The Insurance Buzz

480. How One Financial Advisor Legally Cut His Tax Rate to 2.8%

• Michael and Courtney Weaver

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What’s in this episode:
Financial advisor and insurance industry expert Mike Milligan, CFP and owner of One Oak Financial and Ideas by Mike, joins Michael and Courtney Weaver to break down how he legally reduced his effective tax rate to 2.8% using Puerto Rico’s Act 60 export services incentive. Michael and Courtney dig into how insurance agents and financial advisors can use content creation, especially YouTube, to build authority and attract prospects who might otherwise walk right past them in the grocery store.

Mike also shares the framework he uses to turn financial planning conversations into simple, one-page vision statements for clients, and explains why the biggest problem facing insurance agents and financial advisors today is not competition, it is obscurity. Listeners will learn a simple weekly content habit any insurance agent or financial advisor can start today, how to reframe rejection in sales conversations, and why becoming a behavioral coach matters as much as being a product expert.

[00:00] Taxes are an asset now: the $800K he saved
[01:00] 2.8% effective tax rate: what this episode covers
[02:00] Michael and Courtney welcome Mike Milligan
[03:00] Why Mike lives in Puerto Rico, works from Virginia
[04:00] How Act 60 drops his income tax rate to 2%
[05:00] Geographic arbitrage: not a fit for everybody
[06:00] Why proximity to high performers changes you
[08:00] Taxes were his biggest expense, now an asset
[09:00] The insurance industry’s biggest problem: obscurity
[10:00] Why one-size-fits-all content hurts good advisors
[12:00] The microphone: financial services’ best tool
[13:00] Mike’s Friday self-appointment framework
[15:00] Why YouTube works: people search for answers
[16:00] Best clients come from unexpected places
[17:00] You don’t need to be a creator, just 30 minutes
[20:00] Eight-figure earners have the same 24 hours
[22:00] Choosing your hard: leads and differentiation
[23:00] Cringe Mountain and the one-inch opinion square
[25:00] Turn client questions into a video library
[26:00] Profit vs. impact: what big companies miss
[28:00] Why advisors are becoming behavioral therapists
[30:00] Michael’s story: a father’s pension, a coach
[33:00] The one question every financial plan starts with
[34:00] A one-page vision statement clients keep
[37:00] Inside Mike’s Sprint to Success program
[39:00] Where to find Mike: Skool, text-in, website
[41:00] Closing thoughts

Connect with Mike Milligan:
Skool community: https://www.skool.com/mikemilligan
Text “IDEAS” to 600700
Website: https://www.mikemilligan.com
Book: “One of a Kind Financial Plan” https://a.co/d/05GuUFu2
New Book: “Retirement Deja Vu”  https://a.co/d/0hImXVgd

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SPEAKER_01

For me, taxes are taxes were my biggest expense. They're not anymore. Taxes are an asset to me now. Think about the growth I can have. I saved $800,000 in taxes last year. Think about what that can do in my business, One Oak Financial. Think about how many more leads I can buy. Think about how many more people I can employ. Think about how many, how many more lives I can impact when it comes to the standpoint of building the one-of-a-kind financial plan for them. And then think about think about like how much more I could pocket right at the end of it. How much more we can do as a family in the grand scheme of things. And that's ultimately why we're in business, right? We're in it to help people to make an impact, but we're also in it to make a living.

SPEAKER_03

2.8% effective tax rate, say what? On today's episode, Courtney and I sit down with CFP, owner of Ideas by Mike, and One Oak Financial, Mike Milligan. And we're going to be talking about how Mike has got his effective tax rate down to 2.8%. What you, as an advisor, your biggest problem, your biggest issue, and why you're not helping more people, more customers out with financial planning and their investments, life insurance annuities, and more. This was an absolute awesome episode where we dive into all things finances with Mike Milligan. With that being said, let's start the show. Hey, welcome to the insurance buzz. We are your host, Michael and Courtney Weaver. And today we have a very special guest with us, financial expert, owner of Ideas by Mike and one of Financial Mike Milligan is in the house today. Mike, what's going on, my man?

SPEAKER_01

I'm just here to try to match your guy's energy, obviously. I mean, that was one of the absolute freaking best intros ever to a podcast.

