132. From Army Financial Specialist to a Registered Firm with Mario Payne

Hey, welcome back to the average Joe Finances podcast. I'm your host, Mike Cavaggioni, and today's guest is Mario Payne. So Mario, I'm super excited to talk with you. We were talking a little bit off the air. I'm really excited to share your story and share what you're doing. Welcome to the show.

Thank you. Thank you for having me. I really appreciate the opportunity. Hopefully my little wealth of knowledge I can spread. So I'm definitely excited about our conversation.

Awesome. Awesome. Fantastic. Thank you so much. Now, the first question I would like to ask you just to get this right off the bat, it's the same question I ask everybody that comes on this show, but we wanna know more about you. So if you could tell us a little bit about yourself, share your story. Who is Mario Payne?

Who is Mario Payne? That sounds like a book, doesn't it? Who is Mario Pat?

Sounds like a bestseller.

Okay. Okay. Okay. I'll take that. Now so I'm born and raised in Cincinnati. So I am a diehard Cincinnati Bengals fan. So that was great to see our Bengals make the Run. I actually went to the Super Bowl. The game was great to the fourth quarter. Not so good at all, but heck, it is what it is. From Cincinnati, Ohio I joined the military when I was 18. When I was in the Army, I was in college at Tennessee State University. I graduated from Tennessee State University. When I graduated from Tennessee State I for about a year worked for a Fortune 500 company as an intern with them through college. And had epiphany, my first year I was a manager there. And I did some financial analytical work and they had a project for me, so I basically saved the company $4 million. Now, back in 2006 with inflation, cuz inflation is sky high right now, it's getting better, but it's still high. $4 million back then is more like 18, $19 million today. So I saved them a nice amount of money. Mike, do you know what they gave me, wasn't a promotion, wasn't a raise, they gave me a pizza party.

was gonna say either a pizza party or like a yellow sticky of appreciation.

Yeah. , right? So you watch a cartoon and that light bulb comes on the top of your head, like boo. So yeah, so that light bulb came off. It's I have to do something different, man. If I want to help myself and help people and I know how to save company's money, how can I view analytics of a company, make money, but make myself money, even people as well. So then I start to process, become a financial advisor. So in 2007, I got hired with a firm called Edward Jones. worked there for six years, and then year 2013, I said, You know what? I have a nice size practice. Let me go ahead and start my own practice. So I prayed about it, talked to my wife about it, I started my own investment firm. So since 2013, I had my own firm at Thomas Financial. It's an acronym of TOAMS. It means the T's for tithe, the O for offering, the A is for arms, the M is for mean stewardship. So tithe offering arms mean stewardship. So prayerfully, if I'm doing a good job in the steward of your money, you'll be able to tithe more, offer more and give your gifts to the Lord. So yeah, I'm in the financial mecca of America, which is Jacksonville, Florida, I said that for seasonally of course , even though Square Foot Wise is the largest city in America. But we're in Jacksonville, Florida enjoying a great Florida weather and yeah, 15 years I became a certified financial planner in 2012, so I'm a fiduciary. And just been rocking and roll ever since. Just extremely blessed as we'll probably talk about started me and my business partner. We have our own ETF that launched on the stock market, which was pretty cool. We have a investment app that's coming out as well, and it's just some cool stuff we have going on, so just extremely blessed.

Yeah, what a backstory, and what a great way that you got to where you are today. First of all, thank you for your service in the Army. That's amazing. Anytime I have the opportunity to talk to somebody that did time in the military and, just be able to carry on from that and get into another career later on that they were able to take what they learned in the military and apply that in that career is just awesome. We're gonna talk a little bit about that as we go a little further on. And I appreciate the fun fact about Jacksonville. I think a lot of people don't know that, that it is by square foot the largest city in the United States. I actually learned that when I was temporarily assigned down there, my ship was down there visiting. And I had a friend of mine who lived down there and, brought that fact to my attention. I'm like, No way. And then I went and looked it up and sure enough, yeah, because the largest city in America square foot wise so pretty crazy. On one side of the city you can have alligators and on the other side of the city you have big, buildings and apartments and all that good stuff. But anyway back on topic. Yeah. So I wanna talk about that a little bit. You transitioned outta the military, you went to school, you became a financial advisor at Edward Jones, and then you branched off in 2013 to start your own firm, which is really awesome. In doing so, what are some of the things that you've done that you think you do differently than a larger firm such as Edward Jones?

