We Didn’t Believe in Whole Life Insurance Until We Learned This

All right, welcome everyone to the very first and asset show one we got Austin Williams in Idaho, we got Dom Rufrin in Colorado We got your host Caleb Williams coming from Nashville, Tennessee and guys I I thought I would come with the og and asset sweatshirt first edition We've I've had this for Many many years and I bring it out on special occasions and I thought we know we're gonna we're gonna have a very exciting life insurance Podcast why not just get this thing started the right way. And so anyways, Austin, I know you're traveling with the fam How have you been? Man, it's been a roller coaster of the last 10 days Caleb's Yeah, as you as you said, I've been traveling with my family We normally are headquartered out of mid, Missouri about halfway between Kansas City and st Louis and we went to summer camp south of Denver in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains over the last week with as a family and so got to spend some really good quality time with my girls and my wife and Then we had been playing this for a long time Is that that wasn't enough because that's I mean going camping for a week straight is obviously a lot of logistical You know challenges and planning that goes into that. We then drove north another 17 hours almost to Canada We're like two hours south of Canada to this town called Sandpoint, Idaho, and that's where we're gonna be for the next six weeks We just wanted to try live in somewhere else for a while. See what it was like The the beautiful thing about The working virtually is you can work anywhere and I think I just even Modeling that for your family. I think it'll be fun to get updates on the pros and cons of doing a six-week deal Yeah, yeah Dom, I know I know you got to see Austin in person You had a funny story that you shared earlier about going camping for those of you that don't know Dom You know that camping and hiking put together and not not on your top ten list to say the least Yeah, no, there's a lot of things that are not on my list of things. I don't enjoy and that's at the peak including with moving Including with anything with cars building pictures I live in Colorado and surprisingly. Yeah, I'm just not that that type of person outdoors and all that so Call me anomaly, but that's definitely in Austin I went to go visit him and he had me and my family hike 45 minutes by accident by the wrong directions When it should have been a two-minute walk So I'm grateful for Austin for bringing my family closer together Having my two-and-a-half-year-old son falling in the dirt his face deep in the ground and me saying hey get up. Let's go and It just be a great time. So, thank you Austin Williams for for the adventure Pleasure is all mine. Dom pleasure is all mine. I I'm glad that I got you and your family hiking just in the worst way possible I was it was so that we were talking like the whole week leading up to it I was like trying to give you like really good directions and I realized like on the back end There's definitely some things I could do differently when you have zero cell service This is like there's a very few times in our life when we have to live without the internet and allow without instant communication And then when we don't have it, we realize like we have this muscle or I mean I I have this muscle that I've just never used and it's so withered and it's so under like underperforming of just like Explaining somebody something really good like way far in advance and not being able to like, you know Call and like confirm and do all this stuff. So The directions were literally go to the second entrance and then go take a right and then go all the way to top of the Hill that so we did exactly that but there was a right that he missed So we went to the first right versus the second, right? Which is what you meant to say, but the easier thing would have been go to the merchandise Center and literally walk two minutes to the left and you'll be there and yep I feel like we could come up with plenty of analogies life insurance analogy. That's what we're gonna do on this show We're just gonna be talking about life insurance And I'm pretty sure I'll be surprised if we like it'll just be humbling to see the people actually watch this but believe it or not, there are weirdos out there that want to watch Grown men talk about life insurance and and all and it's gonna be fun It's gonna be fun to see the the life insurance nerds. Where are you? You guys should definitely let us know in the comments and this is gonna be a lot of fun There's a lot of things that we're gonna talk about on the show today, we're gonna open up with just getting to know each other and the epiphany of How you learned about life insurance because we all have different different epiphanies of around just like, you know Life insurance is not something that you just stumble upon or it's not like in high school Austin You're not saying you know what? I want to do. I want to help people set up a life insurance policies That's just not a thing and and also where there's a lot of other cooler things that we could be doing like just even representing something that's not life insurance like Investing or you know, just like there's so many other things that you could you could be way cooler than being like, yeah I help people set up life insurance policies or I'm a nerd when it comes life insurance and so the reason I find that interesting is a lot of times there's stories behind it and there's Conviction that might be greater than the average, you know, you know person that's you have to have the extra conviction I think to do this Because why why create why why do this if there's not a reason and so that is the purpose of this episode Number one, I know that there's going to be further episodes We're gonna be going through a book review of our Nelson Nash's book becoming your own banker We're gonna do the book review of the and asset and there's gonna be lots of other topics And it will be fun to go through it with people because I know that there's people that will want to join us along our Journey, and I'm excited to learn from both of you because the beautiful thing is we all think differently Which is great. If we all thought the same this would be a really boring show, but I'm looking forward to arguing pushing back agreeing having epiphanies And and all the above and so is anything that you guys want to say before we jump into just the stories I think The answer is no minus Context of people but maybe that you know for people for the first time watching deny, and I know who Caleb Austin or Dom is in just regards to who we are relative to the Even the and asset show. So I think that that is that's relevant. Besides there's jumping in testimonials, but You know, it's like also why us why the three of us versus anybody else in the team, right? That's also, you know, I think a great valid thing just to bring up nice first episode Well the so I'll set the stage here So if you're watching this is your very first video that you're ever watching on any of our channels. Thank you My name is Caleb Williams I'm the founder of better wealth comm and part of the things that we do at better wealth our purpose is to help people better their wealth by living more intentionally and Intentional living is very much our stance and we do that a couple different ways One of the things that we're most known for is helping people set up life insurance And that's what this whole show is gonna be about is life insurance is not just a protection vehicle It's not just a savings vehicle. It's