Compound Growth

Episode 04- The Value of Why: From Fast Food to Fortune

• Compound Growth • Season 1 • Episode 4

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In this episode of Compound Growth, hosts Colin and Wheeler dive into the nuanced world of value—what it means, how we measure it, and why reframing our thinking around it can change everything. From a dinner table story about hacking classroom tech to reflections on a surprise encounter with Tony Robbins, the conversation navigates through how people create worth through action, intention, and mindset.

They unpack how some of the world’s most successful individuals—often those who faced learning challenges or humble beginnings—have developed their value not by following a straight path, but by questioning, rebelling (in the right ways), and continually asking “why.” The pair also reflects on how money, goals, and personal development intersect, revealing that increasing your value often starts with increasing your awareness and willingness to grow.

From AI-enabled education and rethinking school systems to consumer habits and mindset shifts around wealth, Colin and Wheeler bring personal anecdotes, client insights, and business reflections to life. Whether you’re trying to 10x your business or just figure out the next step in your career, this episode offers a thoughtful roadmap: start with why, get comfortable in discomfort, and recognize that sometimes the best rebellion is the one that pushes you forward.

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Credits:
Created By: Wheeler Crowley and Colin Walker
Production Assistance: Tori Rothwell
Editing and Post-Production: Steven Sims

We're at dinner last night- Who's, who's we? sitting around the table. Oh, you and your family. Wife. Okay. Wife and daughter. Got it. Family dinner around the table, and my daughter is talking to me about her time at school, which frequently- Yeah. involves a story that has nothing to do with learning and has more to do with computer activity or, like, whatever. W- some excuse to get her phone out of her bag so she can make a movie with her friend during indoor recess. Like, life has changed quite a bit. That's very different than what I grew up with- Exactly. but that sounds good. Okay. So, uh, yesterday they were working on presentations and I forget what the software was, but YouTube is blocked in the school, right? Some boys went onto YouTube, found some videos. Didn't go well. Not allowed to have videos of YouTube anymore. But couldn't you just get off the wifi and then go on cellular and then Sure. Well, her cell phone doesn't work during the day for that purpose. She's allowed to text us- Oh, okay. but she can't- Got it. Yeah. So, so, but she's working on a slideshow and she and her friend discover a workaround where if they just go to YouTube through the software that they're building the slideshow on, they can access everything. Right? So my daughter's on this Avril Lavigne kick right now. She's a big Avr- Do you remember Avril Lavigne? Love Avril Lavigne. All right. Allegedly, she, she died, but I don't think she died. D- did you hear this? No. The huge rumor that she's been dead forever and it's, like, a fake her that's performing right now? Really? We don't have to go down that rabbit hole. That's allegedly a thing. TikTok thing. It's, it's not. It's been, like, a 6year thing anyway. Okay. I'm not gonna tell my daughter this. Don't tell your that. might upset her. Welcome to The Compound Growth Podcast with Colin and Wheeler, where we talk all things growth. From financial growth to career growth, personal development to societal progress, we explore how each layer builds on the next, compounding over time to shape who we become. Each week, we break down complex ideas and emerging trends into clear, actionable insights, because growth isn't just about numbers, it's about understanding the world and our place in it. The information in this material is for general information only and is not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual. Investment advice offered through Integrated Partners, doing business as COFI Advisors LLC, a registered investment advisor. Integrated Partners does not provide legal, tax, mortgage advice or services. Please consult your legal tax advisor regarding your specific situation. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. All investing involves risk, including loss of principal. No strategy assures success or protects against loss. The economic forecasts set forth in this material may not develop as predicted and there can be no guarantee that the strategies promoted will be successful. So anyways, so she's, uh, building this presentation, uh, with her friend. This is not during a break. This is not during recess or anything. This is literally, like, a classroom assignment or whatever. Okay. And she discovers this workaround, so she and her friend build a presentation on all things Avril and all the slides are just links to, like, YouTube videos. I'm telling the story wrong. Whatever the software is. It's not, like, PowerPoint like I have in my mind, because she's- that's what I'm imagining right now. Yeah. Is a PowerPoint presentation where she's putting the hyperlinks in the slides. She's way more advanced than that. Okay. Like, I don't, I don't even know what she's doing. It's, it's an imaginary world basically. Okay. But anyways, this is an assignment and so she's telling us, and she's pretty proud. She's excited that she found this workaround- Yeah. where she's basically breaking the rules and the teacher's completely unaware. Yeah. And it's not a story you really think you wanna hear from your kid. Yeah. But I was just so proud of her. I was like, "You were thinking outside the box." Yes."You were finding a way to thwart the system. I really wanna reward your creative thinking." Yes."Don't ever do that at home." So wait a second. I'm confused now, because if she was to be doing this in class but then gave it to the teacher, then the teacher's gonna know that she broke the rules, so wouldn't she get in trouble? I don't think she gets in trouble. She's just kind of like, um, you know, a cute little button that- Okay. you know, she doesn't get in trouble so much, I think. Okay. It's, I think she My guess is, and I didn't ask that follow-up question. That's a good follow-up question. My guess is she completed her original assignment and then moved on, which is frequently the case. I okay. Like, she likes to do her work and then relax. Yeah. Whereas she'll be in a group project and nobody else in the project is doing their work. They're all, like, goofing around and she's like- Yeah."I'm done with mine. I just finished yours. I just finished yours. Now I can play." And, uh, it's, it's, it's, it's funny to hear all these stories secondhand. That's pretty interesting. I don't I feel like I remember when BlackBerrys first came out. Yeah. And I was in college- Okay. at the time. I mean, they were out before, but when I got my first BlackBerry in college, I was maybe a sophomore or a junior and, like, this is I probably shouldn't say this, but whatever. And the teachers would email out, like, the syllabus for, like, the midterms and finals and all that other stuff. Yep. And it would have, like, a list of 100 questions with the answers in there. And, like, it would be, like, a group project that you would be working on in class. Yeah. And everybody would just have their BlackBerrys out and the teachers had no idea that, like, you could just pull up all your email and they'd be sending you the answers to the tests in the tests. Oh my God. It's like the open book test that you take online APs. open book test and you're like, "Oh, I'll ju- just pull this up," but they're like, "No computers allowed." And I'm like, "Your BlackBerry's a computer, so it's the same thing." So I ended up getting, like, you know, all of my friends and I would just get hundreds on all of the midterms and finals. Right. Now in that situation, Colin- Yes. you might just be cheating yourself. I might be. However, I can still use my iPhone to look up the answers. This is true. This is the world we live in. This, this is. Yeah. So now with ChatGPT, I mean, we talk to our clients, and not just ChatGPT, but any AI thing. Yeah.Do you teach someone to use AI or do you teach someone the answers that AI can generate for you? Yeah. Well, I think it's the latter, right? I think- Right. Well- It could be the first. Wait, sorry. Weren't those both the same thing? All right. You teach somebody AI- How to use AI. how to use AI. Or do you teach someone the answers that AI will generate for you? I see. