74: Is Your Financial Advisor Keeping You Poor? (And What They’re Not Telling You)

Behind Their Success: Ep 74

Mark: [00:00:00] unfortunately the vast majority of Americans are being lied to about how

money really works, here's how we've been lied to over the years, and this is what I learned

when I was passionate about being a broker and on the, on the retail side. Is that What is the

biggest lie that Wall Street tells us?

Paden: Hello everybody. Welcome to Behind Their Success Podcast. Today we have on Mark

Miller. Mark is a financial powerhouse with nearly 40 years of experience helping business

owners, executives, and high net worth individuals legally slash taxes grow wealth and build

lasting legacy. He is the co-founder of Hilton Tax and Wealth Advisors with Bradley j Hilton.

Who is the grandson of the legendary Conrad Hilton? he's the bestselling author of Hilton

Wealth, how to Invest Like An American Dynasty. Mark, good morning. Welcome on Behind

Their Success Podcast. Tell us [00:01:00] a little bit about your, career there.

Mark: Sure. Well, I'm technically a business financial consultant and have been for years. We

work on kind of the smart money side of the business as opposed to the retail side, which we

can talk a little bit about. But I started my career. early on working for IDS American Express and

being a broker and kind of on the retail side and kind of not knowing all the, kinda the real,

powerhouse rules of.

Uh, how the wealthy invest, but I was very much, you know, passionate about it and learned

about it, and I was fortunate over time to meet some very, very wealthy people, and eventually

be introduced to the Hilton family, and really start to understand what it was like to, uh, uh, how

the, the ultra wealthy invest and how they do things a lot different and a lot better than most

average investors.

I. And that's, fast forward a lot of years because I've, uh, we're kind of on the trust side of the

business. Worked with a lot of trust companies and, and [00:02:00] met the Hiltons and

specifically became very close with Brad Hilton, like you mentioned, is the, grandson of Conrad

Hilton. And Brad and I just have this passion to bring these advanced, planning.

ideas more down to Main Street, so you don't have to have 20 or $30 million to kind of have

access and plug into them. And, uh, uh, a few years back started Hilton Tax and Wealth

Advisors to do just that. And the bottom line is. Uh, unfortunately the vast majority of Americans

are being lied to about how money really works, uh, and what the insider secrets are to really

grow wealth a lot faster.

It's not that you can't grow wealth on the retail side. I. But it's a lot harder to do. Takes a lot

longer. And by plugging into and understanding what the wealthiest, the wealthy, do like the

Hiltons,

Paden: I a hundred percent agree with, everything you're saying there and, and stuff I see in my

own world.

is that, [00:03:00] uh, I say the mom and pop or the business owner, you know, that may have

grown a, you know, even a, you know, a million, $3 million revenue business. Um, they're,

they're, they're getting very little strategy around their wealth and, tax especially. and you're

right. You know, if you, you can learn how to navigate that whole world better.

And, and eliminate the drag that taxes have on your compounding net worth. or greatly reduce

that. Um mm-hmm. Yeah. You're gonna be in a way better place. And that is, like you said, kind

of what the wealthy people do.

Mark: Absolutely. And, you know, the wealthy just, um, you know, it's partly, you know, the

biggest thing, and that's why Brad and I have done what we've done, is part of it's about access

too. And if you don't have access, I mean, first of all, if you don't know what you don't know,

that's a problem, right? But if you also don't have access, maybe you learn these things, but you

don't have proper access.

And that's really what we have been passionate about and trying to get the word out as much as

we can. We have [00:04:00] people all the time, we get going with them and show 'em all these

great advanced concepts, and they're like, well, why isn't everybody doing this? Well, it's

because. Most people don't have access.

Paden: I can confirm your story just even throughout my career, you know, I started as a, as a

CPA, you know, 10 plus years ago, just kind of running my own practice and, and I didn't know a

10% of what I know now back then.

Right. And I'm helping clients and doing what, you know, and, and, and helping them do a lot of

different things. But like, I. They weren't, back then, weren't getting that high level strategy from

me. And, and, it's hard to get that from any, there's not a lot of financial professionals, talking

about this kind of stuff because they don't even know what they don't know.

