Follow The Brand Podcast with Host Grant McGaugh

From Paycheck to Portfolio: Earl Johnson’s Playbook for Lasting Wealth

• Grant McGaugh CEO 5 STAR BDM • Season 4 • Episode 17

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What if your money felt calm, clear, and connected to a future you actually want? Grant sits down with Earl Johnson of Lexis Wealth Management to unpack the mindset, systems, and coaching that turn financial stress into durable wealth—and transform inheritance into a springboard, not a stumble.

We start with the human side: the quiet shame many people carry about past choices and the simple shift that changes everything—separating lifestyle money from future money. Earl explains how trust and confidentiality built his brand in a competitive industry, why he rejects commission incentives, and how he guides clients with straight talk and empathy. From there, we zoom out to the “great wealth transfer,” an estimated $80 trillion moving from Boomers to the next generation, and why estate planning, trusts, and true succession are now non-negotiable for families and businesses that refuse to start over.

You’ll hear practical frameworks that stick: treat money like a game you plan to win, where passing GO isn’t the goal—owning assets is. Earl connects long-term investing to everyday life by owning pieces of companies you already support, keeping emotions steady when markets swing, and using a coach to translate noise into action. We dig into budgeting without deprivation, the discipline behind the “millionaire next door,” and how a clear North Star turns habits into progress. We also explore the changing fintech landscape, the danger of tool-first thinking, and why applied knowledge beats hype every time.

If you’re a professional, student, entrepreneur, or parent who wants to protect what you’ve built and pass a heavy baton to the next runner, this conversation is your playbook. Subscribe, share this with someone building their plan, and leave a review with the one goal driving your money this year—what’s your North Star?

Thanks for tuning in to this episode of Follow The Brand! We hope you enjoyed learning about the latest trends and strategies in Personal Branding, Business and Career Development, Financial Empowerment, Technology Innovation, and Executive Presence. To keep up with the latest insights and updates, visit 5starbdm.com
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And don’t miss Grant McGaugh’s new book, First Light — a powerful guide to igniting your purpose and building a BRAVE brand that stands out in a changing world. - https://5starbdm.com/brave-masterclass/

See you next time on Follow The Brand!

SPEAKER_00:

Welcome everybody to the Follow Brand Podcast. This is Grant McGall, your host for today's show. And I am loving the Midwest right now. I'm telling you, it is October 1st where I am right now. If you're listening to me, and I'm telling you, I'm loving the Midwest feel. I have been in South Florida 30, 35 years. I'm used to this being about maybe 50, 60 degrees. I'm telling you, it is a beautiful 75, maybe close to 80 degrees here. I am loving some Omar, Nebraska. I'm also loving some Earl Johnson. You gotta know this guy. I've been in Omar maybe six months. This guy's name keeps coming into my presence every other day. First it was every week. Now it's every other day. I go to I go to one of my cousins' uh retirement parties. There's Earl. I talked, I talked to one of my my actually my my aunt, and she's do you know Earl? Like, yeah, I do know Earl. I'm gonna go talk to my other uncle. He's like, Do you know Earl? Like, yes, I know Earl. I think I need to really, I think all of us need to know Earl because Earl Johnson is the man with the plan. We're gonna be talking about finance, financial empowerment, financial literacy, wealth management, the things that make the world spin. And I want him to introduce himself. Let's have a candid conversation. So, Earl, what you got shaking?

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Thanks for having me. Uh, you know, uh, I was very excited about an opportunity to get out here and, you know, speak to you and and you know, uh I guess have that exchange uh of what you do and be able to get out to the public. That's probably one of the reasons why you see my name so much. Not that I'm the kind of person that goes out and and is the loud. And, you know, I I do I have a quiet presence, I guess, but at the same time, uh, you know, uh, reputation means everything to me. So, you know, I like to uh let my community know I'm there to help.

