June 8, 2015 – Michael Brady was honored to be interviewed by Dr. Jason Carthen for his radio show / podcast. His podcast reaches 185,000 people.
The hour long program allowed Michael to share some of his story in the business world, and how it’s allowed him to be the person he is today. Values and Ethics are absolutely a key to remaining true to yourself.
Transcript:
Navigating the Demands of Business and Remaining True to Yourself in the Process
Announcer: Discover the leader in you with the leadership linebacker Dr. Jason Carthen. Former New England Patriot turned Ph.D. I bring a new brand of inspiration and passion to audiences worldwide having serve and consulted with Fortune 500 companies, the National Football League Players Association and the White House. Each week I will prescribe empowering motivational and live changing medicine for your soul. Now it’s time to discover the leader in you.
Jason Carthen: All right. Hey welcome everybody. This is Dr. Jason the Leadership Linebacker and I’m excited to have you on today. We’re going to be talking about how to navigate the demands of business while remaining true to yourself in the process. You know at the end of the day the opportunities to create wealth as a business owner/entrepreneur are no longer out of reach. In fact if we look at the headlines concerning a rebounding economy and the opportunities for those who seek to venture out into this new sea of business opportunities their futures really look bright. However, as with anything that is worth the price of the effort there are risks and sacrifices that must be made. And after nearly two decades in business I can share with you the one thing that should not be sacrificed in this pursuit of success is your integrity and character because at the end of the day once you lose your integrity and character the outcomes really will not matter because all that you have lost during that process you cannot get back. And on today’s show we have a very special guest who not only understands the intricacies of creating success through wealth management but the premium that should be placed on maintaining who you are during the journey. Michael Brady, the president and CEO of Generosity Wealth Management is joining us all the way from Colorado today and I’m confident you will enjoy some of the keen insights that will help you grow your business the right way and with lasting impact. But before we introduce Michael, you know, I just want to share with everyone that we care about your personal and your business growth and for that reason we want you to navigate over to JasonCarthen.com. I have some free personal development resources for you and then also some business tools that you can use immediately to help you grow your business. And one last reminder, we have the I Speak Life Academy Workshop. You know we run these workshops every month to help you get better and to help you really navigate how to move forward with your business. The next one is coming up on June 27. We’re going to be talking about how to lead and manage effectively in any setting. So now without further ado I want to share with you just a little bit about Michael. You know he’s passionate in his commitment to helping clients achieve the financial wealth and wellbeing for their families and the community they live in. He brings 24 years, that’s 24 years everybody, of real world practical experience meeting the financial needs of clients from all walks of life, you know, with varying concerns. In addition to providing broad based investment guidance Michael also specializes in helping clients find tax smart, cost effective solutions to their investment needs while planning for the catastrophic losses that can sometimes occur in life. He’s been married for over 18 years and he’s lived in Boulder, Colorado for 22 years. He enjoys running and cycling and he’s also a martial arts guru. I’m going to talk to him a little bit about that. He’s also an avid reader. He is interested in products for the developing world, homelessness, abject poverty and genocide prevention. Michael, welcome to the show. How are you sir?
Michael Brady: I am doing great. This is a true honor to be on your show. Thank you.
Jason Carthen: Oh Mike, thank you so much man. You know it’s always interesting when I have a chance to meet and talk to so many different people I hear about different stories of triumph, different challenges and your story was very unique to me and I know we’re going to unpack that a little bit towards the middle of the show. But I want to ask you what are you doing these days? Bring us up to speed. I know you’re a busy man, president, CEO, you’re doing all these things. Tell us something that’s really taking place in your life right now that you’d love for the audience to hear about.
Michael Brady: Well, you know, I have a full life. It is so much fun. Not only do I have a business aspect, you know. I’m working with great clients every day. I like them, they like me. I mean it’s just a lot of fun. But I’m also involved in a lot of charity work as well. I’m on five charity boards. I’m an advisor of a group of men up at one of the northern Colorado colleges. And I just think that being a part of your community just provides a full life and that’s just really one of my commitments. I don’t want to look back on my life and say wow, did I make an impact. I want to be proud of who I am and I’m living it right now. I mean it just can’t get any better.
