What were you doing when you were 19 years old?
Caleb Guilliams was leading a bank’s investment department when he was 19. No, he did not take any shortcuts. He did not have any connections. Back then, he only had this unwavering passion to learn and give value.
He used this experience to build his own company called Betterwealth, which now serves individuals as a one-stop-shop for better financial decisions. He joins us in this episode to talk about his journey, the services his company provides, and his bestselling book, “The AND Asset.”
[00:01] – [05:14] Opening Segment
- Caleb Guilliams worked in a bank’s investment department at 19 years old
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- Here’s how he landed this job
- This is the book that changed Caleb’s approach in dealing with clients
[05:15] – [15:54] Better Financial Decisions
- Why Caleb started Betterwealth in the first place
- Caleb explains “value leveraging” and why investors should consider it
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- 3 things Caleb did to build credibility
- What business owners really care about according to Caleb
- He gives us a sneak peek into his book, “The AND Asset”
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- What’s the “and” asset really?
[15:55] – [17:40] Closing Segment
- A financing mistake you want our listeners to avoid
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- Devaluing yourself while investing your money
- Reach out to Caleb
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- Links below
- Final words
Tweetable Quotes
“If you have a no-brainer offer and you amplify that, you’ll become extremely wealthy, have influence, and serve a ton of people.” – Caleb Guilliams
“I do see the value of connecting the marketplace with capital with operators that are creating value using real estate and making that connection.” – Caleb Guilliams
“Make sure that you don’t devalue yourself in the process of building wealth.” – Caleb Guilliams
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Email caleb@betterwealth.com to connect with Caleb or follow him on LinkedIn. Your one-stop shop for every financial decision is just a click away! Visit Betterwealth now!
- Check out his personal website to learn more about his work.
- GRAB a copy of his book, “The AND Asset” here.
Connect with me:
I love helping others place money outside of traditional investments that both diversify a strategy and provide solid predictable returns.
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Email me → sam@brickeninvestmentgroup.com
Want to read the full show notes of the episode? Check it out below:
Caleb Guilliams [00:00]
You ever realized, like, I knew about money, but I didn’t really know how the game worked. And so I would like do a fact finder review with them. And then I always I did like the Simon Sinek, Start With Why. And I just did that mainly out of like to defer to the next meeting because I’m like, I don’t know what I’m talking about. So like, let’s get really clear on why you do what you do. And then what I did when they left is then I started calling the account managers at our broker and the IMOs and just saying, Okay, what is the best way to do this and they had to do official things because I didn’t have all the licenses at the time. What I learned from that is the genius of starting with why and the genius of asking people what they actually want.
Intro [00:37]
Welcome to the How to Scale Commercial Real Estate Show. Whether you are an active or passive investor, we will teach you how to scale your real estate investing business into something big.
Sam Wilson [00:48]
Caleb Guilliams is the founder of Betterwealth, a company committed to show people how to be more efficient and control their money. He also authored “The AND Asset,” and he hosts the Betterwealth Podcast. Caleb, welcome to the show.
Caleb Guilliams [00:58]
Man, it is pleasure to be here, man. It’s good to be on the show.
Sam Wilson [01:02]
Pleasure’s mine. 90 seconds or less, tell me where did you start? Where are you now? How did you get there?
Caleb Guilliams [01:07]
I grew up in central Wisconsin, oldest of six kids, my dad was a doctor, realized real fast that I didn’t, I wasn’t gonna walk in his footsteps. First job was gutted chickens then worked at a bank took over banks investment department when I was 19 years old, realized that the financial planning industry is all about selling products. And not really about helping people get results. I was super young, even looked younger. And so I had some people I think, pity me and felt sorry for me. So they mentored me, realize that there is more to life than just making money left the bank when I was 21, to start Betterwealth. And now we work with people in all 50 states helping them achieve financial freedom, which we call intentional living and help them take back control their wealth. So that’s the 90-second version.
