September 24, 2025 • 25 mins
Free AI Resources to level up: automate.shahiddurrani.com
What if your financial plan actually fit your life—the way a fingerprint fits your finger? In this conversation, Prosperity Financial Group’s Elliot Kallen breaks down his “Fingerprint Financial Planning” philosophy: start with your why, then design the money to serve it. We dig into behavioral finance, crafting retirement around real experiences (travel, family, legacy), and why proactive communication is the real edge when markets wobble. Elliot also shares the deeply personal story behind his nonprofit A Brighter Day, focused on teen mental health—and the two lessons from his parents that fuel his work ethic and passion. If you want wealth with purpose (not just spreadsheets), this one’s for you.
=============================
Chapter Stamps:
01:09 Elliot Kallen's Unique Financial Approach
01:29 Understanding Fingerprint Financial Planning
01:59 The Importance of Personalization in Financial Planning
03:28 Building Lifelong Relationships with Clients
05:42 The Role of Trust in Financial Advisory
08:16 Client Engagement and Communication Strategies
13:27 Elliot's Personal Journey and Motivations
17:19 The Secret Sauce to Success
Pullout quotes:
- “Your financial device for you should be as unique as your fingerprint.”
- “The average senior spends four hours a day watching tv. That’s not a good retirement plan.”
- “Nobody likes to be sold.”
- “You lose clients more from lack of communication than from any other way.”
- “In my business life, I’m changing lives. In my charitable life, I’m saving lives.”
Social:
Website: https://prosperityfinancialgroup.com/elliot-kallen/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elliotkallen
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/prosperityfinancialgroup
Disclaimer:
Please be aware that the opinions and perspectives conveyed in this podcast are solely those of our guests and do not necessarily represent the views, ideologies, or principles of Super Entrepreneurs Podcast, its associated entities, or any organizations they represent or are affiliated with. We provide a platform for discussion and exploration, and the content of each episode is understood to be independent expressions from our guests, rather than a reflection of the beliefs held by the podcast or its hosts.
Affiliate Disclaimer: If you buy through one of the links provided, I may receive a commission (without any additional charge to you).
▬▬▬ SHAHID’S LINKS ▬▬▬
https://zez.am/officialshahiddurrani
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
You lose clients more from lack ofcommunication than from any other way.
(00:22):
Welcome back to SuperEntrepreneurs Podcast.
I'm your host, Shahid Durrani,today we have with us.
Elliot Kallen.
runs Prosperity Financial Group,and he's been in the financial
world for over three decades now.
I love about his approach is thatit's not about just the numbers.
(00:45):
He really gets into the wholepicture of what financial success
looks like for a person, a family.
That he works with.
He also started this charitycalled A Brighter Day that
focuses on Teen mental health.
Welcome to our show, Elliot.
(01:05):
Shahi, great to be here.
Thank you for having me.
My pleasure.
My pleasure.
So Elliot, I have.
Heard you talk about this fingerprintfinancial planning approach, which
is a very cool name by the way.
What does it actually look comparedto all the other typical financial
(01:25):
advice that we're accustomed to?
So that's a great question.
Fingerprint financial planning isone of those trademarks that we
have, and we looked at it this way.
Your financial device for you shouldbe as unique as your fingerprint.
It should not be generic.
There are only four or fivesoftwares that do financial
(01:45):
planning in the United States.
That's it.
So basically, most financialplans look identical.
So it's about the numbers.
We have people in our office who arealso about the numbers and so forth,
and there are clients about the numbers.
But the difference is what we tryto do is add behavioral finance
and get to know this person.
(02:05):
The average senior spendsfour hours a day watching tv.
That's not a good retirement plan.
So we talk about that.
What is the plan in your retirement?
Is it travel well?
How do we put enough money to travel?
Which countries is it?
Is it working with your grandchildren?
Do you wanna buy ahouse for your children?
What is the plan for your money?
(02:28):
Do you want to die?
I used to joke around, do you wanna diewith your last check, Cy, is that one of
the plans to spend every penny you have?
The children will get enough.
They don't need your money anyway.
Give it away.
Is charity really important?
I'm I built a foundation.
I know what that is.
So the why is what makesus different than the what?
The why, but yeah.
(02:50):
Yeah.
In general, when, when you sit with afinancial advisor, don't they actually
do discuss those aspects of your life?
What's your plan, whatyou would like to do?
I feel like there's more to thisfingerprint as this way that you have.
Is there anything elseyou could share about
Lot.
There are some goodfinancial planners up there.
I don't wanna say we're theonly good financial planner.
(03:11):
There are a lot, there aremillions of us in the market.
There are, there's apercentage of very good ones.
There are percentage of onesthat you should avoid, which
wanna sell you a product first.
And then there most.
People fall right inbetween the middle end.
Yeah, it's probably 20 on one end, 20%on the other end, and 60% on the middle.
You probably are just okay on that.
The difference is getting to knowthe re and building a relationship, a
(03:32):
lifelong relationship with somebody.
So the fingerprint isabout the relationship.
We get to know you.
Shahi, what's importantto you about your money?
Not just what your money is for.
into
Yeah.
What's important to you about your moneyand maybe, and I'm gonna make this up.
I'm from the east coast here.
I'm from, I'm living in California.
I'm from the East coast.
(03:53):
Is going back to East Coast.
Really important to me.
Probably not.
I like going back there.
I got a lot of family there and so forth.
What is really important?
It turns out travel, food andentertainment for me is really important.
It's heart of my financial plan,travel, food, and entertainment in my
retirement, which we've been doing nowfor 10 years before our retirement.
(04:14):
We've been living that life.
That's what we find out.
I have something I couldtalk about with you.
Majority of people wanna travel,but they just use the word travel.
And what does that mean?
What does that look like to you?
Do you wanna go on Japan Airlinesor Emirate Air First class?
