Employee Retention: Raising the bar without raising their pay with guest Brad Bennett

Most owners think retention is about bigger paychecks. We make the case for a smarter lever: help employees keep more of what they earn and turn that momentum into homeownership. With guest Brad Bennett, we explore how cash flow automation can silently reroute pay, reduce waste, and build savings without the feeling of sacrifice. When people stop leaking money into subscriptions and impulse swipes, emergencies stop becoming credit events and stress drops fast.

From there, we go deeper on the housing angle. Younger workers increasingly doubt they’ll ever buy, which fuels job hopping and short-term thinking. Brad lays out a practical blueprint—education workshops with real estate and mortgage pros, mapping state and federal assistance, and employer incentives like down payment contributions or early mortgage buy-downs. The result is a clear path to a first home and a benefit that sticks, because it changes a family’s net worth and anchors them in the community.

We also unpack the business math. Studies show financial stress eats hours of on-the-clock time each week and drives turnover that can cost more than a role’s annual salary. Even a modest reduction in churn pays for the program many times over once you factor in onboarding, lost productivity, and team disruption. Plus, employers get a dashboard to track adoption and outcomes—powerful proof in recruiting when candidates ask, “Why your company?” If you’re struggling to hire, retain, or keep people focused, this conversation offers a practical, measurable way to create loyalty and lift performance.

If this resonates, follow the show, share it with a fellow owner, and leave a quick review with your biggest takeaway. Your feedback helps us bring more conversations that move the needle.

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Transcript

Welcome And Brad’s Backstory

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Hello and welcome to MA Murders and Accusations. The good, the bad, and the ugly of selling your business. We dig into what you need to know and how not to kill the sell of your business. Now here's our host, Rick J. Krebs, Mergers and Acquisitions Advisor.

SPEAKER_01 0:23

Hello, everyone, and welcome to MA Murders and Accusations: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of Selling Your Business. This is Rick J. Krebs coming to you from Haver City, Utah. And I've got a guest who has some pretty cool things to share with us. My guest is Brad Bennett. Welcome, Brad. Thank you. It's good to be here. So, Brad, um and I met, I want to say three years ago or so. And uh, and then we just reconnected recently. And uh he's on the cutting edge of something that I think is huge. And I'm gonna let him tell us about it. But what he's gonna share with us today is something that every business owner struggles with. Well, nearly every business owner, and that is how to retain talent and how to attract talented people in your business. And and what do you do and how can you help them? And and um I uh I'm not gonna spill the beans. We're gonna start though, but that's a little teaser of what we're gonna talk about. Uh and in selling the business, it's all about your employees, it's about the people that you have and the team, the management team that you've put together. And this is gonna teach you some mechanism the mechanisms and some things that you can do to help attract them and help keep them. And Brad's on the forefront of this, and I'm excited to share it. So before we do, I always like to have you share something personal about yourself and how you got started in the business.

From Sales To Coaching: Money Lessons

SPEAKER_02 1:56

All right. Well, how I got started in the business is uh about 25 years ago I met a girl. And we it was through the singles ward, as some of us Utawns wind up getting married from. And uh there was one day we were coming, I was coming in the church, she was coming out, uh we we kind of collided there, talked for a minute. If she invited me to her Halloween party, I thought she had interest in me. Really, there just weren't enough guys, and uh so that's kind of how everything started. Um I at the Halloween party, you know, I was in college then. I was studying for an exam the next day, and so I didn't dress up in Halloween costume, it kind of frustrated her. Right, I didn't come all Halloween and festive. Uh fast forward a couple of weeks, ended up asking her out, and uh, I go pick her up, and she looks at me, she's like, Why are you wearing what clothes? Uh apparently after a certain date in the fall, you're not supposed to wear shorts, even though the temperature is nice outside. So before we go to dinner, we went shopping, and I bought this new outfit to go to dinner with this girl on the first date. She didn't like your costume, she didn't like your clothes. Well, it gets better. It's it's I mean, we're just warming up here. She has so what do you do for work? And uh I said, Well, I'm I'm a stonemason, I've been laying rock for a while. My cousin, so my my dad's side of the family actually settled Heber. And uh my cousin, he's yeah, his shop is over there by Daniels, there in Heber Valley, and uh he's one of the biggest stone companies in the country. And I just I looked at what he did. I love physical labor, I love putting puzzles together. I really enjoyed laying rock, and I figured, well, I could build a business like that. Ernest Won't still is like, I don't want to marry Stone Mason. I'm like, okay, they don't like my costume, doesn't like what I wear, doesn't like what I drive, you don't like what I do for work. And you know, sometimes my mouth functions before anything else. And I was like, well, great.

