AI Tools, Radish Plans & Recordkeeper Disruption

[0:01] Mark: You are watching 401k's favorite idiots. [0:05] Justin: Justin McNeil, [0:09] Chad: Chad Johansson, [0:13] Mark: Mark Paolini. [0:16] Justin: JD Carlson. [0:19] Mark: And this is Retirelics. That was perfectly cringy, bro. Welcome to Retireholics. Justin, take it away. [0:33] Justin: Today's guest has lived one hell of a life. She's a wife, a mother, a dreamer, a speaker, an author, an innovator, an army veteran. Thank you to you and your husband for your service. An entrepreneur. The list goes on and on. But rather than get to know her through me for season 11, we decided to let our audience hear directly from the guest. You know, because sometimes JD doesn't let them speak for the first 15 minutes. So I'm going to take a specific approach here, though, Sharon. It's called rapid fire, and there are some rules. Rule number one, you only get to give one word answers. Rule number two, there's no clarifying questions. Rule number three, facial expressions are encouraged, but explanations are not. And if you're worried some of my questions might disclose some secrets, now's a good time to tell your family and friends and colleagues to log off. Or just get skip to the next part if they're watching later. So seems pretty simple. You good? [1:26] Sharon: Yes. [1:27] Justin: All right, which is the better industry podcast? Nevin and Fred or the retireholics? [1:32] Sharon: The retireholics. [1:34] Justin: Bravo. Have you ever dined and dashed? [1:38] Sharon: No. [1:40] Justin: Cats or dogs? [1:43] Sharon: Dogs, yes. [1:45] Mark: Think about that one. Mm. [1:47] Justin: What is your favorite guilty pleasure? [1:55] Mark: Flowers. [1:56] Chad: Flowers. [1:57] Mark: Wow. [1:58] Justin: How many kids do you have? [2:01] Sharon: Two. [2:03] Justin: Which one's your favorite? [2:09] Chad: That's two words, [2:12] Justin: I think that should end in a penalty. That's a good point. [2:14] Speaker E: Oh, I like it. [2:15] Justin: I like it. Yeah, that's good. Nice, Chad. Nice. And last but not least, which is the best sport on earth? [2:21] Sharon: Hockey. Yes. [2:23] Mark: Wow. Welcome to the show. [2:25] Chad: Like, you faded into that one a little bit. [2:28] Mark: So happy you're here, Sharon. [2:30] Speaker F: She got the first one wrong, though. [2:32] Mark: The first one wrong. [2:36] Speaker E: Very true. That's called pandering. [2:42] Mark: All right, everyone, buckle up. We got some new stuff we'll be working out throughout the new season. Trying things a little different, because the last thing you all want is, let's just do the same old thing, which is what we've been doing for the last couple years. We are going to play acro sin. We can never throw acro sin in the trash, but we're gonna go. We're gonna collab it with our old prohibitive word. Okay? So acro sin going. And we'll do this all season. Going with prohibitive word. And the word for today is advisor. Pretty Normal. We know how this works. We've done this before. It's just been many years. Let's see, what are we going to talk about today? On the agenda we've got two somewhat new products to discuss in Ted Bena's radish and a $25 million funded new disruptor record keeper that we'll talk about. Got a couple of general topics that should be close to the heart of financial advisors. And a new webinar series, also known as a little self promotion for plan design consultants, a quick peek at the national association of Plan Advisors Black book and some other. So let's get to it. I had a little last minute ad to the agenda, so let's start with that one. Brandon, bring up the article for me from our Buddy Brian at 401K Specialist Magazine that came out today titled Otto Debuts at Retirement Plan Advisory Group to provide Artificial Intelligence Assistance to Retirement plan Advisors. This is at Foreign K Specialist. Oh, what, what is that he's got? Interesting. Oh, is that their graphic? No, I don't know. [4:37] Chad: No, that's. [4:38] Speaker E: That Brandon made that. [4:39] Mark: That's Brandon. That's cool. I like that. I love that. Auto assistant. What is it? What does it do? In this article it tells us that it gives, it gives instant information access. So it provides immediate contextual answers to. To member questions to the Retirement Plan Advisory Group member questions. It has. [5:01] Chad: I mean, Mark, you got to ring him up at some point. That's like four or five of them. [5:05] Speaker E: Got chat. Okay. [5:07] Mark: Okay. [5:07] Justin: First off, out of practice. [5:09] Speaker E: I weigh out of practice on the prohibited word. Okay, I'm way out of practice. [5:13] Mark: I'll catch up on those. I have three or two, five adaptive intelligence. It learns from the member usage so it can become more effective as those people interact with it. And then platform integration, it's working alongside this group's existing tools and solutions, enhancing their workflows, what have you. My question, Chad to you first is do you think this is artificial intelligence for like RPG related questions or. No. Or is it for actual like ERISA law. Oh my God. Law, regulations, newspaper rules, stuff like that. Which do you think it is? [6:00] Chad: So I think it's probably both. What I thought you were asking is if they created some sort of, you know, walled off AI system that is specific for our industry. And my thought would be no, I think they're just making this integration into the workflow so that financial professionals can use it a little easier. [6:19] Mark: See, I understanding. I, I thought it might be simply. Hey, a lot of their members have questions around their Process like how do I add a collective investment trust to my fund analysis and that this thing's going to help with that as opposed to, I don't think that their members are going to be saying, hey, can you help me with this complex retirement plan question that has to do with [6:43] Chad: law and their members already are doing that. I think we all know that any, any, any person out there right now that is not leveraging in some way, shape or form good artificial intelligence into their daily activities as a financial professional is missing out. [7:00] Mark: Well, you're, you're setting up my next question for Sharon then. Sharon, what exposure have you had artificial intelligence? And please answer a lot or Chad's going to think you're an absolute idiot. And how do you think, how do you think artificial intelligence can impact, like, I mean, honestly, like what it is that you do? Like, providing tools and support to advisors. Is this something that's on your mind all the time? [7:25] Chad: Bring them up again, Mark. [7:26] Mark: Oh, God. [7:28] Chad: Wow. [7:28] Speaker E: Chad, relax, buddy. [7:32] Mark: Artificial intelligence. [7:33] Sharon: Sharon, your fan keeping check count. You know what, I use artificial intelligence every single day. And like Chad said, I don't, I don't know anybody that isn't using it. And if you're not using it, I mean, you're going to kind of be left behind because there's so many ways that professionals can leverage it to their advantage to help them save time. Some of the tools I use are chat GPT. Out of every hundred times I hit enter, 90 of them, I swear, are corrections. Find me the statistics, back this up, correct this research further. So it's not perfect, but it's helpful. Gamma is another AI tool that I [8:20] Justin: use [8:22] Sharon: for graphic creation. It can create for professionals. This is harder than I thought it would be, guys. Okay? For professionals, brochures, handouts, white papers, and it's all professionally designed. So all you do is you give it the prompt and it'll spit out for you this full on, you know, PowerPoint presentation, website brochure designed. A lot of people might use a software tool called Canva to create that type of content that's, you know, very graphic and visual. But you can use Gamma and you just give it text prompts and it creates the full on graphic part of it. [9:06] Mark: So I'll have to check that out because I, yeah, I feel like a lot of the leading artificial intelligence kind of household names to me ever. I've struggled personally in kind of the image creation as well