EP 185: "From Boots to Bitcoin: Veterans Betting on Psychedelics and Crypto

In this exciting episode of "Money & You," Michelle Perkins converses with Joshua Brooks, a financial advisor and Army veteran with over 20 years of service. The discussion centers on the importance of financial literacy, particularly for military personnel, who often face challenges in managing their finances due to a lack of education on the subject. Joshua emphasizes the need for a mindset shift regarding money and highlights the complexities of financial planning, including investment strategies and the integration of digital assets like Bitcoin. Joshua is uniquely knowledgeable and favorable toward cryptocurrency. 

The conversation also touches on Joshua's commitment to serving veterans and their families, as well as his vision for Exponential Advisors LLC, which aims to provide innovative financial solutions. The episode underscores the significance of understanding financial tools and the emotional aspects of money management, especially in the context of military life.

 
00:03 - Mindset and money matters 
06:21 - Financial literacy in the military 
14:42 - Client engagement in finance 
20:02 - Understanding bitcoin basics 
27:17 - Investing with integrity 
35:06 - Transformative healing and finance 

Main Topics Discussed:

• Financial Literacy in the Military: The lack of financial education provided to active-duty military personnel. Common financial pitfalls faced by veterans, such as impulsive spending and inadequate financial planning.    
• -Joshua's Background:  Over 20 years of service in the U.S. Army, transitioning from infantry soldier to chaplain.  His commitment to helping fellow veterans with financial planning, investment strategies, and legacy planning.   
• - Innovative Financial Solutions:  The integration of digital assets and AI-driven insights into traditional financial planning.  The importance of understanding cryptocurrency, particularly Bitcoin, as a potential investment.
• - Psychedelics and Personal Transformation: Joshua's recent experiences with psychedelics and their impact on personal growth and financial mindset. The significance of mental well-being in managing finances effectively.
• - Investment Strategies:  Discussion on the volatility of Bitcoin and its potential as a long-term investment.  Recommendations for allocating a portion of investment portfolios to cryptocurrency.

Joshua Brooks, CFP® Founder, Exponential Advisors LLC www.exponentialadvisors.net/


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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
I'd anticipate. I'm not going to make market predictions, but
two hundred thousand is not out of the question. A
million dollars per bitcoin is not out of the question.
So these are the numbers, and I feel very confident
and comfortable mentioning these numbers because if you have a
two trillion dollar asset that is scarce, that is decentralized,

(00:23):
that is using two fifty six secure hash algorithm like
crypto technology that was based in the Department of Defense
in the nineteen sixties, that is like unbreakable, right then,
I think that that's a pretty solid risk reward asset.
So at the end of the day, as we say
in the Army, the bottom line up front is that bitcoin.
I would argue at Exponential Advisors and other certified financial

(00:47):
planners that are bitcoin friendly and bitcoin focused would say
the same, if not take it further.

Speaker 2 (00:53):
Hey there, and welcome to Money and You. I'm Michelle Perkins,
your host. My search for more fulfilling work led me
to a career in business coaching, where I stumbled upon
a game changing discovery. Money issues often start with our
mindset and habits. You see, our relationship with money is
the key to overcoming those frustrating financial obstacles. As an entrepreneur,

(01:15):
coach and problem solver, I'm passionate about helping you create
a great relationship with money, because turns out that's the
foundation for a limit free life. Each week on Money
in You, I speak with amazing guests about all things money, mindset,
practical tips, and everything in between. We're here to give
you new insights, education, and empowerment, so money can be

(01:36):
one of your favorite relationships. So join us for some
lively conversations and let's transform your financial life together. Hello, Hello,
welcome to another episode of the Money in You Show.
This is a really interesting episode. Many facets to this one.
Where're going to speak with our guest who is with

(01:59):
us today again. And I'm so psyched that we have
guests coming into the studio. That's great, and he has
come in from Texas and we are going to talk
about many things. It's going to be a surprising show.
So there are a few little unexpected aspects to today's show.
So I'm going to introduce you to our guest first,
and this is Joshua Brooks. Joshua Brooks, CFP is the

(02:24):
founder of Exponential Advisors, LLC, a forward thinking financial planning
firm based in Weatherford, Texas. As a certified financial planner
professional with over a decade of experience in personal finance,
Joshua is passionate about empowering clients to achieve financial freedom
and live their best lives. His mission is to provide comprehensive,

(02:46):
innovative financial solutions with a personal touch, integrating cutting edge
tools like digital assets and AI driven insights into traditional
financial planning strategies. Joshua's professional journey is profoundly shaped by
his twenty plus years in service in the United States Army,
where he served in roles ranging from infantry soldier to chaplain.

