On today's episode of Gathering McKinsey, Give us an example of a good decision that you've made, something that you've determined that you've wanted, you made the decision. It worked something that maybe we can learn from. Yeah. So I credit this one to my wife more than myself, and she is a part of our practice. She's our director of marketing. And this is a decision that I talk about quite often because I was dead set against it. What's up, everybody?
I'm Chaz Wolfe gathering the king's podcast. Today, I've got Larry sprung here on the king stage. My brother, Larry, How are we doing? I am awesome, Chaz. Thanks for having me. Absolutely. You know, I always have a little bit of a connection time with each one of my guests for sometimes a long time, actually, before we hit the record button. But within a few minutes, you and I have already just had a very interesting back and forth. I am so excited for this conversation.
We know some of the same people. We're in some of the same lanes with podcasts and business, and and I'm excited for this conversation. So thank you for being here. Tell us what kind of business or interest that you have, my friend. Yeah. So my my company is Midland Financial. We're a Wealth Management firm. So we help families design and develop financial plans and then help them implement it to work towards whatever goals they're looking to achieve and and hopefully find their freedom.
Yeah. I love that. Love that. You've said that once or twice before. It's sharp. You've also got a podcast. Right? You I you you for those that are watching on YouTube, you can see is His backdrop there looks sharp, but but you were just telling me you you're not a spring chicken when it comes to podcast and give us 2 seconds on your podcast. Yeah. I mean, I I still feel like a spring chicken because I'm a 140 episodes in, and I'm learning every day. And we have some awesome guests.
Evidently, we've had some of the same guests. So that's a an interesting, you know, overlap there. But our our guests really range from entrepreneurs that really just have interesting cool businesses to sports and professional athletes as well as the mental health related shows. I you know, we talk a lot about being financially fit, physically fit, and mentally fit. At our at our company. Yeah. I love that. Yeah. So it's a fairly inclusive perspective or a wholesome perspective.
We kinda give the same thought around, towards business owners, not only helping to assist with their business, but the businesses, like, has tentacles in all these other areas, of course, fitness, and athleticism and the way that we think in our mindset, our families, our marriages, you know, we were just talking about your son and doing all kinds of really cool as well, but all that stuff bleeds together for entrepreneurs.
And I definitely wanna get to that on how that's impacted you in your journey because that's a big part of, big part of the show here as Wolfe. But I gotta know before we get kinda too much in this story, Larry, what is, like, the the heartbeat? The the drum that beats inside of you louder than anything else? You know, the thing that burns late at night, what is that for you? Family. 100%.
I mean, my family is most important and When I when I talk about family, it's not just my immediate family, meaning my wife and my 2 kids and my extended family by blood. It also means my work family Right? I have a great team here that we spend a lot of time together. In some cases, I spend more time with the team here than I do with Chaz blood related family.
So by all means, a lot of the things in the decision making processes, whether it's personal or on the business side, really revolves around that family first mentality. Yeah. I love that. I wanna go just one layer deeper than that. Because the listener might be thinking, like, okay. Like, yeah, that's a great answer, but, like, Where's the meet? Right?
And so, Larry, for you, I know a little bit of, you know, some of the pieces of your story that you've already shared with me before we hit the record button, but why is family like that for you? Why did family become the top priority? Why did it roll off your tongue so fast when you said it because everybody has family, but not everybody things like you do. So why is it that you think this way? Yeah. I mean, it was ingrained to me.
I I came from a family first environment as a kid, and then more importantly, which I I write about the story in my book Financial Planning made personal about my mom. My mom was diagnosed when I was about thirteen years old with cancer. She passed away the day after my 23rd birthday at the age of 47. So that was that was one impression right there. 2nd impression was my wife's brother after a long battle with mental health. Died by suicide in 2004 at the age of twenty seven.
So, you know, having life events like Chaz, taking place, it really leaves an indelible mark and really makes you understand how short life can be. And how important family is. So ever since I was young, most importantly, because of my mom at that early age, family was just something that always came first. And if it meant going to a client meeting or a family meeting or going to watch my kids or bring them to hockey practice, hockey practice would always trump that.
And the families we serve and we work with here know Chaz. And I think that's one of the reasons why they're driven here. Yeah. Okay. So we're kinda getting into a little bit of the tastiness. Let's keep going because You had some crazy circumstances that shifted your perspective, and then you're trying your best now to live with a recognition that life is short, like you said, or it can be shorter than maybe we expect and then trying to, you know, give that same perspective to other people.
But for the guy listening right now or the gal listening right now, who's never had that life altering experience of a loved one passing or some just crazy circumstances that shift the perspective like you have. What would you say to them to help them understand what you just said, which is really dialing into the relationships, really dialing into the time that you have with them?
