F3 Podcast - Faith, Family, and Finance

Roger Gaddis | Episode 6 | The Symphony of Money, Mentorship, and Meaningful Legacies at Gaddis Premier Wealth Advisors

• Derek Hines • Season 1 • Episode 6

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Joining us in a heartfelt conversation is co-founder Roger Gaddis, who brings a wealth of insight into the virtues that underpin our advisory practice. Roger's comparison of martial arts discipline to the tenacity necessary for business success is just one nugget from our exchange on integrity, trust, and the nuanced journey of intertwining faith with finance. We're in the business of building legacies, not just portfolios, and Roger's acumen shines a light on the profound influence of mentorship and the subtleties of sound perception—headphones on or off.

Our dialogue traverses the landscape of wealth advisory, from the laughter behind a failed golf cart venture to the serious commitment of shaping a future where money is more than just numbers—it's a catalyst for community enrichment and family joy. The narrative we share is not just our own; it's a tapestry woven with experiences, lessons, and the values we pass on to our clients and loved ones. Gather around as we reveal the essence of what makes money a tool for good, and how our choices echo into the lives we touch.

Derek:

, okay, okay Cool. We're on there. Okay, let's do it. Okay, so how long have you been recording? Now? What's that? How long have you been recording? Oh, doing this? No, no, no, just in the session. Have you been recording for a minute or two? Well, I started and I stopped. Okay, cool, so are we ready? Actually, one second. I guess I need my phone to set a timer up.

Roger:

You can't walk around either, because you're thump, thump, thump, thump.

Derek:

Well, you'll see me, don't look at me, try not to, but I, like ninja, walk around to double check cameras and stuff, like I'm always monitoring but you won't hear me, because I've kind of perfected the ninja walk.

Roger:

I need to get you some moccasins.

Roger:

Right, Like it's you know, I said just setting my pen down, that's barely yeah. Yeah, you can hear something really good.

Derek:

Good afternoon, my name is Derek Hines and I'm here with Roger Gaddis. I am the managing partner here at Gaddis Premier Wealth Advisors and Roger is the co-founder founder of Gaddis, gaddis Wealth Management, which was the predecessor to Gaddis Premier Wealth Advisors. We're glad you joined us today. Hope you enjoy our podcast. So, yeah, roger, thanks for joining me. Well, I'm glad to be here today. Yeah, so how was the?

Roger:

drive down from Ada. Well, I actually went down to Medill and saw a client earlier today, took care of some business and then showed up just in time for our podcast Nice.

Derek:

Nice. Are you staying at the lake house this evening or driving back to Ada?

Roger:

I did. Usually it's a summer thing, but we slipped in a winter night this week. Yeah Well, the lake is. Is the lake high?

Derek:

or low, or what's the? What's the lake like right now? That's a great question. I didn't get out there to fish, so I'm not sure. Yeah, yeah, and your place is at Buncombe Creek.

Roger:

Buncombe Creek Been there for about 20 years now. Yeah.

Derek:

That's a that's a long time, but you, so you, you kind of grew up on the lake right, or at least I've always kind of had a love for the lake and boats and being outdoors.

Roger:

Yeah, I think if there's any such thing as reincarnation, I should come back as a dolphin. Yeah, I love the water, love to swim, water ski. I'm a lake person.

Derek:

Yeah, yeah, and that's, I think, was it.

Roger:

The first thing you ever bought was a boat, probably not the first thing, but I bought my first boat when I was 16, and, kind of unusual, my family had a boat but I wanted to learn to barefoot water ski and the boat we had just wasn't fast enough. So I told my dad we need a faster boat and he said well, I'm sorry but the boat we got is fine. So I said well, if we can sell that one and I threw some money in could we get a faster boat? He allowed me to do that, so we got a faster boat and next thing I know, I was out there skiing without skis. That's a great story.

Derek:

That's a great story. I've got a son that I think one day he'll probably come up with a proposition like that for something bigger and faster. And man, if he's willing to put in on it.

Roger:

I don't mind teaching him. I'm 67, but I still do it every now and then. When somebody says I never saw anyone ski without skis before skis before, so I'll jump behind the boat and show them what it looks like. Yeah, do you do it with the rope or on the pole so I actually can get behind the boat on like one ski and I just kind of jump out of the ski from, go from one to none and skim along, cross back and forth across the wake. It's. It's not quite as dramatic as skiing, but uh it's.

Roger:

If you've never seen it before, it's fun. Yeah, how fast do you have to go? So, at my weight weight, probably about 36, 38 miles an hour. That's pretty fast. Well, it's not too bad. That's kind of slalom speed and I used to ski competitively when I was younger Slalom course, ski jumps, trick skis, you know, turning back and forth and flipping and jumping, and so that's kind of how I spent some of my teenage years. So how do you get the other ski back? Well, you hope that it doesn't float off into the weeds or into the bank. You just do your skiing and then you spin back around, come back and retrieve it.