(03:08):
His unique perspective as an Army veteran drives his commitment
to serving fellow veterans and their families, whether guiding clients
through military benefits, optimization, investment planning, or legacy strategies. Joshua
understands the complexities and opportunities of navigating life during and
after in the military. So Joshua also holds a bachelor's

(03:30):
in Communication Studies from Texas Christian University and is pursuing
ongoing education in financial technology and wealth management trends. His
expertise spans various financial services including retirement, tax efficient investing,
estate planning, and cryptocurrency integration. A devoted family man, Joshua
resides in Weatherford with his wife, Stephanie, and their four children.

(03:51):
He values faith, transparency, humility, and impact in his personal
and professional life. When not working with clients, Joshua enjoys
reading the Bible, freestyle rapping, playing golf, and spending quality
time with his family. His vision for Exponential Advisors, LLC
is clear to deliver an elite client experience that transforms lives,
harnesses innovation, and builds long term wealth. Ready to start

(04:15):
your financial journey? You can do so right here on
the Money and New Show with Joshua and I having
a conversation.

Speaker 1 (04:21):
So Joshua, welcome, Hey Michelle. Great to be here with you.

Speaker 2 (04:24):
Great to have you here, and thank you for coming
into the studio. You came a long way. I really
appreciate that. And yeah, I'm super excited to talk to
you because you have a lot of very interesting things
to talk about. I want you to just tell the
audience you just mentioned kind of who your avatar is
in terms of clients, and I'd love for you to

(04:46):
share that with the audience because it's unique.

Speaker 1 (04:49):
Yeah, it really is. And so thinking about the clients
we serve and as our firm grows, the client avatars
are army veterans and that's a very specific niche. So
not we're okay taking if you're a Navy sailor or
an Air Force persus, We're okay, that's okay too, You're welcome.
And busy mommies because the Fidelity recent research report indicates

(05:13):
that women are controlling more of the household finances making
more influential decisions in that space and that has been
trending upward for a while now. And then also Christian
leaders with my background and ministry and spiritual leadership, and
so those are the three primary client avatars that we

(05:35):
look to serve at Exponential Advisors.

Speaker 2 (05:38):
You know, I love that and thank you for doing
that work. That's really quite impressive, And I love the
idea of really sort of selecting particular niches. It's the
exact opposite of what I did when I started my business,
which was trying to help everybody with too many things.
So it's super smart, I think, because you can really

(06:00):
get to know the people that you're serving and what's
going on in their heads. And so to that point,
you probably have a lot of insight into their relationship
with money. And those particular groups of people I would
think would have some complicated relationships with money, particularly people
like chaplains or you know, people who are really out

(06:20):
to serve versus. You know, their goal in life is
obviously not to make as much money as possible. So
what are you seeing in terms of helping people build
wealth when they're occupations or the busy mommies too. You know,
they're dedicated to their families. So you know, all of
these people, money is not their prib primary goal.

Speaker 1 (06:44):
Let's tackle those three briefly. And as you know, everybody
is a one of a kind creature. Everybody has their
own unique circumstances and strengths and limitations. And so let
me pause before that because in the bio that you
were reading, Michelle, I forgot to mention and I think
you read it that I might have to, you know,

(07:05):
drop some freestyle bars as well, so not to mention
the other things. I know, we've got a lot of
ground to cover, a lot in the army. We don't
just come, we come from the side, and so you're
unexpected and you're like, oh man, they just blew us up.
We had no idea that they were coming. Like, who's
this white guy chaplain financial advisor and he's gonna wrap
on my podcast. But you'll have to check out a

(07:27):
couple of the other shows that I've done recently.

Speaker 2 (07:30):
Well, feel free, you're here in studio. You can even
dance for that. Man.

Speaker 1 (07:34):
We'll get Tony to dial up in the West coast
flavor of California. Maybe a Tupac instrumental, or you can
take us back Tony with a mainstream rap instrumental off
YouTube or something. It should be fun. So let's talk
about army veterans, because I've spent twenty one years in
counting with the army population. Yes, they're a bunch of

(07:58):
sweaty dudes and those gross bathrooms and so usually money
is not always on the top of that priority. And
you see active duty. You'd see these typical scenarios where
they're on active duty and they have to learn in
the school of hard knocks, and so, whether that's in
early marriage to get the housing allowance, the basic allowance

(08:22):
for housing, or they buy a new Chevy Camaro or
one of those dodge what do you call those dodge
like car the chargers that go real fast and then
they wrap the charger around the light pole after you know,
their trip to their recreational activities, you know on Saturday
night that we won't mention on this, you know, family

(08:42):
friendly podcast. And so Army veterans have a tendency. And
again there's people who manage their money really well, right,
and those are usually the senior NCOs and the officers,
And that brings up the question that is often disgusted
is what is the relationship between financial literacy and financial action?

(09:04):
And it also brings up those emotions and kind of
that Morgan household being responsible with their money and all
that stuff. So it's really complicated with Army personnel. But
I would argue that generally they don't do well the best.
They don't optimize their finances. So that's my take on

(09:25):
the Army veterans and kind of what I've experienced.

