Census Data & Advisor Branding: What Really Wins Business

[0:00] JD: That was getting used to it now. Yeah. [0:04] Chad: Michael, your hair is always so perfectly in place. I am envious. Just falls that way, huh? [0:13] Mark: That's what it does. You got to train it. [0:16] Chad: All right. [0:16] Justin: YouTube's going. [0:18] Chad: I just got a message. The retireaholics are live. Oh, geez. [0:22] Mark: And ruin my hair like that? Who cut your hair? Chad? How does that happen? And you need new headshots. [0:30] Chad: My kids cut my hair, and so did Mark. [0:34] JD: All right, here we go. [0:36] Chad: I hide this thing. [0:39] Mark: I don't know. [0:40] JD: I just leave. [0:41] Justin: Is this the first time we've done this? [0:44] Mark: It's always updating things. [0:45] Chad: I don't know why they got this on here now. [0:47] Mark: Oh, here I go. Oh, yeah. [0:48] JD: Oh, there you go. [0:49] Chad: It's those updates, man. [1:13] JD: Hey, hey. What is going on, my dudes? All you people that have logged in, thanks for showing up. I know who you are. I know what you're all about. You spend your days thinking about 401k plans. You spend your nights thinking about 403 plans and profit sharing plans. And oh, boy, when someone starts talking about those sweet, delicious cash balance combo plans, you get all tingly inside. That's you. Well, guess what? You're in the right place. Because we're just like you. We feel the same way, don't we, Chad? [1:58] Chad: Except JD started drinking it, too. [2:02] JD: The same way about 401k plans. So you're in the right place. This is another episode of Sheltering in place, and we are the retireholics, changing the retirement plan industry one shitty webinar at a time. Thanks for joining us. We've got a special guest, someone who's always popping up on my LinkedIn feed. He's doing the videos, he's doing the podcasts, he's doing the interviews, he's throwing out all kinds of content, but most importantly, when it's a weekend or, geez, even a Thursday, and I'm hanging out on the couch and I'm kind of getting into my third beer, I see a post from Jake, and he's like, hey, man, I'm on mile 60, riding my bike through the. Through the Utah roads and makes me feel like a total loser. So welcome to the show, everybody. 401 Jake. [2:59] Mark: Make JD feel like a loser. [3:00] Chad: That's the goal. [3:01] Mark: I think that's the word of the day. [3:03] Chad: We've been trying for years. And you were able to accomplish it rather quickly. [3:06] JD: Yeah, I've said many times. I actually am way more into the fitness than people think, man. I've been doing beginner classes on Peloton for three years, so don't. [3:19] Mark: Yeah, I heard you had a bike at one point, so we need to revisit that. And [3:25] JD: I still have that bike in the garage. The front, not spokes, whatever you call those things that go down to the wheel are twisted. Because I got hit by a car like eight years ago. I've never gotten back on that thing. [3:40] Mark: We gotta do it. [3:42] JD: I'm about to get into some. I'm about to get into some housekeeping before we get started. But, Brandon, if you're paying attention, can you go ahead and spin that wheel of ice? We like to play a game called the wheel of Ice. It's a fair game. We're going to spin a wheel. It could either be Chad, it could be Justin, it could be Mark, it could be myself. I don't know. It's fair Odds start now. Loser will have to drink a Smirnoff. I spin that wheel. Brandon, hold on. [4:13] Chad: My software's taking up poo. I was gonna say Mark's gonna beat [4:17] JD: you while you spin it. [4:20] Mark: Another one in there. Wow. [4:24] Chad: Marcus, very good. Better. Impressive. [4:27] Mark: Think I can get it now. [4:28] JD: Wait, but, Mark, you have to throw up if it's not you. [4:34] Justin: Okay, I'm back from here. Good [4:39] JD: and [4:43] Speaker E: better. [4:43] Justin: When it makes that sound, you know. [4:45] JD: Yeah, it's the wheel of Ice. The wheel of Ice. Okay, Mark. Mark. Very good, very good. All right, Little housekeeping. Make sure you keep it on or go to gallery view up in the top, right. I figure that's the best way to watch this. You can see everybody at the same time. Please chat, Chime in. Let us know what you're thinking. Let us know what you're drinking. Let us know anything. I don't care if you're pch. You can let us know that you wash your car today. I don't care. But make sure you do that. Justin will be watching. And when you do it, chat to all of the attendees, not just the panelists. And unless you don't. [5:26] Justin: Unless you have something secret you want to share. [5:29] Chad: If you'd like to write me privately, feel free. [5:32] JD: We need a word of episode. Yes, yes, yes. So, word of the episode. Thanks, Brandon. Chat bar people that are out there, chime in right now. Tell us what you think the word of the episode should be. And Justin, keep your eye on it. And you let me know the best one that comes through. We've been assigning this responsibility to other people lately. They've all been letting me down. But I. I like it better than when it's my fault. So people out there, tell us what you think the word of the episode should be. Write it in the chat, please. No one's doing it. All right. [6:08] Chad: No. Brad came back and said plan. [6:11] JD: Okay, that's decent. Julie says Advisor. [6:20] Chad: I think Jake would struggle with advisor. [6:23] JD: That's two 401ks. Let's go with 401k. All right. Brandon, from now on, that's sort of the episode. If you say it, you know what to do. And I got the vibe that Jake, by the way, is a very responsible guy. [6:36] Chad: So what are you drinking in there? [6:38] JD: It's okay. [6:39] Mark: So there's this thing here in Utah. Swig. Everybody, like lines their cars up in a drive through to get different kinds of soda pop with flavors in them. So this is Endless Summer Mountain Dew. I think it's like guava or passion fruit. I don't know, it's like a bunch of stuff in it, but people literally from like 8am to 9 at night are just lined up to buy pop. [7:02] JD: Sounds like it has the equivalent diabetes that is in my vodka and Pellegrino, so. Fair enough. [7:09] Justin: Jake, I'm just curious. You're a big fan of Mountain Dew, aren't you? [7:13] Mark: I love Mountain Dew. I can't. Those are my two. Thanks for dessert. Sweet. No other sugar. But if I have that, I'm good. I don't know what it is. And I still have tea, so we'll see how that ends up. [7:28] Justin: But yeah, I was gonna say, I would never assume someone who's as fit as yourself and as into all that stuff would be such a advocate for Mountain Dew with all the bad things people say about it. [7:41] Mark: That's the thing. Whenever I get serious about my diet, my wife just gets mad and just doesn't want to have it. So he wants to have ice cream. So you know, she likes, she likes having that ability to eat what we want and so we work out more so we can keep doing that. [7:55] JD: When you ride, when you ride 100 miles a day, you can eat whatever the hell you want to eat, Mark. It's not an issue. [8:00] Mark: I eat terrible. [8:00] Chad: Drink it. [8:01] Mark: People look, they see what I do and they're like, wow, you must just eat so carefully. So far. [8:08] JD: No. Well, I do love your physique in the zipped down lycra cyclist top. So I just gotta let you know I found you very attractive in that. Let's move on to the first subject. Chad and I were on a call the other day with an up and coming 401k disruptor record keeper. They're actually, oh, geez, we got no audio. That's right. Ding. Chad did it. And the conversation led to Census. And I know that might not sound very sexy, but for all your advisors that are listening in, I really do believe that census might be one of the most important things that you should understand as a retirement plan advisor. Now, this DC Disruptor was really proud of their technology that they had built. So think of it this way. They're coming into our industry and they're looking at all the legacy types of record keepers. Large insurance companies, mutual fund families, et cetera, and