Yeah, that's a great question. So a larger firm at Edward Jones is structured a little bit different. And anybody that wants to be a financial advisor, even though they're not paying me, I don't work for them anymore, they gave me a great start. So how they were set up was that you had your own practice. So they have it where it's one office, you're in the office, you have a you have administrative assistant that helps you. So you learn very quickly how to run an office. Two, how to manage your practice. So it's not like you're in a building with four or five, six other people, you're in the team. So it teaches you that entrepreneur spirit experience early. So if you do wanna start your practice, you had that foundation. So I was definitely lucky because I was able to learn how to invest clients money, which is most importantly, but also then learn how to find rent. So Edward Jones says, Hey, this is your building, but if you could find somewhere else that's cheaper. So those things from entrepreneurial standpoint they definitely helped me with. Another thing that Edward Jones helped with as well was like the whole philosophy. Now, again, this is back in 2006, 2007, so I don't know if their philosophy has changed, they had individuals knock on doors. So literally in the hot Florida heat when it was 110, 115 degrees in a soup of all things, I was knocking on doors. I did that for about a year and a half until I really built my practice to where I didn't have to go anymore, but you knocked on doors. I had so many interesting conversations with people just about life, finances, just in general, just knocking on doors and talking to people. But it built the foundation and I would probably say even today probably. That was basically 15 years ago, Probably about 50 to 55% of those clients are clients or referrals of clients because those just those face to face on the ground conversations. So Edward Jones, definitely give me a good start. Now to finish as a career, I would not recommend that work for any firm. Definitely starting your own firm. You're able to manage in investments, how you wanna manage it. You're able to hire individuals, you're able to create more wealth. Typically, if you have your own firm, you're making more money per se because you know it's not a cut going to a broker's firm or to another person that's going to you. So even if you have less assets on your own, compared to a big firm, you probably will be pocketing more. And then of course, from a tax standpoint, since you're a business owner, you have a lot more writeoffs. So definitely starting at a broker's firm, I would recommend a person do that to get their feet wet. But then as you grow, starting your own firm and doing it yourself, it can't be beneficial.

Yeah. That's fantastic. You were able to take some of the good practices that you've learned from that larger firm and carry that over into, your own. There was something that you mentioned though, that I want to ask you about with the door knocking, right? As you're going around, you said you had some interesting conversations with people just about life in general. What would you say is probably the most interesting conversation you had with somebody after knocking on their door?

Detailed conversation with a pastor who I'm not gonna say kicked out of his church, but but basically it was some funny business going on with his church and he just had a conversation like, if you ever get into a powerful, authoritative position, do what's right. So basically it just, it was about a 15 minute conversation. He didn't go to too many details, but it just seemed like he was doing some shady stuff in the church. And he basically grew that church and then the church voted him out and he just this is my church. I'm in ministry. How am I supposed to minister people? And it was just just a deep conversation about when you get into put positions, don't be egotistical, if you're making a certain amount of assets, be humble. And even him, a man of the cloth per se, to have that conversation was humbling. First off, that he would just spew that to me, a person knocking on the door who was probably sweating from the heat of Florida. But then two, kind of gimme words of requirement and speak in existence into my now practice that, one day I'm gonna be an opportunity where I can help people, where financially I can help people and financially be a blessing to people and not have the big head if success happens or if lack of success happens, continue to strive forward. So it just very interesting conversation. I never thought in a million years I would talk to a person who basically got kicked out their church. You just don't think about that. Stories and things of that nature before a person that kind of do that information and go everything that was pretty cool.

Yeah, that sounds a different conversation to have. When you're knocking on doors and trying to help people with financial products and you run into a situation like that, it makes you rethink a couple things. There was a couple things that you went back to and it ties into, my thoughts on leadership where you had mentioned like, don't be too egotistical. And don't, basically, be humble. Be humble about what you're doing and Yeah, go from there. But anyway back on topic, right? The principles that you've learned from this and I appreciate that story, thank you so much. But the principles that you've learned from being at a bigger firm and then you carried this into your own and now you have, your own firm and while you're here, there's the different benefits that you were discussing, it's a, it's your own business, so you've got the tax benefit side of it but you also have the side of it too, where you're not having to pay the large, larger brokerage. You get to keep a little bit more of that money. Your clients get to keep a little bit more of their money as well. Yes. And I think that's probably a side that people don't really see too much of. When you go from a larger firm down to a, I guess a mom and pop, right? But a smaller business, right? Cause you're your own small business, right? But by doing that, it allows you to save money on all ends for both yourself and your clients. So I think that's pretty neat. Now from what I understand you have created your own ETF as well, right? Is that true?

Yes. Yeah. Yeah.

Okay. So what is that made you create your own ETF platform? Why'd you do that?