And some of the other things that maybe we put value to aren't really that valuable, in essence, what is what the story really is? Why? What would you tell that I I I think you have to have a fundamental understanding about and a feeling about wanting to do it first. Right? But it's something that can be done. I know a lot of people go through life and they go through their, you know, regular daily routines, and they think they don't have time to do this. Or they don't have time to do that.
And you really just have to prioritize. It really comes down to what your core values are. And if you really truly believe that you wanna put family first and make that a core value, then you have to start designing your life and and your goals and your around that. And I think that's something everybody can do. I think it's something that a lot of people think they can't. But it can be done.
It just it you have to have a fundamental shift in focus, and you don't need somebody passing away at an early age to do Chaz. It could be even the birth of a child, you know, reframing the way you look at something or getting married or maybe just realizing, hey. You know, this isn't the way I want my life designed. I don't wanna go to work just 40 hours a week and not have time to do these other things. Right?
All you have to do is commit to it and and build a life around that and make sure that your decision making process is being filtered through that at all times. Yeah. You're given such succinct answers. You know, like, this is exactly how we go, and this is why we do it. And And it's very well thought out. You've clearly spent a lot of time not only processing your own perspective change, but then also developing a thing that you can follow probably also for your children.
And then now maybe through your book and podcast and and helping your clients, you're able to kinda extend that impact, but What's the first step that somebody takes, or what did you do? Maybe after, you know, mom or brother's scenario, where you started implementing some of these, like, because it wasn't so sustained back then. I'm gonna guess. Right? Yeah. I disagree. It really was.
It's something that from a very early age that I started implementing you know, even when I first got married, for example, right, my office at the time, I was working for a company. It was prior to me launching my firm. And, you know, where we are living on a good day, if I left early in the morning, it was like a 25 minute ride. On a bad day, it could be an hour, a 20 minute ride here on Long Island. Traffic, it can be brutal.
So as we my wife and I started approaching the idea of having children, I said, hey. You know, I can't do this ride if I'm gonna want to be there, then I'm gonna have to make a decision that I'm either gonna miss some of those life events or I have to move closer to home where there's not gonna be as great a travel, you know, travel between the office and home or their school or what have you. And I literally circled a ten mile radius around my house.
And I said, I'm gonna find an office within those ten miles because that's where I wanna be and put that family first. And that's what I did. It took me about 2 years. Finally found a location that is literally seven miles from my house. It's 12 minutes on a bad day. And, you know, it it's that easy.
I think that you just have to start planning things around that and looking at your life Whatever it is, if you wanna put family first or whatever that main objective is, start filtering all those decisions that you have to make and say, hey. Is this moving me closer to or further away from that whatever value that I wanna have? And then, you know, you know, make the decision accordingly.
Yeah. Yeah. Now we're getting into some some stuff that I love to talk about, which is what you every your sentence that you just used, I've used in so many into platforms around well, the decision's easy when you realize what you want. If you don't know what you want, then then we're confused. Right? And so what you're saying is that you knew family was important to you. From the beginning, boom, here's what it was. It's not that you haven't grown in that air.
I'm sure you've grown tremendously, but you at least had made a decision that this is important me so then therefore, the decisions that I make are based off of that. This is gonna transition us right into some good and bad decisions here, but before I I wanna hear your story. How did you even get like, re representing other people and their finances and helping them. And, like, you know, New York's a big place. Tell us about your story.
Yeah. So, you know, a lot of this again is in, you know, and and going back to that last question just to hit on Chaz. You know, a lot of this is in my book Financial Planning personal, and one of the chapters is find your why. And to your point, it's not just for me to find my Chaz as a person, It's for a company. You know, it can be really relate. You have to find your why so you know what you're doing and why you're doing it.
And also figure out what you should be doing and what you shouldn't be doing. Right? Yeah. So how how I ended up here, it basically came from a, you know, solid middle class family. We weren't rich. We weren't poor. Had a dad that was a New York City school teacher and also had a a couple of side hustles before they were even called side hustles. They used to hold second jobs back then. Yep. That's right.
Yeah. And seeing him go through the situation with my mom really, you know, as we've discussed, really left a mark on me. And Yeah. Not not that having a financial advisor or somebody like myself in his life would have mitigated any of my mom's health situation, the bills or anything like Chaz, but I really feel like if he had somebody like me Chaz it would have helped alleviate some of the weight off of his shoulders. And he didn't.
And that really resonated with me as I started going on, you know, finishing high school, going into college, and you know, learning more about this profession and it real I was really drawn to it because I felt like it was such a great profession that you got to work with people help them work towards their goals. You know, hopefully not only work with them, but then work with their kids and grandkids, and it was something I could do you know, for a very long time.
So that's really what drove me to the profession, and that's what keeps me here every day. It keeps me fired up knowing that we are having such a solid impact on the families we serve every day, and we're here as a resource for them.
