57. Left Brain Wealth Management with Brian Dress

At the end of the day, choosing the right business at the right price is what we want to do. And, you know, we just let the chips fall where they may from there. Because over time, we've learned that the reality is, is if you make the right decisions, fundamentally, you're at the right businesses, those fundamentals will win out over time.

If you're watching this on YouTube, make sure you smash that like button and click subscribe. For those of you listening on a podcast platform, be sure to subscribe on whatever platform that is, and leave us a rating if you can. The more likes ratings and subscriptions that we get, the more we can spread the message and grow our community. So we also have a free Facebook group. It's called the Average Joe Finances network. Check us out, join the group, join the community ask questions, and become a part of the team. All of our other social media accounts are listed in our flow page. And we have them in the video or podcast description below. Alright, hey, how's it going, everybody? So today's guest is Brian dress and Brian has 15 years experience in the investments industry. Before joining left brain he spent nearly a decade managing an independent portfolio of derivatives focus mainly in the oil and gas commodities markets, but also an equities and fixed income. Brian has earned his bachelor's in international relations with a concentration in international economics from Georgetown University in Washington DC. He is currently a candidate for the Chartered Financial Analyst the CFA designation. Brian is a resident of the city of Chicago, where he lives with his wife, Michelle, and young daughter, Juliet. In his spare time, he enjoys spending time with his family, working out cooking and traveling. Awesome. Hey, Brian, thanks for coming on the show. Glad to talk with you today.

It's great to be here, Mike. And I want to throw a shout out as well to my newest daughter, which is Alexandra. She's about to turn to as well. So a little update on the bio there.

Fantastic. Well, welcome to the world, Alexandra. So awesome. Hey, so I'd like to start this off the same way I start every show. And you know, I spoke a little bit about your background there. But you know, it was brief. So if you could share with us your story like what what got you started, what made you want to go down this road, working in finances?

Sure. So I attended Georgetown, in the School of foreign service. So internationally focused, I took a course on international finance. And I learned about george soros, and kind of what he was up to and In the currency markets. And from that day, I just remember the day. From that day, I was interested in markets. And so when I got done, the Georgetown, moved up here to Chicago, and gotten involved in futures trading, started out in the bond markets, and also got involved when oil was ripping and roaring back in the 2000 to 2007 2009 timeframe. So it's a good time to be in the in the mix there. So everything I was doing was pretty much short term trading, a little bit of long term investing on the side, but not too much. So did that until about 2018 things leveled off in that in that business. You know, algorithmic trading came into the mix and sort of pushed out folks like myself. And so at that time, I decided to look for something a little more durable in the markets. And that's long term investing. Now brought me over to left brain wealth management, Capital Management, where we do a lot more long term investing exclusively long term investing and growth oriented. So I made a change in career on the fly, but really happy and fulfilled that I did so just because I feel like a few things a long term investing is really the way to go. feel really comfortable with that. And also the opportunity to work with clients and help them build their wealth, preserve their wealth and meet their goals and dreams financially. So yeah, so gone run the gamut from short term trading all the way now to long term investing. Happy I'm here today speaking with you.

Awesome, thanks for that. Yeah, so you know you got you definitely got to like you said run the gamut. I mean, you work both sides of the house right from from short term back in Oh 709 to where you're at right now with left brain working on long term retirement portfolios. I mean, that's that's a huge difference. So now what You personally, so what what is Brian dress doing on his own journey to financial independence.

