The Real Deal Podcast
Unlock the door to success in the dynamic world of real estate with your hosts, William Gomez & Alfredo Madrid. Join us as we dive into the inspiring journeys of loan officers and real estate agents, sharing their triumphs, challenges, and invaluable insights. Your key to navigating the ever-evolving landscape of real estate starts here.
The Real Deal Podcast
#20 A Search for Purpose After Facing Death
Omar Amadea, a financial advisor who manages $250 million in assets and is also a cancer survivor, shares his inspiring story of redefining success, finding joy amidst struggle, and the resilience born from confronting death at the young age of 23.
Omar's firsthand account of overcoming lymphoma cancer will inspire listeners seeking purpose and guidance through tough challenges. His experiences and insights offer valuable lessons for those looking to cultivate resilience and transform their lives.
I think, when you're given a scenario where you have to truly, truly, truly face mortality and accept death like really, like we can cognitively, like imagine, that Did you think like you thought you were going to die there was a chance Whenever they told you that like, what part of you like?
Speaker 3:Because it could have been testicized right, it was spreading.
Speaker 1:It was spreading, so there was a chance. I mean it was, there was great protocol for it but you know there was a chance. I mean it was there was great protocol for it, but you know there was a d football player that passed from the same thing. Did they give you like years or months or anything? Uh, no, they gave me like odds.
Speaker 3:It was, it was high odds of like survival okay uh, and then you know we're here back at real deal. We have omar amadea. Did I pronounce that right? That's right, man. I know I couldn't spell it it. Even looking at it it was tough to spell. So, man, welcome to be here.
Speaker 2:Thanks for having me Omar.
Speaker 3:This is kind of weird, but Omar is somebody that I've just seen over and over in Tulsa. We just run into each other so much and I've always felt hopefully this doesn't scare you away, but I've always felt like you and I either are or will be connected somehow felt like you and I either are or will be connected somehow Like it's. It's been a really weird deal. Like he says, he comes up everywhere that I go. There's Omar. I used to go in and have breakfast at this place called.
Speaker 1:BBD.
Speaker 3:It's still around Great place. He was waiting tables. I'd see him there all the time. Next, I got to kind of see that he got into the financial markets and I'd see him everywhere and uh, it's just run into him in the random places. And just this last weekend I went on a hunt at out at the ranch that we went to that one time, and so it's a bunch of older guys and they're, you know, they're at, they're asking for money for some things and and which is cool because you know we want to try to support them, and so most of the people walk in and guess who walks in.
Speaker 3:This guy, omar, and I, and I know him, but I don't know him. That's very well said, right, yeah, yeah, yeah. And so, when we asked him all these questions for this podcast, some of these answers are incredible, and so I'm really, really excited to have you here and actually finally start to get to know you, because, like I'm telling you, it's just this feeling that I have that somehow I actually assume we would work together at some point or another, um, but somehow we're intertwined and, uh, we're going to we're going to be pretty good friends moving forward.
Speaker 2:I would agree. And it sounds that if you wouldn't have asked him on, maybe at some point I would have brought him on, because the same exact thing happened with him. I just I would. I well, first of all, I mean, you can't even play this. So I went into the bathroom and then I walk and he's walking out, and then we just said hi to each other. I didn't know it was him. Okay, and then we walk in and I'm like, oh, this is the guy we're talking to.
Speaker 2:And then I was having coffee with an agent at the collaborative. Saw you there, love that place and then I want to. I think I've ran into you there a couple of times, but I want to. Do you ever go to the three natives South, you know?
Speaker 1:I haven't. Okay. I thought maybe I had ran into you there one time and then it was not too far from BBD.
Speaker 2:Uh there, so um, but man, I'm super excited. Yeah, um, so now you're a financial advisor. It's been about 12 years.
Speaker 3:You're a man, so it's been a long time since he was working at that restaurant. I'm telling you, it's the craziest thing. It's been 20 years, 20 years, 20 years it has been.
Speaker 2:We've been running to each other in tulsa for 20 years, well from where, from waiting at tables at bbd to um to now, you have your own firm, you partner up with somebody else and you're managing how much in in assets right around 200 million $200 million.
Speaker 3:And growing. How did that happen? How'd that transition happen from going from weight to table. Let's get started there. Great question.
Speaker 1:So I got the job at Brookside by day when I was 15. So it was like my second real job. First job was at Cedar Ridge, country. I was a bus boy at the country club and wanted to wait tables. I wanted to wait tables, I wanted to upgrade. So you had to be 16 to get the job as a waiter. And so I I will be honest, I lied. So I was young, so I lied, I said I was 16 and started waiting tables there and then that took me from 15 to about 22. So that got me through college and that was kind of my hustle.
Speaker 3:At OU.
Speaker 1:I went to Oklahoma state.
Speaker 3:Oklahoma state. Oh, that's right, you told me that, so I would travel back and forth Good for you and had a roofing company.
