Wealth Advisor Brent Mekosh Shares The Wealth Advisory Mindset And Strategies Needed To Grow Your Wealth (#244)

Jeffrey Feldberg: [00:00:00] Welcome to the Deep Wealth Podcast where you learn how to extract your business and personal Deep Wealth. 

I'm your host Jeffrey Feldberg. 

This podcast is brought to you by Deep Wealth and the 90-day Deep Wealth Experience. 

When it comes to your business deep wealth, your exit or liquidity event is the most important financial decision of your life. 

But unfortunately, up to 90% of liquidity events fail. Think about all that time and your hard earned money wasted. 

Of the quote unquote "successful" liquidity events, most business owners leave 50% to over 100% of the deal value in the buyer's pocket and don't even know it. 

I should know. I said "no" to a seven-figure offer. And "yes" to mastering the art and the science of a liquidity event. [00:01:00] Two years later, I said "yes" to a different buyer with a nine figure deal. 

Are you thinking about an exit or liquidity event? 

Don't become a statistic and make the fatal mistake of believing the skills that built your business are the same ones to sell it. 

After all, how can you master something you've never done before? 

Let the 90-day Deep Wealth Experience and the 9-step roadmap of preparation help you capture the best deal instead of any deal. 

At the end of this episode, take a moment and hear from business owners like you, who went through the Deep Wealth Experience. 

After graduating with a BS in finance, from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 1995. Brent Mekosh went to work in New York City on the trading floor of the New York Stock exchange and rose to become a Vice President of trading for Bear Wagner Specialists and a member of the New York Stock Exchange. 

During that time he earned an MBA in finance and International business from New [00:02:00] York University. In 2006, Brent left New York and backpacked for a year. In 2007. Brent joined Raymond James with a commitment towards building a practice focused on the financial wellbeing of his clients. 

Brent is a Certified Financial Planner, Professional and Certified Investment Manager Analyst and hold a series 4 7 24 31 51 63 and 65 licenses. 

Brent lives in Phoenix with his wife Paige they're children, Nicholas and Arden. He's a certified SCUBA diver and an instrument rated pilot. In addition to working with his clients, Brent enjoys trail running, camping, cooking, playing the guitar badly and reading lots of history. 

Welcome to the Deep Wealth Podcast, and for all you listeners out there, wow, do I have a terrific guest lined up for you, because this is a money guy through and through in the best of [00:03:00] ways. You know, whether you're just going into business, you've been in business for a while, you're having a liquidity event, or it's often a distance.

You will wanna speak with our guest, Brent, but I'm gonna stop it right there. so, Brent, welcome to the Deep Wealth podcast. An absolute pleasure to have you with us, and there's always a story behind the story. so, Brent, what's your story? What got you to where you are today?

Brent Mekosh: It's interesting, there's a lot of different roads that get people from A to B and I and mine brought me here out to Arizona circuitous route. Actually, I worked in new. City first. I was a specialist trader on the New York Stock Exchange as a member down there back when the New York Stock Exchange had most of the volume was heading down to the floor.

The market structure's very different right now, was down there from 96 to oh six and left New York City in oh six. I traveled for about a year and during that year traveling, I'd figured out that I didn't really want to go back to New York City. I love it, but I felt my time there had passed and it was time to do something different.

so,, I landed out here in Arizona and we began building our practice out here. We got clients in 26 states, and I'm fortunate enough that [00:04:00] I like to get around the country and see the people that we work with, but Arizona is now home.

Jeffrey Feldberg: So, Brent, what really got your passions ignited. You left the New York Stock Exchange. You really were a big dog where you were before that, but you made the leap. Certified financial planner, Wealth Advisor. mean, It's like an alphabet of letters after your name in terms of degrees and designations that you got.

What is it? What gets you outta bed each day?

Brent Mekosh: A few catalysts in terms of me choosing this career path. Having left New York. And one was this is back in the early two thousands. There was a company that was listed down on the New York Stock Exchange, So, it was an initial public offering.

I was a specialist that was chosen to make markets in that stock. And the whole thing where you've got the founder and you've got this families and everything, and you sell 'em the first a hundred shares and they are Ecstatic because this deal priced out far better than they could have imagined.

And it actually has gone on to be they've gone on to be just incredibly, even more successful beyond that. But watching how that single event, that single [00:05:00] liquidity event was able to change their lives and also in considerably grow the business and allow them to help a lot of people along the way.

That got me really excited. And so, I love the secondary markets. So, I love trading. I love the market making. But what became more interesting and to me was, if there's gonna be money that has to get moved around, there's gotta be productive businesses and people that are providing products or services in order to create that Wealth.

I wanted to work with those people on a closer level, and that's what the catalyst was for me to get into the Wealth management or client facing side of the business.

Jeffrey Feldberg: And so, from a Wealth management side, and Brent, you and I, we work with the same groups of people. The business owners, whether they're just getting going or they've been around for a while. You and I, I know we've had a number of conversations offline, and I can proudly say that we're both the kind of guys, the glass is half full.