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. No, it's, it's absolutely learning to use the tool. Right. Right? yeah. But then it's like, do you become Egypt that you have all this knowledge. Mm-hmm. And the knowledge is lost- Mm. because you don't actually know any knowledge. Well, I think the assumption there would be that you are enhancing your knowledge. Like, that would essentially mean that when you look up an answer, you immediately forget the answer after it has any utilitary, u- utility to you, right? Like, it's- If you have the knowledge and you maintain the knowledge, right? Isn't it I feel like the tool is about learning to think differently about the knowledge that you absorb. Perhaps. But like, let's just say there's a complicated math question. Mm-hmm. Okay. And you drag and drop the question into AI. AI just solves it for you. Mm-hmm. But you didn't know how it solved it. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's like, you can figure out, like, how the Egyptians may have built the pyramids or how they may have done something, but would you be able to do it? And is that even worth it to know that? I think it would be worth it to document how the pyramids were built because, like, that wasn't well done. Right. Right? Um, but also, I feel like the math equation situation is an age-old issue. It's a calculator, right? Right. It's And then it was, what's the, the calculus calculator? What was that one? Do you remember that one? the TI-60-something. Yeah, with yeah, yeah, yeah. For like our, uh- Yeah. The Texas Instruments one? Yeah, and you'd have to- Yeah. like, know the code to put into the calculator. Yes. That was learning to use the tool, right? Right. There are some, like, advanced math equations that it's useful to know how to use the tool. Right. And I'm by no means, you know, Good Will Hunting over here with math. But some things I do find, it's like, um, learning how to do something is a rewarding experience versus having someone else do it for you. Yes. A hundred percent. I think there's, there's absolutely It's like why you have to show the work, right? Like you need to- Totally. I feel like math, especially, is one of those things where like, it's satisfying when you learn- Right. to do it. Now, if you need to, like, remember every Avril Lavigne song title that's ever been out there, like, I don't need to have that knowledge. You probably do. Well, I do. Yes. But don't. I d- do not. I know maybe 2 or 3. And I love those songs, but no, I'm, I'm with you. Computers and AI are perfectly capable of teaching- Right. if you wanted them to teach you. So you could get the answer, and then on the flip side of that be like, "Well, show me how you got to that answer." Yeah. Yeah. Which is basically school. Yeah. I think bottom line, it's not teaching material as much as teaching how to think, right? Right. Thinking creatively, thinking logically, thinking, um, thinking in a way in which you challenge assumptions. Like these, this type of thinking, so it's not just regurgitating facts and information- Right. is what's lacking in a lot of the school curriculum that I've seen- Right. just so far, you know, as a parent, and obviously what- Yeah. I experienced as a kid. So, I feel like that's what that's why I'm proud of my daughter because she's, she's thinking creatively. Right. And it's the right kind of rebellion. It's the kind of rebellion where it's not like, you know, a permanent consequence that Right. Like, she doesn't tell on teacher- It's a workaround. Yeah. Yes. It's, it's fine. It's the right kind of rebellion. It's a healthy- Right. healthy rebellion. Well, it's kind of like, you know, and there are a lot of books that point to this. Like, a lot of the most successful CEOs and people in the world have learning disabilities. Mm-hmm. And it's because they've had to think outside the box and change the way that they interact with their surroundings that have caused them to create very amazing companies and lead people- Yeah. and you work well collaboratively, and that stuff's important. All right. So today, one of our topics We'll, we'll go into a couple different topics today, but- Yeah. one of our topics today is going to be focusing on value. Our own value, increasing value. We were at this conference last week, and we heard a very famous speaker. Um I think we can say the name. Yeah. We can say the name. Tony Robbins. was there. Yeah. Um, and that was a fun surprise- that they, uh, hoisted upon us. It was, uh, a very fun surprise. It was supposed to be on Zoom, but then he ended up walking out on stage with, like, only 200 people- Yeah. in the room. Yeah. So it was pretty personal. Yeah, and he was- Small. It's, it's funny because I've heard, like, at Tony Robbins, one of those things that he does, like big- Yeah. uh, the seminars or the conferences- Festivals, con- Yeah. whatever they call them, yeah. Conferences. I've heard that he's, like, a real high energy person, and, like, people co- He comes on stage and, like, there's just this ton of energy- Right. in the room. And that happened. Like- Yeah. I was surprised to see it come to fruition without any of the pomp and circumstance, without the dancers- No. or the, like, music or- Yeah. like, any of the stuff that I've h- I've heard of describing what that experience was. It was like, here are all these energy sources, the dancers, the movie, the, uh- Yeah. the music, et cetera. None of that necessary, just like, "Surprise, Tony Robbins here." Yeah. And, like, the crowd went- Nuts. pretty crazy. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. It was, it was borderline, it was like a visceral experience. Yeah. Like, my heart was like, like, I was like, "Holy crap," and then you just, like, there was, like, a different, the vibe changed entirely. Yeah, yeah. Which was kinda cool. Yeah, it was very cool. Yeah. Right? And it was one of those standing ovations that, um, felt warranted, right? Mm-hmm. There were some other standing ovations throughout the, the day that- Might've been generous. Might've been- very friendly, just kind- Yeah, of course. kind- Yeah. standing ovations. Yes. You know? I actually, and maybe this is 'cause I'm a, a monster, but- those, those bother me quite a bit. I feel like I don't want- The standing ovations? Yeah. Like, I wanna stand up because I'm motivated. Like, I feel the need, the urgent- Yeah. desire to stand up and applaud. Yeah. Whereas a lot of the time, I feel like it's a guilt trip. It's like just a societal guilt. Everybody else is standing and clapping. So you should do it. So you have to do it. If you don't, then you're a jerk. Then then you're an asshole. