Have you ever wondered how the principles of long-term thinking and faith can steer you towards success in both personal and professional realms? In this episode of "Seek Go Create," host Tim Winders sits down with Ryan Larson, founder of First Line Financial, to explore the dynamic and often unpredictable nature of investment, the importance of creating balanced financial strategies, and the role of integrity in client relations. They delve into Ryan's unique journey from battling blazes as a firefighter to mastering the flames of the financial markets. Whether you're an investor feeling the market's heat or seeking a fresh perspective on life and success, this episode offers invaluable insights wrapped in real-life experiences. Tune in to discover how you can create a robust path towards achieving your goals amidst life’s ebbs and flows.

"Success is where happiness meets passion in both your personal and professional life." - Ryan Larson

Access all show and episode resources HERE

About Our Guest:

Ryan Larson is the founder and principal investment adviser at First Line Financial, based in Scottsdale, Arizona. With a focus on catering to the unique financial needs of retirees and transitioning boomers, Ryan leverages his extensive experience to create personalized investment strategies that incorporate diverse assets, including real estate and self-directed IRAs. His keen insights stem from his initial career as a firefighter, a role that endows him with a profound sense of advocacy and preparedness, attributes he now applies to financial planning. Ryan is also the author of "Ladder to Leader," where he shares his journey and insights on leadership and financial acumen.

Reasons to Listen:

1. Discover Ryan Larson’s unique journey from firefighter to financial expert, and how his experiences shape his innovative approach to retirement planning.

2. Explore the fusion of long-term investment strategies and personal values, featuring Larson's trademark "written retirement action plan" that tailors financial planning to individual needs.

3. Gain insights into handling market volatility through diversified investment portfolios, including alternative investments, as Larson emphasizes integrity and personalized advice in financial success.

Episode Resources & Action Steps:

### Resources Mentioned

1. **First Line Financial Website** - For listeners to connect with Ryan Larson and learn more about financial planning and investment strategies tailored for retirees and transitioning boomers.

2. **Book: "Ladder to Leader" by Ryan Larson** - This book offers insights into Ryan’s journey and philosophies, both as a firefighter and a financial adviser. Contact Ryan via his website and ask for a free copy.

### Action Steps

1. **Review and Adjust Investment Portfolios** - Encouraged by Ryan Larson, listeners should evaluate their current investment strategies, consider introducing alternative investments like real estate, and adjust to more secure and diversified portfolios as per their changing financial needs and market conditions.

2. **Create a Written Retirement Action Plan (WRAP)** - Implement Ryan's trademarked "WRAP" system to tailor a retirement plan that evolves according to individual needs, focusing on long-term financial security.

3. **Engage with Financial Advisors** - Ryan stresses the importance of working with trusted financial advisors. Listeners should reach out to certified advisors to discuss their financial situations and get personalized advice that aligns with their goals and market trends.

Resources for Leaders from Tim Winders & SGC:

🔹 Unlock Your Potential Today!

• 🎙 Coaching with Tim: Elevate your leadership and align your work with your faith. Learn More
• 📚 "Coach: A Story of Success Redefined": A transformative read that will challenge your views on success. Grab Your Copy
• 📝 Faith Driven Leader Quiz: Discover how well you're aligning faith and work with our quick quiz. Take the Quiz

Key Lessons:

1. **Long-Term Thinking in Finances and Life:** Emphasize the importance of taking a long-term approach to both financial planning and personal endeavors. Diversification in investments, including stocks, real estate, and alternative assets, along with the psychological resilience required to withstand market fluctuations, is essential for success.

2. **Defining Personal Success:** Success is not solely measured by financial gains but by finding happiness and fulfillment in both personal and professional aspects of life. Ryan Larson underscores the importance of being a good father and having a positive impact on those around him as his measures of success.

3. **The Role of Faith in Achieving Goals:** Harnessing faith helps navigate tough times and achieve long-term objectives. This faith extends beyond spiritual contexts into having confidence in one's financial and personal decisions, even in uncertain environments.

4. **Balanced Lifestyle for Sustaining Performance:** Highlighting the need for a balanced lifestyle, especially in demanding careers. Ryan Larson shares insights from his experience juggling roles as a firefighter and financial adviser, emphasizing the importance of managing work, sleep, and family life to maintain health and effectiveness.

5. **Continuous Learning and Adaptation:** The financial industry and personal career paths are ever-evolving. Larson's career transition from firefighting to finance illustrates the importance of adaptability and continual learning to thrive in changing environments and understand new concepts, like cryptocurrency and other alternative investments.

Episode Highlights:

00:00 Firefighter transitions to finance, juggles responsibilities skillfully.

05:09 Struggle with identity, advocate for others.

08:06 Paramedic works long shifts, prioritizes family's well-being.

11:49 Exercising, cold plunge, energize for work.

13:34 Discussing financial responsibility and defining success pre-firefighting career.

20:06 Struggled in school, felt different, pushed back.

24:17 Relying on faith and family for success.

25:38 Raising kids, emulating dad, passing on traits.

29:36 Financial crisis led to new career success.

32:57 Qualified fiduciary introducing innovative real estate fund.

39:04 Currently cautious about market, favoring fixed income.

41:14 Consider both market risks and potential returns.

44:44 Confusion about pandemic, impact on people's lives.

47:30 Investing in real estate and early-stage businesses.

51:48 Neglecting day-to-day prep, expect financial home runs.

53:10 Be prepared, stay present, and respond effectively.

57:37 Connect with First Line Financial for support.

Thank you for listening to Seek Go Create!

Our podcast is dedicated to empowering Christian leaders, entrepreneurs, and individuals looking to redefine success in their personal and professional lives. Through in-depth interviews, personal anecdotes, and expert advice, we offer valuable insights and actionable strategies for achieving your goals and living a life of purpose and fulfillment.

