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Tune in to "What Works" hosted by Don Patrick where we tap into 2,500+ years of experience in running financial advisory practices. In each episode, Don sits down with an experienced financial planner, uncovering the unique insights and experiences that have shaped their careers. From navigating market fluctuations to building successful client relationships, Don and his guests share invaluable business tips and strategies for financial planners looking to thrive in the industry.
Join us every other Thursday, as we explore the wealth of knowledge accumulated from over 2500+ years of combined experience in financial planning.
Hi, everyone. Welcome to What Works. This is a show for consortium advisors
that taps into over 1,000 years of experience shared by our consortium
advisors.
I'm your host, Don Patrick, and I'm here to guide the conversation with
guest advisors and lift the hood on what works for them in business and
life. It's all about learning and growing.
So let's go.
Don Patrick: Hello, everybody. Welcome to IFG’s podcast, What Works. This is
episode number 25, and today's guests are Robert Day and Justin Burgess with
their partners at Madison Financial Associates in Acworth, Georgia. Welcome,
guys.
Robert Day: Hey, thanks for having us.
Don Patrick: Yeah, it should be great. There's a lot to get through. So I
think I'll start off with a little bit about your family, and Robert, we'll
start with you. Just tell us a little bit about your family, which also I
think ties into the name of the firm.
Robert Day: Yeah, so obviously the name of the firm is Madison Financial.
And my lovely wife Beth, we're a little bit of a blended family. So there's
myself and Beth and we both met, a couple of years after we both went
through some divorces. We got together and ultimately we got married and she
has two wonderful kids, twin boy and girl. And I've got two kids. So when I
say blended family, it was, boom, there's six of us all of a sudden.
And Madison, being the oldest, she's my oldest from a previous marriage, and
then there's Jacob who–Madison just graduated, college. She's got a job in a
career, and she's going strong. Jake just finished up his second year at
UGA, so he's now a junior. Just got home for the summer, will be working
through the summer. And the company, Madison Financial, is named after my
daughter Madison.
Don Patrick: That's great.
Robert Day: Yes, sir.
Don Patrick: Justin, you want to tell us a little bit about your family
makeup?
Justin Burgess: Yeah. So interestingly enough, I am also married to a
beautiful Beth. We have three kids. We've got a 10, almost 11-year-old
daughter that I may never financially recover from. And then two little
boys, that'll be six and five this coming August. So Beth and I knew each
other in high school, but never really, never really dated. In fact, she was
quite close to a good friend of mine. Unfortunately, that friend of mine is
no longer a friend of mine. It all worked out.
Don Patrick: So there's a whole nother story there. Huh?
Justin Burgess: There's a big story behind that. That's an entirely, that's
a different podcast.
Don Patrick: We’ll do that offline. I gotta hear about it. So, Robert, tell
us a little bit how you got started in the profession.
Robert Day: Yeah, so I tripped into it, and I'll tell anybody that wants to
listen. I had no idea who, what a financial advisor was, what they did. I
didn't even know there was a term for that. It's not anything I really
wanted to do. I was ignorant about it, didn't know what it was.
I grew up, I've been working since I was 12 years old. My dad was a grocery
store manager in my hometown and went to work with him every weekend and
went off to college. Ultimately, got into banking and was just a bank teller
through college. Kind of helped pay the bills and gimme some walking around
money.
And quite honestly thought I was gonna graduate from Georgia, and this was
summer of ‘01, of 2001. And just really thought I was just gonna climb the
corporate ladder, go from a teller to head teller and customer and whatever,
bank manager or president of something I didn't know. I just really did not
know.
All my friends were, internet was still kind of new even back then and
monster.com and putting online resumes and all my buddies were getting ready
to graduate and thought, “Well, I guess that's kind of smart. Maybe I should
do the same thing. Lemme go build a resume and have a plan B in case this
bank thing doesn't work out.” Long story short, a lot of the callbacks I was
getting, I didn't know this at the time, but Merrill Lynch, Ed Jones, bank
channels thing, a lot of them now aren't even, they don't even exist
anymore. But I was like, “Okay, well, there's something there. There's some
pattern that they're picking up on. Maybe I could be good at this.”
Long story short, got with another firm, started doing my licensing, got all
that stuff out of the way while I was wrapping up college and got hooked up
with a company here in Atlanta. I had a good mentor at the time, I learned a
lot, was with that company for many years. And actually started, I launched
my practice, I launched my career on a bittersweet day of 9/11 2001. That
was my first day in this arena.
Don Patrick: I guess you're not gonna forget that.
Robert Day: No, never forget that.
Don Patrick: What was the name of the firm?
Robert Day: So the name of the firm is proprietary firm out of Kansas City
called Waddell & Reed. They ended up becoming Ivy Funds and so some
mergers and buyouts later. We were independent and it worked well until it
didn't. Yeah. I launched the practice on that day and I have been doing it
ever since. It's the only thing I know. We are coming up on our 24th
anniversary here at Madison Financial.
Don Patrick: That's amazing. Congratulations. That's fantastic.
Robert Day: Yeah. Thank you. Never would've thought that would, you know,
you don’t know when you start these things and here we are almost 25 years
later.
Don Patrick: Yeah. I'd say most people that I talk to who got started in
this profession really, just wasn't there. I mean, they stumbled into it
somehow. Typically.
Robert Day: Yeah. I mean, I didn't, crazy. I thought I was gonna be opening
checking accounts and selling CDs and stuff, so who knows? I didn't know
what this was,
Don Patrick: I cannot see you doing that.
Robert Day: 24 years later, I can't either.
Don Patrick: You're an entrepreneur. So Justin, how about you?
Robert Day: This ownership side of the house.
Justin Burgess: Can you imagine Robert clocking in and clocking out every
day?
Don Patrick: No, not at all.
Justin Burgess: It'd be a disaster.
Don Patrick: So, how'd you get started, Justin? How'd you stumble into this
career?
Robert Day: I get credit for that one, too.
Justin Burgess: Yes. So I kind of grew–Yeah. It's funny how Robert's gonna
play a part in this, too.
Don Patrick: Oh, I know it. You two go way back.
Justin Burgess: Wiggles his way into the conversation somehow every single
time. My mother has been in banking for, at this point, 42 years. She's
actually coming up on retirement fairly soon, but after school, every day I
would go sit in the break room of a bank in Jasper, Georgia, because I could
walk from my school to that bank. And it was, at the time, didn't realize
how convenient it was for her.
But man, looking back now, having kids, that would be awesome. Yeah, so I
grew up around the whole financial topic, I guess, and made a lot of friends
in that area. And then as I got older, went through college, I had an
affinity for the more investment-oriented side of the house and really
thought for the longest time that I was gonna be one of those stockbroker
guys at Merrill Lynch or something.