SPEAKER_01 4:19

You're a perfect match. You sound like a perfect match, Brad.

The Debit Card Problem And Leaks

SPEAKER_02 4:24

Really is a perfect match. It's like, great, I don't want to pay for deserted remotely. And as far as I was concerned, it was over. Like, that was the end of the day. I wasn't ever asking this girl out again. She says, Can I tell you a story? I was like, you can tell me anything you want. So she starts telling me about her mom's side of the family and her dad's side of the family. And I'm listening to this whole thing going, uh that's what I want from my family. Never imagined she was gonna be a part of this, but that was what I wanted for my family. That was actually the last day I ever laid rock. Was well, that was a Saturday. That day I laid rock. There were two girls in the singles ward that I had been watching because I I I knew what it was that I was after. I knew knew what I needed in my wife. And uh the other one was actually the the assistant, uh Stephen Covey. So the next day at church, I asked her, I said, hey, are they are they hiring down at uh Franklin Covey? Because I know they're hiring in the coaching department. I said, okay, tell me a little bit about it. Um you know, she's so let me have somebody give you a call. So it wasn't even lunch, and I got a call that next day from Franklin Covey. Went down, interviewed, and I started selling in the coaching department. And during those, they did that for about three years. I consumed every bit of information from every one of the financial groups they were doing coaching for, whether it was Ron LeGram, Carlton Sheets, Robert Kiyosaki. Well, I guess he was kind of new coming onto the scene at that point in time. Um, I we were out doing those things. Uh, we had investment properties, we had all some of these other things going on. And I got to a point where I was just kind of done with the sales part. So uh my wife, she said, Well, they quit. You know, if if we've hit that stage, go to the next step. So I went in the next day, I gave him my notice, and uh, a couple days later, I'm in an exit interview. And the girl asked me, She's like, So what are you gonna be doing? I I kind of went through some of the stuff that we had our fingers in, and she goes, Oh my gosh, we need another coach. Great. If I run into anybody, I'll let you know. She says, No, no, no, we want you. This is an exit interview. You you understand? Just quit. And she was relentless. The next thing I know, I the director of coaching, the the future director of coaching, both of them are in her office, and um so I I was trying to wiggle my way out of it. I get home, Angela asks, how do things go? I told her, and she goes, Whoa, so when do you start? Like, well, I told her the we needed to talk first, and she goes, Oh, we spoke. Find out when you start. It's dear. Uh so when I when I started coaching, what had happened is sheets or not sheets, but um Tiyasaki, the Rich Dad port ad stuff was exploding. So all the coaches that have been on the the Sheets coaching, which was for the real estate, had all been moved over to the Rich Dad. And and so I I started with the Carlton Sheets stuff, and that only lasted for a few months until they needed more people over on Rich Dad, and and I got moved over there. And um spent the next seven years coaching the Choose to be Rich and the Rich Dad Real Estate. And and there was there were a few things that I learned that the more time that has gone by, the more powerful those lessons have become. It's not about how much you make, it's about how much you keep. Now when I first started coaching, I was young and dumb. Um, and Robert really didn't like income taxes. Still doesn't like income taxes. Um he he doesn't like some of the fluff fees that go along with things. I mean, he's very much so a proponent of professionals, have coaches and then pay the fees for the people that are bringing the value to your life. Um but but that was the some of the big things that I kind of stuck with on that, not realizing that it the first part was the most important. And it's not about how much you make, it's about how much you keep. Because that those are your employees, those are what create your freedom, what you save in paying yourself first. And then the the last thing was was cash flow is keen. So not cash is keen, cash runs out. Cash flow renews every single month or every year, or whatever it is. And so if as long as you have that renewable resource, you have the opportunities to take the next steps and the next steps. So after I left Rich CAD, um, I had my my vision, my folk where I was headed, kind of had it all mapped out. And then Angela comes up into my office the next morning and she goes, Well, what are you doing tomorrow? And I kind of went through my day and she's like, Are you meeting with anybody? Like, no, I've got to get these things done. She goes, Great, you're gonna go meet with my dad. Fine. Well, because uh we're you're gonna start doing what my dad does. I'm like, honey, we're already doing what your dad does. Like, that's already a part of our plan and what's going on there. She's like, no, no, no, no, no, no. You're gonna start working with my dad. No, I'm not. And and I protested greatly, and I laid down the law and I let her know how it is. And the next morning I went down and I met with her dad, and I've been working with him since. Wow. Now, is he the founder of Nest Depth? No, he is um Prosperity Economics Group is his company. Okay, and and that has to do with um a lot of some of the tools that that Tiasaki talked about on you know being able to create leverage in making sure that your foundation was solid as you were building on things, um, banking through life insurance, making sure that you have the right um cash flow structure in place, um, really setting yourself up to be able to jump into the the next levels of things. Um and and some of the things that I learned from that, or really I didn't learn it, it was more solidified in what I'd be seeing. Uh from what I was coaching, and that is that people truly don't understand where their money is going.

