F3 Podcast - Faith, Family, and Finance
A Gaddis Premier Wealth Advisors Podcast.
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F3 Podcast - Faith, Family, and Finance
Jordan Haddox | Episode 5 | The Blend of Gen Z Insight and Timeless Values in the Modern Workplace
Join the conversation as we have a great conversation with Jordan Haddox, the youngest member of our team. Witness how Jordan's stories from a tech-limited town shed light on the stereotypes and unexpected truths of his generation, and how this diversity shapes our collective perspective on work ethic and life's adventures.
Our dialogue deepens as I share the guiding forces behind my career in financial advising—where faith, business ethics, and a strong sense of stewardship intertwine. The importance of aligning with ethical investment strategies and the value of mentorship become apparent, illustrating that one's professional path can indeed reflect personal convictions. Through anecdotes about family life and the warmth of company fishing trips, we paint a picture of the meaningful connections that fuel our daily endeavors and long-term aspirations.
To wrap up, we consider the profound advice that might be imparted by our future selves. Embracing self-compassion and the wisdom gained through experience, we challenge the misconception that youth lacks depth or insight. Celebrate with us the unique contributions of every generation in the workplace, and discover why nurturing a rich and diverse team environment is key to our firm's ethos. Tune in and be inspired to balance ambition with a steady pace, and to craft a life that reflects both your immediate and lifelong dreams.
You know, I can have the strongest beliefs in the world and that is going to affect the way I think, but at the end of the day, what I have to recommend, what we have to recommend, is what's in the client's best interest, and there are some things that, while it sounds good in theory, you put it on paper and actually work it out may not actually be in the client's best interest.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And that that is ultimately what has to grab our attention.
Speaker 2:I'm Derek Hines and I am a partner here at Gata's Premier Wealth Advisors, and today I have the honor of introducing everyone to the youngest member of our team, a proud member of Gen Z, jordan Hatties, a member, well, you know, so we give, and I know this is, you know, the objective of these initial podcasts is really to to introduce our audience, our clients any perspective clients, you know to our firm and to the advisors in our firm. And so we, you know, we sort of prepped you with questions and.
Speaker 2:I am very not surprised by the pages and pages of notes that I got. So we're going to, we're going to do our best to work through them, but you know you've been with. You know you've been with our firm for how long now.
Speaker 1:It'll be three years here pretty quick.
Speaker 2:Three years, pretty quick Okay.
Speaker 1:And how old are you? I am 26. 26. So technically the oldest generation Z there is.
Speaker 2:Okay, so how do you feel about being Gen Z?
Speaker 1:You know, sometimes I try to embrace it and sometimes I find the studies that say Gen Z actually starts in 1998. Okay, depending on who I'm around, so you try to get out of it. Yeah, sometimes I do.
Speaker 2:Try to redefine. Redefine what Gen Z is yeah exactly.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's got a bad rap. So sometimes it, you know, I just kind of kind of go back and forth which. I feel like also is a very Gen? Z thing to do. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:The definition of things Gen.
Speaker 1:Z does yeah, go back and forth.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so. So tell us. So what are some of the like? Defining qualities of Gen Z.
Speaker 1:Oh gosh, you know that's. So before we get into that, one thing I will say is is I grew up in a little town. It's literally a pocket in Southeastern Oklahoma that is about 20 years behind everywhere else.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so Gen Z is like exactly.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, I am Gen Z, like I didn't we didn't have internet in our home till.
Speaker 1:I was like 17, which was only like 10 years ago, you know, I didn't have a phone till I was like a junior in high school, so like I grew up outside hunting and fishing, and outside all the time, so I very much got a blend of both.
Speaker 1:Yeah, grew up with technology pretty much at my fingertips all the time, so I also grew up playing outside and doing all that. So I got a very I feel like, a unique blend of of both, which I feel like there's a few years in every generation that that definitely has that. Yeah. But I would say, you know, as far as the as a whole, the outlook of Gen Z is very non-committal, very, yeah, do what they want to do when they want to do it, and, you know, if it doesn't benefit them, it's almost a very it's a very narcissistic view of the world for a lot of Gen Z years, yeah, and you know a lot of the people that I know are not that way though, yeah, so it's kind of hard to know if that's like really the way Gen Z is or if it's, you know, that's just the minority that's the loudest, is that way.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Because I feel like that's a lot catchier and a lot easier to point at and say I don't like that. Yeah, For everyone else.
Speaker 2:I'm trying to think yeah, I don't know you know collectively. I don't know if I know a lot of Gen Z years, but I feel like the ones I know they're not. They're not that bad. Yeah, I feel like they're kind of get a bad rap.
Speaker 1:Yeah, very polarizing positions. Either it's the Gen Z that everyone sees on the news it's got all you know, everyone's the picturesque, stereotypical Gen Z or, on the other hand, other side, there's like the group that's just fed up with everything, just like everyone else.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And I've almost like reverted back. Multiple generations of you know this. Obviously, the direction we've taken things has not worked, so let's just go the other way.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So it's kind of a pendulum swing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's ways. Yeah Well, so now that we've, you know, confirmed that you're in Gen Z, tell us a little bit about yourself. So how would you introduce yourself to to the listeners?