Yeah. Yeah. So as we take a step back, not all just me, so it's a team effort. So I was blessed to be approached back in 2017 by a person I call him the next Steve Jobs. Just what my biggest part of Anthony has going on in his brain that he's making to, from a creation standpoint, it's just crazy to see what he comes up with and what he does in the next five, 10, or 15 years. But I was approached to him by him. He said, Hey, I had have this company called Let Bob this is what I want to do. I know you're in the financial industry, do you want to invest? And he gave me the opportunity to invest the company, told me his vision, show me what he was doing. So I invested. So we built a investment platform. So he was doing that within my firm, just for my clients for about three years. Cuz we kind had a shell of what it would be from an investment standpoint. Basically buying low and selling high, was the thought process he created, we talked about strategies. He created algorithms and created things to make it happen from an automation standpoint. We implemented it within my practice. So about three years of a track record, we say, Hey, We continually to beat the market, nicely beat the market, and we continue to get into things before they go up, get outta things before they go down. Let's try to make a fun. And so after having a conversation, we went through the process. It was a long, tedious process. A lot of doors shut in our face. A lot of no's, a lot of how, a lot of people trying to find a secret sauce and kind of how we was able to do what we was doing from an investment standpoint. Individuals not believing the performance. So having to show, documentation of how I performed, when things were bought, when things were sold and, but yeah so after a long, tedious process February of this year, we launched our ET. The symbol is let b l e t b as in boy, just extremely happy, exciting. It was actually the first black on AI powered ETF ever to be released on the stock market. That was pretty cool. We did that doing black history muff. So from a civilization standpoint that was pretty cool as well. And yeah, so we just rocketing and rolling and prayerfully we just see what happens as individuals learn about it. But just a very happy day. We had like a big zoom with everybody on the team and it was good to had people, our family on the own and, our family and extended family, seeing the sacrifices that we did, especially my biggest part of Anthony. All the sacrifices he's done throughout the years to get it to where it was just a, it was a very ah, moment. But then you say, Ha, okay. Now we're in the market, we're gonna do now? It's not over, it's just the start. So it was a weird pivot of going through the process all those years to be on the market. Now we're in the market. We see ourselves, we have a checker, and then it's okay now the real fund begins. Definitely excited about the growth. And again, just extremely grateful. My business partner Anthony, tapped me on the shoulder years ago and it let me be a part of the ride.

Yeah, Mario. In itself it's so exciting cuz it's a historic ETF as well. And the way that you went about releasing and everything during Black History Month and everything is just awesome. And it just adds to the monumentalism of it, yeah. I don't even know if that's a word. Did I just make up a word? Mentalism? I don't know. Maybe. But it's huge. That's really awesome. I just, I feel you're, you were able to create a product. You and your team create a product that has such significance, historic significance in it but also is a very good financial platform, financial product for someone to look into. Cuz ETFs I love ETFs. If there's something that I think people should invest in, when it comes to investing conservatively and safely. ETFs are very comfortable. Oh yeah. ETFs cuz it's spread out amongst multiple businesses, right? And multiple companies. And it's just something that, it adds that the yeah. More of like I got your back type deal when you're investing in something like that versus just individual performance stocks or growth stocks or , anything like that. Yeah that's huge. Now you also have an investment app, right?

Yeah, correct. And again just very happy to be a part of the Bob team. So not only do we have our ETF, but we're going through the process of releases in our investment app. So from a high level standpoint, you think about Robin Hood, right? We're go Robin Hood. We buy, we sell, it's no commissions, no charges, we basically have the same thing with our investment app. The cool thing about it though is that we have, through the automation, through to technology, we have things in place that kind of helps people before they make a bad investment decision, right? If we think about day trading, right? Day traders who kind of trade for a living, they might make money, they might lose money. Do you know that 90% of day trades are losses? So think for everyone, hundred day traders and 90 of 'em lose money and people look at fundamental analysis, technical analysis, you have the whales on Wall Street who have departments upon departments, floors of floors of traders. Like they have algorithms of place, they know what they're doing. You know what a little. With the guppies in the water, we get hit not by the sharks and the whales. So when a person goes onto nothing against Robin Hood at all, I I have a Robin Hood account, a Robin Hood has been great for the financial industry because a lot of those fees that people was paying in commission wise, when Robin Hood came out, it may brokers firms, decrease their fees, which helped the retail clients. Investment standpoint. Us as investors, we typically do the wrong thing, right? We buy high and sell low. We hear that AMC is going to the moon and we buy amc, and then when AMC goes down, we sell it. You know what I'm saying? It's ah, so we have things put in place that will, be from an education standpoint and from a logic standpoint, help you before you make a decision. So if you do get an investment, The probability of you making money will be higher. And then also the probability of you losing money will be lower. So we do have things in place from a technology and automation standpoint that we think is definitely gonna help the consumer. If the consumer has more wallet share, more pocket share, they make more money, or they make more money, they invest more. The first time investor if they lose money. The likelihood of them investing in that same investment or investing in general decreases dramatically compared to a person who makes money the first time. So think about the first time you invested, right? If you made money, you was probably a lot more happier about investing if you lost money. Ah, I dunno, about this investment thing, see would definitely excited. For more information you go to www.letbobetfs.com, and all the information that you wanna find is there on the website.