SPEAKER_00:

Absolutely. And I'm saying what you said is exactly right. You want your reputation, you want other people to be talking about you in your zone of genius, right? And a lot of people were saying, like, you know, Earl, you need to talk to Earl when you talk to uh about finance, you're talking about wealth management. And always he's a nice guy. And when I met Earl, I'm telling you, now we're sitting here right now, we're like head to head right here, but I'm gonna tell you, Earl is a good 6'5. I mean, he's a towering figure. If you walk into a room, you cannot know it's like who is that guy? But not only do you want to know who he is, is what he does, what he does and how he helps people to grow. I think when I think think about finance, a lot of times you think about finance, there's certain stress that comes along with it because people are like, oh, money, money. Yeah, sometimes it's good, sometimes it's bad, sometimes it's in between. It's a constant, you know, uh, I would call it friction that kind of occurs in your world, in what you've done for over 25 years. You own your own business, you've been doing this for a long time. Tell us how you truly overcome that type of perception that most people carry when it comes to wealth management.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, you know that that feeling is real. And I learned early on that um, you know, I don't care if a person has$2,000 or$500,000. Sometimes people are ashamed of the financial decisions that they've made in their life and they don't know how they're uh going to sustain themselves in the future, you know, and that always amazes me because, like I said, you can meet some pretty wealthy people and they and they're still a little uh embarrassed sometimes about their decisions or how they manage money and uh whether or not they're going to be okay. You know, that's the question that people always want to know. Am I gonna be okay? Well, my job is to try to help sort through what you're doing and and and help you understand the consequences if you live your life this way. I'm not the person to tell you stop watching Netflix, stop going to Starbucks every day. That's not me. You know, we got one life to live. You gotta you get to choose, you know, how the consequences will eventually affect you, you know. So if you can set aside a pot of money for life, you set another pot of money away for the future, um, you know, that's the thing that people don't understand the separation from, you know, of how am I saving for my future and how it will connect with my lifestyle today. You know, my job is to help uh get them, give them a better understanding of how that's gonna play out. So, you know, it's just amazing how, like I said, you get people who don't, you know, think they don't have any money. You think you get people who think they have money that, you know, and I tell them, shoot, you keep at this rate, you ain't gonna have what you, you know, what you're hoping to have in the future. So so it's different for everybody, you know, and you got to have empathy around people's situations because there's a lot of backstory that got them to the point that they are right now, you know. And what I'm trying to convince people is is that all of that matters, but today is a new day. You know, we're trying to plan for your next 20 years of your life. So don't let the last 20 affect you in a negative way.

SPEAKER_00:

Hey, that that's a mic draw right there, you know. Uh just to take live for today and not make the mistakes of the past if that is the case. I think that's so, so important. Now, before we you you know we got together and everybody joined us just now, we were talking about the brand, personal brand. You have a personal brand authority, you have built Lexus Wealth Management into a trusted name for over 25 years, which is I think pretty remarkable. That says a lot. I want to know if if you've got any principles or things that have guided you in establishing your brand authority in a very, very competitive industry like financial services.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, you know, um, in our business, and especially with a lot of folks we that I work with, uh trust, uh, integrity, and uh confidentiality means everything. You know, uh, you can't be the kind of advisor where you're in a community where everybody knows you. I mean, you said it, Grant, I'm you know, 6'5, 6'6, I'm actually 6'9, so don't take my other few inches away from me. So I was known in my community, you know, for sports, for playing basketball. So I know an awful lot of people from that. So you had to figure out, okay, how do I translate, you know, this uh, you know, successful career in basketball and maintain a particular presence with people as a financial advisor. So um I may had to have cleaned up my reputation a little bit with a couple of referees, you know, because I probably uh didn't treat a couple of referees right in my lifetime, but uh but for the most part, uh I've always, you know, had um, you know, empathy for people's situations, you know, because we come from um, you know, in some cases, tough circumstances, you know, and every every dime matters, you know, especially if we're trying to create a legacy. And so when I go to work every day, it's about um, you know, having that kind of empathy and feeling for people's situations and knowing that I don't want them to go back to where they came from. You know, I don't want you to go back to the days when uh, you know, uh you had one meal a day or uh you know you didn't eat the way you know you eat steak now. But back in the days it was uh, you know, beans and weanies, you know. You was happy to have pork chops that night, you know, but uh um, you know, I don't want you to go that way. You know, I want you to be able to create a trajectory where your families, you know, don't even know the pain that you went through to grow and get them in a position where they can get educated and not worry so much about$100,000 in student loans and things like that. You know, so so it has everything to do with um, you know, really feeling for people's situations and knowing that, you know, getting give me everything, give me a good understanding of where you've been and where you'd like to go, and I'll and I'll help devise a financial plan uh that that can meet that criteria.