Speaker 1:That's a whole other conversation. And so that was like seven years of my life and my senior year at OSU. I studied finance and accounting, trying to figure out what I wanted to do. I wanted to go do the New York Wall Street thing and try to get into investment banking and then got cancer was a big curveball and when you have that you kind of start to re question everything Because you know you're faced with mortality and want to make my time here on earth worth it and I was like, alright, well, I don't think my motives were fully pure with the whole New York thing it was really just kind of money oriented. So I started asking myself how can I take my passion for finance and my passion for people and marry the two passions? And personal finance just made sense. And so that's how that came about. And then Northwestern Mutual is where I started, which you did the internship with them.
Speaker 3:I did an entire summer of internship, which is basically cold calling a bunch of people that don't want to hear from a. I was 20 at the time asking them like what their personal wealth was. It was all that I mean I had to do, like this whole application. That was crazy. Imagine some like 18 year old calling trying to give you advice on where to invest your money, exactly, exactly.
Speaker 2:Alfredo has made that place sound like hell on earth Every time he talks about it. I'm so glad, man, you. I'm so glad, man you know it was a great experience and he'll tell you.
Speaker 3:I mean, like it, just if anything ever got me out of my comfort zone to just call anyone, like if you come to my office and you're like, hey, I'm having trouble calling real estate agents, which is what we do, I'm like, watch this.
Speaker 1:I'll do it right now.
Speaker 3:And it was that that made me able to do that.
Speaker 1:It forces that out of you.
Speaker 2:It of you, it really does. So talk to me about that. You, we kind of just, and I, I honestly even I remember reading that, but, um, you just kind of reminded me. So what, how old were you and how long? How long did you have it for? I'm assuming, when did you beat it Like? Walk me through that. That's crazy to me so 2010,.
Speaker 1:I was playing rugby and that was like the first time I had felt a symptom. So I remember I had a longer run. I got tackled and I got up and it wasn't like a contact tackle. He just kind of pulled me down and I got up and I got super lightheaded and I just like I fell from vertigo. It wasn't because of the impact and I was like that's so weird. And from that point on, I was just like I kept getting dizzy and I just kept getting general fatigue and weakness. So I started getting some diagnostics done and trying to figure out what's going on. Finally, all the doctors were like you're fine, You're young, Just eat right, Stay active. And I just knew something was off. I just knew it, but I quit searching for it.
Speaker 1:And then, about six months later, in March of 2011, I was playing basketball and I started to develop like this horrible pain right here in my chest and it would only happen when I would breathe. So it was like it was specific to like breathing and I went to the ER and said I just need you to scan right here. And they scanned it and it was an x-ray and at this point I had not seen a doctor. And then they said, hey, we want to do a CAT scan. And then after the CAT scan, the doctor came in and she was like, hey, and I was thinking it was just like a dislocated rib or something. And she was like, hey, are your parents around? And she wanted them there. I was like, hey, just hit me with whatever it could be. Like, did I break a rib? And she's like, no, we think you have cancer. And uh, crazy to hear those words at at 20, at 23. And so that started a whole new season of my life and a whole new journey.
Speaker 1:What kind of cancer? What was it? It was lymphoma, yeah, so it was all in my lymph nodes. It was like a stage three, so not fully stage four. It was on, I think, all upper hemisphere and then one side of my lower hemisphere.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, and how long was it until you beat it? Yeah, so that was.
Speaker 1:March. Uh, I was a senior in college, so I asked my oncologist hey, can I go and just graduate college and then we can start treatment? Cause I'm I want to finish this season, and he was like the quicker the better, but I think we'll be fine in two months. Uh, cause I wanted my hair for my pictures, Cause I knew I'd lose it, and I ended up losing it anyway. But that's a whole other conversation.
Speaker 3:That's heavy.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So in May, and after eight treatments of two months, it was completely gone and that permission, remission he wanted to.
Speaker 1:The protocol was six months, so we ended up going. We had met in the middle of four. I didn't want to subject my body to all that chemotherapy. So four months of chemo after two months it was gone. Wow yeah, and I just God, I mean I, I, I don't know he worked it. I think it was maybe gone before, I don't know. But it was definitely a season where I really really really stepped into that faith.
Speaker 3:Well, in in, there's like so much to unpack. I don't know that we have time.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:We might so cause. I want to continue to talk about this season of your life, but the whole faith thing. You used to be Muslim and you are now Christian. When did that happen?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so the faith that came out of the religion is called Druze. It's like a sect of Islam. It's a Middle Eastern religion. Great people, great morals. But I had so many questions growing up.
Speaker 1:My mom always said that I always was asking about God. And when I was a senior in high school I got invited to a church here in town and it made sense Uh, all, they had a big impact on the youth big youth group, kind of like one 80. So I went and I went for the people and the pizza and the sports and after three months of going there, um, it all made sense and I was like how can anyone hear this and not want it? And it really just answered a lot of questions that I had as a 17 year old, 18 year old guy, how did that go over with your family.