SPEAKER_03

Well, dude, I am pumped because uh you may not know this, but a lot of people call me money, Mike. So I study charts all the time. When your guy, when your team reached out and they're like, we've got this guy. His name's Mike. He's a financial expert. He helps business owners, he helps customers. You're in the insurance industry, and I couldn't think of somebody better to have on the buzz to come and talk about how not only agents and business owners need to be planning for their own success and their own retirement, but also how they can help customers do the same thing. And so we just appreciate you coming on. I'm excited. I mean, this is gonna be a crazy good conversation. So we're very intrigued. You started the conversation off with not bragging or anything, but you live in Puerto Rico. So I want to know what took you to Puerto Rico, why is Puerto Rico a great way to save on taxes and just kind of play the game a little bit?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, so I um my business still operates out of Virginia. Uh that's where my corporate headquarters is. That's the building we own, that's where most of our operation staff is, and we operate our business all across the United States virtually. Um and I've got people in Texas and Tennessee and Wisconsin, Ohio, Maine, Hawaii. Uh Hawaii is very intentional, by the way, because I need to go visit there every year. But as the owner of the business, um my my residence doesn't matter. And I know I'm in a room uh of people listening who are in the insurance business who are going to be like, well, if you don't live in Puerto Rico, how can you reside and have a Virginia residence, right? Uh your resident state is the where you either do the most business or you live. So I do the most business in Virginia, but I live in Puerto Rico. Uh reason I live in Puerto Rico is because when I'm on Zoom, uh talking on podcasts, meeting with clients, signing new clients up, I the money is being made on mainland USA. But then for my for my income, we export that commission, AUM fee, over to Puerto Rico, and it's exported from the mainland and imported into Puerto Rico. Well, Puerto Rico has this thing called Act 60. It's uh it's an export business. And most people think export business is like bananas or cars or no, no, it's commissions. You can do commissions. Marketing, crypto, right? And so there's an investor and an export services, and the revenue that I make in the United States becomes an expense to the business in the United States. One oak financial. That's the business. It goes into One Oak Puerto Rico, which is my which is my company there, and I only have to pay income tax at 2%. Two.

SPEAKER_04

Everyone's moving.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Come on, guys. There's and if the the key is this doesn't work for everybody, though, right? It you know, people have kids and they have schools or they have parents that they're taking care of, or you know, kids in college, and it doesn't work for everybody, but people use this strategy all the time. They do geographic arbitrage for their taxes. They move from New York to Florida, or you know, we talked about Wyoming, and they move from California to Nevada. People are using the system. We're just using the MacDaddy of the system, right? And like we we talked about, right? Like earlier, David McKnight, power of zero, is my neighbor, right? He's down in Puerto Rico, Harry Dent, John DeJari, an options trader, right? Jake Paul, MMA fighter. And in, you know, the the interesting part about Puerto Rico, it's also called Crypto Rico, because every big crypto trader in the world lives in Puerto Rico.

SPEAKER_04

I I think there's something to be said. This is something that I believe, but when you are that close and you're around that kind of energy, you're always learning something. You're watching like you, there's this constant expansion of like what's possible, what if we tried this? I think that that those ideas just start passing.

SPEAKER_03

It's like the old saying if you're around five multimillionaires, you're gonna be the sixth. That's it. Just just just say my water cooler is a little bit different than most people's water cooler.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, yeah, definitely.

SPEAKER_03

All right, so I do have to ask. So this is just me being very curious. So 2%, are you getting away from both individual and federal tax? And you're paying a max of 2%?