Derek:

Oh, that's awesome. That's awesome. I don't know why my mind goes to that. I need to find the ski that you dropped. Well, tell us a little bit about—so you founded Gattis and Gattis Wealth Management with your wife, lee. Um, you've been in the industry. What 35, 36, 37?

Roger:

Since 1986.

Derek:

So about 37 years, uh, I've started out as kind of an employee financial advisor for a firm. I don't want to interrupt you, but that's 38. Okay, I know that it's cause I turned 40 this and I was born in 84.

Roger:

There you go, okay, 38. So I started as an employee of a financial services firm and worked there for about six or eight years and kind of decided I wanted to go independent, have a little bit better control over the products I offered and how I serviced my clients. Then I went into the independent channel, started my wife and I started Gattis and Gattis Wealth Management, as you mentioned. A few years later you joined us and you've been with us now for what? 10 years and kind of earned your way and bought your way into a partnership position. And about two years ago we found the new group, premier Investment Managers that we felt like it was a good fit. Investment managers that we felt like there was a good fit, yeah, and we sat down, talked to them, created a merger and now our firm is larger, got a deeper bench, got more employees to help service our clients and things are good.

Derek:

Yeah, yeah. So let's jump back. I love the story about how you met your wife, so tell me how you met Lee Well so first time I think it was on a soccer field.

Roger:

You know we were our kids played soccer with each other, kind of in the same grades, and we just kind of got together talking and over time created a relationship. But what was really interesting is at one time she was my competitor, she was working through a bank channel and we started dating and you know we'd share secrets about you know, what are you doing with your clients, how's that working. And I kind of started thinking, and we'd share secrets about what are you doing with your clients, how's that working. And I kind of started thinking it would be good if I just bring her over. She was working as an employee and I was independent. So one day their bank was selling their investment division, going to transition to a different broker-dealer. I said, well, if you've got to change anyway, why don't you just jump completely across the street, just quit over there and join me? So she joined as an advisor and we knew we were on a track to get married. We got married a couple years later. So I kind of married the competition.

Derek:

Yeah, yeah, I was curious. I actually have never really dug into the order at which all that happened, so she jumped over. You guys worked together for a couple years, but at that point, you know you were obviously we were already on the track, on the marrying track, right? Yeah, that's awesome. Yep, like I think you said, if you can't beat them, marry them, right Just marry your competition and then they're not competition anymore. That's right. That's right. Well, can you give us so just give us a quick summary of your role in the company?

Roger:

So at one time I was the manager and CEO and the CFO and all of those things and, as you know and for the audience benefit, when we did the merger, we started looking at the different people on our team including yourself, dave Reed, teresa Adams, other folks on the team and trying to look at what their best talents were, and we started separating those job responsibilities and luckily I now get to participate in management decisions, product selection for what we're doing in our portfolios. But a lot of those management things are now passed to other partners and I get to meet clients, which is what I really like to spend my time doing.

Derek:

Yeah, yeah we make the joke regularly. We all want to be Roger when we grow up.

Roger:

I've got the best job in the firm meeting clients Yep.

Derek:

Yep and Roger's the largest partner, so he contributes at the partnership level and you know us helping us make business decisions, and you know employee decisions, product decisions, all that, all that stuff. And then let's go talk to his clients.

Roger:

The fun stuff is the main stuff. Yes, yep.

Derek:

Well, we've talked a little bit about you know you growing up liking boats, but tell us a little bit about like where'd you go to college? Um, and then we'll transition into like what brought you to be a financial advisor?

Roger:

but where'd you, where'd you go to school? So that would be Oklahoma state university. Go folks, yeah. So, and they're having pretty good years these days. So I graduated in 1979. I got my CPA right.

Roger:

After that I got a degree in accounting. I was always strong in math and that kind of drew me into the industry. I've always been a people person. My father was in the Air Force, so we moved around a lot. About every two to three years we lived in a different place.

Roger:

I had to make new friends, join new clubs, boy Scouts, church organizations, always kind of being thrust into new relationships. Luckily, now I look back at the time it was a little traumatic having to change girlfriends and change friends, but now I find that it actually made me probably gave me a lot of skill in making relationships and meeting new people and doing new things kind of a little bit adventuresome, yeah. So I've just enjoyed. So when he got out of the Air Force, we settled in Ponca City, which wasn't far from Stillwater, and that's why I ended up at OSU and graduated there. As I said earlier, I went to work for kind of a more of a regional national firm as an employee and started an office from scratch in a little bitty Anadarko, oklahoma. Yeah, yeah, so what?

Derek:

so jumping back to the Air Force, where's the most like, where's the most interesting place you guys lived?

