If You Don’t Teach Your Kids This, Who Will?

If I don't share this with my kids, my family, other people that want to know about it, what good am I?

My friend and my teammate, Mike Smella, he's a proud third generation Detroiter who's been living embracing the infinite banking concept since 2011.

I guess in layman's terms it would be called fraud. When I'm gone, you pick it up from there. Someone else is going to control all that money, or we are. The one thing I hate is when people that I love are lied to.

You know, there's a moment in every parent or grandparent when they look into the eyes of a newborn baby that they've got joining the family and they realize that they're staring basically into the future. The question is, who's going to control the money flowing through that future? Because someone is. It's going to be the system, the bank, the government, or it's going to be you and your family. And that's what we believe it should be. Now, my guest today understands that truth at a deep level. He's a proud third generation Detroiter who's been living embracing the infinite banking concept since 2011 and now talking about not just a legacy, but actually actively building one. He's making his first appearance on the show with us. My friend and my teammate, Mike Smella. Happy to have you with us on the program today.

Thanks, Richard. Real pleasure to be here for sure.

Now I'm excited about this because I get these really awesome emails from you every once in a while with a great, I got one recently, a great picture of your grandson with Nelson's book and one of our books on it. And I'm like, oh, this is so good. That's kind of what prompted us to, to have this, this program today. And I get these awesome ones, these lovable ideas and it's super fun for me because usually I'm the guy sending those crazy emails to everybody. And so it's actually refreshing for me to receive them every once in a while. So I do appreciate that.

Oh, of course. It, it's, it's a joy. Yeah, it really is.

Well, I'm excited to talk to you about a lot of things today. I want to dig into some of the family things, some of the stuff that you're doing from a family perspective on your own, talk a little journey and then maybe if we have a little bit of time, we can even touch base on the Nelson Nash Institute Coaching Academy, which you were able to attend recently, and we can maybe piggyback on that a little bit. As well. But let, let's rewind the tape a little bit back to, you know, first learning about the infinite banking concept or the, the general idea of it. I think that goes back to 2006 for you, but yet you weren't able to get started down the process. Maybe you weren't ready, which is the case for many people until about 2011.

So walk us through what happened there. Yeah, so I was, I had owned a mortgage company and was in the mortgage business and for a long time, about 17 years or so. And a lot of my clients were early career physicians. So we did a lot of 100% purchase mortgages for them, which was great until I started thinking that, oh my gosh, if we don't help them pay down their debts quickly, if real estate doesn't continue to rise, they may be in trouble. So it was about that time that started learning about what really goes on in our financial world and the mortgage business that I was in and, and how just things all of a sudden started to take a weird shapes and you know, you start asking questions and you start getting answers that were very different from what you've been led to believe. And so we started learning about the Federal Reserve and how our monetary system is truly made up, I guess is a kind word. And House of cards. House of cards. Most, I guess in layman's terms it would be called, called fraud. But anyhow, it started to really not sit well with me and I went to a conference with some of my other colleagues and we started learning about this infinite banking concept from this guy named Nelson Nash. And all of a sudden I'm like, oh, you know, 180° turn on everything that I was taught as a quote, financial professional. And I'm like, boy, this makes a whole heck of a lot more sense. And how can we help people get out of debt sooner and take it, take, take better control of the money that comes into their life. And you know, it was a lot to comprehend. And then, you know, very short soon after that 2008 hit and all sorts of, you know, it was crazy and my business pretty much disappeared. But this infinite banking kind of kept it, kept in. So I started looking into it not only for myself, but for other families and clients as well. And it was odd because it was a timing issue where back in 2008, 2009, nobody knew what the heck was going on and the world was just completely crumbling. But yeah, I started my first policy in 2011, was able to actually capitalize it quite well for a couple of years and then ran into some horrible, horrible tragedies where my wife got diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and, you know, put my entire life on hold to help her. And unfortunately, she passed away a year later. And we did. We had a couple small life insurance policies on her, so we were able to. I was able to leverage those to continually capitalize my system. So for the next several years, fortunately, I was able to borrow against it and focus on reliving life again.

Right. And your kids, you have children as well?

Three boys. I mean, all of a sudden, I'm a. I'm a, you know, single father of three boys.

They were.

They were older. My youngest was 14 when mom passed away. And it was horrible. It was horrible. But fortunately, I had this safety net that I didn't have to. I don't want to say I didn't have to worry about things, but, boy, it made it a whole heck of a lot easier.