SPEAKER_01 11:30

And the more we didn't so elaborate on that, that they don't understand where their money is going. So, from a business owner, you have employees and you pay them. But tell me, elaborate on that a little bit.

SPEAKER_02 11:42

Okay, um I think one of the worst things that happened to us financially was the advent of the debit card. That was we begin to sever our physical relationship with money as soon as it got out. Um when we were kids, if we were to go work, um, you know, I at times worked on the farm. Um I had a landscaping business in high school. When I would finish work, I was either given a physical check that I had to take down to the bank and either deposit or cash, or I was given physical. And when I went and bought my first fly rod, I went to Western Rivers and I counted out$240 on the counter. It was physical. Like I had that relationship of actually doing the work, getting paid for it physically, physically taking the money down, and there was that physicalness of everything. And when we when the debit card came out, it began this the process of severing that physical relationship because you just swipe the card. And then his technology is gone. We don't even have to swipe the card anymore. We don't have to write out a check to pay the gas bill, to pay the electric bill, to pay the it's most people have things just set up on automatic withdrawal. Those auto payments and and it just runs in the background. You ask people how many subscriptions do you have? I don't know. Because it just happens in the background. Well, it's not a big deal, it's just a couple of dollars here, a couple of dollars there. Well, those couple dollars here and there, all of a sudden, before you know it, that's$250 a month. It's out the door that you don't even see. And you know, oh$250 is not that big of a deal. Okay, that's three thousand dollars a year. That's all of a sudden that starts to become real money, and and because of that, there's there's we become numb to it, I guess. Uh everything is unconscious. Our spending today is so unconscious in what we do.

Introducing Nesteps And Cash Flow Automation

SPEAKER_01 14:14

And I'm in that boat. I think about that, Brad. I'm in that boat. Everything goes on the Amex, right? And they get the bill at the end of the month, they're like, What's that? We're equal in that boat, and you get the bill at the end of the month, they're like, Whoa, how was that 10 grand? How was that 20 grand? Right. And you go back, you go, Oh, yeah, yes, it really was. But everything just goes on the cards, so we're all in that boat, including the employees. Yes, yeah, but and it's worse for the employees because they have less money.

SPEAKER_02 14:41

That's right. They're on that they they're you know, people talk about retirees being on a fixed income. As an employee, you're on a fixed income. Yeah, it's it's it's not like a business owner that expands the business, it's an investor that expands the portfolio. They're on a fixed income. They just don't realize. They were never told they were on a fixed income. And and so they don't even realize that. Um, and and that is over the last 25 years, I've watched the problem get worse and worse and worse. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:20

Paycheck to paycheck. Yeah, paycheck to paycheck, or you have the check cashing, right? Where you can actually get money before your paycheck. I uh I my son was working for a company and they were paying him daily. Holy case. Right. Yeah, depositing money in. Why? Because it was enticing, because you spend, you earn, you spend, earn, you spend every day. So tell us about Nesteps and why it was created and how it solves this problem.

SPEAKER_02 15:44

Okay, so Nesteps was created to get people out of the financial mud, being just stuck in that mud. Um, you know, I we talked a little bit about my cousin. The uh, I mean, Robert, he's the one that created the company. Aaron is the one who's my age. And uh Aaron, right after Robert had bought this brand new tooley for his company, Aaron swiped the keys and went up on Lindsay Hill to change the water, and he got this thing stuck in the mud. And uh it it was it he got that thing buried to the frame, so it didn't matter what he was gonna do. He wasn't getting it out until they got a couple of backhoes with chains hooked up to it to break the suction and get it out, and so we have to break the suction that people unknowingly and unintentionally got themselves into and be stuck in that financial mud. Um, that is that is the whole purpose of Nestes. So, how this was created. Um, a couple of years ago, I started working with a tool that automates your finances. So it's playing by the same rules of the game that everybody else is playing by today in separating you from your money. We just re-engineered it and reversed it to make your money sticky so that now you got first crack at it instead of everybody else.

