Thanks for listening. Please check out our website at www.forsauk.com to hear great conversations on topics that need to be talked about. In these times of intense polarization we all need to find time to expand our Frame of Reference.
Thanks for listening. Please check out our website at www.forsauk.com to hear great conversations on topics that need to be talked about. In these times of intense polarization we all need to find time to expand our Frame of Reference.
Welcome to Frame of Reference informed, intelligent conversations about the issues and challenges facing everyone in today's world. In-depth interviews to help you expand and inform your Frame of Reference. Now here's your host, raul Labresh.
Speaker 2:Well, welcome everybody to another edition of what's that Show Again.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, frame of Reference, profiles and Leadership.
Speaker 2:And I'm Raul Labresh and I'm the guy that gets to have these fantastic interviews with people throughout the country, and it's been just such a joy for me over the years and months to be able to be introduced to people constantly that I've never met before, and I look at the information that is sent to me about them and their journeys and the things that they can talk about, and my first thought is usually why in the world would they want to talk to me so?
Speaker 2:But I believe that the reason they want to talk to me is because you're out there listening and watching, and there are things that all of us need to be reminded of and there are things that all of us need to be exposed to that go beyond just a you know 30 second soundbite that goes plays according to someone's agenda, and today's guest is someone that, right along that vein, is someone that I'm excited to talk with. He's got a great name too. It's alliterative, which I always like Parker Purcell, and I was thinking about that Parker it could be. Parker Purcell purveys powerful paradigms and proverbs. Could that be the title of this show, perhaps?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I used to my mom used to say you have a very political name, so like Parker Purcell, like 2024 or whatever be like. Yeah, it makes sense. How could?
Speaker 2:be like that. Well, you could be the Purcell report.
Speaker 3:I'm staying away from politics, by the way.
Speaker 2:I'm not going down that route, oh yeah, nowadays it's so polarizing there's another P word that it just is and there's so much pontification going on in the realm of that that we don't need to go down that route today. I appreciate that. So, parker, I made a New Year's resolution earlier this year Because that's why it's a New Year's resolution To not introduce my guest by virtue of the biographical information that I have in front of me, because to me that's just too stale and I don't like reading things off a piece of paper. It's just, you know, it's not Anyways. So I'm letting my guests introduce themselves, because you know better than I who Parker Purcell is and you know better than I what you want people to think about Parker Purcell when we talk about the paradigm of Parker Purcell. I worked that P in there again. I'm sorry, parker. I hope that it's okay. I'm having too much fun with the literation. So, parker, who are you and why are you here today?
Speaker 3:Well, I appreciate you having me on. Who I am is a person of conviction. I stand on my values. They guide me to how I just run my life. I'm a father, I'm a husband, I am a, I will say, a dabbling physical enthusiast, as since having a kid has kind of put me on the back burner due to some injury getting older, right. But I'm also a competitor and a loyal friend and I love people. I love serving people and you know my why and my mission in life. So no matter what I'm doing is to leave people better than before they interacted with me. So if I can make someone walk away saying that they are a better person because of engaging with me than I've done my job and that gives me a lot of fulfillment. So hopefully that can serve as a good introduction.
Speaker 2:Well, you know, what would the world be like if more people, if most people, adapted the principle of it's almost like the Hippocratic Oath right For doctors do no harm, you know, and if we could, if we could at least enter into every relationship as to. Well, I work in a, at a company that is responsible for servicing farmers throughout our area in the Central Wisconsin area, and I always think of, you know, reaping what you sow. And you know, I can't think of a farmer that is in the right mind that would think that you can sow weeds and, you know, just have all kinds of junk that you put into your field and then be upset that the corn isn't as hardy as you wish it would be Because you plant the corn too right. But the reality is, you know you can't do that. I mean, if you do that you're just insane or something so. And yet we do that all the time. We plant weeds daily in our relationships with people. We, you know, don't fertilize them. We don't, you know, think of waste is just water. Those relationships nurture them and the kinds of thing you're talking about and really resonates with me as a you know why not do that, why not be garden caretakers, you know, or field caretakers. What's to be lost except the time and energy, and you're going to spend that one way or the other, so why not spend it in a positive way, right? So, anyway.
Speaker 2:So I think I told you beforehand, parker, we'd like to start with a little thing I call my favorite things, and if I had the money, I would pay BMI ASCAP for the rights to play Julie Andrews right now, playing underneath, saying but I don't, so I can only get away with about five notes of it before I get into trouble. Anyways, favorite things is all about just me throwing stuff out. You get to throw out your first response If you need to think a little bit. You know I will start the jeopardy thing, just to make sure you're aware that this isn't a forever thing, right, but it really is first thing off the top of your mind, don't worry about it. This is just for us to get to know each other and for people listening and watching can go. Oh yeah, okay, yeah, I like that too. Okay, so we'll start with something easy, all right.
Speaker 3:Favorite food Favorite food, we'll say steak, steak.
Speaker 2:Good man, I'm liking you already, parker, yeah.
Speaker 3:New York strip, new York strip.
Speaker 2:Oh, the thing is, yes, the New York strips I have loved over the course of my life. That's always a you know. I almost I would like to have a wall, I think, somewhere steaks that I have loved, you know, but actually my, I have a friend actually that's in veterinary medicine and he says he loved veterinary medicine because he could eat his mistakes. Yeah, okay, well, there is a plus to that right. How about a favorite? Do you have a favorite soup? As long as we're talking about foods, do you have soup?