Right. And, they may be just working in a very retail environment. Right. And, and that's why I

think it's, important to find, advisors that, are doing what you want. In in your personal life, like

are your advisor is doing in their personal life, what you want for your own personal [00:05:00]

life, if that, that kind of makes sense.

Find somebody that's doing it themselves.

Mark: Absolutely. And I, and I think the biggest thing and that what's really kind of need about it

is people, a lot of people don't understand the family office concept. And, um, for those of your,

uh, listeners that don't know what a family office is, well, the, I'll just give you a little history.

The first family office was actually the Rockefellers and, um, John d Rockefeller was smart

enough to know, oh my gosh, we have a mess on our hands. We've got all this wealth. We're

amassing, but we've got all these advisors all over the place that are telling us to do this and do

that. And they're like, well, why don't we just hire these guys?

Hire the best in the country and bring them all into one office and then we, they can talk to each

other and they can build plans for us and all of that kind of thing. Novel concept. Right? It's, um,

well it still kind of is novel when you think about it because on the retail side, people have their

CPA over here, they have their insurance guy over here.

They have their financial advisor over here, they have their [00:06:00] attorney over there.

Correct. And guess what? Most of them don't want to talk to each other. Because they're afraid

to step on each other's toes because they're afraid they might lose business or whatever. Well,

the whole family office concept is all of those people getting together and talking that alone can

mean, mean an exponential growth of your wealth because everybody is on the same page

working towards the same goals, and they're not fighting against each other for both your same

dollars or something.

That family office concept, which I'm the manager of the Hilton Family Office, which we have, a

myriad of very wealthy families that are in that. but again, there's barriers to that. There's, you

generally have to have 20 plus million, uh, to invest to, to plug into everything. Well, that concept

that we thought, well, if we could bring that a little bit more down to Main Street, let's still have

that.

Where everybody's kind of synergistically working together, kind of on a smaller scale. Um, and,

and that alone, that [00:07:00] communication alone provides a kind of a next level. Yeah, yeah.

No,

Paden: yeah, a hundred percent. You know, we talk about in, in our own practice in the world,

we. Do some, you know, very similar.

We, you know, we do tax and consulting as well, but we talk about all the time of breaking down

silos in between, your insurance world, your wealth world, your tax world. it's crucial and, and I

see it all the time to where it's, I have clients that we kind of handle everything for.

And then I have clients that I only do pieces for and the clients that I do pieces for. It's just much

more difficult. Because there's stuff lost in translation. There's communications. Yes. I'm ending

up educating a lot of other advisors about stuff that they never seen before and have no idea

what's going on, and I have to quarterback everybody to get something implemented.

Mark: totally get it. And that can create a real problem at times, especially when you're moving

forward on a really solid plan for somebody. What is this? An advisor comes in. And I don't know

that, and [00:08:00] all of that type, uh, type of thing, which can, you know very much, upset the

apple cart. and again, it goes back to, if you've got people on the same page and all working

together.

The other thing too is when we can bring some advisors together, we we're big on educating,

like you had just mentioned. We're big on, having other advisors, educate advisors. And talk

about, oh, well, how does that work? And how, and so the advisors grow in the process

Paden: My advice to the listeners is find advisors that are humble and willing to grow and learn.

You know, don't, don't take the position like they know everything. Um, if you have somebody

like that, you need to run. Yes. Uh, they, you need to have somebody that's humble and, and

willing to learn because there's no way, I mean, mark doesn't know everything.

Payden doesn't know everything. It's, it's literally impossible to know everything.

Mark: we act like, I mean, when we really think about it, I just, I, you know, I always use the

analogy of a. a football team, I'm kind of the quarterback in a sense. Okay. You're the owner of

the team. I'm the quarterback.

