In episode 34 of Everything is Up, Tammera Hollerich interviews Bob Wells, a successful individual with a background in the financial realm. Bob shares his journey and how his father's career in banking influenced his own path. They discuss Bob's career in the financial realm and his love for numbers, highlighting his passion for success and constant striving for the next level.
Tune in as they dive into a fascinating story of success.
TIMESTAMPS
[00:01:58] Choosing finance as a career.
[00:05:56] Impressive sales growth.
[00:09:40] Collaboration and gaining additional knowledge.
[00:13:33] Asking the right questions.
[00:19:48] Consultants and problem-solving.
[00:26:22] Education and homeschooling.
[00:36:12] Class and sportsmanship in competition.
[00:42:09] Profit margins.
[00:46:31] National debt and sustainability.
[00:49:36] Financial professionals and investments.
In this episode, Tammera Hollerich and Bob Wells delve into the significance of paying attention to the profound thoughts of others and how it can truly impact one's life. They emphasize that by surrounding oneself with individuals who possess greater intelligence, one can elevate their own intellect and thinking abilities. Bob shares a personal anecdote about their aspiration to be a thinker of great thoughts and the realization that there are countless remarkable ideas out there to be explored and learned from.
Furthermore, this episode touches upon the concept of surrounding oneself with the right people for personal and professional growth. The underlying notion is that by immersing oneself in the great thoughts of others, one will eventually cultivate their own exceptional ideas. Overall, this episode highlights how collaboration with individuals in similar industries can be highly advantageous for business growth and success.
QUOTES
“Entrepreneurs are creative people. They like to figure out new ways to do things. They like to understand how to drive things forward and I like being with those kinds of people and I like helping them figure things out.” - Bob Wells
“Everybody has those blinders, right? It's like, right in my own little world. And. And, of course, we are the center of our own universe, whether that's a good thing or not. We're human. So, I think entrepreneurs for sure. they get into that routine because they are, you know, trying to keep a company going and they're trying to wear so many hats, especially in the small business realm.” -Tammera Hollerich
"And so, I had blind spots and I have learned that as businesspeople, we have blind spots and we do not read people as well as we think we do." - Bob Wells
"Somebody said the definition of integrity is what you do when no one's watching, but everybody's always watching." - Tammera Hollerich
“Pay attention to the great thoughts of others. It will make a difference in your life. And if you don't, then you're going to average down.” - Bob Wells
SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS
Tammera Hollerich
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mirus3/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tammerahollerich/
Bob Wells
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cfobobwells
WEBSITES
Everything Is Up: https://everything-is-up.simplecast.com/
Tammera Hollerich: https://tammerahollerich.com/
Intro/Outro00:01 - 00:17
Welcome to everything is up a podcast about the real life stories of people who have created extraordinary levels of success These are conversations with people who are constantly striving to take things to the next level And now here's your host
Tammera Hollerich00:21 - 00:33
Good morning and welcome to Everything is Up with Tamara Hollerich. Joining me today is Mr. Bob Wells. Bob, welcome. Good morning. How are you?
Bob Wells00:33 - 00:36
I'm doing well, thank you. It's a pleasure to be here.
Tammera Hollerich00:36 - 00:42
So, so exciting. So, Bob, you're in the Houston area, correct?
Bob Wells00:42 - 00:45
That is correct. I've been here for about 13 years, in fact.
Tammera Hollerich00:45 - 00:47
Where did you come from, actually?
Bob Wells00:48 - 01:03
Well, that could be a long question or a short question. So the immediate prior location was Las Vegas, but my career has taken me from Chicago to New York to Switzerland to Las Vegas and now here.
Tammera Hollerich01:03 - 01:14
Wow. Okay. So that is a perfect segue into where I wanted to start. And that is, you were originally born in South Africa.
Bob Wells01:15 - 01:16
South America.
Tammera Hollerich01:16 - 01:17
Oh, South America.
Bob Wells01:17 - 01:20
Okay. Argentina to be specific.
Tammera Hollerich01:20 - 01:25
In Argentina. Okay. So how did that come about?
Bob Wells01:25 - 01:31
Could be a long story, but my father was a banker for Citibank in South America.
Tammera Hollerich01:31 - 01:39
Nice. Okay. So obviously then you have been in the financial realm for
Bob Wells01:41 - 01:42
My entire career.
Tammera Hollerich01:42 - 01:44
My entire career, yeah.
Bob Wells01:44 - 01:51
Plus I guess exposed through my father though. I don't know that he ever really taught me or trained me in those areas.
Tammera Hollerich01:51 - 02:03
Oh, so if you didn't necessarily, I mean obviously following in footsteps, was that the original plan? Did you just love numbers? How did you pick that as a career path?