And it wasn't until after actually graduating and interviewing with a couple
of those firms, I realized what that exactly entailed. And it wasn't
something that I didn't wanna be calling and pitching individual stocks to
clients and investors. So I stumbled across an ad for a financial advisor
position at Waddell & Reed, submitted a resume and was surprised,
honestly, that I got a call, and the person sitting just in the room next
door was actually my first interview at that firm. So he was at the time
district manager and we hit it off at that point because he found out that I
played tennis for a year at Shorter in Rome, Georgia, and he was from Rome,
Georgia.
And then we got talking about golf and I don't really think we talked a
whole lot about my qualifications as an advisor after that point, but
needless to say it all worked out. Started there in August of 2010.
Robert Day: You started right after the bank crisis as well. So we both had
kind of interesting first years in the business.
Justin Burgess: Hindsight 2020, it was really a great time to get into the
business and not have a book at that time. But at the other side of that,
you also have to calm the fears of all the potential clients that you're
talking to that just went through a major disaster, and really kind of heal
those scars over time.
Robert Day: We learn to adapt very quickly.
Don Patrick: Well, it's also a great time to pick up clients because years
down the road, you look like a hero.
Justin Burgess: Yeah.
Don Patrick: Look what I've done for you. Now, did Waddell & Reed have
any kind of a salary or just start off cold?
Robert Day: It was kind of a hybrid. I mean, it wasn't a salary like in the
traditional sense, so I'm going way back, but trying to remember, they had,
for the first year, they had a–
Justin Burgess: It was basically like a draw on commissions.
Robert Day: Yeah, it's a draw on commissions, but you still had to meet
certain minimums and certain, you know, they don't call them quotas, but it
was quotas and as long as you did what you were supposed to do for that
month, you got x. If you did it correct, again, the next month, but after 12
months, that was gone and you were off to the races, and in those days, it
was, you eat what you kill.
This was before recurring revenue and advisory and some things like that. So
again, we had to adapt and pivot and learn to do things quickly.
Don Patrick: So every January, you start over again.
Robert Day: Yeah.
Justin Burgess: Yeah. Yep.
Don Patrick: And so Robert, you were Justin's mentor?
Robert Day: I was, yeah. Yep. I hired him. And I'm glad he remembers in
detail the interview calls. I don't. But hey, like I said, years and years
and years later, everything worked out. So, and we were, to be clear, when
he came on board, he had his own book. I had my own book. We were not
partners. It wasn't a, “Hey, come work for me as an advisor, assistant kind
of role.”
No, he was brought on independently as part of a bigger team, but he owned
his book. I had, you know, it wasn't until, I mean, and we'll get into this
later, but we didn't merge practices for over a decade. He was doing his
thing. I was doing my thing. We just, over those time, became close friends.
Don Patrick: close. So I assume primarily A share commission-type things to
get started.
Robert Day: Absolutely right.
Justin Burgess: Yeah.
Robert Day: A share and–
Justin Burgess: 5.75 upfront.
Robert Day: Yeah.
Don Patrick: You can't live on one–
Robert Day: We didn't even know what a grid was back then. We didn't call
it a grid at that company. We didn't know what we didn't know. And yeah,
find out years later it was a 50% grid, more or less.
Don Patrick: Oh my gosh.
Robert Day: And it started, yeah. And it started over just about every,
well, it started over every January.
Justin Burgess: Yeah. January one. That's right.
Robert Day: Yep. And they had the weirdest thing to where they had this
thing called IVC, incentive volume credit. And that's how they positioned
your contract for the next year, trips, benefits. Looking back on it, back
then it made total sense. Back then, right, Justin? We didn't know any
better we're, “Ah, this is just normal.”
Justin Burgess: How it's done.
Robert Day: Yeah. Yeah. “This is just how it's done.” And I'm not saying it
was bad. That was just how it was done back then. And then come to find out
it was, you know, live and learn and some things happen and we are where
we're now.
Don Patrick: So how did each of you grow your business? Was it cold calling,
networking? What's that look like?
Justin Burgess: Mine was, so going back to Waddell & Reed, part of their
onboarding was we had to have a list of, I think it was a hundred names of
people
Don Patrick: Of course. Natural market, it’s a natural market list.
Justin Burgess: Yep, I mean, otherwise whatcha gonna do? You go pick out the
phone book and start calling people, so.
Robert Day: Did that too.
Justin Burgess: Yep. So, kind of started there and I would say probably of
the a hundred names that were on that list, there were 25 that were credible
and actually willing to sit down and meet with me to begin with. But yeah,
it was 100% organic. It's never been up until the last year, never purchased
another practice. It's been through referrals and referrals only that I
personally was able to build the practice that I had. And then obviously,
now, we have as a merged team. So, I mean, that's word of mouth and just
trying to treat your clients the right way.
Justin Burgess: Well, that’s a testament to–
Robert Day: That was not easy.
Justin Burgess: Yeah, that was hard to do.
Robert Day: And that's how I did it as well as a natural market and organic.
And if you were lucky to get a couple of, or quote unquote, orphan accounts
by your division lead or whatever, you'd take those, but those were no
guarantees.
So truly, 95% of our book was grown from client zero to what we have today.
And yeah, 95% of it still to this day has been organic growth, word of
mouth, take care of your clients. And that's the ownership of it, right?
That's the entrepreneurship of what you gotta do.
Don Patrick: Well, the fact that you're getting the referrals says
everything about how you're treating your clients and taking care of your
clients.
Robert Day: Yeah. I like to think, I like to think we do a really good job
on that. And we don't, we're not out here to reinvent the wheel If we see
opportunities that come up, like practice acquisitions and things of that
nature, great. But it was mostly centers of influence and working your tail
off and calling and scraping.
Justin Burgess: Plenty of 10, 12 hour long days.
Don Patrick: Oh yeah. So Robert, you decided to make the switch. What led up
to that when you're Wadell & Reed, and you were just thinking about–
Robert Day: Yeah, so in 2016, there was some writing on the wall without
getting into a lot of detail, but there was just some things I guess for me
being in a leadership role for seven years, six or seven years, I was in a
management leadership role, which really just enhanced the level of work you
had to do.
Not only was I having to go build my own personal practice, a lot of you
things to juggle, gotta maintain and grow your personal practice, what we
called that and I was in charge of Justin and another team. I think Justin
helped me out. It got as big as, I don’t know, double digits. We had a team
of 10 to 12.
There was some turnover somewhere in there and a lot these people, success
stories, still in the industry, but you had to, I had to do both. But made
the decision, some I call 'em rug pulls. There were some rugs that were
pulled out. Company would say this and promise this and then just never came
to fruition.
Well, and then really the last straw was if they wanted you in management,
you had to give up your book. You had to give up that personal book. I was
not willing to do that and I had sacrificed too much for that. That really
kind of put you on the W2 kind of side of the house, right?
