Insider Secrets: How to Win in the Insurance Industry with Manuel Soto - Episode 3

Are you looking to break into the insurance industry or take your existing business to the next level? Join me as I sit down with Manuel Soto, a highly successful insurance professional and business leader, as he shares his insider secrets on how to win in the industry. Manuel reveals his strategies for building a strong brand, delivering exceptional customer service, and growing your business in a competitive market. Whether you're just starting out or looking to accelerate your growth, this is the podcast you don't want to miss. Tune in now on Spotify, Apple, and YouTube!

Manuel Soto, “The Financial Architect,”  has been in the financial industry for nearly two decades. He is the owner and CEO of TFA Insurance Advisors, which is headquartered in Chino Hills, CA.

Manny went from a TOP producing agent to a broker/owner at a young age. By following his personal mantra, “Change what you’re doing to change what you’re getting”, Manny has accumulated close to 2,000 personal clients and has trained thousands of insurance agents, registered representatives, and investment advisors.

What sets Manny apart from other financial representatives is his needs based planning programs. He does not believe in a one size fits all strategy. Manny knows that designing a course of action varies contextually. He knows that a beginner family has different needs than a senior citizen in their retirement age. His ability to customize these plans is possible because of his financial skill set developed through years of experience and study.

Manny is a HUGE believer in results based financial strategies and enjoys sharing his knowledge by speaking publicly. In order to spread the word on the ever changing financial industry, he often speaks at events on programs ranging from Social Security, annuities, life insurance, college planning, business structures, reverse mortgages, and many more.

During the pandemic, Manny also made a decision to franchise the financial planning opportunity. In this way, he hopes to expand The Financial Architect’s reach so that people all over the United States are receiving the financial knowledge they deserve.

Feel free to add him on Facebook @manuelsoto, Instagram @moneybusinessmanny, LinkedIn, and YouTube to find out the latest up to date news on The Financial Architects and the financial world.

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Transcript

Thebrandonthornhill (00:02.255)
Awesome, Annie, what's up, man? Nice to have you on the podcast today.

Manny Soto (00:05.353)
Thanks for having me, bro.

Thebrandonthornhill (00:06.935)
Man, I'm super excited about today. So welcome to the journey to win everybody. I have Manny Soto on with us today. I'm really excited to interview him. This is a guy who's absolutely crushing it, in my opinion, in every era of his life. And so I'm really just, I'm excited for you guys to get to know who he is, what his vision is, but more importantly, how he's been able to get from where he was to where he is today. And so, you know, he's a CEO of the Financial Architects, which is in 49 states, by the way.

he's the author of I Can Be Bought, which by the way, explain that. I Can Be Bought. I'm curious.

Manny Soto (00:44.510)
It's funny man because you know you and I both have tattoos so normally a traditional financial Advisor or financial strategist or fiduciary or a register rep They're known as these like suit and tie types of people So the book the the front cover the book has me like this and the left side of my body is with the tattoo And a watch and stuff and the right side is with the suit on so the whole

Manny Soto (01:14.050)
like, hey, anybody can do this, but at the same time, wherever you're at today doesn't mean who you need to turn into. Like you can always mold, mix and mold, et cetera. So the book was really, the title of the book was preface because like I own a franchise, so you can, I can be bought. So you buy a franchise, you're gonna get some time with me and we're gonna build a business, we're gonna make some money, we're gonna help some people. So that's really where the base point comes off of. So.

Manny Soto (01:44.435)
I can be by.

Thebrandonthornhill (01:44.675)
Well, I love that, you know. What's that? Say that again?

Manny Soto (01:48.734)
I can be bought

Thebrandonthornhill (01:52.295)
Yeah, so okay, so you, but let's talk about it then because, you know, you're a speaker, you're a dad, you got a 25, 23 year old, 14 year old daughter, so two boys, you're a franchise or like you just talked about some, like, like talk to me about because you were in and tell him your story of how you kind of got into the franchise world because you were in, from my understanding, you were in WFG, you were working with Ed Milet back in the day, which is an incredible blessing to be able to work with that guy. So maybe you could tell me a little bit about your story of how you got into the franchise

Manny Soto (02:18.150)
time.

Thebrandonthornhill (02:20.895)
how you got involved in WFG, and then how that morphed into starting your own company, breaking off and creating your own insurance business.

Manny Soto (02:28.970)
Yeah, great question. So I mean, just like anybody else, I had a job. And I clocked in. I'd get to my job at 7 AM. I'd leave at like 3.59. I'd do an hour lunch. I gossiped with the boss every day. I took a break. And I gossip again about the boss. I just did not like my life back then. I remember I was making a little over $70,000 a year on a W2.

Manny Soto (02:59.270)
I got written up by my boss because I disagreed with her in a meeting and I just thought to myself damn and how am I gonna feed my my then three-year-old and five-year-old at that time how am I gonna feed them and and Shelter them etc. If I lose my job because I used to fire people as well So it was like you know how the law of attraction is always working but I didn't understand that basic back then and I kept thinking to myself damn

I'm gonna do what am I gonna do? I wish I had an outlet. And I swear to you, like the next day, my cousin called me and this is total MLM talk. He goes, hey man, you know, we come to this thing tomorrow and I go, you know, what thing? And he goes, ah, he gots diary of the mouth, right? And he goes, this thing, you're my cousin. We come down and I go, yeah, I guess, bro. So I meet him at my grandma's house who lived in Azusa, California at the time. And if anybody that's listening is from California, you know, from Huntington Beach,

to call it to Azusa is not a short drive. It's an hour plus. So I go from Huntington Beach to Azusa and this particular type of multi-level marketing network marketing game, if you will, required a tie. So he goes, bro, you're not wearing a tie. And I was like, dude, where the hell are we going? And he goes, he pops open his trunk. He's got like three ties that plop open. It was crazy, bro. It was like straight out of a movie.