Bob Wells02:05 - 03:07
When I was in college, I was trying to decide what I would do. Business seemed to be the thing that fit the best and finance seemed to be the topic that I was most comfortable with as opposed to marketing or production or some of the other things. So that's how I studied, ended up studying finance. And then while I was in graduate school, I was given a an internship by a bank, which turned into a full-time job. And then it was to some degree, maybe the course of least or the path of least resistance, but it was a good career. And I worked for very good institutions and they treated me well. And so during the time that I was a banker, you know, I, stayed in that area. Eventually I decided I didn't want to be a banker the rest of my life and so I looked at doing other things but that's where it started.
Tammera Hollerich03:07 - 03:39
Yeah that's interesting and you know when you made the comment you know it's not that my dad it's not like he really trained me um but that natural fit for you um is intriguing to me because you your dad did do that for so many years and you know all over the world. I mean, not a small organization and internationally on top of that. So it's very impressive. You actually went to Brigham Young, correct?
Bob Wells03:39 - 03:41
That's correct. That's where I got my bachelor's.
Tammera Hollerich03:41 - 03:44
And so did you go on to get your master's as well?
Bob Wells03:44 - 03:46
I did at University of Chicago.
Tammera Hollerich03:46 - 04:19
Oh, okay. That's kind of, you know, Brigham Young's in Utah, right? That's correct. And then to Chicago. Okay, so cold to cold. That's okay. I can see that. Las Vegas is hot. Texas is hot. So I'm like, okay, maybe he just got tired of the cold and just decided to come down south. Or, you know, as we say here in Texas, you guys need to get here as soon as you can, because we're going to close off the border one of these days. So, but you've been here now for 13 years. Did work bring you here?
Bob Wells04:19 - 04:57
Yeah, it did. I was looking for a chief financial officer job, and through connections, most people get jobs through networking, and I was introduced to a company that was growing, seemed to have some potential, and they wanted and needed a chief financial officer. And so they were kind enough to, I mean, we got together, it fit, it worked, and they hired me. We took the company from seven million a year to 67 million a year. We did that in about five years. And so that was an exciting time.
Tammera Hollerich04:57 - 05:15
I saw that. And when I saw those numbers, I was like, oh, like that is so much money in such a small period of time. I was like, that is incredibly impressive. You've also done that in another organization as well, haven't you?
Bob Wells05:17 - 05:56
That's probably been the one where we grew the fastest. I have worked for other companies that grew fast and I'm the finance guy. I can't take credit for the growth. The sales people take credit for the growth. They're the ones that make that happen. What the finance department does is make sure that it is organized that you account for it properly and you forecast and plan properly for the future. And so it's important in that aspect. One of my clients grew from, they went from 25 million in sales to 50 million in sales in one year. And that's impressive growth.
Tammera Hollerich05:56 - 06:04
Yeah, that's impressive growth. So you are currently self-employed. Yes, I am. And you have your own company.
Bob Wells06:04 - 06:05
Yes, I do.
Tammera Hollerich06:05 - 06:15
Okay, so let's talk about your company and what took you into the entrepreneur world from working with some of these bigger institutions.
Bob Wells06:17 - 07:28
Yeah, because a lot of my career with banks and so on was with some of the biggest banks in the world. So I was with UBS, which was the largest of the Swiss banks, B of A, which is clearly one of the largest of the US banks. And I enjoyed that world, but I also found that I enjoyed working with people who were trying to figure it out and it wasn't all systems. It wasn't all organized and you just followed the book. Entrepreneurs are creative people. They like to figure out new ways to do things. They like to understand how to drive things forward and I like being with those kinds of people and I like helping them figure things out. A lot of times they have an idea that is a really good idea and they know how to make sales or they know how to make a product. But when it comes to some of the organizational and administrative things, because they're so entrepreneurial, it's almost like they don't have time for it, even though they know it's important.
Tammera Hollerich07:28 - 07:35
Yeah. So we definitely need people like you. So then, so your company is the Redstone Consulting Group.
Bob Wells07:35 - 09:21
Redstone Business Consulting Group, which I started with two other friends. And Before that, I had been part of a large organization that had 100 plus fractional CFOs, people that did what I did, and I learned the trade there because sometimes going from accounting to being able to sell and get your own clients, that's a different skill set. Yeah. And so I did that for a number of years and then went out on my own. And for a while, a little less than a year, I actually hung out my own shingle. But then one of my former clients, she had been CEO of one of the companies that I did work for. and a very good friend of mine who's in the insurance business decided to collaborate and work with one another. So Lisa, one of my partners, specializes in human capital, in figuring out who's the right person to have in the right seat, what's their behavior patterns, how do we work together. She has two degrees in industrial psychology and so on. She's remarkable. and my partner Jason Jimenez specializes in risk management, insurance, both on personal lines as well as on commercial lines of business. And he's also someone who specializes in doing penetration testing on companies from a cybersecurity standpoint. So the feeling was that we're calling on similar companies anyway, why don't we collaborate and perhaps those companies would need more than one person services and we would have a team that would support one another. So that's how I got into that.