We just take that vantage point. But let's flip that for a moment. When it comes to business owners, when you're working with clients particularly new, as [00:06:00] business owners, where are we getting it wrong? What would be some of the typical mistakes that you're seeing us make that you would love for us to stop?

Brent Mekosh: I think if there's one thing that business owners that we've worked with, they are fantastic. At running their business, they're fantastic at finding and seeing opportunities where they can expand and grow. And sometimes they may not see everything else that is happening around them, or, quite frankly, they may not recognize that this baby that they've brought up from its infancy now has real significant value.

That can be unlocked to grow to even a greater degree. And I think that's that's the thing consistently surprises me is some of the people that, that we, that I've met and that we work with, that have built these absolutely fantastic, incredible businesses. They don't almost realize what they've done, , and how hard it is to get to the point where they've gotten to.

And I think in many cases they're so, busy, with their head, down and grinding and working through that process every single day that they sometimes don't realize. They undervalue, I think in many cases what they've created. If that makes.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Absolutely. [00:07:00] And for our listeners out there with what Brent is saying, let me ask you a rhetorical question for our listeners, and the rhetorical question is this. How can you master something you've never done before? And Brent, we ask that question a lot when it comes to a liquidity event, but that same question really applies to what you're doing because for business owners, let me dispel another myth, and Brent, if I'm off base, please be the first one to correct me.

But at Deep Wealth, we don't believe that as business owners, we have to figure out the investment side and the Wealth management side and become masters at that. To your point, we're busy working on the. Why not let someone like yourself do that? And so, for our listeners out there. Here's another question for you, so if you can't master a game you've never played before, or you really wanna gamble with your financial future with what you have, why not have someone like Brent look to do that for you and leave it with a professional to do. So, brent, not really. Appreciating what we built as business owners, perhaps having that imposter syndrome.

Well, you know, we're not really big enough for someone like Brent, or we'll talk about it another [00:08:00] day. That's a popular mistake that you're seeing out there. Any other ones that come to mind?

Brent Mekosh: I think even in terms of what the opportunities are, cuz you know, I'll give you a great example. If you have a business owner that has built an incredibly successful enterprise and they may not wanna sell. In their mind, there's no reason why they ever would. It's not a binary discussion in terms of a pure financial sale versus finding the correct growth partner that can really leverage the expertise that they've got in terms of dealing with several other businesses and taking the business to the next level.

And every, without exception, every single owner of a business that I have worked with, They care deeply about their employees. And the ability to unlock some of that equity, potentially multiply it, but also maybe share it with some of the key people within the organization is really powerful as well, because now you've got everybody with a sense of ownership.

Everybody with a stake towards moving it, moving the ball down the road. And you have beginning to think about, three to five years out, having those discussions in terms of what that might look like. I think is maybe an area where people haven't really considered that because [00:09:00] it's, oh, my son's gonna take over the business, my daughter's gonna take over the business.

You know, this is gonna be in the family forever. And yeah, guess what? It absolutely might be. But maybe there's a partner that can really help take everything to the next level.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Absolutely love what you're saying and really working with someone like yourself where whether I am taking money out of the business or it's from the business, I'm really de-risking that. Not having all my eggs in one basket when I have someone like you take that over and look to invest and do all the right things.

So, let's speak directly to a very specific business owner. And Brent, you and I were talking about this offline and this is the business owner and so,. It's a lot of us out there that are thinking, okay, you know what, Brent, you have a terrific story. I'm sure you're a wonderful person, but you know what?

Once I sell the business, once I have all these zeros in my bank account, I will speak with you, but up until the end I'm probably too small to even get your interest or have you wanna work with me For that specific business owner, what would you say to [00:10:00] them?

Brent Mekosh: I would absolutely want to talk to two of them and work with them now, because the reality is that all of a sudden they might log into their bank account one day and there's all of these zeros. 

But the money is one thing, but it's really what are you trying to achieve with it?

What are the goals? What's the value system that you have surrounding that money? I can say this without exception, almost every single person that I've met that has had a significant transaction down the road if it went well, They planned for it years in advance, and they began to put some of those pieces together years in advance.

 When the deal actually came through and all of a sudden all those zeros arrived, what becomes far less important is the amount of financial resources that have been accumulated. It's really what are the values that money is gonna. And in order to get an idea of what those values are, what the goals are, you know, who the critical people are, in the lives of these people who have built these incredible businesses, you've gotta have some time and experience with them.

You've gotta have an understanding of what makes 'em tick At least from our perspective, if there's something that may be happening, In that three to five year range, or even potentially longer. We would love [00:11:00] to develop that relationship to see, just to see what's going on and see where it is they're trying to go, and see if there's different parts and pieces in place that we might be able to set them up with so, that big decisions, or big mistakes rather, aren't made that all the loose ends are tied up before they even consider it so,.

I absolutely love to speak to that.