SPEAKER_01

Correct. Now I do have to have a payroll down there, right? I have to have a payroll, right? For sure. So I do have to pay some payroll tax down there, but it ain't, it ain't on the profit, right? That's the key, is and that it's just, it's just, it's a it's a hack, right? I write in my book, The One of a Kind Financial Play, that taxes are the biggest expense you'll ever have in your life. And I and there's a lot of people who will try to argue with me that it's like kids' college bills or your mortgage and all that. No, guys, taxes are the biggest expense you're ever gonna have in your life. And if I'm gonna write that in a book and I'm gonna tell clients that my job is to reduce your taxes, uh, you know, get you retirement income you can't outlive, and then we're gonna worry about investments that, you know, are risk appropriate from where you are by control of the freeze, talk about long-term care and do legacy, that's gonna be my business. Well, well, what what do you think it says about me when I say when me, right? My biggest client is One Oak Financial, Mike Milligan and Liana Milligan, that's my biggest client, right? And anybody who, if you're not your own biggest client, where right, and and I don't mean you have the most money of any client you ever have, but if your financial plan is not buttoned up and the most efficient it can be as a financial professional, you need to start there before you start working with others. But for me, taxes are taxes were my biggest expense. They're not anymore. Taxes are an asset to me now. Think about the growth I can have. I saved $800,000 in taxes last year. Think about, think about like what that can do in my business, One Oak Financial. Think about how many more leads I can buy. Think about how many more people I can employ. Think about how many, how many more lives I can impact when it comes to the standpoint of building the one-of-a-kind financial plan for them. And then think about think about like how much more I could pocket right at the end of it. How much more we can do as a family in the grand scheme of things. And that's ultimately why we're in business, right? We're in it to help people to make an impact, but we're also in it to make a living and to have really a truly one-of-a-kind life. And that's that's why we live in Puerto Rico.

SPEAKER_04

Oh my gosh, I have my I have my light up tambourine and my Stevie Nix shirt. I'm here for this. Okay, so you want to keep it.

SPEAKER_01

I did not have tambourine on my bingo card today, by the way. Oh man.

SPEAKER_04

It is hit. It is hit. Congratulations, bingo. Um, yeah, that's what happened today. So I want to dive a little bit deeper into. We're talking a little bit about solving problems for people. Let's talk about what do you think the greatest problem is currently in the financial services industry or the insurance industry that you're like, this has to change.

SPEAKER_01

Oh man, we're we all the greatest problem we all have is is the problem of obscurity. People don't know who we are. They um and there there's a lot of really good ethical, well-trained individuals that um can do a lot of really good stuff. Um, but nobody knows who they are. They they don't have a good mechanism for for getting in front of the right kind of client. Um and and we're and we're losing, you know, that there was a there was a study done a couple years ago that ranked like professions and like their reputation quality, and like, you know, an insurance agent was right at the same level as a used car salesman. Because like our industry gets pounded on so hard because and I mean there's nothing wrong with people that do this, right? Because I think some financial knowledge is better than no financial knowledge, but we got the TikTok people out there, right? That are saying IULs are the only thing you should ever do, right? And that it's like I I I see somebody with money, IUL, or I see somebody with money fixed index annuity, or I see somebody with money variable annuity, right? One one product or one solution for everybody's problems. And and those people that are have come out of obscurity, the ones with 200,000 followers on TikTok or 175,000 YouTube subscribers, right? Those people who've come there, they're not necessarily doing those of us who have the wisdom and the knowledge any favors, right? Because it's the same solution, same solution over and over again. And those of us who who really genuinely sit down with clients and we have no preset, you know, no preset financial plan in place. We're gonna listen to what the clients want, and everything from CDs to Bitcoin can have attributes for what they you know what they need in their financial plan, and we're gonna provide a custom plan for them or some kind of you know preset. Nothing preset. Those of us that do that, the the the heroes of the financial planning and the retirement industry, we we have the same reputation as the people who you know are doing the same product over and over again.

SPEAKER_03

Okay, so how how do agents get out of how how do agents get people to know who they are and what they do?