Roger:

So got two stories I could share with you there. We lived in Turkey, adana, turkey, for three years when I was in grade school and I remember swimming in the Mediterranean Sea, going out and seeing ruins of castles and aqueducts coming down from the mountains Wow, one of the most interesting things was watching them slaughter lambs or sheep on the Passover. Actually seeing them doing it right at the bottom of our hotel units oh, wow, that was really fun. I was young but I remember a lot of it. The other thing that was kind of memorable we lived in Biloxi, mississippi, when Hurricane Camille hit the coastline and at the time Camille hit, that was the most devastating hurricane that ever hit the US coast anywhere.

Roger:

I remember we got up the next day and we'd been in a shelter but there were seven or eight trees down in our house and we didn't have electricity for six weeks and water wasn't running. It was a mess. We went down on the beaches and hotels were gone, gas stations were gone, just slabs of concrete. Big old ocean. Going freight liners were sitting up on the beach on dry land. Wow, it was quite an experience.

Derek:

Yeah, so turkey slaughter and sheep for the Passover. I know, obviously one of the F's is faith in our podcast, but what did they do? Did they rub the blood on the doorposts?

Roger:

So I don't remember seeing that, what would a landlord would think about that? It was an interesting thing. They kind of slit their throats and put little holes under their skin and blow them up to separate the skin from their body, to help them skin them, and it was a process. They had it figured out.

Derek:

Yeah, that's interesting, I know you know we have sheep and we've had quite a few sheep from time to time and I've never used a straw to separate the skin from the lamb, but maybe that's the way to do. It Seemed to work for them. Yeah, that would take a long time. It would seem like I bet now you might use an air hose. There you go air pump. Yeah, use a compressor. Might try that on your next deer. Yeah, yeah, that might work. That might work. So went to college at OSU. Uh, you know from from Ponca city, I know you worked for Conoco Phillips for a while too, was it?

Roger:

was it Conoco, phillips or Phillips? It was Conoco Conoco, just Conoco. At the time they did a merger several years after that. So I spent seven years after I graduated from college working in their tax department filing corporate and income tax and excise tax returns. Another kind of back to the water, skiing. What got me interested in being a financial advisor?

Roger:

One of my good friends bought a boat, but he didn't know how to ski. He had the money to buy a boat but he didn't know how to ski. So he knew I did and he asked me to teach him. So we went out to the lake, I taught him and his family and his wife and his children, and we got them all up on skis. He had a good time. So he said hey, come over to the house for dinner one night. I kind of cook some steaks to reward you for, you know, teaching us to ski. So I went over.

Roger:

Yeah, he says you ever thought about being a stockbroker? Because he was a stockbroker at the time. Yeah, a daily basis. What the routine is? He said you'd be a good one. You're a people person. You're quick to learn. You got people skills, math skills. He said you'd be a great stockbroker. I said well, I don't know, I'll think about it, I'll look into it. So I did. I started doing some research and I thought this sounds like fun. You know, instead of being behind a desk just punching numbers all the time, I could do the numbers and then deal with people. So I just got this wild idea to quit my secure accounting job at Conoco and go out and become a commission-based salesman.

Derek:

Yep, Yep, and that was similar to my story and that was one of the things I feel like kind of brought us together at first is, you know, we my wife and I, you know, we graduated college at OSU, so go pokes moved to New Mexico to work for ConocoPhillips. And probably about four or five years into into that deal is when I decided to, you know, go it on my own. And you know, people asked me what I was doing. I said, well, I guess I'm, I'm retiring, you know, 37 years old and, uh, you know, left the, the corporate secure job to you know, be an, you know, and I I wouldn't go back really, so my only regret is that I didn't learn about it earlier and take the jump quicker than I did.

Roger:

Yeah, it's been very fulfilling.

Derek:

Yes, yes, I agree. Um. So let's see, we got. We got College, job, marriage, starting a family. So tell us a little bit about your family. I know you've got a couple boys right.

Roger:

So Lee and I have four sons. They're all doing great, got college degrees, living on their own, buying their own houses, them and their bank, driving their own cars. Got six grandchildren. The youngest is two. She was over one day this week. She just loves to come see pops and go out and feed the cows. That's her highlight of her visit to grandma and grandpa's house.

Derek:

Yeah, yeah. Do you take her on side by side, or?

Roger:

tractor. We do, but she just loves to go out and stand with the cows. I'll call them up to the pen. She even helps call them in. And so we'll get them up to the pen, and she wants to go out there and stand with them while they're eating. She's just fascinated by cows?

Derek:

Yeah, and she's two, she's two, and whose?

Roger:

daughter is she, she's Will. He's the youngest, he's a highway patrolman. Our third son is a financial advisor, has his own office in Tulsa. Son number two has his own landscaping company and our oldest son is a medical doctor. Yep, that's a lot of a lot of differences yeah, a lot of variances, but they're all doing well, as I say, kind of standing on their own two feet, doing their own thing.