And, hopefully, it's not just in times like my dad went through in terms of trying to help them through bad times but we also wanna help families in good times working towards buying a house, getting married, you know, maybe buying a second home, retirement, what whatever finding their freedom, whatever financial freedom means to them, we wanna help them work towards that end goal for them and their family.
Yeah. And you you gave a really good picture earlier of what discernment looks like, which is determine what you want and then make decisions today Chaz helps you get there even if the impact of those decisions isn't today. The the the impact of the decision that you're making today you're working with Larry around some sort of financial goal or retirement or getting married, all these things that he just mentioned, isn't necessarily something that you're gonna see the result of today.
It might be next week. It might be next year. It might be 10 years from now. Right? Or it might be 40 years from now. Yeah. Right. But I think that at what The natural way that you think this this very discerning way is something that entrepreneurs sometimes can get excited about, right, we can get excited about the future, but then in the day to day to make the decision that aligns with what we say or think that we want. It's hard. Right?
There's a big disconnect, oftentimes, especially when someone can get excited about the future, but then the the implementation of the decision making or the the day to day, the saving, the this type of decision, whatever financial plan that you guys have come up with, it's the same thing in their business, and it's the same thing with the family. If you had just kept driving to the same office, but saying that you want us to spend more time with your family, there's a disconnect.
Would you agree? Right. Yeah. 100%. And I think I think that's where a lot of people get hung up, right, because they have this idea of what they want and and maybe what they want their life to look like, but, ultimately, they don't necessarily carve out the time to sit down and figure out how to get there. And, you know, in some cases, you can do it on your own. Some cases, you can't. You need somebody to assist you in, you know, maybe you could articulate what that vision is.
Just like an entrepreneur, they may have the vision, but you may need that implementer person to help you implement that vision, and take the reins over, you know, that decision making process. So you have to, you know, if you can do both and and take care of both those things yourself, then that's great, or you may need some help along the way to do it.
But unless you carve out the time, I think the point here is unless you carve out the time to think about these things and actually put a little bit of work in, you know, it's not like you just wake up one day and say, hey. I wanna be family first. And that's what I'm gonna do today and then just expect everything to happen. There are gonna be things, events, decisions that you're gonna need to make and some work you're gonna need to put in to help get you there.
And that's the important thing to remember. Yeah. The It it's almost what you I mean, well, it's not almost it is. It is what you do. You help people slow down just enough to be able to help think about the future. So that they can put a plan together now so they can take the action steps on a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, yearly basis so that they can get what they want in the future. What else would you leave this person listening with right now around this kind of good decision making?
And then I wanna ask you a good decision that you've made. But just this construct that we've built around determining what you want and then figuring out a plan, slowing down to make the plan. What else would you leave them with as far as, like, you just wisdom. I mean, this is what you do on a daily basis every day with your clients. What else would you give us?
Yeah. I mean, listen, if you if you're in the boat that you don't have this information, right, you you haven't even thought about this, you have an idea of what you wanna do. What I would suggest is after you're done listening to the show, carve out 15 minutes and jot down three things three things that you're gonna do starting today that's gonna help you start working towards whatever that y is for you.
You know, because most people I think inherently they have an idea of what they want and what their why is. They may not have written it down. They may not have verbalize it, but they have an idea. So when when you're done listening to this show, sit down, 3 things that you're gonna immediately implement and put into practice.
And make sure you follow through on them in the next 7 to 10 days because, listen, without action, there's nothing And you have to have once you put in writing, you've now committed to it, and now you gotta do it. Yep. Yeah. I'm gonna I'm gonna go one step further, Larry, I'm gonna tell him to pause right now. Don't go another step further. Get out a piece of paper. Get out a pen. Write down those things right now. Otherwise, you won't do it. I know you. I'm an entrepreneur like you. Don't wait.
Okay, Larry. Give us an example of a good decision that you've made. Something that you've determined that you've wanted You made the decision. It worked. Something that maybe we can learn from. Yeah. So, I mean, I I credit this one to my wife more than myself and, you know, she isn't a part of our practice. She's our director of marketing. And this is a decision that I talk about quite often because I was dead set against it.
And that is, you know, from a marketing perspective and looking to grow our firm and the number of stakeholders we have and the number of families we serve, you know, about 4 or 5 years ago, she approached me. She said, Hey. You gotta be more active on social media. People need to know who you are. They need to learn who Larry sprung really is. They need to see more of you. And I was like, people don't wanna see me going here or going there or on a trip or away with the family.
And she said they do. And I said, alright. Listen. We'll give it a try. And we started implementing it And long story short, the thing that really, you know, sealed the deal, so to speak, for me, was my family and I went on a trip to South Africa in 2019. And my my youngest son was thirteen. He got bar mitzvah and in lieu of a big party like they do here in New York, he chose to go on a family vacation on the safari.
