- Why you should change your financial advisor
if your advisor only focuses on selling you a commodity.
By the end of this video episode,
you will understand why advisors who just sell products
or provide service, like any do, or a dime a dozen.
And you want an advisor
who will create a meaningful transformation,
for you and those that you care about,
by eliminating the financial dangers
that cause most people to outlive their money.
(upbeat music)
So, I'm Doug Andrew, I've been a Financial Strategist,
and Retirement Planning Specialist now
for more than 48 years.
I've also trained well over 4,000 financial advisors,
CPAs, tax attorneys.
In fact, my publisher originally was Time Warner
after I self-published my first book.
And they estimated clear back in 2003 to 2005
that over 50,000 advisors were buying my books in bulk
by the case and sort of passing them out like loose cannons.
And they were really messing up an incredible instrument
'cause they were not doing it correctly.
And so this is why I'm very passionate about making sure
that the general public understands
how to find the right financial advisor
to help them implement strategies correctly,
'cause if you don't do it,
you can miss out on the rate of return and the tax benefits
to the maximum optimal level that you want, okay?
And so I wrote a book called the "10 Keys Transformation,"
because I have invested north of $3 million in my life
sharpening my saw as Stephen Covey would say.
And there's 10 game changing principles
that I teach financial advisors
and also doctors and dentists and so forth,
that they ought to help their clients and their customers
in these 10 areas if they really are interested
in doing the best for their clients.
And so this is actually key number two out of 10.
And in that book, again, my audience in the book
are financial advisors or any type of entrepreneur.
And I said, create a meaningful transformation
for your clients, your customers, your patients.
Now, I'm talking to you as the client or the customer
or the patient here.
So, when I talk about it,
I often refer to a book I read years ago
called "The Experience Economy."
And this book was written by Joseph Pine and James Gilmore.
Now, in this book, these authors talk about the concept
that people will generally pay far more
for something they perceive has a higher value.
Now, that sounds like a no brainer, right?
But they use the example of coffee,
and I've never thought about it deeper
than when I read the book.
So, I'm not a coffee drinker, but they would say,
okay, now when you look at coffee
in its pure commodity form, okay?
Coffee beans,
a cup of coffee is only, at the time they wrote the book,
about 2 cents.
So, as a commodity, coffee beans
a cup of coffee's only worth 2 cents,
that's what it costs or what it's worth.
Now, when you take those coffee beans
and you make them into coffee grounds and you package them,
and you buy them in the grocery store
to make a cup of coffee at home, a unique product,
a cup of coffee out of those coffee beans,
it goes up about 10 times in price.
And so people in their homes are shelling out an average of,
let's say, 25 cents for a cup of coffee they make it home.
So we go from a commodity coffee beans
up to a cup of coffee that's a unique product, okay?
Out of those coffee beans.
When that cup of coffee enters the convenience sector
in a restaurant or a 7-Eleven,
it goes up two to four times in price again,
maybe to 50 cents or $1 a cup.
And people are willing to pay for it
because of the service or the convenience, okay?
Now, Starbucks got famous for doing what?
They were the internet cafe,
this was the stop between the house and your office
where you could hang out with other like-minded people
in an atmosphere where coffee drinkers
would enjoy their espresso cup of coffee, okay?
And so they made it a unique experience.
Now, again, I'm not a coffee drinker, but I travel a lot,
and many times every 90 days I'd go to Chicago for years
to be in a mastermind group strategic coach.
And when I would leave
and go through the security at Chicago O'Hare,
sometimes I would get through sooner than later
and I would stand in line at this tiny Starbucks kiosk
and I would wait in line five, 10, 15 minutes
to get an orange juice or a banana
or a poppy seed muffin or something,
and I would watch people wait 15 minutes
and then shell out four or $5
for an espresso cup of liquid
that was really only 15 cents worth of liquid.
And they walked away proud they did it,
you know, 'cause it had Starbucks on there.
They were loyal to the Starbucks experience, okay?
Which was a unique experience
even though they were buying it at a kiosk at an airport.
So, we pay more for a unique product than commodity,
we pay more for an exceptional service
than just a unique product,
and we will pay more for a unique experience.
Now, let me give you one other example of this,
years ago, myself, okay?
I was gifted by my children a Harley-Davidson motorcycle.
This was in 1999 and I had like 30 other friends
that got Harley's.
And so every year we would ship them to a destination,
sometimes even overseas to Germany or to New Zealand.