SPEAKER_01 17:20

Gotcha. So hold on one second. So um as a as an employer, you have employees and they're like, Well, I need more money. That's that's in their mind is the answer to their financial problems is just pay me more, right? And as an employer, you're going, hey, I can't pay you more. If I uh I'm already compensating you, there's just there's not enough to go around, right? And and uh, and so what this does is this helps solve that problem because you're not working on the income side of it, you're working on the expense side of it and being smart with the money that you already have. And so you're teaching people these principles about financial planning, about money management, so that they can work smarter with the money they have. And you throw more money at them, you're exactly right. Yeah, I have this saying like you can't give rednecks money, just you give redneck, you give the redneck a hundred thousand dollars and he's gonna go buy a ninety-five thousand dollar truck and five thousand dollars worth of beer and it's gone tomorrow. It just is just send it.

SPEAKER_02 18:24

You wait, wait till you see that truck show up.

SPEAKER_01 18:28

Yep, he can't afford the insurance on it, but hey, he's got the truck, so it sits in the front lawn. But that's our point. They they just don't know how to handle the money they receive. And so I love that you're working on this other side of it because everyone's about oh, pay me more, give me more, give me more benefits. No, give me more knowledge, give me more experience and advice on the spending side. The income side is going to take care of itself. But go ahead. I I had to interrupt and bring that up because that's such an important report and part important point and important aspect of what you do.

Employer Benefit Mechanics And Money Flow

SPEAKER_02 19:05

Well, you're you're spot on like that. It's the paycheck is rarely the problem, it's everything else after the paycheck. And nobody understands nowhere in any of our education system are we taught how to be financially uh savvy, how to um how to put yourself on a path to to create success, um, or to even understand how any of these things work. And and as a result, an increase of pay, it it didn't help break the suction. All you did was slam the gas and bury it deeper. Because exactly what you said, uh, we're all wired the same way. Every single one of us rednecks. I mean we're gonna go buy that bigger truck. It's and and it it's and and the dealers know that, so they're gonna charge us for it. Um you know, and it comes back to the the uh this is what I'm trying to say here. They become very, very skilled at and they they know how to do it, their skills are improving, the general population skills are being left, and it's just not a fair fight. Um so like you said, it comes back to inflow. I sit down with my clients and we go through a cash flow exercise. Inevitably, I find five hundred thousand, fifteen hundred dollars a month that they should have in excess every single month. They're not keeping it, they just don't know how to deal with it. They don't even know where it went. And and it's really a mean question that I asked. Uh uh just say, okay, Bob, Mary, looks like we should have an extra twelve thousand dollars a month. In what account did you save that in? And Bob looks at Mary, and Mary looks at Bob because obviously they did it. When they both did it, they just don't know where it went.

SPEAKER_01 21:13

Yeah. Well, money just leaks out. You you buy the nine dollar lattes, right? 20 days a year, what's that?$180 a month just leaking there, and you both do that, then you're$400 a month just on coffee in the morning or whatever, but it just leaks if you're not paying attention. I love this. The best way to fill a leaky bucket is to plug the holes.

SPEAKER_02 21:36

So simple, right? However, everybody's reaction is I gotta pour more water in faster. You know, you you talk to any farmer up there in Heber. If they have a leak anywhere in their water system, they come unglue. They it is they will shut the whole thing down. You have to stop the leak because that water is. Their livelihood. And if it is leaking, that's money. And that water is so valuable. Um, and and so they're they're incredible at plugging holes in their their water system, but we're horrible at plugging holes in our financial system. And and so when we go through that that exercise, they begin to see, oh my gosh, there should be excess, but they don't know how to capture that. And so um, that's where we reroute and restructure how money flows through their world. And that makes all the difference in the world. It's it's kind of like um when you sign up for a 401k. If I ask anybody that I work with how much out of your paycheck for your 401k, nobody knows. The reason they don't know is because it happened first, it never hit their checking account. If the money hit their checking account and then they had to turn around and send it back to the 401k, you think 401k balances are bad today? Reverse the way that it is done, then everybody's 401k balance would be zero because of human nature. It hits the account, we spend it. Um, I I kind of joke around about seafood diet. I see food, I eat it. That's the dog that I'm on. Or the same way when it comes to spending money. So that is this the first problem is the relationship people have with their money. They don't understand they're spending it. We got to recreate how money flows through their world. When that happens and we we put that structure in place, all of a sudden, by default, they start to save.