And we basically, you know, documented the whole trip posting everywhere we were going on a daily basis. And when I got back from that trip, because we had a lot of engagement on our posts on social media, etcetera. A couple of things happened. One was we had a family that we work with where she was her health wasn't great. So she wasn't able to travel, but South African safari was something that she always wanted to do. And she called me up when we got back. And she said, wow.
She goes, I have to thank you. I'm like, thank me for what? She goes, because you documented your trip in the way you did, I feel like I was on Safari with you and your family. Yeah. And I was like, wow. What an impact that was. Right? Yeah. Yeah. You know, right then and there, that was one. And then the second thing was we started seeing an uptick, a huge uptick in inquiries with our firm. You know, hey, Larry. I, you know, I'm interested. This is going on in my life. Can you help us out?
Right. And and the lesson I took away from it was, yeah, she was right. My wife was right, and it was a good decision that we've that I followed her recommendation probably one of the best from a business perspective that I've made in a long time. And, you know, sometimes it's tough when you have a certain kind of predisposition to something That's right. And change and changing your mind and and doing it. And it's been hugely beneficial to us and for us as a result.
And, you know, it's one of the best decisions I've made for sure. Yeah. And a 100 and, what'd you say, 40 episodes later? You have a podcast, and I'm sure Chaz gets cut up and put up all over social media so we can get to know you even better. I mean, listen, in this day and age, I think, you know, I have talked about this as Wolfe. You know, going going out there, it used to be we used to have to 4, 5, 6 meetings with the family before they decided to start working with us.
Now it's usually one meeting. And the reason that is Wolfe feel is by time they get into our office or they schedule that introductory appointment, They already know us. They like us, and they trust us because they they've seen everything we do as people and as as a business. So Yeah. It cuts down a lot of that Chaz time sure. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. The same five meetings are happening. They're just not happening with you. They're happening with the virtual you that's already been recorded.
Which is actually a a leverage point that you have now, because it's less manual work. The recording that you had already done and paid for one time is doing the work for you ahead of time. I had a a recent inquiry. Maybe it was Facebook or Instagram. I can't remember. Hey. I see what you're doing. I like your stuff. It was such an interesting conversation because you could tell he had just found me. And so it was like, I found you. I looked at It's super interesting.
I don't know anything about you yet, but I wanted to, like, reach out and say, hey. I appreciate it. But, like, don't try to sell me, but, like, I want more information. You send me to your podcast? Can you send me any videos about you? I saw all your other interview. Like, it was just a very interesting play, and and my point in saying all this is that Oftentimes, now in business, that's actually the consumer's desire also is to do those five meetings without you. They're with you. Right.
But they're not with you. And they feel in control and they feel safe and they don't feel like they're being sold anything. And when they're ready, they make a move. They have the initial meeting and you thought, well, jeez, man. Taking one meeting these days. It's like, well, no. It it yes. You're right. But, no, the work's been done ahead of time. And, actually, it fits their buying cycle or they're buying desires as well. Have you seen that on your side as well? Oh, 100%.
And I think that the other thing that has come out of it is from a standpoint of you know, the podcast and blogs and videos is it gives you another tool where if somebody has a question about something, right, that you may have had a guest on that's an expert or you may have a blog article that speaks to that point rather than you even getting on the phone or typing out this huge email explaining to them how you might be able to assist or what they should be
thinking about or doing, it gives you a really easy way. Here's a link to a an expert that I had with the, you know, that talks about the problem you're having. I think you'd find it helpful. And again, to your point, it's not a sales y thing. It's just really a helpful thing. And then if they're interested and need further assistance, they come back and find us.
But Yeah. I think a lot of those meetings are are definitely happening, you know, over somebody's PC prior to them reaching us and and that's hugely beneficial to to us, and I'm sure you as well. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Beneficial on both sides of the story for the consumer as well, but wanna talk I wanna flip the script here. I wanna talk about a bad decision. And and so same construct, I guess, right, of how to make good decisions, but maybe it just It just didn't work out. It wasn't your best hour.
Tell us the juicy details. What can we learn from it? Hey, Chaz Wolfe here. As many of you know, I have been on an absolute mission to help entrepreneurs from all across the country in many different industries, level up their game and grow their business, and intentionally connect with other entrepreneurs. We do Chaz, obviously, through the podcast, but We also have a peer to peer mastermind group specifically for 7 to 9 figure business owners.
We are bringing some of the best and most success for entrepreneurs and minds together in a regular and a super intentional way to not only grow our network but to be able to leverage And at a certain point in business, success becomes about leverage, leveraging time, leveraging resources, leveraging key relationships, This is exactly what we're doing inside of the peer to peer mastermind group called Gathering of the Kings, specifically for
7 to 9 figure business owners, So if that's you, if you're ready to level up your 7 to 9 figure business, even to the next level and get around other big hitters just like you, want you to go to gathering the king's dot com, fill out a short application, and, it'll come to an application, call with me and I wanna chat with you to see if it might be a good fit. Talk soon.