Jason Carthen: Wow. You know what Michael? I just want to say I thank God for you because at the end of the day not many people can say what you just shared. You are trying to be intentional and, you know, that’s my heart. Every show I try and tell people hey, live every day on purpose and be very intentional. And the fact that not only are you doing something in the business arena to help people but you are also impacting men because there’s just – it doesn’t happen as often as it should. So many times men we want to be strong and we want to be silent and then things come in and either steal our joy or they impact us in a negative way. And it sounds like you are being intentional with that. So brother I thank God for you and I just pray that you’ll continue to walk this path and he’ll give you the energy you need to carry it out.
Michael Brady: Thank you. Thank you.
Jason Carthen: Absolutely. Absolutely. So now you have a lot of things going on. We’ve already heard a little bit of that but it sounds like you also have some passions related to finance. Can you give me a little insight on how you came up with Generosity Wealth Management because some people would say those are not synonymous with one another. So talk to me a little bit about that.
Michael Brady: Well I created my own firm and I’ll talk a little bit about my story here today but I created Generosity Wealth Management about six-and-a-half years ago right at the end of 2008 and the beginning of 2009. And I’d just come off a two year time to reflect and to be in the world. I actually took a little sabbatical for about a year and a half and when I kind of – at the end of 2008 I realized that a lot of people had some fear around money. But people also wanted to do good in the world. So here on the one hand people wanted to do good in the world but they weren’t quite sure how to do that. But they also might have some fear about losing what they might have already or if they had quite a lot, an abundance, how people might perceive them if they knew how much money they had, et cetera. And so I work with people and the reason why I named my company Generosity is I do believe that there’s abundance in the world. It’s an attitude and I work with people to help guide them so that they can be generous with themselves. They can feel comfortable, get rid of some of that fear so they feel that they can be generous with themselves. And if I can work with them and they can get to where they’re generous with themselves then they can be generous with their family and their friends and if that’s what they choose to do I help them with that as well. And for those people who can be generous with themselves, content, are generous with their family, taking care of their family and want to do more than I help guide them ways to be generous with their communities both local and global. And so it’s really all of those really various areas on how do you be generous with yourself and outside people and do so in a positive way, you know, using your resources. So that’s why I named my company Generosity Wealth Management. It’s a life. It’s a movement. It’s more than just a thing. It’s really the why not just the how of wealth management and that’s why I named my company Generosity Wealth Management.
Jason Carthen: You know what Mike? I love that. I mean it’s the way you have woven a few key concepts into really just a mindset, you know. I mean when you think about being generous with yourself it will really allow you to then help others, you know, to allow them to be able to move forward so I think you’ve tapped into something that is much greater than just the idea of managing wealth at the end of the day. And I really feel like you’ve been able to start something with this. One other thing that you shared there. You talked about being content, you know, and I’d love to hear a little bit more about when someone is content how that may open the doors to bless other people and then it also demonstrates, you know, their ability to maybe even do the same thing. But that contentment has to be there. I mean would you agree with that?
Michael Brady: I couldn’t agree with you more. I mean contentment. That’s one of the lessons that I’ve learned in my life, particularly in my adult life is, you know, we do all of this planning and we think that a certain outcome is going to happen and then it doesn’t work that way. And you’ve got to be comfortable. You’ve got to be okay with that. And being content as well with what you have, the talents you have, the way things unfold. It’s such a cliché that life is a journey but it truly is.
Jason Carthen: Yes.
Michael Brady: And one of the things a very close friend of mine once said is that you can drive from Denver to LA in the dark only seeing 100 yards in front of you. And you’ve got to just be content with that. You’ve just got to kind of trust that it’s going to work out. And being content with what you have and the path that you’re on, you know, always striving to better. I’m not trying to say just coasting in any way but being content with what you have in your place I think is true happiness.
