that book, from Nelson's book. It's something that. When. In the beginning, when I was on my own, I was unleashed to be able to meet with clients on my own, I forgot about that for a little while. I forgot to always go back to the book to reference the book. And it showed in the type of clients I was attracting. You know, it. It really made me see that we don't have to stray from that. Everything you need to know is right here in this book. I think that's probably what I would say the. The most. Have you read the book frequently and have your clients read the book frequently? Because if we can always remind ourselves all the things that resonated with us in the beginning, the reasons that got it got us excited about why we did this to begin with and keep those at our forefront, then it's going to be easy to make those decisions that we have to and what we need to do to make sure we have a functional banking system.

Well, I love that. And reading the book, of course, you know, again, we often sound like a bit of a broken record. Here as we say that. But one thing I would add to what you said, Liz, is it's one thing to read the book. Which if you tell anyone to read a book, they're like, oh cool, how am I going to find time to do that? Some people love reading. They're all over reading. They're like Jason's library in the background there where they've got, they've got a personal library and they're, they're pulling them off the shelf and going through them like, like every page is dog eared and what have you. Or there's, there's individuals like me who they would rather walk and listen or be on a treadmill or something. And they want to, you know, engage both the physical element as well as, as their brain. One thing I really encourage people to do is just to read from the book. So rather than reading the book as in reading it cover to cover, while that is great and advantageous and certainly encouraged, just the fact that you're reading from the book is advantageous. And so like as an example on page three and four of the book, it's, it's kind of an introduction section. Just reading those two pages, which will take you all of less than ten minutes, like probably eight minutes to complete. If you did that, just did that once a month or once every two months, you're going to have an awful lot of consideration and thinking that's going to take just place, you know, from that one area. Nelson, of course has the grocery store example in the book. He's teaching people how to build and grow a business. He's teaching people what are all the elements of capitalization that a typical business has to go through, that, that similarly the tool of whole life insurance has to go through, but without any of the hassles of a typical business structure. So that those two pages right there alone, there's so much that can be gleaned from them. Again, in 10 to 15 minutes you can have total insights about your financial life. Whether you're doing the process of becoming your own bank or not in your life that you're going to get value out of that.