If you enjoyed this episode and found it helpful, we encourage you to subscribe to or follow Seek Go Create on your favorite podcast platform, including Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify. By subscribing, you'll never miss an episode and can stay up-to-date on the latest insights and strategies for success.

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Mentioned in this episode:

Overcome Leadership Challenges with Tim Winders

Feeling overwhelmed in your leadership journey? You're not alone. Tim Winders, your SeekGoCreate host, is here to guide you through those tough moments as an experienced executive coach. From mastering team dynamics to making strategic decisions and fostering personal growth, Tim offers the support you need to break through barriers and achieve what once seemed impossible. Don’t let challenges define your leadership. Book a free Discovery Coaching Call with Tim today and take the first step towards a path of greater success and satisfaction. It's time to transform your challenges into opportunities.

Book Coaching Call

If you're real, if you're genuine, if you got a good

heart, if you're an advocate and you just try to do the best for

people, what's the old phrase?

People will come field of dreams.

People will come

How can you transition from your working years to retirement

with confidence and security?

Today on Seek Go Create, we're exploring this critical life stage with Ryan

Larson, founder and principal investment advisor at FirstLine Financial in

Scottsdale, Arizona, just down the road from me as we're recording this.

Specializing in the unique financial needs of retirees and transitioning

boomers, which that's me, Ryan combines securities and insurance offerings

with meticulous strategies designed to grow, And preserve retirement assets.

His approach, not only safeguards against market fluctuations, but also optimizes

tax efficiencies and minimizes fees.

Join us as we delve into Ryan's missions to help his client achieve the American

dream in their retirement years, ensuring they can lead the life they aspire to.

Post career, Ryan, welcome to seat.

Go create.

Thank you, Tim.

This is a great opportunity.

Really excited to be with you.

Yeah.

And, I think I shared with you before we hit record.

I got my first question I'll ask in just a second, but, we should

have done this face to face.

I'm recording this just, what about an hour and a half North of you?

And you're in Scottsdale.

I'm up here in the Valley.

Yeah, I would say, yeah, at about an hour.

I take that, that commute a lot, when I'm going to the mountains, that's kind of my,

place to get my sanity back, but I'm, I'm very familiar where you're at right now.

Yeah, we're spending about a month here as we're migrating

north and, we went to Sedona and, Cottonwood this last weekend.

And anyway, what a, what a great area up here.

anyway, it's beautiful.

We're enjoying it.

But before we get started, if you and I were to bump into each other or, Just

out and about and I ask you what you do.

What do you tell people when they ask you what you do?

Yeah, it's, it's interesting because, Yeah, 20 years ago I would say,

I'm a fireman for the city of Phoenix.

now you fast forward.

Twenty three years later, that's how much time I have with the

City of Phoenix, as a firefighter.

now I would say, well, I started my journey as a firefighter,

and I transitioned into the, the financial field.

and I'm juggling both, surprisingly, and people would

say, well, how are you doing that?

Well, time, right?

Time is, is one of the precious things that we have.

And I just try to allocate my time as best as possible.

I'm, raising a, a family, which is very important to me.

So it is sometime, a juggle to, focus your time on each because I think

obviously being a firefighter, being an advocate for those, people that you

serve is, you need to focus on that.

You need to make sure that you're, getting good sleep, eating healthy,

making sure that you're in that ready, ready phase at all times.

But then also with the financial business that I'm running, you need

to make sure that once again, you're getting enough sleep and you're

looking at markets and seeing what's kind of coming down the pipeline.

And just when you go home, there's that's that's, that's when you

definitely have to step into those dad shoes and, being tired, being worn

out, being potentially, upset because something didn't go right in my day.

That's, that's not allowed.

I think that's kind of how I would, share my, my story, if

we were to bump into each other.

So firefighter, financial guy, family.

It's a lot, that is a lot going on there.

Yeah, I just, I just read your book, Ladder to Leader.

I think I started last night.

I think your wife, Kate, sent me the copy and I went, Ooh, I didn't, at

first I didn't know you had a book.

So I read all that, but man, I enjoyed it.

Enjoyed your story and,

that's great.

Yeah.

and, and stuff like that.

Yeah.

What a, what a cool background, but I guess, I guess it's kind of kick

off by saying what is, you mentioned time, you mentioned rest and sleep,

but a lot of people, they struggle with just kind of doing one thing.

You you've got.

Two big things not even bringing the family into it because I know your

kids are, younger and stuff like that But I mean, you got firefighter.

You've got i'll use the term fiduciary We'll define it later, by the way,

but I love that word fiduciary.

So you're a A fiduciary representative, financial representative.

What's the, what's the biggest challenge with juggling those two?

Just, anything that comes to mind that you go, Ooh, those two things conflict.

it's, they're polar opposites.

so I guess that is one thing that I kind of struggle with.

Sometimes is finding that identity of who I am.

when you're coming out of high school, you're moving into that those college

years, you're looking for, for who you are going to be right or who you desire to be.

And, coming out of high school, I didn't know what I wanted to do.

And my mom, had a very impactful, path by introducing the fire department to

me, which I pursued with, Relentless work ethic and I accomplished that that goal

but I would say it's it's it's sometimes a struggle to take this fire department role

in this fiduciary role like you described it and kind of merge them together.

But at the end of the day, what I would say is, is just being an advocate.

that has, those are very good similarities between the two.

The, the, the conflict is, it's definitely polar opposites, but there

is one thing that ties it together and that's just being an advocate.

for either the, the patients that I run on with the fire department or for the

clients that I visit with in my office.

So hopefully that helps kind of bring the two together.

Yeah, it does.

Cause I was going to follow up that question with how do they conflict?

And then also how do they compliment?

Yeah.

I've always been fascinated with the schedule.

of firefighters, first responders, but primarily firefighters.

Cause I think, I think police and other emergency responders have

sort of different schedules based on kind of just my outsider knowledge.

Tell me a little bit about the, because some people are just sitting

here going, how in the world can you mentally or physically do those two?

But the schedule is extremely unique for firefighters.