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, Well, I'll just say chicken soup. My wife's cooked it for me. The past couple of weeks, you know, I've gotten a little bit sick and my well. I mean I got a little 15 month old and so I was coming out of a sinus infection and then, right as I was like on the cusp of getting over it, I like just something back into the same thing again, I was like, well, yeah, I guess this is my new normal. So she's been making soup for me and white chicken chili is really good, but this chicken soup she's been making lately has been really good.
Speaker 2:You know, practice makes perfect. They always say right. So, but how about you have a favorite song or favorite artist in general?
Speaker 3:I'm emotional with music, so that's like a really hard one. But I'll say my favorite genre is country music. Okay, and somebody that I've really enjoyed listening to, who I I'll say vibe with really good, is Brett Eldridge. He is my probably country artist I like most right now, but he's got a he's got a Sinatra vibe to him. I think that's where he gets a lot of his inspiration from, so I've really enjoyed listening to his music for a while now.
Speaker 2:You know I'm embarrassed to say I know Brett Eldridge's name but I don't know that. I've listened to a lot of his music and you know, if I have it's probably just some passing and didn't go. Oh, that's Brett Eldridge, but I'm interested. It's interesting to hear that he has a Frank Sinatra vibe, because I'm a Sinatra fan, I'm old enough to remember him singing live, you know sort of thing. But yeah.
Speaker 3:So when you listen to him, listen to his album Sunday, Sunday Drive it's really good and you put that filter of some not put that filter of Sinatra in your head when you're listening to him and you'll be like, oh, I hear it, Because he has like Christmas albums that he does. And you'll be like, yep, that it makes sense. You'll draw a line to Sinatra with all his music.
Speaker 2:Okay, then how about a favorite book, anything? You're reading right now that you really this is a great. Everyone needs to read this.
Speaker 3:Well, there's a lot, I guess. A book I'm reading right now I'll just say it like that is a book called let me pull it up so I don't get the title wrong it's called Managing God's Money a biblical guide to essentially answering life's fundamental questions about money in itself and that's part of my story and how I got to where I am. But I'm on this kick of really understanding what money is. But I will say maybe also another book is the Psychology of Money. It's a really great book and really helps understand human behavior and how we interact with money and our emotional decisions and triggers that happen as we engage with this resource.
Speaker 2:Boy, isn't that? That's an amazing thing about money, too, right? I honestly have thought a lot about just the scripture it talks about. You cannot love both God and money. But what that, really? If you look at that scripture more deeply, it's you cannot love both God and the love of money. You know, or the love of money is the root of all evil, you know those sorts of things are.
Speaker 2:That's where I see the difference is that it's not that money is inherently evil. Money is a means by which, you know, we're provided with a life, you know, I mean the means in which to live. But the idea of that I will do whatever I need to do for money. I will, you know, sacrifice everything I need to sacrifice for money. That's that's where you know, and you know those people. You can recognize them almost immediately when that's their, their focus, rather than, no, I'm using this money to help others. I want to use this money to be able to advance a message or advance a type of, you know, living that is important and I want to share it with as many people as possible, right, I mean yeah it's the it's the it's.
Speaker 3:The concept of something I've been speaking to lately is if you can't take it with you when you die, did you ever really own it? And if that's the case, are you not a steward of the things that have been given to you? And if you're a steward, then that means that it was never yours to begin with, but you're to give an account of the things that you've been entrusted, and so, for me, that's my lens to which I view the things in my life. Try to view right, but it's it's really answering that question of being a good steward and understanding that it's not my own. And therefore, how am I to use these resources that are given to me to give me a life of significance versus a worldly success standpoint? Sure.
Speaker 2:Do you think you know we're I want to get back to favorite things because they're fun, but do you think that there's a? Is it easier to have that philosophy of money when you are more comfortable, or do you think it is something that someone, regardless of their financial circumstances, can have that mindset and be blessed by it, whether they're, you know, rolling in dough, whatever, or you know, just very comfortable that they don't have to worry about? As I remember earlier in our marriage, I, you know, we were living from paycheck to paycheck, you know, and the idea of saving money for anything was, you know, just how how would we do that? And that it's a much more difficult place to be in financially and to be able to, I think, ascribe to what you're talking about. But you still have to do it right. I mean, I still had to realize I do need to be good with the resources that I have and I can't expect to be trusted with more if I'm not good with what I have right now right and you hit the nail on the head.
Speaker 3:Like, how do you expect to? Like? A lot of people just think that money is going to solve all their problems. Well, that's not the case. And so, if you don't have fundamental principles or guidelines or a filter value set that you're using to help make decisions with, then, like, my thing is, is someone who doesn't, I can't remember how it goes. If you don't stand for anything, or if you don't, I can't remember how it goes. But regardless, yeah, but my, so my, my point is is that if, if you can't be a good steward of the little that you have, you won't be given more. So if you're, if you're stressed out and you're, you know, freaking out about I want more and more and more.
Speaker 3:Well, what are you doing with what you got to? You know give to open yourself up to more right, and so like, but you got to start somewhere. Nobody just comes into a lot, and if you come into a lot with those bad principles or bad behaviors, all right, you're going to lose it overnight. Yeah, you, just, you see it happen all the time. Look at, look at the athletes that you know get those millions of dollars you know on their first check, and then you hear stories all the time they're broke Because they didn't know how to use it.