as, I mean, the PowerPoint deck type of stuff. I've just been really disappointed in it. So I'll have to check out this one that you're talking about. [9:30] Sharon: Yeah, Gamma is the best for that. [9:32] Mark: Can I ask. Can I ask the group of you. You're saying that advisors are using this every day? Of course they are. But my understanding is their, their broker dealers don't agree with you or don't think they should be. So are they all just doing this behind the backs of their broker dealers? [9:51] Chad: I think that's the excitement about Auto for people who have a relationship with rpg. Right. They're integrating this into their entire workflow. Oh, I can't say either one of those now I get it. [10:05] Mark: Yeah. [10:07] Chad: Retirement plan. [10:09] Mark: Of course. But I, I don't. I think the jury's still out. I don't think Otto answers technical retirement plan questions for them. I don't think. [10:18] Chad: You think they put up a wall and, and, and have it only for procedural based. [10:23] Mark: Yeah, I think it's for their own tools and stuff. Just. I bet I could be wrong. Someone. Just someone tell me I'm. I'm wrong. We'll see. So. Okay. I just. I just want to be clear because as someone who you know, has a artificial intelligence company myself, I will tell you that I run into different financial firms, ones that are willing to let their people use it once they understand the security and that type of stuff, and others that are just like, they're not budging at this point. And I feel like the latter is a. Is a big group and I, we have. I won't rat any of them out, but we have a lot of financial advisors that subscribe to WAVES and just don't tell their, their employer, you know, their broker dealer. They use an alternative email account to do it. So anyways, I think the moral of that story is those broker dealers need to like I'm sure they're all looking at the future, but they're going to need to get with the program. [11:16] Chad: One of the most, I'll say frustrations I get from advisors who are with broker dealers that don't operate in the dang it. 401k space is around the process of onboarding a 401k client for them because they don't do it regularly. So it's what internal paperwork do I need to do. How do I create a shell account? Like all these little nuances. If there was an artificial intelligence that could guide them through that rather than calling home office and trying to get someone to help them do it, that's a big step in the right direction to create some efficiencies for These, these I feel agents, [11:54] Mark: I feel like you create efficiencies with artificial intelligence in any space. Really. It's actually a bad habit of mine these days is anytime I run into a problem I'm thinking, okay, well I could, oops could solve that. But I think that still these large financial institutions are very concerned about it for their advisors, which to me is a little weird because every advisor in the past 10 years like goes on the Internet to find something. Oh my God, that's two more. Okay, I'll get those, I'll get those. I'm going to go straight to the bottle for those. They go on the Internet to find information. And what does someone say in the chat? Like books and records? Like we trust every advisor to learn information but then be responsible for what they spit out either verbally or in an email to someone. And I just don't understand why artificial intelligence wouldn't be any different from the broker dealer's perspective. Like, hey, we're going to let you use all these tools but just remember you're on the hook to make sure that you tell your clients proper things that are factual and that are yada yada. So I mean, just because you read an article online that was written by some attorney doesn't mean that that's accurate and factual either. And you know, from 10 years ago or five years ago. I will drink. Let's go to the next subject. There's a new, I guess I shouldn't say new product. It's been around since the middle of last year. But the founder of 401K, Ted Bena, started a new company, dare I even say, started a, a new retirement plan concept which he was originally famous for. The Radish Plan. Radishplan.com A drink again. Marsha Wagner is an investor and she helped with her legal work and writing their adoption agreement. I had a back and forth today on LinkedIn with Kyle Bagley, the co founder and CEO and got the thumbs up from him and maybe Mr. Bena being on our show later this year to discuss a little more. But it's basically a 401A plan. So a profit sharing plan where the highly compensated employees are excluded. They're not allowed. And then I think if you dig into it a little more, everyone please do you know how I love to shit on things? I think this is pretty neat. It's incentive based. There's a video on their site where they talk about like a hairstylist shop. Putting this plan in place and you would give employees like $3 every day they show up to work and an extra $2 if they sell a product off the shelf. And, and there's examples on the site about like, like, like production safety on the floor. Right. Of like, hey, we haven't had an accident in a week. So everyone gets $2 into their thing. And obviously as I said before, this is a 401A so it's all employer contributions going in. Sharon, any immediate thoughts on this whole kind of incentive based thing? I mean we haven't really seen something like this before. [14:57] Sharon: I think it's amazing. I love it. I'm a little confused on some of the rules around it. It says it's not as restrictive when it comes to taking money out as a traditional 401k because one of their many templates that they've got or you know, options you can choose from is like holiday bonus so you're putting the money in but then telling them they could take it out for Christmas. So I'd be a little more curious to understand, you know, the, the technical [15:24] Mark: part of Sharon on that. Marshall Wagner's involved. So it's got to be okay. Right now I think, [15:31] Chad: I think in two ways. Let's, let's. Let me question but also clarify. I think clarify. This is not something new in terms of, in terms of tax code. This is a plan that already exists. What is new is tying it to some sort of incentive based gamification type reward within their employment structure. Yes, that's the new aspect because. [16:01] Mark: Yes, go ahead. [16:02] Chad: No, no, I was just making sure that I read and understood all that. [16:07] Mark: It's a profit sharing plan. But if you plan. [16:09] Chad: But no age highly comp. [16:11] Mark: Yeah, you exclude those highly comped and now you, you get a sidestep a lot of tests. Like you don't have to worry about a lot of things. And so you can give freely to non highly compensated employees so long as there's some type of like method to your madness. Right. That's at least. I'm no attorney, you don't quote me on this. But you can give different groups different things. And so this to me would really fall into that category. If you've got very clear objectives, incentives that people have to do to get this money. I feel like you're fine in terms of equal rights and benefits. And clearly this is Ted Bennett and Marshall Wagner. [16:45] Chad: Like let's. [16:46] Mark: So do you. [16:47] Chad: Go ahead, Matt. [16:48] Speaker E: Chad. [16:49] Justin: So with this then why not just build that into your 401k plan on its own and just on the profit sharing side saying you Know, create groupings. Not giving anything to hces. You're still going to pass testing. All the same, you can give, right? NHCs, you're not going to pat. You're not going to fail anything. [17:09] Chad: Justin, that's. [17:10] Mark: That's. [17:11] Chad: Sorry. No, no, go ahead, go ahead. [17:13] Justin: The other thing is, when he talks about the distributions, I. I cut off a video at that part. Are they still subject to, like, a 10 penalty? Like, what's the detail behind that? [17:23] Mark: Yes. Yeah, yeah. [17:24] Justin: If you're under 59 and a half, you can take it. [17:26] Mark: 10% penalty and income tax for sure. [17:29] Chad: No, but what they're doing. I think what they're doing first funding on this, Justin, is that they're putting it into an emergency savings