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, so Anyways. This was a warranted standing ovation. Yes. Um, why don't you, why don't you share a little bit about your thoughts on, on Tony Robbins? So I thought that when it came to Tony Robbins, I've heard some of his stuff before, and I guess I didn't know his background necessarily. Mm-hmm. Um, and it was very interesting for me to hear that he came from very humble beginnings. Mm-hmm. Have you seen his Netflix thing? I ha- I, I know very little about Tony Robbins. I, I'll tell you- Okay, yeah. one thing about Tony Robbins I knew. I knew that my mom had his books when I was a kid. And, um, I texted, because I knew that, I texted a picture of me and Tony Robbins that was taken after. Yeah. And I sent it to my mom, and she said that, her response was that his books had such a big impact on her and helped her get- Interesting. through some really hard times. Yeah. And that personal connection gave me more respect for somebody. I had just listened to him talk for an hour and a half. Right. And, you know, there was some of that material that I, I thought was really good and some of it that I thought, "Mm." But that personal connection, I feel like, is not universal, but there are a lot of people who have- Right. those similar stories. Yeah. I mean, what, what struck me was, you know, and I don't have to go too deep into the story, but basically how he came from extremely humble beginnings, was putting ketchup packets on his pasta- Mm-hmm. because he couldn't afford red sauce. His money story is, is rough. His money story's pretty, pretty rough, and, um, you know, he saw his way through it because his whole pitch was adding value and trying to help people. Mm-hmm. And that was his whole goal. And I think for him, people could look at him now and say he's an ultra-wealthy person living in a very expensive area of the country, down in Florida, and he has, you know, billions of dollars or whatever it is, and, you know, could look at him negatively. Mm-hmm. But I think he built something that was designed specifically to help people. So, you know, I've spoken with a few friends who are like, you know, "Oh, well, he's a billionaire, so he's a douche." And then I've spoken with other people, like, you know, who have a similar experience like your mother, who's like, you know, "Well, I had a really impactful experience with him, and it changed my life." So is it the fact that now he has a lot of money I, I guess if someone has a lot of money, does, like, that doesn't make them a bad person in my mind. No. I think when you have a lot of money, you can be judged more on your actions. It's, especially if you're in a public situation, right? That's true. I mean, he's extremely public. He- He's- I can't remember the exact number, but he has like a million people attend his stuff. Yeah. Yeah. He's built his wealth by being public, right? Right. So when you put yourself into the public eye, you're going to be criticized for some of your actions, thoughts- Opinions. decisions, opinions. Right. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So Yeah, no, I mean, it was very impactful because I think for me, hearing how he really came from legitimately nothing, I think he had 5 different fathers at any given point in time throughout his life- Mm-hmm. and it was a very rough upbringing, had no money, figured his path out, and then has now exploded into this international icon of public speaking. Pretty sure he's the number one globally by, like, a significant margin. Don't- Mm-hmm. quote me on that, but it's gotta be close. That's a pretty compelling story, and he has, like, a very significant value that people see in that. Right. And that, to me, was very interesting because he's solving a problem and solving a need, but then he also has the stats to back up his results. Right. Yeah. No, yeah, they are on public display. Right. Yeah. It's public display. You can be like, "Well, I'm this effective, so you should pay for me." You know, like, "If you do these things, I know you will have a result." Yeah. I was watching, um Tom Brady was having a conversation with Carlos Sainz- Mm-hmm. the Formula 1 driver. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And, um, Carlos Sainz was like, you know, "I know that you're very into kinda fitness, obviously, and all the stuff." He wrote TB12, and, "You have all these different processes and things like that." But he's like, "I find a lot of them don't necessarily work very well. Um, you know, what I'm looking for is a system that will translate between all the different sports," because Carlos Sainz is very into biking. Obviously, he's a incredible Formula 1 driver, and Tom Brady's, you know, the, the GOAT in terms- Mm-hmm. quarterbacks. And what Tom Brady said was, "There's a lot of stuff out there that doesn't work, but I do know specifically what does work." Mm-hmm. And he was just like, "If you just focus on what works, you can forget about everything else." And he was just like, "I'll just give you a list when we're done here." Yeah. And he was just like, it was all about pliability of muscles and things like that. But it Like, I find that when you look at the people who are the most effective, obviously, you know, there are some divisive people out there, but if you look at the people who are the most effective, I find that they have, like, a specific thing that they're focusing on. Mm-hmm. It's like Tony Robbins' suicide prevention and depression- Mm-hmm. is, like, his big thing, and then he has the business motivation. You know, it's like Tom Brady is, like, only cares about being a quarterback and he's solely focused on that. Carlos Sainz is solely focused on Formula 1. But, like, they, they want, like, the specific recipe to follow forever. And I think singular focus is really important. Yeah. I was just listening to a podcast of In- Invest Like The Best, um, where, uh, Patrick was talking to the, the guy who, who does the Founders podcast. Yes. Um, which is a great podcast, and this episode was a really good episode. Yeah. But they were talking about focus, and I think that that focus can spread across or, uh, spread out, branch out to be, you know Focus on one approach to many different things, right? So, like, you know, whatever that pliability workout or focus will be- Mm-hmm. it's going to help him with Formula 1- Right. which is, like, the bread and butter, but it's also gonna help him with all these other areas of his life. Right? 