And he like matches the tie up against one of the club one of my shirt that I'm wearing and And he puts on the tie and then I'm like by this time dude. We're trapped. We're going from Azusa to now Pomona, which is where I initially met my let and during the whole course of the 45 minutes of the drive there I'm like, bro. What are you gonna be doing? Like let me out of the car right now and he finally cracks and he goes I'm gonna be a financial adviser

Manny Soto (04:59.730)
I'm like, bro, I just let you borrow 200 bucks last week. How are you gonna be a financial advisor? Already I was like set up to lose right so I get there finally he did one thing, right? He did multiple things right as a matter of fact. He drove I Couldn't leave and at this time Uber wasn't out right 2003 Uber was not out from from my knowledge and I walk into this meeting. There's like a hundred hundred and twenty people it's packed, bro and

named Badjami, they give me a tour of the the facility and I'm like man this is a cult. I can't believe I came here. This is ridiculous. Like I hope this is over soon and I swear bro from the very onset of the meeting like they broke the floor. I go into this room that probably held like 50 people and I remember I'm sitting in the third row. The first presenter was Mylet and back then 20 years

Manny Soto (05:58.950)
right now, but he had a tailor-made suit on. He had his initials on his sleeve. I had never seen a tailor-made shirt before. I was like, wow, this guy's money. And he came out just like average, bro. He came out, his little vein popped out here, his vein popped out here. What are you doing to become successful? And one thing really hit me, and I took it like a swan to water, bro. He said, you need to change what you're currently doing to change what you're currently getting. That blew me away, bro.

common sensical as it is, it blew my doors off. I was like, man, this is awesome. And I started sitting up. I was like, okay, forget the cold stuff. I'm really paying attention, taking notes, right? And the second speaker spoke, he had a double master's degree. He knew a lot about financial planning and money. And then the last speaker just blew me up. His name was Dan Charlier. He was his big six-four black dude. Used to be a drill instructor. And he floored me with a story.

said, you are becoming your boss. If your next level of promotion is your boss, just consider your lifestyle, what you get paid, what they do currently you are going to become as that boss. And I really started thinking to myself and I thought, man, he's right. Like I'm making $70,000, $75,000 a year. My boss is probably making $110,000 a year. Her boss is probably making

Manny Soto (07:30.090)
And when am I ever gonna make a quarter million, a half million, a multiple seven figure income? I don't have that opportunity. I have a good friend of mine and I met him through or I met you through him Calvin And he says the true opportunity is having an opportunity and that that is absolute facts man So what got me initially out of having a job to being an entrepreneur my first taste of entrepreneurship was at World Financial Group and

pretty much my springboard to financial planning, to entrepreneurship, to not being a hater. I mean you could put it all bundled up into one box. Like I left the old box behind and I had this new fresh box to put whatever I wanted to inside of it. That's what set me free at some point in time.

Thebrandonthornhill (08:19.915)
Man, your first exposure was with Ed Milet. I mean, come on, that's incredible. You're definitely joining. I mean, there's no way you're walking out of that room and saying, I'm out, like, Ed, come on. So, you know,

Manny Soto (08:27.870)
Ha ha!

Manny Soto (08:38.092)
I mean I remember having his passport or pass word into the back office. He was making about fifty grand a month then. Now this is twenty twenty one years ago. So kind of imagine to yourself damn here's a do that that. Makes multiple millions of dollars by- what two hundred three hundred million- net worth type of guy. And I. I met. Which is which is crazy I'm not

Thebrandonthornhill (08:45.458)
Wow.

Thebrandonthornhill (08:59.815)
Dude, he just bought an island. He just bought an island.

Manny Soto (09:05.110)
met him 20 years ago and I've been on a lear jet with him six times. I've been with six, seven times. I've been to his patent arrowhead. I've been to his patent court of lane. I mean, I've I've been all over the place with the guy just because I went to a meeting that I didn't want to go to with my cousin and it ultimately changed my life. So that was crazy.

Thebrandonthornhill (09:27.215)
Yep. Yeah. But, but also you went to the meeting and you were still skeptical. And you know, my, I've always known that the mind's like a parish only works, but it's open. And so you were willing to come into the meeting, at least, you know, cause some people, once they, once they find out what it is, and he says, he's going to be a financial advisor. It'd been very easy for you to say, dad, dude, I'm out and I'm in, and just allow your skepticism to, to hold you back. And you know, my mentors always told me, you're going to have a small mind and got small pockets. You're going to be a slave to your business, your job for the rest of your life.

So here you are, you made the decision to go in with somewhat of an open mind. I mean, a little level of skepticism, of course, which I think is always somewhat healthy, especially in today's world. But dude, I relate with you because my first meeting was, and I don't want to say the name because I'm not trying to bash names, but it's, I just say it's a very old school company. And they did the same thing, man. They brought me in, had everybody in a living room and suit and ties, and I'm like, what is this? I mean, I was still.

Manny Soto (10:17.147)
Bye bye.

Thebrandonthornhill (10:27.395)
At that time, I was putting students through Hell Week as a, you know, as a Buds instructor at first phase, but I was broke with a paycheck to paycheck and I was like, I need to do something. And this dude cold marketed me and was able to get me to this leadership meeting with this couple that retired young couple and they prayed them in and it was just like way too much for me. And so I was extremely closed off to the industry because I thought that was what all of network marketing was. I thought that's what all of insurance, all of direct sales

Thebrandonthornhill (10:57.255)
friend of mine who introduced me to you know one of my best friends now James Bradford and he was making multiple multiple six figures a month when I met him and so I remember you know do what they do have what they have I kept an open mind after I've been through that journey just like you and dude it changed everything for me so so you are winning because you still had some of an open mind

Manny Soto (11:19.190)
Yeah, totally. I mean, in that opportunity too, I don't know if you know this or not, but you can't actually get paid until you're licensed. So imagine getting me in, talking me into going on multiple training appointments, not getting paid for 12. I mean, my first paycheck was almost a year after I got involved in the company. So, so that's, you know, to keep the, to keep the, the organization solid. My let was just,

is just an incredibly special man in the aspect of not just are you great at sales, not just can you motivate rooms of people, but also have the internal fortitude to get everything together in one operation and then make make moves within because the organization was doing X, but he was within that organization just just crushing it. So it was it was awesome to see.

Thebrandonthornhill (12:18.815)
Mani, tell me, so how did you or how did Ed or how did that whole system work? Like you didn't make money for a year and you're showing up to the meetings. You guys back then 20 some years ago, you had in person opportunity meetings that you had to be at. You had in person training meetings that was probably mandatory. Like it wasn't just a casual culture. Like, like in order to win, you have to create a championship culture of showing up. And so how, how did they get you to continue to show up even though you weren't making money? I've always wondered. Cause that's something.

very challenging for people.