Derek:

I'm real proud of them yeah, yeah, you know we, we have a lot of the guys. So you know, I do jujitsu, you've done taekwondo in the past. Right, a lot of the guys that do jujitsu are our patrolmen. So a lot of no will and I don't know if he does. He doesn't train jujitsu does he?

Roger:

He actually does. He's been in several competitions and brought home some medals. Ok, nice, nice, he's on the state tack team. So when hairy things happen, he gets called out, called into duty.

Derek:

Yeah, yeah, that's. That's one of the consistent things. As I say, you don say you don't want to tangle with Will. He's a pretty big guy too he's a big guy, I don't want to tangle with him. Yeah yeah, so you've done taekwondo and I know, before we got on the podcast I mentioned that my back is a little out, so if I kind of wiggle around, we all know why that is, but tell us a little bit.

Roger:

So you're a black, black belt. So I yes, I got started late. I had four brothers. So when I grew up in a in a family with five boys no, no, no sisters I always wanted to do some sort of karate or taekwondo or something as a kid. But we fought enough at home and mom and dad said, no, we don't need any martial arts, it'd just make things worse. So I didn't actually start training till I was in my 30s.

Roger:

I think I got my black belt when I was 38 39, so I really enjoyed it. It's a good discipline, you know it just teaches you a lot of discipline and you know mind control and temper control and you know it's good for self-defense and other things too. But yeah, really good workouts yeah, yeah, that's awesome.

Derek:

That seems pretty fast. Is that fast to get a black belt, or?

Roger:

Probably took me about four years and it probably was faster than normal, but I was really dedicated to it. You know, that was something that you know. Pretty much five days a week I was at the gym, you know, working out with training partners and working out with her. Uh, the, the, uh, our fourth degree black belt, who's? Running our school, so I put myself on a fast track by being extremely dedicated.

Derek:

Yeah, that's awesome. So let's transition a little bit. I know, obviously, family is very important to you, but faith is also sort of a core tenet of who you are. So tell us a little bit about how has, how has your, how has your faith influenced how you, you know, run your business.

Roger:

Well, number one it's. It's got to be front and center. You know, I kind of think about treating people the way I want to be treated. The golden rule do unto others, which we all know. You know, I think about doing what's right even when nobody's looking. You know, it's real easy to, if a camera's on you, to do what you think somebody expects you to do. But in our industry we're in an industry of trust.

Roger:

You know, where people spend a lifetime trying to gather a few hundred thousand or maybe, if they're lucky, a million or more dollars to, you know, work their self through retirement. It's just critical that that money be handled with tender, loving care, full disclosure. As you know, we want people to know what are your costs, what are your fees, what's the volatility going to look like, what are my expectations and if we set those expectations properly so a person knows what they should be getting and when it's going to happen, they can make calls and inquire. But just making sure that we're doing everything we can with full disclosure is part of that golden rule experience- yeah, so do you think?

Derek:

I mean, do you think being a man of faith is an advantage or disadvantage in the business world?

Roger:

Well, I think it's mandatory. I think I think that's where you should be. You know a salesman which I guess that's, if you boil it down, that's what we are. A salesman can make sales almost to anybody. You can say what you want and motivate somebody, manipulate somebody, into doing what you want them to do if you're in sales. Or you can be a full disclosure person and really let them know what they're buying and the features and the benefits and how it's going to work for them. And it's easy to make a sale, but to create relationships that are long-term and to continue to service that person for generations and have them tell their children and their grandchildren to come in, you don't get to do that. If you're not doing things properly, those people will go away eventually. They'll figure you out. That's right, yep.

Derek:

We very much are in the sales and service industry. You know most of what we do are we foster long-term relationships where we provide financial services.

Roger:

I would say the bigger part of my client base. I've got clients that have been with me since the day I moved to Ada uh, over 30 years ago. 30 year, 30 year old clients, uh, 25 year long clients, 20 year long clients. By far the majority of the time what it takes for a client to leave me is that we have to attend their funeral and you know it's kind of end of life thing. Otherwise they they tend to stick, yep.

Derek:

Yep, um, so I I think this, this you've, you've probably answered this, this next question as well, but would you say it's difficult? Would you say it's difficult to execute your business in a godly manner? Why, or why not?

Roger:

Is it difficult?

Derek:

Is it difficult?

Roger:

It's actually. It's not difficult, it's just doing the right thing for the right reasons Again.

Roger:

I hate to repeat myself again, but it's full disclosure. I want to know, if it's my money, how's it going to look, how's it going to act? You know, is it short-term, long-term? Yeah, are there fees involved? Yep, are there other costs? You know, are there features that could go away at some point? Maybe they start out, but then things change. You know, just telling, just being honest with people and putting it on the table so they they understand what they're getting into is to me, that's the only way you can grow a business. Yep, yep, I agree.

