Would it be worth your time for me to show you a couple of strategies that I use to get my clients to$0 in taxes per year? Welcome back to The Art of Connecting Podcast. This is your host here, Haydynn, back with another episode for you guys. And today I am joined with my friend Pete Amerin here. Pete and I got connected together through my business partner Dan. They played around a golf together, started talking about finance and our fun and all of that kind of stuff. And then, pete and I got on several calls. I was, I remember being in Hawaii I was looking over like this big mountain and then you like FaceTime me and I was like, Hey, what's going on man? And we've stayed in touch. You come to Chattanooga to visit me several times and I think I've come to Knoxville and visited a few times and just had a great, a great time together. Yeah, I'm happy to be here. Thanks Haydynn. I believe that we were also on a phone call when I was in Hawaii a couple months later. Yeah. Overlooking the same, the same beach. So yeah, I met Dan through golf as I've met many of my connections throughout my career. Trying, trying to remember. I, I think I just showed up or we joined together. It was definitely at Fox Den and we had a great time together and we are in adjacent businesses with Acadia Capital and my consulting business am Ryan Wealth strategists. And so yeah, it's just been coffees and conversations and. Rounds of golf, but I never miss an opportunity to come visit Chattanooga. It's beautiful down here. I love it. Yeah. I was like, I was like, man, we could do this on video if you want. And you're like, no, I'm coming to Chattanooga. Yeah. Yeah. I was like this. It's, I love recording in person. So much better. Just so cool to be able to just like sit across and look at somebody and, and see their smile and all that kind of stuff, which is really cool. Yeah, it, I mean this is the art of Connecting podcast. I think that our love of connecting in, in business and, is what brings us together. So I'm excited to talk about how you've done it and how I've done it and how we do it differently and hopefully somebody gets some value out of it somewhere, but I know that you and I will. That's right. Yeah. I love it. It's been a minute since I've uploaded a podcast into any of my regular listeners. I'm so sorry. I've been. Incredibly busy and tried to stay focused on, on a few things. But we're getting back into the swing of things. There's actually some really cool revamping that's gonna be happening for the podcast, gonna start our newsletter and kind of revamp the podcast and, and have a newsletter that goes along with it. So I'm excited for that. So stay tuned on updates with all of that. Anyways, now that we have that all outta the way, Pete, why don't you go ahead and just. Give and a quick introduction of yourself. Sure. So my name's Pete Amerine. I am married to my wife Maggie, of seven years. We have a 3-year-old named Olivia and a 1-year-old named Noah. Like I mentioned in the beginning, I I own a consulting company called Amerine Wealth Strategist. I, call myself the tax assassin. I want my clients to be as close to$0 in taxes as possible. I do that using different golf clubs to hit different golf shots in people's finance financial lives. Outside of that, I. Am working on a creative project called O Balls with a couple of buddies. Again, just one of my dreams that I wrote down in my notebook a long time ago, and you tell enough people about your dreams, somebody wants to, you know, share your passion with you. And so just write it down, tell people about it over and over and over, and you never know what could happen. Yeah, man. That's literally how this podcast got started. I went to all these networking events. I met all these people and I was like, wow, this is really cool. You can like meet all these people to do all these different things. And I was telling the people in my life about the people I was meeting, they're like, you should start a podcast about this'cause you're meeting all these cool people and like, how did you, how did you meet that person? I'm like, I just. Was at an event and they were there and we talked and, and they were like, you need to start a podcast. And so that was how I got started was I was like, I'm gonna start a podcast. And I said that for probably six months until I actually did start a podcast. Yeah. Well, I love it that that's, I've always loved what I do in the financial world because of the. Connection part of it. I don't think that I was born to sit in an office from nine to five. I don't think that I would be or make a very good employee. I think maybe some of your listeners can relate to that. And but I, I loved meeting people and just hearing their story and seeing how we could help each other out. I think that's how I've built the last 10 years of my life and that's why I am here talking to you today is just. Seeing what happens and saying yes to as many things as possible. I love it. And we had to reschedule like five different times. Three. Three times. Yeah. Yeah. We were, we're both busy guys and so. I'm really glad that we got to come together today and, and do this. So the first thing I kind of want to unpack a little bit is you're one of the, the probably the best people that I know at spending a lot of time at the golf course in your business. You always hear