I you know, I I Chaz one takes a lot of work for me to think about as far as bad decisions because I don't make many, but with that being said, I I think probably if I had to align myself with 1, it would be, you know, looking back at myself becoming independent. So a little bit of kind of history when first entered the profession way back when, I worked for some of the bigger investment houses, if you will.
And I did that for about you know, 6, 7 years until I launched my own firm in, you know, Midland Financial in 2004. And to some degree, I I think it was a bad decision because I got wrapped up in the fact that, oh, you know, I'm a young guy. I'm new to the profession. I have to work for this big organization so people Wolfe wanna work with me. And, you know, to some degree, I I don't regret the time that I spent there because I did a lot of learning, and I learned a lot there.
But but at the same time, probably the one regret or bad decision I have is I probably could have made the move a little bit earlier because I feel like, you know, being independent and being a fiduciary is hugely beneficial to allowing us to help the families we serve. Just to give you an example, when I was working for one of these firms, I had a manager that came to me and said, hey, you know, Larry, you know, how can we raise the revenue for our team?
And this was, you know, back in the, you know, early 2000s when we weren't so team oriented as we are now. Sure. And not for nothing. At that point, the team did not have any impact my income only I did. So so I looked at her and I said, you know, the interesting thing to that question is I don't see how you know, the team would impact my revenue and my income. So if you're asking me what I could do, I said, well, we're having about 40 hours a month in conference calls and, you know, meetings.
I said, eliminate those. I'll get an extra week to talk to folks and I could assure you my opportunities will increase significantly as a result. And she didn't like she didn't like that answer. And my you know, my my sense was a lot of the questions were always around how much revenue did you drive. And my sense was always how many families did we help this week? This month, this year. And my sense was always that the revenue and everything else would fall into line.
So, you know, thinking about bad decisions, you know, it might have been a bad decision to stay there as long as I did in in some of those organizations. Yeah. Because being independent has been, you know, tremendously freeing and beneficial, not only to us, but definitely to the families we serve as well. Yeah. There's a bunch that you know now that you that you didn't know then. Obviously, it's hindsight. Right?
Oh. What do you think that you what do you what's that what's that first thing that just popped into your head when I said Chaz? You know now. They were like, oh my gosh. If I had known that at that age, I would have left 5 years sooner. What's like that that most important thing that you can do for your clients or that you that's beneficial to you guys or whatever that scenario is. Like, what's the hindsight now?
Yeah. I mean, back then, I didn't even know what an RIA registered in an adviser and what a fiduciary was. Back then, I thought everybody was a broker. You know, some people I thought everybody in our profession basically charged a commission and got paid to do trades. And that was not the case. I mean, RIAs like we are, you know, have been around since the mid eighties, I believe. So when I started in the profession, they were a thing.
They just weren't talked about, so I didn't know about them. You know, all I knew about was you know, if you think about the firm, the the movie Wolfe of Wall Street Right. I literally the first firm I ever worked at was a firm that was like that. But that was all I knew. I only knew about, you know, getting on the phone and cold calling and trying to touch base with families who didn't know us. And I didn't know about, you know, networking and marketing within your circles, etcetera.
So I learned all that while at one of those organizations. So that's the benefit, but I didn't even know being a fiduciary was something that existed that being independent would bring me to. Yeah. You also mentioned one other thing I wanna pick your for the thoughts on. And I've had a lot of people on the show kinda be in this lane but you said it, like, families helped as opposed to revenue generated.
And so for the person listening right now who maybe doesn't understand what that means or they don't understand how to connect the feeling of, well, how okay. So I helped hit families this month with the decks that I built or the marketing campaigns that I build. It's like, how do they translate helping people or families in your case to the daily tasks? Yeah. I mean, I think, you know, we talk about joy here a lot.
You know, one one of our final question on our podcast that we ask everybody is what did you do today that brought you joy? And in in our book, when we talk, the book's title is financial planning made personal, And the subtitle is what did you do today that brought you joy? So the kind of the way we look at things, right, because a lot of advisors, a lot of people in our profession, Always talking about the money.
You need this amount of money for retirement, this amount of money to send your child to school, whatever that goal is or objective. What we talk about is, well, what's the joy that's gonna be derived from accumulating those assets? You know, or what's the joy? The joy may be watching your son or daughter or child, you know, walking through and getting their diploma or walking and getting married and knowing that you've accumulated the money to pay the wedding, the joy.
So you have to think about what the joy the family is going to be getting out of. So when when our stakeholders here are opening accounts. We don't look at it as opening an account. We look at it as a pathway to that joy. Whatever that savings is for and the joy they're going to receive. So whatever business you're in, you could really take that same framework and say, Hey.