Derek:

Well, so you have been. I would say, out of all the partners, you've been the most successful in business. So what are some? What do you think has made you successful and I apologize, that's not on the sheet.

Roger:

Okay, First I'll say maybe I've been most successful, but I'm 67 years old and I think the next, the next oldest partner is probably still in late fifties, so I've had more time to become more successful. It's. We've got great partners that are on a great track, that are doing great things for their clients.

Derek:

Yeah.

Roger:

I've just been doing it longer, so I attribute a lot of my success just the time in time in the industry, yeah, and so the question was.

Derek:

I'm sorry, the question was I mean, that was a very humble answer from you, but what do you think has made you successful in business?

Roger:

So I think you know, unfortunately, probably earlier in my career I was not really very balanced and I probably worked too much. You know, kind of this work, leisure, leisure, work, family balance thing, I probably work too much. And that's not so bad when you're building a business If you want to get something off the ground. I had an uncle once. It's kind of a funny story.

Derek:

His name was Gene. I think I know where this is going.

Roger:

So Gene was a painter. He's passed away now, but he's a. He was a painter and he told me. He said, roger, you know if you're really on top of your game and you know what you're doing, and you got all your ducks in a row. A good entrepreneur should only have to work half a day. I said, gene, you're nuttering a fruitcake, what are you talking about? And I worked a half a day. I'm like I must not be any good at this.

Roger:

He said no, it's true Half a day and it doesn't ever work 12-hour days in the beginning, but you know they certainly weren't 8-hour days. You know, a lot of 10 and 12-hour days and you know five, six days a week, you know a lot of Saturdays, you know cleaning up paperwork and things. So I think maybe just the tenacity and the energy to keep pushing forward and, you know, trying to just do a little bit more than the guy down the street that's trying to do the same thing but not.

Derek:

Yeah, yeah, I know you know a lot of, I think a lot of people they enjoy. Well, they, they like, they like to think about being an entrepreneur, they like to think about, you know, owning their own business. And you know for for everyone that that is considering starting their own business. If they talk to me, I say, look, if you can do anything else, just go do that. You know, instead of you know if you can just have a job, go have a job. I heard a guy say one time that you know a successful entrepreneur is the only guy that is willing to work 80 hours a week, so no one tells him he has to work 40.

Roger:

Yeah, that's probably pretty good. But I will say, being an entrepreneur does provide freedom and flexibility. Yes, so you know, I do get to set my own schedule and, fortunate for me, I didn't have to have somebody tell me to get out of bed or get up and go or, you know, to make two more calls before you go to lunch or one more call before you go home for dinner. You know, I kind of was self-motivated to do that stuff. And if you're not, as you're telling your friends, if you're not self-motivated to get out of bed and go to get to get your game on, then you probably ought to just work for somebody else. But if you want the freedom and the flexibility and if you work hard enough, ultimately the rewards of entrepreneurship, it's a good track, that's right, yeah, no, I I agree.

Derek:

You know, if I know, I know you're the same way, but left my own devices. Let's say this all this goes away, there's, there's. I don't know what I'm going to do. I'm going to wake up and do something like I'm going to go clean the barn mow the grass, like just something. I think it'd be fun to have some day that I got up and I didn't have anything to do. Yeah, I've not seen that day in a long time.

Derek:

Well, you you would probably find something to do, I assure you. I promise you I don't have to look far, that's right, yeah Well, so let's see some. So what are some other? I know, I know you've also just kind of on that entrepreneur track. You've had other I don't want to say like peripheral entrepreneurial ventures in the past. So tell me about some of those. I think those are just some fascinating stories.

Roger:

So I hate to turn the hands of time back this far, but it kind of started when I was 17. Yeah, so I bought my first house when I was 17 years old. I was still in high school, yeah, but I was on a track. I knew I was going to be getting married and you know I was. I was kind of I worked my way through high school and college, so I didn't really do a lot of the fun stuff. I was kind of a worker. So I bought my first house when I was 17,. Owned it for four years and I sold it and doubled my money. When I was 23, I bought my first brand new home, actually made a contract for a home that wasn't even built an empty lot and picked out the floor plan three bedroom, two bath, two car, garage, brick had that built. I lived in that about four years and nearly doubled my money on it. Then I went and I built my third house. I built it, yeah, With a hammer and nails. Yeah, by yourself.

Derek:

Well, I'm sure you had help yeah.

Roger:

I'm sure you had help. Yeah, I had help. We had. I had two friends and we just banded together and said let's build three houses, one for me, one for you and one for you. And so we got together and we built three houses. How old were you at that point? I was 25, and I'd never done that before. But we actually went to some housing additions and looked at other construction projects and how they do that corner, how they do this, what they do there and we figured it all out and we built three houses.

