November 7, 2025 • 53 mins
What if the most important part of your financial plan isn’t your portfolio, but your people? We sit down with Ian Freeman—longtime wealth advisor known for leading with compassion—to explore why protection should come first, how listening outperforms pitching, and what it really means to say, “You’re going to be okay.” Ian shares the moment a 9/11 loss reshaped his mission, the philosophy that guides his work, and the unexpected role that gratitude and humility play in building a plan that holds on the worst day.
Across this conversation, we unpack the gap between information and knowledge—and why neither matters without connection. Ian explains his “protect first, then invest” sequence, covering life insurance, disability coverage, and long-term care before chasing returns, so families can invest for everything that goes right. We talk about technology’s double-edged sword, from deepfakes to financial noise, and walk through simple guardrails that protect attention, decisions, and households. And we go beyond numbers: the influence of Atlas Shrugged as a call to productivity and agency, the wisdom of The Natural, and the grit of grandparents who led with service.
If you’ve ever wondered how to choose a financial advisor you can trust, Ian’s criteria are refreshingly human: find the person you’d want sitting with your family when you can’t. Look for outward arrows—empathy, clarity, and genuine care—backed by a plan that answers your definition of “being okay.” Along the way, Ian opens up about mental health, resilience, and his forthcoming book, Life Beneath The Suit: Madness, Mayhem, and the Meaning I Found in the Mess, a narrative look at the stories behind the work.
Press play for a candid, practical, and heart-forward guide to money, meaning, and legacy. If this conversation helps you breathe easier about your future, share it with someone you love, subscribe for more, and leave a review with the one question you still want answered.
Thanks for listening. Please check out our website at www.forsauk.com to hear great conversations on topics that need to be talked about. In these times of intense polarization we all need to find time to expand our Frame of Reference.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:03):
Welcome to Frame of Reference, informed intelligent
conversations about the issuesand challenges facing everyone
in today's world.
In-depth interviews to help youexpand and inform your frame of
reference.
Now here's your host, RaulLabresh.
SPEAKER_03 (00:20):
Well, welcome everyone.
Welcome, welcome, welcome,welcome, welcome.
I could say another 60 times, Isuppose, because I'm excited
about welcoming you today.
But I think if I did that, Iwould waste way too much time
that I could be spending talkingwith my guests today.
Um, so you have tuned in too,whether you knew it or not.
And if you knew it, great.
If you didn't know it, surprise,you're in for a treat.
(00:42):
Um, my guest today is a man thatI have just learned about, and
that's the most exciting thingabout this podcast, is I keep
meeting these people thatfrankly I never knew existed.
And then I start reading thebackground materials to get
ready for an interview with themand think, oh my gosh, I wish I
had known this person easier inmy uh earlier in my life because
I may have actually amounted tosomething.
I, you know, you never know.
(01:03):
Uh one can hope.
I know I met my wife early on,and and she tried her best to
turn me into something usableand uh you know acceptable to be
around in public.
Um, but you know, the poor womancan only do so much on her own.
So um, but my guest today is uha gentleman by the name of Ian
Freeman.
If you know him, you may knowthe wrestler version of that
(01:24):
name.
This is not that man.
So if you're a wrestling youknow person and you tuned in for
this for that, uh, well, stayaround, but you know, go away if
that's all you want to thinkabout as wrestling, because that
ain't happening today.
Um but uh Ian uh was in anarticle not too long ago.
I was doing some research, uh Ithink it's uh virtue CIO or CEO,
and they they introduced him asIan Freeman, the compassionate
(01:47):
wealth management advisor.
And I thought, the compassionatewealth management advisor.
Now, if there's anything theworld and our nation in
particular could use right now,it's a little bit more
compassion, I think.
You know, I that's uh that'snever a bad thing to exercise,
and yet it would seem anathema,uh anathema to uh multiple
(02:07):
people from what I see and hearon the daily news.
But Mr.
Freeman, Mr.
Ian Freeman, welcome, welcome,welcome, welcome to uh Profiles
and Leadership and uh frame ofreference.
SPEAKER_01 (02:18):
Thank you, sir.
Thank you, sir.
It's an honor to be here.
I very much appreciate it, and Iuh I couldn't concur more that
we need a little more of that.
And hopefully I qualify, butyou'll have to determine that at
the end of the interview.
SPEAKER_03 (02:30):
We'll see.
Well, I honestly our listenerswho are frankly, it's sort of
humbling.
The listeners are from all overthe country.
I think my second visit biggestaudience is in Germany, for
goodness gracious, you know.
And I I finally hit all of thecontinents now, too.
So I'm feeling good about that.
South Africa or no, SouthAmerica was holding out for
quite a while and they finallycaved in and and uh saw the
(02:50):
light or heard the light.
I I don't know how that works.
Um, but anyways, Ian, um, I wantto get right into it because
we've got, I think, a lot totalk about.
And in fact, if you are are asinterested in talking after this
is all done as I am, maybe wecan even find another time to do
this uh sometime in the future.
But as you know from reading myinformation about the show, um,
(03:12):
I like to start out with a thingcalled my favorite things.
And if I had the money, I wouldget Julie Andrews to sing a
special version just for thisshow.
Um, but that ain't happeninganytime soon, from what I can
tell.
So, and I don't know if I by thetime I have the money, I don't
know if she'll be able to stillsing, but let's hope.
SPEAKER_01 (03:29):
Um I don't know if any young people know who she is
and have to talk about that too.
SPEAKER_03 (03:34):
We we could, yeah.
Sound of music.
Uh does that ring a bell anyway?
Sound of music?
No, okay.
Um, anyways, so five my favoritethings.
I'm I'm just this is veryRoshaktian.
You know, the first thing comesout, fine.
Hopefully, it won't be anexpletive, expletive, but uh
boy, I gotta get my mouth goingtoday.
Um, but it if uh if there'ssomething that you you really oh
(03:56):
my gosh, I never should havesaid that.
I can always go back and edit.
Maybe.
Okay.
Uh so here we go.
Uh we'll start easy.
Favorite color?
unknown (04:05):
Purple.
SPEAKER_03 (04:05):
Purple.
SPEAKER_01 (04:06):
Why purple?
I don't know.
I it just the the honest answeris whenever I wear something
purple, people say, Well, thatcolor looks good on you.
And believe me, not much looksgood at me.
And I always tell people I Iwear these nice ties, and people
say, Why do you wear these niceties?
I said, if you had this face,you'd wear nice ties because
(04:26):
nobody wants to look at theface.
So people have told me purplelooks good at me, so it became
my favorite color.
SPEAKER_03 (04:32):
When I started doing this, I used to say all the
time, I have a face for radio.
So and that uh I saw we we cancommensurate together on that.
Yeah, I I am not a MatthewMcConaughey, I will never be a
Matthew McConaughey, but it'sokay.
I make up for it in character.
Um, how about do you have afavorite quote?
SPEAKER_01 (04:50):
Um, you know, it's interesting to think about a
favorite quote.
There's obviously so many thingsthat we could use, but uh
especially in today's world, uhto me, someone once said to me,
there's no neutral energy.
There's either positive energyor negative energy from just a
pure physics perspective.
(05:11):
And I love that because you getto choose.
And and I think I read somewherein some sort of psychology books
or things that it takes fourtimes more energy to be negative
than it does to be positive.
At my age, I don't have the timeto be that negative.
So all we're trying to do is beas positive as we can, try to be
(05:32):
a light in the world to the bestability that we can.
Um and I I just think trying tomake a difference to people
really matters.
SPEAKER_03 (05:40):
Boy, isn't that the truth?
I it it uh what isn't it thereuh the um just physiological
difference that it takes so manymore muscles to frown and be
grouchy than it does to smile.
Um so just in terms of the wayour our bodies are built, um,
you know, that that wouldencourage us to be that way.
Um, not to mention the factthat, oh my gosh, part of the
(06:01):
exhaustion that I see so much inpeople around me and you know,
hear on the news and see ingroups.
Um, so much of the exhaustionhas got to be based in the
negativity that's going on inthe world.
You know, they're just uh yeah,somebody that would come out and
say, it can be better is almostlike you idiot, no, it can't be
better.
You know, it's just like what ithas to be able to be better,
(06:23):
please.
SPEAKER_01 (06:24):
So we're just bombarded with endless
negativity.
And I I I guess the best way Itry as best I can is I I don't
want to participate.
I I I have that choice when Iget up in the morning to feel
grateful or not.
And I choose to feel grateful,doesn't mean I every day is
(06:47):
great, but I choose to begrateful that I I get to do that
and just want to keep trying todo that as as best as we can.
And again, when you get to acertain place in life, you
realize that you're on the backnine as a scolfer say.
And when you're on the backnine, you tend to want to play a
little better as you go to theepisode.
SPEAKER_03 (07:07):
I like that.
I'm on the back nine with you,although I am not a golf player.
Sorry.
So I'm more in the realm ofGeorge Carlin.
I see it as a waste of aperfectly good walk.
So, but uh, that's only becauseI'm horrible at it, not because
there's anything wrong with thesport.
So, how about a favorite book ormovie or recording artist,
(07:28):
anything of that nature?
Sure.
SPEAKER_01 (07:30):
My my favorite book is actually a very, very old
book, and it's more of aphilosophical treatise, but I
love the book because of uh whatit kind of stood for.
And you had to read, I thoughtyou had to read it multiple
times to do it.
And that's called AtlasShrugged.
Oh, yeah.
That's a wonderful book.
Yeah, it's 1100 pages.
(07:50):
Yep.
And I've asked other people toread it, and I said, you gotta
just trust me, you gotta getpast the first 150 pages.
Yeah.
And because people would call meand they'd be like, man, do I
have to see it's 1100 pages, asmall print.
Yeah, but pretty much everyonewho's read it felt like they
breeze through it after that.
And everybody has a differentconclusion.
(08:10):
And I act actually like that,how how it's seen and why it is.
So I I that's my favorite book,always has been.
No, tremendous, it's just it waswritten in the 1940s, but it's
more germane today than itprobably was then.
Yeah, very interesting.
SPEAKER_03 (08:28):
And those those, how would you describe like to those
people that have not read thatuh Atlas Shrugged?
And I confess I have not read itall the way through either.
I got past that 150 pages, butthen I think it was at a point
in my life, like in graduateschool or whatnot, where I was
kind of reading it an off and onkind of thing, and then it it
fell up by the wayside.
But I I do know the gist of itand I understand what she was
(08:50):
going after.
So, but explain to people whatwhat you uh you took out of it.
SPEAKER_01 (08:55):
Well, what I what I felt was important was that a
lot of people, when they readit, were talking about that that
she felt people were selfish.
You know, being selfish was agood thing, but that's not
really, in my opinion, what shewas saying.
And it was more like you have tomake sure that you're productive
in the world.
And if you are productive in theworld and believe in yourself,
(09:17):
you can believe in others, youcan help change others.
And that's the way I read it.
I read it multiple times andfelt that um again, do we agree
with everything?
No, it's kind of like the waythe world is today.
We don't have to agree oneverything, but we could still
get along if we want.
SPEAKER_03 (09:33):
Right.
SPEAKER_01 (09:34):
And so I there was much of that I really felt
because she talked about in herwords at the time, it was the
men of the mind.
And it was interesting becauseone of the main protagonists of
the book was a female.
And this is back when femaleswere not uh business people in
athletes, and and there was acharacter, one of the main
characters in the book wasbasically running a railroad.
(09:57):
And if you look at railroadsback then, railroads and steel
were the main industries, thingslike that.
And today we don't see them thatway.