SPEAKER_01

Well, the the the thing you have to realize is the most powerful tool in financial services is not a calculator or a spreadsheet, it's the microphone. This thing right here, and I don't mean my microphone, I mean your microphone. The mic is the most powerful tool out there. And you have to and compliantly, right? I'm not saying go out there with a bullhorn on like the evangelist on the side of the street saying you're all going to hell. Don't do that, right? But put really good, uh, really good content out, right? And most people don't know how to do this, they don't know how to do it on the compliance side, but it literally is I I tell people to do two things, right? Uh if you if you're virtual and you record your meetings, right? Watch them. Just watch them. And then give yourself a grade. How did you do? Like, would I want to work with the guy that I presented on there, or did I not? And then the other thing I would say, dude, that all financial professionals should do is at the end of the week, they should have their last appointment of the week should be an appointment with themselves. So if you stop on Fridays at five o'clock at your last, that's when you end, at four o'clock, it should be a self-appointment with yourself. And that appointment should be, it should be structured into 15-minute increments. The first 15 minutes is, you know, answer what were the most impactful meetings I had this week and summarize them. The second 15 minutes, I would say, what were the what were the five common questions I had this week and write them down. And then the next 15 minutes on both of them, I would record myself talking about those impactful meetings. And then the last 15 minutes, I would record myself answering the questions. And if you think about that, you've created, in essence, probably two, three, four, five video content pieces that you could simply just slap on YouTube. So easy. And I'm telling you guys, when I started, when I started implementing this back in 2017, I sucked at it. I was awful. Like I was awful, right? I I had like this microphone that was like on a tripod, and and my voice just my voice was good, but it wasn't coming through well. And like my camera was like one of those little small cameras that you like put on the top of your thing and you would see glares. And uh now, you know, uh over time I've gotten much better at it. Yeah, but I still have a standing appointment with myself every Friday. The last appointment's a standing one where I ask myself those couple things. What are the most impactful meetings I had? What were the questions I had? And then I record them. And because what happens is it's it's practice, but by throwing it out in the universe, you never know who's going to see it. That's the beautiful thing about YouTube, right? Is people will go to YouTube and say, How do I change a battery in my you know, 2017 Honda Civic? They'll go up there and say, like, uh, my, you know, they'll say, My plumbing is leaking. How do I change the vowel stem? I I think that's what that's called. That little thing on the end, that little stem that comes out, how do I change that? People go to YouTube to find answers. And the interesting thing is you may only have 20 people who watch a video, but you never know, you know, as long as you have a good presence, as long as you have a good website and a good call to action, and you know, people will reach out to you over that because it's and and what you'll find is if you have 20 people watching your videos, what'll happen is they'll end up being 10 or 12 of those will be the same people over and over again. And then a couple years from now, when they finally need something, who are they gonna reach out to? They're gonna reach out to the person that they have listened to for the last two years. Everybody is not ready to create a financial plan today. Everybody's not ready to make a financial decision today about the future. But you just want to be present when they are. Because otherwise, you know, you're not gonna make any money for some of the from some of those people. And so that that that obscurity piece, recording yourself that last, that last hour of the day, man, that is how you come out of obscurity is you use this tool, you use YouTube, and you you just never know who you're gonna reach that way. Some of my best clients are people that I never would have passed in the grocery store or they don't live in my town. My my my best clients, you know, some of New York City, right? I never would have passed them, right? Boise, Idaho, right? I got I got one of the original, one of my clients, I have one of the original founders of Micron as a client out there. Like how I I've never been to Boise, Idaho. Well, now I have. I had never been to Boise, Idaho in my life. But I flew out there once he reached out to me via email, via email and said, I've been listening to your stuff on YouTube. You just never know what you're gonna find.

SPEAKER_03

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SPEAKER_04

All right. So I'm gonna I'm gonna say the thing that that I know people are thinking right now. All right, I'm terrified to put myself out there. I I'm not a content creator, I'm a financial planner, I'm an insurance agent. What do I do? I'm I'm scared to death. Like, and I don't want to be on YouTube, I don't want to spend all my time creating content.