Is that important to you?
Or you just wanna get to theIslands of Japan and enjoy what?
It's the islands of Japan.
(04:35):
Enjoy what they are,what's important to you?
I just came back last week fromKonos, Cyprus not Cyprus, Konos
Crete Santorini and Athens.
Okay.
Why, what's important about that trip?
Why would I do that?
Those are questions that we wantto know when we're talking to you
because travel and food, and again,food for me means a lot because I'm
(04:58):
an amateur chef and I love amateurcooking, and I want to take cooking
courses, one of in Athens on Greek food.
That's important to me.
If you don't know that about me, we'renever gonna have that conversation.
Yeah,
the, I do all the cookingin the house, right?
That's what I mean by fingerprints.
What's unique about that?
What are you gonna do that's differenton Tuesday than you did on Thursday?
(05:20):
Because majority of people just,if they want to go to Greece,
it's just on their bucket list.
If they wanted to have a unique experiencein Greece, let's talk about that.
Why?
What does that experiencelook like to you?
How can we help you achieve that?
And how can we create aplan that creates the money?
Which creates the availabilityand the opportunity for you to do
something that's truly unique to you.
(05:42):
What's the biggest myth that youhave heard about wealth management?
When they walk into youroffice, when you meet them.
Is there any typical.
Myth that you hear the mostthat people should be aware of.
Most people think it's agood, really good question.
It's a tough, it's not an easy questionto answer because the person you're
(06:03):
dealing with has to be unique to you.
It's that's it's about the relationship.
People say, oh, all yourfinancial planners are the same.
They're always trying to sell product.
And maybe you're an insurance based guyand you're trying to sell annuities, or
you're an investment guy and you wannasell different, unique investments, or
maybe you get paid more money or not.
But really what makes.
(06:24):
Somebody unique is that they getto know you and that could, they're
there for you and they ask the rightquestions to get to the right answers.
That's what you want.
The mistake is mostpeople, they don't do that.
They think that aportfolio is a portfolio.
What's the difference?
They will all look the same, and there area lot of very good portfolios out there.
(06:47):
But the key is what makes you different.
So the questions that come up is mostpeople are what makes you different,
and I don't see any differencebetween you and other people.
I've been to five dinnerswith five different companies.
Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs,this company I'm with you.
You guys all sound the same.
And I said we are the same in one way,is that we all have similar products.
So the products, what makes itdifferent is the relationship.
(07:10):
So we're not product focus,we're relationship focus.
And that's if you're a consumer, youshould be looking for somebody that
relates to you, that understandsyou, that can get to know you,
so they can give good advice.
In your particular situation,coming from a private company, a
public company, or retirement, apost-retirement, what does that look like?
That you want to call them up?
(07:31):
It's so important to do and thefact that we all look the same with
a big, broad paintbrush is not agood thing 'cause it's not true.
thing.
Yeah.
Relationship is everything.
I like to say that life is onebig relationship from business,
from your your home everywhere.
Even when you go pump gas somewhereyou're building a relationship
with someone because, that human tohuman, the heart to heart there's
(07:55):
nothing that could replace that.
And if you're able to connectwith someone that level, will
definitely be able to open up more.
And if they're open up more,you're able to help them more.
Because if you genuinely care, thatopenness can only amplify that person.
Yeah.
I definitely agree about relationship and
(08:16):
I have a new client in my office.
He just, let me interruptyou for one second.
I had a new client walk in IndianCouple and they walked in my office.
Now they've been to two orthree of my dinner seminars.
They walked in and the wife is thepower person in that relationship
and you get to know that right away.
And I said, tell me something, you,you've been to a number of my dinners.
(08:37):
She said I've been to a whole bunchof dinners, so I think we went to five
dinners this year with different people.
I said, really?
So what made you decideto do business with me?
And she said, I, you seem themost trustworthy person who
had our best interest at heart.
And I said, really?
Thank you.
I agree with you on that.
I think that's true, but you knowme for an hour and a half and then
(09:00):
a phone call and a Zoom meeting.
How did you make that decision like that?
He said, because no one elsewas able to get that across.
But you,
Yeah,
that that's the difference.
The difference is theperson, it's the person.
Yes.
agree with that.
I absolutely agree with that.
It's all energy, it's all vibes.
It's and when you pick upsomething it's beyond language.
(09:21):
It's before language, it's,this is, we're able to read each
other, but we haven't really.
Strengthen that ability.
We have given more attention to theintellect and the verb and the wording
and what we're seeing and body movement,but there's a deeper sense of just
knowing things, with each other, andthey probably sense that from you.
(09:43):
I. They picked up and that'swhy they came, that's wonderful.
I love that.
You mentioned you do these dinners.
So are these mini events you do inhotels and then you invite people
to them and talk about your services
So we, let me tell you what we'redoing now and what we've done on that.
So the dinners we've done aredinners like at Ruth, Chris, and
Flemings, where they're going outby invitation to new prospects.
(10:06):
We've also done a whole bunch ofdinners locally here in California.
We have a local Italian restaurant thathas a room that seats 30 in the back,
upscale food, and we've invited clientsto it and invited them to bring somebody.
We've made more money as a resultof that than we ever made at these
big Ruth, Chris and Fleming dinners.
Or hotels like the Marriott.
So we finally stopped doingthose, which are so expensive.
(10:29):
They're 10, $15,000 a month to putthose on, including invitations.
And we decided, why don't wejust do the ones where we're
inviting our clients to it?
And that's what we've gone to.
So our, it's for our clients.
We invite them to bring a guest.
If they don't, they're still invited.
But if they bring in guests, we invitethem to do it, and it's wonderful.
Now we're doing somethingnew coming up in July.
(10:51):
We're doing one at a place that's asports oriented one that has bowling
and bocce ball and the things in it.
