Hi, everyone. Welcome to What Works. This is a show for consortium advisors
that taps into over 1,000 years of experience shared by our consortium
advisors.

I’m your host, Don Patrick, and I’m here to guide the conversation with
guest advisors and lift the hood on what works for them in business and
life. It’s all about learning and growing.

So let’s go.

Don Patrick: Welcome, everybody, to the 43rd episode of the IFG Podcast,
What Works. And our guest today is Brett Bringuel of Cast Ahead Wealth
Management down in Peachtree City, Georgia. Welcome, Brett.

Brett Bringuel: Well, thank you, Don. Thank you for having me.

Don Patrick: So we’re just chit-chatting a little bit, and you said this
kinda, some of these basic questions made you reflect on things you haven’t
thought about in a long time.

Brett Bringuel: Yes. That actually, it did. I don’t think too much about the
past and what accomplishments may have or not have, but basically where
we’re going right now and what we need to do today, and what we need to do
tomorrow to be successful. So yeah, it was a good exercise, and I thank you
for giving me that checklist to kinda go through.

Don Patrick: So, well, let’s just kinda get started there and tell us about
your background and upbringing and your family and progression, high school,
college. Just tell us about your life.

Brett Bringuel: All right. I guess I’ll go all the way back to maybe being
born in Fort Rucker, Alabama. So I am a Southern boy, although I get a lot
of questions about where I’m from in the North. Am I from New York or
somewhere? I don’t know where that comes from, but I am from the South. I
was born in Fort Rucker, Alabama. My father was an Army aviator.

Don Patrick: That’s what I figured, helicopters.

Brett Bringuel: Yeah. Well, actually, he flew the Caribou.

Don Patrick: Oh.

Brett Bringuel: And so he was in Vietnam. He was in the Korean War too, at
the end of it, or the Korean Conflict, I should say, and then he was in
Vietnam for the majority of his time. And he flew the Caribou, which is, I
guess, a transport plane.

Don Patrick: Mm-hmm.

Brett Bringuel: And then later, in the late ’60s, I believe it was, he flew
a quiet airplane. Lockheed made an airplane, kind of experimental at the
time, that was to be used for night observation of the enemy. So he flew
that. And so again, that’s why I was down at Fort Rucker, right? And so, at
that point in time, my mom is at home taking care of all five of us. And she
was obviously a stay-at-home mom with five kids. I’m the youngest of five
kids.

Don Patrick: You’re the baby, huh?

Brett Bringuel: Yeah, the baby

Don Patrick: By eight years. You don’t seem to be spoiled at all. You’re
hardworking and disciplined and…

Brett Bringuel: I had the nickname Brett the Brat growing up. So yeah.

Don Patrick: Oh, I love that.

Brett Bringuel: Yeah. My sister and my older brothers, they liked to torment
me and tease me a lot. But anyway, yeah, I’m the youngest by seven, eight
years. My brother John is the closest sibling. But yeah, my parents have
been married for 68 going on 69 years this year. I’m hoping that they make
it, ’cause my father is… got dementia, and my mom has got cancer. So older
parents, elderly parents, aging parents, going through things that we all go
through with our parents. So that obviously spends a lot of time now,
helping them out and taking care of them. But growing up, I’m very blessed
to have four siblings, fantastic siblings. My sister Yvonne, she’s the
oldest. She’s kinda like the mother hen. She’s the one that really helped
out a lot, especially when my mom started flying.

My mom started flying as a flight attendant for Eastern Airlines back in the
mid-70s, so I think it was ’74 or ’75. So I was still very young. And so, I
credit a lot to my brothers and my sister for helping raise me. Brother Andy
and Alan and John, all very successful in their careers and in their life.
So, very thankful, obviously, for them in helping me become the person that
I am today. My childhood obviously was great growing up, obviously, having a
lot of siblings and having a lot of fun going to football games and baseball
games and all that good stuff, ’cause they all played sports. And then of
course, I got into sports, obviously. I wasn’t probably as good as any of
them, but obviously had fun doing it.

Don Patrick: What kind of sports?

Brett Bringuel: I played football, baseball, ran track, and played indoor
soccer.

Don Patrick: Wow.

Brett Bringuel: And then one year outdoor soccer, which was kinda
interesting, ’cause I didn’t know anything about outdoor soccer. And I guess
because I played indoor, one of the guys that I played with, went to high
school with, he had a team down here, Lightning, one of the club teams or
whatever. And, so I played with them, and they won the state championship.

Don Patrick: That’s awesome.

Brett Bringuel: I was on the team, but I wasn’t really any good. But yeah,
it was fun. But you know, one of my passions, and kinda where, like, you
know, like the Cast Ahead, where does that come from and all that, which is
a whole ‘nother story, right? But you know my love for fishing and boating.
So, my father obviously is a fisherman from way back. He’s got great fishing
stories. And I remember the days growing up, going to Lake Allatoona up
there in Atlanta and staying on the Army base, the area where they had the
Army recreational area.

So he had a boat up there, and we would go up there for the weekends. Always
an adventure with a family of seven, right? But, yeah, it was a lot of fun.
And again, kind of the love for boating and fishing, I carry on even to this
day with my kids and Paula. We enjoy the water. We enjoy boating, fishing,
and that sort of thing. So obviously, I mentioned Paula and my kids, the
most important people in my life. So Paula and I have been married for 32
years coming up in July.

Don Patrick: I love it. That’s great.

Brett Bringuel: So 1994.

Don Patrick: You guys don’t look old enough to be married 32 years, neither
one of you.

Brett Bringuel: Well, thank you, Don. I appreciate that. Yeah, so it’ll be
32 years this July, which, yeah, I look back and I think, “Wow, man, we’ve
lived in Peachtree City since 1994.” Yeah, it’s, and I’m thankful for her.
She’s obviously a fantastic wife. She’s my assistant, as maybe some know,
some don’t know. But she is my assistant. She’s my tech person. She’s my
marketing person. She’s the client service coordinator. She’s actually the
one that keeps everything going. She’s the branch manager. I mean, she’s the
one that keeps my calendar. She keeps me in line when I’m out of control
sometimes. So, very thankful for her and her support because obviously, I
don’t think I would be here. And Don, you remember, I was sitting at that
conference table at IFG headquarters in Atlanta with you and Land and
telling you probably a lot of the same stuff we were talking about.

Don Patrick: Mm-hmm.

Brett Bringuel: That was COVID, 2020.

Don Patrick: I remember.

Brett Bringuel: It just before everything hit, right? It really, I think
some of our conversations were late 2019. But yeah, I mean, going through
that period of time, a transitional loan, which I have done two transitions
before from previous firms. As you know, is difficult, right? But to do it
during that period of time, the uncertainty of everything, if it wasn’t for
Paula, and also, I might add, Carmen. Carmen Chuck with the ACE Staff Group,
you guys were great support. But Carmen was amazing to help us onboard
clients, and definitely couldn’t have done it without the two of them.

Don Patrick: Where’d you go to college at?

Brett Bringuel: Well, before that, let me just make sure I gotta say, y- the
two, three more people that are super important is my kids, right?

Don Patrick: Yeah.