Sam Wilson [01:47]
Man, I love it. That’s great. How did you score a job at 19? Running a bank’s investment department?
Caleb Guilliams [01:53]
It, yeah, great question. When I was 15 years old, I started getting chickens read books on money and became obsessed when it came to money, and just wanted to learn more about it. And so I had a friend of mine who was like, you know, the best way to learn because I was homeschooled. So I always thought a little outside the box, said the best way to learn is to work at an environment that stretches you. And so they had a connection, who got me a job at the bank at 17 as a teller, so I was there working as a teller, it was one of the best jobs I ever had because it boosts my confidence. And then I just had the mentality that I was going to do every job I could. And I was an HR nightmare because they only paid me so many hours. So I just worked for free, I would show up to meetings, even though just to get my input, I would talk to the CEO, I was like the teller that was talking about with the CEO and how we could grow the bank and grow revenue. And so I was always into investments. When I was 18, they allowed me to work part-time as the investment assistant. And I just ran with it, the investment director at the bank left to take another job. At 19 years old, I was the only somewhat qualified person. And so that’s, that’s how I got lucky. And I also worked my butt off to get myself in that position. And then from there, I was supposed to just be the interim, but I was there until I left. So it was just one of those things were grateful for the experience. I look back and think what were the banks thinking? What was my boss thinking? But I’m just grateful.
Sam Wilson [03:13]
Well, I kind of, I mean, tell me, what were the type of investments that you were directing people towards?
Caleb Guilliams [03:19]
Mainly there was, I mean, mutual funds, their 401(k)s, there were annuities, fixed annuities, and then some basic life insurance stuff. So it was pretty basic. And it was really like people would come in, and it would be like, Oh, instead of a CD, because why would you want to put your money in a CD, we have an investment person and and so we had, like 350 clients. Nothing crazy. It was like a typical financial planning office, local office.
Sam Wilson [03:46]
Right. That’s cool. So I’m assuming had to go out and get your licenses, certifications? I don’t know what you would need, six, seven, six.
Caleb Guilliams [03:54]
Yeah. So what’s interesting is when I first took over, I didn’t have all my licenses. And so I was working with the broker. So like clients would come in, I had no clue, you have to realize, like, I knew about money, but I didn’t really know how the game worked. And so I would like do a fact finder review with them. And then I always I did like the Simon Sinek start with why. And I just did that mainly out of like to defer to the next meeting. Because I’m like, I don’t know what I’m talking about. So like, let’s get really clear on why you do what you do. And then what I did when they left is then I started calling the account managers at at our broker and the IMOs. And just from saying, Okay, what is the best way to do this? And I had to like, they had to do official things, because I was I didn’t have all the licenses at the time. What I learned from that is the genius of starting with why and the genius of asking people what they actually want. Because in the financial industry, we’re all about jargon like oh, let’s like the talk about the 4% rule and the diversification and all that stuff. And that doesn’t translate into value, that doesn’t translate into results. And so although I started out of just not knowing what I was doing, I realized that it was effective to get really, really crystal clear on what they wanted. And then I would communicate with the other people, This is what they want, will this tool or widget help them get closer to that? So again, someone didn’t know a ton about money, but I connected those dots were unfortunately in our space, I don’t think those dots connect with everybody in the financial industry.
Sam Wilson [05:15]
No, gosh, no, absolutely not. So tell me about what you’re doing Now. Would you say it’s built better wealth? I know I read it here in the beginning, but yeah, since close, so yeah. Why did you form build Betterwealth? What does that look like now?