And we're not giving informationout about product or an opportunity.
We're just inviting them to bringtheir friends to get to know us
in the most casual of settings.
And then we'll sit down and meetwith 'em so they can sit down
and talk with me five, 10 minutesand then they can go bully.
(11:14):
Very casual.
Super casual, but nice.
Yeah,
you know, Shaheed,nobody likes to be sold.
Nobody, and nobody goes into a timesharepresentation positive 'cause they know
they're gonna get sold something andthey're, they've got their defenses up.
So if you can create an atmospherewhere you're not forced to buy anything
(11:34):
except maybe get some informationor a little bit of information,
but have some fun, then you'reprobably gonna have a better outcome.
Yeah.
And sports, that, that type ofenvironment brings that out as well.
Because you in a way.
more friendly with each other whenyou're in that kind of environment
instead of just sitting on a table.
Eating.
So that's I'm interested to see howthe numbers ship for you compared
(11:57):
to the dinner and the sports.
I, I've heard good things aboutit, but we're gonna invite
probably 50 people there.
Which is pretty big size and have fun.
If you wanna bowl one game andgo home, you could do that.
You wanna bowl, playbocce, ball and bowl again.
You can do that.
You wanna have a glass of wine and somemini and some unlimited appetizers.
(12:18):
You could do that.
yeah.
So how do you, sorry.
You do a lot of speakingto other financial advisors
about, motivation marketing.
I.
share.
How you use these principles inyour own life and for your clients?
(12:38):
Is there, is it about building trustor is there more to it as well?
Any other kind of strategies?
great question.
With
I.
I, I'm in a unique position.
That doesn't make me great or terrible.
Just unique that I've been a financialadvisor for 3 30, 33 years now.
So I've seen a lot.
(12:59):
I've learned a lot.
I don't wanna say I'm long into toothor tired 'cause I'm neither but I've
learned what works and doesn't work.
So I've been invited to industry meetingsconstantly to speak about what works
and what doesn't work, because it'sall about options that work for that
person, what dinners I find expensive.
But for you, you might love them.
Things like that.
We go over what works.
(13:19):
We understand now artificialintelligence, but we also talk about
foundation building and characterbuilding and why trust is so important.
I built a foundation and I did it becausemy son died and I built a foundation on,
that to deal with teen depression andsuicide because he took his own life.
When you have that story, then wecould talk about foundation building,
(13:39):
and now you're talking about trust.
Because do I trust, can I nothave to, I don't, I shouldn't have
to sell trust to my prospects.
I should exude trust.
Just
talk about that.
Be trustworthy.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So honesty and trustworthy.
I could talk about till that,till I'm blue in the face, but
(13:59):
you either have it or you don't.
Yeah.
No, I see that.
No, for sure.
Now, that's why you won those awardsthe most trusted in California.
I got a, I've got a lot of awardsbehind me and on the walls and my
staff makes me put them up there for,I wouldn't put 'em up if it was mine
'cause I think it's little braggadociostuff, but they like them going up and
(14:21):
the whole office is filled with that.
Yeah.
Are naturally Skeptical.
What do you think top of that relationshipaspect, is there anything else that
differentiates you guys to build thatlevel of trust that you could share
that could help someone out there do the
The, yeah.
(14:41):
The third ingredient that wedidn't talk about is communication.
How are you gonna communicatewith your prospect and client?
When we do, not only do we dolive events all the time, we do.
Biweekly emails to our clientson what's going on in the market.
And here's an interesting topicthat may or may not fit you, but
(15:04):
we're constantly putting ourselvesin front of them in some form.
Remember, when you get an email, youcan hit the delete button really fast
and people do, lots of people do.
When you're getting anewsletter, what do you do?
What, how does that work?
Then?
Maybe that's something I wanna read whenyou're getting a video every Monday.
Which is what I put out on Mondaysof what happened last week in a
(15:25):
market and what's happening thisweek, how is that gonna work for you?
How do you feel about that?
So some people say, I love your videos.
Some people say, I love your newsletters.
Some people say, I reallyappreciate your articles.
When the market goes down a thousandpoints or 500 points, you are the
first one to send me an either a videoor an email saying, okay, this is
(15:46):
what just happened and we're buying.
We're not selling.
You are constantly reassuring me.
You're looking at my account, so youknow, I've got 200 clients or 140 clients.
You can't look at 140 accounts today.
It's impossible.
So I built portfolios for them.
I can look at my portfolios everyday when they're going down.
I feel that personal pain.
(16:06):
'cause I'm also investedin those portfolios.
I. And so I make sure Iknow what I'm talking about.
And I tell them, listen,I've got six portfolios.
I'm in two of them.
I'm not at six, I can'tbe in six, I'm in two.
So they say, that's all right.
You are investing, you're puttingyour money where your mouth
is, and we appreciate that.
They'll look at that.
So they know I have their back and I'mconstantly reminding them these are buying
(16:27):
opportunities, not selling opportunities.
When a market goes down, which what?
You lose clients more from lack ofcommunication than from any other way.
Good point.
No, good point.
Thank you for sharing that.
It really fascinates me.
I. About success and I studythat, that's what I do.
And this show a, one of the byproductsof it, to get people like yourself on
(16:50):
here to learn from you and to shareyour message and, just find information
that can help others out there.
Just may be holding back.
And I don't feel as fair foranybody to just settle because
we do have this incredibleamount of power as a human being.
So you look at everything that youbuilt, your PRIs, your business
(17:14):
your charity, your recognitions,your family, everything.
Can you share if you are awareof any specific secret sauce or
anything that made it all possible,like something that you always had
in you helped you get this done?
Is there anything you could share on that?
(17:34):
That's a really great question.
I, and I have an answer 'causeI've been asked that before.
And that is, I've been very fortunate inmy life that I came from parents, not just
that were loving, but had they, they leftan indelible mark on their three children.
