What Are You Really Worth?

Our mental capital. Who we are as a person is the source and the creator of all property value. So it's a simple equation. If we want to increase our property value, first seek to increase our human life value, knowing that the human life value is the source and creator of all property value.

What are you worth? On this episode, we're going to dive into the core of what truly matters in life. And I want each of you who are listening or watching, forget the bank balance because today we're not discussing net worth in dollars and cents. What we're going to do is we're going to dive into something that's far more profound. Your innate value as a human being, your significance to those who cherish you and the immeasurable impact that you have. And it's a real honor to have the mastermind behind the groundbreaking book titled what We're Worth realize your human life value and what you're really worth. And that mastermind is the one and only Michael Isom. And so folks, I want to introduce you to Michael, who's a catalyst for prosperity and fulfillment. He's a dynamic entrepreneur that Richard and I had the pleasure of finally meeting at an event that we all attended together in Denver in June. And he's also a great speaker. The story that he shared with us at that event, we're going to dive a little bit deeper into today. And of course having, you know, put together this extraordinary book. He's a visionary author and he really encapsulates that resilience and transformation and the pursuit of values and a very values driven life. And so having achieved a lot of success in business, Michael faced a real dramatic reversal. And that was just due to some ill fated investments. He's got a story around that that will really help you to rethink your thinking. And this pivotal moment really prompted a profound shift for him. You know, he. In prioritizing his family, his inner fulfillment, and his true meaning over superficial wealth. And so Michael, I also want to add that you're. I know just from hearing your story and how vulnerable you were that you're a devoted husband, you're a devoted father and a businessman. And we'll talk a little bit about all the great things that you do around your workshops, your training, your keynote speeches and all that great stuff. But allow Richard and I to be the first to welcome you to Wealth Without Bay Street. It's an honor to have you.

Beautiful. Thank you so much. A little emotional hearing all that, that, that felt really good. So thank you and I'm honored To be on with the two of you and share to your listeners.

Well, let's dive right in. What inspired you to write the book?

Yeah, my. My life history. Richard was commenting earlier, before we hit record on the little dirt bike over here, I. I love dirt bikes. I love motorcycles, things with motors in them. I was telling Richard that I used to race off road professionally. I've some little trophies here from doing some of that. One of your companies there In Canada, Can Am. BRP, sponsored me in the UTVs and won three championships in that. But at a young age, I. 7th grade, went to work for a motorcycle shop making $2.25 an hour. And I smile thinking about those days. Back then I was sweeping floors and washing bikes. And I did that because I wanted to earn money for school. I wanted to earn money for motorcycles and dating girls and. And things like that. Clothes for school. And then when I got into college, I took a job to sell cell phones. And in 1993, I'm 22 years old. I made $20,000 in 30 days selling cell phones.

Wow.

I'm off to the races, right? Like 20 grand a month. And I continued to make that kind of money through 1999. I meet my wife, Wendy. We have our two kids, Kennedy and Kaden. I'm buying rental real estate. I'm investing money into. Into the stock market and different things because I thought that's what the solution was back then. And like, I felt like I was living the American dream. It just had all these amazing things going on. So giving that background, I got into. I wanted to get into the financial services industry. I wanted to learn more about money. And I met three gentlemen. Garrett Gunderson, that the two of you know.

Yeah.

Ray hooper and Les McGuire. You probably didn't have the opportunity to meet the two of them, but they.

Are noted in the. In the acknowledgments of your book, though.

Yeah. Yeah. We formed a company in 2000. In 2006, Ray and Les flew from northern Utah to southern Utah to visit me. And we did a seminar that night. And on their flight back, they. On their final approach into the Provo Airport over Utah Lake, they hit a microburst cloud that threw him a thousand feet up and straight into the water and killed the three men instantly. The pilot, Dwayne, and my two business partners ran last. He would have loved both of them, just like myself and Garrett Gunderson from the little bit that you know us. They. Les had a photographic memory and he just taught me a lot. And so they were part of my inspiration in the book. But prior to their death, Les had met this gentleman, I'm just going to call him investor guy. And they, he, he let me, he acknowledged or showed to me this investment of being able to take money and, and lend it out in a hard money lending fund. And I trusted last. I did my due diligence. So I started with $50,000 in this hard money fund. And the, the investor guy promised me 5% a month. 5% a month on 50 grand. So I'm getting these 25. I know, right?

