July 23, 2025 • 24 mins
In Episode 2 of The Financial Huddle, the team dives deep into the importance of process—on the field, in college athletics, and in financial planning. The conversation kicks off with a personal story about how new NCAA rules allowing direct pay to athletes are reshaping college sports, sparking thoughtful dialogue about the ripple effects on non-revenue sports and smaller programs like Butler.
From there, we shift to what we know best: helping people make sound financial decisions by emphasizing the why behind the plan. Whether it’s saving for retirement, navigating college costs, or just getting started with your financial plan, we explore how falling in love with the process—not just chasing outcomes—is key to lasting financial success.
This episode also discusses Keystone's processes when working with clients, and highlights our commitment to providing personalized advice, continuous learning, and building trust through genuine relationships. As basketball star Joel Embiid said, "Trust the process." And that’s exactly what this episode is all about.
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Disclosure: Information contained in this podcast is for entertainment and informational purposes only, and should not be considered as financial advice. Financial Planning and Advisory Services are offered through Prosperity Capital Advisors (“PCA”), an SEC registered investment adviser. Registration as an investment adviser does not imply a certain level of skill or training. Keystone Financial Group and PCA are separate, non- affiliated entities. PCA does not provide tax or legal advice.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 01 (00:00):
The Financial Huddle does not provide tax, legal,
financial, or other professionaladvice.
Listeners are encouraged toconsult with their own advisors
in these areas.
All right, everybody, huddleup.
Play calls in.
This is The Financial Huddle.
Ready, roll.
Brian Minier (00:15):
Welcome, everybody, to The Financial
Huddle.
I'm here with my compadres,Ryan Fleming, Ed Beemiller.
How are you guys doing today?
Ed Beemiller (00:22):
Hello, hello.
Brian Minier (00:23):
Couldn't be better.
Awesome.
Family's doing well?
Ed Beemiller (00:26):
Sun's out.
Ryan Fleming (00:27):
Sun's out.
Ed Beemiller (00:28):
Family is good.
Brian Minier (00:29):
That's good.
Healthy, well.
Ready for episode two, man.
That's right.
What are we getting into?
That's right.
Well, I think as we kick thisoff, I had a really interesting
conversation with my daughter,Allie.
For some of you that know, sheis a rising junior at Butler,
and she runs track.
Go Bulldogs.
Go Bulldogs, that's right.
We pay enough at Butler, soyeah, go Bulldogs.
Ryan Fleming (00:53):
What's their famous basketball court called?
What's it called?
Hinkle Fieldhouse.
Yeah, that's Jimmy Cheatwood,right?
Brian Minier (00:59):
Jimmy Cheatwood, man.
They filmed that season.
Hoosiers, man.
They filmed that scene there.
Classic.
Very classic.
Ed Beemiller (01:04):
That should be on every sports enthusiast.
I don't care if you'rebaseball, soccer, football.
That one trip to Hinkle FieldHouse is kind of special.
You
Brian Minier (01:16):
remember what he said.
I'll make it.
Ed Beemiller (01:18):
There you go.
And he made it.
And he made it.
Brian Minier (01:19):
That's right.
Yeah.
So we're having thisinteresting conversation.
And she heard the recent newsthat colleges, universities can
now pay athletes directly withthis NIL deal and she's trying
to figure out what this meansfor their program and I would
not say they're the powerhouselike maybe Alabama or Ohio State
(01:44):
so what that means to some ofthose other universities may not
translate exactly to Butler soit's just really interesting
conversation trying to figurethis out what that means to her
and her track teammates and heras an athlete and I was just
thinking about this I think therule is is universities have a
cap of like $20 million fortheir athletes, which is just,
(02:08):
this is a whole...
Really interesting dynamic thatwe're getting into.
But I was just processing thisand thinking about it.
What is the process that theseuniversities and these coaches
are going to have to go through?
And it's just like, that's alot to figure out.
I mean, which athletes do youpay what?
Which teams get what?
I think you were listening tosomething
Ed Beemiller (02:30):
the other day.
Actually, yeah.
Here earlier, not too long ago,had a big...
conference live conference RossBjork obviously for those here
locally Ohio State's AD OhioState is one of the largest
athletic programs outside ofbeing one of the largest
(02:52):
universities I believe thestatement was Stanford is above
them in terms of the number ofvarsity sports that are fielded
and Ohio State has
Brian Minier (03:03):
36
Ed Beemiller (03:04):
varsity sports and if you look at the And I'm sure
a lot of people are familiarwith this.
Most of them are not revenuegenerating.
They basically cost money.
And so interesting kind oftying into this now that
colleges can pay directly.
Well, how much is going to gotowards, in most cases, the
(03:27):
football program, which is byfar the largest generating
business or sport withincollege?
these universities and it'sreally many of these
universities have developedtheir entire budget around the
revenue produced by thatfootball team to then pay for
all these other quote-unquotenon-revenue sports.
(03:48):
The big thing about thisspecific press conference with
Ross was that he basically cameout and stated that they are
going to continue to support,they have a new program, all 36
varsity sports, whereas a lot ofschools are talking about what
sports are we going to cut, youknow, because they have to
(04:12):
manage that budget just likeanyone else.