how important that is. And it's kind of funny because I don't have a country club membership. I can't quite afford it yet. Yeah. Maybe I could, but I don't want to afford it yet. And, but that's where so much happened. So can you tell me a little bit about how you fell into the Golf Country Club lifestyle and, and maybe a little bit about what that's done for you and your business? Great. Well, don't worry. I can't afford my country club membership either. But golf has always been a part of my business. So when I left college, I was really into golf. I never played competitively, but I always loved going out drinking beers and playing 18 holes with my buddies. And the flexibility of being a financial advisor, even as an early college graduate, allowed me to get all my work done on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, so I could spend Friday afternoons playing golf because I found that. If I could call a golf course and be like, Hey, I'm a single. I'm looking to play. I am really flexible. Are there any twosomes or threesomes out there that wouldn't mind me joining? I found that the gentleman that I got to meet on the golf course were typically older more established financially owned businesses and had the same time flexibility that I did. So I found it a great way to network in a city that I didn't have. A natural network. I didn't grow up in Knoxville, Tennessee. But I was trying to create a, a relationship based business out there. So in spite of all of the warnings and discouragement from my mentors of, you know, oh, if you spend your Friday afternoons playing golf, someone's gonna be in the office out outworking you And I figured, you know. These gentlemen aren't gonna happen by my cubicle on Friday afternoons. No, I have to go to where they are and they're not gonna answer your cold call, and they're not gonna answer my cold call. So, you know, after spinning my wheels so long, I just, I just integrated a, a weekly golf round for networking purposes, and I made sure I wasn't wasting times with like my good buddies. I made it. Intentional and purposeful. And I would call a golf course, a public golf course and be like, Hey, do you have any openings that a single could sneak into in this time slot? And I would show up. And I've met a lot of cool people doing that. And I would always, you know, try and get some way of getting in contact with them, but only ever for golf, you know, I never wanted to. To feel like I trapped the, the, the gentleman that I just joined into a business conversation. I'm, I'm really good at playing the long game with relationships and, and offering value before I ask for it. So, the reason I joined the country club was when I, two years ago, when I decided to leave the general agency broker dealer world and start my own consulting firm, just myself. I needed a place to host meetings and open my laptop and have a quiet space. And so I found a local country club. And it's been a great experience. It's certainly been a sacrifice for my family and I, but we find ways to, to lean value out of it. Pool days on the pool days in the summer. Yeah. My 3-year-old daughter loves to swim. Well, loves to float in the pool. We're working on swimming. And so yeah, and what I found at the Country Club is you're meeting business owners as well, but these business owners don't frequent other places. You know, they, they are members of this club and they, they come to this club and to have time. And so it's, it's still been a dance, you know, you don't wanna be like, Hey, I'm Pete and I'd like to do business with you. But it has been a cool place to network and meet some, some other cool people. Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's been really it's, it's interesting as I've gotten into the little bit of the club life I think a lot of people think about, you know, pretentious. It's gonna be a bunch of stuck up old white people. And while there is some of that, at some of the clubs that I've been to the vast majority of people that I've met in the private clubs that I've gotten the, the pleasure of visiting with some of my friends that are members has been really good. Mm-hmm. You go in, like last night, me and one of my mentors were sitting down by the fire and. He goes, oh, that's, that's Andy Burke. He was the mayor. I, I met Andy when he was the mayor of Chattanooga. You know, I personally met Andy when he was mayor of Chattanooga when I was in college. And it's like you have our current mayor who comes in here and plays trivia every week and, it just gives you really great opportunity to get access to people that you, you could run into. I, I saw Tim, our current mayor, just walking out on the, on the walking bridge when that was still open. But I wasn't gonna stop Tim and, and be like, Hey, what's going on, mayor? I wanted to leave him and let him be, walk his dog. But it's really cool because when you start getting into some of the club life, you, you really get an access to people that you just are not gonna traditionally have. And, and not that these people are, are necessarily selfish and don't want to give you that access. It's just there's a lot of people that want to draw their time and there's only so much time in a day. And so if you're able to catch someone at a, at a private club, it's gonna be most likely, a lot easier to, you could go walk up and