Richard.

I get these two 500 checks. You know, this is, this is, this is almost 20 years ago when this started for me. I was a lot younger and didn't have the wisdom that I have today. So 50 grand checks kept coming. I sent him another 250 grand checks kept coming. I sent Him $500,000 more. I've got 800 grand in here. I'm getting 5% a month. And the checks came, kept coming. So then I made that available to a few clients mine that I thought might be interested.

Yeah.

And the checks kept coming until August of 2007 and the checks stopped. And I'm freaking out, understandably. So we have over $10 million with Investor Guide. August, September, October, November, December 2007. No checks and investor guys not taking my phone calls during that time. I get a phone call and on the other line I hear. This is special agent Mark Smith with the FBI. We understand you have investor investment dealings with investor guy. We need to talk. Long story short, I'm signing a deal with the feds and I'm having a wire taped to my chest to go meet with investor guy. It's too late though. I end up losing over $4.8 million of my family's entire life savings. So this is what is building this momentum of what is now what we're worth. Because that was my entire family's life savings and over $10 million of my client's money completely gone. And I'm a mess. I end, I can't keep my company together. I end up shutting it down in 08, the beginning of 2008. And frankly I'm, I'm just an to be around. I, I'm drinking excessively. It's, it's just a mess. You know, I'm married, I have two kids at home. And some time goes by and I hear a knock on our front door and I open it up. It's early. It's my father in law, my mother in law, my sister in Law, my brother in law, my other brother in law, and two big U haul trucks. And they say they're. They're there to move my wife and kids out of our house. I can't blame them. I knew I wasn't healthy to be around. And 12 hours later, I'm alone in this home, screaming to God, praying, just trying to understand what's going on. But mentally I'm just a mess and I'm drinking alcohol and so that's not a good combination. And I was never a drinker prior to any of this happening. And I. I face a moment that was a pivotal moment in my life. And I thank God to this day that I'm still alive because I stuck a gun the roof of my mouth. Because my self worth was tied to my financial balance sheet. It wasn't tied to the concept in the book that I'm so clear about today and talk to all my clients about, which is this human life value balance sheet. And I'm excited to get into that with the two of you today. So I stuck this gun in my mouth. I had a bullet in the chamber. I'm ready. I'm like right there. And I have a rush come over my body. And in that moment, I carefully set the gun down and I commit to God and myself that I'm going to extract the lessons that led to that point of putting the gun in my mouth, apply them in my life, and to share them with as many people that will listen. And this book is part of that message. And I'm happy to report that within eight years of that time, I was able to earn back all the money that I had lost. Applying what's in the book, what we're worth, Applying what the two of you share with your audience on a daily basis. Literally. Around two countries now, correct? Yeah, yeah, around two countries now. So, like I'm living testament of that along with the human life value balance sheet concept. And I know you guys have, I'm sure, versions of that. It's just the language that I'm using for that. But I also want to mention that 45 days later, I sobered up and I was able to move back in with my wife and kids and brother. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah, man. Our, our daughter Kennedy, she's 28 years old. Her and her husband, she gave birth to our grandson just over a year ago. Like, there's just all these amazing things that have come into my life.

And.

We'Ll get into the rest of it, but yeah, that's, that's how it was birthed. And that's why I'm here today, just passionate more than ever before because too many people today either self worth to their financial balance sheet. It is a measurement, but it is not the measurement. Right. Human life value. So real quick, property value, property value balance sheet. You guys teach this on a daily basis. We have assets, we have liabilities.

Yeah.

