A Financial Advisor With A Winning Pedigree - NCAA Bowl Champion Anthony Young

Welcome to the Build Something Media Podcast, your premier Chattanooga podcast that dives deep into the stories of professionals and their journeys. Hosted in our state-of-the-art Chattanooga podcast studio, this episode features Anthony Young, a financial advisor at Thrivent Financial, who shares his intriguing journey from Memphis to Chattanooga. Sit back and enjoy as we explore Anthony’s transition from being a Memphis Tigers football player to becoming a respected financial advisor in Chattanooga.

Anthony, originally from Memphis, Tennessee, was deeply rooted in football, having played the sport from a young age through to his college years with the Memphis Tigers. His journey to Chattanooga began romantically — meeting his future wife, who was a former UTC athlete on a scholarship. Her return to Chattanooga for work and the flexibility of remote working for Anthony catalyzed their move, marking a significant transition from his Memphis roots to building a new life in Chattanooga.

In this podcast, Anthony delves into his dual identity: a financial advisor and a passionate collector. His financial advising role at Thrivent allows him to help clients navigate their financial journeys efficiently, focusing on investment management and comprehensive financial planning. Beyond his professional life, Anthony reveals his hobbies which include collecting sneakers and exploring the world of bourbons and watches. These personal interests add layers to his professional persona, providing a unique blend of content for our listeners.

Anthony’s integration into the Chattanooga community showcases the vibrant, dynamic nature of this city, renowned for welcoming diverse talents and backgrounds, making it a prime focus of our Chattanooga podcast. This episode not only highlights personal and professional growth but also emphasizes the cultural mesh that Anthony experiences in transitioning from Memphis to Chattanooga. The podcast also subtly nods to the Memphis Tigers, celebrating Anthony’s past achievements and the sports culture that significantly shaped his early years.

Join us in this engaging session at our Chattanooga podcast studio, where personal anecdotes, professional insights, and the spirit of Chattanooga come alive. This episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in the interplay between personal passions and professional responsibilities, and for those looking to understand the impact of sports discipline on personal and career development.

Tune into the Build Something Media Podcast, a top Chattanooga podcast, where we build compelling narratives with fascinating people like Anthony Young. Whether you are in Chattanooga, Memphis, or beyond, this podcast promises to enrich your understanding of life’s transitions and successes.

With live video, podcasting, brand coaching, and web development for business, content creators, podcasters, and people who want to be seen.

Amplify the reach of your Chattanooga area business with our high definition video podcast services. 

www.buildsomethingmedia.com/podcast

Transcript

 Oh wait, oh pause. We're good. It's not going live or anything. Yeah, no, we're editing it now. Yeah. This won't even be on the podcast. This is just for me to get that information. I don't even know. Let me, look at mine.

 So Instagram is Anthony Young. Good, state your name and then where you work. Okay. And then that website and then all your socials. Okay. I can also, you can just ask me back again and we can edit it down. Okay, cool

 So name Anthony Young, work for Thrivent Financial as a financial advisor.

 Website to find my website is connect.thrivement. T-H-R-I-V-I-S-N-Victor-E-N-T.com.

 Is it a forward slash or back slash?

 So, just say slash on it. I don't even know. I do this stuff.

 (Laughing)

 Slash Anthony,

 dash Young, I can't, I don't know. You'll send this to me too, anyway. But yeah, connect.thrivement.com forward slash Anthony dash Young. Perfect.

 Socials. Socials, Instagram, Anthony dot Young dot Thrivement.

 Facebook is Anthony Young dash Thrivement.

 And that's pretty much it. Sweet. All right. Chris, do me a favor. Sir.

 Grab those headphones right there and slide them closer to you. Or just put them down.



 He likes having props in the shot. I like it. Slide them back towards Anthony's right arm.



 Push them straight towards him.



 There we go.



 Okay.



 Boom.



 There we go. That looks good. Looks crispy. Crispy. (Laughing) Crispy. Okay.



 Can you give me some drums? Do we want, you want an intro?



 Yeah, give me some drums and an intro.