100%. Yeah. And if you think about, if you think about Tony Robbins, it's not Like, yes, he did great work with the suicide prevention and mental health, um, but it's also the way that he's grown to look at the world and how he applies that to everything else, including the business and the wealth and everything else. Yeah. Right? So it's, it's a very It's a focus, but it's a focus that allows them to approach different aspects of their life in a very similar way. It's a mindset shift. It's a mindset, yeah. I heard, um, something the other day that was very interesting. It was, um, this woman who's a very successful business owner on TikTok that I follow, and, um, her business does a ton of revenue. And she talks about the shift that she had when she was in her teenage years and 20s. She didn't come from much- Mm-hmm. and she was just like, "I used to always ask myself whether or not I can afford something." And she was just like, "I realized that was the wrong question.""How can I afford it?" And she was just like, "What do I need to do to be able to afford this? Because I never ever wanna make a compromise." She was like, "If I want a Gucci purse and a Birkin bag, it's not I will never choose between them. It's how can I make enough money to get both of 'em?" Mm-hmm. And she was just like, "What do I need to do with my business?" It's just like, you know, "Well, I wanna lose weight, but then I Wanna go on this trip, so I don't have time." It's like, "Well, no, how can I lose the weight while I'm on the trip and still have fun?" Yeah. You know? So it was just the mindset shift of, as opposed to limiting, expanding- Mm-hmm. and the world can be fruitful if you want it to be, but it can also be very limiting. And in Tony's message, taking it back to Tony, what he talks about is people who have money that are very controlling of the money and don't wanna let it go, and it's just like, "Well, I've got $1 million and I can't afford to live and I can't afford to give any away." It's like, "If you won't give away 10 cents of a dollar, you won't give away a million when you've got a billion." Mm-hmm. And the fear of the money and the short supply, and the fear of not having enough will lead to a mentality that will always have that impact on you. Yeah. It's, well, it's, it's, to put it in different words, it's a scarcity versus abundance- Totally. right- Yeah. approach. And I think you're right, and I, I feel like I would actually challenge the, the woman that you're referring to on TikTok. I th- I think how is an, an appropriate question, why might be a better question. Like why- Yeah. she want that Gucci purse? Yeah. If she can s- I, I feel like it's solving for why, then solve for how, right? Sure, yeah. And she didn't actually use the purse as an example. Sure, okay. Whatever it be. yeah, yeah, yeah. But, but whatever it is, it's just like, well, if I wanna fly business class and whatever it might be, it's not that I, I can't afford that or I don't think I'll ever get to that point in my life because it's like if you say you won't get to that point in your life, you're right, you won't. Right, yeah. Well, that's true. But if you say you will get to that point- Yeah. in your life, you're also right. Yeah. You're right regardless. Yeah. You know, and it's just like that mental shift that we talked about in regards to our own business. If, you know, over the next 10 years we're trying to double our revenue- Mm-hmm. we're gonna act very differently than if we say, "Well how can we 10X our revenue?" Right. That's a completely different mind shift which requires a completely different business plan which requires a completely different outlook. Yeah, I think the goal in that way defines the approach, right? Right. To a degree. And again, I think, you know, that you always wanna take a step back and say, "Why do I want to do this," right? Yeah. Like, what is, what am I trying to solve for by 10Xing versus 2 Xing, or, or whatever it might be. Yeah. Right? But with Tony and going back to the value aspect of this, and this has kinda come up a couple of times in our soft conversation today, but what he focused on and achieved was increasing his value, right? And I think he focused on just the process of increasing his value that led to increasing his wealth, and then that led to infinite horizons and changing, continuing to increase his value. Right. Right? But the story that he shared, um, started with the concept of the person who's working at McDonald's, right? Right. And- This is a good one. how much they are paid for their work at McDonald's is based on the work that they are doing, and it's not that their, their worth isn't worth more. The actual activities that they are performing, the tasks that they are performing are worth the dollars that are being paid, right? Right. Which is why if you There's a robot. I don't Have you seen the robot that flips burgers? I forget. I've, I've seen the videos of it. I don't know anything about it other than the fact that I saw it in a meme. Right. So it's a, I think it's, like, Flippy or something like that. Okay. I can't remember the name robot. Sounds, sounds right. Yeah. Yeah. But the point is that, you know, in the, uh, I think at its best or maybe at one area of its, of, of its best, um, achievements or what we can achieve with ro- robotics now, I, it's re- it's replacing these remedial tasks- Yeah. and allowing people to evolve to higher value tasks, right? Right. Or higher value roles or whatever it might be. I think when people are, are wondering about how much they should be, make to be paid, to be working at McDonald's, they're asking the wrong questions, right? Right. They're not asking why. No. Why am I paid this? They might blame the society, the prison that they're in, the structure that they're in, the system that they're in, um, and if they blame the system then they're not going to find a way to increase their own value. Totally. I think people often talk about layoffs as a negative, and we've actually talked about this on prior podcasts that- Mm-hmm. oftentimes during mass layoffs and recessions, people find better and different paths. I can't remember the exact saying but, you know, the devil you know, and this is a dark conversation- Okay. that I'm about to go down. Uh-oh. But, um, allegedly this happened. Uh, in World War II, they gave prisoners of war an option in Germany, which is either death by firing squad or you can go through a door and you don't know what's behind the door. Yeah, there's a name for this e- this was an experiment, but whatever it was. It, it was something, yeah. It was a messed up experiment that they did. Yeah. And, you know, people would ask, you know, "Well, what's behind the door?" It's like, "Well you gotta figure it out." And I, I, I don't know the exact statistic but the vast majority of people chose the death by firing squad- Yeah.'cause they had the certainty versus, like, something completely unknown when on the other side of the door was freedom. That's so German. Allegedly. You know, but I guess whether that's a true story or a proverb or whatever it might be, the fact of the matter is, is that how often do we talk to people that we know they're in bad situations with their current employer, their current relationship, their life situation, their health habits, but because it's familiar and easy, they stick to it? Yeah. Yeah, and they, they will blame the system that they're in for their lack of progress. It's so much easier to blame the system, to blame politics, to blame the markets, to blame the- Yeah. whatever it might be, the weather, for not wanting to do something. I mean there's been plenty of times. The other, 2 days ago, um, it was raining outside-And it was, I was supposed to go for a run. Mm-hmm. And I was just like, "Ugh, it's raining outside. I don't wanna go for a run." But then I was just like, "You know what? I'll just do it." And it turned out to be a fantastic run, and it was like a perfect mist. It was like 55 degrees, so I was nice and cool. And I was like, "This is the perfect weather to go for a run." Like, if it was sunny outside, maybe I would've been hot. Mm-hmm. But- Yeah. I feel like we talk to people all the time who are stuck in certain situations that they're unhappy with, and as opposed to making a change, they stick to it. Yeah, and I think, uh, this is not to say that just like, uh, you know, I- I kind of