Take a, take $1 million home as an asset on your property value balance sheet and then a liability, say you have a half million dollar mortgage against it. Assets minus liability equals the equity in your property value balance sheet. And that example, you'd have a half a million dollars of equity. That's your property value balance sheet. It is a measurement. It's not the measurement next to that that I would just emphasize more than ever before because I didn't have acknowledgement of it mentally in my life years ago when I stuck the gun in my mouth, but I'm clear about it today is this other balance sheet that I call an H L V balance sheet, human life value. When we slow down enough, that's what's most important anyway because on the human life value balance sheet is who we are as a person. Has assets and has liabilities on there. But some of those assets are our integrity, our morals, our values, our experiences in life and relationship capital.

Yep.

Derek Gunderson was on that list for me. I called him during that time. He watched me go through this. We ended up writing what Would the Rockefellers Do Together? Things just took off. We're, I was telling Richard, Jason, before you got on, we're starting to do more business again together. We're going to rewrite what Would the Rockefellers Do? We're actually going to have it available for advisors across the country, be able to put their own insert into it and utilize that as a resource in their own practice. So there's so human life value, our mental capital, who we are as a person is the source and the creator of all property value. So it's a simple equation. If we want to increase our property value, first seek to increase our human life value, knowing that the human life value is the source and creator of all property value.

That's brilliant. And the relationship capital piece that you talk about is on page 62 in your book. And speaking of your book, one of the things that we talked about not only in Denver, but prior to recording the show today is that any of our listeners and viewers who are already clients of ours, we want to get this hand, this book in your hands with our compliments. And so just There'll be some instruction in the show, notes on, on how to do that. And we will get this book sent out to you. You are going to love it. And to all of our viewers and listeners who are not yet clients of ours, we're also going to provide you with an opportunity to purchase a copy and we would wholeheartedly encourage you to do that because you are going to be moved in a very positive way after having had read this book.

Beautiful.

One thing that I really love, Michael, about the book is its story to nature. And obviously the story and you mentioned at the end of the book and the afterword, the components of it that are related and to a large degree based on your own personal experience which you've just shared with our listeners. And again, unbelievable and grateful that you're here because again, you, you, you were able to make a decision and take that decision and move forward in a positive way to create more value for other people, which the book does and, and your story does. So I love the story nature in it because, and there's even certain things that I really appreciate. You know, you know, the, the invest investment variable that you use is like a cryptocurrency in the, in the book. But you even talk about the Canadian crypto exchange of Quadrigo, which, you know, the, the, the guy who ran that, you know, died in like, I don't know if it was a plane crash or something similar. No, he had a emergency obstruction of some kind and died. But he took all these passwords, you know, and like $200 million worth of money that people had invested just, just gone. And so like that's a real component. It's, it's part of the story, but it's a real thing that happened in life. And these are the connections I think that people really resonate with because you're also helping them see and understand and elevate where areas of risk in our life are and how we can have gut check level conversations internally with ourselves about whether or not we want to be participating in that and are we ready to make it if we're getting clear on the human life value side, is this a decision that's going to add and increase human life value in my world, or is it going to take away? And, and I think that, you know, having people giving them the breadth of understanding of the story really gives them the way to start thinking that through appropriately.

Beautiful. Well said. Y.

You know, what comes up for me, Michael, as well, is I think, I think of contribution or contamination. So when you Think about your human life value and, and you have developed an understanding after having read the book and, and understanding the philosophy behind this, asking yourself those questions in all aspects of your life. Is it contributing to or contaminating my human life value? And, and if it's contributing, then that should be amplified and relationship capital is obviously a big, big component of that. But if it's contaminating, then get rid of it, whatever it is, if it's, you know, similar to what you shared in, in your story. So like if people are trying to cope, you know, with whether it's alcohol or drugs or name the name, the addiction, well that's certainly contaminating your human life value, not contributing to it. And so if you can't eliminate it on your own, it's a sign of strength to ask for help.

100%. 100%. Yep. I was thinking eating, sleeping disorders, there's all sorts of things that fit into that category.

Also.