Okay. But I'm gonna find the best [00:09:00] players on the team. Okay. But I can't do

everything. I can't block, I can't tackle, I can't catch the ball, all that. I'm gonna be more of the

quarterback. Let those people. Do their expertise area,

Paden: You know, I wanted to kind of circle back and talk about, you know, you know, trying to

get access, to high level planning and, and whatnot. And I think, it's a problem for a couple

reasons. One, not all advisors are created equal.

Right. And, and a lot of them are very much retail and, and have not necessarily taken the time

or, or even work with companies that allow them to get as strategic as, as you can. so I think

that's, that's a big issue is just there aren't enough advisors out there that are, that are working

at that, you know, higher level.

and then two, I think, you know, there, there are regulations and things in the way that, that kind

of stop that, you know, I have, as you talk about nurturing and bringing up clients, you know, I

have clients that one of the big hurdles that we always try to get to is, becoming an accredited

investor.

Right? To like, hey, once [00:10:00] you hit that sta you know, once you hit what's an accredited

investor, you know. Uh, a whole lot more options open up to you and a whole lot more of these,

kind of complicated strategies. Yes. open up to you if you want to talk to a little bit about, I guess

I mean, you know, even just what a credit investor is and, and, and kind of what that is.

Mark: Sure. So as accredited investor, basically it means that maybe you have an investible of,

of a million or more, or you make a, you know, two, 300,000 a year depending on, if you're

married or not. Um, and it basically means that you've had some experience. And what it does is

it opens up the world of, like, one of our big things, and obviously the Hilton.

Hilton has, the Hilton Financial Network has a tremendous amount of access to the private

equity and alternative space. Um, you know, one of the cool things about what we do and kind

of the Hiltons demanded is, um, and really there's very few people in the country that really do

this. It's only because of the relationships that we've developed over the years that we can

[00:11:00] generally have, get involved in private equity and alternatives that have some kind of

backstop associated with them rather than just naked.

You know, like, and let me give you an example of somebody might go into a. a real estate,

investment in trust. and in that you have great upside potential, but you also have downside

potential. Whereas we might get involved in a real estate deal on a private equity side where we

have assets backing up everything.

So if something goes wrong, yeah, we get paid back no matter what happens. But we can still

have that great upside potential. so being a, an accredited investor allows you to be able to be

in that space and be able to invest, in those type of offerings, which, you know, we have kind of

a bucket concept even though on that.

the smart money side, the institutional side, there's really not, uh, you may have heard of the

buckets where you put a certain amount in each kind of bucket. And, by the way, folks can get a,

a complimentary copy of my, my book@hiltonwealth.com, hilton wealth.com, [00:12:00] where

we talk about, we've broken down this high level investing more into a bucket concept where we

have the four buckets.

And that fourth bucket is that private equity. and, alternative. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Paden: And, you know, the, and the accredited investor, it's really just like a legal definition of

like, do you qualify? And, and once you qualify for that, you're, able to access, uh, a lot of

different private type investments that you couldn't do otherwise.

And, inside of those, they're typically. There's typically tax plays. There's typically, investments

with potential for, much higher upside. But they do come with, you know, a different level of risk.

And that's kind of, you know, the idea of why the government puts, puts that regulation in there.

But, yeah, you know, playing in that type of world, you know, absolutely. Your general retail, you

know, I don't wanna pick out any one company, but like, you know, your general financial

advisor, the companies that are on every corner are not living in that space. Almost at all.

Mark: No. No, not, not at all.

And [00:13:00] they might say they do like even like a bank at Wells Fargo or something like

that. Be in our private client side. Yeah.

Yeah. Hey, we play in that game. We play in that game. Yeah. They, they don't, they don't really

play in that game. And, you know, here's how we've been lied to over the years, and this is what

I learned when I was passionate about being a broker and on the, on the retail side. Is that What

is the biggest lie that Wall Street tells us?

They tell us that it's what's most important. Whether they talk about safety or not, the most

important thing is your returns. It's about, so you know, in the markets it's greed and fear, right?

and they want to tell you it's about greed, because for them, they want it to be about greed

because they want you primarily to go into equities.