So I heard this quote, last week from an old friend, and he said, I'm a work in progress until progress makes work optional. I think that really resonated for me. You know, in the financial world, we're all trying to find a way to build wealth, create wealth, preserve wealth. And it's all in service of a goal, which is financial freedom. And, you know, as we spoke before, I've been all over on all sides of the financial world. But what I've really learned is that long term investing, there are a number of reasons why there are advantages than long term investing. But at the essence, is what you're really trying to do is, is help your work, have your money work for you, rather than you work for your money. And that's the essence of what we do at left brain building portfolios that are going to help people, you know, build their nest egg and preserve it when they get it to a point where they feel like it's going to cover the dreams and goals that they have. And so I'm fully on that path, fully on that long term investing path. And putting my money to work that way, as I build my career,

all right. Yeah, good deal. So I really liked that quote, that's, that's awesome. Now, okay, so with left brain, your your focus now is on long term investing, and that's what you're helping your clients do. Right. So what are like some of the advantages of, you know, investing long term, you know, particularly like, relative to short term investing?

Sure. So we all know that making decisions in the financial markets is difficult. Every decision you make buying and selling requires thought consideration. And the reality is, as in short term investing, you really have to make a lot of really good decisions. So if I buy today, sell tomorrow, buy again, tomorrow, sell again, three days from now, that's a lot of decisions. However, if I buy a stock, I gotta find a company that I feel comfortable with. So that's one, one decision. And then there's another decision, which is exiting, exiting the investment. So it's two decisions. And you come to realize, you know, mathematics tells you, the more positive decisions you can make, the better you're going to be. And the reality is, is nobody can make 100 good decisions per year, it's very difficult to do. So that's the first reason that long term investing is so much better. Also, with long term investing, we're buying businesses, we're not playing a number, we're not playing the markets. You know, it's overbought, today, it's oversold tomorrow, in the end, the fundamentals went out. So if I have a company that I feel comfortable with their business model, the trajectory of that business model and everything else, that the management there, I can really, I can stick to those principles, and over time, it's going to win out. So that's the second advantage. And then the third advantage is taxes. So it's short term, in the US any any investment, you make that that is for one year or less, you're going to pay at your income rate. Whereas if you hold it for more than one year, it's going to be paid at your capital gains rate, which is generally quite quite a bit lower. It's different in different countries, but in the US, that's definitely the case. And so you know, those three put together really makes a case for long term investing. And, you know, I think a lot of people want to chase that short term buck, and they want to make, you know, 100% return in a year on an investment. And I understand that impulse, I lived in that world. But I also want to say it's possible to do in the long term investing world as well, there are a number of companies, especially in 2020, that double than in just that year, and I wouldn't want to go out and say that's an expectation of ours. But it's not just slow money, it's not boring. There's opportunity to make, you know, significant returns through through long term investing. Just because sometimes the stars just align and you know, you have the timing right and the business, right. But at the at the end of the day, choosing the right business, at the right price is what we want to do. And you know, we just let the chips fall where they may from there. Because over time, we've learned that the reality is, is if you make the right decisions, fundamentally, you're at the right businesses, those fundamentals will win out over time.

Yeah, I mean, right on like, so. While you were talking, I was taking some notes, and I feel like you know, there's some key things I want to point out with what you said, you know, with long term investing versus short term investing, and that's the fact that you know, one it's a A lot less decisions you have to make. Right? You know, if you're, if you're buying something, and you're holding it for the long term, there's not really much else to do with it afterwards, you're not messing around, you're not turning around and selling it and trying to buy it, buy the dip or anything like that. Right? Right. So a lot less decisions that you have to make. The other thing that you talked about, too, is like your comfort level. That, you know, again, it's something that you have to worry less about, right? Especially if you're with a company that you can trust, you know, that you've you've built this relationship with over time. And then the other thing is, is the tax advantage, right? You know, if you're doing short term investing, like a lot of a lot of the people that, that listen to the show that are doing day trading, like I know that they're experiencing, you know, a lot of capital gains taxes that they have to that they have to pay, right. And that's something that you're not worrying about as a long term trader, or as somebody who is, you know, investing for retirement.