No, that's great. And that's one of those things, you bring up a key point, right? When you have a new investor and they get involved in something and, immediately they have a loss. It puts that bad taste, that sour taste in their mouth, where it's Do I even wanna come back and try this again, , and I think that's one of the important parts of financial literacy and why? I have a podcast like this where we discuss things like this, to show people like, don't take a loss as a complete loss, right? That you can always bounce back. The stock market always bounces back, right? If you look at it historically, and if you're investing in ETFs and you're being, conservative and you're just investing in the stock market in general, you're looking at an average of 10%, right? Over a lifetime of investing. Whereas if you just, if you got that sour taste in your mouth during your first investment and you say, Nah, I'm just gonna put my stuff in savings and leave it there you are gonna be losing money every year. If you look at the, inflation numbers that came out, right? Where they said what, 9.7% or 9.1% or whatever it was, you have that money sitting in a savings account that's getting you 0.05%, you're losing 9% of your money. Every year where if you just left it in the stock market where you have that 10% average, you're slow. You're hedging and you're beating inflation at that point. And it's the highest it's been in a long time. And I think we're starting to stabilize. And with that being said, with the average inflation being anywhere between five and 7% on paper, right? now you're getting a better gain against that inflation when as it stabilizes and nor goes back to normal. But, this is one of the things that I'm glad you mentioned that, because if you go in your first investment, it can go either way, right? Your first investment, you turn around and you go out there and crush. Because you got lucky and bought that one penny stock that was quote unquote going to the moon and you're riding it, right? Eventually the rocket's gonna run outta fuel. But you go into your first investment, you think, Oh, oh, this is easy. And I think that's part of the problem that a lot of people that started in 2020, like during the pandemic and everything, when we had that huge drop back in March of 2020, and people got in and rode that rocket to the moon, they're like, Oh, Investing's easy, I can do this all day. They're the ones that haven't experienced the history of investing in bear markets versus bull markets, right? They were just sitting there riding the bull and enjoying it, right? So that's stuff that you have to keep in mind.

Yeah and that's a great point. So from a new investor standpoint, and I have, most of my clients are more seasoned, as I have clients', children who they may have been gifted money or we have a conversation and they want to do those hot stocks, I say I don't know if you're a nineties basketball fan, however you probably know the story about Jeremy Lynn. We all know Jeremy Lynn, one of the nineties basketball players recently, but Jeremy Lynn had not even a hot season, but like a hot half a year. Carmelo Anthony was on a bench and he just, it was Lynn Sanity. So you wanna be Jeremy Lynn or do you want to be scotty Pippin? Scotty Pippin, nineties basketball, very consistent for 10 years. Rock about rocks when it comes to the mount. Not rock, not Mount Rushmore of basketball but when you think about one of the greatest players, you think about Scotty Pippin. So from a stock standpoint, nothing against the AMC, but AMC is more like a German land, right? It pops and when it pops, it pops. But when it flops, It flops, right? Or you wanna be Scotty Pippin, That's like a Apple or Google. That's something that consistently doing the good years and bad years. Yeah, we might have some struggles, it was a playoff game and he didn't take the last shot when Jordan was out, he did get mad against New York and threw his chair. You know what I'm saying? Atfield Jackson, which is crazy to think about. So you do have your flops, but over time, great basketball player, Apple, Google, great stock. So you know, when you think about investing, do you buy a German Lynn type of stock, or you want more for Scotty Pippin? I would take Scotty Pippin because over three years, five year, 10 years, I'm gonna feel a lot better about that investment compared to a German Lynn where I might pop like crazy, but I also might flop like crazy as well.