Roger:

So my third house I built one that was probably twice as big as I could have really afforded, but the labor was free. We did it all, from the concrete to the, the framing, the roofing, the shingles, the, the wallboard, the insulation. We did it all. So I got a really nice house for about half price yeah and you know I've just always loved real estate.

Roger:

So so we were my, my family and I we bought and remodeled houses and flipped them and we built up a little bit of small, real small rental empire okay, and that was fun. After a few years I got into the oil and gas industry, which has been very volatile, and that was not real kind to me. I owned oil wells back when oil went to about $8 a barrel and that was just not sustainable and I decided that wasn't probably the business I wanted to be in.

Roger:

That was a little sideline. My wife and I own some highway billboards currently we still do and just kind of sell advertising and that's kind of a nice little sideline. A few years ago we actually even invested in a couple medical clinics, found that that was kind of a tough business too. The you know what you bill the insurance companies or Medicare or Medicaid, or you know the billing stuff and the competition and you know keeping medical providers on staff and it was. It was quite a challenge. I learned a lot of stuff about medical billing and it's I kind of decided it's a little bit dysfunctional, to tell the truth.

Derek:

Yeah, yeah. From what little I know about it, it sure sure sounds like it's it's it's more insurance than medical. It's a little bit crazy. Yeah, yeah. So rental empire oil and gas billboards. I think we're missing one that's got some cars to deal with.

Roger:

Oh yeah, well, that was an interesting little sideline too Back when thank you for mentioning that, Derek. Yeah, About 12 years ago there was a deal pushed for these little low-speed electric vehicles. Yeah, and a little car, Actually modified golf carts is what they were.

Derek:

That's what I thought.

Roger:

But they modified them so that they could go about 30 miles an hour. They had auto glass, windshields and turn signals and headlights, high low, outside mirrors and seat belts. And they were really nice, really nice upgraded golf carts outside mirrors and seatbelts they were really nice, really nice upgraded golf carts. And so when the state and the federal decided they were going to do tax credits to help subsidize that industry, a friend and I a couple of friends we bought into a dealership and we sold the fire out of those cars because the tax credits made them nearly free. A person could buy one for $6,000 and get $5,800 back in tax credits. Yeah, yeah. So it didn't last long. The state decided they didn't want to pay the credits anymore and so they kind of started changing the rules.

Roger:

Yeah, so that business only kind of lasted for a couple of years.

Derek:

Yeah yeah, the deal was too good to be true.

Roger:

It was yeah. I couldn't believe it when I was told that these things were almost free. I kind of yeah, I challenged the person that told me. But he was right, it was true.

Derek:

Yeah, I remember, we, we, we.

Derek:

we were at a conference one time with your friend Bob and he was he was the one that you were I think you were were your partners with Bob, that's right, yeah, and he, and he laughed. He was like well, roger, how many of these free cars you think you can sell that? Yes, yeah, yeah. Well, I think it's. I think all that's just that's. That's super intriguing. And yeah, I know, on the billboards, I mean I golly, I get more feedback on those billboards than than almost anything that we do.

Roger:

They're up 24-7, 365. And if you get on a good traffic route and people see them over and over again, it's funny. Occasionally we'll take one down and move it to a different location and a year later someone will say hey, I see your billboard out there on highway three W all the time and it hadn't even been there for a year. So they tend to remember yeah no, they do.

Derek:

They do. So, um, moving kind of into some, some core values, so are there? Are there core values or beliefs that you live your life by?

Roger:

Well, you know, I really try to spend some time daily reading my Bible. You know, it's really I want to serve our Lord and God, the creator of and the master of the universe. And you know, I think I said something earlier about the golden rule treating other people like I want to be treated and you know those are.

Roger:

Those are the values I try to live by. They're the values that we, as as the owners of our business, the partners, try to instill in our, in our team, and they're the values I try to instill in my family when we have family outings.

Derek:

Yeah, yeah. So for the audience. I'm sure everybody knows. But what is the golden rule?

Roger:

Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.

Derek:

Yep and how, so on on a what are, what are some ways that that um, that you exemplify that in your life.

Roger:

Well, again, it's just, it's about respect. It's about even just saying thank you and please, and looking people in the eye when you, when you're talking to them, shaking their hand with a firm handshake and doing what you say, even when it hurts. You know there's, there have been times and some of these business dealings that we just described that I've been involved in, where maybe I've made a promise to pay somebody a certain amount of money, thinking we were going to hit certain profit levels and we didn't hit. But I still wrote the check. I didn't particularly want to at the time because I felt like, you know, I was shorted. But I gave somebody my word and I told them what I was going to do and I did it, even when it cost me money or cost me time and effort, and that's how I want other people to treat me. You know, we used to be able to shake hands with a person and your word was your bond.