But it was a fascinating way tolook at all of the ways that she
had felt people could beproductive and what that
actually meant in the world.
SPEAKER_03 (10:15):
I always thought that it was interesting too,
because part of the reasons forthe railroad, uh I believe it's
been the ways that it allowed usto be interconnected with people
that were very distant.
You know, it was a connectivemechanism for humanity uh to you
know gain the benefits of thingsfrom different portions of the
(10:36):
country, whatever, um, much likethe internet does today, but in
a you know, electronic and uhyou know more mindless way
sometimes it seems.
But I I I always thought thatwas interesting that she had
that kind of the baseline ofwhat was going on was the
connection of people, and yetthe things that we were doing to
disconnect from one another thatwere so um counterproductive.
(10:58):
And you know, and by taking thepeople that were the movers and
the shakers and the idea makersout of the equation and leaving
what it is pretty much just thelawyers and the politicians that
are left that are trying tofigure out where did they all
go.
Um, that you know, that sayssomething fundamentally as well,
too, that we we need to somehowget those movers and shakers and
whatnot to get enough criticalmass, perhaps, that uh, you
(11:21):
know, something really explosiveand wonderful could occur.
Um yeah, I I would agree withyou.
I I don't think, I mean, I thinkyou can't uh have something
better unless you expose whattruly is.
And that's maybe one of the bestthings that will come of today's
age is that we are, I believe,you know, revealing the the ugly
underbelly of our nation that'sbeen there for a long time.
(11:43):
And, you know, maybe, maybe,maybe finally now that we can
recognize the illness, we canstart really working on a cure.
Um, and that that would be thatwould be a good thing.
SPEAKER_01 (11:53):
Anyways.
One of her her really thoughtswas that we want the people who
are creative and productive tobe the ones who are leading the
charge, not the people who kindof live off the people who are
creative and productive.
And you could probably throwpoliticians in there at the top
of the uh at the top of the heatthere.
(12:13):
Huh.
SPEAKER_03 (12:14):
Imagine that.
Boy, people that actually coulduh increase the betterment of
humankind being at theforefront.
Hmm.
That's uh really that's crazytalk, Ian.
So how about a favorite historicpersonality?
SPEAKER_01 (12:30):
You know, there's there's to me I would look at
someone just because of I thinkhis brilliance as a thought.
But someone like Albert Einsteinwas a very interesting character
because here he was, you know,at an intellectual level that
most of us will never get to orunderstand.
(12:51):
Yet he did his best to try tomake us understand better in
those things.
But he also was he had a senseof humor and and a little down
to earth.
And to me, I love people who uhare humble.
I I I'm I'm a huge believer inhumility and gratitude.
(13:12):
And when I, you know, someonelike that can certainly have the
biggest ego in the world and mayactually have had that, but when
you can connect with otherpeople, I think that's uh that's
what the world really thriveson, is how well you could
connect.
And you you were asking, youknow, kind of about favorite
movie.
There's lots of movies, butthere was a movie called The
Natural for many.
SPEAKER_03 (13:32):
Oh my god, I love that movie.
SPEAKER_01 (13:35):
And it and it had one of the greatest quotes ever,
and you were asking about quotesearlier.
And there was toward the end ofthe movie where Glenn Close, who
was one of the main protagonistsin the movie, also said she had
a fantastic quote.
It was, I believe we have twolives, the one you learn with
and the one you live with afterthat.
(13:56):
And I thought that had so muchrelevance just to life in
general.
Yeah.
And uh that always that alwaysstuck with me after all these
years of watching that.
SPEAKER_03 (14:07):
That to me too, that that movie, uh, well, when when
Redford passed away not too longago, I I thought, you know, he's
made so many wonderfulcontributions that way.
Um, you know, that movie, andthere's another one, um, the The
Night of Our Souls, I think,that he did with uh Jane Fonda
towards the very end of hiscareer.
He he always had a I mean, youknow, he was a big enough star
(14:30):
you could pick the shows hewanted to be in.
But the natural uh my dad was abig baseball fan, so I was kind
of drawn to it initially fromthat.
But exactly the thing you weretalking about to the heart, I
think he has a line in there,something to the effect of some
mistakes you never quite stoppaying for.
And I think that's her responseto that then, you know, that he
(14:50):
he's he has still carries alongthat that sense of grief over
the things that he did to her,to his life, um, you know, and
just is kind of beating himselfover it.
And, you know, she's like, no,no, you know, don't don't
succumb to that.
Um, and I wonder if some of themost uh you know difficult
(15:12):
people that we have in ourtoday's landscape of leadership
aren't there because they haddifficult lessons that they
never learned from.
Um, and it it's it's difficultto watch because I think we have
a lot of wounded people thathave never learned how to
embrace that wound uh and andlearn from it, go on from it.
(15:32):
Um, so let's hope, let's hope,let's hope.
Um, one last one, and this is myfavorite question to ask.
I I try to ask it all the time.
Do you have a favorite memoryfrom childhood?
And is there something that youfind in your life today that
will just spur that memory?
Because and I think sometimesthe reason they are favorite
(15:54):
memories or why they come backto us is because they just had
such an imprint in our lives.
Um they're, you know, kind ofcore to who we are.
But I and I find that a lot ofthings remind me of them.
But in my case, bread uh itreminds me of my grandmother.
Um, and you know, it's just sucha wonderful thing to think of my
grandmother being a young kidaround her and just her, you
(16:16):
know, she was a quiet woman, butvery well, we'll talk about
grandmothers.
I want to talk about yourgrandma.
So, um, anyways, so there arethings like that, you know, and
an olfactory sense is one of thegreatest ones for it.
But is there one that you likedor you'd be willing to share
that just kind of comes back andyou just smile every time you
think of it?
SPEAKER_01 (16:34):
Or it's interesting because this is more of a a
warmth smile from thisperspective because I had a lot
of memories from my childhoodthat aren't the ones that I want
to remember.
Um but I remember being inupstate New York on a lake with
my one of my closest friends'fathers.
He was he was one of the he wasthe leading pediatric surgeon in
(16:58):
the world, saved I can't tellyou how many kids, and became
actually the uh um the chair ofuh the Yale New Hagen Hospital
in New Haven at one time.
But he had a cabin up in the inkind of uh on the lake in
upstate New York, which is avery quiet place.
And I remember being up there,we went up for one week, and he
and I went up with and hisfather was there, and it was six
(17:19):
o'clock thirty in the morning.
I'm an early riser, always havebeen.
And he was out doing something,chopping a wood, doing anything,
and they went out and justtalked to him.
And it was one of those memoriesthat never went away because
there was a compassion abouthim, there was a kindness about
him, there was a warmth, agenerosity about him, which I
(17:41):
knew, but in that moment it wasjust me and him kind of at that
younger age connecting tosomething that maybe I hadn't
done well connected to before.
And you know, when you have yourtougher times and you think
about those things, I think thatthose come back to you and
they're a bit of an anchor whenyou have uh you're you're able
(18:05):
to kind of draw on that and say,That's the way that person was.
Can I be that person?
And maybe not that good, butthat probably never was anywhere
that that good.
But um just those things kind ofhold on to you.
And you would mention probablyone other one mentioned my
grandmother.
My grandmother lived to ahundred.
My mom's mom.
(18:25):
And when she I remember when shewas in her 90s, uh I sat down
with her and I just started totalk to her about uh her life
experiences.
And one of my great regrets inmy life was that I didn't record
her because it was thisgeneration of iron and grit that
she came from.
(18:45):
Uh and you think about livingshe she lived in the sewer
systems in Poland because inWorld War I, because the the
Russians were coming in andraping and killing the women,
and she made her way to thedocks and made her way to
America.
And she would tell me what herlife was like.
There, you know, eight of themliving in one room.
(19:06):
They ate bread six days a week,and one day a week they had more
than bread, and she comes here.
And she comes here withliterally nothing.
Goes to work in the sweatshopsin New York City in one day, and
is sending money home back, youknow, back home, sorry, in a
week.
And you think of people likethat and say she was she smiled
(19:32):
every day.
She had nothing.
And she smiled every day.
And so those are the memories Ithink you take with you as you
try to navigate life and try tobe better to people in ways when
you think about what otherpeople may have gone through.
And uh, we we all have our ourour things, but I I think I
(19:54):
remember things like thatbecause they propel me to be a
better person, I believe.
SPEAKER_03 (20:01):
Well, you know, you talk about people like that.
Um I I just get filled with asense of hopefulness and
inspiration.
And um, I mean that thatquality, and I don't know what
that that fabric that people aremade of that allows them to take
those horrible, horriblesituations and not turn them
(20:23):
inward into a poor me syndrome,you know, that is very
destructive ultimately, but turnit outward instead and say, How
can I make things better?
You know, that I don't wantothers to experience this.
I don't want others to be inthis place.
What can I do to prevent that?
So she comes in and startssending money home.
(20:44):
I mean, you think about that.
I think of some of the peoplethat I know right now with all
the immigration things that aregoing on, and most of the people
I know are here working andsending money back to their
their family in Nicaragua orEcuador or Mexico.
Um, and I mean they'rehardworking folks that have that
same spirit of they're scrapingby on, you know, whatever bread
(21:04):
or beans or whatever and sendingthe rest of it home.
That that's the fabric that Iwant to be around.
Um, and it it's it's just soinspiring to know that somebody
can come out of thosecircumstances.
I mean, can you imagine?
I can't imagine living in thesewers.
I can't imagine my grandma, whomy my grandfather died in 1931
in the height of the depressionand left her alone with, I
(21:26):
believe at that point she stillhad 11 kids at home.
11 kids alone, 1931 America as awoman.
I mean, she had a tough life.
And my grandma was, you know,one of the nicest, sweetest.
She took care of her entireneighborhood.
There's an article done on herin the early 70s that, you know,
(21:46):
they talked about her beinggrandma for the entire
neighborhood.
Um, she cared about people.
She she she baked bread everyday up until her 94th birthday
or something like that, as Irecall.
Um, you know, and that so thatquality that says, you know,
life, life is hard.
Life is hard.
I'm not denying it, but goodnessgracious, it's also, as you were
(22:08):
pointed out earlier, it's it'swhat we choose that matters.
You know, the life we live withis the one that we're, you know,
we hopefully are learningsomething that says that we can
do better.
Let's do better, please.
SPEAKER_01 (22:22):
I remember too, uh, that she told me that after a
month, her and her sister wouldgo knock on the doors of the men
who had come over and weren'tsending money back home.
And they'd knock on the door andthey say, You need to go.
You know, she was pretty spongy.
You go, girl.
Yeah, so she was pretty sponky.
(22:43):
So, you know, maybe my my momwas the same way.
SPEAKER_03 (22:45):
So uh that was interesting.
So I referred to an art thatarticle that I wrote, um, and I
it it commented on uh an issuethat happened to you that uh
maybe is core to who you aretoday, even as an investment
advisor, financial advisor.
Um, but you had a a close friendthat you grew up with who
(23:06):
perished in the 9-11 dubacle,and you uh you ended up uh
having um a situation where hiswife was then uh looking to you.
Um I I would imagine it wasbecause of just perhaps you had
to all be friends, right?
Um, and what you learned throughthat and what she uh saw in you
(23:26):
through that, that you were youknow really taking care of her
in a lot of very profound andmeaningful ways, to the point
where she was able to send whatis it, her son to law school as
a result of the way that thatmoney was invested.
And uh just a wonderful,wonderful story that seems to be
just kind of another day in thelife of Ian Freeman, from what I
(23:47):
can tell.
So which not to minimize it, butit's just like it is the fabric
of who you are, I think, whichis wonderful.