 Oh, you got sounds. Do we want just the drum beat or we want our intro? I don't have our intro ready, so the drum beat's fine. I'm on Bluetooth. Do it.



 Okay.



 Just gotta pull it up. It's more and more intense.



 You played football, you'll be fine. Damn, this ain't nothing. Yeah, for real.



 Yeah.



 Also played football my whole life. Didn't interview my whole life.



 Hey, before you were a financial advisor, you didn't do that either. Nah. So hey, life's a journey and an adventure, right? That should be it. Orange.



 Do I know?



 Orange?



 Those are recording of me. I don't know. I don't know what he was doing either. Here we go. This is what I deal with every single day. All right, we ready? Yeah, we're ready. Oh, now it's not fun. And three, two, one.



 Hey, good night on the screen, man. So we're gonna go to the screen.



 Welcome to the Build Something Media Podcast. My name is Chris. And I am Justin. And today we are joined by Anthony Young. Hello, Anthony. How you doing?



 Thanks for joining us. Anthony is another one of the fine members of our BNI group and I'm excited to have him here with me today for our official one-on-one that we're gonna log in our handy dandy app today. So Anthony, you are a financial advisor at Thrivement Financial. Yes, sir. Okay.



 Let's talk about that and let's talk about, are you from Chattanooga originally? No, sir. Let's talk about what brought you to Chattanooga, then this is one of our favorite things to talk about.



 So originally from Memphis, Tennessee, born and raised, they call us football, the whole bank, the whole shebank. Met a woman, happened to be in dental school at the time. Always a woman. Always, man.



 She played UTC, had a scholarship, loved it, always talked about it. Before I even met her, didn't know UTC was a place where Chattanooga was a place. So met her. I'm sorry.



 I'm sorry. I'm sorry. But met her and she got a job offer to come back. She found out I can work remote. Yeah. So I honestly trusted her. Yeah. Trusted her as a big leap of faith to leave my home market. Never left Memphis before, moved out of Memphis before. Moved to Chattanooga and started from ground zero, but it all worked out. Nice, I'm glad. Nice. So how long have the two of you been here? For her the second time, for you the first time? It'll be three years come August. Nice. Have you been doing the financial advisor stuff for that long too? Yes, sir.



 I have my office, my practice already established in Memphis. Gotcha. So I'm coming up on five years in the industry. Okay. So I see that you have a ring on, so I assume that that relationship did work out. It worked out. No, that's good. Because we've also had a lot of people on the show that moved here for love and it didn't work out. Which is why we're also starting a dating advice show. It's not true. It's not true.



 (Laughing) I got lucky, man. Yeah. We're really gonna help you with your personal branding. (Laughing) Oh my gosh, this guy.



 All right, so we had a brief conversation before we got started and I'm curious to hear because in a big part of your life you said that you've played football your whole life. Yes. Tell us about that. I mean, you started I'm guessing when you were really young, played all the way through college.



 Walk us through that. Oh, from the beginning? Yeah, man, tell us about your football career. That sounds awesome. I played football for 11 years. Come on, man, throw it at me.



 I started playing football when I was what, seven? Played football when I was seven.



 My dad was a football player and my granddad was a football player. So sports just runs in the family. Sorry, sports runs in the family. So it was just, I enjoyed being physical. I tried playing soccer. That didn't work out because they stole the ball and I'll tackle them. So my mom put me in football. I was fast enough to catch them and I can hit them legally. So we're good. Yeah. And so it just became a passion, man. Played football, track, I tried all the sports. Track and football, what I stuck with. One stayed in track, one stayed in football in my freshman year, one stayed in track my senior year. And so it came down to making a decision as far as where I was gonna go, or if I was gonna play football in college or run track in college. I had offers for both, but with the track scholarship, you really can't play football anymore. With the football scholarship, you can play, you can run track if you have an agreement with the coach. And so that's why I lean really more towards going to football or college, things like that. And with Memphis, believe it or not, I did not wanna go to Memphis at first. I, at the time when the coach would come, I would hide in the locker room because during that time Memphis was terrible. And if you were a kid from Memphis, then your whole goal is to make it out of Memphis. We really didn't wanna stay in Memphis if you had the chance to go somewhere else. Hang on, hang on. Were you part of the Memphis team that had that big run and was just really, really good? I was. What? I was.