Right? It was one less thing to worry about.

It was one less thing to worry about. And very honestly, Rich, it took me several years before I started paying that loan back, but it was there and it kept going. And it was, you know, regardless of all the. Everything that was going on in my life and. And relearning and redoing everything that continued. And I'm not sure I realized how beneficial that was until maybe just a couple years ago or so. Right. And then I got back into. I got reacquainted back with. Or we recommunicated back with Jason, who we had kind of known each other back in 2006, 7, 8, right in that area, and learned that what he had built with Ascendant and that they were looking at, you know, he was looking at. At now coming into the US And I'm like, oh, my gosh. I would just be absolutely honored to help continue that message because it was something I was never able to do myself. I could never create that team. I could never create the systems that, you know, God forbid I become an advisor to a number of families, and then the good Lord calls me home. What happens to them? This is a long term commitment. And all of a sudden, if I'm not there, what's going to happen to them? So by having a team, a dedicated team of professionals, for me, I'm like, oh, my gosh. This was the missing component. And so now coming back into it, I can honestly tell everyone out there, I have learned more in the past four or five months than I thought I really knew. I mean, you talk about the arrival Syndrome, forget it. I had way more than I even knew. And so now paring back and really getting down to the core essence of what Nelson talked about and wants us as advisors to help other families realize and having that team behind me to know that yes, someday I'm not going to be here, but we will have other families. Whether it be our initial clients or families that we serve, or it's their kids or their grandkids, it will continue on and they will have that community to support them. That's just, that's, that's awesome.

Okay, so you want to keep the.

Wealth in the family. I get it. I hear you.

Me too.

That's why we wrote this book, Don't Spread the Wealth. Everyone tells you that you want to.

Spread the money, spread the wealth around. No, no, no, you don't want to do that.

You want to keep the money in the family with the people you love and care about, where it belongs to for as many generations as possible. That's what we talk about in this book. In this book we have an incredible 15 page bonus you can download which instructs you on how to start the conversation with your family on annual family banking meetings, how to host them, some sample exercises and a sample agenda. Tons of amazing great benefits. Go ahead, get a copy right now. Head on over to Don't Spread Wealth. That's Don't Spread wealth dot com. Don't Spread wealth dot com. You're going to love it.

Yeah, I love that. And, and I mean it really stems from your, your lived life experience and recognition of not only you have kids, you have, you have six grandkids as well, which we're going to talk a little bit about. So you're, you're seeing this progression of time throughout your life and you're, you're, you're looking beyond as to how do I prepare for these things in advance before even kind of really entering the business, which I think is really commendable, Mike. It really is. Not everyone brings that approach to it.

Yeah, yeah. Well, I was, you know, I was very fortunate that shortly after my Paula passed away, I met, and I know that Paula had something to do with this. I met my Diane and we've been together now for 12 years. And so I've got my three boys, she has three kids. So you know, we've got the Brady Bunch. I've got my, my three, three bonus kids and five bonus grandkids on her side. And my oldest son Michael and his wife Alex just had my first grandson and he actually was Eight months old today. He just left a little while ago. Eight months old. And it. Looking in his eyes throws a whole nother level of why the good Lord put us on this earth, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's given you, it's not that you didn't have purpose before, but it's elevated, it's expanded it to a new level, right?

Oh, it has. I mean, all of a sudden I think about my father and both my grandfathers who were from metro Detroit, and now me and my son, two of my sons, two of my three sons are still in Michigan. And now it's like, oh my gosh, he's, he's the fifth generation of our family. And, and yes, the stories passed down is one thing, but for me, with the, with what I know now, the knowledge and the practice and the tools to help my son, my daughter in law, my grandson, hopefully other grand, hopefully my bonus kids to realize we can have so much more. The abundance of everything, our own happiness, what we want to achieve, what we want to help the world to do. We have the ability to do that. And it's been, I don't want to say hidden from us because it's been there all the time. It's just like we've been walking down a hallway. We never knew there was a door on the right and if we open that door, hey, there's a whole nother party going on. We never even knew that door existed. And now that I know that door exists, if I, if I don't share this with my kids, my family, other people that want to know about it, what good am I? That's, you know, so it's exciting, it's a new excitement that, you know, a 64 year old all of a sudden has.

And, and so you've got policies in place now, more than one. You started with original one for you and you've been able to start expansion. And so talk us a little bit about now, not just what that feels like, but like, how did you start to think about creating expansion for yourself?