just say, Hey, I sorry to bother you. I just, I've seen what you're doing and I really appreciate it, and wanted to say hi. And then there's a commonality of, well, he's a member here, so he's gotta at least be doing something right. Or snuck in either one. I just, I just pay my bill on time. Call. They have to let me in. That's funny. But yeah, and same thing. We were down in the lobby right before this, and just a gentleman sitting across from us, you were like, Hey, David, Pete meet, meet each other. Yeah. And so you get the same, the same feel. Yeah, I, I, I love being part of a, a little tight knit community and, and we're reading that book the Deep Magic of. Consistency, and it's that consistency of being like, Hey, I see you here regularly and I, I recognize that you're here. What, and now you have an interest in each other and, and what you have going on. Yeah. You could only see a regular so many times before you go and talk to them. Correct. Like when you're becoming a regular somewhere. I've had the same thing at Common House. You know, you see the same 20 people, there's 20 people that are here almost every day. Mm-hmm. And. After long enough of just being like, Hey, how's it going? You finally go and say, Hey, I, I noticed the other day. It looks like you were sitting with my friend, this person, and I just wanted to come up and, and just kind of learn a little bit about, about you and, and see what you did and. Every time I do that, people are so open, you know, and, and I overhear people talking about startups and I'm like, oh, I used to work in a VC firm, like, what are you doing? And they'll show me their product and all this kind of stuff that happened down in the, in the, in the restaurant. And it's just really, really fun to, to get to do that. So anyways, we can, we can yap about clubs forever, but I would highly recommend if you're in a position and you're looking to start getting more connections, finding a good. Member, member only club that really resonates with you culture wise and, and membership base wise and, and values wise can be a super great value add in the art connecting. Right. I wouldn't join a private club for the sake of getting new connections. It, it's, I wouldn't have joined a golf club if I didn't love to play golf if there wasn't. Additional value there, right? So find a club like to Haydynn's point that you really identify with so that you can develop a natural connection with the other people that you'll meet there. Yeah, absolutely. That's great advice. Awesome. So the next thing I would like to talk about is how, how do you run a meeting? So, as a financial advisor I've been to, I invited up to the, the big fancy tower with the big NW before and. Been grilled by a financial advisor asking all these personal questions when I just met them. How do you run a meeting with a new potential client when someone's connected to you? Kind of off of a cold introduction. Sure. Great question. So most of the time people are sitting across from me because they have some sort of pain point. Something keeps them up. Financially and, and they want to talk to somebody about it. They don't always want a solution. Sometimes they just want a sounding board. And one of my mentors early in my career gave me some of the best advice I've ever gotten, which was ask a pointed question that can't be answered. With a yes or no, and shut the fuck up. So I ask, I try to ask a lot of questions and I try and do a lot of listening and a lot of note taking.'Cause I don't ever know if or how I can help somebody until we get to the bottom of why they're sitting across from me in the first place. So what would be an example? Pretend I'm your, your next client that makes a hundred million dollars a year. What's that question gonna be that you asked me? How much did you pay in taxes last year? I don't wanna answer that question. That's fine. It's prob, it's probably a, a number higher than you'd, like no ones ever. It's, it's a number higher than I would like. No one's ever stoked to tell you their number, you know. And then, you know, usually you get some cloistered answer like that. Especially depending on where you are at in your relationship. But then, you know, I'd ask, okay, well what do you wanna pay in taxes, dear? I don't wanna pay any taxes. Great. Yeah. Would it be worth your time for me to show you a couple of strategies that I use to get my clients to$0 in taxes per year? Yeah. Yeah, that'd be great. Wanna learn more about that? Awesome. Well, I didn't bring anything with me today, but I'd love to get a beer with you and chat, chat about it. I find that it makes it easier to talk about these kind of high level conversations. Yeah, that's great. I love that. And it's so simple. Like a lot of people think that it's rocket science. They see, you see a successful financial advisor or someone that's growing their firm went out on their own. It's like he's got, Pete's got some kind of special magic sauce. You know, he is got some, you know, magic wand over there where he just waves it and, and wins these clients. But it's a formula, right? I'd like, I'd like it to be more of a formula. I think I develop that. Every single year I try to create more systems so that my clients can have predictable and, positive outcomes. I think that comes with setting expectations and then meeting them. Being