Speaker 1:It was a tough pill to swallow for both of my parents. My dad didn't talk to me for probably two to three months. He was just upset. I mean, could you imagine?
Speaker 3:Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:I know you guys are are strong in your faith if one of your kids decided to do something else. So it all really came full circle. When I got sick, you know, because that was a big deal for our family and my dad, we were sitting on the back porch, I remember it, and he's like I just need you to get better and if you want to worship a rock, I support that. So whatever your faith choice is a rock I support that. So, whatever your faith choices, like, I'm with you.
Speaker 3:Wow, and that's been it and um, it's been a fun journey and you really felt that God really moved in those two months, in that time. I mean it's almost unexplainable, right.
Speaker 1:It's unbelievable, like there was a full surrender cause. You have to get there, I think, to beat something like that. Um, yeah, I've got some really cool stories.
Speaker 3:I'll tell you one super, super quick no, you don't have to be quick man. I love this.
Speaker 1:This is great so, yeah, I was praying and meditating for for hours a day. It was it's the most dialed in I've ever been um, going on extended fast, like what the Buddhists would call Zen, like I was there, I was completely. I was dead, but in a good way. I remember there was a time where I didn't look in the mirror, for it was like two months. I got from just like it doesn't matter, you know. So I was with some buddies praying, had a great group of friends that rallied around me and this was like probably 11 pm or maybe even around midnight on a Friday night and I felt the Lord kind of give me an image, it was like an impression, and I needed to go to 61st and Peoria at night on a Friday and there was a black guy wearing a white shirt walking west and I needed to go have an interaction with him. So at that point in my life I was doing everything that I felt like I should do, like I was really acting on those things, so I hopped in my Jeep.
Speaker 3:My buddy came with me Wait a minute. So you hadn't seen this guy. The impression was that you were going to see a black guy in a white shirt walking west. Yes, okay, okay.
Speaker 1:So I hopped in my car, my buddy came in with me and we're driving down 61st, past Lewis on the way to Peoria. There he is on the North side of the road walking West and uh, I was like, all right, let's go. So I got out and I said hey, do you need anything? He was very defensive, asked me to leave him alone. I said can I give you a ride? Like it's late? He's like, brother, just leave me alone, like mind your business. And then I said here's the deal, man, I was at home praying and God told me to come meet you and his guard came down. He's like all right, can you give me a ride? I said to get in. So he hopped in the front seat, my buddy went to the back and we're just hanging out you know I'm trying to build some rapport put on some good music and asking him some questions so he begins to open up. So he worked at Steak and Shake on 61st Memorial and he would have to walk home across the river to West Tulsa a few times a week because no one could give him a ride.
Speaker 1:Dad was in prison. Mom was on drugs, girlfriend just left him. Dad was in prison, mom was on drugs. Girlfriend just left him. He was probably 20, 21. And so we transitioned to the faith conversation and he's like, yeah, I've kind of strayed away this and that. And I said, man, you need anything, just let me know. So we get to his house and I say, hey, would you by any chance want to rededicate your life to Christ? And he says, yeah, let's do it. So he prays, he gets all excited. You can tell that the weight has kind of been lifted and he's getting out of the car. And then he gets back in. He says, man, you're not going to believe this. I said, well, what's what you got? He's like three or four times a week I walk home and life has been super tough. I walk across this bridge, uh, the Riverside bridge, uh, a few times a week and I always think about jumping, jumping off. Tonight was the night I was going to do it. Yeah, wow, that gave me chills man.
Speaker 1:I mean, that's the one of the coolest things I've been a part of. Uh, and it was not me, it was just just saying yes and going and being a little uncomfortable. So yeah, and there were several stories like that.
Speaker 3:There were several stories me. It was just just saying yes and going and being a little uncomfortable that's amazing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and there were several stories like that there were several stories like that, and so that's what happens when you listen so how?
Speaker 3:I mean I'm hogging all the questions here, but but how did that season change you?
Speaker 3:you know there's some obvious ways that we all think that something like that happening to us would change us. But in retrospect, looking back, I've learned that those hard seasons in our life is what makes us who we truly are and where we learn. But I can't, I can't really put myself in your shoes here. I just can't do it. I can imagine it, I can whatever, but what is it you think that changed the most for you, who you are today?
Speaker 1:I think, when you're given a scenario where you have to truly, truly, truly face mortality and accept death like really, like we can cognitively, like imagine, that Did you think like you thought you were going to die Like whenever they told you that like, what part of you like?
Speaker 3:cause it could have metastasized right it was spreading.
Speaker 1:It was spreading, so there was a chance. I mean, I mean it was, there was great protocol for it, but you know, there was a tf football player that passed from the same thing did they give you like years or months or anything? Uh, no, they gave me like odds. It was, it was high odds of like survival, okay, uh, and then you know there was a local pastor that that died of lymphoma. Um, and although like odds were in my favor, like I can't say that I wasn't scared.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I've had a 5% chance of dying.
