This is Exactly Where I am Supposed to Be with Brian George

Transcript

Charlie Van Derven

00:00

You're listening to RIA collective with your host Charlie Vander podcast, designed to help financial professionals remove the fear and anxiety around going independent. Let's go, Brian, George, my friend. I couldn't be more than excited to have you as a guest on our podcast today. Thank you for joining me this morning.

Brian George

00:25

Thanks for having me.

Charlie Van Derven

00:26

You've got it. Everyone. I am joined today by one of my favorite people. Brian, George has been a friend of mine for a couple of years and full disclosure, a client of ours at social advisors as well. We've watched Brian work with, through a process with independent broker dealer, and now he's opened his own RIA. I should say, started his own RIA, found it as better word. And, and so in the spirit of the podcast in bringing gosh leadership experience to maybe a younger generation of advisors who are in that wirehouse world, thinking about the independent world and what that looks like, I thought Brian, you'd be an absolute perfect guest for our podcast because man, you've been through it, right. Starting with the wirehouses into an independent space. Now starting your own RIA. Anyway, Brian, George, welcome.

Charlie Van Derven

01:16

And again, thanks for being here.

Brian George

01:18

Yeah. I am glad to be here. We've we've had some interesting conversations over the years, so why not? Why not continue?

Charlie Van Derven

01:26

Yeah. Well, you're you got a lot of wisdom, Brian. I, you know, I'm just excited to, to leverage that and, you know, bring it to an audience so that they can grow from your experiences. Why should everybody have to have the same hardships and you know, I'm sure in our, you know, the next 45 minutes or so of our conversation, there's going to be a lot of dimes of wisdom dropped that maybe a younger generation. I don't mean that by age, of course, but you know, a lot of people, second, third career people can grow from your experiences. So let's, maybe we start off there. Brian, I think first I want to say, I saw your post on LinkedIn today and it embodies exactly who you are now.

Charlie Van Derven

02:07

I'm going to paraphrase for a great picture of you playing bass, by the way, how long you, how long have you been playing bass guitar,

Brian George

02:14

I guess at this point, probably 50 years.

Charlie Van Derven

02:18

Well, that doesn't age you at all, does it.

Brian George

02:21

A little bit,

Charlie Van Derven

02:24

But the post, you know, to bring her audience up to speed, the post Brian was about how, you know, you've been through a lot of roles in your life, starting with the Navy. I know we're going to talk a little bit about that and you know, through the different roles and financial services as well, your post mentions that for the second time in your life. You're exactly where you're supposed to be. Talk about that a little bit. That's so powerful. Brian, talk about that a little bit.

Brian George

02:52

So I think we're all here to support each other.

Charlie Van Derven

02:59

All right.

Brian George

03:00

And when I shut down my it consulting business in 2008, I sold part of it. I shut part of it down because I wasn't happy doing it anymore. I wanted to do something that I knew I would wake up everyday happy to go to work.

Charlie Van Derven

03:19

Beautiful.

Brian George

03:20

And, and some people said, but you're a financial advisor now how's that make you happy? Well, I get to help people solve their problems. Yeah. I get to help people retire, comfortably, get to help people put their kids through college. I get to add some certainty to something that a lot of people are scared to even talk about.

Charlie Van Derven

03:40

Yeah. I, and I, you know, you touched on a really important point there, right? So many people are even afraid to open that book. Right. So, so many people are afraid and you know, I, of course we all know the stories of people who look like they've got tremendous affluence, but are leveraged to the hilt, you know? And, and one thing goes wrong and bankruptcy sets in or whatever that is. And I don't think that's, I don't think that's maybe the norm. So Brian, why do you think, you know, American society being what it is and we're consumer-driven right. W w why do you think people are so afraid to talk about their finances?

Brian George

04:21

I think a lot of it stems from never having talked about it growing up. I mean, I just, it was never part of the conversation when I grew up.

Charlie Van Derven

04:33

I agree. I mean, in fact it was almost taboo. It was almost on the opposite end. It wasn't, it wasn't just not part of the conversation. It wasn't supposed to be part of the conversation as a business owner, I read more and more articles that say, employees should talk about how they're compensated and that if you go back, I mean, when I got my first jobs, I'll be 50 this year. So I date myself a little bit with that when I got my first professional jobs after college, I want to say, I was told not to share information about my comp package. I can't, I can't say that directly.

Charlie Van Derven

05:12

I can't, you know, not that I have that specific memory, but I have the feeling that I was told, well, this is, you know, this is between you and the employer and this isn't discussed. I think we got a lot socially. I think we've got a lot of undoing unraveling to do maybe around that, you know, around that personal financial conversation,

Brian George

05:34

It was never supposed to be discussed. It was sometimes discussed, but it wasn't supposed to be, you know, you're making, you know, and I have some stories around PE, but we'll have to save that for another conversation.

Charlie Van Derven

05:51

We got time.

Brian George

05:53

Well, I left two jobs because, well, the first one I retired from the Navy, I had a goal, right. That, and I was w I've been electronics technician and worked on alarms and warning systems and gyro systems. But I, I was, I, I trained myself to be a computer program for two years before I got out. So I wanted a job as a program. Cool. So it wasn't my profession. That was kind of a collateral duty. And the first job I got my goal was to get paid enough, or I didn't have touch my retirement check where I could just bank that. Nice. Yeah. And, and I, I got a job offer. I got an offer letter, like four months before I was even able to retire, which was great.

Brian George

06:46

And it met my minimum number and six months into it because I said, I'm going to give this a year. See if I like it six months into it, the important tasks or the ones that were time sensitive, they gave them to me. So when it came time for my review, like two days before my review, I got a call from another agency and said, you know, friend of mine, who I used to work with, so my boss wants to talk to you about a job. Can you come over for an interview? Well, timely. Okay. Okay. So I go over there, we talk for like half hour. We're talking about all the sports teams in Seattle. We haven't talked about business yet. Yeah.