push back against the concept that, like, you can do anything you put your mind to, right? Um, or like, there's equity, just universal equity in the world and everybody can do the same thing, or everybody has access to the same knowledge, or the same resources or whatever. That's not true, right? Right. Um, and there are limitations that are put upon people- Mm-hmm. that are different from the limitations that they put upon themselves. Right. Right? But I think, we see this all the time with clients who are trying to increase their wealth. And they- their approach, frequently, to increasing their wealth is going to be the strategy, the investment strategy, right? Right. Or they wanna preserve their wealth and they rely on the investment strategy, right? Yeah. And I think in some cases, you know, especially for retirees, they have less opportunity in front of them to increase their wealth or preserve their wealth, right? Totally, yeah. They kinda, they've- they've chosen or, in some cases, been forced to, you know, find themself in this situation where they have to rely on whatever they have. Right. Right? But I think for the- the young accumulators, or people who are still in the workforce, or anybody who is looking to increase their wealth, they can just hope that their stocks go up, right? Yeah. Hope isn't a great strategy. No. They could also contribute to their portfolio, and if they don't make enough money to contribute to their portfolio, they could go try to make more money, right? Right. Now again, why? Why do they need more money, right? Right. What are they doing this for? But at the end of the day, if- if you're building your wealth, the best way to build that wealth isn't to hope that you have the next GameStop or- or, uh, Bitcoin or whatever it might be. Right. It's to go out there and increase your value. 100%. And I think that's the biggest miss, in my mind, with a lot of people. It's, "Well, I need to either save more or my investments need to do better." Mm-hmm. And we're specifically talking about money, and not everybody's goal is obviously to make more money or to be a billionaire or whatever it might be. Sure, So, I agree with you that not everybody has the same resources, but not everybody has the same goals either. Correct. So, and that's totally fine. Um, but with that being said, I think the biggest thing that you could do to mirror what you're talking about is to increase your value and change your mind on things. Mm-hmm. You know, like if you were to lean into the fact that change is good. Mm-hmm. And as a perfect example, we're going away on vacation next week to, um, Europe and I'm excited about it, but we just got back from another trip last week for business. I'm like, "Ugh," like, you know, "I wish we had a few more weeks in between." But it's an uncomfortable, you know, experience to hop back on a plane and do it again, but I know it will be a learning experience, and sometimes you just gotta push yourself. Yeah. And while it may be uncomfortable, I think having that mindset shift, learning to get excited about change, and learning to take on that risk is usually a big payoff. Learning to be comf- comfortable in the discomfort, right? Right. Like that's, I feel like that's something I hear a lot in my- my Peloton workouts. like-"Sit in this discomfort," Lean into the discomfort, yes. You're on the Peloton bike and you're like, "You wanna stand up right now, but I'm not gonna let you." Yeah. Um, and that's, you know, at the end of the day, in that situation, you are the one that, that whoever the instructor is on the screen that's like telling you to sit in it- Right. they're not forcing you to sit in it. You have to choose whether you're going to sit in it or not. Right. Right? The power is in your hands in that situation. Right. Right? In the same way that not to cut you off quick, but in the same way that if you wanna make more money, if you work at McDonald's or if you work at, you know, a dead-end job, I think the best way to make more money is to recognize that you don't have any more upside potential- Mm-hmm. and then change your mindset to try to find something that does have upside potential. Right. Now again, that's if your goal is to make more money, right? If it is to make more money. That's an easy thing for us to talk about, but it could be with anything. Yeah. Yeah. I think there are some people, some creative people that I know, where their goal is to create or make as much space in their lives for creativity, right? And it's maybe more about working a job that pays the bare minimum, or pays a living wage, or whatever it might be. Right. So that allows them to pursue their creativity and, and do, you know, pursue these other goals- Yeah. that are not necessarily maybe they'll make money, maybe they won't, right? in some cases, money isn't the driving force. I would actually argue that in most cases, money- It's not. shouldn't be the driving force. Right. Right? Yeah. I mean, ultimately if you're trying to make more money, there's a reason behind why you want more money, like you said. Like, what's the why? It's do you wanna live in a different environment for your kids- Mm-hmm. or get into a different schools' district, you know? Are you trying to travel more so you can have more experiences? Are you trying to, you know, be able to afford a different car? Like, whatever it might be, there's a reason behind why you want more money, to just get more money. Like, even if you look at billionaires, like, probably didn't want more money, but their goal was to grow and scale a business. Right. Yeah. I think the, the there are 2 ways to, you know, build a business. There's to build the best business and let the business grow and, and to continue to let that Like, if you build something that's increasing value, you will be financially rewarded. Rewarded. Right? Yeah. It's how capitalism should work. Should work, yeah. Right? But then there are also the people that are just looking for the quickest path, right? The, you know, to spin up a business that they can sell to private equity- Mm-hmm. and then, you know, kinda check that box off. Yeah. And it's you know, if there, there are 2 paths at that point. You can either exit and go play golf- Mm-hmm. right? Or you can exit that and then build something else. Right? Tony Robbins had a quote, and technically it was AJ that said it, um, that I thought was absolutely fantastic, which was, uh, there was a gentleman up there interviewing Tony Robbins, who sold his business, made a ton of money, and he was just like, "You know, now I'm retired." And Tony was just like, "You're not retiring. You're rewiring." Yes. I like that a lot. That was a good quote. And he was just like, "You're not gonna be done. Like, what? Are you just gonna go play golf? You hate golf." Yeah."You're just gonna sit in your house and watch TV? Like, congratulations, you have a lot of money to watch a big-ass television at your house. Like, how miserable is your life?" Mm-hmm. It's not, but anyway. Yeah. The point was is I, I guess you can always have different goals, your goals can evolve, but, um, to always be striving for something a little bit more, and so that reframing and rewiring of why you're doing something- Yeah. I think is very important. Yeah. I would argue that there's, there's perhaps, like, a moral aspect to this- Mm-hmm. where if you exist in society, right, or a community, then you have an obligation to contribute to that community. Yeah. And it doesn't have to be through a job. It doesn't have to be earning money, right? But I think the concept of, you know, retiring and just relaxing, right, it's, it's too much of a good thing, right? When you relax, you stop growing. If you d- if that's your whole thing, right, like you just, you know, it's get busy living or get busy dying, right? Right. Yeah, Shawshank Redemption. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. So it's, it's, you know, you wanna have purpose in life. I think the majority of the work that we should do should have purpose at its best, right? That's, that's what this is all about. And it's you know, if somebody is working in a fast food restaurant, they have a purpose, right? Mm-hmm. Um, but is that purpose permanent? Is there something else, like a robot, that could come in there and do that job and allow this other person to find maybe even a greater purpose or a different purpose? Whatever it might be. At this stage of the game, I'm having a very hard time thinking of industries that probably w- couldn't be taken over by AI. Hmm. I think that well, taken over is, is hard to describe. I th- And that's the thing. Yeah. Like, I guess, I guess you could always say, you know, "Well, my job could easily be replaced," and I think, um, that's probably true in a lot of cases. Like, I don't think that that's the, the point. Right. You know? Like, whether or not, you know, your job could be taken over or something like that. I think, to just mirror what you're saying, it's whether or not you're adding value. Yeah. And then as time and technology evolves, like, if you find that you're not adding more value, maybe it's, there's something else that you could be doing that would be adding more value. Yeah. You know, it's also, it's funny that we sit here and we talk about value, but value is still it's almost like beauty. It's in the eye of the beholder to a degree. Totally. Yeah. Right? There's you know, if, if Tony Robbins says, "Price of entry is X," right? Mm-hmm. He's assigning that value and somebody else is agreeing to it. Right. Right? Yeah. It's funny, and this is the amalgamation of the universe w- at play here, but last night, we were watching, uh, The Studio, which is a Seth Rogen show on Apple TV.Oh, yeah. Um, and in this show, he is a studio head, right? So, he's in charge of the entire studio, he determines what movies get made, et cetera. Yeah. Um, and in this episode, he's dating a doctor and it's not just like any doctor. It's a- a- a, um, child cancer doctor that was how they were basically Okay. Yeah, a child oncologist. Yeah. Yeah. Pediatric oncologist. Yeah. Um, so, um, he goes to a fundraiser and the fundraiser is a bunch of doctors, and he's just like this guy in the film industry, right? And the episode becomes about value actually, and how they value the things that they do, being pediatric oncologists- Yeah. higher than the- th- they value what he does, which is just making junk movies in their opinion, right? Right. And even if every movie that he made was The Godfather, they would still look at him as lesser than them- Sure. because that he has less value in life. Right. And the show is a really good show because it will balance like, I feel like we could all agree that pediatric oncology is like a pretty valuable thing, right? Yes. Um, but- Be hard to argue that. Right. But the way that they put down this guy is, you know, totally uncool, right? Right. We can look at that and say, "Wow, why are they just being so dismissive of him like they're just talking down to him." Um, now this character is a character who completely makes a mess of things at all times. So, even if in that situation he had a chance at being in the right, he completely botches it, right? He Okay, got it. Like, um- Is this a comedy? It's a comedy- All right. it's painful comedy. Like every- All I have to watch it, like I pull the blanket over my eyes sometimes when I'm watching this show. Okay. Like I can't, I can't. Um, but it's, the point is that they're, they assigned their value. He assigned his value, right? And in life, we don't always find that agreement. It's like when we're talking to clients and we say, "Here's what our fee schedule is." Yeah. Right? We believe we have that value. Right. The clients that work with us, hopefully, all agree- Yeah. that we are either providing a fair value or they are, or they are winning the deal, right? Right. Um, but there are some people who see the fee schedule and they say, "No, thanks." Right. You know, and I personally believe that those people have a limited understanding of what we do, or they have expect- you know, skewed expectations. And the first part I will frequently say, "Is there something I could do to help them see my value?" Mm-hmm. Right? Is there something like I could say that would make them change their perspective or look at things through a different prism that's not this limiting scarcity pre- prism that they're looking at things through? But obviously, it's out of my control to a degree. Right. Right? You know, I have, um, you know, a friend's dad who's a very successful guy, right? He's done very well in his, in his life, but he looks at his financial advisor as somebody he calls and says, "Should I buy China stocks? Yes, no? Okay, goodbye." Right? Yeah, and that's the whole relationship. And he thi- says, "All financial advisors are the same." And I'm like, "Well, that's because you don't know what a financial advisor is." Yeah. So, I can't, I could teach you, but, um, you know, even if I did, I feel like he's the type of person that he's ve- his mindset is very limited. Mm-hmm. It's very scarcity based and he's not open to understanding what an advisor actually does for a client. That's totally fair. Um, I will say that when someone comes to me and they say, you know, like, either this fee seems really high or whatever it might be, like I take myself down mental paths of like, okay, well, I could absolutely hire a personal trainer and I could probably get a better result. Do I want to pay the money for that? Mm-hmm. I don't think so. Not at this stage of the game. But I know that it would be better if I didn't. Like I know that that would be better. So I can't blame someone if they come to us and they say, you know, "Well, I don't wanna pay, you know, a couple thousand dollars a year more," or whatever it is in costs to get this bigger benefit, because maybe it's not a goal for them to really get that far ahead in their finances. Maybe they're prioritizing other things. Obviously, I'm biased and I think that, you know, we do our best to help our clients. There have been, maybe out of 400 clients, one or 2 that I would say, you know, "You could probably do this pretty well on your own." Mm. Yeah, because they don't have the same needs, right? Correct. The complexity curve, they aren't aligned with where we're at. Very easy complexity curve. Yeah. Very on point with their budget, very on point with savings, very on point with markets. They read every morning about it. You know, very on point with managing their accounts. They know all the tax stuff, they do all their own taxes, and that's great. Like, if I was 6% body fat and, and if I was competing in Ironmans- Mm-hmm. I don't think anybody would advise me to necessarily get a personal trainer unless I was trying to be the best. But you even look at professional athletes, they all have personal trainers. Mm-hmm. You know, because they're trying to get better, they have their own nutritionists, celebrities, all that same stuff, and they're trying to get in shape for movies, whatever it might be. So