Yeah, we just, you know, in terms of taxes, I think, you know, we look at what's on our screen, and so you know, I make a buy, make a sell, I own that profit, that's what it says on the screen. But at the end of the day, it's what what do I take home. And I think that, you know, the more experience you gain in the markets, the more you understand that, and so managing for taxes, while not the primary concern, it's a secondary concern, but you have to do so. And, you know, at the end of the day, we'll make buys and sell decisions on long term holdings to optimize taxes for our clients. So you know, if there's a big capital gain, we'll be looking around for a stock where we feel we could sell and harvest a loss and put the two together, and optimize taxes. And so I would just caution those, and I think, I think it's an experience thing, I think a lot of people get into day trading, and they don't think about the taxes, and then they get the Rude Awakening one time, and then you you change your, your whole viewpoint on it. So again, primary focus is making making money. Gross. But net is really, really the number one bottom line. And so managing taxes is part of the equation.

Yeah, right on, that's exactly the thing you know, is if you have somebody else that's managing it for you, and, you know, that has the experience that's been doing this for a while, it's a lot less you have to worry about, and that goes back to that whole comfort thing. So I know, like for me, you know, I've got my Thrift Savings Plan being in the military. And, you know, that's one of those I set it and forget it type deals, I change my allocations every now and then. And that's really it, I don't really have to worry about it. But then like, my, my little fun money account that I have, that I bought to do, like more active trading with, I found myself actually buying and holding some real estate investment trusts more long term, like dividend paying assets. You know, and that was with my, my play money that I had to just mess around with and speculate. And I found myself just going back to the playing it, you know, more safe and doing it and it's doing well, like, I just checked it yesterday afternoon, and I was up 30.17% for the year. So I'm pretty happy with that. And, and, and that's, again, it was it was about a comfort thing I was, you know, I wanted to mess around and play around with it more, but I decided not to speculate and it's it's doing well. So,

so you've, you've learned the lesson quickly.

I've learned a couple lessons playing around in there. And that's why, you know, it doesn't have too much money in there. But yeah, I've also learned a couple lessons that when I tell myself I'm going to buy and hold something, just because it goes up significantly in value. I shouldn't just sell it because I doubled my money. Right? One in particular I'll talk about this, there was a when I bought plug at $2 and like two cents a share. And it went up like $4.14 I put like four grand into it. So it was I had 2000 shares. And it doubled in value. So I sold it for a profit of $4,000 it was now worth $1,000. So I said hey, I'd double my money. Good to go. Right? Well, if I would have held it for three more months, when it went up to $68 a share that would have been $500,000 so that was that was a lesson learned to like hey, I told myself I was gonna buy and hold it, but I still sold it. So little things like that, you know people will hopefully learn from I know I did. So now now the the other couple, like smaller stocks that I bought into I don't really mess around with penny stocks too much but the smaller ones that I bought into, I'm like I'm just I'm sticking it out. I'm gonna wait and hold it for at least a year or two and see what happens. And of course I want a paying capital gains taxes on that. Anyway, I want to get back into it. What what you guys do with loops with left brain? Right? And I know you have like a specific investment philosophy. And your philosophy, you know, is basically a way to help others achieve financial goals in their dream. So can you can you explain that philosophy?