Jeffrey Feldberg: And when we continue that forward, because Brent, you're really taking the same playbook that we're using at Deep Wealth, different industry, but really the same playbook because we're both saying the same thing. Given enough time, you can prepare and with that preparation you can get everything lined up and worked out so that when you hit payday so to speak with a liquidity event, it's not gonna be a mad dash to try and figure things out.

Brent Mekosh: Or have the deal fall apart because something that you didn't consider comes up.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Brent, you bring up a wonderful point. Through that preparation, what would be some of the things that you're looking at with a business owner? Because I, I'm sure it goes well beyond just investing. You're gonna be looking at taxes and perhaps estate planning and other kinds of things.

So, [00:12:00] talk to us about that.

Brent Mekosh: And you bring up a phenomenal point in terms of taxes because there's really no way around it, but there are ways to mitigate it. Now, in full disclosure, we don't draft legal documents. We don't provide direct tax advice. But we do have a team of people, my broker deal on RS Raymond James, their investment banking team and Wealth Solutions team is absolutely fantastic.

And so we've got a team of people in place that either are going to help provide some of those answers and insights that, and you can take back to those professionals to help you along the way. Or if you don't have those other advisors in place, we're gonna help you find those people. And I think that the scary thing is if you know what you don't know, then you can really work to address it.

If you don't know what you don't know, those are the surprises. Those are the surprises that can come back and create challenges to put it mildly in the future.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Absolutely. And you know what, Brent, in our Deep Wealth nine step roadmap, step number five is advisors. and many business owners are surprised when they see our list. Brent, you're on that list in terms of a Wealth Advisor, and they're saying well, Jeffrey, why if I'm not having a liquidity event, [00:13:00] why would I have a Wealth Advisor years in advance?

And it's for all the reasons that we're talking about. And Brent, if I can put you on the spot, this is not scripted or rehearsed. I'll just throw this out there. You have a story, a client that comes to mind who was wise enough to work with you early on, and then. Reap the rewards once they had more zeros in the bank account versus if they would've come to you once they had those zeros.

You know, kind of A before and after. Anything that comes to mind on that front.

Brent Mekosh: Yeah, absolutely. We have a couple actually, and we've got one that's unfortunately did not go the way that everyone , I guess, would've hoped for. But I got them as clients, began working with them rate basically when they were at ninth inning of what was gonna be a pretty significant transaction for them.

And we're talking now and we're coming into, right around the G F C, the financial crisis. It all got delayed because in the past there weren't some things that should have been taken care of and some due diligence that was not done. When this thing got shelved, you had two things that happened.

You had the GFC happen, which obviously changed things [00:14:00] dramatically for a period of time. And then you also a massive change in technology that in their case, de ended up devaluing their business by probably about 90%. So, really significant. Really significant impact there. And on the flip side, people that we've been fortunate enough to work with, since that point where we've been with them, and in this case actually.

Not even necessarily because of us, quite frankly, but when I began working with 'em, had really fantastic people already in place that were, able and really willing to work as a team together with me to try to prepare for this liquidity event. And everything has gone incredibly seamlessly.

And then there's one actually that we're looking imminently as well and everything is in place. And again, it's not because of it's cuz of the work of the person that built a business. So let's start there. But in terms of the people around them it's getting ahead of problems before they could potentially happen and also getting an idea of.

What are some of the things that could potentially cause issues down the road? And just making sure that they're addressed before the fact. I think it's like anything, it's preparation. And no one has the bandwidth to do all of this on their [00:15:00] own.

 And so, Jeff, they've gotta take people like yourself that have been down this road before. People like myself and people on my team that can recognize some of these things and free up their bandwidth and their time to to do what's really adding value for them.

Jeffrey Feldberg: And you know, Brent, as you're talking, you brought up a few salient points. Let's unpack that and really it's for the business owners out there who are gonna be coming to you. And you said something interesting at the start of our conversation, you said, Hey, why don't we start small? See how that goes.

Kick the tires and perhaps you like it, perhaps you don't. But for our listeners out there, again, a little bit of a rhetorical question. It is and it isn't. But wouldn't you rather try something out where there's less to lose? It's fewer zeros. Figure it out. You have the right person. You don't have the right person.

But you know that. And as we like to say, Deep Wealth, you've gotta stop believing, oh I believe, or I think I have the best Wealth Advisor too. You know what I. , I've got the best Wealth advisory. We've gone through great times. We've gone through rocky times. They know me, they know my personality, they know my risk tolerance.

We've got my [00:16:00] asset allocation all done properly. And yeah, you know what? When the liquidity event hits, it's just gonna be smooth sailing from there versus trying to figure that out in real time where there's a lot at stake. Any thoughts about that?

Brent Mekosh: Yeah I completely agree with that, and I think that from, from the standpoint is at least what I'm getting from the. Line of questionings with is a lot of people, they might not feel like, okay, you know what, I haven't hit the point yet where I should be speaking with a Wealth Advisor or begin putting together this team.