So my father was a World War ii, greatestgeneration guy, born in 1915, and his mark
(17:59):
to me, was nothing replaces hard work.
That was his mess.
He had a lot of messages for me,but that's the one I remember most,
which means that when I come towork, I'm almost always the first
one here, 7 30, 6 30 in the morning.
I like it.
I wanna come to work.
I work hard.
Sometimes I'll come in on Saturdays'cause I can get more done.
My mother, she was from Europe, shewas an Auschwitz concentration camp
(18:22):
survivor, and her message to me was,you could do better today than yesterday
and better tomorrow than today.
Which means that every time youcome to work, you come to work doing
better than you did the day before.
So when I come to work and I sit downand I start mapping out my day, I'm
not somebody who does a lot of that thenight before, but that day I'm mapping
(18:44):
out who I could talk to today and whataction I could take today that will
be better than what I did yesterday.
And I'm gonna put the hours in to do it.
So I think my secret sauce, fortunatelyfor me, we're having two loving parents
who said, go to work every day and excelat what you do, the best way you can.
(19:06):
Yeah.
And mention, sorry.
nope, that's my secret sauce.
I think
Yeah.
No, that's awesome.
I.
you mentioned hard work, but itreally sounds like there's another
level here with what you didbecause I think maybe it's that.
A high level of passion that you have.
There's this level passion thatyou're saying hard work, but it seems
(19:29):
like to me, I could be wrong, butyou could tell me that when you do
work you don't feel like it's work.
It's just you just flowing because it's,you have that passion to back it up.
That's a great word.
Passion.
I wrote about my whole book over my leftshoulder called Driven Includes Passion.
Look, you've heard a lot of peoplesay Shahid, live your passion.
(19:51):
Do that.
And then every day you'll be, if you workyour passion, it'll never feel like work.
Those are not new phrases.
I didn't create those phrases there.
I wanna tell you that.
My father used to tell me when wetalked about hard work, he said, you
need to, it's not just working hardbecause the garbage man who picked
up our garbage and work pretty hard.
Yeah, you have to do somethingthat you could excel at.
(20:14):
He didn't understand passion, but heunderstood the word you could excel at.
That's the same thing in a way.
thing.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I said for me, I love whatI do, I love what I do.
So maybe I'm very passionatewhat I do, because I love it.
I've enjoyed helping people inretirement and when it comes to
the charity, although I would.
I prefer not to have her startedthe charity for that reason.
(20:37):
But saving lives is saving lives.
You can't get more passionateabout that, you're saving a life.
So in my business life, I'm changing livesIn my charitable life, I'm saving lives.
Those are pretty good days tocome to work, and pretty good ways
that you could think every day.
You got purpose.
I've got purpose.
I go home with purpose.
I come to work with purpose.
(20:58):
I talk to you with purpose.
Yeah.
it means something.
It's not just a job.
Something.
And when you fail, it's accept whensomebody leaves you, I tell you the
downside of this, when somebody leavesyou and people do leave you for all
types of reasons, when they do leaveyou, it hurts in every possible way
because you put your heart into it.
But pe they still leave you.
It happens.
It happens.
(21:19):
No, that's
I.
And that's what I was sensing as wellbecause you could tell when there's work
and then there's passion based work.
You mentioned hard work 'cause we'rejust used to seeing it, but there's
when you have that level of passion,the work doesn't seem hard at all.
It just, you're just flowing with it.
It's just the beauty of life,it's just loving that moment.
(21:42):
It is.
the contents are of that moment.
No, it was great talking to you today.
Wanna say, I think my kidstalk to me, just certain ended.
My kids talk to me about passion andI wanted to cor, I wanted to correct
something about the word passion with thembecause you, if you love painting, then
being a passion of painter is important.
But ha, making a living
(22:04):
Can open up opportunities.
So you have to have passion withopportunity and understand how
both fit in with your own life.
yes, it definitely is.
If you're really passionate.
There's so funny you mentioned that I wastalking to a parent and he said that kids.
guidance counselor.
He went to ask him, what should I do?
(22:25):
I'm confused, she goes,what are your passions?
She goes, I'd really love to, to paint.
I like to, draw things right.
I. So she said, yeah, justgo into that, start drawing.
So his, the dad was telling me that hegot really upset saying that the guidance
counselor recommended that, he shouldhave said, okay, you're like, art, what
can you do in art that could provideyou a lifestyle, blah, blah, whatever.
(22:48):
So the behind that passionwas important but was missed.
And I totally get it.
You could be passion, but.
You, when you are North Star issomething that is, is gleaming internally
with you and is just so beautifuland you're so passionate about it.
The opportunities that you need to getthere are, that's what you jump on.
(23:13):
Yeah, but
passionate about it
that guidance counselor shouldhave talked about architecture,
Yeah.
Yeah.
That would be
So my.
out.
Yeah, I'll give you a quick story.
I'll give you, I've got one more moment.
I'll give you a quick story.
Yeah.
I was, I was in third grade, they hadthe, they did the first open, the first
heart transplant in South Africa was done,and then later in Brooklyn, New York.
(23:34):
And the one from Brooklyn, New York wason some local public TV type of thing.
And we watched it and Isaid to my parents, I wanna
be a heart doctor one day.
Th So I wrote a letter that he said,why don't you write a letter to the
doctor that you saw on TV at in MaMonte's Hospital in Brooklyn, this Dr.
Adrian Kitz.
And I did, and in my handwriting,which in third grade was a third
(23:57):
grader, my other handwriting todayis it ha it hasn't approved much.
So I sent it to him and I said, Iwanna be a heart surgery one day.
A heart doctor one day, allbecause of you and his secretary.
His administrative assistant calledmy mother up and made an appointment
for me to come in and spend a halfa day with him going around doing
(24:20):
rounds, and I, she set that up.