Speaker 2 (09:28):
Yeah, and the military, like most organizations, probably doesn't do
a lot to teach financial literacy. I am guessing I
could be wrong.

Speaker 1 (09:38):
They try, Okay, they try, but sometimes you can throw
a lot of programs and money in dollars. Because there
are personal financial counselors in Grand Prairie, Texas at the
Grand Prairie Armed Forces Reserve Center where I'm at, and
she's awesome and she could help the soldiers, but they're

(09:58):
so focused on and so here's for the listeners out there,
I want to help you understand kind of the nature
of army service. So for active duty, you get your
pay and your meals and your housing, whether it's in
the barracks or off post, and so you work three
sixty five twenty four to seven. But for the reserve component,
and that comprises the Army Reserve and the National Guard,

(10:21):
you are a citizen soldier. So you work one week
and each month and you do your two weeks of
active training, and then you have your civilian job. And
so that's where the big conflict occurs, where you're trying
to work for your civilian employer, but then you also
have responsibility duty like to Uncle Sam. And so if
you're working at a restaurant or something and your scheduled

(10:43):
conflicts with your duty responsibilities, what do you think is
gonna trump out there? You know? And then so that
those are that's challenging for those those soldiers.

Speaker 2 (10:53):
Yeah, yeah, for sure. And they tend to come in
pretty young, I would think, I mean the ones I know,
and in after high school and so probably just like
for me when I started my first corporate job, I mean,
forty seems like a billion years away, you know, so
you're not thinking about what maybe you should be doing
now to help you out later.

Speaker 1 (11:15):
Yeah, So that's the that's the client avatar for the
Army veteran.

Speaker 2 (11:18):
Okay, okay, very cool. So all right, why don't you
just tell us I mean I read the bio, but
why don't you tell us just in your own words?
You know what you do, how you help people, and
what you love the most about it.

Speaker 1 (11:33):
Yeah. So Exponential Advisors we exist to provide those transformative
solutions by doing comprehensive financial planning. So, as you mentioned
in the bio, certified financial planner, and I take that
very seriously. There's not over one hundred thousand certified financial planners,
and so that includes all domains of the financial planning process.
And so there's an evolution in the financial services industry.

(11:57):
Where As Penny Pennington, she says, as the managing partner
at Edward Jones, it's human centered complete wealth management is
how she describes it. So it's no longer pushing products
or here's this great investment that's going.

Speaker 2 (12:10):
To make you. Yeah, you know, I don't mean to interrupt,
but as you were talking, I thought, I think a
lot of people don't even know that there's a difference
between a financial advisor and a certified financial planner. So
maybe you can just enlighten people a little on that.

Speaker 1 (12:25):
Yeah. So there are people who hold themselves out in
the financial advising world and they can do really good
work for you, and they can serve you, and they
can likely have their licenses of series seven or they
call it now the SIE in the state, the series
sixty three, and they do good work. But the difference

(12:47):
in the CFP credential, which is considered the gold standard
in the financial services industry, is that you have to
pass four parts. And so that is the education, that
is the experience, that is the ethics, and that is
the exam. Right, and so with the education it's approximately

(13:09):
two years I think, like a college degree and having
finance work like if you have a business minor, et cetera,
and then the ethics component, like you can't have a
felony in financial financial crime. That's kind of a no
as within in the army, that's a no go. You
are a no go at the station. Please go back
and figure something else out. And then with your experience,

(13:32):
So your education, your experience is the two years your
education that I don't know that don't it's been a
minute since I did it in twenty nineteen twenty. And
then your exam, which generally has like a sixty percent
pass rate. It is not an easy test, like a
six hour test. Then you are board certified to be

(13:52):
a certified financial planner, and you have to do your
continuing education and continue to do ethical good planning. And
on top of that, they pushed the new pro bono
financial planning initiative where it's helping people who are less fortunate,
people who are marginalized in the community. And yes, maybe
it's virtual virtue signaling a little bit or whatever, but

(14:12):
I think that's a good initiative.

Speaker 2 (14:14):
I didn't know that that's a great initiative. So yeah,
and how do people well, we can go back to
that because they can probably contact you for whatever help.
But so, okay, so, and I mean there's helping people
to choose investments. But there's also the planning piece. I
guess is what I was trying to get at is

(14:36):
this overall plan is what drives everything else. So you
help them with that, correct?

Speaker 1 (14:41):
Absolutely? Yeah, I mean this could be ten podcasts right here.
So you want to talk about the financial planning process,
but to start off, just to hit the high points
in the domains, like, there are the fundamentals of financial planning, Michelle,
there's the insurance planning, the investment planning, hirement planning, the
tax planning, and the estate planning. And in all of

(15:04):
those domains there are a number of sections and then
you have the subsections and categories. So there is a
planning process where just starting out with say insurance, you're
going to need to ask a decent amount of questions
to make sure and they all interconnect. So if one
thing changes, that might impact the estate plan or your taxes.