Sure. So, the first part of it is what we've been talking about long term orientation. And the second part is that we're, we're looking for growth stocks, in general, I would go ahead and caution and say, you know, every clients different, and we put different clients in different allocations based on their circumstances, but we really like growth stocks. And so we'd go where the growth is, and, you know, in the past, we've been heavy in tech. But that's not because we just love tech, it's because that's where the growth was. And so, you know, coming out of the pandemic, you know, we're seeing some new areas of growth, and so, a little bit of reorienting as well, as we go through kind of the economy reopening. But, you know, the basis of our philosophy is we like World Class businesses. And so it's not a really complicated philosophy or process. But we're looking at a number of key factors in every company, every company that we assess, and the number one, again, is growth. So we're looking for revenue growth, but we're looking for an acceleration in revenue growth. So you know, I love to see a company that grew 30% last year, and then this year 40%, you know, that shows you a trajectory that is telling you a story with the numbers, you go behind the numbers, you're probably going to find out that something is happening, either in that company's markets, or the way they're addressing that market and their market share. So that's the first thing. But with growth stocks, you know, there is risk. And so we have to find a way to manage risk. And so that way is we're looking for a trajectory toward profitability or profitability on some metric, whether it be free cash flow, or net income. And so, you know, we have to find a risk management tool, a lot of these companies that are growing fast, are losing money hand over fist. And I'm not to say that we would never invest in a company like that, but we are looking for a company that has that path to profitability. And then kind of a qualitative concept is category definer, we want a company that is a category definer, a category killer. And just I always pick on this company, but Oracle, we love going against we love companies that are competing with a company like Oracle or IBM, you know, finding a way to do it, do something better to beat a legacy business. So that's, that's one. And then, you know, we want a benign competitive environment, we want a large growing market, where we're competitive dynamics are in our favor. And then the final and I think maybe the most important is, is management, we really like companies that are founded, that are run by their founder, founder CEOs, and there are a few reasons for that. It's the innovation, it's the vision. And then it's the alignment of interests. You know, you see a lot of these founders, CEOs that have, you know, 98% of their net worth and the business that they're running, that they found it. And we love investing with, see, alongside CEOs that have their skin in the game. So I would say that I tell a lot of people this investing is simple. It's not easy, but it's simple. And we have just like these five, these five main points that we look at, in every business, and it really guides our assessment of all those different companies and gives us a chance to, you know, select 2530 that we think are really the best, best in their category, and have great growth potential. And then we try to put our money behind those.

Right on I think you spoke a little bit about your process, too, because that was the next question I was gonna ask you and like, you know, how do you go about, like, selecting companies to build this long term success? So, you know, I think it's, it's, it's pretty good, because your philosophy just ties right into that to your actual investment process for how you select these companies. And the way you explain that just the way that you're looking for the growth, you know, the acceleration versus the risk, you know, their trajectory, risk management of the company. But what I really like, is that something that you said about, like, when you're looking at these companies that have a founder or CEO that, you know, has a large portion of their net worth tied into the company, you know, so that they have skin in the game. That's like a huge thing that you always hear about all the time. Like, hey, if I'm going to follow somebody, I want to make sure they have skin in the game and, and that's, I think that's a really great like factor that you guys consider. So that's really awesome.

Yeah. And then in terms of process, you Yep, you know, I think that people who are outside of the investing world they look at it, and it's just, you know, as people would say, it's all Greek to me. It's very, it seems complicated, but what I like to tell people is, you know, if you, if you can't handle it, find someone that can help you do it. But if you want to, if you're determined to do it on your own, I tell people find a company that you're familiar with maybe that you worked for at some point, or you have a friend that worked there or, you know, have familiarity and some on some level, and then most of our research is, is looking directly at corporate filings. So we'd like to look at the 10 Ks and the 10 Q's, and that's a little bit daunting, but the really the the real value is each quarter, you can read that earnings call, and hear directly from the management, the CEO, the CFO, and, you know, they're, they're required to tell you what's going on, they can't hold back by law. So if you want to learn what's going on in a company, you know, read the last two conference calls, read the next one. And you'll start to get a sense of what's going on. That's why I say, you know, use a company that you're familiar with, because, you know, maybe the language is a little bit difficult to understand in the conference call. But if you have that, you know, that earlier knowledge of that company, you can start to put it together and start to understand that cadence that, you know, the the CEO speak, and start to, you know, sift through that and understand more how companies work. And, you know, we have really two reasons why we will ever sell an investment. And the first is, you know, we find a better investment. So say I own 30 stocks, I want to buy that 31st, but we want to get rid of the one that we have number 30. So that would be the first reason. And then the second reason is business changes. So our thesis is based on you know, we expect X, Y and Z product to come out and make whatever percentage of growth for that company. If that changes, that's when we're looking to sell, that's our sell discipline. But the only way to know that is to keep up with the company and read the quarterly filings. And, again, I understand it may be daunting, if you've never been in the business and never taken the time to do that. But there's so much valuable information in there. And I think you'd do a lot better. spending an hour reading a company conference call than you would be, you know, watching CNBC, for that 400 hour of the year.