 Justin. I'm looking it up right now.



 (Laughing) So have you referred into, so my came in Memphis in 2013. Yeah, that's exactly what I'm talking about. Yep, so first bowl game was BYU.



 Yeah, I know BYU, ESPN thing blew it up. We did not start that fight.



 (Laughing) But so yeah, bowl game was BYU, second bowl game, I think that was Birmingham bowl game. We played Auburn.



 Third bowl game was Boca Raton. I think we played Western Kentucky. And then last bowl game was Liberty Bowl, which was good and bad for the seniors. Because obviously it's the biggest bowl we've been to at that point. Liberty Bowl is a historic bowl, but it's also your hometown.



 So the taking was the buses back to Ville Street, which we could see our house. So it's like, why?



 Our last bowl game is at home. We weren't too happy about it, but also it was a great historic thing. So yeah, those are my bowl games experience. I have four bowl rings, it was fun. That's awesome, man. Congratulations on that. Thank you. So post-scholars. Post-scholars. All right, found a sweetheart. Found a sweetheart. Got married, moved to Chattanooga. Got married, moved to Chattanooga. Tell us that part of the story. Now you briefly touched on it, but let's expand a little bit. Okay.



 And you don't have to get too detailed. If you don't want to, I understand. I mean, that was pretty much the sum of it. There wasn't a lot of moving parts with it. It was more so she graduated. We met while she was in dental school. Turns out we went to the same high school, knew a lot of the same people, but we never really officially crossed paths or met each other. So when we did meet, things were going great. This was also around COVID time as well. So we quarantined together. So it just seemed like the right thing to do because at this point in time, it's only been a year, but it felt like five years when you quarantine with somebody, right?



 So after all that, she got a job offer.



 She brought me to Chattanooga, but still COVID time, so not a lot was open. And like I said, I just trusted her. I didn't even know where we were moving to. So I'm following her. She's driving my car. I'm driving the Penske, and I don't even know where we're going. So she had faith because all we saw was a blueprint of the apartment we're moving into. And so she didn't tell me this until we pulled up. She said, "Oh, I'm so happy. It's like here."



 It could have been a scam. We didn't know. But yeah, everything worked out. Yeah, I'm glad.



 So now that you're here, you've been here for three years. For three years. Not playing football anymore. Nope, I'm retired. So you gotta have some sort of hobby to fill that void. What was Anthony into now?



 Oh, man, Anthony, he's a collector of things. I was a big shoe guy. So Jordan's obviously where my go-to. Being in Memphis, had a Nike factory in Memphis. So I amassed a huge collection of Nikes over COVID and things like that. I think the peak of my collection, I had about 120 pairs of Jordans, all different ages, sizes. Oh, now size is my size. But silhouettes, things like that. Yeah.



 Another thing I'm into watches, like watches. Things that are unique. I'm not trying to go for another Rolexes and things like that quite yet, but just having a nice variety of watches. Something that has a nice story with it, right? Yeah. And then bourbon. I like bourbon because to me, bourbon is like art. I don't drink it, just to feel the effects, but it's more so just enjoying the art that went into it. It's a lot of complex elements that have to work together to create the final product. Yeah. And so I enjoy that. Oh, awesome, man. All right, so let's touch briefly, because I know that there are a lot of roles around talking about financial advising.



 And so let's just touch briefly on the services that you guys offer. I don't want you to go too deep into the other stuff because we haven't researched that deeply yet. What we can and can't talk about, particularly for financial services. We have for real estate and there are some rules around that. And for healthcare, but financial services we haven't jumped too heavy into yet.



 So within that realm. Within the realm. Tell us what it is that the services that you guys offer and kind of just a definition of what those things are.



 Yeah, well, there's really two or three, what happened?



 Your dad's weed eating outside the window.