Speaker 2 (15:23):
Yeah, okay, interesting. And so when you're dealing with people,
I mean that sounds overwhelming in itself to a potential client,
I think person. But so how do you kind of
get somebody on this path, especially people in the categories.

Speaker 1 (15:41):
That you serve? Yeah, how do you get them interested? Actually? Yeah?
So you mean, like, how do we in the prospecting
process or obtainment clients or how do they get them
to embrace the financial planning process? There you go. Yeah,
so that's the fun part. So again with my back
ground and Fidelity Investments. For four years as a financial rep,

(16:05):
that was more about customer service, account service and maintenance,
talking to clients about their investments and ETFs and mutual funds.
And then I said, well, I want to be more
client facing, so I went to Edward Jones and that
was in twenty twenty. Okay, so I think we all
know about that period and building a business in that timeframe,
and so as you think about the financial planning process,

(16:27):
that's really where I started to have these conversations with
clients and maybe talking about the long term care. So
how I do that is, let's talk about data gathering
that when you say that, that just kind of sounds
just like do I That sounds like something that you
have to do like on your spring cleaning checklists or

(16:47):
something like nobody wants to do that. So there was
a former leader in the planning network that I'm involved
in XYPN feed for Service Financial Planning. This is about
two thousand advisors and you got Michael Kitts's guru and
Alan Moore as the co founders and Maddie Roach she's
worked with the company, the first employee. She just recently left,

(17:07):
but tremendous leader there to take on new endeavors. And
she said, let's reframe the data gathering phrase and let's
call it getting organized. Right, that's great. Yeah, and she's
also I have to confess, like on her coaching calls,
the group coaching calls with XYPN, Maddie gave me the
second client avatar. Busy mommies. Yeah, that's what they are, right,

(17:30):
and so they need help. But you know, like they're
juggling the dishes and maybe a part time gig or
an etsy or a full time responsibilities like my wife
as a registered nurse with a fertility services company out
in Connecticut. And so getting organized just sounds more relaxed,

(17:51):
Like you know, when you have an opportunity, let's connect
to monarch money and that does the I'm going to
use the technical word data aggregation process, but it's you know,
with using plaid and you can connect your Bank of
America or your Chase account and that's a lot easier
than downloading PDFs and printing out statements and then emailing

(18:12):
them and attaching files and then you know, getting all
those technical glitches.

Speaker 2 (18:16):
Yeah, no, I love that, And is that your preference?

Speaker 1 (18:19):
That one?

Speaker 2 (18:19):
I have co pilot on my phone, which I did
that because my son loves it. But yeah, I was
just curious about you.

Speaker 1 (18:27):
My wife and I have been terrible budgeters. We like,
we we rank historically low on ESPN's you know, all
time Budgeting Statistics or whatever, and so we have tried
whine ab you need a budget. I used to use
mint and that's very like backwards looking. So you're like, oh, okay,
well we overspent two thousand dollars and so fail and

(18:49):
then you have to have that conversation with your spouse,
well we need to tighten things up. And I heard
you talking on the previous podcast with Wendy right about
you know, like having these conversations of Okay, one spouse
had all of the numbers and have the financial acumen
and the other spouse has like maybe a different intelligence
and stuff. They're like conflicting and there's the kind of
dom you know that what do you call that? The

(19:11):
dynamics you know power dynamics going on there.

Speaker 2 (19:14):
Yeah, it is power dynamics. I was just reading about
that too. It's like, why do we why do we
fight about this stuff? It's because it's fighting over control.
But I find that really interesting. I'm not a good
budgeter either, and a lot of you know, you look
at a financial person and you think, oh, that person
loves their budget. But you don't have to love your

(19:35):
budget to be good with money, and you kind of
do have to do it to some extent. But there
are varying degrees of budgeting. I mean, I have worked
with people who wanted to budget to the penny. I
have never budgeted to the penny possible. Yeah, so but
it's just about knowing. I mean, I like to say,
knowing how much it costs to be you, and you

(19:56):
do kind of have to know that. So yeah, So anyway,
love what you're saying. I love the vulnerability.

Speaker 1 (20:02):
I mean, for to be a certified financial planner, you
can even go bankrupt one time, but if you go
bankrupt twice, I think there's a no go in the station.
So uh, maybe I shouldn't focus on the lower limits
and kind of aim high, like the Air Force or whatever.
But we're gonna so budget. If you need help with budgeting,
I can certainly help you. We'll use monarch money. But

(20:22):
don't you know, ask me about my personal budgeting practices
or whatever or you know that.

Speaker 2 (20:27):
Yeah, you're you're putting in a good effort. Though, if
you're talking to your wife about.

Speaker 1 (20:31):
It, that's good.

Speaker 2 (20:32):
So, so let's talk about bitcoin, because we never talk
about bitcoin on this show and pretty much financial planners
have not mentioned the word. So, so tell us your
your thoughts about it.