I like that analogy. And I also like that you took what we talked about before I hit the record button and used it against me. I'm kidding. . Cause I, I was telling Mario how Scotty Pippin is, one of my favorite basketball players of all time and I felt like he was underrated. Cuz you know, Jordan had that shadow cast over him. But no, that, that is a fantastic point to, to look at it from that perspective. And it's a great analogy. Cuz I remember all that stuff too with the insanity thing. It's oh man. , Carmelo's out and Lynn's in, yeah. And then it's he's, Yeah, he's in for now. And then, eventually that just, it was like, it was a trend. It makes you think about what happened with the whole game stop thing. If you want to compare it to apples, the game stop AMC type deal. When you had people like these whales pushing and it's funny that in today's day and age that you know, you have with the social media presence, that one person can make a tweet about something. And it carries so much more influence that, you'll watch a certain crypto or stock just go to the moon because somebody said something, right? Not naming any names, it's amazing that this is the environment that we're in. So you have to be mindful of all these different pieces. When you're investing, right? Especially if you're investing in those individual stocks instead of like a ETF or an index fund or something like that. There was something else that you mentioned. That I liked about, when you're talking about the app that you guys made is, similar to Robin Hood, how the consumer now has more capital to play with because they're not paying those additional fees and things like that. So they have a little bit more. To work with when they're going and they're purchasing any ETFs or index funds or individual stocks that they want to get into. So I think that's huge. Now I wanna touch on something a little bit, cause I hinted at this a little earlier in the show. I'd like to know, especially for you personally, within your own practice, what have you brought? Cuz I know a lot of people that served in the military are able to bring their experience and what they learned during their time in the military into what they do today. If you could share with us, like what is it about your military experience that you currently use today in your own practice?

Yeah. So we all know KISS, right? Keep It Simple Stupid. Even from an investment standpoint, from a run your own firm standpoint, finish standpoint. Like we just get into the minutia stuff and like we just make things like, just bigger than what it is. Like just keep it simple. Investment standpoint. If we keep it simple, we know when to buy from a low standpoint. We know when the sale, when it's high, just keep it simple. When it comes to conversations with clients, right? Now, if they ask questions, you want to answer the question, but you don't wanna be too smart. Like sometimes when you're the expert in the room, you don't have any friends in the room, right? So you wanna just be relatable to clients. You wanna have conversations, but keep it simple. You want to, speak with them on layman's terms. I don't talk about P ratios or profit margin or the alpha beta of a stock with ETF. It's just, yeah, if I know the information, great, but I don't have to spew my knowledge or lack thereof on a client. Just keep it simple.

I like that. Mark, can I jump in there real quick? Because of course that, that is, one of the reasons why I have a podcast like this, right? That's why it's called Average Joe Finances, right? Because I want somebody to explain it to me like a fifth grader. I don't know anything. Because a lot of times the people that you're dealing with even if they are seasoned, there's a lot of things that they might not understand. And if they're brand, especially if they're brand new. You explained it to them like a fifth grader. Oh, okay this makes sense. A lot of times those different terms, like you were saying, like PE ratios and things like that, people aren't gonna know what that is. Off the bat, you have to learn about this stuff. You went and got licensed to learn about this stuff. I only know about these things because I have a podcast where I talked to experts like you that explain these things. Cause me on my own little old Mike, I have to go and look this stuff up and learn it and just that's the same as everybody else. That's the reason, Average Joe. So I appreciate that you do that, that you take the time to explain it to people so that they understand better. And it's not so much the whole technical side where you get into the nitty gritty, but you explain it to them in a way that they understand that they can take action because they have a good understanding of how to move forward. So I just wanna say I appreciate.

But No, that's true. It's with anything. So you compare where we're at now to even 30 years ago, right? When we go to the internet, it's not that, right? So like information passes so quickly than what information did from a dialup internet standpoint 30 years ago. So we have so much information at the fingertip. Of our hands right now. It's just ridiculous. But with information just comes lack of clarity and too much information and too much, which just confuses the heck outta people. And when you're too confused, you say, You know what? I put my hands up. I'm just gonna just keep things as is even though what I'm doing might not be the best. I might be in the wrong investment. I might be doing things wrong with my finances, but all this information, I'll just, it's status quo and then whatever happens. So if you keep things simple, if you just break down things in layman's terms, have people understand, not go through all the just crap of you're the smartest person in the room, I think it serves well for you because you're able to connect better with your client base or your customers. And I think it serves better for the customers or clients as well, because they know, they understand instead of all this information just why. So you keep it simple, stupid.

Yeah, no I love that. Keep it simple, stupid. It sounds derogatory, when you think about it. As long as you're keeping things simple and you have an understanding of what you're doing, you really can't go wrong. Sure things happen, right? With any investment, there's always risk involved. Always risk. No matter what. You can be investing, in Tesla, four years ago and say, Oh, you know what? But things could have gone the other. Yeah, so you never know. So no I appreciate that and okay, great. I wanna ask you one more question before we get into the final round here because, you're a stock market guy, right? You're a financial advisor and you like the stock market. So I wanna ask you what are your thoughts on real estate Investing?