Speaker 3:They didn't understand the fundamental principles of how money works, and not just I'm not saying that from a financial side, but there's a, there's a spiritual aspect to you know, giving, to opening yourself up to more, being a conduit to like the money is not the end, but it's a means to something more. And so if you view your resources in that way, then you actually are rich. You just a lot of people view this, this lane of having financial capital, as the only way to be rich, but they forget of the relational capital, the social capital, all these different forms of capital that they're actually really rich with, but they view it from a very narrow focus which isn't, you know, I don't think serves anybody well, sure.
Speaker 2:How about? Do you have a favorite sweater? I'm in.
Speaker 3:Alabama, we don't really have a lot of sweaters, that's true, yeah, okay, how about a favorite shirt that are?
Speaker 2:t-shirt or you know anything you want. That's Camo. I'll just say Camo, Camo. Okay, Is that so that you can go places where you need to have Camo? Or is that just you think Camo is a lifestyle? So, okay, yeah, Both, Both and Okay. Well, you should come up here then, because deer hunting is quite popular up in my neck of the woods, literally and figuratively so. But so how about? Do you have a favorite, a favorite thing to do or a favorite you know chilling kind of activity? I like to golf, Really, Was that?
Speaker 2:part of your competitive background Was to be a golfer.
Speaker 3:No, I played my whole life. You know our family business. We have a golf course that I won't go into ad nauseam on that, but I just grew up on. I grew up on a golf course, essentially that we built for our company, and so I've just played my whole life with my dad. So it's a fun way for me to get outside, disconnect, and I'm actually playing tomorrow morning with a friend of mine. So it'll be the first time I've probably swung a club and I don't know five months, but it'll be fun, okay.
Speaker 2:I've heard, I've. I have a my boss here. That man I work with has a real soft spot in his heart In Wisconsin. You can only golf. You know, really in about five months out of the year before it gets just unbearable. But he is so much more, he's a completely different person when he's golfing than he is in most of the other time. Very lack of diesel, but he gets onto a you know a golf course and you know you would think that life itself is at stake. It's just it's amazing to watch that and I hope that's not you, parker, I hope that you're able to just kind of take it in each swing as it comes. He's so highly critical of any time he just you know is off what he knows he can do. It's it's really been interesting to watch, sometimes like you know, dude, that's you know, just it's a sand trap. Okay, it's not fun to be in a sand trap, but you know we all do that sort of thing every now and then.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's a. It's a good way for me to spend time with my friends and have good, meaningful conversations. So you know, when I'm out there, yes, I am competitive. There is that vein that comes out. If I'm not excuse me playing tonight, I guess expectations, but I just like being outside and I relax, so it's fun.
Speaker 2:Who was the comedian George Carlin, who used to say he thought golf was a waste of a perfectly good walk. So okay, well, that's a way to win friends and influence people, isn't it? So, anyway, okay. Last question Is there a place that you go to, or a thing that you do, or a memory that you have that when you're walking through you know your daily life, that if it something reminds you of that, that it always takes you back to a place of either a memory or you know a person or something that you just find a real sense of relief and comfort in?
Speaker 3:Um, I don't know. I'd say like, at this stage in my life, just being able to, you know, pick my son up when he wakes up in the morning and put him down at night to sleep, it's a, it just as a puts me in a really grateful spot because I mean, there's there's no greater title that I've ever gotten than becoming a father and that's been so rewarding to me on so many levels, and just the impact and magnitude of like, stewarding and caring for this child that you know I created, you know, with my wife, it's just, it's cool and this is like my legacy. So every time I get to hold him and spend time with him, it just really puts me in a grateful position.
Speaker 2:Boy what's your son's name? His name's Cohen, cohen. Okay, like the the musician. So there's a. I forget what is his name. I'm spacing today, sorry, but it's last Nick. It's usually a last name is what I'm thinking of. Is it yeah?
Speaker 3:So his name is Nordic. So it's K O E N.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 3:And really more from a Dutch background. My, my wife's family has a lot of Dutch heritage and so we wanted to honor her side of the family and it means bold advisor. And then also his middle name is Aaron, which my uncle. His name was Aaron and they weren't able to have kids, so I did it as a namesake to him. But he's also been somebody who's been very vocal about, you know, truth and principle in his life, and so I want that to rub off on him in a world that needs truth more than ever and people to speak up, you know, for injustice and those things. And that's that's like our mission over him and our affirmations over him is to be a bold advisor in a world that is filled with a lot of weak leaders and weak people who won't stand up for truth and injustice.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, Regardless of what political party you're talking about, you know true it is good.
Speaker 2:Truth is truth, yeah, and we've got so much of the you know prevarication and the you know modulation of any topic, just about fitting an agenda instead of what is good and what is true, right, and then it's, I don't know. You know I, I can tell you, you know, at almost 64 years of age, I look at the world now and think, you know Lord, how are we going to get back to? You know what? The world was so much different when I was growing up in the 60s right, than it is today in the 20s, you know 20s. But I strongly believe the hope and the future is in people that are espousing what you're espousing and that really walk the walk and talk the talk, because we do. It's not easy to talk, you know, truth into darkness or light into darkness, right, yeah?
Speaker 3:The easiest way to approach, I think, just conversations in this day is is people don't ask questions, nor do they. They're too busy talking versus really understanding why they believe what they believe. And so I have a gentleman here in my office. He's a colleague of mine. He and I are really close but we stand on two very polar opposite ends of just value sets in our own life. But we have such great conversation because my thing is is like well, if your truth is true or if mine is true, wouldn't we both can't be true about things in life, like one of us is right, one of us is wrong, but it can't be both, because that doesn't.