That is a great question, Rich. You know, I, yeah, I started to think about this several months ago. I'm like, okay, I need to expand my own policies, I need to expand my own bank branches. Unfortunately, I had cancer six years ago. And so the underwriters said, no, we don't want you, you're done. That's, you know, what you got right now, is it? I'm like, oh crap, okay, so what do I do now? So all of a sudden I looked up and I went I knew that my, my oldest son was open to this. We've talked about infinite banking. I've told him about things and he kind of grasped it. So we sat down with his wife and kind of went through all this and I said, you know what I'd really like to do is I'd really like to put policies on each of you, all three of you, so that, number one, your entire family is protected. God forbid something horrible happens, you are protected and you've got that huge safety net. And I will fund them while I am still here, I will fund them, I will leverage the dollars as I need to. And as a family, we will continue to talk about things. If there's a car loan that you want to get paid off, let's sit down and talk about it. If we've got the funds available and the capital available for a policy loan, great, let's talk about that. Let's restructure a loan program so that we'll continue to keep capitalizing it and leveraging it as a family. When I'm gone, you pick it up from there. And if they are fortunate to have other grandkids, it'll be the same thing, so it'll be more in their control. And all of a sudden I'm like, you know what? I'm glad that I couldn't put another one on me. I would much rather to be able to start the next whole generation to create their own peace of mind and their ability to create futures for their kids and their grandkids. And hopefully they'll think that grandpa, great grandpa, great, great, great grandpa Mike carried on, you know, started a new tradition and carried on our family legacy of education and just, and just love. Really.

Yeah, I think that's fantastic. And I imagine, you know, as this was coming up and you're, you're having those conversations that you've, you know, since re engaging, becoming a part of the ascended team, you've, you've probably had some time to revisit Nelson's book, I would imagine. And I'm guessing that an even distribution of age classes, I, I want to say it's on page 71. I might be mistaken. Let me double check. Somewhere on here. 72, 71. Oh, I was right.

Yep.

Some days, some days I do get it right. So page 71 and 72 in Nelson's book, you know, talking about obviously grandparents getting policies on grandchildren, that sort of thing, creating that, that, that long term consistent trend. And there's a, a quote from Proverbs right at the beginning, a Good man leaves an inheritance for his children's children. And that's really what you're talking about, the conversation you're having.

So I, the notes that I have on it is it's generational wealth transfers. Yes, yeah, yeah.

And, and as we progress through this, you know, you learned about this, you had a chance to see Nelson in person years and years and years ago. You're, you're expanding now you're thinking differently. How has that progression, would you say changed over the years in your life from where you first kind of heard about the idea to where you're at today as a grandfather reflecting back?

Yeah, well, I, I, I never did get to see Nelson. Unfortunately, Unfortunately I didn't. But, and very honestly, when I first learned and read the book, it didn't make a lot of sense to me. But I also wasn't coached properly as to how to go about reading the book. And so this is a huge part of what I have now learned is every word in this book has a meaning and it is, I mean it's like just mind blowing. But you know, to read it from page 85 first and then page three and just the, and I know yours is the same way. The notes are just, I mean they're, they're everywhere we got, it's like everything's highlighted. But what I take from it is the simplicity of what Nelson talks about is, is so real because yes, our money has to reside somewhere. And as we have money coming into our lives, our children's lives, our extended, that's a, that's a lot of money. And who is going to control the banking function? Those are things that we never think about, we've never been taught about, but they're very basic things like you started off with. Either one or two situations are going to happen, someone else is going to control all that money or we are. I mean to every parent and grandparent out there, where do you, who do you want to be controlling everything that comes into your lives and the lives of all of your family members? You or someone else?

What's the downside to having more control over it?

What's the downside to it? Exactly. What's the downside to co owning a 150 to 200 year old insurance company that has been profitable and paying dividends every single year of their existence and that you co own and when they make money it just keeps building and building and building. Yeah, you're right. What's the downside of that? Yeah, somebody tell me. I wish I would have known it a lot earlier and it would have gone into my head a lot earlier.

Well, here's the other thing. I've personally been connected to this more and more and I brought it up on a number of podcasts before. But that co ownership model in its own right, as you described it, is really truly valuable and important. But then to take it one step deeper, it's like, who are the people that are co owners? Well, the people that are co owners, first of all, they can only be people who have a whole life insurance policy because no one else is in an ownership status. And if they have a whole life policy, that means, number one, they're probably already thinking long range because they know that at some point death will happen and they're gonna, they're gonna want to leave something behind for someone they care about, otherwise why would they have set it up in the first place? And so by default, you're co owning with a group of people who care about their families.