My brother and I went in, we didrounds with him, and then I held
the lungs open of a German Shepherd.
My brother held the other lungs open whilethey did a heart transplant, and that was
their way of saying, if you love this.
We've just exposed you to something inlife that you could be, and they did.
(24:43):
They didn't even know they were saying,we want you to follow your passion.
I didn't become a heartdoctor a lot of ways.
I wish I did, but they set up ways.
No doubt, ever understanding theword passion and living your dream.
If this is your dream, we wanna create anopportunity where you can live your dream.
And for a third grader, that was my dream.
They set that up andthat's pretty amazing.
(25:03):
If you're a parent and youhear this story, that's an
amazing story for your children.
I.
yeah.
No, it definitely is.
Wow.
I had a great timetalking to you, actually.
The information you're sharing,what you're talking about is
definitely, I could see howI can elevate someone's life.
So I appreciate your time today.
I appreciate that you came and you sharedyour voice, your message, and I wish you
(25:27):
all the growth and success, my friend.
Keep in touch.
Shaheed was on the show.
Thanks so much.
You lose clients more from lack ofcommunication than from any other way.
(00:22):
Welcome back to SuperEntrepreneurs Podcast.
I'm your host, Shahid Durrani,today we have with us.
Elliot Kallen.
runs Prosperity Financial Group,and he's been in the financial
world for over three decades now.
I love about his approach is thatit's not about just the numbers.
(00:45):
He really gets into the wholepicture of what financial success
looks like for a person, a family.
That he works with.
He also started this charitycalled A Brighter Day that
focuses on Teen mental health.
Welcome to our show, Elliot.
(01:05):
Shahi, great to be here.
Thank you for having me.
My pleasure.
My pleasure.
So Elliot, I have.
Heard you talk about this fingerprintfinancial planning approach, which
is a very cool name by the way.
What does it actually look comparedto all the other typical financial
(01:25):
advice that we're accustomed to?
So that's a great question.
Fingerprint financial planning isone of those trademarks that we
have, and we looked at it this way.
Your financial device for you shouldbe as unique as your fingerprint.
It should not be generic.
There are only four or fivesoftwares that do financial
(01:45):
planning in the United States.
That's it.
So basically, most financialplans look identical.
So it's about the numbers.
We have people in our office who arealso about the numbers and so forth,
and there are clients about the numbers.
But the difference is what we tryto do is add behavioral finance
and get to know this person.
(02:05):
The average senior spendsfour hours a day watching tv.
That's not a good retirement plan.
So we talk about that.
What is the plan in your retirement?
Is it travel well?
How do we put enough money to travel?
Which countries is it?
Is it working with your grandchildren?
Do you wanna buy ahouse for your children?
What is the plan for your money?
(02:28):
Do you want to die?
I used to joke around, do you wanna diewith your last check, Cy, is that one of
the plans to spend every penny you have?
The children will get enough.
They don't need your money anyway.
Give it away.
Is charity really important?
I'm I built a foundation.
I know what that is.
So the why is what makesus different than the what?
The why, but yeah.
(02:50):
Yeah.
In general, when, when you sit with afinancial advisor, don't they actually
do discuss those aspects of your life?
What's your plan, whatyou would like to do?
I feel like there's more to thisfingerprint as this way that you have.
Is there anything elseyou could share about
Lot.
There are some goodfinancial planners up there.
I don't wanna say we're theonly good financial planner.
(03:11):
There are a lot, there aremillions of us in the market.
There are, there's apercentage of very good ones.
There are percentage of onesthat you should avoid, which
wanna sell you a product first.
And then there most.
People fall right inbetween the middle end.
Yeah, it's probably 20 on one end, 20%on the other end, and 60% on the middle.
You probably are just okay on that.
The difference is getting to knowthe re and building a relationship, a
(03:32):
lifelong relationship with somebody.
So the fingerprint isabout the relationship.
We get to know you.
Shahi, what's importantto you about your money?
Not just what your money is for.
into
Yeah.
What's important to you about your moneyand maybe, and I'm gonna make this up.
I'm from the east coast here.
I'm from, I'm living in California.
I'm from the East coast.
(03:53):
Is going back to East Coast.
Really important to me.
Probably not.
I like going back there.
I got a lot of family there and so forth.
What is really important?
It turns out travel, food andentertainment for me is really important.
It's heart of my financial plan,travel, food, and entertainment in my
retirement, which we've been doing nowfor 10 years before our retirement.
(04:14):
We've been living that life.
That's what we find out.
I have something I couldtalk about with you.
Majority of people wanna travel,but they just use the word travel.
And what does that mean?
What does that look like to you?
Do you wanna go on Japan Airlinesor Emirate Air First class?
Is that important to you?
Or you just wanna get to theIslands of Japan and enjoy what?
It's the islands of Japan.
(04:35):
Enjoy what they are,what's important to you?
I just came back last week fromKonos, Cyprus not Cyprus, Konos
Crete Santorini and Athens.
Okay.
Why, what's important about that trip?
Why would I do that?
Those are questions that we wantto know when we're talking to you
because travel and food, and again,food for me means a lot because I'm
(04:58):
an amateur chef and I love amateurcooking, and I want to take cooking
courses, one of in Athens on Greek food.
That's important to me.
If you don't know that about me, we'renever gonna have that conversation.
Yeah,
the, I do all the cookingin the house, right?
That's what I mean by fingerprints.
What's unique about that?
What are you gonna do that's differenton Tuesday than you did on Thursday?
(05:20):
Because majority of people just,if they want to go to Greece,
it's just on their bucket list.
If they wanted to have a unique experiencein Greece, let's talk about that.
Why?
What does that experiencelook like to you?
How can we help you achieve that?
And how can we create aplan that creates the money?