So you grow over time and then their fees grow. Okay. And then I'll always say, don't ever move

your money. Don't ever move your money. But why? Because they'll make more fees over time.

Okay. By the way, there's hidden fees on the retail [00:14:00] side, and then there's fees you

know about Yeah. We talk all day long about fees, So, but here's the thing. How do we know

that? What's the proof of that? The biggest seller on the retail side is mutual funds. How do they

sell mutual funds? Okay. They sell it with the tear sheets that come and say, what is the 1, 3, 5,

10 year performance of this particular mutual fund? Did you know that 90% of people they look

at the returns and they're like, how is this return? And you'll notice there's this big thing about the

1, 3, 5, 10 year performance. Why?

Paden: are just trying to perform to those numbers and not even necessarily overall return of

the fund.

Mark: Yeah. Uh, yeah, absolutely. And, the thing is. On the smart money does not do it that way.

Okay. and again, I'll give you some proof. This is high level. Okay. This is at Warren Buffett's

level. It's 40,000 feet. He said rule number one of investing is don't lose money. Rule number

two is look at rule number one.

Right. Okay. Everybody's heard that, right? Well, he's [00:15:00] at the core of how the smart

money invests. Okay? People think that he's investing in just all his money in Berkshire

Hathaway and he's got all this equity exposure and he could lose money any day and all that

kind of thing. Well, by the way, if, I don't know if you've heard, he's, he's stack a lot of his money

is in cash right now.

But generally, even when he's had regular normal portfolios, 50 to 60% of his money is in very

safe and very secure offerings. Okay? So if something goes wrong, guess what? He doesn't go

broke

Paden: And he has a ton of dry powder when something does go wrong and then he just buys

up everything.

Mark: Absolutely. So here's, here's the thing that people don't understand. With a very small

percentage of your portfolio, like we were just talking about, that one bucket, you can boost your

portfolio returns massively, so you could take 60 or 70% of your money and make it very, very

safe and secure and only risk maybe 20 to 30 of it and still make in the low team returns on

[00:16:00] your money over time.

that's the, that's the big thing that people don't know. and I try to educate people every day

about it, that we first and foremost have to focus on safety. Yeah. The returns are just gonna be

there in the smart money space, we have enough offerings, and you probably have exposure to

this too, that you can get the returns.

Okay. And that's what the, the wealthiest of the wealthy knows is, Hey, first of all, tell me how am

I going to protect my money? And then we'll figure out, 'cause we know that we have enough

available to us to make the returns over time.

Paden: I definitely agree with you there of like, you know, when you get higher up on the end,

it's, it is about protecting and growing and then you're almost, you know, you're really operating

like private equity does, right? Where you, you take a small. You know, whatever an appropriate

percentage of your, your net worth is.

And, and you're making bets on things that have a high upside. and you know what, what's

private equity success rate? Like one out, two out of 10? but like, pick two winners out

[00:17:00] of 10 bets and, but those two winners more than outperform and make up for the

other eight losses or whatever.

Right. And you're, that is absolutely, absolutely how private equity or the more wealthy really,

really operate right.

Mark: And that's a great point. I don't mean to contradict you here in the sense that at the

highest levels, though.

When you make enough relationships over time and you have enough exposure to, you know,

numerous private equity companies, issuers, all of that, they want to then come and work with

you and they start giving you things and giving your clients things in order to place funds.

And that's when things start getting a little bit safer on the private. ' cause the majority of what

we do it, it depends on how big a gamble people want to take. But most of the stuff on our

private equity side, again, has backstops on it. and, ultimately, that's all. Again, it's about access.

It's that about long-term exposure and being able to, because you know, we'll, we'll [00:18:00]

go to conferences sometimes and, and we'll talk to issuers that have great offerings and all that,

and they'll be like.

Well, what do you mean we want, you want us to, give us some, some underlying surety? No,

we don't need to do that. We'll just raise this over here. And I said, well, if you want our $50

million, we need some underlying surety attached to this. And some of 'em come around. I will

tell you, the majority of 'em, they're like, no.