I'll do it when that comes. But what I would say is that one of the things, if you're working with the right people,

One of the things that excites me about my business is the fact that I'm able to participate in people's lives in a really deeply meaningful and impactful way. And so, for clients.

I have, I've got some clients that for a variety of reasons, quite frankly didn't start out with all, with that much money. It's all relative cuz a couple bucks to somebody's, a couple million to another person, but didn't start out with what they think is significant Wealth. But we hit it off the personal relationship was built and, I got to be [00:17:00] there and participate.

In that process with them. And for me that's what gets me excited about the business. Cuz you look at this business and fundamentally and Jeffrey you and I are both optimistic people. This is an optimistic business that we are in. If you do not believe that the future is gonna be better than the past, that people are gonna continue to innovate.

That they're continue to advance society and the human condition is gonna continue to get better. Cuz people wanna make something or build something. And what are we doing? Any of this thing for? But if you believe that and you feel like and the ability to come along with that and be a part of that it's just awesome.

For me having the chance to speak with somebody that might maybe they're even in a very early stage of perhaps, having one of these events, my worst case scenarios, I probably learned a. Because they're dealing in something that might be very different than mine.

And my promise to everybody that reaches out to us is that we're not gonna waste your time. We'll go through and we'll help you with what we can help you with. If we have something we can do today, phenomenal. If we can't, perhaps it'll be in the future, but you're not going to waste your time by taking a look at some of these[00:18:00] different possibilities.

Jeffrey Feldberg: And Brent, let me ask you this and firstly I'll share my experience when I'm speaking with business owners. I picked myself up off the floor so, many times, and there's no judgements here. Oftentimes I find people will spend more time planning a vacation. Than who they're gonna work with as a Wealth Advisor or a financial Advisor.

And it's almost like it's this taboo to even talk about money and so now let's speak to the listeners out there who, you know, they're busy, they have a Wealth Advisor. Don't really hear much from that. Wealth Advisor, maybe they get their quarterly statements and that's about it. And they're even too busy to be looking those statements that they don't really know. They believe they have someone that's okay, but they don't really know. Yeah. I've got the best person, so from your perspective, how do I know if I have the absolute best Wealth Advisor? What are some telltale signs or questions that I should be asking or looking for?

Brent Mekosh: I think the number one thing with that is do they know you?

Do they know who you are? And even from my side, one of the mistakes that you can [00:19:00] make is you can just start bombarding people with facts and the technical stuff. It's all kind of cool in terms of what's happening with the economy and the markets.

But fundamentally, they've gotta know who you are and what you're trying to do. I mean, the single best compliment that I'll receive from clients. , you know you got this. We know you care about. It's not, you got this, we know that there's never gonna be bumps in the road and you're not gonna have, you know, challenging years in terms of the financial markets.

But you got this cuz we know you care about us. That to me that's the number one thing. Now there's gotta be a certain amount of technical proficiency. that comes with that. But it's really, I think, have you built a deep and meaningful connection with the person?

I think that's number one. Do they know the name of your kids and your parents? They know where, you're born. I've had some of these stories in terms of having to pawn off your wife's wedding ring because the business was failing before it turned into a multimillion dollar enterprise.

 Do they know? Cuz behind all of those accounts, There is a lifetime of blood, sweat, tears, and energy and effort that's been expended to put these ones and zeros on the [00:20:00] paper. You know, Do they know how that happened? I think that's the biggest thing.

Jeffrey Feldberg: So, Brent, for the listener who's hearing this and saying, okay Brent, you're asking a lot. You want to take my valuable time? You wanna get to know me, but come on. I just want you to put me into those investments that are gonna have a decent return. Why does it make a difference to you?

For you to really know me and get to know how I work and what I tick and all those other kinds of things? Why Brent? Is that so, important? What would you tell that.

Brent Mekosh: On a real technical level, you gotta figure out, okay, what's the decent return? What's your timeframe? is a decent return six months from now. Actually now, which is exciting. You actually, because of where rates are, you have some options. But a couple years ago, there wasn't as many options, but I think again, all the money is It's a lot more, obviously, but one of the main things is, I should put it that way. Is, it is stored energy. It's stored energy from your life's work. And the question is, how are you going to thoughtfully apply that energy into areas that hopefully are gonna do some good for you and your family and do some good in the world?

whatever that might mean for you. I think anybody that's gonna direct those investments and make decisions around that they kind of have to have an idea who you are. [00:21:00] Cuz I mean, you look even in terms of some people, E S G is a four letter word. Some people it. And there's variations across the board with almost any type of investment.

Some people might have had a really terrible experience with an asset class that, you know, what might be appropriate for most portfolios, but guess what? It might not be appropriate for them because you're gonna be churning up all this negative emotion that's occurred in the past, and it's gonna take away sleep at night from them.