SPEAKER_00:

What you said there, and I took that to heart about getting the plan, meaning let's see your current state, where are you at, and and understand the mindset. Like, are you do you realize that you you alluded to that, you play basketball, you are on a a uh in a sporting arena, so to speak. When you talk about the world we live in, a capitalistic society, you've got to have money in order to run your life. It's like the ball, right? You've got to be able to manage the ball, clock management, all of those things in order to play a full four quarters. Yeah, you might have had a tough half. You know, everybody's had that tough half. But we've also seen other teams or players have a fantastic second half or a fantastic fourth quarter, or they win the game, but you first you've got to have the will, you've got to have an understanding. And on that sideline, as I just alluded to, you have to have a coach. And someone who says, I see where you're at, I see your your talents, I see what you can, you know, I see what you're not utilizing, and I see where you can go. I know going to school, one thing I've talked about this in the past in some of my shows, is that I wish I understood, and maybe I wish my teachers were really drilled into me that you are on a game of monopoly. This is a monopoly board. All I'm gonna do is be able to help you to pass go and collect$200. You have enough skill set to get around the board, collect$200. But guess what? That's not the game. The game is to collect assets, the game is to then get property, then to get houses, and then to get businesses in order to run and win the game in Monopoly. And if you don't, as we know, when you first start out on that board, you can pay the rent. You know, you go around everybody at the same time, you know. Yeah, land off the pay. I the rent's fine, but when they start building up, that rent gets higher. And if you're only passing goal, you will not have enough to sustain yourself, right? So, my question to you when you understand the game, and you first you have to get across that mindset to your clients, and we all know that markets they rise, they fall, client emotions can run high in those situations. How have you trained yourself and your advisors to practice resilience, especially during turbulent times, and help people to focus on the game that they're in?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, that's that's a good one. You know, um you gotta be good at understanding people, you know, and and understanding uh, I guess, people's behaviors and why they're uh investing anyway, you know. Um then of course you gotta be you you gotta be educated about the markets and the whole process. You know, a lot of times you meet people who are in it or they think that investing is, you know, throw some money in, you get a crypto investment, you make a you know,$10,000 turns into a million, you know, in a year. No, it don't work like that. Because I've seen the little old ladies who've just been consistent doing the blocking and tackling every day, every week, every year. And they get to the point where they say, well, you know, I don't even pay attention to that. Because history says, you know, over longer periods of time, if you select the right investments, you're gonna do okay, you know, because we have a track record of um, you know, and then the other thing, people, people have a hard time correlating the markets to, you know, what the market is made up of. The market is made up of, you know, some of the best companies in the world. So if I'm taking my kids to McDonald's or if I'm shopping at Walmart, you know, or if I'm, you know, uh sending a package to FedEx, FedEx, McDonald's, and Walmart are going to make money. There's nothing wrong with becoming a shareholder in those particular companies, as long as you are a supporter, why not benefit? You know, so handling the emotions, uh in other words, I try to, you know, I guess for the lack of a better term, dumb it down a little bit too, you know, put it in layman's terms and say, listen, if you bought Walmart share, you're a shareholder. I mean, during the during COVID, you know, um, was one of the few places we could actually go and spend money. So why not invest in them? You know, so but you know, people choose investments for a lot of different reasons, and that's okay, whether for Walmart or for somebody else. But at the end of the day, your money can grow when you invest in companies and watch those companies continue. As long as we continue to participate and put our dollars in, as long as they're managing that business appropriately, you're gonna be okay. So, but yes, if you do have a portfolio you don't understand, you have investments you don't understand, yeah, you know, sometimes it could be a little nerve-wracking, you know. So you need somebody like myself to go through that portfolio and say, hey, um, there's some things we need to change, there's some things we need to add, or you're going to have to make it through different periods of time. And that's where, you know, one layer is stock, the next layer is the economy. You know, we have policy things that go on in the economy. You know, there's things that change with regard to health care, uh, you know, governmental policies in certain areas, they will affect um investment. So people got to be aware of what they invest in and you know, have somebody that can kind of coach them through uh, you know, some of the situations that that I just described. And you know, the coaching is a big deal. You know, a lot of a lot of people can you know go running on their own, but when they get to the end of the race, you know, uh, I thought I ran a 10-6. No, you were on like like 11-5. You know, you didn't do as good as you thought you would did, you know. So having a coach that can prepare you and understanding what the goals are and how to hit the goals, that matters.