Tell us a little bit about that.

Yeah.

We definitely have a very interesting schedule.

but it's, it's a flexible schedule.

I think if you have friends or family who are You know, in that

public safety field, usually they have some type of side hustle.

but our schedule, we work 24 hours on and then we get 48 hours off.

within the Phoenix Fire Department organization, you, you're probably

aware, Tim, that you're, you're seeing this probably just as you're

commuting, in, in, in Arizona right now.

It's just like, there's a lot of traffic here and there's a lot of

people who are coming to the valley.

And so as a firefighter, in this organization, you're running a lot faster.

more calls.

there's some stations that are, running 20 to 25 calls a shift.

And if that's a 24 hour shift, you spread that out your, first thing

you're going in in the morning and then you're starting to run calls all the way

after midnight when people are sleeping and it definitely takes its toll.

but those 48 hours, allows you to, that first part of that, that, that first day

off, get some sleep if you have to, right?

Get the kids off to school or, whatever you have to do in the morning, just

to kind of settle thing your life down for a little bit, maybe take a little

bit of a nap and then you're up and Adam and you're starting to move again

and now you have, another day to kind of prioritize what you want to do.

Spend it with family, work, whatever you enjoy out there.

So that's kind of what, what I do is I, I, I see myself, going in,

once again, going back to my health fitness, it's all important because

if I'm running those calls, I need to be mentally sharp when I come into

that financial arena the next day.

trying to get as much sleep as I can.

and, and just staying focused on my end goal, which is providing for my family.

the, the, the odd thing about that is I've

heard you in our short period.

We've been talking, you're talking about sleep and rest, and I am

becoming more keenly aware of how critical that is for my well being, you

know, and I was probably in my late twenties, thirties.

I don't think I gave a rip about how much sleep I've got.

And I, I

used to boast, I used to boast that I might live off three to four hours.

I think during the nineties, I think I, know, I had a corporate gig and a

side hustle and, and I used to, now I'm like pretty focused on how much

rest I'm getting, the consistency of rest and things like that.

And I guess that's one thing that I guess I want to follow up as a question because

my wife jokes with me all the time.

She goes, you're, you're kind of a.

Creature of habit.

Like if

she gets up in the morning before I do, I sometimes can be a little

bit, not grouchy, but it's like, oh man, it threw my schedule off to me.

It seems like with that 24 on 48 off.

Kind of that 24 on could be 24 on or it could be 24 where y'all are,

prepping but you're hanging out That may not be a good way of saying it.

What does that do for the for your rhythms for your consistency for?

you've mentioned rest a few times for your sleep patterns and and different things

like that And i'm just curious about it.

We don't have to pick it apart totally.

But what does that do for you?

Yeah, that's, that's a good point.

luckily, being, I guess, a senior member now at the Phoenix Fire Department,

I kind of have my, my choice of the stations that I, you know, And so I

have chosen to go to a slower station.

I, I'm going to throw that out very loosely right now because

once again, the population coming into Arizona is just crazy.

So we are seeing a big tick up in our call volume.

But, I work in, a part of the valley, which is called Paradise Valley.

It's a very, very pretty, area.

I'm not sure if you're aware of that area, Tim, but it's, It's

definitely more slow tempo.

However, we're getting pulled into different, cities now.

So our call volume is going up just because they need

outlining and cities need help.

when I come in, Yeah.

I definitely try to find that tempo.

I come in, I work out, fairly quickly, check out the truck, work out and that

puts me in a good mindset right there.

But then I do, the good old cold plunge and that just, if I was tired,

if I was like a little lethargic, from working the day before on the

financial side, because sometimes that takes, quite a bit of energy as well.

you're, you're looking at markets, you're, you're seeing what kind of different

asset classes are performing well, or, what's, what is going to kind of be

that next shiny object out there that investors are going to want to pursue.

And so that, that does take a lot of energy.

So coming into the, the fire station, I try to, revamp myself as fast as I can do.

And.

that cold plunge.

And then after that, I'm going in.

I'm going to back up after that cold plunge.

I'm, I'm going out, I'm going into the sun, I'm stretching, I'm using,

I'm, I'm using that sun's energy to kind of get me going again.

I'm, I'm not the tannest guy, but, I'm, I'm in the sun, because I think that is

a very healthy component of our life.

And so after I do, the cold plunge and then the stretching and, with my shirt off

in the sun, I'm feeling really good, Tim.

And then I just take that energy, that level, I bring it back into the

station, and then, I spend time with my crew, I connect with them, but if

there's not much going on, if it's, if there's There's not a lot of calls.

I am definitely moving into my room, refocusing on my business, which

is the, the financial business and using that, I guess, organization

to continue, my pursuit as becoming a well rounded individual.

And in a little while, we're, as we move into talking about

some of the financial I want to maybe draw some comparisons between the two,

but one of the things that I, that we really love doing here, Ryan, is we,

we really like to pick apart how people define success, how success comes about.

And, and in my, my theory is that most of our culture, many of the

things we do in culture, especially our first world Americanized culture.

People haven't taken time to really define what success is.

One of the things I loved about reading through your story is that

it appears as if, and if I'm reading something into it, I don't think I am.

It, it appears as if you struggled with what success was for a good

portion of the early part of your life.

And, we could talk a little bit about that because I think it's what led

you into being a firefighter and we're really big on journey here.

It's like, there's

seasons people go through and things like that.

But what can you share about it?

I've just read it.

So it's pretty fresh in my mind.

But what can you share about how you define success?

If you even had a grasp of it?

early on growing up because there's just hints of struggle

throughout that story as I read it.

Yeah.

There, there definitely has been some struggle.

Um, throughout my journey, I think there's struggle just out there with everyone.

And I just, I was, I was hesitant about opening up my, my story to the public.

And, You don't know how people are going to take it.

But what I, what I'm learning more, I just started going to church a lot

more and kind of opening up my faith and, kind of turning to God because,

my journey, is, is still a struggle.