Roger:

Now it's hard to even enforce a contract, but you know they're kind of made with little outs so people can slip out of them, and so I think a man's word should be his bond. You make a promise, you need to keep it. Yep, you borrow a tool and you should take it back in as good or better shape than you borrowed it in.

Derek:

Yep, I agree, I don't know how many trailer tires I've replaced, because I borrow a trailer and blow out a tire. Make sure the tires are good before you borrow it. That's right. That's right, that's right. Oh man, so looking forward to, like, the next five, 10 years, what are some of your goals? What do you? What?

Roger:

do you strive to do Well, family wise, I'm trying more and more to spend time and take some vacations with my kids and we this earlier this year kind of a crazy vacation, but we took the entire family sons, daughter, in laws, grandkids to the Cayman Islands. We swam with the dolphins, we went to Stingray City, we took pictures on the beach and I think we've tried real hard to fill our photo album, our family photo album, up with memories and spending time with the kids and the grandkids, away from the grind of daily life, so that we can kind of enjoy each other and build memories.

Roger:

Yeah, so in that regard, that's what we're trying to do and in regard to business-wise, we're trying to continue to work on our team and expand it Gattis Premier Wealth Advisors because one of these days I know I'm going to leave this earth. When I'm gone, I'd like my children to be comfortable knowing that they can bring their money here and have it managed properly. I want my grandchildren and my great-grandchildren to do the same thing. So we're trying to build a firm that is going to be multigenerational and is going to be around for my family and yours.

Derek:

Yeah, and I know that's one of our I mean as a firm, that's one of our core values is legacy. We really want to build something that's got some shelf life to it, that we, we can, you know, manage our clients finances for generations. You know for then, and you know we've, we've all done, we've done the exercise of you know what are our, who's our favorite client or what are the, what are the best clients we have, and I did that one time and I realized, well, that's there's grandma, there's mom and dad, there's son and daughter and there's the grandkids. You know you have, you have them all and it seems like you know when you, when you serve a family like that, yeah, so you know, whenever you, whenever you look and you serve a, you know a family that's multi-generational. There's just such an alignment of core values. Yeah, there's a lot to be said for that?

Roger:

Well, it's what we want for our firm and we think it's going to be good for our people and our team, but more than that, we think it's going to be really good for our clients and their families for a long, long time. Yep yep.

Derek:

Are there any books you'd recommend our listeners check out? So?

Roger:

I mentioned that I really like the Bible. I think that's a good one, but we all already know about that. I'd still encourage people to dig into that on a daily basis. But there's two others. For somebody that wants to be an entrepreneur, there's one written by Michael Gerber called the E-Myth, and it really kind of goes into a lot of good information about. You know, like my uncle talking about the 12-hour days or the half days.

Roger:

And what should you be doing as the owner and the boss and what should other people? What should you hire other people to do? And it's really a good book for entrepreneurs. Another good book that's, I think, good for everybody is written by Dan Sullivan. It's called who, not how, and I know you've read that book. I think I maybe recommended it to you.

Roger:

But the basis of that book is that you don't have to know everything. You don't have to know everything. You don't have to figure it all out. You just have to have people on your team that know what they need to do so that they can help you accomplish your goal. And actually that's where we can come in as financial advisors. Yes, a lot of people. You think, well, I got the Internet, I got all these research opportunities and I can figure it out on my own, but what can we believe? You know what's what's truth and what's what's fiction. There's so much that we just really it's hard to sift through it all. But if you have a good financial advisor and a team not just one or two, not just Roger, because what if Roger dies or he's sick? You got Derek. Well, what if Derek's on vacation? You got Dave. And what if Dave has COVID that day?

Derek:

Then you got Teresa, and you know we had a team Teresa Jordan Leanne, exactly.

Roger:

And so you've got people that know and read this book who, not how and the premise is you don't have to know it all, you just have to know the people that do and then put their power to work for you. Yeah, yeah.

Derek:

I agree. Well, I would actually like to take a jump back. One thing I didn't double-click on where the vacations, so I know you have taken some pretty I don't know epic, grand, like vacations that are on our bucket lists. So two questions One, best vacation with the family and then, second, best vacation with just you and your wife or friends.

Roger:

So we could make this vacation about two podcasts all by themselves. Yes, I'll tell you the most recent Lee and I like to do things and kind of see some of the wonders of God. Yeah, and there's so much in the United States that you can go see. That's just truly amazing. But just this last fall we went to Alaska, stayed in Fairbanks and we stayed in these little igloos. They were little composite igloos but you know, shaped, and they had glass dome tops so we could kind of see the stars at night and they were really cool. So we saw the northern lights with our own eyes. Yeah, that's just amazing, these green, cloud-looking things floating through the air. And that was our purpose for going and we saw that. We saw, rode by miles and miles of the Alaskan Pipeline. We went to the Arctic Circle.