side of the plan where there is easy deduction, easy pull out of those dollars or distribution of those dollars. What. What we're missing. Like, if I try to take the nerdy 401k brain off, what they're actually doing here is they're creating the technology to. To gamify this, to make it operationally efficient. That's why we can't do it yet within our current 401k chassis, because nobody's built this. My. My big question and excitement would be, I want to see that user interface. I want to know how they're building, how they structure it. Because you use the example of a hair salon that has Never implemented a 401k. Didn't have one open in the past, but now they're going to go here and implement this and operate this. Super difficult to track of who shows up, work. And did you get through 15 clients or 20 clients? And you get $5 for 15 clients and you get $10 for 20 clients. Like, good luck tracking that. [18:31] Mark: Right. No, it's got to be the tech. And I believe the guy I talked to today, Kyle, he's the tech guy. So he comes from outside the industry. And then. So he's building all the tech. And they've also, by the way, partnered with Finch. So I think there's some, like, payroll integration that's happening here. I don't know. Like I said before, you know, I love to, like, crap on this kind of stuff. And I kind of looked. I'm like, well, man, this is fun. Like, this is different. This is cool. I don't know what kind of traction they're getting. He did tell me that people have a lot of legal questions for them a lot of the time. So they're still trying to get through that headwind of stuff. But. But I Think it'll be really interesting to see. And hey, stay tuned everyone. We can bring them on and talk to them. Robey, I feel like you got to love this because there's no highly compensated employees here. This is for the people, you know, and you're a man of the people. Eat the rich. Highly compensated employees are not even eligible. So speak for the people, Robey. Are they going to like this shit? No. [19:35] Speaker E: I'm a little skeptical. I look at that and I'm like, conceptually, I love the thought process and idea and I almost, I hate to do this, I really do, but I almost lumped this into like that concept of financial wellness where we're supposed to now be thinking of a more positive impact and something more creative and getting people involved. But it seems very like disjointed to some degree and so open ended that I'm like, sometimes people need structure, right? Or else they're gonna fall on their face. The while I think that this is something that, yes, if I go into my human resources background from years and years ago, I'm like, this would be something I'd be eating up, right? Like, yeah, let's do this. This is for the employees. This is for the people. But when I've now been on this side of the coin, I look at that and I just think to myself, okay, but aren't there other ways to accomplish this? Because even though we're thinking about good stuff here, they're, they're, they're looking at other things too. I mean, for instance, the, the, there's an investment side to this and they're putting it into a money market fund. I will. [20:49] Mark: What? [20:49] Speaker E: I don't know. [20:50] Mark: I just, I like this. Every time you guys sell, every time you sell a new plan, I can just give you two more dollars in the profit sharing or something. [21:02] Justin: That's, that's a good or. On that point though, J.D. as that would not be a lot of you want to sponsor and manage another plan like this in tandem with if you're already offering a 401k. [21:12] Mark: Well, again, I think this goes back to Kyle and building the tech properly. Like, we're talking a lot without seeing it yet. And so I, I, I get Chad's point. I think it's a valid one that I'm sure Radish has thought about, which is, let's try to not make this complicated for everyone because you could, you can make the incentives really simple. That could be just a few things that all the employees really understand. And hey, they get free money from the employer into the plan. You know, I mean. Oh, good things. [21:42] Chad: But chat bar, chat bar champ pulls out some good technical stuff. Well, not just coverage, but combined testing for, for 415 limits too. You got to take that into consideration. If they are doing something else on [21:57] Justin: the other comps are the only ones. [21:59] Mark: Remember, these are the non highlies. These are all from the non. [22:02] Speaker E: Highly unlikely, which I, which I do like the fact that these. And I didn't. I really blew my mind that it would qualify for state mandates. But also it, it's tax credit eligible too. So I was like, all right, well, you know, 401A. Right. There's. There's some incentives there that I'm, I'm on board with. [22:19] Chad: But yeah, jd, I'm, I'm equally as excited for Radish as I was the group that came out years ago and I can't think of the name. [22:28] Mark: Yes. [22:29] Chad: Take your, your shopping rewards, the points you get from buying things and allow you to contribute it to the K plan. Like what was that to me was a really good way of impacting small. [22:39] Mark: You loved it, weren't you? [22:40] Chad: I fucking loved it. [22:41] Mark: Weren't you and I about to invest in that? [22:43] Chad: We were about to invest. [22:44] Mark: We would have lost all our money. Sharon, let me ask you as a trainer of financial professionals, how important do you think it is for them to stay up on the bells and the whistles of technology these days? Like there's so many new things. In the old days it was like understanding record keepers and investments. But these days, I'd imagine if you know some of these cool little gadgets and things that you could snap onto a plan. These could be advantages in a point of sale. [23:14] Sharon: I think anything that's new like this and gives you a talking point and an opportunity, you know, to tell people, give people more choices can help you, you know, at point of sale. I, I don't know that it's that important necessarily that you know about everything that's come out over the past year because it seems like there's new stuff coming out. [23:34] Mark: Oh, there's a lot these days. [23:36] Chad: Constant. [23:37] Mark: There's a lot. But I'm with you. If there's some cool shiny toy that your prospects might find interesting, it sure is good to have those arrows in your quiver, you know, to, to show them when the, when the time's right. Let me do one quick other product update in that same vein for everyone listening in. I had a conversation with a guy, Nate Taylor, at Basic Capital. Basic Capital is a 25 million dollar funded new record keeper disruptor. They think of themselves as, as a new version of human interest guideline, vessel, et cetera. What I how they caught my attention though and they want to play that same game. They've got like kind of open architecture. They're doing bundled administration. Like they're offering you a regular 401k solution. But where they really caught my attention. I sent you guys a text chain on this is they have this thing called the retirement mortgage concept where. And we will do this at a future show. But go research this. Go check this out. Basic capital. I talked with Nate Taylor. They also would like to be on the show this year. So we'll bring them on, we'll learn more. But get this retirement mortgage concept. Let me whet your appetite, everyone. For every $1 you contribute, they will invest $4 alongside you creating a $5 investment power. No, no, no. We're going to move on from that. But let's check that out, everybody. That's fucking interesting. [25:12] Justin: I can dip our toe in this and not talk about. Think about our chat chain. [25:17] Chad: We'll leave them hanging. [25:18] Mark: It's a cliffhanger. It's a cliffhanger. Okay, okay, Go check it out. Justin, when you're thirsty and you want that tasty diabetes in a bottle, what do you ask Brandon to do? [25:31] Justin: Spin that wheel. [25:35] Chad: I was like, where's he going with that? Mine's cold. I don't want it tonight. Oh, yes, yes, yes. [25:43] Mark: So God damn it worked out well. Tahoe JD today. Oh my God. This is going to be nasty. The national