Manny Soto (12:51.810)
I still remember Ed at a meeting saying, Woody Allen says that 80% of winning is just showing up. Like, so that's what I did. I mean, I was broke. I was probably four flat tires away from being flat out on the street. And I didn't have a, I didn't, I'm not the smartest guy. I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed, but I have a lot of common sense, right? So if this guy's making X amount of dollars and everyone else telling me that I should quit

is making a lot less, then my natural instinct is, well, these guys don't know what the hell they're talking about. And that was something that I just picked up randomly by just showing up. So we had a Tuesday night op meeting. It took me an hour and a half to get there. Then we had a Saturday morning op meeting. And then when I went full time, it was Monday morning full timers, Tuesday night op meeting, a Saturday morning op meeting,

Manny Soto (13:51.770)
new in phone zone, like the more you show up, the more you're going to get, the more, you know, the squeaky wheel gets the oil, I understood that. So when I was just showing up to these meetings, I was learning so much, like a lot more than I did in college. You know, I went to Cal State Fullerton, and I don't, this is really my college, the multi-level network marketing aspect of World Financial Group was really my quote unquote college.

And I just felt like every single meeting I got sold the dream again and again and again. So when someone stops showing, I know now when their butt's not in a seat, they're losing out on all their goals and dreams. They're just forgetting about it and they're going back to the regular, the norm. And unfortunately, you know, that's what people believe that they're worth. They're not willing to show up and they're not willing to blow up.

Manny Soto (14:51.970)
Ed always had a very powerful message and every three months or so he would on purpose have a big event. So we'd have this Pomona office that we're all a part of and then every time we'd be selling the next event. So every three months we'd go to a big event and it was always larger than life and they put you up on the pedestal if you're doing great and they give you a pep talk if you're not doing great. So I really believe that's what.

kept me coming and then once I got licensed because back then in 2003 you need to have a life license to series six and a series 63 so you had to be a registered representative to sell one of their flagship products which was a variable universal life insurance policy which I mean now I mean I look at some of those policies man there were a lot of unfortunately sad to say there were a lot of sheep that got taken advantage of by by me and a lot of

Manny Soto (15:52.032)
what I was really selling at that particular

Thebrandonthornhill (15:56.115)
Yeah, it makes sense, man. I mean, hindsight's always 20-20, right? But here's the cool thing is like, I know, and I've been raised up in the culture of more meetings, more money. More meetings to go to, the more money you're going to make. However, I think for you, the power, and for anybody that's listened to this, that's not getting the current results that they want to get. Like, when you're getting sold a dream, you can live in your potential and not just your current results. And when you're with the more meetings, more money, I think, because a lot of people look at the insurance or the MLAs.

them or network marketing space and try to go off the statistics of well not very many people make much money. There's a high failure rate. Well, first off, I can talk about failure rates all day long on every different business model out there. I mean, you know, like the E-Mith, right? There's a book called E-Mith and 80% of all businesses fail within the first five years and of those 80%, another 80% fails in the next five years. So literally like four out of 100 businesses are still running 10 years later. You know, now the only exception is the franchise model, right? Which is the model you're talking about.

Manny Soto (16:52.414)
Yeah.

Thebrandonthornhill (16:56.035)
That's a 75% success rate. And so, and why is that? Cause they have men.

Manny Soto (17:02.491)
Last time I looked it up, it's over 80%. I've met Michael Gerber. He's a funny dude. He cusses like a sailor by the way, bro. But Michael Gerber, who authors that book, he got real factual inside of that book and his anomaly was McDonald's. So that's a great book.

Thebrandonthornhill (17:22.415)
Yeah, man, I mean, you know, and, and, but my point is, is this, is they have a proven system, have a proven model. So do you, so does MLM, so does network marketing. And the risk is not that much, especially if a lot of people, and I can't, I'm not a CPA, I can't go into it, but the tax benefits of having a home-based business are incredible for everybody. In case you'd be doing it anyways. But and we can chat about that. I want to chat about some, some life insurance stuff with you here in a second. But my point is, is people underestimate the value of someone like you who gets started

Manny Soto (17:39.381)
You!

Thebrandonthornhill (17:52.475)
business and the person that you've become. And now you can attract level of success that you're having in your life in not just one area, but it flows over into all the different areas of your life. And so if people would just not quit and they would just be willing to play the game and show up and go through the journey of winning, which is, you know, maybe not making money for a season of your life. And I told Ian this the other day, who sold his insurance company for a multiple eight figure exit is that they either have the influence when they first get started,

and they can make money quickly, or they don't have the influence and they gotta grow the influence, but either way, they can still win. They just can't give up. They gotta keep showing up and keep growing themselves.

Thebrandonthornhill (18:35.439)
What do you think about that?

Manny Soto (18:37.490)
I mean, I'm the latter of that obviously I didn't have a lot of credibility with my market I mean I had made a decent amount. I would call myself very average But I don't believe on average anymore. And I think the the primary reason behind that I Text my let about a week ago. I'm always salt and peppering him and telling him Thank you and I appreciate you and you know, he calls me sexy mech So he says sexy mechs. Love you brother, you know

always shooting me a text message back. You know, I think I heard his feelings when I left the company, unfortunately, and you know, I'm always going to be grateful for him and what he had done for me. But that's where mentors come into your life as well. I mean, all the mentors that you go through and the people that we reference, you know, I'm sitting here taking notes from you, bro. I've written three different things down from you because I'm a student of the game. I'm never going to think that I know it all. Once you think you know it all.

and you gotta go back to the drawing board and learn it all again. So I do believe that anybody can do it. I mean, everybody would love what you have. A lot of people, average people would love what I have. They're just not willing to do what we've done. So, you know, I want the cars and I want the money and I want the fame and I want the, how articulate this person is in the messaging. Okay, well, go to a meeting twice a week

for eight and a half years, eat a couple of noodles the first two years, think about quitting every single day, twice a day, get bashed by your mom, dad, and uncle, all the people that love you or you thought loved you, and then at the end of the rainbow, you're going to start to really get some successes and wins. And then my dad's in the conference room right here at my office that I pay the lease on. You know, I employ him now. And it's not to say that's a bad thing or I'm

to make fun of him, but that was the same dude when I was walking out of the house, I was renting a room from him, and he was saying, oh, Mr. Millionaire, where you going, Mr. Millionaire? Making fun of me. And now, you know, like you said, hindsight's real 2020. What about, what's up now? What's up now? I thought you, I thought you were talking, talking some crap. What's up now? You know, so now we get that we can get our bird chest out and we can start kind of really starting to chit chat with some people because of what

learned, but we would have never had that opportunity if the opportunity was never given to us. So I'm with that, bro. Absolutely 110% agree with you there.