SPEAKER_00:

I think 100% matters. Uh tap it in as someone else's expertise. This is not your expertise, unless you went to school, you've got the uh different certifications, you're watching these things each and every day. Maybe you can manage things. I mean, you manage over a billion dollars in assets when especially when you had offices in Minneapolis and Chicago. I know there's definitely tough moments, you know, along the way. But if you look at, and I always looked at uh one of our Omaha natives, Warren Buffett, if you look at his investment portfolio, what he normally invests in, as you stated earlier, is tried into companies, and he's in it for the long term, not the short-term gain. So at the end of that race, there's a there's a considerable uh net sum uh that is there and it's less risky, but you've got to understand where you you want to do the the crawl, walk, run uh type approach and that type of thing, and have your financial advisor to truly understand it. I think that's when it gets down to for me, my framework is around being authentic. How authentic can you be? And I know your mission has emphasize you know value-based relationships. You you love to bring value to those relationships. My question to you is this how do you ensure authenticity when guiding clients, especially through difficult conversations about money and legacy?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah, I tell them the truth. You know, I tell them the truth. I don't sell them, you know, this this pie in the sky uh opportunity that uh that may not exist for them, you know. So uh, and I'll try to project this thing out, you know, in financial planning, you trying to benchmark this, if it's annually, annually, you know, if it's every two, three, four, five years, whatever it is, I can offer some predictions on, you know, where we should be and if and what kind of changes we need to make. But um, the authenticity part of it is to be able to spend time with people, to show them that you're interested. This is a whole client-centered approach to us. You know, we don't we don't have any success if our clients don't have success. You know, that's the number that that is number one to us. So we want to treat them uh as if uh their goal is ours. You know, we want to achieve just as well as you do. Uh so uh that's the approach that we come to the office with every day that we're, you know, we're here to help you, you know, and we're gonna give you time, you know, to give it all to us and allow us to uh you know position you for success, you know. So it's not, and and this is the good part about the nature and way we do business. We're not commission-based advisors. I don't have to go chase somebody to make a living. You know, I don't gotta hit you over the head, get a commission out of you, and never see you again. That's that's not not how this works. We consider our clients family, you know. When when a new client comes to us and they walk out of the door, you know, you know, my admin, my assistant's gonna say, Welcome to the family. You know, it's just that important to us. You know, I want to be the guy that walks past you at the grocery store, and I ain't hiding my head down because I didn't do right by you, you know. Um, that's that's important to us.

SPEAKER_00:

I think all of those things, because here's the conversation I know that's happening now. We have one of the largest populations in the United States that has gone into going into retirement, right? Uh, I think it's the largest population in the history when it comes down to the age factor. So there's a lot of people that are are retiring, they're getting out of the workforce. But also, they're looking at either their their 401k that was probably managed by someone else. They weren't really looking at that a lot. You might make some adjustments every year to it, but that it wasn't something you focused in on uh a lot. But now it's your it's in your ballgame. You know, you've got it, you don't know what to do with it. Whether you know, do I take this lump sum of money and cash out? Do I continue what what I do? Do I have to like move it to other another brokerage? Or I I don't know what to do now. So you find yourself as a almost a now, is this something you're dealing with a lot in your Oh man, oh man, that's that's the ball game right now.