Speaker 1:So I'm Jordan, 26, grew up in Antlers, oklahoma, it's about an hour east of here in Durant, Actually went to school at a smaller town even than that and I graduated with 29 people, so very, very small community where I grew up. I'm married. I have two kids, three three year old and a eight week old, so sleep is few and far between at times right now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, did I ever tell you so when we had our first, our first child? Did I ever tell you like what the advice the doctor gave us? No, yeah, so we had Joanna, our first child, and the doctor you know hands us this cute, wonderful little child, little human, and she says, look, don't shake her. And remember, sleep deprivation is a form of torture, you'll be okay.
Speaker 1:It really is.
Speaker 2:It sends us home with this. I remember getting in the car thinking it was harder to get a driver's license than it was to have this child. Of course, obviously that wasn't the one. Yeah, Having the child, oh yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's which, thankfully, our two have slept through the night really well. From the very beginning, both of them did that's fortunate. You know they'd wake up, they'd eat their bottle and change the diaper and then just go right back to sleep. So, granted, you're still waking up two or three times a night and disrupting your sleep.
Speaker 1:But it's not like I don't know that we've had. I can't think of a single time that we've had one of those literal sleepless nights that you know they just wouldn't go to sleep, they just kept crying. I don't think we've had a single one of those and I would tell people I don't feel like we've gotten a real taste of parenting yet because of that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Well, you want, I mean you're planning on having more right, yeah, so yeah, if you have eight-week-old and you're still like, you're still gung-ho about having more children, like you're going to have another child, yeah.
Speaker 1:And it my wife, was on the fence for the first couple of weeks because our first was eight and a half pounds baby and our second was over 10 pounds and she's had multiple people that have told her every child following is bigger than the last.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't necessarily know that that's true.
Speaker 1:I don't think so either, but she had enough people tell her that she was like we might be adopting a couple yeah.
Speaker 2:That'll definitely give you some. That's a big baby, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, thankfully I told her, if it was up to me we would have had none, so yeah, yeah, and so so what does your wife do?
Speaker 1:Tell us about what your wife does, so she is kind of work from home, so there's a little boy that she watches at our house. The parents bring them, drop them off, so kind of a stay-home nanny type of thing. So watches that little boy and obviously our two as well. Our goal is, as soon as possible, just to get it to where she's. She's staying at home, not having to work, which we're pretty close to being able to do that.
Speaker 2:So we won't talk about what that's, what that's going to take. All right, Actually, I have fun in the notes here. Yeah, I, you. You probably won't think this is funny, but one of the questions that we ask everyone is so you recently went on a vacation. Tell us a little bit about your vacation? Yeah, George, he didn't even answer the question. Nope, I didn't even. No vacation.
Speaker 1:No vacations to talk about. No, no, we not really a vacation kind of anti-vacation is. We actually spent last week pretty much the whole week in the hospital. Low girl had RSV, so we were in the hospital with that. So technically time, yeah, she was fine, kind of more of a preventive type thing. We went in. She noticed she was having some a little bit of trouble. They didn't put her in the tent or send her anywhere, just kind of gave her some oxygen for a few days and she was fine.
Speaker 1:Other than that, the last time I took off work was when she was born, and then probably six months before that, we actually did take a vacation. So we took a vacation this year, and that's probably the first one we've taken since we've been married for five years.
Speaker 2:Yeah, where'd you go?
Speaker 1:I just went to Tulsa for essentially a long weekend, for four or five days.
Speaker 2:Yep.
Speaker 1:We've never been one, especially growing up, I never went on vacations much. My parents told me the last vacation we went on real vacation I was like three or four we went to San Antonio.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And I said I cried from the time we left to the time we got back for four days and they said we didn't go on a vacation after that. You've always liked being home, exactly, yeah, yeah, I just try to be home.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't blame you.
Speaker 1:I'm kind of save a lot of money. Yeah, I'm kind of a homebody as well.
Speaker 2:Probably not nearly as much as you, but I do like. I do like being home. So let's talk about your role in the company. And again, I laugh at this too because I think I've I've got six here that you listed.
Speaker 1:That's all I could think of. I'm just thinking. I think there's a couple more.
Speaker 2:I'm sure we could find one or two, one or two more. So yeah, tell us about your role in the company. What do you, what do you do for GPWA?
Speaker 1:You know it's, it's funny and sometimes I think I ask you so what? What is my role?
Speaker 2:Yeah, what do you need me doing for the next hour or two?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so first and primary which is always primary is I'm a financial advisor, so anything that has to do with my clients, obviously. If I'm doing something else and my client needs something, it gets bumped to the top, like they're my.
Speaker 1:my first priority always I do our investment research and kind of model portfolio analytics and and so I do all of that. So when we we make changes to portfolios, to accounts, we monitor our investments. I kind of handle the backend of all of that. All the research, talking with all the, I always like to tell people that people smarter than us yeah, all the people, that's all they do all day, every day, is their, their, their, their, their research. I talk with them. Let us figure out what our outlook is for the next six months, 12 months, you know, even out three, five years. What are we looking at? Yeah, I do kind of a it's called a para planner, which is like I run analysis reports and comparison reports for all the other advisors, for clients and prospects and and everything.
Speaker 1:So if we want to compare investments, I kind of kind of do that Kind of the point of contact for when we do retirement plans, like a financial plan, yep, I kind of have the most back knowledge of that system. So help people troubleshoot, figure out what's wrong. I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I. I serve somewhat as an assistant, especially here in the office at times, because when I started with the firm that's actually how I started was a client service associate. So you know, with paperwork, things like that, day-to-day operations, and I'm missing.