available. You hear people on podcasts all the time say, the best ability is availability. And there's a lot of big players in the financial world and in the money management world. So I have to find unique ways of creating additional value for my clients. The tax piece is obviously the fundamentals of it, but being available having a personal relationship with my clients is. Are some of the reasons why I think I've been successful thus far. Hmm, that's great. And what does being available look like for you? Because I feel like a lot of people sometimes me included, they just want to be available all the time. You know, they're phone buzzes, they're gonna be responding to it. So what are the boundaries look like that you put on onto that?'cause a lot of times you want to be available, but also if you're too available, sometimes you can really get taken advantage of. Great question. So I've had to learn how to do this throughout my career. In the beginning of my career, I, I created a lot of anxiety for myself being overly available. And then I created an equal amount of anxiety for myself appearing unavailable and busy quote unquote. And once you have a family, I think it's easier to draw that line. I am working every moment that I am out of the house and I am not working any moment that I'm inside of the house. So if I have to stay out later to get what I need done, I communicate that with my wife and my family, but I really try to be. Off my phone and off my devices once I step through the door. It's an imperfect system again, but we're getting better at it every month. Yeah. Well, and, and as you hire a team it helps as well, you know, so you get your executive system in place as you get some of those guardrails in place. A lot of people that will call you, at least this has been my experience when I was first getting started. A lot of the people that would reach out wouldn't really need me. You know, it's like they, they reach out and, and they had a genuine need, but it's like, you don't need me. You know, like I, I, I can just, I'm just gonna direct you to someone else who can help with this. But in the beginning, it, it was me that they air quote needed, but it was a task that did not necessarily warrant my attention. And I'm reading Buy Back Your Time right now by Dan Mortel and. Just trying to continue to think about that of like, what, what is your hourly rate? You know, what, what is your, your problem's hourly rate. So if you're dealing with a problem that could be solved for$10 an hour, should you really be solving that problem? Like if I wanted to go make$10 an hour, I could go and apply to any of these restaurants and probably make double that, you know? And so why am I doing a$10 an hour task? Not that I'm better than anyone else, but there's probably people that would. You know, be more and better equipped to do that task and take care of it. So it's been an an interesting journey for me as I've learned how to buy back, buy back my time and, and really give opportunities to the people that want to do the kind of work that I really don't like to do and, and are really good at it. Difficult to know when to do that, but through our conversations over the last year, you know, and how much having an executive assistant has helped you personally and in business. I hired one and she just makes me better. Yeah. You know, she makes me more available. Yeah. Allows me to be present to interviews and podcasts and client meetings knowing that the work. Of paperwork and phone calls is getting done in the background, whereas for the first six, seven years of my business, I was doing all of that. I'm so proud of you for listening to me. We were sitting downstairs probably three months ago and, so we just sat down and got coffee. I can't remember why you were in town. I think you were visiting somebody else and we went and got coffee. And I was talking about Autumn. My, my wonderful, incredible executive assistant, and she's gonna listen to this. So I'm not just pumping you up, autumn. I, I truly do appreciate you. And now I have a new executive assistant as well who's gonna listen to this as well, Vita. And, and so but that, that just impacted my life so much. It changed everything because when, when Autum and I first met. I, I was telling her what I was doing and she just really genuinely wanted to help me. She was like, Hey, I like your vision. I wanna be a part of it. And I just like wrote everything out on a whiteboard of what I do. And she was like, what? How do you do all, like, you don't do all of that? I'm like, I just work 12 hours a day. It's like seven days a week, you know, it's just what I do. And, and she's like, Uhuh, no. I'm gonna come and help you. And, and it's just been incredible to. Be able to have, have some help with just the, the craziness of owning a business. And remember we were sitting downstairs and I was like, just Tony about that. And you were like, maybe I should get an ea. Yes. So shout out Marlo my who won't probably listen to this unless I tell her that I'm doing it. But, and Autumn and Vita, you guys make our lives so much simpler. And additionally to that, I think entrepreneurial life can get pretty lonely. So having. Somebody to talk to about your vision, about what you're working on. An accountability partner in a sense is just invaluable. Yeah. It's, it's been a, it's