Brian Minier (04:13):
Al, you even said some of the programs may be cut
and maybe even some of the...
the athletes on the track teamthere might not be enough roster
spots for for everybody soevery school is going to have a
different process trying tofigure out what that looks
Ryan Fleming (04:28):
like
Brian Minier (04:28):
yep
Ryan Fleming (04:29):
yeah and you guys are talking about process and i
know we're going to talk aboutthat today and some of the
things that we do and think thatare important in our process
and at keystone our business butyou know i've been had i've had
the fortune of coaching a lotof travel ball teams you know
you guys know my oldest son uhyou know plays college baseball
you know your son plays collegecollege football.
Your son was a very goodfootball player in his own
(04:52):
right, coming up through theranks.
Right now, I coach my13-year-old son.
Whether it be teenagers,athletes, adults, it doesn't
really matter.
I think so many people in life,what they do is they forget
about the process or they don'twant to commit or fall in love
(05:13):
with the process and their mindis always towards the outcome.
Whether it be, how much moneyam I going to have in my
retirement account?
Am I going to be okay?
Am I going to get first teamall state?
Whatever it may be, a lot ofhuman beings in life, they focus
on the outcomes of things.
And I think that can lead to amoving target.
(05:34):
I think it leads todisappointment.
And at the end of the day, ifyou want to be great at
anything, there's no secret tosuccess as we know, right?
You have to fall in love withthe process, the day-to-day
grind.
You hear stories about KobeBryant all the time and just how
he was just an assassin withthe process.
And that correlates into whatwe do as financial
(05:55):
professionals.
For the listeners out there, weWe've worked really, really
hard on our process in manydifferent areas.
We're learning more about that.
But one of the things that wecommitted to not that long ago,
guys, was the process ofstudying to become a certified
financial fiduciary.
And we felt that that was superimportant for a lot of reasons.
But it was a process to studyand learn.
(06:17):
And, you know, the CFP and allthese designations people get.
But, you know, let's talk alittle bit about some of the
things that you do with yourprocess.
My process is similar butdifferent.
Ed's is similar but different,you know.
Let's get into that.
Brian Minier (06:30):
Yeah.
I think the process is soimportant.
It's amazing to me.
And I know you guys have verysimilar stories where you'll
meet with somebody and they'llshow you their statements.
They'll show you, this is whatI have saved up.
And I was working with thisperson and they put me in this
particular strategy, whateverthat strategy is.
And you're like, well, tell mea little bit about that.
(06:50):
Why?
And what do you hear a lot oftimes?
I'm not really sure.
I'm not sure.
This person that I'm workingwith just said that this was a
good strategy.
And what you find out is therewas no rationale.
There was no process that thatperson was taken through to
solidify or validate why theywere in
Ed Beemiller (07:10):
that particular situation.
Yeah, a lot of times they don'tknow why they were put into
that account.
That's right.
And then they meet with someoneand they get asked the why and
they're like, I have no idea.
I met with someone, they toldme to do it, so I did it.
Brian Minier (07:23):
Good return, right?
Ed Beemiller (07:24):
Yeah.
Oh, great return.
Great return.
Always great return.
I've never, you never speak toa- 36% every year, right?
You never speak to a financialprofessional that sits there and
doesn't say, oh yeah, we were20% plus every year.
I mean, that's something
Ryan Fleming (07:38):
we all know that.
We hear that all the time.
But you get a lot of peoplethat say, well, I hate this.
I don't really care.
They were introduced to me bymy brother, and they just did
what they did.
And I get that to a point.
But at some point in time, it'syour money
Ed Beemiller (07:51):
that you worked hard for.
But the why, why did they dothat?
They may not care about theprocess, but what do they care
about?
They care about retiringsomeone, having financial
independence.
The opportunity or the choiceis, for when to stop working.
Ultimately, that's why, youknow, people save to have a
(08:14):
certain lifestyle, to have acertain freedom and
independence.
And, you know, just by puttingmoney in it, there's no process
that's being followed.
You're just kind of hoping itturns out well, right?
I mean,
Ryan Fleming (08:26):
yeah, yeah.
And that's what I'm saying.
Like you hear commercials likeVoya, you know, what's my
number?
What's your number?
And again, that's a focusing onthe outcome.
They're focusing on theoutcome.
I just had somebody a couple, acouple weeks ago come in and
say, if I had $3 million, isthat enough?
Can I retire?
That's just such a relativestatement.
Ed Beemiller (08:46):
Well, you don't know because, all right, well,
what lifestyle do you want?
I'm going to need $400,000 ayear because I'm going to live a
lavish lifestyle.
Well, then $3 million isprobably not going to do it.
(09:06):
Probably not going to make it.
you know, looking at that andsaying, all right, well, half a
million isn't enough, you know,from that standpoint.
But once again, the processneeds to be customized to each
(09:27):
individual.
and what their objectives areand understanding that and
putting them into the rightprocess is very important.
Ryan Fleming (09:35):
Then the other side of that is, you know,
there's some people that arelistening that haven't had any
process, but they're juststarting.
I mean, maybe they met us orthey met somebody else and
they're just now going through aprocess of automatic
withdrawals from their bankaccount to like a Roth or
something of that nature.
Or, you know, like, forexample, my kids.
I have a daughter who'sgraduating, getting ready to go
(09:57):
to college, and she's just thebeginning process of her entire
life of learning that she can'tspend everything that what she
makes and you know to automateyou know put out x y and z per
month and so you know whether ornot you're just starting the
process because you're young oryou're older and you've put it
off and you're getting some goodcoaching and you're just
(10:19):
starting the process like theprocess is a grind it's not fun
it's not easy it's tumultuous ittakes time and a lot of times
people quit when things get hardand so we want to coach our our
clients through that to say,not only do we have a process,
but we want to make sure youunderstand the why behind the
process.