SPEAKER_01:

And I'll tell you why I say it's the ball game. Uh years ago, you know, our parents and parents' parents had Social Security. And if they were fortunate, they had a pension. They didn't really have any money. You know, their money was from working. When they stopped working, the checks stopped, the pension started. The Social Security started. But when they left the earth, what did they have to transfer? If they did well enough, they gave you a house, you got daddy's car, and you got mama's pots and pans. With the advent of the 401k, now we got money. So now we're not only transferring um, you know, the property and the assets that we accumulated, but we're also gonna transfer an IRA that used to house my 401k that had 200,000, 500,000, a million, whatever. And now you're speaking to the next generation and say, son, what are you gonna do with this money when I'm not here? So the name of the ballgame is education because now we got assets, not just the house that we got to split up and divide, but now we got money that is either going to be the springboard to our family's success, or it's gonna be a detriment because we're gonna spend this thing like the lotto. So we got an education to be had over these next several years. They call it the great wealth transfer.$80 trillion will be moving from the hands of the baby boomer generation to the next generation. So you're talking about over the next 30 years, when you know, mom and mama's mom and they pass away, um, they're gonna hand you a baton. Now, we hope that baton weigh 800 pounds. We don't want that baton to weigh a pound and it ain't gonna last long. You know, so we're talking about legacy building now, where even in my conversations as a financial advisor years ago, um, they're much different than they are today. Because these folks over the last 20 years have accumulated money. And now it's okay, we're talking a lot about estate planning, we're talking about legacy planning. These are things that we've always heard. We didn't know what a state was. Right. You know, an estate we thought it was just like a big old property. We thought it was South Fork Ranch. No, it's not. It's everything you own. That's your estate. How are you going to protect it? You're gonna go to, you're gonna get a trust, you're gonna end up going to probate. What's gonna happen? We don't know until you get with somebody that's gonna educate you about the process and prepare you so that next, so that baton that you pass is gonna have everything in it. You know, and your kids are gonna be prepared to run with it. So when that generation comes around, now we're paying for education at the best schools, cash. We ain't going into$250,000,$400,000 in in student loan debt. We paying cash for Lil' Johnny to get his uh master's, to get his doctorate, you know, because that's what happens in in the in in other cultures. Right. You know, we're just finally getting, you know, our piece of the pie, and we now need to figure out, okay, how do we protect this? You know, how do we make it work for us? First and foremost, let's not lose it because I need it to last the rest of my life. And then let's let's transfer. So uh that's a big deal. I mean, if we don't, if we don't get this right, you know, we can't, we got to get out of the the way of starting over. I mean, if you just look at it from business standpoint, when when when Mr. Tate runs his business and Mr. Tate is done, he ain't got no succession plan. They closed the doors and it's over. How many businesses have we seen in our communities that are over, but we're competing against business that's been around 120 years? You know, we have to educate ourselves on succession, preparing people to step into the roles that we have decultivated for many years and let this thing run. So now we're in a business where licensed wealth management has been around for 80 years.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

You know, it's been around for you know a hundred years. I can, I mean, this business is right here on Dodd Street that I could tell you that's in the same wealth management business. And this guy is is like third generation in the seat as the owner, and his dad ran it, and his granddad ran it, you know. So this is our opportunity.

SPEAKER_00:

I I hear what you're saying, Earl, and this is so important because when you look at the uh what the experience has been, especially a lot of people of people of color like me and yourself, and what it has that been. Like it's been a a workforce environment, right? Blue collar kind of environment that you worked and you paid your bills, and then like you said, you retired, you got a social security, and if you were lucky, you got some kind of pension, you and you you you know, savings was like, you know, we saved for that moment in time when you had to use money to to save off uh some kind of emergency. Now the game is changing to where you're especially uh a lot more middle income uh uh people uh that have more wealth than they have from the previous generation. And going back to what I said even earlier about the education that we got even from school, if they only taught you to pass goal and only taught you to pass 200 and cut$200, that mindset has to shift. You cannot bring a W-2 mindset to a entrepreneurial adventure, a business mindset. It's a different story from when you're working in a business to owning the business. So now we're getting into ownership, owning your wealth, and then knowing these all these different things that happen, and there's so many different things. Understanding tax, understanding law, understanding, as you said, uh estate, when people pass away, and then who who is um uh responsible for these things, and it it changes the game. And if you do not have, and I know this, if you don't have a person like Earl in your corner that you trust and somebody can truly help you with this, to your point, if you have a consumer um mindset that you just take money and spend it, that is not now now you're gonna lose all that opportunity, right? Instead of like, how do I take this money and 10xit? That should be my understanding, and not just 10 exit like overnight. That quick, that quick get quick, rich attitude um um you know has to change. This is something that builds over time. Help us understand the values that you bring to the table, the values that we need to look at, and I know you have a vision around it in terms of helping people create multi-generational wealth.