Don Patrick: Which means you lose control.
Robert Day: I was not willing to do that. Yeah, you lose control and there
was, you could keep 10 family members, I think was the rule. I'm vaguely
just going back trying to remember that, but you had to give up your book
and I wasn't willing to do that and the book had already quote unquote
suffered from me having to put it on the back burner and it kind of, the
practice took a backseat because I'd committed to Justin and a bunch of
other people.
I didn't wanna let them down and there's just really not enough hours in the
day. So when the opportunity came back and they said, “Hey, look, you're
gonna either give up your book and go into management, or you gotta get
outta management.” And I said, “That's all I need.” So I shifted gears, went
back, focused on personal production.
And mind you, over that six or seven years that my personal book, I'll be
the first to tell you, suffered. It did not grow the way it should have
because I just couldn't focus on it. So I made a commitment to myself at the
time that we're gonna do this. Got out of that, was happy. Another year or
two goes by, another couple of rug pools. Again, saw some riding on the
wall, said this is probably not the best fit for me anymore.
I liked the analogy, Don, that you and I had when I was interviewing and I
was a pretty big fish in the Waddell & Reed pond. I was making
conferences, in top 10, and in some cases on some other things I was number
one in the country, and some sleeves of things. But it was, I was one rug
pull away and it was time to go.
And I didn't want to be a big fish in a small pond. I wanted to be a smaller
fish in a big pond. So it's got room and it would allow me to grow. And
that's when I kind of made the jump and met with you and Land and got with
IFG. And sure enough, one of the better decisions I've ever made because the
practice has just exponentially grown because I now have the room and the
proper tools to really kind of help the practice grow.
That was really what preempted the whole thing. Too many rug pulls, too many
promises didn't come true. It was time for me to make the jump and I did.
Don Patrick: So we did an overpromise, right? We under promise and over
deliver, hopefully.
Robert Day: No, that was more of the, yeah, let's under promise, not make
any guarantees and then over deliver. And I would say that's what's
happened.
Don Patrick: So you came over here, IFG consortium and you're having
conversations with Just.
Robert Day: Yeah. So, those are always fun. Those kind of transitions. It's
gotta be, you gotta do it the right way and in an ethical way, but at the
same time it's kinda hush-hush, right?
From where we came from, we technically didn't really own the book. And as
soon as it got out, “Hey, Robert's leaving, and so-and-so is leaving,” and
then it's an all-hands-on-deck meeting and they're going after your book,
their job once I, Justin, you experience the same thing. Once you turn in
that resignation letter and you're like, “Guys, I'm gone.”
It's panic mode, all hands on deck to save the book and keep it at the
company. I'm fighting for my book. They're fighting for my book. So Justin
didn't know a thing. I had to keep it very much under wraps for several
months.
And I remember we’d gotten with you guys and Crystal and everybody. We were
doing the process of transitioning and the state licenses and all that
stuff. And me and our license, Jeff Cordell, who's our licensed associate,
he's been with me for almost 20 years, and they're part of the company. We
go to breakfast and we're waiting to get the call, saying, “Hey, the switch
has been flipped. You guys can start making phone calls and calling your
clients. You need to do everything the right way.” And I got a call from
Justin, he goes, “Hey buddy, thanks for the heads up. I hear you're gone.”
I'm like, “Yeah, man, sorry about that. I wanted to tell you, but I
couldn't,” kind of thing because I didn't wanna, I wasn't trying to blow up
the office.
I was doing what was right for me. And there was me and a couple other
people actually all left at the same time. And it's not that I didn't want
Justin to know, but it was like, “Look, let me,” again, I didn't wanna over
promise, I didn't wanna underdeliver, I didn't know what I was doing. So let
me get my feet out from under me and let me get a sense of what's really
going on and I don't know, Justin, what was it, six months later, me and you
go to lunch.
Justin Burgess: Yeah, probably–
Robert Day: Something like that. So we go to lunch and say, “Hey, these
guys are legit. This is what's going on. I feel real good about it. Why
don't you go talk with this guy named Don and go talk with this guy named
Land?” And sure enough, he did. And the rest is history.
Don Patrick: How long did it take you, Justin, after Robert left, for you to
make the switch?
Justin Burgess: Long time.
Don Patrick: I know. Even though he paved the path for you.
Justin Burgess: He did. Yeah.
Robert Day: I'm a better salesman than that. Don't put me into–
Justin Burgess: Land gave me a hard time about that. I think that was the
second-longest decision to be made.
Robert Day: It's scary, though, isn't it? It's scary.
Justin Burgess: Well, yeah. I mean, I'll never forget September 15th of
2017, walking in and handing in that letter and knowing that I might just
walk away from a book that doesn't come with me. That was–
Robert Day: That's scary.
Justin Burgess: Yeah.
Robert Day: But it all worked out.
Justin Burgess: It did. Absolutely. Absolutely.
Don Patrick: So not only that, ‘cause they did own your clients, you were W2
employees, and you're also becoming an independent business owner at the
same time, besides worrying about keeping your clients, it's a big deal.
Robert Day: Yeah, I was on the W2 side and the 1099 side. Justin was still
technically independent. He was 1099. But again, they made no bones about
this is, we own this book. This is property of the company, not Justin
Burgess or Robert Day. So there's, the gloves have to come off and you gotta
fight for what's yours?
Justin Burgess: Well, yeah, I was gonna say, luckily they don't have the
non-compete that some of the other firms out there have. So we could at
least call our clients after we left. We just couldn't tell them ahead of
time what was going on. So, we knew that as we were calling our clients to
explain what we had done, there was someone on the other side from our old
firm calling to say, “Hey, this guy just up and left and we don't know why.
And now we're gonna be here to take care of you.” So you really had to lean
in on the relationship that you had with clients in order to make sure that
they came with you.
Robert Day: And I mean, to that point, and I have heard, not of many, but I
have heard of some people making transitions that I would say mine went
phenomenally smooth.
Justin, I think yours went phenomenally smooth. I don't know what the
numbers were. I tracked it when I did it. I know I was well over 90%
retention for whatever that's worth. But I mean, I have talked to some
people in this industry who went another direction and it did not go well
and they really backed themselves into a corner.
So you gotta, when you do that, you gotta make sure you're with the right
team, and, again, with IFG, the consortium, while we're technically all
competitors, that brain trust you, you're independent, but you're supported.
That made a huge difference when it comes to that transition for me, anyway.
Justin Burgess: I would second that for sure.
Robert Day: Yeah.
Don Patrick: And it's also, again, a testament to the relationship you have
with your clients to have a 90% plus retention rate when they're going after
your clients and calling you a scumbag or whatever else they were saying,
Robert Day: Because I mean, we're resistant to change as advisors, clients
are definitely resistant to change, and they're, we're calling them saying,
“What do you mean you're leaving a company that I've been with you, in my
case, for 16 years. And you’re just up and moving, and you’re gonna do
this.”