Yeah, right on, you know, I gotta admit to like, you know, from my day job, I'm in the Navy, and I always have CNBC on in the background, in my office. So so a lot of times, you know, it's it's a lot of chatter all the time. But yeah, I tend to not really absorb too much of that, because there's, there's so much more to what, you know, just a couple talking heads are talking about when it comes to investment strategies. So speaking of that, so let's say there's somebody out there who, you know, wants to start investing long term, they want to start building their, you know, portfolio towards retirement, how would somebody get started, like somebody who just started their career brand new, and they want to start investing what's, what's the right steps for them to take? Let's take a brief moment to hear from our show sponsors, What's going on everybody? So today, I want to talk to you about the podcast editing service that we use for the Average Joe Finances podcast that is edit pods.com. And what I really like about them is it's a subscription based service. So the prices are fantastic. And not only do they do the podcast episodes for us, but they also make us videos, audiogram's social media captioned videos, they do our show notes, thumbnails, it's just fantastic products. Go check them out at editpods.com What's going on everybody? So today I want to talk to you about wealthtender. If you are a finance content creator, whether that's a blog, a podcast, you're a financial advisor or a financial coach, I highly recommend you check out wealthtender, wealthtender is building a database of all the top finance blogs, podcasts, and the financial advisors and financial coaches that they have on there are vetted and top notch. So we actually had the pleasure of hosting Brian Thorpe, the CEO and founder of wealthtender on Average Joe Finances podcast, Episode 25. Go check out that episode, listen to his story and listen to him talk about the database that he's building. It's really phenomenal stuff. So if you're interested in checking out the directory, or if you're a finance content creator and you're interested in joining up with the directory, go to the link below in the show notes. Or check out www.AverageJoefinances.com/wealthtender. Let's get back to today's episode.

Well, I would just say initially you just have to get going because Cuz I understand this, I spent all that time in the short term world, I had money to use to invest long term, but I was sort of reticent to do it. Because I felt, you know, the edge was in the short term. And I also felt, I don't know where to start. Like I said, getting started with reading some of these earnings calls is the way to go. But then I also think you got to consider the way you view risk. So I understand like, it's always risky to be invested in anything. But we have to, we have to think about, you know, if I'm just getting started in my 20s, or 30s, I've got 40 or 50 years of investing ahead of me. And so time is on my side, if you go back and look at the last 100 years of the stock market, you'll notice that you can't find a you'll have a hard time finding a 25 or 30 year period where the market was actually down for that period. And so you know, you got to get started and get on that that wheel. And, you know, let the money start moving for you. I think a lot of times we look at stocks that we like, and maybe they'll they'll go up and then they start coming back down and we start getting really antsy. anxious. And I would, I would encourage people to look at that in a completely different way. So I used to think, man, well, I own stock x, and it really went down 20%, it's time to get out. But if you, you know, that long term mentality, and that's powered by understanding the company, you start to realize that that 20% pullback is an opportunity for you to add exposure not to take away exposure. And I know, everybody says discount, yeah, everybody says buy high and sell or sorry, buy low and sell high. And it's it's easy on paper to say that, but I know it's difficult to do in practice. I know from my point of view, you know, when things when things pull back, I don't feel good about it. But you know, over time, the experience teaches you that, no, you've you really need to buy when things are down, you don't need to be selling, and, you know, my experiences, the the more times you do that and get the feedback of well, I bought in three months later, it looks so much better. You start to realize that's the way to do it. And that's the way that wealthy people invest, not only in the stock market, but in you know, real estate and a number of other ventures is you know, buying things when they're on sale, and then maybe selling when it's overvalued. That's the way to do it. That's the mindset you need to have. But you got to push past that initial, that initial fear, which is in everyone, it's an all of us. So that means doing it on a small size on a small dollar amount. That's the way to go. But you got to get started.

