When you look back, what experiences or people most shaped the way you lead today? And how did they influence your belief that business and financial decisions should begin with the person's values?

So I'll start when I was in my... like 12, 13 years old or even younger when I was in the Boy Scouts.

And I went around door to door because I wanted to win a bicycle.

And that was my first goal maybe in my life that I had.

And I went door to door and people bought the popcorn and I won the bicycle.

And I realized that people say yes and that people are likable and that it's a nice experience.

When I was in my teens, I used to do the window washing business, paved driveways.

Can you tell us about a professional challenge, a failed decision or a difficult season that forced you to reconsider how you were leading?

That's the voice.

So if you ever heard of the band Train, I was on a cruise with them with Pat Monahan, and they were doing a wine tasting.

And I got up and I said, you're giving some money to charity.

Let me do an auction.

So on their Instagram page, we sold four bottles of wine for $16,000.

Oh, wow.

And I did that impromptu.

we'll get it all linked up to our friend that's listening to our show right now it's

So what does that look like for a sales professional, like leading with value and service? What does that look like in the real world?

So in the real world, I have a new client of a few months who said today or yesterday that she feels like I'm family.

When she showed up in my life, she said, I saw you online.

There were things that you said that I trusted.

I'm going to come in and visit you, and I have some money I want to invest.

As I sat with her, I didn't really care much about the money.

That's the attitude I have, right? The attitude is, how are you being treated, and how do you find your abundance, personally, professionally, and financially, so that you can live a happy, grateful life of fulfillment? And so she said she has an advisor that tortures her, tells her all the things that make her upset, and isn't nice to her children, her adult children.

What have you seen from people who have the great initial contact, but then it falls off?

So how did those experiences build the resilience that you carry today?

We talk about my past because I have a future and it looks like what I've done is easy.

But what I've had to do is to really grind and really pursue goals and dreams that I might have had.

And it starts with just special ed, right? A lot of people were in special ed or their kids are in special ed.

And one of my classrooms in particular, when I was in third grade, was a classroom, they called it an institution, it was Grove School, Lake Forest, where it was three kids, a teacher, a cattle prod, no walls, no desks.

And so what I talk about is, as I was going into fourth grade, I broke my femur in half, but fourth grade was my first classroom of remedial, not special ed.

And so however I was diagnosed and whatever it looked like many, many years ago, that was the situation that I was in.

How did that early label of special education affect how you saw yourself and your potential?

So I

don't know how many people watch this and want to network or were told that we need to network.

So in 1997 or 1998, before it was fashionable to network, I went to the gentleman who had the 80-person group at the time and I said, hey, I want to join your group.

And he said, no, why don't you just create your own group? And so the next week I did, and I created my own group, which went from 15 people right away to 80 people within a couple months.

And as I'm sitting there networking and helping and actually doing this before I actually had a job, because I was going to be a financial advisor, I realized that I was being in the giver attitude.

So as a financial planner, if you ask, it's a turnoff to many people, right? Hey, John, who's your money manager? What are you doing? It's a turnoff.

So I realized that if I could nice people, make it all about them, connect them.

So tell me, what are some good habits that you should develop in order to become somebody who's a good positive networker and can build a

That's a lot there, sorry.

[laughs] So on the first side, uh, uh, people, people...

You know, what I find, right, is the married couple, the older cars, the simple house, those people retire comfortably and stay comfortably retired.

There's a lot of new generation where it's the flashy watches, buying stuff, the- the three or four trips a year.

They're spending money they don't necessarily have.

And therefore, they're not able to enjoy the growth of the markets because they're not really putting money away into the markets.

Uh, and possibly, they're putting money in their 401[k]s, but more often than not, believe it, uh, there's a small percentage of people that maximize their 401[k]'s, as an example.

Talk a little bit about some of that, that you do, if you don't mind.