Tammera Hollerich09:22 - 11:13
That's, you know, entrepreneurs and creative, as you said. But I spoke recently, recently, probably January of this past year, at an Ascend conference where we were talking about collaboration and how how important that is to any business, whether you're collaborating with someone in your own field or collaborating with people outside of your field, how well that works in gaining additional knowledge and having that network, one of the things I read about you is that you are an extraordinary networker, and that you network in every aspect of, you know, how you personally do business, like you're just a really phenomenal networker. And I thought, when you started talking about collaboration, I thought, well, you know, this, like, you get it, like, you understand it. So as you guys put this company together, now that you have got Redstone Business Consulting Group, what, like, do you guys have a specific market? Are you guys, I mean, now you're an entrepreneur, right? So you're out of banking, you're now an entrepreneur. So now it's, every hat. As entrepreneurs, it's like, okay, we're wearing... But you guys have very specific skill sets. I did read you guys are doing a lot of HR work, advisory work, which small to medium-sized businesses, I swear that's where we suck the most is when it comes to the HR side because we don't like to deal with it.
Bob Wells11:14 - 11:36
Well, and we make a lot of assumptions and those assumptions are not necessarily correct. We trust our instincts and our instincts are not necessarily correct when it comes to people. And many entrepreneurs have found that somebody that they thought that they liked and trusted turned out to not be a good fit.
Tammera Hollerich11:37 - 11:40
Hello, my name is Tammera Hollerich. I did that. Yes.
Bob Wells11:40 - 12:28
Well, and I did, uh, I ended up having to part ways with my best, the best man at my wedding and, uh, business, uh, who eventually was a business partner for a time. And that happened when, uh, I had a franchise business for a period of time and, uh, some people came in and told me, we hate to tell you this, but your partner is your department of sales prevention. And my wife had been trying to tell me and because it was my best friend, I couldn't hear it. And so I had blind spots and I have learned that as business people, we have blind spots and we do not read people as well as we think we do.
Tammera Hollerich12:30 - 13:32
Yeah, it's always nice to have that extra layer, I think, like an advisory team, that is that that next layer that kind of shields that entrepreneur a little bit from, you know, that situation, because every entrepreneur that I know has done or, you know, is doing something along those lines. I have to tell you, I have been, I tell even my staff today, I am definitely not the boss that I was 10, 15, 20 years ago, I really sucked. I mean, I'm not perfect now, but I really sucked back then just because I didn't have the experience, the skill set, the connections, the help, right? And, you know, advisors that I trusted, advisors that will tell you the truth, right? Whether it hurts or not, right? So, um,
Bob Wells13:33 - 14:21
Well, and part of it is, as an entrepreneur, is asking the right questions because, you know, it's interesting what happens when you start asking yourself, What is it that people like about me? What is my skill set? Is it what I think it is or is it something different? And am I using my skills the right way? I went through a catharsis where I actually had someone do a survey of family, business associates, other people that I networked with. to ask them specifically, well, what did they think my strong points were and what did they see as weaknesses and so on? That is such a healthy thing to do, but it's hard.
Tammera Hollerich14:21 - 15:33
I was going to say, I think I would be terrified. I'm sitting here thinking, I think I would be, I know I would be terrified. Yeah, because you're right. I think we all Everybody has those blinders, right? It's like, right in my own little world. And. And, of course, we are the center of our own universe, whether that's a good thing or not. We're human. So, I think entrepreneurs for sure. they get into that routine because they are, you know, trying to keep a company going and they're trying to wear so many hats, especially in the small business realm. You know, those employers that have, you know, less than, you know, 40, 50 employees and those that have less than 10, they are really taxing it at every hour of every day. Every single one of them I talked to, I'm like, what can we do to help? And there's like, I need more hours in the day. I'm like, so you can do more of what you're doing, right?
Bob Wells15:33 - 16:11
Yeah. And a lot of times the entrepreneurs. What happens to them is they think they have to do it all themselves to save money. And they don't realize that a lot of times, if they will leverage the right people, if they will find and leverage the right people, that will pay dividends in big ways. So, you know, sometimes I will bring in a marketing consultant to help a company, changes their life. Sometimes I will bring in outside bookkeepers, changes their life. And is it expensive? Well, it's not as expensive as being dumb and not doing it right to begin with.