You know, whenever I do, what kind of joy is the family that I'm working for or with or the business owner that, you know, if you're b to b, what the what's the joy the business owner's gonna get out of me working with them. And think about that. It's not opening an account. It's not having a Zoom. It's It's working towards that down that Joy road to get them there. Yeah. That's such a great answer. I hope that the listener is paying attention.
Joy can be easily trumped on, removed, taken away by busyness, and all the things that we think that we want, but really the things that we want just not making good decisions on. So, therefore, there is no joy. It's also interesting because one of our core values as Gathering the Kings is that Kings are levity. And the very definition of Levity is the removal of stress or pressure and the insertion of joy.
And so I just think that's I think that that's a king move on your part, but not only doing it for yourself, but but you're doing it, you know, for all your stakeholders of people that are in your company as well as all your clients. I just really appreciate that perspective. I think that the listener can take that away pretty practically. So thanks for giving that to us. I wanna know inside the business, what's like the most important KPI for you?
And if you can only pick 1 to track forever and ever, what would you Yeah. I mean, I think, you know, it's it's a hard KPI to really track, but we look at the number of families served. That's the number 1. I wish there was a way for us to successfully and easily track the number of goals that we help families successfully achieve, but That's cool. Yeah. Yeah. That's tough.
But so we look at the families that we're serving and how many we're serving, how many new families we're working with on an annual basis because we have a pre, you know, succinct process about and who and what families we bring on board. We wanna make sure that there are families that have issues, concerns, and challenges that we can help them Wolfe. And we wanna have a family that's not gonna be with us for 3, 6 months a year. We want families that are gonna be with us for multi generation.
So we have some families that we're serving today that were on 2nd, 3rd, in some cases, almost 4th generations moving in that direct So those are the types of relationships we have. So the number one KPI for us is family served for sure. Yeah. I love that. You kinda just hinted at one of my family goals. And it's a it's a generational target, but some people are motivated by legacy in that way of of kind of paving the path for multiple generations.
But being a a financial planner and clearly a good decision maker, what does one have to do to genuinely take care of call it 3 generations. From a from a standpoint of, you as You fill in the blanks. Chaz. As an investor or money wise, or Oh, yeah. No. No. As the as the person. So, like, if you're advising me to take care of my 3 next 3 generations Right. What would give us, you know, maybe 1 or 2 things that I could I could start doing today? Yeah. I mean, you have to make smart decisions.
I think that's that's the, you know, most important part. And if you make a bad decision or the wrong decision, you have to be very quick to fix Chaz, get out of it, move on, take the loss, whatever it is, and and move forward. That's that's important. 2 is You have to start early. Right? If you're 1st generation wanting to start generational wealth, you have to start very early and start putting money away.
And using what we even call in the book, the 8th wonder of the world, which is compound interest. You know? And I think you have to remove the emotion from your decision making process because that's really what, you know, hangs up a lot of people we find from and hinders them from creating that generational well.
You know, if they're lucky enough that they make smart decisions and then they start early and and then something goes awry in the world, and they get nervous and pull money out or, you know, then Chaz causes the emotion causes them to make a bad decision. Chaz can have a significant impact for them accumulating that multi generational Wolfe.
So what you wanna do is do, you know, make the right decisions Start early, remove the emotion away from it as much as possible, and let the money work for you. And If you follow those 3 things, typically, that'll help you at least start on a path of creating that to multi generational wealth. Yeah. I love that. I get super fired up about my kids, my grandkids, doing deals with my grandkids. Maybe one day, my great grandkids, I don't know, but I I got a question for you.
This is a little interesting piece here, but, you know, it's obviously subjective, but to you, what's the number of indestructible wealth? Like, how much doll let's just put it in dollars. How much do I need to come up with, or how much do I need to eventually in my family? May maybe that's after I'm gone. Maybe that's something that my children pick up after me, but what's the number eventually that we get to as a Wolfe family where it's indestructible, or does that even exist?
I don't know that it does exist. And, you know, one of the things that we, you know, again, with the book, financial planning may personal, I really believe that financial planning is very per There are a lot of rules, general rules of thumb, if you will, that people say you should follow. The reality is financial planning is so personal because, you know, for you, maybe you, you know, your ex expectation is I need $50,000 a year.
You know, inflated every year by inflation for, you know, to sustain those multi generations. Then there might be another family that might need $250,000 a year Under those same constraints, those savings goals and those needs to create that multi generational wealth is going to be quite different amounts. The other thing is, you know, there's nothing there's nothing that's indestructible. And and what do I mean by that?
You know, there are many times we see money that's passed on to the 2nd 3rd generation. If they're lucky, maybe the 4th, and then things go awry, it blows up. Because it's not just about the money, you also have to instill the values into that 2nd, 3rd, and 4th generation because If they have the money, but they don't have the values and the understanding of what that money means, what it's about, and what it took to get that money, and they don't have that pride in it.