Jason Carthen: Yeah, that is. And, you know what Mike? At the end of the day that is very mature. I mean the way you’ve just described that because so many times we have this tendency, especially in society now to want what we want right now and I don’t care how much you get it’s still I guess you’d say a temptation to go okay, well I’ve reached this goal, now I want to go to the next goal and that contentment can sometimes allude us. And I think at the end of the day and I’ll share that because, you know, when I share at the end of the day I truly mean that. We can’t take any of this stuff with us. The more that we impact people positively that will be the true legacy that we leave for others.
Michael Brady: That’s right. And I wish that this lesson that I’ve learned was an easy one but it wasn’t. I mean I had some wealth. I had a very financial catastrophic event. I’ve now recreated that and so it really – when they say that money doesn’t buy happiness it’s true. And sometimes you have to have something to know that maybe it’s really not real. And even if you have it that really – once again it’s a cliché but I truly believe it.
Jason Carthen: Yeah and see Mike, you know, we’re going to take a break here in a second but I want you to share with our listeners. I mean we’re going out to a little over 185,000 people. One of the things that I want you to share with our listeners before we transition here. We’ve got about maybe two or three minutes. You were impacted negatively by the 2008 financial crisis. Why don’t you share a little bit of your story leading up to that. You’ve got a couple of minutes and then we’ll transition if we need to.
Michael Brady: You bet. I’ll try to make it in a couple of minutes. You know I moved out here to Colorado right after college so I’ve been out here about 22 years. And I met up with a man who had a wealth management firm that he was trying to grow. And I was very proud of the fact that we were able to grow a very small firm into by the time I left it in 2006 into a very large firm. Lots of clients. Hundreds of clients. Hundreds of millions of dollars that we were managing. And along that way he was a very creative person. We not only were doing wonderful things with clients but we also – I cofounded a brokerage firm. I cofounded a public mutual fund. We cofounded a private investment fund that I thought was really ahead of its time. You know well diversified and some great strategies that to really serve the needs, I thought, at that time of the client. And so I also did a little bit of international banking there in Geneva in 04 and 05. In a very short time through my 20s and all the way up to my mid 30s I had a very broad knowledge at a very high level and it was a great opportunity.
Jason Carthen: And it sounds like being able to do all these different things, you know, a private investment fund, brokerage firm, even some international banking that was no small feat. And I’m sure many things had to go into that and at the top of the show we talked about navigating the demands of business while remaining true to yourself in the process. Let me ask you this before we segue. You had all these things going on and you were a young man at that time.
Michael Brady: Yes.
Jason Carthen: How did you remain true to yourself or did you have temptations that really sort of pushed you to maybe think about some things or question some things at that point. Take about a minute here.
Michael Brady: Okay, well that really is how I started to leave. I left that firm in 2006 because something that you said. That’s right. I started to have questions. It started to unravel in my own mind and I really did know, it’s an intuition, you know, sometimes it’s like that sixth sense. You can’t really say why but some things just didn’t start to feel right. And I didn’t know what it was but I needed some time away, some distance in order to figure out what that was. So yes I was tempted. Yes I worked all the time. Yes that’s all I did was work. I wasn’t really involved in my community in any way. And after high success for many years I wasn’t happy. It wasn’t fun anymore. To go to sleep I’d have to kind of mentally partition off. Okay I’m not going to think about this irritating thing so that I don’t obsess over it at three in the morning. And so it was a whole process just to get a full night’s sleep and that’s really what started to lead me toward thinking maybe there’s a different way. I didn’t know what that was yet.
Jason Carthen: Well Mike, you know, what. I am enjoying your testimony already. We’re going to segue to a break but what I’d like to do when we come back I want to pick this up because you just shared with what many people that are listening to the show have to deal with and something that I even struggle with sometimes. You have to figure out how can I really achieve both/and as opposed to either/or. You have a situation where you’re saying you are partitioning off the thought processes and brother I’ve had to do that too. Listen I’ve got to shut this thing down. But some people would say in order to achieve success I have to stay focused and disciplined. But it sounds like that’s not always the case. So stay tuned. We’re going to pick it back up after the break. Hey everybody, you are listening to the Leadership Linebacker and we’re talking about navigating the demands of business and remaining true to yourself in the process with Mike Brady. Stay tuned everybody.