Yeah.

And you don't even need to go and check in with them because they wouldn't have gotten the policy in the first place if they didn't already see a reason to do so. Like, it's almost like a self selection scenario that's just by the virtue of going in any policy you're already in. You know, like co ops exist all over the world for different things. There's gas co ops, there's. I don't know where I live in Vancouver, near Vancouver, B.C. they have liquor co ops, there's all kinds of co ops and you can go and, you know, grocery co ops, you go and get a membership and then you can earn dividends on things they have. Credit unions are kind of similar, but like it's, it's like that, only better to a large degree, in my opinion.

Yeah. Yeah. And you know, and the big thing that, that I've learned with it too is the, the vehicle, I don't say it doesn't matter, but there's so much more that comes with it. You know, Nelson talks about rethinking our thinking about thinking long range and how we as our own private bankers, that was a big part for me is changing my mindset from being a consumer to being a banker mentality. And when I started learning that, you know, banks, what do banks typically do? Well, banks, you know, they transfer risk away from the bank, they turn liabilities into assets and they lend money, they don't invest money.

And they lend someone else.

That's so different than what I had been taught. But, but that's what it is. So why not have or learn that mentality? Why? Why? And how to have a banking mentality? That's the big picture. The vehicle just happens to be the vehicle. Heck, if it was. Hey, you know what? You need to buy a thousand of these pens and it's going to make it happen. Great, I'm going to go buy a thousand pens. It's not, but it's the reason that we do it. It's the big picture thinking. It's thinking further than okay, what's going to happen when Mike's gone? How's Mike going to finish up his life? Who cares? We'll figure it out. But it's, how am I going to pass it along to my kids, my grandkids, their kids, their grandkids, my extended family, friends, families, all those people that we love. Why wouldn't we all want to be part of the same community?

How would you like to see a 91 year case study that we put together to explain how this infinite banking thing can work for a family over two generations?

Well, you know what?

Real easy to do that. We have that right in our second book, Cash Follows the Leader. You can get a copy for free delivered right to your inbox. Head on over to cash follows.com, that's cash follows.com and pick up a copy right now.

Well, it's interesting, it's, it's kind of fun to have you on the program today, Mike, because you, you may not know this, but Jason and I actually did an episode based on a post that you made on Facebook one time and it's episode 39 and it's interest rates versus interest volume. And so if anybody is interested in, you know, checking out that particular, particular episode, I believe you can go to wealthon main street.com interest volume and it'll take you right there. And it was a post that you'd made and you, you'd calculated on, like, on something. It was a, I don't know if it was a mortgage renewal or something like that, but the interest volume on something. And you'd made this calculation. It was this really awesome post. And we thought, oh man, that's so good. We're, we're, we should do an episode on that. And then literally I think it was the same day or the next day that Jason and I recorded. So that was like five years ago that we did that essentially. And so it's kind of fun to have you on the program because again, your experience, 17 years in the mortgage industry, you know, you understand more than the average bear. What is that cost of interest volume when it's flowing away from you versus when it's coming back towards something that you can control?

Oh yeah, that was once I started to learn about that and it was, you know a, whatever. A 6% mortgage is really, you know, 117% interest volume over the life of the loan. It's where's it going? It's going to somebody else. Why not figure out how we can get that back to us that's going to outperform anything else that's out there and provide the stability for us to then also leverage this system to go out and do other things with. It's not oh stop what you're doing and do this, it's do this and do whatever else you're doing or learn other things with a different mindset. And now you've got multiplying effect that it ultimately works for you and your family and their family and everything else.

And, and I think with interest volume people don't really understand or recognize what it is because everybody talks about rates. You're talking about what's the rate of return I'm getting on blank, what's the rate of this, a rate of that. And you're always trying to arm wrestle the mortgage broker or your local banker over a better rate, which is fine. I mean you, yes, you should try to get a lower rate on your loans. There's nothing wrong with that. Don't stop doing that activity. But understand who's actually getting the money. What do you care more about? Is it the rate that's a calculation or is the actual amount of physical dollars that's going to leave your bank account never to be seen again. And so an example would be you have a thousand dollar mortgage payment and it's a brand new mortgage. You're making the very first payment, it's 30 days in arrear. So you make, you get the mortgage, they give you the money and then you make the payment 30 days later and it's $1,000. Well if the interest component of that was $750, which is probably about right. If we're Talking about a 30 year note, it's probably around 750 bucks. At a current interest rate today it might even be a little bit more than that. Well didn't, didn't, wasn't 75% the interest.