they're trying to look at things that we're doing wrong. And of course, they discover, like, hey, things could work a lot smoother if we could get this census thing working. Right. Right. If the data from the payroll vendor could come over and come into the record keeper, it would solve lots of problems. Now, Chad, is this the first time that we figured this out? No. We've known this for a long time, right? [9:38] Chad: Yep. [9:38] JD: Help the audience understand from an advisor's perspective, what's not happening. What does the current space look like? How are they using Census and how are they not using Census? [9:49] Chad: Yeah. So there's obviously integration with payroll providers. That's on a whole different scale. We're going to leave that to the side for. For a short time period. What we're talking about is the vast majority of plans that aren't integrated with payroll and record keeping. And what's missing right now as an industry is someone sitting in the seat of implementation or transition that is teaching the client why it is more beneficial to submit a whole census versus just data for the employees that are participating. Every time we chat with these different record keepers, they say, oh, we have that. We'll track eligibility, we'll send out notices, we'll update, vesting. We can do it live because we have hours. And then as soon as that plan gets to implementation. Dang. I just said, oh, no, it's different. As soon as that plan gets to implementation. Yeah, hold on. That seat fails to tell the client why they need to submit data. [10:42] Mark: That's a. [10:43] Justin: That's a pretty big loophole on that word we got going on, though. [10:46] Chad: Plan is okay. [10:48] Justin: All right. [10:50] JD: No, you're right. And what I want to reiterate, and Julie Casey says, omg, Census is key. Did you know you rhymed there? That was a rhyme. But it's so true. And I never hear plan advisors drilling into this or asking about how it's going to work. What I do Hear is a lot of you out there thinking like, oh, well, if I get a feed from the payroll, then everything's going to work hunky dory. And that's the way to do it. And that's not really reality. And we'll get into that in a little bit. But to Chad's point, what I want you to understand is that someone in the installation process has a responsibility to work with the plan sponsor to help them create. Why are you shaking your head no help. [11:38] Justin: I disagree so much. [11:40] JD: Oh, go, go, go. [11:42] Justin: I don't think it's the responsibility of a person in a seat in installation. I think it's their responsibility as a whole that it's not an option. It is a full census feed required to have a plan with that provider. It shouldn't be the person installing it [12:02] JD: should be status quo. [12:04] Chad: But we've seen people try to do that. [12:06] JD: How's that working? How's that working? [12:08] Chad: Standard. [12:10] Justin: I mean, I'm not saying it's perfect. I'm saying it should be normal. It should be just standard procedure. There shouldn't be a question of if it should be. Guess what? When you submit your set, when you submit this data, it has to be everything. You can't pick and choose. [12:27] JD: I agree with you. I agree with you. And I think advisors could learn from that statement. Mark, I think advisors should put themselves in the position to make sure what you just ranted about is happening, because if they leave it to the record keeper, it will not get done. Nine times out of ten we know that to be the case because all the record keepers have the technology to do this. It's just that poor person in installation doesn't want to spend the. A lot of people say you spend one hour to save yourself tons of hours in the future. I would argue that it maybe is going to take you a little more than an hour. Maybe you need to spend three hours on the front side, back and forth with the emails and the phone calls to make sure that the data really lines up and to structure it. If you spend that three hours, which can be a pain in the butt, you know, at installation, you set yourself up for success down the line and in so many different ways and not enough people are doing it. And like Lauren, perfect quote, it's some Excel files. How hard can it be? In a way that's very true, but in a way that's also not so true. But it is. Go ahead, Jake. [13:34] Mark: Like you're creating a business, right? It's a moving target. I think that's the hardest we think of as just an easy file drop. But every single day there's moving parts, people are getting hired, fired, depending on how big the company is. And a lot of times you hand off the plan to the transition manager or whoever and someone else you don't know on payroll and then you just think it's getting done. As an advisor, you don't even want to get into those weeds usually because it's not making you money right then. But you're setting yourself for a disaster later to make sure that they're actually communicating correctly. Because that transition person's in the 401k world. They're just trying to keep their job and be efficient and they don't really care. They're not doing payroll thinking I got to do 401k stuff. You know, I'm saying they're just not connecting those dots. [14:21] Chad: I mean, in our world, you know, size plans we work on, I think it's a lot easier to say that. And trust me, I agree with you guys 100%. But think about those 2,000, 3,000 participants or employee. Those are the easier ones though because those are the ones that are embracing a payroll technology. All that data is there. Like Lauren saying, you just have to have a query to pull it and an upload feature to have those two files match. Then why isn't it happening? Why aren't doing it? [14:48] Justin: By the way, aerial providers and record [14:51] JD: keepers have engineers and smart people who [14:54] Justin: will talk to each other, right? Just connect some friggin dots, man. [14:59] Chad: There you go. [15:00] JD: So Justin just asked and Mark just answered. Justin asked why aren't people doing it? Mark said it's there to do it. And the reason why is that no one's taking responsibility for it. No one's being accountable. And so that's why I'm telling you, Jake, as a representative for advisors. Advisors need to do two things. They need to one, insert themselves in that installation process to make sure that's happening because it's going to solve so many problems down the line. And the second thing they need to do, and you just mentioned it, Jake, you said there's going to be lots of changes. A lot of things are going to get tweaked and change. So someone's got to be involved to do some type of ongoing audit. You know, whether it's quarterly, semi, annually or annually, someone needs to audit the process, the operation, is it working the way it's supposed to be working? And then you can also, and I'll shut up here, and I want to hear your thoughts. But you can also leverage tech. And there is tech out there that, you know. We're going to meet with Vestwell next week. These are the people that Chad and I were talking to. And there's others that will scrub, you know, electronically that census when it comes in to see if it's the way it's supposed to be and if there's errors, it'll let you know. So you fix them at that time. [16:14] Mark: But anyway, tell them that's the problem best. Well, they can scrub all they want, but if they don't know what's going on behind the business, they won't. How are they going to know it's not right? [16:23] JD: Some. Well, because it'll tell them that there's an error or something. But I think if there's still a [16:29] Mark: lot of things that could miss, if [16:30] JD: there are things that are changing, someone's got to take responsibility for it. And I agree with you, Jake. It's not going to be the record keeper. They're just not set up for that. Maybe they should be, but they're not. So the advisor needs to get in there. [16:44] Mark: I think paychecks and ADP were the biggest. Right. And so they for a long time were like, you got to come to our 401k. They're