I, I, I, I want, I want people that read this book to take their life back. I want them to see themselves as an asset, not a liability. I was in an, in an experience last week and I saw clearly how there's so much marketing in media that takes away from people as far as their human life value, takes away control from them. They, they, they, they're like take for example Wall Street, Wall Street. So many people are just passively putting money in there passively mentally and they're gambling. And with that gambling, it's taking away from their ability to see themselves as an asset because they're dependent upon somebody else or something else versus themselves. Right. So for me the measurement is in an investment, do I, do I have control over that investment? And do I have knowledge and expertise and purpose and passion? Do I have human life value and that investment? There aren't good invest investments, there's only good investors. Right. And so what human life value, what, what knowledge, what expertise, what purpose and passion do we have? And if it's a business owner, it's their business. If it's someone that is in a high paying career, it's the career that they're in. Right? Right. If we look at the three of us and any of the listeners look at what's put the most amount of money in their pocket, it's their ability to produce in their area of expertise.

Yeah.

Their career, their own business that they own and operate, they control it, they have knowledge and expertise in it and they have purpose and passion. It's when we don't see ourselves as an asset, we See ourselves as a liability. We start thinking the solution is outside of us. Right. Like so many people do with the stock market. Some of my marketing now that I'm going to be coming out with after last week was the stock market makes people liars. It makes people cheaters. Now hang on a minute. I want to stop for a moment. I have some clients that are experts in the stock market. Yeah, they ought to be investing in the stock market because they're an expert in it. But if you're not, you're gambling. I gambled. I relinquished control of my cash in an area where I didn't have knowledge, I didn't have control, I didn't have knowledge or expertise. I didn't have any person passion in that area. And I lost. And I lost. I was gambling. I didn't see myself as that solution. So a byproduct of, of investing in ourselves. Return on you. ROI versus roi, return on investment. Roi, return on you. Like, it can be exciting. We can have fun by learning and growing and finding areas where we have purpose and passion and being clear about this human life value balance sheet because it's increasing our assets there, our knowledge and expertise there that allows us to create more property value in our lives.

That's.

You guys agree with that?

All day long.

It reminds me of something that Nelson Nash used to say when we would speak with him. And he'd say that the best investment or he would say an investment should only be in something, you know a great deal about. Everything else he would repeat, everything else is speculation. And so everything you identified is right in alignment with that. And that's why he did, you know, he did investments in things like land and forestry. He was trained as a forester. He understood land in the path of development, things of that nature. So he had awareness and understanding in that zone and he could recognize a deal and an opportunity. He would also go on to say that opportunities show up to those who are well capitalized.

Yes.

And then the quality and the caliber of your deals or your opportunities rise to the level of capital you have available to work with.

They also rise to the level of our human life value.

Also true.

Yeah. Are you, are you able and ready to be worked with when it comes to the deal?

Yeah, exactly, exactly. And, and, and, and I, I, I, I hear Dan Sullivan in the back of my mind, also being a lifelong learner. Yeah, right. Because I've had, I've had success from 2011 until today. And during those 11 years, 10, 11, 12 years or so, I've had Periods where, where I, I, and I, and I. I'm gonna say it, I'm gonna say it on the air here. I told myself, and I'm laughing at it now, but I told myself, oh, I want to enjoy it more. I'm going to slow down a little bit. That now is a big blinking red light. Because I would get bored, and when I would get bored, I would do stupid shit. I would do those stupid things, quote, so I could go in and stimulate myself to create again. So I'm hearing Dan Sullivan, I'm here in. Kim Butler is a strategic coach. Coach and a mentor and good friend of mine. Say, no, there's not slowing down. Because when I'm stimulating myself, when I'm striving towards something, I'm fulfilled. When I'm increasing my human life value assets, I'm fulfilled. It's exciting, it's fun for me. It stimulates me. And so by, by submitting to be a lifelong learner, increasing my human life value assets, the strategic byproduct of that is increased property value.

Well, and you, you get to, you get to create more value the more you learn.

Yes.

And.

And it serves as inspiration and more opportunities. Yeah. And if you fall into this, you know what, again, what our late mentor would describe as the arrival syndrome, where you feel like you've learned everything there is to know, you can't be taught anything new. People in that frame of mind are losing so slowly that they still think they're winning and they just don't even realize it. So there's always something new to learn. And Dan Sullivan, so much credit to him. I mean, he's obviously served as an inspiration for you as well. And he just has a way of getting you to think about your thinking, not someone, not someone else's.