association of Plan People's black book. Have you, have you seen this thing? Sully of the American Retirement association calls it a service provider resource guide for financial professionals. [26:14] Speaker E: There you go. [26:15] Mark: It's actually kind of cool. It's broken down by defined contribution investment only. Record keepers aggregators, third party administrators. Almost like an alternative version of plan sponsor mags. Record keeper survey from my perspective. So you can go to each page, the vendor will tell you like how many plans they have, how many assets under management, how many wholesalers, yada, yada, yada. I took it all and I uploaded it into waves and how to create my own little analysis of like top 10 ranking record keepers by plan, this, this and that. So it's kind of really interesting and I think that if you're a nerd in this space and to Sharon's earlier point, knowing information about these vendors can be very valuable in a point of sale. So I think it's relevant to know like, hey, who are the big players, who are the small players? How many plans do they have? How many assets do you have? You certainly can build trust with plan sponsors by letting them know that, you know the chessboard, right. Of these different players. But the, the, the black book, have any of you all ever looked at it before? [27:25] Speaker E: Not until you sent it, no. [27:27] Mark: Sharon, you know what this thing is? [27:29] Sharon: It's massive. It comes and it's. I swear it's like 15 inches by 11 inch. It's, it's a big. [27:37] Mark: There's an actual book. [27:39] Sharon: There's an actual book. I don't, I haven't gotten one in a couple years. So maybe they stopped the print format. But for five years in a row I got the big heavy, thick printed, had to send it in a box kind of book. And I think of it as like the old fashioned yellow pages, to be honest with you, because that's what it is. It's a directory of all of the service providers out there, including technology. And I don't want to call it pay to play, but if you're a member of Napa, if you're a partner member, then you can put your information in there as well. So I was in it for a few years. [28:12] Mark: Okay. Yeah, yeah. And, and you're right, I left that out. They do have contact information for all those firms like usually like two or three people are there as contacts with their emails and everything. So, so it is. [28:27] Chad: I have discussed this black book a dozen times and, and S Words is on here and she knows. We've talked about it a dozen times. Never once did I knew. Know that there were full on statistics behind the breakdown of points of contact and company names. And I had no idea that. And I'm looking at it right now and I looked at it when you sent it over, but there was asset management levels and total playing counts and that's crazy. [28:53] Mark: It's gotta be existed. It's got to be a pay to play too because there's a T, there's a third party administrator section and I mean we're not in there and we're big time, bro. Why are we not in there? So we clearly didn't stroke it says it's free. It's free, it's free. Then S Words, why the are we not in there? [29:15] Sharon: Like you can get it for free, you can, you can request access, you can view the digital one online for free. But if you want to be in it for the years that I was in, it had to be a partner member. [29:28] Chad: Hey, Shannon's saying You get in for free. [29:31] Mark: Is she. [29:33] Chad: That's what she's saying. I'm looking up tristar right now. Shannon, I don't have you pulling in a search. [29:39] Mark: You don't have. No, they're. They're in there. They're in there if you're a third party administrator. But Shannon, I'm guessing those financial institutions pay to be in there. No. Well, it's gotta be. It's gotta be. [29:52] Sharon: I know. [29:53] Mark: So I think it's very interesting. Okay, you ready for me to take a fun situation and turn it into a show? Here we go. All right. Little spicy moment here. I was looking through the record keeper side of it and I noticed a cool little section they had where they told you how many directions versus with an advisor plans they had. Like if they sold directly without an advisor and how many they had with an advisor. And I was like, oh, that's interesting. And many of them answered that question as they should. Veswell said they had 1800 plans that are direct and 10,000 with an advisor. Good for you. Aaron Shum and Veswell for answering the question and paycheck said they had 74,000 directions and 49 with an advisor. Manulife, John Hancock retirement. God, that rolls off the tongue. Told you that they had 0 direct and 57,000 with an advisor. I hope that's true. But I love that. I like that they say that. Good for you. And even Voya fessed up and Voya said, hey, we've got some direct plans, 3,800 and something versus our 62,000. And Empower, what do you think we heard from Empower on the question? [31:15] Justin: Oh, boy. [31:16] Mark: Oh, I'll tell you, they declined to answer the question. They simply did not answer it. How rude. You're. You're in this thing they're putting. Here's my negative spin. You're in the black book. Everyone's answering this question and you just say, no, you're not going to answer that. Come on, guys. What the. That shows me a very deceptive stance. Like, just tell us. This is supposed to be a tool for advisors to be able to understand vendor from vendor to vendor and know what's going on. Why do you not answer the question? I know I'm going to get the emails tomorrow. I know everyone in Empower is going to be butt hurt, but go talk to your senior people and tell them if they want to be in the place, they answer the fucking questions like the rest of them. [32:04] Chad: This is heavy part because of how devoted you are to the importance of the financial professional. That's why you take this so personally. And I. And I get it, Sharon, if you hadn't heard JD preach on this show before on this topic, he believes that every single retirement plan should have a financial professional attached to it. And I'm not disagreeing. So when he reads stats like that, or not getting the stats, he gets pissed off. [32:32] Mark: I just feel like. Just be honest about it. Like many of your peers are being honest. I've said it. And thank you, Chad. I appreciate the actually giving it context. Yeah, I feel like record keepers have built their entire business on the backs of financial professionals. They are the ones that have built those books over the last 30 years. And so when they go direct without them, it always seems a little shady to me, that's all. And so. But if you're gonna do that, be honest about it. Let's lighten the mood, Sharon, because empowers probably getting sick and tired of me ripping on them all the time. I've already had plenty of their wholesalers call me directly. Let's move on. Something fun. Would you like to have fun, Sharon? [33:16] Sharon: Absolutely. [33:17] Mark: Of course. Let's play a game. You up for a high stakes 401k trivia game where you are the only contestant? Brandon. Let's. Let's. Let's play guest trivia, shall we? Or whatever. We don't really have a name for this bit. Okay, I'll read this to you. Sharon, who was the editor of 401K Specialist Mag and now works for the American Retirement Association? Chris Carosa, John Sullivan or Nate. [33:52] Sharon: I'm gonna say Nate's hot sister. [33:56] Chad: Hot sister. She sister. [33:59] Mark: You're oh for one over one. Okay, next question. Brandon, next question. [34:05] Sharon: John Sullivan Prep. [34:07] Mark: We know you know. We know you know. Next question, please. What? What company was originally named Captain 401? What a horrible name, by the way. [34:19] Speaker E: Oh, God. [34:19] Mark: Speaking of horrible names. A, Manulife, Johnny Retirement, Wayne Park. Come on, you can still go back. You can change it it too long. You can change this name. B, guideline. C, Nate Moody's sister. D, 401. Go. Who was originally named Captain 401? [34:43] Sharon: I want to say Steve, but I'm [34:45] Mark: gonna go with D. No, it was actually guideline. No, none of those answers are right. [34:52] Speaker E: No, I was none of them. [34:55] Mark: Are you in? You get it right? It was seen. Nate Moody's sister. Okay, next question. Oh, my God. It was human interest. Brandon, are you there? Next question, please. [35:11] Speaker E: Brandon was pounding tall cans of hazy ipa. I'm a little worried. [35:15] Mark: Who is the best Stock picker, investment genius in the world. Warren Buffett, Jim Kramer, Nate Moody's sister or robe guy. [35:32] Sharon: Someone in the chat says it's always going to be Nate Moody's hot sister. [35:39] Mark: Incorrect. It's Ro Guy D. He is the best. [35:43] Chad: I think I'm rolling with Buffett in this one. Sorry, [35:48] Mark: not. Bye. And the final question. I know, Sharon, you're going to get this one. The final question, Brandon, who is the most important human ever to set foot on Earth? Jesus, Gandhi, Frederish, or Nate Moody's sister? [36:12] Sharon: It's always Nate Moody's. [36:14] Chad: Yeah. [36:17] Mark: Correct. That is correct. You're winner. [36:19] Justin: Winner. [36:20] Mark: Winner to go. Way to go. [36:21] Speaker E: Way to go, [36:24] Mark: Sharon. To more serious subjects, let's talk a bit about 401k best practices and in what you do. I mean, when I go to your website, I'm drawn to these kind of pitchbooks, if you will. Is that okay for me to that. But you got all these sections. I asked her if it was okay, and I didn't even wait for her to respond. Can I call them pitchbooks? No, you've got all these. These modules, all these. All these tools available for advisors, from investment committee meetings to. To education for participants to social media posting to prospecting, to compliance, and it goes on and on and on. Tell us a bit about what you've built and the history of it, because it's been a long time. So this is kind of your. Your moment, if you will, to let everyone know what you're doing. By the way, inviting on the show. I got blown up with people that are huge fans of you, so I did too. You've been doing this a long time, and people must love the stuff that you've created. So tell for someone who doesn't know. [37:29] Sharon: Well, I. I appreciate that. And for someone that doesn't know, my dog right now is shredding my blanket, and I will have snow stuffing about a foot high by the time this podcast is over. I look forward to cleaning it up. [37:48] Mark: I love retireholics dog fiascos because I've had several of my own and no one knows that it's happening. And you just keep that smile on your face and you keep going. Good for you. [37:59] Sharon: Oh, you got to share it, though, because of my favorite. My answer was dog, cat, or dog? The dog. I have a cat right there too, but the dog. Okay, so what 401k best practices is. Is developed out of my lack of experience and knowledge as an Edward Jones broker back in 1996. That's how I started out in the industry, tried to sell retirement plans, did a terrible job, didn't know what I was doing, didn't know. I didn't know what I was doing until after I left Jones and teamed up with a 401k advisor who had been in the business for 20 years. [38:38] Mark: Finish your thought, then you can dream. [38:40] Sharon: All right. I saw the, the process that he had been using to service his book and realized that a lot of professionals were out there doing it ad hoc without any experience like I was, and that there was a better way that if somebody wanted to actually be of value to implement a prudent process. So after going through the accredited Investment Advisor training program and then the accredited Investment Advisor Analyst program, can I ask [39:17] Mark: you, Sharon, though, after all these years, do you have your fiduciary accredited retirement technician designation that is in my opinion [39:28] Sharon: probably one of the most valuable ones out there? [39:30] Mark: Jt, [39:34] Sharon: I think everybody should get that one. [39:35] Mark: Thank you. [39:36] Sharon: In fact, in the update of my designation guide, yours will probably be like [39:41] Mark: a full page link link in the chat for anyone that wants to get [39:46] Speaker E: discuss what continuing ad we need for that. By the way, Is it just, is it just Taco Bell? Is that all you said? [39:53] Chad: You just have to watch the show. That's how we drive attendance. [39:57] Mark: You have to submit your Taco Bell [39:59] Speaker E: receipts for the year like once a year. You have to spend at least $600 at Taco Bell. [40:03] Mark: Sharon. I have to say I, you talk about it, you, you realizing that was necessary back then, I think even now it might be necessary more than ever because you know, we're definitely at a, at a point where we're asking a lot of newbie advice, financial professionals to take on doing the work of 401k plans. And so I think especially as a third party administrator, I mean our Monday through Friday is trying to help a lot of financial professionals get, you know, good enough to be dangerous to help and service their clients. So I think it's still true. People need this type of stuff. [40:45] Sharon: Oh, they do, Yeah. I don't think there's, that's ever going to change. As new people come into the business, they have to start somewhere. And I always tell them, start with training, please. If you're not educated, you're not qualified to service this business. That's, that's kind of the soapbox I stand on. Experience can replace the lack of education, but that takes time. Right. [41:06] Mark: Partner experienced professionals and errors and mistakes at the client's expense, you know. [41:12] Sharon: Yeah. [41:13] Chad: Well, and let's not forget what's the stat right now, Sharon. 300,000 new plans by 2030. I read some those plans are going to be serviced via a relationship and not a 401k focused plan professional, the vast majority of them. And so we need to help that next generation of folks coming into this space who like and want to be better in the 401k arena. We need to give them these resources. So I love what you're doing. [41:41] Mark: Let me ask you of, of all the areas and we kind of all know these areas but you've, you've compartmentalized them very well on your, your website. But of all those areas that an advisor, ah, I'll drink. Needs to train in and kind of build up their skill set, is there one that you might say is most important? [42:04] Sharon: All of a. Ask your question a different way. [42:09] Mark: Okay. Like if I was a new advisor and I had all this training, I had to think about, I had to learn all the fiduciary stuff. I had to learn the plan design stuff. I had to learn about, you know, selling, I had to learn about marketing. Like where would you like what's the most important thing that I should spend the most time on first? Is it, is it the design, the compliance? Is it the investment side? Is it the fiduciary side? Like where would you guide me first? What's most important? What's paramount? [42:38] Sharon: Yeah, I would say it's the fiduciary side. I've taken a lot of designation and certification programs and in my opinion the Accredited Investment Fiduciary Analyst Program IFI 360 is probably one of the most valuable that an advisor can take. Can take because it not only pairs regulation with practical management, how you actually go in and review a book and identify where the gaps are and then implement process to close those gaps. And I've never seen another program do that. When it comes to plan design, people should partner with people like you. People should partner with the providers. They don't have to be an expert in all those other areas, but they do in my opinion have to be helpful. On the footage sharing compliance side. [43:29] Mark: You're doing a job. You're getting paid for that job. You know that a little bit of homework and a little bit of training and a little bit education will help you do it. It's not, it's not overwhelming. You don't, you don't need to be Fred Reese, you don't need to be an expert and all these things. You just got to be like well versed. Right. [43:47] Chad: I forget what term Sharon just Used and I wish I had wrote it down immediately. But essentially what I heard as a component of that is like the, the actual operational flow of what a plan goes through. What an advisor wouldn't. Dang, that was a full swing. What a financial