it's The value of someone, I guess, is determined by your own goals- Yeah, I agree. I- and priorities. Yeah. I think it's like, it's If you feel there's, like, a misalignment of value- I think the approach shouldn't be to hope somebody else fixes that for you- Right. right? Or to blame somebody else for that. Yeah. Right? But in your situation, if you're saying, "I need this simple- simplicity in my life as well-" Yeah. right? It's like, yes, you can use ChatGPT. Sure. Right? And you can build this You know, I, I built following your lead, like, my, my board of directors of my, of my health and wealth- Of health, right. and wellbeing. Yes. Um, and you can do that, and it's fun too. Right, it is. Right? Yeah. Like, it's We're curious to learn. Um, as long as that also meets my needs for ease, for accountability, for whatever else it is, right? If that If I'm the type of person who needs a personal trainer, right? Like Robert Rodriguez, director, um, he was on the Tim Ferriss podcast a month or so ago, and he was talking about, um, the concept of just, like, if you want to be an athlete, if you want to be fit, if you wanna lose weight, whatever it might be, you have to say, "I'm an athlete," right? And- Totally. if I'm an athlete, that means I need a trainer 'cause the best trained athletes have trainers. Have trainers, yeah. Right? Robert Rodriguez needs a personal trainer to call him and say, "Why aren't you at the gym right now?" Right. Right? He needs that accountability, so he's going to pay for that accountability, right? Yeah. I don't need that accountability. Right. I have my own guilt inside that, that does that for me. Yeah. Uh, I'm always gonna make myself feel way worse than any personal trainer. Right. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. But even, like, on the other side, let's say it's, it's The best part of it, it's not guilt, it's actually the reward. It's realizing how you feel when X happens, so you pursue X. Yeah. Right? Um, so oftentimes, I feel like what we pay for is a combination of knowledge, ease, accountability, whatever it is. Those are the things that we apply value to. Yeah. I think, um, the theming of value is very interesting because everybody values things very differently. Yeah. And, you know, you going back on some of the things that you said, like, you know, the, the gentleman that you were referring to, like, doesn't understand necessarily what they do and they have a very closed mind on stuff. Right. Like, he's not willing to learn. Right. Yeah. You know, and it's the same thing with, like I, I find everything in life comes down to your mindset with everything. It's, you know, like, you even look at the world in politics right now. Someone could look at a policy and be like, "This policy is bad." Mm-hmm. And just make up their mind that it's bad. And it's just like, well, that's your own opinion and that's your own value. Someone else could look at it like it's the greatest thing in the world. Like, you can look at religious extremes. Mm-hmm. Some people would be like, you know, "If you don't agree with them, then you're the enemy, and if you do, then you're saved." And that's been going back in time 6,000 years. Yeah. You know, so it's not anything different. But in regards to people placing value on things, um, you know, it's actually kind of interesting, the tariff talk. And I've mentioned this to you with the China situation. So China has gotten tariffed, and one of the things they're doing to get around to it as, as opposed to selling a lot of their goods to luxury stores, like Restoration Hardware as an example As opposed to you buying a couch through them, they're like, "Well, just come buy the couch through us directly and we'll ship it over even with the tariffs. As opposed to the couch being $20,000, it'll be $2,000." Right. I get ads about that crap all the time. Right. So then it's just like, okay, well, is the value the fact that you're going to get this really nice couch or is it the fact that it's a Restoration Hardware couch and people can walk into your house and you can say this is Restoration Hardware? Yeah. Is it actually that you want a Louis Vuitton purse or is it actually that you just want a purse? Yeah. Because at the end of the day, if you have the exact same product with the exact same leather made by the exact same people, if it doesn't have LV on it, does it have any value to you? I, I would actually say the furniture might be one thing 'cause there's no branding on the furniture. Totally, yeah. But I feel like that LV on that purse is- Is a big, is a big thing. yeah. And that's, that's what's really interesting about this, is like I couldn't care less about luxury brands- Yeah. really to a certain extent. I mean, I like watches a little, but, like, I'm not about to go and drop my net worth and life worth on a collection of watches. Right. So-The value is interesting because what people put their value on, whether it's personal training or luxury goods or real estate or themselves, it's just gonna be so variable depending on what your own goals and mental outlook could be. Yeah. I was thinking about this because you brought up the, the furniture thing a couple times, and I found myself in a situation recently where I was buying furniture. Um Okay. And I was in a situation where tariffs had not increased the prices of the furniture. Mm-hmm. was actually, there was a sale going on, so it was 20% off of whatever I was gonna be paying, or whatever the, the price of the furniture normally would be, right? Right. But in the back of my mind, I was still aware of what you've uncovered in terms of how much it costs to build this, right? Like, what goes into that value that's being assigned? Totally. And all of the people along the way that are taking a cut, which makes that price go up and up and up. That's what tariffs do. Right. They increase prices because more people are taking cuts. Cuts, of course. Right? Yeah. Um, and even without tariffs, that's happening. Right. Right? So anyways, I'm at the store and I'm, I'm finding myself thinking like, "Oh man, Colin put all this work into, like, understanding how to do this, and I could just go get a container and I could go to China and like, pick out this furniture and then I can ship it this way when it's, like, right here in front of me and this person-" Exactly."Like, her job is to, like, take care of me." You valued the time. Yeah, I valued the ease. Of, the ease and the time- Yeah, of not having to go to do that stuff. Yeah, yeah. Um, and I guess everybody has, like, that dollar figure where it's like, "Well, if my time is worth X, like, if I'm building a new house, is it worth it to fly over to China to save $10,000?" Yeah. Is it worth it to Maybe not. Is it worth it to fly over to save 20,000? Yeah. 50,000? 100,000? 