Brian George

07:28

So my thought, it goes two ways either I have this job in a lock and they just, the boss just wants to, if he can get along with me, right. Or they needed to interview so many people, and I'm just cannon fodder, right. It's one of those two, as I'm thinking this, he says, I want to hire you. We want to pay you this much. And that much was 50% more than I was currently making. Well, how'd that review go? So, so I had the review the next day, and I opened an honest, I told my boss, you know, I'm going to this job interview. And so her boss comes over to do the annual review. Well, you know, you're one of our study. You're great guy. You know, we're gonna give you a 5% raise.

Brian George

08:21

I heard you went on an interview. How does that compare? It doesn't compare it. All right. And this was on a Friday. He says, well, what'd you tell him? I said, I told him, I tell him on Monday, I need to discuss it with my wife, because it was going to impact my schedule, which would impact her schedule. We're dropping our son off every morning. And I said, well, can I talk to you on Monday before, you know, you talked to them. Sure. Yeah. I didn't give him a specific time. Yeah. So Monday comes, he says, well, we can give you 35% rate. And I said, you would think I'm happy to hear that, but I'm not. I'm actually angry because you low ball to me because you thought you could,

Charlie Van Derven

09:07

You know,

Brian George

09:07

If you would offer me 15, 20% before I would've never gone on that interview because I like what I do here. However, this tells me that when you have an opportunity to take care of me, you're not going to, and I can't trust you. So I got to take the other job.

Charlie Van Derven

09:27

Was, was it ultimately, I mean, you're leaving an established, you know, an established role. You go into a new company. There's a lot of unknowns in doing that. Was that the right decision?

Brian George

09:39

It was because where I was kind of pigeonholed,

Charlie Van Derven

09:43

Okay,

Brian George

09:44

You have to do this. And where I went first day on the job, they said, do you know cold fusion? I said, no. Okay. We've got a project you got to do on cold fusion. Well, I don't know. Cold fusion. Is there a deadline? Oh, no. Just gotta, you know, be proficient by the end of the year. Okay. That's cool then. So the things I was able to do expand it. I got better get better pay. We, we had a kid coming and they let me work remotely.

Charlie Van Derven

10:19

Wonderful.

Brian George

10:20

I had to go, I had to go over once a week for staff meetings. But other than that, I worked from home with a new baby. Good. So yeah, it worked out great until everybody left except me. And they wanted me to take over as the director of the it department. And I said, okay, I can do it. But I want the same paid that Ron was getting. And they said, well, we can only give you a 5% bump in pay. And I laughed, right. Because there's that 5% number again. And I said, you're right. The regulations say, you can only give person a 5% increase. I said, whoa, this was a county job.

Brian George

11:02

I said, however, there are some contracts, but you have these contracted employees, a three-year contracts where you can pay the people, any of them, anything you want for that, put a link to that contract. And because I manage the payroll system for you, I happen to know that you have three of those positions that aren't filled right now.

Charlie Van Derven

11:30

A little bit of intelligence goes a long way. Huh?

Brian George

11:32

Well, you could pay me that if you really want it to, well, we're not going to okay. Yeah. That's fine. Yeah.

Charlie Van Derven

11:38

All right. So you know, Brian, I, the post this morning and our conversation, you know, several conversations, but last week in prepping for our conversation today, you said you were in the right place. And, and you sent, mentioned to me in our conversation last week, that was the second time in your life. You found yourself in the right place. Do you remember what you remember? What you told me was the first time?

Brian George

12:02

Oh yeah. It's easy to remember. I, for two hours a day, I had a, I was a jazz DJ. I love.

Charlie Van Derven

12:09

This.

Brian George

12:10

And I got the play music.

Charlie Van Derven

12:12

Yeah. And how cool is that?

Brian George

12:14

And, and get complaint from the producer, because you should talk more, this is a jazz show. People don't dial in to listen to me, blather on, they listened to the music.

Charlie Van Derven

12:28

It sounded like that was during your Navy career.

Brian George

12:31

Yes.

Charlie Van Derven

12:31

Awesome. Awesome, man. So Brian question for you, we're going to bring us back to financial services. I promise. Right? So you've got one of the things that make you a great guest for this show is you've got a lot of time prior to joining the industry. What did you bring from those experiences in the Navy, right. And you were a key person in your, you know, in your role in the Navy, you explained that you wanted to go on RNR and you couldn't even do that because they couldn't replace your skillset. Right. But key role in the Navy, your it profession as an, an it employee and then your own consultancy. Did you always know you were going to financial services? Let's let's answer that question first. Did you always know financial services within your future or is that kind of happenstance?

Brian George

13:23

I had no clue.

Charlie Van Derven

13:25

Okay.

Brian George

13:25

Yeah. This is my third career. However, when I, when I was still a computer geek, you know, one of the systems I worked on were financial systems for the Navy.

Charlie Van Derven

13:40

Cool.

Brian George

13:42

I also was a Navy relief counselor teaching young knuckleheads. Like I used to be out there to budget and manage your money wonders, kinda morphed into mutual funds and, you know, bonds and stocks. And so it was kind of this gradual increase in what I was talking to people about. So I had an incident that happened and I woke up the next day and I said, I hate my job. And the next thought was, that's terrible because I own the company now, what do I do? I actually use stronger words than that, but.

Charlie Van Derven

14:26

I bet.

Brian George

14:27

We'll keep it PG. So, so I thought, I, I, I can't keep doing this. I hate my job. Yeah, that's right. It's not any fun anymore. Right. So I was kind of wondering, what am I going to do? And my neighbor had at that point, worked for Edward Jones for about 12 years. Okay. And he said, you know about this inside and outside, so you should check it out. All right,

Charlie Van Derven

14:50

Cool. So.

Brian George

14:52

I spent a couple of months checking out Jones and decided that would meet my requirements. I could solve people's problems. Do a good job, get paid well for it. You know, that was it. But so that's how I got in the industry.

Charlie Van Derven

15:08

Brian George

15:08

Love that as an eight.