Well welcome back everybody. This is Dr. Jason and we are taking about navigating the demands of business and remaining true to yourself in the process. And I can tell you that Mike Brady has lived this thing. He’s really shared with us that he was at the pinnacle. I mean he was doing international deals in Geneva. He’s doing some banking all over and making an impact. But it sounds like he began to have questions and he knew that at the end of the day this was not it. And we’re going to pick this back up because, you know, Mike before we went to break you were sharing that through those questions you wanted to really figure out okay, how you could unplug. How you could remain true to yourself and still manage to deal with these questions and still be successful. Now give us a little insight into what you mean when you say you know what? I literally had to partition off my thoughts so I could get rest and unplug. What was that like and what advice would you give to some of our listeners who may still be there right now?
Michael Brady: Yeah well and that’s absolutely – and that’s exactly what I was doing and I didn’t realize it until about three or four months after I left that company when I realized wow, I just went to sleep last night and then woke up and I didn’t have to work at it. Wow, that was interesting. It was almost like an epiphany. Because when you’re in it sometimes it’s hard to recognize that. And it was a lot of the drama. It was a lot of the unnecessary interpersonal interactions that I was having with some of my partners. It was the high pressure of that particular company. And it was very difficult and it was pretty much all that I’d known since getting out of college. So from my point of view that’s just the way things were. I mean I had nothing to compare it to and only by I did an awful lot of reading of books, you know, personal development books. I had the opportunity to talk with some very wise coaches, you know, life coaches to really say I’m stuck here. I’m not sure what to do and it’s scary to move on. I know that this isn’t right but this is all I know. So therefore how do I get rid of the fear. How do I get the confidence in order to change, either change it before it changes me or completely exit myself from the situation. And that was really a lot of the process there. It was a multiple year process through the middle 2000s.
Jason Carthen: Sure absolutely. And Mike, I’m just thankful that you were able to really do some serious self-assessment and it sounds like you have switched gears and you’re more into the both/and proposition now. You can still have that success in high finance without many of the things that really began to debilitate you. And one of the things, you know, I had the opportunity I was blessed to attend Harvard Business School and one of the things we would do, we would do case studies. And one of the research case studies dealt with the idea of the shelf life for those that are in high finance. You only have so many years before you succumb to it or you figure out exactly how much you can take and then the percentages show that you either walk away from it or you do what you’ve done. You retool and figure out what works for you. And it sounds like you’re doing that. Now let me ask you. What advice did you receive as you changed your life from high finance to moving into the realm of charity because you are doing a lot of things in terms of charity?
Michael Brady: Yes, yes. Well because I was a planner, you know, always strategically planning and I kind of needed things to be more exact. Well this is what I’m going to do next quarter and next year to stop that and to say wow, I’m not sure. To open myself up to what’s available without knowing what that is was very scary. And so I spent a few moments with my very good friend, her name is Torkin, and she’s like Mike, you know, you’ve got to trust yourself that at a certain point decisions are going to come before you that you have to make and you’ve got to just trust yourself that you’re going to make the right decision. You don’t know what that is. You can’t sit there and plan on what those points of decisions are going to have to be but you’ve got to just trust yourself and that it’s going to work out. And that was a great piece of advice. This is the same woman who told me that you could go from Denver to LA in the dark only seeing a little bit as long as you have the general direction of where you’re going and you’ve got to trust yourself with all of your accumulated knowledge and experience that you will, in fact, make the right decision at the right time. It’s not perfect. If you don’t make the right decision, make it recoverable and quickly get back onto that path. Get back onto that exit. Get off the exit and back on to the right interstate. But really you’ve got to trust yourself and don’t let fear hinder you from taking that first step. That was very powerful for me because I was scared. I’m not going to lie.
Jason Carthen: What was the biggest – when you say fear because many of us I’ve learned this over the years many of us may be struggling with the same things but what did you fear specifically? Was it the notoriety, the success or was it the fear of the unknown when we talk about business? Which one is it and I’m glad that Torkin was able to give you some insight into what was taking place. But which one did you deal with the fear?