SPEAKER_01

And exactly right. We're not we're not saying spend all your time, we're saying spend 30 minutes of a week. That's all we're saying. In the in the in the grand scheme, the grand scheme of this thing, right? 30 minutes. Well, if you think about what you're doing in that last hour or week, you're you're you're look you're giving yourself, and guys, in the financial services industry, think about how many times we hear the word no. Right? And and it comes in so many forms. It comes in the form of no, I went with somebody else, or or you call somebody three times and they never pick up the phone, or you send an email that goes unanswered, or you send a text and all of a sudden they say unsubscribe, right? We hear no's in so many ways in this industry, but that last hour of the week is your chance to build some confidence in what you did that week. You know, what were the most impactful meetings I had? What are the questions? And then by putting yourself at the end, it's an exercise of helping people, which is what we're in the when we're in the business to make money, but it's at the end of the week, it's your chance, it's your last thing is you're helping people. You're gonna go into your weekend feeling good about what you did. And at the end of it, right, that there's always going to be somebody better than us on YouTube. Always. And there's always gonna be somebody who's a better financial planner than you are, a financial pro or an insurance agent. Always. There you're never going to be the best because as soon as you as soon as you ascend to the best, like you let's say you work in a captive company and you're the number one sales guy there, then all of a sudden you're gonna go to like an MDRT event and you're gonna realize, oh, wait a minute, there's a thousand of me out here. Right? And then and then you're gonna get to the top of the table, right? And you're gonna be like, oh, I made it. And then all of a sudden you're gonna realize there's a thousand of them, right? You you never know who the best. I I get I get into some rooms that like if you were in some of the rooms I'm in, like for producers, I mean eight and nine figure, and I don't mean eight and nine figure of assets. I mean eight and nine figures of income for this business. And when you get in those rooms, you know the difference between those people and the people that are um that are people are making six and seven figures a year? Nothing. We have the exact same time. We have the exact same amount of time. It's just that they're willing to take chances, they get more yeses, you know, they're willing to go the extra step, they work hard. Um, and you know, that there's not many Harvard educated graduates, right? You know, silver spoon people who are making eight, nine figures in the insurance business. They're hard workers. They're the people who are willing, who are willing to kind of when they hear no, let that impact them for like two seconds instead of two days. And they go, they go to the next one, they go to the next one, they go to the next one, and they're always working harder. They're trying to, they're trying to learn more about the business. They're they're trying to improve themselves, they're willing to put themselves out there. Because at the end of the day, who who who cares, right? I mean, at the end of the day, the only person that I that I really care about how I impact them is my wife and my kids. That's all I care about, right? Like I don't want to embarrass her because I'm a reflection of her. And I don't want to embarrass my kids because I don't want to ruin the name, the reputation name, because I want them to be able to get into places I never got into. But at the end of it, who cares if John Smith and Biloxi, Mississippi, right, doesn't want to purchase, you know, the annuity solution or the financial plan I put in front of them. Right? It doesn't matter because that no means that I'm closer to my next yes. Yeah. I'm closer to, you know, breaking through with somebody else.

SPEAKER_03

I mean, uh to sum up a lot of what you just said, uh we work with thousands of insurance. Professionals across the country, and without a doubt, we all need more leads. We all need more leads. We all need this. Is an easy way to get I don't want to say easy. I don't want to say easy, but at the end of the day, this is a way to differentiate yourself from the competition. If you even want to say there is competition, at the end of the day, the biggest competition is the person you see in the mirror every single day. So if you're looking to help more people, if you're looking to for lead gen strategies, if you're looking to be successful in the future, what you're saying, Mike, is 100% spot on. And I go back to the you can work hard, but you also need to work smart. And this is an easy way to work smart. And we all get to choose our own hard. And so, sure, you don't want to put yourself out there, you don't you don't find value in content creation. Great. In my opinion, you're picking the easy route that leads to a really hard career, or you can just choose the hard right now. You can suck for six months to a year on camera, you can get better, you can put in your reps, and all of a sudden you can start uh reaping the the benefits of all the work that you've put in. Like those those are the that's the choice you get to make.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, and I think to put this practically, because I I understand cringe mountain, and I understand there are a lot of people that are listening to this right now, and they're like, I'm not gonna do this, or I've tried this before and it doesn't work. And after being online for what, 12, 14 years, I I understand this. Brene Brown actually practically talks about this. She talks about the square squad where you take a one-inch by one inch square, and everyone's opinions that actually matter go on that square. That's it. So it's a teeny tiny little square because it's very easy to put a video out, and user 196-727 said, This sucks. Nobody cares about insurance. And you're like, okay, I can completely absorb that and I can make that my own identity, or I can keep going because it does take some time because you do have to burn off almost that performance. And it it's interesting that we're having this conversation because I feel like almost every single interview that we've been doing here recently, the the common theme is you are your competitive advantage. Like you are the unique person. Like you we can all be selling the same things for the most part, we are, but how we do it, the words that we use, the people that we want to serve, the companies that we build, the people that we hire are all gonna be different because we're all unique. So I love that we're at this spot now when we're talking about content creation, where it's less about performing and getting it right, and it's more about being true to who you are and what you want to say, and like who you actually want to serve. If you're focused on how many people can I help, how many people can I reach with this message, you're less concerned how many likes it gets, how many, how many leads you get from it, and you're more focused on I have something bigger than I'm working for here. Like I'm serving others. And I know, Mike, we talked about that a little bit before we got started about like really that people over profit.