Charlie Van Derven

15:10

Wow. An interesting time to make that transition happen too. Huh?

Brian George

15:14

It was great.

Charlie Van Derven

15:15

Yeah.

Brian George

15:17

It was great.

Charlie Van Derven

15:17

No,

Brian George

15:18

And I mean, you know that Jones, they have you going out knocking on doors clientele, which I love. Yeah. So my first door knock, literally my first door knock. Hi, I'm Brian. I'm opened up a new business in the area. I'm not introducing myself to my neighbors. Right. Yeah. And he said, you know what? Sure. I'll talk to you. That sob that I have now only calls me when he wants me to buy or sell something. And now he won't return my calls. So I'm happy to talk to you. And I thought, wow, this is great.

Charlie Van Derven

16:00

Yeah. All of them are going to be this good. Right. All those door knocks are going to go just like this first one,

Brian George

16:05

That quite.

Charlie Van Derven

16:08

Well off script a little bit. Right. Cause you and I prepped some questions, getting ready for today's conversation. So we're going off script a little bit, but I'll tell you timing, you know, needs and timing come into every decision you make purchasing decision. I don't care if it's consumer goods. I don't care if it's, you know, groceries in the cupboards. I don't care if it's financial services, right. You have a need. And the timing is right. That's when that's, when purchasing decisions are made and you know, 2008, 2009. And listen, I, you know, I owned a home at that time. It was, it was, you know, we watched our net worth plummet, just like everybody else did those advisors who, you know, are scared of their own shadow during those moments.

Charlie Van Derven

16:52

And we're going through one of those again, within Fay inflation climbing and the market turmoil that we're going through right now, you know, we've been on a 12 or 13 year ride where the market's been, you know, the market's been on the right trajectory for a long time now. And finally, we've got something of a correction happening. This is a good time for good prospecting advisors as well.

Brian George

17:15

Yes. W what I learned in 2008 and early 2009 was people know that we don't control the market. They know that right. What they will not forgive you for is if you stop talking to them. Yes,

Charlie Van Derven

17:32

That's right.

Brian George

17:33

That's right. You're staying in communication with them and explaining, you know, we're still on the right track. Yeah. Unless priorities have changed and the goals are changed. We're, we'll be fine. You know,

Charlie Van Derven

17:47

That's a wonderful lesson. Right. I mean, it really is about the relationship and about the communication, even in difficult times,

Brian George

17:55

Especially in difficult times,

Charlie Van Derven

17:56

Especially great point, especially in difficult times. Absolutely. Right. Absolutely. So, so it sounds like Brian, that Navy experience owning your own business, a lot of, you know, the foundational financial knowledge you have as a business owner and the help you're providing when you were part of the Navy, sounds like those really prepared you for that, you know, jumping off and knocking on those doors with Jones.

Brian George

18:21

So, so the biggest lesson from the Navy by far was sometimes you're in a situation where a failure is not an option. You just have to figure out a way to get it done. Yeah. No, it's not. And I've been in some of those situations where figure it out, you know, come back when you have answer. Oh, okay. Yeah. You know, well, and then I was a Navy recruiter for awhile, and I learned that during the training, someone said, you're selling a dream. You're not even giving someone something they can take away besides a contract that they just signed. And I, and I decided that I liked talking to people. It was a great job for me.

Brian George

19:11

I get to talk to new people every day, had a government car that I could drive wherever I'm one or two had a government credit card to fill up with gas. I got to meet new people every single day. It was great. Cool. You know, and I made it fun. I know I would walk up the gorgeous women and they would say, no, I don't want to go to the Navy. I said, no, I don't want to put you in the Navy. I said, but what I do want to know, if you have any old boyfriends that won't leave you alone and they would laugh, right. Give me their name and number. And you know, maybe I can get rid of them for you. And I will do the same thing with little old lady.

Brian George

19:48

She's got any grandsons or granddaughters that just won't do. Right. Just give me the name and number. Maybe I can put on to work for you. Right. And I actually put people in the Navy that way, not a lot, but over three years I put a handful of people in that.

Charlie Van Derven

20:03

Way. I love that, man. That's fun.

Brian George

20:05

And it was always fun. Yeah.

Charlie Van Derven

20:07

That's cool. All right. So you go through those early career experiences. You land with Jones, you cut your teeth, the door knocking and Brian, I mean, you know, wow. That's a, that's kind of a, maybe it's part of the weeding out process. I don't know. That's a tough thing. Right? Building, building up the gumption to go knock on that first door. I can't even imagine what that experience is. Like.

Brian George

20:29

I love knocking on doors.

Charlie Van Derven

20:31

Cool coast.

Brian George

20:32

I used to, they had me take new advisers out and train them how to knock on doors because I enjoyed it a lot. I was good at it. Yeah. It was also one of the reasons I had to leave because I got injured a few times in the Navy. And after years of being out, knocking on doors.

Charlie Van Derven

20:50

Yeah.

Brian George

20:51

I, I was taking Percocet every day and I decided I can't continue to do this. So,

Charlie Van Derven

21:03

So that turns into time with JP Morgan. Right. And then Wells Fargo advisors. But when you and I met, you were part of an independent broker dealer world equity group,

Brian George

21:13

Correct?

Charlie Van Derven

21:13

Correct. So what did you, when you were working with Jones and Wells and a, and JP Morgan, did you always know you wanted, you know, listen, I know you well enough to know you're an independent spirit already, but was that in your mindset? You know, I'm working for these large firms right now. I really want more control over.

Brian George

21:34

Yeah. It really, it really wasn't. Okay. I got spoiled at Jones. I really did. Yeah. But, you know, for physical reasons and I kind of outgrew them.

Charlie Van Derven

21:45

Okay.

Brian George

21:48

JP Morgan chase was fine, but there came a point. I was working on some fairly large insurance deals with a group of surgeons at hospital and regional hospital in the area. And then they said, you can't do insurance. We're not doing insurance anymore or long-term care.

Charlie Van Derven

22:06

Gotcha.