Which creates the availabilityand the opportunity for you to do
something that's truly unique to you.
(05:42):
What's the biggest myth that youhave heard about wealth management?
When they walk into youroffice, when you meet them.
Is there any typical.
Myth that you hear the mostthat people should be aware of.
Most people think it's agood, really good question.
It's a tough, it's not an easy questionto answer because the person you're
(06:03):
dealing with has to be unique to you.
It's that's it's about the relationship.
People say, oh, all yourfinancial planners are the same.
They're always trying to sell product.
And maybe you're an insurance based guyand you're trying to sell annuities, or
you're an investment guy and you wannasell different, unique investments, or
maybe you get paid more money or not.
But really what makes.
(06:24):
Somebody unique is that they getto know you and that could, they're
there for you and they ask the rightquestions to get to the right answers.
That's what you want.
The mistake is mostpeople, they don't do that.
They think that aportfolio is a portfolio.
What's the difference?
They will all look the same, and there area lot of very good portfolios out there.
(06:47):
But the key is what makes you different.
So the questions that come up is mostpeople are what makes you different,
and I don't see any differencebetween you and other people.
I've been to five dinnerswith five different companies.
Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs,this company I'm with you.
You guys all sound the same.
And I said we are the same in one way,is that we all have similar products.
So the products, what makes itdifferent is the relationship.
(07:10):
So we're not product focus,we're relationship focus.
And that's if you're a consumer, youshould be looking for somebody that
relates to you, that understandsyou, that can get to know you,
so they can give good advice.
In your particular situation,coming from a private company, a
public company, or retirement, apost-retirement, what does that look like?
That you want to call them up?
(07:31):
It's so important to do and thefact that we all look the same with
a big, broad paintbrush is not agood thing 'cause it's not true.
thing.
Yeah.
Relationship is everything.
I like to say that life is onebig relationship from business,
from your your home everywhere.
Even when you go pump gas somewhereyou're building a relationship
with someone because, that human tohuman, the heart to heart there's
(07:55):
nothing that could replace that.
And if you're able to connectwith someone that level, will
definitely be able to open up more.
And if they're open up more,you're able to help them more.
Because if you genuinely care, thatopenness can only amplify that person.
Yeah.
I definitely agree about relationship and
(08:16):
I have a new client in my office.
He just, let me interruptyou for one second.
I had a new client walk in IndianCouple and they walked in my office.
Now they've been to two orthree of my dinner seminars.
They walked in and the wife is thepower person in that relationship
and you get to know that right away.
And I said, tell me something, you,you've been to a number of my dinners.
(08:37):
She said I've been to a whole bunchof dinners, so I think we went to five
dinners this year with different people.
I said, really?
So what made you decideto do business with me?
And she said, I, you seem themost trustworthy person who
had our best interest at heart.
And I said, really?
Thank you.
I agree with you on that.
I think that's true, but you knowme for an hour and a half and then
(09:00):
a phone call and a Zoom meeting.
How did you make that decision like that?
He said, because no one elsewas able to get that across.
But you,
Yeah,
that that's the difference.
The difference is theperson, it's the person.
Yes.
agree with that.
I absolutely agree with that.
It's all energy, it's all vibes.
It's and when you pick upsomething it's beyond language.
(09:21):
It's before language, it's,this is, we're able to read each
other, but we haven't really.
Strengthen that ability.
We have given more attention to theintellect and the verb and the wording
and what we're seeing and body movement,but there's a deeper sense of just
knowing things, with each other, andthey probably sense that from you.
(09:43):
I. They picked up and that'swhy they came, that's wonderful.
I love that.
You mentioned you do these dinners.
So are these mini events you do inhotels and then you invite people
to them and talk about your services
So we, let me tell you what we'redoing now and what we've done on that.
So the dinners we've done aredinners like at Ruth, Chris, and
Flemings, where they're going outby invitation to new prospects.
(10:06):
We've also done a whole bunch ofdinners locally here in California.
We have a local Italian restaurant thathas a room that seats 30 in the back,
upscale food, and we've invited clientsto it and invited them to bring somebody.
We've made more money as a resultof that than we ever made at these
big Ruth, Chris and Fleming dinners.
Or hotels like the Marriott.
So we finally stopped doingthose, which are so expensive.
(10:29):
They're 10, $15,000 a month to putthose on, including invitations.
And we decided, why don't wejust do the ones where we're
inviting our clients to it?
And that's what we've gone to.
So our, it's for our clients.
We invite them to bring a guest.
If they don't, they're still invited.
But if they bring in guests, we invitethem to do it, and it's wonderful.
Now we're doing somethingnew coming up in July.
(10:51):
We're doing one at a place that's asports oriented one that has bowling
and bocce ball and the things in it.
And we're not giving informationout about product or an opportunity.
We're just inviting them to bringtheir friends to get to know us
in the most casual of settings.
And then we'll sit down and meetwith 'em so they can sit down
and talk with me five, 10 minutesand then they can go bully.
(11:14):
Very casual.
Super casual, but nice.
Yeah,
you know, Shaheed,nobody likes to be sold.
Nobody, and nobody goes into a timesharepresentation positive 'cause they know
they're gonna get sold something andthey're, they've got their defenses up.
So if you can create an atmospherewhere you're not forced to buy anything
(11:34):
except maybe get some informationor a little bit of information,
but have some fun, then you'reprobably gonna have a better outcome.
Yeah.
And sports, that, that type ofenvironment brings that out as well.
Because you in a way.
more friendly with each other whenyou're in that kind of environment
instead of just sitting on a table.
Eating.
So that's I'm interested to see howthe numbers ship for you compared
(11:57):
to the dinner and the sports.
I, I've heard good things aboutit, but we're gonna invite
probably 50 people there.
Which is pretty big size and have fun.
If you wanna bowl one game andgo home, you could do that.