trying to keep it all and they finally come to the realization that that's not going to work, that they don't want to lose a payroll client because they don't want to move the 401. So I think you're seeing a little bit more open from the two biggest out there, which is, I think, helpful. But that enterprise level is a big thing to do because you've got so much data that every day is changing that, you know, it's hard to monitor. [17:15] JD: Before we wrap this subject, I also want people to understand that just because you have a 360 setup doesn't mean that it doesn't need to be audited and that it's not set up properly because you need to make sure that compensation types are lined up. Right. Is the definition of compensation the same on the payroll vendor feed as it is on the plan document? And you can go on and on and on and on. You know, where is the he determination coming from? How are you dealing with bonuses? How are you dealing with, you know, fix it? Yeah. And so someone's got to be there. So anyways, that's my. [17:52] Mark: That's my kind of bonus. There should be a bonus compensation structure for that payroll, like person in the company to get the 401k file uploaded correctly. Motivation. [18:05] JD: Drink your little suicide soda. No, I totally agree. It's. Go ahead, Chad. [18:10] Chad: One more point is what I was going to say for those that are listening and from the advisor community. We've chatted about this for years. Your hashtag, notyour typical advisor. There was a stretch of time where I did what I call big to small, meaning how advisors are pitching the large plans 100 million and north. Those who are pitching on a $5 million plan or a $1 million plan should take some of what those advisors are talking about on $100 million plan and talk about it in the $1 million space. I can tell you, every single time I've been involved in a point of sale of a plan, let's say north of 50 million. Payroll integration is always part of the conversation. So why, when we're pitching on a $1 million plan, are we not talking about payroll integration? They do it in the up market every single time. So we as a community need to make sure in the smaller market that this has to be a point of conversation. And I'm just as guilty as it is. Even though I love and preach on this stuff all the time when I'm sitting in that meeting, this is not sexy to that client because they don't understand it. So if we're not talking about it in the sales process, it has to be talked about in the implementation process. [19:19] Justin: It's sexy to the person if they're in that meeting, which, by the way, they're probably not who's actually doing it. So if they'd be included in that meeting, again, I've been that person. It would be really nice. And so. Yeah. Yeah. So to your point, Chad. [19:33] JD: No, you're right, Mark. Renee actually brought that up. Renee says, hey, part of it's educating the payroll team on their role with the 401k. I think that's super smart. If we. If the payroll. Dang it. If the payroll. If the people in payroll understand it a little more, they can play a role as well. I love Jake's angst. I love his. Like, he wants to make this. This industry a better place. But at the same time, Jake, I'm kind of looking at you as like the representative of all advisors right now. And so I'm just looking you dead in the eye, Jake, and I'm saying you need to put this into your service model. You need to be doing something to make sure that it's happening properly, because you just can't count on the record Keeper to do it read, bada bing, bada boom. All right, give me, give me literally like 60 second plug on the club before we go to play another game. Tell me about the club, what's going on with it, how's it going? Yada yada. [20:39] Mark: So I love it. The club has been. It's honestly just getting this crowd together that are, I think loud, a little bit on LinkedIn or spending time on LinkedIn. And it's helped making ourselves better. So there's no motive behind it for anybody. It's not to sell. It's not a platform that I want people to listen to a pitch. I really just want us all to come together because we're spread out across the country. We're all trying to do this our own little way, but yet what if we helped each other? What if we brought our good ideas to each other and we actually held each other a little bit accountable to get out of our comfort zone, to try new things. So we don't just keep doing the same old whatever events or you know what I mean? Like, there's only so many topgolf events we can have. Like, let's get outside the box and bring some real value. And a lot of people don't know where to start. So the club is all about that, just sharing. [21:31] JD: And it's a group of non advisors specifically, but predominantly advisors, I'd say advisors and wholesalers. [21:38] Mark: So that's really 401. Jake has all been about helping advisors and wholesalers do a better job at making 4 1ks better, but making it better. And that's the whole idea. And it's not being recorded, so wholesalers don't have to worry. They can show up, say whatever they want, and it's not gonna get back to their compliance team. Like that's the kind of stuff we're navigating through because they're caught in a little box, they can't say anything. So all they do is troll LinkedIn all day. And then when I see them, they say, I love this and that, but they can't do anything online and they can't give any value online. And that's something that I want to change, but it's gonna take time. [22:18] JD: Well, my interpretation of the club and I was only at, I think I was at the first one for part of it. [22:24] Mark: Yeah, it's only been two so far, but we're gonna do every three weeks [22:27] JD: and I'm signed up for three, which is next. Not this Friday, but next Friday. Right. And my vibe on it was Which I thought was cool because TPAs do some of the same kind of things, but it's just getting together and just no holds barred. Let's talk about stuff that we don't usually talk about and share ideas together. So I think it's a great thing. I'd love to see it growing. I want to answer some of these TPA questions that the audience is chiming in about TPAs being part of. [22:54] Mark: The TPAAs are absolutely part of it. [22:56] JD: The. Oh, no. Of the club. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They're talking about. They're talking about TPAs being part of the payroll census, kind of double check insured. That's. That's an option for sure. Especially if you will pay me fees to do that kind of stuff. But none of you fucking want to do that. So we'll move on to the next subject I like. [23:16] Mark: Serious question right here. [23:18] Chad: Race the retireholics in a 40 mile bike race where the Firehawks did 10 miles each, but Jake had to race all 40. Who would win? There's no question he would win. Of course we would. [23:30] JD: Mark 10 miles. [23:31] Justin: Yeah, I said he would win. [23:34] JD: That's like 20 minutes going hard for each of us. He'd be 20 minutes. Right. [23:39] Mark: 10 miles, that's moving pretty quick. [23:42] JD: Is it? What do you average out at 20 miles an hour? [23:47] Mark: I did. We have a shorter ride. We did 60 on Friday and we were about 18. And I'd say a third of it was all uphill. [23:56] JD: Yeah, I average about a beer every 25 minutes, I think. Something like that. So try to keep up with that shit. Okay, let's move on to a fun game. I think we're going straight to. Who is that? Brandon, if you're paying attention. Okay, Jake, you've probably seen this before. We're gonna play some audio clips for you, and you need to guess you know something about it. The movie, the actor. I don't know anything close. [24:24] Mark: Not. Not. Songs. [24:25] JD: Shows. Yes, yes, shows. All right, Brandon, let her rip. Just write my suggestions down, too. [24:31] Speaker E: I'm not writing Horse hunt. I don't even know what that means. [24:35] JD: It's in the name. Okay, so far, the Notebook party consists [24:43] Mark: of beer, fights to the death, cupcakes, blood pudding, blood touch, football, mating, charades, horse