 (Laughing) Am I good? Yeah, you're good. Yeah, go ahead. We won't be able to hear it. No, that's fine. I was wondering, I sat here in the present. Yeah, me too. Like, is it just me? All right, so I mean, to kind of keep it simple, there's really two main ways that we interact or that I interact with clients.



 And that also feeds into the services, right? The one is need specific, which most people think about is investment management, maybe some insurance brokering, things like that, right? Thus you see a need, you feel a need and just that's pretty much it. What I like to, oh shoot, where I like to interact with my clients or come in is being more of a planner, right? Dedicated planning and really just building the advice around it, right? We take what you're doing currently, the goals you wanna reach, your means, and really come alongside as a partner to help you get there more efficiently. And there's six main areas that I like to focus on and there's really the six main areas of a financial journey. First and foremost is your, oh, I heard something else. First and foremost is your cashflow analysis. That's basically the, that's the most important because that tells us if you have a surplus or a deficit and we start there. You have a deficit, why do you have a deficit? We just try to help you get a better understanding of one, your budget, your means, expenses, things like that. Once you have an understanding of your cashflow analysis, then we move on to protection planning. Protection planning is really just to kind of keep the sample as protecting your most valuable asset, which is you, your ability to earn an income. Because if you can't earn an income, then everything else that we're gonna talk about kind of goes out the window with that income. So we make sure that whatever happens, you have some type of plan to make sure that we have a solid foundation. Before we start talking about the fun stuff, which is the accumulation planning. And that's the 401(k)s, that's the spreadsheets, the net worth, the fun stuff, right? It looks pretty on paper, but one thing we also wanna focus on is the money we're putting in, how can we have an exit strategy for it? And that's distribution, that's the fourth distribution. So just making sure that whatever your goals are, whatever the timeline is, making sure you have the funds ready to pull the trigger whenever it is time. So make sure the funds are ready for you, right? That's the exit strategy. And then after you've worked your whole life, you have distribution, making sure that your goals or whatever it is, as far as legacy is in place. So that's the fifth. So legacy is making sure that your assets that you accumulate from this generation can pass on to your son, grandchildren, whoever it may be, as efficiently as possible. Now, with all that, there's one thing that follows you throughout your life, and that is gonna be taxes. So that's tax efficiency, that's the sixth.



 Everything we do has to be tax efficient to make sure when it does come time for legacy or even distribution, that we have more money coming to you than we do to Uncle Sam. And if we do have a lot of money going to Uncle Sam, we can have strategies around it to help mitigate some of that, right? And so those are the six main areas that I show up and help my family, that help my families and clients, depending on where they are in that journey. Nice. Yeah. Sweet.



 Justin.



 Yes, sir. You got some questions for anything? I do have some questions. So Anthony, the last time you and I sat down and talked, you, we delved into the world of YouTube. We did. And you gave me some pretty good advice. You wanna revisit that conversation, considering I just started. Obviously us as a marketing media branding company, we delve into this stuff all the time. But I was showing you that I just started my personal YouTube page. And you had some advice on that. And so let's talk about how that has helped you with your business. And maybe some advice that you would have to other business owners or representatives of how they can use video content, especially things like YouTube to help them with their business.



 Yeah. I'm putting you on the spot now. Yeah, you really are. I wasn't prepared for that one. One of the biggest ways that having a YouTube channel has helped me is really just getting my face recognizable. Now, my YouTube content is not financially related. Like I mentioned, I have hobbies. So it's more of a pleasure thing for me just to have more of a release, a creative release, so to speak.



 But what that does is it allows people to get to know you personally.



 They see you outside of a professional setting. And I've actually gotten clients from just some of my content. They recognize me and find out what I do. And they feel like they know me already just off being very transparent and just being myself on camera for my own personal YouTube channel. And you probably share something in common already because they're consuming that content. And so you found an audience of people who already like the same things as you do. So it makes it more natural. Exactly. Yeah. Exactly.



 That's one of the biggest ways that has helped me. Like I said, I try to kind of keep that separate, personal and professional. But I mean, sometimes they overlap just because people you know, who's profession and they like your hobby. And you have a more in-depth, more genuine conversation. Yeah, absolutely. What's the name of your YouTube channel?