SPEAKER_01 (23:54):
Well, you try to be that way.
Yeah, you know, I certainlytrying to get better.
I don't think I've eversucceeded at it.
We'll continue to try to getbetter as we go through this
aging process here.
But I I think the bigger, youknow, my primary role is
protection.
And the the really the part ofthat story I think that
resonates with people most iswhat we try to tell when we
(24:17):
speak, because there's a alittle bit more cinematic way to
say it uh when you're there.
But you know, when you go tothat uh memorial service and
this friend was um my father andhis father were best friends.
And his birthday and my birthdaywere three days apart.
Wow.
So when this happened, I was inDallas at 9-11.
(24:39):
I'm starting to call all myclients and try to figure out
what's going on because Iactually was in those buildings
a lot of Tuesdays, and 9-11 wasa Tuesday.
So I happened to be in Dallasand I'm watching this unfold on
TV.
And it's it's you know, I knowwhere everything is, I know
what's going on.
I and my initial reaction was mygod, 25,000 people are gone in
(25:03):
what's happening here, and thankGod it was horrible as it was,
but it wasn't that.
Um but you know, he was one ofthe calls and didn't respond.
So I remember coming back thatFriday because you couldn't get
flight, there were no planes.
Um, and I flew into Philly and Idrove back, and I remember
driving on the uh bridge andseeing it.
(25:24):
And there's there's a place inyour life sometimes where things
are completely surreal.
That was one of them.
Seeing what was no longer there.
The memorial service was, Ithink, just like two or three
days later.
And I went to pick up my dad,and he and I went together to
the house, and there were, youknow, we got a hundred people at
(25:45):
the house.
And the only person that had togo into the bedroom, and it was
the kids in the bedroom, and sitwith her was me.
Close the door, she looked atme, and her only question was,
Am I going to be okay?
In my world, you better have theright answer.
(26:08):
Because if you don't have theright answer, it cannot be
fixed.
So to me, and she and I stilltalk to this day.
And what and every 9-11, Ieither text her or call her and
just say, I'm thinking aboutyou.
Um but we talked about her herson, she has two sons.
But her one son, you know,people ask me, you know, all the
(26:31):
years I've been doing this, andyou'll there's some why I mean,
I have stories that I could tellyou, I can tell you the stories
if you want one day, and you'llsay, That's not true.
And the answer is it really istrue.
You can't believe the stuff thatwe've ended up seeing.
But um I think the mostgratifying and humbling part of
the job at this point is if wehave done anything well at all,
(26:55):
we have uh three generations ofthe same families as clients now
going on forward.
That I'll tell you how old Ireally am.
Um but that to me is humblingand gratifying.
There's nothing about that thatwe should pat ourselves in the
back door.
That just means we've tried tobuild the relationships and we
tried to treat people the rightway.
(27:17):
And in our world, you have tohave the right answer because
when something happens tosomeone, you can't go back and
change it.
SPEAKER_03 (27:25):
Yeah.
So you talked about if if youdon't have the right answer at
that point, um you you can't fixit.
So is there is there a lessonthere for people that don't have
the right answer right now?
I mean, and I would assume theright answer is that you're
invested or have put asideenough financial wealth to at
(27:48):
least be able to, or you havethe policies, whatever, to be
able to um build it intosomething that is a survivable
amount of money.
Yeah.
Um, so are there are are therethings or warning flags or just
uh you know precepts that peopleneed to keep in their mind?
You know, if you can't save, youknow, a thousand dollars, save
ten dollars, you know, whateverthat that says uh, you know,
(28:11):
don't don't just give up, don'tthrow on the towel, don't say
I'll never earn enough money todo that, like I did for years
and said, you know, we're asingle family income, my wife
can't work, goodness gracious, Ijust can't do a 401k right now.
Um, you know, and now I lookback and I go, what were you
thinking?
$20 a week would have been agood idea.
So, but uh, anyways, anythingalong that line that you could
(28:32):
pass on?
SPEAKER_01 (28:34):
Sure, but none of it's financial.
And that's the fun part, whichis look, I again, I'm in the
protection world, I'm in the inthe life insurance world, is a
majority of you know of what Ido, but none of what I would
tell you is financials.
You have to keep in mind thatit's not about you, it's always
about them.
And if it's always about them,you will ask the questions about
(28:55):
them for them.
And sometimes folks don't quiteknow what to answer.
So you will say, Can I help you?
Can I lead you to toward that?
But their answers are the onesthat make the difference.
And so much about what we do isabout how well we actually
listen.
And one of the lines I use in myspeaking all the time is most
(29:18):
people do not listen with theintent to understand.
They listen with the intent toreply.
And if we can learn, all of usto be better at that, I still
want to be better at that today.
If we can learn to be better atit, then we can make more of a,
I would say, better decisions,but also more of a difference.
(29:41):
And and life is really we'll I'msure we'll say that more than
once today, but that's what lifeis really about.
Yeah, yeah.
And my my dear friend LeeBrower, who's one of my mentors
and coaches, he pointed out, hegoes, the arrows have to point
out.
unknown (30:00):
Okay.
SPEAKER_01 (30:01):
People where the arrows point in are not
necessarily people we all wantto kind of hang out with.
None of us.
SPEAKER_03 (30:08):
Yeah.
Yeah.
And yet that's such a um acompelling or uh uh people want
that that quality of look outfor yourself.
You know, it doesn't matter.
Stomp on people, get ahead, getahead, get ahead.
And I think of how that'sattractive to me.
(30:31):
It's like the dark side of theforce, though.
You know, it's it's easier, moreseductive perhaps, but not
stronger.
And you know, what does it taketo get people to understand, you
know, how the fact that well,harassment.
I do anti-harassment trainingwhere I work.
And one of the things I have tofocus on immediately is it's not
about doing onto others as youwould have them do onto you.
(30:53):
It's about doing onto others asthey would have you do onto
them.
You know, that you have tosomehow get beyond yourself and
what you think would beoffensive and try to see it from
their shoes and try to dothings, live your life, interact
with them in ways that they willfeel safe and you know that you
really do care about them.
Um, and so I think that allspeaks to the same thing, right?
(31:15):
That we we have to somehow getbeyond ourselves and turn those
arrows outward that have beenfocused on me because you poor
me, I'm you know, been throughall this horrible, you don't
know, and I deserve better andall of that stuff.
Is there a a secret sauce thatyou've learned as a leader that
you think can help turn thataround for people?
SPEAKER_01 (31:38):
I I don't know, you know, I don't know if there's a
secret sauce.
I I'm gonna say this becauseevery everything that I do, I
learn from somebody else.
And one of the things I I oftensay is listen, if you steal one
thing from one person, it'splagiarism.
But if you steal a hundredthings from a hundred people,
it's research.
So I've tried to do a lot ofresearch in my day.
(32:02):
And you know, when you thinkabout it, it it's I think it's
it's about empathy.
I think it's about you know,with the arrows out, I think
it's about trying to make surethat other people feel valued
and valuable.
Um you know, confidence whichcomes very hard for me, but
confidence isn't attracting ifyou can have it.
(32:26):
But arrogance is a deterrent.
And there's a there's a bigdifference between that and what
we see today is this kind ofarrogance and condescension, or
if you don't believe me andyou're wrong, and it's yeah, you
know, there's a lot of ways tosee things, a lot of different
(32:46):
ways to look at things, and youdon't know what's going on.
And I think one of the otherparts of it that that is maybe I
would call the the secret sauceis um and I try to tell this
everybody's got a story.
Everybody's got a story.
You don't know their story, andwhat people tend to do is almost
(33:12):
in unintentionally, sometimesintentionally in the first two
minutes you're with someone,they're judging you.
They they think XYZ, you havethis, you don't have this, you
thought this, you don'teverybody's got a story, and
that's when to me, if you arewilling to hear the story, it
(33:34):
gives you the ability to be muchmore, I hope, valuable to those
people, and maybe in ways youdid not expect when you started
the conversation.
SPEAKER_03 (33:45):
Yeah.
Yeah, you know, I thinkfundamentally that's part of
what this podcast has been allabout for me for the past five
years, is being able to letpeople tell their stories and
becoming enriched by it.
And and I'm gonna remember thateuphemism that, you know, if I'm
uh stealing things from thehundreds of guests I've had,
it's not plagiarism.
It's just research.
(34:07):
It's not a lot of research,which which is important in my
line of work, especially.
I I'm trying to find ways toconnect people, not uh not make
them just uh carry on in theirongoing efforts to destroy
themselves.
So um have you what what todaydo you think is the the major
issue or the major challengesthat that you face in your
(34:28):
protect in your profession?
Because you are primarily inwealth management and helping
people to uh develop a securefuture, uh future, right?
Uh protecting them from whatevermay happen with the economy or
whatever that they they at leastcan still have a a life that you
know everyone hopes to have,especially in retirement.
I'm getting close.
So um, you know, that that kindof thing.
What are the challenges that youthink people you are aware of
(34:51):
and are trying to combat andthat they need to be thinking
about as well?
SPEAKER_01 (34:56):
Wow, we could do that for an hour, but I'll I'll
synthesize it as best I can.
SPEAKER_03 (35:01):
Well, another reason to talk again, so right?
SPEAKER_01 (35:04):
So what is the internet is an interesting
thing.
There's you know a megabytes,millions and gazillions of
megabytes of information, butvery little knowledge.
There's a huge gap betweeninformation and knowledge, and
in my particular world,knowledge becomes important, I
(35:28):
think.
And I also am philosophicallydifferent than many people that
do what we do, and I'm okay withthat because here's how I talk
about uh things philosophically,and having been a partial
philosophy major, I like to talkabout things philosophically.
And I always say to people, ifwe are gonna do the planning the
(35:52):
way that we do it, and if youwant to work with us, and it's
okay if you don't, we're goingto protect you for the things
that can go wrong so we caninvest for all the things that
will go right.
We're going to do it in thatorder because if we don't, it's
like building a pyramid on itspoint.
(36:13):
If we do all the investing andall the other wealth management
things and all the things thatwe're talking about, and we're
concentrating on that, andsomething goes wrong, somebody
dies, somebody gets disabled,somebody needs a long has a
long-term care, any of theabove, it doesn't matter what
else we did.
And especially if it happens,we'll call it untimely.
(37:02):
So, you know, when we do that,it also evokes something
different in people, right?
Because there's fear in talkingabout this.
There's there's anxiety intalking about this, there's
uncertainty in talking aboutthis.
So I think we need to navigatethose things to make people feel
more at ease or feel like thatpart of their life maybe we can
(37:25):
help take over.
So they once we get throughthis, they can take a breath.
And that's been probably one ofthe more gratifying parts of
having done this as long aswe've done it, whereby people
say, I know I'm okay ifsomething happens.
And that's the real world we tryto play.
SPEAKER_03 (37:45):
Do you find that with the um acceleration of
technology, um, I mean, when wetalk about the things that you
try to protect people from thatcan go wrong, is the landscape
of that changing?
Um, do you find that there arenew threats that you need to be,
you know, keep kind of beingaware of, get retuned to?
(38:07):
Or is it just different, youknow, shades of the same colors
that you just have to say, oh,now there's a I mean, I work in
IT a lot too.
We have to always be looking at,oh, here's the next zero-day
exploit, or you know, here's thea new vector now that deep fakes
are being used in order to, youknow, get Ian to apparently call
one of his associates and say, Ineed you to wire me$10,000 for
(38:28):
such and such, you know, herpolicies, blah, blah, blah,
whatever.
Right.