not just a thing that can help you in retirement There's a lot of things that can happen when you set it set it up use properly. We've been doing this for many many years We have clients all over the country and we have an incredible team And so that's that's who I am Dom why don't you introduce yourself what you do with with the company Austin? You can then follow and then we'll we'll give a couple shout outs to the people that aren't on this show that very much could But we'll explain why why it's the three of us The three the three foolish people that committed to doing something like this I think we just uh, we we drew the short ends of the sticks. And so we're all here and we're figuring it out Amazing thanks Caleb and does everybody listening Caleb is our visionary and you can you can hear that when he speaks I communicates The things that we've built we've created Whether it's the channels the show our events, you know Majority of it is came to life because of Kayla's vision So we're grateful for what he is he started and how he leads us in the direction that we're heading for myself personally, I am the president of better wealth and so I run and operate the company and Entails many things and so I actually used to do lots of content So for some of you that are watching like hey, where's Dom been? You know the and asset channel Caleb and I started that at the the early stages of it But you're watching right now and I took it over and started just doing content Exclusively on it and then as we started to grow as a company It became hard for me to do that and we realized that it was more advantageous to bring on other people to the show I haven't been on the channel and I think it's been like seven eight months at this point in time So for me, I'm really excited to just be here do content again You know, obviously there's any questions comments anything that you guys have that you want to know Please let us know that I'd be more than happy to answer but this is gonna be a great series and a great time Amazing. Yeah Dom at seven eight months. That's like an eternity as far as you know internet concern You pretty much stopped existing for people in the outside world So, thank you Caleb and thank you Dom for kind of painting the picture for what better wealth does I am I'm a wealth coach at better wealth and I'm a wealth associate and I'm more on the kind of the ground floor of the company Is I'm kind of directly, you know interacting with People who watch your videos they want to learn more. They want to maybe even talk about their situation specifically They're interested in life insurance They call they get on my calendar I'm actually even kind of transferring to a slightly different role inside the company where you know I'm gonna be, you know focused on, you know, maintaining existing relationships with clients and so just kind of all part of the churn of you know, having a company that is constantly evolving and adapting and just Kind of, you know responding to different needs in the marketplace and I Did not have a very obvious route into life insurance whatsoever So this this has been a a bit of a wild journey for me to kind of end up in the seat that I am Today and we'll get a little bit more into kind of the specific parts of our histories that kind of led us to right here Right now but simply put from my first two jobs that I had to get into life insurance represents like a huge a huge shift and There it's a very different kind of job than the jobs I've held in the past But I think that I've brought some of the the best parts of that in into it with me So that it's kind of helped me kind of do the job that I have even better today So that's a really quick snapshot into who I am and what I do at this company Yeah Austin the people that you've been able to serve on the front end Love you and then a lot of our clients if you don't you've not had a conversation with Austin you will see her soon and you are going to love the interactions Austin you're wholehearted in whatever you do and we've had some of the videos that you've done on the and acid show have performed extremely well and That's one of the reasons why when we're trying to put this show together We're like, okay. Well back in the day Dom and I would just sit together Do three minutes of prep? Ramble and people Blows my mind and so we're like, okay, we should we should do something where it's more casual I Find that people want to get to know us They want to know what we're working on what we're thinking on this is this is not going to be scripted We will have videos that are more to the point scripted And so people will be able to watch what they want to watch but the end of the day we are thinking okay, we wanted we want to do this show and who can roll with the punches and who would be an a great addition and You're you were our first choices you said yes, which could be a the biggest mistake of your life But you said you said yes some honorable mentions will still have Alden He's he's gonna be on both channels. He's he's one of our top wealth coaches and very technical Product specialist we have Demetrius who's a wealth coach who does amazing content incredible work with people Justin He's the he's the freak in the sheets kind of deal He loves the numbers and the case studies and he's gonna continue to do do that and and listen I mean, we all need we all need some nicknames You'll you'll you'll learn in real time once what we'll get some type of thing where it's like Dom You'll have your your nickname and Austin and myself and this will be Justin's nickname freaking See what I just family thinks about that Yeah, but yeah, he owns it. He owns it and I'm gonna go with it. So with with all of that being said We're we're gonna we're gonna start off by life insurance epiphanies and and really getting down to the okay the journey because I know I've had quite the journey of like You know aha moments and then I had to rethink my thinking even on the original aha moments And so I want to just be very up front with you there. We make videos. I just made a video the other day Talking about policy loans and there's you know You know There's some people that are like I made a ton of money buying cars with life insurance and and and made a video to say Hey, listen, I appreciate the people out there that are making content that bring people into our world but this is how the math works and I would say things differently and laying things out and I think it's it's Important to have that truth aspect But it's also important to realize that you're not gonna get it right the first time always and I know for myself personally. I Cringe sometimes on thinking about what I said early even we're gonna go through my book here on the show and like beat it up Lots of things I would do differently in writing the and asset and And that's it sold over 20,000 copies and we have clients today and it's opened up doors today on an imperfect piece of Content opened up doors and and has enriched our lives so I think it's important to acknowledge that and and if you're someone who's watching this that is Waiting to for the perfect time to get started on something like make this be your motivation to not And we need to have enough humility to say I was wrong and there's a lot of people that are unwilling to say that and So they're doubling down on on things that aren't true, even if they know it's true. It's not true So with all that said Austin I think you'd be a really good person to start off because you are the out of the three of us the greenest when it Comes on the newest addition to to this What I would