And then we're going to holdyou accountable.
Yeah.
And sometimes the process canbe boring.
Brian Minier (10:40):
It can be tedious, repetitive.
But that's where the genius is.
But that's what makes itsuccessful.
That's right.
And so I know when I'm meetingwith somebody, there's a process
that I have to take themthrough in order to figure out,
hey, what is going to be theright fit for you?
I know, Ed, you have a processwhen you are working with
somebody you know what would yousay is important to the why do
(11:04):
you have to take them throughthat process and maybe talk a
little bit about a coupleaspects of
Ed Beemiller (11:09):
that process yeah and one thing just to start this
off it's never too late tostart a process that's
Brian Minier (11:15):
right
Ed Beemiller (11:15):
and so many times you know and i know we all have
this we'll come in you know aclient will come in and maybe
they're in their 50s or you knowthey've gone through life you
know they had kids had to getthem through college braces
everything growing up they'relike i have Yeah.
Brian Minier (11:39):
And that happens more than you think it does.
A lot of people that are outthere are like, man, I'm so
embarrassed because no one elsehas been in that situation.
We see it all the time.
Ed Beemiller (11:47):
And so the issue is, it's never too late to start
the process because you stillhave that goal of retiring or
financial independence, whetherit's at 65, 67, 70, whatever it
is.
Or if you just want to pullback and maybe change jobs into
something that you've alwayswanted to do, you love to do,
well, having that financialindependence...
(12:07):
you know, by following theappropriate process is very
important.
So the first thing, and I knowwe all do it, you know, when we
talk about processes, well, youknow, we have processes, but
those processes are customizedto each individual because each
individual is coming fromdifferent circumstances,
different income.
How many kids do you have?
You know, if you're, are youmarried?
(12:27):
Are you single?
You know, what's the agedifference between the spouses?
You know, what do you, youknow, what is your income
objective?
You at some point.
And then you customize thatprocess to that individual or to
that family.
And well, how do you do that?
Well, first and foremost, thefirst thing you have to do in a
(12:50):
first meeting is listen.
Brian Minier (12:53):
We
Ed Beemiller (12:54):
have questions that we ask as part of our
process, but I hear from a lotof people feedback of, well, I
just went in and they didn'treally ask me a lot of questions
and they just put me into thisaccount and that account.
So that is what we call andrefer to, that's selling
product.
We try not to sell product.
We try to sell a solution thatmeets your objectives that you
(13:15):
told us.
So when we listen andunderstand what they're looking
to accomplish, At the end of theday, we work in reality, right?
So if someone says, I'm saving$100 a month, and they're 55
years old, and their income gapor what they need is $50,000 a
year, you have to be realisticwith them and say, that's not
(13:37):
going to do it.
So either A, you're going toneed to modify your objectives,
or B, we're going to have tosave more money, or we're going
to have to change the process.
But once again, having aprocess leads to, Ryan, what you
brought up, an outcome.
Brian Minier (13:53):
Yeah, and I think the one thing that you're really
good at, Ed, and I've heard youtalk to some of the people that
you work with, you're reallygood at listening.
You're really good at takingtime to get to know that person
and understand them.
That's part of your process istaking time to really ask
appropriate questions.
and you would think, of course,duh, everybody should do that.
There's a lot of people in ourindustry that don't.
(14:14):
The question is, what's youraccount balance?
Ryan, tell us a little bitabout, I know you're really good
at listening to people andmaking people feel comfortable.
Tell us a little bit about yourprocess of how you go about
doing that.
Ryan Fleming (14:26):
I remember a few years ago, I was attending a
church service at our localchurch that we go to, and the
pastor said a pretty profoundcomment that stuck with me.
He said, what people care aboutmost, they're going to figure
it out.
That's very true.
What people care about most,they're going to figure it out.
And relative to what we'retalking about is we got to get
(14:47):
to the heart of the matter,right?
We got to get to really what isthe emotion behind why people
are sitting in front of us,right?
I mean, until you get thatfacade broken down and you truly
seek to understand the heartand the emotion of why people
are sitting in front of you, itdoes become transactional,
right?
It does become transactional.
(15:07):
And so we do work hard forthat.
As far my process same thing asEd I really want to ask good
probing questions that arehonest sincere questions but I
also don't want to just take thesurface answer because I do
realize sometimes people areguarded they don't know us
immediately right up frontthey're not 100% comfortable
right away so I think part of myprocess is actually being bold
(15:31):
enough to dig a little bitdeeper so when you say that what
do you mean by that help me tounderstand and I think because
of that then it just it justBolden's more long-term trust.
But one of the things I want totalk about with process, and
it's been part of my process for18 years, is I help a lot of
(15:51):
families through the financialaid and admission system, the
college planning journey.
And that is a crazy process ona lot of different fronts
because college planning is aretirement issue.
And so they have to know theprocess of the admission side
and how they're going to be ableto pay for it.
And it
Ed Beemiller (16:08):
changes
Ryan Fleming (16:09):
all the time.
And it's changing all the time.
So That process, the pointabout what I'm saying about that
is that process is ever moving.
It's always evolving.
It's convoluted.
Laws change and percentageschange, so on and so forth.
When you're in a process, youhave to also be willing to
(16:29):
adapt, us as advisors, but alsoas clients.