Speaker 1:I'd be really, really, yeah, it was it was high, it was probably 25, I think, something like that. So, uh, one out of four. And so you know you had to accept that and you had to be okay with that and I think once you can do that, you really start to live and I don't think I've had a bad day, since that's amazing. Definitely not two bad days in a row.
Speaker 2:I'll give myself one bad day Are your parents still Muslim?
Speaker 1:My mom became a Christian on her deathbed. Oh wow, I got the opportunity to pray with her.
Speaker 3:On top of all this, your mom has passed as well, since 2019.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think the hardest thing in life is to leave, lose a good mother yeah you know, some people don't have a good mother, but I had a great mother. It was very difficult, wow, but you know we'll see her again.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah so when, when you were going through that season, you know, I feel like us three even have similar personalities in the sense that we are just on this mission to accomplish right, like we're wanting to get, I see you as a serial entrepreneur. You're just trying to like, you know, and Will's, you know. I remember being Will's age. I'm older than Will.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but I remember the feeling. I'm sorry I felt old. He just turned 31.
Speaker 3:Will's very like milestone based, like he's like what have I accomplished by this age? And I remember at him as his age telling somebody at one point being like I just I feel like I haven't accomplished what I should have at this point in my life.
Speaker 3:Like I haven't got enough there, and I feel that's one of the things that I would struggle with the most at that point that I'm like facing potentially, like you said, mortality and being like, but I haven't done what I've wanted to do. And so how? How was that? Because, because I know you, you, you have like three or four businesses right now accomplishing a lot. Uh, I feel like it's just the beginning for you, like you got so much more to go. What did that feel like?
Speaker 1:You know that's the tug of war I have internally is balancing my goals with what I learned during that season, Because that's the happiest I've ever been.
Speaker 3:What's the?
Speaker 1:happiest you've ever been when I was sick.
Speaker 2:Well, I think you're asking how he handled it when he found out he was sick, correct?
Speaker 3:Yeah, but hold on. What do you mean? It's the happiest you've ever been.
Speaker 1:That's the most joy I think I've ever had. While you were sick because every day meant so much and I'm going to take a wild guess. I mean I'm a happy guy now, but like no, you are, I've never.
Speaker 3:I've never ran into you and you're just.
Speaker 1:It's not compared. There's nothing compared to that and I'm going to take a wild guess it's.
Speaker 2:I can imagine, like the way that I am, if that happened to me, all those milestones that would be out the window, that would be for me, that would be out the window, so I can see why you're saying that. So, but how has that helped you now as far as like, do you not kind of? Is it easy for you to not compare yourself or not look in the mirror and be like man? You know, we could be 300 million, or whatever.
Speaker 1:Like how has that helped you? That's a great question. Um, both of them were were solid questions. So I think everything from here on out is kind of like icing on the cake. You know is kind of like icing on the cake, you know. That's what changed was the value and the meaning comes from living life well and making an impact. And so the goals and the finances and the business growth, when you remove and you have a season where you've kind of had to fully resign to yourself, you know the goals and the objectives and the growth and the money I think is just extra, and if you can get yourself to not compare, it's a lot more fun along the way. So I would say that's what happened, like I don't look to my left or to my right, I have my goals, I have my reasons, I'm doing them and it's to make impact and it's just a lot more fun to do it that way.
Speaker 3:I feel that a lot of the pressures that I have are from not necessarily pleasing myself, but accomplishing things so that others see what I have accomplished. That's not, yeah, and that's why I'm so intrigued by you saying that was the habit, because I could see myself in a situation like that, almost being at peace with it, because I'm not like, I'm not in control of that.
Speaker 1:Like when I get on a plane I don't get.
Speaker 3:I don't have any fear of being on a plane. I don't have any fear of being in a passenger in a car because, at the end of the day, if that plane crashes, that car crash, it wasn't my fault. Sure, I didn't do it. And I feel like there's a lot of things that I approach that way and I I'm like I said, I really like what you said about. I want to hear more about it. How you said that was the happiest I've ever been 100%, because at that point all those things melted away, it didn't matter anymore.
Speaker 1:That's very well said. They melted away, they just kind of fell off.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and it just goes to show you can choose that now.
Speaker 2:Like I got home yesterday.
Speaker 3:My wife has this cat and I don't like cats and the deal was if she got a cat it had to stay at the barn. We have this big barn and I'm like it has to stay at the barn. Okay, fine, we need it for my she. She claims barn cat barn cat we have to have it. You can't not have a cat if you have a barn, but anyways so this cat has slowly, but the water was out on our patio and I'm like you said it was the barn.
Speaker 3:Now it's cold outside, so it has to go into the garage, okay, and so it's tearing up the garage a little bit, whatever. Then I'm sitting in the house all the time well, yesterday I get home and the cat is sitting on our island and it's literally. We have this little filtered water spout and it's literally there just drinking from the little filtered water spout, from the filtered water yeah, like it's just like.