love to hear is Your story and and again under five minutes if you can And and just like the life insurance journey you've been on and I even know early on You were like you were like amazing with people But there were some things that were harder it didn't click early on for you in some areas and so I think it's important to even share some of the stuff of What like why didn't it all come naturally day one what were some things that you had to wade through What are some of the things that you're still working on and learning? I think that's gonna be one of the most relatable things that people can learn whether people are in this space There's gonna be people that are financial advisors life insurance agents representatives life financial professionals watching this But there's gonna be some of our clients and some people that are just like shopping around seeing like who are who are we up? You know, who are we what are other people and so with all with that context I want to hear you hear your life insurance epiphany story Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah, definitely learning is still obviously taking place every single day I think so you alluded to earlier is like, you know, I I was picked to be a part of the show I think one of the reasons I was picked is because I am an unrepentant Extrovert and I love talking to people and I love the relationships that I have with others one of my favorite Phrases is that you know strangers are just friends you haven't met yet And that's just like that's like it's something that I kind of carry with me into life is that like I kind of look at each new interaction with somebody as you know, Ultimately a chance for me to get out of my own story and get into the story of somebody else because I think we often Get trapped by the narratives like and specifically our own narrative that we're in And so I love I love being a life insurance agent because and I'll get into how I get got here is At first I was an English teacher That was love was my first job and it'd be an English teacher You're all about a story that stories and there are three taboo topics in life really right? Pretty much death sex and money, right? These are three taboo topics and in my conversation and my job I get to talk with people about death and money every day So I break like major taboos every single day with people and you get to have some really nitty-gritty kind of granular conversations and You get you would never normally get to have another human being because I'm a life insurance agent and because they're not gonna hold those Things back for me. So I think that's really cool. Um, as I said, I was an English teacher That's when I met Caleb. That was my like my technically my first like foray into life insurance Was meeting Caleb. Oh so many moons ago Probably ten years ago plus now I'm a new I met Caleb through his cousin who I'm still really good friends with Trevor. Love you, man I live in a national answer not out to Trevor and I met Caleb at Trevor's wedding Caleb was a groomsman and I have at the time I was gonna be an English teacher and I was like, that's the track I was on So life insurance finance that was nothing but I liked Caleb and I'm an unrepentant extrovert So I was like, I'm gonna keep up with him and I kept up with him throughout the years I'd call him like, you know, we you know a few times a year We talked back and forth or whatever and that was great. And he at some point I got his book I don't remember if you gave it to me But I read that book and I was like, I really like it and this was like 10 years ago But I had a Dave Ramsey education and I literally had Dave Ramsey My finance class was like the Dave Ramsey book So like that was kind of my so I was like, I I trust what Caleb saying about whole life But at the same time I know that whole life is evil and is bad And so I just kind of I had that like that tug and pull going on and I didn't really know what to do with It so I was like I trust Caleb, but I also trust Dave Ramsey Like what do I do with that? I don't know so Time goes on I actually get into farming and that's as an aside We can go a long time into that, but we won't But then after about five years beautiful years of being a farmer a youth pastor I decided to make a switch for my family's sake and I was looking around for new jobs trying to find Find a way to make sense of an English teacher background and a farmer background Quick side note. There is no way to kind of make sense of those I tried really hard to be like editing an agricultural journal or something didn't work out And then through a very like miraculous God-ordained set of circumstances Caleb was looking for some person to do writing for him I also had a life insurance license and we ended up going making it into a job now With as far as it killed. I said, you know, I'm are you still learning new things every day? like what are the challenges like absolutely like I had you know the Relational side of things I have like a strong relational instinct like that's black a parking naturally but like the Thinking about numbers and like talking about them with people in a way that still felt relational I think was a challenge for me And just kind of getting it through my head and we had some amazing people like Demetrius is someone we haven't mentioned yet Demetrius who was my supervisor who kind of walked me through like and how to really Really not like let things slip through the cracks. That was really important. That was something that I learned so So yeah So just kind of being surrounded with the right people and the incredible incredible team that we have here at better wealth Which you know, I'm I'm not ashamed to say is I think like one of the best in the world It's not the best in the world. Like I love our team I love getting to show up and do what I do every day And I think that and we'll get into this later There was a couple things in your book that really like changed kind of the trajectory of my life a little bit I didn't realize it at the time, but when Caleb when you specifically talked about average rate of return It was something that and how it's not actual rate of return It blew my mind in so many more ways than one that we'll get into later But that was like kind of like that Initial piece that got me thinking about life insurance and how life insurance might not be what I was taught That it was and eventually it's what led to me being here today It's awesome. Awesome Any any follow-up questions you got Dom? I know that I Do at least some things to add for sure one Said nobody. I love being a life insurance agent. So, you know kudos to that statement and You know how you represent and show up Just you guys also know from an unrepentant extrovert. He is not lying Austin and I do one-on-ones to making sure that like accountability we're doing the right things We have to set a timer like a legit five-minute timer every meeting when that time hits zero I'm like awesome. We got to go and he's he does it religiously. He like start sharing his screen is like it starts ticking also just for clarification Trevor would is not Caleb's cousin, you know, we said big shout out to Trevor you guys that's you guys know He's our head under our head of servicing serve people extremely well, but that is that is not the case and Austin, what did you say that you don't ever talk about in school and stuff? It's it's death Money, what were the things that people like it's not sex and money to three times money. That's good thing good thing with We'll probably get talked about on the show Yeah me if you're interested in learning