Many people that are listeningto us today, they may be in the
process of accumulating wealth.
They're climbing Mount Everest.
They're saving into 401ks, RothIRAs, cash value, life
insurance, whatever it may be.
They're in the process oftrying to accumulate and that's
(16:51):
hard enough.
But then they got to switchtheir process and they got to
figure out how to decumulate.
They got to go intodistribution and that's a whole
different process.
And so that's why the value ofa good, trusted advisor to be a
thought partner with thesepeople to coach them through the
process at various differentstages is very important to us
(17:13):
and why our listeners righthere, we would feel are getting
good value from us, right?
Yeah,
Brian Minier (17:19):
for sure.
One of the things that when Iteach some of my classes, I say,
your plan is going to bedifferent depending on what you
want.
So for example, if your plan isto leave a million dollars to
your three kids, that plan isgoing to look different than if
you want your last check tobounce.
Those are two different plans.
There's different taxramifications.
(17:39):
There's different spendingplans, how to take those
distributions.
One of the processes that I tryto implement is we're going to
put together a financial planfirst before we even talk about
the movement or theimplementation of any
strategies.
And I feel like that processworks because then the people
(17:59):
that I work with understand thewhy behind what they're doing.
Ryan Fleming (18:03):
Yeah, and so...
there's this idea of theprocess of data gathering and
education, but there's also theprocess of nurturing the
relationship.
So what are some things that wedo in our company that we do to
nurture relationships?
So one of the things we do isclient appreciation events.
We've done a few of those overthe time, and they've been
(18:26):
great, but there's a process tothat, right?
Yeah, and
Ed Beemiller (18:28):
one thing, I'm part of a networking group, and
the motto Mm-hmm.
Yeah, absolutely.
(19:03):
you know, it's having thesetouching points.
And, you know, part of whywe're doing this podcast and we
talk about processes, right?
Well, let's go back to thewhole process of how we got here
to start this, right?
We've been talking about it fora couple of years, but it's
(19:24):
important to follow thatprocess.
But within my networking group,we get to get up and say like a
little 60 second commercial ofwho we are and what we do and
what we're looking for.
One thing I always talk aboutis I've asked the other people,
do you have a financial plannerthat you work with?
(19:44):
Do you have a financialprofessional?
Or are you working with anyoneor doing it all yourself?
A lot of times, even withclients, the response I get is,
yeah, I don't really have aprocess.
My company has a 401k.
I'm putting money into thereand just hoping it will be
enough.
Ryan Fleming (20:02):
And conversely, for people that feel like they
have a very, very tight process,that a lot of engineers have a
good self-directed process, Ialways just say, man, if you
feel so great about yourprocess, then you probably
wouldn't mind having another setof eyeballs to double-check
your work to make sure that thatprocess is as efficient as you
can.
Brian Minier (20:21):
So there's that side of it.
I always joke, I always say,when you come in, if you're an
engineer, you're going to giveme your spreadsheet when you
come into the office.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
To
Ed Beemiller (20:30):
quote the great Nelson Nash, though, there are
some people you can't teach.
So at the end of the day, we'dlike to work with every single
person out there because we feelevery single person out there
needs assistance.
A lot of people just have nothird party that they're going
to help guide them to put thatprocess together.
Now, some of the folks we workwith think they know everything,
(20:52):
which in that case, sometimesyou just have to say, okay.
If you got your own process andyou think it's better than
anything else, then all right.
Brian Minier (21:04):
Yep.
Not much you can do with that.
Nope.
Yep.
Anything else, Ryan, that youwould say from a process, why
it's so important and what youhave seen over your career that
has helped your clients and thepeople that you work with?
Ryan Fleming (21:20):
Consistent effort will always play out farther and
longer and deeper than just...
fly-by-night concepts, chasingthe wind, if you will.
And that's been tried and truein a lot of areas in life.
The outcomes that people wantin life, they may come to
(21:41):
fruition, but you might actually10X your outcomes if you fall
in love with the process of thatthing.
And let me tell you, that'sshown up in my life, that's
shown up in other people's lifethat's more public.
The real genius, the realmastery, the real...
winning in life is not in theshiny trophy or how big your
(22:03):
bank account is it's in theday-to-day grind uh the heart
and soul of the process and thereality is is that not a lot of
people are willing to pay thatprice
Ed Beemiller (22:13):
oh yeah
Ryan Fleming (22:13):
right and and that's and and and we take that
in as athletes and ex-athletesand things like that i think
that gives us a little bit of aleg up because we've lived that
you know we've gone through aprocess of grinding in the
weight room and hot weather anda long season and And things
with, you know, it's 18 yearsfor me.
And gosh, I mean, how manyyears have you been doing this?
Ed Beemiller (22:34):
I've been 33 years in the financial services.
Financial planning, right?
Financial planning has been along
Ryan Fleming (22:40):
time.
It's a process to get up everysingle day and rinse and repeat.
And
Ed Beemiller (22:45):
we have to watch not to chase the shiny penny.
And the shiny penny, when welook at things here, in the last
several years plus has been alot of talk about
cryptocurrency.
So once again, it's about...
managing that process.
Don't just chase that shinypenny that, oh, everyone's
talking about it, so I should bedoing it.
(23:06):
The reality of it is theprocess drives to The outcome.
The outcome,
Brian Minier (23:13):
exactly.