Speaker 1 (20:48):
Yeah, how much time do we have, Well, Michelle, not enough.
So I believe bigcoin is hanging there listeners, hanging audience.
It's going to yeh wonky. But it's a decentralized form
of mony that lost him already. Okay, we're done, So
it's digital. Gold is kind of an analogy. Right in

(21:09):
the nineteen seventies, we had Richard Nixon. He took us
off the gold standard and the dollar was kind of
floating and we had inflation. In that period of economic history,
you were seeing stagflation and you were seeing a stagnate
economy and rising inflation. And then Paul Varker, the Treasury Secretary,
came in and tried to get a handle on the

(21:29):
rising inflation in the eighties, and so that was an
interesting time period. And so bitcoin came about right after
the two thousand and eight global financial collapse, and that
was in October one, two thousand and eight, two thousand
and nine ish. And you can fact check that Satoshi

(21:51):
Knakin Moto is an anonymous person. He was in these
crypto kind of anarchy kind of email rooms. But it
was built on top of previous technology of e cash
and a guy named Adam bach back and then experimented
in it. And then it's basically just computer code software

(22:14):
and x's and os and there are twenty one million
bitcoin and there will only ever be twenty one million bitcoins.
So that's why it's scarce, okay. So that's a big part, Michelle,
of why it is increasing in value because as a
digital currency compared to other currencies such as the pound

(22:36):
or the ruble or the peso or the wand those
currencies can be inflated, right, And what does the government
generally do any global government in times of an emergency.

Speaker 2 (22:49):
You're asking me, if.

Speaker 1 (22:53):
Like we had in the twenty twenty pandemic, what did
the presidential administration do they bail people out. They bail
people out, they need more money. And so that's why
we're seeing higher inflation economically, is because when you increase
the money supply, that decreases the value of the currency
and raises the cost of goods and services. With bitcoin,
we now have a decentralized permissionless so that there's no

(23:18):
other intermediaries, there's no banks, there's no financial institution. It's
controlled throughout the universe on this decentralized global ledger, and
it can't be manipulated. And so twenty one million bitcoin
is twenty one million bitcoin. And now that's why you're
seeing the price that just hit last month, an old
time high of one hundred and twelve thousand per bitcoin.

Speaker 2 (23:37):
Yeah, okay, fascinating. So you know, most people out there
are still wary of it. I mean not most. I
don't know the statistics really, but the people I.

Speaker 1 (23:48):
Know I agree.

Speaker 2 (23:49):
I agree. So I mean, is it important to embrace it?
Do you see that as being okay? Because so then
hear I hear statistics. Oh, you know one to two
percent of your portfolio should be in crypto?

Speaker 1 (24:04):
Is that? Yeah? So again it depends on each person
right in their individual risk tolerance in their time horizon.
And so let me take a step back to kind
of qualify the conversation as well for our listeners from
my perspective, right. And so that's why it's a privilege
to be on the Money on You podcast to share

(24:26):
my perspective, right, because it's going to be unique and
different from every other host or guest. And once we
get into that freestyle perspective, we really hear some stuff
or I think we've got another topic to talk about
just a second. I know we keep the listeners on
their toes, but I think this is this podcast is
really a good bridge from the hardcore bitcoinners that I

(24:47):
listened to like What Bitcoin Did, or Coin Stories with
Natalie Brunell, or this other guy named Walker who does
the Bitcoin podcast. These are the hardcore bitcoin max lists.
Yeah right. They believe that bitcoin is the revolution and
the transformation. And while I do believe that it does
have revolutionary potential and it has could become the global

(25:10):
reserve currency. We're seeing the downgrade of the United States
dead and the US this strain on the US economy
and that the manufacturing and hollout. But I think this
podcast is a really good bridge to more of the
mainstream audiences that really are not sure about where they
get their information. And maybe they've read some things online
on the internet about bitcoin, or maybe even Wall Street

(25:33):
Journal or Forbes, but some of those journalists are not
really researched and technically heavy as well. And so my
opinion is that you can't be on zero, okay, unless
you're eighty five years old, right, then you have some
other objectives and initiatives that you need to be preparing for,
or if you have a really low risk tolerance, right,

(25:54):
and if you're holding equities and that makes you a
little jumpy, then by all. Now, as bitcoin increases in
market capitalization and we're over to I say, we're but
the bitcoin network is over two trillion dollars two trillion
dollars in market cap, so it's not like you know,

(26:15):
a venture cap startup in Silicon Valley, and so I
would argue that I think one to five percent is
a mainstream range, okay, but zero is not an appropriate
number at this point.

Speaker 2 (26:26):
Interesting, okay, Well, and you know, again, nobody, people who
haven't studied it don't really know what to do when
to jump in. I mean, it's high, right, now, so
people think, you know.