Thebrandonthornhill (21:16.895)
And I love that. I love that, man. That's why you're going to continue to win in life and every area, man. It's just you don't come to the table with ego because you are winning at a very high level. And you just said like, you know, you're a little bit above average, did your way above average for self. So so, but that's, dude, that's a really cool story. You know, I mean, yeah, that that knocks people out of the box. And I think I tell my leaders all the time that the definition of a leader is not a pen or a title. It's it's really what.

Manny Soto (21:31.814)
Thank you, Rick. Thank you.

Thebrandonthornhill (21:46.915)
Knocks him or her out of the box or if what doesn't knock him or her out of the box, right? And so it's it's that ability to be able to grow that thick skin like you did And I love that man. I love that you freaking overcame literally your dad making fun of you And friends and family and I think that's a journey for everybody. I had I didn't have my family Talking bad, but I had some friends talking trash and so that guys like us though that fuels us doesn't it? It's like all right watch

Manny Soto (22:13.751)
Oh man, hell yeah, I'm like I volunteered now you just pissed me off

Thebrandonthornhill (22:21.156)
It's like, alright dude, getting on. I ain't quit now. Thanks. Thanks a lot. Appreciate it. You know, so, and then we're going to transition. I got a couple more questions for you and then we're going to transition. You know, first off, talking about people, you know, like you left the company, I have a saying, bless and release, man. Like if I mentor somebody, you know, I feel like it's okay if they want to go off and do something else and flourish in other areas.

Manny Soto (22:25.850)
Yeah.

Thebrandonthornhill (22:48.415)
I feel like if they don't flourish in another area, I failed, even though they left. I still want to see them dominating in whatever that space is because I feel like I'm in the people building business, even though I'm in a network marketing company, I feel like I'm in a people building business and I'm going to build people. And if they choose to stay great, if they don't, I hope that they go off and they better freaking dominate winner or I failed in my leadership capabilities. Is that how you, is that how you run your organization?

Manny Soto (23:15.990)
love that. You know, I don't think I did previously bring being transparent with you the first when I was in World Financial Group, I was more like, I read all of the books that it told me to read. But if I felt like my association wasn't that of which it was growing, like, I felt like the same company that set me free was the same company that was kind of holding me back. And I was more like fear and scarcity in that business

Manny Soto (23:46.010)
turnover. I mean, I'd say the attrition was probably north of 95%. And that's just horrible numbers. And when I left and I did like individual financial planning, which I did that for about three, four years, and then I started building again, just just recently and got a franchise option. Man, we probably hold on to more than 60, maybe even 70%. Last time I looked of the

get involved into business with us. And I asked myself all the time, why is that, you know, was it the stigma of, of the company previously or was it the S curve that it was already through that S curve? I don't know. You know, I don't want to, I don't want to over complicate things, but now I am absolutely on that tip. I love what you said, bless and release. I wrote that down by the way. So I love what you said because dude, I've told people in my own organization, get a job.

Manny Soto (24:45.950)
you bro. This is not for you. Look, we'll set up a savings plan for you. We'll set up an insurance plan for you. Your family is most important and you're just struggling to the degree that I just do not believe you will win. The reason why is because you have a bad mindset. You have bad working habits and if you are working 60 and 70 hours a week, I'd say you're going to eventually make it. But the fact that you're not, get a job. Just do your own thing.

get a job in. And I'm real about it when it comes to building people now because I don't just have them at my fingertips. I have the whole family in my mind. So I got to tell them something that is again going to be right by them.

Manny Soto (25:32.290)
So I'm with it.

Thebrandonthornhill (25:32.775)
Yeah, I love it. I mean, I think that the insurance industry, network marketing, like all of it isn't the problem. People are the problem. And even if you have a normal traditional business, you know, HR is always a challenge. Recruiting is always a challenge and retention. And so, you know, people like crazy, dude, I'm trying to find a baby sitter right now for my for my daughters. And like, you know, the way the way the current economy is, you have all these people that show interest. And then right before that, we've had probably 10 cancel.

Manny Soto (25:51.191)
Ha ha!

Thebrandonthornhill (26:02.695)
It's not babysitting is not the problem. It's people are the problem. And so it's just, I love that you're qualifying more people at a better standard probably than what probably you were previously if I had to guess in your current business. Would you say that there's a better qualification standard there now?

Manny Soto (26:06.571)
Yeah.

Manny Soto (26:19.850)
Without a doubt, I had this conversation with my buddy the other day, he's like, I really feel like people are just more ambitious now. And I said, no, I don't think so. I said, that's why so many politicians, they run data. It's all based on data and they run these questionnaires, right? Because the data shows that it's not, that we're definitely not making more money. There's definitely not more going on. It's just that our association is like,

Bro, immediately I gravitated to you. Why is that? Because we have the same energy, we have the same go, if you will. We have the same future. Whereas, and I was telling my buddy this, I said, that's the reason why you believe that most people are more ambitious now is because your association just got better. It's not that most people, it's that you are the people. You are setting the standard and people are soaking it up. So he kind of took a step back

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. So, you know, I said it before and I'll say it again. It's not that they can't do it. They're just not willing to do the work. So that's my thoughts on that.

Thebrandonthornhill (27:34.255)
Yeah, it makes sense, man. And I'm gonna have to turn my camera off, turn it back on here in a second for whatever reason. It looks like it's blinking. But I'll let you just keep on, I'll let you keep on rolling. I'm gonna ask you questions. So, you know, you talked about earlier that it's a cult, right? Like it's a cult mentality. Here's the crazy thing. And as you probably know now, right? Like as you've been building your business, everything's a cult, right? Like Apple was a cult, the military, you know I was in the military, that is a cult. It's their, they have what is called, it's their own culture, right?

Manny Soto (27:40.650)
Really thank you.