Brett Bringuel: Bianca, Alex, and Xavier. They are 28, 26, and 22. And then
our two Schnauzers, Cosmo and Dash. They’re my buddies, so I have to say
they’re part of the family. If you ask about the family, they gotta be
brought up. We do have two, we do have a couple grand-dogs and some
grand-kitties, but eh, no grandkids yet. But, that’s basically the family.
So as for college, I went to Georgia State locally. I started out at Clayton
State out of high school. And so, out of high school, I didn’t know what I
was gonna do. I worked for my brother Alan. He was a part owner in a heating
and air company at the time locally. And so that summer I went to work for
Powers Heating and Air, here in Peachtree City, and quickly realized that I
wasn’t cut out for hot attics and crawl spaces and… not me. I’m not doing
that all my life. It’s a good profession, a great, obviously, technical
knowledge is fantastic, but just wasn’t something that I was, that I really
enjoyed. So, I went to Clayton State, again, following all my brothers and
my sister. They all have degrees and, all smart and everything, and so I
went to college. That’s what I gotta do, right? I gotta go to college. And
so I started out at Clayton State locally and was there for a couple years
while all the meantime I started working at Walmart. And so that’s part of
kinda how I got in the business is the whole Walmart thing. But after being
at Clayton State for a couple years, realizing that I wanted to maybe major
in finance, I went to Georgia State. It’s another local school. They had a
degree in finance. It worked, checked the boxes, and so that’s where I went,
so.

Don Patrick: And I hear they have a football team.

Brett Bringuel: They do. Yeah.

Don Patrick: You’re a passionate fan.

Brett Bringuel: I am definitely… I’ve been told that I’m pretty loud, or I
can be pretty loud. Look, it’s fun. I enjoy college football. As the passion
of college football is just, it makes me feel alive, I just love it. I mean,
everybody has their team, right? Or a lot of people have a team. And, so I
just love college football, and we met so many great people at Georgia
State. I went there and then left there and had no real connection until we
really started following the team and supporting the team and all that good
stuff.

And so we’ve just met a lot of great people there and we have a great time.
Win or lose, we have a great time, and it’s a lot of losing unfortunately at
this point in time. But I will say that, I was there that day in 2019 when
they rocked Rocky Top. So for all those Tennessee fans, I’m sorry, but it
was, man, it was one of the great… it was so fun just because to be the
underdog, right? And then to go in there and they took them down, so that
was really a lot of fun.

Don Patrick: It’s always the best. So you graduated with a degree in
finance, and then where’d you go from there?

Brett Bringuel: Yeah. So, I mentioned Walmart, I started dabbling in the
Walmart stock, and I bought Walmart in Mexico, called Cifra, back in the
day. They opened up the first Sam’s in Mexico. And of course my mom is from
Mexico, and our family lives in Mexico, so I kinda knew a little bit about
that and from them. So, that was started my love for investing. And so I did
transfer from Walmart. I left there while I was at Georgia State, and I got
an internship at Dean Witter.

Don Patrick: Oh, yeah?

Brett Bringuel: Up at The Concourses up there, King and Queen building up
there, Ashford Dunwoody. And so I worked there 1993 to the first part of
1996 when I was, again, finishing up the degree. I took the long route to
get the degree. But I was a cold caller. And yeah, they paid me, like, six
bucks an hour. I worked for, like, five or six different brokers. When I got
a lead, they would buy me a Checkers burger. I mean, it was, yeah, it was
definitely low budget for them.

Don Patrick: How many calls a day?

Brett Bringuel: I would try to get to 300. If I got 300 and I got 30, people
to at least pick up the phone, right? And then I talked to, had a meaningful
conversation with five of them, that was success, right? It’s a numbers
game. So yeah, I was smiling and dialing and nights after school I would go
up there, and then at night I would go and make my calls and on the
weekends, on Saturday. But yeah, it was a great learning experience, I will
say, what I didn’t wanna do in this business and what I thought was real
value. So that kind of led me to, when I got my degree, kind of when I was
cold calling, I would read the magazines, the Registered Rep magazine.

Don Patrick: I remember that, yeah.

Brett Bringuel: And so I came across, an article that was about Merrill
Lynch, and of course I always knew Merrill Lynch, right? And the bull and
just, I always thought, “Man, that, that seems like a really good company.”
I saw this article, and I wanna say it was like, if you stayed there five
years, then you obviously met all these hurdles, right? Then they would give
you, like, $100,000 certificate, like deferred comp certificate. And I
thought, “Sign me up,” right? “That’s where I wanna go.” Of course, I knew a
little bit about the business, being there and seeing what some of the
advisors were doing at Dean Witter, and then what I was reading about that
they were doing at Merrill Lynch. And financial foundations, obviously,
financial planning, bigger picture oriented. They were one of the first to
have fee-based accounts, so advisory accounts.

And so I think that was really through, like, when they… I think they took
over EF Hutton or something like that. But anyway, but back in the day, they
were one of the first wirehouses to kind of catch onto that. And planning,
life insurance. Merrill Lynch Life Insurance Group, was a big part of it.
Again, the financial foundation. You had to do, like, 25, plans within the
first two years, which was called PDP, their professional development
program. And so anyway, that’s where I wanted to be. So when I graduated in
late 1995 and then, trying to get my job and start my career in 1996, early
1996 I just went into the local branch over here in Peachtree City, brought
my little resume and said, “Hey, I’ve been preparing for this for some time
and what do I need to do to get a job here?”

Luckily, a gentleman named Al Thornton, who was the manager at the Atlanta
complex back then. He and the local manager, who I won’t name, they gave me
a chance and, I’m forever grateful that they gave me a chance because I
learned so much at Merrill Lynch. A lot of good stuff. I mean, it was
definitely a wirehouse, but let me tell you, there was some very good
advisors there. Obviously, some not so good too, but a lot of good advisors
there and I learned along the way, yeah, from some very good people, so.

Don Patrick: So you survived, you succeeded, and you just do cold calling
like you were doing previously as an intern?

Brett Bringuel: Yes. So, old habits die hard, right? I mean, it’s like, I
didn’t know anything else. I’m 25 years old. I mean, sure, I got a finance
degree, but who am I, right? I’m a young punk trying to manage people’s
money and tell them that I know something, how to help them, achieve their
goals and stuff. I relied a lot o- obviously on, Merrill Lynch and the
resources there and the name behind me, but it was basically cold calling. I
would mail just like I did when I was at Dean Witter. I would mail out to
local neighborhoods and then I would follow up with a call. And I enjoyed
it, to be honest with you.

So between that and family and friends, which again, I didn’t come from
money, so I didn’t really have a whole lot of built-in network. But by the
same token, there was a little bit. I’m thankful for those that, again,
started out with me, gave me a chance and that kind of grew. Again, Merrill
Lynch didn’t work out after two years. I had 9.3 under management. I think
you’re supposed to have $10 million for the minimum cut. And basically it
was like, “Hey, we’ll help you find another job. We’ll help you find
somewhere else. We think you’re a nice guy, but you know, you’re not cut out
for Merrill.”

Don Patrick: That’s still pretty impressive in two years, almost 9.3 million
at 25. 26.

Brett Bringuel: Yeah, I mean, I think, I mean, I wasn’t too bad, I would
imagine. But again, for Merrill Lynch’s standards, not good, right? So it
just, it fueled, I guess, something in me, like the little guy that could,
right? Like, “I can do this. I can do this.” And so I went, I told them.
They said, “Hey, don’t come into the office for a couple months,” right?
“You’ll be here, you’re gonna grad-graduate from PDP.” Like that meant
anything to me. That didn’t really matter to me. But, and then, “We’ll help
you find a job.” That was June.

By about three weeks later, I had landed a job over at Dean Witter here,
Morgan Stanley Dean Witter at the time. And so I went to Morgan Stanley Dean
Witter. The majority of the clients came with me. I think probably seven,
seven and a half million came with me, again, because you know where it came
from, right? It didn’t really come from, the majority wasn’t like 20 years
in the business where it was all Merrill Lynch and they were all people that
were calling in. It was friends and family and then my cold calling, my
efforts and people, having a relationship with them. So the good part of the
business came over. I went to Morgan Stanley. I was there from 1998 to 2006
when basically, things were just… I couldn’t take it anymore.