SPEAKER_01:

Right. Right. Yeah, um it's very important to me because you know, I got kids, I got family, you know, I've seen the challenges uh for people who uh uh don't have enough money to accomplish what they want to. And what I've learned is it doesn't mean that you have to go have a six-figure job to um, you know, prepare yourself for a lifestyle that gives you an opportunity to support the family that the way you want to and to be able to leave a legacy. And I say that because, you know, I'm a big believer in that whole concept of the millionaire next door. You'd be very surprised at the people you walk past you who have a million dollars or more. You know, no a million dollars is just a figure, you know, who knows if they will ever spend it, how they're gonna transfer it, but it's just something that gets people's attention. But uh that can be had by being disciplined on how you spend money, uh having some success at investing money and starting early at investing money, you know. And uh, I mean, I got clients I have to tell them sometimes, I said, hey, you need to live a little bit. You got more than what you need, you know, and that's okay. And if living a little bit expands their whole mindset around, well, maybe I need to be a bigger, be a be a more be more charitable. I need to be a better giver, you know, because at the end of the day, we want you to feel good, you know, we want you to enjoy the life that you're given and uh be able to help other people. Now, I'm not telling you to go out and just give all your money away, but I'm saying that expand your mind a little bit and figure out, you know, if you're not working anymore or change jobs, go work for a nonprofit, do something to help support some other people. You know, all that's important to me because I can't take it all with me. I can't uh, you know, in other words, there's more value to me being a human being on this earth than just being able to help people uh with their financial strategies. So, um, but you know, like I said, it you don't have to be the business owner mindset is wonderful. Obviously, it's not for everybody. You know, I I talk about my mom a lot because my mother was somebody who worked for Mutual Omaha for 30 years and, you know, she retired. But, you know, I knew my I knew when my mother went to work, I knew when she went to lunch, I knew when she came back from lunch, and I knew when she was leaving. And that probably helped me say, I'm not doing that when I get out of college. You know, I got to go do something else because I can't, I'm just not that regimen to do it. But God love her because we need people like that. You know, but at the same time, somebody like her can become wealthy if they take care of some very small concepts. One, don't live on 100% of what you make. You know, get to a point where you can learn to live on 90, live on 80, you know, live on 70. And if you're a big wage earner, you shouldn't have to you shouldn't have to live on more than 50% of what you make. So what are you gonna do with the other 50? Yeah, you know, but it's but it's things like that that get people's attention when they start to put the the X's now. I mean, most people don't budget, they talk about budget, you know, but they don't really know where their money is going. You know, so that's one thing I try to get people to do. Go through what you spend with a fine tooth comb and then. Ask yourself, is that necessary? And you know, say, well, yeah, okay, maybe it's not. You know, let them decide. If it is, it's fine, you know. Um, but in most cases, people look at how they spend money and want to get a better grip and look better handle on it if it helps them one, alleviate m emergencies, two, create opportunities. Because you might want to start working, hey, I want to be a writer, I want to go write books, or I want to go open up a bakery, you know.

SPEAKER_00:

Um, you know, so what you said there, Earl, I think is what I find is most important, especially in the work that I do, that a person has to have a North Star, a goal, that one goal, something that they really get up in the morning, or they even they're they're up at night thinking about this is something they want to accomplish. And they know now you've got a blueprint and a plan that you're gonna execute and you're gonna get there. So if you know, if you're gonna go, uh, you know what, I want to go to Europe. I'm gonna go to Europe, I'm gonna spend two weeks in Europe. I know it costs X amount of dollars. Now you say, okay, in order for me to do that, I've got to do X to get to Y. So you like you said, you said, I gotta discipline myself, I've got to serve much amount, you can either manage the money you have, or you try to grow the money uh exponentially so you have more money than ordered to meet your goals. However, it comes out, you still need to have a goal. Whatever that goal is going to be, and then execute toward achieving that realistically. Like you said, you've got to talk to people. Like you told me if you wanted to go to France, that's what you told me. In five years, I want to go to France. But you're what you're doing and how you're spending your money, you're not gonna be able to go to Consul Blas. So we've got to look at this, you know. That's right, they talk about strategy, you can talk about execution, but this is where I think success either will live or success or evil or or will die. It's the habits and the systems that we've developed. And if we understand ourselves and take a really good look, say, you know what? I have a consumer mindset. I like to consume and spend. And if we really listen to a lot of the messaging that's out there in the ethers, whether it's on you know advertisements, social media, other things, it's really about spending, it's not about saving. How do you take this and create? I want to be an owner of my life, you know, not renting your life, right? I want to need to own my life. So here's my question if you had to give one piece of actionable advice to either they can be professionals, students, educators, entrepreneurs, trying to secure their financial future right now, what would that be?

SPEAKER_01:

Well, um, you know, I think that's a tough question because I I, you know, it's everything that helped me came from mentors, you know, being able to listen to somebody that can feed you the right information. And we're at a point where we need to be more comfortable talking about money, you know, and making financial decisions, you know, and our in in our culture um is something that we didn't do a whole heck of a lot of, and we haven't. And it's okay. I mean, even from mom to child, the conversation isn't even happening, you know. So let alone other outside generation generations or other family members, but we got to get more comfortable. Uh, you know, and I thought, you know, part of your question was going to this place of how I help people do it. And it all takes me back to the beginning, and it's it's trust.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Because if they understand I care about you before I even don't even show me how much money you got. Tell me why you're here and what it is that you want to accomplish. And why does all of this matter to you? You know, then we'll be able to figure out if we can establish a relationship, you know, because I'm gonna offer some strategies that, you know, might, you know, shake you a little bit because you know, things are a little bit different for you. But that's what success is all about. Success sometimes you gotta be uncomfortable at one point in your life. So in the beginning, you might have to be a little uncomfortable to be comfortable later. You know, a lot of people play close to the vest and want to be comfortable right now, but find out they're insecure in the future. You know, we're not trying to put people in that position, but I'm gonna at least be able to uh have a real in-depth conversation with you about um where you need to go and and what needs to happen. You know, so if if you're willing to trust me enough to give you the advice that and and it's the funny thing about relationships like this because you know, you don't know if they see you as an advisor or used car salesman sometimes. Yeah, true. I don't try and sell you nothing, but they meet a lot of people who have that mentality. People think sometimes business is all about, you know, uh bell bottom pants and white shoes, you know, walking around a lot trying to sell you a car that he got. And I know this is what I want to buy. Yeah. I don't want to, you know, I don't want to buy that. Learn about me first. You know, so there's things that I learned a lot in coming into this career, you know, that help me be successful, that I take in the business every day. And it starts from being trusted, being able to build better relationships with people. And then once they see that you're all about their success, um, then they start talking a little bit more about what they want to accomplish, and you can start figuring out how you can help them do it. So um, you know, being able to grasp their attention, have a good conversation with them uh is everything.

SPEAKER_00:

I think what you said is so important. You've got to get the information from a trusted source, yeah, and and understand how then to apply that knowledge. Apply knowledge is so big right now. The financial world is changing. Everybody knows about the technology world changing with artificial intelligence, but uh the fintech world, the financial world is changing rapidly uh in so many different ways. And so your traditional banking world is changing a lot of things. So if you're not on top of these things, and again, if you're not a technologist, you wouldn't go to someone like, hey, build me a data system and you, you know, and you try to do it yourself, you know, you're not gonna be successful. I believe that you need to talk to a financial expert around these things. These so many tools are out there now. People are familiar with Robin Hood, but just like any other platform, if you don't know how to drive the car, you're gonna wreck it.

SPEAKER_01:

So, so so I've seen a lot of beat up cars, too.

SPEAKER_00:

Right?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I said I've seen a lot of beat up cars too.