Speaker 3:It's a moving goalpost that makes sense. Therefore, our conversations are just saying hey, like it's like having a healthy debate, like tell me why you believe what you believe and what is evidence that would promote your thinking, and it provides a place for me to learn and for him to learn. So we walk away being like man. That was good, like I learned more about this person's viewpoint and maybe how he views the world, and that makes our relationship better.
Speaker 2:So there's a saying that my dad used to carry around with him, typed it up, a little piece of paper folded up and kept it in his wallet, and he attributed it to Ralph Waldo Emerson, saying, and the quote is the vehemence of my opponent's argument convinces me that I am perhaps a little bit wrong and he is perhaps a little bit right. So I'm always like that's such a healthy way to approach a discussion with someone, because I think you're absolutely right. By asking questions, by seeking to understand, that's, I think, really, how truth has arrived upon you.
Speaker 3:Know that we, because we see so many people are trying to be understood versus understanding.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. And I mean, if you want to be understood, then reap what you sow, right, so what you want to reap, you know. Try to understand then, correct, so excellent. Well, so, parker, you are the at the helm of a company called EQRP. Tell me more about EQRP. What is that?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so, yeah, who we are is a self-directed retirement company that is on mission to help empower individuals to take control of their financial lives. So we do that via way of the retirement industry. The old school way of investing in your retirement is taking a passive approach, basically throwing money away in your 401k, leaving it there, hoping it works out for you at the end of your life. But we take an active approach in our members lives and our in the members in our community are very active in wanting to do things different than what they've always been told, and so for us, we provide a community for them to not only get the tools to use to take control, but also the network, the community and the opportunities being deal flowed to go invest in things that are outside of what Wall Street says you can invest in, and gives them more confidence and hope that their future is more secure in assets that typically outperform Wall Street. So that's what we do on a fundamental level and it's truly about the individual. We're more of like a bespoke service that is very intimate. So it's a, I like to say, do it for you type service and do it with you, and that's the type environment we're trying to build here at the EQRP and my life has changed because of it and you know if I was able for your listeners ever know my story and even how I got here.
Speaker 3:Like you know, three, three years ago I was unemployed and pressure washing right. I had a successful career up to that point, but I felt the Lord calling me to step out from the family business. At the time, covid was had just hit and so I stepped out into a marketplace. It was chaos, like you know. I didn't know where I was going to work, what I was going to do, but I knew that I was going to land on my feet somewhere, and so I pressure washed for eight months. Little did I know that I had all these other questions that I was asking was like I have, I want to grow, I want to learn more about what money is, how it works, like I grew up around opulence. I had opportunity, but I was. I was driven in a really strong work ethic from my parents, which was great, but I just didn't know how to build anything Like how do I take this resourcing and get to that point? There's just a massive disconnect, and so entering in this community and being mentored and being a part of this culture has just shifted and transformed how I view money, how it works, understanding like fundamental principles of how you can take a dollar and turn it into 10. And really just understanding like it's just a form of energy. And you know, if you're providing value to the marketplace, then more energy comes back, but if you're not providing value, then you aren't going to have as much energy flowing back your way. So you know, that's that's really kind of the journey that I've been on and because of that I like to say I get to hold the banner like one of us I'm.
Speaker 3:I represent a lot of the people that come into the community where they may have some resources but they just don't know what to do next. So we give them a clear picture of their reality, walk them through a process of saying where do you want to go? And then, all right, let's build a roadmap. And they're the ones doing it, we're coaches. So we're just saying, hey, here's what you've told us, here's your plan, here's how you're going to get there. Now let's go execute that. And they walk away feeling empowered because we've taught them how to fish. We haven't given them a fish in the traditional system of retirement. They they just give you the fish, so you have to go back to them to eat, versus learning how to eat yourself.
Speaker 2:Right. That's actually interesting because there's. It makes me think of a program that I believe we started in Iowa and there's a smaller ministry organization here right in Saucbury that in the program is called Circles, and what Circles does is kind of a similar philosophy, but it's done with people that are in the lower 10% of you know, our population, in fact, you know, in the very lowest percentage of our economically of people in any community, and they use a principle similar of teaching people how to fish, but in terms of helping them to get to a stronger, more successful financial state. And they do it through a process they refer to as becoming an ally, that they don't try to come in and solve the people's problems for them. They help. They come in and try to help the people find the answers that they feel themselves will be important and, you know, sustainable, and that they feel confident that they can take those steps and be successful. And then, as they go along, that ally is there to say excellent, what do you want to do next?
Speaker 2:And I find that to be really fascinating that, instead of a you know top down, you know well, here's what you do this and do this, and then they're much more of a soliciting information, giving a broader spectrum, because the ally certainly has knowledge and experience that's going to be useful, but they are really trying to teach the person how to fish when it comes down to it. Yeah, so yeah, can you? Are there some? Do you have an anecdotal? I'm sure you must have 100, but are there actual stories of people that you've seen come into the program that really had that sort of revelation or revolutionary idea and, you know, saw, got the light from it and had, you know, just tremendous amounts of success with it? What did they? How did they look when they came to you and how do they look now?
Speaker 3:Yeah. So I think, first, if you're doing it for your own people, right, then you can't do it for the people that come in and be like your snake hole salesman, right? So I first had to change and by taking action I was able to see the light and start doing bigger and bigger things. Hey, because I had someone believe in me, but someone that also just came alongside me and said, hey, look like here's how you can do this. And then you got to take action. So for us, absolutely, you know there's one individual in particular who I can think of that came in and this is in this really kind of represents a lot.