And, you know, I think at the bottom of this thing, you've got to the best extent that you can, you've gotta simplify all this stuff and you have to take something that is inherently risky. All the assets that we're dealing with here are risky to a certain point. Even cash is cuz your risk is losing purchasing power and you've gotta find out a way to do something that most human beings are very uncomfortable with.

Which is taking risk cuz you've got sense of self-worth, you've got fear of loss, you've got, greed, you've got all these human emotions tied up into it. And what is the best way that we can try to employ this in a productive way that is gonna keep people in the game and to keep 'em in the game?

I gotta know what makes 'em tick. I gotta know what that emotional point is I can't know any of that unless [00:22:00] I know them as people.

Jeffrey Feldberg: And so, for our listeners out there with what Brent is sharing, Brent, I'm gonna put that on the art side of business. This is not a complicated formula and a spreadsheet. Hey, I wanna know how you tick. I wanna know your mindset. I wanna know your personality, what your fears are, what your aspirations are, and for our listeners, if you don't have a Wealth Advisor, who's taking the time to get to know you at that level?

You're probably not with the right Wealth Advisor, because Brent, correct me if I'm off base here. Once you know the personality and what really excites the person scares that person, you can put something together that's gonna make sense from an asset allocation side of things, from a risk tolerance side of things that they can sleep at night and have some peace of mind.

Would I be correct?

Brent Mekosh: Hundred percent. I mean, I think that the business itself, what's amazing is whenever you have any of these big dislocations, nothing ever models for the stuff that goes on in life, and so, it's really all the variable stuff that's out there. And if you at least have some kind of an idea of how people might.

Emotionally this all comes down to emotion. Human beings [00:23:00] are incredible creatures cuz you've got this kind of logical side over here, this firing that can hopefully allow us to make pretty good decisions. But pretty much all of our decisions at some basic level, unless we're paying attention or made with the emotion and so, you've gotta understand and I think about this as myself.

The emotional juice that's causing me to want to do this thing. And to the best extent that you can determine what that is I think you can be a lot more productive and successful.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Absolutely. And a quick story for our listeners out there, so, for myself, for my business partners Waleuska and Steve Wells, after a liquidity event. Brent, I gotta share with you. You know, word got around, it was a Hein figure deal. Word got around. And it was a circus. We had people lined up out the door, who, and effectively we became the emperor with no clothes.

They were telling us anything and everything to get in the door and whispering all these sweet nothings and so the power of preparation. You're working with Brent well before your liquidity event, . Brent knows you. He's put together a. You add some more zeros to that. You don't have to worry [00:24:00] about the noise, the distraction, these people lined up out the door, and now because you have that plan, you're simply opening it up.

You have more zeros, you can do more with that. But foundationally, it's in place. It's rock solid. It's ready to go. Brent, that kind of situation, when you contrast that to just getting going and starting, I'm sure there's pluses and minuses to everything, but where are you on that in terms of just why it's so much easier and more elegant when you're just working with you well before a liquidity event?

Brent Mekosh: One of the great compliments that I've had in this business last week. I had a wonderful client of mine. I've been working with him now for probably 11 or 12 years, 20 11, 20 12, right in there. And at the time it's all relative, but younger couple and really young kids and really enjoyed them both.

 You knew they were gonna crush it. He walked outta my office and I remember going home and saying, my wife, this guy is, if he's not gonna be my biggest client, he's gonna be one of my biggest clients. You just knew he had that in him. Two exits later and was at his house about [00:25:00] a little over a week ago, and he had some friends from outta town in, and they were just kind of discussing some things and he said, yeah.

He said, Brent's been with me through all of this. That's just man , cuz it was my privilege, it was from my end. It was really cool to be on the periphery and see what's, happening going on here. But the fact that he and his family viewed me as being part of that story to me was incredibly gratifying.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Absolutely. And speaking of stories, when we look to the market, and it's not really relevant what year we happen to be recording this in because we have good markets, we have bad markets, we have terrible markets, and we have incredible markets. All in good time and all in cycles. It's been a choppy market and it gets better, but it becomes choppy again, so, for everyone who's listening during this choppy time that we've been going.

what kind of peace of mind can you give them, so,, the clients that you're working with, despite it being a choppy market? What have you been doing for them behind the scenes to give them some peace of mind in some uncertain times?

Brent Mekosh: It's a phenomenal question because it has been [00:26:00] challenging because, you know, you look at what we, as people have been through for the last three years, really starting with Covid. so,, you have covid hits. No one knows is it gonna be the Spanish flu again, or is this gonna be something worse?

No one knows. Then they're locked in their houses and then they've got issues perhaps with their kids that are not in school. And there's all the about their businesses, potentially, all of the stuff happening so, you've got that.