Nothing has ever, is, everything is good sometimes, but sometimes you go

through this black cloud, if you will.

And so what I will say is growing up, I got into a lot of fights.

I use kind of, these as kind of resolution tools, which is not appropriate at all.

And I don't think it, took me in the right direction, but what I had going

for me is just a good family foundation, which they did not want to see me fail.

my mom and dad were very good stewards of just making sure that I, kept my focus

on something pure and one of those, well, Just being in, an athlete, doing football

and baseball, wrestling, that, that obviously took my focus and narrowed it.

And I just tried to, when I would start getting lost, whether it's running with

the wrong crowd, getting into fights, um, doing drugs, whatever it was, I found that

I could always come back to my, athletic abilities to, and that would define

ultimately my success at that point.

but now as I kind of get older, I'm 46 and I'm kind of maturing, success for me.

It's, it's still a struggle to define and, being a firefighter was, it was

a very, it's a very impactful job.

And I'm, as I'm cloning out, as I'm closing out my journey.

with that kind of organization, I'm looking at what I did

within that organization and I was like, was I successful?

did I accomplish my goals?

And I would say getting hired.

Was just one of the biggest accomplishments of my career.

It's a very competitive job.

I think I, was competing against potentially six to 7000 people for

a handful of jobs back 20 years ago.

I was not the smartest kid.

definitely did not get good grades.

But what I found is when I saw something that I wanted to pursue, I pursued

it with just a relentless work ethic.

And I don't think I've ever once started something that I didn't finish.

And I don't know why that is.

And I think I'm looking for that success.

Because if, if I don't, complete it, then I feel like, Oh, my life's not worth it.

Or, I wasn't worth it internally.

but now, tripping, failing, And I think when you lose, those are some of the

best moments in people's lives because it, you get to identify what went wrong.

You get to kind of like a self reflect.

I didn't like losing.

But when I lost, it just made me a better, winner at the end of the day.

So hopefully, that was a little,

It is.

Yeah.

you, do you think this, this is something again, I just, I, I read through your

book fairly quickly and this is not me.

Being a analysis analysis and analyzing anything but

At times I was sitting here saying because you you mentioned that you

weren't the best student I think you were a great athlete, but maybe

You know, you also weren't six three You, 220 pounds, maybe short.

It's almost like to me that this is a guy, Ryan is a guy early on in his

career that had something to prove, had a chip on his shoulder a little bit.

I don't know if that's correct or not.

It seemed like that

is.

because maybe he

didn't fit in with the, Yeah, yeah.

Maybe it didn't fit in with what, know, the high school, the structures,

the systems defined as success.

anyway, and, and was there, I mean, any learning disabilities

or anything like that?

I mean, I don't, you, you mentioned it was tough, but, Any of the, I mean,

we've, we've interviewed like, emergency room surgeons that have had dyslexia

and it was just fascinating them talking about that, but talk a little bit about,

did you have a chip on your shoulder?

I did, I did have a chip on my shoulder.

but also too, yes, I, I struggled in school.

so I was in resource and, I didn't even know what that meant.

What is resource?

Well, it's just, you're not keeping pace with, the rest of the class.

So when I was in elementary, we would all start, opening up the books, and

then I would have another separate teacher come and get me, and I

would go to this, special classroom.

And, everyone would say, well, where's Ryan going?

And, and so I would, I would always like, Oh, are they talking about me?

Are they saying, Oh, he's stupid, or, so I think that was the start of my chip.

and I think it's definitely kind of like stayed with me into my high school days.

because I never thought, I always thought I was different and I didn't

want to be a part of the herd.

I always want to be going against the herd or going against the grain.

And I think that's what has made me successful in today's society is because

every time that someone has told me.

I would, I would listen, but I would push back and I would say, okay,

well I don't want to do it this way.

I'm going to do it this way.

And so I would just, I would find myself pivoting a lot.

And I don't know if it was because I was isolated when I was younger, in

resource and it made me think differently.

or I just looked at, all the friends that I had that were

in different social classes.

And I was like, I don't really want to be a part of that one today.

I want to be part of this one.

And so I was, I was always picking and choosing where I want to go.

And I think that is, that has made me, a very successful man because if

something doesn't feel good, if If it doesn't sit right, and if someone

is, is definitely trying to tell me, Oh, this is the right way, I'm going

to say, well, maybe that's your way.

That's not Ryan Larson's way.

And I'm going to pursue my own path and I'm going to go, I'm going to do what

I feel right for, for me and who, like what my DNA is, how, how I operate.

Yeah.

Life has a tendency to alter and change sometimes our thought

processes or how we define things.

And, in reading through your book, I'm going, okay, this is a guy that's seems to

have come to terms some of those things.

So the question I've got is, do you still have a chip on your shoulder?

You still trying to prove something?

You seem peaceful and relaxed to me, but is there something underneath

that peaceful demeanor that you're still, there's still kind of a drive?

And I will tell you it's a bit of a trick question.

I'll go ahead and warn

you.

This is a trick question because based on how you respond, I

might go in different directions.

Yeah.

I love it.

No, it's good.

And I, I, I love where this is, is going this conversation because,

I am still, learning who Ryan is.

I want to be more on the vulnerable side, within this podcast.

And I was, I, I've had struggles my whole life.

I just started going to see a therapist and, you know, cause everything that

we see within the fire department, that's, that's a struggle in itself.

and then, I had stuff that, I was, I was, going on internally with the family.

And so, I'm always learning like who Ryan is, but what I have found, and it has made

me, I guess more at peace, like you said, Tim, is the counseling wasn't working.

And I just like what I just shared with you and someone

saying, Oh, you got to do this.

Everyone's like, Hey, maybe you got to go.

Sit down with the counselor.

Sit down with the counselor.

Why I did that.

It didn't resonate with me.

It didn't feel good to me.