SPEAKER_00:

So or like you said, though, you didn't, and no one can anticipate, like obviously we had the COVID, and then wow, you know, that changed the whole financial markets. You had, like you said, the changes, the political system changes, like wow, it changes a lot of different things, different wars break out, or there's there's other other things that that affect your portfolio. But if you really watch it over time, which I've watched, is that it comes back. People get resilient, and the corporations get resilient. This is what buoys the economy. Governments are really the benefactors of good people like ourselves that go to work every day. Taxes only occur when you make money and then they get a percentage of it. It's us that does these types of things. But knowing how to work smarter, I think is very important. Understanding money management, like right now, and I still need to learn it even today. Understanding how to apply principles around finance, around money, and how to make it grow successfully over time, is something I definitely haven't mastered, but I would talk to someone like yourself, and we would have candid conversations about these things. I think it's important. So before I let you go, I want to ask you this because I've been asking this for a lot of my people that come on the show. How did you feel? First time you've been on the Follow Brad podcast, first you've got uh wherever you probably listened to a couple shows. Now you've gone through the whole experience. How'd you like your interview?

SPEAKER_01:

I love it. I love it. It's very engaging. You know, uh, it's good when you're talking to somebody who has um uh, you know, an understanding of what it is that you do and it's being and able to direct, I guess, the questioning to get out what I want to get out. I mean, this this message is uh, I mean, for us, it is is paramount. We better, we better get a grasp on understanding money. We got to have resources. I mean, it's nice to have a voice, you know, it's nice to have a vote, uh, but you know, resources are a big driver in in our success. And if we learn more about managing those resources, uh, you know, our situation will be much better uh at at light speed, you know. So I appreciate you for being able to extract what it is that you want to hear and what I'm able to provide to people. I mean, that was, I mean, I didn't have to talk about the stock market or, you know, how what percent did this, that, and the other. I mean, that's just so many more important things, but those are certainly the components in which, you know, I help people. And it it doesn't show on day one, but you ask me, ask my clients that have been with me five, 10, 15 years. Some of them they see some changes right away, you know. But ask ask the people I work with that have been around a long time. You know, um, they'll tell you.

SPEAKER_00:

Your name is synonymous with success. Everybody I've talked to, and they talk about it, Earl Johnson, they're sitting there, they're smiling. That that that's good. That says a lot about you and your company. Tell us how to contact you.

SPEAKER_01:

Um, the easiest way is lexiswealth.com. You know, our our website is pretty robust, has all our information there. So if you go to lexiswealth.com, you'll be able to find us in the about us section or or the contact us section. We do a lot of events around the city. You know, again, our our big deal is not only uh helping, you know, our clients with strategies, but educating people about what we do. So we're gonna get out in the community and do a lot of events to uh you know to help folks.

SPEAKER_00:

I like it. And how big is how big is your team?

SPEAKER_01:

Uh I have uh four people in my office here, but I also have advisors in Chicago and Atlanta as well, too. So the the folks in uh Chicago and Atlanta have been with me over well, they've been with me. They're both 20 years plus in the business. One of them's been 27 years in the business, and he's the youngest of the group.

unknown:

Nice.

SPEAKER_01:

You know, so I'm I got I got a brain trust of experience to work with. So don't think that, you know, I'm the only one, you know, printing out the strategies here. I got people that we talk to on a daily basis uh about you know how we're gonna help people. But uh, you know, we got like I said, we have people on the ground in Atlanta and Chicago, in addition to my four folks here.

SPEAKER_00:

I love that. I love that, man. This this is so good. We've got to get this right, and we will get this right because it's all about starting where you are right now. How can we move the needle forward? God bless a child that has their own, and I'm telling you, you have shown us uh the way, and I really appreciate you. I want to encourage your Atari audience to check out all the different episodes on follow brand at five star BDM. That is the number five. That is Star, that's BDM B for brand, D for Development Informasters.com. You'll see a section there on financial empowerment while I feature people just like Earl Johnson, who's talking about how we can move that needle forward. We need to educate yourself. This is free information. There's no reason for you to say, Oh, I didn't know. Yes, the information is there. You just have to apply it. So I want to thank you again for being on the show.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, sir. Thanks for having me. Appreciate it, Grant.

SPEAKER_00:

Bye bye.