Speaker 1:Oh, marketing handle a lot of our marketing. So Facebook, linkedin, some email marketing, kind of coordinate a lot of that Light I do. All of that kind of involves some compliance aspects. So I kind of have to stay up to date on all that, because a lot of what I do that is, if not the center of at least a very something that's very important have to be kept in mind. So, yeah, basically anything and everything that needs to be done, and then on top of that, just whatever anyone else needs, I try to help out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so we've got financial advisor, trading specialist, investment researcher, marketing specialist, para planner, assistant, and there's got to be something else we can have you do. Surely we can find at least two more things, oh yeah, I'm sure we could think of something else. Yeah, I don't know if you remember. So let's transition into like how you got started. So why? Why you do what you do, and I just remember you know. So Jordan actually came to be a client.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so the first time I came in, so you reached out to sort of more or less use our services, right, and then here you are. So what about? You know what about this industry drew you to it, or why did you decide this might be a good career path for you?
Speaker 1:Well, it actually goes further back than that. I went to school at Southeastern here, southeastern Oklahoma State University, and when I started I was actually a fisheries and wildlife science major, very closely related to oh yeah, Basically basically the same thing, which that every time I tell someone that I get the same reaction every time and it's oh my gosh, that's not even close.
Speaker 1:Yeah, never fails. That's what everyone says. Because I always said I don't know what I'm going to do, but I'm not going to work in an office, I'm not going to talk to people. Yeah, I'm not going to sell things. That's great. I work in an office, I talk to people. I don't sell things, but I sell myself. Yeah, somewhat like my services, yes, yes. So the three things I said I would never do is exactly what I do. Do it, yeah, but I started fisheries and wildlife science. I got two, two and a half years in, yeah, and I took a class and they were like this is a lot of what you would actually be doing and I realized I don't want to do any of this. This is not fun.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you want to be outside for like a hobby yeah, great for a hobby, and we asked the professor.
Speaker 1:we said he was the head fisheries professor at Southeastern. We said you know, do you fish at all, Like you're outside? This is what you do all day, every day. Do you like to fish? He was like. I used to love it, but now that it's all I do. I'm on the water all day. Spring and summer is the busiest time of the year for me. The last thing I want to do when I get home is go back out on the water. I was like I don't want to do that, yeah Dang. So I switched. Originally, my backup was engineering. Southeastern doesn't have much to do with engineering. They don't have anything really with that.
Speaker 1:So I was like, well, that's out of the question because I'm not going anywhere else. Yeah, so then I was between accounting and finance. I chose accounting. At the same time I went and worked here, had a running as a payroll processor at a HR payroll benefits place, and I got two, two and a half years into that and I realized you know, this is, this is good. I love the people I worked with, absolutely love the atmosphere and everything about working there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was like, this is not what I want to do for the rest of my life.
Speaker 1:And so I really started looking at different options, different, different things to do and I just kept coming back to this financial advisor thing. Yeah, I didn't really know what that meant. Actually, the the first thing I was to come on was through Dave Ramsey's program, was the financial coaching. I was like, oh, maybe I could do that. And then I was looking into it. I was like, yeah, you can't make enough money around here doing that. No, the people that need it don't have the money. The people that have the money don't need it. That's right.
Speaker 1:I was like okay, well then I started looking into financial advisor. That looks neat. And then I came in as a prospect and met, seeing about coming a client, and I told you that like, hey, I think I might be interested in this. Yeah, are you sure? I'm pretty sure I was the first one that said hey, have you ever considered you?
Speaker 1:I don't, I don't remember, but maybe, maybe you did do it because I remember then you told me I'm going to try to talk you out of this. Yeah, do see if there's anything else, yeah, and if you still want to do it, we'll, we'll talk. I was like okay, so I left and three or four months it just kept coming back up, kept coming back up, and then we came in. Whenever it was, it was after sometime, after the first of the year, in 2021.
Speaker 1:It's like I think I actually want to think about doing this. You're like funny enough, we're actually about to look at hiring somebody. I was like, oh, that's some great timing right there. So yeah, and then really, what brought get bringing me back to it, and looking back is reaffirming this, is looking out.
Speaker 1:One of always felt like I've been good at numbers and math and putting, trying to figure out where things go, things, the more analytical stuff was. In a world where there's so many people just selling garbage and scams and trying to take advantage of people, I felt I have a calling for something that's good and I want to do correctly, and you know all of that. I feel like it would be like sin, possibly, for me to not pursue it, like that's how strongly I felt called to it of like if I don't do this, someone else will, and they may not have the same intentions as me, yeah, so I just kept going to that.
Speaker 1:And then, yeah, here we are three years later, here we are.
Speaker 2:Here we are, yeah, so, yeah, so do you like to? Yeah? So you just went fishing with some of our clients.
Speaker 1:I did, yeah, and we went on. A guided took my spot. I did, yeah. Fishing trip that worked out real well for me. So tell us about the fishing trip. How was it? Was it fun? It's good it was. It was a blast.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we went out the cut exactly, your legal limit Exactly.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, we threw a bunch back. We threw a bunch back that were real small, oh yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, go ahead, go ahead.
Speaker 1:So they were. Technically we could have kept them, yeah, but we were catching enough that he was like yeah, we're going to catch more that are bigger than this. We had seven people and I think overall he said we caught a little over a hundred probably. Wow, between what we kept and what we threw back.
Speaker 2:So tell me, Casey stand what? Do you think about Casey stand?
Speaker 1:I liked him, he was. He was interesting.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he's the, he's the guide. So, casey stand is the. He's the guy that we used and they get a good, a good friend of ours, and he's pretty, he's pretty funny.