Justin Burgess: And you didn't tell me ahead of time either.
Robert Day: Yeah. I mean, they could have very, if you don't have, and I
tell people, “Yeah, we're financial advisors. Yeah, we deal with numbers and
percentages and all the stuff.” You know, people won't talk about rates of
return, none of that matters.
It is, I tell people, we are in the relationship business and if we do not
have, if you don't have good relationships with your clients, that
transition would not have been smooth. So, and forget transitions, if you
don't have a good relationship, your practice is not gonna grow. You're not
gonna get referrals, you're not gonna get their money when they go to retire
and they're looking to roll something over, they're gonna go somewhere else.
This is 100%, in my opinion, this is not a financial business. This is a
relationship business.
Don Patrick: Yeah. I've always said the best degree to obtain for this
profession is a degree in psychology.
Justin Burgess: I would agree with that.
Robert Day: Yeah. That's funny you say that because I've got in some of my
notes about today is having to put on that psychology hat with clients, that
teacher hat. “Market's going great.” Nobody cares. It's when, you know, ‘08
or ‘09, or 9/11, or COVID even.
Justin Burgess: That's when you earn your paycheck.
Robert Day: That's when, yeah, exactly. Right.
Don Patrick: So you both came across successfully and the desk settled. And
Robert, you were saying your business kind of took off. Justin, I saw yours
take off. Anything different about that allowed you to grow even faster and
better? Was it just a mental shift that you had your own business, and you
could do?
Robert Day: I wouldn’t say I reinvented the wheel. I refocused because of
that, what we just talked about as a scary thing to make those kind of
change. So it might have just been a refocus. I'll give my wife, Beth, a ton
of credit. You gotta have office support and you gotta have your work family
support you, but you also have to have your home wife, and in good order.
And we had already remarried before I'd made the decision to move over and
to have that kind of support, that was phenomenal. Yeah. It wasn't a
reinvention of the wheel; it was just, let's refocus. It was a bigger
sandbox to play in. Everybody who knows me knows I'll tell I was a mutual
fund guy and that was, we didn't do ETFs, we didn't do individual stock, we
didn't do notes, we didn't do–nothing. I mean, it was a share mutual funds
and annuities. And I knew I was good at that, now I did it.
Once we came over for me and we had a little bit bigger sand, a lot bigger
sandbox to play in. We had more ammo for clients and we had all the tools in
the toolbox needed. Whatever cliche you wanna throw out there, that made a
big difference.
Justin Burgess: I would agree with that. Yeah. I think for me personally, it
was the additional confidence that I had in what I was actually providing to
clients because whenever you're proposing something, whether it's an
analysis on current holdings versus what you can offer and you don't really
have conviction in what you're putting in front of them, I think they can
tell that.
And something that I learned as I kind of climbed the ladder of types of
clients that I was working with, the more sophisticated clients understood
the difference between more of a captive style advisor versus someone who's
independent and doesn't have those handcuffs. So having that knowledge and
the confidence to reach out to those clients, and even some of the prospects
that didn't get to close because I was a proprietary firm before, were then
open to having conversations.
And I think that was a big help in me personally, growing a practice once I
made that transition. Not to mention it's yours, you own it, it's something
that you want to grow, it's something that you're more proud of. It's
something that you have more of a drive to make something bigger. Make
something more important.
Robert Day: That's a good point. We gotta put on the ownership and CEO hat
for real.
Don Patrick: Well, the minute you made the transition, you had a new asset
on your balance sheet.
Robert Day: That's exactly right. That's exactly right. And there is
something to that pride of ownership. You wanna, that's your baby, and you
wanna take care of it, and you wanna nurture it and you wanna grow it.
And we just, it got to a point where we just couldn't do that where we were.
Justin Burgess: Well, and where we were, it was nothing more than, well,
it's an income stream. It's a job. But here it's ours.
Don Patrick: So we have folks who would join us, came from a kind of a
captive situation. And once they got across, very similar, what you're
saying, their attitude changed and they had the confidence to go after
higher net worth people. They had all the tools, as you say, Robert, in the
sandbox. That's a very common theme we've seen. And the fact that you can
customize it to do it your way, not what some company's telling you how to
do it.
Robert Day: Yeah. There's no one specific way to do this. That's the cool
thing. Learning from the retreat and just being part of IFG, I get, I mean,
I'll take it internally. Me and Justin, Madison Financial, it's both ours.
We own it equally. We have very different ways of doing things, even
internally in that practice.
And then Madison Financial is different than X, Y, Z and it's different than
some other, there's no one, there's no one right way to do it. And that's
something that's real unique to this industry as the business owner and
entrepreneur-minded kind of advisor. I like being an advisor, don't get me
wrong. I love what I do, but I like the ownership role just as much, maybe a
little bit more than the advisor role.
Justin Burgess: And I'm so thankful of that because I prefer the advisor
role and not the ownership role.
Robert Day: We could get into that too, when you’re talking about dynamics
of partnership, you don't wanna partner up with your exact, mirror image.
You need some, you need something else there. But yeah, getting back to all
that, it's just, you get to run it the way you see fit. I could never go
back to a nine-to-five job. I could never, after 20-something years, there's
no way I could quote-unquote punch a clock.
Don Patrick: Oh, I know. Or go back to Waddell & Reed. Yeah. I call the
independence the dark side. Once you get there, you're never leaving.
Justin Burgess: Never going back. Right.
Don Patrick: Yeah, that's, I mean, the thing about entrepreneurship, being a
business owner, you take risks. You work really hard for it, but you also
have, the satisfaction is incredible. And you have so much control and
choice. It's a wonderful thing.
Robert Day: Yep. Agreed.
Don Patrick: So you guys formed a partnership and partnerships can be more
difficult than marriages. So let's kind of talk about how you, how long it
took you to actually pull the plug. What kind of things did you do to
prepare for, talk about it, those kinds of things, and what year was it you
actually formed your partnership?
Robert Day: Yeah, so we just had our two year anniversary. We did it in May
two years ago. May 1st of what is that? 2023.
Justin Burgess: ‘23
Robert Day: Yeah, so, and everybody at the office, including you, Don, I
think everybody makes fun of us because we quote-unquote dated. You used the
analogy of marriages and things like that. We used the word dating.
Justin and I ultimately kind of looked at each other in like, we're running
joint cases, we're doing some things. I'm calling him not daily, but weekly
saying, “Hey, what about this? What are your thoughts on this?” He's doing
the same thing. “Well, what have you heard?” It got to a point to, we were
just, we were partners in all, but name and the running joke is, okay, well,
we dated for 13 years and because, I mean, again, I brought him on, I
mentored him.