 So then my YouTube channel is called The Unbottled. It's a suburban, right now it's suburban focus, but eventually I'm gonna open it up to be tequila, rum. And like I said, it's art. It's an art form. So what I want to do is like I said, educate people on the complexities and some of the misguided assumptions about when it comes to drinking. Yep. Right? You know, I always have to drink to get drunk. Sometimes the most marketed thing is not the best quality thing. Right. You don't have to spend 100 plus dollars to have something of quality. And just this really shining light on those who are doing it well and don't have to break the budget. So here's the next question. Do you have a favorite bourbon? I do. What is it? Oh, so Knott Creek 12 is my favorite.



 It's something not super expensive, it's under a hundred bucks if you find it for the right price, depending on the market. Chattanooga, I cannot find it, but in Missouri, it's stacked to the shelf. So Knott Creek 12 is right now my personal favorite. Now when it comes to distilleries, obviously Buffalo Trace has such a wide range of products.



 I love, Love Me Some Wellers, which is, I don't know, weeded. People are gonna be like, that's a weeder, I know.



 But I also like, I like Stag as well. I like High Proof, but if I can't find a Stag or George T. Stag or, I like Blickers too. Blickers is good.



 You're saying a lot of brands, some of them I recognize, some of them I don't. Well, y'all can't see this right now, but I'm running some B-roll of a bunch of liquor from Anthony's YouTube channel right now on screen.



 And I think some of the brands that he was just talking about were actually just being shown on the screen here.



 It looks good, man. Your channel looks really good. I appreciate it, man. It's like I said, I needed something when I had my first child to have all these bottles. I'm like, man, this makes content out of it. I needed something to do while the baby's sleeping, while the wife is sleeping, just to kind of be out the way but still like I'm doing something active without leaving the house, right? That's a whole nother battle in itself.



 But yeah, I mean, it's hard to really just select just one favorite bottle because it depends on, you know, the moment. Yeah, how you feeling? Exactly. Yeah, different things for different times, for sure. Celebratory bottles versus everyday sippers. Like I said, if I could find it more consistently, then I'll pre-12 and be my everyday sipper. So that's cool.



 Justin, you had another one. I know you did. Well, I want to keep talking about his YouTube channel for now because I'm actually thoroughly impressed. Anthony, how long have you been doing this?



 I started the channel May 31st. The only reason I know that was because I just checked it like the other day. Oh, so you're almost at a year. Almost at one year of doing it. I didn't post my first video until probably towards the end of June, because I was just head deep in just deep dive and knowledge, just trying to figure out what to create before I posted my first video because I wanted it to be successful. And I was just so caught up on making it perfect.



 And I only had some friends, just like, man, just post the first thing and see what happened. And I posted the first thing and it was received well. And I kept doing it.



 How many followers is Anthony? He's got over 1500 followers. Nice, dude. That's really good for YouTube. And the video that I'm showing right now, right next to his head, he's got over 8,000 views. And on YouTube, that's nuts. That's actually really good for a small channel. Have you had any of my contact you about sponsorship or branding or anything? Probably have. I need to do a better job of checking that email account. Damn, sounds like we need to be working together.



 One of the, actually one of the things that we're talking about, not talking about, that we are starting to do is live selling. Okay.



 So being able to sit in front of a camera and have someone answer your questions for you, like it's like being a counter girl at Macy's in the 1920s or 30s. Gotcha. You know what I mean? Where you can have this conversation that we just had where I said, well, it's your favorite. And then you can tell me. Or you can ask, well, what's the occasion?



 Yeah. You can't really, you can sorta do that with a website. You can sorta do that with a video. But man, is it so much more impactful if someone can ask a question and have it answered. Particularly if you have an audience there with you watching it, then it may answer the same question for 50 people. Yeah, and one thing that I haven't really utilized to a small value is having, using live. Going live on my YouTube channel. Something I've been wanting to incorporate, but I just haven't, honestly and truly.



 I wanted to have like a backdrop and things like that. But with a newborn, you make some trade-offs. So I don't really have an official backdrop. I kind of record outside of my patio every now and then. I mean, I don't know if you've looked around you right now. We know somebody who has a studio.