been a life changer and I know that my clients appreciate having an additional. Person to talk to. And'cause like you said, sometimes you don't actually need me. Mm-hmm. You need a task to be done. Yeah. And so now my tasks are, are getting done. I'm more available to my clients and I'm more available to the people I'm present to. So it goes back to the art of connecting as well. Like to, to be able to be present when you're connecting with someone. When you're meeting with someone for the first time, your, your business really can't just run on you. Like if, if, if, if a client calls, you see you're a real estate agent and you're meeting with a new prospective client and your biggest client who is very finicky and is like always wants to talk to you and they call, what are you gonna do with that? Right? But when you have some help and you say, Hey, I know you always wanna talk to me, but if, if you're gonna ask a quick question about a contract, honestly Haley is gonna be the best person to really help you with that.'cause she can pull it up right away. And then they're like, oh, oh, okay. And then they call Ailey and you don't even hear from'em. And they're happier because then they don't have to wait an hour for you to call back. And then that pisses them off and they're like, oh, I should be your most important client. It's just really, and, and that's the, I feel like that's just such a difficult ladder to climb Mr. Starting your companies. You just never know, like, when is the right time? Yeah. It's just like having a kid. There is no right time. You just deal with it. Yeah. You just deal with it and then you're so happy after. Yeah. Yeah. You're so happy afterwards, man. I'm so glad that I, I, I made that hire. It's so, so true. So when you were going through your, your routine or not routine? Sorry. When you're going through the, the process of hiring your assistant, what did that look like? How did you, did you leverage a connection to find this person, or did you just interview and I don't know the answer to this question already. So this isn't a setup. If it was a connection it was a connection. So I have a counterpart in my financial business that kind of covers the west half of the country. His name's Steve Erickson. I hope to have him join me on this podcast. If your listeners have an interest in talking more about the tax strategies we can set that up later, but hit his executive assistant. Marlo Sullivan had additional hours that she had available. I purchased them. I leaned heavily on my trust in Steve and his trust in her, and it was a very simple interview process. She understood exactly my business knew the ins and outs and had 25 years of experience, so, wow. Through connections, it made that hunt almost effortless, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. With Venus as well, autumn, vita lives in Africa and Autumn owns land in Africa and Vita was her banker. And so we, you know, it was an easy interview process as well.'cause Autumn's literally stayed at her house before. Yeah. It's like, I know this person and I trust her and she's gonna be amazing. So, you know, we did a quick interview and I was like, let's get it going and we're gonna be able to replace her full-time income. With my position. And so she's gonna be able to get out of her, her job as a banker, which is really exciting. Wow. And come work with me on the team. So it's just really amazing what, what a connection can do. And something that you kind of poked at earlier, but I would love to dive into a little bit more, is sharing your goals with people, right. And, and talking about your needs. So when you're meeting with someone, like how often are you sharing. Problems you're having or needs that you have? Is it every conversation that, that it kind of comes up or, because I know for me, whenever I have something that's going on and someone says, how can I help you? I'm always like, Hey, I actually have this problem right now. And usually it hits up soaring itself out. Hmm. I, I probably, I probably don't ask for help as often as I should. It's gotta be a pretty special connection for me to feel. Hmm. Open enough to ask somebody for help because my business is providing solutions. It's being the help. And so. I don't, I don't know. I've never asked. I don't ask for help very often. Really. Maybe I should. Interesting. Asking for help's best. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. It's so tell me, tell me the best outcome that's ever come from asking for help. Oh, man. Like I can just kind of generically talk about what me and Matt were talking about last night. I have a, a potential lead on 480 acres of developable land somewhere in the Chattanooga area. Oh, hey there. It's me again. I know you expected Morgan Freeman to come on and talk about the biggest company in the world. Well, I'm sorry, but you get the next best thing. This show is sponsored by the company that I co founded, Acadia Capital, and acadia is a hard money lending fund originating loans in Southeast Tennessee and Northern Georgia on residential one to four unit renovation properties. We are regulation D five Oh six C fund and are actively seeking accredited investors. We provide fantastic first position real estate back returns. If you're ready to get your tired and lazy capital to work with a minimum 8 percent return, go to