But, my wife, she's, she's, was raised Catholic and, was always,

she's been brought up in the church and she said, When you're ready,

God is always accepting, right?

And so I turn to God, I was looking for a higher power to get me through some

of these struggles that I was having.

And to, to answer your question is, I, I don't believe I have

a chip on my shoulder anymore.

I'm learning to be at peace because I know that there's only one person

who I'm going to answer to at the day.

And, if I, if I show up, on his doorstep and, I have this bad attitude and I, he's

obviously going to forgive me, but, I want to come to him with an open heart with,

without any, I don't want to be sinful.

Like I used to be in my, in my, younger days.

And I want to go with, to him with an open heart.

And, What makes me successful today is pursuing what I'm passionate

about, but accomplishing those things that is success for me.

But the ultimate success for me is just Raising my family Properly, you know

raising my my little girl my little boy in the in the best way that I can

trying to take after my my dad and You know some some manners and others,

not so much right but trying to find that rhythm as being, the type of man

that I want my son to, to look up to.

And I want to give him the, the, the characteristics and the traits that,

I got from my dad and I I've evolved and now I'm passing those onto him and

trying to kind of, keep that, I guess, that bloodline just keep moving forward.

But ultimately You know, the success that I have is going to be what I

do on this earth and to help my kids become good, members of society.

That's good.

That goes back, you, you mentioned the word identity earlier and, and I, I think

part of our, I don't want to say struggle, but our journey or walk here on this earth

is to come to terms with our identity.

And I'll say it even a different way.

You brought up the spiritual.

It's like, what are we created for?

What are we here for?

And I'm going to, I'm going to do a shameless plug here for a novel for you.

And,

it's written by me.

And it relates to all that we've talked about so and if you need me to send you

a copy Whatever or get it to you it's coach the name of it is coach a story

of success redefined And it it addresses all of these topics and it's one of

the reasons why I love reading your book Because yours is an actual story.

Mine's a novel.

There's a lot of me in it, but it It's all about this and that identity

piece and that journey that we're on.

And so anyway, very cool.

I love, I love having these type conversations because I believe they

create a foundation when we start talking about how a lot of people

measure success, which is financial.

And, and you could probably tell that, see, my journey was slightly different.

I, I think I did well through high school years, college and all that.

But I had an addiction that I was addicted to.

It was either more or tomorrow.

I can't decide which one I was addicted to.

And so I was always.

Pursuing and shooting for more.

There's one thing that I want to say.

We've got a great deal in common here And we might could talk about

this There was a movie that somewhat defined me and you said it defined

you and that was gordon gecko And

and wall street

And the phrase greed is good would have been one of my favorite

principles as I was coming along.

But for you, it was more, you loved what was going on on the trade floor.

Correct.

I mean, is that

what you loved about that movie?

See, I love the greed, man.

Mm hmm.

Interesting.

Yeah, that's yeah.

I love.

I love what was going on with the trade desk, the trade floor and how everything

was like shaking and baking, I was, I was really intrigued, with that.

And I was like, is that really how it is?

And yeah, I, I, I, I started pursuing that probably eight years into the fire

department and I had the opportunity, I started off in like foreign currency and

so I was doing pretty well on that and I caught the attention of, of an advisor who

was actually managing my fire departments.

we have a 457 advisor.

401k account.

those are types of, retirement accounts for, for the listeners

who, who aren't aware.

but he was managing those, those accounts for me.

And, 2008 came around.

I was doing very well with the foreign currency, bought a million dollar condo.

I was like, Hey, this is, I'm, I'm doing it.

I'm living it.

And then 2008 happens and completely shuts down like everything that I was doing.

I was, I was nervous to trade because, the million dollar condo is not a

million dollars financial crisis.

I mean, so I sat down with him and said, Hey, what do I do with my money?

And, I, I started to share my story.

He's like, well, why don't you come to work for me?

And, I pursued getting my series seven and my 66.

and that just allows me to manage retirement accounts.

but yeah, ultimately I had the opportunity to, to go on.

the Nasdaq floor, in, in New York.

And it was, it was everything I imagined it.

It was, it was really, really cool seeing what I kind of always

dreamt about watching, Wall Street.

Now being there with my wife, looking at all these, traders and

trade desks and how everything's being executed at the best price.

It was, it was definitely amazing.

it was a really cool journey, to, to get there.

But yes, on that movie, I would say that was one of the things

that I wanted to always pursue and.

Try to, accomplish one day is just, just to get on this, get on the

floor of the New York stock exchange.

When's the last time you saw that movie?

It's been a long time for me.

I wonder if it still holds up.

That was like or something.

I think, yeah, I think you're right.

Yeah, I was, I was, yeah, I know I wasn't that old when I first watched it, but I

was like, Oh, this is, this is awesome.

but

yeah, I

would,

It was right before I was about to be married.

So I was just coming out of Georgia Tech And man, I

loved the slick back hair

and the suits and you know the office I mean, it kind of showed to me a bit

of superficial Ness of what I thought success was at the time, but it was

of part of my journey And also Yeah.

i'd be curious if it holds up when's the last time you saw it?

Yeah, it's been a long time.

I mean So, now that I've been running this business for, I've been in the financial

industry for 15 plus years now, and I think I started, Firstline Financial,

which is a registered investment advisory firm that I, that I own.

I'm the founder with him and I have Kate who's helped me in this business venture.

yeah, I don't really, it's completely different, Tim.

it's just like, I sometimes like to just meet clients just like this or,

I started off in that suit and tie and slip back hair and all that good stuff.

But you know what?

What I found is if you're if you're real, if you're genuine, if you got

a good heart, if you're an advocate and you just try to do the best

for people, what's the old phrase?

People will come field of dreams.

People will come and they continue to come.

And it's just because I'm living that message.

I'm not, I'm not pushing, I'm not pushing it on society of like,

Oh, I'm this, this fiduciary.

I'm just, I'm just having that mindset is like, if I'm a good

person, I'm going to share my stories.