hunting. [24:52] JD: You're right. [24:53] Chad: Forget horse hunting. [24:53] JD: It's stupid. [24:54] Mark: Is there a. All right, this is the office. But I'm trying to think of the episode. It's right in the middle of the whole thing. It's Kelly's birthday. [25:01] JD: I'll write my suggestions down, too. [25:03] Speaker E: I'M not writing. [25:04] JD: Correct. We do not force you to come up with episodes here. Nev and Adams would never survive. Okay, let's go to the next one. You are one for one. And I've got to go to the fridge to get some mixer for my butt. [25:15] Justin: This is a long one, so take your time. [25:17] JD: Do the long one. Do the long, long one. [25:20] Speaker E: If we were in the wild, I would attack you. Even if you weren't in my food chain, I would go out of my way to attack you. If I were a lion and you were a tuna, I. I would swim out in the middle of the ocean [25:31] Mark: and freaking eat you. [25:33] Speaker E: And then I'd bang your tuna girlfriend. Okay, first off, a lion swimming in the ocean. Lions don't like water. If you'd placed it near a river or some sort of fresh water source, that makes sense. But you find yourself in the ocean, 20 foot waves, I'm assuming it's off the coast of South Africa, coming up against a full grown 800 pound tuna with his 20 or 30 friends. You lose that battle. You lose that battle nine times out of ten. And guess what? You've wandered into our school of tuna and we now have a taste of lion. We've talked to ourselves, we've communicated and said, you know what? Lion tastes good. Let's go get some more lion. We've developed a system to establish a beachhead and aggressively hunt you and your family. And we will corner your pride, your children, your husband. [26:20] Mark: How are you gonna do that? [26:21] Speaker E: We will construct a series of breathing apparatus with kelp. We will be able to trap certain amounts of oxygen. It's not going to be days at a time, but hour, hour 45, no problem. That will give us enough time to figure out where you live, go back to the sea, get more oxygen, and then stalk you. You just lost your own game. You were outgunned and outmanned. [26:45] Mark: Did that go the way you thought [26:46] Speaker E: it was going to go? [26:50] JD: Can we just play the whole movie? Come on. [26:52] Chad: That would be hilariously. [26:54] Mark: I thought for a second it was step brothers, but it's other guy because [26:57] JD: that's because you're cheating off the chat bar. By the way. [27:01] Mark: That's really. [27:02] Chad: I think he has like one of those songify things up that's reading, predicting it. [27:08] JD: Shannon's Shannon Edwards says her son is quoting it word for word or whatever. So. Okay. Because you cheated off the chat bar, Jake, you're two for two. Let's go to number three. [27:18] Justin: Yeah. [27:20] JD: Damon Dayman, fighter of the night man, champion of the Sun, Sun. You're a master of karate and friendship for everyone. A day man. That's it. A day man. Fighter of the night man. Champion of the sun. [27:47] Mark: I have no idea. [27:49] JD: First of all, before Wrong, Lauren literally, like, sang along with his chat at the perfect time. What is that? Sunny in Philadelphia or whatever. [28:01] Mark: What is. [28:01] JD: I don't know what it is. [28:03] Justin: Always sunny in Philadelphia. [28:05] Mark: Yes. [28:05] JD: All right. Two for three. Two for three. [28:08] Mark: Good showing. [28:09] JD: That's very good. Very good. Better than most. Better than most. [28:13] Justin: Start to have to at least tell the guest if it's a movie or a TV show or, like, broad spectrum there. [28:22] JD: I told him he could basically guess anything remotely close to the thing, and it counts, so I think that's fair. [28:29] Mark: Did you get away from songs just because it was people using Shazam or what? What's going on? [28:34] JD: Hey, I get it. I suck at pop culture. Justin and Mark can tell you that. [28:39] Chad: Sam will actually pick up movies and music now, too. [28:42] JD: Yes. The next two subjects. Jake, you were the inventor of these subjects. I said, what do you want to talk about? You said, let's talk about advisor branding, which we're going to do first, and then we're going to wrap with one that I'm really excited. Excited about, which is you're going to tell us what retireholics needs to do better, which I titled on my Word document here. Your retireholics sucks, which is like, kind of like your TPA sucks, but. No, no, no, it's okay. Just save it. Just save it. We're going to do at the end. I think I'm going to leave for that portion, but we'll do it at the end. Okay? [29:24] Mark: I want to hear the tenure vision from JD where are we trying to go? [29:27] JD: Nobody wants to hear that happen. That's a podcast, okay? I've heard you on some podcasts. I know you spent a lot of time thinking about advisor branding, and I think it's very important, you know, branding in terms of finding new clients. You know, why are. Why are people interested in working with you? Branding in terms of closing clients. Right. Winning that business, and branding in terms of retaining those clients long term. All very, very important. I'm stealing this quote from you. You're on a podcast. I was listening to it, and you said, hey, branding or advisor? Branding is not. Everyone thinks it's about, like, your logo or your website, and that's not what it's about. It's really about your reputation and your service and how your clients think about you as a person or as a company. I thought that was really, really cool to hear that from you. So you tell me, what do you think? Top advisors or what are the top things that advisors need to be thinking about when it comes to branding? [30:35] Justin: Go. [30:36] Mark: So I think the mistake first, when they hear me talk about branding, they think put videos on LinkedIn, which is part of branding to some degree. But I split it up into three categories, branding, marketing, and sales. And too many advisors lump it together and they think a fancy brochure is going to do all three of those things. And it's not. That's kind of the old way of thinking is you do it all at one time and it's all that final pitch, like you're gonna make them, convince them to come with you. Branding is gonna. It's a long game in its reputation. So it's more what your clients and what they're saying about you to others. That's super critical. I mean, that's one of the most powerful ways to grow your business is if you're out servicing everybody else. That's gonna lead to more business than you know. But it's gonna take longer, obviously, than to do other tactics on the marketing side, which is just being louder, right? It's just getting more content out, paying for it sometimes. But you no longer can just rely on SEO. You've got to do so much more because the conversations are happening all the time, 24 hours a day. I mean, my LinkedIn is just buzzing all the time. And most advisors don't really engage as well as they could or should, and trying to get to the bottom of what that is. What is it a fear of what others will be critical about and what they'll say could be negative. Is it a fear of compliance? My thinking is the stronger your personal brand can be, the better for that business. So if your firm is against it and wants you to just be working on their brand, then they deserve to lose you. There's other firms that will benefit from having you have a strong brand, and you need to get over that fear that they're gonna be pissed if you put a video out. So find a way to navigate that so you don't shoot yourself in the foot. But the world is not gonna all of a sudden stop doing social media and stop communicating the way we are. So we have to understand how to do that. [32:31] JD: And so I see two types of kind of thoughts out there. I see pch. He's having fun with it, but he's saying, who cares if you know what you're doing, you have Prospects, which I get. And I know PCH probably doesn't feel this way, but it's kind of the anti branding vibe, which I totally understand. Which means if you're good at what