Thebrandonthornhill (28:04.535)
I don't really look at it, you know, if I'm going to, if I had the ability, like you did to join Ed, my latin, a call and a, and a, and a leadership culture and a personal growth culture and a person in a compensation plan with a personal development program attached to it. Dude, I'm all in. I mean, right now in order to join his irritate, you got to pay, you got to pay money and get mentorship from him. That's like, okay, if I back then, if you get personal mentorship from somebody like you or him and you got to spend a few hundred dollars to get involved, to get licensed or to get

Manny Soto (28:25.292)
Yeah.

Thebrandonthornhill (28:34.335)
a business opportunity like that's crazy why people think that even if they don't make money how there's not massive opportunity there you know what I mean?

Manny Soto (28:42.051)
Yeah, I totally agree.

Thebrandonthornhill (28:45.915)
I mean, because you run seminars for your team, don't you? Don't you have like trainings, probably monthly or quarterly or something? Cause I know Calvin, you guys just did a training like last month.

Manny Soto (28:55.270)
Yeah, we do four events, but soon to be four events a year. My next event is a summer sizzler, then there's a Christmas party, but we normally do a kickoff meeting at the beginning of the year. Everybody is invited. And we're not really looking for any outcome with that. We're really just looking for, to help people. I mean, realistically entrepreneurs need other entrepreneurs to springboard their careers as well. So that's the beginning of the year.

event. The summer sizzler is more like a client appreciation night where we invite all of our older and newer clients with their families. Recently last year we had it at a park, we had volleyball, we had a clown, did face painting, a jumper, all that good stuff. So it's kind of cool. And then our end of the year event, which is a Christmas party, we throw that every year, early December, just kind of like a celebration of the year. And again, you know, I invite everybody.

for it. I think it's awesome. I think having more people versus less people is a lot better. And then we give out awards and things like that. But you know, we run one, two, we run three meetings a week here at the Financial Architects. We do a Monday morning full timers, the like clockwork. Everybody's got to have a reset meeting. If they're not going into their week with what did I do the previous week or kind of like taking score, then they're never going

going to accomplish the goals and dreams that they set out to accomplish or not never, but it's going to be a lot more difficult. Then we do a Tuesday night meeting and this is more like kneecap to kneecap. It's casual. Our business partners get together on how to present case studies, like why one policy is was toxic for the client and what they should have made a different recommendation on with them for. And then Friday morning

Manny Soto (30:56.110)
morning meeting where we all cuddle up and get together and talk about some challenges that the company might be having. So if my office in Covina is having a Gossiper in there, I'm giving coaching on how to overcome that objection or how to overcome that situation. If my Claremont office needs more clients and they only did three clients this month and I'm going through, okay, why? Let's go through the five step sales process and see where you're lacking in that.

Manny Soto (31:25.831)
I believe in more meetings you said again, dude, I wrote this down more meetings more money I agree, bro, you know until you got your own meetings going on then you need to attend some

Thebrandonthornhill (31:37.275)
Yeah, 100%. And I love that. I love that you're, you're, you're, you're, you're protecting your Jim Rohn said nurture it like a mother or protect it like a father. And you're protecting your culture. And you know, because one negative seed of doubt and they're out. And if you start to have people gossiping and they allow it and leadership, you get, you get what you allow and you're not allowing that type of culture in your organization. And I love that. Neither do I. You know, I remember we had some negative, like literally almost seven figure earners and I removed them from our group.

It took a while with a lot of different conversations to do it, but they just wouldn't change and they were hurting people in their group. And so I said, all right, you're out. And I think people forget. They think that they made the system until they get out of the system. And then they realize how hard it is because the system doesn't nurture them anymore. You know?

Manny Soto (32:24.670)
Yup, 100%. My let used to say that too. He had a, this was back when CDs were popping, but he had something called how to build a big base shop. And on the CD, it talks about negativity, that your meeting has to be like a mecca of positivity. It has to be like, hey man, you know, how many appointments did you do? How many pieces of business did you write? That's awesome, you know, you're doing great. And once you get that negative person in the environment, they're more a hindrance than they are help. You'd say, I get them in my office. I have one car.

Hey, I'm gonna have one conversation with you. We don't need any negative dull disillusioned cry babies in our in our meeting rooms We're positive we we're going someplace and he goes you got to give him a checkup from the neck up man. I still remember Listening to these CDs by my let thinking to myself damn do this no this guy knows what he's talking about. Yeah, you know

Thebrandonthornhill (33:16.095)
That's awesome. Yeah. I mean, listen, it's, it's true though, because if you don't, if you don't like, if you don't cut the head off the dragon while it's a baby, it'll grow up into adult and breathe fire all over your people. And you know, it's, and then, and then you have to clean up a lot more of a mess. If you would just get it right away in the beginning. But I think a lot of people, they're just afraid of confrontation from what I've seen is like, one, they don't know how to coach people to they're just afraid of actual, actual having confrontation. And people have to remember,

Thebrandonthornhill (33:46.095)
you're in the financial industry, but once you start to build a team, do you like you are a team leader and you have to make sure that you're, you know, you're protecting the culture of your organization, you know? So 100% man. And by the way, we, we breathe so fast. We just been moving that I forgot to ask you the main question that I usually ask in the beginning, what is winning to Manny? Yeah.

Manny Soto (33:55.370)
Yup, it's a big responsibility.

Manny Soto (34:12.090)
Well, I mean, again, I used to think of winning as totally business driven. It was, it was my one track mind driven mindset at that time. Now I'm more like, what does the end look like? You know, what, what do I want to be when I, when I grow up, so to say, I'm grown, I know, but what do I want to accomplish during that course? Because I think initially, you know, Tony Robbins talks about six needs. And my initial need was

Manny Soto (34:43.270)
I needed significance. So I wanted to be somebody. I wanted to be up in the crowd like number one I want to always win the trophies and now I find myself more contribution. I find myself more like well You know, I noticed in the meeting John didn't have his work face on I noticed in the meeting that Erika was kind of down. She wasn't like paying attention like she normally is So now I'm assessing my people and thinking of myself

making them better and how can I create better inside of their lives? Now, obviously my, my primaries is like my own family. I share with my son, he's in the, he was in the Navy. Now he's out, right? So now he's going to take in his tests and I didn't ask him to, I didn't like go, Hey man, you should do this. Nothing like that. He's now attending and now he's starting to grow and it makes me feel great because I think he bought his own card and