Speaker 3:But they come in, they're uncertain, right, about their current financial situation. They're looking at their retirement. They're uncertain about obviously we don't have to dive into everything that's happening around us we know that it feels more bleak, but nothing new under the sun, like we've been here before just at different stages of life. And it's like when people get knocked in the haymaker throne in their hit. So they have this plan of how they think they're going to get there and then something changes and they're like, oh wait, like I got to do it a different way, but they're really uncertain of how they're going to do it. So when this individual came in, really more scared, because when you give, when you've taken a passive approach to your life and then you start taking this more active approach, it is scary because now you're like, wait, like I've got to be the one to do these things, I've got to do the research, I've got a.
Speaker 3:You know, there's all these things that happen and, just like any great movie, right, you're in theater. You understand, if you have a guy that comes along, the Yoda to Luke Skywalker, it makes the journey easier. And so for us, we get to be the Yoda for a lot of Luke Skywalker's that come in there carrying a burden or will do one even better. That I like your Samwise games. You to Frodo, like Frodo is the only one that can carry that rain and go complete the mission. But Sam is right there with them the whole time fighting for him. And that's what we get to do, which is awesome and it's rewarding.
Speaker 3:And then when people get to the other side of that and you see this like light bulb moment of them, of them doing the thing that they were scared to do or didn't even think they could do, that's when you know that it's working and they are getting better, because now they've just built a piece of Experience in their own life they can always revert back to when that next thing comes up, like, oh, what did this before? Now I'm not as scared to do this again and they're just picking this, basically snowballing all these experiences that they're having, this making them a better investor, making them more confident in their finances, in their marriage, like, like it's not just money that we deal with, it comes in here. You get it all. You get people that have been a part of Ponzi schemes, that are getting divorced, that you know spouses that. So it's not just one silo, because money touches so many different areas of their life and we get to see all that blossom at once, which is really cool.
Speaker 2:So you have a you've alluded to it some of your trajectory, your personal trajectory really became a foundation for what you teach and how you teach it now, right, can you talk a little bit about that right here? From starting with the family business and I understand you worked in Chick-fil-A for a while how did each of those steps sort of inform you for the next step?
Speaker 3:Yeah. So the family business we were in. We were in agriculture, you know, for a hundred ten years and we basically built a golf course for our product. We sold fertilizer. So we moved our corporate headquarters out to our farm Thirty two hundred acre farm and use this eighteen whole golf course as a marketing tool to sell our product.
Speaker 3:So imagine a private golf course that you bring in the industry to. That typically was really hard to get to, but we sourced them in. For three days we had a ninety percent conversion rate. Then, three years later, we sold the company for nine figures. So never thought that we would ever get there. So as a kid, though, experiencing all this, you know we got to do a lot of really fun things. But like I grew up on a farm, like I was out working the fields during the summer, I held jobs like there is never this like silver spoon mentality that most other people thought I was like. Only if you knew Ellen Purcell, dear God, like you know, if you weren't downstairs, you know, at breakfast, at six, at six, thirty in the morning, she would have us running. She had my sister's running around the house and digging tree holes outside. When my brother and I got in trouble. She sent us running up and down our quarter mile driveway. Really it's probably more of like half a mile back and forth for two hours. She's like go here you go.
Speaker 2:Seriously, and she just out there on the porch and just watch us in. You know leather belt, you name it, so for me.
Speaker 3:I always work with this chip on my shoulder because there's this element of like. I was thankful for the things that I had, but also, you know, you become a target for people that it's more jealousy. They're just projecting their insecurity and their envy or whatever to the life that you have. But I was fortunate to be born in the family that was great mother, father, they love each other, great siblings. We have awesome relationships. But I wanted to do something for myself. So when I graduated college I went start working for Chick-fil-A and for me it was such a great opportunity to cut my teeth on how to run a business, how to lead people. And I keep in mind the area that I worked was in Pensacola, florida. So anybody listening, if you're familiar with Pensacola, there is a naval base down there called in a S, and our chick filet was on Navy Boulevard, so it was right outside the Navy base, low income, impoverished area. We had a six to eight homicides within the first six months within a quarter square mile of our store. So you know we think about the environment that we are in, the customers that we serve, but also the employees that we work with is just really tough, and that was my first like I'm walking into this thing, like I got a cause degree and I'm leading these people and I'm like this is like real life stuff these people are dealing with. And I did that for three years and I would just say, like the I mean, I got so many stories of working there. But the biggest thing that I learned about leadership is that you gotta win the heart before you win the mind, and I say that because Nobody's gonna care about what you know until you, until they know that you care, and you know at times I get walked over, right. That's kind of some leadership lessons you learn, but it just really taught me how to connect with people on a much deeper level. Of always, I like to say the Lord's really given me a gift to connect with others at whatever level they're at. But in this environment in particular, I was able to build really strong relationships with people and I think it was mirrored on.