Speaker 3:Well, right, it's like the little filtered water and and it's just like it was such a hard stop for me of just it, just my attitude. I was like you know what, I gotta go and run or do something I gotta get out of here and now and because it just causes this fight and this. But it did what does it matter? Like I like that kind of stuff.
Speaker 3:I just gotta learn to. Just you know, is this why is my drawing these lines in the sand, and that's what I feel you're talking about? Is that you, those lines all like, disappeared to?
Speaker 1:try to erase them, Cause I would say the ego was as completely curbed as I could have got it to be at that point. And and now, you know that's always the fight keeping the ego in check, Ego is the enemy, et cetera. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, man, I think I think it has to be a powerful why in order to? Because it's so easy to just be like don't compare yourself, don't make it about others, make it about yourself, don't be like, don't compare yourself, don't make it about others, make it about yourself, don't be, don't make a big fuss out about the small things. But there's got to be a big why, and, of course, cancer is a huge why, and I think that you just actually even said what I'm saying, because you're saying it's now that it's been so long that that you've went through that challenge. It's got to be a reminder of like yeah.
Speaker 2:So so I'm curious on. I say that Alfredo made it, made uh, western mutual sound like hell on earth. Northwestern uh, but um, we've actually thought like, hey, you know, about a year ago or so we created a program where, like, we want to give opportunities for people that want to come into our business, cause I don't know how your business is, but like ours, it's a little bit more of like if you're somewhat producing, everybody wants you.
Speaker 2:but if you're brand new, nobody wants to give you a chance, Right. And we thought like, hey, this model could kind of weed out all the people that, like maybe are not you know um or not necessarily that model, but just like hey, some of that stuff that you guys were taught. So walk me through. Like, how did you start there? Because most of the people that started that company fell like I think it's like maybe one in 20 or something. Um, how did you get from that to where you're at now, like being a partner?
Speaker 1:at a firm? That's a great question. So it was a journey. I probably quit 200 times in my head and I was meeting with this guy who was my age. I was probably year two and a half in the business and I remember him showing me his 401k statements, his bank account statements, and the dude was crushing it. He had a couple hundred grand saved up. I was 25 and I was like that's crazy for a 25 year old and I had an epiphany at that point.
Speaker 1:It was right after I had like a few bad weeks. I had sent out my application to all these pharmaceutical sales companies and I was done with financial services and I got all rejection emails. There's probably 20 of them. I mean. I went, I took a whole day off and applied everywhere and I remember getting those rejection emails right after I had seen this guy's balance sheet and I printed them out and I told myself that I was not going to look at another job for a decade and that's that was it. I put those rejection letters, I put them in a folder and this is the competitive side of me and I just wrote on the folder tab prove them wrong and cause they passed on me.
Speaker 1:So now I want to make more than anyone that's going to hire me and that's the competitive side of me. So I put my head down and I decided, hey, for the next 10 years I'm going to be the best financial advisor I could become and I think you can accomplish a lot in 10 years if you do it. And people underestimate Craig Rochelle said this underestimate what they can accomplish in a decade and overestimate what they can accomplish in a few years. So that was like that, that brick by brick approach, that Ibrick approach that I've subscribed to. And eventually I got pretty darn good at it and built a book, decided that I wanted to move outside of Northwestern and be more on the independent side. So I took my time to find who I wanted to merge with, interviewed a bunch of people here in town, chose JM Brown, brown merged the company and uh, we've just.
Speaker 3:What do you mean merge? You didn't start there just as a financial advisor.
Speaker 1:So I brought the clients I had and I moved them there and that's allowed.
Speaker 3:It's allowed Like there's no non-compete in that situation.
Speaker 1:No not, not where I came from.
Speaker 3:Right yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I had. I had a smaller book, so that was five years in now, so that was seven years ago and uh, between now and then, you know, I've brought in like probably about $90 million.
Speaker 3:What is your uh principles, or what are your like? Basically, um approach to financial wealth for people.
Speaker 1:Yeah. What is your approach so that I teach people Sure yeah, Like what?
Speaker 3:what is it that? Where are you leading people right now as far as when they come to you and you're just talking generally speaking what their priority should be when it comes to their financial?
Speaker 1:wealth? Absolutely so. If it's a younger person, I would say 35 and under, it's that philosophy that I just mentioned. Like, building wealth for most people is a day-by-day decision over two or three decades. And so setting up those good habits, setting up the buckets that they're funding, and more gamifying it and turning it into an automated process. So I always ask people have you ever forgot to pay your mortgage? No, no, have you ever forgot to pay your cell phone bill? Okay, but you do forget to save every now and then. So let's create your savings to be like a bill that you have to pay every single month and that works. And then it's just time. I mean, albert Einstein says compounding interest is the eighth wonder of the world. So you have to get that corpus built up, because one day in 30 years when your account grows eight percent and it's two million, that's 160 grand. That's a lot, but if you have eight percent on a thousand, that's 80 bucks. You can't get to the two million without starting at the thousand first.