Um are there things like thatthat you you look at the world
around you and think, oh gosh, Ithere's another thing we need to
be concerned about, need toprotect against.
And do you anticipate there'llbe others?
SPEAKER_01 (38:46):
Yeah, I mean, I think we're all in in constant
evolution.
As things change, we have to bein tune to what's happening.
Having said that, do I thinkthere are some core principles
that we all have to be part ofin my words.
And that that answer I think isyes.
(39:07):
There have and part of thefundamentals of that, listen,
one one of the ways that wecould say what has changed in
one sense.
People do lots of Zoom meetingsnow, like we're doing, right?
Yeah.
Um but that isn't necessarilyalways the best way.
So I mentioned earlier there'sinformation, tons of it, but not
(39:28):
a lot of knowledge.
Knowledge isn't as valuablethough if you cannot communicate
it.
So now we've narrowed that downfrom a very wide swath to a very
narrow swath.
But if I think in our world wedo our job correctly, we don't
play in any of those spaces.
It's not in information,knowledge, or communication,
(39:49):
it's connection.
If we can play in the space ofconnection, and my own opinion
is people crave connection muchmore than they crave it on doing
a text or crave it on socialmedia or anything like that.
And when you get to our world,then it's a very, very different
(40:12):
thing because now we're talkingabout something that is an
intangible in many ways.
But that intangible involvesyour heart as much or more than
your head.
And now that's something thatbecomes a different skill set.
(40:33):
Am I good at it?
I don't know.
I you know, okay.
Um, but I'm still trying to getbetter.
SPEAKER_03 (40:40):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
What is it?
AA Milne, the uh author ofWinnie the Pooh, once was quoted
as saying, how we educate achild's heart is at least as
important as how we educatetheir mind.
And I thought, boy, there thereis something, Mr.
Milne, that we are sorelylacking, because I fear that our
(41:00):
our internet, ourinterconnectivity through that
is educating people's hearts inways that boy, we gotta we gotta
figure that one out because itit's not it's not looking to me
like we're not gonna have aheart attack if we don't start
you know chucking ourselves fullof cholesterol and all kinds of,
(41:21):
you know, I don't know.
Um so are there things thatpeople can educate themselves
against to kind of avoid thehype of what's going on in
insurance and in retirementplanning and whatnot?
Um are there I mean you talkabout education or you know,
that there's there is a lot ofinformation and knowledge is
lacking.
(41:41):
I I think even more what comeswith knowledge is the wisdom,
you know, of having you knowthat education and that
knowledge and then being able toput it together in ways that are
wise and thoughtful and you knowbeneficial to all parties.
Uh are there ways, would you saymaybe it's ways to look for a
financial advisor?
You know, you're you're inFlorida.
I don't know if you want peoplefrom Wisconsin, you know, coming
(42:04):
down and saying, I'd like you totake on my, you know, uh, you
know, that and the thousands ofpeople that listen to the
website uh webcast all of asudden calling you, that would
probably overwhelm anybody.
But are there things you wouldsay they should look for in a
advisor, or is this uh uh thephilosophy you're teaching?
Is that something that otherplaces are adopting and
individuals are adopting?
SPEAKER_01 (42:24):
I think there's many ways to do it the right way.
Uh I happen to be I it's kind ofa crazy business.
I'm licensed in 41 states, soit's kind of kind of the lunacy.
And before Zoom, I did a lot oftrafficking over a lot of
points.
Um, which is crazy.
It's I still am, but nothinglike I used to be.
But I think you need to to, ifyou're someone looking for a
(42:48):
financial advisor, find someonewho you're compatible with just
in terms of you, you have youknow, if you're sitting here,
especially in my role, you haveto be somewhere in your mind
saying, if I'm not here, do Iwant this person coming to sit
with my family?
That's a really importantquestion.
You know, is this person gonnareally look out for us?
(43:08):
And in my philosophy about howwe do it may not match others,
and you know what, that's okay.
That's that's why there'schocolate and vanilla, right?
I mean, because there's a lot ofdifferent ways to do this.
Um, but I think obviously if youcan get a recommendation from
someone you know, it's it's awarm introduction is always
gonna be a heck of a lot easierif you could do that.
(43:29):
But I think a lot of it istrusting your gut.
Is this person someone who'sgonna look after me?
Is this person, you know, whatare what is what they're saying,
does it resonate with me?
Does it resonate with my family?
If you're uh a spouse, apartner, whatever it happens to
be, are they comfortable?
Because remember, if you're theone who's doing the finance,
(43:50):
they're the one who's leftbehind.
SPEAKER_03 (43:51):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (43:54):
And so we always need to talk about those things.
But for us, uh like I said, it'sincredibly humbling when people
send their kids to you.
And then when they send theirgrandkids to you.
And that to me is that's thenature.
It's there's nothing to do withanything else because there's
(44:14):
there's we could talk aboutlegacy at another time or
something on the road, butlegacy means different things to
different people.
And to me, uh legacy for us hasnothing to do with money.
It's it's have we impacted uhlives, families, and communities
in a way that they may not havebeen able to do themselves
(44:38):
simply because we uh know alittle something about this one
area.
And to me, I think about thatdaily.
SPEAKER_03 (44:46):
So speaking of legacy, yeah, um, I I like to
wrap things up with thisquestion, and it it is uh it's
simply and profoundly important.
Is i at the point at which yousuccumb to the same thing that
is not an if but is a win, uh ithappens.
(45:08):
Is there is there a thing or isthere a a word, um a thought, a
an action, uh some somethingthat you would like to come to
people's minds and hearts whenthey think about Ian Freeman?
You know, what would be thatlegacy, that lasting legacy that
says, you know, here lies a goodperson who tried to do his best,
(45:29):
whatever.
You know that what would thatbe?
SPEAKER_01 (45:34):
It's always a little difficult because I I don't
really think that much ofmyself, to be perfectly honest.
I wish I was so much better, youknow, throughout my life.
And I I I I laugh at people.
I said, you know, I'm at thatage now where I started my
career around the time theyinvented fire.
You know, it feels like I'vebeen around a really long time.
SPEAKER_03 (45:55):
Um but but I I was when they invented the wheel, so
I'm a I you're right, I am alittle younger than you.
Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (46:02):
So so I that means I was before you probably.
But anyway, um I I you know Ikid about it, but I look like I
said, what at the end of theday, you know, did you make a
difference?
Did you make a difference to atleast one person?
Did did you know I get up everyday and there's two things.
(46:24):
It's is what am I grateful for?
Just gonna always think ofsomething.
And can I make a difference inone person's life?
That's how my day starts.
And that might be holding thedoor for an elderly person,
which by the way, somethingshould probably do for me now
that I'm an elderly person.
I didn't expect I did, you know,I keep asking how I got this
all.
What happened?
How did I get here?
(46:45):
Yeah, listen, I'm glad I gothere.
So yeah, yeah.
Um, but you know, I don't knowwhat that's gonna be.
And then not knowing what that'sgonna be, that means you have to
conduct yourself with everyoneyou see.
So I walk in the mornings and Itake pretty long walks, and
there's not a single person Ipass that I don't say good
(47:08):
morning to.
It is uncanny to watch theirfaces.
The fact that you took a secondto smile at them and say good
morning.
You don't know what happens whenyou do little things like I send
(47:33):
out these quotes to people in myparticular agency.
Then I see something I think itmay resonate or something.
And I just had someone send mesomething the other day said
that quote you said allowed meto do X, Y, and Z.
And you look around and go, I Iwhat?
I didn't do anything, I justsent out a quote because I
thought it was interesting.
But when those things happen,that's what legacy is.
(47:57):
That's when you want to makesure that if you had an impact
on someone's life that may nothave happened, that's all I care
about.
The rest of it is fluff.
SPEAKER_03 (48:08):
Well, there you have it.
So um you are absolutely right.
I I I do need to find anothertime.
I hope we can to talk some more.
Um, because there there are uhlayers upon layers.
And I I I feel a lot of kindredspirit-ness because when you
talk about I don't think verymuch of myself, I I I tend to
(48:29):
run the same way and people, oh,you shouldn't talk that way
about yourself.
I'm like, hey, you don't know melike I know me.
Okay.
So, but uh anyways, Ian, youhave a book coming out too,
don't you, or that you'reworking on?
SPEAKER_01 (48:39):
Yes, sir.
It's actually it'll be out inabout four weeks.
It'll be available.
Um it's a it's a combination ofthings, which I hope is in the
genre of making a difference.
One is it's a bunch of storiesfrom my career, and they're
there's some wild stories.
I'll tell you the title of thebook, and you'll understand a
(49:00):
little bit.
I wrote the book with agentleman named Daniel Simone,
who's a fairly famous author,and I told the stories, but he
wrote it.
So he wrote it in a genre callednarrative nonfiction.
So all the stories are true,they're just written like a
novel.
Okay, which I could never do, hecould do.
And the book is called LifeBeneath the Suit.
(49:22):
The suit is what what you knowwhat I wore every day.
But the subtitle is MadnessMayhem and the Meaning I Found
in the Mess.
The answer is the mess was me.
And so not just telling thestories of the Korea, which did
shape and mold me to a greatextent, but it's also that I had
(49:46):
tremendous, tremendous, youknow, mental struggles, mental
illness struggles.
And um, you know, I I I feltthat telling those stories, you
know, hopefully there'ssomething about resilience a bit
in there, but telling thosestories about what it was like
uh to live in that head, um, andstill do it to some extent, um
(50:09):
was you know, was challenging tosay the least.
And I hope that's if if someonewho reads it gets something out
of and builds something fromthat, that'll be that'll be
really the reason to do it.
I've done it.
SPEAKER_03 (50:21):
So well, I'm on the list.
I I'll I'll have to put thatinto my Kindle list of things to
watch for.
So it sounds like my kind ofbook.
So yeah, especially when youstart talking about mental
health, and like, oh, we gotstories, buddy.
We could tell stories.
SPEAKER_01 (50:37):
Well, I'll give away one thing real quickly, and this
isn't exactly in the book, butyou know, I was so screwed up.
That's a technical term, by theway.
Screwed up.
SPEAKER_03 (50:47):
Yeah, it's a medical term, actually.
It's in the DHFD.
SPEAKER_01 (50:51):
I was so screwed up that I was told that if I didn't
get help, I wouldn't see my 50thbirthday.
Um, and I and here's theinteresting part I didn't drink.
I didn't mind having to drink,but I didn't really drink.
Never did a drug in my life,didn't smoke, didn't gamble, had
none of the other vices peopletend to have when they get that
(51:13):
screwed up.
So I made me really hard totreat.
And when someone tells you whenyou're 42 that you're not gonna
see your 50th birthday, youknow, your window of opportunity
seems relatively small.
Um, so I I don't mind revealingthis, but you know, I'm 67
(51:34):
today.
Uh every day's a good day.
I'm 17 days past my uh I'm 17years past my um maybe my ex
possible expiration date.
So we're doing pretty well.
SPEAKER_03 (51:47):
Well, you only beat me by two years, because I'm 65,
okay?
So we are contemporaries atleast.
So uh folks, my guest today hasbeen Ian Freeman.
He is uh I I'm gonna know himforever as the compassionate
wealth management advisor.
Has a new book coming out.
Um, how else can people get ahold of you, Ian, if they want
to just look you up or talk withyou about advice?
SPEAKER_01 (52:10):
Well, my my site for the book is because I I
fortunately do a lot of speakingtoo, which I love, which is by
the way interesting in and ofitself because I'm a total
introvert and I'm painfully shy,but I do public speaking.
So we'll talk about that anotherday.