Yeah, and I think it's justimportant for those that are
listening is we take the processof working with whoever it is
very seriously.
We put a lot of time, put a lotof effort in making sure that
that is right for that person.
Ryan Fleming (23:28):
100 million percent.
And we do self-education.
We try to learn constantly byno means do we think that our
process is foolproof.
That's why we're always on thehunt to gain more knowledge from
other people.
I think he said something like,trust
Brian Minier (23:59):
the process.
Trust the process.
Ed Beemiller (24:04):
That's all you need.
Brian Minier (24:05):
All right.
I think that's a great way toend.
Thank you for tuning in today,and we look forward to talking
to you next time.
Thanks, everybody.
The Financial Huddle does not provide tax, legal,
financial, or other professionaladvice.
Listeners are encouraged toconsult with their own advisors
in these areas.
All right, everybody, huddleup.
Play calls in.
This is The Financial Huddle.
Ready, roll.
Brian Minier (00:15):
Welcome, everybody, to The Financial
Huddle.
I'm here with my compadres,Ryan Fleming, Ed Beemiller.
How are you guys doing today?
Ed Beemiller (00:22):
Hello, hello.
Brian Minier (00:23):
Couldn't be better.
Awesome.
Family's doing well?
Ed Beemiller (00:26):
Sun's out.
Ryan Fleming (00:27):
Sun's out.
Ed Beemiller (00:28):
Family is good.
Brian Minier (00:29):
That's good.
Healthy, well.
Ready for episode two, man.
That's right.
What are we getting into?
That's right.
Well, I think as we kick thisoff, I had a really interesting
conversation with my daughter,Allie.
For some of you that know, sheis a rising junior at Butler,
and she runs track.
Go Bulldogs.
Go Bulldogs, that's right.
We pay enough at Butler, soyeah, go Bulldogs.
Ryan Fleming (00:53):
What's their famous basketball court called?
What's it called?
Hinkle Fieldhouse.
Yeah, that's Jimmy Cheatwood,right?
Brian Minier (00:59):
Jimmy Cheatwood, man.
They filmed that season.
Hoosiers, man.
They filmed that scene there.
Classic.
Very classic.
Ed Beemiller (01:04):
That should be on every sports enthusiast.
I don't care if you'rebaseball, soccer, football.
That one trip to Hinkle FieldHouse is kind of special.
You
Brian Minier (01:16):
remember what he said.
I'll make it.
Ed Beemiller (01:18):
There you go.
And he made it.
And he made it.
Brian Minier (01:19):
That's right.
Yeah.
So we're having thisinteresting conversation.
And she heard the recent newsthat colleges, universities can
now pay athletes directly withthis NIL deal and she's trying
to figure out what this meansfor their program and I would
not say they're the powerhouselike maybe Alabama or Ohio State
(01:44):
so what that means to some ofthose other universities may not
translate exactly to Butler soit's just really interesting
conversation trying to figurethis out what that means to her
and her track teammates and heras an athlete and I was just
thinking about this I think therule is is universities have a
cap of like $20 million fortheir athletes, which is just,
(02:08):
this is a whole...
Really interesting dynamic thatwe're getting into.
But I was just processing thisand thinking about it.
What is the process that theseuniversities and these coaches
are going to have to go through?
And it's just like, that's alot to figure out.
I mean, which athletes do youpay what?
Which teams get what?
I think you were listening tosomething
Ed Beemiller (02:30):
the other day.
Actually, yeah.
Here earlier, not too long ago,had a big...
conference live conference RossBjork obviously for those here
locally Ohio State's AD OhioState is one of the largest
athletic programs outside ofbeing one of the largest
(02:52):
universities I believe thestatement was Stanford is above
them in terms of the number ofvarsity sports that are fielded
and Ohio State has
Brian Minier (03:03):
36
Ed Beemiller (03:04):
varsity sports and if you look at the And I'm sure
a lot of people are familiarwith this.
Most of them are not revenuegenerating.
They basically cost money.
And so interesting kind oftying into this now that
colleges can pay directly.
Well, how much is going to gotowards, in most cases, the
(03:27):
football program, which is byfar the largest generating
business or sport withincollege?
these universities and it'sreally many of these
universities have developedtheir entire budget around the
revenue produced by thatfootball team to then pay for
all these other quote-unquotenon-revenue sports.
(03:48):
The big thing about thisspecific press conference with
Ross was that he basically cameout and stated that they are
going to continue to support,they have a new program, all 36
varsity sports, whereas a lot ofschools are talking about what
sports are we going to cut, youknow, because they have to
(04:12):
manage that budget just likeanyone else.
Brian Minier (04:13):
Al, you even said some of the programs may be cut
and maybe even some of the...
the athletes on the track teamthere might not be enough roster
spots for for everybody soevery school is going to have a
different process trying tofigure out what that looks
Ryan Fleming (04:28):
like
Brian Minier (04:28):
yep
Ryan Fleming (04:29):
yeah and you guys are talking about process and i
know we're going to talk aboutthat today and some of the
things that we do and think thatare important in our process
and at keystone our business butyou know i've been had i've had
the fortune of coaching a lotof travel ball teams you know
you guys know my oldest son uhyou know plays college baseball
you know your son plays collegecollege football.
Your son was a very goodfootball player in his own
(04:52):
right, coming up through theranks.
Right now, I coach my13-year-old son.
Whether it be teenagers,athletes, adults, it doesn't
really matter.