Brian George

22:09

So then I said, well, I gotta do something else now. Right. So I wound up with Wells Fargo and without getting into the gory details, after three and a half years of Wells Fargo, they decided someone decided to enforce a policy that had been in place for years, but they'd never enforced it before, but they only wanted to enforce it with me. And, and I, I questioned that.

Charlie Van Derven

22:35

Well,

Brian George

22:36

Not surprising to you know, me pretty.

Charlie Van Derven

22:38

Well.

Brian George

22:40

So that was kind of the beginning of the end at Wells Fargo. And, and I decided, instead of going to another big bank or big wirehouse, I would go to an independent and I almost started my own RIA. I probably would have screwed it up. So two years at world equity group. Cause, cause everything was pretty much on me anyway.

Charlie Van Derven

23:13

Yeah.

Brian George

23:16

So that got me ready for it. And then the always asking me what, if you know, what if we tried this, I have this client and this is the perfect situation for this client. I want to do this. Is this okay? Right. Well, no, you can't do it.

Charlie Van Derven

23:34

Yeah.

Brian George

23:35

Why not? So what if is often followed by? Why not? If I get the negative answer, right? Yeah. The, the answer was less than satisfactory and I wound up being able to do it, what I wanted to do, but what should have taken a half hour conversation took two months to run up the chain and get an exception of policy. And I thought, this is crazy.

Charlie Van Derven

24:01

Yeah. You're no longer nimble. It's very difficult to act as a fiduciary when you're dealing with, you know, with that, that bureaucratic chain of command.

Brian George

24:11

So, so now when I want to complain about the idiot management, I just look in the mirror and there are, and there he is.

Charlie Van Derven

24:18

Yeah. They take your complaint notes and thank you. We'll put that in the comment box. Thank you. I want to ask you, so that experience with the, you know, with the large firms, right. The Jones and the JP Morgan chase and Wells Fargo, understanding your departure, you know, and understanding why you made that departure world equity group. Is there anything that you can impart upon our listening audience or viewing cause we're recording the video also things that you did well or maybe didn't do so well in the months and perhaps even year leading up to your departure that, you know, the recommendations, you can make someone who's sitting in Morgan Stanley today. And they're like, you know what?

Charlie Van Derven

25:03

I really want to be an independent advisor, whether that's independent broker dealer or going all the way to RIA, what kind of advice would you give them to the last six and 12 months of their time at a Morgan or a Merrill or a Wells or one of those large firms?

Brian George

25:16

So I would say give it serious thought because it is a big move. And like I said, I'm fairly certain I would have screwed it up. Had I done it too early? Yeah. So I spent the first six months of 2021, deciding whether I was going to go to another independent firm. Sure. Or if I was going to start my own RIA and I went over all the pros and cons and in June, I figured out I'm gonna do my own thing. I'm going to jump off a cliff. Right?

Charlie Van Derven

25:53

Yeah.

Brian George

25:54

And. So from June to December and the company was registered and established June 13th, I'm sorry. December 13th. Cool. So between June and December, all that time was spent figuring out how to make sure that I had all the tools in place to not only continue doing what I was doing, but to be able to expand the products and services I could offer for my clients. Because if the goal is to always put them in a better position, that means I have to educate myself on new regulations, on new products and services that come out and figure out if they're appropriate. Right. And that they're legal, ethical, moral, all that stuff.

Brian George

26:43

So I, I spent a great deal of time forming strategic partnerships to make sure that all those things that I could do, all those things I needed to do, one of which without, already formed was with social advisors. So.

Charlie Van Derven

27:00

Yeah. Thank you man. A little, put a little plug for us there and we appreciate that. Got to you. I'm going to rewind a little bit because I want to dig, dig in a little bit more to that departure from Wells Fargo advisors. What did that look like from a Wells perspective? And I'm not trying to call out a certain firm at all, but what I want to do is I want to position, you know, you're you make that departure. Of course you've got a non-solicitation I'm sure. Right? I mean, that's pretty standard hundred Wells react. When you, when you made that move,

Brian George

27:35

I'm actually leaving. Wells was pretty easy because what I hired on any clients that I brought in were considered to be my clients. And when I left, I could contact them and ask them to come with me. Wonderful. If I got referrals from the bank, they didn't want me touch any of those people.

Charlie Van Derven

27:57

Gotcha.

Brian George

27:58

However, they could come with me, you know, if they, I can let them know I'm leaving. Right. And if they wanted to come with me, they could. So it was, I mean, Jones and JP Morgan don't talk to anybody. The arrangement with Wells was different.

Charlie Van Derven

28:16

Okay. Where you on the, I touch her on the Wells Fargo advisors side. Were you on the finance side?

Brian George

28:21

No, I was on Wells Fargo advisors, but I was in banks. I was on the bank side.

Charlie Van Derven

28:24

Okay. Okay. So, and you know, the cautionary tale there is right now, you had a much easier transition out of that large firm. I bring that up because most people that have gone through that transition go, wow, what a, you know, I didn't know the lawyers were coming after me. Right. And so credit to Wells for that, not being the case, but my recommendation, having watched a lot of advisors make this transition, make sure, you know, what's in that non-solicitation agreement. Yeah. That's.

Brian George

28:56

Very important because they will come after you.

Charlie Van Derven

28:58

Make that. And, and the other thing that I like to say, tell advisors who are thinking about making that leap is don't make that leap for at least six months. Cause now's the time that you have six months to make sure that your relationships are in the right place. So that those people, when you move, you don't have to solicit them to move with you are after your one year non-solicitation, you're still going to have strength of relationship to bring them over. So those are a couple of pieces of advice I like to give for advisors that are getting ready to make that jump.

Charlie Van Derven

29:31

You, you mentioned the proverbial cliff I did at nine years ago, myself, October, it'll be nine years for social advisors through where the paycheck started to rely myself for a, for creating that for, you know, that for my family and myself and, and the people in my care, our team, you know, that's a scary leap, Brian.