you do and you're hustling like you'll create opportunities. But I also saw Sherry Fitz talk about branding is. It's what your, how your clients feel about you. And we love you, Sherry. And you know a bit about branding and marketing for sure. I am kind of jumping on Jake's bandwagon here in that we live in a different world than my father lived in. Right? We live in this digital space world. [33:13] Justin: And so I think it's the same world, dude. [33:15] Mark: Just, it's just more transparent. People are all still the same. [33:19] JD: You can hear it more speaking metaphorically, Mark, but you're right, same world. No, what I mean is that I think your brand is like. What Jake's trying to say is it's all things. It's how you comment on social media, right? What did you say? How did you respond? What value did you provide? Is it your content? Of course it is. Is it your, your logo and the colors and the look and feel of what you do? Sure, it's that too. Is it how like Sherry says, is it how your clients talk about you after you leave the room? You know, do they say, hey, that's a, that's a fun person, you know, like they really are passionate about what they do? Yes, that's part of your branding too. And I don't think anybody should undercut this or not give it the value that it deserves. Because what I mentioned at the beginning, in today's world, the same world but different people will look at your brand, they'll feel your brand and make a decision. One, I think one of the most important ones these days is will they reach out to you, are they interested in working with you? And your brand's going to drive that. But then equally important is your brand will be involved in you closing that deal. And so what you bring to that presentation in terms of look, feel, attitude and what you say and how you look is all gonna be part of your brand. And it will fucking impact whether you sell that plan or don't sell that plan. And then of course, to retain that business, your brand, how they feel about you, what, what they see from you in terms of email blasts or social media or what they see from you in a live face to face meeting or a zoom meeting, if that's what you're using in this post Covid space, that will also impact on whether you keep those clients. So if you don't think brand is important, I think you're. My dad would call people stupid, but I don't do that. [35:16] Mark: The simplest way for an advisor, now that doesn't like to do social, doesn't feel comfortable doing all those things, focus on that payroll person or that cfo, that HR manager, to the point that if they left that company, went somewhere else to take a higher position, you're the first person they called to come in and help them with the plan. Like if you're doing that and you're like their 401k, I said it, you're a retirement plan person for you're doing something right. So that's focus on that first. Why do you go from there? [35:47] JD: Brandon? I'm going to drink for Jake for the rest of the show. Just so you know. [35:51] Chad: Jake, one thought and then one question. My thought regarding advisor branding is that very few actually pay attention to where their clients are going to experience their brand. And correct me if I'm wrong, but, but, but I think even with as active as LinkedIn is, I still don't feel like many HR people are qualifying advisor on LinkedIn. I don't think they're seeing your presence as much as we would like to think. So the first statement would be I think we need to take a step back and think about where our brand is being felt and the impact of that brand is going to have on our production and our growth as a business. The second would be, of the three that you named or you can go outside of those three, what has the biggest impact on branding? Is it marketing? Is it sales, is it service, is it ethos? Is it your color scheme? Like, what do you think? For an advisor, specifically in the qualified plan space, what's going to have the biggest impact on branding? [36:50] Mark: It's I think two things. Your ability to communicate to them, their staff, the communication piece to simplifying really complicated things in this retirement world we live in. But also just making sure that you're following through, like actually following through what you say. You come in and talk a big game, they hire you and then the record keeper shows up and does a meeting. You're nowhere to be seen. That doesn't work like that is not going to build you brand reputation. Being able to put in the work will build your reputation and which is your brand. [37:24] JD: I love this. I freaking love this. [37:26] Mark: Marketing, totally separate marketing is like not branding. They're two things. [37:32] JD: Chad. I think I used to look at branding like Your content, your pieces, your color schemes, kind of that ethos or vibe that you're putting out there. But I truly believe now that Chad has a brand. When he's in a point of sale and he leaves that room like you've made an impression on people, that is a brand and they're going to make a decision based on you. So Jake's first answer to you was how you communicate. And so I'm going to go out on a limb and say, I agree, that's part of your brand for sure. What is the charisma and the knowledge and the vibe. What did Jeannie Fisher tell us when we asked her why she was so successful? She brought that kind of slow play knowledge, kind of confidence. That's a brand that you're bringing to that point of sale. And so I'm challenging advisors that are listening to this today, live and in the Future on YouTube and through LinkedIn. Think about that. How are you perceived in a point of sale? How are you perceived in a fiduciary review meeting? Somebody asked earlier, I should scroll up and quote his name. I don't recognize name, but he said Carl. Carl said, ask the current plan decision makers, how am I perceived by your employees? That's your brand. That's part of it. At least [38:55] Mark: that's the thing. Like you look at Chad, for example, like working with Chad recently on a few different opportunities because I'm determined to get one before Janya gets one with you guys. So Chad, though, like, it doesn't. It's not logo or anything that Chad has. It's not the fact. It's if I'd met Chad, whether it was through parallax or not stuff. And he's able to explain it and he's able to think creatively. Now Chad's like a go to for me for random weird questions. And guess what? We're gonna get a point. Some plans going that's the same. Your role to the client, like being able to be their person that they choose to come to with their problems because you solve them, you help make their life easier. That's what they want. [39:37] Chad: We always say an advisor. [39:39] Mark: Everybody's motivated by certain things. [39:42] JD: Go ahead, Mohawk. [39:45] Chad: We always say to our advisor partners, and we try to be this to them and they should be this to their client. We're trying to be an extension of your team. And if you think about that logically, if you're sitting there in HR and you're thinking, Jake is an extension of my team and they know they can turn to you as if you're a part of their team, you've built some fantastic rapport with them. And that is to stick to the topic that is branding. That HR person leaves. Who's the first person they're going to call? Jake, who's an extension of their team. [40:15] Mark: Exactly. That's exactly it. You. You got to back into what they're motivated, why they're even talking to you, and provide value there. And then you just add to it, build on it. [40:24] Chad: See, I don't know if I'm right or wrong, though. You confuse me a little bit by saying marketing isn't branding. And obviously I'm being the nerd that I am. I'm so logical with everything. I struggle with the whole branding side of things. But in my mind, what you're putting out from a marketing perspective shows your culture. It shows what you're all about. There is so much branding and marketing materials in my mind. [40:49] Mark: No, I segment the two because marketing is how you're being louder with what you