professional should know from an operational side of having and running a plan rules around things like loans and distributions, how those are processed from one record keeper to the next, how payroll gets in to payroll integration works within a record keeper relationship like that. That stuff to me is incredibly valuable. Knowing specifically how an actual deferral percentage test is ran is not valuable. You can rely on partners for those things and technology for that. [44:37] Mark: I listened to a podcast that Grant Ellis did and I was. It was one of the best things I had ever listened to. And check it out. It's. It's probably like, I want to say it's like his six episodes ago in terms of what he's put out. And he basically is teaching investment professionals that want to get in 401k what they should do first. And what he says is build your service model. Like, before you start running around trying to sell everyone something, figure out what it is that you're going to sell them from you personally. Poor Sharon's got to deal with her dog, her dogs right now. It's ripping the cat apart next to the hunger. He says very intelligently. I feel like, hey, figure out what exactly your service model is like specifically and detailed. So when you walk into these point of sales, you can look people in the eye and say, this is how I am going to service you. I'm going to do A, B, C and D. And how many times does Mark, Justin, Chad, Devin walk into a meeting, whether online or in real life, with an advisor and the client wants to know, hey, tell me about yourself. And there's a lack of definitive information there in terms of what they're actually going to do. And so I feel like that's a huge thing to focus on first. Let's keep it moving because another thing that could help is technology. And we got a new segment, everyone. I don't know if you know this, but there's one cast member on Retireholics that is always tuned into new things when it comes to technology. When those new iPhones come out, there's one of us standing at the front of that line on that sidewalk. I like to say silent J is teche. [46:42] Speaker E: That says, techie, [46:46] Justin: how are we doing this? [46:47] Mark: This is like old school retireholics. These things they're gonna build, they're gonna get Better. They're gonna get improved and by mid season you're gonna be like, I love season 11. This shit's popping off. Sorry, Justin, take it away. This is your bit. [47:03] Justin: No, no, you're good, you're good. I love when you talk. Jesus. That was. I don't really stand outside Apple Store anymore, so you can't really say that. [47:11] Chad: Please, anymore. [47:13] Justin: No, anymore. I am on an iPhone 14 still, so we're good there. [47:17] Speaker E: Sorry, but I'm on a 13. [47:22] Mark: Wait, I feel like that's a stab at your employer. [47:25] Chad: Oh, yeah, it was. [47:27] Mark: Hey, I. I pay for your cell phones, you son of a. I'm pretty [47:32] Speaker E: sure my phones been paid off for like two years. [47:34] Justin: Dude, I wasn't throwing shade. I was just saying I'm not that guy anymore. But I do know know a few things about tech. So I guess this week we're going to start off. [47:44] Mark: Can you set up the segment? Like, what's it going to be about? What are you going to do? [47:49] Justin: Well, like, like you said, this is, this is a building segment. It's going to get better and we're going to learn it as we go. But the way JD had presented to me is like, hey, you know, wait, [48:01] Mark: this was my idea. I thought it was your idea. [48:03] Chad: Nothing, Nothing's our idea. [48:07] Justin: There we go. [48:18] Mark: The first drunk stock tips was a show. So you get through it, Justin. Build go. [48:23] Justin: Oh, I thought we're going right to it. Okay, so my whole tech thing for today, was it kind of spawned by our conversation during our sales call the other day was around our, our, you know, how we stay efficient in our desktops and, and what we do. What we later called our cockpits. And we. [48:41] Speaker E: Who said that? [48:43] Mark: Yeah, yeah, who said that? [48:46] Justin: That was on a later call with me. [48:47] Speaker E: Yeah, that was a lie. You just flat out lied. [48:49] Mark: Okay, Go on, kid. [48:51] Chad: Whoa. Jesus. [48:58] Justin: But it started off with our monitors and Tristan was bragging about how he just got a 48 inch curved screen monitor. And we got to thinking like, yeah, you know, what do we do with these type of things? Things, you know, how do we, how do we use it? And it got talking about efficiencies and, and I was like, yeah, I'm. I am obsessed with having a clean desktop. I think it's absolutely key to, to a workflow. Like, I, I look at so many different companies for standup desktops and what kind of text and drawers and they got going on. It just, it makes my day a lot easier. So. [49:28] Mark: But I think the first I. Justin, I wish I could Send you a picture of mine right now. [49:36] Speaker E: Well, it's crazy because you can. Jd There's a technology for that. [49:40] Mark: I mean, empty beer cans, big bottle of vodka, ice. Sorry, go on. My bad. [49:47] Justin: No, but I think the first thing that kind of came to my mind after thinking about the monitors and the workflows and how we have everything set up to make our lives easy and function was I can't get over, you know, specific tech items we're going to talk about right now are anytime I roll on a zoom. And people just. In this day and age of virtual meetings and stuff, don't have their monitor or their. Their cameras set up their lighting or anything like that from their home offices. And I think that's key when it comes to. To presenting to your clients. If a client logs on and see you got a shadow, or you're just completely shadowed out, or. [50:18] Speaker E: Or. [50:19] Mark: Or the fans whizzing above your head, [50:21] Justin: or fans whizzing, abuzz you above you, or you just built this beautiful new home and your office sounds like an echo chamber, you know, just. [50:30] Chad: It's just not there. [50:31] Speaker F: I just. [50:32] Chad: I figured Brandon was going to make me look like powder again, so I [50:35] Justin: KN of those two, you know, it's important. It's not. And it's not expensive. Guys, get yourself a mic. Get yourself. You can get the. The Logitech Brio cameras. You know, a little ring light, it goes a long ways. You know, I am ugly as in real life, but these cameras is lighting. Everything just makes me look a little bit better. So. [50:54] Chad: You do look great, Justin. [50:56] Justin: So Logitech Brio the blue. [51:00] Mark: Yep. I got the Yeti. I got the logic. [51:03] Speaker E: Now that your tech's not working, it's even better. [51:11] Justin: If you use my affiliate link, you get 15 off on everything. So that's what we're gonna start. I'm sorry it was so shitty. It's gonna get better, but there you go. [51:22] Speaker E: I didn't learn anything. But that was fun, everyone. [51:26] Mark: It's gonna improve. Originally, the concept was Justin's gonna talk to us about some cool new technology that we should get because he's tested it, he'll tell us all about it, the price point, where we can get it, why it's so effective. He's just got to kind of work his way into it. It's gonna. [51:42] Speaker E: Justin, you could. You could spin zone this. [51:45] Justin: Text me this yesterday. [51:47] Speaker E: You can spin Zone this into sponsors. Just saying. [51:49] Mark: You see Brandon's comment in the comments. He's gone. Is a desktop technology. It's because is it the drawers are the wooden drawers the technology. I'm not sure what he's talking about. [52:01] Speaker E: I thought you're talking to our actual desktops on our monitor. [52:05] Mark: Don't worry, I told you. New season, new fun. And that was the first episode, the first segment of Just Wait. Silent J is a teke. We'll change the title. Let's move on to a. Actually something that's really close to my heart. And I mean this. I. You can't see right now, but I am inside of this massive steel metal garage in Texas. Prison. The prison, not a prison. [52:37] Justin: Okay. [52:38] Mark: And I've been working alongside my 21 year old son. He's about, you know, 20ft to the