I think so many people in life,what they do is they forget
about the process or they don'twant to commit or fall in love
(05:13):
with the process and their mindis always towards the outcome.
Whether it be, how much moneyam I going to have in my
retirement account?
Am I going to be okay?
Am I going to get first teamall state?
Whatever it may be, a lot ofhuman beings in life, they focus
on the outcomes of things.
And I think that can lead to amoving target.
(05:34):
I think it leads todisappointment.
And at the end of the day, ifyou want to be great at
anything, there's no secret tosuccess as we know, right?
You have to fall in love withthe process, the day-to-day
grind.
You hear stories about KobeBryant all the time and just how
he was just an assassin withthe process.
And that correlates into whatwe do as financial
(05:55):
professionals.
For the listeners out there, weWe've worked really, really
hard on our process in manydifferent areas.
We're learning more about that.
But one of the things that wecommitted to not that long ago,
guys, was the process ofstudying to become a certified
financial fiduciary.
And we felt that that was superimportant for a lot of reasons.
But it was a process to studyand learn.
(06:17):
And, you know, the CFP and allthese designations people get.
But, you know, let's talk alittle bit about some of the
things that you do with yourprocess.
My process is similar butdifferent.
Ed's is similar but different,you know.
Let's get into that.
Brian Minier (06:30):
Yeah.
I think the process is soimportant.
It's amazing to me.
And I know you guys have verysimilar stories where you'll
meet with somebody and they'llshow you their statements.
They'll show you, this is whatI have saved up.
And I was working with thisperson and they put me in this
particular strategy, whateverthat strategy is.
And you're like, well, tell mea little bit about that.
(06:50):
Why?
And what do you hear a lot oftimes?
I'm not really sure.
I'm not sure.
This person that I'm workingwith just said that this was a
good strategy.
And what you find out is therewas no rationale.
There was no process that thatperson was taken through to
solidify or validate why theywere in
Ed Beemiller (07:10):
that particular situation.
Yeah, a lot of times they don'tknow why they were put into
that account.
That's right.
And then they meet with someoneand they get asked the why and
they're like, I have no idea.
I met with someone, they toldme to do it, so I did it.
Brian Minier (07:23):
Good return, right?
Ed Beemiller (07:24):
Yeah.
Oh, great return.
Great return.
Always great return.
I've never, you never speak toa- 36% every year, right?
You never speak to a financialprofessional that sits there and
doesn't say, oh yeah, we were20% plus every year.
I mean, that's something
Ryan Fleming (07:38):
we all know that.
We hear that all the time.
But you get a lot of peoplethat say, well, I hate this.
I don't really care.
They were introduced to me bymy brother, and they just did
what they did.
And I get that to a point.
But at some point in time, it'syour money
Ed Beemiller (07:51):
that you worked hard for.
But the why, why did they dothat?
They may not care about theprocess, but what do they care
about?
They care about retiringsomeone, having financial
independence.
The opportunity or the choiceis, for when to stop working.
Ultimately, that's why, youknow, people save to have a
(08:14):
certain lifestyle, to have acertain freedom and
independence.
And, you know, just by puttingmoney in it, there's no process
that's being followed.
You're just kind of hoping itturns out well, right?
I mean,
Ryan Fleming (08:26):
yeah, yeah.
And that's what I'm saying.
Like you hear commercials likeVoya, you know, what's my
number?
What's your number?
And again, that's a focusing onthe outcome.
They're focusing on theoutcome.
I just had somebody a couple, acouple weeks ago come in and
say, if I had $3 million, isthat enough?
Can I retire?
That's just such a relativestatement.
Ed Beemiller (08:46):
Well, you don't know because, all right, well,
what lifestyle do you want?
I'm going to need $400,000 ayear because I'm going to live a
lavish lifestyle.
Well, then $3 million isprobably not going to do it.
(09:06):
Probably not going to make it.
you know, looking at that andsaying, all right, well, half a
million isn't enough, you know,from that standpoint.
But once again, the processneeds to be customized to each
(09:27):
individual.
and what their objectives areand understanding that and
putting them into the rightprocess is very important.
Ryan Fleming (09:35):
Then the other side of that is, you know,
there's some people that arelistening that haven't had any
process, but they're juststarting.
I mean, maybe they met us orthey met somebody else and
they're just now going through aprocess of automatic
withdrawals from their bankaccount to like a Roth or
something of that nature.
Or, you know, like, forexample, my kids.
I have a daughter who'sgraduating, getting ready to go
(09:57):
to college, and she's just thebeginning process of her entire
life of learning that she can'tspend everything that what she
makes and you know to automateyou know put out x y and z per
month and so you know whether ornot you're just starting the
process because you're young oryou're older and you've put it
off and you're getting some goodcoaching and you're just
(10:19):
starting the process like theprocess is a grind it's not fun
it's not easy it's tumultuous ittakes time and a lot of times
people quit when things get hardand so we want to coach our our
clients through that to say,not only do we have a process,
but we want to make sure youunderstand the why behind the
process.
And then we're going to holdyou accountable.
Yeah.
And sometimes the process canbe boring.
Brian Minier (10:40):
It can be tedious, repetitive.
But that's where the genius is.
But that's what makes itsuccessful.
That's right.
And so I know when I'm meetingwith somebody, there's a process
that I have to take themthrough in order to figure out,
hey, what is going to be theright fit for you?