I said, okay, that's fine. We, we can move on. And we go somewhere else. But that's again,

another advantage on that smart money kind of private.

Paden: and, you know, um, part of that is, you've built up enough, enough net worth or

whatever, you can call a whole lot more shots, right?

I mean, you're, you're designing your own deals, you know, at that point, right? It's like, almost

like you go on Shark Tank, those guys are, they can demand their own deals or they just walk

away. and yeah, it's getting into that position that's even, that's even better. but you know what I

mean?

Like the, the people at the, the couple million or something, you know, it's, it's, they're not

necessarily, you know, able to throw their weight around [00:19:00] in some of those.

Mark: Absolutely. And that, again, that's kind of the whole point of what Brad and I are doing is

that we want those people, you know, my gosh, we've got people that have portfolios of 250,000

minimum all the way up to, you know, tens of millions of dollars.

But we want those people that have those smaller portfolios and are growing wealth and it, it's

just, it's a passion thing for us. It's like. Oh my gosh. Because it's so cool to see when you have

a client that's worked with them, we've worked with them for three or four years and we

massively changed their, their tax situation, which you're very familiar with and their portfolio.

And the next thing you know, I. They're so far ahead of where they were that the previous four

years or something. that's the real, that's the real goal here is to kind of, you know, I wish that

we could kind of Vulcan mind meld Yeah. Everyone in the country. and they'd be like, oh my

gosh, I could do so much better.

'cause, because they don't, they don't have any access or they don't have any clue. but anyway,

it's, it's exciting, [00:20:00] it's fun and uh, you know, just being able to help people and kind of

see kind of that light bulb go on and in people's head they go, wow, there yeah, yeah. Without,

you know,

Paden: losing 30, 40, 50% of your returns to taxes every year.

Mark: Yes, absolutely. And that's another secret. That you know very well. It's a big secret,

especially as you start amassing more wealth. the wealthy really become massively wealthy

from saving 30, 40, 50, 60%.

Paden: Yeah. You know, you just learn how to structure stuff in a, in appropriate way. So, you

know, I wanted to turn the conversation a little bit.

Absolutely. You know, back about you Mark, give me a little bit about your just kind of journey on

personal development and, some stories there.

Mark: Yeah. Crazy that, um, I actually started my, my journey in, self-development when I was,

in college. And, I was actually a little bit of an entrepreneur because I was running painting

companies and I was hiring all my college buddies to go paint houses for me while I was running

around and, [00:21:00] managing jobs and all of that type of stuff.

And, and I kind of, I picked up and back in the old days Tony Robbins. Because he was the first

one that was really big. Jim Roh was one of my favorites of all time. But Tony started, uh, started

me on that process and I, I would, when I really looked back, I'd have to say some of that

foundational. A thing put me into, uh, being an entrepreneur, getting into the financial services

space and being one of the top people in the country in that space.

And, uh, then building a, various companies, uh, financial services companies, and being a top

producer in the space. And, and I, I really have to go back to those days of. Starting that journey

in self-development and just realizing, and again, talking about light bulbs going off that, hey, I

was not going to be where I wanted to be doing things like everybody else was doing things and

all my friends around me.

Now, I was fortunate to have some friends. I've got a lot of friends from [00:22:00] college that

have been very successful, but mainly they went traditional routes. and then I mentioned to you

a friend, before we started this, I mentioned to you a friend of mine that, is a, you know,

extremely wealthy guy.

Well, he kind of went the path I went. and he struggled for many, many years. Unfortunately, I

haven't had two massive amounts of struggle, but I have, you know, I've had my ups and downs.

but, he amassed his fortune not by kind of going a traditional route. I. By kind of going into

biotech and everything.

and he probably had the same journey I did too. You know, if I recall, he was listening to some

Anthony Robbins tapes and, and then over the years just got various people that, uh, I followed

and Brendan Bouchard, which is his phenomenal as a person that I'm very involved with now

and, uh, in his programs.

And, uh, I, I'm just, to me, I'm like, I can't. Believe people can do without this stuff, Um, when I

have periods where I'm not plugged [00:23:00] into the real self-development, um, I can feel

myself lagging, and not being in such a high performance place. Yeah.