And once everyone hears the story, they can make their own decision.

If I'm the right guy, if I'm the right wrong guy, and I'm not always going

to be the right guy, for the job.

just based on, people's interaction, right?

But what I will say is I'm the most qualified for the job.

And the reason for that is, yes, I am a fiduciary.

So that's first and foremost, but also to I am doing things that is

not being done out there right now.

And, and one of the things, one of the companies that I just started

is a, a real estate company.

but I started a real estate fund.

And so what this allows individuals to do, Tim, is to not just focus on

stocks, bonds, mutual funds, because I think that is just part of the equation.

I think what makes a truly diversified portfolio or, or a, how you can get

ahead faster is by merging those two asset classes together, right?

In a perfectly balanced, financial plan for someone because obviously we all

know real estate has done very well.

stock market has been a little shaky, especially right now with,

everything that's going on in the Middle East and Russia, Ukraine,

but there's always opportunity.

within real estate.

And it's just, you just got to buy at the right time.

You got to know people.

They said it.

One person said it best.

It's like real estate.

is an insider game.

if you try to be, do insider trading in the financial side,

you're going to get slapped.

You're going to get, you might go to jail, but insider trading

is allowed within real estate.

And so when I thought about that, I'm like, Oh my gosh,

that totally makes sense.

So, I, I know I'm a little bit long winded, but I think

this is a good message.

for people who are looking into how to create wealth and build wealth

is you need a good balance of both.

Don't just continue to put all your dollars into that 401k or that IRA and

hope that it's going to continue to go up.

Because our world is, This is, it's a little bit mixed up right now, and if

we, if we just have that, that longterm approach works, like, don't get me wrong,

but you're going to need to stomach 20 percent losses, 30 percent losses.

And you can recover for that if you have time.

But if you introduce other vehicles, that is a lot.

That is a recipe for success.

When something doesn't do well, Another asset class that is doing

well for you and it's more predictable and cash flowing, if you will.

Yeah, they're they're used to To be, there may still be some

that promote something that's called a balanced portfolio, you know, 60, 40, or,

you know, or, or, 60, 20, 20, just various things and, and all of that.

And you just kind of alluded to it briefly, that it's, stocks

and bonds and, and, a lot of people would say nothing else.

And.

I am one I have to be careful and I don't know if this is just my

nature, but I love alternatives.

I love asymmetric type things I love Some of the things and I don't think

this is going to be a time where we're going to go off talking about

it But you brought up real estate.

We had a real estate company.

We had you mentioned one condo that you had I am very convinced that

we bought a handful of condos And the date that we closed was the

absolute peak of the market in 2008.

I am convinced of that.

And, uh, and a lot of our story is the changes and all that occurred after that.

But I'm sure that that's been part of a, uh, a journey for you.

So guess maybe before we dive into a few things as we finish up here,

maybe with some specifics or I know you can't give advice, but with some.

With some things maybe of next steps for people to do talk a little bit about

You alluded to it briefly That we've had some changes at the end of the book.

You're talking about covid which that was That was a few years ago You

know, some would say we're through it.

I I think we're through that event.

I think we're going to be Seeing much more cyclical type things.

but talk let's talk, let's use that word balance for, for, for a beginning point

here, what do you look at as far as a, a.

I'm using air quotes for those listening that might be watching the video

of a balanced portfolio in general.

We're not talking specific.

Everybody's got a different story, but in general, what is Ryan at

46 years old and 15 plus years experience in the financial arena?

Look at it balanced in we're recording this in 2004.

I think it'll give us some good conversations for the next few minutes.

But,

Yeah.

This might shock a lot of people.

especially with what I do.

But once again, I'm, I'm a very transparent guy and what I say right

now could change tomorrow, right?

And so what I'll do is, is I'll just position like what I'm doing.

I'm being very, cautious in my approach right now.

And the reason is just because there are some, there's a lot of noise out there.

And so at 46, I, I have raised, more cash in my portfolio.

I am not, I am not long.

the markets right now.

I'm, I'm inner day or inner week.

I would say inner week.

if, if things start moving the right direction, then I might use

that cash to, buy into a portfolio of, of, of not overweight equities

because equities bring risk.

So I would say I'm I have that balance, right?

Where I'm introducing more of that fixed income.

I don't really like bonds, but you have pretty decent rates, just in,

in, money market accounts, 5%, 4%.

So don't, I, I guess, don't point your nose up in the air when you're getting

4 percent in a market like this.

Because what that allows you to do is when things do, if things do happen, it's easy

to pull your money, out or put it in to the market so you can be more flexible.

So that's kind of My approach, I'm holding more cash.

I'm not long equities.

inner week.

I'm an inner week trader, and I'm introducing more alternatives.

Like you said, Tim, I'm introducing more real estate using more self directed

Directed IRA investment vehicles to continue moving that train down the track.

If you will, I

is almost, I don't know.

I don't know how you measure inflation.

My wife and I went to the local grocery here.

I don't go to the grocery store that often, so I'm maybe a little out of touch.

I mean, I read some stuff, but we got four items.

It was like 41 bucks, a couple of.

Frozen cauliflower pizzas.

And,

know, and I'm like going, good gracious, I said, we don't, I mean, we could

carry it out in one hand and she goes, Oh yeah, this stuff's eating.

I mean, I mean, I guess that's a factor, right?

Inflation.

It is, but what else is a factor, Tim is if you have your

money in the market, because you're.

listening to other advisors saying, Oh, if you put your money in cash,

you're losing out to inflation.

Well, did the financial advisor that fiduciary tell you, well,

what happens when your money takes a 20 to 30 percent hit?

I don't care about losing out.

from, what, let's just say inflation is 6%.

I didn't look at the latest, the numbers, but let's say it's 6%.

Well, if I'm getting five on a money market, how I'm losing one.

Okay.

I'm okay with losing one, but I'm not okay.