Speaker 3:When people view positional leadership, they think of someone sitting like behind the glass wall, up, you know, above the shop floor, just like commanding, like my leadership styles I grow my sleeves up, get in there and out work them like none of my people are gonna out work me. Therefore, I was able to demand a lot of them as well, because there wasn't anything that I was asking them to do that I wouldn't do Sure. So outside of that, though, like, getting to run the business really taught me a lot. And then there's always that level there of you know, when you're looking at, when I was looking at my future and where I wanted to be like, I was pursuing the operator route and I saw a viable option for me to go live the life that I wanted doing that, or I could go back to the family business and go help my father build this massive dream that he had. We're about to do a, you know, a really big expansion project out there, and so there's some phone for me to not do that with them. As I said, well, I'm going to go take care of I want to go help my dad do this, because I'm gonna have a phone if I don't. And so I did that for four years. Then it was fun, but I also learned that family business is really tough, and so I went from running a massive organization, you know, leading close to 100 people, and then I go to just leading myself again, and that was really tough.
Speaker 3:And there's a part of me, I think, when I look back at, when I say my pride, my pride was hurt because I, I wanted, I wanted more. I think I Thought I knew more than I did. I had a lot of experience. But there's also this element of humility I think I needed to learn for myself. Looking back, I can say that now Because I felt like I was pushing a rope up a hill with a lot of things that I wanted to Accomplish and I just couldn't get anywhere. So I'm like, what am I doing? Like what's happening? So, in that I kind of saw my ceiling hit out there, like I knew where I wanted to go and I led. Well, I did. I mean, I was a project manager. I built a shipping and delivery center, ran a housekeeping department for two years I got in the sales like so you know I'm clean and toilet's doing every. There wasn't anything I wouldn't do.
Speaker 2:It's my family business right, so it was like whatever needed to be done.
Speaker 3:But you know, when I, when I hit my ceiling, I said, you know, I feel like I'm in my prime Years of continuing to learn. And I and I always was like, even if I hated the thing I did, I was like what, what is I can take something from this experience and grow with it and take it with me to the next thing. And so, doing that, along the way to where I stepped out, even into pressure washing, right, like I was unemployed. But I was like what can I learn here? And it's just continued to be excellent with the thing in front of you.
Speaker 3:And so, you know, growth growth is linear, right, like when you look at the macro, the, the, the level of growth can be pretty big, right, but at the time it feels very gradual.
Speaker 3:And so for me, looking back, I'm like man, I thought I was ready for a position like this Six years ago and I was like boy, was I wrong? Like I, just I didn't have the experience yet that that I wouldn't have been ready for it. Right, and I trust everything works out how it's supposed to, right. But I mean, I'm being stretched here in what I'm doing now, but I do believe that everything seasonal light like Chick-fil-A is a season. Family business was a season. My time here at the QRP is a season, but I do feel like the things I'm learning here really setting me up to do some big things down the road. I don't know what that is, but I'm really excited for where I'm headed and the things that I'm learning to not only like benefit my life, but also those that I will come in contact with as well to help them grow to.
Speaker 2:You know I keep thinking as you're talking to how we're talking about money. You know, in the accumulation of money, the usage of money, but all of the things you're talking about, all the lessons that you learn, none of those cost money. You know it's not. You don't have to pay for those lessons you're not to. You don't have to pay for those philosophical you know bents or positions. They're just there, things that you adopt and you watch the truth of them play out as you go along steps and I see people regularly kind of waiting for the financial stuff to come before they'll take the step of feeling.
Speaker 2:You know, I mean I use my own personal experience. I've, I've never been particularly good with money. I've always seen money is sort of a. You know I enjoy the freedoms that it provides, but I've never been one to worry too much about money. I watched that sort of thing with my mom and dad and I didn't want to have that.
Speaker 2:And yet as time goes on and you have children and you know family, you realize that they're. You know what you have to provide. I'm I, you know it's. My job is to provide, so it's a. It's interesting that even through that though, I think you know, the Lord has really been teaching me, showing me that it's not about worrying, it's about utilizing it the way that is Just going to make the best, the best use of it, what I intended for it in to be in the first place. So and I that seems to me to be an educational issue, you know, do you think that there are things in our educational system, or the way that we conduct education with, with children, that get in the way of learning, that has had a proper attitude towards money and how how to accumulate it but also, more importantly probably, utilize it most effectively in the best stewardship?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I'll put it. Put it to you in layman's terms and maybe a visual illustration that would probably make sense to a lot of people. So where I think it's gone wrong, is it Christmas? Think of all the toys that you get, most things that you buy in life, where it's a computer, a phone, you know, I don't know, chain saw, remote control car. It all comes with a manual. And then think it Christmas time, when a kid is handed a hundred dollar bill in an envelope it's just a hundred dollars and now where's the manual that goes with it? Now they're given this thing. It's like ultimate power, right? Sex, money, powers the three things that drive every human in life. Therefore, if they don't have a manual or understand what the thing they have in their hand is and how it can either bring in joy or it can ruin their life, then guess what they're basically gambling with. Figuring that out on their own, and that is where we failed, I think, is a society. But also, you know what would? What? Would it benefit the economy to have a bunch of entrepreneurs who would fill in all the cogs and all those jobs, right? So I think that it's done on purpose. That's just my personal stance.
Speaker 3:I don't think that money is taught. I think the reason money, financial literacy isn't taught to the level to which I understand it in people like entrepreneurs who've been in it understand it because the economy can't support entrepreneurs at that level, because there's so much of the economy that rides on people that are working nine to five. Now the things they'll give them is like hey, let's teach you how to manage you know this meager salary. Let's not teach you how to take that and go, grow and go really exponential with your life and your impact? They just have people living for the weekend and so you know. You gotta, you gotta really get clear on what it is that you want out of this resource and what your goals are, what drives you, and you have a deep conversation with that and not people. Don't do that.