But that year in 1999, we shipped them to Atlanta,
and then we flew in 'cause we're busy business owners,
and we took the Harley rides down through Daytona
and everything through bike week and what have you,
we get down to Miami and our spouses flew in,
and we went down to Key West
and then came back to the Everglades
and we ended up in in Orlando at the Disney theme parks.
Now, this was in May, one of the hottest May days on record.
And three times the first day at Disney World,
I stopped at an ice cart and shelled out $2 and 50 cents
for a 20 ounce bottle of water, okay?
Now they're $4.
But back then they were $2 and 50 cents,
let's just use that one.
Now, I could have walked 15 more steps
to a drinking fountain between the men's and ladies restroom
and gotten a drink of water for free.
But I shelled out $2 and 50 cents
for this cold bottle of water
because of the convenience and so forth
without batting an eye.
Now, the third bottle was about half full still
when we went out of the park and it was warm
and I tossed it in the trash
without thinking a thing of it.
Then we went out and we filled up our Harley's
with premium gasoline and we screamed highway robbery.
Why?
Because they were charging us a buck 60 a gallon
for premium in 1999,
and back home premium was only a buck 30.
They were ripping us off.
Now, do the math, how many ounces are in a gallon?
128.
We were paying the equivalent
of 16 bucks a gallon for water,
$2 and 50 cents for 20 ounces, do the math.
We were paying the equivalent of 16 bucks a gallon
for water and throwing it in the trash.
And then we go and we fill up our car
with gasoline at a buck 60, okay?
We were shelling out 10 times as much for water as gasoline.
If you would've told me 25 years earlier
in 1974 when I started,
that people at the turn of the century
would pay as much for a gallon of water
as a gallon of gasoline, I would've laughed at you.
But 10 times as much,
why were we willing to do that in Disney World?
Oh, 'cause we're having a unique experience.
Price goes out the window, they have a monopoly on you.
You will shell out $5 for a hotdog,
you could have gotten it Costco for 60 cents, okay?
So, you go to the movie theater,
they have a monopoly on you,
you're watching the latest Harry Potter
or Avengers film or whatever,
and you shell out $6 for 20 cents worth of popcorn,
or liquorice that you could have gotten at Costco.
So why do you do that?
'Cause you're having a unique experience,
but here is the epiphany.
There is one level that people value even more
than a unique experience,
and that's a meaningful transformation, okay?
Advisors, they don't understand,
you must create a meaningful transformation.
So, if you think about your advisor
and you simply tell your friend,
oh yeah, they sell insurance or they sell mutual funds,
yeah, they're just providing a commodity,
they're clear down at the commodity level.
Maybe they have unique products
that other advisors don't offer,
maybe they give great service,
they return your phone calls
within maybe three days or whatever,
that's as high as most advisors ever get.
Your advisor should create a unique experience.
Education is a unique experience,
I educate my clients for 15, 25, 60 hours
before I take them on as a client,
that's a unique experience.
But then my goal is to create a meaningful transformation.
If your advisor is not doing that,
you maybe should think twice.
So, you want to see an advisor
that has sort of a monopoly,
this is a good kind of monopoly,
see, you grant monopolies to your hairdresser,
your massage therapist,
I go past a hundred other dentists on the way to my dentist.
Why?
'Cause my dentist only provides what I want in the best way
compared to all the other dentists,
so I will pass many other dentists.
But if dentists are just a dime a dozen
and you can go to any of them,
then they're at a commodity level, is this making sense?
So, what I want you to think about is if your advisor
is dealing at this level or this level,
or maybe this level, that's as high as most get,
you want an advisor who creates a unique experience for you
by educating you, is my favorite way to do that,
and then a meaningful transformation.
So I'm gonna give you a little insight into how I do this.
In my books, and at the end of this episode
I wanna gift you a free copy
of this most recent bestselling 300 page book.
But see, I always wanted to teach high concepts
coupled with high touch, that's why I have this book
that half of it is left brain charts and graphs,
the right side is for the right brain,
these are all the 62 actual stories,
right brain and left brain, okay?
And so I'm gonna show you
how you can get a free copy of this,
but folks, here's how I do it,
there are three dimensions of what I call authentic wealth.
'Cause when I say the word assets,
what kinds of things do most people think of first
when you say the word assets?
They think of their house, their cash,
their stocks, their bonds, they're real estate.
But when you think about it, those are just things,
those are just material possessions.
When I ask people, what are the most important assets
that you value, that you cherish,
that you possess on this earth?
Now they say family health, values, beliefs.