Speaker 1 (26:39):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (26:39):
And the predictability of the ups and downs is there
that Like there is with equities, you can kind of
pay attention to what's going on and predict that a
little bit.

Speaker 1 (26:49):
But yeah, so as we think about the market cycles
and the volatility of the asset, it just depends on
your perspective, because we're seeing again, it depends on the
US economy. What's gonna happen? We factor in AI are
we going to get I can't get away. It's inescapable.

(27:11):
Thirty six trillion dollars of US government? Dad, that's just
such as Lynn Aldwin, who is an incredible economist. She
wrote a book called Broken Money, and she is very neutral,
very researched, and she has a meme. She has a
phrase that says, the train has left the station, folks.

(27:32):
And so at thirty six trillion, yes, doge I think
Elon Musk just wrapped up his initiative with the government,
not doge coin, but the Department of Government Efficiency two
hundred billion dollars. Okay, well way to go, Elon. You
know you did some good government trimming. But if you look,
there's a guy named Nick Batya and he wrote the

(27:55):
He has the Bitcoin layer substack and a podcast very
well researched, and he talks about the bond market, very nuanced,
more technical than probably any of your most of the
majority of listeners want to hear. But there are massive
things going on in the bomb market and government debt
that we're not really it's just totally under the radar,

(28:15):
and we've got a big problem with thirty six trillion
dollars a debt. So I think one hundred thousand dollars
is i'd anticipate. I'm not going to make market predictions,
but two hundred thousand is not out of the question.
A million dollars per bitcoin is not out of the question.
So these are the numbers, and I feel very confident

(28:35):
and comfortable mentioning these numbers because if you have a
two trillion dollar asset that is scarce, that is decentralized,
that is using two fifty six secure hash algorithm like
crypto technology that was based in the Department of Defense
in the nineteen sixties, that is like unbreakable, right then,
I think that that's a pretty solid risk reward asset.

(28:58):
So at the end of the day, as we say
in the art. I mean, the bottom line up front
is that bitcoin, I would argue at Exponential Advisors and
other certified financial planners that are bitcoin friendly and bitcoin
focused would say the same, if not take it further,
is that bitcoin is the best risk reward asset out there. Wow,
full stop, Wow, better than equities, certainly better than bonds

(29:21):
right with inflation. And so that's why the market opportunity
for Exponential Advisors for me to be patient and grow
with sustainability and with credibility and integrity rather than just
kind of being that like what do you call those
like slimy salesmen or whatever out there? That's what you
call them.

Speaker 2 (29:42):
Yeah, you know, it's fascinating And this is a commentary,
I guess on the world of finance because I have
had a lot of guests who, you know, they come
on with their own perspective on what the best thing is,
and oftentimes it's something they enjoy, they understand, they've played

(30:03):
around with and had success with. So I feel like
the message there's so many messages here, but I feel
like I love what you're saying about bitcoin because that,
frankly was factual and research based and new to this show.
I learned a lot just in the short time you
were talking.

Speaker 1 (30:22):
Thank you.

Speaker 2 (30:24):
But it's also a comfort level and like you say,
you know your risk tolerance, but also what you can enjoy.
And I feel like people I don't know how, you know,
people need to find their area of personal finance that
they can dig into. And so you've obviously been able
to understand this and get into it enough to feel

(30:46):
confident and enjoy it. But I guess you know, for
people out there, there are many options. I mean, which
is a good thing. It's just a matter of figuring
it out.

Speaker 1 (30:57):
Yeah, it could be real estate. There's all different types
of investments out there. And so at the end of
the day, yes, bitcoin is a solid risk reward assets
have you know, solid potential and so on and so forth.
And we haven't even gone into like you can self
custody it. You don't even have to hold it in
and exchange. Oh yeah, so that's and and so that

(31:19):
maybe you know, for another time, maybe you could have
me back. You know, Michelle loved to be regulated do
some bitcoin promotion. But it's what I'm passionate about. So
but I mean I would tell customers and my clients,
said Edward, Jones like, yeah, you can make ten percent
returns on the stock market, but if you invest in

(31:41):
real estate, like, those are different numbers, right, if you
do it well, and so then the different risks as well.
So it just depends. There's lots of different avenues for investments.

Speaker 2 (31:51):
Yeah, and I think part of that makes it fun.
It's it's like a project that you can learn, you
can play with, you can you know, and in the
few sure hopefully you will earn money from it as well.

Speaker 1 (32:03):
So hopefully. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (32:05):
So okay, I because we you know, I do like
to talk about your relationship with money, which we have
been and part of that is transformation. And you've just
been on this says this is a whole different avenue
that we've never touched on as well. But you've been
on a journey recently to help yourself and other people

(32:27):
transform and I found that fascinating. And you know, we
talked for a minute about how that would impact your
your money life as well. So if you want to share.

Speaker 1 (32:37):
That, yeah, well, is it okay to cry on your show?
Very anything goes here. I wish I could cry more.
We have some veterans have that in common.