I used to walk families through that. I said let's get your mortgage statement. And okay, you've got a, whatever 4%, 5% interest rate. Great. Look at your mortgage payment, like I said, it's $1,000. Well, 750 of it is interest, 250 is principal. How does that come out to 4, 6, 8%? It doesn't. It's bankers math. How they calculate is very different than what they, you know, it's, you know, look over here, I'm going to rob you blind over here.

And, and it, and it's not really smoke and mirrors, but it appears that way because, because we're just not informed enough. So the issue isn't what the bank is doing. The issue is what as a population, as consumers, we're doing by not asking better questions and not recognizing what's really going on. They're charging you 4% or 5% or 6%, but they're charging you on the entire balance of the loan that you owe. So if you, if you had whatever $1 million loan and it was at 6%, well, the annual interest on that is 60 grand for the year. Well, that's 5 grand a month, basically. If you kind of just did the third grade math on that. Now, month one, you make a payment and so you pay a little bit of principal. Well, the next month they can't charge you on that. A little bit of principal you paid down, but you still owe the rest of it, so they're going to charge you on the rest of it. So the amount of interest that goes down is not very much. So like that's how amortizations work. And it's not, again, it's nothing bad about the bank or the banking system. They simply built the system in the same respect. Look, you got a mortgage that you otherwise wouldn't have a house if you didn't have the mortgage, most likely. So they're fronting money that you don't have because you don't have it. So you're always dealing with borrowed money. You're borrowing your own money and, and seeing it disappear. So you can't earn from it or you're borrowing from a big fat pile of someone else's money. You need money to do things. It's either yours or someone else's. There's no two other ways, right? You can go, you can go and get things by stealing them, but that's going to get you into jail. And we don't encourage that either. So like, you know, just because you could go get it another way doesn't mean it's a legal way of going about it. So having that clarity, I think is important for people. And the more that you become aware of those things. The more you can see it or calculated in your own life, the more you can come to terms with what's really going on and you can make a decision. Is this the behavior? Is this the situation I want to see for my children, for my grandchildren going forward? If we could stop this process or start to take some of this back into our life so that we could retain as much of that energy as possible and do it for multiple generations without having to ask anyone's permission. How much more freedom and stress and like, how much more joy could we have because we can work together rather than separating everything and just seeing the banking system and the government get everything instead of the people we love and care about?

Yeah, it's, it's the questioning, it's the thinking, the rethinking of our own thinking. You know, I think we've never, and again, right, wrong or indifferent as financial quote professionals. We were taught by the powers that be that controlled it all. So you've got the powers that be, they control it all. Then they hire us and they educate us to then go talk to the masses. To do what? To educate them on two things. Number one, money is very, it's a, it's, it's complicated and you need our help in order to make it work. Well, ultimately, it's like, all right, we've got a lot of very, very well educated, well meaning, well heart people in our, people with a lot of heart in our country that have never been taught anything other than, you know, I'm sorry, doctor, I know that you can do brain surgery, but you know what? Money, it's, it's, it's pretty complicated. You're, you're not smart enough to control your own money, so you need us. It just doesn't make sense. But we've never been taught anything other than that. So I think one of our goals is to just start to have people kind of question, why shouldn't we be able to control money? Is it really that complicated or is it just what we've been led to believe? A lot of people don't want to question these things. I'm hoping that people that are listening to this are going to be people that will start to question it and we should, my God, our kids, our grandkids, our everyone out there. For their sake, we need to start questioning it so we can make more, better and more educated decisions on things.