Michael Brady: Well the fear for me was since this is all that I knew and I had some book knowledge I suppose of what something else could be I was just wondering if I had the best out there. And here I was not even satisfied with that. Maybe I was a fool. Maybe this is the best. It’s like someone who had an opportunity to be an early investor in Microsoft or Apple where to sell their company for three billion and then all of a sudden it goes bankrupt later and they say wow I wish I could. I had it great. I missed that opportunity. It was more of a fear of wow, this company is doing great, doing wonderful things and I want to get off the train just because I might have some difficulty sleeping or I think that there’s more out there but I don’t know that for a fact. It was a little bit of the unknown and it was a lot of that.
Jason Carthen: A possible missed opportunity and, you know, people deal with that all the time. And I’m glad that you were able to muster up the courage because when I go and speak or do trainings I talk about the catalyst for any major decision in your life is filled with the idea of courage. If you lack the courage then you’re not going to take some risk. You’re not going to step into the unknown and you were able to really say at the end of the day, who cares. I have to do this thing so I can be true to myself so I can get some decent rest and you know what? I’m still young. I can still move forward. I can still do great things and your testimony right now is just really proof of that. So let me ask you this then Mike before we transition here in a little bit. What happened specifically with the unraveling of the company? Did they just kind of fall apart there or what took place in 2008 because you left amidst a lot of unrest at that point. So talk to me a little bit about that.
Michael Brady: You bet. Unfortunately it was quite spectacular. I wish it was a slow unraveling but no it was quite spectacular. I left the firm in 2006 and we had this private investment fund that I was really proud of. I felt comfortable recommending many clients go into it and I had a lot of my own money in it as well, my personal wealth was in it as well. And I left in 06 and so I took 2007and 2008 and I went to East Africa. I got involved in a number of different charities, some social entrepreneur projects in Uganda. I got involved in some this genocide reconciliation work in Rwanda. I got involved in a lot of different projects in 2007 and 2008 and I thought since I had sold my interest in the company to my partners and they were going to pay me out over five years, you know, it was a good sum of money to a young man in his 30s, you know, a few million. And I was very happy in this new transition.
Jason Carthen: Well let me do this. We’re going to segue to break and I want to pick this back up because on the front side it sounds like you should have been happy. A few million, you know, they’re going to pay you back over a period of time. But something tells me, you know, there was some risk associated with that timeline. So when we come back from break Mike is going to share with us what really went down and we’re going to figure out how he navigated that divide. Stay tuned everybody.
Welcome back everybody. This is Dr. Jason, the Leadership Linebacker, and we’re talking about navigating the demands of business while remaining true to yourself in the process. And Mike Brady has been sharing some nuggets here with us because you know what? He came to a pinnacle in his life and he had to make some hard choices and before we went to break he was telling us that things had changed in his life. Mike, can you bring us back up to speed and let us know what happened with this transition.
Michael Brady: Yes, yes. Well I left the firm at the end of 06. I took 07 and 08 off and I was traveling. I really became involved in a number of different charities. I mean I was – from my point of view I made a pretty drastic focus change and really was working on the community. But now it was about the middle of 2008. I just landed, came back from Uganda and Rwanda and I sat down with a few of my old partners and they said, you know, we’re really unsatisfied as well. We think we’re going to leave the company. I’m like oh, okay, that’s quite drastic. They had the relationships with all the clients. And the main partner, the guy who really owned most of the company he came to me and he said Mike, I want you to come back in. And so I really had to think about that and I’m like well, you know, because the company still owed me a lot of money I, of course, my interest was to make sure the company continued to flourish so that they were able to pay me out. So my interests were aligned with the company without question. But I said, you know, I’m sorry but I really have moved on in my life. I don’t want to come back into the company. Well then the financial crisis hit. This is September, October of 2008 and come to find out and I didn’t know this at the time but the private investment fund had dramatically changed its makeup. It was well diversified. Now it was very concentrated in a number of really bad sectors, you know. We had to put ourselves back into 2008. Remember how the – every day it was is the financial world going to collapse. I mean it was really a unique time that here six-and-a-half years later we’ve maybe kind of finally gotten over it and forgotten but at the time every day was very important and essentially the fund had almost lost 100 percent overnight.
Jason Carthen: Wow.