Tammera Hollerich16:11 - 18:01
Or it's relevant, right? Expensive, relevant to what? Getting some time back that you didn't have with your family, and then what price do you put on that? So I agree with you completely that, you know, the There are so many companies out here that need Redstone Business Consulting Group to help them to understand and as I was, you know, you and I have recently just connected and found each other and I was like, oh, like, what you do, our audience needs. Like they need to know there are people that are out here who truly want to help. I think I love best about you and just in even in when you self-describe yourself, which I think is fabulous because you don't wait for people to tell you who you are, you know who you are. So but you very much really want to help people think that what resonated with me as I was, you know, really looking at, okay, who is Bob Wells, right? You truly care. And it's not a fluff. It's not what you like, you truly care. You do a lot of I'm not going to say mission work, but you do a lot of volunteer. You spent some time with the Boy Scouts of America, am I correct? That's correct. So you've done a lot of volunteer work and you really are out there wanting to help and I was like, wow, I've got to know this guy. I have to meet him.
Bob Wells18:01 - 19:26
One of the things I would comment on that because I think it is part of my personality and I think it is different to other people. When I go to consultants most of the time, they tell me what they'll charge me and what they'll do for me. And my usual reaction is, well, can you show me first so that I don't want to spend my money unless I know that it's going to work. Is there a way that you can create value for me and then charge me so that I don't want to leave you? Because if you're creating value for me, I would be a fool to part with you. And so I apply that to my own business. What I tell people is, look, let me take a look at your financials. Let me take a look at your organization. Let me understand what you do and what's going on. And then if I can make a difference, I will make recommendations. And if my recommendations are good enough, then you will pay me to stay around instead of paying me up front. and so I do give a lot of time to people up front to help them solve problems and sometimes that's the only problem they had and they go thank you very much and I don't need anything else but I think what's made me successful is that more often than not they say yes and let's look at the next thing.
Tammera Hollerich19:26 - 20:28
Right, yeah. Well, because there's not always typically just one problem. One problem leads to the next problem that leads to the next problem. And if you're growing a business, there's always going to be a challenge out there that is you're not going to know how to handle because it's new. You haven't experienced it before. That's where consultants really make the biggest difference is they have done it a time or two, and they've been around that block and with your finance background, and then with this collaborative team that you have put together, you all have really figured out how to tackle a lot of those different problems that these, you know, business owners and entrepreneurs and not necessarily just entrepreneurs. I mean, it could be a CEO sitting in the C-suite somewhere going, I have no idea how to handle this.
Bob Wells20:28 - 20:36
Yeah. And they need somebody. And the thing is, it's not just getting a consultant, it's getting somebody that you feel
Tammera Hollerich20:37 - 21:23
understands you and you've and that you trust and that you trust to tell you the unvarnished truth in a kind way right yeah well and it's being brutally honest without being brutal right i think yeah it's being brutally honest you know a good consultant is not going to not necessarily not sugarcoat it, but they at least are honest and they help you take the blinders off, I think. Any good consultant that I've had in the past, they are like, okay, well, let's look at this through this lens. And I think that has helped me too, is looking at it through a different lens.
Bob Wells21:23 - 21:43
Makes a big difference. And I've learned a lot from my wife who is a professional mediator. She does mediations for child protective services cases, divorce cases, things like that. And those are thorny issues, oh my goodness. And so I learned a lot from her.
Tammera Hollerich21:43 - 21:50
I was gonna say, so that brings up this whole other subject. So you're married, how long have you guys been married?
Bob Wells21:50 - 21:53
Well, we've been married for 45 years.
Tammera Hollerich21:53 - 21:56
Okay, what's your secret?
Bob Wells21:56 - 23:16
Commitment. Commitment. Commitment that gets you through the hard times because we've had really tough times. Yeah. We've had times when there have been health issues. We've had times when there have been issues with children. We've had times when we were angry at each other. And it's largely about I made a commitment and we're sticking with it and there is no other alternative. Right, no other option. If you think of separation as an option, then it's too easy. And people, in my experience, tend to think that the grass is greener on the other side. They don't realize they're just trading problems. But I remember one time my wife was really angry at me and she called me on the phone and she said, I need to talk to my best friend, not my husband. Are you available? It was a matter of changing hats and recognizing where she was coming from because we really were at odds. And I think, you know, again, to her skillset, she put it beautifully and she got me to change where I was coming from.
Tammera Hollerich23:16 - 23:19
A different perspective. Yeah.
Bob Wells23:19 - 23:23
And it changed my perspective when we were able to have a constructive discussion and solve problems.