He asked me for no money. He didn't, you know, he asked my dad to go and help him because my dad's from the car business. But the kid is like, like he's his own identity. And I love that. And I love to see that. Cause now it gives me confidence that I did a decent job in raising the kid. You know, even though his mom and I didn't work it out, it's just, still I want to have great kids and I want to foster independence. I don't want to just give them everything and then go, oh man, dad gave you

money and stuff. That's not cool. But that's my primary focus. Winning to me is helping other people get to the state that they'd like to be. That's ultimately our responsibility as leaders. We can't just go through life and be all about me, me, me. It's got to be like, let me pull this dude up. Let me pull that guy up. Let me, you know, and, and the right person is going to take that hand out and go, man, now that manages something like this,

Now I can see myself doing that and that's really gonna create a better society of people is if we're constantly like helping each other out Imagine where we would be in the next 10 and 20 maybe 50 and 100 years. It'd be awesome

Thebrandonthornhill (36:57.255)
Yeah, man. So true. So tell me then. So obviously you're, you're, you know, like I said earlier, you got a 25 year old, 23 year old, 14 year old. I have two 102 and two girls, by the way. So what advice would you have for me? Or anybody listening, but I'm specifically being selfish and asking for me. What advice do you have for me to grow to powerful Queens, independent women who are, who don't care about people's opinions in life. They only care about their own opinion. You know? So, so like, give me some advice.

Manny Soto (37:27.830)
and my my my fortune your little girl she's uh she's normally very like soft spoken I don't know if you've seen her on the gram but she's really like low key she doesn't like attention she's like whatever you want dad you know and now she's starting to come out of her shell bro how old are your daughters

Thebrandonthornhill (37:46.617)
One's a little over two and one's like two months

Manny Soto (37:50.010)
Wow, bro. How awesome is that? So my 14 year old now she's starting to come out of her shell a little bit so she's like she loves shoes like I do and I took her to Victoria Gardens the other day and I'm getting emotional just talking about it because I love my daughter so much, you know And it was just her and I so we went we went shopping and She's not like one of these girls that like I want that and I want to get this and I want to get that like like they didn't have the shoes that she liked, you know and

And she's like, no, that's cool. Let's just go eat, you know? And then we ate. And then while we're walking back to the car, she's like, thanks for spending time with me, dad. And it just, it got me, bro. Like I, like, it gave me like a little rock in my throat. And I started hugging my dog. I was like, yeah, man, we can start hanging out a lot more. And, you know, she facetime me yesterday and just got me emotional because I thought, man, here's this little person that looks at you like, you know,

Manny Soto (38:49.750)
are the person to them, right? And I think that when I was younger, I don't think that I thought of it as such a big deal where now I'm like, man, that is so massive, like so different things. Like when I come home, one time I told her, take dad's shoes off and she's real coachable, she's taking off the shoes and I thought to myself, I read a book on parenting and it said, your daughter's gonna do exactly what they're gonna be on the track, exactly who you are. So I was like, no, no, no,

I got, you know, I took off my shoes right away. That was like, no, no, no, you want something? You know, I'm like totally like hand and foot, right? And now the biggest and best advice that I'd give you, bro, is just to spend a lot more time with them. So now that I'm around her a lot, cause she's homeschooled. So now that I'm around her pretty often, I try and spend as much time with her, but I try and teach her something during that process. Like she's, she's read a couple of books

I'm pretty soon she's going door knocking. I got to put that on on her plate. Sorry to say but I Wanted to earn it. I wanted to earn it my two boys. They went door knocking that was that was what I wanted them to do and They had a little script. They they earned some money. They're earning like 35 bucks an hour bro under the table. So That's it gives them like an enlightening it enlightens them in the brain It it makes them do something that's uncomfortable so that they know that life is not just all

rainbows and roses. That's probably the number one thing that I would recommend. I mean, shoot dude, I don't have to give you coaching. I mean, I know that you got your stuff going on over there. So I'd probably ask you for some coaching too when your kids are about 14. I'd be like, damn man, what did you do so I could learn from it?

Thebrandonthornhill (40:38.035)
I think there's stuff to learn from everybody, man. You know, that's one reason why, because when I was in the SEAL team, we were going like 300 days out of the year. And so I remember just thinking like, man, once I have kids, you know, I want to be that dad that can actually spend quality time with their kids and not have to go to a job or have to be traveling for corporate America when I get out. And I didn't know what I was going to do. And then, you know, fortune came my way when the God handed me my opinion, one of the best industries to where you can build

cash flow to where you can have time and money. You can actually enjoy life. Like we just got back from a two week trip to Europe. You know, like we're going back to Europe in June, we're gonna take the girls, we take the girls with us because we want them to experience all that. And yeah, you know, they're young, but the photos are still gonna be the photos and the memories are still gonna be the memory. You know? So, you know, and I love the fact that you, you make your kids go doorknock because you're teaching them how to communicate and how to do sales.

Manny Soto (41:22.652)
Yeah, bro. That's awesome.

Thebrandonthornhill (41:37.935)
And one, I think that is a part of love, is teaching your kids through a little bit of hard knock, love, right, and making them earn certain things and creating them a money mindset and a wealth mindset and not just giving things to them. That's what so many parents fail on, but you're actually making them earn it, man. So I love that you do that.

Manny Soto (41:56.430)
Oh yeah, I'm not gonna stop that either. I'm gonna go ham on that one.

Thebrandonthornhill (42:00.755)
Yeah, yeah. And that story touched me, man, with your daughter. So, yeah. So, so let's, let's transition, dude. So, um, so, all right.

Thebrandonthornhill (42:12.715)
I wanna talk about insurance. You seen this book before?

Manny Soto (42:18.016)
What is it?

Thebrandonthornhill (42:20.117)
What would the Rockefellers do? It's about living, basically living off your insurance.

Manny Soto (42:25.731)
Yeah, it's blurry on your end bro that the cameras blurry on your end

Thebrandonthornhill (42:27.197)
So, so.