Paden: you know, I spent a lot of years, you know, going down the self development track and,

and I think at the beginning it was a whole lot more of that just boom, boom, hard grind, hustle,

you know? And, and I think I needed more of that, you know, obviously when I was younger,

because, I don't know, maybe I was just lazy, but, but now I find honestly that messaging.

Is a little less attractive to me. because I feel like I've gone through a lot of the, I dunno what you

call warrior stages or the fighting stages. use the language in my mastermind group of like

moving to the, the king stage where it's like, okay, you're not a warrior anymore.

You're kind of the king that's sitting there. You know, you're getting paid to make decisions,

right? Not, not grind yourself into whatever.

Mark: Oh, that's, that's so great because honestly, and in the, the last. Many, several years I've

[00:24:00] made a shift towards that more line kind of just powering forward. And that says, you

know what, what does success mean to you? Okay. And it used to mean to me, mm-hmm.

Success was the bottom line. Okay. And, um, how's my businesses doing?

How is the cash flow going? All of that more, it's more about, and especially working with Brad

Hilton too, more about how can we push. Positivity into the world. How can we really, truly help

people? it's about really kind of thinking about people and thinking about what, and I'm not even

gonna say what your mark is in the world, but how can you make the world and the people you

are around and Yeah.

And the space, you're in a better place and, uh, which could, which brings more joy, which

brings more peace, which focuses you more on, not to be too woody toy, but mm-hmm. To

focusing on putting love into the world and, [00:25:00] and loving people and loving to see their

success. I mentor several people now and just, I, it's amazing to see that's, that brings joy to me

to see how they start making breakthroughs in their lives, and then they can start getting to

levels where they can start really, truly.

making a mark in the world and truly producing something that is lasting in the world don't get

me wrong. You probably do too. Yeah. A lot of people do. We like our stuff. but at the same time

it's, it's more about ultimately, and as I've gotten older, I've realized this too, more about.

What is that indelible mark that you're going to be able to leave when, when you're not here.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. 20, 33 years. That's great. And I think,

Paden: you know, the, it's a bit of a pendulum, right? It has been in my career between like

grinding and then, and then maybe, I wouldn't say taking the, the foot off the gas, but, but a little

different mindset of, You know, where I, I've been really good at grinding a lot in my career and, I

don't have a problem doing that. Getting up at 3 [00:26:00] 45 in the morning all through tax

season. I can just do that. Um, but the problem is, I think where I've struggled is having Jo, you

know, I, I, I've had a lot of success, built a lot of businesses, done a lot of things.

I didn't experience a lot of joy in that. Um, or at least not as much as I think I should have. that

has become a big focus of mine is, to increase the joy in the moments and not always be so

grinding, future focused. I can grind and be future focused and have fun at the same time.

Mark: Yeah, absolutely. And, and you as a CPA, 'cause I work with a lot of CPAs. I see. That

grind. And I see like a lot, a lot of joy with a lot of CPAs because you're very, you're technicians,

you're doing compliance work during tax season and it's grinding. I mean, it's very difficult. So

how do you find that joy? I will tell you, just as of late, I.

just in the last couple years, Brendan Brouchard put a new program together called Growth Day,

which you mentioned, which I think it's maybe three or 400 bucks a year, maybe $400 a year.

[00:27:00] And, uh, it has a, a daily message from him and there's really the best, in my opinion,

the best kind of growth programs that you can plug into, uh, all of that.

I'm part of one of his kind of higher level programs now too, but I recommend everybody get on

Growth Day. at first I was a little bit like, okay, hmm. Kind of heard some of this stuff before, but

then, you know, every day when you are immersed in those things, it will really help you. And

Brendan is a great, great person to focus, help you focus on joy.

Yep. And find the good things in life.

check it out at least, and if it works into your budget, um. Uh, I, I just, I highly recommend it. I've

already, several of my employees, we purchased it for 'em so they can end there every day.