Yeah, these kinds of assets involve people,
these are human assets, these are our core assets.
I put these under the foundational assets
for abundant living.
And so a lot of advisors just focus on money, money, money.
It's not just about the money.
And so I put them under foundational assets,
heritage, talents, unique abilities,
charitable foundations, and so forth.
Now there's a third dimension of authentic wealth
and it involves the wisdom that we gain throughout our life,
that's our intellectual assets,
wisdom is a product of knowledge times experiences.
Just the good ones?
Have you learned more from your bad experiences like I have?
Yeah.
And then your formal education, reputation,
methods, systems, traditions, alliances, ideas, and skills.
This is like a three-legged stool.
The three dimensions of authentic wealth,
you need to be balanced.
And so whenever I ask anybody,
if you had to let go
of one of these three categories of assets,
financial, foundational, or intellectual,
you had to bankrupt one and start all over
accumulating that category of assets,
but you could keep the other two,
not only keep the other two,
but transfer them into future generations,
but you had to bankrupt or let go of
and start all over accumulating
one of these three categories,
which one would you let go of?
Abundant-minded people immediately say, the money.
Yeah, why would you let go of the money?
Because you can rebuild that one using the other two.
You know, most religions believe that,
you know, you come to this earth possessing these
to one degree or another.
If you believe in a life after this one,
these are the ones you return to your creator and report on.
Have you ever figured out how to take the money with you
when you die?
Yeah, there's no luggage racks on hearses as the song says.
Two affluent guys died and went to the pearly gates.
One turned to the other and said,
man, how much did you lead behind?
The other one said, all of it,
yeah, you don't take it with you.
Isn't it interesting that traditional estate
and financial planning seems to focus
on the least important category on the family balance sheet,
the money.
If that's what your advisor only focuses on,
you maybe wanna think twice about changing your advisor
to one who focuses on all three dimensions
of authentic wealth.
So this is why,
in my company it's called 3 Dimensional Wealth
because it's about the financial, the foundational assets,
and the intellectual assets.
You wanna be balanced because people say,
Doug, what do you do?
And I say, well, I take the wobble out of people's life,
because a lot of people spend a lot of their health,
let's say accumulating their wealth,
and later in life they're spending all their wealth
trying to regain their health, that's really stupid,
they were out of balance.
Some accumulate their wealth at the expensive relationships
with their spouse, their kids, their grandkids, their God,
and at the end of the day they always say,
what was all that for?
I'm not gonna take any of this money with me.
And I have no relationships.
They were bankrupt in the other two categories,
they were wobbling on just one.
So, I focus on these other,
I call them the legacy dimensions,
they're more important than the money.
And so I would rather leave behind KASH,
that's knowledge, attitude, skills, and habits,
that's an acronym.
I'd rather leave behind knowledge, attitude, skills
and habits to my kids and grandkids
than dumping a bunch of CASH in their laps,
that'll ruin most of them.
I wanna leave behind how to fish
instead of dumping fish in their lap.
So, that is the important differentiator
of what I'm talking about here
when you wanna create a meaningful transformation.
Is this beginning to make sense?
And so this is why at 3 Dimensional Wealth
we believe it's more important that values are understood
before the assets are valued,
then they can be brought into balance and harmony
to provide ever increasing results.
If your advisor doesn't approach things this way,
I would think twice, okay?
And maybe point them and they can come and learn
how to do this 'cause we teach advisors
in a unique mastermind group,
how to do these things that I'm talking about.
So, this is how you can learn more.
In my book, "The Laser Fund," this is my 11th book,
and it's published by 3 Dimensional Wealth,
but I want you to claim a free copy of this 300-page book
that I've alluded to,
it's high concepts coupled with high touch.
In other words, this side has all the charts and graphs,
these are high concepts of how to accumulate,
access, and transfer your money tax free,
diversify and create the foundation
for a tax free retirement.
But if you learn more by stories, the high touch,
you flip it over and you read this side,
and this is the high touch
where you can see how this actually works in real life
for all kinds of financial goals.
So simply go to laserfund.com, L-A-S-E-R fund.com,
or click on the link below,
and you contribute a nominal amount
towards the shipping and handling,
I'll cover the rest of that and I'll pay for the book.
You don't need to pay $20 on Amazon,
I'll gift it to you.
And I'll fire out a copy but there's options in there
to listen and learn, watch and learn, even master classes,
and you maybe wanna check out
one of our educational events in your area.
So, this is to your brighter future,
this isn't about me, this is about you.
(upbeat music)