They had closed the office down in Peachtree City, so I was driving to
Atlanta every day. And we were at the Gallo—we were at Buckhead office, and
then which was the Atlanta Plaza, and then we went to the Galleria. And I
say we because during that period of time there, the manager at the local
branch here in Peachtree City, he saw the numbers, he saw what was going on,
he saw how I was doing planning light, I would say, ’cause I don’t really
think it was planning, especially at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter. But he saw
everything. He saw advisory business, all that stuff. And he said, “Hey, I
want you to come in and help us with our business,” because they were all B
shares. They were basically stock jocks, right?

Don Patrick: Yep.

Brett Bringuel: At that point in time too, I started studying for the CFP,
so I think it was probably 2000, 2001 I started studying and taking the
courses for the CFP. And then like I said, they moved us up to, all around
in Atlanta. I got tired of it, and decided I needed to come back to
Peachtree City because in late 2005 my father got sick with encephalitis and
he was in the hospital for about three weeks and it was not good. So, that
kind of was soul-searching, like, hey, I don’t need to be making this drive.
I got kids at home. Life’s too short. Work-life balance, all that stuff. So
anyway, so I came down back to Peachtree City with Wachovia Securities.
Again, thankful for that opportunity to come back to Peachtree City. And so
in that transition, again, majority of clients came with me, had good
relationships and so, I stayed there until 2020.

Don Patrick: Amazing. So you were actually a pioneer. Financial planning
light, advisory business, a true advisor as opposed to a stock jock.

Brett Bringuel: Well, I would tell you that I thought early on, in that
office at Dean Witter, don’t get me wrong, there was a lot of very, very
good people at Dean Witter. But I realized, especially in talking to some of
them and their faces and their names come to mind right now, that they were
nothing more than snake oil salesmen. And I was just—knowing that from being
in finance class and portfolio management class and, understanding how
analysts are getting the numbers from the CFO and they’re being fed certain
numbers and everybody’s clustered up, right? And the day before, you don’t
even know what’s gonna happen, right?

And we all know Mary Meeker and Henry Blodget, the internet age, right? All
that stuff came out, years later, about how the firms kind of work with the
analyst and, trying to sell their stock. I mean, it was just one of those
things where I said, “Look, if I’m gonna build a business, there’s no way I
can build a business trying to tout stocks.” Like, “Hey, I got the hottest
stock tip,” or, “This stock’s really gonna go up,” or, thinking that I can
really value a stock. Yeah, I don’t know the real value. And especially,
back then the internet was really a lot younger than it is now, right? But
information overload, I mean, if this was like 1974 or ’73 or pre, earlier
days, right? That might be different ’cause you had all the information.
But, even then you did not, and you certainly don’t have it now. You don’t
have all the information. So, now it’s information overload, but I still
believe obviously the real value in this business is financial planning.

Don Patrick: So how or why did you make the decision, ’cause you were a W-2
employee all those years, and you technically didn’t own the clients, and
then you decided you’re gonna go independent and create your own business.
How’d that come about? That’s a big deal.

Brett Bringuel: So the first thing is, I would say I’m a real conservative.
I’m probably a worrywart, a risk manager, I would think. I like to call
myself a risk manager, at least. I don’t know if I’m a good one, but I think
of myself as a… I’m a value guy, I believe you make money when you buy an
asset that, it’s underpriced, not buying an asset that’s overpriced to find
a greater fool to sell it to later, right? So I say all this to say that if
I would’ve known now and had the nerve, for a better term, I would’ve went
independent when I left Merrill Lynch. But I didn’t have the nerve and I
didn’t have the experience, and so it all worked out the way it should’ve.
And I’m thankful, like I said, for every stop that I had and all the people
that gave me the opportunity and all the people that I learned from.

But you’re right, you don’t own the client. And the relationship, they own
everything. That’s why you have to have good relationships, and I think
that’s where you really own the relationship there. But going independent
was something that I thought about probably for maybe 10 years after the
financial crisis. I thought, man, Wells Fargo, I didn’t know at one point in
time during the financial crisis, 2007, 2009, if I even had a position
anymore because Wachovia, we were on a conference call during the depths of
it, and they were telling us that they might spin Wachovia Securities off
into its own entity and whether or not this was even gonna be able to float
by itself, and then of course, Wells Fargo Advisors came in and bought them,
or Wells Fargo came in and bought them. We became Wells Fargo Advisors.

But so, for a long time I had thought about it and I thought, man, that
would be the dream. That would just be so great, to be able to own your own
business and be a business owner and put a stamp on client service and
branding and all the things that business owners do, right? And IFG has got
so many great business owners and so many great financial planners. I mean,
obviously, a lot of people that would listen to this know there’s fantastic
talent at IFG. So thinking about that and thinking, “Man, could I do that?”
And I thought, “You know what? I’m not getting any younger.” And I remember
Paula telling me this, “You’re not getting any younger, so if you’re gonna
do it, you better do it,” right? And then came 2018, so I was researching,
and I actually looked at LPL. I talked with the local recruiting guy. I
thought LPL’s where I wanna go. I looked at some other ones too, but 2018 at
Wells Fargo was up to, like, 88 million or so, and I lost my biggest client.

Don Patrick: Oh.

Brett Bringuel: $18 million left.

Don Patrick: Wow. Yeah. Wow. Ouch.

Brett Bringuel: And that was a client that I had cultivated for many years.
I had worked with her husband before working with her. Her business took
off, and she sold it, and that was over a course of probably 10 to 12 years
or so, maybe longer than that, 15 years. I was still at Morgan Stanley at
the time. So, that really, really hurt. That really hurt because she wrote
in the survey, “Hey,” they used to do the medallion surveys at Wells Fargo,
and she said, it was actually on Paula’s birthday too, that I got this
survey, and she said, “Hey, not real happy with Wells Fargo Advisors and all
that’s going on at Wells Fargo, and I don’t… they don’t have, share my
values,” and blah, blah, blah. “Brett, my advisor, does a good job, but if
he doesn’t leave, basically I’m leaving.” And I tried to save the
relationship, and by three months later they were gone. So that was when I
first talked with Land and thought about going independent, really owning,
the practice and all that. And then, had a family situation happen. One of
our kids’ having too much fun at college, little to say. And so, had to put
it, put the brakes on it. God was telling me, “Hey, it’s not the right
time,” and the better time is right in the middle of COVID, right? Right in
the middle of the pandemic.

Don Patrick: Yep. The good news during COVID, what I saw, because of the
e-signature, everybody was home. You could call them, talk to them, and you
didn’t have to chase them. You knew where they were.

Brett Bringuel: You’re exactly right. I mean, in hindsight when you think
about it, it was probably the best time to move, right? Other than not being
able to secure or having difficulty securing office space or good office
space, other than that, I think it was a good time to go independent.

Don Patrick: It was. Yeah, so you had the conversation with Land, learned
about IFG, learned about the brain trust, and you’ve been with us a long
time now, so it’s the real deal, right?

Brett Bringuel: It feels like it, Don. It feels like the real deal. Yeah.
And, yeah, I’m so thankful for Tripp, I have to say. Tripp Mullen, he’s a
buddy of mine. We spent some time at Wells Fargo together, and I think we
met at a conference or two up in Atlanta. But a good guy and I’m very
thankful for him introducing me to Land and IFG.

Don Patrick: Fantastic. When you’re well, were you doing, were they allowing
you to do real financial planning when you were at Wells?

Brett Bringuel: No. I mean, everywhere I went—

Don Patrick: Were they letting you use your CFP designation?

Brett Bringuel: I mean, I could use my CFP like on my cards and that sort of
thing. But I mean, I wasn’t really doing planning. I mean, let’s face it, I
call it planning light.

Don Patrick: Mm-hmm.

Brett Bringuel: So, again, going back to even Merrill Lynch, I did financial
foundation. I would call it more discovery. And it is planning because
obviously that’s the first step, right? But it was very much finding out and
then very quickly passing it off to other people. And don’t talk about tax,
be careful with Social Security, a lot of the things that now I think are
real value.