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And also be able to make the decisions with the feeling that it's your decision to make. Often we're just not even clear that we have. You know, sometimes you don't even realize that it's your decision to make. We abdicate that responsibility because responsib some. We have so many responsibilities in life with our family, with our spouses, with maintaining our household, with work, with, you know, all the things where we have. We have a mountain of responsibility on our shoulders at most times. So we're always trying to figure, okay, well, is this another responsibility? Like it's like one more thing to do. But the reality is it is one more thing to do that must be done. Someone must take the responsibility. And if you're going to abdicate it to some other financial professional or an accountant or in anything else, the banker at your local bank who six months later, now that guy's going to be promoted or move on and you're going to have a brand new person that is going to introduce you like they met you before. But you literally don't know who that human being is. By the way, that does happen, at least in Canada. You need to step in and say, look, this is not okay. I'm going to step up. I'm going to do some basic learning, some basic education, and I'm just going to make a decision. I want more control in my financial life. And if you want more control, you will not get it unless you step up to take that control. Control isn't just going to be handed to you. You have to take it. And that's what we're encouraging people to do. And that's what Nelson's book really does. It gives you not only a knowledge base, but it gives you an empowerment to stand tall and say, I can be in the driver's seat of my money. And the time starts today. 92 pages. You're going to figure out real quick not everything you've learned about money is correct and you should start questioning. And then you got to make a decision if you want to be on the other side of control.

And one of the other things that goes right along with that, Rich, is not only having the control and starting to ask those questions, but starting conversations with our family members about money and about what are we doing? I mean, we Never did in our family, we never did. I never did either. Now I'm starting to with my son and my daughter in law because it is important and it's not a taboo. You know, I think a lot of us, we've never really had those conversations about money because honestly, most have never been taught how to grow and control it. So if you don't really know how to grow and control can be a tough conversation. So it's easier to oh again, money's complicated. Let's go talk to the experts. That's just as important or it needs to be together as we move forward with this. Don't you agree on that?

Yeah, it's a great point. Because confidence in anything that you do, you get skilled at a job, at a work, at a profess, build confidence, you great gain expertise. The more you do that, the easier, the simpler it becomes. It takes time, effort and energy to create that. That's a capitalization phase. It's the same thing applies to learning how to take control of your money. You have to a make the decision you're going to do it, then you have to start doing it and you have to build confidence. And so I think one of the reasons you've identified, Mike, why people don't have those conversations is because inherently they may lack a degree of confidence about their own financial life or financial circumstance and therefore they don't feel like they're the right who or the right person to have those conversations. And so, and then the other thing that happens is this. In most households, the number one stressor about whatever emotional stress in the household centers around money. There, there's obviously other factors, but sometimes it's like money's in the middle and then these other factors are kind of really close to it and maybe that becomes like the thing that we're complaining about. But really if you go a little bit deeper, it's probably the money thing. And so we all have a different relationship with money. Some people need to repair and fix their relationship with money. That is okay. We all have had a relationship that hasn't gone well and we've had to step up to the plate and try to repair it. Well, come to us and get Nelson's book and you can start your counseling journey with money. You know, I mean, the more that you have and build up a positive relationship with it, the more you can then create and build that positive relationship with the people you love and care about. That's what our book Don't Spread the Wealth is really all about. You can get A copy by going to don't spreadwealth.com and it's about trying to create those environments. And I realized something, Mike. You know, we have this thing we call the family banking meeting. And while I'm going to stick with that, I would encourage. And I had a conversation recently actually with one of our teammates and also with a client that we should consider framing that like that's, that's our language. But for you and your household, why wouldn't you want to have a conversation? First off, nobody wants to come to a meeting. Meetings don't always inspire fun and engagement and positivity. So calling it a family banking meeting probably isn't a very good idea. That's might be what we call it because we need a label that everyone can understand. But when it comes to you actually doing it in your household, you might want to call it like the. Whatever the fun family conversation. Like give it something that is a unique name that everyone can kind of rally around where it's like, you know what, people like to come to dinner, they like to go to a potluck, they like to come over for, you know, a games night. Like, the people want to come to do something fun. So come up with something that your family recognizes as fun and attach this to it and then just set time aside to do that thing and then you do the fun thing after. And so people are going to recognize the conversation and the fun thing kind of go hand in hand. And in a very short time frame, you're going to reframe how people feel about having those conversations. Because we're turning it into something fun and engaging. That's the whole idea. The more that we make it fun and engaging, the more you're going to want to have those conversations.

Look, we all think that we should be paying only your fair share in taxes. Just so happens I think your fair share is lower than probably what you're paying now. Well, we talk a little bit about.

That in our book.

Key taxes away from your wealth. You can get a copy and access to the bonuses by going to keep taxes away dot com. That's keep taxesaway dot com head on over there and pick up a copy today.