Speaker 2:So can you? How do you I'm not, I don't know how to ask this question, but how do you encourage someone to take that leap to say you know, I'm tired of being ignorant, I'm tired of, you know, scrambling, and I would like to know how to use this thing as a brick building block instead of a? Oh, there it goes again. Oh, it was nice knowing you under dollar bill, you know, see ya.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's like. It's like a f-16 trying to land on an aircraft carrier. It's also mean where it said my paycheck every two weeks and it comes in and it touches down and then it takes off again out of the bank account. Yeah, yeah, I think, first off, understanding first what is it you're trying to accomplish, right, you got to get clear on OK, where do I want to be, and just write it down like I want to be financially free. Ok, I want this, I want that, ok, so let's reverse engineer what that looks like and what you have to do to get there. So, if you don't understand at all, like what, what it is that you currently are stewarding, like those resources, are they liabilities or are they assets? Are there liabilities that you think are assets? Right, you think assets, but they're really liabilities.
Speaker 3:So Rich Dad, poor dad is a great book for just anybody who's like scratching their head on. Oh, because it paints a story of a young Robert Kiyosaki who is a poor dad. His dad was an educator, made a me your salary, but then he was best friends with a dad who is a massive entrepreneur and he was watching money behaviors with his dad and this really conservative approach in life. And then he's got this, his other friends, dad, who was taking these risks, doing all these really creative things, creating this life. And so it's like OK, you have two different paths that you can take. Which one are you going to take? And you don't? You're going to get? You're going to go past step one to step 10. For you to get to step 10, you go step one to step two, step two, step three. So nobody's asking you to go. You know from where I'm at to Elon Musk. That's just impossible to do. But you know, have you ever invested before? No, ok, well, just download a Robin Hood or brokerage account and just start putting a dollar a day in something like you got to understand how the game works. And once and you'll start, it's crazy, the things that you learn by taking action and the things you pay attention to. If it's free, it won't do you any good.
Speaker 3:Most people say, well, I want to learn for free. I'm like, well, guess what? You ain't going to pay attention to it if you don't have anything at risk. So my first investment that I made, I lost $50,000. My very first investment. I went and took a cash out, refile on my house, went and invested it and I lost it. And I was like, well dang, that sucked. But what did I learn? I would not have a, I wouldn't have taken that step first off, be, I wouldn't have learned some really great fundamental principles. And also, like I had a community around me where, like I wasn't stressed about I was, just my ego was hurt in a lot of ways because I thought I'd done all the right things.
Speaker 3:And he said, hey, parker, so let me tell you something. Can you still pay your bills? I'm like, yeah, said, do you have a wife that loves you? I said, yeah, do you have friends that are close to you? Yeah, you have a roof over your head. Yeah, you have a son.
Speaker 3:I mean, he was just walking me down all these things and he said what the hell you worried about?
Speaker 3:It's just part of the game.
Speaker 3:And I was like you're right, like it's just part of the game.
Speaker 3:It's just a game, that's all it is, and it plays out for you on both sides. So, but you aren't going to be able to invest $10 if you haven't done one, you won't be able to invest $1,000 if you haven't done 100 and you won't be able to stroke a check for $100,000 if you haven't done it for 50. So just know that it's building blocks, but you got to start somewhere and if you're just hoping it's going to work out for you, it's not, you won't just fall into it and if you do, you're going to be right back to where you are because you haven't learned anything. Someone that's built themselves to this made a million dollars. Right, it's grown to. That is a lot better off than the person who's just given a million dollars, because this person knew what it takes to get there. The other person just happened to have some dumb luck and they're going to end up spending it, squandering it, losing it, and this guy knows how to preserve it and keep growing it.
Speaker 2:Boy, it sounds like you have to be able to be a very adaptable, flexible person too, which I think for some folks is it's pretty darn hard. There are some folks that just insist on being the mighty oak and there are others that have learned that well, really being a well-oatry is probably the better situation to be in right now. But I really like how you're touching on how the risks are part of the education and one doesn't want to be. I think that's where I would fault myself, as I've been foolhardy about things and not concerned enough about the stewardship of okay, I have one dollar here to invest. I need to do it wisely, or at least try to do it as wisely as I can, because I squander it to just say, oh well, you know.
Speaker 2:Oh well, I lost 50,000 dollars. Oh well, the house is gone. Oh well, you know, that's not right either. Right, but to just step back and say, okay, what mistakes did I make? You know? How can I learn from those? And how do I go from here? How do I start from here again? What do you say to somebody that doesn't have that mentality?
Speaker 3:Good luck. I mean seriously. It's like I think of what I've learned over three years and it takes an active approach, like you aren't going to fall your way into it. It is impossible For me. It's like I've just had to take these steps along the way and think like can people view risk? Like risk is relative. So I'll put it like this Somebody jumping out of a plane to skydive for the first time would be like, hey, that's risky. And I'd be like, yeah, you're right. But the guy that is jumping tandem with you, that's done it 500 times, doesn't view it as risky. Why? Because he's done it 500 times, so it's not risky to him. So risk is relative, but it's also equivalent to the amount of experience that you have doing the thing. So if you say it's well, the stock market isn't risky, I was like yes, it is. You can lose everything in the stock market, like you can lose it out.