Yes.

And he's brilliant in that way. And so, but going back to your book for a moment, so what are some other key things that you want the reader to take away?

Yeah, so like Richard was saying, it's a business fable. So I want you to. I want the readers to read it and to see themselves in their. David Shallcross, the main character in the book, and to see themselves in one aspect or another in there. But I want, I want, I want all of you to. To take your life back, to put emphasis to. To start physically writing out your human life value balance sheet, just like you would keep track of your property value assets. Be deliberate about your human life value assets and be deliberate about what those liabilities are, what those limiting beliefs may be. Continue to challenge you're thinking and you know, Byron, Katie's coming to my mind and, and, and is it really true? And how do you know that it could be true? And, and The Dark side of the Light Chasers by Debbie Ford it's all about our thinking, thinking more about our thinking and Dan Sullivan's got great learning tools on that also. I'm thinking about the strategies circle and I'm thinking about all these different tools that we can utilize to think about our thinking because really it is limitless in that area. So, so more than anything is to, to get, write out a physical human life value balance sheet and start be deliberate about the assets and ways to increase them. Research values and morals and things that you're interested in and hobbies and this balance in our life. And you know, for myself it's family time and, and just you know, reading and learning and eating and getting up at a certain time and meditating and, and exercise and just all these different things. And, and as you're saying that Jason, I'm thinking about selfishness and self interest. Have self, have self interest. It's not selfish to take care of ourselves. It's the whole oxygen mask, right? It's being able to have something in our cup to be able to pour out of it, put our oxygen mask on first when we take care of ourself. We have more to offer to those around us when we don't take care of ourselves, whether it's mental or physical or emotional or financial, we don't have as much to offer to those around us. So do it out of self interest. And it's not selfish to have that self interest to take care of ourselves. So I'd love for the listeners to be deliberate about that, to be conscious of that, to start talking to the, your clients, to start talking to the two of you about that. And I have on my bookshelf becoming your own banker. And just real quick, I interviewed Nelson Nash in 2001 on a radio show when I was early in my career.

Wow, that's incredible. You know, one of the things that I had mentioned earlier is around keynotes and that you obviously, you know, you're a gifted speaker and you really have an impact and I think it would be great, you know, one of these, one of these years, you know, to have you share your story at the annual Infinite Banking Think Tank conference that happens every February. And you know, yeah, we'd love, we would love to have you there to have that impact because the room is full of people from all across North America who focus on sharing this incredible process with their clients. And they do it from a place of servant leadership. And they're just a wonderful community of givers. And I think it would be amazing for you to be there and, and share, share your story and get, get, get your book out there in the hands of more advisors who can share it with their clients. And speaking of which, just to remind our viewers and our listeners, if you're already a client of Ascendant Financial or lifeva in the United States, let us know and we will get a copy of Michael's book in your hands. And if you're not yet a client, you have an opportunity, and we'll give you the opportunity to purchase a copy or copies of Michael's book and be blessed by the gift of what he's created here.

Beautiful.

One thing I really want to make sure that the listeners understand about the book, which I think is very interesting. You talked earlier about the main, you know, character in, in the book, but there's also his wife Sandy. And so what I think is really interesting is the perspective shown in the book is it's not all from one person's perspective. It's actually looking at both sides of the coin. And, and so someone who's gone through this ex, this, this, you know, life changing, impactful experience, there's, it's caused some hardship in the family. And then what's the, what's the, the mindset or the, the feelings coming up for the person who's on the other side of that, that family. And I think that that's an important thing for our clients to understand. So there really is something for everybody in this book because often we find, and I'm sure you'll find this in many households, there's usually one person who's more tactile, hands on, in the weeds when it comes to the money and managing the household, the budget, the investments and those kind of things. And it's not always the case, but it's, it certainly seems to be more the majority of the side, at least for, from my own perspective. And then there's one partner who maybe they have the final say on what happens, but they're pretty much, you know, on the sidelines and they trust their partner to look after a lot of those things. So regardless of what side of the equation you might be on, there's really some intrinsic value in this book to recognize what's going on potentially in the mindset of your partner who might be handling all the money or if you're the person who's handling all the money and someone else isn't, you know, what might be going on in the mindset of that individual in your household. And so I really appreciate how the book kind of gives that context side and it even touches on, of course, how the children of the family are impacted when something major, when a major financial event happens, that's not, you know, that impacts everyone. And so there's really an important way for us to learn and, and embrace some of what, what we go through the experience as we're reading the book and reflect on. Okay, what were. What would our life be like if we. How would we handle this? What might we do differently? How can we take this lesson and move forward from what we're. What's being shared in the book and embrace it into our life? So I think that that just provides a really good context for people from different vantage points.