Um, but the site is IanImpacts.com, and that's where
you can buy the book.
SPEAKER_02 (52:27):
Okay.
SPEAKER_01 (52:28):
And um other than that, um I could, you know, I
have a regular site, which is uhnm.com.
So it's like an LOE voice.
You can actually go underIanFreman.com, but not the MMA
five.
SPEAKER_03 (52:45):
Ian, thank you so much for your time, your energy,
your stories, your openness.
Um it's been wonderful.
Uh and uh I I look forward, I dolook forward to the next time we
can press talk.
That would be fantastic becauseuh I sense I would walk away
with at least as muchinspiration and hope as I'm
walking away with today.
So I'm gonna help otherslistening today, uh listening to
(53:06):
Frame of Reference uh Profilesand Leadership have learned
something and will takesomething away as well.
Do some good, right?
Do some good.
Look outside.
So I'm a pleasure.
Thank you.
Take care.
You too.
Welcome to Frame of Reference, informed intelligent
conversations about the issuesand challenges facing everyone
in today's world.
In-depth interviews to help youexpand and inform your frame of
reference.
Now here's your host, RaulLabresh.
SPEAKER_03 (00:20):
Well, welcome everyone.
Welcome, welcome, welcome,welcome, welcome.
I could say another 60 times, Isuppose, because I'm excited
about welcoming you today.
But I think if I did that, Iwould waste way too much time
that I could be spending talkingwith my guests today.
Um, so you have tuned in too,whether you knew it or not.
And if you knew it, great.
If you didn't know it, surprise,you're in for a treat.
(00:42):
Um, my guest today is a man thatI have just learned about, and
that's the most exciting thingabout this podcast, is I keep
meeting these people thatfrankly I never knew existed.
And then I start reading thebackground materials to get
ready for an interview with themand think, oh my gosh, I wish I
had known this person easier inmy uh earlier in my life because
I may have actually amounted tosomething.
I, you know, you never know.
(01:03):
Uh one can hope.
I know I met my wife early on,and and she tried her best to
turn me into something usableand uh you know acceptable to be
around in public.
Um, but you know, the poor womancan only do so much on her own.
So um, but my guest today is uha gentleman by the name of Ian
Freeman.
If you know him, you may knowthe wrestler version of that
(01:24):
name.
This is not that man.
So if you're a wrestling youknow person and you tuned in for
this for that, uh, well, stayaround, but you know, go away if
that's all you want to thinkabout as wrestling, because that
ain't happening today.
Um but uh Ian uh was in anarticle not too long ago.
I was doing some research, uh Ithink it's uh virtue CIO or CEO,
and they they introduced him asIan Freeman, the compassionate
(01:47):
wealth management advisor.
And I thought, the compassionatewealth management advisor.
Now, if there's anything theworld and our nation in
particular could use right now,it's a little bit more
compassion, I think.
You know, I that's uh that'snever a bad thing to exercise,
and yet it would seem anathema,uh anathema to uh multiple
(02:07):
people from what I see and hearon the daily news.
But Mr.
Freeman, Mr.
Ian Freeman, welcome, welcome,welcome, welcome to uh Profiles
and Leadership and uh frame ofreference.
SPEAKER_01 (02:18):
Thank you, sir.
Thank you, sir.
It's an honor to be here.
I very much appreciate it, and Iuh I couldn't concur more that
we need a little more of that.
And hopefully I qualify, butyou'll have to determine that at
the end of the interview.
SPEAKER_03 (02:30):
We'll see.
Well, I honestly our listenerswho are frankly, it's sort of
humbling.
The listeners are from all overthe country.
I think my second visit biggestaudience is in Germany, for
goodness gracious, you know.
And I I finally hit all of thecontinents now, too.
So I'm feeling good about that.
South Africa or no, SouthAmerica was holding out for
quite a while and they finallycaved in and and uh saw the
(02:50):
light or heard the light.
I I don't know how that works.
Um, but anyways, Ian, um, I wantto get right into it because
we've got, I think, a lot totalk about.
And in fact, if you are are asinterested in talking after this
is all done as I am, maybe wecan even find another time to do
this uh sometime in the future.
But as you know from reading myinformation about the show, um,
(03:12):
I like to start out with a thingcalled my favorite things.
And if I had the money, I wouldget Julie Andrews to sing a
special version just for thisshow.
Um, but that ain't happeninganytime soon, from what I can
tell.
So, and I don't know if I by thetime I have the money, I don't
know if she'll be able to stillsing, but let's hope.
SPEAKER_01 (03:29):
Um I don't know if any young people know who she is
and have to talk about that too.
SPEAKER_03 (03:34):
We we could, yeah.
Sound of music.
Uh does that ring a bell anyway?
Sound of music?
No, okay.
Um, anyways, so five my favoritethings.
I'm I'm just this is veryRoshaktian.
You know, the first thing comesout, fine.
Hopefully, it won't be anexpletive, expletive, but uh
boy, I gotta get my mouth goingtoday.
Um, but it if uh if there'ssomething that you you really oh
(03:56):
my gosh, I never should havesaid that.
I can always go back and edit.
Maybe.
Okay.
Uh so here we go.
Uh we'll start easy.
Favorite color?
unknown (04:05):
Purple.
SPEAKER_03 (04:05):
Purple.
SPEAKER_01 (04:06):
Why purple?
I don't know.
I it just the the honest answeris whenever I wear something
purple, people say, Well, thatcolor looks good on you.
And believe me, not much looksgood at me.
And I always tell people I Iwear these nice ties, and people
say, Why do you wear these niceties?
I said, if you had this face,you'd wear nice ties because
(04:26):
nobody wants to look at theface.
So people have told me purplelooks good at me, so it became
my favorite color.
SPEAKER_03 (04:32):
When I started doing this, I used to say all the
time, I have a face for radio.
So and that uh I saw we we cancommensurate together on that.
Yeah, I I am not a MatthewMcConaughey, I will never be a
Matthew McConaughey, but it'sokay.
I make up for it in character.
Um, how about do you have afavorite quote?
SPEAKER_01 (04:50):
Um, you know, it's interesting to think about a
favorite quote.
There's obviously so many thingsthat we could use, but uh
especially in today's world, uhto me, someone once said to me,
there's no neutral energy.
There's either positive energyor negative energy from just a
pure physics perspective.
(05:11):
And I love that because you getto choose.
And and I think I read somewherein some sort of psychology books
or things that it takes fourtimes more energy to be negative
than it does to be positive.
At my age, I don't have the timeto be that negative.
So all we're trying to do is beas positive as we can, try to be
(05:32):
a light in the world to the bestability that we can.
Um and I I just think trying tomake a difference to people
really matters.
SPEAKER_03 (05:40):
Boy, isn't that the truth?
I it it uh what isn't it thereuh the um just physiological
difference that it takes so manymore muscles to frown and be
grouchy than it does to smile.
Um so just in terms of the wayour our bodies are built, um,
you know, that that wouldencourage us to be that way.
Um, not to mention the factthat, oh my gosh, part of the
(06:01):
exhaustion that I see so much inpeople around me and you know,
hear on the news and see ingroups.
Um, so much of the exhaustionhas got to be based in the
negativity that's going on inthe world.
You know, they're just uh yeah,somebody that would come out and
say, it can be better is almostlike you idiot, no, it can't be
better.
You know, it's just like what ithas to be able to be better,
(06:23):
please.
SPEAKER_01 (06:24):
So we're just bombarded with endless
negativity.
And I I I guess the best way Itry as best I can is I I don't
want to participate.
I I I have that choice when Iget up in the morning to feel
grateful or not.
And I choose to feel grateful,doesn't mean I every day is
(06:47):
great, but I choose to begrateful that I I get to do that
and just want to keep trying todo that as as best as we can.
And again, when you get to acertain place in life, you
realize that you're on the backnine as a scolfer say.
And when you're on the backnine, you tend to want to play a
little better as you go to theepisode.
SPEAKER_03 (07:07):
I like that.
I'm on the back nine with you,although I am not a golf player.
Sorry.
So I'm more in the realm ofGeorge Carlin.
I see it as a waste of aperfectly good walk.
So, but uh, that's only becauseI'm horrible at it, not because
there's anything wrong with thesport.
So, how about a favorite book ormovie or recording artist,
(07:28):
anything of that nature?
Sure.
SPEAKER_01 (07:30):
My my favorite book is actually a very, very old
book, and it's more of aphilosophical treatise, but I
love the book because of uh whatit kind of stood for.
And you had to read, I thoughtyou had to read it multiple
times to do it.
And that's called AtlasShrugged.
Oh, yeah.
That's a wonderful book.
Yeah, it's 1100 pages.
(07:50):
Yep.
And I've asked other people toread it, and I said, you gotta
just trust me, you gotta getpast the first 150 pages.
Yeah.
And because people would call meand they'd be like, man, do I
have to see it's 1100 pages, asmall print.
Yeah, but pretty much everyonewho's read it felt like they
breeze through it after that.
And everybody has a differentconclusion.
(08:10):
And I act actually like that,how how it's seen and why it is.
So I I that's my favorite book,always has been.
No, tremendous, it's just it waswritten in the 1940s, but it's
more germane today than itprobably was then.
Yeah, very interesting.
SPEAKER_03 (08:28):
And those those, how would you describe like to those
people that have not read thatuh Atlas Shrugged?
And I confess I have not read itall the way through either.
I got past that 150 pages, butthen I think it was at a point
in my life, like in graduateschool or whatnot, where I was
kind of reading it an off and onkind of thing, and then it it
fell up by the wayside.
But I I do know the gist of itand I understand what she was
(08:50):
going after.
So, but explain to people whatwhat you uh you took out of it.
SPEAKER_01 (08:55):
Well, what I what I felt was important was that a
lot of people, when they readit, were talking about that that
she felt people were selfish.
You know, being selfish was agood thing, but that's not
really, in my opinion, what shewas saying.
And it was more like you have tomake sure that you're productive
in the world.
And if you are productive in theworld and believe in yourself,
(09:17):
you can believe in others, youcan help change others.
And that's the way I read it.
I read it multiple times andfelt that um again, do we agree
with everything?
No, it's kind of like the waythe world is today.
We don't have to agree oneverything, but we could still
get along if we want.
SPEAKER_03 (09:33):
Right.
SPEAKER_01 (09:34):
And so I there was much of that I really felt
because she talked about in herwords at the time, it was the
men of the mind.
And it was interesting becauseone of the main protagonists of
the book was a female.
And this is back when femaleswere not uh business people in
athletes, and and there was acharacter, one of the main
characters in the book wasbasically running a railroad.
(09:57):
And if you look at railroadsback then, railroads and steel
were the main industries, thingslike that.
And today we don't see them thatway.
But it was a fascinating way tolook at all of the ways that she
had felt people could beproductive and what that
actually meant in the world.
SPEAKER_03 (10:15):
I always thought that it was interesting too,
because part of the reasons forthe railroad, uh I believe it's
been the ways that it allowed usto be interconnected with people
that were very distant.
You know, it was a connectivemechanism for humanity uh to you
know gain the benefits of thingsfrom different portions of the
(10:36):
country, whatever, um, much likethe internet does today, but in
a you know, electronic and uhyou know more mindless way
sometimes it seems.
But I I I always thought thatwas interesting that she had
that kind of the baseline ofwhat was going on was the
connection of people, and yetthe things that we were doing to
disconnect from one another thatwere so um counterproductive.
(10:58):
And you know, and by taking thepeople that were the movers and
the shakers and the idea makersout of the equation and leaving
what it is pretty much just thelawyers and the politicians that
are left that are trying tofigure out where did they all
go.