Brian George

29:51

It was,

Charlie Van Derven

29:52

Yeah. How'd you ever come that fear?

Brian George

29:59

I, I think all the prep work I did was helpful. And I had a long range plan that I put in place. And I had faith in the plan and I had faith in me to be able to execute the plan. And I mean, consists of three things that have always helped in my success. Patience, persistence, and hard work. Mostly patients.

Charlie Van Derven

30:29

That's important. That's important to note, nothing happens as fast as you want it to, right?

Brian George

30:34

No, no. And I think I told you I was in a networking group and, and I know that in my business, people don't like, shake your hand and meet you one time and then turn over their kid's inheritance to you. Right. They re they really have to know like, and trust you, which I heard you say a number of times. So I joined this networking group and the plan was the first year. I wasn't even gonna break even with the dues and the registration fee and all that second year, I would cover the first two years. And the third year I would cover the first three years and the next seven years, because people in my group would start refer me their own business. Yeah.

Brian George

31:21

And then once that happened, they'd start referring me, their friends and colleagues and, you know, maybe family and it worked out exactly the way I had planned it to work. I would not have been unhappy, headed more quicker.

Charlie Van Derven

31:36

Sure. Yeah.

Brian George

31:38

But the fact that I didn't break even the first year, wasn't a disappointment because it was expected. It was built in, it was baked into the cake and that's where the patients come to their,

Charlie Van Derven

31:50

Yeah. And I being nine years into this first off, I can't believe it's been nine years. I, I, you know, I, I enjoy it today. Like I did in day one, a little less scared today than I was in day one. We had a small savings account and, you know, I, I departed the firm I was working with and asked my wife for permission to get this thing off the ground. I thought it would work. And, you know, give me 60 days and enough money to cover 60 days were at before. I'd have to go find another job. And, you know, thank goodness it worked out. But even nine years later, I look at that journey. It's gone by very quickly. But in the beginning I thought it would happen so much more quickly than it did.

Charlie Van Derven

32:30

You know, I really thought four or five years in, we'd be hitting a lot of metrics we're hitting now, you know, so.

Brian George

32:37

I'm a little older than you. So I figured that out sooner.

Charlie Van Derven

32:40

Well, yeah, maybe, you know, I suppose that's a, maybe that's a luxury of experience and wisdom.

Brian George

32:47

And my wife hardline was don't jeopardize the house.

Charlie Van Derven

32:53

Yeah.

Brian George

32:55

Okay. I, and that was even back in the it consultants days. Don't whatever you don't jeopardize a house and we'll be fine. Okay. If that's the line in the sand, that's great. I'll never do that.

Charlie Van Derven

33:07

Right. As long as I know the rules, right?

Brian George

33:09

Yes.

Charlie Van Derven

33:10

Yeah. Brian, I want to talk about a charitable planning network because you've got you've got a unique, I mean, you've got a unique practice on your hands. I shouldn't even say practice that. Doesn't give you the credit you deserve. You've got a unique business on your hands. Right. So tell me a little bit about the mission of charitable planning network. And then I want to talk a little bit about values involved with that as well.

Brian George

33:33

Okay. So I don't know any non-profits that have enough money, right? Maybe some of the large ones, you know, maybe they have enough money, but I don't really know that all the nonprofits that I've met and worked with, none of them have enough money and they all need more to fulfill their mission. So I found out ways, creative ways to help them get more. And, and then in the process, I found out creative ways for my clients to give more. So, so if you could give more and have no negative impact on what you wanted to leave your family, you know, the legacy you want to leave your family, you could do both. Most people will say, sure, let's do that.

Charlie Van Derven

34:29

Yeah.

Brian George

34:32

So, so it makes me happy. All right. To be able to do this kind of work because it, because everybody wins, charity wins, donor wins. I win because if an organization gets, you know, extra money because of a conversation that I had to me, it feels like I just wrote them a check. Right.

Charlie Van Derven

34:54

Right. Yeah.

Brian George

34:57

So I get, like I said, I get a lot of personal and professional satisfaction from doing this kind of work. The only one that might take offense as the IRS, but I don't really know anyone that cares if they're mad or not. So,

Charlie Van Derven

35:11

Hey, if, as long as you're working within the confines of the rules, they set.

Brian George

35:15

Yes. And some of these strategies have been around for 40, 50 years. They're not new.

Charlie Van Derven

35:21

Yeah. Yeah, yeah. You're doing a, you're doing a lot of good things, not only for organizations, but also to your point, the legacy. And I'll share with you know, I'm 49, I'll turn 50 in September and that's a milestone event. I thank you for that. I got a little golf club. If all you're doing is listening to us. I got a little golf clap for that, but I don't, if surviving this long, maybe as what that golf club was about, not that I feel old necessarily some mornings, certainly I do, but more and more, my mind goes towards legacy, you know? And I think I, you know, I, listen, I, I feel like I'm a good dad. I don't do any harm to my family. I provide for them. You know?

Charlie Van Derven

36:03

I mean, I, I, I think that I've got my legacy is pretty solid with my immediate family, but I think all the time, what's the impact. What's the larger impact I'm making. Right. We donate to a couple of charitable causes. I live near the ocean. I'd love to, you know, surf and paddle board. So we donate for beach cleanup and the health of our oceans and legislation to protect that. But I think all the time, Brian, honestly not, you know, close to 50, maybe I've got 30, 35 years ahead of me. I'm not sure no one is, but I think often what outside of my immediate impact on my family, what am I providing? What am I leaving?

Charlie Van Derven

36:46

And so, yeah, even just from that personal perspective, what you do, I find to be a huge differentiator within the industry and of great importance for people as they, you know, add years to their life.

Brian George

37:01

So the question I would ask you, or someone in your situation is, cause you're already charitably minded. You have some things that are important to you. Right? What if you could leave more to charity and more for your family at the same time, would that be worth a conversation?