Don Patrick: They are.

Brett Bringuel: And when I sit in front of a client, right, and I say, “Hey,
what are you looking for?” and they kind of say things like, “Hey, I’m
worried about, one, I should take Social Security,” right? “When should I
claim Social Security?” Or, “I’m worried about taxes,” or, asset location.
It’s a lot m- a lot more in-depth than it was at those other firms. But I
did financial foundation when I was at Merrill Lynch. At Morgan Stanley, we
had another plan, I forget the exact name, but they had a financial plan,
type deal, which I was early on there. So because I was already on that, I
would go to New York, like when they would have a conference or something
because they would say, “Hey, this guy likes it,” right? “Send him,” And
then they came out with the NaviPlan, which, eh, compared to what—

Don Patrick: The NaviPlan is a beast.

Brett Bringuel: Yes. Thank you. Yeah. So compared to what I use now, I mean,
that was like working on a Commodore 64 type thing, right? I mean, it just
wasn’t… But anyway, but that was, you could charge between $1,800 over
there at Merrill, I mean, at Morgan Stanley. And at Merrill, I was charging
$250. So there was some buy-in that it was a token amount, at least, right?
It wasn’t free. And then when I came to Wachovia, they were just starting
their Envision plan. And again, Envision is not really a financial plan. As
a matter of fact, this is when the CFP Board came out like in 2018 or ’17 or
whatever and started getting really in-depth like, “Hey, you, if you’re a
CFP, you gotta be doing planning,” and blah, blah, blah. And I would look
back in the Envision plan and I was like, it clearly says it’s not, this is
not a financial plan, right? And so basically all it was was an asset
gathering tool, and again, there’s nothing wrong with asset gathering. I
mean, we are all asset gatherers to a certain extent, unless you are just a
fee-only planner, right?

Don Patrick: Mm-hmm.

Brett Bringuel: You have assets under management. And so that’s the model
that I’ve always had, was charging for the management of the investments,
and then financial planning was somewhat free, especially at Wells, right?

Don Patrick: I don’t think so. I remember what the payouts were like. It
wasn’t free.

Brett Bringuel: Yeah. You’re right there, that’s for sure.

Don Patrick: You paid a lot for it.

Brett Bringuel: I paid a lot for it.

Don Patrick: Exactly.

Brett Bringuel: Oh, shoot. Yeah, no, you’re right. But yeah, I mean, it’s
always been planning, I think is planning focus, and, you know, thinking
that’s the real value for the client.

Don Patrick: So you’re starting your own business, I mean, just fresh. How
did you cobble together your technology? How did you determine what kind of
financial planning software, for example? ‘Cause this is a whole new world,
and there’s so many choices.

Brett Bringuel: 100%. A lot of trial and error, it seems like, at this point
in time. So, and then also, talking with you guys. You guys have been great
from the start, helping me think through, like eMoney or eMoney Street
version or MoneyGuide. So, early on I took a demo, before I think I even
started. I took a demo for the MoneyGuide and then also, eMoney, and I did
the Street version ’cause I thought maybe that would be better, right? So
looking at it I said, “You know what? This is too far away from what I’ve
been using and what my clients have been experiencing,” right?

And so MoneyGuide was closer to it. Goals-based planning. It was just closer
to it. So, I had a subscription to both for the first 12 months. And then I
relied on MoneyGuide moving forward, and part of the reason is because, and
everybody who uses MoneyGuide knows, you know the risk part, right? And it
talks about 2007, 2009, right? Worst case scenario in the recent 50 plus
years, right? And so, for me, I’m a risk manager and I always like to make
sure that we get the risk part right. We know, well, I believe that clients
overestimate their risk, especially when it’s just hypothetical, right?
Because everybody wants to make a lot of money, and so they overestimate
their risk tolerance. I think even risk tolerance questionnaires can be
misleading. And so the reality is that, I like talking about real hard
numbers. Like, “Hey, you got a million dollars. You got a growth with income
portfolio. 2007, 2009, it goes down by 26%. That’s $260,000.”

Don Patrick: That’s how you do it. You put it in dollar terms and let them
chew on it.

Brett Bringuel: I mean, at the end of the day, it’s also a way to, kinda
guide the conversation. And so, again, really risk tolerance is, and just
because I’ve been told by one of my former colleagues that I’m probably one
of the most risk averse advisors he’s ever known. And like, I don’t know if
that’s good or bad, but I think that it definitely is a matter of
understanding and trying to help clients understand risk, probabilities, and
statistics, and returns that are, as we know, not in a normal bell shape,
right? The tails will get you, and the crisis situations will get you. And
so again, trying to make sure that we’re prepared for that I think is
really, really important. So MoneyGuide was the one up until last year. I
changed over to RightCapital.

Don Patrick: A lot of people are.

Brett Bringuel: Oh, I love RightCapital. It is everything that I have been
looking for in my life, I’ll be honest with you. It’s like, wow. The RICP
program, which, you know, Retirement Income Certified Professional
designation. So, it kinda ties into that, and I just love it because a lot
of the things that I learned and were reinforced there in that designation,
I can actually show in numbers. I don’t have to do spreadsheets or anything.
It’s there. It’s in the data, and they calculate all the stuff. Retirement
income stability ratio, and, talking about the tax allocations. You talk
about taxable and tax deferred and tax-free. Talking about where taxes are
going and what does your situation look like, from the standpoint of you’ve
been dumping all this money into your 401(k), getting a tax deduction for
all these years, and now all of a sudden you may have this big tax bomb at
the end. So it’s different for everybody, right? I mean, everybody’s in a
different stage in their financial life. Some clients, the allocation
doesn’t look that scary. Some of them we’re having real big conversations
about, what do Roth conversions look like, serial Roth conversions. With
that being said, I love the tax analysis that comes into RightCapital,
talking about how the impacts of this stuff is gonna impact their
probability of success.

But I also use Holistiplan. I’ve been using Holistiplan for about three
years now, and Holistiplan is fantastic, right? More in depth, but again,
great to talk about how taxes in retirement can impact so many things,
right? I mean, can impact on Social Security, on Medicare costs, I mean,
IRMAA surcharges, all this stuff, right? It’s all interconnected. And so, I
love both of those softwares and I’ll be honest with you, being an absolute
expert in all of them is a challenge. I’m on conference calls as much as I
can be to try to keep up with things, but at the end of the day, that’s kind
of the future of what I’m thinking about with Cast Ahead Wealth Management
and what is the next steps to still provide, fantastic service to our
clients, and to know these softwares that we’re using, right? And to use
them to the best that we can.

Don Patrick: So what else are you using? CRM?

Brett Bringuel: Obviously, Wealthbox, I changed over to that. Yeah, I wanted
to change over a year before IFG did. At Focus, the year before, Paula, my
lovely wife and assistant, started talking to somebody at Wealthbox and she
hated Redtail. She absolutely hated Redtail. And I did too. You know that
darn unicorn thing—

Don Patrick: Yes.

Brett Bringuel: …that you would get? That thing would just, it would just
tear me up. So, and I’m not good with technology. I can tend to be impatient
sometimes if things don’t move very quickly and, anyway, so she’s like,
“Hey, we need to get rid of this.” And, I spoke with Andrew, and Andrew’s
like, “Is this really gonna help you, like, increase productivity?” I’m
like, “I really can’t say it is.” And so I’m like, “Yeah, you know what?
It’s even more costly too.” I was like, “Just forget about it.” And so then
when IFG switched over to Wealthbox, I was like, “Yes.” And so actually I
think we were one of the first transfers in the between Christmas and New
Year’s of 2024, was it?

Don Patrick: I think that, yeah. Yeah.