Michael Brady: Yeah. And so this was impactful not only for the company but for all of those clients as well – wonderful, good people who had put their money and their trust in a fund that they thought was not high risk, okay. And so I personally had my money in there and they owed me a lot of money. So I’d gone from working for many years to save up money just like many of these clients and once again these are salt of the earth people. All of a sudden they’ve lost their life savings as well or at least they believed that. As it turned out now six, six-and-a-half years later there have been some recovery of it. But not even 100 percent. It was very painful. And at that time it was the first time that I realized that in that two year timeframe you’ve gone on margin, he had done all the bad things that you hear about in that leading up to the financial crisis was unfortunately being done in this fund and I didn’t know about it and the client didn’t know about it as well. It all came together.
Jason Carthen: Well let me ask you this then because it sounds like, you know, things had really changed drastically and you had a choice to make. Basically everything had fallen to pieces and you had a choice because you had these salt of the earth clients, these good people, some who maybe had even invested all that they had, you know. And they were trying to figure out okay, how do I move forward. How do I get past this. How were you able to make the choice, you know. Are you going to support the clients or are you going to support your old partner. At the end of the day how did you make the choice? What happened?
Michael Brady: Well one of the difficult things is that all of a sudden the company got quiet with all the communication. They told the clients yep, we may be lost all your money and the clients justifiably were quite concerned. And because I had a very close relationship with many of them they were friends. They called me at my home and they said Mike, can you help me out. What does this really mean? I don’t understand this or what are the ramifications? What are my choices? And I’d been out, you know, for a couple of years but I still it was an instant thing and it was believe it or not there was very little thought about it that it just was the right thing to do. And that’s part of I think ethics and values and keeping true to yourself. In trusting yourself when it really is going to come before you, a big ethical decision you’re going to make the right decision, particularly if you’ve prepared yourself. You said I want to live. Very purposefully say I want to live a right life. I don’t want to – for me I used to tell the guys in the office that I didn’t want to go to the grocery store and worry about who I was going to bump into. I always wanted to live my life with my head held high and this was one more reason I could not see how I could look back on my life and say just for a little bit of money I didn’t do the right thing. And yes, that was a tough choice because it was in my best interest of millions of dollars to support the company. And the clients I helped organize them because they didn’t know each other. They were individuals. It’s sort of like all the patients of a doctor they don’t known other patients. And so I helped bring them together into an investment committee to as a group talk with the old company and to negotiate with them and to go through it together so that it wasn’t just individual people. It was a more powerful group to get their answer and to get their needs met from a communication point at that time. And that put me at odds. I’m not going to lie.
Jason Carthen: I can only imagine. Let me cut in for a second because I can only imagine and I think we need to really figure it out why you were able to do that because you know what? At the top of the show we talked about really the pursuit of success can sometimes make you second guess integrity and character but I want to hear just a little bit more of how you were able to say okay, this is right and this is wrong. Did it have something to do with your upbringing or was it something that you had seen demonstrated over a period of time because, you know, we’re talking strength of character now because while you don’t want to be seen at the grocery store and hide and go down the aisles because you don’t want to talk to people, some people will still do what they have to do and not care about the looks or whatever may come their way because we’re talking about a few million that you had to make sure you would have, you know, for long term success and being able to transition and continue to do charity. So what was it? How did you know in your upbringing these values of right and wrong? Or am I off the beaten path here? Was it something else?