 No, but from a, so just to share with you, because we don't actually talk about our own products that much on the Build Something Media podcast. Justin says I need to. Oh, we do. There we go. Always be selling or something. I mean, but even, we were just talking about it. We're gonna jump into it for a second, which is live video helps you with that, because you can't answer those questions in real time. Yes.



 And then creating that personal connection builds authority and trust with people. And then when you remarket the product that you've already sold to them with your honest review,



 then people buy it. And that's why people get sponsorships for channels is because maybe that channel gave them a positive review and now maybe they want to let them know that, hey, if you follow these people, you get this benefit of getting 10% off. Which is what every podcast in existence does. You know what I mean?



 And so it's like for you, with what we do here, particularly if you did like a live podcast, you can take questions from people. They could call. Good, call in. You know what I mean? Like. That's some Paul Feingbaum vibes in here. For real, why not? You know, how cool would it be to have like a person in Sweden call in and say, hello.



 Hello, Mr. Anthony.



 I don't know if that accent is-- I think it's Swedish.



 Maybe. I don't know. I mean-- Is that offensive? Do you like the person? I don't care if it's offensive to Swedish people.



 It's been bothering me one little bit. (Laughing)



 Do you care?



 Anthony, we'll edit that out. Well, he's not Swedish. His opinion doesn't matter. I'm really not Swedish either, but. I'm just, I'm writing my, back in my brain right now. Is that Swedish? I don't know anyone from Sweden. So I don't have no idea. My sister speaks Swedish.



 She sound like that? No.



 I mean, when I've heard Swedish people speak, like I think of the Swedish chef, Flergenbergenshmurgenbergen. Like that's a, so I'm just-- Those are the Muppets. I'm just making it high pitched, right? So this is the thing, this is like all of us. All of us Anthony. Neil is our drone pilot. Neil thinks that all satellites make a beeping noise. Justin thinks all recording studios looks like they do in the movies. And apparently I think that all Swedish people sound like the puppets from the Muppet show. So we all have something folks. It's-- (Mumbling)



 You know what I mean? We all have something. Oh wow. Yeah, we're funny. Thanks. Oh, you should be here all day. Man, this is hilarious.



 So. Let's see how the accent get it. Which one?



 The Swedish accent. Let's see, yeah. Yeah. Or is this German? It's German or Swedish? Might be a combination of the two. They're all from Europe. Yeah. I lived in Germany for like four years. Yeah, you should know better than us. I'm sorry, you should know the accent then. Well, the German accent's more like this. More like this. We talk like this all the time. If I'm speaking into English, yes. Yes. Yes. They say that like three times, they do what I just did.



 You like that? Yeah. And then they'd go back and forth and they'd look at somebody else and they'd be like, "Ich much dien ich tukuken." Like, "I can't understand you." And they're like, "I know, I don't want you to understand me." So that was my experience in Germany. It was pretty great. And we have gone way off topic here. Yeah, anyway. (Both Laughing) Anyway, Anthony Young, it has been a pleasure. Hopefully we made you feel a little bit more comfortable than you did initially. Yeah, I do. I do, yeah. Good, everybody says that. So that's a positive review. And this one, I'm gonna take it out.



 But thank you for joining us on the Build Something Media Podcast. I hope that some of this is usable.



 (Both Laughing) It is, we got all this stuff. That's definitely usable. Oh yeah, we got some good stuff in there. And we'll have clips and stuff made that you'll be able to use and post and things on your own social media soon. Yeah, you can even put them on YouTube Shorts. Put them on YouTube Shorts? Yeah, well, just tag us. If you don't mind tagging us, that'd be great. Yeah, that's cool. Just follow the channel, I got you. Yeah, appreciate it. Yeah.



 This has been the Build Something Media Podcast. I am Chris. And I'm Justin. And we have been joined by Anthony Young. Thanks for joining us. Thanks for joining us guys, appreciate it. Thank you.



 (Audience Applauding) Dude, you're fine.



 We're good.