Yeah. Oh, yeah. I mean, we're Italian and Polish and it's like, come on over for dinner. We're going to have a big old ravioli party and we're going to talk about what's going on in our financial world and talk about our bank, our family banking system. I mean that. Why not? What the heck? It's just, we're going to talk about something. Let's talk about that. Because it'll be productive and it'll be fun and we'll all have.

I can literally picture you using the bowls and the pot of ravioli.

Okay.

And you taking like the spoon and be like, okay, so here's the general fund of money. This is the general ravioli. We're going to take some out here. I'm going to, you know, like, I could see you creating some interactive experience with the family to do that.

We're going to put, you know, the paid up additions are going to be this sauce and we're going to put the sauce, sauce on and then we're gonna add the meatballs on top. And pretty soon we're gonna have this gargantuan pile of goodness that. Who controls? We do. And the better thing about the banking system, it has no calories.

There you go. But, you know, once that pot's empty, we got to go get some new ingredients and we're gonna have to get together and we're gonna have to make a new pot so that we can keep eating. We gotta replenish.

Replenish the machine. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

This, this conversation will go down in history as the first time whole life insurance and ravioli were combined for a financial discussion. I'm sure of it.

Well, it's, you know, Rich, it's, it's wonderful to be on because again, we're, we're, we're wanting to be out there to help families throughout all of North America to kind of realize it can be done and it can be fun and it can be something that can be creative. And there are good groups and resources out there to help everyone accomplish what it is that is right for each individual and each individual family that's so cool about it. And we all do it together. And why not? I mean, if we don't do it, who's going to do it? Or who's going to get us even more?

There you go. Well, one of the things I love about, you know, our ravioli conversation is like, I really connect with it because in my mind, I can see it happening around the table with a big family dinner, you know, the Italian side of the family. But also, you know, you're, you're a gregarious guy. You're really animated. You like to connect with people. You've always got a big smile on, but you also have a need to demonstrate things because you're Colby. So I'm, as a Colby certified consultant, I know that you initiate in the physical realm as like a seven implementer. And, you know, so you, you show me before hit record, you've got a little demo tool there on your desk somewhere. Show that up on the screen for everyone who's watched on YouTube. Mike's holding up a diverter here, a water diverter, basically, where you plug it in, you know, you, you screw it onto the spade of your water hose and you can divert water from one direction to another. So he's going down two different hoses and, and you're not the only one who has that. Another teammate of ours, Les Corbett's got one. I don't know if you ever talked to Les about that. That's great. Yeah, because that's where the idea came from. Because Les, similar to you, he's also an initiating, you know, implementer kind of guy. And so it's all about how do we control the flow of that energy? Because the water flow, if you, if you turn on the spigot, it's going to go one direction, but then if you open it up, you can start, turn it on and you can control the energy from one side to the other. And it's like right now everyone's energy is flowing to the traditional banking system and to everyone else. If we can taper that down and start to open up, diverting some of that flow of energy to your own system, we're in a much better position. We want to fill up your financial.

Bucket and then eventually it kind of turns over so that you are now having money flowing into two or three or four or five different policies or bank branches. So it's. All of your family's money is going into all of the. And, and it's something that the entire family then controls and benefits from. So.

Yeah, I like that. It's like, it's like you're automatically adding another hose on when you open up a new policy for the family system.

Yeah, that was the only challenge when I got this as I started then. Thanks for, for recommending this too. It's like, oh my gosh, we got to keep it, we got to keep it going and we got to fill up the buckets and we got to fill up the holes in the buckets and divert. It's like, how do we make it all happen? But yeah, it's getting people.

I do have one of those actually at home that has four of them on it. So I'm just saying.

Well, where I got this, they only had this one. They didn't have the, the, the multi one. With the four. And I'm like, okay, whatever, but, but.

It'S fun because people get these physical examples and because it's a real world thing and it helps us. The analogies, help us to visualize how we can do this in our own life to some degree.

Yeah. And, and, and the big picture of it is the control, the empowerment. It. Honestly. And Nelson talks about this. Once you understand the concept, the numbers don't matter. And if you understand the numbers, the numbers still don't matter because it's the control of so much more that has been leaving us. You know, when you got a herd of elephants coming at you, you know, and you can divert them or you can control that, you don't have to control all of them. You just got to control enough of them that it makes more sense for you. So the money that flows into our lives from our entire family is massive. The greater percentage that we can control of that is not being controlled by someone else. It's. It's hard for some people to realize, but it's really that easy, isn't it?