If we go to war, with Middle East or, if we, if someone bombs NATO and

losing 30, 40, 50%, like potentially we did in 2008, 2017, 2020, 2022, So you

got away with the good with the bad.

that's what makes me different is I'm a free thinker.

Like, I'm not trying to push you in one direction.

I'm trying to say.

Let's, let's look at this situation together and let's make the best decision

based on maybe what your gut is telling you, what my experience is telling me,

and then let's put a plan together.

and let's introduce.

things that are not being talked about with other financial firms out there.

I'm a systems guy, like systems.

And I, I saw something briefly.

I think your rap.

Is, the system that you use, tell me more about

that and, and what that is.

Just give a, brief overview of that so that we

understand this, because this, that's the foundation of your system, correct?

It is.

Yeah.

Thank you for bringing that up.

So yeah, it's called the wrap.

We got a trademark and it's called the written retirement action plan.

So it's just a process.

that we take with our, with every client that we bring on and it's

essentially it's a written document that is proprietary to FirstLine Financial

that we put together after sitting with our clients, and determining what

would fit, what will fit their needs.

So that is essentially like that.

the playbook of their retirement future, but once again, just like every

playbook, pages need to be replaced and, put back in and, changed a lot.

it's a, it's a ever evolving, process.

process, if you will.

Yeah.

What, what is it like when you have someone, I'm 60 years old and this is

not asking for personal advice while we're recording, it's going to go

out to the world either, by the way.

But what is it like.

When you're now dealing with people, we mentioned that you you deal with

a lot of boomers Obviously, there's i'm the I believe that i'm the

tail end of the boomer generation I think if depending on how someone

Measures it but as that generation, we saw the little blip in 87 88, you

know when there was an adjustment we saw the 2000 those To me we're fairly

small relative to what happened in 08 And then you know, some of us are

still scratching our heads going.

We're not really totally sure what happened with this worldwide

pandemic and Things like that.

You mentioned you're a free thinker.

We won't go down those roads, but You know, we do kind of ask questions.

It's like, man, things are, things seem to be kind of, whiplashing

stronger than they have in the past with your rap, with that system.

What are you doing?

Maybe in general, I don't know if it's general.

I know you can't get into specifics, but maybe the alternatives is one of

the answers, but what are you doing with people that are seeing large swings?

At possibly critical times, you know, in what

they, what they look at their lives.

I don't even know if that, I posed that question, But maybe just take it and

go wherever you want to go with it.

Yeah.

I see where you're going.

it's, it's again, just looking at vehicles that are not the traditional

stocks, bonds, mutual fund that that 60, 40, 70, 30 portfolio.

So I've always struggled with that, Tim.

I really have.

And I pushed back on it, but I have found a lot of success.

Once again, when I push back on things, I find success in other ways.

So with, with that being said, I'm going to continue to push

back on that 60 40 model.

I'm going to look at other things, ideas, ways that we can kind of insulate

people's, life savings, life savings.

If you're, if you're, in that, pre retiree, or a retirement, age and

your, your money's in the market.

that's a head scratcher for me.

there are ways that you can continue to get really, really nice cashflow

without any of the volatility.

and yeah, that's, that's how I would position position that question.

Just looking at, more predictable cash flowing vehicles that are just

not correlated to the stock market.

I do find myself pursuing, and I don't know your

thoughts on these alternatives that are highly, divisive In our

world, like if you mention to someone precious metals or if you mention

to someone, crypto or bitcoin, you know something in that phrase

or if you mention Things like I I love the investment of real estate

even even with my history I love

And yours too, right?

I mean it was

like I do think that real estate is, and, and, you know, some of the

alternatives I love is I love now there's ways to position yourself to

be early stage investors in businesses, similar to what it used to be with some

of the, we'll call them the big boys, some of us didn't have access to that.

And, I like investing small amounts in 10 companies, knowing that

eight of them probably won't exist.

And those have done very well in helping me do what I.

I would call maybe catching up, after

going through, uh, some challenges, any, any thoughts or responses to, to those, if

I bring those up in the, I didn't see your head spin or green stuff come out of your

mouth when I mentioned a few of those.

Yeah, no, those are, those are, yeah, private companies, obviously

it's a, they're good opportunities and, and, but what I will say is,

you got pros and you got cons, right?

So those are usually less liquid.

They are going to take longer to kind of come to fruition, to see potentially

like a return on your investment.

so if you're in that, if your comfort level is someone who could

withstand having your money locked up for a while, potentially losing

it all, that's, that's going to be a trade off, for, for individuals.

But do I do that?

100%.

I look at, I look at these, smaller companies, up and comers.

Am I putting all my eggs in one basket?

Nope.

Not, not a, not a chance.

so yeah, that's just, we're literally, it's just, we're,

we're baking a really nice meal.

We're, we're using different ingredients.

There's a, There's a big recipe, to, to follow for, for individuals out there

today, and that's why they, I would say, to employ these, fiduciaries, put

them, kind of in the, in the hot seat.

but fly that plane together, right?

I mean, really take a proactive approach because this is your life savings.

And there are people who, we'll take advantage of the situation

sometimes, for their, for their best interests and not yours.

And I've seen it time and time again.

So make sure that you're working with a trusted, advisor, a trusted

financial firm, and hopefully that they're showcasing, really

the breadth of what they can do.

Besides, hey, we can put your money into Apple or Tesla or Microsoft.

Yeah, that's

Yeah.

These people that get to get, get the fees.

I like that word fiduciary.

That, that you use because, it's not a word that's common in, in most

people's vocabulary, but it speaks so much of a steward, of someone who is an

overseer, someone who, who has, gained some wisdom and knowledge and areas

in there, sharing that and partnering.

I love, I love that term fiduciary.

Anything else you want to say about that word since it is sort of, I was

almost wondering if, when I asked you what you do earlier, if you

were going to say, I'm a fiduciary.

had the buzzword.

Yeah.

No, I think just not saying it, but living it, I think is a better,

better way to go about that, right?