Thebrandonthornhill (42:31.315)
Oh, is it? It's weird because it looks good. You know, the crazy thing is every time I do a podcast, it's blurry or you're blurry and then it comes back. It's always back and forth. But then once it's done, it looks great. I don't know if it's just, I don't know, it must be the software. But, um, but yeah, I get it. You're trying to read the book. So, so tell me about, tell me about life insurance. What you guys do? How can you help? How can the average person, because there's a lot of skepticism around life insurance, right? So, so tell me, like, let's, let's remove

some of the, you know, the misperceptions of the industry, maybe, what makes you different, and how can they, and why should they get a policy?

Manny Soto (43:14.050)
There's several reasons for life insurance. And I think that life insurance gets a bad rap because there's bad salespeople. Let's just keep it real, real. I'll give you an example, like whole life, for example. Let me backtrack a little bit. So there's term insurance and then there's permanent insurance. There's only two real insurance policies. Term is like renting, permanent is like buying. Term, you gotta hand that insurance policy

back to the owner at some point in time, or pay a higher premium, permanent, you're owning it. You build intrinsic values, building equity, et cetera, et cetera. So if we had to give that analogy to a realtor, a realtor would take it and run with it. They'd go, okay, I'd rather own. All right, well, can you afford it? Do you have the right credit? Do you have the right down payment? Do you have the right long-term thinking? It's the same thing with permanent insurance, but you can get screwed along the way.

Manny Soto (44:14.770)
bad salespeople. So let's say I get a permanent insurance policy. There's whole life, there's traditional UL, there's index UL, there's variable UL. There's a bunch of different options. So the salesperson normally puts you in to the policy that they think is best and unfortunately the consumer it is buyer

Manny Soto (44:44.070)
started my upline and everyone in the company thought variable universal life was the thing to get. I mean for two years I never wrote one term policy and I got to be honest with you that was wrong. I should have wrote a lot more term policies maybe a permanent insurance blend with the term insurance policy and me knowing what I know now variable life isn't for everybody but it's right for the particular person that might be

Manny Soto (45:14.610)
might take it and run with it. Whole life, great chassis to run off of. You have a guaranteed income or guaranteed interest rate within the insurance policy. If you gave me a choice to get zero at my local bank in my checking account, or to get five and a quarter with a 1% dividend historically, I would take the six and a quarter any day of the week. Now, if a client believes in buying term insurance

and investing the difference in a Roth if they qualify, or a mutual fund or an IRA, that's fine. But again, it has to deal with the salesperson and the recommendation that they make. So what sets us apart at the Financial Architects, TFA, is we're menu sellers. This is how I've coached my teammates on doing the menu sale. They're basically just educators, teachers. They go out and they go,

We got permanent which of the two would best interest you and they go well give me both They give them a quote on term they give them a quote on permanent and they say well what kind of investor are you etc? Are you looking for a retirement plan as well? They're taught about all these different fundamental questions inside a financial plan Independent on the consumer the consumer says I'll take a term or I'll take a permanent or I have a budget of $300 But I'm 40 years old and I need a million dollars

Then it's up to the agent to suggest. Okay, you need a $800,000 term policy then and let's get you a $200,000 permanent plan That's what is correct and proper for the consumer but if the agent is totally Thinking to themselves about commission They're about to take that client for a heavy ride Or if the agent only sells term insurance doesn't sell anything else They're about to give the client

limited amount of menu space based on the product that they only provide to people. So the insurance world does get a bad name, bad rap, but again, it's totally because of the organization and the sales people that are driving insurance plans. So that's the three-minute version, bro. If you want to know all of it, I mean, Dan, I could be talking for ages on this subject.

Thebrandonthornhill (47:35.159)
Yeah.

Thebrandonthornhill (47:38.255)
Yeah, yeah, no, well, you know, I think that if anybody else wants to know more, they should contact you and we're going to give them access to do that at the end of this as well. And obviously,

Manny Soto (47:46.550)
Yeah, I have a YouTube that discusses all of it. So the YouTube channel that we have, the financial architects, I literally go through all of that in a 13 minute YouTube. It's not for views, obviously, because I'd have made it 30 seconds. But it's really for content. It's for a regular person, mom and dad, to look at the insurance and say, okay, I need to make an educated decision. Let me look at this video. And now they have a lot of questions

Manny Soto (48:17.551)
It arms them with a lot more benefit when searching for that plan because the fees will kill you in a permanent policy If you get the wrong policy and the wrong agent and you're putting in a ton of money You're about to get taken advantage of if you don't have the right questions behind you in your back pocket

Thebrandonthornhill (48:35.775)
Okay, so two things. One, send me that video and I'll put it in the link on all the different channels that I'm going to release this home. And then two is how do they know? Like who do, who can they, how, who can they reach out to, to be able to look at their policy and say, is this a good policy or is this a bad policy? Like, could they just bring that to you and you can say, Hey dude, here's a trip wires, like maybe you should do this or that.

Manny Soto (48:42.114)
Okay.

Manny Soto (49:02.390)
Yeah, absolutely. And again, keep in mind, it's a sale. So I've probably had, it's on our Yelp too. We have a great Yelp. I've had a, I have multiple people that had came in with their insurance policies and I've told them, this is a good policy. You should keep it. They leave like in shock. Like they're ready to write me a check. But I'm like, you should keep this policy. It's a good one, you know. And they're very few and far between, of course. But that's what we normally go based on is,

Manny Soto (49:32.410)
policy, I'll tell you exactly what you have. So let's say, let's say you're paying $1,000 a month into a whole life policy. I'm going to try and figure out what the internal fees are and then how much excess is going towards your account. The same would apply for your index life plan. So if you're putting $1,000 into an index life policy and your fees are $450, that means that $550 is going towards your investment, your index. That's the same

really high and those fees are going to continually go up so I would challenge that policy get you a cheaper one let's say it costs you $180 a month and then you're putting $820 into the index that's a better blend now you're making more money and you have a hell of a lot more play 20 and 30 years from now you're gonna have a lot more cash value inside of it.

Thebrandonthornhill (50:27.995)
So then how can somebody live, cause you know people talk about, hey, get a trust, you know, and then have the insurance inside of the trust and all that. But the problem is if you break the corporate bail, which you know there's a lot of, you know, I guess non-disciplined individuals who probably would break the corporate bail, then it removes it, right? So the trust costs money, like the insurance costs money, and then there's a break even period typically in the insurance, right? Doesn't take like typically seven to 10 years

where it actually breaks even or how does that work?