SPEAKER_01 23:49

Gotcha. So hold on. So what happens is you engage with the business owner. Uh-huh. Right. And the business owner offers this to their employees. It's a benefit, part of their benefit package. Yeah. Okay. And the mechanics arc is I'm uh I'm an accountant. You get a I follow the money, right? So so instead of them getting a paycheck, they they get a paycheck into an account through your system. Correct. Now walk me through the money flow from there. So instead of it hitting Chase Bank, for instance, it hits XYZ system. How does it work?

SPEAKER_02 24:21

And it it is a bank account. It's a checking account that the employee owns, they control it, they have full like it's their money, but it's we have it connected to a SaaS platform. So after they meet with an equity architect and they go through and they see, oh my gosh, I should have X number of dollars dumped over each month. Then we program platform to send to the their checking account how much they need to maintain their lifestyle.

SPEAKER_01 24:52

So it eliminates discretionary expenses or reduces them. It reduces the waste. That's it.

Wins, Behavior Change, And Savings Momentum

SPEAKER_02 24:59

And that's what it eliminates. Okay. Because it's the waste. People have more money slipping through their fingers unknowingly and unnecessarily every single year than they will ever amass in an asset solid. And they don't even know it. That that is our number one issue in creating wealth is the waste that we don't realize we're wasting. My clients that have been on the platform for six months, a year, two years. When I ask them, what have you sacrificed? To have built the savings that you have. Every single one of them says, I have more today than I had before. My spending has become intentional. We put the money where we get the greatest joy out of it.

SPEAKER_01 25:55

Wow. So you control your money instead of your money controlling you.

SPEAKER_02 25:59

That it that's exactly it. And when you plan for the vacations, you you know that this vacation isn't going to hurt you. You it's so much more enjoyable instead of being out there on the beach thinking, oh, is this gonna max out that credit card? Or do we have enough low to do that? Well, you already have it. You you plan for it, it's it's built in, and you get to go and enjoy. You you get to have that fun. I got a text from a client earlier this week that uh he hasn't been on the platform for very long. And he was it was kind of this punch in the gut because his wife's car needed some major repairs. And he was looking up at his account balance. And it the text was kind of like we've put this effort in and and we failed. We it's we're starting over. Here's where he was six months ago. He was busting out a credit card to pay for the car repair. Yeah, and getting further behind. He was getting further behind. He was scrambling, he was, you know, all these things. And I responded, and I was like, let me help you understand the win. Yeah, it sucks because you're gonna take$3,000 out of this game. It felt so good that you got there. Six months ago, you would have been paying for that repair on your credit card, and you would have put yourself further behind. We would have been missing that 8-ball bar. Yes, 18% or 25 or whatever it is. And they said, Today you're gonna make the transfer, cut the check, and you're still ahead of where you were six months ago because there's still over a thousand dollars sitting in the account. Congratulations, you've just won for the first time in I don't know how many years in being control in control over where your financial life is headed.

SPEAKER_01 28:19

Wow. And and even a small win, a thousand dollars. How many, what percentage of Americans don't have a thousand dollars in their savings, right? And so this is huge to have this win. And then they start to see that money and they see it grow and they get excited about it, and they're like, yes. And they have to be intentional with it. I love this concept, Brad. Love what you're doing here.

The Housing Angle: Teaching And Tools

SPEAKER_02 28:39

And and what most people don't realize is being paid bi-weekly, which is the vast majority, there's three bonus checks a year. The majority of people that I work with should be able to save 100, 200, or more just out of the tube checks a month to take care of all of their needs, which means those three bonus checks should have been captured. If we're able to just capture the bonus checks, the end result at the end of the year, people are and fifteen thousand dollars ahead. Wow, just off of the bonus check. Say credible. And this is the this is a huge game changer. Um, so this is number one why we created this. People are are drowning financially, they don't understand how, why, uh, what do you do to change it, and and everything else that comes along with it. The second reason that mess steps was created, and and this is one of the I would say even the bigger vision that came along with it was homeownership.