Yeah, no, I agree. key thing there, just start getting, you know, get yourself in, get your own skin in the game and start investing. Okay, so I like a lot of what you were talking about there, because I tend to have that same kind of mentality. So it kind of makes me more comfortable with, with what I'm doing myself. You know, it's I don't, I don't sit here and freak out when things dip, you know, I look at it as an opportunity to buy that asset again, at a discounted price and, and lower my dollar cost average per share. So that's awesome. You know, unless there's, you know, some particular like, there was one that I bought into, I bought it at a certain price, and it dropped and dropped and dropped, it got down to like $9. And then then there was a call for it to be at $1. And I was like, it's it's it's time to go. So

but you know, like we say it's if something changes, that's different. You know, but if a lot of the time, markets are volatile, and sell offs happen for reasons other than the fundamentals. Yeah, a lot of times, you know, sometimes a hedge fund blows up, or someone just needs to sell a few million dollars of shares, or whatever it will be, that has nothing to do with the business. And so like we said, it all comes down to the business, if the business is not what we thought it was six months ago, we'll make a new decision. But if nothing's changed, man, it's really an excellent opportunity to add that exposure and especially in growth stocks, you'll find it's hard to buy a lot of them because you'll feel these are expensive stocks, and they are they rarely go on sale. But when they do, it's really truly an opportunity to get in.

Yeah, absolutely. You know, and the other way I looked at it too, is especially since that poor portfolio is still up, you know, it's up 30% like I said, That to me was it was a tax write off, you know, that's the way I looked at it, I feel a lot better about it that way, and I just and I let it go.

Well, let me just say this is it's better to get out of that position and you save your mental energy rather than holding on to that hoping it's coming back. And, you know, I think a lot of times people just get spun up mentally. And again, this is going back to long term investing, I think it's so much easier. When you make a lot fewer decisions, you don't get that that anxiety you don't get that spun up feeling. And, you know, my experience is one bad decision can lead to five bad decisions. And, again, the fewer decisions you make the less opportunity to have to get yourself in trouble that way.

Yep. No, I agree. I agree. All right. So speaking of, you know, the, the lesser amount of decisions to make and that whole comfort level, how frequently should someone talk with their advisor.

So, by law, we're, we're forced to do at least a yearly review. So we do that, but you know, we want to be in touch with our clients, and we tell them, you know, give us a call at any time you feel uncomfortable with things. And, you know, my view of the advisor role is, we're trying to be a buffer between investors and their emotions, in the markets. And so, you know, we want to be there and making the decisions in the hard times. And in doing that, buying, buying the dips, when it feels terrible, you know, lightening up the load, when things really run. And I always encourage people to try not to look at your account every day. Because that really leads again, to that anxious feeling. And, you know, again, we like to talk to our clients whenever they feel. But you know, the frequency doesn't need to be extreme, it really doesn't, we're happy to keep everybody abreast of what's going on. We do, you know, events here and there, where we invite everybody and kind of give, give our clients a state of the union, State of the State of the Union and, and that sort of thing. But you know, it's all about education. So the longer we've had people under our roof working with us, they start to become more comfortable with that concept of buy and hold, you know, staying calm. And we actually get a lot of calls when the market comes down and saying, Hey, is this an opportunity to put more in, and that's when you know, you really have succeeded in terms of educating your clients. And that's why I like being on programs like yours, because we want to be out here educating people in the investment universe that a you need to be in the stock market and be there's a better way to do it than just, you know, the jittery in and out concept that you see on TV all the time. And, unfortunately, the philosophy that we espouse you don't see it out there, anywhere near enough, in my opinion.