Overall man, I'm blessed to be able to have you part of the team here story and it's been crazy to To see your growth over the last year or so from where you're at to today and it's like it's night-and-day difference so and like I used to be the the life insurance guru and nerd behind the scenes that was doing a lot of this stuff and I could design illustrations better than anybody on the team like hands down and Now we're to the point of the team or Austin could design and structure life insurance policies Way better than I can at this stage and we have for the people on the team that can do that as well And it's just mind-blowing to see the growth in very short period of time. So yeah, thanks for sharing brother This I'll just say shameless plug if you have policies that you want us to review even if you're not our client We'll review them for free We'll have a link down below and if you want to talk to someone on our incredible team also have a link there Austin I'll say this before we go to Dom and hear his epiphany is It's funny how Dom mentioned how y'all he him and his family are running around the universe To find you we have an interesting story because when we when one of the first times we were together This is when you're in farming and I think you were a client of ours before you were on the team. Is that yes, I was Mentioned So you came to the house. We were living in Colorado and you're like, hey, let's go to the is it st. Mary's st Mary's Glacier Let's go to st. Mary's Glacier and just like have a fun time at hike and it's super like legit We've done it many times and so we're like, yeah, that sounds fun. And so April my wife comes along and And there's two ways that we could get to the to the point and Austin and his infinite wisdom was like, yeah let's just go let's go this way and We're going and my wife almost died like four times, you know, and she let's just say likes you now But didn't like you at the month that that day and I remember thinking, you know again It's not like my wife's the most adventurous person in the entire world. She had her shoes That were like really worn down So she didn't have the proper shoes and we're like on this edge of this cliff And like she's slipping and she just sits down she just sits down and she's like I'm not moving and we're like well You're gonna have to move like there We're too far. We're we're over like you can't go back because it's too and then you got to go so it's just one of those things where it's like it was I cracked me up and when Dom shared that because I'm like Hey, Austin, Colorado wilderness, not a great combo But but you know just just setting the record straight there Definitely some good memories though All right, Dom If I were to ask you your life insurance epiphany and your journey, how would you answer that? it's a great question and There's actually a video that we that I've done on the ambassad channel and it's actually labeled Warning Cowleys life insurance MLMs are scamming people Just know that's it's it's clickbaity to some degree but also does be very direct to the point And in there is a piece of like my testimony in the journey that I've been on and I started as a IUL Advocate only Everything else was the worst thing in the world I was like looking at illustrations and numbers and that's it and I was like Why would anybody put their money into a rock into the market? Into whole like anything everybody should put a hundred percent of all their money into an IUL Let this thing compound and grow over the next you know, 30 years and you'll be set You know based off of the way that the numbers looked And then I started comparing like whole life and like actually looking at the numbers and they were so bad with the company that I was looking at that it validated that that belief and then what ended up happening is two things that kind of like gave me a little mind shift into my journey was One I was in a competitive situation because I was selling IULs only at that time with another company called Forrester's And it was the first time that I saw that a life insurance policy with whole life actually compared relative on the growth With the IULs that I was selling and I was like this doesn't make any sense Like how is this possible and the client actually end up going with the whole life policy and at that time I didn't realize and I didn't know but is because the whole life that I was looking at the very first time was a Stock company so there was no dividends. I was going back to the policy So the growth really was long-term was like 2% and then the Forrester's policy was getting dividends that were coming back to the policy Which made it a lot more attractive sexy and actually made it way more competitive And so that was like one of those like moments in time that just made me like think like, okay Maybe there's something that I don't know and then the second pivot that really changed things was I met Caleb And what ended up happening was we met at a networking event. We grabbed lunch. It's a weird networking event It was a very weird networking that I could be for a whole another story, but very very weird But it's funny and ironic how God works all things together because if we didn't go to that weird thing Like we wouldn't be here today and so He shared me his book. He showed me his testimony his faith I did the same and then he shared like hey, you know I'm not a fan of IUL like and you was like completely against it in a lot of ways at this time This is a long time ago. Just so you guys know just across the board You know, there's even a video that would Him and Dan Kaminsky that got a lot of backlash in regards to the way that they communicated and talked about IUL at the time And so we've obviously just learned a lot in regards to just products and how we communicate them and whatnot but through that journey of Listening to Caleb. I started looking at other people That we're now friends with whether that's Kim Butler or that's Garrett Gunnarsson You know, there's the whole gamut of people that are in the space that love whole life and in that kind of season I started getting plugged into people like Primerica and symmetry financial and WFG and I started going to their networking events and it was like this close to getting Started with like some of them as well. And I just like said, okay. I can't do this no more I cannot go down this path of selling life insurance Without being confident in what I'm actually offering and selling people and so I went took like a year break literally of like not pursuing life insurance except educating myself and I actually hear that a lot of times from clients whether they're like Hey, like I've been watching content for like six months and just like still learning this. I'm like, hey I get it Like I went down for an entire year of learning the IUL you well whole life Why whole life this way vice and these companies and trying to make an educated decision? And the epiphany that I have long story short was All financial products really have a place in financial planning to some degree or another Right and depending on the person's wants needs What they desire out of life and their roadmap for clarity for their end result in life you essentially then take that financial product to help them get to the end result and as long as it's Educated correctly designed correctly for the person's wants then there's not a product that can be essentially quote-unquote better on a standalone basis and What ends up making it better than the next is plugging it into helping the person achieve their financial goal and that was the epiphany that