SPEAKER_01

And so, like, I and I I would the before we go away from content creation, there's one other thing I would say. By that by that end of the week answering questions that come up, now what you also have now is a video library. Because what most times will happen is you'll start realizing that after you do it four, five, six weeks in a row, it's the same question over and over. And what and what's what you now have is you have a YouTube link. So when somebody sends you a message, you can just send a video of you answering that question. And with that, that way you don't have to get on the phone, right? So if it takes you 10 minutes to answer the question, you don't have to do it on the phone. You could send a video, right? And now you're still answering the question, you're just not answering it live, right? And it's a it's a good system. But yeah, profit, profit. Um, you know, we we all struggle with this whole concept or or you know, we we work with big companies, right? Even if you're independent, most captives are all working with big companies. And the and the point of a big company is to is to make profit. And I don't care if it's a mutual company or if it's a stock held company, it's all about making profit.

SPEAKER_03

They're making that money, baby. They are making that money.

SPEAKER_01

If they don't make money, they're not gonna be in business. The regulators are not gonna let them stay in business. But but it's not all it's not only about making money, it's also about it's also about growing and becoming bigger. You know, no, there's not a I don't know an insurance company out there that says, hey, we're good. Let's just stay exactly where we are. We're we're we're good. We don't want any more business. Um we're just gonna stay right here. I and if it is, prove me wrong, right? Send me a message and tell me what insurance company that is because I don't want to use them. But but everything about these big companies, right, is they're is it they are um they are being pushed by either stockholders, um, executive managers, board of directors, and to those people they don't know about Jim Smith, right? And you know, his wife just being diagnosed with ALS and the fact that they've been married for 42 years and his his life is in shambles right now because he's looking at the prospect of burying her in the next year and the possibility of living another 25 years by himself, right? When they had plans to go to Alaska and go to the Mediterranean cruise and go over to Australia and New Zealand, but this diagnosis hit them like that. See, like that's the work we do. That's the work we do as financial professionals. We're the ones that have to bear the emotional, the emotional tolls that our clients have and still come out on the other side and explain how products work, how they solve the problems that they have, and then how to adjust, how to be dynamic when life throws you like this massive big ass curveball, right? And then, you know, help them, help them go on the other side. See, profit is good, but what we should be worried about is impact. Like what impact do we make? What where where can how do we help Jim and his wife end this chapter of their life well? And then how do we help him transition? How do we help him get up and realize that he still has life to live? Although he may feel hopeless, we has life to live. We are almost in the financial profession now, and I think this is gonna go even more in the future. You know, we always talk about being product specialists, being educators, getting, you know, getting designations behind our names. I think we're gonna become more behavioral therapists in the future than what we even are now. And the ones that have that art of human connection that can really connect with people, right, that can listen, that realizes that when you're in a meeting, that's the most important person you can be talking to. And when you do that, I think you're gonna you think you're gonna grow your practice. I think you're gonna become more impactful, I think you're gonna make more money. And uh that's and that that's the difference between a company, profit over people, and then a financial professional. You have to operate in that system, you do. But where you where where your point or your purpose is, is your purpose is to make the impact with the person that's in front of you. And if you can't, if it's not your ideal client, if it's not your ideal client, tell them that. Don't don't don't just take the commission or the revenue off of them, right? If they're not your client, tell them because everybody deserves to be somebody's a client. Everybody. And if they're not yours, push them off to somebody else, right? That's how that's how our that's how our profession is going to continue moving forward.

SPEAKER_04

You you made a little note over here.

SPEAKER_03

I did, I wrote it down. When you when you were talking about it earlier, because I I I told because I got into the business initially for financial uh planning just because my dad was a pension worker. Well, you probably know the company Yellow Freight. So during the great financial crisis, they lost about 75 to 80 percent of their pension, ended up going bankrupt about three years ago now. Um, and so I watched all this while I was in college, so that's why I initially got into the industry in the first place. And what I discovered very early on in my career is sure, you're a financial coach, but really what you are is you're a behavioral coach. And this was all reiterated to me during like COVID when stocks just went, they just crashed instantly, and you get call after call after call after call after call. I'm like, like Michael, what are what are we doing here? And it's like you're not gonna do anything besides ride this out with the initial plan. Like, this is this is what this is when if you have any extra funds, this is when we capitalize on this. But you are a behavioral therapist, you're a behavioral coach, you are working with with something when you're talking about money. People put more focus and attention on money than they almost do with any other thing in the world. It's the thing you've worried about the longest. Yes, money. You you you go your whole life saving, saving, saving, saving, saving, worrying, worrying, worrying, and then it then you have the job like with the retirement years of hey, now it's okay to spend this money. That's also a behavioral coach, that's a behavioral therapist, and that's a hard mindset to get through with with people. So, anyways, that's kind of a going off on a tangent here.