Speaker 2 (32:47):
By the way, I have a lot of trouble with crying,
and so I went to therapy for a long time,
and she would be so happy when I would cry
because it just wouldn't happen for I don't know, I
have a weird crying issue.

Speaker 1 (32:59):
So I can relate to I can see that motion
now in your eyes. It's so powerful.

Speaker 2 (33:04):
How to do it better?

Speaker 1 (33:05):
I wish I started come on now. So yeah, I
mean it's really opened me up, Michelle, and I thank
you for this gift to share my brief experiences. I
went with a nonprofit organization called the Heroic Carts Project,
and they are a nonprofit in New York, New York,
founded by an Army ranger named Jesse Gold. And I

(33:28):
think there was like a movie or a documentary that
explored these veterans for hero Carts, taking them to Porto Varta,
Mexico and doing a ceremonial retreat. And so Heroic Cards
took me and a dozen or so veterans to Tarapotel, Peru,
and so we flew into Lima last month, excuse me.

(33:51):
And there was a lot of integration and a lot
of preparation, and we had our favorite coach. His name
is Diego from San Diego, So Diego, San Diego, shout
out to you man, thank you for helping me stay
sane and keeping us in check on our psychedelic retreat.
And so in the retreat, we did three ceremonial sessions

(34:15):
of ayahuasca. So let's take a quick step back and
talk about trauma and how that can impact your life
and your relationship to money. And so I was raised
in Houston, Texas and had an abusive alcoholic father, emotional
and verbal stepfather excuse me, and a lot of trauma
even going into the army unfortunately. So it's taken me

(34:36):
a lot of hard work to get to where I'm at.
Counseling and yoga and healthy living and good relationships and
the faith, vibrant spiritual community. Those things really helped me,
but they didn't get me over the hump. And so
it's always a holistic, integrative plan. And so the antidepressants
that I was taken, I've taken two in my time,

(35:00):
and they would just make you feel like a zombie
and you're just kind of getting depressed. And maybe that's
why I can't budget that good. I'll just blame it
on the antidepressants. Or whatever it's like on searchra Lean
or Zoloft or Paxil. But so then I went to
the Army and this could be you know, I'm gonna
keep it brief and hit the high points like basic training.
I had a college degree, and the drill sergeant he

(35:23):
saw me as a specialist. So I was E four
and rank above the privates and private first class and
he said, specialist Brooks, post drill sergeant. If you're listening
to this, drill sergeant, I'm still not so pleased, very
hot about this, about to get a little hot up
in the studio. And he says, I said yes, drill star.
And he says, do you have a college degree, Brooks.

(35:46):
And he looked at me with this round brown hat,
and I say yes, yeah. He said, you say yes,
drill serget this is a United States Army. He says,
do you have a college degree? You think you're efit
smarter than me? He says, you're nothing. You do push ups.
And so that was my introduction at Fort Benning, Georgia,
to the United States Army. And then I found out
that this is only the second class in two thousand

(36:08):
and four where the drill sergeants couldn't put their hands
on you. Oh wow. And so I was like, I
was like, I didn't had no idea what I was
getting into. So that was the start. You know, they
throw your bags up the bus and they're blowing the
whistles and this is kind of really Willy Wonka. And
so then I got stationed at Fort Lewis, Washington and

(36:30):
just really hardcore unit that came back from Iraq, this
operation I wreck you Freedom Time. Then I deployed, soldiers
got killed and during General Portraysed the surge operations we
were in Mosoul. Just a lot of trauma. Michelle just
really tough. And that's another part of kind of why
I kind of store those emotions, especially a lot of

(36:51):
Army veterans. It's a protective And so fast forward, got married,
went on another deployment as a chaplain, and then you know,
just got diagnosed with PTSD. And I won't tell you
that this story is very humorous with my family, and

(37:13):
I was like, hey, I got PTSD and we could
have told you that a long time ago. Why didn't
you tell me because you couldn't handle it? So like, well,
here we go again. So I go on this retreat
and there is a maloca. Okay. So there I am
in Terrapota, Peru at the Amazon Jungle and we take

(37:34):
either you know, a small medium or Lart's like a
shot glass double shot, or the beaker, the side speaker,
and so we start off small. And in that first
session I had a delay. It didn't really kick in.
And there's two shapebos okay, they're like the healers, okay,
and they're singing these songs for four hours straight. Each
person gets like an individualized healing song, and they're smoking

(37:57):
mapachos like this tobacco. And it did a neurologic reset.
I mean, I had visual patterns and I was very angry.
The first night. I was like F this and F that,
and I'm looking from a detached perspective like, man, you're Josh,
You're an angry dude. Man, what's going on? So the
plant medicine was healing and working on those issues that

(38:20):
I was struggling with, the anger and everything, and so
it was so powerful, Michelle. And what it did is
it calmed my central nervous system so where I don't
have that fight or flight. And I came home and
listened to these are the two things that I told
my family, and I won't go into the details. The
second night was good. I had the beaker shot, the

(38:42):
triple shot of espresso. You know, they didn't like the
terms of Starbucks terms that I used a tall Grande
venti or whatever. But it was really nasty. Think of
like drinking brown tar liquidity stuff from a vine. But
I told my wife and said, we will snuggle more.
We'll snuggle, I know, to give her that emotional comfort
and savings and security. And then I told my wild child, Micah.