I had at the end of the day and so that's kind of like the The drum that I continue to the pound is that I want to constantly and I want our team to constantly speak Highly and sophisticated about products No, like gray areas like talk about how it really works and functions that people don't like it Then it wasn't meant for them and they necessarily don't badmouth essentially a product You know it's you could talk about how this product may not be great for this person situation or how somebody can maybe be unethical because they Designed it inappropriately for the person's goals And here's why and how but don't on a standalone without any understanding and merit of the person you're speaking to Just put it in a black box and say it's bad inherently Hmm. Well said yeah said What uh, you remember the moment that you were like, oh whole life There's something here like this is attractive because I also know that you are in crypto you do some real estate investing You're like what what was the epiphany that like life insurance plays a role in some of your portfolio Yeah, and it was actually before I joined better well so this was like what six years ago now, which is kind of crazy to think about but I Went on that journey of like researching and studying and looking at all these different policies and people and videos and I just decided that for where I'm at in life the safest most foundational place to store money Without any uncertainty of what could be because I I then came to a clues that I don't know fully the ins and outs of IULs For what could be like there could be a chance to lapse and I'm just not at that stage of life where I'm willing to risk potentially that at that time and I got set up with a a mass mutual whole life policy and I It's actually funny because Kayla's probably was mad at me at the time because him and I were actually really good friends He wasn't really mad but he's probably like what the heck and I hear this all the time happen in business where people like Oh, like we're really good friends. Like why don't you get a policy with me or like what you were really friends? Like why'd you go with somebody else? I was what happened like Caleb was really good friend that we've connected for like a couple years at that point in time and I decided to write up get a policy with with somebody else and Ironically the policy that got set up for me was actually a policy. That was not advantageous for my goals. It was like a Karma in real time. Yeah It was like a probably like a 70% base 30% Oh you a and it was like $20,000 a year that I was wanting to put into it and like the first year cash value was like $4,000 or something like that and I like signed the dotted because I like just trusted the person and I wasn't still still learning the Education. I was like, I just need to jump into this I just need to do this because I know there's something here, but I was still trying to figure out the design perspective I got this like yuck feeling in my gut for like a solid month It was just like something doesn't feel right. It's like I feel icky I feel like I was like I just feel almost like I got used in regards to like what I set up after like everything that I knew I Went back to this person and I just kind of like ripped him ripped him one I was like, you're unethical you didn't give me exactly what I wanted and I went ham and this was you know This is a while ago So obviously the way I communicate now is a little different things that I know but I did not feel good so there's a lot of money at the time to be able to put into a policy to justify to Starting something and feeling like I got scammed was not a good feeling and I know that there's people out there that are in the space of Consumers that are trying to find a policy that feel the same way They they look at their policies today and they're like I have zero dollars in the first year zero dollars in the second year And they come watch a video like ours and they're like, wow Like there's such a massive difference in cash value that I'd even know Right, and that's kind of where we try to come down from an education perspective Best the best case scenario for me would end up happening is the guy just didn't he wasn't the person I knew I had to Design stuff. He didn't know how to design stuff. So he had to bring in an expert who actually knew how to design it Luckily a mass mutual had this essentially clause that within a certain time frame I could change the policy so it got changed it ended being a 20% base 80% PUA in the first year had closer like $15,000 of cash value and it that was like now this is what I want I feel a lot better and I've had a policy ever since and so yeah I was just kind of like that that journey to help me like solidify where I'm at today, too Appreciate you sharing that the How only in our space I think could someone be studying life insurance for over a year and still get set up with the policy like that because there's like education is Like a black box there's not a ton of people that know this kind of stuff and then there's just it's just so interesting to know like the Lack of I don't know. Is it not even the unity is not even the right word, but like the lack of Transparency that goes on and so that's one of the things that we we're trying to do That's one of the reason why we're doing this show is we're obviously talking in a different light but you're gonna like in real time like I want to be able like if someone if If we have a video that goes viral for us or if we have certain comments to like this is the show where we're gonna Respond to some comments. This is the show that we're gonna maybe react to things in real time And this is the show that we're gonna rub some people the wrong way I know that there are people in the space that don't appreciate our videos because they they feel exposed there they set up a policy and Their clients come watch our videos and then go back and you know, maybe in a different way Dom But say like what the heck I would agree with that even look at our content today in like even when we started killed and that was the content that I would have Loved and craved of just like looking at the numbers seeing liability surgeons I think at the time there was just a lot of if there was content It was the philosophy and how it worked in the concept and that's where I was like, okay I know there's something here But I can never find the numbers and like people always want like I want to see the numbers or you know for myself I wanted to go in the software and design it But I wasn't necessarily appointed with a company that could do it or even if I did was I think I maybe wasn't them I didn't know how to design them. So I didn't know what I was even looking at, right? So that becomes challenging There are friends that I have in the space that we were close with that they were telling me a couple years ago They were like, yeah, like we would just present this to them We'd essentially like the concept we would go to the health process and we would just blanket statement get everybody set up with a 46 40 base 60 PUA across the board and They didn't they didn't even know like they would just have it and they would know and then they would come back a year You're too and then they would talk about Maybe potentially a different design and sometimes they'd even use that first policy to leverage to start another policy Within that same same workflow and I don't think they do that anymore because I think that is the beautiful part about education and content I think was actually a movement that we've started There's one other there's one