You know, you made a good. Really. I like that analogy because it reminded me. I had this. I had this visual image in my mind of being, you know, back in my, you know, childhood, my youth, we had sheep growing up. We had. We had a number of things. At one point, we had 400 Peking ducks. We had a lot of different things in our little hobby farm. Grew up on 10 acres and. But surrounded by farmers and. And so we had a. We had a shoot that we built for. Originally it was for cattle, but it was also, you know, could use for whatever animal. And so you're sorting who's going to go to market or you've got to, you know, take something somewhere. So you got to sort which animals are going to go and then you run them. You got to, you know, divert them down a chute so that they can go kind of in one at a time. And it's not as much chaos to get them loaded onto a trailer or a truck or whatever's happening there. And that same kind of. It's kind of like the diverter that you just showed, only there's a. There's an extra act that happens with the sorting of who's going to go. And that's like. When you look at your budget and you look at your financial life, where are you going to get started? Well, let's sort through what needs to go to market right now. Like, what is the thing that we can work on right away that's going to give you the biggest, quickest win. You know, when you're choosing who's going to go to market, you know, for lambing season or sheep or cows, like, you're usually going to pick the ones that you think are going to produce. Either they're not producing for you anymore, or they're going to produce the most outcome when you get them to market. So in the same kind of respect, that's what you want to look at when you're starting down the process of beginning this in your life. Where can we get the quick win? Where can we get the biggest win? Where can we get a couple of wins lined up in a row so that we can start to compound those wins by starting to crawl some of that financial energy back into your life? And I, so I kind of like that analogy, and it ties into our book, Growing your own Capital, which, you know, I know is one of your favorites. Mike, talk to me a little bit about how that book has shown up for you since you've got it in your hands.

Well, it was, you know, growing your own capital. It. I started reading it. It's a short little book and it. I was, I was reading it and they're starting to read it, and all of a sudden I looked at my wife, Diane, and I just started laughing. She goes, what are you laughing about? And I'm like, I'm highlighting every word. And it's like, it is so basic. And whether it's, you know, whether you're a farming background, whether you are a, you know, medical background, it doesn't matter what the background is. This is all about how everyone can simplify what they're doing. And they have choices. And the choices is either continue on doing what we have always been led to believe and getting those results, or doing something completely different and much more basic and having incredibly different results as well. And it's just, you know, the, the story that Dan talks about and that you guys talk about, and this is. It is. It is relatable to everyone there. So please, get this book, get Nelson's book. Get, you know, start your journey somewhere, folks. The worst you're going to do is you're going to say, yeah, it's not for me. Okay, fine, it's not for you. It's not for you. But for those that it is, or you at least start to think about things, yeah, reach out to one of us. Reach out to somebody on the ascended team, because, my goodness, we're all in it. And it gives us no greater joy doing Anything than to watch and help other families achieve what you want to have happen. It's not about us. Like Nelson said, it's not about him. It's the message. And the only way we can make a true difference in our world is to help others achieve what they want and control what really is theirs to begin with.

Yeah. Love it. Mike, this is awesome. I want to thank you for being on the program today and for sharing your journey, your story, being an inspiration to others, grandfathers and grandparents out there in the world. As you know, I didn't ask you to show up on camera today. We're recording this pretty close to Halloween. But I didn't tell you to show up with a superhero costume so you're not wearing a cape on camera. However, when you're showing up for your family the way that you are, you are acting like a hero. And I'm curious if you wouldn't mind sharing with our listeners, who is it that you'd most like to be be a hero to?

You know, I mean, obvious. I want to be a hero to my family, my entire family. I, I, I. And I want to be a hero to anyone else out there that believes there is more to life and for more for them to accomplish and for their generations to accomplish. I think we do a pretty good job with ascendant of simplifying things. There's, there's one thing that I tell my kids that I really and I hate to use the word hate, but the one thing I hate is when people that I love are lied to. And I will tell you this, folks, we are being lied to. You can lie to me, I don't care, because I know what the reality is. But when people that I love are being lied to and purposefully, those are the people that I want to be able to help. Really awesome.

Well, we appreciate you being on the program. Thanks again for everything you share with us. Those of you watching, of course on YouTube, you will see what normally happens is it says amazing videos are here for you to watch to continue gobbling up more of this great information. Well, we just had Canadian Thanksgiving. American Thanksgiving is right around the corner. I encourage you to gobble up that great information and go ahead and click that next video.