(39:06):
I said, Micah, Daddy just got home from a retreat.
He's doing better, no more spanking. And you should have
seen his eyes. He was like, because these are a cowboy,
wild guy, and so he was just it is so special.
You know. Those were the things that my parenting and
lifestyle have evolved. And tying it back to money, here

(39:27):
are the two biggest crushers of financial you know, and
you know this, but divorce in health issues, right, divorce
in health issues, and so you can make a lot
of money, but if you don't necessarily have like a
long term care plan. The average cost of a semi
private nursing care home annually in Texas is one hundred

(39:51):
thousand dollars, So hope you did well on your Vanguard
SMP five hundred index fund or whatever. So those were
my experience. This is very profound psychedelics experience. It's going
to make me a human being that is more present,
that is more compassionate. And you can't put a price

(40:11):
on that.

Speaker 2 (40:12):
No, yeah, absolutely not.

Speaker 1 (40:13):
It is more empathetic.

Speaker 2 (40:15):
And the way you are in your relationships that this
is helping to heal is also the way you are
with money. I mean it's also a relationship. So if
you fly off the handle and you know, get upset
about things or you know whatever, the emotional reaction, you're
reacting that way. Not you, but people toward money as well.

(40:37):
And so the best decisions aren't made or bad.

Speaker 1 (40:40):
Decisions are made.

Speaker 2 (40:41):
I mean people are making decisions with this dysregulated nervous system.
I mean that goes for all of us.

Speaker 1 (40:48):
I mean, so that.

Speaker 2 (40:49):
Awareness when you're you know where you what space you're in,
you know, how is your nervous system before you go
into anything with your money, it becomes really important. So well,
that's fascinating, and congratulations for doing that.

Speaker 1 (41:04):
It's I have.

Speaker 2 (41:05):
Friends who do it I personally have not been brave enough,
but very very interesting to hear about the transformation.

Speaker 1 (41:13):
Yeah, it's a whole new world, He's gonna sing.

Speaker 2 (41:18):
So Tony, should we wrap with a wrap?

Speaker 1 (41:27):
Yeah? We can go. They call me in the Army reserve,
Tony the rapin chaplain? Well, so do you have instrumental.

Speaker 2 (41:37):
I think while you look, I'm gonna thank you in
advance for coming on the show. There's so much more
to talk about. It really did feel like two seconds
worth of time. But yeah, let people know how to
reach you, by the way.

Speaker 1 (41:52):
Would love to. And so Exponential Advisors. You can find
us on our website and that is Exponential Advisors dot
new and for the listeners out there, we do. We're
in the process of changing the blog page so it
will be Exponentialadvisors dot net slash media and I'll have
some guest podcasts there and some short form videos that'll

(42:14):
be launching. And then I'm transitioning, so I'm not going
to send you anywhere else, just to the website Exponential
Advisors dot net. I'm transitioning Michelle from Stubstack and just
really going to focus on a newsletter and an email
Substack has got a lot of good things going on,
but there's also I found some limitations there. So we all,

(42:34):
you know, you evolve in your business.

Speaker 2 (42:36):
Pack you evolved, but that old fashioned blogging newsletter thing
never seems to go away.

Speaker 1 (42:42):
So yeah, thank you for having me.

Speaker 2 (42:44):
Thank you. Yeah, so interesting and I'm really I loved
everything talked about, So thank you so much. All right, listeners,
thank you so much for joining us. I hope you
enjoyed the show with Joshua. He was quite a terrific
guest and I'll lots to take in, lots to enjoy,
so I would listened to that one a couple of times.

(43:04):
And you know, if you haven't thought about bitcoin before,
I personally haven't given it all that much thought.

Speaker 1 (43:09):
I'm going to.

Speaker 2 (43:10):
Rethink a little bit here, and yeah, just you know,
I love the variety of personalities out there in the
financial world as well, so know that you can you
can make those choices of who should be on your
financial team from you know, from you, from your heart

(43:31):
and your gut, like who do you work with well,
because that's another aspect of building a good financial life
is having a good team that you can connect with,
that you can talk to, and who has your back,
so thank you so much for listening, and please give
us a rating and a review. We love that too.
If you can give us a five star rating, that
really helps us bring great guests like Joshua onto the show.

(43:52):
And you can find me at limit FreeLife dot com.
So thanks so much. We'll see you next week.

Speaker 1 (44:00):
At the

Speaker 2 (44:03):
Bottle People