do. Branding is actually doing it and showing that value to people, and they're going to see it and feel it and share it. [41:00] JD: Ooh, Daddy likes that. I like that. Jake. [41:04] Chad: I'm writing it down. [41:04] Speaker E: Jake. [41:05] Chad: I'm writing it down. [41:06] JD: That's cool. You know what else I heard you say that I appreciate? I want to pivot a little bit, but you. I'm a. I was a huge. Am a huge Gary Vee fan, and I heard you recently say that you were a Gary Vee fan, but you tune into him less now because you kind of figured out his deal. And you. I think I'm putting words in your mouth, which I do all the time, so I apologize. You're basically saying that's what Gary wants. He wants you to figure out his program, and then you don't need to keep tapping back into him. I feel the exact same way. And you said it, and I totally connected with that. I used to watch Gary all the time. His keynotes, different stuff. Now I feel like, okay, I get it. I'm doing it. I'm doing what he's telling me to do, and I don't. I don't tune in as much. [41:52] Mark: That's saying, like, I want you to stop listening to me and go do. Yeah, of course. I'm a huge fan, and I'll always be a fan. If he comes out one day and says, Everybody, give me 100 bucks, I can buy the jets, I'm going to be the first one to write a check. Like, I want to see him succeed because I feel really grateful for what he kind of taught me. [42:08] JD: It's a great idea. That's a great idea. Hey, if you've tuned in, Brad, Carl, everyone, like, I would. We'd really like a thousand bucks if you could just shoot a thousand bucks our way. [42:20] Chad: Are you gonna buy the Jets, J.D. [42:22] Justin: no, I want to buy a jet. [42:25] Chad: Not like the jets with Gary V. [42:28] Mark: To wrap up kind of the whole marketing Brandy thing is what he said. They don't spend a lot of. With VaynerMedia and their whole marketing agency. They don't spend all this time building a buzz reel of all this, you know, expensive proposal type of stuff like we do with RFPs. He says, I walk in the door and say, I'm effing Gary Vee. And they hire him, right? Because he already has a brand. He has a reputation. He doesn't have to do this big show to convince them to hire them. It's like, hey, Jake's here. We want him. That's it. Done. That's what I'm trying to do. [42:56] JD: No, for sure. I think that is a big part of branding. And before we pivot, I also don't want to forget, though it does have to do with color and graphic design and those things, too. Okay, so if your branding is, and I'm speaking to the financial services industry, and you've heard this before, it's cliche, but if your branding is compasses and senior citizen couples holding hands, walking on the beach, that's great. That's cool. If that's your vibe, if that's authentically you. But you're looking like a lot of other people in this industry, and I think it's a pretty shitty branding. [43:33] Mark: Don't be afraid to be different. [43:35] JD: So I just want to remind everyone, as we've talked about the physical part of branding or the, you know, the verbal and the point of sale, it also is about color, it is about design, it is about your website, it is about your business card. It is about all those types of things. Those are the little artistic edges that will really, really help. So don't forget about that either. Okay, let's move on. Mark, we play a game. It's your game. You're the man. Run the game. [44:04] Justin: Wait, we're still doing this? [44:06] JD: We have a graphic. We got a graphic. It's going on right there. [44:08] Mark: I honestly thought we weren't just gonna have to wing it. [44:12] JD: Wing it? [44:14] Chad: When are you not winging it? That's very rare. Very rare. [44:18] Justin: That's my brand. Just wing It. [44:25] JD: Jagline. [44:26] Justin: All right, Jake, you know the game, you know what's up, but there's some curveballs that are coming your way. First question. My first question. Because, Jake, you're. You're a very handsome gentleman. You're a fit guy. You spend time at the pool, you hang out with the family. I see you doing all sorts of things, but I only see the selfie aspect of some of your life. So I'm just wondering what's going on with everything else. So I have a question. If push came to shove, and this goes for the rest of the guys too, and you could go to the pool and hang out these nice beautiful summer days we're going to have. Are you rocking a Speedo? [45:06] Chad: Wait, is it? Are you or would you. [45:09] Mark: So I wish I had interchangeable in my mind. I think the last time I did was like in 99 or something. Like when I was doing triathlons as a teenager. That was ladies. Everybody wore speedos. That was the thing had a crop top and a Speedo. So we did the whole race. So. [45:26] Chad: Absolutely. [45:28] Mark: Jake, I have pictures. I'll have to. I don't have them on my laptop or I'd get them to you, but yeah, buddy, I had the bleach tipped hair. You know, all that 90s. [45:39] JD: Please don't. Just. [45:42] Justin: How about the. How about this? [45:43] JD: Just a game. I love speedos. I fucking love them. [45:46] Justin: All right, Justin, [45:50] Mark: that was fancy triathlons. That wasn't ever just at the beach. [45:53] JD: I surf in them. I surf in them all the time. [45:55] Justin: Perfect. [45:56] Chad: Chad, no. [45:57] Justin: Okay. [45:58] JD: Keeps people away from me. I get more waves. [46:01] Justin: All right, Saturday night for bars. This one's probably a reach because I've been running into this constantly and you probably know the answer by the look of my face. But is it lame or are you game for these stupid picture password thingies where it's like the fucking ducks or [46:25] Mark: the street lights or the worst thing ever? [46:29] Chad: So rough. [46:30] Mark: Which developer came up with that idea? I wish I knew. I beat the crap out of them. [46:35] JD: That was so frustrating. [46:36] Justin: I'm pretty sure I've been locked out of numerous accounts because apparently I don't know what a the hill is or something. [46:43] JD: Can I. Can I lamer game it? It's lame. It's lame. But you know, it's worse is when you're stressing because you're not sure if you're getting it right. [46:52] Mark: Right. [46:52] JD: I know you're like, is that a. Is that a stoplight? I don't know. Shit. [46:57] Justin: Sure. It's not One of those standard three ones. [47:00] Chad: It's the one [47:03] JD: I question myself. Am I a robot? Do I not know? Am I not supposed to get in? [47:10] Justin: All right, Jake, here's. Here's a little something different. So there's. I just want you to know, Jake, I'm looking at you. I'm not going to get close to the computer like JD because that's his brand. Okay? And I don't have the same complexion. I'm looking at. Looking right at you. There's actually more than one retireholic. Chad's not the only guy. Okay? [47:31] Mark: There's four of us. I know that. [47:34] Justin: Okay, I don't know if you know that, so. But you're gonna have to pick one of us for each question I'm about to ask. I will ask them consecutively, and you're going to assign a retireholic to a certain thing that I assign that I tell you. Okay? So, number one. [47:49] Chad: So this is your version of kill or marry, right? [47:51] Justin: Yeah, exactly. There's four options instead. Who would you choose as your podcast co host? Okay. Who would you pick to babysit your beautiful kids? Okay. Who would you choose to go on your daily, long, stressful bike rides with? And who would you pick to cut your beautiful, maintained hair? [48:18] JD: Whoa, That's a lot. [48:20] Chad: That's a scary one. [48:22] Justin: One person per. Again, you can't pick Chad for all [48:25] JD: of them, all right? [48:27] Chad: You sound exactly like JD With Fred Reich and you right now, man. [48:31] Justin: Yeah, I'm a little jealous. [48:34] Mark: Oh, boy. [48:35] Justin: Okay, first one podcast co host. [48:39] Mark: Thanks, Jake. I think I picked Justin because I like to talk a lot, so Justin will just keep supporting. [48:46] Chad: Beautiful angle. Man, I did not see that