They talk about something that Brendan was talking about, or some new program that they've

started inside Growth Day

Paden: like Mark was suggesting they're fantastic, you know, you know, if you, you don't have

the budget, check out YouTube or, you know, I mean, like there's, there's just some [00:28:00]

fantastic free information out there.

but the important overarching point, you know, Mark's really making there is like, you need to be

soaked in this stuff and soaked in stuff like. Consistently, right? Like we need reminded of stuff a

whole lot more than we need taught. Like we understand a whole lot of that stuff that, you know,

you probably naturally understand, a good chunk of that stuff and the information that's gonna

be in there, but you need reminded of it all the time.

Mark: And I think you'll find that most people that have good joy and peace in their life and great

success. you know, I'm not saying you can't get success by that grind and not really being totally

connected and maybe things not being joyful, but the ones that have true success, are really

have great habits.

you know, really strong daily things that they do to keep themselves focused and, the most

important things to them. And that includes those taking time. I. To set aside for your family and

for those fun things and to provide joy. And,

you've got to have some [00:29:00] structure. And you've got to have those habits of, you know,

as they say, and I see this every day too in some of my wealthiest clients and that are very

grounded and have great lives and are very happy people and joyous and all of that, that they

have, great responsibilities.

They have good balance and they that, yeah. And it's, you know, it's,

Paden: it's been a big focus of me, especially the last couple years. Big focus of, of why I am in

the networking group. I am in. Um, because it is, it's not just about business, it's about the

holistic life, you know, big focus on marriage, family and, and living, winning in all areas.

have a fantastic business and net worth and your life be absolutely miserable, because you've

just disregarded every other area of your life. Yeah.

Mark: Absolutely, we're all gonna have ups and ups and downs in our days, but generally, like I

can say, I'm a, you know, generally a pretty happy person, a pretty joyous person because I've

got pretty good balance.

I enjoy my fun things and I'll be away this weekend [00:30:00] doing some fun things and uh,

and you know, during the week, make sure that mix it up and spend time with my wife and. You

know, talk to my kids a lot. We're empty nesters, so they're away. But, uh, kind of keep in

contact with them and, and, you know, from a spiritual aspect, I won't go do too much preaching,

but I feel like I've got, a strong spiritual life, which I believe is kind of the core that starts

everything.

no matter what you believe, and it doesn't matter what you believe. I, I think that everyone

should have some kind of spiritual core in their life. otherwise you will just kind of beep up

through. life and just kind of get up and go to bed, get up and go to bed, and, and you don't have

that, you know, that purpose moving Yeah.

Forward.

Paden: think it all comes down to Mark is just setting the intentionality behind all of it. Right? It

is, it is setting the intentionality I had, um mm-hmm. I studied under. mindset coach last year.

He's, um, he's a professor at the University of Texas and kind of like their, their main mindset

coach for the whole athletic department.

The first thing. [00:31:00] He's got a cool, really cool technique and visualization process and,

which I implement and I do every single day, but the first thing he ever said to me was, you

know, I was just kind of describing my situation and he just cuts me off and stops. He goes,

Payden, you're just winging life.

And he is like, you have no plan for anything. And I was like, when I, when I started that

conversation, I was like, oh God, I, I thought I kind of did. You have to tell me that. But I guess,

you know, not anywhere near, near to the detail level that I needed to have it. Right. And, um,

that was a wake up call. it is amazing.

The people understand and they think it's this big woo woo manifestation thing. It's not. It, it, it is

not this, you know, magical process. Mm-hmm. It is you telling yourself every day what you

want, what you're trying to do, and how you're going to do it. and just by doing that, it is amazing

how fast you can move and accomplish your goals When you're focused. Sure. Having a plan

for that.

Mark, you know, one, one last question for you. How would you, you [00:32:00] know, you were

talking about defining success. I want you to, define success for me and how that has changed

as you've gotten older.

Mark: Absolutely. Well, I kind of mentioned it a little bit in that. Yeah. Well first, I mean, I was

very much of a hard driver, one of the top people in this industry and the financial industry.