Acadia loans. com backslash invest. Not only do we accept standard investments, but we can also accept self directed IRAs and other self directed retirement accounts to take advantage of tax advantage investing. Thank you so much for listening to Art of Connecting now back to the show. And I didn't know anything about it. And I'm like, I, and actually I talked to another mentor of mine Clint, who owns one of the largest commercial construction companies in town. And so I just, I called, I called Clint and he talked to me that morning and I talked to Matt and he's, Matt's developed a bunch of land and he was like, I know the guy that's developed all the neighborhoods in that area. Let me just call him. So he gets him on the phone. Hey, how's it going buddy? You have a second? What do you know about this person's land? And he said that land is total junk. You know, they, they chopped down all the trees, they left all the stumps. It's gonna, if I, you know, if I could have bought it for that much, I would've bought it already. And so I got that insight. And without having to, you know, I, I couldn't have called that person. I don't know him from Adam. He's sitting in his 40,000 square foot house hanging out. Right. And he, he probably wouldn't just answer my phone call. Right, right. Yeah. Maybe he would. But and, but he wouldn't give you that information? No, no, no. Not at all. And so with, with one fireside phone call, I was able to get a lot of great information. And then I was talking the mat and he was like. You know, it's not gonna be what you think it is, but maybe there's still opportunity. So let's, let's kind of dive deeper into what that might look like. And we talked for probably 30, 45 minutes about what that could look like. But if I had just been like, oh, well I'm just gonna figure this out myself'cause I, I don't, I think this is probably too big, you know, or something like that. I would've just been trying to figure it out myself and probably would've had to go drive all the way out there to see there's all these stumps and. Wouldn't have even known that that's a big problem. Right. And so with, with someone asking, Hey, how can I help you? What you've got going on right now? And, and sharing that I got this plethora of information with one phone call. I've been thinking a lot about the aspect of trust, right? And how sometimes people don't need you. Sorry, I'm getting relaxed. Sorry. Back away from the microphone. Get comfy here. So. Sometimes they don't need you, but they're talking to you because they trust you, right? And so through the art of connecting, you are able to borrow the trust that other people have built up over years and years and years, right? 100%. That's how you got that information from that guy by borrowing the trust of your friend who. Who trusts you. Right. And that's how, that's how the world goes around. Yeah. It's, it's leveraging the trust that other entrepreneurs ha have built and earning it and earning it. There. There's been several times where either one of us have trusted each other with something and it's like, I'm gonna trust you with this. And, and it's, it goes both ways truly. And, that's one of the, the, the, the biggest things you can do. And then also, I, I think so many people hold everything so tight to their chest sometimes, rightfully so. Like on a deal like this, you know, it's, it's over$4 million. Like, you don't wanna go in yelling down the street that you've got it going on.'cause then someone else could see the opportunity and take it. But, you know, say one of these people who I trust dearly, you know, and, and talk to it about it, and they go behind my back and they go and they take that land. And they go make millions of dollars on that. Most people would probably never live that down and be upset and be angry and huffing and puffing. For me, I would just be like, all right, great. I learned to not trust that person ever again. And if someone asks me about if they should trust that person, then I'm gonna tell them the truth and say, Hey, just, you know, I, I don't talk bad about people, but. This was a situation that happened to me and this is what, what went down. So just be careful and I think that just doing that, and if you don't put so much of your emotions into the outcome of something, it even, no matter how big it is, you know, it could be a$10 million thing. If you take your emotions out of it, it makes it way easier because then if you practice that trust, well most people that, especially if you built a relationship with them, they're going to take care of you. They go and make that phone call and it just saves you way more time. And then worst case, you weed someone out of your life that shouldn't have been there in the first place. Right? A, a more positive spin on that is how you earn trust, right? Mm-hmm. That's obviously how you lose trust, right? But how do you, how do you earn trust or build trust with people over time and some, and, and what I would say to that is sometimes they'll tell you, right? Especially if you, if you're in the business of asking questions like I am. You told me in one of our very first meetings. I connect people with everybody in my network, but if you ghost one of my connections and make me look bad, you're not gonna get that flow of connection anymore. Right? And so that really put a light bulb