Justin Burgess: That's common law marriage right there.
Robert Day: Yeah. I trained him, did all this stuff and of course, he took
it and did phenomenally and kind of, proud to say, kind of leaving me in the
dust. He was doing everything the right way, but it was like, okay, well we
need to, it’s time to, you know—the pot kind of thing, right? So let's kind
of really pursue this. And really, the catalyst, without getting into all
that detail, I got some pretty poor advice at the other firm about some
licensing and I’d let my series 7 go by design on purpose because, again, I
was a mutual fund guy. I was never gonna, you know, I was a lifer. I was
never leaving, blah, blah, blah, until I did. But long story short, Justin
and I really didn't pull the trigger because our licenses didn't really
mirror.
And long story short, I had to get my series 7 back and reinstated and all
that stuff, which all happened. And that was kind of the catalyst because
now we're like, okay, now we can actually have a real partnership, a firm.
Let's really look into this. And with your help, Don, with Land’s help, with
everybody else, Crystal, everybody—it was time to actually, let's see if we
can scale this practice. Let's take this to the next level. And the best way
we know how to do that is to merge and partner. And that's kind of two years
ago is when that happened.
Justin Burgess: Well, it was also, we gotta a point to where it was, name a
few good reasons to not do this. And we both kind of looked at each other
like, “I have no idea.”
Robert Day: Yeah. It got to a point, “Well, why wouldn’t we do this?” Yeah.
I mean, because we were doing it. We were already, and it just got to a
point where we're like, this just, let's run. Let's do some cocktail math,
let's do some spreadsheets. Let's get some things together. And it just,
every box that needed to be checked was being checked and we're like, “Okay,
this is getting a little ridiculous. Let's pull the trigger.”
Justin Burgess: Well, I mean, also having conversation with other teams at
IFG was huge too, because they all said the same thing. If you've got
complementing skills, like all the successful teams at IFG do, their common
theme was, “Well, we wish we would've done it two years earlier or three
years earlier.”
Robert Day: Sooner.
Justin Burgess: Yeah.
Robert Day: And it's true. I'm here to tell you, I don't wanna just be a
walking billboard and commercial for IFG, but if it wasn't for IFG, if it
wasn't for you guys, the support that you guys give out, I probably wouldn't
have transitioned from the other company. Definitely wouldn't have merged
with Justin just 'cause I don't know, we didn't know what we were doing.
Just because you think it's a good idea and you wanna do it and you get
along, right? It's still operational and logistically, how do you do it and
talking with other teams. Yeah. I mean, there was a, we didn't have to
reinvent the wheel. We just steal everybody else's idea. We piggybacked off,
“Well, this team worked out. Well, this one didn't.”
Okay, well, we don't wanna do what they were doing, let's do what the
success–you know, so there was already a blueprint and you guys have been
doing mergers and teams and things like that for forever. And we felt very
comfortable. Okay, we're in good hands even if we know what we wanna do, but
we don't know how to do it, somebody there at IFG, they know what to do and
they can help. And that's exactly what happened. And that goes with practice
acquisitions and we just bought another practice this January, so I mean,
we've got a lot going on.
Don Patrick: You do.
Robert Day: We made the transitions. We merged. Now we've bought a practice.
I mean, it's just, it's getting, it's awesome. It's just getting bigger and
bigger.
Don Patrick: So you had a big step up just because you have known each other
for so long and have worked together so long. That's huge. I mean, that's
really huge.
Robert Day: Yeah. I mean, we dated for a long, long time.
Don Patrick: Didn’t realize you were, though.
Justin Burgess: I knew what I was getting into.
Robert Day: Yeah, that's right. Justin knew what he was getting into when it
came to working with me.
Don Patrick: Yes. So, Justin, you brought it up, and it is true. In my
experience, one of the major keys to success in partnership besides being
open with one another, communicating with one another, solving problems
reasonably with one another, but a division of skill sets or job duties. So
if you describe what you two are doing and how you’re complementing one
another,
Justin Burgess: Robert already mentioned the fact that he's the teacher.
He's the big picture guy, and I'm the one in the team that really enjoys the
detail oriented, the analytics, the things that 90% of the clients don't
really wanna talk about because their eyes just kind of glaze over and no
one wants to talk about the PE ratio of one fund versus another.
But yeah, if it comes to conceptual, big picture topics, that's kind of
Robert, that's his wheelhouse. When it comes to the models and the planning
and that kind of thing, that really falls more on my shoulders, and I like
it that way. He also, like he mentioned, he's more of the CEO role. He runs
the business side of the practice so that I don't have to do that as much.
So very thankful that I don't have to pull those spreadsheets up every day
and go through and update numbers, and I know he loves to do it because he
calls me every other day and wants to talk about it. So I know it doesn't
bother him to have to do it. But, and I don't mind going through the
planning for clients and updating those annually and doing the comparisons
between models.
And we've been able to, again, utilize some of the relationships that IFG
has had and bring in some CFA teams to help us kind of build some
personalized models for us and run those successfully. So that's what, me
personally, that's what I enjoy to do, but–
Robert Day: Justin likes to get his hands dirty in the analytics side. Thank
God. It's kind of a blessing we have here at Madison Financial almost like
our own in-house economist.
Justin Burgess: I can put you to sleep just as fast as the attorney can.
Don't worry.
Robert Day: Yeah, I mean, he's got that stuff down. He enjoys it. He's up to
date on it, he reads a lot on that stuff. So we got our own in-house, almost
like our own in-house fund manager.
Don Patrick: I love it.
Robert Day: Which is exactly what I don't wanna do.
Don Patrick: Right. I remember the first business planning meeting you
attended, Robert, and you're all over knowing your business and tracking the
metrics and that sort of thing, which is huge. Then you enjoy it like Justin
said. But it's a big deal.
Justin Burgess: I think my first business planning meeting, I had crayons
and do some cardboard paper.
Don Patrick: So you're both bringing on new clients, correct?
Robert Day: Yes. Correct.
Don Patrick: Have you had in, in the two years of the official partnership
any knock-down, drag-out fights or disagreements?
Robert Day: Not one. Not one. I'm sure it's coming, but not, I mean–
Don Patrick: Not necessarily.
Robert Day: I mean, nothing material, not even anything insignificant.
Nothing of any material, which is nice. There's three of us. There's me,
Justin, and like I said earlier, Jeff, he gets along with Jeff. I mean this,
and again, Jeff's company's almost 25, is 24 years old. Justin, how long
have you been in the industry now?
Justin Burgess: 14, almost 15 years.
Robert Day: Call it 15 years. Jeff's been in the industry for 20 years. 20
years. And I wear it as a badge of honor. We've had zero turnover, and we
don't fuss and we don't argue. And, I mean, we're like-minded. He knows his
role. I know what my lane is. I try to stay in my lane and if not, he'll
tell me, “Go get in your lane.” But it's been blissful.