other person out there that I do believe has that started the foundation of like doing education, right? Which I do really appreciate but people are starting to see that and because of that they can't necessarily hide because it does like you said Everybody I think collectively is starting to change on how they communicate and starting to mature which I really love. Hey, it's Caleb Williams here I'm just interrupting this video quickly to invite you to check out our and asset vault. You may have been there We've actually read revamping it and if you are somebody that wants to learn more about his life insurance right fit for me Does this and asset makes sense? Like does this actually help me be more efficient? We've put together a 10-minute documentary style video that I can test a really really good job Giving the history why the end asset different setups and designs that we use and that we have an end asset fault that gives like Case studies calculators handbooks and so much more. We are here to serve you whether it's a conversation whether it's education or the video So make sure to go check out and asset dot-com slash bolt learn more. I love it Alright, so my my epiphany was I grew up in Wisconsin worked at a bank with the dream to help people with their money more of like the hedge fund Finding like traditional financial advisor out that was kind of the goal at the time and then got exposed to life insurance for the first time when I was like 18 and I got life life license I was working as the investment assistant at the time and I loved it and I was Doing term insurance and I have some very cringy videos very cringy videos of me Pretty much doing like a term presentation and you know that the pitch was alright if people are gonna get mortgages Instead of doing mortgage insurance, which is not a great product if you know What it really is. I mean you'd be way better off just getting level term insurance And so the thought process was like hey if if people get mortgages send them over to me. I'll do a quote Life insurance quote and get them started. And so I I just remember like selling your first term insurance Dude, it was like the greatest feeling of all time. Like I just I was I don't know I I was so I was more excited about that then I'm a we we have the honor Working with some incredible people and it's so it's not it was less of a money thing It was more of like man. I'm like, I'm doing it like you always remember your first, you know And I remember I remember the first couple clients and it's just like it was just awesome so that was like my intro to life insurance, but it was purely the pitch was term insurance you need this for your family and You know be a be a good spouse be a good husband be a good wife and ensure yourself and it was always like Well, you could get a million but what it like it's just it was just always I was just like didn't want to rock The boat at all and I was afraid to even say like you need this much coverage like what's your budget? Let me get you like it was just it was just cringy But I just I was trying my best and I think many people can relate when you're first getting started. It is intimidating to know How to even start and so I'm learning all this stuff and then I'm learning about permanent life insurance, but I just was Very against permanent life insurance because it's a terrible investment blah blah blah blah. And so I remember going to an event and this is right at the time when at You know the person running our investment department left and I took over the investment department at 19 years old So just as a story in itself, but had a crazy opportunity there So I'm learning I'm meeting with people and I go to this conference to learn about life insurance And I'm like very against life insurance. One of the things you got to know about me is like I'm a high Quick start so I'm constantly wanting to get moving, but I'm high fact-finder. It's a Dom can tell you firsthand It's a pain to work with because I'm like Let's get moving yesterday, and I want to know all the details before we make a decision And so it's very very frustrating, but you know, it is what it is. That's who I am And so I'm I'm like that I'm like I want I want to grow I want to be successful I want to help people I had this drive I'm like, I'm not gonna sell anything that I don't understand which that leads you to a frustrating point because nobody knows what they're talking About it's just so frustrating. So we all kind of had a similar journey I mean Austin a little bit different because you you you knew You you met us from the beginning, but you had your own journey But like we if you didn't have the right people to start with it's very frustrating So I went to this event and it was an event helping people set up life insurance to pay off debt super interesting It was like Dave Ramsey meets Nelson Nash and they had a kid and that was what I learned and I was like, okay This is really interesting Parts of it that were like awesome. They were software and all but like there's this thing in the back of my head I was just like there's something that doesn't add up like it just doesn't doesn't make sense And so I was like asking this kid I think they were just frustrated because they're like like dude, you're a 19 year old kid. You produce nothing. You're wasting my time Go go find a different job, but they mentioned a few books and those few books I I read one of them being this book right here, which will do a book review aren't Elsa Nash becoming your own banker Which at the time didn't really help me because I read it I was like, I'm more confused but but it opened up it opened up the gateway to learning some other things and Had many conversations Got software had conversations. I that's when I got first introduced to Todd Langford his wife Kim Butler I hung out with some of the paradigm life people. I would go I met Russ Morgan of wealth about Wall Street I went to truth training and that Don Blanton that circle Well got introduced to the wealth building cornerstone people like just for those like I'm just name-dropping a bunch of legends in our space Things and like I started learning from them and I think one of the best best things best decisions I made was I'm not gonna look at this as a way to make money I'm gonna look at this as a way to learn and so that was like the commitment I I did a I made a lot of mistakes. That was one thing that I So glad I did and created the foundation of why we're all here. He's like, hey, let's do it Let's build this right foundation. And so the the mission I had was to help people see and reach their highest potential That was like at the end of the day that's that's what that's what I wanted to do and I'm like if life insurance if There's if there's a reason for life insurance. I want to know it but if not I want nothing to do with it and I remember the epiphany that I had was I was looking at it as an investment a lot of people that watch me talk They're like Kayla. Why do you always say it's not an investment. It's not an investment. The reason is I'm Therapy for me. I think it's like I'm still traumatized this day of like how I was taught about life insurance it's like it's an investment and I It's cringy on even probably the first people I tried talking to is like this is an investment it's gonna change your family's life and I So I'm like learning some of this stuff and I remember the epiphany for me was oh This is an and and I didn't invent the word the and asset This is things that people taught way before we were born kind of deal It was like it hit me that I was like, oh I've been I've