in my head is like, okay, the way you build trust with Haydynn is you are available and responsive to the people he connects you with. That. And as long as you do that, he'll continue to share his art of connecting with you. And as if you don't wanna be a part of that, just don't respond. Yeah. So be on the lookout and be listening for how do I build trust with this person?'cause if you ask, they'll tell you. Yeah. Or, or yeah. You'll find out just like with downstairs. Mm-hmm. You know. Our friend was talking about, Hey, I'm not really happy with my financial advisor right now'cause I fired him because he wasn't available. Mm-hmm. Right. And it's like he just told you exactly how to win his business. Right, right. Be available, answer the phone. Right. And it's exactly how. You told me how to win yours Yeah. Is be available, answer the phone. Right. And I wanted to say, but didn't find it appropriate at the time. It was like, oh, well, if I met you through Haydynn, that's the guarantee I give people. If I met you through Haydynn, I promise I'll you'll be saved in my phone and you'll be That's awesome. Answered on the third ring. Yeah. Yeah. And, and I, I'm understanding if, if you've got something going on and, and I call, I'll call people sometimes and, and they'll be like. I'm at my kids' soccer game. I'll call you back as soon as it ends. I'm like, no, don't, it's not that important. This is not like a, an emergency, just gimme a ring tomorrow. But that's super appreciated when it says, you know, when someone, instead of just sending it straight to voicemail, it's, it's the same click to say when you're denying a call, it's the same click to say, Hey, I'll call you back later. And that little message can mean a lot of, Hey, I'll call you back later. And then the follow through action of. Actually calling that person back later. And it, it goes both ways. It really does. Yeah. You just have to be a person that does what you say you're gonna do. It's, it's, it's not that complicated. It's just very difficult to do it every day. Right. For years. Yeah. Or for an entire lifetime. And like we were saying before we turn the mics on, things in business sometimes happen really slowly all at once. Mm-hmm. You know, feels like nothing's going on. But your, your consistent action and your consistent trust building one day, it'll be almost too much to handle all at once. Yeah. But it's, it's coming. Yeah. It's all about the consistency, the, the I hate the old adage, but it's like, how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time? One bite at a time, like. I don't, there's gotta be a better way to put that. But you know, how do you chop a log? One swing at a time? One swing at a time? You can, you can do a million of them, but it's so true. And I think that's where a lot of people miss. They, they swing the ax 99 times. Mm. And they're one swing away from that. That tree just come and falling down and then they give up. Yeah. I think about that cartoon with the guy who's dig in. And the guy below him has, is inches away from pay dirt, and he's dragging his ax and hanging his head, walking the other direction. And there's another hungry guy. Way further behind, but still. Chopping away. Chopping away. Chopping away. That's the only reason I haven't hung it up or closed my doors, is because I, I haven't made it yet. I can't quit until I made it. My grandpa said, you can't do it anything else until you've been successful at what you've tried. Wow. You know?'Cause that only then will, you know, alright, this isn't for me. Yeah. You quit before you get there. You're just gonna live a life full of regret and. And anxiety and did I do the right thing or didn't I, and just, just never quit. Yeah. It's also in Thinking Grow Rich, that same example. Okay. You, you ever read that book, Napoleon? I'm embarrassed to say Wow. That I have not. Wow, that's interesting. Get, it's a, it's a pretty good book. But in, in thinking we're rich, there's a, there's a old adage, and this is, it's a true story. A guy that bought a line. They were digging and digging and digging and they hung it up'cause they thought the mine was bad. They sold it for like a 10th of what they bought it for to someone else. And they were, they had some come and study it and they were two inches off the vein. So they, they went in and they bought all the excavators and they, they dug that mine out and it was one of the most profitable in that area. So it was just really funny to hear that, you know, they were two inches away. Yeah. You don't want to be those people. No. And you don't want people telling that story about you either. Right? Right. You wanna write your own story 100%. And even if it, Jared Thurman, who came and spoke at my real estate meetup, he, he made a great example and I'm, I'm gonna butcher it, but he said I'd much rather live with failure than regret, is really kind of the way he boiled it down. He said it much more eloquently, but it's way easier to live with failure than regret. Yeah, because you can do something about failure. You can get up and start again, but at a certain point, once you have regret, there's nothing you can do about it. Absolutely. Absolutely. My, my failures don't keep me up at night, but my regrets do. Yeah. You know, and they're silly things too. Right. But they're way more impactful to your psyche. Is, is