Speaker 1:Yeah, oh yeah he was. He was hilarious. He kept it entertained, yes, cause there were some times it got some got slow, and telling stories of when he was in Kansas and then rodeo and all kinds of stuff.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, Anytime it got slow. He had a story yeah, I don't know if I've ever talked to him about that. My dad's from Kansas originally. Yeah, but someone else there was a connection there from Kansas too, right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, one of the one of the guys that came with us was, I don't know, I don't think he was from Kansas, but he had a lot of connections like the town over from where Casey grew up.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, we caught. We caught a lot, it was, it was a good time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, did you take any?
Speaker 1:home. We did we, we took him home, we, you know he, he flayed him, cleaned him for us, took him home there in our, in our freezer.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we had striper last night.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we it's it's.
Speaker 2:It's okay, like. It's okay Like. If any, if anybody watching this has any good recipes for striper, please, please, send them our way. Yeah, yeah, it's a, and yes, we take the red meat out already.
Speaker 1:He's more, he needs more, he needs something else. Send secret concoction.
Speaker 2:If you can make striper, it tastes like crappie. That's what I want.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't know. We always grew up eating bass. Yeah, that's what we would always bass yeah.
Speaker 2:It's pretty pretty. Yeah, it's, it's, it's very close yeah.
Speaker 1:But yeah, I definitely know a lot of people that would like crappie or nothing. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:I like crappie. It's probably my favorite.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, we I don't, definitely don't get to fish as much as I used to, you know, with with two little kids running around.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yes, what else so? So what? What are some of your other outside hobbies?
Speaker 1:So there's that. I like to hunt a lot. Not got to do much of that this year either with, you know, a newborn will really hinder that. Even when I got to go it was like I'm going to sleep in. Yeah, those are the two main ones. I try to try to stretch those out and do that most of the year. We've talked about, you know, starting camping and doing things like that, and once the kids get a little bit older, we'll probably start camping and traveling and things like that.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Not right now. It's too yeah, just too difficult to do right now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's. It's hard to do anything with children your age.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's, and you can only take them to the grandparents so many times before they start to get.
Speaker 2:uh, you know, maybe we're busy you know, we kind of have plans this weekend and yeah you're going to not overextend your welcome there. Yeah, yeah, I've never heard that.
Speaker 1:And then from you when I understand is when you get to three, it's you got to split them up in two to one and one of the other harder.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, once you're outnumbered, you know, once you shift from, you know, once you shift to zone, from man to man, it's a totally different game.
Speaker 1:Never heard it put it that way. Yeah, no, yeah, you got to go, you got to go zone defense.
Speaker 2:Okay, you can't play man to man anymore. Gosh, yeah, yeah, yeah, those kids, they, they can, they're out, because when three, there's always something happening.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:It's always something happening.
Speaker 1:Yeah, someone told us one is one, two is two, three is 127. Pretty much Like once you get to three you might as well just keep going, because you're outnumbered and nothing changes yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. A lot of times you know the, the punishment for for us with our kids is like just get far enough away from each other and don't move, that you can't touch each other, like because it really is not enough for our. So I had a. I had a lady ask me one time. So we have some friends and their children. Their children are um, I don't know what word I would use civilized docile.
Speaker 2:Our children are higher on the feral range. So she asked me. She was like are your kids like this person's kids or like this person's kids? I'm like the second. You know we, I had to. I had to get on my son one time because he was literally peeling the paint off the wall Like he was going to bed. He would sit there and just I'm like, stop it. What in the world would make you do that?
Speaker 1:Yeah, mine, uh, I feel like ours are going to be definitely on that side. Yeah, the most stubborn kids I think I may have ever seen.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And then they'll turn around and with the sweetest thing you've ever heard.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, you know, they say, they say the, the qualities that make really bad, children make really good adults.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and hopefully that's what we've got going on Cause she's stubborn, she's smart, she's hard headed, she's independent. Yeah yeah, she wants to do everything by herself. Yep, she doesn't want you to help her. That's right, you need that.
Speaker 2:She's always right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and so we're trying to guide it instead of squash it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I had a pastor tell me one time you know the difference between stubborn and tenacity Spelling, it's all it is. There's the same thing Stubborn and tenacity. Yep, yeah.
Speaker 1:She is Same word.
Speaker 2:Spelled different.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, our youngest is too young to yeah, oh, she also. They also never. She never stops talking. She's learned to talk. Our oldest, yeah yeah, yeah, she learned to talk when she was like eight or nine months old. I'm not sure she stopped since. Oh yeah, she even talks in her sleep, so like it's just nonstop.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, our kids, yeah, our, we have one that's very similar. Just always talking, I forget how many thousands of questions a day you get as a parent, but it's in the thousands.
Speaker 1:Yeah, she's in the why stage. Everything you say, well, why? Well, you know, you'll explain it to her. Why, why, why, oh my gosh. I try not to pull out the because I said so much, but I pull out the because I said that, yeah, sometimes you have to do it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so you mentioned earlier about you know you feeling essentially, I mean led to go into this industry. So how is your, how has your faith influenced how you? You know how you conduct yourself or engage with clients in the in the business.