coming. Oh, that's good, Jake. [48:52] Justin: Brandon, don't edit that out, [48:57] Mark: JD Because I want them. They know how to handle themselves in the water, but they don't know how to surf, so I need to learn that. [49:02] JD: Oh, I would take good care of your children. [49:04] Justin: Who would you pick to go on your daily bike rides? And no, you can't bring your wife to. It's just one of us. [49:11] Mark: And what's the last one? [49:13] Justin: Cut your hair. [49:14] Mark: Oh, cut my hair. Oh, boy. Okay. I'm going biking with Chad and you're cutting my hair. [49:20] JD: Yeah. Good call. [49:22] Chad: He saw what you did up here. [49:24] Mark: That. Yeah. I don't know what went on there, so that's why. [49:26] Chad: That's. Mark, you just picked a guy to cut your hair that did this. [49:30] Mark: This is all me. I don't. Every weekend I do my own. [49:35] Justin: That's. [49:36] Chad: That's impressive. [49:37] Mark: I learned it. [49:38] Justin: All right, my last question. If you had to pick one of these two for the rest of your life, meaning you can't have the other one ever again, starting today, what would you pick? Pizza or tacos? [49:55] Mark: I have to have pizza forever. [49:56] Justin: Okay, J.D. [49:57] JD: that's a no brainer. Pizza. [50:00] Chad: Chad street tacos. [50:03] Justin: Any variation of taco. [50:05] JD: Oh, Michael Webb, I love you pizza buddy. [50:09] Chad: I'm going, I'm going tacos. Okay, I'm going tacos. [50:13] Mark: Pizza. [50:14] Chad: What? [50:15] Justin: Justin, Pizza. [50:16] JD: All right, well I need to be clear, I'm vegetarian, so tacos. Veggie is kind of not, not so good. [50:23] Justin: Yeah, you know, you know what they say. [50:26] Chad: You know what they say. Still don't Searching for it. [50:32] JD: That's my favorite part of the show. And hey, Mark, for winging it, that's pretty good. It's pretty good for weighing it. [50:39] Justin: I wrote it. [50:40] Chad: I wrote something down there. [50:41] JD: Okay, Jake, we're coming down to a close so you know what we're going to talk about. I'm going to head out. This is our incident. I was going to let you finish off the show. Tell us what the retireholics should be doing better and I'll watch it later. Recorded version. [50:56] Chad: But I don't like to hear negatively. [50:58] Mark: That's first thing I want to know. [50:59] JD: No, I'm kidding, I'm kidding, I'm kidding. I take advice. Go ahead, tell us what the fuck you think. [51:03] Mark: Okay, so what I want to see, this is some ideas. I want retirehlogs to get bigger as far as getting out of our little bubble. Right? Little bubble. Bubble. [51:12] Justin: More pizza and tacos. [51:15] Mark: Yeah. [51:15] JD: Hey, don't get. Let's let him give his thoughts. It's not. [51:19] Mark: Advisors are motivated only to get more plans. Right? Everybody's motivated. They want to make more money. That's simple. Everybody. So how can retireholics make more of that happen? Right? Advisors are paying tons of money to have someone go through a 5500 listen to dial and get them a meeting. Why don't we either teach them how to do what retire logs did to the TPA industry as far as create a show, do YouTube channel. Like all the things that Brandon does behind the scenes, teach people how to do that advisors. Because that's what I'm trying to help them do. Like it's not that hard. [51:51] Chad: Sounds good. [51:52] Mark: I did that and I did the thing yesterday with Chad and it took me an hour to get everything out. Yeah, there's a little bit of work, but I'm getting faster at it. [52:00] JD: I saw your Instagram story. I saw your Instagram story. [52:03] Mark: Yeah, but. Or do the other way of just making retirement so big and you bring on guests outside of the industry and talk like just random people that have other influence in other industries and talk about 401ks with them and other things and wrap 401k into it. Like you could have a lot of different guests I think would definitely come on the show if you've got enough brand. [52:24] JD: That's. That's very. That's great advice. I'm just being nice to you. Yeah, it might be cool to bring in someone outside of our industry. Fair enough. [52:33] Mark: I would love to hear how actors handle retirement planning or how, you know, how different people that we all look to follow. [52:40] JD: Ooh, maybe we can get Jessica Alba on the show. [52:44] Mark: Why not? Why not? [52:47] Chad: I want to get a participant on the show. Honestly, I think that would be fun to get someone who's relatively passionate about finances, an average like 42 year old 401k participant. [52:58] Mark: Yeah, you don't have to. I mean, everybody has a retirement plan. Right. No matter how much money they make. It's somewhat like usually this is their only account. A lot of people. So Warren thinks we should get some [53:09] Chad: good plan auditors on. [53:11] JD: I know. [53:12] Mark: And then you take that even bigger so that you potentially have some sort of tool or some way that people are looking for help with their plan. They come to retireholics and then guess what, now you have leads that advisors can use all over the country. Because all over the place that has [53:29] JD: come up a lot where people said, hey, we've even had advisor Shop say we'd love for you guys to create content for participants and people. Yes. Have then brought it to the revenue generating model of why don't you create stuff for plan sponsors and then you guys can get leads and you can dish them to your advisor partners. So. Fair enough. Fair enough. That's something to think about. [53:54] Chad: We made an effort, Jake, in that space. We were at the PSCA in Chicago three years ago and we essentially wrote content that was more directed towards plan sponsors than advisors and CPAs and so forth. But that was all. I think that was the only time we tried that gap. [54:14] JD: Well, I've heard you, Jake. I've heard you say the word niche over and over and over again on your podcast. And by the way, I just want to say, for the record, I want to say niche just because I love Fred Reeves. I don't think it's niche, but it just sounds way more cool, like European. I want to say it that way. But. But you say that all the time. So I guess what I'm trying to say to you is defensively. Well, our niche is financial advisors. You know, we want to. That's where we want to go. Go, go, go, go. And double down. [54:49] Mark: I still think there's a real bias of advisors using local TPAs. I don't know why. [54:53] Chad: Oh, you're right, dude. [54:55] Mark: You don't need that. [54:55] Chad: Absolutely. [54:57] Mark: Covid should have sped that up for you to be able to reach the whole country more than you ever have. So that's what I'd like to see is doing more across the country. [55:08] Chad: Let me comment on that, Jake. More now than ever in my time in this business. Am I seeing advisors nationally reach out and they're not feeling the need to have local. That they see the value in a web meeting. I'm doing zoom meetings for finals presentations for a group in New York. That has always been an ambition of ours. But, like, you're right. Advisors still have a need or a want to be local. They feel like they need someone to walk in that room with them. That wall is being broken down right now. [55:43] Mark: Absolutely. It is. Yeah. I totally agree. And the last idea. This is what I want to see happen. I want you to plan a retireholics cruise and have advisors all. I mean, get the whole ship, and we fill that thing up and we just have a blast down the Caribbean. [55:59] Chad: Oh, man. [55:59] Speaker E: J.D. [56:00] JD: would die. I heard cruises are really cheap these days. [56:06] Mark: Let's do it. We can sit in the coronavirus central. [56:12] JD: Yeah. No, Jake, I love, love it. I was totally kidding in the beginning. Those are great ideas. And some of them we've thought about, some of them haven't, Some of them we haven't. I will tell you, you wanted my kind of Jerry Maguire mission statement. You know, like, we do want to go big. Like, we want to do the biggest conferences. We want to be on the