Caleb Guilliams [05:27]
Yeah, so better. off.com is the company and essentially was working at the bank had a mission statement that said, help people see and reach their highest potential. I wake up every day like with that passion of people realizing and living to their God-given potential. And so with that, I’m looking at the bank that I’m in, and I’m grateful for the experiences, but with compliance with the lack of ability market bill, the team, like it just became really clear that this would be an amazing job. No one would say, Caleb, you’re 21 you’re slacking at the corner office of the bank. But I just knew like there was so much more as it relates to education. But then I wanted to do this whole internet thing, which five and a half years ago, it’s the internet was a thing, but like, even like, it wasn’t as popular and the thought of like coaching people and educating people on the internet just was a little bit like people weren’t all about that. So I just was like, you know, what, what do I have to lose, I was still living at home, I had money saved up. And I just don’t want to live life with regret. And I knew that if I stayed, that would be a potential decision, I would regret. And so I left. And with this just vision of like, I didn’t know really what to do. I was just like, we’re going to help people, to people that really believed in the cause. Our first office was in the basement of a Papa John’s building, nothing sexy there. But we just, you know, started and we had a few people become our client and then slowly but surely, people like started saying, like, hey, I want to learn more how we made our money was we did insurance. And then we also referred out to investments. And now currently, we have an RA which does assets, we have an insurance arm, we have a tax company, we have a coaching company, and we actually have a little bit of a software company as relates to helping people and it all goes back into helping people live more intentionally with their money. And some people use it all some people use a product or two. And so that’s Betterwealth is a makeup but it’s been a journey of five and a half years of building and bringing on other experts.
Sam Wilson [07:15]
Yeah, that’s really intriguing. I love that and talk to us about scaling. You’re obviously in the financial services industry, you touch real estate, like you said, you have your assets division, but talk to us more, maybe we’ll spend a little bit more time here nuanced talking about scaling the business itself, be more than we’ll talk real estate, can you kind of walk us through that process?
Caleb Guilliams [07:34]
Yeah, so I love the concept of scale. And when I started Betterwealth, I couldn’t articulate what I now call value leveraging. But I wanted to create a magnet effect I wanted people to come to us. And and that was why I liked the Internet and other things. And so in the financial industry, probably a lot like the real estate industry, there’s a lot of people that are smart, that create value, but they have no leverage behind that value. And one of the reasons I love real estate and what I believe it’s the greatest asset, one of the greatest assets out there is you can use leverage to acquire it, it can appreciate it can create cash flow, there’s certain tax benefits. And so but one of the amazing things is you can get leverage for that, whereas a lot of other businesses it’s hard to. And so levers are an incredible amplification from the business. And so I have pretty much a whole talk that I help people with leverage. And so it’s like, number one, you have to create value. That’s the thing that a lot of people forget about is like you can leverage but if you leverage a crappy real estate deal, it’s not gonna, it’s you’re just gonna accelerate a problem. And so number one, you have to ask yourself, Is your business, is your service, is your product, actually valuable supply and demand? Do people actually want it and the market will decide if it’s valuable. If it’s valuable, then we have to look at what are the different ways that we can amplify that go one to many, and there’s media, that’s amazing. There’s code, that’s amazing. There’s labor, that’s amazing. There’s OPM, other people’s money. And so it’s finding out like there’s influence and charisma, there’s finding out what are little levers that I can put into my business that can create that amplification effect. And so what I did is I was self-aware enough to know I’m 21 and look like I’m 15. So I need credibility and influence. So I self publish a book, I started a podcast and interviewed other experts. And I just said that, that I’m now a speaker. So those are three things that I did that like were a little levers that increase my status. And then the internet allowed us to create that platform to go one to many. And we started using podcasts and videos. And all of those, like this video that’s created isn’t a leverage effect. Because we’re meeting we’re having a conversation and if one more person listens to this, that’s not like, our input is the same, and the output is unlimited. So those are the kinds of things that I’m obsessed with. And I just I think again, I couldn’t articulate all at 21. But I knew I wanted to build a business around leverage. But the biggest mistake people make is they’re not valuable, and so it’s still to this day, are we fully leveraged? No, my mindset’s all about making our products and services the best that can be because I know leverage will just amplify the value that we bring to the marketplace.