Michael Brady: No, no. It was all of those things. It’s a combination of them. I was blessed to have a great upbringing. North of Detroit, a suburb of Detroit and great parents who loved me. We would have – they raised me in a Christian family, devotions in the evening. I went to a parochial Lutheran school from first grade to twelfth grade that really challenged me continually. It was a very safe environment. And that was really the beginning of the foundation for me of ethics and values and doing the right thing. And as I look back on my life I realize that I kept gravitating towards various groups that were also ethically based. You know when I was in college I joined a fraternity that was a very values based fraternity. I joined Rotary. Rotary is an ethics and value based service organization. I read books all the time and seem to associate with people who that’s a big part of who they are. And one of my very good friends told me – I met him in the 2000s but in the 80s he was – he had some legal trouble okay. Major legal trouble. And he had a spiritual teacher, a Buddhist spiritual teacher and the law, the police were building a case against my friend. And he knew that they were building the case and so he had to make a choice whether to flee the country or to confess and turn himself in. And so he went to his teacher and the teacher as I understand as he tells the story said well, you do have that choice but if you do the wrong thing you can no longer be my student because you have insulted everything that I’ve tried to teach you. And this person he did turn himself in and ended up doing 15 years of federal maximum security prison all right. So it was a huge ramification. He told me the story after he’d already come out of prison and was already a very motivational person himself going out and teaching people about making the right choice, not to be a victim, you know, to take responsibility for your actions because his best thinking landed him in jail. So he had to rethink how he was thinking. And with all of the foundation and then with that story and that example from him it was very easy to make the choice. To help these people out even to the detriment of me because I knew that I would look back on it and say this was the right thing.
Jason Carthen: Well Mike let me share this with you. I think that’s powerful that you shared that. And when we come back from break we’re going to just unpack this a little bit more. We want to figure out exactly what happened to you because it sounds like you had what I like to say is a lot of skin in the game and I want to know what you had to sacrifice and how you were actually impacted or hurt in the process. So stay with us. Hey everybody, we are talking to Mike Brady. He is the president and CEO of Generosity Wealth Management and he’s sharing some nuggets with us. When we come back we’re going to continue to unpack this. And I also want Mike to share how you can get in contact with him because he needs to really continue to share this message with as many people as possible. Stay tuned everybody. All right.
Welcome back everybody. And yes, that is a great reminder. I thank the young ladies for that commercial there. We have the Celebrity Golf Classic coming up on July 24 and you know what? We’d love to have our participation. So make sure you reach out and go to thelotinitiative.org and stay connected there. You’ll see all the details for that great charity focused event. We have been talking to Mike Brady and really just unpacking just the realities of business and how you can have some demands that are on the surface and some that are under the surface in terms of integrity and character. And Mike I really want people to be able to connect with you. If people want to connect with you how would they do that? Do you have a website? Are you on social media? Give us an overview.
Michael Brady: You bet. All of the above. My website is www.GenerosityWealth.com. GenerosityWealth.com. I also have, you know, I’m on Linked In under Michael Brady. I’ve also got a Twitter – Generosity_Wm. And of course well we can do it the old fashioned way. They can always call me. 303-747-6455.
Jason Carthen: I love that.
Michael Brady: Or email – mike@GenerosityWealth.com. Well I guess the phone is the real old way but the medium way is the email mike@GenerosityWealth.com.
Jason Carthen: Oh I am cracking up over here because, you know, the reality is that we have transcended in terms of communication and it’s so many ways to connect with one another but, you know, just your personality. I absolutely love your personality Mike because you know what? You seem very down to earth and approachable and that is the sort of thing that people need in terms of when they’re talking about dealing with someone else’s finances and it’s obvious you’ve already really stepped up. When you were under pressure to make a good decision that was going to cost you something you did that in terms of integrity. So people should connect with you and hopefully they will. One of the things before we went to break I was trying to figure out how were you impacted? You had a lot of skin in the game. Almost two million worth. So, you know, how were you hurt and/or helped by making a choice to organize the clients against your former partner and in some ways even your boss?