200,000? At point it's worth it. Yeah. some point there's going to be a number where you're like, "I better get my ass over to China." Yeah. You know what I mean? yeah. Like, and whether it's China or something else, I guess, you know, i- i- for someone that doesn't really value, like, the name brand of things Mm-hmm. that doesn't really matter to me. But for someone that could get, you know, and I'll just keep going back to purses because it's easy, this purse for X amount of dollars and this purse for X amount of dollars, but it doesn't have a logo. Diamonds, you can get a lab-grown diamond Mm-hmm. for an 8th of the cost- Yeah. of a natural diamond, and it is the exact same. You can put them next to each other. There's no indication of any difference whatsoever. It's carbon. Yeah. But the fact that it wasn't pulled out of the ground by some poor guy in a third world country- suffering immensely, yeah, who's suffering immensely to try to get it for you versus like, you just have a bunch of people in a lab growing it for you in India. Yeah. Here's your diamond. It's perfect. Yeah. I mean, talk about the disparity in human value there. Totally. Right? Like, value is such an interesting thing, um, that is just, like, unbelievable to me, and it's, all comes down to your own personal preference and value and mindset and blah, blah, blah. Yeah, yeah. I think that's a really good example of somebody who, you know, this is not the point of why you brought that up, but, um, if you think about that person who found that diamond, the, the work in front of them to increase their value- Yeah. their path is so much more complicated than mine was, right? Absolutely. Um, and there, there are so many different variations of that in this country and in other countries, in this neighborhood and that neighborhood, et cetera. Yeah. Um, I think the, the goal is that you have to at least try, right? We were watching, uh, Girl Meets World. Do you remember Boy Meets World? Oh, of course. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, So my daughter's into Girl Meets World- Okay. um, which is itself 10 years old at this point, but- Who knew? um, they were learning about Thomas Edison in this episode. Sure. And how he failed when he was trying to create the light bulb- Right. over and over and over and over and over and over again Yeah. Except he wouldn't say that he failed. He found another way not to make a light bulb, right? Yeah, 10,000 ways- Yeah. not to make a light bulb, in fact. Yeah. Um, and the, the point of that, of that episode, because they're always thematic, was, you know, to keep trying, right? The act of trying is the point. Yeah. It's not necessarily the outcome. And you're not always going to be able to increase your wealth to match somebody else, right? No. Yeah, that's not the point. But if you can look at yourself every day and say, "I'm trying to increase my value," and yeah, sometimes it's hard and it sucks, and I struggled for years to do this, right? Mm-hmm. I totally get that. But at least I can feel good about what I'm doing, right? Right. And I'm not going to blame the system for not rewarding me- Right. for my efforts, because I will never have Tony Robbins' wealth, right? Well, you're right.'Cause I said so. Yeah. Uh, but I, I don't actually want, right? That's not your goal. Yeah. Yeah. So, I think, you know, if I could look at that and say, I, you know, I'm not gonna have his wealth, but- Yeah. boy would it be an aspirational goal to have the ability to impact as many people as he's impacted, to have as many people like my mom say that type of thing to me. Like- Yeah. if I could have somebody say to me that I helped them through a really hard time, I see immense value in that. And it's not I think there, there's a byproduct of that that could be financial, but it's so much more to me than that. Yeah. Well, I think, um, to me, like kinda the big takeaway was the questioning of your own values and why. Mm-hmm. It's kind of like, uh, you know, like say you are into luxury things, you know? Why is it that you're so into the luxury things? Is it the persona that you're trying to give off? Mm-hmm. Is this? It's like, why do you want more money? Is it, you know, a sense of comfort? Is it competition with people that you know? Right. Like, what is it that you're trying to accomplish with this? In the same way, it's like, you know, well, if you're trying to impact more and more people, like what are you trying to get out of that? Like is it more of a personal self-worth? Is it more like, you know, uh, I'll say like a lead that you're trying to set or an example you're trying to set for your family? Like whatever it might be. In the same way, it's like you look at something on the news or negative and you're like, this is really upsetting to me. And it's like, well, why is it upsetting to me? Is it because of who's delivering the news? Is it the actual content of the news? Like, I, I don't know. Questioning everything, I think, is, is healthy and, um, the reframing of your values and constantly checking in on that- Yeah. to make sure you're going down the right path makes sense. I, uh, I think I told you this. Um, I pushed Kaylee, uh, to get a goal book together. Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah. How's that going? Uh, good actually. Good. Um, so we have goal meetings now once a month, where we sit down and it's just like, "These are the things that I'm trying to accomplish this year and these are the things I'm trying to accomplish over the next 5 years." She comes up with her own set of goals, it's like these are the things that she's trying accomplish this year and these are the things over the next 5 years. And, um, when she first got the goal book, I, I was cleaning up the kitchen and I'm like, "Hey, where do you want this notebook?" And she's like, "Oh, don't touch that. It's my goal book." Mm-hmm. And I opened it up and I'm like, "It's blank." And she's just like, "Yeah, my goal is to get a goal." And so then we eventually sat down and we did it together, but the moment we listed out the goals, we knew that we were gonna take action on those goals. Yeah. And it's just like, oh, well, this was one of my goals, and we check in on it so you have accountability so you can go after it. And then the constantly questioning about like, "Well, why is it do you wanna lose weight?" Mm-hmm. Like, "Well, why is it do you wanna, you know, get this certification at work?" Like, "Why is it do you wanna go to this, you know, travel destination?" Like, is it just to get away for a week or is it that you wanna see some sort of historical site? And to be constantly questioning why you're doing things I think is just healthy in general, because it keeps you guided, you know, mentally as well. Yeah, yeah. It's a reminder to always start with why. Right. Right? Or if you don't start with why, go back. Go back and figure out what the why was, yeah. And Yeah, yeah. In this episode, we discussed one of my favorite concepts, the importance of starting with why and using that knowledge to inform your goals and the steps you take to achieve them. Is money your driving force or is it something deeper? What do you value and why? Do you keep track of these goals in a goal book like Collin and Kaylee? Do you journal? Do you take time to reflect on your goals, on your whys? We also talked about the importance of making an impact on the people and world around you. The value you bring to the table is often measured by this impact, and that itself is often aligned with the money you earn, although obviously that's not always the case. If you're watching this podcast, you may have noticed we recorded it in a new podcast studio. We're invested in the growth of this podcast and are exploring different ways to improve and grow upon the foundation we're laying. To that end, if you have any thoughts you'd like to share, we'd love to hear them. Thank you again for tuning in and taking the time to get to know us a little better. If you've liked what you've heard or found any of it useful, please like and subscribe and share with your friends. Follow us on Compound Growth Pod on Instagram and TikTok, or Compound Growth Podcast on YouTube. Compound Growth with Wheeler and Collin, sponsored by Kofi Advisors. Reach out today. Yay!