Sam Wilson [10:00]
When you made a comment here a second ago, I’d love some clarification on you said the biggest mistake people make because they’re not valuable. What does that mean?
Caleb Guilliams [10:06]
They think their investments and businesses and services are valid, valuable. So when when I say value, there’s only two things that can create business, like business can only create two things. It’s a service or a product. And a lot of people think I just need to get my message out there, I just need to leverage what I’m doing. But the problem is their service or product is not valuable, meaning like people like, it’s not as valuable as they think it is. And so when they leverage or they amplify that message, people just realize, oh, this product sucks. And now more people know that it sucks, and not just the micro, you know, your micro group. And so I the big thing, when I’m coaching or encouraging people is really make sure the Lean Startup like make sure before you go, you know, met to the masses, make sure that your thing your product or service is super valuable and irresistible, and a no-brainer offer. If you have a no-brainer offer and you amplify that, you’ll become extremely wealthy, have influence, and serve a ton of people. If your offer’s not like not good, you’re just gonna accelerate to going out of business.
Sam Wilson [11:03]
What are some no-brainer offers that you guys have implemented in your business? Just to give some examples that people to get the wheels turning?
Caleb Guilliams [11:11]
Yep. This is honestly, in the financial service space is tricky. One of the reasons why we’re bringing on a tax company is to create that no-brainer offer, because when you ask, you know business owners, because that’s primarily who we serve, like, how can we help you? What are you worried about at night, they’re not worried about compound interest, they don’t really care about their 401(k) or SEP IRA. Like all these things that we do for business, like, Oh, I could, you know, better investments, I can overfund life insurance for you, I can help you be more efficient like all those things are great. But like, that’s not really what they care about. What they care about is taxes. They hate overpaying taxes, they feel like their CPAs aren’t doing their job. And they just hate it. Hate it hate it. And so I’ve heard this for years and years and years. And so I’m like, Okay, what if instead of trying to convince you or sell you something that you don’t really want? What if I just created a company with the least amount of friction helped you save money on taxes? And then oh, by the way, once you’re in the door, what are you going to do that with all those savings? Are you going to spend it? Or can we invest it and be more strategic with it? So the reason we have a tax company is to create a no brainer offer. And that’s just the best example I can make in a service business where we have to be careful, it’s like, you can’t make any guarantees. You have to be very, very careful. But it’s like how can you create that experience that people say, you know, what I want to work with Betterwealth, not just on the tax side, but across the board.
Sam Wilson [12:28]
What about your back end service providers? If you guys have let’s talk real estate for a second, if you guys have an asset division, yeah, that you probably have operators, deal sponsors there that are kind of you know, that you guys have known like and trusted. What does that process look like for you? And how do you interact and work with them?
Caleb Guilliams [12:45]
So real estate, we have a lot of clients that do real estate syndications and real estate because it’s an amazing asset class. And to date, we don’t touch the real estate from a standpoint of like, hey, we’ll raise funds or if you’re a real estate investor, we are usually your “and” so we do a lot of overfunded life insurance. And if you want to do market-based activity, which quite frankly, if you’re in real estate, know the power of it, I wouldn’t necessarily recommend putting your money in indexes or ETFs. Again, it’s just all about based on where you want to put your money. To date, we don’t have any real estate connections. Now, in 2023, one of the areas becoming more valuable is we’re creating a platform and all we’re going to do is connect people, we have to be very careful not to make recommendations. We can’t make a commission on this. But I do see the value of connecting the marketplace with capital with operators that are creating value using real estate and making that connection. So I don’t know if that answered your question. But we’re more of a someone that hopefully can enhance and improve your deal. But we’re not the one that’s connecting you to the direct deal at this point.
Sam Wilson [13:47]
Right, understood that. Talk to me about the asset. What does that mean? That’s the title of the book. It’s unique. What is that? What does it even mean?