So I don't wanna sound biased because I am a stock market person. I own real estate though so definitely not to, not bias at all. Historically, just historically the market does better year over year than real estate. A couple things to consider when it comes to real estate. If I have my rental property, right? I'm getting rent on a month to month basis. What if they don't pay? If we do things like HUD or things of that nature, they pay what if they don't pay? Yeah. Not fun. When it comes to stocks, and now if you're doing like more dividend paying stocks, then yeah, that's different. With stocks we're not really worried about getting rental income. We're worried about growth. Little bit different also from a rental standpoint. I gotta pay property taxes. That's not fun. If I do have a rental, I gotta pay a property manager, or I have more headaches, more gray hairs popping up now, right? That's not fun. I have homeowners insurance. That's not fun. What if I'm running out to a family and they're playing around and now they knock a home on my wall? I gotta pay for that. That's not fun. So it's extra things that come along from a rental standpoint. On average most rental income, net, net after those things we're talking about, property taxes, homeowners insurance, property management gives you about five to 6% a year, which is not bad, better than inflation. A S&P 500 over the past 30 years has given you nine and a half percent, so you almost double what real estate does. So if you look at it from a historical standpoint, I would recommend a person doing stocks. Now the good thing about real estate two years ago, a hundred thousand dollars house is now $300,000 in some places, right? Not a lot of stocks. Blue collar stocks. Now we have the AMCs of the world, but a lot of blue collar stocks have went up by 200%, two years. So from being able to pop standpoint, real estate gives you a bigger opportunity to pop. It gives you a bigger opportunity get that big bang for your buck very quickly if you time it right. A person buying real estate now thinking that over the next two or three years is gonna appreciate by a hundred, 200% not so much. We are technically in a recession because we have two negative GDP now, of course, politicians that negative say, We're not, technically we are, right? Typically, what happens in a recession individual Which it's not fun, but they get laid off. They get laid off that means they can't pay their mortgage. So that means more foreclosures, more short sales. We have more inventory. When it's more inventory, it turns from a seller's market to a buyers market. So now my house that was worth a hundred thousand now is worth 80,000. Oh, that wanna sell it down? I don't know. So yeah, so tho those are factors. So I'm, again, I'm not anti real estate. I have, rental property. I have land that we haven't built on yet. If I had my crystal ball would've, I would've built on it before covid because now things are crazy, supply chain rise, right? But definitely just from a historical standpoint, long term, five years, 10 years, 15 years, historically the market has given you a better return than real estate.

Hey Mario. I appreciate that perspective. And thank you for sharing what you did about the two negative quarters, in the past this would've been labeled as a recession, right? It has not been officially labeled a recession yet, but you can see where this is going, like where our economy is right now. I do think it's a little bit different than ones that we've seen in the past. Like I don't think we're gonna see the job loss we saw in the past, so I'm not sure I agree too much that there's gonna be a lot. I don't think there's gonna be a lot of foreclosures. I think it's going to maybe tick up a little bit, but not like what we saw in like 2008, 2009, cuz that was just, that was madness and had a lot to do with predatory lending practices. So we won't even get into that, but Yeah. Yeah, but I appreciate that perspective.

Yeah. Yeah. And I definitely agree. I definitely don't think it's gonna be like it was in 2009 and it had that frank rule that was passed that helped with predatory lending. I could talk 100% right there. And then of course, nobody wants to see a person lose their job. Unemployment definitely is great. Now we can definitely have a conversation that are people being paid enough. So from a wages standpoint, a lot of people are doing jobs that they should be paid more for. But definitely economy wise, even though we're taking a recession, this is definitely not a recession like we had in 2008. So we can definitely agree to that. Yes.

All right. Awesome. Awesome. Appreciate that. All right, now Mario this was a great conversation and I want to transition this into something that we call the final round. And in the final round I'm gonna ask you four questions. They're hard hitting questions for the listeners to get a better perspective of who you are and how you deal with, I guess you could say crisis, right? Because hey, in today's economy you need to be prepared cuz you never know which way things can go, which is why I enjoy having conversations like this and learning what other people are doing as well. With that being said, are you ready to get this party started?

Lighten them around. Let's go.

All right, let's go. All right. Hey first question of the final round is, what's the biggest mistake you've ever made?

Networking. So even though I'm a happy go lucky person, I can talk to anybody in the room. When I first started as a financial advisor or even when I started my own firm six years later, I did not do the best networking. I was in my office, in my cocoon. Bring it in clients, managing money. Yes. We're referral based. We're getting referrals, but networking, having a team of CPAs that didn't have that at first. Having a team of estate attorneys didn't have that at first. So definitely if I would've networked earlier in my practice, I think from a gray hair standpoint when I had less gray hairs than I had now. But yeah, I would definitely say anybody starting a practice, starting a business it's all about relationships, all about networks. I use those networking skills today and I use my relationships today to help me dramatically. But definitely I wish I'd have done that when I first started as a financial advisor and when I first started my practice.