And, uh, you know, I'll be honest with you, in this industry, it's about money. You know, it's all

about money. Okay? It's the money business, right? So you tended to find a success about how

much money I'm making, and that, that's just evolved massively, um, over the years for me as

I've gotten a little older and wiser.

And like I said, several years ago, just made the mind shift to, um, you know. Money's great. I

mean, part of it is, and, and you can make the excuse because I've made plenty of money and

I've been able to be in a place where I don't have to quote, necessarily worry about money. So

some people that are kind of working on the this, uh, getting money and all that could say, well,

that's [00:33:00] easy for you to say.

Well, the reality of it is as I realized that I probably would've been further along in the process of

making money. And, and amassing wealth. If early on I would've focused on the more important

things, because the more important things, it, it almost like has this energy that goes out when

you connect with people better, when you, focus on, again, those most important things in life.

And frankly, uh, probably I haven't had more success. And even from a wealth standpoint. Then

when I made that shift probably eight, 10 years ago, where I really made that mind shift and

said, Hey, it's about putting great things out into the world and focusing on that on a daily basis,

I. And then the other things are just gonna happen.

And then the joy will come, the peace will come, the balance will come. And again, I think it

really does boil down to that, that peace of mind, to know [00:34:00] that I'm balanced, I'm doing

the right thing. So every day when you wake up, when your feet hit the ground, you know that

today you've got a plan and you know it's gonna be a good day, even if you get thrown a curve

ball.

It's gonna be a good day because you're generally balanced and grounded. Yeah.

Paden: you're right, it's same, you know, obviously I haven't had as long as career as you, but

the, the, I've had similar, similar thoughts and, and my story similar of, you know, I got into

money because, you know, I grew up single mom and I just never wanted to be poor.

And my number one driver was money. Yeah, nothing, nothing deeper than that. Mm-hmm. And,

and you, you know, you quickly realize that's not motivating. And, and you're right. You know,

once you do have some, some successful money, right? Like money becomes less motivating.

And then two, I your point that like if I would've focused on the right things from the beginning, I

would have way more money.

Uh, you know what I mean? Like, if I wasn't focused on.

Mark: And it's [00:35:00] hard to make that shift, especially being in the money business that

we've been in. It was hard to do that. 'cause I spent many years thinking it was just about cash

flow and money. And that's the success lever. And nothing wrong, wrong with money.

Okay. Nothing at all. But it has to be put in the right perspective in life. Because ultimately, and

you know, the, the, the old adage that you, when you go to funerals, you don't see a lot of Brinks

trucks there. Right? I mean, once you're gone mm-hmm. That money is meaningless. Yeah. Uh,

to you at least.

Maybe not to your hairs,

Paden: it's impact. And then money and everything else you want will, will, I promise you, you'll

follow. Um, if you're giving impact and value to the marketplace, you bet. Mark, man, I

appreciate you ly. This has been a great conversation.

anything you wanna leave the listeners before we sign on?

Mark: So I would, I would say if anybody would wanna learn more about what we're doing

again, be happy to get a complimentary of my latest book, which is Hilton Wealth. how to Invest

Like An American Dynasty. Uh, you can go to hilton [00:36:00] wealth.com.

That's Hilton wealth.com. Order the book on there. I've got another book on taxes too. And, uh,

frankly, if you jump onto my schedule, you can talk with me personally if you'd like to,

Paden: and you're in, in complimentary spaces trying to help people, um, learn to do this kind of

stuff at a higher level. So I appreciate, appreciate the work you're doing and thank you for

coming on, Michelle. Thanks, mark. You bet, Peyton, pleasure to be with you today.

Speaker: Thank you so much for listening to the podcast. If you found it valuable, please rate,

review, and share it. That is the best way to help us build this and reach more people as we're

trying to accomplish our goal of help creating more healthy, wealthy, and wise entrepreneurs.

You can follow us on social media by searching for me Peyton Squires.

Or going to payton squires.com on the website and social media. We're always sharing tips of

personal growth and there we can actually interact. I'm looking forward to it. Thanks guys.