You wanna bowl, playbocce, ball and bowl again.
You can do that.
You wanna have a glass of wine and somemini and some unlimited appetizers.
(12:18):
You could do that.
yeah.
So how do you, sorry.
You do a lot of speakingto other financial advisors
about, motivation marketing.
I.
share.
How you use these principles inyour own life and for your clients?
(12:38):
Is there, is it about building trustor is there more to it as well?
Any other kind of strategies?
great question.
With
I.
I, I'm in a unique position.
That doesn't make me great or terrible.
Just unique that I've been a financialadvisor for 3 30, 33 years now.
So I've seen a lot.
(12:59):
I've learned a lot.
I don't wanna say I'm long into toothor tired 'cause I'm neither but I've
learned what works and doesn't work.
So I've been invited to industry meetingsconstantly to speak about what works
and what doesn't work, because it'sall about options that work for that
person, what dinners I find expensive.
But for you, you might love them.
Things like that.
We go over what works.
(13:19):
We understand now artificialintelligence, but we also talk about
foundation building and characterbuilding and why trust is so important.
I built a foundation and I did it becausemy son died and I built a foundation on,
that to deal with teen depression andsuicide because he took his own life.
When you have that story, then wecould talk about foundation building,
(13:39):
and now you're talking about trust.
Because do I trust, can I nothave to, I don't, I shouldn't have
to sell trust to my prospects.
I should exude trust.
Just
talk about that.
Be trustworthy.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So honesty and trustworthy.
I could talk about till that,till I'm blue in the face, but
(13:59):
you either have it or you don't.
Yeah.
No, I see that.
No, for sure.
Now, that's why you won those awardsthe most trusted in California.
I got a, I've got a lot of awardsbehind me and on the walls and my
staff makes me put them up there for,I wouldn't put 'em up if it was mine
'cause I think it's little braggadociostuff, but they like them going up and
(14:21):
the whole office is filled with that.
Yeah.
Are naturally Skeptical.
What do you think top of that relationshipaspect, is there anything else that
differentiates you guys to build thatlevel of trust that you could share
that could help someone out there do the
The, yeah.
(14:41):
The third ingredient that wedidn't talk about is communication.
How are you gonna communicatewith your prospect and client?
When we do, not only do we dolive events all the time, we do.
Biweekly emails to our clientson what's going on in the market.
And here's an interesting topicthat may or may not fit you, but
(15:04):
we're constantly putting ourselvesin front of them in some form.
Remember, when you get an email, youcan hit the delete button really fast
and people do, lots of people do.
When you're getting anewsletter, what do you do?
What, how does that work?
Then?
Maybe that's something I wanna read whenyou're getting a video every Monday.
Which is what I put out on Mondaysof what happened last week in a
(15:25):
market and what's happening thisweek, how is that gonna work for you?
How do you feel about that?
So some people say, I love your videos.
Some people say, I love your newsletters.
Some people say, I reallyappreciate your articles.
When the market goes down a thousandpoints or 500 points, you are the
first one to send me an either a videoor an email saying, okay, this is
(15:46):
what just happened and we're buying.
We're not selling.
You are constantly reassuring me.
You're looking at my account, so youknow, I've got 200 clients or 140 clients.
You can't look at 140 accounts today.
It's impossible.
So I built portfolios for them.
I can look at my portfolios everyday when they're going down.
I feel that personal pain.
(16:06):
'cause I'm also investedin those portfolios.
I. And so I make sure Iknow what I'm talking about.
And I tell them, listen,I've got six portfolios.
I'm in two of them.
I'm not at six, I can'tbe in six, I'm in two.
So they say, that's all right.
You are investing, you're puttingyour money where your mouth
is, and we appreciate that.
They'll look at that.
So they know I have their back and I'mconstantly reminding them these are buying
(16:27):
opportunities, not selling opportunities.
When a market goes down, which what?
You lose clients more from lack ofcommunication than from any other way.
Good point.
No, good point.
Thank you for sharing that.
It really fascinates me.
I. About success and I studythat, that's what I do.
And this show a, one of the byproductsof it, to get people like yourself on
(16:50):
here to learn from you and to shareyour message and, just find information
that can help others out there.
Just may be holding back.
And I don't feel as fair foranybody to just settle because
we do have this incredibleamount of power as a human being.
So you look at everything that youbuilt, your PRIs, your business
(17:14):
your charity, your recognitions,your family, everything.
Can you share if you are awareof any specific secret sauce or
anything that made it all possible,like something that you always had
in you helped you get this done?
Is there anything you could share on that?
(17:34):
That's a really great question.
I, and I have an answer 'causeI've been asked that before.
And that is, I've been very fortunate inmy life that I came from parents, not just
that were loving, but had they, they leftan indelible mark on their three children.
So my father was a World War ii, greatestgeneration guy, born in 1915, and his mark
(17:59):
to me, was nothing replaces hard work.
That was his mess.
He had a lot of messages for me,but that's the one I remember most,
which means that when I come towork, I'm almost always the first
one here, 7 30, 6 30 in the morning.
I like it.
I wanna come to work.
I work hard.
Sometimes I'll come in on Saturdays'cause I can get more done.
My mother, she was from Europe, shewas an Auschwitz concentration camp
(18:22):
survivor, and her message to me was,you could do better today than yesterday
and better tomorrow than today.
Which means that every time youcome to work, you come to work doing
better than you did the day before.
So when I come to work and I sit downand I start mapping out my day, I'm
not somebody who does a lot of that thenight before, but that day I'm mapping
(18:44):
out who I could talk to today and whataction I could take today that will
be better than what I did yesterday.
And I'm gonna put the hours in to do it.
So I think my secret sauce, fortunatelyfor me, we're having two loving parents
who said, go to work every day and excelat what you do, the best way you can.
(19:06):
Yeah.