Tammera Hollerich23:23 - 25:21
Yeah, it's so exciting. You guys are five years from hitting the 5-0. I was sitting here thinking, you know, I come from, my parents were married 52 years before my mom passed. So I had that great one. And I remember thinking before I got married, I had this list. Now this will crack you up because you've been married for so long. I've been, this will be our 25th. So I get where we're coming from. Yep. So I remember before I got married, I had this, you know, most people make a list of all the things that they just want in this person. I had a list of everything I didn't want. Like it was, my mom was like, what? I was like, they can't smoke. They have to have parents that have been married to each other the whole time. Like, I mean, I had, and that was one of my criteria because so many marriages end right we're at what 51% now it's not even just 50% I think 51% of marriages end in divorce and I was like okay that's not I'm not gonna have that and my odds are better so here I was playing the odds right I was like I am gotta have somebody who's married their parents are married to each other Ivan laughs at me now he's just like why that was on your list but you're right It is not always sunshines and roses. I mean, there are days I wake up and I look around like, what are you doing here? Right? Because you just, you've got two completely different humans of two. Well, in most cases, two completely different sexes that like we have to get along all the time. I'm like, we are not going to get along all the time. My best friend, we were friends before we started dating. Um, he helped me remodel a house. Um, And I didn't even know what Home Depot was. So that was terrifying.
Bob Wells25:21 - 25:25
But so you saw him unvarnished because he wasn't putting on airs.
Tammera Hollerich25:25 - 25:53
He wasn't. No, not at all. Yeah, you're right. It does. It makes the difference. So you have a family so married. What is your wife's name? Judy. Judy, okay, so you and Judy, children, you mentioned children, how many kids do you guys have? Five. Okay, so you have a really nice big family. Raising kids, how was that on the marriage?
Bob Wells25:53 - 27:19
It was difficult. Kids don't do what you want them to do. They don't do what you think they should do. They had challenges of different kinds. you know, ADD, ADHD that we had to deal with. We had Lyme disease that we had to deal with. We had, you know, there were broken bones and other things along the way. When my oldest child was in seventh grade, my wife was trying to work, he had ADD, and my wife was trying to work with the school to make sure that he was turning in homework assignments and so on, and she'd arranged a situation where every day he would have to bring home a note saying that he had turned everything in. That way my wife could stay on top of it. And she went to visit with the teacher at a parent teacher conference. The teacher said, Well, he has a D. And my wife says, how can that be? And she said, well, he's missing assignments. And I said, how can that be? We've got this arrangement and you've been sending home these papers saying that everything's turned in. Well, you have to understand, Mrs. Wells, that not everyone is cut out to be a white collar worker like you and your husband. And you're putting too much pressure on your child and on the school system and so on. My wife just absolutely saw red.
Tammera Hollerich27:19 - 27:19
I can imagine.
Bob Wells27:20 - 27:42
And she said, well, if that's the way you feel, then you will no longer be my son's teacher. And she pulled him out of school and she homeschooled him. Wow. By the way, he now has a, you know, he finished in the top five of his electrical engineering class at college and went on to get a law degree from Georgetown. He's a patent attorney. So that's
Tammera Hollerich27:45 - 27:45
Yes.
Bob Wells27:45 - 28:19
Yeah. So yeah, there were hard times, uh, you know, kids that did things, you didn't want them to do things that you forbade them to do. Uh, and what's your relationship going to be with them? And sometimes I think people don't know how to handle that. And it actually fractures a family. Uh, we've come from the standpoint that look, whatever they do, um, We are family, and we care about them, and that has taken us through thick or thin. I mean, it's work.
Tammera Hollerich28:20 - 29:04
Yeah, I there. That is the underlying piece of Bob Wells that I couldn't put my finger on as I was reading through bios and doing research. But there was that something that I was like, there's something special about the sky that I just have got to figure it out. And that's it right there is the commitment to family and to the not letting go. I love it. Thank you. I'm almost in tears, guys, because you don't hear that often anymore. You don't. It's impressive.
Bob Wells29:04 - 30:16
I'll tell you one thing that I've noticed is that in families and in business and in other things, there is tremendous power in example, for good or for bad. And so If you're in a family where you're the first one who goes to college, the rest of the family, suddenly that's a possibility that you never considered before. I was the first one that got a master's degree in my family. There's seven siblings, so all of my siblings have master's degrees or better. So, I don't know that I, my parents had college degrees, and so all of us have college degrees. By the same token, if one person in a family gets a divorce, all of a sudden it's easier for others to get a divorce, and you have to be very careful about the precedents that you keep and the example that you give, because everybody is watching whether they are doing it overtly or without meaning to, and you just need to be aware of that.
Tammera Hollerich30:16 - 31:05
Yeah, I don't think as a society we put much thought into that, but as you were saying it, I'm thinking about cultural differences, I'm thinking about demographic differences. I mean you've got your you know poor areas in the south and the poor areas and and that birds of a feather flock together is kind of terrifying when you think about the negative aspect but it does work on the other side too um with the positive and and as you were saying it I was thinking yeah he's absolutely right that example that you set. Somebody said the definition of integrity is what you do when no one's watching, but everybody's always watching. Somewhere, somehow.