Brett Bringuel: That we switched over. It was seamless, great. I love
Wealthbox. Everything about it, I just love it. And then recently, I’ve
added Quantitative. I looked at YCharts, I looked at YCharts multiple times.
I looked at YCharts recently with the IFG agreement. But for me and what I’m
doing, Quantitative was the right thing, and it was cheaper, and it was just
the right, I think the right fit. And again, I need simple. I, and I think
Quantitative is more simpler, is a little simpler than YCharts. I didn’t
need the Cadillac, I just needed like a little Volkswagen that could get me
from point A to point B, so to speak. Or a Honda Accord, I’ll say. And so
then also BizEquity. I recently—

Don Patrick: Oh, yeah.

Brett Bringuel: …completed the CEPA. I recently completed the CEPA
designation. And part of the theme for not just this year, but just moving
forward, right? I mean, business planning, and what is the bigger picture
theme? It’s making myself uncomfortable. So Paula and I think have a very
good life. I mean, I have fun every day. We’re doing better than we ever do
when we were W-2, right? We have flexibility. We can go to the lake, I can
work from the lake on Monday or Friday. We can make it an extended weekend.
I mean, it’s just a lot of flexibility, right? And income obviously being a
business owner, this past year was better than I ever thought it could be.
So, again, things are going really, really well. But I think when you, when
things are going well, you tend to be complacent, and you kind of sit on
your laurels like, “Hey, I don’t need to grow.” And that’s the way I’ve been
really for the past five, six years now. I don’t really want to get a whole
bunch of new clients. I wanna take care of what we got. I love our clients.
Take care of what we have and business will flow from it. And it has. But by
the same token, I’m thinking now really strategically about the next five to
10 years and what that looks like, and then what I need to build to be able
to have something like if you build it, they will come type thing, right?

And so I’m thinking about different things. I got a son that’s 22. He’s
getting his master’s degree. He’ll get it by the end of June. And then, he
is studying for the SIE. He wants to be an advisor. I keep telling him, “Get
through SIE and go work somewhere else for a couple years, and we’ll figure
it out. Maybe our paths will cross again, and you might be the succession
maybe.” So the Cast Ahead Wealth Management lives on in the future. And
then, also, potentially, our daughter, I could use somebody who’s a grinder.
I could use somebody who knows tax. She’s got an accounting degree. I could
use somebody who wants to do administrative type stuff and data entry. I
think she would be perfect for a paraplanner, knowing the softwares, right?
Knowing BizEquity, knowing Quantitative, knowing Holisticplan, knowing
RightCapital inside and out, right? On the conference calls, knowing those
things, being my right hand from the standpoint of those softwares and those
experiences for clients. So that’s kind of the thinking. Whether or not any
of that will ever come true or not, I don’t know. But that’s kind of the
thinking. So making myself uncomfortable really was a manyfold, but one of
which was I got the CFP, and I do have a couple designations, and I’m
thinking advice is really the real value.

I need to be getting paid for advice, right, even from existing clients, for
advice. Asset management, is one side, and then financial planning is the
other. And so we’ve talked about this, Don, for three, four years now, how
to kind of monetize that. And I’ve always been very shy because I’m like,
“I’ve never done this before,” right? So, fee for planning has rolled that
out, went through compliance. I got my little thing up, my menu two years
ago now. And I never signed anybody up. It’s just I fall back, again, on
what I know, right? You gotta have assets under management for us to work
with you. Well, coming out of that meeting in November and coming into the
new year, now we have three financial planning clients, and more in
that—more that are coming that we’re talking about. And it mainly revolves
around business owners. So that was why I wanted to do the CEPA designation.
And I’m thankful for David Gaines and Shane Gaddy for doing the breakout at
the IFG retreat. That was amazing. I was so pumped up. I was ready. I was
standing up the whole time. I was like, “Let’s go.” I gotta get that
knowledge because that’s just, that’s real value, and I think there’s so
many people out there that need that kind of help. So, but yeah.

So BizEquity, I decided, if you’re gonna do it, then you better do it, and
you need to know the process, and you need to know the software and kind of
what it spits out, and kind of really help the client, not just understand
an estimate of value, but also how can I help them grow their largest asset
so that they can retire comfortably, right? I think that’s, again, that’s
real value. So again, I’m literally probably two weeks into both
Quantitative and BizEquity, and those are financial planning deliverables.
If you’re gonna do financial planning, right, you have to have deliverables.
But what– how are you gonna deliver the advice? So RightCapital,
Holisticplan, Quantitative, and BizEquity is kind of what that looks like at
this point in time.

Don Patrick: That’s amazing. I love it. Anything else, scheduling, RepChat,
myRepChat, any of those things?

Brett Bringuel: We were pretty early on the myRepChat ’cause I think we’ve
had that for a good four years now. We’ve had it for a while. And
definitely, I mean, myRepChat is super, I love it because number one, I
don’t want anybody texting me on my phone, and then I have to copy the darn
thing and send it to compliance and just a hassle and a pain in the butt.
But also, Paula uses it for scheduling. She handles the calendar and so it
definitely is very, very useful. And, like I said, we’ve been using it. Of
course, it comes into the CRM. Everything works good there. So yeah, I think
it works pretty well.

Don Patrick: Yeah, and clients like it. Even the older clients prefer text.

Brett Bringuel: Oh, yeah.

Don Patrick: So having your wife, your spouse, and working together in the
business, it sounds like the way this is working, she’s making it all
happen. She’s really the boss, and you just say, “Yes, ma’am.” I’m kidding.

Brett Bringuel: That’s how you stay married for 30-something years, right?

Don Patrick: Well, not only married, but work with each other in the office.

Brett Bringuel: Yeah. Yeah. No, you’re exactly right. “Yes, ma’am.” “No,
ma’am.” “Okay, what do I do now?”

Don Patrick: So prior to having Paula in the office, you were doing
everything pretty much, right?

Brett Bringuel: Yeah, I mean, that’s obviously pre-IFG, pre-COVID and going
out on my own. Yeah, Wells, to be honest, you’d have to go back to Merrill
Lynch and Morgan Stanley, where I had a true advisor assistant that was
sitting outside my door, where they were helping with stuff and answering
phones, being the gatekeeper, maybe doing a little bit of scheduling. Back
then I pretty much did everything myself. But yeah, I mean, at Wells Fargo,
no. The assistant was up in Atlanta or in Augusta, so I did not want them to
be part of my front door, as I called it, of my business. I absolutely did
not want that. And I think that was the right choice. Just some of the
people that I worked with over there, they were good people, but I don’t
think they were on the path that I was on and what I believed in for the
business, so. But yeah, up until now, I was pretty much handling everything,
so.

Don Patrick: That’s great. So I know you’re growing at a very steady pace.
Where do most of your clients come from? Referrals? Centers of influence?
Marketing, what?

Brett Bringuel: Yeah, so, definitely referrals. That’s where it’s come from.
I figure if you love on your clients, and you make them triple-A clients,
right? Advocates for you. They’ve got assets, they’ve got good attitude, and
then you make those clients advocates for you, then you’ll get business. And
so we have gotten referrals. Again, nothing fantastic, nothing like, “Oh my
gosh, we’re growing,” but it was good enough, it’s okay. Up until now, it’s
good enough. I have now unleashed Paula and I said, “Look, do your thing.
You’re the marketing person, let’s figure it out.” We talked about some
things and I’ve been the roadblock, I’ve been the stumbling block. I’m the
one that is impeding things, right? Because I don’t wanna be uncomfortable,
right? And now we’re doing that. Whether it’s financially uncomfortable,
like making a commitment to paying for, like, in our church bulletin. We’ve
got our name in the church bulletin in the back. There’s a whole bunch of
ads in the back, right? So we’re in our church bulletin. Just a few weeks
ago I’ve increased that to two more churches, the Catholic churches. So in
the area, these are churches that are within 10 miles of where we’re at.
Holy Trinity, where we go, is literally right across the street. And so
again, the Knights of Columbus, I’m in the Knights of Columbus and so,
sponsoring the golf tournament that’s coming up in May.