Speaker 3:On the other thing, so, but you got to pick and choose. You got to start somewhere and build that experience, muscle, and if you don't, then you're risk. You're always going to be risk averse and like, I don't think that's being a good steward, because if I'm to give an account of the things that I have, I would much rather somebody I would if somebody looked for me. I'll just use my example of losing the 50 grand. Like I took every calculated approach, I was being a good steward of doing due diligence, finding the information, doing the thing, but there's factors outside of my control that I couldn't help. That happened. I did all the right things, but the market did something else that I had no control over. And then I got caught.
Speaker 3:But in the long run, what am I going to do when I have now, instead of $50,000? And I learned that lesson Now I have 500,000 or a million. Well, guess what? If you're playing the macro long game, well then I'd rather pay $50,000 for a good lesson to then be able to multiply that million to two million or to 10 million. And so, therefore, like I think for us, we've got to say look, we've got this awesome resource that can, that can provide a lot of change and do a lot of good in the world For our communities, for our families, for our future legacies and generations, right Like leaving something for them. So for me, that's how I approach it, and you got to start somewhere. Like I don't even care if you're investing like 50 cents into something, like just do something and get active with your approach in life, but if you're living it passively, well then you're just going to pass away, right?
Speaker 2:Well, it's interesting, I think. Ultimately, what I'm getting out of this, parker, is there's a mindset, but there's also a heart set, if you will, a point that your core has to be at, which is well, whose money is it anyways? Ultimately Correct, I mean because if we're stewards and we're understanding that I'm just passing through and the best thing I can do is take care of this land or this money or whatever, take care of these children. I mean, I've always thought I've been probably the thing I'm least. I don't know. The one that I wonder the most is if I've been a good steward of my children. You know, because they are a legacy, just as much right, and it is.
Speaker 2:I wanted to know Cohen's name because I want you to tell Cohen he's very blessed to have the daddy does that we appreciate so much the joy of bringing him up to bed and taking him down. You know from bed at night that you want to be the first thing and the last thing in his life is. That's a truly special thing, and so congratulations on that. You got that one right a lot earlier than I did. So, parker, is there any kind of last word where I can't believe it's already been? You know, just over an hour. I need to wrap this up and get you on to your life, but is there any particular parting words of wisdom you want to pass along to people?
Speaker 3:Oh man, I just think, like if you're out there and you're asking the question like what am I to do after coming off this episode, right, listening to money, I think that, if anything else, understand the filter, be very clear on what your filter is when it comes to stewarding money. If you just you're going to go based off feeling, well, feeling isn't good enough to steward a resource like that, because your feelings will take you all over the place. You've got to have some cornerstone, some truth to which you're making decisions, especially when it comes with that resource, and understand what it is first, who's it is second, and then what am I? How am I to steward it? Third, and if you have a good filter to which you can make decisions with that resource in light of those three things, then I think you'll you'll feel more confident in the decisions you make, moving forward, because a lot of people will tell you what they think you should do with it, versus what are you called to do with it.
Speaker 3:And you know some people. You know I may get a million dollars and then God may say give it away, but someone else may say well, actually, why don't you go? Put it towards this opportunity? You could make more like no, it's not mine to begin with, like you know. Maybe, maybe I made all this so I could go make this massive impact here, but that doesn't mean that I could walk outside the next morning and find ten million dollars sitting in my mailbox for some God unforeseen reason, who knows?
Speaker 3:So it's, you know, blessed. It's better to give than it is to receive. So if you take the approach of understanding that first you're a steward of the things you've been given and then also we are here to to be a conduit of our resources to other people, be a blessing that you will live a life full of joy and significance, far beyond what most people in life do. When you get to the end of your life, you'll be laying on your bed feeling full, knowing that you have your family, close relationships, people, and if you're chasing the almighty dollar, nobody gets into their life and says, man, I wish I made more money. It's always tied up in what they did and too often times people get distracted. Chasing the thing that brings is very feudal in the end.
Speaker 2:Well, you have a couple of giveaway items to for our audiences.
Speaker 3:there's a giveaway title self directed retirement, made simple, yeah so if you want to go to or find out more about our company self directing your own retirement, go to eqrpcom. You can reach out to us there, schedule time to chat, and then we have a newsletter that we give away. Turnkey retirementcom. It's basically just a really fun newsletter that I put out of current events that are happening, what's going on in the market. It's entertaining. First, someone like yourself can appreciate it, because you know entertainment is key. We're always on stage and so I give some good advice there, and then I also provide some really funny stuff in there too, like really bad advice that's happening in the marketplace because it is out there. So turnkey retirementcom download the newsletter and you can reach out to me on LinkedIn. I'm really active on there as well. So those are the three places that you can get in touch with me.
Speaker 2:Excellent. Folks have been talking with Parker Purcell. He's at the helm of eqrp as president and CEO. They are revolution I can't talk revolutionizing the financial freedom for professionals and investors alike. So, and guided by the principal we've been talking a lot about this the principal of steward leadership. So if you want to know more about steward leadership and how that works, parker's a man. Parker is the man you do bomb. So thank you, parker, so much. I appreciate your time, your energy and your advice to our listeners. I pray that there are folks out there that are going. I can't wait to make this work for me, so that would be wonderful. So well, thank you for having me on.
Speaker 3:It was a pleasure and just appreciate you opening me up to your community and would love to serve any way that I can. Thank you.
Speaker 2:Folks, thanks for listening to another episode of frame of reference profiles and leadership, and we've been talking with a great example, a great profile of leadership and Parker Purcell. So please join us again next week or the next time that this podcast gets on. I'm just not sure some days, because who knows what I'll find in my mailbox tomorrow. All right, so take care. All God bless.