Don Patrick: I think in a good partnership also, it's nice to have partner
kind of float ideas and think out loud and–
Robert Day: I mean, yeah, that's not to say he won't snap at me, that's not
to say if I'm wrong, I'm wrong. That's not to say, “Hey Justin, I think we
need to reevaluate that.” We will call each other out, but we have very
good, valid reasons and something, some substance behind it, what our
concern might be.
Justin Burgess: Usually, what I'm having to do is reel him in just a little
bit and–
Don Patrick: Put breaks on–
Justin Burgess: Very good at overthinking the situation and I'm having to
bring him down just a little bit.
Don Patrick: That's good balance. I like that.
Robert Day: That's fair. I got nothing for that. Yeah, no, that's, I'm just
gonna sit here and nod my head. Yes.
Don Patrick: So Justin, so Robert's the gas pedal and Justin is the brake
pedal.
Robert Day: Pretty much.
Don Patrick: So you mentioned that you did an acquisition. I mean, my gosh,
your partnership's two years old and then you go out and acquire a firm.
Let's talk about that and how–
Robert Day: Let’s just rip the band-aid off, all yeah, go big or go home is
kind of our thing there, you know.
Don Patrick: So how did all this come about and kind of tell us a little bit
about the structure, and I know you're having some great success with it.
Robert Day: Yeah, we're having, it's awesome.
Justin Burgess: It’s been great so far. I mean, luckily it was the perfect
situation where they were already at LPL and just an older gentleman who had
an interest in spending more time with his family for personal reasons. And
luckily, it was an ideal size practice for us to acquire for the first time,
acquiring a practice.
I mean, it was significant in size, but not so much that it was a daunting
task for us to try and take on.
Robert Day: This was exactly, we know what we want to do. We don't know how
to do it.
Justin Burgess: Yeah. And bringing in Andrews and that team to try and help
us structure it was huge. And luckily, our way of treating our clients and
servicing clients was very similar to his. And we kind of have the perfect
structure. Now, we've got Greg, who's 10 years older than Robert. And
Robert's 10 years older than me. So we're laddered out perfectly to where–
Robert Day: That's a nice thing to be able to tell clients, 'cause it is
starting to, I'm getting grayer and grayer and it's starting to become a
not, it's a real conversation, “Robert, how much longer are you…” Or,
“What's gonna happen?” Or, “Are you gonna retire soon?” And it's a relative
term soon, but you know, it's kind of nice to look at somebody and say,
“Yeah, can throttle back or I may retire at X, Y, Z, but don't worry. The
practice is set up in a way to where Madison Financial is going to outlive
me, is going to outlive you, Mr. and Mrs. client, Justin's gotcha, right?
And in the event that were to happen, we're good. We’re staggered out very
well.”
Justin Burgess: Well, and even the clients we've met through the
acquisition, they found a lot of comfort in that same conversation too,
because–
Robert Day: Yeah, they don't wanna go through it again.
Justin Burgess: They truly did and do trust Greg, and the fact that he took
the time to talk to not just one, but several different teams before he made
a choice of who to partner up with. Through their trust of him, they now
trust us. And it's been a nice conversation to have.
Robert Day: It's nice when the deal is a win-win. It was a win for Greg. It
was a win for us. It's a win for the clients. I hate to be cliche salesmen,
but it was a win-win-win all around.
Don Patrick: That's as good as you get. That's perfect.
Robert Day: I mean, yeah, and I mean, for this to be our first one, if, you
know, hopefully another opportunity down the road. Now that we know what
we’re doing, that’s great, but we're also kind of spoiled because if we ever
do this again, I doubt very seriously it'll go as smoothly. I hope it does,
but I doubt very seriously it'll go as smoothly as this first one. It was
one way to really do it and do it the right way, right outta the gate.
Don Patrick: So how long did the negotiations take? What was that process
like?
Robert Day: Help me out, Justin. I think we were introduced to Greg. I mean,
we kind of informally knew him through other things but–
Justin Burgess: Probably late October.
Robert Day: Yeah, I was gonna say it was around, let's just say the fourth
quarter of last year. So from October, getting to know him, a couple of
lunches, find out what he's wanting, find out what his goals are, what kind
of relationship he got with his clients. He’s doing the same thing with us,
‘cause he had some multiple offers.
And it is an overriding concern of Greg's. He did not want his practice to
be acquired by x, y, z company, whatever, or private equity or anything like
that. He did not want his legacy and or his clients to just be a line item
on a balance sheet. Okay. And he wants to make sure, I mean, he is
personally friends with just about every one of his a client, right?
And overriding concern with him was whoever he brought on board, luckily it
was me and Justin, he wanted them to be taken care of. And he found some
solace in the fact that we ran it very similar, and that's what he was
vetting. So from October, then it got real serious around Thanksgiving, then
right around, I mean, he was motivated, he was ready.
There was a little bit of a sense of urgency. So really we, from inception
to close, was basically middle of October to January 1st. We did it in 60
days, 90 days, something like that.
Justin Burgess: But I would say everything was in agreement within a month.
A month.
Robert Day: Yeah. Yeah. We had a agreement in principle. Yeah. Within six
weeks.
Don Patrick: That's amazing.
Robert Day: The rest of it was just filling in the blanks and getting the
verbiage and the legal and the boilerplate stuff and going from there. So
Don Patrick: What was the buyout structure like?
Justin Burgess: So we were actually able to structure it as a complete
earnout. And Greg was a part of the practice, so he's gonna be a part, is
part of the practice, at least for the first year.
And he's graciously agreed to kind of stay on as needed in years to come.
But, and we did structure it in a way where if his particular book, if we're
able to work with those clients and bring in additional assets or generate
additional revenue from those assets, he was able to participate in that as
well. So we just felt like that was fair to him.
Yeah. Could that ultimately mean that we end up paying a higher multiple for
the practice? Sure. But it gave him a real incentive to remain being
involved with clients and making sure that everyone stays comfortable and in
the end, it's gonna end up working out great for him because he's gonna get
a much higher valuation in the end of the game.
Robert Day: And we're okay paying a little bit more of that premium. It's
not a lot, but I mean, a little bit more premium for the book, just to have
him there so we can have complete buy-in from the clients. Let's be fair.
They dunno who we are.
It's worth that extra, well, I call it a premium, that extra little bit to
make sure we get buy-in from his clients. And so far, I mean, knock wood, a
hundred percent retention, everything's good to go. Greg's doing a great
job. And, but yeah, we structured as a percentage earnout, we didn't have to
come anything out of pocket.
He was good with that. So, with this high-interest rate environment and
small business loans and things like that, we didn't have to take out a
loan. We didn't have to contact LPL's M&A team.