SPEAKER_04

I think it's interesting, Mike. I would ask you because a lot of what I do when it comes to like in our organizations is culture. And so I'm having like deeper conversations of like mindset blocks and goals, and we're having performance coaches. I'm curious, when you're having coaches with clients now, are we shifting to where we're having more emotional conversations, like they're actually having their money story of like these are all the things that I'm talking about? Have we moved into that level?

SPEAKER_01

So I, you know, I I come at this, I come to you guys, and you know, Mike did a good job at saying a little bit of who I am, but like I I am both um educator, coach, and planner. Um so I actually teach at a university too, and uh, and I do that to kind of keep myself sharp, to see, keep my pulse of what's on. So I teach personal financial planning and principles of ethics of financial planning at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia. Um, the in and it's not a lot of time, guys. I mean, don't don't I'm not I'm not that college professor with the sweater vest and the pocket to wear.

SPEAKER_04

I think you should do it. I mean that you can rock that fit and let's go.

SPEAKER_01

But the interesting thing about coming at some of this from an educator is um I feel like our one of our biggest roles, and we can't exclusively do this, right? Because there's not a lot of money in doing this, but we have to kind of give our clients and our prospects enough information for them to be able to feel like they're making an informed decision, not a rush decision. And I think part of that that education goes to the emotional state of it, the emotional side of it. And I think before like the financial planning conversation should begin, or at least when it begins in our company, is we have we make everybody answer a question. And the question for us is why is money important to you? Um, and that and the answers we get to that are all over the place, right? Spend more time with grandkids, you know, start a nonprofit, you know, travel more, it's all over the place, right? But we make people answer that question, and if they can't answer that question, that one question right there, we can't move forward. You know, if they're just like, hey, I just want to see, I just want to see your investment portfolio. Well, I I gotta be able to give your money purpose. And if I don't know why money's important to you, I can't give it purpose. And so when they answer that question, then we go next and we actually build a vision statement. And we have a framework for building a vision statement, everybody's is a little bit different, but ours is uh a vision statement around your community health and impact chi, you know, inner peace. Chi. So community health and impact. Uh we call it retirement chi. So we we why is money important, retirement chi, then we get to the money. Because now when there's when there's when there's vision and purpose, right, now money, money is just a tool. It's not a god, right? It's not a it's not the end-all. It is what allows you to accomplish those first two things. And so educating people and helping them with those two concepts, and that and by the way, it I'm not talking about two separate meetings here. Those those are conversations, right? Those are 10 to 15 to 20 to 30 to 45 minute conversations. And in in you in in the process, you can like educate just a little bit, but what you're really leading people to do is to say out loud why they feel like they need a financial person. Why is money important to you? What is your vision? And then when you when you lead them through the exercise, they're gonna be begging for the financial plan when they're done. Because now they have something written down on what that financial plan will accomplish. And to me, I think the financial plan is the most important financial document you can have. I don't think your fidelity or Schwab statement or your paycheck, I don't think it's the most financial, I don't think it's the biggest financial document, I think it's the financial plan. Like in as simple as possible, right? Like a one page if possible, right? I mean, that's I know you're that that's that's our financial plan. It's one page, right? If you cannot put it on one page, it's too complicated. And so we and so we we put why is money important to you up in the top left. We put your vision in the top right, and uh in the next one, we put your assets and we put what we're trying to accomplish. And then we update that as we go along. But this is literally a one page that they can walk out with, they could put it on their refrigerator. We we encourage them to do that. Put it on your refrigerator, put it where you could see it. Yeah, that's what that's what your money's for, that's what you're working for, that's what you're trying to live for. And and it's just a it's an education piece. I think 80-page financial plans are a waste of 79 pages.

SPEAKER_04

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01

Gotta keep things simple.

SPEAKER_04

Keep it simple so you can focus on it.

SPEAKER_03

Environmental friendly, right?

SPEAKER_04

There you go.