Charlie Van Derven

37:19

Yeah. Right. I mean, that's, that's what we're talking about. Right. I mean that legacy, that impact. Yeah. I mean, people don't remember you maybe even two generations, unless you're a really exceptional person, right. Or you, or you left Hills and Hills of money that carried through generations, but you're just the memory of you after you're gone. There's only two or three generations long unless you've had a crazy impact somewhere.

Brian George

37:43

Yes. So what, when you, when you ask people what's important to them.

Charlie Van Derven

37:48

Yeah.

Brian George

37:48

You know, it's never, well, I shouldn't say never because I don't know everyone in the world, I've never come across someone who said, it's the money, right. It's not the money. It's the family farm. They want to pass on their kids. If that, if that heirloom that great, great grandmother or grandfather has passed along that they want to continue to pass along. It's the business, you know, that they built from scratch and now they want to pass it on their kids. Those are the important things. And there are ways to make sure that does get passed along and doesn't disappear by the second generation.

Charlie Van Derven

38:31

Yeah. That's cool. That's cool. So here's one of the unique things. I like to bring this up in all of our conversations here. And, and you not talked about this in the past a little bit. Here's one of the many unique things about the industry where a financial advisor gets started in this industry. If they're not inheriting a book right there, they're a survivor for the first few years at a minimum. Right. But then AUM grows a little bit. They hire an assistant. AUM grows a little bit more. Now we need a junior advisor to handle some of those smaller clients. So I can focus on the larger those skills as a, as a good advisor.

Charlie Van Derven

39:14

And, you know, a good producer are not necessarily the same skills as a good leader, but as that business grows, right, as you grow partners, as you grow people working for you, there's, there's almost a mindset of a CEO, more of a leadership type role than that producer as an advisor through. And we don't have to just talk about financial services, but you know, through your time at the Navy, through your it consultancy tech through your jazz DJ time, right.

Charlie Van Derven

39:50

And then furthermore, into your growth through Jones and, and JP Morgan chase and Wells, and, you know, and through your independent roles with world equity group and now charitable planning network, what have you learned as you're, I know you're doing a little bit of recruiting and looking for advisors to work with, what have you learned that helps you be a better leader today?

Brian George

40:18

So it started the Navy and I wrote about this before, where I was, I thought I was a pretty good leader, right. When I first got my opportunity to be a leader of men, you know, his quote says, yeah, but the difference was I had a pretty high security clearance. It was the super burn eyes before reading types of Verde Clarence was that high. And, and the people I work with and that worked for me, they also had that security clearance and you couldn't screw up because even the hint of screwing up, you lose it and all the perks that came with it. So it's really easy to be a good boss when everyone's doing what they're supposed to be doing.

Charlie Van Derven

41:14

Right.

Brian George

41:16

So I look wonderful. All right. And then I switched jobs to get more into electronic maintenance instead of Intel. And then I, I had a lot of what I affectionately call the misfits and malcontents, who weren't always doing what they're supposed to be doing. Yeah. So now I have to actually supervise them and guide them and all that. And it took me two years actually, before I figured out what I was doing wrong, because I took, you know, what people told me, you know, and it didn't work for me. And one day I realized I should just treat people the way I want to be treated.

Charlie Van Derven

41:57

Simple. Right.

Brian George

41:59

Very simple. Right. It took me two years though. Cause I was trying to do what other people were doing and, and they were successful. But I learned that, you know, there's two ways persuasion and coercion persuasion will get you a whole lot more out of people than coercion wheel. Sure. So that was kind of an eye opener. And then I learned that you need to be open, honest and vulnerable. Cool. Which was, which was the hardest part.

Charlie Van Derven

42:33

That's cool.

Brian George

42:35

So I had shops in the Navy and we literally did things that had never been done before, mostly because we never thought that anything was impossible, at least until we tried it, you know, some things physically impossible, right. I'm never going to be a 6, 9, 300 pound defensive end or the Dallas Cowboys I've given up on that dream. But, but most things, most times there's a way. Right? Yeah. And then in my consulting business, it was the same thing. We have to figure out a way to make this work. Doesn't matter if no one else has been able to figure it out before, you know, and sometimes the technology is not available yet. And that's a reason that it can't be done, but I've come up with solutions.

Brian George

43:30

You know, when I was programming that we're just brute force because going back to, sometimes failure's not an option, you know, got to figure out a way. So you figure it out, brute force, it you'd make it work. And then later you fix it up to make it elegant and clean. And, and the teams I work with, they knew that was the goal. And, and everybody bought in that doesn't matter. No one else could do this. We'll figure it out. Or if we can't figure it out, then there's no way to do it.

Charlie Van Derven

44:08

Yeah. I love, I love that you included vulnerability in there. I will tell you one of the hardest parts, right. If it was, if it was me, myself and I, it would be so easy. Well, I shouldn't say so easy. It'd be so much easier. Right. It's, it's the management of different personalities. And one of the things that I learned and I instill in our team is that I don't have all the answers. I am. I am only as good. I shouldn't even put I in there. We are only as good as the, the people we surround ourselves with. Sounds a little cliche, but it's absolutely the truth.

Charlie Van Derven

44:49

It's I think it's only through that vulnerability and you know, a lot of our team members, some people behind the scenes that probably haven't met, but you know, you've interfaced with a lot of people on my team, you know, I'm, I am absolutely only as good as the collective brain trust of that team. Right. Social advisors is not Charlie Van Derven though. I do, you know, I've got the, I'm the face of the operation, I suppose. Cause I started it without everybody else and I could name them all off, but with, you know, without everybody surrounding me, like, we wouldn't be half of where we are today.

Brian George

45:26

Oh, that's totally true. I mean, I, I, part of the vision, this culture was that if this goes back to the consultancy, that if you come up with a great idea, prepare to be challenged because everybody's going to challenge your great idea. And, and the point was, if your great idea, can't stand up the scrutiny, then it's probably not really a great idea. Yeah. And I included myself in that if I come up with an idea, pick it apart the same way we do, everyone else be brutal with me because just because I own the company doesn't mean I can afford to be stupid. Right. And, and the vulnerability part that was by far the hardest part, you.