And then you've got Russia, Ukraine thing comes up, which is on the news every single night. You have a presidential election that. Depending on what side you're on, another one greater, it didn't go great and all the associated turmoil around that. And now you've got, you go to the supermarket and it doesn't matter how much money you have, you recognize when the price of everything is going up and you have to deal with that so

there's been enormous amount of fear and uncertainty that have been thrown on to people. And I think that for the most part, people have been incredibly resilient. And in terms of the business community, I think that has survived through this, I think What they're recognizing is that, yeah, we've got massive dislocations, but in these dis, usually in the wake of these massive economic dislocations is when all the innovation [00:27:00] happens. I mean, You look at half these incredible growing companies that, we've been looking at in the last 10 years or so,.

Many of these were the, in the wake of the gfc. I think there has to be a fundamental, faith that, that yeah, that times are challenging now. And there was very few places to hide. You got a few more places to hide this year, for sure. Based on what's occurred, both the debt markets and the equity markets and also, private equity's enormous opportunities there right now.

I'm quoting Napoleon Hilly here, but there's a seed of equivalent benefit through all of this stuff. And I think if you recognize that every time. Something negative happens. There's a flip side, and even when it looks really good from an investment stand. I had a great line that was given to me by a client and I was talking to him and I'm discussing the merits of this particular investment that we wanted to place him in. And he said, Brent, he said, you, you're showing me the shiny side of the coin. He goes, flip it over cuz I wanna see all the, and then there was an expletive that came in the wake of that.

I said, that's really good because guess what? There's always, there's a beautiful shiny side. There's a side. Doesn't look so, hot. But now when we're seeing more of the side doesn't look so, hot. Believe me, at the end of this thing, there's a shiny side there somewhere.

A [00:28:00] question is, we just gotta find it.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Fair enough. And you know what? Going along with that Napoleon Hill quote that you're saying, and if we go to that masterful book, think and Grow Rich, one of the principles in there, he talks about the Mastermind Alliance and so Forth listeners out there, who's part of your mastermind because the titans of business.

They all had a mastermind group of people who were specialists in certain areas, no conflicts of interest, that together they achieve some incredible things. What the mind can conceive, it can achieve. Now, the Napoleon Hill quote, we're on a roll here, Brent so,, for our listeners out there, do you have someone like Brent in your corner?

And if you don't, why don't you? 

Brent Mekosh: I definitely do. I'm very fortunate that I've got a few people in my life that quite frankly, and I had coffee with one of them yesterday. I said this to him when we got done, cuz he's been challenged with some health issues lately.

So, he's going through some struggles on his own. But I said, you know what the fact that you actually pull time out of your day to sit down and talk to. about things that are occurring for sure in your life, but mostly in my life. Let's be honest. I'm mining him for, information I [00:29:00] think is unbelievable to me almost.

And I'm very fortunate cuz I've got three of those guys that are further down the road than I am in my life that I very regularly go. and discuss. And I think that the number one thing is with complete honesty, you're not gonna get any help from anybody unless you kinda open the book and show you.

Not many people deserve that level of trust, by the way. But to those that do it's an incredible gift. When you can have those people in place that can leverage their knowledge and what they've been and their experiences, which are unique to them to help any of us out.

But in my case, me out. The great thing about today too is all this knowledge, if you wanna find the answer, it's at your fingertips. Come on we're half a continent away from each other. And we can connect and I can learn all the great work that you and your organization does and so, the resources are out there.

I think you've just gotta both look and After that discern, you know, who can really help you, and then after a very long period of time comes to trust.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Absolutely. And Brent, you and I cut from the same mold, the same cloth as are the listeners and so, I can confidently say listen, we're type A personalities. A lot of us like to roll up our sleeves and think we can do [00:30:00] everything. And I know some of our community saying, okay, yeah, Jeffrey, Brent, that's all fine and good, but come on.

I'm paying these commissions. I'm paying these management fees. I can do it on my own. And so, when everything's going well, you know what? You can throw a dart at the wall. Pick something and it's probably gonna do well for you as well, but it's exactly in times like this and so Brent, for those people that think they can do it on their own better than someone like yourself or the professional managers, and maybe they have been trying to do that.

What have you been seeing out there? Because a lot of people have been in incredibly difficult situations in this choppy market. A professional like yourself versus the amateur out there, the non-professional. What have you seen in terms of differentials of performance.

Brent Mekosh: I'll say first that, you know, many of my clients could do it themselves, and I tell 'em that the question is if they wanted to focus their time and attention to do all this, they could Absolutely do it themselves. The question really is what's your bandwidth? How much time do you have to either, look at all the implications to, from a legal standpoint or tax standpoint or investment [00:31:00] standpoint, what you're doing.

 And I like to think that if I wasn't in this business, I could probably run another business. Right now, I can't, cuz it's not my point of focus every single day. That noted. I do think that, again, I'm coming back to emotion. I keep coming back to it cuz I do think that we underestimate the power of emotion in almost all of our decision making.

To the extent that you can offload some of that emotional internal struggle that you have onto someone else. I think there's a huge amount of value in that, quite frankly, to have somebody to put the brakes on things. Before you may or may not make a decision that's very challenging, cuz a great example is the pandemic.