Michael Brady: Yeah, yeah. Well it was even more than a couple million. It was getting closer to three million and it was almost everything that I had. Everything that I had worked for and even from a reputation point of view I had associate. I was so proud. It’s sort of like someone working very hard at Enron or some company and then all of a sudden outside of your control all of a sudden the perception has changed. And it was tough because all of a sudden I found myself, you know, now in my late 30s with less money. I lost most of my money and I had already decided that I wanted to start a firm. I was already in the creation stage of Generosity when this all kind of went down and so I did hurry it up a little bit of course. But, you know, I was harmed because from a financial point of view it was a little bit slower starting that firm but I knew that it was the right thing. Many of the clients became my first clients, you know, of my new firm. And it has continued to grow I mean exponentially every year. I’ve doubled almost every other year since then and that’s one of the pieces of advice that I give people is don’t expect instant results, you know, when you’re starting a firm. The first year or two I was able to take a long-term vision for it and just to always stay positive. Don’t let fear, don’t let all the people saying oh you can’t do this or can’t do that. Don’t listen to them. If you know what’s right just go forward with it with the right attitude. I had the knowledge but I also combined it with the attitude. And together they can be really positive. I wish I could say that it was easy at the beginning, you know, that I was always happy. I had some sleepless nights. I had some worries. But I identified it and saying wow, this is a concern of mine. I realize that I’m feeling this way. I’m realizing I’m having some fear. I realize I’m feeling lonely. I better change that. And so for me to be successful I joined other groups of CEOs and so that we could help one another out. And so my life has never been better. They always say that you’ll look back on this and it will be a great lesson. Well I used to say that at the time I used to also joke that I’m really looking forward to looking back at this because living it was really tough and really the appreciation, the humility, you know. I think that’s a big part of being a good human being and a good advisor, a good business owner is also the humility of saying I’m going to do the best I can. I’m going to really work with my clients or customers, whatever that business owner might have. But do so without arrogance, with tolerance, you know, all those things. And that’s really what I learned, a lot of what I learned here.
Jason Carthen: And Mike that’s what I alluded to earlier in the show. I mean just your personality. You seem to be very even keeled. That’s a good thing. When you talk about really some of the stressors that begin to press in, you know. I like to tell people all the time that the true you is going to show up when it starts to get interesting and the pressures come in and just life in general can start to press in. You need to have that even keel sort of way about you. And I guess it leads to another question that I have and we’re almost out of time.
Michael Brady: I know. I’m so disappointed. I want another hour. Oh my God.
Jason Carthen: Well I’ll bring you back because I mean we’re just really scratching the surface but one of the things that I want our listeners to really understand is how can people be prepared to make an ethical decision before they have to make it, you know. Because hey, what happened to you was pretty unique and no one told you hey Mike, get ready for this. The company may deal with this and you’re going to have to make a decision. So you didn’t have that prior knowledge so how would you suggest people get ready to make an ethical decision before they have to make it? Give us some insight.
Michael Brady: Yes, well I knew that making the ethical decisions was important to me and so I did my homework. I read books and I kind of prepared myself for it. I like to think of it like a free throw at a pro basketball game. When it really matters hopefully he’ll make the free throw. But he’s probably done it 10,000 times to prepare for that one second that it really matters. And it’s the same way I think with some of these ethical decisions because I’ve asked myself the same question. How did I do that? And I realize that I was on a path sometimes not even knowing it of exploring other people or talking with other people who have made tough decisions and learning from them. I set myself up in groups that were very value and ethics based. But also I was blessed to have that foundation of a religion as well. And so whether that is Christian or Jewish or Muslim, whatever that is find that foundation. What do you really believe? What’s your conviction? Know what that is about yourself and so that you don’t – you’ve got to know what you stand for so you can know when you’re deviating from it. And I spend a lot of time on that. That’s the advice I give to people is what do you really stand for? Who do you want to be known for?
Jason Carthen: Yeah absolutely. And I thank you for that. I think my faith in Christ has really allowed me to be able to move forward and have some of these questions answered before those pressing things come in. And I think that’s directly in line with what you shared. You know what? I just want to say thank you Mike for being on the show. We are out of time and the reality is that we’ve been talking about some serious stuff today and I’m just glad you came on. So thank you for being on the show today.
Michael Brady: It was my pleasure. Thank you for having me.
Jason Carthen: Absolutely. Well hey everybody. I just want to first of all say shout out to my Cleveland Cavaliers. I know we lost Kyrie Irving last week but our reality is that hey, we are all in and we can still do this thing. Make sure you tune in tonight. I think LeBron James is going to make this thing happen for us and he has a great supporting cast just like I have a fantastic supporting cast in the studio right now. And I just want to say to everybody make sure you stay connected with us on Discover the Leader in You. We’re doing some amazing things and we have some great shows coming up very soon. My beautiful bride I just want to give you a shout out as well. I love you honey. Take care everybody.
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