biggest stages. So I'll say that out loud. The boys know that we push for that, and we're going to get there. We've done some great shows, some great conferences, some big stages, but we want to keep doing that. For sure. But I also want to tell you that I think. And maybe the audience can tap into some of this part of our success, if you can call it that, is that it's been almost five years now. We've never tried to sell anyone anything one time. And so retireholics is always. [57:10] Justin: Sorry, no, wait, no. I have sold ad space. I've just. [57:15] Chad: Nobody's ever paid you for said ad space, though, Jake, my price is nothing. [57:21] JD: So you'll understand this because it's right out of your Gary V. Playbook, like, just instinctively, or I should say mostly because of the guidance of my brother, who's our producer, and he does all this stuff behind the scenes. We've never tried to like, ram PDC down the throat of the people that watch the show. We've always been in this mode of like, okay, let's just give, give, give. Let's just have fun. Let's just have fun. And I got to tell you, here's what I think about that. If we had started back when we did and it had been more like, check out our tpa, check out what we do, check out our value add, I don't think we would be where we're at today. [58:04] Mark: Agree. Give it away for free. I feel guilted into wanting to work with you guys on a plan. Yeah, you're doing the right thing in that way. So most people, I hope they're feeling that way because you're putting out good content that helps them, especially new people the industry if there's not a lot of help to them other than their wholesalers who are just trying to push their products. So if you continue to do this, like, it's a one good resource for them to learn from. So maybe we need to consolidate a lot of that good content into something they have to pay a little bit for. Just so they take it serious. Like, that's why I don't just ship hats all over now, because I want them to, like, wear it and like, feel like, hey, this is something I'm not just going to throw into the pile with every other free thing. There's more to it. Like, they take it more serious when they have to pay for it. [58:54] Chad: We started the retireholics in an effort to give value. Like, as JD's wording, each and every one of your next steps for us was still about giving value. It was about finding a way to generate leads for advisors, continue to drive content. Well, maybe the cruise, we're given some value on the cruise. I think everything you said left us still on our plan of continuing to just give, give, give. And that's what we want to do. We just want to continue to find a way to grow this industry and grow with the right people. [59:29] Mark: You build a community and that will just continue to grow because you're giving good content of valuable information. [59:36] JD: So, yeah, and I wasn't, I wasn't trying to say it in any type of humble brag or anything, because I don't. I feel like we're nowhere near where we want to be. I appreciate our audience, what we're doing. We're still just a cheesy little 401k show. What I was trying to say it is. I was trying to say it in terms of advice. [1:00:00] Chad: That bottle's almost gone. Jd, That's. [1:00:01] JD: I know. It's a mini. It's a little mini. I was trying to say it more like I wanted people to understand that. That that's the way you succeed. Because when I'm looking at social and I'm looking at LinkedIn, I see a lot of selling. I see a lot of check out what we did. Check out the award we got. [1:00:23] Mark: One thing drives me insane. I can't. I. I will never. I don't want any of those awards that you pay for. I can go on about that forever. Those things drive me crazy. Let's hear it. But what I'm saying, jd, I like what you're doing. I'm just on board with how you're doing it. Like, I never meant what I. To take it. The next level was never meant to be. That you're not doing the right thing. [1:00:44] JD: No, no, no. We have a lot. We have a lot to learn, a lot to do better for sure. But, yeah, I just wanted the audience to know that. I think we stumbled into that. That. Hey, guys. It's a great. Guys, girls. It's a great idea. Give, give, give, give, give. What's Gary V's book? Jake setting you up? Jab, jab, hook. It makes a lot of sense. And we've. We live by this philosophy. It's not jab, jab, jab, hook. I think he's got three. Brandon and I have always said we live by jab, jab, jab, jab, jab, jab, jab, jab, jab, jab, jab, jab, jab, jab, jab. That's our fucking philosophy. All right, it's been an hour, and we can hang out and talk a little more. Lauren says vodka. Yes. I'm starting a new trend. I'm starting to get a little more hammered on these shows, and I like it. [1:01:33] Chad: It's because you don't drink any other day during the week. This is my day Hit. You're like, let's have some fun. [1:01:39] JD: Chad, what about your binge drinking? [1:01:42] Mark: But has there been talk about that? Like, what, do your own conference? [1:01:47] Justin: Yeah, we did talk about. [1:01:49] Chad: We did talk about that. [1:01:50] JD: We did a 401 kegger at my house. It was pretty cool. [1:01:54] Mark: Oh, that's right. I remember that. [1:01:55] JD: Okay, that was fun. [1:01:58] Mark: It goes back to what. What is going to help advisors the most? It's getting them more opportunities. So how do we do that? And. And that's. You keep doing that. You're going to help them and bring them back. [1:02:08] JD: I'll wrap the official show with this. I'll tell you how you do it. You do. And I mean this. You do what you and Chad released yesterday. So doing our show with beer and fun and little hijinks and games is great. But I also think the value that you and Chad provided yesterday in terms of reviewing profit sharing and design basics, or what Chad would call steps one, two, and three and not yet to four, which I think you guys should come back and do step four. That's how you provide value. And we need to do more of that. That's. If I had to critique retire Alex. We need to keep doing what we're doing, but we need to put Chad, Mark, Justin out there in the world providing that intellect that they have on a, you know, less retireholics vibe. Because I'm. I'm just a huge fan of what the two of you did, and I think it's a great episode. It's like, what, 40 minutes, 45 minutes or something. Dude, I love it. I watched it last night with my wife in bed. It was 11pm she was hating me, but I was watching the whole thing. [1:03:15] Mark: Nice. Yeah, it was fun. I mean, and that's real problems, real things that come up daily for me. And to talk about it, even as an advisor for 15 years, like, I'm still learning every single day. So you have to have that mentality as an advisor just to keep learning. And when you learn something, you share it. So not coming up with an idea. I got to make content today because I promised I would on Thursdays. Just document what you did, Tell the world what you learned today. That's. You don't have to rack your brain and try to come up with some fancy fun thing. Just tell us, share with us. [1:03:45] JD: You're doing a great job of it. Michael says, hey, thanks for your solo virtual conference the other day at Ari. Thanks, Michael. That was a lot of fun. I know. I got on a soapbox. If you haven't seen Chad's thing with just with Jake, check it out. It's out there. It's not hard to find. And do we do a formal end? I don't know. I've had a lot of vodka. Where are the retireholics we're changing the retirement plan industry one shitty zoominar at a time. Maya, send us Touch your face ding dong. Don't touch your face ding dong. And that has been another episode of Sheltering in place. All right. I don't know, guys. [1:04:25] Mark: Oh, we're going straight to music. [1:04:27] Justin: I don't have to. [1:04:28] JD: No, we can't. Do you guys want to chat more with Jake, off the record or not? Well, on the record, or do we want to wrap it up? I'm drunk, so I'll do whatever. [1:04:40] Chad: I kind of like this, J.D. [1:04:42] Justin: i'm finding a trend happening here.