right of me. And I, I walk out here with coffee very early in the morning and start banging away and working. And his goal coming out here was just put his head down and work hard as our internal sales consultant. So I've, I've felt a pressure on my own end to like work hard and grind and get it done. And I've noticed that I struggle with like efficiencies, like to get tasks done. Like it's, it's challenging thing to be a worker type person these days. And, and with the screen in front of me and the keyboard at my fingers and the email happening and the things I need to get done, I find myself getting distracted from time to time. And I'm to be honest, like not happy with my effectiveness in general. So. [53:38] Chad: I think a lot of people feel that way. [53:39] Mark: Jd. I'm, I'm sure they do. I mean, I can't imagine that we're all crushing this in the way that we would hope. So I said, hey, I'm gonna go to Waves AI spot. This, this section is sponsored by Waves AI. You can. Oh my God, I'm gonna drink for that. And I, and I plopped in and I said, hey, help me out. This is my problem. Can you give me some advice? I'm a financial advice. Oh my God. [54:08] Speaker E: That was a check swing. [54:09] Chad: That's a check swing. [54:11] Mark: And I'm, and I'm trying to be more productive. I was actually really pleased with the response. It said, okay, here's the advice it gave me. Let's start with like, what's most important to you, like as a business person, what's paramount? And it said probably revenue. And I had this moment of like, good for you. A artificial intelligence. Because that's literally the advice that my father gave me. And to clue everyone in that doesn't know my father founded our company 51 years ago. I bought it from him. One of the big advices my dad gave me was, hey, if you can keep the money coming in, it can solve a lot of problems. Meaning, like, you got to keep your pedal down on the revenue flow to run a good business. And it's something that's always stuck with me. So it was cool to hear Waves tell me that very same thing. What produces revenue. So as you plan your day, make sure you allocate. Justin, make sure you allocate your time on that. And I think I thought that was very simple but very intelligent. Then it was, hey, what, what risks are out there? You know, what things could potentially hurt your business? Just stop. What potentially set your business back in terms of risk? You want to make sure you're focusing on that. And then, you know, client retention, which I think was very good advice to kick it off. Okay. Then it said, and I think this is advice that we all need, jd, you need to block your time. And I've heard this before. I've read articles that say, Sharon, I should, like, look at my emails at certain times. And I should. If I'm going to focus on deep work, I should do it from 8am to 9. And then I should move to this other thing and be. I don't do any of that. I never have. And it's been 30 years and I still think it makes a lot of sense. Like, I absolutely should be organized with my time and block it out. And so thank you to Waves and artificial intelligence for reminding me to organize my day. It also said to me, and the reason why I'm bringing this up to everyone is we could all talk about this. I just think it's really interesting to hear what artificial intelligence thinks I should do because it's very simple. It also says, hey, make sure that when you have tasks, you're using one single intake. You know what I mean? Like, like, don't, don't be looking over at your, your email as a taskbar, looking at sticky notes that you wrote things to do on. I have a whiteboard here at the office. I tend to write things I need to do on so I don't forget. It's like, no, no, no, no. Put these all in one tool, right? One CRM, one taskbar, one, one. And then lastly, I mean, there's more. It gave me a lot more, but it said, oh, shit, I'll drink. Don't make sure you're not repeating stuff. You know, like if, if there's an email, you need to Send to an advisor that you've sent a hundred times before. Please don't rewrite that shit. Like, have something built that you can copy, paste, put it in, what have you. I thought that was really good information as well. And then here's the last one. And I thought this was most impactful. And I don't do this. And I've tried it the last two days, and I feel like it's been phenomenal. Set goals hourly. Like, say to myself, hey, ain't nobody [57:56] Chad: got time for that. [57:57] Mark: What, are you kidding me? I have loved this the last two days. I do, Chad. I sit here and I go, These are the three things I want to get done in the next 60 minutes. And I. It has been so fucking transformational for me now, again, I can see that I live in a golden chair here where I can just do what I want to do and I don't. Yes, Mark agrees, but. So I want to be clear about that. But I still have shit I need to get done. I have tasks that I need to check the box on and for me to set little goals. I want you. I want to go to you next. I just thought that's been phenomenal. Hourly goals and daily goals on what I need to check off has changed my life over the last two days. Chad, please comment. [58:41] Chad: I would. No, I wasn't a comment. It was more of a question to both you and Sharon. I agree with blocking time being crucial for productivity. I do. I struggle with it with the guys and myself booking so many meetings. Our days, our schedules are completely in ebbs and flows because the number one priority is if an eight, if a professional need support in a finals presentation, we're there. Like, we're dropping everything. [59:10] Speaker E: And so I look drop like a drink or a baby, though. [59:14] Chad: I'm looking at my calendar, and there's no flow to it because I'm giving out so many different times and availabilities and different time zones for these meetings that I. Unless I were to do it frequently, like, every. Maybe every morning, I could block for that day, but I can't create an ongoing block. [59:34] Mark: I would argue that you're actually following the advice that I was given. You're. You're prioritizing. [59:42] Chad: Okay, I'm prioritizing revenue, but then it up the rest of it. [59:47] Speaker F: I got my own tech corner jd like, take over Justin's bit. So I have this thing. I set this. It does an hour for me and it'll count down, and then it shows me, like, how much is being eaten up. Of my hour and then when it gets to end, a little alarm goes off. So I, so I work for sure. [1:00:08] Chad: You were showing us that we're over our time right now. [1:00:12] Speaker F: Oh, it's great. Like I work in these hour chunks and it really kind of helps me get a lot. [1:00:17] Mark: And by the way, for everyone who's involved, we're only halfway through the show. Chad, season 11 is two hour shows. So we're good to go. We got plenty of time. No, I, I honest, I get what you're saying, Chad. And, and not everyone is as hyper sales focused as the five of you are. I think that you guys are sales guy by nature. So you, I mean, I get it, your job's pretty chaotic in that regard. But as a, as a financial professional, you've got a little more bandwidth there. You know, you're not running and gunning the way you guys are in terms of sales. So I think all these, all this guidance is still very applicable. Sharon, you're our guest. This has to come up to you, at least personally, if not for the people that you consult with and kind of advise with. Any tips, any tricks, any, or maybe you just humbly want to tell us you've never figured this out, but what do you think about efficiency at your workplace? [1:01:23] Sharon: I think it's one of those things like dirty laundry. It's always there. You always have to figure it out how you're going to deal with it and get through the day. Right. A couple of things that, that I typically tend to say is, is it's just as important to take note of when you're highly productive because a lot of the tips that gurus give it like jd, you said you've never time blocked in your life. So somebody telling you fit in this box and do this, you might try it, but it's not going to stick if that's not your M.O. right. So if you look and see when you are the most