They're going to squander it and, you know, any amount of money could be squandered. How many shows how many shows do you see? You know, the lottery people, people who win the lottery, and then they go bust. Or athletes who get what seems to be indestructible amounts of money in their contracts and it blows up.
So I I don't think there's really anything that is in disrupt the way to insulate that as best as possible is to create as much wealth as you can and create those values so that the generations to come understand what it took to create it, and they're gonna have the respect for the money in order to have it continue to last on for multiple generations. Yeah. Yeah. It sounds like it can't just be, in this case, you know, our case, 1st generations target.
It's gotta be a multi generational target that maybe the initial person like you or me, we have to galvanize the next generation or maybe even the 2nd generation or the 3rd generation around this target because that's where the value is gonna come from. That's where the let me put aside immediate desire and let me delay gratification. Even though we have 1,000,000 or hundreds of millions, the family target is this, or whatever. We can fill in the blank with whatever numbers.
And the and the more galvanized they are, more educated they are, right, the less of that pool of money that you need because they'll respect you more and be able to handle it a bit better. That's true. So true. Way we could have a whole podcast just on this topic. Okay. I wanna know of a business resource. You've already mentioned your book. I will put it at that in the show notes. I want people to grab that. Sounds like a phenomenal book.
What are the resources, podcasts, books that you've read, anything that you would suggest that we get a hold of? Yeah. I mean, listen, one of the the best books that really set me on a path, and I talk about it all the time. You know, you wanna talk about multi generational wealth as the richest man in Babylon.
It really hits home the whole idea of paying yourself first, which is also a chapter in the book I talk about because we have a tendency to go through a life, pay everybody else, and then We get to live on what's left over, and I think that's backwards. Riches man in Babylon is an unbelievable book. I think for entrepreneurs, Dan Sullivan, who not how, I think, is hugely impactful, you know, instead of thinking about how to do how to do certain things, figure out who can do them.
And to free up your time to get that done. And then lastly, one other gem is attraction, the EOS operating system. I think is a is a phenomenal read and something that if you implement into your practice Chaz be hugely beneficial I know, you know, firsthand because it has been here, and we operate on that system. Yeah. That's great. Those are great resources there. Appreciate that. Maybe the first time, maybe second time that Richard's man in Babylon's been been introduced here on the show.
I appreciate that perspective because you're right, and it's such a small, simple book. It could be it could be red in a few hours. So I think that, that's a great recommendation. I got a question for you about family as we kinda close-up here. You've been clearly focused on your family. You've already mentioned that, but I wanna know as an entrepreneur, so maybe outside of the financial planner because on that world, you're pretty, like, calculated and always making good decisions.
And I understand that there's a personality that fits that pretty well. But over here as an entrepreneur where we're obsessed is the word, right, like, where we have to be all in all the time, and there's no real, like, light switch. And so my question for you is, how have you been obsessed with your wife and your children or your family or the other things that you enjoy in life at the same time as the business? I just don't I don't feel like balance is the target.
I feel like obsession in all areas is the target. And so how have you been able to kinda go all in in those areas at the same time? Yeah. So I don't talk about balance. I talk about work life harmony because I I feel like balance gives the implication that something has you have to give up something to get something. And I I think that there's a way that everything can work together.
You know, for example, when when my kids were young and they had a, you know, hockey tournaments, My wife would go with one of them, my boys, and I would go with the other. And they knew that I was gonna have to be doing some work probably over the weekend from Thursday through Sunday. So, you know, I think that that was something that, you know, always made sense to them, and I was all in there.
And I I will say, listen, from for for, to some degree, the business was not as growth oriented as it is today because my boys now are both out of the house, so I have a lot more free time. Because I'm not driving them to practice anymore or anything like that. So, I mean, you know, it's it's a tough balance, but it or I should say you know, harmony. It's a tough situation to harmonize, but it it can be done. And I I think that it's it's definitely a challenge, but it it can be done.
And The other thing is the families that we work with very early on, I started, I guess, working with them and getting them to understand how important family was to me when my first son was born for I took Fridays off in, I think, July. Then the 2nd year, I did July August. And the 3rd year, I did June, July, August, and then I had 2 boys at that point.
And to this day, we still get calls from families on Friday who call the office to and my assistant will ask Rose will ask, oh, you know, you know, Larry's in today. You wanna talk to him, and they'll be Oh, no. I wasn't even calling to talk to him. I wanted to talk to you because I thought he was out. You know, I haven't I haven't done that in, like, 3, 4, 5 years, but they they understood that that was important. So I think that Yeah.
You know, important to whatever business you're in, have the stakeholders understand that, you know, you're gonna need to have some free days where you're not gonna be interrupted because you're gonna have those family obligations going on. But it it's definitely a challenge, especially My wife works in the practice. So even when we go home at night, you know, and and I wake up early and I'm done earlier, She's more of a wake up later, work later.