Speaker 2:So that's what I teach people that are more in the accumulation phase of life so, both of us being loan officers, I think that we're we're very, um adamant that people should own homes, especially, uh, where we live, where it's more affordable than in other places in the country. And you also have people that are in the finance world. Um, Dave Ramsey, for example and I mean he has his, like I think he owns part of a mortgage company or maybe it's all his, or whatever that says has a different approach of like you gotta have 20% down and all that stuff. I'm curious to hear from my financial advisor Um, and, of course, the answer is going to be probably different depending on what level of income, level of assets you have and everything, but what do you think somebody should be looking at whenever they want to purchase a home?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think, so long as you're falling into the budgetary parameters of what percent of your income goes to your mortgage, I think it's a good idea. If you can afford it, buy it, because eventually it'll become a paid off asset one day for most people and at the very least you have that so it can act as more of like a safety net.
Speaker 2:Would you suggest for somebody to put the 20% down, or more, if they have it, or if, let's say, with 5% I have a payment that I can comfortably pay every month, to do the minimum down and then maybe invest the rest?
Speaker 1:I would say that yeah, I think, based on what markets could do, based on where mortgage rates are higher now it may be a little bit situational, but I'm a personally this is not financial advice put as little in as I can to a deal, whether it's my personal home or investment, because I know what I can do with it outside of it and invest the rest.
Speaker 2:Exactly. I think people forget that the more you put into a house, it turns your ROI into less, because just because you put more down the appreciation over time, it's not going to change. I'm going to change it. So I I'm just curious because, like I said, it's hard for people to sometimes comprehend that, and also hard whenever it's like well, sure, you're telling me this because if I buy a house, you're going to get paid, you know. But I people I mean in both of our industries that we do like I, sometimes people forget that there are certain jobs out there where people are really wanting to truly help others better their life and create generational wealth Absolutely.
Speaker 1:I think these two are some of those jobs.
Speaker 3:What is a good rate of return right now on a mid-risk level of portfolio?
Speaker 1:I think the market did around 20% last year. Yeah, portfolio I think the market did around 20% last year. So, like for 2024, I think 15 and above was solid. Yeah.
Speaker 3:Do you kind of have your own fund where you're picking your own equities and that kind of thing? And you're buying and selling or are you just putting people into mutuals and yeah, that's a good, so we don't do that.
Speaker 1:So one thing that separates us is we run algorithms and we actively manage accounts, so it's all data-driven. We try to remove any emotion from investing. So back in 2022, we had one strategy that had like 220 trades by August because it was such a bad market, and so, yeah, we're looking for what's trending the best and trying to avoid what's trending the worst. As long as you can do those two things, you're in a solid spot.
Speaker 3:And I've learned the hard way that you know you do what you're good at. I tried my hand at Robinhood through like when the pandemic started and of course, as everybody saw, on social media everybody was posting their gains. But if you notice, nobody posts their Robinhood gains anymore.
Speaker 1:No one does.
Speaker 3:Because there's no gains. It's kind of like real estate In those years, everybody was a real estate expert, everybody was a flip guy, everybody was a wholesaler, everybody was all these kind of things and they were posting. And now you don't see that and that's the same thing here. I made some really dumb moves, thinking I knew what I was doing. I didn't have the time to really do the right research, like you guys, and if I did the right research, I didn't even know what I was looking at. So that's why it's super important to have someone like you that actually does it for a living, spends day in and day out in it, knows when to make the move, when not to make the move. I've heard of. I think you always get people that they hear some news about something that happened and they're like hey, you should go buy tesla stock. Uh, elon musk is this or that, and they're like the investors already knew that. I mean, it's already built in.
Speaker 3:They cooked in, like the people that know what they're doing, already have made the moves and the stock has already adjusted, and that's why it's important to have somebody that has a beat on it, like you it's uh, I think it's super important, unless you're the anomaly which most people aren't right, yeah right what's that cat guy's name?
Speaker 2:The GameStop guy? Uh, what's his name? Uh he would be the anomaly.
Speaker 1:He's a pretty smart guy. He's a pretty smart guy. Uh, roaring, roaring kitty yeah.
Speaker 2:So I'm glad you brought that up, because I feel like there's so many people that come to us that maybe they finally said, hey, I want to buy a house. Um and for, for the last five years, maybe they they have been, you know, investing themselves and trying to, you know, see if they can make any money, uh, off of that. When I talk and I have a client, uh, home buyers consultation, I actually go through the steps of like, of what, what they should be focusing, from one through four. And that's actually number four and I I want to know if, if you agree with this number one I always tell people it should be you should own at least your primary home, right, I believe it?