SPEAKER_01 29:54

Yeah, tell me about that. We haven't even talked about that, but I'm really excited.

SPEAKER_02 29:59

So when all you I'm sure you know who you know who Sherm is? I don't. She's the HR Bible is what I refer to them as. I don't know them. Okay. So this is an organization, it's national. They do all of this research with human resources and what employees are looking for, what are they needing? What are they missing? What are they all of these things? And and Sherm, Sherm basically took everything that I have done over the last 25 years and quantified it, put the numbers to it, okay. Um, which really made me feel smart and good. Um, but if I was really smart and good, I'd have already had the quantification. Um, and the the crazy thing is Morgan Stanley, PW PEWC, um JWC, uh, surety bonds, fidelity, like the list of organizations that have have done some of the same studies, all came back with the same information, same answers. Um, reason I refer to Sherm more is because anytime you talk to an HR person, if you reference Sherm, it's possible truth. Um so stepping back a little bit, what they're saying is 60% of employees are financially stressed out. Um, half of them spend three or more hours a week on the clock trying to solve financial problems. It leads to lack of focus, lack of productivity, high turnover rates. Right, and the issues go on and on with that. So it's costing the company millions of dollars a year. Um the other interesting thing about the studies is they are now finding that the age 35 and under don't believe they'll ever own a home. That the American dream has passed by and they're never going to get there. Um, and those that do believe that they still will be able to get a home, they don't believe they'll get it until they're 40, 45. That's where the the focus is in how far out of reach home ownership has become to so many people. Um that's just not the truth when you look at all the numbers. Has it become more challenging? Yes. But it's very attainable still. So, how do you solve this? How do you help employees get a home? So that is that's where the employer gets to also be a part of the the story, the hero in the employees' lives. Um, a lot of the data is now showing that employees um not only are begging for financial literacy and some sort of homeownership assistance, 30% of them have said they would forego a raise if they got the other. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's they're they're screaming for a solution. Um and the problem that we can of is we're not taught, they're we're not given solutions. The A term benefits that we have today, they're great, but they haven't addressed the root problem of financial literacy and homeownership. That is why we we created net steps. We created net steps to increase homeownership. What happens when you have an employee that becomes a homeowner? They're anchored in the community. Yep. They now have a sense of pride and of accomplishment, they're less likely to swap jobs because they they're worried about making the mortgage bank. Being a renter, they're transient. Oh, well, I can just go pop over here, I can over there. When they're homeowner, it means something. They're willing to do things to protect that house.

SPEAKER_01 34:04

Yeah, they're not I used to love it when I had um employees when they'd come in and say, Oh, I just bought a new car. I loved it. Or I just bought a home, right? Because I know that they're gonna come to work. I know that they need a they now they have this payment over their head and it's gonna incentivize them to work. And so I love that as an employer. I would take someone who had home ownership way over someone who didn't. One, they're less transient, you're right. You know, they're they're staying. Usually they have families and they have obligations, they tend to be more responsible and better workers. So I love that.

SPEAKER_02 34:42

It's it's funny you mentioned Ricard thing. When I first started uh in sales at Frank Covey coaching, one of the first things they told me to do was go buy a BMW. There you go. And and they didn't even hide the reason behind it. They said you'll be more motivated to show up and sell if you've got to crack that payment. Dead serious.

SPEAKER_01 35:07

Um, so is Floyd explaining that. Is he a slawyer? Yeah, so just a second. So I find this very funny. So you have financial advisors telling people, telling their coaches to buy one of the single largest and fastest appreciating asset there is.

Down Payment Aid And Mortgage Strategy

SPEAKER_02 35:25

That was that was before I was a coach. I was on the sales floor and they had to hit the sales numbers. Sales, there you go. Okay, that that's a little less funny, but still, yes. But still, it's you know, we're coaching financial wellness and telling people to go buy a car. Yeah, that yeah, it's so so.

SPEAKER_01 35:44

How does this work? Walk through the mechanics of how it works on buying a home and how they help them buy a home, right? So, how this how this works 10,000 foot view.