the things that you regret in life rather than the things that you failed at. I also think it's way harder to learn from regret than it is failure. You know, every, every book you read says, you know, you don't learn anything from winning and you don't learn anything from quitting, but you do learn a lot from failing. Mm. So, I don't know, be a failure until you're not. Right. So what, what this, I just thought of this new question and maybe I'll implement it to my, my shows, but if you're comfortable sharing, what would you say is like the biggest. An issue or bottleneck right now that you have in your life or business that someone listening may be able to help with? Hmm. Biggest bottleneck. I hate to say it's my kids, but yeah. Balancing life and business and family. You know, being a, a great husband and a great father, and a great. Advisor and a great friend takes a lot of energy and a lot of time. Have you ever heard of like the juggling the balls thing? Like life's about juggling 5, 6, 7 balls, but some of them are plastic and some of them, some of them are glass. So it's just ensuring that you never drop the glass ones like family faith and trust and but you can let good friendships. Fall to the ground for a while and pick it back up when you can. Yeah. That's not a very good answer, but that's a great answer. And, and the, it's interesting because I kind of know the answer to your, your problem and it starts in a great mentor. You know, it sounds like you have some amazing mentors, but there may be someone listening to this that 20 years ago lived through the same thing you did and they had little kids and they were. Doing the same things you are. And, and they may have some, some great advice. And so if anyone is listening and that's, that's your arena, reach out to Pete and, and talk with them. Very, very coachable. You never know who's gonna be listening to this podcast. Cool. I've learned. That's awesome. I've learned the hard way from some people that I really look up to and they're like, Hey, I listened to that episode. I'm like, oh crap. You heard what I said there. It wasn't my best. Yeah. Well, Pete, we're coming up on our time here. And so I want to just ask our, our final question, and that is, what is a connection to a person or a group of people that changed the trajectory of your life or career? I was thinking about this the entire drive down. I wanted there's a plethora of people that I could. Point to that to say that this changed the trajectory of my life. But on December 1st, 2023, I wrote down in my journal that I wanted to write an adult animated comedy series where the didn't ball ball could talk. It's okay. It's another episode. I wrote it down in my journal and like I was saying, I just, I kept telling people about it. Like, oh, what do you do? You know, I own a consulting business and I'm the tax assassin, whatever, but I really want to, before I die, write this animated comedy series about the life of golf balls. And I said it to the right person one day at a wedding in Philadelphia. August of 24. And his name's Kimber Shaw. He's one of my co-producers. He connected me with Nick and TJ Meen. They're professional writers, live out in LA and the four of us are creating and producing and writing O balls coming December. 15th, 2025. So check us out on Kickstarter. It'll go live on December 15th. But I think those three gentlemen have definitely changed the trajectory of my life. Got me thinking outside of the box in terms of what life could be. I think in my industry you can get kind of pigeonholed or boxed in thinking, you know, I'm only ever gonna be this. And I, I love what I do, but I, I don't want on my headstone be like. Pete here lies Pete Am Ryan World's greatest financial advisor. That wouldn't even be in my top 10. So yeah. Kimber Shaw, Nicholas Meanin, TJ Meen. I, I think that we're gonna work on, we're gonna produce something that's pretty cool and. The world's gonna see in a couple of months. So I'm excited for it. I've seen some just mockups and it looks really cool. Yeah. And you've got some incredible talent on your team. Very talented writers. Kimber has a great eye for photography and video, and we say all the time, we couldn't do this, just one of us. It's a, a full collaborative effort where. One of us grows and nurtures an idea that was born from somebody else and created something really awesome. I love it. Yeah. Well, Pete, if people want to get connected with you what is the best way to do that? Sure. So my website is amerine wealth.com. If you have questions about anything related to finance or a dollar sign, I'm happy to take a phone call. And then on Instagram, o balls official, O-H-B-A-L-L-S official. Yeah, check us out on Instagram, X TikTok, Kickstarter. And stay tuned. Love it. Awesome. Well, thanks so much for coming on to the show today, guys. If you're still here listening to the podcast, I just wanna tell you a huge thank you. It's so much fun to get do this. I see this at the end of every episode, probably a differently every time. But just thank you. Thank you for being here. And if you could do me a favor, share this episode with someone if you got value out of it or leave a five star rating and review. Or you could do both. Both is great as well. That's the end of the episode, guys. I'll see you on the next show. Thanks, Haydynn. Yes, sir.