Justin Burgess: Didn't have to write a big check personally.
Robert Day: He didn't have to write a big check. He didn't want it like
that.
He's gonna stretch it out to help him from an income tax standpoint. So I
think it was a percentage of revenue. Justin, help me out, was it over four
years?
Justin Burgess: Yeah.
Robert Day: Over four years, so.
Don Patrick: O,h that's fantastic. I mean, earnout can be a win-win.
Robert Day: We got that idea from another consortium member who, again, we
don't know what we're doing, and so we call Andrews or we call you, we call
whomever there and they're like, “Oh, you need to call so and so.” So we
did, and he was graciously, God, he spent over an hour on the phone. I mean,
he had a captive audience. He was on his way, and he was stuck in his car
for six hours. He was gracious enough to walk us through it, and he's like,
“This is how I do it. This is how I would do it, and this and that.”
And we were explaining to him, he's like, “Yeah, this is no brainer.” He's
like, “You've gotta get on this.” And so we did.
Don Patrick: So I understand you've had some great success finding new
assets with those clients.
Robert Day: We have. Yeah. Greg did a great job. I mean, I don’t know the
breakdown, I'm not right in front of the stats or the data, but I think he
was maybe 64, 50-50, or more closer to 60-40 advisory. 60% advisory, 40%
brokerage. Is that fair, Justin? It's either 50-50, 60-40, somewhere in
there. But it was fairly, fairly even. The advisory, that's easy. And Greg
was upfront, he's like, “Guys, there's some mining that can be done here,”
is what he called it.
He's like, “There's some things that just because of lack of staff,” or
again, some personal things and Greg getting older and trying to like
ratchet back from the practice. He told us upfront, he goes, “There's some
things that need your attention.”
We're like, “Okay, well, we're not scared to work, we got a good work ethic.
What is it?” And we're finding as we're meeting with all these clients and
we've been doing that solid since the middle of January, they've all been
very receptive. We've been able to take, you know, when it made sense and
they wanted to do it, we were able to take and go from brokerage to
advisory. There's been a lot of annuity business.
Justin Burgess: Which, to be fai,r too, Greg did acquire, Greg acquired part
of his practice to begin with and it was all broker—
Robert Day: Yeah, it was from a bank channel. So that's where that kind of
stemmed from. That was a good point, Justin. Yeah. This practice has been a,
we bought a practice that he bought and so he, and it was his second career
for Greg, and he was like, he was in banking and was CEO of multiple banks
and regional and national banks here in the southeast.
And that's what he knew. And then ‘08, ‘09, financial banking crisis. And I
think the way he put it is he got a buyout and a retirement package he
couldn't walk away from and did it. And this was a second career for him and
he's been doing this since 2009, I guess, 2010, and has done a good job
growing the book, but a lot of the brokerage and annuity stuff, very old,
and it needed some work.
And he knew that and kudos to him for realizing, “Hey, I need some help. I
need,” our running joke here is, four heads are better than one because now
there's Greg, me, Justin, and Jeff, and we were able to help support him,
help support his clients, all the while letting him be with his grandkids
and be with his family.
Don Patrick: So, transitioning to clients, is it the three of you meeting?
Justin, Robert and Greg, or how does that work?
Robert Day: Yeah, it depends. We're, we lean on Greg for that. If it's a top
tier, “Hey, this is my best friend, that's been a client of mine for 10
years,” and Robert, Justin, I think all three of us should sit down with
this person. We do it. We've done that several times.
Justin Burgess: Just have one last week
Robert Day: Yeah. I mean, we'll do that about one every five meetings. But
the rest of them, he just did a great job. And again, I'll give Jenny some
props here. The go package team, I mean, the stuff that we've set up, almost
like a drip campaign and a merger letter and an acquisition letter, and this
is what's going on.
And Greg, you know, explaining and laying the foundation for several weeks,
letting all his clients know what was coming. And then he even went, Greg
went a step above and beyond. He started calling all of his a clients. “Hey,
this, did you see the letter?” “No, I never got the email,” or, “I got it
and didn't open it,” whatever. You know how clients do.
And he called and verbally talked to everyone of them. “Hey, here’s my guys
and I’ll be there at the meeting if you want me to, Mr. and Mrs. Smith…”
Again, probably four out of five meetings, it's just Justin will go on one,
I'll go on one. If it acquires all three of our attention, well, all three
go. And we're starting now, we've been doing this now for several months.
We're four and a half months, five months into this. It's starting to, I
mean, we were, again, we were full throttle there for months and we're
getting through it and we're explaining everything better. And Greg is
starting to kind of, I don't wanna say take a backseat, but you know where
I'm going with that. He's starting to ratchet back, which is all by design.
Justin Burgess: I say that's exactly what he wanted to do though, so.
Don Patrick: So what you're saying is at this point, it seems like a very
successful transition of the clients.
Robert Day: I mean, I don't wanna jinx stuff. This has been seamless–
Don Patrick: Sorry.
Robert Day: This has been a, this has been very, yeah, it's a work in
progress and we're getting there, but it has been a very seamless
acquisition. Jeff would probably not agree with that because he's been
working his tail off with the applications and things like that. But in the
grand scheme of things, this thing's been great. It's been awesome.
Don Patrick: That's fantastic, that's exciting. That is great.
Robert Day: I mean, and now having said that, I don't really want to do
another one tomorrow.
Justin Burgess: No.
Don Patrick: It's work. It's work.
Robert Day: Yeah, it's work. I know. I've told Justin, I'm like, “Let's get
through this one before we even start down that route again.”
Don Patrick: Yeah. Well, now you know how to do it.
Robert Day: That's right. That's exactly right.
Don Patrick: That's exciting.
Robert Day: I mean, it's, not only was it successful, but I'm just looking
from where we've come, okay, so now we know how to buy practice. Well, now
we know how a merger between two people go. We now know how to do a trade. I
mean, just the, we're blessed that everything worked out as well as it did,
but at the same time, wow, have we learned a lot. Yes, just about the
business side of things, not the PE ratio of a mutual fund. I'm talking
about we have really learned a lot about the business side of things, which
we never would've gotten otherwise.
Don Patrick: Well, and, but you were in both the partnership as well as the
acquisition. You didn't just jump at things, I mean, it was well thought
out. You sought out resources.
Robert Day: I'm here to tell you one of the things, just as a side note,
just in the periphery, is just, I say this with my kids all the time, just
having a ride or die. I mean, Justin is my ride or die when it comes to the
professional. Jeff, too. It is so nice to—if you’re having just a little bit
of like a confidence crisis or, “Man, I really thought I was gonna,” you
know, this, but you know, it's nice to have a brother in arms that you can
go up to and say, “Hey, what did I do wrong here? What happened?” Or, “What
did I do right?” Or, “What are we doing?”