Retention Economics And Turnover Math

SPEAKER_02 35:56

Um, we sit down with a company and we tailor the program to fit their needs. What what are the objectives that they're looking to accomplish? Um, are they looking to reduce turnover? Are they looking to improve productivity? Are they looking to whatever it is, we can tailor the program around that specifically so that it becomes an incentive base. Um the employer then is uh we roll it out, they come, they have a few rules and guidelines associated with it. If you're gonna get the down payment assistance or if you're gonna get the monthly mortgage assistance, you have to be enrolled in CAPFORF. You have to go to the workshops, and you have to complete the workshops. So those workshops are going to entail uh the real estate agents helping them understand what it takes to purchase a house that entails uh me or one of my other equity architects in in going through and helping them understand how the platform works and the power of everything there and the automation. And then they sit down with them individually and go through um the cash flow exercises and and set everything up so that they're in control. Um, we have the workshops with the mortgage professionals. The reason that that is so important is usually when you go try to get to get pre-qualified, uh the the individual you're working with, they look at your credit, they look at your income, they shop it to a couple of places and say, here's what we can get for you. What they don't tell them about is what are all the assistances that are available, state, federal, and so forth. There's a lot of down payment assistance out there that is available for the individuals to use and make it easier to get into that first home. So they're gonna educate them on that. They're going to help them find what is going to be the best ones for them to qualify for. So it's not just the employer potentially that's giving them a little bit of assistance, but it could be first-time home ownership. It could be, you know, whatever some of these other programs are out there or that. Um, you know, if if you live in the right area, you can get a USDA law on air pitch because of the community that you're in. Um, then there's some favorability that goes along with that. There's so, I mean, there's so many bits and pieces of a good mortgage professional that knows how to find all of the little things that are going to benefit the the buyer. Understanding title and title insurance and why that is so important. Um, understanding when you get into a home, what do you do next? You know, think of the first time you bought a house. Everybody I bring that up with, they're like, oh my gosh, it was the scariest thing that I ever did. It was the most exciting, scary thing I ever did. Why is it so scary? You don't know what you just signed your life away to. It's you're a whole new world of what's coming at you. Um there's so there, there's these workshops that think the employees through and to educate them and to build the team and to build the knowledge and the experience and to take the scariness out. And when you take an employee's financial stress level from a 10 to a five, they're no longer shopping you for a higher paycheck. That's right. Yeah, they become sticky. If you're offering, you know, a thousand, two thousand dollars for a down payment assistance. Well, if I leave, I lose what I've got here. If you're offering we we've had companies looking anywhere from$50 to$300 a month in mortgage assistance is direct buy down. The impact that that has on their wealth is huge. You know what the interest curves are like on a mortgage. Yeah. And you know, extra uh buy down in the first couple of years of that mortgage equates to tens of thousands of dollars on the back end of mortgage. Um they're they're building wealth. Homeowners' wealth level is significantly greater. Um and so what that does for the employer, you've reduced the stress financially. You just got a more loyal employee, you have a more focused, more productive individual, and you've created stickiness. And because you've solved their problems, you've helped them get into a home. Fanny May did a 10-year case study. Employers that provided some sort of housing assistance reduced turnover by over 50%. Aurora Health Services or Systems, they're back in the Minneapolis area. Over 25,000 employees duplicated that case study, saw the same result. Reduced turnover by over 50%. Wow. This is the most sticky benefit that you can give someone.

SPEAKER_01 41:42

This is what keeps the people, right? And and the employers are the good guys because they're helping them imagine or contributing money to it, they're giving the education that they need. Oh, I love this.

SPEAKER_02 41:55

And and they've eliminated the financial stress that allows the employee to function at their highest and best level. Yeah. And and that is that is the power that comes with the Nestep's HR benefit. Yeah. It it it's it's incredible the results that you like on with that.

SPEAKER_01 42:20

That's really cool. So we're getting we're getting short on time. Uh, what other things would you like the listeners to know?

SPEAKER_02 42:30

So the another powerful piece for the employer is not only do we have the platform, but we have the employer-facing portion of the platform. Okay. So they're able to see before they give any sort of a benefit. Remember, the rules are if you're gonna get the benefit, you've got to be in the program. They're able to see who all is in the program. They get to see their progress, the improvement in their life financially. They get to see, you know, who we help get a home. We they get to see, so they they get reports on their end to see the impact that they are making. When it comes down to recruiting top talent, and they sit down with the person across from them that's asking why should I come to your company instead of ABC? Well, here's why. They do they do this for you? Here's how not only did we provide the paycheck or match the 401 care or whatever else, but here's what happens to our employees when they use these benefits that we have offered. Gotcha. Will they do that for you? It's it is a very powerful recruiting tool. It is a very powerful retention tool. The program ultimately, our goal is that it more than pays for itself. Yes, the employer is going to put in a little bit of extra for assistance, whether it's down payment or uh mortgage assistance. Okay. But if you reduce your turnover by 50%, what is the impact of the bottom line?