Speaker 1:You know, it's kind of a little bit of a hard question to answer because that there's not really another option than that. You know it's, it's at a point that when you believe that way, it doesn't really say, oh, if I did it this way, it would be easy. Like the, the this way. The other way is not even on the table. Yeah, and so you know, there's definitely times that assume it is more difficult.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:But you know there's, there's. You know I'm going to do, do what's right by by everyone, yeah, yeah, and period and a story that's difficult at times, but I mean that that makes it pretty simple because you don't really have any other option.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. So how would you say there, there are certain ways that you can exercise your faith in what you do, what we do.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. So. So one is is kind of the you know, be good stewards. You know, teaching our clients to be good stewards is what they've, they've have and and being able to explain that and show that. And two is, you know, with our clients, essentially having us handle some of that for them being a continuation of that and doing that on our end as well, especially in try not to do it too much but in the investments we choose, yep, but you know we don't want to.
Speaker 1:You kind of have to. It's kind of a fine line because you don't want to put your money with some of these companies that are out pushing anti-Christian agendas but at the same time you don't. If you're in a company, you have a say in that company. If you own a stock in a company, you have a say in that. Yeah. And so essentially saying we're going to avoid the blatantly obvious ones at times at times, yeah, obviously all of this is within the best interests deemed within the best interests of the clients, through the research and all that. There's a lot that goes into this.
Speaker 1:This is kind of simplifying it yeah.
Speaker 2:So what are the blatantly obvious ones that that we avoid? Well, well, right now. Don't that Jordan, huh, does it hold back?
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, I won't. There's three main companies that we are avoiding right now because of that. One is BlackRock Hmm, their ETF is ISO BlackRock. And iShares Okay, um, state Street is another one, which their funds are, the Spider, sbdr. And then the last one is a little bit on a lesser extent, but we are currently still I don't want to say boycotting, but we're boycotting is Vanguard yeah, because they're the three largest money managers in the world.
Speaker 1:And they come out a few years ago or a year or two ago, essentially openly pushing the that they were pushing political agendas over, you know, best interests of the client. And you know all three of those companies are being actively sued by states, like, not just by people, by like an entire, by multiple entire state, yeah, like 10 or 15 of them, not just one or two. Like multiple states are suing those companies. Yeah, and so you know, with with us, it's like we're not gonna go with those companies that are pushing political agendas over the best interests of the client. Now their argument is that Pushing that is in the best interest of the client in the long run.
Speaker 1:Of course I disagree, yeah, but so those you know kind of avoiding that, but then not necessarily avoiding specific companies, because if you're in the right investment fund that has the right motivation, they will go into those companies and they get voting power, that's right, and so they also will then have sway within the company. Yeah, and so it's essentially, you know, kind of a equivalent is we don't want to avoid the world, right, as as Christians we don't. We want to live In the world, but we don't want to be of the world.
Speaker 1:Yeah, right, so I want to go out and do these things and live amongst the world so that way we can push, you know, push it towards good and and try to avoid. You know, pull essentially pull people away from the bad things and, yeah, try to benefit the world and Things like that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. There's a lot of good information there, a Lot of stuff that we could, that we could talk about. So what would you say? I mean, we've had. I mean we've had clients inquire about not being in those companies. Yeah, correct.
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, for sure. There's Been been quite a few people come in with essentially a list of companies that say I don't want any of my money Invested. The top one of that is probably Disney. Yeah, I don't want to invest in Disney. And essentially the mindset is, you know we're gonna avoid those three fund companies because of the agenda is they're pushing. But you know, as far as the rest of it goes, you know maybe we do have some money that is invested in Disney.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, we're gonna essentially take the money they make us and go and try to get them to change the things they're doing. Right. So we're gonna work with our feet, with our actions, with the things that we do, and that's going to have more of an impact than saying I'm not gonna invest in your because that doesn't, that doesn't affect them at all.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, because if you don't buy, shares of that company someone else's, and even if you don't, once you get to that point, it Doesn't affect them either way anyways. Yes, and so what is more effective is, you know, boycotting things, getting people to pull together and realize, hey, this is wrong. We need to try to get them to do what's right. Yeah, things like that. Yeah, and I think you know, just kind of to sum up what you're saying. I mean, we are.
Speaker 2:We are aligning the things that we do with Our clients values and our values exactly to make decisions that are in our clients best interest, exactly, yeah, and that's, that's ultimately. You know, I, I can have.
Speaker 1:The strongest beliefs in the world, and that is gonna Affect the way I think. But at the end of the day, yeah, what I have to reckon, what we have to recommend, is what's in the client's best interest, and there are some things that why they're not the best interest, and there are some things that why, while it sounds good in Theory, you put it on paper and actually work it out may not actually be in the client's best interest. Yeah and that that is ultimately what has to drive our decisions.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I should be at core values. So we talk about aligning, you know, aligning the things that we do, you know, with our, with our core values. You know what are some things I know you do that I mean, again, you're if you guys haven't get this from the podcast like Jordan is very analytical, very thorough and his answers, yeah, his answers reflect that. So, yeah, you said you get. You kind of should probably sit down and think about this. Yeah, your core values that you, that you live your life by that you have you know one of the one of them was to, you know, to to live by scripture. You know so what you know. And then you talked a lot about faith, but anything specific on you know, on the scripture, upfront, you know that you, that you used to live your life by.
Speaker 1:Really it's. It's that it is the lens that everything else is viewed through. Yeah, and and we've kind of talked about this before is Sometimes there are things that I believe and I think I believe and I'm starting maybe a new idea, something I'm looking into, started learning more about, yeah, and then I find something in scripture or something else that said, you know, says this is not true. Well, this goes away.