Speaker 2:Uh, homeowners have an average net worth 42 times higher than renters. Number two you should have at least six months of emergency fund paid off any uh bad debt, which I know. I wanted to talk about some of that, um, good debt versus bad debt, which mean pretty much like credit cards, high interest stuff. Fourth would be, um, maximizing your 401k or having an IRA account, um, and then last should be like trying to mess with anything to do with stocks or even, at that point, being like maybe I need to meet with somebody like you to manage some of my money. What are your thoughts on that?
Speaker 1:I think that's pretty spot on. Okay, yeah, I think that's pretty spot on. Um, the only thing I may add and it's not even it's yours is spot on is I like side hustles. I think that if people work a W2 job, if, if, if you're kind of wired as an entrepreneur, you should try to put your hand to something else, so investing in education that could potentially make you money on the side, like doing a course or something like that, and so maybe like an investment fund, with viewing it as, like you, as the stock investing in yourself. But I mean, I think you nailed it.
Speaker 3:Totally Sounds good. I was curious on that how much of your job, what percentage of what you do day in and day out, is sales. So client interaction, prospect interaction, prospect side less, less, less client maintenance and more client acquisition Yep, I would say that's, and more client acquisition Yep.
Speaker 1:I would say that's probably 70% of what I do. We've got a team in place that nurtures and takes care of our existing clients, but I would say the thing I'm best at is bringing in new clients.
Speaker 3:And it's Northwestern mutual style where it's like you meet somebody and you say who are the next two people I need to meet? I don't ask for referrals anymore.
Speaker 1:You don't? I just pay for lead sources and we do seminars and stuff. I just don't like doing that.
Speaker 3:Really.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I probably should, I just haven't found a great way to do it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we're actually going to ask you for a few people after this is over.
Speaker 1:That's perfect. Yeah, yeah, that's fine. That's fine. Do you know two people that are happy to provide?
Speaker 2:So you mentioned one interest rates, another big word inflation, market cycles. So in this time I think maybe where we live in Oklahoma a lot of people feel more certain than before the previous administration. But I mean I think overall we, the our economy, is not as great as it once was. Right If COVID had a big play into that. So what do you tell people on, like, how should they be managing their money whenever there's so much economic uncertainty?
Speaker 1:Yeah, Um, when it comes to investments, it's important to remove any emotion from it so long as you don't need all the money tomorrow. The market over a 15-year period if you take a look at 15-year windows has never really returned negative. Historically, the S&Ps return 10.4% every single year, and so it's not really about timing the market, it's about time in the market.
Speaker 1:Dollar cost, average Dollar cost, averaging, keeping it in, you know, adding to it. And so, when it comes to the investing side, so long as you have that emergency fund, and if something were to hit the fan, you know you can get to it. Other than that, you know you can get to it. Other than that, be invested in a way to where the ups and downs, the fluctuations, aren't ever really out of your comfort zone, and there's a way to do that.
Speaker 3:It's you know, understanding your risk tolerance and picking investments that align with that. What is your opinion? And you're probably very savvy to this because you've been at the places you've been but what is your opinion of, like whole life insurance?
Speaker 1:as a vehicle? Yeah, I think it has a place, cause that's what you pitched.
Speaker 1:That's what you pitched back. I pitched that for five years. I think that's what taught me how to really, I guess, sell. I tell people I don't really sell anymore, I'm more of an educator. I don't really ask people to make the move. You know they're adults, they could decide. I just provide them the information and then I ask them hey, where do you want to go from here? So whole life insurance, I think, is a great tool for specific needs. I'm a most of the time by term and an invested difference kind of guy. Now, when you get to people that have higher incomes, I think there's more of a case for it because there is a tax efficiency side to it. Um, but more more than that. Um, really, the the place I see it most working out is like estate planning needs, yeah, so when you're over that exclusion rate, um, and you have an estate tax, that's due positioning life insurance to offset that, and most people don't have that problem.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I've always just disliked the loss of liquidity that you know you don't have that liquidity for a long time?
Speaker 1:Yeah, and for guys like us it's nice to have liquidity because you know you could find a deal, and deals pay sometimes.
Speaker 2:Starting at, like, what income level would you say would be worth looking at that?
Speaker 1:Yeah, even considering it, you know whenever you're maxing out. If so, let's just say, a married couple, you're 401k, they're 401k, you're off, they're off. Now we start to ask okay, does a well-designed life insurance policy make sense? I'm not a life insurance guy and most of the time we'll get to know, but that's when the conversation can be had.
Speaker 1:Now if your net worth's over $11 million. I think that's the. I haven't brushed up on that. Then there's a case for that estate planning tax, because anything over that exclusion amount is taxed at 40% and the IRS is going to get that and there are ways that they've allowed to offset that if you have enough time and runway to plan it out.
Speaker 2:The last question I have for you, and there's, you know, loan officers, other loan officers that listen to this, and they're, you know Alfredo has shared this story. I'm sure a lot of people have heard it, but I think what really you've been doing this for over 20 years and what really turned your business was coaching, and you started coaching, or got coached how long ago? 2013, 2013. Well, at the time, I think that was probably the only coaching program.