We came into this thing, the s and p 500 drops, 35% almost in about three and a half weeks. They're shutting down the entire global economy. There's no way that this market is going to recover from that. Everything, every logical thing firing is saying there's no way the market recovers.

Of course, you don't know what the fed's gonna do at that point, and every emotional thing says you. My goodness, this money that I've accumulated is evaporating and my business is shut down and my kids are [00:32:00] like, all the stuff that's going on. And had you made the wrong decision at that period of time, same as in the gfc in the financial crisis, it was catastrophic.

It was catastrophic in a way that you can't necessarily come back from in some cases so,. You know, I look at it this way. I think it's very possible. You just kinda have to understand eventually how markets work, where in the short term, If you're not paying attention to it, it's absolutely possible to have an incredible bout of short-term luck.

The smartest person going to Las Vegas for example, is putting everything on black. And they're basing their results on short-term luck , worked in their favor. But the people that are successful in Las Vegas are the house.

It's the casino. , it's cuz they're playing the odds cuz they're playing the math and so, to the extent that you can from an investment standpoint. You wanna be the house, you don't wanna be the person that's out there gambling. And when things are really good, everything is incredibly exciting. And everybody, it's, whether it's crypto or whether it's some of the meme stocks or whether it's some of the innovative tech stocks that we're ripping in 2020, all the fundamentals and any rules based systems got thrown completely out the.

Because [00:33:00] it was exciting, it was fun. It was like watching a spectator sport's. Incredible. But you can't invest serious money based on that because short term you might be really lucky. Black might come up on the table, but in the long term it's just not gonna work.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Absolutely so, great advice. Leave it to the professionals. Focus on what you know your business, grow that, throw off the zeros there, and then let someone like Brent really take it from there to the next level. While you work on your area. Brent, you're working on your specializations. So It's all specializations.

And focusing and playing to our strengths and maximizing our time by not doing so, things, not being in some areas so that we can do other things, that can really move the Dow.

Brent Mekosh: A hundred percent agree.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Fantastic. And so, brent, if there was one takeaway from a Wealth Advisory side of things for our listeners that they could do today, one low hanging fruit, what would that be?

Brent Mekosh: Take an inventory of where you are today. Number one, there can ever be a roadmap drawn to a [00:34:00] destination if you don't know where you're starting. And that applies, that applies across the board regardless of asset level. There is, I was sitting down when the state planning attorney had lunch with him earlier this week that we've done some work with here in the valley.

You know, probate case that he was in and a very high profile, at least in the valley here person. Significant assets and, not even a will or trust, where you would think that you'd think, you know, at a certain level you're gonna get these things all wrapped up and that's not always the case.

And so I think that it's very important to very periodically take a step back, take an inventory of where you are, get a clear direction clear picture in terms of where you want to go, but at least get that snapshot of where you are today. Because a lot of people it's fun you haven 'em come in for discovery meeting, but we're really getting to know them and you start digging in and Well, is that it?

Well, No, that's not really that. It's, how about this and it, and the conversation. All of a sudden, they've uncovered either significant assets that might be lying around, they haven't considered. or major goals have been uncovered that they haven't really talked to anybody about or issues that have to be addressed, quite frankly, either from a business standpoint or from a family standpoint or personal standpoint.[00:35:00]

And it all comes because you actually have to pull that side, that time aside. I think people just personally can do this. Forget about managing money, but I think personally for me, I do it quarterly, but take a block of time and look at yourself as a business and where. What did I want to do this quarter?

Did I do it? What am I trying to do next quarter? And take an inventory of where you're at, and then at least it's gonna give you where the pain points are that need to be addressed immediately. And then how do you then set yourself up for success in the long term?

Jeffrey Feldberg: Terrific advice. Just get some clarity of where you are, where you want to be, and make the course correction as you go along with that.

Brent Mekosh: A hundred percent.

Jeffrey Feldberg: I love that. Brent, let me ask you this. We're gonna start wrapping things up and I have both the privilege and the honor to ask this question of every guest. so, let me set the context for you and then I'll ask the question. so,, I'd like you to think about the movie Back to the Future, and in the movie you have this incredible DeLorean car that can take you to any point in time. So, Brent, here's the fun parts. Imagine it's tomorrow morning, you look outside [00:36:00] your window not only is a DeLorean car sitting there, but the door is open and it's waiting for you to hop on in. 

 You're now gonna go back, to a younger point in your life, and it could be when you're a child, a teenager, young, adult, whatever point in time that would be, what are you telling your younger self in terms of life lessons or wisdom or, Hey, Brent, do this, but don't do that.

What would it sound like?

Brent Mekosh: It's a tricky question because if you changed any of the inputs, the output where you're today is radically different. And I wouldn't want to necessarily change my output at this point. That noted. I think that, like everyone, there's times in your life where you lose faith in yourself, where you lose faith in your abilities, where you question whether you're on the right path or not.