Hey, that's key. Networking I think is huge. And for you to admit that, hey, that the biggest mistake that you made was not networking enough, I really appreciate the truthfulness in that because it is definitely something that will help you whatever side of the investing spectrum you're on, scale and take things to the next level. It's kind of cliche, but you know that saying that your network is your net worth. And it's true. It is true. It's the people that you have in your circle will make a difference in your decisions in the future. If you hang around with five millionaires, right? If that's your circle, you're gonna be the six one. So it's about having that type of, that click that you can come together with and having that network. So I appreciate that. Thank you so much. All right. So this kind of ties into that question, but the next question is, what is something that you've learned that you wish you knew when you first started?

Ooh. So from an investment standpoint I did not know a lot about charting. I know we talked about it earlier. You have fundamental analysis, technical analysis. I would probably say over the past four years, I've learned so much about charts. How to now again, because we have our proprietary system and Bob, that definitely helps me out dramatically. But just from my own investment standpoint learning how to read a chart learning, what it means if the market's growing up or down, not from a event driven standpoint, not from a fundamental analysis standpoint. From a a technical standpoint, looking at a chart, looking when it goes up, what's the rsi, when is it a dip? If a stock is gaping up or down? What does that mean? Looking at candlesticks, looking at from fibonacci, things of that nature. I wish I would've did a better job understanding as I first as a financial advisor in '07, as I started my own firm in 2013 I would've been in quicker in some stocks. I would've been out quicker in some stocks as well. So definitely I wish I would've learned about charts. So anybody who thinking about investing, strongly would recommend that you learned about charting. Now of course, past performance does not guarantee future results. As a fiduciary, I have to say that I am a certified financial planner. But definitely charting does give you a vision and I use anomaly of a candle. If I close my eyes and it's dark with that candle, I'm being led. Now, it might be dark with that candle, I might bump into a wall. I might bite, bump into something. , but it does give me guidance. And I do have a direction of where I'm going with that candle compared to if it was dark. I'm just walking around, knocking into stuff. Hopefully I'm not aiding up by alligator here in Jacksonville, Florida, right? So candle's right on a chart. Oh, look at that. Look at that anomaly, right? Yeah so definitely if you think about, if you're in the dark, The chart that you have is like a kennel because it leads you now, again, doesn't guarantee that stock is gonna go up if you're long or if you're short, that it's gonna go down for you to make money. But it does help you with guidance. It does help you make a decision. So definitely I wish I would've learned, executed, got more information and master charting. I'm not a master at charting today, but I'm a lot more dangerous than I was four years ago, and it has helped me with investment decision.

That's awesome. I appreciate that and I like how you were able to reference candles and use that right there. So that's great. Okay. Awesome. So again, this kind of ties in as well. But the next question is, do you have any tips or tricks that you would recommend to someone that is just getting started today?

Be persistent. When I first started door knocking, I probably knock on a person's door. First thought they had to open the door but then after they opened the door, they had to gimme information so we have a conversation so I could hopefully help them invest their money, right? Literally for every, I would say a hundred doors. I knocked on, probably 15, opened it him up. And so with those 15 conversations, Three to five probably said, Yes, here's my information. Gimme a call sometime. So I had to be very consistent. I had to knowingly know that I'm going to talk to you and it is a larger possibility that you're not gonna give you the time today. And that continued to happen hour after hour, day after day. And I had to have very thick skin. So I had to be persistent, right? So if you're persistent in something, you continue to do it. When individuals saying yes, when individuals saying, No, you're good. Now there's times where, I knocked on the door and a person said, Hey, let's sit down right now. I know Edward Jones, let's go, let's invest. How much did I invest is what I wanna do. That's like a home run, right? But I didn't get my highest too high and my lows too low. Meaning that in those instances I didn't stop for the day. So you just, I had one person that I'm be able to help. Great. But it might be another a hundred doors and people say no, right? So there's lot of averages. You don't want to be too high. Be too low. But you wanna be persistent. So any business that you're in if you're a sales person, you have a great sale, doesn't mean that you stopped. You be persistent, right? If you have an online store and it's muffs of you not selling anything, you wanna be persistent that next month it might be a record month, right? So anything that you're doing from a business standpoint, you just want be consistent. Be persistent in your actions, because the more actions that you do the more results you have as well.

Oh, Mario. I love that. So I wrote that down. As you were talking, the thing I wrote down was be persistent. And then the other thing I would want, I would like to add to that, cuz you, you said it too, but is don't be afraid of rejection, right? And that's part of being persistent, right? You even said it too, like you, you can knock on a hundred doors and get all those nos, but when you get that, yes it's that much more gratifying because you were persistent and you were consistent. Absolutely love that response. Thank you so much.