And there'll be times we'll sit on the couch at at the house, and she's working. And I'm not. And she'll She'll be asking me certain things. Chaz we do this, this, and this? And I'm like, listen. I'm done. Please send me an email. We'll talk about it tomorrow. That's right. So So you just have to kinda be able to build those those lines and and draw them and, you know, whatever works for you. But Yeah. My point is you can be obsessed with both. Be successful at both.
And, you know, it does take some work, though. Yeah. I know you're a 100% right. One thing that you said that was unique to your answer, for sure, was because you've gone through these different seasons of your kids being different ages. Right? And so maybe something that you gave up, which really it was it it wasn't like that. It was just you were being obsessed with your young children. And what that looked like for your business was that you took off Fridays for that period of time.
But that now that they're older, you're obsessed with them in a different way. And so now you're back in the office on Fridays. And so I I that was just a very free flowing word picture. Which hopefully gives the listener permission or freedom to be able to say, hey. Look. Like, this season, it could be this month. It could be this quarter could be this couple of years. You know, I same thing with us. We've got 4 kids under the age of nine.
It's like there are things that I'm doing in my life right now at very, very intense clip that you don't do right now. Right. And that's okay. So I think that, like you said, it's it's based up to the person, but you gave us really, really clear on ramp there and off ramp. And so I just really appreciate that perspective. I got one more question here for you, Larry. I gotta know If you could whisper in the younger Larry's ear, what would you say? Oh, that's a great that's a great question.
It'll all be okay. It'll all work out. That that's what I Wolfe whisper because I think, you know, we get obsessed. We get hung up on a lot of times and sometimes we're our own worst enemy in that regard. And I think time and time again, it Chaz proven to me that things end up working out. Maybe not exact the way you want them, but usually there's a reason why they worked out that way. And you may not know it in that moment. You may be disappointed in that moment.
You may be upset with the way things are going down, but then you're gonna have that moment later on. Or even in that moment, you might see it. But A lot of times, you won't. And then a week, a month. A year or later, something will happen, and you'll be like, Wow. That was meant to be. So and I I think the point is that, you know, don't get hung up on those short term decisions because there's usually a reason why You made that decision.
There's a reason why that happened, and it's it's gonna be okay. Yeah. That's good. It's good freedom now. Obviously, it's hindsight, but the reality of it is is that so many of us are thinking of the future And if we do that without maybe the right perspective, then then we get a little anxious. And so I appreciate that. How can we find you?
Number 1, if if the listeners have just connected with you, and they're like, I need this guy's help building generational wealth and helping put financial resources together for my family. How find you there. But then also, if they just wanna connect with you as an entrepreneur, where can they find you? Yeah. So the easiest place is if you go to our website, mitlinfinancial.com, There's a contact us button. You can get in contact with us, schedule, and is there a fit meeting?
We'd be happy to have a conversation with you and see if we're a good fit for you and you're a good fit for us. You can also link out to our book there or its own URL Financial Planning made personal.com. Is where you could grab the book. And then I'm on every social media platform there is. Most of them, you Chaz find me under Lawrence Sprunk, I made a marketing going back to bad decisions. This was probably a bad decision, but I didn't even understand why or what I would need it for.
Instagram. I'm Larry sprung, but everywhere else, I'm Lawrence Strong, so you could find me, or you just do old Google search and, I'm everywhere. So There you go. We can find you. Yeah. For a for a man that has his own podcast and and a book and all these other places I'm I'm sure that you're easily found. You have authority in your space. You're a king in your in your arena. And so just appreciate you being here, Larry.
Nothing but blessings for your family and for your business and all your clients that you're touching every single day. Thank you for being here, sir. Thanks, Chaz. Appreciate it greatly. Thank you for listening to Gathering the Kings today. Hope that you were able to pull out a few nuggets to go apply into your business right away.
More importantly, though, I hope that you're realizing that it take more to be successful than just being by yourself, doing it all on your own, carrying the weight all by yourself. What I have realized, not only in my own journey, from multiple businesses and multiple different industries, and now interviewing over 2 or 300 other very successful 7, 8, and 9 figure business owners is that it's tough to do it alone. And so gathering the Kings exists to bring together successful entrepreneurs.
In fact, we are putting together 1000 kings, specifically who are grateful, but not done. We're intentionally assembling kings who fight tooth and nail for their business, family, and communities, and here's what we believe Chaz in the suit of excellence in those areas Chaz it ignites within us the responsibility to govern power and forge a lasting legacy.
So if that relates and and resonates with you and you know that you need people around you, sharp qualified other very successful business owners. I want you to go to gatheringthekings.com. I want you to take a look at what we're doing and see if it makes sense for you to be part of our pursuit to 1000 kings. Talk soon.