been seeing this as a thing but actually this is like the key that unlocks lots of things and Lots of things are better than one thing or two things and it was like the again I couldn't articulate at the time but like more like more benefits are better than less benefits and you get more benefits by having this Contract versus just going directly into this thing. And then the epiphany was like, oh I could Use life insurance and invest I could use life insurance and start businesses. I could use life insurance and do these other things and Over time One plus one equals more than two why wouldn't I do that and I was like that was the thing and and and kindly the the idea of borrowing against like the banking idea that using your money while you're alive was the thing that I was like all In on and if you read the and asset You're gonna see like that was the big focus that I had and then the other Epiphany on the back end of that was like, okay life insurance is a multi Asset like, you know coming soon multi like the multi asset is something that I'm going to be talking more about and It's not just the living benefits of using the cash value It's not just the ability that you can use your money and it grows But it's the life insurance actually is a very valuable product to have From the protection aspect the valuable product to have in the future when it comes to future cash flow It's a it's a powerful asset to have from predator protection and it's this idea of like we all are in buildings We have a there's a foundation that we can't see but we're in a building right now Protected because there's a foundation that we can't see and I think when it comes to someone's portfolio in their financial life There's just not a lot of talk about foundations foundations have you need protection. They need to be dead deep. They're not sexy they're there but it's essential to building is you need a strong foundation and and The more I've learned about life insurance the epiphany is like regardless of who you are you you might be more on the infinite banking side where you want to save more of your money and use it throughout your life or you may be on the Side of like no, I just I'm good. I just want to invest money I want to invest money for the future and you're gonna use a portion of your portfolio in the life insurance why because it's going to Enhance the future benefit, but what we're not talking enough about I think is not just enhancing the future benefit But even if the future benefit was the same or slightly lower you are better protecting and creating more certainty to get to that future and That is that is the aspect that early on I couldn't articulate could couldn't care. I could care less about it Quite frankly, I was just seeing this as like a whether I would say it or not it was like a sexier place to I wouldn't say it was an investment, but I would I still looked at it like an investment and Now, you know many years later I just I just have an appreciation of this asset Like I said this in a video the other day that my I've become way less hypey about it Like even the actual rate return versus the average rate return I like cringe at because that was a way to pitch life insurance competing with the stock market I would never even have that conversation like I think it's a good conversation but the whole idea of the reason you have that is to create doubt and Why are you investing the stocks and I'm like not anti stock market at the time of writing it? I was because I saw that people investing in the Roth IRA was literally taking away from them putting money in life insurance And now I'm like, why not? Like why did I care about that? Well that that was how I was taught like that there was some and some of the times you just have to be like I'm here where I am and my journey is valuable and I I didn't do anything like malicious, but I'm less hypey when it comes to that but my conviction on life insurance has never been greater and it's it's interesting putting like putting the the dots together is We're over funding. We're a big big fan for those of you that don't know it over funding means like max funding Life insurance is something that we specialize in. That's why people come to us is like we're really transparent we set up policies really really well and The people that don't necessarily do over funding a ton, but they're like huge fans of life insurance They're usually on more of like human life value But like they're the ones that are saying like life insurance makes sense even if a hundred percent goes into base and The reality is they're not wrong Like if you had to choose between hundred percent base or no permanent life insurance I think proper planning still includes some type of permanent life insurance aspect the epiphany the the third epiphany I would say is like oh, what if you could take their fundamental education around life insurance and conviction long term? And you could structure the policy a little bit differently more flexible early cash value and all and like what if what if you could? Because I feel like a lot of people on the infinite banking side are just talking about early cash value and using your money And they're like doing you a disservice long term about your money Long term in life insurance, but then on the flip side the people are doing long term on life insurance is great But sometimes they can be put in a bad rap because if you look at the first couple of years you're giving the the talking points to all of our favorite gurus that like to hate on it and And then it was like man if like people understood what this would look like I really believe there'd be a line outside the door and we've we've created a small line I think we would all agree that there's more there's more to come and The more people learn about this stuff the more we're gonna attract So that is a that's my epiphany and and I'm sure in people in real time learn about All the things that we're learning so I know I know where I want to I want to land the plane here soon Austin any any any thoughts? I mean, this is the longest you've ever stayed quiet There we go, um, so you Obviously bring up a lot of good points kale But you did put a lot of seeds of doubt in my mind with the average versus the actual rate of return But I think those were well placed Because you know, we you hear about like Oh S&P 500 is you know And and when I read that initially I was just like kind of dumbfounded I was like, there's no way and then yeah, and I You you will like this because you just got to wait to the end of the story is I use a part of that Depending on the client not everybody calls in with it. But when when clients call in they're like, hey Like why like, you know, ultimately why should I think about life insurance rather than stocks? like if they literally bring it up, I'll bring them back to a version of what you of what you had talked about in your book and You had said, you know, and I take them through this thing as like, you know Okay, let's say you have 100 bucks in stocks and then this year you do it does a hundred percent then next year How much you have I literally let them do the math on their own then they come out to $200. I'm like Fantastic you got $200 on next year and next year it does 50% Okay, how much do you have in your three now back to a hundred? Okay, amazing. So yours one through three What's your actual rate of return everyone correctly says 0% and then but now I'm like, but calculated by average rate of return You know, you just did 25% Year over year and that blows their minds now This is and this is very very key to point out is that