Speaker 1:Yeah even if I don't want it to yeah what scripture says is the ultimate authority, and so, essentially what, what I believe has to be molded into what scripture says, and so if there's something else that I believe that I find Scripture to say is wrong, well, my belief needs to change. Yeah, because I'm the one that's wrong, not scripture. Yeah and so Essentially, everything gets gets viewed through that lens and kind of audited through that lens. Keeping on the analytical realm, yeah, you know everything. That's, that's how it's kind of viewed and, yeah, looked at.
Speaker 2:So goals again, I smile at this question because it's kind of I mean, it's difficult to ask. So, coming from me, right, so I'm kind of you know, yeah, kind of your boss, yeah right, and asking you what are your goals for the next five or ten years, and you're probably not gonna say, oh yeah, I really, you know, think about joining a bigger firm. So in light of that, like in context, what's it? What are your goals for the next five years? Yeah, so ten years.
Speaker 1:And I tell you this all the time that that my goal is to be here. Good answer, excuse me, whatever that looks like, you know that the specifics of that seems to change from month to month. Yeah, right now, but Essentially to be here. What the firm in Durant? Yeah, you know, continue to establish ourselves here, yep, and Then just kind of a lot of the. The specific goals will depend on Things within the firm. Yeah, over the next five to ten years.
Speaker 2:Yeah and I mean you have seen. I mean you've seen the firm change Dramatically since you first start what is stability.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so what is we no change? Yeah?
Speaker 2:I mean the firm has, has grown, we've merged, we've brought on another advisor, you've gotten licensed. You know we really are. You know, as a firm, one of our core values is legacy and so trying to build a firm that will outlive and outlast any of the current partners or principles. And so you've, you know you've really been on the forefront of that and Hopefully, like I, hopefully, to you that means opportunity, mm-hmm, you know to to be part of a growing, changing, dynamic organization.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think that is For for now. The goal is essentially to continue to gain experience, because I know, you know, I'm Still a little wet behind the ears, yeah, so Continue to gain experience, to continue to to learn as much as I can, as fast as I can. Yeah and getting myself set up to where, as Opportunities present themselves, I'm ready to step into those.
Speaker 1:Yeah because I know right now there were Some opportunities that if they were presented Probably wouldn't be ready yet. Yeah, you know, I might not shy away from them but I might not be fully ready.
Speaker 2:So, essentially, continuing to develop and understand things better, grow in wisdom, all of that, and and being ready for, as those come up, to step into them as as needed, yeah, and, as you know, with the way we've sort of constructed the business, you know, having advisors from multiple generations, you know, some in their 60s, some of their 50s, 40s, 30s, yeah, and then yourself, like, do you find that to be? Has that been a benefit to you?
Speaker 1:Oh, it's Been crucial. Yeah, I probably stepped into the best possible situation in scenario here Because of all the experience within the firm. Essentially, there's Five advisors with five different expertise, five different areas of expertise, over a hundred hundred, however many years. It is now years of experience that I can learn from, and if I have a question I don't understand it, depending on what it is. You know I've got multiple people I can go ask yeah, or you know, if it's Sometimes, I'll ask Literally multiple everyone what do you think about this? Yeah, what would you do in this scenario?
Speaker 1:Mm-hmm, and then just try to absorb it like a sponge for the next time it comes up to where oh, I've done this before, this is what happened. These are the things, the areas that it's different, that changes it this way and essentially, just having multiple people to learn from and and to monitor, kind of some of the things I do. And you know to have you Look at something. I come to your office and say, hey, what do you think about this? And you're just like this is good, this is good, but do this instead of this.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay. Yeah and then we can go execute it, yeah, and just having that to fall back on as if it ever needs to be yeah, yeah, one of the things you know on that note, and this was in sort of the like the last takeaway- this is not gonna be the last takeaway, but you know you talked about, you know some of you know sort of our business structure, how we have.
Speaker 2:You know multiple advisors with over a hundred years of experience. You know for you to draw on from that business perspective as a mentor. But I do know one thing that is Not necessarily a core value, but that is that is important to you is this is that the idea of Mentors and mentorship. So tell me about, tell me about a mentor outside of work that you've had and like. How is that? What sort of positive impact does that had on your life?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so there's. There's been a few, especially through college, coming in From small town Oklahoma, the Like smallest of towns of Oklahoma to big old, the big big to run to college.
Speaker 1:Essentially, I'd never had to learn to be my own person really, and so literally developing, yeah, into what my life is gonna look like and, you know, growing my own values apart from my families and apart from my communities.
Speaker 1:And, and so there was, you know, two or three here at southeastern I got, when I, when I come to Southeastern, I got plugged into the, the BCM, the Baptist collegiate ministry, and through that, the director and a couple of other guys there. Really they do a great job of taking young college students under their wings and teaching them. This is how you live your life, this is how you say the Bible, this is how you pray this, yeah, this belief, and you're like, well, what about this? And and then you know, not just telling you what to believe, but like essentially, almost debating back and forth with you, of Getting you to a point to believe it yourself, yeah, and and For you to determine what person you're gonna be and what scripture says. And you know that you know continuing now with with our church, the elders at the church I got a Western Meadows Baptist Church.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it kind of sound like a plug. Yeah, okay.
Speaker 1:You know, still having that same mindset of you know we're Not above you, but we're with you. We're here alongside you to help you figure things out if you need need to, and you know, just continuing to have that Is is crucial, especially with, you know, two kids, a young baby now, of Things changing very rapidly, yeah, and needing those people to help us. You know, keep going.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, they don't. They don't teach how to do that in school. No, they don't.