SPEAKER_01 44:21

So that is huge. And that's what employers are telling me all the time. We can't keep people or we can't hire people, we can't retain them, right? But if they reduce their um turnover 50%, that's massive. What if what if it was only 20%? Yeah.

Rollout, Company Size, And ROI

SPEAKER_02 44:39

Just a 20% reduction. When you when you look at the Sherm numbers, Sherm estimates the cost of replacing a$60,000 a year employee is$90,000. Oh, yeah. You got to train them, you got to onboard them and get them there. The disruption to productivity, the it it flows through that whole system. As an accountant, you look at it and you're like, oh yeah. I mean, that you you jumped on it very quickly, knowing what those numbers are. Well, what if it was just half of that? What if it was only 45,000? If you reduced that position's turn, you know, a lot of people today stay at a at a company for two to three years. If you reduced one of those turnovers over a 10-year period of time, the savings more than pays for what you've contributed into the program. Oh, yeah. Just just one turnover. Or instead of every two years, it it turned to every three years. That would that's a reduction of one turnover. The increased productivity hits the bottom line. This is designed to be an investment in growth of your bottom line, your productivity, and your success. And all the all the data supports it. And I have watched it with my own employees, uh employees, but uh clients. My clients that buy in 100% and automate are crushing it. In comparison to my clients that are trying to outsmart it, that do it, you know, they they use the platform, but I'm going to tell it what to do, when to do. Or my clients that said, ah, that's not for me. My employees, my clients that say it's not for me, they're still stuck in the mud, spinning their tires 100 miles an hour, going nowhere. Just digging a deeper hole. Those that use it but don't automate it, they're better than they were. Mine that automated and bought in did it 100%. Within a month, they're on a trajectory to success.

SPEAKER_01 46:53

Wow. So while we're talking about clients, what what size the businesses can do this? Is there a minimum?

SPEAKER_02 47:00

So we one of the challenges that we have found with smaller organizations is their systems and ability to roll it out and execute. Um it's not that we don't want to work with them, it's that they they kind of struggle with doing so. We found that companies with about 100 employees or more, they they have more of what it takes to be able to roll it out. And the reason for that is they have more team players on this on the smaller organizations, it's the business owner themselves. And because they're trying to do everything, they have too many things on their plate.

SPEAKER_01 47:44

So it's a time element. So you could you could work with one that's had say 50 employees, but they're gonna need to dedicate someone to this for a while to just implement it. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 47:55

Yeah, and and if they have somebody who's able to help roll it out, yes, we could we can help them do that. Um, it's your larger organizations that um they they have the team to to do so, and it really doesn't take a whole lot to roll it out. We've tried to make it as plug and play as possible because we want it to be frictionless. We we we want that ease of plug it in. It takes a little bit of front-end work with us, we get it rolled out, and there's minimal as little as possible on the back end for it to to maintain and and to work through uh the whole system.

SPEAKER_01 48:38

Gotcha. And you have the uh you have the SAS, the yeah, you've got all of the technology, you've got that it implements. Um and if people want to to find you and work with you, where do they go, Brad? Nest Stepsbenefits.com. Or hold on, spell that.

How To Connect And Closing

SPEAKER_02 48:57

Nest like bird's nest. Like a bird's nest, any s t. It was really kind of a play on words, and we screw people up when they go to search for it because they put in next. Uh, but nest steps like a bird. N-S-T-S-T-E-P-S. Okay. Uh benefits. Um, or you can reach out to me directly. My email is bbenett nesteps.com. And we're happy to get that conversation going. Um, it's it's incredible the impact that it has. It's no see that excited about what I'm doing. Ever.

SPEAKER_01 49:40

Dennis, yeah, I can see that. Well, thank you so much for your time today and for sharing this with us. And until next time, this is Rick Krebs, the MA Cowboy, and we appreciate your time today. MA Murders and Accusations. The good, the bad, and the ugly of selling your business.

SPEAKER_00 50:00

Thank you for attending our podcast. We invite you to join us for future episodes of MA Murders and Accusations the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of Selling Your Business. You can also visit us at www.bsalesgroup.com or email Rick directly at rick at bsalesgroup.com.