Speaker 3:It was like the one, the only significant one, that I knew of.
Speaker 2:And now there's a lot more, but I feel like there's probably like a couple of them that you that really stand out, one of the ones that I really look and follow. A lot of their stuff um really pitch on like, hey, instead of focusing on realtors, which that's their bread and butter, we should be looking at financial advisors as loan officers.
Speaker 2:Um, I'm curious what you think on that being a financial advisor and being around a lot of financial advisors over the last few years, um, especially in our market. If you would say like that, that it's different per market, or like just just your thoughts on it, being a financial advisor, that's a great point Our clients.
Speaker 1:if it's the right advisor, our clients do what we say. So I mean, if I've got a surgeon client, if I call him in surgery, he answers. So if he asks me which lender he should use and I tell him he'll at least go have a conversation with him. So I think we have such high rapport with our clients that that makes a lot of sense.
Speaker 3:That, and maybe like CPAs, I knew we'd be connected somehow. There we go, absolutely. I think that's brilliant of sense, that, and maybe, like cpas, I knew would be connected somehow. Yeah, there we go, absolutely I think that's brilliant.
Speaker 2:I think that's brilliant so if you have a hundred, a hundred people that you're managing their money, how many of them do you think are asking you, hey, do you have any recommendations? And then do you think that there's financial advisors that are proactively saying, if somebody says, hey, I think we're looking to upgrade our home or we're you know cause, I think that that's kind of who you're dealing with. But even even most people that are like, have the clients they're going to be, they're probably not gonna be first time homebuyers. So it's like, how many of those financial investors do you think are saying like, well, hey, you got to call my guy.
Speaker 3:Like you know what?
Speaker 1:I mean.
Speaker 2:So I'm curious on that.
Speaker 1:I think if it's a good advisor, they should be asking every year, twice a year Are there any major purchases coming, any major changes, I mean?
Speaker 3:that's part of the fact finding and the update process or are your? When clients make this? Your clients make decisions like that. Do they come to you and just hey, can you check to make sure I'm good to do this? Are they coming to you for that advice, even when they're about to purchase a home?
Speaker 1:I would say 50, 50.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, I think it's more of a let's get an update. I mean, how are you guys doing? How's savings, any big trips planned, any new vehicles that you want to buy? You know how you know. And then they may say, well, actually you're looking for a new house and so at that point, perfect, we have some great lenders that our clients have used. You know, here's a call, a car, a card call, alfredo call, will. I think you just need to keep it in front of the advisor and remind them, cause it's important to me that they're in good hands and anytime I can make a referral and it works and it's a good experience. That makes the client more sticky for me, and stickiness is very, very important in my business. I like that.
Speaker 2:Man, I enjoyed this, I enjoyed meeting you. You know just what's next for Omar?
Speaker 3:That's a great question In part one and part two. What advice do you have for the listener out there right now that maybe has those entrepreneur um dreams and maybe is going through something tough?
Speaker 2:like you went through.
Speaker 3:And uh so those two questions what's next for you and what advice do you have?
Speaker 1:So I have been stuck on the concept of my life's work and playing for, really, the age of 70 or 80. And so that's more like taking a long-term approach. So I think if you look at your goals in a matter of like, hey, what can I do in four decades? That kind of opens it up for you. So what I want and I think it'd be fun to spend, you know, the next four decades doing it is I would like to build a firm that's named with, like the Edward Joneses, the Fishers, like multi, multi trillion dollar maybe like a couple hundred billion would be great of assets under management. And so that's just gonna take constant large thinking, constant pushing myself outside of my comfort zone and then consistent action every single day.
Speaker 1:I believe that's next for me, thank you, next what?
Speaker 3:was the next one. What advice would you have, for? You can even frame it this way what do you have? What advice do you have for that young 20 year old that you were in?
Speaker 1:that time. Two things Invest in yourself. So I get a lot of young guys that come up and say what stock should I be buying? I've got three grand. Well, unless you pick the Amazon, it's probably not going to do much. So I would use that three grand and make yourself more valuable in the marketplace. So, whatever your interests are, invest in yourself. View yourself as a stock, because if you get there and you get those skills, then you can make that 200,000, $400,000 a year, and then the savings becomes a little bit more relevant.
Speaker 1:And then two I just think tough times don't last, tough people do. And so, understanding that for every bad that there's a good. So you can't enjoy the sunny day unless you've experienced the rainy day. And I learned this when my mom passed, like I was dealing with grief and then I had this epiphany like no, grief is a beautiful thing, because you can't have grief unless you have love first. So the grief symbolizes the amount of love that you had. And so, just like understanding, like you can't Enjoy the mountaintop unless you've experienced the valley. So when you're in the Valley, like now, it's a good thing because it's going to make the opposite more appreciable.
Speaker 3:That's awesome man that's so good, man that's so good. Appreciate you coming on, man, thank you. This is Omar Amadea, and he's the real deal.