Speaker 1:I don't remember any classes about that. Yeah, yeah, it seems like the best life skills.
Speaker 2:Like they're just said, they don't teach those.
Speaker 1:Don't get me started on that.
Speaker 2:Not teaching life skills. Yeah, no, I'm just gonna say that's really important. Yeah, I'm gonna say that's really important. Yeah, I'm gonna say that's really important. Yeah, that's a whole other podcast. Which one, which one's the hot topic is it?
Speaker 1:bouncing the checkbook, all of all of them. How do I do? How do I do the dishwasher? Is that a good one? Oh gosh, no, that's actually one that I I gave up on that one eti.
Speaker 2:You were at a book this year called the Compelling Community by Mark Devers. Did I say that Devers? Okay, so tell me about that book.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so that is one that our church, before you lead a small group or a community group, they make you read that book Just to kind of understand what is the church's goal of what our community is going to look like. So that way, you know, obviously each group has their own dynamic, has their own things that they do, but on an overarching scale, you know what is community going to look like at our church. Yeah, and it kind of teaches of a little bit of what to expect from the elders and the leadership, what to expect. You know, how does, how do you? It, honestly, is written from the perspective of the church, fostering community for its members. But being able to extrapolate that of you know, finding the balance between, you know, like an actual mentorship program where people sign up, versus fostering the community in a way that it just naturally happens, exactly.
Speaker 1:And that there's a time for the program. There is a time for it and it can be done properly. But the goal should be for community to develop naturally.
Speaker 2:That's right. That's right. Yeah, there's a book I don't I've never read it, so this is not a recommendation, but I think it's called like the three mile an hour Jesus, and what was communicated to me is like that's, that's an idea, like Jesus lived his life, which I don't know if you know, but you walk it about three miles an hour. It's just the idea that you, you live life together. You know, doing, doing things, doing life. Okay, so this is probably the funniest one. So this isn't the funniest one, but this was. This was pretty funny. So you know, we all, we also ask you questions about looking back and looking forward and, of course, the one we asked you to look back on, you were six years old. We asked you to look back. Yeah, so you know, at six, you're probably not, you know, nor should you be contemplating these questions, but you know, if you were to look back 10 years, so you'd be 16. What's some advice that you would that you would give yourself?
Speaker 1:You know really is, is you know that that it will work out. And keep doing what you're doing you know, studying, staying out of trouble, all these things essentially keep being a good kid. Yeah, because, because one of these days it will, it will pay off. Can you work hard, keep your your mate's same mindset, probably dive deeper into your faith, because that is definitely something that that I didn't do a lot of, because, you know, being in the Bible belt, there is a lot of cultural Christians, that's right, and so a lot of what I experienced on the day to day, day to day, was more of that side and I knew like hey, a lot of this is close, but I don't think this is right.
Speaker 1:Like I don't think we're hitting the target right here.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Like we're shooting towards it. I don't think we're hitting it, yeah, so maybe to dive deeper into that and really start that process earlier. But another main one that I'm still working on today is don't be afraid of of of failure. And, yeah, don't be worried about what other people think of you. And I kind of say that hesitantly, because I do feel like a lot of times, when people say I don't care what other people think of me, they're actually mean is, I don't want to have to worry about what other people think of me and.
Speaker 1:I don't care.
Speaker 2:Yep, that's right.
Speaker 1:So it's genuinely like a do what is right. Irregardless, yeah, regardless of of you get pushed back and if people think you're weird and things like that not a disregard other people, but like a genuinely like in certain aspects, yeah. If they think poorly of you or think really think you're weird, yeah, for certain things you do.
Speaker 2:That's okay, that's actually good. Yeah, I would say most people that say they don't care what other people think they're really the ones that care the most. Yeah, and it's a coping mechanism, yeah, and to make it to maybe not even change most people I know that this is just how I am. It's like, well, you're kind of a jerk, so maybe you should not be like that.
Speaker 1:One of my favorite things is when people say well, I was born this way, it's a good thing. Jesus said to be born again, so that's good. Yeah, yeah and yeah, and along those that same line, one more thing is people.
Speaker 1:I think a lot of people that say I don't care what other people think of me actually are either care the most, or what they really mean but no, they can't say is I don't really care about other people, yeah, because I'm going to do what I'm going to do and I don't care how they feel about it. Yeah, so not that we're not doing that. We are caring about other people, but you know if if you do something, that's that's weird or counter cultural.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. And if you put yourself out there for anything you know, especially the more you know, the more you grow and progress in your career and your faith. And you know, in a community like, there's going to be a time where you know someone's not going to be happy with what you're doing and here it's okay with that. Yeah, all right. So let's look forward. So, 10 years from now, you know, what would you? What would you tell yourself?
Speaker 1:So what would myself, ten years from now, tell me now?
Speaker 2:No, what was you now tell yourself ten years from now?
Speaker 1:Oh goodness.
Speaker 2:He can't speak for yourself. Ten years from now, so fun fact there's.
Speaker 1:There's a guy that I listen. I know you listen to him too. I don't know if you've gotten to this part of his, his stuff, yet. He has Essentially a word doc that he has conversations with him, with his 85 year old self.
Speaker 2:Oh, wow.
Speaker 1:That his he. He takes his mindset as if he was his 85 year old self and then gives himself advice for today. So, essentially, what would future self that's lived a full life and has learned all the lessons that he's gonna learn? I'm gonna tell you what. What advice would he have for you today, man, that?