Manny Soto (51:00.430)
Normally the arbitrage years are right around six and seven years, normally, again, totally dependent on the agent that's designing the plan for you. But it also matters if the client's out of whack on their health. So let's say they have diabetes type two in there, their A1C is at 7.6. They're not getting a preferred rating, they're getting more of a standard non-tobacco rating. What if they smoke? Then the arbitrage year is more like year 14 or 15. So I would challenge

the thinking of somebody getting a big permanent policy in that scenario. But corporate veils recently, by the way, have been broken. So if I get a corporation and I can have my personal assets separated from my business assets, there's attorneys fresh out of college going, okay, well, who owns the corporation? Oh, well, I do. Okay, so you own all of the belongings inside of this.

Manny Soto (52:01.250)
to overcome that they create ICTs, irrevocable complex trust. I love on these TikToks and these Instagrams, so many different TikTokers or Instagram Realers. They talk about this is what the wealthy do. Really, do you have wealthy clients? Like I got a lot of wealthy clients. That's not what they do. You know what I mean? Like you wanna go, you wanna wring their neck. Like dude, stop. You know, so, you know,

were worth billions. I mean, so the same plan that they designed is not going to be the same plan that Bob and Mary Smith who Bob works at Pet Boys and Marys a stay at home mom, that's not going to be right for them. I would challenge that thinking and I would get them a cheap term policy and invest the difference in a Roth or some type of subliminal stock portfolio because they're not making that much money. Why would you kill them on a $200 a month IUL when

Manny Soto (53:00.630)
month term policy with more life insurance inside of that. So that's just, those are multiple examples. So yeah, there is something called an islet that's popular for people that have a net worth north of 10 million and 11 million dollars. The islet stands for Individual Life Insurance Trust. And yeah, it is separating their life insurance from their estate.

Manny Soto (53:30.350)
I have an estate of $20 million and my estate tax, let's round it to 11 million, that means that I'm paying an estate tax on 9 million or my kids are, and it has to be paid within nine months. So if I add a $5 million life insurance policy to my estate, now I'm worth 25 million, my estates worth 25 million. That's where you should take the 5 million separated from your estate, and that is its own

It's an islet. So that's why they create these different buckets. So you have multiple trusts inside of the design of the estate so that it avoids paying a lot more taxes at your demise.

Thebrandonthornhill (54:16.415)
So is that then, is that the only time it really makes sense? Is it for an eyelid or for some sort of trust, I guess you could say? Is 10 million or more in assets?

Manny Soto (54:25.405)
It's cool.

Manny Soto (54:28.250)
Currently, but I mean dude the way that things are going it looks like they're gonna Historically speaking the government doesn't take from the living they take from the dead So if I'm worth a hundred million dollars, and I meet my maker and my son inherits a hundred million I think he's gonna be okay if he gets 60 of it

Manny Soto (54:52.910)
So the government ends up grabbing 40 and says, thank you very much. We can continue to socialize some programs based on me eye gouging your family's estate for the will. But I mean, dude, it could go like, let's say, five point, let's say I'm single and I have an estate tax worry. If my estate is lower than 5.4 million,

I don't have to worry about that. I get a living trust it bypasses probate my kids inherit everything no harm no foul But let's say I'm worth 10 million 10 million minus 5.4 is 4.6 million My kids are gonna pay roughly 30 33 percent in estate taxes on that 4.6 million So what hedges? Estate taxes besides doing other sideways things a life insurance policy

Manny Soto (55:52.910)
life insurance policy for 1.2 million, now they pay off the estate tax and the government's not going after them for their estate tax. It's also known as inheritance tax. But you know, to each their own, every family is different. And to each their own on the future. So let's say, let's say I'm married and I'm 49 years old, do I think my estate is going to be worth

Manny Soto (56:23.030)
I'm 85. That's an absolute yes. So now I have to start making certain plans now that I'm younger so that in the future when I'm older and I've got all this wealth, I don't want my kids to be a victim of the IRS and unfortunately my foresight of being a good investor or a good business person. I don't think that that's right.

Manny Soto (56:53.170)
my kids into people that can inherit the money and then build a legacy of wealth versus not. Because you know as well as I do, in order for you to coach and train other people, they naturally look at your bank account, they look at your assets and they go, is this person a partial amount of success is wealth driven? And if I could help my kids to do so and create a better world, again, that's a win. That's why I love the name.

journey to work.

Thebrandonthornhill (57:23.635)
Yeah, man. Yeah, man, I love it. You know, it's, I hope that they do that. I hope they audit who they're actually taking financial advice from. Unfortunately today and social media, everybody follows somebody who looks pretty, who, who might just be an actor or whatever. And I think that this, you know, like the average person in the MBA is living paycheck to paycheck. It's like you're going to listen to this person live in paycheck to paycheck, who doesn't have a money mindset, who's still making more money with spending more money. I come on, man. So, Hey, man, thanks for your time, man. How can people find you?

Manny Soto (57:49.571)
Right.

Thebrandonthornhill (57:54.176)
So obviously, we have your Instagram down here, but go ahead and tell them your Instagram, tell them all your social media, your website, anything like that.

Manny Soto (58:02.550)
So my Instagram handle is moneybusinessmanney. My website is tfawealthplanning.com. You can also reach me on YouTube, of course, the financial architects. We post like tutorial videos and things of that nature, but we should be in an office in a city near you because we're expanding pretty aggressively right now. The franchise model is really taking off.

Thebrandonthornhill (58:29.835)
Awesome, man. Well, again, thanks for your time. Hey, I'm coming out to California this week this weekend So maybe we'll get that hang out come out the Newport Beach All right, all right. Hey, so um stay on because it has to upload first but appreciate you man and um, yeah Thanks. Thanks for your time again. It's really really, you know Everything that you said today was so spot-on and I'm you just poured into everybody. Thank you

Manny Soto (58:36.090)
There it is bro, we are for sure.

Manny Soto (58:52.690)
Hey, thanks for having me, man. I'll definitely be sharing this as well. I think that the title of the podcast is awesome, dude. Super awesome. And anybody that's looking for like, not a life raft, but really a hand up on success, I think that's awesome that you have all these great speakers coming on here so that people can gravitate to one, if not all of them, and make better decisions in the future. For sure.

Thebrandonthornhill (59:18.495)
Thanks, brother. I appreciate you, man.