[laughs]

You know, 'cause they knew they'd be getting [laughs] they wouldn't be able to stroll through training that day.

They knew they'd be getting a physical battle.

But, uh, he soon made his mark.

And, and as I said earlier, Charlie, you know, not just as a footballer, but with his character as well.

He was obviously...

he, he was modest when he first came through.

Mm.

That someone will pay a lot of money

for, but this is a lifestyle business.

Which most of the industry is.

And I was amazed that something like 50, 51% of regulated firms in the UK have got one advisor, one regulated advisor.

It's an ultimate cottage industry, but it's great.

It's a great business to be a sole trader of it or a small business.

And I think the answer to that, because this cuts across a lot of the conversations I have on my own podcast.

Let's say let's be fairly ambitious.

Was there an occasion or did you literally just step away?

I pretty much stepped away again.

I was fortunate in that I've got a pretty solid, dependable, loyal team.

So the same people that were there then are still there now.

And we've all kind of grown up together.

Of course, there's always bumps in the road.

There are people who leave and things you need to change.

Interesting.

Ellen, remind us of your interest in Archbishop Sheen and the connection you still have with him through the efforts to proclaim him a saint.

All right.

I came by Fulton Sheen's writings by, I'd like to say accident, but there's no accidents with God.

And so about 12 years ago, I started to read Fulton Sheen's writings and was taken aback by them in the sense that they moved me.

They moved me.

And I thought this man not only was touching my life, but I started to research and find that he touched millions of lives.

And so I just started to share his writings wherever I could.

Right.

saw mud and the other stars.

Another story he mentions is about two people looking at a rose, and one would say, isn't it a pity that those roses have thorns, while the others would say, isn't it consoling that those thorns have roses? Archbishop Sheen writes, he says, the world today is full of those who, like the thief on the left, see no meaning in pain.

Knowing nothing of the redemption of our Lord, they are unable to fit pain into a pattern.

It becomes just an odd patch on the crazy quilt of life.

Life becomes so wholly unpredictable for them that a troubled manhood follows their baffled youth.

Never having thought of God as anything more than a name, they are now unable to fit the stark realities of life into His divine plan.

That is why so many who cease to believe in God become cynics, killing not only themselves, but in a certain sense, even the beauty of flowers and the faces of children for whom they refuse to live.

Woman, behold your son, behold your mother.

Maybe it's, it, you know, it appeals to you more than others.

Yeah.

I think it's the words I thirst because we live in a, a thirsty world.

We're thirsting for so many things.

And, um, I don't know, somehow I think of Mother Teresa of Calcutta and how she built a whole apostolic mission out of those words, I thirst.

You visit any one of her centers, her little chapels where her sisters work out of and congregate.

There is usually, again, a chapel, a tabernacle, and on the wall is a picture of the crucified Jesus.

connected on something.

This is incredible.

Yeah.

Yeah, well, I think if anybody's been on a retreat, there's always the retreat master.

And he kind of sets the stage.

He says, okay, you're going to be here for a day or you're going to be here for a weekend or however long it is.

And they just kind of say, okay, but here, I want you to get something out of this.

And so you have to kind of be in that right frame.

You want to do them daily, right? And how long would you spend of that day doing this retreat?

it's not

taxing.

It's not difficult.

These are just simple, short meditations that will really hit the spot.

And the five steps of this retreat, this big retreat, are really just, they're progressional.

Like, we start with the Holy Face of Jesus, learning to gaze.

We call the retreats Learning to Gaze, because as I said so many times, we don't hate Jesus.

cause.

So Alan, what is going to happen when people read this book that will help deepen that relationship?

Right, yeah.

Well, it's really a book that's easy to read in the sense that it only takes five minutes a day.

I give a reflection each day.

I give a passage from sacred scripture to take with you through the day.

We do a little challenge, and of course we have a prayer.

But there's five elements to this retreat.

Before we let you go, Alan, any last things that you would say to our listeners about why it is so important to take the time to meditate and how this book will help them do so.

So, Alan, what is going to happen when people read this book that will help deepen that relationship?

Right, yeah.

Well, it's really a book that's easy to read in the sense that it only takes five minutes a day.