The local high schools and rec leagues, they put the banners up. I did it
when I was at Wells, at Starr’s Mill High School, which is where my kids
went to high school, and I put a banner up there for like basketball season
or whatever. Just a business card ad, right? And so that is, moving forward,
part of the strategy because again, kinda community-type oriented. And then
of course, I don’t mind picking up the phone. So, you know, I don’t mind
contacting people, having conversations even though it might not be the best
conversation. Sometimes I just kinda just say it, right? I probably should
take a step back and be more strategic and eloquent, to say it in a better
way, but yeah, sometimes I’m just like a bull in a china shop and I just say
it, right? “Do you have any investments,” right? “Who’s helping you? Do you
know the valuation of your business?” I mean, yeah, but I have a list of
HVAC companies that we have contacts ’cause my brother’s been in the
business. He’s getting ready to retire this year, but he’s been in the
business for 30 plus years. His son is in the business. He owns an HVAC
company. And so I have contacts there that I’m going to reach out and kinda
gain some traction to see if I can get more fee for service, clients for
financial planning, and business valuation, estimates and that sort of
thing.

Don Patrick: That’s a great niche. That’s awesome.

Brett Bringuel: It’s something I can go back and talk about, digging ditches
at booth of junior high school-

Don Patrick: Digging away.

Brett Bringuel: …in the summer of 1989. Say, “Hey look, you guys are
better than me,” ’cause I couldn’t do that, right? But yeah. So that’s kinda
where client is, clients are coming, gonna come from and have been coming
from.

Don Patrick: Fantastic. So you got a new referral. Quite often there’s a
client say, “Hey, I’ve got somebody for you.” And then silence. How do you
handle that? Do you ask for a phone number or an email introduction? How do
you handle that part of it?

Brett Bringuel: Absolutely. I always wanna get the information because if
they’re fine with me making the call, I don’t have a problem, right? I’m an
old cold caller. I like calling, and I don’t have a problem picking up the
phone. There’s no call reluctance here, so. But sometimes I’ve noticed that,
they’re like, “Yeah, I gave them your information and, I think they’re gonna
call you.” And so I kinda leave it there.

I’ve always put in the CRM to kinda follow up, “Hey, has David said
anything? You mentioned David, is he saying anything?” And kinda go that
route. But I’ll be honest with you, just recently we’ve gotten several
referrals. And again, I think it goes back to loving on clients, being there
at the moment of truth for them in their lives, being more than just their
financial advisor, and having a true relationship with them. And I put a lot
of the thankfulness on Paula because she’s the one that’s helping me with
that, right? It is a relationship business. So I think if you do that,
they’ll come through. But to answer your question, I do like to get the
information so that we can then start dripping on them and getting in front
of them ourselves with maybe a marketing type of drip campaign.

Don Patrick: So you’ve made contact with the referral. What’s the next step?
Is it a phone call? Is it a meeting, a Zoom?

Brett Bringuel: Don, and I think that sounds crazy.

Don Patrick: That’s right. You’re not—

Brett Bringuel: Yeah, Zoom, I don’t know, man. It’s just, huh. I mean, I
know it’s something I need to… AI, I’m really, like, scared of Zoom, eh. I
don’t know, I’m kinda old school, right? And so phone call. Let’s just have
a conversation on the phone just to kinda just test the waters a little bit,
right? Kinda see what’s going on and what’s bothering you? What are you
concerned about? Tell me about previous investment experience with an
advisor if they’ve had an advisor before. What are their hot buttons? What
are they concerned about? Tell me more type thing, right? Tell me more. And
we all know “tell me more,” and get them talking. And so, just gathering
that information to try to figure out, again, what does this prospect look
like, and what are their concerns? And is that something that I might be
able to help out with, right?

There very well could be an opt-out right away, like, “Hey, this is not a
client that’s gonna be a good fit for us.” I mean, it’s just not. I mean, I
just know that I’m not gonna be able to add value. We’re not gonna be able
to add value. And so it’s just best right up front to say, “Maybe we’re not
the best,” right? Maybe you should look here or there, might be a good
suggestion. We’re just not the right fit. But if they are, and I feel like,
they’re teeing up, softballs for me, like, “Hey, I’m concerned about Social
Security, and I’m thinking I’m gonna take Social Security at 62, and I just
heard that, it’s gonna run out of money.” And, I’m like, “Okay.” And then,
“Yeah, I’m taking care of my parents. He’s at a local nursing home facility,
and he’s 90 years old. And I’m taking care of him, and he’s an executive at
Coke, and he’s got some money. And I’m thinking about retiring right now.
I’m 55 years old.” This is a real call that just happened. And actually,
this wasn’t a referral. This was a guy that came in to speak with the
Hoffman group, which is a big RIA, I guess, out of Atlanta. But they have an
office down here, some young guys down here. And, they came, he came in to
see them, and he picked up our card, and he set an appointment with Paula
and had this conversation over the phone.

But yeah, it’s just really getting to know what’s going on. And then really,
I like to meet people. I love to meet people in the office because, again,
in the day of text messaging, emails, “Hey, I’ll send you an email, and if
you don’t have any questions, let’s call it a review,” I’m like, “I don’t
want to be that person. I don’t want to be that advisor.” I want to be the
advisor that says, “Hey, we love you coming into the office. We want to see
you in the office,” right? I don’t know. I think a handshake and a hug is,
that’s the way I want to run the business. I don’t want to be impersonal. I
mean, impersonal is robo-advisors. Impersonal is Vanguard advisor, right?
No. I mean, that’s just not who I think we should ever be.

Don Patrick: I understand. So you determine this initial call that looks
like a good fit for both of you, then what’s the next step?

Brett Bringuel: So, meeting obviously, obviously don’t really wanna open up
an account without a face-to-face meeting, and then it’s just a bunch of
data gathering, right? So, lead with financial planning. I’m not really
interested in getting your investments without planning. And I really don’t
care how much money it is, to be totally honest with you. And I know this is
an attitude thing probably, and probably I need an attitude adjustment, I’d
say. But you know, it’s the way I’ve always been since day one at Merrill
Lynch. I could have gotten… I probably could have done $12 million in my
first couple years at Merrill Lynch, but I never wanted to sell anybody
because at the end of the day, I’m not selling vacuum cleaners at Walmart,
and you can bring it back after you’ve used it for a year, and we’ll put a
smiley face on it, you take it to the service desk and get your money back.
You can’t do that, right? So again, it’s one of those things where, this is
kinda my philosophy, this is how I do things. It sounds like you need the
kind of services that we offer, but these are the details of how I kinda do
things.

Financial planning, I need to know everything about you. I’ve had people in
the past that say, “Why do you need to know all this information?” And I’m
like, “Because I’m a certified financial planner, and if I don’t know this
information about you, there’s no way I can really recommend the right
course of action.” I don’t know what your goals are, what you’re looking
for, risk tolerance, timeframe, financial situation. If you’re looking for
somebody just to invest your million dollars, then you might need to go see
somewhere else because that’s not gonna move the needle for me. It’s not
like I’m really looking for the next commission or the next paycheck.
Fee-based advisory business has always been what? A relationship longtime
business. I do a lot of work upfront, which is one of the reasons why I
wanted to start charging for planning, right? I do a lot of work upfront and
as you know, in fee-based advisory business, you get paid over time, right?

Don Patrick: Mm-hmm.