Yeah. And think about from a sports strategy, right? A baseball player a baseball player could bat 3 25. Craig Biggio went to the Hall of Fame a couple years ago, right? 3 25. That means out of a thousand times at the plate, they failed more than they succeeded. And there are Hall of Fame, right? So

that's a great batting average.

I know, right? Three 20. Yeah, I know. I'm in Cooperstown baby. So yeah, so it can be a lot of nos, a lot of why am I doing this? A lot of bad days. But if you just be persistent in your actions, you be consistent in what you're doing, it's gonna pay off. Hard work pays off. I truly believe that. I definitely bust my butt. I got instilled in that when I was in the military. Again, knocking on doors in Florida in a suit, even a nice suit like this. Sweating. It was muggy. It was horrible. But 15 years later, if I was knocking on doors, I wouldn't have, would be part owner, of an ETF that's on the market, right? I wouldn't have, be part owner of an investment app that's coming out, would be part owner of an ETF company that actually helps financial advisors lost their own ETF on the stock market. So by me busting my butt, it gave me the opportunity to be where I amm today I'm on Average Joe Podcast. If I was not knocking those doors, I wouldn't be here talking to you right now.

I appreciate that. Don't hype me up too much, man. My head's gonna swell up and then there'll be no more room on the screen. But yeah, that was key to you being persistent, like you said. So that's awesome. All right. The final question of the final round. Do you have a favorite business investing or real estate related book or podcast or both?

Yeah so podcasts now I definitely wanna be as transparent as possible. I don't read on a, just just pick up a book and read, right? Everybody read Rich Dad, Poor Dad, great book. But I'm more of a visual and audio person. It's a group called Earn Your Leisure. There's a lot of business podcasts about investing, about business, about finance, about real estate. They key on just financial literacy as a whole and it is a great listen. They have topics, literally almost every single day about different things in the economy. They might have one episode about a person who has a fleet of trucks if you want to get into trucks. They did one about vending machines. They did one about, credit repair. They did one about stocks, about crypto. They always have new content if you wanna start a restaurant, What does that look like? They even have one about landscaping, How a person, has a landscaping company and how he's rocking and rolling. So Earn Your Leisure, they're a podcast I definitely listen to from a financial literacy stand.

Yeah, no, that, that's a good one. And that, that reminds me too, I need to get somebody on this show that, that does vending machines. I haven't had somebody that does vending machines yet. So that's next for us here. We're gonna make that happen. Hey appreciate that. That is awesome. And yeah, I have one more question for you, Mario. And this is probably the most important question of all, because the final round is complete. But this is of great importance and it's because the conversation that we had was pretty amazing, I gotta say. I really enjoyed talking with you and I really enjoyed what we discussed and you put out some great information. So people that are listening are gonna wanna know more about you. They wanna know more about your firm, where can they find that information? So if you can you share with us do you have a website or any social media profiles that people could follow, that would be fantastic.

Yeah, of course. So my website toamsfinancial.com and all my social medias. I am a pretty funny follow on Instagram. I do literally a video every day about stock and kind of what it did the day before with some funny videos behind it. My Instagram is toamsfinancial.com. My Business Facebook TOAMS Financial I'm on TikTok as well. Again, pretty funny on TikTok as well. That's called Painful Profits. I have a it's called, so P A Y N E F U L Profits that's my TikTok. A lot of just great content and just, we talk about investing, but from a comedic view. My day job is a financial advisor. My night job is wanna be comic. PAYNEFULPROFITS. That's our TikTok. Any information about our investment app www.letbob.com. If you're a financial advisor, you're looking to start your own ETF on a stock market yourself. We have our ETF creation platform, www.letbobetfs.com and then also our simple that on the stock exchange, let B L E T B as in boy. But literally if you just Google TOAMS financial, all my socials pop up.

Awesome. So that's actually how Mario and I got connected was on Instagram. So via social media. Definitely go check out his stuff. It is

Networking. Look at, See Network.

Yeah, there you go. There you go. And I could vouch for him wanting to be comic on the side. It's got some good stuff on there. But anyway Mario this has been awesome. Thank you again so much for joining us. I really genuinely enjoyed this conversation. So to everybody that's listening, I'm gonna make it easy for you. All those links are gonna be in the show notes, so you can click or copy and paste. Just don't do it while you're driving. All right. But in closing, I wanna say thank you for joining me and our special guest, Mario Payne. On the Average Joe Finances Podcast, don't forget to go leave us a five star review and tell us what you liked about today's episode with Mario. All right, everybody aloha from Hawaii and we're outta here.

Peace.