Roger:

We went to the North Pole. Now that's North Pole, Alaska. Yeah, Not the magnetic North Pole, but that's where everyone mails their Santa Claus letters to and they get them stamped. We mailed letters back to our grandkids from North Pole. Alaska and it was really fun. But we went to Antelope Canyon a couple years ago on these beautiful rock formations that are just stunning, just exactly stunning. Yeah, and where is it? Is it in Utah?

Derek:

It's in northern Arizona right on the border of Utah and Arizona.

Roger:

I figured it was Arizona or Utah, spent a week in Wyoming at Yellowstone. We went out to Kentucky and saw the remake, the rebuild of Noah's Ark. Yeah, there's just some really cool stuff around America that you can see, and north, south, east and west there's cool stuff everywhere.

Derek:

Yeah, there's the Creation Museum. That's maybe three or four hours away from Noah's Ark.

Roger:

I think, yeah, about 45 minutes, actually 45 minutes, it's real close Okay.

Derek:

I didn't know it was that close, but that's on our list for us to take our at. The Passion Play, the great Passion Play, yeah.

Roger:

They've got a great museum and a lot of cool artwork and I hadn't been to the play since I was in youth group as a child. But I went last fall the director of that thing is a pastor of the church at Union Valley, Oklahoma, and the play was really good. They've got some displays and things that are really unique and I'd advise people go over and that's close.

Derek:

Yeah, that is close. Yeah, I know we went to the Great Passion Play when I was in high school, as my high school youth group went over to the Passion.

Roger:

Play. Well, that was a few years back. You ought to go again they probably changed a few things, yeah it was a while ago. So, and you're good friends with your pastor too, correct? Yes, Randall Christie, and he's the director over there and does a great job and runs the gospel station out of Ada, Oklahoma, and he's a good man and got a good ministry. Yeah, yeah, that's incredible.

Derek:

All right. So, lastly, is there anything that you would want our listeners to take away from this episode?

Roger:

So I haven't really said it yet, but someone else told me a story, a couple of stories, I guess you know. First of all, I'd say, and I say this at little workshops that we have you know, people think about accumulating money and you know, he who dies with the most money is still dead.

Derek:

Dead Right.

Roger:

Yeah. So accumulating a lot of money just for accumulating money is really pretty worthless. Yes, and you hear the story, and probably this really happens sometimes. But you hear the story about the old man who tells his wife when I die, I want you to bury my money with me. Just take it all and bury it with me. And she said, well, I can't do that, I got to live on it. No, I'll do it for you. Then so on the day of his funeral, you know, right before they closed the casket, she wrote a check for the full amount of the money, dropped it in the casket and they closed her up.

Roger:

But the reality, Derek, is money is a tool you know it's not the end-all, be-all and it's a tool to help you give back to your community, to give to your church, to give to the Boy Scouts, to give to the homeless shelter. That's right To use with your family and your friends, to build your community, and we're all going to leave this earth without any of it. And you know, I do agree we need to save, we need to put some hay in the barn. I do believe in saving, but once you've got a nest egg saved, then I believe you use that money to do good things in your community and make memories with your family and your friends, and so it's not all about just hoarding money, yeah.

Derek:

Yeah, no, I agree, yeah, we'll have to do. You know, just a lot of our conversations in the past are coming to mind. You know about like work, optional lifestyle, and yeah, we could do, we could do two podcasts on Roger's analogies. Well, we'll probably. Next time we do a podcast, we'll do that. Yeah, next time we do a podcast, we'll do that. Yeah, we'll just do analogies, well, awesome. Well, roger, I really appreciate you coming on. I appreciate everybody listening. One thing, roger, that I've always appreciated about you is just your knack for business, your love for people, your core value of integrity always doing what's right, whether it's convenient or inconvenient. And I know I would not be where I'm at today without your mentorship and tutelage.

Roger:

So I really appreciate you Well and I appreciate you too, derek, and what you do for the firm and for our clients. Yep, thank you.

Derek:

Okay, that's a wrap. That's it what time we're at Almost 40. Perfect.

Roger:

Like 39.30. Yeah, yeah, so, yeah, that was good I thought that was good.

Derek:

A lot of good stories. That was awesome yeah I'm good, I really enjoyed that yeah, yeah, that was good yeah, and we can even like on. I mean, uh, I asked you about randall christie intentionally, like we can probably link the gospel station and like the show notes and drive him to that and kind of create like a link.

Roger:

Every time we connect to him, he's gonna use it to connect back to us too. So yeah right, Amazing how different.

Derek:

It sounds like without the headphones on.

Roger:

Oh, I know you got to adjust right Cause you're like used to doing yourself yeah. Yeah, so I'm. I don't know if I did much stuttering or stammering, I'm sure.

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Derek Hines

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