Um, that you know, that sayssomething fundamentally as well,
too, that we we need to somehowget those movers and shakers and
whatnot to get enough criticalmass, perhaps, that uh, you
(11:21):
know, something really explosiveand wonderful could occur.
Um yeah, I I would agree withyou.
I I don't think, I mean, I thinkyou can't uh have something
better unless you expose whattruly is.
And that's maybe one of the bestthings that will come of today's
age is that we are, I believe,you know, revealing the the ugly
underbelly of our nation that'sbeen there for a long time.
(11:43):
And, you know, maybe, maybe,maybe finally now that we can
recognize the illness, we canstart really working on a cure.
Um, and that that would be thatwould be a good thing.
SPEAKER_01 (11:53):
Anyways.
One of her her really thoughtswas that we want the people who
are creative and productive tobe the ones who are leading the
charge, not the people who kindof live off the people who are
creative and productive.
And you could probably throwpoliticians in there at the top
of the uh at the top of the heatthere.
(12:13):
Huh.
SPEAKER_03 (12:14):
Imagine that.
Boy, people that actually coulduh increase the betterment of
humankind being at theforefront.
Hmm.
That's uh really that's crazytalk, Ian.
So how about a favorite historicpersonality?
SPEAKER_01 (12:30):
You know, there's there's to me I would look at
someone just because of I thinkhis brilliance as a thought.
But someone like Albert Einsteinwas a very interesting character
because here he was, you know,at an intellectual level that
most of us will never get to orunderstand.
(12:51):
Yet he did his best to try tomake us understand better in
those things.
But he also was he had a senseof humor and and a little down
to earth.
And to me, I love people who uhare humble.
I I I'm I'm a huge believer inhumility and gratitude.
(13:12):
And when I, you know, someonelike that can certainly have the
biggest ego in the world and mayactually have had that, but when
you can connect with otherpeople, I think that's uh that's
what the world really thriveson, is how well you could
connect.
And you you were asking, youknow, kind of about favorite
movie.
There's lots of movies, butthere was a movie called The
Natural for many.
SPEAKER_03 (13:32):
Oh my god, I love that movie.
SPEAKER_01 (13:35):
And it and it had one of the greatest quotes ever,
and you were asking about quotesearlier.
And there was toward the end ofthe movie where Glenn Close, who
was one of the main protagonistsin the movie, also said she had
a fantastic quote.
It was, I believe we have twolives, the one you learn with
and the one you live with afterthat.
(13:56):
And I thought that had so muchrelevance just to life in
general.
Yeah.
And uh that always that alwaysstuck with me after all these
years of watching that.
SPEAKER_03 (14:07):
That to me too, that that movie, uh, well, when when
Redford passed away not too longago, I I thought, you know, he's
made so many wonderfulcontributions that way.
Um, you know, that movie, andthere's another one, um, the The
Night of Our Souls, I think,that he did with uh Jane Fonda
towards the very end of hiscareer.
He he always had a I mean, youknow, he was a big enough star
(14:30):
you could pick the shows hewanted to be in.
But the natural uh my dad was abig baseball fan, so I was kind
of drawn to it initially fromthat.
But exactly the thing you weretalking about to the heart, I
think he has a line in there,something to the effect of some
mistakes you never quite stoppaying for.
And I think that's her responseto that then, you know, that he
(14:50):
he's he has still carries alongthat that sense of grief over
the things that he did to her,to his life, um, you know, and
just is kind of beating himselfover it.
And, you know, she's like, no,no, you know, don't don't
succumb to that.
Um, and I wonder if some of themost uh you know difficult
(15:12):
people that we have in ourtoday's landscape of leadership
aren't there because they haddifficult lessons that they
never learned from.
Um, and it it's it's difficultto watch because I think we have
a lot of wounded people thathave never learned how to
embrace that wound uh and andlearn from it, go on from it.
(15:32):
Um, so let's hope, let's hope,let's hope.
Um, one last one, and this is myfavorite question to ask.
I I try to ask it all the time.
Do you have a favorite memoryfrom childhood?
And is there something that youfind in your life today that
will just spur that memory?
Because and I think sometimesthe reason they are favorite
(15:54):
memories or why they come backto us is because they just had
such an imprint in our lives.
Um they're, you know, kind ofcore to who we are.
But I and I find that a lot ofthings remind me of them.
But in my case, bread uh itreminds me of my grandmother.
Um, and you know, it's just sucha wonderful thing to think of my
grandmother being a young kidaround her and just her, you
(16:16):
know, she was a quiet woman, butvery well, we'll talk about
grandmothers.
I want to talk about yourgrandma.
So, um, anyways, so there arethings like that, you know, and
an olfactory sense is one of thegreatest ones for it.
But is there one that you likedor you'd be willing to share
that just kind of comes back andyou just smile every time you
think of it?
SPEAKER_01 (16:34):
Or it's interesting because this is more of a a
warmth smile from thisperspective because I had a lot
of memories from my childhoodthat aren't the ones that I want
to remember.
Um but I remember being inupstate New York on a lake with
my one of my closest friends'fathers.
He was he was one of the he wasthe leading pediatric surgeon in
(16:58):
the world, saved I can't tellyou how many kids, and became
actually the uh um the chair ofuh the Yale New Hagen Hospital
in New Haven at one time.
But he had a cabin up in the inkind of uh on the lake in
upstate New York, which is avery quiet place.
And I remember being up there,we went up for one week, and he
and I went up with and hisfather was there, and it was six
(17:19):
o'clock thirty in the morning.
I'm an early riser, always havebeen.
And he was out doing something,chopping a wood, doing anything,
and they went out and justtalked to him.
And it was one of those memoriesthat never went away because
there was a compassion abouthim, there was a kindness about
him, there was a warmth, agenerosity about him, which I
(17:41):
knew, but in that moment it wasjust me and him kind of at that
younger age connecting tosomething that maybe I hadn't
done well connected to before.
And you know, when you have yourtougher times and you think
about those things, I think thatthose come back to you and
they're a bit of an anchor whenyou have uh you're you're able
(18:05):
to kind of draw on that and say,That's the way that person was.
Can I be that person?
And maybe not that good, butthat probably never was anywhere
that that good.
But um just those things kind ofhold on to you.
And you would mention probablyone other one mentioned my
grandmother.
My grandmother lived to ahundred.
My mom's mom.
(18:25):
And when she I remember when shewas in her 90s, uh I sat down
with her and I just started totalk to her about uh her life
experiences.
And one of my great regrets inmy life was that I didn't record
her because it was thisgeneration of iron and grit that
she came from.
(18:45):
Uh and you think about livingshe she lived in the sewer
systems in Poland because inWorld War I, because the the
Russians were coming in andraping and killing the women,
and she made her way to thedocks and made her way to
America.
And she would tell me what herlife was like.
There, you know, eight of themliving in one room.
(19:06):
They ate bread six days a week,and one day a week they had more
than bread, and she comes here.
And she comes here withliterally nothing.
Goes to work in the sweatshopsin New York City in one day, and
is sending money home back, youknow, back home, sorry, in a
week.
And you think of people likethat and say she was she smiled
(19:32):
every day.
She had nothing.
And she smiled every day.
And so those are the memories Ithink you take with you as you
try to navigate life and try tobe better to people in ways when
you think about what otherpeople may have gone through.
And uh, we we all have our ourour things, but I I think I
(19:54):
remember things like thatbecause they propel me to be a
better person, I believe.
SPEAKER_03 (20:01):
Well, you know, you talk about people like that.
Um I I just get filled with asense of hopefulness and
inspiration.
And um, I mean that thatquality, and I don't know what
that that fabric that people aremade of that allows them to take
those horrible, horriblesituations and not turn them
(20:23):
inward into a poor me syndrome,you know, that is very
destructive ultimately, but turnit outward instead and say, How
can I make things better?
You know, that I don't wantothers to experience this.
I don't want others to be inthis place.
What can I do to prevent that?
So she comes in and startssending money home.
(20:44):
I mean, you think about that.
I think of some of the peoplethat I know right now with all
the immigration things that aregoing on, and most of the people
I know are here working andsending money back to their
their family in Nicaragua orEcuador or Mexico.
Um, and I mean they'rehardworking folks that have that
same spirit of they're scrapingby on, you know, whatever bread
(21:04):
or beans or whatever and sendingthe rest of it home.
That that's the fabric that Iwant to be around.
Um, and it it's it's just soinspiring to know that somebody
can come out of thosecircumstances.
I mean, can you imagine?
I can't imagine living in thesewers.
I can't imagine my grandma, whomy my grandfather died in 1931
in the height of the depressionand left her alone with, I
(21:26):
believe at that point she stillhad 11 kids at home.
11 kids alone, 1931 America as awoman.
I mean, she had a tough life.
And my grandma was, you know,one of the nicest, sweetest.
She took care of her entireneighborhood.
There's an article done on herin the early 70s that, you know,
(21:46):
they talked about her beinggrandma for the entire
neighborhood.
Um, she cared about people.
She she she baked bread everyday up until her 94th birthday
or something like that, as Irecall.
Um, you know, and that so thatquality that says, you know,
life, life is hard.
Life is hard.
I'm not denying it, but goodnessgracious, it's also, as you were
(22:08):
pointed out earlier, it's it'swhat we choose that matters.
You know, the life we live withis the one that we're, you know,
we hopefully are learningsomething that says that we can
do better.
Let's do better, please.
SPEAKER_01 (22:22):
I remember too, uh, that she told me that after a
month, her and her sister wouldgo knock on the doors of the men
who had come over and weren'tsending money back home.
And they'd knock on the door andthey say, You need to go.
You know, she was pretty spongy.
You go, girl.
Yeah, so she was pretty sponky.
(22:43):
So, you know, maybe my my momwas the same way.
SPEAKER_03 (22:45):
So uh that was interesting.
So I referred to an art thatarticle that I wrote, um, and I
it it commented on uh an issuethat happened to you that uh
maybe is core to who you aretoday, even as an investment
advisor, financial advisor.
Um, but you had a a close friendthat you grew up with who
(23:06):
perished in the 9-11 dubacle,and you uh you ended up uh
having um a situation where hiswife was then uh looking to you.
Um I I would imagine it wasbecause of just perhaps you had
to all be friends, right?
Um, and what you learned throughthat and what she uh saw in you
(23:26):
through that, that you were youknow really taking care of her
in a lot of very profound andmeaningful ways, to the point
where she was able to send whatis it, her son to law school as
a result of the way that thatmoney was invested.
And uh just a wonderful,wonderful story that seems to be
just kind of another day in thelife of Ian Freeman, from what I
(23:47):
can tell.
So which not to minimize it, butit's just like it is the fabric
of who you are, I think, whichis wonderful.
SPEAKER_01 (23:54):
Well, you try to be that way.
Yeah, you know, I certainlytrying to get better.
I don't think I've eversucceeded at it.
We'll continue to try to getbetter as we go through this
aging process here.
But I I think the bigger, youknow, my primary role is
protection.
And the the really the part ofthat story I think that
resonates with people most iswhat we try to tell when we
(24:17):
speak, because there's a alittle bit more cinematic way to
say it uh when you're there.
But you know, when you go tothat uh memorial service and
this friend was um my father andhis father were best friends.
And his birthday and my birthdaywere three days apart.
Wow.
So when this happened, I was inDallas at 9-11.
(24:39):
I'm starting to call all myclients and try to figure out
what's going on because Iactually was in those buildings
a lot of Tuesdays, and 9-11 wasa Tuesday.
So I happened to be in Dallasand I'm watching this unfold on
TV.