Charlie Van Derven

46:15

Know, we all have ego.

Brian George

46:18

Yes.

Charlie Van Derven

46:18

It's hard. It's, you know, you've got to make a cognitive decision to get out of the way of it are going to get your ego out of the way right now, until you make that cognitive decision,

Brian George

46:29

It's harder,

Charlie Van Derven

46:30

The tourist.

Brian George

46:31

So we continually challenged each other and it worked because we came up with great solutions.

Charlie Van Derven

46:36

Yeah. Awesome. I am a, you know, it's fun to watch you go through this evolution from independent broker dealer to RIA Brian. You've had a great journey, man. And I'm excited to, to watch the rest of that, or, you know, a good portion of the rest of that journey. Is there anything you'd change? Is there anything you'd do differently? You know, I'm thinking more about financial services because of course that's who we're speaking to and that's who we want to, you know, instill some wisdom and experience on, but tech, even going back to Navy and it, and jazz DJ, do you like the way it played out or is there anything you'd change along the way?

Brian George

47:18

Well, you know, there are always things that could be changed along the way. How, however, all those things, the good ones and the bad ones. Yeah. They're there. The reason I'm here right now,

Charlie Van Derven

47:32

That's.

Brian George

47:32

Right there. The things I had to go through, there are lessons I had to learn. You know, most of what I learned on leadership was from people that I said, I will never treat people like that, you know? Yeah. You know, I had, I worked for some really good people, but I learned the most from the ones I thought were idiots.

Charlie Van Derven

47:55

And that's, I might be a quote on a, on my post next week. I'll attribute it to you. I work for some really good people, but I learned the most from the idiots.

Brian George

48:05

Yeah. Because, because we learned from our mistakes, hopefully. All right, because we're too busy patting ourselves on the back on how great we are with our successes. We don't, we don't really learn a lot from that. So.

Charlie Van Derven

48:22

I am, I mean, those are watching video can see I'm looking down. Cause I'm literally jotting that down. That might be my Friday post brand.

Brian George

48:31

Well, I just, I, I think there are things you need to learn that anthropologists and sociologists are probably read this 30 years ago to summarize their thesis was everybody has to stub their own toe. We don't always learn from other people's mistakes. You know, we have to make the mistake ourselves. We, we continually try touch the pot, even though our parents says it's hot. And so until we've touched it, and now we know exactly what hot. Yeah. So true. I, I, I try to avoid that as much as possible. You know, I I'm willing to learn from other people's mistakes if I can, but sometimes I have to give it my own shot and find out, you know, whether I'm gonna do it or not. So I have to stub my own toe. Occasionally also.

Charlie Van Derven

49:25

That's the truth. So Brett Brian, first off, I appreciate our friendship. It's awesome to work with you. You've got a lot of experience inside and outside this industry, and you're going to bring a lot of value to the people, listening to our podcast. And you know, we're going to chop this up into sound bites and using a lot of different ways. Are you open to being contacted by our listeners? Okay. I think if, you know, if somebody hears something that you say that, you know, they'd love you to elaborate on it, of course contact you on, you know, obviously LinkedIn is an easy place. How what's the best way to get in touch with you?

Brian George

50:01

So all my contact info is on LinkedIn, but the easiest email is brian@charitableplanningnetwork.com. Cool. Or you can text me at 3 6 0 3 4 0 0 6 0 1. Cool. That's my electronic leash.

Charlie Van Derven

50:22

Yeah, yeah. I got one too. Actually I covered it up and turned it off for our purposes here because the last thing I wanted was a vibration or, you know,

Brian George

50:31

Yes, I've been interrupted, turned all my devices off.

Charlie Van Derven

50:35

Charitable planning, network.com to learn more about your RIA and about you personally.

Brian George

50:40

So, so one correction try to apply to network.com specifically focuses on the charitable planning work. I split off the RIA.

Charlie Van Derven

50:52

Okay.

Brian George

50:53

So the actual RAA is planning, network partners,

Charlie Van Derven

50:56

Planning, network partners.

Brian George

50:58

Someone wants information about the RIA and what we focus on specifically that's planning network partners.com charitable planning network is kind of the marketing arm for the RIA because all my best relationships have come through my marketing on LinkedIn.

Charlie Van Derven

51:20

Yeah. Wonderful.

Brian George

51:22

With some company, social advisors.

Charlie Van Derven

51:26

I, I swear I did nothing. There's no compensation happening under a table right now. And Brian, you're part of a post party that we do also.

Brian George

51:36

Yes. Three times.

Charlie Van Derven

51:37

Yeah. So post party is a cool little piece of software that Brian and I take advantage of a couple of times a week. And it really is just out there to get more exposure for the awesome content you create. And so a little, my selfless plug, right? My selfish plug maybe is social post party.com and learn all about it there.

Brian George

51:59

So here's a question for, you might have the answer,

Charlie Van Derven

52:02

Man.

Brian George

52:03

Friend of mine sent me a screenshot that she was on LinkedIn and my name popped up the drying George shared this. Good. So how did, how does that happen?

Charlie Van Derven

52:15

Well, you know, it's, I mean, I won't pretend to know all of the LinkedIn algorithm that we've got a little bit of intelligence based on some research we do with some other agency partners like your act. So, you know, LinkedIn, Brian, they want that activity. LinkedIn has got a couple of problems I believe. And we can talk about that real quick, but LinkedIn needs that activity. So just like when you and I need to set calendar appointments, we'll put a simple call to action in front of the networks we grow that says, Hey, if you want to spend some time together, you know, LinkedIn is doing the same thing through notifications. So they want that person to interact.

Charlie Van Derven

52:51

The more activity they have with their users, the more time spent with eyeballs on LinkedIn, there's a direct revenue translation, mostly to advertising, right. Which is the reason why we say, Hey, share native content. Don't share a bunch of links because LinkedIn doesn't want to drive people away from the platform and the same. Right. They want people using the platform more. So they're going to give prompts. And now how that auger them says this person, no brah knows Brian well, might be common. Connections might be geographic location, probably a combination of a whole bunch of stuff.