SPEAKER_03

That's right. So, Mike, this has been incredible. I would love to actually keep this conversation going. We may have you on the buzz again if you're open to it, but um I want to be respectful of your time. And so, most importantly, you have some cool things going on right now that you actually help uh insurance professionals, advisors out with across the country with your sprint to success, and also your book, I believe you said was one of a kind financial plan. So tell tell agents a little bit about uh how to work with you and uh we'll we'll go from there.

SPEAKER_01

So the sprint to success is um, you know, I've been doing this for 27 years. The first 12 I was captive. I worked, I had a W-2, right? That's another way of saying I had a W-2. And then I made the bold independent decision uh 15 years ago, 2011, to go independent. And boy, have I made some mistakes. I'm just I'm not gonna tell you that we're perfect. Now we are an eight-figure revenue business now, but I made a lot of mistakes along the way. And uh and the sprint to success is uh it's a a monthly four-hour event we do for independent or those looking to be independent at some point in the future to just professionalize yourself. Like we go through how you send emails, what your social media should look like, if you have a website, how to bring it, how to bring it to life, how to always look open for business. That's the key. And how to and how to allow your niche. We talk about building a niche, how to take your niche and and show them how to find you, like lead them to you. And uh, it's not a lead generation system, right? It's a business practice management system, it's what it is. And we don't talk about that enough in the industry. We always talk about how to get more leads, and we always talk about how to build a better sales process. We don't talk about how to build a practice, how to build something that's sustainable. And I do that once a month, it's four hours. There's a there's a nominal cost to it, and we tell you that within 30 days, if you haven't gotten at least 10 times that value out of it, we'll we'll give you a freaking money back. I don't I don't I don't care about it that much. If you do the work and you don't get 10 times the value out of it, I'll give you your money back. Um, and then so we we do that. If you want information about that, the simple way to do that is just uh uh go to our school community. I don't know if you it people know about school, but S K-O-O-L, S K O O L dot com, backslash Mike Milligan. Uh backslash Mike Milligan. I'm asking myself, is that right now?

SPEAKER_04

Uh it'll be in the show notes. It's all good.

SPEAKER_01

It is, it is backslash Mike Milligan, or you could simply just text the word ideas, I-D-E-A-S, ideas to the number 600-700. Or you can always find me online, mikemilligan.com, just micmilligan.com. That's my personal site, but you'll find everything I do there. And in the books, I've I've written um the one of a kind financial plan on Amazon. I've almost got a five-star rating, almost, except for Teresa Mueller. I've had yet to find her yet. But if she listens to this podcast, Teresa. Teresa, I need you to call me because I need to I need to see what your ratings are everywhere else because it reads like a five-star rating, Teresa, but you gave me three. And I'm really, I'm really hurt by that.

SPEAKER_04

You've got to settle this, Teresa.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, just just reach out. I say that almost on all the podcasts I go on because I'm trying to find her. Um trying to locate her. She is my unicorn that I need to that I need to speak with. No, no judgment. I just want to I just want to get to know her. Like I feel like I feel like she has some daddy issues or something. We got to change that three stars. We got to get past that, right? We because other people need you to give four and five stars in the future, and I'll be the sacrificial lamb for that. But the one of a kind financial plan, all that to say, the one of a kind financial plan on Amazon. And then retirement deja vu is dropping on Amazon here shortly. Retirement deja vu. And that's my that's my direct, that's my manifesto against the industry. And guys, you want to talk about you want to I I my my publishers, when they read that, they're like, Are you sure you want to publish this? Yes, I want to publish this.

SPEAKER_04

Oh, those are my favorite.

SPEAKER_01

I want to tell consumers like what's going on behind the closed doors. Because but and I want to give them the the questions to ask, right? To really get real answers. And so so school, you know, school.com slash Mike Milligan, text ideas to 600-700, mikemilligan.com, or you know, throw me a bone and go buy a book.

SPEAKER_03

Absolutely go out and buy the book, guys. So this is Mike, this has been incredible. This has been jam on this forever. Page of notes. So appreciate you. I'm gonna definitely be catching up with you off of air about Puerto Rico some more. So um, for all of those of you who tuned in today, I hope you got as much out of this as I did. Uh, but selfishly, I got a hell of a lot out of this. So um, but as so whether you did or not, we had a great time. But as always, guys, we appreciate you. We appreciate your support. Without you, we we couldn't do this. So um, time and attention are by far our most important assets. We appreciate you spending time with us today on the buzz. Go out, make it great, Mike. Thank you again.