And it's it's you know, I knowwhere everything is, I know
what's going on.
I and my initial reaction was mygod, 25,000 people are gone in
(25:03):
what's happening here, and thankGod it was horrible as it was,
but it wasn't that.
Um but you know, he was one ofthe calls and didn't respond.
So I remember coming back thatFriday because you couldn't get
flight, there were no planes.
Um, and I flew into Philly and Idrove back, and I remember
driving on the uh bridge andseeing it.
(25:24):
And there's there's a place inyour life sometimes where things
are completely surreal.
That was one of them.
Seeing what was no longer there.
The memorial service was, Ithink, just like two or three
days later.
And I went to pick up my dad,and he and I went together to
the house, and there were, youknow, we got a hundred people at
(25:45):
the house.
And the only person that had togo into the bedroom, and it was
the kids in the bedroom, and sitwith her was me.
Close the door, she looked atme, and her only question was,
Am I going to be okay?
In my world, you better have theright answer.
(26:08):
Because if you don't have theright answer, it cannot be
fixed.
So to me, and she and I stilltalk to this day.
And what and every 9-11, Ieither text her or call her and
just say, I'm thinking aboutyou.
Um but we talked about her herson, she has two sons.
But her one son, you know,people ask me, you know, all the
(26:31):
years I've been doing this, andyou'll there's some why I mean,
I have stories that I could tellyou, I can tell you the stories
if you want one day, and you'llsay, That's not true.
And the answer is it really istrue.
You can't believe the stuff thatwe've ended up seeing.
But um I think the mostgratifying and humbling part of
the job at this point is if wehave done anything well at all,
(26:55):
we have uh three generations ofthe same families as clients now
going on forward.
That I'll tell you how old Ireally am.
Um but that to me is humblingand gratifying.
There's nothing about that thatwe should pat ourselves in the
back door.
That just means we've tried tobuild the relationships and we
tried to treat people the rightway.
(27:17):
And in our world, you have tohave the right answer because
when something happens tosomeone, you can't go back and
change it.
SPEAKER_03 (27:25):
Yeah.
So you talked about if if youdon't have the right answer at
that point, um you you can't fixit.
So is there is there a lessonthere for people that don't have
the right answer right now?
I mean, and I would assume theright answer is that you're
invested or have put asideenough financial wealth to at
(27:48):
least be able to, or you havethe policies, whatever, to be
able to um build it intosomething that is a survivable
amount of money.
Yeah.
Um, so are there are are therethings or warning flags or just
uh you know precepts that peopleneed to keep in their mind?
You know, if you can't save, youknow, a thousand dollars, save
ten dollars, you know, whateverthat that says uh, you know,
(28:11):
don't don't just give up, don'tthrow on the towel, don't say
I'll never earn enough money todo that, like I did for years
and said, you know, we're asingle family income, my wife
can't work, goodness gracious, Ijust can't do a 401k right now.
Um, you know, and now I lookback and I go, what were you
thinking?
$20 a week would have been agood idea.
So, but uh, anyways, anythingalong that line that you could
(28:32):
pass on?
SPEAKER_01 (28:34):
Sure, but none of it's financial.
And that's the fun part, whichis look, I again, I'm in the
protection world, I'm in the inthe life insurance world, is a
majority of you know of what Ido, but none of what I would
tell you is financials.
You have to keep in mind thatit's not about you, it's always
about them.
And if it's always about them,you will ask the questions about
(28:55):
them for them.
And sometimes folks don't quiteknow what to answer.
So you will say, Can I help you?
Can I lead you to toward that?
But their answers are the onesthat make the difference.
And so much about what we do isabout how well we actually
listen.
And one of the lines I use in myspeaking all the time is most
(29:18):
people do not listen with theintent to understand.
They listen with the intent toreply.
And if we can learn, all of usto be better at that, I still
want to be better at that today.
If we can learn to be better atit, then we can make more of a,
I would say, better decisions,but also more of a difference.
(29:41):
And and life is really we'll I'msure we'll say that more than
once today, but that's what lifeis really about.
Yeah, yeah.
And my my dear friend LeeBrower, who's one of my mentors
and coaches, he pointed out, hegoes, the arrows have to point
out.
unknown (30:00):
Okay.
SPEAKER_01 (30:01):
People where the arrows point in are not
necessarily people we all wantto kind of hang out with.
None of us.
SPEAKER_03 (30:08):
Yeah.
Yeah.
And yet that's such a um acompelling or uh uh people want
that that quality of look outfor yourself.
You know, it doesn't matter.
Stomp on people, get ahead, getahead, get ahead.
And I think of how that'sattractive to me.
(30:31):
It's like the dark side of theforce, though.
You know, it's it's easier, moreseductive perhaps, but not
stronger.
And you know, what does it taketo get people to understand, you
know, how the fact that well,harassment.
I do anti-harassment trainingwhere I work.
And one of the things I have tofocus on immediately is it's not
about doing onto others as youwould have them do onto you.
(30:53):
It's about doing onto others asthey would have you do onto
them.
You know, that you have tosomehow get beyond yourself and
what you think would beoffensive and try to see it from
their shoes and try to dothings, live your life, interact
with them in ways that they willfeel safe and you know that you
really do care about them.
Um, and so I think that allspeaks to the same thing, right?
(31:15):
That we we have to somehow getbeyond ourselves and turn those
arrows outward that have beenfocused on me because you poor
me, I'm you know, been throughall this horrible, you don't
know, and I deserve better andall of that stuff.
Is there a a secret sauce thatyou've learned as a leader that
you think can help turn thataround for people?
SPEAKER_01 (31:38):
I I don't know, you know, I don't know if there's a
secret sauce.
I I'm gonna say this becauseevery everything that I do, I
learn from somebody else.
And one of the things I I oftensay is listen, if you steal one
thing from one person, it'splagiarism.
But if you steal a hundredthings from a hundred people,
it's research.
So I've tried to do a lot ofresearch in my day.
(32:02):
And you know, when you thinkabout it, it it's I think it's
it's about empathy.
I think it's about you know,with the arrows out, I think
it's about trying to make surethat other people feel valued
and valuable.
Um you know, confidence whichcomes very hard for me, but
confidence isn't attracting ifyou can have it.
(32:26):
But arrogance is a deterrent.
And there's a there's a bigdifference between that and what
we see today is this kind ofarrogance and condescension, or
if you don't believe me andyou're wrong, and it's yeah, you
know, there's a lot of ways tosee things, a lot of different
(32:46):
ways to look at things, and youdon't know what's going on.
And I think one of the otherparts of it that that is maybe I
would call the the secret sauceis um and I try to tell this
everybody's got a story.
Everybody's got a story.
You don't know their story, andwhat people tend to do is almost
(33:12):
in unintentionally, sometimesintentionally in the first two
minutes you're with someone,they're judging you.
They they think XYZ, you havethis, you don't have this, you
thought this, you don'teverybody's got a story, and
that's when to me, if you arewilling to hear the story, it
(33:34):
gives you the ability to be muchmore, I hope, valuable to those
people, and maybe in ways youdid not expect when you started
the conversation.
SPEAKER_03 (33:45):
Yeah.
Yeah, you know, I thinkfundamentally that's part of
what this podcast has been allabout for me for the past five
years, is being able to letpeople tell their stories and
becoming enriched by it.
And and I'm gonna remember thateuphemism that, you know, if I'm
uh stealing things from thehundreds of guests I've had,
it's not plagiarism.
It's just research.
(34:07):
It's not a lot of research,which which is important in my
line of work, especially.
I I'm trying to find ways toconnect people, not uh not make
them just uh carry on in theirongoing efforts to destroy
themselves.
So um have you what what todaydo you think is the the major
issue or the major challengesthat that you face in your
(34:28):
protect in your profession?
Because you are primarily inwealth management and helping
people to uh develop a securefuture, uh future, right?
Uh protecting them from whatevermay happen with the economy or
whatever that they they at leastcan still have a a life that you
know everyone hopes to have,especially in retirement.
I'm getting close.
So um, you know, that that kindof thing.
What are the challenges that youthink people you are aware of
(34:51):
and are trying to combat andthat they need to be thinking
about as well?
SPEAKER_01 (34:56):
Wow, we could do that for an hour, but I'll I'll
synthesize it as best I can.
SPEAKER_03 (35:01):
Well, another reason to talk again, so right?
SPEAKER_01 (35:04):
So what is the internet is an interesting
thing.
There's you know a megabytes,millions and gazillions of
megabytes of information, butvery little knowledge.
There's a huge gap betweeninformation and knowledge, and
in my particular world,knowledge becomes important, I
(35:28):
think.
And I also am philosophicallydifferent than many people that
do what we do, and I'm okay withthat because here's how I talk
about uh things philosophically,and having been a partial
philosophy major, I like to talkabout things philosophically.
And I always say to people, ifwe are gonna do the planning the
(35:52):
way that we do it, and if youwant to work with us, and it's
okay if you don't, we're goingto protect you for the things
that can go wrong so we caninvest for all the things that
will go right.
We're going to do it in thatorder because if we don't, it's
like building a pyramid on itspoint.
(36:13):
If we do all the investing andall the other wealth management
things and all the things thatwe're talking about, and we're
concentrating on that, andsomething goes wrong, somebody
dies, somebody gets disabled,somebody needs a long has a
long-term care, any of theabove, it doesn't matter what
else we did.
And especially if it happens,we'll call it untimely.
(37:02):
So, you know, when we do that,it also evokes something
different in people, right?
Because there's fear in talkingabout this.
There's there's anxiety intalking about this, there's
uncertainty in talking aboutthis.
So I think we need to navigatethose things to make people feel
more at ease or feel like thatpart of their life maybe we can
(37:25):
help take over.
So they once we get throughthis, they can take a breath.
And that's been probably one ofthe more gratifying parts of
having done this as long aswe've done it, whereby people
say, I know I'm okay ifsomething happens.
And that's the real world we tryto play.
SPEAKER_03 (37:45):
Do you find that with the um acceleration of
technology, um, I mean, when wetalk about the things that you
try to protect people from thatcan go wrong, is the landscape
of that changing?
Um, do you find that there arenew threats that you need to be,
you know, keep kind of beingaware of, get retuned to?
(38:07):
Or is it just different, youknow, shades of the same colors
that you just have to say, oh,now there's a I mean, I work in
IT a lot too.
We have to always be looking at,oh, here's the next zero-day
exploit, or you know, here's thea new vector now that deep fakes
are being used in order to, youknow, get Ian to apparently call
one of his associates and say, Ineed you to wire me$10,000 for
(38:28):
such and such, you know, herpolicies, blah, blah, blah,
whatever.
Right.
Um are there things like thatthat you you look at the world
around you and think, oh gosh, Ithere's another thing we need to
be concerned about, need toprotect against.
And do you anticipate there'llbe others?
SPEAKER_01 (38:46):
Yeah, I mean, I think we're all in in constant
evolution.
As things change, we have to bein tune to what's happening.
Having said that, do I thinkthere are some core principles
that we all have to be part ofin my words.
And that that answer I think isyes.
(39:07):
There have and part of thefundamentals of that, listen,
one one of the ways that wecould say what has changed in
one sense.
People do lots of Zoom meetingsnow, like we're doing, right?
Yeah.
Um but that isn't necessarilyalways the best way.
So I mentioned earlier there'sinformation, tons of it, but not
(39:28):
a lot of knowledge.
Knowledge isn't as valuablethough if you cannot communicate
it.
So now we've narrowed that downfrom a very wide swath to a very
narrow swath.