Beautifully said, Richard. Thank you for that insight. That feels good to hear. And, and it's, and it's getting on the same page. So for, for David and Sandy and for my wife Wendy and I, and this exposure exposed what you're talking about. It exposed these gaps in our thinking, and we weren't on the same page. She didn't know. And it's almost like, you know, there was. There was a betrayal that she felt as a result of that of not knowing and me doing what I did and David doing what he did in the book with Sandy, it. It. It felt like a really deep betrayal of trust. And so learn that lesson for the two. If there's couples out there that read the book and, or significant others to, to be on the same page and, and to take that lesson from the book, to know versus hope. Knowing is so much more empowering versus hope. And don't wait for something catastrophic. And it doesn't have to be some big catastrophic thing like myself or like in the book, it'd be. Could be something smaller, but even though it's smaller, it could have significance in the way that it is felt in. In the relationship. So being on the same page is super empowering.

Yeah, it's kind of like if you're. If you're in the same, you know, in the same house and you're in the same general area, and one spouse is playing like 90s country music over here in the kitchen, and the other person's blaring like me 70s, you know, classic rock, and they're both competing with one another in earshot, and you. Then you're trying to communicate, hey, what's, you know, and you're yelling back and forth, but you're fighting over all this noise. You're definitely not on the same sheet of music. And really the book is trying to get people on that same playing field.

Beautifully said.

So good. Yeah, Rich, well, this was pretty incredible. Take us home.

We, we, we again, we so much appreciate you being with us, scheduling the time to be with us today, sharing your real life story with our listeners, giving them insight into the impact of what can happen in someone's life and then how you can recover from, from some of the most, you know, craziest things that can really happen financially and then beyond. And so we're, we're blessed that not only you're, you're here with us, but that you're just here period. And that because of that, this amazing book has come out of it. So it's absolutely wonderful. Now, when you showed up on the, on the show and before we hit record, were talking a little bit about your background, I noticed that there's no closet filled of superhero capes. You didn't show up with a superhero cape on today. So you may not recognize it, you know, that you are a hero, but with what you're doing in your story, you're going to become a hero to a lot of people and certainly I'm sure some of our listeners will feel that way. My question for you today is who do you most want to be a hero to?

Well, first of all, thank you. I feel that, I accept that and it feels amazing. I, I want to be a hero first and foremost to my kids, my grandson, my clients, that, that I just so love people that listen to me that, that read the book that I can inspire in, in just some little way shape. And I've already just in the last few weeks of the book being out received some just incredible messages. So, yeah, I'm inspired to help the younger generation. I didn't have the role model that I want today, that I feel like I am today to other people. And so I speak to young adults and young groups and it's just super fulfilling for me to do that.

You think you're a pretty special guy and it was an honor to have finally met you at the event in Denver and we'll definitely be seeing more of each other for sure. And to all our viewers and listeners, make the rest of your week outstanding. And thank you for tuning in as always. And you're going to see another video just popped up and that's due to our amazing editing team and our amazing YouTuber folks. And what do we Zoom, Zoomers. And anyway, the playlist is there for you to continue your journey of learning, something that we highlighted and really talked a lot about today, the importance of always being receptive to learning something new. So go ahead and watch that next video that we've recommended to you. Continue your journey of learning, make the rest of your week outstanding. Gentlemen, this was, this was amazing. And thank you both for being who you are.

It felt really good. Thank you both.

Appreciate you.