Brett Bringuel: So, that’s kinda what it looks like. If it’s a good fit,
then we move on. It kinda naturally flows. A lot of times clients will even
say, “All right. All right. All right. Right. Right. Well, what’s the next
step,” right? “Where do I, what do I do?” And I’m like, “Okay, that’s pretty
good.” They’re asking me to open up the account, so.

Don Patrick: So I’m gathering you have the initial phone call, you have a,
is that a data gathering meeting?

Brett Bringuel: Right.

Don Patrick: And the goals and really dig in.

Brett Bringuel: Yeah. I condense the first meeting, because a lot of times,
we talk about cost, right? How I work. “Hey, I can meet those needs,” right?
That you articulated. And we talk about cost, right? How do we work
together? Always up- upfront about how, what the fee structure is and all
that. And then it’s a matter of condensing that down to the next meeting,
which is data discovery, right? Discovery meeting. I need to know about you,
so I’m asking them all kinds of questions. And a lot of times now, I’m
entering it right into RightCapital. As we’re talking, I’m just entering it
in.

Don Patrick: Interesting.

Brett Bringuel: Yeah, I just start entering. I’m like… because I used to
write it down, then I was like, write it down, like I put it in here. Like,
you know what? I’ll just build this plan right in front of you, literally.
So I start entering in stuff, and of course there’s a lot of things that
they may not know, especially if it went that quick, right? And then of
course we’re opening up accounts. I’ve already told them, “Hey, bring your
statements in.” When you come in, we had a phone call, bring your statements
in so I can take a look at things. I can know what’s going on. This is the
old asset advisory model, right? I need to know what money that you have to
invest so that I can talk about the accounts and kind of what we’re gonna
do.

But we start opening up the accounts. We get risk tolerance. We get an
investment objective. We start moving down that path. And then I say, “Okay,
we might adjust this as we get closer and we build this plan out even more,
but right now we got a good idea of where we need to be based on timeframe,
risk tolerance, financial situation, goals and objectives, all that stuff,”
right? And so I’m building out the plan and going from there.

Don Patrick: So with an existing client, what is the service model like, the
cadence working with an existing client?

Brett Bringuel: So it depends on, obviously, the tier. And of course, this
business, I brought people, not a whole lot of people that I didn’t really
want from Wells because obviously you could pick and choose, but there
was… there’s still declines, right? And there’s some people that,
especially back then, early on during COVID, I took that maybe now I
wouldn’t have taken based on revenue, okay? But it is broken down based on
revenue. And so depending on the tier, that is really the cadence. But
really it revolves around kinda the CARE principle, right? You think, we
care, right? The CARE principle is basically constant contact. This is a
contact sport, right? You gotta be in contact with your clients. You’ve
gotta be in front of them. So if it’s an A client, we’re contacting them
every 30 to 60 days. Phone, check-in calls, things that we’re working on in
the plan. Paula sending emails, whether it’s Facebook, Instagram, they’re
getting touches all over the place, emails.

A client just left a little bit ago. They said, “We love your, your holiday
emails that Paula sends,” right? Through FMG, I guess it is. I mean, it’s
nothing special. Nothing special. Paula kind of put spins on things, maybe
on LinkedIn, she’ll take stuff and kinda create something a little bit
different. But the point is, it’s nothing, it’s not rocket science, but she
does a really good job at it. I mean, I think that’s a touch, also that you
include. But then also, when you think about the A in CARE, attention,
right? You gotta be paying attention to your clients. You gotta know what
their needs are, their concerns are, what are they feeling right now. Bombs
are dropping over in Iran. Oh my gosh, what’s gonna go on? It’s World War
III, I hate Trump. I like Trump. Oil’s gonna go to $300 a barrel, the
world’s ending.

And so you gotta listen to, client and pay attention, right? Attention. You
gotta, not just pay attention about their financial concerns, but also
what’s going on in their life, right? I mean, you don’t know what’s going on
in someone’s life. We always ask, “Hey, how are you doing?” And I think a
lot of times we expect, “Hey, I’m doing good.” “Okay, let’s move on,” right?
But there’s a lot of things that people are going through, right? And I
think when you’re connecting on a different level and h- having a
relationship with somebody, whether it’s a spousal relationship, whether
it’s a parent-child relationship, whether it’s a client relationship,
mother-father relationship, I mean, I think you really… it takes time,
definitely, but I think attention is really important, as part of that CARE
principle and service model. R, returns. I know planning is the lead and
planning is the most important thing in my mind, okay? That’s the real
value. But clients come to us and they want us to make money. And I know we
know the studies, right? Oh, clients don’t leave you for bad returns, I
mean, now if you’re really far away from the market, they will. But they’re
not gonna, I mean, it’s all relative, right? The clients, they leave you
because of service, because you didn’t pay attention to them, you didn’t
call them enough, you didn’t listen to them, right? At least those are the
studies I’ve heard of. But I still believe you need to be the best you can
with asset management, right? Whether that’s finding good managers,
attaching to their coach strings, coattails and riding, good managers, good
portfolio managers, a good asset, investment philosophy. But returns, I
think, are definitely important, again, relative to the risk the client is
taking. And then the last, E, is downright execution. I mean, I think it
was, football fans would know this, Brian Kelly I think got a lot of flack
for saying that, but I think it was, maybe it was Jim Mora or maybe it was a
coach from Tampa Bay way back in the day, McKay, I think it was. He said
something about execution. He says, “I’m in favor of it,” the team, right?
And so, it’s all about execution, right? I mean, at the end of the day, you
put together a plan for a client, it’s helping them stay accountable. It’s
helping them execute on the plan that they envisioned. I’m not trying to use
Wells Fargo’s terms, but what is their goals? What are they trying to do
with their life goals and that they need money for, right? And so executing
on that plan and helping them achieve those goals, I think, is super
important. And that, I think, is really, for an existing client, that is the
CARE model. It is taking care of people, right? And, worrying about them. I
always tell people, “I’m your professional worrier.” You don’t worry about
Iran.

I’m worrying about Iran. I’m worrying about what’s gonna do to the, what’s
gonna happen to the dollar as we continue to drop bombs, money that we don’t
have, right? But we do need to do it, maybe not. I don’t know, depending on
somebody’s political view. I mean, but the point being is that, at some
point in time, like the national debt, right? Worry about that and how does
that impact valuations for interest rates, and how does it impact valuations
for stocks, right?

Obviously, interest rate and stocks, that there’s a connection there when we
start talking about valuation. Currencies, I learned, as a 20-something year
old guy, investing in cifra, right? I should have never been investing in
cifra. 1994 came along, right? Pesos devaluation. And I learned real quick
about political risk and currency risk, right?

Don Patrick: Right.

Brett Bringuel: Thank God it was $600, but the point is, yeah, I think that
again, all these things, there’s so many different things out there. I
always tell clients, “Look, I care about our clients genuinely. I want them
to have a good experience,” and we’ve been blessed to have a very good
client base that seems like they think we’re doing a pretty decent job.

Don Patrick: Clearly. So in the consortium, you’re in a mastermind group,
right?

Brett Bringuel: Yes, sir.

Don Patrick: Has that been–-

Brett Bringuel: Nachos.

Don Patrick: Has it been valuable?

Brett Bringuel: Mastermind groups, when I first started doing—we first
started this thing a couple years ago, right? The idea, I’d heard about it,
but, it’s like, “Yeah, that’s another meeting.” Eh, I don’t know. I mean, I
got the light in it. I’ll tell you, the people in my Nachos group, I love
them. I think of them as friends and also valuable resources. I mean, a lot
of knowledge just in our mastermind group. So, a little subsector of IFG.
And I look at them and just a lot of great people. And so, yes, it has been
helpful. I’m thankful for the group and I only hope that I could contribute,
right? That was my big thing. I talked with Terrell early on, up there in
North Carolina, right? And I said, my biggest thing we were talking about
was like, “Man, I don’t know if I have anything to offer,” right? I don’t
know. I don’t know if I can, if there’s anything I can really provide and
contribute. And so, that’s all I care about is just making sure that I’m
pulling my weight as part of the quote-unquote team. Our nachos mastermind
group. Obviously it’s a team, right? I’m a part of a lot of different teams.
And, obviously, I just think it’s important to pull your weight and try to
be a good teammate. And I think they definitely provide me with, with
valuable resources and conversations.