the kind of rate of return of life insurance This is why I point out is that it's not a fair apples-to-apples with everything going on stock So stocks are great. As you said stocks are fantastic We're not anti stocks better Well but internal rate of return is a very different metric than average rate of return because internal rate of return is literally I think what people think of Average rate of return is but it's actually totally separate metrics internal is in a point here to point here What do you need every year to get from that point to that point? And average is just this kind of like phantom metric that kind of means something and kind of doesn't at the same time so when you said that so many years ago like that that changed like that changed my mind and that changed my life a little bit Then because and I actually it was so hard for me to understand what you were saying I actually went to like the s&p 500 The last 30 years of it and I went year to year and I entered in like, you know what the gain or loss was for a thousand dollars and I did it over 30 years to see if Doing it every year for 30 years was a different number than if you just did a 13% gain every year And it's a wildly different number So I'm glad even though you're kind of like said you're kind of cringe over the way that you did that like I'm glad That you put that in there because it was something that's important to realize is that like it doesn't get talked about but it's different Now I have a question for you. All right So my question is and you're very humble by the way, you know, you say your investment assistant But you were like in charge of an investment just division at your bank, right? Like isn't that like what you were doing? Yeah, it was a community bank. So we had about 300 people total and that's a whole nother I mean met met with people and realized firsthand that You had to have more life coaching conversations with people than financial conversations because some people were never asked ever What they actually wanted out of life which blew my mind, but yeah Yeah, the question is so there was one point when you saw yourself as in a kind of an investment banker or investment assistant Whatever your title was who used life insurance to kind of solve investment problems And then there came some point at which you kind of went over this invisible hump where you stopped seeing like life insurance as this auxiliary thing that you were doing and then now you're kind of looking at it as What if I made this the main thing that I do when was that point at which you were like It's not just this auxiliary thing that I'm doing to help investment problems Is that it's actually I think the main thing that I need to do. Do you remember? Yeah, what you cross? I think there's a quote that that says something I Screenshotted this it's like you're most you're best suited for serving the person that you weren't once were I think that's Rory Vaden That quote and Answered that your question is the reason I went hardcore into life insurance is I was like this is so misunderstood and The upside for what I believe like the upside from a business perspective of sharing something That was so misunderstood Seemed really valuable to me because I was like, okay There's a ton of financial advisors out there probably 300 total financial advisors in the entire country have a real good understanding of insurance That might be generous. Like I'm just like so there's a lot of people out there. I Believe I'm making this crazy claim I believe life insurance has a role in most people's portfolio like a role like a legitimate role Not that we don't have to hype it up. It doesn't have to be an IUL Like it's just a whole life whole life insurance. And if that's actually the case There's a business to be said here and then that was while I was learning The you know learning from people like Paradigm Life and they were doing everything on the internet and then it was like, okay I'm not I don't have to just be I don't have to just be Here in my market of Wisconsin like I can serve more people and the idea of like, okay. I'm young I'm already young people are gonna have a hard time taking me seriously Do I want to be a generalist across the board or do I want to be like a Specialist at this one thing. So that was that was the that was the bet I made and You know probably to this point my downfall would be going back to my personality of being cautious is I I feel like I was never fully like hammered the gas because I'm like One products never gonna change your life like real estate's not like it's just hard for me to get on In a perfect world life and sure like we should just hammer life insurance I can't life insurance is this will solve it and that's why we have our own brand and asset and we're we're we're being more Intentional there and a lot of calls that we get are specialized here But but it also is important to me that Holistically, you don't miss the entire thing and I would just because life insurance is amazing That doesn't mean all your money should go into life insurance. So I don't know if they answer your question but I did intentionally be like instead of going the investment banker route or all I'm gonna specialize in life insurance because I feel like the the there's a lot of opportunity for growth here because of my journey because of my Frustration of just trying to get answers and I'm like, okay, there's there's an opportunity. There's a business opportunity in any frustration you You experience that's awesome. That's awesome I also have some questions for you. What's up? You don't get asked them. Sorry Austin just by sure time just by sure time okay, we got a we have a meeting in Six minutes and so I want to make sure that we're able to we were that this is we're gonna be like, yeah We'll do two episodes today to get this thing started, right? Exactly there's a Caleb at 12 minutes told Austin he said hey, please do this in five minutes You're your thing, right? So we are literally 45 minutes in and it took three of us to do so This is what happens This is what happens when you get a visionary that is incredible at communicating and sharing the company and vision in the story and you get an unrepentant Extrovert into the same same meeting together. It's gonna be a ton of fun a ton of fun that we're gonna do I might have to be the person that uses the the phrase that the young kids use often would say say Put the fries in the bag, which is just like I was waiting for you to say that That's my highlight of the day, okay So as we land the plane We don't know what we're doing we're gonna have a lot of fun and this is going to be a casual way to Talk about the things that we want to talk about. We will Joel this might be news to you. He's our producer. We will have a separate podcast So if you prefer to listen on Spotify Apple and all like you can subscribe to the and asset show where you can listen to this Obviously YouTube you get to see our beautiful faces and if we we will be showing things, you know If we react to things obviously YouTube is gonna be a great place there It'll be on the and asset channel and and so make sure to subscribe Hit the the bell if you want to get notified when when we drop episodes where we drop Life insurance content on the and asset show and then life insurance content and other content on the better wealth channel And if there's anything that we can do to serve you in your practice your family Review your policies talk to you about new policies we want to do that and Thank you so much for playing a role and watching us grow up and and see you next week