I give a reflection each day.

I give a passage from sacred scripture to take with you through the day.

We do a little challenge, and of course we have a prayer.

But there's five elements to this retreat.

Before we let you go, Alan, any last things that you would say to our listeners today? about why it is so important to take the time to meditate and how this book will help them do so.

What is going to happen when people read this book that will help deepen that relationship?

Right, yeah.

Well, it's really a book that's easy to read in the sense that it only takes five minutes a day.

I give a reflection each day.

I give a passage from sacred scripture to take with you through the day.

We do a little challenge, and of course we have a prayer.

But there's five elements to this retreat.

Before we let you go, Alan, any last things that you would say to our listeners? about why it is so important to take the time to meditate and how this book will help them do so.

And then we'll streamline an electric Zero, and then we'll be there.

One thing I'd like to add about the streamlining is if you tell somebody you get 100, 150, 180 miles per gallon, a lot of people don't realize it's just their brain goes tilt.

They don't understand that number.

So I've got 82,000 miles on my bike.

I've gone coast to coast.

four or five times, I can go coast to coast on 20 to 25 gallons of gas.

So whatever it takes to fill your car

Well,

... on wealth building.

Yeah.

Well, uh, uh, this is a whole thing.

This is...

I- in an ideal world, we would meet somebody two to three years out, when they're even beginning to think about it, not when they've had that proverbial knock on the door or inbound email and someone makes them an offer.

Because what we're trying to do is contextualize everything.

So all that's really happening, or potentially happening, is that founder owns an asset.

Table stakes? [laughs] You just have to have it, right?

Without further ado, let's welcome Alan Smith to Referrals Podcast.

Thank you, Michael, and, uh, it's, it's an honor to be on here.

I, uh, my hope is that I can help share some nuggets or things that happened in my event that help, um, other people, other, uh, listeners here and, uh, inspire them.

So I, uh, I listened to Referrals Podcast for about three months, and the best that I remember it, I found it, I think, um, I was listening to some podcasts in the morning as I'm getting ready.

Um, I'm doing some internet advertising, by the way, right? And I'm, and I'm, I'm thinking, you know, when I look at my spreadsheet, I just, it, it's, it's SOI and SOI referrals, sphere of influence.

And I think I literally searched for referrals or real estate referrals, and I think that's how I found it.

Listened to it.

Mm-hmm.

Pe- people in the room over a certain age could, might remember, uh, a time before Netflix, because before Netflix, if you wanted to watch a film you had to sort of go down the high street and go to a shop called Blockbuster, and you would pitch up there, look for the video you wanted to watch or the DVD, queue up, rent it-

it-Take it home, forg- [laughs] then forget to take it back and get fined late payment, uh, late return fees, et cetera.

And what I...

M-my view on AI at the moment is, like, the way it's been applied, I'm, I'm seeing, uh, across the market, is like Blockbuster got an app, so it's still pretty inefficient, but it's slightly better.

And then Netflix came along, which was an entirely different always-on algorithm-driven model that I can watch a film anytime I want, and it understands my viewing habits and what I like to watch, and it helps and encourages me.

So where we are with AI in financial planning right now is there is a lot of what the tech people call point solutions.

Point s- so they fix one particular thing.

Yeah

Having lost to Manchester City and, and ha- with City having it in their hands, does this feel like something that Arsenal have overcome, an extra hurdle that they've managed to come back from?

Yeah, they have, haven't they? I mean, there's been some painful moments to watch at times.

[laughs] I mean, I was at the Bournemouth game, actually, just watching, uh, not working, the Bournemouth game at the, uh, Emirates.

When Arsenal were so poor at that stage, you thought, "Oh, no. They're gonna mess it up again," you know? But, uh, I mean, the Burnley game as well the other night, God, you're thinking...

I mean, there's bound to be nerves after so many years.

We, we had it, I mean, going back to '89, our last two home games, we lost to Derby at home, we drew with Wimbledon last game of the season at home, and we've waved to the fans saying, "Oh, thanks," but we couldn't quite get over the line.

Then we went up to Liverpool.

Ian Wright was saying that he feels that this could be one of the greatest Arsenal sides if they manage to win both those trophies.