I know, Ed, you have a processwhen you are working with
somebody you know what would yousay is important to the why do
(11:04):
you have to take them throughthat process and maybe talk a
little bit about a coupleaspects of
Ed Beemiller (11:09):
that process yeah and one thing just to start this
off it's never too late tostart a process that's
Brian Minier (11:15):
right
Ed Beemiller (11:15):
and so many times you know and i know we all have
this we'll come in you know aclient will come in and maybe
they're in their 50s or you knowthey've gone through life you
know they had kids had to getthem through college braces
everything growing up they'relike i have Yeah.
Brian Minier (11:39):
And that happens more than you think it does.
A lot of people that are outthere are like, man, I'm so
embarrassed because no one elsehas been in that situation.
We see it all the time.
Ed Beemiller (11:47):
And so the issue is, it's never too late to start
the process because you stillhave that goal of retiring or
financial independence, whetherit's at 65, 67, 70, whatever it
is.
Or if you just want to pullback and maybe change jobs into
something that you've alwayswanted to do, you love to do,
well, having that financialindependence...
(12:07):
you know, by following theappropriate process is very
important.
So the first thing, and I knowwe all do it, you know, when we
talk about processes, well, youknow, we have processes, but
those processes are customizedto each individual because each
individual is coming fromdifferent circumstances,
different income.
How many kids do you have?
You know, if you're, are youmarried?
(12:27):
Are you single?
You know, what's the agedifference between the spouses?
You know, what do you, youknow, what is your income
objective?
You at some point.
And then you customize thatprocess to that individual or to
that family.
And well, how do you do that?
Well, first and foremost, thefirst thing you have to do in a
(12:50):
first meeting is listen.
Brian Minier (12:53):
We
Ed Beemiller (12:54):
have questions that we ask as part of our
process, but I hear from a lotof people feedback of, well, I
just went in and they didn'treally ask me a lot of questions
and they just put me into thisaccount and that account.
So that is what we call andrefer to, that's selling
product.
We try not to sell product.
We try to sell a solution thatmeets your objectives that you
(13:15):
told us.
So when we listen andunderstand what they're looking
to accomplish, At the end of theday, we work in reality, right?
So if someone says, I'm saving$100 a month, and they're 55
years old, and their income gapor what they need is $50,000 a
year, you have to be realisticwith them and say, that's not
(13:37):
going to do it.
So either A, you're going toneed to modify your objectives,
or B, we're going to have tosave more money, or we're going
to have to change the process.
But once again, having aprocess leads to, Ryan, what you
brought up, an outcome.
Brian Minier (13:53):
Yeah, and I think the one thing that you're really
good at, Ed, and I've heard youtalk to some of the people that
you work with, you're reallygood at listening.
You're really good at takingtime to get to know that person
and understand them.
That's part of your process istaking time to really ask
appropriate questions.
and you would think, of course,duh, everybody should do that.
There's a lot of people in ourindustry that don't.
(14:14):
The question is, what's youraccount balance?
Ryan, tell us a little bitabout, I know you're really good
at listening to people andmaking people feel comfortable.
Tell us a little bit about yourprocess of how you go about
doing that.
Ryan Fleming (14:26):
I remember a few years ago, I was attending a
church service at our localchurch that we go to, and the
pastor said a pretty profoundcomment that stuck with me.
He said, what people care aboutmost, they're going to figure
it out.
That's very true.
What people care about most,they're going to figure it out.
And relative to what we'retalking about is we got to get
(14:47):
to the heart of the matter,right?
We got to get to really what isthe emotion behind why people
are sitting in front of us,right?
I mean, until you get thatfacade broken down and you truly
seek to understand the heartand the emotion of why people
are sitting in front of you, itdoes become transactional,
right?
It does become transactional.
(15:07):
And so we do work hard forthat.
As far my process same thing asEd I really want to ask good
probing questions that arehonest sincere questions but I
also don't want to just take thesurface answer because I do
realize sometimes people areguarded they don't know us
immediately right up frontthey're not 100% comfortable
right away so I think part of myprocess is actually being bold
(15:31):
enough to dig a little bitdeeper so when you say that what
do you mean by that help me tounderstand and I think because
of that then it just it justBolden's more long-term trust.
But one of the things I want totalk about with process, and
it's been part of my process for18 years, is I help a lot of
(15:51):
families through the financialaid and admission system, the
college planning journey.
And that is a crazy process ona lot of different fronts
because college planning is aretirement issue.
And so they have to know theprocess of the admission side
and how they're going to be ableto pay for it.
And it
Ed Beemiller (16:08):
changes
Ryan Fleming (16:09):
all the time.
And it's changing all the time.
So That process, the pointabout what I'm saying about that
is that process is ever moving.
It's always evolving.
It's convoluted.
Laws change and percentageschange, so on and so forth.
When you're in a process, youhave to also be willing to
(16:29):
adapt, us as advisors, but alsoas clients.
Many people that are listeningto us today, they may be in the
process of accumulating wealth.
They're climbing Mount Everest.
They're saving into 401ks, RothIRAs, cash value, life
insurance, whatever it may be.
They're in the process oftrying to accumulate and that's
(16:51):
hard enough.
But then they got to switchtheir process and they got to
figure out how to decumulate.
They got to go intodistribution and that's a whole
different process.
And so that's why the value ofa good, trusted advisor to be a
thought partner with thesepeople to coach them through the
process at various differentstages is very important to us
(17:13):
and why our listeners righthere, we would feel are getting
good value from us, right?