Yeah, no, I agree. I agree. And, and it is super important. Education is super important. When you're involving anything involving your own money, right, you want to know what you're getting yourself into. So it is important to do that research. You know, especially if you're looking at a company like if you guys want to check out left brain, do your research on them. Listen to this episode, listen to me, and Brian speak about this, and go check out their their site and see if it's a company you'd be interested in, and check it out. But the important thing is doing that research, doing your own due diligence to make sure that you're putting your money somewhere where you're comfortable. And, and this word has come up several times during this this show is his comfort, right? So you want to make sure you're doing something that you're comfortable with with with your own money. Right. So really awesome. Brian, really awesome. So do you have any last tips or tricks that you would recommend to a new investor?

You know, I think it's, you know, take a little bit of issue with the way you ask that is there's really no tricks to it. It's, you know, staying the course, it's, it's doing the homework, it's educating yourself. And it's having a plan and sticking to that plan. And the problem with finances. You know, a lot of people are selling product, a lot of people are trying to get you get you to do a certain thing for their particular aims. And it's not necessarily client focused. And the way we work is we're fiduciaries and that means whatever is best for the client is what we're we need to do what we have to do what we're forced to do. And we want that to be the case. And, you know, I don't want to be out here selling products. I don't want to be out here pushing particular investment concepts. I want to be out here educating people and helping them make good decisions. And again, there's really no shortcut to doing a little bit of homework and learning about the companies you invest in. And so I really encourage people to try to do it on their own if they have the time and the inclination and the interest. But if you don't, you really need to be working with somebody that can help you in grow your money. You know, the power of compounding is huge. And we know that you know, you can make eight to 10% Then in the stock market, but if you're active, actively choosing companies, you know, maybe you can make a couple more percent or four more percent in over time, that really adds up in a really spectacular way at times. Again, there's always a risk of loss and investing. But if you can have a process that's replicable, and that you can stick to, you really have an opportunity to grow your money really well in the stock market, in the bond market and in a number of financial markets. But again, there's no shortcut, and you really have to do the homework. And if you don't have the time, or the inclination, to get to find somebody that does do the homework. Perfect. Yeah.

And you know, what, you know, there's, there's something I want to point out that you were talking about there. So people that are listening, understand the difference between a fiduciary and somebody who's just going to sell you a product, right. So fiduciaries like that, they have your best interest in mind, no matter what, so what Brian's talking about is, you know, His focus is going to be or any fiduciary, His focus is going to be on making sure you're educated to make the decision on your own. And then you work with them to, you know, to build your investment plan versus somebody saying, Hey, you know, here's this product, or here's this policy, you know, buy into this, and, you know, whatever. And, versus, you know, focusing on, on what they're gonna get their kickback for their commission, versus somebody who truly has your best interest at heart. So I just want to point that out that it's super important that that is a key word fiduciary

fiduciary, in the context of wealth advisory is, you know, we make a percentage of folks portfolios under management, so it's in our best interest to grow their portfolio. And that's, that's the way we that's the way we do business. And you know, when they do well, we do well. And that's the bottom line of fiduciary. Fantastic, really

appreciate that, Brian. Hey, I really appreciate you taking all this time to chat with me today. I have one more important question that I that I have to ask you, this is probably the most important one of all. And that is for the folks that are listening right now. Where can they find more information about you? Can you share your website, any social media accounts or anything like that?

Sure, there's a few. So the good place to start would be www.leftbrainwm.com. That's the website for our advisory business. And we have some affiliated businesses as well, including a new mutual fund that we have launched recently. So head over to that website and check us out. You can find us on Twitter @leftbrainIR. And then the last thing I like to tell people is, you know, feel free to reach out to me on LinkedIn directly. Brian Dress, I love talking about investments with anyone. So you know, any questions that might come up? If anything we're talking about is of interest to you and you want to learn more? Feel free to reach out to me and I'm happy to to address those questions.

Fantastic. All right. Hey, so Brian, I'll make sure I have all of those links in the show notes, including your social media links as well. Again, seriously, really appreciate you taking some time today to to chat with us and and help educate the the audience on on what it is that you guys are doing at left brain. I really appreciate it. Thank you.

Thanks, Mike. It's been a pleasure.