But if I think in our world wedo our job correctly, we don't
play in any of those spaces.
It's not in information,knowledge, or communication,
(39:49):
it's connection.
If we can play in the space ofconnection, and my own opinion
is people crave connection muchmore than they crave it on doing
a text or crave it on socialmedia or anything like that.
And when you get to our world,then it's a very, very different
(40:12):
thing because now we're talkingabout something that is an
intangible in many ways.
But that intangible involvesyour heart as much or more than
your head.
And now that's something thatbecomes a different skill set.
(40:33):
Am I good at it?
I don't know.
I you know, okay.
Um, but I'm still trying to getbetter.
SPEAKER_03 (40:40):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
What is it?
AA Milne, the uh author ofWinnie the Pooh, once was quoted
as saying, how we educate achild's heart is at least as
important as how we educatetheir mind.
And I thought, boy, there thereis something, Mr.
Milne, that we are sorelylacking, because I fear that our
(41:00):
our internet, ourinterconnectivity through that
is educating people's hearts inways that boy, we gotta we gotta
figure that one out because itit's not it's not looking to me
like we're not gonna have aheart attack if we don't start
you know chucking ourselves fullof cholesterol and all kinds of,
(41:21):
you know, I don't know.
Um so are there things thatpeople can educate themselves
against to kind of avoid thehype of what's going on in
insurance and in retirementplanning and whatnot?
Um are there I mean you talkabout education or you know,
that there's there is a lot ofinformation and knowledge is
lacking.
(41:41):
I I think even more what comeswith knowledge is the wisdom,
you know, of having you knowthat education and that
knowledge and then being able toput it together in ways that are
wise and thoughtful and you knowbeneficial to all parties.
Uh are there ways, would you saymaybe it's ways to look for a
financial advisor?
You know, you're you're inFlorida.
I don't know if you want peoplefrom Wisconsin, you know, coming
(42:04):
down and saying, I'd like you totake on my, you know, uh, you
know, that and the thousands ofpeople that listen to the
website uh webcast all of asudden calling you, that would
probably overwhelm anybody.
But are there things you wouldsay they should look for in a
advisor, or is this uh uh thephilosophy you're teaching?
Is that something that otherplaces are adopting and
individuals are adopting?
SPEAKER_01 (42:24):
I think there's many ways to do it the right way.
Uh I happen to be I it's kind ofa crazy business.
I'm licensed in 41 states, soit's kind of kind of the lunacy.
And before Zoom, I did a lot oftrafficking over a lot of
points.
Um, which is crazy.
It's I still am, but nothinglike I used to be.
But I think you need to to, ifyou're someone looking for a
(42:48):
financial advisor, find someonewho you're compatible with just
in terms of you, you have youknow, if you're sitting here,
especially in my role, you haveto be somewhere in your mind
saying, if I'm not here, do Iwant this person coming to sit
with my family?
That's a really importantquestion.
You know, is this person gonnareally look out for us?
(43:08):
And in my philosophy about howwe do it may not match others,
and you know what, that's okay.
That's that's why there'schocolate and vanilla, right?
I mean, because there's a lot ofdifferent ways to do this.
Um, but I think obviously if youcan get a recommendation from
someone you know, it's it's awarm introduction is always
gonna be a heck of a lot easierif you could do that.
(43:29):
But I think a lot of it istrusting your gut.
Is this person someone who'sgonna look after me?
Is this person, you know, whatare what is what they're saying,
does it resonate with me?
Does it resonate with my family?
If you're uh a spouse, apartner, whatever it happens to
be, are they comfortable?
Because remember, if you're theone who's doing the finance,
(43:50):
they're the one who's leftbehind.
SPEAKER_03 (43:51):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (43:54):
And so we always need to talk about those things.
But for us, uh like I said, it'sincredibly humbling when people
send their kids to you.
And then when they send theirgrandkids to you.
And that to me is that's thenature.
It's there's nothing to do withanything else because there's
(44:14):
there's we could talk aboutlegacy at another time or
something on the road, butlegacy means different things to
different people.
And to me, uh legacy for us hasnothing to do with money.
It's it's have we impacted uhlives, families, and communities
in a way that they may not havebeen able to do themselves
(44:38):
simply because we uh know alittle something about this one
area.
And to me, I think about thatdaily.
SPEAKER_03 (44:46):
So speaking of legacy, yeah, um, I I like to
wrap things up with thisquestion, and it it is uh it's
simply and profoundly important.
Is i at the point at which yousuccumb to the same thing that
is not an if but is a win, uh ithappens.
(45:08):
Is there is there a thing or isthere a a word, um a thought, a
an action, uh some somethingthat you would like to come to
people's minds and hearts whenthey think about Ian Freeman?
You know, what would be thatlegacy, that lasting legacy that
says, you know, here lies a goodperson who tried to do his best,
(45:29):
whatever.
You know that what would thatbe?
SPEAKER_01 (45:34):
It's always a little difficult because I I don't
really think that much ofmyself, to be perfectly honest.
I wish I was so much better, youknow, throughout my life.
And I I I I laugh at people.
I said, you know, I'm at thatage now where I started my
career around the time theyinvented fire.
You know, it feels like I'vebeen around a really long time.
SPEAKER_03 (45:55):
Um but but I I was when they invented the wheel, so
I'm a I you're right, I am alittle younger than you.
Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (46:02):
So so I that means I was before you probably.
But anyway, um I I you know Ikid about it, but I look like I
said, what at the end of theday, you know, did you make a
difference?
Did you make a difference to atleast one person?
Did did you know I get up everyday and there's two things.
(46:24):
It's is what am I grateful for?
Just gonna always think ofsomething.
And can I make a difference inone person's life?
That's how my day starts.
And that might be holding thedoor for an elderly person,
which by the way, somethingshould probably do for me now
that I'm an elderly person.
I didn't expect I did, you know,I keep asking how I got this
all.
What happened?
How did I get here?
(46:45):
Yeah, listen, I'm glad I gothere.
So yeah, yeah.
Um, but you know, I don't knowwhat that's gonna be.
And then not knowing what that'sgonna be, that means you have to
conduct yourself with everyoneyou see.
So I walk in the mornings and Itake pretty long walks, and
there's not a single person Ipass that I don't say good
(47:08):
morning to.
It is uncanny to watch theirfaces.
The fact that you took a secondto smile at them and say good
morning.
You don't know what happens whenyou do little things like I send
(47:33):
out these quotes to people in myparticular agency.
Then I see something I think itmay resonate or something.
And I just had someone send mesomething the other day said
that quote you said allowed meto do X, Y, and Z.
And you look around and go, I Iwhat?
I didn't do anything, I justsent out a quote because I
thought it was interesting.
But when those things happen,that's what legacy is.
(47:57):
That's when you want to makesure that if you had an impact
on someone's life that may nothave happened, that's all I care
about.
The rest of it is fluff.
SPEAKER_03 (48:08):
Well, there you have it.
So um you are absolutely right.
I I I do need to find anothertime.
I hope we can to talk some more.
Um, because there there are uhlayers upon layers.
And I I I feel a lot of kindredspirit-ness because when you
talk about I don't think verymuch of myself, I I I tend to
(48:29):
run the same way and people, oh,you shouldn't talk that way
about yourself.
I'm like, hey, you don't know melike I know me.
Okay.
So, but uh anyways, Ian, youhave a book coming out too,
don't you, or that you'reworking on?
SPEAKER_01 (48:39):
Yes, sir.
It's actually it'll be out inabout four weeks.
It'll be available.
Um it's a it's a combination ofthings, which I hope is in the
genre of making a difference.
One is it's a bunch of storiesfrom my career, and they're
there's some wild stories.
I'll tell you the title of thebook, and you'll understand a
(49:00):
little bit.
I wrote the book with agentleman named Daniel Simone,
who's a fairly famous author,and I told the stories, but he
wrote it.
So he wrote it in a genre callednarrative nonfiction.
So all the stories are true,they're just written like a
novel.
Okay, which I could never do, hecould do.
And the book is called LifeBeneath the Suit.
(49:22):
The suit is what what you knowwhat I wore every day.
But the subtitle is MadnessMayhem and the Meaning I Found
in the Mess.
The answer is the mess was me.
And so not just telling thestories of the Korea, which did
shape and mold me to a greatextent, but it's also that I had
(49:46):
tremendous, tremendous, youknow, mental struggles, mental
illness struggles.
And um, you know, I I I feltthat telling those stories, you
know, hopefully there'ssomething about resilience a bit
in there, but telling thosestories about what it was like
uh to live in that head, um, andstill do it to some extent, um
(50:09):
was you know, was challenging tosay the least.
And I hope that's if if someonewho reads it gets something out
of and builds something fromthat, that'll be that'll be
really the reason to do it.
I've done it.
SPEAKER_03 (50:21):
So well, I'm on the list.
I I'll I'll have to put thatinto my Kindle list of things to
watch for.
So it sounds like my kind ofbook.
So yeah, especially when youstart talking about mental
health, and like, oh, we gotstories, buddy.
We could tell stories.
SPEAKER_01 (50:37):
Well, I'll give away one thing real quickly, and this
isn't exactly in the book, butyou know, I was so screwed up.
That's a technical term, by theway.
Screwed up.
SPEAKER_03 (50:47):
Yeah, it's a medical term, actually.
It's in the DHFD.
SPEAKER_01 (50:51):
I was so screwed up that I was told that if I didn't
get help, I wouldn't see my 50thbirthday.
Um, and I and here's theinteresting part I didn't drink.
I didn't mind having to drink,but I didn't really drink.
Never did a drug in my life,didn't smoke, didn't gamble, had
none of the other vices peopletend to have when they get that
(51:13):
screwed up.
So I made me really hard totreat.
And when someone tells you whenyou're 42 that you're not gonna
see your 50th birthday, youknow, your window of opportunity
seems relatively small.
Um, so I I don't mind revealingthis, but you know, I'm 67
(51:34):
today.
Uh every day's a good day.
I'm 17 days past my uh I'm 17years past my um maybe my ex
possible expiration date.
So we're doing pretty well.
SPEAKER_03 (51:47):
Well, you only beat me by two years, because I'm 65,
okay?
So we are contemporaries atleast.
So uh folks, my guest today hasbeen Ian Freeman.
He is uh I I'm gonna know himforever as the compassionate
wealth management advisor.
Has a new book coming out.
Um, how else can people get ahold of you, Ian, if they want
to just look you up or talk withyou about advice?
SPEAKER_01 (52:10):
Well, my my site for the book is because I I
fortunately do a lot of speakingtoo, which I love, which is by
the way interesting in and ofitself because I'm a total
introvert and I'm painfully shy,but I do public speaking.
So we'll talk about that anotherday.
Um, but the site is IanImpacts.com, and that's where
you can buy the book.
SPEAKER_02 (52:27):
Okay.
SPEAKER_01 (52:28):
And um other than that, um I could, you know, I
have a regular site, which is uhnm.com.
So it's like an LOE voice.
You can actually go underIanFreman.com, but not the MMA
five.
SPEAKER_03 (52:45):
Ian, thank you so much for your time, your energy,
your stories, your openness.
Um it's been wonderful.
Uh and uh I I look forward, I dolook forward to the next time we
can press talk.
That would be fantastic becauseuh I sense I would walk away
with at least as muchinspiration and hope as I'm
walking away with today.
So I'm gonna help otherslistening today, uh listening to
(53:06):
Frame of Reference uh Profilesand Leadership have learned
something and will takesomething away as well.
Do some good, right?
Do some good.
Look outside.
So I'm a pleasure.
Thank you.
Take care.
You too.
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