Speaker 2:could be a and he's literally Loop, so like okay, so Right, you know saying yeah. So if you, if you're 85 year old self, gives yourself Advice today and you take that advice. Now you are a different 85 year old self. Yeah, then now giving the different you so.
Speaker 1:So the the thought behind it is they've actually done studies on this is that People literally, yeah, give better advice to other people than they do themselves 100%, and so it's essentially getting into that mindset of If I was giving this advice to someone else yes, I tell them to do. Yes, okay, now I'm gonna go do that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I don't know I've said this before Publicly, but not. I don't remember exactly where I heard it, but but you need to speak to yourself, as you would speak to your child. Yeah right, because we don't do that. We're so mean to ourselves. Oh yeah, yeah, very, so kind.
Speaker 1:You know, I don't have any idea. Why do I tell myself 10 years from now? Really, I have more questions then.
Speaker 2:So what would you ask yourself? 10 years from now. You Know, what would you want to know?
Speaker 1:Really how, how fast and how urgent Should I do? Things like how, what, looking, you know, looking back, obviously I had Timelines and goals for myself, yeah. And then now that those have come and gone, I'm like, oh, that timeline was way too fast or I did not think big enough. Yeah, for this I should have wanted to do bigger, better.
Speaker 1:Yeah quicker, yeah. So, like witches, which goals should be the the quick goals and which ones should be, hey, this goal? Instead of thinking what you should do a year from now, you should be thinking longer. You should be thinking what should you do? 10? Where do you want to be 10 or 20 or 40 years from now?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I've heard it said. Most people, they are, they, they let's see if I can get this, get this right. They overestimate what they can do in a short period of time, like they think they can get a lot done in a short period of time, but they severely underestimate what they can do over a long period of time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. So, and I think that's Somewhere in there in the information I gave you is which you said this is a famous quote. I didn't realize it was this famous, but the slowest, smooth and smoothest, fast. So to go fast, you need to go slow.
Speaker 2:That's right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, slowest move than smoothest fast. That's right, so, but at the same time, you need to have like short-term goals. Like one thing I'm trying to do right now is, instead of saying, oh, I'll do this by the end of the week, I'll do this by the end of the day, yeah. So those shorter term goals like Maybe sped up any beat on quick, yeah. But then the longer ones, like, hey, we need to push this out instead of what are we gonna do by the end of the year? What?
Speaker 1:are we gonna do by the end of the decade.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's good. Well, I've already asked you your parting thoughts, but Would you have any parting thoughts like anything that you would just want to make sure that you know? Anyone listening to this takes away from the from the podcast.
Speaker 1:Yeah, really circling back to the the beginning, people being young does not necessarily mean they're not wise, they're not an experienced. Are a lot of young people wise or not wise? And an experience? Absolutely yeah. But someone just being young does not make that the case. Now, if you have a conversation with someone and you realize, oh, this person has no idea what they're talking about.
Speaker 2:That's an interesting story.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, red flag, red flag and and so, really, because of the fact that we are getting to a point now that there are so many people especially my generation, you know, in their 20s, to early 30s that are they're they're tired of the direction Things are going yeah and you know, between technology and the Rate at which information goes from one person to the next and how much news is available, yeah, like you know, there's been a lot of life Lived, some of it correctly, some of it incorrectly.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for my people that are young. Yeah and so you know, really you know when I, when I went to cool, when I went to school I Started in 2016 changed my major in 2018, 2017, got engaged in 2018, in october of 2018, got married in february of 2019. We had a kid in 2020. We bought a house in 2020. I Graduated in 2021. Yeah, so I was married, bought a house, had a kid Going to school full-time, working 40 hours a week, all for a year straight.
Speaker 1:Yeah which Now, granted, are there some hardships I didn't go through, obviously, like, yeah, for everything that was going, I'm very blessed, right, those are all wonderful things, but there's people that are 35 that haven't done any of that, yeah, and so you know, age is not necessarily the thing that you know, it's life experience and wisdom, and anyone, at any age, can have that or not have that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, that's good. Well, I appreciate you being on the podcast. Yeah, you know, I appreciate all the, all the value that you've brought to the firm. You know you really help. You really help me Sort of see things through a different lens, I guess, maybe a younger lens, I mean, you're not that much younger Than me, I guess 13 years.
Speaker 1:I got someone else 39.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So you know, I really, I really appreciate you know all of the value that you bring to the firm. You know we, we appreciate everybody listening as well. Jordan is he's not the last, he's not the last advisor, but we are. We are quick, quickly approaching the end of, you know, our interviewing advisors with the firm, um, sort of the introduction to the firm, and you know we are really looking forward to Getting into conversations with you know, local influencers, local business leaders, entrepreneurs and this is Derek Hines and Jordan had X interrupting your disclaimer with another disclaimer.
Speaker 2:We just wanted to clarify that you know, some of the things that we talked about on the podcast were, um, how you know sort of the methodology behind how we pick and choose investments, and we just want to make sure and clarify that that is not you know. Nothing we said is to be perceived as Specific investment advice Correct.
Speaker 1:You know, we, we put a lot of time and effort and research, both in our, into our models, into our portfolios, into each specific client, taking each individual Scenario, yes, into account and all the aspects of that. And so, yeah, nothing we we said in any of that should be taken as a specific investment advice to anyone listening to this Exactly goals, risk tolerance, time horizon we look at on an individual basis For every client.
Speaker 2:Yep.