It's so nice to have that team atmosphere instead of just being on an island
kind of all by yourself and can't really bounce ideas off because maybe it's
an awesome idea. Maybe it's not. You need to have somebody tell you, “Hey,
it’s stupid. That's not a very good idea.”
Justin Burgess: Well, we've known each other long enough too, where kinda
like a marriage, you can tell, I can tell whenever he's irritated about
something or upset about something. And a lot of times, it's just getting
someone to talk about it makes a huge difference. And you don't get that
whenever you're sole proprietor by yourself.
Don Patrick: Yep. Yep. A good partnership’s fantastic.
Robert Day: Yep. Agreed.
Don Patrick: That's awesome. Well, I'm gonna ask each of you, Justin, I'll
start with you, to use three words to describe your talents and strengths.
Justin Burgess: Well, we already talked about one, but analysis would
probably be one I would consider as a strength, competitiveness. I don't
think that was on any list, but anyone who knows me knows that I don't like
to lose. But I think that's necessary for not only this profession, but
being a business owner, period. And I don't know a word to describe this,
but the ability to keep it simple. I mean, sure, I like to look into the
details and the complexities of whether it's a ETA for model or plan, but to
be able to simplify it down to a level where Charlie Brown can understand
it, is huge in this industry because we see so many very, very, very
intelligent people who just cannot convey the message to the client and
they're not successful because when they start talking, clients stops
listening because they don't understand anything that's coming outta their
mouth.
Robert Day: Storytelling is what that's called. Yeah. You're good at that,
yeah. Telling that story to where a client can understand.
Don Patrick: Robert?
Robert Day: Well, he stole some of mine, so that's not fair.
Don Patrick: That's okay.
Robert Day: Anybody knows me, too, knows I'm competitive. But lemme go off
the, I like, I already shared this too. I think one of the first, second
things we said today on the podcast was the relationship building. I enjoy
the client relationships.
That's just, that's what I like. And with that comes to storytelling and I
like to think I'm very good at that from the sales. At the end of the day,
we're salespeople. I mean, we're sales, we're in sales and we wanna help
people. But again, you can be the smartest guy in the room, but if you don't
have someone to tell that story to, right, and build the relationship with
that client, you're not gonna be around very long in this business.
And I've seen that for years. There are a lot of people 10 times smarter
than me that just can't last because of what Justin just said. And I don't
wanna beat a dead horse, but that's real. So I like the relationship
building out of it. That's something I think I excel at. The heart of the
teacher mentality, I like that. I tell everybody, clients, again, with me
being the macro, and this is the third thing, I'm the big picture macro guy.
You said it earlier, Don, about the psychology of it all. I like putting on
that psychology hat and being like, “Look, I'll be your biggest cheerleader
when you need the biggest cheerleader, by the way, Mr. And Mrs. Client, when
there is some kind of quote-unquote crisis, some kind of financial
disruption, guess what? I don't mind pulling you back off the cliff. I'll
grab you by the belt and I'll pull you back away from the cliff as well.” I
think I excel at those things, so mine's more on the behavioral side of the
house.
I mean, mutual funds, a mutual funds, a mutual fund is what I say is the
math is gonna shake out. It's how can you convey that to your clients,
whether good or bad or otherwise, pros and cons on what they need to be
doing. That's where I think I excel. It's more on the teacher mentality, the
relationship building and the big picture kind of psychology hat. “What does
all this mean to you, Mr. and Mrs. client?”
Justin Burgess: I'd say 90% of clients wanna know, “Am I okay? Am I gonna be
okay? And whenever I pass, are my assets gonna be passed on to the people I
want them to be passed on to?”
Don Patrick: That's correct. Absolutely correct.
Robert Day: I've yet to meet a client that when I asked, “What keeps you up
at night?” Not one client has ever said, “Well, you know, Robert, the
S&P dipped 15%, now it dipped 13.2%.”
That has never been the answer. The answer is, “Well, what keeps you up at
night? What's not giving you that peace of mind? What are you concerned
with?” It's, “I don't wanna outlive my money. I don't know what that number
is, that target might be yet. I don't know what the, is it 1 million, 2
million, five, whatever it is. I just don't want to, I don't care what my
rate of return is. I just don't wanna outlive my wealth. I don't wanna
outlive my assets.” And that's where we can come in and help.
Don Patrick: And that's the challenge there. I always kid with clients or
new clients and talk about, nobody knows their exact longevity, but, look at
the family history, their health, so and so forth. But I tell you, “If you
can tell me the day you’re gonna die, I can give you a pretty accurate
number.”
Robert Day: Absolutely. And you laugh and they laugh, you know what I mean?
That’s the storytelling portion of it, yup.
Don Patrick: Well, Robert, tell us something about yourself that others do
not know.
Robert Day: This is so hard for me because I'm kind of an open book.
Everybody kind of knows like everything about me. Well, I mean, and I'll tie
it into the company, I'll tie it into Madison. A lot of people know that
Madison Financial is the name of my daughter, but the story behind that is I
was add water instant Dad.
While people know that I adopted Madison, a lot of people don’t know I
adopted her when I was 22 years old. I was a baby myself. Oh, and starting a
brand new financial planning practice, right? And another thing a lot of
people don't understand, I met Madison and her mother and met Madison and we
got married and then adopted Madison.
Madison was obviously named before I was ever around, hence the adoption.
But my middle name is Madison. My father's middle name is Madison. My great,
great grandfather's name was Madison Green Day. So we're going way back. So
it's a fam generational family name that's just very serendipitously just
happened to adopt my daughter, who was also named Madison. So that's kind of
the time.
Don Patrick: See, I did not know that. I did not know
Robert Day: I was 21 and adopted her when 22 years old.
Don Patrick: Oh my gosh, Justin.
Robert Day: Beat that one, big boy.
Justin Burgess: I'm gonna be a little bit more lighthearted. That was a
little deep for me, but my secret at a very young age, I somehow created the
ability that I can wiggle my ears like the Little Rascals movie. Yeah. Not
something to go around broadcasting until–
Don Patrick: You'll have to show me that after we–
Justin Burgess: I was gonna say, I feel sure I'm gonna have to show it.
Robert Day: I didn’t know that.
Don Patrick: Well, the next retreat of the mastermind group, everybody's
gonna be asking.
Robert Day: Can't wait. Cannot wait. Up on stage in front of everybody.
Don Patrick: Yeah. This has been fantastic. Appreciate you guys taking the
time for this. We learned so much from each other. These things have been
great. You guys are great. What a great success and a lot for others to
learn from.
Robert Day: Well, Don, thanks for having us on. We appreciate it, buddy.
Don Patrick: Alright, see you, guys.
Well, that's it for today's show. Thanks for listening.
If you've got something to share, send an email to
dpatrick@thebraintrust.net. We want to know what works.
Until next time. See ya.