And mention, sorry.
nope, that's my secret sauce.
I think
Yeah.
No, that's awesome.
I.
you mentioned hard work, but itreally sounds like there's another
level here with what you didbecause I think maybe it's that.
A high level of passion that you have.
There's this level passion thatyou're saying hard work, but it seems
(19:29):
like to me, I could be wrong, butyou could tell me that when you do
work you don't feel like it's work.
It's just you just flowing because it's,you have that passion to back it up.
That's a great word.
Passion.
I wrote about my whole book over my leftshoulder called Driven Includes Passion.
Look, you've heard a lot of peoplesay Shahid, live your passion.
(19:51):
Do that.
And then every day you'll be, if you workyour passion, it'll never feel like work.
Those are not new phrases.
I didn't create those phrases there.
I wanna tell you that.
My father used to tell me when wetalked about hard work, he said, you
need to, it's not just working hardbecause the garbage man who picked
up our garbage and work pretty hard.
Yeah, you have to do somethingthat you could excel at.
(20:14):
He didn't understand passion, but heunderstood the word you could excel at.
That's the same thing in a way.
thing.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I said for me, I love whatI do, I love what I do.
So maybe I'm very passionatewhat I do, because I love it.
I've enjoyed helping people inretirement and when it comes to
the charity, although I would.
I prefer not to have her startedthe charity for that reason.
(20:37):
But saving lives is saving lives.
You can't get more passionateabout that, you're saving a life.
So in my business life, I'm changing livesIn my charitable life, I'm saving lives.
Those are pretty good days tocome to work, and pretty good ways
that you could think every day.
You got purpose.
I've got purpose.
I go home with purpose.
I come to work with purpose.
(20:58):
I talk to you with purpose.
Yeah.
it means something.
It's not just a job.
Something.
And when you fail, it's accept whensomebody leaves you, I tell you the
downside of this, when somebody leavesyou and people do leave you for all
types of reasons, when they do leaveyou, it hurts in every possible way
because you put your heart into it.
But pe they still leave you.
It happens.
It happens.
(21:19):
No, that's
I.
And that's what I was sensing as wellbecause you could tell when there's work
and then there's passion based work.
You mentioned hard work 'cause we'rejust used to seeing it, but there's
when you have that level of passion,the work doesn't seem hard at all.
It just, you're just flowing with it.
It's just the beauty of life,it's just loving that moment.
(21:42):
It is.
the contents are of that moment.
No, it was great talking to you today.
Wanna say, I think my kidstalk to me, just certain ended.
My kids talk to me about passion andI wanted to cor, I wanted to correct
something about the word passion with thembecause you, if you love painting, then
being a passion of painter is important.
But ha, making a living
(22:04):
Can open up opportunities.
So you have to have passion withopportunity and understand how
both fit in with your own life.
yes, it definitely is.
If you're really passionate.
There's so funny you mentioned that I wastalking to a parent and he said that kids.
guidance counselor.
He went to ask him, what should I do?
(22:25):
I'm confused, she goes,what are your passions?
She goes, I'd really love to, to paint.
I like to, draw things right.
I. So she said, yeah, justgo into that, start drawing.
So his, the dad was telling me that hegot really upset saying that the guidance
counselor recommended that, he shouldhave said, okay, you're like, art, what
can you do in art that could provideyou a lifestyle, blah, blah, whatever.
(22:48):
So the behind that passionwas important but was missed.
And I totally get it.
You could be passion, but.
You, when you are North Star issomething that is, is gleaming internally
with you and is just so beautifuland you're so passionate about it.
The opportunities that you need to getthere are, that's what you jump on.
(23:13):
Yeah, but
passionate about it
that guidance counselor shouldhave talked about architecture,
Yeah.
Yeah.
That would be
So my.
out.
Yeah, I'll give you a quick story.
I'll give you, I've got one more moment.
I'll give you a quick story.
Yeah.
I was, I was in third grade, they hadthe, they did the first open, the first
heart transplant in South Africa was done,and then later in Brooklyn, New York.
(23:34):
And the one from Brooklyn, New York wason some local public TV type of thing.
And we watched it and Isaid to my parents, I wanna
be a heart doctor one day.
Th So I wrote a letter that he said,why don't you write a letter to the
doctor that you saw on TV at in MaMonte's Hospital in Brooklyn, this Dr.
Adrian Kitz.
And I did, and in my handwriting,which in third grade was a third
(23:57):
grader, my other handwriting todayis it ha it hasn't approved much.
So I sent it to him and I said, Iwanna be a heart surgery one day.
A heart doctor one day, allbecause of you and his secretary.
His administrative assistant calledmy mother up and made an appointment
for me to come in and spend a halfa day with him going around doing
(24:20):
rounds, and I, she set that up.
My brother and I went in, we didrounds with him, and then I held
the lungs open of a German Shepherd.
My brother held the other lungs open whilethey did a heart transplant, and that was
their way of saying, if you love this.
We've just exposed you to something inlife that you could be, and they did.
(24:43):
They didn't even know they were saying,we want you to follow your passion.
I didn't become a heartdoctor a lot of ways.
I wish I did, but they set up ways.
No doubt, ever understanding theword passion and living your dream.
If this is your dream, we wanna create anopportunity where you can live your dream.
And for a third grader, that was my dream.
They set that up andthat's pretty amazing.
(25:03):
If you're a parent and youhear this story, that's an
amazing story for your children.
I.
yeah.
No, it definitely is.
Wow.
I had a great timetalking to you, actually.
The information you're sharing,what you're talking about is
definitely, I could see howI can elevate someone's life.
So I appreciate your time today.
I appreciate that you came and you sharedyour voice, your message, and I wish you
(25:27):
all the growth and success, my friend.
Keep in touch.
Shaheed was on the show.
Thanks so much.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!