Caleb Guilliams [13:53]
Make a long story short, the “AND” asset is just another name for overfunded whole life insurance. And, you know, I’ll be very frank, when I started working at the bank, I grew up under Dave Ramsey. Thought debt was bad thought life insurance was the worst place to put your money. And so when I started hearing this concept of like, oh, life insurance could be a tax-free investment. I was like, Okay, let me like, look into that. And I realized that majority of people that sell life insurance, sell it wrong, talk about it wrong, but like the epiphany that I had was everyone’s that’s talking about life insurance is bad-mouthing investments, and they’re like saying all these things, but really life insurance is not even an investment. It’s not legally an investment. And really what it could be is an alternative place to store capital that gives you pretty better growth in your savings account gives you creditor protection, gives you special tax advantages, gives you a state value benefits and gives you the ability to collateralize that money utilize that capital while you still get all the benefits of life insurance long term. So I’m like why is the life insurance industry hating investments? Why did the investment industry hate life insurance like actually these two things can be an “and” like life insurance could be part of your stock portfolio. Life insurance could be used to purchase real estate. A life insurance could be at the foundation, or at least a bond alternative. And so it’s just been on this journey of like saying, hey, like, I do not like the whole sales concept of like, you need this, you don’t need anything. It’s like if life insurance can help you live more intentionally and unlock certain things, that would be interesting. And so I personally save over six figures a year in the life insurance, why it’s not an investment, I just would rather save in a place that would get a better yield and have more benefits than a savings account. But I use it as my opportunity fund to invest in businesses. That’s where I invest currently, but it could be in anything. And so I don’t know if that answers your question, but that was like the epiphany that I had. And then in the more research, and we’re making a movie, and my book is all about not that life insurance is the end. It’s not the end solution. But it’s like, I think it’s a pretty amazing enhancer, whether you’re looking into retirement, whether you’re an entrepreneur, whether you’re a real estate investor, I wouldn’t ask the question, should you do this? Or that you should ask the question. Would this be an answer to what I’m currently doing?
Sam Wilson [15:55]
Right. That’s absolutely awesome. Caleb, I’ve enjoyed this today. Unfortunately, we are out of time, man, I got a dozen more questions I can hit you up with. But let’s jump here into the final three questions. What is one mistake you could help our listeners avoid and how would you avoid it?
Caleb Guilliams [16:08]
That’s an amazing question. And I would say the one mistake that I’ve made is trying to convince by saving my identity, and realizing that my identity doesn’t come from you doesn’t come from your listeners doesn’t come from the money or success. But it’s so much deeper than that. And if you actually understand that, you’re going to be a lot happier, and you’re not going to make dumb mistakes in the future trying to save your identity.
Sam Wilson [16:32]
Got it. That’s awesome. Man. I love that question. Number two for you is, when it comes to investing in the world, what’s one thing you’re doing right now to make the world a better place?
Caleb Guilliams [16:39]
I believe the greatest investment you can make is in yourself, and I think a lot of people are devaluing themselves as they think about money in their investments. And so if I can have one message that rains on. It’s: make sure that you don’t devalue yourself in the process of building wealth.
Sam Wilson [16:53]
Got it. I love it. Last question. If our listeners want to get in touch with you or learn more about you, what’s the best way to do that?
Caleb Guilliams [16:58]
Betterwealth.com. And you can email me at Caleb@betterwealth.com. And if you email me and reference this show, I will give you a bunch of free checklists that we use and that we give away to to people that want to learn more about how to be more efficient with their money.
Sam Wilson [17:14]
Awesome. Caleb, thank you for your time.
Caleb Guilliams [17:15]
Thank you.
Sam Wilson [17:16]
Hey, thanks for listening to the How to Scale Commercial Real Estate Podcast. If you can do me a favor and subscribe and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, whatever platform it is you use to listen, if you can do that for us, that would be a fantastic help to the show. It helps us both attract new listeners as well as rank higher on those directories so appreciate you listening. Thanks so much and hope to catch you on the next episode.