Bob Wells31:05 - 31:14
And somebody taught me, and I think they were absolutely right. They said, you know, show me who your friends are, and I will tell you who you are.
Tammera Hollerich31:14 - 31:25
Five, right? And he said to me, the five people you associate with the most is you become the sum of, I heard that too.
Bob Wells31:25 - 32:16
Yeah, or the average of or whatever, but yeah, you become like the people you associate with. So if you want to be smarter, then associate with people who are smarter than you and you will elevate, it just works. And one of the, you know, at one point I remember as a young person thinking to myself, I want to be a thinker of great thoughts. And the thought came to me, if you want to think great thoughts, there are a lot of them out there. Just read the great thoughts that other people have had, and eventually you'll come up with your own. Pay attention to the great thoughts of others. It will make a difference in your life. And if you don't, then you're going to average down.
Tammera Hollerich32:16 - 33:42
Yeah, I saw a post that you wrote on LinkedIn probably just a couple of days ago. And as I was reading the post, you were promoting or talking about this football game that you went to. And we've got to talk about the Wolverines. So we're going to have to talk about why that football game was so impactful. But as I was reading your post about this football game that you went to, I literally said out loud, the eloquence in which you have written this post, and anybody who does, you are going to have to go read this post that Bob Wells on LinkedIn, go to his LinkedIn page and read this post about this football game that you just went to this past weekend, I think, right? Saturday, yeah. Saturday. The post was, I was like, I could only dream of writing a post so well. It was so, I thought I was going to cry. I looked at my assistant and I said, you have to read this post over a football game. But I understood where you were coming from, right? That it made an impact on your life. So let's talk about how Saturday made such an impact on your life. going to a football game?
Bob Wells33:42 - 36:41
Well, interesting question. It's because I was invited to go to University of Michigan for this football game in connection with a meeting that I was part of. And some of my associates, uh, it was important to them. One of them has seasons tickets. They're great seats. And so they said, come and see. And I said, okay, this sounds fun. What impressed me, because I have been to other college games and so on. What impressed me was this feeling of unity among University of Michigan alumni and students. It was deep. It was phenomenal. And they have traditions that they keep. The band marching through the parking lot to get to the stadium and so on, chanting and playing their instruments in perfect unison. I was surprised because when you start getting people distances apart, it's very hard to maintain that unity. And they had it down so that when they were talking, it was like listening to a choir that all sing and follow, except that they're marching, and so they have to be in perfect unison with the cadence. And then to see you know, the way they cheered and everybody in the entire stadium seemed to know the cheers and what to say. I was just blown away by that. And on that occasion, I only spoke about University of Michigan, but I had that experience one other time. And it was when my school, Brigham Young University, went to play Notre Dame in South Bend, Michigan. South Bend, Indiana, sorry. Yeah. When I got there, what was surprising to me was that they were totally open and welcoming to their guests, to the people who were their opponents. They made us feel welcome. They had signs up welcoming us. Our team didn't take their cheerleaders or their band that time. We have a tradition that the cheerleaders do push-ups for every time there's a touchdown, they'll do the push-ups for the number of points that there are. Their cheerleaders came and did it in front of our audience. Their band played our fight song for us. I was like, This is class. And I was impressed by that. So when I went to university, and that was 20 years ago. So when I went to University of Michigan, and I saw the same kind of thing, I thought, this is a place with class, and I want to recognize it. I didn't mention in the article, the Notre Dame experience, because this was about Michigan. But that was what drove that.
Tammera Hollerich36:41 - 38:42
That I was, you know, as I was reading it, I really was like, What a special experience. And you've had it now twice. Most people, we're such a competitive world. I think this competitiveness and healthy competition, there is absolutely nothing wrong with it. I think here in the last probably 10 years or so, I've seen so much competition in an unhealthy way that Like you said, when you experience class or when you experience that warmth, It's an awe, like experience, right? It moves you. It moves you. And I could feel that in your post, that you had that experience. And I was like, we are going to have to talk about this Michigan game. And for any of you guys, really go to Bob's LinkedIn page and read his post. You put it so eloquently. I was like, so I was moved by your experience because of how you explained it. So I wanted to say thanks for that. I know we've kind of gone along a little bit longer than normal. If you're okay that for us to kind of keep going, I have a little game I'd like to play with you if you're up for it. Sure. Okay, so you've heard of, are you smarter than a fifth grader, right? Uh-oh. Hey, I got you on this one. So you're going to be just fine. So I wanted to use your finance background. And I was like, I've got to find a couple of questions here I personally would not know the answer to, because we're going to see if Bob's smarter than a fifth grader. Are you good with that?