Yeah,
Brian Minier (17:19):
for sure.
One of the things that when Iteach some of my classes, I say,
your plan is going to bedifferent depending on what you
want.
So for example, if your plan isto leave a million dollars to
your three kids, that plan isgoing to look different than if
you want your last check tobounce.
Those are two different plans.
There's different taxramifications.
(17:39):
There's different spendingplans, how to take those
distributions.
One of the processes that I tryto implement is we're going to
put together a financial planfirst before we even talk about
the movement or theimplementation of any
strategies.
And I feel like that processworks because then the people
(17:59):
that I work with understand thewhy behind what they're doing.
Ryan Fleming (18:03):
Yeah, and so...
there's this idea of theprocess of data gathering and
education, but there's also theprocess of nurturing the
relationship.
So what are some things that wedo in our company that we do to
nurture relationships?
So one of the things we do isclient appreciation events.
We've done a few of those overthe time, and they've been
(18:26):
great, but there's a process tothat, right?
Yeah, and
Ed Beemiller (18:28):
one thing, I'm part of a networking group, and
the motto Mm-hmm.
Yeah, absolutely.
(19:03):
you know, it's having thesetouching points.
And, you know, part of whywe're doing this podcast and we
talk about processes, right?
Well, let's go back to thewhole process of how we got here
to start this, right?
We've been talking about it fora couple of years, but it's
(19:24):
important to follow thatprocess.
But within my networking group,we get to get up and say like a
little 60 second commercial ofwho we are and what we do and
what we're looking for.
One thing I always talk aboutis I've asked the other people,
do you have a financial plannerthat you work with?
(19:44):
Do you have a financialprofessional?
Or are you working with anyoneor doing it all yourself?
A lot of times, even withclients, the response I get is,
yeah, I don't really have aprocess.
My company has a 401k.
I'm putting money into thereand just hoping it will be
enough.
Ryan Fleming (20:02):
And conversely, for people that feel like they
have a very, very tight process,that a lot of engineers have a
good self-directed process, Ialways just say, man, if you
feel so great about yourprocess, then you probably
wouldn't mind having another setof eyeballs to double-check
your work to make sure that thatprocess is as efficient as you
can.
Brian Minier (20:21):
So there's that side of it.
I always joke, I always say,when you come in, if you're an
engineer, you're going to giveme your spreadsheet when you
come into the office.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
To
Ed Beemiller (20:30):
quote the great Nelson Nash, though, there are
some people you can't teach.
So at the end of the day, we'dlike to work with every single
person out there because we feelevery single person out there
needs assistance.
A lot of people just have nothird party that they're going
to help guide them to put thatprocess together.
Now, some of the folks we workwith think they know everything,
(20:52):
which in that case, sometimesyou just have to say, okay.
If you got your own process andyou think it's better than
anything else, then all right.
Brian Minier (21:04):
Yep.
Not much you can do with that.
Nope.
Yep.
Anything else, Ryan, that youwould say from a process, why
it's so important and what youhave seen over your career that
has helped your clients and thepeople that you work with?
Ryan Fleming (21:20):
Consistent effort will always play out farther and
longer and deeper than just...
fly-by-night concepts, chasingthe wind, if you will.
And that's been tried and truein a lot of areas in life.
The outcomes that people wantin life, they may come to
(21:41):
fruition, but you might actually10X your outcomes if you fall
in love with the process of thatthing.
And let me tell you, that'sshown up in my life, that's
shown up in other people's lifethat's more public.
The real genius, the realmastery, the real...
winning in life is not in theshiny trophy or how big your
(22:03):
bank account is it's in theday-to-day grind uh the heart
and soul of the process and thereality is is that not a lot of
people are willing to pay thatprice
Ed Beemiller (22:13):
oh yeah
Ryan Fleming (22:13):
right and and that's and and and we take that
in as athletes and ex-athletesand things like that i think
that gives us a little bit of aleg up because we've lived that
you know we've gone through aprocess of grinding in the
weight room and hot weather anda long season and And things
with, you know, it's 18 yearsfor me.
And gosh, I mean, how manyyears have you been doing this?
Ed Beemiller (22:34):
I've been 33 years in the financial services.
Financial planning, right?
Financial planning has been along
Ryan Fleming (22:40):
time.
It's a process to get up everysingle day and rinse and repeat.
And
Ed Beemiller (22:45):
we have to watch not to chase the shiny penny.
And the shiny penny, when welook at things here, in the last
several years plus has been alot of talk about
cryptocurrency.
So once again, it's about...
managing that process.
Don't just chase that shinypenny that, oh, everyone's
talking about it, so I should bedoing it.
(23:06):
The reality of it is theprocess drives to The outcome.
The outcome,
Brian Minier (23:13):
exactly.
Yeah, and I think it's justimportant for those that are
listening is we take the processof working with whoever it is
very seriously.
We put a lot of time, put a lotof effort in making sure that
that is right for that person.
Ryan Fleming (23:28):
100 million percent.
And we do self-education.
We try to learn constantly byno means do we think that our
process is foolproof.
That's why we're always on thehunt to gain more knowledge from
other people.
I think he said something like,trust
Brian Minier (23:59):
the process.
Trust the process.
Ed Beemiller (24:04):
That's all you need.
Brian Minier (24:05):
All right.
I think that's a great way toend.
Thank you for tuning in today,and we look forward to talking
to you next time.
Thanks, everybody.
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