productive and take note of that and say what's going on right now? Do I have my favorite jams on? Did I set myself up for success ahead of time by turning everything on off and telling people, listen, I'm not available for the next two hours. I think, you know, you have to figure out what works for you and adopt that. As far as time blocking, I have heard and I have found that mornings are really kind of the most productive for a lot of people. And if you can block even from like 6 to 9am and say I don't take meetings during this time, this is my Revenue generating time or whatever that focus is, you know, that's what you plug into the, the most productive time of your day. And Dan Sullivan used to say, you know, create focus days if it's possible. And it's not always possible, but if it's possible to, say, these three days, I'll do meetings. These two days, I've got planning or I've got family time or whatever it is, try to, you know, plan a full day of meetings. Nothing but meetings. Um, but again, like in. When you're in a sales situation and somebody calls, you gotta go. [1:03:05] Mark: So to Chad's point, that's probably not possible, but it's worth considering sometimes, is that, you know, could you be more effective? I mean, the goal here is to score more, right? I mean, really. I mean, if that's your goal. And so you never know. Compartmentalizing and telling someone no to a Wednesday meeting and telling them you're only available on this alternative date doesn't necessarily kill the sale. You just think it does because you're running around chasing your tail. And so maybe you would be more effective if you compartmentalize and organize certain days. Maybe not. I'm not, I'm not saying that's true, but I. I do think for all of us, it would be great to put aside, to Sharon's point, a certain block of time to focus on something that is very important to your growth. Now, I'm talking about money here, but, you know, maybe your growth is something different. But, but if that is what you're trying to do, logic would tell us, okay, well, you gotta, you gotta put some time into that. You gotta dedicate some effort into that goal that you're going for. And so I loved how Sharon said, Hey, 6 to 9, and maybe it's not Monday through Friday, maybe it's Monday, Wednesday, Friday, maybe it's Tuesday, Thursday, whatever the fuck it is. I'm just telling you right now, and I'm sorry to go on and on, but being out here in Texas and walking 100 yards to this steel metal garage to work in the morning has shown me on the positive and the negative, like, wow, I can get a lot of shit done. And on the flip side, like, wow, if I was more efficient and I did this better, I could get way more done. [1:04:56] Chad: Do you think walking to that, that shed. Office, JD is like going into the office? Is that why you feel more productive in some ways? Because you're separating yourself from. [1:05:06] Mark: Yeah, maybe very different from sitting at your bedroom, you know, desk or something? Just. [1:05:13] Justin: Did you Ever measure your productivity from when you were at the house in Carlsbad to going into the office in Encinitas, was it the same? [1:05:21] Mark: Did it not change that? Yeah, I have measured that. That was zero. And now I'm at. [1:05:27] Chad: Wait, that was all about the waves. [1:05:30] Mark: I got news for you. We'll wrap this up, but I've been phoning in work. In case no one's aware, for the last 10 years, it's been. Don't say that. Don't say that now. I'm. Now with the sun getting involved, I feel this pressure to, like, actually do so I've been ramping up my game recently. And, you know, this is why I'm thinking you're like. [1:05:52] Speaker E: You're like Brooks Koepka. [1:05:55] Mark: Yeah, I'm back on tour. Back on tour. [1:05:58] Chad: He just wins majors. [1:06:00] Mark: Okay. [1:06:00] Speaker E: Did you hear what he said? He's like, I fell back in love with golf. Now that his son is at an age where he, like, can understand maybe a little more what he's doing, he wants his son to see, like, dad's good at golf. I win, and I'm good, and I'm out here succeeding. So JD Is Brooks Koepka. [1:06:18] Mark: Yeah. And it sounds like. But, dad, it was so much cooler when they had that live music playing and you guys were playing in the dark and in everything on the. I love the Lib Tour. I'm kidding. Okay, here we go. We're gonna. We're gonna wrap this up. And very. This is a. Oh, I'll drink. [1:06:33] Speaker E: Oh, no, that's actually Roman numerals. [1:06:35] Justin: You don't have to. [1:06:36] Chad: Never mind. [1:06:36] Mark: Okay. In this light, me working harder. Plan to sign consultants is working harder. Sharon, we never do this, but I'm about to promo our own firm. We just had our. Our sales team huddle out here in Texas. All the boys were here at my new ranch of 30 acres, and it's everything you would imagine it to be. We got drunk as a skunk. [1:07:06] Chad: I mean, we went on my Can [1:07:08] Mark: Am and went out in the middle of the night on the property. I fell down, almost hurt myself. It was rough. No, but we came here to prep for a great 2026 and to crush it. And I want to say the boys are already off to a phenomenal start. So we are a team of five here at Plan Design Consultants. Six, if you count me. [1:07:32] Speaker E: We don't looking. [1:07:33] Mark: We don't looking to do nothing but support financial advisors in their prospecting, marketing, closing, and retention of 401k plans. And we're going to it up this year in a good way. And we've got a webinar series that starts next week. It's called the 401K Expedition Series. It's a 10 part webinar series. Four investment professionals that want to up their game. The speakers will be myself, Justin, Mark, Chad are in a Devin who's is here tonight. Unless he's on the golf course. He's here, he'll be there and we'll kick off the next one next Tuesday at 10am it's me kicking off the first one. Talking about how to piss off and and start a fight with your prospects is the title of the of the webinar and there's already like a hundred people that are signed up so come join us. You can RSVP I'll drink@plandesign.com 401k hyphen exp as an expedition not the best I know just go to my LinkedIn you'll find it somewhere. The next show is February 19th, the next Retireholic show and we have a big guest. Jason Wank the founder and chief executive officer of Altruist. This is a big deal. This is a fully digital custodian that has like 6,000 advisors that use it. Like this is this kind of cool looking long haired dude in the financial services industry. I owe like three. I think I'll get to him and so this guy's a big deal. Advisors love what he's built. He's very outspoken, he's very counterculture to the industry and I'm super excited to have him on February 19th. Stay tuned. Several surprises still in store for season 11 we and we will be bleeding them out over the next two episodes. One of them being a new chat bar champion concept. So think leaderboard prizes alternative website that you could go to. Brandon and I are working on something really hard. Lots of new segments, lots of new changes to what we've done before. Okay, that's it. That's my pitch there. Sharon, this was long overdue. You are literally a 401k stud. Everyone, as I mentioned earlier, everyone in this industry knows who you are. They all think you're phenomenal. You've been doing great work for a very long time and we all honor you for that and thank you for hanging out with us tonight. The vibes I got from you are like your kids must love you. I feel like you're the phenomenal mom person. Great like and on the same vibe I I wish I had known you earlier. Like I think we could have done a lot of cool things together. Maybe we still can. But41k practices.com Sharon the 401k stud, thank you for being here. To you guys, thank you for being my friends. Thank you for driving drunk on the Can Am with me in Texas. I appreciate that. And most importantly, you, silly, thanks for tuning in to a whole nother season. Season 11. We love you. We'll see you next time. We are the retireholics. We are changing the retirement plan industry one beer at a time. See you later. [1:11:12] Sharon: Thank you. [1:11:12] Chad: Thank you.