Bob Wells38:43 - 38:46
Okay, I feel like I'm being set up.
Tammera Hollerich38:46 - 38:55
This one's gonna be easy. Question number one. What do you call money that you owe to a bank when you borrow money to buy a house?
Bob Wells38:55 - 38:56
A mortgage.
Tammera Hollerich38:56 - 39:06
Ding, ding, ding, ding. Yay, you got it. Okay, number two. If you put money into a savings account, are you more likely to earn interest or pay interest?
Bob Wells39:07 - 39:11
If you put money in a savings account, you will earn interest.
Tammera Hollerich39:11 - 39:24
Yay! Okay, number three. This is the one I didn't know. If you have a 401k retirement account, what does the K stand for?
Bob Wells39:24 - 39:33
I thought it was the paragraph in the law that established the program. I don't think the K has a particular meaning, but I could be wrong.
Tammera Hollerich39:34 - 39:38
So the correct answer is actually a thousand.
Bob Wells39:38 - 40:07
I did not know the K standard for a thousand, but that's... Well it does because it does a lot of times K stands for kilo. Kilo means thousand. But when it comes to 401k, I don't know, I'd have to look and see, because I would guess that 401k is actually the paragraph of the law. It's section 401k paragraph, section 401 paragraph k.
Tammera Hollerich40:09 - 40:36
Yeah, that would make a lot of sense. Because when I think about like a section 125B, the B is the paragraph. So we, hey, that means Alexa's wrong because I asked Alexa. Okay, so question number four, if you invest money into a diversified portfolio of stocks and bonds, what is that called?
Bob Wells40:36 - 41:26
Well, it could be a mutual fund. But. but usually you can do that on your own as well by choosing different portfolios of investments. And so it's unusual to have one fund that invests both in stocks and bonds, though some do. Usually you pick a stock fund or a bond fund, and then you balance them. And so you may have them be more, 50% stock, 50% bonds or something else, and you will go to a specialist. who will find out about your risk profile. How much risk are you willing to take? And what do you need in terms of income? And then they will help you design a portfolio to do that. I don't know if that helps, but.
Tammera Hollerich41:26 - 41:40
So that was kind of it. went back looking for an answer on that. I got that long explanation. And then right at the end, they said, this is called asset allocation. I was like, oh.
Bob Wells41:40 - 41:43
Okay. I described asset allocation, but I didn't use the term.
Tammera Hollerich41:43 - 42:16
Yes, you did. So I was like, what is that called? Because they gave me the explanation. And then right at the end, they said, this is called asset allocation. And I was like, Oh, okay, but you explained it exactly like my answer, and then I said allocation. I was like, okay, great. Okay, so question number five, what is the term for the amount of money a person or a business has left over after paying all of their expenses? Profit. Profit, which is what all of us are looking for, is profit margins, right?
Bob Wells42:16 - 42:21
P-R-O-F-I-T, not P-R-O-P-H-E-T. Correct.
Tammera Hollerich42:24 - 43:00
Hey, so I started watching just here recently, you know, right before I go to bed at night, there is a. a show on Netflix called The Chosen. If you guys haven't seen it, it's a slow start. I'm going to not lie. It was a slow start. But Netflix has season one, but then Prime has the other four seasons, just so you guys know. But it is all about the backstory of Jesus, which is very interesting, speaking of prophets. But I thought it was interesting.
Bob Wells43:00 - 43:16
Well, and what I've seen it and what the producers, writers, et cetera, did was they tried to come up with backstories that would fit the personalities. I mean, some of it we don't know.
Tammera Hollerich43:16 - 43:18
We don't know. Yeah.
Bob Wells43:18 - 43:26
But they were trying to put it in a context so that you could understand why somebody might have said this or why they might have said that. And it is brilliant. I love it.
Tammera Hollerich43:27 - 43:58
I, I was going to tell you, I was like, I am just now starting season two. And it took me a minute to kind of get through season one because I was like, I am not following this, but now, okay. So just for all of you listening, I highly recommend it. Yes. It was really good. It's it's I'm just don't spoil it. I no spoil alerts here. So, okay. All right, number six, what is the context, in the context of taxes, what does the abbreviation IRS stand for?
Bob Wells43:58 - 44:00
Internal Revenue Service.
Tammera Hollerich44:00 - 44:05
Okay, so good guys or bad guys?