And I think I would probably go back to my much younger self and say have faith, trust in the universe. Higher consciousness, higher power, God, whatever you wanna call it. That, there's purpose and meaning to our existence here. Like always know that there's purpose and meaning to our existence here, [00:37:00] and that's probably what I would do.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Wow, Brent. That's a whole other, not only episode, but series of episodes , that we can talk about purpose and meaning. But I love that there's a purpose. You are where you are for a reason. Have some faith in yourself. You'll get through it. You'll figure it out. That's terrific advice and a wonderful way to wrap up this episode.

Brent, just before we wrap up here, we're gonna have everything in the show notes. If one of the listeners would like to reach out to you, where's the best place online that they can reach you?

Brent Mekosh: I'm really active on LinkedIn so if you just search Brent Mekosh on LinkedIn, I'm on there. I post stuff almost every single day. Our phone number here is six oh two two five five. Zero. Five. Five, five. Either myself or Andy or Kayla, members of my team will answer and they've got access to my calendar and everything else.

Or our website is MP Advisors, AZ, all one word, or smartmoneysimplified.com. But Google made and all that stuff comes up.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Terrific. And you know what? For our listeners, it'll be in the show notes. It'll be a point and click. It won't get any easier. And Brent, you are a modest fellow because you're an author [00:38:00] and you wrote a book. And we're gonna have this in the show notes as well, in the shadow of a dark star, God winks, and the search for a Golden Thread.

And so, what's going on with the book? Congratulations by the way.

Brent Mekosh: Thank you. Thank you. The book was written, it's not a finance book, although I do. There are some reflections of my time that I spent back in New York, but the book was really written for my son. My son's eight years old. It's definitely not age appropriate for him at this point. There's some concepts that I think will be a little bit above him, as he comes through some challenges as he gets older, and my daughter's too so she's even further down that road.

But I thought it might be helpful them to see what dad was like and what the world looked like during very defined period of time and some lessons that I learned along the way.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Wow, what a legacy and what a gift to leave. And again, for our listeners, we'll put that in the show notes. So, it'll be a point and click. Get the book, read it. Think about it for yourself, for your family, for your next generation. What a way to go with that, Brent. Congratulations. Listen, once again, a heartfelt thank you for sharing your insights, for sharing your wisdom with us here in the Deep Wealth podcast.

And as we wrap this up heartfelt. Thank you. [00:39:00] And as we'd like to say, Deep Wealth, please continue to prosper and stay healthy and safe.

Brent Mekosh: Jeffrey, thank you very much. I appreciate it. 

Sharon S.: The Deep Wealth Experience was definitely a game-changer for me. 

Lyn M.: This course is one of the best investments you will ever make because you will get an ROI of a hundred times that. Anybody who doesn't go through it will lose millions. 

Kam H.: If you don't have time for this program, you'll never have time for a successful liquidity 

Sharon S.: It was the best value of any business course I've ever taken. The money was very well spent.

Lyn M.: Compared to when we first began, today I feel better prepared, but in some respects, may be less prepared, not because of the course, but because the course brought to light so many things that I thought we were on top of that we need to fix. 

Kam H.: I 100% believe there's never a great time for a business owner to allocate extra hours into his or her week or day. So it's an investment that will yield results today. I [00:40:00] thought I will reap the benefit of this program in three to five years down the road. But as soon as I stepped forward into the program, my mind changed immediately. 

Sharon S.: There was so much value in the experience that the time I invested paid back so much for the energy that was expended. 

Lyn M.: The Deep Wealth Experience compared to other programs is the top. What we learned is very practical. Sometimes you learn stuff that it's great to learn, but you never use it. The stuff we learned from Deep Wealth Experience, I believe it's going to benefit us a boatload.

Kam H.: I've done an executive MBA. I've worked for billion-dollar companies before. I've worked for smaller companies before I started my business. I've been running my business successfully now for getting close to a decade. We're on a growth trajectory. Reflecting back on the Deep Wealth, I knew less than 10% what I know now, maybe close to 1% even. 

Sharon S.: Hands down the best program in which I've ever participated. And we've done a lot of different things over the years. We've been in other mastermind groups, [00:41:00] gone to many seminars, workshops, conferences, retreats, read books. This was so different. I haven't had an experience that's anything close to this in all the years that we've been at this.

It's five-star, A-plus.

Kam H.: I would highly recommend it to any super busy business owner out there.

Deep Wealth is an accurate name for it. This program leads to deeper wealth and happier wealth, not just deeper wealth. I don't think there's a dollar value that could be associated with such an experience and knowledge that could be applied today and forever. 

Jeffrey Feldberg: Are you leaving millions on the table? 

Please visit www.deepwealth.com/success to learn more.

 If you're not on my email list, you'll want to be. Sign up at www.deepwealth.com/podcast. And if you enjoyed this episode, if it added value, if you walked away with some new insights and strategies, [00:42:00] please leave a review on your favorite podcast channel. Reviews help us reach new listeners, grow the show. And continue to create content that you'll enjoy and as we wrap up this episode as always please stay healthy and safe.