Cause there, it is, it is a buzzword and you'll hear that

in the financial industry a lot.

And I'm a little burned out on it, honestly, because I

hear it talked about so much.

So I try to live it.

I, I share stories to bring that fiduciary to life.

and I kind of say, Hey, I, I go into people's houses at the

worst moment of their life.

We take care of them.

We treat, treat them with the best possible care that we have.

We get them to the hospital as fast as we can.

We nurture and console the family.

And if that's not a fiduciary, I don't know what is so

So one thing in this whole financial arena, this is

getting close to my final question.

One thing in the finance, I think a lot of people look for home runs.

They look

for, swinging for the fences and not the, day to day.

of the things that I think, and you maybe can, this will maybe tie back to

some things we talked about earlier.

A lot of people look at firefighters, first responders, And they only think

about, the 9 11, the, the, the, the event, the, the event that they hear about, that,

those situations you just talked about.

But, it's kind of one of the reasons I asked about the rhythm earlier

because I think it relates here.

Maybe this will be my final question, and that is, All of the downtime, all of the

prep time, all of the time that's outside of, I mean, because if you just showed

up and said, Hey, I'm a firefighter and just let me know when it's time to go

fight a fire, what would that be like?

I think a lot of people approach their financial that way.

Can you tie those two together here as we finish up?

And I may have another question or two.

I mean, am I relating things that shouldn't relate, but it seems to

me like that's what you've done.

yeah.

I think what you're saying is just being ready as possible, right?

To, to respond to that alarm, to respond to that fire, to respond

to that medical emergency.

so being prepared and staying in that present moment, having that mindset

of like, okay, I could be looking at my phone or But in a blink of an

eye, I could be, once again, pulling someone's child out of, a pool.

and it's, it's game time.

And I think.

using that kind of analogy within the, in the financial, just financial industry,

just being prepared, staying present, staying up on your training or staying up

on, news events is going to get you ahead.

I mean, it just will.

And those home runs, they don't last, they don't last.

that long.

You might hit one, you might hit maybe two your whole lifetime.

I've seen hundreds and hundreds of, of clients come through the door.

And I have seen a few home runs, but usually those home runs have been passed

down from generation to generation, right?

it's a, it's a, legacy asset, if you will.

So if those positions, if you could hold them for a very, very long

time, and you're just going to pass them on to your kids, that is

a true definition of a home run.

Do you see huge home runs?

in today's markets, you might, but you're going to see more stories of, well,

I swung for the fences and I struck out more than you do more than you do.

Hey, I hit that ball, 100 yards over, over the, over the park,

love the long term thinking aspect of that because it's, when you

were talking about home runs, I was thinking I, I haven't looked at anything.

I'm getting to where I look at less news.

That's just for my mental state.

But,

I think yesterday as the time of recording this, Tesla stock had dropped blank.

I don't know percentage.

So a few years ago home run Today, they're laying off 10 of

their workforce and struggling.

I'm not sad, they'll probably be around I'm, not i'm not kicking, you

know throwing them in the grave or anything like that However, it shows

the ebbs and flows and the reason for

the need for long term ryan.

Is there anything?

That before I just finish up with a few things anything that you wish I'd

brought up or asked about or anything that you just Want to leave us with that?

I may have missed because I really I I love digging into the story and all

that but I know we didn't cover a lot of the financial stuff, but anything else

you want to say before we finish up?

No, I think we we covered a great deal and I would I would just say

for the listeners that Have faith, right?

I'm just gonna keep coming to this to this faith component of the

conversation Have faith in what you're doing is the right thing for you.

God gives us these powers and we all have special gifts and, just have faith

that, tomorrow is going to turn out.

things are going to work out well for you, and your, all your endeavors.

And so if you could just, keep that mindset and, I know we all go through

these tough times, but if you could just manifest and, and stay on that journey, if

it makes you happy, stay in that journey.

you will find success and that definition is going to be once again,

different from, from person to person.

But my success is just spending more time with my family,

running successful businesses.

Providing value to my clients and, we all win together.

That's my true definition of success.

Very good.

Love that.

Love that, Ryan.

I appreciate that.

Where can people connect, find you, either just reach out or, or

engage, whatever that looks like.

give all those items.

And then I've got one more question before we finish up.

Yeah.

your listeners could just go to firstlinefin.

com, to kind of see, our company Firstline Financial.

There's a, there's opportunities to schedule something online.

to sit down, have a more, a deeper conversation on what

your situation looks like.

If that's what you, you feel that you want to do, or you could just

reach out to Ryan at firstlinefin.

com.

And I would say, any listeners out there who want to, just send me a quick email.

just let me know.

where they're at in their, their journey in life.

what I'll do is I'll respond as quick as I can, and I'll send a, I'll send a

book out in the mail and just in support of all your listeners, for no cost.

So just, just, I wanna, I wanna share my message and, hear other

people's journeys and stories as well.

Very good.

I like that.

Appreciate you doing that.

Ryan.

We are seek go create those three words I'm gonna allow you to choose one of

those words of the other two is my final question and why seek go or create

I would say I would, I would lean on create and, I've always

loved to create things and it's just, right now I, I continue to create.

create these, these companies from, from nothing.

So I really like putting something together and creating a, a company that

could bring really good people together.

And once again, we're all kind of leveling up together.

Very good.

Ryan larson.

I appreciate the conversation.

I I enjoy the humility.

I enjoy the just transparency and I think it's really cool to talk to someone who

is a firefighter and And a fiduciary that is just that is a really really

cool combination and so I appreciate that I encourage you if you're listening

in to go just connect with Ryan reach out to him You know just ask a few

questions and I can tell that his mindset is He'll reach out and communicate.

so make sure you do that.

We are SeekGoCreate.

We have new episodes every Monday and, make sure you subscribe and leave

reviews where every Monday morning on YouTube and your favorite platform,

and we appreciate you joining us here until next time, continue being

all that you were created to be.