Bob Wells44:05 - 45:07
Well, government needs money to run on. And the way the government does that is they raise taxes. The Internal Revenue Service is tasked with collecting those taxes. The challenge that we have is that Congress tends to spend more than the taxes that can be collected. And so there's always a shortfall, but they're putting pressure on, what they're doing is then they try and raise the tax rates to cover the spending that they've done, and they assign the IRS to do that. So the IRS are kind of cut and dried, black and white, you owe it, so on and so forth. But they didn't make the rules, they simply apply the rules. So I think By and large, they're good guys who have an impossible task and they have to figure out how to do it. And it is our job to figure out how to understand the rules and apply them correctly to our advantage.
Tammera Hollerich45:08 - 46:09
Yeah, so with you, as many years of experience as you have, you know, in that finance world, I tell people all the time, I'm like, IRS agents, they are people just trying to do their job, right? With with if we're going to look at the government as if we could even look at them like as a business they suck at profit margins like they have none right there so you know they have these people trying to do this job that of course you I have tried to read some of the the laws on. Let's just take the Affordable Care Act, for instance, right? 1958 pages of a law that literally everyone said, well, we didn't read it. So they didn't read it before they passed it. Nobody knew what was in it until afterwards. And how do you operate like that?
Bob Wells46:10 - 47:29
Well, as a public, that's understandable that, you know, everybody couldn't read it first, but you expect the people who are passing the law to understand it and to understand the implications and to debate it. That's why we elect them, is to represent us, because we don't have time to go do it for ourselves. it's a tough issue and you know when you think about our our government uh you know what is the national debt number um you know north of 20 trillion now and who's going to pay that and to some degree there is a level of debt that you can afford to have consistently but it's think about it in terms of a mortgage on your home uh as long as you have income you can afford to pay the mortgage, even if the mortgage never gets completely paid off, you're living in the home, you can pay for it, you can afford certain permanent levels of debt, as long as you have income. But it's getting to the point, and it's going to get to the point, that it won't be sustainable. And now that we have higher interest rates, that government debt is going to be paying higher and higher rates, and that's going to be a serious problem for our country.
Tammera Hollerich47:30 - 48:05
Well, that and, you know, the big thing in the news right now is the government shutdown this weekend, potentially, which, you know, I don't know that very many people are putting much stock into it. I mean, if you understand what's about to happen and if it doesn't get right, but you're right, what higher interest rates Now we've got the government shut down. That will not be good on any level.
Bob Wells48:05 - 49:15
No, it's gonna be a problem. And I guess to some degree, everybody looks at it and says, well, they've always solved it before. Right. But do you remember housing prices were always gonna go up until 2007, eight? Yeah. And all of a sudden, I mean, I owned a home in Las Vegas that had been worth 900,000 and suddenly was worth three. Yeah. And it's kind of like, well, now what? So it's a tough issue that people don't realize that there's a very real comeuppance and it's a common, and our children are going to have to deal with it, and it's not fair. Having said that, you look at countries like Argentina, who have very high inflation rates, 30 and 40 percent. They manage through, and they figure it out, but not in good condition. People suffer, and they will suffer. I think we are not there yet, but I think we're on the path, and we are not backing away well. We're not fixing it.
Tammera Hollerich49:15 - 49:47
No, we are not fixing it for any, like I think, and it just keeps getting worse, and you know, there's too much politics in politics, I think is how I heard it put the other day. There's too much politics in politics right now. So, all right, so one last question, and this is going to let me set us up to go ahead and finish our conversation today, but what is the term for a financial professional who helps individuals and families plan for their financial future and investments?
Bob Wells49:47 - 49:52
Wealth manager is usually the term that's used. Financial advisor is another one.
Tammera Hollerich49:52 - 50:20
Ding, ding, ding. Yay! You are smarter than a fifth grader, Bob. Congratulations. So this is so exciting. Bob, thank you so much for spending some time with me and giving me an opportunity to get to know you and our audience to get to know you. For those of you who, if you need help at all, this is Bob Wells with Redstone Business Consulting Group out of Houston, Texas. You can find him on LinkedIn. Is it Bob Wells on LinkedIn?
Bob Wells50:21 - 50:23
Bob Wells, CFO on LinkedIn.
Tammera Hollerich50:23 - 50:30
Bob Wells, CFO on LinkedIn. Share with us how they can get ahold of you through your website.
Bob Wells50:30 - 50:37
The website is www.redstonebcg.com. That stands for business consulting group. So it's pretty simple.
Tammera Hollerich50:38 - 50:55
Fantastic. So that's redstonebcg.com. And thank you again, Bob, for joining me today. Everyone, this is Tammera with Everything is Up. Have a great day. Make sure you like and share. Thanks, Bob.
Bob Wells50:55 - 50:57
Tammera, thank you so much. This has been delightful.
Tammera Hollerich50:57 - 51:00
Very lot of fun. All right. Have a great day. Have a nice weekend.
Intro/Outro51:01 - 51:14
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