Brian George

53:26

And I don't know if it's the first time it happened, but it's the first time someone mentioned it.

Charlie Van Derven

53:30

Yeah. Cool. And I get, you know, I get, and, and in large part to post party, you know, my postal trend from time to time and, you know, so I know that showing up in certain notification feeds, you know, Charlie Van Derven post about this or whatever.

Brian George

53:48

Yeah. So, and so it was in the news on LinkedIn and.

Charlie Van Derven

53:51

Yeah, yeah. Whatever that is. So that activity, it's not just the exposure of the content itself, to your point, it's those notifications are going out to portions of your network. Right. So I, and I'll tell you, and I, you know, it's important to continue to build a large network, but I think the greatest opportunity on LinkedIn right now is content research. We've done says less than 2% of the network shares content consistently.

Brian George

54:18

I like took care of that three times a week. So.

Charlie Van Derven

54:22

Yeah, you're doing great. The price. And most of the problem for our industry is most of that content being shared is pre-approved canned, you know, from, or FMG or Forefield, or, you know, one of these firms that produces, you know, canned content that 20,000 advisors are all sharing,

Brian George

54:42

You know? And, and I started sharing content on LinkedIn when I was with Edward Jones, because they allowed you to do it if you had certain training. But the most traction I got on LinkedIn was not about investments.

Charlie Van Derven

54:59

Yeah.

Brian George

55:00

It was the personal stories that actually touch people, you know, not the business stuff.

Charlie Van Derven

55:10

Yeah. Well, and I think LinkedIn, this comes back to what I was saying a second ago. I think LinkedIn has got a big problem. You know, there's about 800, 850 million users and profiles. Let's say I'm not users a much smaller percentage of that, a much smaller number than that. The majority of people posting content are yelling tips and tricks into a hallway. Now I'm guilty of that. Right? My post today was about four step as a development process. And here's the tips within that four step, but you're absolutely right. The content that I post that gets the most traction is social content. Now let's remember LinkedIn is a social media platform, right? And when you've got a whole bunch of people in a sales or client acquisition role, demonstrating their expertise all the time, you get less interaction.

Charlie Van Derven

56:06

People become numb to that type of content. We want to celebrate the people in our network. You know, your photo today was awesome, right? You play in base. It tells a story about who you are. And I would argue, that's way more important to you doing business with people, then your expertise, of course your expertise is necessary. But if all you're doing is shouting tips and tricks, you never take the time to build a relationship. Right. And I, so I, I think that you're, you're spot on our research says, and you know, I don't even need to research to know that when we're celebrating somebody for an achievement are, you know, I mean, that's just that stuff just goes so much further than three ways to do this. You know,

Brian George

56:54

Relationships are the key. The key always have been, always will be.

Charlie Van Derven

56:58

That's right. That's.

Brian George

56:59

Right. I mean, probably the best compliment I've ever received in the business. And, and this is back in my, like last year at Jones. So it's been awhile, but a client walked in with her mother and her two grown children and said, my mom doesn't like her visor. I want you to take over her accounts. And my kids have some money and they want to start investing and start IRA. I want you to take care of their accounts also. Right. And I'm usually pretty stoic, you know, but under the surface, it was pretty emotional. But because to me, you trust me with your inheritance. You trust me with your mom's life savings and your inheritance. You already trust me with your kids' inheritance, but now you're entrusting me with your kids' future. Yeah. Right. To build wealth for them.

Brian George

58:01

And I think there, I said, you know, that's, that is the best compliment you could ever do.

Charlie Van Derven

58:06

That's awesome, man. That's awesome. So, so I guess we wrap it up then with knowing, I mean, those are just the indicators that you're in the right place, man.

Brian George

58:15

Yes. I think so.

Charlie Van Derven

58:16

Yeah. Awesome. Brian, I want to say thank you so much again. And I introduced in the beginning as the founder of charitable planning network, my apologies, charitable our planning partner. Say it again, Brian.

Brian George

58:28

So I have two LLC. I'm still the founder and managing member of charitable planning network, but I'm also the founder and managing member of planning network partners, which is the RIA.

Charlie Van Derven

58:42

Okay. Planning network partners. And so I wasn't wrong. I just didn't. I just didn't tell the whole story.

Brian George

58:48

Correct. So that pedestal I ordered for you, I'm going to send it back now.

Charlie Van Derven

58:54

Oh no, Brian. It is, it is a pleasure. Oh, every time we get to chat, this is maybe a little more formal, but it feels like it's just one of our other conversations.

Brian George

59:02

Yep.

Charlie Van Derven

59:03

Yeah. So, man, I want to thank you for being a friend. I want to thank you for putting your trust in social advisors. You have no idea how much I appreciate that. And, and being my guest on our podcast today,

Brian George

59:16

As long as you guys continue to make me look good, then I'll be happy and.

Charlie Van Derven

59:20

You make it easy for us.

Brian George

59:22

And we'll get to meet face-to-face in a couple of months.

Charlie Van Derven

59:25

Yeah, that's right. You're going to be in Florida. We we'll do, we'll do a terrible job swinging golf clubs together or something.

Brian George

59:31

Oh, there you go. I guarantee I'll do a terrible job of,

Charlie Van Derven

59:36

Well, maybe dinner is better for us. We're both good at that.

Brian George

59:40

Well, I could heckle you on the golf course.

Charlie Van Derven

59:44

I, I suffer already. I don't know if I can handle that. Excellent.

Brian George

59:48

All right. Take care of Charlie. Thanks. All.

Charlie Van Derven

59:49

Right, Brian. Thank you so much, man. Appreciate your time.

Brian George

59:53

Bye. Bye.

Speaker 3

59:57

You've just listened to another episode of RIA collected with your host Charlie Van Derven for more information, visit RIA collective.com. Now have a great day.

This is Exactly Where I am Supposed to Be with Brian George

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