Don Patrick: And I know you do the same. Just listening to this, you have a
lot to offer and a lot of experience.

Brett Bringuel: Thank you, sir.

Don Patrick: So I’m gonna ask you a couple quick fun questions. Three words
to describe your talents and strengths.

Brett Bringuel: So I’d probably say persistence, proactivity, and
resilience.

Don Patrick: Love it.

Brett Bringuel: So, persistence just because, again, cold calling, I mean,
that hasn’t changed.

Don Patrick: You proved that.

Brett Bringuel: I’m pretty persistent. I’m pretty persistent. So I think
that of all that, all those traits, I thought that probably kind of stuck
out. Proactivity, I think it’s all about being proactive. I can’t sit here
in the office and kick my shoes up and turn this TV on behind me and just
say, “Okay, I’m just gonna relax.” No, every day it’s gotta be a hustle, and
you better be doing your sprints. And again, sometimes, I’m not the best at
it, but being proactive I think is super important, and I’d like to think
I’m pretty proactive. And resilience, I mean, everything from the different
companies that I’ve been with and through the career and then also here,
coming, and COVID, transitioning, the name change, I mean, the whole
branding.

Don Patrick: All the branding, the website.

Brett Bringuel: Yeah, the whole fiasco there. That’s resilience I think when
you can not just come back, but I think come back better. Because at the end
of the day, speaking of the branding, I was lazy in the beginning. And the
first name that we picked, I’m thankful that there was a cease and desist.
They can have that name. The name to not be ever repeated again, but it was
a horrible name. It was horrible. I was like, “Dude, I mean, you couldn’t
come up with something better than that?” Cast Ahead Wealth Management,
again, it just, it’s home for me. It’s meaningful to me.

Don Patrick: And I assume working with Jason to help bring that out.

Brett Bringuel: Jason had a very, impactful, a lot of thoughts and that sort
of stuff early on. He helped me early on with this. And then of course, with
Cast Ahead, he was one of the ones that I polled because what happened,
during that period—

Don Patrick: So you came up… you guys, you and Paula came up with it.

Brett Bringuel: Yeah. We came up with Cast Ahead, but I polled several
people. I called Land, I called Andrew, I called Jason, I called clients. So
some of our best clients—

Don Patrick: That’s great.

Brett Bringuel: …I called and said, “Hey.” We’ve narrowed it down, ’cause
I had like, five or six names, and that we had come up with. And my
father-in-law was influential. I think some of my siblings weighed in on it.
And so we came down, I think it was down to, like, two names out of the ones
that were kind of the leaders. And so I said, “Hey, of these two names, what
do you guys think?” And Cast Ahead Wealth Management by far was everybody
was like, “That’s it. That’s it.” And so again—

Don Patrick: That’s great.

Brett Bringuel: …I’m so thankful. But again, that came through trials and
tribulations, and I would say resilience, and not just coming back, but
coming back better, I think is something that I strive to have resilience. I
strive to be someone who can overcome stuff and what? Cast ahead, right?

Don Patrick: Yeah. Oh, I love it.

Brett Bringuel: You’re gonna have, you’re gonna have tough times in life,
you’re gonna have tough times in the markets, in your financial plan, that
are gonna impact your finances. But you, you’ve gotta get through that,
you’ve gotta cast ahead. Having a good plan that’s stress-tested with some
of the stuff obviously helps out. But yeah, rough times come to all of us in
the most unexpected times. And so, again, resilience, I think, is something
I need to continue to work on.

Don Patrick: Yeah. I love it. One last question. What’s something surprising
about you that most people don’t know?

Brett Bringuel: So, yeah, this is funny because—

Don Patrick: I love this part.

Brett Bringuel: …yeah. Well, it’s funny because I think that was the one
that I picked out and I was telling Paula on early on. I was like, “Oh my
gosh, he’s gonna ask me this.” Wha- There’s nothing. There’s nothing that,
that is surprising or—I’m boring. I’m boring. There’s nothing that is gonna
be…” So, anyway, ancestry, right? Everybody does this DNA stuff and—

Don Patrick: Yeah.

Brett Bringuel: …it’s not probably a week that goes by that Paula and our
kids and somebody is not saying something. Paula got into it, really big
with doing her ancestry on her side and stuff and has done some of mine. But
years ago, my father was big into this. Before Ancestry, he was big into
just the name and his ancestry and going back to Portugal and Spain. Because
on my father’s side, it’s Portuguese and Spanish. And so the surprising
thing is that I’m related to the Count of Barcelona.

Don Patrick: Oh my gosh. Now that’s… See? So do we bow next time we see
you?

Brett Bringuel: No. Absolutely not. No. No, absolutely not. No, but–

Don Patrick: The Count of Peachtree City.

Brett Bringuel: That’s it. Well, I had to go back now to, like, the 12th
century to find something surprising about me.

Don Patrick: That’s amazing.

Brett Bringuel: So, but yeah, no, in all seriousness, this has been… Of
course, my dad has had dementia for many, many, many, many years now, but
this was, again, probably the ’90s, late ’90s, early 2000s maybe. They were
actually going over to Spain and, and Portugal and Madeira and all these
places over there, and they were actually, he was doing his own research.
And so, again, I’ve known about this. I’ve known about the statue over there
of this dude and you know how he was some big muckety-muck back then. But
yeah, I mean, that’s kind of the only thing I could come up with is, like,
back in the 12th century, maybe somebody in my family was really that
important. I don’t know, but that may be surprising. I think it is to me.

Don Patrick: Well, I love it. That’s a great way to end this thing.

Brett Bringuel: Am I the Count of Peachtree City or am I Tiger Man?

Don Patrick: So the story there, real quick, so COVID’s going on, and we
have these simplified business planning meetings at the end of the year to
do a one-page business plan, but we have a two-day foundations class to
kinda get you into it and all this other stuff. And so we were gonna have a
two-day foundation’s simplified business planning meeting during COVID on
Zoom. Two full days. I’m thinking, “Oh, my gosh. This is gonna be horrible.”
Who was… Terrell was in there. I’m trying to remember. You and Terrell
were two—

Brett Bringuel: Micah Ballantine I know was in it.

Don Patrick: That’s right, Micah. Yeah. And I swear we had so much fun. You
guys all became friends over Zoom, and you had this tiger on your head the
whole time. So yes, Tiger Man. It was hilarious. But what was crazy, it’s
two days on Zoom, and we’re yukking it up and having fun. You guys became
buddies, and I went, “Well, yeah, I guess you can do this.” But yep, Tiger
Man. It was hilarious.

Brett Bringuel: Yeah. Well, I guess it’s Tiger Man.

Don Patrick: I don’t know. It’s… Count of Peachtree’s pretty cool, too.

Brett Bringuel: I don’t know. Yeah, I don’t think I’m worthy of that. I’ll
stay Tiger Man. All right. It’s all good.

Don Patrick: Okay. Well, it’s been great, Brett. Thank you so much for
taking the time.

Brett Bringuel: Thank you, Don.

Don Patrick: Everybody loves these things.

Brett Bringuel: Thank you very much.

Don Patrick: They’re great story. All right, I’ll see ya.

Brett Bringuel: Well, I appreciate it.

Well, that’s it for today’s show. Thanks for listening.

If you’ve got something to share, send an email to
dpatrick@thebraintrust.net. We want to know what works.

Until next time. See ya.